--:-- Shamita Basu: Hey, podcast listeners, it's Shamita here. Every once in a while, we're going to recommend a show worth checking out. This week, it's Slate's new season of one year, covering the year 1942. What happens to a country under maximum stress? Just look at America's home front at the dawn of World War II.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In this season, Slate tells stories from the distant past that sound like they've been pulled from the present day. You'll hear about runaway inflation and the man who was desperate to stop it, about how the country dealt with massive loads of disinformation, and about a worker revolt that changed music forever. Listen to One Year 1942 on Apple Podcasts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, November 1st. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, a surge in respiratory illness is straining children's hospitals. The Supreme Court case that could impact voting rights. And why a work by a famous artist accidentally hung upside down for decades.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But first, mortgage rates crossed a scary line recently. For the first time in two decades, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has topped 7%. NPR economics correspondent Chris Arnold explains how rising rates affect the market and would-be buyers.
--:-- Chris Arnold: That adds about $1,000 to the monthly payment to buy a typical house. And that's just slammed the brakes on the housing market. The number of homes getting sold has fallen every month for the past eight months in a row. And it is definitely not a frenzied, overheated housing market anymore.
--:-- Chris Arnold: These rates have some people rethinking home ownership altogether. BuzzFeed profiled a Georgia woman who recently bought a house. She'd gotten pre-approved for a mortgage around 3.5%, which is way below current rates. But at the time, the housing market was hot, and she missed out on homes that went into bidding wars.
--:-- Chris Arnold: By the time she had an offer accepted, rates had jumped, sending her payments higher. She also had repairs to make that her inspector didn't catch. She needed to cut back on spending and dip into her savings. She proud to be the first in her family to own a home but the future isn clear.
--:-- Chris Arnold: And she wonders whether the system sets people like her up for failure. The market is changing but housing analysts don expect lots of Americans to lose their homes like in the crash that started in 2007.
--:-- Chris Arnold: NPR's Arnold explains why. Back during the housing bubble, millions of people had subprime mortgages with truly crazy terms. I mean, I remember this with the payments adjusted higher, they were impossible to afford, and that led to a wave of foreclosures and we had a glut of homes, way too many homes.
--:-- Chris Arnold: Today, it's the opposite. We have a housing shortage and people have fixed rates, safe mortgages that they can afford. This dynamic also affects the rental market. Higher rates could prevent renters from becoming homeowners. The thing is, rents have also been skyrocketing lately, along with inflation and other living expenses.
--:-- Chris Arnold: The Wall Street Journal looks at different ways that renters are coping, including getting roommates or moving in with family to save money. But there could be hope. Apartment vacancies rose a bit recently, so landlords might feel pressure to cut prices.
--:-- Chris Arnold: The Fed is meeting this week, so expect a lot more discussion about inflation, housing, and the economy. You can find more coverage in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Children's hospitals across the country are seeing a surge in cases of common respiratory illnesses. Nationally, about 80% of pediatric hospital beds are occupied. I spoke with doctors in Boston who had said that at times this past month, the closest pediatric bed that was open was in Washington, D.C., which is obviously not ideal.
--:-- Jonathan Lambert: That's Jonathan Lambert, a public health reporter at GRID. He says there's a couple of things happening at the same time that's putting a strain on hospitals. There's an unusually high number of kids getting hospitalized for RSV, a common virus that started surging in August earlier than expected.
--:-- Jonathan Lambert: We're already seeing an early and severe flu season. Many health care settings are still dealing with staffing shortages. and there's the looming threat of COVID cases increasing as the weather gets colder and more people spend time gathered indoors.
--:-- Jonathan Lambert: Lambert says all of this means lots of children's hospitals are operating at or near capacity. And the idea that that could extend through much of the winter I think is really concerning to a lot of physicians and clinicians and nurses at these hospitals
--:-- Jonathan Lambert: Lambert says there are a few reasons for the uptick in respiratory viruses right now. Generally people aren wearing masks or social distancing as much as they were in the beginning of the pandemic.
--:-- Jonathan Lambert: Plus, during lockdowns, young kids weren't as exposed to viruses, so their natural immunity may have waned. And so we're getting this kind of combination of more opportunity for the virus to spread, meeting a much more susceptible population.
--:-- Jonathan Lambert: And that's led to just this big surge in cases. There are a few familiar steps that can keep families safe and help give hospitals some relief as they work through the surge. Vaccines, washing your hands, staying home when you're sick, and wearing a mask can all go a long way.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One week to go before Election Day, which means that we've got another episode of our special election series from Apple News today. This one is all about access to the polls and voting rights, and it goes well beyond the midterms.
--:-- Shamita Basu: My colleague Gideon Resnick is back with me now. So Gideon, what are we going to hear about in this episode?
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Yeah, quite a bit. So I spoke with Janae Nelson. She is the president and director counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. And one thing she really highlighted is the importance of a recent Supreme Court case that we had actually previously covered on the show.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: It's Merrill v. Milligan. It's seen as a really critical case for the future of the Voting Rights Act. Right. And remind us who's involved in this case and how it made its way to the Supreme Court.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Sure. So it has to do with the newest congressional map that was drawn in Alabama. That map contained just one majority Black district in a state that is 27% Black. A three-judge panel in the state, two of whom are Trump appointees, unanimously said that Alabama must create a second district in which Black voters would be a majority or close to it.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: So Alabama appeals, the Supreme Court stepped in, and they blocked the lower court's ruling, meaning that the map as drawn is going to be used for this year's election. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case last month.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Right. So what did Janae Nelson have to say about all this? For one thing, a senior counsel for the LDF was representing the plaintiffs during oral arguments. So they are close to the case.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: They look at it and they think it's pretty open and shut. When you see Black voters continually crammed into a single district and the remaining Black population spread out among the other districts, you realize that there is an effort to deny Black political power in that process.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: And even if it not intentional that the result and that a result that is anti and that violates the Voting Rights Act. But she did say that the ultimate ruling could have big impacts beyond Alabama
--:-- Gideon Resnick: This could have significant significant ramifications for what tools we have to combat voter suppression, to combat racial discrimination in voting going forward. My hope is that the justices recognize what's at stake and recognize that our democracy is on the line in this case and that they do the right thing and they continue to uphold the expansive view of the Voting Rights Act that they've had.
--:-- Gideon Resnick: Sounds like this is a case that we're going to continue to have our eyes on even after the midterms.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Gideon, thanks so much for joining. Yeah, thank you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you want to hear more about the state of voting rights heading into the midterms, check out the latest special episode from Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A painting by one of the world's most famous artists has been hanging upside down for decades. And the museum curator says she's not going to flip it. The Guardian has the story of the piece by Piet Mondrian.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's at a museum in Dusseldorf. It's in line with his best-known stuff. You know, stripes of red, yellow, and blue over a white background. This one is called New York City One, and it looks like the Manhattan street grid that inspired it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But there's no signature to show which way is up, possibly because Mondrian didn't think it was finished. So museum staff made their best guess, they hung it up, and it stayed that way.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But recently, the curator was researching the museum's new show on Mondrian, and she found evidence that this artwork was inverted. including an old photo of his studio that showed this painting on an easel the other way around.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She says she's 100% convinced that it's hung wrong. And one reason she says she's going to leave it that way is to protect it. The piece dates back to 1941, and parts of it are colored tape.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Flipping it could cause that old tape to fall off. Besides, the curator says, the upside-down display is now part of the work's story. You can see the Montrean for yourself on the Apple News app, along with all the stories we talked about today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app, stick around. We've queued up the midterm election special to play next. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
