Transcript

3.25.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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March twenty fifth, twenty twenty five. As a reminder, Radio
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I is a reading service intended for people who are
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blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
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read printed material. Your reader for to day is Cindy Fraser.
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Today's front page headlines from The Washington Post are officials
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discussed military planning and unclassified chat editor accidentally added to
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text chain. Democrats decry use of unsecured messaging app. Next
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doge struggling to turn up social security fraud must claim
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of massive wasted agency are at odds with audits reports.
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Our next headline. US cuts in Africa leave opening for
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rival powers Russia and China, likely to increase its strategic ties,
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if not humanitarian aid. Next headline, OZ may face conflict
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over benefits company firm he has ties to could profit
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from his leadership of agency experts, say our next headline.
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A year ago, he drove over Baltimore's Key Bridge. Minutes
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later it collapsed. Larry De Sante's truck was one of
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the last to cross the span before the Dolly container
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ship struck it. Our final headline from today's front page
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Democrats appear open to pipeline they opposed. Rising energy costs
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drive support for Trump plan on Northeast gas project. Now,
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let's turn to our first story, entitled Officials discussed military
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planning in unclassified chat editor accidentally added to text chain.
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Democrats decry use of unsecured messaging app by Dan Lemouf,
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Michael Bernbaum, Migail House, Lowanner, Warren P. Stroebel, and Ellen Nakashima.
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Top officials in the Trump administration discussed highly sensitive military
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planning using an unclassified chat application that mistakenly included a journalist.
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The White House acknowledged Monday, a development that swiftly drew
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criticism from Democrats and Washington's national security establishment. Brian Hughes,
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a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said
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the message thread revealed in an extraordinary report by Atlantic's
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editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, appears to be authentic and
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that administration officials were reviewing how an inadvertent number was
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added to the chain. The inadvertent number belonged to Goldberg,
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whose article details a robust policy discussion that occurred in
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the lead up to a March fifteenth military operation targeting
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Yemen's Houthy militants. Goldberg reported being added to the group chat,
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which occurred on the encrypted messaging platform Signal by President
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Donald Trump's national security advisor, Michael Waltz. Other participants appear
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to include Vice President j d Vance, Secretary of State
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Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseeth, Director of National Intelligence
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Tulcy Gabbert, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and several other senior aides.
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The Atlantic article says Hughes, the national security spokesman, characterized
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the discussion as a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful
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policy coordination between senior officials executing Trump's national security strategy.
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But the disclosure immediately raised questions about how the administration
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has discussed classified national security matters and whether anyone will
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be disciplined. Senior Trump administration officials have warned in recent
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days that they will investigate unauthorized leaks to journalists, citing
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reporting in a number of publications. Several of them also
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for years criticized the handling of classified information by Democrats
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in other cases, Trump, who did not appear to be
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included in the group chat, distanced himself from the Ambrolio
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saying after the article's publication, I don't know anything about it,
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and I'm not a big fan of The Atlantic. Goldberg
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invoked Trump's ire during the president's first term in office,
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when the publication reported in twenty twenty that he had
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privately disparaged U S service members who died in war time. Hexath,
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who according to The Atlantic's report, disclosed to the group,
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how the Yemen strike would take shape before it occurred,
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forcefully denied any wrongdoing and attacked Goldberg in personal terms,
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calling him a deceitful journalist who pedals and garbage. Nobody
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was texting war plans, Hexath told reporters after landing in
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Hawaii late Monday, and that's all I have to say
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about that. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce dismissed questions about
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the group chat. I have two very short things to
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say to you. First is that we will not comment
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on the Secretary's deliberative conversations, and secondly that you should
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contact the White House, she told reporters at the State Department,
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the CIA, and the Office of the Director of National
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Intelligence did not respond to requests for comment. Monday's revelation
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was greeted by Democrats with exasperation and anger, with at
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least one lawmaker, Representative Benny G. Thompson from Mississippi, demanding
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an FBI investigation. The Justice Department declined to comment. If true,
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this story represents one of the most egregious failures of
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operational security and common sense that I have seen. Senator
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Jack Reid from Rhode Island, the Senate Armed Services Committee's
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top democrat, said in a statement, military operations need to
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be handled with the the utmost discretion, using approved secure
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lines of communication because American lives are on the line.
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The carelessness showed by President Trump's cabinet is stunning and dangerous.
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Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican from Louisiana, and other Republicans most
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loyal to Trump downplayed those claims, with a House leader
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asserting that the league showed top level officials doing their
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job and no one was jeopardized because of it. The
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administration had acknowledged it was a mistake, and they'll tighten
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up and make sure it doesn't happen again, Johnson added.
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GOP lawmakers with national security oversight responsibilities acknowledged being concerned
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about the Atlantic report, but said they would reserve judgment
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until more details became available. Goldberg reported that he received
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an invitation to connect on Signal on March eleventh for
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an account identified as belonging to WAD. Goldberg, who uses
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his initials j G on the messaging platform, wrote in
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his article that while he assumed it was a president's
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national security adviser, he also wondered whether the unsolicited outreach
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might be someone else pretending to be him. Two days later,
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Goldberg wrote he received a notification through Signal that he
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was to be included in a group chat titled Hohothy
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PC Small Group, an apparent reference to a Principals Committee
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meeting that typically includes Cabinet members and other senior national
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security officials. Several of the accounts appeared to designate subordinate
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as their representatives, including Andy Baker, Vance's national security advisor,
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and Dan Caldwell, a senior to Heseath. Vance, according to
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the Atlantic article, said in the group chat that he
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thought that Trump administration was making a mistake by launching
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what US military officials have since declared an open ended
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up operation against the Huthis. The Vice President noted that
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about three percent of US trade runs through the Suez Canal,
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where the Huthis have concentrated attacks on commercial shipping transiting
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the Red Sea, and that there is a real risk
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that the public doesn't understand this or why it's necessary. Hexeth,
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according to the Atlantic's report, responded a short time later
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that he understood Vance's concerns and fully supported the Vice
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President raising them with Trump. The event's secretary then added
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that messaging is going to be tough no matter what,
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because nobody knows who the Houthis are, and so those
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who will announce the operation should aim to convince the
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American public that one Biden failed and two Iran funded.
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Those were apparent references to the Biden administration not being
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able to stop hoothy attacks, which the militant group began
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in response to Israel's war in the Gaza Strip and
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Tehran's long standing backing of the group. Contrary to Vans,
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Hexth advocated taking actions soon, saying there was a risk
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the Trump administration's plans to attack could leak publicly, or
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that Israel could attack the militants first, leaving the administration
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unable to start this on our own terms. Goldberg recounted
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in his article as a plan to conduct an attack
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on the Hoothi's moved ahead. Hexath's shared details that Goldberg
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said he believed could put at risk the safety of U.
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S troops or intelligence officials, especially those deployed in the
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Middle East. Those details, the Atlantic article says, allegedly included
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the specific weapons to be used and in which sequence
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the Hoothy targets would be hit. Heseth, a National Guard
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veteran and former Fox News personality who has not previously
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held senior positions in government, has said repeatedly that he
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will bring accountability back to the Pentagon. Before joining the
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Trump administration, he skewered Justice Department officials in twenty twenty
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three for not doing more to scrutinize former President Joe
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Biden's handling of classified information, saying that if at the
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very top there is no accountability, there are two tiers
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of justice that exists. Signals encryption is quite strong, but
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the platform is not suitable for highly sensitive classified conversations
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for two reasons, said Matt Blaze, a professor of computer
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science and law at Georgetown University. First, he said Signal
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runs on fundamentally insecure devices smartphones and laptop computers attached
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to the Internet that may be subject to all sorts
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of attacks against the devices that have nothing to do
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with the security of the software. If the device is compromised,
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everything that uses the device is compromised. Blase said second
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Signal has a feature allowing stored messages to disappear after
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a specified time by the user from minutes two weeks.
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A foreign intelligence service or another skilled agency, should they
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obtain a phone involved in a sensitive conversation, may be
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able to access the stored messages. Blay said Signal does
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as much as it can to delete messages when disappearing
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messages expire, but it's still running on a fundamentally vulnerable platform.
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He said. The seriousness of the issue should not be dismissed,
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said Kevin Carroll, a lawyer who specializes in national security
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cases and previously worked as a CIA officer. Presuming the
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Trump officials did disclose and discuss classified material while weighing
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the Yemen operation, as the Atlantic articles suggest, the Signal
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group chat would appear to violate federal laws governing the
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handling of secret information. Carroll said, I have defended service
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members a queue whose de violating the espionagejack through gross
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negligence for far, far less. Carol said if these people
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were junior uniform personnel, they would be court martialed. Larry Phfiffer,
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a former senior CIA and NSA official, said top administration
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officials like those involved in the group chat have US
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government approved communications with them twenty four hours a day,
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even when traveling. Back in my time, it would have
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included secure phone, computer and video teleconference in the office
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and at home, said Pfiffer, who also was senior director
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of the White House Situation Room, and there was a
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travel kit that would be with them on the road
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and in the air. Among those who waited Monday was
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Hillary Clinton, whose use of an unclassified email server upended
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her presidential campaign against Trump in twenty sixteen. Sharing the
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story on social media, she said said, you have got
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to be kidding me. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat from Connecticut,
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a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged his
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Republican colleagues to treat the issue with the high degree
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of seriousness at warrants. He added, it seems so appallingly fundamental.
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I am searching for words to describe how staggering it is.
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Senator Mark R. Warner Virginia, The Senate Intelligence Committee's top Democrat,
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wrote on x that the Trump administration is playing fast
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and loose with our nation's most classified info, and it
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makes all Americans less safe. On Tuesday, the committee will
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hear testimony from at least two of the officials implicated
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in the signal link, Gabbard and Ratcliffe, who are scheduled
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to appear on Capitol Hill to offer their assessments of
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the top national security threats facing the United States. Expect
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this to come up and tomorrow's hearing. Her spokeswoman said.
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Reactions from Republicans were more muted, but some also voiced concerns.
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Senator Tom Cotton, Arkansas, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, declined
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to comment when asked whether he is concerned by the
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administration's apparent use of signal to communicate about military operations
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and whether Congress should investigate the matter. Representative Michael Lawler,
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Republican from New York, set on acts classified information should
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not be transmitted on unsecure channels, and certainly not to
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those without security clearances, including reporters. Period safeguards must be
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in place, he added, to ensure this never happens again.
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Marianna o'faro, Liz Goodwin, Missy Ryan, John Hudson, and Perry
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Stein contributed to this report. Our next item is entitled
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Doege struggling to turn up Social Security fraud claims of
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massive wasted agency or at odds with audits. Reports by
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Totsy Frankel and Hannah and Addison Elon Musk put a
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big target on the Social Security Administration in the first
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weeks of the Trump administration, claiming it is plagued by
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immense waste and promising audits to root out the extreme
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levels of fraud. President Donald Trump said during his Joint
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Address to Congress earlier this month that Musk's US Doze
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Service was already identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable
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fraud at the agency, But some of the biggest examples
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of allegedly wasteful spending held up by Musk and DOGE
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so far have been overblown or inaccurate. Musk's assertion that
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tens of millions of dead people over one hundred years
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old are receiving Social Security benefits was so off base
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that it had to be tamped down by the agency's
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acting head, who had been promoted because of his willingness
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to cooperate rate with DOGE, these individuals are not necessarily
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receiving benefits. Acting Social Security Commissioner Lee Duddock said Musk's
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intense focus on Social Security appears central to his promise
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to slash two trillion dollars from the federal budget. The
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agency distributes one point six trillion dollars in benefit payments
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each year, making up about twenty percent of all federal spending.
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Its sprawling side would appear to offer plenty of opportunities
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to root out waste and fraud for those who think
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such problems run rampant in government, But less than one
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percent of Social Security's payments in recent years were determined
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to be improper, often the result of an accidental oversight
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or change in benefit status, according to a report last
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year by the agency's Inspector General. That works out to
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about nine billion dollars a year, and more than two
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thirds in the mistaken payments were eventually closed. Another agency audit,
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which looked only at payments to retired workers, survivors, and
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people with disabilities, found fraud was listed as a cause
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behind just three percent of improper benefit payments. Despite the
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flood of money flowing through it. Social Security didn't make
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a twenty twenty four list by the Government Accountability Office,
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the legislative branch's non partisan watchdog, detailing the sixteen agencies
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with improper payment rates of at least ten percent. That
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report further found that eighty percent of all improper payments
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were due to just five government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid,
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but not Social Security. The wild claims they air making.
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I've never seen anything like this, Kathleen Romick, a former
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analyst and senior advisor at the agency, said of Doze
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and Musk. Social Security is among the most scrutinized and
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audited agencies in the government, with frequent probes by its
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five hundred person Office of Inspector General. It pays outside
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auditors to examine its books. Congress grills agency officials last year.
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A major focus in congressional hearings led by the GOP
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wasn't waste or fraud. It was about Social Security being
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too aggressive in clawing back accidental benefit over payments. Criminal
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investigators with Social Security's IG office typically investigate cases tied
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to disability, fraud, or covering up a relative's death that
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continue receiving benefits. The IG also monitors seemingly minor issues
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such as potential misuse of government credit cards. Last month,
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it reported that the risk for problems was low because
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of strict internal controls. It's extremely closely watched, said Nancy Altman,
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president of Social Security Works and advocacy group that seeks
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to expand coverage. When asked about the reams of audits
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and reports that appear to contradict Trump and Musk's assertion
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of rampant waste and fraud in Social Security, White House
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spokesman Harrison Fields said the cost cutting operation was being
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unfairly maligned. The continued attempts to so doubt in the
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massive accomplishments of this never before seen effort to make
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government more efficient speaks more about the illegitimacy of those
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peddling these falsehoods than the good work of doge. Field said.
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The American public are in lockstep with the President's mission
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and will not be swayed by more lies coming from
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the legacy media. Trump and Musk have latched on to
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the contention that extremely old Americans are supposedly getting Social
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Security benefits as a prime example of blatant fraud. In
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a speech to Congress early in March, Trump asked the
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Justice Department to investigate the spending at Social Security, going
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to find out where that money is going, and it's
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not going to be pretty, he said. He spends several
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minutes rattling off numbers from DOGE purporting to show that
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unbelievably old people are still collecting Social Security benefits, including
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one person listed at three hundred sixty years of age,
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more than one hundred years older than our country. Trump
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said to laughter on social media, musk allege that more
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than twenty million Americans over age one hundred receive Social
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Security checks, derisively describing it as a lot of vampires
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collecting Social Security. But those claims are not backed up
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by agency data. Officials said they show a misunderstanding of
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Social Securities databases. The agency has millions of people in
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its databases who lack recorded dates of death, the result
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of old computer systems and events that are decades in
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the past. That doesn't mean they are getting checks. Social
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Security auditors in twenty twenty three reported that ninety eight
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percent of those without recorded dates of death were not
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receiving agency benefits and were known to be deceased. Agency
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officials said it was costlier and riskier to update the
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records than to do nothing. Must claims of malfeasans, however,
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refuse to die. Last month, agency staff members again looked
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into the issue. They found one thousand, two hundred ninety
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four Americans older than one hundred who were receiving benefits
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from Social Security as of February nineteenth, According to internal
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agency records obtained by the Washington Post, workers contacted one thousand,
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one hundred seven of these centenarians as of last month.
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The record show finding that nine hundred five were alive
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and two hundred two were dead. That meant two hundred
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two dead people appeared to be improperly collecting benefits, not
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twenty million. Mark Worsharski, a former agency deputy and now
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senior fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute,
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was among the people quick to dismiss Doge's claims, but
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he also noted that updates to Social Security's death accounting
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could help with anti fraud efforts at other agencies that
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use its records. The uproar stoked by Doege over alleged
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dead beneficiaries cast new attention on problems previously highlighted in
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audits by the Social Security Inspector General's Office, which, as
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its website chose, is aimed at detecting waste, fraud and abuse.
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It was like Doge, We've been saying this the whole time,
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said Rebecca Rose, a spokeswoman for the Inspector General's Office.
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We've already put out that report. The degree of scrutiny
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by Social Securities ig can be intense. One report issued
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by the office earlier this month found that a partner
23:00
agency in Mississippi had incorrectly made a fourteen dollars payment
23:05
because of a data entry error. Social Securities Inspector General
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was fired in the first days of the Trump administration,
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along with top internal investigators at sixteen other government agencies.
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Although the office has continued to operate, it is expected
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to lose up to twenty percent of its staff because
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of budget cuts. Rose said already DOZE has canceled many
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contracts at Social Security, just as it has at many
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other federal agencies. A DOZE run website late last week
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listed fifty point three million dollars in cost savings from
23:41
these canceled agreements that included funding for a University of
23:45
Wisconsin at Madison Project to understand how to prevent imposter scams.
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Government imposter scams, most commonly pretending to be from the
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Social Security Office, resulted in estimated losses of at least
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five hundred seventy six seven million dollars last year, often
24:02
by conning seniors and his sharing personal data, according to
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the agency's IG office. When you cut resources like this,
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there's always room to make things more efficient, but you
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could also make things worse, said Cliff rob a University
24:18
of Wisconsin professor who has studied imposter scams. You could
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end up making fraud worse. Next is an article entitled
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US cuts in Africa leave opening for rival powers Russia
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and China likely to increase strategic ties, if not humanitarian aid,
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by Catherine Harald and Robin Dixon. President Donald Trump's withdrawal
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of tens of billions of dollars in US global spending
24:46
has rapidly diminished key elements of America's presence in Africa,
24:51
upending long standing programs, severing sensitive relationships, and leaving a
24:57
void that rival powers are keen to ext Floyd Washington's
25:02
vanishing largesse and declining influence could further imperil stability in
25:07
the region as governments turn increasingly to China and Russia.
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According to some analysts and former US officials, America's two
25:16
most powerful adversaries have been strengthening military and economic ties
25:21
across Africa in recent years and investing heavily in media
25:25
initiatives to counter Western narratives. You've heard over and over
25:31
again that nature abhors a vacuum. If we are not engaged,
25:35
some one else will be. General Philip Breedlow, a former
25:39
Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, told The Washington Post, there
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are lots of countries that have lots more nefarious goals
25:48
when they go out and engage. Secretary of State Marcarubio
25:53
announced this month that eighty three percent of programs administered
25:57
by the US Agency for International Development were being eliminated,
26:01
saying tens of billions of dollars had been sent in
26:04
ways it did not serve and in some cases even
26:07
harmed the core national interests of the United States. About
26:12
a quarter of USAID's budget was devoted to Africa. A
26:16
vast majority of the agency's employees have been recalled from
26:20
overseas and placed on administrative leave. Diplomatic staff at US
26:25
embassies and military personnel at American bases have so far
26:29
been unaffected by the cuts, though Trump's suspension of security
26:33
assistance to regional allies is already being felt from Somalia
26:37
to Benin. Envoys from Russia and China have already sought
26:42
to capitalize on the U S funding cuts. In the
26:45
Central African Republic, Russia House, a Kremlin backed cultural institution,
26:50
posted pictures last month of its director heading over boxes
26:54
of drugs for tuberculosis and HIV to top officials. Governments are
27:00
currently seeking ways to fill the gap created by the
27:03
uncertainty of US funding. Pierre Somps, the nation's health minister,
27:08
said in a televised interview, we hope that the Russian
27:11
government will consider doing more. Although the donation was minuscule
27:17
three months worth of treatment for one thousand people. The
27:20
images were widely shared online by accounts affiliated with Wagner,
27:25
the Russian military group that President Vladimir Putin has used
27:29
to expand Moscow's influence at gunpoint in some of Africa's
27:33
weakest states. Wagner fighters, often working at the behest of
27:37
repressive governments, have been accused in recent years of rape
27:41
and torture in the Central African Republic, carrying out mass
27:45
killings in Mali, and fueling Sudan's brutal civil war. Last month,
27:52
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakarova welcome Trump's cuts, calling
27:57
USAID a machine for interfering in international affairs. While China
28:04
has avoided mentioning the US by name, its regional emissaries
28:08
have been quick to underscore that Beijing is a permanent
28:12
and reliable partner. Billboard's proclaiming China Aid for Shared Future
28:18
have gone up in the capital of Malawi, while in Kenya,
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a top selling daily paper carried a front page interview
28:25
with the new Chinese ambassador. We mean what we say
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and we honor our commitments. Ambassador go Hayan was quoted
28:33
as saying the humanitarian gap. The United States is the
28:39
world's largest humanitarian donor, spending more than seventy billion dollars
28:43
annually and accounting for forty one percent of global aid
28:47
last year, but Washington allocates significantly less per capita than
28:53
most of its European allies, leaving few countries capable of
28:57
replacing America's foreign eight spending. White House officials have said
29:02
the cuts are aimed at curbing waste and abuse, and
29:05
that the money could be better spent at home. USAID
29:09
was developing countries all over the world, except our own.
29:13
Trump Aid Stephen Miller told Fox News last month, Washington's
29:18
pullback comes at a precarious moment. Global migration due to
29:23
conflict and climate disasters is at a record high, and
29:27
more than three hundred million people need humanitarian aid. According
29:31
to the United Nations, the entire Horn of Africa is
29:35
either at war or on their brink. For Rwanda's invasion
29:39
of mineral rich East Congo is sucking in neighboring nations.
29:44
Coups have swept across the volatile Sahel. Both Russia and
29:48
China have been expanding their influence across Africa, home to
29:52
vital raw materials, vast tracts of agricultural land, and a
29:56
booming population. China's foreign minister makes an annual tour of
30:01
the continent, and in twenty seventeen, Beijing established a naval
30:05
base in Djibouti that overlooks crucial red sea shipping lanes
30:10
just a stone's throw from a large American base. Russia
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heavily increased its African presence after Putin's annexation of Crimea
30:18
in twenty fourteen, to help counteract its international isolation, said
30:23
Kentance Rondeau, senior director at the Future front Line's think tank.
30:28
Moscow uses African goal to circumvent US and European sanctions,
30:33
and Wagner mercenaries have given the country a military foothold
30:38
extending from Libya to the Sahel. After the death of
30:42
Wagner chief Yegevni Progosen in twenty twenty three, Russia's Foreign
30:47
intelligence service has consolidated its footprint. Rondeau said, it's less
30:53
scattershot and a bit more programmatic and concentrated. She said,
30:57
yet neither Moscow nor Beijing is likely to meaningfully increase
31:01
its humanitarian role in Africa. Regional experts agreed. Russia typically
31:07
gives very little in foreign aid and almost nothing to
31:10
global organizations like the UN. Its International Agency for Sovereign Development,
31:16
the closest thing it has to USAID, was founded only
31:20
in twenty nineteen. The agency's budget and projects are not public,
31:26
and its head, Konstantin Melovyev, was sanctioned by the United
31:30
States in twenty twenty two for helping Russia skirt sanctions.
31:35
Last year, Moscow said it shipped two hundred thousand tons
31:38
of free grain to Africa, divided between Somalia, Zimbabwe, and
31:43
its most steadfast allies in the Central African Republic Mali, Bikino, Fasso,
31:49
and Eritrea. But unlike US donations, which come with costly
31:54
and cumbersome reporting requirements, there's been little visibility on what
31:59
happened to the Russia in Brain. Russia's Foreign ministry did
32:03
not respond to a request for comment. Beijing, for its part,
32:07
has been steadily ramping up its foreign spending for fifteen
32:10
years and founded the China International Development co Operation Agency
32:16
branded as China AID in twenty eighteen. America's withdrawal of
32:21
AID will give China bigger weight in a smaller space,
32:24
but it doesn't mean China can step in to fill
32:27
the void, Yun Sen, a Chinese foreign policy expert, wrote
32:31
for the Brookings Institution this month. Overall, China spent one
32:36
point three four trillion dollars on nearly eighteen thousand overseas
32:40
development projects between two thousand and twenty twenty one, according
32:45
to AID Data, a research lab that tracks the country's
32:48
global footprint. The U S dispersed one point two four
32:53
trillion dollars in foreign aid, including military assistance, between two
32:57
thousand one and twenty twenty three. The similar figures hide
33:02
a key difference. Most Chinese assistants comes in the form
33:06
of loans near market rates, whereas U S assistants comes
33:10
in a mixture of grants and loans well below market rates.
33:15
American aid also tends to target areas like health and education,
33:19
while China favors big infrastructure projects and expects a return
33:24
on its investment. Initially, China pretends to be a development partner,
33:29
but when going gets hard during debt distress, they say,
33:33
we're commercial lenders and we won't give debt relief, said
33:37
an international finance official, speaking on the condition of anonymity
33:41
to discuss sensitive matters. The Chinese government did not respond
33:45
to a request for comment. Seating the information space, there
33:50
are other ways of exerting influence, and Africa has quietly
33:54
become ground zero for an intensifying information war between Washington
33:59
and its adversaries. Kenya, the richest and most stable East
34:04
African country, is Washington's strongest regional ally. It also hosts
34:09
the continent's first Confucius Institute, a language school backed by
34:13
the Chinese state, and some Kenyan journalists are now being
34:17
trained by Beijing, mirroring US programs now cut by Trump.
34:22
China's thirteen year old television channel c g t N
34:26
has bureaus across Africa, complementing the state run Jinois News Agency,
34:32
which has more than seventy local correspondents bureaus in twenty
34:36
African countries, and content sharing agreements with a majority of
34:40
Africa's state news agencies. Senemika Umiji, a professor at the
34:45
University of Johannesburg who is writing a book on Chinese
34:49
media influence. Chinese media reporting on African realities is subservient
34:55
to the p r c's economic and political interests, Umiji said.
35:00
Russia has also expanded its media footprint, opening its first
35:05
African Sputnek broadcasting hub last month and Addis Ababa, near
35:09
the headquarters of the African Union, and entering into a
35:13
partnership with Ethiopia's state run media service. Moscow is stepping
35:19
up covert influence operations as well, fueling a nearly fourfold
35:24
increase since twenty twenty two in campaigns seeking to manipulate
35:28
African information systems, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies said
35:33
last year, triggering destabilizing and anti democratic consequences. The Kremlin
35:40
was a top culprit the center found, sponsoring eighty disinformation
35:44
campaigns in more than twenty two countries. Russia is also
35:48
appealing to university students. In December, Saint Petersburg University announced
35:54
it had opened eleven Russian language centers across Africa that
35:59
pay special attacks to the promotion of traditional Russian spiritual
36:03
and moral values. The White House, meanwhile, has silenced government
36:08
funded media outlets abroad. Voice of America, the country's largest
36:13
and longest operating international broadcaster, was effectively shut down this month.
36:19
Founded in the nineteen forties to combat Nazi propaganda, VOA
36:24
reporting often had a leftist bias. Trump alleged in his
36:27
executive order, which also cut funding for its sister stations
36:32
Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. China's
36:37
Communist party newspaper, The Global Times, celebrated the shuttering of VOA,
36:43
which it has criticized repeatedly for its award winning work
36:46
on the country's human rights abuses. From Xinjiang to Hong Kong.
36:52
Almost every malicious falsehood about China has VOA's fingerprints all
36:56
over it, read a recent editorial. While beacon of freedom,
37:01
VOA has now been discarded by its own government like
37:05
a dirty rag democratic decline. For years, the US directed
37:11
funding to civil society groups in Africa that protected activists
37:15
and journalists, monitored elections, brokered peace deals, and tried to
37:20
hold authoritarian governments to account. Critics say the US often
37:25
failed to live up to its own values, propping up
37:29
repressive governments and offering military training and weapons to nations
37:33
whose forces have committed grave abuses, But at the grassroots level,
37:38
American funding was often a lifeline. Among those hit by
37:44
US cuts is the Agora Discourse, a Ugandan civil society
37:48
group that reports on illegal evictions, identifies torturers within the
37:53
security services, and documents corruption. A recent social mediavent hosted
37:58
by Agora with a white life of a jailed opposition leader,
38:01
drew thirty five thousand listeners. People knew the public's eyes
38:06
were on them, said Agatha Atuhiri, a lawyer and civil
38:10
rights activists who co founded the group, which received its
38:13
first U S grant of nearly a half million dollars.
38:16
Last year, we were seeing some progress, but we will
38:20
go back into a decline. Democracy promotion and civil society,
38:25
alongside LGBTQ plus and women's rights, are likely to be
38:30
the hardest hit by America's withdrawal, said Melissa Coney Tyler,
38:34
executive director of the Asia Pacific Development, Diplomacy and Defense Dialogue.
38:40
These are areas where China or Russia are very unlikely
38:44
to fill gaps. She added. There are other global powers
38:48
that are well positioned to seize on America's absence, including
38:51
the United Arab Emirates UAE and Turkey. In twenty twenty three,
38:57
the UAE spent one point five billion, according to a
39:01
government report, with over forty percent pre humanitarian purposes. But
39:07
for some projects, like direct support to governments, there is
39:10
a little public accounting and sometimes not everything is as
39:14
it seems. An Emirati hub and Chad, initially presented as
39:19
a field hospital for refugees, is a front for weapons
39:23
trafficking into war ravaged Sudan, said Justin Lynch, Managing director
39:27
of Conflict Insights Group, an analytics organization that tracked some
39:32
of the shipments. The AUAYE has denied the allegations first
39:36
reported by The New York Times. Turkey is also projecting
39:40
power in the Red Sea region. It has built its
39:43
largest foreign military base in the Somali capital of Mogadishu
39:48
and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to build a
39:51
new commercial center in Kenya. Well connected Turkish defense companies
39:55
have also covertly armed the Sudanese military bick, Russia, and China.
40:01
Analysts say Turkey and the UAE are driven by real politic,
40:06
rarely linking aid to transparency, good governance, or human rights.
40:11
James Gilmour, formerly the chair of the Republican National Committee,
40:15
said many US funded projects needed to be reviewed and
40:19
those that don't promote American national securities should be canceled.
40:23
But many of these projects are soft power for the
40:26
United States, he said, if we abandoned the field to
40:30
authoritarian countries, the next century could be a very dark place.
40:36
Dixon reported from Riga, Latvia. Kate Kiddell and Sarah Callen
40:40
in Washington, and Mary Ilyyushina in Berlin contribute to this report.
40:47
Next is an article entitled oz may face conflict over
40:51
benefits company firm he has ties to could profit from
40:55
his leadership of agency, Experts say by Lauren Weber and
40:59
Kate than Gilbert them at Oz, the nominee to run
41:03
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, co founded health
41:07
benefits company zoro Rx with his son last year. According
41:11
to now hidden source code and a blog post on
41:14
the company's website, zoro Rx and similar companies promised to
41:20
make hospitals money and save employers cash by connecting patients
41:24
to the federal three forty B drug pricing program. That
41:28
program is designed to help hospitals get a deal on
41:31
prescription drugs, with a government intention that profits could be
41:35
passed on to patients in underserved and under insured communities.
41:40
But as use of the government drug pricing program has exploded,
41:44
health care analysts say the unregulated system has driven up
41:48
health care costs and is not helping vulnerable patients, all
41:52
while allowing companies such as zoro Rx to thrive. As
41:57
head of CMS, Oz would lead an agency that could
42:01
directly influence how much money hospitals and in turn, companies
42:06
like zoro rx make from the federal system. Ethics experts, lawyers,
42:11
and health care analysts say his ties to a health
42:14
benefits company that could profit off the federal drug program
42:18
entangle him in a potential conflict of interest because of
42:23
his son's affiliation with his entity. You wouldn't want hospitals
42:26
to relying on the name of Memon Oz or his
42:29
son to think somehow they wouldn't be held accountable by Oz,
42:33
said Virginia Canter, chief counsel for the State Democracy Defender's Fund,
42:37
a watchdog group. I am concerned about the use of
42:40
public office for private gang. Oz did not disclose his
42:45
involvement with Zoro Rx in his financial forms submitted to
42:48
the Office of Government Ethics. The former daytime television star's
42:53
current status with the company is unclear as he faces
42:56
a Senate panel vote to advance his nomination Tuesday. While
43:01
co founder is not a required title for disclosure under
43:04
the Ethics Code, the spirit of the law requires nominees
43:07
to share anything that could reasonably affect their judgment in
43:11
areas they would intersect, said Kathleen Clark, a law professor
43:15
at the Washington University in Saint Louis School of Law
43:19
who focuses on government ethics. OZ should not touch anything
43:24
having to do with this because no one would believe
43:27
it would be impartial. Clark said it is unclear how
43:31
OZ would handle interactions with a three forty B program
43:34
if confirmed, but in the last Trump administration c MS
43:38
tried to reduce Medicare payments to hospitals that used the program.
43:42
It argued that the government program was overpaying health care
43:46
providers for services because hospitals were getting a discount through
43:50
the program. The Supreme Court ruled against the administration's efforts.
43:55
The White House and an OZ spokesperson who did not
43:58
answer questions about Oz's involvement with the company, said he
44:02
had followed ethics rules. Lawmakers at Oz's Senate confirmation hearing
44:07
questioned him about other potential conflicts of interests he has
44:10
had as someone who has been deeply involved in health
44:13
care for years. The Office of Government Ethics has conducted
44:17
a full review of doctor Oza's finances as part of
44:21
the regular vetting process to resolve any conflicts of interest,
44:25
and OGE has transmitted to the Senate a letter indicating
44:29
that any potential conflicts have been resolved, said OZ spokesman
44:32
Christopher Kreppitch. Oz's Senate disclosure letter also did not mention
44:38
his involvement with the company. According to a copy the
44:41
Washington Post obtained. All Trump administration nominees and officials will
44:46
abide by ethics laws, said cush To Sigh, a White
44:50
House spokesman. Over the past decade, health care and government watchdogs,
44:56
as well as pharmaceutical companies, have raised alarm over what
44:59
they done as abuse of the three forty B program,
45:03
which is now the second largest federal drug program, by
45:07
filing lawsuits, issuing reports from state governments and the Government
45:11
Accountability Office, and releasing studies of spending in the program.
45:16
They argue hospitals are exploiting the federal government program to
45:20
increase their profits and are not always investing those profits
45:24
into poor communities. Many health benefit companies leveraging the three
45:29
forty B system are operating in a way that is
45:32
clearly an abuse of this program, said Sean Greminger, president
45:36
and CEO of the Avanzy Group, national alliance of healthcare
45:40
Purchaser Coalitions, which works on behalf of employers who buy
45:43
health insurance. Such companies act as intermediaries, turbocharging the number
45:49
of three forty B patients to benefit hospitals and companies
45:53
instead of following the original purpose of the law. Greminger
45:56
said At some point federal policy leaders are going to
46:01
catch up to it and say this isn't allowed. He said,
46:04
there is an enormous conflict of interests. Three forty B explosion.
46:10
The three forty B program was created in the nineteen
46:13
nineties to give medical providers that serve poorer communities a
46:17
deal on prescription drugs, allowing hospitals or clinics to buy
46:21
them at much lower prices. Healthcare analysts, lawyers, and an
46:25
academic set. Hospitals or clinics then pocket the difference between
46:30
that initial purchase price and what they charge patients and insurers.
46:35
Some hospitals and clinics say the three forty B program
46:38
is critical for keeping their doors open, especially in rural
46:42
and underserved areas, and that they use the savings as
46:46
The program was intended to provide free care for uninsured patients, vaccines,
46:52
and other community health programs, but the Affordable Care Act's
46:56
Medicaid expansion helped vastly expand the number of hospitals that
47:01
qualify for the three forty B program while decreasing the
47:05
number of vulnerable patients it is supposed to help. According
47:08
to a study by Healthcare Information and Consulting company ACBA.
47:13
That means more than half of America's non profit hospitals
47:17
benefit from what was originally intended for a small number
47:21
of Safety Net hospitals and clinics. Federal law doesn't require
47:25
hospitals to lay out how they invest three forty B
47:28
savings into poorer communities or to report where the money goes.
47:33
The result, according to studies and healthcare analysts, is a
47:37
system that could be costing taxpayers and patients without improving
47:41
care to poor or uninsured patients as intended. Self insured
47:46
employers and workers are paying more than five billion dollars
47:50
in additional drug costs annually because of the three forty
47:53
B program, estimated another IQBA study, as a program's discounts
47:59
displaced manufacture rebates used to lower drug costs. Another study
48:04
published in the Health Services Research Journal found that when
48:07
some hospitals participated in the three forty B program, overall
48:12
charity care did not substantially increase. State governments are noting
48:17
the higher costs for taxpayers. North Carolina's treasurer found last
48:21
year that North Carolina hospitals used the Safety Net three
48:25
forty B drug pricing program to overcharge cancer patients. State
48:30
employees and taxpayers for oncology drugs. They are also stepping in.
48:36
New York, State took over the Medicaid prescription drug program
48:39
locally to save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Maine, Minnesota,
48:45
and Washington passed laws requiring annual reports from three forty
48:49
B entities. The three forty B program growth opened the
48:53
door for health benefits companies such as zoro Rx. Health
48:57
Care analysts told the Posts companies will make money off
49:01
the three forty B program By connecting patients insured by
49:05
their employer to three forty B hospitals, the hospital gets
49:09
more three forty B revenue. Employers often get discounts, and
49:13
companies such as zoro Rx typically take a fee along
49:17
the way from the three forty B hospitals. Health Care
49:20
analysts said this type of cottage industry growing up around
49:25
the three forty B program wasn't even contemplated when the
49:28
program came into existence almost over three decades ago, said
49:32
Ashley Flint, a senior analyst focused on health pricing at Avalaire,
49:37
a health care consulting firm. Zoro Rx promises three forty
49:41
B hospitals that it can drive. Previously unseen revenue to
49:45
your hospital, creating substantial free cash flow to support your
49:49
mission and community impact, and drive an average of eight
49:54
thousand dollars in free cash flow annually per patient through
49:57
your pharmacy. The process looked frictionless to the average consumer.
50:02
Patients sign up with their employer's insurance and participate in
50:06
a telehealth appointment, according to zoro rx's website. Afterward, patients
50:11
get medications with zero dollar copas mailed to them through
50:15
the three forty B hospital connected through zoro Rx. The
50:19
employer saves money because a company negotiates lower drug prices,
50:24
while companies such as zoro rx typically take a fee
50:27
from the three forty B hospitals. Using telemedicine widens another
50:32
patients by attracting customers who typically would not be connected
50:36
to a three forty B hospital for obvious reasons. Three
50:41
forty B hospitals are prohibited by law from reselling or
50:45
dispensing the drugs they get at deep manufactured discounts to
50:49
people who are not actual patients of the hospital, said
50:53
John D. Shackau, a partner a King and Spaulding focused
50:57
on drug pricing, who represents biopharmaceutic manufacturers on three forty
51:02
B issues. Arrangements that generate three forty B quote patients
51:07
where the care for those individuals is not substantially provided
51:11
by the hospital itself, need to be carefully scrutinized to
51:15
ensure the integrity and sustainability of the three forty B program.
51:21
Zoro oz and Reform. Zoro Rx is not alone. It
51:27
is one of at least a dozen or so of
51:29
such companies that have entered this space of using software
51:32
to maximize profits from the three forty B program over
51:36
the past few years. Healthcare analysts told the Post. Zero
51:40
rx itself is a relatively new, smaller player, making it
51:45
hard to ascertain its potential profits. Similar larger companies could
51:50
bring in tens of millions of dollars. Zero Rx appears
51:54
to have gone through a few iterations upon review of its
51:57
web page. While the zoro rx about us page lit
52:02
Jacob Brody and Oz's son Oliver as co founders, the
52:05
source code for the page includes a third founder, Oz himself.
52:10
The co founder link was first reported by industry publication
52:13
three forty B Report and verified by the Post. The
52:18
content is hidden from the visible page, but includes a
52:21
photo of Oz his title as co founder and describes
52:25
him as a renowned media personality, entrepreneur and cardiothoracic surgeon,
52:31
and a co founder of share Care, a digital health
52:34
and employee benefits company. In a November blog post linked
52:39
on the site, Brodie wrote a huge congrats to our
52:43
co founder, doctor Memmot Oz on an appointment to run CMS.
52:48
At one point in a pitch deck to investors, Oz
52:51
was also listed as chief strategy officer. According to a
52:54
three forty b report Zero RX, Brody and Oliver did
53:00
not return repeated requests for comment, said through multiple calls
53:04
and messages connected to personal and professional telephone numbers and emails.
53:09
When asked by a Post reporter whether he had a
53:11
comment at his father's Senate confirmation hearing, Oliver Oz did
53:15
not respond. On social media, an empty Instagram account was
53:20
created in April twenty twenty three with a username at
53:24
Zoro Underscore RX, and it follows just one account, doctor Oz.
53:30
The company, which lists an office on Madison Avenue, New York,
53:34
describes Brody as a serial entrepreneur, while saying in Oliver
53:39
Oz's biography, as a medical student, Oliver became obsessed with
53:43
the under utilization of three forty B pharmacy. The company
53:48
joins others that have hopped in this space after a
53:51
healthcare provider successfully sued the Health Resources and Services Administration,
53:56
which regulates three forty B, after the agency attempted to
54:00
curtail and expanded use of the three forty B program.
54:04
On X last month, Brodie railed against quote fat cats
54:09
at larger hospital systems who are accessing the three forty
54:13
B program for financial gain. While there has been some
54:17
congressional interest in examining the three forty B program, it's
54:22
unclear what oz's connection to it could mean for future reform.
54:25
Grumminger said zero RX is seeking to make a lot
54:30
of money on a loophole in an already broken program
54:33
that was originally designed to help a small amount of
54:36
safety net institutions. He said, Our next article is entitled
54:42
A year ago. He drove over Baltimore's Key Bridge. Minutes
54:46
later it collapsed. Larry de Santa's truck was one of
54:51
the last across the span before the Dolly container ship
54:54
struck it. By Michael Laris, Larry DeSantis needed to get
54:58
to a second job. That's what he was thinking as
55:01
he drove toward Baltimore's Francis sky Key Bridge a year
55:04
ago on March twenty sixth, in his gray Toyota pick up.
55:09
His shift in the bakery at the Green Valley Grocery
55:11
Store where he makes the marshmallowdonnas and saradough rolls, had
55:15
ended at one a m. And he was scheduled to
55:17
start at Hermann's Bakery and Dundalac at one forty five
55:20
a m. He stopped in the parking lot to chat
55:23
with a colleague for a few minutes time that seemed
55:26
insignificant then but would later matter. He then drove the
55:31
familiar route towards the Petapsco River, where he used to
55:35
troll for rock fish. When he got to the bridge,
55:38
he noticed a massive container ship in the water below,
55:41
but saw it as part of the studding panorama he'd
55:44
come to expect on his commute. As di Entans drove
55:48
over the bridge, he slowed down in deference to the
55:51
construction crew he had gotten used to seeing. Only later
55:54
would he realize that minutes separated his fate from theirs.
56:00
His truck was one of the last vehicles to cross
56:02
the bridge before the Dolly container ship lost power veered
56:06
off course and rammed into a pier, causing the structure
56:11
to collapse. Six contruction workers on the bridge were killed
56:15
and would take weeks for divers to recover all of
56:18
their bodies. It would take a month more for the
56:21
channel leading to the Port of Baltimore to be fully reopened.
56:25
Wednesday marks the first anniversary of a calamity that still
56:29
leaves raw feelings in the working class neighborhoods near by,
56:33
for the bridge's absence is felt most strongly and among
56:36
the drivers who once used it daily. The National Transportation
56:40
Safety Board last week said the Maryland Transportation Authority, which
56:44
owned and operated Key Bridge, failed to analyze the risk
56:48
that the bridge could collapse after being hit by a
56:50
ship or take steps to reduce the chance that such
56:54
a disaster might occur. It also urged the Authority and
56:58
other agencies nationwide to analyze a risk that sixty eight
57:02
other bridges faced from ocean going ships. The replacement bridge,
57:07
which officials hoped to build and open by late twenty
57:10
twenty eight, is designed with islands and other protections against
57:14
airn ships. According to Maryland and federal officials, that night
57:19
a year ago, DeSantis did not hear the bridge come
57:22
crashing down, and wasn't aware of the extent of the
57:26
damage behind him for more than an hour. When he
57:29
pulled off the highway and had short a stop light
57:32
a grocery store, Collie called to check on him. She
57:35
told him the bridge had been struck. Dissantis assumed the
57:39
damage was minor. He had noticed the usual flow of
57:42
truck traffic had dried up, which fell off, but he
57:45
didn't know what to make of it. He needed to
57:48
get to work mixing and baking strawberry shortcakes and layer
57:51
cakes and care cakes and Devils somooth cakes, so he
57:56
kept driving. D Santos was in the back of herman's
57:59
bay when a colleague came in at three a m.
58:03
She told him how relieved she was to see his
58:05
truck outside. Why, DeSantis asked her. He pulled out his
58:11
phone and finally saw a video of the bridge crumpling
58:14
into the Federal shipping channel. Due to time constraints, we
58:18
will not be able to complete this article at this time.
58:21
This concludes a reading of the Washington Post for to Day, Tuesday,
58:25
March twenty fifth, twenty twenty five. Your reader for to
58:29
Day has been Cindy Fraser. If you have any questions, comments,
58:33
or suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call
58:36
us at eight five nine four two two six three
58:39
nine zero. Thank you for listening, and now stay tuned
58:43
for continued programming on Radio I