Trump’s Approval Rating Hits New Low, and Ebola Outbreak Declared a Global Health Emergency

What I do is I look at the people running the real estate industry who for so many years

“have been relatively invisible and the more that I look into it, the more that I find”

there are people in the real estate industry operating unethically and there are an ethical behavior affects every single American.

At the New York Times we're always looking a little bit deeper to help readers better

understand the world. You can subscribe to the New York Times at NYTimes.com/scribes From the New York Times it's the headlines, I'm Will Jarvis in for Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday may 18th, here's what we're covering. President Trump's approval rating in his second term has reached a record low, according

to a Times Sianna poll released this morning, just 37% of voters approve of how Trump is handling his job as president. That's less than at any point since he took office last year. Trump's approval rating has dropped four points since January alone and a majority of voters seem deeply skeptical of how he's handling some of the country's most pressing issues.

“For example, 64% of voters disapprove of how he's handled the economy and 65% say they”

disapprove of how he's handled the war in Iran. More broadly, a growing number of voters say that Trump's policies are hurting them personally. The owner of a cleaning company in Missouri told the Times he voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024, but said he was in his words very pissed off with the president's decision to attack Iran.

He said quote, "I just want my family to live a good, healthy life," adding that he didn't want to constantly pay more and more and more for food and other essentials. Still, Republicans broadly approve of Trump's job performance and how he's handled the war. In this weekend, there was more evidence that the president has continued to keep a tight

grasp on his party. "When you participate in democracy, sometimes it does turn out the way you want it to." In Louisiana on Saturday, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who's clashed with the president,

“lost his primary election after being beaten by a Trump back to Canada.”

"But you don't lie, you don't claim that election was stolen, you don't find a reason." He was one of a small handful of Republicans who voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial after January 6th. In the years since, Cassidy tried to repair the relationship, but Trump kept vowing to oust him.

And the president celebrated this weekend's results on social media, writing that Cassidy's quote, "disloyalty" was now a part of legend.

Cassidy's defeat marks the second time this month that Republican primary voters have sent

a message about defying the president. In Indiana, a group of state lawmakers Trump had targeted over a failed redistricting effort lost their primary elections. One GOP consultant told the Times that Trump's power over the party could potentially hurt Republicans in the midterms, with swing district candidates wanting space from an increasingly

unpopular president, but worrying about how Trump himself might react. For the moment, the next big test of Trump's sway will come tomorrow. Republican representative Thomas Massey, who's criticized the White House over the Epstein files and the war in Iran, is facing voters in a primary election in Kentucky. Now two quick updates on the Trump administration.

First, a new analysis estimates that President Trump's "mass deportation campaign"

has separated more than 100,000 children from their parents. A vast majority of those kids are U.S. citizens. The report from the Brookings Institution suggests that federal statistics about family separations have been in undercount. In a statement that a partman of Homeland Security said that when parents of U.S.

born children are detained, they're given a choice, leave the country with their kids, or place them with someone living in the U.S. legally. According to experts, many of those kids end up living with older siblings, other family members, or neighbors, sometimes putting a strain on households that are already struggling to get by.

Around the country, many schools and legal aid groups have been helping immigrants appoint a caregiver for their kids, in case they get detained. The head of one group said she hears from mothers who have been separated from their children "almost every day." And, the times has learned that for the past four months, the U.S. has been quietly negotiating

over the future of Greenland. President Trump has repeatedly said he wants to seize the island, which is partly controlled by Denmark. While he's backed off those public threats in recent months, behind closed doors, U.S. officials have pushed forward on talks with Greenland to Denmark. Among other things, the U.S. has been trying to extend a long-standing military arrangement

And the Trump administration wants effective veto power over any major investment deals there

“to potentially box out countries like Russia and China.”

While Greenland's prime minister said he's open to working with the U.S. on some issues, other politicians there are warning that if Greenland agrees to the U.S. demands, it would be a blow to the island's sovereignty. One member of parliament said, quote, "We might as well raise our own flag halfway." To respond to and contain the outbreak, additional WHO experts will join the WHO team

already on the ground in coming days. The World Health Organization has declared that a new outbreak of the Ebola virus is a global health emergency. As of yesterday, there have been reports of more than 300 suspected cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including nearly 90 deaths according to U.S. health officials. Some cases have also been confirmed in neighboring Uganda.

“And the WHO has warned the scale of the outbreak could be far larger than has been detected.”

The disease spreads through contact with bodily fluids and contaminated objects like clothing and bedding. And the rare type of the virus that's taken hold now has no targeted vaccine or treatment. It has a mortality rate of 25 to 50%. The outbreak was declared in a Tory region, Northeastern Congo.

And that is a particularly troubled place. Matthew Big is the Times East Africa Bureau Chief. He says that the part of Congo where cases have been spreading has been in political turmoil. A few years ago, following attacks by insurgent groups there, the country's president launched a widespread crackdown in the region, declaring a state of siege, effectively martial law,

all of that as fractured the relationship between the government and the population.

And that matters because trust in the authorities is a critical factor in containing the spread.

But the other thing is obviously in a state of siege. Healthcare services and healthcare facilities are not as strong as they need to be. And now, of course, makes the task of combating the outbreak much more difficult. Matt says there's another factor that could potentially complicate the response to the Ebola cases. The Trump administration's push to slash foreign aid.

“USAID was a key player in containing previous Ebola outbreaks in Africa.”

But the White House shuttered the department last year. And finally, in Colombia, the Times has been reporting on how a new tourism industry in the country has been sparked by apps for bird watchers. Birders have long traveled around the world to get a glimpse of rare or spectacular species. It's known as avian tourism.

And in recent years, more and more people have been learning about Colombia's remarkable biodiversity. As the apps, Merlin and E-Bird have brought birding to the masses. For example, Merlin, which lets you identify birds using a photo or recording of their song,

has been downloaded by nearly 40 million people.

And on E-Bird, which builds itself as the world's largest birding community, the map of Colombia is bright red, showing that close to 2,000 bird species have been recorded there. It's basically beckoning people to come spot a red-headed barbed or an Indian cock of the rock, yes, that's a real bird, for themselves. To keep up with a new wave of app-toting avian tourists, some Colombians are now turning to the

birding business, gearing up to host visitors from around the world. Some local bird enthusiasts say they hope that will help preserve the country's environment, by creating an incentive to protect habitats for the species that live in them. One woman who hosts birders on her property in northern Colombia told the Times that she and her husband spent years using chainsaws to cut down their trees to make charcoal.

But now she says she's stopped to try and keep the birds and the tourists around. Those are the headlines. Today on the daily, an inside look at the high-stakes courtroom

battle between two of the most powerful billionaires in tech. Sam Altman and Elon Musk,

you can find that in the Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Will Jarvis, the headlines will be back tomorrow.