Russia launches 'inhuman' attacks, Ukraine says | The Excerpt
On Thursday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast (first released on December 26, 2024): Ukraine says Russia carried out attacks on Christmas Day. Meanwhile, Russia says it has foiled Ukrainian plots to kill senior officers with disguised bombs. A plane crashed in Kazakhstan Wednesday, killing at least 38 people. Paste BN Consumer Travel Reporter Zach Wichter discusses the future of snow sports amid climate change. President-elect Donald Trump taps Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera to serve as ambassador to Panama. Paste BN Books Reporter Clare Mulroy talks about some of her favorite reads of the year.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. 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.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson. And today is Thursday, December 26th, 2024. This is The Excerpt.
Today, we have the latest on violence in Russia and Ukraine this week, plus what happened to a plane that went down in Kazakhstan. And we discuss the future of ski slopes amid climate change.
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Russia attacked Ukraine's energy system and several cities with crews and ballistic missiles along with drones yesterday. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it an inhuman Christmas Day assault. "The strikes wounded at least six people in the northeastern city of Kharkiv and killed one in the region of Dnipropetrovsk," the governors there said. President Joe Biden denounced Russia's moves and said he had asked the Defense Department to push forward with a new wave of military aid to Ukraine. Elsewhere, Russia's Federal Security Service said earlier today it had foiled several plots by Ukrainian intelligence services to kill high-ranking Russian officers and their families in Moscow using bombs disguised as power banks or document folders.
Earlier this month, Ukraine's SBU intelligence service killed Lieutenant General Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical protection troops, in Moscow outside his apartment building by detonating a bomb attached to a scooter.
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A passenger jet crashed in Kazakhstan yesterday, killing at least 38 people, while some 29 survivors received hospital treatment. The Azerbaijan Airlines flight had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan to Russia. While Russia's aviation watchdog called the incident an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike, an aviation expert speaking to Reuters disagreed. "A collision with birds typically results in the plane landing in the nearest available field," said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at AeroDynamic Advisory. He said that you can lose control of the plane, but you don't fly wildly off course as a consequence.
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As we move deeper into the heart of winter, you might be thinking of hitting the slopes for some snow sports, but will snow sports survive climate change? One thing we know is key slopes are adapting. I spoke with Paste BN consumer travel reporter Zach Wichter to learn more.
Zach, thanks for hopping on today.
Zach Wichter:
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So Zach, what are some of the struggles that ski resorts are facing in the midst of climate change?
Zach Wichter:
Snowfall totals are getting less and less predictable. And so mountains are really having to do a lot of work to figure out how to keep the ski season going. I was able to go visit a couple of ski mountains in Utah in early December and really got to see first-hand some of the things that they're doing to ... Obviously, they're not solving climate change, but they are solving for climate change at these resorts. And one of the biggest things is actually an increase in artificial snowmaking because these snow totals and snowfall is getting less predictable. Mountains are relying more and more, especially early in the ski season, on snow that they can produce to get terrain open.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah. I want to hear a little bit more about that. I think folks who don't ski or snowboard or engage in some of these sports might be surprised just how commonplace this is becoming, right? The use of artificial snowmaking, especially early in the winter, Zach. Just how crucial is this to the present and future success of ski mountains? And really what advancements have we seen in this technology?
Zach Wichter:
You're absolutely right. So I've been a snowboarder since I was a kid, going on a few decades now of snowboarding. I grew up snowboarding on the East Coast where snowmaking for my entire life has been really common at the mountains that I grew up going to. East Coast winters have always been a little bit warmer and the snowfall a little less predictable than mountains in the West Coast. And so these East Coast resorts were actually kind of global innovators in snowmaking. And I can say from firsthand experience, every winter, basically every time I went snowboarding, even as a kid on the East Coast, I would see these snowmaking machines in action. Where things are starting to change is especially out west in the Rockies and in other parts of the mountain west in the US. It used to be that mountains out west really had much more dependable snowfall.
And earlier in the season, snow would start falling naturally. But now that snowfall, if they are getting it consistently, it's coming later in the season. And so mountains are really relying on creating snow of their own using these big machines that they have kind of dotted along the slopes to get terrain open. And that's what I saw when I was out in Utah in early December, how much they're laying down artificial powder. And these machines are just getting a lot more efficient and a lot better at the job that they're set up for. The newest generation of snowmaking machines is a lot more energy and water efficient. That's been a big criticism actually of ski mountains as it does take a lot of energy and a lot of water to make the amount of snow that they need to get terrain open. And so every new iteration of snowmaking machines is more efficient on both of those scores.
And then the other thing is the true latest generation of snowmaking machines has sensors and other technology on board so that the snowmaking teams at these mountains can really optimize for the conditions that are occurring naturally. In order to make snow, you need freezing temperatures, but freezing temperatures don't always hit the mountain at exactly the same place at exactly the same time throughout the day. And so I saw, again, firsthand when I was out in Utah that the latest generation of snowmaking machines really benefits from these sensors because the snowmakers are able to kind of select for the machines that are located in areas of the mountain that have ideal snowmaking conditions and can turn those on, leave the other ones off. And that all just points back to the greater gains in efficiency that snowmaking has really benefited from in the past few decades.
Taylor Wilson:
So what are some other ways, Zach, mountain towns are maybe adapting to this changing climate? I know you mentioned in the piece that some are adding off-season activities, for instance.
Zach Wichter:
The industry is pretty clear-eyed about the fact that the climate is changing. And they also want to have things to attract people to those communities throughout the year. They don't want to necessarily just be a seasonal attraction. And so a lot of ski mountains are adding various attractions, different kinds of outdoors activities, hiking, mountain biking. Mountains that are located in bigger towns are doing things like bringing in festivals and concerts and conferences. The snow sports are and probably always will be their bread and butter. But they want to keep their employees there. They want to keep people coming into the area throughout the year. And so it's not just a way to address climate change. It's also a way to just make it an attractive tourist destination year-round.
Taylor Wilson:
Zach Wichter covers consumer travel for Paste BN. Thank you, Zach.
Zach Wichter:
Yeah. My pleasure. Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera to serve as ambassador to Panama. The announcement comes after Trump threatened to reassert US control over the Panama Canal, which had administered for decades before handing over to Panama in 1999. Trump said the Central American country is, quote, "Ripping us off on the Panama Canal far beyond their wildest dreams," unquote. In a post on Truth Social yesterday, Trump accused Chinese soldiers of illegally operating the Canal. Panama's President has said China had no influence on the Canal's administration. While China does not control or administer the Canal, a subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based group has long managed two ports located on the Canal's entrances.
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Paste BN books reporter Clare Mulroy read 50 books this year. So what stood out? I spoke with Clare about some of her favorites.
Hello, Clare.
Clare Mulroy:
Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for hopping on on this. I love to talk about books. So let's start by talking about Martyr, a book by Kaveh Akbar. You said you were sobbing, Clare, on the subway reading this. What hit you so hard?
Clare Mulroy:
This is a book that kind of brings you through every human emotion possible. I was sobbing on the train, but I was also laughing out loud. I was shocked at certain times. I think it takes a lot to really, really surprise me at the end of a book. And this was a twist ending that I really did not see coming. And it's one of those books that kind of brings you through that scale of human emotion, but on such a deep level where by the end of it, you really feel like you know this character of Cyrus and you really feel like you've been there on this journey with him. I was mourning by the end of it, not getting to be in this character's world at the end of the day.
Taylor Wilson:
That's so beautiful. So you also wrote about Our Wives Under the Sea. This was another one of your favorites from the year. And it's from Julia Armfield. What's this about? And what kind of stood out to you?
Clare Mulroy:
Yeah. So this is a 2022 speculative horror novel following this married couple that's kind of in transformation. One of them has just returned from this deep sea mission that was supposed to be short, and it ended up being ... I can't remember if it was weeks or months long. But you know what? It was catastrophic. And she comes back and she's just utterly changed as a person. And you could see her wife trying to piece together what exactly is wrong and bring that back, that sense of normalcy, and keep her from slipping between her fingers. I love this book so much. I wrote in my piece that this was my formal apology to anyone who knew me when I was reading it, because seriously, I just could not shut up about this book. I think I brought it up to my writing group probably every single week until one of them decided that they wanted to read it too. And I will not stop until everyone in my life has read this book.
Taylor Wilson:
So there's also Catalina on this list by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. What does this center on? And why did it make your list?
Clare Mulroy:
This is a campus novel, but it's also so much more than that. It's about this undocumented student at Harvard who ... When she's growing up, it's kind of framed as this Cinderella story. She came to America. And after her parents died, and her grandparents raised her, and getting into Harvard is kind of like that big moment of this is what she's worked for, she's achieving this dream. But as she's approaching graduation, she faces a world that is really not built for undocumented students or undocumented people to succeed. And so she kind of has these dreams of hers, and it's living in this world where those dreams aren't achievable for her in the way that they are for her classmates. But also, I think the thing that I love the most about Catalina was just it's such a fresh voice. I've never met a character quite as distinct and voicey as Catalina in this. She's hilarious. The writing is very ... It's very biting. It's very sharp. It's just so funny. I just loved Karla's writing in here. And she's another writer that I think I will read anything that she writes.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Let's talk about Sally Rooney. Of course, a huge name in the literature world. Her hit Normal People became a hit TV show that helped launch the careers of several actors. Her big title this year was Intermezzo. How did this book land with you and kind of with the public?
Clare Mulroy:
I loved Intermezzo. I'm a Sally Rooney girl till the day I die. So I was very excited to get my hands on a copy of this. And in my review, I called it kaleidoscopically beautiful because that's just what it was. And it's so intimately human. I think Sally Rooney has a way of writing about these very mundane actions in a way that you're like, "Oh my God, this is so groundbreaking," but it's really just someone doing the dishes. I think the way that she portrays sibling dynamics is so beautiful and messy and complicated in the way that sibling dynamics are. And it's something that I always want to read about, especially from Sally Rooney.
Taylor Wilson:
I'm curious, Clare, was there any trend or, I guess, main take you walk away with from 2024 or even recent years when it comes to books? Anything you're noticing in terms of the direction we're moving in?
Clare Mulroy:
I think overall, the thing that I've noticed the most is just how niche we're getting with our genres. People aren't really content with just being like, "I want a romance novel." They want an urban romantasy. They want the combination of all these different elements. When I've been talking to publishers and readers this year, that's the thing that they've told me, is that these lines between the genres are both simultaneously blurring and also getting hyper-specific. So you've got cozy mystery and cozy fantasy, speculative horror. You scroll on BookTok for a couple of minutes, you'll see these 20 books to read if you're a depressed 20-year-old girl trying to figure out your way through life. People want books that kind of speak to those very specific moments in their life. Or books if you loved Yellowstone. It's something that we've been trying to do a lot at Paste BN and just recognize that people really love those niche recommendations. And I love them as well.
Taylor Wilson:
So do I. And keep doing more of that, Clare. It's very helpful for those of us trying to figure out what to read next. Clare Mulroy covers books for Paste BN. Thank you so much, Clare.
Clare Mulroy:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson. And I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.