Transcript: Israel-Hamas truce extended

This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: ‘Israel-Hamas truce extended’

Marc Filippino
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Tuesday, November 28th. And this is your FT News Briefing.

Israel and Hamas extended their temporary ceasefire by a couple of days. And Elon Musk is suing Sweden. Yeah, you heard that right. Sweden.

Richard Milne
I think this is a real clash of ideals. You’ve got Elon Musk, who’s a staunch anti-unionist. You’ve got Sweden, which is, you know, one of the most unionised countries in Europe.

Marc Filippino
Plus, the high-end whisky market is taking a hit. I’m Marc Filippino, and here’s the news you need to start your day.

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Israel and Hamas are extending a pause in fighting by two days. The original four-day pause was set to expire this morning. The extension will allow the release of more hostages being held in Gaza and allow the release of more Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. It will also mean more humanitarian aid can be delivered to Gaza. Here to talk to me about what this means for the trajectory of the war is the FT’s Chloe Cornish in Jerusalem. Hi, Chloe.

Chloe Cornish
Hi, Marc.

Marc Filippino
So this truce extension, Chloe, what exactly does it do?

Chloe Cornish
Really more of the same. So we’ll have more hostages being released, more Palestinians freed from jail and more aid into Gaza, which is a very important part of this truce because aid is desperately needed in Gaza, which has been absolutely pulverised by Israeli bombardment. And although we don’t know exactly how many trucks have actually entered every day over the course of this truce, what we do know is that whatever has come in is a drop in the ocean compared to what the humanitarian needs are. Remember that well over 13,300 people have been killed in Gaza and over 1mn people have been forced to flee their homes and are sheltering in UN-run schools. So it’s really critical that more aid gets into Gaza. And up until this truce, there hadn’t been substantial aid. There’s been no traffic into Gaza for seven weeks.

Marc Filippino
What will be some of the challenges in the coming days to make sure this truce actually sticks, Chloe?

Chloe Cornish
So we have seen challenges already to the truce on day two. Hamas actually delayed the release of hostages for about seven hours. There was a dispute over the amount of aid that had been reaching northern Gaza, which is the most devastated area of the strip. And there had also been disagreements about the Palestinians who were to be released from prison. So there are lots of areas where both sides can argue with each other. And that’s really where you have the role of Qatar and Egypt and America as mediators.

Marc Filippino
So what does the truce signal then for how this war might continue?

Chloe Cornish
The return of the hostages has been a huge relief in Israel. I mean, that has just been such a horrific ordeal for the families of the people who’ve been held. But at the same time, there’s still so many people remaining in Gaza as hostages. And many of these families who’ve actually had people released still have one or two male family members being held by Hamas. So the likelihood is that pressure will remain on Israel to bring back the hostages. And so far, the only way they’ve been able to bring back the hostages is through these kinds of temporary ceasefire deals. So knowing that this has happened will be a certain type of pressure on the Israeli government to really think seriously about further ceasefires. The other thing, of course, is the loss of life that has been caused so far by Israel’s campaign has really shocked people around the world. They are going out on to the streets and saying that this kind of carnage is not acceptable. So with that kind of public pressure, both within Israel for these temporary truces to make sure the hostages are returned, and then from outside Israel as well in terms of international public opinion, this has been a very significant four days. It has shown that there are temporary ways to bring pauses to this conflict.

Marc Filippino
The FT’s Chloe Cornish is covering the Israel-Hamas conflict from Jerusalem. Thanks, Chloe.

Chloe Cornish
Thanks, Marc.

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Marc Filippino
The Chinese fast fashion group Shein has filed confidential paperwork for an initial public offering. The IPO will likely be one of the biggest US listings of the past decade. Shein’s most recent valuation puts it at more than $60bn. The internet retailer became super popular during the pandemic when millions of people took to online shopping. But success on the IPO market these days definitely isn’t guaranteed. Just ask the chip designer Arm or Instacart or Birkenstock. The market has been in a major rut for a few years now. Whether Shein can turn that around is anybody’s guess.

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Tesla sued the Swedish government and the country’s postal service yesterday. The company is trying to get around the strikes that have been crippling its operations in the country. Sweden’s unusual labour laws have made Tesla CEO Elon Musk basically want to pull his hair out. Now, a court in Sweden has sided with Musk, at least temporarily. But the whole thing says a lot about what happens when the world’s richest man takes his business abroad. I’m joined now by the FT’s Nordic and Baltic correspondent Richard Milne. Hi, Richard.

Richard Milne
Yeah, hi there.

Marc Filippino
So what exactly did Tesla sue over?

Richard Milne
Well, so from the last month, there was a strike involving about 130 mechanics in Sweden for Tesla. And an unusual part of Swedish labour law is that there can also be so-called sympathy actions by other workers who aren’t affected directly by the strike. So you’ve had a whole slew of workers from dockers, cleaners and postal workers who have done things to sort of complicate Tesla’s life. And in this case, the postal workers decided they weren’t going to deliver the registration plates for Tesla cars. So Tesla is suing both the transport agency, which is a government body, and the postal company to try and get those registration plates so at least they can sell new cars.

Marc Filippino
And it looks like that’s going to happen, at least for now. Like I mentioned earlier, a court has issued an interim judgment and that allows Tesla to pick up the licence plates from the transport agency’s offices. But even if this judgment sticks, should we be thinking about this whole debacle as a bit of a culture shock for Elon Musk? I mean, he’s called this situation insane.

Richard Milne
Absolutely. I think this is a real clash of ideals. You’ve got Elon Musk, who’s a staunch anti-unionist. You’ve got Sweden, which is, you know, one of the most unionised countries in Europe. And it’s really like the two just don’t understand each other. In Sweden, you know, this system of collective bargaining and applies to nine out of 10 companies, it’s really seen as the bedrock of the last six, seven decades of economic success in Sweden. It means that wages, labour conditions aren’t set by the government. They’re set in between employers and employees. And this is something that, you know, both companies and workers think work really well. And then you’ve got Elon Musk who, you know, doesn’t understand any of that, who says it’s insane. And, you know, in time-honoured American tradition, he’s going to go and sue everybody.

Marc Filippino
It is a time-honoured tradition in America. Thank you. So is this (chuckles) . . . is this an inflection point for Tesla in how it handles unionisation?

Richard Milne
I mean, it’s going to try desperately not to make it so. The Swedish unions are pretty clear that it’s going to have to agree to this. The question is, what does Tesla do if it really, really doesn’t want to agree to it? Some people have floated the idea that Tesla may just leave Sweden. The unions are clear that they don’t want that. They think that Tesla is a good car company, that it’s important for the green transition, but they want it to have a collective agreement. So it’s you know, at the moment it’s a real impasse. It’s escalating almost daily. But I think Tesla will try its utmost to make sure that whatever it decides, it doesn’t become a precedent.

Marc Filippino
Richard Milne is the FT’s Nordic and Baltic correspondent. Thanks, Richard.

Richard Milne
Thanks very much.

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Marc Filippino Before we go: the weak global economy is now impacting the top tier whisky market — the type of whisky that will run you more than $1mn for one bottle. But these days, the value of whisky is on the rocks. Rare whiskies sold at auctions have experienced one of the biggest falls in value since 2012. Now, luxury items like super expensive whisky are usually seen as a safe haven asset. So the fact that people aren’t shelling out for whisky like they used to — not a great sign for the state of the global economy.

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You can read more on all of these stories at FT.com for free when you click the links in our show notes. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Make sure you check back tomorrow for the latest business news.

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