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Good morning! It's Tuesday, May 24th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news, and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
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Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Minnesota, and we're gonna focus in on the fifth state, Georgia. It's connected to so many important political stories with national implications. Trump's influence, false claims of a stolen election, and changing demographics that could determine future control of Congress and the White House.
First, the governor's race. Republican incumbent Brian Kemp faces Trump's candidate, David Perdue. Trump personally targeted Kemp after he certified Biden's win in the state. And the former president campaigned hard for Perdue, but Kemp proved himself to be a tough campaigner. Establishment Republicans stuck with him, including Trump's vice president Mike Pence, who campaigned with him yesterday. "Vox's" state politics reporter Nicole Narea explains that Kemp used his power as a sitting governor to win over Trump supporters.
He's, you know, made election integrity a key priority of his in signing bills restricting voting. And that's sort of meant to placate the Trump base who might otherwise be skeptical of his move to certify the results of the 2020 election. But he's also, you know, embraced other Republican priorities, like supporting bills that would restrict the teaching of critical race theory in schools, give parents more control over school curriculums, and bar trans students from participating in school sports.
Polls show Kemp may score a big enough win to avoid a runoff. That would set up a rematch with Democrat Stacey Abrams for the governor's seat. She narrowly lost to Kemp in 2018. In the Senate race, Trump-backed candidate Herschel Walker is expected to win the primary. That means he'll take on Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock, whose win in 2020 helped clinch Democratic control of the Senate.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is also on the ballot today. Quick reminder, he was the one that we heard on a phone call where Trump pressured him to "find" votes after he lost in 2020. And while no secretary of state candidates who are pushing Trump's election lies have won so far, Narea told us things may be different in Georgia.
There's a Trump-backed challenger, Congressman Jody Hice, who said he wouldn't have certified the results of the 2020 election. And Raffensperger has outwardly criticized Trump and that's somewhat backfired. The way things look right now, Georgia could be a mixed bag for Trump-backed candidates. Political analysts are watching today's results in this key swing state to learn more about how the country is changing politically.
We're sort of witnessing a political shift in Georgia in real time. Georgia is now sort of a purple state. We're gearing up for a general election that's gonna be really contentious. Democrats are facing headwinds that remain pretty substantial, including inflation and an unpopular incumbent Democratic president. So those candidates are still gonna have their work cut out for them. And it'll be interesting to see how it plays out in November.
For more coverage of all of today's political action, including the Texas attorney general race involving George P. Bush that we've covered in the past, check out the Apple News app.
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The possible end of Roe v. Wade has roots in Mississippi. That state's law restricting abortion is technically what's before the Supreme Court. If the case goes as expected, there could be more women carrying pregnancies to term in the state. So "ProPublica" took a look at what maternal healthcare looks like in Mississippi. People on Medicaid there lose access to coverage two months after giving birth. Reporter Sarah Smith explains why that's so concerning.
Medicaid coverage after 60 days postpartum is important because 81% of postpartum costs are actually racked up after that 60-day window. Many other states, including those with strong abortion restrictions, either extend Medicaid to 12 months postpartum or they're in the process of doing so. That covers treatment for many potential issues.
This can be anything from mental health, if you have postpartum depression, to help breastfeeding. And once that's taken away, people lose access to that healthcare. Smith says the Supreme Court ruling could hit some people very hard. The three experts I spoke to said that this could possibly be disastrous for lower-income women because these are the women who are also less likely to have access to abortion care if that's what they want.
Mississippi is the highest poverty state in the nation, where 60% of births are covered by Medicaid. Efforts to extend coverage past 60 days postpartum have failed over and over in the state. "ProPublica" spoke to one reproductive healthcare advocate who says you can't have a conversation about abortion access without also talking about what's going wrong with maternal and infant healthcare. They're interconnected. And she's worried about what it means to be banning abortions while refusing to invest in health outcomes for moms.
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videogames rot your brain. Maybe you heard it from your parents. Maybe you've said it to your own kids. But the latest research shows not only is that wrong, gaming in moderation can be good for developing brains. "Wall Street Journal" Family and Tech columnist Julie Jargon breaks down the data.
A lot of parents are really worried that their kids play video games far too much, and that doing so will just turn them into kind of video game zombies. But what's really happening is that there's a lot going on in kids' brains when they're playing. Jargon told us about studies comparing non-gamers to avid gamers.
People who play video games do better on a lot of cognitive tasks, including tasks that involve short-term working memory. The gamers were better able to switch between visual tasks and pay attention to multiple moving objects. Now, this might sound surprising given all the talk about limiting screen time these days. But Jargon explains some important nuance.
There's a real difference between passive screen time, which is basically watching videos, such as those on TikTok. Those have been shown to be linked to shortened attention spans. But gaming is a really different type of category of screen time because it's very active, it's very social. Most kids now are playing online multiplayer games. So they're socializing with their friends, they're doing missions together, there's teamwork, and there's a lot of action going on. So they're not just sitting back passively watching a screen.
But when kids play videogames too much, those cognitive benefits go away. Jargon says the key for parents is paying attention to when gaming becomes disruptive. So it's not that it's a magic number of hours, but parents can usually detect these things going on with their children. And so, the real red flags to look out for is when gaming interferes with kids sleep, their physical activity, their nutrition, their grades, and if it's taking away from things that kids used to enjoy doing before.
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Do you remember this noise?
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That is the sweet, sweet sound of dialing into America Online. This month marks 25 years since AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM, was first launched. Now, depending on how old you are, that news either means nothing to you or you have fond memories of customizing the perfect away message. I am in that last category, the one that grew up with AIM. My screen name was GrapeGirl. It was based on my star turn playing "The Grapes" in our middle school play.
If you're up for a little nostalgia trip, "Smithsonian" magazine looks back at the origins of AOL Instant Messenger and how it laid the groundwork for a lot of the online communication that we do today, like using Slack at work, even the way we text friends. As this reporter points out, many messaging platforms use the structure that AIM popularized. Like did you know the patent for AOL's iconic Buddy List, you know, the list of contacts, that patent is now held by Facebook's parent company, Meta.
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In case this makes you want to dust off your old screen name, no, AIM is not around anymore. It shut down in 2017. But this piece argues it has lasting influence. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News+ partners. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
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