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Hear from families caught up in immigration politics · Apple News Today

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  [INTRO MUSIC FADES IN]
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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Friday, September 16th. I'm Shumita 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.
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  We're in a new phase of the political battle over immigration between Republican and Democratic leaders. For several months now, Governors of Texas and Arizona have been busing thousands of migrants to democratic strongholds: New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C. This week, things have gotten more intense: buses dropped migrants off near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took credit for flying migrants all the way to Martha's Vineyard, a resort island off the coast of Massachusetts.
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  Now, there's a lot of focus on the politics driving these stunts, and plenty of noise from commentators, but we wanted to single out reporting from "NPR," which brings us the voices of the migrants themselves. It's a reminder that these families are caught in the middle of this conflict and they're scared, confused, and worried about food and shelter.
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  "NPR" interviewed migrants in Martha's Vineyard. They say they were staying at a shelter in San Antonio when a woman approached them and offered them seats on a flight to Boston, with the promise of expedited work papers. Instead, they ended up at Martha's Vineyard, a place that was not prepared for them. Andres Duarte was on the flight.
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  [START NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Andres Duarte: [SPEAKING THROUGH TRANSLATOR]
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  Translator: She offered us help. Help that never arrived. And now we're here. We got on the plane with a vision of the future, of making it.
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  [END NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  "NPR" spoke to another migrant, Yesica.
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  [START NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Yesica Worry: [SPEAKING THROUGH TRANSLATOR]
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  Translator: Oh, goodness. I don't know what is going to happen to us. The truth is I'm worried. It will be whatever God wishes, no? We're here now, and there's nothing we can do.
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  [END NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  A local elected official in Martha's Vineyard said the community wasn't alerted that migrants were coming, but charities and volunteers have stepped up to help. "NPR" spoke to homeless shelter director Lisa Belcastro.
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  [START NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Lisa Belcastro: We'll do everything we can, and you can believe this island community will do everything they can, but they need more. These people are pawns, and we have to stop the chess game right now because they're human beings and they don't deserve to be treated as they're being treated.
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  [END NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Larger cities have also struggled to accommodate the waves of migrants: Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public health emergency last week, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker also announced an emergency disaster proclamation, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams said this week that the city's shelter system is close to its breaking point.
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  [SOMBER MUSIC]
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  When the pandemic first hit, schools in the United States quickly closed their doors and switched to virtual learning. At the time, school systems argued it was the best and safest policy for students and teachers, but now, we're starting to understand the huge toll that it's taken.
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  [START APPLE NEWS IN CONVERSATION CLIP]
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  Anya Kamenetz: We allowed kids to become victims of the pandemic and our social responses to the pandemic, we allowed them to go hungry in April and May, we allowed them to lose this learning that they may or may not be able to get back.
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  [END APPLE NEWS IN CONVERSATION CLIP]
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  That's Anya Kamenetz. She's an education reporter and the author of the book "The Stolen Year: How COVID Changed Children's Lives, and Where We Go Now." She says here in the U.S., when it came to schools, we didn't heed the warnings, we didn't follow the data, and we just did not prioritize kids. And as a result of that, they missed a lot of learning time. We're beginning to see the effects. Recent standardized test results showed that math scores dropped and reading performance for nine-year-olds fell by the largest margin in three decades. And falling behind academically can have lifelong consequences.
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  [START APPLE NEWS IN CONVERSATION CLIP]
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  Anya Kamenetz: A child who hasn't learned to read by the age of ten has a much higher chance of not graduating from high school, and that sets them off on all kinds of hard things in their life course. It means that they might not get as good of a job, make as good of a wage, be as healthy in their life.
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  And now, even as schools reopen, tens of thousands of kids have never gone back. They're virtually unaccounted for. My conversation with Kamenetz covers so much more: how America's pandemic school policies compare to other countries, and what needs to happen now to recover. You can hear the whole thing on this weekend's episode of "In Conversation." Just search for "In Conversation" in the Apple News app or in the Podcasts app.
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  [PENSIVE MUSIC]
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  If you've got an old Toyota Prius, watch out. It's one of the hottest targets for thieves right now, and I'm not talking about the car itself. They're after the catalytic converter, which turns fumes into less harmful gases. Thefts of this part jumped more than 1,000% in two years.
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  For criminals, the Prius is a gold mine. Or to be specific, it's more of a platinum, palladium, and rhodium mine. These rare-earth metals are worth a lot, and the catalytic converter in the hybrid Prius has a higher concentration of precious metals than other cars. Thieves can get more than $1,000 for this shoebox-sized part, and it's a quick score: a person can just slip under a car and saw this piece off in 30 seconds.
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  The "L.A. Times" looks at how this is making life hard for owners of Prius models sold from 2004 to 2009. They're getting these parts ripped off on a regular basis, which is expensive and stressful and noisy. Here's what one victim told ABC when he realized he'd been hit…
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  [START ABC ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Unidentified Speaker: My engine made the loudest rumbling noise I think I've ever heard.
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  [END ABC ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  A rumbling noise kind of like this…
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  [START YOUTUBE ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  [CAR RUMBLING]
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  [END YOUTUBE ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  To try and ward off thieves, car owners are painting converters bright colors, they're etching in ID numbers, and even bolting on protective cages. One Prius owner said her catalytic converter was stolen over and over. By the fourth time, she was resigned to it. She said "Well, this is just how life is now."
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  [HOPEFUL MUSIC]
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  We want to end with some news from outer space. Not big, childhood-shattering, Pluto's-no-longer-a-planet news, but a pretty cool theory about why Saturn has the most impressive-looking rings of all the planets.
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  There's actually a lot that we don't know about Saturn's rings. "CNET" looks at new research that suggests the rings are debris from a lost moon that got too close to Saturn's intense gravitational field, which ripped it to bits. It must've been large too, because that's a lot of stuff floating around in those rings.
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  The researchers say the lost moon theory could also explain why Saturn's axis has that unusual tilt. That's another thing about Saturn that science has never fully explained.
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  So, whenever you look at Saturn's rings, think of it this way: you might be looking at scattered ashes, a striking memorial of a moon that died long ago.
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  [MUSIC FADES IN]
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  You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News+ partners. Enjoy the weekend and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
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