LEILA FADEL, HOST:

In Israel, weeks of protests took a serious flip yesterday.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Shouting in non-English language).

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Specifically, police used drive for the primary time in opposition to the crowds. Additionally, for the primary time, 1000’s of Israeli protesters blocked main intersections all through the day. They even besieged a salon the place Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spouse was getting her hair executed. This protester opposes the Israeli authorities’s makes an attempt to weaken the powers of the judiciary.

DVORA COHEN: We do not need to lose our nation. And we all know that is the final struggle. If we will lose now, that is it. It is executed.

INSKEEP: In fact, this comes after a violent time within the occupied West Financial institution.

FADEL: NPR’s Daniel Estrin has been chatting with protesters and joins us from Tel Aviv. Good morning, Daniel.

DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.

FADEL: So these protests have been happening for weeks. What made yesterday’s protests so important?

ESTRIN: Israel hasn’t seen something like what occurred yesterday. The Jewish mainstream disrupted the nation all day lengthy. I imply, we’re speaking about individuals who name themselves patriots, elite navy veterans. Some protesters stopped trains, blocked roads. Loads of that was really coordinated with the police. However then the far-right safety minister instructed police to crack down, and officers did. They used stun grenades, water cannons. Some protesters and officers obtained flippantly injured. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu known as the protesters anarchists. He really in contrast them to the Israeli settlers who went on a violent rampage earlier this week within the West Financial institution, the place Palestinian properties had been burned and a Palestinian man was killed.

FADEL: It looks like an unfair comparability. These protesters weren’t setting buildings on hearth, proper? What do the protesters need to obtain?

ESTRIN: No, they weren’t setting buildings on hearth. They had been making an attempt to get the federal government to cease advancing laws that limits the Supreme Courtroom’s skill to strike down legal guidelines that do not assure fundamental freedoms. These protesters are fearing for Israel’s future, and all of that is affecting Israel’s robust economic system, Leila. The shekel has depreciated this previous month, and that protester we heard initially, Dvora Cohen – she is a monetary adviser. I met her on the road, and she or he says her Israeli shoppers are shedding confidence. Let’s pay attention.

COHEN: Twenty, 30% of my shoppers are calling me and asking me what to do. They ask me if they need to go and open a checking account overseas, if they need to withdraw their pensions, ‘trigger that is the scenario that we’re at. However day-after-day one thing new is going on, one thing extra excessive, extra surprising.

ESTRIN: You realize, she’s referring there additionally to the current violence within the West Financial institution.

FADEL: So, Daniel, with these protests in Israel and the current violence within the occupied West Financial institution, the place do you see all this heading?

ESTRIN: Nicely, Netanyahu says he is prepared for dialogue with the opposition. There are some makes an attempt for compromise on this controversial laws to weaken the judiciary. Netanyahu additionally has defended his comparability of the protesters to the West Financial institution settlers who went on a rampage. He mentioned he is simply in opposition to lawbreakers. However, you understand, there’s some friction in Netanyahu’s governing coalition. That makes some individuals right here surprise if the federal government’s days are numbered. And within the West Financial institution, there have been only a few arrests of these a whole bunch of settlers from the rampage. Israel’s far-right finance minister really mentioned that the Palestinian village must be erased. The State Division mentioned Netanyahu ought to avow these feedback. He hasn’t but.

FADEL: NPR’s Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Thanks a lot, Daniel.

ESTRIN: You are welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FADEL: Again in 2016, CIA officers on the American embassy in Cuba started reporting the sudden onset of signs that included dizziness, complications, steadiness issues.

INSKEEP: After which circumstances unfold to different U.S. officers and different areas abroad. Suspicions grew {that a} U.S. adversary was accountable.

FADEL: However that is not what the U.S. intelligence group present in a brand new report. NPR’s Greg Myre is right here to clarify. Good morning, Greg.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.

FADEL: So U.S. intelligence officers briefed a small variety of journalists on the report yesterday, together with you. What did they are saying?

MYRE: They mentioned they didn’t discover proof linking any overseas nation like Cuba or Russia or China to any of those episodes. Now, seven completely different intelligence businesses took half. 5 mentioned it was extremely unlikely a overseas nation was guilty. One mentioned it was unlikely, and one did not take a place. Now, the intel officers went additional, saying this report discovered no credible proof {that a} overseas adversary even had a weapon that would have inflicted this type of hurt.

FADEL: OK, so if this was not an assault by an adversary, a overseas authorities, and there is not any proof a weapon was used, then what was the reason for this thriller sickness?

MYRE: Nicely, precisely. No, that is the large query. Now, the 2 intelligence officers mentioned that the person circumstances range. There was a variety of signs, and this prompt there was no single trigger for these well being issues. Now, the report discovered the illnesses are likely associated to preexisting medical circumstances, standard diseases or environmental elements. They usually acknowledge this would possibly not be persuasive to those that have suffered and are nonetheless struggling very actual well being points. The official mentioned the report put the intel group able the place it feels it is aware of far more about what did not occur, however they nonetheless haven’t got all of the solutions to what did occur.

FADEL: Now, I do know we have been listening to concerning the so-called Havana syndrome for years, however if you happen to might remind us how severe, how long-lasting a few of these illnesses have been.

MYRE: Proper. Many of those U.S. intelligence officers and diplomats recalled the precise second once they suffered sharp, piercing ache of their head, usually accompanied by a loud noise or ringing. Many stay satisfied this was a focused assault and so they had been hit with some kind of vitality weapon, maybe a microwave gadget. Many say they had been wholesome, however since that day, they’ve suffered simply years of bodily issues that embody migraines and imaginative and prescient hassle, reminiscence loss. A lot of them have needed to retire. I have been involved with two of them. They did not need to communicate on the report, however I did communicate with lawyer Mark Zaid. He is representing about 25 shoppers. He says he is had entry to some labeled data and believes that extra data will emerge.

MARK ZAID: I can at the very least say the U.S. authorities has much more data than what it’s publicly revealing in the present day, and that’s the place a variety of the unanswered questions come up from.

FADEL: Unanswered questions – so will there be solutions? Is that this basically settled now?

MYRE: Nicely, not solely, Leila. Many – sorry, extra circumstances are being reported, together with some this 12 months, although the numbers have slowed. There’s about 1,500 circumstances reported since 2016, although the circumstances with essentially the most severe unexplained diseases seem like round two dozen or so. Individuals who suffered these illnesses are receiving medical therapy and in some circumstances have been receiving monetary compensation.

FADEL: NPR’s Greg Myre. Thanks, Greg.

MYRE: My pleasure.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FADEL: Jurors within the South Carolina homicide trial of former lawyer Alex Murdaugh are anticipated to start out deliberations later in the present day.

INSKEEP: The prosecutor spent nearly three hours presenting their closing arguments on Wednesday. They’re making an attempt to persuade jurors that this once-prominent lawyer murdered his spouse and son in the summertime of 2021.

FADEL: South Carolina Public Radio’s Victoria Hansen has been contained in the courtroom for this practically six-week-long trial and joins us dwell from Walterboro. Hello, Victoria.

VICTORIA HANSEN, BYLINE: Good morning. How are you?

FADEL: Good morning. Fairly the case you are overlaying. Individuals are fascinated. It is the topic of a Netflix docuseries. May you break down what Murdaugh is accused of and what you might be – what you have been listening to in court docket?

HANSEN: Yeah, positive. I imply, the place do I start? It’s a lengthy, sophisticated case. Because the lead prosecutor, Creighton Waters, defined early on, you understand, Murdaugh will not be solely charged with murdering his family members, however has but to be tried on costs he embezzled hundreds of thousands from his household’s regulation agency and tried to stage his personal demise so his surviving son might accumulate life insurance coverage cash. What’s extra, Murdaugh’s slain son had lately been charged in a lethal boating accident which Murdaugh was being sued civilly. Now, prosecutor Waters needed to spell this all out to show motive – that’s, Murdaugh was a determined man when he killed his family members to attempt to create a distraction and get sympathy.

FADEL: So how does the prosecution say Murdaugh murdered his spouse and son?

HANSEN: Nicely, Waters says Murdaugh lured Maggie and Paul to the household’s rural looking property, the place weapons had been available. He says Paul was shot first with a shotgun close to the canine kennels, and he did not see it coming.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CREIGHTON WATERS: Similar with Maggie, as a result of Maggie sees what occurs, and she or he comes working over there, working to her child – most likely the very last thing on her thoughts, considering that it was him who had executed this.

HANSEN: Now, Waters says Maggie was then shot a number of instances with an assault-style rifle, which on the time the household owned three. Two are actually lacking. However the important thing second got here when the prosecution performed a video recovered from Paul’s cellphone – cellular phone, I ought to say – simply final 12 months. It reveals Paul, Maggie and Murdaugh’s voice simply minutes earlier than they had been killed. The video shattered Murdaugh’s alibi. He had lengthy mentioned he was by no means on the crime scene.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WATERS: Why on this planet would an harmless, affordable father and husband lie about that and lie about it so early? ‘Trigger he did not know that was there.

HANSEN: Murdaugh later took the witness stand, admitting he was there briefly, however mentioned he shortly obtained out of there. Waters pointed to that lie and testimony from dozens of colleagues and shoppers who say Murdaugh additionally lied to them to steal hundreds of thousands, together with the household of his late housekeeper.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WATERS: And he fooled Maggie and Paul too. They usually paid for it with their lives. Do not let him idiot you, too.

FADEL: Wow. Lots to digest there. So that is the prosecution aspect. What’s the protection anticipated to say because it presents closing arguments in the present day?

HANSEN: The protection says it’ll take nearly two hours – it is actually pointing to (ph) time on this case – to argue the motive is what they name ludicrous. The household had a loving relationship. There aren’t any homicide weapons which were discovered, bloody clothes or fingerprints. And Murdaugh couldn’t have presumably executed this alone. However the prosecution has identified repeatedly Murdaugh is a talented lawyer and a part-time solicitor from a protracted line of solicitors who is aware of disguise proof.

FADEL: That is South Carolina Public Radio’s Victoria Hansen. Thanks a lot.

HANSEN: Thanks.

Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content will not be in its remaining type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could range. The authoritative report of NPR’s programming is the audio report.