The Excerpt podcast: UN calls emergency meeting on Israel-Hamas cease-fire resolution

On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: International pressure builds on Israel, amid its offensive in Gaza. USA TODAY Health and Breaking News Reporter Eduardo Cuevas looks at a spike in suicides among older men. Former President Donald Trump cancels plans to testify this week in his New York real estate civil fraud trial. The Supreme Court is being asked to enter the debate on confronting bias on campus. The final round of student debt relief talks begins Monday.

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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 today is Monday, December 11th, 2023. This is The Excerpt.

Today, the latest from the UN amid Israel's offensive in Gaza, plus a look at spiking suicide rates for elderly Americans, and Trump decides not to testify this week in one of his cases.

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The UN General Assembly said yesterday that it has scheduled an emergency meeting for tomorrow to vote on a draft resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. That'll come days after a previous resolution from the UN Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire was vetoed by the US. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that living conditions in Gaza are so dire with a shortage of food and other resources and quote, "expect public order to completely break down soon," unquote.

Israel is increasingly facing international outrage over its military offensive in the wake of the October 7th Hamas attack. About 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced, and nearly 18,000 Palestinians have been killed according to the Gaza Health Ministry. More than 1200 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed, and Israel says Hamas still holds 117 hostages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that dozens of militants have surrendered in recent days. Hamas issued a statement saying Israel was detaining unarmed civilians and surrounding them with weapons to give the appearance that militants' resolve was fading. You can stay up-to-date on the Israel-Hamas War with live updates on usatoday.com.

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Suicide rates in the United States are spiking, especially among older men. I spoke with USA Today health and breaking news reporter Eduardo Cuevas for more.

Eduardo, thanks for making the time.

Eduardo Cuevas:

Thank you.

Taylor Wilson:

So Eduardo, what does the data tell us about suicide among older people?

Eduardo Cuevas:

According to the latest National Center for Health Statistics data, we did see a decline in suicides among people 25 or younger. But we did see an increase among people 35 and older and the highest rates that we see are among people 75 and older. And what we're talking about here, too, is it tends to be with men and, as men age, the suicide rate tends to increase.

Taylor Wilson:

You know, there's been an uptick in suicides among older Americans since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Eduardo. What do experts attribute those deaths to?

Eduardo Cuevas:

Experts really point to what they call the five Ds that are risk factors that contribute to suicides, particularly among older people and we're talking about older men. So the five Ds are depression, disability due to functional impairment, disease and that's with illness or pain, and disconnectedness from others, that's social isolation. And then the last one is deadly, and that's access to deadly weapons or firearms which, of course, we see a lot of in the United States.

Taylor Wilson:

What steps are being taken to try and curb the high suicide rate among the elderly and also, Eduardo, what barriers remain?

Eduardo Cuevas:

You know, an important step for people feeling suicidal is reaching out for help. And for older folks who were so used to being independent for so long, that may take some work. But it really does help, and it could be as simple as finding someone who's willing to listen.

We talked to Dennis Gillan in South Carolina, and on the first Thursday of every month, Dennis meets up with a group of older men, who he met in his old apartment building after he had gotten divorced and feeling pretty lonely in his apartment and this has been going on for five years.

So something Dennis pointed out to me is at the end of every meal, they ask a simple question, "How's everybody's mental health?" And that's kind of the check-ins that folks have, that there is someone there that and that can take many forms, but there is help out there.

Taylor Wilson:

Eduardo Cuevas covers health and breaking news for USA today. Thank you, Eduardo.

Eduardo Cuevas:

Thank you for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

If you or someone you know needs mental health resources and support, please call, text or chat with the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or visit 988lifeline.org for 24/7 access to free and confidential services.

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Former President Donald Trump has canceled plans to testify this week in his New York real estate civil fraud trial. In an all-caps posts to his Truth Social platform, Trump declared yesterday afternoon that he had quote, "already testified to everything and have nothing more to say," unquote. He also said without evidence that the trial is a form of election interference against his reelection bid.

Trump's attorneys previously said he would testify today as they fight a case from the New York Attorney General's office accusing Trump and others of engaging in various forms of fraud in his real estate empire. Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled that Trump fraudulently inflated the value of his assets on financial statements and his companies will lose state business certificates. The judge is now deciding whether Trump and others, including his sons Donald, Jr. and Eric, engaged in other forms of fraud as well as potential punishments.

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In 2018, Virginia Tech brought a group of school officials together to review and confront bias on campus, things like racist name-calling or sexist jokes. Known as Bias Response Teams, the groups have proliferated at universities across the country as schools wrestle with a number of high-profile hate incidents. Those efforts now face First Amendment challenges, including a case pending against Virginia Tech at the Supreme Court.

In its suit against the school, a group called Speech First told the court that the First Amendment contains no exception for hateful, harassing or biased speech, and that if the group is correct, Bias Response Teams are stifling the speech of millions of college students around the country. Virginia Tech told the Supreme Court that it already disbanded its Bias Response Team earlier this year, even though it won initial stages of its case in lower courts.

The legal fight has reached the high court at a fraught time for the debate over speech on campus. That was especially on display last week as three presidents of elite universities, Harvard, Penn and MIT, faced backlash for refusing to say whether students would violate school policies if they called for the genocide of Jews.

But even before that, there were major disputes on campus over the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Trump presidency and issues around race and gender, among other issues. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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A final round of student debt relief talks is set for today. President Joe Biden's original plan for large-scale student loan forgiveness was undone by the Supreme Court this summer. It would've canceled up to $20,000 in loan debt and affected as many as 40 million people, nearly every person with federal student loans nationwide.

After the ruling, Biden formed a committee of stakeholders from higher education to use a process known as negotiated rule-making to draft a new plan for loan forgiveness. The committee has already met several times with its final meetings today and tomorrow. By the end, the committee must sort out which student loan forgiveness ideas they can get behind unanimously.

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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. And if you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.