Latest / Apple News Today / What to know about the latest Clarence Thomas revelations

Transcript

What to know about the latest Clarence Thomas revelations · Apple News Today

• 0:00
  [MUSIC FADES IN]
• 0:01
  Gideon Resnick, Narrating: Good morning! It's Friday, May 5th. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, Ed Sheeran wins in court, how President Biden plans to spend trillions of dollars, plus a look into what, so far, is a pretty wild NBA postseason.
• 0:02
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 0:03
  But first, let's take a quick look at several big stories that are in the news. Reporting by "ProPublica" revealed more about the financial ties between Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the billionaire Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. Crow has funded lavish vacations for the justice, and new reporting shows he also paid the private school tuition for a member of Thomas's family. The exact amount paid by Crow isn't clear, but the price tag for four years would have cost more than $150,000. Like with the vacations paid by Crow, Thomas did not disclose these payments either. And he did not respond to "ProPublica's" questions.
• 0:04
  Also, "The Washington Post" reported that judicial activist Leonard Leo directed tens of thousands of dollars to be paid to Thomas's wife, Ginni, that was for consulting work she did over a decade ago. Leo also requested that her name be left off billing paperwork. At that time, the nonprofit group Leo advised filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a voting rights case. Leo told "The Post" that Ginni Thomas's work had nothing to do with the Court's business. But this reporting is all intensifying the scrutiny on Thomas and the Court as ethical questions swirl.
• 0:05
  The World Health Organization says COVID is no longer a global health emergency. This ends a declaration that's been in effect since January 2020. The WHO says it's now time to stop treating COVID as an emergency and to shift into dealing with it as a disease that's going to be with us for a while.
• 0:06
  The jury in a New York federal court ruled in favor of Ed Sheeran in a major copyright infringement lawsuit involving his 2014 hit "Thinking Out Loud." The British singer was accused of taking elements from Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On." Sheeran argued that he used common elements that many pop songs share. And at one point on the witness stand, he even picked up a guitar and sang to the jury to make his case. After the verdict, Sheeran said lawsuits like this threaten creativity and artists' ability to make a living.
• 0:07
  [START ABC NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 0:08
  Ed Sheeran: I'm obviously very happy with the outcome of the case, and it looks like I'm not having to retire from my day job after all. But at the same time, I'm unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all.
• 0:09
  [END ABC NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 0:10
  And finally, the U.K. is gearing up for the coronation of King Charles III tomorrow. This is gonna be the first event of its kind in 70 years, following the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II. You can get full coverage of the coronation on the Apple News app.
• 0:11
  [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
• 0:12
  President Biden has signed a lot of major spending bills into law since taking office.
• 0:13
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 0:14
  Trillions of dollars are involved, adding up to more than the Apollo space program. Now, Biden's administration has to figure out how to spend all this money effectively. "The Wall Street Journal's" Andrew Restuccia spoke to us from the White House about the stakes here.
• 0:15
  Andrew Restuccia: Now, he has to prove to the public that he can actually put them in place and convince them that these things are actually helping people in their day-to-day lives. Obviously if that works, it could really help him politically as he runs for reelection. And if it doesn't, it could really hurt him.
• 0:16
  Resnick, Narrating: The new spending will target climate change, healthcare and infrastructure. There's also major money to shore up the semiconductor industry.
• 0:17
  Together, the programs require agencies to set up systems for distributing hundreds of billions of dollars to companies, states and individuals. Mobilizing federal workers and resources requires a lot of coordination, and Restuccia says a big priority for the administration is to minimize wasteful spending and fraud.
• 0:18
  Restuccia: The government hasn't always been good at this sort of bureaucratic implementation, so the Biden administration's really hoping to prove its doubters wrong.
• 0:19
  Resnick, Narrating: With Biden now officially running for reelection, Restuccia says the administration wants to convince voters that this money is having an actual impact on their lives. Especially since passing further legislation is gonna be difficult in the years ahead with a divided Congress. The administration's strategy includes some pretty blunt messaging, like Biden literally putting his name on signs marking infrastructure projects around the country.
• 0:20
  Restuccia: They need to show the public that despite all that, despite the divisions in Washington, they can actually do things that are gonna benefit them. And so, those are the sort of tangible stakes for the public. And obviously, there's a separate set of political stakes for the president who needs to show this is what I've accomplished, and this is why I need a second term is to continue to, in his words, "finish the job," which has become something of an unofficial campaign slogan for him.
• 0:21
  [UPBEAT MUSIC]
• 0:22
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 0:23
  Resnick, Narrating: Okay, if you are anything like me, you might be finding yourself glued to the TV these days, taking in every second of the NBA playoffs that you are physically able to, even when that means the dreaded 10:00 p.m. start time for viewers on the East Coast. But this year's playoffs have felt especially wild. Last night, the Golden State Warriors beat the L.A. Lakers. That series is now tied 1-1. Tonight, we have some key matchups between the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers. And then in the West, the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns.
• 0:24
  So, here to walk us through some of the biggest postseason storylines is our friend, Apple News Sports editor Shaker Samman.
• 0:25
  Shaker Samman: Let's talk some hoops.
• 0:26
  Resnick: All right, let's do it. Okay, so, very big picture here: What has surprised you the most so far in these playoffs? We have the Milwaukee Bucks that are out, we have this kind of historic matchup happening between Steph and LeBron that's going on, people are going nuts about the New York Knicks. Tell me where your head is at here.
• 0:27
  Samman: Yeah, I think you look across the NBA and the story was frankly upsets. It was teams that were supposedly the front runners to win a title, if not losing, just underperforming to a great extent. I look at Phoenix, who played a shorthanded Clippers and still struggled to win in five. Every single game came down to the wire, basically. And so, I'm really excited by and impressed by what I call, basically, the depth and the parity in these NBA playoffs.
• 0:28
  Resnick: So, let's move from that depth, let's move from that parity. Let's talk about a couple of the heavyweights that are here, too. People that are still in the playoffs, teams that really seem like they have a good chance to potentially win it all. And I wanna zero in specifically on the Philadelphia 76ers. Joel Embiid, obviously named the MVP of the regular season this week. What did you think of that?
• 0:29
  Samman: He, Giannis or Jokić could have won the MVP any of the last three seasons. I'm glad he got to win one. You can make your arguments on which guy was more valuable or whatever else. He's a superstar, and he's one of the best players we have in the NBA.
• 0:30
  Resnick: And so, let's stick with the 76ers and this series. What are you looking for there, the Celtics against the Sixers? It really feels like one of the last remaining high-seeded playoff matchups that we have.
• 0:31
  Samman: I don't know really what to make of Philly. I think they are so talented, but I think that in circumstances where if all of the pieces don't line up exactly as they want them to, they're not really that great at adapting. Whereas you see other teams are really good at adapting when things don't go their way. Their plan B and plan C and plan D still allow them to have a fighting chance at winning. Whereas with the Sixers, it really feels like there's no next plan. It's either A or lose.
• 0:32
  Resnick: Okay, so it's time to put you on the spot. Who do you have in the Finals at this point, and what do you think is gonna happen?
• 0:33
  Samman: [SIGHS] I'm gonna go for a Denver Nuggets versus… I'm gonna say Miami Heat, NBA Finals. I would also say with the caveat that like, it's almost like… Everyone always has a flaw. Everyone has this thing that's like, "Well, you know, they're not too good at this." I think the really cool thing about the NBA playoffs this year, going back to what I was saying earlier, is that wide parity means there's no such thing as a sure champion. Everyone has a chance to implode and everyone has a chance to reach the top, with the exception of the Knicks. Let's not be silly.
• 0:34
  Resnick: I… [CHUCKLES] You said it. I won't go there. Not gonna make New York people too upset about all of that.
• 0:35
  Resnick, Narrating: You can find all the coverage of these NBA playoff games and more in the Apple News app. And if you are already listening in the News app right now, go ahead and stick around. Our weekly interview show, "In Conversation," is coming up next.
• 0:36
  [MUSIC FADES IN]
• 0:37
  This week, Shumita sat down with Maurice Chammah, a reporter with "The Marshall Project." They talk about a decades-long decline in death penalty sentencing that's driven in part by the work of mitigation specialists, or life history investigators.
• 0:38
  Chammah shadowed a specialist who excavates a man's childhood traumas in a bid to spare his life and takes us into the courtroom as a jury reconsiders his sentence.
• 0:39
  [START APPLE NEWS IN CONVERSATION CLIP]
• 0:40
  Maurice Chammah: They try to get past that dichotomy of mercy and punishment and really look into the actual life stories of these people and understand more of the why behind the crimes so that we're not just describing people who commit crimes as "evil," as "monsters," but that we try to unpack more about what it is that made them the way that they are and led them to the crimes that they committed.
• 0:41
  [END APPLE NEWS IN CONVERSATION CLIP]
• 0:42
  That episode is queued up for you next, and I'm gonna be back with the news on Monday.
• 0:43
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]