--:-- Mark Garrison: Good morning. It's Thursday, August 3rd. I'm Mark Garrison in for Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Mark Garrison: On today's show, a death sentence for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter. Why people are pretty hopeful about the U.S. economy and the 18-year-old World Cup player who beat cancer. But first, Donald Trump is set to appear in D.C. federal court today on new criminal conspiracy charges related to his actions to try to overturn his loss in the 2020 election and related to the attack on the Capitol on January 6th.
--:-- Mark Garrison: We talked about the basics of the charges yesterday. Today, we're highlighting a few angles to understand on this complicated story. The Miami Herald looks at a key difference between the new charges and the other ones Trump faces. This could set a historic legal precedent on presidential power. If Trump is convicted here, it would establish that presidents can be held criminally liable for their actions while in office, even after they leave the White House.
--:-- Mark Garrison: As one professor of government puts it, the question has never been tested to this degree. The Washington Post explains the historical background of one of Trump's latest criminal charges, Conspiracy Against the Right to Vote. It dates back to a law from 1870. It was passed after the Civil War to protect the newly codified rights of black citizens. It's come up at various points in American history, such as when it was used to prosecute murders by the KKK in the 1960s.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance talked to MSNBC about what it would take to get a conviction. Joyce Vance: The government will have to show that he engaged in conduct. He intended to engage in conduct. that would deprive people of constitutional rights that are well known, that are firmly established. And that raw legal language I think is in many ways so antiseptic But what underlies it is this notion that the former president wanted to steal all of our rights to vote
--:-- Mark Garrison: The indictment mentions six co-conspirators. It doesn't name or charge them, but it does offer details that give some pretty big clues as to who they are. Reuters did the legwork to match up the descriptions to real people in Trump's inner circle. You can get the names in the full story, along with all the Trump coverage we're talking about, in the Apple News app.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now, let's take a quick look at some major stories in the news. Today, the gunman in the 2018 killing of 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh will be formally sentenced to death. It was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. Earlier this year, a jury convicted him of 63 criminal counts, including hate crimes. After that, jurors deliberated on his punishment, the unanimously recommended execution.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In Washington, Congress is opening an investigation into allegations that China hacked into the email systems of the U.S. State Department and Commerce Department. Hundreds of thousands of emails were reportedly stolen, including those from high-level officials. China has denied the allegations. Abroad, the State Department is ordering a partial evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Niger. Military leaders took power from the democratically elected president last week. Now there's growing fear that the situation could quickly get more dangerous.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Critics say the State Department was too slow to evacuate Americans from Sudan earlier this year. Ordering people out of Niger now may be a move to make this one go more smoothly. And in entertainment business news, the striking writers guild will meet with producers on Friday. This will be the first formal meeting since talks broke down May 1st. The union is trying to keep expectations low. The meeting is expected to be basically talks about maybe having more talks with writers and actors. Now, nearly all TV and movie productions are shut down.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Today is a good moment to take a look at the health of the U.S. economy. We're in the heart of corporate earnings season, and the big jobs report is out tomorrow. Generally, things are looking pretty good. But there are still a lot of question marks coming out of the pandemic and potential risk ahead.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Economists and business leaders don't agree on what the future holds. They never do. So let's take a look at why some people have an optimistic view and what the pessimists are worried about. First, the good stuff. Inflation is cooling down steadily. Unemployment is low. A lot of economists didn't think those two things could both happen.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Using past data and models, they argued that the Fed needed to take a tough stance to fight off inflation, one that could have put millions of people out of work. But past data didn't help as much here, in large part because the lockdown economy was unlike anything in American history. It wasn't just a cyclical recession. The entire economy was essentially put in a medically induced coma.
--:-- Mark Garrison: So the Fed raised rates fairly cautiously as the pandemic eased. Companies kept hiring. Inflation slowly came down. Another positive trend. It looks like the U.S. economy has shaken off some of the worst problems from the pandemic. People are working and looking for jobs at healthy rates. Supply chain issues are mostly over. And we've seen strong comebacks for industries that were practically shut down. Airlines, restaurants, hotels.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But the global economy is still pretty messy, which brings us to the pessimistic outlook. Because no matter how much the U.S. might have its act together, its economic fate is closely connected to the rest of the world. Inflation is extremely high in a lot of places, including other wealthy countries like the UK. And it's even higher in the developing world, which is driving instability.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Then there the war in Ukraine and growing tension between the US and China, which means changes in trade, energy prices, security. Any of those could blow up the Fed's careful plans for a soft landing. And just this week, the ratings agency Fitch downgraded the U.S. government's credit. A lot of experts think that move's a bit harsh. But with periodic fights over the debt ceiling, there is real concern that political gridlock may make it harder for America to solve future economic problems.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Right now on Wall Street, optimism is in fashion. New survey data shows leading economists are lowering their odds that the U.S. will enter a recession. Now, those odds are definitely not zero. So let's see what tomorrow's jobs numbers add to the picture.
--:-- Mark Garrison: We've talked a lot about the U.S. team in the World Cup. Today, we want to focus on a talented young player from Colombia with a pretty impressive backstory. Linda Casado is just 18. She helped her team upset Germany with this goal. He just had it. Here's Casado. Sneaks free. Casado! When she was 15, Casado was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She quietly underwent surgery and treatment, and she was quickly back on the field once she was declared cancer-free.
--:-- Mark Garrison: There was a lot of hype around her and the team after they beat Germany. But the teenage Casado had a very mature level of focus after that win. She said simply, we haven't won anything yet. The World Cup is ongoing. We've got full coverage of the World Cup in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around. We've got a narrated article from Bloomberg Businessweek about the vegan food company Daily Harvest. It went from a beloved brand backed by celebrities and influencers to recalling a product that made many people very sick. That story's queued up for you next, and we'll be back with the news tomorrow.
