--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, December 3rd. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, how a boy who brought a stuffed bunny to school ended up in handcuffs, major new developments in Syria's years-long, somewhat dormant civil war, and a few ideas on how to give back on this Giving Tuesday. But first, a look at just how much this country has shifted to the right since Trump's first term in office.
--:-- Simon Van Zylen Wood: According to a recent New York Times analysis, nearly 90 percent of counties in America moved to the right in this last election. It's a remarkable shift, with all 50 states moving some degree to the right.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And one place where Trump made significant gains was deep blue New York City. Now, to be clear, Kamala Harris handily won both the city and the state overall. But Trump won 30 percent of votes cast in the city. That's seven points higher than in 2020 and the biggest share of votes won by a Republican in New York since 1988.
--:-- Simon Van Zylen Wood: And it's worth zooming in more to understand where those gains were coming from. As you look closer, it wasn't really where the media class or the elite wing of the Democratic Party resides. It was actually in the most multi-ethnic working class neighborhoods in New York.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Simon Van Zylen Wood is a features writer for New York Magazine, and he tracked Donald Trump's rising popularity in New York City after the election. Nationally, blue-collar voters of every ethnicity drifted right. And in particular, Trump was able to pick up a significant share of voters from families earning between $30,000 and $50,000 a year.
--:-- Simon Van Zylen Wood: Biden won those same voters by 13 points in 2020. The neighborhood where Trump did the best in New York City was Corona Queens, an area emblematic of those types of voters.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So if anyone in New York has ever been to a Mets game at Citi Field or ever been to Flushing for the U.S. Open, you've been so close to this very interesting but very different slice of New York.
--:-- Simon Van Zylen Wood: Corona is part of the district represented by Congress member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She won re-election easily, but many voters split their ticket voting for her and for Trump.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So why in a neighborhood like this are we seeing this huge shift from Biden four years ago to Trump today?
--:-- Simon Van Zylen Wood: It's the epicenter of the migrant crisis. Ever since 200,000 plus migrants arrived since 2022 in New York City, a lot of them went to Corona and Elmhurst, which are heavily Latino immigrant neighborhoods in New York City.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vance Island Wood says many business owners and residents worried about things like crime, safety and prostitution being on the rise.
--:-- Simon Van Zylen Wood: I also think there are uncomfortable realities about the things that those voters are going through. And the solutions to their problems do not always look like what the liberal and progressive wings of the Democratic Party want them to look like.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He also visited neighborhoods in the Bronx where broader social issues pushed voters toward Trump. One voter told him he was concerned his kid's school leaned too heavily into LGBTQ activism and he wanted to find an Islamic school instead.
--:-- Simon Van Zylen Wood: Another was upset migrants get government assistance while his immigrant parents got nothing when they came to the U undocumented
--:-- Shamita Basu: Van Zylen Wood says it's important to pay attention to New York because it could tell a much bigger story about what's happening nationally. Through 2020, 2022, and now 2024, we've seen a steady migration of working-class voters of color migrating away from the Democratic Party.
--:-- Simon Van Zylen Wood: And that just means working-class voters in general. That's a tectonic shift in American politics. Like, the Democratic Party for generations has been supposedly the party of the working middle class. And all of a sudden, voters don't feel that anymore.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to the ongoing issue of school shootings and the different ways schools are trying to combat it. Recent reporting from ProPublica and WPLN News in Nashville zooms in on Tennessee, where a new school threats law is having disproportionate consequences for kids with disabilities.
--:-- Aaliyah Swaby: In Hamilton County, Tennessee, on just the second day of the school year, a 13-year-old boy snuck a stuffed bunny into his backpack to show his friends. This reporting calls the boy Ty, though that's not his real name.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ty has autism, and that stuffed animal is his biggest comfort. He doesn't let anyone else touch it.
--:-- Aaliyah Swaby: He told his teacher that the backpack that he brought the stuffed animal in would blow up if anyone touched it. And then when the teacher called the police and the police checked the backpack, it turned out they just found the stuffed animal. And they arrested him and took him away in handcuffs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ty's mother said when she got the phone call that her son was going to be arrested. It was her worst fear come true. Her son's autism had been mistaken for a threat.
--:-- Aaliyah Swaby: ProPublica has done several stories on this new state law that went into effect in Tennessee over the summer that requires anyone who makes a threat of mass violence at school be charged with a felony.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And while it includes an exception for people with intellectual disabilities, some say that's not enough.
--:-- Aaliyah Swaby: Ty's lawyer said that the police didn't even check that before they arrested him. And so it sort of shows the flaw in the law where even though it does have a carve-out to some degree for some kids with a certain kind of disability, it's not clear in the law how police are supposed to figure that out and determine that before they make an arrest.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Hamilton County alone, in the first six weeks of this school year, 18 kids were arrested for making threats of mass violence. A third of them have disabilities, more than double the proportion of students with disabilities across the district.
--:-- Paige Flager: Advocates told ProPublica that they had told lawmakers the bill could be particularly harmful for kids who were prone to outbursts as a result of their disability.
--:-- Shamita Basu: While some lawmakers indicated that they would be open to maybe making changes in an upcoming legislative session, WPLN's Paige Flager told us many see the law working as intended.
--:-- Paige Flager: Whose trauma is greater right now? An entire school full of kids who is really scared about a lockdown or one kid with a disability in this case who didn't really know what he was saying or how great the consequences might be of his actions who ends up getting arrested and transported down to juvenile detention in the back of a cop car.
--:-- Shamita Basu: How do you weigh those two things?
--:-- Paige Flager: And in many ways, they're saying, you know, we think it's worth it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As for Ty, his case ended up getting dismissed in juvenile court. The school stood by their actions and said they would follow the same protocol if it happened again.
--:-- Aaliyah Swaby: So his mother ended up transferring him out of that middle school. He hasn't fully processed the situation. He still doesn't understand the reason why he was arrested and what happened to him. And he's really traumatized by what happened.
--:-- Shamita Basu: His mom says whenever they go by the school, he asks her if he's going to get arrested again.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Has Syria's long-running civil war been reignited? That's the question international observers are asking after rebel fighters launched an unexpected attack last week, capturing Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city, and surrounding territory in the west and northwest of Syria.
--:-- Ruth Sherlock: For years, Syria's civil war has been in a stalemate. But as CNN reports, rebel groups recently saw an opening. Syria's main allies are Russia and Iran, and both have been preoccupied with their own conflicts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Russia in Ukraine, Iran with Israel. That left Assad's leadership in Syria more exposed than he's been in many years.
--:-- Ruth Sherlock: But the developments of the past week have drawn both allies back in. On Monday, Russian fighter jets hit several targets in rebel-held areas.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Iran, too, reaffirmed its support for Assad this week.
--:-- Ruth Sherlock: Assad has vowed to fight until the rebels are defeated.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As for the rebel fighters, it's a coalition of groups, the biggest being Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, also known as HTS.
--:-- Ruth Sherlock: They've long played a role in the Syrian civil war and over the past decade or so have gone through several leadership changes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The United States designates them as a terrorist group, but NPR explains that in recent years, HTS has publicly disavowed international terrorism.
--:-- Ruth Sherlock: HTS has really tried to rebrand itself as a less hardline group, though it is still religiously conservative.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And, you know, there are some many in Syria who would welcome a rebel takeover because Syria is run by a brutal dictatorship.
--:-- Ruth Sherlock: But, she says, there are many who are very fearful of what this could mean, especially those from religious minorities.
--:-- Shamita Basu: CNN reports that the United States is watching this conflict closely and has a vested interest in what happens there.
--:-- Ruth Sherlock: And that's because for years, Syria has been a proxy battlefield of sorts for competing world powers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Because of its geography, Syria is a frequent pathway to get weapons and money back and forth from Iran to Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.
--:-- Ruth Sherlock: Israel, for example, will occasionally strike targets in Syria in an attempt to target Hezbollah and other Iran-backed militants.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the U.S. has 900 troops stationed in Syria as part of its ongoing campaign to defeat ISIS.
--:-- Shamita Basu: During his first term Trump said he was eager to withdraw U forces from Syria and he said he wanted to take out Assad altogether.
--:-- Beth Sanner: I think that for Trump in this next term so much has changed Assad is so important. I think that Trump is going to have a real conundrum here.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's going to be hard for him to withdraw because this is at the center of stability, future stability of the Middle East.
--:-- Beth Sanner: And so, you know, as usual, the Middle East will just suck you in and it is such a complicated place.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today is Giving Tuesday, the biggest day for charitable fundraising in the world. Last year, $3.1 billion was raised here in the United States during the 24-hour period.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The unofficial holiday started 12 years ago with a social hashtag, and it quickly took off.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Last year, Vox wrote about the origins of this day and spoke with Asha Curran, the CEO of what has now become the Giving Tuesday organization.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She said the day isn't just about charitable donations. It's about giving back in any way you can, from offering to buy someone's groceries to volunteering your time to leaving a generous tip.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Aside from making the world a better place, studies show that giving back boosts happiness.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In legal news, the Supreme Court on Monday heard oral arguments in a case involving the marketing of fruit-flavored vaping products.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post calls this a major test case after years of battles between the vaping industry and the FDA.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The FDA has denied the application of more than a million candy and other dessert-flavored e-cigarettes and liquids over the years, citing their addictive qualities among young people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vaping companies say the FDA unfairly changed their standards.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Post reports yesterday the justices appeared sympathetic to the federal government's position.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President-elect Donald Trump, meanwhile, says he will protect the vaping industry.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, some exciting news.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Every year, the Apple Podcasts team recognizes one show that demonstrates quality and innovation in podcasting.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This year, we are pleased to announce their pick for show of the year is Hysterical by Dan Taberski and produced by Odyssey's Pineapple Street Studios and Wondery.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The show explores a real incident, what's considered a modern-day case of mass hysteria, a group of teenage girls who all appear to develop a mysterious illness.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A lot of them say that we're faking and... And that you're faking because you want attention.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Seriously, why would we fake this?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Congratulations to the whole team at Hysterical.
--:-- Shamita Basu: To check out the show for yourself, we've linked to it on our show notes page.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Fortune takes a look at the Texas town of Bastrop, home to 12,000 people and more recently, several of Elon Musk's companies.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the three years since he set up shop in the small town, his companies have become some of the largest employers there.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This article digs into both the excitement and anxiety among folks in the town about what might come next.
--:-- 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.
