--:-- Mark Garrison: Good morning. It's Friday, March 1st. I'm Mark Garrison in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Mark Garrison: On the show, Biden and Trump make dueling visits to the border, understanding the deadly and traumatic reality first responders face at that border, and answers to burning questions about the 2024 presidential race. But first, a deadly incident in Gaza underscores just how dangerous humanitarian conditions are there.
--:-- Gaza Health Authority: [voiceover] Gaza health authorities say more than 100 people were killed and hundreds more injured during a delivery of aid yesterday.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Palestinian and Israeli sources are providing very different accounts of what happened. Palestinians say many civilians were gunned down by Israeli forces. Israel's military says troops did open fire, but only in a limited way, after feeling threatened by the crowd.
--:-- Israel's Military: [voiceover] Israel says many deaths happened in the crush of people approaching the convoy and as people were run over by the aid trucks.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The BBC aired an eyewitness account from Kamal Abu Nahal, who was injured.
--:-- Kamal Abu Nahal: After they stopped shooting, we went back to get our aid. By the time I got flour and some canned goods and took it down from the truck, they shot at us. They shot me and the truck driver left and ran over my leg.
--:-- Mark Garrison: There may be disputes about exactly what happened in that incident, which the U.S. and U.N. want fully investigated. But what is clear is that there are severe shortages of food and water in Gaza, and families in that crowd were desperate to get something to eat.
--:-- Philippe Lazzarini: We are talking about a man famine because we have a kind of a total blockage for the people who are living in the North.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The chief of humanitarian aid for the UN is calling on countries to prohibit the use of starvation as a method of warfare. The UN's top court previously ordered Israel to take steps to make sure humanitarian aid can get to Palestinian civilians.
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--:-- Mark Garrison: As conditions get worse, other efforts are ramping up. Jordan and France airdropped aid into Gaza earlier this week, and the U.S. is reportedly considering airdrops as well, as it gets harder to deliver supplies by land.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now let's take a quick look at some other stories in the news. In Washington, a stopgap spending measure is in place to avoid a government shutdown. The House and Senate passed a bill to keep the government funded, while talks go on about a larger budget deal.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In Alabama, state lawmakers are moving forward on legislation that would protect IVF patients and doctors from legal repercussions. Many clinics there stopped services after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos were children.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The state Senate and House have more work to do. A final bill could be signed into law by the governor soon.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now to immigration news, where a federal court is blocking a new Texas law that would allow state law enforcement to deport migrants. The judge says it's unconstitutional because the federal government has authority over border issues.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The law is a key piece of Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott's immigration policy. Former President Donald Trump appeared with him yesterday on a visit to the border.
--:-- Donald Trump: Texas is very secure and is going to be even more secure by the time you finish, which will be soon.
--:-- Mark Garrison: President Biden visited a different stretch of the border yesterday, and he said Trump should back a new immigration bill.
--:-- Joe Biden: Join me or I'll join you in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill. We can do it together. You know and I know it the toughest most efficient most effective border security bill this country has ever seen.
--:-- Mark Garrison: So instead of playing politics with the issue, why don't we just get together and get it done? Let's remember who we work for.
--:-- Mark Garrison: That bill had support from some GOP lawmakers, but many pulled back after Trump encouraged Republicans to oppose a compromise on border security.
--:-- Mark Garrison: While politicians talk about the border, first responders have to deal with deadly realities there, day in and day out. NBC talked to firefighters and EMTs in the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas.
--:-- Marcos Kiparos: It was a constant thing, showing up to work at 8 a.m. and receiving that tone out at 8.03 to respond to a body recovery. And from that, it escalated to a body rescue and back to a body recovery. And we'd be in the river for three, four hours.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Kibreau says he's lost count of how many bodies he's had to recover. He told NBC about the toll it's taking on his mental health.
--:-- Marcos Kiparos: I went up to chief one day and I said, hey, chief, I kind of need a break.
--:-- Manuel Mello: It's more than anything I've ever had to deal with. Nothing even close to what I experienced while I was on the line. It's a whole different monster.
--:-- Manuel Mello: They see decomposing bodies. They see children that have drowned. And if you ever see that, I can give you an image of that. Babies two months old with their eyes half open, their mouth full of mud, their ears full of mud where they've been stuck on the side of the river. That's what these guys are seeing.
--:-- Mark Garrison: City officials are trying to get first responders more help to deal with the mental strain. They're applying for a state grant to bring in additional mental health services.
--:-- Mark Garrison: But for now, the drownings keep happening, giving firefighters and EMTs little time to stop and breathe before they have to respond to another call.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Let's end the show with a quick look at the presidential race. For the next few weeks, while Shamita is on maternity leave, Apple News in Conversation will be hosted by Brian Stelter, former anchor of CNN's Reliable Sources.
--:-- Brian Stelter: In his first episode, his guests are New Yorker staff writers Susan Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos, who also co-hosts the Political Scene podcast.
--:-- Susan Glasser: They'll give us the answers to some of the unavoidable questions about the 2024 race. Like, can Trump still run for president even if he gets convicted of a crime?
--:-- Jane Mayer: He can still be president even if he's a convicted felon.
--:-- Evan Osnos: And why are so many Americans in denial about the names that are almost certain to be on the ticket?
--:-- Susan Glasser: If you talk to people inside the Biden campaign, their own polling is telling them that about only about 20 percent of Americans believe at this point that it's going to be a contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
--:-- Brian Stelter: And here's the here's the even though that is the most likely. 20%. 20%. 20%.
--:-- Evan Osnos: And so the reason why that's important is that until you have a moment when the choice is in front of you, until you're standing at the buffet and that's it, it's either the salad or the hamburger, you don't have any real capacity to make an abstract decision.
--:-- Brian Stelter: Wow. What if I don't want a salad or a hamburger? Well, then you can stay home and that's a politically meaningful fact.
--:-- Mark Garrison: If you're listening to the news app, we have this episode queued up to play for you next. If you're listening in the podcast app, you can find it by searching for Apple News in Conversation.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Enjoy the weekend, and we'll be back with the news on Monday.
