Trump Has 'Productive' Talks With Zelenskyy And Netanyahu, France Wildfires

Up First from NPR

Trump held productive meetings with Ukraine's Zelensky and Israel's Netanyahu amid ongoing conflicts. France faces severe wildfires worsened by heatwaves, while U.S.-Iran tensions escalate through proxy actions.

Key takeaways

• Trump improved relations with Zelensky after past clashes

Transcript preview

Speaker 6 (0:00) President Trump's support for Ukraine seems to be growing. Speaker 7 (0:05) First, the approval to build patriot missiles at the NATO summit and now a cordial oval office meeting with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky. Speaker 6 (0:12) That's Michelle Martin. I'm Laila Faldl, and this is up first from NPR News. The relationship between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, has been rocky. Speaker 4 (0:25) They're making a lot of decisions and disagreeing on a lot of decisions. Speaker 7 (0:28) How could this affect the U.S. war, with Iran. And in France, raging wildfires have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Firefighters are working around the clock to contain the fires, but a new heat wave is threatening to undermine their work. Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day. President Trump hosted two foreign leaders at the White House on Tuesday. Both are dealing with war at home. Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky. Trump's Speaker 6 (0:59) relationship with Netanyahu has faced increasing strain, while his ties with Zelensky have steadily improved. We're going to talk about both meetings. Just start. We're joined by NPR's Greg Speaker 7 (1:08) Myrie, who is in Ukraine's capital, Kiev. Greg, good morning. Hi, Michelle. So what are you hearing about how the Trump-Zelensky meeting went? Yeah, by all accounts, positive. We all remember the big Speaker 5 (1:20) blow-up they had in the Oval Office last year, but they've met several times since, including twice this month, and they've been steadily rebuilding the relationship. Trump is has been treating Zelensky with more respect, especially as Ukraine gained the momentum with its punishing drone strikes against Russia. Now, there were no cameras at the meeting yesterday, and Trump hasn't commented, but Zelensky called it a good meeting. He also received a warm welcome from more than 60 senators from both parties. So the general tone keeps improving, though Ukraine is looking for more, namely weapons. Yeah, but Trump has effectively cut off Speaker 7 (1:56) additional military aid to Ukraine. Is there any sign of change on this? Speaker 5 (1:59) front. No, and not in terms of the U.S. directly sending weapons to Ukraine, but Trump does appear to be following through on an offer he made to Zelensky earlier this month. He said Ukraine can have a license to build its own Patriot Air Defense missiles. And right after Zelensky wrapped up the meeting with Trump, he headed to talks with executives at Lockheed Martin, which makes the Patriots. Now, Ukraine has become a world leader in making drones, but making the Patriot Air Defense missile is a very complex task, and it could take years. So this is by no means a quick fix. Speaker 7 (2:36) Can you give a sense of what it's like to be in Ukraine with these regular air strikes? Speaker 5 (2:41) Yeah, the Russians fire drones and missiles all over Ukraine every night. Ukraine says it shoots down around 90% of the drones with its own interceptor drones. And Ukraine also had enough Patriots and other weapons to shoot down most incoming Russian missiles, but now a much higher percentage of those Russian ballistic missiles are reaching the targets because Ukraine is just low on the Patriots. Now, Keeve has the best air defenses in the country, and previously you could be pretty