--:-- Gideon Resnick: Good morning. It's Friday, March 22nd. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Coming up on today's show, the seismic shift that has come for real estate agents, how Trump is talking about January 6th on the campaign trail, and why a ghost army is finally getting recognition. But first, let's take a quick look at some other stories that are in the news.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Russia and China have vetoed a new UN resolution from the U.S. that calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, along with a deal to release Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Russia's ambassador said the U.S. measure didn't pressure Israel enough.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Secretary of State Antony Blinken and CIA Chief William Burns have been talking with allies in the region pressing for a deal. In Egypt, Blinken talked about the urgent need to stop the fighting so that humanitarian aid can get in.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Children should not be dying of malnutrition in Gaza or anywhere else for that matter. 100 percent, 100 percent of the population of Gaza is experiencing severe levels of acute food insecurity.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: We cannot, we must not allow that to continue. In Mississippi, the last of six law enforcement officers has been sentenced in the torture of two black men last year.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The abuse happened when officers raided a home without a warrant. The officers received sentences between 10 and 40 years. And in health news, a milestone transplant surgery is giving new hope for Americans waiting for kidney donations.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Surgeons transplanted a genetically edited kidney from a pig into a human patient. That has never been successfully done in a living person.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Dr. Leo Riella directs kidney transplants at Massachusetts General, where the historic operation happened. He told NBC why there is such a need for kidneys from pigs.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Most of our patients have to wait for an organ from the deceased donor list. Unfortunately, if they have to stay years on dialysis, that means their health is going to continue to deteriorate.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: 17 Americans die every day awaiting a kidney transplant. So this kind of surgery and the research that led up to it could save a lot of lives if it's done more widely.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The way that homes are bought and sold in the United States is about to change in a big way. The National Association of Realtors agreed last Friday to pay $1 million to settle a class action lawsuit.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Last year, a jury found that realtors conspired to keep commissions artificially high. To settle the class action suit, the National Association of Realtors agreed to overhaul its rules.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: This would put an end to a long-standing system that's kept commissions steady at 6%. Typically, sellers of a home have paid this cost, which is split between their agent and the agent representing the buyer.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: So for buyers, the cost of their agent has pretty much been out of sight, out of mind for decades now. Business Insider senior real estate reporter James Rodriguez is following these developments.
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--:-- Gideon Resnick: And so sellers have been feeling like they've been forced to pay these unfairly high commissions. Now, he says, there could be much more room for negotiation.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Sellers can still choose to pay the fee, or they leave the buyer to pay for their own agent. Rodriguez pointed out some buyers may not be able to afford an agent, and that could push aspiring homeowners out of the market.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Some people may choose to forego an agent and try to handle the process through Zillow by themselves. Or he says we could see buyers paying realtors for a la carte services.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: All these questions will become a part of the haggling and paperwork of home buying. That's really one of the big question marks is how much will buyers and sellers actually end up negotiating?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Some industry experts say this settlement could save money for both buyers and sellers. But Rodriguez says he's not totally convinced yet.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: For agents, this settlement could cut into their income. It may even mean some of them leave the business.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Basically, there will be kind of a lot more focus on exactly what the agent's getting paid and who's paying it. And it's a pretty seismic decision for the industry, for homebuyers, sellers, pretty much everyone involved.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: A federal judge will need to approve the settlement before it goes into effect. It's possible that the Department of Justice will push for more changes.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: But as it currently stands, this is a generational shift for how homes are sold, meaning buyers, sellers, and realtors need to brace for a whole new way of doing business.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Former President Trump faces federal charges for his actions around the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: More than 1,000 people involved have been charged with hundreds sentenced to prison. A connection to an infamous day in American history is something that all politicians would typically bring up on the campaign trail.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: But Semaphore recently reported on how Trump's campaign is talking about January 6th. That includes support for people who stormed the Capitol to try to overthrow the election.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Semaphore politics reporter Shelby Talcott talked to us about how Trump is positioning his 2024 campaign around a day that many Americans would like to forget.
--:-- Shelby Talcott: You've seen as time has gone on that he has more and more often aligned himself with what the advocates want, which at the end of the day is pardons for the January 6th rioters and the people who have been charged and an investigation.
--:-- Shelby Talcott: They want another investigation into, you know, what they say happened to that day. Talcott reports on how Trump started talking more publicly about pardoning people charged in the attack on the Capitol.
--:-- Shelby Talcott: And today, he's closely tied to the January 6th prisoner movement, referring to some of those individuals as hostages.
--:-- Shelby Talcott: Trump has held multiple fundraisers to help people who've been criminally charged. He's devoted staff to connecting with family members of defendants.
--:-- Shelby Talcott: And his rallies have featured a song from a choir of Capitol attackers in prison. You've also seen in recent months, a really aggressive ramp-up of when he mentions the January Sixers at his rallies.
--:-- Shelby Talcott: And he has gone from not really commenting about them at all to commenting about them at almost every rally.
--:-- Shelby Talcott: Trump's portrayal of January 6th is indicative of a larger shift in Republican Party views since that day, Talcott says.
--:-- Shelby Talcott: One of the things I take away is just the shifting landscape within the Republican Party when it comes to how a lot of conservatives view that day.
--:-- Shelby Talcott: Even in the year afterwards, there was very sharp criticism of it, of course. And now, as we've seen, there's been sort of a shift to downplay in a way what happened and also to say, well, this was years ago and it's time to move on.
--:-- Shelby Talcott: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell once referred to January 6th as an insurrection and said Trump was responsible for provoking events that day.
--:-- Shelby Talcott: But earlier this month, once Nikki Haley was out of the running, McConnell endorsed Trump for the presidency in 2024.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: An elite unit of the US Army credited with saving tens of thousands of American lives during World War II has at last been recognized with one of America's highest honors.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The unit is called the Ghost Army, and it had a special role, deceiving the Nazis with artistry, theatrics, and special effects.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Ghost Army troops included sound engineers, fashion designers, actors, and set designers. They used inflatable tanks and planes along with sound effects to make it seem like Allied troops were in places where they really weren't.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: They broadcast phony radio chatter and planted disinformation for German spies. The Ghost Army pulled off more than 20 deception campaigns in Europe.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: But their contribution was little known for decades because it was classified. In recent years, there's been a movement to tell their stories.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And just yesterday, members of the unit received the Congressional Gold Medal. House Speaker Mike Johnson read from the Pentagon's now declassified report on the Ghost Army.
--:-- Mike Johnson: Rarely, if ever, has there existed a group of such few men which had so great an influence on the outcome of a major military campaign.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: That's really something, really something. Only a handful of Ghost Army troops are still alive today.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: A 100-year-old veteran said that for decades after the war, the work he did was kept so secret he didn't even tell his wife.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: But now he and others can talk about it. Decades after the end of World War II, an unusual contribution is getting the recognition it deserves.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app, including the next episode of our weekly interview show, In Conversation.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: This week, guest host Brian Stelter, who's filling in while Shumita is on maternity leave, takes a by-the-numbers look at the economy and who has handled it better, Joe Biden or Donald Trump.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: He spoke to labor economist Betsy Stevenson, former chief economist at the Labor Department during the Obama years. And she said a lot of that answer about who's handled the economy better depends on voter perception.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: So if you're thinking about your investments in the stock market, with the corporate tax cuts, it's a great time to be under President Trump. Under President Biden, it was a great time to be an hourly worker.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: So stick around. If you're listening in the Apple News app, that episode is queued up to play next or in the podcast app, just search for Apple News in conversation.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: You can also follow all the weekend's March Madness action and possible upsets on the News app.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And I'll be back with the news on Monday.
