Sending Out an SOS: The Taliban Return, Booster Shots, Havana Syndrome

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4.5 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

First up: The week’s biggest story is Afghanistan. We’ll break down how the Taliban took over so quickly, whether more people can get out safely, and what’s next for the country. Next: We’ll bring you the latest on the major earthquake in Haiti and the latest data breach affecting over 40 million people. Hint: if you’re a T-Mobile user, tune in. And click here for tips on how to keep your information safe. Also: Remember hot girl summer? Enter: shot girl fall, because boosters are coming soon to a pharmacy near you. Plus: We finally have the latest Census data. We’ll tell you three things you need to know about how America’s changed in the last 10 years. Finally: We’re trying our hands at true crime, for a story about a mystery that’s stumped the entire U.S. intelligence community for five years. P.S. Here are the orgs we mentioned helping in Afghanistan: Volunteer to support Afghans being evacuated to the US Become an Airbnb host for resettled Afghans For lawyers: help process special immigrant visas Donate airline miles with Miles4Migrants Donate to the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee Make your voice heard here at home On this episode, you’ll hear from: Kelly Kennedy, managing editor, The War Horse Lina Abirafeh, executive director, the Arab Institute for Women Want more Skimm? Sign up for our free daily newsletter Email us your questions about what’s going on in the news right now Subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts Skimm'd by Alex Carr, Luke Vargas, and Ciara Long, with support from Sagine Corrielus. Engineered by Andrew Callaway. TheSkimm’s head of audio is Graelyn Brashear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I probably started hearing from people about two weeks ago. People in social media just saying,
0:04.9	can you, can you help? A lot of us has started hearing from people we knew in Afghanistan or even
0:11.6	people just reaching out to us randomly. But I don't think that any of us knew how quickly it was
0:18.2	going to happen. That's Kelly Kennedy, a US Army veteran. And after the US invaded Afghanistan in
0:25.5	2001, a journalist embedded with US troops. Kennedy is now the managing editor of the war
0:32.9	horse, a news outlet focused on the military. She told us she was prepared for some of the chaos
0:39.8	as the US withdrew from Afghanistan. But nothing like this. I think that's part of the conversation
0:46.4	now is things broke down. So incredibly fast. I think we were just floored by how quickly
0:55.2	things happened. Kennedy and her friends and colleagues in the military are far from the only
1:01.2	ones struggling to make sense of recent events. America's 20-year campaign in Afghanistan started
1:07.7	as a military operation, but it became a lot more than that. Over time, all sorts of experts,
1:14.8	academics and humanitarian aid workers poured in to help build a new government,
1:20.1	reform the economy, construct buildings and roads, or campaign for women's rights. That's how
1:26.0	Lena Abarrafi ended up in Afghanistan in 2002. After setting up an office for a women's NGO,
1:32.8	she stayed around for four years. And this week, she's been hearing from the women she got to know
1:38.4	there. They're terrified. They're in hiding. They're in lockdown. The Taliban are going door-to-door.
1:45.6	I've heard about pick marks on doors to highlight women activists and geo-leaders,
1:51.3	those who've been outspoken against the Taliban political leaders, activists in any form,
1:56.8	threatening that the Taliban will deal with them later.
2:02.3	Welcome to skim this. On today's show, we'll skim the latest from Afghanistan to try to understand
2:08.7	how the Taliban took over so quickly, what's in store for Afghans going forward,
2:13.7	and whether the U.S. can evacuate more people from the country before finishing our withdrawal.
	...

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