Transcript

8.25.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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Speaker 1: August twenty fifth, twenty twenty six. As a reminder, Radio
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Speaker 1: I is a reading service intended for people who are
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Speaker 1: blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
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Speaker 1: read printed material. Your reader for today is Cindy Fraser.
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Speaker 1: Today's front page headlines from The Washington Post are trade
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Speaker 1: war versus Trump is Carney's biggest test. Canada's Prime minister
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Speaker 1: is making an open show of defiance in the battle
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Speaker 1: over tariffs. Next, US target's plastic production limits. Leaked memo
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Speaker 1: shows administration's aims as talks on plastics treaty reach critical point.
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Speaker 1: The next headline, Bessant unveils his plan for Iran sweeping
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Speaker 1: new sanctions revealed Treasury Secretary's goal economic asphyxiation. Next, Trump
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Speaker 1: wants u N's next boss to be in sync with
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Speaker 1: his plans if US can veto. In Secretary General race,
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Speaker 1: a woman has never held the title. And the final
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Speaker 1: headline from today's front page, Some Texas Conservatives are pledging
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Speaker 1: to vote Democratic. Republicans who are angry at Governor Greg
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Speaker 1: Abbott's refusal to block data centers are giving his challenger,
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Speaker 1: Gina Ngosa hope for an upset. Now let's turn to
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Speaker 1: our first item, entitled trade war versus Trump is Carney's
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Speaker 1: biggest test. Canada's Prime minister is making an open show
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Speaker 1: of defiance in the battle over tariffs. By Allen Francis.
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Speaker 1: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has presented himself as the
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Speaker 1: voice of the world's middle powers against the bullying of
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Speaker 1: President Donald Trump in an era of great power rivalry.
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Speaker 1: He told leaders in Davos, Switzerland this year, defending national
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Speaker 1: sovereignty would require the ability to withstand pressure. Now Trump
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Speaker 1: is putting the Carney doctrine to its biggest test yet.
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Speaker 1: As trade negotiations between Washington and Ottawa collapsed, the US
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Speaker 1: administration announced fifty percent tariffs on twenty billion dollars worth
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Speaker 1: of Canadian goods, from hockey sticks to whiskey. Carney responded
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Speaker 1: with a pledge to match the levi's dollar for dollar.
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Speaker 1: You're at war when you're attacked, and we got attacked,
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Speaker 1: he told Canadians on Saturday. We're going to hit back.
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Speaker 1: The leaders of other longtime US partners, including Britain and
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Speaker 1: the European Union, have scrambled in the face of Trump's
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Speaker 1: tariff threats to cut deals instead. Carney is now making
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Speaker 1: a rare show of open defiance as the president deals
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Speaker 1: with multiple challenges, rising consumer prices, a stalemated war against Iran,
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Speaker 1: and fast approaching midterm elections in which Republicans are expected
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Speaker 1: to take a drubbing. Carney is signaling to Washington that
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Speaker 1: the old assumption that Canada is a cut that will accommodate,
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Speaker 1: that we will go along to get along, is no
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Speaker 1: longer true, said Van Hampson, a professor of international affairs
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Speaker 1: at Carlton University in Ottawa. He said the Trump team
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Speaker 1: mistook good manners for meekness, you know, because Carne's very
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Speaker 1: polite and professional. They thought that he would be a pushover.
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Speaker 1: In Carnee's latest remarks, the frustration of dealing with these
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Speaker 1: guys was palpable, Hampson added. Carnie said last week his
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Speaker 1: government was ending trade negotiations with the Trump administration rather
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Speaker 1: than accepting a mounting list of concessions. He has urged
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Speaker 1: other world leaders to join him in a united front
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Speaker 1: against US economic coercion. They're watching to see what happens next.
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Speaker 1: Former Italian Prime Minister Paolo D'enttiloni shared a video of
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Speaker 1: Carnee's address. Here is a speech I would like to
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Speaker 1: hear in Europe, he wrote. Now Carnie will be expected
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Speaker 1: to follow through. The former Central banker won a federal
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Speaker 1: election last year by casting himself as the best person
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Speaker 1: to steer Canada through a breakup with the United States.
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Speaker 1: If this burgeoning trade war drags are on, he might
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Speaker 1: find it tricky to keep up the fight while also
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Speaker 1: shielding Canadians from the impact. Carney said Monday his government
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Speaker 1: would return to talks only when Americans go to the
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Speaker 1: negotiating table first, with a right attitude toward our industries
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Speaker 1: and a true partnership. The administration, he said, can't treat
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Speaker 1: Canada as a subsidiary of the United States. So far,
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Speaker 1: Carney appears to have the support of public opinion and
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Speaker 1: provincial leaders. Canadians want their Prime minister to stand up
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Speaker 1: to this thug. To put it bluntly, so that puts
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Speaker 1: the Prime Minister in a very strong position. Hempsen said,
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Speaker 1: when the pain hits, people may begin to feel differently,
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Speaker 1: but right now it's team Canada across the board. Kenna's Lange,
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Speaker 1: president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said people are
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Speaker 1: worried and frustrated, yes, but they're also incredibly motivated. Canadians
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Speaker 1: have spent more than a year waking up to tariff threats,
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Speaker 1: changing deadlines, and uncertainty about a relationship we had spent
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Speaker 1: decades counting on like clockwork, she told The Washington Post.
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Speaker 1: The government is preparing to provide tariff relief and chambers
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Speaker 1: of commerce are planning protective measures for businesses. Lange, a
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Speaker 1: member of Carnie's Advisory Committee on US Economic Relations, said
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Speaker 1: businesses understand that Canada has to respond to the escalation.
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Speaker 1: At the same time, she said, we should constantly ask
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Speaker 1: whether it strengthens Canada's hand without doing unnecessary damage to
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Speaker 1: our own economy. According to the University of Calgary economist
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Speaker 1: Trevor Tom, the US tariffs could affect a relatively small
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Speaker 1: share of Canadian exports to the United States before the
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Speaker 1: latest escalation. He estimated that they would raise the average
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Speaker 1: tariff on Canadian products in the US by about two
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Speaker 1: point five percent. In the longer run, however, Tom calculates
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Speaker 1: they could cost Canada nearly ninety thousand jobs. Trump warned
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Speaker 1: Monday he would slap higher tariffs on additional Canadian products
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Speaker 1: beginning in January, including vehicles. The delay and the September
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Speaker 1: eighth start date for Canada's retaliatory levees leave time for
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Speaker 1: talks to resume. The collapse of the talks is also
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Speaker 1: highlighting the limits of Trump's aggressive trade policy. Each side
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Speaker 1: has blamed the other for the breakdown. Carney said the
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Speaker 1: US made an offer he had to refuse. The administration
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Speaker 1: introduced last minute provisions to limit Ottawa's freedom to make
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Speaker 1: trade deals with other countries, he said, an unacceptable surrender
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Speaker 1: of Canadian sovereignty. US negotiators sought to curb the promotion
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Speaker 1: of Canadian or French language content on platforms such as Netflix,
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Speaker 1: he added, and mandatory product labeling in French, which, with English,
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Speaker 1: is one of the country's two official languages. Kearney is
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Speaker 1: also responding to Canadian frustration with Trump's threats and insults,
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Speaker 1: including repeated comments about making Canada the fifty first state.
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Speaker 1: On Saturday, Christine Fraschett, the premiere of French speaking Quebec,
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Speaker 1: renewed calls to buy Canadian goods. Fans in Vancouver and
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Speaker 1: Montreal booed the US national anthem before Major League soccer games.
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Speaker 1: Canadian media reported over the weekend. Dan Kelly, president of
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Speaker 1: the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, warned that tit for
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Speaker 1: tat levies would hit small firms hard, including those selling machinery, food,
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Speaker 1: and jewelry. Still, he called Carnee's retaliation an understandable response
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Speaker 1: from our government. David Ebbey, the Premier of British Columbia,
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Speaker 1: said accepting the US demands would reduce Canada to the
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Speaker 1: economic equivalent of the fifty first state. Ebby said he
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Speaker 1: hoped other nations would follow in saying enough. Trump's trade
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Speaker 1: wars and annexation threats have fueled efforts by US partners
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Speaker 1: around the world to curb security and economic dependence on Washington,
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Speaker 1: but many officials, including Carney, have conceded that decoupling is
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Speaker 1: a long and costly process and have attempted concessions or conciliation.
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Speaker 1: As tensions escalated in recent days, Carney acknowledged the risks
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Speaker 1: of pushing back. Canada is retaliating reluctantly, he said, because
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Speaker 1: we recognize that it will raise costs and reduce choice
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Speaker 1: for Canadians. Even so, he said it was in the
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Speaker 1: country's best interests. Last spring, I warned that America is
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Speaker 1: trying to break us so that they can own us,
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Speaker 1: Carney said Saturday, and I promised that will never ever happen.
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Speaker 1: We are keeping that promise. Laying of the Chamber of
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Speaker 1: Commerce believes the two nations will be back at the
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Speaker 1: table eventually. In the meantime, we need to get back
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Speaker 1: to the work we control, like diversifying trade and making
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Speaker 1: our economy resilient. She said. None of that is dependent
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Speaker 1: on what the US decides to do with Terrace tomorrow.
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Speaker 1: This item is accompanied by a photo captioned Canadian Prime
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Speaker 1: Minister Mark Karney, left, speaks about the trade dispute with
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Speaker 1: the United States at the Davy Shipyard in Levis, Quebec
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Speaker 1: on Monday. Andrea Ivanov a f P Getty Images. Our
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Speaker 1: next item from today's front page is entitled US target's
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Speaker 1: plastic production limits. Leaked memo shows administration's aims as talks
9:53
Speaker 1: on plastics treaty reach critical point. By Connor mc gloane,
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Speaker 1: Jake Spring, Emma Bryce, and Bernard Ogimbo, The United States
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Speaker 1: has doubled down on its opposition to plastic production limits
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Speaker 1: in global treaty talks, According to a diplomatic memo reviewed
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Speaker 1: by the Washington Post pushing to create a broad loophole
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Speaker 1: to disregard the treaty on national security grounds. A year
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Speaker 1: after the Trump administration worked with other major oil producing
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Speaker 1: nations to block strict plastic pollution limits, leading to a
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Speaker 1: failed UN conference in Geneva. Environmentalists and other observers argue
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Speaker 1: this same group is helping steer negotiations toward a weaker agreement.
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Speaker 1: Involving delegates from nearly one hundred eighty countries, the talks
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Speaker 1: have reached a critical point after four years. Global plastic
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Speaker 1: pollution has ballooned to more than fifty seven million tons
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Speaker 1: per year, and a coalition of dozens of countries, including
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Speaker 1: most members of the European Union and many from Africa
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Speaker 1: and Latin America, say this waste will become overwhelming unless
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Speaker 1: the world imposes meaningful restrictions soon. The leaked document, which
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Speaker 1: a foreign diplomat confirmed was circulated this summer to governments
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Speaker 1: involved in negotiations, calls for a pragmatic treaty that includes
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Speaker 1: a provision allowing for countries to take any measures they
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Speaker 1: consider necessary to protect national security. The memo, which emphasizes
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Speaker 1: the need for waste management and private sector Investment argues
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Speaker 1: any agreement must not undermine national security, critical infrastructure, or
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Speaker 1: supply chains. It warrants. Restricting plastics and chemicals could limit
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Speaker 1: access to defense related products such as weapons materials and
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Speaker 1: protective gear. The overwhelming majority of plastic is made from
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Speaker 1: chemicals derived from petroleum or other fossil fuels, and the
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Speaker 1: Trump administration has pushed to expand oil and gas drilling
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Speaker 1: and domestic production. Negotiators under Trump have become far more
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Speaker 1: vocal and opposing binding limits on plastic production, compared with
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Speaker 1: a more conciliatory tone under President Joe Biden. The negotiating
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Speaker 1: position also reflects a broader administration strategy of citing national
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Speaker 1: security concerns to promote fossil fuels, such as when it
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Speaker 1: declared a National Energy emergency last year, blocked the development
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Speaker 1: of wind farms and exempted oil and gas firms from
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Speaker 1: the Endangered Species Act requirements in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Speaker 1: The State Department said in an email that it generally
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Speaker 1: does not comment on purported US diplomatic communications. The United
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Speaker 1: States seeks to negotiate an agreement that all countries can
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Speaker 1: join and implement as an outcome that will be most
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Speaker 1: effective in reducing plastic pollution, the Department said, adding the
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Speaker 1: treaty should not interfere with military readiness or critical national
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Speaker 1: security applications. It said the administration backed common sense measures
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Speaker 1: to reduce plastic pollution while rejecting proposals that would damage
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Speaker 1: the American economy, drive inflation, and restrict consumer choice. Andreas
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Speaker 1: Bielund Erickson, Norway's Minister of Climate and the Environment, said
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Speaker 1: the MEMMO was in line with what the US has
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Speaker 1: communicated during recent negotiations. We do not share the view
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Speaker 1: that restricting specific plastic items that contribute to plastic pollution
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Speaker 1: would pose a threat to economic growth, Erickson said, adding
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Speaker 1: that in countries that have imposed limits on plastic pollution,
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Speaker 1: new and improved business solutions emerge. The treaty must lead
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Speaker 1: to real changes to tackle plastic pollution. If not, there
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Speaker 1: is no point having it, Erickson added. Bararega Akonwisa, executive
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Speaker 1: director of Uganda's National Environment Management Authority, defended the US's
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Speaker 1: right to advance its views. International law must reflect the
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Speaker 1: needs and aspirations of negotiating countries, and international law can
14:00
Speaker 1: only succeed based on national implementation, which in turn is
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Speaker 1: a reflection of national capabilities and circumstances. The dispute comes
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Speaker 1: after what experts described as a sharp shift in the
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Speaker 1: US position under the Trump administration. Youngman, a legal and
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Speaker 1: policy specialist at Advocacy Group Environmental Investigation Agency, said the
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Speaker 1: US under the Biden administration was open to provisions reducing
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Speaker 1: plastic production even though it did not support a global
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Speaker 1: cap but the US has since vocally opposed limits on
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Speaker 1: production and sought to narrow the treaty's scope, including through
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Speaker 1: new language invoking national security. Alexander Harrington, an international legal expert,
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Speaker 1: said the US was not acting alone and had come
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Speaker 1: back in as a disruptor in the talks. Harrington, also
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Speaker 1: the chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's
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Speaker 1: Plastic Pollution Task Force, added the u S proposal and
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Speaker 1: far beyond the narrow military exemptions sometimes found in environmental
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Speaker 1: treaties and appeared aimed more at shielding economic and petrochemical
15:09
Speaker 1: interests than addressing a specific plastics related defense risk. I
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Speaker 1: think for them, the national security argument is convenient, it's useful,
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Speaker 1: she said. The memo was circulated in the months before
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Speaker 1: treaty chair Julio Cordano published a new aid to negotiations
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Speaker 1: document earlier this month. The text, intended to steer governments
15:32
Speaker 1: toward a final agreement, has also been criticized by environmental
15:36
Speaker 1: groups and some legal experts for creating a system based
15:40
Speaker 1: on national pledges rather than binding global controls. Cordano did
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Speaker 1: not respond to a request for comment. Harrington said the
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Speaker 1: Chair's new text was very clearly bending toward the agenda
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Speaker 1: of countries seeking a less ambitious treaty like the US.
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Speaker 1: She pointed to the removal of trade provisions that would
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Speaker 1: have regulated the cross border movement of plastics from polymers
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Speaker 1: and products sold abroad to plastic waste shipped for disposal
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Speaker 1: or recycling. Harrington said trade rules are a standard feature
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Speaker 1: of major pollution treaties. Stuart Harris, Managing director for Global
16:18
Speaker 1: Affairs at the American Chemistry Council, said the administration's position
16:23
Speaker 1: is largely aligned with the plastic industries. Harris, whose trade
16:27
Speaker 1: group represents plastics manufacturers, said hard limits on plastic production
16:32
Speaker 1: will raise product costs for lower income people globally without
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Speaker 1: significantly reducing plastic waste. Roughly two point seven billion people
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Speaker 1: globally do not have access to proper collection for their
16:45
Speaker 1: plastic waste and addressing that and recycling would go further
16:49
Speaker 1: to reducing pollution. He said, ACC is lobbying for individual
16:55
Speaker 1: countries to set their own action plans for tackling plastic pollution,
17:00
Speaker 1: which to setting national, rather than global, targets for how
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Speaker 1: much recycled content plastic should contain. Harris said ACC has
17:08
Speaker 1: not taken a position on the national security exemption, but
17:12
Speaker 1: that such provisions were common in global environmental agreements. That
17:16
Speaker 1: tells me that the United States is very serious about
17:19
Speaker 1: negotiating an agreement it can join, he said. They wouldn't
17:24
Speaker 1: be even considering those details if it was not serious
17:27
Speaker 1: about joining. Even if negotiators reach a deal, the United
17:32
Speaker 1: States would only join the treaty if the Senate ratifies
17:35
Speaker 1: it by a two thirds majority vote, a difficult bar
17:39
Speaker 1: to clear and an extremely polarized Congress, while formal talks
17:43
Speaker 1: will resume next spring. Informal negotiations resumed in late June,
17:49
Speaker 1: nearly a year after governments failed to produce a final
17:52
Speaker 1: agreement amid disputes over whether the treaty should include limits
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Speaker 1: on plastic production and binding restrictions on chemicals. Many countries
18:01
Speaker 1: rejected the then shares draft as too weak to serve
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Speaker 1: as the basis for a deal, young Men said. The
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Speaker 1: new document weakens last year's text further by removing proposed
18:13
Speaker 1: reporting requirements on how much plastic countries produce and consume,
18:17
Speaker 1: and by replacing stronger legal terms such as shall with
18:22
Speaker 1: weaker language such as should. Even its most ambitious options,
18:28
Speaker 1: she said, would fall short of the mandate to end
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Speaker 1: plastic pollution. We didn't think it was possible, she said,
18:35
Speaker 1: but we keep on digging ourselves. Even lower heads of
18:39
Speaker 1: delegations are due to meet in Bangkok at the end
18:42
Speaker 1: of September, where governments are expected to discuss bridging proposals
18:47
Speaker 1: compromised language intended to address the tree's most contentious issues.
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Speaker 1: This item is accompanied by photos. The photo on the
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Speaker 1: front page itself is captioned People travel along a road
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Speaker 1: across a branch of the Buraganga River on August sixteenth
19:06
Speaker 1: in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where plastics and other ways cover the waterway.
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Speaker 1: A memo reviewed by The Washington Post argues any agreement
19:15
Speaker 1: must not undermine supply chains. The photo shows the bridge
19:20
Speaker 1: crossing what actually looks to be land but is water,
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Speaker 1: almost completely covered with small pieces of plastic. The next
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Speaker 1: photo is captioned A stream is contaminated with plastic trash
19:34
Speaker 1: in Manaos, Brazil Michael dantas afp getting images again. The
19:40
Speaker 1: photo is completely covered with small plastic items. One cannot
19:44
Speaker 1: even see that there is a stream underneath. And the
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Speaker 1: final photo accompanying this item is captioned Environmental advocates, legislators
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Speaker 1: and healthcare professionals participate in a plastic pollution rally in Albany,
19:58
Speaker 1: New York. From Today's from page is an item entitled
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Speaker 1: Bessant unveils his plan for Iran sweeping new sanctions revealed
20:07
Speaker 1: Treasury Secretary's goal economic asphyxiation by Riley Began, David J.
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Speaker 1: Lynch and Efel Walsh. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant on Monday
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Speaker 1: unveiled a sweeping campaign of financial sanctions and diplomatic pressure
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Speaker 1: designed to sever Iran's remaining links to the global economy,
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Speaker 1: but he declined to say which countries would be targeted
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Speaker 1: or when new penalties on Iran's trading partners would take effect.
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Speaker 1: Dubbed Operation Economic Outcast, the initiative is aimed at closing
20:40
Speaker 1: loopholes in the existing US financial dragnet around Iran, and
20:44
Speaker 1: Besson said forcing an endgame in the conflict that President
20:48
Speaker 1: Donald Trump launched in February. Treasury officials said they are
20:53
Speaker 1: adding five sectors of the Iranian economy to their target list,
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Speaker 1: cryptocurrency used by the Islamic revolutionaryercore and regime insiders, weapons
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Speaker 1: related technologies, gold used to stabilize a plummeting Iranian currency,
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Speaker 1: Iran's airlines, and shipping that carries weapons components, and oil.
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Speaker 1: They also announced sanctions on sixty entities, individuals, and vessels
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Speaker 1: that enable Iran to procure nuclear or missile technology, conduct
21:22
Speaker 1: cyber operations, and sell oil. Besson said Trump is contacting
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Speaker 1: other world leaders to demand that they support the United
21:31
Speaker 1: States in seeking the economic asphyxiation of this regime. He
21:35
Speaker 1: would not identify the leader's contacted or provide a deadline
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Speaker 1: for action. Iran's top trading partners include China, the United
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Speaker 1: Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Iraq. The United States expects action,
21:49
Speaker 1: Besant told reporters during a news conference. As a Treasury
21:52
Speaker 1: Department in Washington, we do not have infinite patients here.
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Speaker 1: Ask why the US isn't composing White's spread sanctions right away?
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Speaker 1: Besson said, the administration wants to give countries an opportunity
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Speaker 1: to remedy bad behavior. Why would I want to blow
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Speaker 1: up the global financial system? Besson said, we believe that
22:13
Speaker 1: a warning shot and a level set of expectations is appropriate.
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Speaker 1: Some independent specialists found Monday's announcement underwhelming, especially after days
22:24
Speaker 1: of increasingly bellicose warnings from Trump and Besant about mounting
22:28
Speaker 1: an economic d day against Iran and his commercial partners.
22:33
Speaker 1: In an opinion piece published Sunday in The Financial Times,
22:36
Speaker 1: Besson wrote that the United States had significantly dismantled Iran's
22:41
Speaker 1: military capabilities and weakened its nuclear program, and on Monday
22:45
Speaker 1: would launch the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against
22:50
Speaker 1: an adversary. But Besson left unresolved what many analysts see
22:55
Speaker 1: as a key issue, whether the administration is prepared to
22:59
Speaker 1: take on China, one month before President Xijinping is due
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Speaker 1: in Washington for an official state visit. I think the
23:06
Speaker 1: big question is going to be whether they're willing to
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Speaker 1: do something that crosses the red line of the China
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Speaker 1: trade truce, and if not, you know, this is ultimately
23:15
Speaker 1: not going to be successful, said Matt Swinehart, a former
23:19
Speaker 1: Treasury official who served under presidents of both parties and
23:23
Speaker 1: is now with Rock Creek Global Advisers in Washington. The
23:27
Speaker 1: administration's plan to pressure foreign leaders directly is likely to
23:31
Speaker 1: pay off, he said, but genuine progress will come only
23:35
Speaker 1: if the U s penalizes privately owned Chinese oil refineries
23:39
Speaker 1: known as teapots and the large Chinese banks that facilitate
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Speaker 1: Beijing's purchases of Iranian oil. Swinehart said. As whether Chinese
23:48
Speaker 1: banks would be among those hit with the punishing financial measures,
23:52
Speaker 1: Besant replied that no one is above the reach of
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Speaker 1: US sanctions. Swinehart said Monday's announcement seemed to be a
23:59
Speaker 1: sign that the administration had all but exhausted its weapons
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Speaker 1: for confronting Iran. It's only now that I think the
24:07
Speaker 1: administration has realized it doesn't have a lot of other options,
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Speaker 1: he said. You do have to wonder why they didn't
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Speaker 1: do this before. Adam Smith, who worked on Iran sanctions
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Speaker 1: in the Obama administration, said Besson's strategy could be effective.
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Speaker 1: Intense pressure on Iran's financial lifelines ultimately produced the twenty
24:28
Speaker 1: fifteen nuclear deal with the US. If even some of
24:32
Speaker 1: what Besson said comes true. This is a significant increase
24:36
Speaker 1: of pressure. If this goes on, plus the physical blockade,
24:40
Speaker 1: it could actually have an impact, said Smith, now a
24:44
Speaker 1: partner at Gibson Dunn, a global law firm. The question
24:48
Speaker 1: is how other entities view Besson's quote warning shot, said
24:52
Speaker 1: Rachel Zimba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for
24:56
Speaker 1: a New American Security, a bipartisan nonprofit focused on national security.
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Speaker 1: It's not clear to me that the rhetoric matches with
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Speaker 1: the willingness to implement. She said. There aren't a lot
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Speaker 1: of good additional options on more economic pressure on Iran
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Speaker 1: because all of them come with economic or geostrategic costs.
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Speaker 1: Monday was not the first time that Trump administration has
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Speaker 1: said that it was dialing up pressure on Iran. Trump
25:24
Speaker 1: has repeatedly put sanctions on foreign companies involved in the
25:27
Speaker 1: oil trade that represents Iran's principal sorts of revenue, even
25:32
Speaker 1: as his military campaign against Tehran has flirted with stalemate.
25:37
Speaker 1: During Trump's first term, the US employed what he called
25:40
Speaker 1: a maximum pressure sanctions campaign against the Islamic Republic, and
25:45
Speaker 1: for the past year, long before February's military attack, the
25:49
Speaker 1: administration has carried out Operation Economic Fury in hopes of
25:54
Speaker 1: forcing Iran to submit to American demands to give up
25:57
Speaker 1: its nuclear weapons program. More broadly, some U S sanctions
26:02
Speaker 1: against Iran date back to nineteen seventy nine, when the
26:06
Speaker 1: Islamic Republic took U S diplomats hostage and held them
26:10
Speaker 1: for four hundred forty four days. Over the years, sanctions
26:14
Speaker 1: have become an almost reflexive tool of American power, a
26:18
Speaker 1: way to accomplish foreign policy goals that Washington is unable
26:22
Speaker 1: or unwilling to attempt with military force, but it carries
26:26
Speaker 1: a mixed record of success. Among the thirty seven sanctions
26:30
Speaker 1: programs administered by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the
26:35
Speaker 1: oldest targets Cuba, President Dwight D. Eisenhower first imposed financial
26:40
Speaker 1: sanctions on the island's communist government in nineteen sixty. His successor,
26:45
Speaker 1: President John F. Kennedy, broadened them into a full trade embargo.
26:50
Speaker 1: Though its economy is a wreck and its people lack
26:53
Speaker 1: routine access to electricity and other essentials, Cuba to day
26:58
Speaker 1: remains under communist rules. In Tehran, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammed
27:03
Speaker 1: Baker Khalabov on Monday dismissed Washington's threats as big talk
27:09
Speaker 1: and predicted that Iran's trade partners would not comply with
27:12
Speaker 1: US sanctions. Iran's trade partners have also announced to US,
27:17
Speaker 1: both through the media and by sending messages, that they
27:20
Speaker 1: regard these statements as utterly meaningless, Khalabov said in a
27:24
Speaker 1: Farsi language post on his ex account before Besson's news conference.
27:29
Speaker 1: Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi also mocked the Treasury
27:35
Speaker 1: Secretary's claims that Iran's military capability had been dismantled. You
27:40
Speaker 1: say one hundred percent of military factories destroyed and the
27:44
Speaker 1: nuclear program buried, Garibabidi wrote on social media. Yet for
27:49
Speaker 1: the very same Iran the largest financial offensive in history
27:53
Speaker 1: and the mobilization of all US agencies and authorities have
27:57
Speaker 1: become necessary. Is this a victor or an admission of
28:01
Speaker 1: US defeat? The war has reached a near stalemate in
28:05
Speaker 1: recent weeks, even as a ceasefire agreement expired last week.
28:10
Speaker 1: The hostilities have for months disrupted shipping through the Strait
28:14
Speaker 1: of Hormuz, a key channel through which around twenty percent
28:17
Speaker 1: of the world's oil moved before the war that disruption
28:21
Speaker 1: has pushed up oil and gas prices in the lead
28:23
Speaker 1: up to the mid term elections in early November, in
28:26
Speaker 1: which Republicans are hoping to maintain control of the House
28:30
Speaker 1: and Senate, most Americans disapprove of the war, polls show
28:34
Speaker 1: contributing to record low approval ratings for Trump. This weekend,
28:39
Speaker 1: Motion Rezai, the head of Iran's National Security Council, vowed
28:44
Speaker 1: that not a single drop of oil will be exported
28:47
Speaker 1: through the Persian Gulf if the US led economic war continues.
28:51
Speaker 1: Iran will regard any country's participation in or support for
28:56
Speaker 1: America's economic war against the Iranian people as an active war.
29:01
Speaker 1: He wrote on x Iran's threats against ships transiting the
29:05
Speaker 1: Strait of Hormus have helped to maintain the country's leverage,
29:08
Speaker 1: but Iran's currency hit a record low Monday, and skyrocketing
29:13
Speaker 1: inflation has made life unaffordable for many Iranians. The Iranian
29:18
Speaker 1: government may sound bullish on their capacity to absorb the pain,
29:22
Speaker 1: but the pain is already there and it is going
29:25
Speaker 1: to increase across a board, said Nason Rafati, the senior
29:29
Speaker 1: Iran analyst for International Crisis group, an independent organization that
29:33
Speaker 1: works to prevent war. What is unclear is whether that
29:37
Speaker 1: pain will lead to some sort of diplomatic breakthrough, he said.
29:41
Speaker 1: Last week, he noted after a call between UAE President
29:44
Speaker 1: Mohammed bin Zayad on Nan and Trump, the UAE announced
29:48
Speaker 1: that it would halt all trade ties with Iran. Though
29:51
Speaker 1: Iran's ties with the UAE and neighboring countries date back generations,
29:57
Speaker 1: the idea of a total financial blackout of ir is
30:00
Speaker 1: difficult to imagine, Rafati said, but it doesn't mean the
30:04
Speaker 1: US can't have a substantial impact. Rachel Chasen contributed to
30:08
Speaker 1: this report. This item is accompanied by a photo which
30:13
Speaker 1: is captioned Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen said that total financial
30:17
Speaker 1: isolation of Iran could make US force unnecessary. Julia Damary
30:23
Speaker 1: Nickinson ap the photo Show's Secretary Basant out of doors
30:28
Speaker 1: surrounded by a number of people. Our next item is
30:32
Speaker 1: entitled Trump wants UN's next boss to be in sync
30:36
Speaker 1: with his plans. US can veto In Secretary General race,
30:41
Speaker 1: a woman has never held the title by Karen de Young.
30:45
Speaker 1: This year, for the first time in its eighty year history,
30:49
Speaker 1: the United Nations may select a woman to serve as
30:52
Speaker 1: its Secretary General. Of the eight candidates nominated so far
30:56
Speaker 1: for the position, five are women, and many members argue
31:01
Speaker 1: that it's finally their turn. But as the UN Security
31:04
Speaker 1: Council undertakes its months long ultra secret selection process, hopefully
31:10
Speaker 1: making its choice before Portugal's Antonio Guzzees reaches the end
31:14
Speaker 1: of his five year term on December thirty first, other
31:17
Speaker 1: factors are at play beyond gender. The Trump administration, which
31:22
Speaker 1: has veto power on the Council, is working overtime to
31:26
Speaker 1: ensure that the new leadership is in sync with its
31:29
Speaker 1: plans to continue cutting the UN budget and workforce. Beyond
31:34
Speaker 1: long standing funding concerns. It wants to affect fundamental change
31:38
Speaker 1: across the global body, in particular the way it handles
31:42
Speaker 1: the three pillars of its charter, Peace and security, Development
31:46
Speaker 1: and human rights, and adherence to international law. This institution
31:52
Speaker 1: desperately needs strong, effective leadership. Mike Wealths, the US Ambassador
31:57
Speaker 1: to the UN, told a Senate hearing this spring. US priorities,
32:02
Speaker 1: he said, were reform, reform, reform, and getting back to
32:06
Speaker 1: basics on peace and security will be at the top
32:09
Speaker 1: of our criteria. This summer, high level officials at the
32:14
Speaker 1: US Mission to UN headquarters in New York have conducted
32:18
Speaker 1: multiple interviews with six of the candidates. Two new ones
32:21
Speaker 1: emerged this month, and there may be further nominations before
32:25
Speaker 1: any final decision. President Donald Trump has not commented on
32:30
Speaker 1: a report last month by The New York Post that
32:33
Speaker 1: he wants Yanni and Fontino, head of the World Soccer
32:36
Speaker 1: Federation FIFA, to have the job, but there are tons
32:42
Speaker 1: of rumors about an October surprise set. A long time
32:45
Speaker 1: UN insider, one of several who spoke on the condition
32:48
Speaker 1: of anonymity to discuss the secret voting process they have
32:52
Speaker 1: until the end of December set A second person familiar
32:55
Speaker 1: with the process and its back room machinations. The question,
32:59
Speaker 1: this person said, is does Trump come in at some
33:03
Speaker 1: point everybody at the UN is waiting for this and
33:06
Speaker 1: say I want Infantino or his daughter or son in
33:11
Speaker 1: law Jared Kushner. Then the whole process gets set back
33:15
Speaker 1: as somebody figures out the politics of backing him down.
33:19
Speaker 1: One senior US official acknowledged deep US involvement, but said
33:23
Speaker 1: that the interviews were more akin to conversations, adding that
33:27
Speaker 1: the administration does not have a preferred candidate among current
33:31
Speaker 1: or possible future nominees. We want the best candidate, period,
33:36
Speaker 1: said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
33:39
Speaker 1: about internal administration deliberations and the closed door selection process.
33:45
Speaker 1: We're not focused on anything that would limit the most
33:48
Speaker 1: talented people around the globe from putting their names up.
33:52
Speaker 1: While they may differ in how it is done, few
33:55
Speaker 1: member states disagree with a need for reform. This particular
33:59
Speaker 1: rate is different from all the others, said Peter Yaloe,
34:03
Speaker 1: senior vice president of the UN Foundation and a long
34:06
Speaker 1: time expert on US UN relations. Fundamental questions are being
34:11
Speaker 1: asked about the future role of the organization. What the
34:15
Speaker 1: UN does, what is its mandate, what programs it should
34:19
Speaker 1: be running, how it should be financed. Yoe said it's
34:23
Speaker 1: not just the United States asking Trump, who has denigrated
34:27
Speaker 1: a host of international organizations, has sharply criticized the UN
34:32
Speaker 1: as ineffective, wasteful, and out of tune with US priorities.
34:37
Speaker 1: He has canceled u S membership and voluntary donations to
34:40
Speaker 1: many of its agencies, most prominently the World Health Organization,
34:45
Speaker 1: while US humanitarian and development aid have been shunted away
34:49
Speaker 1: from international programs toward bilateral assistance that reflects America first priorities.
34:56
Speaker 1: Annual member dues to the regular UN budget are assessed
35:00
Speaker 1: according to a formula that includes gross national product and population,
35:04
Speaker 1: and the US has long been the biggest contributor, but
35:08
Speaker 1: until recently, the Trump administration had paid nothing while it
35:12
Speaker 1: pushed for severe budget cuts and organizational changes. Early this year,
35:18
Speaker 1: as Guttus warned that the UN faced imminent financial collapse,
35:23
Speaker 1: the administration paid about one hundred sixty million dollars of
35:26
Speaker 1: last year's more than eight hundred million dollar assessment, according
35:31
Speaker 1: to the US official. On August fourth, following staff and
35:34
Speaker 1: budget cuts in which the US was heavily involved, the
35:38
Speaker 1: administration notified Congress that it intends to pay seven hundred
35:42
Speaker 1: twenty five million dollars of this year's dues. Technically, the
35:46
Speaker 1: Secretary General is elected by a majority vote in the
35:49
Speaker 1: one hundred ninety three member General Assembly, but only once
35:53
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty has there been more than one person
35:56
Speaker 1: on the ballot delivered to the Assembly by the fifteen
35:59
Speaker 1: member Security Council. The Council's approval requires at least nine votes,
36:05
Speaker 1: though each of the five permanent members the US, Russia, China,
36:11
Speaker 1: Britain and France has veto power. It has long been
36:16
Speaker 1: agreed that the Secretary General should not be from one
36:18
Speaker 1: of the permanent five members, who already wield tremendous power
36:23
Speaker 1: with their vetos, and that the position will rotate among
36:26
Speaker 1: different regions of the world. Since the UN was founded
36:30
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty five, some of the nine who have
36:33
Speaker 1: held the office, including Guterres, have served two consecutive five
36:37
Speaker 1: year terms. Africa, Asia, and Europe have had multiple chances,
36:42
Speaker 1: but only one Secretary General has come from Latin America,
36:46
Speaker 1: Perus Javier Perez de Cuya, who served from nineteen eighty
36:50
Speaker 1: two to nineteen ninety one. All five of the currently
36:54
Speaker 1: nominated women are Latin Americans, as is one of the
36:57
Speaker 1: three men. The other two men are from Africa. All
37:01
Speaker 1: are former YUN or national officials in their home governments
37:05
Speaker 1: or both, and most have campaigned strenuously for the job.
37:10
Speaker 1: Beginning this summer, Council members are periodically holding secret straw
37:14
Speaker 1: votes in which they encourage, discourage, or offer no opinion
37:19
Speaker 1: on each candidate, and officially unreleased but widely disseminated results
37:24
Speaker 1: of the first vote, held in late July, the top
37:27
Speaker 1: three were Rebecca Grinsban, former Costalican president and former head
37:31
Speaker 1: of UN Trade and Development, Kierlin Noriguez Birkert, former foreign
37:36
Speaker 1: minister and current UN Ambassador from Guyana, and Rafael Mariano Grossi,
37:42
Speaker 1: an Argentine diplomat who has been Director General of the
37:45
Speaker 1: UN's International Atomic Energy Agency since twenty nineteen. In a
37:50
Speaker 1: second straw vote Friday, all three were reportedly still out
37:54
Speaker 1: in front, but no one looked like a runaway. Other
37:58
Speaker 1: nominees include two time Chilean president and former UN High
38:01
Speaker 1: Commissioner for Human Rights Michel Bachelet, former Ecuadorian foreign Minister
38:06
Speaker 1: and President of the General Assembly, Barria Fernanda Espinoza, former
38:11
Speaker 1: Senegal president and Prime Minister, machaysaal and Ugandan politician and
38:16
Speaker 1: diplomat Olaura Ottunu. Last week, former Ecuadorian diplomat Ivan Abaki
38:23
Speaker 1: entered the race, nominated by the Pacific island nation of Tonga,
38:27
Speaker 1: since Ecuador already had a candidate. So far, said the
38:31
Speaker 1: UN Insider, the selection is sinking into the murky waters
38:35
Speaker 1: of Security Council politics. Russia and China may want to
38:39
Speaker 1: stick a finger in the eye of the US and
38:42
Speaker 1: vice versa with the veto of a favored candidate. Experts
38:46
Speaker 1: said rumors are that the UK is not well disposed
38:50
Speaker 1: about Grocy because of residual British sparring with Argentina over
38:54
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty two Falklands War, said Brett D. Schaeffer,
38:58
Speaker 1: a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. The US
39:02
Speaker 1: has previously indicate that it does not favor Bachelott because
39:06
Speaker 1: of perceived closeness to China. Russia is also said to
39:09
Speaker 1: be unenthusiastic about Grocy because of the IAEA's stances on
39:15
Speaker 1: its ally Iran and enemy Ukraine. Shaffer said, because any
39:20
Speaker 1: one of the five permanent members can kill a candidacy,
39:23
Speaker 1: closure won't near until the Security Council switches from straw
39:27
Speaker 1: poles to colored ballots when a red card indicates a
39:31
Speaker 1: definitive veto. That probably won't happen until some time after
39:36
Speaker 1: the annual High Level General Assembly attended by Heads of
39:39
Speaker 1: Governments next month. I don't see anybody on this list
39:43
Speaker 1: that has enough encourages to get elected, Shaeffer said, You're
39:47
Speaker 1: likely not seeing the next Secretary General among these current candidates.
39:52
Speaker 1: This item is accompanied by photos. The first is captioned
39:56
Speaker 1: President Donald Trump addresses the United Nations General Assembly in
39:59
Speaker 1: US York in September twenty twenty five. His administration has
40:04
Speaker 1: saw cuts at the UN. Mike Seegers, Reuters. The next
40:09
Speaker 1: photo is captained Trump and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
40:14
Speaker 1: during the General Assembly meeting in New York in September
40:17
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five Alexander Drego Reuters. The photo shows the
40:21
Speaker 1: two men seated with the flag of the United States
40:25
Speaker 1: behind and two President Trump's left and the flag of
40:28
Speaker 1: the United Nations behind and two Secretary General Guterres's left
40:34
Speaker 1: and The final photo accompanying this item is captioned US
40:37
Speaker 1: Ambassador Mike Wals addresses the Security Council on January fifth,
40:42
Speaker 1: Frank Franklin. The second ap and the final item from
40:47
Speaker 1: Today's from pages entitled some Texas Conservatives are pledging to
40:51
Speaker 1: vote Democratic Republicans who are angry at Governor Greg Abbott's
40:55
Speaker 1: refusal to block data centers are giving his challenger Jine
40:59
Speaker 1: Enos hope for an upset by Molly Hennessy Frisk from Temple, Texas,
41:06
Speaker 1: Twila Lowry plans to do something this November, she could
41:10
Speaker 1: not have imagined doing even a few months ago. She's
41:14
Speaker 1: going to vote for a Democrat. That would be Gini Enosa,
41:19
Speaker 1: running to prevent Republican Greg Abbot from winning a record
41:22
Speaker 1: fourth term as governor. Enosa fifty two has a fairly
41:27
Speaker 1: standard platform of democratic issues and at state school botchers
41:31
Speaker 1: and lower health care, grocery and utility costs. She's even
41:35
Speaker 1: promised to send every Texan one thousand, five hundred dollars
41:39
Speaker 1: from the state Rainy Day Fund. But for Lowry, a
41:42
Speaker 1: retired social worker and special education teacher in this central
41:45
Speaker 1: Texas city of about one hundred thousand, all that matters
41:50
Speaker 1: is that Inosa wants to impose a moratorium on data
41:53
Speaker 1: center projects. An Abbot doesn't. He's pushing for them. Everything's
41:58
Speaker 1: so shady, said l fifty six, who had voted for
42:02
Speaker 1: Abbot all three times. Lowry, a conservative, Christian and lifelong Republican,
42:08
Speaker 1: said she's not switching parties. In fact, she plans to
42:12
Speaker 1: vote for Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in his race
42:16
Speaker 1: for US Senate. But her willingness to split her ticket
42:20
Speaker 1: for even one race is a sign the Texas political
42:24
Speaker 1: landscape at least this cycle is scrambling in unprecedented ways
42:30
Speaker 1: that could result in surprising statewide wins for the Democratic Party,
42:34
Speaker 1: a reason. Fox News poll showed Inosa, a lawyer and
42:38
Speaker 1: state legislator based in Austin within a point of abbot,
42:42
Speaker 1: a sign of weakness in a state where the GOP
42:45
Speaker 1: usually both a nine to twelve point advantage. Last week,
42:49
Speaker 1: the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted the governor's race from
42:53
Speaker 1: solid to likely Republican. The picture in the US Senate
42:58
Speaker 1: race to replace John Cornyer is even tighter, according to Cook,
43:02
Speaker 1: which lists the contests as a toss up between Paxton
43:06
Speaker 1: and Democratic state Representative James tallerco. This wouldn't be the
43:11
Speaker 1: first time Poles have given Democrats reason to hope for
43:14
Speaker 1: an upset, only to be disappointed on election day, and
43:18
Speaker 1: Texas Republicans have shown a reluctance to split tickets over
43:22
Speaker 1: the past several decades. Republicans control the levers of power
43:26
Speaker 1: in Texas, and a Democrat hasn't won statewide office since
43:30
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four. Texas last elected a Democratic governor in
43:34
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety Anne Richards and a Democratic senator in nineteen
43:39
Speaker 1: eighty eight, Lloyd Benson but now some Conservatives and right
43:43
Speaker 1: leaning independents say they plan to vote Democratic in protest
43:47
Speaker 1: dissatisfied with how the GOP is handling issues such as
43:51
Speaker 1: data centers, water electricity, schools, and the economy. Even more
43:58
Speaker 1: unusual is how vocals some of these Conservatives are about
44:02
Speaker 1: their dissatisfaction. They've adopted a slogan break rank, an indication
44:07
Speaker 1: they are not content simply to set out the election,
44:10
Speaker 1: but want to punish their party with a vote for
44:13
Speaker 1: the opposition. Lifelong Republican voter Tom Weeks met with Inosa
44:18
Speaker 1: recently wearing a homemade break rank t shirt. My party
44:23
Speaker 1: has failed, said Weeks, sixty six, who retired from the
44:27
Speaker 1: paper supply business to the North Texas suburb of Granbury,
44:30
Speaker 1: where he's been fighting both data centers and a bitcoin
44:34
Speaker 1: mine that arrived a few years ago, bringing round the
44:38
Speaker 1: clock noise. Nothing has been done by our party to help,
44:42
Speaker 1: Weeks said. Any Republican who has been in office since
44:46
Speaker 1: we started this fight, I'm not going to vote for them.
44:49
Speaker 1: Conservative friends accused Weeks of making a deal with the devil,
44:53
Speaker 1: but he's defiant. We're going to vote for whoever we
44:57
Speaker 1: think understands our plight. And she does, he said of Inosa.
45:02
Speaker 1: Rina Schroeder, who ran unsuccessfully in a Republican primary election
45:06
Speaker 1: for a state Senate seat in March, recently attended a
45:09
Speaker 1: Tallerico campaign event featuring Enosa at the Civic Center in
45:13
Speaker 1: Killeen and said she plans to vote Democratic. Schroeder, who
45:18
Speaker 1: now identifies as independent, helped start a break Rank group
45:23
Speaker 1: that she said has drawn about one hundred voters. We're
45:27
Speaker 1: calling it breaking rank because of the level of corruption
45:30
Speaker 1: in the Republican Party, she said, We the people are
45:34
Speaker 1: breaking rank. Enosa is hopeful she can shave off enough
45:38
Speaker 1: votes among independents, rural and suburban conservatives to win. Before
45:44
Speaker 1: she spoke at the Pact event near Temple, Unosa met
45:47
Speaker 1: with local Democrats to discuss their pitch to swing voters.
45:51
Speaker 1: A volunteer asked Ininosa, who's from the border city of Brownsville,
45:55
Speaker 1: how to persuade Latinos who voted for President Donald Trump
45:59
Speaker 1: to return to the Democratic Party. A lot of them
46:03
Speaker 1: have buyers remorse, Inosa said, noting she'd spoken with some
46:07
Speaker 1: upset by recent fatal ice shootings. We can invite them
46:11
Speaker 1: back in. That creates an opportunity for us they're not
46:15
Speaker 1: saying yay Democrats, but they are saying we don't want this.
46:21
Speaker 1: In an interview afterward with a Post, Enosa emphasized the
46:25
Speaker 1: national implications of her race. A Democratic governor, she said,
46:30
Speaker 1: would block a Republican controlled Texas Legislature from further congressional
46:34
Speaker 1: gerrymandering in favor of the GOP. There can be no
46:39
Speaker 1: path to a democratic control of Congress when that happens.
46:42
Speaker 1: Inosa said, Once they hold on and Rigelo's elections, how
46:46
Speaker 1: do you get them back? This week, Enosa debuted and
46:51
Speaker 1: add attacking Abbot on data centers. Our job is to
46:55
Speaker 1: raise enough people to tell people who I am and
46:58
Speaker 1: what I'm about. We don't have to raise as much
47:00
Speaker 1: money as him, just enough to do that, she said,
47:04
Speaker 1: noting that Republicans poured millions in the Cornin's campaign, yet
47:08
Speaker 1: he still lost his primary. Abbot's campaign so far has
47:13
Speaker 1: largely focused on Democrats broadly, rather than singling out Iosa.
47:18
Speaker 1: The contrast in this election couldn't be clearer. Democrats want
47:22
Speaker 1: higher taxes and support policies like defunding the police, abolishing prisons,
47:27
Speaker 1: and boys playing in girls' sports. Governor Abbott is focused
47:31
Speaker 1: on the issues that matter to Texas families, slashing property
47:34
Speaker 1: taxes and lowering the costs of health care, insurance, electricity, housing,
47:39
Speaker 1: and education. Eduardo Lal Press, secretary for the Abbot campaign,
47:44
Speaker 1: said in a statement, if Texas Republicans split their tickets,
47:49
Speaker 1: it's not clear which Texas Democrats stand to benefit. Most.
47:53
Speaker 1: Weeks and Lowry said they won't vote for Tallerco because
47:56
Speaker 1: they consider him too liberal. Others like Glinda Burgh plan
48:00
Speaker 1: to vote for Talla Rica and Inosa. Burg eighty four,
48:05
Speaker 1: a retired bookkeeper and lifelong Republican who lives near Temple
48:08
Speaker 1: in Belton and whose daughter attended the ENOSA event, said
48:12
Speaker 1: she voted for Abbot and Trump three times, but has
48:16
Speaker 1: been appalled by the president acting against what democracy is
48:20
Speaker 1: based on. In particular, she said she's opposed to the
48:23
Speaker 1: mid decade congressional redistracting the Republicans championed at Trump's urging.
48:29
Speaker 1: I'm very disappointed with the way Abbot follows everything Trump
48:32
Speaker 1: says and does, she said. Some Texas political experts question
48:38
Speaker 1: whether NOSA can win without Talla Rico prevailing at the
48:41
Speaker 1: top of the ticket. The question is, will there be
48:45
Speaker 1: this rising tide, this blue wave. If it takes out Paxton,
48:49
Speaker 1: who will be next, said Mark Jones, a political science
48:53
Speaker 1: professor at Rice University. For Inosa to win, she needs
48:57
Speaker 1: to do three things. When in overwhelming majority of the
49:01
Speaker 1: Democrat vote, which he seems on track to do. Second,
49:05
Speaker 1: win the support of independent voters by a two to
49:08
Speaker 1: one margin, which she seems to be doing. And three
49:12
Speaker 1: when at least ten to fifteen percent of the Republican
49:15
Speaker 1: vote still. Texas is reliably Republican and Abbot has a
49:21
Speaker 1: record of turning out the base. Abbot going down would
49:24
Speaker 1: be an earthquake, Jones said. Jones predicted Abbott will hammer
49:29
Speaker 1: Inosa in the coming weeks with attack ads highlighting her
49:33
Speaker 1: liberal legislative record. As a state lawmaker for the past
49:36
Speaker 1: nine years, Inosa fought the state school voucher program, helped
49:41
Speaker 1: lead a legislative walkout in twenty twenty five, the delayed
49:44
Speaker 1: passage of a new congressional redistricting map, and voted against
49:49
Speaker 1: restricting transgender medical care for minors and limiting abortion access
49:53
Speaker 1: in the state. That might give pause to those voters
49:56
Speaker 1: who say they're going to vote for Inosa as a
49:59
Speaker 1: protest against to Abbot, he said. James Henson, director of
50:03
Speaker 1: the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin,
50:07
Speaker 1: said the unusually competitive election is challenging Republican's allegiance, but
50:12
Speaker 1: caution that in Texas, it's going to take a lot
50:15
Speaker 1: for a Republican to vote for a Democrat. Logan Olsen
50:19
Speaker 1: stopped by the Tallerrico Inosa event in Killeen last week.
50:23
Speaker 1: A single mother and substitute teacher running a livestock business,
50:26
Speaker 1: she voted for Trump last election. Now she's upset about
50:31
Speaker 1: data centers, but encouraged by Abbot's proposed regulations, noting at
50:35
Speaker 1: least he acknowledged the people our government needs to govern
50:39
Speaker 1: our economy, said Olson thirty six, railing against the culture wars.
50:44
Speaker 1: We're getting so lost with stuff that should be discussed
50:47
Speaker 1: behind closed doors. So will she vote for Enosa, I'm
50:52
Speaker 1: not sure yet. This item is accompanied by photos. The
50:56
Speaker 1: first is captioned Gina Inosa, a Democratic candidate for Teix governor,
51:01
Speaker 1: appears to be in a close race with Republican Greg Abbott,
51:04
Speaker 1: who is seeking a fourth term joel On Heljuares for
51:08
Speaker 1: The Washington Post. The photo shows miss Enosa speaking, holding
51:13
Speaker 1: a microphone in front of a very large Texas flag.
51:17
Speaker 1: The next photo is captioned Vietnam veterans Tommy Bairt, Juan Salinas,
51:21
Speaker 1: and Jim Babb attend a Democratic rally in Killeen, Texas,
51:26
Speaker 1: which included US Senate hopeful James Tallerico and gubernatorial candidate
51:30
Speaker 1: Gina Inosa joel On Heluares for The Washington Post. The
51:36
Speaker 1: next photo is captioned Enosa speaks to voters in Killeen,
51:39
Speaker 1: Texas earlier this month, joel On Hiluares for The Washington Post.
51:44
Speaker 1: And the final photo accompanying this item is captioned voters
51:48
Speaker 1: in Killeen, Texas holds signs in support of Enosa for Governor.
51:53
Speaker 1: Joel Ahluares for The Washington Post. The signs read Gina
51:58
Speaker 1: for Texas. Now, let's turn to the interior of to
52:02
Speaker 1: day's paper in the A section for an item entitled
52:06
Speaker 1: Illinois officer convicted in Sonia Massey killing has died. Lawyer
52:10
Speaker 1: says Sean Grayson shot Massey in July twenty twenty four
52:14
Speaker 1: after she called nine one one to report a prowler.
52:17
Speaker 1: He had been diagnosed with colon cancer, but his cause
52:20
Speaker 1: of death hasn't been released by Ethel Walsh. Sean Grayson,
52:25
Speaker 1: the former Illinois sheriff's deputy convicted of fatally shooting Sonia
52:29
Speaker 1: Massey in her home in twenty twenty four, has died
52:33
Speaker 1: six months into his twenty year maximum sentence for second
52:36
Speaker 1: degree murder, his attorney said. Daniel Fults, who represented Grayson
52:41
Speaker 1: in the Massy case, told the Associated Press his client
52:44
Speaker 1: died Sunday, but did not share his cause of death. Grayson,
52:48
Speaker 1: thirty two, had been diagnosed with colon cancer before Massey's death,
52:53
Speaker 1: according to a copy of his application for early medical
52:55
Speaker 1: release published by Capital News in Illinois. The Illinois prison
53:00
Speaker 1: and a review board rejected that request last month. The
53:03
Speaker 1: Illinois Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a
53:07
Speaker 1: request for comment. Early Monday, Grayson, who is white, shot Massey,
53:13
Speaker 1: a thirty six year old black woman, after she had
53:15
Speaker 1: called nine one one to report a prowler outside her
53:18
Speaker 1: home in Sprinkled, Illinois, early on July sixth, twenty twenty four.
53:23
Speaker 1: Body camera footage of the shooting showed Grayson and another
53:26
Speaker 1: deputy speaking to Massey in her home as she heated
53:29
Speaker 1: a pot of water on the stove. Grayson asked her
53:32
Speaker 1: to take the pot off the burner, and as she
53:35
Speaker 1: did so, he backed away and said he was moving
53:38
Speaker 1: to avoid your hot, steaming water. The footage showed Massey replied,
53:42
Speaker 1: I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. According to
53:46
Speaker 1: the footage, Grayson, who was some distance from Massey, drew
53:49
Speaker 1: his gun and threatened to shoot her as she moved
53:51
Speaker 1: the pot of water. Massey apologized and ducked for cover.
53:55
Speaker 1: The video showed he approached Massey and fired his gun
53:59
Speaker 1: three times, hitting her once in the face. Grayson later
54:03
Speaker 1: said he believed Massey was making a threat to kill him.
54:06
Speaker 1: An autopsy found Massey, who had two teenage children, died
54:10
Speaker 1: of a gunshot wound to her head. Her killing drew
54:13
Speaker 1: widespread condemnation and prompted protests across the country. Sangamon County's Sheriff,
54:19
Speaker 1: Jack Campbell, stepped down a month after the shooting as
54:23
Speaker 1: his office faced criticism for hiring Grayson despite past convictions
54:27
Speaker 1: for driving under the influence and disciplinary issues at previous
54:31
Speaker 1: law enforcement agencies. In August twenty twenty five, Illinois lawmakers
54:35
Speaker 1: passed the Sonia Massy Act, which created stricter hiring practices
54:39
Speaker 1: for law enforcement across Illinois. The law requires law enforcement
54:44
Speaker 1: to thoroughly investigate an applicant's background, especially past discipline or
54:48
Speaker 1: misconduct history with other departments, before hiring them. This item
54:53
Speaker 1: is accompanied by photos. The first is a video captioned
54:58
Speaker 1: body camera footage showing the fatal police shooting of Sonia Massey,
55:02
Speaker 1: who had called nine one one for help on July sixth,
55:05
Speaker 1: video Illinois State Police. The video is described in the
55:09
Speaker 1: text of this article. The next photo is captioned Sean
55:13
Speaker 1: Grayson was six months into a twenty year sentence for
55:16
Speaker 1: second degree murder Macon County Jail via AP, Macon County
55:20
Speaker 1: Jail AP, and the final photo is captioned Donna Massey,
55:26
Speaker 1: center right, wipes tears from her face at a July
55:29
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four news conference in Chicago over the shooting
55:32
Speaker 1: death of her daughter, Sonya Tayler paciek Lavier Chicago Sun
55:37
Speaker 1: Times AP. Another individual in the photo is holding a
55:41
Speaker 1: sign with a photo caption Sonya Massey. Next to the
55:45
Speaker 1: photo are drawings which appear to be from missus Massey's autopsy. Next,
55:50
Speaker 1: from inside the a section is an item entitled Nevada
55:54
Speaker 1: sues over federally mandated reduction in Colorado riverwater use. In
55:59
Speaker 1: the first legal challenge to a long awaited federal plan
56:02
Speaker 1: to stabilize a dwindling Colorado River, Nevada alleges that federal
56:06
Speaker 1: officials violated the law and failed to consider the economic
56:10
Speaker 1: effects of the cuts by sarah Kaplan. Nevada sued the
56:15
Speaker 1: Trump administration Monday over a plan requiring it and two
56:19
Speaker 1: other states to cut Colorado River water use, the first
56:22
Speaker 1: legal challenge to the federal government's attempt to rescue the waterway,
56:26
Speaker 1: which is on the brink of collapse. The state, in
56:29
Speaker 1: his challenge filed in U. S. District Court, said the
56:32
Speaker 1: Interior Department's long awaited drought management plan would cause devastating environmental,
56:39
Speaker 1: socio economic, and health and human safety impacts to southern
56:42
Speaker 1: Nevada and its citizens. The federal plan was developed after
56:47
Speaker 1: the seven states that rely on the river failed to
56:50
Speaker 1: reach a compromise over how to share the pain of
56:53
Speaker 1: mounting water shortages. The move escalates long running tensions over
56:58
Speaker 1: the dwindling body of water, which supports some forty million
57:01
Speaker 1: people across southwestern United States and Mexico. Some experts say
57:06
Speaker 1: it could herald a torrent of high stakes lawsuits among
57:09
Speaker 1: states and the federal government that eventually ends up before
57:13
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court. Yet, Nevada officials argue the potential cuts
57:17
Speaker 1: included in the federal plan, which they say could amount
57:20
Speaker 1: to as much as seventy one percent of the state's
57:23
Speaker 1: annual Colorado River allocation, left them with no choice but
57:27
Speaker 1: to sue. The river supplies roughly ninety percent of water
57:31
Speaker 1: used by Las Vegas and the surrounding region. This isn't
57:35
Speaker 1: about political posturing, Nevada's Republican Governor, Joe Lombardo said in
57:39
Speaker 1: a statement Monday. This is a matter of survival for
57:43
Speaker 1: a community that represents about two thirds of our states
57:46
Speaker 1: citizens and the lion's share of its economy. Representatives for
57:51
Speaker 1: the Interior Department and the Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees
57:55
Speaker 1: the Colorado Rivers, dams and reservoirs, did not respond to
57:58
Speaker 1: requests for comment. Years of overuse, combined with an unprecedented
58:04
Speaker 1: drought worsened by climate change, have pushed the Colorado River
58:09
Speaker 1: to a crisis point. Researchers say Bureau of Reclamation data
58:13
Speaker 1: shows the amount of water flowing through the river this
58:16
Speaker 1: year is about thirty seven percent of the average amount.
58:20
Speaker 1: Water levels in the river's two biggest reservoirs, Lakes Powell
58:24
Speaker 1: and Mead, have fallen to all time lows. Due to
58:28
Speaker 1: the constraints of time, we will be unable to complete
58:31
Speaker 1: this item. This concludes the reading of the Washington Post
58:34
Speaker 1: for Today, Tuesday, August twenty fifth, twenty twenty six. Your
58:39
Speaker 1: reader for today, husband Cindy Fraser. If you have any questions, comments,
58:43
Speaker 1: or suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call
58:46
Speaker 1: us at eight five nine four two two six three
58:49
Speaker 1: nine zero. Thank you for listening, and now please stay
58:52
Speaker 1: tuned for continued programming on Radio I