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What to know about the judge in the Trump documents case · Apple News Today

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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Tuesday, July 18th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show… What we know about the judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents trial, an investigation into San Francisco's open-air drug market, and how movie studios are banking on the buzz around "Barbie-Oppenheimer" and other summer blockbusters.
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  But first, let’s going to take a look at some other major stories in the news. The FDA has approved a new drug to protect infants against RSV. That's the respiratory virus that's the leading cause of hospitalization for babies in the U.S.. Last year's winter wave was particularly bad. This drug is a shot, but it isn't a vaccine. It's technically an antibody treatment that functions in a similar way, protecting babies and toddlers for a single season. A CDC panel will meet next month to talk about how the shot should be administered by doctors.
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  In other health news, millions of people, from the Great Plains to the Northeast, once again faced smoky air yesterday, and the National Weather Service says it could linger for several more days across the East Coast. Canada has recently deployed its military to try to fight wildfires that have burnt an estimated 25 million acres of land so far. For those in the U.S., that means a reprieve from the on-and-off smoke likely won't come until the fall, when more rainfall is expected. And poor air quality will continue to pose health risks, particularly for people with underlying conditions. Here's what Jennifer Stowell, a researcher at Boston University School of Public Health, told "PBS."
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  Jennifer Stowell: Say for instance, if I had asthma and I had, you know, a significant exposure to wildfire smoke, the likelihood that I would show up at an ER because of my asthma is probably about 8% more likely on a day that I'm exposed to smoke than on a day when I'm not exposed.
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  Elsewhere in the United States, a judge in Iowa has temporarily blocked a new abortion ban in the state yesterday. This is the piece of legislation we talked about last week, when the governor convened a special session for state lawmakers to pass the six-week ban. It's likely this case will make its way to Iowa's State Supreme Court. And lastly in Georgia, the state's Supreme Court there rejected an effort from former President Donald Trump to stop a grand jury probe. That investigation has to do with efforts from Trump and his team to tamper with the 2020 election results in the state.
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  In other Trump legal news… Today, in a Florida courtroom, lawyers for Trump and the Justice Department will make their first arguments in the federal criminal case about Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents. This is a pre-trial meeting; the actual trial date still hasn't been set yet. They'll talk about what the procedures should be for handling classified information as evidence in the trial.
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  Today's hearing will also give us some critical insight into how federal Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointee, will preside over the case. Outside legal observers have raised concerns about bias because of the way she handled a related lawsuit last year. In 2022, Judge Cannon ordered the Justice Department to temporarily stop its criminal investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents, and she granted Trump's request for an independent review. But a federal appeals court later dismissed her order, saying it wasn't legally sound.
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  Now that she's been randomly assigned this case, she'll have significant say over when it starts, how fast it moves, the evidence presented to the jury, the testimony they hear, and who sits on that jury.
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  Already, Trump's attorneys and federal prosecutors have disagreed on when the trial should start. Prosecutors are pushing for December. Trump's team says it should be delayed until after next year's presidential election. Judge Cannon, technically, has set the start date for some time in August, although it's likely that'll change. Federal prosecutors have said the jury selection process for this case "may be more time consuming" than in most cases, which is a reason to start sooner rather than later.
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  In San Francisco, people are dying at a record pace from drug overdoses. Since 2020, fentanyl alone has killed more than 2,000 people. And it's bringing new attention to the city's open-air drug markets, which have operated for decades.
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  Reporters at the "San Francisco Chronicle" wanted to know: Where are these drugs coming from? Who's dealing them? And why are they coming to San Francisco, specifically? Reporter Megan Cassidy, and her colleagues, spent 18 months investigating.
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  Megan Cassidy: What we found is that a large concentration of people who are low-level drug dealers in San Francisco, that are the most visible dealers in San Francisco's Tenderloin and Soma streets, are not just Honduran migrants, but Honduran migrants who are from this specific area.
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  That area is Siria Valley in central Honduras, which has a long history of extreme violence and poverty. And while the majority of Hondurans who reach cities in the Bay Area find legal work, the "Chronicle" found a high concentration of people from the Siria Valley, specifically, fled those conditions and migrated to San Francisco, where they now dominate the city's drug markets.
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  Cassidy: We can be sure that the open-air drug market is definitely contributing to a large number of overdoses, particularly from fentanyl. It's also being blamed for a mass exodus from businesses in the city. People don't want to live in places where there is not just open-air drug dealing, but kind of the issues that surround that.
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  The "Chronicle" spoke with 25 Honduran migrants who sold drugs at some point. Several said it was their best option for making money to send home to people in need. A few said they deal drugs because they owed money to human smugglers, and they worried that quitting could put their families at risk. Selling in San Francisco was appealing, according to some, because it's a sanctuary city, where there's a lower risk of a lengthy jail sentence or deportation if convicted.
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  Cassidy: And I can say from the 25 people that I spoke to, there are several who say that they would rather be doing legal work, but logistically speaking, it's a lot more difficult.
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  In recent months, California lawmakers have ramped up policing efforts. But studies reviewed by the "Chronicle" show more policing has little effect when the demand for these highly addictive substances is so high.
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  Cassidy: Fentanyl has changed the game. It's just so much deadlier, so much scarier, and just the visual effects of it are so much worse too. It feels like whatever we were doing, something isn't working, something's gotta give. And I think now there may be somewhat of a pendulum swing back towards more policing. Just really throwing every everything at the wall and seeing if something sticks.
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  Times are tense in Hollywood. Not only do you have both actors and writers on strike, but the industry has all eyes, and it's pinning all its hopes, it seems, on the release of two movies out this week: Oppenheimer and…
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  Unidentified Speaker: Hi, Barbie!
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  Unidentified Speaker 1: Hi, Barbie!
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  Unidentified Speaker 2: Hi, Barbie!
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  Unidentified Speaker 3: Hi, Barbie!
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  Unidentified Speaker 4: Hi, Barbie!
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  Unidentified Speaker 5: Hi, Barbie!
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  As "Vanity Fair" explains, expectations for Barbie and Oppenheimer are so high because theaters need the public to fall back in love with going to the movies if they want to survive. Many are still struggling to get back on their feet after pandemic closures.
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  And after a few disrupted seasons, this is really the first summer that we're back to having lots of big releases. Major studios have 42 movies slated for wide release across the country by Labor Day.
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  So far, box office watchers saw several big titles under-perform, like "The Flash", from Warner Brothers and DC Comics, Pixar's "Elemental," and the new "Indiana Jones" movie. Even the opening weekend numbers for the latest "Mission Impossible" fell short of some expectations. Good, but not great.
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  The question now is: will the absurd appeal of an "Oppenheimer-Barbie" double-feature be enough to get lots of butts in seats and get us anywhere close to pre-pandemic ticket-sales.
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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 right now, stick around. The "San Francisco Chronicle's" investigation into the city's open-air drug market, we mentioned earlier, is up next as a narrated article. So, sit back, listen to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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