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--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Wednesday, September 29th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: It's crunch time in Washington. Trillions of dollars are on the line. And as the clock ticks, the stakes are rising.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Biden canceled his trip to Chicago. Instead, today he's focusing on negotiations that are vital to his legislative agenda.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: There are a lot of things up in the air right now. Congress has to fund the government to avoid a shutdown. It has to raise the debt ceiling. The biggest thing is the $3.5 trillion spending plan. And there's the bipartisan infrastructure bill. That's another $1.2 trillion.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And it's got broad support. But it's not clear progressive Democrats will vote for it if they don't get what they want on the bigger spending bill.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Politico looks at the influence of two moderate Democrats, Senator Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. They're both important enough that Biden met with them personally.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Other Democrats are trying to get them on board, too. They pretty much have to because the party only has a thin hold on power in the Senate and needs every single vote.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: On Capitol Hill, big things are basically on hold until it's clear what Sinema and Manchin want.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These moderate Democrats have said they are not on board with the party's social spending plan. They say $3.5 trillion is too much, but they haven't publicly committed to a lower number either.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Sinema reportedly wants to bring the number down by focusing that spending on lower income people who need benefits the most.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Politico reports a lack of specifics from this critical pair is starting to annoy some Democrats. Some say they haven't given enough detail about what they could get behind.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Party leaders want them to say what they want and negotiate. But they're being careful not to push too hard because nothing gets through the Senate without these two votes Sinema and Manchin hold the cards in a trillion game and they at the head table with the president.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a reminder that in Congress where the balance of power is on a knife edge one or two people can make a big impact.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Almost every player in the WNBA is vaccinated. You've heard about this on our show before, but when it comes to the men, it's an entirely different story.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The NBA season starts next month. Most players got COVID shots, but some are loudly pushing back and even spreading conspiracy theories.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A few big stars were silent. It was only yesterday that LeBron James finally said he'd been vaccinated. Last season, he evaded questions about his status.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: In Rolling Stone, Matt Sullivan writes about how holdouts appear to be influencing the league's COVID protocols.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The NBA was once praised for letting science lead the way when making its guidelines. Remember the bubble in Disney World? The league sealed off players from the public just to keep the games going.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now that vaccines are on the table, the NBA says 90 percent of players have gotten at least one shot. But that leaves a good number of athletes unprotected.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sullivan reports on a players' union meeting that happened last month. During that meeting, the idea of a mandate was just shot down.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Sullivan says anti-vaxxers are pushing the league around. The NBA is absolutely in a corner. They do not have the power to mandate this. There is no executive order here.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a players' league, and the league office is going to live or die by that influence.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The NBA's top medical officers, who I've been speaking with for my reporting for Rolling Stone, have been sending documents, memos, guidelines of the crackdown on COVID.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But as you look at the negotiations with the players ongoing throughout the month of August and into September, it indicates very little ramp up to monitor these unvaccinated players.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: All of this may come down to peer pressure. LeBron James is in NBA legend Kareem Abdul told Rolling Stone players that don get shots should be off the team
--:-- Shamita Basu: A lot of eyes are on Brooklyn Nets superstar Kyrie Irving. He missed a team event this week at a venue that required proof of vaccination.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: His fellow players may have to convince him and other skeptics. They're going to get guilt tripped by their own teammates into getting the shot.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It may be that players literally take one for the team. Sources tell me that Kyrie Irving might give in. He says there's a plan that will be unveiled in due time.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: That plan might amount to his superstar teammate Kevin Durant saying, yo, buddy, get the shot and let's get on with it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For many Afghan allies hoping to start a new life in the U.S., the first stop on that journey may involve a stay at a U.S. Army base.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: That's what's happening near Blackstone, Virginia. About 3,600 people live there. And it's just a mile away from Fort Pickett, where nearly 6,000 Afghan refugees have arrived.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Their sudden presence is dividing some in this community.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Megan Flynn reported this story for The Washington Post. She told us that for some Blackstone residents, the first reaction was, how can we help?
--:-- Shamita Basu: There was this immediate rush to volunteer, to provide donations. I mean, they really were arriving with nothing but the clothes that they were wearing.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And so a lot of the local churches, along with a veteran-led nonprofit called Team Rubicon, quickly were trying to do clothing drives and hygiene kits.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But there's another camp, and it's not so welcoming. Frankly, they just feared what they didn't know.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And they really looked suspiciously at the vetting process saying, who are we letting in? They didn't believe that the Biden administration was thoroughly vetting evacuees, although DHS says otherwise.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That tension is evident in the local paper. One letter to the editor read what wrong with this picture The U can take care of its own homeless and veterans
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: An ad on the next page struck a different tone. Blackstone Baptist Church was calling for donations to help the Afghans.
--:-- Shamita Basu: False information started going around on social media, and it fed anti-immigrant feelings.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Post speaks to the mayor of this town, who's also the editor of the local newspaper, And he says he spends a lot of his time online debunking rumors and misinformation about immigrants.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One woman tells The Post, her father once sponsored two refugees who arrived after the Vietnam War.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The image of Afghans arriving in America made her want to live up to that example. She joined a volunteer effort to bring clothes to the new arrivals.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And she says it just seemed like the right thing to do.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: U.S. government scientists are calling off the search. 23 plants and animals have now officially been added to the extinct species list.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Officials say in each case, humans were the ultimate cause.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: One of the most talked about animals on the list is the ivory-billed woodpecker.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This bird had white stripes down its neck and wings, and the males had a shock of red on their heads. Real distinctive.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: I'm looking at a photo of them right now. Just beautiful.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post reports, the extinct list includes birds, bats, and mussels.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Amy Trahan is a biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She choked up as she told the Post, having to write the report that concluded the ivory bill is officially extinct was a really difficult thing to do.
--:-- 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.
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