--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, September 21st. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, disturbing allegations against people behind the hit film Sound of Freedom, D.C. residents deal with a surge in crime, and how the Hollywood strikes are gutting the fall primetime lineup. But first, let's take a quick look at some major stories in the news.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chairman of Fox & News Corp at age 92. His son Lachlan will lead the media business going forward.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In defense news, General Charles Q. Brown is now confirmed as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the top uniformed post in the U.S. military. He is not controversial. Senators confirmed him by an 83 to 11 vote.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But his nomination and others have been held up for a long time by Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville. He's been blocking the promotions of hundreds of officers to protest the Pentagon's abortion policy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer used a special maneuver to get around Tuberville's blockade. These men should have already been confirmed. They should already be serving in their new positions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Senate should not have to go through procedural hoops just to please one brazen and misguided senator. Schumer also cleared the way for the top generals of the Army and Marine Corps to be confirmed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But that still leaves hundreds of other promotions on hold because of Tuberville's actions. Staying in Washington, the Biden administration is expanding the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They'll now be eligible to apply for work permits. It's a move that city leaders, business owners, and immigration advocates have wanted for months.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Also, the administration is making free COVID test kits available again as a new wave of infections hits. Households can get four free rapid tests apiece.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Starting Monday, people can place orders at covidtests.gov. A warning that this next story includes a description of alleged sexual misconduct.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The low-budget movie Sound of Freedom has been a surprise hit this summer, racking up hundreds of millions of dollars, drawing on strong support from conservative Christians.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's loosely based on the work of Tim Ballard, a former Homeland Security agent who went on to create an anti-child sex trafficking organization called Operation Underground Railroad, or OUR.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The film depicts undercover sting operations led by Ballard to rescue victims of sex trafficking. Ballard has reportedly been considering a run for the U.S. Senate in Utah.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But according to Vice, Ballard left the nonprofit he founded earlier this year after an investigation into reports from at least seven women of sexual misconduct.
--:-- Shamita Basu: During undercover work for OUR, women said Ballard would ask them to pose as his wife. They say he coerced them into sharing a bed or showering together, telling them it was necessary to fool traffickers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ballard has denied the allegations, and he's not the only person involved with the Sound of Freedom movie facing accusations of sexual misconduct.
--:-- Shamita Basu: An executive producer of the film, Paul Hutchinson, is accused of groping a trafficking victim who was believed to be 16 years old at the time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This reportedly happened in 2016, during an OUR undercover mission in Mexico. Weiss obtained criminal investigation files that referenced video of the incident.
--:-- Shamita Basu: No charges were filed. Hutchinson was posing as someone interested in underage girls, as a way to capture human traffickers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He says he thought the person was over 18. But notes from the investigator who viewed the video seem to contradict this.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hutchinson told Weiss that he and his colleagues had no issues with how he acted while he was undercover.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Sound of Freedom movie made a fortune by appealing to Christian values. But these allegations raise serious questions about the morality of the people behind the film.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A sharp rise in violent crime in Washington D has residents and local and federal lawmakers feeling alarmed and frustrated
--:-- Shamita Basu: Compared to last year homicides are up 29 percent robberies 67 percent and the number of minors shot this year has more than doubled from the same period in 2021.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Residents told The Washington Post it's difficult to know how to navigate the city safely because so much of the recent violence has felt so random.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A spectator at a neighborhood soccer match shot. A military interpreter from Afghanistan killed driving a lift on Capitol Hill.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A construction worker killed in a robbery as he arrived to work at Howard University. Post reporter Paul Schwartzman told us a lot of people are on edge and changing their routines.
--:-- Paul Schwartzman: I talked to somebody who's not taking the bus at night. I talked to somebody else who's avoiding gas stations at night because they're afraid of getting robbed.
--:-- Paul Schwartzman: There are people who aren't walking their dogs at night because they're afraid. There are people who are buying ring cameras for their doors.
--:-- Paul Schwartzman: You know, there are people who don't want their kids to go out like they were going out perhaps before.
--:-- Paul Schwartzman: I think it adds a level of stress to people's lives. To address rising crime, the D.C. mayor and police have implemented a curfew for teenagers in certain neighborhoods.
--:-- Paul Schwartzman: One city council member has called for the National Guard to deploy. But dealing with problems in D.C. gets complicated because, unlike other cities, federal lawmakers in Congress have the power to decide what D.C. can and can't do.
--:-- Paul Schwartzman: That involves everything from new laws to the city's budget. The president actually has final say over D.C. legislation.
--:-- Paul Schwartzman: There is a slate of public safety bills up for discussion in the D.C. City Council this fall, including a proposal to teach conflict resolution in all public schools and a plan to reimburse small businesses for security camera systems.
--:-- Paul Schwartzman: But I haven't heard anybody who sort of authoritatively knows the answer. I can tell you that the level of staffing in the police department is at a historic low.
--:-- Paul Schwartzman: Some of that was an outgrowth of the legacy of George Floyd. The morale in the police department is apparently very low Washington is a very prosperous city but it also got a lot of folks who are struggling
--:-- Paul Schwartzman: And the pandemic made life more difficult But honestly, you know, people are really kind of flummoxed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Still, many residents told him they're not leaving, and they're doing what they can. Mentoring young people, checking in on neighbors, looking for ways to make their community safer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's new optimism that the Hollywood writers' strike could end soon. The Writers Guild met with studios yesterday, and there are more talks today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But even if there is a deal, actors are still on strike, and productions have been shut down. That means the new fall season will be extremely short on new scripted material.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal crunches the data on the new lineups to see how networks and streaming services are coping with the strikes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's a heavy reliance on reality shows and game shows, which are not affected by the labor dispute. So get ready for lots more Shark Tank, The Masked Singer, and Celebrity Jeopardy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are some attempts to rehab old concepts. ABC will premiere The Golden Bachelor with a 72-year-old star.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Foreign shows will also play a role, since they're made by teams abroad that aren't striking. CBS will air the first international edition of the NCIS franchise, which was produced in Australia.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're a fan of The Simpsons and Family Guy, you're in luck. Animated shows are usually made with longer lead times, so Fox will have new episodes of those.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But if you're waiting around for new episodes of Stranger Things, White Lotus, Euphoria, or Yellow Jackets, All of those scripted shows are still delayed for now.
--:-- 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, don't go anywhere.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today is World Alzheimer's Day, so we've got an episode of In Conversation to share with you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I spoke with cardiologist Sandeep Jahar about the challenges of caring for his father after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a really moving conversation about caregiving for a parent and the science of the brain. That's queued up to play for you next, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
