Biden attends COP27 climate summit, crucial cryptocurrency exchange collapses: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Biden attends COP27 climate summit

USA TODAY national correspondent Elizabeth Weise tells us what to expect. Plus, money reporter Medora Lee explains why a crucial cryptocurrency exchange collapsed.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY 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 Friday, the 11th of November 2022. Today, Biden's trip to the UN Climate Summit, plus what he'll discuss with China next week, and a look at cryptocurrency after a major exchange collapsed.

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The COP27 Climate Summit continues today in Egypt. The annual United Nations meeting aims to assess how well countries are dealing with climate change. And President Joe Biden will attend today. To find out more about his trip I'm now joined by USA TODAY national correspondent Elizabeth Weise. Elizabeth, thanks for joining me. So what are the Biden Administration's goals at COP27?

Elizabeth Weise:

President Biden hopes to arrive this year getting credit for having passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which is the most major climate change legislation the United States has ever passed. He went last year to COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, empty handed. This year he arrives having done something major and he's hoping to get some credit for that. And then the other issue that is going to come up for the US is again this call on developed nations, and certainly that includes the US, to aid countries which have not ... which are hurting from climate change but don't have a lot of money. We have John Kerry, who's the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. Kerry has specifically said that the US has an obligation to help countries jumpstart their green energy transition. And then he said if it becomes just another liability and compensation and reparation or something like that, that's not going to advance the dialogue. It seems unlikely that the United States is going to be doing anything major in those terms and there's a lot of frustration on the part of small countries that that hasn't happened.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. So what reception should we expect Biden to get from some of the other countries there?

Elizabeth Weise:

So the three biggest carbon emitters in the world, India, China, and the United States. The United States is the only one whose president is attending. I think the United States is going to get credit for attending, but there's frustration aimed at the United States because we haven't been the leader in this that other nations wish we had been.

Taylor Wilson:

Elizabeth, thanks so much.

Elizabeth Weise:

Thanks so much for having me.

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Taylor Wilson:

After the Climate Summit, President Biden will next head to Indonesia for the G20 Summit next week where he is set to meet with China. Producer PJ Elliott spoke with USA TODAY White House correspondent Francesca Chambers to find out more on what will be on the agenda.

Francesca Chambers:

Russia's war on Ukraine will be a major topic and President Biden notched a really early victory when Vladimir Putin decided not to attend the conference. It'll make it a whole lot easier to talk about Putin when he is not in the room.

PJ Elliott:

So President Biden is scheduled to meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping on Monday and it's the first time meeting since Biden took office. What are they going to talk about?

Francesca Chambers:

The US has major concerns that China will try to invade Taiwan and the US could have to step in and help militarily. But he also wants to talk to him about climate change. China is one of the world's biggest emitters also, and if the US wants to fight global climate change, they're going to need China's help.

PJ Elliott:

Francesca, what are the US and Chinese interests globally and how are they conflicting with each other?

Francesca Chambers:

Both China and the United States are competing to be the world's superpowers, and both nations are pushing countries to decide whose side they're going to be on in the global competition. That's a key point that President Biden will be pushing when he's at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia.

PJ Elliott:

What does the president hope to accomplish at the summit and how long is he going to be there?

Francesca Chambers:

Biden will be on his trip for roughly a week. What he mainly hopes to accomplish is to talk to leaders face to face. Because of COVID-19, he hasn't been able to meet with Xi in person, although they have talked on the phone, and he says he wants to lay out what US national interests are and see if there's a way that they can find any common ground.

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Taylor Wilson:

The Washington DC Attorney General has filed a consumer protection lawsuit against the NFL and Washington Commanders' owner Daniel Snyder. The suit also involves the team itself and league commissioner Roger Goodell. DC Attorney General Karl Racine said his office is suing the parties for colluding to deceive residents in the District of Columbia. That's related to the NFL's investigation into toxic workplace culture within the Commanders' franchise. He said defendants buried the findings of that investigation.

DC AG Karl Racine:

All of that deception was done to protect their profits and their image.

Taylor Wilson:

The lawsuit argues that the Commanders and the NFL publicly promised their investigation would be thorough and independent but was neither. Snyder and his team have been under scrutiny since the summer of 2020 when more than a dozen women told the Washington Post they were sexually harassed while working for the team. A league investigation followed and the team was fined $10 million, but the NFL did not release a full written report of its findings. That caught the interest of the House Oversight Committee, which opened its own investigation last year. That committee found evidence that the Commanders may have hidden ticket revenue from the league among other financial allegations. This week's lawsuit follows news that Daniel and Tanya Snyder have hired a bank to consider potential transactions involving the Commanders showing a possible willingness to sell the team.

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The cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX collapsed this week, sending the digital currency world into a tailspin. PJ Elliott spoke with USA TODAY money reporter Medora Lee to find out more about what happened.

Medora Lee:

So basically FTX, which is a huge player in the crypto market, went belly up this week. CoinDesk, which is a publication that follows the crypto market pretty well, broke a story that a company that was affiliated with FTX had some balance sheet problems. So when that happens, one of the big holders of FTT tokens, which is a token that FTX puts out, decided that they were going to sell its entire stake. And so it sparked a sell off. FTX had to stop the withdrawals and now they're under investigation because more and more of the stories coming out that maybe they used customer funds to loan out for risky investments.

PJ Elliott:

So did this collapse affect the value of other cryptocurrencies?

Medora Lee:

This really did because everybody is always a little bit skittish about the crypto world. I think when this happened, it has spread and people started to think, "Oh no, if this is happening here, where's the next one?" Because over the summer we saw this happen with another stable coin where it imploded. And so everybody's kind of now thinking, "Well, where's the next one going to come from?"

Taylor Wilson:

You can find more of Medora's work in the Money section on USATODAY.com.

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And finally, today is Veteran's Day, a day to remember those that we've lost and those that are still struggling with both physical and mental scars from war. Robin Phoenix is a 26-year army veteran who fought in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Robin Phoenix:

I think when people think of a veteran, they think of men. They don't think of their sisters, their wives, their daughters. And I did five deployments. I had two children. I left my children to go back to Iraq. My husband deployed also. My husband was shot down in Iraq while I was there. It was a lot to process.

Taylor Wilson:

So Robin turned to comedy.

Robin Phoenix performing:

I am so excited to be here, you guys. Thank you. And I know that I'm only on here for just a short amount of time, but a lot can happen in a short amount of time. I have two kids to prove that.

Robin Phoenix:

I mean, the adage of laughter is the best medicine has been around for a long time. It reduces your anxiety, your stress, your depression. So for me, it was a personal mental health wellness thing, but then it became bigger than that.

Taylor Wilson:

And that's when she discovered the Armed Services Arts Partnership or ASAP. ASAP is a non-profit whose mission is to build creative communities where veterans and their families can thrive through the arts. Brian Jenkins is its executive director.

Brian Jenkins:

Robin's an army veteran, and she has always had a big sense of humor and it's always been something that she's used to cope with challenging days. But when she found out about ASAP, she was thrilled to see the opportunity to learn standup comedy in a more meaningful and organized setting.

Taylor Wilson:

For Robin, ASAP has been a lifeline.

Robin Phoenix:

I really went through a dark time and they pulled me through that. And we perform all over the country and we push each other to be better and to advocate for mental health and for comedy and humor to be used for mental health.

Taylor Wilson:

If you or someone you love is a veteran looking to use comedy and storytelling to heal and connect with other veterans, you can check out ASAP's programs at asapasap.org.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every day on your favorite podcast app. And if you have a chance, please drop us five stars and a review. Thanks to our great team for their fantastic work on the show and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden attends COP27, FTX crypto exchange collapses: 5 Things podcast