--:-- Shmita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, August 14th. I'm Shmita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shmita Basu: On today's show, how much did racial profiling factor into recent immigration raids in L.A.? Why are Americans losing so much sleep over getting better sleep? And Taylor Swift announces her new era. But first, economists across the ideological spectrum are raising concerns that President Trump's new nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics will politicize what's supposed to be a nonpartisan government agency.
--:-- Matt Grossman: Remember, Trump fired the former commissioner Erica McIntyre for earlier this month, who had spent two decades in federal statistics because he didn't like the Department's latest job report. It showed hiring weakened in July, and the agency revised previously released numbers from May and June. They were much lower than the agency originally thought.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Revisions to employment numbers are quite normal, as the bureau aims to balance speed and accuracy. Regular watchers of these reports know to expect some adjustments. But Trump claimed without evidence that McIntyre rigged the numbers to hurt him politically.
--:-- Matt Grossman: To replace her, he chose E.J. Antony, the chief economist of the Conservative Heritage Foundation. And experts are concerned that his personal politics could shape how he approaches this work. His presence in public has been very political.
--:-- Shmita Basu: You know, he has a big social media presence where he's a cheerleader for the president's economic agenda and a staunch critic of a lot of the BLS's methods.
--:-- Matt Grossman: In fact, Antony appeared on Steve Bannon's podcast the day the bureau released its revised reports. He called McIntorfer incompetent and told Bannon that the nonpartisan agency should be led by a Trump loyalist.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Have we put in our own person into BLS? Is a MAGA Republican that President Trump knows and trusts, are they running the Bureau of Labor Statistics yet, sir?
--:-- Matt Grossman: No, unfortunately, Steve, we still haven't gotten there. And I think that's part of the reason why we continue to have all of these different data problems.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Before he was nominated, Antony also suggested the Bureau of Labor Statistics should suspend monthly jobs reports and only release data quarterly. He has since gone back on that stance.
--:-- Matt Grossman: By law, the Bureau is required to produce an employment report every month and suspending it could require an act of Congress. That would be a big adjustment for Wall Street investors, for one, for policymakers, for another, because they really rely on these numbers.
--:-- Shmita Basu: And in fact, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson already said that that would be a bad idea.
--:-- Matt Grossman: So maybe there's some disagreement in the administration about how to move forward. But the bottom line is that Antony really has a very different kind of background and a propensity to look for ways to shake things up that might put even some other people in the Trump administration off guard.
--:-- Shmita Basu: A number of economists have also raised concerns about Antony's professional record, which they say is mixed at best. His work at Heritage included quote elementary errors or nonsensical choices that distorted his findings to support conservative partisan positions according to a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute interviewed by Axios.
--:-- Matt Grossman: And others have pointed out incidents in which Antony appeared to misunderstand the very government data that he could be in charge of.
--:-- Shmita Basu: A White House spokesperson told news outlets that Antony would quote restore America's trust in the jobs data.
--:-- Matt Grossman: The Senate will need to vote on his nomination when they return from summer recess. One thing lawmakers might want more clarification on before they vote is a report from NBC out yesterday that Antony was among the crowd outside the Capitol on January 6th of 2021.
--:-- Shmita Basu: The White House said he was a, quote, bystander who came to the Capitol after seeing coverage on the news. Footage shows him leaving the grounds as people entered the Capitol building. Antony declined to comment to NBC.
--:-- Rachel Uranga: Now to an aggressive immigration enforcement practice used in Los Angeles this summer that activists say is a violation of civil rights.
--:-- Shmita Basu: In June, under orders from the Trump administration, immigration officials conducted broad sweeps in the L.A. area. More than 2,700 people were detained between early June and early July.
--:-- Rachel Uranga: Here's what we saw is agents going into open air locations like Home Depots, car washes and so forth and approaching vendors, approaching day laborers, approaching anybody who what appear who I guess they thought appeared to be undocumented immigrants and often arresting them and taking them into custody.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Immigration agents said the arrests in L.A. earlier in the summer often stemmed from, quote, consensual encounters.
--:-- Rachel Uranga: In July, a federal judge ruled that Border Patrol agents had used profiling tactics that violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable search and seizures by the government.
--:-- Shmita Basu: The constitutionality of these stops are really being questioned. And what a federal judge found was that agents were largely using four factors, race, language, skin color and location to determine who they stopped and arrested.
--:-- Rachel Uranga: And they found that that wasn't enough probable cause to do so. The judge issued a temporary restraining order. The government appealed, saying their tactics were lawful, but an appeals court rejected their argument.
--:-- Shmita Basu: The Trump administration recently filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court to lift the order.
--:-- Rachel Uranga: Now, that didn't stop CBP from conducting raids in L.A. again last week and attempting to detain anyone who ran from them.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Uranga told us one of the tactics deployed by agents in L.A. is known as roving patrols. Customs and Border Protection describes roving patrols as agents on foot or in a car looking for people who may be undocumented.
--:-- Rachel Uranga: Lawsuits have linked the controversial practice to racial profiling. So the question really became with these roving patrols is what were the determinations that these agents used to stop individuals?
--:-- Shmita Basu: And whether it was just racial profiling, for instance, were they just doing roving patrols in largely Latino neighborhoods, stopping at locations where they know people of Latino origin work or gather or commune?
--:-- Rachel Uranga: Roving patrols are distinctly different from the agency's main strategy of looking for specific migrants based on information they have on hand, like a removal order.
--:-- Shmita Basu: While more common along the border, roving patrols weren't seen in the interior of the country at this scale before.
--:-- Rachel Uranga: Brian Gavidia is a U citizen who was cornered by agents who were on a roving patrol in a largely Latino L neighborhood in June. He now part of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of these stops.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Here's some of the video taken by his friend, obtained by the L.A. Times.
--:-- Rachel Uranga: Look how you got my hands twisted that shit. I'm American, bro. Yo, these guys are literally, literally based off of skin color. My homie was born here just because of the way he looks.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Other cities in the U.S. are watching what's happening in California, particularly in states with no judicial orders to block federal agents from indiscriminate sweeps.
--:-- Rachel Uranga: A lot of people here really had this feeling that the administration was targeting Los Angeles because it had so many resources. It had so many immigrants. And there was really like a hub here and a way to fight back.
--:-- Shmita Basu: And the feeling was that they wanted to break Los Angeles. And if they could break Los Angeles, they could break other cities.
--:-- Jennifer Senior: Let's turn now to what's keeping Americans up at night. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, something like 3 out of 10 people have struggled with falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up earlier than they wanted to for some short period of time.
--:-- Shmita Basu: But more than 1 out of 10 people have chronic insomnia, meaning for them the struggle is consistent.
--:-- Jennifer Senior: When I lie awake at night, my mind was sort of whistling like a conkshell. I mean, there was just nothing going on in there.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Senior has dealt with insomnia since her late 20s. Before that, she says she used to be a great sleeper.
--:-- Jennifer Senior: She vividly remembers the first night she couldn't fall asleep. Eventually, I started to worry, and this is what all people start to do. They say, why am I awake? Now it's 2 a.m., it's 3 a.m., it's 4 a.m. You start watching the clock, you start doing insomnia math.
--:-- Shmita Basu: In her pursuit to understand why she, like so many people, just couldn't fall asleep, seniors started to explore how much sleep we really need to be healthy, including this widely held belief I'm sure you've heard before. You need eight hours.
--:-- Jennifer Senior: But there are lots of studies saying that eight hours is not associated with the best health outcomes.
--:-- Shmita Basu: A number of studies show the optimal number is lower, somewhere around seven hours of sleep.
--:-- Jennifer Senior: But even then, pinpointing the exact amount of sleep that you need can get tricky because our needs and our ability to sleep changes over the course of our lifetime.
--:-- Shmita Basu: And it's all very personal. For example, there is a small group of people who are genetically inclined to sleep for just four to six hours a night, and they do just fine with that amount.
--:-- Jennifer Senior: Senior also learned that commonly recommended sleep remedies like cooling down your bedroom and putting electronic devices away can only go so far if you're falling short on sleep for reasons out of your control, like working a night shift, caring for a loved one or studying for school.
--:-- Shmita Basu: So when they feel sort of helpless about it, reading about all the terrible things that come with sleep loss doesn't help.
--:-- Jennifer Senior: But learning to manage your anxiety around sleeping is one of the best things you can do. Because regardless of what triggers insomnia, Senior says she feels that obsessing over not sleeping could often keep people from finding a solution that works for them.
--:-- Shmita Basu: One highly recommended therapy for insomnia is a psychological approach. You have to interrogate all the beliefs you have. If I don fall asleep I will not be able to function the next day.
--:-- Jennifer Senior: And if you been keeping a sleep diary you be able to fact check yourself and say is that really true The next day were you really that bad or did you mainly function
--:-- Shmita Basu: So you can calm yourself down in that way. Or you can do something as simple as saying, I'm not falling asleep. So what?
--:-- Jennifer Senior: And if that doesn't work, Senior says, there's no shame in asking your doctor about medication.
--:-- Shmita Basu: For more on what Senior learned about sleep solutions, check out her reporting for The Atlantic. We'll include a link in our show notes page.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. Ahead of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska tomorrow, President Trump agreed on a strategy with EU leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Zelensky said he would not exchange any territory for an end to the war. Putin had previously demanded major land concessions in exchange for a ceasefire.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Trump said he wouldn't negotiate any territorial issues with Putin, leaving that up to him and Zelensky.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Trump also issued a warning to Russia, saying there would be, quote, severe consequences if Russia did not agree to end the war at Friday's meeting.
--:-- Shmita Basu: The Wall Street Journal reports threats of sanctions against Russia by the U.S. are what brought Putin to the negotiating table.
--:-- Shmita Basu: A new poll from Gallup says the number of Americans who drink is at an all-time low. 54% of those surveyed said they consume alcohol, the lowest since Gallup began tracking Americans' drinking habits about 90 years ago.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Gallup says the growing belief that drinking is bad for your health is why fewer people are consuming alcohol.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Women, according to the poll, are drinking far less, with an 11-percentage-point decline since 2023 compared to men with five.
--:-- Shmita Basu: And finally, Taylor Swift released details of her upcoming album in an appearance on the podcast New Heights, hosted by her boyfriend Travis Kelsey and his brother Jason Kelsey.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Swift teased the announcement for the album titled The Life of a Showgirl earlier this week and revealed the album's artwork and release date October 3rd.
--:-- Shmita Basu: During her appearance on the podcast, Swift said she worked on the album during her Eras tour that wrapped in December of 2024.
--:-- Shmita Basu: I'd do like three shows in a row. I'd have three days off. I'd fly to Sweden, go back to the tour. And actually like working on this, I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating.
--:-- Shmita Basu: And this is... And literally living the life of a showgirl. I was. I was. While she wrote it. That's why I said, that's why I called it that.
--:-- Shmita Basu: Swift posted several images on social media, including herself in full showgirl garb and the album's track list, which features fellow pop star Sabrina Carpenter on the title track.
--:-- Shmita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next from Town & Country magazine.
--:-- Shmita Basu: As high school seniors gear up to apply to colleges this fall, a small cohort of private, independent colleges known for their unconventional curricula are worried about their futures in today's world of cutthroat admissions.
--:-- Shmita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shmita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow. Thank you.
