Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning. It's Monday, November 10th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, the Senate inches closer to ending the government shutdown. How AI data centers are transforming American communities. And after 200 years in publishing, the farmer's almanac comes to an end. Let's start with shutdown news.
Capitol Hill, which is normally quiet on Sundays, was the scene of a dramatic political breakthrough last night as senators voted to advance an agreement that could reopen the government. For the first time, eight Democrats broke with their party to support a Republican measure, just enough to overcome the filibuster that's forced a stalemate to this point.
Chapter 2: How did the Senate advance a deal to end the government shutdown?
Republican Majority Leader John Thune took to the Senate floor shortly before the vote.
I am optimistic. that after almost six weeks of this shutdown, we'll finally be able to end it. I will call up that bill in a matter of minutes, and I look forward to passing the clean continuing resolution and appropriations bill package in the very near future.
To be clear, though, it's not quite over. Last night's vote was procedural, and as of right now, the government remains closed.
Chapter 3: What impact do AI data centers have on local communities?
There will be more debates this week that could delay progress, and it still needs to get through the House, which has been out of session since September 19th. It's not a long-term fix either. The deal would only fund the government through the end of January. But Republicans have now cleared their biggest hurdle after convincing these Democratic senators to come around.
And crucially, they've secured that support without any guarantees to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, the key demand from Democratic leaders. Instead, they stuck to their offer of a vote on the issue sometime in December. Democrats did secure some commitments.
The attempted firings of around 4,000 federal workers during the shutdown would be reversed, and SNAP food aid would be provided in full through September of 2026, ending uncertainty for millions of low-income Americans. But with no real movement on his number one priority, health care subsidies, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged his party to hold firm before the vote.
Democrats must fight because millions of millions of families will lose health care coverage. We must fight because children who are dying of cancer. will not get healthcare coverage. We must fight because a senior citizen cannot afford to pay $25,000 a year just for health insurance.
Chapter 4: What were the circumstances surrounding the incident involving Mexico's president?
We must fight to keep millions from financial ruin.
Schumer's plea was not enough for some colleagues, whose constituents were feeling the effects of the shutdown more and more in recent days. Millions of Americans haven't received food aid they rely on, and over the weekend, more than 2,000 flights were canceled when the FAA ordered a reduction in air traffic due to the shutdown.
And pressure is still mounting if a final deal isn't made this week. The government warned that come Saturday, service members would stop getting paid. Against that backdrop, several Senate Democrats didn't want the pain to drag on. Senator Jeanne Shaheen defended her decision in a press conference last night.
Republicans control the White House, the Senate, and the House. And they made clear... over a period of weeks, including just this week, that this was as far as they would go as part of the shutdown talks. This was the only deal on the table.
Also among the backers was Senator Tim Kaine, whose state has thousands of federal workers.
My Virginians have been suffering under this administration. The shutdown started on January 20.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of the recent presidential pardons?
I need a moratorium on the punishing of the federal workforce. That's what I need. And so I joined this group to make sure that we could get important protections for federal employees.
But the agreement leaves some Democrats wondering if the drawn-out standoff was worth it. On the one hand, polls consistently suggested the public held Republicans more responsible for the impasse. But others were prepared to double down on health care subsidies, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was critical of those who crossed party lines.
On CNN, political scientist Larry Sabato said parts of the party's base would be infuriated by Sunday's events.
There's no guarantee at all that this vote on Obamacare that will be taken sometime in the coming weeks will pass even the Senate. And it may not even be taken up by the House, much less passed by the House. So I'm not sure what they got. And I think most Democrats agree with that. They can't figure out what they got.
Chapter 6: How is the MLB gambling scandal affecting players?
In the days ahead, any one senator could still derail the agreement. But Majority Leader Thune said he hoped to pass it early this week. In an uncertain economic period, Wall Street's strength has been driven by a handful of tech companies who are putting a lot of money into expanding their AI efforts.
On Friday, Meta announced plans to invest $600 billion in AI infrastructure to serve its growing computing needs. And on the same day, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI had asked the government to expand tax credit support for data centers. But beyond the rise and fall of stock portfolios, The Wall Street Journal reports that this physical infrastructure is already reshaping American communities.
Journal reporter David Uberti told us that much of the funding is going to unexpected corners of the country, with the land, water and power required to host large quantities of information processing equipment.
Tech companies are investing some $41 billion a year at current rates into data centers. And what that means is a lot of labor. It means a lot of concrete, copper, piping, cable, etc. All of that adds up to an immense amount of economic activity that is propping up the U.S.
Chapter 7: What led to the end of the Farmers' Almanac publication?
construction center. And in some cases, depending on what part of the country you're in, it's propping up the overall economy as well.
Huberti spent time in Umatilla, Oregon, and saw firsthand how a traditional farming community had been transformed over the last five to 10 years by Amazon's buildout. The town used to be known for a chemical weapons depot that was nearby and a state prison on the city's outskirts. Now it's seeing a boom in AI building.
We're talking thousands of construction workers that have come both locally and non-locally have sort of descended onto these very small towns. They're staying in RV parks, hotels. Some of them have put down roots in terms of new housing and whatnot. And it's really injected a lot of cash into the local economy there, which has really created some immense changes in how people live their lives.
Companies that invest in places like Umatilla are offered significant tax breaks. And the money coming in also impacts people in unaffiliated industries, like a young woman who Uberti spoke with that went from working 12-hour shifts at a distribution center to becoming an in-demand realtor in the area. She told Uberti it's been a blessing to her family that people want to come to Umatilla now.
But at the same time, the surge in growth has also meant that the cost of housing and childcare are rising beyond reach for many blue-collar workers.
Home prices and rental prices in Umatilla and the surrounding areas have doubled. So some of these sort of low-wage farm workers who have traditionally made up the backbone of the local economy, those people are having a harder and harder time paying for housing and keeping up with some of these higher salaries.
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Chapter 8: What challenges do communities face with the rise of AI infrastructure?
Uberti said that there are some who worry if this is an injection of short-term prosperity or the building blocks of something more.
People want to capitalize on the good times for as long as they last, the fear being that this might just be sort of a sugar high. So the tech companies, of course, are saying this is the beginning of a very long period of economic expansion related to A.I.,
and data centers more broadly, people locally are really wary about buying into that too much because in many small communities around the country, they have seen the downsides of a bust. And that's what a lot of people in Umatilla fear is what happens when the construction stops.
OpenAI and Oracle recently announced their $7 billion data center project in Michigan. Regions in Georgia, Texas, and North Dakota are volleying for similar projects. In Mexico, Claudia Scheinbaum made history last year when she became the first woman to be sworn in as the country's president.
But last week, she was involved in an incident highlighting how even those in positions of power can experience a common form of harassment. While walking through the capital, going from one government office to another, and stopping for pictures with fans, President Scheinbaum was groped by a man. The video made international headlines.
Los Angeles Times reporter Kate Linthicum spoke to us from Mexico City.
At a certain point, a man approached from behind and very quickly slipped his arm around her shoulder, leaned in and kissed her neck, and then put his arms around her and briefly groped her chest before her aides pulled him away.
The video drew national outrage and reignited conversations about the prevalence of harassment against women in Mexico.
There was a sense when she arrived in this position that it was a real victory for women and showed how women here had made strides. And to see her humiliated like this in public really showed a lot of people that harassment of women is still very common in Mexico, that if this could happen to the president of a country, it could happen to anyone, and it in fact does.
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