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How the U.S. is trying to keep the Gaza war from spreading · Apple News Today

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  [MUSIC FADES IN]
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  Mark Garrison, Narrating: Good morning. It's Tuesday, January 9th.
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  I'm Mark Garrison. This is Apple News Today.
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  On today's show, the U.S. tries to prevent the war in Gaza
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  from spreading.
• 0:15
  Problems with a Michigan law to help wrongfully convicted people.
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  And a night vision camera reveals a strange little housekeeper.
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
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  First, to the Middle East, where U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
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  is meeting with regional leaders, trying to contain the war in Gaza.
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  [START STATE DEPARTMENT ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Antony Blinken: This is a moment of profound tension in the region.
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  This is a conflict that could easily metastasize,
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  causing even more insecurity and even more suffering.
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  [END STATE DEPARTMENT ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Garrison, Narrating: A major potential flashpoint is the border with Lebanon.
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  The Iran-backed Hezbollah is in control of the area near Israel.
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  Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged fire nearly every day
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  since the Gaza war began.
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  But lately, there are signs that conflict could get more intense.
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  Yesterday, an Israeli airstrike killed an elite Hezbollah commander.
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  And Israel is widely seen as behind the attack
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  that killed a top Hamas leader in Beirut last week.
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  In recent weeks, Hezbollah fighters, Israeli soldiers and many Israeli
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  and Lebanese civilians have been killed.
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  "The Washington Post" reports on how the U.S.
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  is trying to convince Israel not to escalate in Lebanon.
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  A new secret intelligence assessment warns that this would be a much harder fight
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  for Israel than Gaza.
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  Hezbollah has a much stronger military than Hamas in Gaza.
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  If Israel launches a bombing campaign in Lebanon,
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  their pilots could be in much more danger of being shot down.
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  U.S. assessment is that Israel's forces would be stretched too thin
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  if they try to fight a war in Gaza and Lebanon at the same time.
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  Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib talked
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  to "CNN" last week about the need to avoid a broader conflict.
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  [START CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Abdallah Bou Habib: We don't want an escalation in the war.
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  We don't want what's happening in the south to be spread over Lebanon.
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  We don't like a regional war because it's dangerous to everybody.
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  Dangerous to Lebanon, dangerous to Israel and to the countries surrounding Israel.
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  [END CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Garrison, Narrating: But in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah is in power,
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  so the central government doesn't have total influence
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  over the situation.
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  But Bou Habib says it's encouraging Hezbollah to lower tensions.
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  [START CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Habib: You know, the decision is theirs,
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  and we hope that they don't commit themselves to a larger war.
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  But we're working with them on this,
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  and we have a lot of reasons to think that this would not happen.
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  [END CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Garrison, Narrating: And then there are the questions of the Israeli government's thinking.
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  Blinken is in Israel for meetings.
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  He met today with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
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  Earlier, "The Post" spoke to Biden administration officials
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  who worry that Netanyahu may be motivated to expand the war to Lebanon
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  [GENTLE MUSIC FADES IN]
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  as he fights for his own political survival at home.
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  Now let's take a quick look at some other major stories in the news.
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  Federal investigators say they're looking into whether missing bolts
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  are the reason a large panel came off an Alaska Airlines flight,
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
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  forcing it to make an emergency landing.
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  They say they still haven't found four key bolts
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  that should have been on the Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet,
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  and it's possible they were never correctly installed in the first place.
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  This comes as United and Alaska Airlines say they found loose parts when inspecting
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  multiple grounded planes.
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  A company called Spirit AeroSystems was responsible for installing the panel.
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  It and Boeing are also investigating what happened.
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  In legal news today,
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  a federal appeals court will hear former President Trump's argument
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  that he's immune from prosecution for his actions leading up to the attack
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  on the Capitol because he was president at the time.
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  Trump is expected to be there.
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  The court is fast-tracking the case so a ruling could come quickly,
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  and an appeal to the Supreme Court is likely to follow.
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  Trump's legal team is making a similar argument
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  to get election interference charges in Georgia dismissed.
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  And in the world of sports, there's a new college football champion.
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  [START ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  [CHEERING]
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  Chris Fowler: Hail, hail Michigan.
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  They are the champions of college football 2023.
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  [END ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Garrison, Narrating: Michigan beat Washington 34 to 13 last night.
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  [CHEERING FADES OUT]
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  It's the team's first national championship since 1997.
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  The Wolverine strong run game helped seal the victory.
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  It caps a year that was filled with drama, including a three-game suspension
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  [MYSTERIOUS MUSIC FADES IN]
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  of coach Jim Harbaugh because of a sign-stealing scandal.
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  You can find more sports coverage in the Apple News app.
• 4:58
  Now to a story about people who fought for years
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  to prove their convictions were wrongful.
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  But after getting out of prison, they faced yet another battle.
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  Authorities were making it hard for them to get compensated
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  for years behind bars for crimes they didn't commit.
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
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  In Michigan, wrongfully convicted people are eligible for $50,000
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  in compensation for each year of incarceration.
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  New reporting from "ProPublica" finds that narrow criteria
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  and confusing language
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  makes it extremely difficult for many people to get the money.
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  "ProPublica's" Anna Clark told us about why the state
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  set up the compensation program in the first place.
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  Anna Clark: The intention behind this is to provide some support
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  for people who are rebuilding their lives after experiencing grave injustice,
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  to try to reckon somewhat for that.
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  Garrison, Narrating: But for Marvin Cotton Jr., the law didn't provide that support.
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  Cotton spent almost two decades in prison on a murder conviction.
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  The prosecutor's office ordered his release after finding his trial
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  was unfair with police misconduct.
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  Even though his name was cleared,
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  Cotton found it hard to find a job and stable housing.
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  He believed he was eligible for close to a million dollars
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  in compensation,
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  but his compensation claim was challenged by the state.
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  Clark: You only qualify if your conviction was overturned based on, quote,
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  "new evidence," and that new evidence must meet a very high, clear,
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  and convincing standard.
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  If the courts didn't, like, literally decide it
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  based on that new evidence, if they decided it based on
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  trial errors or lawyer issues or something like that,
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  even if new evidence was also on the table,
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  then those folks end up getting shut out. They get nothing.
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  Garrison, Narrating: That's what happened in Cotton's case.
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  The attorney general's office said that new evidence had not emerged
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  to clear him of the crime,
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  and therefore he did not qualify for compensation.
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  Experts agree that wrongfully convicted people are entitled to financial help,
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  but there's no uniform standard for how governments should compensate them.
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  Michigan has the fifth most exonerations in the U.S.
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  Close to 70% of people who filed claims have been paid.
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  But for the many people left out, like Cotton, it's a painful process.
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  Clark: Now that we've seen it in action, now that we've seen
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  how it's been affecting real people's lives,
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  there have been some lawmakers, some advocates,
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  and even some state Supreme Court justices
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  that have been urging the legislature to take this up again,
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  to reconsider the language.
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  You know, just account for how it's been excluding
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  a lot of people that it was meant to help.
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  Garrison, Narrating: Cotton kept arguing his claim, and ultimately the state offered
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  to settle his case for about $630,000.
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  Cotton felt he had a good case for more,
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  but he told "ProPublica" he was tired of fighting,
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  [LIVELY MUSIC FADES IN]
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  that more years of litigation could rip his life apart.
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  Finally, a story of an intruder who leaves the place cleaner than it was before.
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  In Wales, a man was trying to figure out who was going inside his shed every night.
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
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  The weird thing was the mystery guest was doing a great job
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  of keeping the place organized.
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  Night after night, things the owner left out,
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  screwdrivers, nuts, bolts, clothespins,
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  they were neatly placed in a box by the morning.
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  So the owner of the shed installed a camera
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  to find out what was going on while he was sleeping.
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  And there, caught on tape, was a tiny mouse,
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  scurrying around, grabbing whatever was laying around, and using its paws
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  and mouth to neatly pile the junk in place.
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  The night-vision footage of the mouse is now being shared around the world.
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  The "Guardian" checked in with some scientists to find out
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  what was behind all the "mouse-keeping."
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  They're not sure exactly what's going on.
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  Mice build nests for warmth, and these were chilly nights.
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  But what's weird is, the mouse is grabbing mostly hard objects,
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  not the soft things that make for a good warm nest.
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  This may be more of the foraging and hoarding behavior sometimes seen
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  in the wild.
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  Think of pack rats, who are known to bundle up shiny objects
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  like keys, jewelry, and bottle caps.
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  What is clear to one mouse researcher, the critter seems to be having a blast,
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  or else it wouldn't keep at it.
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  [MUSIC FADES IN]
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  Mice may be a little bit like humans,
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  in that sometimes, doing something pointless is pretty fun.
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  You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app,
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  and if you're already listening in the News app right now,
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  stick around, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
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  "Rolling Stone" has the story of an FBI agent who spent two decades
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  going undercover to stop human trafficking.
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  Now she's talking about what she witnessed.
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  If you're listening in the Podcasts app, follow "Apple News+ Narrated"
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  to find that story, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]