[INTRO MUSIC]
Gideon Resnick, Narrating: Good morning! It's Friday, January 19th. I'm Gideon Resnick, in for Shumita Basu.
This is "Apple News Today."
On today's show, the fight over ultra-processed foods
that could be in your fridge right now;
What the government knows about UFOs;
And hearing from the man who survived one execution and now faces another.
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But first, let's take a quick look at some other major stories that are in the news.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he does not support the creation
of a Palestinian state in any post-war scenario.
That puts him at odds with the Biden administration.
The White House says it'll continue to work toward the goal
of an independent Palestinian state.
In the U.S., Congress is gonna avoid a damaging government shutdown
just ahead of today's deadline.
Yesterday, the Senate and House passed a short-term funding extension
to keep the government running for the next few weeks.
The stopgap will buy time for lawmakers to put together
the big, complicated appropriations bills that'll provide money for the full year.
Elsewhere, a new Justice Department report finds a series of failures
by law enforcement
in the 2022 elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
19 children and two teachers were killed.
It's the latest investigation to criticize the slow response
from law enforcement.
The Justice Department says the biggest problem was that
officers didn't treat the incident as an active shooter situation,
failing to immediately enter the classrooms and confront the gunman.
Attorney General Merrick Garland met with the community
ahead of the report's release.
[START AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Attorney General Merrick Garland: I told the families gathered last night what I hope is clear
among the hundreds of pages and thousands of details in this report.
Their loved ones deserve better.
[END AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Resnick, Narrating: In Miami, a Boeing 747 cargo jet had to make an emergency landing
due to an engine malfunction shortly after departure.
Social-media videos appear to show flames shooting out of the plane in flight.
[START ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Unidentified Speaker: Oh, my God, it's on fire.
Oh, my god!
[END ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Resnick, Narrating: The airport says there were no injuries reported.
Boeing declined to comment.
And GE, the engine maker, didn't initially respond
to "Reuters'" request for comment.
This latest incident comes as Boeing and its partners
are under scrutiny for a panel falling off a 737 MAX while in flight.
And in science news,
researchers have discovered the world's largest deep-sea coral reef.
It's just off the East Coast,
stretching from waters in Miami all the way up to around Charleston.
The reef is a whopping 6.4 acres, bigger than the state of Vermont.
Scientists previously thought that the area was barely inhabited.
But it turns out there's an extensive underwater habitat there.
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The discovery of the reef could help future conservation.
Next week, Alabama plans to execute Kenneth Smith using nitrogen gas.
This would be the first time this has been done in the United States.
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The United Nations says this untested method
could be cruel, inhuman, and possibly torture.
The convicted murderer already survived a botched lethal injection in 2022.
Workers tried for an hour to place a needle in his veins
before the execution was called off.
"NPR" recently got a rare interview with Smith over the phone from death row.
[START NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Kenneth Smith: I was strapped down, couldn't catch my breath.
I was shaking like a leaf.
I was absolutely alone in a room full of people,
and not one of them tried to help me at all.
And I was crying out for help.
It was a month or so before I really started to come back to myself.
[END NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Resnick, Narrating: Only one other incarcerated person alive today has survived an execution.
Smith told "NPR" that the day still haunts him.
[START NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Smith: I'm still carrying the trauma from the last time.
I'm being treated for PTSD and I struggle daily.
So, when I got this date,
my level of anxiety this time was not even close
to what I faced last time.
Everybody is telling me that I'm gonna suffer.
So, I'm absolutely terrified.
[END NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Resnick, Narrating: Alabama's plan is for the nitrogen to be delivered through a mask
over Smith's nose and mouth.
But if any of the gas leaks,
it could pose a risk for others in the chamber.
His spiritual advisor had to sign a waiver acknowledging that he could be exposed,
in order to be in the room with Smith.
Smith has filed a legal challenge
to block Alabama from moving forward with the execution.
His lawyers argue it would be unconstitutional to execute him,
that a second attempt would be cruel and unusual punishment.
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Federal appeals court hears arguments in the case today.
Today, nutrition and public health experts meet to discuss big, upcoming decisions
that could shape the way Americans eat for years.
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It's part of the Health and Agriculture Department's moves
to update federal dietary guidelines.
"Wall Street Journal" food and agriculture reporter Jesse Newman
told us that one of the hot topics in that world right now
is consumption of ultra-processed foods.
Jesse Newman: And that's because there's sort of growing evidence
that has linked diets that are high in ultra-processed foods
to all sorts of problems.
This would include increased risks of obesity, cancer,
cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, even depression.
So, there's all this new evidence that suggests that ultra-processed foods
are really unhealthy for you on a lot of different levels.
Resnick, Narrating: There's not a universal definition for "ultra-processed foods,"
but nutrition experts say a simple way to think about it is this:
If something has ingredients you wouldn't find in a normal home kitchen,
consider it ultra-processed.
So, if you look at the label and you see stuff like high fructose corn syrup,
soy protein isolate, or guar gum, it's ultra-processed.
And those are in a lot of things on grocery store shelves.
Big food companies worry that if these products are labeled as unhealthy,
that could hurt profits.
So, they're lobbying to fight possible recommendations
against ultra-processed foods in the coming dietary guidelines.
Newman: Really, it's a concern that this new sort of dirty word
in the food industry's dictionary
will scare off consumers and that it will deter consumers
from picking up these foods in the grocery stores,
which then is, of course, linked to sales and to profits for food companies.
Resnick, Narrating: These corporations argue that processing can make food safer,
more accessible, and more affordable.
And the term "ultra-processed" is being used too broadly.
Newman: They also worry that this terminology,
"ultra-processed foods," could sort of infiltrate U.S. food policy.
So, for example, things like what foods can be served in schools.
So, there's a real concern
that not only would it deter consumers at the grocery store,
but that it could also have a much wider impact,
and broader impact, on U.S. food policy, and therefore,
on sort of where these foods are sold, where they're available.
Resnick, Narrating: If you are trying to better understand what ultra-processed foods
might be on your shelf,
[ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
check out the "Journal's" guide to spotting them.
You can find it in the Apple News app.
Between Congress demanding answers about UFOs,
to rising public opinion that alien spacecraft have visited Earth,
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we are in the middle of a modern-day UFO craze.
And it's renewing questions about what exactly the U.S. military
and spy agencies do know.
Garrett Graff: There is a government cover-up around UFOs.
It's just not the one that you think it is.
Resnick, Narrating: Garrett Graff is a national security journalist
and author of a new book on what the government knows about UFOs.
He spoke with Shumita before her maternity leave
for this week's episode of "Apple News In Conversation."
Graff says the U.S. government frequently hides knowledge of its own
aerospace projects and tech for national security reasons.
But that still leaves a lot of reported sightings unexplained.
Graff: What they are trying to cover up is actually their ignorance.
And that's a really uncomfortable answer for a bureaucracy to give
[OUTRO MUSIC]
when we have a bureaucracy that spends nearly a trillion dollars a year
on national defense and intelligence and homeland security.
Resnick, Narrating: If you're listening in the Apple News app, Shumita's full conversation
with Garrett Graff is queued up to play for you next.
And if you're listening in the podcast app,
you can follow "Apple News In conversation" to find the episode.
Enjoy that listen, have a great weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
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