--:-- Mark Garrison: Good morning. It's Monday, June 24th. I'm Mark Garrison in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Mark Garrison: On today's show, how a generational shift might be happening in this presidential election, military families trapped in healthcare deserts, and Sha'Carri Richardson sprints her way into the Paris Olympics. But first, let's take a brief look at some other stories in the news.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In southern Russia, at least 15 people are reportedly dead after gunmen attacked churches, a synagogue, and a police facility. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Russian authorities are investigating the shootings as terrorist attacks.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now to the war in Gaza, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the current intense phase of the war will soon come to an end. He also says that the battle against Hamas is not over, and Israel's military will keep operating in Gaza, and that troops could be shifted to Israel's border with Lebanon, where tension between Israel and Hezbollah is high.
--:-- Mark Garrison: This comes as Israel's military says Netanyahu's goal of defeating Hamas is not achievable. Israel's defense minister is currently in the U.S. for high-level meetings on the war. At the same time, Israel is investigating an incident where a wounded Palestinian man was strapped to the hood of a military vehicle.
--:-- Mark Garrison: This happened during a raid in the occupied West Bank, and video of the incident circulated on social media. A U.N. official accused troops of using the man as a human shield. Israel says the footage appears to show conduct that doesn't match its military's values.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And in sports, Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals is tonight. And for the Edmonton Oilers, it's a rare comeback story. They were down 3-0 in the series against the Florida Panthers. Then the Oilers won three in a row, forcing this Game 7.
--:-- Mark Garrison: That's only happened twice before in AHL history. The last time was in 1945. After Game 6, Oiler Leon Dreisaitl talked about how the team is getting ready to make the most of their shot.
--:-- Leon Dreisaitl: I'm just really proud of the way we gave ourselves a chance. That's what it's all about. But by no means is this going to be an easy walk in the park now. This is going to be the hardest game of the series. We know that. We're aware of that.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But that being said, obviously really, really proud to give ourselves a chance. You can follow coverage of the series in the Apple News app.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In modern politics, the conventional wisdom goes that Republicans tend to attract older voters and Democrats tend to attract younger ones. But this year, some polls show former President Trump doing better than previous Republicans with younger voters, and President Biden doing better with older voters than past Democrats.
--:-- Mark Garrison: We don't know if that be true in November but it's enough to take a closer look at what might be going on here. So we called up Apple News editor Gideon Resnick to explain starting with what recent polling can tell us about how older voters feel about their options right now.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: So there are a couple of numbers to highlight here. A recent New York Times-Siena poll found that Biden was leading Trump by about nine points among voters aged 65 and older. A Quinnipiac poll put that margin for Biden at about 12 points.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: So all of that is pretty significant, especially for a Democratic candidate. That's because historically, since 2000, Republicans have won this demographic in presidential elections every time. So even some small early signs that this group might be moving is really, really interesting.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Yeah. So what's going on here? Why the shift?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: I think people are trying to answer that exact question. And there's some good reporting from CNN and The Wall Street Journal about how Democrats are effectively organizing on the ground in crucial swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan to really specifically attract these voters.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: We're talking about a Biden campaign that's worked on bingo and pickleball oriented events in certain places to draw in this group, you know, specifically looking to these older voters. In some cases, they're not shying away from his old age. If anything, they're actually really leaning into it.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: For example, First Lady Jill Biden recently did an event in Wisconsin where she talked about Biden's age as a positive thing, showing how, in her view, it was a sign of experience. And at least according to some of these early polls, all of this strategy might be working for them.
--:-- Mark Garrison: So it's like they're using his age as an asset with this group.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Mm-hmm. What are some of the issues that these voters age 65 and older are talking about? You hear voters talking about the importance of personal character in the president that they elect, about the importance of preserving our democracy.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: They seem to feel that Democrats are doing a better job messaging, that they'll protect Social Security and Medicare, lowering prescription drug costs and more. Also, these voters consume more traditional media via newspapers and TV where a lot of these issues are discussed.
--:-- Mark Garrison: So that's one end of the voting spectrum. How about younger voters? What are they saying about the candidates?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Here is where things get interesting. So those same two national polls we talked about a minute ago showed Biden effectively tied with Trump among voters aged 18 to 34.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Now, we only need to look back to 2020 to see how strange that is. Biden won that demographic by about 24 points in the last presidential election. And historically, no Republican has won young voters since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: That was sort of a landslide election overall. One example of what might be going on here was highlighted by the Washington Post. They did some really interesting reporting about a group called Gen Z for Change.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: So four years ago, this group actually called themselves TikTok for Biden. It's a group of hundreds of top content creators across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch. And they were extremely active in 2020, posting content to convince their followers to vote for Biden.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: This year though, so far they haven't endorsed him. There also other polling showing Biden with a double-digit lead over Trump among voters under 30.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But for the younger voters who are skeptical about Biden, what are their concerns?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Well, they talk about a lot of issues that they feel the president is just not in line with them about, namely his position on the war in Gaza.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: You know, we've seen young people tend to feel much more aligned with the Palestinian cause. That was highlighted, of course, by a lot of campus protests over the course of this year, also the climate crisis, and then something about the very platform that they might be posting on.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: I'm talking about the TikTok ban, which is something that Biden supports. Those sentiments are backed up by a morning consult poll, which found that two-thirds of Gen Z voters say Biden's support of a TikTok ban makes them less likely to want to vote for him in November.
--:-- Mark Garrison: This group of voters is concerned about issues that you hear coming up with a lot of voters overall. That's inflation, that's housing costs, and other economic issues.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And one important thing to take away from that was highlighted in this recent piece in The Atlantic, which made the point that younger people are less economically stable than older people.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And so this inflation over the last few years has hit them particularly hard. Also, some of the youngest potential voters in this election don't actually have a strong grasp on what Trump was like as a president.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And who can blame them? The youngest eligible voters today were just 10 when Trump was first elected.
--:-- Mark Garrison: So what can we take away from all this?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Well, it's hard to say. So some smart people have talked about these trends and written about it and said, look, there could be some bigger realignment at work here.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: There could also be some sort of polling weirdness. People have also pointed out that younger voters are harder to reach in conducting a lot of these surveys.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But the reason that people are paying attention to this is that if some of these numbers are true or close to true in results, it would really represent something new and interesting going on.
--:-- Mark Garrison: We'll have to see. Thank you so much, Gideon.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Thank you.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now to an ongoing investigation into military healthcare. NPR finds half of U.S. bases are in a federally designated health care desert.
--:-- Mark Garrison: These are places where primary care, maternal care, or mental health care are hard to find. And this impacts a significant portion of troops in their families, roughly one in three.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Since members of the military often don't have a say in where they're stationed, their whole family can suffer if they're assigned to a base in a health care desert.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And correspondent Quill Lawrence told NPR this problem jeopardizes the entire military.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: They need troops to stay healthy in order to fight conflicts, and they also need enough doctors and nurses and medics in case there is a war.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: But we're also in the middle of a recruitment slump. And if you plan on having a family, it might really discourage you from joining or staying in the military if you're going to be ordered to live in a health care desert.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Some bases do have hospitals and clinics on site, but they're expensive to run.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And over the last decade or so the Department of Defense cut down the number of facilities in part to lower costs.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But an internal Pentagon memo that we obtained this year has acknowledged that the downsizing has gone too far.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The Pentagon knows it needs to reverse course and hire more clinicians on base, recruit more doctors and nurses.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But that's going to take time. As options on military bases shrunk, the Pentagon pushed military families to get care off base through the civilian health care system.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But the military health plan, TRICARE, pays low rates to those providers. So a lot of them won't accept it.
--:-- Mark Garrison: That's what happened to Samantha Davidson, who lives at Fort Drum near the Canadian border.
--:-- Samantha Davidson: They think that what I have is autoimmune and the rheumatologist here will not take TRICARE, which would leave me having to drive to Buffalo or Utica or somewhere that's, you know, way over two hours away for treatment, which is just, it's not realistic.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The Pentagon says it tries to offer telehealth or travel funding to help close the gaps.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And Lawrence told NPR about other solutions being explored.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: One thing is that Veterans Affairs, VA facilities, have been combining with military facilities in some places.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: And some civilian-military collaborations might be a solution.
--:-- Mark Garrison: We're going to be reporting on those coming up next.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Finally, Sha'Carri Richardson is not just back, she's better. In fact, she's the fastest woman in the world right now.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now Sha'Carri stops to wind up, but she goes past Jefferson. Sha'Carri Richardson, 1070!
--:-- Mark Garrison: That was Richardson winning her spot in the Paris Olympics over the weekend at the U.S. Trials.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Her 100-meter time was the fastest recorded in the world this season.
--:-- Mark Garrison: You might remember three years ago, she won this same race in the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But after testing positive for THC, Richardson was not allowed to compete.
--:-- Mark Garrison: She's spoken about how at the time she was dealing with mental health issues. Her mother died just before those trials.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And in the years since, Richardson's been working hard on and off the track, with the goal of not only earning her way to the Paris Olympics, but racing faster than ever before.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Her victory this weekend was a full circle moment.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And it was made even sweeter, with her training partners, Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry, earning their spots on Team USA too.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Here's what Richardson told NBC after the race.
--:-- Sha'Carri Richardson: I feel honored. I feel everything, every chapter I've been through in my life designed to prepare me for this moment.
--:-- Sha'Carri Richardson: To stand next to these amazing women that I'm standing here with, that I have the pleasure of training with. And it's a full-second moment, but I'm very appreciative.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And I cannot wait to God have her to represent.
--:-- Mark Garrison: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article from New York Magazine playing next.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Rebecca Traister speaks to several politically prominent Republican women. It's a look at the complicated and often contradictory role they play in a party dominated by Donald Trump.
--:-- Mark Garrison: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story, and we'll be back with the news tomorrow.
