Latest / Apple News Today / He survived one execution. He’s fighting to avoid another.

Transcript

He survived one execution. He’s fighting to avoid another. · Apple News Today

• 0:00
  [INTRO MUSIC]
• 0:05
  Gideon Resnick, Narrating: Good morning! It's Friday, January 19th. I'm Gideon Resnick, in for Shumita Basu.
• 0:10
  This is "Apple News Today."
• 0:12
  On today's show, the fight over ultra-processed foods
• 0:15
  that could be in your fridge right now;
• 0:18
  What the government knows about UFOs;
• 0:20
  And hearing from the man who survived one execution and now faces another.
• 0:33
  [MUSIC FADES]
• 0:34
  But first, let's take a quick look at some other major stories that are in the news.
• 0:38
  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he does not support the creation
• 0:42
  of a Palestinian state in any post-war scenario.
• 0:46
  That puts him at odds with the Biden administration.
• 0:49
  The White House says it'll continue to work toward the goal
• 0:52
  of an independent Palestinian state.
• 0:56
  In the U.S., Congress is gonna avoid a damaging government shutdown
• 0:59
  just ahead of today's deadline.
• 1:02
  Yesterday, the Senate and House passed a short-term funding extension
• 1:05
  to keep the government running for the next few weeks.
• 1:09
  The stopgap will buy time for lawmakers to put together
• 1:11
  the big, complicated appropriations bills that'll provide money for the full year.
• 1:18
  Elsewhere, a new Justice Department report finds a series of failures
• 1:22
  by law enforcement
• 1:23
  in the 2022 elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
• 1:27
  19 children and two teachers were killed.
• 1:31
  It's the latest investigation to criticize the slow response
• 1:33
  from law enforcement.
• 1:35
  The Justice Department says the biggest problem was that
• 1:38
  officers didn't treat the incident as an active shooter situation,
• 1:42
  failing to immediately enter the classrooms and confront the gunman.
• 1:46
  Attorney General Merrick Garland met with the community
• 1:48
  ahead of the report's release.
• 1:50
  [START AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 1:50
  Attorney General Merrick Garland: I told the families gathered last night what I hope is clear
• 1:54
  among the hundreds of pages and thousands of details in this report.
• 1:58
  Their loved ones deserve better.
• 2:02
  [END AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 2:02
  Resnick, Narrating: In Miami, a Boeing 747 cargo jet had to make an emergency landing
• 2:06
  due to an engine malfunction shortly after departure.
• 2:09
  Social-media videos appear to show flames shooting out of the plane in flight.
• 2:13
  [START ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 2:14
  Unidentified Speaker: Oh, my God, it's on fire.
• 2:17
  Oh, my god!
• 2:18
  [END ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 2:19
  Resnick, Narrating: The airport says there were no injuries reported.
• 2:21
  Boeing declined to comment.
• 2:23
  And GE, the engine maker, didn't initially respond
• 2:25
  to "Reuters'" request for comment.
• 2:28
  This latest incident comes as Boeing and its partners
• 2:30
  are under scrutiny for a panel falling off a 737 MAX while in flight.
• 2:36
  And in science news,
• 2:37
  researchers have discovered the world's largest deep-sea coral reef.
• 2:42
  It's just off the East Coast,
• 2:43
  stretching from waters in Miami all the way up to around Charleston.
• 2:48
  The reef is a whopping 6.4 acres, bigger than the state of Vermont.
• 2:53
  Scientists previously thought that the area was barely inhabited.
• 2:57
  But it turns out there's an extensive underwater habitat there.
• 3:00
  [INVESTIGATIVE MUSIC]
• 3:01
  The discovery of the reef could help future conservation.
• 3:13
  Next week, Alabama plans to execute Kenneth Smith using nitrogen gas.
• 3:19
  This would be the first time this has been done in the United States.
• 3:23
  [MUSIC FADES]
• 3:23
  The United Nations says this untested method
• 3:26
  could be cruel, inhuman, and possibly torture.
• 3:31
  The convicted murderer already survived a botched lethal injection in 2022.
• 3:36
  Workers tried for an hour to place a needle in his veins
• 3:39
  before the execution was called off.
• 3:42
  "NPR" recently got a rare interview with Smith over the phone from death row.
• 3:46
  [START NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 3:47
  Kenneth Smith: I was strapped down, couldn't catch my breath.
• 3:50
  I was shaking like a leaf.
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  I was absolutely alone in a room full of people,
• 3:55
  and not one of them tried to help me at all.
• 3:58
  And I was crying out for help.
• 4:00
  It was a month or so before I really started to come back to myself.
• 4:05
  [END NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 4:06
  Resnick, Narrating: Only one other incarcerated person alive today has survived an execution.
• 4:11
  Smith told "NPR" that the day still haunts him.
• 4:14
  [START NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 4:15
  Smith: I'm still carrying the trauma from the last time.
• 4:18
  I'm being treated for PTSD and I struggle daily.
• 4:23
  So, when I got this date,
• 4:25
  my level of anxiety this time was not even close
• 4:30
  to what I faced last time.
• 4:32
  Everybody is telling me that I'm gonna suffer.
• 4:36
  So, I'm absolutely terrified.
• 4:38
  [END NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 4:39
  Resnick, Narrating: Alabama's plan is for the nitrogen to be delivered through a mask
• 4:43
  over Smith's nose and mouth.
• 4:45
  But if any of the gas leaks,
• 4:46
  it could pose a risk for others in the chamber.
• 4:50
  His spiritual advisor had to sign a waiver acknowledging that he could be exposed,
• 4:54
  in order to be in the room with Smith.
• 4:57
  Smith has filed a legal challenge
• 4:58
  to block Alabama from moving forward with the execution.
• 5:02
  His lawyers argue it would be unconstitutional to execute him,
• 5:05
  that a second attempt would be cruel and unusual punishment.
• 5:08
  [REFLECTIVE MUSIC]
• 5:09
  Federal appeals court hears arguments in the case today.
• 5:22
  Today, nutrition and public health experts meet to discuss big, upcoming decisions
• 5:26
  that could shape the way Americans eat for years.
• 5:29
  [MUSIC FADES]
• 5:30
  It's part of the Health and Agriculture Department's moves
• 5:32
  to update federal dietary guidelines.
• 5:36
  "Wall Street Journal" food and agriculture reporter Jesse Newman
• 5:38
  told us that one of the hot topics in that world right now
• 5:41
  is consumption of ultra-processed foods.
• 5:45
  Jesse Newman: And that's because there's sort of growing evidence
• 5:47
  that has linked diets that are high in ultra-processed foods
• 5:50
  to all sorts of problems.
• 5:52
  This would include increased risks of obesity, cancer,
• 5:56
  cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, even depression.
• 6:00
  So, there's all this new evidence that suggests that ultra-processed foods
• 6:04
  are really unhealthy for you on a lot of different levels.
• 6:07
  Resnick, Narrating: There's not a universal definition for "ultra-processed foods,"
• 6:11
  but nutrition experts say a simple way to think about it is this:
• 6:15
  If something has ingredients you wouldn't find in a normal home kitchen,
• 6:19
  consider it ultra-processed.
• 6:21
  So, if you look at the label and you see stuff like high fructose corn syrup,
• 6:24
  soy protein isolate, or guar gum, it's ultra-processed.
• 6:28
  And those are in a lot of things on grocery store shelves.
• 6:33
  Big food companies worry that if these products are labeled as unhealthy,
• 6:37
  that could hurt profits.
• 6:39
  So, they're lobbying to fight possible recommendations
• 6:41
  against ultra-processed foods in the coming dietary guidelines.
• 6:45
  Newman: Really, it's a concern that this new sort of dirty word
• 6:48
  in the food industry's dictionary
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  will scare off consumers and that it will deter consumers
• 6:54
  from picking up these foods in the grocery stores,
• 6:57
  which then is, of course, linked to sales and to profits for food companies.
• 7:03
  Resnick, Narrating: These corporations argue that processing can make food safer,
• 7:07
  more accessible, and more affordable.
• 7:09
  And the term "ultra-processed" is being used too broadly.
• 7:13
  Newman: They also worry that this terminology,
• 7:16
  "ultra-processed foods," could sort of infiltrate U.S. food policy.
• 7:19
  So, for example, things like what foods can be served in schools.
• 7:23
  So, there's a real concern
• 7:24
  that not only would it deter consumers at the grocery store,
• 7:28
  but that it could also have a much wider impact,
• 7:31
  and broader impact, on U.S. food policy, and therefore,
• 7:34
  on sort of where these foods are sold, where they're available.
• 7:38
  Resnick, Narrating: If you are trying to better understand what ultra-processed foods
• 7:41
  might be on your shelf,
• 7:42
  [ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
• 7:43
  check out the "Journal's" guide to spotting them.
• 7:45
  You can find it in the Apple News app.
• 7:55
  Between Congress demanding answers about UFOs,
• 7:58
  to rising public opinion that alien spacecraft have visited Earth,
• 8:02
  [MUSIC FADES]
• 8:03
  we are in the middle of a modern-day UFO craze.
• 8:07
  And it's renewing questions about what exactly the U.S. military
• 8:10
  and spy agencies do know.
• 8:12
  Garrett Graff: There is a government cover-up around UFOs.
• 8:15
  It's just not the one that you think it is.
• 8:18
  Resnick, Narrating: Garrett Graff is a national security journalist
• 8:20
  and author of a new book on what the government knows about UFOs.
• 8:24
  He spoke with Shumita before her maternity leave
• 8:26
  for this week's episode of "Apple News In Conversation."
• 8:30
  Graff says the U.S. government frequently hides knowledge of its own
• 8:33
  aerospace projects and tech for national security reasons.
• 8:37
  But that still leaves a lot of reported sightings unexplained.
• 8:40
  Graff: What they are trying to cover up is actually their ignorance.
• 8:47
  And that's a really uncomfortable answer for a bureaucracy to give
• 8:53
  [OUTRO MUSIC]
• 8:53
  when we have a bureaucracy that spends nearly a trillion dollars a year
• 8:58
  on national defense and intelligence and homeland security.
• 9:01
  Resnick, Narrating: If you're listening in the Apple News app, Shumita's full conversation
• 9:04
  with Garrett Graff is queued up to play for you next.
• 9:07
  And if you're listening in the podcast app,
• 9:08
  you can follow "Apple News In conversation" to find the episode.
• 9:12
  Enjoy that listen, have a great weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
• 9:18
  [MUSIC FADES]