The Excerpt podcast: Body of Israeli abducted in Hamas rampage found

On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: The body of an Israeli person abducted in last month's Hamas rampage has been found. USA TODAY Senior Reporter Jessica Guynn talks about a Holocaust survivor who's leaving TikTok amid antisemitic hate. The Supreme Court has blocked enforcement of Florida's anti-drag show law. USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze explains a case involving beeping your car horn and the First Amendment. The trial of ex-officer Brett Hankison in Breonna Taylor's death ends with a hung jury.

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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, November 17th. This is The Excerpt.

Today, the body of an Israeli person abducted in the Hamas October rampage has been found, and there's another stop to humanitarian aid deliveries in Gaza. Plus, why a Holocaust survivor is leaving TikTok. And is beeping your car horn protected by the First Amendment?

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Communication systems in Gaza are down for a second day today because of no fuel to power phone and internet networks. That's put a halt to crucial cross-border humanitarian aid deliveries. And according to a UN World Food Program spokesperson, the territory is now receiving just 10% of its needed food supplies daily.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said yesterday that it recovered the body of one of the approximately 240 people kidnapped by Hamas in Israel last month. They said they recovered the body in a building near Gaza City's al-Shilfa Hospital. Hamas has released four hostages and another was rescued by Israeli forces. Two hostages are now known to have died, and around 1200 people were killed in the same Hamas attack. More than 11,470 Palestinians have been killed. Two thirds of them, women and minors, according to Palestinian health authorities.

In Gaza, on the second day of searching through the al-Shifa Hospital complex, Israeli troops displayed what they said were a tunnel entrance and weapons found in a pickup truck at the compound. The Israeli military has yet to show evidence of a Hamas command center that Israel has said is hidden under the facility. That's something both Hamas and hospital staff deny.

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Amid the Israel Hamas war, one Holocaust survivor on TikTok is leaving the platform after a flood of hateful anti-Semitic comments and messages. I spoke with USA Today's Senior Reporter, Jessica Guynn for more. Jessica, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt.

Jessica Guynn:

Thank you so much for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So let's start here. Who is this Holocaust survivor on TikTok, Gidon Lev?

Jessica Guynn:

He was taken with his mother and father to a concentration camp near Prague and was in the camp from the ages of six to 10. He witnessed public executions, torture, beatings. He only got to see his father twice during that period. He and his mother survived, but they lost 26 family members in the Holocaust. During COVID, his life partner, Julie Gray, started a TikTok account for him to promote a self-published memoir, and TikTok fell in love with him. He became something of a TikTok celebrity and has nearly half a million followers.

Taylor Wilson:

And Jessica, what does he say about the antisemitism he's now facing and he's faced on TikTok during the Israel-Hamas war?

Jessica Guynn:

Well, Julie screens this horrible daily antisemitism and hate that targets him. She's very concerned about him not being re-traumatized. But she says, since the Hamas attacks in Israel and Israel's military campaign in Gaza, the hate has just gotten more vicious and more frequent. And she says she's worked for years to try to persuade TikTok to do more to respond to resurging antisemitism on the platform, without success. And she says at this point, with her partner being subjected to hateful remarks, like that he's a baby killer, that they made the difficult decision to deactivate the account.

Taylor Wilson:

And what do other Holocaust survivors say about their experiences online in recent weeks?

Jessica Guynn:

The family members of other Holocaust survivors report the same escalation. Their family members also screen the hate for them, because they do not want them to see how terrible the comments are. But they are death threats and rape threats made against Holocaust survivors on TikTok and other social media platforms. These family members and the survivors themselves are alarmed that people who oppose Israel's response to the Hamas attacks and the war in Gaza are taking hard-line anti-Semitic positions and turning away from the messages of hope, peace, and tolerance that the Holocaust survivors have been spreading on TikTok.

Taylor Wilson:

Jessica, why is the work of educating and re-educating the world about the Holocaust so pressing in this moment?

Jessica Guynn:

Well, TikTok is wildly popular with young people, many of whom are unaware of the Holocaust. And the success of Holocaust survivors in reaching young people was really seen as an encouraging sign, especially on social media where Holocaust denial is such a troubling trend.

Taylor Wilson:

And going back to Gidon Lev, Jessica. What's next for him? Will he go to another platform to continue educating about the Holocaust elsewhere?

Jessica Guynn:

This is a man who does not give up, and he is not giving up on social media. He is sending people to his Instagram account where he has fewer followers but has also experienced less hate, and he also has a book of life lessons coming out next year, called Let's Make Things Better.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Jessica Guynn, thank you so much for coming on and telling this important story.

Jessica Guynn:

Thank you so much for having me.

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Taylor Wilson:

The Supreme Court yesterday denied a request by Florida officials to let the state enforce a law placing prohibitions on drag shows. The case deals with the law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis earlier this year, aimed at restricting drag shows where children are present. A bar in Orlando called Hamburger Mary sued, asserting that those prohibitions violated the First Amendment. A Federal District Court sided with the bar, ruling that the law likely did violate the First Amendment. And by the time the case reached the Supreme Court, the question was more technical, surrounding procedural issues of how the Lower Courts handled the case. The Florida law makes it a crime to allow a child to attend what the state describes as sexually explicit live performances. An attorney for Hamburger Mary's told the Supreme Court earlier this month that the bar and restaurant leaves it up to parents to determine whether a particular show is appropriate for the age of their own child.

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In other court news, is beeping your car horn protected by the First Amendment? The nation's highest court is being asked to weigh in. I spoke with USA Today Supreme Court correspondent, John Fritze to learn more. John, thanks for making the time.

John Fritze:

Hi, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

This woman, Susan Porter, is challenging a traffic law that has to do with honking, all the way to the Supreme Court. John, what exactly is this law that she's challenging here, and what's her argument?

John Fritze:

Yeah. I mean, we all honk our horn, right? And sometimes we honk it for traffic purposes, like when somebody cuts us off on a highway ramp. Other times we honk it to say hello to somebody we see across the street who we know. Or in this case, Susan Porter honked it to show support for a protester, which I'm sure some of us have done or at least seen done. You see people lined up along the side of the road holding signs. Sometimes they encourage drivers to honk. And that's what Susan Porter did.

There was a protest outside of Congressman Daryl Isis office in California. She wanted to show support for those protestors, so she honked. Her argument is that that kind of honking is protected by the First Amendment. It's a form of speech, like many other forms of speech that don't involve the spoken word that the Supreme Court has upheld before.

Taylor Wilson:

In Lower Courts, what has the state argued about this honking law?

John Fritze:

Well, the state says, "Look, you can't have people honking all the time for non-traffic reasons, because that creates a safety problem." Right? Horns are loud, they're distracting, and they can distract drivers. And so, their argument is that there's no First Amendment protection for that. And of course the First Amendment is not all encompassing. We all know there are exceptions and ways that the government can regulate what is said and what is speech. And the state says this is a perfectly reasonable regulation to deal with traffic safety.

Taylor Wilson:

John, when we think of the First Amendment, we often think of the spoken or written word. How has the Supreme Court previously ruled on other types of speech protected by the First?

John Fritze:

I mean, the most common example, and that folks point to in this case, deals with armbands worn by students to protest the Vietnam War. That of course, is a very famous case that upheld the students' rights to wear the armbands, that that speech was protected by the First Amendment. But there's all sorts of actions, nonverbal actions that have been considered speech. Think about flag burning, or even in the context of campaign finance. The court has long ruled that campaign donations are a form of speech. And so, it's sort of fun and interesting that it's a horn that we're talking about here, but it's not really a question of whether a horn is a right of speech. The Lower Courts agreed that the way Susan Porter used her horn was expressive conduct. The question is, does the state have a right to regulate it? And that's what the Supreme Court, if it grants this case, will have to sort out.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. John, the High Court has agreed to take on a slew of First Amendment cases this term. Does this case from California have anything in common with any of these others you've been on the show here discussing?

John Fritze:

I mean, they're all First Amendment cases, as you note. They're all dealing with different areas and different parts of the First Amendment. No, I guess they're similar in the sense that it's all about the government's ability to regulate the First Amendment, but they're pretty separate legal issues. The social media cases are the big ones, and I think it's separate enough that they could take this case and not get in the way of those other cases.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. John Fritze covers the Supreme Court for USA Today. Thank you, John.

John Fritze:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

The federal trial weighing whether former Louisville Police Officer Brett Hankison violated the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend, and three neighbors during the police raid when she was killed has ended in a mistrial. The jury deadlocked after a third full day of deliberations. The length of deliberations represented a sharp contrast to the three hours it took for a jury to acquit Hankison last year on state charges related to the shooting. Federal prosecutors have not yet said whether they plan to retry Hankison. Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old, was inside her apartment when she was shot and killed by plainclothes officers attempting to serve a search warrant as part of a botched narcotics investigation. Seven officers were on scene to serve the warrant, and three fired their guns, including Hankison.

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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 pods. And if you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.