--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Leila Fadel: Israel is seeing the largest mass protest since the war in Gaza began after six more hostages were found to have been killed.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Protesters blame the prime minister for failing to bring them home alive.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Will the action force a ceasefire in hostage exchange deal?
--:-- Michelle Martin: I'm Michelle Martin, that's Leila Fadel, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Labor unions are more active than ever this election cycle.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Union members will be at the center of their communities, bringing their friends and family and their neighbors to the polls.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning with President Biden in Pittsburgh today.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Will union support be enough to win swing states like Pennsylvania?
--:-- Leila Fadel: And both presidential candidates have put America's housing issues on their agenda, but they have very different and vague plans to fix them.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
--:-- Leila Fadel: This message comes from BetterHelp.
--:-- President Fernando Madeira: For me, sometimes I just need to go and talk to somebody that is not going to judge me, right? Is going to be there and going to listen to me.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And I can start just saying, look, I'm not feeling right today. And it feels natural. I love it.
--:-- Michelle Martin: To get matched with a therapist, visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
--:-- Leila Fadel: This message comes from NPR sponsor AARP.
--:-- AARP Representative: Where do you see your career in 12 years? What are you doing now to help you get there?
--:-- Leila Fadel: The sooner you start enhancing your skills, the sooner you'll be ready.
--:-- AARP Representative: That's why AARP has management, finance, and small business reskilling courses, all to help your income live as long as you do.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Because the steps you choose to take today will help you love what you do in the future. Learn more at aarp.org slash skills.
--:-- Leila Fadel: In Israel, a nationwide general strike is underway, crippling much of the country.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And last night, protests broke out in several Israeli cities in one of the largest anti-war demonstrations to date.
--:-- Leila Fadel: This is all part of a nationwide outpouring of grief and frustration after the bodies of six hostages were recovered from Gaza over the weekend.
--:-- Michelle Martin: They demanded an end to the war and a deal to bring remaining hostages home.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Official autopsies by Israel showed that all six had been shot in recent days.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: According to a statement from the Israeli Ministry of Health.
--:-- Leila Fadel: For more, we're joined by NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Good morning, Leila. Hey, Leila.
--:-- Leila Fadel: So let's start with this general strike today. How is that playing out?
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Yeah, so a lot of things are closed. Many schools, government buildings, the airport even closed for a few hours this morning.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And a lot of private businesses have closed in solidarity as well.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: It's pretty quiet in my neighborhood, for example.
--:-- Leila Fadel: The nation's largest labor union here said that, quote, only a strike will shock and went on to call for a ceasefire deal immediately.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: This is the first time this has happened since the war began last October.
--:-- Leila Fadel: But I should also say not all areas of Israel are abiding by the strike.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: You know, that's showing the deep divisions that are present in this country right now.
--:-- Leila Fadel: I was looking at these incredible images of just people as far as you could see in these protests in Tel Aviv.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: You were there. What were you seeing and hearing?
--:-- Leila Fadel: Yeah, so like you said the streets in downtown Tel Aviv were packed with people stretching for blocks and blocks.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: They were shutting down intersections. People were climbing on top of bus stops.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And, you know, they were waving Israeli flags, chanting to bring the remaining hostages home, holding signs calling for an end of the war and other signs calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a murderer and a criminal.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Like you said, the autopsies showed that these six hostages were all killed just days ago.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And many people think that if Netanyahu had agreed to a ceasefire deal earlier, they would still be alive.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: People are really, really angry.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Here's Tel Aviv resident Ori Elman. He calls Netanyahu by his nickname, Bibi.
--:-- Ori Elman: Bibi needs to decide that he wants to sign the deal. Bibi is the prime minister. He holds the key for the deal.
--:-- Leila Fadel: He can keep on putting more and more obstacles and demands, but that's not relevant.
--:-- Ori Elman: Every single person I talked to last night blamed the death of these hostages on Netanyahu, saying that they believed he was the one obstructing the ceasefire deal.
--:-- Leila Fadel: So where do things stand with that deal that people are calling for?
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: It's really hard to know exactly.
--:-- Leila Fadel: There are negotiating teams still working through the technical parts of a possible deal.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: But even just yesterday, Netanyahu dug in saying that he won't give up Israeli military control of a strip of land between Egypt and Gaza called the Philadelphia Corridor.
--:-- Leila Fadel: He said that this is vital to his goal of eliminating Hamas and the militant group's access to the smuggling tunnels there.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: This has been one of the main sticking points in the deal, and Netanyahu is not budging.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in the past few weeks, as the ceasefire deal has been in negotiations.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: So the war is still very much continuing there.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Yeah, and it's about to enter its 12th month.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Tens of thousands of people killed, mostly women and children, according to health officials there over that time.
--:-- Leila Fadel: What is the situation today?
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Well, over the weekend, Israel and Hamas agreed to a very limited pause in fighting in certain areas of Gaza as UN officials, UN health workers began a very ambitious and challenging vaccination campaign against polio.
--:-- Leila Fadel: They were able to vaccinate more than 72,000 children yesterday, according to health officials there, which is good.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: But it's well below the 600,000 goal that they have for this three-day campaign.
--:-- Leila Fadel: That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv. Thanks, Kat.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Thanks, Leila.
--:-- [Discussion continues]
--:-- Leila Fadel: When Democrats gathered in Chicago for their national convention, unions were front and center.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We know that when unions succeed, all workers win.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And protected the pensions of millions of union workers.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Middle class built America and unions, unions built the middle class.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And today, Vice President Kamala Harris will mark Labor Day with President Biden in Pittsburgh, a city with a strong union history.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And NPR's Don Gagne joins us now to talk about the labor movement's active role in this election.
--:-- Don Gagne: Hey, Don.
--:-- Leila Fadel: So unions have been an important constituency for Democrats for a long time, but it feels like they're getting some extra attention this campaign season. Why is that?
--:-- Don Gagne: I mean, the stakes are just so high. This election, by all accounts, is shaping up to be very close.
--:-- Leila Fadel: It'll come down to just a few states, and union members play a big role in battleground states, especially places like Pennsylvania and Michigan.
--:-- Don Gagne: The extra attention is also due to some new leadership within the movement.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Take the United Auto Workers Union Sean Fain he become a force nationally since taking over as president of that union last year.
--:-- Don Gagne: He led a national strike a successful strike. Now he's got the standing to really take an aggressive approach to getting friends of labor elected.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Just give a listen to Fain at the Democratic Convention.
--:-- Sean Fain: Kamala Harris is one of us. She's a fighter for the working class and Donald Trump is a scab.
--:-- Don Gagne: That's classic Sean Fain in your face using very, very strong language.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Okay, that's why Democrats are courting these voters. What are union leaders themselves doing to organize it's a lot more visible than it's been in past years.
--:-- Don Gagne: And I've covered this for a long time. They're always out there at labor, working phone banks, canvassing, all of that.
--:-- Leila Fadel: But this year, it seems to be at another level.
--:-- Don Gagne: The AFL-CIO's president, Liz Shuler, stresses, though, that it is still really about that person-to-person contact at union halls, in the break room, wherever.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Union members will be the ones who will be at the center of their communities, educating voters, bringing their friends and family and their neighbors and co-workers to the polls.
--:-- Don Gagne: That old-fashioned person-to-person getting people to the polls is what the labor movement's bread and butter is.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And so we're going to continue to do that.
--:-- Don Gagne: It does, though, Layla, also this year include a growing presence on social media.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Unions are all over, Facebook Live, TikTok, Twitter X.
--:-- Don Gagne: So it's not replacing personal contact, but that's an important piece of it.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Okay, but Republicans are still trying to go after these voters as well. What kind of pitch are they making and is it working?
--:-- Don Gagne: They're talking about the economy, job security, inflation, how they say climate change legislation will hurt auto companies, forcing them to transition to electric cars.
--:-- Leila Fadel: All of that stuff is playing out.
--:-- Don Gagne: Trump, too, has been courting unions in the battlegrounds really since he first appeared on the scene, and he's had some success.
--:-- Leila Fadel: He's not carrying the union vote, but he's managed to cut into the Democrats' traditional margin.
--:-- Don Gagne: And in a close, close race, that could be enough.
--:-- Leila Fadel: It is not unusual to find Trump supporters who are also, say, wearing a UAW or a Teamsters t-shirt at one of his rallies.
--:-- Don Gagne: NPR's Don Gagne.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Thank you, Don.
--:-- Don Gagne: My pleasure.
--:-- Leila Fadel: The cost of living is a big issue for voters, and the cost of housing is a big part of that.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And both presidential candidates have plans to address that high cost of housing, but there are few details and lots of questions.
--:-- Leila Fadel: NPR's Jennifer Ludden is here to help us sort through them.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: Good morning. Hello.
--:-- Leila Fadel: So let's start with Vice President Kamala Harris. She's put out an ad on her housing ideas and has been talking about this. What's her plan?
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: Well, the main part of the biggest part of it is to boost our supply of housing.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And that really is the core problem.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: I mean, this country has a severe shortage of especially affordable housing that has pushed up prices.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Harris says she would build 3 million new housing units in four years.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: Okay, Theoretically not impossible but certainly ambitious.
--:-- Leila Fadel: The first reality check here is to pay for it Congress would need to approve that.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: And even if it did, there's another big challenge to building lots of housing. It's restrictive zoning.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Jung Choi with the Nonpartisan Urban Institute says those rules are controlled by states and cities, not the federal government.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: So unless they kind of cut down more restrictive land use and zoning regulations, then it would probably be more difficult to attain that $3 million goal.
--:-- Leila Fadel: On top of that, Troy says you need enough workers and materials on hand to, you know, really ramp up construction that much that fast.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: OK, so $3 million new apartments and homes doable, but not easy.
--:-- Leila Fadel: But what else is Harris proposing? Two ideas. They get mixed reviews from housing experts.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: She wants to give $25,000 to help first-time homebuyers.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Now, Troy thinks helping more people own is good, but she says it's Econ 101.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: If you boost demand by giving people more money when there's such limited housing supply, it could just drive up prices.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Also, Harris wants to rein in tax breaks for big investors who buy up single-family homes and rent them out.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: They can price out people who want to buy.
--:-- Leila Fadel: But Troy says those companies are a small slice of the market.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: All right, let's turn to former President Trump.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Of course, he has a record from his first term in office or his only term in office so far.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: What do we know about his plans if he were to win another term?
--:-- Leila Fadel: We don't have that many details in what Trump is thinking about housing, even though, of course, he started out as a real estate developer.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: But for years and again in this campaign, he has spoken out strongly against low-income housing.
--:-- Leila Fadel: He says it brings down property values.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: He calls it an attack on the suburbs.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Seamus Roller at the National Housing Law Project supports tenants' rights.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: He says when Trump was in office, he also was no fan of public housing programs.
--:-- Leila Fadel: There were significant cuts to the federal housing programs proposed under Trump, and I would expect to see similar cuts proposed.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: It really depends on what Congress looks like as well.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Beyond that, Trump says that deporting immigrants would free up more housing.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: Now, housing experts aren't sure how big a dent that would make, but they do say it could hurt new construction, which depends on immigrant labor.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Trump also wants to build more housing on federal land, which the Biden-Harris administration has also supported.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: And he basically says he'd make it cheaper to buy a house because he'd bring down interest rates.
--:-- Leila Fadel: But of course, Michelle, that power lies with the Federal Reserve and not the president.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: Yeah, complicated and a long-term project, to be sure.
--:-- Leila Fadel: That is NPR's Jennifer Ludden.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: Jennifer, thank you.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Thank you.
--:-- [Closing music plays]
--:-- Leila Fadel: And that's it for Monday, September 2nd.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I'm Laila Fadel.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And I'm Michelle Martin.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Your next listen is Consider This from NPR.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We here at Up First give you the three big stories of the day.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Our Consider This colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you in just 15 minutes.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And today's episode of Up First was edited by Carrie Kahn, Megan Pratz, Catherine Laidlaw, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and Jan Johnson.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It was produced by Ziad Butch, Chris Thomas, and Lindsay Totti.
--:-- Leila Fadel: We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And our technical director is Stacey Abbott.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Join us again tomorrow.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And don't forget to subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
--:-- [Closing music continues to play]
