--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, June 29th. 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: The latest January 6th committee hearing presented a witness who says Trump knew his supporters were armed and still wanted them to be able to gather to hear his speech near the White House.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The new details come from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former assistant to Mark Meadows, who was President Trump's final chief of staff.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here's video testimony from Hutchinson played yesterday. I overheard the president say something to the effect of, you know, I don't effing care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the effing mags away.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Mags refers to magnetometers, which are metal detectors.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When Trump was told rioters were chanting, hang Mike Pence, Hutchinson said on tape that White House counsel Pat Cipollone urged Mark Meadows to get the president to intervene.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I remember Pat saying something to the effect of, Mark, we need to do something more. They're literally calling for the vice president to be effing hung.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Mark had responded something to the effect of, you heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong.
--:-- Shamita Basu: To which Pat said something, this is effing crazy. We need to be doing something more.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Aides were trying to persuade Trump not to go to the Capitol, saying he could be accused of inciting a riot or more.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hutchinson recalled Cipollone saying, quote, we're going to get charged with every crime imaginable.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump's security was also against him going to the Capitol.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hutchinson testified yesterday about what another White House staffer told her happened in the motorcade with Secret Service agent Bobby Engel.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The president said something to the effect of, I'm the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now.
--:-- Shamita Basu: To which Bobby responded, Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing. We're not going to the Capitol.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Mr Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Secret Service issued a statement saying it will continue to cooperate with the January 6th committee and will respond to the new allegations in Hutchinson testimony
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump has denied Hutchinson's account of what happened in the motorcade and also said he did not ask to let people with guns in to see his speech.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A reminder, Hutchinson was speaking under oath and lying to Congress is a crime.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hutchinson also added to her previous testimony on pardons.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She says her former boss, Meadows, as well as Rudy Giuliani, both requested to be pardoned by Trump.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post spoke to a former Republican Capitol Hill staffer who said Cassidy Hutchinson was in every meeting involving Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She was always quietly taking notes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That access turned her from little-known aide into star witness.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And target for Trump supporters.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She's now being compared to John Dean, a former Nixon insider who provided key information against the president in Watergate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Dean told the New York Times her testimony provided instant gratification.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It let us learn what she heard and observed as a staffer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hutchinson described how she felt when Trump tweeted on January 6th that Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what needed to be done.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As a staffer that worked to always represent the administration to the best of my ability and to showcase the good things that he had done for the country,
--:-- Shamita Basu: I remember feeling frustrated, disappointed, and really, it felt personal.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It was really sad.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As an American, I was disgusted.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It was unpatriotic.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It was un-American.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As soon as today, we could be getting another consequential decision from the Supreme Court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In West Virginia v. EPA, the court will decide how much power the EPA has to force power plants to reduce emissions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vox's Ian Millhiser points out that this case is bigger than one agency's ability to combat climate change.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: So potentially the ability of most of the government to function is at stake in this case
--:-- Shamita Basu: In a term with a lot of important cases Millhiser says this one is critical to understand
--:-- Ian Millhiser: Obviously, overturning Roe v. Wade is a huge deal.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: A lot of the courts voting rights decisions, you know, basically neutralizing the Voting Rights Act.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: Those are enormous deals.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: This, I think, is in that same league.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: The legal details are pretty complicated,
--:-- Ian Millhiser: But a core issue for the court to decide is how much leeway Congress can give federal agencies to use their judgment on how to regulate things.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: A ruling that limits that power could not only limit what the EPA can regulate,
--:-- Ian Millhiser: But that logic could be extended to other agencies, impacting many aspects of our lives.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: The rules governing if you're entitled to overtime pay are determined by the Department of Labor.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: There are not just the Clean Air Act, but the Clean Water Act.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: All sorts of environmental regulations use this structure.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: So we're talking about taking decades worth of laws,
--:-- Ian Millhiser: And many of these laws were in the past in the 60s or 70s,
--:-- Ian Millhiser: Completely gutting them and replacing them potentially with nothing if the Supreme Court takes the most aggressive approach here.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: Given how far to the right the court has ruled on recent decisions,
--:-- Ian Millhiser: Milhiser and many court watchers expect conservatives to get what they want out of this ruling.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: There's very little doubt that EPA is going to lose this case.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: There's a six to three Republican majority on the Supreme Court.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: Republicans want the EPA to do less.
--:-- Ian Millhiser: So you don't have to really guess very hard how this case is going to turn out.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Civilian deaths in Ukraine are growing as Russia launches new airstrikes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, a missile strike killed several people in an apartment building in southern Ukraine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That follows the deadly attack on a shopping mall on Monday.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ukraine says Russia has deliberately targeted civilians, which it continues to deny.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This raises the stakes for the NATO summit this week,
--:-- Shamita Basu: Where President Biden and U.S. military leaders have been talking with allies about what to do next for Ukraine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal reports on a big new development in a story that we've talked about before.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Finland and Sweden are now on track to join NATO after years of staying out.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Turkey cleared the way by dropping its objections to the Nordic countries joining the military alliance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Earlier, President Biden spoke about the importance of strengthening the coalition.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today NATO is united and as united and galvanized as I believe it ever been
--:-- Shamita Basu: And we are ready to face the threats of Russian aggression because quite frankly there no choice
--:-- Shamita Basu: Moscow has made recent threats about new NATO members so close to its land.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It has said it might move ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons to its border.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And it says if Ukraine is allowed to join NATO, that could trigger World War III.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Chances are, you're wearing something right now that has a tag on it, a label, saying where in the world it was made.
--:-- Shamita Basu: How much have you thought about those country of origin labels?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Maybe a lot, maybe never.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's the beauty of this series from Marketplace called I've Always Wondered.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's where listeners send in questions like this, and Marketplace tracks down all the odd little details in the answer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So here's what they got on country of origin labels.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The idea first originated in Europe in the 19th century.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Germany was starting to become this big industrial power, so a lot of European countries started imposing rules about these labels so that shoppers would know where their products were coming from.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The U.S. started requiring labels in 1890.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, over time, these labels became a way to set products apart,
--:-- Shamita Basu: Something that says made in the USA could appeal to patriotism here.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A leather handbag with made in Italy on it taps into a centuries-long reputation for craftsmanship.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Unions used to sew their own labels into the clothes that they made.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The International Ladies' Garment Workers Union used to run ads with this little jingle encouraging people to seek out the clothes that kept them working.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Look for the union label
--:-- Shamita Basu: When you are buying a coat dress or gloves
--:-- Shamita Basu: But today, in our globalized world, these labels mean a lot less than they used to.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A shirt can be made of fabric in one country, sewn in another, and then sold in a third.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But for some consumers, these labels do matter.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A study found that a Made in USA label could lead to a 28% price premium.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app,
--:-- Shamita Basu: Including results and analysis of the latest primaries.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News Plus partners.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I'll talk with you again tomorrow.
