--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, October 14th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, checking in with a crucial Michigan voting bloc, the internal documents TikTok doesn't want you to see, and what was flying in the skies while you were watching football this weekend. But first, to the campaign trail, where former President Donald Trump's messaging against immigrants is getting darker.
--:-- Reporter: Reporters from Politico watched more than 20 of Trump's recent rallies and campaign events, and they found that Trump demonized minority groups at every single one of those events, calling immigrants violent and animals, saying they're destroying communities, and that if he's elected president again, he'll build detention camps and conduct mass deportations.
--:-- [Audio clip of Donald Trump speaking]
--:-- Donald Trump: The enemy from within, all the scum that we have to deal with that hate our country, that's a bigger enemy than China and Russia.
--:-- Reporter: And he's vowed to not just round up immigrants and deport them, but to prosecute them in new ways. But if they come back into our country, it's an automatic 10 years in jail with no possibility of parole. 10 years. And if that doesn't work, it'll be 20 years. And if that doesn't work, I guess it's going to be the death penalty, right? But that's better.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Aurora's mayor, Mike Kaufman, who is a Republican, did not attend Trump's speech on Friday, but told reporters afterwards that concerns about Venezuelan gang activity have been, quote, grossly exaggerated and have unfairly hurt the city's identity and sense of safety.
--:-- Mike Kaufman: He added that his city has not been taken over or invaded by migrants.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The state's governor, Jared Polis, who is a Democrat, also refuted Trump's claims about the city.
--:-- Jared Polis: Aurora is a safe, vibrant, wonderful place to live, a city of 400,000 people. I want to highlight that crime is significantly down over the last two years. 31% decrease in auto theft, 25% decrease in burglary.
--:-- Reporter: Politico spoke with experts in political rhetoric who say Trump's language has ramped up markedly in the last month alone and that it bears a strong resemblance to authoritarians and Nazi ideology.
--:-- Brian Stelter: Every American who ever took high school history class knows that when you're talking about vermin, you're talking about bloodlines, when you're talking about people being conquered, that Trump promising to say to liberate Colorado, this sounds like Nazi rhetoric. This sounds like fascist rhetoric. It sounds like white supremacist rhetoric.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In response to criticisms, the Trump campaign told Politico in a statement that the former president is simply responding to voters' concerns and fears, and that it's, quote, what Americans want to hear.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let turn to Michigan now where the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is extremely tight and where one voting bloc in particular could make a big difference.
--:-- Yasmin Abutaleb: I think what we're seeing with the Arab American and Muslim community is a pretty deep divide over whether to support Vice President Harris, one that didn't really exist with President Biden because I think the community was much more united in not supporting Biden and not wanting to vote for him.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yasmin Abutaleb is a White House reporter for The Washington Post.
--:-- Yasmin Abutaleb: Many Muslims and Arabs in Michigan know of people killed in Israeli attacks. In fact, an American from Dearborn, Michigan, was recently killed in Israel's bombardment of Lebanon.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Biden administration has remained steadfast in their support for Israel. This weekend, the U.S. announced it's sending an advanced anti-missile system to Israel, along with roughly 100 American troops to operate it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Harris has been more outspoken about the humanitarian catastrophe, but she too has underscored her support for Israel.
--:-- Yasmin Abutaleb: And it's not clear how a Harris presidency would shift American policy on the war, if at all.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I think the biggest point of contention and the biggest point of division and discussions in this community right now is that Vice President Harris has not explicitly articulated a different policy and people are reacting differently to that.
--:-- Yasmin Abutaleb: There are people who believe that she will be different because of what she said before. And there are those who say she's had all this time she hasn't articulated a different policy. So why would I believe her?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Still, Harris has managed to get endorsements from several Muslim groups and leaders, including one group made up in part by previously non-committed voters.
--:-- Yasmin Abutaleb: They say Harris might not offer the position they hope to see on the war, but the alternative wouldn't be better.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I think the reality of a Trump presidency is setting in for a lot of Arab and Muslim leaders.
--:-- Yasmin Abutaleb: You saw this group of imams across a number of swing states write a letter endorsing Vice President Harris saying, you know, we can't risk the return of a Trump presidency.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is our best chance for a ceasefire candidate and for a real change in policy.
--:-- Yasmin Abutaleb: Our work wouldn't end on November 5th.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Even a small sliver who stay home or vote third party could hurt Harris's chances and change the outcome of this election.
--:-- Shamita Basu: TikTok algorithm prioritizes beautiful people even if that beauty is only because of a filter.
--:-- California Attorney General: And what we're really talking about here is TikTok holding out to the world that their platform is safe when they know internally that it's not.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Internally, they acknowledge the problems of the personalized algorithm, the other features and designs. But to the world, they say we're safe. And it's not true. It's a lie. It's deceptive. It's false statements and fraudulent statements.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's why we're holding them accountable in court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Because of the lawsuit, we are now for the first time seeing some of the company's internal communications about the risk the app poses to young people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And in fact, we're seeing more than we're supposed to. Lots of information was redacted in public filings, but Kentucky Public Radio discovered some of the redactions were faulty and got access to dozens of pages that had been kept secret.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NPR reviewed the material and found that TikTok executives were speaking openly about the app's addictive nature.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In fact, research conducted by TikTok found that compulsive usage of the app has negative effects on mental health, including a decline in memory and contextual thinking, as well as increased anxiety.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the documents show TikTok was aware that its platform is bad for young people's sleep, schoolwork and other personal responsibilities.
--:-- California Attorney General: This problem lies in the lap and at the feet of TikTok because they are a large, a billion dollar, sophisticated corporation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They know exactly what they're doing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: How do we know that they know it? Because their own words, their own documents, their own statements to each other that we were able to subpoena through a two and a half year investigation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Tell us so.
--:-- Shamita Basu: TikTok's algorithm is hyper-personalized, serving up content in rapid-fire succession, which makes it easy for people to just keep scrolling.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When TikTok introduced a time limit tool so parents could put limits on their kids' usage, these documents show not only did it barely have an impact, but also the company measured its success by the appearance of building public trust, rather than by actually reducing minutes teens spent on the app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: State authorities in Kentucky connected to the lawsuit said, According to their investigation, all it takes is 35 minutes of scrolling for someone to form a habit and become addicted to the platform.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here's how Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell described the app's strategy to reporters last week.
--:-- Andrea Campbell: It's a result of TikTok intentionally designing its platform to keep our young people glued to their screens all in the name of profit.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That platform has employed things like constant push notifications at all hours of the day and night that prod users to open the app using the same addictive award system that slot machines deploy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Infinite scroll where users can endlessly look through their feed to see new videos causing them to stay on the app for longer than they otherwise would.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A spokesperson for TikTok pushed back against the allegations and defended the company child safety record.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They also criticized NPR for reporting on documents that were supposed to be sealed off to the public.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We saw some unusual political campaign messaging over the weekend written in the skies over NFL games.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's because teams from six battleground states, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, played each other.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The DNC flew planes to write messages and carry banners that read things like Vote Kamala, Sack Trump, and refer to Project 2025.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NBC notes that Democrats have been leaning into football this election, particularly given that Harris' running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, used to be a high school football coach.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Harris campaign has run ads during college and pro games, and last month got the endorsements of 15 NFL Hall of Famers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In other sports news, a record was broken yesterday at the Chicago Marathon.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ruth Chepng'etich became the first woman to complete a marathon in under two hours and 10 minutes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here's the moment she crossed the finish line.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bring it on, Neil Armstrong! We have another woman that has done something just like you. This is amazing, right here. Sub 210, everybody.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Kenyan runner also beat the next fastest runner by eight minutes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Chicago Sun-Times notes that their hometown race has become known for records, partly thanks to being such a flat route.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Four of the five fastest women's times have been achieved in the Chicago Marathon over the past six years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, to other news up in the sky, Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully launched the fifth test flight for Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But that's not the exciting part, or at least not entirely.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The exciting part came about seven minutes after the launch, when its enormous booster, which is taller than a 20-story building, traveled back toward the launch site and was caught by a set of metal arms.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is absolutely insane.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On the first ever attempt, we have successfully caught the super heavy booster.
--:-- Shamita Basu: SpaceX has been recovering first-stage boosters of its smaller rockets for almost a decade now.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But catching a booster this big and in this way is a huge new accomplishment and could save SpaceX millions of dollars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are many more tests planned before Starship is expected to bring American astronauts to the moon as soon as 2026.
--:-- 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 a Narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Fortune magazine looks at the legacy of British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, who died earlier this summer when his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.
--:-- Shamita Basu: 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.
