Up First from NPR
Broken Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire ; Latest on U.S. Politics; Ebola Update
20 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the latest on the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire?
The preliminary agreement between Iran and the U.S. excludes another party to the war that got us here, Israel.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah threatens U.S.-Iran negotiations.
I'm Scott Simon.
I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is Up First from NPR News.
As the U.S. and Iran try to move toward negotiating a lasting deal, Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon have agreed to renew their ceasefire deal. It doesn't seem to be holding. We'll tell you more.
We'll also look at how the U.S.-Iran agreement is being received here in the U.S. among Republican lawmakers.
And we'll have the latest on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where cases of the deadly disease are surging. And aid has been slow to arrive.
So stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend.
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Chapter 2: How are U.S.-Iran negotiations affecting the situation in Lebanon?
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Iran has once again closed the Strait of Hormuz over Israel's continued attacks in Lebanon.
Deadly Israeli airstrikes struck Lebanon today, and that was shortly after Israel and Hezbollah renewed a ceasefire agreement.
The fighting could have a direct impact on negotiations between Iran and the U.S., aimed at a lasting deal that would include curtailing Iran's nuclear program. And President Jane Araf is in Beirut. Jane, thanks for being with us.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of the renewed ceasefire for U.S. politics?
What's going on?
Iran is now saying that it was Washington's job to ensure Israel adhered to the ceasefire in Lebanon. And it's saying that Washington did not fulfill that commitment, and it calls it a violation of the understanding it had with the United States. Iran further says that calls the entire agreement, including opening the Strait of Hormuz, into question.
That's after Israeli attacks Friday and Saturday. Those attacks were in the Bekaa Valley in the east, but mostly in southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces have invaded and are trying to take more territory. Hezbollah is fighting back.
Chapter 4: What is the current status of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 55 people, including 12 children, according to state media and local officials. And Hezbollah attacks on advancing forces inside Lebanon killed four Israeli soldiers. So not much of a ceasefire.
A preliminary agreement President Trump signed Wednesday with Iran explicitly includes Lebanon and the ceasefire, but as you've reported, it hasn't really been fully enforced. Where does that leave the wider agreement with Iran?
Well, as we've seen, Israel believes it's not bound by that wider agreement, which calls for ensuring Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity. In fact, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli military is destroying Lebanese border villages, including infrastructure, making it impossible for 200,000 residents to return.
and Israeli troops are trying to take a strategic Hezbollah position deeper into Lebanon. Hezbollah has been attacking Israeli tanks and troops to prevent that advance.
Earlier this week, you were in Nabatea, still a center of fighting. What's life like there?
There is an awful lot of destruction, including downtown in the historic Ottoman-era market, hundreds of years old. All of that was heavily damaged. We met one of the town residents, Najib Ayad, a little further into the city.
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Chapter 5: How are health officials responding to the Ebola crisis?
He was returning briefly to see the damage to his apartment. So a part of the building had collapsed and there was so much rubble it was difficult to get through the door even. There was the sound of artillery in the distance. You could see smoke rising. And inside, all the glass had been blown out, including the balcony doors. Did you see the glass? He's saying, you see that castle?
See what it looks like? He says the Israelis are still there. And from his balcony, you can see the Beaufort Castle.
Chapter 6: What challenges are health care workers facing during the Ebola outbreak?
It's a Crusader-era fortress on a strategic hill that's now occupied by Israeli forces. So he said that as long as Israeli forces are that close, he could never move back. There are now more than one million people displaced in Lebanon. Some had tried to return, but recent fighting has driven them out again.
And we have Jane Araf in Beirut. Thanks so much.
Thank you.
Israel, who went to war with Iran alongside the U.S., has been highly critical of the framework for a potential deal between Iran and the U.S.
This has not been received well in the White House, where President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance used uncharacteristically tough language this week against the U.S.
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Chapter 7: What measures are being taken to control the spread of Ebola?
ally. NPR's Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks for being with us.
Good to be with you, Scott.
President Trump used some what I'll call choice words in an interview this week talking about Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision to launch strikes on Beirut right before the MOU was agreed to. Words we cannot play on the air. Let's just say that he questioned the Israeli prime minister's judgment. Then Vice President J.D.
Vance was asked during an interview with The New York Times whether he thought Israel has incentives for the agreement not to go through. And this is what the vice president posed to Israeli critics.
Chapter 8: What positive moments emerged from the Ebola treatment centers?
What is your exact proposal? And, you know, you're a country of nine million people. You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.
Why this kind of rhetoric?
There's so much at stake here, Scott. There's the fragile ceasefire that may or may not be holding for the moment, as we just heard from Jane Araf. Then there's the fate of the MOU between the U.S. and Iran. There's at least a short-term chance for peace in the region. And then there's the future of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel that's been so important to both for almost 80 years.
So, Two months ago, the current war began with coordinated attacks by the U.S. and Israel on Iran and its ally, Hezbollah, in Lebanon. Now the Trump administration wants to dial back, make a deal, or at least start to make one, so the world oil market can recover and stop endangering the U.S. economy and the world economy.
But Israel still sees itself fighting a threat at its doorstep from Hezbollah.
When the agreement to extend the ceasefire and open the Strait of Hormuz was announced, President Trump hailed it as a success. But it is being questioned by many critics at home, most notably some members of his own party. What can you tell us?
Conservative hardline Republicans are saying that this deal seems, if it is a deal, seems to squander the military successes of the past two months in exchange for little or nothing beyond a return to where things stood in February when ships were flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. As for nuclear weapons, Iran is apparently only required to say they won't develop them, ever.
and to have more negotiations on the subject. And in exchange, the U.S. is offered to lift sanctions on Iran and make available some of Iran's financial assets that have been frozen, and even set up a fund to rebuild what Iran lost in the recent fighting. So some of these Republicans who object have been doubters for a while. Others say might have been political skeptics.
let's say, rival to the president at one time. Others had political scores to settle with Trump. But then you have such loyalists as Roger Wicker, Mississippi chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. These people seem genuinely surprised and distressed at this turn of events.
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