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Hi there, it's Shemita here. Before we get into today's episode, we have a quick question for you. What was your favorite piece of art or culture from this year? On our interview show Apple News In Conversation, we're putting together an episode about 2025's best TV, film, music, books and more. And we want to know the one thing you would recommend to your fellow listeners as a must read, watch or listen. Use your iPhone's voice memo app to record yourself. Tell us your name, where you're from and your recommendation. And please try to keep it to about a minute or less. You can send it to us@inconversationpple.com again that's inconversationpl.com and we might include your voice on the show. Thanks. Good morning, it's Tuesday, November 18th. I'm Shemit Sebastu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, FEMA's acting head, the second one this year is out. Why it's easier than you think to rob a French museum. And if you're planning to buy a big bird for Thanksgiving, be prepared for sticker shock. But first, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is set to meet with President Trump at the White House today. He's expected to receive a red carpet welcome, complete with pageantry, the Oval Office photo op and a weapons deal.
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I think this trip is really the culmination of a years long effort at trying to restore the Saudi Crown Prince's international standing after the death of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
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Matthew Martin is the Saudi Arabia Bureau Chief for Semafor. He told us that bin Salman has been on a mission to rebuild his reputation after the CIA concluded he approved the killing of the journalist Khashoggi, something he's always denied.
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I think it's going to be a real coup for the sort of Saudis ability to take a slow and steady approach to rebuilding the Crown Prince's reputation, which is now going to be sort of back at the level that you would have seen it in 2017 when he was being feted by world leaders as a reformer and as Saudi Arabia's best chance of success and development and modernization.
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While campaigning ahead of his 2020 win, Joe Biden promised to make Saudi Arabia a pariah. But the country's strategic importance and its oil revenues apparently proved too important for him to really turn his back. Relations slowly began to recover and Trump has since embraced the crown prince as a great ally. Martin told us that above all will today be demonstrated in Military terms.
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Number one on the list is going to be some sort of defense agreement and perhaps even a mutual defense commitment between the two countries as the Saudis look at taking more steps to guarantee their security in an unstable region.
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Yesterday, Trump promised to sell powerful F35 fighter jets to Saudi, a big win. Typically, the US only sells those to formal military allies, and Israel is the only country in the Middle east to have them. But Israeli officials have reportedly asked the administration to ensure any deal on those F35s is conditional on the kingdom agreeing to normalize relations with their country.
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The Saudis have not wanted to move on normalization. They are very keen to use this as leverage to be able to say to Israel, you know, we're prepared to normalize, but you have to take irreversible steps towards the recognition of a Palestinian state. The Saudis, I think, prepare to be very supportive of this transition. They've been supportive of the Trump peace deal that was announced recently.
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A lot of money is at stake in this visit as well. Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia pledged to invest $600 billion in the US and a separate event after the White House visit is intended to link American and Saudi business leaders for future opportunities. The meeting comes as the Trump Organization, which is currently run by the president's sons, Donald Jr. And Eric, is set to be in talks for various real estate deals in the adding to a broader Middle east portfolio. While further blurring the lines between Trump as diplomat and as businessman.
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The Trump family is clearly sees economics and development as a way of promoting stability in the region and also making money at the same time.
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When asked about Bin Salman's scheduled visit, Trump said it was more than a meeting and that the White House would be honoring the crown prince. FEMA has lost its second leader this year, raising big questions about what the future holds for the country's disaster relief agency. Acting Director David Richardson resigned yesterday after just six months on the job. It marks an abrupt end for the former Marine who made a big pitch to staff at his first all Hands meeting back in May.
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I don't stop at yield signs, obfuscation, delay, undermining. If you're one of those 20% of.
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The people and you think those tactics.
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And techniques are going to help you, they will not, because I will run right over you.
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That generated headlines, as did his remarks suggesting he didn't know there was a hurricane season, something he later said was a joke. But it was the deadly Texas floods over the summer that defined his tenure.
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So the Texas floods occurred on the July 4th weekend, and Richardson, I learned, was out of town.
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Brianna Sachs covers disasters for the Washington Post.
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He was on vacation with his sons, and there's nothing wrong with being on vacation with your family on a holiday weekend. The issue was that people within his agency could not get ahold of him as this disaster was unfolding.
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New rule changes at FEMA at the time required DHS Secretary Christy Noem to sign off on spending of more than $100,000, making Richardson a crucial person for getting resources approved fast.
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Asked officials within FEMA who were in contact with some of the Texas emergency management officials told me that they were requesting imagery and that they needed some resources that they did not get for 48 hours. And in a disaster we know that they need to be moving immediately.
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130 people died in those floods. Richardson maintains he was in constant contact while on vacation, and state officials said the response from the federal government was adequate. But CNN reports that the administration concluded he was not an effective communicator and sidelined him as the public face of the body. The agency now faces existential questions even bigger than who leads it. Sachs told us that Secretary Noem will be a key person in deciding its fate.
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She is very adamant that the agency needs a significant reshaping. So we're waiting to see what that looks like. There was a review council that was commissioned a bit ago by Trump and Noem is oversee it and they're supposed to deliver a report pretty soon with recommendations about what FEMA should look like.
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Before Richardson, FEMA was being led by Cameron Hamilton, a vocal supporter of President Trump's who was fired in May after making clear that he was against abolishing fema. He recently shed light on his own experience with the DHS while speaking on the Disaster Tough podcast for emergency specialists.
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The relationship with DHS and myself really became adversarial in a way that was really unnecessary. And I tried an appeal to help them about how the dirty secret is nobody wants FEMA to go away. You can talk to the most reddest of the red states. It doesn't matter. No emergency managers across the country want FEMA to go away.
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FEMA's current Chief of staff, Karen Evans, is set to step into the role now becoming the Trump administration's third acting head of FEMA this year. The bad news just keeps coming for the Louvre in Paris. Yesterday it was forced to close one of its galleries because of structural weaknesses in the building. It comes as the museum faces heavy scrutiny for last month's brazen heist. Four people have since been arrested, but most of the jewels remain missing. Amid the ongoing search and investigation, there have been major questions about just how easily these thieves got into the museum.
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I think it's one of these places that the public thinks of as being a fortress, that it's going to have these really sort of tight security measures.
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Stacy Mictri is the Paris bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. He says that France has been contending with a museum robbery crisis. Nine different heists have taken place over the past year. The entire rest of Europe has only seen four in that time, according to the Journal. And Mike Tree said the issue is not that the thieves are necessarily outsmarting security with inventive tactics.
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We're talking about thieves that are not using highly sophisticated methods. They're again, using these very sort of low tech means to penetrate museums that everybody thought were safe.
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In the case of the Louvre, it was a team of people with a truck mounted lift that was parked outside. They zoomed up, cut through an exterior window and walked right in, all at around 9:30 in the morning during visiting hours. The issue that France is confronting has to do with the buildings that are housing these highly valued pieces of art. The Louvre, like many other museums, was once built for and used for different purposes, including as a residence for a noble family, not as a bank or other modern building that's designed to withstand security threats. And as the French government has been dealing with serious budget deficits for years, the country has found itself unable to pay for meaningful security updates to guard items of high national and cultural value.
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The Louvre itself had a 80 million euro plan to upgrade their security, to install new security cameras, sort of state of the art monitoring software. And unfortunately, that plan was never put in motion simply because, well, first of all, you need the money. But second of all, you have to jump through a number of bureaucratic hoops.
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Not everyone is sympathetic to that. Some art critics have pointed out spending on new artwork and ambitious projects was prioritized. The museum is now belatedly working on security upgrades. One wider economic trend that might be pushing these heists up is the increasing value of gold. Several museum robberies in Europe over the last few years have involved collections containing the precious metal because it can be melted down, resold, and is hard to trace. The crisis has even forced the artistic judgment of the country's president. The Journal reports that Emmanuel Macron is taking a census of artwork across the country to determine which sites should get security reinforcement. Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. The UN Security Council has voted to adopt President Trump's 20 point plan for Gaza. None of the member countries voted against it, and only Russia and China abstained. It's a diplomatic win for the administration in gaining allies to help with troops and funding. According to Politico. Some countries had indicated they would only contribute to the effort if the UN Vote passed. The resolution calls for an international stabilization force to enter and demilitarize the region and a board of peace to govern it. Who now sits on that board will be one of the major challenges ahead. The prominent economist Larry Summers has said he will step back from public commitments after emails and texts he exchanged with Jeffrey Epstein emerged in the trove of new documents. Summers, who was President Clinton's treasury secretary, appears to have kept in touch with Epstein even after the latter's 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor. The Harvard Crimson revealed hundreds of exchanges between 2013 and 2019, covering a wide range of topics. At times, Summers sought Epstein's advice in pursuing a woman he characterized as a mentee. He now says he is deeply ashamed by his actions. It's not clear exactly what he's withdrawing from. He plans to keep up his teaching obligations, but he also has roles with think tanks, boards and news outlets. And Thanksgiving is just over a week away, and as shoppers hit the grocery stores to pick out a turkey, they may be in for some sticker shock. NPR reports prices on wholesale turkeys are 40% higher than last year. Avian influenza outbreaks and higher demand are what's contributing to the more expensive birds. While there has been some relief at the supermarket, like cheaper eggs and wine, things like canned vegetables have now seen price hikes due to higher tariffs on steel and aluminum used for packaging. And if you're thinking of opting for beef as an alternative, NPR notes those prices are up as well by about 15% compared to last year. President Trump, meanwhile, last week said he would lower tariffs on beef, coffee and tropical fruits, as well as other things to try and combat high food prices. 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. New York Magazine reports on how AI is increasingly filling entry level jobs, making it much harder for Gen Z workers to start a career. 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.