She was fired for refusing a COVID shot. A jury awarded her millions.

Summary

Apple News Today: Episode Summary Title: She was fired for refusing a COVID shot. A jury awarded her millions. Release Date: November 13, 2024

Join host Shemitah Basu as she delves into pivotal news stories shaping our world today. This episode covers a landmark legal case surrounding COVID-19 vaccine mandates, the ongoing US-Israel-Gaza conflict, significant shifts in Latino voting patterns, Trump’s upcoming administration appointments, and more. Below is a detailed summary capturing all key discussions, insights, and conclusions from the episode.

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1. Landmark COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Case

[00:47 – 02:35]

The episode opens with a compelling story about Lisa Domski, a Catholic employee at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, who was recently awarded $12 million after being fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Her case underscores the tension between religious freedom and public health policies.

• Religious Exemption Denial: Domski sought a religious exemption, arguing that the vaccines contained fetal cells from abortions, conflicting with her Catholic beliefs. However, vaccine manufacturers clarified that their vaccines do not contain fetal DNA. “The vaccines do not contain any fetal cells made from aborted fetal DNA,” states Shemitah Basu at [01:58].

• Legal Proceedings: After 32 years of service, Domski was dismissed, leading to a federal jury awarding her over $12 million for discrimination based on religion. Her attorney highlighted that Domski worked remotely during the pandemic, potentially exempting her from the mandate. “She worked remotely and should have been excluded from the vaccine policy,” explains her lawyer.

• Wider Implications: The case is part of a broader legal battle, with at least 180 similar cases filed across the nation against Blue Cross Blue Shield. Many plaintiffs are winning their cases, reflecting a significant shift in how vaccine mandates are being challenged legally. “Many of these plaintiffs are winning,” notes Basu at [02:35].

2. US-Israel-Gaza Conflict and Humanitarian Crisis

[04:02 – 07:30]

The podcast transitions to the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas, highlighting the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

• US Ultimatum to Israel: A month prior, the Biden administration issued an ultimatum to Israel to increase aid access to Gaza within 30 days or risk losing US military support. Despite Israel opening an additional crossing, the UN reports insufficient aid has reached Gaza, with over 1,000 Palestinians killed and many facing starvation. “There is not enough aid here. There is not enough supplies,” states a UN official at [06:15].

• Humanitarian Impact: The situation in northern Gaza is dire, with experts warning of impending famine. A Palestinian woman shared her reliance on soup kitchens to survive, emphasizing the daily struggles faced by residents.

• Political Developments: As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to assume office, his stance on the conflict is scrutinized. Trump has pledged to protect Israel and expedite the war's end. Yesterday, he nominated former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as the next US Ambassador to Israel. Huckabee, a long-time Israel supporter, asserted Israel's rightful ownership of Judea and Samaria, dismissing the existence of West Bank settlements. “I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee declared at [06:55].

3. Shifts in Latino Voting Patterns

[07:30 – 10:25]

A notable highlight of the episode is the analysis of shifting Latino voter behavior in the recent elections.

• Increased Support for Trump: Contrary to historical trends, Donald Trump garnered significantly more Latino votes than in previous elections, even winning in Starr County, Texas—a predominantly Latino region that had consistently voted Democratic for over a century. “Inflation was really keenly felt in these communities,” explains Jack Herrera, a reporter covering Latino counties, at [08:27].

• Key Issues Influencing Votes:

  • Economic Concerns: Rising costs of essentials like eggs, milk, and gasoline have deeply affected working-class Latino communities.
  • Immigration and Border Strain: The influx of unauthorized crossings during Biden’s presidency strained local resources, fostering negative sentiments towards the administration. “Local shelters were overwhelmed. Border Patrol was overwhelmed,” Herrera notes at [09:07].

• Diverse Perspectives Within the Community: While some Latino voters embrace Trump’s promises to control the border and implement large-scale deportations, others view his rhetoric as grandstanding, believing it won’t target their families. “They have the sense that Trump is going to prioritize criminals, not their grandma,” Herrera elaborates at [09:55].

4. Trump’s Upcoming Administration Appointments

[10:26 – 11:24]

Looking ahead to the incoming Trump administration, several key appointments highlight his policy directions.

• New Department of Government Efficiency: Trump announced the creation of this new agency aimed at reducing government spending. Prominent figures appointed to lead it include Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

• Defense and Intelligence Leadership:

  • Pete Hegseth: A combat veteran and Fox News host, Hegseth has been appointed as the Defense Secretary.
  • John Ratcliffe: Former House lawmaker Ratcliffe is set to lead the CIA.

These appointments signal a shift towards leveraging seasoned political and business leaders to drive efficiency and strengthen defense and intelligence operations.

5. Senate Split Representation Trend

[11:24 – 11:52]

An intriguing trend highlighted by The Washington Post reveals that only three states will have split-party representation in the Senate come January—Maine, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. This marks the lowest number of states with divided Senate delegations since the direct election of senators began over a century ago. This shift could have significant implications for legislative negotiations and bipartisan efforts.

6. Legal Accountability for Abu Ghraib Torture

[11:54 – 12:15]

In a groundbreaking legal development, a federal jury has held Khaki International, a US defense contractor, liable for its role in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq War. The company was ordered to pay $14 million in damages to each of three plaintiffs. “It’s the first time a civilian contractor was held legally responsible for torture at the prison,” notes Basu at [12:11]. This ruling represents a significant step towards accountability for actions committed during the so-called "war on terror."

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Additional Content and Promotions

The episode concludes with mentions of other stories available on the Apple News app, including:

• Trump’s Meetings: President-elect Trump’s visit to the White House and meetings with congressional GOP leaders.
• Anti-Abortion Movement: An upcoming narrated article by The New Yorker exploring the evolution of the anti-abortion movement within the Republican Party.

Listeners are encouraged to explore these stories through the Apple News app for more in-depth coverage.

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Conclusion

This episode of Apple News Today offers a comprehensive overview of critical issues ranging from legal battles over vaccine mandates and international conflicts to significant political shifts within the Latino electorate and the incoming Trump administration's strategic appointments. Each story is meticulously covered with insightful analysis and firsthand quotes, providing listeners with a well-rounded understanding of the current news landscape.

Transcript

[Shemitah Basu]

Hey there.

[Apple News Today Host]

Before we get into today's episode, I.

[Reporter]

Have a question for you.

[Apple News Today Host]

Are you on non speaking terms with.

[Reporter]

Someone in your family or are you.

[Apple News Today Host]

In a challenging family relationship that's made.

[Reporter]

You or your loved one consider cutting off ties?

[Apple News Today Host]

We're working on an episode for our interview show Apple News in conversation about estrangement within families.

[Reporter]

And we want to hear your stories.

[Shemitah Basu]

Use your iPhone's voice memo app to record yourself.

[Reporter]

Tell us your name, where you're from and your experience.

[Shemitah Basu]

And please try to keep it to.

[Reporter]

About a minute or so. You can send it to [e-mail] again that's inconversationpple.com and we might include your.

[Apple News Today Host]

Voice on the show. Thanks.

[Reporter]

Good morning.

[Shemitah Basu]

It's Wednesday, November 13th. I'm Shemitah Basu.

[Apple News Today Host]

This is Apple News Today.

[Reporter]

On today's show, what Latino voters see in Trump's promises.

[Apple News Today Host]

How a US Ultimatum against Israel came and went with no consequences. Plus, a new agency to make the.

[Reporter]

Government more efficient will have two leaders.

[Shemitah Basu]

But first, a woman in Michigan was.

[Apple News Today Host]

Recently awarded $12 million in a court case over workplace COVID vaccine mandates.

[Shemitah Basu]

It's a ruling that pits religious freedom against public health. And there are hundreds more cases like.

[Reporter]

It making their way through courts around the during the pandemic, Lisa Domsky worked.

[Apple News Today Host]

At the health insurance company Blue Cross.

[Shemitah Basu]

Blue Shield, which like a lot of.

[Apple News Today Host]

Employers required all employees to get the COVID vaccine unless they had some kind of medical or religious exemption.

[Shemitah Basu]

Domsky is Catholic and said she believed.

[Apple News Today Host]

The vaccines used fetal cells obtained from abortions, which goes against her religious beliefs.

[Shemitah Basu]

The major vaccine companies have all confirmed.

[Apple News Today Host]

Their vaccines do not contain any fetal cells made from aborted fetal DNA. So she asked for a religious exemption, which Blue Cross denied.

[Reporter]

Domski was fired after working at the.

[Apple News Today Host]

Company for 32 years. Her lawyer told Fox News that she worked remotely during the pandemic and should have been excluded from the vaccine policy. Now a federal jury has awarded Domski over $12 million for back pay, lost future wages and other damages, saying the company discriminated against her based on her religion.

[Shemitah Basu]

The company is considering an appeal. There are at least 180 other people.

[Apple News Today Host]

Bringing similar cases against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan alone and many more cases throughout the country.

[Shemitah Basu]

Reuters reports many of these plaintiffs are winning. One of the very first came in.

[Reporter]

June when a federal jury in Chattanooga.

[Apple News Today Host]

Awarded a woman close to $700,000 against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee. Here's her attorney, Doug Hamel, speaking with.

[Reporter]

A local ABC Affiliate healthcare workers, like.

[Doug Hamel]

Frontline nurses, they sometimes have to are mandated to have vaccines as a requirement for their job. But this was different because my client, as most employees of Blue Cross, are not healthcare workers. You know, Blue Cross is an insurance company.

[Shemitah Basu]

This plaintiff was a data scientist at the company who argued that she should.

[Apple News Today Host]

Be allowed to work from home because she rarely interacted with clients.

[Shemitah Basu]

The company later defended its vaccine requirement.

[Reporter]

Policy, arguing it keeps their workforce safe.

[Apple News Today Host]

These lawsuits are coming at a time when vaccination rates nationwide have been declining.

[Shemitah Basu]

As of late October, just under 15%.

[Apple News Today Host]

Of adults said they received the latest Covid booster, according to the cdc.

[Shemitah Basu]

Public attitudes about vaccines more broadly are shifting as well.

[Apple News Today Host]

According to Gallup, just 40% of Americans say it's extremely important to have their children vaccinated, down from nearly 60% just five years ago. One big skeptic of vaccines is Robert.

[Reporter]

F. Kennedy Jr. Who is in President.

[Apple News Today Host]

Elect Donald Trump's inner circle and who Trump has suggested he might put in charge of health policy moving forward. It's been a month since the Biden White House gave Israel an ultimatum. Boost aid access to Gaza within 30.

[Reporter]

Days or face losing some US military support.

[Apple News Today Host]

And while Israeli officials say they opened an additional crossing into Gaza, the UN says not nearly enough has been done. 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the past month alone, and many people are on the brink of starvation. Yesterday, the Biden administration suggested Israel has taken a number of steps and announced it would take no action to reduce the aid our government sends. Brown University's Costs of War project estimates the US government has spent around $18 billion on Israel's military operations since the start of its war with Hamas.

[Shemitah Basu]

During a press conference yesterday, journalists pushed.

[Apple News Today Host]

The State Department on the ultimatum.

[State Department Official]

If we don't see steps being taken, we of course will appropriately enforce U.S. law. But today, correct me if I'm wrong.

[Journalist]

Isn't that what you guys said a month ago?

[State Department Official]

That is what we said a month ago and that is why we laid.

[Journalist]

Out and they have not yet met them because you say that they have made some, taken some steps, but more needs to be made. In other words, they have not that letter by the deadline and you are giving them a pass. Is that. I don't understand. There's no other way to look at it.

[Shemitah Basu]

A major concern for humanitarian workers is.

[Apple News Today Host]

People'S access to food and water.

[Shemitah Basu]

Experts say north Gaza is on the brink of famine.

[Apple News Today Host]

The BBC spoke to one Palestinian woman.

[Reporter]

About where she gets her meals.

[Palestinian Woman]

If it were not for the soup kitchen, we would have starved to death. Every day it's the same struggle. I go back and forth to the soup kitchen.

[Apple News Today Host]

When the BBC asked an official with the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees about the state of the crisis, they were explicit in saying Israel has failed.

[Reporter]

To meet America's ultimatum.

[UN Official]

There is not enough aid here. There is not enough supplies. People are starving in areas. People are very hungry. They are fighting over bags of flour. There is just not enough supplies.

[Apple News Today Host]

Now the region is in wait and see mode as President elect Donald Trump prepares to take office. On the campaign trail, Trump said he wants Israel to end the war quickly, and he vowed to be Israel's protector. And yesterday, he nominated former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to become the next US Ambassador to Israel.

[Shemitah Basu]

Huckabee has been a longtime supporter of Israel.

[Apple News Today Host]

In 2017, he visited the west bank and was asked about Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

[Mike Huckabee]

My feelings personally, and I'm speaking only as a person, I think Israel would only be acting on the property it already owns. I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria. There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank Judea and Samaria. There's no such thing as a settlement.

[Apple News Today Host]

According to Peace Now, a nonprofit organization, Israel has seized more land in the west bank this year than any time over the past three decades. The war in Gaza, meanwhile, has left more than 40,000 people dead and displaced.

[Reporter]

Almost all of Gaza's 2.2 million residents.

[Apple News Today Host]

One of the biggest demographic shifts we saw in this election was among Latino voters.

[Shemitah Basu]

Vice President Harris won a majority of Latino voters nationwide, but according to exit.

[Apple News Today Host]

Polls, Donald Trump picked up far more Latino votes than in previous elections. He even won in Starr County, Texas, a county that's called the single most Latino place in America and has voted.

[Reporter]

For a Democrat in every presidential election.

[Apple News Today Host]

In more than a century. Up until last Tuesday, Jack Herrera has been reporting on Starr county, among other majority Latino counties around the country, to understand what drove their vote in 2024.

[Shemitah Basu]

And he recently wrote for Politico about.

[Apple News Today Host]

Some of the grievances he's been hearing from this community.

[Jack Herrera]

You're talking to people who are like, hey, the price of eggs went up. The price of milk went up. Last time I went to the gas pump, I couldn't fill my truck all the way up. I didn't have the money. Inflation was really keenly felt in these communities, which are overwhelmingly working class, overwhelmingly underserved.

[Apple News Today Host]

Immigration was the other motivating issue. Unauthorized crossings at the U. S. Mexico.

[Reporter]

Border surged during the first three years of Biden's presidency.

[Apple News Today Host]

Since December, asylum restrictions implemented by the administration have slashed the number of illegal crossings by 78%, bringing them lower than the rates from the end of Trump's first term.

[Shemitah Basu]

But for communities along the border, the.

[Apple News Today Host]

Strain on their resources was too great.

[Jack Herrera]

There weren't enough seats at the bus station, weren't enough flights to get them out at the airport. Local shelters were overwhelmed. Border Patrol was overwhelmed. And so you really see a sort of a chaotic situation. And that definitely rubbed people the wrong way, just those scenes of chaos. It's not even that people are coming over. It's that, oh my gosh, like, my town can't handle this.

[Shemitah Basu]

While many of these voters believe President.

[Apple News Today Host]

Elect Trump when he says he will.

[Reporter]

Be able to get the border under.

[Apple News Today Host]

Control, Herrera says there are mixed feelings about Trump's promises to launch the largest deportation program in history.

[Jack Herrera]

There are plenty of Latinos who want that to happen, are happy with it, but there are others who didn't really take that threat seriously when they voted for Trump.

[Shemitah Basu]

For that latter group, Herrera says they.

[Apple News Today Host]

Think that Trump's talk of deporting immigrants.

[Reporter]

Is just grandstanding and it won't target their families.

[Jack Herrera]

These communities, all of the ones I've reported from, people are living in households where somebody's undocumented, even if everyone else is a citizen. People who are in that situation and voted for Trump, they have the sense that Trump is going to prioritize, quote, unquote, criminals, that he's not going to come for my grandma. He's just coming for, like the gang members or the people who have arrived in the last four years. And Trump's team, the people around him, like Tom Homan, who's now become the border czar under Trump, was just the name of the border czar. He's been very clear that he's coming for as many people as he possibly can.

[Shemitah Basu]

In an interview this week with Fox.

[Apple News Today Host]

News, Homan suggested that immigrants who are here illegally should self deport ahead of the mass deportations that are coming. If they don't do it themselves. Homan says under the Trump administration, they'll.

[Reporter]

Be deported and never allowed back in.

[Shemitah Basu]

Before we let you go, a few.

[Reporter]

Other stories being featured in the Apple News app today.

[Apple News Today Host]

President Elect Trump visits the White House for a meeting with President Joe Biden.

[Reporter]

Trump will also meet with congressional GOP leaders.

[Shemitah Basu]

It comes after Trump announced more appointments.

[Apple News Today Host]

Yesterday, including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

[Shemitah Basu]

To head up a new Department of.

[Apple News Today Host]

Government Efficiency tasked with cutting government spending.

[Shemitah Basu]

Trump has also tapped Pete Hegseth, a.

[Apple News Today Host]

Combat veteran and Fox News host, to be his defense secretary and John Ratcliffe, a former House lawmaker, to lead the CIA.

[Shemitah Basu]

Meanwhile, as news outlets continue to crunch the data from the election, the Washington.

[Apple News Today Host]

Post found one interesting trend. Come January, just three states will have split party representation in the Senate, sending senators from two different political parties, Maine, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Post says this is the lowest number of states with split Senate delegations since Americans began directly electing senators more than a century ago.

[Shemitah Basu]

And finally, a federal jury found a.

[Apple News Today Host]

US Defense contractor liable for its role in the torture of prisoners held at.

[Reporter]

The Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq war.

[Shemitah Basu]

The contractor, Khaki International, was ordered to.

[Apple News Today Host]

Pay $14 million in damages to each of the three plaintiffs.

[Shemitah Basu]

Reuters notes it's the first time a.

[Apple News Today Host]

Civilian contractor was held legally responsible for.

[Reporter]

Torture at the prison, largely considered one of the greatest stains on America's military operations in the so called war on terror.

[Shemitah Basu]

You can find all these stories and.

[Reporter]

More in the Apple News app.

[Shemitah Basu]

And if you're already listening in the.

[Reporter]

News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. Next, the New Yorker looks at what.

[Apple News Today Host]

The anti abortion movement looks like within.

[Reporter]

A Republican Party that's acknowledged abortion bans are not popular.

[Shemitah Basu]

If you're listening in the podcast app.

[Apple News Today Host]

Follow Apple News Narrated to find that story.

[Shemitah Basu]

And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.