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--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, December 12th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, why medication shortages are so common in the United States, how rising temperatures are changing animal mating rituals, and remembering a renowned American soccer journalist.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But first, drone strikes by Russia plunged the Ukrainian city of Odessa into darkness over the weekend. More than one and a half million people in southern Ukraine were without power, heat and water.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yesterday, in President Volodymyr Zelensky's nightly video address, he said power had been restored for some. According to the translation on the president's official website, Zelensky said, restoration work continues in the south of the country. We are doing everything to restore the lights in Odessa. Russia is attacking Ukraine using Iranian-made drones.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal reports that seeing these drones on the battlefield is a sign that Russia has replenished its stock. Moscow had purchased hundreds of drones from Iran over the summer, using them to attack Ukrainian infrastructure and the front lines. But Ukraine quickly adapted, and within a few months, its air defense system managed to shoot the drones down.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, senior officials in the Biden administration say Russia and Iran have developed a full-fledged defense partnership, sharing weapons and military expertise. Officials warned that could include the creation of a joint production line for drones.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Russian President Vladimir Putin has long denied targeting civilians, but that changed last week. He admitted to targeting Ukraine's power infrastructure, and he said he would continue.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Odessa, energy officials say restoring full power to the city could take up to three months. And NBC reports that the outage has put pressure on the city's already strained health care system. Operations have been postponed. At times doctors have been forced to do surgeries by flashlight.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ukraine prime minister says citizens will need to continue to severely restrict their energy consumption through the winter.
--:-- Dylan Scott: Running out of medicine isn't just something that happens in low-income countries. This is an American problem, putting American patients' health and lives at risk. Drug shortages are just a structural flaw in the U.S. healthcare system.
--:-- Dylan Scott: That's why it seems like we're always running out of one drug or another. I was checking the numbers recently, and right now we have about 260 drugs that are currently experiencing a shortage.
--:-- Dylan Scott: These days, patients are having a harder time tracking down amoxicillin, Tamiflu, and Adderall. Historically, saline, morphine, and cancer drugs have also had shortages.
--:-- Dylan Scott: I was checking the numbers recently, and right now we have about 260 drugs that are currently experiencing a shortage. These days, patients are having a harder time tracking down amoxicillin, Tamiflu, and Adderall.
--:-- Dylan Scott: Historically, saline, morphine, and cancer drugs have also had shortages. Scott told us that medication shortages exist because of the limited supply chain of the pharmaceutical industry.
--:-- Dylan Scott: If machines break or ingredients are contaminated or missing, manufacturing can grind to a halt. A lot of drugs only have one or two suppliers. So if there's an issue, there's not a quick way to make up for it elsewhere.
--:-- Dylan Scott: The economic realities of the business tend to reinforce those problems. The drugs that tend to experience shortages are generic drugs that tend to be sold for very cheap.
--:-- Dylan Scott: And so for the companies that produce them, it doesn't really make a lot of business sense for them to invest money in, you know, improving and modernizing their manufacturing facilities or in producing some kind of excess supply of their product that might be available in the event of a shortage.
--:-- Dylan Scott: Scott walked us through how this can play out for patients, using the example of the shortage of Pitocin, which is a drug used to induce labor.
--:-- Dylan Scott: If somebody can't get an induction because their hospital doesn't have this pitocin available and there's not really a good substitute for it in terms of inducing labor, you know, they may be more likely to end up needing a C-section to have their baby delivered.
--:-- Dylan Scott: And, you know, C-sections are really invasive. They come with more complications. They come with a longer recovery time. And drug shortages can be deadly.
--:-- Dylan Scott: Research found higher death rates in septic shock patients who had to change drugs because of a shortage.
--:-- Dylan Scott: Without fixing sort of the very fundamentals of the prescription drug market this seems like a problem that's just going to happen again and again.
--:-- Dylan Scott: And we know already that drug shortages since 2011 are happening more often and they are lasting longer. So this is only becoming a more urgent issue.
--:-- Shamita Basu: To reduce these kinds of drug shortages, experts recommend trade agreements that would make importing and exporting easier. They also want pharma companies to be more transparent about manufacturing issues, which would make it easier to rate manufacturers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That way, healthcare providers could buy medicine from the most reliable sources and hopefully get enough of what they need.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When it comes to locking down a mate in the animal world, looks have always mattered. Which lion has the biggest, darkest mane? Which peacock has the flashiest feathers?
--:-- Shamita Basu: But as the planet gets hotter, the Washington Post reports that some species have been forced to change their looks and their mating habits in order to stay cool and survive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One example is male dragonflies. They have these colorful, Picasso-like designs on their wings. Yellow, brown, black, red. But those darker pigments also attract heat, as much as three and a half degrees.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And scientists say that's more than dragonflies can handle. So male dragonflies have been adapting, and researchers observe that in recent decades, their wings have gotten less colorful.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some females have been forced to change their mating habits, too. Scientists have observed females being less choosy about their partners, and in some cases, taking on multiple mates.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's all in the name of guaranteeing offspring. Researchers told the Post they're paying careful attention to how animals are adapting, whether they're doing it quickly, successfully.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These are all signs of how resilient the species will be in an increasingly warming world.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As one researcher put it, with higher temperatures, some creatures are putting everything into their mating because it feels like it might be their last chance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As one researcher put it, with higher temperatures, some creatures are putting everything into their mating because it feels like it might be their last chance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On Friday American soccer journalist Grant Wall died while covering the World Cup in Qatar. He was in the press box during the Netherlands quarterfinal match when he went into acute distress, according to his agent.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Wall was one of the rare American journalists who covered soccer, reaching back decades ago. And he dedicated his life to driving interest for the sport in the United States.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here's what host Rebecca Lowe had to say about him on a recent episode of our World Cup podcast, After the Whistle.
--:-- Rebecca Lowe: He has been the leader, there is no doubt, in American football, soccer journalism, and did more to spread the word about this beautiful game than probably anyone else over that period of time in this country.
--:-- Rebecca Lowe: Wall was deeply committed to justice in sports, whether it was investigating allegations of corruption in FIFA or writing about alleged human rights abuses in Qatar, including the deaths of thousands of migrants.
--:-- Rebecca Lowe: He was also outspoken about LGBTQ plus rights and was briefly detained in Qatar after he refused to remove a shirt with a rainbow circle around a soccer ball.
--:-- Rebecca Lowe: And Wall was a huge champion of women's soccer.
--:-- Brendan Hunt: He would rep MLS. He would rep NWSL, the Women's World Cup, of course.
--:-- Brendan Hunt: Among the many tributes that would come out, the women's soccer population in the States has been particularly ardent in their tributes.
--:-- Jesse Marsh: He always covered the game with a conscience. He tried to talk about the women's game as much as he talked about the men.
--:-- Jesse Marsh: He talked about the important topics like the fight for LGBTQ rights up until his death. He was aware that it's a global game and knew how important it is to treat it as such.
--:-- Jesse Marsh: He did it with a heart. He did it with integrity. He did it the right way.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For more on the life and legacy of Grant Wall, we'll link to an article in The Atlantic written by Franklin Foer, who calls Wall a generous journalist and a champion of the game.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the news app right now. Stick around. We've got a narrated article from Elle coming up next about a mother who stole her daughter's identity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So sit back, you can listen to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
