The college making tuition free for most American families

Summary

Apple News Today: Episode Summary
Title: The College Making Tuition Free for Most American Families
Host: Shumita Basu (Presented by Gideon Resnick)
Release Date: November 22, 2024

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1. International Criminal Court Issues Arrest Warrants for Israeli Leaders

Timestamp: [00:05] – [02:43]

Gideon Resnick opens the episode by discussing the International Criminal Court's (ICC) unprecedented move to issue arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Additionally, a warrant was issued for Mohammed Deif, the military chief of Hamas, implicated in the October 7th attack on Israel.

Key Points:

• The ICC alleges that Israel employed starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally targeted civilians in Gaza.
• Over 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing conflict, with more than half being women and children.
• Israel denies these allegations, with President Isaac Herzog labeling the warrants as "outrageous" and Netanyahu's office calling them "antisemitic."
• The United States has rejected the ICC's decision, aligning with Israel's stance.
• Notable Quote:
  Anna Hooligan (BBC News Correspondent):
  "One of the reasons why the ICC has released them now is because they believe similar conduct may be ongoing and they consider it in the interests of victims and their families that they are made aware of the warrant's existence."
  [01:49]

Implications:

• While the ICC has jurisdiction over 124 member countries, neither the US nor Israel are signatories, limiting the immediate impact.
• Comparisons are drawn to other leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has evaded arrest despite similar warrants.
• Sky News' Alistair Bunkle suggests that these warrants could tarnish Israel's global reputation and permanently label its leaders as suspects of war crimes.

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2. COP29: Financing the Fight Against Climate Change

Timestamp: [02:43] – [07:35]

The discussion shifts to the pressing question posed at the UN Climate Conference, COP29: "Who is rich enough to pay for climate change?" Host Gideon Resnick explores the complexities surrounding the financial responsibilities of developed and developing nations.

Key Points:

• Grist reporter Jake Biddle outlines the consensus that the world's richest countries should fund climate mitigation efforts in poorer nations disproportionately affected by climate disasters.
• Critical questions remain about the role of emerging economies like China and Saudi Arabia in contributing financially.
• The form of assistance—whether through grants or loans—and the specific allocations for decarbonization, disaster protection, and reparations for past damages are still undecided.
• The United States' future role remains uncertain with President-elect Donald Trump's anticipated withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, echoing his previous administration's stance.
• Notable Quote:
  Jake Biddle:
  "These talks are the world's best chance to turn things around. You have a lot of countries, especially the least developed countries in the island states, who basically say... this is the only forum we have really in the world to advocate for essentially the survival of ourselves as sovereign states."
  [06:45]

Implications:

• Developing nations, alongside China and India, are urging the US and Europe to bear the majority of the financial burden.
• The potential withdrawal of the US from climate commitments casts doubt on achieving the necessary global cooperation to address the crisis effectively.

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3. Rising Family Estrangement in America

Timestamp: [07:35] – [09:43]

As Thanksgiving approaches, Resnick highlights a growing trend of Americans disconnecting from family members, resulting in empty seats at holiday tables.

Key Points:

• Personal accounts reveal reasons for estrangement, including intergenerational trauma, narcissism, substance abuse, political and climate disagreements, abuse, and abuse-related trauma.
• Joshua Coleman, a psychologist specializing in family estrangement, explains the rise in such relationships over the past few decades.
• Coleman attributes part of the increase to the therapeutic community's shift towards validating individuals' decisions to cut ties, previously deemed socially unacceptable.
• Despite the increase in estrangements, Coleman notes that overall happiness and mental health indicators do not show improvement, suggesting that the solution may not lie solely in severing toxic relationships.

Notable Quote:
Joshua Coleman:
"I think that therapists have become what the sociologist Allison Pugh refers to as detachment brokers, which means that therapists often help people to not feel guilty or bad about cutting off family members that in prior generations would have considered and other cultures would have considered to be the wrong thing to do."
[08:34]

Implications:

• The normalization of family estrangement poses questions about societal values regarding forgiveness, reconciliation, and the long-term impacts on community cohesion and individual well-being.

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4. Political Shakeup: Matt Gaetz Withdraws as Attorney General Candidate

Timestamp: [09:43] – [12:19]

Resnick reports on the recent withdrawal of former Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz from consideration for the Attorney General position amidst ongoing controversies.

Key Points:

• Gaetz withdrew his nomination citing that his confirmation was becoming an "unfair distraction," following renewed allegations of inappropriate conduct.
• President Donald Trump has nominated Pam Bondi, former Attorney General of Florida, known for representing Trump during his first impeachment trial, as Gaetz's replacement.
• Gaetz had been actively seeking Senate support but faced significant obstacles due to the resurfacing of allegations he denies.

Implications:

• This development underscores the volatile nature of political appointments and the impact of personal conduct allegations on public service careers.

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5. MIT Announces Tuition-Free Education for Most American Families

Timestamp: [07:51] – [12:19]

One of the episode's focal points is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's groundbreaking initiative to offer tuition-free education to a vast majority of American families.

Key Points:

• Starting next fall, MIT will waive tuition for students from families earning less than $200,000 annually, encompassing most American households.
• For families with incomes below $100,000, MIT will cover not just tuition but also housing, food, and stipends for books and other expenses.
• The move is financed through contributions from alumni and friends of the university.
• Notable Quote:
  Gideon Resnick:
  "MIT is making tuition free for students whose families earn less than $200,000 annually beginning next fall, the school says. Most American households meet that threshold."
  [10:10]

Implications:

• With tuition costs nearing $58,000 for the 2022-2023 academic year, MIT's initiative aims to alleviate the financial burden on families and make elite education more accessible.
• This could set a precedent for other institutions to follow suit, potentially reshaping higher education financing in the United States.

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6. Entertainment: Wicked Movie Adaptation Debuts in Theaters

Timestamp: [12:19] – [13:35]

Concluding the episode, Resnick covers the release of the highly anticipated film adaptation of the Broadway hit "Wicked."

Key Points:

• "Wicked" opens in theaters amidst significant marketing efforts and high expectations.
• Constance Grady, a senior culture correspondent at Fox, explains the massive hype surrounding the movie, attributing it to the show's enduring popularity and its substantial box office success on Broadway, grossing over $5 billion.
• The film aims to attract both longtime fans and new audiences by bringing beloved characters and stories to the big screen.

Notable Quote:
Constance Grady:
"Wicked is the fourth longest running show on Broadway ever. It's made over $5 billion in its lifetime. So the hope is that this movie will appeal to people who saw Wicked on Broadway 20 years ago and want to take their kids now, and also to people who never saw it but listen to the cast recording over and over and want to finally put some images to the words."
[11:47]

Implications:

• The successful adaptation of "Wicked" into a film could reinvigorate interest in musical theater adaptations and expand the franchise's reach to a global audience.

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Additional Stories Featured:

• Arrest Warrants and Global Reactions: Further details on the ICC's actions and international responses, including comparisons to historical figures like Slobodan Milosevic.

• COP29 Financial Debates: In-depth exploration of financial contributions required from various nations to combat climate change, emphasizing the complexity and urgency of the negotiations.

• Family Estrangement Expert Insights: Joshua Coleman shares strategies for repairing estranged relationships and acknowledges cases where reconciliation may not be possible.

• Political Developments: The implications of Matt Gaetz's withdrawal and Pam Bondi's nomination for the future of the Attorney General's office.

• Higher Education Innovations: MIT's financial aid revolution as a potential model for other universities aiming to reduce student debt and increase accessibility.

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Conclusion:
This episode of Apple News Today offers a comprehensive overview of significant global and domestic issues, ranging from international justice and climate change to personal family dynamics and groundbreaking educational reforms. Hosted by Gideon Resnick, the episode provides in-depth analysis, expert opinions, and notable quotes that enrich the listener's understanding of these complex topics.

For a deeper dive into Joshua Coleman's insights on family estrangement, tune into this week's guest segment on Apple News in Conversation, available immediately after this episode in the Apple News app.

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Apple News Today will take a short break next week for Thanksgiving. Enjoy the holiday, and tune back in on Monday, December 2, for more insightful news coverage.

Transcript

[Gideon Resnick]

Good morning. It's Friday, November 22nd. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shemita Basu. This is Apple News today. On today's show, what countries are rich enough to pay for climate change, why more people are cutting ties with family members. And Matt Gaetz withdraws from consideration for attorney general. And Trump taps a new nominee. But first, arrest warrants were issued yesterday by the International Criminal Court for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. There was also a warrant for a leader in Hamas, Mohammed Deif, the military chief believed to be one of the Masterminds of the October 7th attack on Israel that killed over 1,200 people and sparked the war in Gaza. In the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the court's three judge panel alleges that Israel used starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally targeted civilians in Gaza. Over 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war and more than half are women and children. The court said that Israel's restrictions on aid and fuel and electricity cutoffs severely impacted the availability of water in Gaza and hospitals ability to provide care. Israel vehemently denies all the allegations, with President Isaac Herzog calling the warrants outrageous. Netanyahu's office called them antisemitic. And the White House said in a statement that the US Rejects the ICC decision. BBC news correspondent Anna Hooligan, who is based in the Hague, reports that the allegations focused on a roughly eight month period of the war between October 2023 and May 2024. And she says initially these warrants were kept secret.

[Anna Hooligan]

One of the reasons why the ICC has released them now, they say, because they believe similar conduct may be ongoing and they consider it in the interests of victims and their families that they are made aware of the warrant's existence.

[Gideon Resnick]

In fact, PBS spoke to aid workers in Gaza who say they are seeing what the ICC described in these warrants on the ground in Gaza today. Here's Arwa Damon with the International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance.

[Arwa Damon]

Look, this is my fourth time back in Gaza since this all began. And each time I leave I think that it quite possibly could not get worse. And yet it somehow does. And the sense really is that Israel from the onset has been saying that its intention is not to collectively punish the population or to starve the population or to kill civilians. And yet that is exactly what we see happening on the ground.

[Gideon Resnick]

The ICC relies on countries that have signed a statute to follow its jurisdiction. The US and Israel are not signatories, but 124 other countries are. So for Netanyahu and Gallant, these warrants mean if they traveled to one of those member countries, they could now be arrested. That includes the Netherlands, where the ICC is headquartered. The foreign minister there said in Parliament yesterday that his government would cut off non essential contact with Netanyahu and Gallant, and he said that both men will be arrested if they set foot in Dutch territory. The EU's foreign policy chief also said the treaty terms should be respected and implemented by member countries, but it is ultimately up to each member of the ICC to decide how to act. Here's how NPR explained it. Some states might elect not to do that. Russian President Vladimir Putin is also wanted on an arrest warrant from the court for alleged crimes in Ukraine. And when he recently visited Mongolia, a member of the icc, he was not arrested. Putin, for the most part, has managed to work around his arrest warrant by inviting world leaders to come to Russia and by joining international meetings remotely by video. He and now Netanyahu and Gallant are members of a small group of world leaders sought by international bodies for trial. Others include Slobodan Milosevic and Nazis tried at Nuremberg after World War II. Sky News reporter Alistair Bunkle says the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant could alter Israel's standing in the world and they'll certainly change how history remembers these two leaders in terms of the reputation of Benjamin Netanyahu and Yuv Gallant. In terms of their legacy, they are now wanted suspects wanted to be put on trial for war crimes, and it is a label that will never leave them. Who is rich enough to pay for climate change? That is one of the questions at the heart of this year's UN climate conference, COP 29, which is set to end today in Azerbaijan, Grist reporter Jake Biddle told us everyone agrees that the world's richest countries should shoulder the costs of helping poorer countries. Those countries are disproportionately impacted by climate disasters, and everyone agrees this will cost trillions of dollars. From there, though, there are tons more questions.

[Jake Biddle]

Is China going to have to give money? Is Saudi Arabia going to have to give money? Is it going to go to decarbonize economies in the developing world? Is it going to go to protect against climate disasters? Is it going to go redress countries from disasters that have already occurred? Who's going to get it? Is it going to go to islands? Is it going to come in the form of grants? Is it going to come in the form of loans? So all this stuff is very much up in the air.

[Gideon Resnick]

These countries are trying to answer all these questions in a matter of days. At this stage, it's developing nations that have joined with China and India to demand that the US And Europe bear the brunt of these costs. Meanwhile, the US And Europe are looking for commitments from China and Saudi Arabia, two countries that were not officially considered developed by the UN when this climate conference was created decades ago, but whose economies have ballooned since then. The other challenge, with President elect Donald Trump coming into the White House next year, what will America's participation in all of this look like? During Trump's first term, he pulled the US out of the landmark Paris Agreement. He also stripped back the majority of money the US had pledged to poorer nations. And Trump has vowed to exit the Paris Agreement again.

[Jake Biddle]

The US has always a very, very influential role in these talks. They have experienced negotiators here who have been doing this forever. They're quite shrewd. But I don't think that the world is necessarily looking to them for the ambition that's going to be required to get this done, just because there's a certain lack of credibility that will attend to any big promise that they make, at least in the near term.

[Gideon Resnick]

Still, Biddle told us that these talks are the world's best chance to turn things around.

[Jake Biddle]

You have a lot of countries, especially the least developed countries in the island states, who basically say, when the process is criticized, they basically say, look, this is the only forum we have really in the world to advocate for essentially the survival of ourselves as sovereign states. There is really not an alternative at this point, and you need global cooperation in order to solve this problem. And as hard as these geopolitical fights are to have, I think we really have to have them every year or else we're really not going to get anywhere. I think.

[Gideon Resnick]

As we get ready for Thanksgiving, there are a growing number of Americans who may have at least one seat empty at their table. That's because more and more people are cutting ties with family members.

[Jake Biddle]

I haven't spoken to my stepfather in almost 10 years.

[Gideon Resnick]

I've had to go non contact with my mother.

[Jake Biddle]

Lots of things that attributed to me cutting him out of my life.

[Gideon Resnick]

Intergenerational trauma, a narcissist. There was alcohol involved, politics or climate.

[Jake Biddle]

Change, verbal abuse, some physical abuse.

[Gideon Resnick]

It has created fissures in my family.

[Joshua Coleman]

That are beyond repair.

[Gideon Resnick]

Those are just some of the calls that we received. When we asked you for your stories of family estrangement, we were really overwhelmed with the responses. A sign of just how common this has become. So the Question is, why is this happening? Here's what Joshua Coleman, a psychologist who specializes in family estrangement, told us.

[Joshua Coleman]

Over the past three or four decades, there's been this enormous expansion over what we label as harmful, abusive, traumatizing, neglectful behavior.

[Gideon Resnick]

Coleman says this is especially true in the child parent relationship.

[Joshua Coleman]

A lot of these parents will say, emotional abuse. What are you talking about? I gave you a childhood I would have killed to have. In many cases, that's true. It just doesn't really matter if the child grew up feeling emotionally abused or has learned in therapy that the parent's behavior should be labeled as emotionally abusive or abusive in any other way. That's their psychology and that's their reality.

[Gideon Resnick]

Coleman, in part, blames his own field for contributing to the high number of estrangements we're seeing.

[Joshua Coleman]

I am a therapist and think that in large part our field does enormous good. But I do think that therapists have become what the sociologist Allison Pugh refers to as detachment brokers, which means that therapists often help people to not feel guilty or bad about cutting off family members that in prior generations would have considered and other cultures would have considered to be the wrong thing to do. And are we happier? I mean, we have record high rates of mental illness in this country and loneliness and atomization and social isolation. And no, we don't seem to be a lot happier. So it's not really working, is it?

[Gideon Resnick]

Coleman is this week's guest on Apple News In Conversation. He offers tips on how these relationships can be repaired and acknowledges that there are certainly some that are simply beyond repair. To hear more listener stories and Coleman's expert advice to navigate these challenges, check out this week's episode of Apple News in Conversation. If you're listening in the news app, it's queued up to play for you right after this episode. Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app. Former Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew his name for consideration for Attorney General on Thursday. He had been trying to rally support among senators this week for confirmation, all while his nomination drew renewed focus to allegations that Gaetz had sex with a minor, which he denies. In a statement about why he dropped out, Gaetz said, quote, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction. To replace him as ag, Trump nominated Pam Bondi, the former Attorney General of Florida who also represented him in his first impeachment trial. Now to a major shakeup in education. MIT is making tuition free for students whose families earn less than $200,000 annually beginning next fall, the school says. Most American households meet that threshold. And for students whose family income is below $100,000, the university says it'll pay for basically everything tuition, housing, food, stipends for books and more. Now, tuition alone costs almost $58,000 in the 2022-2023 school year, higher than the average for other private schools, the university says. This new financial aid is coming from alumni and friends of mit. And finally in Entertainment, Part one of the movie adaptation of the Broadway sensation Wicked opens in theaters today. Now, I don't know about you, but I've been seeing ads for this movie everywhere. So we called up Constance Grady, a senior culture correspondent at Fox and a Wicked expert, to understand why there is.

[Anna Hooligan]

So much hype it's based off of such a beloved property. Wicked is the fourth longest running show on Broadway ever. It's made over $5 billion in its lifetime. So the hope is that this movie will appeal to people who saw wicked on Broadway 20 years ago and want to take their kids now, and also to people who never saw it but listen to the cast recording over and over and over again and want to finally put some images to the words.

[Gideon Resnick]

You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening to the news app, you can stick around for Shamita's full interview with Joshua Coleman. That episode of Apple News in Conversation is queued up to play for you next. And before we let you go, a quick programming note. Apple News Today will be off next week for Thanksgiving. Enjoy the holiday and we'll be back with the News on Monday, December 2.