--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Thursday, June 17th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. 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: We now know more than ever about the final days of the Trump administration and how it tried to pressure the Justice Department to overturn election results. The Washington Post went through hundreds of pages of emails and documents. Its reporters also interviewed key players. Their investigation reveals some striking moments leading up to the Capitol insurrection.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Pure insanity. That's how a deputy to acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen described one message from the White House. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had sent over a link to a YouTube video that made bizarre claims that the election was stolen from Trump using military satellites controlled in Italy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Rudy Giuliani pops up in some of these emails. He was representing Trump in his election claims. Rosen was under pressure to give special treatment to the person in the YouTube conspiracy video. He turned out to be working with Rudy Giuliani.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: In an email, Rosen described how he responded, saying, if there was real evidence, just walk it to the FBI's office and hand it over. He said Giuliani was insulted by this. Rosen ultimately refused to talk to Giuliani about this matter.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Rosen didn't entertain various far-fetched allegations. At one point, Trump was considering replacing him with another Justice Department official who he saw as more sympathetic. The Post reports that a group of top justice officials made a plan to resign en masse if Trump replaced the attorney general. Trump eventually backed down.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Trump's efforts ultimately weren't enough to sway Rosen or key DOJ officials, but his claims did manage to stoke the anger and resentment of his supporters. Some of them would go on to storm the Capitol on January 6th.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It only been days since the FDA announced it approving a new drug to treat Alzheimer. Already doctors say they getting flooded with calls. Patients are asking, what's the deal with this drug? Can I take it? How much will it cost?
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And as Stat reports, doctors are floating in this weird space where, despite the FDA's stamp of approval, they don't really have clear answers. There's a lot of disagreement about the FDA's decision.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let me bring you up to speed with the controversy surrounding this Biogen drug. A few rare things happened in a row. First, a panel of expert advisors to the FDA voted unanimously against approving this Alzheimer's drug. Then, the FDA went ahead and approved it anyway.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Three members of that advisory panel resigned in protest. Now doctors are looking back at the trial data for this drug and, as STAT reports, they're finding conflicting results. Many doctors are saying the evidence on its effectiveness is too thin.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One doctor tells Stat on top of that, these studies weren't done with a racially diverse group of patients. She points out that African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to get Alzheimer's. So it's especially problematic to not have data about how this medication might affect them.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Another drawback is the side effects. More than a third of the people who took part in these trials developed swelling in their brains. Close to a fifth, had small bleeds in their brains.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some doctors told Stad they're trying to figure out how to communicate these potential risks to patients and their families because so many of them are very excited about this new drug.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: There's one more thing that's giving people a reason to pause, and that's the cost. This drug has a price tag of $56,000 per year. It's not clear yet whether Medicare or other insurers will decide to cover this cost, which is prohibitively expensive for a lot of people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Stad spoke to one physician who sees mostly older patients. This is personal for him. His mother died in April after years with Alzheimer's. He's interested in this new drug. His patients are excited about it. He's happy it was approved. But still, he feels he doesn't have enough information to guide his patients.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And he says at this point until he knows more he just winging it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's this Chinese fashion brand that has become incredibly popular in the U.S. with teens and people in their early 20s. The company is called Shein. As Bloomberg reports, at one point, it passed Amazon as America's most downloaded shopping app.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And what's interesting is how the trade war Trump launched with China played a crucial role in Xi'an's stratospheric rise.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yeah, these ads have been following me around the Internet, and I didn't know the origin story behind the company. It turns out low prices and celebrity endorsements on social media are what's drawing in clicks for Xi'an.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: On a single day, the site can launch thousands of new products that are super inexpensive. I'm talking about a halter top for $5, pajamas for $10, even a prom dress for $22.
--:-- Shamita Basu: During the pandemic, the brand got Katy Perry and Lil Nas X to do a virtual concert for them. And if you search on Instagram, you'll find more than 800,000 posts tagged Shein gals.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Xi'an was already in a good position to sell to U.S. consumers at low prices because of a rule that allowed inexpensive packages to enter the U.S. duty-free.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, here is the Trump tie-in. Back in 2018, the Trump administration imposed a new round of tariffs on China. In response, Beijing effectively waived export taxes for Chinese companies selling directly to consumers.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: That combination of things allowed Shein to price products so low, it gave them a major leg up on global competition.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As Bloomberg explains, the tax break and the surge in at-home shopping during the pandemic helped turn Shein into the biggest web-only fashion brand in the world.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Competitors say Shein has an unfair advantage. The position of the American textile industry is letting cheap packages in duty-free essentially allows foreign companies to game the system, and that's hurting American workers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And yet judging by the brand popularity U consumers seem not fazed especially in the face of deals as low as for bike shorts.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Today swimmer Ryan Lochte Olympic dreams are on the line. He's going to be racing the 200-meter individual medley, and a lot of people are saying this is his best shot of making it to Tokyo.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Lochte is 36 years old. If he qualifies, he would be the oldest ever U.S. men's Olympic swimmer.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And for Lochte, making it to the Games is about more than swimming. It's about repairing his reputation after several alcohol-related incidents, including the most infamous one during an evening out at the Rio Games.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sports Illustrated writer Brian Burn said recently profiled Lochte. So the end goal for him, he's obviously put himself and his family through a lot with the mistakes he's made while drinking, most notably in Rio.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: That's been well covered, the incident at the gas station. And he really feels like the only way to save his name beyond the kind of personal growth he's had out of the pool is to go succeed again in it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bernsted spent time with Lochte while he was going through some grueling workouts to get ready for the trials happening right now.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, I spoke with Bernstein about Lochte's path to redemption and the reasons Lochte believes qualifying for the Olympics may turn everything around for him.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So that people's lasting image of him is not the Ryan Lochte, the American idiot in Rio that did that awful mistake. It's the guy who bounced back. Everyone loves a comeback story, right?
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But he's had a tough time at the trials so far. In race after race, the 12-time Olympic medalist has been blown out of the water by faster, younger swimmers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But he still has one shot. You can watch Lochte compete on NBC Today. And you can find my full conversation with Brian Burnstead about Lochte's last shot at the Olympics on our show notes page.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And while you're in the Apple News app, check out some of our audio stories. We'll talk to you again tomorrow.
