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--:-- Shamita Basu: Hey there. Before we get into today's episode, we have a question for you. If you are taking care of an aging loved one, or you yourself are aging, what kinds of challenges are you facing when it comes to getting support? And what kind of support would help? Use your voice memo app on your phone to record your answer. Please tell us your name and where you're from, and try to keep it to around a minute. You can send it to us at AppleNewsToday at Apple.com. Again, that's AppleNewsToday at Apple.com. And we might include your voice on an upcoming episode of Apple News in conversation. Thanks.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, August 28th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, how millions of women face brutal new restrictions in Afghanistan. An American Paralympian goes for gold in Paris. And a law to protect workers who ignore the boss's emails. But first, to a legal fight in Georgia that election integrity experts are closely watching ahead of November. The state election board has new rules that allow county election officials to investigate ballot counts and conduct a quote reasonable inquiry before certifying results.
--:-- Erin Mansfield: Anytime you put reasonable in a law, you get a lot of wiggle room.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So what advocates tell me is that essentially you have people coming up with these theories, oftentimes conspiracy theories, oftentimes not backed up by fact, and saying, well, this is a reason that we just can't say that the result of this election was fair.
--:-- Erin Mansfield: Democrats sued Monday. They want to block Georgia's rules because they're worried the majority Republican election board might use them to deny or delay the results of the 2024 election, as former President Trump attempted to do in 2020.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A number of Georgia Republicans are also concerned, like Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. You'll remember him as the Georgia official who Trump called and tried to pressure to overturn the 2020 election results.
--:-- Brad Raffensperger: [audio clip] I've called these new rules chaos.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Separately, Governor Brian Kemp says he's exploring if he has the legal authority to remove members from the board.
--:-- Erin Mansfield: Typically, people on local election boards perform administrative tasks, and the process is pretty routine. Did the number of votes cast equal the number of ballots counted? OK, check the block, we vote yes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But what's happening is ever since the 2020 election, these election certification processes are becoming kind of contentious Nationwide. Mansfield and her colleagues found that in the 2020 election and since there have been at least three dozen times where local officials delayed or voted against certifying election results.
--:-- Erin Mansfield: Everything from the presidential race to local school boards. All of this stuff has some kind of tie back to claims that the former president or maybe his allies made.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So what these election certification votes at local levels, usually at the county level, have become is this new frontier for challenging election results.
--:-- Erin Mansfield: Experts Mansfield spoke to said they don't think wholesale efforts to overturn the election results are going to be successful, but they could lead to delays in results and further so doubt about the integrity of our system.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to Afghanistan, where this week marks three years since the terror attack on the Kabul airport and the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops after years of war.
--:-- Alison Davidian: Three years ago, a woman in Afghanistan could technically decide to run for president. Now she may not even be able to decide when to go and buy groceries.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The United Nations calls these rules an extension of, quote, already intolerable restrictions on women and girls imposed by the Taliban.
--:-- Alison Davidian: When the Taliban took over three years ago, they said they would take a more moderate approach to women's rights than their previous rule in the 90s.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Initially, they said women would be allowed to continue their education through college. But within a matter of months, education was restricted.
--:-- Pavan Saeed Ali: They're trying with all their might to continue to be professionals, to continue to be medical workers, continue to go to school however they can. And very, very much an uphill battle that takes an enormous toll on well-being.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Paralympics start today in Paris. We'll see over 4,000 competitors across 22 sports.
--:-- Christy Raleigh-Crossley: Swimming has always just been my identity. Christy the swimmer, getting into the pool the first time and just seeing the magnitude of it. It was just, I cried.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Christy Raleigh-Crossley has a neurological condition that impacts her mobility.
--:-- Christy Raleigh-Crossley: I'm hoping that I can do with whatever successes I may have here at the Paralympics, is to show other people that are out there who perhaps don't have such an obvious disability that, yes, this is an option for us.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Raleigh Crossley spent her whole life swimming competitively. In college, she made All-American twice, and she hoped to compete in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
--:-- Christy Raleigh-Crossley: But then I was in two car accidents. I injured my neck, my back, and my brain. I had to undergo brain surgery, which literally left me with a hole in my brain, which affects my ability to move.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This morning I was saying to my roommate, I was like, oh, my hands are just not handsing. You know, they just didn't want to work for me. They weren't listening to my brain.
--:-- Christy Raleigh-Crossley: Her injuries put her on the path to the Paralympics. But her disability is less visible than others.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Raleigh Crossley has faced skeptics who question whether she's fairly competing against other disabled athletes.
--:-- Christy Raleigh-Crossley: In the Paralympics, there's a classification process to decide on the degree of each athlete's disability and who should be competing against who.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Raleigh Crossley says the Paralympics needs to do a better job of classifying athletes.
--:-- Christy Raleigh-Crossley: Everything is volunteer done. So, for instance, when I got classified the first time, the person who classified me was the coach of an athlete that I would potentially be competing against. So I don't know how unbiased of a reading you can get from that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On a more personal level, she hopes to show her three kids how to overcome challenges life might throw their way.
--:-- Christy Raleigh-Crossley: Even though swimming is different now, even though my body functions differently in the pool, I'm still able to be successful. And I feel like that alone is showing them how to overcome and persevere, which is so important.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, here are some other stories being featured in the Apple News app.
--:-- Jack Smith: Former President Donald Trump faces a new federal election interference indictment. Special Counsel Jack Smith updated the previous charges following a Supreme Court ruling that granted presidents broad immunity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Smith's case now emphasizes that efforts to overturn Trump's losses were privately funded and organized. That's an attempt to draw a distinction from official conduct, an area where the Supreme Court ruling gives presidents sweeping immunity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump pleaded not guilty before. A trial before the November election is unlikely.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Separately, another person involved with the January 6th attack on the Capitol is headed for prison. Michael Sparks was the first defendant to breach the building. He was sentenced to more than four years yesterday.
--:-- Shamita Basu: During the trial, a Capitol Police sergeant testified about why he decided not to shoot Sparks as he entered. The prosecutor said that decision saved a lot of lives.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, some workplace news that's especially relevant when you've got a boss who seems to be emailing at all hours. Australia is the latest country giving workers a legal right to disconnect. It gives protections to workers who refuse to read or respond to messages sent outside normal working hours.
--:-- Shamita Basu: About a dozen countries worldwide have similar laws on the books. I'm afraid that doesn't include the U.S. But there was a proposal in San Francisco modeled on the Australian move.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Unsurprisingly, data from Europe shows workers at companies with a right to disconnect say they have far better work-life balance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. Popular Mechanics goes inside NASA's tricky mission to land on an asteroid while it was going 27,000 miles per hour.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It started out as a rough sketch on a cocktail napkin. Now it's changing what we know about the solar system. If you're listening in the Podcasts app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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