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Why abortion-rights activists are taking the fight to states · Apple News Today

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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Tuesday, November 15th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, protests in Iran take a deadlier turn, what it'll take to get Russia and Ukraine to talk peace, and the story behind some unusual passengers on NASA's next big mission.
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  But first, we know a lot more about how the next two years of American politics are taking shape as more midterm results come in. Democrat Katie Hobbs won the Arizona governor's race, beating Trump favorite Kari Lake. It's the latest battleground state where voters said "no" to a candidate backing lies about the 2020 election.
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  Basu: Also, several more House races have been called. Republicans are now just one seat short of taking control. That means Democrats won't have the numbers to pass legislation to expand access to abortion. But abortion-rights advocates are fresh off of big wins in referendums, including in red states. My colleague Gideon Resnick is here with me now to talk about it. Gideon, tell us what we can expect now, how a divided national government would increasingly shift the abortion question away from Congress.
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  Gideon Resnick: Protecting abortion rights is almost certainly gonna happen at the state level from here on out. The idea of codifying Roe v. Wade, which is something that some Democrats have talked about at the federal level, is not extremely likely given that likely makeup of the next Congress. And as you mentioned, the fact that all of these kind of direct democracy efforts did so well really shows that we're probably in for quite a few more cycles where abortion could end up on the ballot.
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  Basu: Mm-hmm, and remind people, for those who don't know, what does it take to get an issue like abortion on the ballot?
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  Resnick: Yeah. So, first and foremost, you're often seeing people do a signature drive, right? So, a requisite number of signatures is gonna actually get the question or the amendment onto the ballot in front of voters. And once it gets to that point, they are basically allowed to kind of bypass state legislatures if they vote in favor of that amendment of that proposal on the ballot. Not every state has this kind of direct democracy quirk. According to The Fairness Project, an organization focused on these sorts of ballot measures, there are 22 states where citizens can start their own ballot initiatives of this sort.
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  Basu: Hmm. You know, "NPR" recently reported that the ACLU is considering future ballot campaigns in Florida and Ohio. Those are two states that re-elected Republican governors, and by significant margins. What do you make of how this is playing out in Republican governed states and how this might play out in Republican governed states?
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  Resnick: I think it's one of the more interesting questions going forward. You know, I think for advocates here, if that initial vote on the proposed abortion amendment in Kansas before the midterms seemed like a fluke, I don't think this conversation would be happening, right? If that was sort of a one off of "Kansans voted in this way, but other states didn't," we might not be talking about this. But advocates really look at this and see voters in places like Montana and Kentucky, for example, voting in similar fashions when the issue is put to them directly, no matter the leadership in those states. So, they are sensing opportunity here. The argument you often hear in these redder states, like a Missouri, like an Oklahoma, like an Arkansas, where some people have talked about putting this on the ballot in the future, is that state legislatures don't always fully represent the will of the people. And these ballot measures in some ways are starting to prove that, advocates say, at least on this issue.
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  Basu: Gideon Resnick, thanks for joining me.
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  Resnick: Yeah, of course. Thank you.
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  Demonstrations in Iran are entering a new and more dangerous phase after a court sentenced a protester to death. Hundreds of demonstrators have died under suspicious circumstances, but this is the first known case of capital punishment linked to the mass protests that began in September.
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  The 22-year-old protestor who got the death penalty was accused of setting fire to a government building. His mother posted a video online to say that his trial was a sham. Here's a translation from "Reuters."
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  Interpreter: They are treating my child unfairly. They have interrogated him without an attorney present. And in that very first session of the court, they sentenced him to death. Is this Islamic justice?
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  Masoumeh Ahmadi: [SPEAKING IN ARABIC]
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  An Iranian human rights group estimates more than 15,000 people have been arrested in the past two months. "The Washington Post" looks at how the Iranian legal system is stacked against political prisoners.
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  They typically wind up in Iran's feared revolutionary courts, which were created after the revolution to purge enemies of the Islamic government. Defendants can't see the alleged evidence against them. Human rights groups say it's often fabricated anyway. They get little or no legal support. And the court often relies on false confessions from tortured prisoners.
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  The European Union issued new sanctions against Iranian officials who are cracking down on protesters. And human-rights experts warn that a wave of executions could be coming, as the regime may take more extreme measures to end months of protests nationwide.
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  Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is asking global leaders to support his terms for a peace proposal. He addressed the G20 summit today, saying he will not make any territorial concessions.
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  Ukrainian forces have been making advances in recent weeks against Russian troops. Yesterday, Zelenskyy visited the newly liberated city of Kherson, after more than eight months of Russian occupation. He said Russian forces withdrawing from the city signaled "the beginning of the end of the war." At the moment, though, peace talks don't seem likely, according to "POLITICO" national security reporter Alex Ward.
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  Alex Ward: Everyone agrees it ends with a negotiated settlement. The question is, like, how do you sort of get that ball rolling? And right now on the U.S. side, they don't feel like now is not the right time to get that ball rolling.
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  For one, Ward says, you need both sides to agree to sit down at the table.
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  Ward: And right now I think it's very fair to say that the Russians are nowhere near wanting to have, like, actual conversations.
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  Ukraine was signaling the same for a long time. Zelenskyy had said he would not negotiate with Russia unless Putin was out of office, though he recently softened that position with some nudging from the Biden administration. But Ward says the recapturing of Kherson likely re-fueled Ukraine's motivation to keep fighting to regain lost territory.
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  Ward: I guess what you're looking for when you're thinking about a negotiated settlement is, like, are both sides sort of at the point that it makes sense for them to talk? And from the Russian side, they don't feel like they have lost yet, there's time to regain stuff that they've lost. And on the Ukrainian side, they're on the offensive, you know? They're looking upward, they're winning. So, why would you cut some sort of deal that would concretize some Russian gains? It doesn't make sense to them.
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  NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission is scheduled to launch tomorrow after previous attempts were postponed. There are no people on board, but there are passengers. Several mannequins.
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  They're high-tech mannequins. They're filled with sensors to collect data and learn how astronauts could handle future missions. Sitting in the commander's seat will be "Commander Moonikin Campos." "Smithsonian" magazine has the story of the NASA electrical engineer that it's named for, the late Arturo Campos. Campos played a key role in bringing the Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth in 1970. Even if you've somehow never seen the movie about the mission, you probably know the iconic Tom Hanks line.
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  Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks): Houston, we have a problem.
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  When the oxygen tank ruptured, NASA woke Campos up. He and his team spent 15 hours figuring out how to divert enough power to the spacecraft's emergency batteries to get the crew back home. Campos and other staffers got the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their work.
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  Campos was Mexican-American; he worked for NASA at a time when it had few Hispanic employees. He was a champion for diversity in the space program, establishing a college scholarship program for Hispanic students. Higher education played a key role in Campos' career path. Growing up, he planned to be a car mechanic like his dad. But a high-school teacher urged him to take college classes.
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  That set him up to become an engineer. And he followed that path all the way to the moon, and into history. Now, the mannequin named for him may provide data that helps land future astronauts on Mars.
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  You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app, stick around. We've got a narrated article coming up next about a major milestone the planet is expected to hit. Demographers estimate that the 8 billionth person will be born today. "Vox" examines the never-ending debate over global population, are there too many people on Earth or not enough? So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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