Latest / The Rest of the World Podcast / The Rest of the World Report | October 7, 2026 — Morning Edition

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The Rest of the World Report | October 7, 2026 — Morning Edition · The Rest of the World Podcast

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning from Paris,
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez with The Rest of the World Report for Wednesday morning,
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: October 7th.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: France has suspended police use of stun grenades against student protesters.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced it Wednesday on RTL Radio.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: A 15-year-old lost a hand on Monday after police fired a stun grenade.
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  SPEAKER_00: Police have opened 18 internal investigations into misconduct since
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  SPEAKER_00: the protests began, Nunez said.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: A police officer was charged Tuesday over the case of a 14-year-old in northwest Paris.
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  SPEAKER_00: A tear gas grenade hit the boy in the face at close range.
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  SPEAKER_00: He lost several teeth.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Interior Ministry counted 266,000 marchers across France on Tuesday,
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  SPEAKER_00: 56,000 of them in Paris.
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  SPEAKER_00: Student organizers said 450,000 with 100,000 in Paris.
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  SPEAKER_00: Police made 488 arrests and 43 members of the security forces were wounded.
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  SPEAKER_00: More than 6,500 people have been arrested since the movement began,
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  SPEAKER_00: and most of them are minors.
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  SPEAKER_00: Students in Lille,
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  SPEAKER_00: Marseille,
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  SPEAKER_00: Lyon, Paris, Clermont-Ferrand, and Rennes joined the march in large numbers.
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  SPEAKER_00: Many had only gathered inside their schools before, and many were protesting for the first time.
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  SPEAKER_00: The mood was mostly good-natured, but clashes broke out at the end of the Paris march.
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  SPEAKER_00: Students have blocked hundreds of schools since mid-September.
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  SPEAKER_00: They cite too few teachers,
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  SPEAKER_00: harsh timetables, and run-down buildings that cannot cope with summer heat waves.
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  SPEAKER_00: Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has suspended high school classes across France for
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  SPEAKER_00: the rest of the week.
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  SPEAKER_00: He has ordered ministers to answer the students' demands by the end of October.
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  SPEAKER_00: He will address the country Wednesday on the protests and public finances, his office said.
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  SPEAKER_00: Mike Waltz, the U.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ambassador to the United Nations,
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  SPEAKER_00: said open borders and unchecked immigration had helped fuel the frustration.
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  SPEAKER_00: He condemned the violence.
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  SPEAKER_00: Theo Wald,
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  SPEAKER_00: a former White House domestic policy official under Trump,
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  SPEAKER_00: said the violence is a consequence of mass immigration.
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  SPEAKER_00: Both spoke to Fox News.
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  SPEAKER_00: The same Fox report notes that Reuters and AP described a movement that began
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  SPEAKER_00: over school conditions.
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  SPEAKER_00: In 2023,
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  SPEAKER_00: Fox paid Dominion Voting System $787.5 million to settle a defamation suit
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  SPEAKER_00: over false claims about the 2020 election.
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  SPEAKER_00: Fox acknowledged the court's ruling that those claims were false.
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  SPEAKER_00: In other words, they lied.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: The settlement came as the trial was about to open.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: A second suit from Smartmatic seeks $2.7 billion and remains pending.
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  SPEAKER_00: All of that to say, consider the source.
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  SPEAKER_00: Iran summoned France's ambassador, Pierre Couchard, on Tuesday.
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  SPEAKER_00: Tehran accused France of violent treatment of protesters.
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  SPEAKER_00: The two countries expelled each other's diplomats in August.
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  SPEAKER_00: Iran's own protest in January left more than 3,000 dead, according to Iranian authorities.
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  SPEAKER_00: Those authorities blame the United States and Israel.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Editor's note from Paris.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Rest of the World Report's editor, which is me, is here in Paris.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translator's Note.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Translator's Note.
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  SPEAKER_00: Le Mans opens with the marchers, not the arrests.
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  SPEAKER_00: Its report draws on correspondents in Paris,
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  SPEAKER_00: Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Nîmes, Rennes, Clermont-Ferrand, and Toul.
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  SPEAKER_00: It describes students from all backgrounds,
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  SPEAKER_00: joined by parents,
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  SPEAKER_00: elected officials, and union activists in a mostly good-natured march.
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  SPEAKER_00: France 24 reports from a Murray barricade as well as the suburbs.
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  SPEAKER_00: Neither frames of protests surround immigration.
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  SPEAKER_00: In both, the people interviewed talk about staffing, class sizes, and buildings.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump says the French protests are not about schools and ties them to Islam.
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  SPEAKER_00: The students,
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  SPEAKER_00: teachers,
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  SPEAKER_00: unions, and officials in the reporting describe a protest over school conditions.
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  SPEAKER_00: France has suspended stun grenades after a 15-year-old lost a hand.
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  SPEAKER_00: Three years ago today, Hamas-led fighters killed 1,221 people in Israel.
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  SPEAKER_00: That figure comes from official Israeli tallies.
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  SPEAKER_00: The fighters took 251 hostages into Gazan.
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  SPEAKER_00: Forty-four were already dead.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israel's war in Gaza has since killed more than 74,200 Palestinians,
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  SPEAKER_00: according to Gaza's health ministry.
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  SPEAKER_00: The ministry is under Hamas authority, and the United Nations considers its figures reliable.
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  SPEAKER_00: A ceasefire took effect last October.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israeli forces have killed more than 1,430 people in Gaza since.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israel says it controls more than 60% of the Gaza Strip,
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  SPEAKER_00: And hundreds of thousands of people still live in tents and temporary structures.
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  SPEAKER_00: The United Nations Commission of Inquiry found in September 2025
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  SPEAKER_00: that Israel's military operations in Gaza constitute genocide.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on
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  SPEAKER_00: the Occupied Palestinian Territory, chaired by Navi Pillai, found genocidal intent.
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  SPEAKER_00: It held Netanyahu,
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  SPEAKER_00: former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant,
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  SPEAKER_00: and President Isaac Herzog individually responsible.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israel's foreign ministry rejected the findings and called for the commission's abolition.
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  SPEAKER_00: The International Court of Justice has not ruled.
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  SPEAKER_00: South Africa's genocide case against Israel is in written pleadings.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israel filed its court memorial on March 2026 and raised jurisdictional objections.
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  SPEAKER_00: South Africa's reply is due November 22, 2027.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israel's rejoinder is due May 22, 2029.
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  SPEAKER_00: An Israeli strike in Gaza City overnight killed two people, Al-Shifa Hospital reported.
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  SPEAKER_00: Gaza's civil defense agency named one of them as Mohamed Tamo, a volunteer.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said Monday
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  SPEAKER_00: that Israeli operations damaged an estimated 82% of all buildings in Gaza
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  SPEAKER_00: between 2023 and June 2026.
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  SPEAKER_00: It counted 201,290 buildings targeted and 134,422 destroyed.
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  SPEAKER_00: It said about 90% of water and sanitation infrastructure was damaged and about 90%
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  SPEAKER_00: of the 2.1 million residents have been displaced.
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  SPEAKER_00: Defense Minister Israel Katz put the military on high alert Tuesday.
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  SPEAKER_00: He cited intelligence that Hamas intends to attack troops in Gaza on the anniversary.
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  SPEAKER_00: He warned Hamas and Gaza civilians would pay a price if troops were harmed.
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  SPEAKER_00: At Monday's state memorial,
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  SPEAKER_00: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be no Hamas rule in Gaza.
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  SPEAKER_00: He vowed to keep targeting anyone involved in the attack Or who held hostages.
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  SPEAKER_00: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Monday it is time for
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  SPEAKER_00: the ceasefire to become permanent.
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  SPEAKER_00: He said the ceasefire has yet to deliver security,
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  SPEAKER_00: adequate humanitarian assistance, or a credible path to recovery.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israel refuses to withdraw its troops until Hamas disarmament is verified.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hamas favors gradual disarmament.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the West Bank, the olive harvest has begun under attack.
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  SPEAKER_00: On Tuesday, Palestinians set a settler open fire on people harvesting near Acrobat.
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  SPEAKER_00: Several were wounded and others were beaten.
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  SPEAKER_00: Among the wounded was AFP photographer Jafar Ashtia.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Israeli military did not immediately respond and no arrests were made.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the Hebron Hills,
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  SPEAKER_00: a Palestinian family says settlers have besieged their home since Monday and set up
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  SPEAKER_00: a tent blocking the only road to it.
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  SPEAKER_00: In Burqa, near Ramallah, a house was burned overnight.
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  SPEAKER_00: Arrests for settler violence are highly rare and convictions less common.
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  SPEAKER_00: Netanyahu has described the settler violence as the work of a small number of delinquents.
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  SPEAKER_00: Shin Bet chief David Zinni told a cabinet meeting Sunday
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  SPEAKER_00: that he may reinstate administrative detention for violent Jewish extremists.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces
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  SPEAKER_00: or settlers since October 7th,
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  SPEAKER_00: according to the Palestinian Authority's Health Ministry.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Israeli military says the vast majority were gunmen, rioters, or attackers.
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  SPEAKER_00: 67 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in attacks in Israel
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  SPEAKER_00: and the West Bank in the same period.
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  SPEAKER_00: On Tuesday,
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  SPEAKER_00: Israeli bulldozers demolished a five-story building
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  SPEAKER_00: in East Jerusalem's Atur neighborhood.
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  SPEAKER_00: About 70 people lived there.
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  SPEAKER_00: National Security Minister Itmar Ben-Gvir oversaw the demolition and said
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  SPEAKER_00: the building had no permit.
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  SPEAKER_00: I love hearing this noise.
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  SPEAKER_00: We demolish what is illegal, he said in a video.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Jerusalem governorate, a Palestinian local authority, called it forcible transfer.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israel votes on October 27th.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israel puts its debt at 1,221 and Gaza's health ministry puts Gaza's at more than 74,200.
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  SPEAKER_00: A ceasefire began last October,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,430 people in Gaza
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  SPEAKER_00: since.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the West Bank, Israeli reporting says arrests for settler attacks are rare.
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  SPEAKER_00: President Donald Trump said Monday, let them take out Los Angeles.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let them take out San Diego.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was speaking at a midterm rally in Grand Island, Nebraska.
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  SPEAKER_00: He had told the crowd that Americans should accept sacrifices to deny Iran a nuclear weapon.
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  SPEAKER_00: He called the cost very small, And said the war would be over soon.
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  SPEAKER_00: The remark seemed to refer to the war's knock-on effects,
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  SPEAKER_00: including rising fuel and fertilizer prices.
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  SPEAKER_00: White House Communications Director Steve Chung said Trump was saying U.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran had not been stopped.
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  SPEAKER_00: He called the criticism a media freakout.
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  SPEAKER_00: The White House Rapid Response account said Trump was saying
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  SPEAKER_00: the United States is fighting to stop Iran from being able to take out
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  SPEAKER_00: the two cities with a nuclear weapon.
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  SPEAKER_00: California Governor Gavin Newsom called Trump deranged and dangerous.
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  SPEAKER_00: No lies detected.
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  SPEAKER_00: He cited the deployment of the National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles last year.
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  SPEAKER_00: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the nuclear annihilation of
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  SPEAKER_00: an American city is no laughing matter.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jim Desmond,
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  SPEAKER_00: a Republican running for a House seat near San Diego,
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  SPEAKER_00: said he vehemently disagreed and that no American city is expendable.
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  SPEAKER_00: Representative Kevin Kiley,
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  SPEAKER_00: an independent who caucuses with Republicans, called the remarks unhelpful.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Los Angeles has the largest Iranian-American community in the United States.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: 2020-2024 American Community Survey counts 86,430 people of Iranian ancestry there.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: San Diego County has 17,138.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: The Migration Policy Institute found that 29% of Iranian immigrants in
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: the United States lived in Los Angeles County in 2015-2019.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: California has 52 house seats, the most of any state.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: The war began February 28th and is in its eighth month.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: No lasting ceasefire has been reached,
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  SPEAKER_00: and polls show the war is widely unpopular in the United States.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: The President said Monday that Iran could take out two California cities.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: The White House says he means a nuclear Iran would threaten them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrats and some Republicans criticized the remark.
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  SPEAKER_00: The International Chamber of Commerce warns that cereal prices may rise by as much
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: as 80% if there is no progress in unblocking the Strait of Hormuz.
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  SPEAKER_00: John Denton,
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  SPEAKER_00: the group's Secretary General,
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  SPEAKER_00: said available fertilizer capacity has fallen by nearly 40% since
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  SPEAKER_00: the Strait was disputed.
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  SPEAKER_00: That removed 2.7 million tons from the market.
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  SPEAKER_00: About one-third of global fertilizer shipments pass through the Strait.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Developing and emerging economies will feel the hit first.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Philippines imports roughly 90% of its fertilizer.
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  SPEAKER_00: Denton sits on the UN Task Force for the Strait of Hormuz.
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  SPEAKER_00: The task has worked with UN agencies and the International Maritime Organization on
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  SPEAKER_00: a framework that would temporarily hand governance of the waterway
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  SPEAKER_00: to UN Secretary General.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was proposed in July and it would set up monitoring,
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  SPEAKER_00: inspections, maritime insurance, and protocols for safe transit.
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  SPEAKER_00: Denton said the mechanism is stalled by the gridlock between the United States and Iran.
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  SPEAKER_00: It cannot be deployed without a political agreement between them, he said.
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  SPEAKER_00: Recurring Black Sea disruptions add to the pressure.
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  SPEAKER_00: So does severe El Niño weather,
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  SPEAKER_00: which is expected to disrupt harvests and drive up consumer inflation.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: The war began on February 28th when the United States and Israel struck Iran.
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  SPEAKER_00: The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizations measure prices as they stand.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Its food price index rose 1.5% in September to 136.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: That is the highest reading since November 2022.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: The index remains 15.1% below its March 2022 peak.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: The cereal index rose 5.1% on the month and 17.2% on the year.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: The agency tied the wheat rise largely to Black Sea shipping constraints
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: and dry weather in North America.
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  SPEAKER_00: It said uncertainty over shipping through Hormuz kept concerns about fuel,
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: fertilizer, and freight costs elevated.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: FAO chief economist Maximo Torero said if the pressures are sustained,
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: they will soon pass through to consumer food prices,
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  SPEAKER_00: especially in countries that depend on imported food and energy.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: President Donald Trump told a rally in Nebraska on Monday that high gas prices from
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: the war are a small price to pay.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: The International Chamber of Commerce says cereal prices may rise up to 80%
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  SPEAKER_00: if there is no progress on the straits.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: A UN plan to govern the waterway is stalled until the United States and Iran agreed.
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  SPEAKER_00: The UN Food Agency's cereal index is already up 17.2% on the year,
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  SPEAKER_00: with Black Sea disruption and weather also cited.
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  SPEAKER_00: The president has called high gas prices from the war a small price to pay.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's it for this morning's edition of The Rest of the World Report.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you all again this evening.
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