Why the China balloon spying story isn’t over

Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, February 6th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.

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Shamita Basu: On today's show, new questions in the Chinese spy balloon story, what doctors keep getting wrong about obesity, and Beyonce makes history at the Grammys. But first, a quick look at a developing story.

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Shamita Basu: More than 2,300 people are dead in Turkey and Syria following powerful earthquakes today. The quakes were 7.8 and 7.5 in magnitude, strong enough to collapse buildings and be felt in neighboring countries. There have been multiple aftershocks. Rescue efforts are underway to find survivors. The death toll is expected to go up as more information comes in. You can follow the latest on the Apple News app.

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Shamita Basu: Now that the Chinese balloon has been shot down by the U.S. Air Force, new information is emerging about the extent of China's balloon surveillance program and why the U.S. hasn't been better prepared to track it.

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Shamita Basu: NBC aired footage of an American F-22 shooting the balloon out of the sky with a Sidewinder missile on Saturday. Boom! After the fighter jet downed the balloon, President Biden talked about his decision not to take it out when it was floating over Montana. Order the Pentagon to shoot it down on Wednesday as soon as possible. They decided without doing damage to anyone on the ground. They decided that the best time to do that was if it got over water. Attacking it over water might also make it easier to recover the wreckage, officials said. Divers and search teams are now looking at an area off Myrtle Beach to see what they can learn from the debris about China spy capabilities Beijing claims the balloon was accidentally blown off course while doing weather research.

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Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal reports on records of previous Chinese balloons in U airspace, including several times during the Trump administration. Three former Trump national security advisors say they were never told about balloon breaches. Senior Biden administration officials say previous flights were much shorter and went undetected at the time. One official said that information was pieced together after the Trump administration. This balloon was first spotted over Alaskan territory late last month. Republican critics of Biden say he should have shot it down well before it flew over the continental U.S. The Pentagon says China has a fleet of surveillance balloons that's been spotted before over Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Spy balloons have been around for a long time, but they went out of style when satellites became the preferred way to get aerial spy photos. These days, balloons may be useful again, since they could potentially intercept cellular signals and other things that are too close to the ground for a satellite to pick up from space.

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Shamita Basu: Scientific understanding of obesity has evolved rapidly. And with it, we're seeing new guidelines and drugs. Just last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics came out with updated, more aggressive guidance on treating childhood obesity. And weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are soaring in popularity. But as NPR reports, medical professionals spend very little time in school actually learning about obesity. And for many, the little training they do get is out of sync with the science.

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Shamita Basu: Whether doctors are getting this right matters a lot, because 42% of Americans are obese. And obesity is linked to hundreds of chronic conditions and to major causes of death, including heart and kidney disease and diabetes. Very little time in med school is dedicated to obesity training. Just 10 hours on average, according to a 2020 survey. As a professor explains to NPR, med school classes often focus on specific organs or systems, but obesity crosses over many different categories, so it often just gets a brief mention here or there in the context of other diseases. Doctors tell NPR they believe better training is essential to understanding the causes of obesity and how to counsel and help people who are living with it. The training deficit, they say, can lead to providers perpetuating weight stigma. That's what happened to Patty Neese. She went to an orthopedist for help with hip pain. She told NPR her doctor blamed her weight right off the bat. He just lectured me. He never really ever listened to what was going on with me. The root cause was a severe curve in her spine, but that initially got missed because of the focus on her weight.

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Shamita Basu: Doctors tell NPR improving training would go a long way. And an essential piece of that is learning how to talk to patients with compassion and without stigma. Let's talk now about dangerous diseases caused by fungi.

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Shamita Basu: There's the Hollywood version of this story that makes for good TV. But there's also real-world concerns that are on the rise. The current pop culture fungus is in the HBO series The Last of Us. Humanity is infected by a fungus that transforms people into violent zombies. And they make this really creepy clicking sound. Now that's all fiction. Bloody, scary fiction. But the creator of this story says he was inspired by watching a nature documentary. It's based on a very real fungus that can infect ants and take over their brains and bodies. Basically, turning them into zombies. Unfortunately, there's no reason to believe that fungus could affect humans. Now there is a real concern that suggested on the show, one that scientists today are worried about: that the idea that climate change could be making harmful fungi more tolerant to warmer weather, which could encourage spread.

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Shamita Basu: Vox has a good write-up on where fiction meets fact here, and how fungi typically manipulate their hosts. It's especially informative if you are watching The Last of Us, but you'll learn something even if you're not.

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Shamita Basu: Beyoncé is now in the Grammy record books. Last night, she racked up multiple awards, bringing her career total to 32 wins. She's now the most winning artist in Grammy history. Harry Styles picked up the Album of the Year trophy, and the award show also launched a new category, honoring a song that makes social change. The winner was Baraye by the Iranian singer Shervine Hadjipur. It's become the unofficial anthem of human rights protests in Iran after the death of Nasser Amin. Dr. Jill Biden presented the prize, saying a song can unite, inspire, and ultimately change the world. Haji Poore was arrested after his song went viral. He's currently out on bail awaiting trial. Another winner was actor Viola Davis for the audiobook of her memoir. This gives her EGOT status. She's now won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards. You can read more on the Grammys and all the stories that we talked about today in the Apple News app.

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Shamita Basu: And if you're listening right now in the News app, stick around. We've got a narrated article coming up next from Bloomberg Businessweek about a 45-year-old software entrepreneur who's pouring millions of dollars into experiments on reversing aging. And he's using his own body in the research. So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.

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Shamita Basu: Thanks for listening to Apple News Today.