--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Wednesday, February 24th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For the first time since the day pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, law enforcement officials who were in charge on that day are testifying in public.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yesterday, three former top Capitol security officials appeared before Congress to talk about the deadly attack.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Leading up to these hearings, the people in charge of Capitol security have been heavily criticized. They've been accused of being unprepared, which is what allowed rioters to break past barriers and storm the Capitol.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yesterday, these former law enforcement leaders tried to shift blame. They claimed they never saw an FBI report warning of an impending attack.
--:-- Stephen Sun: Former Capitol Police Chief Stephen Sun said the intelligence they got didn't prepare them for how bad it would be. We properly planned for a mass demonstration with possible violence. What we got was a military-style coordinated assault on my officers and a violent takeover of the Capitol building.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sun also says Capitol Police were not trained to deal with an attack of this scale and that lots of officers didn't have the right gear to be effective.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Washington Post explains the big question raised by these testimonies is whether domestic terrorism is taken as seriously as foreign threats.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Senator Gary Peters said American intelligence and law enforcement need to prioritize domestic threats, including white supremacists, militias, and QAnon.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: These ideologies are intertwined in numerous ways. And on January 6th, we saw just how quickly they can shift from online communities to committing organized violent attacks in the real world.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Several of President Biden's cabinet nominees are still not confirmed. Politico looks into claims Democrats are making that there is a double standard targeting women and people of color.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Consider Biden's pick to head the Office of Management and Budget, Neera Tanden, who is of South Asian descent. She's getting a lot of pushback for past tweets she made criticizing Republicans.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On Twitter, she called Senator Susan Collins, quote, the worst, and said that vampires have more heart than Senator Ted Cruz.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, two key Republicans, along with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, say past partisan attacks could negatively impact her ability to work in the Biden administration.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Politico spoke with some supporters of Tanden who say, wait a minute, multiple Trump nominees were confirmed despite them making pointed personal attacks on social media.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Most notably, Richard Grinnell, who was ambassador to Germany and briefly director of national intelligence. Grinnell had a long record of harsh statements on Twitter, including derogatory comments about women and their appearances.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Not to mention Trump, of course, and his own Twitter attacks. Tandon's supporters have also pointed out she has apologized and deleted controversial tweets.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Then there's Javier Becerra. If confirmed, he'd be the first Latino health secretary. Some Republicans say he's the wrong pick because he's not a doctor.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Trump's man in the same post wasn't a physician either. And Deb Haaland also faced tough questions in her hearing yesterday. If she's confirmed as Interior Secretary, she would be the first Native American to serve in a presidential cabinet.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But some Republicans are saying that they think her environmental positions are too extreme.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People who object to Biden's nominees are not citing race or gender, but diversity supporters believe a troubling pattern is emerging.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The NAACP's president tells Politico the final votes will reveal whether women or people of color are receiving a different level of scrutiny.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If I close my eyes and visualize myself in a beautiful house in the country with views of rolling hills, will that bring me closer to actually getting my dream home?
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: If only it were that simple. This idea, dream it, see it, manifest it, it's not particularly new, but it is a big trend right now in self-help circles.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Cosmopolitan Magazine reports women, who of course have been hit especially hard by the pandemic, are being targeted by expensive coaches pushing this manifestation mantra.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: There's so many podcasts, Instagram pages, YouTube, and TikTok videos all claiming to be able to guide you to wealth and good fortune.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, these pages are full of women's empowerment language, images of beautiful homes, luxurious self-care products, and lots of affirming words.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Hundreds of thousands of people are following some of these pages.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yeah, and the idea that they're pitching to women is using positive thinking, you can manifest your way out of debt or into making more money.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And according to these coaches, all you have to do is just put some good vibes out into the world and then follow their practice, which usually involves meditation and visualizing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And of course, this is where they get you books and seminars that cost money.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, some courses are a few hundred dollars. Others are thousands.
--:-- Shamita Basu: By the way, most of these coaches don't have any traditional financial advisory backgrounds, and there are no standards or certifications required to qualify and actually call yourself a coach.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, this Cosmo reporter actually went ahead and enrolled in one of these courses.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She paid $249 for it. At one point, the instructor told her to drum her fingertips across her body to supposedly smooth out areas of her nervous system.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And she did all 17 of the classes in this course.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She still doesn't have enough money for a down payment on a house, but if nothing else, she did manifest some money for the coach who ran the program.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Did you notice how some of your fast food favorites seem to have disappeared over the last 12 months?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Turns out you're not imagining it. Restaurants have been editing their menus, getting rid of some of the fussy dishes they consider too complicated or costly to make.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: What they're trying to do is streamline during this pandemic.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The reasoning is fewer options means faster service at the drive-thru.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And what that means for you is there have been some fast food menu casualties.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Taco Bell's cheesy fiesta potatoes, which is a steaming bowl of potatoes covered in this goopy yellow cheese. That is gone.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Panera got rid of its chicken tortellini Alfredo.
--:-- Shamita Basu: McDonald's got rid of all-day breakfast. Controversial.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And as you might expect, people are not happy about these changes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal looks at the elaborate campaigns that some people are mounting online to get their favorite items back on the menu.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: There's this petition to bring back McDonald's snack wraps and even a dedicated Twitter account called @FightForSnackWrap.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the reporter for this piece spoke to this guy who started a petition to revive the Taco Bell Mexican pizza, which close to about 160,000 people signed.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, what really conveys his passion for this pizza is a family photo he shared of his sister in the late 90s with this big old cheesy grin about to dive into one of these Mexican pizzas.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One person decided to take their campaign to the highest office in the country and say, Mr. President, here's something for your to-do list.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: They tweeted, what's Joe Biden's plan to bring back chicken snack wraps?
--:-- Shamita Basu: But in all seriousness, some people are saying with all of the uncertainty in this past year, they're just looking to reclaim some small joys, these little bits of comfort.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And in some cases, the pressure campaigns are working.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Taco Bell says next month, both the cheesy Fiesta potatoes and the spicy potato soft taco will return to their menu.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And while you're there, check out some of our audio stories, including the Cosmos story that we mentioned earlier about manifesting your future.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
