--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, March 10th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, an American held in Iran's most notorious prison speaks to CNN in a rare interview. Why a country that killed off daylight saving time is bringing it back again. And an Oscars insider tells us what the show's like from backstage. But first, new numbers out this morning show the U.S. economy added more than 300,000 jobs last month. That's higher than forecasters expected.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As we talked about earlier this week, this is one of the most anticipated jobs reports in a long time. Today's data also shows that the super strong jobs report from the previous month was no fluke. Job growth remains hot overall.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's take a look at a key trend behind these numbers. Ahead of today's data, the Wall Street Journal did some in-depth reporting on women in the workplace right now. And it has some surprises.
--:-- Shamita Basu: During the pandemic lockdowns, millions more women were out of work than men. And some economists worried about a permanent shift, that women would face challenges re-entering the workforce.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the data shows women are not only coming back, they're getting more of the new jobs created than men.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The journal explains part of this has to do with where those new jobs are. They're in industries where women account for a big part of the workforce, like education, hospitality, and other services.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Lockdowns froze many of these businesses, but now they're reopened, they've recovered, and women are returning to them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Other pandemic disruptions have faded, too. More people are vaccinated against COVID-19. And this one's important. More kids are back in classrooms.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The reality is that women do a disproportionate share of child care. So many left work when schools closed. Affordable child care is still hard to find.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the growth of remote work has made it easier for some people to be working parents.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are also financial pressures driving women to return to work. As you probably know from your own grocery bills, things just cost a lot right now, and many people simply need more money.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Economists are watching all of this and realizing those early worries about working women falling off the map they slowly easing as the service sector comes roaring back to life.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As many women re-enter the workforce, we could see labor shortages starting to ease. That's crucial. One economist tells the journal that women working could help take a little bit of the heat off inflation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A quick update now on the New York criminal investigation into Donald Trump's businesses. The former president is being given a chance to testify before a Manhattan grand jury.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post reports that New York prosecutors have invited Trump to testify next week. This could mean that the Manhattan DA's investigation is winding down and that criminal charges for Trump could follow.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's been a long-standing probe of his business matters, including payment of hush money to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In scenarios like this, defense attorneys generally advise clients not to testify. Trump has repeatedly said that prosecutors are politically motivated.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The New York case is just one of the serious legal issues that Trump faces, along with investigations into his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election, the January 6th insurrection, and the handling of classified documents.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yesterday, in a rare interview, we heard from the man who's been held in Iran longer than any other American.
--:-- Shamita Basu: My name is Siamak Namazi, and this call is being made from Ward 4 of Evin Prison in Tehran.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Siamak Namazi is a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen. He's been detained in Iran for over seven years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He spoke via phone with CNN's Christian Amanpour from Iran's notorious Evin Prison, known for housing political prisoners.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Namazi said he wanted his message to reach President Biden, and he called on his administration to ramp up negotiations for the release of not just him, but also two other Americans held there.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Namazi was arrested in 2015 while he was traveling in Iran for a business trip. The country accused him of relations with a hostile government the United States.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The UN, human rights organizations, and Washington say that the charges against him are baseless, and they've accused Iran of holding dual nationals as political pawns in negotiations with the West.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In January, Namazi went on a seven-day hunger strike and wrote an open letter to Biden calling for him to deliver on a promise to secure his release.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The White House has said it remains committed to getting him out. But Namazi told Amanpour he feels left out.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Across three U.S. presidential administrations, he wasn't included in previous prisoner swap deals.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I keep getting told that I'm going to be rescued and deals fall apart or I get left abandoned.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Namazi says he has gotten so close to getting out with so many dashed hopes. He tells Amanpour he feels like he's constantly three weeks away from freedom.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Talking to CNN from prison is a risk, but he says it shows how dire his situation is.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Daylight saving time is upon us once again. Clocks change on Sunday. It's the bad one this time, where we spring forward and we lose an hour of sleep.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Twice a year in America, politicians bring up the idea of just ending the whole thing and keeping the clocks the same year round.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It may seem like change will never happen, but there are people who've lived through the consequences of flip-flopping on the daylight saving debate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Reuters reports on Egypt, which killed off daylight saving time seven years ago. But this year, it's coming back.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's the latest in a series of moves from the government to cut back on energy use. The idea being, lining up natural daylight hours with working hours will save energy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Egypt has had economic difficulties lately, and it wants to export more of its natural gas rather than use it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The country has also gone back and forth on daylight saving across different regimes, not just in political talk, but in practice.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So it's no stranger to the whiplash. So whether you love or hate the biannual clock change, maybe look to the country that's changed its mind about it so many times before you decide which side of the debate you fall on.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Oscars are on Sunday. Jimmy Kimmel is hosting for the third time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is one of the last remaining live events that masses of people watch on TV. It's always slickly produced, but as we've seen in recent years, it's sometimes the unscripted, unplanned moments that keep people talking for months, even years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I mean, as a lover of Oscar drama and chaos, I live for those things.
--:-- Shamita Basu: New Yorker staff writer Michael Shulman is an Oscars obsessive. He absorbs everything from the red carpet interviews to the acceptance speeches.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In fact, he has a party trick. He can recite just about any one of Meryl Streep's winning speeches, word for word, breath for breath.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And he's out now with a new book about the biggest, most shocking moments in the history of the awards and the Academy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Schulman was at the Oscars in 2017. He was watching from the press room when the wrong film was announced as the best picture winner.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The camera did a close up of the card that said Moonlight after we all thought La La Land had won. Everyone screamed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I still remember that moment of everyone in the press room just screaming collectively because something was actually happening, something totally unheard of and unplanned.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He was also there last year when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The feeling in the room is like if you're in a bar and two people get into a brawl, you know, that sort of unsettled, dangerous energy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And yet a lot of people had no idea they thought it was a comic bit because there was really nothing like this that ever happened before.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And it was sort of hard to process.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On this weekend's episode of Apple News In Conversation, Shulman tells us some new details that he's learned about these surprising moments.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And he gives us his predictions for this year. I'm predicting a good night for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People love an underdog movie, and that movie really came out of nowhere. And there's a lot of love for it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can listen to our whole chat by searching for Apple News in conversation in the news or podcast apps.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And we'll queue it up to play next right after this show.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And yes, you do get to hear Shulman's Meryl Streep impression. It is pretty spot on.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So enjoy listening to that episode of In Conversation, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
