The Excerpt podcast: US pushes Israel to prepare to scale back war in Gaza
On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: The Biden administration is pushing Israel to prepare to scale back the war in Gaza. What does that actually mean? The House passes a new defense spending bill. USA TODAY Money Reporter Bailey Schulz looks at the role a new bird flu outbreak might have on egg prices. A new COVID-19 variant is spreading fast. Older Americans are saying no to retirement. USA TODAY Senior Reporter Jessica Guynn talks about TikTok cubicle comedians.
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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 Friday, December 15th, 2023. This is The Excerpt.
Today, a look at the latest talks between the Biden administration and Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Plus the house passes a crucial defense bill and are egg prices on the rise again?
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The Biden administration is pushing Israel to scale back its ground and air campaign in Gaza and move toward more so-called surgical military operations targeting Hamas. But the US has not demanded a deadline for the shift according to a US official. Earlier this week, president Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel is starting to lose international support for its war against Hamas because of its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. During meetings yesterday in Israel, Biden's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, discussed a shift in emphasis with members of Netanyahu's cabinet and other top Israeli officials. Sullivan is said to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later today. Meanwhile, Israel has destroyed another pair of residential buildings and Gaza's south killing at least twenty-six people. According to Gaza's Health Ministry. UN agencies are flagging an increasing food crisis in the territory and all communication services there are down for at least the fourth time since the war started, according to Palestinian, Telecom's provider Paltel. You can say up to date with Israel, Hamas war updates on USAToday.com.
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The house passed an annual defense policy bill yesterday sending it to President Joe Biden's desk to approve $886 billion in spending. It includes military pay raises, funding for Ukraine and other key issues. The bill opposed by Conservatives was considered on the floor under a process known as suspension, it required a two-thirds vote from the House to avoid procedural hoops, which likely would've been stopped by hard-right GOP lawmakers. Conservatives had two major grievances. One was with a provision that enables the US to monitor foreign nationals using US-based messaging services and the bill's omission of several culture war amendments. The bill's funding for Ukraine comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington this week and pressed lawmakers for more support.
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A new outbreak of bird flu is stirring concerns that egg prices may soon start spiking again. I spoke with USAToday, money reporter Bailey Schulz for more. Bailey, thanks for hopping on.
Bailey Schulz:
Yeah, no, thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So Bailey, what's the latest with avian flu outbreaks in the US?
Bailey Schulz:
The US Department of Agriculture has been tracking this since early 2022, and I think this was on everyone's mind last year and earlier this year when we saw egg prices really rising. But we saw a lowering in cases recently, so people thought about it less when egg prices went down in the grocery store. But we are starting to see numbers spike again. Cal-Maine Foods, which is the largest egg producer in the country, on Tuesday they reported that they have a Kansas facility with an avian food outbreak and that affected about 680,000 laying hens. And so what experts are saying is that this could contribute to higher egg prices.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah. Well, let's get into those egg prices. Where do they stand right now? Bailey and just what impact could this bird flu uptick have on the egg market?
Bailey Schulz:
Egg prices right now are a lot better than they were. Right now we're about 22% down from what we saw a year ago. Pretty significant difference. That was really because of that lowering of avian flu that I was talking about earlier that really allowed those egg producers to build up their inventory.
Taylor Wilson:
And Bailey. Are there other factors beyond this avian flu that could drive egg prices up in the coming weeks and months?
Bailey Schulz:
This is happening during a time of the year when we see demand for eggs rising where it's the holiday season, people are baking cookies, they're making eggnog, so eggs are in high demand and when they're in high demand, prices also go up. So we're seeing that compound with this spike in the avian flu. Those are the two main factors that I'm hearing behind this forecasted price hike.
Taylor Wilson:
I mean, how high do we expect this to go, Bailey? Will the prices surpass those we saw in 2022, for instance?
Bailey Schulz:
Yeah, so the good news is the experts I spoke to said that they don't expect prices to go up to what we saw in late 2022 when egg prices were nearly $5.50 per dozen. So anything can happen. It's hard to make predictions, but so far people are saying that yeah, don't expect prices to get as bad as they were in late last year.
Taylor Wilson:
Could rising egg prices lead to price hikes elsewhere in agriculture or the economy as a whole?
Bailey Schulz:
I think one thing to keep in mind is that inflation isn't necessarily shrinking, prices aren't shrinking, that's just the inflation is slowing down. And so while we're seeing smaller price hikes month to month, a lot of inflation we saw last year is still factored into a lot of the prices that we're paying today. As far as whether egg prices could lead to price hikes elsewhere, the business needs a lot of eggs to produce their product. Maybe they factor a hike in egg prices into their own prices that they're assigning to the consumers, but quantifying that cause and impact isn't easy. So it's really hard to say what sort of impact this will have on the overall economy. But eggs are also not necessarily very expensive when you're comparing them to other items at the grocery store. And so you have to keep all of that in mind as well.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Bailey Schulz covers money for USA today. Thank you, Bailey.
Bailey Schulz:
Thanks for having me.
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Taylor Wilson:
A growing COVID-19 variant is taking off this holiday season. The JN-1 variant now accounts for more than a fifth of all cases based on estimates yesterday from the CDC. The variant previously accounted for an estimated 8% of cases. The uptick suggests that JN-1 could be more transmissible and better at slipping past people's immune systems according to the CDC. Cases appear to be rising in particular in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. Still, there's no evidence that JN-1 causes more serious illness compared with other circulating variants. The latest COVID-19 vaccine and treatments are expected to work against JN-1.
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Older workers are sticking with employment. In a major demographic shift the older workforce aged sixty-five and older made up of some 11 million Americans has quadrupled in size since the 1980s. And the share of older Americans holding a job is also much higher. Around one in five Americans aged sixty-five and older are employed today, nearly double the share of those who are working thirty-five years ago according to new data from the Pew Research Center, they're also working more hours on average than in previous decades. There are a number of factors behind the trend. For one, older workers are more likely to have a four-year college degree than in the past, and adults with higher levels of education are more likely to be employed. And social security raising the age that workers receive full retirement benefits from sixty-five to sixty-seven have encouraged workers to delay retirement. You can read more with the link in today's show notes.
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Whether it be micromanaging bosses, cringey coworkers, or serious issues like layoffs online cubicle comedians are helping folks laugh about workplace stress. I spoke with USAToday, senior reporter Jessica Guynn for more. Jessica, thanks for making the time.
Jessica Guynn:
Thanks so much for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So Jessica, I want to just start by hearing about some of these TikTok cubicle comedians. I love that word. Did you just tell us about DeAndre Brown and his channel?
Jessica Guynn:
Well, DeAndre Brown used to work as a banking analyst, which sounds kind of boring, it probably was, but now he's anything but. He's on TikTok and he makes fun of all the ridiculous stuff we deal with at work. He told me some of his most popular topics on TikTok is PTO, which stands for paid time off, but he insists it stands for prepare the others, meaning he won't be working on his vacation no matter how many emails and texts you send him. The other super popular topic he said is employees being asked to work evenings and weekends. He insists on maintaining what he calls life-work balance. Do not talk to him about work-life balance, life comes first always. His fun attitude and setting boundaries at work made his followers call him a corporate baddie. And so now he's gone with that. That's his official moniker. And he says his goal is make people laugh and help the stand up for themselves at work while still putting in the work.
Taylor Wilson:
Corporate Baddie. I like that. And what about Lisa Beasley, also known as Corporate Erin. What's her channel like?
Jessica Guynn:
Well, DeAndre Brown has done a few very funny TikToks with Lisa Beasley, who is a Chicago-based comedian and actor who has developed this TikTok persona she calls Corporate Erin. I encourage you to check those out. Corporate Erin's official work title is Manager for the Manager of Logistics from Management McManagement, and she has a habit of scheduling hour-long buzzword happy Zoom calls right at quitting time. She also has a very funny TikTok video claiming the senior executives at her company may appear all white, but are in fact very diverse because one of them is from Germany and the other is from Russia. So she definitely gets in the digs about all kinds of things at work, doesn't seem any topic is off limits. And she's so committed to her TikTok character that she would only give us an interview in character. So I had my colleague Bailey Schulz handle that because I knew I could not keep a straight face. Somehow Bailey did.
Taylor Wilson:
It's a great video. I recommend folks check it out if they get a chance. Jessica, how did the pandemic really influence channels like these and office humor online in general?
Jessica Guynn:
During the pandemic office workers like us suddenly found themselves on couches and instead of in cubicles and meeting with coworkers and bosses over Zoom calls, and these TikTok comedians were some of those workers, and they seized on the ridiculous aspects of this new work from home world we all suddenly found ourselves living in.
Taylor Wilson:
How does this type of humor really fit into a long tradition of cubicle comedy?
Jessica Guynn:
Well, the internet is office humor's superpower, right? I mean, if you think back, the first memes were spread from cubicle to cubicle by photocopies. It was a phenomenon that was dubbed Xeroxlore, today we use Slack and Teams, but really social media is the most powerful way to spread this kind of humor.
Taylor Wilson:
What do workers say about how this kind of humor can help them cope with the pressures of the workplace?
Jessica Guynn:
Well, if you think about work or our everyday lives, humor is just a very effective way to diffuse stress. And I mean, bottom line, we all have struggles at work, I know we both do, and it can kind of be dry and depressing to read articles on the internet or threads on Reddit about managers who ask too much of you or coworkers who won't let you get a word in edgewise. But there's something about a lighthearted video poking fun at it all that can create a shared reality and a social connection and make us feel less alone and less isolated.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Jessica Guynn, great story here. There's some awesome videos attached to it. I really recommend folks go and check those out. We'll put a link in today's show notes. Thanks as always, Jessica.
Jessica Guynn:
Thanks so much for having me.
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Taylor Wilson:
And Happy National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day. It's time to break out the wackiest, ugliest colors and designs you can find in your closet.
Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green, and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you use a smart speaker, just asked for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Excerpt podcast: US pushes Israel to scale back war in Gaza
