--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, February 11th. I'm Shamita Basu. And I'm Duarte Giraldino. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: 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: Things are getting really tense along the northern border, now that Canadian truckers have moved their protests to block a third border crossing, this one with North Dakota.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: It's gotten to the point that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are calling for Canada to use federal powers to get this situation under control.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These protests began on January 28th as a way to oppose U.S. and Canadian rules that require cross-border truckers to be fully vaccinated. But since then, they've evolved into a movement against pandemic restrictions in general.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: According to The Washington Post, there haven't always been a lot of people at these demonstrations. But because they use big rigs and other vehicles to block traffic, they are disruptive.
--:-- CNN Reporter: I live in Quebec, so it's a bit more intense than other places in Canada. But look, I can't go skiing. I can't go to Walmart. I can't go to Canadian Tire. I can't go to Home Depot. I can't go to restaurants. I can't go to bars. I can't go to the gym. I want all these mandates gone, and I'm not leaving until all the mandates are gone.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Canadian government announced it's going to be sending more resources and officers to these protests. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he said these blockades are hurting jobs, businesses, and the economy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And we're seeing this in the auto industry, which is already suffering from a shortage of semiconductor chips. Some of the big auto brands like Ford and General Motors, They're saying these demonstrations have forced them to cut production and cancel shifts at some of their sites.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Politico maps out a few ways the Canadian government can try to end the blockades. A national security expert in Canada told Politico one solution might be to use the law. She calls this the Al Capone approach.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Capone, the gangster, was famously finally arrested for a pretty boring crime, tax violations. This expert says authorities in Canada could threaten to take away truckers' licenses for engaging in illegal activity. Basically, use bureaucracy to put a damper on these demonstrations.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Are we headed to a new normal? That's the question lots of people are asking this week as a number of states started lifting mask mandates.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And what notable here these decisions are coming from Democrat states. I going to give you a list here California Nevada Oregon Delaware Connecticut New Jersey Rhode Island Massachusetts and New York are all considering lifting some mask mandates.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And this is happening without the CDC and the Biden administration being on board. Yeah, the CDC has not budged on its guidelines. It's still recommending masks in K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At a White House press briefing this week, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the seven-day average of new infections is still pretty high, nearly a quarter million new cases a day.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: We continue to recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission. That's much of the country right now in public indoor settings.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here's what The Washington Post is reporting. This shift by blue states is a sign of a changing political landscape. These Democratic governors acknowledge that patience is running out among their constituents.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: A recent Monmouth University poll shows seven in 10 Americans agree with this statement. It's time we accept COVID is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the same poll shows support for mask and vaccine mandates is on the decline. Now, lifting pandemic restrictions might seem like good politics, but there isn't a clear consensus around whether it's good public health policy.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Only 56% of kids between the ages of 12 and 17 have been fully vaccinated, and we still don't have an approved vaccine for children under five.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Meanwhile, the United States just recently surpassed 900,000 COVID deaths. These are all signs that the pandemic is not over yet, even if people want it to be.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Still, The Post is calling this a pivotal moment in the politics of the pandemic. Politicians are well aware that without significant steps towards normalcy, they could pay the consequences for it come Election Day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to the Olympics, where medals still haven't been handed out in team figure skating because of a controversy involving the Russian figure skating team.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The International Testing Agency confirmed today that one of the athletes tested positive for a banned substance weeks before she competed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Just to catch you up on the full swing of this story, earlier this week, 15-year-old Camila Valjeva made history when she became the first female skater in the Olympics to land a quadruple jump.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: She won both of her skates in the team event and almost beat her own world record in her short program. She finished 15 points ahead of the skater who came in second which is a huge margin
--:-- Shamita Basu: Her performance should have secured Russia the top spot on the podium. Here what the Olympics official testing agency clarified today.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: At the end of December, Valieva reportedly tested positive for a heart drug that's on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She was briefly suspended from competition until Russia's Anti-Doping Committee lifted that suspension. It's now up to the International Olympic Committee to decide what should happen with the medals.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And the Washington Post is reporting, an expedited hearing will determine whether Valiyeva will be allowed to continue competing at the Olympics.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We want to give you some context here about the team and about this particular athlete. So you've seen that Russian athletes are competing under the ROC banner, right?
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: That stands for the Russian Olympic Committee. And that's because as far back as 2015, Russia as a country was banned from competing at major international events after they were caught running one of the most extensive and sophisticated doping programs the sporting world has ever seen.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The doping scheme at the 2014 Winter Games was so elaborate, it involved members of the Russian intelligence services who passed bottles of clean urine through a hole in the wall to replace the drug-tainted samples left by the athletes.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Because of all that, Russia has been in a years-long sports exile. Now, another thing to keep in mind with this Russian skater is that she's just 15 years old, and by the rules, she is classified as a protected person.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This means when it comes to doping, she should not be subject to the same kind of consequences as an older athlete. But it also suggests that if there is blame to be had here, It should not fall on her, which is why so many people are now talking about the Russian coach.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Yes, Vox explains this coach figured out how to push her athletes to get the highest possible scores. Because you see, in skating, you get more points for doing risky jumps than you do for doing some of the safer tricks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vox reports on how there are growing concerns in the skating community that this Russian coach, and many coaches in general, are pushing young skaters to their limits and possibly putting them in danger.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: As we wait for the IOC to decide what's going to happen next, some people are calling this moment a test of the ideals of the Olympics.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In a statement to NPR, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee said, quote, the whole credibility of the Olympics stands teetering on the edge.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, if the Russian figure skaters lose their gold medal, it'll most likely go to the second place winners, the American team.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This Sunday is the 56th Super Bowl The Los Angeles Rams are set to play the Cincinnati Bengals.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And millions of Americans will, for the first time, legally have money on the game. Now we have more than half the states have legalized betting.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's Ira Boudwe. He's a reporter with Bloomberg. More than 100 million Americans can bet legally. And more states are coming soon.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And so this Super Bowl is really the biggest yet and the first where we've reached that tipping point.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is a big deal because for so long, the NFL and other major sports leagues fought the expansion of legal betting outside Nevada.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And that's because of a hard lesson they learned in 1946. It was in that year that two players from the New York Giants were offered bribes to throw the game to the Chicago Bears.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That got the league worried about betting. And the reason was, if big money is involved and players can be bought, it could mess with the integrity of the game.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Things changed when, in 2018, the Supreme Court opened the door for states to decide whether they want to legalize sports betting.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And since then, more than two dozen got on board. Part of it was they had little choice. Legal sports betting was going to expand.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And part of it was that they realized that this was a huge economic opportunity. A huge economic opportunity for everyone, including the NFL.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The league expects to make a billion dollars every year from deals with sports betting companies by the end of the decade.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Analysts from Goldman Sachs estimate that the online betting apps like DraftKings or FanDuel could surpass broadcast and cable markets to become the main way people watch games.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Boudwe says the fact that you can place a bet on an app on your phone is making it easy for first-time gamblers to get in on the action.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: More and more people who've never betted before are trying it. Now you can bet on individual players.
--:-- Shamita Basu: What color will the Gatorade be when they pour it over the coach's head at the end of the game? Who will score the first touchdown? What will the number of the jersey be of the player who scores the first touchdown?
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And check out our weekend interview show, In Conversation. This week is a fun one. I speak with Claire McNair. She's a reporter at The Ringer who's written a lot about Jeopardy.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And we talked about how, despite losing its beloved host, Alex Trebek, the show is as popular as ever.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It is totally strange that this is a show that competes with, like, major sporting programming. Like, it makes no sense that Jeopardy! is this huge, huge hit. But it is.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Enjoy that weekend listen. We'll be back with the news on Monday.
