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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Tuesday, December 5th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show: The youngest and most vulnerable victims of the war in Gaza; Why it may never be a good time to buy a house; And Apple Podcasts announces the Show of the Year.
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A warning that this next story has some graphic details about newborns who died in a Gaza hospital.
We are learning more about disturbing video showing some of the youngest victims of the war between Israel and Hamas: premature babies, who died after a medical facility in Gaza City was evacuated. Hospital officials say the Israeli military ordered them to leave, and one was told ambulances would be arranged to move patients. Because several babies were premature and weak, staffers didn't think they would survive an evacuation. Hospital staff left them connected to breathing equipment in the hopes that someone would return and help. Days later, a journalist got inside and found them all dead.
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Mohammed Baalousha: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
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That's Mohammed Baalousha with the United Arab Emirates TV channel "Al-Mashhad." He describes what he sees in the abandoned neonatal intensive care unit at Al-Nasr Children's Hospital. The babies’ bodies are in an advanced stage of decomposition, having been exposed to the elements, still hooked up to respirators. The channel blurred parts of the video.
Other news outlets, including "The Washington Post" and "NBC News," have reviewed the unblurred video. "NBC" spoke to forensic pathologists who said the appearance of the bodies was consistent with the timeline of how long these babies were abandoned.
<v "The Post" spoke with a nurse who was caring for the babies before the evacuation. He's a Palestinian man who works with Doctors Without Borders, though he was at al-Nasr Hospital working in his own capacity. The nurse felt one of the babies was strong enough to survive leaving intensive care. So, he took that baby with him, and his family, as they evacuated. He left four other babies on breathing machines. He talked about what happened in a Doctors Without Borders video>
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Nurse: [SPEAKING ARABIC]
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He says, "To see my patients die in front of us is the hardest feeling I experienced in my life. Our hearts broke for them. We couldn't help them, take them, or treat them. We could barely get ourselves and our children out."
An Israeli military spokesperson told "The Post" that Israel didn't operate inside Al-Nasr Children's Hospital and didn't tell staffers they had to evacuate. The spokesperson declined to answer whether the Israeli military was told about the premature babies or tried to help them.
As for the nurse who saw the babies before they died, he says he needs psychiatric treatment. He's haunted by the babies he left, four more unarmed victims of conflict.
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Now, let's look at some major stories in the news, starting in Gaza where Israeli forces are intensifying their attacks on the south. This is a major expansion of the battlefield, where much of the previous fighting to date has been in and around Gaza City in the north. Previously, Israel warned civilians there to evacuate south. Now, the expansion of attacks there has international aid agencies deeply worried about a rise in civilian deaths in southern Gaza.
In U.S. politics, the stage is now set for the next GOP presidential debate tomorrow night. The event in Alabama will have the smallest field yet: Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie. Donald Trump is again skipping the debate. The latest Republican to drop out of the race was North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
And as world leaders meet in Dubai for the global climate summit, new research shows just how much work needs to be done. The Global Carbon Project reports that emissions from fossil fuels hit record levels again this year. And the projected rate of warming hasn't gotten better over the past two years.
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If you're looking to buy a house, you might be hoping that if you just wait a little longer, things will get better, right? At some point, the market has to cool down. Well, Annie Lowrey of "The Atlantic" argues, it might never be a good time to buy a house. So, if you're waiting for some magic moment where prices and mortgage rates drop, her advice is that you face reality and deal with the market as it is.
One reason things are not likely to change anytime soon is that since the last housing crash, we haven't built nearly enough homes. Freddie Mac estimates we're short nearly four million starter homes.
Also, mortgage rates have shot up. That makes homes less affordable for potential buyers. It also makes people in existing homes less likely to sell them. They don't want to let go of the low mortgage rates they locked in years ago. Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman talked about this on "CNBC" a couple months back.
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Glenn Kelman: With a three percent mortgage, there's no way they're gonna put that house on the market. So, we've had a downturn in sales volume, but an upturn in prices, and that means that the sales volume cramp is just gonna last a long, long time.
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As Lowrey puts it, nobody is selling because nobody is buying. And nobody is buying because nobody is selling.
At some point, the Fed is expected to start cutting its interest rates. That could help push down mortgage rates. But that might cause a different problem. Cheaper mortgages will juice demand for housing. Combine that with the short supply and you get higher prices.
The story has some advice for how to navigate this tricky market. The bottom line: Lowery says, if you can find something you can afford now, buy it, and refinance later if rates go down enough. Try to make as large of a down payment as you can. Or you may want to just consider renting. Just know if you are waiting for some kind of turnaround, you might be waiting a long, long time.
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Older women just know what's up. They've been through it. And that's why Emmy-award-winning actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been interviewing them on her podcast, "Wiser Than Me."
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Julia Louis-Dreyfus: When women get older, they become less visible, less heard, less seen in a way that really, it just doesn't happen with men. We are ignoring the wisdom of, like, more than half the population. It is just stunning to me that women, old women, and by the way, not even so old women, are so easily dismissed and made invisible by our culture.
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And now, our colleagues at Apple Podcasts are giving "Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus" the "Apple Podcasts Award for the Show of the Year." They call it hilarious, raw, and truly informative.
Louis-Dreyfus recently told "The Wall Street Journal" that after going through treatment for breast cancer, she's trying to live more mindfully and seek out advice from women who inspire her. People like Jane Fonda, who's 85 years old, fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg, 76, and 73-year-old writer Fran Lebowitz.
Here's a bit of the conversation with fellow comedy icon Carol Burnett, who had advice on how to deal with rejection.
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Carol Burnett: I can't remember what I was auditioning for, but it wasn't a big deal. And it narrowed down to me and another girl. And I thought I had it. I thought I had it. But I didn't. She had it. But what saved me was, and I don't know where this came from, but I'm grateful, I thought: "Well, you know what? It's her turn."
Louis-Dreyfus: Right.
Burnett: "It's not my turn yet."
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[OUTRO MUSIC]
You can find "Wiser Than Me" in the Apple Podcasts app. And all the stories we talked about today are in the Apple News app. If you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around. We've got a Narrated Article coming up next from "The Hollywood Reporter." It's a deep dive into the troubles of X, formerly known as Twitter, and the former NBCUniversal exec with the tough job of fixing it. I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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