LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In Israel, a nationwide general strike is underway, crippling much of the country. And last night, protests broke out in several Israeli cities in one of the largest anti-war demonstrations to date.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is all part of a nationwide outpouring of grief and frustration after the bodies of six hostages were recovered from Gaza over the weekend.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
MARTIN: They demanded an end to the war and a deal to bring remaining hostages home. Official autopsies by Israel showed that all six had been shot in recent days, that according to a statement from the Israeli Ministry of Health.
FADEL: For more, we're joined by NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv. Good morning, Kat.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey, Leila.
FADEL: So let's start with this general strike today. How is that playing out?
LONSDORF: Yeah. So a lot of things are closed - many schools, government buildings. The airport even closed for a few hours this morning. And a lot of private businesses have closed in solidarity as well. It's pretty quiet in my neighborhood, for example. The nation's largest labor union here said that, quote, "only a strike will shock" and went on to call for a cease-fire deal immediately. This is the first time this has happened since the war began last October. But I should also say not all areas of Israel are abiding by the strike. You know, that's showing the deep divisions that are present in this country right now.
FADEL: I was looking at these incredible images of just people as far as you could see...
LONSDORF: Yeah.
FADEL: ...In these protests in Tel Aviv. You were there. What were you seeing and hearing?
LONSDORF: Yeah, so like you said, the streets in downtown Tel Aviv were packed with people stretching for blocks and blocks. They were shutting down intersections. People were climbing on top of bus stops. And, you know, they were waving Israeli flags, chanting to bring the remaining hostages home, holding signs calling for an end of the war and other signs calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a murderer and a criminal. Like you said, the autopsies showed that these six hostages were all killed just days ago. And many people think that if Netanyahu had agreed to a cease-fire deal earlier, they would still be alive. People are really, really angry. Here's Tel Aviv resident Ori Elman. He calls Netanyahu by his nickname, Bibi.
ORI ELMAN: Bibi needs to decide that he wants to sign the deal. Bibi is the prime minister. He holds the key for the deal. He can keep on putting more and more obstacles and demands, but that's not relevant.
LONSDORF: Every single person I talked to last night blamed the death of these hostages on Netanyahu, saying that they believed he was the one obstructing the cease-fire deal.
FADEL: So where do things stand with that deal that people are calling for?
LONSDORF: It's really hard to know exactly. There are negotiating teams still working through the technical parts of a possible deal. But even just yesterday, Netanyahu dug in, saying that he won't give up Israeli military control of a strip of land between Egypt and Gaza called the Philadelphi Corridor. He said that this is vital to his goal of eliminating Hamas and the militant group's access to the smuggling tunnels there. This has been one of the main sticking points in the deal, and Netanyahu is not budging. Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in the past few weeks as the cease-fire deal has been in negotiations, so the war is still very much continuing there.
FADEL: Yeah. And it's about to enter its 12th month - tens of thousands of people killed.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
FADEL: Mostly women and children, according to health officials there, over that time. What is the situation today?
LONSDORF: Well, over the weekend, Israel and Hamas agreed to a very limited pause in fighting in certain areas of Gaza, as U.N. officials, U.N. health workers begin a very ambitious and challenging vaccination campaign against polio. They were able to vaccinate more than 72,000 children yesterday according to health officials there, which is good, but it's well below the 600,000 goal that they have for this three-day campaign.
FADEL: That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv. Thanks, Kat.
LONSDORF: Thanks, Leila.
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FADEL: When Democrats gathered in Chicago for their national convention, unions were front and center.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
GARY PETERS: We know that when unions succeed, all workers win.
BERNIE SANDERS: And protected the pensions of millions of union workers and retirees.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.
(CHEERING)
MARTIN: And today, Vice President Kamala Harris will mark Labor Day with President Biden in Pittsburgh, a city with a strong union history.
FADEL: NPR's Don Gonyea joins us now to talk about the labor movement's active role in this election. Hey, Don.
DON GONYEA, BYLINE: Hey, there.
FADEL: So unions have been an important constituency for Democrats for a long time. But it feels like they're getting some extra attention this campaign season. Why is that?
GONYEA: I mean, the stakes are just so high. This election by all accounts is shaping up to be very close. It'll come down to just a few states. And union members play a big role in battleground states, especially places like Pennsylvania and Michigan. The extra attention is also due to some new leadership within the movement. Take the United Auto Workers union. Shawn Fain, he's become a force nationally since taking over as president of that union last year. He led a national strike, a successful strike, now he's got the standing to really take an aggressive approach to getting friends of labor elected. Just give a listen to Fain at the Democratic convention.
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SHAWN FAIN: Kamala Harris is one of us.
(CHEERING)
FAIN: She's a fighter for the working class. And Donald Trump is a scab.
(CHEERING)
GONYEA: That is classic Shawn Fain - in your face, using very, very strong language.
FADEL: OK. That's why Democrats are courting these voters. What are union leaders themselves doing to organize?
GONYEA: It's a lot more visible than it's been in past years, and I've covered this for a long time. They're always out there, labor, working phone banks, canvassing, all of that. But this year it seems to be at another level. The AFL-CIO's president, Liz Shuler, stresses, though, that it is still really about that person-to-person contact at union halls, in the break room, wherever.
LIZ SHULER: Union members will be the ones who will be at the center of their communities educating voters, bringing their friends and family and their neighbors and coworkers to the polls. That old-fashioned person to person, getting people to the polls is what the labor movement's bread and butter is. And so we're going to continue to do that.
GONYEA: It does, though, Leila, also this year include a growing presence on social media. Unions are all over Facebook Live, TikTok, Twitter/X. So it's not replacing personal contact, but that's an important piece of it.
FADEL: OK. But Republicans are still trying to go after these voters as well. What kind of pitch are they making, and is it working?
GONYEA: They're talking about the economy, job security, inflation - how, they say, climate change legislation will hurt auto companies, forcing them to transition to electric cars. All of that stuff is playing out. Trump, too, has been courting unions in the battlegrounds, really since he first appeared on the scene, and he's had some success. He's not carrying the union vote, but he's managed to cut into the Democrats' traditional margin. And in a close, close race, that could be enough. It is not unusual to find Trump supporters who are also, say, wearing a UAW or a Teamsters T-shirt at one of his rallies.
FADEL: NPR's Don Gonyea. Thank you, Don.
GONYEA: My pleasure.
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MARTIN: The cost of living is a big issue for voters and the cost of housing is a big part of that.
FADEL: And both presidential candidates have plans to address that high cost of housing, but there are few details and lots of questions.
MARTIN: NPR's Jennifer Ludden is here to help us sort through them. Good morning.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: Hello.
MARTIN: So let's start with Vice President Kamala Harris. She's put out an ad on her housing ideas and has been talking about this. What's her plan?
LUDDEN: Well, the main part, the biggest part of it, is to boost our supply of housing. And that really is the core problem. I mean, this country has a severe shortage of especially affordable housing that has pushed up prices. Harris says she would build 3 million new housing units in four years, OK? Theoretically not impossible but certainly ambitious. The first reality check here is to pay for it, Congress would need to approve that. And even if it did, there's another big challenge to building lots of housing - it's restrictive zoning. Jung Choi with the nonpartisan Urban Institute says those rules are controlled by states and cities, not the federal government.
JUNG CHOI: So unless they kind of cut down more restrictive land use and zoning regulations, then it would probably be more difficult to attain that 3 million goal.
LUDDEN: On top of that, Choi says you need enough workers and materials on hand to, you know, really ramp up construction that much that fast.
MARTIN: OK. So 3 million new apartments and homes - doable, but not easy. But what else is Harris proposing?
LUDDEN: Two ideas. They get mixed reviews from housing experts. She wants to give $25,000 to help first-time homebuyers. Now, Choi thinks helping more people own is good, but she says it's Econ 101. If you boost demand by giving people more money when there's such limited housing supply, it could just drive up prices. Also, Harris wants to rein in tax breaks for big investors who buy up single-family homes and rent them out. They can price out people who want to buy. But Choi says those companies are a small slice of the market.
MARTIN: All right, let's turn to former President Trump. Of course, he has a record from his first term in office - or his only term in office so far. What do we know about his plans if he were to win another term?
LUDDEN: We don't have that many details on what Trump is thinking about housing, even though, of course, he started out as a real estate developer. But for years and again in this campaign, he has spoken out strongly against low-income housing. He says it brings down property values. He calls it an attack on the suburbs. Shamus Roller at the National Housing Law Project supports tenants' rights. He says when Trump was in office, he also was no fan of public housing programs.
SHAMUS ROLLER: There were significant cuts to the federal housing programs proposed under Trump, and I would expect to see similar cuts proposed. It really depends on what Congress looks like as well.
LUDDEN: Beyond that, Trump says that deporting immigrants would free up more housing. Now, housing experts aren't sure how big a dent that would make. But they do say it could hurt new construction, which depends on immigrant labor. Trump also wants to build more housing on federal land, which the Biden-Harris administration has also supported. And he basically says he'd make it cheaper to buy a house because he'd bring down interest rates. But, of course, Michel, that power lies with the federal reserve and not the president.
MARTIN: Yeah, complicated. A long-term project, to be sure. That is NPR's Jennifer Ludden. Jennifer, thank you.
LUDDEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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