--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, October 17th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them. Let's start with some international news that we're following this morning in Ukraine, Iran, and China.
--:-- [Soft music fades out]
--:-- Shamita Basu: First, the Ukrainian capital of Kiev was reportedly hit with a series of explosions early this morning. A Ukrainian official credited it to kamikaze drones used by Russia. The extent of the damage is still not clear, but it follows another recent set of attacks on the country that left 19 people dead.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As Iran entered its fifth week of nationwide anti-government protests, a fire broke out at the notorious Evin prison on Saturday night. At least eight prisoners died, and some are still hospitalized as of this morning, according to Iranian officials. The prison holds hundreds of people, including political prisoners and dual citizens. It's been charged by rights groups with abusing detainees.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And in China, the Chinese Communist Party Congress is now underway. It's a week-long political event that will culminate in President Xi Jinping officially securing a third term in office.
--:-- [Soft music fades back in]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's stay with this story a little bit longer and talk about what this means for China and the world. NPR shares a few key points from President Xi's speech over the weekend, which was the kickoff event for this gathering.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On the pandemic, Xi defended the country's COVID-0 policy, which has involved strict measures, mandatory mass testing, quarantines, and lockdowns of entire cities. He didn't show any signs of reconsidering, despite some rare recent protests. That policy, according to economists, is gravely impacting China's projected economic growth, another focus of the president's speech.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He also spoke about being more assertive on the global stage. NPR reports that the largest applause line during his speech had to do with what he calls Chinese reunification, specifically reclaiming the independent island of Taiwan as part of China.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The wheels of history are rolling on towards Chinese reunification and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Complete reunification of our country must be realized, and it can without a doubt be realized. This comment comes as China's military has put more pressure on Taiwan, flying jets into Taiwan's airspace. Taiwan's president has said the country will do what it takes to defend its freedom.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And just last month, President Biden said that the U.S. would defend Taiwan if China were to attack. This speech was a glimpse at Xi's intentions for his unprecedented third term after China's lawmakers abolished the two-term limit on the presidency. His likely inauguration in March will start Xi's second decade of rule.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Moving to domestic politics. The Senate race in Pennsylvania between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz is pretty close, according to public polling, and it could help determine which party controls Congress after November.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In recent months, John Fetterman's health has become a major talking point in the media and on the campaign trail. He had a stroke in May, and as he's recovered, he's done interviews using real-time closed captions so that he can read the reporter's questions and process what they're saying.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Captions are commonly used by people with auditory processing or hearing issues, including those who are recovering from strokes. Last week, Fetterman used this technology while he was speaking to NBC reporter Dasha Burns. It was his first in-person interview since the stroke.
--:-- [Soft music fades out]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Later, Burns was on MSNBC and said something that got a lot of attention. Just in some of the small talk prior to the interview before the closed captioning was up and running, it did seem that he had a hard time understanding our conversations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Burns later said her reporting should not be seen as commentary on Fetterman's fitness for office, but his political opponents and some media outlets have done exactly that. Health experts, disability advocates, and some journalists have pushed back, saying that line of questioning was ableist.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Fetterman himself called the controversy over his NBC interview surreal. Rebecca Traister recently profiled Fetterman for New York Magazine. She told us it was a video interview, and just like with Burns, Fetterman was using closed captioning technology.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Traister had a different takeaway. Dasha Burns and I were fundamentally trying to communicate actually very similar experiences, but the subtleties in how we framed them made them come out very differently.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Traister says this is a candidate whose medical condition has been really scrutinized. And the fact that he's using assistive technology right now is something that he's been open about. The NBC report made it feel like there was something uncovered, which of course feeds into a frame that is actually being pushed by his opponent, Dr. Oz, that in some way there's been something deceptive about Fetterman's campaign's approach to his stroke recovery.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Traister says there was some reasonable criticism of Fetterman's campaign for not being quicker to share information about his stroke. The statement came two days later. A letter from his cardiologist stated that he has cardiomyopathy and that he'll be fine if he takes his medication and adopts a healthy lifestyle.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We absolutely should have transparency from candidates if they have big health problems. But as somebody who reported on John Fetterman, the calls for transparency feel slightly off because I actually feel like at this point, whatever the criticisms about the early messaging were, it is extremely visible to anybody who's watching him being interviewed on television or at these rallies who reads about how he requires the closed captioning technology in order to have conversations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: All of that is right out there. It just is visible. I never, I rarely seen a political candidate or leader whose medical progress has been more publicly trackable by millions of people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In her profile, Traster writes about how Fetterman has been thinking about recovery, vulnerability, and the stakes of the race that now just three weeks away.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening to us in the Apple News app right now, we've queued up Rebecca Traster's story to play right after this episode of Apple News Today. So stick around for that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Something really weird is going on in retail. Companies are offering major deals right now, basically running Black Friday sales in October. Target, Amazon, and others are all slashing prices.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For bargain hunters, like the YouTuber who calls himself the deal guy, this is a pretty exciting time. These are the top 50 October Amazon Prime Day 2022 deals, and today's brand new deals are awesome.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's begin with a pair of Bluetooth wireless earbuds.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But maybe not so awesome for retailers, as The Washington Post explains. What's going on here might surprise you, given everything you've heard about pandemic supply chain shortages. For some products, it's exactly the opposite. Retailers have too much stuff.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Recent data showed U.S. retailers are sitting on a record $732 billion of inventory. Retailers here basically lost a bet. They ordered stuff based on what they thought people's appetite would be, but household spending on goods has slowed down lately.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So a bunch of stuff is sitting on shelves, not making retailers any money. Stocks of big companies have taken hits, including Nike and Target.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But listen, investors' loss might be your gain, as long as you're up for getting a really early start on your holiday shopping. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And as I mentioned earlier, if you're listening in the News app, stick around to hear the New York Magazine profile we mentioned on Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I'll talk with you again tomorrow. Thank you.
