--:-- Dwight Giraldinu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, May 26th. I'm Dwight Giraldinu. And I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Dwight Giraldinu: The debate over Middle East policy is changing in the U.S. with more demonstrations like this breaking out. What many people may not realize is the link between those protests and the American racial reckoning that followed George Floyd's murder.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: The Washington Post looks at the role the Black Lives Matter movement is playing in changing U.S. perceptions about the Palestinian cause.
--:-- [Sound of a page turning]
--:-- Shemitah Basu: For some on the left, the up-close coverage of civilians killed and buildings leveled shifted their perception of the region. As The Washington Post explains, it moved the debate from a tangled dispute over ancient, often confusing claims, to the far more familiar turf of police brutality and racial conflict.
--:-- Michael Fischbach: I'm Michael Fischbach, the author of Black Power and Palestine. I say Black Lives Matter helped build more support for Palestinians by mobilizing young people of color and energizing demonstrations. These protests are drawing an increasingly diverse group of people.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Critics of these protests say reducing the conflict to race is a dangerous oversimplification. The LA Times points out that many Israelis came to the country from Iraq, Yemen, and Syria, escaping persecution.
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--:-- Shemitah Basu: Meanwhile, Jewish Americans are noticing differences in how their community is responding. A spokesperson for a progressive Jewish group tells the LA Times, there's a broader range of opinions and different reactions than in years past.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Some Jewish Americans are marching along with pro-Palestinian protesters. The LA Times also spoke to one woman who recently moved back to the U.S. from Israel. She says supporting Palestinian human rights is not anti-Semitic.
--:-- [Sound of a page turning]
--:-- Shemitah Basu: The LA Times points to Gallup polling that shows a change in U.S. opinion about this conflict. More Americans still sympathize with Israelis over Palestinians. But support for Palestinians is shooting up, and fewer Americans are on the fence about this issue.
--:-- Dwight Giraldinu: Secretaries of State are supposed to make sure our elections stay free and fair here in the U.S. They are the people who largely stood up against former President Trump's false claims about the 2020 election.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: But according to Politico, some Republicans who supported Trump's lies, they're now running to become the state's top election officials next year. And this has some local leaders worried because it could mean that politicians who've tried to undermine faith in American democracy could be partly in charge of running future elections.
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--:-- Shemitah Basu: And plus, several of these candidates are running in key battleground states. Politico took a look at these races. Georgia Congressman Jody Heiss is one of the most prominent challengers. He voted against certifying the 2020 results, and Donald Trump endorsed him over the current Republican Secretary of State in Georgia, Brad Raffensperger.
--:-- Dwight Giraldinu: You remember Raffensperger, right? President Trump spent an hour on the phone with him. He was trying to get this man to overturn the results of the election in his state.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: There are other similar candidates running in Arizona, Nevada, and Michigan. And Politico explains it's too soon to know exactly how competitive any of these races will end up being. But these elections will likely be a test of how much Trump election lies are resonating within the Republican base.
--:-- [Sound of a page turning]
--:-- Shemitah Basu: A lot of folks worked in a restaurant at some point in their lives. Sometimes it's just really fun. You get free food, you try nice wine, but they can try you. Sometimes it's just awful. Low pay, mean customers, angry bosses.
--:-- Dwight Giraldinu: Yeah, and many workers say the bad aspects of the restaurant business are now even worse because of the pandemic. Some of those mean customers got even meaner when they didn't want to follow COVID safety rules.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: And food service was always a very physical job, tough on the body, hours of standing, but now there's also the danger of getting sick.
--:-- Dwight Giraldinu: When you consider all of that, many people who lost their restaurant job during the economic shutdown decided to leave the business entirely. Restaurants are now reopening, but they're having trouble getting enough servers and cooks.
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--:-- Shemitah Basu: The Washington Post spoke to industry veterans to find out why many of them are just not coming back to kitchens and dining rooms. One man they interviewed worked in restaurants for nearly 40 years. In the 1980s, he started out earning $2.13 an hour plus tips. Last year, guess what he was making? $2.83 an hour plus tips.
--:-- Dwight Giraldinu: He decided to retire. To him, it wasn't worth risking his safety for so little money.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Another woman said for her and others, the danger and stress of the pandemic was the final straw. There were a lot of reasons for leaving, but there was one common theme, frustration with low wages.
--:-- Dwight Giraldinu: There are signs restaurants are changing. They're trying to be more attractive to workers. They're paying more. In the past three months, the median wage shot up more than 5%. Some restaurants are now offering signing bonuses and boosting benefits to add health insurance and 401ks.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: During the pandemic, a lot of cooks had to pack up their knives. Bartenders boxed up their shakers. They all had a lot of time to think about an industry that didn't always value them. If restaurant owners want them back, they may need to make real changes to how they treat the people who work there.
--:-- [Sound of a page turning]
--:-- Shemitah Basu: A while back, scientists placed recording equipment on the seafloor, just off the coast of New York. They were hoping to hear something they've never documented before, and they did.
--:-- [Sound of a whale singing]
--:-- Shemitah Basu: That was a humpback whale singing. WABC explains why these new findings are such a big deal.
--:-- Dwight Giraldinu: There's never been a peer-reviewed recording of these whales. This is an important breakthrough because it could help us better understand these underwater giants.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: It turns out humpback whale sightings in the waters off New York have gone up in recent years, which raises a lot of questions for conservation. You know, they're swimming in some of the world's busiest waters.
--:-- Dwight Giraldinu: Scientists want to know more about what these whales are up to, and that way they can make better plans to protect them. These recordings of their singing are a new and important piece of that puzzle.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're there, check out some of our audio stories. We'll talk to you again tomorrow.
--:-- Dwight Giraldinu: www.erkenndaggadio.org
--:-- Shemitah Basu: [laughs]
