--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, March 2nd. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, U.S. intelligence weighs in on the Havana syndrome mystery, what happens next for all those laid-off tech workers, and how reality TV is diving into the fine art world. But first, this week, the Biden administration is making new moves to crack down on child labor in America.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Since 2018, the government has seen a nearly 70 percent increase in violations. Some of these kids are in very hazardous jobs. Factories, slaughterhouses, assembly lines.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Federal law bars kids under the age of 16 from working in most factories. And those under 18 are not allowed to do the most dangerous industrial jobs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This comes in the wake of recent investigative reports telling the stories of children working in these conditions. The New York Times found dozens of migrant children employed in violation of the law.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Many worked for companies that make goods for well-known global brands, the cereal that you eat for breakfast, the socks you're wearing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Reuters has been looking into child labor law violations extensively, over the last year. It's reported on young teenagers working in dangerous chicken processing plants in Alabama, and children as young as 12 working at a metal stamping plant run by a company owned by Hyundai.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The majority of miners that Reuters found were from Central America, where poverty and violence has led to waves of migration.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A record number of unaccompanied miners have entered the U.S. in recent years. Many are taken in by relatives, but Reuters reports some are sucked into a dangerous network.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Labor contractors illegally steer kids into jobs that are grueling and meant for adults. Long hours mean that many of them struggle in school or drop out altogether.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Following Reuters reporting, Hyundai said it would sell its stake in the plant. The carmaker CEO recently said an audit of its direct suppliers shows that it now complying with underage labor laws.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Biden administration is pushing for more money to enforce these laws, and it wants different penalties for companies that break them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Right now, the maximum penalty per child is just a little over $15,000.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A long-awaited U.S. government intelligence report says that Havana syndrome was not caused by an attack from a foreign enemy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post has the story of this review, which has been years in the making.
--:-- Shamita Basu: U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers reported unusual symptoms when working in Cuba and other U.S. offices around the world.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Symptoms were first reported at the U.S. Embassy in Havana in 2016.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I recently spoke with the New Yorker's John Lee Anderson. He is reported from war zones and conflicts around the world, and he spent time living in and reporting on Cuba.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He's also one of the reporters on a recent Vice podcast series about Havana syndrome.
--:-- John Lee Anderson: He told me about the intense suffering that some victims felt in the moment of their attack. Pain in the ears, pain in the head, a kind of overwhelming, paralyzing, anxiety-inducing, inexplicable moment of affliction in which you're held in the grip of something, you don't know what it is or where it's coming from.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There were theories that Russia or another government may have targeted Americans with some kind of energy weapon. Or that the sickness was a side effect of surveillance tools that a foreign government might be using.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But this new reporting from the CIA and other intelligence agencies dismisses those theories.
--:-- Shamita Basu: CIA Director William Burns called the analysis one of the biggest investigations in the agency's history.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He says the findings don't change the reality of the symptoms that government personnel and their families have had.
--:-- John Lee Anderson: Many have had long health problems. Anderson told us some victims had scarring on their brains. Some of them have incapacitating physical effects, a loss of balance, dizziness, nausea, insomnia, depression, and many inability to concentrate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And then this scarring, which in some cases has actually affected their central nervous system and their brain functions in some cases.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This report is the official government thinking on Havana syndrome, but it may not be the last word.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Victims say the findings don't track with their medical experiences.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Attorneys for victims tell The Post that the report is incomplete and opaque. They're calling for more transparency and further investigation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Big tech companies have laid off hundreds of thousands of people since the beginning of last year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Wired looks at how some of them are using this difficult moment to start their own companies.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The well-known startup accelerator, Y Combinator, says applications are soaring.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Starting a business can be exciting, but also tough. And right now, new founders are entering an especially tricky market.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Higher interest rates and investor skepticism about tech companies can make it hard to raise money.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But on the other hand, the broader economic picture has some positives.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For many tech workers, it helps that they got pretty good severance packages. That gives them a little bit of time and space to try something new.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post takes a slightly different angle into this. It looks at people who left tech jobs before the recent waves of layoffs and are just loving it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some wanted to use their skills in different ways or see if they could turn their passion projects into full businesses.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The post speaks to former tech workers who reinvented themselves as a skincare company founder, a romance novelist, and a craft popcorn maker.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The popcorn guy left a gig at Square to start his company, Jerry Pop.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He says he's not planning to go back to software engineering.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Dreaming up popcorn flavors like PB&J and Habanero Ranch has been an opportunity to let his creativity shine in ways that he says people directly appreciate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There seems to be a strange micro-trend bubbling up in the world of reality TV.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This one is not about love. It's not about food. Trust me, you would not guess it, so I'm just going to tell you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These are reality competition shows about fine art.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One is airing on both MTV and the Smithsonian Channel starting tomorrow.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's called The Exhibit, Finding the Next Great Artist. Contestants compete for a $100,000 prize and the chance to exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum in D.C.
--:-- Shamita Basu: See what it takes to make... Time to make some magic. The Exhibit. It's all part of MTV's new Friday nights after Drag Race at 9.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yes, Drag Race is the lead-in for the Smithsonian's new show. Pretty weird, right?
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the museum hopes that it's going to get new audiences excited about modern and contemporary art.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The other reality TV meets art show is a little different, and it's happening abroad.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There is a blockbuster Vermeer exhibition going on at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam right now.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And a new television show in the Netherlands challenges artists to compete against each other and recreate lost paintings by the Dutch master.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sometimes they only have a written description to go by.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The show is called The New Vermeer, and it's been a hit.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The pilot drew strong ratings.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And honestly, if you look at the paintings they're making, you'll get why.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It might be a reality show, but the paintings they're making are real, and they're seriously incredible.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We've got a narrated article coming up from Fortune about the impact of high insulin prices on Americans with diabetes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We pulled it from our archives because it's newly relevant, with the news yesterday that Eli Lilly is going to cap insulin costs at $35 a month for patients.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's queued up to play next, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Thank you.
