Up First from NPR - Gaza Detainees, Sickle Cell Breakthrough, Student Debt Reform

Episode Date: December 9, 2023

Images of Palestinian men stripped to their underwear prompt outrage. Genetic editing leads to new treatments for blood ailment. Income-based plan zeroes out payments for millions of borrowers.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Videos and photos emerge showing captured Palestinian men stripped down to their underwear. Israel says it detained the men because they might be Hamas fighters. But officials in the Arab world are outraged. I'm Aisha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Simon, and this is Up First from NPR News. One Palestinian says he recognized his brother in an image. I mean, I know my brother, he can't run two meters, let alone to be a fighter. You know, he's just a shopkeeper in Gaza.

Also, the FDA approves genetic treatments of sickle cell disease. And the Biden administration zeroes out student debt for millions of borrowers. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend. Now, Our Change will honor 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force and their dedicated service to communities at home and abroad. From the skies to Our Change, this $2 commemorative circulation coin marks their storied past and promising future. Find the limited edition Royal Canadian Air Force $2 coin today. Israel's treatment of detainees has met harsh disapproval as the images circulate on social media and television. Meanwhile, the U.S. vetoes the United Nations resolution calling for a

ceasefire in Gaza. And we have Frank Langford joins us now from Tel Aviv. Frank, thanks for being with us. It's good to be with you, Scott. Please, for those who haven't seen them, describe these images and what the reaction has been. I think one of the most striking ones was this video panning dozens of men. They're sitting on a street, and their heads are bowed, they're in their underwear, and there are Israeli soldiers milling about on the sidewalk. And Egypt's foreign minister called the images catastrophic and said they degraded the men. And the International Committee of the Red Cross also expressed a lot of concern. How do the Israelis respond? Well, the army here, they're saying they discovered these guys in an area where civilians were supposed to have been evacuated weeks ago.

And they're now saying they're checking to see, you know, who of them might actually be Hamas fighters. Israeli TV aired the footage, which is thought to have been taken by soldiers, but it's not entirely clear. Now, a Gaza resident did tell a news organization that these men were sheltering with others in a school in northern Gaza. And Israeli forces just rounded them up and then forced them to strip to their underwear. Why would soldiers order them to strip down? Well, this is apparently, this is a common practice by Israeli military forces, particularly you see this in the West Bank, and they say it's to make sure there are no bomb vests or weapons. And we have seen similar images of this,

people in detention before. But I was talking to a man named Shlomo Brom. He's a retired brigadier general with the Israeli army. And I asked him about these images, and this is what he told me. These pictures should not be publicized because they are humiliating. And why do you think someone might have put them out? Yes, he might think that it is good to raise the morale in Israel, or maybe it is good as a kind of psychological war against Hamas. And Scott, I have to emphasize,

Brom is just speaking for himself, not the military, and we still don't know exactly where these images came from. Is there any way to verify if they are, in fact, Hamas fighters? Not yet. You know, Israel has effectively a ban on journalists going to Gaza. But it's clear already that some of the people in these images are not from Hamas. NBR has confirmed that one person shown is, in fact, a journalist for a media outlet close to Qatar. And our colleague Leila Fadl, she spoke with the United Nations aid administrator in the United States. And he actually recognized some of his own family members in the images and said, there's no way they're working for Hamas.

This man's name is Hani Al-Madun. He's based in Washington. And Hani said he recognized his brother Mahmoud in the back of an Israeli army truck. And he said, there's no way his brother could be working with Hamas. I mean, I know my brother, he can't run two meters, let alone to be a fighter. You know, he's just a shopkeeper in Gaza. Hani says he found the images revealing and he also thinks they contain a political message. I'm beginning to understand this war is not just on Hamas. This is just a much bigger war on our own existence, our own identity,

and this is the images that they may communicate that were defeated people. Frank, of course, the war began with Hamas killing about 1,200 people in southern Israel in a surprise attack on October 7th. Since then, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 17,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry there. We know the U.S. has been trying to put more pressure on Israelis to reduce civilian casualties. What's the Israeli response been like? Well, I think they are listening and they say they're doing what they can. And they have to listen to the Americans because the Americans are providing the weapons. But Israeli analysts this week told me that they think the U.S. is going to give more time to Israel to cripple Hamas, even if it costs more civilian lives and generates more anger and

criticism of the U.S. and Israel here and overseas. And Pierce Frank Langfitt in Tel Aviv, thanks so much for being with us. Good to talk, Scott. The FDA approved two new treatments for the blood disorder known as sickle cell disease. It's a big step for many people who suffer from the ailment. As well as for the gene editing technique that's behind the treatments. NPR Health correspondent Rob Stein joins us. Rob, thanks for being with us. Oh, my pleasure, Scott. And of course, sickle cell is a genetic disorder, causes red blood cells to become deformed, sickle-shaped. What are the effects of it? Yeah, it's a terrible disease. These misshapen,

sickle-shaped cells can't nourish the body with oxygen like they're supposed to, and the misshapen cells cause unpredictable attacks of excruciating pain and serious health problems that usually cut patients' lives short. The only cure is a bone marrow transplant, and most patients just can't find a suitable donor for that. How do these genetic treatments work? So doctors remove cells from patients' bodies, genetically modify those cells in the lab, and then infuse billions of the modified cells back into patients where the modified cells produce a healthy form of a protein sickle cell patients need called hemoglobin. That creates normal red blood cells and alleviates the symptoms. One of the new treatments uses a more conventional approach, a modified version of a virus to ferry a gene into patients' cells. The other uses the gene editing technique known as CRISPR to edit

a gene in the cells. Scott, you might remember Victoria Gray of Forest, Mississippi. She was the first sickle cell patient to get the gene editing treatment in 2019. NPR broke that story and had exclusive access to chronicle her experience. I talked with her about yesterday's approval. I've had a new beginning. I no longer have to go to the hospital because I'm in severe pain. I'm no longer tired with lack of energy. And most of all, I no longer have to fear dying and leaving my kids behind without a mother. My life is limitless now. It's a real transformation. And Scott, that's been the experience of most of the patients who've undergone both treatments so far. It's so wonderful to hear her say that. Are there negative impacts for many of

these treatments? Well, you know, there are still lots of questions. You know, one of the questions is, will these treatments actually translate into a longer lifespan for patients? Could there be any long-term side effects that just haven't shown up yet? In fact, there is already some concern that the approach that uses the virus may increase the risk for blood cancer. And another big question is, will patients be able to get these new treatments? They're expensive. One will cost $2.2 million per patient, the other $3.1 million, and they're very complicated and difficult to go through. So it will be hard to get for many patients, especially less affluent patients in this country and the millions of patients in Africa and Asia where sickle cell is most common. All of this being noted, Rob,

how significant a moment is this for gene editing? It's a big deal. You know, it's pretty remarkable how quickly gene editing went from being an experimental technique to something that is actually helping people. I talked about this with Jennifer Doudna from the University of California, Berkeley. She shared a Nobel Prize for helping discover CRISPR. It's only the beginning. It's an amazing time. Gene editing is already being tested for a long list of diseases

ranging from relatively rare genetic conditions like muscular dystrophy to more common health problems like cancer and heart disease. And Bear Health correspondent Rob Stein, thanks so much. You bet, Scott. Even though President Biden's plan to cancel student debt failed in court,

a different approach is yielding results. That's through a new repayment plan called SAVE. Nearly 3 million borrowers' monthly payments will be zero as of November. And PR's Corey Turner joins us. Corey, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me, Scott. SAVE, of course, stands for Saving on a Valuable Education. How are these zero-dollar payments possible? So bear with me here for a second. It is fundamentally a repayment

plan that bases a borrower's monthly payment on their income. So the less they make, the less they have to pay each month. Now, this isn't a new idea, but what is new is save is a lot more generous than anything that's come before. And that's true in a few different ways. So for example, monthly loan payments are not based on all of a borrower's income, just on what is considered extra or discretionary. And one thing that SAVE does is it increases how much income is considered off limits. Shorthand, that means a lot more borrowers will now qualify for essentially a $0 monthly payment because the federal government says you don't have any discretionary income. Like we said in the intro, of the 5.5 million borrowers who are now enrolled in SAVE, more than half not covered by your monthly payment, especially if it's $0, that interest now gets wiped away. Let me ask for your counsel on something, though.

One of our producers here has student loans, enrolled in SAVE, and discovered that her monthly payment just came down by about $20. Let me put you on the spot. Why? Let me get my crystal ball here. No, actually, there are two potential explanations here, Scott. First, as part of this huge transition of tens of millions of borrowers back to repayment, I will say loan servicers and the education department have made a lot of mistakes when it comes to calculating borrowers' monthly payments under SAVE. So sadly, that wouldn't surprise me if that's the explanation. But there's another explanation, and that is everyone enrolling in SAVE needs to understand that probably the biggest change that's really going to save borrowers money hasn't even happened yet. So this is pretty nerdy. Bear

with me here. That monthly payment math that we were talking about earlier, I said save messes with it in two ways. So as we said, it exempts more of borrowers income from being considered discretionary. But then right now, borrowers payments are 10% of that discretionary income of whatever's left. Right. Well, in July next year, 2024 for borrowers is basically it's going to cut their monthly payments in half. So for folks like your producer thinking, my payments are not as low as I thought it would be, just wait. This sounds generous, but how much is it going to cost? So we know from the Penn Wharton budget model that the price tag could be as much as $475 billion across 10 years, which is a lot of money. And it's one reason why many Republicans are, I don't think it's overstating it to say, furious about the SAVE plan. Congresswoman Virginia Fox, who is the Republican chair of the House Education Committee, Scott, she hates SAVE with the heat of a thousand suns. Honestly, like on the House floor earlier this week, she said save is, quote, President Biden's game of ruling by executive decree, pinning the tab on the taxpayer but a similar effort has already failed in the Senate.

And President Biden has made clear even if it does get to his desk, he'll veto it. NPR's Corey Turner. Thanks so much. You're welcome, Scott. And Corey, remind us, what's the address where listeners can read all of NPR student loan coverage? It's super easy. NPR.org slash student loans. And that's Up First for Saturday, December 9, 2023. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Ayesha Roscoe. Danny Hensel, Samantha Balaban, and Hiba Ahmad

produced this Saturday version of Up First. Scott Hensley, Lucy Perkins, Ed McNulty, Nicole Cohen, and Matthew Sherman edited. Our director is Andrew Craig, with engineering support from Hannah Glovner. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor. Sarah Oliver is our executive producer. And Jim Kane is our deputy managing editor. Thanks to all those fine people who lent their talents to Weekend Edition as well. Up first, we'll be back tomorrow with a story on

the impact medical debt has on the lives of millions of people in this country. NPR has been investigating the subject for more than a year with KFF Health News. And there's more news, interviews, books, and music this weekend on the radio. Weekend Edition airs every Saturday and Sunday morning. You can find your NPR station at stations.npr.org.