On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: Attacks on Asian women continue. What needs to change?
Breaking news reporter Grace Hauck looks into it. Plus, NATO has strong words for Russia, Eileen Gu is the star of the Olympics as the sports world continues to react to Kamila Valieva’s struggles, former President Donald Trump will possibly answer questions under oath and reporter Chris Woodyard talks about investing amid record inflation.
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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 Friday, the 18th of February, 2022. Today, violence against Asian Americans. Plus, Trump has to answer questions under oath, and more.
Here are some of the top headlines:
- Kim Potter will be sentenced today. The former Minnesota police officer shot and killed Daunte Wright while yelling “taser” during a traffic stop.
- A wildfire that started near the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California on Wednesday has now burned more than 4,000 acres. The so-called airport fire is only 20% contained.
- And a Michigan man told police that his entire cabin was stolen. The 12-foot by 28-foot structure may have been taken away on the back of a truck.
Violence continues against Asian Americans, and particularly Asian women.
[crowd]:
Enough is enough.
Speaker:
Enough is enough.
[crowd]:
Enough is enough.
Speaker:
Enough is enough. Enough is enough.
[crowd]:
Enough is enough.
Taylor Wilson:
That was the scene earlier this week with members of New York City’s Asian-American community calling for change. Susan Lee was attacked on the subway last year.
Susan Lee:
I’m at the point where I can’t take it anymore. Our elected officials need… I am begging them to act, so that not another life is lost. Too many lives have been lost. This is supposed to be a time of celebration in our community, and we’re holding a vigil. That is not the way we should be operating right now.
Taylor Wilson:
What needs to change to stop the violence? Breaking News Reporter Grace Hauck considers.
Grace Hauck:
Attacks against people of Asian descent have risen dramatically in the US amid the coronavirus pandemic. And in New York specifically, attacks against people of Asian descent had risen 361% over the year before. Majority of the people reporting those attacks are women.
In November, a young 23-year-old Thai woman who I spoke with, she was assaulted and mugged on the subway. Then last month, we saw that a woman named Michelle Alyssa Goh was pushed to her death in front of a subway car. Just last week, there was really the shocking murder of Christina Yuna Lee in her own apartment in Chinatown, Manhattan. So, I think the Asian-American community, the Asian community in the US, has been really shocked and outraged by these attacks. These are just some of the most high-profile, prominent ones we’ve seen. There have also been a rise in attacks against the elderly, and advocates say that’s largely because the people who are suspected of committing these attacks are trying to target people who they believe are vulnerable, who won’t fight back. That is based on longstanding stereotypes about people of Asian descent, particularly Asian women in the US.
Advocates say the solutions are really twofold. I spent some time speaking with elected leaders, residents of the area, as well as people working with organizations who focus on these issues. They say, first and foremost, we need to acknowledge the racial and gender-based motivations of these crimes, even if that’s not included in the official charges, because it is clear that Asian women and the elderly are indeed being targeted here. So, it starts with an acknowledgement of that, and of the history of why this is happening, the stereotypes about Asian women in the US, and the historical undertones there. And about how we can start to address those longstanding prejudices through education, through having more cultural conversations about this.
They say that the second part is really focusing on the suspects in these cases, and how they are not being served. They say that we’ve seen a trend in the three cases I mentioned, in people who are suffering from substance abuse, mental illness, who are experiencing homelessness, really being the ones who have been suspected of committing many of these attacks.
So, advocates say that it’s a difficult issue because it involves a lot of systemic problems that need to be addressed in order to get at the root of these issues. All of these systemic issues have been exacerbated by the pandemic, and many warn that with the end of New York State’s eviction moratorium, there’s going to be an “avalanche” of more people experiencing homelessness, that will continue to exacerbate this issue. They call for more investments in communities and in social services to address things like homelessness, substance abuse, mental illness, to try and get at why people are in positions where they would be committing these attacks in the first place.
Taylor Wilson:
For Grace’s full story. Check out today’s episode description.
NATO had strong words yesterday toward Russia, as weeks of tensions in Eastern Europe roll on. NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.
Jens Stoltenberg:
There are signs from Moscow that diplomacy could continue, but so far we have not seen any sign of withdrawal or deescalation. Russia has yet again demonstrated its disregard for the principles underpinning European security, and its ability and willingness to threaten the use of force in pursuit of its objectives.
Taylor Wilson:
Those comments come as it appears Russia has added some 7,000 troops around Ukraine’s border, on top of the 150,000 already there, days after telling the West it was withdrawing some troops from the region. Russia continues to demand promises that Ukraine and other former Soviet countries will not join NATO, and that the alliance roll back troop deployments in those places as well. Russia, though, has responded to American security proposals, and the US is currently evaluating the reply. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said yesterday that the risk of Russian invasion remains high.
Joe Biden:
They have not moved any of their troops out. They’ve moved more troops in, number one. Number two, we have reason to believe that they are engaged in a false-flag operation to have an excuse to go in. Every indication we have is they’re prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine. My sense, this will happen within the next several days.
Taylor Wilson:
He added that he still believes a diplomatic solution to the crisis is possible. But another sour moment came when Russia sent home a top US diplomat from Moscow last week, which was confirmed by Russia yesterday. There are also tensions inside Ukraine. Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east are accusing each other of intense shelling.
Chinese American skier, Eileen Gu, won her third medal of these Winter Olympics earlier today. She won freeskiing gold in the women’s halfpipe. That follows her gold in the Olympic debut of big air last week, and her silver in freeski slopestyle. Gu is an 18-year-old who grew up in San Francisco, but decided to represent China because of her mom’s nationality. Today, the pairs short program begins in figure skating at 5:30 AM Eastern Time, but most attention is still on yesterday’s events, when gold medal favorite Kamila Valieva struggled in her women’s free skate performance and finished fourth. The 15-year-old has been at the heart of this Olympic’s biggest drama after testing positive for a banned heart medication. She was then cleared to skate by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Many around the world celebrated the teenager’s failure as a win for sporting purity, but others criticized adults in Valieva’s life for failing her. She fell under the world’s pressure and scrutiny yesterday. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said he was disturbed by the scenes of Valieva’s final skate.
Thomas Bach:
There’s also the very sad story about Kamila Valieva. I must say I was very, very disturbed yesterday when I watched the competition on TV. I saw first, in her performance, how high the pressure on her must have been, and in particular for a girl of 15 years old. In the body language, you could feel that this is immense, immense mental stress.
Taylor Wilson
Depending on when you’re listening to this morning’s podcast, there’s lots going on maybe right now at the Olympics. Check out our full TV schedule of today’s action all through the weekend. We have a link of that in today’s episode description.
Former President Donald Trump will have to answer questions under oath. A New York judge ruled yesterday that he and two of his children have to testify in a civil fraud investigation led by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump must turn over documents within 14 days, and he, Donald Trump Jr., and Ivanka Trump must appear for depositions within 21 days. But, it may not happen that quickly since Trump’s lawyers will likely appeal. The AP’s Michael Sisak explains.
Michael Sisak:
A judge has ruled that Donald Trump and two of his children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, must testify under oath in a New York State investigation into their business practices. This is a civil investigation being conducted by the New York State Attorney General. The judge ruled that the Trumps, they were subpoenaed in December, they must comply with that subpoena within 21 days.
There’s every indication from lawyers for Donald Trump, and for Don Jr. and Ivanka, that they will appeal this ruling. That could take some time, that could really protract things. They eventually want to stave off the possibility that their clients have to testify.
Lawyers for the Trumps, for the former president, and for his two adult children, Don Jr. and Ivanka, they argued that this testimony that they are being subpoenaed for could be used against them in a parallel criminal investigation being conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Now, that’s the investigation that last year led to criminal charges against Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, and also the Trump Organization itself. Those charges alleged that extra benefits, untaxed benefits, were passed from the company to that executive, Allen Weisselberg. They’ve pleaded not guilty.
Now, of course, anyone giving a deposition, anyone testifying, can plead the Fifth Amendment, their right to remain silent, the right to not incriminate yourself in your testimony. But lawyers for the Trumps argued that that could complicate things nevertheless. If Donald Trump, for example, were charged with a crime, jurors, potential jurors, would probably have some awareness of this whole fight over his testimony. With that news splashed across front pages, and websites, and phone alerts, that lawyer says it would be impossible to get a fair trial for Donald Trump, because jurors would think that maybe he had something to hide if he invoked that Fifth Amendment right.
Taylor Wilson:
You can find more coverage on USATODAY.com of what the former president is up to these days. Just search ‘Trump’.
The rate of inflation in the US has risen to 7.5%, the highest in 40 years. That can mean different things for different parts of the economy, but it generally has many people rethinking their investments. Reporter Chris Woodyard has more.
Chris Woodyard:
This is a rough time for investors. Stocks have been doing well, but the inflation rate has hit 7.5%. That’s the highest in 40 years. So, what do you do? You have stocks, you have bonds, you have a portfolio that you’ve kept such close watch on. How can you possibly deal with this inflationary surge?
The inclination might be to dump your portfolio, to just move on, to try to find other investments like gold, or crypto, or something that might return more to you than your stocks and bonds would. But we talked to a financial planner in Sandy, Utah, Ray LeVitre, who has done a study that looked at what happened in the 1970s, the last time we had really high inflation. What he found was that if you stick with your stocks and bonds, just your basic no-brainer portfolio, a really balanced, conservative mix, you’ll come out pretty much even, with the rate of inflation based on what happened in the 1970s. Now, you can mix it up different ways. You can go heavier on stocks, you can go heavier on bonds. What he found was that the mix, going like a 50-50 mix of stocks and bonds, or 75-25, and throwing a little cash in there, it all came up pretty close to the same over six or seven years. You start with $10,000, you might be up a few hundred or down a few hundred, but it came out pretty close, as opposed to just abandoning the whole thing and trying to go with something else.
Remember, you can’t predict the future when it comes to stocks and bonds, you can’t predict the future that much when it comes to inflation. The administration says this is just a temporary thing, it’s going to be over. You don’t know. It might be, it might not be. Anyway, it was an interesting analysis. It shows where you might want to go with this, by mixing it up, looking at other ways to go, as opposed to a standard portfolio.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us seven mornings a week right here, wherever you’re listening right now. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show, and I’m back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.
www.usatoday.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism