On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: USA TODAY Domestic Security Correspondent Josh Meyer looks at how an independent probe could help assess blame for the Gaza hospital strike. The suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway has confessed to killing her. USA TODAY Congress, Campaigns and Democracy Reporter Ken Tran gives an update from Capitol Hill, where Republicans are still struggling to agree on a new speaker of the House. It's LGBTQ Center Awareness Day. But some college LGBTQ centers are disappearing. The Las Vegas Aces are WNBA champions again.

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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 this is 5 Things you need to know Thursday the 19th of October 2023. Today, a look at what an independent investigation into the Gaza hospital strike could look like. Plus the suspect and the disappearance of Natalee Holloway has confessed to her murder. And the House is still frozen without a speaker.

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President Joe Biden has secured an agreement with Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. That's as he returns home following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the wake of a strike on a hospital in Gaza City that killed hundreds of people. Protests have erupted across the Middle East after the blast, with thousands taking to the streets in many Arab countries to condemn Israel's airstrikes on Gaza. Many questions remain about the strike on the hospital, including who's at fault. I spoke with USA Today Domestic Security Correspondent Josh Meyer about whether an independent investigation could help bring answers. Josh, thanks for making the time.

Josh Meyer:

My pleasure, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

So just starting here, Josh, what exactly happened in this Gaza hospital strike? What do we know as of now?

Josh Meyer:

Well, that's a good question. We don't really know. We know that a missile or some kind of ordinance landed on the hospital or at the hospital parking lot, killed several hundred people that were either injured and at the hospital or people seeking shelter there. But Israel is saying that it was an errant rocket fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is another militant group in the Palestinian territories, along with Hamas. Hamas and the Palestinians are saying that Israel did it and said that they did it on purpose, and that they had been warning people to evacuate hospitals and that this was part of that effort. So the problem is both sides insist they're right. Israel offered a lot more forensic evidence to back up its assessment that it was not responsible for the missile strike, including intercepts and public source information and satellite imagery, suggesting that the rocket was fired northbound from south in the Gaza Strip. But this may be one of those circumstances where you need some kind of independent investigation to determine really what happened in a way that people believe.

Taylor Wilson:

And Josh, what types of independent investigative teams could find out who's responsible here?

Josh Meyer:

So I talked to David Scheffer, who's an independent law expert who served as the first US ambassador at large for war crimes. And this is exactly what it would be if it was an intentional strike, it would be a war crime. And he said that you need a dream team of forensic scientists skilled enough to look at the evidence on the ground and also that evidence that's been put forward by all sides, including Hamas, Israel and the Biden administration. The problem is they need to be on the ground almost right away because the evidence will dissipate. It's something that's not going to stay very long. One option is the International Criminal Court. Another option is the United Nations Affiliated Commission of Inquiry. A third one is the International Commission of Jurists, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland. And then there's also a Commission for International Justice and Accountability.

Taylor Wilson:

Josh, what are some of the unique challenges to an independent probe in Israel and Gaza amid all of this violence?

Josh Meyer:

Well, it's going to be tricky, especially, Taylor, because of the politics involved. It's one of those things where almost anybody Israel recommends to be on the investigative team might be rejected by the Palestinians. Anybody Palestine, the Gaza authorities or Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad recommends would be vetoed by Israel. So the question is getting people that are expert enough to really get ahold of all of the evidence and assess what happened but also get a team together that's going to be allowed into the hospital area to investigate this and also that's going to be accepted by Israel and Hamas and the authorities in Gaza. So one thing to remember is that the International Criminal Court one might think is the best option here because they have jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories, including Gaza, according to Scheffer, the war crimes expert I talked to. But Israel would likely contest that too because Israel is not a party to the ICC, nor is the United States.

And actually, in 2021, when the top ICC prosecutor confirmed the opening of an investigation into potential atrocities committed in the territories, Anthony Blinken, who was the Secretary of State at the time and still is, said that the US government firmly opposes that decision too. Basically the Biden administration said that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the matter, in part because Israel is not a party to the ICC, but he also said that the Palestinian territories were not technically covered by the International Criminal Court. So again, it's very politicized and it's going to be tough to find any neutral body that exists or that could be created to really look into this.

Taylor Wilson:

And President Joe Biden has been visiting Israel this week. We know he's said to give an address tonight about this hospital strike and there have also been mass protests surrounding this hospital attack and the conflicting answers after it. Do we have any sense of what to expect from Biden's remarks on this?

Josh Meyer:

Yeah, I mean, I think the sense we're getting is that Biden's going to talk about two things. One, he's going to try to lower the temperature. It's become so politicized. You're seeing protests and threats and anger across the United States and across the world, so he's going to be trying to sort of talk to people and hope that level heads prevail. But I think he's also going to talk about US funding for Israel and providing the Israeli government with whatever money they need to protect Israeli citizens. And I think that we may expect that he will also provide some money for the Palestinian Territories, for the people there too. The conditions that they're living in right now, especially with Israel's mounting response to the October 7th attacks, which were horrific. But the Palestinians, according to reports, are living without food, easy access to water. There's a lot of sickness going on and so forth.

Taylor Wilson:

Josh Meyer, thank you so much for your insight on all of this. Appreciate it.

Josh Meyer:

As always, my pleasure. Thanks, Taylor.

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Taylor Wilson:

The main suspect in the unsolved disappearance of Natalee Holloway has confessed to killing her. Court documents show that Joran Van Der Sloot has confessed to killing the teenager in 2005 and disposing of her remains before trying to extort her grieving family. Federal prosecutors accused him in a 2010 indictment of hatching a plot to sell information about the location of Holloway's remains to her grieving family in exchange for $250,000. They Van Der Sloot had already been serving a 28-year prison sentence in South America for the murder of a Peruvian businesswoman in 2010. He was extradited to the US in June to stand trial in the extortion case.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison this week, but as part of his plea agreement, that sentence will run concurrently with his sentence in Peru on the murder case. As a condition of the plea deal, he agreed to reveal how Holloway died and how her body was disposed of according to a federal sentencing memorandum. Holloway was 18 when she vanished during a trip to Aruba with high school classmates. Van Der Sloot cannot be charged in the US for the suspected murder itself, even with a confession. But Natalee's mother, Beth, said that the knowledge gave her a sense of peace.

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Republican lawmakers again failed to elect a new speaker of the House yesterday after Congressman Jim Jordan lost his second vote for the position. I caught up with USA Today Congress Campaigns and Democracy reporter Ken Tran for the latest. Ken, good to have you back on.

Ken Tran:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

Ken, what exactly happened here?

Ken Tran:

Congressman Jordan, Chair of the [inaudible 00:08:06] for House Judiciary Committee, faced a first ballot on Tuesday at noon. Here, he'd lost the first ballot, similar to former speaker Kevin McCarthy, who went through multiple rounds of voting. Jordan lost that first ballot by 20 defections. 20 GOP lawmakers were against the speakership. So on Wednesday at 11:00, he saw a second vote and he actually saw support fall. 22 GOP lawmakers voted against him, which is an indication that his support is falling and his speakership is in danger right now, or his prospective speakership.

Taylor Wilson:

And Ken, who are the main holdouts at this point preventing Congressman Jordan from winning the vote? What part of the party are we talking about here?

Ken Tran:

They span across a broad spectrum of the Republican Party but most of them are considered the more moderate Republicans who are namely upset with how the process has played out, especially the ousting of former speaker Kevin McCarthy. These moderate Republicans, such as Congressman Don Bacon from Nebraska, he represents a Biden won district. Congressman Steve Womack from Arkansas, he's a Senior Appropriator. Also Congresswoman Kay Granger from Florida, she's chair of the very powerful House Appropriations Committee. So these lawmakers are, one, against Jim Jordan, partly because of his more conservative credentials, but also because Jordan and his allies inadvertently have started a pressure campaign on these lawmakers to vote for Jordan and making them more entrenched in their views and opposition against him.

Taylor Wilson:

And who's Jordan's biggest challenger for the position at this point?

Ken Tran:

That's the problem we're facing right now is that there is no clear challenger. His opponents are saying that Jordan will never be able to get the 217 votes necessary to become speaker. At the same time, it's very unclear who else in the Republican Party can do that. The most viable alternative talks right now is empowering the current acting speaker, speaker pro tempore Congressman Patrick McHenry, Republican from North Carolina, and giving him temporary powers to oversee more time-sensitive issues, such as funding the government by a mid-November deadline or passing a foreign aid package for Israel.

Taylor Wilson:

And Ken, what's happening at the house right now? Is it completely shut down from legislative action while this happens?

Ken Tran:

House committees can continue doing their work, but otherwise, any legislation cannot go to the floor. The House can only hold speaker elections. But also the thing with Patrick McHenry is that we've never been in this situation before. So anything that Patrick McHenry does as speaker pro tempore would set the precedent for anyone else in his position in the future. However, McHenry has been resistant to the idea of being empowered. He's laser focused right now, he says, on electing Jim Jordan to speaker. So as far as we've seen, he's only overseen speaker elections.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. There's a lot of hurry up and wait right now, Ken, what happens next here?

Ken Tran:

So Jordan will face a third vote at noon today, but we, again, don't know how many votes he's going to lose. He's expected to also lose this vote, and it's also possible he loses more support. If that does happen, we could see more GOP lawmakers start to urge him to drop out. He's indicated that he's going to stick in this for as long as it takes maybe. He's shown confidence that he will be elected speaker at some point. We just don't know when. So really just more waiting and seeing.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Ken Tran, thank you as always for making time for us on another busy week. Thanks, Ken.

Ken Tran:

Thanks for having me.

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Taylor Wilson:

Today is LGBTQ Center Awareness Day, a time to recognize the crucial resources offered by these kinds of community centers around the country and the world. But some are disappearing on US college campuses. And as it stands, there are only 250 professionally run LGBTQ centers on campuses across the country today, according to the Post-Secondary National Policy Institute. That makes up just a fraction of the nearly 4,000 colleges and universities in the US, all while a fifth of college students surveyed in 2020 by the Associated Press said they identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, queer, or questioning. And there are concerns from some that new bills in Texas and Florida aimed at banning offices dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, could cut these centers even further. Research shows that LGBTQ college students face persistent barriers to getting into college and staying there. And advocates say the safe spaces afforded by these centers can make a big difference. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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The Las Vegas Aces are WNBA basketball Champions again. They won their second championship in a row last night, taking down the New York Liberty. Coach Becky Hammond, before the series, told her team, "This team over here was put together to take you out." That was a reference to the Frenzied Free Agency last year in women's basketball, where several teams attempted to gobble up some of the biggest stars and make super teams, while the Aces relied on their continuity from the previous season. They're now the WNBA's first back-to-back champion since the Los Angeles Sparks won it all back in 2001 and 2002.

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And be sure to stay tuned to this feed later today at 4:00 PM Eastern for a special episode from my co-host Dana Taylor on the state of the nation's economy and how people are coping amid uncertainty. You can find that episode right here, wherever you're listening right now. Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every day of the week, all year, on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, or wherever you get your audio. I'm Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA Today.

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