Ukrainian General Speaks, U.S. Air Quality, Paris Police Killing
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How will the mercenary rebellion and russia affect a counter offensive in ukraine?

Not much according to the ukraine, a thought .

in the army stew. And this is from npr news. Smoke from canadian fires is again blanketing some U.

S. Cities, creating some of the worst air quality in the world. We're number one, and a heat wave can make the air quality even worse.

And anger over a police killing is viewing protest across brains. Demonstrators are setting fires and shooting fireworks at police after a seventeen year old was shot during a traffic stop. Stay with us will give you the news. You need to start your day.

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Today, we begin with perfection.

Lai, we always begin.

I mean, obviously, Steve, but i'm talking about a perfect game in baseball.

The bingo haron is the yankees pitch who threw the perfect game. He faced twenty seven battles and not a single one got on base major, a baseballs perfect game in eleven years and the first under the new pitch. Clark.

in addition to sports, though we are following the news, russia's president is a certain control after a failed .

uprising last weekend. Some have not been seen in public, and that is fed questions about who may be under suspicion or under arrest for what they knew with a merchant mute.

And all this has been closely watched in neighbor in ukraine. And yi is in v and met a ukrainian general who is not under arrest. greg? Who is he? Yes.

I I spoke with general Victor azara. He is the chief adviser to ukraine's top general in new ZARA own background is very interesting. He's sixty one now, but as a Young officer, he spent nearly a decade in the soviet army, so some of his fellow officers at that time are now senior figures in the russian military, so is waging war against former comrades and arms. They all were the same uniform when they begin their military careers in the nineteen eighties.

okay. So he clearly has some insights into the russian military that he's fighting. Does he think this mutiny in russia is going to change the dynamics on the battlefield? ukraine?

And so he's looking at IT really just from a military perspective and that since he doesn't really think so, he says the mercenary group lit by gigantic progression, were the deciding factor in this fight for the eastern town of box move that lasted for many months. But after the vigor mercenary captured the town, the augar forces pulled LED back, saying they needed to regroup, and they handed the town over to the regular .

ruction army. Let's have a sten right sheen.

So he saying here that the the vaginal forces retreated to camps back from the front lines during the far east view train voda y more as an attack force, not a defensive force, and therefore they're not expected or weren't expected to play a crucial role now that russia is mostly on the defensive, trying to stop this ukrainian offensive.

so he, a huge impact. How did the general describe the current state of ukraine's offensive?

So he said, all this new equipment that the U. S. And nato have been sending make ukraine a more powerful army capable of an offensive like this.

But he was also willing to point out ukraine's disadventure ges. He said, ukraine has lost many of its best, most experiences fighters. It's relying much more heavily on troops that were recently called up.

They have limited training and no combat experience. And he also had, based on his background, don't underestimate the russians. They have deep preserves and are very well entrenched.

Now you told me a little bit about who he is, his history, but I want more about his personal ory. He was a soviet military. R and now he's fighting former colleagues.

How does he feel about that? sure. So when the soviet union broke up, ukraine became independent, and he decided to return to his native ukraine. He was a battle on commander, and before he headed home, he gathered his troops on his last day. And then at this point, our conversation, he switch to english.

And I invited, uh, my colic officers, surgeons from the, my bottle an and I said one things that never in future we saw each other for the signs of our guns.

He hoped they had never see each other through the sides of the guns. But that's exactly what's happening now.

And pis, greg mary in key, thank you for your reporting.

Sure thing.

Smoke and heat are making IT unhealthy to breathe in parts of the U.

S. yeah. The heat wave in the southwest to spread part midwest and east coast are getting smoke from canada's wildfires.

And npr health correspondent alison aubry is joining us this morning to discuss just how unhealthy this all is. Good morning.

Good morning. okay.

So we've seen images from chicago and detroit now smoke again in new york and in the dc area. How bad is this for people's health? sure.

Well, in the chicago area, the air quality index is hovering above two hundred, which is very unhealthy. In washington, D. C.

Right now, it's about one sixty five, also unhealthy. I spoke to doctor ravi kl. hand. He's a perminov gist at northwestern medicine in chicago. He told me, with the heavy smoke and haze, these tiny my ute particles from the forest fires can get into people's lungs, and this can trigger a flare up for people with asthma or chronic lung disease.

And associations are pretty clear in the medical literature that if you and hail a bunch of particles, particulate matter, there's a systemic inflammation ory reaction in the body that can actually do things like trigger heart attacks and strokes.

He says subtitle adult should limit outdoor exposure, consider masking when going out, and invest in high quality filters or area purifiers for their homes. Bottom line, he tells his patients to limit outdoor activity when air quality index hits one hundred. And right now, in many places from chicago to dc, it's much higher than that.

You can check out the air quality in your own town at the website. Air now dot. Gov.

okay. So what about people who don't have asma, chronic lung disease, generally healthy people. Is the smoke and heat a concern for people who don't have any of these conditions?

Well, short term exposure to the particulates from the forest fires is manageable, doctors tell me. And air quality is the post to start improving tomorrow in many part of the country. But doctor cohen says, when the air quality index is at two hundred, is the equivalent of smoking about a half pack of cigarettes, and that's not likely to harm someone one time. But what if these exposures keep coming and coming? He asks if .

the frequency of those days increase, or if the exposure occurs when the person is Younger, spends more time out towards, then IT probably has more long term impacts on health and creates know a true public health problem that we need to understand.

He's actually starting a big national study to examine how smoke and other environmental factors can impact millennial LG health.

okay. So now that we've discussed all the unhealthy veness of the smoke in the er, let's talk about the heat wave and how unhealthy that is, which has been moving north and east, does the heat combined with the wild's fire smoke mean even more work for our lungs?

Will the high heat can trigger ground level ozone or small g which is a gas that is harmful to our help? Smog forms when two types of air pollution volatile er again at compounds and oxx ides of nitrogen, which come from tail pipe and smoke stacks react with each other in the heat and sunlight and doctor cow hand says .

this can be dangerous to ground level ozone when inhaled by people is quite the imaging to the respiratory tract. The respiratory epidium has a very high acceptability to a injury and a blaming ory actions from ground level ozone.

So when you have heat, wildfire, smoke, yet two things that can trigger respiratory problems, and the fine particulates from the smoke, the ground level from the ozone in the heat, when conditions are right for both to happen at the same time, IT stands to reason. This cannot be .

good for our health. Pais.

Allison Albert, thanks. Thank you.

People in france are protesting a police shooting. An officer shot and killed a seventeen year old boy.

The officer had stopped the teenager just outside a paris for a traffic violation, police said. The officer shot in self defence after the teen rammed his car into the vehicle. Video posted on social media showed the cop shooting into that vehicle, which triggered such a strong reaction that president, a manual micro called a crisis meeting today.

reported rebeca assen, is in paris on has been following this story. Good morning. Rebeca, good morning. So tell us about the protest overnight.

Well, clashes actually first erupted on tuesday night in the paris suburb of notah, which is where the incident took place. But last night is where we really saw the protests start to spread. Other parts of the country city, like the southern city of to lose or leal in the north, thirty five people were arrested in paris alone, and you saw vehicles and buildings being set on fire.

Then you have demonstrators shooting fireworks and throwing stones at. Police could then responded by spring tear gas to disperse the crowds. And the government has deployed two thousand police officers in an around paris alone to maintain order.

And what is the government i'm saying about the shooting?

Well, there was this crisis me today, as was mentioned, but the government has acted quite quickly as to say, to condemn the situation. Here's french, a man of micron, reacting to what .

happened. So he, the tree said, so he saying.

what happened was unexplainable and inexcusable and prime minister lizabeth born also said, the police officer who fired the shot clearly didn't comply with the rules. And I should point out that this sort of really quite quick and quite blunt reaction is unusual for the government, which has historically have been quite cautious about criticizing the police.

interesting. So clearly they understand this is struck a national nerve. Or what about the family of the seventeen year old who was killed if they said anything?

yeah. So the boy's mother has posted a video on tiktok calling for a revolt for her son. And the family has also organized a silent march this afternoon in the square where he was killed.

I want understand what the protesters are demanding, and do protesters see this killing as part of a larger pattern in france?

I think what they are trying to do is seize this moment as an opportunity to open a wider debate about what they see as systemic police abuse, particularly in the working class suburbs. There's long been complaints of police brutality and discrimination in these areas, especially against lower income households and racal minorities. Last year, there were thirteen people killed after being stopped for traffic violations.

And people in france have called out this kind of thing before when that happened, and we saw some protest in the wake of George lloyd's killing in twenty twenty. But this one is especially with this video. IT just hits closer to home. And you have some lawmakers expressing concern, saying they're worried about police brutality in france, mirrors what they've seen happening in the us. So I think we can expect not just more protest, but a wider conversation here about this issue.

Reporter rebeca rosman in paris, thank you. Rebeca, thank you. And that's a first for thursday, june to twenty th. I'm laa folded .

and i'm Steve and scape of first is produced by David west on a paradis monaro a and our editors are in the chat taha jane Green halls, Michael Sullivan, analysts worthy, our technical directors that common with engineering support from stay the abbott joins tomorrow.

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