Transcript

10.6.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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Speaker 1: October 6, 2026. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
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Speaker 1: reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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Speaker 1: other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Speaker 1: Your reader for today is Cindy Fraser. Today's front page
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Speaker 1: headlines from the Washington Post are Heated Debates Presage Iran
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Speaker 1: Issues Pentagon Officials Had a Dispute Over Bombing the Houthis Next,
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Speaker 1: Israeli settlers are racing to reshape West Bank. Government-backed expansion
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Speaker 1: is carried out with violence. The next headline, justices mulling
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Speaker 1: climate decision. Big oil liability is at center of case.
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Speaker 1: Supreme Court listens to sides' arguments. Next, U.S. officials seeking
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Speaker 1: details of reported Russian plague death. Russia's hesitation to share information.
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Speaker 1: complicates the situation. The next headline, Election 2026, Four Ways
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Speaker 1: the Midterms Could Finish in a Month. Democrats Have Polls
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Speaker 1: and History on Their Side. Republicans Have Money. And the
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Speaker 1: final headline from today's front page, J. Dennis Hastert, 1942-2026,
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Speaker 1: Ex-House Speaker's Legacy Was Failed by Abuse Admission. helped push
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Speaker 1: President George W. Bush's legislative agenda. Let's turn to our
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Speaker 1: first item entitled, Heated Debates Presaged Iran Issues. Pentagon officials
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Speaker 1: had a dispute over bombing the Houthis. By Dan Limov,
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Speaker 1: Rachel Chason, and Suzanne Haydamos. As Houthi militants in Yemen
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Speaker 1: attacked ships with missiles and drones in the Red Sea
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Speaker 1: early last year, top U.S. officials gathered at the Pentagon
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Speaker 1: to prepare military options for President Donald Trump. Their meetings
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Speaker 1: repeatedly grew tense. On one side were General Michael Eric Kurila,
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Speaker 1: then overseeing U.S. operations in the Middle East, and other
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Speaker 1: hawks ready for action. The general was keen on military action,
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Speaker 1: not only against the Houthis, but also against Iran, which
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Speaker 1: had backed the Yemeni paramilitary group for years with weapons
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Speaker 1: and training, according to people familiar with the matter. Like others,
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Speaker 1: they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal
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Speaker 1: government deliberations. On the other side were officials hesitant to
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Speaker 1: launch military strikes so early in the second Trump administration,
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Speaker 1: including the Joint Chiefs Chairman, General Charles Q. Brown Jr.,
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Speaker 1: who suggested that new U.S. assessments of what military action
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Speaker 1: might yield would be wise before presenting the president with
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Speaker 1: military options. That triggered an abrupt response from Carilla, people
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Speaker 1: familiar with the matter said, General, Carrillo said, the time
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Speaker 1: for assessments is over. The exchange, which has not been
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Speaker 1: previously reported, surprised some in the room. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,
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Speaker 1: then new to his role, agreed with Carrillo, people familiar
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Speaker 1: with the matter said. The disagreement came as other Pentagon appointees,
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Speaker 1: including then Senior Advisor Dan Caldwell and policy official Alex Velas-Green,
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Speaker 1: repeatedly raised questions in meetings about how an extended military
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Speaker 1: campaign against the Houthis could deplete stocks of key U.S. munitions,
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Speaker 1: the people familiar with the discussion said. That issue has
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Speaker 1: since grown in prominence as the Trump administration burned through
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Speaker 1: its arsenal of cruise missiles and interceptors in a war
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Speaker 1: with Iran that is now seven months old. In recent weeks,
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Speaker 1: the Iranian-backed Houthi militants have launched a new offensive in Yemen,
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Speaker 1: seizing control of the strategically important Bab al-Mandab Strait, reigniting
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Speaker 1: civil war, and targeting critical energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
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Speaker 1: On Sunday, Yemen's Saudi-backed government announced a military campaign to
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Speaker 1: take back all land seized by the Houthis, who retaliated
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Speaker 1: with a new wave of strikes against Saudi Arabia's main
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Speaker 1: oil company, Aramco. With Iran's proxies weakened elsewhere, the group
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Speaker 1: has emerged as the most powerful element of Tehran's axis
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Speaker 1: of resistance against the United States and Israel. In March 2025,
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Speaker 1: weeks after the disagreement between the generals, Trump announced Operation
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Speaker 1: Rough Rider, a 51-day bombing campaign against the Houthis that
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Speaker 1: almost immediately was embroiled in scandal when then-White House National
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Speaker 1: Security Advisor Mike Waltz accidentally invited a reporter into a
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Speaker 1: group chat on Signal, the unclassified messaging application. More than 1,000
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Speaker 1: targets were hit over the course of Rough Rider, including
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Speaker 1: key Houthi commanders and weapons stocks. But the aerial bombing
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Speaker 1: also resulted in significant civilian casualties, human rights groups said.
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Speaker 1: Trump and Hexeth touted the campaign as a resounding success.
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Speaker 1: But other senior Pentagon officials, including Caldwell and Joe Casper,
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Speaker 1: Hexeth's first chief of staff, questioned whether the campaign had
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Speaker 1: clear and obtainable objectives. the people familiar with deliberations said.
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Speaker 1: The U.S. went on to strike Iran's nuclear facilities in
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Speaker 1: Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025 and, along with Israel,
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Speaker 1: launched a sprawling war against Iran this February. A spokesperson
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Speaker 1: for Hegseth, Kingsley Wilson, said in a statement that Rough
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Speaker 1: Rider achieved decisive success against Houthi forces, with U.S. forces
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Speaker 1: launching strikes at severely degraded radar networks, air defense systems,
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Speaker 1: ballistic missile and drone launch sites, weapons depots, and production facilities,
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Speaker 1: while removing multiple mid- and senior-level commanders from the battlefield.
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Speaker 1: The military action, Wilson added, substantially reduced immediate threats to
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Speaker 1: vital international shipping lanes, compelled a clear tactical shift by
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Speaker 1: the adversary, and helped create conditions for ceasefire that strengthened
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Speaker 1: freedom of navigation in the region. She declined to comment
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Speaker 1: on the possibility of any future action in Yemen. But
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Speaker 1: she said the Pentagon's role is to develop and present
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Speaker 1: military options to the president, and he makes the final choice.
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Speaker 1: The White House and the Pentagon both released statements defending
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Speaker 1: the management of weapons stockpiles after the Washington Post shared
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Speaker 1: its reporting that some administration officials had concerns about it
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Speaker 1: before Rough Rider began. U.S. officials have said that while
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Speaker 1: the U.S. military has a deep arsenal of weapons, it
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Speaker 1: is increasingly running low on specific munitions. such as Shiplon's
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Speaker 1: Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot air defense interceptors. The United
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Speaker 1: States military has enough munitions and ammo to serve all
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Speaker 1: of the commander-in-chief's strategic goals and beyond, White House spokeswoman
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Speaker 1: Anna Kelly wrote in a statement. Casper and Caldwell declined
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Speaker 1: to comment, while Velez-Green could not be reached for comment. Carrillo,
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Speaker 1: who retired in August 2025, did not respond to requests
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Speaker 1: for comment about the exchange with Brown or the objectives
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Speaker 1: of Ref Ryder. Brown declined to comment through a spokesperson,
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Speaker 1: but a person familiar with his thinking said he did
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Speaker 1: not dispute the account of the testy Pentagon deliberations. It's common,
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Speaker 1: that person said, for a top commander to push for
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Speaker 1: quick military action, while the Joint Chiefs chairman considers a
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Speaker 1: wider range of issues, including making sure all necessary plans
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Speaker 1: and requirements are in place and that the president's options
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Speaker 1: are preserved. Brown was fired and forced into retirement just
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Speaker 1: before Rough Rider, as Hexeth pushed to remove top Biden-era generals.
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Speaker 1: An official with Hexeth's office declined to say whether Brown's
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Speaker 1: caution about the Houthis played a role, saying that, out
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Speaker 1: of respect for our senior military leaders, they do not
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Speaker 1: discuss the nature of their retirements. An abrupt ceasefire. The
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Speaker 1: military campaign in Yemen was abruptly ended in May 2025
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Speaker 1: with a ceasefire brokered by Oman. Trump claimed victory and
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Speaker 1: said that the Houthis, quote, don't want to fight anymore.
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Speaker 1: They gave us their word that they wouldn't be shooting
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Speaker 1: at ships anymore, and we honor that, Trump said. The
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Speaker 1: end of combat operations, officials and analysts said, came after
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Speaker 1: the Houthis showed remarkable resiliency in the face of American
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Speaker 1: air power. No U.S. troops were killed during the operation,
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Speaker 1: But the militants shot down at least seven MQ-9 Reaper drones,
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Speaker 1: and U.S. forces lost two F-A-18 fighter jets in mishaps
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Speaker 1: at sea. The operation, people familiar with the effort said,
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Speaker 1: was followed by the administration's near-total abandonment of Yemen. It
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Speaker 1: was like a cord being pulled out of a socket,
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Speaker 1: said a former U.S. official who worked on Yemen issues
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Speaker 1: at the time. Trump wanted to scratch Yemen off the
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Speaker 1: list and move on. When the mission was declared over,
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Speaker 1: the former officials said, some in U.S. Central Command, which
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Speaker 1: Karela then oversaw, were apoplectic, believing that they had been
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Speaker 1: making progress. A U.S. special envoy position for Yemen issues
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Speaker 1: was never filled by the Trump administration, and Washington's assistance
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Speaker 1: to the impoverished country was slashed. At the time, the
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Speaker 1: former officials said they warned colleagues, you ignore Yemen at
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Speaker 1: your own peril. Folkloric Status The disagreements at the Pentagon
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Speaker 1: about how to proceed on Yemen underscore the competing views
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Speaker 1: in the U.S. government about how to handle the persistent
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Speaker 1: threat the Houthis have posed since they seized power in
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Speaker 1: northern Yemen in 2014. The Shiite militia, which formed in
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Speaker 1: the 1990s, aims to control Yemen, a country of 35
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Speaker 1: million at the southwest tip of the Arabian Peninsula. From
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Speaker 1: 2015 to 2022, the Houthis, with support from Iran, fought
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Speaker 1: a bloody civil war against Yemen's internationally recognized government, which
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Speaker 1: is backed by Saudi Arabia. That war ended with a
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Speaker 1: fragile truce that left the Houthis holding large swaths of
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Speaker 1: the country's north and the government coalition in control in
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Speaker 1: the South. But the group has much larger ambitions, including
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Speaker 1: ousting the U.S. from the Middle East and destroying the
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Speaker 1: state of Israel. April Longley Alley, a senior fellow at
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Speaker 1: the Washington Institute, said that Houthis see themselves as the
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Speaker 1: tip of the spear in the Arab world. Dan Shapiro,
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Speaker 1: who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration,
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Speaker 1: described the Houthis as an enduring problem, for decades to come.
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Speaker 1: We're kind of stuck with this bad actor on this
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Speaker 1: maritime choke point, able to activate and try to use
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Speaker 1: their position or leverage at the moment of their choosing,
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Speaker 1: said Shapiro, who later became a Pentagon official during the
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Speaker 1: Biden administration. After the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023,
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Speaker 1: the Houthis started firing missiles at Israel in retaliation for
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Speaker 1: the resulting military campaign in Gaza. That is when the
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Speaker 1: Houthis took on an almost folkloric status, said Tim Lenderking,
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Speaker 1: the U.S. envoy to Yemen during the Biden administration. It
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Speaker 1: really bolstered their standing and their brand in the Arab world,
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Speaker 1: he added. But the Houthis took it too far, he said,
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Speaker 1: firing on U.S. and Israeli ships, killing international mariners, and
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Speaker 1: disrupting the flow of commercial traffic in the Red Sea.
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Speaker 1: The Biden administration launched military strikes against the Houthis, beginning
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Speaker 1: in January 2024. The Houthis appeared undeterred. Trump launched Rough
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Speaker 1: Rider on March 15, 2025. A few days later, he
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Speaker 1: declared that tremendous damage had been inflicted on the, quote,
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Speaker 1: Houthi barbarians and would get worse. It's not even a
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Speaker 1: fair fight and never will be, Trump wrote in a
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Speaker 1: social media post. They will be completely annihilated. Unclear objectives,
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Speaker 1: mounting costs. The costs and questions quickly mounted. Over the
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Speaker 1: course of the operation, estimated at more than $ 1 billion,
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Speaker 1: the Houthis continued to target U.S. warships in the Red
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Speaker 1: Sea and surrounding waterways. U.S. forces struck a migrant detention
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Speaker 1: center in Yemen in April 2025, reported to killing more
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Speaker 1: than 68 civilians and injuring dozens more, according to Human
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Speaker 1: Rights Watch. The operation was also dogged by the Signalgate scandal.
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Speaker 1: in which senior Trump administration officials, including Hegseth and Vice
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Speaker 1: President J.D. Vance, communicated about Rough Rider in a group
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Speaker 1: chat that accidentally included Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg. The revelation
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Speaker 1: was especially damaging for Hegseth, who had shared specific advanced
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Speaker 1: details about how the bombing would begin through the unclassified
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Speaker 1: Signal app. A review by the Pentagon Inspector General released
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Speaker 1: in December found that Hegseth's actions created a risk to
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Speaker 1: operational security, though the Secretary of Defense and his team
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Speaker 1: claimed total exoneration. The Trump administration began looking for an
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Speaker 1: exit from Rough Rider just a couple of weeks into
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Speaker 1: the bombing campaign, said Ali of the Washington Institute. There
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Speaker 1: had been an assumption going into the campaign that you
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Speaker 1: could go in and coerce the Houthis with overwhelming power
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Speaker 1: to change their behavior. But Trump lacked a clear exit strategy,
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Speaker 1: Ali said, so when Oman, long a mediator in the region,
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Speaker 1: approached the administration saying that the Houthis wanted a truce,
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Speaker 1: Trump took it. One of the people familiar with internal
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Speaker 1: deliberations at the Pentagon said that the abrupt end to
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Speaker 1: Rough Rider bolstered the belief among internal critics that the
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Speaker 1: offense's objectives were never clear in the first place. It
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Speaker 1: almost seemed, this person said, that Trump had buyer's remorse.
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Speaker 1: The deal, Trump said at the time, was simple. The
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Speaker 1: Houthis would stop firing at U.S. ships if the U.S.
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Speaker 1: stopped firing at the Houthis. We hit them very hard,
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Speaker 1: and they had a great ability to withstand punishment, Trump
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Speaker 1: said in announcing the ceasefire. You could say there was
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Speaker 1: a lot of bravery there. They rebuilt it all. Yemen's
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Speaker 1: Saudi-backed coalition government was supportive of Rough Rider and caught
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Speaker 1: off guard when it ended, according to a Yemeni official
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Speaker 1: who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the
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Speaker 1: sensitivity of the situation. The Trump administration did not read
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Speaker 1: the situation strategically, said the official. They just wanted a
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Speaker 1: quick win. It was not long, the person said, before
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Speaker 1: the Houthis rebuilt everything. In recent weeks, the Houthis have
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Speaker 1: repeatedly attacked oil infrastructure and military bases in Saudi Arabia,
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Speaker 1: which also saw its key east-west oil pipeline attacked by
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Speaker 1: Iraqi militias. As Saudi Arabia, long a key U.S. ally,
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Speaker 1: faces its biggest threats in years, It has confronted Trump's
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Speaker 1: unwillingness to get more involved and looked to new partners
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Speaker 1: for help in confronting the Houthis. Saudi Arabia and its
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Speaker 1: allies in Yemen's government fought on Monday to take back
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Speaker 1: land along Yemen's western coast to regain control of Bab
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Speaker 1: al-Mandab in a counteroffensive that analysts said could substantially deepen
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Speaker 1: the conflict. Nadwa al-Dasari, a Yemeni researcher and conflict analyst,
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Speaker 1: said the Trump administration should never have seen the truce
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Speaker 1: as a win. The Houthis have learned how to use negotiations, ceasefires,
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Speaker 1: and truces as a tactic to preserve their power, rebuild
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Speaker 1: their capabilities, and prepare for the next round of conflict,
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Speaker 1: she said. Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdul Salam said that Rough
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Speaker 1: Rider sparked widespread resentment regarding the U.S. and led to
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Speaker 1: an influx of volunteers. Yemen, he said in a written
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Speaker 1: statement to The Post, is known as a graveyard of invaders.
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Speaker 1: Anyone who has attempted to colonize or occupy the country,
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Speaker 1: he said, has left burdened by woes, sorrow, failure, defeat.
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Speaker 1: Trump struck a conciliatory tone in recent weeks when talking
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Speaker 1: about the Houthis, saying last month in Ireland that the
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Speaker 1: Houthis called us and they don't want to fight us.
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Speaker 1: Everything will work out very well, he said. The Yemeni
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Speaker 1: official said that they fear the Trump administration still does
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Speaker 1: not understand the threat that the Houthis pose, noting that
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Speaker 1: the group is already working extensively with al-Shabaab in Somalia
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Speaker 1: and has clearly stated intentions to push the U.S. out
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Speaker 1: of the region and destroy the state of Israel. The
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Speaker 1: lesson I learned over the past 10 years is to
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Speaker 1: take the Houthis seriously, the official added. I am not
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Speaker 1: sure if the United States learned the same lesson. Ali
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Speaker 1: said that Trump's decision last year to forge a truce
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Speaker 1: with the Houthis had the unintended consequence of showing the
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Speaker 1: militant group the limits of Trump's willingness to escalate, giving
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Speaker 1: them additional room to maneuver. Trump may be done with
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Speaker 1: the Houthis, she said, but the Houthis are not done
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Speaker 1: with Trump. Susanna George contributed to this report. This item
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Speaker 1: is accompanied by photos. The first is captioned, A member
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Speaker 1: of the Houthis holds a missile fragment at the site
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Speaker 1: of a U.S. strike in 2025. Khalid Abdullah, Reuters. The
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Speaker 1: next photo is captioned, An aircraft on the USS Harry S.
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Speaker 1: Truman in the Red Sea in 2025. U.S. Navy, AP.
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Speaker 1: The next photo is captioned, Smoke rises from a neighborhood
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Speaker 1: in Sana'a, Yemen following a 2025 airstrike. Muhammad Huwais, Getty Images.
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Speaker 1: The image shows intact buildings and automobiles in the foreground
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Speaker 1: while a plume of smoke rises in the background. The
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Speaker 1: next photo is captioned, A monitor shows President Donald Trump
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Speaker 1: watching footage of military strikes as White House Press Secretary
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Speaker 1: Caroline Leavitt conducts a briefing in March 2025. Tom Williams, AP.
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Speaker 1: The next image is captioned, Flames burn at a Saudi
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Speaker 1: oil facility on Saturday. AFP, Getty Images. The next photo
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Speaker 1: is captioned, People Gather Around the Rubble of Houses in
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Speaker 1: an Area Struck by a U.S. Airstrike in Sana'a. Muhammad Huwais, AFP,
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Speaker 1: Getty Images. The next photo is captioned, Trump in a
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Speaker 1: Meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in May 2025.
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Speaker 1: Ricky Cariotti, The Washington Post. The photo shows President Trump
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Speaker 1: and Prime Minister Carney seated in the Oval Office. Vice
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Speaker 1: President J.D. Vance and four other individuals are also pictured.
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Speaker 1: The next photo is captioned, Security Forces of the Internationally
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Speaker 1: Recognized Yemeni Government Patrol in September, AFP, Getty Images. Next
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Speaker 1: is an image captioned, Houthi Fighters Escort a Convoy Carrying
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Speaker 1: Freed Prisoners on September 12, AP. And the final photo
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Speaker 1: accompanying this item is captioned, A Commercial Vessel Off Yemen's
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Speaker 1: Coast in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, AFP, getting images. The
19:31
Speaker 1: next item from today's front page is entitled, Israeli Settlers
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Speaker 1: Are Racing to Reshape West Bank. Government-Backed Expansion is Carried
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Speaker 1: Out with Violence by Sami Westphal and Heidi Levine from
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Speaker 1: Sanur West Bank. Emboldened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government,
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Speaker 1: is settlers in the occupied West Bank have been carrying
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Speaker 1: out a campaign of violence and intimidation unmatched in recent memory,
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Speaker 1: attacking and displacing Palestinian communities and establishing scores of government-backed
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Speaker 1: settlements and illegal outposts that are drastically reshaping the long-disputed map.
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Speaker 1: Having built an expansionist footprint far beyond what seemed possible
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Speaker 1: just a few years ago, the extremist settlers are racing
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Speaker 1: to lock down Gaines ahead of this month's Israeli election,
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Speaker 1: while their supporters, some at the highest levels of government,
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Speaker 1: are eager to shore up votes and secure their agenda.
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Speaker 1: The goal is to create facts on the ground that
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Speaker 1: would be difficult to reverse even if a less supportive
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Speaker 1: government wins power. The sweeping shift in West Bank settlements
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Speaker 1: has unfolded over the past three years amid Israel's war
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Speaker 1: in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack,
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Speaker 1: as well as the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, which diverted
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Speaker 1: attention away from the plight of Palestinians losing their homes
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Speaker 1: and land. But over the past year, most of all,
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Speaker 1: Israel has taken accelerated action to cement its control over
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Speaker 1: the territory with a surge of new settlements and outposts,
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Speaker 1: expanded land registration and purchasing avenues for Israelis, increased demolition
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Speaker 1: of Palestinian homes, checkpoint and road restrictions that fragment communities,
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Speaker 1: and a sharp rise in settler violence that the government
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Speaker 1: has shown little willingness to rein in. Between January and August,
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Speaker 1: the United Nations documented more than 1,600 settler attacks causing
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Speaker 1: injury or property damage, an average of more than six
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Speaker 1: a day. up from last year's already heightened level. At
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Speaker 1: least 76 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed
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Speaker 1: by gunfire from Israeli forces or settlers since the start
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Speaker 1: of the Iran war on February 28, according to the
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Speaker 1: UN Humanitarian Office. Some small Palestinian towns, such as Deir
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Speaker 1: Jarir and Almaghyir, northeast of Ramallah, outside of which settlers
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Speaker 1: have set up outposts, have seen repeated killings. With a
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Speaker 1: cabinet that includes far-right patrons of settlement, such as Finance
22:05
Speaker 1: Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose portfolio includes settlement policy, and National
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Speaker 1: Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, both settlement dwellers themselves, constraints have
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Speaker 1: evaporated on a movement dedicated to establishing Israeli control over
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Speaker 1: territory it occupied in the 1967 war, which many Israeli
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Speaker 1: Jews see as part of an ancient homeland but much
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Speaker 1: of the world sees as illegally settled Palestinian land. Between
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Speaker 1: 2013 and 2022, the Israeli government approved only three settlements,
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Speaker 1: according to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog group. Since then,
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Speaker 1: the government has approved more than 100, including 34 in
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Speaker 1: March alone, and retroactively legalized outposts erected by settlers in
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Speaker 1: violation even of Israeli law. By some counts, the total
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Speaker 1: number of settlers has ballooned to more than 540,000, who
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Speaker 1: live among some 3 million Palestinians. Palestinian communities report that
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Speaker 1: settlers from outposts attack and terrorize them in towns up
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Speaker 1: and down the West Bank, casting a pall of violence
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Speaker 1: and fear over daily life. At least 4,300 Palestinians have
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Speaker 1: been displaced across the West Bank this year, with attacks
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Speaker 1: accounting for about 60% of displacements. according to the UN.
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Speaker 1: In the days before the October 27 election, Israel is
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Speaker 1: set to proceed with a tender process for part of
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Speaker 1: a long-stalled development project known as E1, a plan to
23:39
Speaker 1: build thousands of settlement housing units in a strategic corridor
23:43
Speaker 1: that could separate East Jerusalem from the rest of the
23:46
Speaker 1: West Bank. Smotrich said the point of the project is
23:50
Speaker 1: to bury the idea of a Palestinian statehood. The settler
23:54
Speaker 1: movement has never had more state support and resources at
23:58
Speaker 1: its disposal than it has under this Israeli government, said
24:01
Speaker 1: Amjad Araki, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group,
24:06
Speaker 1: a Brussels-based think tank. He said a lesson from recent years,
24:09
Speaker 1: particularly the war in Gaza, has been, we will never
24:13
Speaker 1: get more impunity than we have now, so let's take
24:16
Speaker 1: as much as we can grab. On September 29th, more
24:20
Speaker 1: than 100 radical settlers rioted in the West Bank town
24:23
Speaker 1: of Jalud, preventing a Palestinian family under escort by the
24:27
Speaker 1: Israeli Defense Forces from returning to their home, from which
24:31
Speaker 1: they had been displaced by settlers. The rioters blocked roads,
24:35
Speaker 1: set fires, structures and vehicles on fire, and hurled rocks
24:39
Speaker 1: toward security forces, the IDF said. Next in this item
24:44
Speaker 1: is a bar graph entitled Number of Settlements Established by
24:47
Speaker 1: the Israeli Government Per Year. The graph begins in 2012
24:52
Speaker 1: when there were three settlements. There were no settlements established
24:56
Speaker 1: in 2014 through 2016, one in each of 2017, 2018,
24:56
Speaker 1: and 2019, none in 2020 through 2022, nine in 2023,
24:57
Speaker 1: five in 2024, 54 in 2025, and 34 in 2026.
24:59
Speaker 1: Data as of April 9th. Source piece now. For the
25:19
Speaker 1: past three months, once each morning and evening, like clockwork,
25:23
Speaker 1: at least two young settlers, approaching from the direction of
25:26
Speaker 1: an illegal outpost and shepherding herds of sheep and goats,
25:30
Speaker 1: ride up on donkeys to the Kabna family home near
25:33
Speaker 1: the town of Taipei on the outskirts of Ramallah. A
25:36
Speaker 1: spotlight on an IDF military tower illuminates the area as
25:40
Speaker 1: night falls. The settlers built their outpost under its shadow.
25:45
Speaker 1: Tolerance of outposts, illegal even under Israeli law, appears only
25:50
Speaker 1: to have grown. Earlier this year, soldiers could be seen
25:54
Speaker 1: sitting at a table for lunch with residents of the
25:56
Speaker 1: Shagat Yehuda outpost in the northern West Bank, in what
26:00
Speaker 1: locals said was no unusual scene. Volunteers, some Israeli, some foreign,
26:06
Speaker 1: sleep on the floor of the Palestinian home in protective
26:09
Speaker 1: presence shifts. In late August, mass settlers approached the home,
26:14
Speaker 1: and one threw rocks at the family as another grabbed
26:17
Speaker 1: and rattled the fence enclosing the property, staring and filming.
26:22
Speaker 1: Nayef Kabna, 55, a construction worker, says he has lived
26:26
Speaker 1: in the house for 25 years. The father of seven
26:29
Speaker 1: is set on remaining, though his life there with his
26:32
Speaker 1: wife and children under the threat of settler violence has
26:35
Speaker 1: become a daily nightmare. Where would I go if I left?
26:40
Speaker 1: Whoever leaves is soon forced to leave their home again,
26:42
Speaker 1: he said. The intimidation began after October 7th, but in
26:47
Speaker 1: recent months it's become unbearable, he said. They come every day,
26:52
Speaker 1: morning and evening. The same intimidation played out the following week.
26:57
Speaker 1: Israeli border police arrived on the scene only after the
27:00
Speaker 1: settlers had left. One of the officers, who would not
27:04
Speaker 1: give his name, threatened to arrest a Washington Post photographer.
27:08
Speaker 1: Asked why he would not instead arrest the man throwing rocks,
27:11
Speaker 1: the officer responded, that is not my job. On Route
27:16
Speaker 1: 60 to Saanur, an Israeli settlement on a hilltop overlooking
27:20
Speaker 1: Palestinian towns of the Jenin Governorate below, road signs pointed
27:24
Speaker 1: the way in Hebrew, English, and Arabic. Many of the
27:28
Speaker 1: Arabic-language lines had been graffitied out. Top right-wing Israeli ministers
27:33
Speaker 1: were in attendance at a ribbon-cutting this spring to celebrate
27:36
Speaker 1: the government-approved re-establishment by some 16 Israeli families of the
27:41
Speaker 1: small compound. One of the four Jewish settlements in the
27:44
Speaker 1: West Bank evacuated during Israeli leader Ariel Sharon's 2005 disengagement plan,
27:50
Speaker 1: which removed roughly 8,500 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip,
27:54
Speaker 1: at a time when it seemed that land swaps could
27:57
Speaker 1: pave the way for peace. In a move long sought
28:00
Speaker 1: by settler activists who never forgave the Israeli government for
28:03
Speaker 1: giving up even slivers of occupied territory, all four, Ganim, Kadim, Sanur,
28:10
Speaker 1: and Homesh, have been officially repopulated by settlers this year.
28:15
Speaker 1: The reopening of Kadim in August marked the full reversal
28:18
Speaker 1: of the plan. It's like being back in the greater Israel,
28:22
Speaker 1: what more can I say? Nechama Leah Avner, a 36-year-old
28:26
Speaker 1: who lived in the settlement as a teenager, said as
28:29
Speaker 1: she unpacked. Families, who described themselves as pioneers on a
28:33
Speaker 1: sacred mission, upon arrival began setting up washing machines, putting
28:38
Speaker 1: out tubs of Lego bricks, storing vacuums and printers in
28:41
Speaker 1: caravan homes, all under IDF guard. A partly deteriorated mosque
28:46
Speaker 1: towered over the move-in. The ruined walls marked with Palestinian
28:50
Speaker 1: graffiti would be replaced by many beautiful things, she said.
28:55
Speaker 1: String lights were suspended, freshly hooked up to electricity. New
28:59
Speaker 1: resident Shira Segev, 43, says she sees herself as part
29:04
Speaker 1: of Israel's front line. After October 7th, she said she
29:08
Speaker 1: woke up and realized, we have to do something important.
29:11
Speaker 1: We can't just live and that's it. To her, that
29:14
Speaker 1: meant moving to this isolated northern West Bank settlement. Our
29:18
Speaker 1: country told us to come back. They told us to
29:21
Speaker 1: come back because we need safety, she said, calling the
29:24
Speaker 1: settlement a bumper between Israelis and Palestinians.' Wherever there are Jews,
29:29
Speaker 1: wherever there is an army, there is quiet,' she said.
29:33
Speaker 1: One of the three IDF soldiers standing guard at Shanur's
29:36
Speaker 1: yellow checkpoint gate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
29:39
Speaker 1: because the soldier was not authorized to offer their views
29:42
Speaker 1: to the press, said the settlement used to be just
29:45
Speaker 1: sand before the traumatizing evacuation. So seeing this place come back, rebuilding,
29:51
Speaker 1: coming back to the place where you were, it's exciting.
29:54
Speaker 1: On a move-in day, Ayelet Hashakar Stern, carrying her young son,
29:58
Speaker 1: one of seven, said she hopes her two mobile homes
30:01
Speaker 1: will become a real house today. Asked if she would
30:05
Speaker 1: raise her family in the settlement one day, her 15-year-old daughter, Emuna,
30:09
Speaker 1: smiled timidly. Her mother jumped in. Maybe she'll establish a
30:13
Speaker 1: new one. The following month, a few hundred meters from Saanur,
30:17
Speaker 1: Israeli settlers forced a Palestinian family to exhume the freshly
30:21
Speaker 1: buried body of their 85-year-old father, Hussein Asasha, family members said.
30:27
Speaker 1: The settlers told them the body was too close to
30:30
Speaker 1: the settlement, saying, If you don't remove the body from here,
30:33
Speaker 1: we will remove it our way, said Muhammad Asa Shah, 51,
30:38
Speaker 1: the man's son, sitting in a tent for a morning ceremony.
30:42
Speaker 1: The family dug up their father's body from the village cemetery,
30:45
Speaker 1: where many of their other family members lay, and reburied
30:49
Speaker 1: him with new prayers in another town. This is against morality.
30:54
Speaker 1: My father was buried twice, said the son. This is
30:57
Speaker 1: our land. The settlers want us to leave, but we
30:59
Speaker 1: will not leave. In the face of international condemnation, Israeli
31:04
Speaker 1: leaders have issued rare rebukes of violent settlers, but the
31:08
Speaker 1: settlement boom continues apace. Last month, Britain banned goods made
31:13
Speaker 1: in Israeli settlements, with British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband saying
31:17
Speaker 1: settler violence amounted to ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. a group
31:22
Speaker 1: of European foreign ministers called on the Israeli government to
31:26
Speaker 1: halt settlement expansion. In August, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike
31:31
Speaker 1: Huckabee called violent settlers terrorists after a standoff in the
31:35
Speaker 1: northern West Bank town of Kusra, where settlers besieged Palestinian homes.
31:40
Speaker 1: But any constraints by the U.S. have largely diminished. On
31:44
Speaker 1: the first day of his second term, Trump lifted Biden-era
31:47
Speaker 1: sanctions on West Bank settlers. Trump has previously rejected the
31:52
Speaker 1: idea of Israel annexing the West Bank outright, but he
31:55
Speaker 1: has not forcefully objected to an approach that pursues that
31:58
Speaker 1: end in all but name. Netanyahu has condemned the handful
32:03
Speaker 1: of rioters who he said were harming Israel's standing in
32:06
Speaker 1: the world. The same week, he vowed to create even
32:09
Speaker 1: more settlements, telling settlers, you are fulfilling the vision of
32:13
Speaker 1: the land of Israel, and this is our land. Israel
32:17
Speaker 1: has advanced administrative measures that entrench Israeli control over the
32:21
Speaker 1: West Bank, including steps implementing land registration in Area C,
32:26
Speaker 1: the UN noted in a September report, referring to the
32:29
Speaker 1: majority of the West Bank's area under full Israeli control
32:32
Speaker 1: by designation, in which Palestinian-held land could be transferred to
32:37
Speaker 1: Israel under new policies. Settlers have also been pushing into
32:41
Speaker 1: Area B, the portion of the West Bank under shared authority,
32:44
Speaker 1: and Area A, which is meant to be in full
32:47
Speaker 1: control of the Palestinian Authority. Inaugurating two new West Bank
32:51
Speaker 1: settlements on September 27, a month before the election, Smotrich
32:56
Speaker 1: said that the ruling government was continuing the settlement revolution
33:00
Speaker 1: to prevent the terrible idea of establishing a terror state,
33:03
Speaker 1: by which he meant a Palestinian state, in the heart
33:06
Speaker 1: of the state of Israel. Julia Ladur contributed to this report.
33:12
Speaker 1: This item is accompanied by photos. The first is captioned,
33:16
Speaker 1: Masked young Jewish settlers stand near the property of the
33:19
Speaker 1: Kobna family on the outskirts of the West Bank Christian
33:22
Speaker 1: town of Taipei on August 27th. Heidi Levine for The
33:26
Speaker 1: Washington Post. The next photo is captioned, Shrill Hamandeh comforts
33:31
Speaker 1: her granddaughter, Reda, as they sit among their belongings near
33:35
Speaker 1: the rubble of their home in the West Bank. Heidi
33:37
Speaker 1: Levine for The Washington Post. The next photo is captioned,
33:42
Speaker 1: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, center-right, dances with residents who
33:47
Speaker 1: have moved back to the Jewish West Bank settlement of Kadim.
33:51
Speaker 1: Heidi Levine, for The Washington Post. The next photo is captioned,
33:56
Speaker 1: A masked young Israeli Jewish settler harasses the Kavna family,
34:00
Speaker 1: who now live with razor-sharp barbed wire surrounding their property.
34:05
Speaker 1: Heidi Levine, for The Washington Post. Next is a photo captioned,
34:10
Speaker 1: Families move into their homes in the Jewish settlement of Kadim,
34:13
Speaker 1: on August 20th. Heidi Levine, for The Washington Post. Next,
34:19
Speaker 1: a photo captioned, Men unload a moving truck outside the
34:22
Speaker 1: caravan of Shira Segev as her family officially moved into
34:26
Speaker 1: their new home in the recently legalized settlement of Sanur.
34:29
Speaker 1: Heidi Levine, for The Washington Post. The next article from
34:36
Speaker 1: today's front page is entitled, Justice's Mulling Climate Decision. Big
34:41
Speaker 1: Oil Liability is at Center of Case. Supreme Court Listens
34:45
Speaker 1: to Side's Arguments by Justin Juvenal. The Supreme Court on
34:49
Speaker 1: Monday grappled with whether to let a novel lawsuit go
34:53
Speaker 1: forward that is seeking to hold two large oil companies
34:56
Speaker 1: liable for the effects of climate change, a decision that
34:59
Speaker 1: will be critical to similar litigation that dozens of states, counties,
35:03
Speaker 1: and cities have brought in recent years. After nearly two
35:08
Speaker 1: hours of argument, it remained unclear how the justices might
35:11
Speaker 1: rule in the first case of the new term, and
35:14
Speaker 1: one of the most significant dealing with global warming that
35:17
Speaker 1: the court has handled to date. The justices asked sharp
35:21
Speaker 1: questions of both sides. The stakes are immense. The city
35:26
Speaker 1: and county of Boulder, Colorado are seeking what could amount
35:29
Speaker 1: to billions of dollars from ExxonMobil and Canada's Suncor Energy,
35:34
Speaker 1: alleging the companies misled the public over the role of
35:37
Speaker 1: fossil fuels in global warming and downplayed the effects of
35:40
Speaker 1: climate change. The oil companies deny wrongdoing. The lawsuit, if
35:45
Speaker 1: allowed to continue in Colorado State Court, could open the
35:48
Speaker 1: door to thousands of similar claims by municipalities nationwide over
35:53
Speaker 1: the impact of climate change on health and infrastructure. The
35:57
Speaker 1: litigation could ultimately result in astronomical settlements and damages that
36:02
Speaker 1: the oil companies warn could bankrupt the industry. Officials in Boulder,
36:07
Speaker 1: as well as in places including San Francisco, Massachusetts, and Hawaii,
36:12
Speaker 1: where similar lawsuits have been filed, hope the cases will
36:15
Speaker 1: be the environmental equivalent of landmark litigation that produced major
36:19
Speaker 1: judgments against tobacco companies over cigarettes and drug makers over opioids.
36:25
Speaker 1: Justice Elena Kagan told an attorney for ExxonMobil and Suncor
36:29
Speaker 1: on Monday that there was little distinction between Boulder's case
36:32
Speaker 1: and those earlier rounds of litigation. implying the case should
36:36
Speaker 1: go forward. This is the same kind of lawsuit against
36:39
Speaker 1: the same kind of actors, said Kagan, a liberal. ExxonMobil
36:44
Speaker 1: and Suncor argue that climate change is inherently a federal
36:47
Speaker 1: issue since greenhouse gases are produced and spread across state lines.
36:52
Speaker 1: They say state court is not the proper venue for
36:54
Speaker 1: the suit and the case should be tossed out. That
36:58
Speaker 1: argument found some support among the court's conservatives. Justice Brett M.
37:03
Speaker 1: Kavanaugh said the court's ruling in four previous cases made, quote,
37:07
Speaker 1: crystal clear that Boulder's claims cannot be brought in state court.
37:12
Speaker 1: Appoint fellow conservative Amy Coney Barrett said she agreed with
37:15
Speaker 1: as well. This court has consistently said air and water
37:19
Speaker 1: pollution are federal enclaves, Kavanaugh said. The Supreme Court also
37:25
Speaker 1: asked the parties to brief on whether the case was
37:27
Speaker 1: ripe for the justices to take up. The justices' questioning
37:31
Speaker 1: Monday indicated some support for ruling it was too soon
37:35
Speaker 1: for the high court to consider the issue and sending
37:37
Speaker 1: the case back to state court to play out. We
37:41
Speaker 1: are really early in this case, Justice Katonji Brown Jackson said.
37:45
Speaker 1: This is kind of premature. The case began in 2018
37:50
Speaker 1: when Boulder City and County sued ExxonMobil and Suncor in
37:54
Speaker 1: state court, seeking damages related to the local effects of
37:57
Speaker 1: climate change on health, infrastructure, and extreme drought. The Colorado
38:02
Speaker 1: Supreme Court allowed the suit to go forward last year
38:05
Speaker 1: before the oil companies appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
38:09
Speaker 1: ExxonMobil and Suncor argue that the suits are a coordinated
38:13
Speaker 1: effort by environmentalists to impose a carbon tax on the
38:16
Speaker 1: oil industry. This is an unprecedented effort to use state
38:20
Speaker 1: law to regulate global conduct, Kenan Shanmugam, an attorney for
38:25
Speaker 1: the oil companies, told the justices. Kevin K. Russell, an
38:29
Speaker 1: attorney representing Boulder, said there was lengthy precedent for the suit.
38:34
Speaker 1: Since the founding, states have had the authority to bring
38:37
Speaker 1: suits for injuries in court, Russell said Monday. Justice Samuel A.
38:42
Speaker 1: Alito Jr. recused himself from the case in September. He
38:45
Speaker 1: did not give a rationale, but his recusal came after
38:49
Speaker 1: environmentalists and court watchdogs said he should step aside because
38:53
Speaker 1: he owned stock in two oil companies that were not
38:56
Speaker 1: parties to the proceedings. The recusal raises the prospect the
39:00
Speaker 1: case could result in a 4-4 deadlock, allowing the Colorado
39:04
Speaker 1: Supreme Court ruling to stand. A decision is likely to
39:08
Speaker 1: come before the end of the court's term in June
39:10
Speaker 1: or July. Boulder's case and others may ultimately be rendered
39:14
Speaker 1: moot by Congress. The House and the Senate are considering
39:17
Speaker 1: legislation that would immunize oil companies from such state law claims.
39:23
Speaker 1: This article is accompanied by a photo. Captioned, Demonstrators Rally
39:28
Speaker 1: Outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. Finn Gomez, Getty Images.
39:33
Speaker 1: Individuals shown are holding signs reading, The People v. Big Oil.
39:39
Speaker 1: And one sign appears to say, Stand with Communities, Not
39:43
Speaker 1: Big Oil. The next item from today's front page is entitled, U.S.
39:48
Speaker 1: Officials Seeking Details of Reported Russian Plague Death. Russia's Hesitation
39:54
Speaker 1: to Share Information Complicates the Situation, by Lina H. Sun,
39:59
Speaker 1: Dan Diamond, and Mary Ilishina. The Trump administration is closely
40:04
Speaker 1: tracking reports of a death potentially related to a pneumonic
40:07
Speaker 1: plague in Russia, with officials cautioning that much about the
40:11
Speaker 1: situation remains unknown. We're looking at it very strongly. We
40:15
Speaker 1: just heard about it, President Donald Trump told reporters at
40:18
Speaker 1: the White House on Monday, adding that the United States
40:21
Speaker 1: would help Russia as much as we can. The Centers
40:25
Speaker 1: for Disease Control and Prevention, the State Department, the Administration
40:29
Speaker 1: for Strategic Preparedness and Response, and other agencies have been
40:32
Speaker 1: working to learn more about the reported deaths of a
40:35
Speaker 1: laboratory worker who was employed at an institute dedicated to
40:38
Speaker 1: studying plague and quarantines imposed on several hospitals in Siberia.
40:43
Speaker 1: four officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to
40:46
Speaker 1: discuss internal briefings. The situation has been complicated by Russian
40:51
Speaker 1: officials' hesitation to share information, as well as reports that
40:55
Speaker 1: Russian intelligence officers have been involved, the officials said. We
41:00
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of intel, said one U.S. health official.
41:03
Speaker 1: It's in Siberia. Unless someone gets on a plane and
41:06
Speaker 1: gets to the U.S., it is low risk. We should
41:09
Speaker 1: be alert, but not panicked. Secretary of State Marco Rubio
41:13
Speaker 1: told reporters on Monday morning that Russian officials had shared
41:17
Speaker 1: some information about an infected lab worker and their concerns
41:21
Speaker 1: that other Russians could be affected. We're watching and monitoring
41:25
Speaker 1: it closely, Rubio said. I don't think it's cause for alarm,
41:28
Speaker 1: but it is cause for focus and a cause to
41:31
Speaker 1: just keep an eye on it. Senior health and national
41:34
Speaker 1: security officials also met at the White House on Monday
41:38
Speaker 1: to discuss what was known about the case and possible
41:40
Speaker 1: next steps. according to two people who spoke on condition
41:44
Speaker 1: of anonymity to discuss an internal meeting. Late Sunday, Russia's
41:48
Speaker 1: public health agency announced it had undertaken a set of
41:52
Speaker 1: anti-epidemic measures in the Irkutsk region of Siberia after the
41:56
Speaker 1: lab worker's death. The lab technician, a 28-year-old woman, worked
42:01
Speaker 1: at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the
42:04
Speaker 1: Far East in the town of Shelyakov. She died after
42:09
Speaker 1: being diagnosed with pneumonia of, quote, unknown origin, according to
42:13
Speaker 1: the public health agency, Rospotrebs Nador. The institute was set
42:18
Speaker 1: up in the 1930s as an anti-plague body and later
42:21
Speaker 1: expanded its scope to other highly dangerous diseases, such as cholera, brucellosis, tularemia,
42:27
Speaker 1: and anthrax, according to its website. It currently employs a
42:31
Speaker 1: staff of 95 people. U.S. officials said that they could
42:35
Speaker 1: not judge the potential threat to the United States until
42:38
Speaker 1: more details were confirmed and encouraged Russian officials to immediately
42:42
Speaker 1: share information about the case. Paul Friedrichs, a retired Air
42:46
Speaker 1: Force Major General who led the White House Office of
42:49
Speaker 1: Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy before leaving government in January 2025,
42:55
Speaker 1: said that Russia should bring in experts from the World
42:58
Speaker 1: Health Organization, the European Union, or the U.S. to help
43:01
Speaker 1: clarify the situation. The current narrative that a researcher made
43:06
Speaker 1: a mistake is plausible. Human error is the most common
43:10
Speaker 1: cause of biosafety events. The reported risk mitigation efforts seem
43:14
Speaker 1: appropriate for an event like this, Friedrich said. That having
43:18
Speaker 1: been said, first reports are usually wrong, and Russia has
43:22
Speaker 1: historically not been particularly forthcoming about what actually happened. It
43:27
Speaker 1: is still not confirmed whether the deceased laboratory worker contracted
43:31
Speaker 1: pneumonic plague which can lead to severe lung infections and
43:35
Speaker 1: be spread person to person, or another disease. Pneumonic plague
43:40
Speaker 1: is almost always fatal when untreated, but many patients recover
43:44
Speaker 1: with a prompt course of antibiotics. The incubation period for
43:47
Speaker 1: this type of plague is up to six or seven days.
43:51
Speaker 1: Several current and former U.S. officials said they were hoping
43:55
Speaker 1: to learn whether Russian officials' reportedly elevated response was because
43:59
Speaker 1: they had worked to alter laboratory samples of existing plague,
44:03
Speaker 1: a technique known as gain-of-function. Ashish Jha, who helped lead
44:08
Speaker 1: the White House's pandemic response under the Biden administration, noted
44:12
Speaker 1: unconfirmed reports that Russian security services had been involved in
44:16
Speaker 1: escorting vehicles to hospitals. That would be concerning, Jha said.
44:22
Speaker 1: We also know Russia has an active offensive biological weapons program,
44:26
Speaker 1: And so we don't really have a full understanding of
44:29
Speaker 1: what was going on in this facility, he added. The
44:32
Speaker 1: situation in Russia has drawn additional scrutiny in the wake
44:36
Speaker 1: of the coronavirus pandemic. Some lawmakers, scientists, and Trump have
44:41
Speaker 1: asserted that the coronavirus outbreak began with a laboratory leak
44:44
Speaker 1: in China. One Russian news report said that the technician
44:48
Speaker 1: allegedly broke a test tube containing the pneumonic plague pathogen
44:52
Speaker 1: on September 25th, that she soon fell ill and that
44:55
Speaker 1: she was taken to a hospital, where she died Friday.
44:59
Speaker 1: On the same day, Regional Governor Igor Kobzev announced he
45:02
Speaker 1: had held a meeting with Russia's chief sanitary doctor, Anna Popova,
45:07
Speaker 1: who had personally flown to Irkutsk, to follow up on
45:10
Speaker 1: information that had emerged regarding a suspected case of a
45:13
Speaker 1: highly dangerous infection in a resident of the region. The
45:17
Speaker 1: governor of the neighboring republic of Buryatia, Alexei Desedonov, said
45:21
Speaker 1: in a statement that the employee died possibly from the plague,
45:25
Speaker 1: but noted that there are no plague outbreaks in his region.
45:28
Speaker 1: Tassitinov is the only official who has publicly said that
45:32
Speaker 1: the cause of the technician's death may have been linked
45:35
Speaker 1: to plague. Unconfirmed Russian news accounts also said the woman
45:39
Speaker 1: may have exposed between 90 and 200 contacts at the
45:42
Speaker 1: hospital where she was treated and later died. People who
45:46
Speaker 1: were in contact with the lab technician have been examined
45:49
Speaker 1: and continue to be monitored using daily lab tests, said
45:53
Speaker 1: Maxim Modin, the mayor of the Shelikovsky District in the
45:57
Speaker 1: Irkutsk region. The inpatient medical facility where the woman was
46:01
Speaker 1: treated has been quarantined, Modin said in a statement on
46:04
Speaker 1: the Telegram messaging app published Saturday. Laboratory operations have been suspended,
46:10
Speaker 1: samples are not being collected, and scheduled inpatient tests are
46:13
Speaker 1: not being performed, he said. If there is person-to-person spread
46:17
Speaker 1: among those individuals, Russian health authorities can do the basic
46:21
Speaker 1: epidemiology and quarantine and isolate if people get ill, the U.S.
46:25
Speaker 1: health official said. Now that they're aware and on alert,
46:29
Speaker 1: I suspect they'll be able to treat people fairly quickly. U.S.
46:33
Speaker 1: officials said American laboratory response networks and emergency providers should
46:38
Speaker 1: be equipped to respond to pneumonic plague if a case
46:41
Speaker 1: is detected here. If Russian authorities confirm the death to
46:45
Speaker 1: be caused by pneumonic plague, they are supposed to report
46:48
Speaker 1: that to the WHO. But that reporting may not be
46:52
Speaker 1: immediate while Russian officials conduct lab and tissue samples to
46:56
Speaker 1: confirm the presence of the Yersinia pestis bacterium that causes
47:00
Speaker 1: the disease, the U.S. health official said. Plague is an
47:04
Speaker 1: infectious disease usually found in small mammals and their fleas.
47:08
Speaker 1: Humans can be infected to the bite of infected fleas
47:11
Speaker 1: or animals. unprotected contact with infectious bodily fluids or contaminated materials,
47:17
Speaker 1: or inhaling respiratory particles from a patient with pneumonic plague.
47:22
Speaker 1: While plague was infamously known as a black death during
47:25
Speaker 1: the 14th century, causing more than 50 million deaths in Europe,
47:30
Speaker 1: the disease is now treatable with antibiotics and the use
47:33
Speaker 1: of standard precautions to prevent infections. Plague is a rare
47:37
Speaker 1: but persistent cause of illness in rural areas in the
47:40
Speaker 1: western United States, and certain regions of Africa and Asia.
47:45
Speaker 1: More recent plague epidemics have occurred in Africa, Asia, and
47:48
Speaker 1: South America, and most cases in humans since the 1990s
47:52
Speaker 1: have occurred in Africa. The disease remains endemic in several countries,
47:57
Speaker 1: such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bubonic plague is
48:01
Speaker 1: the most common form of plague globally and is caused
48:04
Speaker 1: by the bite of an infected flea. Human-to-human transmission of
48:08
Speaker 1: bubonic plague is rare. Pneumonic plague is the most virulent form.
48:13
Speaker 1: Symptoms can appear quickly, sometimes within 24 hours after infection.
48:18
Speaker 1: It can spread from person to person through respiratory particles.
48:21
Speaker 1: Without early diagnosis and treatment, pneumonic plague is fatal. However,
48:27
Speaker 1: when detected and treated early, within 24 hours of symptom onset,
48:31
Speaker 1: recovery rates are high, according to the WHO. An average
48:35
Speaker 1: of seven human plague cases are reported each year in
48:38
Speaker 1: the United States, according to the CDC. with most cases
48:41
Speaker 1: occurring in the West, especially in northern New Mexico and
48:45
Speaker 1: in Arizona. John Hudson contributed to this report. This item
48:51
Speaker 1: is accompanied by a photo captioned The Medical Assistance and
48:54
Speaker 1: Rescue Center, an infectious disease hospital in Russia's Irkutsk region
48:58
Speaker 1: on Monday. The next item from today's front page is
49:02
Speaker 1: entitled Election 2026, Four Ways the Midterms Could Finish in
49:07
Speaker 1: a Month. Democrats have polls and history on their side.
49:11
Speaker 1: Republicans Have Money by Isaac Arnsdorf. Democrats are heading into
49:16
Speaker 1: the last month of the midterm elections campaign with ambition
49:20
Speaker 1: going deeper and deeper into red territory, while Republicans are
49:24
Speaker 1: grim about their hopes of holding on to either chamber
49:27
Speaker 1: of Congress. Historically, the opposition party almost always makes gains
49:32
Speaker 1: in the midterms, and President Donald Trump is less popular
49:35
Speaker 1: than ever. His support has weakened. especially with independents in
49:39
Speaker 1: high-quality polls and among swing demographics that propelled his 2024 majority.
49:46
Speaker 1: Republicans have also tended to underperform when Trump isn't on
49:49
Speaker 1: the ballot because more consistent voters have shifted toward the Democrats.
49:54
Speaker 1: More Democrats voted in this year's primaries, a sign that
49:57
Speaker 1: they are also more likely to turn out now, with
50:00
Speaker 1: early and mail voting already underway in 43 states leading
50:04
Speaker 1: up to Election Day on November 3rd. The Democrats' lead
50:08
Speaker 1: in national and battleground polls has expanded since Labor Day.
50:12
Speaker 1: There are reasons to suspect polls could be overestimating Democrats' strength,
50:17
Speaker 1: though surveys did not systematically favor Democrats in the last
50:21
Speaker 1: two midterms. Republicans' main advantage is money. GOP campaigns and
50:27
Speaker 1: allies are outspending Democrats in almost all the most contested races,
50:31
Speaker 1: thanks in large part to more than $ 180 million dollars
50:35
Speaker 1: that has been pumped in from Trump's war chest since
50:38
Speaker 1: Labor Day. The outcome will define the remainder of Trump's presidency,
50:43
Speaker 1: the fate of his legislative ambitions, and the pressure of
50:46
Speaker 1: oversight investigations. It will also immediately set the stage for
50:50
Speaker 1: the 2028 presidential primaries, with both parties' hopefuls reading the
50:54
Speaker 1: results for clues to the electorate's moods. Here are four
50:58
Speaker 1: possible ways the midterms could broadly shake out. A blue wave.
51:04
Speaker 1: In the House, Republicans hold the slimmest of majorities, with
51:08
Speaker 1: 218 seats and one independent who caucuses with them, to
51:11
Speaker 1: the Democrats' 214. The GOP is on defense in 16
51:16
Speaker 1: seats rated toss-ups by the Cook Political Report, compared with
51:20
Speaker 1: six for Democrats. On September 25, Cook shifted 15 races
51:25
Speaker 1: toward the Democrats and projected them to take over the House.
51:29
Speaker 1: Anticipating a favorable environment, Democrats went into the cycle planning
51:33
Speaker 1: to expand the House battlefield by recruiting competitive candidates to
51:37
Speaker 1: run in typically safe GOP districts held by incumbents unaccustomed
51:41
Speaker 1: to tough races or dragged down in scandals. On Friday,
51:45
Speaker 1: they continued widening their targets, adding eight districts that voted
51:49
Speaker 1: for Trump by double digits in 2024. They added six
51:53
Speaker 1: more races on Monday, including seats in Arkansas and Tennessee
51:57
Speaker 1: and a Nevada district that backed Trump by 14 points.
52:01
Speaker 1: The latest additions bring their total targets to 46. If
52:05
Speaker 1: Democrats win the popular vote by 10 points this year,
52:09
Speaker 1: their current average lead in polls, they would pick up
52:12
Speaker 1: a projected 33 seats, according to Mindset, a Washington advisory firm.
52:17
Speaker 1: That would place this year's gains between the Democratic pickups
52:21
Speaker 1: in 2006, 31 seats, and 2018, 40 seats. Democrats are
52:27
Speaker 1: on offense. Republicans are running scared, even in deep red territory,
52:32
Speaker 1: said Representative Susan DeBain, Washington, chair of the House Democrats'
52:36
Speaker 1: campaign arm. Voters are fed up with Republicans' broken promises
52:41
Speaker 1: and ready for a change in Congress. In the Senate,
52:45
Speaker 1: Republicans hold a 53-47 majority and were favored to keep
52:50
Speaker 1: control earlier this year. Now, most polls put Democrats ahead
52:54
Speaker 1: in the most contested races. Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio,
53:02
Speaker 1: and Texas. They're more strongly favored to win North Carolina,
53:06
Speaker 1: where former Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, leads former Republican
53:10
Speaker 1: National Committee Chairman Michael Watley, and Georgia, where Representative Mike Collins,
53:15
Speaker 1: a Republican, hasn't come close to catching Senator John Ossoff,
53:19
Speaker 1: a Democrat. On Friday, the Maine Republican Senate super PAC
53:23
Speaker 1: canceled its remaining spending in North Carolina. Beyond the battlegrounds,
53:28
Speaker 1: Republicans have shown concern about incumbents in Kansas, which hasn't
53:32
Speaker 1: elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, and Nebraska,
53:37
Speaker 1: where Trump won by 20 points in 2024. Senator Roger Marshall,
53:42
Speaker 1: Republican from Kansas and obstetrician, is under fire for his
53:47
Speaker 1: history of suing patients to collect unpaid bills, leading to
53:50
Speaker 1: some arrests. He faces megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton, a Democrat.
53:56
Speaker 1: Nebraska Independent Dan Osborne has been slamming Senator Pete Ricketts,
54:00
Speaker 1: a Republican, for pardoning a man convicted of sexual assault
54:04
Speaker 1: when he was governor. In the most extreme scenario, some
54:08
Speaker 1: political professionals imagine the wave wiping out Senator Darlene Graham,
54:13
Speaker 1: Republican from South Carolina, or Senator Ashley Moody, Republican from Florida.
54:19
Speaker 1: A Blue Ripple The Senate does not as consistently turn
54:23
Speaker 1: against the president. Republicans added two seats in the upper
54:27
Speaker 1: chamber in 2018. This year's map has more GOP-held seats
54:31
Speaker 1: in contention, But taking the majority would require the Democrats
54:35
Speaker 1: to hold Georgia and Michigan, pick up North Carolina and Maine,
54:40
Speaker 1: plus win two out of 12 seats in states that
54:42
Speaker 1: Trump won by at least 13 points. In the House,
54:47
Speaker 1: Democrats need a net gain of only three seats. But
54:50
Speaker 1: across decades, partisan gerrymandering has steadily shrunk the battlefield, so
54:55
Speaker 1: even an electoral swing of similar magnitude to past cycles
54:59
Speaker 1: might not flip as many seats. This cycle, Republicans tilted
55:03
Speaker 1: the field further in their direction by redrawing congressional maps
55:08
Speaker 1: ahead of the customary once-a-decade redistricting. Republicans hoped to move
55:12
Speaker 1: 16 districts to the right with new maps in Texas,
55:15
Speaker 1: five districts, Florida, four, Ohio, two, Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina,
55:24
Speaker 1: and Tennessee, one each. Democrats responded with five districts in California.
55:30
Speaker 1: and courts overturned the Missouri map and added a Democratic-leaning
55:34
Speaker 1: seat in Utah, cutting the Republicans' theoretical edge to nine.
55:39
Speaker 1: But many of those redrawn seats are shaping up to
55:42
Speaker 1: be less solid than Republicans had hoped. Democrats are still
55:47
Speaker 1: contesting four redrawn seats in Texas and another four in Florida.
55:51
Speaker 1: They hope to keep one or two affected districts in Ohio,
55:55
Speaker 1: held by Representatives Marcy Koptur and Greg Lansman, plus the
55:59
Speaker 1: one in North Carolina, Representative Don Davis. People want to
56:03
Speaker 1: make predictions, but there's a lot of toss-up races that
56:06
Speaker 1: are not decided yet, Republican pollster John McLaughlin said. The
56:10
Speaker 1: sides are forming where the Democratic-anti-Republican vote is coming together,
56:15
Speaker 1: and Republicans are losing their ability to recover swing voters.
56:19
Speaker 1: That's concerning. A GOP Upset In the previous midterms of 2022,
56:24
Speaker 1: the roles were reversed. Republicans were confident the unpopular sitting
56:30
Speaker 1: president would sweep their candidates into power despite their flaws,
56:35
Speaker 1: and were dismayed when that wave failed to materialize. Now
56:38
Speaker 1: they are hoping for a similar dynamic, only the other
56:41
Speaker 1: way around. If Republicans pull an upset, they'll be able
56:46
Speaker 1: to thank the Senate map that puts them mostly on
56:48
Speaker 1: their home turf and gerrymandering for patting their cushion in
56:52
Speaker 1: the House. The polls would have to be significantly off.
56:55
Speaker 1: which could be because Democrats were more eager to answer
56:58
Speaker 1: the phone, Republicans were less likely to participate, or pollsters
57:03
Speaker 1: misjudged who would turn out to vote. Trump political advisor
57:07
Speaker 1: Chris LaCivita summed up the Republicans' path to victory as money, message, motivation,
57:14
Speaker 1: and the president's ability to defy conventional wisdom. Republicans outspent
57:19
Speaker 1: Democrats in every Senate battleground in September, and also led
57:24
Speaker 1: in future reservations through Election Day, according to media tracker
57:28
Speaker 1: Ad Impact. Republicans are also hoping to benefit in races
57:32
Speaker 1: where further-left Democrats won their primaries. Those Democrats include Senate
57:36
Speaker 1: candidate Abdullah Syed in Michigan and House candidates William Lawrence
57:41
Speaker 1: in Michigan and Randy Villegas in California. The GOP's midterms
57:46
Speaker 1: convention and Trump's stump speeches have sought to portray the
57:49
Speaker 1: Democrats as extreme and tie the entire party to self-described
57:53
Speaker 1: socialists who won in some areas. And as much as
57:57
Speaker 1: Democrats want to make the race about Trump, and he
58:00
Speaker 1: does too, at least some Republicans may be able to
58:04
Speaker 1: outperform his unpopularity. Candidates from Iowa to Florida have started
58:09
Speaker 1: removing references to Trump from their websites and breaking with
58:13
Speaker 1: the president on immigration and the Iran war. Due to
58:17
Speaker 1: the constraints of time, we will be unable to complete
58:19
Speaker 1: this item. This concludes the reading of the Washington Post
58:22
Speaker 1: for today, Tuesday, October 6, 2026. Your reader today has
58:27
Speaker 1: been Cindy Fraser. If you have any questions, comments, or
58:30
Speaker 1: suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call us
58:34
Speaker 1: at 859-422-6390. Thank you for listening, and now please stay
58:39
Speaker 1: tuned for continued programming on Radio Eye.