Ukraine Pushes Into Russia, Presidential Campaign Update, Olympics Near End

all sorts of places where competitors face off.

I'm Scott Simon.

We'll have the latest from Paris.

Kamala Harris met crowds in Arizona.

Donald Trump rallied last night in Montana.

We'll tell you where.

We have the news you need to start your weekend.

New from Embedded.

Who gets to compete as a woman?

But it's not new.

I get a lot of, you know, I loved you in the 90s, you know, it's a lot of, ah, in the

I know Donald Trump's type.

Between now and Election Day, we are not going back.

A campaign season unfolding faster.

Kamala Harris is not getting a promotion than any in recent history.

by doing something they hadn't done before, launching a substantial invasion into Russia

itself.

Russian forces appear to be struggling to mount an effective counterattack.

NPR's Greg Myrie is in Kiev.

Greg, thanks for being with us.

in the middle of a war?

Russia clearly wasn't paying attention, and Ukraine sent these ground troops rumbling

across its northeastern border in armored vehicles, nothing hidden here, into Western

Russia on Tuesday morning.

The Ukrainian forces are at least six miles or so inside Russia's Kursk region, and we're

getting all sorts of reports that small units may have penetrated much deeper.

The Ukrainians are operating in, or have taken control of, numerous villages in at least

one town.

Videos on social media show a burned-out column of Russian military vehicles, dozens of Russian

soldiers surrendering, large numbers of Russian civilians fleeing by car.

Now, neither Russia nor Ukraine is saying much, so we're trying to put this together

like a jigsaw puzzle where we only have a small number of the pieces.

How's Russia responding now that it's on the defensive?

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has been holding meetings with top national security officials

at the Kremlin.

Some of this has been televised in an attempt to reassure Russians, and the military officials

are telling Putin that troop reinforcements are on the way, that they're defeating the

Ukrainians, and they'll regain control of the border very soon.

Putin is clearly unhappy in some of this video, and these reports appear to be way too rosy.

Russian military bloggers are saying the fighting is not going well for Russia.

They describe the Russian response as chaotic, the panicked civilians are fleeing, and the

Ukrainians seem to just keep attacking.

What we have right now is just a lot of speculation.

Now, in remarks, in his nightly address, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said, quote,

Russia brought war to our land and should feel what it's done.

So there's definitely this psychological component of what's going on the offensive, raising

morale in Ukraine, which has indeed happened, and putting Russia on the defensive, which

has also happened.

Now, we only have hints of the possible military strategy here.

I spoke with one of Zelensky's top advisers this week.

His name is Mikhailo Podolak.

He said Russia has been attacking from these border areas without fear of retaliation on

Russian territory, and that needs to change.

Here he is speaking through an interpreter.

And we are creating this buffer zone.

territory if the Russians make a big push to get it back, which they seem to be doing.

limit a Russian offensive in the eastern Donbass region.

The Russian forces have seized a number of villages in recent weeks, making it one of

their more successful ground operations in well over a year.

The Russians just send wave after wave of troops towards Ukrainian lines, and they've

been suffering massive losses with these attacks, but they have advanced.

And Scott, we're just at this rare moment in the war where both the Russians and Ukrainians

are on the offensive at the same time, though, obviously, in different places.

barnstorming the country this week, rallying with supporters in key swing states.

speed as Democrats prepare for the party's convention later this month.

And Bureau White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram has been traveling with Harris.

She joins us now from Phoenix.

Deepa, thanks for being with us.

Campaign trying to introduce the ticket and all those swing states.

What kind of reception?

I mean, in Phoenix last night, there were almost 20,000 people in the arena.

In Detroit, 15,000 people came to a rally at an airport hangar.

And, you know, Harris was already starting to gather large crowds in places like Atlanta

and Milwaukee before she announced Governor Walz as her running mate.

But since he joined the ticket just on Tuesday, it's brought on this extra wave of intrigue

from people, many of whom hadn't heard of Walz before, but are learning about his record

as a former teacher and coach and elected leader, of course, in Minnesota.

He comes across as a very enthusiastic partner to Harris.

You know, he's been talking about bringing joy into the campaign, reminding crowds that

there are only about three months left until Election Day.

And he keeps saying, you know, quote, we can sleep when we're dead.

And, you know, keep in mind, this is a pretty critical time for the campaign because polling

shows that most Americans don't really know anything about Walz.

And there's sort of this race from Democrats on one side and Republicans on the other to

define him as quickly as they can.

Republicans are trying to attack him on his military record.

Meanwhile, Democrats are highlighting his background growing up in Nebraska and in rural

America. And, you know, it's a stark contrast from Harris, who grew up from, you know,

Oakland, California.

But something Harris has emphasized this week is that despite their differences, they do

have a lot in common.

people, people who had pride in their hard work.

And, you know, that's kind of been the similar message she's been taking other stops

Walz because awful a lot of voters also would like to know more about Kamala Harris and

what her policies will be if they will differ much from President Biden's.

You know, they had to get through this V.P.

process, but I think you will see more of a focus on defined policy ideas coming down

the pipeline. You know, here in Arizona, of course, one thing she was really speaking

about last night was immigration, the border.

She said she wanted a border and a, quote, earned pathway to citizenship.

This, of course, is an issue that at this point at Trump fares better than her on among

Vance, who held a few events this week, how did those go?

He's also a veteran, of course, on his military record and experience.

Like I mentioned earlier, Trump, for his part, held a really lengthy press conference on

Thursday, and he's been really focused on crowd size.

Have a good time on the trail.

eight in track and field alone.

The French played in the men's soccer final and the Algerian boxer at the center of a

gender controversy box for gold.

And today brings a couple of big games and opportunities to go ahead in the medal count.

NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan is there in Paris and joins us.

Becky, thanks for being with us.

Americans ran two big relay races, the four by 100 meters, both men's and women's.

Substantially different outcomes, weren't they?

Let me start with the bad one first, which was the men.

The U.S. had hoped to have the sprinter Noah Lyles competing.

He just won the 100 meter dash about a week ago, but he had to bow out of the relay final

because he tested positive for COVID.

So the rest of the team was talented, but they just couldn't put it together yesterday.

They like really badly bobbled a handoff of the baton.

And so not only did they not medal, but then the salt in the wound were eventually

disqualified over this messed up handoff.

The handoffs really have been a problem for the U.S.

over the years in the relays.

And the American women also struggled a little bit last night with it.

But the good news there was the track star Sha'Carri Richardson.

She was the anchor, the dramatic last runner in the race.

The U.S. was in fourth place when she got the baton and she booked it.

And in fact, had this amazing sort of meme-worthy moment where she pulled ahead

in the first place, looked over at the runners who were now behind her in this

like gotcha triumphant way, secured the gold medal for the U.S.

and also her first Olympic gold.

women's weightlifting, right?

Yeah.

So this is a great story here.

Olivia Reeves is a 21 year old college student at the university

of Tennessee in Chattanooga.

She was a favorite in the light heavyweight division and she

came in and she crushed it.

She set a new Olympic record in the lift.

That's called the snatch.

And then she came just shy of another record in the other

lift called the clean and jerk.

And as you say, it's the first gold medal for the U.S.

in women's weightlifting since before Olivia Reeves was even alive.

Uh, women's weightlifting amazingly was only added to the

Olympics back in the year 2000.

Um, and that was the last time the U.S.

won one of the golds.

being at the center of a controversy over who ought to be allowed

to participate in women's sports.

You were there.

What was it like?

Um, so just to give some context, the controversy around her comes from

claims by the international boxing association that she, uh, along with

another female boxer here at the Olympics had failed two gender eligibility

tests over the past couple of years.

But there've just been a lot of questions about those tests.

The IBA hasn't released proof or really details about them.

Um, additionally for context, the IBA has deep ties to Russia and there have

long been concerns about corruption in the organization so much so that the

Olympics cut ties with the IBA last year before all of this.

And so over the past couple of weeks, Olympic officials, uh, had defended Khalif.

They say she's eligible.

They say that her participation has nothing to do with

inclusion or anything like that.

So anyway, last night she was up against the Chinese boxer Yang Lu in

the gold medal match and Khalif won in a unanimous decision.

Afterward, she said defiantly, I'm a woman like any other woman.

I was born a woman.

I lived as a woman.

I've competed as a woman.

There's no doubt about it.

medal opportunities for gold medals today come in team sports, women's

soccer, and, and men's basketball.

They're playing France.

Okay.

They are.

I'm going to be a little divided about this.

So give us a preview.

Well, the U S these are two big, huge team opportunities.

And today they need a little bit of a lift because the women's water

polo team, which has been one of the most dominant teams at the Olympics

these last couple of decades lost in the bronze medal match this morning.

So they're going to go home empty handed.

So in women's soccer, this is a redemption for the U S women's team.

After they got bounced early out of the FIFA women's world cup last year,

they are playing Brazil today.

It would be the first gold medal in women's soccer since 2012.

And then for team USA men's basketball, as you say, a huge game

tonight against the hosts, France.

The crowd is going to be absolutely electric.

Um, the U S team came very close to losing a couple of nights

ago against Serbia.

They were down almost the whole game into the last couple of minutes.

When finally these NBA MVPs, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, each did

their thing to seize that victory back.

And I was there, Scott, and I got to say it was one of the best basketball

games I've ever seen in my life.

And I am going to be there tonight.

Thanks so much, Becky.

I'm Aisha Roscoe.

Fernando Naro, Martin Patience, and Gabe O'Connor produced today's

podcast, Andrew Gregg directed.

Laurent, Andy Huther, and Ted Meebane.

Sarah Oliver is our executive producer.

And Jim Cain is our deputy managing editor.

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