--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, July 28th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, how to get ready for the big changes coming to student loan repayment programs. The men released in the Salvadoran prison swap speak out. And why this year doesn't have a definitive song of the summer. But first, to Gaza, where Israel paused military activity in just a few parts of the enclave to allow more aid in, as Palestinians have been dying from acute malnutrition by the dozens in recent days, and international outrage is building.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is the first time Israel has let up on the restrictions that have been in place for months now. The UN reports that nearly one in three people are going multiple days without eating. Half a million people are experiencing famine-like conditions. The Gaza Health Ministry recorded six new deaths from malnutrition yesterday, bringing the total to at least 133. That includes at least 87 children.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Doctors Without Borders says severe malnutrition in children under the age of five has tripled in the past two weeks. And Steve Dorsey with the International Committee of the Red Cross told Meet the Press what their staff is seeing in Gaza is heart-wrenching.
--:-- Steve Dorsey: Seeing these malnourished bodies of little children wasting away, in some cases they are too weak to even cry. Imagine being a parent unable to feed yourself, let alone your own children. And not only that, but our staff too. There's simply just not enough food getting into Gaza.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now in at least three parts of Gaza, Israel says it will stop military action for 10 hours a day to allow more aid in. Israel says new secure aid corridors will be opened for agencies to distribute supplies, and it's allowing foreign countries to airdrop aid, which both Jordan and the UAE have already done.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But how effective these changes will be in stemming the starvation crisis in Gaza is uncertain. Aid agencies say not enough aid can be distributed to Gaza by air to make a meaningful impact. Only distributions by land can. UN officials estimate that roughly 120 trucks per day are required to cover basic human needs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before the war, Israel allowed 500 to 600 truckloads of aid into Gaza daily. Now, aid agencies say that number is more like 28 trucks a day to feed over 2 million people. Secure aid distribution routes could help aid agencies get more supplies to people in need safely.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But it's not the only element of the distribution process they found challenging to navigate over the course of the war. Here's how the spokesperson for the U.N. secretary general recently described it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Karim Shalom is not a McDonald's drive-thru where we just pull up and pick up what we've ordered, right? There are tremendous bureaucratic impediments. There are tremendous security impediments.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As NBC explains, Israel controls almost every part of the distribution process, like how much aid is allowed in, what types of aid, and when aid groups can pick up supplies. These groups say the process is often riddled with delays and constantly changing schedules, which makes their work difficult.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the UN says half of the requests they made to collect aid in the last week were denied. Israel meanwhile has blamed the United Nations and other aid groups for issues with distribution. And Israeli officials have blamed Hamas for the food shortages.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They've long claimed that Hamas is stealing aid. New analysis from USAID found no evidence that Hamas is systematically stealing aid. And multiple Israeli military officials told The New York Times that they have never found evidence of it either.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These officials told The Times that the U.N. aid delivery system was, in fact, largely effective in providing food to Gaza's desperate and hungry population.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a big week for Americans with student loans. If you're one of nearly 7.7 million people enrolled in the save plan. And PR education correspondent Corey Turner says it's time to get out now.
--:-- Corey Turner: Interest for the first time is going to start accruing on their loans this Friday. The save plan was created by the Biden administration, and it's the most generous repayment option available to borrowers. But it's shutting down in 2028 after Republicans successfully argued in court that it's too generous.
--:-- Corey Turner: And experts told me anyone who's on the plan now shouldn't stick around until then. They're going to see their loans start to grow. And I don't think anybody wants that.
--:-- Corey Turner: So that's I would say that's the first priority as we stare this week in the face. So which repayment plan should you turn to instead? This is where things get complicated because Trump's tax and spending package introduced sweeping changes to the federal student loan system.
--:-- Corey Turner: And I was told the government has done a pretty poor job of communicating your new options. There are still folks inside government trying to get their heads around what this will look like. So the alternatives for, say, borrowers aren't super clear.
--:-- Corey Turner: For new borrowers, here's what you should know. Under the new law, there are tighter borrowing limits and far fewer options for repayment plans. Right now, there are seven plans available, but Republicans in Congress voted to cut those down to two.
--:-- Corey Turner: One is just a good old-fashioned oatmeal standard plan. It works kind of like a home mortgage. Your monthly payment is the same every month. And your repayment term just depends on the size of your loan.
--:-- Corey Turner: The other option is called RAP, which stands for the Repayment Assistance Plan. There are a couple of things in here that borrowers are actually really going to like. One is Congress has finally decided, they did this under the save plan, they're waiving interest that's left over after you make your monthly payments.
--:-- Corey Turner: So nobody's going to see their loans grow. And then there is something really new here for really lower income borrowers whose monthly payments really don't make much of a dent in their principal, the ed department is going to give them up to 50 bucks a month against their principal.
--:-- Corey Turner: So like not only will lower income borrowers not see their loans grow, but they'll also see their loans go down. And if you have existing student loans to pay off, there's one more option I would strongly consider, which offers loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years, depending on the size of the loan. It's called IBR.
--:-- Corey Turner: It's safe because it It is the one plan that was created explicitly by Congress in law. It wasn't created by the education secretary. There was no extrapolation of legal authority Congress made it Nobody can touch it IBR is an island of legality
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to the recent release of 252 men from Venezuela from the notorious Salvadoran prison, SACAT. They left as free men for the first time in four months in a prisoner swap deal between Venezuela, El Salvador and the U.S. reached earlier this month.
--:-- Shamita Basu: While detained, they say they were denied access to lawyers, given little food and routinely physically abused. They say it was torture. And before we go further, I should warn you, this segment includes graphic descriptions of violence.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Atlantic editor Gisela Salim Payer recently spoke with some of these men about their experience. The four people she spoke with described a punishment cell called the island. They described it as a dungeon. It was a room without water and no light, and they had to sleep on the floor.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They told her they sometimes spent days in the cell. One of the men she spoke to was Cater Alexander Flores, who applied for an appointment to enter the U.S. legally in 2023 when he was 17 and settled in Texas.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He started applying for asylum but never completed the process and found a job laying carpet, DJing in his spare time. He was arrested last December and detained by ICE.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He told Salim Payer he thought they would send him back to Venezuela, and he had no idea he was going to El Salvador until his plane landed. He says a riot broke out in the prison back in April after guards beat a man so badly he started convulsing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Flores and others staged a hunger strike in protest. They agreed to end the hunger strike if the guards promised to tone it down with the beating. The beating never stopped, but things got a bit calmer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It was not as constant as before. Cader Flores said, nos dejaron vivir por un tiempo. They let us live for a time. But then, you know, the beating resumed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In May, some of the detainees attempted to break the locks on their cells using metal rails from their beds. They knew they wouldn't be able to escape. El Salvador's security minister has said people only leave Sikat, quote, inside a coffin.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But they were hoping to stage a rebellion. They were punished very harshly for six days. They were beaten up for many hours. And on the last day, they brought in female guards to do the beating for them, to humiliate them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if they would cry or complain, they would start again. The government of El Salvador did not respond to Salim Payer's request for comment about these claims.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When the Trump administration deported these men back in March it repeatedly made allegations without providing evidence that they were violent gang members.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It invoked a rare wartime law to facilitate their removal with little to no due process involved. And Trump paid El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, $6 million to detain them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Since then, journalists have learned there was little evidence these men were connected to gangs, and the vast majority, at least 197, were never convicted of crimes in the U.S.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Only six had violent criminal records. At least one of the men is now taking steps to sue the United States. He filed a claim Thursday with the Homeland Security Department, accusing U.S. immigration agencies of violating his due process rights, which is a precursor to taking legal action against the government in federal court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. The United States and the European Union have agreed to a new trade framework that would impose a 15 percent import tariff on most EU goods, but averts some of the bigger threats President Trump made earlier this month.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump said the EU had promised to spend $750 billion on U.S. energy and hundreds of billions in arms purchases. He made the announcement with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his golf club in Scotland.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the two leaders offered a different tone on the deal itself. Trump described it as the biggest deal ever made, while von der Leyen said it was the best we could get. The EU had been hoping to keep tariffs at 10 percent.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Close to a dozen people were stabbed at a Walmart in Traverse City, Michigan on Saturday. As of Sunday, two of the victims were in serious condition, although doctors said all the victims are expected to survive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The local sheriff called it a random attack and said the victims had not been selected ahead of time. They've arrested and charged a 42-year-old man with terrorism and assault with intent to murder.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The sheriff praised bystanders who cornered the suspect in the parking lot and held him until law enforcement arrived.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, we're almost up against August, and this deep into the season, you might be wondering, where is the song of the summer? The Wall Street Journal found big hits from 2024 and even 2023 are simply too popular and are crowding out the room for new releases in the listening charts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Take A Bar Song by Shabuzi and Die With a Smile from Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, two hits from 2024 which have been mainstays on the Billboard Hot 100 since their release.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Executives told the Journal that with 99,000 new tracks delivered to streaming services a day in 2024, it might just be that people are overwhelmed and we're clinging to what we know.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Many AI chatbots are now equipped with safeguards in place for minors. One Atlantic editor writes about how easy she found it to pose as a teen and bypass those protective measures.
--:-- 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.
