US struggles to speed up Afghanistan airlifts, Minneapolis ballot, Old Navy sizes: 5 Things podcast
On today's 5 Things episode: The Taliban's early rule has been met with major challenges. Plus, babies and toddlers are more likely to transmit COVID-19 than teenagers, Minneapolis again considers major changes to its police department, Lorde has a new album and Old Navy revamps women's sizes.
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 Friday, 20th August 2021.
Taylor Wilson:
Today, food shortages in Afghanistan, plus new data on how babies are transmitting COVID-19 and more.
Taylor Wilson:
Here are some of the top headlines.
- OnlyFans will be removing sexually explicit content from its platform. The company's success is largely due to popular sex workers, but the company is shifting away from that model as it tries to get outside investors at a $1 billion valuation.
- Hurricane Grace is heading for a second landfall in Mexico. After hitting the Caribbean side of the Yucatan Peninsula, Grace is next headed for the country's Gulf Coast on Friday.
- And Japanese actor, Sonny Chiba, has died. He wowed the world with martial arts skills in more than a hundred films, including Kill Bill. He was 82.
Taylor Wilson:
The Pentagon said Thursday that 7,000 civilians have been taken out of Afghanistan since August 14th. The US military said it's ramping up evacuations in the final days of having troops on the ground there. Joint staff director of current operations, Major General Hank Taylor.
Major General Hank Taylor:
The US military footprint in Kabul is now more than 5,200 total troops on the ground. Kabul Airport remains secure and open for flight operations. There are now multiple gates that have access for entry into the airfield, which will help expedite processing in a safe and orderly manner.
Major General Hank Taylor:
In the past 24 hours, 13 C-17s arrived with additional troops and equipment. Also, 12 C-17s departed. These flights contain more than 2,000 passengers. Since the start of evacuation operations on August 14th, we have airlifted approximately 7,000 total evacuees. We're ready to increase throughput and have scheduled aircraft departures accordingly. We intend to maximize each plane's capacity. We're prioritizing people above all else.
Taylor Wilson:
For so many Afghans though, getting a US airlift out of the country is not an option. Many people have been trying land exits out of Afghanistan after the Taliban's recent takeover. The Taliban though has been controlling much of the border, but there are new images coming from the border with Pakistan of Afghans successfully entering that country.
Taylor Wilson:
The desperation is real. Images circulated earlier in the week of bodies falling off a military plane, as it departed Kabul. Crowds had gathered at the airport and several people clung to the outside of the plane as it took off. We now know that a member of Afghanistan's youth soccer team, Zaki Anwari, was one of the people who fell to his death.
Taylor Wilson:
Thursday was Independence Day in Afghanistan, and in some demonstrations around the country, Afghans waved their national flag, which has been replaced by Taliban flags nationwide.
Speaker 3:
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Taylor Wilson:
But the Taliban responded with violence, scattering demonstrations in Kabul using gunfire.
Taylor Wilson:
The group has promised a more moderate approach to past Taliban rule, but the insurgents have already killed one person at a rally in Jalalabad this week, and they've instituted a 24 hour curfew in Khost Province. During the Taliban's rule in the late 1990s, they confined women to their homes most of the time, banned television and music, and publicly executed people.
Taylor Wilson:
How exactly the Taliban will rule this time still isn't clear. What is clear is they've inherited a country in desperation, amid possible inflation and severe drought. The United Nations World Food Program in Afghanistan says more than 40% of the country's food has been lost to drought. A Kabul shopkeeper, Hafiz Ahmad, told the AP that some food has made its way to the capital, but prices have gone up.
Taylor Wilson:
Past Afghan governments relied heavily on international aid. 75% of the previous government's budget was covered by donor countries. And the Afghani currency was supported by almost weekly shipments of US dollars to Kabul. The Taliban have long supported themselves on the drug trade. Afghanistan is the world's top cultivator of the poppy, which heroin and opium are produced from. The Taliban are not expected to push for the same level of international aid as past regimes.
Taylor Wilson:
Babies and toddlers are more likely to transmit COVID-19 than teenagers. That's what researchers from Public Health Ontario in Canada found in a recent study. Teens were far more likely to get the virus, presumably because they leave the house more and interact with others. They made up 38% of the cases the study looked at, compared with 12% for babies and toddlers.
Taylor Wilson:
But researchers found that kids aged zero to three years old were 1.43 times more likely to transmit COVID than those aged 14 to 17. The study took place last year before vaccines were administered to teenagers.
Taylor Wilson:
Health experts emphasize that data does not necessarily mean babies and toddlers or more infectious than teens, but that they may be more likely to transmit it to parents and caregivers because they're in close contact with them. Even when a baby is sick, it's impossible to quarantine since someone must take care of them.
Taylor Wilson:
Cases and even hospitalizations for COVID among children are on the rise, but kids under the age of 12 are still not eligible to get vaccinated. President Joe Biden said in July that younger children might be eligible this month, but trials began in March for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for younger children and health experts expected those results sometime this fall.
Taylor Wilson:
An FDA official said last month that emergency use authorization for some younger age groups could come this winter. 60.2% of Americans are at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19 with 51.1% fully vaccinated.
Taylor Wilson:
Minneapolis is again considering major changes to its police department. That comes more than a year after a failed push to do so following the police murder of George Floyd there last summer.
Taylor Wilson:
Residents in November will vote on a ballot question that would change the city's charter and create a department of public safety instead. And city officials must finalize the ballot question and submit it by Friday. If approved, the new department would use a public health approach and include licensed peace officers, if necessary. It would also no longer be under the sole control of the mayor's office, giving more oversight to the city council.
Taylor Wilson:
Lorde is back. The New Zealand pop star returns with her third studio album on Friday and her first since 2017's Melodrama. That album was nominated for album of the year, combining heartbreak and teenage interests while diving into pop anthems.
Taylor Wilson:
But her latest called Solar Power is much mellower. She's again collaborating with producer Jack Antonoff, also known for his work with Taylor Swift. But this time she's throwing in influences ranging from classic rock like the Eagles and the Mamas and the Papas, to R&B artists from her youth like Natasha Bedingfield and TLC.
Taylor Wilson:
Lorde told USA Today, "I was tired after Melodrama. It was a very intense album and I felt I'd given it my all. I needed to just go and slow down at home and I very much did that."
Taylor Wilson:
Old Navy is redefining its women's sizes. The company is calling the move bod equality. Old Navy said it'll be the first value retailer to offer sizes zero through 30 and extra small to 4X for all women's styles with no price difference. As part of the change Old Navy stores are doing away with special plus-sized sections and mannequins will display clothes in sizes 4, 12 and 18.
Taylor Wilson:
The company is also updating its waistbands so jeans won't gap and adjusting sleeve openings so bras won't show. Old Navy clarified that bod equality is not just a one-time campaign, but instead, a full transformation going forward.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to 5 things. You can find us on Spotify, Apple podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you find your audio. Thanks as always to Shannon Green and Claire Thornton for their great work on the show. 5 things is part of the USA Today network.