Ukraine's Drone Use, H-1B Visa Uncertainty, New Species In 2024

0:00Good morning, and from all of us here at Up First, we wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas Eve. if you're celebrating. I'm Asma Khalid, and we are so grateful that you're spending some of your holiday morning with us today. Grateful that you're with us every day. We know you have a lot going on in your life. That's why we work hard to make Up First as smart and brief as possible. There's always more information available from NPR for you, but this is where you can start your morning and trust that you'll be prepared for the day ahead. You can help us keep doing this work by signing up for NPR Plus today.

0:31If you're already a Plus supporter, thank you so much. If not, sign up and unlock perks for more than 25 NPR podcasts today, including sponsor-free listening to Up First. Join now at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org. All right, now on to the news. Ukraine's military is increasingly relying on unmanned attack drones in its fight against Russia. We try to take out as many as we can before they reach our positions, but sometimes there are just too many and it's impossible to hold. I'm Asma Khaled and this is Up First from NPR News. Scientific research in the U.S. is driven by foreign workers on temporary visas.

1:15I really like Stanford, but I would have to see what kinds of changes happen under Trump. Why scientists are worried about this visa category they rely on. And we often hear about endangered species. But what about the thousands of new species identified each year? When I saw, I was kind of mesmerized by it. Stay with us. We'll give you all the news you need to start your day.

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3:07The Ukrainian army has been struggling to slow Russia's advance in the east. Facing a manpower shortage, Ukraine is relying more and more on unmanned flying attack drones. NPR's Brian Mann was able to visit a secret drone command post near the front lines in Pekrovsk and joins us now from Kiev. Good morning, Brian. Good morning, Asma. Can you describe where you went to see these attack drones? Well, it's interesting. Ukraine's military actually made it hard to know exactly where I was, the location of these command posts. It's a carefully guarded secret. I was guided in an armored car to a village outside Pekrovsk.

3:45It's a key coal mining town and transportation hub that's been under siege by Russia since spring. Soldiers brought me in darkness to a workshop where I saw technicians building these drones. They're black, five-bladed devices about the size of a small lawnmower. Then they took me to a command post where teams coordinate these drone attacks across a huge battlefield. And once you were there, what did you see? Well, these attacks are actually terrifying to watch. The drones operate at night. Their cameras see in infrared. So on a big flat screen TV, Asma, I watched as one drone spotted a Russian soldier.

4:21He was moving forward, trying to get close to Ukrainian positions. His body heat was visible against the snowy ground. And I had my recorder on while this was happening. Okay, the camera is zooming in on bright heat signatures. And a bomb is dropping. You can see it falling. And another flare of light. A large explosion now. and the ukrainian zasma said that russian soldier was killed i was standing next to a ukrainian soldier who goes by the call sign pip who coordinates attacks that these drone pilots were working that night he said their job is to disrupt as many russian assaults as they can we doing this every day non-stop 24 hours are they also doing this with us yes so both ways yes And that's a brutal reality of this war.

5:10These drones, they're killing a lot of Russians and Ukrainians. And it sounds like from your reporting, Brian, that these remote-controlled weapons are being used by both sides, by both Russia and Ukraine. So are they actually making a difference for Ukraine in its fight? 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.

5:46Russian 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. We try to take out as many as we can before they reach our positions, but sometimes there are just too many and it's impossible to hold. 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.

6:23NPR's Brian Mann with the latest from near the front lines in eastern Ukraine. Rain, thanks so much for your reporting. Thanks, Asma.

6:39Scientific research in the U.S. relies heavily on foreign-born scientists, including more than half a million working under temporary visas. Those visas became more difficult to get during Donald Trump's first term as president, and they are likely to face new scrutiny again as Trump returns to the White House. NPR science correspondent John Hamilton has been reporting on that and is with me now. Good morning, John. Good morning. So tell us about this particular kind of visa. The most common visa for working scientists is called the H-1B. It was created in 1990. The idea was to have a limited number of highly skilled foreign nationals working in the U.S.

7:18for up to six years. You have to have at least a bachelor's degree to qualify, But many of the scientists working under an H-1B actually have a Ph.D. And in the science world, this visa is a big deal. It's sometimes called the secret weapon because it allows universities and tech companies to hire top talent from around the world. So I do recall during Trump's first term in office, these H-1B visas did come under attack. Can you remind us of what exactly transpired? So three months into his first term, President Trump spoke at Snap-on Tools in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was standing in front of this flag made of red, white and blue tools.

7:55And he unveiled a plan to restrict work visas, specifically the H-1B. Widespread abuse in our immigration system is allowing American workers of all backgrounds to be replaced by workers brought in from other countries to fill the same job for sometimes less pay. This will stop. At the time, Trump issued several executive orders designed to make these visas harder to get. Then in 2020, he temporarily suspended the new H-1B visas. Now, the Biden administration came in, reversed a lot of those changes. But with Trump returning to office now, there could be another shift. Trump has named Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff, and Miller was the main architect of the H-1B restrictions under the first Trump administrations.

8:44On the other hand, Elon Musk has been a supporter of the visas, and he's pretty influential. So what does this lack of clarity mean for the scientists that you've been speaking with? It means a lot of anxiety. High-level science is this increasingly international sport. So, for example, I talked to Laili Mordazavi. Mordazavi. She's a brain scientist who was born in Iran and is now getting her doctorate at Stanford University. She almost didn't get to come because of what's often called the Trump administration's Muslim ban, which kept out Iranian citizens. But Mordazavi was able to get a Canadian passport to attend Stanford.

9:19I really like Stanford. People here are great, the resources are amazing, but I would have to see what kinds of changes happen under Trump. Right. I mean, she's worried about getting a visa to work in the U.S. So she's looking at jobs in other countries like Canada. She's also looked at Oxford and University College London. John, it seems like U.S. universities invest a lot in these folks and universities, large research organizations, the tech sector depend quite a bit on international talent. So what are they saying about the fear that people that they are investing in, that they are training, may take their expertise elsewhere?

9:57They're clearly worried. You have some tech firms like Box, you know, the cloud computing firm, that are making the case that H-1B visas are good for the U.S. economy. Universities are saying very little. I contacted at least half a dozen major research institutions over the past few weeks, and they pretty much declined to comment. I also reached out to the Trump transition team, but I haven't heard back yet. NPR science correspondent John Hamilton, thanks for your reporting. Always happy to be here.

10:28Each year, scientists add thousands of new species to the scientific record. Here to talk through a few of them is NPR's evolutionary biologist turned science correspondent, Jonathan Lambert. Good morning, John. Good morning, Asma. So tell me what struck you as the most interesting species added to the roster. So I want to start with clouded tiger cats. Okay. Mostly because they're really cute. But they're also just this great reminder that there are still these big, charismatic species out there just waiting to be discovered. What do they look like? So they're about the size of a house cat, but they look kind of like little leopards.

11:05And scientists thought that there were only two species of them in South America. But in 2009, this biologist named Teddo de Oliveira, who's like the expert on tiger cats, got an email that piqued his interest. When I saw, I was like kind of mesmerized by it. Huh. So how did he know that this was actually a different species, that it was any different than the other tiger cats out there? Yeah. So he's looked at a lot of tiger cats, and these ones seem to just be a little different because they had slightly different spots and their fur seemed thicker. And then on the video, they looked like they were moving different.

11:40Hmm. And so he had a hunch, but it took him and like 40 other scientists over a decade to actually prove that this was in fact a new species. Oh, wow. And so it just shows it can take a really long time to go from an observation that you've got a hunch about to describing a new species and putting it on the books. John, this is all fascinating to me because I feel like I always hear about species that are endangered. And I don't really pay attention to new species being discovered, but, you know, it's a bit of a bright spot. So what else do you have for us? Yeah, yeah. I spoke with another biologist named Hugh Gabriel, who was an undergrad when he got on the path to naming a new species of frog in Madagascar.

12:20When I was doing a independent research project in the rainforest, I noticed these frogs that looked really different from anything I was seeing in the guidebook. He told me that these frogs were hidden within the leaves of these trees, and they just looked a bit smaller and their color was kind of off, sort of a coppery bronze. And so he wrote to the author of that guidebook, who agreed that these frogs did actually seem a little different, and they collaborated. That's cool. So he discovered a new species while in undergrad? Yeah, he actually discovered three new species or described them. And all of these frogs spend their entire lives in these trees.

12:57They lay their eggs, they hatch, they eat little spiders, all within the tiny pools of water that collect between the leaves. And this kind of lifestyle is unusual for frogs and pretty cool. Hmm, where are we headed next? So I want to stay in Madagascar because it's such a richly biodiverse place. And I want to add a plant to the list, specifically an orchid. Orchids are these plants that have these nectar spurs, which are like little tubes that feed nectar to pollinators. And this new species has one that's like a foot long. And that's actually the longest nectar spur relative to the flower size of any known plant.

13:32It's called Solanangus impradicta, and it's pollinated by a moth with an equally long tongue. All right. So this is all really interesting, John. But these species are being found at a moment when a lot of biodiversity around the world is in trouble. So how do you square that? Yeah, there's climate change. There's deforestation. We risk losing these species just as soon as scientists are finding them. Each of these species is really an irreplaceable answer to the question of how to make a living on Earth. And scientists are racing to describe them before it's too late. All right, well, thanks for walking us through this all, John.

14:11Thank you, Asma. That's NPR science correspondent Jonathan Lambert.

14:20And that's Up First for Tuesday, December 24th. I'm Asma Khaled. For your next listen, why not consider, consider this from NPR. As the U.S. economy outperforms most other countries, many Americans remain frustrated by the high cost of living. And that's fueled a lot of unhappiness and a political comeback for President-elect Donald Trump. Will his policies bring costs down or rekindle inflation? Listen to consider this from NPR. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Miguel Macias, Giselle Grayson, Lisa Thompson, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zia Butch, Nia Dumas, Claire Murashima, and Anna Perez.

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