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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Tuesday, January 31st. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, a national plan to introduce an AP African American history course hits a snag in Florida, why it's so frustrating to be looking for a job right now, and the controversy over a surprising Oscar nomination.
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But first, let's take a quick walk through the headlines. There's been movement on several developing stories starting in Memphis, where accountability for Tyre Nichols's death is going beyond the five former officers facing second-degree murder charges. The latest is that three EMTs have been fired after a review found they didn't give Nichols the right medical care soon enough. Also, two additional police officers have been disciplined for their conduct.
In Washington. the Biden administration now plans to end the emergency declarations related to COVID-19 on May 11th. After that date, the federal government will no longer officially consider the pandemic a national emergency and public health emergency. Those declarations have been in place for close to three years.
In New York, a grand jury is reportedly looking into former president Trump's role in a 2016 scheme to pay hush money to an adult film actress. That would be a significant escalation of a long investigation that many legal observers thought had gone cold.
The International Monetary Fund is out with its most optimistic forecast in a while. It's still cautious, but it sees the global economy growing faster than previously expected this year. Easing inflation and China reopening are factors. That's a shift from the forecast in October, where there was much more concern about a global recession. We're also expecting severe winter weather in parts of the country today. You can read the latest on that and all these stories on the Apple News app.
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Florida's rules on how race can be taught in classrooms are colliding with a national plan to launch an Advanced Placement course on African American studies for high schoolers.
The College Board has been developing this new AP course for years alongside experts and academics. The final framework will be released tomorrow on the first day of Black History Month, and once it's finalized, it'll be rolled out to students across the country.
But in Florida, one of the places where this course was piloted, Governor Ron DeSantis blocked the class. His administration said it wouldn't approve it unless the College Board changes the curriculum. He says it violates state law. Lori Rozsa is on the story for "The Washington Post."
Lori Rozsa: The topics that the state, so they found concerns with... That's their words, "concerns," involve intersectionality and activism, Black queer studies, Black feminist thought, the studies of the Black struggle in the 21st century, and the state objected to those as slipping in woke indoctrination into the classroom.
This is a huge part of DeSantis' political platform. The Florida law that he claims is being violated here is called the "STOP W.O.K.E." act. But teachers and education advocates tell Rozsa this law is having a chilling effect on teaching about race.
Rozsa: Florida law requires that Black history is taught in schools, but it's the way they're able to teach it that a lot of teachers are concerned about. Educators fear that if they say the wrong thing because the law includes vague terms such as not making students feel anguish or guilt. Some teachers are questioning how they can teach about some of the horrific incidents in Florida's past, racist incidents, without getting into uncomfortable territory.
Civil rights leaders and some state lawmakers are urging Governor DeSantis to change his mind about the course. Ben Crump, a prominent trial lawyer, is threatening to sue. The College Board oversees the AP curriculum for the whole country, not just Florida. Some academics worry that the political pressure from the state might influence the Board's decision, which has national implications. Rozsa tells us, the Board is working to stick to its normal way of doing business.
Rozsa: The College Board has said that they used input for the final framework from academics and experts, not public officials, not politicians.
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The job market is in focus this week, with key data coming out on Friday. Unemployment remains very low, but there are signs that things are cooling off. For one, unemployed people are taking longer to find new jobs. Plus, there have been recent mass layoffs, particularly at tech companies.
We've been piecing those headlines together with some recent articles about how it's hard out there for anyone who's job hunting right now, from endless rounds of interviews to scam job listings.
The first story comes from "Vox," which pulled together personal stories and expert observations about how job interviews are trending longer and more tedious. The writer puts it this way: "If you do not have a terrible interview story, sincerely, congrats." People describe multiple rounds, hours-long tests, being asked to come up with pitches and presentations, essentially doing unpaid work. And one career consultant predicts that it might be getting worse. Managers don't want to make a bad hire in a shaky economy or make the same over-hiring mistakes from earlier in the pandemic. So, they're putting candidates through much longer processes.
The second article comes from "The Wall Street Journal," which gets into the hairy world of employment scams. Some of them are very elaborate. That means made-up job listings, interviews with fake recruiters, even a fake onboarding process all to steal peoples' identities or money. The FTC says these kinds of schemes grew during the pandemic. There were over 100,000 reported job scams last year, cheating people out of more than $200 million.
You can read the "Vox" and "Wall Street Journal" articles in full for tips on how to avoid getting strung along by job recruiters, whether they're real or fake. The "Journal" piece also has links to other useful content, including a layoff survival guide.
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It turns out there are two kinds of Oscar buzz. There's the good kind: you know, great performance, grassroots excitement, gets people talking. And then there's the bad kind: bought, orchestrated, rule-breaking, according to the Academy. The question is which kind are we looking at here in this year's "Best Actress" category? Here's a telling moment: last week, when actor Riz Ahmed announced the nominees.
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Riz Ahmed: Cate Blanchett in "Tar."
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Ahmed: Ana De Armas in "Blonde."
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Ahmed: Andrea Riseborough in "To Leslie."
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Michelle Williams and Michelle Yeoh were the final two nominees. But you can hear from the gasps in the room how surprised people were to hear Riseborough's name.
That nomination was a shock because Riseborough hadn't been nominated for any of the other award-season prizes that usually come before an Oscar nod. Her performance got favorable reviews, but not a lot of people saw the movie. It made less than $30,000 worldwide. And then there were other performances that were widely seen as Oscar worthy, including by Danielle Deadwyler and Viola Davis. Their exclusion meant that the category had no Black nominees.
The Academy's board meets today and is expected to discuss whether the campaign to get Riseborough the nomination broke any Academy rules.
For one, potential nominees are not supposed to contact voting members of the Academy to ask for their support. Also, campaigns are not supposed to reference competitors. The film's official Instagram account did post a critic's quote saying Riseborough's performance was better than Cate Blanchett's. It later deleted it. And there was reportedly an email to voters urging them to promote the film on social media.
<v Suspicions grew in the final days before voting when a number of A-list celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Edward Norton, and Jennifer Aniston started praising the movie and Riseborough's performance on social media. Many of them used the same language>"a small film with a giant heart."
Breaking rules around lobbying for votes has led to a handful of nominations being withdrawn in the past. But that's not expected in this case. The "BBC" says it's more likely there could be mild punishment. And the Academy may release a statement reminding people of the rules, maybe even tightening them.
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You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening to us in the News app right now, stick around for a narrated article about an American treasure hunt with a very strange twist. See, the loot was found years ago. But lots of people are still devoting tons of their time to the search, trying to figure out how and where the treasure was uncovered.
That story from "Popular Mechanics" is up next. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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