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--:-- Shumita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, November 15th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, a new strategy for anti-abortion activists. In a UFO hearing, military experts say we are not alone. And the return of Lindsey Vonn.
--:-- Shumita Basu: But first, President-elect Donald Trump is tapping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Services. As a candidate, Trump spoke highly of Kennedy.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Robert F. Kennedy cares more about human beings and health and the environment than anybody. And he's going to be absolute. Having him is such a great honor. I've been friends of his for a long time. And I'm going to let him go wild on health. I'm going to let him go wild on the food. I'm going to let him go wild on medicines.
--:-- Shumita Basu: If he's confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy will run the agency that oversees vaccines, scientific research, public health decisions, and the health care plans of Americans who rely on Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act's markets. It's a huge operation that runs on a $1.7 trillion budget.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Kennedy, who does not have a medical or public health degree, was once a Democrat. Then he decided to leave the party and run for president as a third party candidate before dropping out of the race and endorsing Trump.
--:-- Shumita Basu: People who supported his candidacy liked that he was skeptical of big money interests in food and public health, but he has also spread a lot of false information. So let's spend the next few minutes going through what Kennedy has said about various health topics and what the science says.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And for help with this, we're going to lean in part on the health and science publication Stat, as well as the economist Emily Oster's recent essay in The New York Times.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Let's start with vaccines. For decades, Kennedy has pushed the idea that vaccines cause autism, and he founded a nonprofit that promotes theories linking vaccines to other conditions.
--:-- Stat: Stat says these theories are false and have been repeatedly debunked by credible studies.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Lately, Kennedy has shifted his tone on this issue, instead calling for more transparency around the science.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Here's what he told NBC News earlier this year. If vaccines are working for somebody, I'm not going to take them away. People ought to have choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information. So I'm going to make sure the scientific safety studies and efficacies are out there, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is gonna be good for them.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Next, let's talk about fluoride. Kennedy has called for removing fluoride from our water, saying it's linked to things like arthritis, bone cancer and neurodevelopmental disorders.
--:-- Emily Oster: Oster points out water fluoridation has been widely studied and only at high high levels does it appear to have any effect on development. Our water just doesn't come close to those levels.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The main reason to add fluoride to water is that it prevents tooth decay, which studies support.
--:-- Shumita Basu: In Israel, where they got rid of fluoride in their water in 2014, they saw an increase in dental work in young children in the years after.
--:-- Shumita Basu: In fact, the CDC has called the fluoridation of our water one of the country's 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Another topic that has gotten a lot of attention, Kennedy's positions on what we eat and drink. For example, Kennedy has called for Americans to drink raw milk.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Many experts say that's just not a great idea. Pasteurization kills pathogens and makes milk safer for consumption. And it's not clear whether there are any health benefits to drinking raw milk.
--:-- Shumita Basu: As for food, he wants to see Americans rely less on ultra-processed foods. And for America to follow Europe in the banning of certain chemicals that are believed to be harmful and linked to disease.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Those positions are relatively uncontroversial. But he has been very critical of the federal government's role in all of this.
--:-- Shumita Basu: We don't have good science because the agencies deliberately don't do that science because they don't want people to know what they're eating.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And he's called for greatly reducing the size of the departments he could be overseeing.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Donna Shalala, who led HHS during the Clinton administration, called RFK Jr. totally unqualified for the role.
--:-- Shumita Basu: That sentiment was quickly echoed by several Democrats yesterday. Meanwhile, many Republicans applauded the nomination, with one calling the choice brilliant and another saying it's a bad day for big pharma.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Let's turn now to another major health issue, abortion. Abortion was on the ballot in 10 states in this election, with voters in seven choosing to protect abortion rights.
--:-- Shumita Basu: But already there's an organized legal backlash against these recently passed measures, led by a coalition of anti-abortion groups.
--:-- Alice Miranda Ollstein: They unveiled their roadmap to chip away at federal and state-level access. This group's theory is that they can run the same playbook that they successfully used when Roe v. Wade was still in place.
--:-- Shumita Basu: That's Politico reporter Alice Miranda Ollstein. She said this group refers to state measures that have codified abortion into their constitutions as mini-Ros.
--:-- Alice Miranda Ollstein: And just like when abortion was the law of the land, anti-abortion groups were able to find ways to bring lawsuits through the courts to restrict the procedure.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Now they're planning to find more legal loopholes to do the same. They are targeting abortion pills, which since then have become the predominant method of terminating a pregnancy in the country.
--:-- Alice Miranda Ollstein: Specifically, they plan to go after the way abortion pills are distributed. Right now a lot of people in states with abortion bans are getting abortion pills prescribed to them via telemedicine from a doctor in a blue state that has protections.
--:-- Shumita Basu: There is an interest in going after that practice and trying to stop it.
--:-- Alice Miranda Ollstein: And Olsteen says they're planning to test out new legal arguments, including using environmental law.
--:-- Shumita Basu: They are arguing that abortion pills are contaminating the water supply. I have talked to experts who say there's no evidence of that.
--:-- Shumita Basu: These anti-abortion groups say they're going to be doing their own water testing and trying to offer their own evidence.
--:-- Shumita Basu: So it's unclear whether that will resonate in state legislatures and the courts.
--:-- Shumita Basu: But you have lawmakers in several states who have agreed to introduce that.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Abortion rights activists told Alstein they're prepared for lawsuits, and they say the recently approved ballot measures were designed with some of these legal challenges in mind.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The pro-abortion rights movement said, look, we had our lawyers, really make these airtight.
--:-- Shumita Basu: But a lot of these challenges will go before judges that could interpret the laws differently.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And in this past election, Olsteen told us several conservative judges were elected in states where we could see these challenges.
--:-- Shumita Basu: With a flood of post-election analysis and Trump cabinet news dominating the headlines this week, you might have missed a congressional hearing focused on a decades-old debate, do UFOs exist?
--:-- Shumita Basu: According to four former military and government officials, yes, and Americans deserve to know more.
--:-- Shumita Basu: They testified before Congress about what most people call UFOs, but what they officially refer to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAP.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And over the last few years, military and intelligence officials have gone on the record about not only spotting UAPs, but also being concerned that they could pose a threat to national security, including Lou Elizondo, a former Department of Defense official, just this week.
--:-- Lou Elizondo: Let me be clear. UAP are real. Advanced technologies not made by our government or any other government are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Elizondo said he believes the world deserves to know more, and he hopes President-elect Trump's administration will be more transparent than previous ones.
--:-- Shumita Basu: In this exchange with Representative Nancy Mace, Elizondo testified that the U.S. and its allies have a secret program for UAPs.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Has the government conducted secret UAP crash retrieval programs, yes or no? Yes.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Okay, were they designed to identify and reverse engineer alien craft, yes or no? Yes.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Michael Gold, a former NASA associate administrator, also advocated for more transparency from the executive branch and from the Pentagon.
--:-- Michael Gold: Our best tool for unlocking the mystery of UAP is science. But we cannot conduct a proper inquiry if the stigma is so overwhelming that just daring to be part of a NASA research team elicits such a vitriolic response.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Therefore one of the most important actions that can be taken relative to exposing the truth of UAP is to combat the stigma.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Over the years, a lot of documented encounters with these kinds of phenomena have been explained as pretty pedestrian objects. Weather balloons, drones, even trash.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Gold acknowledged as much, but said that some occurrences can't easily be explained.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And that NASA needs more funding to document what is out there.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The Pentagon issued a report in March saying that it has found no evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And the Pentagon has also said that with more research, it's possible that other reports of UAP could be rationally explained as well.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Two federal judges have agreed to delay the trials of two men accused of taking part in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The judges said they want to conserve court resources and avoid unnecessary work, since Trump has said he will pardon these defendants after he's inaugurated.
--:-- Shumita Basu: This is the first time we've seen federal judges give in to this request in anticipation of Trump taking office.
--:-- Shumita Basu: In climate news, there have been a series of brush fires in a truly unexpected place, New York City.
--:-- Shumita Basu: More than 200, in fact, according to the fire department, far higher than in years past.
--:-- Shumita Basu: New York and the surrounding region hasn't gotten much rain lately, creating dry conditions.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Earlier in the week, Amtrak had to shut down service on one of its lines.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Some schools north of the city closed, too.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Bloomberg calls it the worst fire season the Northeast has experienced in more than a decade.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And finally, one of the world's great skiers is back.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Lindsey Vonn announced on Thursday that she's coming out of retirement to join the U.S. ski team, planning to race again at the age of 40.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The three-time Olympic medalist retired six years ago after a series of injuries, including broken arms and legs, torn ligaments and concussions.
--:-- Shumita Basu: If she can stay healthy, she will likely compete again in the next Winter Olympics, scheduled to take place in Italy in February of 2026.
--:-- Shumita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And check out our weekly interview show, In Conversation.
--:-- Shumita Basu: This week, I spoke with Sharon Horgan, the creator of the show Bad Sisters.
--:-- Shumita Basu: about her mission to bring realistic women to life on screen.
--:-- Shumita Basu: It felt like a massive challenge, and I was really scared of it.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And, you know, I'm still kind of scared of it, but I think that's a good thing to be.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The second season of Bad Sisters is now streaming on Apple TV+.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And if you're listening in the Apple News app right now, my interview with Sharon is queued up to play for you next.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Enjoy your weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
