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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Thursday, November 16th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show: Seven months of civil war in Sudan, how strong numbers still aren't enough to keep Americans from feeling gloomy about the economy, and tips on how to make the best of a busy holiday travel week.
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But first, let's take a quick look at some of the top stories in the news.
Israeli forces are pushing deeper into the northern part of Gaza, with signs that there could be more attacks on Gaza's south. Overnight, the air force dropped leaflets in parts of southern Gaza, urging people to evacuate. Leaflet drops like these often precede military escalation by Israel.
As the conflict grows, international pressure on Israel's government is increasing. Late yesterday the UN Security Council voted to back "extended humanitarian pauses" for a "number of days," to allow more aid to reach the millions of civilians facing starvation and sickness. Similar resolutions in the past were blocked by the United States. But in this case, the U.S. abstained, which allowed the measure to pass. UN resolutions like this are legally binding but generally difficult to enforce. This is the first on the Israel-Palestine conflict since 2016.
Elsewhere, President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have a deal to clamp down on materials from China that can make fentanyl, collaborate on artificial-intelligence safety, and resume communications between the countries' military leaders. Biden says their conversations at the summit in California were very constructive, and dialogue will continue.
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President Joe Biden: We're going to continue to preserve and pursue high level diplomacy with the PRC in both directions, to keep the lines of communications open, including between President Xi and me. He and I agreed that either one of us could pick up the phone, call directly and we will be heard immediately.
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While in the U.S., Xi also strongly hinted that China will allow new pandas to come to America, possibly to the San Diego Zoo. As we've mentioned on the show before, pandas are a sort of measure of diplomatic relations with China. The pandas at Washington's National Zoo were recently taken to China. And the last pandas at Atlanta's zoo may also be called back soon.
And in Washington, the finishing touches are happening on a deal to avoid a government shutdown this week. Yesterday, the Senate overwhelmingly voted to pass a stopgap spending bill sent over by the House. Next the president will sign it. After Thanksgiving, lawmakers will need to come together on full-year spending plans, ahead of the next government-shutdown deadline in January.
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Moving now to Sudan, and the growing humanitarian crisis after seven months of civil war between rival generals, each commanding powerful forces. Roughly six million people have been displaced from their homes. Many people are being killed. And there are no reliable figures as to how many, because aid groups and journalists have struggled to access the worst-affected areas.
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Nicholas Bariyo: There is no food. There's no water. Children are dying of malnutrition.
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Nicholas Bariyo covers East Africa for "The Wall Street Journal."
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Bariyo: Some of the refugees are sleeping in the open. There are no tents. There's no shelter. The agencies really do, and officials do, describe appalling situations.
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An attack on a refugee camp in Darfur earlier this month has raised concerns about genocide among human rights experts. The camp was home to about 30,000 non-Arab Sudanese people. Eyewitnesses say, hundreds of men and teenage boys were killed by troops from the Rapid Support Forces, or the RSF. It grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias, which was involved in the genocide in Darfur that started 20 years ago. The RSF has denied responsibility for the latest attacks. But human rights groups, the United States, and U.N. agencies all say, the RSF is to blame.
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Bariyo: They have been accused of committing a lot of atrocities, they single out civilians. They single out non-Arab tribes and execute them. So, there are worries that if this trend continues, then you're likely to see a return of what happened between 2003 to 2008, when more than a quarter of a million people were killed here.
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Bariyo says aid organizations have been overwhelmed by the number of people who need help, and they're struggling to reach people in need. In August, the U.N. requested $1 billion in funding for emergency response. So far, it has received less than half that. But aid groups tell Bariyo, they need more than just funding.
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Bariyo: They want the international agencies and donors to call on both parties to respect humanitarian officials, allow them to access people in need. They want countries like Egypt to be more open in terms of allowing in more refugees and also press these two sides to agree on the humanitarian truce. And a permanent ceasefire.
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Unless the fighting stops, the worry is civilians will have to endure a repeat of the bloodshed Darfur saw two decades ago.
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Now on to a story about the economy. The latest numbers show inflation in the U.S. getting further under control. Price data this week came in lower than expected. That may have sparked a nice little Wall Street rally. But chances are, the numbers won't do much to change the fairly pessimistic national mood about the economy.
This is a disconnect we've talked about on the show before. Despite strong data on economic growth and the job market, various polls show public disappointment in the economy, and criticism of Biden. Recent polls show, around half of Americans believe his policies are hurting them, or that they're worse off than when he took office.
"The Atlantic" goes deeper, into data beyond the economic indicators that get the most headlines. And it argues that the economic picture is much brighter than many people think. Data on Americans' income and net worth shows major improvement from 2019 to last year, even accounting for the historic slowdown during the worst of the pandemic. Many families are actually in better economic shape now than before COVID hit. Black and Latino households, in particular, made strong gains.
And "The Atlantic" says, aggressive government moves during the pandemic are a big reason behind these strong results. That includes stimulus payments, enhanced unemployment benefits, and the child-care tax credit. Biden and Congress moved trillions of dollars to shore up the economy.
But many voters don't seem to believe the government actions helped. And "The Atlantic" argues that this disconnect is a major problem. Both for Biden, as he campaigns for re-election and the economy remains top-of-mind for many voters. And for politicians more generally because if voters aren't happy with policy decisions that seem to have helped the economy, lawmakers might hesitate to make needed future policy moves to address the next economic crisis.
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We're about a week out from Thanksgiving, and you might be flying somewhere to visit loved ones for the holiday. Are you already stressing out about it? The thought of packed airports, and expensive tickets, and travel delays might be enough to make you rethink if the trip is even worth it.
Well, if you're gonna do it, there are some smart ways to plan for it. Scott Keyes is the founder and flight expert at going.com, previously known as Scott's Cheap Flights. He gave "NPR" some of his best tips. There are some usual suspects in the mix, like booking early-morning flights, which are less likely to be delayed than evening flights.
Keyes tells "NPR," your best bet for any major holiday is to travel on the holiday itself.
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Scott Keyes: You just see far fewer people traveling then, and with fewer people you tend to see lower fares and fewer disruptions, generally speaking. But for a lot of folks, you know, the whole point of traveling around the holidays is so that you can be with family on those days, not be traveling on them.
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And whenever you're flying, he expects things to go smoother than last year.
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Keyes: What you have seen so far in 2023 looks nothing like it did in 2022, the number of flights canceled so far this year has been at a rate, just about half of what it was in 2022.
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If you do happen to get stuck with a canceled flight or missed connection, Keyes says download your airline's phone app, a lot of those apps have gotten significantly better in the past few years at helping customers rebook flights themselves.
<v Keyes says his secret best advice for travel over the holidays is… just don't do it. And if you can wait a little bit, you can score a really great deal. There's one date that he likes to circle on his calendar every year>that's January 8th. That's around the time when flight prices drop 75 to 80 percent after the holiday rush.
If you want more tips from Keyes, those are in the Apple News app, along with all the stories we covered today.
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And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a Narrated Article coming up next. "Bloomberg Businessweek" looks at the next phase of Elon Musk's venture called Neuralink. It's looking for volunteers to have a tiny chip implanted in their brains.
If you're listening in the Podcasts app, follow Apple News+ Narrated to find that story.
Enjoy listening to that, and we'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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