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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Thursday, October 26th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is “Apple News Today.” On today's show…
Why Qatar is involved in hostage negotiations in Gaza…
We finally have a new Speaker of the House…
…and a catch-up on this week in Trump legal news.
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But first, let's check in on some major stories in the news.
We're following a developing story out of Maine, where a number of people were killed in a series of mass shootings yesterday evening.
At this point, the total number of people killed and wounded is still unclear… but police in the city of Lewiston said they are looking for one suspect connected to two shootings at a local bar and a bowling alley.
Lewiston City Councilor, Robert McCarthy, told “CNN” last night that dozens of people were injured.
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Lewiston City Councilor Robert McCarthy: We are a town of about 39,000. Our hospitals are not geared to handle this kind of shooting event, and they're doing the best we can.
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As I mentioned, this story is still developing. You can find the latest on the Apple News app.
In other domestic news, the United Auto Workers union says it has a tentative deal with Ford. This means it could end its six-week strike with one automaker, while negotiations with the others are ongoing. The agreement includes a 25% wage increase, over the course of the contract, for 57,000 workers at Ford facilities.
UAW President Shawn Fain addressed members yesterday, saying the proposed contract is a big win.
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UAW President - Shawn Fain: For months, we've said that record profits mean record contracts. And UAW family, our Stand Up Strike has delivered.
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The proposal needs to be approved by union members before it goes into effect.
And in international news, the Israeli military launched a brief ground attack into northern Gaza last night. This comes in advance of an expected larger ground invasion. The Israeli military said soldiers targeted military infrastructure, to prepare for the next stages of the war.
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Let's stay with Israel-Hamas news and turn our focus now to the state of hostage negotiations. It's been nearly three weeks since Hamas attacked Israel and brought hostages back to Gaza. So far, a mother and daughter from the United States and two Israeli women have been released. That leaves more than 200 people - a mix of civilians, soldiers, more than half foreign nationals - still held hostage by Hamas, according to the Israeli government. Israel has said it's willing to delay a full ground invasion of Gaza for a few days to allow negotiations to continue. Hamas says it's willing to release more hostages if Israel allows more humanitarian aid into Gaza, including fuel.
There's one small country in the Persian Gulf playing an outsized role in these talks over releasing hostages. “Bloomberg” writes about how Qatar became the go-to geopolitical fixer - in this conflict, and others around the world.
Qatar has decades-old diplomatic channels open across the Middle East, including with Islamist militant groups like Hamas. In fact, a Hamas political office was created in Doha, Qatar's capital, in 2012. A Qatari official tells “Bloomberg,” that office has been used in mediation efforts across multiple U.S. administrations to talk about the situation in Gaza and Israel. Now, these relationships are giving Qatari mediators an advantage in dealing with current hostage negotiations.
Mediators in Qatar have also been working to prevent the war from expanding across the region, talking to Iran and the militant group Hezbollah to prevent a second front from opening in the north of Israel, along the border with Lebanon. Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah have grown more intense there in recent days.
This marks the third time in the past two months that Qatar has played a mediating role between adversaries. Last month, Qatari mediators helped to secure the release of five Americans detained in Iran. And they worked with Russia to negotiate the release and reunification of four Ukrainian children separated from their families by Russia's invasion.
“The Washington Post” also has a good write-up on why Qatar has chosen to get involved in so many international conflicts, the geopolitical risks, and benefits. You can find that article in the Apple News app.
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Now, to big news out of Washington. We finally have a new Speaker of the House, and lawmakers can finally get back to work.
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Representative Mike Johnson from Louisiana was elected yesterday with unanimous support from all voting Republicans. He and the House now have just over three weeks to pass spending bills to avert a government shutdown. They'll also consider President Biden's request for $106 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel.
After winning yesterday's election Johnson told reporters, Israel is his first priority as Speaker.
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Johnson Israel: Our nation's greatest ally in the Middle East is under attack. The first bill that I'm going to bring to this floor, in just a little while, will be in support of our dear friend, Israel. And we're overdue in getting that done.
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Now in case you're wondering, "who is Mike Johnson?" “Politico” has a 15-issue cheat sheet on what Johnson has said and voted for in the past, that works as a good starting point on what to know about him.
Johnson was elected to Congress in 2016. He's a Trump supporter and he voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results, telling Trump at the time to keep "fighting." He led an effort involving more than 100 Republican lawmakers asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the election results, which ultimately failed. And Johnson served on Trump's legal defense team during his first impeachment.
On social issues, he opposes abortion and same-sex marriage. Before he was elected to Congress, he was a constitutional lawyer who successfully defended Louisiana's ban on same sex marriage. He opposes gender-affirming care for minors. And last year he introduced federal legislation similar to Florida's so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill, that would have banned speech about sexual orientation, gender identity and more at all federally funded institutions.
On fiscal policy, Johnson has called for more oversight on spending, particularly aid to Ukraine. And he says he supports a temporary spending plan to keep the government funded past the November 17th deadline.
If you want a window into the new speaker's stance on a number of other issues, like climate change, immigration, and trade with China, check out that full “Politico” article.
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We're going to close today by catching you up on a few updates you might have missed over the last few days, in Trump legal news.
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Let's start with his civil fraud case in New York, where Attorney General Letitia James alleges Trump, and his family falsely inflated the value of their assets. James is seeking $250 million for the state of New York. And she wants to permanently ban Trump and his sons Donald Jr and Eric from running businesses in the state. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
That trial started earlier this month but it’s getting a lot of attention this week due to one particular reunion in the courtroom.
Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer, took the stand over the last few days. It's the first time he and Trump have shared a room in five years. Cohen testified that he felt pressured by Trump to inflate assets and reverse-engineer financial statements to match valuations that Trump quote "arbitrarily selected," comparing the former president to a mob boss.
Trump also briefly took the stand and was given a $10,000 fine by the judge for violating a gag order. This judge had issued the order earlier in the trial, barring Trump from making disparaging comments in public about court staffers. This is Trump's second violation of that gag order in two weeks, and the judge warned Trump that future transgressions could bring "more severe" sanctions, including jail time.
Now, to Georgia, where the election interference case involving Trump is picking up steam. Remember, this case has a lot of co-defendants; it started out with 18 plus Trump. Right now, the district attorney is applying pressure by offering plea deals to his co-defendants in exchange for their testimony against him in the trial.
Over the last seven days, three co-defendants - all lawyers, chose to take a deal. First, Sidney Powell, then Kenneth Chesebro, and most recently, Jenna Ellis. Legal analyst, Elie Honig, spoke on “CNN” about how these plea deals might affect the case. He said, while it strengthens the prosecution's stance to lock in guilty pleas, he's eager to see the details of what's in these pleas, because they've given these defendants a lot of leniency.
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Elie Honig: None of them have had to plead guilty to that racketeering enterprise. Instead, they've all pled to either very low-level felonies or to misdemeanors.
Ellie Honig: And not a single one of them is going to do a day behind bars as a result of the pleas.
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Out of the remaining co-defendants, it's unclear who else might be offered a plea deal.
<v You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around to hear a Narrated Article up next from the New Yorker. It is a deep dive on one Republican who briefly seemed poised to become Speaker of the House>Representative Jim Jordan. Even though he didn't win, it speaks to this chaotic moment in GOP leadership.
If you're listening in the Podcasts app, follow Apple News+ Narrated to find that story.
And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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