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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It’s Tuesday, October 24th. I’m Shumita Basu. This is “Apple News Today.” On today’s show… The long history of U.S. presidents trying for Middle East peace, a pilot accused of a plot to take down a passenger jet, and new Texas laws target abortion access.
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But first, the latest in the Israel-Hamas war. The Israeli military has intensified airstrikes on Gaza, with hundreds more targets hit overnight.
Hamas freed two Israeli hostages, two women, a 79-year-old and an 85-year-old. The militant groups says it released them on humanitarian and health grounds. That means four hostages have been released so far, but around 200 more are believed to be held in Gaza by various Palestinian militant groups. Hamas said it could release dozens more hostages if Israel allows fuel deliveries into Gaza. But Israel says all captives must be let go first.
The U.S. line in public has supported Israel’s right to self-defense. Behind the scenes, American officials have reportedly appealed to Israel to think carefully about launching a massive ground invasion, to allow more time for talks to release hostages, to let more humanitarian aid into Gaza, and work to limit civilian casualties.
What Israel does with the American advice remains to be seen. Trying to make peace in the Middle East has been a frustrating challenge for many administrations preceding President Biden. “NPR” looks at the many stops, starts, dead ends and moments of progress over the decades. An important push came from President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. He did broker a landmark peace deal between Israel and Egypt. But Carter couldn’t bridge the gap between Israelis and Palestinians.
Later, the Clinton administration helped bring about the Oslo Accords. They were signed in Washington in 1993. An iconic photo that you’ve probably seen shows Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shaking hands with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, with President Bill Clinton alongside. Israel agreed to recognize Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization, the PLO. And the PLO renounced terrorism and recognized Israel’s right to exist.
Initially, Clinton was optimistic.
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Former President Bill Clinton: What these leaders have done now must be done by others. Their achievement must be a catalyst for progress in all aspects of the peace process.
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Hopes for the two-state solution, Israel alongside an independent Palestine, were high at that moment. But that progress Clinton spoke about didn’t come. The next year, a Jewish settler killed dozens of people at a mosque in the West Bank. Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli opposed to the agreement he made. Over the years, some Palestinian protests turned violent, and were met by violent Israeli responses. Clinton tried again in his last days in office, bringing Israeli and Palestinian leaders to Camp David in 2000. But those talks fell apart.
You can read more in the full “NPR” story, which traces major moments in U.S. presidential history starting from Carter all the way through Biden’s visit to Israel last week. That’s on the Apple News app.
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Now, let’s take a quick look at some other stories in the news.
An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot is accused of trying to take down a plane and kill everyone on board.
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He was riding in the cockpit when he tried to sabotage the engines. The captain and first officer stopped him, and the plane was diverted to Portland, Oregon. The off-duty pilot now faces 83 counts of attempted murder.
In Washington, there will be another internal Republican vote for Speaker of the House. But the GOP has been here before. Previous candidates who won internal party votes didn’t have enough Republican support to win a full House floor vote. That has left the House leaderless, and effectively motionless for weeks.
And at least seven people are dead in Louisiana after a massive car pileup. It’s being blamed on what officials call a “super fog.” Fires in the area led to extremely foggy conditions. The poor visibility made the roads especially dangerous. More than 155 vehicles were involved in crashes on Interstate 55.
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Let’s turn now to "State of the State," our ongoing series that looks at policy at the local level and the impact on people living there. Today, we’re going to Texas, where several local governments are putting in laws that make it harder to leave the state to get abortions.
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Yesterday, Lubbock County voted to make it illegal to use its roads to drive someone out of state for an abortion. Amarillo County is considering a similar law today. And if you don’t know Texas geography, this is significant because Amarillo is a transit artery, with several interstate highways passing through that connect Texas to states where abortion is still accessible.
Several other cities and counties have passed similar travel bans, or they’re considering them. “Texas Tribune” reporter Jayme Lozano Carver has lived in the state her whole life and says these laws are having major impact.
Jayme Lozano Carver: It appears women are starting to really, really think about when they want to start a family and even where they want to start a family because of these policies.
Texas already has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country. So, supporters of travel bans see them as a way to make abortion even harder to access for Texans by preventing them from going elsewhere. And similar to the state’s abortion ban, proposed travel bans wouldn’t legally punish pregnant women. They seek to make it illegal to help someone travel out-of-state for an abortion.
Carver says the measures will likely face legal challenges. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has written that a state cannot block someone from visiting another state. It’s also unclear how much enforcement of these laws there will be.
Carver: It seems like they're trying to work out the details as they're getting it passed, which obviously adds to more of the doubts and concerns on if this is legal or not.
But the mere presence of these laws could have a chilling effect on people seeking abortions, and the friends and family trying to help them.
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Let’s end with some sports news, including the World Series picture shaping up. The Texas Rangers are in, knocking off the Houston Astros to win the American League championship. In the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 7 tonight to see who else moves on to the World Series.
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And tonight is the start of the new NBA season. “The Wall Street Journal” looks at how several championship contenders are led by stars with something in common. They’re old. Old by NBA standards, at least. As the "Journal" puts it, this season is “Geezers vs. Gen Z.” Stars like LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant are in their mid-to-late 30s. But they’re still performing at a very high level, with real shots at leading their teams to championships, even as younger players are hungry to beat them.
Now, part of why these stars are having longer playing careers is because of modern nutrition and performance science. Teams and players are carefully monitoring their diet, bodies, and workout routines to minimize overuse and injuries. Also, teams are more willing to rest players, with more games off being the norm.
But there’s a new generation of stars looking to knock the longtime players off their pedestals.
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With rising stars like 19-year-old Victor Wembanyama and 24-year-old Luka Doncic, the older players may need all those conditioning tricks to keep up.
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 for a Narrated Article from “New York Magazine.” Staying with the sports theme, it looks at how Kansas City is being impacted by hype around Chiefs player Travis Kelce dating Taylor Swift.
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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