--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, June 1st. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, how a new law in Florida will impact undocumented people and businesses, a preview of tonight's NBA Finals, and what draws repeat competitors back to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. But first, let's catch up on a few big headlines in U.S. politics.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Last night, the House of Representatives passed a debt ceiling deal, narrowly avoiding a potential default on the nation's bills. Yees are 314, the nays are 117. The bill is passed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The deal, as we've mentioned before, would raise the country's borrowing limit until January of 2025. A majority of Republicans in the House backed the bill, but with 71 Republican members voting no, it meant that it was Democrats who had to overwhelmingly ensure its passage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now the proposal has to clear its next hurdle in the Senate, where both Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have said they want to pass it quickly, as soon as today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Outside the Capitol, there is new reporting about former President Trump and classified documents. CNN reported that federal prosecutors investigating Trump have an audio recording in which he acknowledges that he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The 2021 recording reportedly indicates that Trump may have understood that he held onto classified documents after leaving the White House. Special Counsel Jack Smith has reportedly focused on the recording as part of the Justice Department's criminal investigation into Trump's handling of classified material.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and his campaign responded to the latest CNN reporting by calling the investigation meritless. This is yet another development that could impact Trump's 2024 presidential bid, where the field is beginning to get more crowded.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Two more Republican candidates are reportedly getting ready to announce their own bids next week. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Vice President Mike Pence.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to our series we're calling State of the State, where we take a closer look at a particular state or local issue and examine how it being debated and discussed among people who live there.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today we're going to Florida, where labor organizers have been urging migrant workers to go on strike for the day to send a message about how crucial they are to Florida's economy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's meant to protest a new law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis that requires businesses to verify the citizenship status of workers through an online portal or else face penalties.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It also limits social services for immigrants who don't have permanent legal status and earmarks money to continue relocating migrants to other parts of the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: DeSantis says the law will make sure Florida taxpayers are not footing the bill for illegal immigration.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But NPR's Vanessa Romo told us some research groups estimate that without undocumented workers, the state's most labor-intensive industries would lose about 10 percent of their workforce.
--:-- Vanessa Romo: The Florida Policy Institute says that this could actually lead to a drop of about $12.6 billion in Florida's GDP in a single year.
--:-- Vanessa Romo: And so then that in turn cuts workers' spending power and reduces state and local tax revenues.
--:-- Vanessa Romo: So they're saying the fallout of this could be really huge.
--:-- Vanessa Romo: The law officially goes into effect on July 1st, but it's already having a cooling effect.
--:-- Vanessa Romo: Reports of empty fields and construction sites are signs that people are getting nervous.
--:-- Vanessa Romo: Romo says the policy is creating a lot of fear and frustration among businesses and workers.
--:-- Vanessa Romo: They're saying, you know, this country is built on the back of immigrant labor and Florida in particular because of the agricultural industry, because of the construction industry and even the hospitality industries, which are really fundamental to the economy of Florida, all three of those.
--:-- Vanessa Romo: Florida isn't the first state to impose a worker verification rule.
--:-- Vanessa Romo: Romo told us lawmakers have tried similar moves in Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina.
--:-- Vanessa Romo: Some places have seen undocumented workers leave the state.
--:-- Vanessa Romo: Others have run into enforcement issues.
--:-- Vanessa Romo: And so I think if you're looking to the past to tell us whether or not this is good governance, I think there are a lot of instances that suggest that this actually is not very helpful to businesses or to people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the meantime, immigrant rights advocates told Romo they've been fielding lots of questions from people who are confused by the new legislation and don't know if they should continue to show up for work.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People are already trying to figure out if they need to move out of the state of Florida because it's becoming so inhospitable to them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The NBA Finals tip off tonight.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Even a few weeks ago most fans would have been surprised that the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat would be the last two teams standing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But our resident Oracle Apple News sports editor, Shaker Saman, totally called it the last time that we talked about the playoffs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And he's back to answer some big questions heading into the finals.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Hey, how's it going?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Good, good. So let's start with just a quick recap of how we even got here.
--:-- Shaker Saman: There were some really intense nail biters during this playoff season.
--:-- Shaker Saman: How did the Nuggets and the Heat battle their way to the end?
--:-- Shaker Saman: They really took the most opposite paths imaginable.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Denver entered the postseason as the number one seed in the West.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They had the two-time defending MVP, who was the MVP runner-up again this year, Nikola Jokic.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They beat the snot out of the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They made Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and the Suns look like children in the second round.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And then they swept the Lakers in the conference finals.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They haven't played since May 22nd.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They've been off for two weeks.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They get a vacation.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They get to rest.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And the other side, you have the cardiac kids, the Miami Heat, who after coming off two straight stellar seasons with Jimmy Butler, started this year really in a funk.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They couldn't put it together.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They limp into the playoffs as the seventh seed in the East.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They lose their first play-in game against the Atlanta Hawks, a ramshackle team.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And then something clicks.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They beat Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, the number one seed in the first round.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Don't just beat them, annihilate them, right?
--:-- Shaker Saman: You get into the second round, the Knicks, everyone loves the Knicks.
--:-- Shaker Saman: New York is back.
--:-- Shaker Saman: New York is not back.
--:-- Shaker Saman: The Heat went through.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And then the Celtics, the number two seed, Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, high flying, young.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They'd recently been to a finals, right?
--:-- Shaker Saman: This is their time.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Apparently not because Jimmy Butler and the Heat go up 3-0.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They have a little bit of an issue.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They get to a game seven and then game seven in Boston, run the Celtics off the floor.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Just the most electric team.
--:-- Shaker Saman: So what are some of the X factors for each of these teams that might decide which way the finals go?
--:-- Shaker Saman: There's really going to be, I think, two key matchups that determine how this finals goes.
--:-- Shaker Saman: On Denver's side, their best player is Nikola Jokic, a 7'1 Serbian behemoth who has this uncanny ability to be just a superstar defensively, but also score and pass in a way that guys that big can't.
--:-- Shaker Saman: He's averaging a triple-double in the playoffs.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And the real question for Miami is, can they do anything to stop him?
--:-- Shaker Saman: Miami has Bam Adebayo, a big man center who has been a pretty good defensive player over his career, but slowing down Nikola Jokic is something entirely different.
--:-- Shaker Saman: There's not really a formula.
--:-- Shaker Saman: You can't do the same sort of things against him that you can against other centers.
--:-- Shaker Saman: On the other side, Miami's best player, Jimmy Butler, typically the last few years has sort of sleepwalked through the season.
--:-- Shaker Saman: You know, he gets his numbers.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They win a few games.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And then the calendar flips the playoffs and he prime Michael Jordan.
--:-- Shaker Saman: He out here scoring 30 points a night.
--:-- Shaker Saman: He putting the team on his back.
--:-- Shaker Saman: He just swaggering through the world dripping with charisma and machismo.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And the heat go as he goes.
--:-- Shaker Saman: If Jimmy can carry them in each of these games, you know they have a chance.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They're the underdogs once again, but that hasn't stopped them in any of their previous series.
--:-- Shamita Basu: All right, Shaker, you called it once before.
--:-- Shamita Basu: No pressure, but which way are you going to call it for the finals?
--:-- Shaker Saman: Who's going to take home the title?
--:-- Shaker Saman: As much fun as I've had watching Miami just shock the Eastern Conference and the NBA as a whole, I think this is going to be Nikola Jokic's first NBA title.
--:-- Shaker Saman: I'm taking Denver in a six-game series.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Shaka Saman, thank you so much.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And don't forget, as these final games play out, you can check out MySports in the Apple News app to find the latest scores, analysis, and more.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The NBA finals aren't the only primetime competition worth catching tonight on TV.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's B-Week, baby.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you don't know what I'm talking about, maybe this will help it click.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's right.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Tonight is the finals for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a time when the country's brightest young spellers come together to share their love of language and very difficult to spell words.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The winner takes home a $50,000 cash prize.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And as of yesterday's rounds, a competitor that lots of people have been rooting for for many years is officially out of the competition.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Akash Vakodi is 14 years old.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He's been to the B more times than any other competitor, a record six times.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He first qualified when he was six years old.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And by next year, he'll be too old to compete.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post had a nice profile celebrating him.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He told the Post he's made a lot of friends through the B, friends that he feels like he's going to hold on to for a long time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Like most spellers, Vakori has a favorite language and country of origin.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He prefers German words because he says they often follow a certain set of rules that make them easier to spell.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And, of course, he does have a favorite word.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I would say it if I could, and I'd spell it if I had the time, but it's 45 letters long.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can read it for yourself in the Apple News app, along with all the other stories we talked about today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, don't go anywhere.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As Pride Month begins, New York Magazine has a profile of Michaela Kavanaugh, the Nebraska state senator who filibustered anti-trans legislation in her state for months.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So sit back, listen to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Thanks for listening to Apple News Today.
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