Latest / 5 minute updates on the latest Trump actions by Prof Christina Pagel / Last two weeks of Trump: science gutted, enemies attacked, and Cuba in the crosshairs

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Last two weeks of Trump: science gutted, enemies attacked, and Cuba in the crosshairs · 5 minute updates on the latest Trump actions by Prof Christina Pagel

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's been two weeks since my last video and a lot has happened
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: behind the headlines.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: So actions cover childhood vaccines, drinking water, political control
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: over science research, 145,000 American citizen children with detained
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: parents, judges being attacked by name,
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  SPEAKER_00: more people killed in boat strikes and escalating threats against Cuba.
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  SPEAKER_00: So let's just get into it.
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  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with science and public health.
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  SPEAKER_00: Childhood vaccines are again under threat.
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  SPEAKER_00: So last June, RFK junior, the health secretary, fired
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  SPEAKER_00: all 17 members of the independent expert panel that has recommended
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  SPEAKER_00: the childhood vaccine schedule to the CDC since 1964.
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  RFK junior replaced the panel with people who are more
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  skeptical of vaccines,
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  SPEAKER_00: and that new panel then recommended cutting the number of diseases
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  SPEAKER_00: children are routinely vaccinated against down to 11 from current 17.
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  SPEAKER_00: But in March, a federal judge blocked that.
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  SPEAKER_00: So basically, the judge said the changes were arbitrary
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  SPEAKER_00: and Kennedy's appointments likely violated federal law.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the most recent thing is that Trump has signed an executive order
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  SPEAKER_00: that basically tells the CDC it has to cut the vaccine schedule anyway.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a direct attempt to get around that court ruling.
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  SPEAKER_00: Doctor William Schaffner, who is a member of the former independent
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  SPEAKER_00: panel, said that there's little scientific basis
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  SPEAKER_00: for changing recommendations that have already been rigorously reviewed.
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  Speaking of the CDC,
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  it has also removed its public health guidance on safer sex
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  and harm reduction for mpox,
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  used to be called monkeypox,
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  from its website.
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  SPEAKER_00: Health experts are concerned that this is part of a kind of a broader
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  pattern of trying to remove medically vetted and really
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  important information
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  SPEAKER_00: that's considered particularly relevant to LGBTQ+ communities.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then RFK junior as health secretary, fired
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  SPEAKER_00: the two leaders of the US Preventive Services Task Force.
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  So that's the independent expert panel that decides what
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  preventative screenings
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  and procedures insurance companies have to cover at no cost to
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  their patients.
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  SPEAKER_00: The idea
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  SPEAKER_00: being that if you can prevent something, it's better for the patient,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's better for the insurance company, it's better for the state.
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  SPEAKER_00: So this is things like cancer screening and blood pressure checks.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the panel still exists, but firing its leaders suggests that RFK
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  SPEAKER_00: junior is keen to appoint a more ideologically aligned panel.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then you may have heard of PFAS.
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  SPEAKER_00: So these are chemicals in drinking water.
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  They're often kind of called forever chemicals that accumulate
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  in the body.
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  And they've been linked to cancer and other serious health
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  conditions in people.
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  SPEAKER_00: So under Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency instituted rules that
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  SPEAKER_00: put limits on how many of these chemicals there can be in drinking water.
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  SPEAKER_00: But then over the last two weeks under Trump,
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  SPEAKER_00: the EPA has now announced a plan to rescind those rules,
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  SPEAKER_00: which basically risks less safe drinking water for Americans.
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  SPEAKER_00: The attacks on science have also included attacks on new research,
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  SPEAKER_00: so research underpins innovation, from health,
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  SPEAKER_00: to medicine to energy to tech to the environment.
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  SPEAKER_00: The new proposals from the Office of Management and Budget,
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  SPEAKER_00: the OBE is putting more nails in the coffin of the US's status
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  SPEAKER_00: as a world leading research power.
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  SPEAKER_00: Basically, the OMB has proposed new rule that would give senior
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  SPEAKER_00: political appointees final say over which research grants get funded.
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  SPEAKER_00: overriding independent peer review.
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  SPEAKER_00: Grants would have to advance the president's policy priorities,
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  and the new rules would also ban research with a diversity or
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  equity focus.
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  SPEAKER_00: They restrict open access publication, and they will also
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  SPEAKER_00: limit international collaborations.
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  SPEAKER_00: And on that, the National Institutes of Health,
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  the NIH,
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  has already told grant recipients that they must now get
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  permission
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  in advance
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  SPEAKER_00: before coauthoring any paper
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  SPEAKER_00: with a researcher at a foreign institution,
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  SPEAKER_00: even if all the work was done in the United States.
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  SPEAKER_00: They've also been told
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  SPEAKER_00: to remove papers with foreign authors from their progress reports.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now this really matters.
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  SPEAKER_00: So removing foreign coauthors
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  not only erases credit for work already done,
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  it distorts the scientific record
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  SPEAKER_00: and it disincentivize future collaborations.
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  SPEAKER_00: And speaking as a scientist myself,
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  SPEAKER_00: like collaboration is the lifeblood of science,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the more people you can collaborate with,
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  SPEAKER_00: the more perspectives you can get from around the world,
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  SPEAKER_00: the better your science will be.
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  SPEAKER_00: And separately, the National Science Foundation has put future
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  SPEAKER_00: awards on hold specifically for Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Duke.
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  SPEAKER_00: So these are four of the country's leading research universities.
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  SPEAKER_00: So there's a clear pattern here of isolating US science
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  SPEAKER_00: from the rest of the world and politically targeting elite institutions.
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  SPEAKER_00: A recurring
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  theme of the Trump administration is the systematic suppression
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  of dissent.
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  SPEAKER_00: And over the last two weeks, we've seen it across Republican primaries,
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  on social media,
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  in the courts,
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  and even in threats against entire cities.
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  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with the Republican primaries,
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  SPEAKER_00: where basically the lesson is clear.
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  SPEAKER_00: Oppose Donald Trump at your own peril.
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  Defense Secretary Hegseth kind of started things off by
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  speaking at a campaign
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  rally in Kentucky for Trump's preferred candidate,
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  attacking sitting Republican
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  SPEAKER_00: Congressman Thomas Massie as obstructive and a traitor to his party.
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  SPEAKER_00: A Pentagon official claimed that this didn't breach the Hatch Act,
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  SPEAKER_00: which is the law
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  SPEAKER_00: that prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities
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  SPEAKER_00: while in office.
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  SPEAKER_00: But it's kind of hard to see how it doesn't.
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  SPEAKER_00: Massie then duly lost his primary.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't just him.
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  Across all the Republican primaries held over the last two
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  weeks,
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  every sitting
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  SPEAKER_00: politician who had opposed Trump in any way at all
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  SPEAKER_00: lost their race after Trump endorsed their rivals.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this includes in Texas, long serving Republican Senator John Cornyn.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's not exactly a liberal,
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  SPEAKER_00: and he was beaten by Ken Paxton, who was Trump's preferred candidate.
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  SPEAKER_00: The message to pretty much every Republican in office is simply “Back
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump or else”.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump has also continued his kind of sustained
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  SPEAKER_00: campaign against personal enemies using social media and the courts.
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  SPEAKER_00: So he's been on a bit of a...
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  SPEAKER_00: Rampage on Truth Social.
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  SPEAKER_00: So he's posted an AI generated image of prominent
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrats and opponents dressed in orange prison jumpsuits.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that include people like Barack Obama, Susan Rice and former FBI
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  SPEAKER_00: Director James Comey.
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  SPEAKER_00: He posted an AI generated image of Democrat Ro Khanna
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  as a devil,
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  telling Fox News not to allow this sleazebag on their network.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump attacked federal judge Christopher Cooper and his wife personally
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  SPEAKER_00: for ruling against renaming the Kennedy Art center after Trump.
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  SPEAKER_00: He attacked the Supreme Court, calling the court system rigged
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  SPEAKER_00: after its tariff decision.
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  SPEAKER_00: He attacked The New York Times, and he called lawyers who have resigned
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  SPEAKER_00: from governments radical left deep state lunatics.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then Trump refiled his libel suit
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  SPEAKER_00: against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch,
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  SPEAKER_00: which is a lawsuit that a judge
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  SPEAKER_00: had already dismissed about a story the Wall Street Journal
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  SPEAKER_00: wrote on a birthday note Trump allegedly wrote for Jeffrey Epstein,
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  SPEAKER_00: I think the the attacks on judges are particularly worth noting.
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  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's
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  not unusual for politicians to disagree with court rulings,
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  but it's not normal.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it's not okay
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  to repeatedly name individual judges and their family members
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  on social media
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  or to call the entire court system rigged,
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  because it's really undermining
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  SPEAKER_00: the rule of law in your country.
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  SPEAKER_00: Speaking of which, there's the Department of Justice.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that has opened a criminal investigation into E Jean Carroll.
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  SPEAKER_00: So she's the writer
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  who won two civil lawsuits against Trump for sexual assault and
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  defamation.
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  The investigation is focused on whether she committed perjury
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  in her testimony.
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  SPEAKER_00: The DOJ has also opened a separate investigation
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  SPEAKER_00: into the organization that partly funded her lawsuits against Trump.
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  SPEAKER_00: So CNN has described this as the latest in the department's
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  SPEAKER_00: effort to meet Trump's demand to target his personal enemies.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then, finally, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullen,
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  SPEAKER_00: first privately and then publicly confirmed that
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  the administration is drawing up plans to withdraw Customs and
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  Border Protection
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  SPEAKER_00: officers from international airports in so-called sanctuary cities.
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  SPEAKER_00: So sanctuary cities are places that have declined
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  SPEAKER_00: to cooperate with federal immigration crackdowns.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the cities that could be affected include places like New York,
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  SPEAKER_00: Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, Boston.
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  SPEAKER_00: And without customs processing, these airports can then effectively
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  SPEAKER_00: not handle any international arrivals or cargo.
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  SPEAKER_00: So Airlines
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  for America,
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  the trade body for major US carriers,
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  have already warned that
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  the plan would have a devastating effect on airline and tourism
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  industries.
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  Even Trump's own transportation secretary,
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  Sean Duffy,
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  called it politically
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  SPEAKER_00: counterproductive.
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  The timing is even more extraordinary because the FIFA World
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  Cup in football
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  SPEAKER_00: soccer starts next month, with millions of international visitors
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  expected across the US,
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  and the World Cup final is being held in New Jersey,
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  which is just 12 miles from one of the airports in one of these
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  sanctuary cities.
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  SPEAKER_00: So it hasn't been implemented yet.
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  SPEAKER_00: You know, it may well not happen, but the fact that the administration
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  SPEAKER_00: has openly talking about these plans and threatening democratic cities
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  SPEAKER_00: is just kind of another indication of how far they're prepared to go
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  SPEAKER_00: to use the levers of the state as a political weapon.
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  SPEAKER_00: So now I want to talk about nationalism
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  SPEAKER_00: and what's been going on there over the last two weeks.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Brookings Institution is one of the most respected
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  think tanks in the US,
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  and two weeks ago,
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  it published a report showing that over
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  SPEAKER_00: 145,000 children who are US citizens have had a parent
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  SPEAKER_00: detained during the Trump mass deportation campaign.
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  SPEAKER_00: So this is since January 2025.
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  more than 22,000 of those children saw both parents detained at
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  the same time,
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  SPEAKER_00: and around a third of these children were under six years old.
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  SPEAKER_00: So again, these are American citizen children.
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  SPEAKER_00: So who does Trump think deserve to come to the US?
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  Well,
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  this week the Trump administration has formally raised the
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  refugee cap.
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  SPEAKER_00: So asylum has been closed
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  to virtually every country in the world since Trump took office
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  last January.
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  SPEAKER_00: But he's now raised the cap to admit another 10,000 people.
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  SPEAKER_00: But those slots are reserved exclusively for white South Africans
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  SPEAKER_00: known as Afrikaners, who Trump claims are facing
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  SPEAKER_00: racially motivated violence in some kind of emergency.
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  SPEAKER_00: The South African government has consistently denied this,
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  and there is no credible evidence of the emergency that Trump
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  has declared.
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  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, the deportation program itself is also causing serious harm,
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  SPEAKER_00: so an analysis of Ice
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  SPEAKER_00: data found that the US has deported more than 21,000 people to countries
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  that the State Department itself considers too dangerous for
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  Americans to visit.
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  And the conditions inside immigration detention centers are
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  bad,
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  getting worse.
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  So Camp East Montana in El Paso,
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  Texas,
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  which is the largest immigration detention
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  SPEAKER_00: facility in the country, has seen at least three detainee deaths
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  SPEAKER_00: since it opened a year ago, including one murder.
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  SPEAKER_00: A measles outbreak lasting
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  SPEAKER_00: nearly a month and almost 50 violations of detention standards.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that's according to ICE's own inspectors.
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  SPEAKER_00: So now Democratic politicians and immigrant
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  SPEAKER_00: advocates are basically saying this facility has to be closed.
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  And in fact,
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  SPEAKER_00: a lawsuit trying to regulate this facility has been launched this week.
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  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, new body camera footage released as part of another lawsuit
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  SPEAKER_00: has shown Ice agents violently arresting farm workers in Oregon
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  SPEAKER_00: using facial recognition technology to identify and target people.
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  SPEAKER_00: The footage is from last October.
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  And really,
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  critics are saying that it's direct evidence of racial
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  profiling.
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  And this week,
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  we also learned that nearly 200,000 truck drivers,
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  including many
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  SPEAKER_00: who spent years working perfectly well in the industry,
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  are at risk of losing their commercial driving licenses under a
• 11:20
  new Department
• 11:21
  of Transportation rule,
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  basically disqualifying many foreign born drivers.
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  SPEAKER_00: The administration has provided no data whatsoever to show
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  SPEAKER_00: that foreign born commercial drivers pose any specific safety risk.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the rule really appears
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  SPEAKER_00: to be about who those drivers are and not what they've done.
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  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, the tone being set from the top is quite chilling.
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  SPEAKER_00: The white House launched a website this week about immigration arrests,
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  where the website is basically copying the famous Star Wars
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  opening crawl.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that is reading on this website.
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  SPEAKER_00: Aliens have been walking among us, living in our neighborhoods
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  SPEAKER_00: and interacting with us in our daily lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: They've shopped in the same stores, attended the same classes
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  SPEAKER_00: as their children, and lived seemingly normal human existences.
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  SPEAKER_00: With one exception they do not belong here.
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  SPEAKER_00: So finally, foreign aggression.
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  SPEAKER_00: The pressure is ramping up significantly on Cuba, which the US
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  has been blockading for months,
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  blocking new oil imports getting into the country.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Cuba has now used up all of its fuel reserves.
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  SPEAKER_00: The US has recently sanctioned more Cuban officials.
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  SPEAKER_00: A federal grand jury has indicted
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: former Cuban President Raul Castro on murder charges from the 1980s.
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  SPEAKER_00: Secretary of State Marco Rubio has declared
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Cuba to be a national security threat.
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  SPEAKER_00: Senator Lindsey Graham has been talking about Cuban liberation,
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  SPEAKER_00: and Trump has said that Cuba was on our mind.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, there's been a rapid escalation
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: in drug boat strikes in the eastern Pacific.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, alleged drug boat strikes.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: So the US military has carried out four strikes on boats it's
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: accused of carrying drugs in just the last week.
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  So since September,
• 12:55
  the US has now killed at least 205 people with these strikes.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Pentagon has not provided
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  SPEAKER_00: any evidence that the vessels were actually carrying drugs.
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  SPEAKER_00: The strikes are continuing, the death toll is rising,
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  and there's just no evidence for what they're saying they're
• 13:09
  striking them for.
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  SPEAKER_00: What I just wanted to highlight is that the last time we saw so many boat
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  SPEAKER_00: strikes in a single week
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  SPEAKER_00: was literally just before Trump attacked Venezuela in January.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that's it for now.
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  SPEAKER_00: All of these actions and more are available on TrumpActionTracker.info.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I'll see you in a week or two.