Brian Mann
speaker
1,678 appearances
209 recordings
3 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard today
Brian Mann’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 168 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 21.
Appearances
Up First from NPR · Ukraine's Drone Use, H-1B Visa Uncertainty, New Species In 2024 · 24 Dec 2024
podcast
A lot of military analysts think Ukraine has been more creative than Russia, more effective using this kind of technology. A group called the Institute for the Study of War did an analysis, found Russia losing huge numbers of soldiers killed and wounded as they grind forward. In one two-week period this month, Russia lost 3,000 troops in the Pokrovsk area.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has downplayed those casualties and says his army is winning. And I did speak to one of these Ukrainian soldiers in the drone unit, a technician named Yuri. We agreed to only use his first name for security reasons. He told me drones alone won't stop Russia.
So Ukraine keeps slowly retreating. But after roughly eight months of this intense fighting, this key city, Pokrovsk, still hasn't fallen. And that's in large part because of these drone units.
Thanks, Asma.
Good morning, Steve. Why does this city matter? Well, you mentioned Pokrovska is important for its coal and its rail and road connections. They're vital to Ukraine's army. held Russia back from cutting into the heartland of Ukraine. If Pokrov falls, cities like Dnipro, home to nearly a million people, will be far more vulnerable.
So everyone I met yesterday said this battle is crucial and the fighting is grim. Okay, so what did you see when you visited that embattled city? Well, this was a city of 60,000 people. Yesterday, I saw empty gray streets, houses and shops and hotels just shattered by Russian bombs. I met Ukrainian soldiers. deeply weary, worn thin by this fighting.
One man who would only give his first name, Vitaly, had just come back from the front lines in an American-made Bradley fighting vehicle that had been heavily damaged by a landmine. The situation's pretty bad, Vitaly told me. The Russian drones are the worst. He actually used a curse word to describe the hovering machines that rain bombs from the sky.
I asked if he thinks Ukraine can hold out in Pokrovsk, and he said, if it doesn't work, we at least have to try. Most military analysts, Steve, say the reality is Russia's army is simply much larger. They have more men, more artillery, more shells.
They're not. One of the hardest things I saw yesterday was people still in the streets. Pokrovsk is a frightening place. There are Russian drones everywhere. They pummel the city with grenades and larger bombs. But officials say they think roughly 11,000 Ukrainians are still hunkered down under the threat of this violence without gas or heat or running water.
I met one elderly man who called himself Sergei, who had turned up yesterday at one of the evacuation points. I was born here. I didn't want to go because this is my hometown, Sergei told me. I was born here, but now I have to leave.
Well, they're getting creative, in part by also using attack drones. I was taken last night to a secret Ukrainian drone command center. where the military let me watch in real time as their drones hunted and killed Russian soldiers. I was speaking to one Ukrainian technician named Yuri at the chilling moment when a Ukrainian drone stopped a Russian attack.
So what we just saw was actively a bomb dropped from that device and struck near that Russian.
So what I saw yesterday was Ukrainians being as ruthless as they can trying to hold Povrovsk. They're making Russians pay a terrible price. But Ukrainian soldiers also acknowledge they're facing assaults by larger units that never seem to end. We've seen Russia slowly advance. And if they do finally take this city, it'll be Russia's biggest, most significant victory in months.
Thank you, Steve.
Now, it wasn't just the physical resemblance to that photo. Mangione was also allegedly carrying an illegal firearm, false documents, and other evidence that
Good morning.
Well, it's interesting. Over the last four years, we saw the Biden administration really shift the fentanyl street drug response to a public health model. That means a lot more treatment and better medications. Donald Trump's focus during the campaign was very different, a big pivot. He talked almost exclusively about cracking down on fentanyl traffickers and dealers securing the border.
Here's Trump talking during one of his rallies.
And then after the election, Layla, the man Trump named to serve as border czar Tom Homan raised the stakes, promising U.S. military action against Mexican drug cartels during an appearance on Fox News.
Well, the short answer is no. Even a lot of drug policy and addiction experts who do want a tougher response to fentanyl tell me they're worried Trump's team will go too far. Jonathan Calkins is a drug policy analyst at Carnegie Mellon University.
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