--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, October 19th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, the dangerous water crisis in Gaza, the enormous challenges facing migrant mothers in New York City, and where the Speaker of the House race could go from here. But first, more on the deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza, with hundreds reported dead.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Palestinian officials blame an Israeli airstrike. Israel denies this, saying that the hospital was hit by a mistaken rocket fire from Palestinian militants.
--:-- Shamita Basu: After reviewing available evidence so far, the consensus of U.S. intelligence is that Israel is not responsible.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But there's a lot of information that's not clear, and there's been limited access to the site for independent analysts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It may be a long time before we know what happened.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And no matter how strong the evidence ultimately is, the damage caused by the early blame trading is already done.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Biden visited Israel yesterday.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He urged the country to think carefully about its actions responding to Hamas's attacks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Justice must be done.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But I caution this, while you feel that rage, don't be consumed by it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: After 9-11, we were enraged in the United States.
--:-- Shamita Basu: While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Biden also announced a deal with Israel to allow aid to enter Gaza from Egypt.
--:-- Shamita Basu: People of Gaza need food, water, medicine, shelter.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today I asked the Israeli cabinet, who I met with for some time this morning, to agree to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza, based on their understanding that there will be inspections, that the aid should go to civilians, not to Hamas.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Biden promised $100 million to support Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Egypt controls the Rafah crossing into Gaza and helps Israel maintain its blockade on the area.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's the only way in that's not under full Israeli control.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In past conflicts this crossing has been used to deliver aid to Gaza and allow medical evacuees to leave.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But not this time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Thousands of tons of aid have piled up on Egypt's side of the border as politicians negotiated access.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But they can move in until repairs are done on critical roads damaged by Israeli airstrikes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The first trucks are expected to make deliveries Friday at the earliest.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On the same day as Biden's visit, the UN Security Council held a vote on calling for a pause in fighting to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The United States vetoed the resolution.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The U.S. ambassador said it was unacceptable because it didn't mention Israel's right to self-defense.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Historically, the U.S. has often used its veto power to block U.N. resolutions seen as against Israeli interests.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's spend a little time on one aspect of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the dwindling water supply after Israel cut off water and power last week.
--:-- Shamita Basu: No power means Gaza's desalination plants can't operate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It can't keep sewage treatment and disposal running either.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Tanks of safe drinking water are scarce and unaffordable to many.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That means families in Gaza are forced to consume unsafe water to survive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They're at severe risk of dehydration and diseases, including cholera and dysentery.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The UN's Juliet Tuma talked to NBC about what's happening.
--:-- Juliet Tuma: We're talking about two million people in the Gaza Strip who do not have water.
--:-- Juliet Tuma: And water is running out and water is life and life is running out of Gaza.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The science magazine New Scientist looks at how Gaza was already facing a water crisis even before the latest conflict.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The problem is the isolated area doesn't have a reliable source of surface water.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's water underground, but it's been depleted by Gaza's neighbors, including Israel.
--:-- Shamita Basu: What's left is dangerously polluted.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The U.N. says 97 percent of Gaza's groundwater doesn't meet global health standards.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Infrastructure has been heavily damaged by past attacks from Israel, and the years-long blockade by Israel has meant restrictions on deliveries of water pumps and other vital equipment to maintain basic infrastructure.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So people in Gaza have heavily relied on small desalination plants and tanks of water trucked in.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But under Israel's shutdown, both of those are cut off.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The aid deal we talked about earlier can help, but it's not coming quickly enough for all the thirsty and suffering Gaza families.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now a story about a crisis here in the United States, the many migrants coming here to escape violence and poverty abroad and the challenge that's creating for cities where they arrive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A warning: this story mentions sexual violence.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Earlier this week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced new limits on how long families with children are allowed to stay at any single shelter.
--:-- Shamita Basu: After 60 days, they will now have to leave and reapply.
--:-- Shamita Basu: More than 100,000 migrants have come to New York City over the last year, and the city says it's struggling to house them all.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NPR recently spent time talking with several new immigrant mothers from Chad and Venezuela about the challenges they face.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some made the difficult journey to the U.S. while pregnant.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One of the women, Rukaya, a doctor from Chad, told NPR she left as soon as she learned that she was pregnant with a girl.
--:-- Rukaya: I don't want that for my daughter.
--:-- Shamita Basu: NPR also spoke with Dr. Natalie Davis at Bellevue Hospital's Women's Health Center about migrant patients she's cared for.
--:-- Dr. Natalie Davis: I've met moms who are pregnant as a result of a rape that they experienced during their migration, which is just so difficult.
--:-- Dr. Natalie Davis: They're carrying a baby that, you know, is a product of a horrible trauma that they had along the way.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some hospitals feel strained dealing with the influx of new patients.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Dr. Davis said the work is too important to slow down.
--:-- Dr. Natalie Davis: These women, they are so strong.
--:-- Dr. Natalie Davis: They've made it here. They've survived.
--:-- Dr. Natalie Davis: And this child is kind of a new chance for hope, a new life in a new country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that kind of keeps me going.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As for Rukaya, her daughter is now just a few weeks old.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Their family's future in the United States is uncertain.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Along with more than 1 million other people, they're waiting for processing to be considered for asylum and they need permanent shelter.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But she tells NPR she's determined to keep going for her daughter.
--:-- Rukaya: For her, I will do everything. Everything possible.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we go, let's quickly look at some other stories in the news.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The House is still without a speaker.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Republican Jim Jordan failed again to get enough votes from his own party to win the role.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So now what?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Jordan can keep trying to change people's minds.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It took the last speaker, Kevin McCarthy, 15 rounds of votes to get the gig.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's also possible that lawmakers cut a deal to give more power to the temporary speaker, Patrick McHenry.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That way the House could get on with business while the GOP tries to find consensus on a speaker.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Abroad, Russia has detained another American journalist.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Alsu Kermesheva, an American and Russian citizen, was stopped from leaving Russia.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She works for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe, which says she should be released immediately.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Russia says she failed to register as a foreign agent.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She was visiting the country because of a family emergency.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another journalist, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, has also been detained for months.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In business news, Netflix is raising prices of its basic and premium service in the U.S.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The streamer's latest earnings report shows that it's been adding subscribers worldwide.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's in part because of a crackdown on password sharing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Netflix also recently rolled out a cheaper option that includes ads, which is helping draw customers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And in sports, the Las Vegas Aces are the new WNBA champions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They beat the New York Liberty by a single point yesterday.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Aces are the league's first back-to-back title winners in more than 20 years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find WNBA coverage and all the day's big stories in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around to hear a narrated article from Elle magazine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a pre-championship story about the Las Vegas Aces and how the team has transformed the WNBA.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, you can follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
