--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, September 22nd. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, a new plan to address gun violence in America, the NFL legend transforming college football, and an inside look at what drives Elon Musk. But first, a government shutdown could be just a little over a week away.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: And after what happened in the House yesterday, it looks a bit more likely that Congress won't agree on funding the government. There's still some time, but not much, and not much optimism either.
--:-- Shamita Basu: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sent lawmakers home for the weekend, basically conceding that a deal isn't close enough for there to be anything to vote on anytime soon.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: That came after a handful of hardline Republicans again blocked a vote to advance the defense funding bill. The move was not so much about the bill itself, but rather an attempt to protest government spending generally and push other agenda items like border security.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And in a tightly divided House, five Republicans are enough to derail McCarthy's plans.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Speaking to reporters in the Hall of the Capitol, McCarthy did not have kind words about their approach.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down. It doesn't work.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At this point, there's little chance that Congress will pass all the spending bills needed by the end of next week. But there is a way to avoid a shutdown. They could pass what's called a continuing resolution, a CR.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's basically stalling for time, setting aside enough money to keep the government going long enough to allow time for negotiations and passing the main legislation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But efforts to get a CR done have stalled, too.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: ABC looks at what a potential shutdown could look like.
--:-- ABC Reporter: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security payments would not be affected.
--:-- ABC Reporter: Payment for many government workers, however, would stop around the country.
--:-- ABC Reporter: So the impact would be felt far beyond Washington.
--:-- ABC Reporter: As we mentioned on the show earlier this week, that would have a ripple effect across the economy.
--:-- ABC Reporter: Pay would even be on hold for people who have to keep working because their jobs are considered essential. People like service members, airport security, power grid operators, and more.
--:-- ABC Reporter: Not an issue for lawmakers though. If the government shuts down, members of Congress will still get their $174,000 a year salaries.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, let's take a brief look at some other stories in the news.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The auto industry strike is expanding. The United Auto Workers Union says it's made progress in negotiations with Ford, so it won't shut down more Ford sites, but it's expanding its strike against two other Detroit automakers, GM and Stellantis.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Washington, New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez now faces federal bribery charges.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The new Justice Department indictment says that he and his wife received hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of a corrupt scheme involving three businessmen.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Menendez has previously denied wrongdoing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In 2015, he was charged with illegally accepting gifts. That case ended in a mistrial.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, the Biden administration is creating a new office for gun violence prevention.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vice President Kamala Harris will lead the efforts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The office will play a key role in carrying out the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's the 2022 law that passed after the Uvalde school shooting that's considered the most sweeping gun violence prevention measure in 30 years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Establishing this office is the kind of move gun control activists have called for.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Also in Washington, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Capitol Hill and the White House yesterday, meeting with Biden and top congressional leaders in both parties.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He talked about the importance of American support in the war against Russia.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When it comes to weapons, we will discuss everything with a special emphasis on air defense.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The trip was an appeal to keep the hardware and money coming.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The gridlock over budgets we were talking about earlier is a concern for Zelensky as well as skepticism from some Republicans over future aid to Ukraine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And this Sunday Megan Rapinoe will play her final match for the U.S. women's national soccer team.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She retires with two World Cup titles, an Olympic gold medal, and more.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She also made a mark beyond soccer as an advocate for equal pay and civil rights.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can read ESPN's summary of her 10 most memorable career moments on the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's stick with sports and look at one of the biggest storylines in college football this year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The University of Colorado Buffaloes, led by new coach Deion Sanders, are undefeated.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That would have sounded impossible at the end of last season. The team only managed one win.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But now they're a force, largely because of Coach Sanders, the NFL Hall of Famer with two Super Bowl rings.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He totally flipped the fortunes of the Buffaloes over the last year.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: In a 60 Minutes interview, he was blunt about how he overhauled the team.
--:-- Deion Sanders: Sanders told a lot of the previous players to leave, and dozens did.
--:-- Deion Sanders: You take a team that's won one game, and you fire the whole coaching staff.
--:-- Deion Sanders: So who did the coaching staff recruit? The kids.
--:-- Deion Sanders: So the kids are just as much to blame as the coaching staff.
--:-- Deion Sanders: And I came to the conclusion that a multitude of them couldn't help us get to where we wanted to go.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, that may sound harsh, but the results on the field are undeniable.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Current star players include two of Sanders' kids, Shadour and Shiloh Sanders.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Shadour plays quarterback and is seen as a Heisman Trophy contender.
--:-- Shamita Basu: With Sanders as coach, games are attracting a lot more attention, far beyond fans in Boulder.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A recent game got some of the best ratings in history for ESPN.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the university has sold out tickets for the entire season, which hasn't happened in the program's 100-year history.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Big-name celebrities are hyping up the team. Stars like Lil Wayne and The Rock have shown up on the sidelines.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On Saturday, Colorado faces a major test playing the powerhouse Oregon Ducks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Even with the team's turnaround, Colorado is still considered an underdog in the game.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So football fans are watching to see if Coach Sanders can pull off another big upset.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before I let you go for the weekend, let me tell you what's coming up on Apple News in conversation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This week, I sat down with Elon Musk's biographer, Walter Isaacson.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He has spent the past two years trailing Musk from the factory floor at Tesla to SpaceX rocket launches, trying to understand the tech billionaire's mind, what motivates him and what holds him back.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He's had since childhood, since he was sitting in the corner of the bookstore lonely and reading sci-fi and comic books, three missions, he felt.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One was space exploration. The second was to save the planet with sustainable energy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the third mission, artificial intelligence.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Artificial intelligence can either be this huge boon to humanity or it could really endanger us.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And people are talking about that a lot now in the past six months.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But he's been talking about it for 20 years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And he wants to find ways to have our minds and our machines in sync.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Isaacson has written a number of biographies about people like Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, all considered great innovators.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Isaacson says Elon Musk might be the most flawed innovator he has written about, but he says Musk's demons also help him get things done.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They push him to set ambitious goals, like trying to establish the first human city on Mars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the middle of some big crisis, he will still hold a meeting that he does every week called Mars Colonizer, where they're discussing what clothing they're going to have for people on the Mars when they form a colony, what type of government they're going to have.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And you almost pinch yourself and say, wait a minute, I'm sitting here with grownups and they're all talking about what we're going to wear when we live on Mars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the Apple News app, stick around.
--:-- Shamita Basu: My full conversation with Walter Isaacson is teed up to play for you next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Enjoy your weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
