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Good morning! It's Wednesday, August 17th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
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Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming lost by a large margin to her Trump-backed Republican opponent Harriet Hageman. She was arguably Trump's most prominent Republican critic in Congress. Cheney's the vice chair of the January 6th committee and used that role to go after him repeatedly. With Cheney's loss, only two of the ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump are left on the ballot. Four lost their primary races; four didn't seek reelection.
Many of the Republicans who are winning primaries support Trump's lies about the 2020 election. And they're in position to win offices where they could dispute the results of the 2024 race for the White House. "The Washington Post" did a data analysis of hundreds of primary results and found more than half of the GOP winners, that's around 250 candidates, support Trump's false election claims. "Post" reporter Amy Gardner, who covers voting issues, told us that experts are worried about what these candidates would do if they win and get control over elections.
It's like the sound of a nuclear power plant alarm going off. I'm not kidding. Those who are in this world who run elections or who write about them, as I do, are extremely alarmed. Gardner says election-denialism is especially high in six battleground states that decided the 2020 election. That's Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Let's stop on Pennsylvania for a second. The Republican nominee for governor there is Doug Mastriano.
This is a man who's a member of the state legislature who submitted a resolution in the aftermath of the 2020 election asking the legislature to seat the Trump electors in Pennsylvania, despite the fact that Biden had won the popular vote in that state, despite the fact that the secretary of state had certified the election for Biden.
Gardner says if he's elected, Mastriano would arguably be the governor with the most power over elections because of Pennsylvania's law, though Mastriano is far behind in recent polls. Aside from voters, there are other kinds of safeguards in place to keep elections on track. For example, challenges can be taken to courts to decide. But if enough election deniers win races for key roles, those safeguards become a lot less safe.
As an election lawyer told me in my reporting for this story, norms are only norms until they're not norms anymore, right? And it's a little scary. The institutions that protect our elections are only as strong as the people running them. You can read the full story on the Apple News app. There's also coverage of all the latest primary results, including the Alaska race, where Sarah Palin advanced to the general election. She's running to represent Alaska in Congress.
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The WNBA playoffs start tonight. The Phoenix Mercury play the Los Angeles Aces. And Phoenix won't have one of their star players, Brittney Griner. She was recently convicted of drug charges in a Russian court. She was arrested in an airport in Moscow in February when customs officials found vape cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage. Griner told the court that she never intended to break the law.
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I made an honest mistake, and I hope that, in your ruling, that it doesn't end my life here.
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She's now appealing her nine-year sentence. One of her lawyers spoke to the "BBC."
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It does seem like a very harsh sentence, yes, considering the amount of the substance and considering her guilty plea.
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U.S. and Russian officials are negotiating a possible prisoner swap. Bill Richardson is a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. who's often been an advisor in situations like these. He told "ABC News" that he feels optimistic.
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I think she's gonna be freed. I think she has the right strategy of contrition, a good legal team.
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Over the weekend, a top Russian Foreign Ministry official said talks were underway for a swap that could involve Griner, Paul Whelan, who's another American held in Russia and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
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Around 30 million American adults have some kind of hearing loss. And a new move by the FDA essentially says that the market for hearing aids needs a lot of reform. The agency says it wants more competition and innovation so that people pay less to get better equipment.
This new FDA rule change will allow some hearing aids to be sold over the counter in the hopes that more people will be able to access them. "The Wall Street Journal" explains that only about 20% of adults with hearing loss use hearing aids. Price is a big factor. On average, hearing aids can cost up to $5,000 per pair. Often they're not covered by insurance or traditional Medicare. And needing to get a prescription for them makes it even more complicated.
Making some devices available over the counter is expected to make it a lot easier for people with mild to moderate hearing loss to finally get hearing aids. And it's not just about helping people communicate more easily. Unaddressed hearing loss can lead to social isolation, depression, even early dementia.
"The Washington Post" reports that this change could be especially significant for older adults, who are more likely to be on a fixed income. This change is also expected to help low-income and rural communities. They have fewer audiologists, so getting a prescription is often a barrier. The FDA expects that prices for hearing aids could drop by thousands of dollars once the rule takes effect in a couple of months.
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Ants are such an overlooked insect. They don't get the same creepy-crawly flak as spiders, and you probably don't think much about them unless they crash your picnic. But new research shows that they have a lot to offer farmers. The "Guardian" reports on a new study that shows ants can be more effective at protecting crops than pesticides. They're natural predators of pests that go after fruits, seeds and leaves. Ants can help farms grow more food while spending less money and using fewer dangerous chemicals.
Now, I did not wake up this morning looking for ant facts, but this story had a couple surprising takeaways. I learned that there are more ants than any other insect on the planet. So, to put it technically, they're half of Earth's insect biomass. And they're not all the same. There are at least 14,000 known species of ant, and researchers aren't done counting.
The research backs up ancient farming practices. Chinese citrus growers have used ants for centuries. The study encourages farmers to make their fields more ant-friendly, which could be good for the bottom line and for the Earth. So next time you're eating at the park, and you're tempted to squash an ant that's headed for your meal, maybe just let it keep crawling by. It's got an important job to do.
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You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News+ partners. I'll talk with you again tomorrow.
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