--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, October 28th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, threats to election workers, the inequality in how student-athletes are being paid, and Michelle Obama calls on men to step up and protect reproductive rights. But first, new reporting about private conversations between Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin are raising concerns for NASA, the Defense Department and American intelligence agencies.
--:-- [Sound of a news clip plays in the background]
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Musk and the Russian leader have been in regular contact since 2022, discussing topics ranging from personal issues to business and geopolitics.
--:-- Thomas Grove: I mean, I think part of what makes Musk such an important and powerful character is his SpaceX company and Starlink, which is part of it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's Thomas Grove, Central and Eastern European correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. He explained how Musk has significant business ties with U.S. military and intelligence agencies.
--:-- Thomas Grove: His company SpaceX is the primary rocket launcher for the Pentagon and NASA, sending national security satellites into orbit and astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
--:-- Thomas Grove: Musk himself has access to certain classified information. Starlink is another one of Elon Musk's businesses. It's a satellite internet service that has played a major role in Russia's war in Ukraine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Early in the conflict, Musk sent Starlink terminals to provide free internet across the country, allowing it to be used by Ukrainians on the battlefield and giving them a significant advantage.
--:-- Thomas Grove: But Musk's view of the conflict appeared to change later that year, when Ukrainians asked him to activate Starlink in Crimea, and he didn't do it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The journal reporting says his moves coincided with public and private pressure from the Kremlin, and it looks like it wasn't the only time that happened.
--:-- Thomas Grove: And we understand that the Russians asked Musk to do a favor for China and not turn on Starlink over Taiwan.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We don't know how he responded to that, but we do understand that this request was made.
--:-- Thomas Grove: Musk has acknowledged the journal's reporting and so far has neither confirmed nor denied it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Kremlin called it absolutely false information and said there was just one phone call that took place prior to 2022 between Musk and Putin that was of an introductory nature.
--:-- [Sound of a news clip plays in the background]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Several White House officials said over the weekend they weren't aware of these alleged phone calls.
--:-- Senator Gene Shaheen: I called for an investigation.
--:-- Jim Himes: I called it a very serious concern.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This all comes as Musk has grown increasingly close to Donald Trump. He went from publicly saying he wouldn't endorse any candidate earlier this year to being one of Trump's biggest supporters.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Trump often speaks highly of Putin and reportedly had several phone calls with Putin since leaving office.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It certainly seems as though there's an effort to engage with Russia and with Putin in ways that may be different from the Biden administration.
--:-- Shamita Basu: According to the journal, Trump and Musk speak often and have talked about a possible role for Musk in a future Trump administration.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A title being batted around, head of a government efficiency commission.
--:-- [Sound of a news clip plays in the background]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Over the weekend, a man from Texas was arrested for punching an election worker who asked him to remove a hat in support of former President Trump at a polling place.
--:-- Jessica Husman: These kinds of threats don't just harm the people who work tirelessly to keep our elections safe. They can undermine the entire election process.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In a lot of these places, the entirety of the elections department has walked off the job because of the way that they've been treated.
--:-- Jessica Husman: That's Jessica Husman, editorial director of VoteBeat.
--:-- Jessica Husman: And so these counties are having to start from scratch training new employees. And that's where mistakes happen, right? Like, naturally, that's where mistakes happen.
--:-- Jessica Husman: And so I think that we're going to see a lot of human errors. And the people who are looking for election integrity issues will spin those up into conspiracy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Jessica Husman recently spoke to me for an episode of Apple News In Conversation about how our voting system works so well in so many ways and the real threats that we are seeing.
--:-- Jessica Husman: She told me another threat to our election integrity is all the last-minute changes to voting rules that are causing a lot of confusion.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For example, in recent months, the Georgia State Board of Elections passed a number of changes, including requiring counties to hand count ballots and allowing procedures that could delay election certification.
--:-- Jessica Husman: These rule changes were challenged in court, and with just weeks to go until Election Day, many of them were ultimately rejected.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The closer you get to elections, and, you know, poll worker guidelines have already been printed. Poll workers are being trained.
--:-- Jessica Husman: The more that you change what the rules are for their behavior and their activities that day, the more mistakes they're likely to make. And that is just a proven fact.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And then there's what happens after Election Day. The tallying, the certifying. both Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for a protracted legal battle.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bloomberg News tallied up more than 150 lawsuits that have already been filed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the last four years, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party have put a lot more money towards litigation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So they are both way more resourced. They can hire more attorneys. They can move more quickly.
--:-- Shamita Basu: None of those lawsuits will impact what the results were or were not but will throw chaos into the process and sow doubt in people who are already predisposed to believe that the election is flawed
--:-- Shamita Basu: To hear more of my conversation with Jessica Husman, check out our latest episode of Apple News in Conversation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the news app right now, it's queued up to play for you next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, just search for Apple News in Conversation to find that episode.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's been about three years since the NCAA started allowing college athletes to make money off their personal brand, their name, image and likeness.
--:-- Albert Samaha: Every state has different laws about what exactly NIL means, right?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Every state, every university had to kind of come up with their own policy for how to interpret this.
--:-- Albert Samaha: That's created this sort of system that's being built in real time without much oversight.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are some student athletes who have struck six-figure deals under new NIL rules, like Olympian and UCLA gymnast Jordan Childs and Colorado quarterback Shadur Sanders, the son of well-known coach Deion Sanders.
--:-- Albert Samaha: But these records show most NIL payments are worth just hundreds of dollars or less.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And these records are not public, which means student athletes have to navigate this new economy without any context.
--:-- Albert Samaha: So it's all part of this system of secrecy that really diminishes their negotiating leverage and makes it difficult for them to know how much to ask for, how much their worth is on the market.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At the 12 schools that provided NIL data to The Washington Post, $92 million went to men athletes, while $19 million went to women athletes.
--:-- Albert Samaha: In this day and age, that just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Many of us who have followed college basketball have seen women's college basketball has sort of surpassed the cultural relevance of men's college basketball.
--:-- Albert Samaha: Most people I know can name, you know, a dozen women's college basketball players.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And yet what we've seen is that at a lot of schools, the men's college basketball teams are getting anywhere between two and ten times as much as the women's basketball team.
--:-- Albert Samaha: Even though the players on the women's team have bigger social media followings, have won more games, and of course are putting in the same amount of time and labor into their sport.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It is possible that the NIL economy for student-athletes could look very different in coming years.
--:-- Albert Samaha: Earlier this year, the NCAA agreed to a multibillion-dollar legal settlement that would allow schools to directly share revenue with athletes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Samaha says there are still big questions universities need to address about this new unclear marketplace.
--:-- Albert Samaha: It created this deeply unequal economic system.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So there's a big debate among colleges and administrators about what their role should be, whether they should play more in a role in narrowing this financial disparity or whether they're better off keeping their hands off and not getting involved in the system.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Donald Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden last night where he was joined by MAGA celebrities including Rudy Giuliani, Tucker Carlson, Hulk Hogan and Elon Musk.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Melania Trump, who's been absent from the campaign trail, made a surprise appearance as well.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the speaker who maybe made the biggest waves was comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who made disparaging comments about Black voters, conflict in the Middle East and Puerto Rico.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yeah, I think it's called Puerto Rico.
--:-- Shamita Basu: His remarks were met with fierce backlash.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Republican Congresswoman Maria Salazar was one of many people who spoke out saying those comments do not reflect GOP values.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And she noted the military contributions of Puerto Ricans and said their bravery deserves respect.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NBC News reports that Pennsylvania, which is a battleground state, is home to the third-largest Puerto Rican diaspora in the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In fact, Kamala Harris just wrapped a day of campaigning there, where she visited a local Puerto Rican restaurant and got the endorsement of Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It adds to the long list of A-list celebrities who have come out to support Harris, some of them on the campaign trail, including Beyonce, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee, Tyler Perry and Michelle Obama.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The former first lady spoke directly to men in the crowd in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Saturday night and asked them to step up when it comes to protecting women's reproductive rights.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So I am asking y'all from the core of my being to take our lives seriously. Please.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, with the World Series underway, there's some good news for Dodgers fans.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Baseball's biggest star, Shohei Otani, injured his shoulder late in Game 2 on Saturday night, leading to concerns that he might be sitting out for the remainder of the series.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the manager of the Dodgers told ESPN that Otani is, quote, in a great spot and will be playing in Game 3 tonight.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Dodgers lead the New York Yankees 2-0 in the series.
--:-- Shamita Basu: 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 right now, we've got our latest episode of Apple News in Conversation about election integrity queued up to play for you next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, just search for Apple News in Conversation to find that episode.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
