Transcript

3.5.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post for Thursday,
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March the fifth of twenty twenty six. Your reader is
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Alis Stayina, with the reminder that RADIOI is an organization
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for those blinder with other difficulties in holding a reading
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printed material. So I will start with the front page
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Today's Washington Post. On the far left. Voters in Texas
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show favor for the center. Trump could blunt Democrats momentum
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with key endorsement by Liz Goodwin and Karen Tumulti in
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the center, but going all the way across the top.
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Above the picture a rapid reforging of the Middle East
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in bold and larger letters. That is above a picture
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of shepherds in eastern Syria inspecting an unexploded Iranian projectile
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that landed in an open field on Wednesday. An Iran
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med aura that long backed the likes of Hamas, has
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Belah and the Hooties is gone twenty nine months after
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the Hamas led attacks. There are sheep with little lambs
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like four little lambs and sheep in one to four
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shepherds inspecting this black missile that's got the fore leg.
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It looks like a launchpad upside down a rocket upside
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down with the launch end up in the air, green pasture,
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a brown spot in the middle of it behind, and
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then a city in the far background. And those pictures
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relate to the October seventh lit fused that up ended region,
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its foes mostly crushed. Israel Stands as Hedgeman by David Hendrix,
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and below the picture amid Feud Anthropics Ai too Claude
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Central the US campaign by Terror copp Elizabeth Dalskan and
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Ian Duncan, and Pentagon plays down concerns as US burns
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through munitions by Noah Robertson, Dan Lamoth, Warren Stobell, and
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Allen Nakashima on the left, below the article about Texas
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another one ice may close detention site by Fort Bliss
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Filzerros by Douglas McMillan, and below the article on October
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seventh upending the area is why flu has been getting
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worse than COVID in winter. Unusual strains partially explained the
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difference in severity over time by Finitt Naropol and between
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the article on Fought Bliss and the Flu. Is a
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picture of Lou Holtz nineteen thirty seven to twenty twenty
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six and is a picture of Lou Holts on the
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shoulders and being carried off the field after the Arkansas
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upset Oklahoma in the nineteen seventy eight Orange Bowl. Holts,
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who led Notre Dame to the NCAA nineteen eighty eight
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national national title, later became a broadcaster and he died well.
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I'll start on the left hand side of the page.
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Trump could blunt Democrats' momentum in Texas with key endorsement.
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Republicans are urging Trump to boosts and or John Cornyn
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over his more maga raval to face Democrat James Tallerico
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in the fall. And there's a picture of a Texas
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Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate for the USMNA,
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posing with the supporter in Dallas, and he and Conan
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have a runoff by Liz Goodwin and Karen Tumulty. Texas
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primary voters of both parties voted with cool heads Tuesday,
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rejecting candidates who appealed to their party's baces with more
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inflammatory styles that could have proved risky in a general election.
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A challenge has still remained for Democrat James Tollrico, who
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won the primary outright on a unifying message of reaching
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out to all Texans and for Republican Senator John Cornyan,
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who knows ahead of firebrand Attorney General Ken Paxton but
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now faces a punishing May twenty six runoff against him.
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On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced on social media that
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he soon would pick a candidate in that runoff and
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expects the other person to drop out immediately. Democrats face
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an uphill battle to flip a Senate seat in the
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red state no matter what happens in the runoff, as
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they meant their long shot bid to retake the Senate
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in November. The chamber is currently controlled by Republicans fifty
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three to forty seven, and Democrats must flip several deep
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red states like Texas to regain control. L Rico's victory
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is a big step forward in that quest to win
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back the Senate. Senate Minority Leader Charles C. Schuma, Democrat
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of New York, told reporters Wednesday the next few months
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will determine how well positioned Texas Democrats are to regain
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a Senate feet that's eluded them for over thirty years,
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As the party hopes unusually have voter enthusiasm and weariness
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with Trump could fuel their comeback. Del Rico in the
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coming months must work to unite the party by attracting
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black voters who's strongly backed his opponent, all while fending
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off coming attacks from the right painting him as a
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radical in the red state, and Cornan's political survival may
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depend on the actions of someone who is notoriously hard
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to predict or corral. Trump. Corlin's allies in the Senate
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have made an aggressive case to the President in recent
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months to back the senator, and I hope well he
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will do so now that he's shown the ability to
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beat Paxton on his own. Trump said he wanted his
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coming endorsement to head off two more months of ugly
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campaigning among the Republicans. It is such an honor to
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realize that almost everyone I endorse wins, and wins by
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a lot, especially in Texas, he wrote in a social
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media post, adding I will be making my endorsement soon
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and will be asking the candidate that I don't endorse
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to immediately all cap drop out of the race. Trump
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said the party must totally focus all caps on beating
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Tallervico Corning, a fourth term senator who is widely considered
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to be a stronger general election candidate. Then scandal plagued
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Paxton fell short of the fifty percent mark that would
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have avoided a runoff. Paxon was impeached by the GOP
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controlled Texas House in May of twenty twenty three on
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charges of bribery, but was acquitted by the Senate. Cornon
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warned Paxton that judgment was coming for him. I refused
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to allow a flaud, self centered, and shameless candidate like
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Ken Paxton to risk everything we've worked so hard to build,
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Cornyn told reporters on it. At his election night party
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in Dallas, Paxton said he would not go quietly or
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like Cornyan by the seat, referencing the tens of millions
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of dollars Cornyan and his allies poured into the race.
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A spokesman for Paxton did not immediately return a request
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for comment on Trump's announcement. The bidter intro Republican warfare
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marked a stark contrast to the Democratic side of the Ledger,
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where Representative Jasmine Crockett set aside her earlier attacks on
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tule Rico and urged Democrats to come together Wednesday. Whether
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it's Ken Paxton or Join Cornan, anyone would be better,
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Crockett said in the video she posted Wednesday. She added
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she was heartbroken by the people who had been turned
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away from vote. Tell Rico also urged unity, telling his
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supporters Tuesday the stakes in Texas are too high for division.
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Mudslinging in the final weeks of the race may have
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caused some damage that tell Rico will need to repair
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ahead of November. However, Crockett called the argument that Tallerco
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was more electable than her a dog whistle and slammed
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him for not condemning ads run by a super pack
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that suppor voted him as straight up racist. Tolrico does
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not control the super Pac, and the group denied darkening
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Crockett's skin. In an ad, those words were in a parenthesis.
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Crockett ran strong with his date's black voters, while Tolerico
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appeared to run away with a Latino vote in the state.
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He beat Crockett by about thirty points in the twenty
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one counties that are at least seventy five percent Latino.
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In counties that were twenty percent or more black, Crockett
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edged himrate by twenty five percentage points. Nancy zinduquits a
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Texas Democrat. Poster said she believed that much of the
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Crockett Tolerrico tensions played out online rather than on the
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campaign trail, and that the primary electric was not divided.
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Zendankuzgi said Crockett has conceded graciously, and I don't want
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to overstate any damage done simply because of the social
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media dialog, which was unnoticed by voters, she said. Kamala Harris,
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the former Vice president who backed Crockett in the final
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days of the race, urged voters to unify as well.
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Harris said, I congratulate James tull Rico for his win
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and the inspiring campaign he continues to build. I'll offer
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him by full support of the months ahead, Harris said
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in a statement. Trump appears eager to avoid a scenario
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in which both Republicans stay in the race and attack
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each other, potentially hurting GOP enthusiasm ahead of November. If
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Trump backs Cornin, that would likely give the Senator, who
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struggle to energize MAGA voters, the edge against Paxton. Runoffs
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tend to feature a smaller, more intense group of voters
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compared with regular primaries, which makes the Trump endorsement all
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the more critical for Cornan. Cornan's allies have warned that
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the President that should Paxton be their nominee, the party
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would have to spend two hundred million dollars to get
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him over the finish line, a hall that would take
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away from other competitive Senate races Republicans are defending in Maine,
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North Carolina, and Ohio. Paxton historically has not been a
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strong fundwaizer, and Democrats have nominated Toallerco, whom they see
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as a stronger candidate than Crockett in the general election
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and may take more resources to beat that. The match
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up that's good for us is John Cornan at the
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top of the ticket. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican
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of South Dakota, told reporters Wednesday, adding he's positioned to
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win the runoff, and if the President endorses early, it
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saves everybody a lot of money. Cornan has Trump connected
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allies on his side as they make this pitch, including
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Trump's former campaign manager Chris Losabda, who is running his superpack,
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and Trump's post to Tony Ferrizio. Cornin out performed the
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pre election public polling that showed him trailing Paxton. Internal
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GOP numbers showed him closing the gap in the final
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days of the primary race as Representative Wesley Hunts prospects faded.
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La Sabda tweeted Tuesday night referring to Paxton consultant Jeff Rowe,
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who is rebound by many in Trump world. A at
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Ken Paxton, TX and at Jeff row the second wave
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is going to be a bitch dot dot, Losavita wrote,
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Republicans in this state are sounding the alarm about record
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breaking primary tournate for Democrats, which they sees as signifier
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of high enthusiasm going into November. Ross Hunt, a Republican poster,
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called the turnout a code read art for Texas Republicans.
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In an analysis he published earlier this week, he predicted
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Democrats have added more than four hundred and eighty thousand
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voters to their turnout in the fall. Republicans will need
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to do everything right this fall. We will need to
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elect and select the best nominees for the general election,
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maximize GOP turnout, practice the intense message discipline, and have
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a clear eyed and dispassionate understanding of where the new
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front line of defense stands. After March third, Ross Hunt wrote,
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and now the far right from Hamas attack to US
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war with Iran islance forges a new Middle East. The
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October seventh, twenty twenty three strike on Israel began a
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historic reordering of the region, one that continues in the
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current war, but hardly in the manner its sponsors intended.
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And you can see a plume of smoke arising in
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Tehran after an explosion on Monday, and there are four
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people on a high hill overlooking the city and you
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just see the white smoke going billowing in the wind
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and in the distance. By Steve Hendricks out of Jerusalem
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early on a cool autumn morning in twenty twenty three,
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from a tunnel beneath the Gaza Strip, the Aya Sinwari
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gave on noora that sent thousands of Hamas fighters through
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the fence separating the territory from Israel. That green light
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has reordered the Middle East on a scale comparable to
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the Arab spring of the carving up of the Ottoman
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Empire in the early twentieth century, but not remotely in
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the ways Sinhwar had had in mind. Twenty nine months later,
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the Middle East is almost unrecognizable. Israel stands indisputedly as
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the military hedgeman, its enemies demolished or decapitated. Saudi Arabia
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is emerging as a pivotal economic and political ankle, Its
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Persian Gulf neighbors reeling under Iranian missile file. Palestinians morning
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seventy five thousand dead in a shattered Gaza and losing
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territory in the West Bank, seemed marginalized by everyone again.
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Sinhwar is dead, assassinated by Israel in October of twenty
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twenty four, and after nearly two and a half years
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of bloodshed and upheaval, the network he hoped would ride
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to his rescue is in ruin. Iranian Supreme leader alec
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Hamini was blown up in a joint US Israeli airstrike
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on Saturday. The regime that bankrolled and armed the access
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of Resistance for four decades is on the edge of collapse,
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perhaps taking with it Hamas Hezballah and the Hutis. Tehran,
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facing a chaotic and uncertain succession, is making enemies of
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the entire region, firing drones and missiles haphazardly and often vainly,
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including civilian targets. But Shah Alasad, the longtime Syrian ruler
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now lives in frigid Moscow, driving the military campaign and
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aiming to shape the region's future. Is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
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who has survived repeated government collapses and arrest warrant by
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the International Criminal Court and years of corrupt trials to
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lead Israel to an unprecedented military dominance. And President Donald Trump,
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who overcame two impeachments, of felony conviction and an assassination
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attempt to return to the White House and take the
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United States to war against Iran without a vote of Congress.
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There's a picture of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
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Netanyahu at the White House. While Israel has faced allegations
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of genocide, a new generation of Israeli are now bearing
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the traumas of war like their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents.
18:41
And while American soldiers are once again dying in the
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Middle East in a war of uncertain duration and unclear goals,
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what Sinha set off was not a liberation, but an
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unraveling of everything he and his sponsors yearned for. A
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defeated Israel, Palestinian hopes for statehood, a Middle East reared
19:03
of Western influence, the so called Great Satan looks small
19:08
like the Great Decider tor prepared a colossal miscalculation leading
19:16
to catastrophic consequences. That cataclysmic event single handedly changed the
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face of the Middle East, said Blal Saab, a Chatham
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House fellow and former Pentagon official in the first Trump administration.
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But what these changes ultimately yield remains one of the
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most consequential open questions in modern geopolitics. The old Auro
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ran as the region's disruptive spine, its proxies as tools
19:52
of pressure and deterrence is gone. What replaces it as
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an unpredictable mix of impeding ambitions, fresh grievances, destroyed cities,
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and ungoverned spaces. Israel is dominant but isolated, its neighbors
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wondering and wondering what it will do with its power
20:15
and how it will deal with ongoing hatred of its
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vanquished enemies. The Gulf States, including the signas of Trump's
20:22
Abraham Accords, are shaken and skeptical of American guarantees. Saudi
20:29
Arabia and Turkey are repositioning, but for what and against
20:33
whom are yet unknown. Much could depend on who or
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what comes next. In Tehran, where Hamieni's demes demise has
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left a vacuum. European colonials put their pencils to a
20:48
map after World War One to divide up deserts, wadis
20:52
and mountains, dismantle the crumbling Ottoman Empire and create the
20:57
modern Middle East. The Arabs spring of twenty eleven cracked it.
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What unfolds now could come from a new mold entirely.
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Ali Vaist, director of the Ran Project at the International
21:13
Crisis Group, said this has changed the region forever, but
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with what consequences. Still has to play out proxy forces.
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On October six, twenty twenty three, it was all different.
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Araand's proxy network was, by most measures, at the peak
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of its power. Hamas governed Gaza, has Bellah held Lebanon
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hostage with one hundred thousand rockets. Asad sat in Damascus,
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reintegrating into the Arab League after years of isolation. The
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UTIs controlled the Yemeni coast and menaced shipping lanes with
21:54
near impunity. Behind them, all stood Ran with a nuclear program,
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view ud as an imminent threat in Jerusalem and the West,
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backed by missile arsenal, regarded as a strong deterrent against
22:08
the direct Israeli or American attack golf nations were quietly
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re establishing ties with the Islamic Republic. Bez said two
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years later. None of the o's pillows are still standing,
22:24
and the Islamic Republic is never going to be the same. Iran,
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as a country that can determine the trajectory of the region,
22:32
is no longer the clearest beneficiary is Israel, which is
22:38
viewed Aroan as its extentisial nemesis for decades. Since October
22:45
seventh of twenty twenty three, Israel has neutralized every major
22:49
threat on its borders, struck the Iranian homeland repeatedly, and
22:53
now killed its mortal enemies Supreme Leader. Many within Israel's
22:59
security establishment believe the country is more secure within its
23:03
borders now than at any time since its founding in
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nineteen forty eight. Despite the Iranian missile still falling and
23:12
the still smoldering rubble in Gaza, we are still traumatized
23:17
from the October seventh event. There is still war, said
23:23
former senior Israel Defense Forces official, who remains close to
23:27
military leaders and who, like others interviewed for this article,
23:31
spoke on the condition of an inimnity to discuss sensitive issues,
23:37
but I can tell you that no one but the
23:39
biggest dreamers ever thought we would be in the position
23:42
we are in now. Israel is not untouchable, but we
23:47
have made it very expensive to touch us. Israeli officials
23:52
say that they want to use their supremacy for regional
23:55
good and that they hope Iranians will under one day
24:00
joy freedom peace through strength. When this is over, I
24:06
think you're going to hear our leaders talk about Israel's
24:10
desire for peace through strength, said an Israeli official, adding
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we are going to fight our enemies as strongly as
24:18
possible and hug our friends as close as possible. Historically,
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Israel has justified its massive military as a shield against
24:27
hostile neighbors, a defensive croach that gave it little experience
24:31
with more political or economic leadership in the region. I
24:36
would describe Israel as a reluctant Hedgman sab said, adding
24:41
it has a tremendous capacity to defeat its enemies, but
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it has shown no interest in propping up political systems
24:48
in place of what they have destroyed. The focus on
24:52
security comforts Israelis, but unnerves their neighbors and Israel unbound
24:58
by regional rivals, fears of overreach, and adventurism, especially in
25:05
the West Bank. The warriors will spike if the United States,
25:09
given the likelihood that Trump declares victory over Iran, pulls
25:13
back from the Middle East, or otherwise gives Jerusalem a
25:16
free hand. Saib said, as much as Golf leaders would
25:21
love to see the Iranian regime gone, they also worry
25:25
about the trigger happiness of Israel. How Israel exercises its
25:31
dominance may depend on what follows in Iran once the
25:34
missiles and drones run out, which some Western military experts
25:38
say could happen within days. Trump has exhorted Iranians into
25:44
the streets to seize power for themselves, but few of
25:47
the experience in the region predict that a freely elected
25:50
government is likely anytime soon. Even if citizens rise up
25:55
against the regime forces they killed more than sixty eight
25:59
hundred protests in January. According to advocacy groups, an organized
26:05
opposition has yet to emerge. Factions within the regime already
26:09
maneuvering for power. A military hunter of Islamic Revolutionary Guard
26:14
Corps officers could succeed the regime they now serve. Nor
26:19
does the crack up of the Iranian access guarantee and
26:22
and to terrorism and militancy it generated. Hesbillah continues to
26:28
FI missiles at Israel and even Cyprus. Hoodie rebels masters
26:33
of their mountainous bad lands and Yemen could target shipping
26:37
in the Red Sea for years to come, uncertainty and disorder.
26:43
The threats could widen and perhaps include sectarian strife. Iotolahamini
26:50
was not just a head of state, he was a
26:53
religious leader for something like two hundred million Schiites worldwide.
26:58
Should Shira Ephron Levy based fellow at RAND, the security
27:03
think tank. In any case, shahedrones setting tourists zones ablaze
27:10
have exploded. Whatever hopes, Iran harbored for better taz with
27:14
its Muslim neighbors by striking hotels, apartments, ports and embassies
27:20
in the United Arab Immirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other nations.
27:25
What's left of the regime in Tehran has ensured even
27:28
more extreme isolation. The level of psychological damage the Iranians
27:35
have done to the sense of security in these countries
27:39
is enormous, said a former US diplomat in the region,
27:43
adding Iran will be more and more isolated economically and politically.
27:49
It's a country of ninety million people that could become
27:53
more like North Korea. Emerging as unlikely co tenants of
27:58
whatever order is to come are Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
28:03
Riod has the money and the legitimacy, Ankra has the
28:07
agility and the ambition. Neither fully trust the other. Both
28:12
are watching Israel's dominance with unease and Washington's erratic stewardship
28:18
with skepticism. Both are hedging deepening ties with China, according India,
28:24
keeping lines open to Russia even as they remain for
28:28
now in the American orbit, and both are being watched
28:32
by the Gulf States, battered and newly vulnerable, as well
28:36
as by every capital from Cairo to Pakistan's Islamabad. What
28:42
none of them can yet see is the shape of
28:45
the things being born. The old Middle East had a logic, however,
28:50
brutal Iran as a disruptor, American as a grand toile,
28:56
Israel as a contained power, the Gulf States as finance
29:00
of stability. What replaces it will be decided in Trump's
29:05
whims as a real estate developer and self proclaimed peacemaker
29:10
in terrain succession struggle in Riad's throne, rooms, in Anchor's
29:16
presidential palace, and in the rubble of Gaza, where Sinoa's
29:20
great gamble ended not in liberation but in ash and blood,
29:26
and where the Middle East's next chapter, unwritten and unpredictable,
29:32
has already begun. Well, let's go to something totally different
29:38
from war. But it's a different type of war in
29:41
the personal body, and this is also on the front page.
29:46
Flu was again worse than COVID this winter. Is that
29:51
pattern here to stay. Flu has taken over COVID in
29:57
infections and hospitalization during the winter respiratory virus season, and
30:03
their virulence is becoming similar the finite Naropal heard about
30:10
a lot of people getting flu this winter, but not
30:13
much about COVID. It's not just you. For the second
30:18
winter in a row, the United States has faced a
30:21
punishing flu season, with COVID as a more muted threat.
30:26
Early in the COVID pandemic, coronavirus proved far more transmissible
30:31
and deadly as it ripped through the world than the
30:34
flu typically was. Flu was almost nonexistent in that first
30:39
pandemic winter in twenty twenty twenty one. Now that tsars
30:45
dash Covid dash II is no longer a novel virus
30:50
sweeping through a population with little immunity. Covid and influenza
30:55
illnesses are becoming more similar, with a key difference. Corona
31:01
virus circulates year round and ticks up in the summer.
31:06
When flu is gone, Does that mean flu is now
31:11
the woe of the winter and covid is the scourge
31:15
of the summer. It's complicated and too soon to say.
31:21
We don't know where covid is going. I really don't
31:24
think we know what is the next season going to
31:26
look like, said Mensha Zutani, Connecticut's top public health official
31:34
and president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
31:40
She added, but we do know we have an intervention
31:44
that still helps protect people for both for flu and covid.
31:51
She referred to vaccines. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious
31:58
diseases at Vanderbilt University, said people should expect variation in
32:03
the rise and fall of respiratory viruses. They don't all
32:08
hit home runs, he said, but some of them hit
32:13
triples and doubles and singles, and the individual patient doesn't
32:17
care which virus it was that put them in the hospital.
32:22
The numbers this season, the Centers for Disease Control and
32:27
Prevention estimates twenty five million have been infected with flu,
32:31
three hundred and thirty thousand have been hospitalized, and twenty
32:36
thousand have died so far this season. For COVID, the
32:40
CDC estimates between three million to nine million became ill
32:45
since October, between ninety six thousand and one hundred and
32:50
seventy thousand were hospitalized and between ten thousand and thirty
32:55
thousand died. Hospital numbers don't capture how most people actually
33:01
experience these illnesses. Mina inconveniences are nasty bugs that leave
33:06
you feeling lousy and homebound. Wastewater tracking, which measures viral
33:12
particles and sewers to track viral trends, also shows that
33:16
flu has surged and COVID has seen a small uptick,
33:20
smaller than the summer wave for summer. COVID really is
33:25
the highlight of the story about respiratory disease, said Marlene Wolf, An,
33:30
assistant professor at Emery University and program director of Wastewater Scan,
33:36
an organization that tracks diseases through sewerage. Whereas in the winter,
33:42
we have a more complicated mixture of covid and flu
33:46
this year, peaking at about the same time. That adds
33:50
an increased burden on the healthcare setting, and it also
33:53
results in the possibility of co infection in individual people
33:58
who could become more sick if they are infected with
34:01
both viruses at the same time. In last year's flu season,
34:06
the CDC estimates fifty one million people got sick, seven
34:11
hundred and ten thousand were hospitalized, and forty five thousand died,
34:17
including nearly three hundred children, the biggest pediatric death toll
34:21
since two thousand nine. About nineteen thousand people died of
34:26
covid during that flu season. Why flu has hit harder
34:33
the severity of the last two flu seasons can be
34:36
explained in part by unusual flu strains. The n H
34:41
three N two strain of influza influenza A, which is
34:46
typically associated with more severe illnesses and older people circulating
34:52
around the world, mutated after public health officials selected the
34:56
strained vaccine manufacturers should target. That left the annual flu
35:01
shot offering less protection than hoped, similar to what happened
35:05
last year. This mutation is the major reason that we
35:11
had two big flu seasons in a row, which is
35:14
very unusual. Schaeffner said. This is one of the main
35:18
reasons experts are reticent to say COVID will keep playing
35:22
second fiddle to flu in the winter. Short term immunity
35:26
and strains can shift for each disease from season to season.
35:32
COVID has to keep changing to keep infecting people, but
35:36
in the last two years we haven't seen the significant
35:39
leap forward in mutations needed to render immunity to severe
35:43
illness MOOT and force hospitals to reopen COVID wards. Strains
35:49
selected for updates to annual COVID vaccines have been fairly
35:53
well matched to the variants circulating in winter. The last
35:57
two years. COVID was a German shepherd. It's now a chiwaba,
36:05
said Zayid al Allah, director of Clinical Epidemology Center at
36:11
VA State oh VA Saint Louis Healthcare System. Mutations to
36:20
the coronavirus since twenty twenty have left it less adept at,
36:25
causing inflammation and attacking the lungs, said Al Alai, who
36:30
is one of the nation's leading researchers on COVID patient outcomes.
36:35
Scientists hope this trend continues. We have four other coronaviruses
36:40
that circulate in humans for a long time, and they
36:44
can be severe too in some cases, but usually they
36:47
do much less damage than the tsar's cove dash too,
36:52
said Floren Kramer, a virologist and professor of vaccinology at
36:57
the Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, sating the
37:05
hope is over time that csar's covid two will end
37:09
up as the fifth one that is there but is
37:12
not doing that much damage. Other infectious disease experts caution
37:18
that it's not changes in the virus alone that explains
37:21
the softer bite. Humans are changing too, changing immunity. Practically
37:29
everyone has been affected with the coronavirus or vaccinated against it,
37:33
leaving bodies much better trained to fight off the virus.
37:38
Public health experts where a vaccination rates will slip, especially
37:43
in the older and very young Americans most likely to
37:47
become severely ill. Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior,
37:52
who is an anti vaccine activist, federal health officials have
37:57
backed away from full throated endorsement months of both flu
38:01
and covid immunizations. The CDC estimates a third of adults
38:07
ages sixty five and old to have received the most
38:10
updated COVID vaccine, dropping nine percentage points since last year.
38:16
More than two thirds of seniors have been vaccinated for flu,
38:20
roughly the same as last year. Jennifer Nuzzo, an epedimologist
38:26
and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School
38:29
of Public Health, said the conditions for serious COVID waves
38:34
are feasible arising population of susceptible people as new children
38:38
are born and are not vaccinated, fewer at risk people
38:43
staying up to date on shots, and mutations to the virus.
38:48
It could take off again. Will it ever be like
38:51
twenty twenty? I don't think so. I think the virus
38:54
would have to change considerably, neu Zou said, which virus
39:00
works early in the pandemic, Public health officials pushed back
39:05
often pushed back on people dismissing COVID as being just
39:09
like the flu. Now the two are often lumped together
39:12
in health messaging. In a study of millions of patient
39:16
records at Veterans Affairs hospitals, researchers found that hospitalization and
39:22
death rates for COVID plunged in the twenty twenty five season,
39:26
falling below the rates for flu for the first time,
39:30
be a patients of disproportionately older white men, making it
39:34
difficult to generalize the findings. In Denmark, which has more
39:39
robust data across its population thanks to a universal healthcare system,
39:45
researchers noticed a shift after it also experienced a bad
39:48
flu season and gentler covid winter wave last year. The
39:53
death rate for COVID and flu became similar after mortality
39:57
risk from COVID was far higher in earlier seasons. Researchers
40:03
theorized that the change could be explained by improved cellular
40:08
immunity for COVID, worst cellular immunity for flu, or both.
40:14
They are pretty close to each other influenza and Sara's
40:18
COVID two. But that doesn't mean it's good, because influenza
40:22
is dangerous too, Kramus, said. Al Ali, one of the
40:27
researches on the VA study, cautioned against being dismissive of COVID.
40:32
Unlike influenza, which is primarily a respiratory illness, COVID can
40:37
affect multiple organ systems, including the heart, brain, and gastro
40:42
intestinal system. While the lasting complications known as long COVID
40:47
have become less prevalent, they are still a distinguishing feature
40:51
from the flu. His research, reviewing records for patients eighteen
40:57
months after they were hospitalized for flu before the pandemic
41:02
of a coronavirus for the first two and a half
41:04
years of the pandemic, found that the covid patients were
41:08
far more likely to die or have long term complications.
41:12
It will take more time to see if that pattern
41:15
holds after the flu covid numbers flipped. Al Ali said,
41:22
if you only look at the dashboards with what's out there,
41:27
you will not see the long term health effects. You
41:31
will not see what's underneath that tip of the iceberg
41:36
going inside. Senate build to help Americans afford housing nears
41:43
the finish line. The long awaited bipartisan legislation has White
41:48
House backing and includes a measure to ban large investors
41:52
from buying hundreds of homes thy Riley Beggin and Rachel Siegel.
42:00
The US Senate is closing in on a new bipartisan
42:04
package aimed at bringing down the cost of housing, as
42:08
both parties fight to prove their making life more affordable
42:12
for Americans ahead of the midterm elections. The legislation, unveiled Monday,
42:18
focuses on incentives for building new homes. It would approve
42:24
new grants to revamp aging hoses, allow for accelerated environmental
42:29
reviews for housing developments, and to create a new program
42:33
to turn abandoned buildings into housing and more. The bill
42:38
would also ban large institutional investors from owning more than
42:43
three hundred and fifty single family homes at President Donald
42:47
Trump's request, a controversial proposal among the Republicans that he
42:53
called for during the State of the Union address. The
42:57
bill marks the most consequential housing leg in roughly three
43:01
decades and has widespread support among builders, legislators, trade groups,
43:07
and more. And it shows how non controversial efforts to
43:10
make hosing more affordable have become. The median sale price
43:15
of a host was over four hundred and five thousand
43:17
dollars in late two twenty twenty five, according to Federal
43:22
daughter State Banking Committee Chairman. Senator Tim Scott, a Republican
43:28
of South Carolina, has spearheaded the legislation with Senators Elizabeth
43:34
Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the panel. Scott
43:40
told reporters Tuesday that the median age of first time
43:43
home buyers now forty years old, shows hosing affordability has
43:48
moved in the wrong direction. I think you reverse it
43:53
by focusing on not red or blue. I think we
43:57
have to focus on the country as a whole, and
44:00
the issue of affordability is something that all Americans are
44:04
leaning into, Scott said, adding we have a bipartisan piece
44:09
of legislation at a time where almost nothing seems to
44:12
be bipartisan. The White House said Mundy it strongly supports
44:19
the new Senate plan. The White House has been encouraged
44:23
by the productive discussions with Congress, Spokesman Davis Ingalls said
44:29
in a statement. The legislation, dubbed the twenty first Century
44:33
Road to Hosing Act, combines pieces of a Host passed
44:39
measure with the pre existing Senate proposal. It's designed to
44:43
convince enough Host members to support the plan, though it's
44:49
not guaranteed they will. Representative French Hill, Republican of Arkansas,
44:56
chair of the Host Financial Services Committee, praised the Senate
45:00
effort at a Millican Institute event Tuesday, though he did
45:04
not commit to supporting its bill. He said he was
45:07
disappointed it didn't include community banking provisions from the House bill,
45:13
those Republicans may be convinced to support the ban on
45:17
large corporate home buyers with tweaked language, He added, I
45:22
think we really just need to wait and see how
45:24
that passes. Musta in the Senate before we passed judgment
45:29
on the final language, Hill said. Scott and Warren's teams
45:33
have been working on the Senate bill since early last year.
45:37
By summer, the Senators had hammered out the road in
45:42
Caps to Housing Act, which won unanimous support from the
45:46
Senate Banking Committee and included input from every member. It
45:51
submitted a key Scott priority to make it easier to
45:55
build manufactured housing, and a Warren proposal to reboard local
45:59
governments that build Moore hosing with new funding for infrastructure.
46:04
Earlier this year, Trump reached out to Warren in a
46:07
highly unusual phone call during which the two discussed hosing legislation.
46:13
On Monday night, the full Senate advanced it with a
46:17
vote of eighty four to six. The Host passed its
46:22
own legislation, the Hosing for the Twenty first Century Act,
46:26
earlier this month. The Senate bill also includes an unrelated
46:31
fifteen year ban on the Federal Reserve, creating a Central
46:35
Bank digital currency added to win over reluctantly or potentially
46:41
reluctant Republicans who have raised privacy concerns about a potential
46:46
federal digital currency. The package includes the vast majority of
46:52
the Senate's unanimously supported Road to Hosing Act, incorporates bipartisan
46:59
host ideas from the House, and takes a good first
47:03
step to reign in corporate landlords that is squeezing families
47:07
out of home ownership. Warren said in a statement. The
47:11
measure is gaining momentum both as both political parties rush
47:15
to help Americans who have struggled to buy new homes
47:18
and afford rent. Much of the White House's housing agenda
47:23
has focused on deporting immigrants, which officials say will open
47:27
up more homes. Economists and experts have panned that argument,
47:33
saying the country needs more homes. What's clear is that
47:37
voters are tired of the problem. Healthcare, new cars, and
47:41
new homes feel unaffordable to most Americans. A Washington Post
47:46
ABC News IPSOS polls show first time bias make up
47:51
just twenty one percent of the market, an all time
47:54
low according to the National Association of Realtors. Lately, buyers
48:00
have gotten summ relief, with mortgage rates dipping below six percent,
48:05
but prices are still ticking up, rising one point three
48:09
percent in December over the year before, according to the
48:12
closely watched S and P cotality case shilah US national
48:18
home Prices and Essay Index. The legislation builds on a
48:24
Trump pledge from earlier this year, banning large investors from
48:28
buying single family homes, albeit with few details. Democrats had
48:34
pushed for years to limit Wall Street's involvement in the
48:36
housing market. Warren in Scott's housing bill would require that
48:41
over time, large institutional investors shared homes in their portfolios
48:47
instead of adding them. It also says that while investors
48:51
and private equity firms can build new construction, they have
48:55
to eventually sell to real people within seven years. But
49:00
many economists from the right and the left say larger
49:03
investors do not have and as expanse of a grip
49:07
on the housing market as lawmakers might suggest. A twenty
49:11
to eighty three paper from the center left Hamilton Project
49:15
found that large institutional investors owned just over three percent
49:20
of single family rental stock, though that might be higher
49:24
in some markets. Michael Strain, director of Economic policy studies
49:30
at American Enterprise Institute said the proposal could also have
49:35
unintended consequences for prices, since many large investors build rental
49:40
properties that are still needed in the market. He said
49:44
there wasn't a reason to be absolutest about who can
49:48
and can't buy homes, especially without a clear sense of
49:51
how much households would save under a ban. This feels
49:57
more to me like the populace left and popat bulous
50:00
right pointing the finger at elite Wall Street firms and
50:04
trying to blame them for affordability issues. Strained said, don't
50:10
know if I can finish this article, but I do
50:13
feel it's interesting. Spanish Prime minister rebukes Trump's war in Iran,
50:18
escalating feud by criticizing the US letter attack and refusing
50:23
to bow to Trump's threat of trade retaliation. Pedero Sanchez
50:29
set himself apart from other European leaders by Anthony Faola
50:35
and Ellen Francis out of Rome. As other European leaders
50:39
offer parsed words about faces or outright backing for the
50:44
US Israeli attack on Iran, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
50:50
delivered a striking rebuke winsday President Donald Trump's military foray,
50:55
refusing to back down a day after Trump threatened to
50:59
cut off with Spain. Dueling accounts later in the day
51:03
had the White House saying that Madrid, which had refused
51:06
to allow its spaces to be used in the Iran attacks,
51:10
had backed down and would cooperate, acclaimed the Spanish government
51:15
quickly denied. For months, the left leaning Sanchez has been
51:19
emerging as the embodiment of European resistance to Trump, locking
51:24
horns with the president on defense spending while contrasting the
51:28
mass legalization of migrants in Spain to the cruel crackdowns elsewhere.
51:34
As the attack on Iran unfolded Saturday, Sanchez condemned the
51:39
Iranian regime, but also denounced the US Israeli operation as
51:44
contributing to a more uncertain and hostile international autumn. Trump
51:50
escalated Tuesday, threatening to cut off trade with Spain, but
51:54
Sanchez doubled down on his high stakes clash with Trump
51:58
with stealing criticism in a national address Wednesday. Sanchez said
52:04
in his speech, seemingly referring to Trump, We're not going
52:09
to be complicit in something that's bad for the world,
52:13
nor contrary to our values and interest simply to avoid
52:17
reprisals from someone. In a sharp jab Sanchez evoked the
52:23
memory of the two thousand and three US led invasion
52:26
of Iraq, warning that we must learn from history and
52:30
we cannot play Russian roulette with the fate of millions
52:34
of people. Twenty three years ago, another American administration dragged
52:39
US into award the Middle East, a wall that, in
52:43
theory then was being raged to eliminate Saddam Hussein's weapons
52:48
of mass destruction, bring democracy and guarantee global security, but
52:54
which in reality, seen in perspective, produced the opposite effect.
52:59
It triggered the biggest wave of the insecurity our continent
53:03
has experience since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Sanchez
53:08
said this fat deepened late Wednesday after White House Press
53:12
Secretary Caroline Levitt told reporters with respect to Spain, I
53:16
think they heard the President's message yesterday loud and clear,
53:20
and it's my understanding. Over the last several hours they've
53:23
agreed to cooperate with the US military, and so I
53:26
know that the US military is coordinating with their counterparts
53:30
in Spain. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albades rejected Levitt's claims,
53:38
she is the spokesperson of the White House, but I
53:41
am the Foreign Minister of the Spanish government, and I
53:44
am saying that apposition about the use of air bases,
53:47
about the war in the Middle East and the bombardment
53:50
of Iran has not changed at all, he told the
53:54
Sedina SCR radio at work. Alvars added, not a single
54:01
comma has changed, and I have no idea whatsoever what
54:07
they might be referring to. Tuesday morning, the Spanish Defense
54:11
Ministry announced it would dispatch its most advanced frigerate, the
54:15
Cristobal Colon, to Cyprus to provide air defense and protection,
54:21
a role it described as demonstrating its commitment to the
54:25
defense of the European Union and its eastern border. Some
54:30
adverse observers warned that Sanchez was playing with fire, noting
54:35
that a full on economic confrontation with Trump would derailed
54:39
Spain's new economic miracle and its status is one of
54:42
the fastest growing economies in Europe. But Sanchez, slumping in
54:47
the Poles and roiled by scandal, yet unknown for having
54:51
nine political lives, appeared to be gambling on Trump's unpopularity
54:55
in Spain, particularly among the Prime minister's own lif left
55:00
wing base. And with that I conclude today's reading of
55:04
The Washington Post for March the fifth of twenty twenty six.
55:10
Please continue listening to Radio I enjoy the warmth of
55:13
this day ahead. I will be back on Saturday. Bye.