--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Michelle Martin: Israel pauses daytime fighting in Rafah as attacks intensify on the Lebanese border. Can a wider war with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia be avoided?
--:-- A. Martinez: I'm Michelle Martin, that's A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Most of the 90 countries at a Swiss summit trying to broker peace in Ukraine supported the final declaration, calling on Russia to withdraw from Ukrainian territories.
--:-- A. Martinez: We don't have time for prolonged war. Why did some nations hold out and can anything be achieved without Russian input?
--:-- Michelle Martin: And an NPR investigation finds 50 percent of American military bases in the U.S. are located in what's known as health care deserts.
--:-- A. Martinez: That means one in three troops and their families live in areas where a private medical facility is hard to find. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.
--:-- Michelle Martin: This message comes from NPR sponsor Adobe. Introducing the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio, now with AI-powered PDF spaces.
--:-- [Commercial continues]
--:-- Michelle Martin: Need to turn 100 pages of market research into 5 insights with a click? Templates for a sales proposal that'll close that deal? Or an AI specialist to tailor the tone of your market report? You can do all that with the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio. Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with Acrobat.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Israel's military announced Sunday it will pause fighting during daytime hours along a route in southern Gaza.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: That's in order to help deliver a backlog of aid that's piled up at one of the few border crossings into Gaza, which has been the scene of an intense Israeli military campaign since Hamas fighters based there attacked Israel last October.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The people trapped in Gaza are desperate for food, medical supplies, water and fuel, and a worsening humanitarian crisis as the war enters its ninth month.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: For more, we bring in NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv. So Kat, this was announced yesterday, this daytime pause. Can you tell us more about it?
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Yeah, so this is a pause in fighting applying to just around seven miles of road in the Rafa area in the south from the hours of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It's not an overall ceasefire, which is what many in the international community, including the U.S., have been calling for.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: The point is to allow for safe travel for aid trucks from the Krem Shalom Crossing in southern Israel.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That's the main entry point for aid now further into Gaza. But for the past month or so, aid groups have been telling us that even if aid can get in there, it has been extremely difficult for them to reach it, to be able to distribute it, because there's been just so much fighting happening around that main road into Refa.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: So the Israeli military says this daily pause is meant to help with that.
--:-- Michelle Martin: OK, any sense of how it's gone so far?
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Well, it's still a bit too early to know.
--:-- Michelle Martin: A spokesperson for the UN Agency for Palestinian Affairs told NPR this morning that, quote, law and order and conditions on the ground didn't allow them to take advantage of the pause yesterday.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: He said the environment on that stretch of road is still extremely complex.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You know, aid groups have told us that trucks have been being looted there.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Our colleague Daniel Estrin is down at the Krem Shulam crossing on the Israeli side on a press tour with the Israeli military right now.
--:-- Michelle Martin: He says that the Israeli military told reporters that more than a thousand trucks worth of aid are waiting at the border but blame the UN and other aid groups for not doing their part.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: You know Daniel asked how the Israeli military would protect aid trucks into Gaza and the spokesperson didn't really elaborate.
--:-- Michelle Martin: For Palestinians in Gaza everything as far as we can tell is still just as difficult as it has been.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Yesterday was the first day of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It's a holiday of feasting, traditionally marked by the sacrifice of a sheep or a goat.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: But our producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, told us that it's nearly impossible to find meat there.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Instead, he managed to find some canned fava beans to mark the holiday.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: You've also been keeping an eye on another possible war on Israel's border with Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah.
--:-- Michelle Martin: What have you been hearing about that?
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Well, it's been getting increasingly tense up there.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Last week, we saw the highest exchange of fire between the two sides since they started this kind of low-grade war last October.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with more than 200 rockets in just one day last week.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Israel's military spokesperson warned late yesterday night of a greater escalation.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: He said it could, quote, have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And Israeli officials have been very clear that they are prepped and ready for another offensive and that they will not tolerate these attacks by Hezbollah much longer.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: So it seems more and more of a real possibility that another war could start.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And meanwhile, there's been a lot of Israelis who are not happy with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: How's that been playing out?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well, there have been huge protests across the country.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: This weekend here in Tel Aviv was one of the largest since the war in Gaza started in October.
--:-- Michelle Martin: People are calling for the government here to get the remaining 120 hostages home from Gaza.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: And more broadly calling for new elections here in the fall.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Many feel that as long as Netanyahu is in charge, the war in Gaza will continue.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: And Israel is suffering losses in Gaza. More than 300 soldiers have been killed since late October.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And eight Israeli soldiers died in Gaza on just Saturday alone.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: It's the highest number in many months.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So the cost of this war is weighing heavily on many Israelis, especially with another possible war looming.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: That is NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Thank you very much.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Thank you.
--:-- [Theme music fades in]
--:-- Michelle Martin: Switzerland hosted a summit this weekend organized by Ukraine and intended to set the foundation for future peace negotiations.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: Envoys and leaders of more than 90 nations participated, and most signed a statement saying Ukraine's borders must be respected in any deal to end the war.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But Russia wasn't invited, and one of its backers, China, declined to attend.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: Joining us now to discuss this is NPR's Ukraine correspondent Joanna Kakissis, who is in Kyiv.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: So, A, this summit was not supposed to be about negotiating peace because, as you said, Russia was not invited.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But what this gathering tried to do instead is try to build solidarity among participating nations to support Ukraine's vision of peace.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: Ukraine needs as many nations as possible to support its conditions for any future peace talks as leverage against Russia.
--:-- Michelle Martin: These conditions include issues of global concern, such as food security and nuclear safety, as well as the return of thousands of deported Ukrainian children and prisoners of war.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: Ukraine also insists that Russian troops must withdraw from all Ukrainian land.
--:-- Michelle Martin: 80 of the 92 nations participating in the summit signed a communique supporting this.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: Who did not sign this statement and why?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well, India, Mexico, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia were among the nations that did not sign.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: These are countries that have maintained official neutrality during this war.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Here's Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saoud.
--:-- [Audio clip of Faisal bin Farhan al-Saoud]
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: Any credible process will need Russia's participation. We hope the outcomes of this summit reflect those aims.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia wasn't invited because it started this war and because its demands to end it are unreasonable.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: So what are those demands?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine must give up not only the land that Russia currently occupies, but also land under Ukrainian control and that Ukraine must drop its NATO bid.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan responded to Putin's demands at the summit.
--:-- [Audio clip of Jake Sullivan]
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: No responsible nation can say that is a reasonable basis for peace. It defies the U.N. charter. It defies basic morality. It defies basic common sense.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Many Western leaders say you can't have peace until Putin is forced to see that the costs of Russia's war on Ukraine outweigh its benefits.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: And right now the war has many benefits for the Kremlin, especially the longer it drags on.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Yeah, the war is well into its third year.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: Do Ukrainians have any hope the summit will end it soon?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well, you know, from what we've heard from reporting all over Ukraine, Ukrainians are tired and pessimistic.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: We spoke to a soldier. His name is Serhii. He declined to give his last name for security reasons.
--:-- Michelle Martin: He said he didn't see how the summit would help end the war quickly.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: He told us that the longer the war goes on, the more hopeless soldiers and the rest of society feel.
--:-- Michelle Martin: He says his fellow soldiers are exhausted by long deployments and are losing the energy to fight a war with no end in sight.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: And during his closing remarks at the summit, President Zelensky made it clear that he knows the clock is ticking.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And we don't have time for prolonged work.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: Moving to peace means acting fast. Preparations will take months, not years.
--:-- Michelle Martin: He says preparation for a second summit has already begun and that he's pushing to end a war that is threatening his country's very existence.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: That is NPR's Joanna Kakissis in Kyiv.
--:-- Joanna Kakissis: Thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You're welcome.
--:-- [Theme music fades in]
--:-- Michelle Martin: The United States military has its own health care system for troops and their families.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: But an NPR investigation found that 50 percent of U.S. military bases are located within what's called a federally designated health professional shortage area, basically a health care desert.
--:-- Michelle Martin: NPR's Quill Lawrence joins us now to explain.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: So, Quill, how did you come to that conclusion and that stat, 50 percent?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well, so each year the government identifies these areas nationwide where health care is really hard to find.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: And along with NPR's Brent Jones, we mapped these so-called healthcare deserts for primary care, mental health care, and maternity care.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And we put that map on top of a map of all the U military bases
--:-- Quill Lawrence: And we found that half of the Army Navy Air Force and Marine camps forts bases listed on that are in at least one of those healthcare deserts
--:-- Michelle Martin: Some are in all three.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: And you can look at that map at npr.org.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But these bases, I mean, they have military hospitals and clinics of their own, don't they?
--:-- Quill Lawrence: Yeah, some do.
--:-- Michelle Martin: They're very expensive.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: In the past decade, the Pentagon has really tried to cut those costs and downsize its medical care.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And part of that, what they did was outsource it to private civilian care.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: But I don't know if you've tried to get a new doctor lately.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Yeah, it's a chore.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: Yeah. Yeah. It's not easy because there's no slack in the civilian healthcare system.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And that's what the Pentagon has discovered.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: So in half of these bases and population wise, that came out to one in three troops and their families outside their base, there is a healthcare desert.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Wow.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: So what does the Pentagon say?
--:-- Michelle Martin: The Defense Health Agency, DHA, sent us a statement.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: They said that when care is not available, they try other methods like telehealth, or they'll bring traveling providers, or they'll pay for patients to travel either to other military or civilian care.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But an internal memo that NPR obtained has shown that the Pentagon knows that the downsizing has gone too far, and it didn't actually save them money, and they think they need to reverse course, hire more clinicians, that's going to take a lot of time.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: And one of the big issues is TRICARE, which is the insurance that military families and retirees use when they pay for civilian care.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It pays at the same as Medicare rates.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: So a lot of doctors and hospitals are reluctant to take them.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And I've heard this from dozens of military families and retirees nationwide.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: One crazy example, I talked with a military wife up at Fort Drum in upstate New York along the Canadian border, and I thought I was going to go have to interview her up there, but I didn't because she drove seven hours down here to New York City, which was the only place she could find a specialist to get her daughter treated.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Wow.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: What does this mean for the U.S. military, Quill?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Yeah, well, the military needs a healthy force to fight wars and defend the country, and they also need to be keeping enough doctors and nurses and medics trained up in case of a war.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: But right now, they're in a recruitment slump.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So, you know, if you plan on having a family, this might really discourage you from joining or staying in the military if you're going to be ordered to go live in one of those health care deserts.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: The VA has been combining with some military facilities.
--:-- Michelle Martin: There's some civilian-military partnerships as a possible solution.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: That's what we're going to try and report on next.
--:-- Michelle Martin: All right. That's NPR's Quill Lawrence.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: Quill, thanks.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Thank you, Abe.
--:-- [Theme music fades in]
--:-- Michelle Martin: And that's Up First for Monday, June 17th.
--:-- A. Martinez: I mean, Martinez.
--:-- Michelle Martin: For your next Listen, Try Consider This from NPR.
--:-- A. Martinez: In 1999, the film Boys Don't Cry was a landmark in the representation of transgender people.
--:-- Michelle Martin: At the time, trans people were rarely depicted on screen, and if they were, it usually wasn't positive.
--:-- A. Martinez: 25 years later, the film's writer and director reflects on the challenges of getting the film made and whether she would do things differently if she made it now.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Listen to Consider This.
--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Michelle Martin: Today's episode of Up First was edited by Hannah Block, Nick Spicer, Andrew Sussman, Mohamed Elbardisi and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- A. Martinez: It was produced by Zia Butch, Christopher Thomas, and Taylor Haney.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We get engineering support from Carly Strange, and our technical director is Zach Coleman.
--:-- A. Martinez: Join us again tomorrow.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Thanks for listening to Up First.
--:-- A. Martinez: And thanks for supporting NPR.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I'm Michelle Martin.
--:-- A. Martinez: And I'm A. Martinez.
--:-- Michelle Martin: For NPR News, I'm Michelle Martin.
--:-- A. Martinez: And I'm A. Martinez.
--:-- [Theme music fades out]
