--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Friday, April 2nd. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News Today. If you're listening to Apple News Today for the first time, welcome.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Every morning on this show, we bring you a quick news digest in just a few minutes to help you get your day started. It's a mix of the most pressing news stories of the day and excellent explanatory journalism that really goes beyond the headlines.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You can find us every morning in the Today feed in the Apple News app or at the top of the audio tab. We're in Apple Podcasts too.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: It's been an emotional and traumatic week in the trial of Derek Chauvin. He's the former Minneapolis police officer who's accused of murdering George Floyd. This week, the prosecution is calling eyewitnesses.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: A young woman named Darnella testified early in the week. They only used her first name because she was a minor at the time. She took the video of Floyd's final moments alive.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: I heard George Floyd saying, I can't breathe. Please get off of me. I can't breathe. He cried for his mom. he was in pain. It seemed like he knew. It seemed like he knew it was over for him.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: She told the jury she now connects the pain she felt on that day to her own life. When I look at George Floyd, I look at my dad. I look at my brothers. I look at my cousins, my uncles because they are all black I have black I have a black father I have a black brother I have black friends and I look at that and I look at how that could have been one of them it's been nights I stayed up apologizing and and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: But it's like, it not what I should have done It what he should have done That lingering guilt it a feeling that was expressed by many of the witnesses who were called on this week including the clerk at the store that Floyd visited before his death.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: He wondered if he could have handled the dispute over potentially counterfeit money differently. There's also Charles McMillian, an eyewitness who said he wished he could have done more to help. He became so emotional during his testimony, the court had to take a short break.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: I feel helpless. I don't have a mama either. I understand him.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Another bystander, Donald Williams, saw Floyd struggling to breathe as he died. The more that the knee was blockaded on his neck and shimmies were going on, The more you've seen Floyd fade away, slowly fade away, and like the fish in the bag, you've seen his eyes slowly pale out and again slowly roll to the back of his eyes.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: After the ambulance took Floyd away, Williams dialed 911. Because I believe I witnessed a murder. And so you felt the need to call the police? Yeah, I felt the need to call the police on the police.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: One of the most striking moments came when Chauvin's former supervisor, David Pluger, took the stand. He was asked, when should Chauvin have taken his knee off of Floyd's neck?
--:-- Shemitah Basu: When Mr. Floyd was no longer offering up any resistance to the officers, they could have ended their restraint. And that was after he was handcuffed and on the ground and no longer resisting? Correct.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: In cross-examining bystanders, the defense has been trying to make a few arguments. One is some of these bystanders may not be reliable eyewitnesses, might not have had a good view of what was going on.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Another defense argument is the crowd was interfering with Chauvin's ability to perform his police duties. Genevieve Hansen is an off-duty firefighter who was on the scene.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: She pushed back against this argument that the crowd was at fault. Have you ever had a citizen start to yell at you while you're fighting a fire? No.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Do you think it would make your job fighting the fire harder if someone started yelling at you and telling you that you were doing it wrong? I'm very confident in the training that I've been given.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So I would not be concerned about somebody that was not trained to the extent I have been And I would continue to fight the fire the way I would
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Yesterday, George Floyd's girlfriend, Courtney Ross, took the stand. She choked up as she spoke about their relationship. It was fun. It was an adventure always with him.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Ross also acknowledged she and Floyd both struggled with opioid addiction. It's a classic story of how many people get addicted to opioids. We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck and his was in his back.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: We both had prescriptions. Chauvin's defense attorney zeroed in on this. He's expected to argue drugs found in Floyd's system and his heart condition contributed to his death.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Today and into next week, the prosecution will continue to build their case. Then Chauvin's attorneys will mount his defense, all as the world watches a trial at the center of a storm of urgent questions about race, policing and justice in America.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: We're watching a breaking news story this morning. Dozens of people were killed in a train derailment in Taiwan. The train apparently hit a truck that slid onto the rails.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Hundreds of people were on board and many of them were injured. You can follow the latest developments on the Apple News app.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Now to U.S. politics, where corporate America is speaking out against a wave of new voting laws that critics say could disenfranchise voters, specifically people of color.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Coca-Cola, Delta, Google, and Apple are among the prominent companies that have made statements condemning moves that would make it harder to vote.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Georgia's new law is the focus. If you vote there, you'll have to show extra ID to vote by mail. And if you're waiting in line to vote in person, no matter how long you're there for, third-party groups are now banned from giving you water or snacks to encourage you to keep waiting.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Wall Street Journal has the details about an open letter that was signed by a group of more than 70 black executives criticizing these new voting laws.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: And they're not only taking aim at Georgia. Here one of the people who signed that letter former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault on CNBC We asking corporate America to publicly and directly oppose any discriminatory legislation and all measures designed to limit America ability to vote
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: In a memo to employees, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the Georgia legislation does not match Delta's values.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Some Georgia Republican lawmakers fired back. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting the state legislature voted to eliminate a tax break on jet fuel.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The bill was not signed into law, but it hints at just how heated this fight could get as corporate America takes a side in the voting rights debate.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Have you ever had a pet run away and then have them show up at your door weeks or even months later? Or think about how it's possible that salmon swim upstream from the ocean.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Or how whales migrate thousands of miles every year and somehow never seem to get lost. I don't have a pet, but I am a GPS head and use navigation to go everywhere. which is why I'm so fascinated by this story in The New Yorker.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: It's written by Katherine Schultz. She describes how animals of all shapes and sizes perform pretty incredible navigation feats. Homing pigeons find their way back to their lofts from more than a thousand miles away.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Rock lobsters migrate as a group in a long line antenna to tail through strong currents and jagged ocean floor. So how do they do it? Some animals rely on landmarks, but then there's others that just somehow know where to go.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: And the theory is some animals have what's called a map sense, an innate awareness of where they are and where they're headed. Schultz writes, understanding animal navigation is important because as urbanization, roadways, among other things, obstruct the natural world, we can use this knowledge to identify ways to make sure animals keep getting where they need to go.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're there, check out some of our audio stories. We'll talk with you again on Monday.
