--:-- Shumita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, April 1st. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, why Elon Musk is stumping for a state Supreme Court candidate in Wisconsin, what travelers should know about what border officials can access on your phone, and corporate April Fool's jokes that have failed spectacularly. But first, a warning.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This segment contains graphic descriptions of a miscarriage. Last month, a 24-year-old woman in Tifton, Georgia, was found unconscious and bleeding. She was transported to a hospital by paramedics who determined that she had miscarried. But instead of having the time to grieve the loss and recover from the trauma, police charged her with concealing the death of another person and abandonment of a dead body.
--:-- Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez: I'm Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez, a senior writer with New York Magazine's The Cut.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The coroner determined that the fetus gestational age was around 19 weeks, meaning it would not have survived outside of the womb. The coroner also said there was no evidence of harm and that instead the woman had naturally miscarried. Pregnancy loss is very common. About one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage. Some women might miscarry and not even realize it.
--:-- Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez: In this specific case, the woman is not being charged for having a miscarriage, but for not properly disposing of the fetal remains, which were found in the dumpster of her apartment complex.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So the question here is, what should a person do then if they're miscarrying? If you have an 11-week pregnancy when that loss might look more like slightly more than a heavy period, right? Does this mean that you're required to scoop the funeral remains from the toilet and take your pad to a hospital or to a coroner or to a funeral home, right?
--:-- Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez: Like, it just opens up a lot of questions that there's no law, there's no legislation that dictates how people should be handling the product of their miscarriages.
--:-- Shamita Basu: According to The Cut, the woman in the Georgia case was taken to jail and released two days later on bond. This is believed to be the first time that officials in Georgia have tried to use a fetal personhood law to bring criminal charges.
--:-- Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez: So when we talk about fetal personhood, we're talking about efforts to grant embryos and fetuses the same rights as people. The reproductive rights advocates have warned that this legal theory not only curbs access to abortion care, but can also impact things like IVF, because in that process that you are creating and often destroying embryos.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But also that this can lead to the criminalization of pregnant people, like in this Georgia case. Granting fetuses equal rights has long been the anti-abortion movement's ultimate goal.
--:-- Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez: In a sign of how Republicans in Georgia are thinking about the future of pregnancy, the state legislature recently held a hearing on a bill that makes abortion illegal from the moment of fertilization. It would also mean women who terminate their pregnancies could be charged with homicide and it could pose a major threat to in vitro fertilization.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And while The Cut explains that timing-wise, there's no chance the bill will pass before the end of this legislative session, Georgia already has some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. Opponents warn a measure like this will certainly make the problem far worse.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to Wisconsin, where a local election has turned into something of a national political temperature check. Today, voters will decide if Brad Schimmel or Susan Crawford will be elected to the state's Supreme Court. Currently, the balance on that court is 4-3 in favor of liberal-leaning justices.
--:-- Patrick Marley: I'm Patrick Marley, a national reporter for The Washington Post.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So this race could tip the ideological scale, which would impact rulings on issues like abortion and congressional district maps. But there's been a curveball thrown into the contest. Elon Musk and allied groups have spent an estimated $20 million in support of Schimmel, making it the most expensive judicial race in history.
--:-- Patrick Marley: Over the weekend, Musk traveled to Wisconsin. He put on a signature Green Bay cheesehead and described the stakes of the race as he sees it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I feel like this is one of those things that may not seem that it's going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will.
--:-- Patrick Marley: Others have not put it in such terms, but national liberal groups have poured millions of dollars into the race as well.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Patrick, can you explain the role the state Supreme Court typically plays in a tightly divided partisan state like Wisconsin, with a Democratic governor and a Republican legislature?
--:-- Patrick Marley: Pretty much every hot-button issue winds up before the state Supreme Court. They decided whether the 2020 election results, which Biden won, were valid, and they found that they were by a 4-3 ruling. They're considering abortion. They'll consider future election challenges.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's one other issue the court could take up soon that would be very personal for Elon Musk. Right before he got involved in the race, Musk's electric car company, Tesla, did sue the state over a law that it has that bans car manufacturers from owning dealerships. He's trying to change that law.
--:-- Patrick Marley: That's certainly a case that could get to the state Supreme Court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Part of Musk's efforts on Sunday involved giving two voters $1 million and paying other voters smaller sums if they signed a petition and provided their contact information, similar to what he did for November's election.
--:-- Patrick Marley: Wisconsin's Democratic attorney general said that Musk was violating a state anti-bribery law. The state Supreme Court declined to take the case days before an election that would impact its very makeup.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Marley told us voters in Wisconsin are hoping tomorrow's race is a bellwether of what's to come. Most voters really do seem to see this as a test of Donald Trump and his agenda after winning the presidency, with his supporters saying, hey, we won the swing state in November. We can keep it going. Let's build this momentum.
--:-- Patrick Marley: And the Democratic voters saying, you know, we faced a bunch of losses. We're totally out of power in the federal government. This is one small way to show that we fighting back against Trumpism.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In recent weeks, there have been multiple instances of Customs and Border Protection denying people entry to the U.S. after searching their devices. That includes a French scientist who French government officials say was turned away after a search of his phone revealed messages critical of Trump's cuts to research programs.
--:-- Gabi Del Valle: I'm Gabi Del Valle, a reporter with The Verge covering immigration politics and border surveillance technology.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And a Lebanese physician at Brown University with a valid U.S. visa who agents say had content on her phone sympathetic to Hezbollah.
--:-- Gabi Del Valle: I got a lot of questions from my friends, from my colleagues asking, should I be traveling with my phone right now?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Gabi, what happens if they ask to see my phone? Am I required to show them?
--:-- Gabi Del Valle: And the answer is that it depends on your immigration status in the U.S. and also kind of on where you're flying into or entering the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We called up Gabi to ask what travelers should know about their rights.
--:-- Gabi Del Valle: So travelers' rights to decline a search depend on several factors, including their immigration status. If you're a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident, you can decline a search. But CBP can take your phone and they can hold on to it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you are a visa holder, you can decline a search, but then you can also be denied entry into the U.S. for declining a search.
--:-- Gabi Del Valle: CBP device searches have been pretty rare. Less than 0.01 percent of arriving international travelers had their electronics searched in the 2024 fiscal year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the recent wave of headlines suggests things are shifting. The Trump administration is kind of taking this whole of government approach to immigration enforcement.
--:-- Gabi Del Valle: They're not just trying to completely stop immigration at the border. And they're not just like doing ICE raids in the interior of the country. They're also using CBP's presence at airports to conduct what appears to be like more stringent or additional screenings of travelers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These are practices that have been in place for a long time. But given the Trump administration's kind of heightened interest in immigration enforcement, I think that's why we're seeing so many more reports of this now.
--:-- Gabi Del Valle: In the past, the Supreme Court has found that cell phone searches that take place without a warrant violate the Fourth Amendment. But border searches are exempt.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And airports, regardless of where they are geographically in the country, are considered to be border zones.
--:-- Gabi Del Valle: Which means the screenshots, memes, and messages on your phone are all fair game when you enter the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The things on your phone, even things that you think are innocuous, can absolutely be used against you if you're seeking entry into the United States.
--:-- Gabi Del Valle: But they can also be used against you or taken if you're a U.S. citizen.
--:-- Shamita Basu: While I was reporting this, I came across stories of U.S. citizens who have had their devices searched and seized at the border as well, including one immigration lawyer who had his phone taken when he refused to let CBP access it.
--:-- Gabi Del Valle: And then they had to use forensic tools to look through his phone because he wouldn't give them the password.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that's maybe the biggest piece of advice. Some courts have ruled that police and CBP can't force you to enter your password to unlock your phone, but they can use your biometric data like touch or face ID to unlock your phone.
--:-- Gabi Del Valle: Del Valle spoke to an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation which defends civil liberties in the digital space for some tips to keep in mind when you travel.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One, back up your phone and then delete whatever data you think you should before you travel. Then once you're back home, you can restore data from the backup.
--:-- Gabi Del Valle: They also suggest that you encrypt your devices, use secure passwords, disable face ID, and turn your phone off while crossing a border.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq capped off the worst quarter in years on the eve of President Trump's so-called Liberation Day for the Economy, where a number of tariffs on global goods are set to go into effect.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The S&P saw a 4.6 percent decline since the start of the year, the worst performance since 2022.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The New York Times notes it's also the worst quarter for the S&P at the start of a presidential term since Barack Obama took office in 2009.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Nasdaq also ended the quarter down 10.4 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1.3 percent on the year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In other news, the search continues for a fourth U.S. Army soldier who went missing in Lithuania last week after a U.S. armored vehicle became submerged in a bog.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The bodies of three other American soldiers have been recovered.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NBC News reports the Army soldiers were conducting a training exercise. Their mission was to repair and tow an immobilized vehicle when they went missing on March 25th.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Muddy and swampy conditions complicated recovery efforts, but a Navy dive team was finally able to attach cables to hoist the vehicle after hours of diving in complete darkness.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The soldiers, who are based out of Fort Stewart in Georgia, were not immediately identified.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, today is April Fool's Day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Indianapolis Star has a roundup of April Fool's pranks that have gone spectacularly bad and backfired on companies who thought they might get a laugh.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A radio station in Bakersfield, California told a woman she had won a Hummer SUV, but when she showed up, they gave her a toy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She sued for the value of the vehicle.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Similarly, a Hooters in Florida told one of their waitresses she had won a Toyota for selling the most beer on April 1st.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The real prize was a toy Yoda, as in the character from Star Wars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And notably, Elon Musk in 2018 posted on Twitter that Tesla was bankrupt, sending stocks sliding 5% after an already rough march for the company where bad news stories, recalls, and production issues had plagued the carmaker.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That tweet was later revealed to be an April Fool's prank.
--:-- 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, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: New York Magazine examines why so many heterosexual women keep going back to men, even when they're so unhappy, and what the science says about whether we could ever learn to choose our partners differently.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Thanks for listening to Apple News Today.
