Kushner Netanyahu Gaza Meeting, Iran War Depleting US Military, FL, AK, WY Primaries

Israel is pointing to a divide with the U.S. over what comes next in Gaza. After a meeting between Jared Kushner and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli government says the U.S. believes Hamas will disarm, but Israel said, "deep down we don't. I'm Michelle Martin. That's Sasha Fiverr and this is up first from NPR News." America doesn't have an aircraft carrier in the Pacific and President Trump is pulling back from military cooperation with South Korea. How is the war with Iran affecting the U.S. strategic posture toward Asia? And it's primary day in Alaska, Florida, and Wyoming. Alaska Senate race could tip the balance of the whole chamber and it's drawing money from thousands of miles away. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. Jared Kushner said he's optimistic about the U.S. plan for Gaza. President Trump's envoy and son-in-law was an Israel Monday, meeting a pessimistic Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Kushner spoke to Fox News. Progress could come quite soon, but we do need cooperation from both sides and we're going to hopefully get through, but we've made a lot of progress to get here. Kushner was an Israel after a rare meeting with Hamas leaders in Egypt. NPR's Daniel Estrin is on the line from Tel Aviv. Hi, Daniel. Hi, Sasha. So what did Kushner say about his back-to-back meetings with Hamas leaders in Netanyahu? Well, he started in Egypt with Hamas leaders and he said that that meeting was cordial. He said it's, quote, hard to trust a terrorist organization that committed what he called terrible atrocities, but he said the Hamas officials said all the right things. Then Kushner went to Israel and met Netanyahu. He said the meeting lasted nearly four hours. They poured over the details of a new U.S.-backed road map for how to move forward in Gaza. Netanyahu initially rejected that road map for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza alongside Hamas' disarmament. But Kushner said he sat with Netanyahu and his team and talked through what he called misunderstandings and misinformation about the plan. So they have differed in their approach in the past? What do we know about whether they're on the same page now when it comes to Gaza? Kushner's team announced some new agreements together with Israel and these agreements are different than the original plan for Gaza. One announcement is that Hamas is being asked to give up their weapons and hand them over to a U.S. general to be destroyed, not the original plan to give them over to a new Palestinian committee for storage. And then there's another announcement that there would be no Israeli withdrawal from Gaza or no reconstruction of Gaza until full disarmament of Hamas. Kushner told Fox News that he wants Hamas to start disarming within 30, 60, or 90 days. And if they don't, he made this veiled threat about war. If they don't fall through now in their commitment, everyone will see that they're not genuine about peace and then Israel will have a lot more support from the U.S. and others to go and finish the job in the appropriate way. So you hear Kushner there trying to show this united strong front with Israel. The Israeli government put out two differing messages. They put out three lines in English for an international audience talking about deep and constructive discussions with Kushner. They put out another message in Hebrew attributed to an anonymous Israeli official and they emphasized the disagreements. This message said, deep down we Israel don't believe Hamas will disarm and the Americans do. They also put it out another message saying Israel intends to keep killing people in Gaza who took part in the October 7th attack and that message said Kushner opposes that. So given what seems like some mixed messaging depending on the audience, what's likely to happen next in Gaza? Well, there was one announcement that came out that Israel is going to agree to sanitation projects in Gaza for public health. So perhaps that could be a way for Israel to justify if we see any bulldozers or heavy equipment entering Gaza to start clearing away rubble from the last few years of war there. I think real progress is hard to expect in the next 10 weeks before Israeli elections take place. We are likely to keep seeing what we've been seeing, Hamas and Israel going in circles with mediators and slow walking any real steps for Gaza. That is NPR's Daniel Estren and Tel Aviv. Thanks Daniel. You're welcome. The U.S. and Iran have blown past a deadline this week to start peace talks. The conflict which has gone on for months has sent gas prices soaring in the U.S. and now military resources like warships and interceptor missiles are running short. That has hurt the U.S. military capabilities in other regions notably in Asia. And we have NPR's Emily Fang with us to explain why, good morning Emily. Good morning to the both of you. So we heard this week that Trump said the U.S. would reduce joint military exercises with South Korea. He said that within hours of those exercises is actually beginning. Is this related to the Iran War? According to Trump, yes, he spoke to reporters yesterday and said he had unsuccessfully asked South Korea's president to help the U.S. with its war against Iran. And I said, when do we, we have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong Un, your next door neighbor, and you're not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran? As you mentioned, these drills have already kicked off. These exercises go back at least until 1976 and they were designed to largely counter North Korea and its nuclear program. And he spoke to Hal Brands, a global affairs professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He says North Korea is actually a bigger threat in Trump's second term than in his first. The nuclear program has expanded over the past decade. And the missile arsenal has become larger and more sophisticated. You can add to that the fact that North Korea is now getting increasingly advanced technological help from Russia. But Trump has been upset with Seoul from even his first term. For not paying the U.S. more for the security assistance it provides to South Korea. Emily speaking of security, correct me if I'm wrong, but is this one of the few times there will be no U.S. aircraft carriers in the Pacific region? Right. And when I went back into this, I found that you can count on one hand the number of times there has not been a U.S. carrier group of the Pacific since the 1970s. Now the U.S. has George Washington a carrier was in the Pacific, but it's been sent to relieve the U.S. as Abraham Lincoln, which is already in the Middle East and has had its deployment extended. Like the Washington, it was also in the Pacific when it was diverted to the Middle East. I've been speaking to naval experts about this and they say it could be weeks if not months until a replacement carrier formation is ready and arrives in the Pacific to replace the Washington. One of these experts is Mike Dom. He's a formal naval intelligence officer with the Mitchell Institute, which is an aerospace research group. Aircraft carriers move and they move quickly, but they have to be ready to go. The question really is, who's ready to go? Who's not in the maintenance period? And while they have not been as publicly concerned as Ukraine, countries in Asia are noticing and they're also really worried about the depletion of American interceptor missiles. Yes, we're doing a lot of reporting on that and give us just how depleted is the missile stockpile. They're very depleted. One think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies here in Washington, found U.S. interceptor stockpiles shrunk by about two-thirds during the Iran War, and then even before the Iran War. The think tank, the Heritage Foundation, determined this month that the U.S. already only had a fraction of the interceptors it needed to push back, say, against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That is NPR's Emily Fang. Emily, thank you. Thanks, Sasha. The primary schedule leading us to November is winding down, but there are three more states holding nominating contests today, Alaska, Florida, and Wyoming. The race for U.S. Senate seat in Alaska is drawing a lot of money from thousands of miles away, from the lower 48, as they say, that's because it's one of the seats that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate after the midterms. Joining us now is Alaska Public Media correspondent Liz Ruskin-Hydlis. Hello. Liz, this Alaska U.S. Senate race is considered a toss-up. It's a non-partisan race. That means the top four candidates of any party are going ahead to November. Who is running in this one? So the two big candidates are the incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan, and his main challenger is a Democrat Mary Paltola. She's a former House member, first Alaska Native person elected to Congress. There's a wild card in this. We've got a second Dan Sullivan. Two Dan Sullivan's. His full name is Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr. He's a retired teacher from Petersburg, Alaska. Republicans tried to keep him off the ballot, saying this was a trick, but Sullivan, the challenger, says he's just tired of a guy with his same name, providing representation that he doesn't like, and he wants to provide an alternative. He is on the ballot with no party affiliation. Liz, you have also been reporting on how much money is being poured into this key race. Sounds like quite a lot. What stands out to you? There are millions going to the major candidates, of course. And the weird thing when I look at the FEC filings, I found another $3 million combined coming from pop-up super PACs to elevate very minor candidates who are running. ending zero dollar campaigns of their own. - And what does your report and tell you about what's the strategy behind that? - Well, I reached out to these super PACs, didn't get concrete answers, but political experts here say these operations are aimed at trying to pick the third and fourth place candidates who will advance to the November ballot. The idea is to draw votes away from one of the major candidates. - And how effective would that be, that drawing away vote strategy? - Well, not very. It only works for the minority of voters who choose not to rank their ballots. Political consultant Jim Lotzfeld tells me it's a sign there's so much money in this race, it can't all be spent on things that make sense. - Liz, we mentioned that in addition to Alaska, there are also primaries today in Florida and Wyoming. I want to ask you a Florida question moving way down far south. Tell us about the races to watch there. Well, Florida like Alaska has no incumbent governor running, Ron DeSantis is at his term limit. Congressman Byron Donalds looks favored to win the Republican nomination and will likely face Democrat David Jolly. He's a former congressman and a former Republican. Another race, my NPR network colleagues in Florida are watching is where Republican congressman Corey Mills is trying to get re-elected. He's under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. He denies allegations. He assaulted a woman last year in DC. Trump endorsed him earlier this year, but he faces Republican challengers. - That is Alaska Public Media's Liz Ruskin and Anchorage. Liz, we look forward to talking with you again and hearing the results of the primary in Alaska today. Thanks for coming on. - Thank you. - And that's up first for Tuesday, August 18th. I'm Sasha Feiffer. - And I'm Michelle Martin. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Tina Criot, Rebecca Metzler, Padmurama, Muhammad Elbert DC, and Ellis Wolfley. It was produced by Ziyad Butch and Ben Abrams. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hynis and our technical director is A.O. and Fane. Our supervising senior producer is Vince Pearson. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow. (upbeat music) (gentle music)