--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, March 16th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, the U.S. gives TikTok an ultimatum, get sold or get banned. How AI is making phone scams more convincing and dangerous. And a March Madness preview. But first, people on all sides of the American abortion fight are watching for a ruling in a case that might temporarily take the abortion pill Mifepristone off the market.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Arguments were yesterday in Amarillo, Texas. A group of anti-abortion activists asked a federal judge for an injunction to block the pill for now while their full case is considered. They argue that the FDA approval of mifepristone in 2000 was wrong.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Justice Department and a company that makes the drug say that this lawsuit is meritless, that the drug has repeatedly been proven safe and effective.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's a lot of focus on the judge here, Matthew Kaczmarek. He's a Trump appointee who's expressed anti-abortion views in the past and worked for a conservative legal organization.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Legal analysts say the plaintiffs filed the suit in Texas with the hope that he would be sympathetic to their case.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Texas Tribune was in the courtroom yesterday and has the details.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Arguments largely didn't focus directly on abortion, but on legal questions of standing and procedure. Namely, do the plaintiffs have the right to bring a lawsuit asking to reopen the FDA's approval for mifepristone?
--:-- Shamita Basu: There were also arguments over whether approval of pills that can be easily mailed across the country threatened states' differing laws on abortion.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another issue was whether the FDA should have been allowed to approve the drug under the fast-track procedure it used two decades ago.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If the judge grants the injunction the anti-abortion plaintiffs want, it's not clear how much impact that could have on access to mifepristone nationally.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And any ruling here is likely to be appealed to a higher court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Biden administration is threatening to ban TikTok in America if the company Chinese owners don't sell their stakes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal broke the story of this latest twist in talks between TikTok and the U.S. government.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Pushing for a sale is a big shift in administration policy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: TikTok has been negotiating with U.S. regulators for years about how to keep user data safe.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are concerns that the company could share private data from American users with the Chinese government, along with other questions about how much influence Beijing could exert over the company.
--:-- Shamita Basu: TikTok has repeatedly said that American data is safe.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It has plans to spend $1.5 billion on a program to protect data of U.S. users.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the company says that changing ownership won't make it more secure.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We have sort of been through this before.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In 2020, the Trump administration tried to force a sale of TikTok.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There were even some buyers lined up, Oracle and Walmart.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But TikTok fought that in court and the deal fell apart.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There is more legal wrangling going on behind the scenes, but some of this will play out on a big public stage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As we've mentioned before, TikTok's CEO will testify in Congress next week.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As AI technology gets more sophisticated, certain types of scams are too.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Washington Post tech reporter Pranchu Verma told us about this trend.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: It starts with a phone call from someone claiming to be a lawyer.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: And that lawyer will say, hey, your son or daughter is in jail.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: They've gotten into an accident or they've done something wrong.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: They need cash now.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: And here's where this particular scam starts to get really creepy and convincing.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: They put somebody on the phone, quote unquote, that sounds exactly like the person that's their loved one, that son, daughter, grandson.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: And so that's enough to get you hooked in.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: In one case, a couple got duped by a call that sounded like their son.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: He said he was in trouble, he needed money, and they sent thousands of dollars.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: But it wasn't really him.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: It looks like the scammers cloned his voice using AI technology possibly from YouTube videos.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: Impersonation scams like these are on the rise.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: FTC data shows last year, thousands of people got scammed over the phone by someone claiming to be a friend or family member.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: We asked Verma to explain how scammers use AI to create a copy of someone's voice.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: Theoretically, if this podcast posts and your voice is on there for a minute, my voice is on there for a minute, somebody could take our voices and then the AI software analyzes what makes your voice unique, and then it can recreate and mimic a clone voice.
--:-- Pranchu Verma: From there, a scammer could make that AI voice say whatever they type.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Law enforcement says tracking these scammers down is tough because they could be calling from anywhere in the world.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The schemes may be getting more high-tech, but same old safety tips still apply.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Be wary of anyone who is calling and asking for cash or gift cards.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if someone who sounds like a loved one calls asking for money, maybe put them on hold and try calling them separately to see if it's actually them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Because the incoming number that you see on your phone can be faked too.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The next few days are unlike any other on the college basketball calendar.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Practically wall-to-wall games as the first rounds of the men's and women's NCAA tournaments get started.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Apple News sports editor Shaker Saman is here to talk about it.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Hey, how's it going?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Good. So let's talk about the teams to beat, starting with the men's side.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Who is rising to the top?
--:-- Shaker Saman: There's not really that sort of standout team this year.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Kansas, for most of the year, looked like they had a really good shot of repeating as national champions.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They do.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Alabama is the overall top seed.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Houston looks like they've got the best squad they've had since Faisal Amajama was running through the tournament in the 80s.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And then you've got a few teams a little lower.
--:-- Shaker Saman: You know, Arizona looks frisky.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Purdue with their 7'4 behemoth, Zach Eadie.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And then Duke, a team that is pretty common around this time of year to make some waves.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They started the season really slowly, but have put it together and look like their cabal of freshmen could really take a bite out of March Madness.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And how about the women tournament?
--:-- Shaker Saman: You know I a sucker for superstars Iowa Caitlin Clark South Carolina Aaliyah Boston Sanford Cameron Brink all three players who are just so fun to watch and whose teams have a really strong chance of cutting down the nets this year.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And what about any Cinderella picks?
--:-- Shaker Saman: Are there any matchups that you're watching that could really bust some brackets out there?
--:-- Shaker Saman: Absolutely.
--:-- Shaker Saman: You know, I am really zeroing in on the men's side on Utah State, who are 18th ranked team in the country, but are somehow only a 10 seed in the tournament.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They're playing Missouri in the first round.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Also, for as much as I like hyping up the Duke men's team, Oral Roberts, who they'll play in the first round, a 12 seed, have a 7'5 center, Connor Vanover, who could really frustrate Duke on the interior and maybe even take out Tennessee in the second round.
--:-- Shaker Saman: On the women's side, you know, Princeton feels like a really popular candidate as a Cinderella pick here.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They're on a 15-game win streak.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They won the Ivy League tournament.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They're a number 10 seed.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They could take out NC State in the first round.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, shocker, aside from having all the latest updates on the games in the Apple News app, we also have something special there today from Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning, right?
--:-- Shaker Saman: Yeah, we spoke to Zoe, an NBA legend.
--:-- Shaker Saman: You might remember him from his days with the Miami Heat, or you might remember him, if you're a college basketball fan, with his time at Georgetown, where in his very first March Madness game in 1989.
--:-- Shaker Saman: He saved the Georgetown Hoyas from a historic defeat against the number 16 seed Princeton in the first round.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Morning blocked what would have been Princeton's game winning shot and kept their March Madness dreams alive.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And really more than anyone else can speak to what it's like to play in this high pressure, win or go home environment.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Every possession has to be executed with perfection because I know that if I'm not put forth to Everett, then I'm going home.
--:-- Shaker Saman: You know, so this is the moment that you've been waiting for, but now it's time for you to step up.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We've got more from Alonzo Mourning.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He wrote a letter to his 12-year-old self.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's published in the Players' Tribune.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can listen to him read it himself.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening to us in the Apple News app now, that's queued up to play next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So enjoy that listen, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
