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Israel and Iran traded fire overnight. It is the most serious escalation since their shaky ceasefire started in April. Israeli strikes had Beirut despite a U.S. brokerate ceasefire, then Iran fired back at Israel is a region sliding back into an all-out war.
I am Michelle Martin, that's Amartina's and this is up first from NPR News.
[MUSIC] Present Trump abruptly ended an interview on NBC's meet the press after being questioned on his anti-lippinization fund and claims that elections are rigged. Let's go on a quick, because I've had it. Thank you, darling, have a good day.
Mr. President, let's please, I think. He also defended his handling of the war with Iran before he walked out. And the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is spreading at an unprecedented pace. Africa's CDC is warning of a regional threat that could rival the worst Ebola outbreak on records.
“Say with us, have a news you need to start today.”
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This message comes from wise, the app for international people using money around the globe.
You can send, spend, and receive an up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart, get wise, download the wise app today or visit wise.com. Tease and seize apply. The surreal horror film "Back Rooms" is a smash. The director is a 20-year-old YouTuber and it's based on his popular web series.
Why is this online phenomenon taking off at the box office? We get into it on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. Listen via the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Israeli strikes in Lebanon and Iran and Iranian attacks on Israel are threatening to plunge the Middle East back into it all out war.
Iran launched rounds of missiles toward Israel and Israel struck central and Western Iran
early Monday following in Israeli attack on Hezbollah targets in the Lebanese capital.
“NPR's Jeneroff joins us from Be Root Jener was supposed to be a ceasefire now what we have”
is a lot of fast-moving military developments. Absolutely. There were siren sounding in Israel this morning after attacks both by Yemen's Houthi rebels which are Iranian allies and Iranian missiles being launched. Iran said it targeted two Israeli military bases.
It said in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Iranian radar sites. And Israel said it hit an Iranian petrochemical plant. Iran then said it hit an Israeli petrochemical plant in retaliation. And meanwhile in Lebanon, Israel kept up attacks in the south of the country including Sunday in the southern city of Tire.
So there's been a US brokered ceasefire in place since April, though there have been sporadic attacks. So what prompted this escalation? Well the background is that this war in Lebanon is part of a wider Iran US deal. Iran insists on a ceasefire in Lebanon where Israel has occupied parts of the south.
And where it's fighting Iran back to Milton Group, Hezbollah. So Iran warned that it's on any strikes by Israel on the southern suburbs of Be Root where it has offices as a red line. And last night Israel struck an apartment building there, killing two people. Israel retaliated with this wave of strikes.
Jeneroff just returned from southern Lebanon this morning what's happening there. Well, we went to Tire to see the damage and to see how remaining residents are coping. Israel two weeks ago warned almost the entire city and that's one of Lebanon's biggest cities to leave along with surrounding villages. It left just the tip of Tire, a section of the ancient city with a large Christian population
exempt from the warnings. When we were there, we saw some of the destroyed areas, apartment buildings leveled by air strikes and in another place there was an entire block with nothing standing. Those are in neighborhoods that are still under threat. But despite that, some people, many of them, elderly are disabled, are still there.
They're trying to live in those areas. And that's for Tire itself, for thriving coastal city. There were new air strikes in the city, other parts of the city, which meant that more people flooded into the old part, through displaced families setting up tents on the beach. Just outside luxury hotels and fancy restaurants.
What are you looking for next year? Well, this could still widen even more.
“Yemen says it will target Israeli assets in the Red Sea, which would affect the crucial”
Suez Canal shipping channel, Iran backed groups in Iraq, that the Iraqi government is trying to rain in. We'll also likely join at the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman says this increases their distress to the U.S. and President Trump told Fox News on Sunday that Israel had not coordinated the strikes in Lebanon with U.S., and he said, "I'm not happy about it."
As NPR's general from Beirut, thank you very much. Thank you.
President Trump abruptly walked out of an interview with NBC's Meet the Press...
pressed about his controversial weaponization fund in ongoing false claims about elections.
“Trump also used the interview to defend his Iran policy and continue to tell a possible”
peace agreement, but without giving details. NPR's White House correspondent Franco Orgdonyez has more frank, I mean, a good portion of the interview focused on the war on Iran. He seemed, though, visibly frustrated. Yeah, he was defensive about the war not coming to an end faster, I mean, making several
comments about other wars lasting longer or Vietnam, World War II, I mean, he wants more slack for what he's doing. Now again, he said there'll be a deal soon or that military action would resume, but he didn't give any specifics, and as we've been reporting, he's been saying that kind of thing for weeks now.
Yeah, he often talks about how desperate Iran is to make a deal yet weeks go by, weeks go by, still no deal.
Yeah, I mean, Trump was pressed about that specifically, and he expressed some sympathy for
the Iranian thing. They're being forced to do something that's very hard. It's very strong. They're proud.
“There are things they never thought they'd be doing, they're thinking I have to do.”
They've got no choice, and it takes a little while. Yeah, and he said, similar to things about the new Iotolo, who he said has been getting involved. Yeah, one of the big challenges that the administration has faced and complained about is dealing with the various factions of the Iranian government, all the differing opinions.
But like he said, the new Iotolo does appear to be getting more involved. He still hasn't been seen, though, since the start of the war when his father was killed. But interestingly, Trump called the new Iotolo brave and rational, and said he had the respect of the people. Yeah, it wasn't until NBC's Chris and Wilker started questioning Trump about the anti-weaponization
fund. The things started to get really, really heated, tell us why. So Trump says the fund is for those who have been unfairly targeted and victimized by the government. But many critics see it as a slush fund for Trump supporters who stormed the capital
and beat police officers on January 6. Now, a lot of Republican lawmakers are concerned about the political implications. I mean, so much so that Trump's own attorney general tried to assure them that the fund was going away. But in the interview, Trump made very clear that he's not given up on the idea.
Me personally, I think the weaponization fund is a great idea.
“And so many other Republicans, you have to get into proof.”
If they get into proof, that's great. If they don't get into proof, I'd be disappointed. You know, it was soon after that, that Trump walked out of the interview when Wilker was pushing back on his continued claims of election fraud. And as I'll speak to this week, Franco, what else are you going to be watched for?
Well, I expect the anti-weaponization fund will continue to take up a lot of oxygen in Washington, D.C., and Trump's also heading up to New York to watch the NBA finals tonight.
Trump's always like to mix politics and sports in ways that other presidents just have
not done. And to that end, I mean, he's gearing up to host a big UFC mixed martial arts fight on the South Lawn on Sunday, though there are legal efforts to stop it. And then he heads to France, where he'll be doing some business with top European leaders talking about Iran, Ukraine trade, and other global challenges.
A lot coming up this week that's a White House correspondent, Franco or Don Yez, Franco, thanks. Thank you. [MUSIC] African health officials are warning that the current Ebola outbreak and the Democratic Republic of Congo is spreading faster than any other in history.
The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the pace of spread is even outstripping the early trajectory of the 2014 West Africa epidemic. Health workers at the epicenter are still operating with limited resources as eight agencies scrambled to contain the outbreak. Reporter Emmett Livingstone is in the DRC capital of Kin Shasa.
Emmett, tell us just how bad the situation is. The situation is pretty bad. And the health workers are still fighting an uphill battle to bring this outbreak under control. Since it was declared on May 15th, confirmed cases of Ebola have spread across a wide expanse.
Itturi, a province in eastern Congo, about the size of West Virginia, is the epicenter of the outbreak with about 94% of recorded cases in Congo. And according to Congolese health authorities, the virus has now spread to half of the provinces' health zones. Now it's hard to gauge the scale of this crisis, but there are clues that suggest it's
much larger than the official figures suggest. Over the weekend, 71 new cases were confirmed across three provinces in eastern Congo. And this jump according to Congolese health authorities showed that there is, quote, "rapid and ongoing community transmission." The Congolese government has stopped publishing figures on the total number of suspected
cases, but eight officials say that they suspect them to be in the thousands. Wow, how's the health response going?
There's a massive international effort to stop the spread of the virus.
It's underway with financing from the US, the EU, UN, and NGOs.
“But according to health workers, this is still really in its early days.”
It theory has been decimated by decades of conflict, and its health infrastructure is extremely weak. In Monggualu, the town, the worst hit by the virus, NGOs have started building new treatment facilities from the ground up in order to handle the number of cases. So at the moment, in some instances, Ebola patients are turning up to hospitals that are essentially
construction sites.
And another massive challenge is isolating suspected Ebola cases and also contact tracing.
According to the latest figure, health workers are only managing to trace the contacts of about 40% of the confirmed cases in a theory. Thousands of people have also left treatment centers and returned to their communities. But there is some good news, testing capacity, which was a huge problem in the initial weeks of the outbreak has recently improved.
And some people are being healed, though. Right, so some people are recovering from Ebola. On Saturday, Peter Stafford, an American doctor who had contracted Ebola in Eastern Congo and was evacuated to Germany, was released from a medical facility after repeated negative tests.
Inside Congo to some patients are getting better, health authorities said that over the weekend, three new people had been healed, bringing the total number to 12. And what this shows is that the virus isn't necessarily a death sentence. It's still extremely dangerous, but the species of Ebola virus that's circulating appears to have a slightly lower mortality rate than more common variants.
Experts are saying that the chances of recovery are much higher if patients seek appropriate medical care early, but really, that's the whole problem in a nutshell, access to appropriate medical care. All right, that's Emmett Livingstone in Kin Shasa. I'm a thank you very much.
Thank you. [MUSIC] Okay, before we go on June 11, the globe's biggest sporting event comes in North America, the FIFA World Cup.
The Super Bowl, and you might say, averages something over 100 million live viewers,
“but the World Cup final, I think like five times that much.”
The favorites, the underdogs and the Americanization of the world's game. Listen, now to the Sunday Story from the Upverse Podcast on the NBR app. [MUSIC] And that's up first for Monday, June 8th, I mean, Martínez. And I'm Michelle Martin today's episode of Up First was edited by Tina Crya,
Dana Ferrington, Miguel Masias Mohamed Elberdisi, and John Stormis. It was produced by Zeag Butch and Nehdu Mas, our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zovan Gainhoven, our technical director is Carly Strange, and we hope you'll join us again tomorrow. [MUSIC]
Richard Reeves is unimpressed by online influencers who pedal ideas about hyper-masculinity.
“You're talking about boys and men, where's your policy agenda?”
You're good on podcasts, but we've actually done a bunch of stuff for boys and men. Sorry, what have you done? Ideas about the next era of manhood. That's on the Ted Radio Hour podcast, listen on the NBR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
