What A Day - With Next Phase Of Ceasefire Unclear, Gazans Brace For Winter

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

It's been nearly two months since the fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas went into effect. The ceasefire is intended to be the first phase of an overarching plan to bring peace to the region after two years of war. But the next steps in the plan seem murky at best. Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported that countries that had planned to deploy troops to Gaza to keep the peace as part of an International Stabilizing Force have backpedaled on their commitments. Meanwhile, Gazans are continuing to struggle – reeling from massive flooding and increasingly cold weather. For more on the current conditions in Gaza, we spoke with Mohammed Aklouk, a coordinator for the Norwegian Refugee Council who lives in Gaza with his family.And in headlines, Luigi Mangione's lawyers attempt to get key pieces of evidence thrown out in his New York state trial, a federal court rules that Alina Habba has been serving unlawfully as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, and Indiana Republicans continue their push to assist President Donald Trump's calls for partisan gerrymandering.This holiday season, gift someone a Friends of the Pod subscription or treat yourself. Learn more at crooked.com/friends. Subscribing is the best way to support independent progressive media.Show Notes:Check out the Norwegian Refugee Council's work – www.nrc.no/Call Congress – 202-224-3121Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's Tuesday, December 2nd, I'm Jane Koston, and this is what a day. The show excited to find out where we go next on the Secretary of Defense Pete Higsef's defense train. We've left. We definitely didn't hit that alleged drug boat a second time station. And now we appear to be arriving at we did hit that alleged drug boat a second time, and that's awesome town. On today's show, the second most famous Luigi, but easily the most deadly, allegedly, appears in a New York courtroom. And who's that charlatan? Her name is Alina Haba. She's Trump's ex-personal lawyer, and she's been moonlighting as New Jersey's top prosecutor for months

without any legal authority to do so. But let's start with Gaza. It's been nearly two months since a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, brokered by the U.S., Turkey, and Qatar went into effect. The ceasefire is intended to be the first phase of an overarching plan to bring peace to the region after two years of war. The next steps in the plan seem murky at best. Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported that countries that had planned to deploy troops to Gaza to keep the peace as part of an international stabilization force, or ISF, have backpedaled on their commitments.

While President Donald Trump's plan had specified that the troops would go into Gaza in early 2006, countries like the United Arab Emirates are worried about, quote, the ambiguity of this whole thing. comforting. But as the fragile truce in Gaza holds, the war has prompted significant soul-searching among American politicians and voters alike. According to a New York Times poll from September, a majority of Americans now oppose sending additional economic or military aid to Israel, a massive reversal from 2023. And on Monday, Ben Rhodes, Potsay of the World co-host and former Deputy National Security Advisor under the Obama administration, published an opinion piece for the New York

times arguing that it was time for the United States and Democrats to distance themselves from Israel's far-right government. While Americans continue to wrestle with the country's relationship with Israel, Gazans are struggling. Al Jazeera recently reported on how residents are reeling from massive flooding and increasingly cold weather. In Gaza, a fragile ceasefire may be in place, but Palestinians still face a battle to survive. Among the rubble of shattered homes, families now face a new enemy, the cold. Winter is a closing in, and for many here, even finding basic shelter is a daily struggle. For more on the current conditions in Gaza, I spoke with Mohamed Aklouk,

a coordinator for the Norwegian Refugee Council who lives in Gaza with his family. Mohamed, welcome to Wadadaday. Thank you. Thank you, Jenny. I'm very happy to be joining you. To start off, can you tell me about the aid work you do in Gaza? Okay. I am working in the ed worker from 14 years right now. I am the information management coordinator. So my responsibilities is to collect the information about the people in need, how the situation they are facing, where is the gap in terms of assistance provider to the people, providing to the people. So we keep trying to follow up where is the people displaced, where is the people suffering and trying to coordinate with the partners, with the donors. to provide them with evidence-based information, how they can support these people to let them survive from their situation. What has your work to look like since Israel and Hamas entered into a ceasefire agreement in early October?

The problem is, it's personal and professional issues. So it's personal level I already displaced seven times and facing a lot of from displacement. In addition to that, also I'm trying to, to support my people here by providing all the information, by providing the assistance to these people as much as I can. Because the whole population here in Gaza is suffering from everything. They are in need for everything. So trying to do as much as we can to let them cope and adapt their situation to continue their life and still continue the hoping for them. You mentioned the professional and the personal. You and your family fled Gaza City at the

beginning of October and went to a town further south. Have you stayed in the same part of Gaza since then? Already my home totally destroyed from the beginning of October. So I flee and displaced for seven times. Now, after the ceasefire, I'm back again to the Gaza, but as I told you, my home is totally destroyed, so trying to find an alternative place to trying to start from zero, to rebuild my life with my family and to continue our lives. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 350 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the ceasefire took effect in October. Have you felt any safer since that agreement went into effect while you're dealing

with everything else? No. The clear answer is no, because while I am speaking with you, I am hearing some shooting one week ago in our neighborhood, there is a targeting here and there. So you feel not safe. We are afraid to send our kids to any school or educational point. So the situation, no, is still not safe for 100%. But absolutely, it's better than the previous days before the ceasefire announcement.

How much more challenging is the colder weather going to make your job? One week ago, there is a rainfall. when you find your families, your extended families, your neighbors, all the people are already affected from this winter. So everything is wet.

All the people, the kids, the children slept on the sock mattresses. During the night the parents cannot do anything. They're feeling powerless to provide any

support to their families. In addition to that, we as aid workers, the requirement or the required quantities to support these people is more than 10% from what's the needed. So there is a huge gap between what's available at the requirement. So also we're trying to do our place to support our people. We prioritize them as much as we can, but all the families, when you see those children's sleeping in the wet floor, I think this is, you cannot imagine this type of pictures when you're dealing with this, with the whole community. Do you feel at all hopeful about what could happen next with the ceasefire agreement?

Hope comes from resilience of people. We are as a Palestinian's continue hoping, even after losing everything. Families still find a ways to support each other. and every small acts make a difference. So we keep the hope, we keep providing the hope for the people. We keep looking for good future because we don't have a choice. We need to build our future to be better with the hope. What actions does the international community need to take in order to make sure Gazans have access to aid and safer living conditions?

I think for the international communities, they do our best because I am already involved in a lot of discussions, a lot of agreement. They are doing and they support the aid worker, the national aid worker, as much as they can. So they are providing, but there is some restriction from out government. They put some restriction. There is not need some pushing in parties here or there. This is what we are trying to increase advocacy. between the international organization and their governments to increase the advocacy to let them know

that it's a million of people trying to survive, we need to let them survive. It's not only headlines. We need to send more advocacy messages to the European, American countries, increase their support because already they supported the Palestinian people to trying to end this.

a nightmare for Palestinian people. Mohamed, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Thank you, Jeannie. Much appreciate it. That was my conversation with Mohamed Aklouk, a coordinator for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Gaza. We'll get to more of the news in the moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends.

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Here's what else we're following today. We're told Luigi Mangione is seated inside the courtroom at a table next to his defense attorneys. We're told by our teams inside court that he's wearing a gray suit. Well, I'm glad we got that detail settled. Thanks, ABC News. Prosecutors opened a crucial evidentiary hearing Monday in the New York State murder case against Luigi Mangione. The gray suit wearing 27-year-old accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione's attorneys are challenging key pieces of evidence, which they argue were obtained legally

and therefore should be tossed. They say that police found the alleged murder weapon and a notebook in which prosecutors say Mangione wrote about plans to, quote, whack, a health insurance executive without a warrant. Both items, neither of which scream, I'm innocent and misunderstood, were found in his backpack by police. Defense attorneys also want some of Mangione's early police statements thrown out, claiming officers questioned him, before reading him his rights. If the judge agrees, prosecutors could lose both a potential motive and the gun, they say, matches the attack.

Two things I've learned from watching Law and Order are pretty important for a conviction. Mangione still faces a separate federal murder charge. The next hearing for that case is set for January 9th. Alina Haba is out of a job again. A federal court of appeals ruled Monday that Trump's personal lawyer turned New Jersey U.S. attorney has been serving unlawfully for months. Trump originally appointed Haba as the acting U.S. attorney in March,

and in July, nominated her to take over the position permanently, even though she had no prior experience working as a prosecutor or even in criminal law. Sounds familiar. Rather than appoint Haba, federal judges picked the career prosecutor who had been serving as her number two. But you know how this administration feels about experience.

They don't want it. So it's not too surprising that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Haba's replacement had been fired, then turned around and reinstated Haba in an interim capacity. Haba is not the only U.S. attorney that the Trump administration has tried to keep in power with untraditional maneuvers. But she may be the first one to reach the Supreme Court. In the meantime, I guess, more chaos. We thought long and hard about it. Obviously, lots of discussions. I'll be honest with you, when you see what Virginia did and they come in and,

and don't think twice about beginning of, you know, right before an election, changing their constitution so they can do redistricting. Now, that had an impact on me, seeing what California did and overwhelmingly voting for new maps there. I mean, I think this is where the political environment is right now. Republican Speaker of the Indiana House, Todd Houston, spoke to reporters from inside the State House on Monday. As State House Republicans barrel ahead with a gerrymandered, I mean, newly drawn, congressional map. Democrats currently occupy only two of the nine Indiana House seats at the national level. If approved, the map could help hand those two seats to Republicans in the 26 midterms.

Indiana House Republicans drop said map Monday and are expected to advance it quickly. In the Indiana Senate, Republican resistance has stalled redistricting for months. Senate Republicans have previously refused to even meet on the issue despite heavy pressure from President Trump. The state Senate is set to reconvene December 8th. where leaders say they'll finally decide whether to adopt the map or defy Trump and his mob. What do we mean by his mob? Well, the fight has unleashed threats against lawmakers. Republican state senator Gene Lysing reported a bomb threat at our home this weekend,

saying it stemmed from the national pressure campaign. According to NBC News, at least 11 Indiana state lawmakers say they've been swatted or threatened since Trump publicly singled them out for refusing to back its plan. swatting is when a terrible person pranks emergency services into sending armed officers to someone's address. What cool times we live in. The Trump administration has pulled the rug out from under 14 newly reinstated employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. According to copies of notices reviewed by the New York Times, last week FEMA told the employees, who had been removed after criticizing the Trump administration,

that their administrative leave was over. But on Monday, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told outlets that those employees were, quote, wrongly and without authorization reinstated by bureaucrats acting outside of their authority. Back in August, the employees took part in a letter sent to Congress called the Katrina Declaration. It was written in response to the, quote, dismantling cuts and devastating attacks on FEMA programs and missions. Of course, 14 of those who attached their name to the letter were subsequently put on administrative leave. others who publicly signed the letter left or took buyouts. A DHS spokesperson told CNN in a statement Monday, quote, The 14 employees who signed the Katrina Declaration have been returned to administrative leave.

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celebrate the Oxford University Press Word of the Year, or repost it furiously, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, and not just about how the Word of the Year is rage bait, defined as content, quote, deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive. Like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston, and there's so much going on to authentically rage about. No bait needed.

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