5 Things podcast: Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza refugee camp, Abortion on the ballot

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza refugee camp

Israeli airstrikes hit a Gaza refugee camp on Tuesday. Plus, USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison tells the story of an American family working to free their Israeli relatives taken hostage by Hamas, more and more older Americans are living with debt, USA TODAY Congress, Campaigns and Democracy Reporter Savannah Kuchar looks at the importance of abortion as an issue for younger voters ahead of next week's elections, and the Education Department is penalizing one of the country’s largest student loan servicers.

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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 this is five things you need to know, Wednesday, the 1st of November, 2023.

Today, the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza refugee camp. Plus, we hear one family's story to free relatives who were taken hostage by Hamas. And we look at how abortion might play a major role in next week's elections.

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Palestinians are again reporting widespread internet and phone service outages in Gaza this morning. Such outages have come on and off in recent days, which humanitarian aid agencies warn disrupts their work. More than half of the 2.3 million Palestinians in the territory have been displaced, and basic supplies are running low. The latest outages come after a flurry of Israeli airstrikes hit the largest refugee camp in Gaza yesterday. Rescuers worked to pull survivors from rubble, including children, and the director of a nearby hospital said that hundreds were killed, though the exact toll was not yet known. The Israel Defense Forces said they struck a Hamas stronghold and killed Ibrahim Biari, someone they describe as one of the leaders of the October 7th Hamas attack in Israel.

Meanwhile, the US now has a designated ambassador to Israel after the Senate voted yesterday to confirm Jack Lew to the position. Lew previously served as Treasury Secretary under former president, Barack Obama. The US has not had a designated ambassador to Israel since Thomas Nides left the position over the summer.

And yesterday, intelligence officials warned a Senate panel that Americans could be targeted in the US by terrorist groups in the Middle East, inspired by the Israel-Hamas war. Multiple foreign terror groups have called for attacks against Americans, according to officials. They include Al-Qaeda, with one of its more specific threats in years, the Islamic state urging followers to target Jewish communities in the US and Europe, and Hezbollah, threatening to attack US interests in the Middle East.

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An American family is working to free Israeli relatives taken hostage by Hamas last month. I spoke with USA TODAY White House correspondent, Joey Garrison, about their fights and many of the frustrations and worries the family is experiencing. Joey, thanks for hopping on.

Joey Garrison:

Hey, thanks for having me on, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

Joey, what do we know about what initially happened that led to their kidnapping?

Joey Garrison:

Yeah. So I went up to New York a week ago and talked to one of these family members, Alana Zeitchik. She's 38 years old, lives in Brooklyn, and her and her brother Liam have six relatives who lived, or live, in Israel near the Gaza Strip. They're used to violence over there and of course in their community, they would often get red alerts. And so on that morning, on October 7th, Alana woke up and was very worried, concerned about her relatives there. Well, she starts communicating via text on WhatsApp and finds out that they did go missing, and she gets a call from her mother and she recounted this call and it's a very horrifying experience to hear. And the last that they have seen of their family members was a photo that went on TikTok, a video showing her cousin and her cousin's husband on the back of a truck taken by Hamas.

Now that changed, however, on Monday of this week, Hamas released a video showing three of the hostages, including one who was speaking, that one individual who was speaking was her cousin Danielle who was among those six family members of hers that went missing. So they saw her, that was of course, a horrifying experience to see. Alana believes her sister was in anguish. She looked malnutritioned, loss of weight, but at least she knows she's alive.

Taylor Wilson:

And Joey, at this point, what is the Zeitchik check family doing, whether it be on social media, whether it be working with elected officials to try to get their relatives freed?

Joey Garrison:

Well, really, it's a matter of raising awareness here in the US. These are an unusual situation, but not totally unique among a lot of these more than 200 hostages where they are family here in the United States, but they're immediate relatives. These are the children of Alana's mother and their kids, their first cousins, they live in Israel. Alana's parents ... Her mother moved to the United States when her mother was 24 years old, settled a family here. So for her, it's raising awareness and trying to bring that message to President Biden that, hey, yes, obviously we understand you're going to prioritize American hostages. We believe there's a handful of those. The State Department has said fewer than 10, but we also want you to consider and do what you can to free all relatives who are hostage. They're Israeli citizens.

So there's a big fear, of course right now if you talk to these families, about what a full scale invasion by Israel into Gaza could mean. We're starting to see elements of that over the last few days in terms of military operations expanding there. But the real concern, what is going to happen to these hostages if there is a full scale ground invasion.

Taylor Wilson:

And Joey, what does this family also say about targeted discrimination they faced as they worked to free their family members?

Joey Garrison:

Well, yeah, I was talking to Alana and she, growing up, had heard some antisemitic phrases, like in college she told me of one. But really in the new social media era, it's opened up kind of a flood wave of antisemitic discrimination that's really targeted a lot of people of Jewish ancestry when they make remarks on social media, et cetera. And so there's a lot of, I think, she used the word loneliness and feeling of abandonment right now as those sentiments are kind of front and center right now.

Taylor Wilson:

Are we seeing or hearing any progress on the front to free their relatives at this point?

Joey Garrison:

Well, the Biden administration, understandably, is pretty tight-lipped when it comes to what they're doing to get hostages out and whether they're making progress. So we don't really know. I mean, and you understand that. They don't want to compromise any of the negotiations that are happening. There's so far been four hostages that have been released, two Americans, two Israelis, and there's been a fifth hostage that Israel says it rescued from Gaza during the recent ground invasion. Now, what we can tell about the hostages released so far is Qatar has been involved in terms of being kind of the intermediary between the United States and Hamas. That's one thing we seem to know in terms of how this process is going. And what's so frustrating for Alana Zeitchik and her family is they don't know where their family members are. Three of them are children, two or 3-year-old twins. One is five years old. They don't know whether they're all together, whether their children are with their respective mothers. It's a real agonizing fight right now for people, and there's hundreds of them across the country trying to get out their respective family members.

Taylor Wilson:

Joey Garrison, thank you so much for sharing this story. Really appreciate it.

Joey Garrison:

Hey, thanks a lot.

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Taylor Wilson:

The share of older Americans with debt has nearly doubled in 30 years. Among Americans, aged 75 and older, 53% carried debt in 2022 compared with just 21% in 1989. That's according to the Federal Survey of Consumer Finances released this month. And they're carrying debt across a broad range of categories from mortgages to equity lines of credit, and even student loan debt. Seniors don't hold more debt than other Americans, but they may face a steeper challenge in repaying it. They're more likely to live on fixed incomes and to face rising healthcare expenses. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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Abortion figures to be a major issue at next week's elections around the country. And that's particularly true for younger voters. I spoke with USA TODAY Congress, campaigns and democracy reporter, Savannah Kuchar, for more. Savannah, thanks for hopping on 5 Things.

Savannah Kuchar:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So let's start here. How is abortion on the ballot in local and state elections next week?

Savannah Kuchar:

Particularly in a few states, abortion is either directly on the ballot, people will be voting on it in Ohio with a ballot measure that would amend the constitution to enshrine abortion access. And if it's not directly on the ballot like that, we're hearing that it's top of mind for a lot of voters when they're going to the polls. In Virginia, every state senate and House of Delegate seat is up for election, and Republicans in that state have already said that if they get control of the legislature, they're going to be backing Governor Youngkin's push for a 15-week abortion ban with exceptions. And so a lot of voters are keeping that in mind when they show up next Tuesday in Virginia.

Taylor Wilson:

And Savannah, why is abortion tracking as such a major issue with younger Americans?

Savannah Kuchar:

We've heard that a lot of younger voters are thinking not just about this one medical procedure, but the ramifications it could have on other aspects of reproductive rights or just healthcare. So access to contraception could be at stake. It is in Ohio, that's part of their ballot measure. In Virginia, if abortion becomes more restricted, we see effects such as new doctors not wanting to come to the stage. It has bigger effects. And so a lot of younger voters are thinking beyond just abortion.

I talked to a third year student in Cleveland, Ohio who was saying that she's thinking about abortion and reproductive rights, for one thing because her mom used to work at an abortion clinic in Cleveland, and she saw the effects there. When the Supreme Court made its abortion decision, the clinic had to make staff and service cuts, including her mom's position. The student, Abra Lasowski, was also saying that she tried to get her own appointment for contraception, and that became more difficult in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision. And so young voters like her are thinking about how abortion restrictions might affect that procedure, but also other aspects of reproductive rights.

Taylor Wilson:

Is abortion a big issue equally for both young Democrats and Republicans at this point? What are the lines in the sand that they're drawing here?

Savannah Kuchar:

As abortion rights have become more popular in the country, we're seeing polls that say more and more voters in general support it. It's especially gone up with younger voters, and that's true, not just on the left where you might expect, but also talked to young Republicans. I talked to a young Republican in Northern Virginia, Sophia Aros, and yet she was saying she would possibly even identify more as an independent in part or especially over the issue of abortion. So young Republicans like her are pulling away from the party in some respect over this issue. And while of course there are some young Republicans and young conservatives who would stick with kind of the party line on abortion, I think especially heading into '24, we'll see more and more that are kind of maybe starting to diverge in that area.

Taylor Wilson:

And what role might abortion play politically for younger Americans in the run up to 2024?

Savannah Kuchar:

Going into '24, whether it's other ballot measures or just elections, state, Congress presidential, ever since the Supreme Court made that decision last summer, we're hearing that people are thinking about abortion, and that's especially true for young voters. This is an issue that is really motivating for them because they're thinking how it might affect them, how it might affect other freedoms and rights. When the Supreme Court made that decision last summer, it's just going to stay a prominent top of mind issue for young voters.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Savannah Kuchar covers Congress, campaigns and democracy for USA TODAY. Thank you, Savannah.

Savannah Kuchar:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

The federal education department is penalizing one of the country's largest student loan servicers for failing to send 2.5 million borrowers their billing statements on time. The move against the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, or MOHELA, comes amid an unprecedented shift in federal student loans. Tens of millions of borrowers are returning to repayment after a more than three year hiatus during the pandemic. The process has been messy, and many borrowers have said they've been unable to reach their servicer. Their servicer, in many cases, has also changed during the hiatus. Because of MOHELA's delays in getting borrowers their billing statements, according to the department, more than 800,000 borrowers were delinquent on their loans.

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And be sure to stay tuned this afternoon for our latest special edition of 5 Things when we'll hear from parents who have lost loved ones to fighting between Israelis and Palestinians. You can find the show right here on this feed at 4:00 PM Eastern time. And before we go, today is National Stress Awareness Day. Remember to take some time for you today to unplug and unwind. Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every day of the week on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, or wherever you get your audio. If you have any comments, you can reach us at [email protected]. I'm Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.