Reuters World News - Tunnel warfare, antisemitism, the UAW's wage wins and Halloween

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

Israel says they are fighting Hamas in tunnels under Gaza as they press their ground offensive – while the war has led to a steep rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks. Plus, what the UAW deal could mean for future labor relations and the top Halloween trends.  Listen to our special episode on Hamas' tunnels here. 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, Israel says it's brought the fight to Hamas tunnels in Gaza, while the world wrestles with outbreaks of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the wake of the war. A big win for Detroit's auto workers could rewrite the playbook for other unions. And it's Halloween, which means clever costumes and cultural references. But that's a difficult line to walk this year. It's Tuesday, October 31st. This is Reuters World News, bringing you. everything you need to know in 10 minutes every weekday.

I'm David Spencer in London. And I'm Christopher Waljesper in Chicago. Israeli forces have attacked Hamas gunmen inside the Islamist vast tunnel network beneath Gaza, the IDF has said. The tunnels are a key objective for Israel in its attempt to wipe out the ruling Hamas movement. Israel says this latest push has also seen them free a soldier from Hamas captivity. The militants have reportedly responded with anti-tank missiles and machine gun fire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed calls for a halt to fighting to ease the Palestinian enclave's humanitarian crisis.

Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or after the terrorist attack of 9-11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October. You can hear more about the labyrinthine tunnels in Gaza in our special edition of the Reuters World News podcast, which was published last weekend. The conflict has led to demonstrations worldwide in support of the Palestinians and anti-Semitic and Islamophobic harassment. Rioters in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region stormed an airport to catch Jewish passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv.

Andrew Osborne is our chief. political correspondent for Russia. Andrew, why was this riot such a headache for Putin? This does present a challenge for Putin because, of course, he is waging a war, a very difficult war in Ukraine, and he's very keen to have stability on the home front. And obviously, you had people on the tarmac of the airport surrounding an aircraft, rampaging through an airport. these are not the kind of scenes that the Kremlin that Putin wants to see, especially in such a tightly controlled country. Andrew, the pictures Reuters obtained of what happened at the airport were pretty extraordinary,

but this isn't an isolated incident of anti-Semitism in Russia, is it? What we have seen in recent days across the North Caucasus region of Russia, that's in southern Russia, where you have a lot of regions where they may, majority of Muslim population. We have seen an upsurge in anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic incidents or certainly sentiment. In one place, a Russian republic called Kabadina Balkaria, someone set light to a Jewish cultural center which was being built. There's also been graffiti. So we have seen an upsurge in anti-Semitism in that part of Russia in recent days. Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Biden administration officials met with Jewish leaders and universities to discuss the rising threat of anti-Semitism on

campuses. Over the weekend, threats were posted online to Jewish students and the Center of Jewish Living at Cornell University, according to the student newspaper and the campus halel group. Campus police were guarding the building and students were advised to stay away. In New York City, Jewish students at Columbia and Barnard, like Noah Faye, called on the university to support students facing anti-Semitism. My Jewish sisters and brothers and I are on the receiving end of death threats from our peers. There are Jewish students who do not feel physically safe on campus. Tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups have sprung up on some U.S. campuses,

including several in New York, prompting university officials to tighten security. The Federal Reserve meets on Wednesday, and investors are laser-focused. Halfway through third quarter earnings, most S&P 500 companies have beaten estimates. Fed reporter Howard Schneider will be in the room when Powell speaks this week. Howard, are Q3 earnings yet another signal to the Fed that their work may not be done? So the Fed meets this weekend, they really do have kind of a tail of two economies here. The bond market has been driving interest rates high. Mortgage rates are really expensive right now, for example.

And yet consumers still spend. and this GDP growth in Q3 was really strong. And inflation has not been coming down all that fast of late. So what do you do? They are probably going to pause, almost certainly going to pause at this meeting. But then, you know, have another few weeks of data, maybe another interest rate hike at the end of the year. Who knows? Really, it's not clear which way this economy is tipping yet.

The United Auto Workers' Tentative Agreement brings to an end six weeks of coordinated strikes. It's a big win for auto workers after years of stagnant wages and painful concessions following the 2008 financial crisis. It's also a big win for UAW president Sean Fain, who architected the union strategy. This contract demonstrates the incredible power that workers have when they are not afraid to use it. Global automotive correspondent Joe White is in Detroit. Joe, you've covered plenty of these contract negotiations. How did this one compare? So this round of talks between the Detroit Auto Makers and the UAW is unlike anything I've ever seen,

and I've been doing this for 35 years or more. This time, Sean Fane and the UAW basically set up a bidding war. And the bidding was, who's going to offer me enough, me, Sean Faye in the UAW, who's going to offer us enough to avoid a strike at the end of each week? This strategy and the concurrent or simultaneous efforts by the UAW to court and win political support and public support. I've always believed that the middle class built America and that unions built the middle class. They had Joe Biden come to a picket line back in September. All of these strategies, all of these tactics have resulted in what is, by any stretch, a record contract for the UAW.

They've won more in one round of bargaining than they've won ever, certainly since the 1970s and even further back than that. Now, Fain argued the contract fight was a part of a larger movement to run. reverse decades of economic setbacks for working Americans. Could this change the way other unions fight for worker pay? I think it could. So some of the tactics that the UAW used are similar to what airline flight attendants used have used in the past, which is this idea of sort of the kind of the snap strike. The airline flight attendants union called it chaos, create havoc around our system. It's an acronym that also is a word. But this idea of keeping the companies off balance was snap strikes that can be called on a moment's notice. The UAW did this. They used it to great

effect. They used it just over the past weekend to close the deal with General Motors, who was sort of the last holdout among the Detroit three. And they settled, all three are going to have settled on really comparatively rich terms for workers. The full costs are still being worked out, but workers are going to get 33 percent raises. And some workers, temporary workers, people who are not full-time employees now could wind up earning 150% more at the end of this contract than they do right now. So what does this contract mean for Tesla or other non-union shops? That is a great question, for sure, because Sean Fane, the UAW president, has said this quite clearly. For sure, what it means is that the UAW is going to use these contracts and use the

gains that they've achieved to go to Tesla, go to Toyota, go to Honda, all the non-union plants, say to the workers, you should, you should join us. You should have some of this. It's going to be the strongest pitch that the union has been able to make, really, in decades. Tonight, America's streets will be overtaken by Barbies and Ken's, Taylor Swift's, and Travis Kelsey's. 20203's it couples are trending as Halloween favorites. But the year also brings with it some heavy topics from around the world. Our entertainment reporter, Rolo Ross, spoke to Sophia McEnroy,

the makeup manager at Hollywood Toys and Costumes. First of it, could I get, I know you're spelled S-O-P-H. Sophia, given everything that's been going on in the world and how devised and everyone is, what are the do's and don'ts of costumes this year at Halloween? Halloween's supposed to be fun and energetic and upbeat, and like, this is kind of our safe space. Like, you can walk in here and leave all that behind

at the door and just curate your own, like, costume, curate your own character and just, we just like to be positive and have like a positive, creative vibe here. So what is the best idea for a costume you've heard of this year? Oh, I had someone do, they were asking me on my opinion if they could maybe pull off a vampire Barbie, which I thought was super cool. They're like, yeah, I'm just going to do like full pink and Barbie, but then I'm just going to be covered in blood. And I was like, I love that. That's amazing. What products aren't selling well this year? Are you thinking sort of military, politics, that sort of thing? I think I've seen

one person look at a soldier costume and then they put it back and they were like, I'm just going to be a nurse instead. I was like, okay, all right. But like, yeah, military costumes aren't super big. But like, yeah, mostly everybody just wants to be like a fictional character. They want to be fun and energetic and charactery. It's what Halloween's all about. 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,

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