The Excerpt podcast: Undetected day drinking at one of America's top military bases

On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast:  How day drinking went undetected at one of America's top military bases

USA TODAY Pentagon Correspondent Tom Vanden Brook discusses how drinking went unnoticed at one of America's top military bases. Plus, a truce between Israel and Hamas has been extended for another day, USA TODAY Health Reporter Eduardo Cuevas explains how concerned we should be about a new COVID-19 variant, Henry Kissinger has died at 100, and the North American wolverine is now listed as a threatened species.

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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 today is Thursday, November 30th, 2023. This is The Excerpt. 

Today, how day-drinking went undetected at a top US military base. Plus, there's a day extension to the Israel-Hamas Truce, and Henry Kissinger has died. 

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The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, is best known to the American public as the group that tracks Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve. But their other role is a lot more critical to American safety. On this, we recently learned that there were some potentially high risks. To learn more, I spoke with USA TODAY's Pentagon correspondent, Tom Vanden Brook, on this exclusive bombshell of a story. 

Tom, thanks for making the time. 

Tom Vanden Brook: 

Taylor, good to be here. 

Taylor Wilson: 

Tom, can you just start by telling our listeners what NORAD is? 

Tom Vanden Brook: 

NORAD is the North American Aerospace Defense Command. It's based out in Colorado Springs at Peterson Air Force Base. It's a joint command with the Canadians, started in the '50s, designed to protect the United States and Canada from attack at the time in the '50s at the height of the Cold War. That was from the fear about Soviet bombers coming over the North Pole and bombing the United States and Canada. That's where it started. Since then, it's expanded its writ to maritime surveillance as well, protecting us against attacks from North Korea, potentially missile attacks, attacks from China, all that sort of thing. Threats to the United States and Canada. 

Taylor Wilson: 

Getting to the heart of this story, Tom, what exactly happened last week? 

Tom Vanden Brook: 

Sources have been telling us for several weeks and months about issues and concerns they had about day drinking inside this command and, in particular, in a planning office. Through the reporting that we did, we went to NORTHCOM. To their credit, General Glen VanHerck stepped up and said, "Yes, we investigated. We found beer and liquor inside one of the planning offices. It was behind a key code locked door, and it had a poster of John Wayne on it." It was known colloquially as the John Wayne Saloon. One of the sources told us that the source had had a drink inside this... Many of these people felt very dismayed by it. Some were disgusted by it/thought it had no business operating inside a sensitive military headquarters. Inside those offices also were computers with access to classified military information. 

Taylor Wilson: 

I mean, it sounds like this saloon potentially put the entire country at risk, Tom. How were people able to set up this speakeasy in the first place? 

Tom Vanden Brook: 

That's what the investigation that General VanHerck has set up. That's what he's trying to figure out: how that could ever come to pass and who knew about it. I did ask him directly whether or not national security was ever compromised. He says he doesn't believe it was. But obviously, this is a major concern. They're going to try to figure out and get to the bottom of it. 

Taylor Wilson: 

I'm wondering, Tom, more broadly, how big of a problem is drinking on military bases in general? 

Tom Vanden Brook: 

It's a huge problem. It has many different aspects to it. But it's one of the key issues that investigators in the military have found when they look at sexual assault, for instance, that it's a contributing factor to a lot of these problems and that the military's had an epidemic of it. Officials there refer to it as a tragedy. But a lot of times, these young folks get drunk, and bad things happen. It's not just young folks either. There are commanders who have had problems with alcohol. We've written about them extensively. It's an issue. It's a cultural issue in the military, as it is in the general public. But alcohol and military decision-making really don't mix. 

Taylor Wilson: 

You mentioned this investigation at NORAD. What's next for this, Tom? 

Tom Vanden Brook: 

Well, we'll find out in a couple of weeks. General VanHerck said the investigation wasn't going to take months. That it would take weeks. The next step is to find out what they determined. We'll certainly stay on top of that. 

Taylor Wilson: 

All right. Tom Vanden Brook covers the Pentagon. Great reporting work on this, Tom. Thanks so much. 

Tom Vanden Brook: 

Thanks, Taylor. Appreciate it. 

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Taylor Wilson: 

A temporary truce between Israel and Hamas has been extended for another day, according to the mediator nation Qatar. The announcement, this morning, came just minutes before the latest truce was set to expire. Israel and Hamas confirmed the extension. Qatar says the agreement follows the same previous terms where Hamas had released 10 Israeli hostages per day in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners. Before today, the ceasefire has led to 96 hostages getting freed, as well as 180 Palestinians. 

Officials in Qatar, Egypt, and the US have been working with Israeli and Hamas leaders on the temporary truce extensions this week with an eye toward ending the war. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that fighting will continue until Hamas has been crushed. 

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Cases of a new COVID variant have tripled in just two weeks, according to CDC estimates. I spoke with USA TODAY Health Reporter Eduardo Cuevas for the latest. 

Eduardo, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today. 

Eduardo Cuevas: 

Thanks for having me. 

Taylor Wilson: 

Let's just start here. What exactly is this new variant of COVID-19? 

Eduardo Cuevas: 

It's called BA.2.86. It's a sub-variant of Omicron, if you remember that from a couple of years ago, which came to dominate cases. Like all viruses, the COVID-19 virus constantly mutates to make it easier to spread or be resistant to medicines or vaccines. The good news with BA.2.86 is it doesn't appear to be a greater risk for serious illness compared to other circulating variants, according to the CDC. 

Taylor Wilson: 

How quickly are cases of this variant picking up, and where in the country are we seeing this in particular at this point? 

Eduardo Cuevas: 

Scientists first identified BA.2.86 months ago. It's now seen a threefold increase in estimated viruses circulating compared to projections a couple of weeks ago. That's according to the CDC's variant tracker. Two weeks ago, that number was 3% estimated to be around. Now, we're looking at about one in 10 cases, so a little bit of an uptick. Just to note, the CDC exercises caution on these estimates. But experts and health officials I've spoken to say there's evidence it is spreading, particularly in regions like the New York Metro area, where I am now. 

Taylor Wilson: 

Eduardo, at this point, what are we seeing when it comes to hospitalizations and deaths around COVID-19? 

Eduardo Cuevas: 

Right now, we're seeing increases in hospitalizations and deaths in the most recent reporting period. But the CDC, again, says BA.2.86 doesn't appear to be driving these numbers. Still, during winter months, we can expect figures around hospitalizations and deaths to be increasing. 

Taylor Wilson: 

A lot of folks are continuing to wonder whether they need to keep upping their vaccines at this point. Do vaccines help protect against this new variant? 

Eduardo Cuevas: 

Yeah. The CDC says the updated COVID-19 vaccine provides increased protection against BA.2.86, the variant that we're seeing now. If you haven't gotten your latest shot, you can use this as encouragement to do so. Also to note, tests and medications are also expected to be effective against BA.2.86. That's important because if you test positive, you should stay at home. 

Taylor Wilson: 

Eduardo, people hear stories about COVID. Immediately, we all go back to 2020 and '21 and some of the chaos of COVID in that era. What is the likelihood that this could spin out of control compared to, say, that first outbreak in 2020 or during some of these other subsequent variants? 

Eduardo Cuevas: 

The World Health Organization recently reclassified BA.2.86 as a variant of interest. We'll keep an eye out. But again, risk remains low from health officials and experts. 

Taylor Wilson: 

All right. Eduardo Cuevas covers health for USA TODAY. Thanks as always, Eduardo. 

Eduardo Cuevas: 

Thank you. 

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Taylor Wilson: 

Henry Kissinger has died. The diplomat shaped US foreign policy in the second half of the 20th century. He worked in various positions, including Secretary of State over his career. Kissinger helped former president Richard Nixon establish US relations with China, negotiated the 1973 ceasefire with North Vietnam, and reached Cold War arms agreements with the Soviet Union. 

He's also been deeply criticized for the US bombing campaign in Cambodia during the Vietnam War, which spread instability and led indirectly to the 1975 takeover by the Khmer Rouge regime, which went on to slaughter some 2 million Cambodians. 

Critics have also accused him of playing a role in the fall of Salvador Allende, the democratically elected Marxist president of Chile who was deposed and died in a military coup in 1973. Allende's death came before two decades of authoritarian rule in Chile. Others have pointed to Nixon White House tape recordings as evidence that he worked internally to delay an end to the bloody war in Vietnam until after Nixon's 1972 reelection, a period that saw thousands of US combat deaths and civilian casualties. 

In later years, Democratic and Republican presidents alike sought his counsel as they shaped foreign policy in the wake of the Cold War and the 9/11 terror attacks. Companies and governments paid millions to his consulting firm for strategic analysis and contacts with those still in power. 

Kissinger originally came to the US at the age of 15 as a Jewish immigrant who had escaped Nazi Germany with his family. His consulting firm said that he died at his home in Connecticut. Henry Kissinger was 100 years old. 

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The North American wolverine has been listed as a threatened species because of impacts on its habitats by climate change, according to a Fish and Wildlife Service announcement yesterday. The designation will give the animal federal protections under the Endangered Species Act to try and prevent the population from declining. It applies to the North American wolverine in the contiguous US, where as few as 300 surviving Wolverines remain. Scientists warn that warming temperatures in the coming decades are expected to shrink the mountain snowpack the animals rely on for food and reproduction. Threatened species are likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA says there are more than 1300 endangered and threatened species in the US. 

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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. As always, you can find us at podcasts at usatoday.com. I'm back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.