--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: Hey there, it's Shamita. I've got a quick request for you. If Apple News Today is an essential part of your morning routine, follow the show in Apple Podcasts. And if you have another 30 seconds, leave us a rating and a review too. It helps other people find our show and it helps us know what you like about it. Thanks. Good morning. It's Wednesday, September 18th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, inside Rupert Murdoch's dramatic legal fight with his family, what health experts think of Instagram's new privacy features for teens, and why a baby hippo is appearing in cosmetic ads. But first, what we know about a series of explosions yesterday when hundreds of pagers suddenly blew up across Lebanon and parts of Syria.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: Lebanon's health minister said at least 12 people were killed, including two children, and close to 3,000 people injured. Several Hezbollah fighters are reportedly among the dead. Pagers are widely used by Hezbollah because they're seen as harder to track than phones. The group says that Israel is behind the explosions.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: Reuters reports that officials say Israel planted explosives inside new pagers before they were imported into Lebanon, and a message sent to the pagers triggered them to blow up simultaneously. That would be an unusually large and sophisticated attack. The EU's top diplomat condemned the explosions, calling them attacks and pointing to how many civilians were hurt. Israel's government didn't comment, but many Middle East analysts like Faraz Maqzad from the Middle East Institute say this looks like an Israeli operation.
--:-- Guest: Faraz Maqzad: Israel does have a long track record of sometimes quite often actually not claiming its operations to allow for some plausible deniability and allow the other side to de-escalate, not feel that they are compelled to retaliate. But for all practical reasons, everybody here would probably suspect Israel as being behind this operation.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: One of the people reported injured is Iran's ambassador to Lebanon. Former U.S. Homeland Security official Juliette Kayyem told CNN that Iran is likely to retaliate.
--:-- Guest: Juliette Kayyem: The Iranians will see this as a direct attack on one of their senior government officials. It would be no different than if their ambassador, in their mind, was shot at assassinated, kidnapped, or whatever else.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: The pager explosions are the latest incidents to destabilize a region that already has the war in Gaza Hezbollah and Israel have been sporadically exchanging attacks since that conflict began And Hezbollah says it strike Israel in response to the pager explosions This week, the Murdoch family is taking their succession drama to court. And this fight will determine the future of Rupert Murdoch's global media empire, which includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London and more.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: Right now in a probate court in Reno, Nevada, you're seeing this kind of epical family dynastic struggle play out behind closed doors. David Folkenflik covers media for NPR and he's written a book on Rupert Murdoch. It's quite a beat. God knows I hear this succession theme song in my sleep.
--:-- Guest: David Folkenflik: Murdoch, who is 93 years old, wants to change the terms of a family trust. It was set up a generation ago when he left his second wife, Anna Torv Murdoch Mann, and she agreed not to sue him for half of his global media empire. In exchange for a significant payout, she got $110 million, but also a promise written into a contract that said that after his death, his four children would share equally in control of the family properties.
--:-- Guest: David Folkenflik: Today, Murdoch wants to take away voting rights from some of his children and give full control to his oldest son, Lachlan. Rupert argues he's the best leader for the businesses. Lachlan's been running the company since Rupert stepped down last year. But in order to change the trust, Rupert has to prove that it benefits all of his heirs. And that'll be tough because three of his other children, James, Elizabeth and Prudence, don't support Lachlan.
--:-- Guest: David Folkenflik: They're not convinced he's a particularly brilliant corporate leader. And it's very unlikely he would have had this job had his last name not been Murdoch. And also, they think that Rupert and Lachlan's enabling and affirming of Fox News embracing a right-wing formula for its current financial success, which has really propelled a lot of the family's fortunes, is a short-term play designed to appeal to an aging audience, corrosive to American democracy, and harming the overall empire's reputation for a place that is a source of the world. of reputable and trustworthy news.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: In court Rupert is arguing that James Elizabeth and Prudence would soften the Fox News ideology which would undermine its appeal to its right audience People who have worked for Rupert told Folkenflik he upset by the dispute believing that he should have full control over what happens to his companies, and that he and Lachlan have managed the business well. Critics point out that scandals in Murdoch companies have cost more than $2 billion, including the massive defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: Hearings in the case are expected to continue through next week. now let's go deeper on the changes happening for instagram's youngest users and what medical experts have to say about them effective now all new instagram users under the age of 18 will have private accounts by default and instagram's parent company meta is in the process of switching over 100 million existing accounts.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: For a kid using one of these private teen accounts, that means only approved followers can see their content, and it'll block strangers from sending private messages. Instagram will also ping teens and tell them to turn off the app if they spend more than an hour on it. And there's a new sleep mode that mutes notifications overnight, among other changes.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: Older teens will have more control over certain settings, but kids under the age of 16 will need a parent's permission to make changes. Parents will be able to see who their children messaged in the past seven days. Meta has said its data shows parents aren't making full use of its safety tools.
--:-- Guest: Dr. Mitch Prinstein: I think a right way would be the way that we think about driving or we teach kids about other behaviors that could be risky, but you need to teach them how to do it the right way. Let's build digital media literacy into every school. Even better, let's build it into the social media programs themselves.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: And we caught up with Prince Dean after Instagram's announcement to ask him what he thinks of the new safety features.
--:-- Guest: Prince Dean: Yeah, I think this is a great start. These changes are following many of the exact recommendations that we made based on the science. Still, he says he would be happier if Congress passed legislation regulating social media with child safety in mind.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: I a little bit concerned that these protections might appear to be helpful but especially around the timing of federal legislation that about to be voted on that they might be a temporary measure or a measure that could one day be reversed by the companies The Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act in July. It would require companies to take reasonable steps to prevent dangers like cyberbullying and sexual exploitation. The bill has not passed the House, but this week a House committee is scheduled to discuss it.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app. Today, the Federal Reserve is expected to announce its first cut to interest rates in more than four years. Wall Street is split on predictions over just how big the Fed will go, a quarter versus half a percentage point cut.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: The central bank previously jacked up interest rates to fight inflation, and it's held off on cutting them lately, waiting for what it sees as the right moment. The trick is figuring out how to keep the economy from slowing down too much, but not doing anything that might push inflation way up again.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: Elsewhere in Washington, Republicans blocked a Senate Democratic bill that would have given federal protections to IVF treatments. GOP senators called it a political stunt to put forth a bill with no chance of becoming a law.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: Democrats have sought to brand Republicans as unsupportive of fertility treatments ahead of the election. And finally, you ever watch someone get super famous and just feel so happy for them? Like it's so well-deserved? That's how I and I guess the entire internet feel about this baby hippo named Moo Dang.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: She lives in a zoo in Thailand. Technically, she's a pygmy hippopotamus, only a few months old. And ever since she was born, the zoo has been sharing videos of her, and she's become this viral sensation, dare I say fashion icon? Sephora is promoting blush in Thailand, promising that you too can have rosy pink cheeks like Mu Dang.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: Now, all of this buzz is drawing crowds to the zoo, to the point that zookeepers are getting a little worried. They've had to tell people not to throw things at her or try to get her attention. and their limiting visits to weekends, five minutes at a time.
--:-- Host: Shamita Basu: You can find all those stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, as we mentioned, that episode of Apple News in Conversation on social media and kids is playing for you next. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
