On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: 'The elephant not in the room': Takeaways from the first Republican debate

The first Republican debate is in the books. Plus, Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed dead after a plane crash, USA TODAY Health Reporter Karen Weintraub looks at new speech technology for people with paralysis, India's space program lands on the moon, and USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise reports from Hawaii on how folks from neighbor islands have helped out in the wake of the Maui fire.

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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 Thursday, the 24th of August 2023. Today, what we learned from the first Republican presidential debate. Plus, Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed dead, and we look at how new technology can help return speech to paralyzed people.

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Republican presidential candidates took the debate stage last night for the first time in the buildup to the 2024 election. They did so in a Milwaukee debate that aired on Fox News Channel and in a race dominated by Donald Trump, it was the former president's absence that dominated much of the night. Asked if they would still back Trump as the GOP nominee in the general election if he's convicted, most of the eight contenders raised their hands. One exception, former Arkansas governor, Asa Hutchinson, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie seemed to raise his hand halfway before strongly going after Trump. The following is courtesy of Fox News Channel.

Chris Christie:

Someone's got to stop normalizing this conduct, okay? Now whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of President of the United States.

Taylor Wilson:

Still throughout the two hour discussion, the Republican field struggled to make a clear argument against Trump. Polls show he's leading his next closest counterpart, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by about 40 percentage points in national polls. DeSantis didn't take shots at the former president, spending more time railing on the current president's son, Hunter Biden, and characterizing the U.S. as a country that's lost its way. Maybe the sharpest case against Trump came from former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the UN during the Trump administration. She was the only candidate to create a policy distinction with him, criticizing the $8 trillion in new debt during his administration.

Meanwhile, it was a loud night on stage for Vivek Ramaswamy. The 38 year old entrepreneur sparred with many of his fellow candidates while parroting many of Trump's positions. Both he and DeSantis also said they opposed more funding to Ukraine. Several went after Ramaswamy's age and lack of experience. Former Vice President Mike Pence said one point said, "We don't need to bring in a rookie." Candidates were asked if Pence did the right thing when he opposed Trump's plan to overturn the 2020 election by certifying President Joe Biden's victory on January 6th, 2021. Sen. Tim Scott said, "He absolutely did." Ron DeSantis was initially hesitant to answer directly before saying that Pence did his duty.

On abortion each candidate said they were pro-life, but that meant something different with each answer. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said there should not be a federal abortion ban, and Chris Christie said it should be left up to the states, while Pence cast abortion as a moral issue. For his part, Trump skipped the Fox News event opting instead to pre-record an interview with former Fox host Tucker Carlson. That was posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, right before the debate. You can read more from a busy debate night at usatoday.com.

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Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed dead after a plane crash in Russia. All 10 people on the flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg were killed when the plane came down less than 200 miles from the Capitol yesterday, according to officials cited by Russia's state run news agency TASS. Prigozhin was an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin until launching a failed insurrection with his Wagner group mercenaries in June. He led his forces on a march that came within 120 miles of Moscow before turning around. He and his Wagner soldiers were granted asylum in Belarus as part of a deal to end the rebellion but he was later seen in Russia and Africa.

Before getting confirmation of Prigozhin's fate, President Joe Biden was asked yesterday if Putin was behind the crash. Biden said, "There's not much that happens in Russia that Putin's not behind, but I don't know enough to know the answer." Prigozhin gained prominence as a caterer to Kremlin events, a role that earned him the nickname Putin's chef. He then went on to found the Wagner private military group. Wagner forces were instrumental in the grinding months long battle over the Eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. That became a source of a lot of Prigozhin's frequent criticism of the Russian Ministry of Defense and its leadership.

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Paralysis can rob people of their ability to speak, but researchers working on a pair of new technologies might help bring it back. I spoke with USA TODAY Health Reporter Karen Weintraub to learn more. Hey there, Karen.

Karen Weintraub:

Hey.

Taylor Wilson:

How does this technology work?

Karen Weintraub:

Both teams are trying to help people who are paralyzed learn how to communicate again. They can't move their lips, they can't speak, so they can't really communicate. And it's terribly isolating as we can all imagine having been isolated during the pandemic. What it must be like if you can't even speak. So both teams have implanted electrodes in different parts of the brain and connected their brains directly to computers, to algorithms to translate their thoughts literally into words on a computer screen or simulated voices.

Taylor Wilson:

So at Stanford, what are they doing specifically?

Karen Weintraub:

So at Stanford, they're measuring individual brain cells. They've got the electrodes tagged to individual cells and they're recording those cells and translating the signals from those individual cells. The patient at Stanford is a woman named Pat Bennett. She has ALS, which we typically associate with loss of function in hands and feet and arms. She immediately, in 2012 when she was diagnosed very quickly, lost her ability to speak. So she's been locked in for all of these years. They've given her the ability to communicate again, to some degree at least, through thinking about words and having them appear on a screen.

Taylor Wilson:

What success did they have at UC San Francisco?

Karen Weintraub:

At San Francisco, they tried a slightly different technology. They implanted the electrodes more superficially in an area of the brain that controls speech. Their participant is somebody who is paralyzed from a stroke, a woman named Ann. And interestingly, they used a video from Ann's wedding to help understand what she sounded like at the time and also some of her facial expressions. And they created a synthesized voice that sounded like Anne did back then, 17 years earlier, and also an avatar that could make facial expressions reminiscent of Ann's. So they're really trying to recreate how Ann might've expressed herself. We all have different facial expressions and different intonations. So it's not just saying, "Hi, how are you?," but "Hi! How are you?," using the personal expression that somebody might've had.

Taylor Wilson:

And is that the biggest development compared with past technologies on speech, that the new technology really personifies the speech?

Karen Weintraub:

So this speech technology is a big advance over previous ones. Previous ones, they might have a list of say 50 different words and they could tell, yes, this person is thinking of fish versus book. But now people can really generate from a much, much larger list of words, 125,000 in the case of the Stanford research. And they're not always right, they're wrong one out of four times, but they're getting better and they hope to get better still. And they can also do it much faster. So both teams were within 60 to 80 words per minute of speed that they could generate the words. Normal speech is 160 to 200 words a minute depending on whether you grew up in New York or not. They're not there yet, but they're getting closer. The other big advances in brain computer interfaces are more with movement, helping paralyze people learn how to move limbs again, that sort of thing. But this is the biggest advance we've seen recently in speech.

Taylor Wilson:

So Karen, the family members of those suffering from paralysis who have these issues with speech, what do they say about how technologies like these can really change the lives of them and their loved ones?

Karen Weintraub:

Really, I mean, it's a terrible fate to not be able to communicate at all. I mean, these people really can't be understood by others and they can't write, they don't have use of their hands, so they can't type. Some of them can use eye movements to move a cursor, but the pace of that is painfully slow. So to suddenly be able to communicate again is really a miracle. Unfortunately, it's just experimental. It can't be used outside of a lab. It requires brain surgery at this point. And each study was only one person each. So these are not commercial technologies available, widely available yet at all, but they're heading in that direction.

Taylor Wilson:

Karen, this research centered as we've outlined on two patients. What's next for getting this to the broader population?

Karen Weintraub:

So as I mentioned, they're trying to improve the accuracy here. The folks at Stanford said they can now get three out of four words right. They're hoping to get nine out of 10 and then to use it on more people, but they don't know how successful they were based on these two individuals. So they're going to try it on other people. And then there are a number of companies interested in these kinds of brain computer interfaces. So they're hoping to get commercial folks involved in developing these technologies in ways that are more portable, can be used outside of the lab. And that work is definitely going on also with physical activity with movement. So maybe they can piggyback on some of that work as well.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Karen Weintraub with some exciting signs for us. Thanks so much.

Karen Weintraub:

Thank you.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

India's space program made history yesterday as it successfully landed the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft in the moon's mysterious south polar region. It's a milestone for two reasons. It's India's first lunar landing and the first landing by any space program near the South Pole. India is now the fourth country ever to land on the moon following the U.S., Russia and China. India's successful mission this week came after Russia's Luna-25 crashed into the moon surface on Sunday preparing for a pre landing orbit. The two uncrewed craft were in an unofficial race to land at the South Pole about 75 miles apart.

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When word spread earlier this month about the devastating fire on Maui, it didn't take long for folks on other Hawaiian islands to step up and help. And in doing so, they showed one of the true meanings of aloha. For more, I spoke with USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise from Hawaii's Big Island. Thanks for hopping on, Beth.

Elizabeth Weise:

Happy to be here as always.

Taylor Wilson:

So many from across Hawaii's islands have pitched in after the devastating Maui fire. Beth, you wrote about the Mom Walk Collective on the Big Island. How have they helped over the past few weeks?

Elizabeth Weise:

I think they're an example of something that people across the islands are seeing and taking part in. One person said Hawaii is just one small town spread across a bunch of islands. We all know people everywhere. And these moms, they call themselves the Stroller Mommies, and they go out for walks with each other. And as soon as they got word on that Tuesday the 8th that there was a fire in Maui and that it was threatening homes, their email and text chat just lit up, because they have a sister group on Maui. It turns out two of the moms in that group lost their homes. Thankfully no one in that group was killed in the fires. But these moms sprang into action.

They immediately started collecting in somebody's garage, everything that two moms who'd lost everything would need for their kids. They filled up three containers worth of everything from diapers to baby food to all the things you need, and shipped them off in a boat that was going to Maui two days later. And since then they've been doing fundraising. And I interacted with them on Tuesday, when they were busy holding a frankly scrumptious bake sale to raise money for those families as well. And in two hours they raised more than $1,000, which is going to go straight to the moms who lost their homes. And you just see that sort of thing across all the islands.

Taylor Wilson:

Wow. And how have others that you've talked with on the big island in particular stepped up?

Elizabeth Weise:

There was an older gentleman who's part of a service organization, and they, too, have a counterpart over on Maui. And they're actually looking to create a a healing ceremony on the big island because as he said, as everybody says, if we don't know someone who is directly affected, we have friends of friends, people have family, we're all impacted by this. A word you hear a lot in Hawaii is ohana, family. Everybody here is one family and people are busy looking out for each other.

Taylor Wilson:

You mentioned ohana, another word that many even outside Hawaii might be familiar with is aloha. What does aloha mean in this context, Beth, after such a devastating tragedy?

Elizabeth Weise:

Aloha has so many meetings. We think of it as hello and goodbye, but it's also got overtones of caring and fellowship and being present with others. And it's very much kind of, we're all in this together.

Taylor Wilson:

And Hawaii of course, relies on a lot of tourism money. Are visitors still traveling there in the wake of these fires? And what role can they play in recovery efforts?

Elizabeth Weise:

So this is also where the aloha comes in. When I spoke to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, they said, "Yes, please come to Hawaii. Not West Maui. Not the area where things burned, but to the rest of the island of Maui and to the rest of the islands as a whole, because tourism is a really major part of the economy in Hawaii. And although there are sometimes concerns that it is perhaps too much of the economy, right now, people need their jobs to still be there. And if the tourists don't come, some of those jobs go away. Another thing that people said, and this gets back to this idea of aloha and the aloha spirit of fellowship, is it's not just something that Hawaiians give to visitors. It's something that everybody has and that visitors can give back to Hawaiians.

And if you're coming to the islands, you need to bring that aloha spirit of fellowship and love with you. And be aware that maybe the hotel you're staying in is down a couple of staffers because they had to go to help family. Or maybe the restaurant you're in, people are dealing with the loss of loved ones and things might be a little slower. And just relax and be kind, because these are islands that have experienced an awful trauma. And we still don't know how many people died. It's over 115 and it's likely to go a lot higher. So there's trauma here. And part of aloha is showing that kindness, not just expecting it from people here, but bringing it with you.

Taylor Wilson:

USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise joining us from the big island in Hawaii. Thank you, Beth.

Elizabeth Weise:

You're so welcome.

Taylor Wilson:

And before we go, USA TODAY reporters are talking to people across the country about how they save and spend their money for a feature story coming out next month. If you want to be part of our reporting, please write to us with your name, age, and your best contact number or email at moneyforum@usatoday.com. We may be in touch.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. If you like the show, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And if you have any comments, you can reach us at podcasts@usatoday.com. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

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