8.20.25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the reading of The New York Times for
August twentieth. As a reminder, radiois a reading service intended
for people who are blind or have other disabilities that
make it difficult to read printed material. Your reader for
today is Chris Greco. We'll start today's reading with the
Mirriam Webster word of the day salient, an adjective SA, L, I, E,

(00:25):
and t salient. What it means something described as salient,
as very important, or noticeable. The assignment was to write
down the most salient points made in the article. One
salient feature of the band's music is the variety of
different genres it incorporates into a singular sound. In context,

(00:48):
all actors use their bodies, but Saldana has long been
on another plane. She doesn't just interpret characters. She moves
them through them with such salient physicality that our body
often has much to say is the dialogue she speaks
Geacorlis The New York Times twenty eighth February twenty twenty five. Again,
today's word of the day is salient. Now we read

(01:11):
the front page headlines from today's edition. Relief in Ukraine
as Zelensky avoids disaster in Washington. It's one thing to
promise Ukraine's security, It's quite another to deliver. Europe's leaders
headed off giveaway to Putin, but emerge without a clear path.

(01:34):
Economic data has taken a turn. That doesn't mean a
crash is near. The politics of crime are perilous for
left and right alike. Are marathons in extreme running linked
to colon cancer. The first article from the front page
of today's edition is entitled Relief in Ukraine as Zelensky

(01:57):
avoids disaster in Washington, by Kim Barker, reporting from Kiev
of Ukraine. He wore the right clothes, he treated President
Trump with the deference he likes, and President Voldemir Zelensky
of Ukraine agreed to sit down with Russia's president to
talk about settling their war. What of mister Trump's mean wishes.

(02:19):
Mister Zelensky, backed by his European allies, emerged unscathed from
his Monday meeting at the White House with mister Trump,
Unlike the situation after their disastrous last meeting in the
Oval Office in February, Ukrainians collectively breathed a sigh of
relief overall and more optimistic after these meetings than before,
said Alexander Merensky, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in

(02:43):
the Ukrainian Parliament. My mayor of Trump presenting Zelensky with
an unacceptable ultimatium in front of correspondence in the Oval
Office did not materialize. The atmosphere was friendly enough. Mister
Zelensky also avoided, at least publicly in a tricky conversation
on any possile territorial concessions what mister Trump has described

(03:03):
as land swaths. On Monday, even the land that Russia
controls in Ukraine was in dispute, with mister Zelensky saying
the map shown in the White House was not accurate.
There was no, at least from what we can tell,
aggressive pressure from Trump demanding that Ukraine immediately agreed to
territorial concessions to Russia or make unilateral concessions in favor

(03:25):
of a peace deal on Monday, said Voldemir Pasenko, a
leading political analyst in Ukraine. That did not happen, and
many were deeply worried it would. The Ukrainian president also
appeared to put the onus on President Vladimir f sorry
V Peutin of Russia to either come to the negotiating
table or risk again alienating mister Trump, whose opinions on

(03:48):
how to settle this war seemed to shift depending on
the last person he met. So far, mister Putin, who
met with Trump and Alaska on Friday, has not agreed
to meet personally with mister Zelensky. Yuri Yushakov, mister Putin's
foreign policy aid set on Russia twenty four, a state
run news channel that the Russian president and mister Trump

(04:09):
spoke for forty minutes after mister Trump's meeting with mister
Zelensky on Monday. They agreed. Mister Yusukov said that senior
negotiators would be appointed for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Meetings between senior negotiators from Ukraine and Russia have been
held before, with few obvious results except prisoner exchanges. Mister

(04:30):
Trump has made ending the war in Ukraine a signature
goal of his administration. During his campaign, he promised to
end it within twenty four hours of taking office. On Monday,
while holding meetings with European allies and mister Zelenski, he
acknowledged doing so was tougher than he had thought. Mister Putin,
who launched the full scale invasion into Ukraine in February

(04:51):
twenty twenty two, gave a kind of answer to Monday's
meeting in Washington. Overnight, Russia launched two hundred and seventy
attack drones in Decos at Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian
Air Force, Russia had been slowing down drone attacks for
several weeks, and last night's barrage was the largest since
July thirty first, about the time when rumblings about a

(05:12):
potential meeting between mister Trump and mister Putin first surfaced.
Mister Trump has made it clear that neither he nor
his wife like seeing images of civilians being killed by
drone strikes in Ukraine. For Ukrainians, the two most important
issues in any peace talks or security guarantees to prevent
Russia from invading again in the future and what happens

(05:33):
with the Ukrainian territory that Russia now holds. Ukraine and
its European allies have also pushed for an immediate cease
fire first and then negotiations. Mister Trump abandoned that idea
after meeting with mister Putin, although he could change his mind.
While security guarantees were discussed on Monday, nothing specific was outlined.

(05:54):
Mister Trump said security guarantees could be met by European
countries in co ordination with the United States after the
war ends. He also said the United States would quote
help Europe after protection offer protection to Ukraine, but did
not describe what that would mean. When asked a direct question,
mister Trump did not rule out putting US troops on

(06:14):
the ground in Ukraine. At a news conference after the meetings,
mister Zelensky said the discussion on security guarantees included plans
for Ukraine to purchase ninety billion dollars in American weapons
through Europe. The United States would also buy drones from Ukraine.
Under the Biden administration, the United States did not require
Ukraine to purchase weapons. Instead, it ear marked more than

(06:37):
sixty five billion dollars in military aid for the country.
The most concrete result of Monday's meetings was a decision
that more meetings would likely be held. Annalysts said. They
also pointed out that the European presence helped avoid anything
going awry. In late February, mister Zelensky was berated by
mister Trump and by Vice President j. D Vance described

(06:58):
as ungrateful for you USAID and called disrespectful for not
wearing a suit and tie. He was practically evicted from
the White House. Having all the Europeans at the meetings
helped take pressure off mister Zelensky and also helped him
make the case for getting a ceasefire and a concrete
security guarantees, analysts said. On Tuesday, mister Trump treated both

(07:20):
European leaders and mister Zelensky politely, said Voldimir Dubovyk, the
director of the Center for International Studies at Odessa II
Menshchenkov National University. I think it went really well, mister
dubuk said. He added that the Europeans took turns pressing
for goals like an immediate seaspire, a strong army for

(07:41):
Ukraine and security guarantees. The Europeans divided the labor. I
think they coordinated who was going to talk about what.
On Tuesday afternoon Ukrainian time, mister Zelensky posted on social
media that the leaders were already working on security guarantees.
He added that the negotiations on Monday were truly as
significant step toward ending the war and insuring the security

(08:03):
of Ukraine and our people. After his meeting with mister
Putin on Friday, mister Trump seemed to back mister Putin's
long term goal of making Ukraine seed all of a
resource rich area called the Dambas, made up of primarily
Ukraine's Daniks and Luhansk regions, even the parts still controlled
by Ukraine. Agreeing to such a deal, which Ukrainians see

(08:25):
as a slap in the face, would probably be political
suicide for mister Zelensky. Ukraine's constitution prohibits surrendering territory. Russia
now occupies almost twenty percent of Ukraine, including about three
quarters of Danas, almost all the adjacent leu Hansk region,
and the entire Crimean Peninsula. Yevyan Tuzov, thirty nine, volunteer

(08:49):
from the occupied city of Miripol, who works with people
affected by the war, describe the idea of giving up
land as unlawful. This is robbery, this is banditry, he said.
If Ukraine conceded territory, he asked, then what would stop
mister Pewtin from demanding more. Anna Yapanina, thirty three, a
communications manager from the city of Rubensen in Luhansk, said

(09:13):
on Tuesday that she feared she may never again be
able to see her parents, who still live there. No
one has the right to decide whether those borders can
be changed, she said. Ukraine is Ukraine, and this is
our land. The next article from the front page of
to Day's edition is entitled It's one thing to promise

(09:33):
Ukraine's security, It's quite another to deliver, by Stephen Erlanger.
President Trump has pleased Ukrainian and European leaders by promising
American involvement in providing security guarantees for Ukraine a peace
settlement with Russia ever comes together. Mark Rutt, the NATO
Secretary General, pronounced himself excited over mister Trump's public commitment

(09:57):
on Monday at a summit at the White House to
some sort of security guarantee, a pledge that the Europeans
have been eagerly seeking. He called it a breakthrough, but
exactly what those guarantees would involve remains ambiguous. Officials promised
more clarity in the weeks to come, as defense ministry
planners come to grips with the considerable complications of turning

(10:18):
a broad promise into realistic options. Mister Trump said European
countries would be the first line of defense in providing
security guarantees for Ukraine, but Washington will help them out,
will be involved, he added later, European nations are going
to take a lot at the burden. We're going to
help them, and we're going to make it very secure.

(10:39):
He did not explain how. He shed some light on
his thinking on Tuesday, saying the United States might send
air support, though not combat troops. You have my assurance
they will not be sent to Ukraine, mister Trump said.
In an interview on Fox and Friends, Prime Minister Georgia
Meloney of Italy and the President of the US European

(11:00):
Commission Ursula Vonderlien spoke of an Article five like guarantee
outside of NATO itself, though based on the commitment in
the Alliance's charter that an attack on one member is
considered an attack on all of them. But it is
hard to imagine that NATO itself would not be quickly
implicated if any member state of the Alliance with troops

(11:21):
stationed in Ukraine gets into a shooting war with Russia.
Nor is it a given that Russia would change its
stance and agree that troops from NATO countries could be
stationed in Ukraine under a form of a de facto
NATO backed guarantee. Many analysts, like John Merschemimer of the
University of Chicago, believe Russia's effort to control Ukraine is

(11:42):
based on its stated desire to stop NATO enlargement for
countries Moscow considers part of its sphere, especially those that
were part of the Soviet Union. In that view, Moscow
invaded Ukraine to block NATO and ensure the country does
not become a member. So the idea that Russia would
agree to let NATO country troops stationed themselves in Ukraine

(12:02):
after fighting a long war to prevent them from being
there in the first place, is complicated at best. Our
goal is to ensure that we build the security guarantees
together with the United States. President aligne Xander's stubb of
Finland set on Monday night. I should think that Russia's
view of security guarantees is quite different from our view.

(12:23):
Russian officials rejected the idea even before a Monday's meeting.
A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharava said Russia categorically rejects
any scenario that in bessages the appearance in Ukraine of
a military contingent with the participation of NATO countries. Some
European officials and analysts see mister Trump's new commitment to

(12:44):
security guarantees as a way of convincing President Voladimir zelynzkyi
Ukraine to agree to Russian demands to give up the
rest of the Eastern Dhanist region that is not occupied
by Russian forces in order to stop the war that
Russia is slowly winning. That argument suggests that what matters
is sovereign Ukraine, its future assured, even if Russia retains

(13:06):
the twenty percent or more of Ukrainian territory it has
occupied since twenty fourteen. The territory issue did not even
come up in the meeting with European leaders on Monday.
According to Chancellor Frederick Mertz of Germany, Europeans were relieved,
but the question has hardly gone away and underlies what
may be part of a final settlement. The land at

(13:27):
the Kremlin once in Donsk alone is considerably larger than
the total amount of land Russia has managed to take
since November twenty twenty two, and at great cost in lives,
so it would be a major gift to Moscow and
a major sacrifice for mister Zelenski, who rejects the idea
out of hand. Instead, the focus in the White House
was on security guarantees. Mister Zelensky warned of the lack

(13:50):
of details on Sunday and stressed that the proposal will
needed to be worked out. We need security to work
in practice, he said. Some work has been done on
what a security guarantee might look like. Under a coalition
of the willing led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer of
Britain and President Emmanuel Macron of France. Secretary of State

(14:11):
Marco Rubio has been charged with coordination from the American side,
but France, Britain in tiny Estonia are the only countries
that have indicated they could deploy troops in a post
war Ukraine, Germany has hesitated in major front line states
like Poland have refused to take part. The Poles, mistrustful
of Russia, have said they want to keep their troops

(14:32):
at home for their own defense and where they are
genuinely protected by NATO's Article five, rather than vulnerable to
incidents or accidents that Russia might use to weaken or
defied peacekeepers A likely solution could be about fifteen thousand
to twenty thousand European troops being deployed in Ukraine, said
Camille Grand, a former NATO Assistant Secretary General who has

(14:55):
studied options for such security guarantees. Troops would be a
way from the front lines in support of the Ukrainian military,
already the largest and most experienced in Europe, with some
nine hundred thousand people under arms. The Europeans would represent
a reassurance force. Other countries or even the United Nations,
could provide separate, unarmed front line observers aided by satellite

(15:19):
and drune surveillance. The United States would be asked to
provide operational intelligence, including satellite cover and information about Russian
intentions or troop movements, and perhaps trained Ukrainian forces, but
without troops on the ground. But if things go sour,
said mister Grand, now an analyst with the European Council
on Foreign Relations, it would be good to have a

(15:41):
public commitment that the Americans would not sit on their hands.
Ideally that would include a vow to use U S
air power in naval assets. Nobody has the kind of
stuff we have, Mister Trump said on Tuesday. The Europeans
also want to maintain an American troop presence on the
eastern flank of NATO, especially if European troops are deployed

(16:02):
in Ukraine, potentially weakening NATO's own deterrence. Europe's ready forces
are relatively small, so a deployment of some of them
in Ukraine would shrink NATO's defense posture. Ideally, mister Grant said,
mister Root and the new NATO and American Supreme Commander
in Europe, General Alexis G. Grankovich, would be charged with
helping with planning. NATO is experiencing is experience to coordinating

(16:27):
different country forces and assets, mister Grant said, as it
has done in previous non NATO conflicts like Libya, and
none of this needs to be negotiated with Peutin. Mister
Grant said Russia could be informed, but not allowed of veto,
he said. He added that Moscow's reluctance or willingness to
accept such guarantees will be a test of its good faith. Still,

(16:49):
mister Grant said, what worries me is who in Europe
is willing to do something. Mister Starmer has made vague promises,
but the British military is small, and a commitment to
Ukraine is risky and expensive and has no end date.
That would normally involve rotational forces with one group on
the ground, one group training to go in, one group returning,

(17:10):
and it would require a material support from arms to barracks,
including armor, air defenses, air power and naval power on standby.
Mister Macron kept his enthusiasm in check after the meeting.
Security guarantees come with a peace settlement, and mister Pewtin
wants to continue the war, he said, with many details unsettled,
it was a clear It was clear that a deal

(17:32):
to the end the war is not at hand. Do
I think Peutin wants peace? I think the answer is no,
he said. It's far from over. The next article from
the front page of today's edition is entitled Europe's leaders
headed off giveaway to Putin but emerged without a clear

(17:53):
plan by Mark Landler in the Annals of Transatlantic Diplomacy,
Monday's meeting between President Trump and European leaders may go
down as one of the Stranger's summits in memory, Historic
yet uncertain in its outcome, momentous yet ephemeral in its effect.
On the war in Ukraine, choreographed yet hostage to the

(18:13):
impulses of a single man, mister Trump. As Europe's leaders
began returning to their slumbering capitals, diplomats and foreign policy
experts struggled to make sense of a Midsummer's meeting with
mister Trump and President Voladimir Zelensky that often had a
dreamlike quality, with made for TV moments and unexpected interludes.

(18:34):
The seven European leaders put forward a show of support
for mister Zelensky and unity with each other. They won
a potentially vital, if vague, expression of support from mister
Trump for post war security guarantees for Ukraine and sidestepped
to discussion of territorial concessions. According to Chancellor Frederick Mertz
of Germany. Still, they all but had all but acquiesced

(18:55):
in mister Trump's abandonment of a ceasefire between Russia and
Ukraine as a condition for firm their talks. Annalys said
that put Europe's leaders essentially where they were before mister
Trump's meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in
Alaska last week, subject to the President's faith that he
can conjure a deal with the Russian leader to end
the grinding war. In Anchorage and in Washington, it was

(19:18):
a triumph of empty vagueness and meaningful commitments, said Gerrard Arod,
who served as France's ambassador to the United States during
mister Trump's first term. In both cases, no firm decision
has been has been taken, nothing has changed, mister Arod said.
Mister Trump's reassuring words about security guarantees and the lack
of a blow up between him and mister Zelensky were

(19:41):
a relief for Europeans, but the absence of a detailed,
agreed plan for negotiations with Russia, he said, could store
up problems for the future. The worrisome scenario, mister Arod said,
was talks and talks will lead to nothing but possible misunderstanding.
Diplomats pointed out out that the remarkable spectacle of spectacle

(20:02):
of European leaders ditching their summer holiday plans to rush
to Washington was prompted less by a rare opportunity to
make peace than by the fear that mister Trump might
attempt to bully mister Zelensky, as he did in a
turbulent Oval Office meeting in February. This time, the fear
was mister Trump would try to force the Ukrainian president
into a one sided land for peace deal with Russia.

(20:25):
Zelensky and seven European leaders rushed to Washington for one reason,
said R. Nicholas Burns, a former American ambassador to NATO
and China. They don't trust Trump's commitment to a free
and independent Ukraine or his mystifying infatuation with Peutin and
his authoritarian Parsana. In one of the day's more dramatic moments,
mister Trump left his guests to place a call to

(20:47):
mister Putin. They discussed the possibility of a bilateral meeting
between mister Putin and mister Zelensky and a trilateral follow
up including mister Trump. Mister Putin suggested Moscow as a
venue and all for he first floated in Anchorage. A
senior European diplomat briefed on the call said European leaders
were frightened by that scenario, but mister Trump politely declined

(21:09):
mister Putin, the diplomat said. In another odd interlude, mister
Trump was overheard on an open microphone telling President Emmanuel
mccron of France. I think he wants to make a
deal for me. Do you understand that, as crazy as
it sounds, mister Macron may have more experienced than any
Western leader with the frustrations of negotiating with mister Putin.

(21:31):
He spent early twenty twenty two flying back and forth
from Moscow to sit across a long table from the
Russian president in a marathon ultimately fruitless quest to talk
him out of invading in Ukraine. Yet on Monday, mister
Macron was scrupulously polite and upbeat about mister Trump's prospects
for succeeding where he had failed. Your President indeed is

(21:52):
very confident about the capacity he has to get this
deal done, which is good news for all of us,
he said. In an interview with NBC News. On Tuesday,
he struck a darker tone, telling a French broadcaster l
CI that mister Putin was an ogre who needed to
eat Russia's neighbors to survive. Mister mc crown also has
plenty of experience dealing with the ups and downs of

(22:14):
mister Trump, having come into office four months after his
first inauguration. A military parade on the Champsylyses in two
thousand and seventeen dazzled mister Trump, who crossed wires over
Israel and Gaza at a Group seven Group of Seven
meeting in Canada in June, left him complaining that a
manual is always wrong. On Monday, the French President followed

(22:36):
a time tested script in placating his host. European leaders
have figured out that Trump playbook and are playing it well,
said much Dava Rahman, an expert on Europe at the
political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. Europe now clearly has a
seat at the table, indeed many seats at the table,
he added, noting that even the European Commission, a long

(22:57):
time bugbear from mister Trump, represented by its president Ursula
von Ursula von der Lean. Mister Rahman said the leaders
not only handled mister Trump well, but also presented a
coherent and consistent approach in dealing with him. While mister
Mertz and mister Macrom both raised the importance of a ceasefire,

(23:19):
neither pressed it to the point that it antagonized mister
Trump or opened fishers in their unified front. We were
well prepared and well coordinated, mister Mertz, told reporters after
the meeting, we also represented the same viewpoints. I think
that really pleased the American President in this sense that
he noticed that we Europeans are speaking with one voice here.

(23:40):
Prime Minister Kyr Starmer of Britain, who has spearheaded Europe's
efforts to try to build the multinational peacekeeping force for Ukraine,
emphasized mister Trump's openness to an American role in that effort.
He said it was also clear now that no peace
deal would be negotiated over mister Zelenski's head. That is
a recognition of the principle that on some of these issues,

(24:02):
whether its territory or the exchange of prisoners were the
very serious issue of the return of children, that is
something where Ukraine must be at the table, said mister
Starmer before he returned to an interrupted family vacation in Scotland.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children were abducted and deported
into Russia during the war, leading to often frantic searches

(24:23):
by their parents. For Europe's leaders, these facts underline how
much has changed since they gathered in London in March
after mister Trump's explosive first meeting with mister Zelenski. There
they contemplated a future in which the United States seemed
determined to forsake its post World War II role as
a guaranteur of peace in Europe. Since then, NATO's members,

(24:44):
prodded by mister Trump, have pledged increases in their military budgets.
Britain and France have aligned doctrines for the use of
their nuclear arsenals. Britain and Germany signed a mutual defense treaty,
while the European Union has set up a funding mechanism
to allow members to borrow to meet their larger defense commitments.
And yet, diplomats and analysts warned the fate of the

(25:07):
Transatlantic Alliance still hangs in the balance, dependent on an
American President who was uncharacteristically polite to mister Zelenski and
his European guests on Monday, but could shift his tone
on a dime, particularly after his next encounter with mister Puden.
While President Trump proved effective in convincing NATO allies to
commit to a historic increase in defense spending, mister Burns,

(25:29):
the former and NATO ambassador, said he has failed to
lead on the greatest threat to the future of the
alliance a vengeful and violent Vladimir Putin. The next article
from the front page of today's edition is entitled economic
data has taken a dark turn. That doesn't mean a
crash is near by, Lydia de Pilis. At the moment,

(25:53):
the American economy feels a little bit like a hot
August afternoon. The air is heavy and still, as lightning
flashes on the horizon. The storm could sweep through and
leave destruction in its wake. It could set in for
a brief drizzle, or it could pass by in the
distance and take its fury elsewhere. In this very humid metaphor,
the electricity in the sky is the steep tariffs that

(26:16):
President Trump has now imposed on most goods coming into
the United States. It's also his strict immigration curves, mass
firings of government employees, and the pullback in government spending.
Economists have been waiting for that multifaceted storm system to
start showing up in the economic data. The signs are
now unmistakable, but the severity of the impact remains unclear.

(26:39):
It's a really tough call, said James Eggelhoff, chief US
economist with BNP Paribas a International Bank. He thinks the
most likely scenario is that the economy is going through
a soft patch rather than entering a deep procession. What
we are looking for in a cyclical downturn is a
change in corporate behavior that they have lost confidence in
the expansion are getting more risk averse, said mister Mister

(27:03):
Agahoff said, they pull back on employment and they reduce hiring.
Thus far, we haven't seen this shift. Plenty of indicators
suggest inflation in the labor market are headed in the
wrong direction. After slowly sinking back to close to normal levels,
price growth has sped up again, particularly in categories of
goods that are heavily imported and now steeply tariffed. A

(27:25):
measure of wholesale prices jumped to the highest level since
November twenty twenty two. Spending has held up, particularly among
higher income consumers, according to credit card data analyzed by
Bank of America, but that could be an illusion, as
people pay more for the same items were stock up
to get ahead of tariffs kicking in. Cally Locklair, the

(27:45):
president of the Maryland Retailers Alliance, said her members had
noticed customers accelerating their purchases to take advantage of discounts
and sales tax holidays, knowing that price increases are probably
around the corner. Shoppers are very uncertain about what tariffs
could mean. Miss Locklaar said because of this uncertainty in

(28:06):
the market, consumers were spending a lot more in July
to start back to school early to mitigate some of this.
Economists are not surprised that tariffs are taking a while
to filter into sticker prices. Mister Trump's policies have been macurial.
Sky high duties on Chinese goods have come down, while
those on Brazilian imports have jumped to fifty percent. Large

(28:27):
categories have been exempted, like some electronics. Tariffs on others
such as semiconductors and pharmaceuticals have been threatened but not
yet imposed. For the past several months. Importers have also
been able to mitigate the impact by bringing in inventory
ahead of the tariffs, but for many countries, particularly those
in Southeast Asia, that window has closed. To understand why,

(28:49):
consider what Elizabeth Sofer is dealing with. Ten years ago,
she founded a company that makes fitted sheets with zippers
to make them easier to put on beds. She had
big plans to expand this year with factory relationships in Israel, Bangladesh,
and China. As mister Trump imposed and delayed his tariffs
on nearly every country, Miss Sofer was able to restock

(29:11):
her warehouse in Denver without busting her budget. She hasn't
raised prices yet and instead has been absorbing input duties,
including forty percent on chets coming from China, by spending
less on digital advertising. We're high priced as it is
and just don't feel that we have much room to
pass this on at this moment, at least, said Miss Sofer,

(29:31):
who has ten employees and contractors. That will change, however,
as shipments arrive from Bangladesh with thirty five percent tariffs
and from Israel with fifteen percent tariffs, we would raise
our prices to hit a level of profitability that makes
us sustainable for sure, Miss Sofer said. We're kind of
hanging out there waiting to see what the total is
going to be for us. It's not just American importers.

(29:54):
Foreign manufacturers have also been hesitant to commit to expansions
in the United States, despite some high high profile announcements
by the White House, because of uncertainty around what kind
of tariffs they might have to pay on imported materials
and what obstacles they might face exporting to other countries.
Investment in factories and similar buildings has dropped in twenty

(30:15):
twenty five after a surge the past few years. John Loomis,
president of the Upstate South Carolina Alliance, speaks often with
foreign executives interested in his region, which has attracted companies
like BMW and Michelin to set up factories. His conversations
lately have not been promising. The US has always been

(30:36):
seen as the most stable place to make an investment
and also the best market in the world to produce
and sell, mister Loomis said, now I think we are
seeing differences in that perception. That kind of hesitance, when
expanded across the economy, adds up to a frustrating picture
for workers looking for new opportunities or young people looking
for their first job. Economists understanding of the health of

(31:00):
the labor market shifted sharply in early August, when the
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported large downward revisions to job
creation over the past several months. For those without jobs,
the outlook is difficult. The share of workers who have
been out of work are more than six from more
than six weeks is now at the highest level since
November twenty twenty one. However, layoffs are by no means spiking.

(31:24):
The talent consulting firm LHH reported that its career transition
business was up about five percent since last year, but
that's mostly because of increased displacement on account of artificial
intelligence as companies find ways to automate both middle management
and entry level tasks. It's not like profits are dragging
in most sectors. I don't see a recession happening, said

(31:46):
John Morgan, lhh's president of Career Transition and Mobility. Most
of the cuts that we see are not economically driven.
One thing very likely keeping the unemployment rate tame is
mister Trump's far reaching drive to reduce the number of
immigrant workers in the United States. That is draining the
supply of workers at the same time that labour demands fades.

(32:08):
The flow across the southern border has essentially stopped. The
White House has been steadily terminating programs that extended legal
status to people from war torn countries, which JP Morgan
estimates could result in one point one million fewer people
participating in the workforce in the coming months. It's difficult
to determine whether job growth is being dragged down because

(32:29):
employers need fewer workers or because they can't find people
to fill positions. In this case, it's likely that both
forces are at play, and this is where the two
big variables in the economy, employment and prices start to
interact with each other if the employment rate. If the
unemployment rate remains where it has been for more than
a year, between four and four point two percent, there

(32:52):
is more risk that tariff driven price increases could turn
into persistent inflation. With enough employment options, workers feel they
have have the leverage to bargain for big enough pay
increases to cover their rising costs. Aji Rajataska, Global Chairmen
of Research at Barclay's, doesn't think the Federal Reserve needs
to fret about an upward price spiral too much at

(33:14):
this point. If they worry about the labor market now,
which should not be about it overheating even with so
many potential workers disappearing, because it does seem clear that
we are not creating a lot of jobs, mister Rajahashka said.
The concern is that tariff driven inflation meets a labor
market that causes wages to skyrocket. There's no guarantee that

(33:36):
a weak labor market would keep prices in check. However,
the worst outcome, sometimes referred to as stagflation, describes a
situation in which prices spike, companies layoff workers, and consumption craters.
In that scenario, the Fed would be left with two
bad choices. It could cut interest rates to shore up
the economy and risk stroking inflation, or let the labor

(33:59):
market flounder while getting inflation under control. The economy isn't
there yet, but companies are treading very carefully anticipating that
things might get worse. And a survey of mid sized
businesses by the National Center for the Middle Market, a
research group housed at Ohio State University, respondents said they
were anticipating the lowest revenue and employment growth of the

(34:20):
post pandemic period. Mark Valentino, present of Business Banking at
Citizens Bank, said mister Trump's policies would really start to
have an impact in the second half of the year.
Now things are getting real. In the next four to
six months will be a telltale sign of whether or
not these tariffs truly hurt the economy. In bigger ways
than we currently see, mister Valentino said. The stock market

(34:43):
may be at record highs, he noted, but it largely
reflects the fortunes of a few large firms driven by
exuberance around artificial intelligence. That kind of optimism is not
what we're seeing on main street right now, he said.
The next article from the front page of today's edition
is entitled the politics of Crime are Perilous for Left

(35:05):
and Right Alike by Sheela Dewan. It was an object
lesson in the politics of crime. After President Trump called
Washington a city of crime, bloodshed, bedlamen squalor, and some
in the National Guard in the FBI to patrol its streets,
his opponents on the left reacted with righteous indignation. They

(35:25):
called the move a cynical move to exploit a crime
crisis that they say does not exist and a city
where violent crime is at a thirty year low. But
whatever the statistics say, polls consistently show that many people
in the nation's capital, including in communities that typically vote democratic,
are deeply concerned about public safety. That makes downplaying street

(35:47):
crime politically perilous. Mister Trump's opponents had walked into a trap.
But it's one that Republicans had also faced. Only a
few days earlier. A succession of high profile shootings in
broad daylight on Park Avenue outside the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention at a target parking lot in Texas
drew attention in sparked anxiety this summer. Each led to

(36:10):
familiar calls for assault weapon bands and other gun safety
laws from the political left. It is a message that
politicians on the right have long struggled to rebuke, even
though the statistics are on their side. Mass shootings make
up a tiny portion of gun crimes, and recent data
from the Gun Violence Archives show that such shootings are

(36:31):
falling nearly to pre pandemic levels. There were well over
six hundred mass shootings annually during the peak pandemic years.
More than halfway through twenty twenty five, there have been
two hundred and seventy one. Statistics are far from the
only factor in how people feel. Violence and crime can
provoke intensely personally emotional reactions, helping people decide where to

(36:52):
live in, whom to vote for, and individual incidents can
always be used to score political points. Arguably, any attack
is one too many. The attempted carjacking of a former
Doze employee and his date apparently pushed mister Trump to
make good on his threats to take over the Capitol's
police department. Polling shows that Americans believe that crime is

(37:14):
getting worse even when it is getting better. But that
is not simply because the public is easily swayed by
social media posts and crime saturated local news, said Adam Gelb,
the President and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice,
a policy think tank. There are other factors, like how
brazen is the crime, how random, how brutal. A shooting

(37:34):
during a Fourth of July parade or a Super Bowl
victory celebration feels far more threatening than one on a
street corner in the dead of night. The result is
that data alone may not assage people's concerns, even as
politicians on each side try to score rhetorical points without
confronting the complaceties of the problem. Just because the numbers

(37:56):
are down, mister Ghelp said, doesn't mean the numbers are good.
Inshah Raman is the director of VIA Action, which works
to improve criminal justice policies and decrease incarceration, and uses
public opinion surveys to help tailor its message. The problem
with Democrats is when Trump says crime is out of control,
and they're like, no, violent crime is at a thirty

(38:17):
year low. She said, It's like, are you gaslighting me?
Why are you gaslighting me? I just heard gunshots out
of my window yesterday. That, she added, is why pulling
out the crime card is such a good ploy for Republicans.
There may be much to criticize about the president's tactics
in Washington, said Jens O. Ludwig, the director of the
University of Chicago Crime Lab, but attacking the president's diagnosis

(38:42):
is another story. In a Washington Post Shar School poll
of DC residence last May, one in five said that
crime was the city's biggest problem, the highest share for
any problem listed. Surely Democrats do not want to say
we are thrilled that Washington, d c. Has a murder
rate twenty five five times London's and you know, fifty

(39:02):
or one hundred times tokyos, doctor Ludwig said. Down Playing
crime also risks doing damage to the Democrat's brand as
the party that cares about racial disparities and vulnerable communities.
The real problem of violence in Washington d C. Is
black and brown people being shot and killed at all
the time, he added, so the Democrats don't want to

(39:23):
be there saying this is all fine, It's totally fine.
In recent interviews, people in some of the city's most
dangerous neighborhoods, where the majority of residents are black, said
they did not appreciate the president's tactics, but they also
wanted more attention given to the problem of violence near
their homes. One twenty twenty three reports sponsored by the

(39:43):
city noted that more than ninety four percent of Washington
shooting victims were black. Americans are fairly evenly split on
which party handles gun violence better. The issue does not
seem to have hurt Republicans at the ballot box in
quite the same way that crime has sometimes hurt Democrats. Ultimately,
the disconnect between politics and facts can divert the search

(40:04):
for solutions. Mister Ludwig said that building a crime policy
to satisfy a political coalition is a far cry from
pulling the most effective measures from a market place of ideas.
If you are viewing things to the lens of scoring
partisan points, that makes it very hard to acknowledge that
the other side might be on to something, mister Ludveig
said on the issue of crime, polling shows that Republicans

(40:27):
are more trusted than Democrats, but a sizeable number of
Americans trust neither party. There is, however, broad support among voters.
Miss Ramin said for addressing crime by expanding drug and
mental health treatment and access to jobs, housing, and education. Increasingly, voters,
more than politicians, seem to understand that the issue is complex,

(40:49):
requiring both short and long term solutions, she said. Mister
Trump promised to not only take over the city's police operations,
but filled the potholes, beautify the capitol, and room move
homeless people from the streets. He left many logistical questions
unanswered about how he might accomplish those aims, but experts
said that any success at improving the environment would likely

(41:11):
prove popular because disorder contributes to a fear of crime.
In past years, city leaders in places like New York
sought to clean up streets and crack down on disorder
in minor offenses that contributed to a sense of danger
and chaos. New efforts hark back to the original premise
of the broken windows theory before it became synonymous with

(41:32):
zero tolerance policing that unchecked disorder invites criminal behavior. Baltimore
officials have worked on beautifying vacant lots, resulting in a
significant decrease in criminal activity according to comparative studies, in
part by attracting more people. In turn served as what
they famed urban theorist Jane Jacobs called eyes on the Street.

(41:56):
Such projects have shifted more attention to urban design as
a form of crime, can sidestepping arguments about whether it
is better to lock up criminals or treat the causes
of crime. They point to an unclaimed middle ground for
savvy politicians who want to acknowledge the problem, put aside
the clash between facts and feelings, and focus on what works.

(42:17):
It's hard to imagine that the right way to solve
any problem is to going to align one hundred percent
with the talking ports of points of any political party,
mister lud Big said. The next article from the front
page of today's edition is entitled are marathons and extreme
running linked to colon cancer? By Ronny Karen Robbin. The

(42:40):
three patients should have been portraits of health. They were young, lean,
and physically active, unusually active. In fact, two regularly ran
one hundred mile ultra marathons, and one had completed thirteen
half marathons in a single year. By the time they
came to see doctor Timothy Cannon, all three had advanced
colon cancer. Was mystified, the oldest of them was to forty,

(43:02):
and none had any known risk factors. The doctor couldn't
help wondering if extreme running might have played a role.
So doctor Cannon, an oncologist with Enova Shar Cancer in Fairfax, Virginia,
launched a study recruiting one hundred marathon and ultra marathon
runners aged thirty five to fifty to undergo a kolonoscopy.
The results were staggering. Almost half the participants had pollops

(43:27):
and fifteen percent had advanced endyinomas likely to become cancerous.
The rate of advanced in donomas was much higher than
that scene among adults in their late forties in the
general population, which ranges from four point five percent to
six percent according to recent studies. The figure among extreme
runners was even higher than the twelve percent rate among

(43:48):
Alaska Natives, who are unusually prone to colon cancer. The
research was presented to an American Society of a clinical
oncology conference, but has not yet been published in a
medical journal. I was surprised you would think running is
super healthy, said Laura Lynnville, forty seven, of Alexandria, Virginia,
a long time marathon runner who participated in the study.

(44:10):
She learned she had seven polyps, including some so large
that she had to undergo additional procedures. Running is typically
associated with better body mass and lower stress and lots
of other positives. You never hear it's bad for you,
said Miss Lynnville, who took up ultra marathon running for
a while during the pandemic. She has no intention of
giving up marathons, but will get checked off and for

(44:32):
signs of colon cancer, she said. The new study comes
amid heightened concerns about a rising colon and rectal cancer
rates among adults under fifty, a population that historically has
had a low risk of cancer. Other older adults still
make up the vast majority of those diagnosed with colon cancer,
but the increase in so called early onset colder rectal

(44:54):
cancer led in twenty twenty one to a change in
screening recommendations. The age for our first kolonoscopy was lowered
to forty five from fifty for those at average risk.
The rise in cholorectal cancer among younger adults has mystified experts.
Physical inactivity and rising rates of obesity are frequently blamed
one reason. His very fit, lean patience struck doctor Cannon

(45:17):
as worth investigating. You never want to give people an
excuse not to exercise, because by and large, we have
bigger problems from people not exercising enough, said doctor Cannon,
who ran the New York City Marathon himself in twenty ten.
But I do believe, after what I've seen from my
patients and what we found here, that extreme exercise may
increase the risk of this cancer. Several doctors interviewed for

(45:42):
the story went out of their way to emphasize that
most of the young colon cancer patients they see are
not marathon runners, but experts said doctor Cannon's work was
provocative and called for more research. It tells us there's
a signal here, said doctor David Lieberman, Professor Emeritus at
Oregon Health and Science Universe. We wouldn't have expected these

(46:02):
rates of high risk and anomas, which are cancer precursor
lesions in an age group like this, doctor David Rubin,
chief of gastro intronology and director of the Inflammatory Bowel
Disease Center at the University of Chicago, so the study
was important but limited. It lacked a control arm consisting
of similar young adults who were not long distance runners,

(46:24):
he noted, and the family histories of colon cancer among
the marathoners were not entirely known. Its possible exercising didn't
cause the problem, but was in fact the reason they
became long distance runners because someone dear to them had cancer,
doctor Rubin suggested, and the endurance runners may have missed
tell tell signs that can signal colon cancer, like bloody stools,

(46:46):
bowel urgency, and diarrhea. Runners often developed gastro intestinal symptoms
that they dismiss as benigns, so called runners trots. For example,
the symptoms can be caused by ischemic colitis, a condition
that develops when blood flow to the colon is temporarily
reduced as it is redirected to muscles in other parts

(47:07):
of the body, like runner's legs. The cells in the
colon don't get enough oxygen, which can cause damage in swelling,
but it is often trans in and improves on its own.
One hypothesis is that chronic inflammation in a runner's body
leads to repeated cycles of cell damage and repair. This
may allow mutations to creep in during faulty cell divisions,

(47:29):
precipitating cancer. Doctor Reuben noted, however, there is no evidence
of people with ischamic colitis or at greater risk for
colon cancer. Experts urge runners who experience symptoms like stomach
crants or loose bout or bloody stools to see a
physician for an evaluation. I wouldn't necessarily tell people to
stop running. I would tell them to run, but this

(47:51):
reinforces the importance of listening to your body, said doctor
Eric Christensen, Assistant Professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins's Square
Fool of Medicine, who was not involved with the study.
If you have symptoms, say something, even if people look
up to you as a picture of health, he said,
this doesn't fit our stereotype, but there may be an
underlying trade off when it comes to these extreme measures

(48:14):
of endurance. One of the patients who inspired doctor Cannon's
study was Josh Wathington, a geographer who ran two or
three ultra marathons a month. Any race longer than a
standard twenty six point two mile marathon is end quote
ultra marathon. One year, mister Wythington participated in a week
long event called the Savage Seven, running seven marathons in

(48:36):
seven days. He had often had bloody stools and occasionally
abnormal blood test results, but didn't think anything of it,
according to his wife, who said he dismissed the symptoms
as benign side effect of endurance running. He was diagnosed
with colon cancer in twenty eighteen, when he was in
his late thirties. Mister Wythington died in twenty twenty one

(48:57):
at forty one. The other two patients who came to
see doctor Cannon, including a woman triathlete, have also died.
He didn't drink, he didn't smoke, He was vegan. He
was always fit, said mister Walthington's widow, who asked not
to be named because she felt the focus should be
on her husband. We notice, looking back how many things
we brushed off. But you ignore signs you shouldn't because

(49:18):
you think you're doing the right thing. The next article
from the front page of today's edition is entitled why
Putin thinks Russia has the upper hand by Anna Toney, Kermanev,
Josh Holder, Paul Sane and Oleg matstef Vladimir V. Putin
exceeded confidence. Sitting back surrounded by foreign dignitaries, the Russian

(49:41):
president explained the futility of Ukrainian resistance. Russia had the
advantage on the battlefield, as he saw it, and by
rejecting his demands, Ukraine risked even more for peace. Keep
at it, then keep at it. It will only get worse,
mister Putin said it at an economic forum in June,
as he taunted the Ukrainian government. Wherever a Russian soldier

(50:01):
sets his foot its hours, he added a smirk, animating
face his self assured is borne out of the Russian
military's resurgence in the depths of twenty twenty two, his
under equipped forces were disoriented, decimated, and struggling to counter
Ukraine's hit and run tactics and precision guided weapons. Instead
of abandoning the invasion, mister Putin through the full strength

(50:24):
of the Russian state behind the war, re engineering the
military and the economy with a singular goal of crushing Ukraine.
In his push, the country revamped recruitment, weapons production, and
front line tactics. This is now a war of attrition
favoring Russia, which has mobilized more men in arms from
Ukraine and its western backers. While their casualties are mounting.

(50:46):
Russian forces are edging forward across most of the seven
hundred and fifty mile front, strengthening mister Putin's resolve to
keep fighting until he gets the peace deal he wants.
Ukraine and its allies hope to hold out long enough
to exhaust mister Petton's forces. In World War One, the
German army had made it within about forty miles of
Paris before it collapsed. The German Empire capitulated and disintegrated

(51:10):
months later. There are warning signs for Russia. Its elite
infantry units have been wiped down, its military plans depend
on foreign components and dwindling Soviet erastocks. Its economy shows cracks.
Mister Putin figures that he can manage the wartime pressures
longer than Ukraine and can secure a peace deal that
would ensure his legacy. He has repeatedly demanded four regions

(51:33):
that Moscow has claimed to have annexed, and sought a
deal that blocked Ukraine from joining NATO and limits the
size of its military. If talks with mister with President
Trump in Alaska this week don't lead to such a deal,
mister Putin has signaled that he is willing to fight on,
using force to achieve what diplomacy cannot. I have stated
Russia's goals, mister Putin told reporters this month, when asked

(51:55):
if Russia was willing to compromise, these conditions undoubtedly remain
the same. Speaking by phone from a hospital, a Russian
sergeant named Vladislav rattled off the money he was waiting
to receive after he lost his foot stormy Ukrainian trenches
in January. The equivalent of sixty four hundred dollars from
the local governor, twenty eight thousand, three hundred dollars from

(52:17):
the state insurance company, forty seven thousand dollars from the
Defense ministry. Then there's the veteran's monthly pension of one thousand,
one hundred dollars, enough for him to retire in his
home town in Western Russia at age thirty three. You
don't even need to work there with this money, said Vladislav, who,
like other Russian soldiers interviewed asked to publish only his
first name for security reasons. Vladislav said his monthly front

(52:41):
line salary had already allowed him to improve his family's
living standards in ways he said he would have been
impossible in his previous job at a sunflower oil plant,
where he earned three hundred dollars a month. He is
building a house for his parents and upgrading his in
his girlfriend's cars. He has focused on providing a future
for his children. Whatever they needed, I bought it for them,

(53:02):
Vladislav said in July. Whatever they required, I gave it
to them. Hundreds of thousands of well paid volunteers like
Vladislav has transformed the Russian Army. Russia's early military disasters
in twenty twenty two decimated the ranks of career servicemen
at the corps of the invasion, and the Ukrainians exploited
the weakness. A September counter offensive that of that year

(53:25):
broke through Russian lines, nearly thwarting the invasion. Mister Putin
took drastic steps to avoid defeat. He announced Russia's first
mobilization since World War II, officially drafting three hundred thousand men.
He ramped up presidential pardons and payments to enlisted convicts,
bringing an estimated one hundred thousand men from Russian jails

(53:46):
to the front. These measures stabilized the battle field, but
at a political cost. The draft caused the biggest spike
of social discontent in Russia in years. Hundreds of thousands
of men fled the country, But the six sass of
the prison campaign gave the Kremlin a blueprint for a
less coercive recruitment strategy, one based on money and appeals

(54:07):
to manhood. The government significantly raised soldier's salaries, introduced lucrative
sign up bonuses, and rolled out myriad other financial benefits.
Kremlin propaganda presented military service as a unique chance for
men at the margins of Russian society to show their
work by becoming bread winners. Today, Russia recruits about one

(54:28):
thousand soldiers a day. The figure has stayed broadly stable
since twenty twenty three, and it is about twice as
high as Ukraine's. Russia's recruitment strategy has depended on the
country's economic resilience. Even under the most comprehensive sections in
modern history, Russia continues replenishing its war chest from exports

(54:48):
of oil, natural gas, coal and gold. The reliance on
volunteers has benefited mister Putin Politically. Middle class Russians have
largely turned out the war. Tuned out the wars, fears
of a general draft have receded, removing the biggest threat
of protests. The larger the payout, the less sympathy fallen

(55:09):
or injured soldiers received from society, and the less likely
are the protests against the war, said Janis Cluge, a
Russian expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
Russia's Ministry of Defense did not respond or request for comment.
The military strong recruitment masks underlying problems. Many of Russia's

(55:30):
best soldiers were killed early in the war. About two
hundred thirty thousand Russian soldiers have died since the invasion,
according to estimates based on obituaries collected by the independent
Russian news outlet Media Zona and BBC News Russia. Their
replacements are older with less military experience. The meeting age
of a Russian Russian souldier killed in Ukraine in the

(55:52):
first year first months of the war was about twenty eight.
It rose to thirty eight by August of this year.
According to Media Zona, it was riff wrap the homeless
from train stations, alcoholics, men running from the law. Said
another Russian soldier, Vladimir, describing his enlistment at a large
Moscow recruiting center in twenty twenty four, the health check

(56:13):
was fictional. The shrinking recruitment pool means that regional officials
have to keep increasing payments to meet enlisted quotas, straining
local budgets and destabilizing the broader economy. The Northern Rush
of Marie L has spent more paying bonuses to new
recruits this year than it has on health care, according
to an analysis of Russian budget data by mister Kluge,

(56:36):
the Berlin based analyst. This concludes the reading of The
New York Times for to Day. Your reader for to
Day has been Chris Greco. If you have any questions, comments,
or suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call
us at eight five nine four two two six three
nine zero. Thank you for listening, and now please stay

(56:57):
tuned for continued programming on Radio I