Ebola Outbreak and Global News

Good morning With both sides still trading threats, Vice President JD Vance opens talks with Iran for permanent peace. If they are willing to give up nuclear weapons ambitions for the long term, then the United States is willing to fundamentally transform our relationship with that country President Trump's multimillion dollar reflecting pool turns green with algae The Washington Post explains why the renovation is attracting some tourists for all the wrong reasons and the international World Cup travelers finding joy in America's supermarkets and super sized food It's Monday, june twenty second. I'm Gidian Reesnik in Fhita Basu. This is Apple News today US and Iranian negotiators arrived in Switzerland to kick off further peace talks on Sunday, but they're already off to a shaky start Over the weekend, President Trump exchanged threats with Iran's Parliament speaker over clashes between Israel and Hezbollah Fighting has continued despite the signed deal pledging an end to war on all fronts Trump said that he would resume attacks on Iran if they failed to restrain Hezbollah while Iran suggested it was closing off the Strait of Hormuz again Vice President Vance is leading the talks in Europe and spoke to reporters yesterday We're all working towards regional peace. There, of course there are going to be sometimes disagreements about precisely how to get there. but I actually feel great about where we are in Lebanon. There's still some additional wood to chop, but we're going to keep on working at it BBC analysis of tracking data suggests tankers were still trickling through the strait But as the Wall Street Journal Jason Douglas told us, getting the vital waterway back to pre war conditions won't be as straightforward as the signign memorandum suggests. The Persian Gulf is clogged with vessels waiting to get out. they will need to figure out how to get those vessels out. You'll need to get new tankers in to start unloading new energy supplies and get those out. So All in all, this is a process that will probably take weeks, could even take months to kind of get things back to some semblance of normality again. But even once those practical challenges are overcome, Iran's initial decision to close the strait back in March could have permanent repercussions. Douglas told us the Iranian regime was following a pattern of countries exploiting geographical or financial chokepoints to put pressure on the global economy. Globalization brought us all closer together, and increased our linkages between our economies, but that also created vulnerabilities. And Douglas says, if countries impacted by the closure want to prevent Iran from leveraging it in future conflicts That will take a massive coordinated effort. The Gulf states realize that they were terribly dependent on Iran in a way that in retrospect must seem shocking to them. And they will certainly be investing many billions of dollars in trying to make sure this doesn't happen again That will require major investments in new pipelines, export routes, crude oil reserves, and more and it really requires a great deal of political will And those kind of things aren't always in abundant supply, if you like, right? You know, when the immediate crisis passasses the impetus to kind of fix some of these problems that we're exposed kind of fades. Still, now that countries better understand the risks of being so dependent on the strait. Douglas says it's unlikely the waterway ever sees the same level of traffic that it did before the war So these choke points, they do have a kind of diminishing value because as soon as your adversaries realize that you're going to use them, then they will look for alternatives. It certainly could be months before we see the straight of horm is operating at something like the capacity that it was before. But years, you know, certainly in terms of building alternative supply routes and trying to make sure that this pinch point can't be weaponized again in the way that it will. So I think it's unlikely that we'll ever get back to Something that looks like a hundred percent Upgrades to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool were meant to be a central pillar to Trump's DC beautification project. Instead, it's become a growing headache for the White House, as the water turns green with algae. The president's decision to drain the one hundred three year old pool and to paint the base what he called American flag bllue. costs roughly fourteen million dollars of taxpayer money moreore than seven times Trump's estimate But an algae bloom quickly blossomed and the paint has already started peeling off in chunks Maura Jud Kiss is a reporter for the Washington Post, and she's been following the project's ups and downs. So there are workers around the clock there who are killing and vacuuming up the algae and using tubes to drain it into drainage areas. So the pool is still quite green in some areas, but it is looking much better She told us that algae is not actually a new problem. Algae has actually been a problem in the reflecting pool for as long as anyone can remember. And this is something that one might expect from a large and shallow body of water. There was a big renovation in twenty twelve that cost more than thirty million dollars and it changed the source of the pool's water. But a massive algae bloom quickly followed that job too. And the problem really is that algae thrive on heat and sunlight and those are incredibly abundant in Washington in June As for the paint, one pool expert told Judkiss, The surface may not have been properly prepared to be painted, or groundwater may have seeped under the surface, leading to the peeling. Trump, meanwhile pointed the finger elsewhere. So the president posted on Truth Social that vandals quote took some form of knife or blade and put a two hundred fifty foot long gash into the pool and he alleged that they also poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the pool Judga says the post hasn't been able to corroborate those claims. One man was arrested on charges of destruction of government property for allegedly peeling paint off of the pool He was later identified as David Hearne, a three time U. S Olympic canoeist He denied vandalizing anything, instead he said he simply reached his hands in the water to touch peeling paint before being arrested The headlines about the pool do seem to have attracted some tourists, if not for the reasons the White House had hoped. It's a little bit of a stry sound effect where now people are actually going down there to look at the algae and look at the chipping paint because he has made such a thing of how this project was going to quote last one hundred years. It used to look like garbage, he said, and now it's beautiful It's become kind of a tourist attraction for the miseps in a way CNN and the Associated press spoke to people drawn to the scene We're spending money on makeup and upkeep when, you know, there's the homeless, you know situation in DC and people need food and you know, kids in school summer programs. there's money that that can be allocated for, but we're paying the full for fourteen million. They might be able to get it blue for the fourth of July, but it won't stay that way. I doubt it. I'm glad they're trying, but honestly I don't think you can fight Mother Nature. Last Thursday, the interior deepartment described the pool as crystal clear By the weekend, Trump had said they would likely need to drain the pool again, citing his vandalism allegations And according to New York Times, leaky and broken pipes have long been a problem and still need a dressing Trump has promised to replace thousands of feet of pipe. But so far, no details have been released about that work. It has been just over a month since an Ebola outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo There have been more than nine hundred confirmed cases and more than two hundred deaths And in recent days, the head of Africas CDC said that if transmission is not slowed, could become the worst outbreak on record That's in part because authorities are struggling to trace potentially infected people As African CDC's Director General Dr. John Kasea told Al Jazeera We are missing more than twenty six thousand people, and we don't know where they are And we don't know if they are contaminating other people. This is why we are worried about this the way that The earake is moving. The World Health Organization and other groups have scaled up their efforts But some journalists report that the outbreak is outpacing the response Emmt Livingstone is a reporter who explained to NPR why it's been so difficult to capture the scale of the spread. The government says seventy two percent of contacts are being traced, but aid workers are very skeptical of this figure. Some told me off the record that it's probably around forty percent What this means in simple terms is that the outbreak is out of control And of course, that means there's a risk of regional spread. Many people are not turning up to hospitals or health centers and are dying unnoticed Health responders just don't know where all the cases are. Last week, the US CDC said that it planned to make one hundred seven million dollars available to assist in the response Syah Madod is an infectious disease epidemiologist at Harvard She explained to CBS why funding remains a challenge. Only about ten percent of pledged donations have actually made it to the affected areas. It's not as if you're sending money and it's getting there right away. There's an entire process of once funding is shared and sent, then it goes through an entire process of distribution and actually being able to be used on the front lines. Health officials on the ground also say they're confronting challenges of misinformation and disbelief in the virus Bloomberg reports that TV and radio stations in the DRC in Uganda have started putting out public safety messaging, and volunteers are being trained to communicate with their neighbors to convey the seriousness of the virus The German public broadcaster, DW News spoke with a pastor who said that he survived the strain of Ebola. I am the first case So whenever others feel unwell, they always come back to ask me how I felt before going to the hospital. Some accept it, but others don't believe it. They claim I was paid off and didn't actually have the disease An official with the World Health Organization said recently that on a scale of zero to ten for where the response to the outbreak needs to be, she believed efforts are currently at three or four Here are a few other stories we're following today Europe is bracing for a severe heat wave this week, with temperatures nearing one hundred and four degrees on Sunday It's prompted nationwide warnings, travel disruption, and closed schools Rerters reports that the spike in temperatures is being driven by a mass of hot air moving north from the Sahara, fueled by a strong high pressure system known as the African anticyclone It was so hot in France that authorities restricted alcohol consumption at a major music festival to quote, preserve emergency and health carere services In India, more than two million aspiring medical students had to take one of the world's toughest entrance exams yesterday for a second time. It followed allegations that questions were leaked ahead of the first sitting back in May Students reportedly had to go through airport level security, be frisked, scanned, and made to pass through metal detectors on the way to their exams The social media app teelegram was even blocked, due in large part to various alleged exam fraud channels Young people in India face unemployment at a level of around fifteen percent, and exams like this have taken on even more importance as the pathway to government jobs and lower or no tuition university And finally, as international travelers are converging on the US for the World Cup, they are finding the divine in the mundane. rememarking on social media about free ice, refill stations, giant supermarkets, and of course, the beauty of ranch dressing. Some Japanese fans in Dallas were especially taken by the state's barbecue offerings and other food including this fan who spoke with a local ABC affiliate. expecting the lot of food like barbecues with burgers So that All things in txt are still until Happy to eat everything yes Beyond the cultural novelty of waffle houses or Walmarts, one expert told ABC News that research shows people remember people more than places. So the memory of a final score might fade in time, but a nicety extended by an American stranger could last a lifetime You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the newews app right now, stick around for the latest episode of Apple News in Cversation This week, ahead of America's two hundred fiftieth anniversary, guest host David Green sat down with professor and author Anna Harwell Chilenza to explore some of the music that' shaped American history From the Star Spangled Banner to Strange Fruit to Hamilton. I think we have to remember when it was written and why it was written. and Liman Mirnda wanted to say, we shouldn't just cancel the founding fathers because of their flaws as humans What's important about the founding fathers is not who they were as people But the ideaas that they set pen to paper. And we still are not yet you know the land of the free home of the great. But we're working towards that. If you're listening to the podcast app, follow Apple News in Conversation to find that episode, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.