Transcript

10.24.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Saturday,
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Speaker 1: October 24, 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 Jennifer. Today's front page headlines
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Speaker 1: from the Washington Post are, first, DOJ preps legal battle
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Speaker 1: space in Alaska contest. Two Dan Sullivans are on Senate ballot.
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Speaker 1: Result could be blocked if incumbent narrowly loses. Next, GOP
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Speaker 1: braces for losses. Musk prepares for war. Next, would-be voters
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Speaker 1: in limbo as new citizenships dive. A sharp tapering off
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Speaker 1: in naturalization's has left immigrants waiting. Next. New picture is
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Speaker 1: emerging of how the air around us could harm the brain.
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Speaker 1: Pollution has long been indirectly tied to dementia. Scientists wonder
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Speaker 1: whether it could be reshaping the mind. Next. Satellite access
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Speaker 1: is still restricted, Ukraine says. And finally, West Bank reprisals
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Speaker 1: vowed for Israeli deaths. The first article from the front
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Speaker 1: page of today's edition is titled, DOJ seeks to block
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Speaker 1: Alaska Senate result if Republican incumbent narrowly loses. In a lawsuit,
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Speaker 1: the Justice Department cited confusion over two similarly named candidates,
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Speaker 1: including Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. This article is written by
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Speaker 1: Jeremy Roebuck, Patrick Marley, and Matthew Choi. The Justice Department
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Speaker 1: has moved to preemptively block certification of the results of
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Speaker 1: Alaska's tight Senate race if Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan
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Speaker 1: loses to Democrat Mary Peltola next month, launching an unusual
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Speaker 1: legal battle amid broader concerns over the Trump administration's willingness
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Speaker 1: to accept the midterm election results. In a lawsuit filed
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Speaker 1: in federal court Thursday, department officials described the candidacy of
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Speaker 1: a third contender in the race, another Republican named Dan J.
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Speaker 1: Sullivan Jr., as a bid to mislead supporters of Senator
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Speaker 1: Sullivan into voting for the wrong candidate. They asked a
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Speaker 1: federal judge to bar the state from certifying the race's results,
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Speaker 1: should the senator lose by a margin less than the
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Speaker 1: number of votes that his same-named challenger receives. In that scenario,
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Speaker 1: the department said, the court should investigate whether that result
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Speaker 1: was tainted by voter confusion. The move marked a remarkable
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Speaker 1: bid by President Donald Trump's administration to potentially intervene in
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Speaker 1: the outcome of a race that could determine control of
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Speaker 1: the Senate before the election has occurred. Speaking to reporters Friday,
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Speaker 1: Trump said he told the Justice Department to pursue the
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Speaker 1: legal challenge. I'm the one that said to do it,
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Speaker 1: he said ahead of a campaign rally in Florida. Hours
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Speaker 1: before the suit was filed, Attorney General Todd Blanch downplayed
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Speaker 1: the suggestion that the department would seek to interfere with
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Speaker 1: state-certified election outcomes outside of what he described as a
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Speaker 1: doomsday scenario. It is not DOJ's intention to, and it's
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Speaker 1: never our intention to, improperly interfere with elections or the
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Speaker 1: state certification process, Blanche told reporters Thursday. But, you know,
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Speaker 1: to say there's no circumstances that we would ever do that,
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Speaker 1: of course I'm not going to say that, he said.
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Speaker 1: As Election Day approaches, Democrats have grown increasingly alarmed by
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Speaker 1: what they view as attempts by the Justice Department, to
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Speaker 1: influence the outcome of the vote. The Trump administration has
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Speaker 1: pushed in public and in court to exert greater control
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Speaker 1: over state-run election administration and worked to cast doubt on
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Speaker 1: the integrity of the results. In Alaska, Associate Attorney General
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Speaker 1: Stanley E. Woodward wrote in the Thursday filing, The sole
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Speaker 1: purpose of Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy is to benefit the
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Speaker 1: Peltola campaign, by reducing the number of votes for Senator Sullivan.
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Speaker 1: Given the substantial likelihood that the inclusion of Dan J.
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Speaker 1: Sullivan will confuse or mislead voters looking to cast a
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Speaker 1: vote for Senator Sullivan and thus distort the will of
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Speaker 1: the Alaskan voters, there is a substantial likelihood that a
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Speaker 1: certification of the election will reflect an electoral process that
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Speaker 1: lacked integrity, added Woodward. He's the Justice Department's third-highest ranking official.
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Speaker 1: Dan J. Sullivan did not immediately respond to requests for
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Speaker 1: comments on Friday. Peltola's campaign condemned the lawsuit in a
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Speaker 1: statement as a despicable political threat and a bid to
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Speaker 1: suppress the voices of Alaskans. We will fight to ensure
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Speaker 1: every single eligible voter in Alaska can make their voice heard,
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Speaker 1: the campaign said. Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Senator Sullivan's campaign,
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Speaker 1: said the campaign was prepared to let the DOJ complaint
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Speaker 1: run its course. Alaskans can tell the difference between a
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Speaker 1: Democrat sideshow and Senator Sullivan's strong record of delivering for Alaska,
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Speaker 1: a record he'll keep building on for the next six years,
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Speaker 1: Adams said in a statement. The candidacy of Dan J. Sullivan...
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Speaker 1: a retired teacher and a former member of the Alaska
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Speaker 1: Independence Party who registered as a Republican shortly before filing
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Speaker 1: to enter the race this year, has been a source
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Speaker 1: of consternation for Republicans for months. Alaska election officials moved
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Speaker 1: in June to boot him from the ballot, agreeing that
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Speaker 1: his entry into the race was meant to confuse voters.
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Speaker 1: But Dan J. Sullivan has repeatedly denied claims that he
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Speaker 1: was trying to confuse or that he was coordinating with
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Speaker 1: Democrats or Peltola's campaign. A state court ordered him back
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Speaker 1: on the ballot later that month, a decision later affirmed
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Speaker 1: by the state's Supreme Court. Dan J. Sullivan advanced to
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Speaker 1: the general election in the state's August primary, which selects
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Speaker 1: the top four candidates regardless of party. He received only 2.5%
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Speaker 1: of the vote, almost entirely from liberal strongholds in the state.
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Speaker 1: Name confusion is not new in the state of about 740,000.
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Speaker 1: Dan S. Sullivan, the current senator, was first elected in 2014,
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Speaker 1: the same year the then Anchorage mayor, also named Dan Sullivan,
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Speaker 1: was running for lieutenant-governor. Jim Lotzfeld, an Anchorage-based political consultant,
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Speaker 1: said name confusion probably contributed to Dan S. Sullivan's victory
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Speaker 1: that year. Former Mayor Sullivan endorsed Senator Sullivan against the
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Speaker 1: teacher Sullivan in this year's race. Lotzfeld had the idea
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Speaker 1: at the time to recruit more candidates named Dan Sullivan
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Speaker 1: to the Senate ballot to confuse voters. though he declined
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Speaker 1: to go through with it. He denied any involvement in
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Speaker 1: Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy this year. I actually looked and
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Speaker 1: saw there were like 14 Dan Sullivans, Lotzfeld said in
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Speaker 1: an interview last month. Trump on Wednesday called Dan J.
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Speaker 1: Sullivan's candidacy a scam and hinted that his administration could
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Speaker 1: soon seek legal intervention in the race. We are looking
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Speaker 1: at powerful legal options to remove the fraudulent Dan J.
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Speaker 1: Sullivan Jr. from the ballot and holding the Democrats accountable
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Speaker 1: for their election interference in the pursuit of justice and fairness,
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Speaker 1: Trump wrote on social media. Still, election experts described the
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Speaker 1: legal argument advanced by the department in the suit Thursday
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Speaker 1: as absurdly thin and and predicted that the lawsuit would
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Speaker 1: not withstand judicial scrutiny. University of Notre Dame law professor
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Speaker 1: Derek T. Muller called the argument one of the worst
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Speaker 1: ones I've ever seen. I cannot recall an administration ever
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Speaker 1: attempting to stop the certification of an election, and certainly
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Speaker 1: not 11 days before polls close, said David Becker, executive
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Speaker 1: director of the Center for for election innovation and research.
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Speaker 1: The suit relies on a novel reading of the National
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Speaker 1: Voter Registration Act, a broad statute that governs voter registration requirements,
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Speaker 1: Mueller said. Justice Department Lawyers on Thursday cited a mention
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Speaker 1: in the law's preamble to justify the agency's interest in
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Speaker 1: the outcome of the Alaska race, saying the law authorized
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Speaker 1: the federal government to protect the integrity of the electoral process.
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Speaker 1: The suit calls for Alaska's results to be put on
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Speaker 1: hold in the event of Senator Sullivan's narrow loss, so
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Speaker 1: an investigation can determine whether voters intended that result. But
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Speaker 1: the filing does not explain how such an investigation would
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Speaker 1: be carried out while protecting the secrecy of voters' ballot choices.
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Speaker 1: In short, like many department letters over the last few years,
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Speaker 1: It is designed to win the press release rather than
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Speaker 1: the litigation, Mueller wrote in a blog post. A Justice
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Speaker 1: Department spokesperson rejected that criticism Friday, noting the earlier determination
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Speaker 1: by Alaska election officials questioning the validity of Dan J.
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Speaker 1: Sullivan's candidacy. The Justice Department, consistent with the National Voter
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Speaker 1: Registration Act enacted by Congress, Trump has spent years questioning
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Speaker 1: election procedures and has fretted in recent months that a
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Speaker 1: Democratic takeover of Congress could lead to his third impeachment.
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Speaker 1: He continues to insist he won the 2020 election even
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Speaker 1: though recounts and court reviews found he lost, and he
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Speaker 1: regularly complains without evidence that elections are rigged against Republicans.
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Speaker 1: He and his administration have spent the past two years
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Speaker 1: trying to intervene in how states run elections but have
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Speaker 1: had little success. Trump tried to limit who received mail
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Speaker 1: ballots but was stopped by the Supreme Court. The Justice
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Speaker 1: Department sued 30 states for their voter rolls, but has
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Speaker 1: lost case after case in court. The Department of Homeland
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Speaker 1: Security has prioritized finding non-citizens on voter rolls, but a
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Speaker 1: judge this week restricted how it can conduct its investigations.
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Speaker 1: Rick Hasson, a UCLA law professor and director of the
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Speaker 1: school's Safeguarding Democracy Project, told NPR this week that he
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Speaker 1: did not believe the Trump administration and its backers would
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Speaker 1: challenge results if Democrats won control of the Congress in
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Speaker 1: a blowout. But Hassan, who spoke before the Justice Department
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Speaker 1: filed its latest lawsuit, named Alaska as a potential legal
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Speaker 1: battleground if Democrats narrowly take control of the Senate. The
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Speaker 1: state uses Ranked Choice Voting, and takes longer than others
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Speaker 1: to tabulate results, which heightens the chances of litigation there,
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Speaker 1: he noted. If it comes down to one seat, then
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Speaker 1: I think all bets are off, and then I'm very
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Speaker 1: concerned that the Trump administration will try to do things
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Speaker 1: to manipulate the outcome of the elections, Hassan said. The
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Speaker 1: next article from the front page of today's edition is
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Speaker 1: titled As Republicans Brace for Election Losses. Musk Prepares for
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Speaker 1: War A host of Democrats have said they are eager
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Speaker 1: to wield the power of their office to investigate the
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Speaker 1: tech titan and his ventures should they win either chamber
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Speaker 1: in the midterms. The article is written by Faiz Siddiqui.
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Speaker 1: Elon Musk has adopted a war posture in response to
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Speaker 1: looming threats of congressional investigations. If Democrats win control of
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Speaker 1: Congress in next month's midterm elections, Musk has signaled he
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Speaker 1: is bracing for a fight. Live by the sword, die
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Speaker 1: by the sword, he said Wednesday in a post on X,
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Speaker 1: responding to a Politico report that cited Democratic lawmakers seeking
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Speaker 1: to investigate him. Those who pick fights with me should
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Speaker 1: understand that I will find out who is really pulling
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Speaker 1: the strings and come for them. not just their puppets,
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Speaker 1: said Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. Musk's battle-ready
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Speaker 1: stance comes as a host of Democrats have said they
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Speaker 1: are eager to wield the power of their office to
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Speaker 1: investigate the world's richest person should they win either chamber
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Speaker 1: in the midterms. As Republicans' election prospects have soured, lawmakers
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Speaker 1: are building momentum for probes looking into the tech mogul
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Speaker 1: his companies, or the work of the U.S. Doge service,
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Speaker 1: which Musk oversaw and which was instrumental in dismantling the U.S.
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Speaker 1: Agency for International Development. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the
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Speaker 1: ranking Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said
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Speaker 1: in an interview Thursday that he would investigate Musk and
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Speaker 1: Doge if Democrats win. Blumenthal led inquiries relating to the
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Speaker 1: cost-cutting group but was in the minority and did not
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Speaker 1: have subpoena power, which could be used to compel the
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Speaker 1: attendance of witnesses as well as the production of documents
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Speaker 1: and records. The American people have a right to know
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Speaker 1: the cost, the consequences, and the chaos resulting from Doge
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Speaker 1: and what he may be concealing, Blumenthal said. There is
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Speaker 1: a web of potential corruption here that needs to be explored,
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Speaker 1: he said. He dismissed Musk's threats of retaliation, expressing surprise
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Speaker 1: at his strong reaction. He should have nothing to hide,
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Speaker 1: said Blumenthal, adding that he would expect a Democratic chair
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Speaker 1: of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to
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Speaker 1: support efforts to investigate Musk. Musk did not respond to
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Speaker 1: requests for comment. Diverging from many of his corporate peers,
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Speaker 1: Musk has consistently countered threats with force. He has contested lawsuits,
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Speaker 1: picked fights with powerful government officials, and at times taken
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Speaker 1: drastic action over business disputes, including changing his state of
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Speaker 1: residence and the locations of his businesses from California to Texas.
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Speaker 1: But Musk has also acknowledged his own vulnerability in an
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Speaker 1: unfavorable political environment, joking in 2024 about the prospect of
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Speaker 1: going to prison if President Donald Trump was not elected
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Speaker 1: to a second term. Musk has also poured his resources
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Speaker 1: into midterm races, eclipsing his donations toward Trump's election in 2024.
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Speaker 1: He is the largest individual donor in the 2026 midterm elections,
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Speaker 1: putting more than $ 350 million towards efforts to elect Republicans.
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Speaker 1: Musk and others who carried out Doge's agenda face a
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Speaker 1: potential slew of subpoenas in investigations and hearings after the midterms,
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Speaker 1: in which Democrats are heavily favored. Several other Democratic members
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Speaker 1: of Congress have also raised the prospect of exploring Musk's
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Speaker 1: business or political ventures in recent days. Representative James Walkinshaw,
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Speaker 1: a Democrat from Virginia, a member of the House Oversight Committee,
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Speaker 1: tagged Musk in a post on X. I'd just like
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Speaker 1: you to explain to Congress and the American people why
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Speaker 1: Doge failed so miserably in and why you then lied
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Speaker 1: about the savings, he wrote. Will you commit to testifying
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Speaker 1: under oath to explain? As an influential advisor to President
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Speaker 1: Donald Trump last year, Musk oversaw the sweeping and at
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Speaker 1: times chaotic U.S. Doge service campaign to cut costs at
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Speaker 1: government agencies. Staffed largely with young tech workers new to
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Speaker 1: government service who were chosen by Musk and his circle,
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Speaker 1: Doge eliminated the jobs of hundreds of thousands of federal
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Speaker 1: workers and accessed sensitive data on hundreds of millions of Americans.
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Speaker 1: Musk said that he aimed to cut $ 2 trillion in
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Speaker 1: federal spending with Doge, which ultimately claimed $ 215 billion in
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Speaker 1: estimated savings. A Government Accountability Office audit found that the
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Speaker 1: group consistently overstated its savings. Doge took credit for lease
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Speaker 1: cancellations set in motion before it existed, for example, and
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Speaker 1: claimed savings from contracts that continued to exist. Musk has
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Speaker 1: at times issued threats of retribution on X, the platform
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Speaker 1: he bought in 2022, when it was named Twitter, and
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Speaker 1: later folded into his rocket company, SpaceX. There is a
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Speaker 1: large graveyard filled with my enemies, he wrote in a
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Speaker 1: 2023 poem. i do not wish to add to it
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Speaker 1: but will if given no choice those who pick fights
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Speaker 1: with me do so at their own peril but maybe
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Speaker 1: this is their lucky day The entrepreneur mused about his
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Speaker 1: fate if Democrats took power in a 2024 interview with
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Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson. If he loses, I'm effed, Musk said, going
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Speaker 1: on to joke. How long do you think my prison
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Speaker 1: sentence is going to be? There may be some vengeance
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Speaker 1: on me if Trump doesn't retake the White House, Musk
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Speaker 1: said in the interview, which took place before the election.
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Speaker 1: Should Democrats regain control of Congress this time? They will
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Speaker 1: face pressure from some voters and activist groups to move
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Speaker 1: on Musk. Activist group Investigate Doge has channeled the spirit
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Speaker 1: of the Tesla takedown movement, which staged anti-Musk demonstrations outside
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Speaker 1: Tesla showrooms, calling for Musk and Doge alumni to face
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Speaker 1: congressional scrutiny. Activists are asked, How do we make sure
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Speaker 1: Elon gets held accountable if Democrats take Congress again, said
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Speaker 1: Evan Sutton, a spokesman for the group. Congress needs to
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Speaker 1: get in there. They need to get their hands dirty.
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Speaker 1: The American people need to know what happened, he said.
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Speaker 1: Some former Doge staffers are already taking precautions in the
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Speaker 1: event of a Democratic-controlled Congress. seeking to insulate themselves from
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Speaker 1: the potential outcomes of ethics probes by attempting to button
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Speaker 1: up their post-Doge business dealings. Though the midterms are still
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Speaker 1: more than a week away, Musk continues to signal he's
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Speaker 1: ready a counteroffensive. Responding to a video of the tech
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Speaker 1: journalist Kara Swisher, noting that if Democrats take power, he
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Speaker 1: knows what's coming, Musk had a simple reply. Message received.
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Speaker 1: The next article from the front page of today's edition
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Speaker 1: is titled, Would-Be Voters in Limbo as Approvals of U.S.
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Speaker 1: Citizenship Plunge by 72%. A sharp tapering off in naturalizations
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Speaker 1: has left hundreds of thousands of immigrants waiting as the
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Speaker 1: midterms approach. The article is written by Ted Hessen. Magdalena
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Speaker 1: Kluchko's quest for citizenship Initially proceeded as she expected, she
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Speaker 1: applied in September 24, passed the English language and civics tests,
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Speaker 1: and sat for her naturalization interview in July 2025. But then,
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Speaker 1: nothing happened. Klushko, a 46-year-old German immigrant working as a
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Speaker 1: life insurance executive in Worcester, Massachusetts, told an immigration lawyer
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Speaker 1: about her situation nearly a year after the interview. At
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Speaker 1: the lawyer's recommendation, she sued, a step that's been relatively
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Speaker 1: rare in the past decade but increasingly common as the
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Speaker 1: Trump administration has slowed citizenship applications in recent months, according
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Speaker 1: to immigration lawyers. Federal immigration officials approved 173,000 people for
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Speaker 1: citizenship through the first eight months of 2026, down 72%
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Speaker 1: from the same period a year earlier. The administration has
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Speaker 1: also canceled or scaled back naturalization ceremonies around the country,
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Speaker 1: alarming civic groups who typically attend the ceremonies to register
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Speaker 1: new voters. The slowdown in processing citizenship applications is part
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Speaker 1: of a broader effort by President Donald Trump to reshape citizenship,
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Speaker 1: long viewed as the sacrosanct culmination of the U.S. immigration process.
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Speaker 1: Backlogs in naturalization applications rose from about 500,000 cases at
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Speaker 1: the start of the second Trump administration to more than 800,000
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Speaker 1: as of August. In a recent social media post, the
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Speaker 1: Department of Homeland Security touted the drop in naturalization approvals
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Speaker 1: as part of its attempts at remigration, a far-right term
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Speaker 1: associated with expelling immigrants and non-whites. Net negative migration for
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Speaker 1: the first time in half a century, DHS wrote. Americans
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Speaker 1: are amassing victories never seen before thanks to Donald Trump.
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Speaker 1: The sudden fall-off means even more would-be citizens are in
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Speaker 1: limbo and unable to vote as the November 3rd midterms approach.
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Speaker 1: Several immigration lawyers told the Washington Post that processing had
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Speaker 1: dramatically slowed or interviews had stalled. Four immigrants interviewed for
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Speaker 1: this article said the delays had caused major disruptions in
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Speaker 1: their lives, leaving them wondering what would happen next. In Milwaukee,
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Speaker 1: certain ceremonies that typically swore in 200 to 300 people
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Speaker 1: stopped in January, according to Peg Schrader, president of the
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Speaker 1: Milwaukee Chapter of the League of Women Voters. The League
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Speaker 1: registers new voters at naturalization ceremonies around the country. Schrader
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Speaker 1: said she did not know why the ceremonies stopped, but
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Speaker 1: the result is that we have fewer and fewer people
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Speaker 1: to register to vote. The last two ceremonies in Pennsylvania's
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Speaker 1: Allegheny County, a Democratic stronghold in the swing state, were
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Speaker 1: also canceled, said Amy Weidstrom, executive director of the League
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Speaker 1: of Women Voters of Pennsylvania. The next one is scheduled
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Speaker 1: for November 12th, nine days after the election. Trump has
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Speaker 1: tried to reshape citizenship in other ways. On the first
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Speaker 1: day of his second term, Trump issued an executive order
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Speaker 1: that sought to restrict access to birthright citizenship, a move
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Speaker 1: later rebuffed by the Supreme Court. The Trump administration has
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Speaker 1: also increased efforts to denaturalize people it alleges improperly obtained citizenship.
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Speaker 1: Federal agents last week raided the D.C. residence of Representative
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Speaker 1: Ilhan Omar, Democrat from Minnesota, who entered the U.S. as
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Speaker 1: a refugee from Somalia. While officials have not publicly provided
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Speaker 1: details of the investigation, people familiar with it have said
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Speaker 1: it focuses on possible immigration fraud and could lead to
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Speaker 1: charges or administrative action related to her citizenship. It is
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Speaker 1: highly unusual for authorities to conduct such a probe of
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Speaker 1: a The Justice Department has said the search was authorized
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Speaker 1: by a judge and was part of a criminal investigation.
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Speaker 1: May Nay, a Columbia University and historian, said the administration's
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Speaker 1: actions have started to erode the value of naturalized citizenship.
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Speaker 1: Naturalized citizenship is, according to the Constitution, equal to birthright citizenship,
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Speaker 1: she said. Now they're trying to break that down. A
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Speaker 1: Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS,
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Speaker 1: which processes naturalization applications, had heightened vetting and implemented reforms
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Speaker 1: to ensure U.S. citizenship is reserved for those who qualify.
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Speaker 1: The changes include returning to a version of the civics
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Speaker 1: test from the first Trump administration in 2020, increasing English
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Speaker 1: language proficiency requirements, and stepping up screening of social media
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Speaker 1: for anti-American activities. Naturalization is a privilege, not a right,
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Speaker 1: the spokesperson said. The new vetting includes greater scrutiny of
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Speaker 1: tax records, a more in-depth assessment of whether applicants have
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Speaker 1: good moral character, and interviews with neighbors and coworkers, current
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Speaker 1: and former officials said. USCIS is also prioritizing the re-vetting
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Speaker 1: of immigration applicants approved during the Biden administration over new approvals,
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Speaker 1: two senior Trump administration officials said. There were allegations, especially
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Speaker 1: towards the end of the last administration, that they were
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Speaker 1: kind of rushing them through, one of the officials said.
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Speaker 1: Several former Biden administration officials rejected the suggestion that applications
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Speaker 1: were not adequately vetted. What is their evidence? They have none.
29:40
Speaker 1: because it's not true, said Doug Rand, a senior advisor
29:44
Speaker 1: at USCIS under President Joe Biden. This is obviously ideological.
29:50
Speaker 1: But the drop in approvals under the Trump administration does
29:54
Speaker 1: not mean more people were denied. Denials also fell by
29:59
Speaker 1: 41% during the first eight months of this year, compared
30:03
Speaker 1: with the same period a year earlier, meaning far fewer
30:07
Speaker 1: cases were being decided. Immigration attorneys say they're seeing fewer
30:13
Speaker 1: naturalization interviews being scheduled. Cases are just not getting to
30:19
Speaker 1: that final step, said Anjana Prasad, founder of Clearbox. a
30:24
Speaker 1: service that helps people prepare their naturalization applications. Average wait
30:29
Speaker 1: times ballooned from around six months in August 2025 to
30:34
Speaker 1: nearly 13 months a year later. Matthew Mayona, an immigration
30:40
Speaker 1: attorney in Boston who has handled naturalization cases for 30 years,
30:46
Speaker 1: said he's increasingly recommending that clients pursue federal lawsuits when possible.
30:53
Speaker 1: a step he rarely recommended in the past. In the
30:57
Speaker 1: old days, it was maybe one a year, maybe two
31:00
Speaker 1: a year, he said. In the past month, I've recommended
31:04
Speaker 1: four people. M.B., an Indian-born engineer living in the Detroit
31:11
Speaker 1: area who spoke on the condition that only his initials
31:14
Speaker 1: be used because he fears speaking out could further delay
31:19
Speaker 1: his case, said he applied for citizenship in 2025 but
31:24
Speaker 1: was still waiting to be scheduled for an interview. The
31:28
Speaker 1: long wait, he said, has negatively affected his job and
31:32
Speaker 1: family life. Before applying, M.B., who works for a company
31:38
Speaker 1: that designs automotive seats, traveled abroad six to eight times
31:43
Speaker 1: a year for work. He told his manager he can't
31:47
Speaker 1: leave the country now. as he awaits the citizenship interview.
31:50
Speaker 1: He hasn't visited family in West Bengal, fearing the interview
31:54
Speaker 1: could be scheduled while he's away. M.B. said he also
31:56
Speaker 1: worries about becoming a target for immigration enforcement. Like many immigrants,
32:16
Speaker 1: He sees news reports of violent arrests and people with
32:19
Speaker 1: legal status being detained. What if something like that happens
32:24
Speaker 1: to me tomorrow, he said. If I have my citizenship,
32:28
Speaker 1: at least I'm getting out of a detention center in
32:30
Speaker 1: a certain amount of time. Like Klushko, more immigrants appear
32:35
Speaker 1: to be filing mandibus lawsuits seeking to require the federal
32:40
Speaker 1: government to process their applications. Under federal law, an applicant
32:46
Speaker 1: can request a hearing if a decision hasn't been made
32:50
Speaker 1: within 120 days of the interview. Sarah Dowd, 32, has
32:56
Speaker 1: been grappling with the naturalization process since July 2023 and
33:01
Speaker 1: has sat for multiple interviews with USCIS. She came to
33:07
Speaker 1: the U.S. in 2013 to attend the City College of
33:11
Speaker 1: New York. and is vying for a medical residency in
33:14
Speaker 1: the area. As a Brooklyn resident, she sought help from
33:19
Speaker 1: the office of Representative Yvette D. Clark, Democrat from New York.
33:25
Speaker 1: A staffer sent her an email in March that said
33:28
Speaker 1: all naturalization ceremonies were paused, as per the president. Dowd
33:36
Speaker 1: filed a lawsuit in April, and a federal court last
33:39
Speaker 1: month gave USCIS until mid-November to make a decision. There
33:46
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be any logical, straightforward, non-malicious reason why
33:51
Speaker 1: they would be doing any of this, said Dowd, who
33:54
Speaker 1: is from Egypt. She added that she feels she was
33:58
Speaker 1: discriminated against because she's from a majority Muslim country. Amir Davijani,
34:05
Speaker 1: an Iranian-born scientist in the Bay Area, followed a lawsuit
34:11
Speaker 1: over a delay that dated to 2023. USCIS called him
34:17
Speaker 1: in for two interviews in November 25, 2025, including one
34:22
Speaker 1: that lasted four hours. The only thing missing was one
34:27
Speaker 1: of those hanging lights in the interrogation rooms, he said.
34:31
Speaker 1: The officer was really grilling me on my responses. After
34:36
Speaker 1: being approved, he was sworn in as a citizen by
34:39
Speaker 1: the district court judge in March. Hiring a lawyer to
34:44
Speaker 1: file a lawsuit can cost thousands of dollars, but USCIS
34:49
Speaker 1: will typically process the application and not fight in court,
34:53
Speaker 1: multiple lawyers said. Kluschko applied for citizenship in 2024, after
34:59
Speaker 1: Germany relaxed its rules around dual citizenship. She works as
35:04
Speaker 1: the chief medical director at a life insurance company and
35:08
Speaker 1: is eager to vote in the United States. A month
35:12
Speaker 1: after filing her mandamus lawsuit, she got a response from USCIS,
35:18
Speaker 1: she said. Her naturalization application was approved. and a citizenship
35:24
Speaker 1: ceremony was scheduled for August 26th at a botanical garden
35:28
Speaker 1: north of Worcester. I was fortunate to be in a
35:32
Speaker 1: position where I could afford this, she said, but I
35:35
Speaker 1: know many people are not. The next article from the
35:38
Speaker 1: front page of today's edition is titled, A Remarkable New
35:43
Speaker 1: Picture is Emerging of How the Air Around Us Could
35:46
Speaker 1: Harm the Brain. Pollution has long been indirectly linked with dementia,
35:53
Speaker 1: Now scientists wonder whether it could be physically reshaping the brain.
35:58
Speaker 1: The article is written by Ariana Yunjung Cha. Last year,
36:03
Speaker 1: startled scientists reported that the average human brain they studied
36:08
Speaker 1: contained roughly the weight of a plastic spoon in microplastics
36:13
Speaker 1: and nanoplastics. Now, a deeper look suggests a much broader
36:19
Speaker 1: assortment of material from the outside world. silica, metals, soot,
36:25
Speaker 1: and other debris is getting through. Researchers from the Rush
36:31
Speaker 1: Alzheimer's Disease Center and other institutions examined in extraordinary detail
36:37
Speaker 1: brain tissue from 11 people who died at ages 80
36:41
Speaker 1: to 91. They discovered that some particles had penetrated deep
36:47
Speaker 1: into the brain and reaching the amygdala, a region that
36:51
Speaker 1: helps shape emotion and memory. The finding is part of
36:55
Speaker 1: a broad shift in how scientists are thinking about the
36:59
Speaker 1: link between air pollution and conditions that impact the brain,
37:03
Speaker 1: such as dementia, Parkinson's, and autism. For years, a leading
37:09
Speaker 1: explanation had been that pollution harms the brain indirectly by
37:14
Speaker 1: triggering inflammation and other changes throughout the body. That idea
37:19
Speaker 1: hasn't gone away, but scientists are now exploring whether that
37:24
Speaker 1: pollution may also act more directly. Exactly how the particles
37:30
Speaker 1: get there remains unsettled. They are tracing how particles may
37:36
Speaker 1: travel into the brain and what happens once they arrive,
37:40
Speaker 1: while other studies are revealing potential changes in brain structure
37:44
Speaker 1: and proteins and metabolism associated with pollution exposure. The work
37:50
Speaker 1: could help connect what people breathe today with diseases that
37:55
Speaker 1: may emerge years or decades later. Caleb Finch, a professor
38:00
Speaker 1: emeritus at the University of Southern California's Leonard Davis School
38:05
Speaker 1: of Gerontology, said there is growing evidence exposures may begin
38:11
Speaker 1: in pregnancy and accumulate across a lifetime. There's a lot
38:16
Speaker 1: we don't understand yet, but we do know that the
38:19
Speaker 1: risk of dementia increases in proportion to the amount of
38:23
Speaker 1: air pollution, he said. The questions are becoming more urgent
38:28
Speaker 1: as climate change alters the air around us. Hotter, drier
38:33
Speaker 1: conditions are fueling larger and more intense wildfires in many places,
38:39
Speaker 1: while drought and land degradation can increase the risk of
38:43
Speaker 1: dust storms. sending enormous clouds of smoke, soil, minerals, and
38:49
Speaker 1: other microscopic debris across cities, states, and even continents. Here
38:56
Speaker 1: are three recent discoveries helping to fill in the picture. First,
39:02
Speaker 1: a shrinking brain. Several studies published this year using the
39:08
Speaker 1: UK Biobank, a vast repository of health data on people
39:13
Speaker 1: in Britain, offer clues about how breathing polluted air might
39:18
Speaker 1: translate into physical changes in the brain. One published in
39:24
Speaker 1: April in the Journal of Nutrition, Health, and Aging followed
39:28
Speaker 1: more than 400,000 people over nearly 14 years exposed to
39:34
Speaker 1: varying levels of air pollution and ultimately recorded nearly 9,000
39:40
Speaker 1: cases of dementia. Those with the highest exposure to PM2. 5
39:47
Speaker 1: particles 1 30th the width of a human hair, which
39:51
Speaker 1: can enter the bloodstream and lungs when inhaled, had a
39:56
Speaker 1: 14% greater risk of developing dementia than those with the
40:00
Speaker 1: lowest exposure. They also showed signs that their bodies were
40:06
Speaker 1: aging faster biologically. More surprising was what showed up on
40:11
Speaker 1: the brain scans. People exposed to more polluted air had
40:17
Speaker 1: what researchers described as a reduction in global and several
40:22
Speaker 1: regional brain volumes. The findings suggested a possible progression from
40:28
Speaker 1: pollution to accelerated aging to brain atrophy and ultimately dementia.
40:37
Speaker 1: A second study published in May in Environmental Pollution looked
40:42
Speaker 1: more closely at what might be happening inside the brain.
40:46
Speaker 1: Among nearly 270,000 people followed for about 14 years, greater
40:53
Speaker 1: exposure to PM2. 5 was associated with structural changes in the hippocampus,
41:01
Speaker 1: a region essential to learning and memory. The researchers also
41:06
Speaker 1: found clues about what might be driving the damage. Inflammation
41:12
Speaker 1: and changes in the way the body processes fats, appeared
41:16
Speaker 1: to account for a small portion of the link between
41:20
Speaker 1: pollution and dementia, offering another possible path from the air
41:25
Speaker 1: people breathe to changes in the aging brain. Neither study
41:30
Speaker 1: can prove cause and effect, and exposure was estimated from
41:35
Speaker 1: pollution levels near participants' homes rather than measured individually, so
41:40
Speaker 1: the estimates may not reflect each person's actual exposure. but
41:45
Speaker 1: the studies have started filling in the possible missing steps
41:49
Speaker 1: between exposure and disease. Next, which particles are most dangerous?
41:59
Speaker 1: One of the biggest questions is which parts of polluted
42:03
Speaker 1: air are most dangerous. What we breathe is not one
42:07
Speaker 1: thing but a shifting mixture of particles, metals, gases, and chemicals.
42:14
Speaker 1: and scientists are beginning to tease apart which components may
42:18
Speaker 1: matter most to the brain. In a study published in September,
42:24
Speaker 1: researchers compared the effects of three very different pollutants, diesel exhaust,
42:31
Speaker 1: dust collected from the World Trade Center site, and wood smoke.
42:37
Speaker 1: Mice breathed each for five hours. after which researchers examined
42:43
Speaker 1: what had changed in their brains. The surprise was how
42:48
Speaker 1: much diesel exhaust and the World Trade Center dust had
42:53
Speaker 1: in common. Despite coming from very different sources, they altered
42:58
Speaker 1: more than 1,200 of the same genes, including ones involved
43:04
Speaker 1: in triggering inflammation, damaging to fats in cells, and processing amyloid,
43:11
Speaker 1: the protein that accumulates in the brains of people with Alzheimer's.
43:16
Speaker 1: Wood smoke, in contrast, did not produce several of the
43:21
Speaker 1: Alzheimer's-related changes. Diesel exhaust and the World Trade Center dust
43:27
Speaker 1: were rich in metals, while wood smoke was not, leading
43:31
Speaker 1: researchers to suspect that metals may make some forms of
43:35
Speaker 1: pollution particularly damaging to the brain. Mouse studies do not
43:41
Speaker 1: always translate to humans, and a five-hour exposure is very
43:45
Speaker 1: different from the complicated pollution people encounter over a lifetime.
43:51
Speaker 1: But the experiment points to a possibility with important implications.
43:57
Speaker 1: When it comes to the brain, the amount of dirty
44:00
Speaker 1: air may be only part of the story. What makes
44:04
Speaker 1: up that pollution may matter, too. Next, toxic clumps. In
44:11
Speaker 1: one of the largest studies yet to examine the connection
44:14
Speaker 1: between air pollution and Lewy body dementia, the second most
44:19
Speaker 1: common type of dementia after Alzheimer's, researchers analyzed hospital records
44:25
Speaker 1: from 56.5 million Americans from 2000 through 2014. they found
44:34
Speaker 1: that people living in areas with higher levels of PM2. 5
44:39
Speaker 1: were more likely to be hospitalized with two diseases marked
44:43
Speaker 1: by toxic clumps known as Lewy bodies, dementia with Lewy
44:48
Speaker 1: bodies and Parkinson's disease dementia. Then the researchers went looking
44:54
Speaker 1: for what might explain the connection. In experiments in mice,
45:00
Speaker 1: Exposure to pollution triggered the abnormal folding and buildup of alpha-synuclein,
45:08
Speaker 1: a protein that forms Lewy bodies. This is something we
45:14
Speaker 1: were so surprised to see, said Arthur Zabo Mao, a
45:19
Speaker 1: professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins and who will begin
45:23
Speaker 1: a new job in January as the director of the
45:26
Speaker 1: Houston Methodist Center for for translational precision dementia research. The
45:32
Speaker 1: exposed mice also developed brain shrinkage, nerve cell death, and
45:38
Speaker 1: cognitive decline. But when researchers exposed mice genetically engineered without
45:46
Speaker 1: alpha-synuclein to the same pollution, most of that damage largely disappeared,
45:52
Speaker 1: suggesting the abnormal protein played a key role. That makes
45:58
Speaker 1: the pathway a potential target for future therapies. The findings,
46:04
Speaker 1: published in 2025 in Science, could also help solve a
46:10
Speaker 1: long-standing mystery about Lewy body dementia. Most people who develop
46:15
Speaker 1: the disease have no family history of it, leading scientists
46:20
Speaker 1: to suspect that environmental exposures may play an important role. Next,
46:26
Speaker 1: how a pollution scientist protects himself. Mao's interest in air
46:32
Speaker 1: pollution began around the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when the city's
46:37
Speaker 1: notoriously dirty air had become an international concern. Chinese officials
46:44
Speaker 1: were counting blue sky days, restricting driving based on license
46:49
Speaker 1: plate numbers, and temporarily shutting factories in an effort to
46:53
Speaker 1: clear the haze. Mao was studying nanoparticles at the time,
46:59
Speaker 1: particles so tiny they are measured in billionths of a meter,
47:04
Speaker 1: and began wondering what all that material in the air
47:08
Speaker 1: might be doing inside the body. He now lives in
47:13
Speaker 1: the United States, but decades of studying pollution have shaped
47:17
Speaker 1: how he thinks about the air he breathes every day.
47:21
Speaker 1: His precautions are mostly ordinary ones. He pays attention to
47:27
Speaker 1: indoor air as much as outdoor pollution. Cooking, especially without
47:32
Speaker 1: adequate ventilation, can generate surprisingly high concentrations of particles. Indoor
47:39
Speaker 1: cooking may sometimes be worse than anything else, he said.
47:47
Speaker 1: He would avoid living directly on a major road, where
47:50
Speaker 1: traffic-related pollution tends to be higher. At home, he changes
47:55
Speaker 1: his HVAC filters regularly. Then there are the basics. He
48:01
Speaker 1: eats a balanced diet, exercises, and gets outside in the sunshine.
48:07
Speaker 1: Mao said, We can't control everything that enters the air
48:12
Speaker 1: around us, but he works to control what he can.
48:16
Speaker 1: That kind of prevention can go a long way, he said.
48:21
Speaker 1: The next article from the front page of today's edition
48:24
Speaker 1: is titled, Ukraine Says Satellite Access Still Restricted, Despite Trump
48:31
Speaker 1: Saying Otherwise. The president said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk lifted
48:38
Speaker 1: restrictions on Ukraine's access to Starshield, but Ukrainian soldiers said
48:44
Speaker 1: the service was still disrupted Friday. This article is written
48:49
Speaker 1: by Victoria Craw, John Hudson, and Anastasia Golushka. President Donald
48:57
Speaker 1: Trump said Elon Musk has lifted restrictions on Ukraine's access
49:01
Speaker 1: to Starshield, the military equivalent of Starlink, a claim Ukraine
49:06
Speaker 1: refuted Friday, amid confusion over who previously ordered access to
49:12
Speaker 1: the network be curtailed. asked Friday whether he had spoken
49:17
Speaker 1: to Musk about the satellite system. operated by Musk's SpaceX,
49:23
Speaker 1: Trump said, I have not spoken to him. I might
49:27
Speaker 1: have to, but I have not. I've heard it was fixed,
49:32
Speaker 1: but if it's not, I'll fix it. Speaking to reporters
49:37
Speaker 1: a day before, Trump described his relationship with Musk as
49:41
Speaker 1: a very good one. The bottom line, he said, speaking
49:46
Speaker 1: of the Starshield restrictions, was that Musk had put it back. However,
49:52
Speaker 1: Ukraine's charge d'affaires in the U.S., Denis Sidnik, said speed
49:58
Speaker 1: restrictions remain in place on Friday. Unfortunately, as of today,
50:03
Speaker 1: nothing has changed. We continue to wait, he wrote on X.
50:09
Speaker 1: Ukrainian soldiers said they were still experiencing Starshield disruptions. On Friday,
50:16
Speaker 1: Starshield was still with constant interruptions, although at a higher
50:21
Speaker 1: speed than on Thursday, Ukrainian Commander Andriy Klima Klimenko, commander
50:27
Speaker 1: of the 414th Unmanned Systems Brigade, told the Washington Post.
50:34
Speaker 1: Ukraine's military access to Starshield, a secure satellite network designed
50:40
Speaker 1: for government use, was unexpectedly throttled last week, upending Ukraine's
50:46
Speaker 1: mid-range strike campaign on Russian-occupied territory. The widespread confusion over
50:52
Speaker 1: the state of U.S. support for Ukraine is also affecting
50:56
Speaker 1: the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, where U.S. diplomats have raised
51:00
Speaker 1: questions internally about where Washington stands. On Thursday, the Deputy
51:07
Speaker 1: Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy, Megan Gregonis, wrote
51:12
Speaker 1: a letter to staff acknowledging that recent public commentary has
51:16
Speaker 1: left many of you wondering where the U.S.-Ukraine relationship stands.
51:22
Speaker 1: I've heard those concerns around the embassy, and I take
51:25
Speaker 1: them seriously, she wrote in a memo obtained by the Post.
51:31
Speaker 1: She noted that the past few weeks have been hard
51:34
Speaker 1: on all of us, with last night and today examples
51:38
Speaker 1: of the extraordinary challenges we are all facing here as
51:42
Speaker 1: residents of Kyiv as missile and drone strikes persist. The
51:48
Speaker 1: day the memo went out, Kyiv endured a Russian barrage
51:52
Speaker 1: of 21 ballistic missiles in three waves that damaged apartment buildings,
51:58
Speaker 1: a railway station, shopping malls, energy facilities, and killed one
52:04
Speaker 1: person in the city, according to the Ukrainian government. But
52:09
Speaker 1: Gregonis insisted to employees that the fundamentals have not changed,
52:15
Speaker 1: and highlighted remarks from Secretary of State Marco Rubio denying
52:20
Speaker 1: that Trump ordered the suspension of intelligence sharing to Ukraine.
52:25
Speaker 1: None of that has changed, none of it, she quoted
52:29
Speaker 1: Rubio as saying. He also called the suggestion that the
52:33
Speaker 1: United States is deliberately harming Ukraine not fair and not true,
52:39
Speaker 1: she wrote. The curtailed Starshield service followed Trump's announcement of
52:45
Speaker 1: a diesel deal with Russia and demands that Ukraine halt
52:50
Speaker 1: strikes on Russian oil refineries as he sought to address
52:55
Speaker 1: high energy prices ahead of the midterm elections. The Trump administration,
53:01
Speaker 1: has faced repeated questions over why access to Starshield was
53:05
Speaker 1: curtailed and who ordered it. The Wall Street Journal reported
53:10
Speaker 1: this week that Musk ordered the slowdown and that Trump
53:14
Speaker 1: called him to ask it to be lifted. Musk did
53:19
Speaker 1: not respond to a request for comment. He has previously
53:23
Speaker 1: said any limits on speed or usage are decided by
53:28
Speaker 1: the U.S. military and ultimately by Trump. Trump has recently
53:33
Speaker 1: increased pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make a
53:39
Speaker 1: deal to end Russia's war against Ukraine, called for his ouster,
53:44
Speaker 1: and waived punishing sanctions against Moscow. Earlier this week, Russia
53:51
Speaker 1: agreed to restart trilateral talks with Ukrainian representatives following a
53:58
Speaker 1: meeting between U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
54:05
Speaker 1: On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said talks were planned
54:11
Speaker 1: for the first half of November in Abu Dhabi. On Thursday,
54:16
Speaker 1: Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat from Connecticut, the senior Democrat on
54:22
Speaker 1: the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said he had opened
54:27
Speaker 1: an inquiry into the restrictions to Starshield services. In a
54:33
Speaker 1: letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Blumenthal said, Separately, eight
54:38
Speaker 1: other members of Congress, in a letter led by Senator
54:41
Speaker 1: Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, said, and Senator Tom Tillis,
55:04
Speaker 1: Republican from North Carolina, also said they were concerned about
55:08
Speaker 1: the service outages. They urged Hegseth to expand Ukraine's existing
55:15
Speaker 1: Starshield contract to ensure it does not lose service again
55:20
Speaker 1: and to allow it to strike lawful targets inside Russia.
55:26
Speaker 1: The United States and Europe have made significant investments in
55:30
Speaker 1: Ukraine's defense, because of how a Russian victory would put
55:34
Speaker 1: our security at risk. Those investments should not be undermined
55:39
Speaker 1: by preventable disruptions, that letter said. Tillis said Thursday that
55:45
Speaker 1: he still wants to know who decided to cut service.
55:50
Speaker 1: Innocent Ukrainians have bore the murderous brunt of limited access
55:54
Speaker 1: to the technology. We've spent that week trying to determine
55:59
Speaker 1: the party responsible, but they have yet to own the decision,
56:04
Speaker 1: if in fact one was made, he posted on X.
56:09
Speaker 1: I have full confidence in the powers of the United
56:12
Speaker 1: States government and SpaceX to solve this, if there are
56:16
Speaker 1: indeed no objections. Vice President J.D. Vance said Thursday that
56:23
Speaker 1: it was completely understandable that Musk did not want to
56:26
Speaker 1: get involved in the war as the executive of a
56:29
Speaker 1: private company. Due to time constraints, we will need to
56:37
Speaker 1: end that item at this time. This concludes the reading
56:41
Speaker 1: of the Washington Post for today, Saturday, October 24, 2026.
56:47
Speaker 1: Your reader for today has been Jennifer. If you have
56:51
Speaker 1: any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program, please feel
56:57
Speaker 1: free to call us at 859-422-6390. Thank you for listening,
57:05
Speaker 1: and now please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio Eye.