--:-- Shamita Basu: Hey there, it's Shamita here. I've got a quick request for you. If Apple News Today is an essential part of your morning routine, follow the show in Apple Podcasts. And if you have another 30 seconds, leave us a rating and a review too. It helps other people find our show and it helps us know what you like about it. Thanks.
--:-- [Good morning music fades out]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, November 1st. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, how America's divisions will remain and transform after Election Day. Election officials in Arizona are preparing for national attention and legal battles. And why daylight saving time comes after Halloween. But first, one of the biggest issues this election is reproductive rights and abortion access. And increasingly, we are hearing more stories about the dangers women face when they don't get the care they need in time.
--:-- [Soft music continues]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Over the past few months, ProPublica has been telling some of these stories. This week, we learned about a woman in Texas, Joseli Barnica. She was pregnant with her second child in 2021. This was before Roe v. Wade was overturned, but that year Texas banned abortions after six weeks. Joseli began to miscarry at 17 weeks, but the hospital wouldn't intervene because of the new state law.
--:-- Cassandra Jaramillo: She goes to the hospital hoping to get the help that she desperately needed and was made to wait 40 hours before she ended up spontaneously miscarrying her child.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's Cassandra Jaramillo, who reported this story for ProPublica. And what her husband shared with us that he learned from her was that when she first shows up to the hospital, they tell her that there's nothing that they can do, that it would be illegal to intervene, because her fetus, although she was going to lose that pregnancy, still had a heartbeat.
--:-- Cassandra Jaramillo: Three days later, Joseli died of an infection. This woman wanted her pregnancy. She did not want an abortion. However, the abortion ban in Texas is written in such a way that puts miscarriages in a gray area.
--:-- Shamita Basu: ProPublica had more than a dozen doctors review her medical records, and they all say Giosely's death could have been prevented. Experts Jaramillo spoke with say the hospital should have opted to speed up the delivery or perform an abortion to prevent complications.
--:-- Cassandra Jaramillo: Now, Joseli's husband is a single father raising their four-year-old on his own. And it wasn't until ProPublica reported this story that the husband fully understood what had happened to his wife.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Joseli's husband, he always felt like something had gone terribly wrong, but he did not understand the landscape of laws that were changing in that time or what was the standard of care that his wife should have received.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As I mentioned the law that was in place when all of this happened was from 2021 before Roe v Wade was overturned After that Supreme Court ruling, Texas went even further, banning abortions entirely and making it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion, except in some rare instances.
--:-- Senator Ted Cruz: Well, listen, I've read the story here and the facts of the case seem heartbreaking that this woman lost her life is truly a tragedy. The Texas law makes clear that that any procedure that is necessary to save the life of a mother can be done and should be done.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We don't know all the details of what happened here, but it is critical that we do everything necessary to save the lives of moms. And we grieve with the family at the tragedy that occurred here.
--:-- Shamita Basu: According to studies done in the aftermath of the 2021 law, Texas's abortion ban has been linked to a rise in both maternal and infant deaths.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In these last few days of voting, former President Trump and Vice President Harris are making their final pitches to the American people. But no matter who wins, our next president will have the difficult task of trying to unify a divided nation.
--:-- Peter Baker: I've never seen it. I've covered politics 38 years and studied elections for long before that. I cannot think of an election that was this close, this close to Election Day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times. He and Susan Glasser, a staff writer at The New Yorker, sat down with me for Apple News in conversation.
--:-- Susan Glasser: When you say that the other team, it's not that you disagree about what kind of health care system anymore to have in our country. We're now telling our own voters they are an existential threat to the nation. They will destroy America.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I think it's going to be very impossible when now we've had multiple elections in a row in which the other party is being described as an existential level event for the United States.
--:-- Susan Glasser: And as so many of us have personally experienced, this type of fear of the other side is literally tearing us, our families and our communities apart.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The polls show we don't even want to talk to people who are on the other side. You know, they used to do polls back in the early 60s. They asked, would it bother you if your son or daughter married somebody from the other party? And about 4% or 5% of the time said, yes, today it's closer to 50%.
--:-- Susan Glasser: I don't want no Republican at my Thanksgiving table. I don't want no Democrat coming for Christmas.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We don want to be communicating with the other and we not communicating with each other And therefore having this conversation means you on one side or the other It us versus them
--:-- Susan Glasser: When I asked Susan and Peter where they think this is all heading they said there no real bounce back from this We're now looking at, I think, a next wave of political realignment in this country of which, you know, Trump has profited from, capitalized from, and arguably accelerated.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And so we don't quite know exactly where that realignment will go, but it will continue.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can hear much more of my conversation with Peter and Susan in our latest episode of Apple News in Conversation. We talk about the stakes for all of us in this election and the inevitable transformation ahead.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the Apple News app right now, stick around after today's show. That episode is queued up to play for you next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to Arizona, one of the battleground states that will likely decide the election as it did in 2020. Then President Joe Biden narrowly won the state and former President Trump and his allies tried to delay the counting of votes and even the certification of results.
--:-- Sasha Hupka: It turned Arizona into an epicenter for misinformation about the election. As election denialism persists today, officials in the state have worked hard to prepare for this election in new ways.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sasha Hupka reports on election administration for the Arizona Republic, and she told us about the kinds of things election workers are doing to keep things running smoothly for voters.
--:-- Sasha Hupka: You can expect to see a very heavy security presence, and then also communication. You know, your larger counties are looking to give voters accurate information about voting in the counting process, But they're also looking to respond to misinformation online and sometimes from major political figures.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Part of that beefed up security includes new election buildings with cameras and bulletproof glass. Taxpayer money has gone toward hiring temporary staff to help process ballots smoothly.
--:-- Sasha Hupka: Now, there's another wrinkle this year. The ballot in certain Arizona counties has attracted a lot of attention and in some cases concern, like in Maricopa County, where roughly two-thirds of all Arizona voters live.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Their ballot is two pages long, with the presidential race, judge seats, and over a dozen ballot measures involved. Election officials have encouraged voters planning to cast their ballot in person to arrive at the polls well-researched and ready to vote.
--:-- Sasha Hupka: And on election night itself, Arizona officials are telling locals and people across the county watching the results to remember it usually takes the state a long time to count their votes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hupka said the expectation is that Maricopa County could take 10 to 13 days. We'll see initial results on election night from early and in-person voters. Part of the holdup is that all the early ballots that get dropped off at voting sites need to get processed and go through signature verification, which can take some time.
--:-- Sasha Hupka: The more last-minute ballots they get, the longer it takes Election officials told Hupka by providing additional transparency and staffing up overall they feeling confident in their preparations And that prepared both on a technical level just to administer the election but also from a security perspective.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You know, we're going to see national attention here, and they know that, and they tell me that they're ready for it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app. Atlanta rapper Young Thug accepted a plea deal yesterday and was sentenced to time served and 15 years probation in what's been the longest running criminal trial in the state of Georgia.
--:-- Young Thug: As to count 58, violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act, how do you plead? Guilty.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The rapper, whose legal name is Jeffrey Williams, was first charged in 2022, along with dozens of others. He was accused of leading a street gang responsible for murder and violent crime, which he denied.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The case drew criticism for its use of rap lyrics to prove the existence of the gang and its activities. He ultimately pleaded guilty to some gun and drug-related charges, but no contest to charges of conspiracy and participating in a gang.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Over the weekend get ready to change your clocks daylight saving time ends on sunday which means clocks fall back and we gain an hour of sleep and as usa today points out halloween actually helped inspire the timing of when we move our clocks back about 20 years ago daylight saving time ended on the last sunday in october but lawmakers thought with halloween it might be helpful to stretch daylight saving time to the first weekend of november that way it could be a little bit brighter out for a little bit longer for trick-or-treating.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Halloween is still the most dangerous night of the year for child pedestrians, studies show, but advocates say having an extra hour of daylight is safer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, this Sunday, the New York City Marathon is back, which I suppose if you're going to run a marathon, it might make a difference to have an extra hour of sleep.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Well, something else that's definitely propelling some racers to record times are so-called super shoes. Carbon plated running shoes like Nike's Vaporfly have gotten increasingly popular and they've led to increasingly faster marathon times in recent years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Athletic crunched the numbers and found 14 of the top times for men and the top five times for women have all come since 2016. The Vaporfly came on the scene in 2017.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, these types of shoes are not a silver bullet. They alone can't turn any old person into a world-class athlete, but that won't stop a lot of people from trying this weekend in New York.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're listening in the app right now, stick around for the rest of my conversation with Susan Glasser and Peter Baker. That episode of Apple News in Conversation is queued up to play for you next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Enjoy your weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday. Thank you.
