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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Friday, September 22nd. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today."
On today's show, a new plan to address gun violence in America, the NFL legend transforming college football, and an inside look at what drives Elon Musk.
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But first, a government shutdown could be just a little over a week away. And after what happened in the House yesterday, it looks a bit more likely that Congress won't agree on funding the government. There's still time, but not much. And not much optimism either. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sent lawmakers home for the weekend, basically conceding that a deal isn't close enough for there to be anything to vote on anytime soon.
That came after a handful of hard-line Republicans again blocked a vote to advance the defense funding bill. The move was not so much about the bill itself, but rather an attempt to protest government spending generally and push other agenda items, like border security. And in a tightly-divided House, five Republicans are enough to derail McCarthy's plans. Speaking to reporters in the hall of the Capitol, McCarthy did not have kind words about their approach.
Kevin McCarthy: This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down. It doesn't work.
At this point, there's little chance that Congress will pass all the spending bills needed by the end of next week. But there is a way to avoid a shutdown. They could pass what's called a continuing resolution, a CR. It's basically stalling for time, setting aside enough money to keep the government going long enough to allow time for negotiations and passing the main legislation. But efforts to get a CR done have stalled too.
"ABC" looks at what a potential shutdown could look like. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security payments would not be affected. Payment for many government workers, however, would stop around the country. So the impact would be felt far beyond Washington. As we mentioned on the show earlier this week, that would have a ripple effect across the economy. Pay would even be on hold for people who have to keep working because their jobs are considered essential, people like service members, airport security, power grid operators, and more.
Not an issue for lawmakers, though. If the government shuts down, members of Congress will still get their 174,000 dollars-a-year salaries.
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Now let's take a brief look at some other stories in the news.
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The auto-industry strike is expanding. The United Auto Workers union says it’s made progress in negotiations with Ford, so it won’t shut down more Ford sites, but it’s expanding its strike against two other Detroit automakers, GM and Stellantis.
In Washington, New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez now faces federal bribery charges. The new Justice Department indictment says that he and his wife received hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of a corrupt scheme involving three businessmen. Menendez has previously denied wrongdoing. In 2015, he was charged with illegally accepting gifts. That case ended in a mistrial.
Today the Biden administration is creating a new office for gun-violence prevention. Vice President Kamala Harris will lead the efforts. The office will play a key role in carrying out the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, that's the 2022 law that passed after the Uvalde school shooting that's considered the most sweeping gun violence prevention measure in 30 years. Establishing this office is the kind of move gun-control activists have called for.
Also in Washington, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Capitol Hill and the White House yesterday, meeting with Biden and top Congressional leaders in both parties. He talked about the importance of American support in the war against Russia.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy: When it comes to weapons, we will discuss everything, with a special emphasis on air defense.
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The trip was an appeal to keep the hardware and money coming. The gridlock over budgets we were talking about earlier is a concern for Zelenskyy, as well as skepticism from some Republicans over future aid to Ukraine.
And this Sunday, Megan Rapinoe will play her final match for the U.S. women's national team. She retires with two World Cup titles, an Olympic gold medal, and more. She also made a mark beyond soccer, as an advocate for equal pay and civil rights. You can read "ESPN's" summary of her ten most memorable career moments on the Apple News app.
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Let's stick with sports and look at one of the biggest storylines in college football this year. The University of Colorado Buffaloes, led by new coach Deion Sanders, are undefeated. That would've sounded impossible at the end last season. The team only managed one win. But now they're a force, largely because of Coach Sanders, the NFL Hall of Famer with two Super Bowl rings.
He totally flipped the fortunes of the Buffaloes over the last year. In a "60 Minutes" interview, he was blunt about how he overhauled the team. Sanders told a lot of the previous players to leave. And dozens did.
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Deion Sanders: You take a team that's won one game, and you fired a whole coaching staff. So who did the coaching staff recruit? The kids. So, the kids are just as much to blame as the coaching staff. And I came to the conclusion that a multitude of them couldn't help us get to where we wanted to go.
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Now that may sound harsh, but the results on the field are undeniable. Current star players include two of Sanders's kids, Shedeur and Shilo Sanders. Shedeur plays quarterback and is seen as a Heisman Trophy contender.
With Sanders as coach, games are attracting a lot more attention, far beyond fans in Boulder. A recent game got some of the best ratings in history for "ESPN." And the university has sold out tickets for the entire season, which hasn't happened in the program's hundred-year history. Big name celebrities are hyping up the team, stars like Lil Wayne and 'The Rock' have shown up on the sidelines. On Saturday, Colorado faces a major test, playing the powerhouse Oregon Ducks. And even with the team's turnaround, Colorado is still considered an underdog in the game. So football fans are watching to see if Coach Sanders can pull off another big upset.
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Before I let you go for the weekend, let me tell you what's coming up on Apple News "In Conversation." This week, I sat down with Elon Musk's biographer Walter Isaacson. He's spent the past two years trailing Musk, from the factory floor at Tesla to SpaceX rocket launches, trying to understand the tech billionaire's mind, what motivates him and what holds him back.
Walter Isaacson: He's had, since childhood, since he was sitting in the corner of the bookstore, lonely and reading sci fi and comic books, three missions, he felt. One was space exploration.
The second was to save the planet with sustainable energy. And the third mission, artificial intelligence.
Isaacson: Artificial intelligence can either be this huge boon to humanity or it could really endanger us. And people are talking about that a lot now in the past six months, but he's been talking about it for 20 years. And he wants to find ways to have our minds and our machines in sync.
Isaacson has written a number of biographies, about people like Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Steve Jobs. All considered great innovators. Isaacson says, Elon Musk might be the most flawed innovator he's written about. But he says, Musk's demons also help him get things done. They push him to set ambitious goals, like trying to establish the first human city on Mars.
Isaacson: In the middle of some big crisis, he will still hold a meeting that he does every week called Mars Colonizer, where they're discussing what clothing they're going to have for people on the Mars when they form a colony, what type of government they're going to have, and you almost pinch yourself and say, "Wait a minute. I'm sitting here with grown ups, and they're all talking about what we're going to wear when we live on Mars!"
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If you're listening in the Apple News app, stick around. My full conversation with Walter Isaacson is teed up to play for you next. Enjoy the weekend and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
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