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Why 49 million people face famine now · Apple News Today

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  Mark Garrison, Narrating: Good morning! It's Wednesday, June 15th. I'm Mark Garrison, in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
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  There were primary elections in several key states Tuesday. In South Carolina, Tom Rice is projected to lose. He was the first of ten House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump. But Nancy Mace won her primary. She refused to back Trump's false election claims. In Nevada, Republican voters backed many Trump loyalists, including the man hoping to become the state's top election official. And Mayra Flores won her special election in South Texas, flipping that House seat red. You can find more results and analysis on the Apple News app.
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  Intensifying climate disasters and Russia's invasion of Ukraine are putting 49 million people at risk of famine, according to the U.N.
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  Sarah Kaplan: We are seeing both conflict and climate change not just hurt the farms themselves, but also hurt the entire chain that is required to get food, you know, from the ground into peoples' mouths.
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  We spoke to Sarah Kaplan, climate reporter at "The Washington Post."
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  Kaplan: There is enough food in the world right now for everyone who is hungry. The problem is just getting the food to the place where it's needed and also making it possible for people who are vulnerable to access that food.
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  One big issue is the war in Ukraine, one of the world's biggest bread baskets. Russia has seized wheat, bombed grain silos and blocked ports and railways. American and European officials say the Kremlin is weaponizing the world's food supply.
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  At the start of the war, there was hope that India would be able to help make up for the lost Ukrainian supply. But climate change has complicated that plan. India is experiencing intense heatwaves and erratic rain. In response…
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  Kaplan: India wound up putting in place an export ban and saying no wheat could be exported abroad because Indian officials say they are worried about a famine in their own country if all of that grain gets sold.
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  Climate change and war aren't the only things contributing to famine. Supply chain and pandemic issues are raising prices for things farmers need, like fuel and fertilizer.
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  The crisis is severe in eastern Africa. Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are experiencing severe drought. "Save the Children" says one person dies from hunger about every 48 seconds in these countries. They aren't big sources of greenhouse gases.
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  Kaplan: It's kind of the universal truth of climate change that the people who contributed the least to the climate crisis suffer the most.
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  The problems Kaplan's reporting on don't go away if the war in Ukraine ends.
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  Kaplan: In the past, conflict has been the greatest driver of famine. But the war in Ukraine will end eventually, and climate change is going nowhere. It's only getting worse.
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  Of all the coverage of abortion in America at this critical moment, a piece we saw in "Politico" stands out. It does an unusually good job of pointing out the complexity of how Americans feel about abortion. It looks at Florida, which turned red in recent years as far as votes for president. But when it comes to how people in the state feel about abortion, the picture is far more gray. We asked Kathy Gilsinan about her reporting.
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  Kathy Gilsinan: Florida is a place that has a very large gap between public opinion and policy making when it comes to abortion and abortion access. This is a state where Republicans control every lever of state government. And yet it is an outlier in the Southeast in terms of both public opinion and practice. In public opinion terms, it is the only state in the Southeast where a majority, more than 50% of people, support abortion being legal in most or all cases.
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  "CDC" data shows Florida's abortion rate is nearly twice the national average. "Politico" spoke with many women there who've had the procedure. They're critical of both Republicans and Democrats.
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  Gilsinan: One thing that was interesting to me in my reporting, talking to folks who were getting or had gotten abortions, almost everybody volunteered, without my asking, that they think that the two-party system is broken.
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  Gilsinan says, because of the gap between the state's politics and the citizens' attitude, key Republicans seem more cautious than others in their party. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. While that might seem conservative, it doesn't go as far as Texas, which effectively bans abortions after 6 weeks, or Oklahoma, which basically has an all-out ban.
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  Gilsinan: Presumably, these lawmakers are looking at the same public opinion polls that we are. The question for them is what happens when their policy making finally starts to bump up against their voters' actual preferences and actual behavior.
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  According to one polling group, most Florida swing voters are against a full-on abortion ban. And Gilsinan says there may be enough of them to affect the outcome of important elections.
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  Most teenagers aren't getting nearly enough sleep. Between extracurriculars, homework and socializing, both in real life and on social media, a lot of young people are finding it hard to get enough rest when school starts up so early.
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  Lisa L. Lewis: As of right now, what we know is that we really are in, what I would characterize as, a teen sleep deprivation epidemic.
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  Lisa L. Lewis is the author of "The Sleep-Deprived Teen." She has an article based on her book in "The Atlantic."
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  Lewis: The fact is, when teens are literally asleep on their desks, they're obviously not learning. But even when they're sleep deprived, it's really impacting their ability to learn in terms of acquiring that information, in terms of retaining that information.
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  Poor sleep also leads to mental-health issues and drowsy-driving crashes. Only 22% of high schoolers were getting at least eight hours of sleep on school nights. But a new California law will change that. Public high schools there won't be allowed to start before 8: 30. For middle schools, 8:00. Lewis says later starts are a good step. She also wants parents to think about ways to lighten the load on their teens, so there's more time for sleep.
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  Lewis: So many of our teens are overscheduled. They are on overload. They're often going to bed late because they are doing homework, because they're not able to get to homework until late at night, given other extracurriculars they may have going on: sports, jobs, other activities.
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  Lewis says Seattle students got better sleep when schools moved start times back to 8: 45 a.m. New York and New Jersey now have bills under consideration to make a change like California's doing. Teens in these places may finally get some real rest.
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  The Whisky War is over. One of the world's most unusual land disputes, between Canada and Denmark, ended peacefully yesterday. This follows nearly 50 years of fairly good-natured sparring. It involves a tiny island between Canada and Greenland. Both the Canadians and the Danes claimed it.
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  The "BBC" explains how the dispute got its name. One year, Canada landed troops on the rock. They planted a Maple leaf flag. And they left a bottle of Canadian whisky. A few weeks later, Denmark struck back. They replaced the flag with theirs. And they swapped in a bottle of Danish schnapps.
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  This boozy back-and-forth went on for decades. It was basically a joke war. A few years ago, the governments decided they should just do the paperwork to end it. And now they have. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly describes her reaction when the deal was finally done.
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  Mélanie Joly: I laughed. I couldn't believe that we were actually able to settle this very important issue.
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  Her Danish counterpart says he's looking forward to a final exchange of bottles.
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  You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News+ partners. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
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