--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, May 25th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, surprising data about who's really behind the surge in book bans, the dangerous debt crisis you're not hearing much about, and why killer whales are sinking boats. But first, let's take a quick look at some major stories in the news.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The presidential campaign rollout for Ron DeSantis didn't go according to plan. A much-hyped announcement on Twitter with Elon Musk was plagued by technical glitches. The audio cut out multiple times during yesterday's online event.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Abroad, Russia is seizing on a New York Times report as evidence that it was right that Ukraine was behind a drone attack on the Kremlin earlier this month. The Times reports that U.S. intelligence now believes that a Ukrainian military or intelligence unit was responsible, though it's not clear whether Ukraine's president and top officials authorized the operation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: U.S. officials also say they believe Ukraine is responsible for a handful of other attacks on Russian territory. And finally, the entertainment world is marking the passing of a legend. Tina Turner is dead at 83 years old.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She racked up Grammys and sold close to 200 million albums, winning fans around the world. She's remembered as a trailblazer. Tina Turner became a star despite racial barriers. And she escaped an abusive marriage, leaving Ike Turner behind to become a far bigger star.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There were a record number of attempts to ban or restrict books last year. More than 2,000 titles were targeted. A school in Florida just took action against a book by Amanda Gorman, who recited her poem at President Biden's inauguration.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it. Somehow we've weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished. We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother, can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The phrase vocal minority often comes up in debates like this. A new data analysis from The Washington Post looks at just how small the minority is that's going after books.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Eleven people, less than a dozen people, are responsible for most of the challenges against books in America. One guy filed challenges against nearly 100 titles. The Post also looks at what the data shows about patterns in moves to ban books.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Nearly half of the challenges dealt with titles that had LGBTQ+ characters or themes. More than a third were targeting books featuring people of color or dealing with racial issues. Some serial filers appear to work alone.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In many cases, the Post found these filers were getting help from organizations like Moms for Liberty, a conservative parents group. Group members comb school library catalogs for books they think are problematic and file challenges.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The surge in challenges comes as several states have new laws in this area. They threaten school librarians with prison and fines if they give books to kids that are deemed obscene or harmful.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There is a massive increase in calls to ban books in America, but the data doesn't show a massive movement behind it. Just a handful of people taking aim at book after book.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Republicans and Democrats are saying some optimistic things about striking a deal to raise the debt ceiling. But House Republican leaders also say they're adjourning the legislature for a Memorial Day recess.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This comes as a possible default on debt gets closer. Members might be called back to the Capitol if there's something to vote on. This happens every now and then in America, but eventually politicians reach an agreement.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's no serious doubt about whether the U.S. will pay its debt, only questions about how long the political games will go on. But for lower-income countries, they're facing debt questions of a very different kind.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NPR looks at how leaders in low- and middle-income countries may have to choose between defaulting on debt or cutting funds for essential services like hospitals and schools.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A decade ago, low interest rates made borrowing relatively cheap. It was a chance to access money to make improvements to serve growing populations. So finance ministers did the logical thing and said, here's cheap money, let's borrow to fund this infrastructure.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NPR spoke to David McNair with the One campaign, an advocacy group. More recently, countries have struggled to pay their bills because of the pandemic, economic slowdown, and spiraling food prices.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Rising interest rates and a stronger U.S. dollar hurt too. It's almost like if you had a mortgage or a credit card and the rates went up. Because the cost of servicing debt has gone up, countries can no longer pay it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, according to NPR, one in five people worldwide live in a country that has a high risk of default. Ghana and Sri Lanka have already defaulted on their debts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The consequences of this can be long-lasting, making it much harder for countries to borrow the money they need for years ahead. Advocates for lower-income countries say that how this plays out largely comes down to wealthy nations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's where the money comes from, and the countries in trouble may need help restructuring what they owe. Unless wealthy nations see the urgency of a global debt crisis, the potential humanitarian fallout, the geopolitical implications, everybody could lose.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I know about you, but lately I've seen a bunch of stories about orcas ramming into boats and sinking them. Apparently encounters like these have been up since 2020.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A few ships have gone down, although no humans have been injured. And the implication in a lot of these stories is nature is taking revenge. Well, NBC went out and spoke to whale behavior experts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And comes to this conclusion. The killer whales are probably not trying to kill us. Scientists aren't sure exactly what's going on inside these orcas' heads, but there's little evidence that revenge or anger is the motive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Orcas aren't known to be aggressive toward humans, even though humans have historically been aggressive toward them, hunting and capturing them in decades past.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The director of the Orca Behavior Institute tells NBC bumping boats might be a fad. That's a technical term in the field. When one orca does something unusual, sometimes others will mimic it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So it might be that one killer whale bumped into a boat, the others thought that it looked like fun, and now everybody's trying it. And the good news for boaters is fads, as the name implies, don't last.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One example was in the Pacific Northwest, where some orcas started carrying dead salmon on their heads. They were basically wearing them like little aquatic accessories. It was all the rage for a while, and then it stopped.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So these orcas may have nothing against humans. Maybe they're just trying to be cool, like teenagers. And much like teens, they have a lot of emotions and are often misunderstood.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People might think you're meaner than you really are when your species is called the killer whale. 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, don't go anywhere. A narrated article from Smithsonian Magazine is coming up next. It goes inside the world's longest paddling race, the Yukon 1000.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a grueling look at the days-long thousand-mile race down the Yukon River. So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
