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Mark Garrison, Narrating: Good morning! It's Tuesday, December 12th. I'm Mark Garrison in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, the danger that Palestinian journalists face in Gaza, the Supreme Court steps into one of Trump's trials, and how a tomato got lost and found in outer space.
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But first, an update on a story out of Texas we've told you about before. The Texas Supreme Court has blocked a ruling that would've allowed a woman to get an abortion, despite the state's restrictive laws. Before the ruling came in, the woman at the center of the case, Kate Cox, left the state to get an abortion elsewhere.
Cox, who is a mother of two, wanted the procedure after learning that her fetus has a fatal genetic condition and that carrying her pregnancy to term could impact her future fertility. Her lawyers say she'd already been to the emergency room four times in the last month for complications with her pregnancy. Here's what she told "MSNBC" last week.
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Kate Cox: I think forcing me to continue the pregnancy and the pain and suffering, [SNIFFLES] put me through the risks of continuing the pregnancy, the risk of childbirth again, especially given how my last two went. I think it's cruel.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and lawyers for the state argued that Cox's situation did not qualify for an exemption to the state's abortion rules.
As "NBC" reports, so far, very few women have filed lawsuits challenging abortion bans in their states. That's what makes Cox's so important to watch. Since the U.S. Supreme's court overturning of Roe V. Wade, she's believed to be one of the first known adults to have gotten approval for an abortion from a court. The case is widely being watched as a test for future litigation.
And there a few other major court cases we're watching that will impact the landscape of abortion access in this country. This week, Arizona's state Supreme Court will hear a case that aims to reconcile two contradictory abortion laws on its books, including a near total ban on the procedure. In Wyoming, there's a case that asks whether abortion should count as health care.
And tomorrow, abortion access will face a major challenge in New Mexico, a state where it's currently legal. It's served as a safe haven of sorts for patients from neighboring states looking to get the procedure. In response, conservative local governments in New Mexico have passed laws effectively making it harder to access the procedure. Now, the state Supreme Court will decide whether those laws are legal.
And there's also another case getting national attention, involving an Ohio woman who experienced a pregnancy loss in a bathroom. She's now awaiting a grand jury hearing after being charged with felony abuse of a corpse. As her case moves forward, it's shown how complicated the law around pregnancy is becoming. People may not just face health complications; they may also be held criminally responsible in some cases.
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On-the-ground reporting from the war in Gaza is in short supply, with many international journalists unable to get close to the story because of dangerous conditions and Israeli military restrictions on travel. So some of the most striking reporting from the ground is coming from Palestinian journalists who live in Gaza. They are paying a high price for their work. Dozens of journalists have been killed so far, nearly all of them are Palestinians. Reporting from a war zone is always dangerous, but local journalists in Gaza are also carrying the weight of covering a conflict that's killing their family, friends, and colleagues.
"TIME" Magazine's Yasmeen Serhan recently wrote about the severe challenges these reporters face.
Yasmeen Serhan: These Palestinians aren't afforded any greater protections than that of their friends and family currently living in the enclave which as we know has seen unprecedented devastation, death and destruction. Millions of people have just been displaced. And many, in fact, of these journalists have been displaced. You know, they don't have the luxury of going to a secure office or home. They are out on the streets often, just like their communities, they don't feel safe, but they are continuing to do their work.
She says that work is totally different from how journalists from elsewhere cover the story.
Serhan: What also is incredibly difficult for these journalists is the fact that, they aren't neutral observers. They are living and covering this war.
Serhan spoke to many Palestinian journalists who've left Gaza for their own safety. And there are growing fears for those who are still on the ground reporting. She says an important piece of the complicated picture of this war will be lost if there aren't Palestinian reporters there.
Serhan: What these journalists bring that we are unable to really get any other way is the real lived experience. The real anguish that people are feeling, the loss that they're experiencing, the hunger, and the homelessness. And without them being able to do their work, we simply wouldn't get that. So we shouldn't take for granted the work that they're doing. It's incredibly vital, but it may not last for much longer.
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Now, let's take a quick look at some other major stories in the news, starting with more on the war in Gaza.
Today a vote on a ceasefire is expected in the full United Nations General Assembly. A previous effort failed in the Security Council after the U.S. vetoed the measure. General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but they do carry political weight. The vote comes as global demonstrations continue calling for a stop to the fighting. That includes protests in the U.S. Senate yesterday, where Capitol police arrested dozens of people.
Staying in DC, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is visiting the White House today. President Biden is urging Congress to approve new aid to Ukraine and Israel. But new money has been on hold, with key Republicans saying they want any deal to include more funding for border security.
Today is the final day of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. Leaders are trying to reach some consensus on the biggest issues. But an early draft was heavily criticized for failing to commit to a full phase-out of fossil fuels.
In legal news, the Supreme Court will consider former president Donald Trump's claim that he's immune from prosecution for crimes he is accused of committing while in office. His legal team argues that Trump's status as president means he can't face criminal charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election he lost. U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith had asked the high court to fast-track consideration of Trump's claim, in order to keep the criminal trial on time. It is scheduled for March.
And Google has lost a major antitrust trial. Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, sued, alleging that Google used its app store to squeeze developers. Google says it'll appeal. Litigation over the issue could continue for years.
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We'll end on a space-food mystery that's finally solved. It involves something rare and precious in outer space, a juicy tomato. Astronaut meals may seem kinda neat when you're a kid and you try freeze-dried ice cream on a field trip or whatever. But imagine having to eat only that kind of packaged food for months at a time in space. It's nasty, and that's why astronauts dream of any chance to have fresh food on missions.
So it's a big deal when fresh food goes missing. Astronaut Frank Rubio harvested one of the first tomatoes grown in orbit, earlier this year aboard the International Space Station. And he was pretty stoked, so he wanted to show the tomato to some school kids for a virtual event. But zero gravity had other ideas.
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Frank Rubio: I was pretty confident that I velcroed it where I was supposed to velcro it, and then I came back and it was gone. And, I mean, I spent probably 8 to 20 hours of my own time looking for that tomato.
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That sounds perfectly credible. But when the tomato went missing, some of Rubio's colleagues wondered, "Did he maybe just sneak a little snack when nobody was looking?" Rubio's been suspect number one in the case of the missing space tomato, trying to clear his name for months ever since he got back to Earth.
And now, he is exonerated. Astronauts recently revealed that they found the tomato, confirming Rubio was innocent all along. NASA didn't share details on the state of the produce, but we do know the conditions are very dry on the space station so it's probably shriveled up and unlikely to show up in a BLT anytime soon.
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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 "Rolling Stone." It looks at the long-running gang war in Haiti, and the devastating impact on civilians.
If you're listening in the Podcasts app, follow Apple News+ Narrated to find that story.
And Shumita is back with the news tomorrow.
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