--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Good morning. It's Monday, June 17th. I'm Yasmeen Khan, in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: On today's show, a dizzying number of rulings from the Supreme Court, why big stars are having a hard time selling concert tickets, and inside the quest for the perfect mango. But first, let's take a quick look at some other stories in the news.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the war cabinet established after the Hamas attacks. This comes after the more moderate politician Benny Gantz left the cabinet over a disagreement over strategy in Gaza.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And over the weekend, Israel's military said it will have daily pauses in fighting in southern Gaza during the day. It says this will allow more aid to get to Palestinian civilians.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Netanyahu was reportedly critical of these pauses, something right-wing members of his coalition oppose.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: In Saudi Arabia, at least 14 people have died in extreme heat. They were from Jordan, visiting for the Hajj pilgrimage.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: It was 116 degrees in Mecca at one point yesterday, and hot weather is forecast to continue.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Saudi Arabia is running cooling areas and water distribution and warning people to stay inside during the hottest hours of the day.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And in U.S. news, wildfires are raging in California. Some of the worst is happening in Los Angeles County, with thousands of acres burned and hundreds of people evacuated.
--:-- [Audio clip of L.A. County Fire Captain Sheila Kelleher-Burko]
--:-- Sheila Kelleher-Burko: Because it is the wind-driven fire, that's what's making it challenging. So we're doing everything that we can. We throw a bunch at it and so do what we do best and really get after it.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: It could get worse. Forecasters issued a red flag warning for parts of the area through later today.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Meanwhile, millions of Americans are bracing for a long heat wave this week. The Midwest and Northeast are in for record-breaking high temperatures.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: The sweltering heat may linger past the weekend. The National Weather Service says that some places could get the longest heat wave they've had in decades.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Now to the Supreme Court which is moving slowly to resolve a large number of outstanding major decisions before the term ends.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: There are so many big cases there barely time to take in the impact of the decisions already made.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Last week, the court upheld access to the abortion pill, Mifepristone, and it struck down a federal ban on bump stocks.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: These devices attached to semi-automatic rifles, allowing a shooter to fire hundreds of bullets per minute.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: The Trump administration banned bump stocks after a mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: That's when a gunman used bump stocks to kill 60 people and wound more than 400 in roughly 11 minutes.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Legal correspondent Nina Totenberg explained the case for NPR.
--:-- Nina Totenberg: And the Biden administration defended the ban in court, arguing that with the addition of a bump stock, a semi-automatic weapon can fire up to 800 rounds per minute, thus transforming a legal semi-automatic weapon into an illegal machine gun.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: But voting along ideological lines, the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority rejected that argument.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: The court ruled the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms did not have the authority to ban bump stocks.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Justice Samuel Alito wrote it was up to Congress to make changes to the law.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: He said that that event demonstrated that a semi-automatic rifle with a bump stock can have the same lethal effect as a machine gun, and that the simple remedy for that is for Congress to actually pass a new law that makes that clear.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: This week, the court could hand down more decisions on a number of consequential cases.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Among those we're following is another case involving guns.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: The court is looking at the constitutionality of a federal law that blocks people under domestic violence restraining orders from owning a gun.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And they'll decide another abortion case.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: This one involves whether doctors can perform abortions in emergency rooms to preserve a patient's health if they're in a state that bans abortion.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And there are two major cases related to January 6th.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: In one, the court will decide if prosecutors are allowed to charge capital attackers under a federal obstruction law.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And in the other, arguably the most pressing decision of them all, the court will decide if former President Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for actions while in office.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: The longer justices take, the more likely it is that Trump's federal election interference trial doesn't start before voters go to the polls in November.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Devin Dwyer, a Washington reporter, explained the challenging timeline in a recent ABC.
--:-- Devin Dwyer: I have to say everything we've seen from the Supreme Court on this particular case, the Trump immunity case, has been slow and steady as she goes.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: They do not appear to be in any big hurry.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And I wouldn't be surprised frankly if we see that case come out in the very last week of June, maybe on the last possible date.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: If you're a fan of Beyonce or Taylor Swift, then you've probably had trouble with Ticketmaster at some time over the last year trying to get a ticket to their super popular tours.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: But right now, these types of shows, well, they're actually the exception, not the norm.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: In fact, a number of big-name artists, like Bad Bunny, The Black Keys, and Jennifer Lopez, recently canceled or changed their touring plans, apparently after they weren't able to sell enough tickets.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: As one agent put it to me, concert promotion is a betting business.
--:-- Emily Stewart: I think for some of these acts, you know, they did make a bet on where they can play and where they can sell.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And they haven't been able to sell.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And it doesn't necessarily mean that they can't sell anywhere, but maybe they've had a hard time selling in certain places.
--:-- Emily Stewart: A wave of artists went on tour as pandemic restrictions eased, hoping to seize on the huge interest in returning to in-person events.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And it's great to the extent that if you are a fan, the world is a little bit your oyster right now in terms of who you can go see.
--:-- Emily Stewart: But it's also tough for acts because it really, really is very crowded right now.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And their fans don't have bottomless budgets.
--:-- Emily Stewart: Stewart says a lot of Americans are still feeling the squeeze from high inflation.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And it doesn't help that the average ticket price is higher than ever, around $125 a seat, according to one estimate that looked at prices from the top 100 tours over the first few months of the year.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: So to get more butts in seats, some musicians are teaming up and touring together to hopefully draw bigger crowds.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And in some cases, they're avoiding the busy concert season altogether, moving their touring plans back to a less competitive time on the calendar.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: I've got two words for you. Mango season.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: It's short, but oh so sweet.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And if you live in the United States, you know that tracking down a really good mango takes effort.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Most of the ones you'll find at the average supermarket come from Mexico, which are delicious.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: But to many, they don't hold a candle to South Asian mangoes and their nuanced flavors and textures.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And if you want one of those, you have to be willing to shop at not the standard places.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: One of them might be a nondescript warehouse in the Chicago suburbs.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And you think, am I in the wrong place?
--:-- Ahmed Ali Akbar: But you smell the mangoes as soon as you walk in.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: There are rare varieties from all over the Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan and India.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: It's a long-standing rivalry. Who has the better mangoes?
--:-- Ahmed Ali Akbar: And Indians in India cannot judge this, and neither can Pakistanis in Pakistan, because neither country sells them to each other.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Stocking mangoes from both during the brief season requires precise timing.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Indian and Pakistani seasons do not have complete overlap.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: So there's a moment in the middle where they do pass each other, where mangoes are available from both places.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: It's a really small period, by the way, too.
--:-- Ahmed Ali Akbar: A company called Mango ZZ runs the warehouse and sells the fruit to some markets and directly to consumers online.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: The owner, a mechanical engineer, spent years trying to solve all of the problems that come with importing this delicate fruit with a very short lifespan across thousands of miles.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And these mangoes are a luxury good.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: People are willing to splurge on a mango the way some people do on a fine wine.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: You could be paying $40 or $50 for not even a dozen mangoes, which may or may not spoil quickly.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: An average American customer who's used to getting fruit and putting in their fridge for two weeks and eating it after two weeks and it still looks good is going to be so upset when they spend $8 on a mango that turns half black within two days.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: They're going to say the product was faulty.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Still, for some mango lovers, the chance to try one of these rare varieties or get a taste of home is worth the trouble.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And this is where things get deeply philosophical for mango loyalists, who don't see mangoes as produce, but more as living things.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: Sometimes things get sick. Sometimes there's complications.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: You know what I mean?
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And you got to accept death.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: That's basically what I think the philosophy of the mangoes is, is like beautiful things are worth a lot of risk.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app, including coverage of the NBA Finals and golfer Bryson DeChambeau's U.S. Open win by a single stroke.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And if you're already listening in the News app now, stick around for a narrated article with more on the U.S. Supreme Court from The New Yorker.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: It looks at how progressive activists are paying more attention to state courts to see if they can get wins there that they can't pull off in the conservative-leaning Supreme Court.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: If you're listening in the Podcasts app, Follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Yasmeen Khan: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
