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Worried that a recession’s coming? Listen to this. · Apple News Today

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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Wednesday, May 3rd. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, takeaways from the Senate hearing on Supreme Court ethics, troubling signs that press freedom worldwide is getting weaker, plus why soccer fans in Europe may not be able to watch the Women's World Cup this summer.
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  But first, let's take a quick look at several big stories in the news this morning.
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  The man accused of killing five neighbors with an assault rifle in Texas is now in custody. San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers says that a tip led law enforcement to his hiding place in a different county.
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  [START CBS NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Greg Capers: He was caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry. They effectively made the arrest. He is uninjured, and he is currently being taken to my facility in Coldspring.
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  [END CBS NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  This ends an extensive search that started after the killings Friday night. The suspect is now being held on five counts of murder and a $5 million bond.
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  In Serbia, a seventh grader opened fire at a Belgrade school this morning, killing at least eight children and a security guard. This type of gun violence is extremely rare in that country.
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  Back in the U.S., a new CDC report shows U.S. fentanyl deaths more than tripled in a five-year period through 2021. The drug can be 100 times stronger than morphine, meaning overdose risk is high. And it's often mixed with other drugs, causing people to underestimate the danger of what they're taking. The news comes as the Justice Department announced hundreds of arrests in an investigation of online sales of pills and other products laced with deadly fentanyl.
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  And this afternoon, the Fed will tell the world its next move. Nearly everyone on Wall Street expects a quarter-point interest rate hike. And let's talk about this for a minute longer because everyone is waiting to see what Chair Jay Powell has to say about the state of the economy. There are some new signs it may be slowing down. The job market isn't as hot as it once was, GDP growth is slowing, and now some economists say a recession may be more likely.
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  There are also a few wild cards. If the debt-ceiling fight in Washington drags on, that could do economic damage. Plus, there's the wobbly banking industry. First Republic was the latest in a recent string of failures that included Silicon Valley Bank. When the financial industry is in trouble, it can have a major ripple effect. That's because every other industry relies on banks for the loans they need to grow. Strategas Research CEO Jason Trennert talked about this on "CNBC."
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  Jason Trennert: Whatever your odds were for a recession before Silicon Valley, and for us they were pretty high, but they've gotta be higher now. Cleary, willingness to lend has gone down. There are no two ways about it. And for small companies, particularly small companies that do a lot of the hiring, they're very dependent upon bank lending.
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  So far, the failed banks were relatively small and had specific problems that other banks don't. It's not clear that there's a bigger wave of banking trouble ahead. Today's Fed meeting will answer some big questions, but it may also leave us with some new ones.
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  Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on ethics in the Supreme Court. Chair Dick Durbin outlined the goals.
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  Dick Durbin: The Court should have a code of conduct with clear and enforceable rules, so both justices and the American people know when conduct crosses the line. The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards. That reality is driving a crisis in public confidence in the Supreme Court.
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  Now the confidence crisis he's referring to stems from recent reporting from "ProPublica" about luxury travel that Justice Clarence Thomas accepted from a Republican donor without disclosing and from "POLITICO," which revealed that Justice Neil Gorsuch didn't disclose selling property to a law firm CEO with multiple cases before the Court.
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  Chief Justice John Roberts declined an invitation to testify in front of the Senate committee. The legal experts who did testify offered mixed opinions on what can and should be done around ethical rules for the Court.
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  At times, typical partisan themes came up, with Republicans questioning whether Democrats were using ethics as an issue to undermine a conservative-leaning court. Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy touched on this.
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  [START NOWTHIS NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  John Kennedy: I've been disappointed by Supreme Court opinions too, but my Democratic colleagues should fill out a hurt feelings report and move on for the sake of the Constitution.
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  [END NOWTHIS NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  But some Senate Republicans did agree with Democrats on the general idea that the Supreme Court could do more around ethics.
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  The question is how to enforce a new code. There are proposals for Congress to do something, but that's unlikely to pass. And besides, there are separation of powers questions, whether the legislative branch can do that to the judicial branch.
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  As "POLITICO" explains, Congress may be more likely to serve as a force that puts pressure on the Supreme Court to make ethical changes on its own. There are some signs it's already happening. In a rare move last week, all nine members of the Court signed a joint statement about their ethics practices. It didn't include a formal ethics code or enforcement method. But it does potentially signal that justices know their integrity is under a microscope by lawmakers, the press and the public.
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  It's World Press Freedom Day, a day created by the U.N. to raise awareness about the importance of journalists' ability to report without fear of retribution from governments. 2022, by all accounts, was a troubling year for independent journalism. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres says all our freedom depends on press freedom, and rights are eroding in every corner of the world.
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  [START UNITED NATIONS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  António Gutterres: Journalists and media workers are directly targeted on and offline as they carry out their vital work. They are routinely arrested, intimidated, detained and imprisoned.
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  [END UNITED NATIONS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, last year, killings of journalists jumped 50%. Reporters Without Borders says a record number of countries had "very serious" press-freedom problems. That means journalists may have been censored, surveilled or pressured to stop writing stories.
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  A record number of journalists were imprisoned, hundreds across more than 30 countries. Iran and China top the list for jailed journalists. Russia is another major offender.
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  One of the journalists held there is "Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich. He's accused of spying, which the "Journal" and the U.S. government deny.
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  His family was in the audience when President Biden talked about the situation at the White House Correspondents Dinner last weekend.
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  [START C-SPAN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  President Joe Biden: To the entire family, everyone in this hall stands with you. We're working every day to secure his release, looking at opportunities and tools to bring him home. We keep the faith.
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  [END C-SPAN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  When the Women's World Cup kicks off in New Zealand and Australia this summer, fans in Europe could be sidelined from watching on TV. FIFA says media companies in several countries aren't offering enough for broadcasting rights. It says if offers don't improve, it won't broadcast the women's tournament in Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
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  FIFA says major European broadcasters are offering less than $10 million for rights. That compares to men's World Cup rights that went for up to 200 million.
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  Now, because of the time difference, Women's World Cup matches will air outside of prime time in Europe. But FIFA says that doesn't fully explain the low offers. Its president calls them a "slap in the face" to players and "all women worldwide."
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  Now reading about this potential FIFA broadcast blackout made us think about another story we read recently, a super-local success story out of Oregon. A sports bar called The Sports Bra opened in 2022 with a unique niche: all women's sports, all the time, everywhere you look, from TV screens down to the decor.
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  Owner Jenny Nguyen talked to "CNBC" about the moment that led to her starting the business.
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  [START CNBC ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Jenny Nguyen: We were watching an NCAA finals game, and we had a really hard time finding it. And I was just like, the only way we're ever going to watch a women's game in its full glory is if we had our own place. I knew that… [VOICE FADES OUT]
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  She gambled her savings on it. And now she says that business is booming. The bar raked in nearly $1 million in its first eight months. And Nguyen says other entrepreneurs have called her for tips on opening similar women-focused sports bars in their communities.
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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 right now, stick around.
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  We've got a narrated article coming up next from "The Atlantic," ahead of an expected counteroffensive by Ukraine, which could come any day now. This article argues that the stakes are higher than just the war with Russia, that the future of the democratic world is on the line.
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  That's cued up to play for you next, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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