--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, January 28th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Donald Trump: [Audio clip of Trump speaking] is not included in the transcript, but it is mentioned as a key part of the story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, what Palestinians are finding as they return to Gaza, how New York, a city of immigrants, is preparing for Trump's deportation crackdown, and why a new Chinese AI is disrupting American tech and financial markets. But first, Donald Trump is rapidly changing America's public health priorities at home and abroad.
--:-- Dan Diamond: Already, Trump has temporarily blocked officials at Health and Human Services, the CDC, the FDA, and the NIH from communicating with the public until at least February 1st. His administration scrubbed information about abortion from federal health websites and shut down a site created by the Biden administration dedicated to reproductive rights and resources.
--:-- Dan Diamond: He's also halted the HIV AIDS prevention program PEPFAR, which distributes HIV medications in poorer countries, even going so far as to tell organizations on the ground not to distribute the medications even if they've already been purchased.
--:-- Dan Diamond: And Trump says he'll pull the United States out of the World Health Organization. The AP reports that U.S. public health officials were instructed to stop working with the WHO effective immediately.
--:-- Dan Diamond: Most public health experts are alarmed by this. That's because the WHO plays a key role in identifying, say, the emergence of viruses abroad. Places that the U.S. isn't monitoring can't necessarily go. The WHO can and can report that up and share with the world an early warning on threats that may be coming. For example, COVID-19.
--:-- Dan Diamond: The WHO was instrumental in sharing data among countries. It also convinced China to release the genetic sequence of the virus in 2020 that paved the way for scientists here in the U.S. to develop a vaccine.
--:-- Dan Diamond: So why is Trump taking this stand against the organization? Trump blamed the organization, he said, for not being faster to identify the threat in China, deferring to Chinese experts on how serious the virus was, playing down the risks of, say, the virus spreading by air, and criticizing the United States when the U.S. took measures like cutting down travel from China.
--:-- Dan Diamond: The World Health Organization has disputed claims that it was deferential to China. But Diamond says a lot of the damage is already done. Because of Trump's criticism, Diamond writes, WHO has become a punching bag for China hawks.
--:-- Dan Diamond: One of Trump's lines is China doesn't pay its fair share. The United States contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to the WHO, roughly 20 percent of its entire budget, while China contributes about 40 million.
--:-- Dan Diamond: Lots of public health experts agree that some kind of change is needed. There are some experts saying that this group has been overly bureaucratic, that it has been too favorable to China, and that it needs to undergo some reforms.
--:-- Dan Diamond: But many have expressed grave concerns about the U.S. leaving altogether. Now, I've spoken to some of those people, like Ashish Jha, who led the coronavirus response under President Biden, who says he wants changes to the WHO, but he doesn't want the United States to pull out altogether.
--:-- Dan Diamond: He thinks that could be catastrophic for WHO and also for global health. In recent days Trump has indicated he would consider rejoining the WHO if reforms happen.
--:-- Dan Diamond: I think the WHO would have to either make some notable concessions to Trump, perhaps make a vow of changing the organization in a way that would satisfy him, or the United States would rejoin the organization but give a lot less money than we used to.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As all of this plays out, senators in Washington are preparing to question Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's nominee to lead Health and Human Services, who would play a key role in executing his domestic health agenda. That confirmation hearing begins tomorrow.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinian people have started to make the long and difficult journey back home after many months of trying to outrun Israeli airstrikes.
--:-- Anis Baba: This street was called Paris Street in Rafah. By now, it seems that the Israeli bombardment left nothing from this Shenzhou, Rafah. We can see that the infrastructure, the streets, roads, water pipes, every single thing that needs for a human in order to be inhabited in place is lacking here in Rafah.
--:-- Anis Baba: Baba himself is one of many people returning to his home in Gaza City. Here's how he described what it felt like to be walking among massive crowds of Palestinians doing the same on NPR.
--:-- Anis Baba: I only want to walk to my house, to Gaza City. Just the happiness inside you is driving you all the way. It's just like after all of that patience, after all of that missing from Gaza City, now we're being reunited again.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Trump has said Palestinians should leave Gaza altogether. And he called on Jordan and Egypt to accept Palestinians as refugees so the world can, quote, just clean out that whole thing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But many Palestinians have always been determined to stay, to never give up fighting for their homeland. Here's how one Palestinian man reacted to Trump's comments when asked about them by the BBC.
--:-- Palestinian Man: We don't want to immigrate. Why should we do that? If we wanted to immigrate, we could have done that a long time ago.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's unclear if the president's comment signaled a formal change in U.S. policy. No recent president has supported or suggested long-term departures of Palestinians from Gaza.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But that idea has been suggested before by far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's government. Meanwhile, leaders of Egypt and Jordan have flatly rejected Trump's proposal. It was also rejected by the Palestinian Authority.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Beyond rebuilding, Palestinians remain in desperate need of aid and supplies. Starting this week, Israel says it plans to enforce a decision to close down the Gaza operations for UNRWA, which is the primary aid agency for Palestinians.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This decision came after the United Nations fired nine UNRWA staff members for possible involvement in the October 7th attack on Israel. The agency has protested Israel's decision to shutter the Gaza headquarters in East Jerusalem.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And The Guardian reports as part of that standoff the United Nations did not create a contingency plan for how to keep aid flowing to Gaza in UNRWA's absence.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That could be a huge problem, because to avoid a breach of the ceasefire agreement, at least 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid must enter Gaza every day for the next four or so weeks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to look at how New York City is preparing for the possibility of immigration raids and mass deportations, which President Trump made a cornerstone of his campaign.
--:-- Gwen Hogan: I had heard, you know, people being like, I have to move out, and where are we going? Are we going to untenable living situations? Are we going to basements?
--:-- Gwen Hogan: Definitely people trying to leave what they perceive as like a pretty prime target for enforcement actions. It's just too soon to know exactly how this is going to play out.
--:-- Gwen Hogan: But the fear is very real and it's changing people's day to days. Last week, the Trump administration cleared the way for immigration and customs enforcement to conduct raids at places that were once considered out of bounds, like churches, hospitals, and schools.
--:-- Gwen Hogan: Hogan spoke to some parents who are afraid to send their kids to school. One father told her he sent his kids with copies of their asylum applications in their backpacks.
--:-- Gwen Hogan: And on a recent afternoon, they were like 10 minutes late for dismissal, and he said he was panicking. He was like, I didn't know if something happened to them. Like, I'm just like, what? And then they were fine.
--:-- Gwen Hogan: They just came out 10 minutes later. But it's sort of like everybody is extremely on edge.
--:-- Shamita Basu: City officials have been preparing the community for encounters with ICE agents. They've conducted trainings for principals and teachers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's been all this updated guidance from the law department that's gone out to a variety of city agencies. If immigration comes, you have to call general counsel. You have to make sure it's a judicial warrant and a lawyer will determine whether or not to then allow the person into the building.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But I think what has been confusing is that Mayor Eric Adams has not really said this out loud in any of his appearances.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Adams is a Democrat, but he has been cozying up to Trump in recent weeks, meeting with him, attending the inauguration.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Adams was indicted in September for federal bribery, fraud and campaign finance charges, all of which he denies.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And there is widespread speculation that Adams could be seeking a pardon from Trump.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's also public opinion to contend with. While many New Yorkers lean liberal and want to be accommodating to the mass number of migrants arriving, others have real concerns about resources being stretched too thin.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At one recent town hall in Corona Queens, a community with a large immigrant population, someone asked Mayor Adams what his message is to all of these parents who are afraid to send their kids to school.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Adams said he thinks all kids should go to school and he said the city would protect documented and undocumented students.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In a local TV interview, Adams said he had been told that potential raids would only target people accused of criminal behavior.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Beyond that, Adams has made no public show of support or opposition to Trump's promises to target a population that makes up a significant part of the fabric of New York City.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here are a few other stories we're watching today. Tech stocks took a big hit Monday after Chinese startup DeepSeek released its latest AI models it claims are just as good and in some cases better than leading American technology.
--:-- Shamita Basu: DeepSeek claims it's cheaper to operate, too. The company's DeepSeek V3 is now more popular than ChatGPT and Apple's App Store.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The announcements triggered a huge sell-off of chipmaker NVIDIA. The company saw shares plummet as much as 18 percent, according to NBC News.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But American users quickly also saw the extent of Chinese censorship. The Washington Post reports that one user captured DeepSeek deleting a response in real time about Chinese President Xi Jinping.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the app was unable to answer questions about the Chinese government's brutal crackdown of protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to a workplace trend that we have been following, rising interest in making the four-day workweek a reality.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's only Tuesday, but if you were in the UK, your workweek could be halfway over by now. The Guardian reports 1,000 workers there are getting an extra day off with no loss of pay as part of the latest pilot program run by the nonprofit group Four Day Week campaign.
--:-- Shamita Basu: 200 businesses in the U.K. have already made four-day weeks permanent, according to the campaign. Trial results will be presented to the U.K.'s new labor government over the summer in the hopes that it'll lead to reforms.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, you may have heard an ad for something called AG1 while listening to your favorite podcast.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The reason I started taking AG1 and the reason I still drink AG1 once or twice a day is that it provides all of my foundational nutritional needs. That is, it provides insurance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The uber-popular diet supplement has become ubiquitous among the influencer and celebrity set, and it's now headed for vending machines and grocery stores all across the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Fortune looks into the company's health claims. Some nutritional scientists say its so-called science-driven formula lacks rigor and that it's nothing more than an expensive multivitamin.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But AG1's CEO tells Fortune the company conducts rigorous clinical studies and welcomes criticism. The powder costs about $100 a month.
--:-- 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, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Time takes a look at the struggle to diagnose long COVID patients and how some have been pressured to seek psychiatric treatment for little understood medical ailments.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
