Transcript

1.17.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post for Saturday,
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January the seventeenth of twenty twenty six. Your reader is
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Alistaina with reminda that RADIOI is an organization for those
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blinded with disabilities making it difficult to read or hold
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printed material. And I woke up to a snow covered
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yard and bright noon, and it is thirty three degrees outside,
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so please stay warm and cozy. It is supposed to
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be tough all weekend. So the headlines for Today's Washington
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Post on the front page to the far left. Family
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disputes DHS report on shooting Minnesota man's mo bus is
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he was shot as he opened door for a hostmate
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by Angie Aureleiana Hernandez, Molly Hennessy Fisk and jeff Justine
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McDaniel in the middle above the fold. Today there are
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protesters rallying Friday in Caracas, Venezuela, demanding the release of
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captured President Nikolos Medora and his wife Celia Flores. Cida
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Director John Radcliffe met with the interim President Dailly Rodriguez
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in Caracas on Thursday. As the sad search for a
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way forward. And you see all kinds of ball caps
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one with a New York Yankee cap in a blue shirt.
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These are mostly men, but there's a woman there in
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a bright yellow Oh no, yeah, but mostly men, lots
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of ball caps and hats. And to the far right
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with that picture is Maduro's top aids warm up to
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Trump regime, pivots to pro America era analysis, say Goodwill
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is campaign. Say Goodwill's campaign is a campaign to keep power. Okay,
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I can't read the rest of it. I read it
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when I pull up the article. And below the picture
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of the rally in Caracas. Mistrust mixed signals proceed federal
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criminal case probe followed criticism from Trump. Then a DOJ
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email to Hop on a call. I don't know what
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that's very Salvador Rizo and Andrew Ackerman. Below the fold
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on the far left, Psychiatric disorder study could transform treatment.
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Scientists found the fourteen conditions examined are linked hundreds of
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genetic variants by Mark Johnson. And then there's a picture
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in Greenland of Trump's threats turning economic. And it's a
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picture of a Danish soldier and territory that had its
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military presence expanded as Donald Trump said he'd impose tariffs
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on nations that object to the US annexing Greenland and
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to the right of that picture, Trump allies on panels
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set to review ballroom plans by Jonathan Edwards and Dan
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Diamond and as US asserts its might China offers a
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contrast by Simon Elligent and who would be q first
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article in Today's Post. Family of man shot ice in
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Minneapolis disputes key aspects of the DHS account. Relatives say
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the shooting occurred at the door of the house, not
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out in the street during a scuffle. They also say
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the victim was not the man a federal officer tried
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to arrest in a traffic stop, and there is a
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picture of federal agents in Minneapolis facing off with protesters
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after an ICE officers shot Julio Cesaris Sicilis of Venezuelan
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migrant in the leg in Minneapolis by Angie Orielana Hernandez, Molly,
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Hennessy Fiske and Justine McDaniel. The family of a man
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shot in the leg by an ICE officer in Minneapolis
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on Wednesday has disputed key elements of the Department of
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Homeland Securities version of the incident, saying the shooting happened
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at the door of the man's house as he let
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his housemate inside rather than out in the street during
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a scuffle. The Department of Homeland Security has said in
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ICE officers shot Juliosis Cecilius as he was assaulting the
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officer with the shovel or broomstick. The agency said the
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incident began when the officer attempted to stop so Cecilis
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in his car, and that so Cecilius tried to flee
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and then got into an altercation with the officer outside,
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joined by two housemates. But so Cecilius's mother, citing an
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account from her son, said DHS had actually been pursuing
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one of his housemates, who so Cecilius laid into their
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host just before the shooting. Alicia Sillis said her son
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made no mention of anyone running from the house to
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attack ICE officers. A Facebook live video reviewed by The
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Washington Post includes people at the house telling nine one
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one dispatches that the shooting happened as the man closed
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the door at the residence. Another video includes so Secillis
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mentioning some sort of scuffle before any gunshots were fired,
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but he does not specify whether that struggle happened at
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the door or in the street. Celis, who lives in Venezuela,
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told the Post that her son called her from the
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hospital after he was taken into custody by ice. He
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told her he had received a panic call Wednesday evening
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from Alfero Alejandro Ahona, who is one of his housemates
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and a fellow door dash driver. Cela said Ahonna said
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he was being pursued by ice and that he needed
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so said let us to let him in the front
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door of the house where they and their partners and
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children and others live. So Cecilius opened the door to
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let Ohona inside, Celi said to her son, told her
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and ran indoors as so Cecilius went to the closed
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the door, and ICE officers shot him in the leg,
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his mother said. The man retreated into the house and
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people inside called emergency dispatches. She said. A short time later,
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officers broke down the front door and went inside the building.
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Celis said they arrested a Houna, so Cecilis and Gabriel
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Alejandro Hernandez Ledisima, who said Uzilis said, was not involved
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in the incident and was in the basement of the
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house where he lives. All three men are undocumented immigrants
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from Venezuela. According to DHS, so Cecilius's family said his
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temporary protected status to live legally in the United States
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lapsed last year. DHS had not announced charges against the
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men as of Friday afternoon. Of Wednesday night shooting, DHS
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atles that so Cecilius fled in his car doing an
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attempted traffic stop, crashed into a parked car, and then
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ran away. An officer chased him and attempted to arrest him,
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the agency said, adding that so Cecilius resisted and began
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to violently assault the officer. DHS alleged that so Cecilius
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and the officer were struggling when a horner and Hernandez
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Lindizima came out of a nearby residence and hit the
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officer with a snow shovel and broom handle. DHS also
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said so Cecilius freed himself of the struggle and hit
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the officer with a shovel or a broomstick, at which
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point the officer fired his gun. The agency called the
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shot defensive and said the officer feared for his life.
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DHS the men ran into the residence, and ICE officers
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then arrested them. When asked to provide additional evidence or
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body camera footage of the alleged and to address the
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claims presented by so Sicilius's family, DHS referred the post
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to remarks Homeland Security Secretary Christy Elnom made Thursday morning.
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I would say that our agypies beat up, Nom told reporters.
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He's bruised, he's injured, he's getting treatment, and we're thankful
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that he made it out alive. The agency also did
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not respond to questions Thursday evening about the medical conditions
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of the officer and so Cicilius. The shooting of so
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Sicilius and the angry and sometimes violent protests from residents
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that followed later came one week after an ICE officer
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shot and killed Renee Good as she and other residents
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monitored and protested ICE activity on a residential street. The
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federal government over the past week has increased the number
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of officers in the city to three thousand, a massive deployment
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with bows to send more personnel to quell what one
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administration official called an insurrection. Residents have objected to agents
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detaining people and said they feel as if their city
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is under attack. Some of the family's account of Wednesday
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night shooting appeared to align with what was said in
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a Facebook live video from inside the home that evening.
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A chaotic scene appears to unfold as children cry and
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multiple people speak over one another. The people in the
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live stream were port to nine one when dispatches that
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one of their family members was shot in the leg
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as they closed the door of the resident with Ice
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officers outside. The post confirmed the video was filmed from
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the same address on Minneapolis's North Side. So Cecilius also
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joined a different Facebook live video broadcasts the same night
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by a person who Sosilis's relatives described as a friend
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of his. That live stream shows so Cecilius describing the
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incident from what appears to be a hospital bed, speaking
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Spanish and using a phrase that can be interpreted several ways.
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He indicates there was some kind of interaction with Ice
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personnel before the shooting, though it's unclear whether he's describing
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it happening outside the building or as he moved to
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close the door on the Ice officer. So Cecilius also
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joined that live stream from his home in the Moments
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after the shooting, he can be heard telling the host
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of the video that he needs his assistant. We need help, friend.
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We have ice here, said so Cecilius, providing his address
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to viewers. They shot us, They shot us. They shot
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us and hit me in the leg. When asked by
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the host if Ice had been following him, so Cecilius,
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who has his camera pointed total window outside, replies that
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Ice had been following Ahona. Neighbors who lived behind the
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house where the shooting happened, also confirmed some elements of
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the family's version. Briella Johnson, thirty five, said she was
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home preparing dinner for her children at about six thirty pm.
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Her husband had just left with one of their sons
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for Bible study when she heard two men arguing outside
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the house on North twenty fourth Avenue, which she can
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see from her back deck. We heard two men arguing,
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then we heard a screech of the vehicle trying to go,
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and then we heard two to three shots, gunshots, Johnson said,
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holding her baby and surrounded by her six older children
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in her living room. On Thursday morning, she said she
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saw uniformed ICE officers with guns drawn swarm the hose.
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She heard some of the officers shout come out now,
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and come out now, we're going to shoot, and other
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things in Spanish. Johnson said she saw Ice officers sheet
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at one of the windows at the house. Then they
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threw one smoke bomb, then yelled fire. Then afterwards we
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could see smoke in the second floor window. One of
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the building's front windows appeared to have been shattered, she said.
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Johnson heard the DHS a kind of the shooting and said,
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it doesn't make sense. It doesn't add up. She questioned,
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while the officer ended up grappling and chasing someone, he
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was trying to detain why he didn't call for backup sooner,
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and why he fired in a residential area so close
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to families with children. Even if you're going after someone
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you know is illegal, half back up, she said. Tommy Ross,
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seventy two, stood outside his rental house around the block
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from the shooting location and said he heard three shots
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late t Wednesday and saw the gray Ford Sedan mired
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in the snow and uniformed Ice officers all around it. Rosa,
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who has lived in the neighborhood for forty years, said
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he recognized the car he had met the owner, a
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young man with a Spanish accent, after he struck Ross's
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knies on Sedan about a month ago and they exchanged
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insurance information. He did not recall the man's name. Ross
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and his family heard a car wreck about seven pm.
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ICE was chasing them people. They ran into the house.
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There was a fight inside the house, said Tommy Ross Jr. Forty,
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who was visiting his father at the time of the shooting.
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He said he heard a woman shout get out of
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my house, then heard ICE officers show freeze and get
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on the floor. Following ICE officer's detention of the three men,
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Wednesday night, tensions fled as neighbors and protesters arrived at
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the scene. Some protesters heckled, filmed the cell phones, and
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through fireworks and a water bottle at offices. Officers fired
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tear gas and flashbanks at the crowd. Conservative influencer Nick
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Soto posted video footage on social media that showed protesters
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attacking empty ICE vehicles on Thursday. A damaged ICE laptop
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and a or an FBI property receipt could be seen
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on the street. They were combative all night. The younger
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Ross said they were shooting tear gas. It was all
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in the air. You couldn't stand outside without coughing. The
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activity was still going on when he headed to bed
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at two thirty am, he said, I went to sleep
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to boom boom, boom, sounded like a war zone. Local
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and state officials have called on ICE to leave Minnesota,
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while the Trump administration has condemned residents who were tracking,
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protesting and trying to disrupt ICE activity. On Thursday morning,
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President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota,
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raising the possibility of taking the highly unusual step of
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sending US troops into a domestic city. Minnesota Governor Tim
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Walls Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats, urged the federal
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government not to escalate the tension. They're trying to make
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a riot out of it. The elder Ross said, of
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Trump administration officials choking up as he spoke. Governor waltsk
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is doing a good thing, trying to keep them together.
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Trump on Friday addressed his comments on the Insurrection Act,
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telling reporters outside the White House, if I needed it,
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I'd use it. I don't think I need it right now. Johnson,
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the neighbor, said she does not support Trump invoking the
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Insurrection Act. I don't think they need you as troops
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of the National Guard. They need safe and secure plan,
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she said of ICE officers. If the federal government is
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going to continue to use ICE, they need to treat
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these people like humans. You can't just go in gun blazings.
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You disrupt communities, You make people scared for Her husband,
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Bryant Johnson, thirty five, who runs a painting business, blamed
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local and state officials for not permitting her doing more
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to address welfare fraud claims that intensified Trump's attention on Minnesota.
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Like Trump, he blamed the fraud on Minneapolis's large Somali
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community because many of the dozens of people implicated in
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the scandal are Somali American. Most Somalis in the Twin Cities,
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a population of more than eighty three thousand, are US citizens.
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I feel like a lot of this was brought on
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by Ameya and our government officials that were very well
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aware of the fraud, Ryan Johnson said. And if they
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don't let that kind of stuff continue and go on,
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If they didn't let that kind of stuff continue and
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go on, we might not have this much of a
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presence of ICE. When you come here from another country
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to defraud our country of hundreds of millions of dollars.
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You've got to go, he added. His wife shook her head.
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There has to be a different way of getting them
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at she said. There's plenty of Americans that committed fraud.
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They go to jail's, they don't get killed. So Cecilius's
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father in law, who lives in Saint Paul Well and
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spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is undocumented,
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described so Cecilius's as a hard working man who provides
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for his family in the United States and Venezuela. So
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Cecilius's mother said Thursday evening that she had not heard
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from her son since Wednesday night and does not know
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where he is or the status of his injury. I
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haven't been able to sleep. He's never had a no
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for me. He says, here, Mom, take as much as
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you want, she said. Trump install's loyalist on panels set
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to review White House ballroom. The Commission of Fine Arts
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will discuss the controversial project at a meeting next week.
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White House officials hope to win approval in two months.
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And there is a picture of these one two, three,
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four five, six, seven men in shades of blue suits
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with blue ties. One has a red, white and blue
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bow tie on. President Trump has on his signature blue
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suit with a red striped tie with black stripes, going
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across a secret service with a bug in his ear
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when they're all looking down. And it's on August fifth,
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during a tour of the roof of the White House,
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Jonathan Edwards and Dan Diamond. President Donald Trump has installed
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four allies on a federal commission set to review his
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White House ballroom plan, including its former chief architect. His
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latest move to secure rapid approval for the controversial project,
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Trump appointed architect James McCreary second and art critic Roger
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Kimball did the Commission of Fine Arts this week. According
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to court documents filed late Thursday, Trump also tapped two
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officials for the panel who already serve in his government,
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Mary Anne Carter, who chairs the National Endowment for the Arts,
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and Matthew Taylor, an official serving at the National Endowment
20:07
for the Humanities. According to the White House, the Fine
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Arts Commission, which is charged by Congress with advising the
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President on major design projects in Washington, is one of
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two independent federal agencies scheduled to review the ballroom and
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weigh in on its size, design, and other esthetics. The
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National Capital Planning Commission, which focuses on urban planning, is
20:33
also reviewing the project, which would be the most significant
20:36
change to the White House in decades. Administration lawyers told
20:42
a federal court that they hope to win the two
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commission's approval for the ballroom project in March, and that
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they intend to begin above ground construction on the ballroom
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in April. Construction crews are currently working on underground elements
20:57
of the project. Worked that the White House is defended
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as a matter of national security, while declining to provide details.
21:06
A presidential emergency bunker has been located on the site
21:11
for decades. Trump has proceeded as if the ballroom project
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will go forward, purchasing marble on a recent trip to
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Florida that White House officials said would be used for
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the ballroom, and describing events he plans to hold in
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the space. I'm under budget and ahead of schedule, Trump
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said at a news conference last month, a phrase that
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he's repeated in recent interviews. Democrats, historic preservationist, and watchdog
21:41
organizations have said that the project must undergo federal review.
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The National Trust for Historic Preservation last month sued the
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administration over its rapid demolition of the East Wing annex,
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calling it illegal and asking for a halt to construction
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until the review panel completes their work. A hearing in
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the case is tentably scheduled for January twenty ninth in
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US District Court in Washington. The Fine Arts Commission is
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slated to hear its first public presentation on the ballroom
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next week. The planned two month review process is far
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faster than the two commissions approached to past White House projects,
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such as a planned fence conceived during the Obama administration,
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which took years to win final approval. The commissions are
22:32
also expected to review other projects that would shape Washington's landscape,
22:38
including Trump's planned Triumph for Arch and planned sculpture Garden
22:42
of Notable Americans. Last year, Trump fired Biden holdovers on
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both commissions and has now stocked them with allies such
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as Kemble, who has endorsed and praised the President. Emmacrary,
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who served as the ballroom's lead architect before stepping back
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from the project after arguing with Trump about its planned size.
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The White House said last month that McQuary is still
23:06
consulting on the project. The White House did not respond
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to questions about whether McCreary would recuse himself from the
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panel's review of the ballroom given his work on its design.
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A representative from McQuary declined to comment. CBS News first
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reported the appointments leaders of the other panel with a
23:28
central role in approving the ballroom, The National Capitol Planning Commission,
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already appear fully supported of the project. Will Sharf, the
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President's staff secretary, chairs that panel, and James Blair, the
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president's top legislative aide, serves as its vice chair. Sharf
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and Blair both expressed enthusiastic support for the planned ballroom
23:52
at a commission meeting last week. Past presidents historically installed
23:58
a mix of architects, artists, and urban planners to the
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National Capital Planning Commission, not their political deputies. I'm moving
24:08
on inside. Trump bets on rural health as a winning
24:14
midterm message. The president is promoting a fifty billion dollar
24:20
fund designed to help communities where hospitals are struggling. Amid
24:25
criticism of his deep Medicaid cuts. By Dan Diamond, President
24:32
Donald Trump wants Republicans to be known as the Healthcare
24:35
Party heading into this year's midterm elections. Even as his
24:40
administration has struggled to produce a comprehensive health care agenda,
24:45
he tried to build the case again Friday by toting
24:49
a fifty billion dollar rural health program as evidence his
24:53
administration can deliver results for voters facing rising costs and
24:58
shrinking access to chaos. Speaking at the White House, Trump
25:02
and his deputies promoted the first ten billion dollar installment
25:07
of Ruined Health awards, distributed across all fifty states and
25:13
designed to help communities where hospitals are struggling and residents
25:18
say they face challenges obtaining care. This is the big one,
25:24
Trump said, discussing his administration's unprecedented investments in rural health.
25:30
For those that were trying to make a case that
25:33
we weren't taking care of the rural community, I'm all
25:36
about the rural community, Trump. Experts say the Rural Health
25:40
Fund could help stabilize a system under strain. Rural hospitals
25:45
and providers face staffing shortages, thin margins, and declining patient volumes,
25:51
pressures that experts say Republican led Medicaid cuts and policy
25:56
uncertainty have worsened, making it harder for providers to plan
26:01
and invest. The Rural Health Fund is helping even the
26:06
playing field given long standing gaps in funding for rural
26:10
health care providers, said Carry cochrane McLain, chief policy officer
26:16
of the National Rural Health Association, adding with this extra funding,
26:22
many rural providers would not be able to pursue innovation
26:27
or invest in new technologies. The initiative also has drawn
26:32
more bipartisan interest in support than the administration's other health
26:36
care proposals, such as Trump's Great Health Care Plan, which
26:41
was announced Thursday and immediately dismissed by experts and Democrats
26:45
as vague and insufficient. Every Democratic governor applied for the
26:49
Rural Health money, and some liberal lawmakers say it would
26:53
be a useful down payment on boosting rural health care,
26:57
although too limited to alta the longer term outlook. Republicans
27:02
added the initiative to Trump's signature legislative package, the One
27:07
Big Beautiful Bill, after some GOP lawmakers warned that Medicaid
27:12
cuts intended to reduce the deficit with disproportionately harm rural hospitals.
27:18
Those warnings also reflected concerns about how the cuts could
27:22
hurt Republicans in rural heavy districts. Still, analysis note that
27:29
the funds fifty billion dollar is far smaller than that
27:34
nine hundred and eleven billion dollars in federal Medicaid spending
27:38
that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will
27:44
cover over the next decade. Trump didn't tell voters that
27:49
there would be disproportionate cuts to rural America, and if
27:52
you look at the Medicaid in moments rates, they're higher
27:56
in rural America than they are in urban America, said
28:00
Timothy McBride, a health policy professor at Washington University in
28:04
Saint Louis. McBride also called the distribution of the administration's
28:09
funding awards bizarre, citing the wide range and awards on
28:15
a per capita basis, with California receiving about one hundred
28:19
dollars per rural resident and Nevada receiving about one thousand dollars.
28:25
In general, the states with the largest rural population will
28:28
receive the lowest allocations of funds, he wrote. According to
28:34
the legislation, half the rural health funding was intended to
28:37
be distributed evenly among all states. Regardless of the size
28:43
of their population, with the other half allocated based on
28:47
state specific factors such as the situation facing their hospitals.
28:54
Federal health officials ultimately determined the awards and said they
28:58
will reassess every year to reward promising ideas and take
29:03
funding away from initiatives that are struggling to deliver. Democrats
29:08
have consistently criticized the Trump administration's approach to rural health,
29:13
pointing to a steady stream of rural hospital closures, such
29:17
as Mercy One's announcement this week that it will close
29:20
a facility in rural Iowa as evidence that the president's
29:24
policies are backfiring. Thanks to Trump's one trillion dollar cut
29:30
to Medicaid in his Big Ugly Bill, rural hospitals across
29:34
the state are struggling to stay afloat and are now closing,
29:38
forcing Iowans to travel further to receive life saving health
29:42
care when seconds and minutes matter. Democratic National Committee spokesman
29:48
Avi Hiraman said in a statement Thursday, represent aedive Zac Nunn,
29:53
who represents that i Iowa District, is among the most
29:58
vulnerable Republicans heading into the mus terms elections, that will
30:01
shape Trump's agenda in his final two years. The Trump
30:06
administration and Republican allies have countered that rural hospitals funding
30:11
woes are decades old problem that demand new thinking and
30:15
potentially new innovations funded by their initiative Centers for Medicare
30:21
and Medicaid Services Administrator mut met Oz has total proposals
30:27
such as using drones to deliver medication in rural areas
30:32
and advanced technology to help physicians practice remotely. Some of
30:36
those ideas predate the Trump administration have yet to transform care,
30:41
but their proponents argue that they have faced challenges scaling
30:45
without sustained funding. We'll meet you where you are, Oz
30:50
said at the White House event. If you're a vet
30:54
and depressed and you're thinking of taking your life, will
30:57
be there. Just let us know you're in trouble and
31:00
willed help. Rural voters have been a cornerstone of Trump's success,
31:05
helping power his two successful presidential campaigns. Trump won rural
31:10
voters in twenty twenty four about forty percentage points sixty
31:15
nine percent to twenty nine percent over then Vice President
31:19
Kamila Harris. Under a few analysis that affinity has shaped
31:24
how Trump talks about rural health care, including on the
31:28
twenty twenty four campaign trail. At an Arizona rally, Trump
31:32
was asked how he would help rural Americans access hospitals.
31:37
We're going to be helping rural America. Rural America votes
31:41
for Trump. There's nobody to take that away, Trump replied,
31:45
pledging to resume his first term efforts to invest in solutions.
31:50
Trump spent much of Friday's event defending his new Great
31:53
health Care Plan it's push for drug price cuts, arguing
31:58
it would address affordably across the country. I'm calling on
32:03
Congress to pass this framework into law so that we
32:07
can get immediate relief to the American people, including rural America,
32:12
the president said. The Waitehouse has rallied behind Trump's proposal,
32:17
which outside analysis have called a grab bag of ideas
32:21
with unclear impact. President Donald Trump's proposal includes reforms for
32:27
every facet of our health care system, from codifying most
32:31
favored nation drug pricing to hold insurance companies accountable, to
32:36
making the ACA affordable by finally funding cost sharing reductions.
32:42
Spokesman Kush Desai wrote in an email. Polls have shown
32:48
that rural voters are more likely than other voters to
32:50
trust Republicans on healthcare. In November twenty twenty five, Pole
32:55
By KFF, a nonpartisan health policy organization, found that forty
33:01
one percent of rural adults trust Republicans to do a
33:06
better job addressing the high cost of health care insurance,
33:10
compared with twenty four percent who trust Democrats more, Bucking
33:15
national trends. However, about three and ten rural adults say
33:20
they trust me the Party on these issues, Liz hammil
33:24
kff's director of Public Opinion and Survey Research wrote in
33:28
an email. Similarly, most rural residents don't think it's likely
33:33
that President Trump's policies will lower up prescription drug costs
33:37
for people like them. Nearly one hundred and ninety rural
33:41
hospitals have stopped operating or ended their impatient services since
33:45
twenty ten, according to the National Rural Health Association. The
33:50
organization also says that nearby nearly half of rural hospitals
33:55
are operating with negative margins, leaving them at high risk
33:58
of shuddering. The Rural Health Fund also could be vulnerable
34:03
to waste and fraud. Cochrane MacLean said, and others said,
34:08
with many organizations and vendors eager for a piece of
34:11
the federal funding at a time when the Trump administration
34:15
has cut other social services support. CMS officials said in
34:20
a statement that they would closely monitor the program to
34:25
ensure there is no misuse of funds or fraud through audits, reviews,
34:31
and on going oversight. Paragon Health Institute, an influential conservative
34:38
health policy organization that has advised the Trump administration and
34:42
congressional Republicans, said last year that the fund was promising
34:47
but also time limited. If states use these resources wisely,
34:54
they can create durable reforms that expand across increased competition,
35:00
and improve outcomes in rural communities, Paragon wrote, But if
35:06
funds are poorly targeted or used to prop up inefficient institutions,
35:12
rural providers will continue to struggle once federal dollars run out.
35:20
White House and governors confront electricities rising costs as data
35:27
centers expand. A boy partisan proposal disgust at the White
35:32
House on Friday, would push tech companies to bankroll power
35:37
plants as consumer anger over utility bills mount by Isaac
35:43
Arnsdorff and Evan Halper amid voter anger over soaring electricity
35:50
costs and the tech industries data centers driving them higher.
35:55
A bipartisan coalition of governors joined the White House on
35:59
Friday to hatch a plan aimed at protecting every day
36:03
breaked payers. The proposal, announced at a White House meeting
36:08
that included Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Maryland Governor Wesmore,
36:15
both potential future Democratic presidential contenders, would push tech companies
36:21
to fund their own power generation. It calls on operators
36:26
of the thirteen state power grid that stretches from North
36:29
Carolina to Ohio to change its rules so that the
36:33
firms bid for their own contracts to cover their power
36:38
needs at the peak periods when the grid is under
36:42
the most stress. We need more energy on the grid,
36:47
and we need it fast, Shapiro said. He accused the
36:51
regional grid operator PJM Interconnection of being two damn slow
36:58
to bring new power generation online as demand is surging.
37:03
Shapiro said the government or the agreement could save the
37:08
sixty five million Americans relied on that grid twenty seven
37:13
billion dollars over the next several years. He warned Pennsylvania
37:18
would leave the PJA and market if the grid operator
37:21
does not align with the agreement, a departure that would
37:25
threaten to create even steeper price challenges for the region.
37:30
Under the bipartisan fanfare, the Republicans sought to shift blame
37:35
for surgeon prices away from tech companies and toward the
37:39
Biden administration's investment in Sola and Win Power. Energy Secretary
37:44
Chris Wright said at the meaning that prioritizing green energy
37:49
has driven up power costs without meaningy reducing greenhouse gases.
37:55
Energy energy experts questioned those claims, noting that wind and
38:00
solar power generates some of the cheapest electricity available, and
38:05
construction of new gas plants that the tech companies are
38:08
seeking is a major factor in projections for further spiraling
38:13
rather than to utility builds. If these principles were adopted,
38:20
you would no longer be able to make a political
38:22
statement that a data center is driving up the prices
38:26
for consumers, because they won't be, Interior Secretary Doug Bergman said,
38:33
adding the tech company's willingness to build and build quickly
38:38
and to bring more power onto the grid when the
38:41
bureaucrats and the bureaucratic system was holding that up. They're
38:45
clearly part of the solution here. Environmentalists were critical of
38:49
the deal, however, warning that it was likely to enable
38:52
tech firms and utilities to fast track more gas generation
38:56
as hundreds of clean energy projects seeking to patch into
39:01
the power grid are left in languish. At the event,
39:05
officials across the political spectrum agreed that the region urgently
39:10
needs to make it easier to build new power generation
39:13
to keep up with growing demand. Data centered developers were
39:18
not at the White House, but Virginia Governor Glenn Younkin, Republican,
39:22
at the meeting on his last day in office, said
39:26
the companies were on board with sharing the cost because
39:29
they need reliable power. The Edison Electric Institute, which represents
39:35
the major utilities on the PJAM grid, said it supports
39:40
the new plan. The power grid operator issued a more
39:43
cautious reaction, saying that it is reviewing the principles set
39:48
forth by the White House and governors. The PJAM Board's decision,
39:53
resulting from a multi month stakeholder process on integrating large
39:58
loaded editions will be really slated today, the statement said,
40:03
adding the board has been deliberating on this issue since
40:07
the end of that stakeholder process. We will work with
40:11
our stakeholders to assess how the White House Directive alliance
40:14
with the Board's decision. The plan calls for tech companies
40:20
that don't bankroll their own new power to agree to
40:23
go offline at times the grid is under stress. According
40:27
to the Energy Department, The White House has identified affordability
40:31
as a priority issue in this year's mid term elections,
40:35
with recent polls showing Americans think President Donald Trump hasn't
40:39
done enough to deliver on his campaign promises to bring
40:43
down prices. Trump repeatedly emphasized rising electricity prices in novembers
40:50
gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, which saw decisive
40:55
Democratic victories. Data centers have been driving up costs for
41:00
mom and pop retail consumers, said Abraham Silverman and Energy
41:06
Scala at Johns Hopkins University, adding it is not politically
41:11
sustainable for the data centers of the utilities. It is
41:15
quite clear something needs to happen, but he cautioned that
41:19
the plan unveiled Fridays not necessarily a cure. All energy
41:23
markets and infrastructure are complicated and often unpredictable. Tweaking one
41:29
part of the system can disrupt other parts. Being too unanticipated.
41:33
Following the question is whether the cure will be worse
41:38
than a disease, he said. The proposal comes as the
41:44
proliferation of the giant computing centers triggers angry backlash in
41:49
many communities, with electricity prices a focal point of that tension.
41:55
At the same time, the Trump administration and some governors
41:59
have been pushing and promoting the growth of AI infrastructure
42:03
in a bid to spur the economy, and when the
42:06
tech innovation race against China, it is grappling with managing
42:10
the needs of the tech industry with increasingly irritated rape players.
42:16
White House executive orders aimed to fast track permitting and
42:20
construction of these computing warehouses that can consume more power
42:25
than all the households in the large metropolitan regions have
42:29
not been well received, even in some Trump strongholds. It
42:34
has led to some prominent lawmakers to begin calling for
42:38
a moratorium on a new data centers and the launch
42:41
of congressional investigations and legislative proposals targeted at the tech
42:47
industry's role in rising costs for everyday voters. The issue
42:52
cuts across party lines, with voters and communities in deep
42:56
red states, expressing angle along with advocacy groups on the left.
43:01
Friday's announcement does not include a binding policy, but guidelines
43:06
meant to nudge federal regulators in PJAM to create rules
43:11
that would push data center companies to bank roll the
43:14
expanse of energy infrastructure needed to power their operations. It
43:19
comes in the backdrop of research showing that the data
43:22
centers are a key reason behind spiraling cost of the
43:26
ELECTRICITYPGAM secures at its capacity auctions, when the grid operators
43:32
locks down contracts to ensure it has enough generation to
43:38
avoid blackouts at times of peak demands. The cost of
43:43
those contracts is rising rapidly because of data centers, according
43:48
to a report from the Independent Market Monitor at PGM,
43:52
and advocacy groups and scholars have warned that they threatened
43:56
to quickly push the bills of everyday consumers up by
44:00
hundreds of dollars a year if left unchecked. The proposal
44:05
unveiled Friday would create a carve out through which tech
44:11
firms building new data centers would secure their own fifteen
44:15
year contracts at an emergency auction later this year. Ostensibly,
44:20
the cost of obtaining those contracts through existing plants would
44:24
be so high for them that it will spur them
44:27
to fund construction of new power generations, specifically for their
44:31
data centers. The driving force here is to protect consumers,
44:37
said Ri Pesco, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard.
44:43
Pesco said, these markets can be complicated. How this works
44:47
out is hard to say. Experts caution that the proposal
44:52
is merely a bridge to buy time to fix underlying
44:56
market permitting and supply chain challenges with the grid power
45:01
that delayed construction of new plants and drive the nation's
45:05
power crunch. Machado gave her Peace Prize to Trump. Can
45:13
a Nobel be gifted? The President said it was a
45:17
wonderful gesture of mutual respect. The Nobel Committee said the
45:22
medal can change hands, but the laureate title cannot. And
45:27
there's a picture of morea Cordana Machado, pointing to her
45:31
picture on display at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo
45:36
by Victoria Bissett, Adela Suliman, and Carla Adam. Nobel Prizes
45:42
are traditionally highly coveted and prestigious awards cherished by recipients.
45:48
In carrying Goebel flame and a hefty financial reward for
45:52
the winners, who are selected for their outstanding works and contributions.
45:58
Arguably the most famous of prizes, set by Swedish inventor
46:02
and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel in his will in eighteen ninety five,
46:08
is the Peace Prize, which includes an eighteen carrot gold medal,
46:13
an award of more than a million dollars for an
46:16
individual or organization most contributing to fraternity between nations. On Thursday,
46:25
Venezuelan opposition lea Maria Corriana Machado gifted hers to President
46:31
Donald Trump in a meeting at the White House. Here's
46:35
what to know about whether a Nobel Prize can be
46:38
regifted one. Why did Machado give her Nobel Peace Prize
46:44
to Trump. Machado, an opposition leader who had spent almost
46:49
a year in hiding before escaping Venezuela late last year,
46:53
was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October, with the
46:57
Nobel Committee describing her as a woman who keeps the
47:02
flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness. While Machado
47:07
dedicated the prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and
47:11
Trump for his decisive support of our cause. The White
47:16
House accused the committee of placing politics over peace in
47:20
its decision. But since the US mission to ost Venezuelan
47:26
leda Nicolos Maduro in early January, Machado appears to have
47:31
been sidelined by the Trump administration, which is publicly back
47:35
to Maduro's vice president and questioned Machado's ability to leave Venezuela.
47:41
In an interview with Fox News last week, Machado peries
47:44
Trump and said she and the Venezuelan people want to
47:48
share the prize with him in an apparent bid to
47:52
gain favor with the United States. Trump, who had publicly
47:57
coveted the prize and claims to have saw a number
48:01
of international conflicts, accepted the award Thursday, describing the move
48:06
as a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Two. What has
48:13
the Nobel Committee said about it? Nobel Prize's reward outstanding
48:19
efforts in the fields that he was most involved in
48:22
during his lifetime physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.
48:29
With the first prize awarded in nineteen o one, the
48:34
prize for economic sciences was added in nineteen sixty nine.
48:39
The position of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian
48:43
Nobel Institute has been cleared. Once a Nobel Prize is announced,
48:49
it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others. They
48:54
said in a statement last week. The decision is final
48:58
and stands for all time. A medal can change owners,
49:04
but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate cannot.
49:09
The Nobel Peace Senter wrote on social media Thursday, three
49:14
can you sell a Nobel Prize? The Nobel Peace Prize
49:19
medals bear a picture of Alfred Nobel and are engraved
49:23
with the name of the Laureate and the phrase pro
49:27
pace a fraterniate gentium, which means for the peace and
49:34
brotherhood of men. Until nineteen eighty they were made of
49:40
twenty three carrot gold, weighing approximately two hundred grams. Since
49:47
then they have been made of eighteen recycled gold and
49:52
mostly ray, about one hundred and seventy five grams. According
49:56
to the Nobel Committee, there have been a full of
50:00
occasions when a Nobel Prize medal has been sold. In
50:04
twenty nineteen, the estate of the late mathematician John F.
50:08
Nash Junior, made famous in the two thousand and one
50:11
Russell Crowe movie a Beautiful Mind auctioned his medal for
50:16
the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, for which he received
50:19
in nineteen ninety four for his contributions to game theory.
50:24
It went for seven hundred and thirty five thousand dollars
50:27
including fees, according to auction Houst Christie's. The medal belonging
50:33
to Francis Crick, one of three scientists towarded the Nobel
50:37
Prize in Medicine of Physiology in nineteen sixty two for
50:41
their discovery of the destructure of DNA, sold at auction
50:45
for two point twenty seven million dollars with fees in
50:49
twenty thirteen. Quick's granddaughter told the BBC at the time
50:54
that part of the proceeds from the sale of the
50:56
medal and some of Krick's other possessions would go toward
51:00
funding scientific research. Co discoverer James Watson sold his own
51:06
medal the following year. It was auctioned off at four
51:09
point seventy six million dollars with fees. He also auctioned
51:14
a hand written Nobel Prize banquet speech for three hundred
51:17
and sixty five thousand dollars including fees. More recently, in
51:22
twenty twenty two, Russian journalist Dmitri Moritov sold his Nobel
51:28
Peace Prize for one hundred and three point five million
51:31
dollars to an anonymous buyer at an auction event in
51:35
New York, with the proceeds going to support you in
51:38
humanitarian work in Ukraine. Here, Auction said in a statement
51:43
at the time. Murtov, founding editor of the fiercely independent
51:48
Novaya Gazada newspaper, shared the twenty twenty one Nobel Peace
51:53
Prize with Philippine journalist Maria Ressa. Four prizes be refused, reconsidered,
52:02
or revoked. Recipients can refuse a Nobel Prize, but declining
52:08
this distinction does not in the least modify the validity
52:12
of the ward, the Nobel Committee said. Author Jean Paul
52:17
Sartre declined the Nobel Prize in Literature in nineteen sixty four,
52:21
stating that he did not want to be institutionalized and
52:26
fearing that it would limit the impact of his writing.
52:29
Vietnase politician Leeductou refused the nineteen seventy three Nobel Peace
52:35
Prize jointly awarded to him with US Secretary of State
52:38
Henry Kissinger for negotiating the Vietnam Peace Accord, Leducto said
52:44
he felt that peace had not truly been established in Vietnam.
52:49
Nobel prizes cannot be revoked once awarded, according to the Committee,
52:54
as neither Alfred Nobel's will nor the statues of the
52:58
Nobel Foundation mention any such possibility, it has said. Choices
53:04
of recipients are also not reconsidered for the same reasons,
53:08
it has said. According to the Foundation statutes, no appeals
53:13
may be made against the decision of a prize awarding
53:17
body with regard to the award of the prize. Author
53:22
Ernest Hemingway was awarded the nineteen fifty four Nobel Prize
53:26
in Literature for his mastery of the art of narrative,
53:30
most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea. Hemingway,
53:35
whose novel was set in Cuba, where he lived at
53:37
the time, said the prize belongs to Cuba, where he
53:41
said his work was created and was conceived, and he
53:46
reportedly set the metal up the feet of a shrine
53:48
of the Famed Virgin of Charity of Alcobra Church in Cuba.
53:53
And five what happens when winners are controversial? Jane Hale
54:00
mal Lautry, a politics expert at the University of Oslo,
54:05
said Machado's gimmick is so condescending that the committee should
54:10
issue a statement to the effect that she is not
54:12
a worthy recipient. The committee clearly made an era of
54:17
judgment about her character, Malavry said, but her era does
54:22
not mean the danfall of the prize. It stands tall
54:25
as the most coveted prize in the world. Nina Grege,
54:30
director of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, said she
54:33
was not aware of any previous instances in which i
54:37
Winna had gifted the medal in this way to someone else.
54:40
She said that the Nobel Peace Prize were to become
54:43
a bargaining chip, the prestige of it would inevitably diminish
54:49
over time. She added that when the prize is awarded
54:53
to political leaders or heads of state, there is always
54:57
a risk that something happens later. She excited the example
55:01
of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abbayah Ahmad, who won the Nobel
55:06
Peace Prize in twenty nineteen and later presided over a
55:10
civil war in his country. Ung sansu Qi, the me
55:14
and Mar activists and politician awarded the Prize in nineteen
55:18
ninety one, whose international standing later collapsed after her response
55:22
to the Rohinga crisis, and Kissinger, who was awarded the
55:27
prize along THEO for negotiating the Paris Peace Accords despite
55:34
the Vietnam War continuing and Kissinger's involvement in other highly
55:39
controversial conflicts. Kissinger latest ought to return the award, but
55:44
the committee refused. I have just a few minutes and
55:49
I will read what I can of this last article
55:52
an education Trump administration won't seize wages and tax refunds
55:59
for student loans. Wage garnishments and seizing tax refunds for
56:05
people in default on their federal student loans will be suspended,
56:09
the Education Department said Friday by Danielle Douglas Gabriel. With
56:16
the Americans reeling from high consumer prices, the federal government
56:20
will suspend tax refund seizures and wage garnishment for people
56:25
in default on their student loans, the Education Department said Friday.
56:30
The action dials back to the Trump administration's recent decision
56:34
to resume involuntary collections after a nearly six year suspension
56:39
because of the pandemic. The suspensions take effect immediately, with
56:44
no defined end date. The move offers relief to the
56:48
millions of Americans in default, it means the government is
56:52
losing out on billions of dollars. The Education Department said
56:57
Friday that the temporary suspension will help the agency implement
57:01
student loan repayment forms to give borrows more options to
57:05
repay their loans and give defaulted borrows more time to
57:09
rehabilipate their loans. The tax bill that President Donald Trump
57:14
signed in the la last year calls for the creation
57:18
of new repayment plans while phasing out a few existing
57:23
ones starting July first, So read about those if you
57:28
have student loans. And with that I end today's reading
57:32
of the Washington Post for the seventeenth of January of
57:35
twenty twenty six. Again, stay warm, and I will be
57:39
back next Thursday. Bye.