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Congress tackles climate change and same-sex marriage · Apple News Today

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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Thursday, July 28th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news, and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
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  A surprise deal in the Senate has Democrats set to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on clean energy. If it passes, it would be the biggest climate spending package in American history. It came about after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin changed his position. Just a couple of weeks ago, he rejected a big climate spending bill. He represents the coal state of West Virginia, and he said he was worried about inflation. But Democrats, labor activists and environmental campaigners pushed hard to get the unpredictable senator to change his mind.
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  If it becomes law, the spending plan would also allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, which could make medicine cheaper. That's something Democrats have been chasing for years, which pharma companies have opposed.
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  There's a lot more going on in the Senate as lawmakers push to get stuff done before the August recess. So let's quickly run through a few big things. The Senate passed a bill this week to spend tens of billions of dollars to support domestic semiconductor production. That's addressing the issue of a pandemic microchip shortage and concerns that too many of them are made overseas. Some of the other issues on the table are quirkier. There's also a push for a bill that would restrict ownership of big cats, the so-called Tiger King bill.
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  But now, let's focus on one of the biggest issues left: same-sex marriage. Justice Clarence Thomas said, in his opinion on the recent abortion ruling, the Supreme Court should also reconsider same-sex marriage. That set off a push in Congress to make marriage equality federal law. Dozens of House Republicans helped pass a bill to do that. But it's not clear whether there are enough Republican votes in the Senate.
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  "Politico" profiles the point person in the battle to get enough GOP senators to sign on. That's Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin. She made history years ago as the first openly gay senator. Here's what she told "NPR" about how the effort is going so far.
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  Senator Tammy Baldwin: The conversations are very hopeful. And I will say that a number of Republicans have privately agreed to support the bill, but not publicly.
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  She needs 10 Republican votes, and she's about halfway there. "Politico" explains getting the rest will be the harder part. But she says she's optimistic.
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  There's major movement in the effort to free WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan from Russian custody. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he's going to be talking with his counterpart in Moscow soon. This would be their first conversation since Russia invaded Ukraine.
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  Secretary of State Antony Blinken: We put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeated and directly on that proposal.
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  Blinken didn't go into detail about the potential release deal. "CNN" reports that the U.S. has offered to exchange notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, also known as the "merchant of death." He's currently serving a 25-year U.S. prison sentence.
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  Griner testified in a Russian court yesterday. She described getting arrested at a Russian airport while carrying vape cartridges containing hashish oil.
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  Brittney Griner: My rights were never read to me. No one explained any of it to me.
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  Griner said officials made her sign documents that she didn't understand. She tried to translate using Google. She faces up to 10 years in prison.
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  The idea of a prisoner swap gained more momentum when a similar deal freed Trevor Reed, a former Marine who'd been held in Russia for more than two years. "CNN" reports Biden administration officials initially worried that the prison swap might be criticized by Republicans. But it actually received bipartisan praise and potentially widened the options for Whelan and Griner.
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  Abortion is still legal in North Dakota, but just barely. A judge blocked the state's move to ban the procedure for now. It's one of several states with trigger laws, which kicked in following the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
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  North Dakota is a massive state. It takes about five hours to drive across it. But for years, there was only one abortion clinic. And its leadership always knew that it was vulnerable.
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  Emily Witt: Jane Bovard chose the name Red River Women's Clinic because she knew that abortion would always be under threat in North Dakota and wanted the name to be able to work on both sides of the Minnesota-North Dakota border.
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  Emily Witt writes about the clinic in "The New Yorker."
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  Witt: Everybody knows it. And if you're a person living in that area who's had an abortion in the past 20 years, that's probably where you had it. And so a lot of people have a personal relationship to the clinic.
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  Yesterday's court move may buy some time, but the clinic has been getting ready to make that move across the Red River to serve patients in Minnesota. Witt explains how this is an example of the state-by-state reality of abortion access in America now.
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  Witt: It was just such a fascinating thing that in a place, you know, two little cities 10 minutes apart, there could be such a different political reality.
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  It's official, Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings are the new hosts of "Jeopardy!" They'd been sharing hosting duties on an interim basis after longtime host Alex Trebek died. The effort to replace him got pretty messy. In a message to fans announcing these are your official long-term hosts, the executive producer of "Jeopardy!" said, "We know you value consistency."
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  The journalist who really owns the "Jeopardy!" beat is Claire McNear over at "The Ringer." She looks at how finalizing hosting is just one of the many changes to come at the game show. There's at least one spinoff in the works and a "Jeopardy!" podcast. Also, the Tournament of Champions will be preceded by, for the first time ever, a Second Chance Tournament. That's when, as Claire puts it, "the players that coulda, shoulda, woulda come out on top" get another chance to redeem themselves. The fans have been wanting this. "Jeopardy!" listened.
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  I talked to Claire a while back on our weekend interview show, "In Conversation." And we talked about whether this is the real golden age of "Jeopardy!," all the big winning streaks that have been happening and a lot more. You can hear that episode in the Apple News app and read all the stories that we talked about on today's show. And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News+ partners. I'll talk with you again tomorrow.
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