On today’s show: Lawmakers scrambled to reach a deal to fund the government and avert a shutdown. They were ultimately unsuccessful, the Wall Street Journal reports. Malala Yousafzai and Sahra Mani join Apple News In Conversation to talk about the bravery of women in the face of Taliban rule and the urgent need for the international community to act. Releasing Hollywood blockbusters is still a messy business, years after the COVID-19 pandemic and labor strikes upended the industry. Los Angeles Times reporter Ryan Faughnder has more. Plus, the suspected shooter of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson is extradited to New York, Amazon workers go on strike, and the summer camp where wannabe Santas train.
Chapter 1: What happened with the government shutdown negotiations?
Hey there, it's Shamita here. Just want to let you know, after today's show, our team is taking a good long end of the year break. We are human, we need to recharge, and we'll be back for the first full week in January. Okay, let's do the news. Good morning. It's Friday, December 20th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
On today's show, how some women in Afghanistan are risking their lives to protest Taliban rule, why releasing a holiday blockbuster is still tricky business, and the summer camp where wannabe Santas go to train. But first, it's been a roller coaster couple of days for lawmakers trying to avert a government shutdown before the holidays.
After a bill negotiated by Republican Speaker Mike Johnson was effectively killed by President-elect Donald Trump before it even came to the floor on Wednesday, the GOP, with no apparent backup plan, scrambled yesterday to pass an extension of current funding.
The new Trump-approved bill cut out a good chunk of provisions that were included in the previous version, but kept money for farmers, about $10 billion, and $100 billion in disaster aid. The bill made it to the floor, but not any farther.
On this vote, the yeas are 174, the nays are 235, one voting present, two-thirds not being in the affirmative, the rules are not suspended, and the bill is not passed.
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Chapter 2: What were the reactions to Trump's proposed spending bill?
So lawmakers went home with no deal last night. Trump was demanding spending be tied to a two-year debt limit suspension. Dozens of Republicans voted against the bill, balking at that idea without spending cuts. Texas Representative Chip Roy was one of the nay votes, and he had some strong words for his fellow Republicans.
To take this bill yesterday and congratulate yourself because it's shorter in pages but increases the debt by $5 trillion is asinine. And that's precisely what Republicans are doing. I am absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go forward to the American people and say, you think this is fiscally responsible.
As he's promised to do with Republicans who go against him, Trump threatened Roy with a primary challenge in online posts. This was the first major test of how Congress is preparing to act under a second Trump presidency, and it revealed a willingness from some Republicans to defy the president-elect.
It also casts a harsh spotlight on Speaker Johnson, who will need to figure out how he wants to balance Trump's demands with congressional realities. A slim Republican majority in the House means Johnson will likely need the support of Democrats to pass any bill, something Dems are not keen to do now after their initial contributions to the bill were axed.
Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries called the new proposal laughable.
We negotiated in a bipartisan, bicameral way, real progress for working class Americans, for middle class Americans, for everyday Americans who aspire to be part of the middle class. that has been cut out of this legislation. Why would you do that?
Jeffries expressed his frustration by calling the new plan the Musk-Johnson proposal, referring, of course, to Elon Musk, who led an intense pressure campaign on social media against the initial bill in recent days. He called the bill outrageous and encouraged his followers, over 200 million people, to call their representatives and urge them to vote against it.
Melanie Zanona, a congressional reporter for Punchbowl News, told MSNBC you could see Musk shifting the tides on Capitol Hill in real time.
When he was tweeting that today, members were taking notice. That tweet was flying around. I saw people on their phones on their way to votes looking at that tweet. One of them pulled it out and showed me. And that mattered. They view him really as the most powerful proxy. They think he speaks for Trump.
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Chapter 3: Why are women in Afghanistan protesting against the Taliban?
Ryan Fonder covers the business of entertainment for the LA Times.
All told, all the movies grossed $420 million at the box office in that five-day stretch. And that was also a Thanksgiving record. So it was a massive weekend dominated completely by those top three films. But the problem is that the overall box office environment is not as strong as it was even pre-pandemic.
Fonder says theaters were already on a slow decline before the pandemic for a few reasons. Ticket prices are up. Consumer habits have changed, with streaming getting more popular. A lot of people just wait for a movie to show up there so they can watch from their couch. That's part of why actors and writers went on strike last year, for better streaming residuals.
But to be clear, the theater still has diehard fans. And I don't just mean fans of the movie Die Hard — another great Christmas movie, by the way — If you tell those fans to show up in costume, to show up in groups, they'll really get into it.
They will go out for an event type of picture, the kind of movie like Wicked where it's like, OK, we're going out, we're going to dinner, we're going to get dressed up, that kind of thing. Like that is what's really driving the business and less so just kind of that old school walk up like, oh, what's going on at the movie theaters today?
If you haven't noticed, so many of the movies I've mentioned already are sequels or franchises. Fonder says that's because studios know it works. He pointed out every year the top 10 movies are dominated by sequels, remakes, and franchise extensions. As far back as 2011, the New York Times noted, sequels and franchises were starting to take over.
But as moviegoers, Fonder says, we lose a little something with that model.
I think you just get a less interesting mix of movies when every studio is trying to do basically the same thing and trying to do something that they've all done before. The phrase that I constantly hear from executives that makes me laugh a little bit is that they want something familiar with a twist. It's just a little different.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of the documentary 'Bread and Roses'?
Chapter 5: What challenges do Afghan women activists face today?
Chapter 6: How does Elon Musk influence political decisions?
It's really important for us to make a clear stance against the Taliban that what you are doing, does not represent us. It does not represent our culture. It does not represent our faith. And it does not represent our country. We have not elected you. You are not our representatives. And what you are doing is against our will. It's against our rights and dignity.
Malala and Sahra also told me about the need for the international community to take notice of what's happening to women and girls in Afghanistan, and they hope the film underscores the urgency to act.
I'm sure Taliban have plans for the future, but the world doesn't have any plan for the Taliban.
To hear the rest of my interview with Malala Yousafzai and Sahra Mani, listen to this week's episode of Apple News in Conversation. If you're listening in the News app, we'll queue it up to play for you next. Christmas is just a few days away, and for a lot of families, it's a cherished tradition to take a good old trip to the movies.
The 2024 holiday lineup includes some family-friendly films, like Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Mufasa the Lion King. Those are both out today. And there's one coming up on Christmas Day that is definitely not suitable for kids, the gothic horror film Nosferatu. It's been a pretty rough few years for Hollywood at large, between pandemic closures and labor strikes by writers and actors last year.
But it scored a big win over the Thanksgiving holiday. Three, actually. Wicked, Moana 2, and Gladiator 2.
It was led by Moana, which grossed $221 million in five days in its opening, which is a Thanksgiving record.
Little sis! Little sis! You were gone forever. It was three days.
Ryan Fonder covers the business of entertainment for the LA Times.
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