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A tentative deal to end the writers’ strike · Apple News Today

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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Monday, September 25th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show: The Democratic senator under pressure to resign, why NASA brought bits of an asteroid back to Earth, and Megan Rapinoe takes a final bow.
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  But first, there's a tentative deal in place to end the Hollywood writers' strike. "The LA Times" has details. Negotiators for the Writers Guild of America and the major studios have agreed on a three-year contract. It would increase pay rates and residual payment for streaming shows. It also includes new rules about the use of artificial intelligence. The union calls the deal "exceptional," saying it offers meaningful gains and safeguards for writers.
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  The tentative deal now needs to be voted on by union leaders and then ratified by union members. Writers will not be going back to work yet until the union authorizes them to. But picketing is on hold. If the proposed contract goes through, it would end a strike that has been one of Hollywood's longest. It started in May.
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  But a deal with writers won't be enough to start productions back up. The actors union is still on strike. Now studios can fully focus on making a deal with them. There are similar issues in dispute: pay and use of Al. And there are similar economic pressures hurting both sides of the bargaining table. Artists say they're not getting a fair slice of the pie as companies spend billions of dollars to launch streaming services. And studios say the pie isn't what it used to be, with cable subscribers leaving and TV ratings dropping.
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  The actors union, SAG-AFTRA, congratulated the Writers Guild on striking a deal. It says it's ready to resume talks with studios as soon as they're prepared to engage. But until then, the actors union says, it'll "continue to stand strong and unified."
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  Democratic Senator Bob Menendez faces growing calls to resign following his indictment, with some of the loudest coming from his own party, and inside his home state of New Jersey. Congressman Andy Kim says he'll challenge Menendez in the Democratic primary. Menendez denies wrongdoing and is refusing to step down from his Senate seat, though he is following Senate Democrats' rules by stepping down from his position as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
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  He's accused of taking bribes to help people with ties to the Egyptian government. His leadership role in the Senate committee meant he was in a position to do serious favors. Federal prosecutor Damian Williams explained the case.
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  Damian Williams: The senator, and his wife, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, in exchange for Sen Menendez using his power and influence to protect and to enrich those businessmen.
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  "POLITICO" points out the most eye-popping details in Friday's indictment. Menendez's wife, Nadine Menendez, whom he married in 2020, is described as having "close connections with Egyptian officials." Prosecutors say, soon after they started dating, she introduced him to Egyptian military and intelligence officers and established relationships that led to a, quote, "corrupt agreement."
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  The indictment says Menendez took bribes in exchange for helping the Egyptian government, which was eager to get military aid and access to American weapons. He's also accused of sharing non-public information about weapons deals with a person who passed it on to an Egyptian official.
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  Prosecutors accuse the couple of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, some of which was found stuffed in jackets embroidered with Menendez's name and the U.S. Senate seal. They found more than $100,000 in gold bars in his home. Prosecutors say he also accepted mortgage payments and a Mercedes-Benz.
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  Menendez has been investigated for corruption before. In 2006, federal authorities looked into whether he'd done favors for a nonprofit that paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent. But that investigation was eventually dropped. A separate 2015 bribery case went to trial. But it ended in a hung jury. Menendez and his wife are expected to appear in federal court on Wednesday.
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  NASA is getting ready to analyze its first samples of an asteroid taken from deep space. This stuff could provide clues as to how Earth became a planet that could support life. The historic 4-billion-mile journey to collect the specimens ended successfully over the weekend, when a capsule carrying the asteroid samples landed in Utah.
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  NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated the team on pulling off the mission, called OSIRIS-REx.
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  Bill Nelson: You did it! You designed it, you built it, and you carried out the first mission to collect a sample from an asteroid.
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  "The Verge" explains what's so exciting about this mission, which was years in the making, with years of analysis ahead, as researchers dig into the asteroid material. Scientists aren't quite sure why Earth is the planet where life thrives. One widely-accepted theory is that organic material, the building blocks of life, arrived on our planet billions of years ago, hitching a ride on asteroids.
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  The problem is that is really hard to study. When pieces of an asteroid crash to Earth, it's not clear where they came from. And they can be contaminated by the entry into Earth. So, to really figure out what's on these asteroids, scientists need to go to the source; they need to sample an asteroid in deep space, then carry the material back so researchers can take a look.
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  This mission builds on previous Japanese efforts that gathered a smaller amount of material from asteroids. OSIRIS-REx went up to collect much more. Now researchers around the world are getting ready to take a look at what it found, and see if it helps solve one of the greatest mysteries in science: how did we get here?
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  Finally, let's take a quick look at major stories from a big weekend in sports.
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  Soccer legend Megan Rapinoe played her last match for the U.S. Women's National Team yesterday. She credited her teammates with great work that led to multiple championships. But Rapinoe said she was proudest of the work they did to advocate for fair pay and civil rights.
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  Megan Rapinoe: I think it says a lot about us that everything on the field, I feel like, kind of, pales in comparison to what we've achieved off the field. And where we've chosen to, sort of, throw our weight in the way that we have used what is, you know, our greatest gift and all of our talent, and something that's really special that we were all born with to try to make the world a better place and to try to leave the game in a much better place than where we found it.
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  In other sports news, there's a new world record for the women's marathon. Ethiopian runner Tigst Assefa smashed the previous record by more than two minutes. Her time was 2 hours, 11 minutes, 53 seconds in the Berlin Marathon Sunday. Running records have been steadily falling in recent years, as elite athletes have started to wear a new generation of high-tech, super-light shoes.
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  And, we don't know what teams will play in the year's Super Bowl, but we now know who's playing the halftime show. Usher will be the headline act, which he calls the "honor of a lifetime." In 2011, he appeared in the halftime show as a guest, backing up the Black Eyed Peas. But on February 11th, in Las Vegas, Usher will be the main act.
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  You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app, don't go anywhere. We've got a story from "Bloomberg Businessweek" coming up that looks at Dollar General stores and how problems have piled up, creating potentially dangerous conditions for workers and shoppers.
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  That's cued up to play for you next, and we'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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