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- [00:01]
A
Hey there, it's Shemitha. I've got a quick request for you. If Apple News Today is an essential part of your morning routine, follow the show in Apple Podcasts. And if you have another 30 seconds, leave us a rating and a review too. It helps other people find our show and it helps us know what you like about it. Thanks.
- [00:23]
Good morning. It's Thursday, December 11th. I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, the Republican state pushing back on Trump, why the US Won't make its roads safer, and the trend that's causing major headaches at In N Out Burger.
- [00:52]
But first to yesterday's serious escalation of US Military pressure on Venezuela.
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B
We've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela. Large tanker, very large.
- [01:07]
Largest one ever seized, actually. And other things are happening.
- [01:12]
A
The White House later released a video of troops dropping from a helicopter onto the tanker, reportedly called the skipper and taking control. This large scale operation marks a new chapter in President Trump's operations in the Caribbean. Bloomberg State Department reporter Eric Martin was first to the story and explained for us the significance.
- [01:32]
C
This is an extraordinary event that we have never seen in the Caribbean before. And what makes it extraordinary is that this seizure of this oil, this Venezuelan oil, is going to put a chill on insurers who insure these kind of cargoes. And this would be really tightening the grip of the US the pressure on the Maduro regime.
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A
The administration has been building its military presence there for weeks now as it expands what it says is an operation against drug cartels. But this intervention appears to be much broader, targeting the country's economic lifeblood.
- [02:12]
C
Oil is really one of the main, if not the only thing that Venezuela really sells, and it's the main revenue generator for this economy. We've seen this economy shrink drastically in the last several years because of the sanctions and because of the difficulty for Venezuela to find a market for its oil.
- [02:32]
A
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the tanker was involved in an illicit network and that it was transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. Bloomberg and elsewhere quoted sources suggesting the shipment itself was heading for Cuba, which depends on Venezuela to sustain power.
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C
U.S. officials have long suspected the Maduro regime of selling sanctioned crude oil through Cuba illegally in order to benefit from the profits and also making the sales harder to trace. So in the view of US Officials, this was one way that they were able to carry out corruption was by taking oil to Cuba and selling it on the black market.
- [03:12]
A
And if you're wondering where that oil goes now, Trump said this.
- [03:16]
B
Well, we keep it, I guess.
- [03:18]
A
Where does it go? What port does it go to?
- [03:20]
B
When you have to follow the tanker? You know, you're a good newsman. Just follow the tanker. Follow it. Get a helicopter and follow the tanker. But we're going to. I guess so we're going to keep the oil.
- [03:31]
A
Venezuela has accused the administration of international piracy. This all comes as the Trump administration is still under intense congressional scrutiny on its strikes on alleged drug boats. The House passed a bill yesterday that would pressure Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to disclose all of his orders authorizing close to two dozen military attacks in the region. Democratic Senator Mark Warner was on the stage at a semaphore conference shortly after the news of the tanker operation came in. He questioned why the US Couldn't have just intercepted the alleged drug boats if they were able to seize a giant tanker, and said Trump had not yet made the case for any armed conflict.
- [04:12]
D
I got a lot of the families of the sailors who were down there who were all saying, I don't want my son and daughter. When are they going to be in a war in harm's way? And two are what they're doing, you know, what's our goal? And I don't think we've articulated that goal in a way that passes muster with the public, with the Congress, and, Lord knows, with the world.
- [04:31]
A
Meanwhile, Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said their inquiry into the strikes that killed two shipwrecked survivors was done and that he had the information he needed. As for the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, he offered a different diplomatic singing at a rally on Wednesday in what he described as a message for Americans wanting peace. Maduro opted for a moment of acapella. Don't worry, be happy. La la la la la la la. Just peace, not war. Taking some liberty with the melody there. But at the end, he said just peace, not war. In case you missed that, it's not clear whether Maduro already knew about the oil tank seizure at that point, but the language from his government has since hardened, with his interior minister calling the US murderers and thieves.
- [05:37]
It's been a year of intense political battles to redraw congressional maps in time for the midterms perspective, first kicked off by Texas Republicans. But for at least one state, things haven't gone exactly as President Trump hoped. Today, the Indiana Senate is expected to vote on a new map that could potentially give Republicans two more seats in the U.S. house.
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E
The goal, and the explicit ask from the White House is for Indiana to draw a map that's nine Republican favored districts and zero Democratic favored districts.
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A
Kayla Dwyer is the statehouse reporter for the Indianapolis Star.
- [06:13]
E
The way they achieve that is by carving up. The two Democratic districts we have now are very urban areas and up near Gary, the Chicago suburbs that is split in half and paired up with more conservative areas. And Indianapolis, which is the most heavily urban blue area, is carved up into four new districts.
- [06:34]
A
There is a strong Republican majority in the state, but Dwyer reports that from the start, local lawmakers have been skeptical of this plan, and the party appears torn over whether to give in to Trump's demands.
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E
Our lawmakers do have an independent streak. We don't like to be told what to do by D.C. and this is a pretty rare exception. The fact that we are even meeting seems to be in response to the.
- [07:00]
A
Violent threats, dwyer told us. The state House prides itself on civility, but during this process, a number of Indiana Republicans have received threats of violence for voicing dissent. Greg Walker, a state senator from the same town as former Vice President Mike Pence, was one of those targeted. On Monday, he gave a speech in front of his colleagues opposing the measure, visibly choking up at times before it ultimately passed out of committee and I.
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D
Refuse to be intimidated. I made a choice. I will not let Indiana or any state become subject to the threat of political violence in order to influence legislative product.
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A
Meanwhile, public sentiment has been mixed. Hundreds of people showed up to the statehouse in Indianapolis, mostly to voice their concerns about the bill. Though Indianapolis is a deep red state, Trump carried it by 19 percentage points in the 2024 election. Redistricting seems to be a thornier issue.
- [07:59]
E
Polling alone shows that the majority of Hoosiers don't like this. Even among Republicans, support for Trump is still very, very strong here. You know 90% of polled Republicans will say they love the president. That does not translate into support for redistricting.
- [08:16]
A
Trump has called out individual lawmakers and threatened to endorse challengers if they don't back his efforts. But in at least one case, his connection to the bill has made things worse. One state senator whose daughter has down syndrome pulled his support after Trump used an offensive slur. Nationwide redistricting debates rumble on Lawmakers in Missouri and North Carolina have targeted Democratic seats with new maps. And in California, we're a hearing on the legality of a new voter approved map that could result in five more Democratic seats will take place next week.
- [08:59]
The US Is something of a global outlier when it comes to traffic deaths. In most developed countries, fatalities have dropped and the roads have gotten safer. But here the trend has been going in the opposite direction. The Washington Post has been looking at one idea, Vision Zero, that some cities were pinning their hopes on to reverse the trend. Rachel Weiner and her colleagues have the story.
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F
Vision Zero the concept is that there should be zero traffic deaths, but it's really sort of a mentality as much as a goal. It's to treat traffic deaths as unacceptable and preventable the same way we treat airplane deaths as opposed to something that just is going to happen sometimes and is, you know, sort of the price we pay for convenience of driving.
- [09:44]
A
Transportation officials and engineering experts told the Washington Post that the policies behind Vision Zero definitely work. Things like adding more crosswalks and narrowing multi lane roads in busy areas. The problem is the opposition it faces. The concept is based on a Swedish model that posits that the government can reduce the risk of fatal driving mistakes through a combination of engineering, vehicle standards and law enforcement. In 2014, New York City was considered the first to adopt the policy, and it still has a task force complete with a powerful ad campaign.
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C
One choice can change everything.
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A
But the Washington Post found that in more than two dozen American cities that instituted Vision Zero, the pedestrian death rate is the same or higher than it was before. The cities made pledges to change policy.
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F
Because Vision Zero was a city level movement in the US without strong buy in, in a lot of cases from state and federal government. These cities were kind of constrained from above by state and federal law and then constrained from below by this localized opposition because doing anything to change roadways inspires a huge amount of backlash.
- [10:59]
A
Nationally, the Post reports annual pedestrian deaths surged 70% from 2010 to 2023. Even in Los Angeles, an early adopter of VIS. An independent audit of LA's efforts found that there was a lack of total buy in and disagreements over how to run the program, among other issues. The Post tells the story of Cecilia Milbourne. She was killed attempting to cross the road near a beach in Los Angeles earlier this year. And years before, it was a known trouble spot that officials tried to fix.
- [11:32]
F
The local city councilman put through a plan to reduce Vista del Mar from four lanes to two so that there was one lane in each direction. He also moved more parking as part of that to the beach side as opposed to across the road from the beach, which is why people were running across this four lane 40 mile per hour speed limit road.
- [11:59]
A
But it was ultimately restored to four lanes after locals complained about the resulting traffic it created. At the federal level, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has asked for states to identify safety projects for particularly dangerous roads, but some grants from the Biden administration for pedestrian safety projects have been cut for years. Reality has not met expectations. With Vision zero, there are trade offs.
- [12:25]
F
Between safety and convenience. And even under Obama, even under Biden, I think advocates would say they had trouble getting the federal government to kind of like put their money where their mouth was and fund these safety projects effectively and accept that, you know, they might make some people unhappy.
- [12:46]
A
The Post rolled out a lot of visuals and graphs with this investigation. You can check it all out on the Apple News app.
- [12:59]
Foreign.
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Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate for the third time this year as board members gathered for their final meeting of 2025, the Wall Street Journal reports. The 9 to 3 vote is the first time in six years there were three dissenting votes. Two board members argued the cut was unnecessary, and another wanted an even bigger cut than the quarter percentage point approved on Wednesday. A weak jobs market and slowed progress on inflation led many to speculate rates would remain steady for the foreseeable future, something Fed Chair Jerome Powell hinted at after the board's previous meeting.
- [13:43]
The US could start requiring visitors from countries on the visa waiver program to provide up to five years of social media history before being allowed to enter the country. That's according to a proposal from US Customs and Border Patrol, which is open for a 60 day public comment period. Many countries, including the UK, Australia, Japan and Chile, are on the visa waiver list. Those seeking to enter the country may also have to submit phone numbers, email addresses and even biometric data, according to the proposed new rules. Critics have said the requirements could stop people from visiting the US or lead to self censoring. All nonimmigrant and immigrant visa applicants are already required to disclose their social media accounts. In June, student visa applicants were required to make their social media feeds public, a change that will soon apply to H1B visa applicants as well.
- [14:38]
And finally, you may not know what it means. I know I've gone looking for an explainer. I still don't know what it means. But the viral 6, 7 trend forced one of the country's biggest burger chains to make a quiet change in policy. California based In N Out Burger reportedly removed the number 67 from its ticket ordering system to stop kids from showing up to their restaurants and doing this.
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That's the sound of teens anxiously waiting for an In N Out worker to call out the number 67 before erupting in Cheers. Newsweek reports the company hasn't made an official statement, but a video of an In N Out worker confirming it to a young patron has gone viral.
- [15:22]
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. Texas Monthly reports on a man who went in search of a better life for his family and how his quest became one of the deadliest immigration related disasters in US History. 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.