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On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: Trump gets a new trial date
Donald Trump gets a new trial date in his classified documents criminal case. Plus, the DOJ warns Texas Governor Abbott over floating barriers and razor wire, USA TODAY Education Reporter Alia Wong @aliaemily tells how AP African American Studies classes are in demand nationwide, but Florida has other plans, all eyes on Wisconsin as the GOP pins its presidential hopes on the hotly contest state, and hot hot heat – USA TODAY World Affairs Correspondent Kim Hjelmgaard @khjelmgaard tells us how the rest of the world is coping with summer heatwaves.
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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.
Mark Sovel:
Good morning. I’m Mark Sovel filling in for Taylor Wilson, and this is 5 Things you need to know Saturday, the 22nd of July 2023. Today, a trial date set for Trump. Plus, the Texas governor has been put on notice, and AP African American Studies are flourishing in the U.S., but not everywhere.
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The federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case rescheduled the trial for May 20th, 2024. This was despite pleas from Trump’s attorneys to hold off until after the 2024 presidential election. In a seven-page order released yesterday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said the “interests of justice” warrant a nine-month delay from the trial’s original August start date. The decision is a compromise between the prosecutor’s push for a four-month delay and the defense attorney’s bid for an indefinite one. And it followed a lengthy debate at a pretrial conference earlier this week.
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The Justice Department has put Texas Governor Greg Abbott on notice that it intends to file suit over a floating barrier wall the governor erected in the Rio Grande River. It’s intended to keep migrants from crossing the border illegally. The letter raises humanitarian concerns that the barriers present serious risk to public safety and the environment. A copy of the letter obtained by USA TODAY gives Texas officials until Monday to commit to removing the barriers. If there’s no response, the Justice Department says it will pursue legal action. Governor Abbott fired back on Twitter Friday saying Texas has sovereign authority to defend its border. The threat of legal action comes amid reports of inhumane treatment of migrants along the US border with Mexico, including razor wire barriers installed at Abbott’s instructions.
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AP, or Advanced Placement courses, are college level classes for high schoolers who, depending on how they perform on an end of year exam, can earn college credit for doing so. College Board, the nonprofit behemoth that administers the AP program, spent more than a decade developing the AP African American Studies course with the help of scholars and educators. While there’s a political tug of war in Florida, nationally, demand for the course is surging. Here to help us understand this development is USA TODAY Education Reporter Alia Wong. Thanks for coming on the podcast.
Alia Wong:
Thanks for having me.
Mark Sovel:
Alia, you report that interest in AP African American Studies is skyrocketing. When did the College Board first debut this pilot class, and how many schools offered it?
Alia Wong:
The College Board first debuted the class last school year, so this was the 2022 to ’23 school year, and it was a pretty small pilot. It was tested in just about 60 schools across the US.
Mark Sovel:
And how many schools are slated to offer the pilot class this coming fall?
Alia Wong:
800 schools are slated to offer it in the fall. The course would be offered to 16,000 students across the US, and that’s in 32 states, but potentially more because the College Board is continuing to finalize numbers.
Mark Sovel:
Meanwhile, Florida’s education department banned the class earlier this year. Why?
Alia Wong:
The state passed a law last year called the Stop WOKE Act that basically outlawed the teaching of certain concepts such as systemic racism, intersectionality, and reparations, and Black Lives Matter that were included in the curriculum. [They] were deemed out of bounds of Florida’s law. And the state has continued to say that the course is not up to snuff despite revisions that have been made since.
Mark Sovel:
And are they offering something else in place of the AP course?
Alia Wong:
So the State’s Board of Education, just this week in mid-July, adopted new African American history standards that officials in the state, particularly conservatives, have really lauded as an anti-woke alternative to the AP African American Studies course and other courses like it. But these standards have been met with immediate backlash.
Mark Sovel:
What’s different about this version of the class compared to the AP version?
Alia Wong:
Criticisms of this course that we heard – that it whitewashes certain concepts, that it leaves out entire periods such as reconstruction, that it blames Black people for the oppression they faced, and that it fails to really identify who’s responsible for the racism and the discrimination that we’ve seen throughout history. So a lot of advocates are saying that these standards are not a quality alternative to the AP African American Studies course that has been rendered illegal in the state.
Mark Sovel:
How might this impact Florida students who are applying to colleges right now?
Alia Wong:
Potentially, hundreds if not thousands of Florida students say they’re excited to take advanced coursework in their pursuit of college and excited to learn about African American studies, this interdisciplinary course, but can’t. They’re basically being held hostage. So not only is it that they’re being deprived of opportunities to take advanced coursework for which they can get credit, but there were also denied opportunities to learn the kind of things that many say are some of the most engaging parts of their school experience.
Mark Sovel:
Alia Wong, thanks so much for joining me.
Alia Wong:
Thank you.
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Mark Sovel:
In a few weeks, all eyes will be on Wisconsin, as the 2024 Republican candidates hit the stage for the first GOP primary debate in Milwaukee, August 23rd. Wisconsin is a key battleground state. It was the site of previous debates for both Democrats and Republicans in 2016 and 2020 campaigns. The GOP front-runner, former President Donald Trump, has held many rallies there. The Republican National Committee will also hold the party’s nominating convention in Wisconsin this year.
So why Wisconsin? Well, one reason is Wisconsin is widely viewed as one of the most politically competitive states in the country. Anybody could win by a hair, according to Barry Burden, director of Elections Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said that since the presidential election is decided by the electoral count rather than the popular vote, even the shift of a small number of votes in Wisconsin could determine who is elected. So as Wisconsin goes, so may go the country.
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Some unwelcome news for those suffering under extreme heat in the U.S., Europe and Asia, record-breaking temperatures are forecast to continue for at least the next week. It’s the latest example of the threat from global warming. How are people coping? I sat down with World Affairs Correspondent Kim Hjelmgaard to hear more. Kim, thanks for coming on the podcast.
Kim Hjelmgaard:
Thanks for having me.
Mark Sovel:
You talk to people around the world about how they’re staying cool in the heat. What was the most common thing you heard?
Kim Hjelmgaard:
I think the most common thing I heard was exasperation and not really knowing what to do, how to keep cool. And this is a pretty extreme heat that we’re seeing all over the world. What you can do to cool down if you don’t have air conditioning, which a lot of places outside the United States do not. It’s pretty low tech. Keep dark in your house, keep the window shut, keep the door shut for most of the day. It’s not going outside, if you can. All these people I’ve spoken to, they’re all kind of feeling frustrated.
Mark Sovel:
People living in Southern Europe have also been suffering under this extreme heat. How are those folks staying cool?
Kim Hjelmgaard:
I mean, if we’re talking about places like Spain, Italy, other European countries along the Mediterranean coast, they’re definitely used to warm temperatures, not the kinds of temperatures that you’d see in the southwest United States, but they’re used to low 90s, I’d say. But a lot of these places, they’re into the high 90s or pushing 100. And so they’re going out super early, if they are going out. That’s kind of what tourists are doing as well, or they’re going out super late when the sun has gone down, and everything cools off a little bit.
If we’re talking places like Gaza, this Palestinian area on the Mediterranean coast, they are constantly having power outages there anyway, so they are used to rationing electricity. And so they go to places like if there’s a shopping mall where there’s an air conditioning, and you walk around until you cool down basically. They are finding battery-powered fans if they can get hold of them. Little kids are throwing water at each other, that kind of thing.
Mark Sovel:
I hear Italy has named the current heat wave Charon. What’s the reference here?
Kim Hjelmgaard:
Yeah. So the Italians have actually come up with two separate names, both classical allusions as you might expect, to two different heat waves. So the current heat wave, which is a reference to sort of Greek mythology to this ferryman who carried the dead across the waters of the Hades, the space that separates the living and the dead.
10 days ago, there was another name, which is called Cerberus, which is actually the hound of Hades. This is the multi-headed dog that guards the the gates of the underworld. So these are dark classical allusions, and I think it gives people some sense of how kind of frustrated Italians are feeling about this heat.
Mark Sovel:
And what was the most surprising hack you heard?
Kim Hjelmgaard:
So this might be a bit old-fashioned, but from what I was told anyway, it’s quite common, especially in rural places in China to use bamboo mats. You place these mats on sofas, in your car seats. And the most surprising of all was a kind of hack to keep cool, is that they pour water on a floor like a tiled floor, and then you lay a bamboo mat over this floor. And then you lay on the bamboo mat, and that keeps you cool.
It’s sort of an interesting image. I guess it’s a testable hypothesis how effective that would be. And then I think all over the world in summertime, people eat watermelons. And apparently in China, they used to keep these watermelons cool by sticking them down wells. Now, that raises the question like, “How do you easily get a watermelon up and down a well?” But apparently, it works. And, yeah, maybe I’ll try it one day.
Mark Sovel:
Kim, thanks for joining me.
Kim Hjelmgaard:
Thanks for having me.
Mark Sovel:
And before you go, did you know 5 Things is now on YouTube? A limited number of our specials and Sunday episodes will now be available as vodcasts on YouTube. We have a link in today’s show notes. Thanks for listening to 5 Things. Dana Taylor will be back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.
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