--:-- Yasmin Khan: Good morning. It's Tuesday, April 9th. I'm Yasmin Khan in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Coming up, why so many Republicans are leaving the House of Representatives at a critical time. More Americans are embracing multi-generational housing. And the Great cicada convergence. But first, a quick look at a few stories in the news.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: There's a new proposal on the table for a temporary six-week ceasefire in Gaza. Under the plan, Hamas would release 40 of the more than 100 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, including five female soldiers. In return, Israel would release 900 Palestinians from prison. And the plan would allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who've been displaced by the war to return to North Gaza with no restrictions on their movement in the enclave.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: So far, Israel has been reluctant to allow that out of fears that Hamas militants could mix in with the civilian population. Reuters spoke to a senior Hamas official who says they plan to reject the proposal since it does not include a permanent end to Israel's military offensive. And mediators from Egypt and Qatar expect a formal response from leaders of Hamas and Israel tonight.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: In the United States, President Biden has a new plan to cancel a large chunk of student debt. Here he is speaking from Madison, Wisconsin, yesterday.
--:-- [Audio clip of President Biden speaking]
--:-- Yasmin Khan: The ability for working and middle-class folks to repay their student loans has become so burdensome. They can't repay it for even decades after being in school. And I mean that sincerely. Many of you know that sitting in front of me. Even when they have worked hard and pay their student loans, their debt increases, not diminishes.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: More than 30 million Americans will have their student debt loan balance either reduced or canceled under this plan. Biden has been pushing to fulfill promises made on the 2020 campaign trail to relieve student debt ahead of the election in November. And his administration spread out yesterday across a number of swing states to promote the plan to voters.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Now to college athletics. There is a not-so-new national champion in men's basketball. It is a UConn coronation. The Huskies make history. Back-to-back national champions. This is the sixth national title for the Huskies who took down Purdue last night 75.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Their offense has been unstoppable all season and much of the credit goes to head coach Dan Hurley. Here he is talking with reporters after the game.
--:-- [Audio clip of Dan Hurley speaking]
--:-- Dan Hurley: You know, obviously, what could you say? We won by a lot again.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Elsewhere in college sports, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics voted on Monday to ban transgender women from playing women's sports. The new policy starts next school year. Transgender men and non-binary people can compete in women's sports if they are not receiving testosterone therapy.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: This conference has more than 240 colleges, mostly smaller private schools, and over 80,000 athletes. The move has trans rights advocates worried that larger conferences, like the NCAA, could follow suit.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Now let's turn to Washington, D.C., where the House of Representatives is back from a break today. It's a return that many Republicans are dreading because they are facing an exodus of prominent members.
--:-- Mariana Sotomayor: I'm Mariana Sotomayor, a congressional reporter at The Washington Post. What's remarkable this time is who is stepping down. A couple of high-ranking, I would even call some of them rising stars because that's what the Republicans have called them, those chair people are actually saying, you know what, I know I have time to go here as the chairperson of this committee, but what are we doing? We're not getting anything done.
--:-- Mariana Sotomayor: Four of 21 retiring Republicans are committee chairs, including Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher. He heads up a new committee on China. His departure later this month will leave House Republicans with a majority of only a single vote.
--:-- Mariana Sotomayor: While Democrats face the same number of retirements, The stakes are a bit lower for them. They aren't in the majority. And there aren't the same concerns that they will be replaced by people on the extreme ends of their party.
--:-- Mariana Sotomayor: Some House Republicans are considering staying longer because they worry about being replaced with more partisan members. They were kind of looking to their left and right in their primaries and said, oh my gosh, the Republicans that I'm running against if I were to step back, these people could fill my seats. And they are extremist MAGA Republicans. They are of the constituency that you know are more about fighting the ideological battles rather than at the end of the day coming around and compromising.
--:-- Mariana Sotomayor: All of this is happening while Speaker Johnson is trying to pass a foreign aid bill to send more support to Ukraine and Israel. And while he's facing a challenge to his leadership position from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a hard-right conservative.
--:-- Mariana Sotomayor: No one is too worried about her challenge yet, but in a world where she is successful, that could spell major trouble for Republicans. Many Republicans, including Matt Gaetz, has said, if we do this this time around, I don't have the guarantee that, you know, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader, may end up a speaker.
--:-- Mariana Sotomayor: Because, again, it's so hard for Republicans to agree on anything. If Johnson's ousted, how are they going to, again, unanimously agree on a Republican to become speaker, to succeed Johnson? Many Republicans don't want to be in a position where they see their second speaker removed in just one year.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: When you hear that someone in their 20s or older lives with their parents, there might be some judgment there, at least here in the United States. The assumption can be that person is jobless, lazy, not wanting to be independent.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: But data shows that more and more American adults are living with their parents, and sometimes grandparents. About a quarter of people, age 25 to 34, now live in a multi-generational household.
--:-- Leila Ahmed: I'm Leila Ahmed, 23, and I live in a multi-generational household with my parents in Nashville. You just get to save and it helps you feel more secure in whatever you plan to do in the future. And you get to do things like go on vacation with your friends and maybe have a little bit more disposable income than you would if you were putting that all towards rent.
--:-- Leila Ahmed: Similar economic arguments are driving a lot of other adults to live with their parents, with inflation and student debt chewing up people's budgets. Also, immigration is playing a role as more people arrive from the many countries where multigenerational living is much more common than in the U.S.
--:-- Leila Ahmed: There's also a sustainability argument. We're becoming much more aware of our environmental impact and multi households have been shown to have a smaller environmental footprint because they're housing more people under one roof. They're using the same utilities. They may be using the same car. It's more of that sharing economy as opposed to everybody has to have their individual assets. They can pool assets.
--:-- Leila Ahmed: But for all the growth in multi-generational living and arguments for it, grown-ups who've moved back in with their parents still face some stigma. Even I say that when I meet a potential date who lives with his parents, I see a red flag.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: So it may take a much bigger shift, and time, before we see people's attitudes change more broadly.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Now that we're past the solar eclipse frenzy, we can move to another phenomenon on our amazing planet. And it sounds something like this. It's officially that time of year. The U.S. is on Cicada Watch.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And this year, two cicada broods will make simultaneous appearances in both urban and rural areas on the East Coast and in the Midwest. Experts say the emergence of two groups of cicadas is a rare event that hasn't occurred in 200 years.
--:-- Dr. Sammy Ramsey: I'm Dr. Sammy Ramsey, an entomologist and cicada enthusiast. They've spent 17 years under the ground just consistently waiting for this moment so that they can come above ground and sing this beautiful love song to attract a mate.
--:-- Dr. Sammy Ramsey: At the end of the day, I like to think of it sort of like a rave. There's going to be loud music and hormonal teenagers, but at the end of the day, things are fine.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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. Esquire has a tragic and sprawling story about a pastor in Alabama, his secrets, and a right-wing website that destroyed his life.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: If you're listening on the Podcasts app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
