--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Tuesday, November 30th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In May of this year, Ian Urbina was leading a group of journalists on a reporting trip in Libya while he was at his hotel in Tripoli. I heard a knock on my door and a group of 12 armed men pushed me back, yelled at me to get on the floor, gun muzzle to my forehead. The armed men broke Urbina's ribs, causing kidney damage. He also says they beat several of his colleagues. Then they took the journalists to a secret prison. We were held for about seven days in isolation cells, interrogated very intensely.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Urbina runs the Outlaw Ocean Project. It's a nonprofit journalism organization covering environmental and human rights concerns at sea. He and his team were in Libya reporting on a shadow system stopping migrants from making it to Europe. Because you see, when migrants from the Middle East or sub-Saharan Africa want to get to Europe, they often turn to traffickers in Libya. These smugglers demand large payments, and it's a dangerous journey, often in overcrowded, unsafe boats across the Mediterranean to Italy. Many people don't survive, but they're still willing to try. They're fleeing war, climate change, and poverty in large numbers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The EU decided they had enough of this and wanted to block migrants from reaching European shores, and so has created a sort of proxy force. This is a multi-billion dollar effort largely funded by the EU generally and spearheaded by Italy. As Urbina explains, for the past several years, the European Union has been equipping and training the Libyan Coast Guard to patrol the Mediterranean. And bear this in mind, this isn't like the U.S. Coast Guard. The United Nations accused it of having links to militias. The EU supplied this group with communications equipment and speedboats And those boats patrol the Mediterranean get intel from the sky and find the migrants capture them bring them back and put them in this what amounts to a gulag a pretty brutal place
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You know, 12 to 15 prisons where tens of thousands of migrants are at any given moment held captive, no access to lawyer and pretty brutal human rights conditions. Urbina told us just how bad the conditions are for migrants in these detention centers. One center has just one toilet for every hundred people. There isn't enough space for everyone to sleep, so they take turns on thin floor pads. And twice a day, these people are marched into a courtyard, but they're forbidden from looking up at the sky or talking. Food is served in these communal bowls on the ground.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Urbina spoke to detainees who told him guards beat people, sometimes worse. I can't emphasize just how brutal and illegal and inhumane the situation is on the ground in Libya for migrants and quite specifically in the detention grid. Murder, rape, extortion, forced labor are routine. The EU's Emergency Trust Fund for Africa told Urbina conditions the migrants are being held in are unacceptable. It says it sends money to provide support to migrants and doesn't directly fund detention sites. But one member of the European Parliament told Urbina, if it weren't for the EU financing the Libyan Coast Guard, we wouldn't see migrants being intercepted and detained in these centers.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You're going to want to read Urbina's reporting in the Apple News app because it provides such a unique window into this world. He ultimately got out of Libya, but knows many migrants are not so lucky.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Supreme Court hears oral arguments tomorrow in a major abortion case. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the justices will consider a Mississippi ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, well before viability. That's challenging a core concept underpinning abortion laws since Roe v. Wade Viability Whether a fetus can survive outside the womb
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But did you know this whole standard of viability It didn't come from the lawyers arguing Roe v Wade It came from a person you probably never heard of before The Washington Post brings us the story of Larry Hammond, who is an overlooked, almost accidental player in our nation's history of abortion rights. He was hired as a clerk to Justice Hugo Black in 1971. Black died the same year, but the incoming Justice Lewis Powell, he decided to keep Hammond on. And that's how Hammond got the chance to leave his mark on history.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A draft of the court's decision initially said states could not outlaw abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Now, Hammond, the law clerk, didn't think that would be enough time for a woman to make such a consequential decision. He said if the court is going to draw a line, it should be 24 weeks when a fetus is viable. His boss was convinced and it went into the opinion. Just like that, women had 12 more weeks to make their choice. And viability became a key issue that would shape the abortion debate for decades.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Hammond died last year, but his impact lives on. And the concept that he quietly placed in illegal history, it's going to be at the very center of arguments tomorrow.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It is a good time for those rare athletes who can throw nasty curveballs and red-hot fastballs. Major League Baseball starting pitchers are signing huge new contracts. Jose Barrios will stay with the Toronto Blue Jays in a $131 million deal over seven seasons. And in a deal that blows the previous record out of the water, veteran starter Max Scherzer will reportedly join the Mets on a three-year, $130 million contract. This is pretty unexpected.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Wall Street Journal explains why. For one, numbers show starting pitchers don't work as hard as they used to. They average fewer than four innings a game during the playoffs. That's a record low. More and more, teams rely on the guys in the bullpen, the relief pitchers who step in for the starters. Another reason why some baseball watchers are surprised that all this money is flying around is the league is going through major labor trouble The current deal between owners and players expires this week and the sides are far apart at the negotiating table so it looks like management is going to lock out players If that happens, it would be the first MLB work stoppage since 1994, when a player strike canceled the World Series.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Any renegotiated agreement between players and owners could change the landscape for salaries, so clubs might have wanted to hold off on striking expensive new deals, but that's not what's going on. The whole league could be about to go on ice, but the market for starting pitchers, it's on fire.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Barbados has cut its last remaining ties to the British monarchy. At midnight, a ceremony removed Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. This moment comes nearly four centuries after an expedition for King James I landed on the Caribbean island. CNN reports on how Prince Charles was there as the royal standard flag was lowered for the final time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: From the darkest days of our past and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our history, the people of this island forged their path with extraordinary fortitude. This ceremony came 55 years to the day after Barbados declared independence from Britain. It was a historical moment that also looked into the future, celebrating people from Barbados who are leaders in global politics and culture. Prime Minister Mia Motley, she honored Rihanna. Robin Rihanna Fenty, May you continue to shine like a diamond and bring honor to your nation.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: This is a rare event. The last place to remove the Queen as its head of state was Mauritius, an island off the coast of East Africa, in 1992.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News Plus partners. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
