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Gideon Resnick, Narrating: Good morning!
It's Monday, January 22nd.
I'm Gideon Resnick, in for Shumita Basu.
This is "Apple News Today."
On today's show, behind the scenes
of how former President Trump is dominating the primary.
New research about long COVID is offering hope to millions.
And Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer enters the record books.
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We'll start with the presidential campaign,
where another candidate is dropping out and endorsing
former President Donald Trump,
just ahead of tomorrow's New Hampshire primary.
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Ron DeSantis: While this campaign has ended, the mission continues.
Down here in Florida, we will continue to show the country how to lead.
Thank you and God bless.
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Resnick, Narrating: With Ron DeSantis out of the way, Nikki Haley is the last major candidate
to stand in the way of Trump getting the Republican nomination,
and it is an uphill battle.
Trump also recently got the endorsement of South Carolina Senator Tim Scott,
and polls show Trump with a wide lead in New Hampshire.
Molly Ball: The big story, the overriding story, the real takeaway
that actually matters for the election is Trump's dominance.
Resnick, Narrating: That's Molly Ball, senior political correspondent
for "The Wall Street Journal."
At the Iowa caucuses last week, Trump's margin of victory
set a new record, and he's got a huge lead in national polls of Republican voters.
So, how could it be possible that a man impeached twice
and now facing 91 criminal charges remains this popular?
Molly Ball: Normally, in politics, it's not a good thing
if you're under criminal indictment at all.
But he's been able to use that to really rally Republican voters around him
and convince them that he is being victimized
and increase voter sympathy for him on that basis.
Resnick, Narrating: The legal chaos around Trump
also obscures a very organized campaign underneath, Ball says.
Molly Ball: His campaign in 2024 looks very different.
It is run by seasoned and ruthless operatives
who have executed a very disciplined strategy.
Resnick, Narrating: They've worked to keep Trump largely out of the public eye
and out of events that could be damaging to him,
like the GOP debates.
Among Republican voters, for now, Trump's strategy appears to be working,
but it may not in the general election.
Molly Ball: He still is quite unpopular with the electorate overall.
He lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
He is facing an unprecedented onslaught from the legal system.
He's been thrown off the ballots in two states.
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So his candidacy has a lot of baggage,
a lot of reasons to consider him vulnerable.
Resnick, Narrating: Now let's take a quick look at some other major stories in the news.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is rejecting a Hamas proposal
that would release hostages in exchange for an end to the war in Gaza.
Hamas says this means there's, quote,
"no chance for the return of captive Israelis."
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Netanyahu is also repeating his stance
that he will not support a Palestinian state.
This comes after President Biden said that he's been speaking with Netanyahu
about ways there could be an independent Palestinian state.
Over the weekend,
Gaza's Health Ministry said the death toll there passed 25,000 people.
Elsewhere in the region, two Navy SEALs
who went missing in an operation in waters
off the coast of Somalia have been declared dead by the U.S. military.
This was during a mission to intercept Iranian-made weapons
bound for Houthi rebels in Yemen.
After ten days of searching,
the military is now focusing on recovering their remains.
To the U.S., where the FAA is recommending that airlines also inspect
an earlier generation of Boeing 737 planes.
It says airlines should check door plugs on 737-900ER jets.
That follows questions about bolts on the 737 MAX 9.
A nearly brand new Alaska Airlines jet had to make an emergency landing
after a large panel blew off, leaving a gaping hole.
And in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
inaugurated a controversial new Hindu temple today.
It's in the town of Ayodhya, on a site that once held a mosque.
It was destroyed more than three decades ago
by a mob of Hindu militants.
Critics say Modi has not done enough
to prevent Hindu violence against Muslims in India.
"NPR" spoke to Valay Singh, author of a history on Ayodhya.
The new temple is still under construction.
Singh explained that Modi's party was eager to open it
before the elections in the spring.
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Valay Singh: Opening this in January is critical
for them to go to elections with this feather in their cap.
So it's a very big, actually, launchpad for the elections.
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Resnick, Narrating: Modi is widely expected to win a third consecutive term.
Long COVID can be as devastating as cancer.
That's what a leading American epidemiologist,
Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, told Congress last week.
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Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly: The burden of long COVID,
the burden of disease and disability from long COVID,
when you measure it,
is on par with the burden of cancer and heart disease.
And even if people emerge unscathed after having the first infection,
they can still get long COVID after reinfection.
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Resnick, Narrating: He said at least 20 million people in the U.S.
are affected by long COVID.
Some have spent months, even years, suffering from debilitating symptoms,
including extreme fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, and more.
Doctors and patients testified before a Senate committee
last week to urge lawmakers to better fund COVID research.
They talked about their frustration trying to treat a condition
that they say the medical community doesn't fully understand.
Long COVID patient Angela Meriquez Vázquez testified about her struggle
to even be properly diagnosed.
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Angela Meriquez Vázquez: I had many clinical signs that something was wrong within weeks.
High markers for an autoimmune disease,
labs that showed my blood was severely clotted,
markers of an overactivated and exhausted immune system.
All were dismissed by doctors as anxiety, but now are being verified
by the decades-long overdue research
as clear evidence of infection-related pathology.
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Resnick, Narrating: On the same day as the hearing, a new study offered some clues.
Researchers found that long COVID patients
had immune systems that stayed active way longer than normal.
The immune system goes to work when you're sick, but if it stays
on high alert too long, it can start damaging healthy cells.
This could help explain the symptoms that people with long COVID feel.
Advocates hope the findings will help lead to better testing
and treatment for long COVID.
As Dr. Al-Aly told Congress, millions are suffering,
and there is a very long way to go to fix the problem.
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Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly: There are zero, zero approved medication for the treatment of long COVID.
So these people have nothing to really lean on for curative treatment.
Nothing. Zero.
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Zero FDA-approved medications for the treatment of long COVID.
This must change.
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Resnick, Narrating: Finally, Stanford women's basketball coach Tara VanDerveer
is now in the sports history books.
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Yesterday's win over Oregon State was her 1,203rd victory.
That puts her ahead of legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski
with the most wins in college basketball history.
After the game, VanDerveer paid tribute to women's basketball overall
and all the players that she's coached over the years.
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Tara VanDerveer: I'm so jealous because I never got to do what they get to do, but I'm able
to watch a little girl's dream play out through them.
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Resnick, Narrating: She's in her 45th year of coaching, with most of that time at Stanford.
Along the way, she's won three national titles
and been to 14 Final Fours.
Coaching at the highest level is a busy job,
but VanDerveer always finds time
to play bridge, including on the day of the game where she broke the record.
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She plays against her 96-year-old mom.
She told "USA TODAY," "Bridge is a lot like basketball."
"You've got to play the hand you're dealt."
"Sometimes you've got a lot of aces, and sometimes you don't."
You can find all these stories we talked about today
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 "Texas Monthly."
It's about a woman who spent decades regretting a choice she made
to convict a man of rape.
She thought he was innocent,
but felt pressured by other jurors to convict,
and spent years second-guessing the decision.
Then some 30 years later, she decided to do something about it.
If you're listening in the Podcasts app, you can follow Apple News+ Narrated
to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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