--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, December 7th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, Israel's use of American-made weapons in Gaza. Why it's so hard and expensive to say goodbye to the International Space Station. And President Biden talks to Anderson Cooper about grief.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Gaza, the humanitarian crisis is growing worse by the day as Israel expands attacks. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres took the rare step of invoking Article 99, which he's never done before.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a move taken only in situations where there's a grave threat to international peace and security. A UN spokesperson calls it the most powerful tool the Secretary General has, and that Guterres hopes it'll put pressure on the U.N. Security Council and the entire international community to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Top Biden administration officials are urging Israel to do more to protect civilians. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the military should avoid tactics that don't protect innocent lives.
--:-- Lloyd Austin: This kind of a fight, the center of gravity is the civilian population. And if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat.
--:-- Lloyd Austin: So I have repeatedly made clear to Israel's leaders that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But a new report from Amnesty International says U.S.-made weapons were used in multiple Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, where 43 civilians were killed, including 19 children.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Human Rights Organization said there was no evidence of any legitimate military targets at these sites. The U.S. State Department is reviewing the report. Israel's military says the research is flawed, that it is targeting Hamas and taking measures to minimize civilian casualties.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Israeli military is pointing civilians toward a digital map that divides Gaza into hundreds of sections Israel says it post updates to that map and indicate zones where the military will operate and direct civilians there.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But aid workers say the map is confusing and difficult to use, especially when the internet is frequently cut off. One called it a macabre game of battleship.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And with or without a map, those on the ground say no place is safe in Gaza right now.
--:-- James Elder: Given the catastrophe children are enduring right now, the only safety in Gaza is for the hell to stop raining down from the sky. Only a ceasefire can save the children of Gaza.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now let's take a look at some other major stories in the news.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A Senate bill to provide new aid to Israel and Ukraine has failed an early test. Republicans blocked it, saying any new spending also needs to include more money for U.S. border security.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Senator Bernie Sanders voted with Republicans for a different reason. He doesn't want to send more money to Israel because of humanitarian concerns.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Even if senators do make a deal, the bill would have an uncertain future in the House. There, Republican focus on the border is stronger, and there are several skeptics of U.S. aid to Ukraine.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And staying in the House, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy is leaving. He'll step down later this year in the middle of his current term.
--:-- Shamita Basu: McCarthy says he'll stay involved with Republican politics. His exit means California will have to hold a special election to fill his seat.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Several Republicans are leaving their House seats, and George Santos has been expelled. That could all make it harder for the party to hang on to its slim House majority in 2024.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Las Vegas, three people are dead after a shooting at the University of Nevada campus. The suspect was shot dead by police.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Assistant Professor Roberto Lovato spoke to NBC as evacuations were going on.
--:-- Roberto Lovato: We were all on lockdown and some of us were actually on our way to the student union and right next door. And some of our faculty was in that building and some of our students were there.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The deadly shooting happened on a day when Senate Republicans moved to stop a bill that would have banned assault weapons.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And there are serious new allegations about music mogul Sean Combs. A new lawsuit accuses him and others of raping a 17-year-old girl in 2003.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's the fourth sexual assault allegation he's faced in the last month. He settled one case. Combs has denied the allegations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For nearly 25 years, the International Space Station has been a symbol of scientific progress and international partnership.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's one of the few places where the U.S. and Russia collaborated extensively. It brings together astronauts from around the world for cutting-edge research.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the space station's days are numbered. The ISS will soon be retired.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's in part because NASA is putting more focus on getting humans back to the moon and eventually on Mars. And figuring out how to get this massive structure out of orbit safely is where things get tricky.
--:-- Shamita Basu: After all, the ISS is larger than a football field and weighs 420 metric tons. NASA says it could cost a billion dollars to bring it down.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Scientific American spoke with space experts about a few options NASA is considering.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One option is something called uncontrolled deorbit. Basically, just let it drop out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere on the way back to Earth.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But space safety experts point out that the debris could be dangerous to people on Earth.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Falling space junk has never been a big risk for Earthlings before, but we've never deorbited something as big as the ISS. So it's hard to know for sure what would happen.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The safest way to move forward, according to NASA officials, would be to send a custom-built vehicle, kind of like a tow truck, to attach to the space station and guide it down to its final resting place in the southern Pacific Ocean, away from populated areas.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's still a big challenge because of all the unpredictable variables in the atmosphere. It's not clear how much Russia will help.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the pressure will be on, because as one observer put it, the whole world will be watching when the ISS makes its final descent.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The phrase mourner has sometimes been used to describe the responsibility American presidents have to console people during times of national tragedy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When President Biden has been tasked to play that role, he often talks about his own experience with grief.
--:-- Shamita Basu: His first wife, Nelia, and infant daughter, Naomi, died in a car crash in 1972. He lost his son, Beau, to cancer in 2015.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Biden recently sat down for an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper for Cooper's podcast about loss and grief called All There Is.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You got to confront it, got to deal with it, look at it, understand it and decide I'm moving on because I have another purpose in life. My two children are alive, my grandchildren, my wife, my whatever it is.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's not welcoming grief. It's facing it. Eventually, Biden says something switches, and you start to remember lost loved ones with smiles instead of tears.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's when you know you're going to make it. Time will come, but you've got to face it. But it's hard as hell.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And like I said, the thing, I mean this from the bottom of my heart, my word is a Biden. I think it's critical that people understand that they're always going to be with you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For Cooper, the podcast is a deeply personal project. He's the only living member of his immediate family.
--:-- Shamita Basu: His father, Wyatt, died when he was 10 years old. His older brother, Carter, died by suicide when Cooper was in his early 20s.
--:-- Shamita Basu: His mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, passed away in 2019. It's a very moving listen, which is why a few months ago, I invited Cooper to talk with me on Apple News In Conversation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We spoke about what he's learned so far speaking with people about death and grieving, and how our relationships with the people we've lost can keep evolving, even after they're gone.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And there's some really thoughtful advice on how to talk about loss or help someone you love who's going through it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the Apple News app, our conversation is queued up to play for you next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
