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- [00:05]
Gideon Resnick
Good morning. Iranian allies announce a blockade in a second shipping waterway. The Washington Post explains how the conflict is spreading further into the region.
- [00:14]
Michael Birnbaum
We're seeing especially the US Side trying to put intense pressure on Iran by attacking targets they hadn't necessarily targeted before.
- [00:24]
Gideon Resnick
The closely watched trial for a woman accused of killing her children begins. And the Wall Street Journal goes behind the money flowing into MAGA week. It's Tuesday, July 21st. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News.
- [00:38]
Michael Birnbaum
Today.
- [00:45]
Gideon Resnick
The US launched strikes in Iran for the 10th consecutive night on Monday as President Trump promised severe consequences for any further killing of American service members. It comes as the conflict continues to spiral into a regional war. Yesterday, the Houthi militia group, an important regional ally of Iran, announced a blockade on oil shipments through another strait in the region, dragging a second oil trading route into the standoff.
- [01:10]
Michael Birnbaum
They are going to again start targeting Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, which is kind of the alternative flow point for Saudi energy.
- [01:22]
Gideon Resnick
Michael Birnbaum is a White House correspondent at the Washington Post. That strait through the Red Sea south of Yemen had become an option for some vessels rerouting away from the closed off Strait of Hormuz. The two waterways run the opposite sides of Saudi Arabia together.
- [01:38]
Michael Birnbaum
Those efforts make it very hard for Saudi Arabia to export any of its energy. And so that's really problematic for the Saudis, but of course, it's also really problematic for the global energy markets. It's going to drive up the price of oil significantly. If the Houthis are successful in doing what they say planning to do, a
- [01:59]
Gideon Resnick
full closure could reduce global oil supply by as much as 7%. That could become an economic squeeze for the Saudis. And it's just one way that US Allies are feeling the costs of the war more and more. Two of the most recent American deaths happened in Jordan where an attack hit a U.S. base.
- [02:17]
Michael Birnbaum
The Jordanian military is not all that strong compared to some of the other countries in the Middle east in a way that Iranians are kind of picking on a country's territory that isn't necessarily going to be all that capable of retaliating, but nevertheless sending a message to friends of the United States, they are going to suffer.
- [02:41]
Gideon Resnick
The pattern of tit for tat strikes and steadily increasing violence comes just over a month after a memorandum was signed to try and wind down the war. Birnbaum said it's a little bit difficult to describe where things stand at the moment.
- [02:53]
Michael Birnbaum
We seem to be settling into a pattern here of something that is hotter than truce in a ceasefire, but somewhere a little bit under the threshold of full out war. And a lot of analysts are thinking that this may be where we sit for the foreseeable future.
- [03:11]
Gideon Resnick
Yet even as more regional actors seem to be getting pulled in every day, intermediaries have been in touch with Iranian and US Officials about diplomacy and perhaps even a short term ceasefire. Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged a desire for more talks on Sunday. We've tried multiple times with Iran and we'll continue to try. If that door opens, we'll be happy
- [03:32]
Michael Birnbaum
to see it open.
- [03:32]
Debra Becker
And they continue to send signals that
- [03:34]
Gideon Resnick
they want to talk, that they want
- [03:35]
Michael Birnbaum
to negotiate, but their behavior is what we're responding to.
- [03:39]
Gideon Resnick
Yesterday, the pentagon said nearly 100 troops have been injured over the last two weeks. They also named two of the service members killed this past week, 25 year old Tyler James Feehan and 19 year old Isabella Gonzalez. Please be warned. This next segment mentions attempted suicide and includes graphic descriptions of violence against children in Massachusetts. Jury selection is underway in the trial of Lindsey Clancy, a woman charged with murdering her three children back in 2023. Prosecutors say she carefully planned to kill her kids aged between eight months and five years old. They say that she sent her husband to pick up takeout, researching the time that it took to make the journey. Then, while he was out, Clancy strangled the children and attempted to take her own life. Clancy does not deny committing the act, but she has not pled guilty. Her defense plans to argue she was in the midst of a mental health crisis, suffering from postpartum psychosis, and is thus not legally responsible. Debra Becker is a correspondent for WBUR in Boston who is in the courtroom to cover the start of the trial.
- [04:54]
Debra Becker
Her defense attorney says that she was taking 13 different medications for her mental health. She had gone to both inpatient and outpatient treatment and had been asking for help.
- [05:07]
Gideon Resnick
Patrick Clancy, the father of the children and Lindsay's husband, has forgiven her and is supporting her defense. In fact, he's filed a civil lawsuit which claims providers failed to monitor her prescriptions for drugs like Zoloft, Prozac and Ambien and that they provided only brief appointments with a psychiatrist despite reporting suicidal thoughts. The trial is expected to focus on postpartum depression, how it presents itself, the spectrum of symptoms and treatment. A psychiatrist at Tufts University told Becker about 80% of women experience a mild form of it, which she described as postpartum blues. That usually passes with time, but for some women, their mental health can get much worse.
- [05:48]
Debra Becker
About 20% of that 80% it develops into significant postpartum depression. And then a very, very small percentage of women, mothers can develop what's known as postpartum psychosis, where they really would have lost touch with reality. And in some cases they would hear voices or they would think that if they harmed themselves or their children, it would be a better outcome for everyone involved, and that's what they're saying happened in this case.
- [06:17]
Gideon Resnick
Despite the nature of the crime, Becker saw groups offering their sympathy to Clancy.
- [06:22]
Debra Becker
When I went to the arraignment, I was so surprised that there were women there who were wearing T shirts or stickers indicating that they supported her because they felt that not enough attention is paid to postpartum mental health. This is how difficult it is to get proper treatment.
- [06:42]
Gideon Resnick
Treatment typically consists of antidepressants. But a psychiatrist told Becker, they don't work for everyone. The only federally authorized medication made to specifically treat postpartum depression was approved in August 2023. Legal experts told Becker that Clancy's attorneys could have a difficult time persuading the jury, which can be resistant to the insanity defense for such a horrific crime. Though there have been some changes in views in recent years. In 2018, Illinois passed a law making postpartum illness a mitigating factor in sentencing, and many other countries have passed laws easing penalties. Becker reports that even if Clancy's defense succeeds, she will likely remain in a state facility and be subject to periodic reviews on whether she can be set free. In his second term. President Trump is not only making more money than any president in US History, he's also raising an unprecedented amount of cash to advance his political priorities.
- [07:45]
Marianne Levine
We found that they've raised well over half a billion dollars in donations.
- [07:50]
Gideon Resnick
That's Wall Street Journal reporter Marianne Levine. She and her colleagues have been tracking Trump's fundraising since the 2024 election across a web of nonprofits, cultural institutions, and committees controlled by the president and his allies.
- [08:03]
Marianne Levine
We're seeing a lot of different companies pouring money into these funds, but a lot of these companies have interest in the administration having favorable policies or regulations for them.
- [08:16]
Gideon Resnick
And Trump is using this money to defeat political opponents in elections, to remake Washington, D.C. and to plan for his legacy after leaving office. Most of the money tracked by the Journal went to MAGA Inc. A super PAC linked to the president that supports candidates who embrace his agenda. That group has raised more than $390 million since November 2024. One of its top donors, according to the Journal, was the parent company of crypto.com, which donated at least $35 million and has pushed for legislation about cryptocurrency regulation. Levine told us about some other major donors.
- [08:52]
Marianne Levine
Greg Brockman, the president and co founder of OpenAI, donated $25 million to Maga Inc. With his wife, and those contributions come at a time when the Trump administration has adopted an industry friendly approach to AI that has benefited companies like ChatGPT. We've also seen Reynolds American, which is one of the biggest tobacco companies, donate $8 million to Maga Inc. And the Wall Street Journal and other outlets reported previously that $5 million of that 8 million doll president decided to lift restrictions on certain flavored vaping products.
- [09:27]
Gideon Resnick
The Journal reports that MAGA Inc. Has spent a little over $10 million as of the end of May, and it's not clear how the group plans to use the remaining money in the midterm elections or once Trump leaves office. In total, Levine and her colleagues tracked over $780 million in donations to Trump aligned groups since November 2024. But she told us the true total is likely much higher because many of the groups that have received money are not legally required to disclose their donors.
- [09:56]
Marianne Levine
They have to provide some information in their tax filings that give us a broader overview of revenue of net assets. But really, who the individual donors are is often a mystery because a lot of organizations don't have to individually report them.
- [10:10]
Gideon Resnick
That includes the Trust for the National Mall, a Nonprofit founded in 2007 to improve the mall and the White House grounds. Trump has been using that group to manage private donations for his White House ballroom project. Several donors, like Booz Allen, Hamilton and Palantir, are major government contractors. And according to an analysis by a nonprofit group called Public Citizen, donors to the ballroom have received more than $50 billion in government contracts in recent months. In response to the Journal's reporting, a White House spokesperson said these unprecedented fundraising totals for Trump reflect his influence in American politics. Here are a few other stories we're following today. The Tate brothers will fight their extradition to the uk, their lawyer told a Miami court yesterday. Andrew and his sibling Tristan were arrested to face new rape and sex trafficking charges related to four alleged victims. The social media influencers were already facing similar charges in the UK over allegations from 2012 to 2015, which they denied. The extradition process begins with a hearing before a US Judge, but the ultimate decision rests with the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. According to CNN, the U.S. state Department has granted nearly every British extradition request since a strengthened treaty came into effect in 2007. President Trump announced on Monday that he would impose 50% tariffs on most Canadian goods. That is if Canada does not drop what the administration calls discriminatory trade barriers against US Products. This all started with the tariffs that Trump imposed last year, which led to some retaliatory moves, including US Alcohol being taken off certain Canadian shelves. The administration cited that and moves against the auto and dairy industries as well. If these new tariffs do go into effect, they'd be imposed on Canadian exports from wine to cement, paper and even hockey sticks. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said they were in direct violation of the trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. without an agreement, the tariffs would be effective in 30 days. And finally, Vice President J.D. vance and second lady Usha Vance welcomed their fourth child on Sunday. Vance said his new son, Alec, and Usha were happy and healthy after the delivery at Walter Reed Medical center in Bethesda, Maryland. Vance has been a vocal advocate for Americans having more kids, and he's expressed concern over declining birth rates in the country. The newest baby in the Trump administration is also a somewhat historic one. Vance's son is the first child born to a sitting vice president in more than 150 years. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening to the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. The New Yorker profiles a family in a Cleveland suburb who have been using AI chatbots to navigate social challenges and to grieve from deep loss. If you're listening in the podcast app, you can follow Apple News plus Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.