Survivor stories from the heroic Japan Airlines evacuation

Good morning. It's Wednesday, January 3rd. I'm Mark Garrison in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, family members raise questions about deaths in federal prisons, what it took to launch a women's hockey league in just six months and how people are messing up the moon.

But first, let's take a quick look at some major stories in the news. There are new fears of a widening conflict in the Mideast after the assassination of a senior Hamas leader, Saleh al-Arouri. He was killed in a drone strike in Lebanon's capital, Beirut. Israel hasn't confirmed or denied it ordered the killing, but it's widely seen to be responsible. Florencia Soto Nino, spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary-General, said this could be a dangerous escalation.

We are calling for maximum restraints from all parties. We don't want any rash actions that could trigger further violence.

Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, is an ally of Hamas. It's threatened in the past to retaliate against Israeli assassinations on Lebanese territory. At Harvard University, President Claudine Gay has resigned. The move follows weeks of criticism of her testimony before Congress about anti-Semitism on college campuses and growing allegations of plagiarism in past academic research.

You had a hard time breathing. So I took my hoodie, the only piece of equipment I still have left, everything else was burned down, and covered my face. And then after a while, they finally opened the doors and everyone, they ran out and then you had to jump out of the plane.

Another survivor, William Manzione, talked to "Sky News" about the moment after he got out when he saw just how deadly the situation could have been for him.

I turned around and I see the airplane with the nose completely smashed and the flames all over on the back.

The fire happened after a collision with a Coast Guard plane, where five people died. Transport officials and police are investigating the cause, including whether negligence may have played a role.

Since 2009, three quarters of all deaths in federal prisons have been deemed natural.

And if a death is classified as natural, federal prison authorities aren't required to do an autopsy. An "NPR" investigation finds some of these deaths are likely mislabeled, which is potentially preventing scrutiny of very questionable cases. "NPR" spoke to Kesha Jackson. Her husband, John, was in a federal prison in Arkansas waiting on a release hearing after 18 years. She thought he'd be home within a few weeks until she got a call with news from other incarcerated people.

What the prisoners were saying to me is that he had been in a special housing unit for three days banging on the door because he was going in and out of consciousness and he couldn't breathe.

Days later, an officer did CPR, but John died shortly after. The prison ruled his death as natural. But Kesha found out more later. Her husband had MRSA, a staph infection. It's typically not fatal if treated properly. Kesha believes her husband might have lived with the right care.

Saying that it's a natural death could sometimes be misleading. I believe that having proper medical treatment could have possibly saved his life.

"NPR" found many cases like Jackson's where medical neglect or poor prison conditions could have played a role in the deaths and where the family was given little to no information. The Bureau of Prisons told "NPR" that all deaths are investigated thoroughly and it has detailed procedures to inform family members. But Kesha Jackson and other families "NPR" spoke to say their loved ones deserved better, and their deaths were anything but natural.

History was made this week after the first puck was dropped in the newly formed Professional Women's Hockey League.

Just over 10 minutes into the game, Ella Shelton scored the league's first goal.

…And she gets it!

Ella Shelton scores! History is hers!

Hailey Salvian covers hockey for "The Athletic," and she was at the game.

The crowd was really great. The line to get into the building was huge. It went around a full city block in Toronto just to get into the building. All the merchandise lines were so long.

Salvian told us the backstory to the league's creation. It came together in just a few months, something unheard of in the world of professional sports.

So from July 1st until January 1st, they had essentially six months to get their original six markets finalized, do venue agreements, build the rosters, create branding, marketing, sales, ticketing. Just so many things had to go into putting this league together. They knew things weren't going to be perfect, but they thought that they owed it to the players

to start this league as soon as possible. It's not the first professional hockey league for women, but there's never been one quite like this, with all the best players facing off.

Women's hockey at the professional level has always been divided. There was a league in Canada, and then there was a competing league in the U.S., the Canadian Women's Hockey League, the National Women's Hockey League, that divided up not just the player pool and the talent across two different leagues, but also the resources that were invested.

Fans, sponsors and investors no longer need to decide which league gets what attention. The quick launch meant some details are TBD. The teams don't even have official nicknames yet. For now, they'll go by the name of their home base. The six teams that make up the league are in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Minnesota, Boston and New York. You can read more of "The Athletic's" coverage of this new league and all sports on the Apple News app.

Finally, a story about what happens when you mess with the moon. Some researchers now believe that humans have become such a dominant force on the moon that it's now in a new epoch called the "Lunar Anthropocene."

More than 100 spacecraft visits since 1959 seem to be taking their toll. "Popular Mechanics" looks at a new paper on this. From spacecraft touching down, sometimes even crashing on the moon, to astronauts walking on the surface, humans are altering its geology, disturbing the delicate balance of the moon's environment. Researchers say exhaust from spacecraft can do serious damage, and debris left behind from past missions is also a problem.

The moon is littered with abandoned spacecraft from decades of landings. They want future missions to be more mindful of the potential damage, and to do more to mitigate the impact. 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 next from "The Wall Street Journal." Any day now, we're expected to get the names of Jeffrey Epstein's associates listed in court documents.