--:-- Shumita Basu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, November 12th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shumita Basu: On today's show, why the U.S. is skipping the climate event of the year, Trump sends the world's largest military aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, and how 2025 became a bad year for measles. But first, as soon as today, the House looks set to approve a deal that would finally reopen the government.
--:-- Shumita Basu: It would fund much of the government through the end of January and provide some funding for other agencies through the end of next September. The record-breaking shutdown has brought real hardship for millions of Americans as both parties waited for the other to blink.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The agreement does not include anything on health care subsidies, the key issue that most Democrats were holding out for. Right now, the COVID-era subsidies for those on Affordable Care Act plans are set to expire at the end of the year. And it's not clear what happens after that.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Yesterday, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN it wasn't over. This fight continues.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And over the last several weeks, we have successfully elevated this health care issue such that the American people are demanding action. Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised a vote on a health care bill of Democrats choosing by mid-December, but the odds are stacked against it.
--:-- Meredith Lee Hill: It's obviously only a few weeks with the Thanksgiving holiday in there for lawmakers to hash out what is going to be some really intense and complicated health care plans and try to figure out either a bipartisan way forward or Republicans will have to figure out their own plans.
--:-- Shumita Basu: People enrolled in health insurance plans on the ACA marketplace are seeing skyrocketing premiums for the coming year, and many are now faced with a choice of whether to re-enroll or go without health insurance.
--:-- Meredith Lee Hill: Extending the subsidies would cost roughly $23 billion next year, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and many Republicans are reluctant to sign on to that.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Some Republicans, like Senator Bill Cassidy, have talked about a different approach to allocating that same spending. They effectively want to swap out those subsidies for something else.
--:-- Meredith Lee Hill: And what they've been talking about a lot is either creating new health savings accounts or similarly flexible spending accounts, which would effectively be taking money that otherwise would have been spent on health insurers for these subsidies and giving it directly to people.
--:-- Shumita Basu: President Trump has endorsed this idea, so much so that he suggested putting his own name on it in a Fox News interview on Monday.
--:-- Meredith Lee Hill: Everybody's going to be happy. They're going to feel like entrepreneurs. They're actually able to go out and negotiate their own health insurance. And they can use it only for that reason.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And if we did that, that would be so exciting. Call it Trumpcare. Call it whatever you want to call it.
--:-- Meredith Lee Hill: But Lee Hill said even some of his loyal supporters are skeptical of that plan. They're quite skeptical that that would be enough basically for the reforms that they seeking. And also that that would actually be able to be cobbled together in time and be an effective replacement for the current system.
--:-- Shumita Basu: If these subsidies aren't extended, would really hurt a lot of Trump voters, a lot of people in deep red districts who rely on Obamacare at this point.
--:-- Meredith Lee Hill: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that two million Americans will lose health insurance altogether next year if subsidies expire.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Thousands of delegates have descended on the city of Belém, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon River, as this year's global climate gathering, COP30, gets underway.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Some 33 years ago, President George H.W. Bush was in the same country celebrating a treaty that would make these COP gatherings, short for Conference of the Parties, a yearly tradition.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Let's face it, there has been some criticism of the United States, but I must tell you, we come to Rio proud of what we have accomplished and committed to extending the record on American leadership on the environment.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Today's Republican president has positioned the party in a very different place. And this year, for the first time, there will be no official U.S. presence.
--:-- Shumita Basu: President Trump has been openly dismissive of the very science behind climate change. He said as much during a speech at the U.N. General Assembly earlier this year.
--:-- Shumita Basu: It's the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion. Climate change, no matter what happens, you're involved in that. No more global warming, no more global cooling.
--:-- Elizabeth Colbert: The U.S. is the biggest emitter on a historical basis. It's the second biggest emitter on sort of an annual basis right behind China.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And when you have the world's biggest economy and one of its biggest emitters just throwing up its hands, it's really hard to keep the momentum going.
--:-- Elizabeth Colbert: And I think you're really going to see that at this COP, that other countries are going to say, if the U.S. isn't going to do anything, you know, why should we?
--:-- Shumita Basu: While there's been no U.S. federal representation at the conference this week, Democratic governors from New Mexico and California have been in attendance to talk about limiting emissions in their states.
--:-- Elizabeth Colbert: In the 10 years since the Paris Agreement was signed, which sought to keep global temperature increase at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the planet has warmed so much that the goal appears out of reach.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And the problem that we're facing, and the thing that I think is really important for people to understand about climate change, is as long as we're continuing to add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, this problem is going to get worse.
--:-- Elizabeth Colbert: The climate is going to continue to warm, and it's going to get more and more unstable and we going to get more and more of these big weather disasters.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Still a new UN analysis this week found that global emissions should fall by about 12 percent by 2035 compared to 2019 levels. That an improvement on previous projections, but short of the Paris goal.
--:-- Elizabeth Colbert: Countries at this year's conference will also likely be looking for financial support to help reach climate adaptation and mitigation goals.
--:-- Shumita Basu: They are coming to this COP expecting the world to live up to many commitments that it has made in past COPs to help finance things like transition to cleaner energy, adaptation to the climate change that is no longer avoidable.
--:-- Elizabeth Colbert: And that's going to be a big fight. But once again, without the U.S. in the room, without the U.S. sort of cooperating, I think it's going to be very difficult to reach agreements on a lot of those issues.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Let's turn now to a disease that made a big comeback in 2025, measles.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The WHO's Pan American Health Organization this week stripped Canada of its measles elimination status.
--:-- Helen Branswell: The group determined a large outbreak that began there in October of 2024 is still ongoing more than a year later, meaning it meets the threshold for losing the elimination designation.
--:-- Shumita Basu: So far, more than 5,000 people in Canada have been infected in the outbreak that started at a wedding in the province of New Brunswick.
--:-- Helen Branswell: This is significant because now that Canada has lost its status as measles-free, it means the entirety of the Americas have lost it as well.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Canada had been declared measles-free in 1998 and had maintained that status for 27 years.
--:-- Helen Branswell: Many of these infections were occurring within communities of religious people who don't like to interact a lot with the outside world.
--:-- Shumita Basu: It's not so much that they're anti-vax per se, they keep to themselves.
--:-- Helen Branswell: The outbreak in Canada is somewhat similar to the one in West Texas, which broke out in a Mennonite community.
--:-- Shumita Basu: That one lasted from January to August and infected more than 700 people, resulting in the deaths of two unvaccinated school-aged children.
--:-- Helen Branswell: So far this year, the U.S. has been dealing with a significant uptick in measles cases, with close to 1,700 infections across at least 40 states as of last week.
--:-- Shumita Basu: That's a very high number. The last time the United States had that many measles cases in a year was in 1992.
--:-- Helen Branswell: So yes, it's been a big measles year in the United States.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Declining childhood vaccination rates in the U.S. and Canada, coupled with vaccine fatigue post-COVID, are just some of the reasons measles cases have risen.
--:-- Helen Branswell: As of the last full school year, just 92.5% of U.S. school kids had received the MMR vaccine, well below the 95% required to prevent transmission of measles.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said the MMR vaccine is the most effective way to prevent the disease, but on other occasions he's questioned its safety and has ordered his department to explore new treatment options.
--:-- Helen Branswell: Branswell says that while the U.S. has only seen three deaths so far, this should all be a big wake-up call.
--:-- Shumita Basu: That the same number it recorded in the 24 years previous to this in total Measles deaths in the modern era in a country like the United States or in Canada should be extremely rare They shouldn't exist.
--:-- Helen Branswell: The United States has recorded three. Canada has had two. Mexico, which is having a very bad outbreak, has had 25.
--:-- Shumita Basu: In this day and age, you wouldn't expect that to happen.
--:-- Helen Branswell: But there are going to be more of these if the pattern that has been unfolding continues.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The world's most advanced aircraft carrier arrived near the Caribbean Tuesday as part of President Trump's efforts targeting suspected drug boats in the region.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Escalating his military buildup in the area to new heights.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Reuters reports that the USS Gerald Ford holds more than 5,000 sailors, making it an enormous resource for its stated aims of disrupting drug trafficking.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Meanwhile, the Venezuelan army says it's preparing a campaign to sow chaos in the event that U.S. forces make a move against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The man responsible for what many consider the worst trade in NBA history is out of a job.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Nico Harrison was dismissed as general manager of the Dallas Mavericks Monday.
--:-- Shumita Basu: If you remember, in February, Harrison traded Slovenian superstar Luka Doncic from Dallas to the Los Angeles Lakers.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Doncic, a perennial all-star and by many accounts a leading MVP candidate this year, is thriving in Los Angeles, while the Mavs sit near the bottom of the Western Conference.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Chants of fire Nico were consistently heard at home games by angry fans during the team's 3-8 start.
--:-- Shumita Basu: For some perspective, the Wall Street Journal notes the Doncic trade was seen as a mistake akin to the Red Sox trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920, and sports fans know how that turned out.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And one of public television's late icons is pitching in to support the industry.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Welcome back. I'm certainly glad to see you today. You ready to do a fantastic little painting with me?
--:-- Shumita Basu: Super. Tell you what, let's start out and have them run all the time.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Free paintings by beloved PBS artist Bob Ross were auctioned off Tuesday for more than $500,000.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The pieces were once featured on Ross's show, The Joy of Painting.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Cuts by the Trump administration have left the public media landscape reeling and forced the closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Ross's estate said in a statement, the sales of these paintings will ensure the painter's legacy continues to support the very medium that brought joy and creativity into American homes for decades.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Proceeds are going to American public television and to PBS stations across the country.
--:-- Shumita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The Los Angeles Times reports on the intense fight over a gold mine in Mexico worth billions of dollars and the effort to keep it out of the hands of major cartels.
--:-- Shumita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Thanks for listening to Apple News Today.
