Loading summary
Transcript38 lines
- [00:05]
Cecilia Ley
Good morning. Strikes between Iran and Israel complicate Trump's hopes to end the war. The Wall Street Journal explains the dilemma facing the president.
- [00:14]
Alex Ward
The conflict had been between the US And Iran, and now all of a sudden, Israel attacking Hezbollah, Hezbollah attacking Israel has become part of this whole dynamic.
- [00:25]
Cecilia Ley
Millions of people are about to descend into U.S. host cities for the World Cup. Politico looks at how public health are getting ready. And the Hollywood reporter on the UFC's road to the White House. South Lawn. It's Tuesday, June 9th. I'm Cecilia Ley in for Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News. Today, The attacks between Iran and Israel have stopped, at least for now. Sunday night was the first time the two countries had come into direct conflict in two months, igniting fears that they were spiraling into open warfare. But yesterday, both sides pulled back. It began when Israel struck at Hezbollah in Lebanon, accusing the Iranian proxy of sending rockets into northern Israel. Iran then leapt to Hezbollah's defense, and the two began attacking each other. As rockets entered the skies. President Trump urged Israel not to escalate, making direct phone calls to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Alex Ward, the Wall Street Journal's national security correspondent, brought us up to speed.
- [01:32]
Alex Ward
What matters here are a couple of things. Number one is that this was a threat to the US Iran ceasefire, right? As both sides indicate they might be semi close to a deal, although who knows if that is really true. There has also been this question about whether the Israel, Hezbollah and US Iran fights would be linked. The the Iranians are linking them because of Hezbollah, and the US And Israel say no, they are separate issues. But now that there's been an actual linkage between these two conflicts and that
- [02:04]
Cecilia Ley
could make a peace deal all that more complicated, Trump has mainly focused on Iran's nuclear ambitions for a deal and talks much less about degrading regional proxies, one of the original stated goals, but last night demonstrated how important Hezbollah could be to the fate of the fragile truce.
- [02:20]
Alex Ward
And if there's a violation of the ceasefire, then it makes it less likely that President Trump can get the agreement with Iran that he so desperately wants and is pushing for. So all of a sudden, this Israel Hezbollah fight, which has been going on a really long time but has been escalating in recent weeks, is now, after the last 24 or so hours, an even bigger component and part of the fabric of the US Iran deliberations over Iran's nuclear program.
- [02:46]
Cecilia Ley
Israel relies on the US for its security, and Trump has claimed in the past that Netanyahu will do Whatever he asks. But Israel struck at Hezbollah. Despite Trump repeatedly urging restraint, Israel argues that attacks from Hezbollah leave them with no choice.
- [03:01]
Alex Ward
And Netanyahu basically said, look, these attacks on Hezbollah and Iran have stopped for now. If Israel gets attacked again, then, you know, the fighting could restart. So President Trump's whole thing is he's trying to keep the region calm, and he's trying to do that in order so he can get this deal. But if the region continues to flare up, that just complicates that process.
- [03:21]
Cecilia Ley
Over the weekend, Trump had a tense exchange with NBC News's Meet the Press. Before walking out of the interview, he was pressed by Kristen Welker over his campaign promise to avoid any new wars.
- [03:33]
Donald Trump
So when you say I promised, I didn't promise anything. I don't like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We've been doing this for three months. Much of it has been under the form, a pretty good form of ceasefire. The blockade has been amazing. Our navy is amazing, Our military is the best in the world.
- [03:52]
Cecilia Ley
Even with the fighting on pause again, the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, choking off the world's oil market. So far, the economic crisis has been acute in countries that import a lot of energy, and global reserves are draining. But it's been somewhat contained for the short term, thanks to adapting supply and demand dynamics. Demand, namely the US has increased its energy exports and China has reduced its imports. Publicly, at least, Trump says he feels no urgency to end the conflict in a hurry and cross his negotiating red lines.
- [04:24]
Alex Ward
That said, you know, if there are more flare ups in the Middle east, if gas prices skyrocket, if there are more economic disturbances, if the straight of Hormuz doesn't reopen, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, it's hard to imagine that Trump doesn't start to feel some sense of pressure to either wind down this war and sort of make a deal that he doesn't want to make, or perhaps escalate the conflict in short order, which, in his mind, might get Iran to heal.
- [04:57]
Cecilia Ley
On Sunday, the White House will become an unlikely fight venue. President Trump is hosting a mixed martial arts event on the South Lawn, a spectacle unlike anything an administration has ever attempted.
- [05:11]
Donald Trump
Everyone's asking me for tickets for the ufc. That is going to be great. They're going to have the greatest champions in the world all fighting that night.
- [05:17]
Cecilia Ley
Dubbed UFC Freedom250, the event takes place on Trump's 80th birthday and is ostensibly part of the various celebrations tied to the US Semi quincentennial But the idea goes back a bit further.
- [05:30]
Alex Weprin
So this UFC fight being held at the White House actually has its origins at Madison Square Garden, couple of weeks after the 2024 election.
- [05:38]
Cecilia Ley
Alex Weprepren is a senior editor at the Hollywood Reporter.
- [05:42]
Alex Weprin
Dana White, he was sitting next to Trump, and Trump kind of made an offhand comment, hey, I think we should do a fight at the White House. And White was like, oh, yeah, okay, sure, yeah. He didn't know what that meant, but it turns out he was quite serious.
- [05:54]
Cecilia Ley
Trump and White go back decades. In the early 2000s, a lot of venues avoided UFC events, and MMA was banned in most states. But Trump was one of the few who welcomed the organization into his casinos. That helped legitimize the sport in early days, and they've remained close friends ever since. Now that relationship has entered the political arena. White is a MAGA supporter and has enthusiastically tied the UFC brand to Trump's presidency. Trump, meanwhile, has tried to appeal to White's legions of young male spectators.
- [06:26]
Alex Weprin
You know, it's interesting, after he won the 24 election, one of the first people to speak at Mar a Lago was Dana White.
- [06:32]
Donald Trump
And we also have a man, Dana White, who has done some job. He's a tough guy.
- [06:45]
Alex Weprin
And one of the things he did was call out some of the podcast hosts that hosted the president. I think he kind of gave them some credit for helping him win.
- [06:52]
Cecilia Ley
White helped facilitate Trump's appearance on Joe Rogan's show and pushed the influential podcaster to endorse him in 2024. Other podcasts with big male audiences followed, and Trump carried over half of young men at the election. Since then, though, his approval rating among those voters has dropped. And some of those podcast have expressed ambivalence towards some of the administration's policies, like the war with Iran and tariffs. Weprin says Sunday's event could be a kind of olive branch to those folks and the people they influence.
- [07:24]
Alex Weprin
I do think that it's something to look at and think about. I'm very curious to see who shows up to the event. Will they invite some of these hosts to the event and try and kind of win them back in person? Because I do think he made a lot of ground in that world for the 24 election. I think there's a good chance he wants to win them back ahead of the 2026 midterms to try and get them to support the Senate and House candidates that he wants to support. So to the extent that he's lost any support there, I think he does want to make efforts to win them back, and this could be an event
- [07:53]
Cecilia Ley
that helps that the event is now on the verge of becoming reality. A fight card is set and an enormous stage is currently under construction at the White House, which will feature a full size fight octagon and a 5,000 seat arena. But it might not be smooth sailing. Rogan himself has criticized the event's outdoor setting, raising concerns about how the weather and bugs would affect competitors. And in the background, the Public Integrity Project has filed a lawsuit claiming the administration was illegally hosting a sporting event on federal parkland. As cities across North America get ready to host the largest World cup tournament in history, one question has been looming for public officials. Are they ready and prepared to keep the millions of incoming fans healthy?
- [08:46]
Rachel Bluth
We are as a country a lot better prepared for a major outbreak, a major global event than we were pre Covid, but it's nowhere near the infusion of public health funding that we saw during the pandemic.
- [09:01]
Cecilia Ley
That's Rachel Bluth, a healthcare reporter for Politico. As fans from around the world descend on host cities, they will of course, gather in packed bars and menus that can create some risks. And Bluth has been looking into how a fractured US Public health system is bracing itself under pressure.
- [09:19]
Rachel Bluth
Things are getting more expensive. States everywhere are tightening their belts. There's just, I think, a little less support overall. And fundamentally, the federal administration has kind of communicated that public health is not sort of top priority for them when it comes to where the budget is and how it gets funded.
- [09:37]
Cecilia Ley
FEMA has set aside $625 million in grants for the World cup, but state public health officials are only getting a small slice of that pie. Even so, Bluth, state and local agencies have surveillance systems to help detect and respond to a wide variety of threats.
- [09:55]
Rachel Bluth
The main one is called syndromic surveillance, and that's where local public health departments, clinics, hospitals are going to be monitoring people's symptoms and reporting that to the cdc, so that if you're a public health official somewhere and you're seeing a rise in respiratory symptoms or people showing up at the ER with rashes and fevers, you kind of know what you're looking for and you know what to be monitoring for.
- [10:22]
Cecilia Ley
The outbreak of Ebola in Africa remains a major concern for the World Health Organization, but Bluth said diseases found at home were a much bigger priority for officials here.
- [10:32]
Rachel Bluth
Everyone I talk to is far more worried about the spread of measles at these games than about Ebola. You know, we know measles is circulating in this country, it's much easier to catch. One person told me that measle particles can stay in the air in a room for like two hours afterwards. So whereas Ebola, you need really kind of close contact with somebody to contract it.
- [10:55]
Cecilia Ley
And when it comes to measles, one technology that gained traction during the pandemic will especially come in handy.
- [11:01]
Rachel Bluth
They're hooking up the city's existing wastewater surveillance system, which they use to track diseases all the time. They're setting that up to the sewage at SOFI Stadium in Los Angeles so they can collect samples and get them to the labs and see if there's just a spike in pathogens that you wouldn't expect to see. Is norovirus showing up in the sewage are measles pathogens showing up? So there's kind of all these ways to get ahead of a major outbreak before it gets really bad.
- [11:37]
Cecilia Ley
Federal pandemic resources have allowed LA to try out this pilot program of surveilling germs being flushed out of the stadium, which will host eight matches. In the meantime, health officials say they're feeling as ready as they can be for the big stuff that might emerge throughout the tournament. Tournament and they told Bluth they want the public to worry more about the everyday risks.
- [11:58]
Rachel Bluth
They are worried about people washing their hands, driving drunk, using drugs, having heat exhaustion, not drinking enough water, getting exposed to the sun. These are the things that public health is worried about. So if you are planning to attend the World cup and you're worried about Ebola or Hantavirus or anything like that, your time's a little better spent making sure that you are hydrating and putting on sunscreen, because those are probably going to be your main threats.
- [12:27]
Cecilia Ley
The tournament kicks off this Thursday. And to a few other stories we're following. Voters across four states. Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina will vote in primary elections today. And one race to watch is the gubernatorial election in South Carolina. This is the first time in 16 years the Governor's seat has been open. But considering South Carolinian have not voted for a Democratic candidate since 1998, the real battle is among Republicans competing for their party's nomination. Trump recently endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evatt, who has made loyalty to the president a centerpiece of her campaign. Representative Nancy Mace, meanwhile, has said that she believes her willingness to defy Trump on issues like the Epstein files is why she didn't get his support. Evett is leading in most major polls. It was a Hollywood ending for Nithia Rahman last night. The late comer to the Los Angeles mayoral primary race. She jumped ahead of Spencer Pratt, the Republican reality TV star who had grabbed headlines for his polling in a Democratic leaning city. Rahman threw her hat into the ring hours ahead of the deadline and ran on a progressive campaign that targeted Pratt's links to the MAGA movement. The LA council member now goes up against her political ally, the incumbent, Mayor Karen Bass. And finally, for decades, the Naval Observatory has served as the residence of the US Vice president. Many of them have left their mark on the 72 acre property, a heritage garden from Joe Biden, beehives from the Pences, pink wallpaper in the library from Kamala Harris, and back in 1991, Dan Quayle added a swimming pool. Now Vice President J.D. vance has made his own addition, a chicken coop complete with a dozen baby chicks and a Victorian style hen house. It turns out Vance is right on tre. In recent years, backyard chickens have seen a resurgence. One recent survey suggests about 11 million US households have them. The move may also have been a practical one. During the 2024 campaign, Vance often complained about the high cost of eggs and jokes his two young sons eat about a dozen eggs every morning. 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. Bloomberg Businessweek reports on how freezes on foreign aid from the U.S. and cuts to other funding sources are making the current outbreak of Ebola especially hard to contain. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News plus Narrated to find that story. And we'll be back with the news tomorrow.
- [15:16]
Donald Trump
It.