--:-- Yasmin Khan: Good morning. It's Thursday, April 11th. I'm Yasmin Khan, in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Coming up, new worries about Israeli hostages held by Hamas, a Nigerian family's harrowing kidnapping story, and a groundbreaking mission to the moon. But first, former President Donald Trump has lost his latest attempt to delay the criminal trial in New York involving hush money.
--:-- Erica Orden: That means it's on track to start Monday with jury selection. Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up payments made just before the 2016 election. He's pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: It's the very first criminal prosecution of a former president in American history. And one big question is, who will make up the jury that'll decide Trump's fate? People have very strongly held opinions about him for or against.
--:-- Erica Orden: And people have to be able to say, believably, that they can set those feelings aside and judge the case solely on the evidence that they're presented with. And that sort of basic concept in and of itself is somewhat daunting.
--:-- Erica Orden: Earlier this week, Judge Juan Mershon released a list of 42 questions for potential jurors. A lot of different questions about people's history of associations with pro or anti-Trump groups, whether they've ever worked for the Trump Organization or anything else related to Donald Trump and other groups that they may be associated with, like Proud Boys or QAnon, things like that, and their media diet, which publications they read, which websites they tend to look at, and which social media sites they consume.
--:-- Erica Orden: Trump's lawyers asked Mershon to include questions about political affiliation, which he rejected. And the judge has put measures in place to try to protect jury members from harassment. The lawyers will know their names and Donald Trump will know the names of the jurors, but neither lawyers nor Trump is allowed to make those names public.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: So we will not know their individual names but we know a general sense of sort of who they are and what they do.
--:-- Erica Orden: Seating a jury could take a couple of weeks. The judge has said he expects Trump to be in court every day the trial is in session. That could be six to eight weeks, which will impact Trump's ability to campaign.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Now, let's take a quick look at some other stories in the news. In Gaza, there are new fears over the fate of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
--:-- Anas Baba: The militant group reportedly told negotiators that it's not able to track down 40 hostages who meet the terms for a ceasefire deal. That raises concerns that more Israeli hostages have died inside Gaza than previously thought.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: A hostage release is a key part of a possible ceasefire framework under discussion. There would also be a six-week pause in fighting and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
--:-- Anas Baba: And without a ceasefire, the violence continues. Israeli airstrikes killed three adult sons of the head of Hamas's political wing.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: There's also the ongoing humanitarian crisis. The civilian deaths and severe shortages of food in Gaza cast a shadow over Eid this week.
--:-- Anas Baba: I spotted children who tried to wear the best clothes that they do have, but without having a boot on or a shoe.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: There have now been more than 33,000 people killed in Gaza, largely civilians.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And here in the U.S., there's more fallout over an Arizona state Supreme Court decision allowing a ban on nearly all abortions to go into effect.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Legislators tried to repeal it in a chaotic session of the Arizona House of Representatives. Republicans blocked them from holding a vote, causing Democrats to chant "shame" at the GOP legislators.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: The court upheld a law dating back to 1864, decades before American women could vote.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: In Nigeria, a kidnapping crisis is terrorizing the country. This year alone, nearly 1,000 people, men, women, and children, have been violently taken in mass abductions and held for ransom.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwotu: This is part of a larger pattern in recent history. You might remember almost exactly 10 years ago when Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls from the town of Chibok.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Dozens escaped, many were released, but nearly 100 are still captive today.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwotu: According to security analysts, several thousand armed kidnappers have been operating in the forests of central and northern Nigeria, exploiting systemic weaknesses in public safety, like Nigeria's lack of investment in police for rural communities, which has allowed kidnappers to take people with relative ease.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwotu: West Africa correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu spent months following one family, a father and four sons, who survived a terrifying and violent kidnapping in January.
--:-- Father: I told them goodbye. I warned them not to try and escape and to trust that I will go and do whatever it takes to find the money and bring them home.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwotu: It took him a month to get the cash. He had to borrow some and sell nearly everything they owned.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwotu: He received phone calls from his sons in tears and begging for help after beatings from their kidnappers. But after he paid the ransom, only two of the boys were released. The kidnappers made more demands and threatened to kill the other sons.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwotu: Another month went by. The father paid again, and the cycle repeated, with the kidnappers releasing just one boy, keeping the youngest, who's 12.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwotu: The boy managed to escape in March, and today the family tells NPR they're dealing with the trauma.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: The 12-year-old rarely speaks or makes eye contact.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwotu: The family spent everything they had on ransoms, so now they can't afford school payments. They've mostly retreated from the community.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: It has reached a stage that you don't even know who to trust because you don't know who is your enemy and who is not.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwotu: Experts say one reason kidnappings for ransom are difficult to stop in Nigeria is because they can be so lucrative for kidnappers.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And the law makes addressing the problem all the more complicated. Kidnapping is illegal, but so are ransom payments. So Nigeria's government says, on the record, that it does not and will not pay ransoms.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwotu: Although off the record, some officials tell CBS quiet deals have been made.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: But for most families caught in the crisis, like the one that shared their story with NPR, they're largely dealing with these threats on their own.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Finally, President Biden welcomed Japan's Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, to Washington, complete with a flashy state dinner last night.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Space was a big theme. Kishida slipped a Star Trek reference into his toast.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And President Biden had a big announcement when he talked about scientific collaboration between the two countries.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Those ties stretch up to the moon, where two Japanese astronauts will join future American missions, and one will become the first non-American ever to land on the moon.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: This adds to an already massive PR week for the moon. Millions of Americans strapped on glasses and watched it blot out the sun this week.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: But nobody's set foot up there since 1972, and only a dozen people have ever done so.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: In addition to providing the first non-American astronaut to walk the moon, Japan will also supply a rover. It's designed to allow astronauts to travel farther and work for longer.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: A long-term goal for NASA is to establish a lunar base that could help support future missions to Mars.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. If you're already listening to us there right now, stick around to hear a narrated article.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: New York Magazine has more on the complicated political situation in Arizona. The swing state could decide who wins the White House, and the U.S. Senate race there could determine which party has control.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
