Kanye West's Donda performance, Dixie Fire destroys town of Greenville: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Dixie Fire destroys California town of Greenville. Plus, currents are being threatened by climate change, the U.S. economy continues to rebound, vaccination rates are on the rise and Kanye West makes another 'Donda' appearance in Atlanta.
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, the 6th of August 2021. Today, the Dixie Fire has destroyed a California town. Plus, Kanye West gives another glimpse at Donda, and more.
Taylor Wilson:
Here are some of the top headlines.
- US travelers to Canada may see major delays in the coming days. Some 9,000 Canada border services agency workers are set to begin striking. Canada's border with the US reopens next week.
- Six people are dead after a sightseeing floatplane crashed Thursday in Southeast Alaska. The five passengers were Holland America Line cruise passengers.
- And wildfires continue in Eastern Europe. Thousands more evacuated early Friday, North of Athens.
Taylor Wilson:
The Dixie Fire, the largest wildfire in California destroyed the gold rush town of Greenville on Wednesday night, about a 100 miles from Chico, California. The fire also chased residents away from their homes across the Sierra Nevada region, like evacuee Ron Pucci.
Ron Pucci:
Boy, I'll tell you that when it came up that canyon, it created its own wind. It was intense. It was blowing 50, 60 miles an hour.
Taylor Wilson:
The Dixie is now the sixth largest fire in the state's modern history. It's been burning for three weeks and spreading in Northern California's Plumas, Butte, Lassen, and Tahoma counties. The blaze had already destroyed 67 structures before getting to Greenville, a small town of about a thousand people. As the fire quickly approached the town, the Plumas county Sheriff's office warned on Facebook, "If you are still in the Greenville area, you are in imminent danger and you must leave now."
Taylor Wilson:
Most that already evacuated by Wednesday afternoon and other residents who stayed behind were later picked up by Sheriff's officials. The fire then decimated the downtown area Wednesday night, destroying almost every structure. Scenes were similar to the campfires destruction of Paradise, California in 2018. Volunteer Firefighter Dan Kearns said, "I'm not going to say total destruction because not every structure is gone, but the town is catastrophic - destroyed." Firefighters are now worried about other towns in the area. Residents also evacuated nearby Chester, including Dean Catron, who described the scene to the Redding Record Searchlight, part of the Paste BN Network.
Dean Catron:
It was a mass exodus out of here. I mean, people were in anything, they had trailers and camp trailers and pull-up trailers and stuff on their car. And it's amazing what people could get in their car when they have to in a short period of time is what I noticed.
Taylor Wilson:
There were red flag warnings in the region through Thursday night and dry conditions may continue in the days ahead.
Taylor Wilson:
There's more daunting news when it comes to climate change. A large system of ocean currents in the Atlantic, including the Gulf Stream, may be heading for disaster, and it's because of human-caused climate change. The news comes from a study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. It centers around the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or AMOC.
It transports warm salty water from the tropics northward at the ocean surface and cold water southward at the ocean bottom. Study author, Niklas Boers, said it's one of the planet's key circulation systems and its potential collapse would have severe consequences around the globe. It could bring extreme cold to Europe and parts of North America, raise sea levels in some places and further endanger the Amazon rainforest and Antarctic ice sheets. Findings from a similar 2018 study made comparisons to the scientifically inaccurate 2004 film "The Day After Tomorrow", which used a similar ocean current shutdown as the film's premise. At the time, the study's authors said a collapse was at least decades away, but would be a catastrophe.
Taylor Wilson:
The US likely saw another hiring spree last month. Despite COVID-19 cases rising and major staff shortages in some industries, job growth probably continued. We'll find out just how much on Friday when the Labor Department releases its July jobs report. It's expected to show that the US gained some 860,000 jobs last month, narrowly topping June's 850,000 according to a survey of economists by the data from FactSet. The pandemic led to a brief but intense recession in the US last spring, forcing shutdowns of some kind in most sectors. At the end of last month, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates near zero and noted that the economy was getting stronger. Fed chair Jerome Powell.
Jerome Powell:
As the economy continues to reopen and spending rebounds, we are seeing upward pressure on prices, particularly because supply bottlenecks in some sectors have limited how quickly production can respond in the near term. These bottleneck effects have been larger than anticipated, but as these transitory supply effects abate, inflation is expected to drop back toward our longer run goal.
Taylor Wilson:
The economy lost more than 22 million jobs in March and April of 2020, but since, it's recovered some 16 million, leaving a still 6.8 million job shortfall compared to February of 2020. Some of the states recently hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic are administering vaccinations at a higher rate, not seen since April. They include Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Oklahoma. And as White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said Thursday, "The daily average number of Americans newly vaccinated increased for the fourth week in a row." Some health officials believe the uptick in vaccinations comes as under vaccinated areas are being slammed by the Delta variant of COVID-19. Here's Zients.
Jeff Zients:
Driven by the more transmissible Delta variant, cases are continuing to rise. These cases are concentrated in communities with low vaccination rates. In fact, over the past seven days, Florida and Texas have accounted for about one third of new cases and more than one third of new hospitalizations nationwide. In seven states alone, Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, states with some of the lowest vaccination rates account for about half of new cases and hospitalizations in the past week despite making up less than a quarter of the US population. America's businesses, large and small, universities and medical schools, and many other institutions are stepping up on vaccination requirements. And our message is quite simple, we support these vaccination requirements to protect workers, communities, and the country.
Taylor Wilson:
58.2% of Americans are at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19 and 49.9% are fully vaccinated.
Well, it was just two weeks ago that Kanye West played his new album called Donda, at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz stadium in front of some 42,000 fans. Then he just never left. The rapper and producer has been living and recording music in a makeshift part of the stadiums basement, bringing in other artists to collaborate on the record. And on Thursday night, Kanye emerged again for another live album presentation. At the event, West never spoke, but played a new version of last month's album featuring other artists, including Jay Z.
Taylor Wilson:
And like the first round of Donda, West's estranged wife, Kim Kardashian West was in attendance with the couple's children. Fans though still don't know when the album will officially drop to the public with a release date unclear. For more on Thursday's event, you can search Donda D-O-N-D-A on usatoday.com. And you can find 5 Things, wherever you get your audio, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Thanks as always to Shannon Green and Claire Thornton for their great work on the show. 5 Things is part of the Paste BN etwork.