Negotiators to Moscow and Kyiv, Judge Issues Order on Arch, Western Wildfires

0:00Provocations and plots across Europe. Including what Germany says was a failed drone attack on one of its airports. Is Putin behind it all? Am I Shorasko? And I'm Scott Simon and this is up first from NPR News. The Russian President is said to be feeling emboldened. We have details from Moscow. President Trump wants his arch. 250 feet is twice as tall as the Lincoln Memorial. You'll be able to see this from almost any place inside the building. Let me look at the preparations underway. And 8 million acres of fire in the American West this year. We go to Washington State. So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend. As the political landscape shifts beneath our feet, we're all vulnerable to a well-funded distraction economy determined to take our eye off the bomb.

1:02Our weekly politics series, if you can keep it, is here to help where our focus is not the force race, but the state. We tackle the big political stories of the day and why they matter for our democracy. Join me Todd Zwilland and me Jen White on the 1A podcast from WAMU and NPR. This week on Wait-wait-wait-don't tell me we talk with our panel Mo Rocka, Shane Torres and Annie Rowerda about the latest trend in dating, smelling bad on purpose. This pheromone maxing is just not bathing. Yes. So this is like when Uber came out and they're like, it's not taxi, it's right, Chair. Don't miss our full conversation in the rest of our games. Listen to the Wait-wait-don't tell me podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Instead of scrolling mindlessly, engage mindfully with the NPR app. With a mix of on-demand news, stories from the station and your favorite podcast, you can relax without shutting off your brain, download the NPR app today. President Trump says he's reviving efforts to in Russia's war in Ukraine and sending

2:04our voice to Moscow and Kiev to that end. Here he is at the White House yesterday. Two great negotiators have done a great job and we sent them over to see whether or not we can get something done and there may be a good chance that we'll do it. The negotiators of the President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner and Steve Whitkopf, they arrived in Moscow today. So that's where we'll begin today's podcast for then-bearers Charles Mainz. Charles, thanks for being with us. Morning Scott. What do we know about the timing of the visit? Well, you know we've been hearing rumors of Whitkopf and Kushner coming all summer only to see the trip repeatedly pushed back and of course these two have been busy, deeply involved with negotiations over Iran, Israel and the war in Gaza. But the re-engagement on Ukraine now comes as some things are changing with Russia's war. Keep in mind CIA director John Ratcliffe was recently in Moscow for a brief visit with his Russian counterparts in the intelligence community. Presumably Ukraine was part of those discussions. So it could be there's a new diplomatic window here but the prevailing view is that the

3:07US is concerned this conflict is about to escalate even further than it already has. How so? Well, with the front lines essentially stalled both sides have turned to air attacks to inflict maximum damage on the other. That's meant near daily Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian energy and logistics infrastructure here that's caused for example widespread gas shortages. And Russia, meanwhile, is openly promising another winter of misery for Ukraine, valiant to dismantle its energy infrastructure entirely. Something they really can do almost at will now that Kiev is low on US-made interceptors like the Patriot missiles. So both sides are also I should say hacking away at the other's ability to export grain through the Black Sea region. Russia's raised concerns about global food shortages as we head into the winter months. And if that's not bad enough, there's also a possible new front in Europe with NATO allies increasingly angry over alleged Russian hybrid attacks and sabotage that risk the worst building beyond Ukraine. Charles, why would Russia want to provoke NATO? Well, Russian President Vladimir Putin insists they don't and that this is all kind of anti-Russian

4:09hype by European politicians even though he has threatened to respond to European military aid to Ukraine. And clearly something is going on. I mean, there's been a spade of sabotage and cyber attack incidents across Europe, even most recently a failed drone attack on a German airport. And if indeed these incidents are sponsored by Russia, and for example, the Germans now openly say the airport incident was, they present a challenge because these attacks are seemingly not enough to trigger military response by NATO, but they still undermine European security. So how did it fuse the situation? Well, enter with Kofn Kushner perhaps. Two figures that Putin has made clear welcome in Moscow. What do you think they can expect? Well, safe passage for one. That's no small thing given that Ukraine has threatened to swarm Russian skies with drones to the point where it's unsafe to fly. Ukraine's president Vladimir Zelensky last night released a video saying that Ukraine would ensure the normal functioning of Russian airspace for the Americans, adding that he wanted their trip to be constructive and substantive as possible. To that end, maybe the most constructive and substantive part of it will be the fact

5:12that with Kofn Kushner are not only coming to Moscow where they've been several times, but now finally Kiev, a place they've never been despite repeating invitations from the Ukrainians ever since Trump's began trying to negotiate into this conflict. And here's Charles Maynich in Moscow. Thanks so much. Thank you. The Trump administration says it will break ground for a 250-foot arch in the next two weeks without federal approval and despite an ongoing lawsuit. Veterans who brought that lawsuit have asked a judge to step in. She did late last night and appears Rachel Treesman has been covering this saga and joins us now. Rachel, thanks for being with us. A pleasure. We're talking about an enormous arch. Gold statues on top. It would be built at one end of the bridge that connects the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. to our L.N. commentary in Virginia. Did the judge stop it or is the government for Virginia Hill?

6:14Well, the government would like to. So as a reminder, interior secretary Doug Burgham said Thursday that it would start excavation work within two weeks. And that was surprising to people because the arch hasn't gotten final approval yet. It did get design approval in May from one federal panel packed with Trump appointees, but it still needs the green light from the National Capital Planning Commission, which doesn't meet again until October. And several agencies are still conducting studies on the potential impacts of the arch, including on the nearby D.C. Airport. A White House spokesperson told me they're only doing work that does not require approval and, quote, helps in the process. Now lawyers for the government clarified in a filing late Friday that they're talking about archeological surveys, not construction. After that, the judge ordered the government to give 48 hours notice before doing anything other than on-site information gathering. So we'll have to wait and see. Special remind us who is fighting the construction and why. Well, broadly speaking, historic preservation experts have accused the Trump administration

7:15of trying to rush the review process for this arch. Basically, since it was introduced last October, and then earlier this year, an architectural historian and three Vietnam war veterans sued. They said the arch would desecrate Arlington National Cemetery and requires approval from Congress. The Trump administration disagrees. And it was those plaintiffs that asked the judge yesterday to issue a restraining order to block construction for two weeks. We have no sense of why the administration believes it's authorized to begin work on the arch. Nicholas Sandsone, the lead attorney in the case, says any work at the proposed site is premature. He says once construction starts, it might be hard for a court to offer any real relief. And we saw that play out recently when Trump had the White House East Wing demolished to build a ballroom. Supreme court issued a ruling on that ballroom this week. Does that have any bearing on the arch? Well, it might. Also on Thursday, the Trump administration filed a motion asking the judge to dismiss

8:15the arch lawsuit altogether. And it specifically pointed to that Supreme Court ballroom ruling, which says the plaintiffs in that case didn't have legal standing to sue in the first place. Sandsone, the lawyer, says that is definitely not the case with the Vietnam veterans suing over the arch. As they have a deep personal connection to the cemetery, but he says there's a lot at stake even for people who don't. A system where the executive branch essentially gets to build first and answer later the question of whether that building is lawful should trouble all of us. I should say tens of thousands of critics from all over the country have submitted public comments as part of this review process. They worry the arch would disrupt everything from traffic to funeral services at Arlington to views of the national mall. And in fact, the National Park Service even acknowledged in a report last week that the arch would affect dozens of historic sites nearby, but it's still moving ahead. What are you watching for next in the story, Rachel? Well, government lawyers have said the work will start no sooner than September 21st, and

9:18they say any natural resources affected would be restored by the end of October. And that basically brings us to midterm elections in early November. The best representative Don Byer, a Democrat from Northern Virginia, thinks that might explain President Trump's hurry. He has no one in the Republican Party willing to stand up to him on many, many different things. He might have that trifecta for another couple of weeks. Byer says he has actually yet to meet a constituent who supports the arch, and he expects big protests whenever work does start. Now the Trump administration has said it expects construction would take two to three years, factoring in a 20-hour a day year-round work schedule that could take us right up until the end of Trump's term. And here's Rachel Treesman, thanks so much. Thank you. The American West is having a brutal wildfire season this summer, with an 8 million acres of burn, the most land in more than a decade.

10:21Seven wildland firefighters have died, and hundreds of homes have burned. Finally, today on the podcast, this look at the story from veteran MPR Wildfire correspondent Kirk Siggler. Drive through the scorching hot river basins of Eastern Oregon and Washington, and it's staggering just how much land is burned. It's like around every corner there's a new wildfire. Blackened range land unfolds for miles, pockmarked by little patches of grass that are randomly spared. Their gold stalks lit up by the orange smoky sun. Right over here to my left is the Columbia River down a little in the back end and then on the right I'm passing by. It's like literally scorched earth. Just char, landscape, rocks are the only thing that remain. There's a burnt historical marker sign. I'm trying to get to Spokane, Washington, for my home base in Boise, Idaho, but I have to drive the long way through Oregon because a new wildfire near where I live closed the main north south highway.

11:22Just getting anywhere around here right now involves patience and the constant check of watch duty. That's the app that shows a wildfires movement and evacuation zones in real time. We're trying to get home. We left a couple days early, we're going to go home. I recently met Terry and Cara Barnes in a country store by a roadblock in rural Oregon. The fires cut their camping trip short and now they're trying to get home across the Cascade Mountains. It's a six hour plus drive. The fires keep closing the highways. Terry drinks a cold beer and smoke hangs thick in the air outside. Number one, I like roads though. I can still breathe, but I was sure I'd like to go home. A record 2.5 million acres has burned in Oregon so far this summer, accounting for more than a quarter of the entire land burned in the US this year. Mary Thompson here is frustrated that the media sometimes portray these fires as being way out here, not threatening anything. But she says this is cattle ranching country and it's how families like hers make their

12:25living. I don't know what they're going to do once the fires are over with because there won't be any grounds to feed them. Yeah, it's hard. It's really hard. You won't almost cry. News of late is in Nevada and Washington state where hundreds of homes have burned and dreaded urban wildfires. I talked with Hugh Safard about this. He's retired US forest service. And one thing he said really stuck out in these new mega fires, the homes become the fuel for the explosive growth, not the trees. Burn down homes. They're gone. There's melted cars and all that stuff. And then usually there's a ring of live trees around a lot of the homes because the homes are what's burning. They're actually burning the forest. It's not the forest burning the homes. The homes are burning the forests in Spokane neighborhoods are leveled, but you still see pine trees that survive due to their thick fire resistant bark. I feel a lot of the car, baby. Yep. Chris and Melissa Matthews lost pretty much everything. This is the first time, yeah, this is the first time I've seen it and been back since we know loaded the car up and left.

13:28And it is jarring. When the wind kicks up just a little, there's an accurate toxic smell from all the burnt lead paint and the homesiding, exploded propane tanks, melted lithium batteries. Yeah, the air is not good. And I've had a sore throat for the last few days because it's coming down here and everything. This is a common thing I've reported after these mega fires. People return and soon find it's too soon and too dangerous to go back in. But one thing here really stood out to me, even with all this destruction, it's miraculous that the death toll was so small. At least 31 people died in the LA fires last year and only one person died as a result of all three of August's Spokane fires. It is grueling still for wildland firefighters, all the more so due to President Trump's big doge cuts to public lands agencies. On the old trails fired, Spokane met firefighter Jose Vara as he doused a burning stump near a subdivision. He's just exactly how it's been kind of boring on moral, it's just a protection.

14:29He's working a hotspot that could easily flare back up. It's tough work, yeah. It's tough work, yeah, yeah. And it's not even fall yet. This one California traditionally sees its biggest wildfires, likely more to come. Kirk Sigler and PR News on the road in Washington State. And that's up first for Saturday, September 5th, 2026. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. The Lated Tour at Produced Today's podcast with help from Michael Ratcliffe, Samantha Balaban and Gabe O'Connor. Our editor has been Ed McNulty along with Martin Patients, Tara Neal. Terrell Richie and Eric Westrefilm. Andy Craig directed. Our technical director is Simon Laslow Jansson, assisted by Zove Nganhovan and J.S. Our deputy managing editor is Catherine Laidlaw. Shannon Rhodes is our senior supervising editor and our executive producer is Evie Stone. Tomorrow on the Sunday Story, sunscreen. Some new ingredients, some myths to spell and updated guidance for staying safe in the

15:34sun. Thank you for listening and for supporting your local NPR station. And if you need to find yours, go to stations.impr.org. Tanya, I think you did the best to interview that I've done. Seriously. Oh, that's a great question. I think I want to think about that question for the rest of my life. Oh, good question. This is Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air. And the questions are only the half of it. Listen to Fresh Air on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. This week on Sources and Methods, the Pentagon in the oil business. This is being carried up by the Pentagon, but it's an entity that's supposed to be focused on upgrading U.S. weapon systems and not on pumping oil.

16:37We unpacked the latest Intel and big, unanswered questions about President Trump's so-called deal with Venezuela. This week on Sources and Methods from NPR.