--:-- Yasmin Khan: Good morning. It's Thursday, February 8th. I'm Yasmin Khan, in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: On today's show, the Republican behind the Supreme Court case that could knock Trump off the ballot, how GOP lawmakers crafted an immigration bill and then killed it, and the highly seasoned legal debate over butter chicken. But first, let's take a quick look at some other major stories in the news.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: The Pentagon says all five Marines missing after a training flight near San Diego have been found dead. Their helicopter went down in a mountainous area earlier this week, which prompted an extensive search mission. The severe weather that hit California recently made it hard for crews to access the area. The chopper they were in is designed to fly in harsh conditions. Marine officials say they're investigating the crash.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: In Baghdad, a U.S. drone strike killed a commander of an Iran-backed militia. It's the latest retaliation for the attack on a U.S. base in Jordan that killed three Americans. The U.S. previously hit dozens of targets in Iraq and Syria.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is rejecting Hamas' latest terms for a ceasefire, But international mediators from the U.S., Qatar, and Egypt are still working to see if a deal can be made that stops fighting temporarily. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there were several non-starters in the Hamas response, but there was also an opening that could point the way to further talks that lead to an agreement.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: In Sudan, the U.N. is asking for $4 billion in new aid for the country and for the world's attention to a dire humanitarian crisis. Fighting between rival military factions has forced nearly 11 million people from their homes. Half of the population needs food aid. Doctors Without Borders says a child dies every two hours in one of the largest refugee camps.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: James Elder of UNICEF spoke to CNN recently about what he's seeing on the ground.
--:-- James Elder: You have these mind-boggling numbers of children with that most severe acute form of malnutrition, the type that will kill a child. You have the world's highest number of children displaced here. Health systems on the verge of collapse. So there is a clock ticking until we have this absolutely epic loss of life.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Elder says that's why it's so vital to quickly and dramatically increase the flow of aid to people in Sudan.
--:-- James Elder: [Continuing] The Supreme Court hears arguments today in Trump v Anderson the case focused on former President Trump actions on January 6 2021 The Colorado Supreme Court disqualified him from the primary ballot in the state after determining he participated in an insurrection, a violation of the 14th Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court decision will affect similar efforts to keep Trump off the ballot in other states.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: The Washington Post spoke with one of the plaintiffs leading the challenge. 91-year-old Norma Anderson is a lifelong Republican who spent decades in the Colorado legislature. She was the first woman majority leader of both chambers. She carries a pocket-sized Constitution in her purse everywhere she goes.
--:-- Norma Anderson: I'm one of those weird people. I read the Constitution quite often. If something comes up, Henderson told The Post she had doubts about Trump for a long time, and watching the attack at the Capitol shook her. She felt Trump's actions crossed a major line, and she does not believe, constitutionally, that he should be allowed to hold office again.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Her case hinges on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. It says people who take part in an insurrection after taking an oath to support the Constitution cannot hold office. This language was added to the Constitution after the Civil War to prevent members of the Confederacy from returning to power.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Across the country, different courts have come to different conclusions on this issue. Courts in Michigan and Illinois decided to allow Trump to stay on the ballot. In Maine, an effort to block Trump is on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the Colorado case.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: The stakes in the decision are incredibly high, and there's a wide range of rulings that the majority conservative court could make. A narrow one could focus just on Trump's eligibility for the ballot, not making a determination on whether he did or did not engage in insurrection on January 6th.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: A ruling in favor of Anderson and the other plaintiffs would throw the rest of Trump's presidential campaign into question. Anderson told the Post she believes this case is open and shut, and she has no sympathy for a candidate who can't accept losing.
--:-- Norma Anderson: The very first time I ever ran, I didn't win. I didn't go out and try to change the election. I said, whoops, work harder next time, lady.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: This week in Washington members of the Senate have been playing a high game of political poker over what was considered a bipartisan piece of immigration policy But yesterday, nearly every single Republican in the Senate voted to block a sweeping bill for tighter border restrictions.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: GOP Senator James Lankford was a key negotiator. He told Fox News he's frustrated that so many of his colleagues backtracked on a bill that they initially asked for.
--:-- James Lankford: If we have the shot, and it's amazing to me, if I go back two months ago and say we had the shot under a Democrat president to dramatically increase detention beds, deportation flights, lock down the border, to be able to change the asylum laws, to be able to accelerate the process, no one would have believed it. And now no one actually wants to be able to fix it and says, I don't want to even debate it. I don't want to discuss it.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: So how did it come to pass that Republicans are opposing a bill that they had been fighting for for months? The bill has become something of a political weapon. Donald Trump and his supporters argued that the party should block it. The former president and presumed Republican nominee has said that passing the bill would be a great gift to Democrats.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: This is while Democrats say they made real concessions to Republicans on the border. Senator Chris Murphy argued before the vote that GOP lawmakers talked a big game, but wouldn't step up to pass a bill when they had the chance.
--:-- Chris Murphy: I can't believe this is happening. We were all here. This wasn't a dream. This really happened. Republicans all stood up and said that they wanted a bipartisan bill to fix the border. The border is a priority. The border is a crisis. We delivered a bipartisan bill to fix the border with the Republican senator appointed by the Republican caucus to cut the deal.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And there were high hopes that this bill would move forward from the communities most affected by the border crisis. Earlier this week, the U.S. Conference of Mayors sent a letter to all 100 senators urging them to pass the bill. Republican John Giles signed that letter. He's the mayor of Mesa, Arizona, roughly 180 miles north of the southern border.
--:-- John Giles: I hope that the Republicans, my fellow Republicans in Congress, particularly in the House, will have a spine and that they'll realize that this is a once in a generation opportunity to have a very meaningful impact on a very serious challenge in our country. And they need to rise to that occasion.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: The border bill was tied to aid for Ukraine and Israel. After the vote failed in the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer put forward a Plan B, a new standalone bill that would send billions of dollars to Ukraine and Israel, as well as some humanitarian aid for Palestinians. A vote on that package is expected today.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Finally, a surprisingly complicated legal dispute over butter chicken. Many Indian restaurants around the world serve the popular dish, and home cooks love it too, with its fragrant combo of tandoori chicken, spices, tomato, and much more. It's definitely a solid comfort food. And now it's at the center of a very uncomfortable court case.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Understanding the case requires knowing the legendary New Delhi restaurant Moti Mahal. Several years back, when TV chef Gordon Ramsay did a show about Indian cuisine, he visited the restaurant and asked food expert Seema Chandra about the iconic dish.
--:-- Seema Chandra: Butter chicken, yes. Well, butter chicken started right here 60 years ago. There's some consensus about that.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: But the question of who at Moti Mahal invented the dish is the subject of the current legal case. The Wall Street Journal reports from Delhi on how two adult grandsons of the restaurant's original partners are now fighting in court over which grandfather invented the recipe.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: One has filed a court document of nearly 3,000 pages claiming his grandfather invented the dish, and he's suing the other for copyright infringement and unfair competition. The other grandson calls that nonsense. Both sides have introduced mountains of evidence, including old deeds, handwritten documents, and newspaper clippings.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: But like a lot of food origin disputes, it may be pretty hard to nail down where butter chicken started. One local food historian points out that tandoori chicken has been around for millennia. So some anonymous roadside chef or someone's auntie may have cooked butter chicken long before the two grandfathers were born.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: One longtime journalist and Moti Mahal fan, who remembers both grandfathers, told the journal he'd love to see the legal fighting end. The grandsons, he says, should let their ancestors' souls rest in peace.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: You can find all the stories we talked about today 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 from Wired. It's about Bobi, a dog from Portugal. Said to be more than 31 years old, he was the oldest dog ever, according to Guinness World Records. But after his death, experts questioned if he was really that old. The reporter tries to find out what's real, and it's a long and winding trip. If you're listening in the Podcasts app, you can follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story. Enjoy that listen, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
