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- [00:05]
Cecilia Ley
Good morning. Trump ditches his deadline for Iran, but both sides offer conflicting claims on the state of negotiations. The Wall Street Journal explains how some countries are suffering in the absence of a deal.
- [00:17]
Tom Fairless
It's poorer countries that are really getting hit by this and facing the prospect of blackouts and shortages.
- [00:24]
Cecilia Ley
What to know about the fatal crash at LaGuardia Airport. And the Supreme Court faces a big decision on mail in ball. It's Tuesday, March 24th. I'm Cecilia Ley and this is Apple News. Today, Two days after threatening to obliterate Iran's power plants, President Trump changed gears yet again and pushed back his original 48 hour deadline to get the Strait of Hormuz open.
- [00:56]
Various Interviewees
We're doing a five day period. We'll see how that goes. And if it goes well, we're going to end up with settling this. Otherwise we just keep bombing our little hearts out. Who is Steve Wyckoff speaking with Mr. President? A top. A top person.
- [01:10]
Cecilia Ley
Iran's Parliament speaker said otherwise. He posted on social media that no negotiations had taken place and accused Trump of spreading fake news to manipulate the markets. Multiple reports have since suggested that phone calls or at least indirect messages did take place, but no one really knows if they'd gone anywhere. Despite Iran's public denial, markets responded positively to Trump's backtracking, perhaps taking it as a sign that he could be eager to end a war that's spiraling into a global economic catastrophe. Yesterday, the head of the International Energy Agency explained why it risked eclipsing the twin oil crises of the 1970s.
- [01:50]
Various Interviewees
As of today, we lost 11 million barrels per day, so more than two major oil shocks put together situation is very severe. I thought I should say a few things because I thought the depth of the problem was not well appreciated by the decision makers around the world.
- [02:15]
Cecilia Ley
Energy props up the day to day economy of every country. But the impacts of the Strait's closure has been uneven. Some parts of the world are getting hit worse than others.
- [02:25]
Tom Fairless
Asia relies on the Gulf for something like 80%, maybe more, of its oil imports. And so they're seeing the most direct hits so far.
- [02:33]
Cecilia Ley
Tom Fairless is a global economics reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He told us that richer Asian countries like South Korea and Japan are better placed to tap into global markets. So it's the poorer nations that are forced to make the most drastic changes.
- [02:48]
Tom Fairless
In Pakistan, for instance, they've asked schools to close for two weeks. In the Philippines, they've introduced a four day work week for government agenc. And in Vietnam, they've issued a broad Call for everyone to work from home.
- [03:01]
Cecilia Ley
In Thailand, TV presenters took off their suit jackets to encourage people to wear less clothing. Instead of using the ac,
- [03:10]
Various Interviewees
let's just take it off so we can set an example of how to save energy too by wearing less. It'll help with our moods and to cope with the heat.
- [03:17]
Cecilia Ley
It's not just about energy troubles. Poorer nations could soon be hit with food shortages as well. According to the Washington Post, nearly a third of fertilizer components arrive from the Middle east. So stalled ships and shortages could be dire for places like Sri Lanka, Sudan and Tanzania. Officials from the World Food Program gave a sobering assessment.
- [03:38]
Various Interviewees
If the Middle east conflict continues through June, an additional 45 million people could be pushed into acute hunger by price rises. This would take global hunger levels to an all time record.
- [03:53]
Cecilia Ley
But richer countries aren't immune from impact. As oil supplies tighten, demand for liquefied natural gas, or lng, has gone up. And with it also the price, something that's actually benefited US natural gas exporters. Europe, though, heavily depends on lng, especially since it's turned away from Russian energy. And now governments there are feeling the pressure to somehow find the money for huge subsidies. Fairless told us that because of this, energy crises can quickly spiral into political ones.
- [04:25]
Tom Fairless
In Europe, the energy crisis in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine probably accelerated the fall of governments in Italy and other places and led to a big surge in the far right who were saying that Europe should reconnect with Russian gas. So it gave a big boost in the polls and it destabilized the politics in Europe. And it still has.
- [04:44]
Cecilia Ley
The US is the biggest oil and gas producer in the world, so it's been much more insulated. The average national gas price is now 93 cents per gallon, higher since the war started. But economists fear that will and up and with it, inflation. Some Americans may remember the oil shocks during the 70s, which led to a televised appeal from President Jimmy Carter sitting by a fireplace in a cardigan.
- [05:09]
Various Interviewees
All of us must learn to waste less energy simply by keeping our thermostats, for instance, at 65 degrees in the daytime and 55 degrees at night, we could save half the current shortage of natural gas.
- [05:25]
Tom Fairless
And that went down extremely badly with the voters. And he lost in the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan, who was much more seen much more as a candidate of abundance.
- [05:33]
Cecilia Ley
As a stopgap response to the bottleneck in the strait, the US and other countries have decided to release millions of barrels of oil from their reserves. But the International Energy Agency have said that the most important solution is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Investigations underway for the Air Canada passenger jet crash that occurred late Sunday at New York's LaGuardia Airport, the first fatal collision there in over three decades. Two pilots are dead and dozens are injured. Here's what we know so far, and as a heads up, some of the audio you're about to hear is of the deadly crash. The incident happened around 11:40pm According to Air traffic control audio, a Port Authority fire rescue truck responding to an unrelated incident involving a United Airlines flight was granted permission by one controller to cross the Runway.
- [06:32]
Various Interviewees
Truck 1 Co. LaGuardia Tower requesting to cross 4 at Delta. Truck 1 Co. Cross 4 at Delta. Truck 1 Company crossing 4 at Delta.
- [06:42]
Cecilia Ley
About seven seconds later, the air traffic controller comes back on the radio and urgently addresses that track.
- [06:49]
Various Interviewees
Frontier 4195. Stop there, please. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.
- [06:55]
Cecilia Ley
Approaching was an Air Canada Express flight operated by Jazz Aviation. It was arriving from Montreal and four crew members and 72 passengers were aboard. The plane was traveling at about 100 miles per hour when it collided with the fire truck. Rebecca Lecori, a nurse who lives in New York, was one of the passengers. She described to local station News 12 what the Moment of impact felt like. You heard the pilot try to brake, like he was trying to prevent the collision that occurred. And as you heard the brake, you Just. A couple seconds later, it was just a very loud boom and everybody just jolted out of their seats. People hit their heads.
- [07:39]
Various Interviewees
People were bleeding.
- [07:40]
Cecilia Ley
Images of the crash show that the plane's nose was mostly sheared off roughly where the plane's front doors are located. The fire truck was overturned nearby. In audio from air traffic control, voices can be heard minutes after the crash acknowledging what had just happened.
- [07:56]
Various Interviewees
That was. That wasn't good to watch. Yeah, I know I was here. I tried to reach out to my stuff. We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up. Nah, man, you did the best you could.
- [08:07]
Cecilia Ley
According to the New York Times, the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating whether the emergency on the United Airlines flight had distracted the air traffic controller in the LaGuardia Airport tower. It wasn't immediately clear why the fire truck was on the Runway while the passenger jet was landing, according to a Washington Post report. A former accident investigator for the FAA said there was clearly an issue with air traffic control, while also noting that accidents like these can rarely be attributed to just one factor. At a press conference on Monday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that the LaGuardia Airport is well staffed but still faces shortages of air traffic controllers. He also emphasized that congressional fund was needed to modernize systems.
- [08:52]
Various Interviewees
I'm not saying that this crash would have been prevented if we had all the equipment deployed, but it's important. If we care about air travel safety, we care about having a brand new air traffic control system, the best in the world with the best equipment, virtually all of it developed here in America.
- [09:10]
Cecilia Ley
Officials ordered a ground stop at LaGuardia early Monday and the airport remained closed until 2pm More than 400 flights to and from LaGuardia were canceled, adding additional travel disruption at U.S. airports caused by the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. It's important to note no one has suggested that the shutdown contributed to the crash on Monday night. The chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board said the investigation into the deadly collision was initially slowed by complications of the shutdown because of long security lines at other airports, travel was delayed for some of the specialists who will take part in the investigation. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in a case involving mail in ballots that could impact the upcoming midterm elections. It's a case that pits Republicans against each other in deep red Mississippi.
- [10:09]
Various Interviewees
The key question before the U.S. supreme Court is whether mail in ballots that arrive after Election Day clash with federal law.
- [10:20]
Cecilia Ley
Taylor Vance is a politics reporter for Mississippi Today. He told us about a Covid era statute that was passed by the state's Republican controlled legislature in 2020 that said
- [10:32]
Various Interviewees
that voters can mail in absentee ballots and that local election workers can process and count those ballots for up to five days after the election. Now this does not give voters five extra days to vote because these ballots have to be postmar on or before Election Day. This is just an extra cushion or a grace period for local election officials to process these ballots.
- [10:59]
Cecilia Ley
The Republican National Committee and state Republican and Libertarian parties all sued Mississippi over the rule. They argue that Election Day is meant to be a single day and that ballots are invalid if they are received after. If the justices rule in favor of striking down the law, it could spell big changes for Mississippi and at least 18 other states that allow late ballots. With the midter fast approaching, Trump has long claimed without evidence that mail in ballots are vulnerable to fraud. The AP notes that the Supreme Court justices did not explicitly reference the 2020 election, but several did raise the issue of voter distrust. Here's Justice Samuel Alito Some of the
- [11:39]
Various Interviewees
briefs have argued that confidence in election outcomes can be seriously undermined if the apparent outcome of the election on the day after the polls close is radically flipped by the acceptance later of a big stash of ballots that flip the election.
- [12:00]
Cecilia Ley
Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart countered that argument by pointing out no such evidence was present in this case.
- [12:07]
Various Interviewees
I do think it's notable that my friends with the United States, they've sounded the anti fraud theme. They haven't cited a single example of fraud from post election day ballot receipt in this country. Thank you.
- [12:17]
Cecilia Ley
If the high court strikes the law down, it will invalidate Mississippi's law as well as statutes in those other 18 states. And some states will feel the impact more. For example, in Alaska, the state's geography and weather means it takes longer for mail in ballots to arrive. One poll worker told the ap if the law is struck down, it would disenfranchise thousands of people in rural areas and make it so their votes don't count. Vance says that means if you plan to vote by mail, at least in Mississippi, you'll need to be prepared.
- [12:49]
Various Interviewees
Voters have to formulate a plan very early if they want to vote by mail. In Mississippi, you have to get your ballot signed or approved by a public notary. So, you know, I would say this essentially means you, you kind of have one shot to get your ballot right. And if you make a mistake, if you make an accident, some get something wrong. You don't really, there's not a whole lot of chances for a do over. You get one shot and if you miss it, then I think it would be pretty hard for you to vote.
- [13:16]
Cecilia Ley
The justices are expected to release their decision in June or July. And finally, a few other stories were following. A civil jury concluded that Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted a woman in 1972 after he escorted her to one of his comedy shows. Donna Motzinger was awarded nearly $60 million in damages after the jury sided with her, a figure Cosby may appeal. Motzinger said she had been attacked when they were both in their 30s after receiving a pill that left her incapacitated. 88 year old Cosby didn't testify but has denied assaulting Motsinger as well as similar claims in a string of civil and criminal cases filed by dozens of women. His only criminal conviction for sexual assault was overturned for procedural reasons in 2021 after he had served three years of a three to 10 year sentence. It's official Mark Wayne Mullen will become Trump's next Department of Homeland Security secretary, putting the Oklahoma senator in charge of one of the most powerful agencies in government. But he takes over a department in trouble. It's in the midst of a shutdown, which is keeping TSA staff home and bringing chaos to airports. And it's unknown how close he will stick to the immigration enforcement policies of his predecessor, Kristi Noemi. The final confirmation vote was 54 to 45. Two Democrats voted for him, but Republican Rand Paul did not, accusing his Senate colleague of anger issues at his confirmation hearing, Mullen hinted he would run the department differently than Noem and Finally, a new TikTok trend is said to be sending good financial luck to people, and it involves a legendary disco track.
- [15:07]
Various Interviewees
You can win my battery Ring My Bell.
- [15:12]
Cecilia Ley
That's Ring my bell, the 1979 hit by Anita Ward, the Wall Street Journal reports. A number of TikTok users say by playing the song every day, they have seen infusions of cash and things like job offers. It's called the Ring My Bell theory, and it took off when a user named Jennifer Marie posted that after nearly three years of being unemployed, listening to the song brought her new creative and financial opportunities. The trend has also spelled financial gains for Ward, the singer of the hit, who told the Journal quot I don't really pay much attention to TikTok, but I'm getting royalties and I'm not upset about that. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. The New Yorker takes a deep dive into Doodles, the ubiquitous curly haired breed of dogs that disrupted the hierarchy of purebreds and whose popularity created a billion dollar industry. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News plus Narrated to find that story and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.