Transcript

12.15.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for December fifteenth.
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As a reminder, Radio Eyes are reading service intended for
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people who are blind or have other disabilities that make
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it difficult to read. Prince of Material. Your reader for
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to day is Chris greco by listener Request. On Mondays,
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we begin by reading Paul Prather's weekly column from the
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Lexington Herald Leader. This week's article is titled God has
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created a Universe that teaches us necessary humility again by
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Paul Prether. The virtue Christians are supposed to practice above
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all other moral qualities is love. Every ten year old
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Sunday School new student knows that this is not to
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say we always do practice love, or even that we
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mostly practice it. Obviously we don't, but we should. If
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there's a second most important spiritual virtue in the Christian schema,
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it's probably this one, humility. I discussed humility in a
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previous column about ways in which we can reduce the
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hate at ever present that is ever present in our
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divided culture. I want to say more about it, though,
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for it seems God considers humility so important He's built
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it into every fabric of existence. It's visible on a
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thousand fronts, from the ridiculously minischool role our planet plays
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in the Grand Cosmos, to the daily examples of old
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people and even pets. My mother, god rest Her, grew
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up during the Great Depression in a clapboard house on
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a farm in southeast eastern Kentucky. There were three generations
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under the roof of that little home, Mom, her parents,
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and her paternal grandparents. I don't know if Mom put
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it in exactly these words, but I got the sense
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that if she had a favorite family member, it was
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her grandfather, Lee Chestnut. She told me many fond stories
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about Grandpa Chestnut. As a young man in the late
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eighteen hundreds, Lee apparently was daring, strong, even violent. He
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got into trouble with the law in Kentucky. Mom never
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found out what he'd done and hopped a freight train
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to Montana lest he became a cowboy. In an altercation
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over cattle, he killed a man on the range, and
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with the help of his ranch foreman, hid the body. Later,
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when Kentucky had lost interest in his legal problems here,
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he came home and got married. He bought a piece
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of cheap land that was mainly forest and worked as
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a night watchman to pay his bills. Then labored days
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cutting trees and blasting the stumps with dynamite, trying to
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turn the place into a farm. That's the farm my
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mom grew up on. By the time Mom came along,
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Lee was an old man. Mom had little use for
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her grandmother, whom she found controlling and cranky. Grandpa Chestnut
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had become a church goer and even a deacon. I
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think Mom said. He sat at the very front of
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the church sanctuary on the mourner's bench, the foot of
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the pulpit where sinners came to repent, because he was
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nearly deaf, and that was only the only way he
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could hear the sermon. If the preacher droned on too long,
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Grandpa would tug the tail of his frock coat to
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remind him it was time for dinner. At home, Grandpa
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knelt beside his bed night to pray before turning in,
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and the quiet house mon could hear him asking the
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Lord to please bless little Alice, that sweet old ma'am.
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Mom would say, down on his knees praying for me.
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At some point she started shaving Grandpa because his eyes
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and hands weren't steady. Anymore, and because the attention pleased him.
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In the end, he lay helpless in a bed in
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that same farmhouse he'd built forty years earlier, suffering from
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a broken hip, nursed by his son and daughter in law.
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That's how his life ended, the former outlaw and energetic worker,
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reduced to helplessness and pain, dependent on the ministrations of others.
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In a new century, in a different species, I've seen
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this same type of journey echoed. My wife Liz brought
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into our marriage a kitten named Walter, who from the
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get go was full of sap and swagger. Nearly fifteen
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years later, he's still with us, still sleeping in our garage.
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I'm not a cat person, but I always liked Walter.
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You couldn't not like him. He was both lovable and ferocious.
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He enjoyed being petted, yet patrolled our yard as if
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he were a lion on the serengetti, stalking a herd
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of what wildebeast. I don't know whether cats have phantasies,
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but he seemed to think he was Simba or maybe scar.
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He scouted and skulked and slithered, and delivered to our
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kitchen door a steady supply of mice, rabbits, and chipmunks.
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He strutted around with his tail erect, and then for
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no reason, charged across the grass. It low dead run,
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as if shot from a cannon. Walter's not fast anymore.
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He's arthritic. His teeth are so bad he can only
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eat the mushiest cat foods. He's trembling and disoriented. He
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wanders under the wheels of our vehicles. As we pulled
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into the garage. We break and wake for him to
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take a notion to amble onto his bed. He can't
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groom himself. His fur became hopelessly matted and painful. Liz
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had to take him to the veterinarian to be shaved.
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His heads still fluffy and sower, his tail and paws
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otherwise he's hairless. He looks like a kiddie poodle, which
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I'm sure isn't the vision he used to have of him.
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We can't let outside for fear a hawk or a
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dog will kill him. The hunter has become prey. Watching
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him has reminded me that nearly every creature on Earth
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winds up slow, broken, afraid. We come into the world helpless,
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and we leave it helpless. If we are humans, over
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the variety who happen to be teachable. Our decline in
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views us with humility. Before we're gone, we lose our
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delusions of power. We discover our dependence on God and
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other people. We feel mercy for other poor souls who
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are struggling too. We understand, indeed, what the greatest of
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our virtues is love. Today's front page headlines from the
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Washington Post are at brown shots then screams and lecture
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hall teaching assistant held wounded students hand put all the
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pain on me. Gunmen kill fifteen at Hanukah event in Australia.
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Her son acted together police saying Jewish leaders say they
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warned of rising anti semitism. Floods threaten one of the
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driest places on Earth. In Oman, extreme rainfall has become
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frequent and deadly. House probe smith sought to soften d
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C crimestats. Trump eyes unique building for presidential library in Florida,
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but the plan raises concerns about secrecy, bias, funding sources.
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Europe tries to reverse shrinking population. The first article for
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the front page of the day's edition is titled Gunman
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kills fifteen at Hanka event in Australia. Videos taken at
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the scene of Sunday's mass shooting at Bondi Beach in
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Australia and analyzed by The Post show how a joyous
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celebration turned into a night of terror. By Michael E. Miller,
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Meg Kelly, Sammy Westfall and Susannah George Sydney, two gunmen
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opened fire on a Honka celebrations Sunday at Bondi Beach,
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killing fifteen people and wounding at least forty and what
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Australian officials said was an act of terrorism targeting the
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city's Jewish community. Jewish leaders in Sydney reacted with grief
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and rage after what they said were months of unheeded
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warnings about the dangers of rising anti Semitism. In the
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wake of the attack, police and Australia stepped up security
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at synagogues, as did authorities in New York, London and elsewhere.
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albaneze called the shooting the deadliest
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in this country in almost three decades, an act of evil,
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anti Semitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation.
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Rabbi Mosh Gutnik of Sydney's said his son in law
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and grandchildren were at the event when the shooting began.
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They hid under a picnic table as people were gunned
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down around them. Among the dead were two of Guttenick's
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best friends and a colleague. It's unfathomable, he said. The
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annual celebration to the first night of Hanukkah, sponsored by
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the Shabbad of Bondy, was scheduled for five pm near
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the playground at Bondi Beach Park. According to an online flyer,
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about a thousand people had gathered to mark the occasion.
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A ten minute video taken by an unknown witness, as
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well as more than half a dozen other videos and
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photos verified and analyzed by The Post, show how the
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violence unfolded late in the sixth out six p m Hour,
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almost two hours after the celebration began. The extended video
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shows a gunman in khaki pants and a black short
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sleeved shirt fire at least twice towards two people near
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a silver car. At least one falls to the ground.
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The shooter backs towards a bridge. The video shows joining
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a second younger gunman dressed all in black. Police on
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Monday identified the shooters as a fifty year old and
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his twenty four year old son, but did not name
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them or comment on their motives. Video shows the two
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men firing more than a dozen shots toward the playground
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as a urgency sirens start to blare. Each gunman wears
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a ban delier of shotgun cartridges around his waist. A
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third weapon is visible at their feet. After forty seconds,
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the man wearing khaki pants quickly walks down the stairs
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in the direction of the playground. He has a black backpack,
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a pouch on his hip, and carries what appears to
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be a sporting style shotgun fitted with an extended magazine tube.
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According to N. R. Jens And Jones, the director of
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ar Marmament Research Services, who analyze the video at the
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Post's request, the tube increases the capacity of the weapon.
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He added, the second gunman provides cover, firing additional rounds
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from the bridge. Photos obtained by The Daily Mail and
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reviewed by The Post show that he appears to be
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wielding a Boretta b r X one rifle fitted with
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a red dot sight, which can help with faster aim.
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Jensen Jones said. At one point, the gunman stops walks
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calmly to pick up the third weapon and keeps firing.
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We got to get the cops, man, a witness is
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heard saying in the video as sirens wail and war
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shots ring out. Were the cops? Man? Where are the cops?
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The two gunmen fire more than thirty additional shots towards
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the playground in the ninety seconds after they separate, according
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to audio from the video. Then an unidentified bystander, who
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had been hiding behind a car decides to act. According
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to a second video recorded in the middle of the attack,
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the bystander sneaks up on the man with khaki pants,
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disarming him, pushing him to the ground and pointing the
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weapon at him as he stands up and backs away.
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At that moment, the man dressed in black moves down
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the stairs, firing twice towards the bystander before returning to
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the bridge. Within less than a minute, both gunmen were
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back on the bridge. The two continued to shoot, ducking
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behind the concrete walls to avoid returned fire. Then the
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man dressed in khaki pants appears to be shot. The
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remaining gunmen returns fire for another minute or so before
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collapsing on to the bridge. As the guns went silent.
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Police swore the area. All told, around one hundred shots
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were fired by the gunmen and police. According to Rob Meyer,
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an audio expert who reviewed the video, two active explosive
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devices were found at the scene and disabled. Police said
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two officers were among the injured. The older gunman was killed,
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authorities confirmed Monday, while his son was in critical but
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stable condition at a hospital. Arthur Arnold, twenty six, was
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at the apartment at his apartment nearby when he said
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he heard gunshots left and right. At first he thought
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the sound was a car back firing, but once outside
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he saw scores of people running in all directions. Gutnek,
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the rabbi, said police responded quickly, which should have been
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better prepared. They didn't protect us, He said, why weren't
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there arms swat police at the event. On a recent
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trip to the United States, Gutnik said he had told
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people that Australia was one of the safest countries on Earth.
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Then this happens, He said. This is a big wake
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up call for the Jewish community and for Austriia. Stephen Lewis,
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a Waverley councilor and Jewish leader in Sydney, said it
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was a very tragic and sad evening and something that
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we all hoped would never happen. What was fearful may happen.
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The Hanukah event Bondi is always popular and attended by
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people of all ages from across the large and tight
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knit Jewish community. Lewis said, everyone knows everyone. It's been
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a great tragedy in a great shock. World leaders offered
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connolences and prayers to the victims. The United States strongly
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condemns the terrorist act in Australia targeting a Jewish celebration.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio set on acts an anti
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Semitism has no place in this world. British Prime Minister
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a Kir Starmer called the attack sickening and pledged to
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stand with Australia and the Jewish community. Starmer said he
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was working with a Jewish security organization to police Hanukkah
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events in Britain. New York may like Zohan Ramna Mamdami
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said one of those killed in the attack was was
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Eli Schlanger, an Australian rabbi who had deep ties to
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the Crown Heights of neighborhood in Brooklyn. In a post
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online Momdami called the attack a vile act of anti
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anti Semitic terror. Australia, like countries around the world, has
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witnessed the surging anti Semitic incidents over the past two years.
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In the aftermath of the Hamasa assault on Israel on
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October seventh, twenty twenty three, and Israel's war in Gaza,
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synagogues had been threatened, vandalized and in one case firebombed.
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Jewish neighborhoods in Sydney had been repeatedly targeted with anti
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Semitic graffiti, and cars have been set ablaze. In February,
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Australia's intelligence chief warned that a rising anti Semitic and
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political violence was eroding the country's social cohesion. In August,
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the Australian government expelled Iran's ambassador after alleging that Tehran
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was linked to two anti Semitic at arson attacks over
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the past year wanted a Kosher cap and another at
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a synagogue. Iran denied the accusations. The decision by Albanese
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in August to recognize a Palestinian state was heavily criticized
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by Israel, and after the attack Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin
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Netaniaho accused Australia's government of pouring oil on the flames
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of anti Semitism. Speaking ahead of his weekly cabinet meeting,
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netnah Who said he had written a letter months ago
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to his Australian counterpart warning that the country's policy was
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encouraging the hatred of Jews that is raging in the
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streets of Australia. Israel's Foreign ministry confirmed that one of
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its citizens was among those injured in the attack and
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is being treated at a hospital. Asked Monday to respond
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to netnia whose comments, Albany said, this is a moment
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for national unity. This is a moment for Australians to
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come together. That's precisely what we will be doing. Mass
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shootings are extremely rare in this country, which has some
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of the world's strictest gun control laws. Sunday's attack is
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the deadliest since nineteen ninety six, when a lone gunman
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killed thirty five people near Port Arthur, Tasmania, using a
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legally purchased cold Ar fifteen semi automatic rifle. That attack
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prompted the government to buy back hundreds of thousands of
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firearms and strengthened gun control laws. Dion Taylor, communications manager
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at the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, said that
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over the past two years, she and other community leaders
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have been warning the government that an attack like this
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was becoming inevitable. They have begged political leaders to stop
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offering just their sentiments of support concerns, she said, and
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urged them to take effective, real action. The next article
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from the front page of today's edition is entitled Floods
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threatened one of the driest places on Earth. A Washington
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Post investigation found that in one of the planet's most
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arid regions, extreme rain and floods had become frequent and deadly.
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By Joshua Parlow, Sawn Geijiores and Ben Noyl samat Alshan Omah,
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on their final morning together in April of last year,
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two elderly Shakhs and a white Mercedes drove through a
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palm lined, palm tree lined ravine to pay their respects
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at a funeral. The two local leaders were cousins and
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best friends, traveled the world together and prayed at the
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same mosque. They lived on the same block as samat Alshan,
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a village amid the rocky hills of South of Muscat
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that was built along one of hundreds of wadis, normally
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dry river beds and one of the most water scarce
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countries in the world. Flood and floods in this part
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of Oman, while rare, are not unheard of. Elders remembered
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that villagers used to fire guns to alert those down
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stream that water was coming. But as Shaikhs Safe and
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Nasser al Mali drove through the date palmed groves that morning,
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they had little warning beyond the steadily darkening sky that
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more than a year's worth of rain would soon fall
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on their village. No one expected this, said save sun
17:10
ya Ya, an engineer. It was one of the strongest
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storm of their entire lives. The storm system first dropped
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the most rain the United Arab Emirates had seen since
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records began seventy five years earlier. It swamped Dubai's subway,
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flooded its airport, the second busiest in the world, and
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led to a remarkable greening of the desert visible from
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space months afterwards. It then swept across the coastal kingdom
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of Aman, home to some five million people, the latest
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battering storm to strike here in the past two decades,
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bringing calamity to communities along Oman's wadis, the channels that
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run to the sea from countless wrinkles in the mountainous interior.
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In one of the most arid places on the planet,
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extreme rainfall is becoming a recurrent source of catastrophe. A
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dramatic atmospheric shift is moving a more moisture onto the
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shores of the northern coast of Oman. According to a
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Washington Post investigation of global atmospheric data, here, the strongest
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plumes in the sky are surging at rates more than
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one point five times the global average. Ohman and its neighbors,
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relatively unaccustomed to the torrents becoming more common, have often
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been caught unprepared for These oil rich monarchies that prize
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order and stability. The shock wrought by such flooding has
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forced a reckoning with their changing environment. In response, they
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have embarked on a building spree of dams, culverts, evacuation sites,
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and massive stormwater tunnels, seeking to engineer defenses to the
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growing problem of extreme rain. We're trying to change the
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scale of how we manage rain, said Fahad Alawadi, a
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civil engineer who directs drainage and recycled water projects with
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the Dubai Municipality in sem Mad al Shan. The historic
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rains left a resid do of outrage and grief, particularly
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among residents who feel the government should have done war
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to warn and protect them. The storm forced residents into
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terrifying split second dilemmas save themselves or help others. The
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controversial decision by authorities to keep students at schools remains
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contested nearly two years later. Yusef Alamali Sayeff's brother and
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an Islamic studies teacher at a local middle school, had
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been told to go home as the storm moved in,
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even as eight hundred and fifty five students at the
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Al Hawari bin Mohammed Azadi school were kept on sight.
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Ten of the students would not survive the day. Driving
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home that morning with a colleague, ma While he noticed
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the sky had grown so dark that street lights flickered on.
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When the rain unleashed, it pounded down so ferociously that
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he was forced to pull over. He had never seen
19:47
such rain. The car started shaking. Mawali recalled, I became
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very worried at that moment that if the rain smashed
19:54
through the windshield. We were going to die. Meanwhile, silty
19:59
round floodwaters around the Sheik's white Mercedes near the Bay
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al Kahabi Cassel, a nineteenth century stone fort turned museum
20:07
filled with artifacts dating more than five thousand years. Residents
20:11
of Samadal Shan were familiar with water running through the channel.
20:15
Many traditionally kept two homes here, one under the palms
20:18
fronds in the heat of summer, another in the foothills
20:21
out of harm's way and winter rains. But many were
20:24
shocked by how quickly the wadi transformed into a raging river.
20:29
Sayif seventy eight stepped from the vehicle as Nassar seventy
20:32
seven struggled to extricate himself. Alllookers shouted at Sif to
20:37
move to higher ground. As he tried to pull his
20:39
friend from the car. With the roaring flood waters tugging
20:42
at him, Sayf called his son, I don't think there's
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anything that can be done for us, he said. In
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June eighteen ninety, a tropical cyclone roared ashore in the
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al Batani region on the north coast of Aman, leaving
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behind a path of destruction and killing more than seven
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hundred people. Over the next century, such hurricane strength storms
21:02
that formed in the Arabian Sea or the Bay of
21:04
Bengal rarely made landfall in Oman. In the one hundred
21:08
and twenty six years between eighteen eighty one and two
21:10
thousand and seven, just six hurricane strength storms hit Oman
21:14
or came within sixty miles of the country, according to
21:17
data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Then the
21:22
frequency started to change. Cyclone Gonu crashed into the capital
21:27
city of Mofscat in two thousand and seven, bringing a
21:30
record breaking moisture plume over the capital, killing about fifty
21:34
people and causing more than four billion dollars in damage.
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At least four more hurricane strength storms made landfall in
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Oman in the past fifteen years. After two thousand and seven,
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they kept coming. Sei Khalid al Jawari, a meteorologist and
21:49
lecturer at Sultan Kwabus University in Muscat, now on a
21:53
yearly basis cyclones come close to our coast. Jahawari, also
21:59
the former assistant director of Aman's National Multi Hazard Early
22:02
Warning Center, the office that tracks such storms, was at
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his home in the Albatania region when category one cyclone
22:09
Shaheen made landfall on October twenty twenty one. The winds
22:14
thrashed the palm trees in his yard and knocked out power.
22:17
He spent that night huddled in the dark with his children,
22:19
and as floodwaters poured into his home and couches drifted
22:22
around the living room. It was very ugly, he recalled,
22:26
we lost so much. Wide swaths of Aman received less
22:30
than four inches of rain on average a year, among
22:32
the least of any nation in the world. Driving through
22:35
the countryside reveals stunny expanses of rock and sand. Most
22:39
of the drinking water for the population comes from the
22:42
desalination plants that filter ocean water without any major year
22:47
round rivers or natural freshwater lakes. Many communities are built
22:50
along waddies, which often have springs or accessible ground water,
22:54
and fill when it rains. When it rains, but as
22:58
the climate has warmed and off shore storms soak up
23:01
more moisture from heated seas, the amount and distribution of
23:04
rain are changing. While the number of rainy days has decreased,
23:08
extreme events occurred more often, pushing overall rainfall totals higher.
23:13
The post analysis found the strongest moisture plumes have greatly
23:16
increased the chance for heavy rainfall across Oman and have
23:20
intensified over the past three decades. These wetter storms are
23:23
dropping more rain into wattis, leading to a more flash
23:27
floating and destruction. Before no one was talking about flooding
23:31
in Oman, said Ghazi al Rabas, the dean of research
23:34
at the Sultan Kabus University. They didn't think there was
23:37
any problem. Rabas had been drawn to his relatively unstudied
23:41
field during graduate work at Boston University. He poured over
23:45
satellite images of Oman looking for clues about which wattis
23:49
had the highest potential for flash flooding. As a civil
23:52
engineering professor in Muscat, watching storms intensify, he applied for
23:56
grants in twenty eleven and twenty sixteen to develop tools
24:00
to help predict floodwater behaviour. Both times the government rejected
24:03
his proposals. Then shee Hen came, he said. The twenty
24:08
twenty one cyclone dropped eighteen inches of rain on parts
24:11
of the north coast, more than six times the annual average.
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It sent water coursing through Wadi al Hasawana, a rocky
24:19
gorge two hours northwest of the capitol, at the height
24:22
of a three story building. The water over topped a dam,
24:27
destroyed more than three hundred houses and inundated a coastal
24:30
area home to about a quarter of the population. Rawa's
24:34
research projects soon ranked as the sultanates Number one national
24:38
priority within his university. Since then, Rawas and his graduate
24:42
student Badar al Jawari, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries,
24:47
Wealth and Water Resources, have traveled the length of Wadi
24:50
al Hawasana, used drones to map its ever changing topography,
24:56
and worked to develop a complicated model to answer a
24:59
simple but urgent questionquestion When the forecast says rain, how
25:02
much water will show up in the wadi? The information
25:07
we have right now is only from the weather forecast,
25:09
Rawa said, But knowing the rainfall is not enough. One
25:13
reason the predictions are hard is because of the way
25:15
rain behaves in a desert rather than a steady drizzle
25:19
over a wide expanse. Research has shown that rainfall and
25:22
aired areas tends to be highly localized. A slight change
25:25
in storm track could mean a waddy expected a flood
25:28
might stay completely dry. In Oman, rain storms also tend
25:32
to be front loaded more than in wetter parts of
25:34
the world, and their analysis of eight thousand storms over
25:38
more than twenty years across sixty nine rainfall stations, Rawas
25:42
and Johari found that half of the rainfalls within the
25:45
first ninety minutes of a twenty four hour storm. We
25:48
receive a huge amount of water in a very short
25:50
amount of time. Rawa said, those intense but short lived
25:54
bursts of rainfall in one place can quickly overwhelm the
25:57
desert's ability to absorb water. Rabas and Jiwari drove along
26:02
Wadi al Hawasannah into the foothills of the Al Hajar
26:06
Algarbi mountains on a November day when it hadn't rained
26:09
in eight months. They stopped at some of the rainfall
26:12
collection stations with radar equipment linked to gages to measure
26:16
water flow during floods. Wadi al Hawanasaw spans hundreds of
26:21
feet across in some places, with a water shed encompassing
26:25
one hundred and forty five square miles one of Aman's
26:28
medium sized channels. Before the flood, Jehari and his family
26:32
would picnic here on weekends amid the palm fahns and
26:35
bushy cedar trees that can live for hundreds of years,
26:39
but the floods scoured scoured away almost all of this vegetation.
26:44
The Shahen cyclone took everything from the wadi. Chihari said,
26:48
before and after, it's totally different. Now. The rocky canyon
26:52
is scattered with remnants of washed out roads and culverts.
26:55
Goats wander amid downed palm tree trunks are still so
27:01
rare that people often celebrate their arrival. Kids and parents
27:04
rush outside. Some try to swim or drive across the channel,
27:07
unfamiliar with the risks of fast moving water. As the
27:11
scientists drove part past clusters of homes built deep in
27:15
the channel, they worried these could be the next flood victims.
27:18
People still think waddies are like they were before. Rawas said,
27:22
but now the wadi is different than thirty years ago.
27:25
Both men have a keen awareness of the growing storms
27:28
to come. Rawas a slight bespeckled man with a courtly charm,
27:32
has served on Oman's negotiating team at the United Nations
27:35
Annual Climate summits. He was the principal investigator for the
27:38
country's second climate Action Plan, submitted in twenty twenty one,
27:43
which warned of the inescapable impacts of worsening storms. For
27:47
his dissertation, Jahwari analyzed rainfall records over several decades at
27:52
eighty eight stations in northern Oman. While his work is
27:55
yet to be published, he said, preliminary results show storms
27:58
in Aman are bringing more rain more often. This shift
28:03
towards more concentrated, high intensity storms is consistent with the
28:06
flash flood impacts observed in recent years, he said. On
28:11
a recent day, Jiwari visited Al Kabara, the coastal district
28:16
in the floodplain inundated during Shaheen. At the area's Old Sauk,
28:21
a historical site along the Wadi, damage shops have been
28:24
closed since the storm. Along a beach, massive slabs of
28:28
reinforced concrete were half submerged in the waves torn from
28:31
somewhere upstream. Nearby, a group of construction workers were rebuilding
28:36
a house on a bank that Jahwari knew was eroding rapidly.
28:40
They're building again in the wadi, he said. People are
28:43
not learning across the border in Dubai. The building is
28:47
taking place out of sight two hundred feet below shaik
28:51
Zayhead Road, a multi lane boulevard that carves a canyon
28:55
through Dubai's high rise skyscrapers. Massive machines have been boring
28:59
tunnel beneath the earth as Audasias has anything on the surface.
29:04
The Amarati's underground ambitions are testing whether money and engineering
29:07
can subdue the unrulief forces of nature. When complete, an
29:12
eighty foot diameter main tunnel shaft, along with its branching tentacles,
29:16
will run from more than one hundred and twenty miles.
29:19
This underground network is a key part of the tess
29:22
Reef Project, an eight billion dollar effort to funnel runoff
29:25
from ever larger rainstorms to the sea, incurb the flooding
29:29
that snarled air and road traffic last year, and a
29:31
key hub for the Middle East when you talk about
29:35
climate change, this is a reality that we're living now,
29:38
said Awadami, who oversees storm water infrastructure in Dubai. While planning,
29:44
that effort had been underway from before the April twenty
29:47
twenty fourth storm. That downpour accelerated work and validated the
29:51
decision to invest in a drainage system built for the
29:54
next century of intensifying storms. Authority said after the downpour,
29:59
the most strain ever recorded in the city. Property insurance
30:02
rates spiked by some fifteen percent. Dubai authorities identified fourteen
30:07
critical areas that flooded with blocked roads and swamped infrastructure.
30:11
The Dubai Airport canceled more than one thousand flights. Now
30:15
people are more open to consider these kinds of threats
30:18
from extreme weather, which was not the case before this one,
30:21
said Diana Francis, a climate scientist that Khalifa University of
30:25
Abdu Dubai, whose research estimated a storm of this magnitude
30:29
is up to thirty percent more likely because of global warming.
30:33
A Body traveled with his team to cities like Tokyo, Singapore,
30:36
and New York to learn how they manage rain. Many places,
30:39
he said, have infrastructure designed to accept a twenty five
30:43
percent chance of flooding each year. Dubai is aiming to
30:46
engineer a storm water system that only have a two
30:48
percent chance of flooding, he said. Dubai authorities considered the
30:52
storm water system expansion one of the most significant infrastructure
30:56
investments in its modern era, and after analyzing the past
30:59
century of rainfall data, they believe more extreme rains are coming.
31:03
As a trend, you will see it. It is increasing.
31:06
A Waaldi said. The scale of devise ambitions to solve
31:11
flooding are visible at the Deep Tunnel, an early phase
31:14
of the stormwater build out, located at the Jebel Alley Port,
31:17
a dustry industrial area in the southern part of the city.
31:21
A vast subterranean silo is the terminus of one of
31:24
the largest gravity fed stormwater tunnels in the world. Massive
31:28
below ground pumps push water that's been collected up through
31:31
pipelines back out to sea to handle the April twenty
31:35
twenty four, flood operators said pumps ran for three to
31:38
four days at maximum capacity, pushing out more water than
31:42
the system had encountered since going online three years before.
31:46
Workers are constructing a new pipeline to the ocean and
31:49
more pumps or planted. The underground tunnels under construction will
31:53
ultimately connect with the existing system. We want to actually
31:57
push more water to the sea, said Alayah Abermine al Hasani,
32:02
a senior electrical engineer with the Dubai Municipality. We want
32:06
the system to handle more flow back in Oman authorities
32:10
have been building a network of dams in the mountains
32:12
to keep flood waters from sweeping down the waddies. They
32:16
are studying fourteen major waddies that funnel to the al
32:19
Batana coast line in preparation to build more dams to
32:21
protect residents, said Yawari with Omen's Water agency. Across Oman,
32:27
there are three agreements. There are agreements to build fifty
32:31
eight new dams. Billboards along the highways also announced that
32:34
new flood evacuation centers are coming soon. Residents often marvel
32:39
at the pace of repair and recovery after a flood.
32:42
The government rapidly rebuilds washed out roads, bridges and culverts,
32:46
and often pays for the entire costs of rebuilding destroyed homes.
32:50
But even if repair is quick, Rawa, said Ohman, is
32:53
still a long way from understanding this threat. Flood hazard
32:57
maps remain rudimentary. People still build homes in wadis where
33:02
properties can be cheaper and easier to expand. He and
33:05
his colleagues have spent years gathering detailed data about soil type, topography,
33:09
the extent of the development footprint, the characteristics of desert storms,
33:14
all to understand how flash floods have been in a
33:17
single wadi. His ultimate goal is an interactive flood map
33:21
for the entire country. This could inform future developments and
33:24
also warn residents which road should be closed and which
33:27
communities should be evacuated to avert the type of tragedy
33:31
that happened in Samad al Shan. Right now, we don't
33:34
have anything like that, he said. The morning of the flood,
33:38
the Azan bin Tamend's School for Boys sum in their
33:42
bus driver Abdullah Sad al Rashid to pick up students.
33:46
The rains had started and school was closing. He loaded
33:49
twenty five teenagers into his beije Misubisi and set off
33:52
through the wadi. He had driven about three miles through
33:56
pouring rain and flooded streets when the engine died. Instead
33:59
of trying to restart the bus and drive to safety,
34:03
he told the students to run hot to high ground.
34:05
A few minutes after they escaped, a surge of rolling
34:08
brown water washed over the windshield and swept the bus away.
34:12
This one came all of a sudden, Rashti recalled. Others
34:16
caught in the wadi weren't so lucky. At the Al
34:20
Hawari school two miles away, students had not been sent home,
34:23
even as some worried parents raced to the school to
34:25
pick up their kids. One family member loaded up about
34:28
a dozen middle school boys into his white suv, but
34:31
the vehicle got stuck crossing the swiftly moving water. The
34:35
uncle who was driving managed to escape. Ten of the children,
34:38
all from the same extended family, died in the flood.
34:42
The tragedy remains an open wound in Samad al Shan.
34:45
The boys parents have a dispute with government officials for
34:48
keeping school open that morning, According to a relative of
34:51
the boys, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to
34:53
avoid retribution. A lawyer for the family recommended they not
34:57
speak publicly. He said, every one afraid. He said. At
35:02
least two days before the flood, Oman's Early Warning Center
35:05
had announced that heavy rains were expected and activated its
35:08
emergency committee, including in the government that included Samad al Shan,
35:13
but several residents said the warnings did not seem particularly urgent.
35:17
Colonel Zaid Hamad al Jinnibi, head of Oman's National Emergency
35:22
Management Center, said the country's emergency protocols had been followed
35:26
during this storm and authority saved many lives. He said
35:30
the royalman Police generally set up checkpoints at wadi crossings
35:33
to keep people back, but Unfortunately, it's not possible at
35:36
every area where people might cross. The rains were very heavy,
35:40
he said. Since the flood, Oman has decided to relocate
35:45
several schools from flood prone areas, and students now practice evacuations.
35:49
He said. On that April day, the two Sheiks could
35:52
not escape in time. Nasser, a heavier man who had
35:55
heart trouble, couldn't free himself from his car, his relatives said,
36:00
and Sayef refused to leave his best friend behind. Perhaps
36:03
Eif could have saved himself, his son said, but he'd
36:06
never have forgiven himself. They are now buried side by side,
36:10
their graves marked by matching marble headstones. The next article
36:15
from the front page of the day's edition is entitled
36:18
at Brown Shots, then Screams and Lecture Hall. What happened
36:22
inside the Brown University classroom The gunmen stormed, a teaching
36:27
assistant comforted a wounded student in the chaotic aftermath of
36:31
a shooting that left two dead and nine injured. By Gayagupta,
36:37
Todd Wallack and Joanna Slater, Providence, Rhode Island, inside Elector
36:43
Hall on a darkening winter afternoon, dozens of Brown University
36:46
students gathered Saturday for a two hour economic study session
36:50
full of urgent questions and a pre exam stress. Around
36:53
four pm, the teaching assistant wrapped up with some reassurance.
36:56
Just try your best on the final, he told the students,
36:59
many of them in their first semester of college, and
37:02
even if you fall short, he joked, the consequences won't
37:05
be life altering. Moments later, there was screaming outside the room.
37:09
In several loud bangs, A door opened at the top
37:11
of the auditorium style classroom in the Barras and Hilly
37:14
Engineering and Physics building. A man dressed all in black,
37:18
his face covered, burst in. He yelled something unintelligible. He
37:21
was carrying the longest gun I have ever seen in
37:23
my life, said Joseph Aduro, the teaching assistant. A Duro
37:28
twenty one, locked eyes with the shooter. A single thought
37:31
went through his mind, get down. The assailant opened fire,
37:35
turning a place of learning into a scene of bloodshed.
37:39
The attack left two students at the Ivy League school
37:41
dead and nine others wounded, officials said, spreading terror across
37:45
campus and around Providence, Rhode Island. Students spent all night
37:49
locked down in dorms and university buildings, barricading themselves and
37:52
trying to find out if anyone they had they knew
37:56
had been shot or killed. Early Sunday, a person of
37:59
interest was taken into custody, but that person was later released,
38:03
authority said late Sunday night. For a Duro senior from
38:06
New Jersey, it was his third time as a teaching
38:08
assistant in the Principles of Economics course, a hugely popular
38:12
introductory class with more than four hundred students. When Aduro
38:16
saw the shooter, he immediately ducked behind the lectern, where
38:18
only moments earlier he had been offering sixty odd students
38:22
words of encouragement. He heard shots, dozens of them, and screams.
38:26
Just before the shots were heard, Annie Johnson, a sophomore
38:29
from Ohio, had raised her hand to ask Adureau a question.
38:33
How many points was the multiple choice section worth on
38:36
the exam. Adra told her to come toward the blackboard
38:39
so they could discuss. That's when Johnson heard the crack
38:42
of fire. Crack of gunfire. Johnson ran for an exit,
38:47
falling three times as panic students sought safety. She helped
38:51
up a fellow student who was getting trampled in the
38:53
Meleey Johnson kept going until she reached her dorm room.
38:57
While some students escaped through the side doors of the
38:59
bottom of the classroom, others huddled with Ordureau near the blackboard,
39:03
all trying to stay as quiet as possible. One of
39:06
them was a first year student from Massachusetts who had
39:09
been shot twice in the leg. Adua gave her his
39:13
hand and told her to squeeze it. I told her
39:15
to put all the pain on me, Aduro said, I
39:17
just tell kept telling her, You're going to be okay.
39:22
Ordua doesn't know how long it took for the police arrive.
39:25
As they waited, Ordua spoke with the wounded student's parents
39:28
on the phone. Since she was in shock and struggled
39:30
to answer questions. He texted his own parents and told
39:33
them that he loved them. When police escorted dor Duro
39:36
and other survivors out of the lecture hall, he got
39:39
his first real look at the scene. There were other
39:41
victims in the classroom, and he didn't want to describe
39:43
what he saw. Adurero stayed with his wounded first year
39:47
student in the back of a police car all the
39:49
way to the hospital. He wanted to make sure she
39:51
would be all right. It sounded corny, he knew, but
39:54
he truly loved the students in the class, for he
39:56
has been a teaching assistant since his sophomore year. It hurt,
40:00
he said, to see them all in a state of
40:02
panic and desperate pain. Across the hallway from one one
40:06
sixty six, where a duroat held his study session, Drew
40:09
Nelson and several friends were studying for finals in a
40:11
different classroom. Nelson, a nineteen year old freshman from California,
40:16
said they heard ten to fifteen gunshots. They briefly hid,
40:19
then ran out the doors and sprinted down the block.
40:22
At first, we were confused, Nelson said. Then reality set
40:25
in and we realized what happened, and we just ran
40:28
as quick as we could. As Nelson ran down the street,
40:31
he called his mother. He and his friends spent the
40:33
next fourteen hours huddled in the building a half mile away.
40:38
After spending hours at the hospital and recounting what he
40:40
saw to the police, Bodua went to stay at a
40:43
friend's place who lives off campus. Late Saturday, law enforcement
40:47
officials released an eleven second video clip of the person
40:50
they believe is the gun, then leaving the area dressed
40:53
all in black, wearing a backpack and walking quickly. The
40:57
man turns a corner on a street divided divining for
41:00
Brown's campus from downtown Providence and disappears. On Sunday morning,
41:04
a light snow was falling in Providence. It was exactly
41:07
thirteen years to the day after the shooting at Sandy
41:11
Hook Elementary where twenty six students, teachers, and staff were killed.
41:15
At four a m armed federal agents descended on a
41:18
Hampton Inn hotel about fifteen miles south of Providence. They
41:22
took the person of interest into custody and recovered two
41:24
fire arms, as well as several magazines. According to a
41:27
law enforcement official briefed on the investigation, a person of
41:31
interest as a term investigators used to refer to someone
41:34
whom they wished to question and belief has relevant information.
41:38
Brown announced Sunday that most but remaining in person exams
41:42
and classes are canceled. Many students were making plans to
41:45
leave for home as soon as possible. Ardurero's voice was quiet,
41:49
full of exhaustion and sorrow. He had no idea what
41:52
would come next. Everyone has their own different ways of
41:55
dealing with it. He said, I'm just trying to be
41:57
a resource to anyone who needs it. The next article
42:01
from the front page of to Day's edition is titled
42:04
House Probe Smith sought to soften d C crime stats.
42:09
House Probe slams d C Police chief for ecosystem of fear,
42:12
retaliation and toxicity. Pamela A. Smith led a pressure campaign
42:18
aimed at lowering crime stats by any means necessary. According
42:22
to a House Oversight Committee report obtained by The Post
42:26
by Olivia George and Jenny Gathright, a month's long congressional
42:30
investigation accuses the chief of the d C Police Department
42:34
of incentivizing her subordinates to downplay crimes to maintain an
42:38
illusion of a safer city. According to her report, summarizing
42:41
the findings obtained by The Washington Post based on interviews
42:45
with all seven current DC Police District commanders plus one
42:48
who's on leave, the Republican led House Oversight Committee said
42:52
Pamela A. Smith propagated an ecosystem of fear, retaliation and toxicity,
42:58
another salvo in the power strng between federal and local
43:01
authorities over public safety in the nation's capital. The report
43:05
arrives days after a leak draft from a Justice Department
43:08
investigation into the police department found Smith created a coercei
43:12
culture of fear that may have encouraged the manipulation of
43:15
crime statistics. It bookends a week that began with Smith
43:19
issuing an abrupt announcement that she'd be stepping down at
43:21
the end of the year to spend more time with family. Smith,
43:26
who was name chief in twenty twenty three, did not
43:28
respond to a phone call her text message seeking comment Saturday.
43:32
During a news conference where she discussed her resignation, she
43:35
said she would never support the manipulation of crime data.
43:39
Neither report accuses the chief of unlawful behavior. A spokesperson
43:43
for the police department declined to comment. D C Mayor
43:47
Muriel E. Bauer did not directly address questions about the
43:50
report's conclusions, but said in a statement to the Post,
43:53
the men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department run
43:56
towards danger every day to reduce homicides, car jankings, armed robberies,
44:01
sexual assaults, and war. The precipitous decline in crime in
44:05
our city is attributed to their hard work and dedication
44:08
and Chief Smith's leadership. I thank Chief Smith for her
44:11
commitment to the safety of DC residence and for holding
44:14
the Metropolitan Police Department to an exacting standard, and I
44:17
expect no less from our next ch Chief of Police.
44:22
The probe's plate placed DC police officials under a federal microscope.
44:26
At the same time, the Trump administration and Republicans in
44:29
Congress are attempting to exert more control over the liberal city.
44:34
Over the summer, the President and his allies justified his
44:36
declaration of a local emergency in part by challenging the
44:40
accuracy of statistics that show violent crime dropping to historically
44:44
low levels since twenty twenty three. Their voices brought increased
44:48
scrutiny to long standing complaints within the Department about crime
44:52
data that predates Smith's tenure. The House report and its
44:56
Justice Department counterpart are scant on specifics about how much
45:00
or whether the alleged toxic work environment affected overall crime figures.
45:05
Experts say designating individual crimes can be subjectives subjective. Neither
45:11
report says whether federal officials conducted a detailed review of
45:14
crime reports by re interviewing witnesses or examining investigative work.
45:20
The House Oversight Committee continues to investigate the subject, reviewing
45:24
a trove of internal documents provided by the police Department
45:27
this year, but prepared the interim report in light of
45:30
Smith's resignation. It accuses her of helming a pressure campaign
45:35
in which low crime statistics were prized above all else
45:38
and to be achieved by any means necessary, and of
45:41
instituting a system in which all crime classifications became subject
45:45
to her review. Every single person who lives, works, or
45:49
visits the District of Columbia deserves of safe city, Yet
45:52
it is now clear that the American people were deliberately
45:55
kept in the dark about the true crime rates in
45:57
our nation's capital. Representative Janis Sames Comer, Republican of Kentucky,
46:02
chairman of the committee, set in a statement, Chief Smith's
46:05
decision to mislead the public by manipulating crime statistics is
46:09
dangerous and undermines trust in both local leadership and law enforcement.
46:13
Her resignation should not be seen as a voluntary choice,
46:17
but as an inevitable consequence that should have occurred much earlier.
46:21
Democrats on the committee on Sunday offered their own take
46:24
away from the investigation, without addressing the criticism aimed at Smith.
46:29
Oversight Republicans tried to use this investigation to justify President
46:33
Trump's authoritarian power grab, but their plan backfired almost immediately.
46:38
Sara Guirero, a spokesperson for Oversight Committee Democrats, set in
46:42
a statement, every commander confirmed violent crime in d C
46:45
was declining before Trump deployed the National Guard to city
46:48
streets and temporarily seized control of the police department, she said.
46:53
Criminologists interviewed by The Post's a classifying crime is an
46:57
often subject to and evolving process. Incidents can be redefined
47:01
as investigators uncover more evidence, and disagreements don't necessarily point
47:05
to corruption. They also say that while allegations of inaccurate
47:09
statistics can have merit and are not unique to d C,
47:12
there is little reason to question the city's steep declines
47:14
in the most serious categories of crime, including murders and carjackings.
47:20
Brandon del Poso, a professor at Brown University and formed
47:23
police official, said after reviewing the Justice Department memo, that
47:27
allegations of stat fixing should be accompanied by a thorough
47:30
examination of investigative paperwork, and that investigators should show their
47:34
work policing is political. There are a lot of motivations
47:38
to say you've been mistreated by a boss or something's
47:41
been misclassified, he said. In order to cut through all
47:44
of that, a good, transparent methodology is critical. Rather than
47:49
auditing police data, the committee's interim report instead scrutinized Smith's
47:54
leadership through the eyes of her commanders. Her tenure featured
47:58
on an exodus of high level civilian statf the DC
48:00
Police Department, accompanied by allegations previously reported on by The
48:05
Post that Smith's communication style had alienated police officials. District
48:11
commanders are high ranking supervisors who oversee officers in each
48:14
of the seven police districts. Other DC police commanders also
48:18
oversee specialized divisions like homeland security and criminal investigations. The commanders,
48:24
who aren't named in the report to shield them from
48:26
potential retaliation, describe Smith as an absent, retaliatory leader who
48:31
is quick to beerate those who bring her bad news.
48:34
According to the report, an unspecified number of commanders testified
48:39
that Smith pushed for more frequent use of lesser charges
48:42
that are not publicly reported. The report says, alleging she
48:46
created expectations for certain crimes to be reviewed by her
48:50
office before their inclusion in public facing data at OZ.
48:54
With the limited role of her predecessors in the classification process,
48:58
there's always been pressured to keep crime down, one commander said,
49:02
but added the focus on statistics has come in with
49:05
this current administration. Routine crime briefings, as one commander described
49:10
to the committee, functioned as an atonement for our sins.
49:14
Another commander described staffers being ousted for posing legitimate questions
49:18
or suggestions that was seen as disloyal. Another said that
49:22
fear seeped into the meetings and that it was understood
49:25
there was a chance of being moved out of a
49:26
role if crime numbers were rising. A fourth commander described
49:30
how during a briefing, the chief issued such admonishment about
49:34
a spate of robberies in the commander's district that it
49:37
left the commander feeling like a suspect. I did not
49:40
feel like I did the robberies. After I left, I
49:43
literally was like, I swear I did not commit them,
49:45
the commander said. The committee concluded that the commanders felt
49:49
that reporting the reality of high crime numbers could result
49:52
in retribution. According to the report, a commander testified that
49:57
about one instance in which an executive assistant chief under
50:01
Smith's direction instructed the commander to reduce an assault with
50:04
a dangerous weapon offense to an endangerment with a firearm offense,
50:08
a pivot from a crime that is reported to the
50:10
public to one that is not. The commander described the
50:13
push as inappropriate. Another commander testified that they saw another
50:18
pattern of pressure from publicly reported to not publicly reported crime,
50:23
lower classifications of burglaries to unlawful entry. The Justice Department's
50:29
draft report portrays Smith's leadership in a similarly unflattering manner,
50:33
asserting that after interviews with more than fifty DC police staffers,
50:37
the Smith oversaw a culture of fear and retaliation, and alleging,
50:41
without explaining in its methodology, that many crimes in d
50:44
C have been improperly recorded. Delposo, a former commander in
50:49
New York City's police Department, said it is difficult for
50:52
an outside observer to judge whether Smith's behavior towards her
50:55
staff crossed a line. The most demanding job I've ever
50:58
had as being a precinct commander, he said. You don't
51:01
want that pressure to translate into an incentive to downgraded
51:04
crimes or to misclassify them, but you do want to
51:07
have enough pressure to keep people on the ball. Bowser,
51:12
who appointed Smith two years ago during a spike in
51:14
homicide and violent crime, has stood by the chief to
51:18
the face of criticism as the two leaders navigate the
51:22
pressure cooker of President Donald Trump's second term. Smith previously
51:26
served as chief of the US Park Police. A spokesperson
51:29
for the mayor said Bowser did not ask for Smith's resignation.
51:33
There are, however, indications that it was sudden. Smith told
51:37
commanders after the federal sergs that she was prepared to
51:39
be their chief as long as the mayor wanted her
51:42
to be. According to two DC police officers who spoke
51:45
on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to
51:48
speak publicly, long standing concerns about how violent crime is
51:52
categorized by supervisors in the city re entered public view
51:55
this year when Michael Pulliam, a police commander in northwest Washington,
51:59
was put on a leave amid an internal inquiry into
52:02
whether he made inappropriate changes to crime data. They escalated
52:07
when the police union went public with allegations that managers
52:10
were under classifying crimes to make the city appear safer.
52:13
Among a slew of other critiques by the fall, dozens
52:16
of officers were feeding information to the Justice Department, reflecting
52:21
long standing frustrations about how violent crime is categorized by supervisors.
52:25
The Post previously reported in one case, officers kept the
52:29
list of more than one hundred and fifty instances since
52:31
March twenty twenty four where they set offenses in a
52:34
Southeast Washington police district were inappropriately inappropriately classified to downplay
52:40
the seriousness of crime. Pulliam, who denies all allegations remains
52:45
unpaid administrative leave, was among those interviewed by the Committee
52:48
and the Justice Department. The Justice Department draft report suggests
52:53
that dce's police Department can address its data integrity issues
52:57
by instituting better training, addressing the course of god culture
53:00
of fear described by sworn officials, performing regular audits of reclassifications,
53:05
and taking classification authority away from commanders. The House Committee
53:09
recommended that Bowser appoint a chief who will address the
53:12
ongoing concerns of crime statistics manipulations and alleviate the retaliatory
53:17
pressures and threats faced by DC Police Department personnel. The
53:25
next article from the front page of today's edition is
53:27
titled Trump eyes unique building for presidential library in Florida.
53:32
Trump's library plan an iconic building in Miami in a
53:36
fake newsway, Trump might follow the example of Obama, who
53:40
created a private foundation to build his Chicago Center where
53:44
museum exhibits are not subject to government review. By Michael
53:47
Kranish and lore Rasa, Eric Trump sounded triumphant after Florida
53:53
officials recently approved giving away a prize piece of Miami
53:56
real estate for his father's presidential library. The library approved yesterday,
54:01
Trump sat on a podcast, adding that we just got
54:04
the greatest site in Florida and I'm going to be
54:06
building that. Then, speaking on another program, Trump said he
54:10
would take the host's suggestion to create a fake newsway,
54:13
paid for with money from lawsuit settlements with ABC, CBS
54:16
and other sources. It would run clips from Sixty Minutes
54:20
and other programs that he said were evidence of the
54:22
media organization's animus against his father. These little noticed statements
54:27
by the president's son provide a revealing look into the
54:29
zeal of President Donald Trump and his family to build
54:32
a likely high rise with a museum that they say
54:35
will be unlike any other presidential library and which can
54:38
tell the story of his presidency only as if he
54:40
wants it to be told. Much about the process as secretive,
54:45
with no federal rulings requiring disclosure of the donors, some
54:48
of whom may have interests affected by White House policy,
54:52
who are expected to provide hundreds of millions of dollars.
54:55
A recent filing, for example, says the Donald J. Trump
54:57
Library Foundation raised fifty millillion dollars this year, but doesn't
55:01
provide any donor names. It says six million dollars has
55:05
been spent for program services, but doesn't provide specifics. The
55:10
White House referred questions to the foundation, which did not
55:12
respond to an email list of queries, and has not
55:15
said whether Trump might use some of the site for
55:17
a hotel or other development. It is also unclear whether
55:21
the Trump Library will function as the name implies, providing
55:24
a center for research of presidential papers, or whether museum
55:28
exhibits would be reviewed by government historians. Trump might Trump
55:32
might follow the example of former President Barack Obama, who
55:36
created a private foundation that is building his Chicago center,
55:39
where the museum exhibits will not be subject to government review.
55:42
Running a center under the Obama model would require huge
55:45
sums of money, which might be why Trump's strategy of
55:48
using money from lawsuits against media companies and many other
55:51
sources has become a crucial component. Trump hasn't said whether
55:56
he will follow Obama's example, but if he does, experts
55:59
said he would be free to tell his own version
56:02
of his presidencies, including his false assertion that the twenty
56:05
twenty election was stolen. That would be in contrast, for example,
56:09
to the library of former President Richard M. Nixon, where
56:12
the National Archives created an exhibit on Watergate that was
56:15
vetted by nonpartisan government historians but is decried by some
56:20
Nixon supporters. Tim Naftali, who helped create that Watergate exhibit
56:25
in his former role as the National Archives Appointed director
56:28
of the Nixon Library, said he is concerned that Trump
56:31
could create a museum that tells a misleading story about
56:33
his presidency without oversight. If they are going to have
56:37
a fake news wing, it would be awfully hard for
56:39
non partisan library professionals at the National Archives to swallow,
56:42
said Noptali, now a senior research fellow at Columbia University
56:46
School of International and Public Affairs. But if Trump follows
56:50
the Obama model, the National Archives would be powerless to object.
56:53
He said the Archives would still control the presidential papers
56:56
which belonged to the federal government, and would gradually be
56:59
made available online after undergoing review for classified material. That
57:04
model will become clearer once the Obama Presidential Center, as
57:08
it is called, opens in June. Asked how Obama's center
57:11
will tell his story, a spokesperson said in a statement
57:14
that Obama and his foundation consulted with leading independent historians
57:19
and take the study of history and the US Constitution seriously,
57:23
and these values are reflected in the work at the
57:25
center and in particular the museum. But Kurt Smith, a
57:29
former speechwriter for President George H. W. Bush, who wrote
57:32
a book on presidential libraries, said in an interview that
57:36
the Obama model is a terrible example to follow because
57:39
it allows a former president to write whatever script they choose.
57:42
I would be truly alarmed if the Trump Library followed
57:45
that model, he said. Due to time constraints, we will
57:50
need to end that item at this time. This concludes
57:54
the reading of the Washington Post for today, December fifteenth.
57:58
Your reader for today has been Chris sik Greco. If
58:01
you have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program,
58:05
please feel free to call us at eight five nine
58:07
four two two six three nine zero. Thank you for listening,
58:11
and now please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio
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