--:-- Shamita Basu: Hey there, it's Shamita. I've got a quick request for you. If Apple News Today is an essential part of your morning routine, follow the show in Apple Podcasts. And if you have another 30 seconds, leave us a rating and a review too. It helps other people find our show and it helps us know what you like about it. Thanks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, September 2nd. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, Xi, Putin and Modi unite to send a message to Trump and the world. How the administration is using the sue and settle strategy in Texas. And another CEO is caught behaving badly in the crowds. But first, to Afghanistan and the aftermath of Sunday night's catastrophic earthquake that's left at least 1,400 people dead and injured upward of 3,000 people. Figures that are expected to rise.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Entire villages in the eastern province of Kunar have been flattened. And it's going to take days for humanitarian workers to uncover the sheer scale of destruction in the mountainous regions. Here's a translated interview with one local resident speaking to the BBC.
--:-- [Translated Interview Clip]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Nearly 95% of our village is destroyed. We have many martyred and wounded people. In every household, 5 to 10 people are injured. Muslims listening, help us. For the sake of Allah, we have lost our houses. Any kind of help will be good for us.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Samira Syed Rahman from Save the Children spoke to the German network DW and said aid agencies are struggling to get to impacted areas. The earthquake that took place in the middle of the night and the subsequent aftershocks that hit this region have led to landslides and have closed off many roads, making it extremely difficult for humanitarian actors to be able to reach the people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Taliban has asked the world for help, but many Western donors are now weary of the country's repressive government. The U.S., once the country's biggest provider of aid, has pulled its financial support, and the Trump administration terminated over $1.7 billion in aid contracts for programs in Afghanistan.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It has expressed its condolences after the earthquake, but so far has yet to pledge support. The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported recently that the system for delivering aid to Afghanistan was broken, citing widespread corruption and misuse of the money that reached the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Western pullback of aid is a severe blow to the ordinary people of Afghanistan at a moment like this. Prior to the Taliban taking over, as much as 80 percent of the government's public expenditure came from foreign donors. And Afghanistan is a country vulnerable to earthquakes. Its last one in 2023 killed around 1,400 people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Shireen Ibrahim from the International Rescue Committee told CNN that the country's capacity to support its people has only gotten worse since. What has really changed is our ability to respond at scale and at the speed that we need.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The coordination mechanisms are there. The actors are on the ground. We clearly are trying to pull together whatever we have in terms of resources, but the scale is unmatched by the resources that we need.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Analysts have warned that women and girls could be at even greater risk. The Afghanistan branch of the aid group CARE told the BBC the Taliban has limited health services to women.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The BBC's Yogita Lamaya told the network that could make foreign donors even less likely to provide support. Given the Taliban policies, particularly its restrictions on women, it's unlikely that there will be many donors who will think twice or will not want to give funds to this country while the Taliban is running it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Even before the earthquake, the country was already in a dire position. Three quarters of its provinces are facing severe or catastrophic drought, and the UN had warned of an unprecedented hunger crisis.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Right now, agencies are warning that the danger is not yet over, with the potential for flash flooding and aftershocks still to come. Let's turn now to a gathering of world leaders yesterday, one with a very selective invite list.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At a major summit held in Tianjin, China, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping were seen together, sharing laughs, cozying up and appearing to send a message to the world that they will stand shoulder to shoulder.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As Bloomberg put it, the three leaders seem to be offering up an alternative world order, challenging, as they see it, U.S. dominance on the world stage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's rare to see all three men together in one place, and the inclusion of Modi especially could precipitate a big shift in global power politics. Suddenly we're seeing a radical realignment in terms of how India connects with new allies and old allies.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Phelam Kain is the China and Indo-Pacific affairs correspondent at Politico. He says this meeting comes at a crucial time for India, which is currently dealing with harsh criticisms and high tariffs from Trump.
--:-- Phelam Kain: India and the U.S. relationship has got very rocky and very frosty over tariffs and the Trump administration's treatment of India and particularly interpretations on the India side that the Trump administration has scorned Prime Minister Modi.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump imposed tariffs as high as 50 percent on India and said after Monday's meeting that Modi offered to drop tariffs to zero for U.S. goods imported to India. This is a stark reversal of U.S.-Indian relations, which had improved in recent years as the U.S. increasingly saw India as part of its strategy to prevent China from becoming more dominant.
--:-- Phelam Kain: That said, Kine notes tensions with China haven't completely gone away, and the photo ops don't tell the whole story. India has a very long and very tortured relationship with China over its disputed border. India is not suddenly going to drop everything and throw in with Beijing because they don't see China as that type of country that they can actually undertake a close and trustworthy relationship for the long term.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Meanwhile, for China, the opportunity to widen the rift between the U.S. and the rest of the world over unpopular and often chaotic economic policies gave President Xi the chance to argue to the world that Beijing is on a stronger foot as a global power.
--:-- Phelam Kain: This is a symbolic propaganda coup that just landed in his lap. I mean, this is a real gift because in the immediate aftermath of this trade spat between the U.S. and India, Xi Jinping is welcoming Modi as a close friend and comrade, and the optics are everything.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Tomorrow, China continues its global show of power with a military parade that will be attended by Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. This all comes as Putin shows little sign of compromise in Ukraine peace talks and continues to barrage Kiev with intensive strikes.
--:-- Phelam Kain: Kine points out the show of unity from nations either directly or indirectly supporting Russia invasion is telling. We have North Korean troops and munitions that are being targeted at Ukraine's territory, Ukrainian troops. We have Vladimir Putin willing to throw endless numbers of troops at Ukraine. And we have China essentially being a supplier of dual-use items that allow the war to continue.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So when you look at that optic, the photograph or the video images of those three leaders, you're looking at a future that is really dark in the sense that there is no accountability and there are no guardrails. These countries are pursuing a conflict and there's no one stepping in to stop them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's move now to Texas, where Republican Governor Greg Abbott approved a divisive new gerrymandered congressional map on Friday, designed to potentially give Republicans as many as five more seats in the midterm elections next year, though it's already facing a number of legal challenges.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Abbott shared a video of the moment he signed it into law on his desk. Texas is now more red in the United States Congress. Remember, President Trump pushed Texas Republicans to redraw the map to help him retain control of Congress through the rest of his term.
--:-- Shamita Basu: His Department of Justice threatened Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton with legal action if they didn't pursue a new map. According to reporter Bob Garrett, in a joint investigation for ProPublica and the Texas Tribune.
--:-- Bob Garrett: This was part of a legal strategy the administration has been testing for months. This fit a pattern we were seeing this summer already with the Trump administration in Texas of using lawsuits or the threat of lawsuits in friendly venues and with friendly defendants to erase laws or policies that Trump wanted to erase.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Legal experts told Garrett the tactic effectively allows the administration to work with state leaders to sidestep lawmakers and try to force the political outcomes it wants.
--:-- Bob Garrett: The DOJ, the White House, Paxton, and Abbott all declined to comment on this reporting.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, Garrett points out Trump is not the only president to use this strategy. The Obama administration took a similar approach, encouraging liberal groups and Democratic state attorneys general to file lawsuits against the EPA, which legal experts say led to rapid adoption of stricter environmental regulations, regulations that Congress might not have passed otherwise.
--:-- Bob Garrett: But legal experts told Garrett Trump's version of this so-called sue-and-settle strategy has been far more aggressive and expansive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We had a state law being erased by a sue-and-settle strategy, and it puts at risk the agreement that underlies sort of our system where if you lose, you sometimes accept that you lose and try again later. In this case, if you lose, we don't accept it. We find another way to win fast.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The case he's talking about there involves the Texas Dream Act, a law that guaranteed in-state tuition at public colleges and universities to students who lived in Texas for three years and graduated from a Texas high school, even if they weren't permanent residents or U.S. citizens.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It had consistent bipartisan support and the support of most major groups representing Texas businesses. Previous efforts to change it in the Republican-controlled state legislature, including this year, went nowhere.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But in June, the DOJ filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the DREAM Act in a district with only one judge, a Trump appointee. Paxton joined the suit rather than defend the DREAM Act, which would normally be the AG role, and the judge quickly agreed to declare it unconstitutional.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Within six hours, this 24-year-old law, signed by Republican Governor Rick Perry and passed by many Republican lawmakers, was erased. After that victory in Texas, the Justice Department used the same strategy to target immigrant tuition benefits in Kentucky, Minnesota, and Oklahoma.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Oklahoma agreed to end its benefits. Officials in the other states are pushing back.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. There are 1.2 million fewer immigrant workers in the U.S., according to new government data, which showed a big decline between January and the end of July.
--:-- Shamita Basu: CBS News reports the figures include immigrants without legal status and some who were legal residents. The numbers are the latest illustration of the effect Trump's crackdown on immigration is having on the economy and the workforce.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Immigrants make up roughly 20 percent of workers, with about 45 percent doing farming, fishing and forestry. Another 30 percent work in construction and 24 percent are service workers, according to Pew Research Center.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Pew also notes that it's not clear whether the decline is due to enforcement action, self-deportation, or other factors. One labor economist told the Associated Press, immigrants contribute to at least 50 percent of job growth in the U.S.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And with the influx across the border essentially stopped, there's been a huge impact on the ability to create jobs. President Trump says he will honor former New York mayor and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani with the country's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He announced this yesterday, the same day 81-year-old Giuliani was released from the hospital following a car crash. Giuliani suffered fractured vertebrae after being rear-ended while traveling as a passenger near Manchester, New Hampshire.
--:-- Shamita Basu: His friend told The New York Times that he was in high spirits after they spoke. In recent years, Giuliani has faced mounting legal and financial problems, especially over his false claims about the 2020 election.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He declared bankruptcy two years ago and was disbarred from practicing law in New York last year after being indicted in Arizona and Georgia in cases connected to the 2020 election.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, the U.S. Open's biggest controversy so far has not been on the court, but in the stands. The millionaire CEO of a Polish paving company went viral after a video showed him snatching a signed hat that a player was attempting to give to a young boy who appeared shocked and upset.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At first, the executive doubled down, posting on social media that if you were faster, you would have it. But perhaps inevitably, he has now apologized and said that he made a grave mistake in the midst of emotions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the player, Kamil Majek, has now met with the child and gifted him some merch. After this and that now infamous moment at a Coldplay concert, executives might want to take note.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Seems like you're always being watched, even in the crowds. You can find all these stories and more 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.
--:-- Shamita Basu: New York Magazine gets inside the Kennedy family in crisis as its largely liberal dynasty struggles to work out how to respond to their most powerful member. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
