The Excerpt podcast: VP Harris warns Israel it must follow international law in Gaza.

On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY Domestic Security Correspondent Josh Meyer discusses what experts are saying about whether Israel is violating international law in Gaza, amid mass civilian casualties. A judge allows an emergency abortion in a Texas case. The White House announces its Ocean Justice Strategy. USA TODAY National Correspondent Deborah Barfield Berry looks at the push to get younger and more diverse election poll workers. Pink Christmas is in this year.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Friday, December 8th, 2023. This is The Excerpt. Today, we look at what experts say about whether Israel has violated international law in Gaza. Plus, a judge allows an emergency abortion in a Texas case and election officials are working to recruit younger and more diverse poll workers.

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The Biden administration is amping up pressure on Israel when it comes to civilian debts and Gaza, but there's still tiptoeing around whether Israel is violating international law. I spoke with USA Today, Domestic Security Correspondent, Josh Meyer, about what the experts are saying. Josh, thanks for making the time.

Josh Meyer:

Thanks, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

So Josh, how exactly did Vice President Kamala Harris press Israel on civilian deaths in Gaza during this war? And where does the Biden administration as a whole stand on this issue right now?

Josh Meyer:

So Harris was in the United Arab Emirates for a climate change summit and met with a bunch of Middle Eastern leaders on the sidelines of that. And then she gave a speech in which she went further than other Biden administration officials, certainly President Biden have in terms of telling Israel to basically obey the laws of war and armed conflict and stop killing innocent civilians. Harris, she stopped short of saying that Israel has committed war crimes in its scorched earth military campaign to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the October 7th terrorist attacks. But she came pretty close to it. She said, Israel, quote, "Must do more to protect civilian life." She said that the United States is, quote, "Unequivocal, international humanitarian law must be respected. Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed." So you can see she's going up close to the line but she's not actually saying that they're violating the laws of war, but she's giving them a very sharp warning to make sure that they're not.

Taylor Wilson:

Josh, you mentioned humanitarian law. What does international law say about Israel's offensive in Gaza? What are experts saying here?

Josh Meyer:

I've talked to dozens of experts just for the story elsewhere in my reporting, and it's a very, very tricky, very touchy subject. Some of it relies on specifics that are known only to a few people, including the people that ordered the attacks, and also intentionality, whether they were doing it on purpose weighs in. But one of the issues is proportionality, which means, are you killing more civilians than is needed to achieve your military objective, in this case, which is destroying Hamas, the political and terrorist organization? Another one is forced displacement of people, depriving them of medicine, food, and water, which has happened at least on some occasions during this conflict as Israel has told Palestinians to move from North Gaza, where they were going after Hamas, to South Gaza, and then while they were moving to South Gaza, some of those areas were attacked as well.

And by now, we have at least 16,000 civilians by the Hamas Ministries count that have been killed in this. And about 70% of them are women and children. So there are a lot of people outside the Biden administration who are, I guess you could say, tiptoeing less around the subject and who are outright saying that Israel has violated the laws of war and armed conflict in its killing of civilians and forcing them to move from their homes without providing them with the necessary food and water and medicine that they need to survive.

Taylor Wilson:

Josh, how does Israel respond to claims that they've potentially violated international law amid their offensive in Gaza?

Josh Meyer:

Well, they've pushed back very hard on that, Taylor. I spoke to a guy named Eyal Hulata, who was the National Security Advisor and Head of the National Security Council for Israel up until just about 11 months ago. So he's the equivalent of Jake Sullivan, very, very high level official. And he insists that they not only have not violated the international laws of war and armed conflict, but that they at every step of the way from the tactical response on the ground to the strategic decision to launch the war in Gaza in the first place, that in every step, they have basically bent over backwards not to violate the laws of war. So you obviously have a lot of different opinions here, and to get an answer, may take an investigation that's not even possible now because you can't get on the ground in Gaza due to the conflict.

So in writing the story, we're trying to be careful, but also raise the issues that Israel has to be held accountable to the laws of war and armed conflict just like Hamas. And by the way, Hamas clearly violated these laws and committed horrible war crimes in its initial attack, just killing hundreds of people, 12 to 1,400, raping, torturing, kidnapping people. But what these experts are saying is that it doesn't matter what Hamas did, Israel's actions in response to that have to be held to the same standard and have to be looked at in a vacuum no matter how angry they are that people were attacked and killed.

Taylor Wilson:

You mentioned an investigation, will a formal investigation come, who would carry out an investigation like that? What might it look like?

Josh Meyer:

We know that the International Criminal Court has had an investigation going on in Gaza for several years involving several facets of this, whether Israel has been committing war crimes in the past, whether Hamas has been committing them, whether the people in Gaza and the West Bank have been subjected to human rights violations. So they are now expanding that investigation specifically to look at the actions of Hamas and Israel both. And Karim Khan, who's the chief prosecutor, just came back from a visit there. He couldn't get into Gaza but on the borders, he basically called out Hamas clearly for almost genocidal acts of war crimes. But he also said that Israel's actions need to be investigated as well. So that's one investigation and there could be more as well.

Taylor Wilson:

Josh Meyer covers domestic security for USA Today. Great insight, Josh. Thanks as always.

Josh Meyer:

My pleasure. Thanks, Taylor.

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Taylor Wilson:

A Texas judge yesterday ruled that a woman can obtain an emergency medically indicated abortion. It's the first intervention of its kind in the state since Roe versus wade was decided 50 years ago. After that case that guaranteed a federal right to an abortion was overturned in 2022, Texas instituted a near total abortion ban with only a few exceptions, including life-threatening complications for the mother. The Center for Reproductive Rights filed the case earlier this week on behalf of Kate Cox, her husband, and her OB/GYN. Cox is 20 weeks pregnant and her fetus has a deadly genetic condition called Trisomy 18. Several doctors have advised Cox that there is likely no chance the fetus will survive, and that carrying the pregnancy to term would make it less likely she'll be able to carry another child in the future, according to the complaint. Yesterday, a judge in Travis County signed a temporary restraining order preventing the state, the Texas Attorney General, or Texas Medical Board from enforcing the state's abortion ban should Cox terminate her pregnancy.

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The White House today will announce its first ever Ocean Justice Strategy at COP28 in Dubai. It says the initiative will advance the country's commitment to environmental justice for all. The Biden administration says that indigenous communities have looked after marine habitats for centuries. Now those communities are among those potentially most at risk for health and environmental harm from the same habitats. The strategy was developed from input from public comments while consulting with tribal nations and holding roundtables with US territories and native Hawaiian organizations. The new strategy includes a variety of marginalized groups, including Black, Latino, and native communities. The initiative states that it aims to address the climate crisis with communities disproportionately affected by it in mind. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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Ahead of next year's elections, officials are hoping to recruit younger and more diverse poll workers. I spoke with USA Today, National Correspondent, Deborah Barfield Berry for more. Deborah, thanks for hopping on.

Deborah Barfield Berry:

Thank you for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So how are election officials across the country ramping up efforts to recruit younger poll workers?

Deborah Barfield Berry:

Well, they're taking all kinds of steps in preparation for 2024. They're reaching out to schools. Actually, I just interviewed a Rhode Island Secretary of State, and he's literally going into high schools and doing civic lessons in classes. So trying to make sure that he teaches or helps teach young people about civic engagement as one way to get them involved and to later become poll workers. You have some officials who work in that with universities to figure out how to get some students college credits so that they'll be enticed to also be a poll worker. You also have some programs that have already been in place where they partner with high schools to also encourage students, some as young as 16 to be poll workers and they train them, pay them, or in some cases, give them community service hours.

Taylor Wilson:

And why do election officials feel these efforts are so important?

Deborah Barfield Berry:

Most of the poll workers across the country are older, 60 and older. Some are even older than that. So part of their mission is to get a younger workforce. Many of them are more tech-savvy, less intimidated by technology, so that helps oftentimes. I know they got hard hit by COVID, and of course, because the workforce was so old, they had to lean more on young folks, and in that case, they wanted to make sure that they have a pool of young people.

Taylor Wilson:

You touched on some of this but it really is a challenge to get poll workers across the board these days, especially younger poll workers. What are the main issues here, Deborah?

Deborah Barfield Berry:

Particularly in the recent years, there have been a lot of threats, and or harassment of election workers, so that doesn't build well in terms of getting folks to come on board, young or old. COVID, of course, didn't help as well because folks were afraid to be in that environment. Also, being a poll worker is a long day. You spend hours sometimes opening the polls and waiting until the polls close. Some would argue that they don't pay a lot. It's a short term gig, if you will. You usually go through training, you usually do the day or maybe primaries, but it's not a steady gig either. And then, honestly, what some of the election officials are saying is that everybody doesn't understand the importance of civic engagement, particularly at the polls. So that's part of the reason why they're trying to go in early and train them and help people understand it's important to democracy to have an election system that works.

Taylor Wilson:

Deborah, are we seeing results amid these recruitment efforts? I mean, are poll workers getting younger anywhere in the country?

Deborah Barfield Berry:

I don't know if I've seen stats on that, specifically on that yet, but when I've talked to some of the local election officials, which is where much of this work happens, they say that they are starting to see more interest in young folks, and that they think there is enough interest where they can expand their pool. There was a big push from the Election Assistance Commission. They have this big competitive grant where they're starting to give more money to local officials to expand their programs, to do more civic engagement in hopes that by next year, they will have a bigger pool, particularly of younger poll workers.

Taylor Wilson:

Deborah, we've talked about youth and poll workers, how about trying to get them more diverse as well?

Deborah Barfield Berry:

There have been, and there still are efforts to make sure that people of color and communities with different languages are comfortable at the polls, want to come to the polls. Election officials feel like if there are people who live in the community at the polling sites, that people will be more comfortable when they come there if they need something, that they feel more comfortable seeing someone who may look like them or who can speak their language, which has been a big challenge as there are more and more diverse communities in our country.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Deborah Barfield Berry is a national correspondent for USA Today. Nice as always, Deborah.

Deborah Barfield Berry:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

Merry Pinkmas. White Christmas is out this year, and Pink Christmas is in. It's officially a thing. According to fashion and entertainment website, PopSugar, pink Christmas trees began trending during the COVID pandemic as a way to brighten up the holidays. Now, in the year of Barbie, it's being taken to another level, and the retailers are ready, Target, Walmart, Wayfair, and HomeGoods all have selections of pink trees and shades ranging from carnation to bubblegum. The trend comes as Pantone announced its Color of the Year for 2024 this week, peach fuzz, a light shade of, you guessed it, pink.

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And today is Bodhi Day, when Buddhists celebrate that Siddhartha Gautama achieved enlightenment through meditation. Bodhi itself means enlightenment.

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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt, we're produced by Shannon Rae Green, and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.