On today’s show: A verdict is imminent for dozens of men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot in France. Alexandra English, for Marie Claire, told us Pelicot’s story. President-elect Trump has pledged to relocate 100,000 federal jobs out of D.C. The last time he tried such a move, it didn’t go very well. The Washington Post’s Todd Frankel explains why. Lightly regulated home insurance is on the rise — quietly. Bloomberg’s Leslie Kaufman unpacks the trend. Plus, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez loses her bid for a big promotion, Trump sues the Des Moines Register, and one woman’s positive outlook after receiving a pig’s kidney as a transplant. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Wednesday, December 18th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, why Trump wants to move 100,000 federal jobs out of D.C., how climate change is affecting home insurance across the country, and how scientists successfully transplanted a kidney from a pig to a human. But first, to a trial in France the world has been following in horror for months.
And a warning, the segment has descriptions of sexual abuse. Any day now, judges will hand down verdicts for dozens of men accused of raping Gisele Pelico. She stunned the world by rejecting her right to anonymity and demanding a public trial for her now ex-husband Dominique and at least 50 other people allegedly involved.
She said she wants to show the world that survivors shouldn't be ashamed of abuse. Police say Pelico's ex-husband, over the course of about a decade, repeatedly invited men to their home to rape her after he drugged her with sleeping pills, leaving her unconscious. He arranged the abuse in chat rooms with men between the ages of 26 and 74 from all walks of life.
Police identified dozens of suspects from footage of the abuse her husband collected, but authorities believe more than 70 men were involved. Authorities started looking into the husband after he was caught filming up women's skirts in public. It was only until that incident was investigated that Pelico came to learn what happened to her. For years, she had been confused about strange symptoms.
Losing her hair, losing weight, losing her memories. She says entire days would just disappear. She thought she might have Alzheimer's. Here is some of her testimony, translated by the BBC, about the day police notified her.
It was hard to recognize myself. Then the officer showed me a second photo and a third. My world fell apart. I'm speaking now not for myself, but for all the women who are drugged and abused.
Pelko has received apologies from some of the defendants, including her ex-husband, who confessed to everything. Others say they're innocent. If convicted, these men face sentences ranging from 4 to 20 years in prison. To understand where the case could go next, it's important to know how France defines consent.
Consent is really a contested gray area in France. The French law defines rape as an act of sexual penetration committed by violence, coercion, threat, or surprise. And so Giselle's case falls into that surprise category.
That's Alex English with Marie Claire. She told us during the trial, some of the defendants made the argument that they were told she had consented.
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