Reuters World News - Ramadan without a truce, Princess Kate photo, Ireland’s ‘sexist’ constitution and the Georgia primary

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

Palestinians in Gaza begin the holy month of Ramadan with no sign of a ceasefire. Britain’s Princess Kate apologises for "any confusion" caused by an edited photograph issued by her office on Mother’s Day. A referendum in Ireland fails to remove language in the constitution described by the government as sexist. And Georgia readies for its presidential primaries with Black voters less enthusiastic about President Biden than they were in 2020. *This podcast was updated after the statement by the Princess of Wales.   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, Gaza begins Ramadan without a ceasefire. The Princess of Wales apologises for confusion caused by a Mother's Day photo. In Georgia, enthusiasm wanes among black voters who carried Biden to victory in 2020. And in Ireland, a vote to act sexism from the Constitution is defeated. It's Monday, March 11th. 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.

Palestinians throw fireworks in a camp for displaced people in Gaza. A rare moment of light relief as they prepare for the holy month of Ramadan. The specter of war and hunger hangs over the enclave. This woman, Um-Suhab Abu Jabal, says her table is normally full of different types of food to break the fast. This year, she doesn't know if her family will find any. And a much-hoped-for ceasefire is nowhere in sight. James McKenzie is Bureau Chief for Israel and the Palestinian team. territories. James, why have the ceasefire talk stalled?

Essentially, the two sides are still far apart on the issue of what should happen with the war in Gaza. Hamas is insisting that for the hostages to be released, the war has to be a ceasefire, but a definitive ceasefire. So Israel withdraws from Gaza, and we're essentially in the post-war era. And Israel says that's not possible. It says that it's delusional. It insists that it's going on until final victory until Hamas is defeated, dismantled, destroyed, and all the hostages are brought back. What are the security concerns for Israel heading into Ramadan? You know, we just have to think back to last year

when there were clashes around Alaksar Mos in Jerusalem that led to a very tense period when Hamas fired rockets. It's just a very charged and volatile time and placed because Al-Axar Mosque is a tremendously sensitive and it's one of the sort of flashpoints with the war going on at Gaza and the Ramadan coming up. The months and in fact years now of really very high levels of violence in the West Bank just made it a particularly sensitive

and potentially dangerous time. A photograph of the Princess of Wales with her three children, released by Kensington Palace on Mother's Day, was meant to showcase her recovery from surgery. Instead, it triggered even more speculation after three news agencies, including Reuters, withdrew the edited photo for failing to meet their editorial standards. The princess later apologised for any confusion caused, posting on X that, like many amateur photographers, she does occasionally experiment with editing.

Kate Hulton is Reuters' bureau chief in London. So there were lots of questions on social media about whether the picture had been photoshopped and then the four largest international news agencies, which includes Reuters, Associated Press, AFP and Getty, all around at the same time and late afternoon, issued what's known as a kill order, which tells their clients, we've withdrawn this picture,

please do not continue to use it. The thing you have to know here is that news agencies do not want to issue photos that have been overly edited because it could cast doubt about the integrity of the photograph. And there were certain issues with the photograph, certain areas appear to be blurred, to do with the cardigan of Kate's daughter, didn't appear quite in line as you would expect it to be.

And what has the upshot of all of this being this Ferreau re over the photo? It's become a very large story. So if the photograph was issued an attempt to dampen down the speculation, it's actually had the opposite effect. There is a large amount of humour online as to what has gone on with the photographs, but it means that it's pushed it to the top of the news agenda, which I imagine is not what the palace were hoping for. Atomic bomb drama Oppenheimer stole the show at this year's Oscars,

clinching Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. Emma Stone won the Best Actress Award for Poor Things, but Barbie went home empty-handed, except for the Best Song Award and a scene-stealing turn from Ryan Gosling, who performed I'm Just Ken, with three dozen backup Ken's, fireworks, and a surprise appearance by Guns and Rose guitarist, slash. A harsh rebuke from Vladimir Zelensky. The Ukrainian president rejecting a call from Pope Francis to negotiate an end to the war with Russia

and, quote, have the courage to raise the white flag. Ukraine says it will never capitulate. Victory for Portugal's centre-right democratic alliance in Sunday's election. But it's unclear if they can govern without the support of the far-right Shiga party. Shega quadrupled its seats in Parliament as Portugal joins Europe's shift to the right. And in Haiti, the US military has airlifted non-essential embassy staff and added US forces to bolster security. The country is under a state of emergency

as gang violence threatens to topple the government. President Biden is going to lay out his fiscal wish list later today and it's as much an election year pitch as anything else. He's expected to call for an increase in corporate taxes, a cut in tax deductions for executive pay in jets and for the government to be able to negotiate lower drug prices. But it's going to be difficult to get any proposal past Congress and Biden's plans for defence spending

are going to be modest after last year's debt limit deal. He's going to request a 1% increase in defence spending, meaning fewer new ships and jets. Voters in Ireland have rejected proposed changes to the country's constitution that would have removed a reference to a mother's duties in the home and broadened the definition of family beyond marriage. Porick Halpin covered the referendum in Dublin. Porrick, this was characterised by the government as a chance to remove sexist, old-fashioned language from the constitution.

What happened? I think what was most eye-opening was the margin of the defeat as well. with 74% voting against the proposal. What was interesting was that when posters asked a selection of voters why they voted no in such great numbers, their answers suggested that by and large, it wasn't removing references on the importance of a woman's life within the home from the constitution that they had a problem with.

It was a replacement wording. Now, the government proposed replacing those clauses with language recognising care within families. And that really cut through in the campaign because the exit poll found that a significant number number of responses thought that those changes would diminish the government's responsibility when it came to supporting care, that it would be seen as more of a private endeavor than that's something that the state would support. I think that proved really critical in the days when

people made their mind of. What happens now? So this language stays in the Constitution that the government has said it won't attempt to change that wording in the remaining days of its time in office. Schoenfein, which is the main opposition party, Dave said that they would like to run another referendum. But I think the scale of the defeat on Saturday will make all future governments tread a lot more carefully when it comes to referend to the Constitution. In 2020, Black voters flipped Georgia blue, which was a crucial and historic get for then-candidate Joe Biden. But as Georgia heads to the polls in Tuesday's primary, the question is, are these voters still with Joe? Or might they sit this one out?

Kat Stafford is our race and justice editor. Kat, the last time we had these massive voter drives backed by Stacey Abrams and other black organizers, what are we seeing right now in the ground in Georgia? Right now, what we're seeing in Georgia is still this concerted effort to try and figure out how to galvanize black voters. So we're seeing a lot of organizations trying to figure out how they can tap back into that 2020 blueprint where you saw really this multi-racial, multi-generational group of folks really show out in support of Biden.

But we are hearing concerns right now that they're not quite sure who voters are going to vote for or even if they were turned out. So I think we're seeing advocates try and short up support and really try and see just what are the issues that are resonating with voters and how can they take that back to the Biden campaign in particular and say, hey, you really need to get out and address these concerns on the ground.

What are those concerns? We're hearing directly from black voters themselves, as well as a lot of the advocates who are doing that groundwork, that black voters are particularly concerned about the surge and the cost of living. They are concerned about these racial justice priorities that they feel like were the focal point of 2020, but they've kind of fallen by the wayside, according to them. They want to see more action on voting rights.

They want to see white supremacy and the threat of white nationalism being addressed by Biden and his administration. And the Biden administration in response to that has said, hey, this is something that we've been focused on for the president's first turn. We have scored a lot of wins specifically for black Americans, such as cutting childhood, poverty in half in 2021, as well as a lot of support that they've given to small black businesses. So they're saying that we have these successes, but where the disconnect is, people aren't aware that some of these things have happened. And so a lot of the advocates, civil rights leaders

that we've spoken with have told us that they have messaged directly to Biden's campaign that there is a bit of a messaging disconnect. And that is something that they need to focus on in the year ahead. in a business with Shopify and bathe records of with the form of the power of the world. Has heard of

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