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--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, February 8th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, we're focusing on two big stories, the earthquake rescue effort in Turkey and Syria and President Biden's State of the Union speech.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: First, rescuers are now in the most critical phase of the earthquake recovery effort in Turkey and Syria. They're fighting brutal winter weather and waves of powerful aftershocks. And above all, they're fighting time. Search teams are trying to find anyone who might be alive under the rubble before it's too late.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: It's an increasingly global effort, with rescue squads coming in from the U.S., Europe, Japan, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, and other countries. More than 11,000 people are dead. The World Health Organization estimates that the death toll could top 20,000 people.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Reuters spoke to a man in Turkey who got out of a collapsed building, but his wife was still somewhere under the debris. He said one should never give up hope, but most likely she died. I stayed with her for three hours and spent another trying to get her out. I can't bring myself to say it, but I don't have hope.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: In Syria, the rescue effort is complicated by the ongoing civil war. The response is patchy because some of the country is controlled by the Assad regime and some by the opposition. For years, a volunteer aid group called the White Helmets has worked in the opposition areas, helping civilians who've been harmed by war. Now it's turning to earthquake relief.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: White Helmets volunteer Amar Semo told NPR that hospitals were targeted in the war. Some that survived the conflict were forced to evacuate after the earthquakes. Now, Semo says, hospitals are overwhelmed. So right now everything is needed. The national rescue team is needed. A heavy machine is needed. Aid is needed. Medicine is needed. Everything is needed.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Syrians and Turks are now asking why their buildings weren't better prepared in one of the most earthquake-prone regions in the world. Thousands came down, raising questions about whether building standards are tough enough and whether some contractors cut corners.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Turkey put in new building codes after a powerful quake in 1999. An engineer tells NPR that buildings from before that time are very dangerous. And for newer construction he says enforcement of the safety codes has been lax.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: It's hard to describe the videos and photos that we're seeing out of the region - the level of destruction and devastation and grief and rarely a dramatic rescue.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: In Syria, a newborn baby was dug out from the rubble, the only member of her family to survive when their building collapsed. A doctor says her mother must have died while giving birth after the earthquake hit. If the baby had been in the cold for another hour, she would have died.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to President Biden's State of the Union address last night, his first before a split Congress. Joining me now to talk about it is Gideon Resnick, Apple News editor.
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--:-- Gideon Resnick: Hey, Shamita.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hey, Gideon. So right out of the gate, Biden set this tone of unity and bipartisanship, right? Early on, he turned around and he shook Speaker Kevin McCarthy's hand. He made a few jokes, even when some Republicans in the room got a little rowdy and heckly at times.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yeah, absolutely. I think one of those sort of tone setting lines was when Biden said to McCarthy, quote, I don't want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to working with you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That was something that stuck out from the beginning. But you're right. Biden was trying to convey this optimistic tone, this willingness to work together, even as there were some tense moments throughout the night.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And I think it's definitely a sign of how a newly split Congress might be.
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--:-- Gideon Resnick: So let's jump in on Biden's comments on the economy. He touted the historic low unemployment numbers. He called on Congress to lift the debt ceiling. And he talked about his commitments to American manufacturing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And this one part got a lot of attention when he called to quadruple the tax on corporate stock buybacks and to have a minimum tax on billionaires.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: We have to reward work, not just wealth. Pass my proposal for the billionaire minimum tax. You know, there's a thousand billionaires in America. It's up from about 600 in the beginning of the term. But no billionaire should be paying a lower tax rate than a schoolteacher or firefighter. I mean it. Think about it.
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--:-- Gideon Resnick: And he offered other big proposals. He called for a ban on assault weapons, for comprehensive immigration reform, to restore the child tax credit, and for public school teachers to get a raise.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So we know that the State of the Union can be a bit of a wish list. How realistic are these proposals in a Congress where Republicans now control the House?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yeah, that is the big question, right? How much of this can actually really get done? You know, some of Biden's speech was about more modest things that could get bipartisan support, addressing the opioid epidemic, enhancing cancer research, improving benefits for veterans things like that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But a lot of those things you listed, they are much more aspirational.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The billionaire minimum tax proposal is something that came up in the previous Congress and really didn't get too much traction there. So the expectation is that it really won't hear. Republicans are likely not going to get behind an assault weapons ban either, even though that has historically been pretty popular in polling.
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--:-- Gideon Resnick: Same goes for something like the child tax credit, which, remember, was actually derailed in part by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So Democrats in some cases wouldn't just be convincing Republicans to get on board with some of these Biden agenda items, but they're more conservative senators as well.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yeah, and there are more immediate concerns for Congress, too, like the debt ceiling. And, Gideon, there was this moment last night where Biden was calling on Congress to lift the debt ceiling, and he mentioned that some Republicans have proposed sun setting, Medicare and Social Security.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yeah, this was one of the most tense moments of the entire night.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: I'm not saying it's a majority. Let me give you, anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I'll give you a copy. I'll give you a copy of the proposal. So you can faintly hear someone say liar in there. That was Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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--:-- Gideon Resnick: The idea that Republicans want to make these cuts got thoroughly fact-checked by a lot of publishers. And as The Wall Street Journal explains, yes, in the past, a couple of Republicans have suggested this. But the party has really distanced itself from this stance. And recently, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said cuts to these programs in the debt ceiling negotiations are off the table.
--:-- Shamita Basu: However, the journal notes there aren't full details on how House Republicans want to cut spending.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: But the really extraordinary part of this moment was that Biden got the entire chamber to basically vow on live television that they would preserve these programs. And everyone stood and clapped for that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Biden also promised to veto certain bills if they crossed his desk. And he said that about a possible national abortion ban and about prescription drug costs.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Make no mistake, if you try anything to raise the cost of precision jobs, I will veto it.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: And throughout the night, Biden pointed up to some of the special guests in the room. Another rare moment that got just about everyone in the chamber on their feet was when the president introduced the parents of Tyree Nichols, the 29-year-old man who died after being aggressively beaten by Memphis police officers.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And he quoted Tyree's mom, who had told him she just hopes that something good can come of this.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yeah, this certainly was a big moment that stuck out. Biden implored members in the chamber to do something. You know, he used his last address to Congress in 2021 to try to get the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed. But ultimately Biden ended up doing a more modest version of it through an executive order.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: This time around he really just called for more resources and training for police officers, accountability for law enforcement, and more investment in communities.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, Gideon, the phrase of the night seemed to be, let's finish the job, right? We heard this from the president over and over again.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yeah, I think I counted some variation of that almost a dozen times in the transcript.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Look, this to me is the biggest thing Biden was trying to get across last night, really asking Republicans to work with him to help finish the job of these various proposals. But at the same time, maybe saying to the American people, in a sense, reelect me to finish the job if we don't get it done this term.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: You know, we're expecting that an announcement is coming for a reelection campaign soon. And Biden has a pretty heavy travel schedule this week to important states like Wisconsin and Florida, where he's going to be hammering some of this message home.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Gideon Resnick, Apple News editor, thank you so much.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yeah, thank you.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a quick look at some other stories we're watching, including more news from Memphis, where new documents show one of the fired police officers charged with murdering Tyree Nichols, took photos of his injuries and sent them to several people.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And there are now more officers under investigation for their roles in the incident. Yesterday, the city attorney said a total of 13 Memphis police officers are now implicated on administrative charges at a minimum.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On the Chinese surveillance balloon story, U.S. service members now have substantial parts of it in hand. Teams have been gathering pieces since it was shot down over the Atlantic, just off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And we've been learning more about how extensive and global China's balloon surveillance has been. The Washington Post reports on how U.S. intelligence believes that Beijing's been using balloons for years, over five continents.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, as we mentioned yesterday, LeBron James did it. He's now the NBA's all-time leading scorer, breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's long-standing record last night.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: LeBron James, a shot at history, and there it is! LeBron stands alone!
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can read more about that history-making moment and other stories in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next from New York Magazine. The editors put together an extensive etiquette guide for the world we live in now.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: After the pandemic lockdowns scrambled how we think about dating, dining, digital services, travel, and more.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So take a listen and see what you think of their advice. And I'll be back here with the news tomorrow.
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