--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, August 23rd. I'm Shamita Basu. Duarte Geraldino is off. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them. More than 2,000 people have died in Haiti's 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Hundreds are still missing a week later.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We wanted to get an update from the ground, so we reached out to Jacqueline Charles, a reporter for the Miami Herald. She's reporting from Lake Key, one of the hardest-hit areas.
--:-- Jacqueline Charles: There's a lot of despair. There's a lot of here we go again. For a lot of people outside of Haiti, they remember the 2010 earthquake that nearly destroyed Port-au-Prince. That was an urban event. It was a 7.0 earthquake. This is 7.2, but it's dispersed. It's happening mostly in rural, remote areas.
--:-- Jacqueline Charles: So in one sense, there isn't a comparison because Port-au-Prince was so obviously and visually destroyed. But when you go here, we're talking about people who are farmers, who are fishers. They're the poorest of the poor. They were already feeling neglected. They lacked basic amenities, potable water, running water, electricity.
--:-- Jacqueline Charles: As people were being pulled out from under collapsed buildings, they needed medical care. But many couldn't afford to travel. And so they really haven't had the opportunity to go to the main hospitals, which are overrun in terms of individuals who need treatment.
--:-- Jacqueline Charles: And because they delay treatment, they are getting, you know, they have open wounds, they have infections. Charles was with a group of young doctors who responded to that need. Five doctors and one physical therapist, all in their 20s.
--:-- Jacqueline Charles: They pulled together some basic supplies and hopped on a public bus to travel to a badly hit area. But the trip was dangerous. It required them to enter territory controlled by violent gangs, risking kidnappings.
--:-- Jacqueline Charles: But they made it, and they quickly got to work. They've sort of started this clinic in the middle of a soccer field where they're treating people with injuries, open wounds, fractures, and they're also referring them to the tent behind them for mental care.
--:-- Jacqueline Charles: Charles says volunteer efforts like this say a lot about Haiti's character. So in a country where the majority of people are young where there is so much calamity so much hopelessness this was a story that really showed that there are young people here who really do believe in the future of this country and who believe in their ability to make a difference.
--:-- Jacqueline Charles: And for me, as somebody who's covered Haiti for years, it also made another statement. It was a statement that I've seen repeated over and over here, which is that Haitians did not sit around waiting for the international community to come to their aid.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We reached out to Jenny Splitter at Vox. She's covering how these farmers are trying new things to stay in business.
--:-- Jenny Splitter: As the plant-based industry grows, there are a number of different observers and actors in the industry that are trying to work on transitioning farmers and crop growers that are part of the meat industry into the plant-based industry.
--:-- Jenny Splitter: She told us many farmers who make their living in the meat industry aren't actually raising animals. They're growing the things that animals eat, like soy and corn. And some of those crops are used to make plant-based products.
--:-- Jenny Splitter: And Splitter explained there's an opportunity here for these farmers to transition to other crops, like peas and oats, which can be used in meat alternatives. It's risky because the market is still so new, but some farmers are giving it a shot.
--:-- Jenny Splitter: Like this farmer we spoke with, Steve Tucker, like he got fed up with that and he felt like, listen, I could start going to these smaller companies and say, OK, I have this many acres. What do you need me to grow?
--:-- Jenny Splitter: The surrounding farmers kind of drive by and say, like, what are you doing there? He says, well, those, you know, chickpeas might look weird to you, but guess what? I make more on them than any other crop I have.
--:-- Jenny Splitter: But it's no easy thing for farmers to just switch. Take chicken farmers who often take out huge loans to build the steel barns where they raise birds Some of those growers want to get out of the chicken growing business and they want to start growing something like hemp or mushrooms or hydroponic greens, kind of repurposing the sheds that they had for chicken in order to kind of go into business for themselves and come up with clients that could potentially pay them more than the chicken companies.
--:-- Jenny Splitter: And it's not just farmers who could be affected. This is also going to impact people who work in slaughterhouses. Separating meat from bones is hard and dangerous work. That's not an issue at factories that make plant-based foods. Those jobs can be safer. They're also easier to automate, which can mean fewer jobs on production lines.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Josephine Baker is getting a place in the Pantheon. The American dancer and wartime resistance fighter will be the first Black woman ever buried in the Hall of French Heroes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Her remains will be there alongside Victor Hugo, Voltaire, and others, mostly men. The Times of London explains French President Emmanuel Macron has sought to diversify the iconic mausoleum by choosing more women for the honor.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Baker was born in Missouri. She left America during a time of segregation. She said she couldn't stand staying in the country, and she became a global superstar in France during the Roaring Twenties.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Her skill as a dancer inspired other artists of the time, including Matisse, Picasso, and Calder. Those who campaigned to get Baker into the pantheon hailed not just her artistry, but her bravery as a freedom fighter.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When France was occupied by the Nazis, she used her stardom to gain access to elite spaces and gather intelligence about the enemy. After World War II, Charles de Gaulle presented her with two of France's highest military honors.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Through her life, she spoke out for civil rights, returning to America to stand with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She was at the March on Washington in 1963 In fact she took the stage before Dr King I Have a Dream speech She addressed the crowd wearing her French resistance uniform connecting her fight against racism with her fight against fascism.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Watch out for sea snakes. That is the warning that divers who explore coral reefs in Australia and New Guinea usually get. Sea snakes, for the uninitiated, are exactly what they sound like.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They are snakes that live underwater. They can get up to six and a half feet long. They swim really fast, and they're venomous. When they target humans, they coil around a diver's arm or leg and sink their teeth in.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It sounds pretty scary, but new research says these snakes might not mean any harm to humans. They're just really bad at flirting.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Gizmodo got in touch with one of the scientists who looked into this. He said it doesn't make sense for snakes to attack people unprovoked. Divers are too big to be food, and they don't pose a threat.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So he did an experiment. A fellow researcher, who I guess drew the short straw that day, went into the water and acted like snake bait. You know, for science.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He had dozens of run-ins with these snakes. But don't worry, he lived to collect the data and publish the research paper.
--:-- Shamita Basu: What they found was snakes approached him most during their mating season. And they made these really particular moves. They would flick their tongues, charge at him at high speed, coil around his flippers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Those are all textbook snake flirty moves. Now, it might sound odd that a large human diver could be mistaken for a hot snake. But the researchers say snakes can't really see too well underwater, which is why they're looking for love in the wrong places.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The study also says if you come across a sea snake, stay nice and still. Don't try to swim away really fast. That is apparently a courtship move. You might accidentally lead them on.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News Plus partners.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
