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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It’s Wednesday, November 15th. I’m Shumita Basu. This is “Apple News Today.” On today’s show… President Biden’s high-stakes meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, investigating safety issues with midwives involved in home births, and restaurants strike back at one-star reviews.
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But first, a look at some other major stories, starting with the Israel-Hamas war. Israeli ground troops have entered Gaza’s largest medical facility, al-Shifa Hospital. Israel and Hamas have traded accusations around that hospital and others. Israel claims Hamas is putting military assets and troops in hospitals. Hamas denies this and accuses Israel of targeting civilians. And many medical and aid workers inside Gaza say Hamas troops are not using them as human shields. The U.S., and other countries, have urged Israeli forces to use restraint around hospitals. There are hundreds of patients and doctors inside al-Shifa. And also thousands of civilian evacuees who went there hoping it would be safe from Israeli attacks.
Juliette Touma is spokesperson for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. She talked to the "BBC" as news broke that troops were entering the hospital.
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Juliette Touma: We are watching with horror. We are watching these reports with absolute horror. Medical facilities should be protected at all times. But this is yet another indication that no place is safe. And no place, including civilian infrastructure like hospitals, like U.N. facilities, they’ve not been spared during this war.
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Israel also accuses Hamas of keeping hostages in hospitals, which Hamas denies. The Biden administration says there are currently active discussions involving multiple countries for a possible deal to release some of the more than 200 people believed to be held captive following Hamas’s October 7th attack inside Israel.
Now to U.S. politics, where there’s a deal in place to avoid a government shutdown this week. The House passed a bill that will fund the government through early next year, giving lawmakers time to work out full-year spending bills. But if that doesn’t happen, there could still be a shutdown in mid-January, or early February. This was seen as an early test of new House Speaker Mike Johnson. Because many Republicans didn’t agree with his approach, his bill was passed with support from Democrats.
And looking ahead to 2024, former president Donald Trump will be on the Michigan primary ballot. A judge ruled against an attempt to block him. We’ve talked about cases like this around the country. Trump critics argue that he cannot run for reelection because the 14th Amendment bars officials from holding office if they’ve engaged in an insurrection against America. The Michigan judge’s ruling could be appealed, possibly all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Courts are trying to move quickly on similar cases in various states, since the first caucuses and primaries start in January.
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Today, President Biden is set to meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping at a global summit in California. This will be Xi’s first visit to America since 2017, in the early days of the Trump administration.
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Former U.S. diplomat Victor Cha told “MSNBC,” this meeting is all about trying to defuse an increasingly rocky relationship.
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Victor Cha: We’re in a situation now where the broader trend lines between the U.S. and China are not good, in the sense that, you know, this is a great power competition. At the same time, neither side really wants this to spiral perilously in a downward direction.
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Biden and Xi last met face-to-face about a year ago. That was before the spy-balloon incident, which further widened the gap between them. Trade policy, of course, is a big topic any time the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies meet. Right now, the economic picture in the U.S. is much brighter than China, and Cha says that’s important context here.
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Cha: There is a lot riding on this. For the Chinese, I think they do really need this meeting. They have a downturn in their own economy after a difficult period with COVID.
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Also high on the agenda… re-establishing communication between top brass in the U.S. and Chinese militaries. Beijing mostly cut those ties last year to protest Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. That struck a nerve, since China considers Taiwan its own territory. Defense analysts around the world are concerned about the growing risks created by the missing lines of communication. That a future incident, perhaps involving Taiwan, could be badly misinterpreted by either side and lead to war.
And another major topic will be the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. China says it’s officially neutral in both wars. But the U.S. believes Xi is way too friendly with Putin. And the Biden administration says it’ll encourage China to use its influence with Iran to keep the war between Israel and Hamas from spreading.
Biden and Xi are heading into this meeting on the heels of news of climate cooperation. The countries just announced they’ll revive joint efforts to boost renewable energy and cut methane and plastic pollution. That’s the kind of small-step progress that Cha previously said he expected this week. But overall, he wasn’t expecting major changes out of Xi and Biden’s meeting.
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Cha: So, I would expect there to be incremental things, like setting up working groups and everything. But in the long term, that’s not going to solve the deeper problems between the United States and China.
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A warning that this next story involves fatal childbirth complications.
New investigative reporting from "The Washington Post" describes the inconsistent laws and oversight for midwives hired for home births. Fewer than two percent of American babies are born at home.
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But the practice is getting more popular, up 35 percent over five years, while hospital births have slightly declined.
Most home births are attended by certified professional midwives, who generally don’t work in hospitals, believe in low-intervention births, and learn through apprenticeships. That title doesn’t require them to have a graduate or nursing degree. But "The Post" found it can be difficult for expecting parents to assess the disciplinary and criminal records of a midwife before choosing to hire them. Vetting is important because home births can be riskier. A "Post" data analysis shows infants are more than twice as likely to die in home births attended by midwives than in hospital deliveries.
Tori DiVincenzo from Maryland lost her daughter in 2021 during a home birth. Afterwards, she and her husband looked into the background of their midwife, Karen Carr.
Amy Brittain: What they found was really troubling.
That’s “Post” investigative reporter Amy Brittain.
Brittain: They did not realize that Karen had a history of past allegations of infant deaths that were alleged to be linked to her care.
They learned Carr had a felony record in Virginia, from an incident that happened more than a decade before. That baby had been born in a high-risk position, not breathing. Thirteen minutes passed before someone called 911, and the baby was later diagnosed with a catastrophic brain injury. He died two days later. Carr pleaded guilty to child endangerment and performing an invasive procedure without a license, and served five days in jail.
Brittain: And the prosecutors in that case told me they assumed that this type of criminal record would end her career. They never imagined a scenario in which a midwife could plead guilty to a felony charge of child endangerment and still go on to deliver babies as a licensed midwife within the United States. But that is exactly what has happened.
Another infant delivered by Carr died in Maryland that same year. A judge determined the decisions she made in delivery had "dire consequences.” She was fined the maximum of $30,000. Carr declined “The Post’s” requests for comment for this story.
The fact that she was able to continue working, despite being connected with multiple deaths, shows how little legal oversight there is. Brittain points out, in some states, there are no regulations for midwives. And in many cases, it’s not easy for parents to check their backgrounds.
Brittain: There's some states where, if you want to see complaints, you have to file public records requests. And in other states, you can search for that information online. But, even in the case of Karen Carr, if you were to search her right now in the state-run database, by the Maryland Board of Nursing, that exists for the public to be able to look up information about a licensed midwife before they hire the midwife, you would find absolutely nothing related to her history.
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And finally, even if you don’t own a restaurant, you’re probably well aware that customer reviews on Google can have a big impact on business. A nasty one-star review, even if it’s unfair or untrue, might turn off future customers.
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And several of them can drag down a restaurant’s average rating, which means taking a hit in search results.
“The Atlantic” looks at how some restaurants are changing how they deal with extremely negative reviews. And that includes jumping into the comments with spirited responses when they feel like a review was unfair. The story highlights Dragon Lee, a Chinese restaurant in upstate New York. Its responses include all-caps fireballs like “YOU DO NOT DESERVE OUR SERVICE.” And “DO US AND EVERYONE A FAVOR, DO NOT EVER COME BACK TO THIS PLACE EVER AGAIN.” The reporter paid the restaurant a visit and found it to be busy. And their overall rating is still pretty high. Som, maybe there is something to be said for getting away from a “customer is always right” philosophy.
Dragon Lee is, let’s say, choosing the spicier route for responses. But generally, a lot of the comments that restaurants receive are noise, with little real constructive criticism they can take action on. Odd complaints like "my chair was too cold.” Or generic ones, like the food "was absolutely terrible.” The sweet spot is reviews that are specific. And even Dragon Lee is willing to engage with a thoughtful critique. One customer said the Beef and Broccoli was lacking in flavor. The restaurant responded by saying it was using a new soy sauce base, was still making adjustments, and thanked the reviewer for the feedback.
But listen, take this as a note of caution before you leave a harsh or unhelpful review for a restaurant. Some places aren’t gonna let that slide. You might get back what you dished out.
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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, we’ve got a Narrated Article coming up from "Scientific American." It looks at the problem of misdiagnosing dyslexia, and how that could be hindering children’s reading development.
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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