--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Tuesday, May 25th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news, and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: A year ago today, George Floyd was murdered. This evening in Minneapolis, there's going to be a candlelight vigil and community festival in his name. A few months ago, Minnesota Public Radio profiled Floyd and told the story of who he was before he became an international symbol.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: His friends called him by his middle name, Perry, or just Big Floyd. He was six foot seven inches tall. They said he was an easygoing kind man. Floyd grew up in Houston with four siblings. He was a star athlete in high school. As he got older, he struggled with addiction, and he decided to seek help in Minneapolis in 2017. That's where he entered a treatment program and tried to start over.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: He did security at a Minneapolis club and at the Salvation Army. Friends said that Floyd really connected with people who were seeking help and looking for a fresh start. Floyd was 46 years old when he was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For months, Floyd's name was evoked in protests for police reform. And that reckoning, it extended to many corners of American life. Politico asks journalists, academics, and political figures to share their reaction on what's changed and the progress that's still to come.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Erin Aubrey Kaplan, a journalist, writes, Floyd's death took the concept of systemic racism mainstream. Before him, the idea that discrimination against Black people runs through American society was largely unacknowledged. But now, Kaplan points out, the phrase is used all the time by lawmakers, media, even Wall Street executives.
--:-- Erin Aubrey Kaplan: She writes that while this shift has exposed harsh divisions, it's also demonstrated how quickly the status quo can change.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Jeffrey Sonnenfeld from the Yale School of Management, he writes about how corporate America responded. Black business leaders called on their colleagues to act on issues of race, and many did. Merck CEO Ken Frazier and several other CEOs They launched a program to drive opportunities for black people without college degrees Goldman Sachs announced a billion investment to create new opportunities for black women specifically
--:-- Jeffrey Sonnenfeld: Sonnenfeld has studied American businesses and CEOs for decades. He says this moment feels different from years past, though he also admits it's too soon to know if this change is going to last.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: The playwright Kirsten Greenidge describes her experience of living in a predominantly white town in Massachusetts. She says after Floyd's killing, people started putting up new signs in their yards. Black fists, hashtags calling for justice, support for black lives.
--:-- Kirsten Greenidge: Greenish noticed how this majority white space expanded to embrace black issues. She acknowledges America has a long way to go. But she says the reactions she saw show we do ultimately have the capacity to love our neighbors, even if we don't fully know or understand them.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Anti-Defamation League says reports of anti-Semitic violence in the U.S. rose sharply in the week after violence broke out between Israel and Hamas. Incidents include a synagogue vandalized in Illinois, an attack near Times Square.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Police departments are opening more hate crime investigations. This is a story of how tensions in the Middle East may be making people in the U.S. targets of violence, intimidation, and harassment. NPR reports on concern in the American Jewish community.
--:-- NPR Reporter: Several groups wrote a letter to President Biden calling for action. The president has spoken out against anti-Semitism. Hate crimes targeting Jewish communities in the U.S. have been rising for the past several years.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: NPR points out, in 2019, the ADL reported the highest number of assaults, vandalism, and harassment cases since it started collecting this data back in 1979. Violence in the U.S. has often spiked when tensions rise between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East.
--:-- NPR Reporter: NPR also reports on incidents of anti-Muslim vandalism since the Middle East fighting began. A mosque damaged in Brooklyn as Ramadan came to a close, a religious flag that was burned at a mosque on Long Island.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Senator Bernie Sanders is one of the U most prominent Jewish lawmakers and he addressed this rise in anti on CBS Face the Nation He put it in the context of a global rise in extremism that targeting many communities
--:-- Bernie Sanders: We have got to combat anti-Semitism. We have to combat the increase in hate crimes in this country against Asians, against African-Americans, against Latinos. So we got a serious problem of a nation which is being increasingly divided.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For weeks now, Dr. Anup Khatyal has stuck to a new working rhythm. During the day, he is an intensive care physician at a hospital in St. Louis. And in the evenings, just as the next day is breaking in India, he logs on to Zoom and offers medical advice to a family in New Delhi who all contracted COVID-19.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: It's part of a free program organized by a group of Indian-American doctors that connects volunteer physicians based in America to patients with COVID in India. The Washington Post reports on how, as India's hospitals are being overwhelmed with COVID patients, doctors across the diaspora are stepping in to fill the gaps.
--:-- Washington Post Reporter: The Post reporter watched some of these virtual visits. U.S.-based physicians, they're walking a fine line here because they can't actually prescribe medications. and they need to make sure they're not violating Indian medical regulations.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: What these teledocs can do is offer advice on how to use the medication that people have access to, and they can also help them interpret symptoms and lab results. The president of this organization of physicians says their doctors have reached thousands of families.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Dr. Kattiel, the physician from St. Louis, says it's unbearable watching COVID cases surge in India, just as the U.S. is starting to get some relief. He's happy to be helpful.
--:-- Dr. Kattiel: One family he's been working with explains how this remote medicine is serving a very specific need. Doctors on the ground in India are slammed. They're treating as many as 60 patients at once. They don't have a lot of time to answer questions and give additional advice.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: A relative explains, Dr. Katyal was able to give them more attention, and he was available when they needed him.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: A couple of weeks ago a band called the linda lindas played their first gig since the pandemic started it wasn at the most rock and roll venue they were jamming in front of a tiny crowd at the la public library the band is made up of girls aged 10 to 16 and when the library posted a clip of their performance online millions of people shared it people loved it the band is breaking out, and their story is bigger than one viral video.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The LA Times spoke with some of the band members. Now, the highlight of their library set was their original song, Racist Sexist Boy.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Mila, who plays drums and sings, explains the origins of this song. A little while before we went into lockdown, a boy in my class came up to me and said that his dad told him to stay away from Chinese people. After I told him that I was Chinese, he backed away from me.
--:-- Mila: Eloise and I wrote the song based on that experience. And that experience turned into one of the most satisfying punk screams I've heard in a long while. You hear what they're saying there? We rebuild what you destroy. It's very empowering.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Bands including Paramore and Sonic Youth have given them rave reviews. And now this group is signing a record deal with Epitaph, which is a pillar of the L.A. punk scene.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: And the L.A. Times explains, while this may be the first time some people have heard of the Linda Lindas, they've been making waves in this scene for a while now. They opened for Bikini Kill's reunion tour in 2019. And they played the house band in the movie Moxie. It was directed by Amy Poehler.
--:-- Bella: Now the band's guitarist, Bella, tells the LA Times their recent fame is kind of coming at a busy time for them. Remember, these are teens and preteens, and their school finals are happening.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're there, check out some of our audio stories. We'll talk to you again tomorrow.
--:-- Shemitah Basu: Thanks for listening to Apple News Today.
