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Mark Garrison, Narrating: Good morning! It's Wednesday, August 24th. I'm Mark Garrison in for 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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Let's get started with a quick look at some key results from yesterday's elections.
In New York, Democrat Pat Ryan beat Republican Marc Molinaro in a special election for the state's 19th Congressional District. This one is interesting because it's a swing district and believed to be a bellwether for how the battle over abortion rights will play out at the polls. The Democrat called his campaign a "referendum on Roe." The Republican didn't support a nationwide abortion ban, but he didn't back federal legislation to protect abortion rights either. Democrats are betting that anger over abortion bans could win them votes in November.
We talked yesterday about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, now we know his Democratic opponent: veteran politician Charlie Crist won his primary race yesterday by a large margin. Also in Florida, Maxwell Frost, one of the first Gen Z candidates for Congress, won his democratic primary. It's a solidly blue district in the Orlando area so he's considered likely to win in the general election. You can get more results and analysis on the Apple News app.
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President Biden is expected to make a big announcement on student debt today. The plan could include forgiving $10,000 per borrower, though wealthier people wouldn't quality. He's also expected to do another extension of a pandemic freeze on debt repayments.
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These are long-awaited moves. Biden talked about doing more on debt back on the campaign trail. Some 43 million Americans owe $1.72 trillion of federal student loan debt. "Bloomberg White House" correspondent Nancy Cook explained that many progressive Democrats have been concerned about large debt loads held by people of color.
Nancy Cook: They feel like it's a really key way to get at racial injustice, it's a key way to kind of tackle the problems of generational wealth and help people get ahead economically.
Cook explains how politics ahead of a critical election plays a role in White House decision-making as well. Some Democratic strategists see student debt as an issue that hits home for a lot of voters.
Cook: Basically, the calculus inside the White House has been both one of economic fairness from some people, and other people say this is a real boon politically.
The move could help tens of millions of Americans become more financially secure, which could benefit the economy overall. But it is expensive, and that's fueled a lot of debate. Some Republicans questioned whether forgiving debt now is unfair to those who paid off their debts years ago. Some prominent economists from previous Democratic administrations say forgiving debt could make inflation worse. And many in the GOP have a problem with the price tag…
Cook: Republicans, of course, already feel like the government has spent a ton of money during the pandemic on stimulus checks, the American rescue plan, the infrastructure plan, and that the government does not need to keep spending money.
Keep in mind, under President Trump there were huge increases to our national debt. The debate over what to do about student loans has gone on for a while, and many critics don't like how long it took for Biden to act.
Cook: Just because he's taken so long to make the decision, quite frankly. The White House has been debating this for months, and months, and months, and I think the amount of time it has taken the president to make that decision really has contributed to the frustration.
Already, the White House has wiped out $32 billion in debt for more than 1.6 million Americans. That includes students who were defrauded, borrowers who are permanently disabled, and certain public service workers.
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Today is Independence Day in Ukraine. It marks 31 years since Ukraine broke ties with the Soviet Union. This year public celebrations are on hold because the country is bracing for more Russian attacks. So, people are quietly marking an independence that Vladimir Putin wanted to erase.
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Moscow didn't think Ukrainians would hold out for six months and counting. A big reason the war hasn't gone as planned is Russian intelligence failures. They're detailed in an exclusive new "Washington Post" reporting, which draws on intercepted communications from Russia's security services. I spoke to Greg Miller, investigative correspondent for "The Post".
Greg Miller: The one thing that jumped out at us was just how certain and confident Russia's intelligence services seemed to be that the war in Ukraine would be easy, that it would be a walkover, and that they would be in position essentially to run the country, install their own people in all the important jobs in a very short amount of time.
Miller and his colleagues got ahold of Russian spies' messages. They were intercepted by Ukrainian security services and others. It's quite a scoop.
Miller: I've covered the intelligence beat for years, and years, and years, and I've never had anything like this. To be able to look into any intelligence service and what it's officers are saying to one another is next to impossible as a journalist, let alone the Russian intelligence services which are particularly impenetrable.
The messages show that Moscow's best were so sure Russia would capture Kyiv they started talking real estate.
Miller: And in the final days before the war, they're basically making plans for what apartment they're gonna stay in. They are inquiring about addresses: "Where are you gonna stay? Where should I stay?" And it tells you so much about the confidence, the overconfidence, the hubris, of Russia and this war.
Russian intelligence thought enough Ukrainians would stand back and let Russia take over. The people proved them wrong. Miller says it's pretty surprising Moscow was so blind, since it devotes a lot of money and personnel toward watching Ukraine. He says it's possible some Russian spies knew better, but they might've been afraid to say so.
Miller: Even if they did understand the deep opposition that Ukraine was capable of, how could they tell Putin that? How can you tell the boss "Look, you may want to take this country back over and bring it back into the Russian fold, they're not gonna be happy about that, and they're gonna fight." Perhaps some of Russia's spy services did understand this, did understand that Ukraine would resist, but simply couldn't tell Putin that core truth.
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When you shop online these days, you often get the option to split what you owe into several interest-free payments over time. "Buy now, pay later" is getting more popular, driven by companies like Afterpay, Klarna, and Affirm. Apple is also getting into this business.
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"Vox" business reporter Emily Stewart explains why some people like these kinds of services…
Emily Stewart: It feels less expensive even though it's-- it's the exact same price.
Many people who use "buy now, pay later" are people of color and younger consumers. It's being sold to them hard on social media.
Stewart: So, on TikTok, on Instagram, you see these companies advertise a lot and you see influencers talking about them, right? Like, this is a great way to buy stuff that otherwise you wouldn't be able to have, like, maybe you can't afford this pair of jeans that you really want. But you can, if you can split it up into payments.
Retailers like "buy now, pay later" because shoppers might spend more if they don't have to pay it all up front. But $200 jeans are still $200 dollars, eventually, and they could cost even more. People can rack up fees if they don't pay on time.
Stewart: And it's easy to miss payments, especially if you're taking out multiple of these loans, and we see a lot of people doing loan stacking. So, they take out a loan from one company to buy a pair of jeans and then they take out a loan from another company to buy a jacket, and it's really easy to forget.
"Buy now, pay later" services are in something of a cloudy regulatory area. Stewart explains one reason they split the bill into four instalments is because a lending law kicks in at five instalments. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is now looking into the "buy now, pay later" industry, asking whether consumers are racking up too much debt, and how companies are using their data.
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Sometimes when you didn't know something was a mystery, it's even more interesting when you learn about it getting solved. You know what I mean? So, I'd heard over the years about how Australia had a plague of rabbits. Cute bunnies did a lot of damage to nature there. Authorities tried anti-rabbit fencing and even biological warfare to get rid of the invasive species.
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<v But what I didn't know until reading the news this week was that for more than 150 years scientists weren't quite sure where all the rabbits originally came from. But now they know. Australia's Channel 9 reports on a new DNA analysis that confirms an old suspicion>the British did it.
Genetic analysis finds that the bunnies who chew through Australia's natural landscape trace back to 24 wild English rabbits. They were brought over by an English settler from his estate in 1859. They multiplied, as rabbits do. Scientists call it one of the biggest "biological invasions" in world history. To this day, wild rabbits do about 200 million Australian dollars a year in damage to agriculture. All from one Brit, who wanted some rabbits to hunt for fun.
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You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app, and when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News+ partners. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
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