Transcript

10.29.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Thursday,
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Speaker 1: October 29th, 2026. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
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Speaker 1: reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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Speaker 1: other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Speaker 1: Your reader for today is Roger Hampirian. Today's front page
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Speaker 1: headlines from the Washington Post are as follows. The seven
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Speaker 1: races that will decide Senate controls. Scores perish in Spain
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Speaker 1: train wreck. Workers' champ coined the slogan, Si se puede.
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Speaker 1: Dartmouth provost resigns over use of AI. Bolsonaro in Miami
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Speaker 1: declares himself the leader of Brazil. Record Arab vote in Israel.
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Speaker 1: Nearly 200 non-citizens accused of voter fraud. The first article
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Speaker 1: from the front page of today's edition is titled, The
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Speaker 1: Seven Races That Will Decide Control of the Senate. Polls
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Speaker 1: show tight races in a handful of states, making it
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Speaker 1: harder to tell whether Democrats or Republicans will prevail next week.
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Speaker 1: By Theodoric Meyer and Clara Auerbach. Less than a week
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Speaker 1: before the midterm elections, Democrats are heavily favored to retake
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Speaker 1: the House, but the fight for the Senate is much tighter.
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Speaker 1: Democrats and Republicans expect Senate control to be determined by
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Speaker 1: a handful of states where polls show close races, making
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Speaker 1: it difficult to tell which party will prevail next week.
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Speaker 1: Democrats need to pick up four seats to retake the Senate.
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Speaker 1: The party has a clear lead in just one Republican-led state,
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Speaker 1: North Carolina, where former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper is favored
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Speaker 1: to defeat Michael Whatley, a Republican, in the race for
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Speaker 1: an open Senate seat. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates
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Speaker 1: Senate races in seven other states as toss-ups that could
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Speaker 1: go either way, with enormous implications for President Donald Trump's
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Speaker 1: last two years in office. If Democrats win all seven races,
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Speaker 1: along with the ones in which they are favored, they
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Speaker 1: would secure their largest Senate majority since the Obama administration.
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Speaker 1: If Republicans win all seven races, they would maintain their
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Speaker 1: current 53 to 47 majority in the Senate, picking up
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Speaker 1: a Democratic-held seat in Michigan to offset a loss in
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Speaker 1: North Carolina. The battle is being fought largely on Republican terrain.
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Speaker 1: Trump won six of the seven states in 2024, five
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Speaker 1: of them by double-digit margins. Republicans are outspending Democrats in
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Speaker 1: most of the races, with especially significant advantages in Texas
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Speaker 1: and Ohio. But Democrats hold narrow leads in all seven
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Speaker 1: toss-up races, according to Washington Post averages of recent high-quality
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Speaker 1: polls in each state, though most of them are within
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Speaker 1: the margin of error. The toss-up races do not include
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Speaker 1: New Hampshire, an open seat that Republicans are targeting, but
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Speaker 1: where Democratic Representative Chris Pappas has led in polls, or Georgia,
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Speaker 1: where Democratic Senator John Ossoff is favored to defeat Republican
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Speaker 1: Representative Mike Collins. Here are more details on the seven
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Speaker 1: toss-up races. Alaska. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of
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Speaker 1: New York, persuaded former Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola to run,
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Speaker 1: describing her recruitment in January as the last piece of
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Speaker 1: the puzzle to put Democrats in a position to retake
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Speaker 1: the Senate. Peltola is challenging Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, who
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Speaker 1: is seeking a third term in a state hit hard
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Speaker 1: by rising diesel prices from the war with Iran and
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Speaker 1: other cost-of-living challenges. The race was scrambled in May by
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Speaker 1: the entry of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher
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Speaker 1: from Petersburg, Alaska, who will appear on the ballot under
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Speaker 1: the state's unique top-four electoral system. Republicans have accused the
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Speaker 1: second Sullivan of trying to confuse voters and help Peltola
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Speaker 1: in the tight race, which he has denied. The Justice
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Speaker 1: Department filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block certification
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Speaker 1: of the results if the senator loses, which Democrats promised
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Speaker 1: to fight. The New York Times reported Wednesday that Peltola's
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Speaker 1: team and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee worked with an
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Speaker 1: operative who recruited the second Sullivan to run, an effort
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Speaker 1: that Trump described as an attempt to defraud, confuse, and
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Speaker 1: obfuscate the election. The DSCC and Paltolo's campaign denied any involvement.
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Speaker 1: Last time it elected a Democratic senator, 2008. Presidential margin
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Speaker 1: in 2024, Trump won by 13 percentage points. Spending advantage,
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Speaker 1: Republicans are set to spend $ 9. 5 million more than Democrats
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Speaker 1: between Labor Day and Election Day, according to Ad Impact.
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Speaker 1: Polling average, Democrats lead by five points. Iowa. Republican Representative
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Speaker 1: Ashley Hinson is facing Democratic State Representative Josh Turek in
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Speaker 1: the race for an open Senate seat in Iowa, which
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Speaker 1: President Barack Obama carried twice, but which has turned redder
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Speaker 1: in the Trump era. Both candidates are running on bipartisanship.
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Speaker 1: Hinson pledged in a debate to push back on Trump
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Speaker 1: when she thinks he is wrong. And Turek has run
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Speaker 1: ads touting how often he voted with Republicans in the
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Speaker 1: state legislature. But the race is hardly Iowa nice. Turek
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Speaker 1: has attacked Hinson for her family's growing net worth since
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Speaker 1: she was elected to Congress, while Hinson has criticized Turek
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Speaker 1: for missing votes in the legislature. Last time it elected
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Speaker 1: a Democratic senator, 2008. Presidential margin in 2024, Trump won
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Speaker 1: by 13 percentage points. Spending advantage. Democrats are set to
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Speaker 1: spend $ 12. 9 million more than Republicans between Labor Day and
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Speaker 1: Election Day, according to Ad Impact. Polling average. Democrats lead
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Speaker 1: by two points. Kansas. Neither party viewed the race in Kansas,
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Speaker 1: where no Democrat has won a Senate seat in nearly
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Speaker 1: a century, as competitive earlier this year. But polls show
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Speaker 1: Adam Hamilton, a Democrat running as a moderate, in a
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Speaker 1: close race against Republican Senator Roger Marshall. Republicans have accused Hamilton,
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Speaker 1: a Methodist pastor who leads the state's largest church, of
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Speaker 1: pretending to be a moderate, citing his past comments in
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Speaker 1: support of Black Lives Matter and for a path to
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Speaker 1: citizenship for undocumented immigrants. However, Hamilton's campaign has raised far
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Speaker 1: more money than Marshall's this year, Helping to make Kansas
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Speaker 1: one of two toss-up states in which Democrats are outspending
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Speaker 1: Republicans in the home stretch before Election Day. Last time
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Speaker 1: it elected a Democratic senator, 1932. Presidential margin in 2024,
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Speaker 1: Trump won by 16 percentage points. Spending advantage. Democrats are
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Speaker 1: set to spend $ 18. 3 million more than Republicans between Labor
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Speaker 1: Day and Election Day, according to Ad Impact. Polling average.
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Speaker 1: Democrats lead by one point. Maine. Democrats worked as hard
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Speaker 1: as they could to oust Republican Senator Susan Collins when
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Speaker 1: she was up for reelection in 2020, only for Collins
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Speaker 1: to win by nine points, even as Joe Biden carried
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Speaker 1: the state. Now Collins is seeking a sixth term and
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Speaker 1: Democrats are trying again to defeat the only Republican Senator
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Speaker 1: who represents a state that Harris carried in 2024. Schumer
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Speaker 1: recruited Democratic Governor Janet Mills to challenge Collins, but she
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Speaker 1: suspended her campaign ahead of the primary after running out
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Speaker 1: of money. Graham Platner, a Marine Corps veteran and oysterman
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Speaker 1: with strong grassroots appeal, won the nomination but dropped out
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Speaker 1: in July after he was accused of sexual assault, which
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Speaker 1: he denied. Democrats united around a new nominee, Troy Jackson,
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Speaker 1: a progressive former state Senate president who polls show is
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Speaker 1: in a close race with Collins. but it is hard
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Speaker 1: for either party to truly trust polling in the state
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Speaker 1: after polls underestimated Collins in 2020. Last time it elected
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Speaker 1: a Democratic senator, 1988, although Senator Angus King, an independent
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Speaker 1: who caucuses with Democrats, won Senate races there in 2012, 2018,
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Speaker 1: and 2024. Presidential margin in 2020, Kamala Harris won by
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Speaker 1: seven percentage points. Spending advantage, Republicans are set to spend $ 11. 8
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Speaker 1: million more than Democrats between Labor Day and Election Day,
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Speaker 1: according to Add Impact. Polling average, Democrats lead by two points. Michigan.
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Speaker 1: Michigan is Republicans' best pickup opportunity this year. Abdul El-Sayed,
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Speaker 1: a former Wayne County public health official who won a
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Speaker 1: fractious Democratic primary in August, is facing former Republican Congressman
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Speaker 1: Mike Rogers. Some Democrats have refused to support El-Sayed, though,
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Speaker 1: over his strong criticism of Israel and his controversial comments
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Speaker 1: in the wake of an attack on a Michigan synagogue.
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Speaker 1: In polling, El-Sayed has underperformed Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic nominee
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Speaker 1: for governor, but he could still prevail in a state
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Speaker 1: that has not elected a Republican senator in decades. Democrats
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Speaker 1: feel slightly more confident about winning Michigan than the other
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Speaker 1: toss-up races, based on polling and early voting trends, according
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Speaker 1: to two Democratic strategists who spoke on the condition of
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Speaker 1: anonymity to speak candidly. Last time it elected a Republican senator, 1994.
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Speaker 1: Presidential margin in 2024. Trump won by one percentage point.
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Speaker 1: Spending advantage. Republicans are set to spend $ 23. 5 million more
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Speaker 1: than Democrats between Labor Day and Election Day, according to
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Speaker 1: Ad Impact. Polling average. Democrats lead by four points. Ohio.
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Speaker 1: Former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown spent 18 years in the
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Speaker 1: Senate before losing re-election in 2024 with Trump at the
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Speaker 1: top of the ballot. Brown is running again this year,
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Speaker 1: challenging Republican Senator John Husted, whom Ohio Governor Mike DeWine
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Speaker 1: appointed last year to fill Vice President J.D. Vance's Senate seat.
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Speaker 1: The race has become blisteringly expensive. More than $ 360 million
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Speaker 1: in ads are set to run between Labor Day and
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Speaker 1: Election Day, according to Ad Impact, more than any other
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Speaker 1: Senate race in the country. Brown has spent millions of
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Speaker 1: dollars on ads attacking Husted over his support for data centers,
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Speaker 1: which the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned in August could
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Speaker 1: cost Husted the race. Husted, meanwhile, has criticized Brown for
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Speaker 1: spending 50 years in elected office. Brown won a seat
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Speaker 1: in the State House in 1974. Last time it elected
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Speaker 1: a Democratic senator, 2018. Presidential margin in 2024, Trump won
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Speaker 1: by 11 points. Spending advantage. Republicans are set to spend
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Speaker 1: $ 71 million more than Democrats between Labor Day and Election Day,
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Speaker 1: according to Ad Impact. Polling average. Democrats lead by 4 points. Texas.
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Speaker 1: No Senate race has proved more frustrating to Republicans than Texas,
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Speaker 1: where Trump endorsed Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, over
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Speaker 1: Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary runoff, despite warnings
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Speaker 1: that it could cost his party the seat. Now Paxton
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Speaker 1: is locked in an expensive race with state representative James Tallarico,
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Speaker 1: who could become the first Democrat to win a Senate
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Speaker 1: race in Texas in decades. Republicans have an enormous spending
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Speaker 1: advantage in the state after Elon Musk gave $ 158 million
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Speaker 1: in September to a Republican super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund,
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Speaker 1: which transferred the same amount to a group aiding Paxton.
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Speaker 1: But the money did not arrive until Tallarico's campaign had
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Speaker 1: spent months airing ads, while Paxton's campaign was not on
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Speaker 1: the air. Tallarico has criticized Paxton for his indictment on
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Speaker 1: securities fraud charges and and for being impeached in 2023
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Speaker 1: by the Texas House of Representatives, among other scandals. A
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Speaker 1: judge dismissed the fraud case against Paxton after he completed
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Speaker 1: a pretrial diversion program without admitting guilt. Paxton was acquitted
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Speaker 1: by the State Senate after his impeachment. Paxton has lambasted
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Speaker 1: Tallarico for calling on Americans in the past to eat
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Speaker 1: less meat and emit fewer greenhouse gases to fight climate change. Oil, beef,
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Speaker 1: a way of life, One recent Paxton ad says, but
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Speaker 1: radical James Tallarico wants to set it ablaze. Last time
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Speaker 1: it elected a Democratic senator, 1988. Presidential margin in 2024,
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Speaker 1: Trump won by 14 percentage points. Spending advantage. Republicans are
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Speaker 1: set to spend $ 159. 1 million more than Democrats between Labor
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Speaker 1: Day and Election Day, according to Ad Impact. Polling average,
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Speaker 1: Democrats lead by three points. The next article from the
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Speaker 1: front page of today's edition is titled, At least 68
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Speaker 1: people killed when two trains crash in Spain. Dozens of
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Speaker 1: others were injured in the accident, Spain's second train disaster
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Speaker 1: this year, by Victoria Busset, Violet Hira, and Beatriz Rios.
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Speaker 1: Two trains crashed on a high-speed railway in central Spain.
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Speaker 1: killing at least 68 people and injuring dozens more, authorities
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Speaker 1: said Wednesday. The crash of the trains, one operated by
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Speaker 1: Spain's public rail operator, Renfe, and the other by the
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Speaker 1: private rail company, Erio, took place early Wednesday near Mora,
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Speaker 1: Orgaz and Erda, the country's railway infrastructure administrator, Adif, said.
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Speaker 1: All trains on the route had been stopped, it added.
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Speaker 1: Spain's transportation minister, Oscar Puente, said at a news conference
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Speaker 1: that the crash was caused by an inexplicable order from
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Speaker 1: a rail control center after a signal failure. The error,
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Speaker 1: which was caused by a computer issue, triggered an automatic
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Speaker 1: stop for all trains in the area, but the Renfe
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Speaker 1: train was authorized to continue its journey without any speed restrictions,
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Speaker 1: despite the Erio train having halted on the track ahead.
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Speaker 1: Puente said the train should not have been told to
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Speaker 1: start moving again or should have been instructed to proceed
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Speaker 1: at reduced speed. Spain is mourning today, Prime Minister Pedro
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Speaker 1: Sanchez said from the site of the accident, adding that
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Speaker 1: the priority was the victims and their families. He said
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Speaker 1: an investigation was underway. If there was wrongdoing, we will know,
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Speaker 1: he said. Esther Padilla, spokeswoman for the Castilla-La Mancha regional government,
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Speaker 1: told the public broadcaster RTVE earlier Wednesday that one of
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Speaker 1: the trains appeared to have stopped on the line between
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Speaker 1: Madrid and Seville on before the crash knocked some carriages
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Speaker 1: off the track. Citing ADIF, she said the Irrio train
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Speaker 1: was carrying 146 passengers and a baby, while 397 passengers
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Speaker 1: were on board the other. The crash is the second
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Speaker 1: major train accident in Spain this year. In January, more
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Speaker 1: than 40 people were killed in a collision involving high-speed
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Speaker 1: trains from the same two companies. In 2013, A train
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Speaker 1: derailment in northern Spain killed at least 80 people. Sanchez
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Speaker 1: wrote on X that he was shocked by Wednesday's accident.
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Speaker 1: My affection, solidarity, and support to all the victims and
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Speaker 1: their families, he said. A train passenger told El Mundo
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Speaker 1: that the scene was apocalyptic. I find it very hard
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Speaker 1: to believe that there are any living people. It's as
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Speaker 1: if someone planted a bomb, Sebastian Herrero told the newspaper.
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Speaker 1: The health ministry said on social media it was coordinating
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Speaker 1: with authorities to provide all necessary resources while the government
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Speaker 1: asked for blood donations. The civil guard said on social
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Speaker 1: media that it had opened offices for relatives of victims
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Speaker 1: in several cities. The priority, it said, is the identification
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Speaker 1: of the missing persons and the collection of DNA samples
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Speaker 1: from relatives. A former Spanish minister commented, Fátima Báñez was
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Speaker 1: traveling on one of the trains and is missing, according
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Speaker 1: to Spain's Confederation of Business Organizations, which she leads. The
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Speaker 1: next article from the front page of today's edition is titled,
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Speaker 1: Dolores Huerta, Resolute Champion of Workers' Rights, Dies at 96.
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Speaker 1: She co-founded the United Farm Workers with César Chávez and
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Speaker 1: coined the slogan, Si se puede, yes we can, by
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Speaker 1: Harrison Smith and Patricia Sullivan. Dolores Huerta had no lobbying
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Speaker 1: experience when she went to Sacramento in the early 1960s,
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Speaker 1: championing legislation that secured better conditions for California farm workers
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Speaker 1: who helped feed the nation, harvesting fruits and vegetables at
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Speaker 1: low wages without regular access to toilets, clean water, or
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Speaker 1: health care. She had no formal legal training when she
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Speaker 1: negotiated the farm workers' first union contracts a few years later,
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Speaker 1: sitting down at the bargaining table with growers, all men,
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Speaker 1: who nicknamed her the Dragon Lady, bristling at the assertive
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Speaker 1: woman in their midst. And she had no patience for
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Speaker 1: Latino community leaders who told her, no se puede, it
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Speaker 1: can't be done, when she and fellow labor activist Cesar
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Speaker 1: Chavez coordinated a recall campaign to oust Arizona's Republican governor
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Speaker 1: in 1972 after he signed legislation that limited farm workers'
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Speaker 1: ability to organize. Si se puede, yes we can, she insisted.
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Speaker 1: The governor remained in office through the end of his term,
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Speaker 1: but the campaign was credited with revitalizing the state's Democratic coalition. Ms. Huerta,
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Speaker 1: who founded the United Farm Workers with Chavez and spearheaded
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Speaker 1: some of the union's early victories, spent more than six
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Speaker 1: decades fighting for racial and economic justice. She endured the
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Speaker 1: sexism of fellow labor leaders, threats from anti-union thugs, and
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Speaker 1: beatings by police. And long after she campaigned in Arizona,
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Speaker 1: Her phrase, si se puede, was taken up by farm
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Speaker 1: workers who rallied behind her at picket lines and chanted
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Speaker 1: her slogan during marches. The battle cry was later adopted
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Speaker 1: by Barack Obama, who made Yes We Can a refrain
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Speaker 1: of his presidential campaigns. Dolores was very gracious when I
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Speaker 1: told her I had stolen her slogan, he said in 2012,
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Speaker 1: presenting Ms. Huerta with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the
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Speaker 1: country's highest civilian honor. Knowing her, I'm pleased she let
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Speaker 1: me off easy because Dolores does not play. Ms. Huerta
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Speaker 1: was 96 when she died Wednesday at her home in Bakersfield, California,
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Speaker 1: surrounded by family, the Dolores Huerta Foundation said on its website.
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Speaker 1: The statement did not cite a cause of death. Ms.
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Speaker 1: Huerta was often overshadowed by Chavez, with whom she started
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Speaker 1: the UFW, an organization they envisioned less as a labor
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Speaker 1: union than as a social movement, La Casa. The soft-spoken
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Speaker 1: Chavez acquired a saintly aura through his weeks-long fasts. Ms.
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Speaker 1: Huerta became known as La Pasionera, the Passionate One, for
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Speaker 1: her intense, confrontational style in the dusty fields of California's
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Speaker 1: San Joaquin Valley and in marches from the great capital
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Speaker 1: of Delano to the state capital of Sacramento. Earlier this year,
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Speaker 1: the New York Times published an explosive story revealing that
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Speaker 1: Chavez has sexually abused teenage girls over multiple decades and
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Speaker 1: engaged in other incidents of sexual harassment. The Times interviewed
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Speaker 1: more than a dozen women who said they were pressured
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Speaker 1: into sex or assaulted by men in the labor union.
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Speaker 1: The revelations led Huerta to acknowledge that she had sexual
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Speaker 1: encounters with Chavez twice in the 1960s, becoming pregnant both times.
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Speaker 1: The first time I was manipulated and pressured into having
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Speaker 1: sex with him, and I didn't feel I could say
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Speaker 1: no because he was someone that I admired, my boss
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Speaker 1: and the leader of the movement I had already devoted
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Speaker 1: years of my life to, she said in a statement
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Speaker 1: to the Times after the article was published. The second
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Speaker 1: time I was forced against my will and in an
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Speaker 1: environment where I felt trapped. After the babies were born,
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Speaker 1: she arranged for them to be raised by other families,
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Speaker 1: she said. Over the years, I have been fortunate to
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Speaker 1: develop a deep relationship with these children, who are now
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Speaker 1: close to my other children, their siblings. But even then,
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Speaker 1: no one knew the full truth about how they were
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Speaker 1: conceived until just a few weeks ago, she said, raising
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Speaker 1: the plight of migrant workers. Even at its peak in
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Speaker 1: the 1970s, the UFW was relatively small, never representing more
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Speaker 1: than 100,000 workers. but it was widely credited with raising
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Speaker 1: awareness of the plight of migrant workers who had been
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Speaker 1: excluded from federal labor laws and with helping them to
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Speaker 1: win the right to collective bargaining in California under a
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Speaker 1: landmark 1973 state law. Ms. Huerta was an organizer of
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Speaker 1: the table grape boycott that swayed public opinion in the
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Speaker 1: 1960s as the union gained national prominence amid a five-year
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Speaker 1: strike by Filipino and Mexican-American farm workers in Delano. She
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Speaker 1: later battled for protection from pesticides, set up medical plans
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Speaker 1: and pension funds for workers, and lobbied for the Immigration
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Speaker 1: Reform and Control Act of 1986, which resulted in legal
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Speaker 1: status for about 2.7 million undocumented immigrants. A decade after
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Speaker 1: Chavez's death in 1993, she established the Doris Huerta Foundation,
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Speaker 1: broadening her advocacy to encompass health care, housing, education, and
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Speaker 1: LGBTQ rights. Following years of struggle with her traditional Catholic beliefs,
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Speaker 1: she became a born-again feminist, as she put it, and
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Speaker 1: opposed restrictions on abortion. Despite storm of racism and misogyny,
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Speaker 1: activist Dolores Huerta remains hopeful during Trump era. At 89,
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Speaker 1: she was arrested during a California demonstration for better pay
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Speaker 1: for home care workers. At 90, she appeared in a
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Speaker 1: pre-recorded segment of President Joe Biden's inauguration celebration reading from
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Speaker 1: Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inaugural address, The only thing we
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Speaker 1: have to fear is fear itself. Ms. Huerta was absolutely fearless,
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Speaker 1: physically as well as psychologically, Chavez once said. Though she
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Speaker 1: was only 5'2 and 110 pounds, she faced down Union
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Speaker 1: opponents who swung two-by-fours, slashed her tires, and tried to
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Speaker 1: force their way into her home. She was arrested more
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Speaker 1: than 20 times while protesting and, in 1988, was severely
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Speaker 1: beaten by San Francisco police during a peaceful demonstration against
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Speaker 1: presidential candidate George H.W. Bush, who opposed a UFW grape boycott.
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Speaker 1: The attack left Ms. Huerta with a ruptured spleen and
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Speaker 1: several broken ribs. She sued the city, which changed its
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Speaker 1: crowd control procedures and paid her $ 825, 000 in an out-of-court settlement. Ms. Huerta,
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Speaker 1: whose initial union salary was $ 5 a week, joked that
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Speaker 1: she would have to open her first bank account. I
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Speaker 1: imagine that if I had known Emma Goldman, the radical
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Speaker 1: labor organizer, she would have been something like Dolores, said
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Speaker 1: feminist activist Gloria Steinem, co-founder of Ms. Magazine, which named Ms.
24:06
Speaker 1: Huerta a Woman of the Year in 1998. She's not
24:10
Speaker 1: a person whose life is divided into public and private,
24:13
Speaker 1: work and play. It's all of a piece. Ms. Huerta
24:17
Speaker 1: sought to instill in her 11 children a sense that
24:19
Speaker 1: the farm workers' movement was bigger than all of them.
24:23
Speaker 1: Her family often relied on donations of food and clothing,
24:26
Speaker 1: and growers attacked her as an unfit parent, even as
24:29
Speaker 1: she helped launch a Eugene Hall daycare center for mothers
24:32
Speaker 1: on the picket line. I remember as a child one
24:36
Speaker 1: time talking to her about my sadness that she wasn't
24:39
Speaker 1: going to be with me on my birthday, her daughter
24:42
Speaker 1: Lori told Ms. Magazine. And she said that the sacrifices we,
24:46
Speaker 1: as her children, make would help hundreds of other children
24:49
Speaker 1: in the future. How can you argue with something like that? Ms.
24:53
Speaker 1: Huerta worked alongside other women in the union, including Chavez's wife, Helen,
24:58
Speaker 1: who served as a UFW's bookkeeper and headed its credit union,
25:03
Speaker 1: and Marion Moses, a top Chavez aide who helped coordinate
25:06
Speaker 1: the table grape boycott. But for years, she was the
25:10
Speaker 1: only woman on the union's executive board. where she served
25:14
Speaker 1: as vice president. The men would come out and say
25:17
Speaker 1: their stupid little jokes about women, so I started keeping
25:20
Speaker 1: a record, Ms. Huerta recalled. At the end of the meeting,
25:24
Speaker 1: I'd say, During the course of this meeting, you men
25:27
Speaker 1: have made 58 sexist remarks. Pretty soon I got them
25:31
Speaker 1: down to 25, then 10, and then 5. Early Influences
25:38
Speaker 1: Born in Dawson, New Mexico on April 10, 1930, Dolores
25:42
Speaker 1: Clara Fernandez was the daughter of Alicia Chavez and Juan Fernandez,
25:47
Speaker 1: whose parents were Mexican immigrants. Her father, a farm worker, miner,
25:51
Speaker 1: and union activist, was elected to the New Mexico State
25:55
Speaker 1: Legislature in 1938. Ms. Huerta's parents divorced when she was three,
26:01
Speaker 1: and she moved to Stockton in the San Joaquin Valley
26:04
Speaker 1: with her two brothers and mother, who worked as a
26:06
Speaker 1: waitress and in a cannery. During World War II, her
26:10
Speaker 1: mother bought a 70-room hotel from a Japanese family that
26:13
Speaker 1: was forced into an incarceration camp. She turned the hotel
26:18
Speaker 1: into a refuge for farm workers, who sometimes paid her
26:21
Speaker 1: with fruits or vegetables, and she put her children to work.
26:25
Speaker 1: In the Latino tradition, women serve the men, Ms. Huerta
26:29
Speaker 1: told Vogue in 2017. Not in our family. She and
26:34
Speaker 1: her brothers all helped with cooking, cleaning, and ironing. In
26:37
Speaker 1: her free time, She rose through the Girl Scouts and
26:40
Speaker 1: took dance lessons, envisioning a life as a professional flamenco dancer.
26:46
Speaker 1: Her turn toward activism was inspired partly by racial discrimination
26:49
Speaker 1: she and her family encountered. In one incident, one of
26:53
Speaker 1: her brothers was beaten by white men while he was
26:55
Speaker 1: wearing a zoot suit, the billowing high-waisted outfit often worn
26:59
Speaker 1: by young Mexican-Americans in the early 1940s. Ms. Huerta received
27:04
Speaker 1: an associate's degree from Stockton College, now San Joaquin Delta College,
27:09
Speaker 1: and worked briefly as a teacher before deciding, as she
27:12
Speaker 1: put it, that she could do more by organizing farm
27:15
Speaker 1: workers than by trying to teach their hungry children. She
27:19
Speaker 1: learned the basics of organizing after a 1955 meeting with
27:23
Speaker 1: Fred Ross, a leader of the Community Service Organization, CSO,
27:28
Speaker 1: a Latino civil rights group. If it weren't for Fred,
27:32
Speaker 1: she said, I'd probably just be in some stupid suburb somewhere.
27:37
Speaker 1: Her first marriage to Ralph Head ended in divorce. Soon
27:40
Speaker 1: after joining the CSO, she married Ventura Huerta and persuaded
27:45
Speaker 1: him to leave his job and join her as an organizer.
27:48
Speaker 1: He became a front man for her, a way to
27:51
Speaker 1: get around the sexism of men who refused to take
27:53
Speaker 1: her seriously. Within a few years, their marriage had splintered.
27:58
Speaker 1: While battling with her husband over custody of their children,
28:01
Speaker 1: she successfully lobbied for California legislation that, among other results,
28:06
Speaker 1: removed citizenship requirements for receiving public assistance, and made it
28:11
Speaker 1: possible to take driver's license exams in Spanish. She also
28:15
Speaker 1: deepened her friendship with Chavez, a fellow CSO activist who
28:19
Speaker 1: shared her interest in organizing farm workers and who encouraged
28:23
Speaker 1: her to keep Huerta's name after their divorce. It was
28:27
Speaker 1: lovely and fitting, he told her. Roughly translated, Dolores Huerta
28:31
Speaker 1: means sorrows in the orchard. His story is told. Hers isn't.
28:38
Speaker 1: In 1962, Ms. Huerta and Chavez teamed up to form
28:41
Speaker 1: the National Farm Workers Association, a precursor of the UFW. Ms.
28:47
Speaker 1: Huerta later said there was no doubt that Chavez would
28:50
Speaker 1: be the leader. Many farm workers were loathe to have
28:53
Speaker 1: a woman lead them. Looking back, I would have said,
28:56
Speaker 1: let's do it 50-50, she told USA Today in 2020
29:00
Speaker 1: when the newspaper named her one of 100 women of
29:03
Speaker 1: the century. Ms. Huerta recruited workers at pool halls and
29:07
Speaker 1: on the stoops of her homes, and she was named
29:10
Speaker 1: chief negotiator when the union began hashing out contracts with
29:14
Speaker 1: the growers. By many accounts, she scolded, insulted, and harangued
29:18
Speaker 1: the growers on the way to winning higher wages. She
29:21
Speaker 1: also battled with Chavez behind the scenes, debating union tactics
29:26
Speaker 1: and messaging. Whenever we weren't fighting, we were plotting, Chavez
29:30
Speaker 1: told novelist and journalist Peter Matthiessen. Dolores is the only
29:34
Speaker 1: one I fight with, the only one who makes me
29:37
Speaker 1: lose my temper. I guess that's because I like her
29:39
Speaker 1: so much. Together, they extended their activism into Democratic politics,
29:44
Speaker 1: helping to get out the vote for Senator Robert F.
29:47
Speaker 1: Kennedy of New York when he was running for the
29:49
Speaker 1: Democratic presidential nomination in 1968. Misuerta was standing by Kennedy's side,
29:55
Speaker 1: flashing a peace sign at the camera when he gave
29:57
Speaker 1: his final public address, thanking her and the UFW moments
30:01
Speaker 1: before he was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
30:06
Speaker 1: The Delano grape strike culminated in a wave of contract
30:10
Speaker 1: signings in 1970, but the union found itself fighting for
30:14
Speaker 1: its life three years later, when the Teamsters swept into
30:18
Speaker 1: its territory and signed contracts with the growers. A bloody
30:22
Speaker 1: union turf war lasted for years. UFW membership dwindled. and
30:27
Speaker 1: the union was also rocked by infighting and accusations of mismanagement.
30:32
Speaker 1: According to The Crusades of Cesar Chavez, a 2014 biography
30:37
Speaker 1: by Miriam Powell, Misuerta angered many union leaders in the
30:41
Speaker 1: early 1970s when they learned that she was in a
30:44
Speaker 1: relationship with married UFW activist Richard Chavez, Cesar Chavez's younger brother.
30:51
Speaker 1: Misuerta weathered the criticism, continuing her work with the union
30:55
Speaker 1: until the early 2000s, She and Richard Chavez remained a
30:59
Speaker 1: couple until his death in 2011. Her survivors include 13
31:04
Speaker 1: of her children, 24 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren, and seven great-great-grandchildren.
31:12
Speaker 1: She was pre-deceased by one child, the Dolores Huerta Foundation said.
31:16
Speaker 1: While Cesar Chavez rose to national prominence during the Delano
31:20
Speaker 1: Grape Strike, Ms. Huerta remained little known for years. The
31:25
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Times dubbed her the unheralded heroine in a
31:28
Speaker 1: rare profile in 1970. She was usually relegated to the
31:33
Speaker 1: background in news reports that described her as a tiny,
31:36
Speaker 1: tough assistant, Time Magazine, and a very pretty, sad-eyed young
31:41
Speaker 1: woman who does not look like the mother of seven children,
31:44
Speaker 1: but is the New Yorker. In part, Ms. Huerta blamed
31:48
Speaker 1: sexism among journalists and historians. That's the history of the world,
31:52
Speaker 1: she told the Associated Press in 1995. His story is told,
31:57
Speaker 1: hers isn't. But she later noted that she had grown
32:01
Speaker 1: up at a time when women were often expected to
32:03
Speaker 1: support and accommodate the men in their lives without asking
32:07
Speaker 1: for credit. I almost thought it was wrong for me
32:09
Speaker 1: to take credit for the work that I did, she
32:12
Speaker 1: said in a 2017 documentary, Dolores. I don't think that anymore.
32:18
Speaker 1: The next article from the front page of today's edition
32:20
Speaker 1: is titled, Senior official at Dartmouth College resigns over AI use.
32:26
Speaker 1: Provost Santiago Schnell, accused of failing to disclose his use
32:30
Speaker 1: of AI in his writing, is the most prominent academic
32:34
Speaker 1: known to have stepped down over the issue. By Susan Sverluga.
32:38
Speaker 1: A top administrator at Dartmouth College resigned after a faculty
32:42
Speaker 1: committee determined that he had improperly failed to disclose the
32:46
Speaker 1: use of artificial intelligence in some of his academic and
32:49
Speaker 1: public writings. the school announced Wednesday. The committee found that
32:54
Speaker 1: the school's provost, Santiago Schnell, used AI to alter his
32:58
Speaker 1: work in violation of the requirements of an academic journal
33:02
Speaker 1: and failed to disclose his use of AI as required
33:05
Speaker 1: by a newspaper where his writing appeared. Schnell was not
33:09
Speaker 1: forthcoming about his AI use, the committee concluded, and fell
33:13
Speaker 1: short of school standards including its code of ethical conduct.
33:17
Speaker 1: At a moment when college students are increasingly coming under
33:20
Speaker 1: scrutiny for their use of AI, Schnell is the most
33:23
Speaker 1: prominent academic known to have stepped down over the issue.
33:28
Speaker 1: Questions about Schnell's use of AI in his writing have
33:30
Speaker 1: drawn national attention as universities navigate the risks and opportunities
33:35
Speaker 1: of the rapidly advancing technology. At Dartmouth, where research on
33:40
Speaker 1: AI was born and is celebrated, the issues are particularly fraught.
33:45
Speaker 1: In September, Dartmouth President Sian Lee Bylock announced the review
33:50
Speaker 1: of Schnell's work and acknowledged the complexity. I've committed to
33:54
Speaker 1: keeping Dartmouth at the forefront of AI, and that includes
33:58
Speaker 1: acting in an ethical manner. Leading on something this new
34:01
Speaker 1: and fluid is messy, she wrote. There will be missteps,
34:05
Speaker 1: and that's part of how an institution learns. Schnell, a
34:09
Speaker 1: mathematical biologist from Venezuela, has been the school's provost a
34:14
Speaker 1: title that essentially means Chief Academic Officer and Chief Budget
34:17
Speaker 1: Officer since July 2025. He did not immediately respond to
34:22
Speaker 1: requests for comment Wednesday. In reviewing the logs of Dartmouth's
34:27
Speaker 1: Enterprise AI tool, the committee concluded that Schnell had used
34:31
Speaker 1: Claude to substantially edit a research manuscript, troubleshoot coding errors,
34:37
Speaker 1: and generate figures for the journal Chem Systems Chem. The
34:41
Speaker 1: committee found that Schnell had submitted prompts such as, Do
34:45
Speaker 1: you find any scientific issue with the paper, problem, or
34:49
Speaker 1: contradiction that would prevent me to submit it? The publication
34:53
Speaker 1: at the time required AI use of this kind to
34:56
Speaker 1: be disclosed, the committee wrote, but Schnell did not do
34:59
Speaker 1: so at the time of submission or publication. In August,
35:04
Speaker 1: Schnell wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post headlined,
35:08
Speaker 1: Universities are Fighting AI Cheating. but there's a deeper problem.
35:12
Speaker 1: Schnell told the online news outlet Semaphore that he had
35:16
Speaker 1: used ChatGPT to refine a few arguments, check for grammatical errors,
35:21
Speaker 1: and submit it to the Washington Post. That was a
35:24
Speaker 1: violation of the Post's standards, the committee wrote. The committee
35:28
Speaker 1: found that Schell did not sufficiently disclose AI use to
35:32
Speaker 1: some publications and that he had delayed and failed to
35:35
Speaker 1: provide answers to committee requests. Schnell's resignation was first reported
35:40
Speaker 1: by the Dartmouth, the campus newspaper. Bylock said that it
35:45
Speaker 1: was Schnell's decision to leave the university out of respect
35:48
Speaker 1: for his colleagues and the institution. We remain grateful for
35:52
Speaker 1: his leadership and wish him well, she wrote. Matthew Delmont,
35:56
Speaker 1: a professor of history and an associate dean of faculty
35:59
Speaker 1: for international and interdisciplinary studies, will serve as interim provost
36:04
Speaker 1: through June 2028, Bylock told the campus community. Each of
36:09
Speaker 1: us brings a different perspective on how and when to
36:12
Speaker 1: incorporate AI into our work and lives, she wrote. Moreover,
36:17
Speaker 1: keeping Dartmouth at the forefront of AI inevitably means leading
36:21
Speaker 1: through an environment that is fluid and fast-changing. That is why,
36:25
Speaker 1: as leaders, it is so critical that we model the
36:28
Speaker 1: transparency and human judgment that we expect from our students
36:32
Speaker 1: and scholars. The next article from the front page of
36:35
Speaker 1: today's edition is titled Flavio Bolsonaro lands in Miami, declares
36:40
Speaker 1: himself Brazil's true leader. The statement marked the latest dramatic
36:45
Speaker 1: turn in an international saga that has absorbed much of
36:49
Speaker 1: the Western Hemisphere over the last 48 hours, by Alex DeLuca,
36:54
Speaker 1: Terence McCoy, Sammy Westphal, and Marina Diaz. More than 24
37:00
Speaker 1: hours after he vanished from public sight, Defeated Brazilian presidential
37:04
Speaker 1: candidate Flavio Bolsonaro reappeared Wednesday in Miami and went on
37:09
Speaker 1: the attack, alleging electoral fraud in Sunday's election and declaring
37:13
Speaker 1: himself the rightful leader of Latin America's largest country. In
37:19
Speaker 1: a letter posted on his ex-account, Bolsonaro claimed without evidence
37:23
Speaker 1: that the election had been stolen by President Luiz Inácio
37:27
Speaker 1: Lula da Silva and his allies. a sharp escalation in
37:31
Speaker 1: his drive to overturn a result that he had effectively
37:34
Speaker 1: accepted on Monday. On Sunday night, I was stunned by
37:38
Speaker 1: an electoral fraud that was made reality before my eyes,
37:41
Speaker 1: he wrote. He accused Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanon, who
37:46
Speaker 1: was Lula's former attorney, of illegitimate activity that permitted a
37:51
Speaker 1: mathematical impossibility that added 10 million votes between the first
37:55
Speaker 1: and second round of the elections. The statement, an exclamation
37:59
Speaker 1: point at the end of the senator's post-election odyssey from
38:02
Speaker 1: Brazil to the United States, threatened a political headache for
38:06
Speaker 1: ally and friend President Donald Trump. Bolsonaro, who is being
38:10
Speaker 1: investigated for alleged corruption and money laundering, was served Monday
38:15
Speaker 1: with an order by a Brazilian Supreme Court justice to
38:18
Speaker 1: surrender his Brazilian passports and promptly disappeared. Amid conflicting reports
38:23
Speaker 1: of his whereabouts, Bolsonaro, his wife, and two daughters crossed
38:28
Speaker 1: a bridge over the Iguazu River into Argentina at 10.50 p.m. Tuesday,
38:33
Speaker 1: according to Argentina's National Directorate of Migrations, before catching a
38:37
Speaker 1: private plane to Guayaquil, Ecuador. From Guayaquil, the family traveled
38:43
Speaker 1: on to Miami. Administration officials had granted them visas to
38:47
Speaker 1: enter the U.S., as his father did after losing the
38:49
Speaker 1: 2022 elections. In his letter, Bolsonaro thanked allies Argentine President
38:55
Speaker 1: Javier Millet and Trump for assisting in his departure from Brazil.
39:00
Speaker 1: But the Trump administration expressed little appetite Wednesday for his
39:04
Speaker 1: electoral complaints. We gave him a pass to come into
39:08
Speaker 1: the country, Trump told reporters Wednesday afternoon, but I won't
39:12
Speaker 1: get involved. It was a very strange election. A senior U.S.
39:16
Speaker 1: official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the
39:20
Speaker 1: matter said, said the State Department is unlikely to take
39:23
Speaker 1: up Bolsonaro's complaints. Lula did not comment publicly on Bolsonaro's
39:28
Speaker 1: claims Wednesday. Cassio Nunes Marques, the president of the Brazilian
39:33
Speaker 1: Superior Electoral Court, defended the election result. The 2026 election
39:38
Speaker 1: transpired with complete normality, respecting all legal and constitutional requirements.
39:45
Speaker 1: Nunes was appointed to the court by Bolsonaro's father, Jair Bolsonaro.
39:50
Speaker 1: A judicial official who spoke on the condition of anonymity
39:53
Speaker 1: to discuss private deliberations said the Brazilian Supreme Court would
39:58
Speaker 1: not engage with this. Even some of Bolsonaro's allies were
40:02
Speaker 1: beginning to fall away. I understand Flavio's feeling and indignation
40:07
Speaker 1: and revulsion, and this is shared by many Brazilians too,
40:11
Speaker 1: said Tarcisio Gomes de Freitas, the governor of Sao Paulo,
40:15
Speaker 1: but the way is to respect the electoral result and
40:18
Speaker 1: move on. Flavio's political trajectory continued to mirror that of
40:23
Speaker 1: his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, but with an important difference.
40:28
Speaker 1: The elder Bolsonaro, too, followed his electoral defeat to Lula
40:32
Speaker 1: with a journey to Florida, following a path well-worn by
40:36
Speaker 1: the hemisphere's ousted leaders. He remained for weeks before returning
40:40
Speaker 1: to Brazil. While Jair Bolsonaro was in the U.S., his
40:44
Speaker 1: supporters back in Brazil were mobilizing camping outside military barracks
40:49
Speaker 1: and calling on the troops to take the country over.
40:53
Speaker 1: On January 8, 2023, thousands of those supporters stormed the
40:57
Speaker 1: presidential palace, Congress, and the Supreme Court in an assault
41:01
Speaker 1: that recalled the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
41:07
Speaker 1: Jair Bolsonaro was convicted last year of attempting to overthrow
41:11
Speaker 1: the democratic rule of law and sentenced to more than
41:14
Speaker 1: 27 years in prison. and Flavio Bolsonaro ran this year
41:18
Speaker 1: on the promise of freeing him. But this time there
41:21
Speaker 1: have been no signs among Bolsonaristas of such mobilization. Flavio
41:26
Speaker 1: Bolsonaro wrote in his letter that he hadn't committed any crime.
41:30
Speaker 1: He had come to the U.S., he said, to speak
41:32
Speaker 1: his mind and lead his supporters. I didn't flee Brazil.
41:37
Speaker 1: I left Brazil, he said, to be able to be
41:39
Speaker 1: a leader that my people deserves, because if I'd been quieted, imprisoned,
41:44
Speaker 1: and censured like father is now, I wouldn't be able
41:47
Speaker 1: to be this leader, and we would have been delivered
41:50
Speaker 1: to the institutional theater of a castrated opposition. His way
41:54
Speaker 1: forward now is uncertain. He's far from his power base,
41:58
Speaker 1: without any discernible path back to Brazilian politics. Advisors expressed
42:03
Speaker 1: surprise at his decision to leave Brazil. Some said they
42:07
Speaker 1: had counseled against it. On Monday, one said, Bolsonaro appeared
42:11
Speaker 1: ready to turn the page and abandon his efforts to
42:14
Speaker 1: challenge the results. He seemed willing to become Brazil's leading
42:18
Speaker 1: opposition figure, said the advisor, who spoke on the condition
42:22
Speaker 1: of anonymity to disclose the private conversation. If he was
42:26
Speaker 1: talking about leading the opposition, he understood that he wouldn't
42:29
Speaker 1: be in government. Another person with knowledge of Bolsonaro's thinking
42:34
Speaker 1: said he hadn't decided what he would do next. The
42:37
Speaker 1: shock of losing the election, the order to surrender his passports,
42:41
Speaker 1: and the specter of his incarceration has left him emotionally exhausted.
42:46
Speaker 1: I don't think even he knows what he's going to do,
42:48
Speaker 1: said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
42:51
Speaker 1: to discuss private conversations. No decision has been made by him.
42:57
Speaker 1: Divisions were emerging among his supporters over how forcefully he
43:01
Speaker 1: should challenge the election result. One faction pushed Bolsonaro to
43:05
Speaker 1: declare himself the legitimate president of Brazil. They circulated a
43:10
Speaker 1: speech Wednesday that they said Bolsonaro would deliver that included
43:13
Speaker 1: that description. He appeared to moderate that language in his letter,
43:18
Speaker 1: in which he described himself only as Brazil's leader. Another
43:23
Speaker 1: person said he was counseling a more limited approach. Corral
43:27
Speaker 1: allies in the White House and the administration of right-wing
43:30
Speaker 1: Argentine President Javier Millet to push for an audit of
43:33
Speaker 1: the Brazilian vote. The Brazilian electoral system, which returns results
43:38
Speaker 1: within hours, is a standard-bearer in Latin America. no evidence
43:42
Speaker 1: that it has been manipulated or is vulnerable to fraud
43:45
Speaker 1: has been made public. The Bolsonaros have nonetheless spent years
43:49
Speaker 1: seeking to undermine confidence in it. Jair Bolsonaro has complained
43:54
Speaker 1: of alleged voting fraud for years. In the 2022 presidential cycle,
43:59
Speaker 1: it appeared at times as though he was campaigning as
44:02
Speaker 1: much against the Brazilian electoral system as against Lula. The
44:07
Speaker 1: argument has found a sympathetic ear in Washington, where the
44:10
Speaker 1: Bolsonaros have spent years cultivating allies. Trump said Monday that
44:14
Speaker 1: the vote Sunday looked like another rigged election and very bad.
44:19
Speaker 1: White House communications strategist Jason Miller seemed to fan those
44:23
Speaker 1: doubts Tuesday in a social media post. Stateside, Bolsonaro joins
44:28
Speaker 1: a community of like-minded compatriots at odds with the Brazilian government.
44:33
Speaker 1: One was waiting for him at the Miami airport Wednesday morning,
44:37
Speaker 1: Abner Silva. A 27-year-old Brazilian holding his seven-month-old baby said
44:42
Speaker 1: he drove to the airport to show support. They are
44:46
Speaker 1: having a hard time because of Lula, Silva said. That's
44:49
Speaker 1: why I'm here supporting him. That's why I want to
44:52
Speaker 1: see him. Paulo Generoso, one of Eduardo Bolsonaro's U.S.-based Brazilian
44:57
Speaker 1: business partners, expressed his thanks Tuesday to the Trump administration
45:01
Speaker 1: for granting the Bolsonaro's visas. Thank you, Secretary Marco Rubio Generoso,
45:07
Speaker 1: posted on social media, for your support in defending freedom, democracy,
45:12
Speaker 1: and the rights of political persecuted leaders in Brazil. The
45:17
Speaker 1: next article from the front page of today's edition is titled,
45:21
Speaker 1: A Record Arab Vote Brings a Painful Dilemma for Israel's Opposition.
45:26
Speaker 1: The 19 seats won by Israel's two major Arab-led parties
45:30
Speaker 1: could be key to toppling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. if
45:34
Speaker 1: opposition leaders are willing to work with them. Israel's opposition
45:41
Speaker 1: parties woke up Wednesday morning with a parliamentary majority within
45:45
Speaker 1: easy reach. They just have to be willing to use
45:48
Speaker 1: the votes of Palestinian citizens of Israel to claim it.
45:52
Speaker 1: That's not going to be easy. The results of Tuesday's
45:56
Speaker 1: national election, with final results not expected until Thursday, stripped
46:01
Speaker 1: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition of its majority, but
46:05
Speaker 1: left the collection of opposition parties short as well. In
46:10
Speaker 1: their case, standing by are two Arab-led parties that share
46:13
Speaker 1: their determination to oust Netanyahu and control more than enough
46:17
Speaker 1: seats to do it. On paper, that makes them kingmakers.
46:22
Speaker 1: In the reality of Israeli politics and the deep ambivalence
46:25
Speaker 1: many feel about the place of Arab citizens in a
46:28
Speaker 1: Jewish state, The seats that could end Netanyahu's rule are
46:32
Speaker 1: the ones his main opponents are most reluctant to touch.
46:36
Speaker 1: Tuesday's results were a historic high-water mark for Israel's 2
46:40
Speaker 1: million Palestinian citizens, about a fifth of the population. Turnout
46:45
Speaker 1: in this demographic was estimated at nearly 80%, a surge
46:49
Speaker 1: driven by anger at Netanyahu and his cabinet in Arab
46:52
Speaker 1: towns and Bedouin encampments. The turnout rewarded the two major
46:57
Speaker 1: Arab parties, Rahm and the Joint List, with a total
47:00
Speaker 1: of 19 seats, nearly double the 10 they held in
47:04
Speaker 1: the outgoing Nesset, and well above the previous record of
47:07
Speaker 1: 15 set in 2020, when all the major Arab parties
47:11
Speaker 1: ran on a single slate. Whoever proposes a substantive alternative
47:16
Speaker 1: to the Netanyahu government will have to talk to us,
47:19
Speaker 1: said Yusuf Jabarin, head of the Joint List. To some
47:23
Speaker 1: Jewish lawmakers, the math and the morality is simple. We
47:27
Speaker 1: can no longer accept Netanyahu's racist distinction between Jewish and
47:31
Speaker 1: Arab votes, Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing Democrats party,
47:36
Speaker 1: said on X, hailing the opportunity to form a changed
47:39
Speaker 1: government in partnership with Israel's Arab citizens. For leaders of
47:44
Speaker 1: the larger opposition parties, it is less straightforward. Their voters
47:48
Speaker 1: lean further right, and many have long rejected any government
47:52
Speaker 1: propped up by Arab lawmakers, a hostility that deepened after
47:55
Speaker 1: the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks. One poll found that
48:01
Speaker 1: a majority of Israelis supported barring the Arab parties from running.
48:06
Speaker 1: Opposition leaders spent the campaign rejecting the idea or avoiding
48:10
Speaker 1: the question. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who leads the
48:14
Speaker 1: Together Alliance, and Avigdor Lieberman, head of the nationalist Yisrael
48:19
Speaker 1: Beitenyu party, both ruled it out. The position of former
48:23
Speaker 1: military chief Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu's closest challenger, is harder to
48:29
Speaker 1: pin down. He declined to rule out the Arab parties explicitly,
48:33
Speaker 1: but he also set conditions for any party to join
48:36
Speaker 1: his coalition that many Palestinian lawmakers haven't met, recognizing Israel
48:41
Speaker 1: as a Jewish state and declaring Hamas a terrorist organization
48:46
Speaker 1: that must be dismantled. The parties in the Joint List
48:49
Speaker 1: have long rejected Israel's definition as a Jewish state, calling
48:53
Speaker 1: instead for a state of all its citizens. Ram leader
48:57
Speaker 1: Mansour Abbas, a dentist from northern Israel, has gone further
49:01
Speaker 1: than any other Arab party leader in accepting Israel's Jewish
49:05
Speaker 1: character and condemned the October 7th attack. positions that drew
49:09
Speaker 1: fierce criticism from Palestinian leaders and some of his own allies,
49:14
Speaker 1: but he has resisted Israeli demands to declare that Hamas
49:17
Speaker 1: be destroyed, calling them loyalty-tests. A precedent for collaboration. For
49:24
Speaker 1: all the maneuvering around the issue, the long taboo over
49:27
Speaker 1: inviting Arab parties into a governing coalition has already been broken.
49:32
Speaker 1: In June 2021, Abbas joined an eight-party coalition that the
49:37
Speaker 1: first time an independent Arab party had joined an Israeli government.
49:41
Speaker 1: That move allowed the group of parties opposing Netanyahu to
49:45
Speaker 1: take power, putting Bennett in the prime minister's office for
49:48
Speaker 1: about a year, and then his governing partner, Yair Lapid,
49:52
Speaker 1: for about six months more. Many Israelis point out that
49:55
Speaker 1: not only did the plagues of Egypt fail to descend,
49:58
Speaker 1: but the government delivered record investment to Arab towns and
50:02
Speaker 1: a rare stretch of cooperation across Israel's deepest divide. When
50:07
Speaker 1: Mansour Abbas was part of the government, they made progress
50:10
Speaker 1: on addressing the issues affecting our community, said Atiyah al-Assam,
50:15
Speaker 1: the head of an advocacy group for Bedouin villages and
50:18
Speaker 1: encampments in the Negev Desert. Several of those communities, which
50:22
Speaker 1: are often bulldozed for permit violations, gained official support and
50:27
Speaker 1: spending at the time, Assam said. Abbas said then, as
50:31
Speaker 1: he does now, that crime, housing, and budgets... mattered more
50:35
Speaker 1: to his voters than grand questions of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
50:40
Speaker 1: The coalition and partners agreed to set aside the most
50:43
Speaker 1: divisive issues, including Palestinian statehood and peace talks, and pledged
50:48
Speaker 1: not to disturb the status quo where they are disagreed.
50:52
Speaker 1: In return, the cabinet approved a $ 9. 4 billion plan for
50:56
Speaker 1: Arab communities in October 2021, a level of investment with
51:01
Speaker 1: little precedent in Israel. The government collapsed after about a year,
51:05
Speaker 1: undone by defections from its right flank. Netanyahu's coalition parties
51:10
Speaker 1: condemn any suggestions that Arab parties should get another chance
51:14
Speaker 1: to serve in government. His Likud party campaign slogans equated
51:18
Speaker 1: voting for any of his opponents with turning Israel into Palestine.
51:23
Speaker 1: And Netanyahu flooded social media with dozens of Election Day
51:26
Speaker 1: posts warning of emergency rates of Arab citizens' voting. If Eisenkot, Lieberman,
51:33
Speaker 1: and Bennett try to form a government with the Arab parties,
51:36
Speaker 1: it will be the end of their political careers within
51:39
Speaker 1: a very short time, Netanyahu's culture minister, Miki Zohar, wrote
51:43
Speaker 1: on X Tuesday night as results came in. But it
51:47
Speaker 1: was Netanyahu and his allies who were the first to
51:50
Speaker 1: explore it. In 2021, facing a fourth election in two years,
51:55
Speaker 1: Netanyahu courted Arab voters in their towns and boasted of
51:59
Speaker 1: being Abu Ya'ir, the traditional Arab honorific of calling a
52:03
Speaker 1: man by his eldest son's name. Netanyahu opened a semi-public
52:08
Speaker 1: channel to Abbas, who had split from the joint list
52:11
Speaker 1: to run independently. When the vote left Netanyahu short, Zohar,
52:15
Speaker 1: then coalition chairman, sounded a very different note on the
52:19
Speaker 1: possibility of an alliance with an Arab party. It is
52:23
Speaker 1: our duty to do everything we can to prevent a
52:26
Speaker 1: fifth election, Zohar told YNet then. All the existing political
52:31
Speaker 1: options must be exhausted. Anger drives record turnout. Palestinian citizens
52:37
Speaker 1: of Israel are mostly the descendants of those who stayed
52:40
Speaker 1: in Israel after the 1948 war. Most live largely apart
52:45
Speaker 1: from Jewish populations, with both Muslim and Christian members of
52:49
Speaker 1: this community clustered in the Galilee along the West Bank
52:52
Speaker 1: border and in the southern Negev. Mixed Jewish Arab cities
52:57
Speaker 1: such as Haifa, Jaffa, and Lod are the exception. The
53:01
Speaker 1: minority population's participation in politics has ebbed and flowed, but
53:06
Speaker 1: a poll this year showed voter motivation was on the rise,
53:09
Speaker 1: with three-quarters of Arab citizens hoping to see an Arab
53:13
Speaker 1: party in the next government. They came out at record
53:16
Speaker 1: levels to make that happen, said Mohamed Jarosh, director of
53:20
Speaker 1: strategy at Givat Haviva, a Jewish-Arab partnership organization in northern Israel.
53:27
Speaker 1: The challenge now lies with other political actors and whether
53:30
Speaker 1: they are prepared to recognize Arab citizens as legitimate and
53:33
Speaker 1: equal partners, Darash said. What drove them to the polls
53:38
Speaker 1: this year was anger, he said. Much of it was
53:40
Speaker 1: aimed at Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister who
53:45
Speaker 1: oversees the police. Under Ben-Gvir, police have restricted displays of
53:50
Speaker 1: the Palestinian flag and arrested hundreds of people over social
53:54
Speaker 1: media posts, according to the Israeli rights group Adalah. At
53:59
Speaker 1: the same time, critics accuse police of failing to stop
54:02
Speaker 1: violent crime soaring inside Arab communities, and Arab leaders point
54:06
Speaker 1: to a wave of home demolitions in Arab towns and
54:09
Speaker 1: Negev villages over permitting failures, which Ben-Gavir has championed. Issa Fayyad, 49,
54:16
Speaker 1: who owns a garage in Yaffa-an-Nasiriyeh near Nazareth, said that
54:21
Speaker 1: he had little faith his vote would change anything but
54:24
Speaker 1: that he felt compelled to cast a ballot for the
54:27
Speaker 1: Joint List. My vote, he said, is revenge against the
54:30
Speaker 1: current fascist government. It may take weeks as Israeli parties
54:35
Speaker 1: of all kinds seek to control Israel's next government for
54:38
Speaker 1: him to learn if it was anything more than that.
54:41
Speaker 1: The next article from the front page of today's edition
54:44
Speaker 1: is titled Trump Officials Charged 180 Non-Citizens with Voter Fraud.
54:49
Speaker 1: We looked at each case. None of the indictments includes
54:53
Speaker 1: allegations of an organized effort by Democrats or anyone else
54:57
Speaker 1: to draw non-citizens to the polls, as the president has claimed,
55:01
Speaker 1: by David Nakamura, Jeremy Roebuck, and Emmanuel Martinez. Jacqueline Wallace,
55:08
Speaker 1: a Jamaican national who had applied for a U.S. green card,
55:12
Speaker 1: was asking about student aid at a junior college when
55:15
Speaker 1: a school employee asked her to register to vote. Wallace
55:18
Speaker 1: signed up as a Republican and filled out the 2024
55:22
Speaker 1: Florida GOP primary ballot that arrived in the mail, her
55:25
Speaker 1: attorney said in court. Last year, in a push to
55:29
Speaker 1: investigate what President Donald Trump has alleged is a Democratic
55:32
Speaker 1: scheme to perpetuate voter fraud by non-citizens, the Justice Department
55:37
Speaker 1: charged Wallace with making a false statement in order to
55:40
Speaker 1: vote and illegally casting a ballot as an alien. The
55:43
Speaker 1: first charge is a felony, the second a misdemeanor. After
55:48
Speaker 1: she pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor this spring, federal prosecutors
55:52
Speaker 1: touted the outcome as a win for Operation Take Back America,
55:56
Speaker 1: the Trump administration's effort to repeal the invasion of illegal
55:59
Speaker 1: immigration and combat transnational cartels. To U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, however,
56:06
Speaker 1: Wallace's actions were something else, an honest mistake. At sentencing
56:11
Speaker 1: in April, The judge, said Wallace, now 54, had not
56:15
Speaker 1: intended to commit a crime and was not part of
56:18
Speaker 1: an organized plot to sway the presidential election. If anything,
56:22
Speaker 1: said Walker, who was appointed to the federal bench by
56:25
Speaker 1: President Barack Obama, it was Trump and his allies, everybody
56:30
Speaker 1: from the leader of the free world all the way down,
56:33
Speaker 1: who were undermining public faith in the electoral system by
56:36
Speaker 1: falsely claiming Democrats were rigging elections. He sentenced Wallace to
56:41
Speaker 1: time served. As the midterm elections approach, the Trump administration
56:46
Speaker 1: is again ramping up attempts to root out voting by non-citizens.
56:51
Speaker 1: The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security are
56:54
Speaker 1: devoting massive investigative resources to the effort, and they have
56:58
Speaker 1: announced indictments in more than 20 states across the country
57:01
Speaker 1: in recent weeks. Authorities have charged more than 180 people
57:06
Speaker 1: with illegally voting or registering to vote as non-citizens since
57:10
Speaker 1: the start of Trump's second term. according to a Washington
57:13
Speaker 1: Post analysis of those cases. Roughly 70% of those people
57:17
Speaker 1: were charged in the last two months. None of the
57:21
Speaker 1: cases includes allegations of an organized effort by Democrats or
57:25
Speaker 1: anyone else to cheat by drawing non-citizens to the polls. Rather,
57:29
Speaker 1: they appear to involve isolated incidents scattered throughout the country,
57:34
Speaker 1: many with defendants who told authorities they were simply confused
57:37
Speaker 1: about voting rules. A non-citizen ballot for a Republican is
57:41
Speaker 1: just as illegal as one for a Democrat, and the
57:44
Speaker 1: department will prosecute both, Justice Department spokeswoman Kirsten Pelz said
57:49
Speaker 1: in an email. As for the suggestion that these are
57:52
Speaker 1: confused people who didn't understand the rules, many of these
57:56
Speaker 1: defendants falsely swore they were U.S. citizens to register, and
58:00
Speaker 1: many later lied under oath about it on their naturalization applications.
58:05
Speaker 1: The fraud allegations represent a tiny portion of the tens
58:08
Speaker 1: of millions of votes cast in federal elections across the country.
58:12
Speaker 1: Senior Trump aides have framed their effort as the tip
58:15
Speaker 1: of the iceberg. Due to time constraints, we'll need to
58:19
Speaker 1: end this article at this time. This concludes the reading
58:23
Speaker 1: of the Washington Post for today, Thursday, October 29, 2026.
58:28
Speaker 1: Your reader for today has been Roger Hampirian. If you
58:33
Speaker 1: have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program, please
58:37
Speaker 1: feel free to call us at 859-422-6390. Thank you for listening,
58:44
Speaker 1: and now please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio Eye.