Families of US Embassy staff in Ukraine ordered to leave, tax season begins : 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Families of US Embassy staff in Ukraine ordered to head home

The move comes amid Russia-Ukraine tensions. Plus, money & tech reporter Terry Collins talks about the burden of inflation, columnist Sara Kububric considers how to get over ghosting, a NASA space telescope reaches its final destination and tax season begins.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more Paste BN podcasts right here.

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, Monday, the 24th of January, 2022. Today, family members leave the US Embassy in Ukraine. Plus, the pain of inflation on American families and more.

Here are some of the top headlines:

1. Four people were killed when a shooter opened fire at a house party near Los Angeles early Sunday. Authorities in Inglewood say victims appear to have been targeted.
2. The conference championship games are now set in the NFL. The Kansas City Chiefs will host the Cincinnati Bengals after the Chiefs' thrilling overtime win last night over the Buffalo Bills. And in the NFC, the Los Angeles Rams will host the San Francisco 49ers. Winners meet in next month's Super Bowl.
3. And talks resume today between Major League Baseball and its players as a lockout continues. Time is running out to make a deal before spring training is scheduled to begin on February 16th.

The State Department has ordered the families of all American personnel at the US Embassy in Ukraine to leave the country. And the department added that non-essential staff at the embassy could also leave at government expense. The move opens the latest chapter amid fears around the world that Russia might invade Ukraine or provoke in some other way. Tens of thousands of Russian troops are sitting on Ukraine's border and diplomats from the US, Ukraine, Russia and other countries will continue to talk this week. Little progress was made during Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to Europe last week. World leaders are keeping a watchful eye, but United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, told the AP that he does not believe Russia would invade.

Antonio Guterres:

I do not think Russia will invade Ukraine. And I hope that my belief is correct. I think we do not need to have a dramatic situation in that region that will have, of course, terrible consequences. And I strongly hope that deescalation and dialogue will allow for a solution avoiding the kind of confrontation that would have inevitably terrible consequences.

Taylor Wilson:

Meanwhile, State Department officials insist that the embassy in Kiev will remain open and that the family announcement is not an evacuation.

Americans are spending more and getting less. Inflation jumped at its fastest pace in nearly 40 years last month, and experts say families are feeling the brunt. Money and tech reporter, Terry Collins, has more.

Terry Collins:

I think probably more than we care to acknowledge, as inflation pushes up costs, more Americans find themselves that they're spending even more than they did prior to the start of the pandemic. But at the same time they're getting either the same amount or fewer or lesser products and services. So, it's becoming quite an issue for all of us. Supply chain issues and the rising inflation and interest rates, we're just feeling like we're coming out of pocket a whole lot more than what we even expected or thought about.

So this is another, I guess, literal cost of the pandemic. We're seeing consumer spending adjusted for inflation grew at an annual rate of about 12%. It's a little bit more than what we think. We're coming out of our pockets a whole lot more.

I think we're going to go through a stretch with this where we're going to see higher prices for, I think, many months to come. And I think as the pandemic goes, so goes our economy. We're going to see some peaks and some dips and from all accounts about what I hear from economists is save. Try to save. It's one of those other sacrifices we have to make as part of the price of the pandemic.

Taylor Wilson:

Ghosting. The term refers to when someone suddenly stops talking to someone else without explanation. It's often used in dating. And while the expression has been around for a while, the frequency and ease of ghosting in the digital age has made it a widely discussed topic in recent years. Therapist and columnist Sara Kuburic wrote some tips for getting over getting ghosted.

Sara Kuburic:

I think it depends on the ghoster, but I would say people are being ghosted because in today's society, this is something that we've normalized. And in today's society, people are lacking self awareness and some skills and tools to have those really difficult conversations. I mean it's super hard. It's really difficult not to take it personally. We think it's about us and I think we need to shift the perspective a little bit and we need to decide how the story ends. I think the difficulty is not knowing why and anticipating that they will come back. And I think it's just going, okay, I'm going to choose how the story ends. And it ends with me taking away some meaningful lessons or deleting their phone number out of my phone so if they do text, I don't know who it is. But I think what I wrote about was don't try to fill in the blanks. Most of us really do try to do that. And when our brain has free space, it likes to fill it and it's often with things we don't want to fill. So it'll be our projections, our insecurities. And so we'll project a lot of stuff that doesn't belong there, and really in reality, could be so much more about the other person than ourselves.

I think it's really important to stop romanticizing the past. This is something we do all the time and a lot of people go, "If I only knew it was the last time we kissed, I would have savored that kiss," and they make it this really big romantic story in their head. But in reality, the context probably didn't even deserve that. Maybe the person was super drunk and their breath smelled bad, but it doesn't matter. And now we're like, "Oh, if only I had that moment." And I think it's important to really try to stay as objective as possible when reflecting back on a person and not romanticize it. It doesn't mean we need to villainize them, but it just means our brain is prone to doing that and we need to be careful not to spend our time focusing on the past. That's not serving our future. And then the last thing is don't conflate their actions with your worth. Just because they didn't have the respect to end things or the capacity to end things doesn't mean you're someone that doesn't deserve that communication. So just because someone doesn't want to be in a relationship with you doesn't mean that you're not worthy of being in a relationship. And so, yeah, I think that's really important.

Taylor Wilson:

Check out Sara's piece in today's episode description.

The James Webb space telescope will reach its final destination today. The $10 billion successor to the Hubble space telescope will situate itself a million miles from earth. And the Webb is about a hundred times more powerful than the Hubble. Scientists are hoping it can capture light streaming from stars and galaxies as far back as 13.7 billion years ago. The telescope is named after former NASA administrator James E. Webb, who oversaw the agency from 1961 to 1968. It launched from South America on Christmas day.

Tax season is here. Early birds can start filing their 2021 tax returns beginning today. That's earlier than the delayed start of February 12th last year. The IRS needed extra time for a number of pandemic related reasons, including new tax rules signed into law in late 2020. But the January 24th kickoff puts the IRS back on track. In 2020, they began processing 2019 tax returns on January 27th. The IRS says that most taxpayers will receive their refund within 21 days of when they file electronically, if they choose direct deposit and if there are no issues with the tax return.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us seven mornings a week on Apple Podcast, Spotify, your smart speaker, or wherever you get your audio. Thanks to PJ Elliot for his great work on the show, and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from Paste BN.