Up First from NPR - Israel Snubs Pauses, Question Of Aid Goes To Senate, Eyedrop Recall

Episode Date: November 4, 2023

The Israeli government says Hamas must release hostages before any consideration of a pause in its retaliation for the Oct. 7 attacks. The U.S. House passed an aid package unlikely to be agreed to by the Senate. The FDA is recalling more eye drops.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Israeli forces continue to retaliate against Hamas in Gaza. While protests call for a ceasefire and the Biden administration pushes for humanitarian causes. I'm Scott Simon. I'm Ayesha Roscoe and this is Up First from NPR News. Israel's prime minister is rejecting the idea of holding fire at this time. He says Hamas must release its hostages. The House votes to aid Israel and pays for it by raising the deficit. We'll talk politics.

And regulators don't like what they find in eye drops. We talked to an expert. So 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.

First up today, Israel. It's now four weeks since Hamas-backed militants crossed into southern Israel, killing more than 1,400 people and kidnapping more than 200, according to Israeli officials. Israel's military response has killed more than 9,000 more than 200, according to Israeli officials. Israel's military response has killed more than 9,000 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials. NPR's Alyssa Nadwarny is in Tel Aviv and joins us now. Alyssa, thanks for being with us. Good morning.

What's the situation today in Gaza? So today the Israeli military said it will, quote, avoid hitting the main road south from Gaza City for about three hours today for people trapped in northern Gaza to travel south safely. It also said this is in no way a ceasefire. You know, the U.N. estimates that there could be as many as 300,000 civilians in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, which Israeli forces have surrounded and where they say Hamas is headquartered. Officials in Gaza said foreign passport holders will not be allowed to

leave Gaza today unless patients from the hospitals in Gaza City and northern Gaza are permitted to get to the Rafer border crossing. And Alyssa, yesterday an Israeli airstrike hit near Gaza's largest hospital. What do we know about that attack so far? Well, according to Palestinian officials, at least 13 people were killed and dozens more were wounded near Shefa Hospital as a convoy of ambulances were transporting seriously injured people to Gaza's southern border, to the border with Egypt, to get medical treatment. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, which had an ambulance in that convoy, said the lead ambulance, which belonged to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, was directly

targeted by a missile. Israel has said it did carry out that airstrike because a, quote, Hamas terrorist cell was using the ambulances for cover. And listen, a number of nations are calling for a ceasefire. The United States is not. Why not? The U.S. says Israel has the right to continue its fight against Hamas. American officials have been pushing for what they call a humanitarian pause so aid can reach Gaza. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Jordan today working on that. But Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he rejects any temporary halt to the fight that does not include the release of hostages taken on October 7th.

There's hundreds of people have left Gaza this week, but that's a tiny number of those who would like to get out. Who seems to be getting out? Well, dozens of critically wounded Palestinians were allowed to leave. This was a major sticking point for Hamas in the negotiations to open the border. According to U.S. officials, Hamas delayed the negotiations by insisting that Hamas wounded fighters be included. Of course, Egypt and Israel were against that, and ultimately Hamas relented. Hundreds of foreign passport holders have been on that list to cross into Egypt from a range of countries, including the United States. Our producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, has been at the Rafah border crossing each morning,

and he talked with Maha Bena, who lives in New Jersey but works with an aid organization in Gaza, and said this. We had a problem securing water, bread, food, fuel for the transport. I drove my car here, and it was the last amount of fuel that is there. He also talked with Nada Bouchaban. She is a 20-year-old from Houston, Texas, who was in Gaza visiting family. Although I'm excited to be going home, my heart breaks for the family that I have to leave here. I'm leaving my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles, cousins, on both sides, my mom's side and my dad's side. So it's quite, it's hard. It is. It's hard.

Both of them were U.S. citizens and were on that list to leave. And Pierre's a listen-out warning. Thanks so much for being with us. You bet. As long as the United States stands, Israel will never stand alone. That's Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday. The U.S. is readying $14 billion in aid to Israel, mostly to bolster the Iron Dome missile defense system and provide more advanced weaponry, with the rest going to protect and evacuate U.S. citizens. That's what the Republican-led U.S. House passed this week, paired with cuts to the Internal Revenue Service. And it's all but certain not to pass the Democratic-led Senate.

And we have our senior political editor and correspondent, Domenico Montanaro, joins us now. Domenico, thanks for being with us. Good to be with you. So no chance of passage in the Senate, which the new speaker, Mike Johnson, must have known. Do you see the bill as a statement, a gesture, maneuver, or? Well, I'd say it's a short-term win because it showed in his first week that Johnson was able to keep together his fractious conference. But it's really only pretty minor because, like you said, it's dead on arrival in the Senate. You know, it's this cute and tortured attempt to really keep his members together by

funding Israel and defunding the IRS, which is not what the president has asked for. He wants funding for Israel and Ukraine tied together. So the part of governing that Johnson still, you know, has to do, he hasn't quite shown he can do in keeping his conference together while negotiating, compromising, finding common ground, whatever you want to call it, with the other side, because Democrats do control the Senate and the White House, and that can't be lost here. He still has to compromise. What does the bill say about how Speaker Johnson might lead on other problems, thinking of Ukraine aid and, of course, funding the federal government?

Basically, new speaker, same problems until we see otherwise. Think about this pretzel-like maneuver, this Gumby-like bend maybe we're seeing Johnson try to do. I always knew, Domenico, you would cite a classical antecedent, but go ahead. There we go. You know, to try to just get to even just get this IRS Israel bill passed, that's going nowhere. Johnson spent a lot of time this week talking about the dire nature of the federal debt, yet according to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill wouldn't even pay for itself. This tends to happen when you decrease the government's ability to go after tax

cheats and not be able to collect revenue, which is a thing Republicans are loathe to talk about. For them, it's all about spending cuts. But there just isn't enough spending to cut if you're not going to look at Medicare and Social Security to make a dent in the debt. And we're looking at this kind of action with the Israel-Hamas war continuing, a war in Ukraine that's still happening, by the way, and less than two weeks to go until the federal government would shut down. Now, the Republican presidential debate next week, fields thinning out a bit. Race for the moment is who's second behind Donald Trump, well behind Donald Trump. Where do you see the current field? It's like a middle-aged man's receding hairline. The thinning is just starting to show, Scott. Pence is out. DeSantis appears deflated, never having been able to differentiate himself enough from Trump for those who don't want him and convince those who do like Trump that the rise. And Haley is really trying to drive the stake into DeSantis.

Here she was taking a shot at DeSantis on The Daily Show, making fun of these viral images of DeSantis' boots looking turned up at the toe and possibly elevated at the heel. I've always talked about my high heels. I've never, you know, hid that from anybody. I've always said don't wear them if you can't run in them. So we'll see if he can run in them. So preview debate this week. Haley is comfortable with the issue set that's going on in the world right now, having been the former Trump ambassador to the United Nations. And I think we can expect her to try to make the most of her moment this week. And quickly, Donald Trump takes the stand next week, right?

He does. And, you know, it's amazing because it has to have distracted him from his campaign efforts and split his attention because this is his legacy. This is the company with his name on it. Someone from Queens trying to make it in the city. And that's really threatened right now because of this fraud trial. And, you know, it's all about the penalty. His political campaign is also at stake here. And there are really two audiences. We've seen a subdued Trump in court, but outside the bombast remains. He's really fighting for his legacy here, Scott. Domenico Montanaro, thanks so much. You're welcome. Some health news this Saturday for the more than a hundred million Americans who are estimated to

use eye drops and eye wash. Eye drops sold at Target, Walmart, and CVS are the focus of a new national warning and product recall. The Food and Drug Administration is urging people to stop buying and using more than two dozen over-the-counter products due to a risk of infection that could result in partial vision loss, blindness, or worse. Gary Novak is a clinical professor of ophthalmology and vision science at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine and joins us now. Thank you for being with us. Thank you. I'm happy to talk to you today. So this is the second eyedrop-related recall this year. The first happened back in February. So what is going on with this?

Right. So the first one in February had to do with two issues, both a problem at the manufacturer and that that product was inappropriately made. The more recent ones are due to some unsanitary conditions and bacteria found in the product as it's being manufactured. And these recent ones, these are eye drops that are sold at Target, Walmart, and some major places, right? That's correct. And so I want to emphasize to your listeners and to all patients is that this does not apply to prescription drugs. These are just over-the-counter products. Like, are these eye drops, like, for dry eyes?

Or sometimes, you know, I might use some eye drops for redness. I believe that all the ones recalled recently are just for dry eye. They're not for redness. What is it about eye drops in particular that are of concern, whereas you might not be as concerned about, you know, buying some over-the-counter cough medicine or, you know, cold medicine or something? Sure. So our current regulations on eye drops is that they all need to be sterile, and that's because the eye doesn't have some of the protections like an acidic stomach that could

kill certain bad things. So whenever you put a drop in the eye, we want it to be sterile because it's going to prevent the risk of contamination. You know that when you cry, your nose runs, and that's because the tears run down into the nose, and they can then be absorbed into other parts of the body. So there's less protection for things in the eyes getting to the rest of the body. So there's less protection for things in the eyes getting to the rest of the body. And so that's why sterility is an important concern. Is the FDA inspecting at a

level that you think is enough to make sure that, you know, these eye drops are not contaminated or not potentially contaminated? So during the pandemic, the FDA did not inspect. There was a travel ban, as I understand it. And so I think what we're seeing now, we know that, for example, in 2022, there was an inspection of the facility, the one that ended up in this terrible occurrences that we heard about in February. Probably what's happening is there is an increase, at least relative to pandemic times, in the number of inspections. And on these inspections, FDA is finding, again, unsanitary conditions. Okay. Well, these are things I had never thought about, so I'm really glad that I'm talking to you. So, I mean, what should someone do if they're worried about the

eye drops they've been using? For these over-the-counter tier products, I mean, those who have access can go to FDA's website. They also can ask the pharmacist. These products that have been recalled should have been removed from the shelf, but it is possible someone might have purchased these a while ago. There are a number of other things patients should do in general, which is if it's a product that is only for one use, and they know that because they're labeled single use, they're little, we call them plastic squeezy things, they shouldn't try to reuse these products. They're not designed to be sterile for more than one use. That's Gary Novak of the UC Davis School of Medicine. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Pleasure to talk to you.

And that's up first for Saturday, November 4th, 2023. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. Tomorrow on the podcast, a Sunday story about running races as a non-binary person and running afoul of doping rules for using the hormone you need. Today's episode was produced by Michael Radcliffe, Lennon Sherburn, and Fernando Naro. It was edited by Ed McNulty, Melissa Gray, and Mark Ketkov. Andrew Craig 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. Those people and more contribute to Weekend Edition every Saturday and Sunday morning, and this weekend they're really gonna enjoy another hour of sleep. Oh, sorry, go to npr.org to find your NPR station, and remember to change your clocks this weekend so you can tune in to Weekend Edition at just the right time.