Reuters World News - Israel undeterred, Argentina’s shock and fast fashion goes upmarket

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

Israel looks increasingly isolated as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to keep up the war against Hamas – and polls show most Israelis back him. Argentina receives its first dose of economic ���shock therapy” promised by new President Javier Milei. The rise in popularity of weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound has some employers adding new rules and restrictions to accessing these drugs. And how some of the big names in fast fashion are making money by going upmarket. 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, Israelis resist international pressure and keep backing the war. Argentina begins its economic shock therapy. Companies put a high bar in accessing obesity drugs, and fast fashion's pioneers go upmarket. It's Thursday, December 14th. 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.

Pressure is mounting on Israel to pull back its offensive in Gaza. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is in Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His visit comes after a warning from President Joe Biden that Israel's indiscriminate bombing was costing it international support. In a UN General Assembly vote this week, three quarters of the nearly 200 member countries voted for an immediate ceasefire. And inside Gaza, Israel's military has suffered one of the deadliest days in the two-month war. Ten soldiers killed, including a colonel. But despite the pressure, the tone in Israel is resolute. Netanyahu there telling soldiers Israel would continue its offensive until Hamas is annihilated.

Dan Williams is in Jerusalem. Dan, what is the reaction of Israelis to the growing international pressure? I think many Israelis don't care. They're probably bothered by what they see as a betrayal by Western partners, at least, who they would have hoped would have stuck with them, at least to this point. poll results suggest that there has continued war-to-war support within Israel for prosecuting this war and achieving the declared aims of the war, which are the destruction of Hamas and the retrieval of remaining hostages taken by the Palestinian militant group on October 7th.

What about the mounting civilian death toll in Gaza? How is that viewed in Israel? Israelis are more focused on the immediate war. They're more focused on Israeli military casualties, which have also been mounting, at least compared to recent Israeli wars, the numbers are high, and they also include reservists, men who, until a few weeks ago, were pursuing civilian careers, some of them with families, married children. When you ask Israelis, no one appears to take pleasure, at least no one in the mainstream, appears to take pleasure in the civilian suffering, but it would appear that most of them see it as an unavoidable outcome of the war.

So Israelis seem determined to press the war until its aims are achieved. Argentina's new government has halved the value of the peso. It's all part of Javier Millet's shock treatment to stabilize its ailing economy. Adam Jordan is in Buenos Aires. What does this devaluation look like in practice? While they have devalued the official exchange rate

from 360-odd to 800, that's a huge devaluation. of the biggest in Argentina's history, it still bumps up against the parallel rates where lots of people trade their money that are around or over a thousand pesos per dollar. Argentines have become wearily accustomed to using these parallel rates because the controls the government has in position since 2019 limit very strictly access to dollars in the official market. So people, to some degree, have got accustomed and got used to having to pay more for dollars, which slightly changes or at least lessen the impact of this massive devaluation we've seen here by the new government. How will this continue to ripple through the economy

there? Already we're seeing the markets cheering some of these measures. We've seen bonds increasing in price. We've seen the equities markets soaring. longer term, they're going to face potentially some pushback and hostility from voters if things continue to get tough and they're talking about things being difficult and painful over the next few months. People could start to lose patience. We could see protests on the street and anger increasingly amongst people as inflation continues to get higher. What they're hoping though is if they can get through that time, they're hoping that these measures despite being incredibly painful might eventually help them get to a place that is a bit better than where they are now.

The House of Representatives has voted to formally authorise its impeachment inquiry into President Biden. That's despite the fact they have yet to find evidence of wrongdoing. Republican Tom Cole is chairman of the House Rules Committee. We will secure the evidence we need and uncover the facts we need to make the full and fair determination. Democrats have denounced the inquiry as a political stunt. The probe is examining whether Biden improperly benefited from his son, hunters' foreign business dealings, hours after the younger Biden refused a call to testify behind closed doors. The White House has dismissed the inquiry as unsubstantiated by facts and politically

motivated. Chinese authorities are warning of heavy snowfall and a big chill this week. Beijing expected to be hit by temperatures as low as minus 0.4 Fahrenheit over the weekend, an unusual plunge for December. An Australian woman imprisoned for 20 years over the deaths of her four children has seen her convictions quashed. The New South Wales Supreme Court has said the evidence originally used to jail Kathleen Fulbig was not reliable. She was released from prison in June this year

after being pardoned. Investors are in buoyant form on markets after Fed Chair Jerome Powell confirmed what everyone already suspected, that the Fed is done hiking rates and, crucially, does not want to make the mistake of keeping them too high for too long. So investors are now pricing in an 85% chance

of a first rate cut in March, and they expect plenty more to come throughout the year. The Dovish mood is lifting shares across the board. The SMP and NASDAQ hit fresh closing highs and it's set the tone for today's run of central bank meetings in Europe. The Swiss National Bank has already come out with steady rates and the same as expected for the Bank of England and the ECB. The rise in popularity of weight loss drugs like Wagovi and Zepbound

has some employers adding new rules and restrictions to accessing them. Some are requiring months of supervised diet and exercise. Others only allow prescriptions to telehealth providers. Patrick Wingrove is our pharmaceutical industry correspondent. Patrick, why are employers adding these measures? So it's essentially because of the sheer popularity of these drugs. There's such a huge market for them and so many people are taking them that it's costing employers rather a lot of money. And this has come about almost overnight.

One benefits consultant told me a few. months ago that if only half the people eligible for these drugs in a given company took them, then that would add about 50% to that company's healthcare costs, which are already pretty high as they are. This has led companies to try and find ways to continue to cover these without a huge hike in costs. And those companies that haven't been able to find a way are just choosing not to cover them anymore. How might that impact an employee's access to care? Well, it's important to remember that a certain amount of this already goes on, typically in fields like cardiology or bariatric surgery,

that already limits where you can go for certain services. I suppose what is unusual about this is they're not typically done virtually. So there is a bit of a worry amongst those in, let's say, the American Medical Association, that not giving patients access to an in-person visit with their doctor would be detrimental to them. And they've said, you know, telehealth should be a supplement to in-person provider networks, not a replacement for them. So there is some concern that this will have an impact on patient health. Chien is the new king of fast fashion, but some of the industry's pioneers are fighting back,

and they're doing it with higher prices. Helen Reed is in London. So Inditex, which is the company that owns Zara, has been over the past 18 months, increasing its prices significantly across its apparel lines. And they've also invested a lot in their stores to make them more attractive and to draw people in. So they've cut the number of stores

and invested more in bigger but fewer stores. and that has resulted in people being more willing to pay a higher price for the clothes. So they've kind of tried to address a much more aspirational market. And they've done that successfully, which H&M is also trying to do now. Analysts say that H&M is more at risk from Sheehan because its average price point and market position is a bit lower than Inditex. And it's just been a bit slower to raise its prices. And I think H&M has a more budget-conscious consumer base. So they have to be a bit more careful when raising their prices.

That's it for today's edition of Reuters World News. 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. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.