Negotiators to Moscow and Kyiv, Judge Issues Order on Arch, Western Wildfires

0:02Provocations and plots across Europe. Including what Germany says was a failed drone attack on one of its airports. Is Putin behind it all? I'm Aisha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Simon, and this is Up First from NPR News.

0:19The Russian president is said to be feeling emboldened. We have details from Moscow. President Trump wants his arch. 250 feet is twice as tall as the Lincoln Memorial. You'll be able to see this from almost any place inside the Beltway. We look at the preparations underway. And 8 million acres of fire in the American West this year. We go to Washington State. So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend.

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1:34Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind people's decisions. Hear true stories from Nobel laureates, historians, authors, athletes, and more about why people do the things they do. Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com slash podcast or wherever you listen. President Trump says he's reviving efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine and sending envoys to Moscow and Kiev to that end. Here he is at the White House yesterday. Two great negotiators. They've done a great job. And we sent them over to see whether or not we can get something done. And there may be a good chance that we'll do it.

2:15The negotiators are the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff. They arrived in Moscow today. So that's where we'll begin today's podcast with NPR's Charles Maines. Charles, thanks for being with us. Good morning, Scott. What do we know about the timing of the visit? Well, you know, we've been hearing rumors of Witkoff and Kushner coming all summer, only to see the trip repeatedly pushed back. And, of course, these two have been busy, deeply involved with negotiations over Iran, Israel, and the war in Gaza. But their reengagement on Ukraine now comes as some things are changing with Russia's war.

2:48Keep in mind CIA Director John Ratcliffe was recently in Moscow for a brief visit with his Russian counterparts in the intelligence community. Presumably, Ukraine was part of those discussions. So it could be there's a new diplomatic window here, but the prevailing view is that the U.S. is concerned this conflict is about to escalate even further than it already has. How so? Well, with the front lines essentially stalled, both sides have turned to air attacks to inflict maximum damage on the other. That's meant near daily Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian energy and logistics infrastructure here that's caused, for example, widespread gas shortages.

3:22And Russia, meanwhile, is openly promising another winter of misery for Ukraine, vowing to dismantle its energy infrastructure entirely, something they really can do almost at will now that Kiev is low on U.S.-made interceptors like the Patriot missiles. So both sides are also, I should say, hacking away at the other's ability to export grain through the Black Sea region. That's raised concerns about global food shortages as we head into the winter months. And if that's not bad enough, there's also a possible new front in Europe with NATO allies increasingly angry over alleged Russian hybrid attacks and sabotage that risk the war spilling beyond Ukraine.

3:56Charles, why would Russia want to provoke NATO? Well, Russian President Vladimir Putin insists they don't, and that this is all kind of anti-Russian hype by European politicians, even though he has threatened to respond to European military aid to Ukraine. And clearly something is going on. I mean, there's been a spate of sabotage and cyber attack incidents across Europe, even most recently a failed drone attack on a German airport. And if indeed these incidents are sponsored by Russia, and, for example, the Germans now openly say the airport incident was, they present a challenge because these attacks are seemingly not enough to trigger military response by NATO, but they still undermine European security.

4:34So how to defuse the situation? Well, enter Witkoff and Kushner, perhaps, two figures that Putin has made clear a welcome in Moscow. What do you think they can expect? Well, safe passage, for one. That's no small thing, given that Ukraine has threatened to swarm Russian skies with drones to the point where it's unsafe to fly. Ukraine's president, Vladimir Zelensky, last night released a video saying that Ukraine would ensure the normal functioning of Russian airspace for the Americans, adding that he wanted their trip to be constructive and substantive as possible. To that end, maybe the most constructive and substantive part of it will be the fact that Wyckoff and Kushner are not only coming to Moscow, where they've been several times, but now finally Kyiv, a place they've never been, despite repeat invitations from the Ukrainians ever since Trump's began trying to negotiate an end to this conflict.

5:19And Piers Charles Maines in Moscow, thanks so much. Thank you.

5:31The Trump administration says it will break ground for a 250-foot arch in the next two weeks without federal approval and despite an ongoing lawsuit. Veterans who brought that lawsuit have asked a judge to step in. She did late last night, and Pierre's Rachel Treisman has been covering this saga and joins us now. Rachel, thanks for being with us. A pleasure. We're talking about an enormous arch, gold statues on top. It would be built at one end of the bridge that connects the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Did the judge stop it, or is the government forging ahead?

6:09Well, the government would like to. So as a reminder, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Thursday that it would start excavation work within two weeks. And that was surprising to people because the arch hasn't gotten final approval yet. It did get design approval in May from one federal panel packed with Trump appointees, but it still needs the green light from the National Capital Planning Commission, which doesn't meet again until October. And several agencies are still conducting studies on the potential impacts of the arch, including on the nearby D.C. airport. A White House spokesperson told me they're only doing work that does not require approval and, quote, helps in the process.

6:46Now, lawyers for the government clarified in a filing late Friday that they're talking about archaeological surveys, not construction. After that, the judge ordered the government to give 48 hours notice before doing anything other than on-site information gathering. So we'll have to wait and see. Rachel, remind us, who is fighting the construction and why? Well, broadly speaking, historic preservation experts have accused the Trump administration of trying to rush the review process for this arch basically since it was introduced last October. And then earlier this year, an architectural historian and three Vietnam War veterans sued.

7:21They said the arch would desecrate Arlington National Cemetery and requires approval from Congress. The Trump administration disagrees. And it was those plaintiffs that asked the judge yesterday to issue a restraining order to block construction for two weeks. We have no sense of why the administration believes it's authorized to begin work on the arch. Nicholas Sansone, the lead attorney in the case, says any work at the proposed site is premature. He says once construction starts, it might be hard for a court to offer any real relief. And we saw that play out recently when Trump had the White House East Wing demolished to build a ballroom.

7:59Supreme Court issued a ruling on that ballroom this week. Does that have any bearing on the arch? Well, it might. Also on Thursday, the Trump administration filed a motion asking the judge to dismiss the Arch lawsuit altogether. And it specifically pointed to that Supreme Court ballroom ruling, which says the plaintiffs in that case didn't have legal standing to sue in the first place. Sansone, the lawyer, says that is definitely not the case with the Vietnam veterans suing over the Arch, since they have a deep personal connection to the cemetery. But he says there's a lot at stake even for people who don't.

8:32A system where the executive branch essentially gets to build first and answer later the question of whether that building is lawful should trouble all of us. I should say tens of thousands of critics from all over the country have submitted public comments as part of this review process. They worry the arch would disrupt everything from traffic to funeral services at Arlington to views of the National Mall. And in fact, the National Park Service even acknowledged in a report last week that the arch would affect dozens of historic sites nearby. But it's still moving ahead. What are you watching for next in the story, Rachel?

9:09Well, government lawyers have said the work will start no sooner than September 21st, and they say any natural resources affected would be restored by the end of October. And that basically brings us to midterm elections in early November. U.S. Representative Don Beyer, a Democrat from Northern Virginia, thinks that might explain President Trump's hurry. He has no one in the Republican Party willing to stand up to him on many, many different things. He only might have that trifecta for another couple of weeks. Beyer says he has actually yet to meet a constituent who supports the arch, and he expects big protests whenever work does start.

9:42Now, the Trump administration has said it expects construction would take two to three years, factoring in a 20-hour-a-day, year-round work schedule that could take us right up until the end of Trump's term. And here's Rachel Treisman. Thanks so much. Thank you.

10:06The American West is having a brutal wildfire season this summer. More than 8 million acres have burned, the most land in more than a decade. Seven wildland firefighters have died and hundreds of homes have burned. Finally, today on the podcast, this look at the story from veteran NPR wildfire correspondent Kirk Sigler. Drive through the scorching hot river basins of eastern Oregon and Washington, and it's staggering just how much land is burned. It's like around every corner, there's a new wildfire. Blackened rangeland unfolds for miles, pockmarked by little patches of grass that are randomly spared.

10:46They're gold stalks lit up by the orange, smoky sun. Right over here to my left is the Columbia River, down a little embankment, and then on the right I'm passing by. It's like literally scorched earth, just charred landscape. Rocks are the only thing that remain. There's a burnt historical marker sign. I'm trying to get to Spokane, Washington for my home base in Boise, Idaho, but I have to drive the long way through Oregon because a new wildfire near where I live closed the main north-south highway. Just getting anywhere around here right now involves patience and a constant check of watch duty.

11:22That's the app that shows a wildfire's movement and evacuation zones in real time. We're trying to get home. We left a couple days early so we thought we'd go home. I recently met Terry and Kara Barnes in a country store by a roadblock in rural Oregon. The fires cut their camping trip short, and now they're trying to get home across the Cascade Mountains. It's a six-hour-plus drive. The fires keep closing the highways. Terry drinks a cold beer as smoke hangs thick in the air outside. Number one, I'd like a road stone. I can still breathe, but I would sure like to go home. A record 2.5 million acres has burned in Oregon so far this summer, accounting for more than a quarter of the entire land burned in the U.S.

12:08this year. Mary Thompson here is frustrated that the media sometimes portray these fires as being way out here, not threatening anything. But she says this is cattle ranching country, and it's how families like hers make their living. I don't know what they're going to do once the fires are over with, because there won't be any grounds to feed them. Yeah, it's hard. It's really hard. You almost cry. News of late is in Nevada and Washington state, where hundreds of homes have burned in dreaded urban wildfires. I talked with Hugh Safford about this. He's retired U.S. Forest Service. And one thing he said really stuck out.

12:43In these new mega fires, the homes become the fuel for the explosive growth, not the trees. Burned down homes, they're gone. There's, you know, melted cars and all that stuff. And then usually there's a ring of live trees around a lot of the homes because the homes are what's burning. They're actually burning the forest. It's not the forest burning the homes. The homes are burning the forests. In Spokane, neighborhoods are leveled, but you still see pine trees that survive due to their thick fire-resistant bark. Do you want to lock the car, baby? Yep. Chris and Melissa Matthews lost pretty much everything.

13:16This is the first time, yeah, this is the first time I've seen it and been back since we loaded the car up and left. And it is jarring. When the wind kicks up just a little, there's an acrid, toxic smell from all the burnt lead paint in the home siding, exploded propane tanks, melted lithium batteries. Yeah, the air's not good. And I've had a sore throat for the last few days because of coming down here and everything. This is a common thing I've reported after these megafires. People return and soon find it's too soon and too dangerous to go back in. But one thing here really stood out to me.

13:51Even with all this destruction, it's miraculous that the death toll was so small. At least 31 people died in the L.A. fires last year, and only one person died as a result of all three of August's Spokane fires. It is grueling still for wildland firefighters, all the more so due to President Trump's big doge cuts to public lands agencies. On the old Trails fire in Spokane, I met firefighter Jose Ibarra as he doused a burning stump near a subdivision. He's just exactly how it is in California, more of structure protection. He's working a hotspot that could easily flare back up. It's tough work, yeah?

14:28Yeah, it's tough work, yeah, yeah. And it's not even fall yet. That's when California traditionally sees its biggest wildfires. Likely more to come. Kirk Sigler, NPR News, on the road in Washington State.

14:44And that's up first for Saturday, September 5th, 2026. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. Elena Torek produced today's podcast with help from Michael Ratcliffe, Samantha Balaban, and Gabe O 'Connor. Our editor has been Ed McNulty, along with Martin Patience, Tara Neal, Carol Ritchie, and Eric Westerfeld. Andy Craig directed. Our technical director is Simon Laszlo Jansen, assisted by Zoe Vangenhoven and Jay Sizz. Our deputy managing editor is Catherine Laidlaw. Shannon Rhodes is our senior supervising editor and our executive producer is Evie Stone. Tomorrow on the Sunday story, sunscreen. Some new ingredients, some myths dispelled and updated guidance for staying safe in the sun.

15:29Thank you for listening and for supporting your local NPR station. And if you need to find yours, go to stations.npr.org.

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