European officials investigate whether severed Baltic internet cables were an act of Russian sabotage, raising fears about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure. President-elect Trump names Matthew Whitaker, a loyalist with no foreign policy experience, as U.S. ambassador to NATO. And, with historic voter turnout helping Donald Trump secure a sweeping victory, will Republicans shift their stance on policies that make voting easier? Your feedback helps us make Up First better. Tell us what you like and what you don't like by taking our survey at npr.org/upfirstsurvey Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Andrew Sussman, Tara Neill, Andrea DeLeon, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Milton Guevara.We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent. And our technical director is Zac Coleman. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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European investigators are asking how two cables were cut beneath the surface of the Baltic Sea.
A German official calls it sabotage, affecting the type of cable that carries 90% of the world's data traffic.
Who are the suspects?
I'm Steve Inskeeper, they Martinez.
And this is up first from NPR News.
The president elect chose a loyalist as ambassador to NATO.
Matthew Whitaker has no foreign policy experience but served in the first Trump administration.
You can be a brilliant expert on European security, but if you have no access to the president, it's not going to do that much for you.
So how could the ambassador and his boss approach the war in Ukraine?
And with record high voter turnout helping Republicans win this election, will the GOP start to rethink their stance on policies that make voting easier?
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