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The race to replace George Santos · Apple News Today

• 0:00
  [MUSIC FADES IN]
• 0:05
  Gideon Resnick, Narrating: Good morning. It's Tuesday, February 13th.
• 0:07
  I'm Gideon Resnick, in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today."
• 0:12
  On today's show, why flight attendants across the country are picketing,
• 0:16
  the race to fill George Santos' vacated house seat,
• 0:20
  and the little-told history
• 0:21
  of the man who was supposed to be America's first Black astronaut.
• 0:31
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 0:34
  But first, let's take a look
• 0:35
  at some major stories that are in the news.
• 0:38
  Starting in Gaza, where Israel is proposing to create
• 0:41
  sprawling tent cities
• 0:43
  as part of an evacuation plan for civilians
• 0:45
  ahead of its planned invasion of Rafah in the south.
• 0:49
  The plan involves 15 campsites across the southwest part of Gaza,
• 0:54
  roughly 375,000 tents for more than one million people.
• 0:59
  They would be funded by the U.S. and Israel's partners in the region.
• 1:03
  And Egypt has taken responsibility for setting up the camps
• 1:06
  and field hospitals.
• 1:08
  President Biden has privately warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
• 1:12
  not to move forward with plans to invade Rafah
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  unless there's also a plan to protect and support civilians.
• 1:20
  Rafah has been a key location from the very start of the war.
• 1:23
  Its border crossing is the vital passageway
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  for humanitarian aid that has trickled into Gaza.
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  It's the only exit for foreigners and critically-wounded people.
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  And it's where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter
• 1:36
  from the fighting, seen by many as a place of final refuge.
• 1:40
  Palestinians there told correspondents with "MSNBC" they don't know where to go.
• 1:45
  [START MSNBC ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 1:46
  Unidentified Speaker 1: Rafah is just two streets.
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  If they bombed one of them, thousands of people will die,
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  and we might be one of them.
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  [END MSNBC ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 1:55
  Resnick, Narrating: In the U.S., a major winter storm is bearing down
• 1:58
  on the East Coast this morning.
• 1:59
  It prompted school closures in Boston and New York,
• 2:02
  as well as travel advisories in the region.
• 2:05
  According to the Weather Prediction Center,
• 2:06
  more than two inches of snow per hour
• 2:09
  could fall across the impacted area, along with gusty winds.
• 2:14
  In legal news, yesterday, former President Trump
• 2:16
  asked the Supreme Court to step in
• 2:18
  and pause a recent ruling that did not grant him blanket immunity
• 2:22
  for alleged crimes that he committed as president.
• 2:25
  Recently, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C.
• 2:28
  rejected his immunity claim in regards to actions he took on January 6th.
• 2:35
  And the congressional aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan
• 2:38
  we mentioned yesterday continues to make progress in the Senate.
• 2:42
  However, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that he would reject the bill,
• 2:46
  saying that it failed to address U.S. border security.
• 2:49
  [TENSE MUSIC]
• 2:56
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 2:57
  Staying with politics and the House,
• 2:59
  voters in New York's 3rd Congressional District go
• 3:02
  to the polls today to choose a replacement
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  for Congressman George Santos.
• 3:07
  He was booted from the House of Representatives
• 3:09
  by his colleagues in December, making him just the sixth person
• 3:12
  in history to be removed.
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  Prosecutors accuse Santos of money laundering and wire fraud,
• 3:18
  among other financial misdeeds.
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  He faces a 23-count federal indictment.
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  Santos was also accused of lying a lot about a lot of things,
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  like using campaign money for Botox,
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  that his grandparents had fled the Holocaust,
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  and that he once ran an animal charity.
• 3:37
  The two main candidates running in the race are Democrat Tom Suozzi,
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  a well-known New York politician who previously held the seat,
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  and Republican Mazi Pilip.
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  She's an Ethiopian-Israeli immigrant with experience in the Israeli army
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  who now works as a county legislator.
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  And yes, their names rhyme.
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  So voters have been having fun
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  calling this election the Mazi vs. Suozzi race.
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  There will be big ramifications for Congress here
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  given the margins in the House.
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  Recently, a Republican effort to impeach
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  Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
• 4:12
  failed by a single vote.
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  And this race could offer an early glimpse into trends before November's elections.
• 4:19
  Mark Chiusano: The biggest implication here, I think, is that we're seeing a bit
• 4:24
  of a symbol for what the parties, and in some ways,
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  the presidential candidates are going to be focused on in the fall.
• 4:32
  Resnick, Narrating: That's Mark Chiusano, the author of a biography
• 4:35
  on Santos called "The Fabulist."
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  He's a politics reporter who's covered New York's 3rd District for a long time.
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  And he says the national parties are looking to it
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  as sort of a suburban crystal ball.
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  It's home to a chunk Nassau County's suburbs,
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  once so red that President Ronald Reagan said,
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  "When a Republican goes to heaven, it looks a lot like Nassau."
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  But more recently, those suburbs have helped propel Democrats.
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  The district voted for Biden in 2020, but then elected Santos two years later.
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  Some of the biggest issues for voters today are immigration, border security,
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  and crime.
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  Chiusano: Kind of crazy in some ways because the southern border,
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  which is the border of discussion here, is very, very far away. [CHUCKLES]
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  But there has been a big influx of asylum seekers in New York City,
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  tens of thousands of them.
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  And some of them are actually being housed in a facility that is right at the corner
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  of this district.
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  Resnick, Narrating: The race between Mazi and Suozzi is looking close by most accounts.
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  "NBC News" asked voters about what's driving their decision.
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  [START NBC ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Unidentified Speaker 2: I supported Mazi because I think she's a little tougher on crime.
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  And to be honest with you,
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  that's what the whole country is afraid of, the crime.
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  We don't care about democracy. That's already done.
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  [END NBC ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 5:51
  Resnick, Narrating: And as for George Santos, he told reporters last month,
• 5:54
  he has no plans to participate in voting for his replacement.
• 5:58
  [UPBEAT MUSIC]
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
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  Did you know that when you board a flight, no matter how long
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  that whole process takes or how chaotic it is to get everyone
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  into their seat, get their luggage overhead
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  and their seat belts buckled,
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  most flight attendants aren't considered technically on the books
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  until this message comes on.
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  [START YOUTUBE ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Unidentified Speaker 3: We are about to close the main cabin door.
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  All ground personnel, please disembark now.
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  Cabin crew, stand by.
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  [END YOUTUBE ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 6:33
  Resnick, Narrating: That is part of the reason why today flight attendants at dozens of airports
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  across the country are picketing as their unions are in talks
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  with airlines for higher pay.
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  A few years ago, we spoke with the travel writer
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  Nell McShane Wulfhart, who's written extensively
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  about flight attendants.
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  [START APPLE NEWS TODAY CLIP]
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  Nell McShane Wulfhart: If you get on a plane and you're sitting on the tarmac for an hour,
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  or while there's a technical problem, or a weather issue,
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  flight attendants are working that whole time,
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  but they haven't been paid for it.
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  [END APPLE NEWS TODAY CLIP]
• 7:00
  Resnick, Narrating: This is where it gets a little complicated.
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  Airlines say that isn't true, that flight attendants receive
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  a minimum pay guarantee for the time they spend on the ground.
• 7:08
  Most notably, in 2022, Delta agreed to pay flight attendants
• 7:12
  at half their hourly rate for that time spent before takeoff.
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  We should also say Delta is one of the rare airlines
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  where flight attendants are not unionized,
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  and the agreement was largely seen as a way to keep unionization efforts
• 7:24
  at bay.
• 7:25
  After Delta offered half-pay, some other airlines agreed to follow suit.
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  But "NPR" spoke with Sarah Nelson,
• 7:33
  the president of the largest flight attendants union.
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  She says this payment model simply isn't enough,
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  given all that flight attendants are asked to do today.
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  [START NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 7:42
  Sarah Nelson: Every flight is full. Boarding time is much more hectic.
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  There's fewer flight attendants doing that work.
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  [END NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 7:48
  Resnick, Narrating: And flight attendants argue that in addition to being unpaid
• 7:51
  during the boarding process, they spend hours
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  of their day waiting in airports for their own next flight.
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  All told, they could be spending five to six hours a day on duty,
• 8:00
  but off the books.
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  According to the Labor Department, flight attendants earn anywhere
• 8:05
  between 38,000 to 100,000 dollars a year.
• 8:09
  Nelson told "NPR" that for people in the first year on the job,
• 8:12
  it's pretty close to minimum wage.
• 8:15
  Now some unions are requesting as much as a 33 percent increase in pay.
• 8:20
  Airlines say they are negotiating in good faith
• 8:22
  and that they offer competitive wages and benefits.
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  If their demands aren't met, unions say they'll launch a global picket soon.
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  But under federal law, flight attendants aren't allowed to go on strike
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  without approval from the government.
• 8:35
  [MUSIC]
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 8:47
  You might have learned a little bit about the space race
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  and some of the famous astronauts involved,
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  but have you ever heard the name Edward Dwight Jr.?
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  He was on his way to becoming the nation's first Black astronaut
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  and confronted racism and politics along the way,
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  ultimately stymying his path to the stars.
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  Last year, he told "CBS" about what he faced at the NASA program.
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  [START CBS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Edward Dwight Jr.: So all these white folks that I'm dealing with, I mean,
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  my peers and the leadership was just horrified at the idea
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  and the president appointing me to this position.
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  [END CBS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 9:21
  Resnick, Narrating: To explain a little here, while in the Air Force,
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  Dwight joined a program created
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  by President Kennedy to send a Black astronaut to space.
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  Some of the other pilots training to be astronauts didn't like
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  that Dwight was getting so much national attention,
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  and he says he faced discrimination.
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  The assassination of JFK officially ended Dwight's journey,
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  and it would take another 20 years for a Black man to go to space.
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  Dwight told the "Kansas City Star" his obsession with the sky goes way back
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  to nighttime walks with his mom when he was just a kid.
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  He dreamed of being a pilot but thought it was only an option for white people,
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  at least until he saw a black pilot in a newspaper,
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  which put him on the path to flying.
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  A new documentary out today from "National Geographic"
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  called "The Space Race" looks at Dwight's NASA journey
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  and the influence he had on other talented Black pilots
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  and engineers in the space program.
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  and all of the ways that they contributed to human exploration
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  despite facing opposition.
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  And even though Dwight never made it to space, some of his work did.
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  He went on to become an acclaimed sculptor,
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  and one of his pieces was sent to space
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  as part of test missions for Artemis, where NASA hopes to put the first woman
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  and the first person of color on the moon.
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  [MUSIC FADES IN]
• 10:37
  You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
• 10:40
  And if you're already listening in the News app right now,
• 10:42
  we've got a Narrated Article coming up next.
• 10:44
  "Vox" takes a look at the legal and financial benefits afforded
• 10:47
  to married couples
• 10:49
  and how single people can pay a heavy price.
• 10:52
  If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find
• 10:55
  that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
• 11:00
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]