--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, December 8th. I'm Shamita Basu. And I'm Duarte Joraldino. 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 Joraldino: Today is what's known as the safe harbor deadline. It's the last day that states can certify election results and resolve any disputes. Electors are scheduled to vote on December 14th and formally clinch Joe Biden's victory.
--:-- Shamita Basu: By now, it's becoming increasingly clear that President Donald Trump's attempts to change the results of the election have failed. But what do you make of what he's trying to do? If you saw this happening in another country, would you say this moment has the elements of a coup?
--:-- Zeynep Tufekci: Yes, it does. I wrote about this in a new article for The Atlantic. And I'm from Turkey, which is a country that's had so many coups that they've come up with different words for different types of coups, sort of like how the Inuit have many words to describe different types of snowfall.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Tafekci says if you go by the book definition, a coup is an illegitimate overthrow of a government, often involving violence or threats of violence. And she's clear about this. Technically, Trump's actions don't meet this definition. But she argues what the president is doing has the same intent, the same essence as a coup.
--:-- Zeynep Tufekci: To your point, the president frequently and falsely claims the election was stolen. Trump and his allies repeatedly pressured state lawmakers to reverse his loss. The Washington Post details personal calls he reportedly made to Pennsylvania's House Speaker. That's the latest state where Trump directly tried to overturn election results, just like he tried to do in Michigan and in Georgia.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Tufekci says, ultimately, don't get distracted by the conversation about whether Trump's actions do or don't qualify as a coup. It's more important to recognize his actions for what they are, an illegitimate power grab. And Tafekci says even though it's clear that Trump's attempts to overturn the election will not be successful, it's a near miss. And ignoring near misses is how people and societies get in real trouble.
--:-- Duarte Joraldino: The Biden administration is set to include the first African defense secretary in U history. President-elect Biden chose retired General Lloyd Austin. If Austin is confirmed, this would be just the latest barrier that he's broken.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Politico looks at his long career. He was the first black general to command an army division in combat. and the first to oversee an entire region. Now, Austin's nomination could be challenged on Capitol Hill. He's been out of the military for less than seven years, so he needs a waiver from Congress before he can lead the Defense Department.
--:-- Duarte Joraldino: Politico explains the former four-star general largely stayed out of the spotlight during his military career. And now Lloyd Austin stands to make history.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Who should get the COVID-19 vaccine first? Should Santa be on the top of the list? Like, okay, this is a serious question. And it was recently posed to a CDC committee. Remember last week, a CDC advisory group recommended the first dose of vaccines go to two groups, healthcare workers and people who live in long-term care facilities. And that makes sense.
--:-- Duarte Joraldino: But there may be a reason to knock those people from the top of the list. A new article in Wired lays out a counterintuitive case. Give the social butterflies among us the vaccine first, the super spreaders among us. And that would include giving it to people like mall Santas.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Experts say it looks like the COVID pandemic follows the 80-20 rule. 80% of all cases trace back to only 20% of people spreading the virus. And the super spreaders are usually people who have the most social contacts. You know, people with big families and multiple households or with jobs that require meeting a lot of people in person.
--:-- Duarte Joraldino: And the argument for vaccinating potential super spreaders first is the most vulnerable people will be better protected if you've stopped the broader spread. Wired looks at the case of a man from one of New York City's suburbs who didn't know he was infected until it was too late.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Right at the beginning of the pandemic, he was traveling through Grand Central Station, which is one of the most crowded train stations in the U.S. going to his law firm in Manhattan where he interacted with a bunch of colleagues and clients. He was a busy man. He also went to a synagogue and then to a bar in a Bat Mitzvah. By the time he was diagnosed with the coronavirus, he'd come into contact with hundreds, if not thousands of people.
--:-- Duarte Joraldino: He was one of the first people in the U.S. known to get the virus through what's called community spread. Now, in the following days, New Rochelle, which is where he lives, would have one of the worst early outbreaks in the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So to go back to Santa and that CDC committee that we were telling you about, one of the people who addressed the committee was the chairman of the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas, which is a real organization for people who have real beards and who really do look like Santa.
--:-- Duarte Joraldino: And he argued that his organization, the Santas, should get early access to the vaccine. And if you follow this line of thinking from this Wired piece, it doesn't sound as silly as you might think. These Santas were saying, look, we want to do our jobs this holiday season, which involves being close to a lot of people. So protecting us first, well, that might in turn help to protect many others down the road.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has one of the largest radio dishes on Earth. Researchers around the world have used its findings for decades, and some of them went on to win Nobel Prizes for their work on black holes, gravitational waves, and pulsars.
--:-- Duarte Joraldino: But last month, the U.S. National Science Foundation announced the observatory's telescope is being decommissioned. The foundation says this giant window into heaven is broken, damaged beyond repair, and yet, as CNN reports, some people are saying it's worth rescuing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The observatory at Arecibo has been a point of pride for Puerto Rico. It's played a large role on the island, promoting science and education. One woman told CNN that she remembers the very first time she ever looked into a telescope and looked up at the stars. It was thanks to an educational program run by Arecibo.
--:-- Duarte Joraldino: Now she's studying exoplanets as a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University. She says the observatory inspired Puerto Ricans like her to pursue the sciences. It also a big tourism draw. Closing it is likely going to have a sizable economic effect on the city of Arecibo.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Foundation for Puerto Rico says before Hurricane Maria, the observatory drew on average about 50 visitors to Arecibo every year, not counting student trips. And each of those visitors would stay in Arecibo anywhere from five to seven days and spend about $170 each day.
--:-- Duarte Joraldino: If you look at pictures of the observatory today, you'll see the big radio dish is smashed. Just last week, cables snapped and the platform collapsed. A lead researcher at the observatory, Ray Lugo, says for now, research can continue using other hardware and data that's already been collected.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But what he'd really like to see is new investment in Arecibo and a telescope with even greater capacities than before. Lugo told CNN he's met with 25 members of Congress and the governor of Puerto Rico to make the case for rebuilding the site using federal funding. He estimates it's going to take around $400 million.
--:-- Duarte Joraldino: And he says he's already working hard to design a new model.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We've been talking about how health care workers are doing in this country, how burnt out they are, how exposed they are as first responders. Which is why you might be kind of surprised to learn there's actually a surge of people right now saying they want to work in health care someday.
--:-- Duarte Joraldino: Yeah, according to NPR, applications to medical schools are up 18 percent over last year. One senior director at the Association of American Medical Colleges told NPR this is unprecedented. He likens it to what we saw after 9-11 with a surge of people wanting to join the military.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yeah, some medical school admissions officers have even come up with a nickname for this. They're calling it the Fauci effect. And when NPR asked Dr. Anthony Fauci about it, he said he's flattered. But aside from the name, he feels encouraged because he says this shows that more people want to contribute to making a better society and not just bettering themselves.
--:-- Duarte Joraldino: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're there, check out some of our audio stories. We'll talk with you again tomorrow. Thank you.
