--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, April 6th. I'm Shamita Basu. And I'm Duarte Giraldino. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: An extremely rare courtroom scene unfolded yesterday in the trial of Derek Chauvin, who's charged with murdering George Floyd. The Minneapolis police chief testified against Chauvin, his former officer, prosecutors called Madera Arradondo to the stand.
--:-- Madera Arradondo: He said Chauvin absolutely violated department policy. Once there was no longer any resistance, and clearly when Mr. Floyd was no longer responsive and even motionless to continue to apply that level of force, to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back, that in no way, shape, or form is anything that is by policy, is not part of our training, and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So far, the chief's testimony was one of the biggest moments of the trial. He said what happened to Floyd was not a lack of training. It was murder. A day after Floyd died, Arradondo fired the four officers involved in this incident.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The prosecution also called the person who was in command of the police training division when Floyd died. She said kneeling on someone's neck the way Chauvin can be seen doing in the video is not what the department teaches.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yesterday, there was also testimony from the ER doctor who tried to revive Floyd before pronouncing him dead. He said oxygen deficiency was likely a cause of his death. Under cross-examination, that doctor also said the drugs found in Floyd's body during the autopsy could lead to a lack of oxygen.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: One of the defense's arguments is that a combination of an overdose and underlying health conditions caused Floyd's death. You're going to see even more focus on these issues when other doctors, including the county medical examiner, who performed that autopsy, testify in the coming days.
--:-- Shamita Basu: U employers added more than 900 jobs last month. That much more than Wall Street expected. But if you look beyond the newest numbers the bigger employment picture for two groups in particular is pretty bleak.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Workers at the beginning and the end of their careers are having an especially hard time. NPR looks at this first group, high school and college graduates, who are struggling to enter the workforce.
--:-- Bao Ha: I've probably applied to like 130 or 40 jobs or something. I have not gotten like even like an email back or like an interview.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For workers between 16 and 24 years old, the unemployment rate is almost double the national average. One economist told NPR, this isn't at all surprising. Economic crises tend to be worse for younger people because of all the available workers, they have the least experience.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And this could have a long-lasting impact on this generation. It can take years to recover from a delayed entry into the workforce. And I'm not just talking about advancing in your career. It can also mean putting off investing in your future, saving up for a home, or even retirement.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People nearing the end of their careers, they're having a hard time too. The Wall Street Journal points out, within a 12-month period, Nearly one and a half million people aged 55 and older just dropped out of the U.S. workforce. Many have little savings, and now they have to rely on social safety net programs.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: When older workers lose their jobs, recent history shows us that re-entering the workforce is difficult, so a lot of them drop out for good. An economist the Journal spoke to explained how this can be a drag on the economy when workers with lots of experience and skills decide to retire early.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But it's not a given that all these older workers leaving the workforce are retiring for good. Some left jobs because they were worried about COVID safety. Now that vaccinations are in full swing and the economy is heating up, AARP tells the Journal, companies are expressing new interest in hiring back older workers.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: If your March Madness bracket heavily favored Gonzaga winning it all, this is not a good morning for you. Sorry. Last night, Baylor made a lot of big plays like this one. Baylor's on a break. Smart move here. A little delay. Lagler Splish Wow I mean it all added up to a resounding 86 beatdown This is Baylor first men basketball championship win They crushed Gonzaga's dreams of pulling off the first perfect season since 1976. Ouch.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The first commercial ever to air on television was in 1941. It was only 10 seconds long, an ad for Belova watches. Now, I wasn't around for that, but I'll bet you anything, it was loud. Advertisers have used high-volume, high-energy commercials to catch people's attention for decades.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And despite all the changes to the way that we watch television, one thing has stayed true. Commercials are still really loud. I swear they must time the commercials with the plots of movies. I've been more scared doing scary movies when the commercial comes on than at a pivotal point. That's just me.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You know, what's interesting here is that Congress has taken action to lower the volume. In 2011, they passed a law and they gave it a cute name. It's called the Calm Act. Now, it passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: According to Insider, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo supposedly drafted this legislation after a loud commercial interrupted her family dinner. And in the years after it was signed into law, noise complaints to the FCC dropped dramatically.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But recently, complaints are back up again. And this article points to two reasons why that might be happening. The first one is enforcement, or really a lack of enforcement. After the Calm Act went into effect, broadcasters were forced to comply with existing standards, so complaints went down. But there's no ongoing auditing from the FCC, so new violations just go unpunished.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The second reason has a lot to do with how tech has changed our lives. The Calm Act does not cover streaming services. And, you know, that's how a lot of us increasingly watch our shows. And the FCC also doesn't have jurisdiction in this area. Insider explains, the commission only has authority over wire or radio communication.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Right. The FCC could vote to broaden its jurisdiction to include streaming services. But recent efforts to do that failed. The only other solution would be for Congress to pass a new legislation that covers streaming. In the meantime volume complaints to the FCC as well as on social media are up.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And if there one thing recent history can teach us about the fight to quiet down these commercials is that when people start complaining officials tend to take action So if you're sick and tired of these loud commercials, maybe the answer is, get louder.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Are you one of those people who found a new hobby during the pandemic? Have you been baking bread or playing chess or maybe solving jigsaw puzzles? These are the things that we are doing now that we're stuck in our homes.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, eventually, we're all going to be vaccinated. We're going to be able to get out more. But will we take our hobbies with us into our post-lockdown future? CNN turned to historians to learn about which activities could keep going on once the pandemic is under control.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And they point to the Great Depression for answers. Like now, millions in the U.S. were out of work back then. And a lot of folks had extra time on their hands. Governments and schools sponsored hobby clubs. And newspapers, if you can imagine it, were full of tips about new activities to try just to pass the time.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And it's interesting to read about which things really stood the test of time after the Depression. I mean, board games like Monopoly emerged then, and they're still popular today. And some people who took up bridge during that time ended up sticking with the game for the rest of their lives.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So historians say the key is activities with a payoff, those tend to have staying power. So now that millions know cooking at home is healthier, cheaper, and not as hard as they thought, like me, they're lucky to keep at it.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And once they're vaccinated, those folks who found long, socially distant walks clear their mind, well, they may join walking clubs. The other thing that makes hobbies really stick is if they connect people to a community. And of course, there's a big difference today. There's the Internet and social media. And these things allow people who have sort of obscure hobbies to find each other.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That might end up being the phenomenon that future historians look back on. The many subcultures of hobbyists during the COVID pandemic who were grateful to find a unique community in the gloom of lockdown.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: 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 with you again tomorrow.
