--:-- [Up First theme music plays]
--:-- Michelle Martin: Russia is reviewing a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire with Ukraine. This, as an American envoy, is in Moscow to negotiate the plan Ukraine has already accepted. Will he seal the deal or will Russia press for more concessions?
--:-- Michelle Martin: I mean, Martinez, that's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- A Martinez: The Trump administration is gutting environmental rules, calling it a win for business, but critics say the EPA rollbacks could lead to more pollution and health risks.
--:-- A Martinez: They're going to take our country back to a time when rivers caught on fire and kids couldn't go outside without seizing up from an asthma attack.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And the president sent a letter to Iran proposing nuclear talks. Can't let them have a nuclear weapon. But the Supreme Leader is not buying Trump's offer. He calls it a deception.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
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--:-- Michelle Martin: A top White House envoy is in Moscow today seeking Russia's response to the offer of a 30-day ceasefire.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That's the same offer the U.S. brokered with Ukraine earlier this week. Under the proposal, the U.S. promised to restore military and intelligence support to Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine promising an end to attacks on Russia.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The question is, would Russia reciprocate? Early signs suggest Russia remains skeptical.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Joining us to talk about this is NPR Russia correspondent Charles Mains.
--:-- Charles Mains: Good morning.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So what do we know about these talks and the Kremlin's position going into them?
--:-- Charles Mains: Well, yesterday the Kremlin spokesman said Moscow wanted to hear detailed information directly from the Americans, and today we learned they're getting it on multiple fronts. White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrived this morning for talks with Kremlin officials.
--:-- Charles Mains: That's his second trip to Moscow since he negotiated the release of an American schoolteacher last month. Meanwhile, Putin's advisor Yuri Ushakov said he'd been in direct telephone contact with U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
--:-- Charles Mains: Waltz was one of the key U.S. negotiators in talks with the Ukrainians. And Ushakov made clear Moscow found the U.S. proposal lacking.
--:-- Charles Mains: So here Ushakov says Russia saw the ceasefire as simply an opportunity for Ukraine to regroup and rearm.
--:-- Charles Mains: And he went on to repeat that Moscow wants a long-term end to the conflict that takes into account Russia's security interests, something the Kremlin has said often, frankly.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Okay, so look, it's a negotiation, but does this mean, does this, I don't know what you want to call this sort of signaling mean that the ceasefire proposal has already failed that the talks are over before they began?
--:-- Charles Mains: Not necessarily. I mean, that what Witkoff is in Moscow to discuss.
--:-- Charles Mains: But clearly, these two sides are far apart.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Keep in mind, Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said quite explicitly he would not accept a temporary ceasefire because he wanted a peace that addressed, in his words, the root of the conflict.
--:-- Charles Mains: Now, that's Kremlin speak for Russia's demands that NATO retreat from Russia's borders and, of course, forego Ukraine.
--:-- Michelle Martin: There's also this. So last night Putin dressed in military camouflage with state media cameras in tow, visited army headquarters in the Russian region of Kursk.
--:-- Charles Mains: Now that's where Russian troops appear to be finally on the verge of driving out occupying Ukrainian forces who've been there for months.
--:-- Charles Mains: So this was essentially a propaganda tour.
--:-- Charles Mains: And while Putin made no mention of the Ukrainian ceasefire offer, it certainly felt like he was signaling he preferred a military solution.
--:-- Charles Mains: He told his generals to essentially crush the enemy.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So is the message here, or is the message what he's trying to signal is, why bother negotiating over what you're winning anyway?
--:-- Charles Mains: Well, that's certainly the point made by more nationalist voices inside Russian society.
--:-- Charles Mains: They say this proposal by Ukraine is really an attempt to use diplomacy to stave off defeat militarily.
--:-- Charles Mains: The catch is that while that may be true in Kursk, where it seems as though Russian forces are genuinely making big gains, it's a harder slog in actual occupied Ukraine.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Meanwhile, polls show a majority of Russians want an end to the conflict in some fashion.
--:-- Charles Mains: And so given that, you know, does Putin risk alienating Donald Trump, given what at least so far has been a very favorable climate of negotiations?
--:-- Charles Mains: Well, to that end, that Trump has been criticized so far for seeming to cut a deal almost exclusively on Moscow's terms.
--:-- Charles Mains: Has that changed?
--:-- Charles Mains: Well, we'll have to see.
--:-- Charles Mains: You know, Trump has suggested at times that he'll get tough with Moscow through new sanctions if the Kremlin fails to sign on to this deal.
--:-- Charles Mains: But Trump team has already gone on record also saying no to Ukraine's membership in NATO, no to Ukraine regaining all its territory, and it's put in doubt its commitments to European allies.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So you have to think that even if Putin doesn't agree with this ceasefire deal as it's presented now, he'll be looking for ways to present counteroffers and keep the White House engaged.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That is NPR Russia correspondent Charles Maines.
--:-- Charles Mains: Charles, thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle decades of key environmental and climate rules and policies.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That announcement came yesterday in what Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin called the most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history, rolling back more than two dozen regulations.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Environmental groups predict this will lead to a future with more pollution.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Jeff Brady from NPR's Climate Desk is here to tell us more about this.
--:-- Jeff Brady: Good morning, Michelle.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Good morning, Jeff. So which regulations are being targeted?
--:-- Jeff Brady: You know, probably the most significant is something called the endangerment finding.
--:-- Jeff Brady: In 2009, the EPA determined that human-caused greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that are heating up the planet, those endanger public health and welfare.
--:-- Jeff Brady: This decision was years in the making. Litigation that led to it went all the way to the Supreme Court, and now it's the basis for many of the country's climate regulations.
--:-- Jeff Brady: EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin put out a video statement that suggests he thinks it's not constitutional.
--:-- Jeff Brady: I've been told the endangerment finding is considered the holy grail of the climate change religion.
--:-- Jeff Brady: For me, the U.S. Constitution and the laws of this nation will be strictly interpreted and followed. No exceptions.
--:-- Michelle Martin: What are some of the other regulations the EPA is reconsidering?
--:-- Jeff Brady: Zeldin said the agency will reconsider rules that limit climate pollution from power plants and from cars and trucks also regulations that limit soot and mercury in the air other rules that Zeldin claims are hurting the economy and costing trillions of dollars.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But that leaves out the fact that pollution also costs the country, you know, and health costs and cleanup.
--:-- Jeff Brady: It's not clear whether EPA plans to get rid of these rules or weaken them.
--:-- Jeff Brady: Those details should come later.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And what are environmental groups saying about this?
--:-- Jeff Brady: You know, this is even more dramatic than what they expected and certainly more aggressive than the policies Trump pursued during his first administration.
--:-- Jeff Brady: One group, the Environmental Integrity Project, said the EPA is driving, quote, a dagger straight into the heart of public health.
--:-- Jeff Brady: I talked with Matthew Tejada at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
--:-- Jeff Brady: He called this an all-out assault on the law, science, and the administrative part of the government that keeps people safe.
--:-- Jeff Brady: They're going to roll these things back, and they're going to take our country back to a time when rivers caught on fire and kids couldn't go outside without seizing up from an asthma attack.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Just as the country is making this big transition from fossil fuels that are heating the planet to cleaner energy, Tejada says the Trump administration is tying the country to oil and gas for another century.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And what about the oil industry? How's the oil industry responding to this EPA announcement?
--:-- Jeff Brady: Well, they're pretty happy.
--:-- Jeff Brady: The American Petroleum Institute said voters picked Trump for cheaper energy, and now his administration is answering that call.
--:-- Jeff Brady: And much of this fits with API's policy priorities.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And we've already seen some of the biggest oil and gas companies reorient themselves from climate change concerns and back to fossil fuels.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And Jeff, before we let you go, what are the next steps here?
--:-- Jeff Brady: There just aren't many details in this announcement, but just that the EPA is going to reconsider these regulations.
--:-- Jeff Brady: So assuming the typical process is followed, we should see some proposed rules, then comment periods before final rules.
--:-- Jeff Brady: But, you know, environmental groups already say court challenges are coming.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That's Jeff Brady with NPR's Climate Desk.
--:-- Jeff Brady: Jeff, thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: President Trump sent a letter to Iran about opening new talks over its nuclear program. But the president says he won't rule out military options either.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We're down to the final moments. We're at final moments. Can't let them have a nuclear weapon.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Joining us now to explain Iran's response and what's at stake here is NPR international correspondent Aya Batrawi in Dubai.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: Good morning to you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So let's start with this letter. Trump has said the letter to Iran would be proposing nuclear talks to avert military action. So what can you tell us about Iran's response so far?
--:-- Aya Batrawi: So this letter was delivered by a senior Emirati official from Abu Dhabi who traveled to Tehran and met with Iran's foreign minister yesterday.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: But before it was even read by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had this to say.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: So he's speaking to university students yesterday in televised remarks, saying the U.S. is trying to deceive global public opinion with this letter and that Iran is not ready to negotiate.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: And referring to Trump, he says this is the same person who tore up and threw out a signed agreement.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: Now he's talking about Trump's decision in his first term as president to withdraw the U.S. from a nuclear deal that was reached under President Obama and included China, Russia, and European countries.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: That deal put caps on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: So Khamenei says how could one possibly negotiate with such a person?
--:-- Aya Batrawi: And he warned Iran can defend itself against threats.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Yeah, so he's referring here to what we call Trump's maximum pressure campaign on Iran in his first term.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: And it did ramp up tensions in the region where you are.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So what can you tell us about how things are where things stand right now?
--:-- Aya Batrawi: Despite Khamenei's sharp words, Michelle, Iran's mission to the United Nations struck a different tone saying in a post on X that if the objective of negotiations is to address concerns about the potential of nuclear weapons, these discussions may be subject to consideration.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: But that Iran would not dismantle its peaceful nuclear program.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: And it's important to note here, Iran's position has been that its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes and that it's not interested in building a nuclear weapon.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: That said, since Trump scuttled the nuclear deal in 2018, Iran has been increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium, according to UN inspectors.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But also, you know, the US and Israel, which has hit nuclear targets in Iran before, they're not the only countries involved here.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: The UK, France, and Germany have continued talks with Iran about its nuclear program.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: And tomorrow, China, Russia, and Iran are meeting in Beijing to discuss Iran's nuclear program and the sanctions that are crippling its economy.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And what is the view there from the Gulf Arab states, like the UAE, which is where you are?
--:-- Aya Batrawi: Right. So the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, these Gulf Arab states are playing the role of mediator on many different files, whether that's on Iran or Ukraine, as we just heard from Charles, or in Gaza.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: And so the reason they can do this, though, is because while they view the U.S. as the most important military superpower, it's not the only player on the block.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: They've kept warm relations with Russia, for example, and it was China, if you recall, that brokered the deal that repaired ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia a few years ago.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: So they're balancing ties, and they're super focused on their own economic growth right now.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And so, yes, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, they want hard curbs on Iran's missile program and its nuclear ambitions, and they would like to see its Shia militias in the region wiped out.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: But they do not want a region on edge or the kind of attacks on oil targets in the Gulf that we saw under Trump's first term when tensions were soaring.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That is NPR's Air Batrawi in Dubai Air.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: Thanks, Michelle.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And that's Up First for Thursday, March 13th.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Mia Martinez.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Thanks for listening to Up First.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You can find more in-depth coverage of the stories we talked about today and a lot more on NPR's Morning Edition.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That's the radio show that Michelle Martin, Steve Inskeep, Playla Faddle, and I host.
--:-- Michelle Martin: You can find Morning Edition on your local NPR station at stations.npr.org.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Today's episode of Up First was edited by Rylan Barton, Neela Banerjee, Kevin Drew, Alice Woelfle, and Mohamad ElBardicy.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.
--:-- [Up First theme music plays]
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