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Why a U.S.-led coalition launched new airstrikes on Yemen · Apple News Today

• 0:00
  [MUSIC FADES IN]
• 0:05
  Mark Garrison, Narrating: Good morning. It's Friday, January 12th.
• 0:07
  I'm Mark Garrison in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today."
• 0:12
  On today's show, Israel defends itself against an allegation of genocide,
• 0:16
  why it's getting so hard to find and afford home and auto insurance,
• 0:21
  and the inside story
• 0:22
  of how politics became such a big part of the American evangelical movement.
• 0:31
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 0:34
  But first, a U.S.-led military coalition
• 0:36
  has launched a large-scale series of attacks inside Yemen,
• 0:40
  a major expansion of the Middle East battlefield
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  as war rages in Gaza.
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  The airstrikes were targeting Houthi militants
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  backed by Iran.
• 0:48
  For months, the Houthis have been attacking commercial ships in the region,
• 0:51
  disrupting global trade.
• 0:54
  Recently, U.S. and allied forces increased
• 0:57
  their naval presence in the region to try to secure the shipping lanes.
• 1:00
  They fired on Houthi attackers at sea,
• 1:03
  but now the U.S. is taking the fight to their bases in Yemen
• 1:06
  with a series of attacks on dozens of targets.
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  They hit Houthi air defenses, radar, and missile and drone launching sites.
• 1:14
  Houthi leaders say that at least five people were killed there,
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  and the U.S. and its allies will, quote, "pay a heavy price" for the attacks.
• 1:22
  President Biden says the strikes were needed
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  because of the danger Houthi attacks at sea pose
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  to civilian and military ships and international trade.
• 1:31
  The waters off the coast of Yemen lead to the Suez Canal,
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  which is vital to moving goods and fuel around the world.
• 1:37
  Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton told "CNN"
• 1:41
  that such a large attack
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  could provoke a major new response from the Houthi rebels.
• 1:46
  [START CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 1:46
  Cedric Leighton: What can happen here is that the Houthis are going to respond
• 1:49
  first to the U.S. ships and British ships in the Red Sea.
• 1:53
  Then they could possibly target installations in Saudi Arabia
• 1:56
  that could very much inflame tensions
• 2:00
  throughout the southern Arabian Peninsula at this particular point.
• 2:02
  [END CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 2:03
  Garrison, Narrating: Recent U.S. diplomatic efforts have focused on preventing the war in Gaza
• 2:07
  from sparking broader regional conflicts.
• 2:10
  Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman was on "NPR" reporting on the many places
• 2:14
  where violence is spreading.
• 2:15
  [START NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 2:16
  Tom Bowman: The administration is saying this is not a widening of the war,
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  but let's face it, even before the airstrikes in Yemen tonight,
• 2:22
  we were seeing the regional conflict expanding.
• 2:24
  Iranian-backed militias have continued attacks
• 2:27
  on U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq,
• 2:29
  with the Pentagon logging, get this, 120 attacks since October.
• 2:33
  And a recent assault in Erbil, Iraq, left three service members wounded,
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  one critically injured with a head wound from shrapnel.
• 2:42
  And after its attack on Gaza, Israel has exchanged fire
• 2:45
  with Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon,
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  and more recently, of course, killed a senior Hamas official in Beirut.
• 2:52
  The United States, for its part, also killed
• 2:55
  a senior Iranian-affiliated militia leader in Baghdad,
• 2:59
  who the U.S. says was behind these attacks on U.S. forces in the country.
• 3:03
  [END NPR ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 3:04
  Garrison, Narrating: Another question is how the Houthis' ally, Iran, will respond.
• 3:07
  It's already shown a willingness to be more aggressive.
• 3:10
  Before the U.S. airstrikes in Yemen,
• 3:12
  Iran's navy seized an oil tanker in another part of the region.
• 3:15
  [AMBIENT MUSIC FADES IN]
• 3:16
  That's part of a long-running dispute
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  over the U.S. seizure of Iranian oil a year ago,
• 3:20
  which a court found was being traded illegally in violation of sanctions.
• 3:35
  Now let's take a brief look at some other stories in the news.
• 3:39
  Today, Israel is responding to South Africa's genocide claim
• 3:42
  against the country at the International Court of Justice.
• 3:45
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
• 3:46
  Tal Becker, legal advisor for Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
• 3:49
  said that South Africa's allegations were wrong.
• 3:52
  [START ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 3:52
  Tal Becker: The applicant has regrettably put before the court
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  a profoundly distorted factual and legal picture.
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  The entirety of its case hinges
• 4:01
  on a deliberately curated, decontextualized,
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  and manipulative description of the reality of current hostilities.
• 4:10
  [END ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 4:10
  Garrison, Narrating: Becker argues that Israel is defending itself against Hamas,
• 4:14
  not targeting Palestinian civilians, and that South Africa's case fails
• 4:18
  to properly take into account the Hamas attacks on October 7th.
• 4:23
  In U.S. legal news, yesterday, there were closing arguments
• 4:26
  in former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York.
• 4:30
  There was a question as to whether Trump would be allowed to speak in court.
• 4:33
  Eventually, the judge agreed if Trump would stick to the facts of the case.
• 4:37
  But at one point, the judge cut him off,
• 4:39
  telling his attorney to, quote, "Control your client."
• 4:42
  The attorney general's office argued that Trump "acted with intent"
• 4:45
  to fraudulently inflate the value of his assets.
• 4:48
  The judge in the case says he hopes to rule by the end of the month.
• 4:51
  Trump's attorneys say they will appeal.
• 4:54
  In California,
• 4:55
  Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to nine tax charges.
• 4:59
  They're a mix of felonies and misdemeanors,
• 5:00
  including failing to file and pay taxes, tax evasion, and filing false returns.
• 5:06
  Earlier, a deal to plead guilty to some charges fell apart.
• 5:09
  The trial is expected in June.
• 5:12
  And in Ohio, an update on a story we talked about on the show before.
• 5:16
  A grand jury declined to indict Brittany Watts.
• 5:20
  She experienced a pregnancy loss in her bathroom at home
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  and was later accused of abusing a corpse.
• 5:25
  Watts spoke out after the decision.
• 5:28
  [START WKBN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 5:28
  Brittany Watts: I want to thank my community, Warren. Warren, Ohio.
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  I was born here. I was raised here. I graduated high school here.
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  And I'm going to continue to stay here because I have to continue to fight.
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  [END WKBN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 5:42
  Garrison, Narrating: The case was seen by reproductive rights advocates
• 5:44
  as a dangerous example of the kinds of prosecutions that could be more common
• 5:48
  [AMBIENT MUSIC FADES IN]
• 5:49
  after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
• 6:01
  Communities across the United States caught in this week's severe weather,
• 6:05
  including tornadoes and flooding,
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
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  are now working to recover from significant damage.
• 6:11
  In Alabama, Crystal Pendleton stood in front of her father's home
• 6:14
  and told the local "ABC" station about seeing how a tornado destroyed it.
• 6:18
  [START ABC ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 6:19
  Crystal Pendleton: To drive up to something that is this devastating,
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  to know that my dad has worked his whole life
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  to have what he had.
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  And in one swoop, it's just all gone.
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  [END ABC ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 6:34
  Garrison, Narrating: Climate change is making severe weather more common and more destructive.
• 6:38
  People fortunate enough to have insurance can get money to rebuild.
• 6:42
  But coverage is harder to come by these days.
• 6:44
  Insurance companies have had tens of billions
• 6:47
  in net underwriting losses after so many disasters.
• 6:50
  So they're raising premiums,
• 6:51
  making it harder for families to get coverage.
• 6:54
  And in some cases, they're not offering insurance.
• 6:57
  "The Wall Street Journal" reports
• 6:58
  on how both home and auto insurance payments
• 7:01
  are straining people's budgets.
• 7:03
  In some states, insurance companies have increased their rates
• 7:05
  by more than 20%.
• 7:08
  And some homeowners are finding that their insurance companies
• 7:10
  are choosing not to renew policies, leaving them scrambling for coverage,
• 7:15
  like thousands of people living in parts of North Carolina
• 7:17
  that are prone to hurricanes.
• 7:19
  The company Nationwide Mutual said
• 7:21
  it won't renew home insurance policies for them anymore.
• 7:25
  If an insurance company isn't sure how risky something will be,
• 7:29
  it either charges higher premiums or refuses to cover it.
• 7:34
  A recent industry analysis says climate change
• 7:36
  and the increasingly extreme weather
• 7:38
  will make it harder for insurance companies
• 7:40
  to predict future risk.
• 7:42
  [GENTLE MUSIC FADES IN]
• 7:42
  That could mean more companies stop providing insurance in some places.
• 7:46
  As the CEO of Allstate puts it, "There will be insurance deserts."
• 8:00
  Finally, we're heading into the weekend before Monday's Iowa caucuses,
• 8:03
  the first real test for the Republican presidential candidates.
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  One bloc that's likely to play a consequential role in Iowa
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  [MUSIC FADES OUT]
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  and throughout the campaign is evangelical voters.
• 8:14
  In 2016 polling, nearly two-thirds of Iowa caucus participants identified
• 8:18
  as born-again or evangelical Christians.
• 8:21
  The latest episode of our interview show, "Apple News in Conversation,"
• 8:25
  looks at this group.
• 8:26
  Shumita, who's on maternity leave, spoke with Tim Alberta just before going.
• 8:30
  He's a Christian who was raised in the Evangelical Church,
• 8:32
  and his new book is called "The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory,
• 8:36
  American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism."
• 8:39
  [START APPLE NEWS IN CONVERSATION CLIP]
• 8:40
  Tim Alberta: Trump believes that he has effectively transformed
• 8:45
  the evangelical base of the Republican Party
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  and made it into almost his own image, which is,
• 8:53
  I think, not an overstatement in many ways.
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  [END APPLE NEWS IN CONVERSATION CLIP]
• 8:57
  Garrison, Narrating: You can get a sense of that when you listen
• 8:59
  to how some evangelical voters talk about him.
• 9:01
  [START ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 9:02
  Unidentified Interviewer: So what is it about Trump that you love so much?
• 9:04
  Unidentified Speaker 1: Well, I like Trump as a person.
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  Unidentified Speaker 2: He's a godly man.
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  Unidentified Speaker 3: President Trump works for God.
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  1: His Christian values that he stands for.
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  Unidentified Speaker 2: He's working for God, for darn sure.
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  3: And God is all about America.
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  Unidentified Speaker 4: Gotta support the king.
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  3: He's using President Trump as one of his tools.
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  4: King Jesus first and then King Trump.
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  [MUSIC FADES IN]
• 9:21
  [END ARCHIVAL CLIP]
• 9:21
  Garrison, Narrating: To hear how some evangelicals became Trump loyalists
• 9:24
  and what the future of this movement could look like,
• 9:26
  check out this weekend's episode.
• 9:28
  If you're listening in the Apple News app, we've queued it up to play next.
• 9:31
  And in the Podcasts app,
• 9:32
  just search for "Apple News in Conversation" to find it.
• 9:36
  Have a great weekend, and we'll be back with the news on Monday.
• 9:43
  [MUSIC FADES OUT]