--:-- Mark Garrison: Good morning. It's Thursday, January 11th. I'm Mark Garrison, in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Mark Garrison: On today's show, South Africa's genocide case against Israel, explaining the violent crisis in Ecuador, and a compelling new clue, one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in American history.
--:-- Ronald Lamola: The U.N.'s International Court of Justice is hearing arguments in a case accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. More than 23,000 Palestinians, largely civilians, have been killed since Hamas' attack on October 7th. And nearly all of Gaza's more than 2 million residents have been forced out of their homes. South Africa is bringing the case.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In court today at The Hague, Ronald Lamola, the country's justice minister, argued that Israel's actions in Gaza have been problematic even before the current war.
--:-- Ronald Lamola: The Palestinians have experienced systematic oppression and violence for the last 76 years, on 6 October 2023 and every day since October 7, 2023. In the Gaza Strip, at least since 2004, Israel continues to exercise control over the airspace, territorial waters, land crossing, water, electricity, and civilian infrastructure, as well as over key government functions.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Lamola also clearly condemned the Hamas attack on Israel.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Ellen Ionis is covering the case for Vox. Proving that Israel directed genocide and actually as a whole state or body politic or however the court looks at this is going to be really hard.
--:-- Ellen Ionis: She told us about why South Africa is bringing the case against Israel.
--:-- Ellen Ionis: There's a really long history of solidarity with Palestinians. It's an important political notion within South Africa. Nelson Mandela once said the freedom of South Africans would be incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians. He and other anti-apartheid campaigners were strong supporters of the Palestinian cause.
--:-- Mark Garrison: South Africa laid out its argument in an 84-page document. It says Israel's actions are, quote, genocidal in character, intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national racial and ethnical group.
--:-- Ellen Ionis: Israel has strongly denied the accusations and yesterday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country has no intention of displacing Gaza civilian population.
--:-- Mark Garrison: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls the genocide case meritless.
--:-- Antony Blinken: It's particularly gallant, given that those who are attacking Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, as well as their support on Iran, continue to openly call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Genocide is among the most serious crimes a country can be accused of. The term was first used in 1944 to describe the Nazi murders of Jewish people and other ethnic groups during the Holocaust.
--:-- Mark Garrison: While the court's decisions are legally binding, they can be difficult to enforce. Russia, for example, was ordered to halt its invasion of Ukraine, but has continued to ignore that ruling.
--:-- Ellen Ionis: The interesting thing about the court is there really isn't much of a mechanism besides the U.N. Security Council and member states' treaty obligations to enforce it.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And that's pretty complicated because the Security Council, especially the permanent members, are highly, highly political right now.
--:-- Mark Garrison: So the U.S. has veto power. So any sort of dispute that comes up before the Security Council, especially when it comes to Israel, the U.S. is going to side with Israel.
--:-- Ellen Ionis: Still, Iona says a ruling of genocide would have significant impact on Israel's global reputation.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Tomorrow, Israel will present its defense. It could be years before there's a final ruling in this case.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now let's take a quick look at some other stories in the news.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Today there are closing arguments in former President Donald Trump's civil fraud case in New York.
--:-- [Music plays in the background]
--:-- Mark Garrison: And those arguments will not be delivered by him personally. Trump reportedly wanted to speak, but the judge turned down the request because Trump refused to agree to stick to the facts of the case and avoid attacks.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Trump is accused of fraudulently inflating his net worth and faces hundreds of millions of dollars in potential damages.
--:-- Mark Garrison: There's also quite a bit of news about the rest of the Republican presidential field.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie dropped out of the race just days before the Iowa caucuses.
--:-- Mark Garrison: His campaign built on criticizing Trump failed to gain much traction. What Christie said offstage about other candidates is getting a lot of attention this morning.
--:-- Mark Garrison: He was caught on a hot mic talking about Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.
--:-- Mark Garrison: She spent $68 million so far, just on TV. Spent $68 million so far, $59 million by DeSantis. And we spent $12 million. I mean, who's punching above their weight and who's getting a return on their investment? And she's going to get smoked. And you and I both know it. She's not up to this.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Haley and DeSantis faced off last night in the last debate before the Iowa caucus's Monday.
--:-- Mark Garrison: You can find more campaign coverage in the Apple News app.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And in sports, two football legends are leaving their teams.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Coach Bill Belichick is reportedly parting ways with the New England Patriots. He coached 24 seasons there, winning six Super Bowl titles.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And in college football, Alabama coach Nick Saban is retiring. He won six national titles with Alabama and one with LSU.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now to Ecuador, where people are reeling from a wave of deadly violence.
--:-- Mark Garrison: It includes the incident we talked about yesterday on the show, when armed men held a TV station's employees at gunpoint while they were live on the air.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The BBC explains how the country has been overtaken by gang violence.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The most recent wave started a few days ago, when a notorious gang leader was found missing from his cell.
--:-- Mark Garrison: There were also riots in a number of prisons across the country, with more than 130 prison guards and staff taken hostage.
--:-- Carolina Loza León: A local journalist, told the BBC that many people are afraid to leave their homes.
--:-- Carolina Loza León: Nobody expected this. We had seen violence, especially when there were transfers from drug gang members, key gang members, from one prison to another. But nothing is coordinated at this level in several cities in the country as we saw.
--:-- Mark Garrison: were in a complete state of panic and terror.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Ecuador's president has declared a state of emergency and is enforcing a daily curfew.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Thousands of police officers and military personnel are deployed to hunt down criminal gangs and restore order.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The U.S. is offering support for the government with aid on the way.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Even before the most recent surge in violence, more Ecuadorians have attempted to enter America, trying to escape the danger in poverty there.
--:-- Mark Garrison: We going to close with a story about a big break in one of the FBI most intriguing cold cases.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Popular Mechanics looks at how a necktie may hold the answer to the only unsolved commercial airline hijacking in history.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In 1971, a man got on a plane in Portland with a one-way ticket to Seattle.
--:-- Mark Garrison: He gave the flight attendant a note. It said he had a bomb and wanted $200,000.
--:-- Mark Garrison: His demands were met. Then somewhere over Washington state, He parachuted out and was never found. History knows him as D.B. Cooper.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Just before he jumped out, he took off his tie. It wouldn't be a good idea to skydive with one of those flapping around in your face.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now a new analysis finds some microscopic evidence that's promising.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Private investigator Eric Uless talked to the Fox station in Seattle about the case.
--:-- Eric Uless: When you look at the tie, when you look at that skinny black clip-on tie that he picked up at J.C. Penney, probably around Christmas 1964 for $1.49, and you apply modern state-of-the-art technology to it, things they didn't have back in 1971 when this occurred, it tells a story.
--:-- Eric Uless: Ulas says the tiny metal fragments on the tie traced to a company called Crucible Steel in Pennsylvania.
--:-- Eric Uless: It provided material that made planes. And Cooper seemed to know a lot about aircraft. He gave very specific instructions about the flight path, speed, even the angle of the flaps on the wings.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Ulus thinks that points to a person who was involved in aerospace engineering.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Ulus isn't sure who D.B. Cooper could be yet, but he's focusing on a titanium researcher named Vince Peterson.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But Peterson died decades ago, so we can't get his part of the story.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Over the years, people have found possible evidence, money and papers in Washington State.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But the thing that finally solves it might just be a tiny speck on an old-fashioned accessory.
--:-- Mark Garrison: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next from The New Yorker.
--:-- Mark Garrison: It's the story of one woman in Texas who died during pregnancy and questions over whether the state's abortion ban may have cost her her life.
--:-- Mark Garrison: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
