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0:59

here's the show. Everyone's vote is in,

1:02

except for one vote. And that's from

1:04

us. And that's

1:06

what we wait for. The UN

1:08

Security Council approved a ceasefire

1:10

resolution put forward by the Biden administration.

1:14

But that doesn't necessarily mean the war

1:16

in Gaza is coming to an end. It's

1:27

Tuesday, June 11th, and this is

1:29

Here and Now Anytime from NPR

1:31

and WVUR. I'm Chris Bentley. Today

1:36

on the show, what's next for

1:38

the ceasefire deal backed by the United Nations?

1:42

Also, in his new

1:44

book, Rock the Generians, Mo Raka

1:47

tells stories of people who accomplished great

1:49

things at an age when

1:51

most of us would be thinking of retiring.

1:53

Older people tend to care less about what

1:55

others think of them than younger people. They're

1:57

usually more willing to go for it. he

4:00

is speaking with ABC News last week.

4:03

Let me ask you, will you accept

4:05

the jury's outcome, their verdict no matter

4:07

what it is? Yes. And

4:09

have you ruled out a pardon for your son? Yes.

4:13

So President Biden just issued a response to

4:15

the conviction, repeating that he's both the president

4:17

and a father who loves his son, part,

4:20

in quote, as I said last week, I

4:22

am the president, but I'm also a dad.

4:24

Jill and I love our son, and we

4:26

are so proud of the man he is

4:28

today. So many families who have had loved

4:30

ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride,

4:32

seeing someone you love come out the other

4:34

side and be so strong and resilient in

4:37

recovery, end quote, that's part of it. Tell

4:39

us more about what the White House response.

4:43

Well, I think that

4:45

what is particularly telling about the president's

4:47

statement is what we

4:49

saw in the courtroom over the past week,

4:51

which is the turnout from members of the

4:54

Biden family. Jill Biden was here, the first

4:56

lady was here many days, sitting in the

4:58

front of the courtroom, watching

5:00

her son's trial. As I said

5:02

earlier, Hunter's wife was here. She was here every

5:04

day. Ashley Biden, his sister turned out several times,

5:07

as well as the president's brother, James

5:09

Biden, Hunter's uncle. He was there

5:11

as the verdict was read out today. So

5:14

this has been a difficult trial for the

5:16

Biden family. The president, of course, did not

5:18

attend the trial himself, but

5:20

it was difficult for them to hear

5:23

and listen emotionally to the

5:25

testimony, which included testimony

5:28

from Hunter Biden's ex-wife,

5:30

Kathleen Buell, as well

5:32

as the widow of Hunter's

5:35

brother, Bo, who died in 2015 from cancer. And

5:39

then on Friday, Hunter's own daughter,

5:41

Naomi Biden, took the stand to testify in her father's

5:43

defense. So this has been a difficult

5:45

trial for the family to

5:47

sit and listen to the

5:50

very difficult period that Hunter went through when

5:52

he was struggling to crack cocaine. And

5:54

of course, Hunter Biden bought a cult revolver in October

5:56

of 2018. Halle

5:58

Biden window. of Hunter's

6:00

late brother, Beau Biden, discarded it less than

6:02

two weeks later at issue,

6:05

were him lying about

6:07

being an active drug user when he purchased

6:10

the gun. Now, another part

6:12

of the statement from the president said,

6:14

I will accept the outcome of this

6:16

case and will continue to respect the

6:18

judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.

6:20

Ryan, an apparent contrast here between President

6:22

Biden and former President Trump and how

6:24

they approach the rule of law and

6:26

trials. Trump denigrated the legal

6:28

process in his own trial and pardoned

6:30

several of his associates after

6:33

criminal convictions, including Roger Stone and

6:35

Paul Manafort. There is a difference

6:37

here. Well,

6:40

the reaction from President

6:42

Biden certainly differs

6:45

from the response that

6:47

we saw from former President Trump. I

6:50

think that the reaction that

6:52

we saw from former President Trump to his own conviction

6:56

in sort of political circles within

6:58

Washington has been very interesting where

7:00

you have Washington Republicans rallying behind

7:02

him and his attacks on the

7:04

judicial process and the criminal justice

7:07

system. And then as you just

7:09

noted, President Biden himself has

7:11

said that he's going to respect this verdict here

7:13

from a jury in Wilmington, Delaware. So

7:15

in our last 30 seconds or so, Hunter

7:18

Biden is facing another case coming up in

7:20

September for failing to pay taxes over several

7:22

years. What do we know about that case

7:24

and any next steps here, Ryan? Right.

7:27

There are nine counts in that California tax

7:29

case that's set to go to trial in

7:31

September. In the meantime, the

7:34

judge here has not set a sentencing date

7:36

for this case in Delaware. But

7:38

she said generally it's about 120 days

7:41

out. So we will keep an eye out for that.

7:43

All right, NPR's Ryan Lucas. Thanks so much.

7:46

Thank you. Coming

7:50

up next, a ceasefire deal

7:52

in Gaza is progressing through the

7:54

U.N. What's in it and

7:56

what happens next when we return? A

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9:13

was US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

9:15

we heard at the top of the

9:17

show calling on Hamas to accept the

9:19

ceasefire plan that the UN Security Council

9:21

has now approved. He's

9:23

in Tel Aviv today, and Israeli

9:25

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he

9:27

supports the American plan to at

9:29

least pause fighting between Israel and

9:31

Hamas in Gaza. Hamas

9:34

officials have said that they want not

9:36

only a permanent ceasefire, but

9:38

a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza,

9:41

reconstruction and the release of Palestinians

9:43

held in Israeli jails. For

9:46

more on the pending deal and what

9:48

might happen next, we called up Borzoo

9:51

Deragahi, a fellow at the Atlantic Council.

9:53

He's in Istanbul and he

9:55

told Tiziana Dearing what's in the plan.

9:58

It's a pretty modest proposal beginning with. MBS

12:00

and actually a handshake between Netanyahu

12:02

and any Arab leader in the

12:05

foreseeable future So I'm not

12:07

sure where the Biden administration thinks that's going

12:09

to work out I think that they've had

12:11

this kind of fantasy Pursued

12:13

in Washington without kind of taking into

12:16

account the realities of what's going on

12:18

in the Middle East This is just

12:20

one of the foibles of American foreign

12:22

policy when it comes to the Middle

12:24

East Let's turn to the Israel-Lebanon border

12:27

Israel and Hezbollah and Iran backed Lebanese

12:29

political party and militant group have been

12:32

Exchanging fire for months Hezbollah says it

12:34

won't stop firing into Israel until there's

12:36

a ceasefire in Gaza A

12:38

top Israeli commander said last week that a

12:41

decision on whether to launch a full-scale

12:43

attack into Lebanon is close The

12:45

US wants to de-escalate is

12:47

a full-scale conflict avoidable there. What

12:49

are you hearing? I

12:51

think it is avoidable, you know, both

12:53

sides there Israel and Hezbollah are playing with

12:55

fire in terms of the rhetoric and

12:58

in terms of Provocative actions. This has been going

13:00

on lived in Lebanon for four years. This has

13:02

been going on on a daily basis For

13:04

decades this kind of game of chicken between

13:07

Israel and and Lebanon not just

13:10

Hezbollah but other factions in southern

13:12

Lebanon and in 2006

13:14

it broke out into a major

13:16

war that devastated much of Lebanon

13:18

and ultimately ended up strengthening Hezbollah

13:20

Politically and militarily so I think

13:22

that you know Israel understands that

13:24

and even a military victory

13:27

for Israel would ultimately be pharic

13:29

given the fact that Hezbollah can

13:31

easily rearm and Come

13:34

out politically stronger. So Borsu

13:36

as we wait to see what happens with

13:38

both this ceasefire and the violence

13:40

between Israel and Hezbollah. What are you watching

13:42

for in the coming days? I just

13:45

want to see this the fighting stop You know,

13:47

I think that's the most important thing right

13:50

now Israel is in a good position

13:52

It's kind of experiencing a political high

13:54

after the freeing of these hostages over

13:57

the weekend from Hamas in Gaza Gaza.

13:59

It's a good place for it to

14:01

kind of declare some kind of a

14:04

victory and stop the fighting

14:06

and stop inflicting so much damage

14:08

on the civilians of Gaza. And

14:11

I think that there is a bit of exhaustion, you

14:13

know, on the part of Israel, the kind of

14:16

friction with much of the world over this

14:18

issue. There must be a bit of

14:20

exhaustion on the part of Israel, Hamas, and

14:22

definitely on the part of U.S. trying to

14:25

bring a stop to this conflict that

14:27

has been going on since October. And exhaustion

14:29

is usually what ends up

14:31

ending wars. Borzoo Darragahi

14:33

is senior fellow with the Atlantic

14:36

Council, and you can hear other

14:38

perspectives on the war at npr.org/

14:41

MideastUpdates. Borzoo, thanks so much.

14:43

It's been a pleasure. Coming

14:49

up, ever meet somebody accomplished and impressive,

14:51

but then you find out they're younger

14:53

than you? The nerve,

14:55

right? Well, don't ever

14:57

think it's too late. After

14:59

the break, Tiziana talks to Mo

15:02

Roca about his new book celebrating

15:04

late in life debuts, comebacks and

15:06

triumphs. Start planning

15:08

your next act when we

15:10

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16:16

When voters talk during an election season,

16:18

we listen. We ask questions, we follow

16:20

up, and we bring you along to

16:22

hear what we learned. Get closer to

16:25

the issues, the people, and your vote

16:27

at the NPR Elections Hub. Visit

16:30

npr.org/elections. Don't

16:35

call it a comeback. I've been

16:37

here for years, I'm rocking my pants. What's

16:39

so severe? Making the teams

16:41

rain down like a monsoon. Listen to

16:44

the bass go boom, explosion. Now

16:46

that of course is LL Cool J's

16:48

Mama Said Knock You Out, and it

16:50

has been stuck in my head lately

16:52

because I've been reading the latest book

16:54

by CBS Sunday morning correspondent Mo Raca

16:57

and Jonathan Greenberg. It is filled with

16:59

stories of people who maybe

17:01

also have been here for years but only

17:03

achieve success late in life. The book is

17:05

called Rock DeGeneres and Mo Raca joins us

17:08

from the NPR studios in New York to

17:10

talk about it. Mo Raca, welcome. Thank

17:12

you, Tiziana, and I have to tell you, it's uncanny. That

17:15

is the exact track from LL Cool J that

17:17

John and I listened to as we wrote this.

17:20

All right, well you channeled it well in the book. It's

17:22

been on my mind. This all starts with

17:24

a question to Chance the Rapper that you

17:26

ask when he appears on the NPR quiz

17:28

show, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. You ask,

17:31

is it too late for me to be

17:33

a rapper? I'm assuming you were kidding?

17:35

You know, I was kidding. We were talking about how

17:38

he approached his lyrics and then I thought, okay, this

17:40

will be kind of a fun, sticky question. And I

17:42

said, oh, is it too late for me to be

17:44

a rapper? I'm 46. And

17:47

then he looked at me and without missing a

17:49

beat, he said, I don't know. It might be

17:51

too soon. I laughed, but

17:53

it really hit me. And I

17:55

thought, my goodness, because underneath that

17:57

jokey question really was a

17:59

feeling. American,

22:00

Californian white wine that ended

22:02

up triumphing. It really made

22:04

the reputation of American wines.

22:06

They were now being taken

22:08

seriously. So he became a

22:11

hero on a number of

22:13

levels. He died only last

22:15

year, but remains rightly a

22:17

admired figure. There is

22:19

one other wine story that really struck

22:21

me, Madame Cliquot. She

22:23

comes to greatness at a time

22:25

when women weren't supposed to have

22:27

careers, and she turns widowhood

22:30

into something quite remarkable.

22:33

Right. During her lifetime in France,

22:35

a married woman was very restricted

22:37

in what she could do, but

22:39

a widowed woman had rights. And

22:41

so once widowed as a very

22:43

young woman, she took control

22:45

of what eventually became a

22:47

champagne empire. And, you

22:50

know, we wanted to tell the story

22:52

of how widowhood, while usually very sad,

22:54

can also be a kind

22:56

of liberation. It can be both.

22:59

So there are a lot of great stories in

23:01

here, Mo. I mean, more than

23:03

I thought one could compile in

23:05

a book of this kind of

23:07

story. Is there one that's particularly

23:09

near and dear to your heart? I

23:12

find the stories of the

23:14

writers particularly moving. Frank McCourt,

23:16

who published his memoir, which

23:19

became a literary sensation, Angela's

23:21

Ashes, at the age of

23:23

66. For years, he felt that

23:26

his story simply wasn't worth telling.

23:29

It was also partly that he

23:31

was ashamed of his impoverished childhood

23:33

in Limerick, Ireland. It made

23:35

me think of my own mother, who is an immigrant

23:37

from Columbia, and I included her

23:39

in the book. She's the final chapter,

23:42

because for so long, I knew certain

23:44

things about her upbringing, but there was a

23:46

lot I didn't know, because I think she

23:49

too felt that her story wasn't worth telling.

23:51

I think she too was

23:53

a bit ashamed, frankly, of the

23:55

scarcity of her upbringing. But

23:58

she surprised me by asking for it. accomplishing

26:00

great things. Check on

26:02

me in like 40 years, I guess. That's

26:05

our show for today. Here and Now,

26:08

Anytime, comes from the team behind Here

26:10

and Now from NPR and WBUR Boston.

26:13

Today's stories were produced by Jill Ryan,

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Shirley Jihad, and Emiko Tamagawa. Today's

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Bentley. Our digital producers

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