--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, August 19th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, the quest for peace in Gaza. A reckoning about long hours in finance after a banker's death. And why so many parents are ready for school to start back up again. But first, Democrats are gathering in Chicago for their convention. And local law enforcement is bracing for several large protests. Some started yesterday and more are expected.
--:-- Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson: Well, the first and foremost, protecting the fundamental right to protest in this country is why our democracy is functional. And I will do everything in my power to ensure that the First Amendment of all residents, people of this country, remain intact.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When the DNC was held in Chicago in 1968, divisions over the Vietnam War led to huge protests. PBS NewsHour looked back at that convention and the lessons for today.
--:-- PBS Journalist: Back then, things came to a head when protesters tried to march to the convention hall, but were blocked by police. Cameras rolled as the protesters sat down in the middle of the street. Police moved in, hitting them with clubs and using tear gas as protesters chanted, the whole world is watching.
--:-- Chicago-based journalist Rick Perlstein: It was definitely an inflection point in many, many things. It was an inflection point for the Republican politics of law and order and basically presenting themselves as the forces of hierarchy, decency. You know, if you're behind a white picket fence and work hard and play by the rules, the people Richard Nixon termed the silent majority were for you and the Democrats are in cahoots with these anarchists. It was profoundly inaccurate. It was a smear. But that was the beginning of that smear.
--:-- PBS Journalist: PBS asked Perlstein to compare the protests of 1968 with today.
--:-- Rick Perlstein: There's a considerable group of people who are extremely passionate about what's going on in Israel and in Gaza. I would say the biggest difference is that the people who are extremely passionate about what was going on in Vietnam were young people who could have ended up in Vietnam that same month. And this is a time in which as many as 100 American soldiers were dying a day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: 1968-level turmoil isn't expected for this convention in Chicago. But the protests are a reminder that many Democrats are not happy with the current White House. And in an election this tight, Harris may need them if she hopes to win.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's talk more now about where the war in Gaza stands. And a warning, this next segment contains descriptions of violence.
--:-- Secretary of State Antony Blinken: This is probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity for a deal that'll end fighting and release Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Ceasefire talks are set to continue this week, but months of on-and-off meetings haven't led to a breakthrough.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Israel and Hamas have traded blame as to who's responsible for holding up a deal. Meanwhile, in Gaza, one father's story is capturing the world's attention. It's a reminder of the stakes of ceasefire talks and the brutal toll this war is taking on innocent civilians.
--:-- Mohammed Abu Al-Khamsan: I went to get the birth certificates for the children. My wife gave birth the day before yesterday. I hadn't yet celebrated them. And she had just delivered by cesarean section. She was still tired, and she wasn't able to get up or move much.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Every year thousands of young people start entry jobs in investment banking. The promise is if you work hard put in your time and move up the ranks you can see a big payout. But the recent death of a young Bank of America associate in New York is drawing attention to the culture of overworking in the investment banking industry and at Bank of America specifically.
--:-- Alexander Saidi: The Wall Street Journal looks into the story of 35-year-old Leo Lucanis. Lucanis had served in the U.S. Special Forces for over a decade and did several tours in the Middle East as a Green Beret. He then joined Bank of America as an associate, and according to people on his team, had been working more than 100 hours a week for about a month to finalize a big acquisition.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They had a celebratory dinner after the deal was announced. But sometime before coming into work the next day, Lucanis died. The autopsy found a blood clot in his heart. It has prompted a wave of scrutiny about what's going on at Bank of America because this isn't the first person who's died while working under extreme, heavy work circumstances.
--:-- Alexander Saidi: That's Alexander Saidi, a reporter with The Wall Street Journal. He's referring to what happened about a decade ago when a Bank of America intern in London died of a seizure after working several all-nighters in a row. At the time, the bank created new rules around how many hours young bankers could work before their managers or HR were flagged. But Saidi spoke to dozens of people familiar with the working conditions at Bank of America, including current and former bankers. And many of them said those rules are not being enforced.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The death of Leo has really put a spotlight on whether these policies and rules really work. Because Leo was on a team where we've reported that the breaking of policies meant to limit people's hours was routine. People were often asked to lie about how much they were working on Leo's team and worked more than the bank would have said would have been allowed.
--:-- Alexander Saidi: Bank of America did not comment on Lucanis' work conditions, and a spokesperson said the company expects all employees to follow the rules, and when they've learned of violations, disciplinary actions have been taken.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The day after the journal article was published, Bank of America reinforced this message to young bankers, telling them to accurately report the hours they work, and to let superiors or HR know if they are being pressured to misreport their hours.
--:-- Alexander Saidi: Saidi told us these entry-level jobs can pay around $200,000 a year. Many young bankers want to stick it out in the hopes of reaching higher roles that can pay $1 million or more. And that the culture of overworking has become something of a rite of passage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People who have gone through these experiences of working really long hours and not really being able to speak up about it, when they become bosses, they expect that their juniors will do the same thing that they did. So you see a little bit of a repeating cycle that plays out generation after generation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go here are some other stories being featured in the Apple News app. First, a little more on the DNC in Chicago. The 19th takes a look at an important person working behind the scenes, Minyon Moore. She's been influential in Democratic politics for 40 years, with a focus on bringing in new voices. Now she's chair of the Democratic National Convention.
--:-- Minyon Moore: Early in her political career, she was involved with Reverend Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign. She was also part of Hillary Clinton's inner circle during both of her presidential runs. Moore also advised Biden to pick Harris as his running mate in 2020 and to nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first black woman on the Supreme Court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, Moore is running the convention that'll put the first black woman and first Asian American on top of a major party presidential ticket.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We'll end with a couple of stories on education. The first involves a cheating scandal in one of the country's best-known math contests, the American Mathematics Competitions. This is a really high-pressure, super-intense contest for the country's top high school mathletes. It can make a big difference on college applications and for future jobs.
--:-- Alexander Saeedy: The Wall Street Journal explains there have long been rumors of some level of cheating, but recently, whole exams were leaked online days before testing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The people behind the competition say they took immediate steps to try to minimize the damage, including scrambling multiple-choice answers. But lots of students say it's hard to feel good about the results not knowing who may have cheated.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the other education story is one that may hit close to home if you're a parent who's totally worn out with the summer and is definitely ready for your kids to get back to school. The Atlantic looks at studies on the high cost of school closures. That includes the literal cost of child care expenses and the cost to the mental health of parents.
--:-- Shamita Basu: What researchers found won't surprise many mothers. When schools are closed, for summer, for teacher strikes, for COVID, women are disproportionately affected. For this and other reasons, there are more calls for school systems to consider year-round schedules. Philadelphia is piloting this in several schools this year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As The Atlantic points out, even if not everybody likes to hear it, schools do more than just educate. They're also child care, freeing up parents to work. The problem is schools often don't get the resources to adequately do everything society expects them to do.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Reconsidering schedules and funding may be a way to improve things for kids and their parents, especially mothers.
--:-- 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. Rolling Stone spends time with Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, who's fighting for his political survival this November. His race could determine which party controls the Senate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
