--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, March 20th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, Vice President Vance's unusual role in the TikTok talks, the big names to know in the NCAA tournament, and why a government webpage about Jackie Robinson was scrubbed and restored. But first, to the measles outbreak that has now infected more than 300 people across West Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
--:-- [Sound of a news theme]
--:-- Shamita Basu: Authorities in Texas are now saying the outbreak could take up to a year to contain. The outbreak is centered in Gaines County, on the border of Texas and New Mexico.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Texas health officials said Tuesday 279 cases have been identified since late January, and 36 people have been hospitalized. There has been one death in Texas, a six-year-old child, the first measles death in the country in a decade.
--:-- Tom Bartlett: I recently traveled to the town of Seminole in Gaines County to write about this for The Atlantic. It is way out in the desert. You pass through long stretches between towns where there isn't much other than oil pump jacks. And it's a small town. It's about 7,000 people in Seminole.
--:-- Tom Bartlett: There's a big Mennonite community there. The six-year-old who died was part of that community. I asked locals in the town if they knew the family who had lost their child. And after driving around a bit, I was pointed to a nondescript building that was a Mennonite church.
--:-- Tom Bartlett: That's where I met a man named Peter. He's a construction worker. He's 28 years old. He had five children, one of whom got measles and very tragically passed away.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bartlett says Peter's daughter had been sick for three weeks, and she was treated by doctors about an hour away at the closest hospital that could take serious cases.
--:-- Tom Bartlett: And according to Peter, they were sent home with cough medicine and told that she should recover at home. They later returned to the hospital and according to Peter, her condition just worsened. She was eventually put on a ventilator and passed away.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Peter's daughter was unvaccinated against measles. In Bartlett's reports, Peter himself also expressed doubts about the MMR vaccine, saying he considers getting measles a normal part of life and that he heard measles strengthens your immune system, which is not true.
--:-- Tom Bartlett: In fact, according to studies from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, measles not only weakens the immune system, it can even result in a complication called immune amnesia, where the body forgets how to protect itself against infections for several years, leaving children extremely vulnerable.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bartlett told us Peter knew why his town was in the news. He heard President Trump had been asked about the outbreak there, but Peter said he thought his community was being unfairly singled out.
--:-- Tom Bartlett: What he said and what others said is they felt as if we're not the only community that gets measles. Others have gotten it, there have been other outbreaks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I think it's good to note that there's nothing specifically in the Mennonite religion that forbids vaccination or modern medical care. And yet vaccination rates are low in this community.
--:-- Tom Bartlett: The official numbers in Gaines County show just 82 of kindergartners have had the MMR vaccine well below the 95 threshold required to maintain herd immunity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And most likely that number is inaccurate anyway because many kids in the Mennonite community there are homeschooled or in private schools that aren't required to collect data on vaccines.
--:-- Tom Bartlett: Bartlett said people there are also acutely aware of how political the conversation has become.
--:-- Tom Bartlett: I had some people express to me that this was because this is now sort of caught up in a political context because our current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy, has in the past been extremely skeptical of vaccines, including the MMR vaccine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And so I think some of them saw this as bound up in a political discussion that doesn't really have anything to do with us.
--:-- Tom Bartlett: For Peter and his family, this girl's death is a private tragedy. But Bartlett says the fact that she died of measles in 2025 is a signal that something has gone wrong in the nation's approach to public health.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is a disease we thought had been eliminated. It was a great public health victory. And so is this outbreak and is this tragic death a sign that we're moving away from the vaccines that really brought us to elimination?
--:-- Tom Bartlett: And have we kind of given up this important public health victory? Is that what this means? Is this sort of a sign of what's to come?
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I think that's kind of what everyone else is wrestling with.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's check in on a story we haven't talked about for a minute, TikTok, and who's going to own it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You might recall that last year, President Biden signed legislation requiring the Chinese owner of the app, ByteDance, to sell it to a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the United States.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Earlier this year, President Trump pushed back the deadline for that ban until April 5th.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In recent days, Vice President Vance told NBC News that he thinks a deal could be in place by that deadline.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Vance has now taken on a direct role in that deal.
--:-- Don Chmielski: I'm a U.S. correspondent for Reuters. J.D. Vance has been placed in the role of effectively investment banker to sort of entertain offers for U.S. buyers to take over this asset.
--:-- Don Chmielski: And he and his staff have been providing direction to bidders, you know, making suggestions about how to adjust the offer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So this is an incredibly unusual role, though, for the White House to play.
--:-- Don Chmielski: While unusual, it's not entirely unprecedented for the White House to get involved in the dealings of publicly traded companies.
--:-- Don Chmielski: Schmielewski cited some other examples. The government intervened in Nippon Steel's attempts to take over U.S. Steel, and it was an intervention to protect a crucial U.S. asset.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So that's the role the government can typically take.
--:-- Don Chmielski: It also typically intervenes when there's a monopoly and the government needs to play a role to ensure that consumers are protected against predatory practices.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Brokering a sale of an app is apart from that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The White House and members of Vance's team did not respond to Reuters' request for comment, and neither did TikTok.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As for Trump's role in all of this, Trump is the one who kicked off the initial bid to ban TikTok during his first term back in 2020.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But he has since reversed his position.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And more recently, he said he has a warm spot for the app because, as he put it, it helped him win more younger voters in the most recent election.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He also has said that the U could take a sizable stake in the company You take 50 of TikTok for the approval that TikTok can continue in business And they have a great partner The U would be their partner But the U.S. essentially would be paid for doing that half of the value of TikTok.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are many people reportedly in the mix to make an offer for TikTok.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One group of interested investors includes Frank McCourt, a former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and Canadian investor Kevin O'Leary.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Jimmy Donaldson, the social media star who goes by Mr. Beast, is also in talks to potentially join that group.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Beyond that, it's hard to know what sort of deal could or will emerge.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Chmielski says it is clear that this means a lot to the White House.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This high-level, unusual involvement by the office of the vice president and, indeed, the president, really underscores how critical the administration considers this issue in preserving TikTok, an app that's broadly popular here in the U.S.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to college basketball, where the NCAA tournament starts today for the men, tomorrow for the women.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And in these first few days of play, there are a dizzying number of games to follow.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So to help orient you before the madness begins, we asked Justin Williams, senior writer with The Athletic, to tell us about some of the big names to watch on the men's side.
--:-- Justin Williams: I think the biggest name people have to know is Cooper Flagg.
--:-- Justin Williams: He's the star freshman for Duke. That really has been in the consciousness of basketball fans for a few years, even as a high schooler.
--:-- Justin Williams: Probably going to be player of the year for college basketball this year. Probably going to be the number one overall pick in the next NBA draft.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But one big question is how Flagg will perform.
--:-- Justin Williams: He injured his ankle in the ACC tournament last week.
--:-- Justin Williams: But all signs point that he's going to be healthy and able to play.
--:-- Justin Williams: And if he is and if he plays to the capability that he's shown this year, Duke's definitely going to be in that conversation for a national championship.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When it comes to coaches, Williams says pay attention to Michigan State.
--:-- Justin Williams: They're a number two seed led by head coach Tom Izzo.
--:-- Justin Williams: No Big Ten team has won a national title in the men's tournament since Izzo and the Spartans back in 2000.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But really, this Michigan State team kind of came out of nowhere, won the Big Ten in the regular season.
--:-- Justin Williams: And I think it'd be pretty fascinating if Michigan State could go on this run.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I don't know that we're at the end of Tom Izzo's career, but we're certainly in kind of the winter, the later stages of his career.
--:-- Justin Williams: And this might be the best chance he's had in a while to get another national championship for himself and also for the Big Ten.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As for the women's tournament, athletic staff writer Sabrina Merchant says there are two players to keep an eye on.
--:-- Sabrina Merchant: Juju Watkins, a sophomore at USC, and Paige Beckers, a senior at UConn.
--:-- Sabrina Merchant: They were both National Player of the Year candidates.
--:-- Sabrina Merchant: They both lead teams that have a chance to win a national title.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And of course, they are once again on a collision course for the Elite Eight this season, unfortunately, as opposed to a potential Final Four matchup.
--:-- Sabrina Merchant: UConn is a No. 2 seed. USC is a No. 1 seed, though it was the last team to get that ranking, which USC head coach Lindsey Gottlieb was not happy about on Selection Sunday.
--:-- Sabrina Merchant: Lindsay Gottlieb honestly had like the pace of a boxer, like getting ready for a fight as she was discussing her grievances with this particular decision essentially pointing out that if UCLA a deserved number one overall seed was to earn that title then USC a team that beat UCLA twice during the course of the regular season should be higher than the fourth number one seed
--:-- Shamita Basu: I think it's a perfectly reasonable argument, but one of the reasons I believe Lindsey Gottlieb was upset is because it sets her up on a path to once again play UConn, which is far and away, I would say, the best number two seed of the crop.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For all the latest tournament updates, check out the March Madness hubs on Apple News, and you can get live scores super fast on the lock screen of your iPhone.
--:-- Shamita Basu: By downloading the Apple Sports app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A North Dakota jury ruled against Greenpeace in a case over its role in the 2016 and 2017 protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The company behind the pipeline, Energy Transfer, sued Greenpeace, claiming the environmental group used a, quote, misinformation campaign, which incited people to protest.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Guardian reports that the jury, half of whom have ties to the fossil fuel industry, agreed with energy transfer and ordered Greenpeace to pay more than $600 million in fines.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Greenpeace, which has denied the claims, has said a large penalty could bankrupt the organization.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It also says it will appeal the decision.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In economic news, the Federal Reserve says it is holding interest rates steady, as Trump's tariff policies create uncertainty around the economic outlook.
--:-- Shamita Basu: CNBC reports, despite inflation easing slightly last month, the escalating trade wars could raise prices for consumer goods.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Fed is expected to cut rates two more times this year, but the rate at which it expects the economy to grow is slightly lower than forecasted in December.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Inflation for the year is also expected to end higher than previously thought.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the Defense Department deleted and then restored content from its website that highlights Jackie Robinson's military service.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The scrubbing of the content comes after a memo from the Pentagon that calls for removing any content that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Robinson, who is best known for breaking baseball's color barrier, was drafted into military service in 1942, but was court-martialed after he refused to sit at the back of an army bus because of the color of his skin.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He was later acquitted and eventually honorably discharged.
--:-- Shamita Basu: After multiple news outlets highlighted the disappearance of the Robinson webpage, a DOD official told ABC News that it was mistakenly removed and has since been restored.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This incident follows the removal of a slew of other content across government websites, including a page that celebrated one of the Marines, who was famously pictured raising the American flag at Iwo Jima in 1945.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It started off as a specialty Korean market, but now H-Mart is a beloved billion-dollar empire.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bloomberg Businessweek examines how it got so popular.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Thank you.
