--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, June 28th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, what to know about the scorching temperatures in Texas and beyond. Starbucks makes changes following a fight with workers over Pride Month decorations. And how 50 million people just got a year or two younger this morning. But first, we want to start with some standout international reporting on the deadly shipwreck that killed hundreds of migrants off the coast of Greece this month.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As many as 750 people were on board, barely 100 survived. Louisa Lovelock is the Washington Post's Baghdad bureau chief. She's part of the team that talked to survivors in Greece and relatives of those who died in Pakistan, Jordan, and Egypt.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: We came to find that these were people who had really made this journey because they were responding to a crisis of hopelessness. They were by and large either fleeing war or serious economic crises at home. And they'd done this fundamentally believing that on the other side of this journey, difficult and dangerous as it was, that there would be a better life.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Lovelock told us food and water were scarce. Pakistani passengers were treated especially harshly. Many were forced to travel in the hold below deck.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: She says by the time people understood the danger they faced, it was too late to turn around. They were treated like cattle. They say the smugglers were armed. Some had guns. Some had knives. They were threatened. And so they had to continue.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She told us about Thayer Khalid al-Rahal, a refugee from Syria. He was going to Europe to earn money for a bone marrow transplant for his four-year-old son, who has leukemia.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: Thayer and his family had been living in a refugee camp for a decade waiting to be resettled. His son's diagnosis made him feel like he couldn't wait any longer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He is believed to be one of the likely 500 people who died who drowned at sea. His wife is left to organize a funeral without a body for him. And of course, the child's cancer treatment has had to continue.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: Thayer's story was one we heard over and over. People needed to get to Europe to help their families, and the boat seemed like their only chance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Speaking to the relatives of those who do appear to have died, it really seems to them that the people who took these boats felt they had no other option than to take it that day.
--:-- Louisa Lovelock: Human smuggling rings take advantage of that desperation, often with deadly consequences.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In this latest shipwreck, a group of suspects pleaded not guilty to trafficking charges in a Greek court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to severe weather in multiple parts of the U.S. The Midwest is seeing poor air quality today because of the ongoing wildfires in Canada. Older residents are being warned to stay inside.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At one point, Chicago had the worst air quality of any large city in the world. Over in Texas and nearby states, people are being told to stay indoors for a very different reason, extreme heat.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Tens of millions of Americans have been under recent heat advisories, and the deadly heat wave is spreading and getting worse.
--:-- Jeff Berardelli: In Texas specifically, we've seen an increase of around three to five degrees during the summertime. So the baseline of these heat waves starts a lot higher.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a lot easier to achieve heat waves nowadays.
--:-- Jeff Berardelli: Meteorologist Jeff Berardelli told PBS NewsHour how climate change is making heat waves more intense.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Texas Tribune reports on how dangerous heat waves are for incarcerated people. More than two of the state prisons are not fully air-conditioned, a dangerous health risk for people inside.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Incarcerated people have died in the heat and taxpayers have paid millions of dollars in wrongful death and civil rights lawsuits.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Tribune reporting shows that state legislators have done little to fund much-needed air conditioning improvements.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The extreme heat and humidity is also putting a ton of pressure on the Texas power grid, which has faced catastrophic problems in recent years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The grid operator has asked residents to cut back on energy usage, but that's tough to do when you're sweating in triple-digit heat.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A Texas A&M climate scientist told The Guardian that parts of Texas may have the hottest June ever recorded. And this may not even be the worst of it. August is typically the hotter month.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's take a quick look at some major business stories in the news today. Starbucks says it's coming out with clearer guidelines on how stores can decorate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This comes after disagreements between the company and some workers. Union organizers said the company limited employees' ability to put up decorations celebrating Pride Month.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some workers went on strike, causing closures and disruptions at stores. The company said it was committed to the LGBTQ+ community and filed a federal labor complaint accusing the union of misrepresenting company policy and provoking workplace tension.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The union says it's confident the complaint will be dismissed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In a story that's rocking the half-a-trillion-dollar digital ad market, the Wall Street Journal reports that new research shows Google violated video ad standards about 80% of the time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Adalytics, which is a digital advertising analysis firm, found that ads were loaded in a way that the audience couldn't see them or on sites that don't meet standards.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some ad buyers say they want their money back. Google disputes the study.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And there's a big change coming to one of the longest-running shows in television. Ryan Seacrest will be the next host of the popular game show.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He'll take over from Pat Sajak, who's retiring after the next season, his 41st. Seacrest is going to continue with his many other gigs, including American Idol and New Year's Rockin' Eve.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, people in South Korea woke up a year or two younger than they were yesterday.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Does this sound like a plot of a time-traveling K-drama? Well, not quite. A new law is now in effect that changes how age is calculated, putting it in line with international standards.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal explains that previously, South Korea followed old traditions from East Asia, where babies are considered one year old at birth. Another year is added every January 1st.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So a baby who was born in late December would quickly be two years old, even though they'd only existed in the world for a few days.
--:-- Shamita Basu: China and Japan used to have the same system. They changed the international standard decades ago, but South Korea held out.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The journal reports a lot of people in South Korea are kind of relieved that they don't have to explain it to confused foreigners as much anymore.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One woman who spoke to the journal is rolling back the clock from age 30 to age 28 this morning.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She said she's thrilled that it was kind of stressing her out to hear her parents say she was too old to act like a child.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She's happy to have a little more time in her 20s.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around for a narrated article about aging. This time we're talking about living longer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Popular Mechanics has the story of a famous biologist using big data to help extend people's lives.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
