--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, August 15th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Steve Holland: President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Alaska today for a summit to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's Steve Holland, a White House correspondent for Reuters who's traveling with the president to Alaska. Steve, can you tell us more about what's at stake for Trump, for Putin, and for the leader who isn't in the room, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky?
--:-- Steve Holland: It marks the first time since 2007 that a U.S. president has invited Putin to American soil for a private meeting. World leaders have largely shunned him since Russia invaded Ukraine three and a half years ago. He's been sort of limited to where he can go. He would love to kind of end his status as a pariah around the world, whether that will happen, we'll have to see. But that would be his motivation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Just securing an invitation to this summit is a big diplomatic victory for Putin. And Steve, you say Putin may also use this opportunity to discuss issues other than Ukraine, like restoring economic ties with the U.S. and reaching a nuclear arms control agreement.
--:-- Steve Holland: That is correct. But in the war negotiations, Putin wants assurances that Russia can keep some of the Ukrainian territory it's occupied, particularly some of its more recent gains in the eastern parts of the country. That is a red line for Zelensky. President Zelensky wants Russian forces out of his country. He comes with the goal of maintaining the sovereignty and integrity of his country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Zelensky wants Russian forces out of his country. He comes with the goal of maintaining the sovereignty and integrity of his country. He'd love to get back Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. That's probably the most difficult to ask. But he comes in with some sort of maximalist approaches.
--:-- Steve Holland: Trump told Zelensky and other European leaders in a phone call on Wednesday that he does not plan to discuss territory in these talks with Putin. He says his goal is to secure a ceasefire and to set up follow-up meetings where Ukraine is at the table to discuss peace terms and possible land swaps.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump also reportedly agreed to several of Kiev's demands, like security guarantees for Ukraine after the war, retaining the right to potentially join NATO in the future, and ramping up economic pressure on Russia if negotiations fail to reach a peace deal.
--:-- Steve Holland: Trump this week threatened very severe consequences for Russia if there is no ceasefire deal, but did not specify what that would entail. For those following how this summit unfolds, I think the main determining factor could be which version of Trump shows up, the one who is threatening harsh repercussions, or the version of Trump we've seen in the past, who has struck a more friendly tone with Putin.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn to the economy, where recent data from the Consumer Price Index indicates Trump's tariffs are starting to make an impact, raising prices on everyday goods like coffee, ground beef, furniture, and toys.
--:-- Dan Frosch: And the producer price index, which tracks inflation for producers and manufacturers, rose by 0.9% last month, the largest jump in more than three years. Economists say it's a sign that more price hikes for consumers are coming soon.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That will put pressure on everyone, but even more so on a group that's already under stress, American families living in poverty. No demographic has seen such a sharp rise in poverty in recent years as children have.
--:-- Dan Frosch: According to Census Bureau figures from 2023, almost 10 million American children are living in poverty, the most since 2018. And almost half of all kids in the U.S. live in poverty or precariously close to it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Wall Street Journal reporter Dan Frosch told us that these families have been pushed to the brink by a mix of economic factors. COVID-era federal benefits like the expanded child tax credit, additional unemployment insurance and emergency food assistance have either expired or been changed.
--:-- Dan Frosch: Trump's tax and spending bill made cuts to federal aid programs like food benefits and Medicaid, which I say will likely make things worse for these families. And lower-income households are hurt most when the cost of everyday goods goes up. Because they have less wiggle room to adjust their spending.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And so even though folks are seeing their salaries, their earnings go up, frankly, across all income levels, including working-class folks, they find themselves in an even more perilous economic situation.
--:-- Dan Frosch: That is what is happening to families like Felicia Allens. She works the graveyard shift as a nursing assistant in New York, which allows her to return home in the morning to care for her four kids. Her salary just went up. She's now making more money than she's ever made. But she's still sitting just above the government's poverty threshold for her family size.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And her federal food assistance benefits have been slashed roughly in half. Dan, you said that people like her are left with a difficult choice. Do I try to maybe reduce my hours so I can get more food stamps and then maybe make up some more hours on the back end?
--:-- Dan Frosch: It's just another example of this sort of mixing and matching and this very sort of fragile safety net that exists when you don't have enough. Trump's mega bill is making that safety net even more fragile by pushing more responsibility for the funding of programs like food aid onto states.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let turn now to how artificial intelligence is reshaping our economy and the potential benefits and risks for the average American. America's largest companies are ramping up their spending on AI in a big way.
--:-- Garrett DeVink: This week, Google announced it'll spend $9 billion to expand cloud and AI infrastructure in Oklahoma over the next two years. That's on top of pledges that the company and others like Microsoft, Amazon and Meta have made this year to collectively spend over $350 billion on artificial intelligence infrastructure.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And our parent company, Apple, has committed $600 billion to expanding U.S. manufacturing, a portion of which will include investments in AI. It's just a mind-boggling amount of money that big tech is spending on AI right now.
--:-- Garrett DeVink: The numbers out there are just bigger than anything we've really seen in corporate history. Taken together, the spending on AI by America's largest companies has outpaced the spending by the U.S. government on education, training, employment and social services so far this fiscal year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In fact, these companies are spending more on AI than the entire European Union spent on defense last year. AI companies continue to argue that this spending is necessary, that AI is the biggest thing that's happened potentially in our lifetimes.
--:-- Garrett DeVink: You know, maybe we'll have a bigger economic and social impact than even the Internet. Some economists and analysts say this money could help to offset some of the weaknesses we've seen in recent economic reports, like sluggish job growth and more cautious consumer spending.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some of the money spent on AI will go toward building and expanding data centers, which could create more jobs, both for constructing and maintaining these facilities. The Federal Reserve has projected that the U.S. economy will grow by 1.4 percent this year.
--:-- Garrett DeVink: Some economists believe AI spending alone could account for roughly half of that. And Wall Street so far has rewarded these companies for their spending, increasing their market value and making them an even bigger part of the overall stock market.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But as AI plays a bigger role in the U.S. economy, it also introduces new risks. If the AI companies suddenly decide, we don't want to keep putting tens of billions of dollars into AI every couple months, suddenly that growth all just evaporates.
--:-- Garrett DeVink: And there are concerns that any jobs created by AI would be offset by jobs lost that the technology eventually renders obsolete. Investments in AI infrastructure, like data centers, add a steep cost to tech companies' bottom lines.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If their revenue and profit assumptions ultimately prove to be overly optimistic, they might have to cut back on their current pace of spending. And Garrett, you point out, should the AI boom slow down at some point, many Americans' personal finances could be impacted in ways they might not realize.
--:-- Garrett DeVink: If you have a 401k and that's invested largely in the stock market, well, big tech companies actually make up a huge part of the stock market right now. So even if you think, oh, well, my investments are spread out among all the public companies that are out there, well, they may actually be pretty concentrated in these big tech companies that are making this bet on AI right now.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For now, Garrett says there are no signs big tech companies are wavering on these bets they're making.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. Some movement in the battle over redistricting taking place across the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Democrats from the Texas House who fled the state to prevent Republicans from passing newly drawn congressional maps are set to return home after the state legislature adjourns today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Democrats left Texas for Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts to break quorum in the Texas legislature and stall the GOP's plan to secure an additional five Republican seats in the U.S. House.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Trump pressured Texas to gerrymander congressional maps to secure up to five more Republican seats in an effort to maintain control of the House after the 2026 midterm elections.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Texas Governor Greg Abbott has vowed to call as many special legislative sessions as needed until the new maps are passed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, is calling for a special election in November, asking voters to suspend the state's current congressional maps and adopt new ones that could add an additional five Democratic seats to California's congressional delegation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At a rally and press conference where Newsom announced his plan, more than a dozen ICE agents, some of them armed, gathered outside despite the event not having to do with immigration.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Local elected leaders expressed outrage, with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass calling it unacceptable.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Politico reports DOGE drastically exaggerated the amount of money it has saved the federal government through cutting federal contracts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: DOGE claims it saved more than $50 billion. But according to Politico's analysis of public data and federal spending records, the agency realistically has only saved $1.4 billion, a figure Politico reports will do nothing to lower the national deficit unless Congress steps in.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Politico says faulty math in the way DOGE accounts for federal spending is what led to the disproportionate figures.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, if you notice this summer has been more humid than previous ones, you're right. A measurement of moist conditions created by NASA last year called the Stickiness Index says this summer is one of the stickiest ever.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The index tracks heat plus humidity to calculate just how sticky conditions are and what drives the wet-hot weather. This year, hot temperatures combined with leftover moisture from a wet spring are why it's been so bad.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Researchers say it's important to understand this kind of data to mitigate risks because humid heat is the most dangerous, especially to older adults and kids.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One expert told NPR doing things like wearing loose-fitting clothes, hydrating, and closing your blinds are just a few ways to keep yourself safe if you don't have air conditioning.
--:-- 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, stick around for the latest episode of Apple News in Conversation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This week, I spoke with New Yorker contributing writer Eyal Press about President Trump's no tax on tips policy, a measure that's often framed as a win for workers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the real force behind this idea is a powerful lobbying group, the National Restaurant Association, that's mostly fighting for restaurant owners and managers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It presents itself as the champion of mom and pop restaurants. And who's against that, right? But when you look at the NRA, you do find that there are big restaurant chains, you know, that are behind it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's very big money. And a lot of restaurants don't subscribe to its agenda.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News in Conversation to find that episode.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Enjoy your weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
