As many as 100,000 Afghans — those who worked with the U.S. military over the years, and their families — are trying to get out of the country. But access to the Kabul airport is controlled by the Taliban, and the American military says evacuating American citizens is its 'first priority.'
Among the Afghans trying to flee are those who've applied for or been granted a Special Immigrant VISA. James Miervaldis, chairman of No One Left Behind — which helps Afghan and Iraqi interpreters resettle in the U.S. — tells NPR the process has been frustratingly slow.
For Afghans and the families who do make it out, those who wind up in the United States will be offered help from organizations like the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, the group's president and CEO, tells NPR how the resettlement process unfolds.
This episode also features stories from family members of Afghan refugees already living in the U.S., which which first aired on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, with production from Hiba Ahmad and Ed McNulty. Correspondent Eleanor Beardsley in Paris reported on Afghan refugees in France.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Cato Daily Podcast - The Taliban New and Old
The Taliban has taken over Afghanistan. Is there any reason to think their assurances to Afghans are worth anything? Mustafa Akyol comments.
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Pod Save America - “Third shot’s the charm.”
President Biden grapples with criticism from Republicans like Donald Trump, journalists, pundits, and fellow Democrats over the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. Then, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy talks with Jon Favreau about the Administration’s announcement that Americans will be offered Covid-19 booster shots starting in late September.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, please visit crooked.com/podsaveamerica.
For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Science In Action - Seismic citizen science in Hispaniola
The epicentre of the tragic earthquake in Haiti last week was just 100km from that of the even more deadly 2010 one. Unlike then, a network of small cheap seismic detectors run by volunteers is currently monitoring the aftershocks. As Eric Calais says, the suspicion is that this could be the latest in a sequence of quakes, echoing previous clusters over the last few hundred years.
Hydrogen is being much touted as an alternative to natural gas as a source of fuel for homes in a low-carbon world. In particular, “blue” hydrogen – hydrogen made from fossil fuels but with the carbon dioxide being captured at the point of production – is said to be some sort of transitional fuel that could be introduced into current infrastructure with little stress. But Robert Howarth is less optimistic. He is co-author on a paper published last week analysing the net carbon impact of blue hydrogen production. He argues that not only are there hidden greenhouse gas emissions in production, but that in fact burning blue Hydrogen at home could have a worse impact than burning the natural gas from which it is made.
Meanwhile, physicists at the US National Ignition Facility are rumoured to have made a huge stride in the quest for controlled, sustained nuclear fusion. Using a barrage of powerful lasers to heat indirectly a tiny hydrogen isotope target, on the 8th of august, they briefly got 70% of the energy back from one of their runs. It is a huge leap in returns, and tantalisingly suggests some sort of runaway fusion reaction occurred. Around the world, hopes of laser-driven fusion energy generation are soaring, but as an ecstatic Kate Lancaster of the University of York cautions, even if it does represent ignition, we are still a long way from “plug socket efficiency” or net energy gain.
Meanwhile, scientists of the Leibniz Institute evolution and Biodiversity have been eavesdropping on bats in Panama. Human babies babble when they are learning how to talk. It’s been shown before that songbirds do something similar, but according to Ahana Fernandez, it now it seems another mammal joins the babbling ranks – the younglings of the Greater Sac-Winged bat of South America. Ahana tells Roland about her analysis.
(Photo by Reginald Loiussaint/JR/AFP via Getty Images)
Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex Mansfield
CoinDesk Podcast Network - BREAKDOWN: DeFi Grows in Institutional and Regulatory Importance
SEC Chair Gary Gensler focused on DeFi in a recent interview.
This episode is sponsored by NYDIG.
First, on the Brief:
- Banks and bitcoin
- Coinbase’s cash reserves
- Brian Quintenz’s CFTC departure
In the main discussion, NLW addresses decentralized finance’s (DeFi) place in regulations as crypto continues to be on the minds of policymakers. Contention across U.S. regulatory bodies remains as the Federal Reserve’s concern with stablecoins, the Treasury Dept. with the infrastructure bill and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Gary Gensler attempting to create the broadest reach on crypto regulations his organization can manage.
In The Wall Street Journal’s recent interview with Gary Gensler, the SEC chair claimed a particular focus on DeFi. He stated that core software developers, promoters and sponsors would be centralizing factors, calling the term DeFi a “misnomer.”
How will DeFi’s future unfold as it becomes increasingly important for both investors and regulators?
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NYDIG, the institutional-grade platform for Bitcoin, is making it possible for thousands of banks who have trusted relationships with hundreds of millions of customers, to offer Bitcoin. Learn more at NYDIG.com/NLW.
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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: Feodora Chiosea/iStock/Getty Images Plus, modified by CoinDesk.
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Audio Poem of the Day - meditating upon the meaning of the line “clams on the halfshell and rollerskates” in the song “good times” by chic
By D.A. Powell
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know - Listener Mail: Ben Disappears, the Lake Michigan Mothman, Strange Things in Sacramento’s Water
A listener asks for more information about the Lake Michigan Mothman. Luke is concerned about strange substances in the water of Sacramento. Ben has disappeared somewhere over the Pacific. All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.
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array(3) { [0]=> string(150) "https://www.omnycontent.com/d/programs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/2e824128-fbd5-4c9e-9a57-ae2f0056b0c4/image.jpg?t=1749831085&size=Large" [1]=> string(10) "image/jpeg" [2]=> int(0) }The Commentary Magazine Podcast - Biden’s Horrible Interview
Today's podcast considers George Stephanopoulos's jaw-dropping interview with the president and his assertions that he knew the chaos in Afghanistan was coming. We also wonder at the words of Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Austin and at the COVID behavior of New Zealand prime minister Ardern. Give a listen.
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CBS News Roundup - World News Roundup: 08/19
One state's ultimatum to school workers -- get a COVID-19 vaccine or you could lose your job. A debate over the need and ethics of the new US booster recommendation. President Biden says troops will stay in Afghanistan until every American is evacuated. Correspondent Steve Kathan has the CBS World News Roundup for Thursday, August 19, 2021:
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Headlines From The Times - The fire of the decade — every year
The Dixie fire is now the largest single wildfire in California history. At more than 600,000 acres, it’s been burning in Northern California for over a month and has destroyed more than 500 homes in areas that never imagined wildfires to be a year-round risk.
That inferno continues at the same time that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released its bleakest report yet, saying: “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.”
Today, we welcome our good-natured Masters of Disasters — L.A. Times earthquake reporter Ron Lin, coastal reporter Rosanna Xia and wildfire reporter Alex Wigglesworth — to make sense of these dark and hot times.
More reading:
Dixie fire generates fire whirl, pyrocumulonimbus cloud at 40,000 feet
PG&E power line suspected in Dixie fire was set to be buried underground in safety move
California builds a ‘Noah’s Ark’ to protect wildlife from extinction by fire and heat