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Good morning. It's Wednesday, December 17th.
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I'm Gideon Reznick in for Shamita Bastu. This is Apple News today.
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Coming up on today's show, frustrations mount.
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Over the Brown University investigation, what authorities.
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Are probing after the Bondi beach shooting and President Trump calls for a blockade near Venezuela. But first, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced.
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Yesterday that he would not call a vote to extend enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
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That means that in all likelihood, millions of Americans who get their coverage under.
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The ACA are going to see premiums go up next year.
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Now, he explained that many members in his conference, particularly some who might face.
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Difficult elections in next year's midterms, had wanted to extend the funding.
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Many of them did want to vote on this Obamacare Covid era subsidy the Democrats created. We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be. We worked on it all the way through the weekend, in fact. And in the end, there was not an agreement wasn't made.
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One of those lawmakers, Republican Mike Lawler.
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Of New York, said that it was, quote, idiotic that Johnson wouldn't pursue the extension.
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Instead, House Republicans today will focus their.
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Attention on their own bill that seeks to expand insurance coverage options for small businesses and the self employed, among other things.
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And this comes after two plans to.
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Address health care costs failed in the Senate last week. Politico reports that the internal Republican blame game and disagreements about where and how to proceed are indicative of longer term challenges the party has had. Congressional reporter Jordan Carney explained their dilemma.
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Republicans have sort of continuously struggled to come up with a unifying plan on health care. They've been debating privately for months among themselves what their message should be right now.
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Carney also told us the disagreements extend to both chambers.
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There's not like a unified plan that gets both House and Senate Republicans. You got some centrist or moderate Republicans who want to do an extension of the subsidies with income caps or other new restrictions. You've got more conservative Republicans who want to let them lapse.
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Part of the challenge for Republicans in supporting anything that extends even parts of.
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The Affordable Care act is, is that the party has spent years saying that the ACA is a disaster and that Americans need better options.
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What is sort of interesting about this subsidies debate is that to extend the subsidies, you would need to get Republicans who have never voted for Obamacare to essentially vote to continue a piece of that law, which they have made a center of their opposition like a center of their political messaging for 15 years. So that is sort of the internal debate they've been having.
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And so far, President Trump has not.
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Helped clarify exactly where he thinks Republicans should go.
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President Trump has. He said that he wants kind of broadly to send money to people, not insurance companies. But on in Capitol Hill, you had Republicans for months who have really been hoping he would very explicitly say, here is my framework or here is my plan. And, you know, in the hopes that that would rally the disparate parts of the Republican Party around one idea that has not happened.
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A bipartisan group of senators has revived.
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Conversations in recent days about a fix to the subsidy issue, but most likely would not move forward on it until the beginning of next year.
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Thousands attended vigils at Bondi beach in.
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Australia Tuesday night to commemorate the victims of this past weekend's shooting at a Hanukkah festival. And some funerals for victims took place today in Sydney as officials investigate the shooting. Australia's Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese announced some of the initial findings.
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It would appear that there is evidence.
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That this was inspired by a terrorist organization by isis. Now, some of the evidence which is being procured, including the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.
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The gunmen are believed to be a father and son. The father was killed at the scene.
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And the son is in custody at a hospital.
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Albanese also cautioned that, at least so far in the investigation, there was no.
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Evidence of collusion with leaders representing ISIS.
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In 2019, US led forces declared that.
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They had defeated the ISIS caliphate.
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At one point, a landmass the size.
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Of Great Britain in Syria and Iraq.
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But the attack in Sydney marks the.
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Latest time in recent years where black flags or other symbols of ISIS allegiance have been uncovered.
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Over the weekend, a gunman killed two.
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US army soldiers and a civilian interpreter in Syria. That individual is believed by U.S. officials to be affiliated with ISIS.
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And nearly a year ago, a man drove his car into a crowd in.
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New Orleans, killing 14 and injuring many more. He had claimed allegiance to ISIS and reportedly had a flag on his car.
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Colin Freeman is a foreign affairs correspondent.
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For the UK's Telegraph. He told us how the nature of ISIS has changed.
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Well, at their peak, it's thought that they had anything up to about 100,000 fighters in their old caliphate in Iraq and Syria, as well as franchises, operations that acted under their name. These days, it's thought they have maybe no more than a couple of thousand fighters in Iraq and Syria, most of whom keep a fairly low profile as well. They don't parade over openly in the way that they used to, so there was an absolute fraction of their original.
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Force in Syria itself.
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The attack this past weekend was believed to be the first with fatalities since the fall of Syria's president Bashar al Assad a year ago.
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Freeman said that since the toppling of.
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His government, militants may be trying to exploit some instability.
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The Islamic State group in Syria is trying to take advantage while the new government finds its feet. But I mean, at the same time, they're still not particularly strong. I don't think they're in any position to topple, topple the government.
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Back in Australia, in addition to the investigation into the suspects, the country is.
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Pursuing even stricter gun control measures, including.
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Instituting a nationwide firearms registry and limiting.
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The number of guns that one person can own.
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Authorities in Rhode island continued to search.
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For a suspect in the mass shooting that left two students dead and nine others injured on the campus of Brown University yesterday.
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Police released a new photo of a.
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Person of interest and a new video timeline showing the movements of that person before the shooting took place.
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At a press conference Tuesday, the Providence.
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Police chief, Colonel Oscar Perez, spoke about what they think that person was doing in the time before the shooting.
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We have video footage of that. We believe that he was actually casing out this area to commit the crime. No, that's a pattern that criminals do, and that's what he was doing.
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Perez also said he hoped someone might.
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Recognize the person based on their body movement and posture.
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Meanwhile, a lot of residents and students.
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In the Providence community have been left.
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Wondering, how did this person shoot nearly.
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A dozen people and is still not in custody? Some have expressed frustration over the urgency of the investigation and larger concerns over Campus Security.
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Jennifer McDermott is a reporter for the.
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Associated Press based in Providence.
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One of the issues in the investigation that several people have brought up to us is the lack of campus security footage. There are a number of security cameras at the Brown campus, but the building where the shooting took place did not have that many.
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Rhode Island's attorney general attributed that to.
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The building being older.
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The AP reports that the lack of.
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Footage left authorities scrambling to find new leads after an initial person of interest was released.
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Police have been canvassing areas near the.
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School, searching for physical evidence and asking local residents and businesses for any additional footage from their security cameras.
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One student from a nearby college told.
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The AP that it was frustrating that there wasn't an answer in such a surveillance state.
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So a lot of focus has been on that issue. Other students have talked about things like needing more locks on doors, more badge access, and, you know, Others have raised issues just about the prevalen of guns and addressing that larger issue.
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A spokesperson for the Providence Police Department.
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Said that at no point did police slow down in their investigation.
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Another concern was a recent change to.
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An emergency alert system for residents of Providence that caused some people to miss notifications about the incident.
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What many residents hadn't realized was that several months back the city had switched from an app to a web based system. So to get the alerts you actually had to go on the website, sign up and opt in for text messages. So some residents didn't know about the switch and still had the app.
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McDermott reports that hundreds of students have.
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Now signed a petition demanding more security at Brown, saying the school needs to step up its efforts to protect the university. And in the meantime, the community is still grieving.
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It's very sad and somber on campus. They're mourning the loss of two of their classmates and hoping for a speedy recovery for those who were injured and remain in the hospital. Rhode island is the smallest state, so I think you kind of get that sense throughout the state, particularly in Providence, though. It is a city, but it does feel more like a small town where everybody knows each other and especially at a smaller campus. Another reason why it's so shocking for people that Providence is really considered a safe city. And I think for some students, they said that that factored into their decision to want to go to Brown University, that they felt that Providence was a safe place.
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University officials say they have implemented enhanced.
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Security measures like doubling security staffing since the shoot.
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And finally, a few other stories we're following.
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Authorities in Los Angeles have charged Nick Reiner with two counts of first degree murder in the killings of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer Reiner.
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They were found stabbed to death in.
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Their Brentwood home on Sunday.
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Nick Reiner is being held without bail and a law enforcement official told the.
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LA Times that he's under special supervision.
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He was scheduled to appear in court.
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On Tuesday but was not medically cleared to leave the jail, according to his attorney.
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Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell called.
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The incident heartbreaking not only for the family, but the entire city of Los Angeles.
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Reiner, the director of some of Hollywood's.
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Biggest films in the 80s and 90s, including when Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men and the Princess Bride, was 78.
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Singer Reiner was a notable photographer and.
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Producer who worked on several of her husband's films. She was 68.
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In Washington, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says.
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The video of the boat strike that allegedly killed survivors of an attack on a purported drug vessel in the Caribbean will not released to the public.
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Bipartisan members of Congress called for the release of the video, But Hegseth, citing.
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DoD policy, said that only certain congressional committees would see it for now.
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Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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Briefed lawmakers Yesterday on the US's ongoing efforts in Latin America, where military forces have built up over the past few months.
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Members of Congress have expressed concern over.
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The legality of the strikes in the region and the reasoning for carrying them out.
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Meanwhile, President Trump on Tuesday evening posted on Truth Social that he ordered a.
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Total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
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And finally, if you've been in any coffee shop or grocery store recently, you.
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Might have caught on that Christmas is coming soon.
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Perhaps you heard something like this I.
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Don'T want a lot for Christmas, There is just one thing I need.
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That, of course, is All I Want.
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For Christmas Is yous by Mariah Carey.
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The Wall Street Journal reports that music lovers are embracing Yuletide tunes like that.
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One earlier than ever, and they're playing more of them.
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By December 1, 30 Christmas songs were.
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In Spotify's top 50 US tracks. That's compared to just 14 at the same point in time in 2019, the.
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Only songs not able to edge out.
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The Christmas ones are mega hits like the Fate of Ophelia by Taylor Swift.
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The Journal notes that holiday songs being.
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Everywhere right now represents a rare monocultural.
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Musical moment, even though listeners are spread across streaming services and formats. Maybe all of us are in fact.
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Mainlining the same songs.
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That famous one we just played by Mariah Carey?
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Well, it was named the longest running number one song in Billboard history this.
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Week, so good luck getting it out of your head. You can find all these stories and.
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More in the Apple News app.
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And if you're already listening to the News app right now, we've got a.
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Narrated article coming up next. Bloomberg Businessweek reports on the cookie company.
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Crumbl and how, despite the popular brand's endlessly Instagrammable image, cracks in the chain's.
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Business are starting to show.
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If you're listening in the podcast app, you can follow Apple News Narrated to find that story and I'll be back.
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With the news tomorrow.