Mutiny in Niger, Nepal's Rising Death Toll, and an ICE Advocate Gets Detained

MayaOkay. I already spilled coffee on myself before we even hit record, so today's off to a great start.

DavidClassic. That's like day one behavior, and we're on episode hundred and something.

MayaIn my defense, it's decaf, so at least I'm not extra jittery on top of clumsy.

DavidSmall mercies.

MayaI know, I know. Anyway, morning, everybody. I'm Maya.

DavidI'm David, and this is the Morning Rundown.

MayaAnd we've got a wild one today. There's actual gunfire happening in a capital city overnight.

DavidWait, like right now?

MayaRight now. We'll get into it.

DavidOkay. And then on the other end of the emotional scale, the flood disaster near Nepal and Tibet just got a lot bigger, and there's a new theory on what caused it.

MayaThat one's rough. Stick with us for that.

DavidAnd to close it out, a story that's got a pretty ironic twist, an ICE-supporting commentator getting detained.

MayaYeah, you can't write that one.

DavidYou really can't.

MayaThe Internet's gonna have a field day with that one.

DavidOh, it probably already has.

MayaAll right, let's not waste any more time. There's shooting happening in Niger's capital as we speak, so let's start there. So details are still messy on this, but witnesses in Niamey are describing gunfire and explosions hitting the airport and sites near the presidency.

DavidOvernight, right?

MayaYeah, overnight into this morning. Reuters had witnesses describing it as mutinous soldiers moving on those locations.

DavidOkay, so that's soldiers turning on their own government, not some outside force.

MayaThat's the read right now, yeah.

DavidIn the capital, not some far-off base.

MayaRight at the airport, right near the presidential sites.

DavidThe airport being a target is what jumps out to me. That's usually one of the first things a government needs to control if it wants to look like it has things in hand.

MayaRight. And if flights are disrupted, that's its own signal to the outside world that things aren't fully calm yet.

DavidSo what's the government saying?

MayaNiger's defense ministry says mutineers actually tried to get into the presidential palace itself.

DavidAnd?

MayaRepelled. The presidential guard held them off.

DavidOkay, that's the headline I wanted to hear.

MayaYeah. Presidential guards holding a palace under attack is no small thing. This could have gone very differently.

DavidFor sure, but held for now and over aren't the same word.

MayaThe ministry's also saying they're gradually regaining control of the sites that got hit near the airport.

DavidGradually is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

MayaYeah. It's not exactly a green light, is it? Gradually could mean by tonight, or it could mean there are still pockets nobody's fully secured.

DavidRight. And we should say plainly, this is still a developing situation. Everything we just laid out is coming from witnesses on the ground and one statement from the defense ministry, and neither of those is the full picture this early.

MayaAgreed. Details like this shift fast in the first few hours. Sometimes it turns out worse than officials are letting on. Sometimes it's actually less dramatic than witnesses first described.

DavidSo don't take any of this as the final word. Treat it as a story to watch, not a settled outcome.

MayaNo kidding. This is a country that's already dealt with a lot of political turbulence, and something like this just adds to the uncertainty for people living there.

DavidYeah, and it's not just a headline for us. For folks in Niamey, gunfire near the airport overnight is a genuinely frightening way to wake up.

MayaAnd it's worth remembering this isn't happening in a vacuum. That part of the Sahel has been through a rough stretch of instability over the past few years.

DavidRight. And every time something like this flares up, neighboring governments watch closely too because unrest doesn't always stay contained to one border.

MayaExactly. And for ordinary people, it's not some abstract political story. It's schools closing, flights grounded, businesses shuttering until things calm down.

DavidWhich loops back to why the airport mattered so much in the first place. Shut that down, and you're cutting off supply lines and evacuation routes at the same time.

MayaThat's a fair point.

DavidIt's not just optics, it's logistics. A government that can't secure its own airport is sending a message whether it means to or not.

MayaAnd that message gets read in a lot of capitals beyond Niamey.

DavidWhich is exactly why we'll keep tracking whether gradually regaining control turns into fully secured by tonight.

MayaDefinitely. We'll keep an eye on it through the day and update you if the picture changes.

DavidWhich is a good place to leave it for now.

MayaOkay, so from gunfire in Niger to something that's just heavier, Nepal.

DavidYeah, this one's been building for days, and it just keeps getting worse.

MayaCNN put the death toll past six hundred this morning, and rescue crews are now on their fourth day out there.

DavidFourth day. That's a long time to still be pulling people out of mud and rubble.

MayaAnd here's the grim part. CNN says local authorities are actually struggling to cope with the number of decomposing bodies they're recovering.

DavidGod, that tells you everything about how fast this hit and how little warning anyone had.

MayaCrews being this overwhelmed after four days says a lot too. That's not a small scale response falling behind. That's a disaster bigger than the infrastructure built to handle it.

DavidYeah, that's a sobering way to put it.

MayaRight. This isn't a slow-moving flood. This is a wall of water and mud coming down with basically no notice.

DavidAnd a fourth day of search and recovery with no letup tells you the scale of what crews are working through.

MayaRight. This isn't a rescue that wraps in forty-eight hours. It's still active and probably will be for a while yet.

DavidAnd the number's not holding at six hundred either.

MayaNo. ABC News is now reporting it's climbed to at least six hundred and seventy-six dead in Nepal, plus seven more across the border in Tibet.

DavidSix eighty-three, roughly?

MayaSix eighty-three, roughly. Yeah. And missing is the number that really gets me. Nearly three thousand people still unaccounted for.

DavidThree thousand. Think about that for a second. That's not a village. That's like a small town just gone from the map, status unknown.

MayaAnd forty-one of those missing are Australians according to that same ABC report.

DavidWait, forty-one? Tourists? Hikers? What were they doing out there?

MayaThe report doesn't say exactly who they were, just that they're among the missing, but it tells you this wasn't some remote valley nobody visits.

DavidRight. That region draws trekkers, climbers, people from all over.

MayaIt's the kind of place people go for once in a lifetime trips, which makes the not knowing so much harder for families back home.

DavidYeah. Waiting on word from a place like that versus somewhere close by, that's its own kind of agony.

MayaIt also means rescue teams are coordinating across the Nepal-Tibet border, which can't be simple when the terrain itself is this rough.

DavidYeah, that's its own layer of complexity on top of everything else.

MayaAnd now there's a theory on what actually caused it.

DavidWhich is more than we had yesterday.

MayaABC News says satellite imagery suggests a glacier collapse up in the mountains is what triggered the whole disaster.

DavidA glacier just breaking apart and sending everything downhill.

MayaThat's the read right now. Yeah. Not a storm system, not days of rain building up. A chunk of ice giving way.

DavidThat's kinda terrifying, honestly, because you can't forecast that the way you forecast a storm.

MayaNo warning system for that.

DavidWhich is probably part of why the death toll is what it is.

MayaIt also makes you wonder if other communities downstream from glaciers are watching this and getting nervous.

DavidI'd assume so. If a chunk of ice can do this much damage with zero notice, that's not just a Nepal problem. That's every mountain community sitting below a glacier.

MayaIt's the kind of story that probably gets more attention from scientists than headlines for now, but you'd think that changes.

DavidShould.

MayaCan we just sit with the missing number for a second? Three thousand.

DavidYeah.

MayaEvery one of those is a family somewhere staring at a phone that isn't ringing.

DavidIt's easy to hear a number like three thousand and have it just wash over you. Sorry, ignore that. I don't know where I was going with that.

MayaAre you okay?

DavidYeah. It's just, it's a lot of zeros for actual people. That's the part that doesn't fit in a headline.

MayaNo, it doesn't.

DavidAnyway, we'll obviously keep tracking that number as it moves because it is moving fast.

MayaIt's not stabilizing yet.

DavidWe'll have more as officials update the numbers, but for now, our thoughts are with everyone still waiting on word.

MayaYeah, absolutely.

DavidSo let's shift gears because I've got one right here from home, and it's got an edge to it.

MayaOh, I like when you say it like that.

DavidThere's an immigration story breaking that has a twist nobody saw coming. Someone who spent years cheering on ICE just got picked up by ICE.

MayaWait, hold on. Say that again.

DavidYou heard me right. Let's get into who this is.

MayaOkay, so who is this guy? Because the name sounds familiar, but I can't place it.

DavidMilo Yiannopoulos, British commentator, lives and works over here, and for years he's been one of the loudest voices cheering on Trump and ICE agents doing their jobs.

MayaRight. I remember him now.

DavidThe BBC is reporting he's the one in custody now, detained by ICE.

MayaWait, the guy who's been defending ICE agents got picked up by ICE?

DavidThat's the story.

MayaOkay, that's rich.

DavidIt gets more specific too. CBS says he's held in Louisiana, and he's facing a final removal order because he overstayed a visa he got back in twenty nineteen.

MayaTwenty nineteen? That's seven years he's just been here?

DavidApparently so. And DHS actually put out a line on this. They said, quote, "Being in detention is a choice."

MayaMeaning what exactly?

DavidMeaning he can leave the country whenever he wants. He's choosing to fight the removal instead.

MayaHuh. So it's not like he's stuck there with no options.

DavidNo, and that's kinda the point they're making.

MayaSo how does something like this even bubble up? Does ICE just find him one day?

DavidThis is where it gets messy. The Hill is reporting that Laura Loomer is the one who tipped this off. She's taking credit for reporting him to both ICE and the FBI.

MayaLoomer? Why would she do that?

DavidBecause according to that same report, Yiannopoulos allegedly called for her assassination.

MayaHold on. What?

DavidYeah. So this isn't just some random enforcement sweep. There's a whole feud behind it.

MayaOkay. That's a lot more personal than I thought.

DavidRight. It's not some bureaucrat flagging a visa. It's one influencer trying to take another one down.

MayaAnd it worked.

DavidFor now, yeah. He's in custody.

MayaI mean, look, I actually don't think this is some big gotcha moment for the whole immigration debate. It's more just funny that it landed on him specifically.

DavidI'd agree with that. The system doesn't care who you voted for or who you cheered on. If you're here past your visa, you're here past your visa.

MayaExactly. It applies the same whether you like the agency or not.

DavidAnd honestly, that's kinda reassuring in a weird way. It means the rule isn't bent for anybody, including the people who support it loudest.

MayaEven if the way it happened through some online feud is a little chaotic.

DavidA little, but the outcome is still just he's subject to the same law as anyone else.

MayaFair enough.

DavidSo what happens now? Does he actually get deported, or does this drag out?

MayaProbably drags out if he's fighting the removal order. These things usually go through immigration court before anything's final.

DavidAnd that's true for anyone in that spot, not just someone with cameras following the case.

MayaRight. It's the same immigration court process whether you're famous or not. That part doesn't change based on who's watching.

DavidSo we might actually be talking about this again in a few months.

MayaCould be. Whatever you think of him personally, the process here is the same one anyone else in his position goes through. No shortcuts, no special treatment either way.

DavidSo that's Yiannopoulos, that's Loomer, that's Louisiana. A lot of names for one headline.

MayaIt really is. Okay, so between a mutiny overseas, a disaster still climbing in the Himalayas, and now this whole mess, that's a heavy show.

DavidIt is. Let's button it up.

MayaYeah. Let's get everybody out the door with the important stuff. Okay, so today was a lot.

DavidIt really was.

MayaSoldiers moving on that base in Niger, that number climbing out of Nepal, and then Milo of all people sitting in a cell in Louisiana.

DavidThree totally different stories, and somehow they all landed heavy.

MayaThe Nepal one just sits with you though.

DavidYeah. Family's still waiting on word, and that number's not done moving.

MayaWe're gonna keep watching that, and Niger too, honestly, because a mutiny doesn't just resolve itself overnight.

DavidFeels like all three of these could look completely different by tomorrow morning.

MayaWhich is kinda the nature of the job, honestly. We just try to give you the clearest version of what we know right now.

DavidAnd the Milo thing, we'll see where that actually goes once it's in front of a judge.

MayaBut man, Nepal.

DavidYeah.

MayaIf you've got people in that region, check in on them today. That's more useful than doom scrolling the death count.

DavidGood advice.

MayaI try sometimes.

DavidRare, but it happens. All right, that's the show for today.

MayaWe'll see you tomorrow morning right back here.

DavidTake care of yourselves out there.