China gripped by large-scale protests, Americans' medical records stolen: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: China gripped by large-scale protests over Xi's COVID-19 policies

USA TODAY World Affairs Correspondent Kim Hjelmgaard has the latest. Plus, New York Times Opinion Columnist Nicholas Kristof discusses how Russia is taking children from Ukraine into Russian territory.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.

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 Tuesday, the 29th of November 2022. Today, the latest on protests in China, plus how Russia is moving Ukrainian children across borders, and a look at some Congress priorities, as lawmakers work to avoid a government shutdown.

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The Biden administration offered support yesterday for peaceful protestors in China who spilled into the streets over the weekend to demonstrate against Beijing's zero COVID strategy for containing the deadly pandemic.

[Audio: Chinese protesters chanting.]

Taylor Wilson:

Producer, PJ Elliott, spoke with USA TODAY world affairs correspondent, Kim Hjelmgaard to find out more on what exactly set protestors off.

Kim Hjelmgaard:

The short answer is that China is probably the last major world economy that is still pursuing quite a top down, strict COVID policy. Even though they've been doing this for pretty much all of the pandemic, the last couple of months, their cases have started to rise. Millions are just sick to death in a country where it's difficult to kind of voice criticism of the government, and so these protests have really been kind of brewing, I would say, for a long while.

PJ Elliott:

Kim, so what happens next here? Could this be the beginning of the end for President Xi or could he end up finally reversing his zero COVID policy?

Kim Hjelmgaard:

They don't like to describe it as zero COVID, they call it dynamic COVID. So they say that they gauge the different scenarios and calibrate their response to the different specificities of a location and outbreaks and all the rest of it. Of course, this is all speculation and it's hard to really know where these protests go. We've seen concurrent protests happening in Iran and everyone's been wondering the same thing, are these big enough? Are people disaffected enough to where it can actually lead to toppling government? In the Chinese context, I think you'd probably have to say probably not.

PJ Elliott:

Could this turn into another Tiananmen Square incident?

Kim Hjelmgaard:

That event took place in a different context and China itself was at just a completely different point in its kind of evolution. It is now a kind of all seeing, all powerful state, with far more military and security resources at its fingertips. That moment was unique and came out of certain niche circumstances. It's hard to see, given how much President Xi, who was only about five, six, seven weeks ago kind of reconfirmed for his third term as leader of the Communist Party. He has completely consolidated power so that everything kind of runs through him.

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Taylor Wilson:

Russia is trafficking in Ukrainian children. Kids have been taken from across the war ravaged country, bringing them without their families into Russian territory. The Ukrainian government count for those taken is 11,461. New York Times opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote about this disturbing trend and joins me now to discuss. Nicholas, thanks so much for making the time.

Nicholas Kristof:

Delighted to be with you.

Taylor Wilson:

The Times published a provocative op-ed by you last week called Russia Traffics in Ukrainian Children. The scenario you lay out in a small town in Ukraine called Balakliya is every parent's horror story. How is this happening, Nicholas?

Nicholas Kristof:

Well, in the case of Balakliya, this is a town that was being shelled by the Russians. It was occupied by the Russians, shelled by them, parents were desperately concerned about their children. Then the Russians offered to take the children off to a summer camp where they would be safe, where there would be free clothing, other benefits, so parents sent their kids off to this camp. Well, that was in August for a two or three week camp, and those children have still not arrived. It turns out that's the tip of the iceberg, that there are thousands of children from across Ukraine who have been taken away and have reappeared in Russia or in Russia controlled areas of Ukraine, and parents are having enormous difficulty getting them back.

Taylor Wilson:

Who are these kids, Nicholas? Why them? Why is Russia targeting these children, specifically?

Nicholas Kristof:

It's not as if Russia is just grabbing random kids off the street and taking them to Russia. In many cases, these are kids who are institutionalized. They're in boarding schools, they're in children's homes, they're in orphanages. In other cases like Balakliya, they were offered a summer camp. At first, I thought that maybe this was an effort at brainwashing these children and cultivating a future generation of Ukrainian leaders for Russia. But actually, I don't think it was even that subtle. I really think it was more about Russia's propaganda circus and trying to show on domestic television how wonderful Russia is and how it's supporting these kids. They show these images of them handing out teddy bears to these Ukrainian kids and they portray them as orphans. In some cases, they put them up for adoption. The commissioner in charge of children in Russia actually adopted a teenage boy from Mariupol, and so it's presented to Russians as this great magnanimous gesture, when it's hard to see it as anything other than trafficking in children.

Taylor Wilson:

Nicholas, in your column, you went a step farther than almost anyone has been willing to go in describing Russia's actions as genocide. That's a strong accusation. Tell us why you made this call?

Nicholas Kristof:

The 1948 convention on genocide lists it has a definition of various elements of genocide, and one is removing children, when the intention is to destroy, in whole or in part, a nationality. Look, this would have to be litigated, but these kids are being taken to another place. It certainly seems that one aim is to undermine, in whole or in part, Ukrainian nationality, that's the point of Russia's war. It certainly raises questions about whether this meets the definition of genocide in the 1948 convention. I guess more broadly, look, to me there's a weariness, there's a fatigue in the United States and elsewhere around the world with this war. I think a lot of Americans see one more conflict, and I wanted to write that column just to remind people about the stakes of it. This is not just two armies fighting, this is a nation state that is taking another country's children, and in many cases, not returning them, in some cases actually putting them up for adoption.

Taylor Wilson:

I'm curious, Nicholas, because this issue doesn't really seem to be at the forefront of the narrative of the war in Ukraine right now. What is the international community saying and doing about this issue?

Nicholas Kristof:

Well, this is an issue that has been emerging with clarity and in numbers really only recently, because when Russia... It was basically happening in areas that Russia was occupying, and so it only emerged as an issue when Russia was pushed out of those areas. The town of Balakliya, where these kids were taken off to the summer camp, that was occupied until September. Then when the Russians pulled out, the people moving in found in the trash can, a list of these 25 kids who had been taken off to Russia and are still now in Russia. In Kherson, in the South, likewise it turns out now that Ukraine has recovered that territory that a bunch of kids were taken away from there, so it's still emerging. Officials have certainly been raising this, Ukraine has been raising it very, very adamantly. But people are also very focused on the larger war and on Russia blasting Ukraine's electrical grid and so on, it's one more element of a really complicated and tragic war.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, New York Times opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof. Nicholas, thanks so much for making the time.

Nicholas Kristof:

My pleasure.

Taylor Wilson:

You can find more from Nick on Twitter @NickKristof.

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More than 2 million people across Houston faced a water boil order yesterday, after a power outage disrupted the city's water system. Schools closed, and many businesses were also forced to shut down for the day. Schools in the city will be closed again today. Houston's mayor said an electric transformer and backup both failed causing the power outage and decline in water pressure. He added that there was no evidence of water contamination. The public was advised to bring water to a boil for at least two minutes, then letting it cool, before using it for drinking, cooking, bathing, and brushing teeth. Children, seniors, and those with weakened immune systems are all particularly vulnerable to harmful bacteria, but all water customers were advised to follow those directions. The boil advisory may be lifted early this morning.

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Congress is racing against the clock with a December 16th deadline looming to fund the federal government and avoid a partial government shutdown. That's one of the main priorities as a lame-duck session returns after Thanksgiving this week. Lawmakers are considering an extension to the current temporary spending bill that runs out on the 16th. They may extend to December 23rd to give more time to negotiate a funding bill for the full fiscal year that began on October 1st and runs through September 30th.

If they can't agree on a full deal, it's possible it gets pushed to the next Congress, which will shift to a narrow Republican majority in the House. Democrats would have a narrow majority in the Senate. But keeping the government open is not the only priority as lawmakers get back to work this week. They'll also consider sending more money to Ukraine and will look to potentially codify same-sex marriage. Senate lawmakers are on track to pass same-sex marriage rights as early as today. The move is seen as a preventative measure against a right-leaning Supreme Court that earlier this year rolled back federal abortion rights. It's also hinted that it won't honor precedent on earlier high court decisions, including gay marriage. The Respect for Marriage Act would also protect interracial marriages.

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According to a USA TODAY analysis of Health and Human Services data, millions of Americans' medical records have been stolen or exposed so far this year because of security vulnerabilities in electronic healthcare systems. PJ Elliott spoke with USA TODAY investigative data reporter Neena Hagen to find out more.

Neena Hagen:

Something that we've found from analyzing the data is that about 40 million Americans have their healthcare data stolen each year, and we're finding that that's steadily getting worse because a lot of healthcare companies are moving their information online. They have these legacy systems that don't really protect against hackers, so I mean, if you have a bad actor who wants access to this information, it's often not difficult for them to hack into a system and gain access to it.

PJ Elliott:

Neena, what can these companies do to better their security and why aren't they doing it?

Neena Hagen:

Yeah, well, I mean, it requires huge technology upgrades that they may not necessarily have the resources to do or they're not investing in it. There are also other issues where you have healthcare personnel who are very good at being doctors, managing healthcare information, but they're not necessarily trained in cyber security. So we found that about half of data breaches are caused by hacking incidents, but then about a third are caused by employee errors.

PJ Elliott:

Neena, it seems like these healthcare companies aren't doing a lot, they aren't strengthening their security, they're not giving enough cybersecurity training to their employees. I'm wondering if there's any entity that is holding them accountable for all of these breaches?

Neena Hagen:

Yeah, so Health and Human Services does impose fines on healthcare companies and Health and Human Services has a lot stricter regulatory requirements than banking or retail, because there's a federal law called HIPAA in place which mandates confidentiality between the patient and the doctor. Because of that, if data is breached, those fines are even steeper if the healthcare company does not report the data breach and Health and Human Services finds out about it later.

Taylor Wilson:

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. We're here every morning on whatever your favorite podcast app is. If you have a sec, please drop us five stars and a review. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: China's large-scale protests, Houston's boil advisory: 5 things podcast