--:-- Host: Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, December 19th. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The U.S. government is less than 48 hours out from a shutdown. Funding is set to run out Friday at midnight unless Congress passes an extension. Congressional leaders had rolled out a bipartisan bill earlier this week to try and head that off, but the deal is basically dead in the water after Donald Trump ordered Republicans not to support it.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The plan was on shaky ground to begin with. It started as a simple spending extension to keep the government funded until mid-March. But as negotiations went on, it became a sprawling catch-all, eventually including $100 billion in disaster aid, a pay raise for lawmakers, and even a provision on where the Washington commander's football team could move their stadium.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Elon Musk, who Trump has tasked with slashing government spending in his new administration, spent all day yesterday railing against the bill, posting nearly nonstop on X and writing, any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump then piled on, dismissing the bill as full of, quote, Democrat giveaways. The extremely vocal criticism undercut Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who helped craft the deal and had been trying to push it through.
--:-- Mike Johnson: [On Fox and Friends] They understand the situation. They said, it's not directed to you, Mr. Speaker, but we don't like the spending. I said, guess what, fellas? I don't either. We got to get this done because here's the key. By doing this, we are clearing the decks and we are setting up for Trump to come in roaring back with the America First agenda.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's not clear what Johnson will do now, but the last minute scramble is a preview of the difficulties that congressional leaders could face next year, trying to pass legislation under a president with a tendency to blow up political compromises.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile at the same time as Trump was railing against federal spending in the funding bill he was urging lawmakers to increase the amount of money that the U can borrow.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He wants Congress to raise the debt ceiling. The country is expected to reach its current limit next month, and if it's not increased, it could cause a default on the country's debt.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Many Republicans in Congress are staunchly against raising it, and Trump acknowledged that it's politically unpopular. But he said he wants it taken care of before he's back in office, writing, Increasing the debt ceiling is not great, but we'd rather do it on Biden's watch.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In France this morning, a judge delivered verdicts in the shocking rape trial that captivated and horrified the country.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Dominique Pellico was found guilty after he admitted to drugging and raping his wife, Giselle, for nearly a decade, and inviting dozens of strangers he met online to join him.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He's been sentenced to 20 years in prison, the maximum allowed under French law. Fifty other men on trial beside him were also found guilty.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Prosecutors had played video after graphic video of them assaulting Gisele Pellico while she was unconscious.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Her decision to waive anonymity and make the trial open to the public, along with her steady poise in the courtroom, turned her into a feminist hero in France.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And the months-long trial sparked a broader debate in the country about toxic masculinity and the legal definition of rape.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Live coverage of the verdicts, including from Times reporters at the courthouse, is at nytimes.com.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Across the U.S., experts say the threat posed by bird flu is growing.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: All new at noon, someone in Louisiana has been diagnosed with the first severe bird flu illness in the U.S.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Yesterday, health officials announced the first case of an American getting seriously ill from the H5N1 virus when a person in Louisiana was hospitalized after catching it from a flock of birds in their backyard.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Just a few hours later, Governor Gavin Newsom declaring a state of emergency over the spread of the bird flu.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The governor of California announced a state of emergency because of an outbreak in dairy cows there.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Since August the virus has been found at more than 600 dairies across the state and about half of those cases have been found in just the past month which set off alarm bells for public health authorities.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Officials say while the virus has been detected in raw milk samples pasteurized dairy products are safe.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And for the moment, the virus still poses little danger to the average American.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Bird flu can't spread easily between humans, and the people at highest risk are farm workers who are in close contact with animals.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But the concern is that every time the virus jumps from animal to animal, animal to human, there's a chance it can mutate into a form that could cause a pandemic.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: When Starbucks opened its first shop in China in 1999, it was the only coffee shop in town.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And they had to create single-handedly a market for coffee drinkers in a country that had traditionally always preferred tea.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But they did it and were hugely successful up until now where they're suddenly faced with some ferocious competition.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: My colleague Alexandra Stevenson covers China, where she says Starbucks is facing a big problem.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: The country is their second biggest market behind the U.S., but a slew of local chains have popped up to get a piece of what Starbucks created.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: Starbucks' own CEO called the level of new competition extreme.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: The competitors are undercutting the coffee giant on price, which is key for Chinese consumers who are nervous about the country's struggling economy.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: They're also opening way more stores and offering way more options.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: Some of Starbucks' local competitors are just really nimble. They're spinning out new flavors so much more quickly than Starbucks can.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: They're selling coconut milk lattes, sugary jasmine tea frappes, Lapsang Souchang tea lattes. Just, I mean, the flavors can go on and on.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: And Starbucks still, you know, is sticking to a lot of its traditional flavors. It just isn't hitting in the same way.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: Looking forward, one of Starbucks's biggest challenges could be the rise of patriotic consumers.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: There is this rising desire to support and buy local brands over American brands.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: And so as Donald Trump heads back into the White House and the rhetoric becomes potentially more anti, you could see Chinese consumers saying hey wait a minute why should we shop at Starbucks, an American brand?
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: And that could spill over to other products too, like why should I buy a pair of Nike shoes when I can buy a pair of, you know, cheaper local brands?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, What could be worse than a plague of locusts? How about an invasion by so-called murder hornets?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Five years ago, America went on red alert for the murder hornet.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Officials in Washington state warned that the invasive species, which is native to Asia, had been discovered in the state.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The fear was that they could start to spread across the U.S. and devastate bee populations.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And the bees had a reason to be frightened. When the hornets attack, they invade a colony, rip all of the bees' heads off, and fly away with their mid-sections to feed their young.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Scientists warn that they weren't fun for humans either.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The sting apparently feels like having hot metal driven into your skin.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The effort to keep the insects, also called northern giant hornets, from becoming established in the U.S. was huge.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: There were tip lines for possible sightings, traps were set, and entomologists even managed to capture a few of the hornets, attaching tiny tracking devices to them and following them back to their nests, which they destroyed with vacuums and carbon dioxide.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Yesterday, state and federal officials announced that all the work has paid off.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Hornets have been eradicated from the original Washington hotspot and from the rest of the country.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They acknowledged that a new invasion could happen in the future, but for now, things are quiet.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One entomologist told the Times, quote, It is a rare day when the humans actually get to win one against the insects.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Today on The Daily, how cryptocurrency went from being a fringe investment to one of the most successful financial products out there.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. The headlines will be back tomorrow.
