What A Day - World Central Kitchen Pauses Work in Gaza After Fatal Israeli Strike

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

World Central Kitchen, an international aid group, said on Tuesday it paused its relief operation in Gaza after an Israeli airstrike killed seven of its workers on the ground there. The strikes happened late Monday night as the aid workers were leaving a warehouse in the central Gaza Strip in vehicles clearly marked with World Central Kitchen’s logo. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the government launched a thorough inquiry into what happened, but he also added, “This happens in war.”Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin held primary elections Tuesday night. Democratic organizers in Wisconsin surpassed their goal of getting 20,000 voters to cast “uninstructed” ballots in order to send President Biden the message that they disapprove of his handling of the war in Gaza. Meanwhile, thousands of Republicans cast ballots for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, even though she dropped out of the GOP race last month.And in headlines: A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Taiwan, backers of an abortions rights amendment to Arizona’s constitution say they’ve collected more than enough signatures to get it onto the state’s November ballot, and the moon is set to get its own time zone.Show Notes:What 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  

It's Wednesday, April 3rd. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And I'm Juanita Tolliver, and this is What A Day, the pod that's heard the dumbest idea ever. A new bill by House Republicans to rename Dulles Airport near D.C. after Trump. We mostly hate this idea, but I will say, the new name would make it the perfect home for grounded Boeing 737 Maxes. Where the doors fly off. Oh, God. They want to use it for that. Could be perfect. A match made in heaven. On today's show, we share some early results from yesterday's primary voting in Wisconsin and more. Plus, the moon might be getting its own time zone. But first, efforts to get aid into a starving, pummeled Gaza hit a new roadblock after an

Israeli airstrike earlier this week killed seven aid workers from the international aid group World Central Kitchen. Yeah, truly devastating news. Tell us more about what happened. Yes, so the strikes themselves took place late Monday night as the aid workers were leaving a warehouse in the central Gaza Strip in vehicles that were clearly marked with World Central Kitchen or WCK's logo. And I say strikes plural because according to photos and videos that are verified by multiple news outlets, the convoy was hit multiple times and the three destroyed vehicles were a mile and a half apart in total.

So it wasn't one errant shot that did this. According to World Central Kitchen, the aid workers had just unloaded over 100 tons of humanitarian aid sent to Gaza by sea, and they had coordinated their movements with the Israeli military beforehand. But that didn't stop the attacks that killed these seven aid workers. Those included three British nationals, one Australian, one Polish national, one dual citizen of the United States and Canada, and a 26-year-old Gazan who'd been working with them as their driver and translator. In a statement, World Central Kitchen CEO Aaron Gore said, quote, this is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations

showing up in the most dire situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable. Yeah, it seems to also be consistent behavior we've seen from the IDF as they've also attacked and targeted UN relief workers repeatedly since they started the bombardment especially those that, you know, these aid workers came from. Intentionally attacking aid workers and civilians, I might add, are war crimes. Though, according to U.S. National Security Spokesperson John Kirby, there is no evidence at this time that the Israeli army launched this attack intentionally. Now feels like a good time to just add in that over 30,000 civilians in Gaza have been killed since this war started back in October. Israel has long been criticized for indiscriminate bombing and killing of civilians, and this incident re-upped those criticisms. But there is a bit of

a gap in the response between what we saw here in response to the death of these aid workers and what we see in response to the everyday of these aid workers and what we see in response to the everyday shelling and bombing by the IDF that kills innocent Gazans every single day of this conflict. Yeah, I just want to emphasize every single day Gazans are losing their lives at the hands of these bombardments. And it's almost like the world should have believed them from the beginning when they were saying that the IDF was killing them indiscriminately. Also, I feel like we can take John Kirby's statement as a hint of how Biden will likely not react to this, which is also unsurprising. I mean, another telling situation where just a passport from a different country changes views on a life.

There's no difference. Right. Other than simply the passport and where they came from. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement of his own, calling the attack tragic and unintended. So he did add, quote, this happens in war. He went on to say that they have launched a thorough inquiry into what happened and will do everything in their power to ensure that something like this won't happen again. But in a conflict that has left so many civilians, journalists, and aid workers dead, those words are ringing a bit hollow.

The second part of the aftermath here is what happens to aid delivery after this. After news of this attack surfaced, World Central Kitchen announced yesterday that it immediately paused their aid operations in Gaza, and other organizations followed suit, saying that it was too dangerous for them to keep at it. According to the UN's World Food Program, WCK is a major player in providing essential aid. That aid is so desperately needed. Ships that were stocked with 240 tons of aid from WCK turned back around from Gaza yesterday, just one day after arriving, after their activities were suspended. But you also can't blame them for suspending their activities when aid workers, who are

clearly identified, are still being killed. And there's no telling the human consequences that this will have on the many people who continue to suffer in Gaza. This is horrible news for the people who are suffering. Absolutely. We're going to turn to some domestic politics now. If you thought that the 2024 primary elections were over, then think again. Yesterday, voters in Wisconsin, New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island went to the

polls to cast their ballots. Even though President Joe Biden and Donald Trump are the presumptive presidential nominees, these primaries are still an opportunity for the candidates to pick up additional delegates. But I'll also explain how important they were for Democratic voters to submit protest votes in response to Biden's handling of Gaza and for Republican voters to cast ballots for Nikki Haley because they just don't want Trump. So, OK, what returns do we have in so far? As of our recording time at 930 p.m. Eastern, Donald Trump is dominating, but Nikki Haley still has a presence in New York, Connecticut and Wisconsin. She is picking up

thousands of votes in each of these states, which I'm sure will annoy Donald Trump and delight the Biden campaign. Absolutely. In fact, Biden's campaign team released an ad this week emphasizing how Trump has said he doesn't need Haley supporters. And this ad is designed to attract Haley voters who they consider to be up for grabs. He doesn't need you. He doesn't want you. Clearly, he doesn't stand for any of the things you thought you wanted.

So there's another candidate in the race. Why not? On the Democratic side, we have been watching the uncommitted organizing efforts expand well beyond the original Listen to Michigan campaign. That is where Democrats who were calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza voted uncommitted to sending message to Biden that his unwavering support of Israel could cost him their votes in November. And it was

incredibly powerful and spawned many similar movements in other states. How will this protest vote show up in this latest round of primary elections? As these efforts have caught on across the nation following the Michigan primary, they made an impact in Minnesota, Hawaii, North Carolina, and plenty of other states. And they've even earned delegates in the process. They have officially been dubbed the uncommitted national movement, and organizers expect to see continued support. In Wisconsin, for example, organizers are aiming to get 20,000 voters to cast uninstructed ballots because that's the narrow margin that President Biden won the state by during the 2020 presidential election. As part of their organizing efforts, they sent mailers to 200,000 Wisconsin voters asking them to quote,

tell the White House, count me out for genocide. As of our recording time, with 47% of the vote reported, Listen to Wisconsin exceeded their goal. More than 24,000 voters cast ballots for Uninstructed and the votes are still coming in. In New York, where uncommitted and write-in options weren't featured on the ballot, activists encouraged voters to submit blank ballots, and organizers have been supported by the Working Families Party and others. While

state election officials do count blank ballots, they don't typically report the number of blank ballots on election night. Instead, they released that information as part of the certified election results weeks later. But there's a lot to watch out for, Pri. We're recording this as final votes are still being counted, and tomorrow we'll be able to probe the results from Wisconsin and the impact from the protest vote there. That's the latest for now. We'll be back after some ads. let's wrap up with some headlines headlines starting with asia first we're watching this important story. A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the eastern coast of Taiwan just before 8 p.m. Eastern time yesterday. The quake destroyed several buildings and set off tsunami warnings in the region.

The full aftermath is still being assessed, but we'll be sure to bring you more details on tomorrow's show. Meanwhile, some diplomatic news. President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on the phone yesterday, marking their first contact since their November 2023 summit in California. They talked about the risks of AI, how to strengthen military communication, efforts to mitigate climate change. You know, just the usual things you chat about with the girls on FaceTime. Biden also brought up the importance of peace and stability in Taiwan, which has been

a tense topic between the U.S. and China, to say the very least. In total, the call lasted a little over an hour and a half, and the administration called it, quote, candid and constructive. The White House also announced yesterday that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will make her second trip to China this year to continue talks on how to strengthen the relationship between the two countries' economies. Backers of an abortion rights amendment to Arizona's constitution say they've collected more than enough signatures to get it onto the state's November ballot. The coalition, Arizona for Abortion Access, said on Tuesday it collected more than half a million signatures as of this weekend. That's roughly 100,000 more than they needed to qualify the

measure for the ballot. The group says it will keep collecting signatures until the deadline to submit them to the Secretary of State, which isn't until July 3rd, which I'm here for it. Keep organizing, keep getting more people aware of this ballot measure that'll likely appear. Keep collecting signatures. Hell yeah, we love it. The announcement out of Arizona follows News Monday that Florida voters will also get to weigh in on an abortion rights amendment to their state constitution this November. Both Florida and Arizona currently ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. But Florida's abortion restrictions are about to get even stricter because the state Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for a six week abortion ban to go into effect in May.

As always, help fight for abortion rights wherever you are by heading to votesaveamerica.com slash fight back. The New York judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial expanded an existing gag order on Monday. The new order bars Trump from attacking family members of both the judge and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, though both of the men themselves are not protected. The decision by New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Marchand came after Trump spent days attacking him and his daughter Lauren on his social media site Truth Social. Lauren is a political consultant who has worked with Democrats. And expanding the gag order,

Justice Marchand rejected Trump's arguments that the attacks were political speech. Trump was already barred from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, and jurors in the case under the original gag order issued last week, but clearly that did not go far enough. He needs all the reins he can get. The hush money trial is scheduled to start April 15th. It is over whether Trump tried to cover up payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead up to the 2016 election. Just like a Tesla on autopilot, Tesla the company is wobbling a little bit. The carmaker posted an 8.5% drop in annual sales yesterday, the first drop since the start of the pandemic. Part of the fall can be explained by stiffer competition. In the same time period, for example, Kia doubled its US sales of electric vehicles. But let's get to what some of you might be thinking. Yes, Elon Musk being an insufferable

edgelord is also a factor. Reuters reported on Monday that the demand for Tesla vehicles dips in tandem with the rocky reputation of the Tesla CEO. We would tell Elon to stick to tweeting, but that business isn't doing so well for him either. You know, he just runs these things into the ground. Yeah, it's like everything he touches turns to shit. And finally, it's about damn time that the moon had its time. Yes, the moon is going to be getting its own standard of time that will be called Coordinated Lunar Time, or LTC, according to a report from Reuters. The U.S. is working to devise a plan for how to set the time by the end of 2026.

It'll also involve getting international agreement, of course, so best of luck with that. It's part of an effort from the White House to build a research base on the moon through NASA's Artemis program, which is working to send more astronauts to space in the near future. And now with the start of LTC, it can help make sure that communications between spacecraft and facilities on Earth are synced up correctly, or more likely you just will be late to a meeting in two time zones, not just one. But this doesn't come without some math involved. As NASA's space comms and navigation chief told Reuters, the same clock we have on Earth would move at a different rate on the moon. As of our recording time at 6 p.m. LTC, whenever that is,

just assume that we will be asleep. Do not disturb mode will be on. You will not be able to reach us. At all. But, you know, I'm really excited about this because I'm imagining the horoscope girlies getting a hold of this. And it's the new day question. It's no longer, what time were you born?

It was, what was your lunar time? What is a lunar time? We got to know. I mean, they haven't told the end of 2026 to do it. I think we're going to get some app updates from people who are trying the math on their own. They're not waiting two years for this. Yeah, listen, if you figured it out just uh hit us up in the discord some of us want to know our lunar birth time or apply for a job at

nasa you know because if you can do that math that too not too you do it after the discord though and those are the headlines one more thing before we go in case you missed it pod save the world host tommy vitor and roitor and Roger Bennett of Men in Blazers teamed up again for another season of World Corrupt. This time they unpacked how Saudi Arabia, yet another oil-rich nation with a troubled human rights record, has secured the role of World Cup host in 2034. Oh my God. Lunar time on 2034.

Wow. God. The series is out. Head over to the Pod Save the World feed to binge now. That is all for today. If you like this show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. It's always five o'clock somewhere on the moon. And tell your friends to listen.

And if you're into reading and not just ballot initiatives on abortion rights like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Cricut.com slash subscribe. I'm Juanita Tolliver. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And don't make us fly into Trump Airport when I tell you I will go to every other airport except this one. It is named Trump.

Ew. Airports are already hell on earth and they found a way to make them worse. Just congratulations to these House Republicans. Hats off to you. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed

by Bill Lance. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf. We had production help today from Michelle Aloy, Greg Walters, and Julia Clare. Our showrunner is Leo Duran. Our executive producer is Adrian Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.