--:-- Shamita Basu: Hey there, it's Shamita. I've got a quick ask for you. If Apple News Today is an essential part of your morning routine, and we really hope it is, 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 Friday, August 30th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, the army responds to what happened when Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery, why Telegram's CEO is being charged for extremist content on the messaging platform, and a Paralympic taekwondo athlete makes history in Paris. But first, Vice President Harris sat down with CNN for her first televised interview as the Democratic presidential nominee. She touched on a lot of economic issues.
--:-- Shamita Basu: My proposal includes what would be a tax credit of $25,000 for first-time homebuyers, so they can just have enough to put a down payment on a home, which is part of the American dream and their aspiration. Taxes came up several times in that conversation, and Trump has been talking about them, too. So today we're going to focus on how your tax bill might change depending on who wins the White House.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's start with Harris. Wall Street Journal tax policy reporter Richard Rubin told us her plan would stick to a lot of current White House priorities. The Biden administration wants to raise taxes on high-income households and raise taxes on corporations. And they want to either keep taxes the same or cut them for middle-income and lower-income households.
--:-- Richard Rubin: So that basic thrust, that basic direction of where she's trying to go, is largely the unfinished business of the Biden administration. One group that could see lower tax bills is parents. Here, Harris would go further than President Biden. She's proposing bringing back the expanded child tax credit of up to $3,600. New mothers and fathers would get even more. For parents of newborns, that first year you get $6,000 as a tax credit to sort of cover those big costs that we all know about that come in the first year of life.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump, meanwhile, wants to expand his administration's tax cuts from 2017. He wants to remove taxes on tipped workers' income from tips, which Vice President Harris has matched. He also has talked about lowering the corporate tax rate even further. Right now it's 21. He's talked about 20 or 15. He's also said that he wants to eliminate the taxes on Social Security benefits.
--:-- Richard Rubin: Now, some important caveats here. First, it's impossible to get hard numbers on exactly how much any of us would pay under either potential president. The campaigns just haven't released enough details. Also, presidents can't overhaul taxes on their own. A lot of this will depend on who controls Congress. And as we mentioned on yesterday's show, that is very much up in the air.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If Trump has a Republican House and a Republican Senate, a lot of tax cuts are likely to happen. If Harris has a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate, you likely to see the kinds of swaps that she's talking about. If not the whole thing, at least part of it, raising taxes at the top, cutting taxes for others.
--:-- Richard Rubin: And Rubin says of course, there are plenty of messier scenarios where one party wins the White House and the other controls the House and or the Senate. Congress is going to have a real big showdown in 2025, no matter what. The positions that Harris, Trump, and congressional candidates across the country are putting out right now are going to sort of clash quite significantly. And it's not at all clear how that comes out at the end of next year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Those Trump-era tax cuts expire next year, unless the White House and Congress make a deal to extend them. And Rubin expects they will, because allowing them to expire would suddenly raise taxes on most American households, which both parties want to avoid.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you want to take a deeper dive into the tax possibilities, check out the journal's full story in the Apple News app. Sticking with the election, let's turn to a story that kind of snowballed over the course of this week. Former President Trump's trip to Arlington National Cemetery. He was there on Monday to honor 13 service members killed in the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And a cemetery employee says one of his campaign staffers abruptly pushed her aside as she tried to enforce their policies about not filming or taking photos for political campaigns in a particularly sensitive area of the cemetery. This is Section 60, an area reserved for veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Army says Trump's team was informed on site about federal laws and policies that prohibit filming for campaign purposes in the area.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But a video Trump later posted to social media shows him at grave sites in that section. Our source told me that they have never seen this level of disrespectful behavior at Arlington ever. Quill Lawrence is the veterans correspondent for NPR who broke this story, and he explained on NPR why this rule violation was so significant.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: It's illegal to do anything political on the grounds of Arlington Cemetery. And this isn't just about following some bureaucratic rules. If you look at one of the photos that's going around with former President Trump and these family members giving a thumbs up and smiling in front of the tombstone for Staff Sergeant Darren Taylor Hoover with his family there. Well, there are two other gravestones that are visible. And they're both Green Berets.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One of the families of the Green Berets whose grave was visible says the Trump campaign broke the rules. Someone close to his family confirmed to me that they did not give permission for that grave to be used in a political ad or anything like that. This family is intensely private about what is still a very painful loss.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Other families of those buried at Arlington say they gave permission for Trump to get footage of the event. But that still doesn't mean Trump's actions were OK under federal law. One family member, Hoover's father, Darren, a Trump supporter, told a Utah CBS station that he didn't see a physical altercation and that this wasn't a campaign event. It was not meant to be political in any sense of the word.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The U.S. Army is defending the staffer who tried to stop Trump's team from filming. It says she handled the situation with professionalism and said it's unfortunate that people are attacking her character. The cemetery employee reportedly decided against pressing charges out of concern that Trump supporters might retaliate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to a major story unfolding where technology meets law enforcement. The arrest of the CEO of Telegram. Close to a billion people around the world use the messaging app. It's best known for its privacy. Messages are encrypted, so only the people in the conversation can see them. Even the company Telegram itself can't see the content.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's made it popular with people who live in places where government snooping is a real concern. But it's also meant that Telegram has been used by terrorists and criminals to evade law enforcement. Authorities around the world have been critical of the company for a long time, saying it doesn't do enough to stop illegal activity or help law enforcement.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But this month, France took major action, arresting Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. He's under investigation for the drug trafficking and child sex abuse content that authorities say Telegram enables. Will Carless is on the story for USA Today. What Mr. Durov is essentially accused of is not cooperating with French authorities in their investigation of these crimes.
--:-- Will Carless: And therefore, he is charged essentially with being complicit in those crimes. Internet law varies widely all over the world. In the U.S., publishers are mostly shielded from being held responsible for what users post. But in France, they have a more strict liability law on the books.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Durov is out on more than $5 million bail and required to stay in France while he's under investigation. Telegram says it follows the law and industry standards, and it's not fair to hold the platform or its CEO responsible for people who misuse it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This new case touches on what's always been the double-edged sword of Telegram, or any service providing strong privacy protection. People rightfully want to keep their conversations to themselves, and most people will use privacy features legitimately. But it's hard to stop a minority of people from using them for illegal activity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Telegram was used by ISIS members involved in terror attacks in Paris and Berlin. As one of my sources put it, this is a place where you can do everything from streaming video to monetizing your content to creating sort of groups within groups. It's a very versatile tool, not just for extremist groups, but it's proven very, very good for extremism.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now France wants to hold Durov accountable. It's putting a new spotlight on the Russian-born billionaire CEO. His posts on Telegram are often eccentric, always showing him dressed in black and frequently shirtless. He recently said he's the biological father of more than 100 children through sperm donations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He rarely gives interviews and says little about himself outside of what he puts on Telegram. But now the CEO faces the biggest legal test of his life, and he won't be able to hide it behind encryption.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go here are some other stories being featured in the Apple News app. First, a deadly outbreak linked to a product that probably sold at a supermarket or deli near you. Boar's Head Meats. At least nine people are dead and dozens more hospitalized after eating Boar's Head products contaminated with listeria.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The CDC says it's the largest outbreak of its kind in more than a decade. The company's recalled 7 million pounds of products from one plant. U.S. Agriculture Department records show investigators found dozens of violations there, including finding insects, black mold, and puddles of blood.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Boershead says it regrets the recall's impact on families and is focused on safety. You can read The Washington Post's coverage on the Apple News app, which includes a link to the list of recalled products.
--:-- Shamita Basu: German elections this weekend could have an outcome not seen since Hitler. The Wall Street Journal looks at how, in the eastern state of Thuringia, polling shows that the far-right party, AFD, may win. Germany has kept far-right parties out of power since the end of World War II, so winning a state-level election would be a post-war first.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The AFD has been strong in states that were part of the former East Germany. Some people there, frustrated with regional economic problems, have been drawn to the anti-immigration message of the far-right party.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, at the Paralympics in Paris, swimmer Christy Raleigh-Crossley, who we talked to on the show the other day, broke a world record in the 50-meter freestyle. Also at the Games, a taekwondo competitor is the first-ever medalist from the refugee team. Zakia Hudadadi was born in Afghanistan with one forearm.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She learned to fight in a secret gym where girls could train. But when the Taliban retook power, Hudadadi was in danger. She evacuated. Her status gave her the opportunity to join the refugee team for athletes who've escaped persecution and violence from their home countries.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Houdadadi settled in Paris after leaving Afghanistan. And even though she technically wasn't competing for France, fans there cheered her on like a hometown hero. She says she won in part because of the support of the crowd and that she hopes there will one day be peace in her country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find more Paralympic coverage and other stories in the Apple News app. And stick around for our interview show, Apple News in Conversation. This week, we are re-airing my chat from last year with Atlantic writer Jennifer Senior about her experience reconnecting with a relative her family kept hidden, an aunt who was institutionalized as a baby in 1953 and spent almost her entire life separated from family.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Senior weaves together this personal story with the larger history of institutionalizing people with intellectual disabilities in the U.S. Institutionalization victimized everybody. It victimized the people inside. It victimized the siblings, you know, the families, the parents. Everybody lost.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the Apple News app right now, that episode is queued up to play for you next. Our team will be off on Monday for Labor Day. I hope you are too. So enjoy the long weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Tuesday.
