Monday, February 7th, 2022
Ottawa ‘Emergency’, Rogan Apologizes & Crypto Tax Refunds
All the news you need in about 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp.com/newsworthy and kiwico.com (Listen for the discount code)
Story Summaries
All the news stories mentioned in today's episode are listed with links below, so you can spend as much -- or as little -- time as you want to review the latest happenings...
Russia Troop Buildup Assessments
If Russia invades Ukraine, it could cause a humanitarian crisis. That’s according to updated American military and intelligence reports. The U.S. now says a Russian invasion would be able to take down the Ukrainian government in just two days. Also, it could leave up to 50,000 civilians killed or hurt, and five million refugees could end up fleeing the chaos. Russia is calling these assessments nothing but “scaremongering”, but the Russian military is also sending even more combat units to the Ukrainian border.
Read more: WaPo, NY Times, NPR, AP
China/Russia Leaders Meet
Russia’s relationships with western nations are said to be getting tenser. However, the country is starting to build more partnerships out east instead. Russian President Putin met with his Chinese counterpart at the opening of the Winter Olympics last week. Then, they released a joint statement, reaffirming their support for each other’s foreign policy. They criticized what they said was a negative influence the U.S. has in both Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. They also both opposed NATO expanding any further.
Read more: Reuters, Al Jazeera, CNN, NY Post
Ottawa State of Emergency
Trucks and protesters are still blocking Canada’s capital city of Ottawa and beyond. Now, Ottawa’s mayor is declaring a state of emergency. The “Freedom Convoy” started for Canadians against Covid-19 vaccine mandates. However, it’s now a rallying point against all Covid-19 public health measures and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Some protesters say they plan to stay put until governments get rid of all restrictions. Now, some Canadian leaders are calling it an “occupation”. So far, there hasn’t been any physical violence reported, but Ottawa police are investigating possible hate crimes and threats against public figures.
Read more: CBC, Politico, Fox News, Reuters, City of Ottawa
GoFundMe Freedom Convoy Investigation
The Freedom Convoy has caught the attention and financing of people here in the U.S. Organizers, many of whom are from the United States, raised nearly $10 million on GoFundMe. That is until the tech company stopped the fundraiser once it got wind of some illegal activity associated with the protests. GoFundMe says it will automatically refund anyone who gave to the fundraiser before it got shut down. However, that decision upset a lot of Americans. Several state attorneys general are promising to investigate.
Read More: The Hill, Reuters, Fox Business, BBC, GoFundMe
900K+ U.S. Covid Deaths
Unfortunately, the U.S. hit a milestone in the Covid-19 pandemic that no one wanted to reach. The U.S. death toll surpassed 900,000 over the weekend. That two-year total is greater than the population of San Francisco or Indianapolis. Most of those deaths happened after Covid-19 vaccines were authorized. Still, President Biden says if it weren’t for vaccines, the death toll would have been much worse. He says the vaccines have saved more than one million lives, and he encouraged everyone who hasn’t gotten their shots yet to get them now.
Read more: AP, ABC News, Reuters, Johns Hopkins
More Tests Available at Pharmacies
At-home Covid-19 tests could now be easier to get than ever before. For starters, pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens removed their limits on how many testing kits people can buy at once. Also, as of last month, private insurers have been required to cover the cost of eight over-the-counter tests a month per insured person. Medicare will also soon cover the tests at the time of purchase, starting in early spring. Under other plans, people have to save their receipts and get reimbursed.
Pharmacies Drop Covid-19 Test Limit: CBS News, Fox Business, The Hill
Medicare to Cover Tests: NPR, USA Today, CNBC, AARP, CMS
First Free Govt Tests Delivered
Americans can still get four free at-home tests delivered to their doorsteps, and the U.S. Postal Service will deliver them. The USPS hired thousands of seasonal workers and converted more than 40 facilities into fulfillment centers for test orders. Already, USPS says it’s delivered tens of millions of them. The White House has promised to ship 500 million testing kits total. If you haven’t ordered yours and you want one, there are still plenty available.
Read more: WaPo, USA Today, CovidTests.Gov
Olympic Medals So Far
Team USA is looking to grab its first gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics today. The Americans have won three silver medals already for snowboarding, freestyle skiing, and team figure skating. Things didn’t go as well for one of America’s biggest stars, alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin. The two-time gold medalist wiped out in the first run of the giant slalom, an event she won last Olympics. As of this morning, the Russians lead the Beijing Games with six medals, two of them gold.
Read more: WaPo, USA Today, Reuters, NY Post, ESPN, NY Times, Olympics
Shaun White to Retire
There was a big announcement over the weekend from Team USA Olympic gold medalist Shaun White. He says he’s hanging up his snowboard after the Beijing games, at least competitively. Even if he doesn’t take home gold at the Beijing games, if he comes home with any medal, that will make him the most decorated men’s snowboarder of all time. You can watch his last competition, the half-pipe event, later this week.
Read more: ESPN, AP, CBS Sports, NY Times
Schedule of Events in Beijing: Olympics
Roger Goodell Addresses NFL Lawsuit
The NFL commissioner is promising to fix the “lack of diversity” in the league’s head coaching ranks. It comes as the NFL faces a racial discrimination lawsuit from former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores. Roger Goodell sent out a memo to the teams over the weekend, admitting there’s not enough diversity among coaches. He’s promising to reevaluate the league’s policies and guidelines. He’s also bringing in outside experts to help and calling on current and former players and coaches to chime in. However, lawyers for Flores are questioning whether Goodell’s call for change is sincere or if this is a publicity stunt.
Read more: Fox News, ABC News, SI, Mike Garafolo, Tom Pelissero
Joe Rogan Apologizes for Racial Slurs
Once again, popular Spotify podcaster Joe Rogan is apologizing. This time, though, it’s not about Covid-19. He was addressing a video compilation that went viral over the weekend that showed him using a racial slur in several podcast episodes over the last 12 years. In a video message, Rogan said using that word was “regretful” and “shameful” but that he never said it to be racist. Just last night, the CEO of Spotify addressed this latest controversy, too. He condemned Rogan’s language but said he didn’t believe silencing him was the answer.
Read more: Fox Business, CNN, Deadline, AP, Joe Rogan
Rogan Podcast Episodes Pulled
Reports say more than 100 episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience were taken down, but some critics are calling for more. As we’ve mentioned before, many rock legends have quit Spotify because they accuse Rogan of spreading dangerous misinformation about Covid-19. Both Spotify’s leaders and Joe Rogan have said they’ll work on being more balanced in the future.
Read more: Gizmodo, NY Post, Forbes, Engadget, Variety
MIT Creates New Material
Researchers at MIT created what they long thought was impossible. It’s a new material that’s strong as steel but light as plastic. The research shows this material is several times stronger than bullet-proof glass, and you’d need twice as much force to break it as you would steel. The researchers came up with it by developing a new process to form polymers, so they’re flat and lightweight. Scientists say they’ve tried for decades to make this kind of material. Now that they have, they say it could be used for anything from the lightweight coating on cars and phones to forming the building blocks for massive structures like bridges.
Read more: USA Today, SciTech, MIT
Money Monday: TurboTax Crypto Options
If you’ve been thinking about building or starting a crypto wallet, this could be your chance. TurboTax says if you file with them, you can get your state and federal tax refunds in cryptocurrency this year. To do it, the company teamed up with the largest crypto exchange platform in the country, Coinbase. So this year, when people finish up their filing process, they’ll see the option of TurboTax to deposit funds into a Coinbase account. If you don’t have one yet, you’ll get a link to open one. Still, experts say digital currencies are volatile. The price of bitcoin, for example, is down more than 20% so far this year.
Read more: NY Times, WSJ, CNBC, Coinbase
Start Filing Cryptocurrency Taxes: Turbotax