--:-- Shamita Basu: Hey there, before we jump into today's show, we got a request. We're working on our final episode of the year and we want you to be a part of it.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Yeah, we want to know who is your hero of the year. Someone who's just gone above and beyond and really made this year easier for you. It could be someone who's really well known, or it could be someone who's just a hero to you in your personal life.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Using your iPhone, record a voice memo. Tell us your name and where you're from and about the hero in your life and what he or she did to make this year a little bit better for you. And please, try to keep it to under two minutes. You can send it to us at AppleNewsToday at Apple.com. Again, that's AppleNewsToday, all one word, at Apple.com. And we might share your voicemail on the show. Thanks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, December 16th. I'm Shamita Basu. And I'm Duarte Giraldino. 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: Close to half a million people have already voted in the runoff elections for Georgia's U.S. senators. Two seats, two races. One is between Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock. And the other is between Republican incumbent David Perdue and Democrat John Ossoff.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Those races are so critical that the balance of power in the U.S. Senate now hinges on what happens in Georgia. So currently, this branch of government is made up of 50 Republican and 48 Democratic votes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If Democrats win both runoffs, the party will control the Senate because Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has the power to break any ties. But if Republicans win one or both of these Georgia races, the GOP will continue to control the U.S. Senate.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Which is why these races are getting so much national attention and why the leaders of both political parties are getting very involved. Yesterday, President-elect Joe Biden was in Georgia campaigning for the Democrats.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I need two senators from this state. I want to get something done. Not two senators who are just going to get in the way.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: One advisor to Biden tells Politico, don't underestimate his appeal in Georgia. He says Biden connects with moderates with independents and with Republicans who are turned off by Trump.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that why he says Biden was able to win in this very red state. But remember it was not a landslide. Biden won the state by only 12,000 votes. And in the Senate races, Republicans got more votes than their Democratic challengers in November. Just not enough votes to avoid a runoff.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The thinking here is Republican candidates would be in a better position to win Georgia's runoffs. That is, if there wasn't what Politico is calling a civil war erupting within the GOP.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump has been really critical of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Roffensperger. This week, Trump called Kemp a fool on Twitter. He demanded the governor change the state's results of the presidential election. Otherwise, Trump warned January 5th could, quote, be a bad day for the Republican senators.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But it's unclear what impact, if any. Trump's actions will have on turnout and the results. As for fundraising, Trump is sending out emails calling on his supporters to donate money to defend these seats in Georgia. But Politico says, just look at the fine print there.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Most of that money is going to Trump's new PAC. A small amount is going to the RNC. And none of that money is going to the Republican senators who are running for re-election.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: If you were wearing a piece of clothing made of cotton, here's something the label won't tell you. 20% of the world's cotton comes from an area of China where forced labor is a common practice.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This week, a report from the Center for Global Policy says there's evidence that strongly suggests China is forcing ethnic minority groups, including Uyghurs, to pick cotton in the Shenjiang region in northwest China.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Adrian Zenz wrote that report. He's an expert on Xinjiang, and he analyzed government documents and state media reports. He found that China is likely using coercive labor transfer programs to force hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to pick cotton.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here's Zenz talking to international news channel France 24. There was evidence of forced labor in manufacturing, including in textile and garment making. But now we are talking the raw material the picking of cotton 20 of the world cotton production is now directly implicated in forced ethnic minority labor.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: In my opinion this is a huge game changer. According to Zenz China treatment of Muslim minorities likely amounts to the largest incarceration of a religious minority group the world has seen since the Holocaust.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That treatment reportedly includes mass surveillance and the sterilization of women. By one estimate, up to 1.5 million people are in these camps, and some of them may have picked the cotton on your back.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The U.S. has sanctioned some Chinese cotton suppliers over human rights concerns, but this report says it should restrict imports on cotton from across the Xinjiang region. China has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Six years ago, the jihadist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from a boarding school in Nigeria. It sparked a global campaign called Bring Back Our Girls.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And yesterday, Boko Haram claimed responsibility for another attack, this time kidnapping more than 300 boys.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal explains what happened. The kidnapping happened late last week. Local officials believe Boko Haram abducted at least 333 boys from a boarding school in a rural part of northwest Nigeria.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: According to the Wall Street Journal, this could be one of the largest mass kidnappings of schoolchildren ever. And Boko Haram's leader says they did it as punishment for, quote, un-Islamic practices.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal spoke with a 17-year-old boy who managed to escape. He says dozens of men in military gear showed up on campus on Friday night. They were carrying automatic rifles, claiming that they were soldiers.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And the men rounded up the students and ordered them to march into the forest. This student says he walked for almost two days. No food, very little water. He said the men threatened to kill anyone who tried to run.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But he was able to sneak away. Eventually reaching a nearby village where locals helped him find his way back home to his family.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Nigeria's president, Mohamedou Buhari, has repeatedly said the West African nation defeated Boko Haram. But according to the journal in the last year the militant group has been increasingly active.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In fact this kidnapping marks an expansion into territory where the group has not been as active in the past. And in just the last two weeks they reportedly carried out attacks on villages in northern Nigeria. Officials say they killed about a hundred people and burned down hundreds of homes.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Nigerian defense minister confirms a search and rescue mission is currently in progress. Meanwhile, families of the boys have been arriving on the school's campus and begging officials to save their children.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We all know that mail delivery tends to slow down at this time of year. Everyone's sending gifts and end-of-year letters.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: I've personally been waiting on a package to arrive, and I keep being told it's delayed another day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And it turns out the Wall Street Journal is reporting package deliveries are majorly delayed right now. And the backlog is only going to get worse as we count down to the new year.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Yeah, it's bad. And with the storm in the Northeast, it could get even worse. You know, every time I hit buy online, it tells me it won't get here until January.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Or they're trying to get me to pay some exorbitant fee for faster delivery. Apparently, FedEx and UPS are enforcing a limit on how many packages they'll pick up a day from all businesses.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And they're doing it because they don't want their operations clogged by too many boxes. By the way, this is a change from the past when carriers would pick up everything, but then their service standards would drop as carriers tried their best to get them through the system in time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal reports that one company was processing about 2,500 orders a day at several warehouses as December approached. But then at the beginning of this month, FedEx said it would only pick up 200 orders a day.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: According to experts, if you want a package to arrive by Christmas, you should have ordered it by yesterday. So if you're procrastinating, take it from the Wall Street Journal and order it ASAP.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And hey, you know, a gift is a gift, even if you get it after Christmas.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: I got you a tracking number. Sorry. You can find all these stories and more on the Apple News app. And while you're there, check out some of our audio stories. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
