--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Thursday, December 9th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Democrats are hoping the president's Build Back Better plan can help more people get access to affordable housing. This bill would put $170 billion towards things like rental assistance and investment in public housing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, we're looking at how, even though the White House estimates its plan will create, rehab, or improve 1 million more affordable homes, that may not be enough.
--:-- Jerusalem Demsys: The key to understanding our housing problems is simple supply and demand. Since the pandemic, the price of homes and the demand for them has skyrocketed. But the supply hasn't kept up.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, the U.S. is facing a housing shortage of 3.8 million units, which is way more than the White House says its bill will help provide.
--:-- Jerusalem Demsys: Now, some of this money is specifically earmarked for subsidies for homeownership and renting. But don't forget, what we have here is a supply problem. If you give people more money and the supply of housing doesn't go up, what you get is rising prices.
--:-- Shamita Basu: All this government money could further heat up an already hot market.
--:-- Jerusalem Demsys: Demsus puts a lot of the blame on local zoning laws, which make it hard for new homes to be built. Some mandate minimum lot sizes, some ban duplexes or small apartment buildings. These choke off the supply of housing, which means fewer affordable places to live.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The zoning laws at play here are mostly local so the White House can make them go away with a single bill. But Dems says points out Washington can pressure states to do something about it.
--:-- Jerusalem Demsys: One example involves bars and roads Back in the 80s, a law said states that didn't raise the drinking age to 21 would not get federal highway money. Roads mattered, so states largely got with the program.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And some housing market watchers say that kind of pressure might help loosen up zoning laws and lead to more homes on the market.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: More than 100,000 people are dead, and 16 million are at risk of starvation in Yemen. And critics say the U.S. is taking steps that could make things worse for this country, which shares a border with Saudi Arabia.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At issue is a controversial new arms deal between the U.S. and the Saudis. A group of bipartisan senators tried to block it. Bernie Sanders, he crossed the aisle to join Republicans Rand Paul and Mike Lee.
--:-- Bernie Sanders: Sending more missiles to Saudi Arabia, which is involved in the fighting in Yemen, would be like pouring gasoline on an already raging fire.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the full Senate ultimately voted in favor of selling the weapons. The White House also supports the sales, saying the Saudis need to defend themselves against missile and drone attacks.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: That's at odds with President Biden's promises to end U.S. support for offensive operations in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This civil war in Yemen is drawing in old enemies. Saudi Arabia and Iran are backing different sides, and that's turned this conflict into a kind of proxy war for the two regional powers.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So many civilians are caught in the middle. They're suffering. They're starving. UNICEF says four out of every five children need humanitarian help
--:-- Shamita Basu: Fighting between forces in Yemen and the Saudi coalition has picked up dramatically in recent months Reuters describes the escalation as tit for tat The Saudi coalition carries out airstrikes. Then the Iran-aligned forces launch missiles into Saudi territory.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So far, efforts by the U.S. and the U.N. to broker a ceasefire have been unsuccessful.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Dozens of American soldiers are now getting Purple Hearts nearly two years after they were seriously injured in Iraq.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: This comes after CBS News brought these cases to the Pentagon's attention as part of an investigation into why these soldiers were denied the award and the medical benefits that come with it for so long.
--:-- Platoon Sergeant Dane Kassager: Everything shook. The whole earth shook. It felt like an earthquake and then just pressure moving through your body.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Since the attack, he's had vision and hearing problems, constant headaches, memory loss. But he and many others with serious injuries didn't get the Purple Heart.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, this is more than a medal for troops wounded in the line of duty. Recipients get priority care at VA hospitals, help with housing, education, and employment.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Soldiers and their families say there was pressure at the time to downplay the severity of the attacks. Then President Trump called it not very serious in a press conference.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: CBS's reporting helped shed new light on the soldiers' stories. And the military is still reviewing applications of several more soldiers who were at the base when it was attacked.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We're getting into some of the busiest shopping weeks of the holiday season and with that increase in online shopping there is an uptick in scams
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You've got to be cautious about those too-good-to-be-true deals.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal has tips about the latest schemes you need to be watching out for.
--:-- [Wall Street Journal]: Here, does this one sound familiar to you? You're clicking around online, and you see a banner ad for something that you've looked at before. And you might think, oh yeah, I was looking at those exact same gloves the other day.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: This is a sign from the internet gods. I should just click and buy them now. Well, you might want to be more skeptical than that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Scammers can set up targeted ads like this using cookies in your search history. They'll lure you in with something they know you're interested in. And when you click on it, it takes you to a website that mimics legit sellers like Amazon or eBay.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You put in your personal information and bam, you've been scammed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A safer bet is to buy from sites directly, not through a questionable ad.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: It's also much easier to miss a fraudulent credit card charge this time of year because so many people are buying more. Our monthly statements are longer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Last year, FBI numbers show Americans reported $130 million in credit card fraud losses. So check your accounts for fishy charges.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And it's not just shopping. Make sure you look out for charity scams that might dupe you into donating to some phony organization or text messages from companies that are posing as FedEx or another delivery service.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Double checking the sender's information and even running a quick Google search can save you a big headache later.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News Plus partners.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
