--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Thursday, December 16th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. Shmita Basu is off. This is Apple News Today. 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: It's been just about a year since Kamala Harris became the first woman and person of color to serve as vice president. She stepped into the role just as the U.S. was facing crisis after crisis, from the pandemic and the economic downturn to the Capitol insurrection to all the disinformation being spread by the former president about Biden's election.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Well, I asked her a couple of times in a couple of different ways if there were any sort of lessons learned from the past year or anything she would have done differently. She didn't really directly answer that question. But she did say that for next year, she really wants to get out of D.C. more. She wants to go directly to the people. That's San Francisco Chronicle reporter Tal Kopin. She recently sat down with the vice president for a wide-ranging interview. We spoke with her to get the highlights.
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--:-- Tal Kopin: Harris told me it's been hard to get out of D.C. this past year because as vice president, she often has to cast the tie-breaking vote Democrats need to get Biden's agenda items passed. She said that is a very real constraint on her job.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So we'll see how she navigates that going into next year, that desire to get out on the road more and probably something Democrats recognize is a necessity if they're going to compete in next year's midterm elections.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Harris has some pretty challenging policy goals on her to-do list, including stemming the flow of migrants from Central America. She and her team and the White House really sort of fought for months this notion that she should be associated with the border.
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--:-- Tal Kopin: Harris told me she's made some progress. She secured more than $1 billion in aid for Central America from the private sector and international partners.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Copen explains what happened when critics called on her to visit the border. Her staff kind of dug in their heels and said, no, we're focused on this long-term Central America vision. We're not dealing with the border.
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--:-- Tal Kopin: And it just kind of created a talking point almost in their resistance to the talking point, culminating in, you know, an interview with NBC's Lester Holt, where she gave sort of a flippant answer of why she hasn't visited the border.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: There's one other topic I wanted to talk to you about, but let me just quickly put a button... Do you have any plans to visit the border I here in Guatemala today at some point?
--:-- Tal Kopin: We are going to the border. We've been to the border. So this whole thing about the border, we've been to the border. We've been to the border. You haven't been to the border. And I haven't been to Europe. And I don't understand the point that you're making.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: I mentioned it because I know Republicans have certainly come at you on this. It's a perfect example of one of the things that she has made some progress on. And yet, perhaps her staff didn't really address the public perception issue as much as they maybe should have or needed to.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Harris has also been the subject of a wave of negative stories that focus on high-profile people on her team leaving. She didn't directly answer the question of the staff departures. She did, however, take on directly some of the, you know, quote, in her words, ridiculous headlines that have come out.
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--:-- Tal Kopin: Headlines about her buying an expensive pot in France, something she paid for with her own money or the focus on her wearing wired, not Bluetooth headphones.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Harris said she wants to be known for more substantive things. We spoke right after she hosted the first White House Day of Action on maternal health. There was a proclamation from the White House for the first time ever on Black Maternal Health Week.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And so it's stuff like that that perhaps the media doesn't necessarily report on as much. But she really sees those as significant things.
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--:-- Duarte Giraldino: As for her own political future, will she or won't she run for president? It's no surprise Harris wouldn't go there with Copen.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Omicron is spreading in America. We've talked on this show about how there's a lot we don't know about this variant. But researchers around the world are working hard to understand it. And over the last few days, new research has come out.
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--:-- Vox Reporter: Scientists know a lot more now. So this is a good time to take a moment and see where things are. Vox has a good, clear summary of the latest findings. Scientists in South Africa have done important work here.
--:-- Vox Reporter: Preliminary data suggests Omicron might lead to milder COVID infections. A recent study from a health insurance company in South Africa shows COVID hospitalization risk was nearly 30% lower with Omicron compared to last summer.
--:-- Vox Reporter: It also found vaccines provided strong protection against hospitalization. We've also got recent data from vaccine makers. Early data from Pfizer and Moderna both show similar results. Two doses seem to provide less protection than against earlier variants, but boosters provide more protection from Omicron.
--:-- Vox Reporter: There's only a few weeks worth of data, so there's still plenty that isn't clear yet. But make no mistake, Omicron is highly transmissible, and it's able to reinfect people who had the virus before.
--:-- Vox Reporter: That has doctors worried about a wave of new cases driven by Omicron. Even if the risk of severe illness is lower, a more contagious variant could still mean more hospitalizations, and that could swamp the medical system.
--:-- Vox Reporter: As you know, many hospitals are still struggling under the weight of the Delta variant. Vox has a good reminder that whatever Omicron throws at us, we can use the same playbook to fight it. I'm talking about vaccines, boosters, face masks, social distancing, and testing.
--:-- Vox Reporter: Whether it's Omicron or any other Greek letter, how bad things get, it's still largely up to us.
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--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So if you haven't thought about your student loans in a while, next year might be a big shock. Pandemic loan relief is set to end in February. Tens of millions of Americans owe a collective $1.7 trillion in debt.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Business Insider has a pair of stories looking at what is going on here, from a personal story to a look at what's happening in Washington.
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--:-- Business Insider Reporter: Melissa Andretta originally had a loan balance of $40,000 for a PhD in education, but over time, she says interest pushed her debt much higher. Now, she's on the hook for more than $160,000.
--:-- Business Insider Reporter: Andretta has a good paying job, but before payments were paused during the pandemic, the majority of her paycheck went towards paying her debt. Andretta says she feels betrayed by President Biden. He campaigned on canceling in student debt per borrower but that hasn't happened.
--:-- Business Insider Reporter: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about that promise this week. She largely deflected to the Hill. She said, President Biden is waiting for Congress to send over a bill that would provide the debt relief.
--:-- Business Insider Reporter: Business Insider explains how some Democrats, they're not satisfied with that answer. Elizabeth Warren, she wants to cancel $50,000 in debt. Some lawmakers argue, Biden doesn't need to wait for Congress, that he could wipe out debt with an executive order, although it's not clear if that would hold up in court.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Meantime, folks deep in debt, like Andretta, they're stressed out about paying the bills next year.
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--:-- Duarte Giraldino: TikTok is a place where you can show off your dance moves or your fashion sense. And it's also a place where, if you're very resourceful, you can turn a little bobby pin into a whole house.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: A woman named Demi Skipper actually pulled it off as millions of people watched and cheered her on. I can't believe this. A year and a half of trading a single bobby pin until I get a house. And I've done it. And look at it. Yes, an actual two-bedroom worth $80,000.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Skipper had to make dozens of trades with strangers. She swapped a vacuum for a snowboard, an iPhone for a Dodge Caravan. She says she was inspired by the blogger in 2005 who made a splash by trading his way from a paperclip to a house.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For Skipper, the project involved hours combing through Craigslist and Facebook. As her TikTok followers grew, they helped her find trades. Skipper told The Washington Post, her plan now is to renovate the house and trade it again, this time for a bobby pin, full circle.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Then she plans to start all over again from the top.
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--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News Plus partners.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
