Shumita Basu, Narrating: Hey there. It's Shumita here. Every so often, we're gonna recommend a show that we think is worth you checking out. "Decoder Ring" from "Slate" is a podcast about cracking cultural mysteries. In each episode, host Willa Paskin explores a question, object or habit, reveals its untold history, and tries to figure out what it means and why it matters. Check out "Decoder Ring" on Apple Podcasts.
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Good morning! It's Thursday, November 17th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, the powerful surveillance tools Qatar is using to watch World Cup fans, why the vast majority of clothes that you donate don't actually get recycled, and a legal debate over whether Mariah Carey is the one true Queen of Christmas.
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But first, Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives next year. New midterm results have the GOP set to gain a narrow majority. That means that Congress will be divided, with Democrats controlling the Senate. And that raises the stakes for the final days of the current Congress. Democrats are trying to push through as much as they can while they still control both chambers.
Yesterday, the Senate advanced the Respect for Marriage Act. Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin, the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the Senate, has been rallying votes for the bill.
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Tammy Baldwin: With the Respect for Marriage Act, we can ease the fear that millions of same-sex and interracial couples have that their freedoms and their rights could be stripped away.
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This bill has been a priority for Democrats since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Activists were worried that the Court could target same-sex marriage next, and wanted a new federal law that could act as a backstop.
If signed into law, the Respect for Marriage Act will not protect same-sex marriage in the same way as the Supreme Court ruling. As "Grid" explains, a state could still ban same-sex marriages. But this would require it to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. And the same principle would apply to interracial marriages.
To help get additional Republican votes, the bill advanced by the Senate yesterday included language carving out protections for religious institutions. Yesterday's vote is not the end, but the strong majority for the bill has people on the Hill expecting that it'll ultimately be signed into law by Biden.
"Vox" looks at other Democratic goals for these last few months before new Congress members are sworn in. That includes reforming the way Congress counts electoral votes, a direct response to Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election result. It also needs to agree on how to fund the government and prevent a shutdown. And Democrats hope to pass a bill that extends the DACA program to protect immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.
Lame-duck sessions have become more productive in recent years. Data from the Pew Research Center shows that in the last Congress, over 40% of total bills passed happened in the session.
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At this World Cup, which kicks off on Sunday, soccer fans will be under digital surveillance like never before.
Vas Panagiotopoulos: What is different is that it's basically the sheer scale and coordination of the deployment of this technology.
Vas Panagiotopoulos recently wrote in "WIRED" about the biometric surveillance technology Qatar is rolling out.
Panagiotopoulos: To give some context, like during World Cup in Russia, there were like, reportedly around 8,000 surveillance cameras. It was like around half the current number, which is 15,000.
He points out that some biometric technology like facial recognition software has been used at sports stadiums before to verify ticket-holders and spot known troublemakers. But there are different concerns when it's being used by Qatar, which is under a lot of criticism for its human rights record. There's real potential for abuse and privacy violations. European authorities have warned visitors against downloading Qatar's World Cup apps, saying they're too intrusive.
Panagiotopoulos: You have all these, like, very big concerns about, like, how all this data is gonna be used, how it's gonna be stored, how it's gonna be processed.
It's just one example of how this World Cup is so different because of where it's being held. People want to cheer on their teams and enjoy the matches. But some fans find that harder with all the issues around Qatar, including how it treats immigrant workers and LGBTQ+ people.
Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard on "Ted Lasso," talks about this in our new World Cup podcast called "After the Whistle." He is a huge soccer fan in real life, and he is super stoked for the tournament. But what's happening in Qatar worries him. In the first episode, Hunt says the country invited him to attend, but he said no.
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Brendan Hunt: A representative of Qatar reached out, trying no doubt to capitalize on the synergy of "Ted Lasso" and American football and English football. I was offered free flight, free hotel for at least as long as the group stage. And it was, you know, claimed that there would be no expectation of social media posting, which I thought was rather unlikely. And so, I declined. As much as I want to support my team, I will do so from home.
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The podcast is called, "After the Whistle with Brendan Hunt and Rebecca Lowe." Mostly, it's about the teams, the matches, the culture around the tournament. You'll learn a lot, and these two will have you laughing a lot too. You can check it out on the Apple News app and the Podcasts app. And if you're already listening in the News app now, you'll hear it in just a few minutes. We'll cue up the first episode to play right after this show.
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When you drop off clothes at a donation or recycling bin, like a pair of old blue jeans, it's tempting to assume that you did your part. That your jeans are gonna have a whole second life.
Natalie Obiko Pearson: We feel better 'cause we've recycled it instead of sending it straight to the landfill. The reality is much messier.
That's Natalie Obiko Pearson, a senior investigative reporter for "Bloomberg." She recently wrote about how less than 1% of used clothing actually ends up being recycled into new clothing. And a big part of the problem is fast fashion. Cheap clothing is so flimsy and complicated to reprocess that it often can't be re-used, no matter what brands say to encourage customers to recycle.
Pearson: When we believe something will be recycled, we tend to consume more of it, but the reality is that textile recycling simply doesn't exist at scale yet. It's an incredibly difficult process.
The challenge of sorting through the world's textile waste largely ends up falling to developing countries, like India and Ghana. Second-hand clothing processing facilities in India sort through enough garments every day to fill two and a half Boeing 767 jets.
Pearson: So, what's coming in? A greater and greater proportion is very low value and really simply has no use. Like, it costs them to get rid of it.
Obiko Pearson traveled to Ghana while reporting this story and says the environmental and human toll of fast fashion is clear.
Pearson: You go to the beach outside Accra, the capital, and there is literally a wall of rags six feet high in places, stretching in both directions for miles. That wall of discarded clothing is so solid that they actually build shanty towns on top of it. And what the head of waste management was explaining is that, you know, 40% of what comes into Ghana, used clothing imports, is not usable. It basically becomes garbage.
H&M and Zara told "Bloomberg" they know that textile recycling has limitations, and they're investing in new technologies that'll make it easier to recycle blended fabrics. Obiko Pearson says this technology, realistically, is years away.
Pearson: It's a broken system, but it's the best system we have right now to deal with all of the textile waste coming out of mostly the rich world. I think the accountability here is twofold. It lies with the companies that are producing all of this waste and not taking responsibility for its disposal. And I also think the accountability with consumers is huge.
Sustainability experts say consumers need to be willing to change their habits in order to make a meaningful difference. Choosing to keep and re-use that pair of old blue jeans is just one way to start.
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For plenty of Christmas enthusiasts, it's never too early to start playing Christmas music. And there's one pop star who really leans into the season every year, as early as November 1st, encouraging her fans to blast her iconic chart-topper.
[MUSIC - "ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU" BY MARIAH CAREY]
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Mariah Carey likes to think of herself as the Queen of Christmas. So much so, she tried to trademark the phrase. But her application was rejected this week. "The Washington Post" explains the legal battle, which involves another singer who makes Christmas music.
[MUSIC - "FA LA LA" BY ELIZABETH CHAN]
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That's Elizabeth Chan, and basically her whole career is making Christmas songs. She's the one who fought Mariah Carey's attempt to trademark "Queen of Christmas." And here's where the story takes a generous turn. Chan wasn't arguing that she herself wants to be the sole Queen of Christmas, even though she's been called that. She told "The Washington Post" she fought to make sure anyone can call themselves the Queen of Christmas.
So you're now legally free to choose your own queen. Maybe it's Brenda Lee from the '50s…
[MUSIC - "ROCKIN' AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE" BY BRENDA LEE]
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Or Darlene Love from the '60s…
[MUSIC - "CHRISTMAS (BABY PLEASE COME HOME)" BY DARLENE LOVE]
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I mean, you can declare yourself the Queen of Christmas. And that, Chan says, is the way it should be.
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You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app, don't go anywhere. As I mentioned, we've got the first episode of our new World Cup podcast coming up next. "After The Whistle" is hosted by "Ted Lasso's" Brendan Hunt and "NBC's" Rebecca Lowe. They get a little salty with their language at times, so we've got a few bleeps in there.
Sit back, enjoy listening to that, and we'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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