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The U.S. bill giving TikTok an ultimatum · Apple News Today

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  [MUSIC FADES IN]
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  Yasmeen Khan: Good morning! It's Wednesday, March 13th. I'm Yasmeen Khan in for Shumita Basu.
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  Khan, Narrating: This is "Apple News Today." Coming up, the House votes on a bill today that
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  could spell the end of TikTok as we know it,
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  what might happen after the prime minister of Haiti resigns,
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  and what Kate Middleton's photo scandal says about the Royal family,
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  and about ourselves.
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
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  But first, a quick look at a few other stories in the news. Starting with U.S.
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  politics, where voters have made their choice, the 2024 presidential
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  election will be a rematch between President Joe Biden and former president
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  Donald Trump. They effectively secured the nominations for their parties
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  after results came in from yesterday's primaries in Georgia, Mississippi,
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  and Washington state. The candidates will be formally nominated when the parties
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  hold conventions in the summer.
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  In the House of Representatives, the Judiciary Committee heard testimony
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  yesterday from former Special Counsel Robert Hur, who led the investigation
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  into President Biden's handling of classified documents.
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  As "The Washington Post" notes, the grilling by lawmakers was fiery
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  at times, but Hur's testimony ultimately revealed little new information.
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  And the questions he faced fell largely along political lines.
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  Republicans pressed Hur about why he didn't pursue criminal charges
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  against Biden, even though President Trump faces charges for mishandling classified
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  documents. Hur has said in the past that there are key differences.
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  For example, Trump did not cooperate with efforts to recover classified
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  documents from his Florida home. Democrats, meanwhile, pressed Hur about
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  the assessments the lawyer made of Biden's health and mental state
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  in the report. Hur described the president as quote a "sympathetic,
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  well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory."
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  The White House has strongly rejected those claims, but Hur told the committee
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  that he felt justified to include them.
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  [START TWITTER ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Robert Hur: My assessment in the report about the relevance of the President's
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  memory was necessary and accurate and fair. Most importantly, what I wrote
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  is what I believe the evidence shows and what I expect jurors would perceive
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  and believe. I did not sanitize my explanation, nor did I disparage
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  the President unfairly. I explained to the Attorney General my decision
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  and the reasons for it. That's what I was required to do.
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  [END TWITTER ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Khan, Narrating: And "The New York Times" has new reporting on Boeing, Alaska Airlines,
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  and the 737 jet that had a panel blow out en route to Portland earlier this year.
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  One day before that incident engineers and technicians for Alaska told
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  "The Times," they were so concerned about the safety of the plane
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  that they recommended pulling it out of service for maintenance immediately.
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  The airline says the concerns raised did not meet their internal standards
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  for pulling a plane out of service, so the flight departed as scheduled.
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  [OMINOUS MUSIC]
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  But "The Times'" report has raised questions about why Alaska Airlines
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  did not choose to act with an abundance of caution, and send an empty jet
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  to Portland where it has a maintenance facility.
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  Today, the House will vote on a bill that could spell the end of TikTok
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  as we know it. The bill, which is expected to pass, is not an outright ban on
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  the popular social media app, instead, it would require TikTok's parent company,
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  [MUSIC FADES]
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  Byte Dance, based in China, to sell the app within 180 days or have it taken
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  down from the Apple and Google app stores. The bill has bipartisan support,
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  and advocates have long warned that because TikTok is owned
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  by a Chinese company American user data could be at risk. Here's one
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  of the bill’s sponsors, Republican Mike Gallagher on "PBS NewsHour."
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  [START PBS NEWSHOUR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Mike Gallagher: The fundamental danger is that TikTok is owned by ByteDance and ByteDance
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  is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party. So from this flow, two concerns,
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  one being the security of American's data on the platform, but the other,
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  and I think broader concern is the potential for this platform to be used
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  for the propaganda purposes of the Chinese Communist Party.
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  [END PBS NEWSHOUR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Khan, Narrating: The bill has the backing of President Biden and national security
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  officials who also warn of Chinese interference. TikTok has repeatedly denied
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  the accusations and said the company is not owned, controlled or influenced
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  by the Chinese government. And back in 2020, when President Trump
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  tried to do away with the app, he was blocked. The courts said,
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  the government hadn't sufficiently demonstrated that the app presented
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  a national security threat. Though the bill is expected to easily pass
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  the House, it faces an uphill battle in the Senate where it's opposed by a mix
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  of progressive Democrats and hardline Republicans, who argue
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  that the bill limits the right to free speech. Senator Rand Paul
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  has long been a critic, and his opposition could hold up the bill.
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  [START C-SPAN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Rand Paul: I think we should beware of those who peddle fear. I think we should be
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  aware of those who use fear to coax Americans to relinquish
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  our liberties, to regulate and limit our first amendment rights.
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  [END C-SPAN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Khan, Narrating: We should note, Rand Paul has received millions in campaign donations
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  from one of TikTok's largest U.S. investors, according
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  to "Bloomberg." Paul has denied the money has anything to do with his position.
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  Meanwhile, "The Washington Post" notes how phones were ringing off the hook
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  on Capitol Hill on Tuesday with users of the beloved app trying to save it.
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  Some 170 million Americans use TikTok. And the perception that it's being banned
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  [GENTLE MUSIC]
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  could quickly become an election issue.
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  Turning now to an ongoing story we've been covering out of Haiti.
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  Earlier this week, Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his plans to resign amid
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  a stunning crisis in the country. In recent days, there have been reports
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  [MUSIC FADES]
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  of armed groups attacking the airport, freeing prisoners, and leaving dead bodies
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  to decompose in the street.
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  Jacqueline Charles: People are trapped. I mean, you're basically a prisoner
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  in your home, a prisoner in your environment. Imagine that you are
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  in a city, a capital where all of the main arteries,
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  the main roads are controlled, the access in and out,
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  they're controlled by gangs
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  Khan, Narrating: That's Jacqueline Charles, Haiti and Caribbean correspondent
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  for "The Miami Herald."
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  Charles: In some areas, people have been killed, either by these groups,
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  bodies are not getting picked up because even the funeral homes
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  are afraid to, to go out. There's also been a lack of fuel.
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  So people have to preserve whatever little that they have.
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  Khan, Narrating: To back up a bit, this all started a few years ago when the previous
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  president was assassinated. There was a power grab and Henry came out on top,
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  backed by the United States. But his power was seen as illegitimate by many,
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  including the gangs which have long controlled some
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  of the poorest neighborhoods. So, they rose up and, in recent months,
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  there's been chaos, and a surge in kidnappings and murders. And the police
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  haven't been equipped to manage it. After resisting calls to resign,
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  Henry finally agreed this week to step down. At an emergency meeting,
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  leaders in Haiti agreed to form a new transition government led
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  by a seven-member presidential council which will be responsible for selecting
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  an interim prime minister. Charles says, the question now is how armed gangs
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  might respond.
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  Charles: Everybody's waiting to see what the reaction of these armed groups
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  and or other individuals are going to be as a result of this proposal.
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  I mean, cause one of the things it's clear and what Caribbean leaders made clear
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  is that there is no seat at the table for any of the gangs or for any
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  of the armed groups who were demanding the resignation of the prime minister
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  and who were carrying out these violent coordinated attacks
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  that include two mass prison breaks.
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  Khan, Narrating: And in startling turn from what we shared with you yesterday Kenya announced
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  that it will not send security forces to Haiti until the new government
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  is in place. The country was planning to send about a-thousand police officers
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  to help tackle violence. In the meantime, Charles says the people
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  of Haiti are terrified.
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  Charles: You have this unease because you're in your house, you're sleeping at night
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  and you don't know. Are you going to be next?
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  [PENSIVE MUSIC]
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  Charles, Narrating: Is your neighborhood also going to be targeted?
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  Khan, Narrating: Finally, at this point, whether you want to or not, you've probably heard
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  about the doctored photo debacle involving Kate Middleton,
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  the Princess of Wales. Kensington Palace posted the image on Sunday, Mother's Day
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  [MUSIC FADES]
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  in the UK, a smiling photo of her and her three children.
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  Kathryn VanArendonk: Except almost immediately people started to say, "I think that photo
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  is doctored," and then the AP issued
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  a kill notification because they also agreed that the photo
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  had been manipulated.
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  Khan, Narrating: This is Kathryn VanArendonk, a critic for "Vulture."
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  And part of the reason this was such a big deal, apart from AP's decision is that
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  Middleton has been out of the public eye for months. Here's a recap.
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  The Palace announced a planned abdominal surgery in January, and said Middleton
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  would not resume public duties until after Easter. But as Queen Elizabeth would say,
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  being visible is a royal necessity. Royal watchers, along with the internet,
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  meaning all of us. wouldn't accept the Princess of Wales being absent
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  for so long. And, by February, rumors were circulating that the Royal family was,
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  perhaps, hiding something.
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  VanArendonk: And so what was sort of a, like, burbling fascination with what is happening with
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  Kate Middleton just accelerated into this insane meme storm
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  of speculation about what is actually going on with her
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  Khan, Narrating: And when the Palace released the Mother's Day photo, and the public
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  started to notice discrepancies in the image, the internet went crazy.
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  VanArendonk: people love to become detectives about like, I see this photo, is it doctored?
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  Where is it doctored? Is that sleeve match this other sleeve? Is that shirt
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  the same shirt that they were wearing in November? Are those the same shoes?
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  Does that photo look like this other photo? Does that mean that this,
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  what's the timeline? And so it becomes this self-perpetuating feedback loop
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  of, of conspiracies that just grow and grow and grow.
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  Khan, Narrating: The rumor mill got so hot, that Middleton later apologized,
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  saying yes, she edited the photo, but it was a hobby, not something meant
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  to deceive. Still, several photo agencies took down the image saying that the level
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  of digital editing did not meet their standards for publication.
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  Now, there is no evidence that the Royals are hiding something. VanArendonk says
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  presumably, Middleton was doing what a lot of parents do, trying to get a photo
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  where all the kids are looking and smiling. But there's been heightened
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  scrutiny on the Royal Family because several members have recently had to
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  take a break from duties for one reason or another.
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  And the family is not blameless either. VanArendonk says the Palace PR machine
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  has let this moment get out of control which says a lot
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  about a PR machine that is known for churning out images and coordinating
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  events that depict a perfect Royal family. Which means, at some level,
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  the truth is always being repressed.
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  VanArendonk: The version that they play of themselves in public, we all understand is
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  this performance, and yet they are performing themselves, and there is always
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  [MUSIC FADES IN]
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  going to be some slippage between the public and the private.
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  And the question is not like, whether it's false, but where are
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  the places where it's probably real.
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  Khan, Narrating: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're
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  already listening in the News app right now, a Narrated Article is coming up
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  next from "The Atlantic," featuring "NPR" host Steve Inskeep. If you listen to
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  "Morning Edition" or "Up First "regularly, then you definitely know his voice.
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  He shares his quest to learn the truth about his secret adoption, and looks into
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  how it became such a common practice in the United States. If you're listening
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  in the Podcasts app, follow Apple News+ Narrated to find that story.
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  And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]