How to Say Good Morning Using the Up First Show: An Update on Israel’s Military Offensive and the U.N. Security Council
I wish I could say good morning. The newsletter is called Up First. You can subscribe to the newsletter and listen to the Up First show to get the news you need to start your day.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 20,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Women and children are 70% of those killed. Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council has been deadlocked for three days on a resolution calling for a cease-fire and allow the U.N. to inspect aid trucks and speed up the arrival of food and fuel for Gaza. U.N. negotiators have weakened the language in the proposal in an effort to avoid a U.S. veto.
There has been a surge in violent rhetoric online since the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s primary ballot this week. Personal information of several Colorado Supreme Court justices is being posted on the internet and called for to hurt or kill political opponents.
The First Experience of The Color Purple Film: How Celie and I Learned to Stop Exploiting Violation During Christmas Day
The author of this essay wasMichel Martin. She hosts Morning Edition and Up First. She’s previously hosted Weekend All Things Considered, the Consider This Saturday is Tell Me More.
I’ve been asking everybody I’ve talked to about The (new) Color Purple film, set to hit theaters Christmas Day. I wish to know when they first encountered any version of the work, whether it was the 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, the hit 1985 film directed by Stephen Spielberg, or the 2005 Broadway Musical.
I know why some people remember their first experience better than others. Danielle Brooks is in the new movie, and she is the first person to ever see the Broadway show. The Broadway and movie shows were star-making vehicles. They are, Oprah Winfrey and Cynthia Erivo.
And some people will tell you that the story of Celie and her triumph over vicious abuse was the first piece of art they experienced that helped them feel less alone.
The Color Purple and the Israeli Ground Operation in the Light of the September 7 Oct. 7 Israel-Jammaaccount Attacks
I am almost embarrassed to tell you I don’t remember how I first knew about The Color Purple. I used to go to shows in New York at the cheap seats. I read a lot. Always have.
Movies: In The Zone of Interest, director Jonathan Glazer depicts the family of Auschwitz camp commandant Rudolf Höss as they go about their daily routines while a massive machinery of death grinds away next door.
TV: The final season of The Crown is the last one for Queen Elizabeth II. Imelda Staunton speaks with NPR’s All Things Considered about the show’s attempt to portray the royal family in all of its truth.
The attacks on Israel by Hamas fighters on Oct. 7 killed 1,200 people and kidnapped hundreds of others, Israel says. More than 130 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive, says Israel’s military.
An estimated 129 people are still being held captive in Gaza, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. They are thought to be dead.
Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense arrived in Israel this week to urge leaders to scale back the war effort to more targeted operations that reduce harm to civilians.
After the Israeli military admitted that their own soldiers had shot and killed three Israelis in Gaza, the criticism of Israel’s ground operation has redoubled.
A growing number of international voices are concerned that the Israeli military is not taking sufficient steps to limit harm to civilians, such as the U.S. who has sent officials to Israel this week to encourage leaders to dial back the intensity of its Gaza operation.
A recent report by the World Food Programme said that half of households in Gaza are experiencing “severe levels of hunger”. The report found that the Palestinians in Gaza have an average of less than two liters of drinking water per day.
In Gaza, some 85% of Gaza’s population have fled their homes and crowded into shelters and tent camps in the territory’s south as Israel has continued to expand its ground operation. Much of northern Gaza has been flattened or damaged by airstrikes, including hospitals, schools, places of worship and thousands of homes.
Prior to Friday, the U.S. had repeatedly vetoed Security Council resolutions on Israel and Gaza since the conflict began in October, most recently earlier this month, when American officials said a resolution had been rushed and ignored U.S. diplomatic efforts. The US objected to resolutions that didn’t condemn Hamas.
Friday’s resolution also called for the release of all hostages and called for the provision of enough fuel into Gaza to meet the needs of the population, a long-standing sticking point between Israel and Hamas.
The final language of the resolution does not call for a new inspection regime. Instead, it asks the U.N. secretary general to appoint an aide coordinator for Gaza.
There are still serious and widespread concerns that the resolution could slow down delivery of humanitarian aid by forcing the U.N. to create an “unworkable monitoring mechanism”. We must make sure any Resolution helps and does not hurt the situation on the ground.
The U.S. has been working to get Israel to accelerate the pace of these inspection, but the Biden administration has been wary of a new U.N. resolution further complicating what is already a complicated situation.
Another sticking point in negotiations was whether the U.N. itself should inspect the trucks that are entering Gaza to deliver desperately needed aid. Israel inspects convoys to make sure there are no weapons going to Hamas.
We know the text isn’t perfect. Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh spoke about the resolution in advance of the vote, saying only a cease-fire would end the suffering. The challenge in diplomacy is meeting the moment in the world that we live in, not the world we want to live in.
The Security Council’s approval of the wording of the resolution was watered down compared to earlier drafts. Previous drafts had called for a “cessation” or even a “suspension” of hostilities, which the U.S. objected to. The language that negotiators settled on was that of creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.
The vote was delayed multiple times so that the US could agree not to veto the resolution, which is Israel’s strongest ally on the international stage.