What’s Next for Gaza, and an Ultimatum for Pentagon Reporters

0:02From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Tuesday, October 14th. Here's what we're covering.

0:15So this long and difficult war has now ended. You know, some people say 3 ,000 years, some people say 500 years, whatever it is. It's the granddaddy of them all. You succeeded in doing something that no one believed was possible. You brought most of the world behind your proposal to free the hostages and end the war. You could hear in the speeches by President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem this kind of reaching to declare victory. This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East. Trump in declaring that the war is over, Netanyahu claiming a victory for Israel over Hamas. With our military pressure and President Trump's global leadership, we achieved this historic moment.

1:06But, you know, there is no guarantee that this war is fully over. As much as it took months of negotiations, getting to this point may well prove to have been the easy part. And going from here forward to complete the rest of Donald Trump's peace plan might actually prove a lot harder. David Halpfinger is the Times bureau chief in Jerusalem. He says that after yesterday's long-awaited return of the last hostages and the release of nearly 2 ,000 Palestinian prisoners, there's been a huge sense of relief and tears of joy across the region at the break in fighting. But hanging over all of that are a lot of unresolved questions about what happens next.

1:47To go from a ceasefire to actual peace here, both sides have to give up things that they're really not ready to do. Hamas is being asked to lay down its weapons permanently. This for Hamas, which is created as a resistance organization, is like, you know, giving up its ideology or ceasing to exist. For Israel, the request is to pull out completely from the Gaza Strip, and they're being asked to do that by Hamas before Gaza is fully disarmed. And the idea that Israel would pull out completely, knowing that Hamas still has weapons and fighters and tunnels, is just, you know, it's hard to imagine them ever accepting that.

2:23And then there are other aspects of the way forward that are also equally thorny. The plan calls for an international stabilization force made up of soldiers from other countries, funded by other countries, while Arab countries are expected to step up. It is hard to imagine Arab countries sending their soldiers into Gaza to effectively assist the Israelis, lest they be considered an occupying army themselves. So there's just every aspect of the way forward is fraught with peril and pitfalls. In Gaza, with the ceasefire in place, the United Nations says it's making, quote, real progress in getting more aid in to help ease the humanitarian crisis there.

3:08It said it's now been able to bring in cooking oil for the first time since March, along with hundreds of thousands of hot meals, tents for displaced families, and medical supplies. The U.N. estimates that at least 500 ,000 Gazans will need treatment to address the effects of famine.

3:34Now, three updates on the Trump administration. Just after midnight, a new wave of tariffs kicked in that could affect the American housing market. There's now an additional 10 percent levy on imported wood and timber and 25 percent surcharges on upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities. The Trump administration says the tariffs will encourage more furniture manufacturing and logging in the U.S., but some economists say that for the moment, higher lumber prices could slow the pace of home building and drive up the cost of housing. Home prices have already hit record highs this year.

4:11Also, the administration has given journalists reporting on the Pentagon a deadline of 5 p.m. today to either agree to new restrictions on their coverage or forfeit their press passes. The 21 pages of new rules put out by the Pentagon reflect Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's adversarial approach to the press corps. They include a number of requirements that lawyers for news outlets say restrict press freedom. For example, one provision says that journalists could be deemed a, quote, security risk if they disclose classified or even unclassified information without Pentagon approval. The conservative news outlet OANN has signed on to the policy, but many others have already said they'll refuse, including CNN, NPR, Newsmax, The Washington Post, The Times and The Atlantic.

5:04The editor of The Atlantic said, quote, the requirements violate our First Amendment rights and the rights of Americans who seek to know how taxpayer-funded military resources and personnel are being deployed. And. Today in front of the Labor Department in Washington, there's a group of people who are going to be protesting the administration. And it might be surprising to some to see who the protesters are. Coal miners. Lisa Friedman covers energy policy for The Times. Just a few months ago, coal miners were standing behind President Trump at a press conference. I call it beautiful, clean coal.

5:42I tell my people, never use the word coal unless you put beautiful, clean before it. While he announced the ways that he planned to reinvigorate their struggling industry. Beautiful, clean coal. Now, though, they're protesting the months-long delay of a regulation that is aimed at protecting miners against a major driver of black lung disease. Lisa says that the coal miners who are protesting today are worried about exposure to toxic silica dust, which has driven a recent spike in the incurable respiratory disease known as black lung. When miners cut into rock, silica dust gets released into the air.

6:18And because miners in places like Appalachia have already pulled out the most easily accessible coal, they've been having to cut deeper and deeper into the rock, exposing themselves to even more silica than previous generations. New limits on silica exposure from the Biden administration were supposed to take effect in April. But after a lawsuit from mining industry groups, the Trump administration agreed to delay enforcement. I spoke with a number of miners and their family members who will be in Washington today, and many of them pointed out to me the enormous assistance that the administration has given to coal mining companies, to coal-fired power plants, and they feel that they are not getting the same attention to their health.

7:04I spoke with Judith Reif. Her husband was a coal miner in West Virginia, who passed away from black lung. And she told me the coal miners have supplied this country with electricity and now they're just cast aside to die. In a statement, a White House spokeswoman said President Trump, quote, cares deeply about unleashing America's energy potential, as well as standing up for those who fuel our country. She did not say what the administration plans to do about the silica dust regulation.

7:40In California, homeowners who've lost everything in devastating wildfires say they've often had to live through a second trauma, dealing with insurance paperwork. In order to get payouts for what they've lost, most fire victims have had to submit exhaustive inventories, sometimes thousands of items long, covering everything from TVs to toothbrushes. After detailing every single thing, then insurers would decide what the payout would be. But a new law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom aims to ease that burden. Under the legislation, Californians will be able to collect at least 60 percent of their coverage amount without cataloging every item burned in the blaze.

8:22That's up from a 30 percent payout before. There's a cap of$350 ,000. Lawmakers celebrated the bill's passage as a win for wildfire victims. They'll no longer have to sift through the ashes or dig through old receipts and photos to find ownership of every little thing. The relief won't be instant, though. The new law takes effect next year and is not retroactive, meaning people who lost homes, like in L.A.'s widespread wildfires this year, are not necessarily eligible. Lawmakers, however, are urging insurance companies to voluntarily adopt the practice now.

9:03And finally. I think I got like 15 things, maybe 16. I don't really know. And it was like$96. Starting a few years ago, the fast fashion company Shein basically took over the internet, filling social media feeds with cheap knockoffs and influencers showing off their shopping hauls. It's just this like lace. Now, though, the company's trying to make the leap from online shopping to an actual physical store. But it has been a little rocky. Sheehan picked Paris, the world capital of fashion, as the site for its first ever brick-and-mortar boutique. It plans to open in an iconic department store with sweeping views of the Eiffel Tower.

9:49The store, BHV Marais, is known for selling French specialty brands. Sheehan's space there is supposed to open next month. But French lawmakers and the fashion world have responded with a very cold shoulder. BHV Marais' staff walked off the job last week to protest Sheehan's arrival, accusing the company of using cheap labor and violating environmental and human rights standards at its factories, claims Sheehan has denied. As the home of Chanel, Dior, and other high fashion empires, France as a country is already fighting back against fast fashion. The French Senate recently passed a so-called anti-Xian measure that would raise taxes on cheap Chinese clothing.

10:33If signed into law, the bill would also ban the company's ads in France and penalize influencers who promote the products.

10:45Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.

10:55Thank you.