--:-- Yasmin Khan: Good morning. It's Tuesday, March 5th. I'm Yasmin Khan, in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Coming up, why Super Tuesday feels a bit less super this year, how North Korea is getting more dangerous to the world, and Taylor Swift caught in a diplomatic fight. It's Super Tuesday, with voters in 16 states heading to the polls. Former President Donald Trump is in the driver's seat on the Republican side. He's the winner of all but one contest, including the North Dakota caucuses last night. And yesterday's Supreme Court ruling ended a legal threat to keep him off the ballot.
--:-- Amy Walter: If I was talking to you at the beginning of January 2023, I would say, boy, I don't know if Trump and Biden will make it onto the ballot. They both have such serious weaknesses with so many Democrats saying, oh, I want an alternative. And so many Republicans saying, I don't know, I'm open to an alternative. And it looked like we were going to get a competitive primary. And yet, here we are. It's Super Tuesday and it doesn't feel very super.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Still, Walter says, it's important to pay attention to the results because they show friction points within the parties. For example, so far, Trump has performed poorly with suburban and college-educated primary voters. Nikki Haley has gotten their support. She's expected to drop out after Super Tuesday, which leaves the question of how strongly her supporters would come out for Trump in the general election.
--:-- Amy Walter: Meanwhile, Biden recently faced a protest vote in the Michigan Democratic primary. Over 100,000 people voted uncommitted. Arab American leaders encouraged this as a protest of Biden's support for Israel in the Gaza war. Walter says it's unclear what that discontent could mean for November.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: What we don't know about the voters who showed up and voted in Michigan is whether their vote was simply that, a protest, but not clear that it also means, and by the way, I won't show up and vote for you in November if this policy doesn't change.
--:-- Amy Walter: Many of the people who showed up could be people who never intended and will never vote for Joe Biden. Some people will absolutely vote for Joe Biden no matter what but they wanted to send their note of protest.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Given how tight the race is looking for the general election, Walter says losing any group of voters, no matter how small, could matter. In all likelihood, this race is going to be very, very close, as 2016 was, as 2020 was.
--:-- Amy Walter: And so even the smallest bit of defection, right, 10,000 votes here, 5,000 votes there. You know, I decided to stay home. I decided I really am upset with the policy the administration's taking. I'm voting a third-party candidate. That has a tremendous impact on the final outcome.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: You can follow the results in every Super Tuesday contest and find all the best coverage in the Apple News app.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Now, let's take a quick look at some other stories in the news. A new U.N. report says there's strong evidence of sexual assaults during the October 7th attacks by Hamas and against hostages taken that day.
--:-- Pramila Patton: We found clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, has been committed against captives. And we also have reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may still be ongoing against those still held in captivity.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Patton said the report reinforces the need for a ceasefire in Gaza. Hamas has denied that its personnel committed sexual assaults during the attack.
--:-- Pramila Patton: The U.N. team also visited the West Bank, where Palestinians accused Israeli security forces and settlers of sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: In the U.S., the Supreme Court is temporarily freezing a Texas immigration law that would allow state authorities to arrest migrants who cross the border illegally.
--:-- David Noriega: There's pretty clear precedent that immigration enforcement is the purview of the federal government. Laws that are comparable to this one have been struck down by the Supreme Court in the last, you know, decade or so.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: At the same time, this is a different Supreme Court than we've had in the last decade or so. And we live in a time of surprises. And so I don't want to say anything could happen, but I'm not going to make any sure predictions.
--:-- David Noriega: In Michigan jury selection begins today in the trial of James Crumbly. He's the father of the teenage school shooter who killed four people at Oxford High School in 2021. The shooter's mother, Jennifer Crumbly, was found guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year. James Crumbly has pleaded not guilty to the same charges.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: And France is now the first country in the world to explicitly protect the right to abortion in its constitution. The change was made official in an overwhelming vote in Parliament yesterday.
--:-- Nicholas Kristof: As much of the world's attention is focused on conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, North Korea is taking advantage of this moment to beef up its nuclear arsenal. The Wall Street Journal points to some disturbing developments.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: In the past few weeks, North Korea has test-fired multiple missiles. Its leader, Kim Jong-un, seems to have abandoned all hopes for reunification with the South. He announced plans to rewrite North Korea's constitution to label South Korea as its primary enemy.
--:-- Nicholas Kristof: And he's told the army to prepare for a, quote, great revolutionary event. He's also more closely aligned himself with Russia's Vladimir Putin. So something strange is going on in North Korea and has been for a few years.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Thomas Schaefer, Germany's former ambassador to North Korea, told NPR there's another key factor to pay attention to, the U.S. presidential election.
--:-- Thomas Schaefer: Pyongyang hopes for a win, I believe, by Trump or another isolationist Republican to get another chance to come closer to their main strategic goal, which is a weakening of the U.S.-South Korean alliance and withdrawal of the U.S. troops from the Korean peninsula.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Kim Jong-un had previously tried to strike a deal with former President Trump that would have shed some sanctions in exchange for disarmament. But that fell apart and ever since he restarted missile tests and developed weapons that could credibly target Japan and South Korea.
--:-- Thomas Schaefer: Schaefer said to combat these concerns the international community can keep trying to negotiate. Well, I think what the international community has been doing in the last decades, that is trying to engage with North Korea, offering political and economic incentives, giving security guarantees, and building confidence, is the right cause.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: One should remember that North Korea does not only consist of one person who decides all. Actually, it's 25 million. And as I believe, the leadership is broader than many people think. And not all have the same thinking.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: This week, South Korean and U.S. troops are doing annual military drills. North Korea has not reacted just yet. But in the past, the country has responded with more missile tests.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Finally, how Taylor Swift is at the center of a diplomatic tiff in Asia. She's currently playing a string of six sold-out shows in Singapore. It's her only stop in Southeast Asia because of an exclusivity deal with the government.
--:-- Lee Shen Long: If that's what's needed to be done, to get an outcome which is mutually beneficial and which from Singapore's point of view serves not just to grow the economy, but also to bring in visitors and goodwill from all over the region, I don't see why not.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: CNBC pulled together data showing that Swift's concerts are expected to pump as much as $370 million into Singapore's economy. And hotel bookings by guests from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have soared.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: 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, stick around. We've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Yasmin Khan: Elle spoke to the entrepreneur who coined the term girl boss about why she's ready to walk away from that label. If you're listening in the podcasts app, follow Apple News Plus narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
