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Financial-aid issues leave colleges and students in limbo · Apple News Today

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  [INTRO MUSIC BEGINS]
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  Gideon Resnick, Narrating: Good morning. It's Wednesday, February 14th.
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  I'm Gideon Resnick, in for Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
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  On today's show, why a crucial Palestinian aid agency is in crisis.
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  How an update to the college financial aid process led to some chaos.
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  And celebrating yourself this Valentine's Day.
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
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  But first, let's take a quick look at a few major stories in the news.
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  Starting in the Middle East, where officials from Israel, Egypt, Qatar,
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  and the United States met in Cairo yesterday to negotiate
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  a possible second ceasefire in Gaza.
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  The plan would pause fighting there for up to six weeks
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  and involve another swap of Palestinian prisoners
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  for Israeli hostages.
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  Initial conversations ended without a breakthrough.
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  The talks come as Israel plans to invade Rafah,
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  the city in southern Gaza that borders Egypt.
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  Egypt has threatened to suspend its peace treaty with Israel
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  if the Israeli military moves forward with that offensive.
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  Speaking from the White House on Monday,
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  President Biden said he hopes negotiations continue.
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  [START ARCHIVAL SCENE]
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  President Joe Biden: But I'm encouraged Israeli leaders to keep working to achieve the deal.
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  The United States will do everything possible to make it happen.
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  [END ARCHIVAL SCENE]
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  Resnick, Narrating: Now to New York, where Democrat Tom Swasey
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  won a snowy special election
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  in the state's 3rd congressional district yesterday.
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  This was the seat previously held by Republican Congressman George Santos.
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  Swasey defeated his Republican opponent, Mazi Pilip,
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  in a race that was seen as a referendum
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  on national political issues like immigration.
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  Swasey's victory narrows the Republican majority in the House.
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  Now Speaker Mike Johnson could only afford to lose two Republican votes
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  on any partisan bill.
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  Speaking of partisan efforts, Republicans in the House
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  voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last night.
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  They have accused him of refusing to comply with U.S.
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  border laws, which he denies.
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  This second effort to impeach him passed by a single vote.
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  Mayorkas is now the first cabinet secretary
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  to be impeached in nearly 150 years.
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  The issue now heads to the Democrat-controlled Senate,
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  where it's unlikely Mayorkas will be convicted and removed from office.
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  And in sports, according to preliminary data,
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  the Super Bowl on Sunday was the most watched television event
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  in U.S. history.
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  More than 123 million people tuned in to watch the Kansas City Chiefs
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  [CALMING SYNTH MUSIC FADES IN]
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  take down the San Francisco 49ers.
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  The Chiefs will have their victory parade today.
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  The main UN agency tasked with providing aid to Palestinians
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  is running out of money.
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  Major donor countries, including the U.S., cut funding to UNRWA
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
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  after Israel accused a dozen of the organization's 13,000 staff members
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  of taking part in the Hamas attacks on October 7th.
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  Experts say, so far, the Israeli allegations are unverified,
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  and the UN says Israel has yet to share its intelligence with them.
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  The agency's commissioner fired the accused employees,
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  but he admitted that he did so without due process.
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  The New York Times reports that several employees had been fired
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  or left the agency in the past due to links to Hamas.
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  And two U.N. investigations are looking into the veracity of these new claims.
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  Separately, the Israeli military led a group of journalists
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  on a tour of tunnels that the military claims
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  Hamas had been using beneath a portion of the UNRWA headquarters.
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  UNRWA said in a statement that it had not been informed by Israel
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  of the tunnel's existence
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  and that the headquarters were vacated on October 12th.
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  But the allegations and investigations are threatening to impact the future
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  of the organization's work.
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  To fully put this moment in context, it's important to understand
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  how essential UNRWA is to Palestinians
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  and how UNRWA and Israel have long been at odds.
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  Here's how the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres
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  characterized the organization's work.
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  [START ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Antonio Guterres: UNRWA is the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza.
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  I appeal to all member states to guarantee the continuity
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  of UNRWA's life-saving work.
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  [END ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Resnick, Narrating: The group's full name is:
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  the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
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  It was established in 1949 as a way to help hundreds of thousands
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  of Palestinians who were displaced after Israel's founding.
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  In this current crisis, it has been the lead agency
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  providing food, water, shelter, and other emergency aid.
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  And it's provided these basic needs for decades for Palestinian refugees
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  across the Middle East.
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  Since the October 7th attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
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  has called for its dismantling.
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  [START ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: UNRWA is self-perpetuating.
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  It is self-perpetuating also in its desire to keep alive
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  the Palestinian refugee issue.
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  And we need to get other UN agencies and other aid agencies replacing UNRWA
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  if we're going to solve the problem of Gaza.
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  [END ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Resnick, Narrating: But UNRWA's Commissioner Philippe Lazzarini says
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  there is no other aid agency ready to step in.
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  And he says it's not just about providing emergency help
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  during the current war.
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  He argues that UNRWA is the only group poised to offer essential services
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  and some stability after, whenever that moment of transition comes.
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  [START ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Philippe Lazzarini: We have half a million girls and boys deeply traumatized
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  that we urgently need to bring back into an education system.
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  And this will not be provided by an emerging local administration.
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  There is absolutely no other U.N. agency
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  or I.N.G.O.s which have been tasked
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  over the last few decades to provide government-like services
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  like education to hundreds of thousands of children.
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  [END ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Resnick, Narrating: Lazzarini said if funding doesn't resume soon,
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  [DRAMATIC MUSIC FADES IN]
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  UNRWA could be forced to shut down their operations by the end of the month.
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  There have been major issues in the past few weeks with FAFSA,
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  the main form aspiring college students need to fill out
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  to calculate their financial aid packages.
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
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  More than 17 million students file for aid every year through FAFSA,
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  or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
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  But the latest version has been riddled with problems.
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  It all started when Congress mandated that FAFSA revamp its system
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  to make it easier for people to apply.
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  Danielle Douglas-Gabriel is a higher education reporter
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  with The Washington Post.
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  She told us the new streamlined FAFSA form was supposed to soft launch
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  at the end of 2023.
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  Danielle Douglas-Gabriel: So December 30th rolls around, and the form goes live really quickly,
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  but it's only available for a couple of hours.
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  And parents were livid because many of the ones,
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  especially the ones I spoke with, were waiting hours
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  trying to get into this form.
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  And the next day, they're still waiting hours.
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  New Year's Day, they're waiting hours.
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  And they're just getting error messages or being told to hold tight
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  in a waiting room.
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  Resnick, Narrating: Finally, the forum went live in January, but with a lot of issues.
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  As a result, parents, students, and colleges haven't been able
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  to get much needed financial aid information.
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  Some schools have faced no choice but to push back
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  the traditional May 1st deadline
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  that students need to commit to a university by.
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  What's more, Douglas-Gabriel reports that many people
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  who already completed the new FAFSA
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  will likely receive an incorrect estimate for aid.
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  That's because the education department
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  initially failed to update a crucial formula.
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  Douglas-Gabriel: And so now we're in February and there are a lot of students
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  who are in this situation worrying, will I be able to submit this form?
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  And if so, will it get to the schools that I'm looking at in time
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  to receive a clearer picture of what I'll actually have
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  to pay for college and what support I'll get?
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  Resnick, Narrating: Currently enrolled college students are impacted as well.
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  They use FAFSA to find out what kind of aid they qualify for year to year.
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  Douglas-Gabriel told us about Leah, the mom of a student in Texas.
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  Douglas-Gabriel: She is a woman who is helping her husband go through chemotherapy,
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  helping to keep her household in order and wanting to make sure
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  that her oldest daughter, who's enrolled in a public institution in Texas
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  is able to remain enrolled.
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  And, you know, in talking to Leah,
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  it's hard not to have your eyes water up a little bit
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  because you can sense her fear of not being able to help her daughter
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  and her daughter having to drop out.
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  Resnick, Narrating: Yesterday, the Department of Education announced new measures
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  to help address these problems.
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  They say they're doing everything they can to work on them quickly,
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  but also that Congress mandated the changes
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  to the FAFSA without giving them adequate funding to support them.
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  Meanwhile, colleges are bracing for more hiccups.
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  And students tell "The Washington Post"
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  they're worried that their dream schools might be slipping out of reach.
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  Douglas-Gabriel: It's unfortunate, and I feel for parents who are feeling this pressure
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  and this stress of not being able to help their children
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  with one of the most critical decisions of their life, and it's difficult.
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  [UPBEAT GUITAR MUSIC FADES IN]
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  It's a difficult time.
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  Resnick, Narrating: Finally, today is Valentine's Day.
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  If you were planning to get someone you love a gift
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  and you haven't yet, you can thank me for that reminder.
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  But also, have you ever considered just treating yourself?
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
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  "The Wall Street Journal" reports how more and more people are using the holiday
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  to celebrate themselves and buying gifts that say, "I love me."
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  We live in a country, after all, where nearly half of people
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  are not married and where, according to Pew,
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  most single people say they aren't actively looking for a partner.
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  Which is why the journal says retailers, both large and small,
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  have been adjusting to this growing trend of self-indulgence.
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  Even gifts traditionally marketed for couples, like lingerie or jewelry,
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  are now being marketed as something for women to gift to themselves.
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  This trend is getting so popular that last year, 39% of people
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  in a poll cited by "The Journal" said they bought themselves
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  a Valentine's Day gift.
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  Some people told the journal that buying gifts for themselves
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  made them feel independent.
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  [OUTRO MUSIC FADES IN]
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  And others say it's a nice way to avoid receiving yet another
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  pair of itchy socks from a well-meaning partner.
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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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  we've got a narrated article coming up from "The Atlantic."
• 10:49
  Silicon Valley startups are building their own societies
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  and designing them to their liking.
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  If you're listening in the podcast app,
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  you can follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
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  And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]