--:-- Shumita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, June 20th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shumita Basu: On today's show, why cancer drugs are in short supply, Gen Z is going public about plastic surgery, and how astronomers are fighting photobombers in outer space. But first, let's take a look at some major stories in the news.
--:-- Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger: A search is underway in the Atlantic for an underwater tourist vessel that was visiting the Titanic wreckage. Five people were on board when the submersible went missing. It launched Sunday morning with only a four-day oxygen supply.
--:-- Shumita Basu: The Royal Canadian Air Force is helping the U.S. Coast Guard in the search, which includes planes and boats. The submersible was sent by Ocean Gate Expeditions, which charges a quarter million dollars to see the Titanic wreckage up close.
--:-- Shumita Basu: On land in the U.S., powerful tornadoes, extreme heat, and other severe weather are hitting states in the South and the Plains. At times, people have had to endure the heat without power to run air conditioning or fans. High winds downed power poles and wires over the weekend, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana without electricity.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And Secretary of State Antony Blinken is coming off a busy series of top-level talks in China, including a meeting with Xi Jinping. Blinken says the conversations were candid.
--:-- Antony Blinken: I'd like to see China do more to end Russia's war against Ukraine. If China can play a constructive role in when the time is right finding a just and durable peace in Ukraine and ending the Russian aggression that would be a good thing. And we've applauded some parts of the peace principles that they put out, very consistent with our own, particularly when it comes to protecting Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Cancer patients are increasingly facing a problem. Some crucial drugs used in treatments are in dangerously short supply. And experts say it may be months before the issue is fixed.
--:-- Shumita Basu: NPR explains how the economics of the generic drug system drives this. Manufacturers are under constant pressure to keep costs low. Thin profit margins can make it hard to stay in business. And sometimes companies cut dangerous corners.
--:-- FDA Inspector: FDA inspectors recently found major safety and quality violations at an overseas plant that made about half of key cancer drugs in the U.S. It's shut down, and it's not clear whether another company will pick up the slack.
--:-- Dr. Kevin Shulman: I mean, we save hundreds of billions of dollars a year using generic drugs rather than brand name drugs, but we only save that money if the drugs are available. Doctors and patients now confront difficult choices when they can't get preferred drugs.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Denver oncologist Dr. Jennifer Rubat told NPR she's struggling with this.
--:-- Dr. Jennifer Rubat: When I was faced with this drug substitution for a young woman with young kids, I did cry because if her cancer comes back, I am always going to question if it was because I had to give her a substitute.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Last month, the Society for Gynecologic Oncology issued new guidance on how to deal with drug shortages. It recommends using minimum doses stretching time between treatments. It even says doctors should scrape droplets from multiple vials to make every last bit of this now scarce resource last as long as possible.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Plastic surgery has often been the kind of thing that people didn't really talk about, whether it's celebrities or regular people. But the Washington Post looks at how something different is happening with Gen Z.
--:-- Madeline Agler: If you scroll TikTok, you see young people not only admitting to having work done, they're documenting their procedures in detail.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Madeline Agler at the Post told us how social media and even pandemic video conferencing may be driving demand for more plastic surgery among young people.
--:-- Madeline Agler: They're constantly looking at themselves on the computer and videos. And when you're looking at yourselves all the time, you're noticing little imperfections. You're noticing a little extra bit of skin here or, you know, asymmetry here.
--:-- Shumita Basu: People under 30 are a minority of plastic surgery patients. But doctors told her there's been a big jump in recent years. According to plastic surgeons Agler spoke to, Gen Z is getting cosmetic work done younger than previous generations.
--:-- Madeline Agler: And they often come in knowing exactly what they want, having seen influencers' videos about certain procedures. That's a big surprise to surgeons, who say older patients typically turn to them for recommendations.
--:-- Plastic Surgeon: What they've noticed is that younger patients coming in, patients who are under 30, tend to be really comfortable with risky procedures. The plastic surgeon said that they've noticed that a lot of younger patients don't seem to have a lot of fear around plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures, in part because these TikToks and Instagrams make it look so easy.
--:-- Madeline Agler: And so if we're making these procedures look easy in sort of a 30-second TikTok, that can be a little bit dangerous sometimes.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Agler was wrestling with the contradictions in this mainstreaming of plastic surgery. In many ways it cuts against something that Gen Z has embraced body positivity.
--:-- Madeline Agler: They had Instagram filters Snapchat filters reality TV all of these outside forces that are like yeah I love your body but also what if you looked completely different? What if your nose was smaller? What if you had bigger lips?
--:-- Shumita Basu: And I think it's challenging to navigate those two things of like, accept yourself, but also maybe change yourself completely.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Photobombing in outer space. It's a thing. All of our fancy space cameras keep snapping these images where satellites end up blocking the view.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And the stakes of a photobomb are much higher in the cosmos than here on Earth. Wired magazine explains why scientists looking through telescopes hate it so much when satellites get in the way.
--:-- Shumita Basu: It messes up their ability to clearly see the planets and stars they need to study, making their work tougher. And this problem is getting worse.
--:-- Shumita Basu: Over the last two decades, Wired reports that the number of satellite photobombs have doubled. Astronomers do have a few ways to correct ruin shots, including software that can track satellite trails and digitally remove them, kind of like Photoshop.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And companies that make satellites are trying to help, too. One experiment involves covering satellites with a thin film to darken them so that they reflect less light. But that's a work in progress.
--:-- Shumita Basu: If you want to really nerd out and see what a space photobomb looks like, you can check out the full Wired story in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shumita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around. We've got a narrated article coming up next from GQ about the Bronner family of Dr. Bronner's soaps.
--:-- Shumita Basu: You know, the one with all the text on the labels. It started out as a quirky family-run business. Today, it rakes in close to $200 million a year. And the families remained committed to sharing their counterculture beliefs.
--:-- Shumita Basu: So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
