Thursday morning news - August 19, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

U.S. military ramping up Afghanistan evacuations » U.S. Air Force C-17 transport planes have flown thousands of civilians out of Afghanistan since Tuesday.

That according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby who addressed reporters at the White House.

And he said they expect to begin evacuating as many as 9,000 people a day.

KIRBY: 5-to-9,000 is not a goal. As I said, it’s the capacity, the max capacity that we think we’ll be able to reach when we’re at full throttle. The goal is to get as many people out as quickly as we can.

Kirby said U.S. military commanders are communicating with the Taliban in an effort to speed up the evacuation, which faces an Aug. 31st deadline set by President Biden.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Gen. Mark Milley said they’re asking American citizens and certain U.S. allies to make their way to the Kabul airport.

MILLEY: Messages have gone out by various means of communication from the State Department to American citizens and others, and they’re being told to go to those gates.

But those people have to trust that the Taliban will allow them to safely pass. U.S. troops are staying put around the tarmac. They are not escorting citizens to the airport.

Meantime, the political fallout is extending well beyond Washington. In the U.K., opposition leader Keir Starmer said Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government shares blame for the disastrous military withdrawal.

STARMER: There has been a major miscalculation about the resilience of the Afghan forces and staggering complacency from our government about the Taliban threat. The result is that the Taliban is now back in control of Afghanistan.

The Taliban violently broke up a protest in Jalalabad on Wednesday.

AUDIO: [Sound of protest]

At least one person died and six others were wounded.

U.S. health officials call for booster shots against COVID-19 » As expected, U.S. health officials on Wednesday formally announced plans to offer COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant.

The data show the vaccines still provide strong protection at least six months after the second dose. However, the protection gradually declines each month. And Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said over time, that could be a problem.

MURTHY: We are concerned that this pattern of decline we are seeing will continue in the months ahead, which could lead to reduced protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death.

The plan calls for an extra dose eight months after people get their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The doses could begin the week of Sept. 20th.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday…

WALENSKY: Our plan is to protect the American people and to stay ahead of this virus.

Health officials said people who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will also probably need extra shots. But they’re waiting for more data.

The World Health Organization ripped the plan. Organization emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said those vaccine doses should go to countries that need them more.

RYAN: We’re planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets while we’re leaving other people to drown.

Surgeon General Murthy said he rejects the false choice of fully protecting Americans or helping the rest of the world. He said the United States is committed to doing both.

Biden to require vaccines for nursing home staff » Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, President Biden announced that his administration will require nursing home workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

BIDEN: If you work in a nursing home and serve people on Medicare or Medicaid, you will also be required to get vaccinated. More than 130,000 residents in nursing homes have, sadly, over the period of this virus passed away.

He can’t force nursing homes to adopt the rule, but that will be a condition for those facilities to continue receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funding.

Hundreds of thousands of nursing home workers are not vaccinated, according to federal data.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is expected to introduce the mandate in a new regulation. It could take effect as soon as next month.

Devastating wildfires consume another Calif. Town » Wildfires have largely destroyed another town in Northern California.

Derek Shaves said his home in Grizzly Flats is now a pile of ash.

SHAVES: We were watching orange and grey skies and watching our town burn to the ground.

The Caldor Fire is one of the blazes ripping through the Sierra Nevada region. It feasted on tinder-dry trees as it ravaged Grizzly Flats. It was a forest community of around 1,200 people.

That came two weeks after the Dixie Fire incinerated most of the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville.

Fire officials say the Caldor Fire has consumed at least 50 homes since erupting on Saturday.

Both the Caldor and Dixie fires have grown by tens of thousands of acres in recent days.

Data of more than 40 million exposed in T-Mobile breach » T-Mobile has released more information about a massive data breach. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has this update.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The company says the personal information of just over 40 million former and prospective customers that applied for T-Mobile credit were exposed in a recent data breach.

That information includes names, Social Security numbers, driver's license information, and other other data.

The same data for nearly 8 million current T-Mobile postpaid customers appears to be compromised.

T-Mobile also confirmed that nearly a million active T-Mobile prepaid customer names, phone numbers and account PINs were exposed.

The announcement comes two days after the company said it was investigating a breach after someone in an online forum tried to sell the personal information of cellphone users.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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