--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, January 31st. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, inside the tense hearings for some of Trump's more tenuous cabinet nominees, some migrants say they're being subjected to inhumane conditions while being deported, and practical tips for navigating this overwhelming moment in the news. But first, the elite ice skating community is reeling after the crash between an American Airlines passenger plane and an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River on Wednesday night.
--:-- Shamita Basu: All 67 people on board these aircraft died. 14 of the victims were en route to Washington from a national figure skating development camp in Wichita, Kansas. Among them, two sisters, 14-year-old Everly and 11-year-old Olivia Livingston, and their parents from the D.C. area. Six of the victims were from the skating club of Boston. 13-year-old Gina Hahn and 16-year-old Spencer Lane were described as the future of the sport.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Their mothers were also on board, as well as two coaches at the club, Russian figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. They were married and they won the world championship in pairs figure skating in 1994 in Paris.
--:-- Doug Zegheib: Skating is a very close and tight-knit community. These kids and their parents, they're here at our facility in Norwood six, sometimes seven days a week. It's a close, tight bond. And I think for all of us, we have lost fame.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Skating Club of Boston is one of the oldest and most prestigious clubs in the country. It's produced Olympic and world champions like Nancy Kerrigan, who won the silver medal in the 1994 Olympics.
--:-- Nancy Kerrigan: Much like everyone here has been saying is not sure how to process it. Oh, shoot. I'm sorry.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Kerrigan also spoke about how close this community is. You don't have to know everybody to feel that connection. We've been through the same thing, that training, that rigorous schedule of falling over and over and somehow picking yourself back up, which is like the main lesson I think learned in skating is you get back up, keep on trying.
--:-- Nancy Kerrigan: And even when it's hard, you get back up. And even when you're crying, hurt, pain, you get back up and move forward. It's not easy, but that's what we all have to do now together.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is not the first airplane tragedy to hit the figure skating community. Many recalled an eerily similar event that took place 60 years ago on Valentine's Day that killed 73 people, including all 18 members of the U.S. figure skating team headed to the World Championships in Prague.
--:-- Doug Zegheib: It had long-reaching implications for the skating club and for the sport in this country, because when you lose coaches like this, you lose the future of the sport as well. It's been a long time in redeveloping it. And I personally feel that this club, the Skating Club of Boston, has just now almost 60 years later been coming out of the shadow of that 1961 crash.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We still learning more details about all of the victims of this crash and it too early to know what caused it. A preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration found that staffing at the air traffic control tower was, quote, not normal at the time of the crash, and that just one controller was doing work that's typically assigned to two.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to the Senate confirmation hearings yesterday for three of President Trump's more controversial cabinet nominees. That's Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's nominated to lead Health and Human Services, Tulsi Gabbard, nominee for Director of National Intelligence, and Kash Patel, who's been tapped to lead the FBI.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Patel, a lawyer and former Republican staffer on the House Intelligence Committee, has been a Trump loyalist for years and has in the past courted parts of the QAnon community. As a congressional aide in 2016, he helped the GOP defend Trump during investigations into Russian election interference.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Patel was a board member of the parent company for Trump's social media platform, Truth Social, and he has a side hustle selling pro-Trump t-shirts and children's books. However, during questioning by Democratic Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, Patel broke from the president slightly when Durbin asked if Trump was wrong to issue a blanket pardon for over 1,500 people charged in connection to the Capitol attack.
--:-- Kash Patel: I have always rejected any violence against law enforcement, and I have, including in that group, specifically addressed any violence against law enforcement on January 6th. And I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's not entirely true. Patel's personal foundation has worked to support families of January 6th rioters, including some accused of and convicted of violent felony crimes against police.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the past, Patel has described January 6th rioters as political prisoners and promoted conspiracy theories that falsely claimed undercover FBI agents instigated the riot. If confirmed Patel could serve up to 10 years in the role of FBI director.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Gabbard's hearing with the Intelligence Committee, senators from both parties pressed the former Democratic congresswoman on her qualifications. As director of national intelligence, she would oversee 18 intelligence agencies, including the NSA.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She was asked about her previous comments expressing sympathy for Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor responsible for one of the largest intelligence leaks in U.S. history.
--:-- Tulsi Gabbard: Snowden broke the law, but she repeatedly deflected questions about whether she believes he's a traitor.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Things got tense during this exchange with Colorado Democratic Senator Michael Bennett.
--:-- Michael Bennett: Is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America? That is not a hard question to answer when the stakes are this high. Senator, as someone who has served in uniform...
--:-- Tulsi Gabbard: Yes or no, is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America?
--:-- Michael Bennett: Apparently you don't.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s second and final day of hearings, he faced more questions about his history of anti-vaccine activism, which included petitioning the FDA an agency he would oversee if confirmed to revoke the COVID vaccine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders asked Kennedy if his position on the vaccine has changed.
--:-- Bernie Sanders: Was the vaccine, COVID vaccine, successful in saving millions of lives?
--:-- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: I don't know. We don't have a good surveillance system, unfortunately. We don't know?
--:-- Shamita Basu: One senator who didn't vote for Hegseth was Mitch McConnell. who, as a survivor of polio, may not back Kennedy's nomination.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One of President Trump's core campaign promises was to deport millions of migrants living here without legal documentation. Hundreds have been deported already since he took office.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump says he's focusing on people with criminal records. But Juan Ferreiro, bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal in South America, told us that isn't always what's happening.
--:-- Juan Ferreiro: There were no outstanding issues with the justice system in Colombia, and there was no outstanding issues with the justice system in the U.S.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Many people are being transported not on commercial planes, but on military cargo jets. And that comes at a significant cost. One military deportation flight to Guatemala earlier this week was estimated to have cost at least $4,675 per migrant, according to data provided to Reuters by U.S. and Guatemalan officials.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's much higher than the cost of a commercial charter flight by ICE. Some deported people are sharing their stories and saying U.S. authorities mistreated them. Some say they were put in handcuffs or shackles, making it difficult and painful to move or eat.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Immigration officials told the journal its longstanding U.S. policy to handcuff deported migrants in order to prevent outbursts while in the air.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ferrero spoke with a 23-year-old from Colombia who was on one of these flights who described the conditions as humiliating.
--:-- Juan Ferreiro: He said what others said, which was basically that he'd lost his clothes, they'd taken away his stuff, he was in a cold detention center, that kind of thing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, has criticized the Trump administration for the treatment of Colombian migrants, as has Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ferrero told us about a plane of Brazilian deportees that recently got stuck on the tarmac in the Amazon during sweltering heat with no air conditioning due to technical issues with the plane.
--:-- Shamita Basu: According to local media, a number of people fainted, children were crying, and people were begging to be let off the plane before some finally used emergency exits to get out, still bound in handcuffs. Some say U.S. officials physically assaulted them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: U.S. authorities have not commented on that. But it was Brazil's federal police who eventually removed their cuffs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is something that is causing tensions with some of these governments around the region and leading to costly flights aside holding immigrants in detention facilities before deporting them is by far the most expensive part of the deportation process, according to Axios.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Earlier this week, Trump announced an order to address that by opening a detention center at Guantanamo Bay that he says will be able to house up to 30,000 people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here are some other stories we're watching today. First, a little meta commentary on the news. It's been an incredible newsy few weeks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I've been seeing lots of essays and opinion pieces about how to not feel overwhelmed by it all. So here are just a few tips that my team and I have appreciated reading and are trying to remember ourselves.
--:-- Shamita Basu: First, you don't have to follow every breaking story. The news will break whether you're there to stress about it or not. Instead, try to take in what feels important to you and don't feel pressured to read up on the rest.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another tip, let trusted sources that show their reporting work do the heavy lifting for you. It's far more productive than doom scrolling on your own.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And remember, the hours immediately following a breaking story are usually filled with questions and hypotheticals. But if you wait 12, 24, even 72 hours later, you're more likely to come across measured, researched analysis.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These tips are from the publication Lawfare, and we'll link to their longer list in our show notes page.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Moving on to some sports news, the National Women's Soccer League decided yesterday to award Denver the league's 16th franchise. The new team will begin to play in 2026.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the Wall Street Journal has an interesting story about some of the negotiations that happened behind the scenes. WNBA star Caitlin Clark was part of a bid to give Cincinnati the next franchise soccer league, but her star power wasn't enough to close the deal.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, only three Black women have ever taken home the top Grammy Award album of the year. But this weekend, Beyoncé could become the fourth, while at the same time breaking a personal drought in the ceremony's biggest category.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Beyoncé is already the winningest artist in Grammy history, with 32 awards. But she's never taken home Album of the Year, despite four previous nominations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If she wins, she'll join Natalie Cole, Lauryn Hill, and Whitney Houston as the only Black women to win it. Her country album Cowboy Carter is up for the prize.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Grammy ceremony is on Sunday in Los Angeles. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And check out our weekly interview show, Apple News in Conversation. This week, I talked to tech writer Nicholas Carr about social media and the fundamental problem with platforms today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Because we tend to say, oh, we can fix social media or we can fix the Internet by tweaking the algorithms or by banning TikTok or by breaking up meta. I actually don't think that is going to work because I would argue that the system is not broken. The system is operating exactly as it is meant to operate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the Apple News app right now, that episode is queued up to play for you next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Enjoy the weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday. Thank you.
