Reuters World News - Gaza and the UN, Democrat wins, electric Ram trucks and Parkinson's hope

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

The UN is calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. We are live with Secretary General Antonio Guterres at Reuters Next to find out what the international body can do to prevent the destruction of Gaza. The Democrats score wins in US elections, Australia loses the internet, Ram phases out v8 engines in its Hemi trucks and a life-changing operation for Parkinson’s patients. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, the UN Secretary General sits down with Reuters editor-in-chief after calling Gaza a children's graveyard. Abortion rights activists and Democrats score big wins on election day. The V8 engine is ruled extinct from iconic ram trucks. Hope for Parkinson's sufferers in the form of a Swiss implant. And chaos in Australia as the internet and mobile phone coverage goes dark for millions. It's Wednesday. November 8th, this is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday.

I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. And I'm Kim Vennel at Reuters Next in New York. Enough is enough. That's the UN Secretary General's blunt message about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Antonio Gutierrez says the enclave is fast becoming a graveyard for children. Here is one of the lucky ones, a child being pulled from the rubble of a destroyed building in Khan Yunus. Rescuers run to a nearby ambulance to rush to hospital. But even there, the UN warns, help is limited.

International organizations say hospitals can't cope with the wounded, and food and clean water is quickly running out. Medicine Sans Frontiers, Claire McGone, says we already know the situation in Gaza is catastrophic. But hour by hour, the shortages reach such a critical threshold that the life prognosis of the population of Gaza is in jeopardy. She is begging the international community to force a ceasefire. In New York, UN ambassadors are lining up to condemn the situation. Chief among them is Gutierrez.

Ground operations by the Israel Defense Forces and continued bombardment are hitting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, church and UN facilities, including shelters. No one is safe. At the same time, Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields and continue to launch rockets indiscriminately towards Israel. The way forward is clear. A humanitarian ceasefire now. All parties respecting all their obligations and the international humanitarian law now.

Apart from repeated calls for a ceasefire, what can the UN do to force a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas? Later today, Reuters editor-in-chief, Alessandra Goloni, will try to find out in an interview with Gutierrez in New York. That interview is happening at Reuters Next, which I'm in town for. For two days, our correspondence will speak to global policy makers,

business leaders and forward thinkers about the challenges the world faces. Come and see the main room, which is going to be where we do the world stage. Israel and Gaza will impact many of the discussions. But Day 1 will also see an interview with Ukrainian president, Vlodemezilensky. and I'm hosting a panel on COP28, the climate change conference happening in Dubai in just a few weeks time. We'll also hear from heads of banks and companies about the economy and AI, as well as government leaders from around the world. You can watch it live on Reuters.com. Check out the link to the agenda, which we'll put in the podcast description.

We'll also have day one highlights in tomorrow's episode. Israel says air strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed a top Hamas weapon. weapons maker and several fighters. The latest phase of the offensive is focusing on the vast tunnel network beneath the Palestinian enclave. Hamas says its fighters have inflicted heavy losses. Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield claims of either side. Senate Democrats have blocked House Republicans bid to pass a bill providing aid to Israel,

but not Ukraine. Democrats are instead backing Biden's $100 billion package that includes aid to Israel and Ukraine, and border security funding. Abortion rights power Democrats to big victories in three states on election day. Ohio voters put a right to abortion in their constitution. Democrats won full control of Virginia's legislator and Governor Andy Bashir was re-elected in Deep Red Kentucky. I can work just that I can't get into the office

because my office has a specific app because I can't open the app. I'm able to get actually into the office today. I was running late for work. I couldn't let my boss know that I was running late. And I got the side I couldn't find my boss. Two of the millions of Australians left without a phone or internet connection for nine hours on Wednesday. The country's second largest telecommunications provider, Optus, suffered an unexplained outage, crippling online services and leading to transport chaos.

So what we do know is that this is a deep fault. Australia's communications minister, Michelle Rowland, angry at the issues faced across the country, with hospitals and emergency services also hit. I presente the my admission, the Your Excellency, the Mr President of the Republic. Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa, announcing his resignation just hours after prosecutors detained his chief of staff

in a corruption probe. At issue is his administration's handling of lithium mining and hydrogen projects. Prosecutors say Costa is the target of a related investigation. He says his conscience is clear. Markets are in a holding pattern today, waiting for Fed Chair Jerome Powell to speak.

Investors had started bedding, that interest rates had peaked, but some Fed policymakers have warned about getting complacent about inflation. So, traders are looking to Powell to see what he says about the possibility of future rate hikes. In the meantime, Treasury yields and the dollar are hovering above multi-week lows and stocks are in the red. The iconic ram truck is getting a makeover, internally at least. Stalantis says it will no longer use the iconic V8 hemi engines in its new light-duty pickups. It's part of a strategy to cut the CO2 emissions of its North American fleet. It's also looking to a plug-in hybrid model of the truck as another way to get cleaner.

Global automotive correspondent Joe White is in Detroit. It's a big deal. The RAM pickup truck line, which is one of the most profitable vehicles, Stalantis cells, has been sold with a Hemmy V8 for the last 20 years or so. There's ads in the early 2000s. That thing got a hemmy? Yeah. Sweet.

That thing got a hemie in it that really caught people's imagination. And this engine has been associated with this truck line for a couple of decades. It's been very successful. So then why are they changing it? They're changing it because of climate regulation. The Biden administration wants significant reductions in greenhouse gases coming from cars and trucks sold in the United States. The ram truck is not a climate-friendly vehicle with a V8 engine in the front. front and Stalantis is under a lot of pressure to clean it up.

But how big of a cut in emissions are we talking about here? That is a great question because when we asked the head of the RAM brand that question, and he didn't give us an answer. It's not probably going to be a massive amount where the big gains in mileage would come as if RAM is successful in getting people to buy the plug-in hybrid version. And that will definitely be an interesting truck to watch to see if a plug-in hybrid is the thing that American truck buyers will accept. I'm just trying to understand if it's just an incremental difference in emissions.

What's the point? Well, the point is every bit counts. This is a high-volume line. Even if they gained a couple of miles a gallon or two or three miles per gallon over a high-volume product line like this, it would help. Their problem is they're squeezed because a lot of U.S. truck buyers are not ready to buy an all-electric truck. That's sort of being proven in the marketplace every day. People buy trucks because they want to tow stuff. They want to haul things.

They want to carry around big loads. and you need a big engine to do that. The question is, can you use technology to get the same load pulling power, load carrying power, in a somewhat more efficient package, and that's the bet they're making. At a Swiss hospital, Mark Gutierre

confidently walks across a room. Something most of us do without thinking. For Mark, it's evidence of a life-changing transformation. As a long-term Parkinson's patient, the 63-year-old was previously confined to his home. He's now become the first person to receive a new Swiss-designed implant. The neuropathetic has an electrode field placed against his spinal cord. Under the skin of his abdomen is an electric impulse generator.

Together, they stimulate his spinal cord to activate his leg muscles. Gregor Cortine is one of the doctors leading the project. Not everyone will respond to the therapy. We need to understand the responder, but we believe that many can benefit from improvement in their daily life. Many Parkinson's patients suffer from debunkers. rehabilitating mobility issues. Jocelyn Block is the neurosurgeon who carried out Mark's operation. And in the case of Mark, he was almost always at home because he was scared of falling.

You know, a fall means a danger. And I think, and that's something you only realize when it happens to you, that with this therapy, if people can gain more confidence and can go out and have a better social interaction and do more things, it's an enormous plus in the daily activity and the quality of life. That's it for today's episode. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday.

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