--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, December 5th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, the youngest and most vulnerable victims of the war in Gaza. Why it may never be a good time to buy a house. And Apple Podcasts announces the show of the year.
--:-- [Warning tone]
Shamita Basu: A warning that this next story has some graphic details about newborns who died in a Gaza hospital.
--:-- Mohammed Bal Usha: We are learning more about disturbing video showing some of the youngest victims of the war between Israel and Hamas. Premature babies who died after a medical facility in Gaza City was evacuated.
--:-- Mohammed Bal Usha: Hospital officials say the Israeli military ordered them to leave, and one was told ambulances would be arranged to move patients. Because several babies were premature and weak, staffers didn't think they would survive an evacuation.
--:-- Mohammed Bal Usha: Hospital staff left them connected to breathing equipment in the hopes that someone would return and help. Days later, a journalist got inside and found them all dead.
--:-- Mohammed Bal Usha: The baby's bodies are in an advanced stage of decomposition, having been exposed to the elements, still hooked up to respirators.
--:-- [Audio clip of unblurred video]
Mohammed Bal Usha: The channel blurred parts of the video. Other news outlets, including The Washington Post and NBC News, have reviewed the unblurred video.
--:-- NBC News: NBC spoke to forensic pathologists who said the appearance of the bodies was consistent with the timeline of how long these babies were abandoned.
--:-- The Washington Post: The Post spoke with a nurse who was caring for these babies before the evacuation. He's a Palestinian man who works with Doctors Without Borders, though he was at Al Nasser Hospital working in his own capacity.
--:-- The Washington Post: He felt one of the babies was strong enough to survive leaving intensive care so he took that baby with him and his family as they evacuated. He left four other babies on breathing machines.
--:-- The Washington Post: He talked about what happened in a Doctors Without Borders video. He says, to see my patients die in front of us is the hardest feeling I experienced in my life.
--:-- The Washington Post: Our hearts broke for them. We couldn't help them, take them, or treat them. We could barely get ourselves and our children out.
--:-- Israeli Military Spokesperson: An Israeli military spokesperson told the Post that Israel didn't operate inside Al Nasser Children's Hospital and didn't tell staffers they had to evacuate.
--:-- Israeli Military Spokesperson: The spokesperson declined to answer whether the Israeli military was told about the premature babies or tried to help them.
--:-- The Washington Post: As for the nurse who saw the babies before they died, he says he needs psychiatric treatment. He's haunted by the babies he left.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Four more unarmed victims of conflict. Now let's look at some major stories in the news, starting in Gaza, where Israeli forces are intensifying their attacks on the south.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is a major expansion of the battlefield, where much of the previous fighting to date has been in and around Gaza City in the north.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Previously, Israel warned civilians there to evacuate south. Now, the expansion of attacks there has international aid agencies deeply worried about a rise in civilian deaths in southern Gaza.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In U.S. politics, the stage is now set for the next GOP presidential debate tomorrow night.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The event in Alabama will have the smallest field yet. Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Donald Trump is again skipping the debate. The latest Republican to drop out of the race was North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And as world leaders meet in Dubai for the Global Climate Summit, new research shows just how much work needs to be done.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Global Carbon Project reports that emissions from fossil fuels hit record levels again this year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the projected rate of warming hasn't gotten better over the past two years.
--:-- Annie Lowry: If you're looking to buy a house, you might be hoping that if you just wait a little longer, things will get better, right?
--:-- Annie Lowry: At some point, the market has to cool down. Well, I argue it might never be a good time to buy a house.
--:-- Annie Lowry: One reason things are not likely to change anytime soon is that since the last housing crash, we haven't built nearly enough homes.
--:-- Annie Lowry: Freddie Mac estimates we're short nearly 4 million starter homes.
--:-- Annie Lowry: Also, mortgage rates have shot up. That makes homes less affordable for potential buyers.
--:-- Annie Lowry: It also makes people in existing homes less likely to sell them. They don't want to let go of the low mortgage rates they locked in years ago.
--:-- Glenn Kelman: With a 3% mortgage, there's no way they're going to put that house on the market.
--:-- Glenn Kelman: So we've had a downturn in sales volume, but an upturn in prices.
--:-- Glenn Kelman: And that means that the sales volume cramp is just going to last a long, long time.
--:-- Annie Lowry: As I put it, nobody is selling because nobody is buying. And nobody is buying because nobody is selling.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At some point, the Fed is expected to start cutting its interest rates.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That could help push down mortgage rates, but that might cause a different problem.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Cheaper mortgages will juice demand for housing. Combine that with a short supply and you get higher prices.
--:-- Annie Lowry: The story has some advice for how to navigate this tricky market.
--:-- Annie Lowry: The bottom line, I say, if you can find something you can afford now, buy it and refinance later if rates go down enough.
--:-- Annie Lowry: Try to make as large of a down payment as you can. Or you might want to just consider renting.
--:-- Annie Lowry: Just know if you are waiting for some kind of turnaround, you might be waiting a long, long time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Older women just know what up. They've been through it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that's why Emmy Award-winning actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been interviewing them on her podcast, Wiser Than Me.
--:-- Julia Louis-Dreyfus: When women get older, they become less visible, less heard, less seen in a way that really, it just doesn't happen with men.
--:-- Julia Louis-Dreyfus: We are ignoring the wisdom of, like, more than half the population. It is just stunning to me that women, old women, and, by the way, not even so old women, are so easily dismissed and made invisible by our culture.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And now, our colleagues at Apple Podcasts are giving Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus the Apple Podcasts Award for the show of the year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They call it hilarious, raw, and truly informative.
--:-- Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Louis Dreyfus recently told the Wall Street Journal that after going through treatment for breast cancer, she's trying to live more mindfully and seek out advice from women who inspire her.
--:-- Julia Louis-Dreyfus: People like Jane Fonda, who's 85 years old, fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg, 76, and 73-year-old writer Fran Lebowitz.
--:-- [Audio clip of Julia Louis-Dreyfus' podcast]
Carol Burnett: I can't remember what I was auditioning for, but it wasn't a big deal. But it narrowed down to me and another girl.
--:-- Carol Burnett: And I thought I had it. I thought I had it. But I didn't. She had it. But what saved me was, and I don't know where this came from, but I'm grateful.
--:-- Carol Burnett: I thought, well, you know what? It's her turn. Right. It's not my turn yet.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find Wiser Than Me in the Apple Podcasts app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And all the stories we talked about today are in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next from The Hollywood Reporter.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a deep dive into the troubles of X, formerly known as Twitter, and the former NBCUniversal exec with the tough job of fixing it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I'll be back with the news tomorrow. Thank you.
