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- [00:05]
A
Good morning. It's Thursday, October 23rd. I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, how soybeans became Central to the US's standoff with China, why it's taking so long to swear in a new member of Congress and the last place on earth untouched by the mosquito. But first to the White House renovation that became a demolition earlier this year. President Trump announced plans for a new 250 million dollar ballroom. Back in July, he said this. It won't interfere with the current building. It won't be.
- [00:48]
B
It'll be near it but not touching it and pays total respect to the existing building.
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A
But now it appears there's definitely been some interference. That's the sound of a bulldozer tearing into parts of the East Wing of the White House. The decision to seemingly destroy parts of the country's most famous building for a big redevelopment project has stunned many Washington veterans.
- [01:17]
C
You hear the demolition going on, you can sometimes feel the shaking. It is a very different time to be at the White House.
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A
That's Stan diamond from the Washington Post, which first broke this story. Diamond told us this project, funded by wealthy donors and Trump himself, has long been an ambition for the president.
- [01:36]
C
For about 15 years, President Trump has said that he thinks the White House needs a ballroom. He has argued that there is no real place to entertain a visiting dignitary outside that if you try to do it and it's raining or it's cold, you're in this big tent. And there is some truth to that. The White House, for all of the glamour of the White House as a report, who goes there? It is much more cramped and small and in some ways more limited than you would expect for such a powerful building.
- [02:03]
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And Trump's team released their own fact sheet documenting the various ways different presidents have changed the White House grounds. They point out that Theodore Roosevelt built the west wing in 1902. JFK commissioned the modern Rose Garden. Richard Nixon famously put in a one lane bowling alley. And Barack Obama swapped out a tennis court for a basketball court. But diamond told us that this renovation appears to be much more extensive than was originally proposed. The President raised the estimate just the other day up to $300 million. And while the White House is exempt from the required reviews other government agencies must go through before this kind of work, there are still hoops past presidents have jumped through. There's two planning committees that are relevant here. One that helps guide design projects for D.C. buildings and another that assesses work to historic buildings. But dimon says Trump may sidestep one, and the other is now tilted with his own appointees.
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C
The past additions to the White House have generally gone through a process or some negotiations with these oversight groups. So it's not the first time that presidents have imposed their will on the White House. But to tear down the East Wing attempt to build a 90,000 square foot ballroom, there's been nothing like this in generations.
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A
At the White House, opposition to the construction project is growing. Preservation groups, Democrats, and some more traditionally minded Republicans have spoken out. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a congressionally chartered nonprofit tasked with preserving historic buildings, asked for a pause in the demolition and cited concern that a 90,000 square foot addition would, quote, overwhelm the White house itself. At 55,000 square feet, Dimon says, for Trump, this project feels personal, and it appears he's going to see it through.
- [03:51]
C
President Trump sees himself as a builder. He wants to get his hands dirty sometimes. He was up on the roof of the White House looking around and surveying where the ballroom could be. He likes to have the plans on his desk, the model of the arch he wants to build. These are things that are very close to him, tangible to him. After decades in real estate and the fact that President Trump has identified a few opportunities, he thinks, to either change the White House grounds or change Washington, Washington more broadly. Yeah, he wants that. He's an 80 year old president who is looking for legacy and he believes that he's a great builder and that history will bear him out, that these were great buildings.
- [04:38]
A
In the midst of the ongoing shutdown, President Trump is planning to leave for a trip to Asia at the end of the week and meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. And one of the biggest economic issues at stake in that meeting is the American soybean. Typically, September marks the start of a flurry of orders of soybeans sent from the U.S. to China, which accounted for about half of the $24.5 billion in American soybean exports last year. But this year, for the first time in nearly seven years, China imported no soybeans from the US In September, a move that's being seen as retaliation for the tariffs that the US has imposed. Patrick Thomas is an agriculture reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He explained how damaging this is for American farmers.
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D
Soybeans are the second largest crop in the United States behind corn. It's come close for a couple years between corn and soybeans in terms of acreage. We plant more than 4 billion bushels of soybeans. So it's a massive crop. It's worth tens of billions of dollars for farmers every year.
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In the absence of these orders, farmers are left with a lot of uncertainty about how they're going to sell their growing supply of soybeans and price. That's what Illinois based farmer Ron Kindred told Thomas as he said he already saw prices in his area dropping.
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D
If you have a lot of guys that are holding on to their soybeans and on farm storage hoping for a better price and prices only go down, then you could be stuck selling beans at $8 instead of $9.50 or 10, and then you've got farmers running a real loss. And that could really present problems paying down debt, getting loans from the bank for next year's crop.
- [06:16]
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Meanwhile, China has increasingly been turning to suppliers in South America to get its soybeans.
- [06:21]
D
China has spent tens of billions of dollars building up the infrastructure in Brazil and really build it out to the ability that Brazil can be the world leader in soybean production and actually have the capacity to export it, which is something that they didn't have for a long time, was the infrastructure within deep into the Brazilian countryside to be able to move the beans that they were producing out to the ports in an efficient manner.
- [06:44]
A
The White House is keenly aware of the damages the trade war is already inflicting on American farmers, many of whom are seen as a key political constituency. Beginning today, the administration is starting to release more than $3 billion in aid for farmers that had been frozen as a result of the government shutdown. And there's been talk of a targeted multi billion dollar bailout as well. During the first Trump administration, about $23 billion went out to farmers to compensate for damages during the first trade. One farmer Thomas spoke to said he plans to keep his fall harvest in storage rather than selling it right now when the prices have dropped. He said if a deal with China isn't reached soon, the soybean market might be, in his words, a bloodbath. Now to the curious case of the lawmaker to be who Republican leadership is refusing to swear in despite her having won an election. Last month, Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat, won a special election for her late father's seat representing Arizona's 7th congressional district. But House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to allow her to be sworn in until the government reopens. Arizona's Attorney General, Chris Mays, is now suing the state and explained to CNN what she's hoping to gain.
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B
What we're asking a court to do is, you know, declare that if Mike Johnson refuses to do his job, that Adelaide Grijalva can be sworn in by a judge or any other person with the capability under the law to swear her in.
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The lawsuit also alleges that the block on seating Grijalva effectively leaves a district of more than 800,000 Arizonans with no representation. That district has not formally had a member of Congress to represent it since Grijalva's father, Raul, died in MARCH after serving 22 years in Congress. Speaker Johnson dismissed the lawsuit in a conversation with reporters at the Capitol.
- [08:51]
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I think it's patently absurd. We run the House. She has no jurisdiction. We're following the precedent. She's looking for national publicity. Apparently, she's gotten some of it, but good luck with that.
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As Axios notes, Johnson can technically swear in new members during pro forma sessions, which are the kind of gatherings that occur during a shutdown. In fact, he did so with two Republican members in April. Grihalva has claimed that part of the reason she hasn't been seated yet is because she would be the decisive yes vote on an effort to release records related to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein. She spoke with ABC News last week.
- [09:28]
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I could have been sworn in very easily, and the delay, taxes and the excuses just keep changing. And so at this point, I am the 218th signer to the discharge petitions to release the Epstein files. And that seems to be the common denominator in why there is delay and obstruction in swearing me in.
- [09:49]
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In recent days, Johnson has claimed that he would allow for a floor vote on the release of the files if it gets the necessary support. While she waits to be sworn in, Grijalava said she's being held back. She doesn't have a budget. She can't lease an office in her district. She described the current situation to Axios, saying, quote, it's like having access to a car that doesn't have an engine, tires or gas. Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. News Sanctions are coming to Russian oil companies as the Trump administration called on President Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire. Reuters notes the sanctions are a major policy shift for Trump, who has so far used trade as his primary pressure tactic against Putin and has been threatening sanctions to push for a deal to end the war in Ukraine. Speaking at the White House, Trump said he felt it was time. This comes shortly after Trump canceled a proposed peace summit with Putin. U.S. forces carried out yet another strike against a suspected drug boat, this time on the Pacific side of the South American continent. The Wall Street Journal notes this is the first time the US has hit a boat in the Pacific, where cocaine from Colombia and Ecuador makes its way north. It's the eighth strike of its kind, which in total have now killed at least 32 people. Trump has insisted he has the legal authority to strike at the vessels, which have been historically policed by the Coast Guard. But Democratic lawmakers have called for congressional approval before further strikes. And finally, Iceland was once one of two places in the world you could go to to get away from pesky mosquitoes. But CNN reports a man in a town about 20 miles from the capital of Reykjavik said he spotted a strange fly and managed to capture three of them around dusk. He immediately contacted an entomologist, confirmed they were indeed a species of mosquito native to large parts of the Eastern Hemisphere. Experts say more monitoring is needed when spring comes around to see if these bugs will survive the winter. If they do, mosquitoes have only Antarctica left to conquer. 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. Next, Bloomberg Businessweek tells the story of a huge ship carrying thousands of cattle that sank near Japan in 2020, killing all the animals on board and 41 crew members. It was the largest disaster in live export history and left behind a dark legacy. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.