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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Monday, October 9th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show… Israel and Hamas are at war, a high-stakes fight over mining to make electric-vehicle batteries, and another record-breaking marathon performance.
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It was a deadly weekend. More than 700 people have been killed in Israel following Hamas's attack on Saturday. And in Gaza, more than 400 people were killed in Israeli counterattacks, with tens of thousands of Palestinians attempting to escape the strikes. To be clear, this is nothing like the smaller-scale violence that flares up in the region from time to time. This is already a conflict that's far bigger than anything in recent years, with the potential to escalate very quickly, and have sweeping, maybe even historic, impact far beyond the Middle East.
This is not a war between two states. Israel has a highly advanced military and the support of major allies like the United States. Hamas is a militant group backed by Iran. It's not the only representative of the Palestinian people. And throughout all these years of fighting, Palestinian civilians have borne the brunt of the suffering. Israel's retaliatory strikes over the weekend led to numerous civilian deaths, including many children in Gaza. Hospitals there are unable to care for all the wounded as Israeli attacks continue. And they're working largely without electricity. Israel controls most of Gaza's energy supply, which it shut down. Israel is also enforcing what the country’s defense minister calls a “siege” of Gaza, blocking food shipments and cutting off the water supply.
The Israeli civilian deaths include hundreds of people killed at a music festival. Hamas took some people there hostage. Holding them inside Gaza complicates the already difficult situation. Down the road, they could be swapped for some of the thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails. But for now, they're effectively human shields. So any Israeli attacks on Hamas targets won't just endanger Palestinian civilians, they could also kill Israeli hostages.
Hamas managed to completely surprise Israel, pulling off a complex and coordinated attack. Typically, Israeli intelligence is aware of major attacks in advance. It's now facing criticism for failing to anticipate such a large-scale assault. This is being called the country's greatest security failure in a half a century, when Israel failed to predict the attack by Egypt and Syria in 1973.
The U.S. provides billions in aid to Israel. And it's moving some military ships and aircraft closer to Israel in a show of support. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told "CNN" the U.S. will take care of additional requests for help with this conflict.
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Antony Blinken: President Biden's direction was to make sure that we're providing Israel everything it needs in this moment to deal with the attacks from Hamas.
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Blinken also said the U.S. State Department was looking into reports that several Americans have been killed in the fighting, and some possibly taken hostage.
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There are other ways the Israel-Hamas conflict is having an impact on American politics. The House still lacks a Speaker, which means it can't approve additional aid. So Democrats now say Republicans need to move faster to choose a new leader. Top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries told "CNN" that the leadership vacuum is endangering America's ability to help Israel, Ukraine, and other allies.
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Hakeem Jeffries: It's my hope that our Republican colleagues get their act together, can settle on a Speaker who can receive 217 votes and that we can move forward to get the business of the American people done.
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Over in the Senate, the new conflict in the Middle East has more criticism aimed at Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville. He's been blocking hundreds of military promotions as a protest against the Pentagon's abortion-access policy. Democrats say the situation Israel faces means he needs to drop his blockade. But Tuberville still says he won't budge until the Defense Department ends its policy of paying travel costs for members of the military seeking abortions.
And in other news from the weekend, in Afghanistan, more than 2,000 people are dead after a series of earthquakes, including one that was magnitude 6.3. Some aid is making it into the country, but progress is slow, and providing shelter for people whose homes were destroyed will get harder as the harsh winter sets in.
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Now to a major fight that will have enormous environmental consequences. It involves batteries for electric vehicles, which we'll need a lot more of to get away from fossil fuels. A remote area in Canada has tens of billions of dollars worth of nickel, copper, and cobalt, which are essential materials for EV batteries. But they're buried under peat bogs, which play a vital role in sucking carbon out of the atmosphere. So digging up the materials could release a lot of carbon back into the air. Mining companies, climate advocates, and Indigenous groups disagree on whether the potential risks that come with digging up these minerals are worth the potential rewards for the planet.
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"Wall Street Journal" reporter Vipal Monga traveled to this region, which is called 'The Ring of Fire.'
Vipal Monga: It's beautiful. It's so beautiful and untouched, I mean, in a way that really, as a human, you really feel like how pure, pristine this area is.
Picture lush forests, meandering rivers, interconnected wetlands. And under those wetlands, more carbon per square foot than the Amazon rainforest. Which means disrupting this landscape to dig up minerals could potentially release 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Now, mining companies say they can minimize impact. Indigenous groups in the area are split. Some want the project blocked, saying it will damage land and wildlife that are crucial to their survival. But some see economic opportunity.
Monga: For a lot of these communities, particularly Marten Falls and Webequie, you know, they want to really grow their communities and plug into, you know, what they see as the growth or progress of civilization in a lot of ways, and they feel like they shouldn't be blocked from those opportunities.
This is not the usual mining versus the environment fight. In this case, all sides claim they're working to help the planet. Monga says we're going to see more of these kinds of debates ahead, and face tough choices like this.
Monga: It really highlights the difficult trade-offs that are going to have to happen during the electricity transition. There's sort of a hope, I think, among people, kind of naive, that we'll be able to make this transition without paying a cost for it. And I think that this shows that any move away from fossil fuels is not going to be a free lunch, that you're gonna have to give up some things.
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And finally, another marathon record has fallen. In Chicago yesterday, 23-year-old Kelvin Kiptum from Kenya finished in a record 2 hours and 35 seconds. That beats the old mark by 34 seconds. And this was only his third career marathon. Here's how the record-breaking finish sounded on "NBC."
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Reporter: Wow! This is the future. For a man who said his family could not afford to get him to the track. For a man that went out on the roads in Kenya and put the work in. For a man that trained by himself and coached himself for a long time, this is what it's all about.
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This comes just weeks after the women's marathon record was smashed in Berlin by Tigst Assefa. These two record-breakers have got a lot of people talking about advances in shoe technology that are helping runners achieve faster-than-ever times. Kiptum was just half a minute away from breaking the two-hour barrier. And that could happen, soon, as shoes continue to improve.
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You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around.
We've got a narrated article coming up next from "The New Yorker." It looks at how two people known for research on why humans lie are now accused of fabricating data.
If you're listening in the Podcasts app, follow Apple News+ Narrated to find that story.
Enjoy that listen, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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