Vermont slammed with record rain, the latest science behind anti-aging: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Vermont slammed with record rain, flooding
Paste BN National Correspondent Trevor Hughes reports from Vermont, after severe flooding. Plus, a heat wave bakes the Southwest, Ukraine's president criticizes a vague timeline for the country's NATO membership, Trump lawyers ask for a delay to his documents trial, and Paste BN Health Reporter Karen Weintraub looks at the latest science behind anti-aging.
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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 12th of July 2023. Today, we hear the latest from Vermont after devastating flooding. Plus, a NATO summit rolls on, and we look at how to live healthier longer.
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Vermont was hit with a deluge of rain this week, causing severe flooding in a number of towns and cities across the state. That includes the capital of Montpelier, where residents could be seen paddling through the streets yesterday. I spoke with Paste BN National Correspondent Trevor Hughes, who's in Vermont, about what he's seen. Thanks for hopping on 5 Things, Trevor.
Trevor Hughes:
Absolutely.
Taylor Wilson:
So you're in Vermont right now. Just how bad has the flooding been there this week?
Trevor Hughes:
The flooding in certain areas is just terrible. I mean, we're talking about areas that had, in some cases, nine inches of rain in like 24 hours, more or less, a whole summer's worth of rain in a day. And the thing is, it came on top of days and days and days of rain. The ground was already soaking wet, and so when this fresh rain came, it just had nowhere to go but downhill.
Taylor Wilson:
And Trevor, do we have a sense of how severe the property damage is at this point?
Trevor Hughes:
We don't yet have an idea of how bad the damage is. Thankfully, there haven't been any reported widespread injuries or anything like that. But I can tell you downtown Montpelier took a real hit. We're talking waist-high water into store after restaurant, after business, churches, government buildings. And there's a real concern here that, at the height of the summer tourist season, Montpelier in particular is not going to be open for business for weeks.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah. What are business owners saying about the severity for their businesses after this flooding?
Trevor Hughes:
The people I talked to said that this was worse for them than Hurricane Irene, which hit 12 years ago and sent what at the time was historic flooding through this very similar area. A lot of business owners are really sad because, as you'd expect, they've lost a lot of stock. They can't get access to their businesses, the power's off, the gas might not be working. It's going to be days under the best of circumstances for the hardest-hit areas just to get their doors reopened, never mind restocked with what they have to sell.
Taylor Wilson:
And in terms of getting around, we've seen pictures of people canoeing through town in some instances. How has this affected just getting from point A to point B?
Trevor Hughes:
Vermont's a pretty small place, and so when one or two major roads gets closed, it's awfully hard to get around. And so for most of Tuesday, Interstate 89 was closed. And Interstate 89 is the main north-south route that goes from Massachusetts all the way up to Montreal. With that road closed and a lot of the smaller roads closed, it was really hard to get around. I was lucky I was able to get into Montpelier just as the roads were reopening. And in fact, I was one of those people kayaking around the streets of Montpelier, which I got to tell you is a very surreal experience. I mean, I was kayaking past restaurants that I've eaten at, at bars I've had beer in, at bakeries I've gotten cookies from. It was really sad to see. And yet at the same time, people did seem to be in generally good spirits, again, because this is almost entirely property damage and there wasn't a lot of loss of life and injury.
Taylor Wilson:
And Trevor, how's the forecast look like for the rest of the week? Are Vermonters out of the woods here?
Trevor Hughes:
The governor is telling people that they need to stay on guard and that we are not yet out of the woods. Hopefully things are going to take a turn here as the rivers drain out, the floodwaters were definitely going down in Montpelier as of Tuesday afternoon. They had dropped about a foot over the course of a couple hours while I was there, but fingers crossed things are going to be improving here over the next couple of days.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Paste BN National Correspondent Trevor Hughes, joining us from Vermont. Thanks, Trevor.
Trevor Hughes:
Glad to be here.
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Taylor Wilson:
The Southwest continues to bake amid a severe heat wave. Phoenix yesterday reached 110 degrees for the 12th consecutive day, according to the National Weather Service. The longest recorded stretch was 18 days back in 1974. In Albuquerque, a heat advisory was in effect all day yesterday, with temperatures between 110 and 113 degrees. And the Mercury could reach 115 degrees this weekend in Las Vegas. The region has also seen no monsoon activity this summer. The storms can usually help offset scorching temperatures. In Phoenix, officials have taken a number of steps to limit heat-related illness in recent years. That includes closing major hiking trails in the middle of summer days. They've also implemented a cool pavement program that reflects heat and sunlight. Excessive heat warnings are also in effect this week for parts of Texas and California. You can find out more at usatoday.com/weather.
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NATO leaders presented a plan yesterday for Ukraine to join the military alliance when allies agree and when certain conditions are met. That came hours after Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he opposed such a vague timeline, calling it absurd. He said a lack of clarity leaves Ukraine in a weaker position for future peace negotiations with Russia, which strongly opposes that Ukraine become part of the alliance. Zelenskyy said, "For Russia, this means motivation to continue its terror." Tensions around Ukraine's prospective membership came a day after Turkey lifted its objection towards Sweden joining the alliance. NATO's Summit will wrap up today in Lithuania with President Joe Biden set to meet with Zelenskyy and others.
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Former President Donald Trump's lawyers have asked a federal judge for an indefinite delay in his classified documents trial. They argue he couldn't get a fair trial ahead of the 2024 presidential election. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon initially set an August 14th trial date. Justice Department attorneys then proposed a delay for December 11th because Trump lawyers need to get security clearances before they can study all the documents at stake in the case. But Trump lawyers now say even six months is not enough time. They also argue that Trump and co-defendant Waltine Nauta are busy with the presidential campaign and that Trump has to prepare for other criminal and civil trials. The government's reply is due on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department yesterday reversed a holding first made by the department during Trump's term in office and said he is not immune from a second defamation lawsuit by writer E. Jean Carroll. In May, she won a $5 million judgment against him for sexual abuse and defamation. Carroll has another defamation suit pending against Trump for comments he made about her during his presidency.
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Do you want to live healthier longer? Scientists are increasingly studying longevity with an aim to improve life quality over quantity. I spoke with Paste BN Health Reporter Karen Weintraub about some of the latest findings. Howdy, Karen.
Karen Weintraub:
Hey.
Taylor Wilson:
So when it comes to the biology of aging, what have scientists found in recent years?
Karen Weintraub:
Yeah, so well, we're all doing it, we know that, and people do it at different rates. So there's your biological age, and there's your chronological age. Your birthday doesn't always match, which we all know from going to high school and college reunions, some people look better than others. And there are people developing what they call biological clocks. So they're trying to figure that out using markers within the body to try to pinpoint that. How old is your liver? How old are your kidneys versus the rest of you? That kind of thing. And the importance of that is that they want to be able to use that to say, "Is this drug, is this thing that you're doing working?" So if you start a new workout routine, is it helping make you younger, for instance, or helping your body age better, or if you start a new pill? And so it's important to try to figure that out, but it's a slow process.
Taylor Wilson:
And have we learned anything about the role that genes might play when it comes to aging?
Karen Weintraub:
Yeah, so definitely, they do play a role. It's probably not determinative, you might have great genes and unfortunately walk in front of a truck or be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Genes do play a role, but lifestyle plays probably a bigger role than genes.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. So we'll get to lifestyle in a sec, but I want to talk about some of the drugs that we've seen pop up in recent years. A lot of drugs claim to have longevity benefits. We've talked about this here on the show before, Karen. Are there some that actually work, and why is testing these kinds of drugs so challenging?
Karen Weintraub:
So at this point, no drug has been proven to work in humans. There are a lot of drugs that work in animals, in mice, but nothing has been shown in people. That testing is really just starting now. There are about 50 trials starting worldwide in a number of those drugs. One of them is called rapamycin. It's an approved drug for transplant patients to help reduce organ rejection. And it works really well in animals, extends mouse lifespans, some by as much as 30%, but it's unclear whether it will have that benefit in humans, whether it will have some side effect in people that we can't anticipate. The problem is you can't follow people for 30 years, half of whom get rapamycin and half of whom don't. Nobody wants to wait 30 years, and that trial would be extremely expensive. So those trials tend to look at one aspect of aging.
So one trial that I mentioned in this story is looking at menopause. What happens to women as they enter menopause? There are measurable things that happen to a woman's ovaries around menopause. The trial is for 50 women, half of whom will get rapamycin and half of whom will get a placebo. And they're looking to see if there are any differences in markers. If it can slow ovarian aging in the women who get rapamycin for three months, three months might not be enough, 50 women might not be enough to show effectiveness, and then they're going to follow them for nine months. So it's still going to be a while before we know on that specific one. If it works for ovarian aging, it might not work for aging overall. They have to wait and see. So again, we're at the very beginning of this science, but it's provocative, and we all want to know the answer.
Taylor Wilson:
And as you mentioned, lifestyle is still often one of the great deciders on health span. What exactly do the experts say here?
Karen Weintraub:
As much as we hate to hear it, you really should get out of bed and exercise. Well, you should be in bed for longer than many of us are. Sleep is really important for health, brain health, heart health, all of the good stuff. One researcher told me, he's older now, he can't really sleep for eight hours anymore, but he makes sure to stay in the dark for eight hours. So he may only get six and a half hours of sleep, but he's in a dark, quiet room for eight hours. Exercise, hugely important. Every study has shown that for decades. Stress reduction is important. Social interaction is really important at every age. Having friends, having support, network, talking to people, all of that is really important at keeping your brain active and keeping you healthy as you age, and potentially keeping you alive longer, but certainly keeping you healthy for longer while you're alive.
Taylor Wilson:
Karen Weintraub, thanks so much.
Karen Weintraub:
Thank you.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. If you like the show, you can subscribe and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And if you have any comments, you can reach us at podcasts at usatoday.com. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from Paste BN.