Ukraine hit Russia with a series of remote drone strikes hours before peace talks in Turkey. The Republican-led Senate returns from recess and is tasked with passing President Trump's budget plan. And, a man is in custody following an attack on people at an event calling attention to Israeli hostages being held by Hamas. Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Jason Breslow, Ryland Barton, Kevin Drew, Lisa Thomson and Adriana Gallardo. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What happened in the recent Ukrainian drone attack?
A Ukrainian drone attack struck deep inside Russia, and Ukraine says it destroyed more than 40 Russian planes and air bases across the country.
Chapter 2: What message does the drone strike send before peace talks?
Where peace talks set to take place today, what message does the attack send?
I'm Steve Inskeep with A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. The Senate returns from recess with a task of getting President Trump's budget across the finish line. The president's domestic agenda hangs in the balance, but how much will Republicans change a bill that some lawmakers really don't like?
And a man is in custody after an attack at an event to raise awareness for Israeli hostages being held by Hamas.
The reason things like this are happening is because we have allowed this climate of hate to fester.
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Ukraine hit Russia with a series of remote drone strikes on military air bases deep inside Russian territory on Sunday.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of President Trump's budget plan?
Chapter 4: How did the attack on the Israeli hostages awareness event unfold?
And a man is in custody after an attack at an event to raise awareness for Israeli hostages being held by Hamas.
The reason things like this are happening is because we have allowed this climate of hate to fester.
Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.
This message comes from Wise, the app for doing things and other currencies. With Wise, you can send, spend, or receive money across borders, all at a fair exchange rate. No markups or hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. This message comes from CBC Podcasts with Understood, Who Broke the Internet?
Arguing that the modern internet is not living up to its original promise, this four-part series dives into bots, algorithms, and more and offers a plan to fix it. Listen now.
These days, there is a lot of news. It can be hard to keep up with what it means for you, your family, and your community. Consider This from NPR is a podcast that helps you make sense of the news. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a story and provide the context, the backstory, and analysis you need to understand our rapidly changing world. Listen to the Consider This podcast from NPR.
Ukraine hit Russia with a series of remote drone strikes on military air bases deep inside Russian territory on Sunday.
This operation apparently took a long time to plan, and its timing now is meaningful. A new round of Russian-Ukrainian peace talks is expected in Istanbul, Turkey today.
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Chapter 5: What is the context behind Ukraine's military operations?
Joining us to talk about this is NPR's Charles Maines, who is on the line from Moscow. So, Charles, let's start with the drone attacks. What do we know about them?
Sure. You know, Ukraine smuggled remotely operated drones laden with explosives deep into Russia. And by deep, I mean deep up into the Arctic, also into Siberia, some 2700 miles away. Now, they did this by hiding the drones in the tops of flatbed trucks, which then parked near military bases before lifting off to attack planes on the runway. And we know this because Russians filmed it.
Local authorities shared this witness video, saying it was the first Ukrainian drone attack in Siberia.
And has Ukraine taken credit?
In fact, they have. President Volodymyr Zelensky said he personally oversaw the operation. Here he is speaking last night.
In total, 117 drones were used in the operation.
So here, Zelensky says that in total, 117 drones were deployed, damaging a full third of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers. In fact, Ukraine claims it destroyed 41 Russian bombers, types of which have been used to attack Ukraine.
Wow. What's been the Russian reaction? And does Moscow agree with those figures?
Well, we haven't heard from Russian President Vladimir Putin yet. Russia's defense ministry confirmed the drone strikes on several bases, but played down their impact, saying only several planes had caught fire. Now, we haven't been able to independently verify any of this, but arguably the perception that Ukraine can strike anywhere is as important as the physical damage.
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Chapter 6: How does the Senate budget plan affect domestic policies?
NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales is here to tell us all about it. Just one vote, Claudia, just passed by one vote in the Republican-led House. What do we expect in the Senate?
That's right, A, and we just expect a lot more of the same, but just multiply the intensity as Republicans in the Senate have a very different balancing act than the House. And Senate Republicans can only lose three votes to get this across the finish line. We're hearing some already raising concerns about provisions in this bill.
Chapter 7: What challenges do Senate Republicans face with the budget bill?
And the upper chamber also faces tougher procedural hurdles that could shape the final version of this plan. So we expect some pretty tough negotiations to get this done by their July 4th deadline, which, by the way, is driven in part by the bill's provision to lift the federal debt limit. And that's got to happen this summer to avoid a catastrophic financial default.
Sounds like a lot riding on this bill. So what else is in the package?
Right. It extends tax cuts for individuals and businesses as part of a package that was passed under Trump's first term. And there's also a lot of his big campaign promises like eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay. But this all comes with a pretty big price tag, more than $4 trillion. Right. So one area they're targeting for savings is cuts to Medicaid.
Deficit hawks want to see big reductions there that could lead to millions to lose coverage. That's a big red line for some senators like Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. So a balancing act for Senate Majority Leader John Thune to navigate all these competing demands from his party and President Trump.
Then given those competing demands, how might this bill evolve or maybe even change in the Senate?
Well, I'm told that about 60% or more of this bill is going to stay intact. But when we talk about these bigger pieces of the plan, such as changes to Medicaid, that's likely the largest fight that Senate Republicans will face. And given those concerns, we expect to see resistance to deep cuts to Medicaid from more moderate Senate Republicans.
At the same time, if Republicans try to cut back on these reductions, that could upset lawmakers who want bigger spending cuts. So another tough fight could come over repealing tax breaks for clean energy passed by Democrats. As it happens, some Republicans want to look at revising this.
And another thing to watch out for is under Senate rules, any provision of this bill that doesn't have a budget impact could have to go.
All right. Tell us about the tea leaves. How can Republicans get this done or if they can get this done?
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