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Why the U.S. right loves Hungary’s leader · Apple News Today

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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Thursday, August 4th. 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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  CPAC is happening in Texas today. The conservative conference will have the usual mix of right-wing media and political speakers: Donald Trump, Glenn Beck, Ted Cruz. But there's also Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Some American conservatives are really, really into him. Steve Bannon once called him "Trump before Trump."
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  Orbán is currently under fire for a recent anti-immigrant speech that many compared to Nazi rhetoric. His long-time adviser, a Jewish woman, resigned. But he's still invited to CPAC. All of the Orbán love in America worries some people who've seen how he gradually transformed Hungary's courts and elections. He's changed laws to consolidate power. "The New Yorker" calls it "bureaucratic gaslighting" and asks if Hungary offers a glimpse of how America might gradually turn authoritarian.
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  Reporter Andrew Marantz traveled to Hungary to do some reporting on why Orbán's leadership style appeals to a certain conservative type in America. He told "NPR's" "Fresh Air," "Orbán is more cunning in some ways than a typical authoritarian leader."
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  Andrew Marantz: It's not like looking at Putin's Russia or, you know, even looking at Saudi Arabia or China, and, you know, you can just sort of glance at it and say, "Yes, this is not a democracy." The way he's done it is more subtle. And that gives him a certain amount of maneuvering room and plausible deniability, such that people who want to be apologist for his regime can just deny to your face that there's anything undemocratic about it. They can say, "Well, what do you mean? He has elections, he's popular, he has a democratic mandate, and you just don't like the results of it." And I think you have to ignore a lot to get to that conclusion, but it's at least, on its face, somewhat plausible.
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  Marantz says Orbán is an example of how political process can be more powerful than personality.
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  Andrew Marantz: Yes, Victor Orbán is a very gifted politician, but he's not a flashy reality star in the same way. And so, it's much easier to look at someone like him and say, "Okay, what are the structures propping him up?" And what it really is, is the ability to chip away at and hollow out institutions to perpetuate your own power. And yes, you know, Donald Trump has his own way of doing things. But the party that has enabled him and has, in many ways, outpaced him now is really, to me, the more worrisome thing.
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  Orbán speaks this afternoon. Trump will deliver CPAC's closing remarks on Saturday.
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  A Russian court says WNBA star Brittney Griner is guilty of smuggling illegal drugs. She's been in custody since February. She had vape cartridges containing hashish oil, and she told the court she made an honest mistake. She now faces nine years in prison if there's no deal for her release. It's been reported that the Biden administration discussed a prisoner exchange with Russia that would bring Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan home. As Griner's arrest and trial receive global attention, the family of a third jailed American is asking, "What about our loved one?"
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  Marc Fogel is an American teacher who's been in a Russian jail for a year. "Washington Post" reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia told us how Fogel's family feels like he's been forgotten.
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  Manuel Roig-Franzia: Why hasn't Marc Fogel gotten more attention? And that is that he is not famous. He is one of the many, many Americans who go abroad, work abroad, live abroad, fall in love with these places, as he did in Moscow, but don't become well-known figures. He's not a professional basketball player like Brittney Griner, who is well known and is going to generate headlines. And for Marc Fogel and his family, that's a hard thing to swallow.
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  In 2012, Fogel and his wife landed teaching jobs in Moscow. Their salaries were great, they loved living in Europe. In 2021, they agreed, "One more year, then we'll retire in America." Soon after that, Fogel was arrested by Russian authorities for attempting to enter the country with medical marijuana that he'd been prescribed in the U.S. for chronic pain. He's now serving a 14-year sentence. His family never thought he would get so much time.
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  Roig-Franzia: They thought, well, he might have to pay a big fine, or that he might be deported, or even have to serve a short prison sentence. But 14 years, we're talking about a sentence that, for a man who has just turned 61 a few days ago and isn't in the best of physical health, could be equivalent to almost, as his family worries and frets, a death sentence.
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  His wife told Roig-Franzia that the family is frustrated by the lack of clear answers from the U.S. government.
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  Roig-Franzia: This whole process is incredibly opaque for the Fogel family, which has traveled down to Washington several times and had meetings with well-meaning, polite bureaucrats who have told them essentially nothing, and opaque to the media. The State Department declined to speak with us about this case. And at this point, we really don't know.
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  Fogel's wife says U.S. officials told her to avoid making public comments because that could make things worse. But now, she's speaking out for the first time. She's hoping it'll create pressure on the Biden administration to cut a deal to bring him home, even if he's not as famous as Brittney Griner.
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  Many Americans who left the workforce during the pandemic have not returned. Companies and politicians are trying to figure out how to get people to come back and fill open jobs. Now, a new analysis points to a potential issue: an estimated 4,000,000 people are out of work because of long COVID. Brookings Institution researcher Katie Bach told "NPR" how massive her finding is.
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  Katie Bach: That is just a shocking number. That's 2.4% of the U.S. working population.
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  Bach says, when you add it all up, around $230 billion a year in earnings are being lost because of long COVID. This condition is debilitating. Symptoms like brain fog and extreme fatigue can make it hard, or even impossible, to work. "NPR" spoke to Karyn Bishoff, who was training to be a firefighter, and she said she was doing well, until long COVID hit.
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  Karyn Bishoff: I couldn't run into a burning building if I can't regulate my temperature. Like, if I can't control having hypertension, I can't lift up a patient, or I'm going to pass out.
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  The Biden administration says long COVID can be considered a disability. And the Americans with Disabilities Act requires workplaces to offer accommodations. But long COVID is complicated in a lot of ways. It's a new condition that we're still learning about, and symptoms vary a lot from person to person. That leaves people like Bishoff, the would-be firefighter, stuck. She now works with other long COVID patients to help them figure out the maze of disability benefits. But she says she'd rather be on the job. At 45 years old, she wanted to work at least two more decades.
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  It's the worst thing, being at an airport and learning that your flight's been canceled. You replay in your mind your whole journey getting to the airport. You question whether you really need to take this trip. You join the zombie line of passengers waiting for a desk agent, just so someone can tell you, "Sorry for the inconvenience, but there's nothing we can do."
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  Now, the Transportation Department is proposing some official rule changes that would at least make it easier to get refunds for canceled or delayed flights.
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  The "L.A. Times" travel reporter explains that, right now, the rules say airlines have to pay up if there are, quote, "significant changes" to flight schedules. But there's no definition for "significant changes," and that means that policies vary across airlines. If approved, this new rule would standardize things. "Significant" would mean changes to the departure or arrival time of three hours or more for domestic flights, six hours or more for international flights. It would also make vouchers valid indefinitely if there were pandemic reasons for the flight problems.
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  Now, none of this will make sleeping on a bench or floor more comfortable, but you might find it easier to get paid for your pain when you finally do get home.
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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. I'll talk with you again tomorrow.
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