The Excerpt podcast: 14 dead after mass shooting at Prague university

On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: 14 are dead at Prague university after the worst mass shooting in Czech history. Rudy Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy. USA TODAY Congress and Campaigns Reporter Savannah Kuchar breaks down Nikki Haley's struggles with female voters. A major storm drenches Southern California. USA TODAY Staff Writer Phaedra Trethan tells us about Black barbershops offering kids a chance to read for fun.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Friday, December 22nd, 2023. This is The Excerpt. Today, the latest after a deadly mass shooting in Prague. Plus, Rudy Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy. And we look at Nikki Haley's struggles with female voters.

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A student opened fire in a university building yesterday in downtown Prague, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 20. Authorities said it was the Czech Republic's worst-ever mass shooting. The suspect who has not been named is dead. Police posted on social media that they had no information to indicate the shooter was connected to a terrorist organization, or that he had an accomplice. Police are investigating whether an elderly man killed earlier yesterday was the suspected shooter's father. Prague's police chief said the shooter was a legal gun owner without a criminal past to appear to have a large arsenal of weapons at home. By European standards gun laws in the Czech Republic are relatively lenient according to a Washington Post report last year, though they're still stricter than in the US. The Czech Republic allows people to carry concealed weapons for self-defense but with certain prerequisites, including a background check, health clearance, and a test on safety legislation and the criminal code, according to the Post report. Before yesterday, the country's worst mass shooting was in 2015 when a gunman killed eight, before fatally shooting himself.

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Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani filed for bankruptcy yesterday. The filing comes after a jury found him liable for more than $148 million in a defamation case brought by two Georgia election workers who testified that they received extreme threats after Giuliani accused them of fraud in the 2020 election. A few days after the decision US District Judge Beryl Howell entered a judgment against Giuliani for nearly $146 million in damages plus attorney's fees and interest. He's vowed to appeal that decision. In his petition filed in a New York City federal bankruptcy court, Giuliani estimates that he has assets worth between 1 and $10 million and says he has liabilities between 100 and $500 million. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley's presidential campaign has seen a surge in recent months, but when it comes to courting female voters, she appears to be falling short. I spoke with USA TODAY Congress, and Campaigns Reporter Savannah Kuchar for more. Savannah, thanks for hopping back on The Excerpt today.

Savannah Kuchar:

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Savannah, according to polling, how strong is support for Nikki Haley among women?

Savannah Kuchar:

Nikki Haley definitely has at least according to polling, stronger support from men. If you look at recent polls, she's doing stronger among men, including both specifically Republican men and men overall. In a poll this month by Emerson College, Nikki Haley's base was about 70% men compared to just 27% women in USA TODAY in Suffolk University's poll back in October, Nikki Haley had about twice as many Republican men supporting her as Republican women.

Taylor Wilson:

So then who are Republican women supporting, if not Haley?

Savannah Kuchar:

Republican women seem to be sticking with Trump. The front-runner and former president still has a majority of Republican women, and Republican women are sticking with Trump just as much if not more than Republican men. About 67% of women in Emerson's December survey wanted Trump as the nominee in the general election, and this includes Jill Polis, a woman I talked to from Mississippi who said she's voting for Trump and that's not going to change. I even asked her about Nikki Haley and she asked, who is that? And it was genuinely, hadn't heard of her. And she's not the only one, another woman I talked to, Dana Tucker from Texas had heard of Haley, but said she didn't know much about her and they're sticking with Trump.

Taylor Wilson:

Wow. And I mean, when it comes to policy, how does Nikki Haley differ or align compared to other 2024 candidates and also what Republican voters want?

Savannah Kuchar:

There's a couple policies and issues where she stands out, where a lot of Republicans, including in Congress and some other candidates want to pull back on support for Ukraine. Haley has been adamant about sending further support to Ukraine, but that goes against what voters themselves are saying they want. In the poll by USA TODAY, about two-thirds of women, Republican women that were polled said they didn't want to send aid. Now, there are some issues where some people say she might be making traction with women specifically, including abortion. She's tried this approach that she's described as more practical, or reasonable finding what she says are compromises on the issue, including agreeing to not jail women who have the procedure and also looking for maybe preventing late term abortions, things like that.

Taylor Wilson:

And Savannah, Haley's campaign has seen this surge of support in recent months. Do experts expect that to continue and just how important will the vote from women be for her to keep rising?

Savannah Kuchar:

She is growing momentum for sure, especially with some recent key endorsements like from Governor Sununu and New Hampshire, and she's also had some strong debate performances that have really launched her. When it comes to women, though, the experts that I talked to did say they don't really expect women to just flock to Haley on the basis of gender. If women suddenly start leaving Trump or wherever they're at for Haley, it'll be because she's picked up momentum overall. Republican women tend to focus at least according to experts, more on the policies and the ideology far more than identity or gender.

Taylor Wilson:

Savannah Kuchar, great insight as always. Thanks so much.

Savannah Kuchar:

Thank you, so much.

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Taylor Wilson:

A slow slow-moving storm is slamming California this week prompting evacuations yesterday along the state's Southern Coast. National Weather Service meteorologists said that up to half a foot of rain or more had fallen over parts of Ventura County and meteorologists anticipated mud and rock slide activity. Ariel Cohen, a meteorologist in charge at the Weather Services office in Oxnard, said rainfall rates reached three inches per hour at one point yesterday when rain can cause flooding at just an inch per hour. A flood watch remained in effect yesterday afternoon for much of the Los Angeles and San Diego metro areas and more rain as expected this morning for much of the region.

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Black barbershops are creating a buzz over books. A nonprofit called Barbershop Books with a host of locations nationwide is helping to make reading fun for kids. I caught up with USA TODAY Staff Writer Phaedra Trethan, who visited one of them in Philadelphia. Phaedra, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt.

Phaedra Trethan:

Thank you, for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Phaedra, can you just tell our listeners a bit about Barbershop Books and what makes it unique?

Phaedra Trethan:

Barbershop Books was launched in 2013 in New York City. The founder was Alvin Irby and he was an educator who also worked with Boys and Girls Clubs and he found that when he talked to kids, they saw books as something they associated with school and with work and not something that they associated with a thing to do for pleasure. So he wanted to try to change that. What's interesting to me about barbershop books and kind of sets it apart from other nonprofits that encourage literacy is that this seems to be much more kid-focused. They really look for feedback from the kids rather than adult curators who might say they think that kids should read this. They ask the kids, what do you want to read and what do you find fun?

Taylor Wilson:

Books and Barbershops might seem like a kind of curious pairing to some. Why put books in a barbershop? What can it do for the community?

Phaedra Trethan:

Barbershops, especially in the Black community, are really a part of the community. They are local businesses owned by people who live in the neighborhood. What Mr. Irby also told me is that they represent a nexus of the neighborhood. They cross socioeconomic boundaries, they cross generational boundaries. And especially for a lot of black boys who are living in neighborhoods that are underserved, neighborhoods that might be poorer or kids who are being raised by single moms. It's a place where they can be men, where they can be boys, where they can be surrounded by other people like them. It's a place where there's culture and positive role models where they might not otherwise find them.

Taylor Wilson:

Why does the founder Alvin Irby feel it's so important for Black boys to read books that give them a chance to be silly, or gross, or just be kids?

Phaedra Trethan:

He talked a lot about how the question is about, and not or so offering boys books that have characters that represent them or that they see themselves in, but also books that they find funny, or gross, or where kids can be silly. He noted that a lot of books which feature young Black boys, the boys have to behave in a certain way because a lot of people don't want to see Black boys represented as misbehaving, or being silly, or not being smart. And yet, when you read a book like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, that kid is silly. He does use a lot of gross-out humor. Sometimes he doesn't make the best decisions, and that's what boys respond to, that's what kids respond to and that's something that they find funny and they enjoy reading.

Taylor Wilson:

Phaedra Trethan, I love this story. I encourage our listeners to go check it out with a link in today's show notes. Thanks for coming on.

Phaedra Trethan:

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

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Taylor Wilson:

Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Excerpt podcast: 14 dead after mass shooting at Prague university