--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, October 2nd. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, the U.S. citizens fighting back after violent ICE arrests, inside the rare and scandalous NBA salary cap investigation, and remembering Jane Goodall. But first, we are 24 hours into the government shutdown.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On Capitol Hill yesterday, there was more voting, more finger pointing, but no breakthroughs. Democrats have bowed to the far left and they've shut down the federal government. Democrats want to avert this crisis, but Republicans tried to bully us, and it's clear they can't. Donald Trump and Republicans have shut the government down because they don't want to provide health care to working class Americans.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Trump is trying to mitigate the damage as much as possible. But the longer this goes on, the more pain will be inflicted because it is inevitable when the government shuts down. In a third round yesterday, senators voted 55 to 45 on the GOP-led funding bill, with two Democrats and one Independent in favor of it, and one Republican Senator, Rand Paul, voting against it. But it was still short of the 60 required to bring federal officials back to work.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The stalemate continues to hinge primarily on the extension of COVID-era Affordable Care Act subsidies. If they expire, it could raise costs for around 22 million Americans. Some Republicans have voiced a willingness to put extensions on the table in the near future, and rank-and-file senators are reportedly now working on a compromise plan. But so far, nothing concrete has emerged, and the leadership has drawn a red line at attaching extensions to a resolution that would end the shutdown.
--:-- Vice President J.D. Vance: You don't have policy disagreements that serve as the basis for a government shutdown. Let's have the conversation about how to fix American health care, about how to make health care more accessible. As the president showed, he's more than willing to act on behalf of the American people for this very reason. What you don't do is say, unless you do exactly what we want to do as congressional Democrats, we're taking hostage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The issue of ACA subsidies puts some Republicans in a difficult position with their constituents. The Journal reports that the states seeing fastest growth in coverage uptake are Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee. And Senator Josh Hawley has said Republicans can't just let the subsidies expire.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some, including President Trump, have claimed that the Democrats are trying to extend coverage to migrants without legal status, but they're not eligible for ACA coverage. And so far, Democrats appear to be broadly united on their key demand.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the meantime, the administration is showing signs of how it might go further during this shutdown than it did in 2019. Speaker Johnson told ABC yesterday that the shutdown could allow the president to make unilateral decisions about which programs in the government are essential. And Politico reports that Russell Vogt, head of the Office of Management and Budget, told House Republicans on a call yesterday that the administration will begin mass firings in a day or two.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In just the first 24 hours, Trump began to follow through with a threat he made earlier this week to target Democratic priorities. Billion in infrastructure projects has been frozen so far, including billion in energy projects for 16 Democrat states and billion in New York transit projects.
--:-- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy: They were reviewing what they described as discriminatory contracting.
--:-- New York Governor Kathy Hochul: So that's what a partnership with Washington looks like as we're standing here. We've done our part. We're ready to build. It's underway. And now we realize that they've decided to put their own interpretation of proper culture ahead of our needs, the needs of a nation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So far, the markets have shrugged off the shutdown, which CNBC reports will now likely stretch to at least three days as senators observe Yom Kippur today. A key part of the federal government that is largely still operational is the Department of Homeland Security. Only about 7% of ICE within DHS has been furloughed at the moment, as immigration enforcement is considered essential.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Deportations have been a major feature of the Trump administration, and in recent months, the actions of some ICE agents have drawn scrutiny. That includes large-scale use of masking and a recent incident in New York City where an officer was captured on video pushing a woman to the ground outside of an immigration court.
--:-- USA Today Reporter (Lauren Villagran): In some cases, people experiencing aggressive tactics are U.S. citizens. And USA Today reporter Lauren Villagran told us about a few that are now pursuing legal action and seeking millions in damages.
--:-- Rafi Shuhad: I'm Rafi Shuhad, the 79-year-old owner of a car wash in Van Nuys, California that was raided by ICE. One surveillance video shows a federal agent knocking Shuhad down inside the car wash. Another shows agents tackling the man outside and pinning him to the ground. Shuhad was detained for close to 12 hours and was not charged with a crime.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Shuhad has filed a $50 million tort claim against federal immigration agents claiming they illegally assaulted and battered him during their sweep of his business.
--:-- USA Today Reporter (Lauren Villagran): You can see in the video how he is sort of slammed to the ground, gets up, and then runs outside, where his attorney tells me he was trying to tell agents that he had the paperwork for his workers. But at some point outside, apparently, unprovoked from the surveillance video, you can see two other federal agents tackle him to the pavement.
--:-- USA Today Reporter (Lauren Villagran): In August, U.S. citizen and Iraq War veteran George Redis filed a suit against DHS after ICE agents allegedly broke his car window and arrested him. He was held for three days without an attorney and is seeking unspecified damages.
--:-- USA Today Reporter (Lauren Villagran): Both Redis and Shuhad filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act. It was set up to help people sue after they've been harmed by government employees.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A recent budget report shows that ICE was defending more than 350 administrative tort claims seeking more than billion in damages in 2023. They paid out more than in completed claims.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Department of Homeland Security guidelines say that agents may use objectively reasonable force and that physical force must stop when resistance is under control. ICE has told USA Today that in several of these cases in which you see a U.S. citizen or other bystanders arrested in the course of an immigration raid, that those people may have been assaulting federal officers or impeding their operations, and that ICE is going to aggressively enforce the nation's immigration laws.
--:-- Shamita Basu: USA Today notes that there have been few public consequences for ICE agents captured on video being aggressive. Though the officer we mentioned in New York was relieved of his duties, he is reportedly back at work now.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As the NBA preseason kicks off today, let's turn now to an unusual story that's consumed the sport this summer. It all began in April of 2022, when L.A. Clippers star Kawhi Leonard signed a $28 million endorsement deal with a company called Aspiration, which offered carbon offsets and banking services.
--:-- The Athletic Reporter (Mike Vorkunov): There seems to be no trail of any sort of him doing any kind of public marketing campaign or anything, really, on behalf of Aspiration.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The owner of the Clippers, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, made a $50 million investment into the now bankrupt aspiration shortly after Leonard signed an extension with the team in 2021.
--:-- The Athletic Reporter (Mike Vorkunov): The arrangement, first reported by the sports journalist Pablo Torre, is alleged to have been a way for the Clippers to circumvent the NBA salary cap.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The cap exists to try and keep a level playing field across the league and preclude someone like Ballmer, the world's 10th richest person, from just buying any player at any price.
--:-- The Athletic Reporter (Mike Vorkunov): It's pretty much well regarded and well agreed upon that the best NBA players are worth way more than whatever NBA teams can pay them. And one way to keep a player happy and one way to ingratiate yourself with him and build a relationship with him is to find a way to enrich him beyond perhaps just what the league rules allow you to do.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The deal is now the subject of an NBA investigation, and the consequences, if the allegations are proven true, could be as severe as voiding Leonard's contract.
--:-- Kawhi Leonard: The NBA is going to do their job. None of us did no wrongdoing. We invite the investigation. It's not going to be a distraction for me or the rest of the team.
--:-- The Athletic Reporter (Mike Vorkunov): To be clear, there are no criminal allegations, and the NBA is the sole entity looking into this.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before the NBA can act, an outside law firm needs to finish its work investigating. Then the NBA has to decide whether they want to punish or try to punish the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard if they decided there was something punishable there.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If there was something that was done that was against their rules, they then have to go take it to a system arbitrator and present their case. And the system arbitrator then has to sign off on that punishment.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Salary cap investigations are rare in the NBA. It's been 25 years since the league proved a violation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. Israeli naval ships intercepted a group of about 40 boats attempting to deliver aid to Gaza, one of which was carrying environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who was detained.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The ships were part of the Global Samut Flotilla, led by pro-Palestinian activists who sought to break through an Israeli blockade. The ships were warned before the interception, an Israeli official said. Thunberg and her friends are safe and healthy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Organizers called the stop an illegal attack on unarmed humanitarians in international waters. The incident comes at a tense time in Gaza as the world waits for Hamas's response to a proposed peace plan presented by President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hamas is said to be open to the proposal, but is asking for more time to review the conditions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Internet is now restored in Afghanistan, where people endured two days of chaos and information blackout. The sudden online and cell phone outage grounded airports, paralyzed the economy and sparked mass confusion.
--:-- Shamita Basu: No reason was given for the blackout or, for that matter, yesterday's restoration. Some Taliban leaders denied it was an intentional ban, but it comes amid a broader Internet crackdown in some provinces to, in the words of one leader, prevent vices.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The BBC's Afghan service reports that people were celebrating in the streets of Kabul when the signal returned.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, Jane Goodall, the primatologist who rose to prominence for her decades of work with chimpanzees in Africa, died at the age of 91 on Wednesday.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Goodall made countless discoveries about the lives of chimps. Most notable was her breakthrough discovery that chimps create and use tools. It was previously thought that humans were the only species capable of doing that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She progressed from scientific observation work to conservation after seeing how habitat destruction and trafficking threatened chimpanzees.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Her work inspired generations of scientists to pursue the study of primates. Here she is in 1990, speaking to CBS about what she hoped her work conveyed to the world.
--:-- Jane Goodall: Well, there's a very broad message in that learning how close to us in so many ways these amazing beings are, it's a little humbling because we're not quite as different from the rest of the animal kingdom as we used to think.
--:-- Jane Goodall: And I believe that if that message comes home to us, it will lead to new attitudes to all the other amazing non-human beings with whom we share the planet today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Goodall was just 26 years old when she first began her fieldwork in Tanzania.
--:-- 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. The New Yorker reports on how some patients are starting to trust AI more than their doctors when it comes to medical diagnoses. But with this new tech also comes new risks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow. Thank you.
