--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, February 1st. Today is the first day of Black History Month. It's also the start of the Lunar New Year.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: I'm Shamita Basu. And I'm Duarte Giraldino. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: January was the first month that parents stopped seeing the enhanced monthly child tax credit. These checks from the government came out to $300 a month for kids under six and $250 for older kids. But these larger payments that started back in July, they ended in December after lawmakers couldn't agree on funding them.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: CNN spoke with parents about living without the credit. Many said they've had to make tough choices. One mom who works as a bus driver told CNN she's taking on more hours to support her family. But that choice means that she has less time to take care of her family, including two of her kids who have sickle cell anemia.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another mom talked about pushing her two-year-old to potty train as soon as possible so that she can save money on diapers. The extra money is disappearing just as inflation is driving up prices for food, gas and other basic needs. For one mother, the bigger grocery bill means delaying critical home repairs. And things like trips to the zoo, a new winter coat, those are on the chopping block.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: She told CNN the tax credit gave her some breathing room, gave her the confidence that she could afford the basics and maybe give her kid a little bit extra. Now, those are personal stories about how the end of this credit is affecting some families.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NPR gives us a broader understanding with a look at key data. Researchers say the payments cut monthly child poverty by roughly 30 percent. Last month, that money kept about 3.7 million children out of poverty.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: NPR also found when parents had a few extra hundred dollars on hand, they used it on things that were really essential: Food, utility bills, school supplies, rent. And a Census Bureau survey found one in four families with young children used this additional money to pay for child care.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One mother told NPR it was a struggle to choose between bad options. Working more meant less time to care for her high-risk child. Working less made it hard to pay the bills. She said it's been hell, an emotional roller coaster.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: When you hear the word doula, you might think of people trained to help bring babies into the world. But there are also death doulas. These are specialists who work alongside people in the final days of their lives.
--:-- Shamita Basu: During the pandemic, demand for death doulas grew dramatically. Time magazine profiles one death doula named Liz Leitner.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: One of her clients, a 79-year-old man, was dying of lung cancer, and she noticed he had a scuba diving t-shirt that looked pretty well-worn, so she figured he'd spent a lot of time in and around the water.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Reporter Melissa Chan described how Leitner spoke to him and painted a vivid picture of being in a tropical ocean to help soothe his final moments. She told him, there were so many vibrant schools of fish around them, really pointing out that they were blue and orange. And, if you look up, the light from the sun was piercing through the water, lighting up the coral beneath them.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: She told him repeatedly that they were together. He wasn't doing this alone.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One longtime Death Dula described the job as stepping in to fill an emotional void. A lot of what they do is just sit for hours and hours listening to, somebody's whole life story, all their worst and best moments.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: They can help family members find new homes for their pets, which they know they'll be leaving behind. And that's brought a lot of people peace.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another woman told Chan a big part of why she became a death doula was the experience of seeing her grandma die of pancreatic cancer years before. She says her grandmother spent her final moments surrounded by panicked loved ones.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: She became a death doula to comfort other families in difficult moments. Doulas don't prescribe or administer medication, so that means the industry isn't regulated and doesn't require a license.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Training focuses on understanding terminal illness and communicating with families. The job of a death doula is very often misunderstood because many feel it's a morbid occupation.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But every single one of these end-of-life doulas that I've spoken to has not experienced one moment of sadness in their work. It's actually quite the opposite. They've said there's more dignity and beauty in their work, which is what they want people to know.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Winter Olympics start in Beijing this week, and if you've only heard of one athlete, there's a good chance it's Aileen Gu. She's 18 years old and a Chinese-American freestyle skier who is competing for Team China.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Her skills, her story, her youth, and her energy, they've gotten her lots of attention and big money sponsorships. She's a favorite to win three events, but off the slopes, she has a special challenge.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bloomberg Businessweek looks at the political and business tightrope that she has to walk. Gu has to avoid saying something political that could anger China and potentially turn off her sponsors.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: These are traps that have tripped up people who are much older than her. The same year she chose to ski for China, the general manager of the Houston Rockets likely cost the NBA hundreds of millions of dollars when he tweeted support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And remember, she's just 18 years old, yet she has waves of reporters and fans asking her questions in interviews and on social media.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Steering clear of politically and financially costly moves is going to require a different type of concentration than what she uses to do those wild tricks on the slopes. Sports heroes are often teased for saying the same vague things in interviews.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But for Gu, keeping it bland is about career preservation. Just listen to this interview she did on Chinese state TV last year: Every athlete is dreaming about winning the Olympics. To be able to have such a huge audience in China is like the biggest honor.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: OK, so if she wins gold, it could be worth $10 million in new sponsorship deals. But cashing in won't just be about what she does on the slopes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Five letters, six guesses, seven figures. The popular game Wordle just sold for a nice chunk of money. The New York Times bought the game for a low seven-figure price.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And it says Wordle will be free to play for now. So if you think this word-guessing game came out of nowhere to dominate your social media feeds, you're not wrong.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One day in November, only 90 people played. 90! Now, millions play the puzzle every single day. It really took off when the creator of the game made it easy to share your score on Twitter and Facebook.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The gamesmaker says he's working to make sure everyone's wins and streaks are preserved when Wordle moves over to the Times.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Although I think for a lot of people that all got really messed up yesterday, I heard a lot of people couldn't solve it for the first time. It was really frustrating for them. There was a lot of drama.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Wall Street Journal reporter Joseph Pisani covered the sale to the Times, and he's carved out something of a wordle beat as the game exploded.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We've pulled some of his recent work for you to check out. One story is about how this simple game sparked extremely complicated debates about strategy.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And for what it's worth, the creator says, don't ask him about strategy. He's really bad at his own game.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another story looks at how it's gotten people excited about older games from their childhood. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated stories from our News Plus partners.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
