White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Ukraine hits Russian Retailer, India Protests

What are we doing here? Is it supposed to be fun? Am I supposed to be serious? Am I supposed to be a comedian? Am I Sharaska?

And I'm Scott Simon and this is up first from NPR News.

Yesterday the White House said the president's remarks would be "unifying yet vicious." Well, just how unifying and how vicious will have a recap. Also, Ukrainian drones have hit Russian oil refineries and airfields, and now a new target, Russia's version of Amazon. Also, a young people's protest movement in India,

which began with frustration over entrance exams. What are their demands?

“So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend.”

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“Like, why do we have nightmares? How does AI affect my energy bill?”

At NPR we are here for your right to be curious about the world around you. Follow shortwave wherever you get your podcasts, because the more you ask, the more interesting the world gets. In April, after the White House correspondent Stinner came to an abrupt end, President Trump characterized his aborted speech as quote, "adusey." That dinner was interrupted when a gunman fired shots in the hotel lobby,

and the president and other attendees had to be evacuated. The dinner was rescheduled for last night, and President Trump made jokes about the liprofesse, and said he was taking a soft turn with the media, then he'd planned in his original speech. "Oh, that was going to be a doozy. I was so psyched. I was going to rip people." And I don't know, just something changed. It's really for the better, but I just wouldn't want to do that.

But we'll do a little ripping of your own mind. Oh, ripping did the president get. NPR's media correspondent David Foken, who's like, "Do I just David, thanks so much for being with us?" Pleasure. Let's just say there's often a rift,

“seemingly between the White House and the media, did they have a civil dinner?”

Well, I would say it was civil, but it was pretty surreal. You heard the president speech? What do you take from it?

Well, first let me say, there were folks from NPR at the dinner,

and I don't speak for NPR on this. I'm talking to you, Scott, as your media critic this morning. I would say from a Trump standpoint, he was there at the lectern for over an hour, giving a fair amount of one-liners going after his critics, the people who are his political opponents, Democrats, potential replacements for the next presidential race, people he sees as enemies, people in the press.

So in any time the guy's in front of a microphone, he's going to indulge in these instincts. From my perspective, somebody thinks about comedy, he sounded a lot like Don Rickles channeled by Christopher Walken. But these were jokes by and large that weren't landing. I mean, people were sitting stone-faced in front of it. There wasn't a lot of birth and laughter at that night.

Even though it's supposed to be a night where yes, he pokes fun at everybody else, but a president, any president, goes after himself as well. In the spirit of acknowledging the press's job is to kind of hold him accountable. I didn't wish you'd remind ourselves, it wasn't just an occasion for comedy, or maybe we should phrase that attempts at comedy because journalism awards were given at the dinner,

often for tough coverage of the president and the administration. How did that go? Well, look, you know, it was, as I said, so really, you saw the Wall Street Journal being honored for stories breaking revelations of Trump's contribution to a birthday book for the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein two decades ago.

You know, that was the occasion for Trump to personally sue the Wall Street Journal in a multi-billion-dollar suit.

Over that story, he kind of grimaced and smurked and nonetheless shook the hands of the reporters.

The Department of Justice was just forced to withdraw subpoena to him and to colleagues for their testimony in front of grand jury over a story that outraged the White House about security concerns within the government over the new Air Force one aircraft that was gifted to the president by the Cotari government.

You know, this was an extraordinary juxtaposition of these incredible clash between these two institutions the New York Times, just having prevailed in court and the president's administration.

“David, how would your character as relations between Trump and the media?”

Well, look, Scott, President Nixon set the tone for what it's like to have a president who's using power to go after the press and threaten and manage the press and intimidate it. President Trump has blown past all of that. And I think if you look at this dinner, it shows the Washington Press Court, at least as embodied by the White House Correspondent Association, has shown it hasn't adequately grappled with that. You know, it's an adenter that's supposed to honor the first amendment, supposed to honor independent reporting.

And in a sense, is honoring the president's relationship with the press, which he did give a nod to. But they seem to think it's Washington is usual, and Trump has made sure that it's not. And he knows that it isn't. And if you're a media correspondent, David Folk, and, like, David, thanks so much. You bet. There's a new front in the war between Russia and Ukraine, online retail.

“Over night, Ukrainian drones attacked a facility tied to Russia's equivalent of Amazon, a company called Wild Bears.”

It was the 10th Ukrainian drone strike against Wild Bears, where houses this week. And Paris Terals mains join just now for Moscow. Terals, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me on the show. Tell us about how these attacks have been going on this week. Well, starting last Saturday and just about every day since Ukrainian drones have struck these giant warehouses belonging to wild berries,

causing massive fires to facilities outside of Moscow, outside of St. Petersburg and several cities in the south of Russia. The costs have come in lives, at least nine workers are dead, dozens more injured, several of whom were migrant workers from Central Asia. But of course, there's also material costs. Wild berries is Russia's largest online retailer, and it's warehouses are full of goods from small and mid-sized Russian businesses who've taken to social media to say these attacks have caused their financial ruin.

I'm saying, "Yeah, what is it that you just blew up now? That can't." That's a good deal. That's a good deal. That's a good deal.

So, this is just one example, a Korean Volvo who runs a small clothing line, sounding rather depressed here, as he describes how a third of his product,

150,000 dollars in goods, just went up in smoke and a wild berries warehouse outside of Moscow. But what can you tell us about wild berries? Well, you know, you might have this impression of Russian businesses run by oligarchs, grey men, and grey suits. Wild berries is about as far as that as you can go. It's really kind of a remarkable story. It was founded by a woman named Tatiana Kim in 2004. She was a school teacher, turned state home mom,

who started selling hard-to-find quality clothes out of her family's apartment. Now, critics will say there's a bit of public relations myth making going on here. Kim got a bit of money from her then husband who worked in the IT sector that helped launch the business. But fundamentally, wild berries is a story of a woman who had an idea that caught on. It's not a business empire handed to her from the spoils of Soviet industry or, say, resource extraction.

How did it become Russia's biggest online retailer? The wild berries doesn't sound like a Russian name. It is not a very Russian name, Scott. You know, Kim chose wild berries, and the company's neon pink WB logo, because she thought it sounded positive, progressive, and western, Kim actually taught English. And in the Russian context, it was an important piece of this brighter, middle-class consumer-driven future that so many Russians seem to want, and that seems so within reach as the Russian economy grew in the arts and beyond.

What does the government want? What do you mean? As Kim herself says to the camera in this wild berries commercial from a few years ago, what if everyone could choose what they wanted? And well, a lot of people chose wild berries, particularly amid the war in Ukraine and western sanctions that followed, you know, as key western brands packed up and left, online retail really took over,

little wild berries distribution points popped up on seemingly every corner, and it's made ordering online deliveries incredibly convenient,

“and preserved a sense of normalcy, I think, for the Russian consumer.”

It's also made to China Kim rich. Her net worth is around $8 billion with B,

that's making this former school teacher rushes wealthiest woman. What do you think Ukraine is attacking wild berries? What Ukraine says, yeah, wild berries sells everything, and that includes military hardware.

Here's Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky announcing the first attack on wild berries last Saturday,

and saying the warehouses were used to distribute navigation systems and components for drone production, as well as other supplies for the Russian army. And is that true? Well, Tatiana Kim denies it, and so does the Kremlin, which calls the targeting of wild berry an active terrorism,

but what I'll say is this, wild berries doesn't sell weapons, but it does carry items which might fall into the category of dual-use technology, whether that's civilian toy drones, or camouflage hunting gear, or electronics whose computer chips could be of some use on the battlefield, and whether that justifies these attacks or not,

key of seams to have decided that hitting commercial logistics hubs is yet another way to bring the war home to Russians, along with safe strikes on energy infrastructure.

“And I think Russians are learning what Ukrainians have known for several years now,”

that these soft targets are really, really difficult to defend. (speaking in foreign language) In India, Gen Ziers, tens of thousands of them, have been demanding the resignation of India's education minister. Today they got the news they've been waiting for.

(speaking in foreign language) That's the sound of protesters cheering after the minister posted his resignation letter on X. (speaking in foreign language) Thanks for being with us. Thank you for having me.

(speaking in foreign language) What started this protest movement? So for weeks now, Indian youth have been demanding the resignation of its education minister Tatmindri Pradhan. In May, questions for the entrance exam for India's medical colleges had leaked.

This meant more than two million aspiring doctors had to re-take the exam

that they spent years prepping for.

“Now, such leaks have happened for years.”

So for many, this was the final straw. Their protest started in early June, with a few hundred people at a protest site in central Delhi. But since then, it seems like their number has multiplied every day. In fact, when I went to the Delhi protest site last night,

it felt like a carnival. People were out on dates or with their families. They were chanting slogans making videos for social media. Some were batman masks to evade surveillance cameras. And one group had re-worked a popular love song

to mock the Prime Minister Mary Dremodi. (speaking in foreign language) So he's saying Modi has robbed the country. Modi has led down the students. And as one poster pointed out, and I quote,

they messed with the wrong generation. I'm curious that this was the final straw for many of the protesters.

“What other issues have been fueling their demonstrations?”

So on the face of it, this is a protest for educational reforms. But folks also tell me that they are tired of the corruption, unemployment, and the rising cost of living. Now India has struggled to create jobs even before the Modi government was sworn in 12 years ago.

But economists, Trosa Abraham says, this has been getting worse. You know, this is double burden that youngsters are fighting, that even after a degree they're not finding jobs and they're not finding jobs that pay well. How is Modi's government responded to the protest?

Well, first they vilified the protesters.

The education minister even compared them to terrorists. When they marched to the parliament earlier this week, security forces attacked them with tear gas, even pellet guns. Now of course, those scenes were widely shared online, and that triggered protests in other Indian cities.

So in his resignation letter today, education minister Prathhan said that he did not want the student anger to be exploited by what he called anti-national forces. He did not mention the dozens of students who were injured in the police violence,

and he did not apologize for the paper leaks. I'm sure what should we expect next. The protest leaders, they want systemic reforms to prevent exam paper leaks and punishment for the policeman who attacked the protesters.

The government has said that its ministers would meet with them today and hear them out. But this is among the rare times that the Modi government has yielded to public pressure. Political analysts are shancing told me

that the protesters have achieved something even more remarkable. The climate of fear, you know, in which a lot of Indians were operating that you can't criticize Modi, etc. The climate of fear is gone.

He says this crowd got across caste, class, religion, and language.

In Paris, I'm Kirk and Daker.

Thanks so much for being with us. You're welcome, Scott.

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