What's next for Russia after coup attempt, ambulance shortages in rural areas: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: What's next for Russia after coup attempt?

USA TODAY Politics Intern Miles Herszenhorn looks at Russia's next steps after a weekend mercenary rebellion attempt. Plus, experts say a heat dome is to blame for record temperatures this week in Texas, the Supreme Court dismisses an appeal of Louisiana's congressional map, USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise explains government efforts to try and persuade gas guzzlers to switch to electric vehicles, and rural areas see major ambulance shortages.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Tuesday, the 27th of June 2023. Today, a look at what this past weekend's coup attempt in Russia means for the war in Ukraine and Russia's future. Plus, a brutal heat wave continues, and governments around the country try to persuade those who use the most gas to switch to electric vehicles.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday credited patriotism as the reason for a quick end to an attempted coup over the weekend by the Wagner Mercenary Group. I caught up with USA TODAY Politics Intern Miles Herszenhorn for the latest, and to get a sense of what's next for Russia's war in Ukraine. Welcome back to 5 Things, Miles.

Miles Herszenhorn:

Thank you so much, a pleasure to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

Can you just start by updating our listeners on what exactly has happened the past few days in Russia?

Miles Herszenhorn:

The events in Russia over the weekend are unlike anything that we've really seen ever under Putin's leadership. Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is the leader of the Wagner Group, which is a mercenary outfit in Russia, led an armed rebellion against the Russian government and the Russian military. For 24 hours, it was really unclear how far he would go and whether he would succeed, but Prigozhin came all the way to within 200 kilometers of Moscow before Belarus's President Aleksandr Lukashenko brokered a deal that resulted in Prigozhin turning around, leaving Russia and going to Belarus.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, and Miles, I'm wondering, how did we get to this point? What are the major differences between how the Wagner Group and Prigozhin view the conflict in Ukraine compared with the Russian military?

Miles Herszenhorn:

What's really interesting is that Prigozhin's troops, the Wagner Group, and the Russian military have been fighting side by side in this conflict since Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. The main issue at hand is how Prigozhin feels the Russian military is handling the war. He believes in its goals, he believes that Russia should win. Prigozhin is just incredibly unhappy with how it's all being run. And his main enemy in all of this is Russian Defense Minister Shoigu. He has unleashed his fury on Shoigu, and said that the main reason for taking his men and going all the way up to within 200 kilometers of Moscow was to essentially stage a protest of the Russian military's leadership in this war. In fact, Prigozhin even said yesterday in a voice message that the main purpose was to stage a protest, and not to result in a change of leadership in the Russian government. However, it was an armed rebellion and men died on both the Wagner side and also on the side of the Russian military. So it's a lot more complex than Prigozhin is making it out to be, or Putin is making it out to be.

Taylor Wilson:

What's next for him and is Prigozhin now in danger?

Miles Herszenhorn:

You just have to look back to Russia opposition leader Alexei Navalny, when he returned to Russia after he was poisoned in Russia and then went to Berlin for healing. When he came back, Navalny was thrown in jail for violating the terms of his parole because he was in a coma in Berlin. So Putin does not forgive or forget easily at all, which makes it all the more remarkable that he decided to let Prigozhin just go to Belarus without any repercussions whatsoever. There are a lot of questions behind what's going on here, but Prigozhin seems to be in Minsk, in the capital of Belarus. Putin has claimed that he will honor the terms of this agreement to let both Prigozhin and who whoever from the Wagner outfit wants to join him in Belarus go there, but we have to see.

Taylor Wilson:

And we know that Wagner mercenaries have been a huge part of Russia's invasion of Ukraine so far. What does all this mean for the Wagner Group's military capabilities going forward?

Miles Herszenhorn:

It's too early to say. It's unclear how many people will join him in Belarus, how many people will remain loyal to Prigozhin even if they stay in Russia. There are a lot of questions surrounding all of this, and the honest answer is that only time will tell.

Taylor Wilson:

And coming back stateside, President Joe Biden made his first public remarks on this yesterday. What is the US response here, and does this change anything about US strategy for the war in Ukraine?

Miles Herszenhorn:

President Biden made it very clear that this changes nothing in terms of US support for Ukraine. And right now, they have told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that they will support him, that they will continue to support Ukraine, and that the internal turmoil in Russia will not change that one bit. On the other hand, President Biden did make it very clear that the United States was not taking sides in this conflict between the Russian military and the Wagner Mercenary Group. US intelligence agencies reportedly had intel that Prigozhin was planning and uprising against Putin for quite some time. They did not warn Putin about this ahead of time, but it also seems to be the case that the United States provided no support to Prigozhin. This raises a lot of questions on where the United States stands in this. And right now, they've taken a more passive, neutral approach to the conflict. The main reason for that is probably because the instability of Russia's nuclear arsenal is of primary concern for the United States.

Taylor Wilson:

Miles Herszenhorn, great info for us as always. Thanks so much.

Miles Herszenhorn:

Always a pleasure to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

At a White House briefing, National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby was asked about a comment from President Joe Biden last year that Putin cannot remain in power. Kirby clarified saying, "Regime change is not our policy." Meanwhile, Russian authorities earlier today said they have closed a criminal investigation into the rebellion, with no charges against Prigozhin or any other participants.

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Tens of millions of Americans are experiencing a brutal heatwave this week. As of yesterday, more than 45 million people lived where some level of heat alert was in effect, according to the National Weather Service. And forecasters expect severe heat to continue for much of this week in Texas, the Plains, and parts of the Southeast. Scorching temperatures have reached 115 degrees in some Texas towns, setting records. That's all thanks to a sprawling heat dome that parked itself over Texas and Mexico. A heat dome happens when a region of high pressure traps heat over an area, according to William Gallus, Professor of Atmospheric Science at Iowa State University. You can read more about heat domes and find out what the weather's like in your neck of the woods with the link In today's show notes.

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The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an appeal over Louisiana's congressional map. The move sends a dispute over whether districts diluted Black voting power back to a lower court. The decision will allow a federal appeals court in Louisiana to consider the map ahead of next year's election, and it could pave the way for a new map to be drawn. It's an early sign of fallout from a major Supreme Court decision this month that sided with voters challenging Alabama's recently redrawn congressional districts under the Voting Rights Act. In that case, a five to four majority rejected Alabama's argument for a so-called colorblind approach to map-making.

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Governments around the country want to persuade the small percentage of drivers who use the most gas to switch to electric vehicles. I spoke with USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise for more. Howdy, Beth.

Elizabeth Weise:

Hey, how are you?

Taylor Wilson:

Good, thanks. Welcome back to 5 Things. So governments are increasingly pushing drivers to switch to electric vehicles. Who are they targeting specifically?

Elizabeth Weise:

Back in 2021, there was this nonprofit, an energy nonprofit called Coltura. And they did a study and they found something interesting, though not surprising, that a relatively small proportion of the people who drive in the US use an outsized amount of gasoline. So they call them gasoline superusers, and these are people who just drive a ton. They made a really interesting point. They said it's one thing if our goal is just to shift people to electric vehicles, fine. But if our goal is to actually cut the amount of CO2 that we are producing from transportation, then really the people you want to focus on are the ones who drive the most. Burlington, Vermont just passed a law this month offering extra incentives to high-mileage drivers to help get them into an EV. California has actually twice now - Phil Ting, who's an Assembly member here - has tried to get laws through the legislature to offer extra incentives and extra rebates for those folks to move into an EV. And then, just this week, Washington State released a really big report looking at who their high-mileage drivers were and what it would take to encourage them to get into electric vehicles. And I expect we'll see more of this, but there were some caveats.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, so do these initiatives have any critics?

Elizabeth Weise:

Not critics per se yet, partly because they're not that widespread. I mean, then we are seeing them on both coasts. People who study this, though, are saying it might be a little early. I talked to a guy at University of California, Davis, which has a whole institute devoted to electric vehicles and the transition to them. And they've been doing interviews and surveys of folks in California. And you think California, right, we do have a very high rate of EV penetration here. But when they go out and do interviews with normal folks, he just did a maybe 20 people focus group, not one of them had heard of electric cars. And the most recent one, a third of the people they interviewed couldn't even name any electric car. I mean, not even Tesla. We in the media and people who, I mean, I think about this a lot, I'm like, "Oh, everybody knows about electric cars." Well, they don't really. So is it a question of do we need to encourage people to buy electric cars or do we just need to get the idea out there that, hey, these exist and they probably would save you a chunk of money?

Taylor Wilson:

Beth, you bring up an interesting dilemma at the end of this story and this idea of, well, this is a 20-year-old vehicle or whatever it is, I want to just drive it into the ground. Is that better for emissions than just immediately switching over to a new electric vehicle?

Elizabeth Weise:

I've had three cars that I've held onto forever, a Dodge Dart and then a Honda Civic and then a Subaru, so decades. But it turns out, for people who are driving a ton of miles and burning a lot of gas, I mean, some of these folks burn 1,500 gallons of gas a year, at that point, even though it does require a lot of CO2 to build a new car, the payback to get someone to stop creating the CO2 from burning that much gas is actually pretty quick. When I was talking to the guy at UC Davis, I said, "Well, what do you mean people don't know about EVs?" And he said, "Well, EV companies, they don't need to advertise. They sell everything they bill, they have long wait lists. There's no reason for them to spend money on advertising at this point because they don't need to."

The interesting thing about that is that people who drive a lot - in California, that tends to be folks have to live a long ways out to find affordable housing so they have to drive a really long way to get to work - they may not be hearing about it because they're not seeing ads. Because if you look at the data, if you drive a lot, actually buying an electric vehicle, if you charge it at home would save you a chunk of money. And actually, some of the people I spoke with said, "I wonder if we really need incentives." People, as soon as these cars become available, folks are going to realize, "I can save a lot of money on gas costs. It makes sense for me to do this." It's just that we don't have the inventory yet for them to buy. So a lot of this is in play, although it feels like we've had electric vehicles for a long time and we have, really the market is nowhere near mature yet, and we just don't even know what it's going to look like.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Elizabeth Weise, thanks for your insight as always.

Elizabeth Weise:

I love my job, it's fascinating stuff.

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Taylor Wilson:

Nearly 4.5 million people in the US live in an ambulance desert. That means 25 minutes or more from an ambulance station. And more than half of those are residents of rural counties. That's according to a new national study from the Maine Rural Health Research Center and the Rural Health Research Centers. And as more rural hospitals close around the country, dwindling emergency medical services also must travel far to the nearest hospital or trauma center. Experts and those in the field say EMS needs a more systematic funding model to support rural and poorer communities. And with so many Indigenous reservations and communities in some of the country's most rural areas, they're often the hardest hit by this critical lack of resources. The Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe, for instance, has no ambulance or hospital. The reservation stretches along the Nevada-Oregon border. Tribal chairwoman Maxine Redstar said the community used to have an ambulance service but couldn't afford to keep it going. You can read more with the link in today's show notes.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. If you have any comments, you can reach us at podcasts@usatoday.com. And if you'd like, you can drop us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russia's next steps after coup threat, heat dome warms Texas: 5 Things podcast