Their travel generates billions for the U.S. They’re rethinking their plans.

Summary

Apple News Today: "Their Travel Generates Billions for the U.S. They’re Rethinking Their Plans"
Release Date: April 24, 2025
Host: Shemitah Basu

---

Decline in International Tourism to the U.S.

Overview:
In the latest episode of Apple News Today, host Shemitah Basu delves into the unexpected downturn in international tourism to the United States. Contradicting previous forecasts of a rebound to pre-pandemic levels by 2025, March saw a nearly 12% decline in tourist arrivals compared to the previous year, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office.

Key Factors Contributing to the Decline:

1. Political Climate and Policies:

   • Tariff and Immigration Policies: Basu cites President Trump's tariff policies and stringent immigration measures as significant deterrents. These policies have not only inflamed international tensions but also led to the detention of several foreign tourists.
   • Detention Experiences: An unnamed German tourist shared his harrowing experience, stating at [01:27]

     “They handed me this little mat and this aluminum foil thing that you use as a blanket... I laid on the cement floor for two days and no one told me what was going on.”

2. International Relations and Perceptions:

   • Travel Advisories: Numerous countries have issued travel advisories warning their citizens about the increased scrutiny and potential for detention when visiting the U.S.
   • Survey Insights: A recent survey by Skift revealed that nearly half of respondents across five countries are now hesitant to visit the U.S., with 60% citing fear and anger as primary reasons for canceling their travel plans.

Expert Opinions:

• Sarah Coppet, Skift's Editor-in-Chief: At [02:21], Coppet remarks,

  “These high profile incidents that have really gotten a huge amount of worldwide press don't do the United States any favors for its inbound travel market.”

• Economic Implications: A hotel giant CEO quoted to Bloomberg highlighted the substantial "bad buzz" surrounding the U.S., emphasizing the economic impact. Goldman Sachs warns that reduced inbound travel could lead to nearly $90 billion in lost revenue, severely affecting states like Florida, California, New York, and Nevada.

Political Reactions:

• Senator Catherine Cortez Masto: In a hearing on [03:20], she expressed frustration with Trade Representative Jamison Greer over the tariff policies, urging a collaborative approach to address the negative impacts on tourism.

• Jamison Greer’s Response: At [03:44], Greer indicated willingness to engage, saying,

  “I'm happy to come speak with you.”

Future Projections:
Forecasters remain pessimistic about inbound travel returning to expected levels, signaling prolonged challenges for the U.S. tourism industry.

---

The Passing of Pope Francis

Overview:
Transitioning to global religious leadership, Basu covers the solemn farewell to Pope Francis, highlighting his final days and enduring legacy.

Final Days and Activities:

• Health Struggles: Pope Francis battled a severe case of pneumonia, spending 38 days in the hospital. Despite medical advice to remain isolated, he resumed his duties shortly after recovering.

• Public Engagements: His last public activities included greeting congregations at St. Peter's Square, visiting a prison to offer prayers, and delivering his final Easter blessing, where he called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Impact on the Vatican and Global Catholic Community:

• Closure and Funeral Plans: The pope requested a simple burial at the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major, a significant departure from tradition. His funeral is set to be attended by over 170 heads of state, marking a historic moment as the first pope buried outside the Vatican in over a century.

• Quotes from Vatican Correspondents:

  • Father Gabriel Romanell, CBC News: At [06:30], he reflected,

    “The call of the pope gave a hard sign of hope.”

Succession and Future of the Papacy:

• Basu notes that the conclave to elect the new pope will commence in roughly two weeks, with Pope Francis’s influence expected to play a significant role given the composition of voting Cardinals.

---

Major Sports Betting Scandal in the NBA

Overview:
Basu shifts focus to a burgeoning scandal in the sports betting industry, spotlighting a federal investigation into match-fixing within the NBA.

Details of the Scandal:

• Involvement of Jontay Porter: Mike Vorkanoff of The Athletic reports that Porter, a center for the Toronto Raptors, orchestrated bets by manipulating his game performances. On [08:58], Vorkanoff explains,

  “He could control his own stats... he claimed he had an eye injury... he told them he would leave the game with an illness.”

• Financial Stakes: The scheme involved significant sums, with individual wagers exceeding $100,000, potentially leading to payouts north of $1 million.

Consequences and Legal Actions:

• Law Enforcement Response: The FBI intervened, resulting in Porter’s ban from the NBA. He, along with three others, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy.

• Impact on Sports Integrity: Vorkanoff emphasizes the severe implications for the NBA’s integrity, highlighting that such admissions of manipulating performance pose existential threats to the sport’s credibility.

Expansion into College Sports:

• The investigation has widened to include five colleges, with the NCAA scrutinizing at least seven institutions for potential involvement in similar schemes.

Broader Context of Sports Gambling:

• Legalization and Regulation: With sports betting now legal in 38 states and Washington, D.C., regulators and professional leagues are better positioned to detect and prevent such fraudulent activities.

• Ongoing Questions: Vorkanoff raises critical queries about whether the proliferation of legalized sports gambling has enabled such scandals or if increased regulation is merely uncovering long-standing issues.

---

Additional Highlights

While the primary focus remained on tourism decline, Pope Francis’s passing, and the NBA betting scandal, Basu also touched upon several other significant news stories:

1. Ukrainian Conflict: An overnight Russian attack on Kyiv resulted in multiple casualties, intensifying tensions in peace negotiations. President Trump's dissatisfaction with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over peace plan rejections has further complicated discussions.

2. Economic Concerns Under Trump Administration:

   • Retailer Warnings: CEOs from major retailers like Walmart and Target privately cautioned about potential price hikes and supply chain disruptions due to ongoing tariff policies.
   • Market Reactions: Subsequently, President Trump indicated a reduction in tariffs on China, which led to market rallies and a stronger dollar. However, public opinion polls reflect increased voter disapproval of Trump's economic handling.

3. Wealth Disparity Growth: The Wall Street Journal highlighted that in 2024, the wealthiest 19 American households amassed over $1 trillion, surpassing Switzerland’s entire economy. This surge, driven by stock market gains, underscores the growing concentration of wealth among the elite.

---

Conclusion

Today's episode of Apple News Today presents a comprehensive overview of critical issues impacting the United States and the broader global landscape, from economic policies affecting tourism and retail sectors to significant events in global religious leadership and the integrity of professional sports. Through insightful discussions and expert opinions, Shemitah Basu ensures listeners are well-informed about the multifaceted challenges and developments shaping the world.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Unnamed German Tourist ([01:27]):
  “They handed me this little mat and this aluminum foil thing that you use as a blanket... I laid on the cement floor for two days and no one told me what was going on.”

• Sarah Coppet ([02:21]):
  “These high profile incidents that have really gotten a huge amount of worldwide press don't do the United States any favors for its inbound travel market.”

• Catherine Cortez Masto ([03:20]):
  “Why don't you come talk to me in my office and let's talk about and put a plan together...”

• Father Gabriel Romanell ([06:30]):
  “The call of the pope gave a hard sign of hope.”

• Mike Vorkanoff ([08:58]):
  “He could control his own stats... he claimed he had an eye injury...”

---

For more in-depth reporting and additional stories, be sure to check the Apple News app.

Transcript

[Shemitah Basu]

Good morning. It's Thursday, April 24th. I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News today. On today's show, how Pope Francis spent his last days, a major sports betting scandal, and how the wealthiest people in the country got even richer last year. But first, more and more international tourists appear to be turning their backs on the idea of a vacation. In the United States, the number of tourists arriving in March fell by nearly 12% compared to March of last year, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office. We're seeing fewer tourists from Canada, Mexico, Central America and Europe. This was not expected. In fact, just last month, officials were predicting an increase in international travel this year. The Washington Post spoke to travel experts who pointed to a few reasons for the slump. President Trump's tariff policy has inflamed international tensions. And under his immigration policy, a number of foreign born tourists have been detained, some even locked up for weeks. A German tourist spent more than six weeks in detention. An actor from Canada spent around two weeks in detention. She recounted the experience for npr.

[Unnamed German Tourist]

They handed me this little mat and this aluminum foil thing that you use as a blanket. You wrap it around yourself like a dead body because it's so cold in the cells and you just lay there. I laid on the cement floor for two days and no one told me what was going on.

[Shemitah Basu]

A number of countries tightened their travel advisories as a result, warning travelers to, quote, expect scrutiny and comply with U.S. rules or face detention. But for some tourists, the risks of traveling here just don't feel worth it. In a recent survey by the travel news site Skift, nearly half of the people who responded across five different countries said they're less inclined to visit the US right now. And 60% cited fear and anger for why they've canceled travel plans. Skift's editor in chief Sarah Coppet told cnn, A lot of the hesitation seems to center on Trump.

[Sarah Coppet]

We do get the impression that the beef here is really with the Trump administration, not the American people necessarily, but. But yeah, these high profile incidents that have really gotten a huge amount of worldwide press don't do the United States any favors for its inbound travel market.

[Shemitah Basu]

As the CEO of one hotel giant put it to Bloomberg, there's a lot of, quote, bad buzz around the US right now. International travelers spent over $250 billion in the US last year, and their vacation choices can make or break entire industries. Goldman Sachs estimates that in a worst case scenario, reduced inbound travel and boycotts on US goods could lead to almost $90 billion in lost revenue and a handful of states will feel it the most, like Florida, California, New York, and Nevada. Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, recently expressed her frustration about this in a hearing on Trump's tariff policy with Trade Representative Jamison Greer.

[Catherine Cortez Masto]

So why don't you come talk to me in my office and let's talk about and put a plan together, because these blanket tariffs are having an impact on tourism in my state and across the country. Senator, I'm happy to Instead of just defending it, why don't you just come sit down with some of us and try to address the concerns that we are seeing and feeling in our states that this administration has not taken into account.

[Jamison Greer]

I'm happy to come speak with you.

[Shemitah Basu]

Forecasters had initially hoped that inbound travel to the US would return to pre pandemic levels by 2020, but at this point, they say that seems unlikely.

[Joshua McElwee]

People around the world are mourning the loss of Pope Francis. Tens of thousands of mourners have gathered in Vatican City in recent days to pay their respects, and there was such a strong turnout that the Vatican kept the doors open through the night last night at St. Peter's Basilica. His final days were consistent with how he has spent his years in the papacy, in service, pastoring, giving blessings and calling for peace. Francis had only recently gotten out of the hospital, where he spent 38 days battling a severe case of pneumonia. His doctors said they weren't sure he was going to survive, and when he was released in late March, they urged him to remain isolated in his residence for at least two months. But Joshua McElwee, the Vatican correspondent for Reuters, told the Reuters Econ World podcast that Francis was eager to return to his normal activities.

[Jamison Greer]

The pope is someone who enjoyed working and took his job as leader of the world's Catholics very seriously, so he.

[Shemitah Basu]

Chose to resume some of his duties. He greeted Catholics who gathered in St. Peter's Square on Palm Sunday. On Holy Thursday, he went to a nearby prison to meet people there and told them he was praying for them and their families. Days later, he prayed in front of the main altar at St. Peter's Basilica. And on Easter Sunday, he briefly Met Vice President J.D. vance, and he greeted the crowds of people who gathered in St. Peter's Square to celebrate the holiday. And through one of his archbishops, he delivered his final Easter blessing, where he repeated his call for a ceasefire in Gaza. That sermon was his final address to the public.

[Jamison Greer]

You saw a pope who looked okay, but certainly limited and perhaps straining to make a public commitment.

[Shemitah Basu]

Pope Francis had been outspoken in his opposition to Israel's war in Gaza and repeatedly denounced the human crisis for Palestinians in the region. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reports he maintained a near daily routine over the past 18 months of war, making regular calls to the only Catholic church in Gaza. That's the Holy Family church, where roughly 450 Palestinian Christians have sought refuge. Each time he called, one of the first questions he would ask was, what did you eat today? A parishioner at the church told the Wall Street Journal that his calls always made them feel less alone. And Father Gabriel Romanell, CBC News, that the Pope's calls were a source of hope, particularly early in the war.

[Father Gabriel Romanell]

The beginning of the war, the bombing was very, very hard. The people feel the abandoned. But the call of the pope gave a hard sign of hope.

[Joshua McElwee]

In his final phone call to the church on Saturday, Francis told the parish he was praying for them and he told them he needed their prayers. His funeral is on Saturday and more than 170 Heads of state or government are expected to attend, including President Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the president of Francis native country Argentina. He will be the first pope in over a century to be buried outside of the Vatican. He asked to be buried at the Papal Basilica of St Mary Major, just a few miles away. Writing in the instructions for his burial that he had always entrusted himself to the Virgin Mary, he requested a simple tomb with a one word inscription, Franciscus. And in roughly two weeks, the process for choosing a new pope known as conclave, will begin. Papal analysts expect that Francis influence will be heavily felt in that process, in large part because four out of every five votes in conclave will be cast by Cardinals. He elevated.

[Jamison Greer]

Foreign.

[Shemitah Basu]

Tonight is the NFL draft, the league's marquee event of the off season. And if you're into it, you can in some places bet on who might be the number one pick and other things. The draft is a unique event to gamble on. Some bookmakers even call it a nightmare. That's because unlike winners being decided on the field, there's a chance that someone knows the outcome of the draft before it happens. And that brings us to our next story from the Athletic about a major scandal in the world of sports betting and what it says about this increasingly popular and lucrative industry. The Athletic looks at this sprawling federal investigation into a high profile incident of match fixing in the NBA. Mike Vorkanoff, a national basketball business reporter for the Athletic, told us it all started when sports betting monitors noticed some unusual betting activity around Jontay Porter, a little known center who at the time was playing for the Toronto Raptors. He worked with several co conspirators to make sure they would bet on certain outcomes. Now, he couldn't fix entire games, but he could control his own stats.

[Mike Vorkanoff]

So what he did in his January 27, 2024 game is that he claimed he had an eye injury which allowed him to leave the game early and not come back. And so that the people who are betting on him, if they bet, hey, he'd have, you know, fewer than this many points, fewer than this many rebounds, fewer than this many assists. They all won their winnings, right? And then when he played in the March 20, 2024 game, he told them he would leave the game with an illness.

[Shemitah Basu]

And we're not talking about small sums of money on the line here. According to government filings, one wager was more than $100,000, which would have resulted in a payout of more than $1 million. The FBI was notified Porter was banned from the NBA, and he and three other people have pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy.

[Mike Vorkanoff]

Getting an NBA player to admit that he was manipulating his own performance to help other people bet on his prop bets a decade ago would have been a tremendous scandal for the NBA. Right. Like that eats at the very integrity of sports.

[Shemitah Basu]

And since then, the scope of the federal investigation has expanded into college sports as well. Five schools are being investigated by the federal government for their possible ties to the scheme. And Vorkanoff reports that at least seven schools are believed to have drawn attention from the ncaa. Now, match fixing has always been a part of sports, but with sports gambling now legal in 38 states, plus Washington, D.C. vorkanoff points out that various regulators, sportsbooks, and professional leagues are better equipped to catch when potential fixing is going on. And Vorkanoff says the investigation into the Porter scheme has posed a really vexing question.

[Mike Vorkanoff]

One of the things that, like everyone is trying to really reckon with is whether this happened because sports gambling is so much more ubiquitous or if this was caught because sports gambling is now legalized. So I'm curious to see where this all ends up. I'm curious to see how high it might go. And I truly don't have a prognostication on that.

[Shemitah Basu]

Before we let you go, a few.

[Joshua McElwee]

Other stories we're following. Ukrainian officials say an overnight Russian attack on Kyiv killed at least nine people and injured dozens, calling it the biggest attack on the Ukrainian capital this year. This comes as negotiations to end the war in Ukraine have reached a serious point of contention. Yesterday, President Trump expressed frustration with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over his rejection of a U.S. proposed peace plan. A U.S. delegation that included Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff abruptly canceled a meeting in London that was seen as a make or break moment in talks. Zelensky rejected the administration's plan that would see Washington recognize Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula, a Ukrainian territory that Russia has occupied since 2014. In recent days, the US has threatened to walk away from the process altogether as Ukraine sees the currently proposed deal as too favorable to Russia. Staying with the Trump administration and an interesting 48 hours regarding the economy on Monday, the CEOs of big box retailers including Walmart and Target privately warned the president that while prices remain steady for now, his tariff policy could eventually cause prices to go up, shelves to empty and supply chains to be disrupted. That's when Trump started to turn the dial down, indicating tariffs on China would be lower than the current 145%. And acting on the advice of the treasury and Commerce secretaries Tuesday, Trump began backing down on his threats to fire Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell. Markets rallied and the dollar surged as a result of Trump's shifting messages, Axios notes. However, this all comes as polls show for the first time in Trump's political life, most voters disapprove of his handling of the economy. And finally, last year, the rich got richer by a whole lot. The Wall street journal reports $1 trillion of wealth was created in 2024 for the 19 wealthiest American households. That's more than the value of Switzerland's entire economy. It's the biggest one year increase in wealth for these households. Surging stock prices in 2024 coupled with already sizable gains in 2023 Superch creation for this very small group, the Journal notes. Despite those figures, it's very volatile and that's because so much of this money is tied up in stocks. Meaning as President Trump's trade war continues, some of this net worth can swing by billions a day. The richest people in the country now control a record share of American wealth.

[Shemitah Basu]

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, we've got a narrated article coming up next. Mother Jones has the story of how one of the country's biggest for profit hospital companies, Steward Healthcare, is bankrupt and responsible for countless mistreated patients, all because of the system's private equity owners. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News plus narrated to find that story and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.