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--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, April 26th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, new questions about ethics for justices on the Supreme Court, major health and environmental concerns after the explosion of Elon Musk's rocket, and a jury considers whether Ed Sheeran ripped off a Marvin Gaye song. But first, anyone who's watched a loved one live with Alzheimer's knows how devastating the disease can be.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Over time, it destroys memories and thinking skills. Routine tasks become difficult even with help. Julie Steenhysen, who covers science and health for Reuters, told us the story of a woman named Wendy Nelson. She watched her mother slowly die of Alzheimer's over the years.
--:-- Julie Steenhysen: It was a really grueling experience for Wendy, in part because in the end, her mom lost the ability to swallow and ended up not being able to breathe. And it was just a very hard thing for her to watch.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Wendy wanted to know whether this might be her own future. So she ordered genetic testing for her and her three adult daughters.
--:-- Julie Steenhysen: I think Wendy's motivation really was to sort of take this test and find out what her risk would be for Alzheimer's because she'd seen her mom pass in such a horrible way. And she was looking for a little bit of relief.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Instead, Wendy says it totally backfired. She learned that she has two copies of the APOE4 gene variant. That means her risk of developing the disease is up to 12 times higher than people with the more common version of that gene variant.
--:-- Julie Steenhysen: Testing showed that her daughters were at lower risk than her, but still considered high risk. It's a difficult thing to learn about yourself and your family.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Until recently, ordering genetic testing for Alzheimer's risk like this wasn't very common. There hasn't been any effective treatment that could actually slow or delay the course of the disease. And the thought was, why worry people? I mean, if you're going to develop Alzheimer's, you're going to get it anyway, and there's nothing we can do about it.
--:-- Julie Steenhysen: But that's changing. Alzheimer's drugs are evolving, like Lakembi, which just went on the market this year. And the prospect of new treatment has more people wanting to know their risk.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Data shows demand for genetic testing doubling from a year ago. But as Reuters points out, there aren't enough support services available to deal with the results.
--:-- Julie Steenhysen: Patients and their caregivers are dealing with a shortage of counselors to help them navigate the medical, mental, financial, and legal consequences of the disease.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now that Wendy has her genetic data, she's hopeful that could help her access experimental new treatment through trials. Steenhuysen says that the test results are also making Wendy think differently about the time she has left.
--:-- Julie Steenhysen: I mean, she knows that there may be a clock on how long she has to enjoy her life, so she's making sure to do whatever she can to enjoy it now. And that includes doing all the trips on her bucket list.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She's quite an adventurer, and she did Machu Picchu last fall. She, in February, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. She's got many other trips planned.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Along with the Reuters coverage, another recent story about Alzheimer's struck us. The Washington Post spoke to early-stage patients who are making big lifestyle changes.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Studies show that exercise, painting, writing, walks, and diet changes may help slow the disease down. You can read both of those stories on the Apple News app.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's take a brief look now at some big stories we're watching in the news. The suspected mastermind of the suicide bombing at Kabul's airport as American forces were pulling out of Afghanistan is dead.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: U.S. intelligence says it now believes that the leader of ISIS in Afghanistan was recently killed by the Taliban. The 2021 blast killed close to 200 people, mostly Afghans, along with 13 American troops.
--:-- Darren Hoover: Darren Hoover's son was one of the American Marines killed in the attack.
--:-- Shamita Basu: CBS asked him if he wished U.S. forces had killed the militant leader instead of the Taliban.
--:-- Darren Hoover: I don't care who it was that killed him. It's one less terrorist that we have to worry about.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Moving now to Washington, where there are new developments around ethics at the Supreme Court.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Chief Justice John Roberts is telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that he won't testify at a hearing on ethics.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He cites the separation of powers between the judiciary and legislative branches. Unlike the rest of the federal judiciary, the Supreme Court does not have a formal code of ethics for members.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This has been a topic of interest lately, following revelations about expensive gifts from a GOP donor to Clarence Thomas and a land deal Neil Gorsuch made with the head of a law firm.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Staying in D.C., we are getting closer to a showdown over the debt ceiling.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he wants a vote this week on a GOP measure to cut spending and raise the debt ceiling.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The White House says it's dead on arrival. And it's not clear that McCarthy can even get enough votes from his own party.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Several hardline Republicans want further cuts to spending and tougher work requirements for people getting federal assistance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If there is no deal, the government could theoretically default on its debt as soon as June.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Though we have seen this movie before, and a deal has always gotten done to prevent a default.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, you often hear families of gun violence victims talk about a lack of progress in changing our gun laws.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: But this week, there's a different kind of story. Washington State Governor Jay Inslee just signed into law a ban on most sales of assault-style weapons.
--:-- Shamita Basu: No one needs an AR-15 to protect your family. You only need it to kill other families.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Washington is now the 10th state with these kinds of restrictions in place.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: SpaceX launched the largest rocket ever made from Texas last week. No passengers were on board.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that's a good thing because minutes later, the rocket exploded over the Gulf of Mexico.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Listen to the reaction. You may not expect a round of applause after the thing blew up, but for SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk, this test flight was a success.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: That's because it completed several objectives that moved the company closer to taking astronauts to the moon or to Mars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Just blasting off successfully was one of them. Or as one commentator put it during the live stream of the launch, Everything after clearing the tower was icing on the cake.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Explosions may be part of the trial and error that goes into space innovation. But when something this big explodes in the sky, sending debris far and wide, it raises a question.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As we explore whether other planets can support human life, is it worth potentially harming the environment here on this planet?
--:-- Shamita Basu: CNBC reports that debris and particulate matter has spread far beyond what SpaceX predicted in the papers it filed to get a launch license.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People as far away as Port Isabel and South Padre Island, both miles away from the launch pad, say sandy debris has been raining down on their communities.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People on the ground say the explosion shattered windows and coated buildings and land with dust.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Environmental engineers say they're worried about the respiratory health of people living in this area.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And they say the debris is putting endangered wildcats and sea turtles at risk.
--:-- Shamita Basu: SpaceX did not respond to CNBC's questions for the story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For now, the FAA is grounding Musk's Starship program while it investigates the explosion. And local wildlife biologists and environmental scientists are assessing the damage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Finally, a story where I'm going to need you to listen carefully. I'm going to play two songs from two generations and see if you think they are similar or different.
--:-- Shamita Basu: First, here's Ed Sheeran, "Thinking Out Loud".
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Okay, let's fade that one out and hear a little bit of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On".
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--:-- Shamita Basu: The question of how close these songs are to each other is the focus of a major copyright infringement trial underway this week in a New York federal court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The heirs of Ed Townsend, the co-writer of "Let's Get It On", are suing Ed Sheeran. They say he stole the heart of the song, or more technically, the harmonic progressions and the melodic and rhythmic elements.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Songwriter Charlie Harding is the co-host of Switched on Pop, a vulture music podcast. He talked to us about the case.
--:-- Charlie Harding: Typically, you can only copyright a melody or a lyric or a fundamental idea of a song, but usually a chord progression or a vibe or a feel you can't copyright.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sheeran testified in court yesterday, saying that most pop songs share common elements that have been around in music for centuries.
--:-- Charlie Harding: Harding said Sheeran has stuck to that message.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At Sheeran's team is ostensibly arguing that you can't copyright the building blocks of music.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The chords and thinking out loud are so fundamental to all of popular music that for anybody to own them would deeply hinder the arts and creative practices of all musicians everywhere.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Townsend's family takes a different view. They say Sheeran exploited the older song, that it's another example of appropriation of Black artists' work.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Marvin Gaye Music has been in court before. In 2015, a jury found that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams infringed on copyright of Gaye's song "Got to Give It Up" when they made the song "Blurred Lines".
--:-- Shamita Basu: Gaye's family was awarded millions in damages.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These kinds of copyright lawsuits with accusations of song stealing are pretty common, but they often settle before trial.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This isn't even Sheeran's first copyright suit. He settled one out of court, and last year he won a case in the UK over his 2017 hit, "Shape of You".
--:-- 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, stick around. Next up is a narrated article about an invasion of wild pigs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hungry hogs are rampaging across most of Texas, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage every year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Texas Monthly looks at various attempts to control the pig population, from traps to hunts to contraceptives.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Thanks for listening to Apple News Today. I'm Shamita Basu. We'll see you tomorrow.
