Harris Tours Battleground States, Ukraine Receives Weapons, Hawaii Fire Anniversary

Hello A. Martinez, Hello Laila Fadil, what are you doing? I'm about to host a show.

Lead a national radio show alongside with my lesser co-host. Do you see that he's talking about me like, I'm a sidekick?

I'm kicking you off the show. this is gonna be Laila's show today.

Hey, you put that one on a t for me today, that's on you.

The Harris Walls campaign is drawing massive crowds in the Midwest.

This is what's like, jazzed everybody up, because now we have hope and there's a chance.

Can they turn that August enthusiasm into November momentum?

I'm Laila Fadil, that's a Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News.

And Maui residents are remembering the Lahaina fire one year ago. Some question whether the town is prepared for any future disasters.

We have no evacuation spaces, even though they're creating some, it's still one way in and one way out.

Stay with us, we've got all the news you need to start your day.

New from Embedded Who gets to compete as a woman? This question came up in ugly form at the Paris Olympics, but it's not new.

If she runs like a man and talks like a man, is she a man?

Hear about the long history of sex-testing women athletes on Tested, a new series from CBC and NPR's embedded podcast.

I just don't want to leave a mess. On Bullseye, the great Dan Aykroyd talks about the Blues Brothers, ghostbusters and his very detailed plans about how he will spend his afterlife. I think I'm going to roam in a few places. yes, I'm going to manifest and roam. All that and more on the Bullseye podcast from Maximumfund..org and NPR.

They'll be in Phoenix tonight and then head toward Las Vegas. Yesterday, they drew thousands of people on a hot midwestern summer day in Wisconsin and Michigan. The energy around the campaign is heating up. They try and steal the joy, but you know what?

Our next president brings the joy, she emanates the joy.

NPR's Tamara Keith is traveling with the candidates. joins us now from Detroit, Tamara. We're seeing lots of images of big crowds, hearing a lot of cheers. What did you experience there on the ground?

Yeah, these are the biggest rallies I've seen in a very long time. These are the kinds of rally crowds that you would see in October or early November, just ahead of the election. But it's August right now. This is really not the campaign that Democrats were girding themselves for even just a month ago, and it's the kind of enthusiasm they haven't experienced since Obama.

They felt like Trump had won the election. I think that's how people felt. And so this is what's like, jazzed everybody up, because now we have hope and there's a chance.

The second rally was at the airport in Detroit in an aircraft hangar, and Air Force two pulled right up. It reminded me of so many Trump rallies I've covered over the years. But the mood was different, there were DJs hyping up the crowd.

Now you mentioned how it's November energy, but in early August, it is early August only. So, I mean, what does this mean for the campaign, practically speaking?

Well, in the first 24 hours since Walz was announced as the running mate, the campaign raised thirty six million dollars. A million of that was from people buying camouflage hats with orange writing on it. That says Harris Walz, because Walz is known for wearing a hunting style camo hat. You know, there's definitely optimism, but there's also an urgency to their message in their speech.

And quickly, how has the Trump campaign been handling this shift?

Well, J.

That's NPR's Tamara Keith in Detroit, Tam, thanks.

You're welcome.

Ukraine has launched one of its boldest operations in the war with Russia.

In a surprise attack, the Ukrainian military has sent a large ground force across its northeastern border and into western Russia. This is according to Russian officials and military analysts. Ukraine is so far remaining tight-lipped about the incursion.

NPR's Greg Myrie is in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv. Greg, so what are you hearing about this very unusual cross-border operation by Ukraine?

Most of the information is coming from the Russian side, though it's still pretty limited now, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said. The incursion began Tuesday when about 300 Ukrainian troops, backed by more than 30 armored vehicles, crossed from Ukraine into Russia's Kursk region. Yesterday, the top Russian military official briefed President Vladimir Putin, and the official spoke of 1,000 Ukrainian troops entering Russia. Now, Russia is sending reinforcements to counter the Ukrainians, and the Russian official predicted the military would regain control of the border very soon. And Putin was taking this in. He was shown sitting at the head of a long table, and the look on his face seemed to be a mixture of impatience and disgust.

You mentioned that most of the information is coming from the Russian side. But Ukrainians are often very talkative about what they do with their military, anything at all coming from Ukraine.

The Ukrainians are trying to say as little as possible. However, I was able to sit down yesterday with one of President Vladimir Zelensky's closest advisors. His name is Mihailo Podolak. We met in a hotel conference room just outside the heavily fortified presidential compound now. Podolak declined to provide any specifics on the operation, but in general terms, he seemed to provide the rationale for it. Saying Ukraine needs to drive Russia away from border areas where it's launching so many attacks.

We have to push them back in some areas if we want to make those areas safe for us. And we are creating this buffer zone, a buffer zone. Is it realistic to think that Ukraine could actually hold a buffer zone on Russian territory?

Yeah, that would be pretty remarkable. No one's been predicting that. But the Ukrainians found a weak spot on Russia's border and certainly caught the Russians by surprise. But we'll have to see how this plays out. Will the Ukrainian forces stay and fight, or will they try to slip back into Ukraine? Ukraine has far fewer troops than Russia, and some military analysts are questioning whether this incursion makes sense.

So, speaking of that, bring us up to date on the fighting inside Ukraine.

The Ukrainian official, Mihailo Podolak, acknowledged Ukraine is having a very tough time in the eastern region. The Donbass. Russia has seized a number of small villages and is making incremental gains for the past few weeks. Now, Russia has two big advantages one, the Russians send wave after wave of ground troops. Sometimes they even attack on motorcycles and they get mowed down by Ukrainian fire, but they just keep coming.

All right, that's NPR's Greg Myrie in Kyiv. Greg, thank you.

Sure thing, eh?

Today, in Maui, residents are remembering 102 people who lost their lives a year ago.

That's when an extreme wildfire tore through Lahaina, destroying more than 2,000 homes and buildings. Many of those who died were trying to flee the flames. So what's being done to improve evacuations?

Lauren Sommer of NPR's climate team went to Maui, Lauren. Have Maui officials taken steps to ensure that this kind of disaster, first off, doesn't even happen again?

Yeah, I mean, that's on the minds of a lot of people I spoke to in Lahaina because there's a lot that went wrong one year ago. Many residents did not get an alert to evacuate. It came too late when the cell phone network was already down. The roads were completely jammed with traffic and some people had to jump into the ocean to escape the flames. So Maui officials are changing their evacuation methods to use zoned evacuation, basically doing it sequentially to control traffic.

So staggering the evacuation. So has that been shown to work better?

Yeah, it's the direction a lot of cities with wildfire risk are moving because, yeah, the idea is not to create gridlock and to keep that traffic flowing. Maui is also getting new software that can analyze how to do that in real time. During a disaster, there's new networks of fire sensors and cameras that can help with early detection of fires. But, you know, even a well-planned evacuation won't be enough if there aren't enough roads for all that traffic to get everyone out of town.

Is this then a chance for Lahaina to rebuild those roads, to create more ways out?

Yeah, I mean, Maui County officials, they're planning seven road projects to connect dead-end roads and create more outlets. Because, you know, about half the deaths happened in one neighborhood with very narrow streets. But to widen those streets, you know, or make more evacuation routes, it will likely involve taking some of people's property. And that's something Maui County Mayor Richard Bisson has brought up in community meetings.

If there's a decision to be made, that'll be made with their respective landowner. We're not trying to take anybody's property. But if we can convince them that this would be in their benefit, too, to be open to an exchange, a swap.

So that could be, you know, a land swap of some kind, or maybe just buying out a landowner.

So I'm sure a lot of residents are very eager to start rebuilding as soon as possible. Would that slow the process down?

Yeah, it would, and you know, that's the tension right now. Most residents haven't started rebuilding yet, and some really want to get home. It's been a very painful year, it's been hard to find housing for a lot of people.

Nothing's changed and I'm like, what's going to happen? We have no evacuation spaces. Like, even though they're creating some, it's still one way in and one way out.

You know, this is a dilemma that many communities hit by wildfires face, with so many buildings gone. It seems like a clean slate, right? Like it's a chance to build a community that will be safer next time, but it's not really a clean slate. There are still property lines on the map.

All right, that's Lauren Sommer from NPR's climate desk. Lauren, Thanks.

Thank you.

And last but not least, today, NPR's Brian Mann is at the Summer Games in Paris. We checked in with him about the latest and what to look for next at the Olympics.

Yesterday, the big news was American runner Quincy Hall, who surged from behind in the 400-meter Olympic final to win the gold medal. It was a remarkable race, he was trailing and put on this amazing burst of speed toward the end. Quincy Hall claiming a gold medal here, pivoting forward. It's going to be a really, really big day at the track.

And that's a first for Thursday, August 8th. Emmy Martinez.

And I'm Laila Fawzi. Your next listen is Consider this from NPR. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has spent the better part of four decades amassing political power and using it to achieve her legislative goals. Now she's put pen to paper about how she did it in her new book, The Art of Power. Listen to consider this.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Nick Spicer, Nila Banerjee, Janea Williams and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Ben Abrams, Nia Dumas and Julie Deppenbrock. We get engineering support from Carly Strange, and our technical director is Zach Coleman. Join us again tomorrow.

That's the indicator from Planet Money and NPR.

On this week's episode of Wild Card, Soccer legend Abby Wambach says the transition from professional athlete to normal person can be tough.

There's this innate narcissism that is almost required in order to be a high level athlete.

I'm Rachel Martin. Join us for NPR's wild card podcast, The Game where cards control the conversation.