--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, March 6th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, how a major new agreement could transform the high seas, why this could be Formula One racing's most American season yet, and how a trip to Walmart led to a surprising scientific discovery. But first, a look at the key battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
--:-- Philip Ingram: This is standard Russian tactics of destroy the place with artillery and then flood it with unprotected infantry to try and get forward.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Former British military intelligence officer Philip Ingram talked to Sky News about the battlefield.
--:-- Philip Ingram: Ukrainians are responding with their artillery, their armor and elsewhere, and that's why so many Russians are getting killed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal looks at who those unprotected Russian infantry are and explains what the fight for Bakhmut tells us about where the war may be going.
--:-- [Audio clip of The Wall Street Journal plays]
--:-- Shamita Basu: The attackers are from the Wagner Group, a mercenary force with old ties to Putin. We've talked about them before on the show.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Many are former Russian prisoners, given temporary freedom if they agree to help fight Putin's war. The deal that they make is a stark one. For those who survive, amnesty after six months of fighting. For those who disobey, execution.
--:-- [Audio clip of The Wall Street Journal plays]
--:-- Shamita Basu: The journal spoke to a Ukrainian soldier as he surveyed the scene just northwest of Bakhmut using a drone. The camera showed trenches full of Russian corpses. He could see three men trying to get closer. They had no body armor on. They were quickly killed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One captured Wagner fighter said he got little training beyond one skill - how to crawl forward.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The limited training and lack of equipment is a sign that these men aren't expected to live long but that seems to be part of Russia's strategy - a willingness to send prisoners on effectively suicide missions in an attempt to grind down Ukrainian forces.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The journal describes it as a disregard for losses that is shocking for modern warfare.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The concern in Bakhmut is that Russian forces are on the verge of capturing the city. And if Ukraine loses too many troops and resources defending that ground, that could make it harder to launch a counteroffensive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Right now, the ground is soft and muddy. But in the spring, the ground will harden and make it possible to advance faster.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some strategists say that Ukraine should pull out of Bakhmut and gather its forces to prepare for a spring offensive. If that happens, it would be Ukraine's first significant retreat since last summer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One commander tells the journal that it's like fighting a zombie war. He says a Wagner fighter doesn't have an option to pull back. Their only chance of survival is to keep moving ahead.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A new deal on protecting ocean life in international waters is being hailed as a landmark agreement.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Talks on this stalled for years, but over the weekend, diplomats agreed on language at the United Nations headquarters.
--:-- Shamita Basu: UN Biodiversity Conference President Reena Lee announced the agreement after marathon negotiations.
--:-- Reena Lee: The ship has reached the shore. The treaty will protect the high seas, which refers to the waters beyond national boundaries, typically 200 nautical miles from shore.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That accounts for about two-thirds of the Earth's ocean surface. But barely 1% of these areas are environmentally protected.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So, without an agreement in place, it's always been a bit of a free-for-all.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Threats to wildlife in international waters have grown over the years. Increased global trade means more giant ships pass through the waters, potentially hitting whales and other creatures.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And there's more investment into deep mining, which creates new dangers as more industrial companies prepare to dig into the seafloor.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It probably takes another few years for UN member states to formally adopt the treaty, but if they do, this deal will allow them to start establishing marine protection areas in international waters.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's a first, and environmental activists say it could have real impact on preserving biodiversity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The first race of the Formula One season happened this weekend in Bahrain. And Formula One in 2023 is go!
--:-- Shamita Basu: Formula One is big around the world, but U.S. motorsports fans have long preferred Indy or NASCAR racing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Athletic looks at reasons why this year might be a breakthrough year for F1 in America.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's an American driver, Logan Sargent, who is a rising star. There will be three races held in the U.S. for the first time in decades.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Plus, the Netflix series Drive to Survive is being credited with getting new fans into Formula One.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Defending champion Max Verstappen, who drives for the Red Bull team, won the Bahrain Grand Prix yesterday.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It wasn't a small win either. He crossed the finish line a whopping 12 seconds ahead of anyone else, which might as well be an eternity in the sport.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Red Bull is the team to beat. But Apple News Sports editor Shaker Saman says a big question of the season is whether they'll hold on to that dominance.
--:-- Shaker Saman: It's one thing to start the season fast. It's another to stay fast.
--:-- Shaker Saman: There's a real chance that we have four teams and as many as seven drivers. The legitimate chance of winning races, competing for podiums, and in the right circumstances, winning a championship.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And of course, in racing, a driver is only as good as their car. Crews are constantly making adjustments, looking for an edge.
--:-- Shaker Saman: The development war in Formula One is unlike anything else in any other sport.
--:-- Shaker Saman: You know, in basketball, a player can improve their jump shooting over the year, but it's not like from one weekend to the other, they can go from a really mediocre player to an all-star.
--:-- Shaker Saman: You can't flip the switch like that. Whereas in Formula One if a team brings an upgrade package in a couple of races, they could gain half a second a lap.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Formula One's next big race is in Saudi Arabia. The first event in the U.S. is the Miami Grand Prix in May.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Finally, a story of how a routine shopping trip to an Arkansas Walmart led to an exciting scientific discovery.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One that traces all the way back to the Jurassic era.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Back in 2012, a guy was going to pick up some milk, and just before he walks into Walmart, he sees this big winged insect on the side of the building.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It just so happens that this guy is an entomologist. He studies bugs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So, of course, he grabs the bug, he holds it with his fingers while doing his shopping, and after he gets home, the milk goes in the fridge, and the bug gets mounted to a board.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And as he says, he basically forgot about it for years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He's now the head of the Insect Identification Lab at Penn State and recently he was looking at this bug with some of his students and he realized he'd identified it all wrong.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It was a giant lacewing, a rare insect that was once common in the eastern part of North America, but it mysteriously disappeared.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is, apparently, the first one found in the area in more than half a century.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This scientist, who is still picking up weird bugs wherever he finds them, of course, says it's a reminder that even in run-of-the-mill situations, there are so many discoveries waiting to be made.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening to us in the News app right now, don't go anywhere. We've got a narrated article coming up next from Time magazine about health care in the U.S.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It looks at how patients are so fed up with long waits for appointments and paperwork that they're skipping out on care, and how that could make things even worse.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's queued up to play next, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
