Transcript

8.30.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post for Saturday,
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August thirtieth of twenty twenty five. Your reader is Alis Daina,
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with the reminder that RADIOI as a service for those
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blind with difficulties holding and reading printed material. And I
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will start with page one on the far left. On
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appeal US tariffs again ruled to be illegal. Court agrees
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Trump overstepped his powers. Fees stay as case goes on
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Rachel Lherman and David J. Lynch. In the middle, there
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is a picture of two cars and a sort of
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a trailer behind one of them and a bus behind
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the other. Well, no, it's people piled on top of
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that truck of displaced Palestinians fleeing Gaza City on Thursday
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towards the south as Israel maneuvers to seized the enclave's
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largest urban center. The cars are really beaten up. There
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are clothes and things piled on top. One has what
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looks like a tank on it. I don't know if
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it's a water tank. It's wrapped and then behind it's
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just loaded with items. It's entitled a heavy choice in
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Gaza City Flee or Stay? By Jerry C. Siam Somala
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and Mohammad l Chama as Israel works to relocate nearly
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one million residents wrestled with the costs and perils. And
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to the right of that, Trump tries new TAC to
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ax funds move targets five billion dollars for global aid.
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President test loophole to bypass Congress by Jacob Bogage and
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Emily Davies. And below the fold on the far left,
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DC tourism was already down. Enter the Guard by Andrea
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Sachs and Fredrika Coco Coxio hacka unearthed key data in
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Tesla collision trial by Tricia Fedani and Fayz Sidiqui. And
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below that is a picture of floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina
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pouring through a levee in New Orleans on August thirtieth
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of two thousand and five, twenty years ago. And you
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just see water, absolutely water inundating the area of New
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Orleans at that time, and it's just a rush. Hurricane
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Katrina's horrors still linger twenty years later. Visuals of an
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American catastrophe remained seared in collective memory. By Brady Dennis.
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First article, Trump tries to rest spending power from Congress
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as a government showdown or shutdown looms, The administration says
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it can counsel nearly five billion dollars in international aid
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with or without approval from lawmakers under a little tested
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theory called pocket recission. And there is a picture of
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Trump speaking at a cabinet meeting with Marco Rubio, who
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Secretary of State, on his right, and the Secretary of
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the Military Pete Hegseeth on the left, by Jacob Baggage
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and Emily Davies. President Donald Trump says he will counsel
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nearly five billion dollars in congressionally approved funding for US
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international assistance and diplomacy, setting up a fresh confrontration in
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the White House's attempt to rest constitutional spending power away
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from lawmakers. The Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee
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on FRI called the moved an an attempt to undermine
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the law. The move risks complicating talks to avert a
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looming government showed shut down deadline. Federal funding expires September thirtieth,
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and without new spending laws, broad swaths of the government
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would shuffer. Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress, but need
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support from Democrats in the senmate to pass spending laws.
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Trump and Whitehouse Budget Director Russell Vaught took office with
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plans to challenge Congress's power of the purse through impoundments
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or unilateral moves to council legally mandated spending. Impoundments are
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illegal under a nineteen seventy four law that Vaught has
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pledged to challenge in court. The right has says it
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can block funds in a different manner, using a loophole
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in the statute. When the President asked Congress to rescind
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certain funding, those resources are frozen for forty five days.
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By spending sending such a request to Congress within forty
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five days of the end of the physical year physical year,
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Trump can essentially run out the clock on that funding
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and cancel it even if lawmakers don't act, though, through
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what's known as a pocket recision. Last night, President Trump
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canceled in that word canceled is in full caps, four
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point nine billion dollars in America last foreign aid using
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a pocket recision. The White House Office of Management and
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Budget posted on x adding that Trump will always put
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a marria Erica first. America first is in full caps.
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The President is using his authority under the Impoundment Control
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Act to deploy a pocket recision canceling a four point
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nine billion in woke and weaponized foreign aid money that
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violates the president's America First priorities, according to a government statement,
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Congress returns from its August recess next week, but lawmakers
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in both parties blasted Trump's action. Article I of the
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Constitution makes clear that Congress has the responsibility for the
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power of the purse. Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine,
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the Senator Appropriation's chair, said in a statement, adding any
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effort to rescind appropriated funds with out Congressional approval is
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a clear violation of the law. Senator Patty Murray of Washington,
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the top Democrat on the panel, echo the sentiment. Russell
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Vought would like us all to believe that making this
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recision's request just weeks away from the end of the
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physical year provides some sort of get out of jail
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free card for this administration to simply not spend investments.
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Congress is made it emphatically does not, she said in
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a statement, adding legal experts have made clear this scheme
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is illegal, and so have my Republican colleagues. The top
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Senate Democrat said the result could be a shutdown. As
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the country stares down next month's government funding deadline on
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September thirtieth, it is clear neither President Trump nor Congressional
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Republicans have any plan to avoid a painful and entirely
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unnecessary shutdown. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Shuma of New
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York said in a statement. The last time a president
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used a pocket recision to claim Congress's spending authority was
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in nineteen nine seventy seven. A White House official, speaking
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on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said
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that Trump administration is very enthusiastic about pocket recisions and
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called the tool a really important step toward addressing the
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imbalances since the Impoundment Control Act was enacted fifty years ago.
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The funds Trump canceled were largely intended for the US
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Agency for International Development GLIS, global peacekeeping and anti poverty
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agency that the White House targeted for cost saving in
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the early days of Trump's second presidency. Other funds were
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meant for peacekeeping and democracy programs at the State Department.
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Those funds and Trump's plan to shutter USAID have been
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the subject of ongoing court battles. A federal judge ruled
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in February that Trump could not freeze the international development funding,
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though that ruling was scaled back by the Supreme Court.
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The White House officials said the administration decided to direct
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the pocket recisions narrowly toward USAID funding to create as
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focused of a debate as we possibly could. The officials
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saw the funding for USAID as the clearest example of
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money they could not redirect to fit the President's priority.
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We wanted to make the case as clean as we
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possibly could as we navigate the different critics that we
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know would arise, the official said. The official acknowledged that
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the approach would face legal challenges and projected confidence that
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their argument will prevail. A federal appeals court earlier this
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month held that the Trump administration could block the funds
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to USAID, but largely because the group suing the White
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House did not have the legal standing to do so.
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The court fund that only the Government Accountability Office, Congress's
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watchdog could bring that case against the president. The leader
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of that office, Jene Dodaro, is set to leave his
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post in decemble. Trump will name his replacement who must
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be confirmed by the Senate, was voted in July to
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cancel about nine billion dollars in funding for foreign aid
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and public broadcasting that Trump had requested in an earlier
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recision measure. This new pocket decision is less confrontational than
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many lawmakers had privately feared. Republicans and Democrats alike were
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preparing for a scenario in which the White House attempted
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to cancel tens of billions of dollars from a variety
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of federal agencies, especially in health, science, and education funding,
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which would have immediately scuttled government funding talks. But Trump
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is largely shut down USAID, moving core functions to the
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State Department. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social
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media Friday that he detaped bought to oversee the final
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winding down of USAID. Still, the White House is testing
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law maker's patience over spending. Records released last week revealed
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that the administration was blocking low income housing services, education assistants,
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medical research grants, and other programs approved by Congress. Before
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the White House Office of Management and Budget would release
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the funds. It demanded plans from agencies to show they
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are following guidance Trump has laid out in executive orders,
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such as a new ban on spending on diversity programs.
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Many budget experts and legal scholars say that practice is illegal.
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Also on the front page, appeals court strikes down Trump's
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tariffs as illegal, but leaves them in place. Trump's cornerstone
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economic policy faced yet another challenge, as a federal appeals
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court ruled he did not have the authority to impose
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the levies. This is by Rachel Lairman and David J. Lynch.
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President Donald Trump's cornerstone economic policy was dealt another setback Friday,
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when a federal appeals court ruled he did not have
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the authority to impose most of his sweeping tariffs on
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imports from dozens of trading partners. Trump's tariffs will be
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allowed to remain in effect for now, to allow time
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for an appeal to the U. S Supreme Court. US
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Attorney General Pam Bondi tweeted Friday night that the Justice
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Department would appeal the decision. The US Court of Appeals
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for the Federal Circuit ruled seven to four to uphold
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a lower court's decision that Trump overstepped his authority in
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using a nineteen seventy seven law, the International Emergency Economic
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Powers Act, always got an acqua IEEPA to impose most
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of his tariffs. Historically, the emergency law has been used
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to impose economic sanctions in the case of threats against
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the country. The statue bostows significantly authority significant authority on
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the president to undertake a number of actions in response
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to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions
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explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties or the like,
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or the power to tax. A group of federal judges
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wrote in their ruling, adding, absent of valid delegation by Congress,
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the President has no authority to impose taxes. The decision
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throws the future of Trump's foundational economic policy into uncertainty
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once more, only weeks after the president unveiled in priest
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levies on more than sixty countries around the world. Those
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tariffs spared many countries from even higher levels first proposed
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by Trump and April, but still added much higher taxes
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than the country has imposed in recent decades. Trump posted
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Friday on troth social criticizing the decision, writing that holly
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partisan Appeals Court incorrectly said that Act tariffs should be removed,
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but they know the United States of America will win
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in the end. If these tariffs ever went away, it
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would be a total disaster for the country. The legal
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challenge was brought by a group of state governments and
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small businesses, who argued in part that no such emergency
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exists to justify Trump using the law. The Trump administration
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has disputed this, arguing that the trade deficit that the
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United States States has run every year since nineteen seventy
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five constitutes such an emergency. The Liberty Justice Center, which
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represents the small businesses in the lawsuit, said Friday it
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would continue to defend the suit in the appeal to
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the Supreme Court. The President cannot lawfully impose tariffs on
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his own and I EEPA does not give him unlimited
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unilateral teriff authority, Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Council and Director of Litigation,
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said in a statement, adding, this decision protects American businesses
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and consumers from the uncertainty and harm caused by these
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unlawful tariffs. The four judges who dissented from the majority's
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ruling wrote that I EEPA embodies an as open congressional
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grant a broad emergency authority in this foreign affairs realm.
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Trump has said the tariffs are a response to years
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of unfair trading practices by other nations that have hollowed
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out American manufacturing communities. The president has pledged the levees
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will bring a golden age back to the country's manufacturing sector.
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The number of US manufacturing jobs has been falling since
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nineteen seventy nine, mostly because of the effects of automation.
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Most mainstream economists say the tariffs are unlikely to result
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in a significant increase in the number of American factory jobs,
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while raising costs for US factories that rely on foreign
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parts and for American consumers. The US economy is already
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starting to feel the effects of the policies, as inflation
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has increased in some sectors and remained flat in others,
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and the labor market has weakened. During a slight reprieve
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from higher tariffs earlier this year, the Trump administration attempted
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to broker deals with countries around the world. By the
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time the higher tariffs took hold in August, they had
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reached a handful of trade deals, agreeing to impose levees
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on imports from the European Union, Britain, Vietnam, Japan, and others.
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The White House can pursue other ways to impose teriffs,
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including a law they used to start levees on imports
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of steel, aluminum, and automobiles. If Trump's use of ie
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PA is ultimately struck down in court, but that will
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take time. In his post on truth Social Trump size
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that tariffs remain in effect, while writing, the US will
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no longer tolerate enormous trade deficits and underfair tariffs and
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non trade non tariff trade barriers imposed by other countries,
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friend or foe that undermine our manufacturer's, farmers, and everyone else.
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If allowed to stand, this decision would literally destroy the
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United States of America. The appeals court also sent part
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of the case back to a lower court to reconsider
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whether the government should refund tariffs to all companies that
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already paid them or just the parties that sued the government.
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The next article is an exclusive Washington Post article entitled
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Tesla said it didn't have key data in a fatal crash,
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then a hacker found it And there is a picture
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of a gentleman Dylan and Gulo thirty three at the
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site in Key Largo, Florida, where a Tesla driver using
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autopilotte killed his girlfriend Buena vds Leon and left and
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Gulo catastrophically injured in twenty nineteen. And he is standing
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between what looked like yellow signs on a road. I mean,
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it doesn't look like there's anything you can drive around him.
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It says he's got on jeans and a white T
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shirt and hands in his pocket. On the four square
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signs on an angle with dots on them. They look
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like dice with six nine dots on each of them,
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and then the tallest one has arrows going left and
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right to go around the sign. The critical evidence was
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presented last month to a jury which found the company
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partially lavel for the twenty nineteen crash in Key Largo,
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Florida by Tricia Theedani and FaZe Sidiqui. Years after a
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Tesla driver using autopilot plowed into a young Florida couple
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in twenty nineteen, crucial electronic data detailing how the fatal
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wreck unfolded was missing. The information was key for a
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wrongful death case. The surviva and the victim's family were
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building against Tesla, but the company said it didn't have
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the data. Then, a self described hackle enlisted by the
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plaintiffs to decode the contents of a chip they recovered
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from the vehicle, found it while sipping a Vinti size
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hocked chocolate out of South Florida Starbucks. Tesla later said
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in court that it had the data on its own
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service all along. The hacker's discovery would become a key
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piece of evidence presented during a trial that began last
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month in Miami federal court, which dissected the final moments
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before the collision and ended a historic two hundred and
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forty three million dollars verdict against the company. The pivotal
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and previously unreported role of a hacker in accessing that
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information shows how valuable Tesla's data is when its futuristic
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technology is involved in a crash. While Tesla said it
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has produced similar data and other litigation, the Florida lawsuit
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reflects how a jury's perception of Tesla's cooperation in recovering
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such data can play into a judgment in the hundreds
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of millions of dollars. The company's driver assistance technology includes
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features that automatically control a Tesla's speed and steering, and
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are programmed to react when an obstacle such as another
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vehicle or a pedestrian is in its path. Tesla's CEO,
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Elon Musk, has referred to its vehicle as a very
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sophisticated computer on wheels, and said Tesla is a software
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company as much as it is a hardware company. He
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has positioned the company's most advanced iteration of driver assistants
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available to consumers full self driving as the difference between
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Tesla being worth a lot of money and being worth
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practically zero. The batch of data plaintiffs were after, internally
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referred to as a collision snapshot, showed exactly what the
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vehicle's cameras detected before the crash, including the young woman
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who was killed. The plaintiffs' attorneys said they believed that
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data would present a damning picture of the system's shortcomings,
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and the hacker, who for years had been taking autopilot
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computers apart and cloning their data, was confident he could
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find it. For any reasonable person, it was obvious the
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data was there, the hacker told The Washington Post, speaking
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on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. The hacker,
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known online by his ex handle at Green thinly did
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not testify in the case. Over three weeks in Miami,
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a durer was asked to consider how m My Tesla's
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autopilot technology was to blame for a crash that killed
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twenty two year old Nabil Benavides Leon and catastrophically injured
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her boyfriend, Dylan and Gulo in Key Largo. The plaintiffs
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filed a joint federal lawsuit against Tesla last year, alleging
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that the vehicle failed to alert the driver to the
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couple ahead and was negligent in allowing autopilote to operate
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on a road for which it was not designed. A.
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Gulo and the Benavides Leon family initially sued the driver
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of the Tesla, George McGee, who said he was using
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autopilot when he looked away from the road to retrieve
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a dropped cell phone. McGhee, who settled with the plaintiffs
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in a separate case, did not respond to her request
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for comment. Tesla said that it was not responsible for
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the crash and that McGhee was fully to blame because
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the law and its owner's manual state the driver must
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be in control no matter whether autopilot is engaged. After
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this article was initially published. A Tesla spokesperson reiterated a
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statement originally provided to and published in the Post in July.
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The evidence clearly shows that this crash had nothing to
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do with Tesla's autopilot technology. Instead, like so many unfortunate
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accidents since cell phones were invented, this was caused by
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a distracted driver. The company also said it did not
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intentionally suppress the key data, but rather simply couldn't find it.
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Joel Smith, Tesla's attorney, said in an interview that the
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company was clumsy in its handling of the data, but
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did not engage in any impropriety with regard to it.
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It is the most ridiculous perfect storm you've ever heard,
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Smith said, in an effort to explain why Tesla was
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unable to produce the collision snapshot data until after the
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hacker retrieved it for the plaintiffs in court. Smith told
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jurors in his opening statement that Tesla would never think
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about hiding the data because it proved that the driver
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had time to react to the pedestrians standing by their
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parked car, had he been paying attention. We didn't think
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he had it, and we found out we did, he said,
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and thankfully we did because this is an amazingly helpful
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piece of information. I will say that there is a
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picture of the hacker green the onely's workspace, and it
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is just hacked with wires of color and a keyboard
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and different boards of computer information, with a TV screen
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and a car up on it. I mean, it's in
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virtual mess. It unbelievable. It took the jury less than
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a day of deliberation to find Tesla thirty three percent
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liabel for the crash and responsible for two hundred and
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forty three million dollars in punitive and compensatory damages. The
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verdict was a stunning setback for a company that for
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years had successfully argued that the driver bears the responsibility
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when its technology is involved in a crash. Tesla said
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that the verdict was wrong and that it plans to
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appeal given the substantial errors of law and irregularities at trial.
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US District Judge Beth Bloom, who presided over the case,
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said in an order that she did not find sufficient
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evidence that Teftla's failure to initially produce the data was
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in intentional. She ruled, however, that Tesla was required to
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reimburse the plaintiffs for all the costs related to retrieving
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the data themselves. Tesla on Friday asked Bloom to throw
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out the verdict or order a new trial, and push
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for the jury's award to be eliminated or reduced. The
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company's post trial motion focused extensively on the dispute surrounding
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the data, deeming it an irrevlent issue. A person with
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knowledge of the case and the company's thinking, speaking on
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the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said that
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despite the judge's finding, the dispute over the data's accessibility
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is likely to have had a significant impact on the verdict.
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This is kind of a trailblazing case, said Fred Lambert,
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editor in chief of the electric vehicle enthusiast site Electric,
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which reported the dispute around the data. Lambert said he
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believed Tesla's handling of the data to played a part
31:07
in the outcome, adding that the case could have played
31:10
out differently if they were able to drag this on
31:14
a little longer, or the plaintiff couldn't have managed to
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get the autopilot computer cloned in time. Already, the impact
31:24
of Tesla's loss is reverberating beyond the Miami courtroom. A
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shareholder lawsuit in Texas file this month alleges Tesla defrauded
31:34
investors with its promotion of autonomous driving technology. The shareholder
31:40
complaints specifically cites the outcome of the Florida case before
31:45
accusing Tesla of wrongful acts and omissions. Experts said the
31:50
verdict has also given fresh momentum to pending cases across
31:55
the country, including one expected to go to trial in
31:59
Northern column in the fall over the death of a
32:02
fifteen year old. In interviews, Aunglu and Benabedes, Leon's sister,
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Nima Benavides, said they passed up a lot of money
32:15
from Tesla, which they said tried to avoid trial by
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offering them a confidential settlement. Tesla declined to comment, Though
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settlement offers are not unusual in such cases. Aware they
32:29
faced a tough defense, the plaintiffs said they wanted the
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public to know how Tesla deceived them in the years
32:36
following the crash, including the prolonged battle of the data
32:40
eventually recovered by the hacker. We have this relief that
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the world knows, but it doesn't change anything for us.
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My sister is not here and nothing will bring her back,
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Nima Benavides said, corrupted DOTTA immediately after the wreck at
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nine to fourteen pm on April twenty fifth, twenty nineteen,
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The crucial data dating how it unfolded was automatically uploaded
33:11
to the company's servers and stored in a vast central database.
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According to court documents, Tesla's headquarters soon sent an automated
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message back to the car confirming that it had received
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the collision snapshot. Months later, court record show the data
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was just as automatically unlinked from the twenty nineteen Tesla
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model s at the scene, meaning the local copy was
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marked for deletion, a standard practice for Teslas in such incidences,
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according to court testimony. In the time between the crash
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and the hackers intervention, according to testimony from software engineer
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and manager on the autopilot team, someone at Tesla probably
33:58
took affirmative action to delete the copy of the data
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on the company's central database two, leaving investors and the
34:07
family without the information they believed they would needed to
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piece together what happened. About two months after the crash,
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Corporal David Riso, then the Florida Highway Patrol's Chief Traffic
34:23
homicide investigator walked into a Tesla service center in South Florida,
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a meeting arranged by one of the Tesla's lawyers, holding
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two parts from the mangled Tesla. Court record say the
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media control unit a flat center screen used for navigation
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and other features, and the autopilot controlled unit a metal
34:47
box that hosts the crucial data and had cables hanging
34:52
off it. From there, a Tesla service technician worked to
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retrieve the information he could, plugging the media control unit
35:00
into a different Tesla and surveying its contents on a computer.
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That employee attested that he never powered on the autopilot
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control unit where the snapshot resided, court documents show, and
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focused on the media control unit instead, but according to documents,
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Tesla acknowledged that the autopilot control unit transmitted data at
35:25
the time of the police inspection. Tesla recanted its employees'
35:30
testimony after discovering evidence inconsistent with his stated recollection of events.
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It said. Powering up that unit posed a major problem,
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said Alan Moore, an expert witness and forensic engineer who
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testified for the plaintiffs. Launching a number of automatic processes,
35:53
which can include updating software The problem is all of
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this is happening in the treasure trove, he said, putting
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the collision snapshot at risk. At the service center that day,
36:09
the service technician downloaded data to a thumb drive Rizo
36:12
had brought to the facility, but the employee immediately set
36:16
expectations low, Rizzit told the jury last month, he told
36:22
me it was corrupted, even before he handed the thumb
36:26
drive back to me, Rizou said in his testimony. After
36:30
years of trying and failing to retrieve this dota from Tesla,
36:34
the plaintiff's attorneys said they finally hit a wall in
36:38
twenty twenty four and were pairing to go to trial
36:40
without it. But in a last ditch effort to find
36:44
the snapshot that summer, they recovered the controlled units from
36:48
the Florida Highway Patrol, which still had them in its possession.
36:53
Then they needed a technical expert to understand and extract
36:57
what was on them. That's when they turned to hacker Green,
37:03
the only who had a robust social media following for
37:07
his work recovering DAVA from damaged tesla's and posting his
37:12
findings on x. The hacker was consulted with the plaintiff's team.
37:16
When Tesla proposed to the plaintiffs that they power on
37:20
the autumnpilot control unit to determine what data it held,
37:25
an idea green the only vilently opposed, Let's just power
37:31
it on an update it and see what happens. He
37:35
recalled them, suggesting, if I wanted to destroy evidence on
37:39
the computer, that would be exactly the advice I would give.
37:45
After a lengthy back and forth, Tesla and the plaintiffs
37:48
agreed on terms for the hacker to access the data
37:51
from the autopilot unit himself. In October, the plaintiff's attorneys
37:56
flew the hacker down to Miami from his home hundreds
38:00
of miles away. Inside of Starbucks near the Miami Airport,
38:05
the plaintiff's attorneys watched as the greens thee only fired
38:09
up his think pad computer and plugged in a flash
38:13
drive containing a forensic copy of the autopilote unit's contents.
38:18
Within minutes, he found key data that was marked for deletion,
38:23
along with confirmation that Tesla had received the collision snapshot
38:27
within moments of the crash, proving the critical information should
38:32
have actually been accessible all along. The attorneys high fived
38:38
behind him. Over the next few days, the hacker used
38:43
the DOTTI he had found to create an augmentent video
38:46
of the crash that showed in stark detail exactly what
38:51
the Tesla saw in the moments before the crash, and
38:55
the annotated video played for the jury. The vehicle detects
39:00
a vehicle about one hundred and seventy feet away. A
39:03
subsequent frame shows it detecting a pedestrian about one hundred
39:07
and sixteen feet away. As McGee hurdles closer and closer,
39:13
the video shows the Tesla planning a path through Angelo's truck,
39:18
right where he and his girlfriend were standing behind signs
39:22
and reflectors highlighting the end of the road. That was
39:26
the picture that we saw at the beginning of the article,
39:30
with the yellow sites and the dice looking signs. In court, Smith,
39:37
Tesla's attorney, said the video was a clear illustration of
39:41
how McGee had plenty of time to react had he
39:44
been paying attention to the road. Smith said Tesla would
39:48
have loved to have had this evidence all along, but
39:52
had not been able to locate it. Brett Schreber, the
39:56
plaintiff's lead attorney, had a different interpretation, saying that the
40:01
vehicle failed to warn McGee the road was ending, and
40:04
that Tesla had deceived the investigators for years about what
40:08
data was available, even though the company had it before
40:13
the cops even arrived on the scene. There's too much
40:17
going on here for it to be anything other than intentional,
40:21
another plaintiff's attorney, Adam Bummel, said in an interview, the
40:27
facts are a stubborn thing. Federal regulators have ordered the
40:32
investigations and recalls of Tesla's vehicles after dozens of serious crashes,
40:38
including fatalities, over the past decade. Experts and lawyers with
40:44
similar autopilot related cases said verdicts like the one in
40:48
Miami are perhaps the only way to hold the company
40:51
accountable in the public eye as Musk continues to deploy
40:56
its evolving and experimental technology on the roads. The Miami
41:02
verdict gives us future hope that these can be successful,
41:07
said Don Slavic, a product's liability attorney who has several
41:11
penning cases against Tesla. The message from the jury is
41:16
that you did something wrong, change what you're doing. But
41:20
until we see that occur, I'm afraid that it is
41:23
going to take additional verdicts Tesla has twice beats lawsuits
41:29
alleging design flaws in court and settled at least four
41:33
other cases before they made it to trial. The troves
41:37
of newly revealed evidence in the Miami case, including the
41:41
transcripts from hours of testimony, provide an unprecedented look into
41:46
Tesla's playbook for defending itself in court. The case also
41:52
continued a string of recent defeats for Tesla on claims
41:56
related to its advanced drama assistance system. In a landmark
42:02
ruling in June, Mark Dobin, an attorney based in Washington State,
42:07
won an arbitration award entitling him to a full refund
42:11
for his ten thousand, six hundred dollars purchase of Tuesla's
42:15
full self driving technology after an arbitrator rule that Tesla
42:20
had failed to deliver the promised features. In mid twenty
42:24
twenty one, Dobin sought a twenty twenty one Tesla Model
42:28
Y with the software package, but was never able to
42:32
access what Tesla then called full self driving Beta before
42:38
trading in the vehicle in March of twenty twenty two.
42:42
That in the twenty nineteen crash, as Dobin sees it,
42:45
are examples of Tesla over promising. The problem with the
42:51
Key Largo case, and this is where it all ties
42:54
together is Elon Musk's big mouth, he said. The company
43:01
declined to comment for this article beyond or authorizing its
43:05
lawyer to discuss the case. Meanwhile, several pending lawsuits against
43:10
Tesla related to fatal and serious crashes are expected to
43:14
go to trial in the next few years. Shreeber, the
43:18
a plaintiff's attorney in the Miami case, is expecting to
43:21
face the same defense team this fall in California for
43:25
another autopilot related case involving the death of a fifteen
43:29
year old boy. With fresh confidence gathered from this recent verdict,
43:35
Shreeber said he has every intention of asking the next
43:40
jury he faces for a verdict north of a billion dollars.
43:45
The facts are a stubborn thing, Schreiber said. Green, the
43:49
only the hacker who helped recover the data in the
43:53
Miami case, continues to probe tesla autopilot computers from a
43:58
basement workshop strue and with circuit boards and soldering equipment.
44:05
That work is only becoming harder, he said, as Tesla
44:08
is tightening the controls of access to vehicle that crash data.
44:13
If an accident happened today like this, I won't be
44:17
able to extract the data, he said. He is convinced
44:21
that Tesla's reactive posture to data surrounding crashes is a flaw.
44:27
Sometimes you just have to get the data out, he said.
44:34
Also on the front page, DC tourism was already struggling,
44:40
then the National Guard arrived. The city's image is taking
44:44
a hit with the National Guard, and I intown analysts say.
44:49
And there's a picture of three National Guard men walking
44:55
along the National Mall at the Smithsonian Metro exit with
45:01
a woman on a Lyme scooter crossing over the mall.
45:08
By Andrea Sachs and Frederica cocop Candon. Arsiniga was not
45:17
giving up on summer. The chief operating officer of Tours
45:21
by Foot had seen the company suffer setbacks in multiple cities,
45:26
including DZ. The weather swung between sweltering hot and soaking wet.
45:33
A decline in international tourism reduced the usual number of visitors.
45:39
A tepid economy limited spending, but Arsenigia was hopeful for
45:44
one last hurrah in the final weeks of school vacation.
45:49
Then on August eleventh, President Donald Trump deployed the National
45:54
Guard and the capital city. Hundreds of troops rolled in
45:58
and fanned out inst areas such as the National Mall
46:03
and Union Station. It has been a marked downturn since
46:08
the National Guard showed up, said Arseniga, who has been
46:12
counseling one or two of the eight to ten walking
46:16
tours scheduled each day because of a lack of bookings.
46:20
So timing wise, it could be one of the major factors.
46:25
By several key indicators, marketing forecasts, street level foot traffic,
46:30
hotel occupancy, Washington's tourism economy is sliding. Analysts cite the
46:37
city's battered image in mounting fears about security as key drivers.
46:42
The site of National Guard troops, now authorized to carry
46:46
weapons could further chill demand at a time when the
46:50
industry can least afford it. After the doldrooms of the pandemic,
46:55
Washington tourism was looking bright up. In twenty twenty four.
46:59
The city welcomed twenty seven point two million people, two
47:05
point one million more than in twenty nineteen, according to
47:08
Destination DC, the city's marketing organization. This year, the businesses
47:15
that depend on visitor spending hit one obstacle after another,
47:20
widespread federal layoffs, lower attendance than expected at World Pride,
47:26
and most recently, Trump's characterization of the district as the
47:31
city riddled with crime and gangs. The weak federal forces
47:36
dispersed across the capital. Foot traffic in DC dropped seven
47:41
percent on average, according to pass dash By, which creates
47:47
estimates by pooling anaemized data from sources such as mobile devices, sensors, cameras,
47:55
and purchases. Restaurant reservations saw an even deeper drop. Tourism Economics,
48:04
a daughter partner for Destination DC, had forecast a roughly
48:09
fire percent dip in international visitors this year. The prediction
48:13
was made on June twenty second, weeks before the federal takeover.
48:19
Speaking at Destination DC's annual marketing Outlook meeting Tuesday, President
48:25
and CEO Elliott Ferguson expressed frustration with the images the
48:29
White House is broadcast to the world. Ferguson said news
48:33
has affected public perceptions of the city. Before the nine
48:37
to eleven terrorist tax attacks, the Anthrax scare, the sniper
48:42
shootings in two thousand and two, multiple government shutdowns, and
48:47
the January sixth, twenty twenty one insurrection, which overlapped with
48:51
the coronavirus pandemic. But Trump's rhetoric adds a different element.
48:57
The leader of our country in our bat is giving
49:01
a false sense that of what Washington has to offer
49:05
as a city, Ferguson said to a crowd of local
49:09
business and tourism professionals. Data compiled by DC Police showed
49:14
that total violent crime in the city hit a thirty
49:17
year low last year. Congress is investigating whether those numbers
49:22
were manipulated. The Washington Post has reported tourism specialists are
49:28
especially worried about hemorrhaging even more. Foreign visitors, who typically
49:32
stay longer about this is a parentheses seven point one
49:37
nights versus two point three nights on average, and spend
49:42
more fourteen hundred twenty two dollars versus three hundred and
49:46
thirty three dollars than domestic visitors. People need to feel
49:51
safe and know they can have a good experience that
49:54
is not going to be impeded by things that make
49:56
them feel uncomfortable. Ferguson said in an interview after the event.
50:02
That's a huge part of what we're going to focus
50:05
on to counter the negative messaging DC destination. D C
50:12
produced a video called We the People, starring a diverse
50:16
group of residents smitten with their city. Created before the takeover.
50:21
The Valentine to d C is more relevant today than
50:24
it was a few weeks ago. Mixed reaction to troops
50:30
in DC. This month, visitors roaming the city could encounter
50:34
troops and camouflage fatigues. This week, Trump put some of
50:38
them on trash pickup and landscaping duty. There's also a
50:42
chance of running into immigration and custom enforcement agents who
50:46
are apprehending people off the street. For more than four decades,
50:52
Taketin Dev, a professor at Cornell University's Noland School of
50:58
Hotel Administration, has tracked hospitality surveys on what makes a
51:04
destination appealing. Safety and security are often the top attribute,
51:09
he said. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Deaf pointed
51:15
out safety comes second after psychological needs, which include ale, water, food,
51:21
and shelter, whether it applies to life or to tourism.
51:27
Last weekend, female hockey players from multiple states were celebrating
51:31
a tournament win with hot dog from a food truck
51:34
on the National Mall, dressed in matching Hawaiian shirts and
51:39
yellow baseball caps. The athletes said they didn't feel threatened
51:43
or protected by the soldiers in the National Park. Unsettled, yes,
51:48
and sorry for them too. It is definitely a weird
51:53
vibe of just going away to business to get a
51:56
hot dog and their militated tarry people everywhere you look,
52:00
aimlessly walking around. I kind of feel bad for them
52:04
because they're probably really hot, said Alana Saspura, the sole
52:10
local resident in the group of six. Andrea and Norman Klex,
52:15
a married couple from the Dallas area, were visiting for
52:19
a Cradle of Democracy tour of the East Coast. They
52:23
started in d C with the landmarks on the National Mall,
52:27
before going to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell and
52:31
New York to visit the Nine to Eleven Memorial. A
52:35
few days before departing, Andrea learned about the troops and
52:38
grew concerned. I was scared and almost canceled the trip,
52:43
she said. They overcame their reservations and flew to d C.
52:49
We will enjoy ourselves, but we are prepared, Norman said,
52:54
reaching into his backpack and wallet to reveal a US
52:57
passport book and card in el Salvador. He immigrated to
53:02
the States as a child. Though a US citizen, he
53:06
is weary of ice. Alejandro Buxton, the fifteen year old
53:12
founder of Smell of Love, spends many weekends selling his
53:16
homemade candles at markets around the DC area. He has
53:21
noticed lighter foot traffic and lower energy levels in a
53:26
once vibrant shopping destination, such as Eastern Market at the
53:32
southeast side. His August sales have plummeted since last month,
53:37
which he attributes to tariffs, inflation, and the presence of
53:40
National Guard forces. Buxton said the troops make DC feel
53:46
like a city under lockdown. It's like people are afraid
53:51
to come out and shop, the Virginia High School sophomore
53:55
said by email. Compared with twenty twenty four, most DC
54:01
neighborhoods saw fewer people on their streets this summer. According
54:05
to pass dash By data, Entertainment and shopping carridors were
54:10
hit especially hard from June through August. Arseniga said she
54:15
has heard from out of towners that they are shying
54:18
away from d C because of concerns about high crime,
54:22
not because of the National Guard. In fact, some Turgos
54:27
view the soldiers as simply another DC attraction. One family
54:31
was excited to recognize a troop from their home state.
54:36
The tourists are generally like, oh cool, let's take a
54:39
picture with them, she said. On Sunday afternoon, Patricia and
54:45
John McWorter, a mother and son, stroll the National Mall.
54:49
The pair had seen two National Guard members by metro station. Patricia,
54:54
who was visiting from Miami, said she always worried about
54:57
her child, a lawyer and musician, and living in the
55:00
DC area, additional security was comforting. She said, I have
55:06
three sons, two at home and him here, so I
55:09
will worry regardless. Anything that makes the city a little
55:13
bit more secure, I'm grateful for, Patricia said, challenging you ahead.
55:20
Despite the sobering statistics the Destination DC Prison presented Tuesday,
55:26
the organization tried to create an upbeat atmosphere. Many attendees
55:31
appeared to be dressed for a garden party instead of
55:33
a morning meeting with charts and grabs. Du Pont Brass,
55:38
a local assembly heavy on the horns, turned the Southeast
55:42
venue into a dance hall. Ferguson appeared in the video
55:46
spoofing Love is Blind, the reality show that filmed its
55:50
seventh season in the DC area. He was also candid.
55:54
He informed the crowd that forty one groups had decided
55:57
against holding their conferences next year. The meetings could have
56:03
generated fifty four point four million dollars for the city,
56:06
according to Destination DC. He admitted that twenty twenty six
56:12
will be challenging, alluded to a drastic cut in the
56:16
organization's marketing budget, and acknowledge the difficulty of formulating a
56:21
five year plan. COVID should have taught us an invaluable
56:26
lesson about what we thought would happen versus what actually
56:29
does happen, he told two Post reporters after the event.
56:34
Hopefully the disruptors are short term, but we always have
56:37
to have a plan to deal with the anticipated disruptors,
56:41
whatever they are. Tourism makes up a modest slice of
56:47
Washington's economy, including arts, recreation, restaurants, and hotels. That category
56:53
made up about four point two percent of the city's
56:55
gross domestic product in twenty twenty three, compared with the
56:59
federal governments commanding thirty point eight percent slice of the
57:03
local economy according to the Bureau of Economic Analysts. Still,
57:09
DC tourism revenue runs slightly above the national average and
57:13
ranks high nationally in performing arts, museum and accommodations across
57:19
the country. Other cities are confronting similar headwinds. D C
57:24
can take solace in the fact that it is not alone,
57:27
nor is it worse off. Nationwide. The number of international
57:32
visitors was down two point four percent in the first
57:35
seven months of this year compared with twenty twenty four
57:38
and eleven point four percent below twenty nineteen figures, according
57:43
to Tourism Economics. After Trump toyed with the idea of
57:47
turning Canada, the largest foreign market for US destinations, into
57:51
the fifty first date, the country turned a cold shoulder
57:55
to its southern nahbor. Through July, the number of Canadians
57:59
entering the units United States by land has fallen about
58:02
thirty percent compared with last year. Air arrivals have declined
58:06
about fourteen percent. We have an office in Canada, We're
58:11
probably not going to spend money in Canada, Ferguson said,
58:15
By the way, Canada Destination DC does want d C
58:21
to be the fifty first state. And with that, I
58:25
conclude reading Today's Washington Post for Saturday, the thirtieth of
58:30
August only one more day in the month. Have a
58:35
good weekend. Thank you for listening, and I'm sorry for
58:38
the pauses. My most wanted to do different things than
58:42
it should be. Have a good weekend by