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7.23.26 · Washington Post

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post for Thursday,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: July twenty third of twenty twenty six. Your reader is
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Alice Stayner, with the reminder that RADIOI is for those
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: blind or having difficulties holding a reading printed material. So
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  Speaker 1: I start with the front page of today's paper. On
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  Speaker 1: the very far left, US signs nuclear packed with the
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  Speaker 1: Saudis Accord gives pathway to enriching fuel, setting up a
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  Speaker 1: debate in Congress, and by Evan Hafler. In the center
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  Speaker 1: across four columns is a picture titled Solemn Ceremony.
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  Speaker 2: And you see the.
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  Speaker 1: President standing in front of some military airline personnel.
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  Speaker 2: His back is to us.
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  Speaker 1: You see a woman in black with a blue shirt
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  Speaker 1: on and her hands to sort of covering her nose
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  Speaker 1: and face. You kind of see she's emotional. And you
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  Speaker 1: see two Air Force members at the bottom of steps
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  Speaker 1: with other members at the very bottom of the steps.
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  Speaker 1: They're all basically in blue and black, and I see
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  Speaker 1: one white shirt and there on the staircase. President Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump arrives at Dobbin's Air Force Base with family members
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  Speaker 1: of US Army. First Lieutenant Tyler James Femat Fihan, the
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  Speaker 1: four US soldiers killed in recent days during renewed hostilities
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  Speaker 1: Iran were all assigned to air defense units, showing that
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  Speaker 1: the risk has shifted to troops far from Iran's borders,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: so they were there to receive the family members for
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  Speaker 1: the body of their family host tease up billions for
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  Speaker 1: war defense builds usual coalition collapse. The two measures face
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  Speaker 1: a difficult path to being law by Noah Robertson, Gerald Dillard,
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  Speaker 1: and Marianna Alfaro. That is the far right, below the
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  Speaker 1: picture of the nose of the airplane. Trump weighs military
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  Speaker 1: force in Molly official say by John Hudson and Rachel Chasen,
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  Speaker 1: Below the nuclear agreement with the Saudis on the left,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: he acted on its own in Breach Company says by
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Garrett de vinc Out of San Francisco, and below the
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  Speaker 1: Trump weighs military force in Mally Amazon gigs firms seek
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  Speaker 1: spike in sea, spy in workers on Snap and medicaid
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: by Lauren Gary Gurley and Rachel Lherman, and the last
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  Speaker 1: article on the front page in battle Ground Wisconsin, a
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  Speaker 1: democratic socialist surges. She hopes wave of support around US
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  Speaker 1: will boost her bid for governor bout Patrick Marley in Wisconsin.
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  Speaker 1: And there's a picture of Francesca Hong shown Sunday in
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  Speaker 1: Saint Paul Baptist Church in Racine, Wisconsin, who is getting
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  Speaker 1: clicks like no one else in the field of five
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  Speaker 1: primary candidates. She looks like she is a Indian heritage
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: and that is strictly my own guest. She has long
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: black hair, she's got a high collared white shirt but
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: covered with a greenish jacket, lots of fun bracelets on
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  Speaker 1: her right arm, her watch, and she's sitting in a
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  Speaker 1: pew with her hands crossed, sort of looking straight ahead.
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  Speaker 1: So let's start with the Saudis. US signs nuclear deal
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  Speaker 1: with Saudi Arabia that gives it path to enriching fuel.
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  Speaker 1: The agreement with the kingdom signaling it wants a nuclear
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  Speaker 1: weapon has sparked alarm among norm proliferation experts. Congress has
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  Speaker 1: ninety days to act on the deal. And there is
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  Speaker 1: a picture of Saudi crawn pens, Mohammed Ben Solomon and
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  Speaker 1: President Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 2: In the Oval Office last November.
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  Speaker 1: And Mohammed Ben Salmon is in traditional garb with a
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  Speaker 1: black robe, gold lining and his traditional head job with
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  Speaker 1: black band around the top. Trump is leaning towards him
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  Speaker 1: with his right hand. Left hand sort of looks like
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: he's trying to whisper something to him, and you can
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  Speaker 1: see Solomon's kind of looks like he's getting ready to
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: crack a smile, but he's very sober looking. But Evan Helper.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: The Trump administration on Wednesday signed an agreement with Saudi
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  Speaker 1: Arabia that gives the country a pathway to enriching nuclear
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  Speaker 1: fuel it and commits it to using US firearms to
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  Speaker 1: supply its reactors.
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  Speaker 2: The agreement, which the Energy.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Department announced had been signed, is certain to spark heated
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  Speaker 1: debate in Congress, where many lawmakers have long expressed concern
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  Speaker 1: that exporting enrichment capabilities will lead to a proliferation of
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  Speaker 1: nuclear arms. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Vin Salmon has spoken
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  Speaker 1: openly about working to develop nuclear weapons if Iran is
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  Speaker 1: not stopped from getting them. While the Trump administration offered
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  Speaker 1: little information about the agreement's contents, three people familiar with
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  Speaker 1: it shared details with The Washington Post. The people spoke
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  Speaker 1: on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized
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  Speaker 1: to discuss the agreement publicly. The people familiar with the
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  Speaker 1: new government a new agreement, say it is designed with
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  Speaker 1: safeguards to keep the Saudis from enriching nuclear fuel to
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  Speaker 1: weapons grade level, but they also acknowledge it includes Zuwaba
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  Speaker 1: that exempts the Saudis from the aggressive international inspections required
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  Speaker 1: in nuclear reactor deals with other countries, including the United
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  Speaker 1: Arab Emirates. Instead, sensitive inspectors would be executed by American
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: teams under term spelled out in the agreement, which was
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  Speaker 1: initially worked out when the Crown Prince visited Washington in November.
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  Speaker 1: These agreements reflect our two nations shared commitment to strengthening
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  Speaker 1: US commercial relations US Saudi commercial relations, delivering prosperity at
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  Speaker 1: home and security to our allies abroad. Energy Secretary Chris
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  Speaker 1: Wright said in a statement, adding rest assured these agreements
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  Speaker 1: uphold the highest standards of nuclear safety and non proliferation
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  Speaker 1: while relying on the world's best nuclear technology and scientists
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  Speaker 1: designed right here in the United States. On Wednesday, Wright
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  Speaker 1: and his Saudi counterparts signed what is known as a
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  Speaker 1: one twenty one two three agreement, which lays out conditions
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  Speaker 1: for nuclear energy cooperation and includes toilations aimed at permitting
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  Speaker 1: the spread of nuclear weapons. Unlike with this agreement, other
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: recent deals between the US and countries that are not
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  Speaker 1: already enriching their own fuel have precluded or discarded them
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  Speaker 1: from doing so. Because the deal does not include conventional
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  Speaker 1: international inspections, President Donald Trump had to sign a separate
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  Speaker 1: national security waiver for it to go forward, according to
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  Speaker 1: the individuals familiar with it. Now that the agreement has
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  Speaker 1: been signed, the details will be sent to Congress, which
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  Speaker 1: has ninety days to act on it. Even if Congress
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  Speaker 1: votes against implementing the deal, the President could veto that disapproval,
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  Speaker 1: and it is likely that opponents would have enough votes
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  Speaker 1: to block the deal from going forward. The Wall Street
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  Speaker 1: Journal first reported the details of the agreement. Under the deal,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the two countries agree to study for two years whether
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  Speaker 1: enrichment on Saudi soil is feasible and necessary. There is
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  Speaker 1: enough nuclear fuel manufactured in other countries to power future
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  Speaker 1: Saudi reactors, but nuclear energy proponents argue the world's fuel
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  Speaker 1: supply will quickly run out if plans by the Trump
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  Speaker 1: administration and other governments to vastly expand nuclear power production
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  Speaker 1: around the globe. They say the deal with the Saudis
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  Speaker 1: gives the US an opportunity to expand the enrichment network
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  Speaker 1: on its own terms, limiting the associated weapons proliferation risks.
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  Speaker 1: The deal stipulates that any enrichment on Saudi soil will
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  Speaker 1: be controlled by US companies using technology that is not
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  Speaker 1: shared with the Saudis. The aim is to allow Saudi
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  Speaker 1: Arabia to achieve its goal of developing a nuclear power
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  Speaker 1: economy without giving the kingdom access to tools it could
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  Speaker 1: use to develop a nuclear weapon. Non Proliferation experts have
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  Speaker 1: long warned again such a deal, starting back when the
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Biden administration raised this possibility as part of efforts to
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: establish diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. They continued
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  Speaker 1: to speak out as the Trump administration signaled it was
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  Speaker 1: heading down the same road, arguing that any safeguards the
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  Speaker 1: US establishes will not hold.
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  Speaker 2: A bad US nuclear.
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  Speaker 1: Deal with Saudi Arabia is coming for congressional review inexplicably
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  Speaker 1: carried over from the Biden administration, wrote Andrea Stricker or Stricer,
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  Speaker 1: a non proliferation scholar at the Foundation for Defense of
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Democracies a national security think tank, in a post on
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  Speaker 1: x Congress should block it if it does not one
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  Speaker 1: hopes the policy will be reversed by a subsequent administration
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  Speaker 1: before too much damage is done in terms of ordering
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  Speaker 1: down safeguards, setting negative precedents for other states, and failing
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  Speaker 1: to contain the spread of enrichment and reprocessing, which we
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: just put back in the box in Iran via Force.
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  Speaker 1: Striker said, there are currently fourteen nations enriching uranium, according
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  Speaker 1: to the think tank, nine of which have nuclear weapons.
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  Speaker 1: The agreement is sparking alarm in Israel, where officials have
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  Speaker 1: long sought to keep neighboring nations from enriching nuclear fool
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  Speaker 1: Unlike the Biden administration's proposed nuclear energy packed with Saudi Arabia,
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  Speaker 1: which US officials have predicted on the Persian Gulf state
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  Speaker 1: recognizing Israel's right to exist, there is no such stipulation
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  Speaker 1: in the arrangement Trump negotiated. Naftali Bennett, who had served
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  Speaker 1: as Israel's Prime Minister and now chairs the Together Party,
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  Speaker 1: said in a statement that the deal joins a series
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  Speaker 1: of diplomatic failures in which Israel is losing influence over
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  Speaker 1: its own fate. Bennett, who is challenging Israeli Prime Minister
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  Speaker 1: Benjamin nettin Yahoo in the upcoming elections, called the deal
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  Speaker 1: a severe strategic failure that jeopardizes our country by threatening
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  Speaker 1: to trigger nuclear regional nuclear arms race and dangerous loss
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  Speaker 1: of control.
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  Speaker 2: Israel.
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  Speaker 1: Zeb a former head of the Israel Defense Forces Operations Division,
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  Speaker 1: wrote in the Daily newspaper that the agreement is the
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  Speaker 1: final diplomatic nail in the coffin for the future of
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  Speaker 1: regional normalization. Netanyahu's office did not respond to her request
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  Speaker 1: for comment on Wednesday. Even analysts who concede that the
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  Speaker 1: expansion of enrichment to nuclear to Saudi Arabia and other
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  Speaker 1: countries is inevitable as countries pursue nuclear power amid fast
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  Speaker 1: rising global energy demand, question the structure of the agreement.
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  Speaker 2: Richard Nephew, who.
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  Speaker 1: Advised Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama on the Middle East,
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  Speaker 1: said in an interview that the sidelining of international inspectors
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  Speaker 1: would set a word someome precedent. He said that while
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  Speaker 1: US inspectors are capable of robust review of nuclear activities,
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  Speaker 1: adversaries of the US are unlikely to trust their findings
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  Speaker 1: and may choose to abandon inspections by the International Atomic
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  Speaker 1: Energy Agency. Nephew said the point is not that Americans
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  Speaker 1: can't do a great job in inspections.
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  Speaker 2: The point is, if you.
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  Speaker 1: Were Aron, how much confidence would you have in American
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  Speaker 1: inspections of Saudi operations. How would we feel if the
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  Speaker 1: Iranian said, don't worry, Russians will inspect us.
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  Speaker 2: We would not accept that.
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  Speaker 1: What if the Russians told us to worry about nuclear facility,
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  Speaker 1: not to worry about nuclear facilities in Cuba because they
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  Speaker 1: were inspecting them.
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  Speaker 2: All of this just doesn't work in.
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  Speaker 1: A geopolitical environment with as much mistrust and uncertainty as ours,
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  Speaker 1: Nephew said. One of the biggest beneficiaries of the deal
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  Speaker 1: is the legacy US nuclear firm Westinghouse, which builds the
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: large light water reactors SCOUTI Arabia is seeking. While officials
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: familiar with the agreement said it does not specifically name
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the company that deals, provisions requiring that US firms are
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: contracted for the nuclear work effectively steer this cut as
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: to the firm and its ap one thousand reactors, each
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  Speaker 1: of which is capable of powering hundreds of thousands of homes.
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  Speaker 1: There are also supply chain provisions that aim to give
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: other US firms an advantage, including those mining uranium and
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: building components used in reactor construction, but the nuclear supply
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: chain in the US has severely atrophied over the years
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: as utilities stop building plants following a project cost overruns
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and construction delays that cost rate payers tens of billions
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: of dollars. The agreement states a law a strong preference
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  Speaker 1: for US suppliers at all stages in construction and develop
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  Speaker 1: of nuclear plants, according to the individuals familiar with it,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: but does not prohibit the Saudis from seeking materials, parts,
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  Speaker 1: and expertise elsewhere when needed. Members of Congress are already
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: criticizing the framework. Representative Brad Sherman, Democrat of California, noted
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: during a host Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday that Iran's
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: nuclear program, which the White House says it is now
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: being leveraged by Iranian leaders to build a weapon, is
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: rooted in US technology given to that country when it
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: was still run by the Shah. We have no idea
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  Speaker 1: who is going to be running Saudi Arabia ten years
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: from now. We are bombing Iran because they insist upon
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  Speaker 1: enriching and processing. We are entering into agreement with Saudi
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  Speaker 1: Arabia giving them the green light to reprocess and to enrich.
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  Speaker 1: And the only different once I see here is that
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  Speaker 1: Westinghouse stands to make an awful lot of money on
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: this deal, whereas the Iranians were not enriching American companies,
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  Speaker 1: Sherman said. Sherman pointed out that when Secretary of State
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Marco Rubio served in the Senate, he joined Sherman in
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  Speaker 1: co sponsoring the No Nuclear Weapons for Saudi Arabia Act,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: which would have required that Congress affirmatively approved any deal
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  Speaker 1: with the Saudis before it can move forward. In n
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Gago with reporters Wednesday, during a trip to the Philippines,
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  Speaker 1: Rubio declined to answer questions about the deal in detail,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: saying the US would not sign any agreement that risks proliferation.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Interesting AI article chat g PT owner says AI acted
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: on its own to hack another tech firm. The incident
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: follows recent concerns in Silicon Valley and at the White
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: House that AI models are becoming dangerously good at identifying
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: security flaws in software. And there's a picture of the
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: offices of Artificial intelligent company Open AI in San Francisco,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: and there is a building with a lot of glass,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and it's got walkways to other buildings around it, and
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: there's this unusual sculpture that looks like a melting.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: I would say, melting ice cream cone.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: It's metal with circular stuff on top and standing on
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: what like two feet but in the same material as
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: the circular stuff by Garrett de vinc Out of San Francisco,
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  Speaker 1: Artificial intelligence software in testing by chat GPT maker OpenAI
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  Speaker 1: breached security controls, accessed the Internet, and hacked another tech
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: firm to obtain answers to questions probing its cybersecurity skills.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Open ai said on Tuesday. The security breach follows US
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: scramble over recent months in the tech industry and governments
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: around the world to respond to the arrival of AI
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: models capable of identifying security flowers in software. The Trump
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: administration temporarily imposed restrictions on open ai and its rival,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Anthropic maker of the chatbot Claud to prevent their tech
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: being used by US adversaries. We consider this incident to
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: be an unprecedented cyber incident involving state of the art
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: cyber capabilities. Open ai said in a blog post Tuesday.
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  Speaker 1: The company is working with hugging Face, the AI company
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: that open ai Systems hacked. To determine the full impact
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: of the hack, open Ai briefed the Trump administration on
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the situation before announcing it publicly, According to a person
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: anonymity to share non public information, Clement Delanc, chief executive
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: of hugging Face, set in a post on x on
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  Speaker 1: Tuesday that his company had worked closely with open ai
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: to understand the incident. We strongly believe there was no
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: malicious intent on their part. It's quite mind blowing that
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: all of this happened autonomously, he wrote. Hugging Face initially
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: disclosed the incident in a blog post last week that
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: did not identify its source as open Ai. The attack
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: successfully accessed some internal data sets and credentials, but it
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: was unclear whether customer data had been affected. The company
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: said the security incident occurred while open ai was testing
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: an AI agent able to take actions on a computer
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: powered by two of the company's most capable AI models.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: The company said the.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Process involved challenging the AI model to find previously known
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: software vulnerabilities using a test designed by Computer Security experts.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Instead of trying to find the vulnerabilities for itself. The
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: AII system found a bug in the software designed to
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: limits it access to other computer systems and attempted to cheat.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Open Ai said it explored the flaw to access the
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Internet and tried to obtain answers to the test questions
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: from hugging Face, which maintains repositories of AI software. The
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: chat gpt developers said open Ai and its rival Anthropic,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: maker of the Claude chatbot, have previously said that their
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: AI systems have attempted to cheat on tests or evade
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: controls on their actions during testing. The incident, open Ai
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: reported Tuesday appears to show the potential consequences when making
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: an AI system when an AI system succeeds in evading
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: restrictions imposed by its makers. Open ai said in a
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: separate blog post on Monday that it had witnessed powerful
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: AI models trying to make out of sandboxes when they
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: are instructed to run for a long period of time
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: on their own. AI systems have become very good at
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: writing computer code over the past year, fueling further investment
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: into artificial intelligence, but Anthropic in April, a nounster system
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: called Mythos AI that could apply coding skills to identifying
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: security vulnerabilities in software that could be exploited by bad actors.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: In test, Mythos found critical vulnerabilities in Internet infrastructure that
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: had lain undetected by human coders for years. The prospect
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: of AI powered hacking campaigns triggered widespread concern among senior tech, banking,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and government officials. In June, the White House Bandanthropic from
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: releasing its AI models to non US citizens, citing national
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: security concerns, and later told Open Ai to pause the
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: release of more powerful AI models. The White House later
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: rescinded its restrictions on the two AI firms. Inside government
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: and across the tech industry, debate has continued debate whether
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: the government should regulate AI technology with powerful cybersecurity or
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: hacking skills. Advocates for regulations say it would reduce the
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: risk of widespread security breaches by powerful AI. Others in
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the tech industry argue that the increasing power of Chinese
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: AI models released free means controls would only hamper US firms.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Both Anthropic and OpenAI said they have added controls to
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: their AI models to make them refuse to help users
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: who ask for help hacking into computer systems. Hugging Face
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: said in its blog posts last week that controls like
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: those prevented it from using USAI models to investigate the
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: AI powered breach of its systems. Instead, the company used
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: in Chinese AI model to run the analysis. The company said,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I looked up hugging Face and this sentence sort of
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: says it. While the vast majority of models and community
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: tools on hugging Face are free, the company generates revenue
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: by offering enterprise level security features, dedicated computing power, and
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: API hosting services for businesses. I still don't know what
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: it really is, but it's a very powerful open AI business.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Next article, Amazon gig companies see spike in workers on
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Snap and medicaid. Studies shows Amazon workers on federal aid
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: nearly tripled between twenty twenty and twenty twenty five, while
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: ride hailing and food delivery app drivers shot up on
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: lists compiled by the US Government Accountability Office by Lauren
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Gioy Gurley and Rachel Lherman. And there's a picture of
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: an Amazon worker making a delivery in San Francisco in February,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: and he's outside a locked gate. While the number of
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: working adults who depend on food stamps and Medicaid has
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: ticked up since the start of the pandemic. The number
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: of recipients who work at Amazon and on gig economy
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: platforms has exploded. According to a new report from the
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: US Government Accountability Office, the number of Amazon workers relying
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: on the federal programs for the poor nearly tripled between
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: February twenty twenty and September twenty twenty five. According to
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: the report published Wednesday, and for the first time, ride
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: hailing and food based food delivery companies like Ubert, Lift, door, Dash,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: grub Hub, and instacart collectively ranked among the top three
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: employers with workers receiving aid. Walmart topped both lists in
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty. According to a Washington Post analyst of the data,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: remains the top employer of Medicaid recipients, but the company's
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: share of beneficiaries has inched up only slightly over five years,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: while Amazon's has soared. And there's a parenthesis executive Amazon
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: executive chairman Jeff Bezos owns the post in parentheses. Riode
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: hailing and food delivery companies meanwhile, shot past Walmart to
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: collectively rank as the top employer of food stamp users
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: and among the top three for Medicaid users. According to
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: the Post analysis, these workers barely registered on GAO list
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. Walmart is the nation's life largest private employer,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: followed by Amazon. Of the companies with large numbers of
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: employees receiving federal benefits include McDonald's, FedEx, Dollatry, and Dollar General,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: all of which have faced complaints from labor advocates that
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: they pay wages too low to meet basic needs.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: American taxpayers should.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Not be forced to subsidize the starvation wages of large
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: corporations like Walmart and Amazon. It is beyond unacceptable that
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: these corporations, owned by some of the wealthiest people on
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: the planet, are receiving corporate welfare from the federal government,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, said in a written statement.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: The GAA GAO undertook the study at Sander's request, reprising
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: a study at first conducted in twenty twenty. The new
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: report draws on September twenty twenty five dollar from agencies
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: in eleven states that administer Medicaid in the Supplementary Supplemental
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP, better known as Food stamps. The
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: report covers Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Washington State, which together have about
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: a fifth of the US population. Across those states, the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: GAO found that about thirteen point eight million working Americans
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: were enrolled in Medicaid in twenty twenty four, up from
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: twelve million in twenty twenty, despite many working full time. Meanwhile,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: ten point six million, mostly full time workers relied on
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Snap for groceries, up from nine million in twenty twenty.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Amazon spokesper and Rachel lightly challenge the GAO's conclusions. Amazon
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: is one of the largest job creators in the country,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: so looking at raw numbers instead of percentages is misleading,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: she said, adding employers that offer part time options for
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: those who want them, like we do, are likely to
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: have more people who are eligible for Snap and Medicaid. Walmart, McDonald's, Dollar, General, FedEx, Lift, grub, Hug,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: and Instacart did not respond to requests for comment. A
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: spokesperson for Dolatry said the company annual continually enhances employee
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: pay and benefits to meet their evolving needs. A door
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: disce spokesman pointed to a twenty twenty five in survey
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: that found that a third of workers said they did
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: deliveries to avoid signing up for government benefits. Uber referred
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: questions to Flex, an industry group for large ride hailing
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: and delivery apps. This work is intentionally accessible so people
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: can begin earning quickly when they need additional income, Flex
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: CEO Kristen Sharp said in a statement. She also said
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: it increases the likelihood of reemployment after a job loss,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: cushion's income shocks when hours get cut, and helps workers
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: build financial security over time. People who might otherwise fully
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: rely on unemployment insurance or other public assistants can instead
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: turn to flexible work to bridge the gap. SNAP one
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: hundred million dollar program administered by the Agriculture Department, served
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: about forty two million Americans a month last year, providing
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: food assistance worth about one hundred and ninety dollars per
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: person a three hundred and fifty per household. Its ranks
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: of swords. Since the early days of the pandemic. About
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: thirty five point seven million people received food stamps in
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: To qualify, a.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Household must earn less than one hundred and thirty percent
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: of the federal poverty level, or abey thirty five thousand
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: a year for a family of three. Late last year,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill titan eligibility and
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: push states to do more screening, knocking millions from the program. Medicate,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: which will cost the federal government roughly seven hundred billion
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: dollars this year, also grew between twenty nineteen and twenty
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: twenty five to abate seventy one million beneficiaries from sixty
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: five million. The income eligibility for Medicaid is capped at
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty eight percent of the federal poverty limit,
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: are about twenty one thousand dollars per year for a
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: single adult. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill, many states
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: are set in January to impose work requirements on the program.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: While the programs cover people with a variety of needs,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: including children, the elderly, and the disabled, many recipients are
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: already working or looking for work. The GAO report focuses
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: on non elderly, non disabled, working adults. Their ranks in
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Medicaid grew by eighteen percent across six states in the study.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: The report found, while their numbers on snap increased by
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: seven percent across nine states. In part, the spike and
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: recipients for working for Amazon and the gig economy apps
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: can be explained by a surgeon hiring during the pandemic
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: when we're housing and transportation comes. Companies expanded rapidly to
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: meet the demand of American consumers sheltered at home. Amazon's
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: overall headcount nearly doubled between the end of twenty nineteen
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: and the end of twenty twenty five as the pandemic
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: forced shoppers online. Low wage workers with few work from
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: home options flooded into the warehouse jobs, where many remain today. Lighty,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: the Amazon spokesperson, argue that the sheer number of new
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: hires is driving Amazon's ranking in the GOAO list. In general,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: a new Amazon warehose raises wages and shrinks the number
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: of Medicaid recipients in the surrounding area within five years,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: she said, citing an Oxford Economics study. Lighty said via email,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Amazon pay is among the best in the industry. Regular
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: full time employer looyees have access to healthcare from their
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: first day, and seventy four percent of our regular full
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: time employees are enrolled in an Amazon health insurance plan,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: well above the sixty five percent private sector take up
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: rate for full time workers. The online platforms also expanded dramatically,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: more than doubling their number of workers, in a phenomenon
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: that has persisted post COVID. The Federal Reserve found that
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four, nine percent of Americans earned money
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: through some sort of short term task, including food delivery, driving,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: and odd jobs. In most parts of the United States,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: the platforms do not guarantee work available Italy, Tea or pay,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: do not reimburse for the cost of gas and vehicle maintenance,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: and do not provide health insurance. Many drivers have a
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: hard time making ends meet, said Nicole Moore, president of
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: Ride Share Drivers United, an organization of drivers based in California.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: This is poverty rages, This is absolutely precarious income, she said.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Dwayne Mitchell, and Uber and Lyft driver in Boston, said
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: he's signed up for food stamps a few years ago
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: because he couldn't predict his income, which rounds out to
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: abade seventeen dollars an hour after the cost of gas
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: and upkeep on his car. This work is like fishing.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: There are some good days in some bad days. Said Mitchell,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: who receives red three hundred a month in food stamps
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: and is also enrolled in Massachusetts Fuel Assistance program to
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: heat his home in the winter. Receiving feud assistants has
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: sure made things easier, taking some pressure off. While the
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: apps make it easier to earn a paycheck, that income
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: is far less reliable than other low income employment, said
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Aaron Hatton, associology professor at the University of Buffalo. It
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: is not new that taxpayers have subsidized lowage employers, but
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: there is this new generation of low age employers that
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: pay their workers as little as possible, and now there
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: are new methods of doing so.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Hatton said. Many EID recipients.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Who work for Amazon and in jig jobs may not
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: work full time, undercutting the ability to earn a living wage,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: said Angela Rashidi, a federal safety net expert at the
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. Certainly part time
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: works for a fully capable person is not going to
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: make ends meet. That begs the question of why are
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: they not working full time and are they using benefits
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: to kind of supplement part time Workshety said. But not
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: everyone who wants a full time job can find one.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: the number of people working part time has risen from
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: pre pandemic levels, and only nineteen percent of part time
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: workers receive employer sponsored health insurance, according to the health
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: research group KFF, while being companies are responsible for the
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: largest share of aid recipients. Enrique Lapeziliera, director of the
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Low Rage Work Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: said smaller firms in the same industries often have the
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: same wage models wherever they work. People at very low
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: incomes have a tougher time affording the premiums and at
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: a pocket cost of healthcare, said Gideon Lukens, a senior
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: fellow on the Health policy team at the left leaning
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: They are also.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Less likely to be offered employer coverage in the first place.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Also on the front page, Trump administration weighing military options
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: in Mali. Officials say, if approved, it would add an
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: eighth nation to the list of countries where President Donald
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: Trump has ordered strikes since the start of his second term.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: By John Hudson and Rachel Chasen, the Trump administration is
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: weighing military action in the West African country of Mali
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: to target an al Qaeda affiliated group known as j
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: n IM, said current and former US officials familiar with
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: the deliberations. If approved, it would add an eighth nation
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: to the list of countries where President Donald Trump has
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: ordered strikes since the the art of his second term,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: a chapter of his presidency that he initially said would
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: be dedicated to ending global strife and redirecting US resources
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: to Americans. There is disagreement, however, among senior US officials,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: over whether to proceed with attacking the militant group. A
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: vocal advocate for using force as Sebastian Gorka, the National
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Security Council's senior director for counter Terrorism, said the current
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: and former officials, who like others, spoke on the condition
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: of anonymity to discuss military planning. The militant group, whose
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: full name is jama Ad Nosra al Islam Wal most
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: limit that is the j n M, has established a
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: strong hold in Mali and increasingly launched attacks in coastal
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: West African nations, establishing itself as the most well armed
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: armed militant group in the region and among the most
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: powerful in the world. A spokesman for Mali's government did
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: not respond to request for comment. Gorka did not respond
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: to West for comments either, and the Pentagon declined to comment.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: When the White House was asked for comment, and administration
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: official would not disclose whether the President intended to move
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: forward with military strikes, but said the United States has
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: been urgent governments in North and West Africa to purchase
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: US equipment and services to support their war efforts against
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: the terrorists. The official said that terrorism in the Shield,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: the best semi arid region south of the Sahara, is
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: a multi national problem. We urge regional partners and NATO
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: allies to support the Alliance of Shahield States in their
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: war against jnim men Isis, the official added, referring to
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: the Islamic state which rose to prominence in the Middle
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: East before establishing affiliates through Africa.
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: Throughout Africa, the.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: Alliance of the Shield States consists of Mali, Burkina, Fasso,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: and Nigel, all West African nations where military leaders have
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: in recent years hosted democratically elected governments and coups largely
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: cut ties with the West and turned to Russia for
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: security help. But the administration official penned the blame not
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: on those governments but on their Russian partners, saying that
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Moscow has proven to be an ineffective security partner for Mali.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: We hope that other nations take note of Russia's terrible
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: performance in combating terrorism, the official said. The Trump administration's
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: contemplation of military options in the country has not been
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: previously reported. Mali, a landlocked nation of nearly twenty five million,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: has in recent years been plagued by volunce by Islamic
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: militant groups and by Mali's own junta government and the
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Russian mercenaries, whom had hired to get the situation under control.
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: The militant groups.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Particularly j NIM, have grown increasingly powerful, turning Mali and
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: its neighbors into the Shahil into the world's center for terrorism.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: Last year, militants with the al Qaeda affiliate mented a
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: fewer blockade that paralyzed much of the country. This spring,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: they launched coordinated nationwide attacks that included militants roaming the
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: streets of Bamaco, the capital, seizing a strategic city in
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: the north from Mali's military and the Russians, and killing
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: the country's defense minister in a suicide attack. Meanwhile, is Shahyel,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: the Islamic State affiliate and j NIM rival, has consolidated
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: power near Mali's border with Niger, where last year its
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: militants kidnapped American missionary Kevin Rdey, who is believed to be.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: Held now in Mali.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: To come back violence, Mali's Hunta government hired Russian mercenaries,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: first with the Wagner Group and now with Africa Corps,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: which is more closely linked with the Russia's defense ministry.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: The Russians have been accused of a string of atrocities,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: according to rights groups and the Washington Posts previous reporting.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to a
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: request for comment. Henny Sibia, West African senior analysts for
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: the Armed Conflict Location and invent Data Project, said that
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Malai's military and its Russian backers were responsible for killing
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: hundreds more civilians than jay and I and is Shail combined.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: Last year, the militian military and its Russian partners were
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: responsible for nine hundred and twenty five civilian deaths, according
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: to ACLED, compared with two hundred and thirty two by
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Islamis militants. It is extremely problematic that a government like
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: the US or any Western partner would provide support to
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: these regimes whose legitimacy remains contested and which are incredibly
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: fragile and repressive, he said, referring to Mali, Burkina, Faso
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: and Niger.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: That is Henny Sebia, that is the person speaking still.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: Last year, as part of a push by the Trump
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: administration to re engage with Mali, the United States ramped
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: up intelligence sharing with Mali's government, Current and former American
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: officials set at the time. The intelligence was used in
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: strikes by Mali's military, which have been largely shunned by
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: the Biden administration for its refusal to set a timeline
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: for return to democratic elections and its works with Russians,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: but such cooperation has so far remained limited, nowhere near
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: the scale of the US Nigeria security partnership that ramped
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: up last year and has included US air strikes and
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: a ground mission that killed one of the Islamic States
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: pop leaders in Africa. Any direct US military involvement in
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: Mali runs a risk of hostilities with Russian forces in
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: its region. It also could require deconfliction efforts between Washington
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: and Moscow, akin to ones that existed in Syria during
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: that country's civil war. Asked if Secretary of Saint Marco
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Rubio supports military action in Mali, the State Department sidestepped
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: the question, saying the US unequivocally condemns the terror activity
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: in Bali.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: The Department said the.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Trump administration is committed to promoting regional ownership and cooperation
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: against terrorists, threats, and monitoring indicators and warnings of threats
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: to our homeland. US military action against j and I
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: m would add Mali to the list of countries where
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Trump has ordered strikes Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria,
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: and Venezuela.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: Mali would make number eight.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: The administration also has waged a controversial military campaign against
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: alleged runners in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that has
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: resulted in scores of Deathsam Nasa, a Shahil specialist and
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: senior research fellow at the Suffan Center, said that the
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: US could be most useful by getting involved instead in
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: conflict resolution, forcing Mali's Hunter government to talk with j
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: and I AM, which is focused not on global aims,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: but on applying Islamic laws in local governments and other
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: political opponents whom the junta has largely silenced. Opting for
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: the military solution is one more time won't get things resolved.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: The French tried that for ten years, the Russians have
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: been trying for five years. This situation has only gotten
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: worse and worse.
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: Masa said.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: France launched its military intervention in the Shahiel in twenty
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: thirteen at the request of Mali's then government.
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: French forces quashed.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: The insurgency in Mali and restored a measure of order.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: That initial mission was followed by second Operation Burkane that
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: eliminated prominent military leaders but ultimately failed to stop the
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: spread of various armed groups. Anger at France, fueled by
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: its neo colonial missteps and by Russian disinformation, grew over
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: the years, helping propel Cuz and Mali in twenty twenty
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: and twenty twenty one, and in neighboring Burkina, Fasso and
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Niger President Emmanuel Maccrat later withdrew French forces. NASA added
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: that if US strikesweken j n I M, they conversely
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: could help is Shahiel, whose growth has been limited by
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: the rival al Qaeda, a nearly affiliated group. Peter Fom,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: a former Trump administration official, was less pessimistic about the
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: use of military force, but said a precondition should be
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: re establishing trust with the governments of Mali and Niger
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: ahead of secure cooperation efforts. While we may have very
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: limited direct, economic or other interests in these countries, we
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: do not want jee hottest like ISIS and al Qaeda
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: gaining a foothold there.
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: Thom said.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: Gorka has long made aggressive counter terrorism policies a cornerstone
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: of his ideology, but his impact on policy since the
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: start of Press Trump's second term has been modest, said
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: a US official, a source of relief for his critics
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: who object to his hardline approach and disappointment to his
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: suppoters in this bring. Gorka engaged in conversations about becoming
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: Trump's next director of the National Counter Tourism Center following
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: the resignation of Joe Kent, who left the administration embittered
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: by the president's decision to start the war in Iran,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: but those discussions had not materialized into a nomination for Gorka.
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: Current and former US officials said that Gorka had been
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: deeply involved with talks about how to bring home write A,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: the captured missionary. One key aim of the administration last
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: year was to get overflight rights in Mali, a former
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: official said, so that US officials could fly airplanes and
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: other surveillance technology of a millennium skies to better track
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: his movements. That desire for overflight rights was behind the
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: administration's decision to lift sanctions on keihunta members, including Defense
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: Minister Sadi O Kama, who was a key proponent of
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: Russian intervention in Mali and was killed in the jay
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: and i Am attack on April twenty fifth. Gorka, current
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: and FORMA officials say also was invested in an effort
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: to kill Abu Abbayada USF l Annabi, a leader in
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: an Algeria based Al Qaeda affiliate that has been has
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: seen its influence when in recent years. Although American officials
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: were hopeful less some of the US intelligence had been
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: used in a Malayan strike to take out Ala Nabi,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: as The Post previously reported, his death was never confirmed. Corindivka,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: an independent expert on the Shalil, said there is a
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: risk that any US strikes could lead j and i
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: AM to target the US or Americans in the region,
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: which it has not done so far, or to push
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: the group closer to the main Al Qaeda organization, from
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: which it has grown more autonomous in recent years. If
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: the US helps Millennium authorities kill J and i AM authorities,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: it would backfire, Duffka said, adding and they could be
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: squandering an opportunity to deradicalize and demobilize one of the
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: world's most sophisticated jie hottist organizations. Republicans block's bill to
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: halt retrofit of Katari gifted Air Force One. Democrats had
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: been trying to stop the Pentagon from spending more money
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: on the luxury jet, which they call an illegal gift
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: by Theodoric Man. A Republican senator blocked a Democratic bill
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: Wednesday that would bar the Defense Department from spending more
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: money to retrofit a luxury jet given to the United
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: States by the government of Katar. President Donald Trump ordered
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: the plane, Aboeing seven forty seven eight hundred worth of
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: four hundred million dollars and had it modified to serve
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: as the new Air Force One, despite ethical and national
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: security concerns. He started flying on it this month, using
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: it to travel to the NATO summit in Turkey, but
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: he left Ankra on an older jet. Trump has said
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: that security concerns did not prompt the decision to switch planes,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: and the White House has said it is safe still.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: Trump said Wednesday that it would undergo additional modifications. It
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: has a lot of capability, but as I understand it,
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: in about a month or so, they're going to send
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: it to have it to be Max Dape, Trump said.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: Democrats strongly criticized the deal that the administration struck to
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: accept the jet last year, and unsuccessfully tried to pass
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: legislation to block the Pentagon from spending money to retrofit it.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New New York,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: tried again Wednesday to bypass the usual legislative process and
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: passed the bill by unanimous consent, arguing that the jet
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: lacks the security features that other presidential planes boast. If
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: you thought this was an illegal gift was If you
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: thought this illegal gift was bad before, it's even worse now,
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: Schumers said on the Senate floor. Senator deb Fisher, Republic
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: of Nebraska blocked Schumer's attempt to pass the bill, accusing
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: Schima of making a political point. She argued that the bill,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: which bars the Defense Department from procuring, modifying, or maintaining
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: aircraft previously owned by foreign government, but also apply to
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: plane's purchase from Korea and air meant to transport the
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: president in the event of a nuclear attack. Fisher said
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: on the Senate floor, this legislation would hamper a crucial
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: program that insures presidential safety in the event of a
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: nuclear wall. Thus, Senator Schumer's bill would significantly harm air
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: United States' nuclear deterrence.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: Don't have much time.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: Modeling agent who introduced women to Jeffrey Epstein found dead
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: in France for ruffli a decade Danielle said responded corresponded
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: with Epstein abate young women and teenage girls. According to
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: emails that were released by the Justice Department by Amy B. Wang,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: Amy Britton and Sammy Westfald, a modeling agent who introduced
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: young women and teenage girls to sex offended Jeffrey Epstein,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: was found dead at his home near Paris this week.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: For inter official said the body of Daniels Said sixty nine,
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: was discovered Monday at his home in Columbus, a suburb
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: of Paris. Maurice Celine Larzuski, Deputy public prosecutor at the
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: Tire Judicial Court, said in a statement Wednesday. She said
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: an investigation was opened that evening into the cause of death.
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: For roughly a decade, Said corresponded with Epstein debate young
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: women and teenage girls, sometimes describing them by their ages
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: and nationalities, and then offering to Epstein photos. According to
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: emails that were included in the expanse of Epstein files
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: released by the Justice Department, and in two thousand and nine,
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: email Said described a woman for Latvia who was five
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: feet eight inches tall. She is twenty years old, but
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: she looks younger, Saed wrote to Epstein. In twenty fourteen,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: email Say discussed a fifteen year old French girl whose
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: parents were excited for her to start mardeling. He also
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: mentioned sixteen and seventeen year olds this business. I feel
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: like a fisherman. Sometime I catch quick, sometimes no fish,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: said wrote to Epstein. In the same interview, Sad said
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: he regretted meeting Epstein. Yes, I feel it's like a nightmare,
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: said told the network he was such a powerful person
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: and how can I not trust him? The expanse of
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: Epstein files released by the Justice Department exposed the financier's
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: relationship with high profile and powerful associates, leading to castcating
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: resignations and public shaming.
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: And with that I.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: Conclude today's reading of The Washington Post for Thursday, July
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: twenty third of twenty twenty six. I'll be back on
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: Saturday and the following Thursday, and then I retire.
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: Bye.