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What Raphael Warnock’s win means for the Senate and Georgia · Apple News Today

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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Wednesday December 7th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show: two of Donald Trump's companies were found guilty in a tax fraud trial. World leaders are meeting for a different kind of climate conference, to talk about protecting biodiversity. And why you might wanna reconsider food expiration dates.
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  But first, Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock has defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker in Georgia's runoff Senate election. This win cements a 51 to 49 Democratic majority in the Senate. Warnock addressed supporters last night.
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  Raphael Warnock: It is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy.
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  [CROWD MURMURS IN AGREEMENT]
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  Warnock: The people have spoken.
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  [CROWD CHEERS]
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  As we've mentioned before, these margins in the Senate might actually mean something. Democrats may not need Vice President Kamala Harris for tie-breaking votes. It creates some wiggle room when more centrist Senators like Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema seek to block or soften legislation. And it could make work like confirming judges easier. Walker conceded last night as the results came in.
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  Herschel Walker: So I want to thank all of you as well because there's no excuses in life, and I'm not gonna make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight.
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  Turnout in the runoff was high. After the polls closed, the Secretary of State's office reported that about 1.4 million Georgians voted on Tuesday, matching or possibly surpassing general election day turnout in November. With the early vote included, over 3 million Georgians voted in the runoff.
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  There are bigger implications for this race. Warnock's victory will help retain Georgia's status as a battleground. A state where, in 2020, President Biden won and Democrats earned their majority in the Senate with two runoff elections.
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  For Republicans, it raises more questions, and possible headaches, about former President Trump and the candidates he backed who went on to lose key races.
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  Two of former President Donald Trump's businesses were found guilty yesterday of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records. This is not the first time his company has been under criminal investigation, but it is the first conviction.
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  Trump himself was not charged in this case. Neither was his family. But a jury in Manhattan found two entities, controlled by Trump, guilty on all charges. The maximum penalty is 1.6 million dollars.
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  Prosecutors proved that executives received some of their compensation from the company in the form of "fringe benefits" like apartments and luxury cars. But that income was not properly reported to New York state or the IRS. The fraud scheme spanned more than a decade, and lasted into Trump's presidency.
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  The prosecution's star witness in this trial was Allen Weisselberg, Trump's former chief financial officer. He pleaded guilty to 15 felony tax charges last summer and agreed to testify. He admitted that he did not declare certain benefits as income, including a private school tuition check for one of his grandchildren signed by Donald Trump. Weisselberg will serve five months in jail.
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  As "Vox" points out, this verdict is maybe embarrassing for Trump, but it's nowhere near as serious as the other legal threats he's still facing. Some movement on those yesterday: the newly-appointed Justice Department special counsel who's investigating Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified information issued subpoenas. Local election officials in Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin have been ordered to share all communications involving Trump. And the January 6th committee signaled that it's planning to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department. This means the committee is strongly considering calling for prosecutions of those involved in the January 6th riot. You can read more details on Trump's various legal dangers in the Apple News app.
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  Starting today, delegates from countries all over the world are gathering in Montreal for a big climate conference, called COP15. This one is different from the COP27 conference that just happened in Egypt, and is hosted by the UN.
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  Benji Jones: There's a lot of acronyms, but these events are actually very important.
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  That's "Vox" reporter Benji Jones. He says these conferences, and the multi-lateral agreements that come out of them, are our best way to meaningfully address climate issues. The goal of this conference, is to come up with a plan to stop the decline of ecosystems and wildlife.
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  Jones: Ecosystems around the world are collapsing. We've seen in the last half century the average estimated population size of major vertebrate groups, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, fish have declined by almost 70 percent. Birds are disappearing, the forest are quieter. So there really is kind of an apocalypse of biodiversity loss happening right now.
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  One of the most ambitious - and controversial - proposals is a commitment to conserve, at minimum, 30 percent of Earth's land and water by 2030. Jones says, in the past, proposals like this have had negative consequences for Indigenous people.
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  Jones: In the past, putting land into protected areas has come at the expense of Indigenous people and their rights. So we've actually seen Indigenous people get kicked off their land for the sake of protecting area for wildlife, which is rooted in this kind of old-school idea of pristine nature as nature without people. And so, there's gonna be some tension about, okay, what actually qualifies as conserved land? What land will actually help contribute to this 30 percent target? And will it include lands that are occupied by Indigenous folks who, of course, have been some of the best stewards of biodiversity of anyone.
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  There's also the question of who's on the hook for the bill. Particularly since much of the biodiversity that remains is in countries that have fewer resources to protect it, versus wealthier nations where development has contributed to nature's decline. The stakes for getting this framework signed are huge. Failing to take conservation seriously now, could be disastrous down the line.
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  Jones: Human life, [LAUGHS] not to sound dramatic, like really depends on these systems. So we depend on clean water, which comes from plants that purify streams. We depend on wild animals that we eat. We depend on pollinators to make sure that we have enough crops to sustain us. So biodiversity is incredibly important to human wellbeing. That's what this kind of conference is trying to address. And so, yes, while it might be less flashy than COP27, the big climate conference, it is super important.
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  Delegates have about two weeks to agree on a list of goals they want to achieve by 2030.
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  There are two types of people in this world: those who laugh in the face of expiration dates, and those who worship them like an unimpeachable code. And of course, those two types of people are usually married to each other. At least, that's the battle in my house. I'm the one who's very lax about it. So you better believe I sent this article to my partner. It's from "The Atlantic," and they spoke to a bunch of food scientists who say expiration dates are pretty meaningless when it comes to food safety. In fact, a huge amount of food that's past its date is actually perfectly fine to eat.
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  Take milk for example. "The Atlantic" says, it's one of the most-wasted foods in the world. But the truth is, milk that has soured or even curdled can still be perfectly safe to consume, because it's already been through a pasteurization process that killed all the germs. You could use it for extra-fluffy pancakes or biscuits, or even a skin-care mask.
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  Now, there are some exceptions, like baby formula. But for most foods, expiration dates have very little to do with safety. They instead tell us about quality. How fresh and tasty something is. And food experts say plenty of products are both fresh enough and tasty enough to eat well after they technically "expire." Several experts said, for most foods, the sniff test is real and reliable. So the next time you come across an old cup of yogurt that's been sitting in your fridge beyond the expiration date, maybe open it up... take a whiff and trust your nose. There are more food safety tips in "The Atlantic's" story than we could cover here today, you can find them all in the Apple News app, along with all the stories that we talked about today.
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  And if you're listening to us right now in the News app, stick around. We've got a narrated article from "WIRED" queued up for you next. It's about bug-eating plants and the people who collect them. So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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