Reuters World News - World Central Kitchen’s Israel accusation, Democrats’ Florida opportunity and bird flu in cows

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Celebrity chef and World Central Kitchen’s founder, Jose Andres, says Israel deliberately targeted an aid convoy killing seven of his workers, in an interview with Reuters. Democrats see room for maneuver in Florida after the state’s top court approved a six-week abortion ban and cleared the way for abortion rights to be on the ballot in the November election. And this year’s strain of Avian flu is spreading across dairy cattle herds in the US.  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 founder of World Central Kitchen speaks out on the Israeli strikes that killed seven aid workers in Gaza. Democrats see Florida's abortion restrictions as an opportunity in November. Janet Yallen takes her tough message to China and bird flu spreads to U.S. dairy cows. It's Thursday, April 4th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front line. in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Kim Vinal in London. And I'm Christopher Waljasper in Chicago.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has urged Israel to take concrete steps to protect aid workers and Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Speaking to his Israeli counterpart, Joav Galant, Austin urged a swift and transparent investigation. Israel has denied Monday's strike

on an aid convoy was deliberate. But the founder of World Central Kitchen, whose workers were killed, doesn't believe them. What I know is that we were targeted deliberately, nonestop, until everybody was dead in this convoy. Jose Andres is the chef who founded World Central Kitchen. He's been telling Reuters about that moment when seven of his workers were killed. World Central Kitchen has been delivering aid there by road, air and sea since March. Andres spoke to Reuters reporter Jeff Mason via video. Jeff, walk us through Jose Andres' account of the attack.

He said that the first car was attacked, and his understanding was that the people in the car were able to get out, and then that car was struck, and that they made an effort to make a phone call and identify themselves. To try to be telling IDF that what are they doing, that they were targeting us, in a conflicting zone, in an area of control, idea, them knowing that was our teams moving on that route.

And then went to the third car and then that car was struck as well. Then we saw the consequences of that continuous targeting attack. Seven people dead. So he rejected the explanation that was made by Israel that it was not deliberate. What sort of accountability does Andres want from Israel because of this attack? What he wants from Israel and what he emphasized. repeatedly in the interview is for more opportunities to get aid into Gaza. And he was critical not only of the lack of ease in getting aid and food to Palestinians, but also of the war in general.

And he spread that criticism, which came as much as just emotional disbelief to both Israel and the United States. World Central Kitchen has now stopped handing out aid. How does Andres see humanitarian aid continuing in Gaza? Well, I asked him specifically if they were going to restart their operations, and he said that they're looking at the safety situation. But writ large, I think the implication that he made was that this is devastating to the ability to get aid in.

And if you are not killing them by bombs, you are starving them by lack of A helicopter lifts people to safety in Hualien, a mountainous area of Taiwan. It was near the centre of the island's worst earthquake in 25 years. At least nine people were killed and more than a thousand injured. Hundreds of aftershocks overnight drove people to seek shelter outdoors. Almost 650 people remain trapped, most of them in hotels in a national park, the road to which is still cut off. Donald Trump's attempt to delay his New York hush money trial has failed.

The former president tried to push back the April 15th trial until after a Supreme Court review. On April 25th, the top court is due to hear Trump make the case that he's immune from federal prosecution for trying to overturn the 2020 election. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yallen has arrived in China's Gangzhou with a tough message for Chinese officials. stop producing so much. Neil Fulik is monitoring Yallon's trip from Singapore. We're told her main message will be to argue that China is producing too many electric vehicles, solar panels, semiconductors and other manufactured goods. And that's having a negative impact on markets around the world, including in the US, Europe and Mexico.

She'll highlight how the supply of goods from China is forcing sharp reductions in prices, making it increasing increased. increasingly difficult for manufacturers elsewhere to compete. And the analysts we've spoken to suggests that her warnings to China about the overproduction could be setting the stage for the Biden administration to implement new tariffs or other trade barriers on Chinese goods. The Biden campaign says it believes the president can win in Florida because of abortion. The state's Supreme Court didn't just allow a six-week abortion ban to take effect. it also approved an initiative to let voters decide whether to amend the state's constitution

to establish a right to an abortion. That means abortion will literally be on the ballot there on November 5th. Jarrett Renshaw covers the Biden campaign. Jared, why does the president's team believe this actually helps them? In election after election, abortion rights have been a winning issue for Democrats. in Wisconsin, in Pennsylvania, in the midterms, it is shown that Democrats are successful when they can make abortion rights, abortion access, an issue. And the candidates, the support that versus the candidates that don't.

So they've actually organized referendums. I believe there's one in Nevada and Arizona that is like Democrats have pushed because they want to have referendums on abortion that go alongside with presidential elections, particularly in battleground states. And they think that's a winning formula. And they think that's going to help success in Florida. So what happens now? Are Democrats there mobilizing because of this ruling? You know, count me as a little cynical about how earnest they are about winning Florida. I mean, the numbers are staggering against them, right? Hillary Clinton lost by some 100,000, Biden lost by some 300 plus thousand. There's a lot of metrics you can use that say Democrats have no

chance. I think the key takeaway here, though, is that Democrats are going to force Republicans to spend money in Florida. And that is something a month ago that I don't think a lot of people considered. So, you know, to me, that is the real takeaway. The Florida now, the Republicans are going to have to fight for Florida. You may have seen the effects of avian flu outbreaks in recent years in the price of eggs or turkey at the grocery store. The disease has devastated chicken and turkey flocks across North America, as well as Europe. in recent years. But this year, the H5N1 strain of the flu has been spreading across dairy cattle herds in the U.S., and now one dairy worker has even contracted the disease. Tom Palancic

covers livestock in agriculture here in Chicago. While you might think of Wisconsin as the main cheese state, so far the infected herds have been in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Idaho, and Michigan. And although we might not think of a state like New Mexico as a major dairy producer, they do have dairy cows and we see movement of some of these animals from one state to another. So how are farmers trying to stop the spread? Migratory birds have been responsible for the spread of avian flu around the globe since 2022. And it can be really hard to prevent dairy cattle from mixing with these wild birds. The birds can swoop in, and there's also some thoughts that droppings from the wild birds could have contaminated feed or water supplies that the cows

ingest, and that's being considered as one possible way that the dairy herds could have become infected. Should humans be worried about getting sick? The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the milk supply is safe. Any sick cattle are supposed to be. be separated from the healthy animals and the milk from the sick cattle are not supposed to go into the food supply chain. Milk is also pasteurized usually before we consume it. And the USDA is warning people not to consume raw milk because that does not go through the pasteurization process that kills the bacteria and viruses. Do we know how this might affect food production or the prices at the grocery store? Oh yes. During the avian flu outbreak and poultry, we saw turkey meat

prices go to record highs, egg prices went to record highs. So far, there has not been an effect on milk prices because of the outbreak in dairy cattle. That's it for today. We're back tomorrow with the latest from around the world in our daily headline show. To make sure you never miss an update, subscribe on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters. app.