--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, August 27th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, a big change coming that could impact your online shopping habits. Who's really losing out to AI in the job market and the celebrity engagement heard around the world? But first, to the fallout of President Trump's attempts to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Cook is refusing to step aside and now plans to sue the administration. Yesterday, her lawyer described Trump's moves as illegal. The Supreme Court had previously ruled that, unlike many other agencies, the Federal Reserve's unique structure prevented Trump from firing its leadership without cause.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But what that means in practice has yet to be tested in court. The court's position has helped protect the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, but Trump has consistently sought to undermine the board's independence. And this is his most direct attempt to change the board to his favor.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At his cabinet meeting yesterday, he discussed openly his plans to go further. We'll have a majority very shortly, so that'll be great. Once we have a majority, housing is going to swing and it's going to be great.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Underpinning the administration's argument that they have the cause they need is a so far unproven allegation that Cook committed mortgage fraud. It's not the first time that the administration is making these sorts of claims, according to Rachel Siegel, a housing reporter at The Washington Post.
--:-- Rachel Siegel: First, they made similar accusations against Letitia James, who is the attorney general of New York state. She, along with other attorneys general, has brought lawsuits against both Trump administrations.
--:-- Rachel Siegel: And then we saw the president make similar public accusations against Senator Adam Schiff, who led impeachment proceedings against President Trump when Schiff was a House member. Cook, James, and Schiff have all denied wrongdoing.
--:-- Rachel Siegel: Siegel said as well that the tactic being used on Cook, a nonpartisan economist, was notable. All three now face criminal probes from the Department of Justice.
--:-- Rachel Siegel: These tactics stem in large part from an office you may be unfamiliar with, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, run by Bill Pulte. Siegel told us Pulte has been relentlessly pursuing allegations of mortgage fraud since Trump appointed him in March.
--:-- Rachel Siegel: He has used his platform to further these claims, and I think it's important to note, against people that the administration has framed as its adversaries.
--:-- Rachel Siegel: Now, that leaves a lot of pretty big unanswered questions. It's not clear how Pulte has accessed this very personal private mortgage information that is the kind of information held about millions and millions of Americans.
--:-- Rachel Siegel: It's not clear how these investigations went from, you know, his personal interest all the way up to being criminally referred to the Justice Department. Mortgage fraud is against the law, and the government does typically investigate cases about it.
--:-- Rachel Siegel: The Washington Post reports those cases are often brought by the FHFA's inspector general as opposed to the head of the agency. And Fed watchers and legal experts said that the Trump administration cases and the public airing of unproven allegations seemed politically selective in nature.
--:-- Rachel Siegel: For example the Republican attorney general of Texas and Senate candidate Ken Paxton reportedly claimed three houses as his primary residence and it's unclear if he's facing a similar investigation from the administration.
--:-- Rachel Siegel: Removing Cook would allow for Trump to have a majority of allies on the Fed board that could potentially outvote Powell on any interest rate decisions. In addition to him making these accusations against Lisa Cook is trying to install his people on the Federal Reserve and therefore have much more influence than he's been able to have so far on interest rate policy, on broader economic policy.
--:-- Rachel Siegel: And that's something that has very clearly been a focus of President Trump before and likely after what he's trying to do with Lisa Cook. No previous president has tried to oust a sitting Fed governor, and the Fed was already considering lowering interest rates next month.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Moving on to some big changes coming this week that could impact your online shopping habits. Reporter Megan Casella explained it this way on CNBC.
--:-- Megan Casella: The president says he's going to be revoking entirely the de minimis threshold for all packages coming in from abroad. It'll be taking effect at the end of August.
--:-- Megan Casella: Now, this is something that will affect companies like Sheehan and Taimou. Amazon could be exposed here. The de minimis exemption is basically a tax loophole that allows packages worth less than $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free.
--:-- Megan Casella: It roughly translates to too small to matter. And it's been around since the 1930s. It was originally intended for items where it cost more to collect the tax than the revenue it brought in. But its usage has exploded in recent years, especially for things like fast fashion and cheap toys.
--:-- Megan Casella: And these types of shipments accounted for roughly $1 billion in trade last year, according to Bloomberg. The administration says the justification for closing the loophole is now twofold, as Bloomberg's global trade reporter Laura Curtis explained on their Big Take podcast.
--:-- Laura Curtis: This is one large loophole they say that they're closing to make things more fair for domestic businesses. Another justification from the administration is around fentanyl. So part of his justification anyway is that because these packages are fast-tracked and avoiding customs scrutiny, we don't know what's in them.
--:-- Laura Curtis: And it very well could be that this is a route for fentanyl into the country. There is some bipartisan support for closing this loophole, and right now the U.S.'s is much higher than comparable Western countries.
--:-- Laura Curtis: But Curtis notes that like many of Trump's past declarations and executive orders regarding trade and tariffs, there has been some confusion. As of this Friday, every package that is shipped to the U.S. will need to have with it a customs declaration stating what's inside, how much it's worth, and where it came from.
--:-- Laura Curtis: And not just where it shipped from, but where it was made, sometimes even its component parts. Bloomberg reports this presents a huge compliance burden that didn't exist before.
--:-- Laura Curtis: That confusion has already caused some mail carriers in European countries to suspend shipments to the U.S., saying there are not clear procedures in place for paying these new duties. Small businesses are also worried about whether they'll be able to survive if they can no longer import things cheaply.
--:-- Laura Curtis: E platforms like Etsy will feel these changes as well as the millions of people who sell on the site What this all means for you is still up in the air Things like letters and gifts between individuals under are exempt so you don't really need to rush to send out that birthday present.
--:-- Laura Curtis: But Sean Henry, CEO and co-founder of the supply chain company Stored, told ABC7 New York there are some things you might consider buying this week if you know you'll need it in the future. Particularly shoes and clothing are going to be the two biggest impacted categories.
--:-- Laura Curtis: They're where the highest effective tariff rates have been given, and they are the ones that are typically being utilized for this loophole. Those are the categories that will be impacted the most, with that effective end consumer price estimate being much higher.
--:-- Laura Curtis: The director of the Yale Budget Lab, a nonpartisan policy research center, told USA Today, Aside from increased prices, customers may also notice that some goods are simply not available at all if they previously came in under the de minimis exemption.
--:-- Laura Curtis: That is, at least until businesses figure out their future plans.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, it's a love story and Taylor Swift said yes. The global pop star announced on social media yesterday that she and NFL star Travis Kelsey are engaged after two years of dating.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You might remember how it all started with Kelsey going viral on his podcast, New Heights, by declaring to his brother Jason that he wanted to date Taylor Swift. This was shortly after her Eras tour made a pit stop in Kansas City, and she performed at Arrowhead Stadium, where Kelsey plays for the Chiefs.
--:-- Travis Kelce: I didn't get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her.
--:-- Travis Kelce: Yeah. Out of what?
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're up on Taylor Swift concerts, there are friendship bracelets. And I received a bunch of them being there, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it.
--:-- Travis Kelce: Not right now. Ooh. Your number's in 87 or your phone number?
--:-- Travis Kelce: You know which one.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So she doesn't meet anybody, or at least she didn't want to meet me. So I took it personal.
--:-- Travis Kelce: When Swift made her debut appearance on the New Heights podcast just a couple of weeks ago, which, by the way, broke a Guinness World Record for most concurrent views for a podcast on YouTube with 1.3 million simultaneous viewers, she formally announced her upcoming album, The Life of a Showgirl.
--:-- Travis Kelce: Plus, she and Kelsey shared some insight into their relationship, and she confirmed his bold move paid off. This kind of felt more like I was in an 80s John Hughes movie and he was just like standing outside of my window with a boombox just being like, I want to date you.
--:-- Travis Kelce: Yeah. Do you want to go on a date with me? I made you a friendship place. Do you want to date me? Just come outside and meet me. Just meet me once. Give me a chance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I was like, this guy isn't crazy, which is a big if. This is sort of what I've been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They started dating in the summer of 2023, went public that fall at an NFL game, and soon became regular fixtures at each other's events. Their relationship led to a spike in NFL viewership among women.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Swift watched Kelsey win the Super Bowl in 2024. He made a surprise appearance later that year on stage at the Aeros tour. And several apparent nods to their love story showed up in her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.
--:-- Shamita Basu: My brother back and I granddad daughter It true swear scouts honor You know what she wanted and boy, you got her. Brand new, full throttle. You already know, babe.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I feel like... Whether you're a Swifty or not, it's undeniable that the couple has generated an enormous amount of public interest. Their joint Instagram post announcing their engagement accrued 1 million likes in just nine minutes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. The Department of Government Efficiency put sensitive information of millions of Americans, including their social security numbers, names and addresses, onto a risky server.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's according to a whistleblower complaint filed by the Social Security Administration's chief data officer, Charles Borges. NBC News reports Borges accused the SSA's chief information officer, an ally of Elon Musk, of violating policies by putting a live copy of the country's social security information in a cloud environment, circumventing oversight.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That copy contains information on 300 million Americans. Borges warned that if bad actors gain access to this information, it could lead to widespread identity theft. A spokesperson for the Social Security Administration said the data is walled off from the Internet and they are not aware of any compromises.
--:-- Shamita Basu: AI could be hitting young people hardest when it comes to the job market, according to a new study that analyzed payroll data. Following the release of ChatGPT in 2022, researchers found workers aged between 22 and 25 saw a decline of 16 percent in jobs like software engineering, marketing and customer service, even as overall employment grew.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Wired reports that the same analysis showed that for older workers, employment was holding strong, suggesting that they held developed skills harder to automate. It suggests a possible generational divide as companies embrace the technology.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, remember brat summer? Well, how about feral child summer? The phrase describes a parenting style that's making a comeback, at least on social media.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It involves letting your kids run wild and free outside for some unsupervised and unstructured playtime. And it turns out there is some science backing why it can be good for children's brains.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A study released in 2018 found that kids today spend about 35 percent less time outside than their parents did. And that matters because navigating risky, wild spaces is good for things like emotional regulation and problem solving.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One scientist told Nat Geo that kids who are allowed to play outside are also more independent and self-sufficient.
--:-- 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 Wall Street Journal has the story of a billionaire heiress and her former best friend whose tight bond once included going to yacht parties and beach vacations, but ended up in courtrooms after getting crypto advice from a psychic.
--:-- 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.
