Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning. It's Tuesday, December 2nd. I'm Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, Beijing's grip on Hong Kong faces a major test after its devastating fire. Michael Jordan's plans to transform another sport. And why Costco is suing the Trump administration. But first, tonight, according to President Trump, the whole world is watching a rural part of Tennessee.
That's because there's a special election for a House seat tonight, a race that's turned out to be very close.
If you look at the results from last year's presidential election, Donald Trump won the 7th District of Tennessee, this district, by 22 percentage points, which suggests that this is a fairly reliably conservative district.
Anthony Zirker is a correspondent with the BBC who recently spent time in Tennessee to report on the race. A Democratic win would be the first there for more than 40 years and would further chip away at the razor-thin Republican majority in the House at a moment in which recent Gallup polling indicates the president's approval rating is the lowest it's been in his term so far.
So while it's just one district and it won't determine who controls Congress, at least in the short run, it could have a lot of significance for how this country is feeling. That's why both parties are sinking resources into this, because Republicans don't want this to be a reflection on voters souring on their control of government.
Democrat Afton Bain is a progressive running against conservative Republican veteran Matt Van Epps. Yet for both candidates, the issue of affordability has dominated their campaign messaging.
Matt Van Epps, nine combat tours, true American hero. Now I'm on a new mission to bring down prices, create good paying jobs and lower health care costs for working families.
Angry about high grocery prices? Worried about health care costs? Feeling burned by tariffs? Then December 2nd is your day to shake up Washington. I'm Afton Bain, and in Congress, I'll work for you.
The two candidates have appeared somewhat careful to stay independent from their party's leading figures. Kamala Harris visited to campaign, but the New York Times notes Bain left the stage before any pictures could be taken of them together. Van Epps, meanwhile, has President Trump's endorsement, but Zirker reports that he hasn't talked about the president much during the campaign.
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Chapter 2: Why is Tennessee's special election significant for the GOP?
A major fire that tore through a Hong Kong apartment complex last week has left the city struggling with how to process the grief and where to direct the blame. The fire ripped through eight tower blocks holding 2,000 apartments. Over 150 people are now confirmed dead, with dozens still unaccounted for.
Yesterday, officials said contractors working on the building had used scaffold netting that didn't meet fire safety standards, something investigators say contractors had tried to conceal. More than a dozen people have reportedly been arrested in recent days. There are now major questions being asked of the city's construction industry and of the response from the Beijing-backed government.
Christian Shepard is a China correspondent for The Washington Post.
There was bamboo scaffolding, there was mesh and foam boards that were being used to protect the building that seemed to have been highly flammable. And so it spread much faster than was expected. At the same time, there were problems with the alarm systems in the building. So many people were trapped inside because they didn't hear about the fire until it was too difficult to escape.
Hong Kong has more skyscrapers than any other city in the world, and it's densely packed, so the failures this fire exposes leave a ripple of implications throughout the city. Shepard told us many people are angry about why this wasn't prevented, and the government is acutely aware of how public outrage could pose a huge test for Beijing's grip on Hong Kong.
only days before elections are scheduled to take place. Pro-democracy voices in the city have been silenced for years. And under national security laws imposed in 2020, only certain candidates approved by Beijing can run for elections. Shepard said that is colliding with other longer-term concerns about failed governance in Hong Kong.
And that touches on deeper problems about whether or not the government is responsive to the needs of the people. Obviously, in Hong Kong, there has been a lot of concern about increasing encroachment from Beijing, centralization of power, unwillingness to allow more people to stand for office. And that has bled together with some of these concerns because...
In this instance, it seems that the government didn't feel it needed to respond or didn't respond fast enough. And people are beginning to connect those dots.
And there's some reporting that Beijing is trying to quash dissent related to this fire. Over the weekend, a student was arrested after circulating a petition calling for public accountability. A Chinese central government agency ordered a nationwide inspection of high-rise buildings, according to the Wall Street Journal, reflecting an effort to focus on safety standards at buildings.
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Chapter 3: What are the main issues affecting the Tennessee House race candidates?
It'll get hashed out and decided by a jury in a North Carolina court over the next few weeks, potentially changing the direction of NASCAR. Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. President Trump unlawfully appointed his former attorney as New Jersey's top prosecutor. That was the judgment of an appeals court yesterday in a ruling that could have national implications.
Alina Haba was appointed on an interim basis, but the White House attempted to bypass the Senate confirmation process and keep her in place beyond the 120-day time limit. The complaint against her stemmed from criminal defendants who argued she was illegally overseeing her case.
Now, if that sounds familiar, it's because it is similar to the case that James Comey's lawyers made to get his case dismissed. The ruling applies only to Habba, but The Washington Post points out it could foreshadow more challenges to come for Trump-allied prosecutors currently serving beyond their acting term limits.
Costco has become the latest company to sue the Trump administration over tariffs. They want a full refund of all duties paid as a result of the executive order that imposed so-called reciprocal tariffs. Costco didn't specify how much they felt they'd lost over the order, but about a third of Costco's sales in the U.S. are imported products.
In a recent earnings call, their leadership said they'd effectively absorbed price hikes on key staple items from Central and South America, like fresh fruit. NBC reports that through the end of October, the government had collected over $200 billion in tariffs, but the Supreme Court is currently weighing their legality.
Costco says they fear that even if the justices rule against the White House, they would struggle to recover the costs so far. And finally, this year's Oxford University Press Word of the Year is ripped right out of the social media comments section. Rage bait, which is defined as online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or rage.
Publishers say this year's news cycle was dominated by social unrest and concerns over our digital well-being. Experts noted, however, that rage bait this year has changed to signal deeper shifts in how we talk about attention, engagement, and ethics online. Oxford University Press also notes usage of the phrase rage bait has increased threefold over the course of this year.
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. Bloomberg Businessweek has the story of how Target, once king of the trendy cheap retail space, is struggling with dissatisfied customers and unhappy investors and whether its new CEO can breathe new life into the company.
If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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