Trump Meets Syria's President, Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks, RFK Jr. On Capitol Hill

0:01Just a few months ago, Syria's new president was on the United States list of designated terrorists. Now he's meeting with President Trump as the U.S. adopts a new stance towards Syria after the fall of Assad's regime. I'm Michelle Martin. That's A. Martinez. And this is Up First from NPR News. Russia and Ukraine are scheduled to hold peace talks this week. Still unclear is whether President Trump will attend. Ukraine's president questions whether Putin will either. Russia is not ready for any kind of negotiation. And Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services are streamlining the agency, but are they, quote, making America healthy again?

0:42Lawmakers get a chance to ask today. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

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2:21Visit schwab.com to learn more. President Trump is in Saudi Arabia. Yeah, he met in Riyadh with Syria's new leader who just months ago was on the U.S.-designated list of terrorists with a$10 million bounty on his head. The meeting comes after Trump saying he will lift decades of U.S. sanctions on Syria, the country's economy struggling following its civil war and the ouster of the Assad regime. To talk about this and more, we're joined by NPR's Aya Batraoui in Riyadh. Hi, Aya. Good morning. Good morning, Michelle. So how significant is Trump's decision to lift sanctions on Syria? Michelle, this could transform the region, not just Syria.

2:57And to get a sense of how big this decision is, have a listen to the reaction in the room when Trump announced this. He was at an investment forum in Riyadh in front of the Saudi crown prince when he said this. I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness. So this brought Prince Mohammed bin Senman and the entire room to their feet in a standing ovation. And it matters because Syria is a pillar of the Middle East. It's a beacon of culture and intellect. But for more than a decade, it was crumbling and it was impoverished from civil war.

3:30This destabilized parts of the region. And throughout, those sanctions were really hurting average Syrians. You know, hospitals were struggling to get spare parts to keep machines or even elevators running. But now Trump says that was then and this is now. And this new Syria, led by Ahmad al-Shara, says it's ready to build a relationship with the United States. Now, Trump's meeting with him today lasted half an hour. It included the Saudi crown prince and Turkey's president joined over the phone. They touched on security concerns that the U.S. has with some extremist groups still in Syria. Another reason this reset matters, though, Michelle, is that Arab states don't want Iran to have a foothold in Syria anymore.

4:05And the U.S. doesn't want Russia building back its bases there. So, you know, we heard those cheers in the room. But is anybody not on board with this decision to lift sanctions? You know, lifting sanctions like this will be a complicated process. Syria is listed as a state sponsor of terrorism, and for that to be changed, this would have to go through Congress. Also, Israel has been carrying out airstrikes inside Syria for months. They call the new government extremists, and they have troops positioned deep inside Syrian territory indefinitely. Israel says it's concerned Syria could become a base of attacks.

4:37And we know that just last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked Trump not to lift sanctions on Syria. OK, so we know that President Trump had been planning to focus on business deals while he's in the region. How have those deals been shaping up? So the crown prince told Trump he would get at least$600 billion in Saudi investments into the U.S. over the next four years. And the bulk of this is in defense and weapons sales to the kingdom. But it also includes deals in tech and AI. Now, Trump brought with him to Riyadh, America's top CEOs from companies like Google, Amazon, NVIDIA, Boeing.

5:10and they lined up to greet Trump and the crown prince in a lavish reception. The handshakes show just how pivotal Trump is to the crown prince's relaunch. You know, it was only seven years ago that the world turned its back on him after the murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi by his men inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Yes, we cannot forget that. So President Trump is heading to Qatar next. What's on the agenda there? I think the trip is going to focus on two things. First, it'll be Qatar's unique role in the region as host to the biggest number of U.S. troops in the Middle East, but also as a host to groups the U.S.

5:42doesn't traditionally talk to, like Hamas, which the Trump administration is directly negotiating with. That led to the release of a U.S.-Israeli soldier and hostage on Monday. So we might hear surprises from Trump in Qatar later today about his vision for a Gaza ceasefire. That is NPR's Aya Batraoui and Riyadh. Aya, thank you. Thanks, Michelle.

6:10Efforts to pause or even end the war in Ukraine enter a new phase this Thursday. Representatives from Russia and Ukraine are expected to gather in Turkey for negotiations, their first since the early months of the Kremlin's full-scale invasion in 2022. NPR's Charles Maines is covering this story. He's online from Moscow. Charles, how do these talks even come about? Yeah, sure. You know, to a degree, I think you can credit efforts by the Trump administration to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, even if at times those efforts skewed heavily in Russia's favor. Because this meeting, it comes amid wrangling between Moscow and Kiev to show President Trump they're the more serious party for peace, or at least the other is an obstacle to it.

6:49Show Trump. It makes it sound like they're almost competing for Trump's favor. I mean, is that what's happening here? You know, it does seem that way. This latest maneuvering began after Russian President Vladimir Putin unilaterally called for a three-day ceasefire around events marking the Soviet victory in World War II. That was last week. Ukraine never agreed, but only because it said, why just three days? We could have a longer ceasefire. That idea got backing from Europe and the U.S., who, to give it some teeth, threatened new sanctions if Putin didn't commit to an immediate 30-day ceasefire.

7:19But instead, Putin made a counteroffer. He called for direct talks with Ukraine starting Thursday in Istanbul. Let's listen.

7:30So here Putin says military operations are ongoing, a war is happening, and we are offering to return to negotiations, adding what could be bad about that. So, I mean, is this a change of heart for Russia or a political tactic? Well, it certainly appears strategic. President Trump endorsed the idea and demanded Ukraine participate. And that's forced Europe to hold off on new sanctions against Russia for now. So it's bought Moscow some time. All right. Now, who is headed to Turkey for these negotiations? Do we know who is on the list there? Well, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky says he'll be there and he's challenged Putin to show up, even as he's expressed skepticism over Putin's motives.

8:12So here Zelensky says he doesn't believe Putin actually wants to end the war or a ceasefire and that this is essentially all just a stalling tactic. And yet it sounds like Zelensky has thrown the gauntlet down. I mean, what are the chances that Vladimir Putin does come? Well, you know, the Kremlin routinely presents Zelensky as illegitimate, so there are reasons to doubt Putin would engage directly. But entered President Trump, currently in the Middle East, as we just heard, who suggested he might stop by for the talks. That's prompted speculation Putin might as well, although it certainly involved a lot of stars aligning, probably too many.

8:46Okay, so whatever form these meetings actually wind up taking, I mean, what are the chances of a deal? Well, if Trump, Putin, and Zelensky really do gather in a room together, I think anything could happen. But without them, some kind of ceasefire seems the best hope, and even that would take some doing. The Kremlin sees an extended truce as a way for Ukraine to rearm at a moment when Russia has the battlefield advantage, and Russia's demanding a stop to all Western arms shipments to Ukraine as a result. All right, that's NPR's Charles Maines in Moscow. Thank you very much. Thank you.

9:28Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be on Capitol Hill today, testifying for the first time since he became Secretary of Health and Human Services. Since Kennedy was sworn in in February, he has moved to reshape the department, firing thousands of people, canceling billions of dollars in grants and purging scientific leaders. NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin is here to give us a preview of today's hearing. So it sounds like Kennedy has a very busy day today. Yeah. So in the morning, he's testifying in the House before the Appropriations Committee. And in the afternoon, he heads to the Senate. There he'll testify before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

10:01And the topic for both hearings is the president's budget proposal for HHS. Kennedy will explain why he wants less money for his department in the coming year. And that's certainly connected to the Doge effort to shrink government. But Kennedy is also trying to fundamentally reshape the mission of HHS and reorient it to his priorities. All right. So tell us about those priorities, because I know he's worried about chronic diseases. Yeah, he calls it a chronic disease epidemic. He even ties the size of HHS in terms of staff and budget with what he describes as the worsening health of the American population.

10:34As a reminder, HHS is the health umbrella agency. So it oversees CDC, the FDA, Medicaid and Medicare, the NIH. In April, Kennedy fired 10 ,000 staff members, eliminating whole centers and divisions across the department. Here he is on NewsNation earlier this month defending those moves. It's not throwing money at it or hiring people that is solving the problem. We have so much redundancy in our agency. We have 100 communications departments. We have 40 IT departments. We have 40 procurement departments. We're streamlining the agency and we're recalibrating its trajectory. I should say the rollout of these firings has been chaotic, and Kennedy has not seemed to be terribly familiar with what and who have been cut and what remains.

11:21He said the speed of the firings was necessary to not lose, quote, political momentum. All right. So a lot happening. What will you be listening for and what questions are you expecting? Well, definitely there'll be questions about the overhaul. As I said, whole centers at CDC were eliminated, including violence prevention, reproductive health, workplace safety, including services for coal miners with black lung. At FDA, food safety labs were hit. Some routine inspections have been delayed or canceled. And even though the overhaul was billed as being about administrative redundancies, many core functions of the agency, including those required by Congress, are now in limbo.

11:58And lawmakers may have a lot of questions about that. There are other big questions, too, like measles in West Texas is still a big problem. There are growing concerns about bird flu. Kennedy's approach to autism, I'm sure, will be asked about. And the cuts to biomedical research will definitely come up as well. This isn't just shrinking the staff and budget of the National Institutes of Health. It's also slashing funding to universities. And that research can be an economic driver in communities all over the country, including in red states like Alabama. So I'm curious to hear whether there's a bipartisan objection to Kennedy's moves there.

12:31So you've been calling up former U.S. health secretaries to ask their views of Kennedy's approach to the job. What have you heard from them? Yeah, I actually reached three former secretaries. One of the ones I talked to was Tommy Thompson. He was secretary under President George W. Bush. He said he didn't want to criticize Kennedy for making cuts, but... I wish they had learned a little bit more about the department before they do it. He said it's up to Congress to decide whether all of these cuts should stay. And we'll know a lot more after hearing from lawmakers how much they plan to push back on Kennedy's overhaul.

13:02That's NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

13:09And that's Up First for Wednesday, May 14th. I'm me, Martinez. And I'm Michelle Martin. And remember, you can listen to this podcast sponsor-free while financially supporting public media with Up First Plus. Learn more at plus.npr.org. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Ryland Barton, Diane Weber, Ali Schweitzer, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ana Perez, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

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