--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, September 10th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- [Discussion of upcoming debate between Vice President Harris and former President Trump]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Joining me to talk about how the candidates are preparing and more is my colleague Gideon Resnick.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Hey, Shamita. Good to be with you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So a lot usually goes into debate prep. There are policy sessions, there are mock debates, practice. What do we know about how these candidates have been preparing in the last few days?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yeah, I mean, let's start with Harris. Reporters often describe her as somebody that is extremely prepared, does a lot of research, asks a lot of questions. But she hasn't debated on a stage like this since 2020 with then-Vice President Mike Pence. So she's definitely more rusty than Trump is in a lot of ways.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That being said, the team around her has been preparing for a debate even before she became the presidential nominee. You know, she was going to have to debate the vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance. But in the last couple of days, the Harris team has been in what we kind of see described as in-depth, you know, choreographed type of sessions, these real mock debates with the same aide standing in for Trump that actually did for Hillary Clinton in 2016 in a suit and red tie.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Jasmine Wright, a politics reporter at Notice, a product of the nonpartisan All-Britain Journalism Institute, she covers Harris and told me that they are preparing for the unknown also with Trump and that they're focusing on drawing a temperament contrast when Harris is up there. Get her to not necessarily go tit for tat with Donald Trump, but try to rise above it, contrasting her personality with his own, hoping that the American voters see her as somebody more stable than Trump, but also more presidential than Trump, that she's not going to get dragged down in the mud.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But she is going to defend herself and defend what she believes in. And Jasmine even told me that there have been discussions about keeping Trump from possibly entering her physical space, like that one debate in 2016 where Trump was kind of circling Clinton.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: I talked to one person who had been really briefed on some of these prep moments and said, you know, that she's going to be prepared to, if necessary, stop him moving in on her space or stop him from attacking her in certain ways.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And just to say that 2016 debate was sort of a town hall set up. So there was an audience and they had sort of a freedom of movement that they won't have at tonight's debate.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: What do we know about what Trump has been doing specifically to prep for this?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yeah, I mean, the reporting suggests that his team is taking a very different approach, not really doing those full mock debates. There isn't really a stand-in for Harris, for example.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Instead CNN Kristen Holmes told me the campaign is holding what they kind of loosely calling policy sessions where aides and advisors might kind of pepper Trump with questions but with less of that kind of rigorous debate structure.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So for example The New York Times reports that Florida Representative Matt Gaetz has been asking Trump tough questions in some of these meetings about Trump's criminal convictions. Former Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who some listeners and you might remember was able to successfully trip up Harris in a 2019 debate, is also playing a role here.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: On the topics and policy front, Kristen Holmes told me the campaign does want to keep Trump on some of those familiar topics, immigration and the economy, and also to make sure that he can rein in some of his more extreme tendencies and reactions. They don't want him to cause a scene. They don't want it to show that she's getting under his skin at all.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that's something they've had conversations about, particularly with tone and temperament. They know what it looks like if she is able to get under his skin, particularly as a woman, a woman of color. They don't want him lashing out at her personally up on the stage.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Obviously, it's Donald Trump, so anything could happen. But they're trying to steer away from that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, I should say, too, there is always a little bit of gamesmanship that goes on around these debates. You know, there's definitely a lowering of expectations that some campaigns and candidates try to do. There's an impression that Trump kind of freewheels things or isn't necessarily all that prepared.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: To that point, I thought it was interesting that the New York Times reported that Trump is, in fact, preparing more than he has in the last two presidential elections.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So what do each of the campaigns think success will look like for them tonight?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yeah, for Harris, her team wants her to be able to present a vision of change. They want to be able to fill in gaps for voters who still have questions and also to present that temperament contrast.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here's Jasmine again. It's been trying to kind of break her, I think, of old mechanisms of kind of fixating on details or potentially being too overprepared, but also trying to get her to establish new norms of how you kind of fight through these points and how you make yourself look more presidential by staying above the fray on certain attack lines, but also taking the issue to Trump on others.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And then for Trump, Kristen told me they don't necessarily want him in long exchanges on things like reproductive rights. They also want him more prepared than he was in a recent conversation about child care where he gave a pretty mangled answer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But really for him, too, it's going to come down to questions about demeanor as well. Here's Kristen again. The one thing that they don't want is for him to make a scene, for him to storm off the stage, for him to show that she got underneath his skin. Because that is what they believe will be his downfall.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: They believe if he can get up there and pivot and not necessarily even make news or win the debate, but get up there and not do that, that that is successful for him.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But it's also one of the most hard to control things because of who Donald Trump is.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And Shamita, we should say that this is the only scheduled debate between Harris and Trump at the moment. So there are really high expectations from both camps, kind of unsure that they're going to get another opportunity to have millions of eyeballs on them in this context.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Gideon you are going to be there tonight at the debate. We will be watching from home but we check back in with you again tomorrow.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, thank you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to Georgia, where we're learning more about the response to the mass shooting at Appalachee High School that killed two students and two teachers last week.
--:-- [Discussion of the shooting and the response]
--:-- Shamita Basu: First responders captured the gunman within minutes. That's a far cry from the shooting in New Valley, Texas. where it took law enforcement 77 minutes to confront the gunman, long after he had killed 19 students and two teachers.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: There are a few factors that helped first responders in Georgia move quickly. One of them is Alyssa's Law, a policy promoted by a mother of a student killed at Parkland High School in Florida in 2018. It was adopted by Georgia last year and requires school districts to install silent alert systems that directly link to law enforcement agencies.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The system at Appalachee High School was brand new, so new that their first test run was just one day before the shooting. If you picture a teacher ID badge with a panic button, that's more or less how the crisis alert technology used by the school works.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Pressing the button notifies school administrators and local law enforcement to that person's exact location. And the system can also send pre-recorded warnings over the intercom.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At Appalachie High, social studies teacher Stephen Crayenbuell says he got the alert before hearing gunshots. And he says that gave him critical time to prepare and protect his students.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: It's almost like we knew before anything truly even happened, before, you know, lives were taken. So it's insane, the technology that we have access to.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Just four minutes after the alert went out, multiple officers were on the scene. The gunman surrendered.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Alyssa's law has been adopted in seven states. Alyssa Al-Haddaf's mom, Lori, spoke with NBC about it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It helps to honor my daughter, Alyssa. And every time that panic button is pushed, I know that Alyssa is saving lives.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Technology has come a long way to help reduce law enforcement response times. And Appalachee appears to be a case where technology helped save lives.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At the same time, this was far from a perfect response. Four people were killed. An entire community affected. There were several warning signs.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The FBI and local law enforcement investigated the suspected gunman last year in connection with online threats, telling schools to monitor him. His mom called the school 30 minutes before the shooting, warning of an extreme emergency.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And CNN reports that the school pulled another student with a similar name out of class that morning instead of the suspected shooter.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The school did not comment to CNN on that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Several families of the Appalachee students say they believe the school and law enforcement could have done more to stop the shooting before it started.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Starting with Gaza, where Palestinian officials say at least 19 people are dead after Israeli missile attacks on a tent camp for refugees.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: That death toll is lower than earlier reports from the ground Israel military says it was targeting a Hamas command center Hamas denies that its fighters were there.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The camp was in an area that Israel had designated a humanitarian safe zone for displaced Palestinians and was crowded with families.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is calling for, quote, fundamental changes in how Israel's military operates in the West Bank.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Israel recently said it was highly likely that it had unintentionally shot and killed a Turkish-American citizen who was volunteering in the West Bank at a demonstration last week.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Now to Missouri, where a state Supreme Court hearing today will consider whether voters can decide the future of abortion in that state.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This follows a lower court recently striking from the ballot an amendment that would have reversed the state's ban on nearly all abortions.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The legal dispute is over whether supporters of the amendment shared enough information with people who signed petitions to put it on the ballot.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The clock is ticking. Today is the last day where changes to ballots are possible.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: A potentially history-making space mission is now underway.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's the sound of a SpaceX crew taking off this morning.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: They're aiming to conduct the first-ever commercial spacewalk. They could also reach the highest point any human has flown since NASA's Apollo program, which wrapped up more than half a century ago.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, remembering an actor with a voice so memorable, he didn't even have to appear on screen to create some of cinema's most powerful performances.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: James Earl Jones died at 93. His decades-long career includes voicing one of Hollywood's most famous villains.
--:-- Shamita Basu: No, I am your father.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: He also played heroes like the Lion King's Mufasa.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One day, Simba, the sun will set on my time here and will rise with you as the new king.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Those are just a few of the iconic roles he's known for, but Jones did much more on film, stage and TV.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He is a member of the EGOT Club, having won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: As a child, Jones had a severe stutter. He said there were years where he was embarrassed and barely spoke to anyone outside his family.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But in high school, a teacher encouraged him to read poetry aloud in class. Something changed.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Jones found his way to acting and became one of the most recognized voices of all time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And if you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Smithsonian magazine takes a closer look at mezcal, a beloved Mexican spirit and tequila's often smokier cousin. It's booming in popularity, however, climate change is altering the migration patterns of bats, which are key pollinators of the plants used to make mezcal, which is threatening the future of this growing industry.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: 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.
