--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, February 6th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, what it would mean for the United States to have a sovereign wealth fund, the Kendrick Lamar Drake beef that might be headed for the Super Bowl, and do you know what Riz is? Congrats. You're already behind on the next wave of slang. But first, the White House is walking back comments made by President Trump suggesting the United States should take full control of Gaza, possibly through military force.
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--:-- Caroline Levitt: The president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza. He has also said that the United States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza. His administration is going to work with our partners in the region to reconstruct this region.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When pressed by reporters, Levitt stopped short of explaining how the president would clear Gaza without military force.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Trump's initial comments on Tuesday when he was hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, he said he would transform Gaza into the, quote, Riviera of the Middle East, that Palestinians should leave Gaza and neighboring Egypt and Jordan should take them in.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: The White House also tried to clarify that statement, saying yesterday that any displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip would be temporary.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This attempt to soften some of Trump's suggestions came after a wave of global outrage. A spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called Trump's plan to displace Gazans, quote, tantamount to ethnic cleansing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Saudi Arabia flatly rejected Trump's initial proposal, saying it would not normalize relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Egypt and Jordan, the countries Trump suggested should absorb displaced Gazans, also condemned Trump's remarks and said there can be no attempt to displace Palestinians from their homeland.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Reporters on the ground in Gaza say the idea of leaving, even temporarily, has gotten mixed reactions from Palestinians.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: One man told NPR, because Gaza has been destroyed so thoroughly by Israeli airstrikes, he doesn't see a future there and would be open to moving to a country that embraces and protects him.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But another Palestinian told reporters with Reuters he'll never leave. How can a Palestinian who holds the Palestinian nationality and whose ancestors died on this soil go to Egypt, Jordan, or any other country? This is rejected and it will not pass on the Palestinian people because it is bigger than this.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here in the U.S., the idea of taking control of Gaza and investing American dollars in development projects to rebuild was also met with mixed reviews.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Democrats, by and large, denounced it. Republicans were a bit more across the board.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Senator Marsha Blackburn said the plan would create economic prosperity. Congresswoman Nancy Mace said the U.S. should, quote, turn Gaza into Mar-a-Lago.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And House Speaker Mike Johnson reaffirmed his commitment to stand by Israel, but urged Americans to wait for more details about Trump's plan before jumping to conclusions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Other Republicans, though, were more immediately critical. Senator Rand Paul said on X, quote, I thought we voted for America first.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal's Dov Lieber said Trump proposals in particular the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza are being celebrated by some Israelis.
--:-- Dov Lieber: There is certainly a lot of elation among some parts of Israeli society. They see this as a major blessing. This is an idea that has been floated on the Israeli right for many years, especially the far right, including during this war.
--:-- Dov Lieber: But it has always seemed somewhat out of the bounds of mainstream thought within Israel. Trump's comments come as many Israelis have grown wary of proposed resolutions to this conflict, whether it be a two-state solution or something else.
--:-- Dov Lieber: So many people have been looking for something new, some kind of new creative solution. And there are those who will argue that at least, at the very least, President Trump is thinking outside the box.
--:-- Dov Lieber: But of course, we're seeing many also in this region, in the Middle East, don't think it's out of the box thinking. They think it's potentially ethnic cleansing and war crimes that President Trump is speaking about.
--:-- Dov Lieber: We still don't quite understand the details, but at the end of the day, this is quite unprecedented proposal by President Trump.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are also real concerns that Trump's proposal, even a softened version of it, could jeopardize the already fragile ceasefire deal in place between Israel and Hamas, and potentially the return of the remaining hostages.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump's comments came as negotiations are underway for phase two of the ceasefire deal and days before the next planned swap of hostages for Palestinian detainees.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to a major financial proposal from the president you might have missed with all the news this week.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On Monday, Trump signed an executive order calling on the Treasury and Commerce Departments to look into creating a sovereign wealth fund for the United States, essentially creating an investment fund that would be owned by the government.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And one of the first things Trump suggested he would do with this fund is put in a bid to buy TikTok.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sovereign wealth funds are typically found in oil-rich countries that run budget or trade surpluses.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Those countries then direct those surplus funds toward investments with the goal of generating more money for future generations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: According to Axios, Norway, China, Abu Dhabi, and Singapore have the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump first floated the idea of creating one of these funds for the United States on the campaign trail.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Why don't we have a wealth fund? Other countries have wealth funds. We have nothing. We have nothing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And he said he would use it to make major investments in our country's future. We will build extraordinary national development projects and everything from highways to airports and to transportation infrastructure, all of the future.
--:-- Shamita Basu: will be able to invest in state-of-the-art manufacturing hubs, advanced defense capabilities, cutting-edge medical research, and help save billions of dollars in preventing disease.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Biden White House had been looking into creating such a fund, and a lot of Democrats and Republicans like the idea, too.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There has been pushback, usually from more conservative economists who say, instead of putting American money into a sovereign wealth fund, why not use that money instead to lower taxes?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, for Trump to make this idea a reality, he would need congressional approval.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Congress controls the federal government's budget, which means they would need to approve the creation of a vehicle that would circumvent some of their power.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But secondly, and maybe most importantly, the United States typically does not run a surplus budget.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In fact, the U has only run a surplus budget five times in the past 50 years according to data from the Treasury Department.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So the big question is where would the money come from?
--:-- Shamita Basu: So he has said in the past that his tariffs and, quote, other intelligent things would help to put money into this fund.
--:-- Alexis Christophoris: And look, while it could be an admirable thing to want to put money aside for future generations, this can also become very political very quickly.
--:-- Alexis Christophoris: There are concerns that there wouldn't be enough transparency and that there would be a lot of conflict of interest because these investments would be run at the end of the day by our government.
--:-- Alexis Christophoris: Which would put Trump and other politicians in a unique position of influencing whether the United States government invests in their businesses.
--:-- Alexis Christophoris: Not to mention, creating a sovereign wealth fund would require the federal government to take on more debt, a prospect that many Americans and lawmakers may find hard to stomach.
--:-- Alexis Christophoris: Still, a well-run sovereign wealth fund can make a big difference in the economic vitality of a country.
--:-- Alexis Christophoris: In Norway, for example, ABC News reports that their sovereign oil fund is so successful that it's holding the equivalent of more than $100,000 per person.
--:-- Alexis Christophoris: By contrast, the scale of our national debt is so large that it equates to roughly $50,000 owed by each American.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Super Bowl is just days away, and although the big game is the main event, a lot of attention will be paid to the halftime show.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When Kendrick Lamar takes the stage, he's expected to perform Not Like Us, a massive hit that he released last summer that just earned him multiple Grammys.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It was also one of the final salvos in a rap beef between Lamar and fellow rapper Drake.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One of the most scathing diss tracks maybe in all of music history.
--:-- August Brown: The most infamous line, obviously, is in the song where he calls Drake certified lover boy, certified pedophile.
--:-- August Brown: Certified lover boy, certified pedophile. That was the one that really stood out to most people.
--:-- August Brown: And that was the neutron bomb that came with that song.
--:-- August Brown: And because of that accusation, which Drake fully denies, he's sued Universal Music Group, which isn't just Kendrick Lamar's label, but Drake's own label as well.
--:-- August Brown: He claims that because UMG knew the accusations in the song were false, they defamed him by promoting it.
--:-- August Brown: UMG says they simply supported Lamar's creative expression and did nothing wrong.
--:-- August Brown: Also, it's a diss track, and legal experts say it would be hard to prove that the average person is taking it at face value.
--:-- August Brown: Also, it's important to note that Kendrick Lamar is not named in the suit, and that Drake has also put out diss tracks about Lamar and accused him of some pretty terrible stuff.
--:-- August Brown: So back to what happens on Sunday. If Kendrick Lamar performs Not Like Us during the biggest television event in the U.S., is that considered defamation?
--:-- August Brown: And if so, who gets implicated? He could reasonably say by, you know, additionally promoting the song through letting Kendrick play, there would be a route for him to name them in the suit as well.
--:-- August Brown: But, you know, he's already kind of flailing.
--:-- August Brown: The NFL's lawyers might caution against it, even if the legal risk is low.
--:-- August Brown: Then again, CBS, which just hosted the Grammys, played snippets of the song twice during the live broadcast, with some of the world's biggest artists bopping along to it.
--:-- August Brown: And maybe that the bigger point is the song is such a hit There nothing Drake can really do at this point to put the genie back in the bottle.
--:-- August Brown: Yeah, I mean the song just won the most prestigious awards you can possibly win at the Grammys.
--:-- August Brown: There's probably a limit to how much Drake can even try to police this song's popularity.
--:-- August Brown: And it should be noted that it also, every time he tries, it just makes him look worse in the public eye.
--:-- August Brown: But in terms of his kind of core rap fan base and kind of wide pop audience, you know, when you think of him, this is now the number one thing you think of how badly Kendrick buried him.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In 2020, the far right group, the Proud Boys, vandalized a historic black church in Washington, D.C.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, the church has been awarded control of the group's name.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That means that proceeds from the merchandise sales and membership dues for the Proud Boys will go to the very church the group vandalized.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This unusual order came from a D.C. superior court, after the Proud Boys were initially told to pay millions of dollars for vandalizing the church but never did.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post spoke to the church's pastor, who called the decision karmic and the result of unbroken, joyful resistance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In tech news, some employees at Google are expressing their dislike of a policy shift in the company's AI ethical guidelines.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Google erased language in those guidelines that promised it wouldn't use its AI tech for weapons, surveillance, or technologies that are likely to cause harm.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Business Insider reports the move prompted employees to share their dislike of the changes in internal message boards through memes, with one post asking, are we the baddies?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Google has not directly addressed the change in language, but two high-level executives wrote in a blog post that because of the increasing complexity of the geopolitical landscape, it's important for companies and government to work together on matters of national security.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, if you have teens or preteens in your life, you'll have to help the rest of us understand what these words mean.
--:-- Philip Lindsay: Big back. Oi, oi, oi. Skibbity. Sigma. Unk. Skibbity Sigma. Batty Give it the Ohio Ritz On Skib Pose for me Pose 28 Who's this diva 808
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's a middle school teacher named Philip Lindsay on TikTok who's been chronicling some of the words that have popped up in his classroom lately.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He's featured in a Wall Street Journal story about modern slang and how parents are trying to keep up with it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A linguistics professor told the journal that it's not like there are more slang words than there used to be but rather that social media is exposing people to more and allowing them to communicate them faster.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And it appears that there is a shorter lifespan for some of these words and phrases, which means that by the time you learn some, like Riz, referencing charisma, they might already be on their way out among the young people in your life.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The New Yorker takes a deep dive into the U.S. military's recruiting crisis, working against a population that's not just unenthusiastic, but incapable.
--:-- 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.
