--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, September 19th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, what that Fed rate cut means for you. Medical experts say women are dying in Georgia because of the state's abortion ban. And a powerful labor union makes a surprising choice in the presidential race. But first, to the growing conflict between Israel and Lebanon.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Overnight, Israeli airstrikes hit targets in the country's south, where Hezbollah is strong. This follows a second wave of explosions in the country. On Tuesday, it was pagers. On Wednesday, walkie-talkies, killing more than two dozen people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The AP was covering a funeral service for victims of the pager explosions when another blast hit. Israel is widely seen as behind the explosions, though it hasn't claimed responsibility for them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But a growing focus on striking Lebanon is in line with recent comments from Israel's defense minister, saying that the military is shifting troops and resources there and getting ready for a, quote, new era in the war.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The mass explosions over the last two days appear to be targeting devices used by Hezbollah, but they're happening in very public places, like stores and cafes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Experts in international law have pointed out that weaponizing objects used by civilians is illegal. The chief of human rights at the UN is calling for an independent investigation, and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was among those warning of the need to avoid more conflict.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Obviously, the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a preemptive strike before a major military operation. So, as important as the event in itself is the indication that this event confirms that there is a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon and everything must be done to avoid that escalation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's a new reminder this week of the tremendous human cost of these kinds of escalations. Palestinian officials have released the names of more than 34,000 people killed in Israel's war in Gaza.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It included 169 babies born since the start of the war. Also, a man born in 1922 who survived more than a century of previous wars. About a third of the names listed belong to children.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, let's unpack the latest moves by the Federal Reserve and what they mean for the economy all the way down to your wallet.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Fed cut interest rates for the first time in four years. Everybody knew that was coming. What people weren't sure about was how big the cut would be. And it turned out the Fed decided to go bigger. It cut by half a percentage point.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When inflation started to spike a few years back, the Fed was raising rates, and they stayed up for a while. Chair Jay Powell explained why the bank decided it was finally time to change course.
--:-- Jay Powell: This decision reflects our growing confidence that with an appropriate recalibration of our policy stance, Strength in the labor market can be maintained in a context of moderate growth and inflation moving sustainably down to 2%.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now that last part is important. He's talking about the two jobs the Fed has by law, keep prices stable and achieve maximum sustainable employment.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For a long time, many economists believed you couldn't fight inflation without hurting the labor market. But that's not the consensus anymore.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And in a way, you can think of the Fed's move as saying they might actually be able to have it both ways. They can cut rates in order to keep the job market strong without inflation running wild again.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So that's the big picture. As for things closer to your pocketbook, the potential impact of a rate cut is in two places, especially loans and savings.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Over time, interest rates to take out home and car loans are likely to go down. That could help some people who've recently struggled to buy homes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The high interest rates of recent years were pretty good for people who put money away in banks. That's now going away, which basically means farewell to all those sweet deals on money market accounts we saw recently.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you chart the Fed's move in recent years, it looks a little bit like a roller coaster. A dive in interest rates to juice the economy when the first COVID lockdowns hit, then up a steep hill as the Fed took aim at runaway inflation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This week's move sends things back downhill. There are no guarantees, but Powell and his colleagues think they can somehow make it a smooth ride.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to reporting from ProPublica about two abortion-related deaths of pregnant women that medical experts have officially labeled preventable.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that important because they appear to be some of the first known cases of their kind where deaths of women were linked to a state abortion policy This is in Georgia where the procedure is banned at six weeks
--:-- Kavita Serrana: Reporter Kavita Serrana told us about 28-year-old Amber Nicole Thurman. She was a mother. She loved her six-year-old son.
--:-- Kavita Serrana: Thurman found out she was pregnant shortly after Georgia's ban took effect in 2022, and she told a friend it just wasn't the right time for her to have more children.
--:-- Kavita Serrana: She wanted a surgical abortion, but was too far along to get an abortion in the state. So she left Georgia and was only able to get abortion pills.
--:-- Kavita Serrana: Research shows that deaths due to complications with abortion pills are extremely rare, but they can happen.
--:-- Kavita Serrana: Thurman, days later at home, started to bleed and develop sepsis. In those cases, patients should immediately go to the hospital, where the standard of care would be what's called a DNC procedure to empty the uterus.
--:-- Kavita Serrana: Instead of providing a DNC to Amber right away, the records we obtained showed it took 20 hours before doctors intervened.
--:-- Kavita Serrana: Her condition deteriorated. Her organs were failing. It's not clear why doctors waited to start the DNC, but medical records show the procedure was discussed at least twice.
--:-- Kavita Serrana: Many physicians fear being prosecuted for certain procedures under current law.
--:-- Kavita Serrana: Serrano also told us about 41-year-old Candy Miller, a mom of three. She had lupus, diabetes, and hypertension.
--:-- Kavita Serrana: Doctors warned her having another baby could kill her. The maternal death rate for women with lupus is 20-fold higher than those without.
--:-- Kavita Serrana: But the abortion ban in Georgia and most of these abortion bans don't have health exceptions, even for that reason.
--:-- Kavita Serrana: When she got pregnant again, Miller ordered abortion pills online. But like Thurman, she needed a DNC procedure.
--:-- Kavita Serrana: What we know is that Candy didn't go to a doctor. The understanding in her family was that you could go to jail for getting an abortion.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, before we let you go, let's take a quick look at some stories in politics and policy news being featured in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: First, it's that time again. We're looking at another government shutdown threat. A House bill to fund the government and avoid a partial shutdown was voted down.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Lawmakers have until the end of the month to make a deal.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Elsewhere, federal law enforcement say that Iranian hackers stole material from the Trump campaign and they sent unsolicited emails about the stolen info to people connected with the Biden campaign.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Authorities say there's no indication Biden's staff replied. Vice President Harris's campaign says it's cooperating with law enforcement and it did not use any of the material.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In other campaign news, a powerful union that has historically endorsed Democrats for president is declining to endorse Harris.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Teamsters leader says it won't endorse either candidate this time, something it hasn't done in decades.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He says neither candidate made serious enough commitments on the Teamsters' top issues.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On NBC, former President Trump was asked whether the union staying on the sidelines could make a difference in industrial swing states.
--:-- Donald Trump: I think it will. Yeah, I think so. The Teamsters carry a lot of weight.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At 1.3 million members, including truck drivers and freight workers, the Teamsters is one of the largest unions in the world.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, if you are planning a trip abroad, a new move by the State Department might make things a bit easier.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can now skip all the printing and mailing and renew a passport fully online.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's an expansion of a pilot program that's been going on for a little while, and it's expected to speed up the renewal process.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the apple news app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. Scientific American looks at the power of empathy and efforts to have more of it to help bridge our country's political divides.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
