On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: US doubts Russian claims of troop pullback
Russia continues to say it does not want war. Plus, weather and climate reporter Doyle Rice talks about the historic ongoing ‘megadrought,’ a new study paints the picture of sea level rise for the next generation, half the US braces for severe winter weather and investigative reporter Katie Wedell talks about product recalls.
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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:
Buenos dias. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Wednesday, the 16th of February 2022. Today, signs of hope in Eastern Europe, plus a check-in with the world’s climate, and more.
Here are some of the top headlines:
- Republicans who control the Arizona Senate voted yesterday to outlaw abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. It’s the latest state to make aggressive abortion legislation as the Supreme Court weighs whether to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decided entirely.
- Families of nine victims from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have agreed to a $73 million settlement of a lawsuit against Remington. The company made the rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012.
- And the US men’s hockey team has been knocked out of the Olympics in the quarterfinals. They lost in a shootout last night to Slovakia.
For the second straight day yesterday, there were signs of hope that Europe might avoid war. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia does not want war, but will push for more negotiations to ensure Ukraine will not join the NATO Alliance anytime soon. That’s been Putin’s main demand in the ongoing crisis as some 150,000 Russian troops have been positioned around Ukraine’s borders. But Russia said yesterday that some troops are being withdrawn. Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
Igor Konashenkov:
[Russian language].
Taylor Wilson (translating):
“Units of the Western and Southern military districts that have completed their missions have already commenced to load up onto trains and transport vehicles will start moving back to their garrisons.”
Putin though has not committed to a full troop pullback and said Russia’s next moves in the standoff will depend on how the situation evolves. President Joe Biden said yesterday that the US has not yet verified that Russia is actually moving troops away from Ukraine’s border.
Joe Biden:
The Russian Defense Ministry reported today that some military units are leaving their positions near Ukraine. That would be good, but we have not yet verified that. We have not yet verified that Russian military units are returning to their home bases. Indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position. And the fact remains right now, Russia has more than 150,000 troops encircling Ukraine in Belarus and along Ukraine’s border. An invasion remains distinctly possible.
Taylor Wilson:
In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared today a day of national unity, calling on citizens to show Ukrainian flags and sing the national anthem. But Ukraine’s government is also not taking Russia at its word that it does not plan to imminently invade. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Dmytro Kuleba:
[Ukranian language].
Taylor Wilson (translating):
Russia constantly makes various statements. That’s why we have the rule we won’t believe when we hear, we will believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we will believe in de-escalation.
Dmytro Kuleba:
[Ukranian language].
Taylor Wilson:
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there have been no sign so far of a reduced military presence on Ukraine’s borders.
Megadoughts. They’re defined as intense droughts that last for decades or longer, and they once plagued Western North America. Now, thanks in part to global warming, a particularly rough one is back. As weather and climate reporter Doyle Rice tells us this dry spell in the West is the worst megadrought in 1200 years.
Doyle Rice:
This has been going on in the Western US now for about over 20 years. And a megadrought is defined as any drought that lasts for a couple decades or longer. And what the scientist discovered was that this one is as severe and as intense as any megadrought has been in the last 1,200 years, if you can believe it. It’s amazing they’re able to determine these types of things, but what they were able to do was look back at tree rings, is a way that they can determine whether or not past years have been in very dry or very wet. And so that’s how they determine that this particular drought is as bad as it’s been in the last 1200 years.
Couple of the big reservoirs, the two of the largest reservoirs in North America, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which are both on the Colorado River, recorded their lowest recorded levels ever in the last year or so. So these are major reservoirs that provide drinking and agricultural water for the folks out in California. And they are at their lowest level since they’ve been recorded over dozens of years.
Climate change is playing a major role in this. The scientists said that about 40% of this current megadrought can be blamed on climate change. So again, and this is human caused climate change from the burning of fossil fuels. So what we’ve got to do is reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and this type of thing hopefully will get resolved in the next few decades, if not centuries.
Taylor Wilson:
Check out Doyle’s full story in today’s episode description. While severe dry conditions can be part of our world’s changing climate, so are rising sea levels. And levels around America’s coastline will rise in the next 30 years, as much as they did in the entire 20th century. US seas by 2050 will be 10 to 12 inches higher and some places could see rises of up to a foot and a half. William Sweet, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was the lead author of an NOAA report out yesterday.
William Sweet:
The next 30 years, the footprint that’s exposed to routine flooding from high tides under a variety of reasons is going to increase, and the impacts will depend upon what we do to mitigate against those. With less heating under less emissions, the risk of higher sea level rise amount is much less. The future is in our hands, and that future does not need to be one of doom and gloom. So I think that is one of the messages that we’re saying is that if we can keep our temperatures in check, the overall amount of sea level rise looks to be related and it’s something that we will be able to deal with in this country and find solutions to live with the amount of sea level rise that’s projected to occur.
Taylor Wilson:
40% of the US population lives along the coast. The report points to warmer water that expands along with melting ice sheets and glaciers as causes of sea level rise.
A massive storm is rolling through the Central and Eastern US beginning today. Snow is likely all the way from North Texas to Northern New England according to AccuWeather, but the most disruptive snow could be from Kansas to Michigan. Elsewhere, heavy rain could lead to dangerous flash flooding from the Southern Plains to the Southern Appalachians tonight. And much of the south could face the risk of tornadoes. All in all, 11 states from Texas to Virginia are at some kind of risk for severe weather.
Often when we hear about a product recall, if we learn about it at all, it’s from a news headline, an impersonal generic mailer, or maybe social media. But according to investigative reporter Katie Wedell, consumers could soon get a notification on their phone.
Katie Weddell:
The food industry has really been ramping up their use of all sorts of new technologies to make our food safer. But one place that technology hasn’t quite reached yet is the last step of the process, which is letting consumers know: Hey, this product has been recalled, or there’s a safety alert for some reason on something you may have bought. So things that they’re looking at is direct messaging to your cellphone, using QR codes that you could have an app and you could scan your foods and see if there’s been a recall related to that, social media obviously, all the ways that we getinformation. Activists are looking into how could we use those types of communication methods to get people recall information.
I had no idea before I started reporting the story that 3000 people a year die from foodborne illnesses and thousands and thousands of people are sick and end up in the hospital. So it is a big problem. And it’s especially a big problem, unfortunately for our most vulnerable populations, little kids and elderly adults. People who are immunocompromised are tend to have bigger issues with these things. So it is important, especially if you have people like that in your household to be really vigilant about watching out for things that have been recalled.
So a lot of what we see just like in January, we had, I think, two different ones on salad products. It’s a type of food that bacteria can live in. And so it’s something that often has E. coli or salmonella. Meat products are a big one. And our system, the USDA has a whole system of how they test and watch for meat that isn’t good. But unfortunately, sometimes it just still gets through to us. And we have to be vigilant about not only watching for recalls, but cooking our food, cooking our meat properly to make sure that we kill any of that bacteria.
Taylor Wilson:
You can find more of Katie’s work on Twitter @katieweddle.
And you can find 5 Things seven mornings a week, wherever you’re listening right now. Be sure to subscribe or follow if you haven’t already. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show. And I’m back tomorrow with more than 5 Things from USA TODAY.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism