--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Thursday, April 29th. 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: My fellow Americans, while the setting tonight is familiar, this gathering is just a little bit different. Reminder of the extraordinary times we're in. President Biden delivered his first address to a socially distanced, masked up, joint session of Congress last night. And every time you saw Biden, you noticed he was framed between the second and third most powerful people in U.S. government. Two women. It was historic.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Anyway, thank you all. Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President. No president has ever said those words from this podium. No president has ever said those words. And it's about time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Biden started by reflecting on the first big milestone of his presidency. I stand here tonight one day shy of the 100th day of my administration. A hundred days since I took the oath of office and lifted my hand off our family Bible and inherited a nation we all did that was in crisis.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: CNN takes a close look at Biden's first 100 days. He came into office promising to meet several pandemic-related benchmarks. After I promised we'd get 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots into people's arms in 100 days, we will have provided over 220 million COVID shots in those 100 days.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He also reported back on how the economy's been doing since March, when Congress approved a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan without Republican support. The economy has added more than 1.2 million jobs over the past 100 days, although nearly 10 million Americans are still out of work.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Biden also talked about the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, how the U.S. is recommitting itself to the Paris Climate Accords, and he argued for moves on immigration, policing, voting rights, and gun violence.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So the beginning of the speech was part recap, part victory lap for Biden to talk about what the administration accomplished in 100 days. The rest of it was a call to action on jobs and infrastructure. He acknowledged ideas coming from both sides of the aisle. And I applaud a group of Republican senators who just put forward their own proposal.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But he made it clear he's not afraid of going it alone if necessary. I just want to be clear. From my perspective, doing nothing is not an option. That's an important point.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NPR is reporting. So much of what Biden has accomplished so far has been through executive orders. At this point in his presidency, he's used more of them than any of his predecessors, dating back to Harry Truman. But he can't do it all by executive order, and a major test is going to be two big proposals.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: In March, he announced what he's calling the American Jobs Plan. Last night, he told us more about his other big package. That's why I've introduced the American Families Plan tonight, which addresses four of the biggest challenges facing American families in, in turn, America.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vox breaks down what those four challenges are. Education, child care, paid family leave, and child tax credits. These all tie into what Biden's been calling the care economy.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: One piece of the proposal is universal preschool for all three and four year olds, as well as making child care more affordable. Vox explains this part of the plan would be particularly consequential for women who've been disproportionately pushed out of the labor force during the pandemic.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Biden's plan would also raise wages for child care workers to $15 an hour. This is a game changer for these workers, so many of whom are women and particularly women of color.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Then there's paid family and medical leave. Vox points out the majority of American workers do not have paid leave through their jobs. The U.S. is far behind its peers in this area.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Biden's plan would also extend the child tax credit in the COVID relief package and offer two years of free community college. It gets a little trickier when it comes to paying for these investments, the chances of bipartisanship seem even less likely here.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: We're going to reform corporate taxes so they pay their fair share and help pay for the public investments their businesses will benefit from as well. The Biden administration is proposing income tax hikes for the wealthiest Americans, and those making more than a million dollars a year would pay higher taxes on capital gains.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Biden also wants to give the IRS more money so that it can catch cheaters. After Biden spoke, The rebuttal speech came from Senator Tim Scott.
--:-- Senator Tim Scott: The Senate's only Black Republican spoke extensively about race, and he addressed the president's spending plans. It's a liberal wish list of big government waste, plus the biggest job-killing tax hikes in a generation.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now it's up to Congress to figure out a way to work together or start the long process of delivering another massive piece of legislation to Biden's desk without any Republican support.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're searching for a detailed look at everything that's happened during Biden's first 100 days, check out the Apple News Spotlight collection on the app. That's where we highlight some of the best coverage on this topic.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So what would it take for a skeptic to roll up his sleeve and get vaccinated? Most people are doing it for free, but some need a little bit of a draw, you know, an incentive. And there are all sorts of carrots and perks being offered.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One state is offering the ultimate perk, money. Yeah, West Virginia was an early success story in distributing COVID-19 vaccines to its residents. During those first weeks, it was rolling out doses when other states were still struggling to get enough shots into arms.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But these days, supply isn't the issue. Demand is, especially among young adults. So Governor Jim Justice is trying some admittedly outside-the-box thinking.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post says the state considered so many ideas, including giving out pizza, cake, or holding weekly prize drawings. Ultimately, it decided on a plan to give people between the ages of 16 and 35 a $100 savings bond if they get vaccinated.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Young people who have already been vaccinated get paid too. The governor estimates this plan would cost a little over $27 million, which he tells the Post is a drop in the bucket compared with the money the state is spending to combat the virus.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vaccine hesitancy. It's not just a problem in West Virginia. Although more than 142 million people in the U.S. have gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, over the past few weeks, the daily inoculation numbers decreased.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Vaccine demand is dropping. The Washington Post looks at some of the other ways states and businesses are trying to reward Americans for getting vaccinated.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Connecticut, the governor has announced that next month, adults can get a free drink at certain restaurants by showing their vaccination card. Krispy Kreme got a lot of attention for offering a free donut every day.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: That's every single day if you show proof that you've been vaccinated. And Budweiser is giving away a free round of beer to anyone who has gotten the shot.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The details of West Virginia's proposal are still being finalized, but the idea is spreading. Governor Justice says Kentucky officials have already reached out and are interested in replicating his plan in their state.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For the music industry, TikTok influence cannot be overstated. If a song goes viral on this social media platform, it can transform a music career.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If TikTok influencers take to a track, they'll come up with a new dance move, sync it with a short clip. And if those moves take off, pretty soon it's like the entire internet is following along.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: It all feels so organic, spontaneous. But as Bloomberg Businessweek explains, it's just not.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, the key to a hit on TikTok is, of course, inspiring people to make a dance. So this song definitely got people moving. It's Megan Thee Stallion's song Savage.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And you can hear why. The chorus is catchy and it's got this playful list of words that people have been incorporating into their dance moves.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Chances are you've heard this song, or at least you've heard this part. It helped Megan Thee Stallion win the Grammy for Best New Artist last month.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: She was the first female rapper to win that award in two decades. And this story lays out how Savage wasn't even the song her label thought would make it to the top.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They were banking on another track. But TikTok told the label, hold on a second. They wanted to test out a bunch of her songs to see which ones were more likely to go viral.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So once they identified Savage, TikTok's head of music partnerships told Bloomberg they placed that song in prominent spots all over the app to make sure that it would be successful.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the company does even more than that for its stars. It assigns managers to its top creators to help promote the work that it wants to see take off.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: It tells its stars which hashtags and features are going to resonate with app users and advertisers. Bloomberg is reporting these managers help the most popular TikTok video makers with all sorts of services like tech support or even college tuition.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And all of this is to inspire a sense of loyalty among creators. So that song that is stuck in your head because you're seeing it everywhere on the Internet and on TikTok, it might be a great song.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But also know it's the product of intense calculation, guidance, and strategy. TikTok is what Bloomberg calls a hit-making machine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're there, check out some of our audio stories.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: We'll talk with you again tomorrow. Thank you.
