--:-- Mark Garrison: Good morning. It's Wednesday, April 3rd. I'm Mark Garrison in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Mark Garrison: On the show, the battle over the future of Disney, why black voters in Wisconsin could be a key to the presidential race, and a record-breaking milestone for women's basketball. But first, more on the aid workers killed in Gaza by an Israeli airstrike.
--:-- Mark Garrison: They worked for World Central Kitchen, the charity started by the well-known chef Jose Andres. President Biden called him to express condolences for the seven people killed.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The White House says Israel needs to extensively investigate and hold people accountable for the killings. Israel says it did not target aid workers. Its top military commander has now issued a public apology for the deaths.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In a new essay in the New York Times memorializing the aid workers, Andres stresses that the vehicles were clearly marked, and the aid group notified the Israeli military of their travel plans.
--:-- Mark Garrison: He calls on Israel to open more access for food and medicine for Palestinian civilians. Since October, World Central Kitchen says it's delivered more than 40 million meals to Gaza.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In March, it was the first to deliver aid by a new maritime route, delivering about 200 tons of food. While the UN delivers the vast majority of humanitarian aid to Gaza, World Central Kitchen accounts for more than half of all other aid deliveries.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The group's main field kitchen is in Rafa in the south. The group has helped people in many conflict and disaster zones. Andres founded the organization in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Since then, the group has grown and worked in places like Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, and Ukraine. Last year, Andres told Jimmy Kimmel about what drives his charitable work.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Any cook, you have the power to feed the few. Any one of you, whatever is your profession, you have the power to do something for the few. But if you think about it, if you dream about it, you have the same power, in the case of cooks, to feed the many.
--:-- Mark Garrison: So it didn't take much. We went to Haiti the first time, it was an earthquake, and we began cooking. We began learning. But I always realized that we all have the power to move the needle.
--:-- Mark Garrison: If we can help somebody on our left on our right, it just worth the effort. But now that effort is on hold. World Central Kitchen is pausing operations for the safety of workers.
--:-- Mark Garrison: At least two other aid groups are making similar moves. The deaths are a reminder of the danger aid workers face. The White House says more than 200 aid workers have been killed since the war began in October.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked about the importance of keeping humanitarian workers safe. These people are heroes. They run into the fire, not away from it.
--:-- Mark Garrison: They show the best of what humanity has to offer when the going really gets tough. They have to be protected.
--:-- Mark Garrison: A nasty fight over control of the biggest name in entertainment comes to a head today. Final votes are being cast in the battle over the future of Disney.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And with it, what happens to Mickey and Minnie, also Marvel, Star Wars, ESPN, ABC, theme parks, and more. The stakes are high enough that the fight has drawn in billionaires, CEOs, powerful companies, and celebrities like George Lucas.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The LA Times reports on what's going on and how it could shape the future of the entertainment business for years to come.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Normally, elections for corporate boards don't have that much drama. But this one has rivaled an episode of Succession, a blockbuster show Disney didn't make.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And a shortage of recent Disney hits on streaming and at the box office is a big part of why some powerful investors are revolting.
--:-- Mark Garrison: They think the stock price could be a lot higher if the company makes changes. A key player is billionaire Nelson Peltz.
--:-- Mark Garrison: He's taken issue with CEO Bob Iger's moves, and Peltz is campaigning for seats on the board to pressure for change.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Peltz also says Disney's board botched succession plans. Iger was Disney's CEO before. He picked a successor, Bob Chapek, who took over in 2020, but Chapek stumbled, got forced out, and the board brought back Iger within a year.
--:-- Mark Garrison: It was messy, so one of the key issues Peltz and other Rebel investors want addressed is planning for the future so Iger's next handover can be smoother.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Iger has acknowledged that the company has lost some focus and is still working to fix some of the problems that brought him back into the fold.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And some analysts say Peltz hasn't really offered a plan that differs all that much from what Iger's been doing.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Iger is still popular with a lot of investors, including powerful shareholders who say they'll vote against Peltz.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But Iger's camp isn't taking chances. Of the more than a million dollars that have been spent on the boardroom campaign, most of it has been spent by Disney.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The company has run ads, even trolled Peltz with a picture of a long Pinocchio saying he's been spreading inaccurate information.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Some early indications are that Peltz and the other critics will lose. But whatever the outcome, the issues raised aren't going away after today.
--:-- Mark Garrison: As entertainment reporter Matt Bellany from Puck explained on CNBC.
--:-- Matt Bellany: Even if Peltz gets a significant chunk and doesn't win, I think they're going to have to reckon with the fact that until Disney starts performing on the line that some of these aggrieved shareholders want it to, they're going to have to deal with these battles into the future.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Iger's contract runs through 2026, and it's still not clear who might take over in his place.
--:-- Mark Garrison: This bitterly contested election is another sign that he's got a wild road ahead.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Yesterday, voters went to the polls in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. No surprises there.
--:-- Mark Garrison: President Biden and former President Trump racked up more votes. And there were the protests, with some Republican voters choosing Nikki Haley and some Democrats choosing nobody over Biden.
--:-- Mark Garrison: We want to take a closer look at Wisconsin. Not the primary results, but the general election, where the race is expected to be much closer and might decide who wins the White House.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Biden won Wisconsin by less than 21,000 votes in 2020. Reuters recently spent time in a critical city, Milwaukee, a district where black voters helped Biden win the state.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Today, some polling shows these voters frustrated with Biden. Republicans think they may have a small opening to win over a few of them.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Reuters spoke to Orlando Owens, a black Republican activist who's working to turn out votes for Trump.
--:-- Orlando Owens: Milwaukee doesn't have to turn Republican. We just need to have an uptick. That's why it's so important if we can get just a small bump here in the city, a small bump in the county, we win the state. We win the state. We win the country.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Owens spoke to Reuters from a community center that the Republican Party opened a few years ago in a historically black neighborhood.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And roughly one mile down the road, the party will formally nominate Trump for president at the Republican National Convention this summer.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Party leaders say this is part of a long-term commitment they're making to Milwaukee.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But some residents tell Reuters they're skeptical.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And nationally, efforts by the Republican Party to engage Black, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous voters have hit some early snags.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Like when the party announced in March that it was canceling plans to open dozens of community centers aimed at reaching voters of color across a number of states.
--:-- Mark Garrison: A political strategist for Democrats told Reuters that any erosion in support for Biden among black voters in Wisconsin could cost him the state and potentially the White House.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Reuters found several black voters in Milwaukee who are undecided, including Antonio Perkins.
--:-- Antonio Perkins: I mean, I am undecided. It's funny, I voted for Biden to get Trump out of office. Last election, and now I'm swaying more to Trump because of the things that we thought it was going to be better, and it just actually got worse.
--:-- Mark Garrison: So, yeah, I definitely don't know which way to sway at this point.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now let's take a quick look at some other stories in the news.
--:-- Mark Garrison: At least nine people are dead and hundreds injured after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Rescuers have been pulling out people trapped inside damaged buildings. It's the most powerful earthquake there in 25 years, and there have been sizable aftershocks.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In diplomatic news, yesterday President Biden had his first phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping since November.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The White House says they discussed China's support of Russia's war in Ukraine, tensions over Taiwan, and ongoing security concerns around TikTok.
--:-- Mark Garrison: National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said they also talked about Chinese access to sensitive technology.
--:-- Mark Garrison: President Biden also emphasized that the United States will continue to take necessary actions to prevent advanced U.S. technologies from being used to undermine our national security without unduly limiting trade and investment.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And finally, new numbers show the March Madness game between Iowa and LSU on Monday night was the most watched women's college basketball game in history.
--:-- Mark Garrison: At its peak, more than 16 million people were watching. That's about three and a half million more than the previous record.
--:-- Mark Garrison: That record was set in last year's championship between the same teams.
--:-- Mark Garrison: So the women's tournament game still to come might rack up even higher ratings.
--:-- Mark Garrison: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And if you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Mark Garrison: New York Magazine looks at how Boeing's once sterling reputation came crashing down and what it may take to recover.
--:-- Mark Garrison: If you're listening in the podcast's app, follow Apple News Plus narrated to find that story.
--:-- Mark Garrison: I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
