[INTRO MUSIC BEGINS]
Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Monday December 11th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show: New moves by the U.S. involving the war in Gaza, why the lack of diversity in medical studies is a problem, and Miyazaki's new movie makes box-office history.
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
First to Gaza, where Israel's military campaign has expanded from Gaza City in the north, down into the south, an area where many Gaza City residents had fled to find shelter from previous attacks. Aid organizations say the expanding battlefield is making it even more difficult to get aid to civilians.
As civilian deaths increase, top Biden administration officials have made more public statements saying Israel should be more careful about civilian casualties as it expands the fight against Hamas. But at the same time, the U.S. is taking major steps in support of Israel and its military strategy. There are two major recent developments.
On Friday, the United States vetoed a proposal for an immediate ceasefire from the UN Security Council. As a permanent member of the Security Council, the U.S. has veto power. And it often uses it to block resolutions perceived as against Israel's interest, even measures with broad international support. The U.S. was the only member that voted against this resolution, with officials saying they oppose a ceasefire because they believe it would benefit Hamas. The latest ceasefire vote came out of a major move by UN Secretary General Antonio Gutérres. As we told you about last week, he invoked the rarely used Article 99 to get this proposal to the Security Council. Guterres says he won't give up on his ceasefire effort.
Also, the Biden administration is taking the unusual step of allowing the sale of roughly 14,000 rounds of tank artillery to Israel without Congressional approval. Its using an emergency authority in the Arms Export Control Act to push through $106.5 million of tank rounds to Israel quickly. Critics say the move to go around Congress is at odds with the administration's statements that Israel needs to limit civilian deaths.
We'll hear much more about aid to Israel this week. Congress is considering a package of new money for it and Ukraine. But it's been held up by Republicans who also want more border-security funds as part of the deal. Tomorrow President Biden hosts Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It's part of his push to get lawmakers to strike a deal.
[TENSE SYNTH MUSIC FADES IN]
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
Now, let's take a quick look at some other stories in the news.
In Tennessee, tens of thousands of people have been displaced or suffered through power outages, after a series of powerful tornadoes and storms hit the state over the weekend. At least six people are dead, including a young child. Emergency officials are helping arrange temporary shelter, and the region is preparing for a long rebuilding effort.
University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill is out, stepping down amid criticism of her Congressional testimony last week. At a hearing on antisemitism on college campuses, Magill and other university presidents were heavily criticized for failing to clearly say that calls for genocide of Jewish people were harassment. Penn's board chair, Scott Bok, also resigned.
And the Texas Supreme Court has temporarily halted a lower-court order that would've allowed an abortion for a woman carrying a fetus with a condition dangerous to the fetus and the mother. We talked about this case on Friday. The state supreme court didn't rule on the merits of the case, or say when it might deliver a definitive ruling.
[CALM MUSIC FADES IN]
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
Medical research has a long-running problem: ignoring people of color. White people account for 60 percent of the U.S. population, but they represent 75% of clinical trial participants. And there are major medical consequences to this.
[START THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ARCHIVAL SCENE]
Dominique Mosbergen: That has led to drugs being developed that haven't been proven safe and effective in all populations.
[END THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ARCHIVAL SCENE]
That's Dominique Mosbergen from "The Wall Street Journal."
[START THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ARCHIVAL SCENE]
Mosbergen: We know that genetic traits that people inherit from their ancestors can influence their risk for some diseases. But because research into these traits has focused on mostly white people, there are significant knowledge gaps about such risks in other groups. Also, some devices that have been developed based mostly on white patients have also been shown to be less effective in people of color.
[END THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ARCHIVAL SCENE]
Like pulse oximeters, which measure blood-oxygen levels through your fingertip.
[START THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ARCHIVAL SCENE]
Mosbergen: Research has shown that darker skin pigmentation influences the accuracy How problematic this was became apparent during the COVID 19 pandemic when it was a way for people to test whether or not their COVID symptoms were severe and whether or not, you know, they needed to be hospitalized.
[END THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ARCHIVAL SCENE]
Over the last few years, there's been a big push to make more progress to diversify medical research. One clinical geneticist told Mosbergen, the murder of George Floyd, in 2020, pushed the medical industry into action.
Today, researchers are working with doctors and patients to design better studies, hire more recruiters of color, open research sites in diverse communities, and pay better so that more low-income people can participate in studies. The Food and Drug Administration is prepping guidelines that would require pharmaceutical companies to explain plans to recruit diverse clinical trial participants.
Researchers hope as medical data gets more diverse, safer and more effective treatment and prevention options will be available for people of color. And everyone. As one researcher put it to Mosbergen: "Good representation is good science. It really helps all of us."
[UPBEAT MUSIC FADES IN]
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
The number one movie in America is "The Boy and the Heron," from the legendary creator of animated worlds, Hayao Miyazaki. It's the first original anime film to top the domestic box office.
Miyazaki's singular vision has won him passionate fans around the world. And nobody expected he would make this movie. People assumed the 82-year-old creator of classics like "Spirited Away" had finally retired, after making his last feature film "The Wind Rises" a decade ago.
Whether you are one of those passionate fans, or even if you've never seen one of his films, you might enjoy reading two stories about Miyazaki from "The Ringer." One looks at how he earned fans from so many different communities over the years, from serious cinephiles to middle schoolers. And the other story explains how the Japanese filmmaker finally became popular in America. It's one of those twisty, Hollywood stories that involves a well-timed deal with Disney, and the power of a mostly-forgotten technology, VHS tapes.
[OUTRO MUSIC FADES IN]
You can read those stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a Narrated Article coming up next from "Time Magazine," which interviewed Taylor Swift for the Person of the Year cover story. She talks about the arc of her career, her relationship with Travis Kelce, and why the Eras tour is quote, "harder than anything I'd ever done before by a long shot."
If you're listening in the Podcasts app, follow Apple News+ Narrated to find that story.
And we'll be back with the news tomorrow.
[MUSIC FADES OUT]