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Why an abortion case worries digital-privacy advocates · Apple News Today

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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Thursday, August 11th. 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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  A mother and daughter in Nebraska face criminal charges after prosecutors say they worked together to illegally terminate a pregnancy and bury the fetus. Both pleaded not guilty.
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  This story was first reported by the "Lincoln Journal Star." Back in April, months before Roe v. Wade was overturned, police received a tip that a 17-year-old had a stillbirth, and her mother helped her bury the fetus. Police obtained medical records and determined that the teenager was more than 20 weeks pregnant at the time. That's past the legal limit for most abortions in the state. Investigators then got a warrant to seize the family's phones and laptops and access their Facebook chats. Court documents say the chats include the mother saying she got abortion pills for her daughter and explaining how to use them.
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  Abortion rights advocates are concerned about how people's digital activity could expose them to prosecution, as more states criminalize abortion. Internet searches for information about abortion are up following the overturning of Roe, especially in states where abortion rights are under threat.
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  Heather Kelly: Could I be charged for something that happened before this was overturned? Will I be charged for seeking an out-of-state abortion? Can I get abortion pills in the mail?
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  Heather Kelly is a technology reporter with "The Washington Post."
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  Kelly: And there was just a whole bunch of grey area that people weren't sure of. And one of the biggest concerns was, you know, what can be used to prove these cases? What can police and law enforcement get from tech companies? What kind of communications? What kind of evidence?
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  Some of that could come from data collected by search engines, phones and fertility apps. And in many cases, if law enforcement decides they want it, they could seize it.
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  Kelly: Your communications are always going to be gettable in some way by law enforcement. Everything you do online is, in a way, tracked and collected. Every conversation you have with a doctor, if there's notes, if it's put into a computer system, those could also end up as evidence.
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  "The Washington Post" reports that between the years 2000 and 2021, there were more than 60 cases in the U.S. where someone was investigated, arrested or charged for terminating a pregnancy or helping someone else end their pregnancy. The real number is probably higher. And a number of those cases relied on digital evidence, things like text messages and search history.
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  Kelly: By making people a little more tentative to even Google, you know, certain pregnancy facts or abortion bans in their state, you are kind of pushing people into the dark a little bit. It's going to be harder for them to feel like they can safely find this kind of information.
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  Kelly's piece in "The Washington Post" has some tips on preserving digital privacy, which can apply to anyone. You can check that out on the Apple News app.
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  The business headlines this week are all about inflation. The latest report shows it's easing a bit, and investors were happy about the latest numbers. Stocks went way up yesterday after the data came out.
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  But if all you saw were the headlines on inflation, then you are not ready for your next grocery bill. It's still going to be expensive. Even though overall inflation slowed a bit in July, food inflation got a lot worse. Prices are up nearly 11% from last year. We haven't seen food inflation like this since the late 1970s.
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  It's a reminder of the importance of going deeper into the data, because the numbers that move Wall Street aren't the same as the ones that affect regular people's lives. "CNBC" spoke to a food pantry CEO who says it's seeing more and more families with hungry children coming in for help. And now rising prices mean charities can't get as much food to serve people in need.
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  Now, the reasons behind food inflation include everything that you've heard already. Labor shortages, Russia's war in Ukraine, all of it driving up world prices for pantry staples.
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  Expensive food is a reality, but there is some relief if you're headed to the gas station. AAA says that average national prices just dipped below $4 a gallon. That's the lowest level since March. Falling energy prices are a key reason why overall inflation is a little bit lower. But it might not make up for how much more you're paying to feed your family.
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  Students are getting ready to head back to classrooms for a third year of school in the pandemic era. And no state is going to require them to prove they've been vaccinated against COVID-19. Although some places like Washington, DC and New Orleans have local vaccination mandates.
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  This is a kind of 180 from what many people expected for this school year. Last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom said he was ready to make COVID vaccines a requirement for in-school attendance.
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  Governor Gavin Newsom: We intend to do that once the FDA has fully approved the vaccine, which will give us time to work with districts, give us time to work with parents and educators to build more trust and confidence and build out a logistics.
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  But California and other places largely ended up backtracking, after facing a mix of legal and political pressures. The health risk calculus for kids and families has changed too. The virus has been less deadly for children compared to adults. And now that many adults are vaccinated, it may be easier to tolerate the risk of a child bringing COVID home.
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  "The Wall Street Journal" goes beyond K-12 to look at how colleges are changing their COVID policies. And some campuses might start to look more like they did pre-pandemic. A lot of colleges are pulling back on mass testing and lifting bans on big indoor gatherings.
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  Some, like Northeastern, still require vaccines and boosters. But indoor mask mandates are going away. After two years of restrictions, the "Journal" says college staff and students alike are just exhausted. Higher ed is making a shift from treating COVID less like an emergency and more like something we just have to live with and manage.
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  Can humans make it rain? Recently, "Vox" took a ride with a pilot trying to do exactly that.
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  Christina Thornell: Whoa! That is shooting out all the silver iodide that's going into the clouds.
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  It's called "cloud seeding." And here's how it works. The pilot flies up to the edge of a thunderstorm and launches flares full of chemicals into the clouds. Now that chemical, silver iodide, helps tiny droplets in that cloud stick together until they're big enough to fall.
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  So yes, humans can make it rain. But not everyone believes it works. That's because it's hard to prove whether a cloud would've rained on its own, or how much it would've rained without this technology. And cloud seeding only works if the clouds overhead have enough moisture. It prompts rainfall, it doesn't just create rain out of thin air, like we might need in drought-like conditions.
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  Still, if used correctly, this technology could be a game changer for farmers like Gene Gully in Texas, whose cotton fields are bone dry.
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  Gene Gully: When it's this dry, we just can't pump enough water to get that crop growing. Looking out here, none of these acres will be harvested.
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  A lot of farmers are struggling right now, and the U.N. predicts that three quarters of the world's population will experience a drought by 2050. Cloud seeding technology isn't the answer, but it might be an answer as we face a future where the planet gets hotter, drier and more unlivable.
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  You can check out the full "Vox" explainer video, plus all the stories we talked about in today's show 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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