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Good morning! It's Friday, November 18th. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, things get even weirder at Elon Musk's Twitter, Indigenous chefs use Thanksgiving to raise the profile of Native American cuisine, and the dos and don'ts for a World Cup watch party.
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But first, more on the big changes coming to Congress. Current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is stepping down from her party leadership role, with New York Democrat Hakeem Jeffries expected to take her place. He would be the first Black person to lead a party in Congress. But he would be leading a minority party. Republicans will be in control. "The Wall Street Journal" is looking into how the next Congress could play out. I spoke with Congress reporter Natalie Andrews, who was at the Capitol.
Don't expect this to be an incredibly productive and bipartisan era of divided government in Washington. In fact, it's expected to be very divisive.
Policy goals for House Republicans include boosting border security, restricting abortion access, and reversing Democrats' plan to expand the IRS. President Biden and the Democratic Senate could block a lot of that. But Republicans can still make trouble for Democrats. They could launch investigations of the Biden administration's handling of the southern border, the Afghanistan troop withdrawal, and the foreign business dealings of Biden's son, Hunter.
Another source of leverage they have is spending and borrowing bills. These have to pass the House to keep the government running. And GOP leaders could threaten to shut things down unless they get what they want.
To, you know, ask for funding for the border, ask for funding for some of their issues that they feel neglected over the past two years. But the Republican majority looks to be paper thin. That means it'll be hard to wrangle votes and keep a united front against Democrats. One former GOP House aide tells Andrews, the next two years will be "legislative quicksand."
Any four or five Republicans that want to, depending on what the sizes end up being, if those four or five Republicans band together and go into Kevin McCarthy or whoever the speaker's office is and say, we need X in this bill, they're going to have a lot of power. Hanging over all of this, the 2024 presidential election. Andrews said that race could define the GOP approach in Congress.
Republicans plan to use the next two years laying down an agenda that many Republicans hope will kind of be their pitch to voters as what they would do if they won the White House and Senate in 2024. The next two years for Republicans in the House could be about messaging as much as governing.
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This is a good morning for a quick check-in on Twitter, because things took some unusual turns lately, even by Elon Musk's standards. "The Guardian" reports on how just days after thousands of employees were laid off, hundreds more seem to be leaving by choice. This comes after Musk sent them an email on Wednesday, saying they'll need to be, quote, "extremely hardcore" if they wanna work there. The email said they could click "yes" to stay. And it said if they didn't respond by yesterday evening, they'd be considered to have quit and given a severance package.
There have been reports from inside of employees forced to work long hours on unrealistic deadlines. Lots of people apparently read Musk's email and felt they had had enough. Some who left changed their profiles in response, calling themselves "softcore engineers" or "ex-hardcore."
As the resignations poured in, Twitter abruptly closed its offices until Monday. Lots of Twitter users large and small worry about whether the platform will work with so many employees gone. Many Twitter posts are now goodbyes, asking followers to switch to other platforms. And of course, there have been countless "Titanic" memes joking about the possible demise of the platform.
Twitter didn't respond to "The Guardian's" request for comment. After all, a large part of its communications team doesn't work there anymore.
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There aren't many restaurants in the United States that specialize in Native American cuisine, but Indigenous chefs are working to change that. "TIME" magazine has a story about Sherry Pocknett, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. Her ancestors helped the Pilgrims avoid starvation by teaching them to plant and harvest crops.
Now, you won't find turkey on the menu of Pocknett's restaurant in Rhode Island. It's called the Sly Fox Den Too. What you will find is Indigenous cuisine from the East Coast inspired by the food that Pocknett grew up eating. Around this time of year, that is rabbit, clams, duck hash and venison topped with onion rings. Though the onion rings, she admits, are there because they're tasty, not traditional. And while customers eat, they can read a retelling of Thanksgiving from the perspective of the Wampanoag people.
After helping the Pilgrims survive, they were pushed off their land and many were forced to convert to Christianity. Government policies tried to destroy their culture. So to say the least, Thanksgiving isn't a celebratory holiday. But Wampanoag tribe members told "TIME" they still enjoy the opportunity to get together with family. And they always add an extra plate to their table to honor ancestors and spirits.
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We are just two short days away from the start of the 2022 Men's World Cup. And whether you're a big soccer fan or not, you have probably got some World Cup viewing parties in your future. Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard on "Ted Lasso," and Rebecca Lowe of "NBC Sports" get into their party experiences on our new podcast. It's called "After the Whistle."
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And if I may set the scene from last year's European Championships final, which I find to be a nightmare made flesh. Dear listeners, Rebecca, of course, massive fan of England, imagine your team finally makes it to… we'll call it the Super Bowl. 'Cause the European Championships, you're like, "Well, that's not the World Cup." It's damn near the World Cup. And they make the final, it's at home, it's at Wembley. It is something that's never happened in Rebecca's lifetime. She's sitting in the backyard. Why is she watching outside in the backyard? It's not about Rebecca's choices right now, people. Don't worry about that. And with people who are just filled with passion for England, and what should happen?
I reckon it was about 35 minutes into the first half. And I hear the back gate close and I'm like, I mean, "Who the hell is turning up at my house in the middle of the European Championship final?" It's Christine and Jared from up the bloody road! Right? Who are great friends. I mean, I love Christine and Jared, you know, we'll do COVID bubble parties. Jared helped with the internet. Thanks, Jared. But we don't need Christine and Jared turning up in the middle of England and Italy, unless they're massive football fans. They're frigging not, okay? In they come, "Oh, hi guys. We could hear the commotion." 'Cause there's like 10 of us. "We just thought we'd come and see what it's all about." Oh! Oh, that phrase. "We thought we'd come and see what it's all about." That insinuates, "Please explain to us what you're watching." I haven't time. I haven't got time for an explanation. So they park themselves up on their bums, get themselves a hot dog. And then you know what they do? They proceed to ask questions. They proceed to ask questions!
Oh, it's a nightmare.
And it's gone to extra time and now we're into penalties. "So, what happens now?" says Christine. No, no, no, Christine. No, I'll tell you what happens now. Our friendship ends. "What happens now?" You need to shush. The moral of the story is: lock your back gate. All right? If you're having a party, don't let Christine and Jared in. It's a fricking nightmare.
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To avoid being Christine and Jared over the next few weeks, you can check out the podcast. You're gonna hear some of Brendan and Rebecca's dos and don'ts for attending a World Cup party. For non-soccer fans, that includes learning the rules of the game before you actually get there.
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We've got the full episode of "After the Whistle" coming up next if you're listening in the Apple News app. "Apple News Today" though is gonna be off all next week for Thanksgiving. Shumita will be back with the news after the long weekend. Enjoy the holiday.
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