Biden and Xi Finally Talk, Israel Raids Gaza Hospital, Veterans Face Foreclosures
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President by met wednesday with china's leaders sheet ing paying. They talked about world affairs and the least.

don't think until there is a two state solution.

They also spoke about that and military communications. What do they find to .

agree on I M tina, that Michelle Martin, and this is up first from M. P. R.

news. So far they hadn't found the homa command center. They've said.

is there all of that? This was hidden very conveniently, secretly behind the mr.

Ona ship. Do its findings of guns, cartridge and amo give IT authority to Operate there?

Also, an npr investigation has found that thousands of U. S. Military service members and veterans at risk of losing their homes through no fault of their own.

My heart dropped and like my hands were shaking, IT was scary. How is the department .

of veterans affairs responding? Stay with us. We get the news. You need to start your day.

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This american live president died in the met for four hours yesterday with china's leaders sheet.

The goal was to stabilized a complicated relationship that has been especially tense over the past year. And afterwards, president biden held a wide ranging news conference.

P. R. Senior White house correspondent or kh was there, and SHE is with us now from a 3Francisco。 Tell us about a good morning time.

Good morning.

So so first of all, where there any significant agreements that came out of these talks.

the main development was on the synthetic opioid tenor and binding said that he agreed to take steps to significantly reduce the flow of precor ingredients that are used to make fatal, many which come from china. And biting was quite passionate about this, saying that he knew families who have lost loved ones to the deadly street drug factor.

A senior official who briefed us after the meeting said they really have to see whether china follows through on this and whether these efforts will succeed at getting the precursor ingredients, whether that will disrupt defensible trade as they hope IT does. Another development was on restarting military to military communications. This has been closed off for some time now between the two countries, and there will be steps to resume that line of communication.

And the importance of this is that there have been some close calls between us and and chinese military vessels, and they're hoping to avoid that in the future or avoid that tipping into conflict. Biden said that he and he also agreed to have more communication between each other. When there.

a problem was speaking about you, the two of them together, you know, you had a chance to see the two them together because you were in the room at the start. Reporters, we call a spray. You saw them together. how? How did they seem?

They've known each other for a long time, but they also haven't talked for a year. They SAT across from each other and battened a team, according to a senior official, made a real effort to rekindle the familiarity between them. For instance, biden and she's wife share a birthday is next week.

Biden reminded SHE about the shared birthday. Biden later told us that he brought a photo of SHE from when the leader last visited the Frances go as a Young man and showed IT to him. But in terms of the business of the meeting, binton said that he was very direct, even blunt conversation. And as I said, they did degree that in the future, they will pick up the phone and call each other, which is something that has not happened in a year.

And I want to mentioned that the press conference did not just focus on china. There are a lot of questions about israeli and gaza, and I do want to note that there are real concerns within the democratic party about the number of civilian casualties that have occurred since the october seven month attack by homes and israel's very aggressive military response. The president has taken a very strong to israel positioning. I wondering if we talked about that last night.

What did he say yet? He continued that strong position. He did talk a lot about the israeli military Operation at l. SHE. For hospital in gaza city. And he made IT clear that he believes that his moss is using the hospital as a base for weapons and fighters. But he was asked how long he thought this ranching conflict .

would last. So but I can't tell i'm not a forge and teller. I can't tell you how long is going to last, but I can tell you, I don't think IT ultimately ends until there is a two state's solution.

I made IT clear to the israelis. I think it's a big mistake to for them to think they're going to occupy gaza and maintain goss. I don't think that works all along.

biden. Is that a strategy of publicly standing with israel and privately delivering tough advice? We had a little hint .

of that private advice. We any update on the hostages?

He said that he was a mildly hopeful. Those are his words about a possible deal broker with homos that could lead to as many as fifty to one hundred hostages being released. And he said that israel had agreed to a pause and fighting long enough to get people out.

But as he was saying this, he looked directly at his secretary of state who was sitting in the front row, caught himself and stop short of sharing any more details. I think he he gave the impression he didn't want to drink anything. I think the reality here is that there's a lot of uncertainty. This is not anything close to a done deal and and the work continues to try to figure out how to get these hostages .

out that is in his tamer cuth tam. Thank you.

You're welcome.

As we said, israeli soldiers remain inside gazes, largest hospital today, hundreds of patients, doctors, any vacations are there too.

For hospital was surrounded by gun battles for days. Yesterday israeli troops went in is part of what israel says is a deepening invasion. In the northern meanwhile.

residents in the south of the strip at israeli forces are dropping, urging evacuations. They're suggesting the groundward in gaza may soon expand. And p learn flyer has been falling. All this from television morning learn.

Good morning, Michelle.

But what's the latest from elation for today?

So today, goe's health ministry says israeli troops are searching the underground levels about hospital. IT says they've detained technicians who run equipment there. Israel's military, meanwhile, has been issuing videos produced tightly produced videos with music showing what IT says is evidence of militant Operations inside our shift of hospital. Here's one of them.

There is A N A K forty seven. There are cartridge m. Amo and all of that. This was hidden very conveniently, secretly, behind the M I M.

This is an israeli military spokesman, JoNathan krka, giving a video tour of guns, grenades, uniforms. He says israeli troops found now npr can independently verify this. Human rights advocates say what israel is showing us there IT doesn't amount to a homos combine center, which is what israel has alleged. And they said that even if homos did have fighters in there, IT doesn't mean israel can endanger civilians at the hospital.

So that's the situation of the hospital. Whatever all the people who been told to leave, where are they able to go?

Yeah, Michelle l like goza, two point three million people are being squeeze into an ever smaller area in the south of the strip is away from the ground vision invasion. But it's not safe. IT is still under israeli bombardment and paris producer in gaza.

And as baa went to a school, housing displaced to people and he met a twelve year old girl there in a mariam SHE didn't want to give her full name out of fear of reprisals, but he said, you know, SHE slept in a school. Then a bomb went off that he had to flee again. And here SHE is describing what I was like to see her first tank. She's twelve years old.

I I am afraid IT become at me. I was so bad and IT IT make me feel it's afraid.

Our producer on a spoke to her parents too. They were Carrying her school certificates. They were super proud because mariam, they say, had the highest grades in all of gaza last year.

Her families now in the south of gaza, which is where israel told them to flee to. And now leaflets have been falling there, telling people to evacuate again. And people are asking, where? Where can I go?

So israel yesterday allowed fuel into gaza for the first time since october seven. Do you have any sense of whether that's making any difference?

Not a lot. Israel has earmarked that fuel only for the U. N. And only for transporting aid.

So not for things like running water treatment plants and sewage plants and hospitals. And regular folks don't have fuel for cooking. They are scavenging through the wreckage of buildings to find furniture to burn. Here is imperious producer and .

aspa understanding .

with the seventh floor in my life, frinch house, I can smell like fire, smoke everywhere.

He says, people are cooking on open fires in the street. The us. Says the fuel that israel has allowed in is not even ten percent of what gaza needs. everyday. Palestinian officials are warning that gaza is on the verge of a total communications black out now for lack of fuel.

That is, empire learn, freer and television ve learn.

Thank you. Thanks, Michelle.

An M, P, R, investigation has found that thousands of us military service members and veterans are at risk of losing their homes.

the department of veterans affairs says. IT is working on a fix, and now a handful of U. S. Senators are getting involved.

We're joined now by npr. Chris Arnold, Chris, I understand this involved people who have va loans and a lot of people in the military have those.

That's right. Veterans can get a good deal on the margins that way. It's one of the perks for being in the military. But over the past few years, tens of thousands of people with va loans took what's called the code for beards.

And now that allowed them to skip mortgage payments, that they lost income during the pandemic at some kind of financial hardship, and many were told that they would not have to pay that back in a big lub subs. So the first payments would just get tacked on at the end of their long term. And they could just go back back to their regular mortgage payment, nice and easy when they get back on their feet financially.

But then a year ago, the va. Ended the program that let people do that. So many are now being told that they need to pay a lot of money, like, say, twenty five thousand, is that they don't have to get current or they could refinance today's interest rates, which many can't afford because that would mean eight hundred dollars more a month payment or something, or they can lose their house. Christie Kelly and attorney in Virginia, she's been hearing from a lot of people who are in this situation.

Service members are in a position where they're going to lose their home.

So what does the development of veterans affairs have to save out of this?

Well, the va says IT had no choice but to end the program. There is some dispute about that actually, but the va is now very aware of the problem and is working on a fix. But that fix is going to take like four or five months to roll out, and that's just going to be too late for a lot of people. I spoke with Becky queen and bartle's wille, oklahoma, and gina husband, right, just got a for closure letter in .

the mail last week. My heart dropped and like my hands were shaking. IT was scary.

How does that happen? This is supposed to be a program that you have to help people in times of crisis. So you don't take their house from them.

And either are six thousand homewood ers like the queens in the first closure process right now and more than that are delighted. So they don't have time to wait five months for the v of roll out this new program.

But in the va may be hold off for closing and all these people, until that programs have been running.

there are people who would like to see that happen for shirt becks husband ay queen. As an army veteran, he was wounded in iraq. So pausing the for closures sounds like a good idea to him.

Let us keep paying towards our regular mortgage between now and then. And then once the V A has that fix, then we come back and we address the situation that seems like the adult, mature thing to do, not put a family through hell.

And I interviews the top of in the va loan program is named john bell. And this is me asking him directly about what ray queen just said. Why put families through hell? He said, if we don't have to if there's going to be helping a few months I I have no I haven't said through this interview that, that you know that we aren't expLoring all options at at this point times because we certainly are.

We owe IT to our veterans to make sure that we're giving them every opportunity to be able to stay in the home essence. We broke this story. A group of U. S. Senators has just sent a letter to the va asking them to immediately stop for closing on these veterans so they don't needlessly lose their homes.

The tp r. Chris are old. Chris. Thanks for your reporting on this.

Thanks, say.

And here's a final note. On wednesday, the senate voted eighty seven to eleven to approve a stop gap spending bill ahead of a friday deadline. Here's senate majority leader checked summer before the .

final vote because of bipartisan CoOperation, were keeping the government open without any choice pills or harmful cuts to vital programs.

The was already passed by the house and now heads the president bindon's desk. The legislation funds for federal agencies until january ninety and the rest until february second twenty twenty four. The goal is to give congress more time to negotiate long term spending bills if that doesn't happen.

And across the board, spending cut of one percent hits all agencies in April. And that's up first for thursday, november sixteen. I A shell marn .

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