--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, August 1st. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, what the latest escalations in the Middle East mean for a ceasefire deal, violence in Venezuela as voters call the election rigged, and the American long-distance swimmer who can't be beat.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But first, in the U.S. election, both candidates are trying to court Black voters, though they're doing it in very different ways.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yesterday, Trump spoke to a conference of Black journalists where he tried to make the case that he's the president that will bring jobs to Black Americans.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But he also made a false claim about his presumed opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And now she wants to be known as black. So I don't know. Is she Indian or is she black?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, to be clear, Harris is black and Indian. She has always identified this way. She speaks often about her Indian mother.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She went to a historically black university, is a member of a black sorority, and was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus when she was a senator.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hours after those comments from Trump, Harris spoke at an event in Houston for Sigma Gamma Rho, a prominent Black sorority.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This afternoon, Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And it was the same old show. The divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people deserve better.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yesterday, just as Trump was taking the stage at the National Association of Black Journalists, I was speaking with The Wall Street Journal's White House correspondent, Catherine Lucey.
--:-- Catherine Lucey: She told me just how much the energy has shifted among Black voters in the race.
--:-- Catherine Lucey: If they were once on the fence about the election and their choices, many, she says, are now fired up.
--:-- Catherine Lucey: She was at Harris's rally in Atlanta on Tuesday night, and she said you could feel it in the crowd.
--:-- Catherine Lucey: I have not seen such an enthusiastic Democratic event in years. People were lined up hours in advance inside the arena.
--:-- Catherine Lucey: The crowd was roaring when she came out. It took several minutes for them to quiet down for her to start speaking.
--:-- Catherine Lucey: They were chanting lines back at her in a way that we see it. Trump rallies and we used to see it Bernie Sanders rallies, but we really haven't seen with Democrats in a long time.
--:-- Catherine Lucey: And there really was a feeling, I think, in the room that they had reharnessed momentum, that there was a chance, that there was a path forward.
--:-- Catherine Lucey: And a lot of real excitement, I heard this a lot from women and women of color, a real excitement about seeing a woman of color on the ticket in this way, that this was a first, that this was historic.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So there was really a lot of emotion in the room.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You know polling was showing that Georgia seemed out of play for Democrats when Biden was still the nominee.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Does it seem like voter sentiments in the state are shifting now that Harris is at the top of the ticket most likely?
--:-- Catherine Lucey: Certainly it seems like enthusiasm is shifting.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So there was a sense that some Democrats thought Georgia was out of reach with Biden.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Many had written the state off Trump had held polling leads in the state for a long time, even though Biden had won the state narrowly in 2020.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But as Harris got out of the gate, enthusiasm has really exploded for her, particularly with the coalition that elected Biden.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So young voters, voters of color, particularly Black voters, we're seeing a lot more enthusiasm.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's talk about some of the mobilization efforts that we've seen.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hours after Biden dropped out of the race, more than 44,000 Black women and allies got onto a Zoom call, and they raised over $1.5 million for Harris.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Days later, we saw Black men organizing in a very similar way.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Can you describe the energy that we are seeing among Black voters right now?
--:-- Catherine Lucey: This energy is off the chart.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I talked to a woman in Atlanta last night who said she missed out on participating and organizing for Barack Obama.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She wasn't going to do it again. She'd already bought shirts. She'd started going door to door to register voters.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This was her first political rally.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People are very, very excited.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I mean, a lot of them were prepared to vote for Joe Biden, but the enthusiasm is completely different here.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We're also seeing Harris engaging with a bunch of Black sororities.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She, of course, is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha herself, a.k.a. she's been meeting with Divine Nine fraternities and sororities.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Last night, she met with Sigma Gamma Rho in Houston.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It is so good to be with you this evening.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I say that as a proud member of the Divine Nine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And when I look out at everyone here, I see family.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Talk to me a little bit about the role of sororities and fraternities here and the power that they have.
--:-- Catherine Lucey: Yeah, these are really powerful organizations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Black sororities are powerful networks of women in a lot of these key battleground states.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I met a former AK member at the Atlanta rally who was saying how Harris was standing on the shoulders of AK members going back generations who have fought for civil rights.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is a network that is unique to Harris.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We have seen her when she was the number two on the ticket.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She was very focused on campaigning and traveling to historically Black colleges and universities, speaking in urban centers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And so she has long courted that part of the party and she has close relationships there.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And those are clearly meaningful.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's talk about the Trump campaign strategy for a moment.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We know that the campaign has been trying to get Black and Hispanic men, specifically under the age of 40, into their camp.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And at least when Biden was still a candidate, they felt like that strategy was going pretty well for them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: How have they pivoted, if at all, with Harris now in the race?
--:-- Catherine Lucey: That's right. The Trump campaign really saw openings with younger Black men and men of color they saw that there was not a lot of enthusiasm for Biden, and they were really trying to make an economic message to those voters.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I think the question now is whether that is still effective.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump is continuing to make a play for those voters.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He'll be back in Atlanta at the same venue Harris was campaigning at this week for his own rally
--:-- Shamita Basu: His campaign argues that they can continue to make an economic argument
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Republicans that I talked to in Georgia you know said that they don't think there suddenly going to be some giant change in the trajectory of the race.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The question now is, will Harris be a more effective messenger than Biden was?
--:-- Catherine Lucey: Thank you so much.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Thank you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Moving on to world events that are going to have an impact on President Biden's remaining months in office.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In a matter of just a few days, Biden has been confronted with two major foreign policy crises.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The first is the escalating situation in the Middle East.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The second is a power grab by Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's start with the Middle East.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Iran and Israel are exchanging threatening words after the dual assassinations of a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and a Hamas leader in Iran.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Israel has so far only taken responsibility for the first, but Iran's supreme leader has vowed revenge.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will, quote, settle the score with anyone who harms us.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These reports over the last 24, 48 hours certainly don't help with the temperature going down.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I'm not going to be Pollyannish about it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's White House spokesperson John Kirby, who said the White House is continuing to push forward with ceasefire talks to end the war in Gaza.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When you have events, dramatic events, violent events caused by whatever actors, it certainly doesn't make the task of achieving that outcome any easier.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Again, we still believe there's a viable process.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We still believe there's interested counterparts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And we still believe that there are meetings and discussions to be had.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One thing to note, the Hamas leader who was killed, Ismail Haniyeh, was among the negotiators in the ceasefire talks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Qatari prime minister posted on X shortly after the killing that it was impossible to negotiate a ceasefire if one party is assassinating the negotiators of the other party.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Even though Biden is a lame duck president, there is so much riding on finding a solution to the Gaza war.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Beyond the huge humanitarian costs that are being paid, there are just three months to go until the election.
--:-- Shamita Basu: An escalation at this stage could be politically disastrous.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As if that crisis isn't big enough, the situation in Venezuela is also volatile and could potentially see a ripple effect into American politics.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Multiple people died during protests this week after critics say authoritarian leader and current president, Nicolas Maduro, stole the election that took place over the weekend.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The country's election authority has refused to release the full results for an independent review.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And critics say their results don't add up, that it's statistically impossible.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here's White House spokesperson John Kirby again.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Our patience and that of the international community is running out on waiting for the Venezuelan electoral authorities to come clean and release the full detailed data on this election so that everyone can see the results.
--:-- Shamita Basu: To understand how Venezuela could impact the next election in the U.S., you have to go back a few years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Trump administration imposed harsh sanctions on Venezuela that contributed to the country's economic collapse.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Nearly 8 million Venezuelans left the country and many of them came to the United States
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump also backed an interim president who tried unsuccessfully to seize power from Maduro
--:-- Shamita Basu: When Biden came into office he eased those sanctions in exchange for promises from Maduro to allow free and fair elections
--:-- Shamita Basu: They were just recently reimposed, and look at where things stand today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are no signs of Maduro standing down.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He faces drug trafficking and corruption charges in the United States and is wanted by the International Criminal Court for Crimes Against Humanity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Should he concede power, he could end up behind bars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And he has the backing of other strongmen, including Vladimir Putin, who told Maduro this week that he's always welcome in Russia.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If Maduro remains in power, one poll conducted in June estimates that a third of the people remaining in Venezuela would try to leave, and it's likely many of them would come here to the U.S.
--:-- Shamita Basu: CNN spoke with a fellow for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations who said this could be a really bad October surprise for the Democrats.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, here's a roundup of some notable moments from the Olympics.
--:-- Shamita Basu: American swimming phenom Katie Ledecky did it again.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the greatest swimming machine we've ever seen.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Rosa to another gold here in Paris with a new Olympic record.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She won gold and set an Olympic record Wednesday night in the 1500-meter freestyle.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's one of the two races she has long dominated.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And just to say, she set the world record for it six different times.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yesterday's victory gives Ledecky her eighth gold medal and her 12th medal overall.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Meanwhile, the U.S. women's soccer team won their third group stage match against Australia, advancing to the knockout stage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Don't call it a comeback yet, but it's a massive turnaround from their performance in last year's World Cup.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, track and field events kick off, starting with men's and women's speedwalking.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And you might notice something different this year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The track is purple.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a nod to the sustainability theme at the Paris Games.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Athletic explains how traditional tracks are made out of calcium carbonate, which is typically extracted through mining.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But this year's track is made out of recycled seashells.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Same material, no mining needed, and it works just the same.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In fact, with each Olympics, as we see improvements in the technology behind track material, we see more records getting broken.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So we could be in for some super-fast speedwalking today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez reached the round of 16 earlier in the week, and as she revealed on Instagram, she did it while seven months pregnant.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hafez posted, what appears to you as two players on the podium, there were actually three.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She went on to say that the journey to get there has been challenging both physically and emotionally, but she's proud to be at the Olympics for the third time and to be carrying a mini Olympian inside her.
--:-- 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: Bloomberg Businessweek looks at an LLC buying up bankrupt businesses that were once household names and reviving them based on their brand recognition.
--:-- 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.
