On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: The conditions of Trump’s release
Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya warned Trump before he left court. What stood out? Plus, USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise looks at some of the climate tipping points we may be approaching, the Mississippi River’s floodplain forests are dying, USA TODAY Sports Columnist Nancy Armour gives a World Cup update from Melbourne, and La Grange is Kentucky’s kindness capital.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Saturday, the 5th of August 2023. Today, we take a closer look at the conditions for Trump’s release after this week’s arraignment. Plus, we’re nearing a number of climate tipping points and the U.S. gets ready for the knockout round of the World Cup.
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The judge presiding over this week’s latest arraignment of former President Donald Trump gave him a number of warnings. U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya allowed Trump to leave without travel restrictions or a cash bond, but she gave him other conditions of release. Among them, “Don’t discuss the case with witnesses.”
The judge, though, added that Trump could potentially communicate with a witness in the case through legal counsel or in the presence of his attorney. The judge also said that the most important condition of his release is that he not commit any additional federal, state or local offenses. She said that committing any criminal offense could lead to his release being revoked. Trump was also reminded that he must show up to court if ordered by a judge to do so.
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The effects of climate change usually become clear over decades and centuries, but there’s growing evidence that we could be approaching some major tipping points. I spoke with USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise to learn more. Hello, Beth.
Elizabeth Weise:
Hey. Always a pleasure to be here.
Taylor Wilson:
Always a pleasure to have you, although we are talking climate change tipping points today. You wrote about five of them to think about. I want to start with the oceans, Beth. We’ve heard for some time that coral reefs are in trouble. Is that still the case?
Elizabeth Weise:
Oh gosh, is it, especially with the temperatures that we have been seeing in the waters off of Florida, for example. Coral live in a very specific temperature range, and they’re really, really important because they provide habitat and food for other microbes, for small plants, for fish that eat fish that eat fish that we eat. So they’re really important, plus, for tourism. And if they go a little bit above the temperature that they feel comfortable at, they die, and that’s when you get the coral bleaching, just the acres and acres of just white, bone white coral that are dead. And the concern is, and it’s actually happening now right off the coast of Florida, that ocean temperatures are so hot that the coral are dying.
And typically when things cool down again, some of the coral can come back. But right now, we’ve got scientists all up and down the coast desperately going out and trying to bring in pieces of coral to cooler waters often in the aquarium so that they can preserve them, so that when the temperatures go back down, it’s like taking seedlings that you can go replant again. The concern is that if it gets too hot, you can’t replant and they’re just gone, and when they’re gone, the fish are gone. And when the fish are gone, many, many bad things happen.
Taylor Wilson:
And shifting to land, what are the concerns and the tipping points around snow forests and also rainforests?
Elizabeth Weise:
I love that phrase, snow forest. It’s so evocative. It’s the boreal forests that you see all across Canada into Alaska, those mixed conifer pine forests that are the… If you think of the Amazon as the lungs of the planet, these forests are as well. And the concern is that, as it gets hotter and drier and windier, when you have anything that damages the forest, like fires – and as you know, we’ve seen horrific fires across Canada with just tens of thousands of acres being burned – the concern is that… So a mature tree can survive drought fine. It can survive lower rainfall well. But seedlings need moister temperatures, and so when I was talking to foresters, they said the concern is…
So after you have a fire, typically forests regenerate pretty quickly. They’re fire adapted. They’re really good at that. But the concern is, as it gets just a little bit warmer, a little bit warmer, suddenly you reach a point where the seedlings can’t survive because there’s not enough moisture for them to take hold over a couple of years until they’re big enough to survive a temporary drought. And then you might get, instead of a forest coming back, it comes back to grassland, and grassland doesn’t support the same animals. It doesn’t sequester as much carbon. Having Canada turn into grassland as opposed to forest, that would not be good.
Taylor Wilson:
And how about the Amazon rainforest? A similar tipping point to worry about down there?
Elizabeth Weise:
Exactly. There’s hotter temperature, less moisture, and especially in the Amazon, we’re seeing so much deforestation done by illegal logging. And the concern is, again, that 100 years ago, if you went in and cut down a chunk of Amazon as many farmers there learned, if you walked away and came back in five years, the jungle would start to take it over again. The concern is that’s harder and harder and that the Amazon itself could reach a tipping point where the weather is no longer conducive to the forest coming back, and instead, it comes back as Savannah.
Taylor Wilson:
What can be done to avoid some of these tipping points?
Elizabeth Weise:
We can fix this. We can stop pumping CO2 out into the atmosphere. We even know how to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere and pump it back underground. We just have to have the political will to do it. We can all be sorting or recycling and doing the things that we do, but the most important thing is to vote and to push the companies that we buy from to push for these changes. One of the scientists that I spoke with pointed out we’ve probably gotten past or we’re going to get past the 1.5 Celsius rise in global temperature, but every 10th of a degree matters, and it matters a lot. It matters to the lives and the wellbeing of millions and millions of people and everything that we can do to bring the increase down as much as possible matters. So now is the time.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, Elizabeth Weise. Thanks as always.
Elizabeth Weise:
You’re so welcome. Someday I’ll have something really, really happy and positive to talk about.
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Taylor Wilson:
The Mississippi River’s floodplain forests are dying, but the race is on to bring them back. As their name indicates, the forests usually withstand flooding, which happens on the river every year, but over the past few decades, they’ve been overwhelmed by long-lasting floods soaking the trees more than they can stand. And even before the high water began taking its toll, the Upper Mississippi River floodplain had lost nearly half of its historical forest due to urban and agricultural land use and changes to the way the water flowed after locks and dams were installed in the 1930s. More recently, a 2020 study estimated that around 30% of today’s land cover is forest in the Lower Mississippi alluvial valley, the historic floodplain of the lower river, while forests used to be continuous across the valley. Losses to the remaining forest worry scientists and land managers, especially with climate change making extreme flooding a more frequent threat.
Restoration efforts are underway. U.S. Corps of Engineers’ foresters are planting tree species that can better withstand flooding than others. Deciding what to plant at each site is a calculation of how much water could pool there, how much sun it gets, and which animals could possibly come through and destroy the hard work. Next year, the Army Corps and other agencies will begin an even more comprehensive $37 million project aimed at habitat restoration. You can read more with a link in today’s show notes.
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The U.S. has made the knockouts at this summer’s World Cup, but just barely. So how did this team get held to a draw twice in the group stage and what do they need to do to beat Sweden on Sunday in the knockouts? I spoke with USA TODAY Sports Columnist Nancy Armour to find out. Thanks for hopping back on, Nancy.
Nancy Armour:
Thank You for having me. Always a pleasure.
Taylor Wilson:
So when I had you on before the tournament, we talked about the pressure on this team to win a third title in a row, but also about how many new faces are in the squad. Their dreams of a three-peat are still alive. They’ve advanced to the knockouts, but it was a underwhelming group stage for the team. What exactly happened in the group stage, Nancy, and why have they not been as dominant as expected?
Nancy Armour:
Yeah. Underwhelming is a really nice way to put it. They seem stuck. They’re playing as if they’re weighted down, and a couple of players said the other day that they need to regain their joy, almost as if they’re trying too hard. Their open against Vietnam was a 3-0 win, which they said, “The quality of the game’s getting better. You’re not going to see these massive blowouts as you once did,” but as the tournament went on, we saw that they should have probably scored more than that and clearly they had missed chances during the game. Same thing against the Netherlands and then against Portugal. Portugal’s a really tough team to play. They’re very technical. They’re very physical. They really disrupted the U.S. women. The Americans didn’t seem to know what to do. They got out of the group barely.
This is the first time that they’ve gotten through with only one win. So they went through with their fewest points ever. They were really within a shot that hit the post. If that thing had been a few inches more to the left, the U.S. women would’ve been going home, which they’ve never done in the group stage at a World Cup or an Olympics, so that would’ve been historic. They’re talking positively saying they know they need to play better. They think that they can fix it, and that the tournaments starts anew, which is true. The knockout rounds are a new tournament. It’s win or go home. So we’ll see if they can get their stuff together.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah, we will see. I want to get your take on the knockouts here in a second, Nancy. But first, outside of the U.S. camp, which storyline stood out most to you in the group stage of this cup?
Nancy Armour:
Germany, which is just reflective of how crazy this tournament is. This tournament is the first that it’s being played with 32 teams, so the field was expanded this year. And the players and the coaches had all said, “Listen, it’s time. The game has gotten better. The teams have gotten better.” And it’s not necessarily the teams at the top of the game that are getting better, though they are, too. It’s the ones in the middle of the pack and the Columbias of the world, the Portugals of the world. These teams, they’re putting investment in, they’re putting resources in, they’re putting attention into their women’s programs, and we’re seeing the results. So we saw some just completely wacky things in this tournament. Germany went out on the group stage for the first time ever, and this is a team that it was on a lot of people’s shortlist of favorites to win this thing.
Brazil did not make the knockout round. So that’s it for Marta. South Africa went through. Morocco, which is ranked 72nd in the world, went through. Jamaica held France to a draw and Jamaica went through. Nigeria, Morocco, Columbia, Jamaica, these guys all get… I think it’s $60,000 now, because FIFA’s going to pay players directly. So for some of these women, this is going to be life-changing money. So it’s not just the wackiness and the phenomenalness of these smaller teams getting through to the knockout rounds. This is going to make some really significant financial difference in the lives of these players, which again, feeds the growth of the game.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah, absolutely. So next up, for the U.S, Sweden. It’ll be very early morning for many U.S. fans watching stateside. What does the U.S. need to do to win this one, Nancy?
Nancy Armour:
They’ve been playing a little stuck, almost like they’re overthinking it. If they can’t get themselves right for Sweden, if they can’t get up for Sweden, they shouldn’t even be here. This is their arch-nemesis. It’s like Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, these two. Sweden beat them in the Tokyo Olympics, that first game in the Tokyo Olympics, thrashed them 3-0. It’s one of the worst games I’ve ever seen the U.S. women play. They knocked them out of the Olympics in 2016, sending them home in the quarterfinals. And that’s the first time and only time the U.S. women have not reached at least the semifinals of a World Cup or an Olympics, which is just a mind-boggling stat when you think about it.
They always seem to play each other at the World Cup. It feels like it wouldn’t be a tournament if they weren’t playing Sweden, so they’ve got to finish. If they can finish the chances that they’ve had in the first three games, they’ll be okay, but they need to just play loose. This is a really good team. They’ve got really good players and they just need to remember that and not think so much about what’s all on them.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, Nancy Armour joining us from Melbourne. Thanks, Nancy.
Nancy Armour:
Anytime, Taylor.
Taylor Wilson:
You can tune in early tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM Eastern Time, 2:00 AM Pacific on Fox.
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After a week of heavy news, we bring you to LaGrange, Kindness Capital of Kentucky. Two sisters in the community there have been making signs that say, “Be kind,” since 2019 and selling them for 10 bucks a piece. That money then goes to charity. Five years and some 5,000 signs later, sisters Raegan and Rylyn Richins are still at it after beginning the project when they were nine and seven years old respectively.
And before we go, did you know that 5 Things is now on YouTube? A limited number of our specials and Sunday episodes will now be available as vodcasts. We have a link in today’s show notes.
And thanks for listening to 5 Things. Dana Taylor is in for the Sunday episode tomorrow, and I’ll see you Monday with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.
