Cluster Bombs For Ukraine, OK For Alzheimer's Drug, Progressive Pressure On Biden
11:55 Share

Officials sell npr, the by administration is prepared to send cluster bombs to help fight the russian troops that are entrance in ukraine.

We're asking that why do some of america's closest allies .

think that's a bad idea that? And this is up first from .

interior news. bf.

Da says a drug .

to treat alzheimer has its full approval.

It's not a home, but IT may slow down progression of disease.

Green light for the could mean for hundreds of thousands of patients.

plus president guidance promises for big change met headwinds. Progressive democrats say .

he can still do more. The presence made a down payment, but he's got a fight. Like.

what does that mean for twenty twenty four? Stay with us will give you the new. You need to start your day.

This message comes from wise the APP for doing things in other currencies and spend a receive money internationally and always get the real time midmarket exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the wise APP today or visit wise that come teasing seas apply.

Hi, i'm rm tina ada li. From through line, electricity, internet cell service, all the things we rely on every day can be unreliable or inaccessible in an emergency. But through any storm crisis, radio is a lifeline. Support the resource that's here for you no matter what, give today and donate that N P R, that org.

Hi, i'm Kathy R C E O 和 N P。 R. Or we're guided by a bold mission to create a more informed public. Join us today by giving a donate about nvr, that org.

The bite .

administration is expected to announce today that IT will send a new weapon to ukraine, cluster bombs.

These cluster munitions have been run for decades, and they've been effective in combat, but they're also controversial, and many nations pledge not to use them. We were .

wondering why this is happening now. So we're joined by npr. National security correspondant grad miri in ukraine is capital of cave. great. Thanks so much for being here.

Sure thing.

The show. So could you just give us a short explanation of what cluster munitions are and why they're so controversial?

So a cluster bomb can be dropped from a plane, though the ukrainians would likely be firing them from the ground in an artillery shell. And while the the cluster bomb is in the air, IT breaks open and releases dozens or even hundreds of little bomblets. And this can be very effective when used against troops spread out over a big area, because there's not just one explosion.

All these little bomblets are intended to float over a vast space the size of a city blocker. So however some bombs are does, they don't detonate. They're small, they remain on the ground.

They can become emda just below the surface. So years later, after a wars over, civilians can walk through these areas and step on the bomblets, causing them to explode and inflicting ting injure or death. For this reason, human rights groups say they shouldn't be used, really, for the same reason they opposed landmines.

But have they already been used in this war?

Ah, yes, they have. Russia has used them extensively in ukrainy, to a lesser degree, according to research by human rights watch. And more than one hundred and twenty countries, including most nado members, pledge not to use them under a two thousand and eight convention.

But russia, ukraine in the us. Are not part of that agreement, and the us. Has used them in the past. I remember them as far back as the first us.

Warn iraq in one hundred and ninety one, IT look like a really bad golfer had left dozens of big divis all over with the course. And that instantly grabs your attention. Because when you saw this, you knew some unexploded bomblets were working nearby.

So, so why is this so important to ukraine and and why now?

Yeah, the main reason this seems to be happening now is ukraine iis pressing this major and it's running low on artillery shells. Ukraine is trying to break through russian lines in the east and the south, where the russian troops are deeply entrenched and the cluster communications could be a very valuable weapon, because you can hit a larger patch of territory with just one of these weapons compared to a conventional artillery y shell.

Us has a large supply of them on the shelf, so IT can presumably give them to ukraine pretty quickly. And us officials have told in npr that the dud rate has come down substantially. Um mine clearing group used to talk about rates of twenty percent more. The us says it'll only be sending those with a dud rate around two person less. Some critics, though, do question the Peter gans claim that the right is really this low.

great. We let ego. Can you give us a quick update on the status of ukrainy offensive .

yet the ukrainian military gave a very specific answer this week, said ukraine had retaken nine villages and sixty two square miles since the offensive began in a month ago. Now these figures are very little changed over the last week or or two, and it's much slower and more .

limited than many expected.

For the first time, the food and drug administration has given its full approval to a drug that is shown to slow down .

alzheimer disease. That means many more seniors will have access because medicare will pay for IT.

And here is john hamilton covers brain science and is here with us to tell us more about ic.

John.

good morning. Good morning. So what do people need to know most .

about this drug welfare starters? IT is called, can be the generic name is the cana mab. It's administered by intravenous infusion every other week. And when you give IT to people in the early stages of alzheimer's, IT appears to slow down the loss of memory and thinking by about twenty seven percent. Battle sounds pretty good, but this effect is really pretty modest.

And the question a lot of doctors have right now is whether this drug will really make a difference to most patients and their families. So I actually asked doctors. Sanja fashioned his a neurologist at university pencil. Here's what he said about the camp.

E it's not a home run. It's not something that's gonna. P the disease, a reversal. But IT may slow down progression of disease and may give people more meaningful or quality time with their families.

So how does the drug work? right?

So the kinda is what's known as a monoclonal. anybody. These are any bodies that are made in the lab, and they're programmed to go after a specific target in the body.

This drug is designed to find to remove a substance in the brain called Emily yid beta. In people with alzheimer's. Emily yid beat attends to form these climb s and eventually these sticky places they build up between brain cells. Scientists think that somewhere along the way in this process, something damages brain cells and leads to dementia. They think that can be worked by interfering with that process.

So the F, D, A has now given its full approval to this. Could you just sell us what exactly that means? And why does that matter?

So back in january, the fda gave that can be something quite and accelerated approval as a sort of a conditional approval that was based purely on its ability to remove Emily from the brain. Demond doctors could actually prescribe the drug, but medicare generally wouldn't pay for IT because the drug had not shown that IT had actually slowed down the disease. And by the way, drug is expensive.

That costs about twenty six thousand five hundred dollars a year. So now this full approval means the fda now believes the drug really does help patients and IT also means that medicare will pay. That is critical because medicare covers people sixty five and older, and in other words, were talking about the vast majority of people with alzheimer's.

So does that mean that everybody who qualifies is now going to be able to get this drug like I don't know tomorrow?

Well, not exactly. I mean, even with full approval, many of these people still won't have access to the camby. This drug is only for people who are in the very early stages of altima and have elevated levels of avoid. So even with that restriction though, this drug could potentially reach a million people or more. And unfortunately, IT has side effects.

What are the side of actually talking .

about the can be, can cos bleeding or swelling in the brain? That seems to be related to the process of removing imploid, which can actually cause information. So in other words, the process that is helping their brain can also cause damage. So when people first start taking the drug, they are required to get period brain scans to look for trouble.

That is imperious. John hamilton, john.

thank you. Thank you.

President biden made some major promises to the more progressive wing of his party on his way to the White house.

He said he forgive student loans and new drilling on federal lands and make two years of community college free for all. So far, his record on delivering on these promises have been mixed. And in run up to twenty twenty four, some progressive voters and activists want biden to do more and do IT faster.

Deepa shiver m covers the White house for N, P. R. And this with us, once again, to tell us more about this story.

Good morning. So let's start with student loans. The supreme court blocked by instead relief planned last week. Obviously a disappointment for people who are counting on that, even maybe budgeting for that. But how are progressive voters responding to that? And i'm particularly interested in if they blame biden or the court for their disappointment about all this.

Yeah, there's to be a little bit of a sentiment among some progressive voters that biden over promised on forgiving a student debt. You heard the president say that he knows people are disappointed, but he rejected that. He gave people false hope, and he's trying to lay the blame on public icons.

But what has also stood out to progressive groups that I spoke with is that bite and bounced back with another plane immediately, we will take longer. But they were happy that biden didn't just throw his hands up on this issue, and they think he should apply that same strategy to some other issues as well. Here's josef G.

R. G. He's with group called our revolution. It's a political organization which was started by supporters of senator body Sanders.

It's to mix the presence made IT down payment, but he's got a fight like hell in the remaining period time to show voters that he's doing everything in his power to deliver on the pokey ball issues that matter to.

So a mixed bag did, but does that suggest that it's going to cut into support for the president? And twenty twenty four.

that is a matter of enthusiasm. I talked to adam Green, whose s the coaching of the progressive change campaign committee. It's a group that backlog makers like senator Warren, but he says bitten is doing something effective and that's the strategy of drawing contrast with his own agenda and the agenda of righting republicans.

Very important that joe and on behalf of all democrats, picks very high intensity fights with republicans on things like economics, abortion and democracy. In willing is to make clear what the battlelines are so that regular people who live busy lives say, oh, I actually care about that. It's worth my time to vote.

And we already know that with abortion specifically, public opinion on the issue isn't in line with what republicans are calling for. And that's a message that biden will be taking to the trail in twenty twenty four.

So say more about that. Where do progressive groups think biden can still take more aggressive action?

There are some unfinished business, things like childcare, universal pray, that binds going to run on again. Climate action is a big issue where a lot of voters feel like bitten has backed out on what he promised. In twenty twenty, for example, the president campaigned on promises to end new drilling on federal lions in order to rain an emissions, but he approved a new venture in alaska called the willow project earlier this year.

Millions of people petitioned against that. Climate activists see IT as the total about face and a disappointment for people who voted for biden based on his climate agenda. But i'll add here that biden has already picked up a number of endorsements from environmental and conservation groups, and he's campaign in hard on his record on investing in clean energy projects.

That is imperious deeper.

shivering deeper. Thank you. Thank you.

And that's up first for friday, july seven. I mishel Martin and i'm up .

shitting up first is produced by nick vince, I, Shelly hawkins, Taylor haney and Julie deep. And our editors are Michael Sullivan in a con, Robert rampton, alex wify and jan Johnson. Our technical director is hardly strange with engineering support from static abbott. Start your day here with us on monday.

and don't forget there is an up first episode for saturday too. I usha rosco and Scott Simon have the news. IT will be here in this feed or wherever you get your podcasts.

This message comes from Better help this holiday season. Do something for a special person in your life. You give yourself the gift of Better health.

Better help online therapy, connect with a qualified therapies via phone, video or live chat is convenient and affordable, and can be done from the comfort of your own home. Having someone to talk to is truly a gift, especially during the holidays visit. Better helps out com slash N P R to get ten percent off your first month. Support for this podcast on the following message come from the M P R wine club, which is generated over one point seven five million dollars to support N P R programing. Whether buying a few bottles or joining the club, you can learn more at N P R club at ogg slashed podcast must be twenty one year old to purchase all this year.

N P R traveled the country hearing from voters not just about the issues, but about their hopes for the country's future.

We should be able disagree .

with each other without bullying each other in .

this mission and what IT means to be a part of a democracy. Invest in coverage that moves us forward together by giving today at donate E, N, P, R to work.