Ukraine doubts Russian pledge to scale back operations, USMNT's World Cup run: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Russia pledges to scale back Ukraine invasion, amid western doubts
Russia says it is focusing military operations on southern and eastern Ukraine, not the capital of Kyiv. Plus, tech reporter Terry Collins talks about the war's effect on tech workers in the country, severe weather rolls across the South, health reporter Karen Weintraub says Americans aged 50 and up can now get a second COVID-19 booster and the U.S. men's soccer team can qualify for the World Cup tonight.
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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 Wednesday, the 30th of March 2022. Today Russia's shifting focus in Ukraine. Plus some Americans can now get a second booster for COVID-19 and more.
Here are some of the top headlines:
- A gunman on a motorcycle opened fire in central Israel yesterday, killing at least five people. Israeli media said the attacker was a Palestinian, marking the third Arab assailant to launch an attack there in recent weeks.
- The man accused of driving into an Oregon homeless camp killing four people had a blood alcohol level more than three times the legal limit according to prosecutors. They also said he was driving 70 miles an hour in a 35 mile per hour zone.
- And the NFL has changed its overtime rules in the playoffs. League owners voted yesterday to make a change in the postseason so that each team gets at least one possession. The move comes after the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills in an overtime playoff game earlier this year when the Bills did not touch the ball in OT.
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Russia announced yesterday that it'll significantly scale back military operations near Ukraine's capital of Kyiv. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said that Russia is cutting back military activity around the capital and also the Northern city of Chernihiv to "increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations." The announcement followed similar comments by Russian officials last week, but may hold more weight as it comes during in-person negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey. Ukraine's delegation there laid out a framework yesterday that would see Ukraine declare itself neutral while its security would be guaranteed by other nations. Moscow's public reaction was positive and negotiations are expected to resume today. But US leaders are skeptical of Russia's claims that they'll move attention away from Western Ukraine and focus on the Eastern Donbas region. President Joe Biden said he cannot yet assess Russia's actions.
Joe Biden:
We'll see. I don't read anything into it until I see what their actions are. We'll see if they follow through on what they're suggesting. There are negotiations that have begun today or not begun, continued today, one in Turkey and others. I had a meeting with the heads of state of four allies in NATO, France, Germany, the United States and Great Britain. And there seems to be a consensus of let's just see what they have to offer. We'll find out what they do. But in the meantime, we're going to continue to keep strong the sanctions. We're going to continue to provide the Ukrainian military with their capacity to defend themselves, and we're going to continue to keep a close eye on what's going on.
Taylor Wilson:
It wouldn't be the first time Russia has deceived with its public comments surrounding the invasion. Before invading, the Russian military said some units were loading equipment onto rail cars and preparing to return to their home bases after exercises. But just 10 days later, Russia invaded. For his part in one of his latest video addresses, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia cannot be trusted. He said signals from this week's negotiations are positive, but can't "silence explosions of Russian shells." And those explosions continue in Ukraine's southeast. Residents remain largely cut off from the outside world in Mariupol where at least hundreds, maybe thousands have already been killed. And in another Southern port city, Mykolaiv, a Russian strike hit a nine story government administration building killing at least 12 people. In that city, like around Ukraine, a network of volunteers has helped a rally around Ukraine's army. They're helping supply soldiers with makeshift bulletproof vests, clothing and other supplies. Olga Kukharenko is a violinist, though now she's a war effort volunteer.
Taylor Wilson translating for Olga Kukharenko:
"I feel very comfortable. This place makes me feel needed. I know that my work is needed. I am helping our military forces, all our people, people who require our help, thus it is much better for me to be among people than to stay at home, hide than be frightened. It is not frightening here."
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Tech companies around the world, from giants like Google and Microsoft to little known startups, rely on Ukrainian workers. But that's been made complicated by Russia's invasion of the country. Tech reporter Terry Collins has more.
Terry Collins:
I think what a lot of people don't realize is that while known companies, such as Google and Microsoft have workers based in Ukraine which has become a tech hotbed within the last decade or so. There are many far lesser known and early mid stage startups around the world that count on this embattled country's talent rich pool of engineers and developers, which now could be in jeopardy due to the conflict in Ukraine. So we're talking part through our laptops and our smartphones, a lot of them are behind some of the back end that we need and use to communicate and with many of our hardware. They start learning STEM - science, technology, engineering, and math - at a very early age compared to many parts of the world. So they come almost ready much sooner and therefore they're in much higher demand in terms of with big tech and little tech.
I wrote that tech is slowly becoming a part of Ukraine's GDP. And so, as I mentioned in the story, there are a lot of companies, startups that range from early to mid stage to some even larger that. What we're seeing is that some of these companies, they're finding ways to try to keep going despite the conflict. Either they're relocating to other parts of Europe, other parts of the world, and also staying in business because their philosophy is they want to keep going, keep the country's economy going so they can pay taxes so that some of those funds could help support the army in the Ukraine to help ward off this invasion.
I think one of my biggest takeaways is how some of the companies are willing to fight, fight even for their country, literally. I talked to a co-founder of a company DMarket, which specializes in gaming in the metaverse, and one of the co-founders is actually on the front lines battling in Kyiv. When I talked to him, he was in full uniform, kind of camouflaged and everything, similar to what we see Zelenskyy wearing and he was talking to me on screen just after coming off a shift and he was in uniform sitting in a gaming chair. So instead of programming and coding, he just came back from a shift on patrol. And in the background, I could see some of his weaponry, which included rifles and all sorts of artillery. So it gives you a sense of how serious this war is from another perspective and how many people are putting their lives and their livelihoods on the line to fight for their country.
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Severe weather is moving across the eastern half of the country this week. The Storm Prediction Center says more than 55 million people are at risk for some kind of severe weather today. That's especially true in parts of the deep south where tornadoes are possible and 20 million people are at risk across the country tomorrow. This latest round of rough weather comes after a snow squall caused a deadly pile up in Pennsylvania on Monday.
Mike Moy:
This is ridiculous. It's snow and fog mixed together and it made the visibility down to zero and ... oh, watch out! Watch out! Oh God!
Taylor Wilson:
That was the voice of witness and survivor, Mike Moy. The crash on Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County involved more than 50 vehicles, including trucks that caught on fire. It killed at least three people and injured dozens more. Part of the highway remained closed yesterday.
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The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have decided that people aged 50 and up are now eligible for a second COVID-19 booster at least four months after their first. Health reporter Karen Weintraub has more.
Karen Weintraub:
At this point it doesn't mean anything people under 50. It's not clear that people under 50, especially if they're healthy, if they have a normal immune system, that they would need another shot at this point. They're very good protection from the current vaccines, particularly if they've boosted. The first two doses do a really good job of keeping people out of the hospital. The third dose was very protective against omicron. Didn't prevent all disease, but it did keep people from getting very sick. And again, if you're young and healthy and vaccinated, you don't have anything to worry about at this point from COVID. But older people, people who are immune compromised really do need that extra help.
No safety concerns have been raised at this point about getting a fourth dose. There are some theoretical concerns, some issues seen in animals, but nothing seen in people at this point. Theoretically, if you keep adding and boosting, at some point the immune system might overreact, but we haven't seen that yet in any of the studies that have been done to date.
The one other thing I would add is that the experts I talked to emphasized that what's really important is to get the first, second and third shots, that a supplementary booster is useful again for people who are elderly or immune compromised. But healthy people really should get those earlier shots. And even if you had COVID along the way, especially if you had delta or something earlier, that it's a good idea to get those three shots to provide protection against the current variants.
Taylor Wilson:
For Karen's full piece, check out today's episode description.
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The US Men's Soccer Team has done just about enough to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar later this year, almost. The US hammered Panama 5-1 on Sunday to give themselves a great chance to qualify tonight in their final group qualifier away to Costa Rica. As long as the US does not lose by six goals or more tonight, they'll qualify. If that highly unlikely scenario does happen, the absolute worst the Stars and Stripes can do is finish in fourth, which would lead to a playoff with the winner of the Oceanic playoff, New Zealand or Solomon Islands in June. Still, the US has an awful record historically in Costa Rica and in fact has never won a World Cup qualifier there. Also from the region, Mexico appears set to qualify tonight and Canada has already done so for the first time since 1986. Costa Rica will likely finish in fourth for that playoff spot. You can watch tonight's US game just after 9:00 PM Eastern time on CBS Sports Network and Paramount+.
And you can find 5 Things on whatever your favorite podcast app is. Thanks to PJ Elliot for his great work on the show, and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from Paste BN.