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Celebrity chef José Andrés’ aid group has sent 200 tons of food to Gaza. Who is he and what is World Central Kitchen?

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Celebrity chef José Andrés and his World Central Kitchen nonprofit have sent aid to Gaza, shipping almost 200 tons of food this week to Palestinians. The organization shipped the food from Cyprus on the Open Arms ship, which belongs to a Spanish nonprofit that helps vulnerable people in emergency situations.

Who is José Andrés?

Andrés, 54, is a Spanish-born chef who moved to the U.S. years ago to work in restaurants in New York City and Washington, D.C. He helped open several restaurants in the nation’s capitol and then created his own restaurants around the country, including Nubeluz, in New York City, and Jaleo by José Andrés, with locations in Washington, D.C., Orlando, Las Vegas, Chicago and Dubai.

While working in D.C., Andrés volunteered at DC Central Kitchen, which repurposes food in the city to provide for those in need. This sparked his interest in philanthropy, and he founded World Central Kitchen in 2010. Its first mission was delivering food to Haiti.

Chef Jose Andres
Chef José Andrés talks to journalists about creating a grab-and-go meal restaurant in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 17, 2020 in Washington, D.C.  

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images


What is World Central Kitchen?

World Central Kitchen mobilizes first responders to bring meals to people effected by natural disasters, crises and humanitarian emergencies around the globe

“Deploying our model of quick action, leveraging local resources, and adapting in real time, we know that a nourishing meal in a time of crisis is so much more than a plate of food — it’s hope, it’s dignity, and it’s a sign that someone cares,” the organization’s website reads.

The nonprofit recently sent food to war-torn Ukraine, to Texas during the wildfires, and to Japan following earthquakes. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, they delivered meals to children learning at home, first responders and seniors who were at risk.

The group also has a “Chef Corps” of chefs who use their local contacts to help deliver food during crises in their areas. 

In April 2022, Andrés and his team were on the ground serving food out of a restaurant in Kharkiv, Ukraine — the first time he and his team operated in a war zone.

When a Russian missile struck nearby, four people with World Central Kitchen were injured. 

But the attack barely slowed their operation. “What happened in the hours after was unbelievable,” Andrés told “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent Tracy Smith. “When the owner of that restaurant asked all the team members, ‘What do you want to do?’ they said, ‘We wanna keep cooking. We wanna keep fighting.'”

The organization has provided more than 60 million meals to those in need.

Gaza aid shipments

The U.N. has warned about the imminent risk of famine in Gaza, a narrow strip of land bordered by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean, where some 2.3 million Palestinians live. With its borders closed and war raging, an estimated 1.7 million of Gaza’s people had been displaced as of Jan. 20, according to the United Nations, with many having no access to food, water, medicine or appropriate shelter.

Malnutrition and dehydration are becoming a growing part of the humanitarian crisis.

President Biden announced during his State of the Union address last week that the U.S. military will help create temporary port on the Gaza coast to help increase the amount of humanitarian aid that can enter the area.

World Central Kitchen worked with the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus to open a corridor for the Open Arms ship to deliver food to Gaza. The group has collected 500 tons of food, currently stationed in Cyprus, including rice, flour, canned vegetables, protein and legumes. 

The first World Central Kitchen boat left Cyprus on Wednesday, and on Thursday, the organization posted on social media that they were loading another boat with hundreds of tons of food that will be sent to Gaza soon.

CYPRUS-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-GAZA-AID
This handout picture released by the Spanish humanitarian NGO Proactiva Open Arms on March 9, 2024 shows the vessel, also called Open Arms, docked in the Cypriot port of Larnaca. 

PROACTIVA OPEN ARMS/AFP via Getty Images


They also airdropped food from a Royal Jordanian Air Force cargo plane, and have so far delivered 150,000 meals to Palestinians in Gaza, according to a social media post, as well as providing 5,000 meals to families in Lebanon who were displaced by the conflict.

Earlier this month, the U.S. also began airdorpping aid into Gaza. Egypt, France, the Netherlands and Belgium have also sent aid.





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As sunscreen misinformation spreads online, dermatologists face real-life impact of online trends

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With the holiday weekend in full swing, the anti-sunscreen movement’s recent spike is worrying dermatologists.

“It was not like this before,” Dr. Jeanine Downie, a board-certified dermatologist with her own practice in New Jersey told CBS News Confirmed. “I see easily six patients per week that are anti-sunscreen, where it used to be maybe one every other week or one a month. And now it’s just gotten crazy.”

Downie says in the last two weeks she’s diagnosed three squamous cell and two malignant melanomas, both of which can turn cancerous if not caught early. “And that’s me, just one little dermatologist,” she said.

This movement picked up steam in June, with creators on TikTok telling followers in no uncertain terms “stop wearing sunscreen.” At first, the posts received tens of thousands of views and likes. Dermatologists on the platform then began sharing their own reactions, with those videos gaining even more views. And more recently, influencer Nara Smith went viral sharing an at-home sunscreen recipe to her 8 million followers that dermatologists say does little to protect wearers from sun damage.

Dr. Shereene Idriss, a New York dermatologist who has amassed more than a million followers on her social media channels, is trying to leverage that influence to educate users about sunscreen and sun protection.

“It’s becoming more and more difficult, I think, as a consumer, to try to weed through the noise,” Idriss told CBS News Confirmed. 

This misinformation reflects the surprising reality of how some young Americans view sun safety. A study by the Orlando Health Cancer Institute in March found that 1 in 7 adults under the age of 35 say daily sunscreen use is more harmful than direct sun exposure. “I tell my patients, if you want your face to look like a leather bag later, then that’s up to you,” Downie said. About 6.1 million adults are treated each year for basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas according to the CDC. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the country.

“They only want the natural things,” said Downie. “But I tell them all the time, sitting in traffic here in the tri-state area, the level of pollutants in the air on a daily, weekly and monthly basis is significantly more toxic than any chemical they’re going to rub into their skin with sunblock.”

While there’s no evidence that sunscreens are unsafe, the FDA is currently investigating potential concerns. It’s called for more data on 12 ingredients often found in U.S. sunscreen. After conducting its own study into how certain ingredients are absorbed into the bloodstream, the FDA has called for more research into potential health effects on the body.

However, beachgoers on the Jersey Shore this week told CBS News that sun safety is top of mind this summer. CBS News Confirmed looked at Google Search trends and saw terms like “sunscreen” and “what does skin cancer look like” are at an all-time high since tracking began in 2004.

“You know what gets them to start wearing sunblock?” said Downie. “Young kids and young adults, Gen Z, Gen X, they hate pores. And once they hear that they’re going to have big pores that look like potholes, they put that sunblock on.”

The dermatologists CBS Newsspoke with say there is no such thing as a healthy tan. To best protect yourself this summer, they say to use sunscreen and reapply often; wear UPF clothing or UV visors; and avoid being outside during peak UV index between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.



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Moderate Masoud Pezeshkian wins Iran’s presidential runoff election

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Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian won Iran’s runoff presidential election Saturday, besting hard-liner Saeed Jalili by promising to reach out to the West and ease enforcement on the country’s mandatory headscarf law after years of sanctions and protests squeezing the Islamic Republic.

Pezeshkian promised no radical changes to Iran’s Shiite theocracy in his campaign and long has held Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the final arbiter of all matters of state in the country. But even Pezeshkian’s modest aims will be challenged by an Iranian government still largely held by hard-liners, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, and Western fears over Tehran enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels.

A vote count offered by authorities put Pezeshkian as the winner with 16.3 million votes to Jalili’s 13.5 million in Friday’s election.

Iran's presidential election goes to run-off
Iranian reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian speaks at his rally for the presidential elections in Tehran, Iran, on July 3, 2024.

Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images


Supporters of Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and longtime lawmaker, entered the streets of Tehran and other cities before dawn to celebrate as his lead grew over Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator.

But Pezeshkian’s win still sees Iran at a delicate moment, with tensions high in the Mideast over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, Iran’s advancing nuclear program, and a looming U.S. election that could put any chance of a detente between Tehran and Washington at risk.

The first round of voting June 28 saw the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian officials have long pointed to turnout as a sign of support for the country’s Shiite theocracy, which has been under strain after years of sanctions crushing Iran’s economy, mass demonstrations and intense crackdowns on all dissent.

Government officials up to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicted a higher participation rate as voting got underway, with state television airing images of modest lines at some polling centers across the country.

However, online videos purported to show some polls empty while a survey of several dozen sites in the capital, Tehran, saw light traffic amid a heavy security presence on the streets.

The election came amid heightened regional tensions. In April, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militia groups that Tehran arms in the region — such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — are engaged in the fighting and have escalated their attacks.

Iran is also enriching uranium at near weapons-grade levels and maintains a stockpile large enough to build several nuclear weapons, should it choose to do so. And while Khamenei remains the final decision-maker on matters of state, whichever man ends up winning the presidency could bend the country’s foreign policy toward either confrontation or collaboration with the West.

The campaign also repeatedly touched on what would happen if former President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew America from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, won the November election. Iran has held indirect talks with President Joe Biden’s administration, though there’s been no clear movement back toward constraining Tehran’s nuclear program for the lifting of economic sanctions.

More than 61 million Iranians over the age of 18 were eligible to vote, with about 18 million of them between 18 and 30. Voting was to end at 6 p.m. but was extended until midnight to boost participation.

The late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a May helicopter crash, was seen as a protégé of Khamenei and a potential successor as supreme leader.

Still, many knew him for his involvement in the mass executions that Iran conducted in 1988, and for his role in the bloody crackdowns on dissent that followed protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by police over allegedly improperly wearing the mandatory headscarf, or hijab.



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