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Yasmeen Khan, Narrating: Good morning.
It's Wednesday March 6th. I'm Yasmeen Khan in for Shumita Basu.
This is "Apple News Today."
Coming up, the U.S. airdrops another round of aid into Gaza,
a historic first in college sports, and how to cast a ballot from outer space.
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But first, let's take a quick look at some major stories in the news.
Republican Nikki Haley is now out of the presidential race.
She suspended her campaign this morning.
That effectively gives former president Trump the G.O.P. nomination
and sets up a rematch with President Biden.
Last night, Haley won only Vermont.
Trump spoke to supporters gathered at Mar-a-Lago
after his victories in 14 other states.
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[CROWD CHANTING]
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much.
They, uh, call it Super Tuesday for a reason. This is a big one.
[CROWD CHEERING]
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Khan, Narrating: President Biden said in a statement
that voters showed they're ready to fight to keep Trump from getting another term.
Biden won big last night, as expected,
though he did have a surprise loss in American Samoa
to a political novice, entrepreneur Jason Palmer.
Also, more democratic voters chose the option "uncommitted"
as a protest vote of Biden's backing for Israel in the Gaza War.
Further down the ballot, the race to succeed
the late California Senator Dianne Feinstein is set.
Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey,
a former Major League Baseball star, advanced to the general election.
And in Texas, congressman Colin Allred, a former NFL linebacker,
won the Democratic Senate primary.
The party sees him as someone who could be strong enough
to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz.
Speaking of the Senate, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema is leaving.
She says she won't run for re-election.
She left the Democratic Party in 2022, and would have faced a difficult campaign
against republican and democratic opponents.
Sinema gained a reputation as a dealmaker who bridged gaps between parties
in a closely divided Senate. She also made enemies on the left,
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who felt she was too sympathetic to conservatives.
You can get more political analysis, including all the Super Tuesday races,
on the Apple News app.
The U.S. has airdropped another round of humanitarian aid into Gaza
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where at least a quarter of the population is on the brink of famine.
The drop was coordinated with Jordan's air force
and included close to 40,000 meals,
just a sliver of the amount desperately needed
for more than two million Palestinians.
For the U.S., the airdrops are a new attempt
to address the humanitarian crisis, but not for Jordan.
Since November, the country's air force has dropped aid into Gaza by air
more than a dozen times.
"Washington Post" reporter Sarah Dadouch recently flew with them
in one of these drops, which was aiming for a hospital.
Sarah Dadouch: And from the sky, you can see the destruction.
You can see what looks like stable, what looks like normal structures,
and then around it you just see the kind of fainted gray of rubble,
and it's quite massive in scale, even from the sky.
Khan, Narrating: The crates dropped by Jordan typically contain supplies like food,
medicine, diapers, and other necessities.
Israel approves the airdrops, and the timing.
Gazans are not told when they're coming.
Dadouch says witnessing the devastation in Gaza
has been especially difficult for many Jordanians.
Dadouch: The Palestinian issue is a very emotional, evocative issue
for many Arab countries, but specifically Jordan
who has a large number of its citizens and residents are of Palestinian origin.
Khan, Narrating: One member of the air force who was on the plane with Dadouch
shared that he'd been sleeping at their base for weeks
so he could keep working.
Dadouch: He just couldn't imagine going home
when they finally had a chance to help what they see as their brothers.
Khan, Narrating: Before the war, the amount of aid entering Gaza
did not come close to meeting the humanitarian needs of civilians
according to aid agencies.
That was when roughly 500 trucks per day entered Gaza.
The number has steadily dropped since.
By January, it was 170 trucks of aid on average. By February, just 98.
With so few aid trucks getting in, countries like France, Egypt,
and the United Arab Emirates have joined efforts to airdrop aid,
but Dadouch says it won't be a long term solution.
Dadouch: The issues with delivering aid via airdrops
is that they're exorbitantly expensive.
They are best when trying to serve a specific area with specific needs,
and there's no alternative route,
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but because of the expense, aid is not going to go in as quickly
and in as large amounts as it needs to go into Gaza.
Trucking is the main solution
Khan, Narrating: Now to a landmark development in the world of college sports
and organized labor in America.
Yesterday, players on Dartmouth's men's basketball team
voted to form a union.
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That puts them in position to make history as the first unionized players
in American college sports.
Forming a union would allow players to collectively bargain with the school
over pay and working conditions.
This is a big deal that could dramatically change the sports landscape.
For years, college athletes have argued that they deserve to be paid
and treated like employees,
especially as certain sports, like basketball and football,
have become mega money-makers for a lot of schools,
bringing in billions of dollars.
Here's Kevin Blackistone, a frequent panelist on "ESPN,"
and a guest on a recent episode of "Apple News In Conversation."
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Kevin Blackistone: They've made so much money recently that in the past year
they've been able to pay their head football coaches,
on average, $6.2 million a year.
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Khan, Narrating: Players have said they should be paid too,
and not just money, but also better health care.
Blackistone told us about an event he attended at the University of Maryland.
A student said she resented athletes
already getting a lot of preferential treatment,
and an athlete had a strong response.
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Blackistone: He said, "Well, I understand your point of view,
but I just want you to know that I've been on a gurney four times
for playing football.
You may have to sacrifice time or you may have to figure out
a way to piece together enough money to continue your education
here at the University of Maryland."
He said, "But I'm giving my body."
"I have to persevere in a different sort of way."
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Khan, Narrating: As for the Dartmouth players, their battle to unionize isn't over.
The school is appealing to federal labor officials.
Dartmouth argues that students can't be classified as employees
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simply because they play basketball, and the NCAA has opposed union efforts.
Let's end the show on one more Super Tuesday related story.
For a small group of American voters,
their Super Tuesday polling place was 250 miles above Earth,
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aboard the International Space Station.
Astronauts have been voting from space for almost 20 years now.
The Texas state legislature passed a bill allowing it in 1997.
"USA Today" explains the voting process for astronauts
starts roughly a year before they leave for a mission on the space station.
Those missions typically last around six months.
The actual voting is not so different from what it's like here on Earth.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins voted in two presidential elections from space
from a very small voting booth that the crew assembled
in their living quarters.
Here she is explaining the process from orbit in a Q&A.
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Kate Rubins: And so we fill out, it's called a federal postcard application
for voting overseas, and I don't know that I'm technically overseas.
We are far away from the United States at times, depending on our orbit.
So we fill out this application.
We actually get… the ballot is encrypted to us.
We send it back down to our county clerk and they record the vote
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Khan, Narrating: A few years back, "NPR" spoke with a Texas clerk, Mary Anne Daigle,
about receiving ballots from orbit.
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Mary Ann Daigle: It's kind of exciting when you open up your computer in the morning,
and you got a message from outer space or something like that.
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Khan, Narrating: And there's one extra cool perk of voting this way:
the ability to list their home address as "low-Earth orbit."
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 has an extensive interview with President Biden
on his final presidential campaign,
and why he and the White House are so confident,
even while many democrats worry he could lose.
If you're listening on the Podcasts app,
follow Apple News+ Narrated to find that story.
And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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