--:-- Gideon Resnick: Hi there, it's Gideon. Before we get into today's episode, we have a quick request for you. In a few weeks on Apple News In Conversation, we're gonna talk with an expert about what it takes to be self-employed. So if you've thought about quitting your job and becoming your own boss, we wanna hear from you. What questions do you have about taking that leap? If that's something that interests you, just use your iPhone's voice memos app to record yourself. All you have to do is tell us your name, where you're from, and your question, and then send it to us at applenewstoday at apple.com. Again, that's Apple News Today at Apple.com. And you might hear our guests answer your question on the show. Thanks so much.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Good morning. It's Friday, April 26th. I'm Gideon Resnick, in for Shamit Abassu. This is Apple News Today. Coming up, what happens now after a court overturned Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction? Understanding new Biden rules for nursing homes and how to make America a better place to raise kids. But first, let's look at some of the biggest developments in the war in Gaza, including here in the U.S., where campus protests are spreading.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: In many cases, demonstrators supporting Palestinians are being met with a large police response. More than 500 people have been arrested nationwide in recent days, from Columbia to the University of Texas to Ohio State. Close to 100 of those arrests were at the University of Southern California, which canceled its main commencement ceremony next month citing safety concerns. Protesters were dispersed by law enforcement earlier this week.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The local ABC station spoke with a student as officers moved in. I am a Jewish student on campus, and I was not threatened one bit by the Palestinian protests, but I'm threatened like hell by these cops. USC had already faced criticism for stopping a commencement speech by its valedictorian, a Muslim student, after complaints that she'd shared anti-Israel content on social media.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And protesters nationwide are raising questions about the force of the police responses. The Washington Post reports on what happened when Atlanta police worked to clear an encampment at Emory University. One officer was videotaped using a sun gun. Police used chemical irritants on the crowd. The department says officers were, quote, met with violence after the crowd refused to disperse.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: All of this is happening as the war in Gaza could be entering a dangerous new phase. Israel has increased airstrikes on Rafah in the south and a larger ground invasion of that area could be coming next. That has been worrying humanitarian groups because Rafa is a place where around a million civilians are taking shelter. Israel says civilians there should evacuate but it not clear where they can all go.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: A new offensive in Rafa would make an already dire humanitarian situation worse. One effort to get more aid to civilians is a floating pier off the coast of Gaza being put together by U.S. troops. Construction just began, and the Wall Street Journal reports the military says it's on track to be able to deliver aid from the sea by early next month. Gaza is only getting a fraction of the supplies that it received before the war.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Dozens of children have died from malnutrition and dehydration. And the U.N. expects that number to get much higher unless more aid gets in. More now on the overturning of Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction in New York. The state's highest court said that he didn't get a fair trial because the judge allowed the jury to hear testimony from several women about past allegations of sexual abuse that Weinstein was not charged for in that particular case.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The former movie producer faced numerous sexual misconduct allegations over the years, including from actor Ashley Judd. This today is an act of institutional betrayal. And our institutions betray survivors of male sexual violence. She was one of the first to go on the record with allegations against Weinstein.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: We need to be able to contribute without fear, without terror, of violence, of our voices being muted, our contributions being diminished, without fear of retaliation. And you know what the great poignancy is of this day? Why I'm in New York City? I don't live here. I am here to be at the United Nations to advocate for Convention 190, the convention to eliminate all forms of harassment and male sexual violence in the world of work.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: There was also criticism from the court itself in the 4-3 ruling. In her dissent, one judge wrote that, quote, men who serially sexually exploit their power over women will reap the benefit of today's decision. She added that it will now be harder to hold future defendants accountable.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: One of the court's issues with Weinstein's conviction has to do with a legal tactic known as the Molyneux Rule. Under the New York rule, prosecutors were allowed to bring evidence and witnesses not involved in the charges to speak about Weinstein prior bad acts. And they could use this type of testimony to build evidence of motive or intent in a crime.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: But prosecutors cannot use that testimony to demonstrate a defendant propensity to commit a crime, which is what the court determined happened in Weinstein's case. Weinstein was also convicted of rape and sexual assault in California, where he was sentenced to 16 years.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Former NYPD chief of detectives Robert Boyce talked to ABC about how the New York ruling doesn't mean the disgraced producer will go free. Bear in mind that Mr. Weinstein has wanted to do 16 years out in California, so he's not getting out of jail. But these things can't go, we can't let these things go past. He has to be retried.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney said they will attempt to retry the case. The Biden administration is putting new rules in place for nursing homes. Marking the biggest federal changes in more than three decades. This week's moves are years in the making, a response to the disproportionately high number of deaths in long-term care facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The rule set a new minimum for the number of nurses and aides required per patient. Thousands of facilities will have to hire more staff over the next few years in order to comply. The rules are less stringent than what some patient advocates say is needed. But the reality is around 80% of nursing homes do not have enough staff to meet the requirements.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And it won't be as simple as just posting a job listing. Jordan Rao, a senior correspondent for KFF Health News, told us about the challenge of filling these positions. These are really, really tough jobs, particularly if you're a nurse aide and you have to, you know, clean up people who can't toilet themselves and you have to lift people.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And the pay is extremely low. I mean, it's about $19 an hour. And people don't want to do these types of jobs. The average turnover is about 50%. Wages have gone up more than 25% in the last four years. But Rao says that won't be enough to solve bigger issues around worker shortages and retention in the industry.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And there's a real concern about the impact of the new rules on rural parts of the country. And then there's, you know, this overall unanswered question, which is, can these homes afford it? And, you know, there's a fair number of nursing homes that are really struggling, and there have been a lot of closures in the last couple of years.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: But there is also strong evidence that there are some private owners who are making enormous amounts of money and taking them as profit, and that their nursing homes would actually be able to hire a lot more people if they didn't do that. Rau says the Biden administration hoped the new rules would be seen as a win. Better care for patients plus more jobs for workers.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: But there have been some mixed reviews so far. Labor unions representing nurses welcome them. Lobbyists for the nursing home industry say the new standards are unreasonable, given current staffing shortages. They say they'll press Congress to overturn them. But Rao says they all agree for the most part, that nursing homes need attention.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: This area of sort of post-acute care, long-term care in the country has been treated financially a lot like a backwater. It's just not funded as well as something like hospitals or doctors. So this definitely is an area that needs significant overhaul.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: The United States can be a difficult place to raise kids. We are one of the only countries in the world with no national paid parental leave policy. We spend far less on early childhood care than other wealthy countries do. We have relatively high infant and maternal mortality rates.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: But it doesn't have to be this way. I think there's an awful lot of things that we spend money on where probably the benefits are lower than the kinds of returns we would get if we were making smart investments in families. That's Emily Oster, an economist, a parenting expert, and our guest this week on Apple News in Conversation.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: She sat down with guest host Julia Carpenter to talk about the ways that the U.S. could better support parents. One of her big ideas has to do with doulas. They provide coaching and all kinds of support to parents during birth and postpartum.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Oster says every pregnant person should have free access to one. Doulas are not medical professionals, but research shows they contribute to a wide range of positive outcomes. So it reduces the C-section rate. It improves mom's satisfaction with birth.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And data shows that doulas can reduce overall hospital costs. So if you have a C-section that's much more expensive for a payer, it's more days in the hospital. It's just surgery costs more. And so if you reduce that, you can have a relatively small reduction and that actually pays for quite a lot of doula time.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Oster would like to see Medicaid cover doulas. She's also pushing for other changes, including more support for parents in that critical first week after delivery. If you're listening in the Apple News app, the rest of Julia's conversation with Emily Oster is coming up next.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And in the podcast app, you can find it by following Apple News in conversation. Have a great weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
