--:-- Gideon Resnick: Good morning. It's Wednesday, May 1st. I'm Gideon Resnick, in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Coming up on today's show, Donald Trump's vision for a second term in office. Why millions of Americans could lose internet access. And why some Republicans are nervous about their colleagues skydiving. But first, there were hundreds more arrests on campuses nationwide as protests against the war in Gaza grew.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: At UCLA, there were clashes very early this morning between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters. The university asked for help from Los Angeles police. And one of the most intense scenes took place across the country at Columbia's campus.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Protesters had taken over a university building, and last night the NYPD went in to retake it. Dozens of officers were involved. The local NBC station was covering all of this as it unfolded.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: They cleared the protesters from the gate that were outside, and then we saw at least 50-plus NYPD officers going in through the window there. Demonstrators were arrested and taken away on an NYPD bus.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Columbia said the protesters had gone too far by occupying the building. Breaking doors and windows, and forcing out public safety workers. The university says that its president has asked the NYPD to remain on campus through the middle of this month. Graduation is set for the 15th.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: There were also arrests on many other campuses. And the law enforcement response at Washington University in St. Louis on Saturday is also getting attention. Bystander video shows multiple officers taking down a 65-year-old history professor from another school.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: His wife says that he was brutally beaten. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment. At Northwestern and Brown University, things played out differently.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Administrators there reached agreements with student protesters. They agreed to dismantle encampments in exchange for concessions from the schools.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: In other news, Florida's ban on abortions past six weeks of pregnancy takes effect today. It's the latest state in the South to implement strong restrictions.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: That means that people in the region seeking abortions may have to travel as far as Virginia or New York. Florida residents will have a say on abortion rights in a November ballot initiative though.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Voters have supported access to abortion in recent elections but this one will be harder than usual, requiring a supermajority of 60% to effectively reverse the ban in the state.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And in a major legal development, the Biden administration is moving toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: It's currently Schedule 1, along with drugs including heroin, and LSD. But the Attorney General is proposing to downgrade it to Schedule 3. That includes drugs with medical uses like Tylenol with codeine and steroids.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: This would mark the first step in a process that could take quite a bit of time.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: What would Donald Trump do if he wins the second term? Well, for one, he says that he'd be less nice this time around and fire a lot of people.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And he has major ideas for policy changes as well. He details all of this and more to Time magazine in two extensive interviews.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Massimo Calabresi is the Washington bureau chief for Time. He told CNN that Trump came off more confidently as a candidate than before.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: That confidence, I think, comes from his own experience, but also from having a real plan for what he would do if he got in office. And it is, in some ways, designed to be tougher than last time.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The interviews cover a lot of ground, offering a window into where Trump's mind is at on some of the most important policy questions of the day, including abortion.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: He's often been vague about that issue. Here's Time reporter Eric Cordalessa talking with NPR.
--:-- Eric Cordalessa: I asked him very precise, deliberate questions about whether he would allow for certain measures to be taken in red states, including monitoring women's pregnancies to know if they've gotten an abortion off the ban.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Trump told me they might do that, and it didn't matter whether he was comfortable with that or not, because states are going to make up their minds.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: I asked him the same question, whether he was comfortable with states prosecuting or punishing women for getting abortions after the ban.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: He said it's totally irrelevant whether I'm comfortable or not because states are going to make those determinations.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Trump also said some striking things about the southern border. He told Time he'd considered deploying the National Guard and other parts of the military to deport undocumented migrants.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: When asked whether that would be a violation of our laws that protect civilians he suggested migrants are not civilians.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Time did a fact check and according to U law any person regardless of their immigration status is entitled to due process and equal protection.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Massimo Calabresi talked to CNN about what he took away from these conversations.
--:-- Massimo Calabresi: What I like most about the piece and this opportunity is that we got into a lot of policy steps that he says he would take that really get at the underlying question of just how strong or authoritarian a president would he be.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: So there's a long section in the interview where Eric talks to him about the ways he would exert control over the Justice Department.
--:-- Massimo Calabresi: Trump said he would consider firing federal prosecutors who refused his orders to prosecute someone.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Now, presidents do have legal authority to fire prosecutors, but doing so specifically for refusing a presidential order would be practically unprecedented.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Legal scholars from both political parties have warned of the danger of weaponizing the Justice Department to go after political enemies.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And Trump did not reject the possibility of violence if he loses the presidential election. He tells Time that it, quote, always depends on the fairness of the election.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Cordalessa pointed out to NPR that U.S. courts, the Constitution, and public opinion could be checks on Trump's ability to make his agenda happen.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: But Trump will have a lot of advantages if he's elected again. The judiciary this time is going to be stacked with way more of his own appointees, which means they could sign off on some of the more radical actions he wants to take in the White House.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: You can read the full article and the transcript on the Apple News app. And if you're listening to the News app right now, we have it queued up to play for you after the show.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Millions of Americans are waking up to a new reality for high-speed internet access. A crucial government service called the Affordable Connectivity Program is ending.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: It launched during the COVID-19 pandemic to help low-income households pay for high-speed service. The idea was simple. Families who qualified got a $30 credit on their monthly internet bill.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: People living on tribal lands received up to $75. But Congress has not renewed funding for the program, so now roughly one out of six American households will have to make up the cost.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: People like Cindy Westman from rural Illinois. Her daughter has cerebral palsy and autism. They relied on high internet for telehealth appointments.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And Westman told CNN the benefit has been critical on their tight budget. With inflation and the cost of food, I don't have that much food assistance.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Walter Durham, a veteran in San Diego, told CNN he's skeptical that lawmakers will act to save the program, even though it has bipartisan support.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: I'm going to have to either do without Wi-Fi or I'll have to come up with other means to pay for Wi-Fi. Because I can't count on the politicians doing anything to help the American people.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The program is set to run out of money by the end of the month, unless Congress intervenes to renew the funding. Some households will get partial discounts until then.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yesterday, a number of administration officials and lawmakers pushed for an extension. As Wired notes, there are big stakes here.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: When people do not have access to high-speed internet, they risk falling behind socially and economically.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Finally, Democrat Tim Kennedy was elected to the House of Representatives in a special election in New York last night.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: That means that once he's sworn in, the GOP majority will temporarily be down to just one seat.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The Wall Street Journal recently looked at how this very narrow margin has Republican leaders nervous about some of their colleagues' extracurricular activities.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Several GOP members are fans of high-risk sports, like skydiving, off-road motorcycle racing, and scuba diving.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Because the party needs every vote, some Republican lawmakers say they need to be more careful about what they do off-duty, so they're still able to vote afterwards.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Next month, for example, a number of Republicans are planning to honor the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: They're doing that by parachuting from a World War II-era plane onto the beaches of Normandy.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: But the journal says, despite the thin majority, the daredevils are still moving ahead.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: One GOP member who's booked on the skydiving event is also keeping plans to play rugby. And he still skateboards around the capital.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: He says, this is who I am. You can't change who you are because of the job that you have.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app as we mentioned Time magazine's interview with Donald Trump is queued up to play next if you're listening in the podcast app you can follow Apple News Plus narrated to find that story.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
