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--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Friday, March 18th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Russian missiles hit the outskirts of Lviv in western Ukraine today. A lot of non-military targets across the country have been hit. There was an American among the civilians killed yesterday. His name was Jimmy Hill. He was in the country with his Ukrainian partner.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Mariupol, rescuers have been searching the rubble of a bombed theater. Ukrainian officials say hundreds of people were sheltering there, including children. Some survivors have managed to make it out.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Diplomats have been thinking about what kind of role China might play in this conflict. Today, President Biden is speaking with China's Xi Jinping. The American message to China has been clear. Active support of Russia's conflict will mean consequences.
--:-- Shamita Basu: U.S. officials said earlier that Russia has asked China for military and economic help. Russia denies this. And China says it has not helped Russia's war in any way.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yesterday, I sat down with Ian Bremmer, president of the Eraser Group. He recently wrote in Time magazine about how much of a difficult position China is in right now.
--:-- Ian Bremmer: On the one hand, Xi and Putin have been allies for a long time. But on the other, getting too close to Moscow at this moment has enormous consequences for Beijing. I think that Xi Jinping does not want to be painted as so much of a confederate of Putin that suddenly he is in a new Cold War against a unified United States and NATO and Quad.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He does not want a forcible decoupling of the Chinese economy from the rest of the world the way the Russian economy has now been forcibly decoupled.
--:-- Ian Bremmer: What is the line here that if China crosses it, the U.S. is going to have to take action against Beijing? And what might such a response be from the U.S.?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Well, I think that there are a couple of red lines. One red line would be direct military assistance to the Russians to allow them to continue and expand their warfighting capabilities against the Ukrainians. That would be one. And the second would be direct sanctions breaking behavior on the part of the Chinese against American and European sanctions on Russia.
--:-- Ian Bremmer: Those two would be red lines. If they were broken, I think you would see severe sanctions against Chinese policymakers, individuals that were responsible for that, the companies that are involved, and perhaps even sectoral sanctions. That would be massively impactful.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, then the question is, what about things that the Chinese are doing that are in a gray zone? They're not directly breaking the sanctions, but they're clearly trying to evade the sanctions. They're breaking the spirit of the sanctions. They are allowing Chinese investment in ways that the Americans have no direct law on the books against but clearly are helping the Russians to maintain significant economic strength and fight against an independent Ukraine and more broadly against NATO.
--:-- Ian Bremmer: And I think that that's the nature of the conversation that presidents Bai and Xi are having right now. That's the nature of a conversation that American policymakers have to think very seriously about.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's say the worst case scenario happens. China provides military support, economic support, and the U.S. imposes sanctions against China. How does China fare? Can it survive the type of isolation that Russia is being confronted with right now?
--:-- Ian Bremmer: Well, it won't be isolated. If the Americans were to do that, what's going to happen is you will have a fragmentation of the global economy. You will have literally a breaking into two. China is the most important trade partner of a majority of countries all over the world.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You think about the last 50 years, we've created a global middle class. We've taken hundreds of millions of people out of extreme poverty because of globalization, because increasingly people and goods and services and ideas were moving faster and faster across borders all over the world.
--:-- Ian Bremmer: This would be an end of that. And it would be incredibly damaging to the future of the planet.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Dozens of historically Black colleges and universities have gotten bomb threats in recent months. No bombs have been found, but it still created a sense of terror on these campuses. And it's notable that many of the threats occurred during Black History Month.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The FBI is investigating the threats as racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism and hate crimes.
--:-- Josh Idelson: This week, the White House announced these schools are going to be eligible for additional money to help them improve security and mental health resources.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vice President Kamala Harris is a graduate of one of the most famous historically black schools, Howard University. She's spoken many times about the importance of supporting these schools and says what's happening now is a serious problem.
--:-- Josh Idelson: These threats have been made in phone calls and instant messages and emails and online posts. These threats have brought fear and anxiety to places of peace.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Atlantic looks at the long history in America of terrorism targeting Black students. Many of today's Black colleges trace their history back to the end of the Civil War. It's part of the reason why they exist, to educate Black students because other places refused to.
--:-- Josh Idelson: In the decades that followed, many white people made violent threats against Black universities. And in some cases, there was deadly violence. People were killed and injured.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In 1960, someone called a bomb threat into Fisk University in Tennessee ahead of a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. And this year, Howard University was one of the places that got threats on the first day of Black History Month.
--:-- Josh Idelson: But students there returned to class. The university's president told The Atlantic, quote, We have to be resilient People don want to see African Americans in certain places Some of this is hate Some of it is intended to disrupt what we do
--:-- Shamita Basu: In this country, there are laws against discrimination in the workplace, from race to gender to sexual orientation to disability status. But there's no clear law that protects workers who are overweight.
--:-- Josh Idelson: And a lot of people are rethinking that. My article points out how people who are overweight are less likely to be hired, promoted, and also paid less.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For example. In one lawsuit, a manager at Coach alleged that when she was petite, she got promoted. And then when she ceased to be petite, she got fired. And in between, the company pressured her to get bariatric surgery and even wrote in a performance evaluation that they wanted to know what happened to the version of her that ate lean cuisines for lunch each day.
--:-- Josh Idelson: Coach declined to comment. Generally, companies can get away with this kind of behavior because of the lack of legal protection.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Michigan and a few cities, including San Francisco, ban weight discrimination. Now activists are pressing for more. Right now, advocates see what may be the best chance in decades to pass new statewide legislation banning discrimination based on weight.
--:-- Josh Idelson: In both New York and Massachusetts, bills are moving through legislatures that would prohibit discrimination based on weight or height in public accommodations, in housing, and in employment.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Civil rights laws rest on this idea that you should be protected against discrimination based on traits you cannot change. This has been a sticking point in the conversation about weight-based discrimination.
--:-- Josh Idelson: One of the reasons there's been resistance to legal protections for people based on their weight is a perception that weight is under people's control and that it's a matter of discipline.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But current science doesn't always back that up. In fact, research suggests Americans don't have as much control over their weight as people like to think. That in fact, our bodies are more a product of our genes and our environment than of our willpower.
--:-- Josh Idelson: Expanding civil rights protection takes decades of momentum. It's hard to do, and it requires a shift in the way society thinks about people who are overweight.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Happy World Sleep Day. Yeah, I don't know. Today is one of those made-up PR holidays. In this case, it's an attempt to raise awareness of the importance of a good night's sleep.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: It was founded by experts in sleep medicine. Now, Duarte and I, we start work at 3 o'clock every morning. So we are whatever the opposite of a sleep expert is.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And this week there's been so much news about sleep. We can stop talking about it. Yeah, especially when you open your eyes at 2 a.m.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, this week, we changed our clocks, as usual. Now, we've talked about this on our show lately. And the Senate passed a bill that would end that ritual.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The move took a lot of people by surprise. It would put us permanently on daylight saving time, the way your clock is right now.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: By the way, if you're having a hard time wrapping your mind around what it would mean to get rid of clock changes, Vox has this graphic that compares standard versus daylight saving time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It shows how many sunny hours we get across the U.S. and it makes complete sense. It's so clarifying. It's on the Apple News app.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So the Washington Post looked into what sleep scientists actually think about this new Senate change. They're also totally on board with the idea of ending clock changes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They agree it's terrible. But they say that the Senate got it wrong. We should be on standard time all year, not on daylight saving.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, their argument is based on science, health, and safety. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says, standard time is the closest to human circadian rhythm. Disrupting that rhythm messes with our physical and mental health.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And losing sleep can be dangerous. Tired drivers are a real risk. We've been talking about this interesting article that popped up this week from Road & Track.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: It basically says humans are not meant to drive at night. Some of that is about how our eyes struggle with lack of light. But a big chunk of why so many fatal accidents happen at night is lack of sleep.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Federal stats show drowsy driving causes tens of thousands of traffic accidents a year. According to the CDC, being awake for more than 18 hours is equivalent to being tipsy.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And if you are driving after not sleeping for 24 hours, you're effectively a drunk driver.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As Road and Track puts it, we are unusual in the animal kingdom in that we use artificial light to keep going at night. But at night, we are hardwired to want sleep. And that's why missing out on it can be dangerous.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: A good night's sleep doesn't just feel good. It might save lives.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This weekend, we're spinning off our interview series in conversation into a new show on Apple Podcasts. It'll be the same content you get every week.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, just in one place. In this latest episode, I talk with Jon Stewart. He has a new show on Apple TV plus called The Problem with Jon Stewart.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In every episode, he identifies a problem. And then he talks to people who are advocating for a concrete solution. He told me he sees his return to TV as a chance to highlight changemakers.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Television is the dog and up. In other words, like we start with something and then it's like, and this is the most important squirrel. And then you're off. But change is focused, tenacious and has stamina and has an attention span.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Check out that Weekend Listen. You can follow the channel Apple News In Conversation in the News app, or you can find the show in Apple Podcasts.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: We'll be back with the news on Monday.
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