[INTRO MUSIC BEGINS]
Yasmeen Khan, Narrating: Good morning. It's Tuesday, January 30th.
I'm Yasmeen Khan, in for Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
Coming up, how conflict abroad
could impact America's economy and politics,
why tens of thousands of Black doctors disappeared from the U.S.,
and fans are strategizing how to get Taylor Swift
from her concert in Tokyo to the Super Bowl.
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
First, more on the drone attack
that killed three American Army reservists in Jordan.
U.S. officials say air defenses failed to stop it
because it was mistaken for an American drone
that was returning to base at the time.
The administration says it will retaliate for the strike,
which it blames on a militia linked to Iran.
It's not the only Iranian ally in the region
Americans have been dealing with.
The U.S. has also launched attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen.
This is in retaliation for repeated attacks on commercial ships
passing by Yemen to go through the Suez Canal.
The Houthis say they're protesting Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza.
Some ships have decided it's too dangerous,
and they've been taking massive detours,
going all the way around South Africa, adding thousands of miles to their routes.
Data shows the average global cost of shipping containers
has more than doubled in the past month.
"Politico"'s Meredith Lee Hill reports on how the Biden administration and allies
are concerned about potential political fallout here at home.
[START POLITICO ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Meredith Lee Hill: Lawmakers, especially Democratic lawmakers,
some of them themselves in tough races this fall,
are hugely worried about the kinds of consequences
that a larger conflict in the Middle East could have,
both immediately militarily but also the economic fallout
that would ripple through global trade and also eventually for U.S. voters.
[END POLITICO ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Khan, Narrating: It's hard to overstate how important the Suez Canal is.
It accounts for up to 15% of global trade.
And when that's choked off and ships have to reroute, shipping costs go up.
And eventually, these costs can get passed along to consumers
in the form of higher prices for food and other goods.
This comes at a time when there are many positive signs in the economy.
Inflation in the U.S. has moderated, economic growth is solid,
and last month, consumer sentiment was up 13%.
Democrats worry about losing all these gains.
[START POLITICO ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Hill: These increasing attacks,
it's hitting really just at the worst time for Democrats in particular,
because they are trying to show progress with the economy.
And these recent attacks
only threaten to serve as one more disruption to global trade
after supply chains have really worked themselves out a little bit
in recent months since the pandemic.
[END POLITICO ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Khan, Narrating: The White House is concerned that the incidents could disrupt
everything from energy prices to the cost of groceries.
[START POLITICO ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Hill: Prices, both for the insurance and for the shipping itself,
has shot up dramatically as a result of this.
There is an immediate impact
just to the flow of goods getting through this region.
Fleets have had to essentially reroute major global shipping routes,
which is hugely disruptive,
both in the region and also to the United States.
[END POLITICO ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Khan, Narrating: And Houthi attacks could go on for a long time.
Despite a series of extensive air assaults by the U.S. and allies,
and a larger naval presence,
[AMBIENT MUSIC FADES IN]
Houthis continue to target commercial ships.
Now, let's take a quick look at some other stories in the news.
Global aid groups are calling for the U.S. and other countries
to restore funding to the U.N. agency working in Gaza.
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
Multiple countries cut off money
after Israel accused some of the aid group's workers
of taking part in the October 7th attack by Hamas.
The U.N. has fired several of the accused and is investigating.
Aid agencies, including Oxfam and Save the Children,
say moves by the U.S., the U.K., Germany and others
to halt payments are a, quote, "reckless decision to cut a lifeline."
The U.N. says the agency may have to stop humanitarian operations in Gaza
in a few weeks if funding isn't restored.
In sports, the U.S. figure skating team
is set to receive gold medals from the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.
This follows the suspension and disqualification
of Russian skater Kamila Valieva yesterday.
Russian skaters placed first in the competition,
but awarding of medals was on hold
because Valieva tested positive for a banned substance.
Bill Bach, former general counsel for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency,
told "CBC News" it was a travesty that it took so long to resolve the case.
[START CBC NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Bill Bach: We need to feel sympathy, however, for a generation of clean athletes
who have been repeatedly defrauded, and for Kamila Valieva,
a 15-year-old pawn in an evil, dystopian system.
[END CBC NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Khan, Narrating: The Russian skaters could still get bronze medals.
New numbers from the International Skating Union
put the Russians just ahead of the Canadians
after stripping out points earned by Valieva.
That opens up a potential legal challenge by Canada,
which could drag the process out even longer.
Toyota is warning drivers of 50,000 cars
to get immediate repairs because an airbag inflator could explode.
The advisory covers some 2003-2004 Corolla and Corolla Matrix models.
It also covers the 2004-2005 RAV4 with Takata airbag inflators.
The inflators have been linked to more than two dozen deaths in the U.S.,
plus hundreds of injuries.
And in Pakistan, former Prime Minister Imran Khan
has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets.
This comes ahead of parliamentary elections next month.
Khan has said that Pakistan's government and army
[GENTLE MUSIC FADES IN]
conspired to remove him from power
and that his arrest was politically motivated.
America is likely missing tens of thousands of Black doctors,
maybe 35,000 of them.
It's the unfortunate consequence of a little-known document
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
that changed the trajectory of medicine in the U.S.
[START ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Dr. Uché Blackstock: The legacy of the Flexner Report
is that it resulted in a tremendous loss of Black physicians.
Many people don't know about the Flexner Report.
It was something that I only learned about as a practicing physician,
but it has had tremendously negative consequences
on the health of our communities.
[END ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Khan, Narrating: That's emergency physician Dr. Uché Blackstock.
She recently wrote an essay in "The Washington Post."
It's adapted from her new book,
"Legacy, A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine."
Dr. Blackstock explains that in the early 1900s,
a man named Abraham Flexner visited medical schools in the US
to assess the state of education.
He published a report
that set new standards for med schools across the country,
holding up Johns Hopkins as the standard-bearer.
The problem was Flexner held what Dr. Blackstock calls
"strongly racist opinions."
He believed Black students should only be trained in hygiene
rather than in surgery, and that Black students should learn
to protect White people from common diseases.
The standards he outlined were virtually impossible for smaller,
under-resourced Black medical schools to implement.
As a result,
five of the seven Black medical schools in the U.S. shut down.
That meant many qualified Black students never got the chance to study medicine.
[START ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Blackstock: It's a tremendous loss in terms of just Black physicians,
and it contributes to the lack of diversity we have today
in Black physicians.
But those are also thinking about hundreds of thousands
of Black patients that could have been treated,
students that could have been mentored, and areas of research
that could have been invested in had those Black physicians been trained.
[END ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Khan, Narrating: She says less than 6% of American physicians
identify as Black,
though Black people make up nearly 14% of the population.
And she says with fewer Black doctors, it's not surprising
that there are severe health disparities for Black Americans,
everything from higher infant and maternal mortality rates
to Black men having the shortest life expectancy
of any demographic group.
[START ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Blackstock: We know that when Black patients have Black physicians,
they are more likely to leave that interaction feeling full, seen,
heard, and appreciated.
They are also more likely to follow their doctor's recommendations.
We even had studies that show that even just having
one primary care physician who's Black in a county
can improve life expectancies for Black people living in that county.
[LAID-BACK MUSIC FADES IN]
[END ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Khan, Narrating: Finally, now that the Super Bowl matchup
is set between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers,
the nation has turned to a more vexing question:
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
How will Taylor Swift make it to the big game
to cheer on Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce?
Here's the issue.
With her international Eras tour starting up again,
the NFL's most famous girlfriend will be performing in Tokyo
the day before the Super Bowl, which is taking place in Las Vegas.
Whether you are a Swiftie
or someone who just loves gaming out travel logistics with supreme efficiency,
this is the math problem for you.
It involves reviewing flight plans
and exploring the wonder that is the international dateline.
Fans have been crunching numbers
and posting videos to TikTok, like this guy.
[START TIKTOK ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Kyle Philippi: Her last concert is February 10th at 6 p.m. Tokyo time.
[END TIKTOK ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Khan, Narrating: Kyle Philippi there with a video on a travel itinerary
that will get Swift to the game
and guarantee the moment from many fans' wildest dreams.
[START TIKTOK ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Philippi: Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to see that kiss at the end of the Super Bowl.
[END TIKTOK ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Khan, Narrating: "The Athletic" took a stab at a plan too.
Assuming that Swift wraps up her concert around 9.30 p.m. Tokyo time,
she could land in Las Vegas at around 4 p.m. the very same day.
The extreme time difference works in her favor.
But one account manager of a private jet company
told "The Athletic" there's a little hitch in this possible plan.
[OUTRO MUSIC FADES IN]
Landing slots in Las Vegas are booked up during Super Bowl weekend.
But of course, if anyone can find a blank space at an airport
at the last minute, it's Taylor Swift.
You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
And we want to introduce you
to the Apple News Pick for Story of the Month.
Every month, our editors are selecting
a News+ article that they don't want you to miss.
This one is from "Rolling Stone."
It's the story of how one FBI agent went undercover for decades
to take down human traffickers.
If you're already listening in the News app right now,
that's queued up to play for you next.
If you're listening in the Podcasts app,
follow Apple News+ Narrated to find that story.
And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
[MUSIC FADES OUT]