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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It’s Tuesday, October 17th. I’m Shumita Basu. This is “Apple News Today.” On today’s show… How the House leadership crisis is jeopardizing Biden’s plans to help Israel and Ukraine, another court-imposed gag order for Trump, and a giant new map of our brains may lead to breakthrough treatments.
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But first, millions of people in Gaza are running out of food and water. Dozens of trucks carrying aid are backed up in Egypt, waiting for Israel to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza. Air strikes continue to hit the area. All this while Israeli ground troops are prepared to invade, and Hamas is believed to be holding close to 200 hostages inside Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing global criticism, and plenty of anger inside his own country. Noga Tarnopolsky reported from Jerusalem for "New York Magazine" on the internal political divisions there.
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Noga Tarnopolsky: Everybody holds this terror group, Hamas, responsible for the attack. A growing number of people are holding Netanyahu personally, and his government, responsible for bringing Israel to this place of such a vulnerability where an attack like this could happen.
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People she spoke to were especially shocked that the military was caught so off-guard by Hamas’s attack.
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Tarnopolsky: You have thousands of heartbroken citizens from the south who keeps saying, where was the army? These are people who either their families were slaughtered or they themselves somehow survived, but they were stuck in bomb proof shelters for, like, 14 hours before anyone came to help them.
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Israel has mandatory military service. Tarnopolsky points out, this means the relationship between the people and the army is one of close understanding. Netanyahu’s relationship with the military was deteriorating before Hamas attacked. Many reservists joined massive protests against his attempts to weaken the court system.
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Tarnopolsky: As a result, the Netanyahu government basically, declared war on the army. Every time a warning was issued by army officers, the government responded as if this was just politicized crap and didn't take the warning seriously. Army brigades were moved from guarding the nation's borders to guarding illegal settlements in the West Bank. So, you have a sense now of Israelis kind of rising up and embracing the army and enraged against the government.
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Netanyahu has faced numerous threats to his power over his career. But Tarnopolsky says this longtime political survivor may not be around once the war is over. She says even some of his allies see him as politically dead.
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Netanyahu has recently had a frosty relationship with President Biden. But U.S. support for Israel goes back decades, and Biden will visit Israel tomorrow to underscore that.
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There are also thousands of U.S. troops on standby to travel to the region. They probably would set up in a neighboring country, and not enter Israel. The Pentagon has already moved ships and aircraft in the region to signal its support.
At the same time, Biden has signaled that funding for Ukraine remains a high priority too. Recently on "60 Minutes," he was asked whether the United States could help both allies at the same time.
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President Joe Biden: We're the United States of America, for God's sake. The most powerful nation in the history, not in the world, in the history of the world. The history of the world. We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense.
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But in reality, very little can be done to authorize new funding without a Speaker in the House of Representatives. It’s been two weeks since Senator Kevin McCarthy was voted out. It’s not clear that Jim Jordan has enough support from fellow Republicans to win in an expected vote today. But he has picked up a few votes from some key holdouts.
The House leadership crisis comes at a critical time for the White House. Biden wants to keep military aid flowing. He originally asked Congress to approve $24 billion for Ukraine through the end of this year. But some Republicans were opposed to continuing to provide aid. Biden’s next request is expected to be even bigger, to include aid to Israel too.
"Vox" looks at the long history of American support there. Since World War II, the U.S. has given more aid to Israel than to any other country in the world, sending close to $4 billion annually in recent years. That U.S. funding has helped boost Israeli surveillance and fortify its Iron Dome missile-defense system. But right now, Biden’s foreign policy goals for Israel and Ukraine are the latest priorities to get stuck in a dysfunctional Congress.
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Now, let’s take a quick look at some other stories in the news.
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In China, Russian President Vladimir Putin is visiting the country’s leader Xi Jinping. This is only Putin’s second known trip abroad since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in March. China has broadly called for peace in Ukraine, but still maintains close ties with Russia. The meeting comes as Ukraine’s counteroffensive has made slow progress. And recent attempts by Russia to mount an assault of its own have largely not gone well.
President Trump is under a limited gag order, imposed by the judge in his federal trial involving charges of election interference. That means he’s been ordered to avoid attacking prosecutors, witnesses, and court personnel. He is allowed to criticize Biden, and it’s also fine to say the case against him is politically motivated. Trump is expected to appear in a New York court today, in a different civil-fraud case. The judge in that case also imposed a gag order on Trump after he attacked a law clerk on social media. Trump has broadly denied wrongdoing.
And in other legal news, a new Supreme Court ruling leaves Biden administration regulations on so-called ghost guns in place. These are firearms made from build-it-yourself kits, which means they’re very hard for law enforcement to trace. The new regulations require strict record-keeping. A federal judge had put those rules on hold, but the high court now says they should be in effect while legal battles continue.
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And finally, a major breakthrough in science. Researchers have built the largest ever atlas of the human brain. Scientist Ed Lein talked to "NPR" about the potential.
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Ed Lein: You can use this map to understand what actually happens in disease and what kinds of cells may be vulnerable or affected.
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The detailed guide to the location, structure, and function of brain cells could further understanding of conditions ranging from depression to Alzheimer’s. The project includes a kind of dictionary that lets scientists look up how certain types of brain cells connect with specific genetic changes.
The atlas may also make it easier to determine what makes our brains unique from animals, and how we each come to develop different personalities.
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There are 170 billion cells in our brains. And Lein says this atlas is like a first draft at capturing the complexity of what our brains do.
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 about what makes us want to follow our exes and enemies on social media. "Vox" looks into the psychology behind this urge to keep tabs on people we dislike.
If you’re listening in the Podcasts app, follow Apple News+ Narrated to find that story. And I’ll be back with the news tomorrow.
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