--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Thursday, April 15th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. 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.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Kim Potter, the former police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. She's now charged with second-degree manslaughter. Potter and her police chief both resigned. The chief said when Potter shot the 20-year-old black man, she intended to use a taser, not her gun.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Wright's father, Aubrey Wright, told ABC it's hard to accept that explanation. I lost my son. He's never coming back. I can't accept that. A mistake, that doesn't even sound right. You know, this officer has been on the force for 26 years. I can't accept that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Civil rights advocates say this killing is yet another reminder of the daily threat of violence that Black people live with in this country. The incident took place in a suburb of Minneapolis, near where former officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for the death of George Floyd.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For those looking to hold police more accountable, Wright's death is raising questions about the limits of police reform. In The New Yorker, Jelani Cobb notes Floyd's death did bring about real change. It sparked a sustained protest movement and led to some reforms. New York City unsealed the disciplinary records of some 80,000 officers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Cobb says that probably wouldn't have happened otherwise. But Cobb writes, even with all that change and with all eyes on the Chauvin trial, the real barometer of where things stand on race and policing is what we're seeing in the headlines. Daunte Wright, protesters in Minneapolis being hit with tear gas and rubber bullets. In Virginia, an army officer pulled over in a traffic stop, a Black and Latino man who was in uniform at the time, getting pepper sprayed by police.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For Vox, Sean Collins writes about how traffic stops, they are especially dangerous for Black Americans. He cites research showing that even though traffic stops are rarely dangerous for officers, Their training teaches them to view traffic stops as potentially deadly. That seems to raise the tension in a way that can lead to violence One study found that around one in 10 police killings happened at traffic and pedestrian stops
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Vox also points out that Black people are stopped more often than white people And in some places, that margin is significant. When police are primed to expect violence at traffic stops and Black drivers are more likely to be pulled over, it adds up to real fear when people simply start their cars.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Biden administration is reportedly getting ready to sanction Russia for meddling in U.S. elections. This move is also a response to the SolarWinds hack that exposed the data of more than 100 American companies as well as key government agencies. The sanctions are expected to penalize Russian government and intelligence officials. They'll also bar U.S. financial institutions from trading in Russian government bonds.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the past, Russia has denied these accusations and promised to retaliate for any new sanctions. This is a $400 billion question. What would it look like if more seniors in this country could get medical care at home instead of nursing homes or hospitals? That's what President Biden is asking Congress. His proposal to give more funding to senior care is part of his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And the administration says it's more urgent as our country's elderly population continues to grow. And if you look at census data, you'll see a concerning trend. By the year 2030, one out of every five people in the U.S. will be 65 years old or older. And just a few years after that, for the first time in history, the U.S. is expected to have more older people than children.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal looks at some of the problems millions of seniors who are covered by Medicare often face. Medicare doesn't pay for daily care at home for people who need help with things like bathing or getting dressed. It also doesn't usually cover long-term stays in nursing homes. So elderly people often have to use their own savings to pay for these types of services.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Some seniors qualify for Medicaid programs, which can cover home health care. But in some states the wait list to get home medical services is tens of thousands of names long The argument the Biden administration is making is if we make it easier for seniors to get care at home it save money by keeping people out of nursing homes, which are generally more expensive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Biden wants to put $400 billion into various programs that'll support care for the elderly in their own homes. Now, Republican critics say Biden's plan would cost way too much and is a giveaway to labor unions that represent health care workers. And they say care for seniors shouldn't be part of an infrastructure bill at all.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Biden administration is making a case that America needs to build not just roads and bridges, but social infrastructure too. When courts shut down in-person hearings last year, many counties and states turned to Zoom to chip away at the backlog of delayed cases. But now that life appears to be on track to return to something like normal, some are asking, what if we kept court virtual? Would this new world hurt some defendants?
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Atlantic recently explored what's lost and what's gained when the justice system moves online. Millions of hearings, depositions, arraignments, even some trials have all taken place over video conference during the pandemic. Data from the National Center for State Courts shows during the past year the shift to digital has sharply reduced the number of no-shows in court.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So much of this is about saving time. In the new virtual world, lawyers can handle multiple cases without having to spend time traveling to different courtrooms. People with court dates or those who are testifying as witnesses, they don't have to deal with commuting or finding childcare.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But there are, of course, some downsides. Nearly 42 million people in the U.S. don't have access to broadband. Just imagine what that means. You'd have to go use a public library internet connection to plead your case. People who aren't tech-savvy or non-English speakers might also have difficulty navigating an online hearing.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And then there's the online empathy gap. The stuff that gets lost when a person's humanity is flattened on a screen. The Atlantic points to a pre-pandemic study that showed judges imposed higher bail when hearings were done remotely. Plus, there are privacy questions. Because of constitutional laws about public trials, virtual courts often live stream cases.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One judge explains streaming can mean that embarrassing moments are immortalized online The Atlantic says the fact that courts can move through so many cases so quickly when they virtual means this new way of doing things is probably here to stay Last summer, two major judicial organizations endorsed a set of guidelines for using technology in court even after the pandemic is over.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: They wrote that the pandemic is not the disruption courts wanted, but it is the disruption that courts needed. Bhutan, the small country in the Himalayas, has done something extraordinary. In less than two weeks, it vaccinated more than 93 percent of its eligible adult population. And the stars aligned in more ways than one for the country to be able to pull this off.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The country got its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine in January, but its vaccination campaign started months later on March 27th. Bhutan's leaders consulted Buddhist monks who turned to the stars to find an auspicious time to begin vaccinations. Now, allowing astrology to inform public health decisions may sound a bit odd, But it turned out to have some benefits.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: That's right. Waiting for that perfect date meant that they delayed distribution. And that meant that Bhutan didn't have to create a complex system of priority groups while it waited for enough doses to vaccinate the whole population. The country's Volunteer Service Corps helped to set up more than 1,200 vaccination sites across the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One team hiked through the Himalayas to deliver doses to villages. And helicopters flew into communities where the snow was too deep to walk through. And astrology aside, Bhutan had a few other factors working in its favor. It already had an established national immunization program, which meant the cold chain infrastructure needed for storage, it was already in place.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Bhutan is also a small country. Only about 800,000 people live there. And it kept the pandemic under control. It only recorded one COVID-19 death and fewer than 1,000 infections. 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.
