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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Wednesday, October 11th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is “Apple News Today.” On today's show…
New charges for New York congressman George Santos…
How prison labor is used to train AI…
And the new sports on track to appear in the 2028 Olympics in LA.
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But first, the death toll is steadily rising as more Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza, and new details emerge about the impact of Hamas's attack on Israel. In Gaza, Palestinian officials say, more than 1000 people are dead. In Israel, officials there say at least 1,200 people have been killed. Its military also says it killed at least a thousand Hamas fighters inside Israel.
President Biden said at least 14 Americans died, and several are being held hostage by Hamas. Biden said America will continue to stand with Israel. He called Hamas's actions "evil." And he made a distinction between Hamas and Palestinian civilians.
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President Joe Biden: There's no justification for terrorism. There's no excuse. Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people's right to dignity and self-determination. Its stated purpose is the annihilation of the state of Israel and the murder of Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed with no regard to who pays the price.
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We're now several days into what might be a long conflict. So, it's a good moment to be reminded of some of the history driving the fighting. We're not gonna do it one show, or with one article, but one place to start is this “NBC” explainer on Gaza. What it is, and who controls it.
Gaza is penned in by Israel and Egypt, cutting it off from the rest of the world. And it's quite small. It's roughly 25 miles by six. But there are two million people living there, making it one of the most densely populated places in the world, with half the population under 19. That density is why there are so many civilian casualties when Israel attacks. Hamas fighters and innocent civilians are all packed together.
There are a few key dates to know in Gaza's history. Before the creation of Israel in 1948, Gaza was part of Palestine, under British colonial rule. Egypt then took control of Gaza for about two decades. That is, until 1967, when Israel won the Six-Day War against its Arab neighbors. Israel would occupy Gaza until 2005.
At that point, Israel agreed to pull thousands of settlers and military forces out, leaving Gaza to be governed by the Palestinian Authority. One year later, the militant group Hamas won elections and took control of Gaza. No elections have been held since.
Now, in response to Hamas's rise, Israel implemented a land, air and sea blockade on Gaza in 2007, which Egypt helps enforce. The Israeli government says it's needed to protect its citizens from Hamas attacks. The International Committee of the Red Cross calls this blockade “illegal,” and violates the humanitarian rights of Palestinian civilians. Human Rights Watch says Gaza is effectively "an open-air prison."
And now, Israel is tightening that blockade even more, in what it's calling a "complete siege" of Gaza. Food, power, and water were cut off earlier this week. On “NBC,” correspondent Gadi Schwartz described the conditions in Gaza.
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Gadi Schwartz: Gaza's unemployment rate is now among the highest in the world. Around 95% of the population does not have access to clean water, electricity is limited, food is often scarce, and the UN estimates that 80% of the population must rely on international aid to survive.
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The UN estimates that around 200,000 people in Gaza have fled their homes since this week's Israeli attacks. That's about 10% of the total population. But it's hard to see where they might go to find safety. They're in a small place, boxed in by powerful forces, and under the weight of a violent history.
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Now, let's take a very quick look at some other stories in the news.
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In Mexico's Puerto Vallarta, workers are cleaning up heavy damage from Hurricane Lidia. It made landfall as a category four storm overnight, mowing down trees and buildings, and causing dangerous flooding.
Here in the States, Republicans meet behind closed doors today to decide on their choice for House Speaker. Congressmen Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise are running for the role. But it's not clear which one of them can win over a divided GOP.
Also in Congress, New York Republican George Santos faces new felony charges, including conspiracy and identity theft. He's now looking at 23 counts in all. Prosecutors say Santos stole people's identities and used their credit cards without permission. Santos has denied criminal wrongdoing. He is still a member of Congress, though he was stripped of his committee assignments.
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<v Now to a story about the booming artificial intelligence industry, and the millions of people around the world who work to train AI technology. They're known as "clickworkers." Many live in developing countries, where they're paid very little. And some are exposed to disturbing content in their work to improve AI systems like ChatGPT. Recent reporting from “WIRED” uncovers a very different kind of workforce behind AI training>prison labor.
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An AI company in Finland has a program where incarcerated people are hired to interact with AI models. Supporters of the program say it gives them a work option that's not manual labor, one that might prepare them for a job in tech when they get out.
Now Finland is known for its high wages so, for the company, Metroc, turning to people in prisons means they get cheaper labor. People in the Finnish prison system are paid the equivalent of under $2 an hour for this work.
“WIRED” reporter, Morgan Meaker, traveled to Finland to meet one of the people training this AI.
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Morgan Meaker: She uses her prison nickname, which is Marmalade, and she sits down and for three hours she answers questions about, in this case, real estate.
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Metroc uses the human answers to improve its AI tools. It's not especially interesting work for the people training the system.
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Meaker: It's quite dull and it's quite technical, which is one of the reasons that this company needed native Finnish speakers because this is kind of legal jargon, construction jargon that would be difficult for someone else or especially like Finnish translation apps to understand.
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Marmalade told Meaker, it's boring, but the pay is better than nothing. But there are concerns about AI companies turning to prisoners for this kind of work. A researcher at Human Rights Watch told Meaker… having incarcerated people do clickwork could set a dangerous precedent, where AI companies employ people who have few other options to do grueling work.
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Meaker: What's to stop prisoners being used to do kind of much more controversial types of data labor. For example, teaching AI the difference between normal writing and writing that's describing violence or sexual violence, which is something that companies that create chatbots need to do so they can know what to block and what not to block.
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Flag football, cricket, lacrosse, squash, baseball, and softball. These are the sports that Los Angeles Olympic organizers want to add to the 2028 Summer Games. Next week, we'll find out if the International Olympic Committee gives the thumbs up, and it's looking likely.
The “L.A. Times” explains that host cities are given the option of proposing additional sports. The Olympic Committee and the local organizers take a few things into account: whether the sports will bring in new audiences, how easy it is to stage them, gender equity, and how popular they are around the world.
Take flag football, for example. Football is huge in America, but far less popular around the world. Tackle football, with all the pads and equipment and injury risk, would be a hard sell. But flag football is seen as a more accessible way to get football fans in the U.S. more excited about the Olympics.
Meanwhile cricket is almost the opposite situation. It has billions of fans worldwide, but isn't nearly as popular in the U.S.
Some new sports have been added to the Olympics, only to get dropped again four years later. For example, it looks like break dancing will get its debut at the Paris games next summer but didn't make the cut for Los Angeles in 2028. But a few events do get to stick around. Surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing all did well enough in the Tokyo games to continue.
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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, stick around.
We've got a narrated article coming up next from “The New Yorker.” It examines the complicated history of a county fair in Mississippi that began in the late 1800s, where entire families camp out in cabins every year.
The state's politics and racial past play a big role.
If you're listening in the Podcasts app, follow Apple News+ Narrated to find that story.
And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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