Trump Has 'Productive' Talks With Zelenskyy And Netanyahu, France Wildfires

July 29, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

President Trump met Tuesday with two foreign leaders fighting wars at home—Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky—in separate White House meetings. The tone of the two encounters diverged sharply. Trump’s relationship with Zelensky has been steadily improving, while his ties with Netanyahu have grown strained, even as both sides still need each other. Meanwhile, wildfires in southwestern France have forced hundreds of thousands to flee, and firefighters are battling what they call “monster zombie fires” that behave in ways they have never seen before.

Trump and Zelensky: Repairing a Rupture

The Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelensky was described as positive, a sharp contrast to their infamous blow-up last year. Zelensky called it a “good meeting,” and he received a warm welcome from more than 60 senators from both parties. No TV cameras were present, and Trump has not publicly commented, but the general tone keeps improving.

Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.

Read Full Summary →

Free • No credit card required

Listen to Audio Summary Open in App

Never miss an episode of Up First from NPR

Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

What you'll learn

1 (02:00) **Trump Hosts Two Wartime Leaders** - President Trump meets separately with Ukraine's Zelenskyy and Israel's Netanyahu at the White House, with both leaders facing conflicts at home.
2 (02:21) **Trump-Zelenskyy Meeting: A Positive Tone** - NPR's Greg Myre reports from Kyiv that the meeting was positive, with Trump treating Zelenskyy with more respect as Ukraine gains momentum with long-range drone attacks.
3 (04:43) **Ukraine-Iran-Russia Overlap** - Zelenskyy reveals Ukraine struck an Iranian boat in the Caspian Sea carrying military cargo to Russia, and claims Russia is sharing satellite data on US troop locations with Iran.
4 (06:02) **Netanyahu's Strained White House Visit** - White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez analyzes the widening gap between Trump and Netanyahu, five months into a war Trump believed would be quick.
5 (09:37) **France Wildfires: A "Perfect Cocktail"** - NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports from France as a new heatwave threatens to reignite massive fires that have already burned 100,000 acres near Bordeaux.
6 (11:41) **"Monster Zombie Fires" and Pyrocumulus Clouds** - French firefighters describe unprecedented, erratic fire behavior that defies normal firefighting rules.
7 Standout Quotes

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Greg Myre Franco Ordoñez Eleanor Beardsley

Show Notes

President Trump hosted two foreign leaders at the White House on Tuesday. Both, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are dealing with war at home. While Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu has been increasingly strained, his ties with Zelenskyy have steadily improved. And in France, raging wildfires have force hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Want more 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 Miguel Macias, Rebekah Metzler, Tina Kraja, HJ Mai and Alice Woelfle.

It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.

Our director is Christopher Thomas.

We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.

And our Supervising Producer is Michael Lipkin.

(0:00) Introduction
(01:51) Trump And Zelenskyy
(05:35) Trump And Netanyahu
(09:21) France Wildfires

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy