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- [00:05]
Shmita Basu
Good morning. It's Thursday, August 14th. I'm Shmita Basu. This is Apple News today. On today's show, how much did racial profiling factor into recent immigration raids in la? Why are Americans losing so much sleep over getting better sleep? And Taylor Swift announces her new era. But first, economists across the ideological spectrum are raising concerns that President Trump's new nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics will politicize what's supposed to be a nonpartisan government agency. Remember, Trump fired the former commissioner, Erica McIntarfer, earlier this month, who had spent two decades in federal statistics, because he didn't like the department's latest job report. It showed hiring weakened in July, and the agency revised previously released numbers for May and June. They were much lower than the agency originally thought. Revisions to employment numbers are quite normal, as the bureau aims to balance speed and accuracy. Regular watchers of these reports know to expect some adjustments. But Trump claimed, without evidence, that MacIntarfer rigged the numbers to hurt him politically. To replace her, he chose E.J. antony, the chief economist of the conservative Heritage Foundation. An experts are concerned that his personal politics could shape how he approaches this work.
- [01:36]
Matt Grossman
His presence in public has been very political.
- [01:39]
Shmita Basu
That's Matt Grossman with the Wall Street Journal.
- [01:41]
Matt Grossman
You know, he has a big social media presence where, you know, he's a cheerleader for the president's economic agenda and a staunch critic of a lot of the BLS's methods.
- [01:52]
Shmita Basu
In fact, Antony appeared on Steve Bannon's podcast the day the Bureau released its revised reports. He called McIntorfer incompetent and told Bannon that the nonpart agency should be led by a Trump loyalist.
- [02:05]
Matt Grossman
Have we put in our own person into bls? Is. Is. Is a MAGA Republican that President Trump knows and trusts? Are they running the Bureau of Labor Statistics yet, sir? No, unfortunately, Steve, we still haven't gotten there. And I think that's part of the reason why we continue to have all of these different data problems.
- [02:25]
Shmita Basu
Before he was nominated, Antony also suggested the Bureau of Labor Statistics should suspend monthly jobs reports and only release data quarterly. He has since back on that stance. By law, the Bureau is required to produce an employment report every month, and suspending it could require an act of Congress.
- [02:43]
Matt Grossman
That would be a big adjustment for Wall street investors, for one, for policymakers, for another, because they really rely on these numbers. And in fact, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant already said that that would be a bad idea. So maybe there's some disagreement in the administration about how to move forward, but the bottom line is that Antoni really has a very different kind of background and a propensity to look for ways to shake things up that might put even some other people in the Trump administration off guard.
- [03:14]
Shmita Basu
A number of economists have also raised concerns about Antony's professional record, which they say is mixed at best. His work at Heritage included, quote, elementary errors or nonsensical choices that distorted his findings to support conservative partisan positions, according to a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute interviewed by Axios and others have pointed out incidents in which Antony appeared to misunderstand the very government data that he could be in charge of. A White House spokesperson told news outlets that Antony would, quote, restore America's trust in the jobs data. The Senate will need to vote on his nomination when they return from summer recess. One thing lawmakers might want more clarification on before they vote is a report from NBC out yesterday that Antony was among the crowd outside the Capitol on January 6th of 2020. The White House said he was a, quote, bystander who came to the Capitol after seeing coverage on the news. Footage shows him leaving the grounds as people entered the Capitol building. Antony declined to comment to NBC. Now to an aggressive immigration enforcement practice used in Los Angeles this summer that activists say is a violation of civil rights. In June, under orders from the Trump administration, immigration officials conducted broad sweeps in the LA area. More than 2,700 people were detained between early June and early July. Here's Rachel Uranga with the Los Angeles Times.
- [04:51]
Rachel Uranga
And what we saw is agents going into open air locations like Home Depots, car washes and so forth, and approaching vendors, approaching day laborers, approaching anybody who appear who I guess they thought appeared to be undocumented immigrants and often arresting them and taking them into custody.
- [05:13]
Shmita Basu
Immigration agents said the arrests in LA earlier in the summer often stemmed from, quote, consensual encounters. In July, a federal judge ruled that Border Patrol agents had used profiling tactics that violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable search and seizures by the government.
- [05:32]
Rachel Uranga
The constitutionality of these stops are really being questioned. And what a federal judge found was that agents were largely using four factors, race, language, skin color, and location to determine who they stopped and arrested. And they found that that wasn't enough probable cause to do so.
- [05:50]
Shmita Basu
The judge issued a temporary restraining order. The government appealed, saying their tactics were lawful, but an appeals court rejected their argument. The Trump administration recently filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court to lift the order. Now, that didn't stop CBP from conducting raids in LA again last week and attempting to detain anyone who ran from them, Uranga told us one of the tactics deployed by agents in LA is known as roving patrols. Customs and Border Protection describes roving patrols as agents on foot or in a car looking for people who may be undocumented. Lawsuits have linked the controversial practice to racial profiling.
- [06:31]
Rachel Uranga
So the question really became with these roving patrols is what were the determinations that these agents use to stop individuals and whether it was just racial profiling? For instance, were they just doing roving patrols in largely Latino neighborhoods, stopping at locations where they know people of Latino origin work or gather or commune?
- [06:53]
Shmita Basu
Roving patrols are distinctly different from the agency's main strategy of looking for specific migrants based on information they have on hand, like a removal order, Urango told us. While more common along the border, roving patrols weren't seen in the interior of the country at this scale before. Brian Gavidia is a US citizen who was cornered by agents who were on a roving patrol in a largely Latino Louisiana neighborhood in June. He's now part of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of these stops. Here's some of the video taken by his friend, obtained by the LA Times.
- [07:28]
Brian Gavidia
Look how you got my hand twisted. That shit. I'm American, bro. These guys are literally, literally based off of skin color. My homie was born here just because of the way he looks.
- [07:43]
Shmita Basu
Other cities in the US are watching what's happening in California, particularly in states with no judicial orders to block federal agents from indiscriminate sweeps.
- [07:53]
Rachel Uranga
A lot of people here really had this feeling that the administration was targeting Los Angeles because it had so many resources, it had so many immigrants, and there was really like a hub here and a way to fight back. And the feeling was that they wanted to break Los Angeles, and if they could break Los Angeles, they could break other cities.
- [08:27]
Shmita Basu
Let's turn now to what's keeping Americans up at night. According to the American Academy of Sleep medicine, something like 3 out of 10 people have struggled with falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up earlier than they wanted to for some short period of time. But more than 1 out of 10 people have chronic insomnia, meaning for them, the struggle is consistent. Atlantic staff writer Jennifer Sr. Is one of them.
- [08:52]
Jennifer Sr.
When I lie awake at night, my mind was sort of whistling like a conch shell. I mean, there was just nothing going on in there.
- [08:59]
Shmita Basu
SR has dealt with insomnia since her late 20s. Before that, she says she used to be a great sleeper. She vividly remembers the first night she couldn't fall asleep.
- [09:10]
Jennifer Sr.
Eventually, I started to worry. And this is what all people start to do. They say, why am I awake now? It's 2am, it's 3am, it's 4am you start watching the clock, you start doing insomnia math.
- [09:21]
Shmita Basu
In her pursuit to understand why she, like so many people, just couldn't fall asleep, seniors started to explore how much sleep we really need to be healthy, including this widely held belief. I'm sure you've heard before you need eight hours.
- [09:35]
Jennifer Sr.
But there are lots of studies saying that eight hours is not associated with the best health outcomes.
- [09:41]
Shmita Basu
A number of studies show the optimal number is lower, somewhere around seven hours of sleep. But even then, pinpointing the exact amount of sleep that you need can get tricky because our needs and our ability to sleep changes over the course of our lifetime. And it's all very personal. For example, there's a small group of people who are genetically inclined to sleep for just four to six hours a night, and they do just fine with that amount. SR also learned that commonly recommended sleep remedies like cooling down your bedroom and putting electronic devices away can only go so far if you're falling short on sleep for reasons out of your control, like working a night shift, caring for a loved one, or studying for school.
- [10:24]
Jennifer Sr.
So when they feel sort of helpless about it, reading about all the terrible things that come with sleep loss doesn't help.
- [10:31]
Shmita Basu
But learning to manage your anxiety around sleeping is one of the best things you can do, because regardless of what triggers insomnia, Sr says she feels that obsessing over not sleeping could often keep people from finding a solution that works for them. One highly recommended therapy for insomnia is a psychological approach.
- [10:50]
Jennifer Sr.
You have to interrogate all the beliefs you have. If I don't fall asleep, I will not be able to function the next day. And if you've been keeping a sleep diary, you'll be able to fact check yourself and say, is that really true the next day? Were you really that bad or did you mainly function so you can calm yourself down in that way, or you can do something as simple as saying, oh, I'm not falling asleep. So what?
- [11:14]
Shmita Basu
And if that doesn't work, Senior says there's no shame in asking your doctor about medication. For more on what Senior learned about sleep solutions, check out her reporting for the Atlantic. We'll include a link in our Show Notes page.
- [11:31]
Brian Gavidia
Foreign.
- [11:38]
Shmita Basu
Let you go. A few other stories we're following. Ahead of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska tomorrow, President Trump agreed on a strategy with EU leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky said he would not exchange any territory for an end to the war. Putin had previously demanded major land concessions in exchange for a ceasefire. Trump said he wouldn't negotiate any territorial issues with Putin, leaving that up to him and Zelensky. Trump also issued a warning to Russia, saying there would be, quote, severe consequences if Russia did not agree to end the war. At Friday's meeting. The Wall Street Journal reports threats of sanctions against Russia by the US Are what brought Putin to the negotiating table. A new poll from Gallup says the number of Americans who drink is at an all time low. 54% of those surveyed said they consume alcohol, the lowest since Gallup began tracking Americans drinking habits about 90 years ago. Gallup says the growing belief that drinking is bad for your health is why fewer people are consuming alcohol. Women, according to the poll, are drinking far less, with an 11 percentage point decline since 2023 compared to men with 5. And finally, Taylor Swift released details of her upcoming album in an appearance on the podcast New Heights, hosted by her boyfriend Trav Kelsey and his brother Jason. Kelsey Swift teased the announcement for the album titled the Life of a Showgirl earlier this week and revealed the album's artwork and release date October 3rd. During her appearance on the podcast, Swift said she worked on the album during her eras tour that wrapped in December of 2024.
- [13:21]
Taylor Swift
I do like three shows in a row. I'd have three days off, I'd fly to Sweden, go back to the tour and actually like working on this. I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be.
- [13:35]
Jennifer Sr.
Creating and literally living the life of a showgirl.
- [13:38]
Taylor Swift
I was, I was while she wrote it, that's why I said that's why I called it that.
- [13:43]
Shmita Basu
Swift posted several images on social media, including herself in full showgirl garb and the album's track list, which features fellow pop star Sabrina Carpenter on the title track. 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 from Town and Country magazine. As high school seniors gear up to apply to colleges this fall, a small cohort of private independent colleges, known for their unconventional curricula, are worried about their futures in today's world of cutthroat admissions. 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.