--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, September 30th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, a looming dock worker strike could rattle the economy in the final stretch of the 2024 election. How Texas's near total abortion ban puts women's lives at risk. And SNL kicks off its 50th season.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But first, the full extent of the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene is only starting to become clear. As of Monday morning, across six states, more than 100 people have died. Millions are without power. Roads have been destroyed. Neighborhoods turn to lakes. And thousands of people lack access to safe drinking water.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In North Carolina, the storm produced the worst flooding the state has seen in a century. The damage was particularly acute across parts of the western region of the state, where rain totals are being measured in some places in feet.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Buncombe County, home to Asheville, images show serious devastation and seemingly endless water. Officials there received hundreds of missing persons reports over the weekend. The mountainous western part of the state is effectively isolated. Landslides and floods forced a major interstate and hundreds of roads to close, and the water supply has been significantly damaged.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Laura Hackett, a reporter for Blue Ridge Public Radio in Asheville, told PBS NewsHour about the aftermath yesterday.
--:-- Laura Hackett: It's been almost total infrastructure loss in Asheville. It's been really hard. There's no water in the city currently. Cell service has been gone. Internet power. We're just starting to get a little bit back online. Some people are starting to get cell service. So it's been really challenging. Water is definitely the most dire thing right now.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The city's mayor said that it could possibly take weeks for water access to be fully restored.
--:-- Shamita Basu: North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper spoke to CNN yesterday about efforts to help people in the region.
--:-- Roy Cooper: This is a devastating catastrophe of historic proportions. People that I talk to in western North Carolina say they have never seen anything like this. Our number one priority right now is getting people out and getting supplies in.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are search and rescue teams from 19 states, from the federal government, from our National Guard, from our state and local teams who are out there rescuing people as we speak.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Other dramatic scenes played out in states across the southeast. In Florida, they saw record storm surges up to 15 feet in some places.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At a small hospital in Irwin, Tennessee, rescue workers had to make multiple attempts by boat and helicopter to save dozens of patients and members of their staff who were huddled on the roof as the water surged.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The hospital administrator told the local CBS and ABC affiliate about the rescue and just how quickly the water rushed in.
--:-- Hospital Administrator: It was just the grace of God. We had ample amount of people to move people up to the roof and we were able to put the non patients in the boats and keep them safe and have medical personnel with the patients in the boats as well. And we kind of had them in a corner protected by a couple of walls.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Even more rain is possible in the region in the coming days. Blue Ridge Public Radio has put together a list of resources if you'd like to help flood victims in North Carolina.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to a labor dispute that threatens to shut down ports across the East Coast and seriously disrupt the economy just weeks before the election. And it mostly comes down to one person to decide whether a strike should happen as soon as tomorrow, a union leader named Harold Daggett.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He's the president of the International Longshoremen's Association, or the ILA, which represents tens of thousands of dock workers. He's been an outspoken critic of the Biden administration and has a reputation for being hard-nosed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Federal authorities even accused Daggett of having ties to the mob. He was acquitted in one conspiracy case. Another is still pending in court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Right now, he's negotiating the ILA's new six-year contract with the shipping industry. He's pushing hard for higher wages. And he has said very plainly, including in this recent video for the ILA, that if the union's demands aren't met, he'll make sure it hurts the economy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When my men hit the streets from Maine to Texas, every single port will lock down. You know what's going to happen? I'll tell you. First week, be all over the news every night, boom, boom. Second week, guys who sell cars can't sell cars because the cars ain't coming in off the ships. They get laid off. Third week, malls start closing down.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We reached out to Politico reporter Rye Rivard, who's been following the contract negotiation talks.
--:-- Rye Rivard: I think that's a little too severe, but there would certainly be impacts, billions of dollars a day of impacts to commerce and the supply chain, depending on sort of what estimate you're looking at.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Short term, Rivard told us that it would be somewhat disruptive to the economy. But a long-term strike, you're talking about a significant portion of the nation's cargo, somewhere near half, that's coming and going.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yesterday, the union reaffirmed its intentions to strike tomorrow. The White House has urged both sides to negotiate. President Biden could intervene by invoking what's called the Taft-Hartley Act to effectively prevent a strike. He has said that he won't.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The political position that the president would be put in is a very difficult one. He doesn't want to offend unions, which are a big part of the Democratic coalition, particularly his coalition. But Vice President Harris is running for election, trying to paint a sunny view of the economy, which we know some people are not buying and could be a major issue.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So pitting unions a base of the Democratic Party versus a problem for the supply chain is just really a nightmare scenario probably for any president particularly for a Democratic president in a very close election
--:-- Shamita Basu: If dock workers end up walking off the job, it would be the first strike of its kind for the ILA since 1977.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the two-plus years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, nearly half of the states in the U.S. have banned or heavily restricted abortion. And while most of these state-level laws include exceptions for medical emergencies, in some cases, doctors have turned away patients with severe and sometimes life-threatening pregnancy complications.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's what happened to Kelsey Norris de la Cruz, a 25-year-old in Texas. She knew enough about the laws to know that under the laws, you still could treat a woman in a medical emergency. But still, they turned her away.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Caroline Kitchener, a reporter for The Washington Post covering abortion, told us Norris de la Cruz's story.
--:-- Caroline Kitchener: In early January, when she found out she was pregnant, she and her boyfriend were thrilled. But then they received a devastating diagnosis. Norris de la Cruz likely had an ectopic pregnancy. This is when an embryo implants and grows outside of the uterus, making the pregnancy non-viable. It's extremely dangerous, and if not immediately treated, it can be deadly.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Although Texas prohibits abortion under almost all circumstances, the law explicitly allows doctors to treat ectopic pregnancies. But doctors at a hospital in the Dallas-Fort Worth area refused to treat Norris de la Cruz, saying there was a chance the pregnancy was still viable.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Doctors told her to go home and wait. So she calls her best friend when she leaves the hospital and her best friend is obviously also outraged and she says, you know what? I have an appointment with my OBGYN today. I'm going to ask them about this. And she does. And the doctors say, bring your friend in today. Tell your friend to come today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When she went in to see the OBGYN, he recommended surgery as soon as possible. Three hours later, the doctor performed that surgery and Norris de la Cruz survived. But it was a close call. The pregnancy had already started to rupture. And once that happens, women die that way. It can be very quick. It's extremely dangerous.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And so she is OK. And, you know, it worked out. She was able to get the treatment that she needed. But you just have to wonder what would have happened if her friend hadn't had that appointment and she hadn't been able to get care from somebody else.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Post asked four OBGYNs to review Norris de la Cruz's medical records with her permission. All of them said the hospital should have offered emergency care. And they told Kitchener they suspect Texas's abortion ban and the potential legal repercussions for physicians made doctors at the hospital too afraid to treat her.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A doctor in Texas convicted of providing an illegal abortion can face up to 99 years in prison a fine and lose their medical license
--:-- Shamita Basu: When Kitchener asked the hospital for their comment on this case a representative said they believed they provided quote appropriate care to Norris de la Cruz.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can hear more of Kitchener's reporting on how abortion bans are impacting women's lives and the role that this issue is playing in the 2024 election on our latest episode of Apple News In Conversation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the Apple News app right now, stick around after today's show. It'll be queued up to play for you next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app. Israel has carried out a series of strikes in Lebanon over the past few days.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Early this morning, an apparent Israeli strike hit a residential apartment building in central Beirut. Also this morning, Hamas confirmed one of its leaders was killed in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp in Lebanon.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This all comes after Israeli strikes have killed seven senior Hezbollah leaders in the past 10 days or so, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrullah on Friday.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That death left officials in the Biden administration feeling blindsided, according to reporting from NBC News.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a further indication, they say, of how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is dictating the terms of a broadening conflict in the Middle East, leaving the Biden White House on the sidelines and further stymieing ceasefire talks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the U.S., a recent report from PEN America, a free speech advocacy group, found that public school book bans had almost tripled during the 2023 to 2024 academic year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The group found that there were over 10,000 books banned during the year. The increase, they say, is due to state laws that have made it easier to remove books from school shelves.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, SNL kicked off its 50th season over the weekend, answering the question of who will play the most significant political figures of this presidential election.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Maya Rudolph returned to play Vice President Kamala Harris, with Jim Gaffigan taking the stage as Tim Walls.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I haven't been this excited since I got a 10 percent rebate on a leaf blower from Menards. What can I say? I got that BDE. Big dad energy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some other old familiar faces. Dana Carvey played President Biden. Andy Samberg was second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And from the current cast, Bone Yang played J.D. Vance. And James Austin Johnson returned as former President Donald Trump.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, the rest of my conversation with Caroline Kitchener about abortion in America is coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News in conversation to find that episode.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow. Thank you.
