--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, January 23rd. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, 50 years after Roe v. Wade, a look inside the new battle over abortion rights. The subtle and not-so-subtle tensions among the Supreme Court justices and the Super Bowl of surfing is finally back after seven years. But first, we'll catch up on three big headlines from this weekend.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: The biggest in California. Authorities say that the gunman who killed 10 people and injured another 10 at a ballroom in Monterey Park on Saturday night is dead. It happened at a celebration for the Lunar New Year in the majority Asian-American community. The shooter was a 72-year-old man of Asian descent. He shot himself as police surrounded the white van he was hiding in yesterday. People who knew him told CNN he was once a regular at the ballroom, which was popular with seniors. The sheriff says his motive is not clear.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This had the potential to be more violent. About 20 minutes after opening fire, the gunman went to another ballroom nearby. The sheriff says people there disarmed him before he could kill more people, and he ran away. Congresswoman Judy Chu praised community members for their bravery.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This community is resilient. And what I saw today and what I see at this moment is indeed we are resilient and we are stronger together. Together.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is America's deadliest mass shooting since the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last year. Turning now to Washington news, the FBI found six more items with classified material at President Biden's home in Delaware. They were from his time as vice president and in the Senate. Biden's legal team gave the Justice Department full access to the site.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And in sports, NFL playoffs were down to four teams. On Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles will play the San Francisco 49ers, and the Kansas City Chiefs play the Cincinnati Bengals. The winners will face off in the Super Bowl. The Bengals beat the Buffalo Bills to advance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: During the game, the home crowd rose to its feet when the stadium announced that DeMar Hamlin was in the building. Here's how it sounded on CBS. What a scene. Oh. That's his sign. The Bills safety went into cardiac arrest in the Bills game in the regular season. He has since steadily recovered.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This weekend marked the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Activists on both sides of the abortion issue held major demonstrations. On Sunday, supporters of abortion rights held a women's march. This year, they marched in multiple locations to reflect that after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the fight for abortion rights is moving to state legislatures.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On Friday, opponents of abortion rights turned out in Washington, D.C. for their annual March for life. Should we still march? The March for Life started decades ago as a protest response to the original Roe v. Wade ruling. But this is the first time these activists have rallied since the Supreme Court overturned Roe.
--:-- Elaine Godfrey: I think the first question is, are they going to lose people? Will some people who are maybe less committed to the movement feel like, OK, job well done. Let's sit back and take a breath.
--:-- Elaine Godfrey: I think they're thinking, OK, what states can we make meaningful change in at this point? And what kind of change should we be working towards? So should we be passing laws about gestational limits, 15 weeks, six weeks? If, you know, it's when a heartbeat could be detected, for example, that's something that they disagree on.
--:-- Elaine Godfrey: Godfrey says the national anti-abortion movement didn't appear to be ready for the fall of Roe. National groups weren't on the same page with a model law for state lawmakers to adopt. So instead, we've seen states pass a patchwork of abortion restrictions, some with totally new language and some based on laws from the late 19th century.
--:-- Elaine Godfrey: And Roe's downfall is having a different effect in blue states. They're passing laws to protect abortion rights. I think there is, if not public acknowledgement, I know that there is private acknowledgement that by overturning Roe, by attempting to pass really strict, in many cases, abortion laws, other states have doubled down on their abortion rights.
--:-- Elaine Godfrey: As the pro-life movement achieves victory in states, a lot of energy will be on the other side. The court historic ruling changed a lot. But one thing is staying the same. Abortion remains one of the most polarizing issues in American politics.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's focus now on the Supreme Court itself, which will rule on other important issues this year. There are growing questions about what's happening inside the court, tensions among justices, and exactly how an early draft of the decision over turning Roe was leaked in advance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We recently learned that an extensive investigation by the court did not definitively ID the leaker, but it did apparently add to an atmosphere of distrust among justices, their clerks, and staffers. Stephen Mazie has covered the court for many years.
--:-- Stephen Mazie: We've had kind of a massive game of among us at the court, for those of you familiar with that game, right? There's an imposter afoot, and everyone is looking over their shoulder and not knowing who it might be. That's got to cause some disquiet in general, which may spill over into oral argument.
--:-- Stephen Mazie: Mazie has been sitting through those oral arguments for the last 10 years. And he says once you've logged that much time watching the bench, you notice things. Subtle things.
--:-- Stephen Mazie: He writes in The Atlantic about how the justices don't seem to be getting along as well as they used to. He says he's seeing signs of impatience and frustration, at times bordering on disrespect. Everything from body language to word choice tells a bigger story.
--:-- Stephen Mazie: There are eyebrows raised at each other. There are some comments that are made directly to the other justice, sometimes challenging their interpretation of the law or using them as an example, making a point about the law.
--:-- Stephen Mazie: When the court heard oral arguments involving affirmative action last fall, Justice Kagan said something that struck Maisie. After a lawyer argued that racial preferences were unconstitutional, Kagan asked if it was constitutional for judges to hire a team of racially diverse clerks.
--:-- Stephen Mazie: It was really a clear reference to Brett Kavanaugh, who has made it a real priority of his to hire a diverse array of clerks. So when she made this point, I think she was saying, you know, what is the court going to be courting if it eliminates all considerations of race that any governmental actor might choose to undertake.
--:-- Stephen Mazie: And when she made that simple, dramatic point, he looked at her with a look of surprise. His eyebrows were raised, his lips were pursed. It was an interesting moment.
--:-- Stephen Mazie: Maisie points out while collegiality among the justices might not change the outcome of the cases they consider, it does matter for those of us observing from the outside. It's somewhat reassuring to see the justices getting along well, laughing together, not sniping at each other.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One of the biggest surfing contests in the world is back for the first time in seven years. This competition is best known as the Eddie, named after Eddie Aikau, the first lifeguard to watch over Hawaii's North Shore. He's credited with saving more than 500 people in his career.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, the North Shore of Hawaii is famous for its giant, dangerous waves. This is the kind of stuff that surfers dream of. But the contest is only held when conditions are exactly right, which hasn't happened for years. Waves need to be at least 40 feet, but they could easily get up to 60 feet.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And it's hard to predict when it's going to happen. So when it's on, surfers around the world scramble to pack up their boards and get to Oahu. Surfers compete by invitation. It's one of the sport's highest honors.
--:-- Andrea Moeller: Oh, man, it gave me goosebumps just to be the first woman to surf a wave out there. I think it just really brings back all the efforts that us women surfers put out there to be recognized, to prove that it's possible, that we're athletes. We want to do this. We have the passion for big wave surfing, just like the guys do.
--:-- Andrea Moeller: And to all the girls out there, just never give up. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app, including some pictures of those giant waves. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around. We've got a narrated article coming up next from Bloomberg Businessweek.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It goes deep inside the dangerous smuggling rings that bring migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. That's playing next, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
