--:-- Mark Garrison: Good morning. It's Friday, May 10th. I'm Mark Garrison in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Coming up, what happens in Gaza now that Biden is threatening to hold back weapons from Israel? Catastrophic flooding around the world? And a guide to going into business for yourself.
--:-- Mark Garrison: First to the war in Gaza, where the Biden administration has been trying to prevent Israel from launching a full-scale ground assault on Rafah. The U.S. has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he should not go ahead without a clear plan to protect the more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there.
--:-- Julian Borger: The last president who did that was President Reagan. This is a really unusual thing for an American president to do, given the history of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, and given the political sensitivities in both countries about that relationship and about the flow of arms from one to the other.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Over the years, the U.S. has sent Israel tens of billions of dollars in aid. Biden also recently approved an additional $15 billion. And not all weapons shipments to Israel have been put on hold yet.
--:-- Julian Borger: It does make an impact. The question is whether it's a decisive impact. It doesn't make a difference in terms of the capabilities of the IDF to go into Gaza. They have lots of weapons. They have lots of capability. But for a U president to send this signal is really historic.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Still, Borger says there is a lot of support within Israel's war cabinet for a Rafah offensive. But not everyone inside the Israel Defense Forces is eager to invade. Some in the IDF do not think the Rafah is worth it, that Hamas will not be finally destroyed. They will have escaped somewhere else and that the cost to the IDF will be too high and the cost to Israel politically will be too high.
--:-- Julian Borger: Netanyahu's basically dismissing Biden's warning about holding back weapons. He says if Israel has to stand alone, it will.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Now to some other stories that we're following. The UN is expected to vote today on a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member. Palestine has been a non-member observer state since 2012. But Palestinians have long wanted full membership status.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Today's vote won't get them there. The UN Security Council would have to approve it. In April, the U.S. vetoed a widely supported attempt to upgrade Palestine's status.
--:-- Mark Garrison: In Washington, the Biden administration is proposing a new rule that would speed up deportation for some migrants. The move would accelerate the process for people who are not eligible for asylum. Right now, that can take years, but the new rule would allow for decisions to be made in a matter of days.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The administration says it would help ID those who may be security risks and don't have a legal basis to stay in America. The new rule could go into effect later this year.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And there are new developments in the fatal shooting of a black U.S. airman in Florida. A sheriff's deputy shot and killed Roger Fortson in his own apartment last week. The sheriff's department has now released body cam footage from the incident, but that hasn't settled the dispute over what happened.
--:-- Mark Garrison: It started with a call reporting a disturbance. The family says law enforcement knocked on the wrong door, which the sheriff's office disputes. The video shows Fortsen answering the door with a gun in his hand that was not pointed at the deputy.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Roughly two seconds after the door opens, the deputy opens fire. The state is investigating.
--:-- Mark Garrison: We're in the middle of a global crisis, with deadly flooding around the world. Hundreds are dead in Kenya and Brazil, and hundreds of thousands of people are displaced by the rushing waters.
--:-- Mark Garrison: It's the latest example of something we're seeing worldwide. Severe weather is getting more severe because of climate change. In Kenya, today is a national day of mourning for flood victims.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The rainy season in East Africa has been far more intense this year. That's in part because of climate change driven by human actions, including people who live far away from the flood zone.
--:-- Jeffrey Boya: It's about time that the government and other stakeholders come up with adaptive measures to enable us to live with these conditions. And seeing all these effects now really puts me in a scary moment for my future and for my generation.
--:-- Mark Garrison: There's also devastation in Brazil. Cities submerged, bridges collapsed, streets turned into rivers. Rescue operations are still underway. So many people are stranded. Cut off from food and drinking water. Authorities estimate over a million people are affected.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Like in Kenya, the waters are deadlier because of environmental damage. Experts say climate change, urbanization, and deforestation made things worse. Rain patterns in Brazil are now more extreme and less predictable.
--:-- Chris Turney: It's a tragic situation. This is actually the fourth major flooding these poor people in southern Brazil have suffered from over the last year. And this one's the worst for 80 years, but it's very much falling into a pattern, a combination of absolutely horrific conditions combining to create this extreme event.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And the threat is not over. Brazil has more heavy rain in the forecast.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Finally, more and more Americans are becoming their own bosses. Last year, nearly four out of ten did at least some freelance work. The number of self-employed people is steadily increasing.
--:-- Mark Garrison: The benefits are you have a tremendous amount of autonomy over your day-to-day life. And to me, that's the thing that determines whether or not you like your life.
--:-- Paco De Leon: That's really it. Just the simplest form of what a business is. At the end of the day, running a business, working for yourself, is all about a way that you can deliver something valuable or deliver a solution to somebody's problem.
--:-- Mark Garrison: That's Paco De Leon, our guest this week on Apple News In Conversation. She's a business consultant and host of the Weird Finance podcast.
--:-- Mark Garrison: She told guest host Julia Carpenter, who's filling in for Shamita while on maternity leave, that if you're thinking about making the jump, make sure you're clear on what you have to offer.
--:-- Paco De Leon: At the end of the day, running a business, working for yourself, is all about a way that you can deliver something valuable or deliver a solution to somebody's problem.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Of course, making a career change takes a lot of planning and a careful look at your finances. And being your own boss can also mean being your own HR department and accountant.
--:-- Mark Garrison: We got listener calls asking for tips on how to make it all work when you finally decide to take the leap, including this one from Ryan in Georgia.
--:-- Ryan: I've always wanted to break out on my own and try to be an independent mobile app developer. But the number one thing holding me back is that I have a family with small kids, and I don't know what we would do for health insurance if I didn't have my W-2 income.
--:-- Paco De Leon: By far, health insurance is the number one reason people are too afraid to take the leap.
--:-- Mark Garrison: And she offers advice on dealing with that and other common concerns for starting a business.
--:-- Mark Garrison: To hear all of her tips on how to make your self-employment dreams come true, keep listening. The full conversation is queued up to play next if you're listening in the Apple News app or you can find the episode by searching for Apple News In Conversation in the podcasts app.
--:-- Mark Garrison: Enjoy the weekend and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
