The Headlines - 51 Men Found Guilty in France Rape Trial, and a U.S. Shutdown Looms

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

Plus, man vs. hornet.   On Today’s Episode:Chaos Consumes Drive to Avoid Government Shutdown, With 2 Days to Go, by Chris CameronDominique Pelicot Gets 20-Year Sentence in Rape Trial That Shook France, by Catherine PorterCalifornia Declares an Emergency Over Bird Flu in Cattle, by Apoorva MandavilliStarbucks Has a Pumpkin Spice Latte Problem in China, by Alexandra Stevenson, Julie Creswell and Zixu Wang‘Murder Hornet’ Has Been Eradicated From the U.S., Officials Say, by Mike Baker Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, December 19th. Here's what we're covering. The U.S. government is less than 48 hours out from a shutdown. Funding is set to run out Friday at midnight unless Congress passes an extension. Congressional leaders had rolled out a bipartisan bill earlier this week to try and head that off, but the deal is basically dead in the water after Donald Trump ordered Republicans

not to support it. The plan was on shaky ground to begin with. It started as a simple spending extension to keep the government funded until mid-March. But as negotiations went on, it became a sprawling catch-all, eventually including $100 billion in disaster aid, a pay raise for lawmakers, and even a provision on where the Washington commander's football team could move their stadium. Elon Musk, who Trump has tasked with slashing government spending in his new administration, spent all day yesterday railing against the bill, posting nearly non-stop on X and writing,

"...any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years." Trump posted a similar threat, saying that any Republican who, quote, would be so stupid to vote for the bill should and will face a primary challenge. The extremely vocal criticism undercut Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who helped craft the deal and had been trying to push it through.

So you've got a bunch of Republicans who are angry at you. They don't like this. Johnson was on Fox and Friends yesterday, where he was asked about all the pushback he's getting from Musk and others about the bill. They don't like this. Johnson was on Fox and Friends yesterday, where he was asked about all the pushback he's getting from Musk and others about the bill. They understand the situation. They said, it's not directed to you, Mr. Speaker, but we don't like the spending. I said, guess what, fellas, I don't either. We got to get

this done because here's the key. By doing this, we are clearing the decks and we are setting up for Trump to come in roaring back with the America First agenda. It's not clear what Johnson will do now, but the last-minute scramble is a preview of the difficulties that congressional leaders could face next year trying to pass legislation under a president with a tendency to blow up political compromises. Meanwhile, at the same time as Trump was railing against federal spending in the funding bill, he was urging lawmakers to increase the amount of money that the U.S. can borrow. He wants Congress to raise the debt ceiling.

The country is expected to reach its current limit next month, and if it's not increased, it could cause a default on the country's debt. Many Republicans in Congress are staunchly against raising it, and Trump acknowledged that it's politically unpopular, but he said he wants it taken care of before he's back in office, writing, "...increasing the debt ceiling is not great, but we'd rather do it on Biden's watch." In France this morning, a judge delivered verdicts in the shocking rape trial that captivated and horrified the country.

Dominique Pellico was found guilty after he admitted to drugging and raping his wife Giselle for nearly a decade and inviting dozens of strangers he met online to join him. He's been sentenced to 20 years in prison, the maximum allowed under French law. Fifty other men on trial beside him were also found guilty. Prosecutors had played video after graphic video of them assaulting Gisele Pellico while she was unconscious. Her decision to wave anonymity and make the trial open to the public, along with her steady poise in the courtroom, turned her into a feminist hero in France, and the months-long

trial sparked a broader debate in the country about toxic masculinity and the legal definition of rape. Live coverage of the verdicts, including from Times reporters at the courthouse, is at NYTimes.com. Across the U.S., experts say the threat posed by bird flu is growing. All new at noon, someone in Louisiana has been diagnosed with the first severe bird flu illness in the U.S. Yesterday, health officials announced the first case of an American getting seriously ill from the H5N1 virus when a person in Louisiana was hospitalized after catching it from a flock of birds in

their backyard. Just a few hours later, Governor Gavin Newsom declaring a state of emergency over the spread of the bird flu. The governor of California announced a state of emergency because of an outbreak in dairy cows there. Since August, the virus has been found at more than 600 dairies across the state, and about half of those cases have been found in just the past month, which set off alarm bells for public health authorities.

Officials say while the virus has been detected in raw milk samples, pasteurized dairy products are safe, and for the moment the virus still poses little danger to the average American. Bird flu can't spread easily between humans. And the people at highest risk are farm workers who are in close contact with animals. But the concern is that every time the virus jumps from animal to animal, animal to human, there's a chance it can mutate into a form

that could cause a pandemic. When Starbucks opened its first shop in China in 1999, it was the only coffee shop in town. And they had to create single-handedly a market for coffee drinkers in a country that had traditionally always preferred tea. But they did it and were hugely successful up until now, where they're suddenly faced with some ferocious competition. My colleague Alexandra Stevenson covers China, where she says Starbucks is facing a big problem. The country is their second biggest market behind the US, but a slew of local chains have popped up to get a piece of what Starbucks created. Starbucks' own CEO called the level of new competition extreme. The competitors are undercutting the coffee giant on price, which is key for Chinese consumers

who are nervous about the country's struggling economy. The competitors are also opening way more stores. These stores are just everywhere. One of its biggest competitors, Lock-in Coffee, has 20,000 stores compared to Starbucks's 7,600. They're selling coconut milk lattes, sugary jasmine tea frappes, lapsang souchang tea lattes. Just, I mean, the flavors can go on and on.

And Starbucks still, you know, is sticking to a lot of its traditional flavors. It just isn't hitting in the same way. Looking forward, one of Starbucks's biggest challenges could be the rise of patriotic consumers. There is this rising sense of patriotism among Chinese consumers and this strong desire to support and buy local brands over American brands. And so as Donald Trump heads back into the White House, and the rhetoric becomes potentially more anti-China. You could see Chinese consumers saying,

hey, wait a minute, why should we shop at Starbucks, an American brand? And that could spill over to other products too, like why should I buy a pair of Nike shoes when I can buy a pair of cheaper local brands? And finally, what could be worse than a plague of locusts? How about an invasion by so-called murder hornets? Five years ago, America went on red alert for the murder hornet.

Officials in Washington state warned that the invasive species, which is native to Asia, had been discovered in the state. The fear was that they could start to spread across the US and devastate bee populations. And the bees had a reason to be frightened. They killed all the workers, the drones, the queen. They slaughtered every last bee in the entire colony. When the hornets attack, they invade a colony,

rip all of the bees' heads off, and fly away with their midsections to feed their young. Scientists warned that they weren't fun for humans either. The sting apparently feels like having hot metal driven into your skin. The effort to keep the insects, also called northern giant hornets, from becoming established in the U.S. was huge. There were tip lines for possible sightings, traps were set, and entomologists even managed to capture a few

of the hornets, attaching tiny tracking devices to them and following them back to their nests, which they destroyed with vacuums and carbon dioxide. Yesterday, state and federal officials announced that all the work has paid off. The hornets have been eradicated from the original Washington hotspot and from the rest of the country. They acknowledged that a new invasion could happen in the future. But for now, things are quiet. One entomologist told the Times, quote, it is a rare day when the humans actually get

to win one against the insects. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, how cryptocurrency went from being a fringe investment to one of the most successful financial products out there. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. The headlines will be back tomorrow.