--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, August 11th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, new revelations about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the debate over how to restore the iconic sequoias after many were wiped out by California wildfires, and a celebration of hip-hop's 50th birthday. But first, let's take a brief look at some major stories in the news.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Hawaii, the wildfire death toll is rising, with at least 55 people killed and thousands forced to run or swim for their lives. Governor Josh Green says the level of destruction is unheard of there. What we saw was likely the largest natural disaster in Hawaii's state history.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Rescue efforts are underway, and there will be a massive rebuilding effort after that. The Maui community of Lahaina was destroyed in the flames. It's a place with deep historical and economic importance. It was once the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom, and it drew millions of tourists each year, accounting for about 80 percent of the island's visitors.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Moving to some international news, several Americans are now out of Iran's notorious Evin prison. They were transferred to house arrest in a potential first step of an evolving deal for their release. The deal reportedly includes the U.S. releasing several Iranians and allowing access to $6 billion in frozen oil revenue.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Iran would be able to tap into the money for humanitarian spending. The deal could still fall apart, but the movement of the Americans out of the prison is a positive sign. And in Ecuador, six people are under arrest in connection with the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The election is a week from Sunday. Villavicencio ran on promises to crack down on crime, violence and corruption in the country. The suspected shooter died after a gunfight in the wake of Wednesday's assassination.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Authorities say the suspects in custody are Colombian and members of organized criminal groups. ProPublica is out with a new investigation on lavish gifts that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted from billionaires.
--:-- Brett Murphy: So we're talking about at least 38 destination vacations, 26 private jet flights, an additional eight by helicopter, A dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica, and then there was one standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club on the Atlantic coast.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The total value of these gifts is likely in the millions, allowing Thomas to live a lifestyle impossible on his salary. In addition to the gifts that Thomas accepted from billionaire conservative megadonor Harlan Crow, ProPublica found several others who showered the justice with gifts.
--:-- Brett Murphy: Wayne Huizenga, who made his fortune through Blockbuster Video, Waste Management, and AutoNation, David Sokol, who worked with Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, and Tony Novelli, an oil baron.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We didn't find any of these guys with cases before the court during their documented friendship with Thomas. However, they work in these industries that are impacted by many of the major decisions coming out of the Supreme Court.
--:-- Brett Murphy: You know, we're talking about energy and oil, mergers and acquisitions. All of this is often touched by what is being decided on at the Supreme Court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Thomas did not respond to ProPublica's questions for this story. Supreme Court justices are allowed to accept some gifts other justices have in the past, but a former federal judge calls the scale of what Thomas received unprecedented.
--:-- Brett Murphy: A really important distinction is that those justices disclosed those gifts. The big difference here is that Thomas didn't. And there are laws on the books. The Ethics in Government Act from Watergate requires government employees, including Supreme Court justices, report and disclose things like private jet flights, yacht cruises, expensive sports tickets.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that's what we found he didn't do. Some lawmakers want things to change at the Supreme Court. Senate Democrats are advancing a bill that would require the court to set up a code of conduct and tighten financial disclosures.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Republicans are opposed, saying the bill is an attempt to target conservative justices and that the court should police itself. That means the bill faces long odds of becoming a law.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Wildfires around the world have been in the news a lot lately. This next story is about the long-term impact. What happens after the fires are put out? It takes us to California, where the state's iconic sequoia trees have been devastated by wildfires in recent years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Officials say close to a fifth of the world's sequoias were destroyed since 2020. The National Park Service is in the process of planting tens of thousands of seedlings to replace them.
--:-- Curtis Alexander: Parks officials say this is a necessary step for securing the future of these majestic 300-foot giants, and that humans are responsible for repairing sequoia groves because human action is responsible for climate change.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But not everyone in the scientific community is on board. Some worry that intervention could make the problem worse.
--:-- Curtis Alexander: Wooderness areas are supposed to be places that are left alone for nature to do their thing. And critics just don't want the Park Service coming in there and sort of messing with this natural space.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Curtis Alexander covers climate and environment at the San Francisco Chronicle. I've heard more specific concerns about the helicopters that the Park Service plans to use to come in and drop sequoia trees.
--:-- Curtis Alexander: Keep in mind, most of these groves are very remote, so that's the most practical way to get these tens of thousands of seedlings into the forest. There's going to be packs of mules bringing the trees in. There's going to be large work crews bringing the trees in. And people are just concerned about all this commotion in the forest.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He says the tension in California over how to protect sequoias is in part because climate change has raised wildfire risk to levels never seen in the past.
--:-- Curtis Alexander: Got to keep in mind that this just hasn't been done before. We haven't seen the unprecedented scale of the burning, and therefore nobody really knows what it's like to go in and replant so many groves.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One expert on sequoias told The Chronicle, these are the kinds of questions we'll be facing more in the future. Should we intervene in nature? And if so, how much?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's end with a birthday celebration. Hip-hop is turning 50 today. Now it practically impossible to explain the impact of hip across music language business fashion film and so much more.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the LA Times gives it a go with a deeply researched history of 50 major moments that defined hip hop first half century The Times calls it the most important Black pioneered art form of our time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The first moment on the Times' list, August 11th, 1973, otherwise known as the Big Bang of Hip Hop. It was a party in the Bronx to raise money for kids back to school clothes. And the host tapped her brother to DJ.
--:-- Shamita Basu: 18-year-old Clive Campbell, a.k.a. DJ Koolhark. He brought two turntables to the party long before that became a staple of rap technique. He spun records that would later be sampled over and over by rappers yet to be born.
--:-- Shamita Basu: James Brown, the Isley Brothers, and It's Just Begun by the Jimmy Castor Bunch. That party went down as legend, and Koolhark's reputation grew. He's now 68, and this year he'll finally be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his groundbreaking work.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The whole timeline put together by the LA Times is a really fun read, with appearances by Run DMC, NWA, Ice-T, Missy Elliott, Outkast, Lauryn Hill, and many more.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's also some less famous names, like Grand Wizard Theodore. He was the tween DJ credited with inventing scratching all the way back in 1975.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Check out the list and see what you think of it. It's almost sure to get you riled up about who is included and who isn't. And that's kind of by design.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As the Times put it, a tribute to hip-hop that doesn't make somebody mad is no tribute at all.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're already listening in the Apple News app right now, stick around for our weekly interview show, In Conversation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This week, we continue our Think Again series all about big life transitions and how to approach them differently.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I talked to psychotherapist Satya Doyle-Bayok about the transition into early adulthood. She says part of the challenge is learning how to listen less to the adults around you and start trusting your inner voice more.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I find that life is infinitely more satisfying and beautiful and expansive when we trust this inner voice to actually give us information and to actually combat the rational, practical mind that we've been trained is sort of the only way to make decisions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There is another part of us. And if we can listen to that, life gets a lot more fun.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's queued up to play for you next. Enjoy the weekend, and we'll be back with the news on Monday.
