--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, February 15th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, the Michigan state mass shooting and the larger impact of gun violence in America, why Ukraine wants Western fighter jets, and the mysterious shrinking American vacation. But first, residents of East Palestine, Ohio, are worried about the safety of their air, soil, and drinking water.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Train cars carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and caught fire in the town earlier this month. Toxic black smoke filled the skies. Thousands evacuated. Crews released some of the chemicals from the train cars, trying to prevent a giant explosion.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Local officials now say that the water is safe to drink, and the EPA says air quality seems okay. But residents, who have now been back for about a week, worry about their health. NPR reports that people are saying they feel a burning sensation in their eyes. They see animals getting sick, and a strong odor is hanging over the town.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ohio environmental officials say thousands of fish in area waters are dead across miles of streams. Local Kathy Reese says that's evidence that things are still dangerous.
--:-- Kathy Reese: Don't tell me it's safe. Something's going on if the fish are floating in the creek.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One of the chemicals on board was vinyl chloride. Exposure can cause a number of health problems, including liver damage or cancer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Business owners and residents have filed multiple lawsuits against the rail operator Norfolk Southern. The company says it's providing funds to help the community with the cost of evacuations, cleanup and recovery.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Federal transportation and environmental agencies are investigating why the derailment happened and monitoring the ongoing impact of the pollution.
--:-- Shamita Basu: East Palestine resident Ben Ratner talked to NBC about living through all of this uncertainty.
--:-- Ben Ratner: I feel like there's not an immediate risk, but I definitely feel like there's a long risk as far as things that are seeping into the ground. We're being told that things are safe, but it's just deep down, you feel like, how can things already be back at a level where we can be back to normal?
--:-- Shamita Basu: For him, this has been an especially surreal experience. In 2021, Ratner and his family signed up as extras in a movie that was filming in Ohio. The movie's called White Noise. And the plot, a train derailment, triggers an explosion that fills the air with toxic fumes, causing an environmental disaster.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ratner told CNN that he tried to rewatch the movie a few days ago, but he couldn't finish it. He said, all of a sudden, it hit too close to home.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, the Michigan State community is mourning the deaths of three students, killed on Monday night by a gunman who later fatally shot himself.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The victims were Alex Werner, known as a dedicated student, Brian Frazier, president of his fraternity, and Ariel Anderson, whose goal was to become a pediatrician.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For some Michigan State families, this wasn't their first mass shooting. Andrea Ferguson talked to NBC about how her daughter was a student at the high school in Oxford, Michigan, where four students were killed in 2021.
--:-- Andrea Ferguson: This isn't what we send our kids to school for. This shouldn't be happening. And I don't know what the answers are. I don't know how, I don't know what the answers are. I don't have the answers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On TikTok, another Michigan State student named Jackie Matthews told the story of how she hid in a classroom corner during the Sandy Hook elementary school shootings.
--:-- Jackie Matthews: The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through is incomprehensible. It's not OK. We can no longer allow this to happen. We can no longer be complacent.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When people talk about mass shooting victims, they often talk about people killed and wounded. But there are other victims, people like Jackie Matthews, people who are traumatized from being so close to death even if they escaped it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Think of all the thousands of people at Michigan State in hiding while the gunman was on the loose.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post has a long-term project tracking these kinds of victims in school shootings. Its data finds that 338,000 children have been exposed to gun violence at school since 1999.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The project is meant to recognize the widespread psychological damage of gun violence, and the Post says it will keep counting.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Western allies say the long-awaited Russian offensive is happening. Russian forces are making small gains against Ukraine, as Moscow has sent thousands of fresh troops into the fight.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The news is raising the stakes of a meeting of NATO allies this week, which includes the U.S. Defense Secretary. One key topic is whether to provide fighter aircraft to Ukraine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Volodymyr Zelensky has been asking for this for months. We have freedom. Give us wings to protect it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Biden has ruled out supplying F-16s for now. There are concerns that Russia would see this as a dangerous escalation, since the jets could be used to strike deep into Russia.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But other NATO countries have said that they could be open to giving Ukraine fighter jets.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We've seen this play out before, most recently with tanks. The U.S. was reluctant to provide them at first. Then some NATO countries signaled support. And eventually, Ukraine got a commitment from the U.S. and others.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Even if Ukrainian pilots do get access to American-made fighters, they might not make an impact on the war immediately. Ukraine's Air Force currently flies Soviet-era aircraft.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal spoke to military aerospace analyst Douglas Bari about the challenge of switching planes.
--:-- Douglas Bari: You can't just take somebody out of a Soviet-designed combat aircraft and expect them to be able to fight to the same level the next day. Even with an experienced fast jet pilot, there is a period of conversion. So just to get used to the aircraft, it displays how it handles. And then you also got to train mechanics to maintain the new jets and supply the right parts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Ukraine is optimistic and has reportedly identified 50 pilots who could start training immediately.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When it comes to getting new weapons, persistence has paid off for Ukrainian commanders in the past.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Finally, let's turn to a mystery about declining vacation time in the United States.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post dug deep into some obscure government data, and it found that compared to 40 years ago, Americans are half as likely to be taking a week-long vacation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, you might think that it's because companies don't offer much time off. The U.S. does lag far behind other wealthy countries in vacation benefits.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the Post reports that the number of paid vacation days here went up in recent years. So what's happening? Why aren't people taking a full week off very often anymore?
--:-- Shamita Basu: One reason the Post points to is the rise of PTO plans, which lump together sick days, personal days, and vacation days.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Under these policies, workers may feel pressure to take shorter vacations and stockpile their PTO for emergencies or sick days.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This story goes deep into the data, and it definitely feels like you are unraveling a mystery as you go.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's got lots of charts and graphs comparing vacation trends, and you'll learn which job blows every other one away when it comes to using vacation time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can read that story and many more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around. We have a narrated article about Austin, Texas coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It used to be known as a quirky, laid-back town. The New Yorker reports on how it's transformed as waves of people from New York, L.A., and Silicon Valley have poured in.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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