--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, November 10th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, the Senate inches closer to ending the government shutdown. How AI data centers are transforming American communities. And after 200 years in publishing, the farmers' almanac comes to an end.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's start with shutdown news. Capitol Hill, which is normally quiet on Sundays, was the scene of a dramatic political breakthrough last night as senators voted to advance an agreement that could reopen the government.
--:-- John Thune: I am optimistic that after almost six weeks of this shutdown, we finally will finally be able to end it. I will call up that bill in a matter of minutes, and I look forward to passing the clean, continuing resolution and appropriations bill package in the very near future.
--:-- Shamita Basu: To be clear, though, it's not quite over. Last night's vote was procedural, and as of right now, the government remains closed. There will be more debates this week that could delay progress, and it still needs to get through the House, which has been out of session since September 19th.
--:-- Chuck Schumer: It's not a long-term fix either. The deal would only fund the government through the end of January. But Republicans have now cleared their biggest hurdle after convincing these Democratic senators to come around. And crucially, they've secured that support without any guarantees to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, the key demand from Democratic leaders.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Instead, they stuck to their offer of a vote on the issue sometime in December. Democrats did secure some commitments. The attempted firings of around 4,000 federal workers during the shutdown would be reversed. And SNAP food aid would be provided in full through September of 2026, ending uncertainty for millions of low-income Americans.
--:-- Chuck Schumer: But with no real movement on his number one priority, health care subsidies, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged his party to hold firm before the vote. Democrats must fight because millions of families will lose health care coverage. We must fight because children who are dying of cancer will not get health care coverage. We must fight because a senior citizen cannot afford to pay $25,000 a year just for health insurance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Schumer's plea was not enough for some colleagues, whose constituents were feeling the effects of the shutdown more and more in recent days. Millions of Americans haven't received food aid they rely on. And over the weekend, more than 2,000 flights were canceled when the FAA ordered a reduction in air traffic due to the shutdown.
--:-- Jean Shaheen: Republicans control the White House, the Senate, and the House. And they made clear over a period of weeks, including just this week, that this was as far as they would go as part of the shutdown talks. This was the only deal on the table.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Also among the backers was Senator Tim Kaine whose state has thousands of federal workers. My Virginians have been suffering under this administration. The shutdown started on January 20. I need a moratorium on the punishing of the federal workforce. That's what I need. And so I joined this group to make sure that we could get important protections for federal employees.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the agreement leaves some Democrats wondering if the drawn-out standoff was worth it. On the one hand, polls consistently suggested the public held Republicans more responsible for the impasse, but others were prepared to double down on health care subsidies, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was critical of those who crossed party lines.
--:-- Larry Sabato: There's no guarantee at all that this vote on Obamacare that will be taken sometime in the coming weeks will pass even the Senate. And it may not even be taken up by the House, much less passed by the House. So I'm not sure what they got. And I think most Democrats agree with that. They can't figure out what they got.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the days ahead, any one senator could still derail the agreement. But Majority Leader Thune said he hoped to pass it early this week.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In an uncertain economic period, Wall Street's strength has been driven by a handful of tech companies who are putting a lot of money into expanding their AI efforts.
--:-- David Uberti: On Friday, Meta announced plans to invest $600 billion in AI infrastructure to serve its growing computing needs. And on the same day, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI had asked the government to expand tax credit support for data centers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But beyond the rise and fall of stock portfolios, the Wall Street Journal reports that this physical infrastructure is already reshaping American communities.
--:-- David Uberti: Much of the funding is going to unexpected corners of the country, with the land, water, and power required to host large quantities of information processing equipment. Tech companies are investing some $41 billion a year at current rates into data centers. And what that means is a lot of labor. It means a lot of concrete, copper, piping, cable, etc. All of that adds up to an immense amount of economic activity that is propping up the U.S. construction center.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And in some cases, depending on what part of the country you're in, it's propping up the overall economy as well.
--:-- David Uberti: I spent time in Umatilla, Oregon, and saw firsthand how a traditional farming community had been transformed over the last five to ten years by Amazon's build-out. The town used to be known for a chemical weapons depot that was nearby and a state prison on the city's outskirts. Now it's seeing a boom in AI building.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We're talking thousands of construction workers that have come both locally and non-locally have sort of descended onto these very small towns. They're staying in RV parks, hotels. Some of them have put down roots in terms of new housing and whatnot. And it's really injected a lot of cash into the local economy there, which has really created some immense changes in how people live their lives.
--:-- David Uberti: Companies that invest in places like Umatilla are offered significant tax breaks. And the money coming in also impacts people in unaffiliated industries, like a young woman who I spoke with that went from working 12 shifts at a distribution center to becoming an in realtor in the area.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She told me it's been a blessing to her family that people want to come to Umatilla now. But at the same time, the surge in growth has also meant that the cost of housing and child care are rising beyond reach for many blue-collar workers. Home prices and rental prices in Umatilla and the surrounding areas have doubled.
--:-- David Uberti: So some of these sort of low-wage farm workers who have traditionally made up the backbone of the local economy, those people are having a harder and harder time paying for housing and keeping up with some of these higher salaries.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Uberti said that there are some who worry if this is an injection of short-term prosperity or the building blocks of something more. People want to capitalize on the good times for as long as they last, the fear being that this might just be sort of a sugar high.
--:-- David Uberti: So the tech companies, of course, are saying this is the beginning of a very long period of economic expansion related to AI and data centers more broadly. People locally are really wary about buying into that too much because in many small communities around the country, they have seen the downsides of a bust.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that's what a lot of people in Umatilla fear is what happens when the construction stops. OpenAI and Oracle recently announced their $7 billion data center project in Michigan. Regions in Georgia, Texas, and North Dakota are volleying for similar projects.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Mexico, Claudia Scheinbaum made history last year when she became the first woman to be sworn in as the country's president. But last week, she was involved in an incident highlighting how even those in positions of power can experience a common form of harassment.
--:-- Kate Linthicum: At a certain point, a man approached from behind and very quickly slipped his arm around her shoulder, leaned in and kissed her neck, and then put his arms around her and briefly groped her chest before her aides pulled him away.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The video drew national outrage and reignited conversations about the prevalence of harassment against women in Mexico. There was a sense when she arrived in this position that it was a real victory for women and showed how women here had made strides.
--:-- Kate Linthicum: And to see her humiliated like this in public really showed a lot of people that harassment of women is still very common in Mexico, that if this could happen to the president of the country, it could happen to anyone, and it in fact does.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Scheinbaum said she filed a criminal complaint against the individual, telling a news conference that a line must be drawn. And she questioned what position should be leaving Mexican women in if she didn't report it.
--:-- Kate Linthicum: Authorities have since said that the man in question has been detained. Scheinbaum also said that she would review state laws across the country to ensure that street harassment is categorized as a crime nationwide.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Scheinbaum entered office with a promise to make Mexico safer and more equitable for women, and she's made some key strides, including a new pension program for women and a congressional amendment that makes it unconstitutional to pay women less than men.
--:-- Kate Linthicum: She also required every state to have a specialized prosecutor office that deals with femicides which Mexico defines as murders in which authorities prove that the female victim gender was a motive. This is a country where 10 women or girls are killed on average every day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So this is exactly what the country is kind of grappling with. Linthicum told us that the assault on Scheinbaum was a wake-up call for a country that has come far in gender equality, but still has a long way to go.
--:-- Kate Linthicum: Feminist social movements have gained tremendous ground in Mexico in recent years. The Me Too movement in the United States also resonated here. There are massive feminist protests every spring. And, you know, Scheinbaum's victory in the 2024 presidential election really highlighted the strides that women have made in Mexican politics.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that is why this is so shocking to people, is that even though you have women who've reached the highest levels of office here, they continue to be the victims of this kind of harassment.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. President Trump pardoned dozens of political allies for support or involvement in alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The people include prominent former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. Notably, the pardon explicitly states that it does not apply to President Trump himself.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Politico notes that because pardons apply only to federal charges, that these are largely symbolic, as the individuals were facing state and local charges.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another gambling scandal has hit pro sports, this time in Major League Baseball. Two pitchers from the Cleveland Guardians were indicted Sunday on money laundering and conspiracy charges.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Emmanuel Classé and Luis Ortiz are accused of taking bribes to rig bets on individual pitches, resulting in gamblers winning hundreds of thousands of dollars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The two allegedly arranged to throw specific pitches for balls. A bettor they were in cooperation with would then place prop bets for big profits and kick some of the money back to each player.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The top charges alone carry a potential of up to 20 years in prison. Both of their lawyers deny the charges.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, publishers of The Farmer's Almanac announced the 2026 edition will be its last. Now, there are a couple of notable things about how many outlets are covering this story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Farmer's Almanac has been in production since 1818. It's a Maine-based publication that prints weather predictions and planting guidelines every year. So this is being described as the end of a long run of this very quaint slice of life.
--:-- Shamita Basu: What's funny is, as the Associated Press points out, Many people are probably mistaking this for another more popular almanac called the Old Farmer's Almanac. That's the one that the AP describes as the main one most people know and would recognize from its yellow cover.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That one is, in fact, even older. It's been in print since 1792. And when the confusion came up about its competitor ending, it issued a statement saying it's not going anywhere.
--:-- Shamita Basu: 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: Elle reports on the lavish Le Ball, the world's only debutante ball that is invitation only, and how the glamorous event is meant to shed the damsel in distress or find a husband narrative of more traditional events.
--:-- Shamita Basu: 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. Thank you.
