Biden Meets With Democrats, Israel Expands in the West Bank, Phoenix Heat Update

Israel is moving to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Israel is claimed part of the region for the state.

It's the largest land seizure in decades.

Who is the cabinet minister driving the policy?

to open up more cool spaces for those who need them.

How much can the city do as temperatures return to triple digits?

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November.

Last night, Biden met with 25 Democratic governors.

The group included several who have been mentioned as possible replacements if Biden were to

drop out.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore spoke after the meeting.

Good morning, Tam.

Did the president convince these 25 governors that he has what it takes?

pretty effusive.

He said Biden is in it to win it and essentially said, let's stop hand-wringing and get to

work.

But others were a bit more circumspect.

Tim Walz from Minnesota said they all agreed that victory in November is the top priority.

But he left something else conspicuously unstated.

He didn't say keeping Joe Biden at the top of the ticket was the key to that victory,

though when he was asked by reporters, Walz was firm that Biden is fit to serve.

Many joined virtually, others left out the back.

I would say that the message from the governors we've heard from is that Biden is the nominee.

Former President Trump is a threat and needs to be stopped.

But they didn't get into hypotheticals about whether Biden is still the best person to

take on Trump.

Based on conversations my colleagues are having with members of Congress, anxiety is extremely high.

They are worried that a beleaguered Biden could affect their races as well and even

control of the House.

And the thing is that what last week was contained to whispers and group chats is now spilling

out in the open.

Some say Biden needs to get out now so the party can settle on a more vigorous nominee

in time for the convention.

Some say that that is way too dangerous a gamble.

Biden has beaten Trump once before and Democratic Party chaos would only help the former president.

Some think Biden is fine and he has what it takes and all the speculation and worry needs

to stop so everyone can get to work on winning.

He doesn't have to say anything because Democrats have this disaster unfolding in front of them.

So what can the current president do to try to show millions of people who saw that debate

that he's OK?

Biden is holding a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin on Friday.

More significantly, while he's there, the president will sit down for an interview with

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos.

This is a pretty rare thing for Biden, certainly compared to past presidents.

An unscripted interview is another high-profile test of his cognitive abilities, and depending

on how it goes, the interview could quiet the calls for Biden to step aside or make

them grow louder.

Tamara Keith.

OK, as Israel wages war in Gaza, it's also expanding Jewish settlements in a different

region, the occupied West Bank.

the settlers in more than 30 years.

Hi, Gregg.

Now this means it's land that can now be used for settlements.

It's deep inside the West Bank, in the Jordan Valley, near the border with Jordan.

This was done quietly last week, but wasn't published until Wednesday.

And this follows two similar moves earlier this year that totaled about four square miles.

So according to Peace Now, an Israeli monitoring group that opposes settlements, Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu's government has seized more West Bank land this year than in any

year since the Israelis and Palestinians began peace negotiations way back in the 1990s.

attention is focused in the other direction, on the war in Gaza.

But the Israeli cabinet minister who's driving this is very open about his intentions.

That's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

He's a far-right politician and a West Bank settler himself who also has responsibility

over settler issues.

I spoke about him with Dror Etkis, an Israeli who opposes settlements and has been monitoring

them for many years.

This is an Israeli policy, not Smotrich policy.

Smotrich is doing it faster, more aggressive, and he is, I guess, more provocative about it.

What response is he provoking?

There can never be a viable Palestinian state with so many Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

And the West Bank has been on boil since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in Gaza last October.

There's a sharp increase in violence and it has several dimensions.

Jewish settlers have carried out hundreds of attacks against Palestinians.

Jewish settlers are also attacked by Palestinians, though less frequently.

And the Israeli military is battling Palestinian militants on a daily basis.

Overall, since October, more than 550 Palestinians have been killed, as well as 12 Israeli soldiers

and settlers in the West Bank.

millions of people.

How have Jewish settlements expanded there over time?

Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem numbered a little over a quarter million.

And the expectation is that they would have to leave as part of an agreement, or many of them would.

But that peace deal never happened and settlements kept expanding.

Today, that number has tripled to around three quarters of a million.

So this means that about 10 percent of Israel's Jewish population now lives in East Jerusalem

and the West Bank, territory Israel captured in the 1967 war and which is not internationally

recognized as part of Israel.

Really appreciate it.

He's in Tel Aviv.

And more are coming this year.

But the city and the surrounding county have been taking steps to try to prevent that.

Good morning.

So why have officials become so concerned about the heat in the last few years?

We are famous for our scorching temperatures, but the public health impacts of heat are

tracked very closely by Maricopa County.

And the number of those heat-related deaths has absolutely skyrocketed over the past decade.

Actually, every year since 2016, we've set a new record for these fatalities.

Ten years ago, we'd see maybe 75 heat deaths per year.

Last year, like you said, there were 645.

What are leaders doing to try to address this?

Unsheltered people make up a large portion of those who die in the heat each year.

So there have been major investments at the city, county, and state level in homeless

shelters and housing solutions.

But more specifically to address heat, the city and county have been looking for ways

to offer more access to cool spaces in summer months.

There are dozens of heat relief sites across the Phoenix area.

But the city, for the first time this year, is keeping one of its cooling centers open

24-7, since officials found about a third of heat-related 911 calls were actually happening

overnight or in the early morning.

The city is also trying to respond to heat emergencies quicker.

The Phoenix Fire Department this summer adopted a new method for immersing heat stroke patients

in ice-filled bags to try to bring body temperatures down much faster in the ambulance on the way

to the hospital.

Is there any indication so far this summer that these changes are reducing the number

of deaths?

Last year, heat-related deaths were reported all the way into October, so we have a lot

of hot weather still ahead of us.

Unfortunately, officials have already confirmed six heat-related deaths, and there are more

than 100 other deaths under investigation so far this year.

That's about a 40 percent higher than where we were at the same point last summer, but

this June was a little hotter than last.

continues to drive more frequent and intense heat waves, and city and county officials

get more worried when it's those 110-degree-plus days in Phoenix.

I mean, how much of a difference does a few degrees matter?

over five years, and they found the difference between, like, 110 degrees instead of 105

degrees results in a 76 percent increase in these cases of heat stroke or heat exhaustion.

Last July, Phoenix set a record for the number of those 110-or-hotter days in a row.

What does the forecast look like for this month?

again, but the National Weather Service does say warmer-than-normal temperatures are likely

for most of Arizona for the next few months.

Thank you, Katherine.

might be changing.

Projections say the center-left Labour Party is on track to win a record number of seats

in the new government, sweeping conservatives out of office after 14 years.

That's a marked difference from the last UK general election in 2019, when it was the

Conservative Party that won by a landslide with the election of Boris Johnson.

But a series of blunders around immigration, the economy, and COVID put Labour back on

track to win.

Polls point to about a 20% lead for Labour going into the election, but low turnout could

change that.

Join us tomorrow when we dig into the results with NPR's Lauren Freer.

I'm Steve Inskeep.

Your next listen is Consider This from NPR.

2024 is one of the biggest election years in history.

Globally, hundreds of millions of people are voting.

Will democracy prevail?

We hear from election watchers in Venezuela, Georgia, and Ghana about what's at stake in

their upcoming elections.

Listen to Consider This.

Mai, Jenea Williams, and Olivia Hampton.

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