--:-- Mark Garrison: Good morning. It's Tuesday, February 20th. I'm Mark Garrison in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Coming up, a court ruling threatens the future of IVF, inside the collapse of a Gaza hospital, and the unusual and innovative way Los Angeles is dealing with heavy rain. But first, it's been nearly impossible to get an abortion in Tennessee since 2022. It has one of the strictest laws in the country. And once a child is born, the state provides very little support for new parents.
--:-- ProPublica Reporter: It has one of the strictest laws in the country. And once a child is born, the state provides very little support for new parents. ProPublica reporter Kavita Serrana spent one year following Mayrin Hollis, a mother of four who found out just a few months after giving birth to her youngest, Zoe, that she was pregnant again.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Doctors told Mehran that she had a very dangerous pregnancy. The embryo was implanted in the scar tissue from her recent C-section, and that could rupture her uterus or cause massive bleeding, and she could even die. They knew that it would also be unlikely that the fetus would ever make it to term.
--:-- ProPublica Reporter: At the time, she was fighting the state to keep custody of Zoe. Mehran was three years sober after a lifetime battle with drugs, and the state had already taken custody of her other children over child welfare concerns. Mayrin wanted to end her high-risk pregnancy, but she was blocked by the state's abortion ban.
--:-- Mark Garrison: She delivered three months early. Her daughter, Elena, weighed less than two pounds and had to spend several months in the ICU. Mayrin almost died in childbirth. Doctors saved her life with an emergency hysterectomy.
--:-- ProPublica Reporter: Tennessee has some of the worst outcomes in the country when it comes to maternal health, infant mortality, and child poverty. The state does not have paid parental leave. And over the last decade, state lawmakers have rejected legislation that would strengthen the social safety net for babies and parents.
--:-- Mark Garrison: So you had this mother who went back to work three weeks after her traumatic surgery and is sometimes sleeping in her car outside the hospital just so that she can see her daughter. After Elena came home, she was on oxygen and a feeding tube for months. And she was actually eligible for certain services like having nurse visits and more substantial disability payments.
--:-- ProPublica Reporter: But what we observed I mean it was such a testament to how difficult it is to access these benefits. We watched Mehran try to get connected with them and constantly get hung up on or not have the exact right paperwork.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And, you know, Mehran left the hospital with a stack of papers and phone numbers, and that was all the connection that she got.
--:-- ProPublica Reporter: Serana told us Mehran shared deeply personal details and allowed ProPublica to follow her family's struggles because she felt it was important that the world know the consequences of Tennessee's policy. She wanted people to know they forced me basically to have a child, but then they didn't help me take care of that child.
--:-- Mark Garrison: You can read Mehran's entire story and see pictures of her and her family on the Apple News app.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now, let's take a quick look at some other stories in the news. In Alabama, a court's unprecedented ruling that frozen embryos are people is raising concerns about the future of IVF. It involved a wrongful death case where a patient mistakenly dropped and destroyed frozen embryos.
--:-- Host: The court ruled that they could be held liable because the state's law, quote, applies to all children born and unborn.
--:-- Host: Alabama's Medical Association had warned that a ruling like this could make IVF more expensive and force clinics there to shut down or move out of state.
--:-- Mark Garrison: To business news where two of America's biggest credit card brands are coming together in a deal worth more than $35 billion. Capital One is buying Discover Financial.
--:-- Host: Most Capital One cards are Visa or MasterCard, so buying Discover gives Capital One another option. It plans to switch some cards to Discover and keep Visa and MasterCard on others.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And a notorious leaker of government secrets is in a high-stakes court hearing today. Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gathered outside a London court, which is hearing what could be his last chance to avoid extradition to the U.S.
--:-- Host: He's wanted in America for trial over leaking military secrets. The first leaks were in 2010. U.S. authorities have been trying to get a hold of him ever since.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Assange took refuge for seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London before local police arrested him
--:-- Host: If he loses in court this time Assange could be handed over to America in a matter of weeks
--:-- Mark Garrison: The United Nations is expected to vote today on a resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The U.S. has signaled it'll veto it, saying that could jeopardize peace talks.
--:-- Host: Reuters reports that the U.S. is instead proposing a resolution that would call for a temporary ceasefire and oppose a major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah.
--:-- Mark Garrison: One of the greatest humanitarian concerns right now is the hospital system in Gaza. There's a particular focus on Nasser Hospital in Han Yunus. It's the second largest in Gaza.
--:-- Host: Israel and Gaza's health ministry are telling two very different stories about what has happened at Nasser since the Israeli military stormed the facility last week.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The BBC verified social media videos from inside the facility as soldiers came in. Israel said Hamas was holding hostages at Nasser Hospital, which Hamas denied.
--:-- Host: Israel also said it was working to limit civilian harm and allow the hospital to keep functioning. But Gaza's health ministry, the UN, and doctors say that's not true.
--:-- Mark Garrison: They describe catastrophic conditions and several patient deaths at a hospital that has effectively ceased to function.
--:-- Host: An eyewitness told CNN that Israeli troops pulled doctors outside and forced them to strip to their underwear and wait in the cold for hours.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Israel's military didn't immediately respond to CNN about how the doctors were treated.
--:-- Host: One of the people inside was Dr. Ahmed Mogherby, head of the plastic surgery and burns department. After evacuating the hospital, he went on Al Jazeera and called the situation there Judgment Day.
--:-- Dr. Ahmed Mogherby: It is a real horror what was happening. I'm shouting, we are screaming, and I'm telling you, and I asked the leaders of this world, how many videos do you have to see us killing, seeing us, seeing this real genocide happening in front of your eyes, and nothing, nothing. Just silence. Just silence.
--:-- Mark Garrison: He and others from the hospital made it to Rafah. Around 1.5 million people are with them, having fled heavy fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
--:-- Host: But it could soon become much more dangerous. As we talked about Israel promises a major ground offensive there next month At the start of Ramadan if Hamas does not release all remaining hostages
--:-- Mark Garrison: At the start of Ramadan if Hamas does not release all remaining hostages
--:-- Mark Garrison: At times lately, nearly everyone in California has been under flood alerts. Heavy rainfall is expected to continue.
--:-- Host: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass recently spoke to a local ABC station about the week's weather conditions.
--:-- Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass: We are prepared, but I do still worry because the hills have not dried out from the last storm. And so, of course, every time there's a rain that's going to be heavy, we have to worry about mudslides.
--:-- Mark Garrison: She's talking about preparation for the immediate effects of heavy rain. But in recent years, L.A. has also prepared in another way.
--:-- Host: Wired looks at how it's done work to become what urban planners call a sponge city. That's a place that can gather rainwater in a way that helps the community in the long term.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Historically, L.A. has relied on snowmelt and river water brought in from far away, but it's working to source more water locally.
--:-- Host: Water managers in L.A. have been replacing surfaces like concrete with permeable materials like dirt and plants.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The combination of traditional dams and spongy infrastructure captured more than 8 billion gallons of stormwater over just a few days earlier this month.
--:-- Host: For context, that's enough water for more than 100,000 households for a year.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Typically, cities relied on gutters and sewers to funnel rainwater out of cities to prevent flooding. But with climate change driving heavier rains, old systems aren't working anymore.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Current weather is pretty rough for Angelenos, but the city's trying a new way to deal with it and attacking another problem at the same time.
--:-- 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 from New York Magazine. It's about financial scams.
--:-- Host: And if you think that only naive people fall for them, you'll want to hear this. It's written by a person who was taken in. She's a longtime financial journalist who speaks to money experts for a living. And yet, she fell for a scam that ended in her handing over $50,000 in cash to a total stranger.
--:-- Mark Garrison: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
