One of the largest steel producers in the world, Japan's Nippon Steel, is attempting to purchase U.S. Steel but is facing pushback from the U.S. government due to concerns over the potential takeover's effect on the economy.

Why is the government concerned about the takeover?
The Biden administration and Harris and Trump campaigns have all opposed the deal due to economic and security concerns. As the potential closure of the takeover looms, President Joe Biden is "preparing to announce that he will formally block" the takeover, said The Washington Post. Biden's blocking of the acquisition is a "stunning move to kill a deal featuring a corporation from Japan, a close U.S. ally."

Biden could not officially halt the deal until receiving a recommendation to do so from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS). But it appears this recommendation is looming, as the committee believes that the deal would "create national security risks because it could hurt the supply of steel needed for critical transportation, construction and agriculture projects," said Reuters. CFIUS also "cited a global glut of cheap Chinese steel" and said that, under Nippon, U.S. Steel would be "less likely to seek tariffs on foreign steel importers."

What have other responses been?
Both Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel have pushed back against claims that the deal would cause economic hardship or national security duress. Without the deal, U.S. Steel will "largely pivot away from its blast furnace facilities, putting thousands of good-paying union jobs at risk," the company said in a statement.

Despite the controversy, the American steel industry will be "on much stronger footing because of Nippon Steel's investment in U.S. Steel," a spokesperson for Nippon Steel said to Fox Business. But questions over the deal remain. "While the resilience of U.S. domestic steel capacity is clearly in the national interest, it's unclear how ownership by a firm domiciled in a major treaty ally would fundamentally threaten this," Sarah Bauerle Danzman, a professor of international studies at Indiana University, said to CNBC.

A mosquito-borne virus is making a comeback: eastern equine encephalitis (EEE). While not actually new, cases are extremely rare. Nonetheless, there have been higher instances than usual in the U.S. this year.

What is it?
The virus is spread through mosquitos but is deadlier than the West Nile virus. "Approximately 30% of people who develop severe eastern equine encephalitis die, and many survivors have ongoing neurologic problems," said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "New England and the Gulf Coast are the two areas in the U.S. where it's mainly occurred in the past," David Hamer, a professor of global health and medicine at the Boston University School of Public Health, said to The Hill. 

The good news is that most people do not experience symptoms. "In 95% of cases, the infection has no symptoms at all," Ruanne Barnabas, the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, said to The Hill. However, "in 5% of cases, people do have symptoms, including fever and chills. And then it can actually affect the central nervous system, and they can develop confusion, abnormal movements and encephalitis, as well." In the worst cases, EEE can lead to death. 

Will it get worse?
The disease is not transmissible between animals and can only be passed through mosquitos in both humans and animals. "If you look at the cases, it seems to hit, you know, young teenagers, 30-year-olds, 40-year-olds — I mean healthy people that don't have clear risk factors. And so, I think everybody needs to be cautious," said Hamer.

The growing prevalence of mosquito-borne illnesses is largely due to climate change. Mosquitos thrive in warmer temperatures, and their range is rapidly expanding. Diseases like EEE are also appearing in regions where the diseases were not present before. "We've got milder winters, we've got warmer summers, and we've got extremes in both precipitation and drought," Theodore G. Andreadis, a researcher who studied mosquito-borne diseases at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, said to Grist. "The impact that this has on mosquito populations is probably quite profound."