--:-- Shamita Bassu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, April 2nd. I'm Shamita Bassu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Emily Stewart: On today's show, a trio of election results sends a warning sign to President Trump and the Republican Party, a rare spate of protests in Gaza against Hamas' leadership, and Senator Cory Booker breaks the record for longest ever Senate floor speech.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: But first, today, President Trump will hold an event in the Rose Garden, where he'll detail plans for his next batch of tariffs.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Now, Trump is no stranger to proposing, delaying, enacting and even dropping tariffs. As of March 21st, tariffs were placed on roughly $800 billion worth of goods, with many countries, including several of our allies, imposing their own tariffs back at us.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Taken altogether, economists say there's little doubt consumer prices will go up and could even lead us into a recession.
--:-- Emily Stewart: A lot of Americans are nervous about a lot of things in the economy. That's because if there is one word that I think kind of describes the moment, it is uncertainty, right? People are nervous about what's going to happen in the future. They're nervous about inflation. People are on edge about tariffs and economic policy. It seems like sort of day to day, we really don't entirely know what's going on.
--:-- Emily Stewart: And we also know that people are nervous about their jobs. On paper, economic indicators are somewhat mixed. The labor market is, at least for the moment, in pretty solid shape, with unemployment rates low, historically speaking. But the stock market just had its worst month in years, and consumer confidence is way down.
--:-- Emily Stewart: According to the conference board, a group that tracks consumer confidence on a monthly basis, the Consumer Confidence Index dropped by 7.2 points in March, its lowest since January of 2021.
--:-- Emily Stewart: As people's outlooks on income and business and the labor market declined, people's expectations for the future really declined to a level that tends to signal a recession. Now, that doesn't mean a recession is going to come, but people feel pretty bad.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Two-thirds of consumers believe that unemployment will increase. And when that happens, people tend to be more conservative with their spending. The University of Michigan also does consumer sentiment surveys, and they're seeing similar things, where people feel pretty bad about a lot of things.
--:-- Emily Stewart: They feel bad about the economy, regardless of their age, their income, politics. What we are seeing is that people expect the unemployment rate to go up at levels that we were seeing around the Great Recession. So people are anxious.
--:-- Emily Stewart: But we're also seeing that people are nervous about their own incomes, and that is a little bit different, because that's not just saying, things are bad, but I'm OK. It's saying I'm worried I'm not going to be OK as well.
--:-- Emily Stewart: It's easy for Americans to blame or thank the president when it comes to how they feel about their bank accounts. Typically, the president alone doesn't really control the outlook for the economy. But Stewart says we are living in remarkable times.
--:-- Emily Stewart: I do think right now that we can say a fair amount of what's happening in terms of sentiment is really stemming from the White House, is stemming from the president.
--:-- Emily Stewart: If you look at Doge, Elon Musk is running. Day to day, it is these people are fired. These people are reinstated. Maybe they not We cutting budgets here We not cutting budgets there
--:-- Emily Stewart: If you think about tariffs again it really has been today we doing this tomorrow we doing that I think there is like a real level of uncertainty And so maybe that's not showing up in the data yet.
--:-- Emily Stewart: But again, if you are a business, how do you make a decision about who to hire right now or whether or not you should hire? Because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
--:-- Emily Stewart: President Trump has acknowledged prices will go up, but says the pain of tariffs will be worth it. with his senior trade advisor, Peter Navarro, estimating the U.S. will raise about $600 billion to $700 billion a year from tariffs.
--:-- Emily Stewart: But CNBC spoke with some economists who say, in reality, the U.S. will probably bring in less than half of that.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Results are in from yesterday's elections. All three are being seen as a warning sign for President Trump and the Republican Party.
--:-- Emily Stewart: In Wisconsin, Susan Crawford, a liberal circuit court judge, beat her conservative counterpart for a seat on the state Supreme Court.
--:-- Emily Stewart: The race drew national attention after Elon Musk and allies spent $25 million backing Crawford's opponent, Brad Schimmel, making it the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Here's Crawford at her victory party last night.
--:-- Susan Crawford: Today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy. Our fair elections and our Supreme Court and Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.
--:-- Emily Stewart: This means Wisconsin's Supreme Court will maintain its liberal majority.
--:-- Emily Stewart: This is a nonpartisan office, but the court might take up cases with implications for national politics, like redistricting, abortion rights, and election rules, according to CBS.
--:-- Emily Stewart: The court might also hear a case involving a lawsuit brought by Musk against the state of Wisconsin involving Tesla.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Crawford's victory was the latest in a string of small wins for Democrats who recently flipped state legislative seats in special elections in Iowa and Pennsylvania and defeated four Republican-backed referendums in Louisiana.
--:-- Emily Stewart: The New York Times notes it's the first time the party has been on its front foot since November.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Moving on to two special elections that took place in Florida yesterday, both Republican Trump-backed candidates won their races, Randy Fine and Jimmy Petronas.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Shoring up Republicans' slim majority in the House.
--:-- Emily Stewart: As we mentioned on yesterday's show, these are heavily Republican districts, so Democrats weren't expected to flip either seat.
--:-- Emily Stewart: But what's caught the attention of observers nationwide is the margins of those victories.
--:-- Emily Stewart: The word you'll see in most coverage of these races, underperform. Trump won both of those districts in November by more than 30 points.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Patronus and Fine each won by around half of that.
--:-- Fernand Amandi: You've got to be deeply, deeply concerned if you're the Republican Party right now looking at these numbers, especially given that this is still supposed to be the honeymoon, Trump at the apex of his powers.
--:-- Fernand Amandi: We're seeing anything but that. It also a reflection of turnout Off non elections often have much lower turnout But so far as the Times notes Democrats seem to be doing well in lower turnout elections since Trump returned to office, meaning these types of off-year races could swing their way.
--:-- Fernand Amandi: CNN's conservative political analyst Scott Jennings says that matters.
--:-- Scott Jennings: Turning out these low-propensity Trump-aligned voters is still a major problem for the Republicans. That's bad.
--:-- Scott Jennings: And so if I'm looking out into the future, You know, the Republicans have something to work with in the House, but also something to work on as it relates to the structural nature of how the party works now.
--:-- Scott Jennings: This used to be the Democrats' problem. You guys had the low propensity voters. We sort of dominated in these low turnout settings. Now it's the opposite.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Let's turn now to Gaza. Israel's defense minister is saying it plans to expand its military offensive, seize large areas of the enclave, and evacuate people in combat zones.
--:-- Emily Stewart: The defense minister also urged Palestinians to remove Hamas from power.
--:-- Emily Stewart: This comes on the heels of thousands of Palestinians protesting Hamas last week, holding demonstrations in the streets.
--:-- Emily Stewart: NPR reports that some people chanted that Hamas are terrorists, while another chant called for the militant group to get out.
--:-- Emily Stewart: And it calls this a rare show of discontent, the first major protests in Gaza against Hamas since the war began more than a year ago.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: We reached out to Daniel Astran, an international correspondent in the Middle East for NPR, to tell us what's happening.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: We spoke with several eyewitnesses who took part in the protests, who said people are fed up with all of the conditions that they're under from the war with Israel, from Israeli displacement orders.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: People feel that there are no more safe places to go. And people in Gaza tell us that demonstrators spontaneously went to the streets and demanded the fall of Hamas rule in Gaza.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: Typically, Estrin said, Hamas does not tolerate protests without consequences.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: We saw a rare protest in 2019 by Palestinians protesting Hamas for their living conditions. That protest was quashed with arrests and beatings.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: And then during this war, we have seen open criticism by Palestinians accusing Hamas of not doing enough to protect them from Israel's retaliation for the October 7th attack in 2023.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: But these protests we saw last week were rare and were daring and were definitely something new.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: The protests have subsided at the moment. There are reports that one protester was killed by Hamas, but NPR couldn't independently verify that information.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: In recent days, Israel and Hamas have signaled openness to a new ceasefire deal.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: That comes after Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18th, with surprise airstrikes resuming in Gaza and ground troops increasing their presence.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: Meanwhile, CNN reports all bakeries in Gaza have shut down as a result of an Israeli blockade on aid, which some say will deepen famine conditions.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: Many people are reportedly going hungry as the holy Muslim month of Ramadan drew to a close.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: And as many Palestinians protested Israelis have also hit the street to protest their government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actions
--:-- Daniel Estrin: Estrin said that it unclear what will happen with this pressure mounting on all sides It really hard to tell whether protests in Israel against the Israeli government and its policy of continuing the war will sway the Israeli government to change course.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: It's hard to say whether the anti-Hamas sentiment we saw on the streets in Gaza will convince Hamas to change course.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: What we do know is that these protests on both sides come at a major inflection point in the war, where Israeli civilians and Palestinian civilians in Gaza were saying that they're fed up.
--:-- Daniel Estrin: Whether their leadership will listen to them is an open question.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Mangione is accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Mangione, who has gotten support from many Americans who are angry with the health care system, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Bondi said the decision is part of President Trump's agenda to stop violent crime and make America safe again.
--:-- Emily Stewart: In Washington, New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker broke the record for the longest ever speech on the Senate floor after he spoke for more than 25 hours, protesting President Trump's agenda.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Booker criticized the administration's, quote, complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution, and the needs of the American people.
--:-- Emily Stewart: The threats to American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more. We all must do more against them.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Tens of thousands of people watched via livestream as Booker discussed health care, immigration, education, free speech, and social security.
--:-- Emily Stewart: The previous record was held by South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, a segregationist who in 1957 spoke for 24 hours in a filibuster against the Civil Rights Act.
--:-- Emily Stewart: And finally, the Trump administration says they deported a man to El Salvador due to an administrative error, and that they are powerless to bring him home.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Kilmar Abrego-Garcia was arrested last month by ICE agents who believed he was a leader of a gang.
--:-- Emily Stewart: The Maryland husband and father denied any gang affiliation and hasn't been charged with any crime.
--:-- Emily Stewart: In fact, in 2019, an immigration judge ordered that he was to remain in the U.S., citing a credible fear that he would be killed or tortured if he returned to his country of origin, El Salvador.
--:-- Emily Stewart: An acting field office director with ICE called his deportation a, quote, oversight.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Garcia's lawyer filed a motion asking the Trump administration to work with the government of El Salvador to bring him home.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Time spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on what it's been like to try and keep Trump on his side and momentum for international support going forward.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
