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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Friday, May 13th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
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We are in the middle of a crypto currency meltdown. "The Wall Street Journal" reports that, in the last six months, a trillion dollars worth of digital money has been wiped out. Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, plunged to its lowest point since 2020 but it's bounced back slightly as of this morning. Meanwhile, other currencies are still struggling, with some tokens that are intended to be among the most stable, now worth pennies.
The "Journal" reports on how all of this volatility in the crypto market is testing its underlying promise: that it would be immune from the risks of the traditional banking system and the type of bank runs that happen in the non-digital world. This week, Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, addressed some of these concerns.
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Janet Yellen: We really need a regulatory framework to guard against the risks. In just this week, in the last couple of days, we've had a real life demonstration of the risks. A stable coin, so-called algorithmic stable coin, known as Terra, broke the buck.
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The currency that Yellen is referring to there, TerraUSD, is a type of stable coin. Stable coins are supposed to be exactly that, stable. They're typically pegged to some kind of stable asset, like the U.S. dollar or gold. They're considered pillars of the digital financial system, a kind of reserve currency that crypto investors can rely on. Investors often buy them to then buy other cryptocurrencies. But the thing about Terra is it's algorithmic, not tied to assets like cash. And this week, it got rocked after the sister currency that its linked to plummeted.
As "CNBC" explains, the crypto market is also suffering from the same symptoms as the traditional markets: inflation, rising interest rates, and a general stock sell-off. According to the Pew Research Center, 16% of Americans now own some form of crypto currency. Most of those investors jumped into the crypto game during the pandemic.
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This year, Queen Elizabeth is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee, 70 years on the throne. She was crowned at 25 years old, and ever since then, she's had one mission: maintain the monarchy, make sure it survives no matter what. But recent scandals within the family are testing that mission now, more than ever.
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Tina Brown: The Queen has always, throughout her whole reign, had to confront the thorny issue of the fact that the monarchy, the institution, is built on the shoulders of a very fallible human family, her family.
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That's Tina Brown who's out with a new book called "The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor, the Truth and the Turmoil." She's been covering the crown for decades, and says that she spoke to over a hundred sources, inside and close to the royals, for this book. I spoke with her about how rocky things are for the royal family these days. For example, when the Commonwealth celebrates the Queen's Jubilee, in June, Harry and Meghan will be there but they won't be on the royal balcony.
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Tina Brown: I think it's a pity, actually, because I kind of think that the Sussexes on that balcony would've been a great symbol of family unity, but of course it would not be an accurate symbol of family unity because that feud essentially that was kicked off by so-called 'Megxit,' has not been healed.
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Then there's the Queen's son, Andrew, who was recently stripped of his royal titles for his association with convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.
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Tina Brown: I think Andrew's a blind spot for the Queen. I really do. I mean, she did what she had to do, but she took a long time to do it, essentially, with Andrew.
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And there's William and Kate who recently got back from what was a disastrously received tour of the Caribbean commonwealth nations. They were met with a lot of protests and calls for reparations for slavery.
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Tina Brown: I mean, it was terrible optics, terrible for them. And I think that you could argue that they perhaps should have understood that ahead of time, but certainly they understand it now.
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Still, Brown says, the monarchy has the support of the British people. And its future rests not on the men in the line of succession but on the women they've chosen to marry: Camilla, Kate, and Meghan.
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Tina Brown: Well, clearly these women are the real driving force behind the modern monarchy.
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If you want to hear my full conversation with Tina Brown about where the crown goes from here, check out the next episode of "In Conversation." You can find it in the News app over the weekend or by searching for "Apple News In Conversation" in the Podcast app.
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Our team recently came across a story that really made us stop and rethink the popularity of true-crime shows right now. This story talks about a new Hulu miniseries, which is out this week, called "Candy." Maybe you've heard the trailer.
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Speaker: Something terrible has happened. It's Betty. She's dead.
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"BuzzFeed's" Senior Culture Reporter, Stephanie McNeal, heard it too. The marketing has been extensive.
Stephanie McNeal: It is all over my Twitter feed. I was watching Bravo last night and I saw, like, four or five commercials for the show. And that has really struck me as well. And just being like, wow, even if I wanted to avoid this show, I couldn't.
She started thinking about the real people, real lives that the show's based on.
McNeal: Especially with the internet and with true crime podcasting and all of this consumption of true crime media, you can really get to the point where, you know, the victims really are lost in the whole thing. And we forget that there's real people at the center of this.
So, she decided to get their perspective. The show tells the story of Candy Montgomery who's accused of killing Betty Gore in Texas. Both mothers, friends really, whose kids played together. The killing shocked their small town. McNeal recently tracked down Gore's family. They were confused and upset that a painful time 40 years ago is now back in the spotlight.
McNeal: They didn't know about this show before they started seeing ads for it. And now, as they're just trying to navigate their daily life, you know, watch Hulu, relax at the end of a long day. Now, their family trauma is front and center in all of this media they're consuming. And that is really hard. And I can understand how that would be really hard.
McNeal says, doing the story has her thinking twice about true crime as entertainment.
McNeal: I think we do need to examine the way that we can make sure that we're not re-traumatizing the victims of these crimes.
She says, the Hulu show seems to take Candy's side over Betty's, who was killed. She says, as a viewer, it's important to consider Betty's perspective, since she never lived to tell her side of the story.
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If you've ever tried to grow anything green on this planet, you'll appreciate this story from "Wired" about growing plants in moon soil.
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Astronauts who walked on the moon in the 60's and 70's had to gather all kinds of materials for later testing, including scoops of lunar soil. And the thing about this soil is, it's kinda sandy, it's dry, it's full of minerals and ions that plants here on Earth haven't seen before, and it's got no organic compounds in it because no plants have ever grown on the moon.
So, last year, one researcher convinced NASA to let her team run experiments with some of this harsh lunar soil, to see if they could get something to grow in it. They had to add nutrients and water, of course. Then they set them under some growth lamps to see what could happen.
And it was successful. Little vegetable plants popped up. Now, not all of them looked great, but the researchers say it's a really promising start. The goal of these kinds of studies is to figure out if we can someday create greenhouses on the moon or even on a spaceship, to grow food for astronauts during longer missions.
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One last thing before you go, for all the moon enthusiasts out there. There will be a total lunar eclipse late Sunday into Monday. That's when the Earth falls in line between the sun and the moon. It's safe to look at, and it will be red.
You can find an article explaining that and all the stories we talked about today in the Apple News app. And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News+ partners. Enjoy the weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
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