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Justice Alito under fire for gifts from GOP billionaire · Apple News Today

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  Gideon Resnick, Narrating: Good morning! It's Thursday, June 22nd. I'm Gideon Resnick, in for Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show: Another Supreme Court justice, Samuel Alito, faces questions about ethics. What happens when Al disagrees with nurses about patient care. And the big reveal of who's gonna represent U.S. Women's Soccer at the World Cup.
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  But first, we want to quickly look at some major stories that are in the news. The search for an underwater tourist vessel near the Titanic is in a crucial phase now. Sometime this morning, the submersible is expected to run out of oxygen. It left Sunday carrying five people and a four-day air supply. How long that actually lasts depends on whether the sub still has power, and whether the passengers are able to stay calm and to control their breathing. Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick says the search is not stopping.
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  Jamie Fredrick: When you're in the middle of a search and rescue case, you always have hope. That's why we're doing what we do.
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  Remote-controlled underwater search vehicles are focusing on an area where sound was detected. But there is still no sign of the sub yet, and it is not clear if the sounds actually came from that vessel.
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  In Northwest Texas, at least three people are dead after a tornado strike yesterday. It was one of several tornadoes reported across multiple states. Texas is also dealing with severe and unrelenting heat. And over the last few weeks, roughly half the U.S. population has also dealt with some kind of extreme weather including storms, flooding, wildfires, and scorching temperatures.
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  And today, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meeting with President Biden and addressing Congress. Modi will also attend a state dinner in his honor. And this is only the third state dinner of the Biden administration. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says the visit marks a deep and close partnership.
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  John Kirby: The visit will strengthen our two countries' shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific and our shared resolve to elevate our strategic technology partnership, including in defense, clean energy, and space.
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  There are critics in the U.S. and India of this red-carpet treatment for Modi. They cite a problematic human-rights record under his leadership. Biden is expected to raise concerns about eroding democratic values in India, though his national security adviser says it's not gonna be done in a way that is lecturing.
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  Let's stay in DC, where the Supreme Court is expected to issue major rulings in the days ahead, on affirmative action and Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan.
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  There are also ethical questions involving Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito. A new ProPublica investigation finds that he accepted a luxury fishing vacation with a wealthy Republican hedge-fund manager, who later had multiple cases before the Court. Joshua Kaplan is one of the reporters on the story.
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  Joshua Kaplan: Not only did they vacation together, but the billionaire, named Paul Singer, flew Alito across the country to Alaska on a private jet and we're told that chartering that flight could have cost more than a hundred thousand dollars one way.
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  What's more? Kaplan found that Alito did not report the trip in his financial disclosures.
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  Joshua Kaplan: Experts told us that he appears to have violated a federal law that requires justices to disclose most gifts. But perhaps even more noteworthy, when the same billionaire had case after case before the court, Alito didn't recuse himself in any of them. Experts told us that they couldn't identify any other example of this ever happening of a Supreme Court justice sitting on a case after receiving an expensive gift from one of the parties.
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  The fishing trip in question was in 2008. In 2014, Alito was part of a 7-1 majority ruling in Singer's favor. ProPublica asked Alito why he did not recuse himself or disclose the fishing trip. He didn't respond directly, and instead he took the unusual step of writing an op-ed in the conservative Opinion Page of "The Wall Street Journal." Alito says there he wasn't aware that the billionaire was connected to the cases because his name wasn't in the filings. And Alito says he didn't disclose the trip because the disclosure instructions did not require reporting, quote, "personal hospitality." Earlier, ProPublica reported that Justice Clarence Thomas accepted decades of luxury travel from a different GOP megadonor. Thomas defended the trips and said he was advised that he didn't have to disclose them.
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  Joshua Kaplan: And it shows that there's a broader pattern of major political donors getting direct access to Supreme Court justices by paying for their luxury vacations. And it also, I think, speaks to the lack of oversight and transparency at the Supreme Court, a lack that really is in stark contrast to just about every other part of the federal government.
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  After ProPublica's story on Alito came out, Senate Democrats announced a plan to vote on ethics legislation for the Supreme Court next month. Senate Republicans promise to oppose it, and it has little chance of passing in the House.
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  It seems like everywhere you look these days there is Al, and now even hospitals are rolling out artificial intelligence tools.
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  But some nurses worry that Al systems may be going too far, that they could in fact be overruling the better judgment of experienced healthcare professionals. "The Wall Street Journal" reports on how this is playing out in hospitals. So, here's one example: An experienced oncology nurse at UC Davis Medical Center talked about the time an algorithm alerted her that one of her patients could have sepsis. Now it's not clear why but it might've been because the Al thought the high white blood cell count was a sign of sepsis. But the nurse doubted this, she knew that the patient's leukemia was probably the cause here. Still, she says she risked facing disciplinary action if she didn't go along with the Al recommendation. So, the nurse drew blood from the patient. The results proved that the human nurse was right. And doing all of this didn't come without a cost. The additional test she did could've exposed the patient to infection, while also running up the medical bill. All because this algorithm said so.
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  The hospital told the "Journal" that disagreeing with an algorithm's recommendation is not grounds for punishment on its own. And that Al technology is meant to be a starting point, with nurses and doctors still making final decisions using their clinical judgment. But nurses and experts told the "Journal" that there's often heavy pressure to follow what these Al tools say about care. Even though some tools are flawed or rolled out without enough training.
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  Nurses were overwhelmed during the pandemic. They have dealt with being understaffed and overworked while operating in high-stress environments, for years. Some of this new Al tech is supposed to ease their burden, helping with tedious tasks like patient charts, medication verification, and patient monitoring. But nurses worry here about giving too much power to Al. As one nursing professor told the "Journal," Al should help support clinical decisions, not replace the human experts.
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  We're going to close today with some exciting sports news. The 2023 Women's World Cup is coming up fast. There is less than a month to go. And yesterday we finally got the roster for the US Women's National Team - they're the reigning champs.
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  And they're expected to go far this year. There was a big, online reveal of the players that made the national soccer team. It featured President Biden and various celebrities, including Taylor Swift, who announced one major name.
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  Taylor Swift: It is my honor to announce to you number 13, Alex Morgan, someone who I consider a friend. Someone I'm a massive fan of. I'm such a huge fan of the whole team…
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  Along with Morgan, some notable greats are also back in the mix here, like Megan Rapinoe and Kelley O'Hara who are going to be competing in their fourth World Cup. But, for 14 of the players on the squad, it's actually gonna be their first time. "ESPN" took a closer look at some of the surprises who made the cut.
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  Two of the biggest, "ESPN" says, are Savannah DeMelo, making her first appearance at the international level. Also, there's Aubrey Kingsbury, who has represented the U.S. just once before in international play. The squad also has the second-youngest World Cup player in team history, an 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson.
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  The excitement all kicks off next month with the U.S. women playing to make history, by winning the World Cup three times in a row.
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  You can find all of the stories we talked about today and more in the Apple News app, including coverage of tonight's NBA draft. And if you're listening in the News app right now, go ahead and stick around. Coming up next is a narrated article from "Sports Illustrated" about a pair of brothers who are dominating college wheelchair basketball. They told "S.I." about their journey, their hopes for the growing sport, and the power that it has to change perceptions of people with disabilities. So, sit back, enjoy listening to that, and Shumita will be back with the news tomorrow.
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