--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, March 9th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, the kidnapping of four Americans brings new attention to cartel violence in Mexico. Why humans and wildlife are clashing more often. And the Oscar contender who's inspiring former child actors. But first, President Biden will unveil his 2024 budget proposal today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Submitting a budget proposal is about as exciting as it sounds. Every year, presidents present a long list to Congress. This year, the process is a little more interesting. Republicans control the House and are already pushing back against Biden's plan for new spending and taxes. And as we've talked about on the show, they're using the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Typically, presidents announce their budgets at the White House. Biden is doing something different. He's making his pitch at a campaign-style event in the swing state of Pennsylvania. And many of the ideas in his budget proposal will have little chance of getting through the divided Congress. So in a way, this rollout is as much about the 2024 presidential campaign as it is about the 2024 budget.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We already know about one part of Biden's plan. Higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans to fund Medicare. Biden has hinted at tax hikes in recent speeches, like this one in Virginia last month.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I'm going to raise some taxes. Many of you are billionaires out there. You're going to stop paying at 3%. Not a joke.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The budget plan would raise Medicare taxes from 3.8 percent to 5 percent for people with an annual income above $400,000. Biden says this will shore up the program.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Protecting Medicare and Social Security is something that Democrats and Republicans have agreed to prioritize. It was one of the few issues in Biden's State of the Union address that got members of both parties on their feet applauding.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But some Republicans, like Florida Senator Rick Scott, say these programs can be maintained without tax increases. He was on Fox News recently.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are ways to make sure we preserve the benefits of Social Security and Medicare. But you don't do it by raising taxes, spending out the gazoo. I mean it just he has no idea how to balance a budget and take care of these programs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Democrats say if you're not raising taxes then you need to make cuts. And they want Republicans to offer a counter vision to Biden's budget that gets specific about what they're willing to slash.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Congressional Republicans have put out a tentative list of budget cut proposals, but there are a lot of competing ideas within the party, so we don't have their full cohesive plan yet.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We'll know more in the weeks ahead as the debt ceiling debate heats up. Over the past week, we've been following the story of four Americans who were kidnapped in Mexico on Friday. Two were killed. Two are back in the U.S.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The incident highlights several underreported themes. The popularity of medical tourism in Mexico and cartel violence that often affects innocent bystanders, threatening Mexicans and visitors.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Tay McGee is one of the survivors. Her mother, Barbara Burgess, told a South Carolina ABC station that she's traumatized.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's still a lot that we don't know about this story, but we do know that this group of friends was traveling to Mexico because one was planning to get a cosmetic procedure.
--:-- Shamita Basu: More than a million Americans a year travel to Mexico for medical care. The most common procedures are cosmetic surgery, dental care, fertility treatments, and cancer care.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Mexico is the world's second most popular destination for medical tourism. Officials in Mexico say that this kidnapping appears to be a case of people being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That this group was in one of the country's most violent areas and got caught in the crossfire of rival drug cartels. Parts of Mexico have been terrorized for years by these fights.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Civilians are regularly caught in the middle of it. Some estimates say around 80 people are killed every day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are currently more than 100,000 Mexicans who are simply described as missing by the government. Lots of these cases go unsolved.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NPR's Mexico City correspondent Eder Peralta reported on how Mexicans who go missing don't get the same attention as these people from the U.S.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Last year, 70% of homicides went unpunished here in Mexico. Here in Mexico City, one of the big traffic circles is called the traffic circle of the disappeared.
--:-- Shamita Basu: More than 100,000 Mexicans are currently missing. And families post their pictures at this rotunda. And there are protests every few months that beg the government to do something to try to find their family members or at least their bodies.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So the story of these four Americans is tragic but they were found. Their bodies were found. And this is unfortunately not the experience of ordinary Mexicans.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One Mexican woman was killed in the crossfire involving this group of American visitors. Authorities have said very little about her story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As global temperatures rise and continue to change ecosystems, humans and wildlife are clashing more frequently, with dangerous consequences for both.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Canada, dwindling ice every year has forced polar bears to hunt for food closer to human activities in villages.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Tanzania, severe drought is forcing elephants to cross farmland and wander into towns in search for water.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Reporter Christopher Teig is covering this for Inside Climate News.
--:-- Christopher Teig: You've got blue whales, for example, who are dealing with marine heatwaves, and they end up changing their migratory patterns where they're ending up colliding with more ships or getting caught in fishing gear.
--:-- Christopher Teig: Over the past three decades, the number of whales tangled up in fishing gear rose 400 percent and shark attacks soared 360 percent.
--:-- Christopher Teig: New research from the University of Washington details the rise in these kinds of encounters.
--:-- Christopher Teig: In 80 percent of those studies, shifting temperatures or rainfall were cited as the most common driver for these encounters.
--:-- Christopher Teig: And so that became a serious concern for the researchers who say that this is now a global problem that really needs to be addressed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Taig says the problem is worse in places where the impacts of climate change and agricultural development are colliding.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Take the national park at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. Years of drought has meant there isn't enough water for wildlife and farmers, so many animals are dying.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Those that survive are having to travel further in search of food and water. They're looking for watering holes that their species have used for probably hundreds to thousands of years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You know, they're crashing through fences, they're wandering through villages, and it's resulting in more conflicts between the farmers who are taking up more land and these animals.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The UN recently acknowledged what a huge problem this is around the world and made an agreement to minimize human conflict.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the exact details are not set. When it comes to reducing dangerous clashes between humans and animals, humans have to first resolve their own conflicts about how to solve this problem.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We're going to end today with a comeback story. That so many people are rooting for. The Oscars are this weekend, and Ki-Huy Kwan is up for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He's 51 now, and before this film, people probably knew him best as the child actor in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and, of course, The Goonies.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Those were huge roles for a kid, but the years that followed were tough. Hollywood didn't offer many great parts to Asian-American actors.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Kwan has said he just wasn't getting called in for auditions, and he settled on behind-the-camera work.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, Kwan talked about the doubt that he felt about his acting career.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For so many years, I was afraid that I had nothing more to offer, that no matter what I did, I would never surpass what I achieved as a kid.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But he did. And the Wall Street Journal speaks to a cohort that really relates to that feeling. Other former child stars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's sort of a where-are-they-now roundup. Mara Wilson, who played Matilda, calls it a strange club, one that has a kind of team spirit.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that means, of course, they're all rooting for Kwan. They say he's an inspiration for sticking with it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Jonathan Lipnicki, who you might know as the cute kid from Jerry Maguire, says that Kwan's speech at the Golden Globes moved him to tears.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Dante Bosco, who you might know as Rufio from the movie Hook, he says he really relates to Kwan. As a Filipino-American actor, Bosco says he also struggled to land roles since his big break.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And he says watching Kwan is like watching the kid actor's dream come true.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can read the whole story and see what these child actors are up to now in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We've got a narrated article coming up next from People. It's about another actor in Everything Everywhere All at Once, Michelle Yeoh, and how she's fighting stereotypes in Hollywood.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
