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--:-- Mark Garrison: Good morning. It's Monday, October 30th. I'm Mark Garrison, in for Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Mark Garrison: On today's show, how the Middle East conflict is affecting American companies, a weekend of deadly gun violence in the U.S., and remembering comedian Matthew Perry. But first, the latest on the war between Israel and Hamas.
--:-- Mark Garrison: As civilians in Gaza say, Israeli ground troops and tanks are moving in further. This appears to be a much larger ground assault than previous raids inside Gaza.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Israel's military says it's targeting militants and their network of tunnels, destroying traps and preparing corridors in Gaza for potential future deployments.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls this the second stage of the war against Hamas.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Aid workers and doctors say a blackout of phone and internet service for a day and a half did major damage. Trucks couldn't communicate to find out where aid was needed, and ambulances were unable to get orders as to where the wounded were.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Families didn't know if their loved ones were alive. People there blame Israel for the shutdown. It hasn't confirmed or denied that it caused the communications blackout.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The humanitarian crisis for civilians in Gaza is getting worse, with severe shortages of food and water and hospitals lacking supplies and fuel to treat civilians wounded in airstrikes.
--:-- Mark Garrison: A few dozen more trucks entered Gaza yesterday, but aid workers say they're still running desperately short of what people in Gaza need.
--:-- Mark Garrison: There are more calls for a pause in fighting so that more aid can get in. The United Nations voted overwhelmingly for a humanitarian truce. The U.S. was one of a handful of countries voting against the resolution.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Yesterday, President Biden told Netanyahu that Israel needs to do more to protect civilians as it wages war in Gaza and to allow more humanitarian aid in.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Israel's military says it will let in more supplies in the coming days. And it's telling civilians to flee to the south of Gaza, though many Palestinians say they're unable to find safety.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And hospitals in the north say they can't evacuate without putting patients in danger.
--:-- Mark Garrison: There are growing tensions around the world as the conflict intensifies. In Russia police shut down and took control of an airport in a primarily Muslim region after hundreds of people broke into the facility as a plane from Israel was landing.
--:-- Mark Garrison: They smashed glass and tried to turn over a patrol truck before police made arrests and got the situation under control. The passengers on board were not harmed.
--:-- Mark Garrison: New York's Grand Central Terminal closed on Friday when a demonstration organized by Jewish Voice for Peace filled the transit hub.
--:-- Mark Garrison: What do we want? Sea! Water! We want it! It's just one of many protests happening across the U.S., the Middle East, and around the world.
--:-- Mark Garrison: As civilian casualties grow, calls for a ceasefire get louder, and the conflict reaches a critical point.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The conflict in the Middle East is having major impact on workplaces. Companies and employees say they feel pressure to say something about what's happening.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The Washington Post looks at how doing so can be risky, especially for people who question Israel.
--:-- Mark Garrison: A growing list of people in various fields, from tech to law to media, have lost jobs and opportunities or been harassed online for criticizing Israel's attacks in Gaza.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Sometimes even just expressing sympathy for Palestinian families who've lost loved ones is enough to get someone labeled as a supporter of terrorism.
--:-- Mark Garrison: We spoke to Caroline O'Donovan from The Post last week.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: Even things as sort of innocuous as, you know, hashtag free Gaza or pray for Palestinians, their names and employers were being essentially, you know, published or listed on a website, labeling them as potentially terror-supporting posts.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: And obviously, the existence of such a website made people feel threatened and nervous about what they could say, both at work or elsewhere.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: As O'Donovan told us, after Hamas first attacked, many U.S. companies quickly issued statements in solidarity with Israel.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: But supporters of Palestinians in Gaza wanted companies to say more about civilian deaths there.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: And I think as events have continued to unfold with the loss of life in Gaza, I think there are a lot of people who are sort of waiting for a similar expression of support or sadness at the events there.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: And there's sort of a feeling of like, well, when is that coming?
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: A Yale business school professor told The Post that this may be because big global companies typically do little to no business in Gaza but do have business relationships in Israel.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: They also have employees with strong ties to the country Some of them have people on staff who are reservists in the IDF who are being called up to serve in the conflict there at the same time.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: But there are also many employees at these companies who are calling for protection of Palestinian civilians and for more humanitarian aid in Gaza.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: And some tell the Post they're worried about consequences if they speak out.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: And they say companies aren't being consistent and how they're dealing with workers who express themselves.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: On Meta's internal site, the Post reports that a message saying pray for Palestine was taken down, but similar postings saying pray for Israel stayed up.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: Meta said in an internal email that employees can show sympathy for civilian victims but not express prayers for armed forces.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: Workers with strong feelings about the conflict aren't quite sure where their managers are drawing the lines.
--:-- Caroline O'Donovan: And O'Donovan says the companies are also finding it hard to strike a balance among the diverse views of their workers.
--:-- Mark Garrison: We saw increasingly demands that companies and corporations make statements against various Trump administration policies all the way through 2020 and the Black Lives Matter protests.
--:-- Mark Garrison: People expected that those companies are then also going to make public statements and fall in line with other issues that they feel strongly about.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And I really do think that Israel-Palestine in particular is an issue where companies are extremely hesitant to do that.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now let's take a look at some other stories in the news, starting with the weekend shootings in the United States.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The Gun Violence Archive counts at least 11 people dead and dozens more injured in mass shootings across multiple states, including Texas, Indiana, Florida, and Illinois.
--:-- Mark Garrison: This comes just days after 18 people were shot to death in Maine.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Police found the suspect Friday dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In labor news, the United Auto Workers have a tentative deal with GM.
--:-- Mark Garrison: This follows a deal struck over the weekend with Stellantis, the maker of Jeeps and Chryslers.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In that one, wages for most workers would go up by 25% over four and a half years.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The union previously made a tentative agreement with Ford.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The deals need to be ratified, but today's announcement about GM could end the strike that shut down major plants as thousands of workers walked off.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In Mexico troops are on the ground in Acapulco searching for survivors of last week Category 5 hurricane and trying to stabilize the situation.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Hurricane Otis did severe damage killing dozens of people and knocking out power and communications.
--:-- Mark Garrison: NBR's Eder Peralta reported from the ground.
--:-- Eder Peralta: You look up at the buildings and you can see straight through them, like everything inside was sucked out by the wind.
--:-- Eder Peralta: And then in the hills above Acapulco, the rivers broke their banks and they flooded everything.
--:-- Eder Peralta: People I spoke to said that when the storm hit, the water in their homes came up to their chests.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In politics, the Republican presidential field is now smaller after Mike Pence ended his campaign.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The former VP struggled in polls and fundraising in a contest where former President Donald Trump has consistently pulled well ahead of all challengers.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The next debate in the primary is early next month in Miami.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And finally, tributes are pouring in for Matthew Perry, who died at 54 over the weekend.
--:-- Mark Garrison: They're coming from actors, studios, even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who went to elementary school with Perry.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And of course, from everyday fans of his character on Friends, Chandler Bing.
--:-- Mark Garrison: So, Saturday night, the big night, date night, Saturday night, Saturday night. No plans, huh? Not a one.
--:-- Mark Garrison: People across generations know that character.
--:-- Mark Garrison: That's a very rare thing for a show that's been off the air nearly two decades.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But all these years later, Perry and his cast members remain popular, reaching new generations of fans through streaming.
--:-- Mark Garrison: His death is under investigation. The LA Times reports that no illegal drugs were found at the scene of his death in a hot tub at his home.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Police said there was no initial sign of foul play.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Perry struggled with alcohol and drug addiction for decades.
--:-- Mark Garrison: He was candid in his memoir about spending so much of his life in treatment.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Perry opened a sober living facility in California and dedicated his book to people suffering through addiction.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And in that memoir, he wrote that he hoped to be remembered not just for his performances, but for how he tried to help other people.
--:-- Mark Garrison: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around. A narrated article from People magazine is coming up next.
--:-- Mark Garrison: It's about Natalie Holloway's mother, Beth, and her long fight to solve the 2005 murder.
--:-- Mark Garrison: If you're listening in the podcasts app, you can follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And Shumita will be back here with the news tomorrow.
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