--:-- Shamita Basu: Hey there, it's Shamita. Before we get into the show, I have an exciting announcement. Today marks five years since the first episode of Apple News Today. It is an honor bringing you the news every day, and our whole team is so grateful for all of your support over the years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If this show is an essential part of your morning routine, as always, you can follow us in Apple Podcasts. We especially appreciate when you tell your friends and your family about us. And if you have another 30 seconds, leave us a rating and a review, too. It helps other people find our show, and it helps us know what you like about it. Thanks. Good morning. It's Tuesday, July 15th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, new stories of vile conditions at Florida's so-called Alligator Alcatraz, a rare up-close view of the Gaza aid system, and the Supreme Court clears the way for Trump to dismantle the education department. But first, to the fractures forming among President Trump's strongest supporters.
--:-- Natalie Allison: A number of people in Trump's movement have been upset with the way that the White House is handling certain issues that they see as really fundamental to the MAGA movement.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump's decision to continue sending weapons to Ukraine, which they see as going against Trump's America First promises of not getting involved in other wars. And they're very upset over Trump's decision also recently to allow carve outs for certain illegal immigrant workers, specifically those working in agriculture and hospitality industries. And most recently, they've been very vocal about the decision by Trump's administration not to release more files in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
--:-- Natalie Allison: While campaigning, President Trump on numerous occasions told his base he would be willing to release information on Epstein. Epstein was a registered sex offender under federal investigation for allegedly running a mass sex trafficking ring involving minors. He died in federal custody back in 2019. And his case has been surrounded by questions and conspiracy theories for years, in part because of the circumstances of his death and because Epstein frequently socialized with the country's most powerful people, from politicians like Bill Clinton to big name business people like Bill Gates and Donald Trump himself.
--:-- Natalie Allison: Some of Trump's most ardent supporters believed his administration would reveal what they believed previous administrations had been hiding, most notably Epstein's so-called client list, especially after comments Attorney General Pam Bondi made to Fox News earlier this year where she said she had that list on her desk.
--:-- Natalie Allison: But the FBI and Department of Justice announced earlier this month no files in Epstein's case contain a client list. They reaffirmed a medical examiner's conclusion that Epstein died by suicide. And Bondi told reporters in a cabinet meeting last week that her comments to Fox News were misunderstood. I was asked a question about the client list, and my response was, it's sitting on my desk to be reviewed, meaning the file, along with the JFK, MLK files as well. That's what I meant by that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump has strongly defended Bondi and rebuked his supporters who have continued to push conspiracy theories about the case. But for many in Trump's base, Allison told us, this outcome with Epstein is now testing their faith in the administration at large.
--:-- Natalie Allison: It really gets at the heart of this idea that Trump was going to expose everything and all of the corruption. And now some of those people are really left in the dark about what's going on.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That uncertainty was on full display at the conservative Turning Point USA Student Action Summit over the weekend, where Allison says some of Trump's youngest supporters were frustrated.
--:-- Natalie Allison: So were a number of commentators who spoke at the conference, like former senior White House advisor Steve Bannon, who said the Epstein case represents something larger and more worrisome for the MAGA movement.
--:-- Steve Bannon: For this to go away, you're going to lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement. If we lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement right now, we're going to lose 40 seats in 26. We're going to lose the president. You don't even have to steal it.
--:-- Natalie Allison: Allison spoke to Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, and he echoed those concerns in less drastic terms.
--:-- Natalie Allison: Allison told us these commentators could be overstating what's happening as a tactic to keep fans engaged, but there are indicators the discontent they're describing is real. The people without platforms, the average Joes who are on the conservative social media sites, like you can see that there's a lot of anger from those people. And ultimately, you know, those are the people who who are casting ballots and they're in far greater numbers than the number of influencers who are having these conversations.
--:-- Natalie Allison: And so I think it might take some time to see if they come back around. But so far, the White House is like staying strong in their position that this isn't an issue that is salient with the overall electorate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to new reporting from the Miami Herald on the occupants and conditions inside an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades, one that's being referred to as Alligator Alcatraz.
--:-- Anna Ceballos: I'm Anna Ceballos, a state government and politics reporter for The Herald. She and her colleagues obtained records indicating that of the more than 700 people housed or scheduled to be housed at the facility, about 250 have no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's really the first public accounting of who exactly is being held there. And this is a facility that has been described by state and federal officials as a place where, quote unquote, vicious and menacing migrants will be held before they are deported.
--:-- Anna Ceballos: The Herald reports that a third of the current detainees do have criminal convictions. According to data they cite from Syracuse University, across the country, nearly half of detainees in ICE custody as of late June were being held for immigration violations, not criminal convictions or charges.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Republicans seem to be brushing off the fact that, you know, that there is no criminal records associated with a lot of these individuals because they say just being in the country undocumented or without legal authorization should in itself be a violation of the law and therefore you should be a detainee at this facility.
--:-- Anna Ceballos: Democratic lawmakers who've been able to gain access to the facility, meanwhile, have said that conditions there are deplorable.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ceballos spoke to the wives of some of the detainees currently being held there, who also relayed some harrowing stories.
--:-- Anna Ceballos: There were conditions where the bathrooms, for example, were not properly functioning, that the water was overflowing. There was no water at some point one day, that they have little or no access to showers, that they went days without showering, in fact.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In another incident, the Herald corroborated a story about someone needing medical treatment at a nearby hospital.
--:-- Anna Ceballos: We had a first-person account of an ambulance leaving the facility at some point, and a hospital that was nearby confirmed that there was a detainee who had been at the hospital for treatment. And the state said that that was fake news that there had been no medical emergency.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And then after we posted the story noting all of that the Department of Homeland Security said you know it was just a hospital visit that lasted about an hour And then they came back. It was no big deal.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A spokesperson for the state agency managing the facility dismissed the Herald's reporting as untrue. The detention facility is now at the center of a pair of lawsuits. State Democrats who were turned away are suing to gain access, while two environmental groups are seeking a restraining order against site activity, citing harm to wildlife.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to some rare on-the-ground reporting from NPR in Gaza that reveals what exactly it's like for Palestinians to try to get food under Israel's dangerous new aid distribution system.
--:-- Anas Baba: I'm Anas Baba, an NPR producer in Gaza. He recently documented what it's like to take this journey in a report for NPR.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A day in my life that I will never, ever forget. At 1:30 in the morning, he and others heard a GHF site was opening. Palestinians are often told at the last minute which sites will open, and for how long, which GHF says is to prevent crowd surges. But in reality, it means that people often crowd nearby, waiting for one to open.
--:-- Anas Baba: Baba and others started racing toward the site, some by foot, some by car. And when they got closer, they learned they were wrong. It wasn't open. But he told NPR an Israeli tank was there. And I heard the gunshots and the people screaming that they are injured. And others are saying that my brother died. And others were screaming, my friend died.
--:-- Anas Baba: And the gunfire didn't stop. And I can see in front of me that people are still awaiting. They're not leaving.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When it stopped, people started running again toward the site. At this point, at 2 a.m., it was open. And Baba watched as desperate people fought over limited food, in some cases wielding weapons to try to get as much as they could and protect what they had.
--:-- Anas Baba: He told his NPR colleagues he was then targeted for documenting the chaos. People came to me telling me, look at your forehead. There is three laser points, green laser points, on my head from the American contractors. And one of them said out loud with the speaker, no filming is allowed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So Baba grabbed some rice and pushed through a crowd of people who were trying to leave. But soon after, he was stopped by masked thieves and forced to give up some of his supplies.
--:-- Anas Baba: They were having big knives and they told us, you do have two options. Give us half of what you had, okay, or we're going to harm you. They left him with only about a week and a half worth of food.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Since Israel still heavily restricts food entering Gaza, Baba told NPR he can only afford to eat one small meal a day, to stretch his supplies as long as possible.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He later learned from officials at a local hospital that 26 people were killed outside of the aid site that morning, and over 200 people were wounded.
--:-- Shamita Basu: GHF has called the early weeks of its program successful and the head of GHF defended their operation to CBS earlier this month telling them GHF has not seen evidence of mass casualties related to people seeking aid.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We certainly haven't seen it in our distribution sites or immediate proximity to our distribution sites. I'm not diminishing at all these reports. And the fact is we can't control what happens outside of our distribution sites.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The group announced last week that it will start to supply aid directly to communities through a new program that it says will increase food distribution across Gaza tenfold.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The UN, along with more than 170 human rights groups and aid groups, have called for the GHF system to be dismantled.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Trump has announced the U.S. will send new weapons to Ukraine to be paid for by NATO allies.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There were few details as to what the weaponry would amount to, but Trump said it would be, quote, top of the line.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's the first time Trump has pledged new military equipment for Ukraine since his second term began and marks another sign of Trump's shifting position on the war.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sitting with NATO chief Mark Ruta in the Oval Office, Trump again expressed his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin and made new economic threats.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I'm disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn't seem to get there. So based on that, we're going to be doing secondary tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days. It's very simple.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A White House official said Trump was referring to direct tariffs on Russia, as well as secondary tariffs and sanctions aimed at those countries trading with Russia.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And to the Supreme Court, which ruled that Trump could resume dismantling the Department of Education.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The conservative majority court lifted a federal judge's order that had reinstated nearly 1,400 workers affected by mass layoffs at the department and prevented the administration from moving some functions to other departments.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said her conservative colleagues were, quote, either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Formally eliminating the department would have required an act from Congress. But the administration argued it was maintaining some core functions and making, quote, internal management decisions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, a quick tip for summer snacking.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Do you know the secret to picking the perfect watermelon?
--:-- Shamita Basu: It has a very specific sound. Now, listen close. Let's hear that one more time. You hear that? Kind of like a ping.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Experts in the state of Georgia, which produces about one out of every five watermelons sold in the U.S., tell the Atlanta Journal-Constitution you want to listen for that ping sound when you tap a watermelon.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The riper the melon, the more likely it pings. Whereas melons that aren't very ripe sound more like a flat basketball. Like this.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So the next time you're at a store trying to figure out which melon to grab, do the tap test first.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Because watermelons stop ripening as soon as they're cut from the vine, So if you choose wrong, you are kind of stuck with what you've got.
--:-- 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, we've got a narrated article coming up next from Women's Health.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The promise of LASIK surgery. One quick procedure followed by crystal clear vision for life made it a billion dollar industry. But many patients have learned the hard way that this surgery is not as simple, safe or effective as it's made out to be.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
