Catherine Sayre (4:52)

It's tax season, so what's new this year that could save you money?

Vera Bergengrun (4:56)

The IRS says that taxpayers spend 13 hours and $290 preparing and paying just for the tax prep, so it's worth looking into different options.

Catherine Sayre (5:08)

On the youe Money Briefing podcast from the Wall Street Journal, we're breaking down the latest tax rules, how to keep your tax data safe, and ways to file for free. Catch our Series tax season 2025 what's new February 2nd and 9th on briefing.

Luke Vargas (5:29)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has wrapped up a five country tour through Latin America and the Caribbean, returning to Washington, where the White House has been touting newly announced deals involving Central American countries accepting deportees as evidence of Bold America. First Action Journal National Security reporter Vera Bergengrun has been traveling with Rubio, and I caught up with her from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic between flights at the End of that whistle stop tour. Vera, we'll get into the nitty gritty of some of the deals and tension that came out of this trip. But first off, this was a pretty notable first international tour for the Secretary of State coming so early into this administration, was it not?

Vera Bergengrun (6:09)

That's right. This is the first time in a very long time that a Secretary of State has prioritized Latin America and especially Central America. This is the area that he's comfortable with. You know, he is the first Hispanic Secretary of State. He speaks fluent Spanish. But also, it's an indication that the Trump administration intends to focus closer to home on the Western Hemisphere.

Luke Vargas (6:28)

And, Vera, there were a number of deals announced during this trip, and as far as I understand, some of them had already been in the works before this. Could that be another reason why this was picked as Rubio's first trip? A place to go out and maybe cite some early successes?

Vera Bergengrun (6:43)

That's right. All of these countries were US Allies. They all want to work with the United States. Many of these things were already in the works under the Biden administration. But, of course, Ruby was under a lot of pressure to deliver, quote, unquote, wins for Trump. And these deals needed to be as flashy as Trump's campaign promises, which doesn't always lend itself well to diplomacy. When it comes to diplomacy, you usually want both countries to come forth with a deal to announce something. But, of course, that happened in El Salvador, for example. But in Panama, the Trump administration seemed to back them into a corner by publishing a tweet saying that US Government ships were going to get free passage in the Panama Canal, something that Panama ended up denying. And even though Rubio did walk away with significant concessions from the Panamanian government, they probably weren't as flashy as Trump would have liked.

Luke Vargas (7:29)

Right. And of course, we will be watching how this diplomatic fallout over whether US Government ships get free passage through the canal develops. President Trump and the Panamanian president are scheduled to talk on the phone on Friday. But in terms of other big deliverables from the trip, did Rubio score any other significant wins?

Vera Bergengrun (7:47)

I think a lot of this seems to be these countries really openly signaling to the new Trump administration that they want to work with them. They're very cooperative because they've seen what's been happening even with much bigger countries, with Canada, with Mexico. So for really small countries here in Central America, they can't withstand a tariff threat or anything else. So they're coming to Rubio with something in hand. In Guatemala, where he was on Wednesday, for example, he said that Guatemala would accept 40% more deportation flights and also of any nationality, so not just Guatemalans from the US being deported back home, but of any nationality. For example, in Panama, he observed a deportation flight. We watched them line up, and most of these deportees were wearing rubber flip flops. We saw them get loaded onto a plane. And that's not something that a Secretary of State would usually do, but it's a lot of kind of security theater when it comes to immigration, when it comes to drug trafficking, and these issues that Trump has really prioritized. Rubio is also watching all these other Cabinet secretaries, and it's a little easier for Secretary of Defense Pete Hexseth, for example, to send troops to the border. And, you know, that is the kind of big, flashy announcement that produces great images. And Trump really likes, in this case, again, you know, a lot of these incremental deals, even though sometimes significant, don't lend themselves well to the tweet or to the announcement.

Luke Vargas (9:05)

And finally, Vera, what have we learned about what the US's foreign policy agenda is going to look like from this trip? Just before leaving, Rubio was writing in the pages of the Wall Street Journal's Opinion section about the need for the US to pay closer attention to its own neighborhood. Though at the same time, back in Washington, we've seen the US Agency for International Development basically be gutted in the span of just a few days. Did Rubio address that? And does he see those things as potentially being contradictory?

Vera Bergengrun (9:33)

Ruby, on this trip, has defended all of the chaos back home necessary to align US foreign policy with national security priorities stated by Trump. And it is often coming back to Trump's America first vision. And we've seen this even in, you know, a lot of Rubio's tweets. They have certain capitalization. He tweeted, make Gaza beautiful again. So even his tweets are kind of starting to sound like his boss. And what we're seeing is just a full alignment, at least in the public messaging with Trump. While behind the scenes, a lot of it sometimes does, at least here in Central America, seem to be business as usual. At the same time, of course, there's the threat of, you know, a Trump tweet, of Trump calling you out from the Oval Office. And that is quite enough to get a lot of these countries in line, or at least really wanting to hand Rubio something to come home with.

Luke Vargas (10:23)

So, kind of a good cop, bad cop dynamic, if we were to oversimplify it a little.

Vera Bergengrun (10:27)

Absolutely.

Luke Vargas (10:28)

I've been speaking to Wall Street Journal national security reporter Vera Bergengrun. Vera, thank you so much.

Vera Bergengrun (10:32)

Thank you.

Luke Vargas (10:36)

And finally, who doesn't love an underdog in Sunday's Super Bowl? That would be the Philadelphia Eagles as they go up against a Kansas City Chiefs team looking to win its third championship in a row. The sports betting industry is set for a banner weekend with Americans expected to wager almost $1.4 billion on the game, a record according to the American Gaming and just the latest milestone in the industry's multi year ascent from the periphery of sports to a key part of the game. Journal reporter Catherine Sayre told me betting companies are making a killing by offering bets called parlays that require multiple events to play out in order to pay out and which bear closer resemblance to lottery tickets than a traditional pick'em.

Catherine Sayre (11:22)

Skeptics of same game parlays like to call them a sucker bet. You know, hey, do people really realize that these odds are that long? Bettors I've talked to, they just like the fun of it. It encapsulates the stories playing out on the field. What are your favorite players doing? How are they performing all their stats? It can be dramatic, right? And it's even become its own world on social media where people are trading their picks. You might have four legs of a parlay, three of them have won. You just need that last one in order to hit it big. And then your player falls just short. And people like to share in that pain when that happens.

Luke Vargas (12:01)

All right, so some organic reach there, Catherine. But there's a lot of paid media around parlays as well.

Catherine Sayre (12:07)

That's right. You'll often see these same game parlays being pushed. You turn on ESPN or your favorite sports show, your favorite sports podcast. The reason companies are investing so many of their marketing dollars into parlays is that they just pay off really big. And in fact, the industry looking ahead has raised its forecast from the total online gambling revenues in the US being $40 billion by 2030 to now $63 billion. So that just goes to show you how big a deal this is for the industry.

Luke Vargas (12:38)

And that's it for what's news for this Friday morning. Before we go, a heads up that we've got a bonus episode coming later today in the next what's news in earnings. We'll be looking at the big insurance companies, how they're navigating the Los Angeles wildfires and other extreme weather events and what it could mean for the cost of insurance. That'll be in the feed around midday. Today before our usual PM show tonight. Today's show was produced by Kate Bullifant and Daniel Bach, with supervising producer Christina Rocca. I'm Lou Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. And as always, thanks for listening.