--:-- Shamita Basu: Hey there, it's Shamita. I've got a quick request for you. If Apple News Today is an essential part of your morning routine, 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, April 4th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. We begin with the immediate fallout from Trump's sweeping tariffs enacted on Wednesday.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Markets slid with U.S. stocks seeing their steepest decline in market value since March of 2020. JPMorgan economists said yesterday they believe there's a 60 percent chance of a global recession. President Trump defended the tariffs while standing outside Air Force One yesterday, saying they put America in the driver's seat. The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom. The country is going to boom. And the rest of the world wants to see, is there any way they can make a deal?
--:-- Shamita Basu: But lots of economists from more liberal ones to more conservative ones are waving red flags, saying the math just doesn't add up. Here's some reaction from CNBC's Jim Cramer on CNN yesterday.
--:-- Jim Cramer: The president said, listen, it's going to be reciprocal. So you do it, we do it. And that was going to be so good. And I really believed in it. And I feel like a sucker tonight because I am not a free trader and I do not believe in free trade. And I was just as tough, if not tougher than his people. But they screwed it up and they really made it a totally ill-advised way. And I was very let down as someone who really, truly believes that free trade is awful for the American working person. This is what they came up with. Jeez, come on, have some gumption, have some math.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Global reaction to the tariffs has been mixed. China quickly retaliated, hitting all U.S. imports with a 34 percent tariff. But The Wall Street Journal reports that other countries for the moment aren't jumping to retaliatory measures. The prime minister of Australia, for example, said his country wouldn't join a, quote, race to the bottom by retaliating. Likewise, Japan and India, which both face tariffs upwards of 20 percent, have so far indicated no plans to invoke their own tariffs back at us.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, American leaders and economists are watching for two key moments, a jobs report out this morning and later a speech on the economic outlook by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, particularly after the worst day for the markets in five years. On Fox News earlier this week, Vice President J.D. Vance was asked how Americans who are sitting at home worried about their bank accounts should prepare.
--:-- J.D. Vance: What I'd ask folks to appreciate here is that we are not going to fix things overnight.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He went on to blame Joe Biden for our economic woes. We know people are struggling. We're fighting as quickly as we can to fix what was left to us, but it's not going to happen immediately.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Meanwhile, there are broad consequences for some of the world's smallest and poorest nations. Reuters reports on the impact to Lesotho, a small African nation that Trump ridiculed as a country nobody has ever heard of last month in his joint address to Congress. The administration placed a whopping 50 percent reciprocal tariff on the country the highest on the list Exports to the U primarily diamonds and textiles make up more than 10 of Lesotho GDP An economist told Reuters that the tariffs will effectively kill the textile industry in the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Due to the formula the administration used to calculate percentages, some of the poorest nations are facing the highest tariffs. Reuters also explains how some largely uninhabited territories and islands are facing tariffs, with some joking about penguins having to pay the cost.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, if you are feeling nervous about the possibility of a recession, you're not alone. But it's not too soon or too late to start preparing your finances so you're in the best possible position. USA Today's personal finance reporter recommends you first focus on paying off any credit card debt or high interest debt as soon as possible. As needed, try transferring that debt to another loan that has a lower interest rate. And if you're debt-free, try to make sure you have enough money in savings to cover at least three months of living expenses.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One way to grow that reserve of money more quickly, USA Today says, try putting it in a high-yield savings account. Let's spend the rest of today's show talking about some other news out of Washington. It's been a pretty remarkable week for lawmakers on Capitol Hill, from two women representatives who effectively shut down the House to a marathon speech on the Senate floor.
--:-- Shamita Basu: To help us take a step back and take stock, I called up Alana Shore, senior Washington editor at Semaphore.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Alana Shore: It's a very, very personal issue right now for several members of Congress because they're new and recent parents. particularly Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna and Congresswoman Brittany Patterson, the leaders of this revolt on the floor, they said, hey, we think there should be an exception for new parents and not just mothers, fathers as well.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You know, Brittany Patterson, for instance, has just had a baby. For all of the parents here, we know that when we have newborns, it's when they're the most vulnerable in their life. It's when they need 24-7 care. And leadership said, no, we want to draw a hard line against proxy voting.
--:-- Alana Shore: So Luna, the Republican, big MAGA voice from Florida, decides I'm going to start a discharge petition. Any member, if they feel like the party in charge isn't calling up a bill they care about, if they get the signatures of, in this case, 218, a majority of the House, it gets a vote on the floor. Simple as that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In this case, Luna, a Republican, got this discharge petition where it needed to be. and leadership decided, okay, instead of giving you this vote, we're going to write into a procedural motion on other things language shutting you down And that was when Luna got allies on the Republican side to stand with every Democrat and defeat that procedural motion Instead of negotiating with her House Speaker Mike Johnson sent everyone home
--:-- Alana Shore: And the reason for that is conservatives who oppose Luna, let's call them the House Freedom Caucus, even though it's more than that group, have basically said, we, if you give in to her, are going to also oppose you bringing legislation to the floor.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So it's one of those classic situations Mike Johnson has had since becoming Speaker where he's caught between two factions, given the size of his majority. He has no choice but to try to play hardball with one of them. If he gave in to Luna, he'd lose on the other end.
--:-- Alana Shore: And one subplot to this, Luna herself left the House Freedom Caucus this week in protest of its treatment of her. She was a member up until a few days ago.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You know, Johnson has to decide if he wants to change course or keep basically choosing war with Luna. And until he does, it's going to be very hard to see him moving any legislation that's not quote unquote subject to a rule.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Incredible. And we should say that this whole saga effectively meant that the House was out of business for two days this week.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Meanwhile, on the other side of the Capitol, there was another moment that's gotten a lot of attention. Democratic Senator Cory Booker broke the record for the longest speech ever given on the Senate floor. It clocked in at 25 hours and five minutes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here's just a little bit of it where he spoke about being inspired by the late representative John Lewis. He would not normalize a moment like this. He would not just go along with business and usual. He wouldn't know how to solve it. But there's one thing that he would do that I hope we all can do that I think I did a little bit of tonight. He said for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble, to redeem the soul of our nation.
--:-- Alana Shore: So, Alana, what's been the reaction among Democrats to Booker's marathon speech?
--:-- Alana Shore: Democrats are thrilled. I mean, look, did this do anything in terms of getting more votes to stop the Trump administration, which is their goal? No. But Cory Booker's job is head of communications for Senate Democratic leadership. Simply put, he is asked by his fellow Democrats to grab as much attention as possible. And boy, did he do it with this tactic.
--:-- Alana Shore: It's not lost on a lot of Democrats that Booker successfully broke a record held by Strom Thurmond, the man who famously filibustered the Civil Rights Act and is widely viewed as a racist by his modern peers. So it was sort of a symbolic and very important moment for a lot of Democrats to see a powerful black Democrat break that record.
--:-- Alana Shore: And not to mention, I mean, the way that he did it, he literally did not step away, right? He didn't sit the entire time. He could not use the bathroom during that entire time. And just to say, he wasn't, you know, up there reading Green Eggs and Ham, as we have seen some representatives do, right? Yeah. He spoke on the issues pretty consistently for that whole 25-hour period.
--:-- Alana Shore: Does it represent a change for how Democrats might be thinking about confronting this administration? It's more of what people call a vibe shift than a substance shift. What Democrats were looking for was the sound and image of a fighter, right? I mean in practice they going to do things the same way they always done it which is namely pick their spots protect their more battleground state members who can exactly be taking particularly tough votes because they want to eventually get back to the majority You know all the somewhat disappointing compromises that come with modern politics.
--:-- Alana Shore: But I think what Booker gave them is kind of like this very camera-ready image of like, we're ready to scream and shout and holler about things we don't like, which they have really been missing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Okay. Alana, we can't end without quickly touching on this week's special elections where Republicans appear to underperform. As the week closes out, how are you reflecting on what these races might tell us about what's to come?
--:-- Alana Shore: You know, I think it's important that we look at those special elections and what they mean and don't mean. On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court race went for Democrats after Elon Musk. And frankly, Trump's entire firmament, you know, poured a lot of attention into backing the Republican candidate. At the same time, two seats in Florida that tilted pretty red historically over the years went to Republicans, but by far smaller margins than they have historically in the past.
--:-- Alana Shore: Now, here's the difference. These are what we call special election electorates, like the group of voters coming out to these very peculiar races are different than the group of voters that come out in presidential elections. I saw one stat that really stunned me that said, you know, if the same electorate came out in November 2024, as did in these races, Harris would have won easily.
--:-- Alana Shore: So by that, do you mean different voters, like a different makeup of voters? Yes. I mean, certainly fewer. Fewer, yes. But by proportion, it means the makeup is just different. And, you know, it's a difference in what Trump advisors called during the campaign low propensity voters. That's who they were targeting. People who didn't really care about congressional seats necessarily cared about Trump. A lot of Joe Rogan listeners, right? That's the overlap, or what we call collectively low propensity voters, right? They're the kind of folks who stay home when it comes to these special elections in Supreme Court races. But Democrats tend to grab more of the high propensity voters.
--:-- Alana Shore: So I think it's very easy to look at these special elections and say, whoa, Republicans are in trouble. They're headed for a fall the same way that happened in 2018 after the first two years of Trump. I think not so fast. It's more complicated. And while it's really tough to tell whether Republicans will be able to bring these low propensity type voters out in 2026, they certainly have a shot.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Alana Shore with Semaphore. Thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories 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. Less rain and more drought have made it harder for coffee producers to contend with the never-ending demand for beans. Smithsonian Magazine spoke to a botanist who is scouring remote corners of the Earth in search of new alternatives. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Enjoy the weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
