12 U.S. service members were killed in an attack at the Kabul airport on Thursday. They were among some 5,000 U.S. troops evacuating American citizens, Afghans allies, and others from Kabul. At least 60 Afghans were also killed.
New York Times journalist Matthieu Aikens describes the scene at the airport moments after the attack. NPR's Quil Lawrence reports on reaction from the Pentagon.
For more coverage of unfolding events in Afghanistan, listen to NPR's morning news podcast, Up First, via Apple, Spotify, Google, or Pocket Casts.
Nancy Pelosi stops a centrist rebellion over the budget, a new Change Research/Crooked Media poll of Virginia gives Democrats a small lead and a few warnings signs for 2022, and California Senator Alex Padilla stops by to discuss the California recall, voting rights, and more.
Indian authorities have approved the world’s first DNA-based Covid vaccine for emergency use. Not all the data that has led to the opening of the phase 3 trials is yet publicly available, but as public health policy expert Chandrakant Lahariya explains to Roland, it could be a real help in India’s, and the world’s, fight to get things under control.
The origins of the Covid virus were investigated last winter by a WHO team sent to Wuhan – where the first cases were discovered – earlier this year. Their work has since become the subject of intense political scrutiny and some criticism. This week, members of the team including Marian Koopmans have written a rebuttal, setting out the original terms of the investigation and urging the continuation of the process, as she explains to Victoria Gill.
Most of the science written by people from or about the African continent is written in English. Many local African languages do not currently have a meaningful vocabulary for many of the scientific terms and concepts researchers use. This week a team of scientists, journalists, and translators are completing the launch of a project called Decolonise Science, which will take 180 nominated papers posted on the website AfricaArxiv, translate them into 6 African languages including isiZulu, Sothu, and Hausa, and then use Machine Learning methods to build resources for science communication and education in people’s home languages. Project partner Sibusiso Byela explains the thinking.
This week the UK’s Royal Society announced its annual awards. Kenya’s George Warimwe has taken the Africa Award for his work creating vaccines for a virus that creates disease in livestock and humans – Rift Valley Fever. His promising approach stems from years of working with adenovirus technology akin to the AstraZeneca covid virus. But as he explains, his One Health approach is to learn from the immune response in humans and apply it to animals, and vice-versa. The grant associated with the award should also help him and his team pick- up on research left-off before the coronavirus pandemic.
Bitcoin saw a significant drop in hashrate after China’s mining bans. The network accordingly implemented its largest difficulty adjustment, a parameter to adjust incentives for mining, to date. Has this adjustment worked?
In investments, Simon Nixon, one of the winners of the dot-com bubble, has emerged as the newest millionaire to delve into crypto. Last on the Brief, Royal announced a $16 million raise for its music tokenization platform, the aim of which is to give more power to the artists when it comes to royalty rights.
In the main discussion: With inflation on the minds of many economists and consumers, the Federal Reserve pushed a “transitory” narrative while pinning the blame on supply chain issues. Looking back at the history of supply chains reveals why COVID-19 broke the global goods network. Are the supply chain issues going to be as transitory as the Fed hopes?
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“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Only in Time” by Abloom. Image credit: MR.Cole_Photographer/Moment/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk.
Nir Eyal is the bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a spirited debate over whether we're actually addicted to our phones, the ethics of app developers who use tricks to keep us coming back, and what to do about it.
Wernher von Braun wrote a curious story about encountering Martians. A listener explains the power of hand-written letters. An email inspires the guys to dive deep into the macabre world of modern grave robbing. All this and more in this week's listener mail.
We should admit to ourselves and each other that harm reduction will be a far less destructive strategy for dealing with COVID-19 than harsh lockdowns and other mandates. Jeff Singer is author of the new Cato paper on the subject.
The whole crew is back together to discuss an inadvertently telling op-ed by Ezra Klein that defends the dishonorable behavior of the United States in the present moment by falsely characterizing the entire past twenty years and the purposes of the fight in Afghanistan, among other places. And we discuss whether liberals have entirely lost the thread of their connection to ordinary Americans. Give a listen.
A warning to Westerners -- steer clear of Kabul's airport. Newly-released body cam footage shows a Louisiana state trooper beating a black man with a flashlight. Schools cope with a pandemic enrollment drop. Correspondent Steve Kathan has the CBS World News Roundup for Thursday, August 26, 2021.