New evidence shows Surfside victims may have survived initial collapse: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: President Joe Biden said the U.S. "will not forgive." Plus, a USA TODAY investigation finds that several Surfside condo victims may have survived the initial collapse, the strongest storm of hurricane season approaches the Gulf Coast, the Supreme Court puts a stop to the eviction moratorium and Samsung releases its latest foldable phones.
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:
Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson. And this is 5 things you need to know Friday, the 27th of August 2021.
Taylor Wilson:
Today, a terror attack kills American troops and Afghans in Kabul as evacuations continue there. Plus a USA Today investigation found some of the victims in the Surfside condo collapse may have survived the initial collapse and more.
Taylor Wilson:
Here are some of the top headlines. The Calder fire continues to grow as it gets closer to Lake Tahoe in the west. It was only 12% contained Thursday morning. It has damaged more than 600 structures, including most of the small town of Grizzly Flats, California.
Taylor Wilson:
Half of American workers say they're in favor of workplace COVID-19 vaccine requirements, with a quarter opposed according to a new Associated Press-NORC poll.
Taylor Wilson:
And COVID-19 vaccinations in Africa tripled over the past week, while the continent is still drastically behind the rest of the world, and the WHO says even getting to 10% of Africa vaccinated by October may be difficult.
Taylor Wilson:
At least 73 people are dead after a terror attack by the ISIS-K organization. Among those dead, 13 US service members and 60 Afghan people. It's the deadliest day for US forces in Afghanistan since 2011. The violence included a pair of bombings and a gun attack at the Kabul Airport where the US and other countries have been evacuating their citizens and Afghans in recent days. 15 additional US service members were also injured in the attack.
Taylor Wilson:
The bombings and shootings came a day after warnings from the US State Department to leave the airport because of immediate threats. General Kenneth McKenzie said Thursday that those threats continue.
General McKenzie:
The threat from ISIS is extremely real. We've been talking about this for several days. We saw it actually manifest itself here just over the last few hours with an actual attack. We believe it is their desire to continue those attacks and we expect those attacks to continue, and we're doing everything we can to be prepared for those attacks.
General McKenzie:
That includes reaching out to the Taliban who are actually providing the outer security cordon around the airfield, to make sure they know what we expect them to do to protect us, and we will continue to coordinate with them as they go forward.
General McKenzie:
We are continuing to bring people onto to the airfield. We just brought a number of buses aboard the airfield over the last couple of three hours. So we continue to process. We'll continue to fly people out. The plan is designed to operate while under stress and under attack, and we will continue to do that.
General McKenzie:
We will coordinate very carefully to make sure that it's safe for American citizens to come to the airfield. If it's not, we'll tell them to hold. And then we'll work other ways to try to get them to the airfield. But I think our mission remains. We're still committed to flying people out up until we terminate operations at some point towards the end of the month.
General McKenzie:
But I think we have the ability actually to do all of those things as we go forward. Going after ISIS. Yes, if we can find who's associated with this, we will go after them. We've been clear all along that we're going to retain the right to operate against ISIS in Afghanistan. And we are working very hard right now to determine attribution, to determine who is associated with this cowardly attack, and we're prepared to take action against them. 24/7, we are looking for them.
Taylor Wilson:
ISIS-K refers to the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, and President Joe Biden promised on Thursday that the attackers will pay.
President Biden:
Those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this. We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.
Taylor Wilson:
Evacuation flights resumed in Kabul on Friday, even as many countries have now completed their missions there. The US said Thursday, that about 100,000 people have been evacuated safely from Kabul, but up to 1,000 Americans and thousands more Afghans are still struggling to leave. Though it's possible that some American citizens will decide to stay behind, mostly dual citizens who have family there.
Taylor Wilson:
Britain said it planned to wrap up evacuations on Friday, and the country is no longer processing Afghans for the final flights. Other European nations, including Spain, have wrapped up their evacuation operations. Thousands of Afghans who helped the US and its allies in recent years will be left behind.
Taylor Wilson:
In some cases, they're now in hiding, fearing retaliation from the Taliban for helping the same militaries that fought against them for a generation. The Taliban have said they will not go after people who helped the US, but it's not clear how believable those lines are.
Taylor Wilson:
The Taliban will have immediate challenges in control of Afghanistan, including poverty and a COVID-19 pandemic, and Thursday's attack proves they may need to ward off Islamic State terrorists as well.
Taylor Wilson:
Afghan evacuees that did make it out of the country are beginning to arrive in new countries around the world. That includes an all woman Afghan robotics team that arrived safely in Mexico. They spoke with the AP.
Speaker 4:
We didn't want our story to be ended by Taliban. We wanted to continue the path that we had started, to continue to go for our achievements, and to go for having our dreams to reality. So that's why we decided to leave Afghanistan and go for somewhere safe.
Speaker 4:
We were the persons who decided to have the high achievements in Afghanistan and robotics field. And now we are the people who are putting in danger our families because of our achievements. And that's why we want an opportunity for them to be saved as well.
Speaker 4:
We are concerned that what will happen to our home there. Many people are leaving, but there are still girls who have dreams. There are still people who have dreams, and we want countries around the world to help Afghanistan to have peace over there. So that the girls over there can have the opportunities to continue their path as well.
Taylor Wilson:
The United States' final date to get out of Afghanistan is August 31st, which is this coming Tuesday. Stay with USAToday.com for all the latest.
Taylor Wilson:
New evidence out this week is reopening the horrors of the tragic Surfside condo collapse earlier this summer. As many as nine of the 98 victims who died might have survived the initial cave-in, according to a USA Today investigation.
Taylor Wilson:
The Champlain Tower South condo building in the Miami area collapsed at 1:25 a.m. on June 24th. Fire rescue logs show that officials knew hours after that survivors remained in the debris. They even had contact with live victims and search dogs confirmed human life.
Taylor Wilson:
Officials have provided contradicting information about the collapse, but they've mostly insisted that all of the deceased victims died at or near the moment of collapse.
Taylor Wilson:
But some medical examiners reports listed injuries that would not on their own be considered life-threatening. 67 reports have so far been released by the Miami-Dade medical examiner's office, and all of them list the cause of death as either from blunt force injuries or simply building collapse.
Taylor Wilson:
Forensic experts say just pointing to the collapse would not hold up in court because it doesn't conclude specifically what killed someone. But in some cases, the examiner used collapsed because they could not determine a cause of death.
Taylor Wilson:
The reports do outline specific injuries though. A warning, the injuries can be graphic and deal with specific victims who died in the collapse. You can fast forward about 30 seconds if you don't want to listen.
Taylor Wilson:
Deborah Berezdivin and Ilan Naibryf were 21 year olds living and dating together in unit 811. Berezdivin had no visible injuries while an x-ray showed she had fractures in her right ribs. Naibryf suffered a 15 centimeter by five centimeter cut on his thigh, along with possible fractures according to the medical report.
Taylor Wilson:
At the request of USA Today, those reports were reviewed by independent forensic autopsy pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden. He re-investigated the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He's also served as an expert in high profile investigations, including Kobe Bryant and George Floyd.
Taylor Wilson:
Baden said it was not accurate for officials to say that none of the victims survived the initial collapse. One report in particular bothered Baden. 52 year old Harold Rosenberg lived in unit 212. Rosenberg's report had no injury listed at all and it's simply listed the cause of death as building collapse. Baden said an autopsy should have been performed on Rosenberg, a procedure that was only done on one other victim.
Taylor Wilson:
USA Today identified another victim who survived the initial collapse. A fire rescue log entry just before 3:00 a.m. that morning, less than two hours after the collapse, showed a person had crush syndrome. That happens in a live victim when parts of the body are crushed for a long time. Death is not immediate, but comes later, often because of renal failure.
Taylor Wilson:
That victim might've been 54 year old Stacie Fang who lived in unit 1002. Rescuers took Fang out of the rubble after saving her son, 15 year old Jonah Handler. Officials publicly reported that Handler lived and Fang died on the way to the hospital.
Taylor Wilson:
But the medical examiner not only did not conduct an autopsy on Fang, but didn't mention crush syndrome at all. And the only autopsy that was done also made no mention of crush syndrome.
Taylor Wilson:
Finally, witness reports also show there might've been other survivors. Steve Rosenthal safely escaped unit 705. He said he heard his neighbors in unit 704, 74 year old Christina Beatriz Elvira and 80 year old Leon Oliwkowicz screaming for help after the collapse. He wasn't able to help them, and the couple were among the first victims retrieved during rescue efforts.
Taylor Wilson:
There's lots more to this comprehensive investigation from Wendy Rhodes and Romina Ruiz-Goiriena. More than we can get to in this podcast. For the full piece, head to USAToday.com and search Surfside.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, hurricane season isn't going anywhere anytime soon and forecasters are now closely watching tropical storm Ida. It formed in the Caribbean Thursday, near Jamaica, and is quickly heading for the Southern United States. Hurricane watches have been issued along the Gulf Coast and Louisiana, Mississippi, and parts of Alabama.
Taylor Wilson:
Forecasters say, Ida could quickly become the strongest storm this season. By the time it reaches the Gulf Coast on Sunday, the National Hurricane Center predicts it will be at or near major hurricane intensity, which is category three or higher.
Taylor Wilson:
Hurricane Grace made landfall as a category three on Mexico's Gulf Coast earlier this month. But this latest system could do more damage because of its potential inland effects in the United States.
Taylor Wilson:
The Supreme Court has blocked President Joe Biden's moratorium on evictions. The decision Thursday night allows property owners to begin eviction processes against millions of Americans who are behind on rent. The moratorium was in place to help Americans hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts, and to try and prevent a mass eviction crisis while infections continue to spread.
Taylor Wilson:
The Supreme Court's conservative majority beat out the liberal dissenting judges in the decision. They ruled that the CDC did not have the authority to impose the moratorium, which Biden then extended.
Taylor Wilson:
The Court wrote, "It would be one thing if Congress had specifically authorized the action that the CDC has taken, but that has not happened. Instead, the CDC has imposed a nationwide moratorium in reliance on a decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination."
Taylor Wilson:
Samsung's newest foldable phones hit stores on Friday. The Z Fold3 and Z Flip3. The Fold3's predecessor Fold2 released last September for a pricey $2,000 before the company dramatically cut it to $550 in February. And there was a dramatic price cut for the Flip 5G also from $1,449 to $650.
Taylor Wilson:
So you may not want to rush to buy the new versions just yet. The Z Fold3 will go off the shelf at an initial $1,800 and the Flip3 will run you a thousand bucks. The Fold has a brighter and more responsive AMOLED screen than before. It measures 7.6 inches when unfolded. The Flip is smaller at 6.7 inches unfolded.
Taylor Wilson:
Samsung has been something of a pioneer when it comes to foldable screens, but its original 2019 Galaxy Fold was delayed six months due to broken screens and other issues reported by early product reviewers. The company continues to try and keep pace with Apple, and recently unveiled new wireless earbuds and a pair of smartwatches. For more, you can head to the tech section on USAToday.com.
Taylor Wilson:
And you can find 5 Things wherever you're listening right now. Thanks as always to Shannon Green and Claire Thornton for their great work on the show. 5 Things is part of the USA Today network.