--:-- [Upbeat music fades out, and the hosts, Shamita Basu and Duarte Giraldino, introduce the show]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, September 28th. 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: The big political story this morning is Congress still hasn't fixed the debt ceiling problem. Senate Republicans blocked a move by Democrats to suspend the debt ceiling and keep the government operating next month.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: That forces Democrats to find another way to make sure America doesn't default on its debt. We've come close to defaulting before, but never intentionally done it. You do have some people who think this time may be different.
--:-- [Shamita Basu pauses for a moment]
--:-- Shamita Basu: For some perspective, try getting out of Washington. Check out what Wall Street thinks. Politicians talk, but investors actually have to put money where their mouths are.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And the consensus is the market knows how this movie ends. The numbers show investors think Congress will do what it always does, threaten default, but ultimately find a way to pay the bills.
--:-- [Duarte Giraldino chuckles]
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Just take a look at the stocks app. It'll show you the cold, hard reality of the market. If investors were worried that America would skip out on its bills for real this time, the market for U.S. treasuries would be going haywire. But it isn't.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you find this occasional game of fiscal chicken a little absurd, you're going to appreciate a story in Vox that looks at possible solutions. There are theoretical ways to end the debt ceiling debate forever.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And yeah, they're a little out there. Yeah, one idea is the trillion dollar coin. Janet Yellen could actually make one. An obscure law gives the Treasury Secretary the power to issue platinum coins of any value. It was meant for the collectibles market.
--:-- [Duarte Giraldino pauses for a moment]
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But in theory Yellen could mint a trillion dollar coin and deposit it at the Fed. And just like that America would have enough money to pay bills and there be no need to raise the debt ceiling.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vox is also pointing out the 14th Amendment which was passed after the Civil War could work here. It has language some legal scholars say makes the debt ceiling unconstitutional.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Other ideas include issuing a whole new kind of U.S. government debt that won't be subject to the debt limit. So even if Congress fails to act, the Biden administration has some options. It's just that they're all pretty weird.
--:-- [Shamita Basu and Duarte Giraldino chuckle]
--:-- Shamita Basu: But then again, it would end this cycle of having the whole debt ceiling debate again every few years.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley are on Capitol Hill today to answer questions about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Their testimony may be the highest-profile televised hearings of senior military leaders in years. General Milley has served as the chair of the Joint Chiefs since 2019. He may face tough questions about a recent revelation.
--:-- [Shamita Basu pauses for a moment]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some people want to know about the chaotic final months of Trump's presidency. I recently spoke with journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa about their new book, Peril.
--:-- [Shamita Basu transitions to a new topic]
--:-- Shamita Basu: And they detail a previously unreported phone call between Milley and his Chinese military counterpart. The book claims Milley learned that Beijing was growing increasingly worried about Trump's hostile rhetoric toward China.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So Milley picked up the phone to say there will be no surprise attack. He finally gets to the point. General Lee, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be OK. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.
--:-- [Duarte Giraldino pauses for a moment]
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: General Lee, you and I have known each other now for five years. If we going to attack I going to call you ahead of time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: General Milley says he made routine calls to reassure both allies and adversaries.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Some Republicans say he was messing around with the chain of command going behind Trump back.
--:-- [Shamita Basu and Duarte Giraldino discuss the topic further]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Woodward frames it like this. Put yourself in General Milley's shoes. This is a crisis. I somehow have to persuade my contact. Somebody he's known for five years in China, and he wants to assure him we're not going to attack. He's not tipping him off.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, in our reporting, we found no evidence at all that General Milley did anything other than protect the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can listen to my entire interview with Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. You can catch it on our weekend podcast, In Conversation, out on Saturday.
--:-- [Shamita Basu transitions to a new topic]
--:-- Shamita Basu: R. Kelly is guilty of racketeering, sex trafficking, bribery, and child sexual exploitation. The Eastern District of New York just convicted him, and now he could be facing 10 years to life in prison.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Jim DeRigatis takes stock of the verdict in The New Yorker. He's covered Kelly for years and wrote a book about him.
--:-- [Duarte Giraldino pauses for a moment]
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The headline of this story calls the conviction 25 years too late. He takes a look at some of the unanswered questions about Kelly. One he focuses on is Kelly's marriage to Aaliyah when she was 15, which was not legal.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Prosecutors didn't call two of her family members, who might have explained more about what happened.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: DiRigatis says Kelly managed to avoid repercussions for the marriage, and he thinks there's more to the story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This case involved 20 women and two men, but DeRogatis writes there are likely many more victims.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Prosecutors didn't call an attorney who said she negotiated several settlements for alleged victims in return for nondisclosure agreements.
--:-- [Shamita Basu and Duarte Giraldino discuss the topic further]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Over the years DeRigatis interviewed many people who claim Kelly victimized them. He says they're glad the seniors are being held accountable after all these years but they think the conviction is too little, too late.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For DeRigatis, the biggest question may be, how will Kelly's victims be able to heal?
--:-- [Shamita Basu transitions to a new topic]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bitcoin is going nuclear. The Wall Street Journal reports on how cryptocurrency miners are increasingly partnering up with nuclear power plants.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For the miners, it's a way to access the electricity they need without carbon emissions. And for the nuke plants, it's a way to make money off excess power.
--:-- [Duarte Giraldino pauses for a moment]
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: It takes an incredible amount of computing power to run the calculations that help miners get cryptocurrency. And all that digital mining uses an enormous amount of electricity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Bitcoin industry faces a lot of criticism for burning through so much coal. Nuclear is one way to reduce its carbon footprint.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Nuke plants may be carbon free, but they're not exactly green. All the radioactive materials create different environmental problems.
--:-- [Shamita Basu and Duarte Giraldino discuss the topic further]
--:-- Shamita Basu: In America, nuclear power has been struggling as wind and solar power grow. Bitcoin miners are a new source of demand for nuclear power.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You might be thinking Bitcoin and nuclear energy, it's an unusual matchup. But to many in these industries, the union makes sense because of the way they solve each other's problems.
--:-- [Shamita Basu and Duarte Giraldino wrap up the show]
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News Plus partners.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
--:-- [Music fades in, and the show ends]
