--:-- Shamita Basu: Hey there, it's Shamita. I've got a quick request for you. If Apple News Today is an essential part of your morning routine, follow the show in Apple Podcasts. And if you have another 30 seconds, leave us a rating and review, too. It helps other people find our show, and it helps us know what you like about it. Thanks. Good morning. It's Tuesday, March 11th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, why Canadians are booing the U.S. national anthem, how much would you pay for a weather report, and a promising new treatment for people who lost their sense of smell to COVID. But first, President Trump is promising the arrest of a pro-Palestinian student activist and organizer at Columbia University over the weekend is the first of many to come.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Mahmoud Halil is a green card holder who is in the U.S. legally. He was transferred to an immigration jail in Louisiana after his arrest. A judge on Monday ordered he not be deported while his case is being heard in court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Khalil was arrested under an executive order signed by Trump in January that the administration says is meant to combat anti-Semitism. Trump warned he would revoke student visas and deport terrorist sympathizers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On social media yesterday, Trump called Khalil a Hamas sympathizer and warned student protesters on campuses across the country they are in danger of being arrested for what he calls anti-Semitic and anti-American activity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The ACLU called Khalil's arrest unprecedented, illegal and un-American and called on the administration to immediately return him to New York to his wife, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Last night, his legal team issued a statement calling it outrageous to try to revoke legal permanent resident status for someone who has, quote, never committed a crime and who has simply expressed his political opinions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Protesters gathered on Monday in New York to demand his release. Khalil is a recent graduate of Columbia University and was a leader in organizing demonstrations against the war in Gaza on campus last spring.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When ICE agents arrested him over the weekend, they told him his student visa was being revoked, which led to immediate confusion because, as I mentioned before, Khalil is not here on a student visa. He's a permanent legal resident.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Halil's lawyer said agents arrested him anyway, saying his green card was being revoked. The Department of Homeland Security can initiate deportation proceedings for people with green cards who have been charged with criminal activity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Halil has not been charged with any crimes or crimes specific to the largely peaceful demonstrations on Columbia's campus last spring, where students set up a tent encampment on the Quad to demand that the university divest from companies profiting from Israel's ongoing war in Gaza.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump accused Halil and other protesters of engaging in pro-terrorist activities and of being paid agitators, but has not provided evidence of those allegations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Last spring, Halil was often the face of the student protest movement, sharing their goals with media and negotiating with university leaders over how to end the tent encampment on campus.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Associate Professor Joseph Hawley told Democracy Now! that Khalil's arrest and the Trump administration's threat to make more arrests has had a major chilling effect.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We have a lot of members of our community who are on student visas. We have a lot of members of our community who are permanent residents. I have colleagues and students messaging me since yesterday asking about canceling classes or taking classes remote because they don't know how safe it is to be on or around campus with ICE agents prowling the neighborhood.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn to the growing trade war between the U.S. and one of our primary trading partners, Canada. Yesterday, stocks tumbled sharply as fears over tariffs and a possible recession grew.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Trump on Sunday said he wouldn't rule out a recession as a result of his economic policies, which include aggressive tariffs on Canada. One analyst told The Wall Street Journal this is the first time an administration has said with a straight face that their objectives are going to cause pain.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Meanwhile, Ontario's premier Doug Ford, he's the head of government in the province, issued a new 25% tariff on electricity exports to the United States.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ontario provides power to approximately 1.5 million Americans in Minnesota, New York, and Michigan. This new tax joins a slew of tariffs Canada had already imposed on U.S. imports, such as orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, and more.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They came in response to President Trump's threats to tariff Canadian goods. Last week, he agreed to postpone a 25 percent tariff on many Canadian products.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Ford said Monday, Ontario will not reverse its electricity tax until President Trump fully rescinds his threats. It needs to end. That's why I've been crystal clear.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Until these tariffs are off the table, until the threat of tariffs is gone for good, Ontario will not relent. Canada's incoming prime minister has also been outspoken about Trump's tariffs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Mark Carney was overwhelmingly elected last weekend to lead the ruling Liberal Party, winning nearly 86 percent of the vote. In his victory speech, he said Trump is trying to weaken Canada.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He's attacking Canadian families, workers and businesses, and we cannot let him succeed. And we won't. We won't.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Carney is new to politics, but he previously led the Bank of England and he led the Bank of Canada during the 2008 financial crisis. He will replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January after a sharp decline in his approval rating.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the run-up to Trudeau's decision, polling showed Canadians were eager for change. And with a general election set to take place later this year, the Conservative Party seemed poised to win.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But sentiment has dramatically shifted since Trudeau announcement and since Trump took office in large part due to Trump tariffs and his repeated threat to make Canada the 51st U state.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Polling averages that showed the conservative party with a 20-point lead earlier this year have narrowed significantly. Liberals were headed for a white boat, and today the race is competitive again.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Amanda Coletta is the Canada correspondent for The Washington Post. She says Trump's actions contributed to a huge surge in nationalism. Canadians are boycotting American products.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They're boycotting American travel. They're booing the U.S. national anthem. So it has really stirred a groundswell of flag-waving patriotism that are pretty unusual in Canada.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that has been a problem for Conservative Party leader Pierre Polyev because his message for the last couple of years has been that Canada is broken.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Paulyev initially sought to make the race a referendum on Trudeau and attacks on carbon. But now, Coletta says, he too is shifting his message to focus more on Trump's tariffs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here's Paulyev speaking at a recent press conference. Message to the president is this. Knock it off. Stop the chaos.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You are hurting your workers, your consumers, and most immediately destroying trillions of dollars of wealth on your own stock market. You're attacking a cherished friend of the United States, and you are strengthening America's enemies by going after America's friends.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Carney, who will be sworn in as prime minister in the coming days, has pledged to keep retaliatory tariffs in place on the U.S. until, quote, America shows us respect.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He'll have a few months to prove himself in this role. Canada's general election is set for October, but it could happen sooner if Carney calls a snap election or the Conservative Party forces one with a no-confidence vote later this month.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Moving on to cuts the Trump administration is making to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, the federal agency responsible for producing weather forecasts and leading research on climate change and oceans.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They are a very impactful federal agency, even though a lot of the work that they do is often behind the scenes. Justine Kalma is a science reporter with The Verge.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They produce really important information that people rely on for their weather forecasts that are really important for coastal communities, coastal economies.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It houses the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center. You know, they work on space weather forecasts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The latest round of cuts resulted in 800 jobs being slashed at the agency, mostly probationary employees who'd been on the job for fewer than two years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Already, as a result of the layoffs, some weather balloon launches that were scheduled to take place in Alaska were suspended due to lack of staffing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And multiple outlets are reporting that NOAA managers have been directed to identify an additional 1,000 potential layoffs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Between this and the fork-in-the-road buyouts that Elon Musk's Doge team offered last month, NOAA's workforce could shrink by almost 20%.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The employees feel that their work is really impactful and they're very concerned about what happens if that work can no longer be done.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This isn't a simple just turnover in staff. They're really starting to see this agency be gutted.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A plan to dismantle NOAA was laid out in Project 2025 the conservative blueprint for the second Trump administration It suggested eliminating the agency and privatizing many of its functions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Kalma spoke to former agency employees and others familiar with how the agency works who say privatizing weather forecasts could mean people would have to pay for access to vital information that's currently provided as a free public service.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We have hurricane season that is coming up in June. These are really busy times for the weather service. And so if they are understaffed, They're really concerned that they're not going to be able to get people this vital information that they rely on.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And it's also just tremendous stress for people who are still at the agency because one, you know, they are having to do more with less people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For those that are still there, they're having to do the same life-saving work under extraordinary circumstances.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a case challenging bans on what is known as conversion therapy for minors.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The practice encourages young gay or lesbian kids to change their sexual orientation and for transgender kids to identify as the gender they were assigned at birth.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A Christian counselor in Colorado wants a state ban overturned, saying it violates the First Amendment by censoring conversations she has with her clients.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Colorado officials cite an overwhelming body of evidence showing conversion therapy is harmful to kids and increases the risk of depression and suicide.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The justices will review a lower court ruling that dismissed this case in 2024. USA Today reports there's an increased interest in these types of bans, which are active in 20 Democratic states.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The fentanyl crisis in the U.S. appears to be past its deadliest phase. That's according to new research out of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, that says all 50 states and Washington, D.C. have now seen some recovery from the epidemic.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Researchers say deaths linked to fentanyl and other street drugs have dropped to levels not seen since before the pandemic.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Drug deaths peaked in 2023 at 114,000, but are now under 87,000, according to CDC data.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Experts told NPR there's evidence the drop in fatalities is long-term and sustainable.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, today is the five-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a global pandemic.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And there's some good news for people who have suffered from what is known as long COVID.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Doctors in London say a new surgery that expands nasal airways has led to recovery of taste and smell for patients.
--:-- Shamita Basu: About six in every 100 COVID patients develops long COVID, and the loss of smell and taste is one of the more pronounced side effects.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Researchers found a way to get more odorants to the roof of the nose, where the sense of smell is located, and they believe that doing so kickstarts smell recovery.
--:-- 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.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Atlantic examines the mistakes made in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as experts were still learning how to best address the crisis.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the magazine makes the case for why we should remember this time as a moment of strength and resilience in America, not failure.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow. Thank you.
