What to know about the death of a Boeing whistleblower

Good morning. It's Friday, March 15th. I'm Yasmeen Khan in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Coming up, Chuck Schumer makes a stunning speech on the Senate floor, a week of mounting bad news for Boeing, and how to spot disinformation this election cycle.

But first, a quick look at a few stories in the news. In the election interference case against Donald Trump in Georgia, Judge Scott McAffee has determined that District Attorney Fani Willis should not be disqualified from prosecuting the case but with a caveat, Special Counsel Nathan Wade, her former romantic partner, must withdraw from the case if she stays on it.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat and the highest-ranking Jewish official in U.S. history, stood before his colleagues on the Senate floor yesterday, declared his lifelong love for Israel, and then called for new elections there, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was an obstacle to peace.

Five months into this conflict, it is clear that Israelis need to take stock of the situation and ask, must we change course? At this critical juncture, I believe a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel.

The remarks come as the White House has sharpened its public criticism of its longtime ally, and after the vice president recently met with Netanyahu's biggest political rival. It's no secret that many Democrats aren't aligned with Netanyahu's right-wing government, a position they've held long before this war. But it was still striking to hear a high-ranking official like Schumer condemn Netanyahu in this way and call for new leadership.

He has put himself in coalition with far-right extremists like Minister Smotrik and Ben Gavir. And as a result, he has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.

"Politico" referred to Schumer's speech as a moment where it felt like America's gloves were coming off. As they describe it, for a long time, it was once only acceptable to criticize Israel in private. Now, perhaps, that's no longer feels true. Another example, earlier this week, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders and seven Democratic senators sent President Biden a letter urging him to stop providing offensive weapons to Israel until Israel lifts restrictions on U.S. aid getting into Gaza.

It is grotesque and hypocritical for Americans who hyperventilate about foreign interference in our own democracy to call for the removal of a democratically elected leader of Israel. This is unprecedented. We should not treat fellow democracies this way at all.

The White House has made it clear that Schumer does not speak for the Biden administration. But just hours after Schumer's remarks, the State Department announced new sanctions against two outposts in the West Bank and three extremist Israeli settlers who've committed acts of violence against Palestinian civilians. It's Biden's second round of sanctions against settlers.

It is critical that Israel take additional action to stop settler violence and hold accountable those responsible for it, not just for the sake of the victims of this violence, but for Israel's own security and standing in the world.

More than 400 Palestinians, including over 100 children, have been killed in violence in the West Bank since the start of the war, according to the United Nations. As one senior administration official told "Politico," the change in tone from the United States is intentional, but America's core positions have not changed. The top priorities remain defeating Hamas and getting the hostages home safely.

Let's turn now to Boeing. It's been another tumultuous week for the planemaker. Last weekend, a Boeing whistleblower was found dead. A local county coroner say the former employee, John Barnett, appears to have died by suicide. He worked at Boeing for more than 30 years and was in the middle of a legal dispute with his former employer. And his death puts renewed focus on safety concerns at the company, sometimes raised by employees themselves.

He raised concerns about metal shaving, so stuff that's left over after work is done, being left on the planes. This is a well-known problem in aviation called foreign object debris.

Barnett warned that these shavings could have catastrophic results if they penetrated wiring. He also uncovered problems with emergency oxygen systems, among other things. Boeing denied these claims, but in 2017, the FAA reviewed and upheld some of Barnett's concerns and required Boeing to make changes. That same year, Barnett retired, citing health concerns and concerns that the company might fire him if he didn't leave voluntarily.

It just seems like there is this kind of constant drumbeat of bad news for Boeing.

There are ongoing investigations from multiple branches of government into the Alaska Airlines flight from January. That's when a panel of a Boeing plane blew out mid-flight, ripping a hole in the cabin and leaving passengers exposed. The FAA gave Boeing 90 days to fix quality control issues. The Justice Department is investigating. And this week, the chief investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board said the agency still does not know who worked on that panel.

The company doesn't really have the benefit of the doubt from anybody at the moment and so something goes wrong on a Boeing plane and it is attracting much more attention than it otherwise might.

You may be familiar with the political propaganda idea that the bigger lie, the more likely people will believe it. This idea was first articulated by Adolf Hitler in 1925. He actually coined the term "big lie" in his autobiographical manifesto, "Mein Kampf."

And he said, everybody tells white lies from time to time.

You might tell somebody that they look good tonight or, you know, they're saying things out of a place of kindness or courtesy.

That's Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney and a legal analyst for "NBC" and "MSNBC."

But what Hitler wrote is it would never occur to most people to have

the audacity to lie about something of great significance. And so they project onto others that same moral limit that who would do that? Nobody would lie about that. And so for the person who is willing to cross that moral line and lie about things that are very significant, it has the unlikely result of being more believable than a little white lie.

McQuade is also the author of the new book, "Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America." And she's our guest this week on "Apple News In Conversation." Guest host, Brian Stelter, who's filling in for Shumita while she's on maternity leave, talked with McQuade about the "big lie." And McQuade explained, it's just one key tactic that we're seeing used today to spread false information, like the false notion that the 2020 election was stolen.

You can find "Apple News In Conversation" in the Apple Podcasts app. And if you're listening in the News app right now, that episode is coming up for you next. Have a great weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.