--:-- Gideon Resnick: Good morning. It's Tuesday, February 13th. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: On today's show, why flight attendants across the country are picketing, the race to fill George Santos' vacated house seat, and the little-told history of the man who was supposed to be America's first Black astronaut. But first, let's take a look at some major stories that are in the news.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Starting in Gaza, where Israel is proposing to create sprawling tent cities as part of an evacuation plan for civilians ahead of its planned invasion of Rafah in the south. The plan involves 15 campsites across the southwest part of Gaza, roughly 375,000 tents for more than 1 million people. They would be funded by the U.S. and Israel's partners in the region. And Egypt has taken responsibility for setting up the camps and field hospitals.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: President Biden has privately warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to move forward with plans to invade Rafah unless there's also a plan to protect and support civilians. Rafah has been a key location from the very start of the war. Its border crossing is the vital passageway for humanitarian aid that has trickled into Gaza. It's the only exit for foreigners and critically wounded people. And it's where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter from the fighting, seen by many as a place of final refuge.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Palestinians there told correspondents with MSNBC they don't know where to go. Drafah is just two streets. If they bombed one of them, thousands of people will die. And we might be one of them.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: In the U.S., a major winter storm is bearing down on the East Coast this morning. It prompted school closures in Boston and New York, as well as travel advisories in the region. According to the Weather Prediction Center, more than two inches of snow per hour could fall across the impacted area, along with gusty winds.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: In legal news, yesterday, former President Trump asked the Supreme Court to step in and pause a recent ruling that did not grant him blanket immunity for alleged crimes that he committed as president. Recently, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. rejected his immunity claim in regards to actions he took on January 6th.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And the congressional aid package for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan we mentioned yesterday passed in the Senate this morning. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that he would reject the bill saying that it failed to address U border security.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Staying with politics and the House, voters in New York's 3rd Congressional District go to the polls today to choose a replacement for Congressman George Santos. He was booted from the House of Representatives by his colleagues in December, making him just the sixth person in history to be removed.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Prosecutors accuse Santos of money laundering and wire fraud, among other financial misdeeds. He faces a 23-count federal indictment. Santos was also accused of lying a lot about a lot of things, like using campaign money for Botox, that his grandparents had fled the Holocaust, and that he once ran an animal charity.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The two main candidates running in the race are Democrat Tom Swazi, a well-known New York politician who previously held the seat, and Republican Mazi Pillip. She's an Ethiopian-Israeli immigrant with experience in the Israeli army, who now works as a county legislator.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And yes, their names rhyme. So voters have been having fun calling this election the Mazi vs. Swazi race.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: There will be big ramifications for Congress here, given the margins in the House. Recently, a Republican effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas failed by a single vote. And this race could offer an early glimpse into trends before November's elections.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The biggest implication here, I think, is that we're seeing a bit of a symbol for what the parties and in some ways the presidential candidates are going to be focused on in the fall.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: That's Mark Chisano, the author of a biography on Santos called The Fabulous. He's a politics reporter who's covered New York's 3rd District for a long time.
--:-- Mark Chisano: It's home to a chunk of Nassau County's suburbs, once so red that President Ronald Reagan said, when a Republican goes to heaven, it looks a lot like Nassau. But more recently, those suburbs have helped propel Democrats. The district voted for Biden in 2020, but then elected Santos two years later.
--:-- Mark Chisano: Some of the biggest issues for voters today are immigration, border security, and crime. Kind of crazy in some ways because the southern border, which is the sort of border of discussion here, is very, very far away.
--:-- Mark Chisano: But there has been a big influx of asylum seekers in New York City, tens of thousands of them. And some of them are actually being housed in a facility that is right at the corner of this district.
--:-- Mark Chisano: The race between Mozzie and Swazi is looking close by most accounts. NBC News asked voters about what driving their decision.
--:-- Voter 1: I supported Mozzie because I think she's a little tougher on crime. And to be honest with you, that's what the whole country is afraid of, the crime. We don't care about democracy. That's already done.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And as for George Santos, he told reporters last month he has no plans to participate in voting for his replacement.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Did you know that when you board a flight, no matter how long that whole process takes or how chaotic it is to get everyone into their seat, get their luggage overhead and their seat belts buckled, most flight attendants aren't considered technically on the books until this message comes on. We are about to close the main cabin door. All ground personnel, please disembark now. Cabin crew, stand by.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: That is part of the reason why today flight attendants at dozens of airports across the country are picketing as their unions are in talks with airlines for higher pay.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: A few years ago, we spoke with the travel writer Nell McShane-Wolfhart, who's written extensively about flight attendants.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: If you get on a plane and you're sitting on the tarmac for an hour or a while, there's a technical problem or a weather issue. Flight attendants are working that whole time, but they haven't been paid for it.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: This is where it gets a little complicated. Airlines say that isn't true, that flight attendants receive a minimum pay guarantee for the time they spend on the ground.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Most notably in 2022, Delta agreed to pay flight attendants at half their hourly rate for that time spent before takeoff.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: We should also say Delta is one of the rare airlines where flight attendants are not unionized, and the agreement was largely seen as a way to keep unionization efforts at bay.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: After Delta offered half pay, some other airlines agreed to follow suit. But NPR spoke with Sarah Nelson, the president of the largest flight attendance union.
--:-- Sarah Nelson: She says this payment model simply isn't enough given all that flight attendants are asked to do today.
--:-- Sarah Nelson: Every flight is full. Boarding time is much more hectic. There's fewer flight attendants doing that work. And flight attendants argue that in addition to being unpaid during the boarding process, they spend hours of their day waiting in airports for their own next flight.
--:-- Sarah Nelson: All told, they could be spending five to six hours a day on duty, but off the books.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: According to the Labor Department, flight attendants earn anywhere between $38,000 to $100,000 a year.
--:-- Sarah Nelson: Nelson told NPR that for people in the first year on the job, it pretty close to minimum wage.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Now some unions are requesting as much as a 33 increase in pay.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Airlines say they are negotiating in good faith and that they offer competitive wages and benefits.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: If their demands aren't met, unions say they'll launch a global picket soon. But under federal law, flight attendants aren't allowed to go on strike without approval from the government.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: You might have learned a little bit about the space race and some of the famous astronauts involved, but have you ever heard the name Edward Dwight Jr.?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: He was on his way to becoming the nation's first black astronaut and confronted racism and politics along the way, ultimately stymieing his path to the stars.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Last year, he told CBS about what he faced at the NASA program.
--:-- Edward Dwight Jr.: So all these white folks that I'm dealing with, I mean, my peers and the leadership was just horrified at the idea and the president appointing me to this position.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: To explain a little here, while in the Air Force, Dwight joined a program created by President Kennedy to send a black astronaut to space.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Some of the other pilots training to be astronauts didn't like that Dwight was getting so much national attention. And he says he faced discrimination.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The assassination of JFK officially ended Dwight's journey, and it would take another 20 years for a Black man to go to space.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Dwight told the Kansas City Star, his obsession with the sky goes way back, to nighttime walks with his mom when he was just a kid.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: He dreamed of being a pilot, but thought it was only an option for white people, at least until he saw a Black pilot in a newspaper, which put him on the path to flying.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: A new documentary out today from National Geographic called The Space Race looks at Dwight's NASA journey and the influence he had on other talented Black pilots and engineers in the space program, and all of the ways that they contributed to human exploration despite facing opposition.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And even though Dwight never made it to space, some of his work did. He went on to become an acclaimed sculptor, and one of his pieces was sent to space as part of test missions for Artemis, where NASA hopes to put the first woman and the first person of color on the moon.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a Narrated article coming up next. Vox takes a look at the legal and financial benefits afforded to married couples and how single people can pay a heavy price.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
--:-- [Music starts playing]
