--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, September 3rd. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: After this, we're asked to show seriousness. We're asked to make concessions. What message does this send Hamas? It says, kill more hostages, murder more hostages, you'll get more concessions.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Last night, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he will not budge on conditions for a ceasefire, despite facing the biggest protests in Israel since the start of the war in Gaza. Demonstrators had taken to the streets, and some workers had gone on strike, grieving and angry, after the bodies of six hostages were recovered from Gaza.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The protesters called on the government to make an immediate deal with Hamas to stop the fighting and secure the release of the remaining hostages. But Netanyahu is not backing down.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: We're out to destroy the military capabilities of Hamas and the governing capabilities of Hamas, and we're well on our way to achieving both. That is total victory.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Netanyahu insists that Israel needs to keep troops stationed along Gaza's border with Egypt, controlling a strip of land there known as the Philadelphia Corridor. Hamas has said that's a non-starter and that any deal must include a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A spokesman for Hamas's military wing threatened yesterday that if Netanyahu continues his military campaign instead of striking a deal, the remaining hostages in Gaza will return home, quote, inside coffins.
--:-- [Sound of a funeral]
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For 23 years, I was privileged to have the most stunning honor to be Hirsch's mama. I'll take it and say thank you. I just wish it had been for longer.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile in a cemetery in Jerusalem yesterday the family of Hirsch Goldberg Pollan One of the six hostages killed in Gaza last week spoke at his funeral.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: How do we live the rest of our life without you I pray that your death will be a turning point in this horrible situation in which we are all entangled.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Goldberg-Pollen was a dual American-Israeli citizen, and the Israeli military says they believe seven more Americans are still being held in Gaza, four of them alive.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Several of their families openly criticized Netanyahu yesterday for not moving urgently enough to secure the release of their loved ones.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Adi Alexander, whose 20-year-old son Aiden was taken on October 7th, told the Times that a ceasefire deal, quote, has to happen right now, full stop, period.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: More military pressure brings more dead hostages.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: On Monday, President Biden also said that Netanyahu was not doing enough to finalize a deal.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And one of Israel's other closest allies signaled its growing frustration with the war in Gaza. Britain announced that it would suspend the exports of some weapons to Israel, saying there was a clear risk it could be used in violation of international law.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin is on a state visit to Mongolia. It's the first time he's been in any of the 120-plus countries that belong to the International Criminal Court since the ICC put out a warrant for his arrest last March.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He's accused of committing war crimes related to the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The International Criminal Court actually asked Mongolia to honor its commitment as a member and arrest Putin.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But what we saw today actually was a red carpet welcome for the Russian president.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Valerie Hopkins covers Russia for The Times. She says Putin almost certainly will not be arrested in Mongolia because the country, which shares a 2,000-mile-long border with Russia, relies on Moscow for nearly all of its fuel.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: According to the official agenda Putin is in Mongolia to talk about economic cooperation and possible infrastructure projects
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But actually the most important purpose this visit serves for him is thumbing his nose at the international community
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Analysts are saying it really a symbolic win for him, considering that for the last two and a half years, the West has tried to isolate him, to make him into an international pariah.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And here he is saying, you know, look at your Western rules-based order. No one's going to arrest me because I'm still too important as a partner, and Russia is still too powerful.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In the U.S., the summer of extreme weather has taken its toll on the country's infrastructure, like highways, runways, and in particular, bridges.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Just how hot is it? The Third Avenue Bridge is stuck in the open position, all because of overheating machinery.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Early this afternoon, crews performing some routine maintenance noticed some buckling on the bridge surface, closing that bridge to traffic.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Now overnight, a train bridge in western Iowa collapsed under the pressure of the high water.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: America's bridges were already vulnerable and in need of repair. More than a quarter of them were built before 1960.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But now, record-breaking heat and flooding linked to climate change is causing them to deteriorate faster, according to engineers.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The bridges often weren't built to withstand sharp temperature swings, which cause materials to swell and contract.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One civil engineering expert told The Times the hot conditions can make bridges, quote, literally fall apart like tinker toys.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A study published in the journal Plus One found that high temperatures could cause one in four steel bridges in the U.S. to collapse by the year 2050.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Another issue is the ground the bridges are built on. Heavy rains are eroding the soil around their foundations, which is the leading cause of bridge failure in the U.S.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Updating the structures for modern conditions is both expensive and time-consuming.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill put more than $100 billion towards major transportation projects.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told The Times bridges can take the longest to update
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, cases of MPOX, which the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency last month, are continuing to spread.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: There have been diagnoses in Sweden and Thailand, but the vast majority have been in African countries, where more than 17,000 people have been infected, and 600 have died, mostly children.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The epicenter of the outbreak is the Democratic Republic of Congo, and officials there say they don't have the resources to contain or even treat the virus.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Congolese clinics, doctors say they're short on medications to care for patients covered with the painful lesions that come with Mpox.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And they're still waiting on vaccines to protect healthcare workers and caretakers.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So when I went there, the first sound which will come in the hospital is the kids who are crying because of the lesion they have on their body.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They are so painful.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Photojournalist Arlette Bashizi went to a clinic that's been overwhelmed by patients in Kuvumu in eastern Congo.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You could see mothers looking after their kids because they can't leave them alone at the hospital.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So even the mothers of those kids are also exposed to the impacts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One mother I met at the health center had her daughter been treated.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: She was holding her hand.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I was like, are you not afraid to also contract this disease?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And she just told me, I can't leave her alone because I don't want her to die.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'll stay here with her.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And that is like the situation that they are all going through.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Today on The Daily, why a growing number of schools are banning cell phones.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You can listen on The Times audio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow. Thank you.
