--:-- Mark Garrison: Good morning. It's Tuesday, August 15th. I'm Mark Garrison, in for Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Mark Garrison: On today's show, some young Americans win a major climate case. Florida tries to save its coral reefs from warming waters. And World Cup officials doing something unprecedented, explaining themselves. But first, another indictment of former President Donald Trump, this time in Georgia.
--:-- Mark Garrison: This time in Georgia. The fourth set of criminal charges includes 41 counts against a total of 19 defendants. That includes big names from Trump's inner circle like Rudy Giuliani.
--:-- Fannie Willis: The defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia's presidential election result.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Reuters reports on the use of racketeering charges here, which are typically used to target organized crime. They can carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The federal Racketeering Influenced in Corrupt Organizations Law, or RICO, says an alleged criminal enterprise has to be running over a long period of time. But Georgia's RICO law is more expansive, meaning prosecutors can go after short-lived criminal enterprises.
--:-- Mark Garrison: RICO was established to target the mafia, but over the years it's been used in Wall Street cases, and the same Fulton County DA used it to prosecute Atlanta educators for allegedly scheming to cheat on standardized testing.
--:-- Mark Garrison: A key difference in racketeering charges is prosecutors don't have to prove that defendants directly engaged in criminal activity. So the DA could get a conviction if she proves that Trump knowingly was part of an organization that engaged in illegal activity even if he personally didn't break the law.
--:-- Mark Garrison: As with other indictments, Trump called the charges in Georgia politically motivated. Giuliani called them unjustified.
--:-- Fannie Willis: RICO cases can be more complicated because prosecutors have to prove the existence of a criminal enterprise. They often try to get co-defendants to testify against each other.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Willis says she plans to try all 19 defendants in this case together.
--:-- Mark Garrison: This is a month where the deadly wildfires in Hawaii and other disasters are shining a spotlight on the dangerous impact of climate change. And now a landmark legal decision is giving climate activists hope that they can change things in the courts.
--:-- Mark Garrison: A judge in Montana has ruled in favor of a group of young plaintiffs. The court said that a Montana law that doesn't allow considering climate impact when approving energy and mining projects is unconstitutional.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The state constitution says that citizens have a right to a clean and healthful environment. The case was Held v. Montana.
--:-- Ricky Held: It's been a long time coming. We've waited three years just being part of this case. And we've known about human-caused climate change at least half a century. So just getting a ruling that listens to our stories and our voices and to the best available science is just really important.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The state has promised an appeal. The Montana legislature would need to change the law to line up with the court's ruling. But the statehouse is dominated by Republicans who support fossil fuels. So there's still a fight ahead for climate activists.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The Daily Montanan looks at the potential national impact of this week's ruling. It was the first case of its kind to go to trial in the U.S. The win could help similar cases around the country.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The Montana plaintiffs were as young as five, but they have grown-up attorneys. And those lawyers have other efforts in multiple states, including one in Hawaii. It's on track to go to trial next summer.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Let's move from the climate disasters on land to the water off Florida, where warmer temperatures are putting the largest living barrier reef in the continental U.S. at risk.
--:-- Dino Grandoni: Right now in Florida, there is an ecological disaster unfolding that scientists are calling off the charts and disastrous and the worst bleaching event that Florida has ever seen.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Coral reefs aren't just pretty things for divers to look at. They play a vital role in keeping the entire underwater ecosystem going. Healthy reefs protect beaches from storms and erosion.
--:-- Dino Grandoni: Experts were bracing for possible coral bleaching this summer. That's what happens to reefs when the water is too warm for too long. But water temperatures burn through predictions, sometimes topping 100 degrees.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And when that happens, coral will spit out this beneficial algae that they have inside of them, which turns them into this deathly white color. That's what we call coral bleaching.
--:-- Dino Grandoni: Now, despite that ghostly appearance, bleach coral isn't necessarily dead. But over time, with that stress, it could die, which is the fear right now.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And current conditions are forecast to last for at least another two months.
--:-- Dino Grandoni: The health of coral reefs across the world is a problem that affects everyone, from seafood lovers to scientists who create medicines with elements from underwater.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Coral reefs are home to or support about a quarter of all marine life. These are really, really important ecosystems, and we're at risk of losing them, not just in Florida, but globally.
--:-- Dino Grandoni: If climate change continues as projected, there might not be any habitable areas in the ocean for coral reefs by the end of the century.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In the meantime, scientists in Florida are scrambling to collect and store fragments of healthy corals on land to preserve their genetic material and transplanting corals to deeper and cooler waters where they can hopefully wait out this intense heat wave.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Early this morning in the World Cup, Spain knocked out Sweden in a pretty exciting match. That means Spain will face the winner of tomorrow's England-Australia game.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Speaking of England, this moment in their last match was pretty big, not just because of what happened, but also for how it was announced.
--:-- Mark Garrison: After the off-field review, the yellow card for No. 7 White is cancelled. Instead, red card for Violet Cogler.
--:-- Mark Garrison: That's the official explaining the call out loud. If you're not a soccer fan, you might not know what a big deal that is.
--:-- Mark Garrison: NFL officials are miked up and have to explain themselves all the time. But that's never happened at the World Cup before this tournament.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The Wall Street Journal looks at how top-level soccer is trying to be more transparent and clear by having officials announce big calls.
--:-- Mark Garrison: There have been some bumps in the rollout, including language barriers. Officials at this World Cup come from 29 different countries. Many don't speak English as their first language.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And some officials weren't crazy about the idea of being on the spot like this. If you're not Beyonce, having to talk to a stadium full of tens of thousands of people can be pretty scary.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But so far, fans, announcers, and soccer officials seem to appreciate the extra info.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The International Football Association board says after the 12-month trial of these announcements, it'll consider rolling them out more broadly.
--:-- Mark Garrison: We've got full coverage of the World Cup on the Apple News app, including another episode of our soccer podcast, After the Whistle, coming out today.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And if you're already listening in the news app right now, stick around. We've got a narrated article coming up next from Bloomberg Businessweek. It's about a $24 million crypto scam pulled off by teens.
--:-- Mark Garrison: That's queued up to play next, and we'll be back with the news tomorrow.
