--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, October 10th. I'm Shamita Basu. 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.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Kyiv is under attack. Also, Lviv and other major cities in Ukraine's West that have mostly been peaceful in recent months. But today, residents heard air raid sirens and explosions and saw buildings in flames. Lately, the conflict has been concentrated in Ukraine south and east.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The deadly attacks came during the Monday morning rush hour as people headed to work and school. Putin said these strikes are in retaliation for an explosion that severely damaged a bridge linking Russia to territory it occupies in Crimea. It's a critical supply line for Russian troops in southeast Ukraine. Cutting it off creates military and trade problems for Russia.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ukraine did not officially take credit for blowing up the bridge, but senior officials have widely celebrated it on social media. The developments over the weekend came as Ukrainian forces have steadily taken back territory that Russia occupied.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before Russia's latest attacks, retired U.S. Navy Admiral Mike Mullen spoke to ABC on Sunday. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff talked about fears that Putin's losses in Ukraine may lead him to take stronger action, possibly even using nuclear weapons.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He's a cornered, I believe, a cornered animal, and I think he's more and more dangerous. just what's happened in the last 24 hours. That bridge was struck, which was logistically critical as well as very symbolic. Today's attacks may put a lot of Ukrainians back into the mindset of the earliest days of the war.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Back then, civilians fled major cities or huddled in bomb shelters. These new strikes are an explosive reminder that Russia's war is not over. And Putin's future moves are hard to predict.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today Harvey Weinstein trial on sexual assault charges begins in Los Angeles. It's a key moment for the Me Too movement, which was first sparked by abuse allegations against the Hollywood producer reported in The New Yorker and New York Times five years ago.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you've only partially followed the latest developments around Weinstein, let me fill you in on how high the stakes are for this trial. Back in 2020, he was convicted by a New York jury of charges including rape. A 23-year sentence made it likely that Weinstein, who's now 70 years old, would die in prison.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But a court is allowing him to appeal that conviction, and that means that this trial in Los Angeles may be needed to keep him in prison. It's likely this trial will still be going on when the film She Said comes out in theaters in November.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The movie tells the story of the New York Times reporters who broke the Weinstein allegations. His misconduct was an open secret in the entertainment industry for years, but he was so powerful that people wouldn't speak out.
--:-- Shamita Basu: How did you persuade women to tell you what had happened to them? A case I made was, I can't change what happened to you in the past, But together we may be able to help protect other people. The truth, basically.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That trailer has been an issue in the latest Weinstein case. His attorneys wanted to delay the trial until after the movie came out, arguing that ads could prejudice the jury. A judge rejected that request.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Waves of misinformation are targeting voters ahead of the midterms. It's a problem that seems to get worse with every election. Vox focuses on false information aimed at the Latino community specifically.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Christian Paz is a senior politics reporter at Vox. That's kind of the way that it gets worse in the Latino community is that there's more of a tendency to exist on social media in echo chambers in consuming media in Spanish or on social media platforms that aren necessarily as well regulated
--:-- Christian Paz: One example of this after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde Texas false rumors circulated in Spanish language chats on WhatsApp that the shooter was transgender or an undocumented immigrant. Both are not true.
--:-- Christian Paz: The false stories circulating involve some of the big topics dominating politics and political misinformation at the moment. Things like gender identity, inflation, Trump. Some misinformation can be traced back to Republican campaigns. Sometimes it's hard to tell who's behind it.
--:-- Christian Paz: Democrats say that misinformation targeting Latinos is hurting their party. That population is growing, so there could be major political impact. A lot of Latino voters, including those that I've spoken to, have told me that they just aren't excited, that they don't feel a very strong, positive reason to vote for a Democrat right now.
--:-- Christian Paz: Paz says it's hard to tell how much of this is due to misinformation and how much is a failure of Democratic strategy. But he says among Latinos, there is dissatisfaction with Biden, particularly on money issues. The economy, inflation, costs of living are the top concerns on their minds.
--:-- Christian Paz: Latino Republicans definitely have big concerns with crime, with immigration. If you look at Latino Democrats, that is slightly different. There are other concerns with education and health care. And abortion definitely rises on that side as well.
--:-- Christian Paz: Recent survey data of Latino voters shows that misinformation can still harm people who don't fully believe it. It can make them unsure of what to believe and unwilling to engage with elections.
--:-- Christian Paz: The big question is how to counter the effects of bad information. New research shows that having access to accurate, fact-checking journalism can lead people to reject false claims. This worked for English and Spanish speakers, liberals and conservatives.
--:-- Christian Paz: The researchers concluded making fact-checking information available in Spanish and on platforms like WhatsApp could help counter this kind of targeted misinformation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Stories about cheating in sports are all over the news lately. Recently on this show we talked about the chess scandal that been a big deal over the last few weeks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This month, a fishing competition in Ohio with around $30,000 in prize money devolved into total chaos when officials discovered the two anglers cheated. The Akron Beacon Journal tells the story of how officials cut their fish open and found weights stuffed inside.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Also this month, cheating allegations in a very different kind of competition, Irish dance. Now, if you're wondering, how do you cheat in dance? We were kind of confused, too, until we got into the details of the story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The issue was with the judges. The Independent reports that there are text messages among judges and dance teachers discussing fixing competitions. In one case, there appeared to be talk of exchanging sexual favors for higher scores.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The governing body of competitive Irish dancing is now investigating. All these cheating stories had NPR reach out to a professor at the Wharton School of Business at UPenn who studies decision-making and ask him, why, why do we cheat?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Maurice Schweitzer says people cheat for things like money and status. But there is a third factor at play, something that he calls the cheater's high. There's something about the thrill of outsmarting another person or outsmarting a system where we don't always feel guilty and bad about unethical behavior.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I think that helps to explain why some people are attracted to engaging in some ethical behavior. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app now, stick around and we'll have a narrator read you a Bloomberg Businessweek article. It's about hackers who target new homebuyers and the crack team that's working to prevent them from stealing down payments.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So sit back and enjoy listening to that. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
