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Monday 01.17.22

Hi, my name is Alexandra Meeks and I'm your new 5 Things writer. Thank you for sharing your mornings with me! I'm excited to catch you up with the latest news, so let's get started. Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On With Your Day.
 

By Alexandra Meeks

Visitors gather at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial as snow falls in Washington, DC yesterday.

Extreme weather

More than 50 million people are under winter weather alerts across the Eastern US as freezing rain, ice and snow have left more than 180,000 people without power. Efforts to clear roads are underway in states like South Carolina and Virginia, where hazardous conditions have caused several crashes. Air travel was also snarled by the wintry conditions, with more than 3,000 US flights canceled yesterday and more than 1,200 flights canceled as of this morning, according to FlightAware.com. The winter storm treated some residents of the Florida panhandle to rare snow flurries yesterday, but the system brought much more dangerous conditions to southwest Florida, where at least two tornadoes destroyed at least 28 homes in Lee County.

Voting rights

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday honoring the civil rights leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for advancing racial equality and social justice. In honor of King's legacy, current civil rights leaders are vowing to keep pressure on Congress to pass voting and election bills in the face of ongoing Senate delays on the legislation. Martin Luther King III, the son of the late civil rights leader who would have turned 93 on Saturday said "the stakes could not be higher to protect and expand" his father's legacy by passing measures that strengthen voter rights. Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are both needed to get the bills over the finish line, but the two Democrats remain opposed to changing filibuster rules. The Senate is expected to take up the voting legislation on Tuesday.

Coronavirus

Health care professionals are ramping up efforts to inform parents that unvaccinated children face increased vulnerability to Covid-19. While early data indicates Omicron appears to cause less severe symptoms and leads to fewer hospitalizations, its rapid spread indicates more children are likely to become infected. For the week ending January 6, nearly 600,000 child Covid-19 cases were reported nationwide, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association -- a 78% increase from the prior week. Schools are also a focus as many struggle to remain open for in-person learning -- but a lack of money isn't the problem. Much of the $190 billion that Congress authorized for schools earlier in the pandemic has yet to be used. In a majority of states, less than 20% of the federal money had been spent by the end of November, according to data from the US Department of Education.

Tsunamis

A series of underwater volcano eruptions near Tonga is complicating efforts to assess the damage to the Pacific island nation following Saturday's massive eruption and tsunami that sent scores of people fleeing to higher ground. The latest eruption occurred at the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano earlier this morning, but no tsunami warnings have been issued. Saturday's eruption was the largest felt in 30 years, creating a huge plume of ash, gas and steam -- and sending tsunami waves crashing across the Pacific that reached California, Alaska and Hawaii. Although no mass casualties have been reported, aid groups are concerned about contaminated air and access to clean water for people in Tonga's outlying islands. 

Novak Djokovic

The Australian Open is underway in Melbourne without tennis star Novak Djokovic. The world No. 1-ranked men's player left the country yesterday after losing a legal challenge against a decision revoking his visa for the second time. In a virtual hearing earlier in the day, three Federal Court judges in Australia unanimously dismissed Djokovic's application to overturn the immigration minister's decision to cancel his visa, but did not publish their reasons for the ruling. The departure brings to an end a protracted drama revolving around whether or not the Serb, who is not vaccinated against Covid-19, could be admitted to the country under a medical exemption. Djokovic had hoped to win a record-breaking 21st men's grand slam title.

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Netflix is raising prices 

Let's face it, this probably won't make you cancel your subscription… because what is life without Netflix?

The US military is offering bonuses up to $50,000 to some new recruits

After falling short of recruitment goals, military leaders are trying a more enticing – and expensive – approach.

Sports of the future

Soccer-playing robots are training to beat the World Cup winners one day. I don't know if I should feel excited or concerned.

A page of Spider-Man comic book history just sold for $3 million

Let's take a moment to marvel over this incredible sale, shall we? 

4,500 year-old avenues lined with ancient tombs discovered in Saudi Arabia
Around 18,000 tombs were found via satellite imagery, and most were standing at their original height. 

in memoriam

One of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, Brigadier General Charles McGee, has died. He was 102. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military aviators in the US service corps. McGee was a highly decorated American fighter pilot who successfully completed 409 air combat missions across World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, serving a total of 30 years of active service.

$400 million

That's approximately how much cryptocurrency North Korean cybercriminals stole in 2021, according to a new report. Hackers launched at least seven different attacks last year in the severely isolated country, primarily targeting investment firms and centralized exchanges with malware and other tactics to gain access to organizations' digital wallets. 

Without the instruction we received, we would not have been prepared to act and flee when the situation presented itself.

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, one of the four people held hostage at a Texas synagogue in an hours-long standoff Saturday before a rescue team entered the building and killed the suspect. 

Time-lapse of Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial

In honor of today's national holiday, here is a 2-minute time-lapse showing the construction of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC. (Click here to view)