MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The biggest supermarket merger in U.S. history is in the hands of a federal judge.
MARTIN: The biggest supermarket merger in U.S. history is in the hands of a federal judge.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
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.
MARTIN: NPR's Alina Selyukh has been following this and she's right here with me now. Good morning.
ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: Why is this merger so controversial?
SELYUKH: 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, 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?
MARTIN: So let's hear the arguments on both sides. Take us through it.
SELYUKH: OK, 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 Albertson's prices immediately. And then they raised an existential question of, are they really that big when you think about how Americans shop for groceries?
MARTIN: That's interesting. So who are they talking about here?
SELYUKH: 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.
MARTIN: So what's the federal regulators' take on those claims?
SELYUKH: 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 at 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.
MARTIN: So, Alina, it sounds like this case is mostly focused on the impact on consumers. Is that right?
SELYUKH: 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.
MARTIN: So before we let you go, is there any sense of how this case is going?
SELYUKH: 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.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Alina Selyukh. Alina, thank you.
SELYUKH: Thank you.
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MARTÍNEZ: A Massachusetts town is closing its playing fields and parks at dusk to try and stop a nasty mosquito-borne disease from spreading.
MARTIN: 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.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Pien Huang joins us now to tell us 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.
PIEN HUANG, BYLINE: Yeah, 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%. And that's why this recent case in Massachusetts has sparked a lot of concern.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, so tell us about that case.
HUANG: Yeah, so earlier this month in Massachusetts, health officials announced one case of Eastern equine encephalitis. They call it EEE. 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 mosquitos 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.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, so that's why they're prompting - that's prompting Plymouth to double down on closing their fields and parks at dusk.
HUANG: 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 Catherine Brown about it. She's the state epidemiologist for Massachusetts.
CATHERINE BROWN: 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.
HUANG: 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.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. So you mentioned that this virus can be fatal. What are the other risks, though, of catching it?
HUANG: 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, A, 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.
MARTÍNEZ: Is this just a thing in Massachusetts or have they found it in other parts of the country?
HUANG: 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' footprint has grown over the past 15 years. Brown told me that that's likely due in some part to 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.
MARTÍNEZ: So just to restate, if you're in that area, bug spray and try to stay indoors after 6 p.m.
HUANG: Yes, that, and also dumping any standing water around you.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. NPR's Pien Huang. Thank you very much.
HUANG: You're welcome.
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MARTIN: 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.
MARTÍNEZ: 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 as cease-fire talks once again stall.
MARTIN: To bring us up to date, we go to NPR's Jane Arraf in Beirut. Good morning, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: 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?
ARRAF: 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 cease-fire agreement in Gaza, attacks across this border will continue.
MARTIN: So what about those prospects for a cease-fire? The U.S. seemed to be very optimistic of a deal, but what are they saying now?
ARRAF: 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 cease-fire 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.
MARTIN: So what does all this mean regarding what's happening on the ground in Gaza?
ARRAF: 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 al-Balah. Fighting and evacuation orders in the area have created panic at the hospital. He spoke with Dr. Mohammed Shaheen (ph), who said families fearing Israeli airstrikes were pulling their relatives from their hospital beds, even though there are no other hospitals to go to.
MOHAMMED SHAHEEN: When you go to the street, you see this patient in the street. No place to go.
ARRAF: 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.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Jane Arraf in Beirut. Jane, thank you.
ARRAF: Thank you, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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