--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, September 9th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, a child in pink roller skates killed by an Israeli airstrike. Is the U.S. military facing a recruitment crisis? And Paris ends its big summer of athletics as the Paralympics comes to a close. But first, to the presidential election, where new polling shows Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump pretty neck and neck at this stage of the race.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Both campaigns will need to be strategic with their most powerful resources, their candidates' time and their campaigns' money. Overall, Harris has a significant cash lead over Trump, and she nearly tripled what he raised in August, according to recent campaign fundraising reports.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump brought in $130 million to Harris' $361 million. Her campaign says that included contributions from over 1 million first-time donors.
--:-- Weijia Jiang: That shows an enthusiasm for Harris and a willingness to take action. Hopefully, the campaign thinks that could turn into votes in November, because it's one thing to say that you support a candidate, but if you're willing to put your money where your mouth is, you're probably willing to go get up and vote when it's Election Day.
--:-- Weijia Jiang: In 2016, Hillary Clinton far outraised Trump and lost. But for Harris, money in the campaign coffers frees her up to spend less time headlining major donor events.
--:-- Weijia Jiang: As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, her campaign is going to lean on big name surrogates instead, like Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in the coming weeks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's not uncommon for presidential campaigns, and it means Harris can spend more time campaigning in battleground states. Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These were the crucial states in 2020, and it's looking to be the same for 2024. Meanwhile, Trump's campaign and his allies have reserved about $160 million in airtime this fall, with nearly all of that going to these states.
--:-- Kristen Holmes: Trump's campaign has had to shift its strategy for many of these states. Georgia's a particularly interesting one because that was one that they thought they had in the bag and now they're going to be spending millions of dollars and a lot of time there.
--:-- Kristen Holmes: Holmes told us it's just a very different race than the one they were planning to run against President Biden. At that time the Trump team was talking about a more expanded electoral map thinking more states were potentially winnable, Looking at places like Minnesota Virginia these traditionally blue kind of purplish states but more blue now they really focused on those battleground states.
--:-- Kristen Holmes: I can tell you, I went to an event for him in Virginia the day after the last debate, and they were really looking at Virginia as a potential. It seems a lot less likely now.
--:-- Kristen Holmes: Trump's campaign maintains that states like Virginia are still in play, but his spending tells another story. Republicans and Democrats are going dollar for dollar on ad airtime in Georgia in the final weeks of the race. Same with Pennsylvania.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As we've said before, money alone doesn't win elections, but it definitely helps get the message out.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A warning, this next story has descriptions of death. Over the weekend, President Biden's months-long push for a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas got upended once again.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The two sides are still not agreeing on the terms to move forward, and U.S. officials are reassessing their next steps. Every day of delay has deadly consequences.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Israel has killed over 40,000 Palestinians and driven millions of them from their homes. One recent image seemed to tell a larger story. A picture of a young Palestinian girl who had been killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City last week, still wearing a pair of pink roller skates.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NBC went and tracked down that story, speaking to the family of the girl. Her name was Tala Abu Adjwa, and her dad, Hussam, said she was bubbly, ambitious.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For almost a year, the family had survived hunger, fear, constant danger, and uncertainty. They had to relocate at least eight times.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On the day she was killed, her dad told NBC, Tala desperately wanted to go outside to play. She had grabbed her pink roller skates and gone downstairs to find her brother. An Israeli airstrike hit the building soon after.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hussam said the strike also killed eight of their neighbors. Israel's military told NBC it wasn't aware of the specific strike, but that it did hit a target nearby.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They did not address questions about whether there was an investigation into Tala's killing. Hossam told NBC he believes things could have been different for his family if they were allowed to leave Gaza, which Israel's blockade prevents.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: In a hypothetical scenario where the U enters a war, where would we get the people to fight? Actual boots on the ground.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: In the event of a true national emergency, I think the cupboard is getting bare. That is Gil Barndollar, a fellow at a D.C. think tank called Defense Priorities.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: It was founded by supporters of Senator Rand Paul and funded by the Koch brothers. It advocates for more restrained foreign policy.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: Barndollar recently wrote an opinion piece for Vox where he argues the U.S. military is in a recruiting crisis.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: He says, despite what you may think, modern warfare still comes down to people and a shrinking military poses serious national security concerns.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: In land warfare, we're not replacing people anytime soon. I know videos of drones are popular and all that.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: In reality, we're not going to be automating ground combat in any meaningful way anytime soon. Today, the military relies on what's called the All-Volunteer Force, or AVF, though Barndollar says that's kind of a misnomer.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: It's an all-recruited force. We don't just have 150,000 Americans, you know, step forward, completely of their own volition to serve every year, which is about what the military needs.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: It takes tremendous time and effort to get these people to serve. Most of the major branches are having a hard time meeting recruiting goals.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: Last year, three out of four failed to meet quotas. Part of the problem, Barndollar says, has to do with the fact that the pool of Americans the military ideally wants to recruit young people in their mid to late teens and early 20s is shrinking.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: Studies by the Pentagon found about 75 percent of young people in the U.S. would not qualify for service due to things like health issues, being overweight or using drugs.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: And in a Pentagon poll from 2022, less than 10 percent of young Americans who are eligible to serve said they would seriously consider signing up.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: Many of today's recruits come from military families. Brondaller says that's become the norm.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: That rests military recruitment on a really slender read. And if those families decide to opt out of military service and don't want to send their sons and daughters anymore, which there's evidence that's beginning to happen, the AVF is really not going to be viable.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: A 2019 study by Pew found that more than half of veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq believed those conflicts weren't worth fighting.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: And many of them now have kids who are eligible to enlist. Barndoller argues the U.S. military has two paths forward to address its recruitment issues.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: One would be to cut down on military missions and deployments abroad. The other is for the military to change expectations around recruitment and retention.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: Or you are going to basically start a vicious cycle by asking it to do more they can do. And that's already happening.
--:-- Gil Barndollar: Barndollar says the United States got through two foreign wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with the all force. But getting pulled into a larger war now would be an entirely different proposition one that underscores how there aren't enough Americans willing and able to fill the military ranks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A Miami-Dade police officer has been placed on administrative leave after detaining Miami Dolphin star Tyreek Hill on Sunday, just before the start of the season opening game.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A video shared online seems to show Hill handcuffed on the ground with multiple officers surrounding him. One officer had a knee on his back.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hill received a citation for reckless driving and driving without a license. The Miami-Dade Police Department says an internal investigation is now underway.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In a post-game press conference, Hill said he respects police officers and wants to be one someday, but he doesn't understand why he was handcuffed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Looking to a policy abroad that's impacting people here in the U.S., China is ending international adoptions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the policy a few days ago. Over the last 30 years, at least 150,000 Chinese children have been adopted internationally, with the majority coming to the U.S.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This latest decision has put hundreds of families in the process of adopting a child from China in an uncertain situation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's been reported that the change in policy applies to all pending adoptions. But on Friday, the U.S. State Department announced it's seeking clarification on what this means for families with pending applications.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, that's a wrap on a big summer of sports in Paris. The Paralympics came to a close yesterday.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The president of the International Paralympic Committee said this year's Games set a new bar for energy and interest in the Paralympic Games, with organizers reporting 2.7 million tickets sold and record-breaking TV ratings.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For French Paralympians, the support of their flag-waving fans meant they were able to increase their gold medal haul from four years ago, though China took home the most gold, followed by Britain and the United States.
--:-- 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.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Red flag laws are supposed to keep guns out of the hands of people who might be a threat to themselves or others. An investigation from Rolling Stone and The Trace looks into the campaign from some gun rights activists to stop those kinds of laws from passing.
--:-- 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.
