--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, April 8th. 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.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson will soon be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. She was confirmed by the Senate yesterday with 53 votes in her favor. She'll replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who retires after this term.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Wall Street Journal takes a look at some of the first cases she could be hearing when she officially puts on that black robe in October. One involves the Environmental Protection Agency's power to fight water pollution. Another case will focus on the Voting Rights Act.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Judge Jackson will be the high court's first black woman and only the eighth justice who is not a white man. A recent Politico article says this is a good time to look back at history. It draws some parallels between Judge Jackson and Constance Baker Motley.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Motley was the first African-American woman appointed to the federal bench and a pioneering civil rights attorney. She helped litigate Brown v. Board of Education, and she won nine out of the ten cases that she argued before the Supreme Court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Civil rights historian Tomiko Brown-Nagin writes, "In the 60s, there were calls for Motley to be nominated to the Supreme Court. So many of her peers considered her immensely qualified for the position, but the opposition to her was fierce. Critics said her civil rights work would make her biased. One senator even equated that work with communism."
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Of course, Motley never was nominated to the highest court. Now, more than 50 years later, Judge Jackson is officially confirmed. When she takes the bench as a justice this October, Brown says she will be standing on Constance Baker Motley's shoulders.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Dozens of people are dead in eastern Ukraine following a rocket attack on a train station. That's according to Ukraine's state rail company. The Ukrainian government says Russia deliberately targeted a station where thousands of civilians were trying to evacuate.
--:-- Daniel Tenkate: Yeah, inflation plays a big role in political stability around the world, particularly in countries where the average earnings aren't that much. So if you're making $2 per day, for instance, a small increase in the price of food or fuel goes a long way.
--:-- Daniel Tenkate: So where we see the biggest impact politically is these countries on the margin. That list of countries is long and diverse. Peru is one of those countries. Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Kenya. These are countries that are really getting hit hard first.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Prices are rising faster than they have in more than two decades. Tenkate told us farmers and truckers have protested. They're basically hitting the streets and trying to block roads, block highways, block ports, basically stopping the flow of trade and commerce there.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The political unrest is bad news for President Pedro Castillo, who at the end of March survived a second impeachment attempt. Tenkate also told us the thing in many of these countries is people feeling the price pinch may not make the connection between Russia's invasion, global markets, and what they pay at the supermarket or a gas pump.
--:-- Daniel Tenkate: So some of them may be taking it out on their country leaders. They see prices going up and they blaming their own leaders for that problem. There's a disconnect there between you know what's happening globally and the reasons for it and then, you know, the unique domestic political situations that these governments find themselves in.
--:-- Daniel Tenkate: He also points out that anger over rising prices is a thing in America, too. They blame Joe Biden for that, and they don't care that much about Russia. Russia's not the main issue in their lives every day. The main issue is providing for their family and making sure there's enough food on the table and making sure they can buy the things they want to buy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A faster spreading version of Omicron is now the dominant strain in America. New reporting in The Atlantic says the U.S. is heading into this wave with little interest in actually measuring or responding to it.
--:-- Catherine Wu: As she sees it, this could lead to a shortage of solid data, making it harder for public health officials to track and respond to outbreaks. This is all tied to a general fatigue about the pandemic that a lot of people and politicians are feeling.
--:-- Catherine Wu: Many may not have their guard up. The big picture is the United States has all the tools at our disposal to take this wave or the next one seriously. We know how to test and track cases. We know what does and doesn't work when it comes to masking, social distancing and ventilation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the political will to do all these things has faded. And that's a problem because less than half of all Americans have gotten their COVID booster shots. And health care workers are still recovering from the emotional and physical toll of previous surges.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Wu says when infections take off it's not always easy to tell who holds the steering wheel, the virus or the host. Our actions, our decisions really can either slow the spread of cases or speed it up.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The way that you save for retirement is in for some big changes. CNN looks at new legislation that's moving through Congress that's going to transform how 401ks work.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The biggest change would be to make employers automatically enroll eligible workers at a savings rate of 3% of salary. Many companies already do this, and research shows that older enrollment can get a more diverse group of workers to save for retirement.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, people can still opt out of 401k plans under this proposal. This bill would also allow older workers to make bigger catch-up contributions, and there's something in there for people with student debt. Borrowers often have trouble saving for retirement and paying off loans at the same time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Companies would be allowed to match student loan payments with contributions to retirement plans. If signed into law, this bill would also create more opportunities for part-time workers to contribute to 401k plans. It would also offer small businesses tax credits to make it easier for them to give employees retirement plans.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: CNN says the bill could be on Biden's desk this year. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And check out our weekend interview show, In Conversation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This week, I speak with the New Yorker's Louisa Thomas about transgender athletes in elite sports. It's a conversation about fairness, science, and inclusion, sparked in large part by the success of UPenn swimmer Leah Thomas.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: There was this kind of immediate, like, desire to leap to the conclusion that Leah had already won everything. They were talking about how inevitable it was that she was going to be breaking Katie Ledecky's records and Missy Franklin's records, and she never did.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Check out that Weekend Listen. We'll be back with the news on Monday.
