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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It’s Tuesday, August 8th. I’m Shumita Basu. This is “Apple News Today.” On today’s show… How today’s vote in Ohio could impact abortion access, what to know about rising COVID cases this summer, and what the push to ban plastic straws did, and didn’t do, for the environment.
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But first… at least two people are dead, one in Alabama and one in South Carolina, after a powerful storm system brought heavy rain and violent winds to multiple states. Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed, and there are power outages up and down the East Coast. At times, more than a million homes and businesses were in the dark, with outages from Pennsylvania to Georgia.
“CNN” meteorologist, Chad Myers, talked about the danger.
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Chad Myers: The lightning with this weather has been behind this storm as well. Don’t go out and take pictures. We’ve already heard of people being hit by lightning because they were outside when they shouldn’t have been outside. Pets, people, and property, those are the three things to protect right now.
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Homeowners protect their property with insurance. “The Wall Street Journal” looks at how that’s getting more expensive as weather damage gets worse. Companies are charging higher premiums and offering less coverage.
In the past three years, insured damage from storms, wildfires, floods, and more exceeded $90 billion per year. That’s way above past benchmarks, meaning massive losses for home-insurance companies. The industry has been in the red five out of the last six years.
Premiums have jumped by double digits in more than 30 states. They’re up by as much as 30 percent in some places. And in states that are especially vulnerable to hurricanes, floods, and wildfires… places like Florida, Louisiana, and California… some companies are stopping selling new policies altogether.
Industry analysts tell the “Journal,” there’s no relief in sight for companies or homeowners in the near future. Climate change is making severe weather more common and more damaging. To keep up, insurance companies may continue raising prices and pushing more of the risk onto homeowners.
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Now, let’s take a quick look at some other stories in the news.
Today, Ohio voters will decide whether to make it harder to change the state constitution, with abortion rights at stake. It’s a Republican-backed measure to raise the threshold to 60% for any changes. We’ve talked on the show before about how it’s aimed squarely at another ballot measure coming up in November. That one would protect abortion rights in the state. “CBS” political correspondent, Caitlin Huey-Burns, reported on how today’s vote could make it harder for abortion-rights campaigners in the fall.
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Caitlin Huey-Burns: When you look at states that have passed similar constitutional amendments, essentially preserving abortion access into the state’s constitution, they’ve passed with 58, 57-ish percent of the vote. Places like Kansas, Michigan. When you look at public polling in Ohio, 58% according to the recent polls, support preserving access to abortion in the state constitution. So, analysts that we have talked to in the state, including people who’ve been following this for a while, say that this is something that the state legislature was looking at when designing or when proposing to raise the threshold to 60%. So, you could have a scenario in which, you know, a vast majority of voters support this constitutional amendment but it could not pass if they are successful in raising that threshold to 60%.
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In Los Angeles today, thousands of city workers are on strike. Mechanics, traffic officers, sanitation workers, and others are walking off the job for 24 hours. The union says the city is not bargaining in good faith. LA’s mayor says it’s been negotiating for months and is ready to continue. It’s the first major city worker strike in LA in at least 15 years.
There are some new developments in legal cases involving former president, Donald Trump. His lawyers filed a request for fewer restrictions on how he can publicly share evidence in the case involving his actions to undermine the election he lost. Prosecutors argue that the judge should reject that request, saying it’s an attempt by Trump to try the case in the media.
Separately, a judge dismissed a defamation suit that Trump brought against writer, E. Jean Carroll. Earlier this year, in a civil case, Trump was found liable of sexually abusing and defaming Carroll. Another defamation suit by Carroll against Trump is scheduled to go to trial in January.
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We seem to be in the middle of yet another summer surge of COVID-19. Infections and hospitalizations are up. It’s gotten tougher in recent months to clearly measure the spread and impact of the virus. State health departments are no longer required to report data to the CDC . And it’s harder to get access to free test kits.
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Now to be clear… overall case numbers appear to be relatively low, and hospitals are not overwhelmed like they were during the early years of the pandemic. Still, doctors say it's a good time to look into a booster shot. Keeping your vaccinations up to date can protect you and your loved ones from getting seriously ill or hospitalized.
“The Atlantic” looks into what researchers are thinking as a summer wave emerges. One question they’re grappling with is will summers always be like this? Many scientists originally thought COVID would mimic the flu, hitting hard in the winter and fading over the summer. But this is the fourth year in a row the virus has spiked during warmer months, and scientists aren’t totally sure why.
Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas, talked to “PBS” Newshour about some leading theories.
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Katelyn Jetelina: One, the virus continues to mutate about two times faster than the flu. Two, people are moving inside because of the heat. And three, the susceptibility pool is growing. Our protection is waning over time.
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COVID is still considered new, so researchers are watching to see if a different pattern emerges. Or maybe no consistent seasonal trend at all. But one thing remains true: even though health officials have ended the emergency declaration, COVID is still with us, so we need to take smart steps to stay safe.
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I’ve been reading, and really enjoying, this series from the environmental-news site, “Grist,” called “Remember When.” It takes a look at whatever happened to ideas that once got a lot of hype in discussions about climate, from polar bears to trash-collection jars. One story is about the push to ban plastic straws.
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And that movement got real big, real fast. And it had some surprising origins. In in 2011, a 9-year-old kid from Vermont wanted to know why restaurants always put a straw in his drink, even if he didn’t ask for it. He and his mom did some research on the amount of straws used daily. And those numbers got national attention. A few years later, a video of a sea turtle with a straw stuck up its nose went viral, putting a sympathetic face on the issue… “Your plastic straws are hurting the environment!” Eventually, several cities passed bans. Starbucks changed packaging so it would be easier to drink cold drinks without straws.
For a moment there, it felt like this was a runaway hit for the environmental movement. But some advocates at the time took issue with all the buzz around straws. Their argument was straws are literally a drop in the ocean. Of 8 million tons of plastic that goes into the oceans annually, "National Geographic" calculates that straws make up only 0.025%.
But looking back at it from 2023, "Grist" says that many environmentalists think the campaign to ban plastic straws was a net positive, because ultimately the hype around it raised awareness about the much larger problem of single-use plastics generally. And that led to some real change, with governments and businesses taking action to cut back on a broad range of plastic products. One advocate called the anti-straw movement “a lightbulb moment” for a lot of people, a gateway to thinking more critically about how to use less plastic.
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You can read the full series from “Grist” in the Apple News app. And if you’re already listening in the News app right now, stick around. We've got a narrated article coming up next from “Vox.” It looks at how the ultra-wealthy are seeking out expensive, and often questionable procedures, in an attempt to slow down aging.
That’s cued up for you next, and I’ll be back with the news tomorrow.
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