--:-- Yasmin Khan: Good morning. It's Wednesday, February 7th. I'm Yasmin Khan, in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Coming up, the conviction of a school shooter's parent could influence future prosecutions, the unusual and high-stakes election in Pakistan, and why it matters that The moon is shrinking. But first, let's take a quick look at some other big stories in the news.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: In Congress, Republicans failed to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over immigration policy. House Speaker Mike Johnson presided over the surprise loss for his party. The yeas are 2-14 and the nays are 2-16. The resolution is not adopted. A few Republicans crossed over to vote with Democrats.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: With the numbers so tight, sick lawmakers were dragged in to vote. Republican Hal Rogers appeared with a giant neck brace after a car accident. And at the last minute, Democratic Congressman Al Green arrived straight from the hospital. He wasn't expected on the floor because he was recovering from surgery. Shoeless and using a wheelchair? Green's vote was the nail in the coffin.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: A separate vote on a standalone aid package for Israel also failed in the House. Opponents say it was an attempt to distract from Republican squabbles over a broader bill that would also provide money for border security in Ukraine.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: In Israel, officials say they've told the families of 31 hostages held in Gaza that their relatives are presumed dead. This comes as mediators, including the U.S., are reviewing Hamas' response to a ceasefire proposal that would involve releasing Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been in the region meeting with allies.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: There's still a lot of work to be done, but we continue to believe that an agreement is possible and indeed essential. This comes as Israel says it's moving ground troops to Rafah, the city in southern Gaza near the Egyptian border. It's been one of the last places civilians could escape Israeli attacks, with more than a million people sheltering there.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Now to the U presidential race where President Biden won the Nevada primary as expected Nikki Haley lost in a race where former President Donald Trump was not on the ballot. Twice as many voters chose the option none of these candidates over Haley.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: The loss is technically meaningless, but still a psychological blow to her campaign. As we've reported on the show, Trump is expected to win all of Nevada's delegates and a separate caucus on Thursday. Haley's not competing in that contest.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Also, a federal appeals court ruled that Trump is not immune from prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the election. The ruling is a setback for Trump's defense in the federal election interference case.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: The question over immunity could wind up in the Supreme Court. After 11 hours of deliberation, a Michigan jury found Jennifer Crumbly guilty of involuntary manslaughter for a mass shooting committed by her teenage son.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: It's a landmark case, the first where a school shooter's parent has been found guilty of charges this serious. Her son Ethan killed four classmates at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021. He is serving a life sentence. Jennifer Crumbly faces up to 60 years in prison.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: The prosecution argued that Crumbly knew about her son's declining mental health and should have gotten him support. The prosecution pointed to text messages where her son describes seeing a demon, a homework assignment where he wrote the phrase blood everywhere, and a journal entry in which he said he wanted to see a therapist, but his parents wouldn't help.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Prosecutors say that Crumbly and her husband still bought their son a gun, failed to properly store it, and failed to alert school officials about it. New York law school professor Kirk Burkhalter told CBS that he's not surprised by the verdict.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: If you think about the standard, the criminal negligence standard, It is whether a reasonable person under these circumstances could have foreseen the harm. And when you take the totality of the circumstances here, purchasing the gun for the shooter and the drawings and the history of mental health, this kid was a guided missile.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And that guided missile was aimed at this school. Parents of the victims were in the courtroom throughout the trial, including Craig Schilling, whose son Justin was killed. He said things might have been different if the Crumbly parents had taken action.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Accountability on this level years ago could have stopped It could have stopped what happened in Oxford that for sure. Campaigners against gun violence say the verdict sets an important precedent about how parents are responsible for keeping guns out of children's hands.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And legal experts say it could lead to more prosecutors going after parents of school shooters. Jennifer Crumley's defense tried to argue that she didn't realize how bad her son's mental health was, and they tried to shift blame to the father, James Crumbly.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: He now faces the same charges and a trial starting next month. Pakistan is holding nationwide elections tomorrow, at a time when voters are concerned about a long-standing economic crisis and the influence of the military.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Wall Street Journal reporter Saeed Shah has called this moment leading up to the election a rollercoaster ride. I think it is extreme, even by Pakistani standards. People are saying that this is the most controversial election since the 1970s.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: To understand why it's so controversial, you have to look at some of the key players. There's the recently ousted, but still popular, former prime minister Imran Khan. He is in prison, convicted of corruption and leaking state secrets.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: He says the charges are political. Khan, who was once the country's most famous cricket player, is not on the ballot, but many still support his party. Meanwhile, another ousted and previously jailed prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, is back from exile and could very well be prime minister again.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Then there's the powerful military, which has an outsized influence on Pakistani politics. Politics here are deeply polarized between essentially those who favor Imran Khan and those who are against him.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And it's hard to see that people will accept the result, broadly speaking. So it is not at all clear that this election is going to lead to some kind of stability following it.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Shah, who's based in Pakistan, says even campaigning has been different this time around. It's been more muted, with fewer rallies. There are also fears of violence on Election Day Today there were two separate bomb blasts at local election offices At least 22 people were killed
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And in the background of all this is a dire economic situation Shah says while ordinary voters may not trust the process they still have a hankering for progress. Pakistan has never really found its feet economically. It's a country of 240 million people.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: So it's a big country. It has nuclear weapons. It has a huge army. But what has been missing really is any sort of economic development. And parallel with that is that its political system has not matured.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: In fact, Shah points out that in the country's 76-year history, no prime minister has ever served a full term.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Finally, the moon is shrinking, albeit very slowly. New research shows that as the core of the moon cools, it is ever so gradually shriveling up like a raisin.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Not by a lot. Around 150 feet over a few hundred million years. So it's not expected to have a substantial impact on tidal cycles on Earth.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: But for astronauts exploring the moon, there are some risks. A shrinking moon means more fault lines on the surface, which could increase the risk of moonquakes.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Overall, scientists say the risk to astronauts and robotic landers is relatively low. But since the moon has less gravitational pull than Earth, moonquakes can feel much more intense than earthquakes, and they can be more dangerous.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: So, as lunar exploration continues, NASA and private companies will have to consider the possibility of moonquakes more seriously as they pick future landing sites and as they build the next generation of lunar technology.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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 from Sports Illustrated.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: It's about Ukrainian tennis player Sergei Stokovsky. In 2013, he beat Roger Federer in one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history. Sports Illustrated looks at Stokovsky's life now after signing up to serve in the military in the fight against Russia.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: If you're listening in the podcast's app, Follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story. Enjoy listening, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
