Up First from NPR - Big Grocery Merger, Massachusetts Mosquito Disease, Calm In Lebanon

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

Arguments over food prices are central to efforts to halt a 25 billion dollar grocery store merger. A rare and deadly mosquito borne illness has public parks in Massachusetts shut down at dusk. The Israel-Lebanon border is calm for now and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border has quieted after days of bombardment. The immediate threat of a broader regional war seems to have lessened for now, but in Gaza, the humanitarian crisis continues. I'm E. Martinez, that's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. A planned merger between the two biggest supermarket chains in the nation is under a lot of scrutiny. More than 100,000 public comments were submitted and federal regulators want to stop the deal. What would it mean for your grocery bill? And at least two towns in Massachusetts are closing public parks at night because of a deadly mosquito-borne illness.

This is a recommendation nobody wants to hear kind of at the end of summer, but it is part of this sort of layered prevention strategy. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. Every weekday, NPR's best political reporters come to you on the NPR Politics Podcast to explain the big news coming out of Washington, the campaign trail and beyond. We don't just want to tell you what happened. We tell you why it matters. Join the NPR Politics Podcast every single afternoon to understand the world through political eyes. Listening to the news can feel like a journey, but the 1A podcast guides you beyond the headlines and cuts through the noise. Listen to 1A, where we celebrate your freedom to listen by getting to the heart of the story together. Only from NPR.

You care about what's happening in the world. Let State of the World from NPR keep you informed. Each day we transport you to a different point on the globe Thank you. NPR. Vital international stories every day. The biggest supermarket merger in U.S. history is in the hands of a federal judge. Government regulators are asking a district court in Oregon to stop the proposed deal that would combine Kroger and Albertsons, the two top supermarket chains in the nation. The planned merger has been under review for almost two years. NPR's Elena Selyuk has been following this, and she's right here with me now. Good morning. Good morning. Why is this merger so controversial? It touches on the hottest topic of the year, grocery prices. These are also stores we're all familiar with. They're called different things

in different parts of the country. Kroger owns Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Harris Teeter, a bunch of others. Albertsons owns Vons and Safeway. That's why this deal is so big. It's worth $25 billion. The government lawyer actually said over 100,000 people submitted public comments on the merger to the Federal Trade Commission, unprecedented interest for this agency. And the opening statements during the hearing had one overarching theme, which I think goes to the heart of the case, which is, will combining two of the largest supermarket chains into one lead to higher prices for shoppers? So let's hear the arguments on both sides. Take us through it. Okay, so the Federal Trade Commission argues

prices will go up. You start with two competitors that constantly watch each other's prices. You take one of those competitors away. That's more power for the new grocery giant, fewer options for shoppers. Now, the companies say that Kroger actually already has lower prices than Albertsons and will invest in dropping those Albertsons prices immediately. And then they've raised an existential question of, are they really that big when you think about how Americans shop for groceries? That's interesting. So who are they talking about here? You know, the amount of times that Walmart came up on the first day of this case was staggering. Kroger and Albertsons name dropped every store under the sun. Walmart, Costco, Amazon,

Trader Joe's, Discounter, Aldi, even Dollar General and Walgreens. The companies argued these are the biggest threat. They kept saying they are two regional chains, which they are, but national giants like Walmart and Costco have much bigger sway over suppliers. They buy food at lower prices to begin with, and that only together can Kroger and Albertsons go nationwide and compete with them. Albertsons' lawyer actually went as far as to say that if Kroger is not allowed to buy it, Albertsons could wither over a few years. So what's the federal regulator's take on those claims? The government argues these stores are not the same.

They do not replace your local supermarket, where Kroger and Albertsons often compete head-to-head. For example, you have to pay for membership at Costco. Selection is much smaller, dollar stores or Trader Joe's. And if you buy a soda and a candy at a CVS, you'll still go to your nearest grocery store. So Alina, it sounds like this case is mostly focused on the impact on consumers. Is that right? Yes, mostly on shoppers. But government lawyers are putting focus on workers, too, which is new for a case like this. Kroger and Albertsons are union shops, which is rare in the world of grocers. And they say that if they can't compete against Walmarts of the world, that's a win for non-union employers. The government argues a merger would give them more power over union negotiations, give workers fewer options. So there are questions about impact on competition for workers. So before we let you go, is there any sense of how this case is going? It will be a slog. This one will be a few weeks.

There are actually three lawsuits in total trying to stop the deal and one sort of countersuit from Kroger against the federal government. And it's all coming to a head right when everyone is talking about high grocery prices, including presidential candidates. That is NPR's Alina Selyuk. Alina, thank you. Thank you. A Massachusetts town is closing its playing fields in parks at dusk to try and stop a nasty mosquito-borne disease from spreading. It's called Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

Health officials in another town are so concerned they're even encouraging people to stay home after 6 p.m. NPR's Ping Huang joins us now to tell us some more. So last week we talked about parvovirus, sounded like a thing for dogs. This one has equine in the title, so I'm going to think horses. Yep. A, this one affects both horses and people. And it's a very rare disease. Overall, the U.S. sees about a dozen human cases of it a year.

But it is considered the most deadly mosquito-borne disease in North America. It's got a mortality rate between 30 and 50 percent. And that's why this recent case in Massachusetts has sparked a lot of concern. All right, so tell us about that case. Yeah, so earlier this month in Massachusetts, health officials announced one case of eastern equine encephalitis. They call it triple E. And this was in a man in his 80s in Worcester County, which is sort of in the south central part of the state. It's the first human case that they've seen in four years. But also this year, they've been detecting it in a lot of the mosquitoes they've tested. They found it also in another

part of the state called Plymouth near Cape Cod. And that case was actually in a horse. All right. So that's why they're prompting, that's prompting Plymouth to double down on closing their fields in parts of dusk. Yeah. And not even let athletic teams practice after that, because that's when the mosquitoes that are most likely to spread the virus are biting. I spoke with Katherine Brown about it. She's a state epidemiologist for Massachusetts. This is a recommendation nobody wants to hear kind of at the end of summer. I am entirely sympathetic to that, but it is part of this sort of layered prevention strategy that we have. Brown says that they've also been spraying insecticide in some neighborhoods and there's no vaccines or treatments for it in humans.

So health authorities are telling people to be extra vigilant about wearing good bug spray. Yeah. So you mentioned that this virus can be fatal. What are the other risks though of catching it? So this virus attacks the central nervous system in mammals. So it can cause meningitis or brain swelling. And even those that do survive often have ongoing neurologic problems. And interestingly, humans and horses are actually considered dead-end hosts for this. So usually there's not enough virus circulating in their blood to spread it onto other mosquitoes. And instead, the reservoir for this virus is actually in birds, which can spread the virus more broadly.

Is this just a thing in Massachusetts or have they found it in other parts of the country? Well, so far this year, there have been two other human cases, one in Vermont and one in New Jersey. But the virus has been found in mosquitoes or birds or other animals out in Michigan this year, down in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina. These are all areas that tend to have freshwater hardwood swamps, which are places where the birds and mosquitoes that carry the virus tend to mix. I should also say that the virus's footprint has grown over the past 15 years. Brown told me that that's likely due in some parts of climate change. You know, the warmer temperatures are making the mosquito season longer. Shifts in weather and seasonal patterns really affect when and where the birds are migrating.

So just to restate, if you're in that area, bug spray and try and stay indoors after 6 p.m. Yes, that and also dumping any standing water around you. All right. NPR's Ping Wong, thank you very much. You're welcome. There appears to be a respite in intense fighting across the Lebanon-Israel border this morning. This comes after Israel and the militant group Hezbollah launched their biggest cross-border attacks in months on Sunday. The region had been on edge, fearing for weeks that a broader confrontation would erupt since Israel killed a Hezbollah commander in Beirut. Meanwhile, fighting continues in Gaza, ceasefire talks once again stall.

To bring us up to date, we go to NPR's Jane Araf in Beirut. Good morning, Jane. Good morning, Michelle. So the big worry, of course, is that the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah would signal that an all-out war is spreading beyond Gaza. Has that worry diminished? Well, it has for now. It's been clear that both Hezbollah, which is Iran-backed, and Iran itself don't want all-out war. But they also can't let Israeli attacks and assassinations on their soil stand without retaliating.

So on Sunday, Hezbollah said it considered the killing of a senior leader avenged after it launched hundreds of drones and rockets. Attacks resumed on Monday, but not nearly at the same level. We have to remember that fighting across the Lebanese-Israeli border parallels the war in Gaza. Hezbollah entered the conflict to support the Palestinian militant group Hamas. And Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has made clear that until Hamas and Israel reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, attacks across this border will continue. So what about those prospects for a ceasefire? The U.S. seemed to be very optimistic of a deal,

but what are they saying now? Well, a top U.S. seemed to be very optimistic of a deal. But what are they saying now? Well, a top U.S. military leader was visiting Israel yesterday as a sign of intense U.S. concern about what's happening here. Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Brown, I should say, told Reuters that the near-term risks of a war involving Hezbollah had eased somewhat, but that Iran still posed a danger. Now, a lot of that, of course, as you've mentioned, hinges on the ceasefire talks, which concluded in Cairo with no agreement reached. Hamas says Israel has added new conditions to a proposal raised by President Biden, which it had agreed to. Israel says it has security concerns that are not being met. And meanwhile, Iran's new foreign minister said Iran is still intending to extract revenge for the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran. So what does all this mean regarding what's happening on the ground in Gaza? Yeah, no let up there. It's a situation that over 10

months has begun to sound almost normal, but it really isn't. Israel has issued evacuation orders for central Gaza, but for most people, there's no safe place to go. Yesterday, NPR producer Anas Baba visited the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balakh. Fighting and evacuation orders in the area have created panic at the hospital. He spoke with Dr. Mohamed Shaheen, who said families fearing Israeli airstrikes were pulling their relatives from their hospital beds, even though there are no other hospitals to go to.

When you go to the street, you see this patient in the street. No place to go. No place to go. So basically, patients along with so many others just ending up on the streets. And with near daily evacuation orders being issued by Israel and shrinking space, a lot of families have ended up on the beach in makeshift tents without food, toilets or clean water. That is andPR's Jane Araf in Beirut. Jane, thank you. Thank you, Michelle.

And that's Up First for Tuesday, August 27th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Ian Martinez. How about listening to Consider This from NPR? We hear it up first, give you the three big stories of the day, or Consider This colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you in just 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Carrie Kahn, Emily Kopp, Will Stone, Alice Wolfley, and Mohamed El-Bardisi. It was produced by Ziad Batch, Nia Dumas, and Nina Kravinsky. We get engineering support from Simon Laszlo Janssen,

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