Up First from NPR - Gaza Hospital Crisis, Biden-Xi Meeting, Union Wins And The Car Market

Episode Date: November 11, 2023

Israel says it is "closing in" on Hamas militants it claims are using hospitals and other civilian infrastructure in Gaza as cover. The American and Chinese presidents are due to talk for the first time in more than a year. It will be difficult for automakers to pass the cost of recent union wins to consumers.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Far too many Palestinians have been killed. Far too many have suffered these past weeks. Israel continues into Gaza. With brief daily pauses so civilians can flee the violence. I'm Scott Simon. I'm Aisha Roscoe and this is Up First from NPR News. The U.S. Secretary of State commented on the bloodshed Friday, the same day more munitions fell on Gaza's largest hospital.

We have the latest. President Biden, we'll meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week. We have what's at stake and what to expect. And what union wins may mean for you the next time you're at a car dealership. Please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend. Now, Our Change will honour 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. Catastrophic. That's how Doctors Without Borders is describing the situation at Gaza's biggest hospital. Overnight, the group said attacks on the Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza dramatically intensified and that it's lost contact with staff there.

NPR's Lauren Frayer is in Tel Aviv. Lauren, thanks for being with us. Thank you, Scott. What do we know about the situation in Gaza's hospitals? Well, this morning, Gaza's health ministry said Al-Shifa Hospital is now run out of fuel and suspended operations. There are reports of patients dying, including a newborn baby in an incubator that turned off when the power shut off. Israel says Hamas's main command center is underneath this hospital.

Hamas and al-Shifa staff deny that. Palestinian officials say this hospital and witnesses nearby say this hospital has been hit by Israeli bombs and artillery. Israel says at least one of those attacks was actually a militant rocket that misfired. Thousands of people have camped out in and around this hospital complex today. They see Israeli troops approaching from the ground. Israel's military says it's trying to evacuate these hospitals so it can deal with Hamas. Today, it said it evacuated a children's hospital, Al-Rantisi, but that Hamas members slipped out, mixed in with doctors and civilians. The World Health Organization says a majority of Gaza's hospitals are no longer functioning.

A UN spokesperson said, quote, if there is hell on earth, its name is northern Gaza. United Nations says about two-thirds of the residents in Gaza have been internally displaced. What can you tell us about their efforts to leave, and can they even? Israel's pausing attacks in certain areas for a few hours at a time. Today, an Israeli military spokesperson tweeted out guidance in Arabic that's aimed at people in Gaza, though many people there don't have internet, saying safe passage is open for a few hours today along two corridors, one inland, one newly opened seaside route, as well as in a refugee camp called Jabalia, which has been absolutely flattened. The UN says more than 150,000 people have used these evacuation corridors.

NPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, has been talking to some of them. We met this man holding a wooden stick just to hold the weight of their baggages for the long walk. This man, Abu Ahmed, says his home was shelled. He describes being shot at. He says he's been walking more than an hour in the heat. Our producer Anas has also been sending us video of whole families stumbling south, children waving white handkerchiefs. And Scott, I want to note these evacuation routes don't take you to safety. They take you to southern Gaza, away from the ground battles, but where you're still vulnerable to strikes from the air. Lauren, health officials in Gaza say more than 11,000 people have been killed there in more than a month of military strikes, and they're growing

calls for Israel to exercise restraint. What is the Israeli reply? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Hamas started this. He accuses Hamas of using human shields. He has ruled out anything more than these little pauses in attacks in certain areas. He says there will be no ceasefire without the return of hostages. Around 240 hostages are being held in Gaza. There are rumors of prisoner swaps, negotiations. That's obviously secret. We have nothing public on that yet. And Scott, Israel overnight revised down its own death toll from the October 7th attacks to around 1,200. That's 200 fewer victims than Israel's been citing for the past month. Many of the bodies that day were burned and mutilated. The process of identifying them

is still underway. But it was that volume of loss of life that prompted Israel to launch the attacks on Gaza that we're still seeing today. And Piers Lauren Freyer in Tel Aviv, thanks so much. Thank you, Scott. Could there be a change in U.S. relations with China? President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are sitting down to talk next week at the meeting of an Asia-Pacific economic group in San Francisco. It's been more than a year since the two leaders have met and tensions between the U.S. and China have risen. NPR China correspondent

John Rewich joins us. John, thanks for being with us. Hey, I'm happy to do it. So it's been a year since Biden and Xi talked. That's pretty remarkable, right? Yeah, it's been a year since they talked. And it's been six years since Xi Jinping was last in the United States. He came in April of 2017. And as you know, that's a very long period of time for the leader of the world's second biggest economy not to visit. A lot's changed.

There's been a trade war, a pandemic. We've seen spats over human rights and technology. Military to military talks were cut last year after then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went to Taiwan. There was the spy balloon incident. I could keep going on. But suffice to say, the relationship is in a very different place than it was the last time she visited. However, compared with earlier this year, after that spy balloon incident, things do seem to be looking up a little bit. And so why is that? And when Biden and Xi meet, what can we expect? Yeah, there's been a ton of diplomacy over the past half year, really, to try to smooth things out. Several U.S. cabinet members visited China. Several senior Chinese officials have been back to the U.S.

Both sides seem very keen on stabilizing the relationship for now. But this trip by Xi Jinping is not a state visit. Biden and Xi are going to talk about a wide range of things. But advisors to Biden caution that it's going to be limited in terms of what will come out of it, really. Their main goal is to stabilize the relationship and to lower the risk of conflict. Bonnie Lin is a director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. I don't think either side are going in expecting major deliverables or major breakthroughs in the relationship, but it could empower the two sides to continue to

make progress on areas where we've seen improvement. So that's things like climate change or people to people interactions as opposed to government to government. The Biden administration says it wants more cooperation from China on fentanyl. A lot of the precursor chemicals come from China. We might see some agreement there. Also, there does seem to be momentum toward restarting those military to military talks, which were cut after Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. And so what's in it for Xi? Well, stability also, you know, an example might be reestablishing the senior military to military talks. That would be a positive step. You know, the navies of the US and China are the biggest in the world. They're operating near each other in the South China Sea and around Taiwan fairly

regularly. Nobody wants an unintentional escalation. But Oriana Schuyler Mastro, who's a China expert at Stanford University, says that even a reestablishment of mill-to-mill exchanges in the medium to long term would have limitations. Because China traditionally uses them as a tool, as a threat to say, we're going to cut these off whenever we're unhappy. And the idea is that they could be used again. They probably will be used again in the future in that way. You know, another key thing on Xi's mind these days is China's economy, which has had a very disappointing recovery this year.

Foreign investments down. There's been an outflow of capital from China. Xi is expected to speak at a dinner for business leaders in San Francisco, and he will no doubt make an appeal to them. But the proof's going to be in the pudding, really. There's a lot of business folks who have been spooked by his policies. So even though these talks with President Biden are a positive step, they really won't solve all the fundamental issues. That's NPR's John Rewich.

John, thanks so much. You're welcome. Lastly today, cars, cost, and you. The United Auto Workers just scored some big wins. The union managed to get all workers raises of at least 25%. Some will even see their pay doubled, plus more retirement contributions, among other gains. But what does it mean for the auto industry and the wider economy? For that, we turn to NPR's Camila Dominovsky. Camila, thanks for being with us.

Happy to be here, Aisha. So let's start here. What do these gains mean for workers and their communities? Yeah, for workers, like you mentioned, we're talking about some really significant raises. You know, the UAW came into this fighting to get back a middle class lifestyle for these working class members who had given up a lot during the financial crisis. And, you know, they've seen their wages go down in real terms over the last few decades. So this was a substantial win. It's big for workers. It also injects a lot of money into their local economies.

There are downsides. One, wage growth makes it harder to fight inflation. And there is a way this could backfire on workers, which is that it's possible that labor costs get so high that it further incentivizes companies to move assembly jobs to other locations or rely more on automation. You know, I asked workers about this,

and Patty Ellison, who works for Stellantis, she told me she is not worried about this. That's something that we've all dealt with in the automotive industry for forever, basically. Because basically, that's what's been happening. Why would this contract change things? And I spoke with analysts who note that labor costs, they are a factor in these decisions, but they are not the only factor. And what are the implications for consumers? Yeah. So first of all, let's just note that the strike itself was not super disruptive for car shoppers. Inventories, vehicles on lots actually went up over the course of the strike. Now,

the deal that ends the strike, it raises costs for companies companies and they would love to pass that cost along to buyers. But it might actually be hard for them to do that because vehicle prices are so high right now. You know, they rose, skyrocketed really, to nearly $50,000 on average because of forces of supply and demand, not because of what was happening with labor costs. And now the prices have actually stabilized. You've got interest rates rising. So it's a question of, you know, who can even afford to buy a car if prices go up much more? A big union win, it doesn't help the price situation, but it's actually not clear how much it will hurt

and how much automakers will cut costs elsewhere or just eat. You know, we'll really just have to see. Okay, so that raises the question, how will this affect automakers? Yeah, higher labor costs, they are a headwind. Specifically, they are a disadvantage for the unionized companies against the non-unionized companies. Labor costs were already higher for the Detroit automakers, and that gap just widened. But Tom Narayan, an analyst with RBC Capital, he said he thinks some people are really

overestimating how painful this is from a company's perspective. Look, it's not a it's not a positive to have to pay more wage increases, but I think they expected it. Basically, he says wages were going to have to go up regardless. They've gone up everywhere, right? Ford and Stellantis, they have both talked to investors since these deals were announced, and they've been really optimistic about their future profits. So we'll hear more from them in the months ahead about how they plan on responding to these labor cost increases, which will answer some more questions about how exactly this will affect buyers and the broader economy. That's NPR's Camila Dominovsky. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. And that's a first for Saturday, November 11th,

2023. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. Tomorrow on Up First, the Sunday Story, Daniel Krause and I talk about fathers, sons, and living a life worthy of the people we leave behind after we're gone. Today's episode was produced by Danny Hensel, Ryan Bank, Fernando Naro. It was edited by Ed McNulty, Hadil Al-Shauchi, Don Clyde, Vincent Nee, and Raphael Nam. Michael Radcliffe directed with engineering support from Hannah Glovna. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor. Sarah Lucy Oliver is our executive producer. And Jim Kane is our deputy managing editor. There's a lot more news and information and books and music and all the things that can possibly be considered,

but it's Week in Edition, not all things considered. Remember that. Listen to Scott and me on Week in Edition. All things considered, what's that? Go to NPR.org to find your NPR station so you can tune in every Saturday and Sunday morning.