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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Friday, December 23rd. I'm Shumita Basu. This is our last episode of the year for "Apple News Today." We're off next week for the holidays and will be back in the new year. On today's show, Elon Musk's future at Twitter, Dr. Anthony Fauci's exit interview, and how the White Elephant gift exchange got its name.
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But first, let's look at two important developments in Congress as it wraps up the legislative session: the final January 6 report and the race to pass a spending bill to keep the government from shutting down. The January 6 committee's report, which is 845 pages long, makes public volumes of new details from the 18-month investigation into the Capitol attack. It says, "the central cause was one man." Donald Trump. And it calls for him to be barred from holding office again, citing the 14th Amendment rule about blocking those who engaged in insurrection from office.
The report also calls for legal changes that'll make it harder to block the certification of a presidential election.
There's some language related to that in the spending bill. Changes to the Electoral Count Act clarify what should happen during the vote-certification process. It had bipartisan support.
The $1.7 trillion spending bill mainly keeps the government running. It includes more than $770 billion for domestic programs and more than $850 billion for the military. It passed the Senate yesterday. It's expected to pass the House today.
There are many details in the long and complex bill, but we want to focus on one important thing that's tucked into it: big changes to how Americans save for retirement. "The Washington Post" takes a closer look at the measure, which could have major impact on lower and middle-income workers and people with student debt.
For one thing, most businesses would have to automatically enroll employees in 401k plans and boost contributions automatically, unless workers opt out. The federal government will also start a direct match of up to $1,000 annually for people making less than $71,000 per year.
The new legislation would also expand 401k access for part-time workers and make it easier to make withdrawals for emergency expenses. And as we've mentioned before on the show, there'd be some help for people with student debt. Employers could consider your student loan payments the same way they would a 401k contribution and match it accordingly.
You can read more about retirement changes, the spending bill, and the final January 6 report in the Apple News app.
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Elon Musk says he's stepping down as CEO of Twitter, though it's not clear who will fill the role next or when. His announcement comes days after he posted a poll to Twitter asking users if he should step down. The majority voted yes. It's only been about two months since he took over the company, and ever since then, there's been this serious "let me off this ride" energy.
Shirin Ghaffary: If I had to describe Elon's time at Twitter using one word, I would say it's been chaotic. He has made erratic decisions left and right.
Shirin Ghaffary from "Recode" recently wrote about the changes that Musk has made, what might stick, and what could happen next. She says Twitter is now in a more precarious state, and so is his image.
Ghaffary: Going into this acquisition, Elon Musk was a pretty revered person, I would say, within the business and tech community. He certainly had his flaws, but he kind of risked that reputation by taking over Twitter, a company that's full of political and fraught free speech issues. And it's not a profitable business. It's never been. He's making it even more unprofitable. So, I really think that Elon's takeover of Twitter has been destructive to his reputation, to his image.
There's evidence that investors worry that Twitter's distracting Musk from running Tesla. The electric-car company's stock was flying high for a while. But it's down around 60% this year, far worse than the broader market.
At Twitter, Musk has made it clear that he believes in less content moderation. In his short time at the reins, he's allowed Trump back onto the platform and suspended several accounts of prominent journalists. He's also made major staffing cuts, shaken up the culture of the company, and made ad buyers nervous about advertising on the platform. With all of that, who wants to be CEO next?
Ghaffary: Elon has said that so far, he hasn't found anyone good for the job, that the people who want the job are not good candidates, and the people he thinks are good candidates don't want to actually take on Twitter. I was talking to an advertising executive recently who was saying that it's gonna be really hard to repair Twitter's business. Again, even before Elon took over, Twitter was a struggling business.
Now, Twitter is not the biggest social media platform. It's a very specific online space. But Ghaffary says it has real impact, even on people who don't use it.
Ghaffary: It's where news breaks. It's where you see everyday people interacting with some of the most influential people in our society. And I think ultimately, we should all care about how there is only so many social media platforms in this world, about who is leading them, how they're making decisions, and how all of our speech gets handled online.
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America's top infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, will soon step down. His last day on the job is December 31st.
Dr. Fauci leaves a legacy behind that's frankly hard to summarize. He joined the National Institutes of Health in 1968 at just 27 years old, and he quickly shot up the ranks. He served seven U.S. presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Fauci was also a key player in government responses to threats like anthrax, swine flu, Ebola, and Zika. And, of course, COVID-19, when he pushed back on false claims by Trump and received violent threats from Trump supporters. His family had to get personal security. Still, he stuck to the facts and urged people to do their part in the pandemic, all the way through his final White House press briefing last month.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci: Please, for your own safety, for that of your family, get your updated COVID-19 shot as soon as you're eligible.
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Fauci recently sat down with "TIME" magazine for an exit interview of sorts. He had a very simple desire for his first day after decades of often stressful government service.
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Fauci: Probably sleep an extra hour and not get up at 5 o'clock in the morning the way I have for the last 40 years.
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"TIME" also asked him to share some advice for whoever takes his job next.
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Fauci: Stick with the science, number one. Always go with the data, with the evidence. And although you may be involved in policy, stay out of politics. Do not at all show any ideology one way or the other. Just be a pure scientist. That's what you need in the job.
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Fauci says he plans to enjoy his free time with travel and relaxation. But he still wants to stay close to medicine with lecturing and writing. And he says he wants to mentor the next generation of scientists and doctors and to encourage more of them to consider bringing their skills to government service.
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The office holiday party season is just about wrapped up, so there's a good chance you took part in some kind of gift exchange. What did you call it? Secret Santa? Maybe Dirty Santa? Those names make sense, mostly. But why do so many people say "white elephant" exchange?
"Wall Street Journal" language columnist Ben Zimmer wrote about the origins of this phrase. One common explanation goes back to the King of Siam. The story goes, he would give the gift of a white elephant. Sure, it was rare and beautiful, but the real reason it was "gifted" was to be a burden because it's a difficult animal to care for. Kind of like an under-handed gift.
The problem is, there's no historical evidence any king, of Siam or otherwise, actually did this. The hard data that Zimmer could find was a document from the 1700s that referred to wealthy Indian elites giving an elephant, no color specified, as a gift with the same evil intentions.
Zimmer traces how "white elephant" came to mean something annoying and unnecessary for English speakers. The linguist found the earliest-known references to White Elephant exchanges in Midwestern newspapers around the early 1900s. So, if you unwrapped something that you didn't like from your officemate, just be glad it's not a living creature the size of a monster truck.
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Before we let you go, if you're looking for something to listen to while you're traveling or cooking or doing other holiday stuff, check out the latest episode of our interview show, "In Conversation." This week, we are bringing you my favorite episode we made all year. It's my conversation with Dr. Laurie Santos. She teaches Yale's happiness class, which was so popular it was turned into a free online course that millions of people have taken including me. We talked about the scientifically proven methods to boost your happiness.
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Dr. Laurie Santos: I think we have this misconception that people are either happy or they're not, but the evidence really suggests that through your behaviors and your mindsets, there are lots of simple things you can do to feel better that we often don't even expect.
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A big reason why I love this episode is I take you to India with me to do one of the course assignments with my aunts, who are some of the happiest people I know.
If you're listening in the News app right now, we've queued up that episode of "In Conversation" to play next. "Apple News Today" is taking next week off, but the News app will keep being updated with all the latest stories. So, have a great holiday, peaceful holiday, and I'll be back with the news in the new year.
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