Loading summary
Transcript21 lines
- [00:00]
Shemitah Basu
Hey there, it's shemitha. I've got a quick request for you. If Apple News Today is an essential part of your morning routine, follow the show in Apple Podcasts. And if you have another 30 seconds, leave us a rating and a review, too. It helps other people find our show and it helps us know what you like about it. Thanks. Good morning. It's Tuesday, March 25th. I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News today. On today's show, what we know about legal resumes, residents and visitors who've been detained or deported by the Trump administration, how tariffs are hitting consumers and businesses, and why. Privacy experts say you should delete your 23andMe data right away. But first, earlier this month, just before the United States launched news strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen, top officials in the Trump administration discussed those plans in detail using a non government sanctioned group messaging app called Signal. And they added a journalist to their group by mistake, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic. Goldberg reports that he has no idea how or why he was added to the group chat, which appears to have been created by National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and included the vice president, Secretary of state, Director of National Intelligence, and others. Goldberg says he initially wasn't sure it was real, but over the course of several days, he watched the conversations unfold. And on Saturday, March 15, a Signal user in the chat named Pete Hegseth texted the group operational details of planned strikes against the Houthis, what kind of weapons the US Would be using, and information about targets. The Hegseth account said the strikes would start in several hours. So Goldberg waited to see what would happen. And sure enough, he started to see reports on social media about explosions in Yemen's capital. Here's Goldberg talking to pbs.
- [02:04]
Jeffrey Goldberg
That's when I realized that the chain was real. Until that point, I really had a deep suspicion that I was being spoofed or hoaxed or being led astray on a disinformation campaign. But this all seems so improbable that I simply assumed that it couldn't be real.
- [02:22]
Shemitah Basu
Both the National Security Council and the White House have since confirmed the existence and authenticity of this group text. However, President Trump told reporters in a press briefing on Monday that he didn't know about the chat.
- [02:35]
Donald Trump
The Houthis? You mean the attack on the Houthis? Well, it couldn't have been very effective because the attack was very effective. I can tell you that. I don't know anything about it. You. You're telling me about it for the first Time.
- [02:46]
Shemitah Basu
In addition to the highly classified military information Goldberg was given access to, this Group text also revealed information about the identities of active CIA personnel and information that Goldberg says could have conceivably harmed US Military and intelligence operatives in the Middle East. I should note the Atlantic did not publish any of those plans or other classified details. But former U.S. officials told Goldberg this is why a messaging app like Signal should never be used for sensitive information. Had any of these officials phones been lost, stolen or hacked, the Signal messages could have been accessed, which would have been a serious threat to national security. That's why the government has its own internal system for sharing classified information, which all cabinet level members have access to. Raising further legal questions, Waltz, the National security advisor, also set some of the messages in the Group Chat to disappear after a period of time. A former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration told the Atlantic. Unless these Trump officials forwarded the messages from the Signal Chat to an official government account or copied them to one, they may have violated federal records law. Text messages about official acts are considered records that must be preserved. Goldberg told pbs. All of these oversights highlight the recklessness of the Group Chat.
- [04:10]
Jeffrey Goldberg
According to everything I understand they're not supposed to be doing this on commercial messaging apps. They got quite lucky that they included my phone number. If they're going to pick an errant phone number, I mean, at least it wasn't somebody who supported the Houthis because they were actually handing out information that I believe could have endangered the lives of American service people who were involved in that operation.
- [04:30]
Shemitah Basu
Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who served in the Clinton administration, told MSNBC, it's shocking to see that not only a mistake like this was made, but, but also that it wasn't caught and corrected. Calling the Group Chat, quote, amateur hour.
- [04:45]
Donald Trump
They all knew they were on a network that was not secure necessarily. They should all have known that their personal cell phones are undoubtedly being tracked and listened to by multiple foreign intelligence operations.
- [05:01]
Shemitah Basu
White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said in a statement. The administration has, quote, the utmost confidence in its national security team. The White House says it's reviewing. Goldberg was added to the chain now to the targeting of legal residents and tourists in President Trump's immigration crackdown. In recent weeks, there have been a number of high profile cases, including a backpacker from Wales who spent nearly three weeks at a detention center, a German woman who spent 45 days in detention, including a week in solitary confinement, and at least two people on college campuses who are in the US Legally but were detained for their involvement in pro Palestinian protests today. We're going to take a few minutes to run through some of these cases and others. Let's start with the arrests last week of Indian born Badar Khan Suri, a father of three kids, a husband and a researcher at Georgetown University. Like Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Halil, Suri is being accused by Department of Homeland Security officials of spreading Hamas propaganda. And official officials say Suri has, quote, close connections to a senior advisor to Hamas. Suri's wife is a US Citizen of Palestinian descent. Politico reports her father at one point had a high level role in Gaza's government, a role which he left roughly 15 years ago. Suri's lawyers deny the allegations that he or his wife have any connections to Hamas and say the government is retaliating against them for their support of Palestine. A judge has blocked Souri's deportation. In Halil's case, the government is now saying his deportation is justified because he misrepresented information on his green card application. A lawyer for Halil called the government's claims meritless. CBS reports that both Souri and Halil were detained under an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality act that allows non citizens to be deported if they're deemed a threat to US Foreign policy interests. Here's CBS legal reporter and attorney Katrina Kaufman.
- [07:11]
Katrina Kaufman
It's such a broad law, potentially the way they could interpret it that, you know, international students on these campuses are now very scared. I know they're walking around with passports. They're worried about what could happen to them here because who knows who else will be deemed as adverse to U.S. foreign policy interests under this law.
- [07:31]
Shemitah Basu
Meanwhile, in Orange County, California, a couple who lived in the US for 35 years was deported to Colombia. Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez were undocumented when they came to the US in 1989 to escape drug violence. Their children say they followed all of the rules. They committed no crimes and exhausted all legal avenues trying to become citizens. They were arrested last month when they showed up for a routine appointment with immigration officials who have confirmed the couple had no criminal history. Their daughter, Stephanie Gonzalez, told the Fox affiliate in Los Angeles that her parents arrest is the opposite of what Trump said he would do. On the campaign trail.
- [08:11]
Katrina Kaufman
We heard them say that these mass deportations that were going to happen was going to be aimed at true criminals who've committed awful crimes. Thousands of innocent immigrants are getting arrested and are being treated like actual criminals, including my parents who are good people.
- [08:26]
Shemitah Basu
In another instance, a Canadian actress and entrepreneur named Jasmine Mooney who obtained a three year work visa last spring, had it revoked after a visit back home to Canada in November. In early March, she tried to enter the US through the Mexico border with her visa paperwork and a new job offer. But Newsweek reports since her name had already been flagged a few months prior, Customs and Border Protection officers didn't allow her to go back to Mexico. She was instead detained for almost two weeks. Mooney told CTV in Canada she was held in chains and slept on a mat at a detention center in Arizona.
- [09:04]
Katrina Kaufman
I can't even process what just happened because there was no heads up. Next thing you know I'm taken and for two weeks haven't been told anything. Moved in different cells, sleeping on cement, sleeping in different jail cells. Like it just nothing makes sense to me and I'm still trying to process the entire situation.
- [09:24]
Shemitah Basu
There's also a French scientist who was denied entry into the US on March 9, a minister in France's government told AFP that US border officials found messages on the scientists phone that were critical of President Trump. A diplomatic source told AFP the messages showed hatred toward Trump's policies, which they said could qualify as terrorism. The acting commissioner of Customs and Border Patrol told USA TODAY any traveler entering the US Is subject to having their electronic devices searched. She said any claims that searches are politically motivated are completely unfounded. US Citizens can reject having their devices searched, but foreign nationals or people with visas do not have the same rights. Many of the cases we mention today are in the process of being appealed in courts. Let's turn now to the state of the economy, particularly when it comes to Trump's on again, off again tariffs. The U.S. relies on Canada for energy and vehicle parts, on Mexico for the majority of vegetable and fruit imports, and on China for hundreds of billions of dollars in consumer goods including footwear, toys and electronics. Tariffs on these countries have been announced, altered, paused and implemented. In the last month or so, those nations as well as the European Union have announced retaliatory tariffs on American goods. NPR's personal finance reporter Laurel Wamsley spoke to us about the impact all of this is having on businesses and consumers.
- [11:00]
Laurel Wamsley
I mean, it's hard as a company to know how much things are going to cost you if these tariffs are going into place and they're going away or it's completely unclear at what level they're going to be. All of that uncertainty can just make things more expensive and drive up costs for US Consumers.
- [11:19]
Shemitah Basu
The other thing to note is companies stateside that aren't directly impacted by tariffs might raise their prices anyway.
- [11:27]
Laurel Wamsley
Say you're weighing buying a washing machine that's built and manufactured in the United States or one that's built and manufactured in China. If with these tariffs in effect, that should raise the cost of the Chinese washing machine. But, you know, the US Manufacturer of the washing machine might also raise their prices, you know, because now they can. The other washing machine is more expensive.
- [11:49]
Shemitah Basu
According to the Tax foundation, tariffs on Chinese goods alone are estimated to add $329 in costs per US household annually. And Wamsley told us when prices go up, they don't tend to come back down.
- [12:03]
Laurel Wamsley
So if there is a big ticket item that you've been eyeing and the price is something you can currently pay but wouldn't want to see a big price hike on, you know, maybe go ahead and get it sooner than later.
- [12:22]
Shemitah Basu
Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. Wildfires returned to the Carolinas just weeks after crews battled a number of recent blazes. Now, areas that were devastated by Hurricane Helene last year are being hit with fresh fires, prompting the governor of South Carolina to declare a state of emergency and North Carolina officials to order mandatory evacuations. Hurricane Helene was the most destructive natural disaster in North Carolina history, and experts say the downed trees and destruction left behind by the storm have made the wildfires spread more easily and harder to fight. In other news, a panel of judges in Washington, D.C. did not make a decision Monday on whether to lift a lower court ruling barring the administration from deporting migrants under what's known as the Alien Enemies Act. Earlier in the day, a judge denied the government's request to lift that hold, saying Venezuelans who the administration wants to deport should be given the chance to defend themselves against allegations they belong to the gang called Trend Aragua. Meanwhile, the administration also said Monday it's invoking a rare legal doctrine known as state secrets privilege to avoid handing over flight data. That's at the center of a legal dispute over whether the government ignored a judge's order to turn around deportation flights leaving the U.S. and finally, have you ever done one of those 23andMe DNA tests? Well, it might be time to delete your data as the company heads to bankruptcy court to sell its assets. Those assets include genetic samples and DNA testing results. The Washington Post reports the company says nothing will change in the way they handle privacy, but unless you take action, there's a chance your genetic information could end up in someone else's hands. The Post has a handy guide on how you do it 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. Gossip gets a bad reputation, but for one podcast host and author, it's her life's work, literally. The New Yorker spoke to Kelsey McKinney, the former host of the podcast Normal Gossip, about her new book and why she firmly believes gossiping is one of life's greatest virtues. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Bus Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back at the News tomorrow.