Up First from NPR - Senate Spending Bill, Ukraine Airstrikes, Idaho Firefighter Shootings

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

Several Senate Republicans are attacking the cuts to Medicaid in the President's massive tax and spending bill, Russia unleashed a barrage of missiles and drones across Ukraine, and two firefighters are dead in North Idaho after an ambush by a sniper. 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, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Destinee Adams and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zo van Ginhoven. And our technical director is Zac Coleman. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Senate is moving ahead on the President's massive tax and spending bill, but there is dissent in the ranks of the GOP, mainly over cuts to Medicaid. Do leaders have the votes to get this bill over the finish line? I'm Leila Fadl, that's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. Russia pummeled Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones. It was the largest attack since the full-scale invasion began in 2022 and targeted several areas including western Ukraine. Are the two countries moving any closer to a breakthrough that could end three years of war?

And the latest on the attack on the firefighters who were responding to a wildfire in Idaho. Two were killed and a third was injured. This was a total ambush. These firefighters did not have a chance. Stay with us. We'll give you 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

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wherever you get your podcasts. The Senate worked throughout the evening and is still debating the sweeping Republican tax and spending bill. President Trump lobbied Republicans over the weekend and wants Congress to send him a bill by July 4th. But GOP leaders have little room for error as they negotiate key issues right up until the final vote.

NPR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh is with us now to tell us more. Good morning, Deirdre. Good morning, Michelle. So do leaders have the votes to get this bill over the finish line? You know, they're sounding confident, but they can only lose three votes, and two Republicans already voted no to start debate on this bill Saturday night. North Carolina Republican Tom Tillis was one of those. He's been warning that the fallout from the cuts to Medicaid in this package would mean shifting billions of dollars of cost to the states, and he said the president is flat

out wrong to back this bill. But I'm telling the president that you have been misinformed. You supporting the Senate mark will hurt people who are eligible and qualified for Medicaid. Well speaking of Tillis, he made some news yesterday. He did. A day after President Trump blasted him on social media for opposing this bill and vowed to back a primary challenger to him, Tillis says he's not running for reelection next fall. His race was expected to be very competitive, but Tillis says his brand as a bipartisan lawmaker was essentially becoming an endangered species.

So I take it there are Republicans who are still considered undecided. What are they looking at as they weigh their votes? Right. There are a few conservatives like Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, Florida Senator Rick Scott want deeper spending cuts, and they're pushing for an amendment later this morning to change how much the federal government pays for people covered under the Medicaid expansion program that passed as part of the Affordable Care Act. Moderate Republicans like Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski really want to limit changes to Medicaid and ensure there are resources for rural hospitals in their

states to treat patients. How those Republicans view the final version after these amendment votes later this morning and the cost of the bill will determine if it passes. So how much does this overall package cost and what are the key components? This is really a tax bill. It makes the tax cuts enacted in 2017 and President Trump's first term permanent. It adds some temporary tax breaks like no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. It also boosts spending for border enforcement, for the military, increases the debt ceiling by $5 trillion to avoid a default later this summer.

But to offset all of those tax breaks, the legislation includes significant spending cuts. It cuts nutrition programs, it rolls back green energy tax breaks, the legislation includes significant spending cuts. It cuts nutrition programs, it rolls back green energy tax breaks. But the bulk of these spending cuts, almost a trillion dollars worth, come from changes to Medicaid. The Senate bill adds new work requirements for some enrolled in the program, changes the way states finance their Medicaid programs. And Congress's nonpartisan scorekeeper said yesterday this version of the bill adds 3.3 trillion dollars to the deficit over the next decade and almost 12 million Americans could lose their coverage.

So let's say if the Senate approves this bill what is likely to happen in the House? Will the House pass it this week? It's gonna be tough. You know, House Speaker Mike Johnson has a razor-thin margin. President Trump is gonna put a lot of pressure on Republicans there to pass it. He's going to have to help the speaker lock in those votes. That is, and here's Dierdre Walsh. Dierdre, thank you. Thanks, Michelle.

This weekend, the Ukrainian Air Force said Russian forces launched the largest air assault on Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. Russia has been bombing Ukrainian cities more often over the last few months, and that battlefield remains a bloody war of attrition with no end in sight. And Paris, Ukraine correspondent Joanna Kakissis is on the line with us now from Kyiv to tell us more. Good morning, Joanna. Good morning, Michelle. So tell us about this weekend's air strikes. What happened? Well the Ukrainian Air Force told us this attack was the largest of the war because

of the sheer number of weapons used. Russia fired more than 500 drones, missiles, and guided air bombs at several Ukrainian cities and regions. About half were shot down. We in Kiev were largely spared this time but the capital has been repeatedly targeted including earlier this month when 28 people were killed. And was anybody hurt this time? Yes, at least six civilians died across the country and at least a dozen were injured. Businesses, residential areas and utilities were damaged. The Air Force also lost an F-16 fighter jet and its pilot, 32-year-old Maxim Ustimenko, who shut down seven aerial targets before his plane went down.

So Russia is obviously escalating its attacks on Ukraine. How are Ukrainian cities protecting themselves? So here in Kyiv, the military usually shoots down attack drones using anti-aircraft missiles. They also have these machine gunners moving around on trucks. And in another city that's often hit the southern port of Odessa, the Navy uses mobile air defense units on speedboats in the Black Sea. We rode with one of the speedboat units recently and spoke with the crew, including Pirat or pirate., where using only his call sign at the request of the Ukrainian military, which cites security reasons, pirate always

carries a photo of his wife and baby son. He's saying the crew celebrates whenever they shoot down a drone because it means that drone will not hit a neighborhood and one drone hit very close to his own family's home recently. Now I should add Michelle that military experts say Russia is using these aerial assaults to deplete Ukraine's supply of air defense munitions. You know Joanna Odessa and even Kiev aren't that close to the front line so how is Ukraine's attempt to defend its territory on the ground going? Well Michelle it's been very difficult for Ukraine's ground forces. The frontline stretches hundreds of miles

and the Russians are making incremental gains, pushing farther west into Ukraine. But I should say at this rate, it would take Russia years to conquer Ukraine and the war has also cost Russia. The UK's defense ministry estimates that more than a million Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded during the full-scale war

So amid all this to end it is there any hope for a ceasefire? Well, not right now Representatives from Ukraine and Russia have met in Istanbul and agreed to prisoner exchanges But no ceasefire and in another sign that this war will not end anytime soon Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky just signed a decree withdrawing his country from the Ottawa Treaty which bans the production and use of anti-personal landmines. Now he says landmines are instruments of defense against Russia and some other countries bordering Russia have also said that they will withdraw from the treaty. Russia by the way has not signed this

treaty and has used anti-personnel minds extensively. That is NPR's Joanna Kakissis in Kiev. Joanna, thank you. You're welcome. Two firefighters are dead in North Idaho, along with the man suspected of shooting them. Yeah, authorities called it an ambush by sniper. The city of Coeur d'Alene was under a shelter-in-place order most of yesterday afternoon. Investigators are still trying to determine exactly what happened and why. Spokane Public Radio reporter Eliza Billingham is with us now from nearby Spokane, Washington.

Good morning, Eliza. Good morning, Eliza. Good morning. So what can you tell us so far about what happened? What are the authorities saying? Well yesterday afternoon, firefighters responded to a 911 call for a grass fire on Canfield Mountain, which is a small mountain just north of Coeur d'Alene. And pretty soon after the firefighters arrived, officials say that somebody opened fire on them. Kootenay County Sheriff Bob Norris was clear that he thinks this was intentional.

This was a total ambush. These firefighters did not have a chance. Two firefighters were killed, another was injured, and later that afternoon, law enforcement was able to recover the body of the suspect from the ongoing fire. Danielle Pletka So, Eliza, I understand that the authorities are saying that they think there was only one shooter and that he is dead. They don't yet know how he died. Could you walk us through how they went about figuring that part out? And do we know anything about who this person is or was? Eliza Stover Of course. So, lots of law enforcement from nearby jurisdictions showed up, plus the FBI. Apart from the fire, the sheriff said this is a really difficult type of terrain to conduct a search.

When you have an environment where you don't know where the bullets are coming from, because of the trees and the shrubbery and what have you, it is daunting for police officers, let alone firefighters. And the FBI was able to locate a cell phone signal and when they followed that signal they were able to find a body. And they say that body was near a type of weapon that made them think this was the suspect and the only shooter. But they're not saying what kind of weapon that is and they're not saying anything about his identity, his politics, his past or anything that might explain why he did this. So we don't want to speculate, but North Idaho does have a reputation as a place where white supremacist

organizations or anti-government militia groups have gone to set themselves up at some point. Did authorities there talk about that at all? Right. Well, County Commissioner Bruce Notari did acknowledge the region's history with violence against authority. But he stressed that that's not what defines the area today. He said that this is an area that loves first responders. And when they moved the bodies of the firefighters

from the North Idaho Hospital to the Spokane County Medical Examiner's Office, people were lining the interstate for miles on both sides of the state line, waving American flags. Despite its history, this is a place that people have been moving to raise young families. And this type of attack against firefighters is especially strange and difficult for this community to process.

So where does this investigation go from here? Authorities said that they've contained the fire and they'll resume the investigation on the mountain this morning. The sheriff is thinking that they may find more weapons, but meanwhile, local and federal agents are working to ID the suspect and they hope to uncover more about his motive. That is Spokane Public Radio's Eliza Billingham. Eliza, thank you. Thank you so much.

And that's first for Monday, June 30th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Laila Fadid. Your next listen is Consider This from NPR. We here at Up First give you the three big stories of the day. Our Consider This team takes a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you. That means you can learn about a big story of the day in less than 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Jason Breslow, Rylan Bartland, Kevin Drew, Janaya Williams, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zia Butch, Destiny Adams, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zoe Vangenhoven and our technical director is Zach Coleman. Join us again tomorrow. Grab a snack, make the bet, check your mail, or catch up on the latest news with the NPR tomorrow. every hour of every day. Listen now to the N that come with them. It's our right to be curious and our prerogative to listen. So keep your curiosity alive. Hear the bigger picture every day on NPR.

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