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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Thursday, March 30th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, Russia takes a "Wall Street Journal" reporter into custody, America's troubled organ-donation system and Major League Baseball is making a change to speed up games.
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But first, more on the AR-15. Yesterday, we talked about "The Washington Post's" reporting on just how much damage the assault-style rifle does to the human body. Today, we're looking at another part of the series, on how the AR-15 became one of the most common guns in the United States. Roughly one in 20 American adults own at least one.
And it's not just popular, it's also a powerful symbol. Anti-government protesters carry them. Politicians wear them as lapel pins. The Tennessee Republican congressman who represents the district where this week's school shooting happened posed with what looks like AR-15s in his family Christmas card. And after the killings, he said he didn't regret the card. "Post" reporter Todd Frankel is part of the team that tracked the rise of the AR-15 in America.
Todd Frankel: It's more than just a gun. It's a symbol of the cultural and political divides that we see in this country. And it's a fairly recent phenomenon.
The weapon wasn't originally made for civilians. It was designed for soldiers in the 1950s. It became standard issue for U.S. troops in Vietnam, known as the M-16. For years, hunters had little interest in owning one. And gun companies didn't see much sales potential.
But things changed. The U.S. banned assault weapons in 1994. Ten years later, when that policy expired, gun makers saw an opportunity to boost sales.
Ad campaigns began to sell the AR-15 as a way for civilians to own military-grade hardware. The marketing traded on images of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, whose weapons were similar to AR-15s. Those images were everywhere in popular culture, especially movies and video games. Frankel told us how effective the militarized sales pitch was.
Frankel: Today, it is about a quarter of all the guns produced for sale, and they're almost all sold, are AR-15s. You know, if you go into a gun store today, you know, a generation ago, you wouldn't see an AR-15. And now, you know, they line the walls, they dominate the shops. You know, it's handguns and AR-15s is what you see for sale. And it just reflects the demand for this weapon, it's huge.
Today, there are at least 20 million AR-15s in the U.S. Most were made after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, when a gunman with an AR-15 killed 20 children and six adults. Sales consistently rise after school shootings. The "Post" calls the AR-15 "a barometer of fear and a gauge of political identity" in this country.
Frankel: It has become a symbol of the gun that needs to be banned right away. And also the symbol of a gun that needs to be protected, that symbolizes constitutional rights. So Americans are very divided on the AR-15. It has come to mean much more than the sum of its parts.
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Let's take a quick look now at a few big stories developing today.
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A "Wall Street Journal" reporter is in Russian custody. The country's main security agency says Evan Gershkovich was spying. The "Journal" says it "vehemently denies the allegations" and that he should be immediately released. Gershkovich recently reported on problems in the Russian economy. He is the first journalist with an American news outlet to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War.
Pope Francis is hospitalized. The 86-year-old has a respiratory infection. The Vatican says he'll need several days of treatment. The Vatican traditionally says very little about the health of popes, but it did say that it wasn't COVID.
Taiwan's president is in the U.S. today, in a visit that's ratcheting up already high tensions between Washington and Beijing. There is a possibility that Tsai Ing-wen will meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at some point during her trip. China says such a meeting would lead to a, quote, "serious confrontation." Beijing considers Taiwan part of China. And China has made aggressive statements and military moves in recent years. The Biden administration is trying to play down the event, pointing out that several previous presidents of Taiwan have been in the U.S. before.
Republican lawmakers in Kentucky have overturned the Democratic governor's veto of a bill banning transgender children from getting gender-affirming healthcare. It also restricts which bathrooms they can use in public schools. Opponents shouted during the session about the bill. Some were even removed by guards.
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Protesters: Trans kids are under attack. What do we do? Stand up, fight back! Trans kids are… [VOICES FADE OUT]
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The Kentucky legislation is part of a wave of similar anti-trans rights bills across the country that have been sharply criticized as dangerous by organizations including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
And more than a thousand business leaders and academics, including Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, say artificial intelligence researchers need to slow down. In an open letter, they are asking companies to pause development on more powerful AI systems for at least six months to consider the dangers that AI could pose to humans. The letter says governments may need to take action to make sure there's enough planning and management in place to develop AI safely.
Our latest episode of "In Conversation" is all about artificial intelligence, the big, fast changes in the field and what it means for our future. You can hear that episode in the Podcasts app.
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The organ transplant system is deeply flawed in this country. Not only do we have over 100,000 people sitting on the national waiting list, but, in many cases, organs get damaged or wasted. More than a dozen people on the waiting list die every day.
A new joint investigation from "The Washington Post" and "The Markup" looks into how recent changes in how we manage liver distributions are helping people in wealthy states at the expense of poorer ones. The policy change prioritized the sickest patients on waitlists. That meant less focus on how far the organ had to travel. Now, patients in New York have access to livers as far away as Ohio.
But looking at the data, life-saving surgeries declined in many Midwestern and Southern states, as well as in Puerto Rico. By contrast, California and New York had the highest number of liver transplants in more than a decade.
The investigation also finds that the median distance livers are being transported has nearly doubled. And we're seeing the highest number of wasted livers in almost ten years. Livers are fragile and can only survive for about 12 hours outside the human body.
The United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the national organ transplant system, responded to this reporting, acknowledging that livers are traveling further, but also saying this is a better allocation of resources. It's getting organs to the sickest people.
The Biden administration is proposing reforms. Just last week, it called on Congress to double the current funding to address equity issues and help "modernize" the transplant system.
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It's opening day for Major League Baseball. And if you're a fan, or especially if you're not, you know one thing is true: games have gotten super long over the years. Now, that's a good thing if you're selling hot dogs or beer. But the League wants the game to be faster and more interesting for people who are watching. So this year, it's making a big change: a pitch clock. When bases are empty, pitchers have 15 seconds to throw to the batter. Twenty seconds when there are runners on base.
Now, this one change is expected to shave off some serious time in games. When pitch clocks were used in the minor leagues and during spring training, games wrapped up nearly 30 minutes faster on average. If you're a baseball history fan looking for a long read, check out "The Ringer's" story on the enduring discussion about the length of ballgames. It goes all the way back to the mid-19th Century. The concept of a pitch clock is actually a lot older than you might realize. You can read the whole thing in the Apple News app, along with all of the stories that we talked about today. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around.
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We have a narrated article coming up next about a possible future change for Major League baseball: robot umpires. "Sports Illustrated" looks at the implications of using tech to help, or even replace, the humans who call balls and strikes. It's already been tested in the minor leagues.
So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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