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Russia hits Ukrainian hospitals, Players Championship begins: 5 Things podcast

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On in the present day’s episode of the 5 Issues podcast: Russia targets Ukrainian hospitals

At the very least 3 folks had been killed at a maternity hospital. Plus, White Home reporter Matthew Brown explains what the Biden administration is doing with regard to cryptocurrency, the Labor Division points its newest report on inflation, nationwide correspondent Deborah Barfield-Berry studies on what number of younger folks of coloration do not get a COVID-19 booster and golf’s Gamers Championship begins.

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

Hit play on the participant above to listen to the podcast and comply with together with the transcript under. This transcript was robotically generated, after which edited for readability in its present type. There could also be some variations between the audio and the textual content.

Taylor Wilson:

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Good morning. I am Taylor Wilson and that is 5 Issues it is advisable to know Thursday, the tenth of March 2022. At present, Russian assaults on Ukrainian hospitals. Plus the Biden administration tackles crypto, and extra.

Listed below are among the prime headlines: 

  1. Texas has misplaced an attraction of an order stopping baby welfare officers from investigating the dad and mom of a transgender teen over gender-affirming care. Republican Governor Greg Abbott beforehand ordered that officers look into studies of such remedies as abuse.
  2. Jussie Smollet shall be sentenced in the present day after he was convicted of staging what he known as a racist and homophobic assault in Chicago in 2019. His felony disorderly conduct conviction may get him as much as three years in jail although consultants predict he’ll doubtless get off with probation.
  3. And Puerto Rico is dropping its essential COVID-19 associated entry necessities in the present day. Guests from the U.S to the island territory will not want to point out proof of vaccination or a unfavorable coronavirus check to enter.

The World Well being Group says it is confirmed 18 assaults on medical services because the Russian invasion started two weeks in the past in Ukraine. The most recent, an airstrike on a hospital in Mariupol hit a maternity ward injuring girls ready to offer start. It killed at the least three folks together with a toddler, in line with the town council. And at the least 17 folks had been injured. A warning, the next is graphic.

[Sounds of the hospital in Mariupol being shelled, glass shattering, car alarms blaring  and a mother crying out.]

Taylor Wilson:

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The world has been left horrified by the assault whereas Ukrainian officers and others name it a warfare crime. Volodymir Nikulin, a prime regional police official, didn’t mince phrases.

Taylor Wilson translating for Volodymir Nikulin:

“At present, Russian invaders dedicated a grave crime. It’s a warfare crime with none justification.”

Taylor Wilson:

Elsewhere, in Zhytomyr, a metropolis to the west of Kyiv, bombs fell on two hospitals together with a youngsters’s hospital, although no accidents had been reported there. In his nightly video deal with, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy switched to talking Russian at one level to specific horror on the strikes. He mentioned, “What sort of nation is that this, the Russian Federation, which is afraid of hospitals, afraid of maternity hospitals and destroys them?”

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Two weeks into its invasion Russia’s navy has struggled greater than some anticipated, however President Vladimir Putin’s invading pressure of greater than 150,000 troops holds main firepower benefits because it focuses on japanese cities. American navy officers are reporting few modifications on the bottom over the previous 24 hours, however Russia has made progress in opposition to the town of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest metropolis, and went additional west than lots of Russia’s earlier advances.

Some evacuation corridors proceed to open. Three of them operated yesterday from Sumy within the northeast, from suburban Kyiv and from Enerhodar, the southern city the place Russia took over a big nuclear plant. Scenes within the Kyiv suburb of Irpin had been significantly intense as folks crossed a makeshift wood bridge, after Ukrainians blew up the concrete one resulting in Kyiv to sluggish the Russian advance. In all, the corridors led to about 35,000 evacuations yesterday and extra are anticipated in the present day. Residents in Mariupol are hoping to be amongst these given protected passage.

Ukrainian officers have mentioned 1,200 folks have died in that port metropolis of lower than half 1,000,000. Nationwide 1000’s are believed to have been killed and the UN estimates that greater than 2,000,000 folks have fled the nation within the largest exodus of refugees in Europe because the finish of World Conflict II.

The Biden administration is tackling cryptocurrency with a brand new govt order. It is meant to advertise future innovation within the business whereas minimizing the monetary dangers to People and the worldwide monetary system. White Home reporter Matthew Brown explains.

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Matthew Brown:

So on Wednesday, President Biden signed an govt order on cryptocurrency that’s actually the primary time that we’re seeing a complete of presidency method to tackling this situation that has grow to be a large a part of the American monetary panorama prior to now couple years. That is President Biden’s first try to essentially say that the administration goes to increase a little bit of a olive department to cryptocurrency communities, business leaders, and principally say that they are keen on being companions in serving to to essentially spur innovation on this area, but in addition make it possible for the monetary volatility of cryptocurrencies and different digital property like non-fungible tokens, aren’t going to pose a hazard principally to the American economic system or particular person People who’re placing in typically quite a lot of their particular person wealth into the property that they are seeing on-line.

So the chief order encourages the Division of Commerce to take a look at digital property like cryptocurrencies and principally make sure that it doesn’t matter what monetary innovation occurs in cost methods sooner or later or in forex around the globe, that the U.S greenback stays an integral a part of world transactions, world commerce and world finance.

They’re additionally directing the Federal Reserve to check out doubtlessly researching and even growing its personal digital greenback which might be similar to a cryptocurrency in that it could doubtless make use of blockchain know-how, however not essentially the identical factor provided that it could clearly be produced and centralized throughout the Federal Reserve.

One of many largest considerations about cryptocurrency in the mean time is principally that they’re oftentimes seen as very, very unstable. The worth of Bitcoin, we have seen can go up extremely rapidly, quicker than the inventory market. After which crash down extremely rapidly in the identical day. That is one thing that the Biden administration is principally saying that they wish to assist work with completely different cryptocurrencies in your entire broader ecosystem to make it possible for sort of factor would not occur as a lot or is not as disruptive to the overall monetary markets, to the crypto markets and to the person people who find themselves placing their wealth into this.

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Yet one more factor that I might say on this, is that lots of people have been saying that they had been anticipating this govt order for a really very long time. And it is one thing that I feel lots of people have been pleasantly stunned by how pleasant and conciliatory the Biden administration has been on this topic on the subject of cryptocurrency. They are not coming in like quite a lot of different nations have achieved and say that they wish to curtail innovation right here or actually crack down on this. They’re saying that the American method to this ought to be to spur innovation on this area and say that it is actually good that we have now had for a lot of, a few years, quite a lot of completely different archaic monetary methods or methods that are not essentially as conscious of lots of people.

That is the precise motive why individuals are turning to cryptocurrency within the first place. And the administration appears to be receptive to listening to that and why they’re placing innovation and fairness on the middle of this as a result of they wish to say, sure, we love new concepts. We love new applied sciences. We wish to hear that. However they’re additionally actually nervous concerning the prospect that if everyone seems to be investing in these unstable property which may not even have any worth behind them or any tradability behind them on the finish of the day, that would actually break lots of people and result in a monetary disaster or localized monetary dire straits for particular person People. And so they need to have the ability to curtail that and ensure there’s fairness and stability on the similar time that we will get prosperity and innovation.

Taylor Wilson:

You’ll find extra of Matt’s work on Twitter @mrbrownsir.

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The Labor Division will situation its newest report on inflation in the present day. Economists anticipate it’s going to present that costs for U.S shoppers jumped 7.9% final month in contrast with a 12 months in the past. That might be the largest acquire in 4 many years. Costs beforehand jumped 7.5% in January from a 12 months earlier. Quite a lot of elements have accelerated inflation over the previous 12 months. They embody provide and employee shortages, low rates of interest, sturdy client spending, and many federal help. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell mentioned final week in congressional hearings that it was not but clear what affect Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would have on the U.S economic system. It is already pushed report excessive gasoline costs across the nation. Powell mentioned the Fed had deliberate earlier than the warfare to provoke a sequence of fee hikes subsequent week, and for now would rigorously comply with that plan.

The White Home final week launched its newest plan to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. It consists of efforts to sort out inequity considerations about entry to vaccines and coverings. And officers mentioned that one main effort facilities round closing the hole between vaccinated white, younger adults and younger adults of coloration, particularly on the subject of getting a booster shot. Nationwide Correspondent Deborah Barfield Berry studies.

Deborah Barfield Berry:

When it comes to the younger adults, significantly that 18 to 49 12 months outdated group, there’s a few 20% distinction between that very same age group with white younger adults. And so they evaluate that specifically to seniors of 65 and older the place the hole is far nearer. So there possibly 5, on the most, p.c distinction between that age group. They’re actually involved about why it’s that the youthful folks aren’t doing it and what it’s they’ll do to focus on them. In order that they’re turning to church buildings, they’re turning to extra of the neighborhood primarily based teams. They’re turning to healthcare professionals of coloration in these communities, hoping that they might persuade them, if you’ll, or at the least provide them info that can make them extra keen to at the least think about it, as a result of they are saying there’s quite a lot of causes and a few rightfully so that they are hesitant to come back on board.

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Once I interviewed or talked to Dr. Cameron Webb, who’s one of many advisors for the White Home COVID Fairness Challenge, he mentioned there are a number of elements, one in all them being comfort, or the insecurity, that means that a few of them aren’t very reliable or not going to belief the system and, or query the effectiveness of it. And the opposite is complacency. So he mentioned these three elements make it a little bit more difficult for younger adults. So a part of that problem in fact is to primary, attain out to them via social media and different signifies that they use and attempt to provide them different info and different incentives to at the least think about it. He argues that it could make a distinction in defending not solely themselves, however their neighborhood.

So one of many issues that the White Home did via the pandemic, and plans to really ramp up once more, is to show to quite a lot of faith-based teams and neighborhood teams, significantly ones on the bottom in these communities of coloration, to show to them as they name them, “trusted messengers.” Folks locally that people belief, in order that they’ll ship the message, that they’ll arrange the vaccine websites, that they’ll provide the boosters, that they’ll provide this stuff that folks will most likely go to versus listening to the federal authorities come at them. That is what they’re making an attempt to do once more. And quite a lot of the faith-based teams have raised their arms, however each prior to now and much more so now, as a result of they really feel prefer it’s vital for them to do this and vital for his or her neighborhood to reply.

Taylor Wilson:

You’ll find a hyperlink to Deborah’s full story in in the present day’s episode description.

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Golf’s Gamers Championship begins in the present day. 47 of the world’s prime 50 golfers are in Ponte Vedra Seaside, Florida, for the event on the TPC Sawgrass course. That features Jon Rahm, the Spaniard and present primary ranked participant on this planet, plus American, Justin Thomas, final 12 months’s winner and Australian, Adam Scott, who has not gained The Gamers since 2004, however has three prime 10 finishes in his final 5 worldwide begins. $3,600,000 is at stake for the winner. The climate forecast would not look nice although, with thunderstorms doable via Saturday. You may tune in on NBC, Golf Channel and ESPN+.

And you’ll find 5 Issues wherever you are listening proper now. In the event you’re on Apple podcast, we ask that you simply take a second and drop us a 5 star score and overview, or you’ll find us on no matter your favourite podcast app is. Because of PJ Elliott for his nice work on the present. And I am again tomorrow with extra of 5 Issues from USA TODAY.

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