--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, April 27th. I'm Shamita 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.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we get into other news, first, a quick headline. American Trevor Reed has been released from Russia in a prisoner swap. This ends a nearly three-year fight for the former Marine's freedom. Other Americans are still in limbo, like WNBA star Brittany Griner and another former Marine, Paul Whelan. You can follow the latest as this story develops in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: American student loan debt is a looming mountain, more than $1.7 trillion. And now there are new signs, President Biden may be getting closer to canceling some of that debt. The Biden administration has been skeptical about the idea in the past, but pressure is growing.
--:-- Jennifer Swan: People in favor of it say forgiving debt would help struggling Americans and boost the economy. Critics take issue with the price tag, and they point out much of the money would go to wealthy Americans who borrowed to go to expensive private schools.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, there may be a way to square these arguments. During the campaign, Biden said he liked a targeted plan. It would forgive student debt for low-income and middle-class people who went to public schools and historically Black colleges and universities.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The White House says Biden will make a decision soon. This would be before the current pandemic moratorium on student loan payments expires at the end of August. So more news on debt relief may be coming by the end of the summer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People turn to TikTok for fun, for news, for advice, and how-to videos. Increasingly, though, people are turning to TikTok for justice.
--:-- Jennifer Swan: That's Jennifer Swan, who wrote about this for The Cut. She told us people are posting to raise awareness of someone who's gone missing or been killed. Often the victims are women of color. And they're doing this because they feel law enforcement isn't giving these cases enough attention.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People are using it as sort of the equivalent of a wanted sign that you'd see on a street corner or a missing person sign that you'd see on a milk carton. But instead, they're using these videos to put up a news article and kind of highlight facts, talk about it, talk about what maybe the news got wrong or the news didn't know about their loved one who's missing or who was murdered.
--:-- Jennifer Swan: Swan told us about the murder of a woman named Daisy De La O. This was in Compton, Los Angeles, a majority Black and Latino community. Her friends and family all suspected her ex-boyfriend of killing her. They said he'd been abusive in the past.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Three months went by, and Daisy's friend was frustrated that they weren't getting updates on the police investigation. So she uploaded a video to TikTok with a picture of the ex and the caption, TikTok, do your thing and blow this up.
--:-- Jennifer Swan: They thought, well, why haven't detectives arrested Daisy's ex-boyfriend? This is the clear suspect. You know, to them, there was no one else who would do something so horrific to their good friend. It just did not make any sense.
--:-- Shamita Basu: After that post, she said she got flooded with notifications. Some people offered condolences. Others offered tips, including one who spotted the suspect in Mexico. Soon after, he was arrested and pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. His trial began last week.
--:-- Michael Rosenberg: That's Michael Rosenberg. He's a reporter with Sports Illustrated. And so when you see an event like the Olympics in China, that presents a nice image of China. The Olympics in Russia, the World Cup in Russia, the same thing. And so even though you might know that these countries have a terrible human rights record, it softens the image.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Rosenberg cites Saudi Arabia as another example. That country is responsible for many human rights abuses, including the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But now the kingdom is using golf to rehab its image fairly successfully.
--:-- Michael Rosenberg: You also have Qatar hosting the 2022 Men's World Cup as the nation exploits migrant workers to build the stadium. Thousands of them have died in the last decade building the infrastructure for this very event, the World Cup.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's probably not going to come through a whole lot on the broadcast. And so that's probably as brazen of an example of sports washing as we have seen in the last decade or two.
--:-- Michael Rosenberg: Rosenberg reminded us that athletes and members of the media have a responsibility to call out sports washing when they see it. People are going to watch sports, and I am a sports writer, and we're going to cover sports. And I would never argue that we should stop doing that because of where it is taking place.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But it is important, I think, for the media in particular to control the messaging around an event, especially when sports washing is involved. So this means we don't just mention one time at the start of an event, hey, this is a tough place. They don't treat people very well. But and then you ignore it for the next two and a half weeks of the Olympics or the next month of the World Cup. It has to come up constantly.
--:-- Host: Let me ask you something. When you eat an Oreo cookie, do you twist it open or do you just bite into it?
--:-- Host: That was a trick question. There's only one right answer. Obviously, you twist it open because it is unwritten Oreo code that you have to see how the cream filling comes unstuck.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Well, get this. A group of MIT researchers have taken this concept and gone all scientific method on it. They recently published a study where they were trying to figure out, is there a perfect way to twist an Oreo so that exactly half the cream ends up on each side.
--:-- Jennifer Swan: Weiss got in touch with one of the mechanical engineers. She said this is a challenge that has bugged her since childhood. Her team used this tool called a rayometer, which measures torque and viscosity to test all these different twisting methods.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And after twisting through a lot of cookies, here is what they concluded, even under laboratory conditions, it is nearly impossible to end up with even doses of cream on each side of the cookie.
--:-- Host: The engineer said honestly, she was surprised they couldn't find a proven way to do it. But in her words, that's just not how the physics works.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This article is a fun one. And I say this even though I'm not a fan of Oreos. And yes, I know that is a minority opinion. Please don't judge me. Check out the story and especially the pictures of these contraptions that they use to test the Oreos in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Plenty of other great stories there too. And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News Plus partners. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
