Floridians warned as Hurricane Ian strengthens, NASA dings asteroid: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Floridians warned as Hurricane Ian strengthens to Category 2

The storm has made landfall in Cuba. Weather reporter Doyle Rice has the latest. Plus, Russia sees issues with its military draft, Supreme Court correspondent John Fritze looks at how affirmative action cases could affect hiring, the U.S. sends more aid to flooded Pakistan and NASA successfully hits an asteroid.

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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:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Tuesday, the 27th of September, 2022. Today, the latest on Hurricane Ian as it heads for Florida, plus how NASA crashed into an asteroid and more.

Here are some of the top headlines:

1. Japan's former leader, Shinzo Abe, was honored at a state funeral today. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the publicly financed ceremony was a deserved honor, but it has split public opinion and has been met by angry protests. Abe was assassinated earlier this year while giving a campaign speech.

2. The British pound stabilized in Asian trading earlier today. That's after dropping to a historic low a day before.

3. And the Atlanta Braves visited the White House yesterday. The team celebrated with President Joe Biden its 2021 World Series Championship.

♦

Hurricane Ian continues to quickly intensify. As of last night, the storm was about 100 miles from Cuba in a category 2 hurricane and it could gain wind strength up to a category 4 hurricane by the time it hits Florida's Western Gulf Coast this week, which it's expected to do. Governor Ron DeSantis told residents around Tampa in particular to prepare.

Ron DeSantis:

Bottom line though is that there's just a lot of uncertainty with all this and I know that we have had storms where people were really ready, like with Dorian in 2019. They were projecting a direct hit in the east coast of Florida and it turned, and that's a good thing. But these are situations where even some of the models that didn't take it into Tampa three days ago are now taking it in. So the prospect of having a hurricane come onshore in the Tampa Bay area is real. The prospect of even if it's off the coast of having really historic storm surge and flooding is very, very real. Clearly when you look at the Tampa Bay area, one of the reasons why we feared storms is because of the sensitivity of this area and the fragility of this area. Whereas you could have other areas that could take a storm like this and probably have less damage here because a variety of factors, you have that.

Taylor Wilson:

For more on what to expect as Ian comes stateside, producer PJ Elliott spoke with weather reporter Doyle Rice to get the latest

Doyle Rice:

Yeah. As of the latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center, we've got Ian first crossing Cuba in the next day or so and then coming up the west coast of Florida over the next two to three days. And as far as landfall goes, they're not exactly sure where the storm will make landfall, but it may not actually make that much difference. It may just be that the storm is going to kind of graze up along the coast and bring a lot of storm surge and a lot of rain and a lot of wind as it comes up the coast over the next two to three days.

PJ Elliott:

So how bad could things get for those along the Gulf Coast?

Doyle Rice:

Well, they've already ordered mandatory evacuations for some folks there in the Tampa metro area. So the government officials there, the mayor and the governor are taking this storm pretty seriously and they're ordering people to evacuate and get away from where the storm is possibly going to make landfall over the next couple of days.

PJ Elliott:

So we've heard the term rapid intensification a lot here in the past couple of days. What exactly does that mean?

Doyle Rice:

Yeah, it's a storm that, well, rapidly intensifies. It's a storm that goes from at least in the neighborhood of like 35 miles an hour, which is what this storm was this morning, and it could be as much as 140 miles an hour this time tomorrow. And that is definitely the definition of a rapidly intensifying storm. This is kind of the definition of rapid intensification because of the warm waters of the gulf, low wind shear and everything is coming together to make this storm come up and be extremely powerful when it makes landfall.

PJ Elliott:

So different projections say that it's going to be a category 3 or possibly a category 4 hurricane. What's the difference between a 3 and a 4?

Doyle Rice:

Oh, they're both pretty horrible. It's not a dramatic difference between the two. The devastating damage is what they called category 3 and catastrophic damage is category 4. So the difference between the two is not all that dramatic. That, of course, only deals with wind speed. It doesn't have anything to do with the storm surge or the rainfall that comes from these storms. And that is often the most catastrophic damage, comes from extreme water inundation, whether it's from the storm surge or from heavy rain and the wind is secondary in some cases.

Taylor Wilson:

For more, stay with USATODAY.com.

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After Russian President Vladimir Putin announced military mobilization last week, the country has already issued tens of thousands of draft notices. The British Ministry of Defense, though, said in an assessment that there are major logistical challenges in training the new troops. Ukraine is also accusing Russia of using its draft to target Crimean Tatars, an ethnic group indigenous to the Ukrainian Peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Putin's government of trying to physically exterminate representatives of indigenous peoples.

Meanwhile, Putin has granted Russian citizenship to Edward Snowden. The former US security contractor has been living in Russia since 2013. He's wanted in the US for leaking classified documents detailing government surveillance programs. Snowden previously received Russian residency in 2020.

♦

Two pivotal affirmative action cases pending at the Supreme Court this term that deal with college admissions are being closely watched by private employers. They fear a sweeping decision could undermine corporate diversity programs. Supreme Court correspondent John Fritze has more with PJ Elliott.

John Fritze:

One is a lawsuit against Harvard College, the undergraduate school at Harvard University. And the other is against the University of North Carolina. They're both brought by the same group. Both of these schools and many other schools across the country consider race as one factor when they're looking at prospective students. It's not the main factor. They look at all these other things like test scores and academic achievement, extracurriculars, all that stuff, but sometimes race is considered what they call a plus one. So maybe if you've got a couple of candidates that are basically tied and the school has an interest in having a diverse class, maybe that candidate who is a minority gets a little advantage. And what this group is arguing is that, "Hey, you can't do that under the Equal Protection clause in the case of UNC or in the case of Title VI federal law, which applies to Harvard." Basically, what they're arguing is that by giving this advantage to minorities, they are disadvantaging or discriminating against Asian American candidates and white candidates.

PJ Elliott:

So John, what's the timeframe we're looking at these cases? When will the Supreme Court hear them?

John Fritze:

Yeah, so these cases are... I mean, I think arguably the closest watched cases of this Supreme Court term, they will be argued on Halloween. We'll get them at the end of October. I expect, given the high profile nature of this case, that we won't get it until the end of term, although that's always a bit of a guess. So that would sort of put it in June.

One interesting thing, just one little interesting thing to note on this is that... it's going to be wonky for a second, but I'll bring it back out to unwonk pretty quickly. These cases, we're consolidated. They were sort of filed separately and then the Supreme Court said, "All right, we'll look at them together and we'll argue them together," which happens a lot. But the newest member of the court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, had to recuse herself from the Harvard case. She announced during her confirmation hearings earlier this year that she would recuse because she served on the Board of Overseers at Harvard. And so she felt like she couldn't take part in the case. There was a lot of pressure on her to recuse. She decided to do that. Because they have now split these cases, she will not take part in the Harvard case, but she is able to take part in the University of North Carolina case.

So it's sort of interesting. We're going to get arguably potentially an eight, not a nine vote count in the Harvard case, but then Jackson will come in on the UNC case and will have something to say about that. I think a lot of people are watching that in part because of the historic nature of her nomination and confirmation as the first Black woman to ever serve on the Supreme Court. This is a big case dealing with race, a very controversial topic in this country. I think it's interesting that the first Black woman justice is going to have a chance to say something about it and we're going to get a chance to hear what she has to say.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

The US is sending more aid to Pakistan as the country works to recover from devastating flooding in recent months. The US announced another $10 million on top of an already announced $56.1 million. Washington has been the biggest foreign contributor of aid to the country after record floods have killed 1,638 people since mid-June and an estimated hundreds of thousands now live in makeshift camps. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari yesterday.

Anthony Blinken:

We've been able to send about 17 planes full of supplies like food and materials to build shelters, tents, tarps. And today I'm pleased to announce another $10 million in food security assistance. This will provide urgent supplies to help farmers recover, like seeds and fertilizer, assistance repair and critical irrigation infrastructure damaged by the floods.

Taylor Wilson:

Bhutto Zardari said his country is one of the lowest emitters, but is severely impacted by climate change. Experts say the country is responsible for only 0.4% of the world's emissions blame for climate change and in turn climate disasters like severe flooding.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari:

It's not only important that you build back better here. The opportunity this crisis in Pakistan is that we must build back better, greener, more climate resilient back home as well.

Taylor Wilson:

Pakistan says the disaster has caused damages amounting to $30 billion. The country's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif echoed climate concerns last week with the AP.

Shehbaz Sharif:

This is climate change induced disaster. Those who have the resources and God has given them the capacity should come forward and contribute towards our rescue relief and rehabilitation efforts. That's very important.

Taylor Wilson:

In the Southern Sindh province and others, authorities are also working to contain disease among survivors. Waterborne infections, malaria, and Dengue fever have killed at least 300 people since July according to health officials.

♦

Mission complete. NASA successfully crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid yesterday.

Mission Control:

Three, two, one! Oh my gosh. ...Oh, wow. ...We're waiting visual confirmation. ...All right!

Taylor Wilson:

The 1,260 pound Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, collided with an estimated 11 billion pound asteroid. DART was going about 14,000 miles per hour, some 7 million miles from Earth. This week's completed mission caps off a 10 month journey for DART, which cost $325 million. NASA's goal was not to destroy the asteroid, but instead to change its trajectory. NASA says, "Changing an asteroids orbit by just 1% could be enough if a destructive one were headed toward Earth."

That'll do it for 5 Things. Thanks for listening. You can find us every morning on whatever your favorite podcast app is, and if you have a chance, please drop us a rating and review. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show, and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hurricane Ian strengthens, NASA hits an asteroid: 5 Things podcast