--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, October 5th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, the fight to identify tens of thousands of migrants who died at sea, how employers in Indiana won a battle to lower health care costs, and the beautiful Vermont town that's banning tourists.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But first, let's take a quick look at some major stories in the news.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ukraine says dozens of people are dead following a Russian missile strike that hit a shop in the northeast. The victims include a six-year-old boy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls it a deliberate terrorist attack by Russia.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here in the U.S., the race for Speaker of the House is starting to shape up.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Early Republican candidates to replace Kevin McCarthy include Steve Scalise, the majority leader, and Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There could be a floor vote as soon as next Wednesday, but the timing will depend on how divided the GOP is over who to choose.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Biden administration is approving construction of a wall along the Texas border, saying it's needed to help prevent illegal entries.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is the first time the Biden administration has used federal power to approve new border walls, something that happened several times during the Trump years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The latest move is a reversal of Biden's campaign pledge when he said there would be not another foot of wall constructed under his leadership.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The newest Nobel laureate for literature is Norwegian author and playwright Jun Fosse.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The prize was awarded to him today for what the Academy said was a minimalist style that manages to express, quote, the most powerful human emotions of anxiety and powerlessness in the simplest terms.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And in sports, the U.S. women's gymnastics team is on top again.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Simone Biles led them to a record seventh consecutive team title at the World Championships in Belgium.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This was the 33rd major championship medal for Biles, making her the most decorated woman gymnast ever.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Over the last decade the Mediterranean Sea has become a mass grave Millions of migrants most from sub Africa and the Middle East have tried to cross the sea into Europe, and many never make it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At least 28,000 migrants are missing and presumed dead.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The true number is likely much higher.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Only 13% of those bodies are ever recovered by European authorities, and the vast majority are never identified.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: When a person goes missing, it really is described as the wound that does not heal.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: It gnaws away at families.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: Ambiguous loss, this condition they often suffer from, is linked to depression.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: It is linked to a host of medical health conditions.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: And so this does not end with a body in the sea.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: This has ramifications that continue for generations.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: European governments don't do much coordination to share information about migrant deaths, and they provide little money to help recover bodies or identify the dead.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: I spoke to a forensic pathologist whose lab at the University of Milan identifies migrant remains.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: She said the lab receives no state funding.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: Experts say the biggest reason why identification efforts are underfunded is lack of political will.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: More often than not, the priority, certainly for European governments, is stopping migration.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: They put money into reinforcing detention centres to which migrants who are captured can be kept.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: It's also incredibly politically difficult, these governments will say, for them to put money into the identification of migrants because they think they would be seen to be soft on the issue.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: One activist told me that when spring comes around, she knows more migrants will attempt the trip, and that means more will die.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: She often asks herself, how many people are we going to lose this time?
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: How many mothers are going to call me to ask about their missing son or daughter?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to State of the State, our ongoing series that looks at local issues and how they impact the people who live there.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, we're going to Indiana, and the issue is skyrocketing health care costs for families and businesses.
--:-- Shamita Basu: See employee health care is one of the biggest expenses for American companies
--:-- Shamita Basu: It costs on average to insure a family
--:-- Shamita Basu: Companies pay roughly of that
--:-- Shamita Basu: Employees pick up the rest.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These prices have been steadily rising for years, and recently, companies in Indiana said they'd had enough.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: In Indiana, and really sort of nationwide, employers are typically paying a lot more than the federal government pays through the Medicare program.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: And that hasn't always been obvious to employers.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: For a long time, those prices were kept pretty secret.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: But they're becoming increasingly transparent.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: So Indiana employers started a campaign to raise awareness and do something about it.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: A coalition of employers bought ads criticizing high prices, which would appear on patients' phones when they visited hospitals.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: One ad, for example, showed a young girl with a breathing apparatus over her mouth and nose with a message that said, why can't mom and dad afford her hospital bills?
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: They also hired trucks with billboards criticizing hospitals to circle the Indiana state capitol.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: And representatives from some of the biggest companies in the state testified to lawmakers.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: Hospitals fought back with their own ads, defending their practices, claiming they had reduced prices
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: They warned that price fixing could mean a reduction in services
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: And they accused the group of employers of being anti-free market
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: Ultimately, this employer-led push in Indiana was successful
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: It got a bipartisan group of lawmakers to target and reduce health care costs
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: With new legislation that'll end some charges starting in 2025
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: For one thing, it blocked facility fees in certain locations owned by the state's largest nonprofit hospital systems.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: Facility fees, as a lot of people might know from getting bills that include them, are sort of fees that are added on to the cost of a service when it's received in a hospital setting, typically a hospital outpatient setting.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: Those fees are allowed and hospitals say they're very important in helping hospitals pay their own costs and their overhead.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: The new law will also require hospitals to submit detailed pricing data to the state.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: A task force will review the numbers and compare them to Medicare rates.
--:-- Anna Wildey-Matthews: And lawmakers say they're ready to do more if health care costs don't come down enough.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Indiana experience is having a ripple effect nationwide
--:-- Shamita Basu: Employer groups around the country from Texas to Florida and Maine are now pushing for new legislation to reduce hospital costs
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you asked an AI image generator to come up with the best image of fall foliage, It would probably show you something that looks a lot like Sleepy Hollow Farm in Pomfret, Vermont.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a real place, a 115-acre private property built in the late 1700s.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's got a classic red farmhouse, a barn, and at this time of year, really picturesque fall foliage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A little too picturesque, maybe.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The town says it's being overrun by influencer tourists and is deciding to close roads to non-residents.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NBC News went to the town to see what all the fuss is about.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In recent years, there have been lines of cars parked along the road and swarms of people all wanting to get that perfect fall picture.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Videos with the hashtag Sleepy Hollow Farm have hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's worth dealing with the crowds because this is the most picturesque place in Vermont.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Sleepy Hollow Farm is a private residence, and locals say these crowds are just too disruptive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Emergency vehicles can't get around.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There have been complaints of influencers damaging property and verbally assaulting residents.
--:-- Amy Robb: These aren't just people coming to take quick selfies.
--:-- Amy Robb: Some of them are doing big productions.
--:-- Amy Robb: We see people in dressing rooms, like they bring dressing rooms to change in different outfits and take pictures.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another resident says she gets it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vermont is really pretty.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And people are welcome to enjoy the region's foliage, just not in pomfret.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Her suggestion? Try driving up Interstate 89, where there are plenty of beautiful trees showing off their fall colors.
--:-- 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 queued up for you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a murder mystery about a man known as the Fudge King of the Jersey Shore.
--:-- Shamita Basu: An atapist magazine reporter tries to solve this decades-long cold case.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Enjoy that listen, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.