The Headlines - Oil Prices Rise on Biden’s Offhand Remarks, and U.S. Ports Reopen

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

Plus, the top trends from fashion month.   Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:How 2 Offhand Remarks by Biden Caused Waves in the Markets and the Middle East, by Michael D. ShearIsrael Targets Remaining Hezbollah Leaders in Beirut, Officials Say, by Victoria Kim and Farnaz FassihiPort Union Agrees to Suspend Strike, by Peter Eavis3 Former Officers Acquitted of Most Serious Charge in Tyre Nichols’s Death, by Emily Cochrane and Ben StanleyAs America’s Marijuana Use Grows, So Do the Harms, by Megan Twohey, Danielle Ivory and Carson KesslerWhat We Learned From Seeing Over 200 Fashion Shows in One Month, by Kate Lanphear, Patrick Li, Nick Haramis, Angela Koh, Jameson Montgomery and Gage Daughdrill

From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracey Mumford. Today's Friday, October 4th. Here's what we're covering. Offhand comments from President Biden yesterday caused waves in the financial markets and the Middle East. At the White House, reporters were pressing Biden for details about when and how Israel might retaliate against Iran for its recent missile strikes. One reporter asked Biden if he would support Israel hitting Iran's oil facilities, a move that would dramatically escalate the conflict. We're in discussion with that. I think that would be a little, anyway. Biden said, we're in discussion on that, then hesitated and stopped himself mid-sentence.

Even though it's far from certain that oil fields will be a target, there's so much concern about a wider war and so many unknowns that the tiny hint of information jolted the markets and oil prices rose more than 4%. Biden was then asked, quote, what are the plans to allow Israel to strike back against Iran? First of all, we don't allow Israel. We advise Israel.

And there's nothing going to happen today. We'll talk about that later. His answer on the timing wasn't a surprise. It's been widely expected that Israel won't retaliate until after the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which runs into tonight. But Biden's comments made headlines in Israel, where people are hungry for any clarity at all amid the uncertainty. Meanwhile, in Lebanon, there are signs that Israel may be intensifying the ground invasion

that it started this week. The Israeli military warned people in 20 more towns in southern Lebanon to leave their homes immediately. And overnight, Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes on densely populated neighborhoods just south of Beirut. The military said it was targeting an underground bunker where it believed senior Hezbollah leaders were meeting. It's the same area where Israel killed the group's longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an airstrike last week. Major U.S. ports along the east and Gulf coasts are starting to reopen today after the International Longshoremen's Association agreed to suspend its strike. The strike, which started on Tuesday, brought some of the country's busiest shipping terminals to a standstill

and could have had widespread economic fallout. More than half of container shipments into the U.S. come through those ports, and they can't function without longshoremen, who load and unload the cargo. The workers agreed to go back to work after being promised a 62% increase in wages over the course of the next six years, a much higher amount than they'd initially been offered. But there are still sticking points as they hammer out the rest of the contract,

including concerns that automated machines could increasingly take the place of union jobs. In Memphis, Tennessee yesterday, a jury convicted three former police officers of witness tampering in the beating death of Tyree Nichols, though they were acquitted of the most serious federal charge against them, violating Nichols' civil rights by causing his death. Nichols' death nearly two years ago prompted outrage across the country. He was pulled over as he was driving home from his job at FedEx. Body cam footage showed officers giving a series of aggressive and conflicting commands before Nichols ran from them towards his mother's house. When they caught up, they viciously punched and kicked him, and then sat by for minutes before an ambulance was called. Nichols and the officers involved were all Black.

The officers now face up to 20 years in prison. Justice for Tyree Nichols. Justice for Tyree Nichols. At a press conference after the verdict, lawyers for the Nichols family said they were looking ahead to a state trial, where all five officers who were involved in the violence faced second-degree murder charges. Nichols' mother also spoke. This has been a long journey for our family. I'm actually in shock right now because I still can't believe all this stuff is going on.

We're happy that they all have been convicted and they have been arrested. The legalization of marijuana has been accelerating across the U.S., state after state. Tens of millions of Americans now use marijuana medically or recreationally, and there's a multi-billion dollar commercial industry behind it. But a new investigation by The Times has found that as more people consume more cannabis more often, a growing number of users are experiencing serious health concerns. So my colleagues and I interviewed and surveyed hundreds of doctors and people who experienced harmful effects from the drug. And what we found is that the legalization and commercialization of marijuana has basically become something of an unintended

public health experiment. Megan Toohey is an investigative reporter for The Times. To be clear, most people who use marijuana don't have problems with it, but doctors told us they're seeing more and more patients who are experiencing severe side effects. We're hearing it from emergency doctors, from pediatricians, from psychiatrists, and they're primarily seeing harm in people who are chronic users and in people who are using the most intoxicating products. There are growing cases of marijuana causing severe nausea and vomiting. This syndrome can be debilitating and lead to kidney failure, seizures, and even cardiac arrest. And by one estimate, nearly a third of near daily users of marijuana have this syndrome. Marijuana is also causing temporary psychosis and is increasingly associated with the development of chronic psychotic disorders like schizophrenia. And while it's widely thought that cannabis isn't addictive,

we have data showing that an estimated 3 million Americans are addicted. And we interviewed people whose lives were disrupted by it. They couldn't eat, sleep, or otherwise function without the drug. Users and doctors told us that they were caught by surprise by these health impacts. And there are a few reasons for that. States have rolled out inconsistent standards, regulations, and messaging. And there's little science to inform marijuana users, in part because the drug is still illegal at the federal level and there are restrictions on research.

And the medical field is not adequately documenting harm. For example, there's no distinct diagnostic code for the syndrome with nausea and vomiting, making it nearly impossible to track those cases. And because of all of this, a lot of Americans are operating on dangerous misconceptions about marijuana. And finally, Fashion Week has now come and gone through New York, Paris, and London, and the editors of T, the New York Times Style Magazine, cataloged the trends at over 200 catwalks.

We try to see as much as humanly possible. You're trying to soak up as many details as you can. You're trying to understand who's in the room, is Rihanna sitting in the front row, and ultimately, you know, my job is to synthesize the patterns that I see. Kate Lanphier is the style director at T Magazine. Now that all the shows are wrapped and complete, we're able to see what trends are actually emerging. And one of those was chintzy prints or florals you'd expect to see, kind of wallpaper curtains and ruffled bed skirts in old world cottages. Picture a floral tablecloth your grandmother might have

had. That's chintz. Other notable trends, accessories inspired by stuffed animals and childhood toys. Fringe, a lot of fringe. And we are living in the age of extreme belting, including jackets or dresses constructed entirely from belts. We see the trends, and then it takes about six months for the clothes we just saw to reach stores. But it takes at least that long, if not longer, for them to really be adopted by the collective conscious, where people will seek out these shapes or colors or silhouettes or hemlines.

I'd predict that we'll see more longer, mid-length, fuller, voluminous skirts. It will just sort of move the needle on what kind of shape you might be shopping for or want to add into your wardrobe. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, the state of the presidential race, with Three Times journalists covering the campaigns and the polls. Listen next in the New York Times audio app or wherever you get your podcasts. This show is made by Robert Jemison, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford, with help from Isabella Anderson. Original theme by Dan Powell.

Special thanks to Larissa Anderson, Zoe Murphy, Jake Lucas, Sean Paik, and Paula Schumann. The headlines will be back on Monday.