Transcript

5.4.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning everybody, and welcome reading of the Washington Post
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for this Monday May fourth. As a reminder, RADI is
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a reading service intended for people who are blind or
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have other disabilities that made it difficult to read carry them. You.
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Reader for today is Rod Brothers. And as you know,
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on Mondays, we start by reading Paul Frather's week they
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call him from the Lexington Herald Leader, and this week's
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article is titled this time I really mean farewell my
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journalistic home. In nineteen ninety four, the Dali Lama visited
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Baria College. It wasn't every week Holyess stopped in Kentucky,
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so this was new. And as the Lexington Herald Leaders
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staff religion right around cover it, I was maybe twenty
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of reporters there and photographer's adaographers who intended to press
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conference with the revered holy Man. Here's the thing I remember.
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At the conference's conclusion, as videographers stood their cameras and
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I stuffed my reporter's notebook in my hip pocket, the
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Nobel Prize Laurie quietly made his way around the semi
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circle renews and wretches had formed. He stepped face to
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face with each of us in turn looked us in
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the eye, smile, bode slightly, and thanked us for coming.
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I may be imagined this hart, but I think he
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also shook our hands. I never saw another famous person
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do that lodged in my brain. Typically, reporters are treated
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as if the clothes smell slightly sour. I was moved
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by this Tibetan monkst kindness as awareness of our humanity.
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Back at the news, colleague asked, so, how does one
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address the Dolly? Low easily replid saying hello, Dolly. Yes,
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I wrote last week this will be my last cop
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Lexington Herald Leader. Leaving its pages feels like saying a
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final goodbye to treasured free My columns will continue to
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appear monthly on an excellent and free website, Religion Unplugged.
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The link is http Religion unplugged dot com all one word.
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I covered religion for the Herald of Leader as a
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reporter from nineteen ninety nineteen ninety seven. During that same
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time I also wrote weekly opinion columns, and after a
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five year hiatus, I came back in twenty oh two
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as a contributing religious collegist. I was only starstruck once
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it was a press conference for the Reverend Billy Graham,
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who visited Louisville in nineteen ninety four, the same year
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as the Dalai Lamas for Bria. I'm glad Graham didn't
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come around after the Greek journalist person I might have
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swooned to the four. When I grew up rural Kentucky
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was Baptist to the degree that it seems unimaginable today.
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My parents, grandparents, neighbors, and playmates were Baptists. My dad
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was a Baptist preacher. Billy Grant was our heber fellow
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Baptist who was the most famous evangelist on the planet.
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We watched his rallies on TV. Some referred to him
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as half jokingly as the Baptist Pope. And from there
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I was and Louis ten feet of the greatest man
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in the flesh, asking him questions. I wasn't a Baptist
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myself any more, but I was owed. Nonetheless, I've hit
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the big time. I thought this might be the best
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job in the world and kinda wakas. Covering religion has
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been an education more beneficialized than I agreed. From top
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flight seminar, I learned that my brand of Christians born again,
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sweat slinging sawdust trail Brand weren't the only kind. We
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weren't even Jarry. I became friendly with Roman Catholic nuns
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and priests. I stayed with the Trappist monks the Abbey
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of Death Simony, and sat in Thomas Burton's death. I
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met Unitarians and Mormon's Seventh day Addists. I spent an
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afternoon with an itinerant rested white traveled in a van
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covered his hand painted its sign boards warning of the
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becoming apocaps. The game piled tongues were talking Episcopal priests
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who break out into glossal lalary eye in the public
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and then giggle and mister his child. I would Jews
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at their German hung out with mas Muslims mosque, and
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even met some Zoroastrians. When I serviced at the Harold
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Leader in twenty oh two, as an exhibited columnist, my
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first wife to day slowly died. I was a care
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It was a horrendous period for her, our son, our families, church,
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and me. I didn't get much out of the house,
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so if it came time to write my columns, that's
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what I wrote about. Character suffered doubt, and after Day's
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death agreed. I wrote more about those things, not because
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of any great mission self, but they were Oh, I
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think about it. I heard back from people all over
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consuct you know, over the country, thousands of readers. By far,
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most were fellow caregivers and mourners, wanted to tell me
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their stories. I had stumbled into an ocean of pain.
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There wasn't any on the map I had not known
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or existed seen. People on every street in America were struggling.
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It makes sense, tragedies they could hardly bear and couldn't
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talk about it candidly. A woman wrote, I suffered head
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and that thing, trying to wear a brave smile. It
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helped them and mel like to know that there were
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others caught in the same mess. That was normal to
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feel lost, man scared. It helped to be. If my
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writing ever made a difference, that was the time I've
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concluded that we humans share a big God who loves
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a variety. He made myriad types of people, deals himself
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differently in a difference. Nobody believes anything. In a fact,
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all pildings have their history and their reasons, which makes
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sense to them if you listen their reasons begin to
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make sense to you, which is not to imply that
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all faiths are all individuals within any faith or equal.
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Some religious people are zealous and nut jobs. Some traditions
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are than others. Mainly, however, religious folks trying to serve
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God as best they know how. They hope to transcend
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themselves and their foils. None of us understands God or
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ourselves entirely. None of us possess all the answer. But
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if your faith helps you, love God and love your neighbor,
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made a pretty good start right the rich and as
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you know Paul Fraser, his pastors says the church near
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Mount Stirling. You can email him p r t PD
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at Yahoo God. Now let's turn to the news of
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the Washington pos lead story today. Ron threatens retaliation after
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Trump says the US will guide ships in the street
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of warmers. The President left unclear what measures the US
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to take and whether any forces would be at risk.
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Ron said it would strike any foreign force approaching the stream.
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Ron's military learning it will strike US forces they attempt
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to approach straight ufore news after President Trump said the
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United States would soon be guiding ships through the street,
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calling in a humanitarian gest requested by other countries whose vessels, crews,
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and supplies had been stuck for weeks. Major General Ali Abdullah,
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commander of the Tan and Bay Military Headquarters, sent in
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a state and reported by Iran's State runs Mayor News
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agency Monday that Iran would strike any form naming the
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US military, in particular attempting to approach or enter the water.
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Joint Maritime Information Center, a US led maritime task force,
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said Monday that the United States had set up an
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enhanced security area advised vessels choosing to transit straight to
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consider using Oman's territorial waters out of the normal shipping bouts.
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It's not clear center's advisory note how the area of
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security was enhanced. In his truth social post on Sunday,
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Trump did not detail the actions the US would take
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facilitate the expert ships or how many vessels are set
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to pass straight. It's not clear from his statement whether
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the US would only provide ship captain's information to guide
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them to save routs or take more active measures. White
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House did not respond to questions about logistics and the
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military aid risks. Trump wrote in his post that the
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US is meant to free up people, companies, and countries
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that have done absolutely nothing wrong. They are victims of circumstances.
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He also wrote that his representatives had been having very
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positive discussion any leaders about formally ending the hostilities between
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the US and Iran. That a rat of the region,
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following Trump's post, US Central Commands that it would support
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what it called Project Freedom Restore freedom of navigation for
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commercial shipping through the straight of horror moves had left
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on trigued what support would mean Operation at s income.
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A social media post referred to a new joint initiative
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by the State and Defense Departments called Maritime Freedom Construct
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that aims to combine diplomatic action with military coordination. That initiative,
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described at the State Department table, first recorded last week
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by The Wall Street Journal, called on other nations to
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help build gaps not currently addressed. Britain and France said
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last month they would contribute to strictly peaceful and defensive
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efforts to open maritime fabt war was over rob As
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criticized nature nations including Spain, Italy and Germany, who declined
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to this paid. The strait Hey Waterway off the coast
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of Roan is closed to shipping crafted oil fertilizer and
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trolium products in the Persian golf and driven up energy
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prices worldwide, and estimated two thousand ships have been struck
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since brond closed the Straight and any ships without its permission.
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The US announced with blockade of all ships traveling to
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or from Iranian parts, causing a standoff with global implications.
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According to International Maritime Organization, a specialized agency at the
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United Nations, more than twenty thousand seafarers are stranded on
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vessels unable to exit the Straight. Trump said the opera
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again Monday morning, a local time. The new plan reflects
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the ship and at least Trump's rhetoric about Straight. He
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had previously downplayed US responsibility for the rest of stuff.
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In the first result, the US and Israel launched military
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strikes against Iran on February twenty eight, Trump saying that
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he wanted freedom for the Uranian people and an inn
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country's nucular program. Two sides agreed to a ceasefire on
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April season and have spent subsequent weeks intermittently discussing proposals
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during conflict. Trump's Sunday post was sent seconds after the
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conclusion of the PGA tourvent taking place at his Miami
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area resort, Trump, looking on from the pole. Statements shed
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little light the weekend of confusion status of negotiations in
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the war, which I've been out of stalemate in the
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past two weeks, buried reports progress and accusations of life.
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Trump broached Sunday evening that positive discussions underway with t
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RAN it lead to something very positive for all riding
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ships exiting was straight, he wrote, was a amount of
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charian gester on behalf of the United States Middle Eastern countries,
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but in particular the country of Iran. On Saturday evening,
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Trump said he would soon be reviewing the fourteen point
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proposals sent to Iran through PASI, but I can't imagine
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that it would be acceptable. A Sunday morning interview with
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Khan Media, Israel's public broadcaster, he said, that's not acceptable
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to me. I've studied it, I've studied everything, and it's
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the Iranians want to make a deal. I'm not satisfied
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with what day of offer time. There are things I
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can't agree to. Just hours later, Iran's foreign minister had
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said he had received the US reply to his proposals.
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The Americans have given their answer to Iran's fourteen point
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plan to the Pakistani side, and we are currently reviewing,
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spokesman dismay of Backa said in a televised numerous outlets
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in Israel and guitars. Al Jazeera reported details on what
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they said was Iran's post, including a fifteen year moratorium
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on uranium and richment, turning over to another country or
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deluding all highly rich uranium currently in stock lines, and
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strictly limiting enrichment in the future. Back however, said to
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her absolutely no details regarding the country's nuclear issues in
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this proposal. These are among the things I believe are
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fabricated by the imagination of some media outlets. No such
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thing exists in the pact. The plan that they said
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called for a cessation of hostilities followed by a thirty
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day period during which a detailed pack would be discussed.
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It for it was the gradual reopening of the strait,
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clearing of minds, and lifting of US sanctions, and called
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for leaving all nuclear issues for future discussion. Trump previously
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said that Iran had agreed to win all enrichment and
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worked with the US to evacuate and remove all highly
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enriched uranium buried under ground after US bombing of June.
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Dehran said at the time that it made no such agreement. Meanwhile,
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Bron's Islamic Revolutionary Guard for his intelligence organization, in the
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post on Excellent Sunday, said Trump's room for decision making
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has narrowed Ivron since said Spentagon had blocked deadline China
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Russia or shift turned against Washington. Trump's passive lever for
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cons declaring the hostilities are open an acceptance of Iraq's
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negotiating terms, The IRGC said, added that there is only
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one way to read this. Trump must choose between an
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impossible military operation or a bad deal. But the Islamic
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Republic of Iran the next door trapped and kills him.
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For one hundred and seventy seven days, his wife's voice
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was his life. While Roman Mongol, the Ukrainian soldier, was
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pinned down surrounded by the enemy for nearly six months,
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he traded ghost voice memos with his wife with the
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commander's help. Cranian soldier is lying on a cold snit floor.
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His beard is lost, it's hair patting, his fingers are broken,
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his teeth ache rock. He's in the ruins of a
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fact northeastern city of above the Chunk. It's hungry and tired.
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His head throbs untreated percussions. The soldier strange may out
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Russian voices on the other side of the wall. He
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hopes they cannot hear his friend moaning just a few
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yards away. He wants nothing more than to help them survive.
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There is no escape the phone networks, the roads are destroyed,
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fields are mine. The closest Uranian command pod point is
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miles away in the Russian drones on anything that the
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soldier his name Roman Bungol. He is thirty eight, is
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late August twenty twenty five, and he has been trapped
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since March, deeped inside what Ukrainian troops called Zi kill Zone,
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no man's land between the lines. That weeks of death.
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His friend Andrea is twenty eight and died for a
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treatable wound Russian bullet lodged in his right knee. Roman
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hides in a corner by radio asks his command to
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drop more medicine and groan each week. He also asked
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him to pass the essence to his wife. How him.
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Roman and Andre were sent to Wolf Chunk, small city
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on Ukraine's border with Russian try to hold off Russian
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forces is dancing on Ukraine's second largest city, Karaki, forty
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five miles southwest. There's arrived separate Roman in March of
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twenty five andre in July it came the same way,
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crossing a narrow wolf Child River that runs through wulf Chunk,
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and then spends days trying to reach frontline positions farther
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north of the city. A fierce, seasless battle for his
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former industrial railroad has been under way since May of
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twenty four. Russian troops launched a surprise attack. Slowly, wolf
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Chunks has been destroyed. Unlike other stretches of battlefield, where
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soldiers hold trenches and dougouts fields and long tree lines,
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the fight for wulf Chunk has unfolded and abandoned apartment blocks,
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bubble factories, type of brutal urban warfare that demas the
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city's eastern of Wakamut and Chief Cot, but often means
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fighting building the buildings, sometimes room to room. His troops
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survived because commanders and the rear used droans and drop
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packages from the sky, food, water battles, power banks and handwarmers,
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blet wipes, ammunition, sometimes even the letters home Russia and
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Ukine try to disrupt each other through supply drones to
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wait for soldiers to retrieve them supplies and then target them.
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It was while out collecting one air dropping Andre took
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a bullet to the knee. As risky as they are,
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the supply drones of the soldiers' lifelocks kept them fed
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and their radio charged, allowing them to stay in communications
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with the face across the river. Each week, Roman's wife
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sends his commander of voice not home. His commander didn't
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play it for his radio to Rome. Roman recites the
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message back that his commander records and forwards to Houlim.
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She saves them all and listens again and again, analyzing
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his tone, his bread, his cadence, trying to parse some
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Coronaiver reality. It claims that everything is okay. She knows.
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He doesn't tell her what's happening. He doesn't describe the
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hellscape around him or his fear. He doesn't say he
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can sometimes hear the Russian through the walls. He never
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reveals that his comrade and Ry is probably due the
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wheeled landrones Ukraine uses to move the wounded, and other
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stretches of the front are too heavy to cross the water. Banding.
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A group of soldiers together carry Andrea to safety, work
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instantly draw the attention of Russian drogs. All the Ukrainian
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soldiers holding the line in Gulf trunk. No, there is
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only way out. That's the way they came to treacherous
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journey back to the river one that is impossible for
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a soldier unable to walk. All bridges over the river
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are in passing. Soldiers can only cross by swimming or
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buying flatble rat meaning Russian drones have thermal images to
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kill at night. Four years into Russia's full scale invasion
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of Ukraine, the battlefield is more treacherous than ever. Soldiers
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face constant gun and artillery five, but it's the small
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armed drones that have transformed the front into a kill set. Troops.
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Shortages make rotations rare, the fiquidest, low flying groans, see
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targets and anything that commanders are reluckant for order retreat eight.
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Sharred loss could be used against Ukraine at the negotiating grable,
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when moving out can be more dangerous than staying put.
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This means that across the entire front line, soldiers like
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Andre and Roman to deployed with enough supplies for a
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few days, are increasingly stuck four weeks or months at
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a time. Ukraine's commander in chief, General Alexandr Siskiri signed
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in art last week barring troops staying in comeback positions
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before than two months at a time, but traditions on
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the front to make that order difficult force so many
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Ukrainian troops strained, wounded, stranded or killed both chunk. Late
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last summer, Roman's brigade stopped sending new soldiers positions near
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the factory, but Roman was still there. Earlier, draft officers
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controned the Roman on the street in the western city
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at troops bats some seven hundred monts to the front line.
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He was helping Honya carry home grocers. It was their
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daughter's thirteenth birth. In summer of twenty twenty four, Ukraine
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perpetually out hand and Outgune was desperate for more troops.
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Two and a half years have passed since the Russia's
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full scale invasion, and many of Ukraine's most skills soldiers
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had been wounded to kill. Others were in desperate need
25:33
of rotation off the front line. Filled the gaps. He
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began conscripting thirty thousand new soldiers. Each month. Roman was
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one of them. He was fitted with camouflage uniform adopt
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the call signed Rohan, a reference to the Valiant Kingdom
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forest Riders and the board of the Rings. A month
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he spent in basic training was one of the longest
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times he had been away from Honya or their ar
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tour and Belaria. He longed for their cozy six floor
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apartment away their fluffy Pomeranian binding always met him right
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as he got home from work in the family business
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he built pitching cathlets and doors. It was a relief
26:18
if he avoided immediate deployment to the front. Was chosen
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to join a course on Bradley's, the US fighting vehicles
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that among the safest and most effective in the war.
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As autumn set in, Roman was selected being instructor of
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the Bradleys, even him far from that fighting then March
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for twenty five he abruptly ordered to join Ukraine's fifty
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seventh Motorized Infantry Brigade and report to the front and
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eat khar Key. Reach the brigade was one of several
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tasks which defending wolf Chunk. On the evening of March
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twenty fourth, the pickup truck drops Roman. Three other soldiers
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call signs Hunter, sniper, and boxer on the outskirts of
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both chunks. Roman is carrying four bottles of water, several
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tins of food, a first aid get, a few chocolate bars,
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ten boxes of cigarettes, two lighters, few grenades, a multi
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two rosary beads, and extra ammo for his riding. A
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handwritten prayer from his wife to tucking to his vest,
27:24
and he asks God to return safely to her with
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their long blonde hair and blue eyes, which haven't changed
27:31
since they met as teenagers twenty one years ago. He
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remembers how his friend got hurt first, but how Roman
27:39
eventually stole her heart and married here at eighteen. Crossing
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the river, part thumping out of his chest, he walks
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into his first flight. The men follow orders to split
27:51
from the different positions. With the small section of the city.
27:55
Roman pictures the battlefield like a clock Trainian positions are
28:00
behind in seventh the Russians are everywhere else. He's stationed
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in an abandoned apartment building and a half destroyed kitchen
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with a soldier named Zora to take turns watching Russians
28:15
move through the parking factory outside occasionally firing. They reports
28:20
movements over the radio. They cover the window with a
28:23
fishing net. Get you enemy Drone. On April third, Roman
28:28
turns thirty eight from trust debits Pono, writes to Roman's
28:32
commander and asks sim to play a birthday message for
28:36
Roman over the radio. That morning, the first Russian drone
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flies into the net. Roman and the Zara grab their
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bags and run for the basement. A second drone slams
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into then a third and a fourth. The kitchen floor collapses.
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Covered in the group. In the basement, Roman and Zora
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find jugs of water, a chisels, and a piece of pipe.
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They dig a hole in the remaining wall and find
29:03
through to find another take it apart brick by brick,
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and they learn from the radio that the soldier Boxer
29:09
Signed has been wounded. The night of April sixth, they
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climb outside and move into a different direction Order to
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help Box retreat his wounded comrade Roman to help Hunter
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hold his position nearby. The wounded soldier dies the next
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to day. Soon Order is killed too. Roman is sent
29:35
back into the damaged department building to find a new
29:37
position to hold. He finds an abandoned the living room
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and fortifies it with sandbags, bricks, and concrete slabs. He
29:47
digs a hole through the floor for his easy access
29:50
to the basement. Watching Russian troops from his perch by
29:54
the window, he reports their movements to his commander on
29:57
the south side of the river get drunk fire support
30:01
from the rear. The enemy is thirty forty yards out
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at one o'clock, two o'clock and three o'clock at dusks,
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he moves to Hunter's position and another building nearby. Ukrainian
30:17
drones drop food and ammo from the sky. Roman and
30:21
Hunters sort cans, eating from the first ones first, saving
30:24
the others for later. They rummaged through the bullets, tossing
30:29
cooked ones to the side. Before sunrise. Each day, Roman
30:34
returns to his desolate living room position to keep fortifying it.
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The work gets less lonely when a soldier who goes
30:41
by the call sign Medic joins them and then clean
30:44
themselves with wet wipes. Drones drop trash bags for them
30:49
to use toilets for the worms and flowers bloom artillery bangs.
30:56
Six weeks pass like this. Every Sunday. Roman holds the
31:01
radio to his ear and listens as his commander plays
31:04
the message from Hagna. Her voice feels like a mirror slate.
31:10
May Roman looks out the window. Russian troops or at
31:15
three o'clock they are sneaking toward Hunter's position. Roman and
31:21
Medic open fire. The Russians now understand where they are.
31:27
Drome comes crashing in the floor collapses. Roman and Medic
31:33
hide in the rubble. Ukranian drones are watching from above
31:37
the battlefilled live stream to the commander's computer screens. The
31:42
orders come barking through the radio. Get to the factory.
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In peacetime, civilians use the factory to build airplane motors
31:50
and other machinery. The battles to volts Chunk has turned
31:54
into a vast ruin of brick buildings that both sides
31:58
claim as their own. Here, Roman's mental clock is harder
32:03
to read. Thinks of the mixed up lines of control
32:07
as the chessboard Ukrainian Russian Russian, Ukrainian Russians dig foxholes
32:12
into the rubble. Ukrainians try to station themselves in parts
32:16
of the pactory complex they are still standing. Roman and
32:21
Medic find a hiding place under a set of stairs.
32:25
A soldier named Chola and Bumblebee joins them. Each day,
32:31
Roman watches throw a hole in the wall as Russian
32:33
troops charged through the park below, preparing to throw anti
32:38
tank mines at Ukrainian possessions. Roman shoots some of them.
32:43
Others explode as the mines they are holding detonate before
32:47
they reach it. The here's on the radio. The sniper
32:50
and hunter are under constant attack. They both wounded. The
32:55
commander finds them a route out. Messages on the radiotel them.
33:00
They both survive. Russians take their old positions, and at
33:04
five on Roman's battlefield clock, he is almost surrounded. A
33:11
Russian tank fires several dozen shells a day. Roman moves
33:17
constantly within factories, still trying to figure how others die
33:22
and stay alive. Debris from the drone's right breaks Roman's fingers.
33:28
Medicas rotated out, but a drone hits him on his
33:32
way just as he's close to saint. He's lead shatters,
33:35
but he survives. In the factory, the days start to blur.
33:42
Roman's hands shaped, who hyperventilates. A soldier named Yaroma sent
33:49
to replace many can Roman take turns keeping watch at
33:53
night that tell Chola to keep themselves busy making them
33:57
call field with small gas stoves. He is always the
34:00
first of all sleep. They talk about their families, They
34:05
share cigarettes, They dream of showers, warm meals, and going home.
34:12
They jump and they see straight cats stalking the halls,
34:16
their eyes wide and glowing in the dark. Roman misses
34:21
his daughter's fourteenth birthday, then his son's eighteenth. Three days later.
34:28
Their voice is crackling through the radio. Small notebook and
34:32
he scribbles messages and helps to share them with him.
34:35
Runs his hands over his wife's handwritten prayers so many
34:38
times it starts to faith. The Russians are so close.
34:43
He shouts at them, come here, I'll kill you. Sometimes
34:48
I shout back. Roman kills and kills and kills. The
34:55
factory fills Russian vice. He asks God for forgiveness. He
35:02
goes outside only a night to collect supplies drop by
35:05
the drone, stepping over the dead Russians. The Russians lock
35:09
anti tank mines at their positions. Roman is crouched behind
35:14
a wall. Blastway dislodges his shoulder. Jeroma Choler, buried under
35:21
the rope. Aeroma frees himself and runs for help. Roman shouts,
35:26
and he will follow with Cholin Roma is outside running.
35:30
Roman hears flurries of gunfire and then silence. Aroma is dead.
35:35
Another boom, something is landed nearby. Roman is dizzy and
35:39
concussed because Cholin hears nothing. He believes too, that he
35:44
must be dead. Roman thinks of Hanna, thinks of Archer
35:48
and Valeria and Bonnie waiting for him at the gold
35:52
He needs to survive. He finds an empty room to
35:56
abandon the Russian anti drone cloaks. Pancha, designed to hide
36:01
as a human's thermal image, covers himself in faalses. In
36:06
early August, the Roman's sister opens her apartment door in
36:09
two facts and two men dressed in all the the
36:12
tea's there. They hand her a letter staying the Roman
36:15
is officially missing an action on the front line. He is,
36:20
in fact, a love. Roman eventually finds Ukrainian troops and
36:25
makes contact with commanders. He learns that Pachola survived freed
36:30
himself from the ruins. He's flooded with relief. If I
36:35
knew you were alive, I wouldn't have wasted my tears
36:38
on you. He thinks. Commanders identify a route out Schola.
36:45
His arms are badly wounded, but he doesn't make it.
36:48
He hits a mine on the way to the river
36:51
and leads to death alone. The brigade sends a new soldier,
36:57
twenty eight year old former marine named Andra, to join Roman.
37:03
The Russian bombs the factory day and night and hunt
37:06
for remaining Ukrainian troops. The routes out narrow. There's only
37:13
one way left out. At seven o'clock on Roman's mental clock,
37:17
Roman and Andrea bed to retreat. Have moved somewhere else.
37:22
They tell their commanders they might not survive it. Feeds
37:26
from the Ukrainian drones tell their commanders that there's nowhere
37:30
for them to go. The Russians and the drones are everywhere.
37:36
Several days pass. The drone drops supplies and Andreas goes
37:41
out to collect them, and the Russian soldiers spots it.
37:44
Bullet ricochets off the factory wall and into his knee.
37:49
Roman hears Andrea's cries. He's screaming Roman's name. Roman ties
37:55
the tourniquets around Andrea's thought to stop the bleeding. He
37:59
understands he is now holding the position alone. He watches
38:04
Russians and nurses on dry. He uses that Russian anti
38:08
drone folks to cover his bread. Roman radios his commanders
38:13
and please again for them to get a way out.
38:16
Andre needs to survive. He's supposed to get married this year.
38:20
His family's waiting at home. Roman has survived this long
38:25
by stealing weapons of dead Russians stockpiling the rational Ukrainians
38:30
dropped from the sky to escape with Andrea, who we
38:34
need to sneak out of the factory. He now shares
38:37
with enemy troops moved between bombed out buildings and mine fields,
38:43
and then swim on board an inflatable wrap across the
38:47
narrow rivers, separating them from their face all undetected Russian
38:54
drones fitted with thermal cameras clogging the sky above. Roman
38:59
knows this journey is impossible. Andre cannot walk, let alone run.
39:06
Roman is smaller than him and two weak to carry. Still,
39:10
he whispers for Andre to stay strong. He tells him
39:14
about others who have made it out. A lot tightens
39:17
the turns tied around Andrea's thigh, and he ficks maggots
39:21
out of Andrea's wounded knee. His food feeds him pain filters.
39:27
Andrea goes weaker. He burns with fevers pale bloodlins. The
39:33
infection in his knee spreads each time Roman turns around.
39:37
He sees that Andrea, writhing from pain, is loose in
39:40
the turning. Roman scolds him and tightens him again. Roman
39:45
peers outside and watches Russian troops moving in the park below.
39:51
In late August, Andre dies in Roman's arms. Roman weaks
39:58
and prays over his bikey. He curses Russia the war
40:03
that their factory prison. He pleads for God to welcome
40:06
Andrea to heaven. He tells them that unlike Roman, Andrea
40:10
didn't even shoot anyone. Both chip any radios. His commander
40:16
asks for a drone to drop a body bag from
40:19
the sky. He slides Andrea's olive green helmet off his head.
40:25
Roman lost his own long ago. If he makes it out,
40:29
he promises himself that he will return the helmet to
40:32
Andrea's family. He drags drags Andrea's body to the bag,
40:37
scribbles his name and calls sign on a slip of paper,
40:41
and carefully tucks it inside. He writes his name on
40:45
the outside of the bag too, then covers it with rocks,
40:49
piling Andrea's body armor on top and make it easy
40:53
to find the case. Culp every comes. Roman buckles Andrea's
40:59
helmet and under his own shin and returns to his
41:02
surveillance pool, where he stays several days in the summer heat.
41:07
He gets orders to defend a new position in the factory,
41:11
stays there for two weeks, still fighting but numb with grief.
41:17
Then another order comes through the radio. It's his term.
41:23
He can leave you. It's four thirty in the morning.
41:29
It has been one hundred and seventy seven days. The
41:33
woman is wearing Andrea's helmet and holding Andrea's gun. He
41:37
is running south, away what's left through the fact, Away
41:43
from the bodies of the Russians he killed and the
41:46
Ukrainians vy kill. Away of blide bombs and water fire
41:51
and big eyed cats and tens of rotten food, Away
41:54
from the guilt he feels for killing. He's running home,
41:59
home to hob in her voice, he has kept him alive.
42:03
Home to Artur Valeri and Bind waiting by the door.
42:08
The crane drone is following him overhead, his commander watching
42:13
at Steed barks orders over the radio guiding room and
42:15
stride by stride. He is wrapped in the anti drone cloak.
42:20
He stole from the Russians, the same one he draped
42:22
over Andre's body before he died. He reaches the river
42:27
and he dives in. His rifle catches on a rock
42:29
and he feels it dragging his body down. He refused
42:32
to let this beat the way everything ends. He untangles
42:36
the rifle and forces himself up. He gasps for air.
42:39
He swims and climbs up the south side of the
42:41
river bank. Russian artillery spots him, lorders fly by. He
42:47
runs from the shelling to Bandon village house and waits
42:50
for someone to find He asks to send one last
42:55
message to Hanya, throwing his home on the sixth floor.
43:02
His beard is gone, his hair has got short. It's November.
43:07
It's been more than thirty days since he left the hospital,
43:11
and Kharkith boarded the long train to Lebob and drove
43:17
home through Tuscovites. Still feel those first hugs, the taste
43:23
of pizza they order that night, and hear Bide's excited yelps.
43:28
He has told Playa everything. They stay up late, foreheads
43:35
pressed together, has been to the dentist sixteen times. His
43:42
back still hates, but the nightmares have Subsider confession and
43:48
his local parish helped stem the shame for the Russians
43:53
he killed and the Ukrainians He couldn't say. Tomorrow he
43:57
will board a train back east. Does not know when
44:01
he will be home again. Bad news has continued to
44:05
trickle in. More friends are dead and wounded. He knows
44:10
he will not return to both chunk. He watches the
44:14
map and understands there are other places like it, some
44:18
may even be worse. He thinks, as he does most days,
44:23
of Andrea and his helmet. It still sets on a
44:26
shelf in his apartment, and how he couldn't find the
44:29
nerve to return it, not just yet. Picks up the helmet,
44:34
looks at his own family, and he imagines that were
44:37
him who never came home. He sees Andre fall and
44:42
broad shouldered, dark blond, and very much a lot. He
44:46
pictures him ringing the doorbell on the sixth floor and
44:48
handing Hanya a helmet, telling her he did everything he could.
44:54
Roman is not ready yet to meet Andre's family, might never.
45:00
He puts the helmet back on the shell and the
45:03
next story the body's most mysterious organ. They play a
45:07
key role in longevity and cancer. For decades, a mysterious
45:14
two lobed organ nestled behind the breastboden, has been overlooked
45:19
by most physicians, thought to be a largely useless lump
45:23
for most human life, the thymus. The ancient Greeks posited
45:30
this noob of tissue that might be the seat of
45:33
the soul. In the early nineteen sixties, a Nobel laureate
45:37
dismissed it as a mere graveyard for sentence, an evolutionary
45:42
accident of no great significance. Hey, scientists know the thymus
45:48
plays an essential role in setting up functioning immune system childhood,
45:53
but then starts to rapidly shrink into obsolescence in Pubert.
45:58
Now research is recasting the thymus from bit player to
46:03
a potent regulator of aging immune health across the lifespan.
46:08
Studies highlight the critical role it may play longevity as
46:13
well as protecting its cancer on immune disease and cardiovaster
46:17
The risk the work is ignited interests finding ways to
46:22
rejuvenate the thymus it's slow decay and better understand its function.
46:28
It was completely assumed the fymous would become a relevance
46:31
in hugo Ertz, director of the Artificial Intelligence and the
46:35
medicine program at mass General Brigham and studies published in Nature.
46:40
ERTs and colleagues found that people with a healthier highmus
46:43
were likely to develop lung cancer, of heart disease, or
46:48
any casts. They also responded better to cancer immunotherapy treatments.
46:54
The key questions remain, is the thymus the driver of
46:58
these improved health outcome or an indirect barometer for better
47:03
overall help? Why does it decline very rapidly between different
47:08
people that can be slow to stop, and perhaps most fundamentally,
47:14
why did it take so long to reconsider the finals.
47:18
The study that cast new spotlight on the times, started
47:21
by Sarah Dippy Hamaron Kushish, a medical student at David
47:26
Scott's lab in Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Stem Sellings,
47:33
was interested in understanding the role that the thymous narrow
47:36
population who as adults who received bone marrea plants. As
47:41
those patients rebuild their immune defenses. Researchers knew the thymous
47:46
played role just as it does in childhood. Then COVID
47:51
shut everything down. The team shifted to an experiment that
47:55
could be conducted remote, broadening the research question what did
48:00
the medical records and the audits of adults who had
48:03
their thymus surgically removed suggest about their ovaved health. The
48:09
finding stunned the team. In the five years after surgeons
48:13
removed to thymus, people were more than twice as likely
48:17
to die of any cause than a similar set of
48:21
people who had undergone heart or chest surgery but still
48:24
had one. Those without cymuses were twice as likely to
48:29
develop cancer. When researchers limited the analysis the people who
48:34
didn't have immune related issues or surgery, those lacking of
48:38
thymus were still more prone to autommune disease. Frankly, I
48:44
was thinking of it, it's more of the way to
48:46
keep my student active during COVID and just didn't make
48:49
the show. Merg just getting said. We were all just
48:53
struck because as a big impact not just the things
48:57
that we were worried about, but also all old cause mortally.
49:02
The results were published in twenty twenty three the New
49:05
England Journal of Medicine, along with the respective piece that
49:10
it called pioneering research in the Annals of Human Anatomy.
49:16
The finals was relatively unexplored territory for much of medical history.
49:22
Physicians often described it as the last major organs who
49:25
have its function. Discovery can be removed and a procedure
49:29
called a thyroidectomy or at thiacy, which can be done
49:34
for a variety of reasons and including can get better
49:37
access to heart. As far as anyone knew, these people
49:40
did find these are very subtle signals. This is not
49:46
like to take the heart out of the patient and
49:48
it dies of Earth. Wasn't until the nineteen sixties that
49:54
researchers began to piece together the crucial role that finus
49:58
placed during childhood. The thymous educates immune cells called t
50:04
selles tea is for finans no matter how to defend
50:08
against viruses and other pathogens and how to avoid attacking
50:12
healthy tissue. Children born without it suffers severe immune problems
50:18
and die without a transport. T cells come out of
50:22
the bone marrow home to this organ. At first they
50:26
have this school, I call it kindergarten or preschool. The
50:30
cells get to proliferate and expand extensively. S Andre le
50:34
Marquis a physician and scientists focused on restoring the thymus
50:39
Hope a cancer research entry center. Then they come to college,
50:45
they get deleted. They don't want any of them to
50:48
attack our own body. The thymus is a key reason
50:52
that our immune system does not go haywire and attack
50:56
our own cells. What an immunologists call self tolerance, but
51:01
in people's teens begins to dissolve into tissue. The doctors
51:07
consider it a largely vestigial organ for the bulk of
51:10
human of human life, but the new spotlight on the
51:15
finmous connects it to a wide range of health outcomes.
51:18
Ariage teams came with the problem by using AI fine
51:23
patterns in large long term databases used to track cardiobaschular
51:28
disease and cancer. As part of their health workup, thousands
51:32
of people had been given CT scans that revealed their finess.
51:37
His team used AI develop an overall CI health school
51:42
and then search for patterns and the health records following
51:45
those people over the years. They found that a healthy
51:49
finmus predicted good health overall a broad set of criteria
51:54
one set of data. People with a higher phimic health
51:57
score were less likely to die of any cause over
52:01
the next twelve years. They were less likely to develop
52:04
lung cancer or die of heart disease, Intriguingly, they also
52:10
found that people with healthier pymuses were more likely to
52:14
respond to cancer and new therapy drugs which trigger the
52:18
immune system to fight cancer, but it don't work for
52:22
many patients. The new research can't say that finmus is
52:26
the cause of better health outcomes, but it generates new
52:29
leads to be explored. Some this new interest is long overdue.
52:36
Finally people realize that pymus is an important organ, said
52:40
pale of Fonti, the sell biologist Francis Crick Institute and
52:45
a professor at the University College London, who has been
52:48
fascinated by a finmous paradox has an extraordinary ability to generate,
52:55
but it is also one of the fastest aging organs.
53:00
It contains stem cells that are equal to the ones
53:03
of our skin, and we make new skin cells every
53:07
three weeks, Matafanti said. But if Honi is working to
53:12
build a human thymus in the land long term, she
53:16
hopes it might be possible to engineer a thymus from
53:20
an organ donor to help people who receive transplants tolerate
53:25
their new organ without taking harsh anti rejection drugs those
53:31
protect the new organ from being attacked by the immune
53:34
system but come with many side effects. She's also interested
53:40
in probing whether there are ways to slow down the
53:42
thymus's natural deterioration. That work could have many applications and
53:49
autoimmune disease, improving people's responses to vaccinations as they age,
53:55
or proving how people respond to cancer immuno therapies. And finally,
54:02
for did Day, a story from Kentucky in the Washington Post,
54:07
Andy Basheer's head scratching bid to tax foster care kids.
54:13
Kentucky Governor Basher recently made a strange move last month.
54:18
Be Impossible twenty twenty eighth presidential Hope be Tote bill
54:24
passed the state legislature with the support of all but
54:26
one law maker. If it weren't for a quick override,
54:30
Brashier would have let the state keep taking money from
54:32
children and foster care of lost to parent. The eyebrow
54:37
raising policy that bill repealed is known as the orphan tax.
54:41
It's a practice of more than thirty other states. Where
54:44
child's mother or father dies, the child's legally entitled to
54:48
receive the Social Security survivor benefit the deceased parent earned.
54:53
Somebody can't replace the lost parent, but it can make
54:55
the child's life a little bit easier, especially if he
54:59
or she ends up post care. Not all these children
55:02
are orphans. Some still have a living parent while they're
55:06
still in the foster system, but nevertheless they face the
55:08
difficult future. They shouldn't have to face it pitiless, but
55:13
that's exactly what these children are forced to endure. Like
55:18
every state, Kentucky is required by law pay foster care
55:22
for those who need it get Instead of allocating enough
55:25
funding through its budget, Kentucky simply took a child's Social
55:30
Security survivor benefits to cover the costs. While children in
55:35
foster care whose parents are still living don't pay a dime,
55:38
those with deceased parents are forced to pay for their
55:42
own care. This injustice flew under the radar for years
55:46
until the Trump administration made removing in a priority. In December,
55:51
Assistant Health Secretary Alex Adams leads the Administration of Children
55:56
and Families urge governors to repeal the orphan tax that month,
56:01
New Jersey was the first. In Nebraska, Louisiana and Mississippi
56:04
super followed suit in Kentucky. Repealing the tax started as
56:10
a Republican cause, but quickly found bipartisan support, while the
56:15
GOP has strong majorities in both chambers. The bill repeal
56:19
passed the House of ninety eighth and the Senate thirty
56:22
sixty one with overwhelming support from both parties, and Basher
56:28
said he betook the bill because it would deprive the
56:31
state's Cabinet for Health ADAM the services the agency runts
56:34
the foster care of more than one we having a
56:36
million dollars in critical funding last year, the Cabinet has
56:41
spent approximately eleven point four million dollars in Social Security
56:44
benefits to support youth and foster care, and spend sixty
56:48
seven and a half million dollars in federal funds from
56:50
January first, twenty twenty through October fifteen, twenty twenty five
56:55
for the cost of foster care. Mashear us be to
56:58
message if the Eneral Assembly takes away this much money
57:02
for HABN'T without appropriating funds to make up for it,
57:05
it will hurt the very foster children the bill has
57:08
meant to us up for it. Regardless of what the
57:10
governor says. This money is not tax revenue and does
57:13
not belong to the state. It belongs to the children
57:16
who lost one or more of their parents and the
57:19
state doesn't need chs will receive nearly fifty five billion
57:24
dollars in money over the next two years. And he
57:26
if he can afford to keep that eleven million dollars
57:29
out of the pockets and brief children instead of supporting
57:32
the facto theft of money owed to the boss of kids,
57:35
but sure could fight to spend the money of the
57:37
state more wisely. Kentucky's food stamp error rate was more
57:41
than nine percent in fiscal year twenty twenty four, the
57:44
last to fashional data year. The repeal I repeat of
57:48
that could costs of state more than one hundred million
57:51
dollars in penalties. A better way to make up the
57:55
shortfall would be the crack down on ways not and
57:58
fraud and abuse in the wealth their programs fighting Bashir's
58:02
best Efforence, Kentucky's foster kids no longer have to worry
58:05
about their own government picking in their pockets. It should
58:08
be the same in everything. And this concludes the reading
58:11
of the Washington Post for today, Monday, May fourth. Your
58:15
reader has been Rod Brothers. Thank you for listening to
58:17
now Fleast Day two continue programming right here on radio
58:22
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