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🎧 The new strain doesn’t seem to be more severe or dangerous than previous ones, NPR’s Gabrielle Emanuel tells Up First. Instead, this year's flu vaccine appears to be mismatched against the virus because it was formulated before the strain emerged. Early data from the U.K. show that the vaccine remains effective at preventing hospitalization. Some health experts, however, have raised concerns that the federal government has failed to launch a strong flu vaccination campaign. 

🎧 The strike is significant because it raises the risk of killing people who have nothing to do with narcotics trafficking, NPR’s Franco Ordoñez says. Up until this strike, the U.S. was targeting some sanctioned oil tankers and boats suspected of trafficking drugs. Both of those operations have taken place in international waters. 

🎧 Months of anger and frustration over water and energy shortages, civil rights abuses and widespread corruption have fueled the current unrest, NPR’s Jackie Northam says. These criticisms, combined with the economic protests, have the potential to spiral into something significantly larger. The 12-day war Iran had with Israel over the summer was costly. There is now a widespread belief that Israel will start another conflict with the country, which would add more economic uncertainty, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, an economics professor at Virginia Tech, tells Northam.