--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, July 8th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot at a political campaign event today. He was 67 years old. The assassination shocked many around the world, especially given that gun violence is extremely rare in Japan. There are strict gun regulations there. People need to pass rigid exams and mental health testing to get rifles. The BBC reports that photos indicate the shooter may have been using a homemade gun. He's now in police custody.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Abe was Japan's longest-serving prime minister. He last held the office in 2020. He was perhaps best known for his economic overhaul package, which came to be known as Abenomics. You can find more on this developing story in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Biden is expected to sign an executive order today on abortion. He's directing the health secretary to look for ways that the federal government can expand access to abortions, including abortion pills. The order also takes steps to protect the privacy of patients seeking reproductive health care services.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Biden has been under pressure to do more in the two weeks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But he has stressed that it's ultimately up to Congress to pass federal abortion rights.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today marks one week since Florida's so-called don't-say-gay law went into effect. It restricts what can be discussed in public schools about gender and sexual identity. NBC reports that some school districts have been accused of warning teachers not to wear rainbow patterns or keep pictures of same spouses on their desks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Critics of the law have organized protests at schools and at the state capitol. Gays rights matter. Gays rights matter. Florida's law is the first of its kind in the country. But the state is not the only place where students who want to talk about all aspects of their identity are facing roadblocks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post looks into how politicians and activists are now targeting student clubs all over the country. Many middle and high schools have long had clubs like Gay Straight Alliance or GSA. These are places where LGBTQ plus kids and straight friends can socialize and be themselves.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But some people have mischaracterized these kinds of clubs, saying they're indoctrinating children. Take Marysville, a conservative town in Washington state with a GSA club for students in middle and high school. Fourth and fifth graders wanted a similar club at elementary school. So the school board approved a pilot club for younger students called Safe Place.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But when some adults found out about the club, they began to complain. The principal got some angry phone calls, some from people who didn't even have children at the school. The school board proposed requiring parental consent for some clubs. But supporters of the Safe Place club worried that that would keep out kids whose parents don't support or aren't aware of their kids' identity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The board eventually backed down on the parental consent rule. The Post reports on incidents in Michigan, Tennessee, California, and other places where similar student clubs have been scrutinized, penalized, or even disbanded.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Students who want to talk about these issues have had to fight and also get creative. Xander Morix is a gay activist and president of his high school class in Florida. He was the commencement speaker this year, and he says he was told not to say the word gay, or else his mic would be cut off.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So he found another way. I must discuss a very public part of my identity. This characteristic has probably become the first thing you think of when you think of me as a human being. As you know, I have curly hair.
--:-- Shamita Basu: [He takes off his cap.] He gave a speech about learning to accept his curly hair. Everybody seemed to get it. He said he used to feel embarrassed and try to straighten it but the daily damage was too much. So even though having curly hair in Florida is difficult due to the humidity, he decided to be proud of who he was and come to school as his authentic self.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's prime beach season, and some of us are old enough to remember a time when no one was really talking about the need for sunscreen. Now we've got entire drugstore aisles dedicated to them. And frankly, even with all that choice out there, there's not a lot of great sunscreen.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some of them are greasy. Some of them leave a streaky white residue, no matter how much you rub it in. Amanda Mull over at The Atlantic recently wrote about this and kind of blew my mind with this information. Sunscreen sold in Europe and Asia is way better than what you can find here in America.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The first thing that's important to know is sunscreen in the U.S. is regulated like an over-the-counter drug. That means that the active ingredients in sunscreens that counteract UV rays have to be evaluated and approved by the FDA.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, the problem is the government's list of approved ingredients hasn't been updated in decades. Those old ingredients are the ones that make so many sunscreen formulas feel chalky or oily. And for a lot of people, a product that looks or feels bad on your skin just means that you won't wear sunscreen as much as you should.
--:-- Shamita Basu: What's different in Europe and a lot of Asia is that sunscreens are regulated like cosmetics, with simpler standards than the U.S. These countries have dozens more sunscreens available, including some that last longer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One expert tells Mull the FDA's regulation of sunscreen isn't necessarily a bad thing. It actually protects the American consumer in a lot of ways. The problem is the slow progress on approving new ingredients. And advocates say this is a public health issue. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the U.S.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Making sunscreen better will encourage people to make healthier choices about how to protect themselves in the sun. This weekend is the Wimbledon finals. Now I like watching tennis because it's a fast game.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But there are these quiet moments right before a serve that I always find fascinating. You know, when a player inspects a few balls, tosses some aside like they're no good, and chooses the perfect one, the one that they're going to serve.
--:-- Shamita Basu: What is that? What are they looking for? Aren't these all squeaky clean, fresh-out-of-the-can tennis balls? A recent article from the LA Times answers all the questions you could possibly have about the 55,000 tennis balls used every year during Wimbledon.
--:-- Shamita Basu: First, that question, what are players looking for when they inspect a tennis ball? A former Wimbledon champion tells the LA Times it's all about fluff. If a ball has a lot of fluff from being whacked a bunch of times already, it's going to move through the air more slowly. It's less aerodynamic.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So when you're serving, you want a new ball that's going to move fast. Now, sometimes your strategy might be that you want the ball to slow down. One player said he was up against Andre Agassi once, who's got a killer return. So he kept looking for balls that were more fluffed up in the hopes that he could slow Agassi down.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So what happens to those tens of thousands of balls after the pros are done? Amateurs can buy them for four pounds a can. The money goes to charity. Wimbledon's ball distribution manager calls it the best thing you can buy on the grounds.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can head to the Apple News app to follow the latest on Wimbledon, including what happens now that Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from competition because of an injury. And check out our weekend interview show, In Conversation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This week, I talked to MSNBC anchor Katie Turr. Her parents were pioneering breaking news reporters. They were the ones who flew their helicopter over O.J. Simpson's white Bronco. And they often took Katie and her younger brother along for the ride.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Katie describes how her unconventional upbringing shaped her own career in journalism. The news business was very much a part of everything in our lives. It was who we were and what we did. It was very much a part of my identity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Enjoy that weekend listen. I'll be back with the news on Monday. Thank you.
