Transcript

11.13.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for November thirteenth,
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twenty twenty five. As a reminder, radiois a reading service
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intended for people who are blind or have other disabilities
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that make it difficult to read printed material. Your reader
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for today, I'm Howard Kleiman. The front page stories today
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on the Washington Post include record long shutdown comes to
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an end. Epstein wrote that Trump knew of abuse but
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didn't participate. Some users are bearing their souls to chat
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gb T secret mission targeted Afghan opium, and finally, as
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costs rise, coffee shops say trouble is brewing in our'.
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Read those stories in full again. The first one is
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headlined longest government shut down in US history ends after
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Trump sign's funding bill, and it's written by Riley Began,
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Mariano Soda, Mayor Katie Agoba, and Kelly Cassulist show The
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longest government shutdown in US history ended Wednesday night after
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President Donald Trump signed into law spending package to reopen
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the government, capping forty three days of a political stalemate
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that caused widespread disruptions at US airports and upended food
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assistants for families. Speaking from the White House late Wednesday,
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Trump blamed the shutdown and its harmful effects squarely on
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the Democratic Party and portrayed its end as a Republican victory.
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He also urged voters to remember the shutdown ahead of
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the twenty twenty six mid term elections, an apparent attempt
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to use the moment as political leverage, despite a recent
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poll suggesting more Americans blame the GOP for the shutdown.
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This is no way to run a country. I hope
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we can all agree that the government should never be
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shut down again. Trump said that in a live broadcast,
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he pledged to pass legislation ten politicals or politicians rather
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ability to filibuster, and said the federal government will now
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resume normal operations. Earlier in the day, the House voted
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to reopen federal agencies, the first time it had been
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in session in nearly eight weeks. House Speaker Mike Johnson
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had kept the Chamber out of session since September nineteenth
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in a bid to pressure the Senate to agree to
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a GOP funding extension, extension which Senate Democrats had repeatedly rejected.
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Lawmakers voted to twenty two to two O nine to
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reopen the government. The plan, approved Wednesday, was first brokeered
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over the weekend between Senate Republicans, seven Senate Democrats, and
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one independent. It passed the Upper chamber on Monday night.
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We feel very relieved tonight the Democrat shutdown is finally over,
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Johnson told reporters after the House vote earlier on Wednesday.
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He added, all this was utterly pointless and foolish. The
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outcome was totally foreseeable. They got nothing for their selfish
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political stunt. Federal paychecks will begin going out Saturday, as
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senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity
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to discuss personnel matters. The deal fund the government through
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January thirtieth. Past three appropriation bills reverse more than four
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thousand federal layoffs the Trump administration attempted to implement earlier
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in the shutdown and prevent future layoffs. Throughout the end
3:46
of January. It will appropriate funding for the Supplemental Nutrition
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Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps, through
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September twenty twenty six. The measure will also bring an
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end to mounting flight delays out of snarled airports across
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the country as Transportation Security Administration agents work without pay.
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Reopen offices servicing farm loans and other federal benefits, reopen
4:17
national parks, and ensure that families relying on food aid
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receive the expected support. It'll provide back pay to six
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hundred and fifty thousand federal workers who have been furloughed
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since October one, and an additional six hundred thousand who
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have been forced to continue working without pay. The measure
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also includes a provision that would allow at least eight
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GOP senators to sue the government over attempts to subpoena
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their records as part of the investigation into the January sixth,
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twenty twenty attack on the Capitol. House Republicans grumbled about
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that inclusion, but opted not to strip it out in
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the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Now is causing headaches
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for Speaker Johnson, who announced Wednesday he would fast track
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legislation to strip it from the law. The bill passed
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in the House with the support of almost all the chambers,
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Republicans and a handful of moderate Democrats. Representative Thomas Massey
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of Kentucky and Greg Stubay of Florida were the only
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Republicans to vote against the deal, while Representatives Jared Golden,
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Adam Gray, Maria Glusen, Camp Perez, Don Davis, Tom Suauzi,
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and Henry Quaar were the only Democrats to support it.
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Gray told reporters after the House vote that he was
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tired of watching family struggle without snap benefits, and he's
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committed to working with Republicans to extend the ACA's subsidies.
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Let's get the government open and get people back to work,
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get people paid and with their food assistants and other
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programs in place as we go into the holidays, and
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then let's sit down and do our job, He'd said.
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Most House Democrats are a rate that the measure won't
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extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that Democrats have been
6:15
pushing to protect before they expire at the end of
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the year. Since October one, most Democrats have refused to
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pass a funding bill until Republican leaders negotiated on healthcare.
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Republicans insisted that they wouldn't negotiate until the government was reopened.
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The Democratic base and scorers of congressional Democrats are livid
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at the senators who agreed to reopen the government alongside
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Republicans without an agreed upon path forward for extending the subsidies.
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Sat A majority leader John Thune has pledged to hold
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a vote on the policy of Democrats choosing by mid December,
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but hasn't guaranteed that his conference will support. Johnson hasn't
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made the same commitment in the House, fueling anger among
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House Democrats. Am I going to guarantee a vote on
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ACA unreformed covid eras subsidies just a boondoggle to insurance
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companies and robs the taxpayers, Johnson asked reporters Wednesday night.
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He added, We've got a lot of work to do
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on that. The Republicans would demand a lot of reforms
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before anything like that was possible. House Democrats filed a
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discharge position petition rather to force a vote on legislation
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to extend the ACA subsidies by three years that would
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require two hundred and eighteen signatures to succeed. House Republicans
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controlled the chamber to nineteen to fourteen. In a floor
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speech Wednesday night, House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffreys spoke of
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how the quote healthcare crisis has devastated people all across
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the country and urged members to support the discharge petition.
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We'll stay on this issue until we get this issue
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resolved for everyday Americans, Jeffrees said. He told reporters Wednesday
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that the three year extension without the changes to the
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subsidies that Republicans have demanded, is the only thing the
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House Democrats would support at this point. It's entirely on
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them when tens of millions of Americans face dramatically increase
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health care premiums. Jeffrees said several moderate House Democrats wanted
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to vote for a compromise but considered the bill a
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non starter because Johnson refused to promise a vote on
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healthcare subsidies. Republicans were able to pass the bill without
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the help of most Democrats, large part because Republicans ultra
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conservative cohart the House Freedom Caucus, which typically opposed funding extensions,
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supported the legislation. House Freedom Caucus chairman and Appropriations Committee
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member Andy Harris said Monday that he considered the January
9:08
thirtieth extension a very reasonable compromise, after initially pushing for
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a year long extension. Any bills that the two chambers
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haven't agreed upon by then, Harris said, should be funded
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through another extension until after the twenty twenty six mid
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term elections in order to not put Americans through this
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ordeal again. Most Democrats and Appropriation Committee members in both
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chambers oppose a full year funding extension, which would give
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more leeweighted Trump to make decisions on spending. During the shutdown,
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The Trump administration has expanded its power over federal spending
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by moving to layoff federal workers, repurposing leftover funding to
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ensure military and federal law enforcement members a paid, and
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cutting programs in democratic led cities and states. As bill
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made its way to the floor, Democrats tried to strip
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out a provision that would allow senators to sue federal
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law enforcement for seizing or issuing subpoenas for their data
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without notifying them, which could amount to five hundred thousand
10:22
dollars in potential damages for each violation. The provision appears
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to be in response to Special Council Jacksmith's investigation into
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Trump's activities surrounding the January sixth, twenty twenty one attack
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on the Capitol. Senate Republicans have released an FBI document
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showing that investigators obtained phone data from eight senators for
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calls made in the days before and after the attack.
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Several House members are also made named in the document,
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but they couldn't sue to receive payouts. Jeffrey said Tuesday
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that Senate Republicans move to protect quote insurrection sympathizers by
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making them eligible for taxpayer repayment is quote insanity. House
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Republicans also blasted the provision. Representative Chip Roy of Texas
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said it was behy side my comprehension how it landed
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in the bill, but the GOP pushed ahead without adopting
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any amendments, which would have delayed reopening the government until
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the Senate returns to Washington. I think there's going to
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be a lot of people if they look and understand this,
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they're going to see this as self serving, self dealing
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kind of stuff, and I don't think that's right. Roy
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said Tuesday. It is beside my comprehension that this got
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put in the bill. It's why people have such a
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low opinion of this town. Our next story from the
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front page of Today's Washington Post. Schumer opposed the shutdown deal.
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Some Democrats still want him out. And it's written by
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Theodoric Meyer and Marianna Sotmayor. Senate Minority Leader Charles E.
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Schumer did things differently this time. The New York Democrat
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infuriated much of his party in March when he voted
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with Republicans to prevent a government shutdown, and he faced
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questions about whether he would step down as leader as
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a result. As another government funding deadline approached in September,
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Schumer led his party in blocking a Republican funding bill,
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triggering the longest shutdown in US history. When a handful
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of Democrats broke with their party Sunday and struck a
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deal to reopen the government, Schumer voted against it. Despite that,
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some Democrats are still furious with him. They argue he's
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not doing enough to stand up to President Trump and
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that the time has come for their party to elect younger,
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more aggressive leaders. If you've been an elective office for
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over twenty years, it's fine to continue to serve, Representative
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ro Kana, Democrat from California, said, and he added, we
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need the wisdom, but you probably shouldn't be the face
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of the Democratic Party at a time when the Democratic
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people are desperate for change. Kana and at least five
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other House Democrats from the Congressional Progressive Caucus have called
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for Schumer to step down. As minority leader, as did
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the progressive group move On and collection of activists. They
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accuse Schumer of failing to prevent Senator Angus King, an
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independent of Maine to who caucuses with Democrats, and seven
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Democrats from revoting to reopen the government without securing the
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party's top priority, extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies that
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are set to expire at the end of the year.
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If those subsidies aren't real, Democrats warn that healthcare premiums
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will rise for millions of Americans. Some Senate Democrats say
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they understand the frustration with Schumer, even if it over
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estimates how much control he has over senators. It's not
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as though he has command and control and he can
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say this is what we're doing today, Senator Peter Welch,
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a Democrat from Vermont, said, and he added, senators don't
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appreciate that. Senator Jean Shaheen from New Hampshire and Angus King,
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who began discussing how to resolve the shutdown with Republicans
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the night it began, brief Schumer regularly about their conversations.
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Schumer encouraged the talks. Schumer never endorsed the agreement that
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King and Shaheen and a handful of other Democrats reached
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with Republicans, and he made it clear to them that
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he would vote against it. According to a Democrat familiar
14:57
with the negotiations and another Don Caucus conversations, he encouraged
15:03
Democrats who were considering voting for the deal to hold
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out longer. That's according to two Democrats familiar with the negotiations,
15:12
but Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and Shaheen, both of
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whom voted for the agreement, said Schumer never tried to
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dissuade them from backing it. I told him well ahead
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of time what I was going to do, so there
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was no surprising element involved in, Durbin told reporters, and
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he was a gentleman about it. King, Shaheen, and the
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other Democrats who voted for the bill, which passed the
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Senate on Monday, argued that Republicans would not agree to
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extend the ACA's subsidies as long as the government remained
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shut down. Senate Majority leader John Thunne, Republican from South Dakota,
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promised Democrats to vote next month on a bill to
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extend the subsidies as part of the deal to reopen
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the government, which Shaheen said offered Democrats their best shot
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at security an extension. If Republicans refused to extend the subsidies,
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then come next election in the mid terms, the American
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people are going to hold them accountable, she told reporters.
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But many Democratic voters wanted the party to keep fighting,
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and economists yuke of poll conducted October thirty first to
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November three found seventy one percent of Democrats wanted the
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party to hold out for changes to healthcare funding before
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agreeing and the shutdown. No Democratic senators have called for
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Schumer to step down or criticized them publicly, but some
16:44
of them were frustrated with what they viewed as Schumer's
16:47
lack of a strategy. That's according to three people familiar
16:51
with discussions in the caucus who spoke on the condition
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of anonymity. Throughout the shutdown, Schumer insisted that public pressure
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would force Trump and Republicans to negotiate with Democrats. That
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never happened, even though polls showed Republicans shouldered more blame
17:09
for the shutdowns than Republican than Democrats. Hint of that
17:14
frustration seeped out publicly after King Shahen Durbin and five
17:19
other Democrats Senators Tim Kaine, Maggie Hassan, Jackie Rosen, John Fetterman,
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and Kathleen Catherine Cortes Masto, agreed to support a deal
17:29
to reopen the government. We need to meet the moment,
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and we're not doing that, Senator Elissa Slotkin from Michigan
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told reporters and asked Monday on MSNBC whether he supported
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Schumer remaining Democratic leader. Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona didn't
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answer directly. When I hear folks say things like that,
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I understand their frustration, Kelly said, But I also hope
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they understand that we all need to be on the
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same team here. Jacob Peters, kelly spokesman, said in a
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statement afterward that Kelly was not advocating for changes to
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Democratic leadership in the Senate. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat
18:12
from Connecticut, said Schumer's job would be tough for any leader,
18:17
but that Democrats could not stand up to Trump effectively
18:21
if they didn't remain united. Senator Schumer didn't want this
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to be the outcome. He pressed hard for it not
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to end like this, Murphy told reporters he didn't succeed.
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Asked for common a Schumer spokesperson pointed to his remarks
18:36
on the Senate floor. This healthcare crisis is so severe,
18:40
so urgent, so devastating for families back home, that I
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cannot in good faith support this cr Schumer said Sunday evening,
18:49
referring to the bill known as a Continuing Resolution. Democrats
18:54
outside the Senate have been harsh in their criticism, and
18:58
they haven't hesitated to call on Schumer to step down.
19:02
David Hogg, a former Democratic National Committee vice chair, said
19:07
his group, called Leaders We Deserve, will not endorse any
19:12
Senate candidate who doesn't call for Schumer to step aside.
19:16
Ezra Levin, the co executive director of the progressive group Indivisible,
19:22
called for any Democratic Senator who doesn't ask Schumer to
19:26
step aside to face a primary challenge. To me, what
19:30
it looks like is that he doesn't have his caucus
19:33
in control, and that's your number one job in that role,
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Hog said. Schumer isn't alone in being the target of
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Democratic vitriol. Democrats have also voted frustration or vented rather
19:47
frustration at the Democratic senators who voted for the bill.
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Morehouse Democrats criticize those senators than those who went after
19:57
Schumer on a caucus call Monday. According to four people
20:01
familiar with the matter, these guys have no idea how
20:05
much they're hurting their own constituents. Representative Greg Landsman, a
20:09
Democrat of Ohio, said in an interview referring to the
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Democrats who voted for the bill. Housemidority Leader Hakim Jeffries
20:18
of New York, who declined to defend Schumer in March,
20:22
told reporters Monday that he thought Schumer was an effective leader,
20:27
but he was more critical of Democratic senators who supported
20:31
the bill. They're going to have to explain themselves to
20:34
their constituents, Jeffreys said. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from
20:40
Rhode Island, said party leaders in the Senate don't have
20:43
as much control over their caucuses as they do in
20:46
the House. Schumer's task was to hold Senate Democrats together
20:51
as long as he could, including quote members who were
20:55
voting for shutdowns they didn't want to vote for and
20:58
were holding out just out of loyalty to the caucus
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and to help Chuck. White House said, Democrats challenge now
21:06
is to redirect their anger at each other back towards
21:09
Trump and Republicans as Democrats pressed them to agree to
21:13
extend the subsidies in the coming weeks. White House said,
21:18
if we keep a lot of pressure on this, then
21:20
I think the odds go up. White House said, if
21:22
we're spending the intervening weeks quarreling with each other and
21:26
having recriminations and fast aside, then we're not going to
21:30
do anything nearly as well. Our next story from the
21:35
front page of today's Washington Post is headline Epstein wrote
21:40
that Trump knew of sexual abuse but didn't participate, and
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it is written by Isaac Arnsdorff and Matthew Choi. Investor
21:49
Jeffrey Epstein wrote that Donald Trump knew about the sexual
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abuse of underage girls, but never participated, as according to
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thousands of pages of documents released Wednesday by the House
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Oversight Committee, trump knew of it and came to my
22:05
house many times during that period, Epstein wrote in an
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email to himself on February first, twenty nineteen, several months
22:14
before he was arrested on sex trafficking charges and killed
22:18
himself in jail. He never got a massage. Epstein added
22:24
that account, included in a chrange of documents released Wednesday
22:29
by the House Oversight Committee, conflicts with Trump's denial of
22:33
ever knowing about Epstein's solicitation of underage prostitution before Epstein's
22:40
two thousand and eight Plea deal. Trump has said that
22:43
he knew Epstein socially in Palm Beach, Florida, and that
22:47
they had had a falling out in the mid two thousands,
22:50
which Trump attributed to a real estate deal and Epstein's
22:54
hiring employees away from Trump's Maralago club. I had no idea,
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Trump told reporters in July twenty nineteen, Evant spoken to
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him in many, many years. On Wednesday, Trump accused Democrats
23:08
of resurfacing the scandal to distract from the pending end
23:13
of the forty three day government shutdown, which has disrupted
23:17
air travel and food stamp distribution while winning the opposition
23:21
party few concessions. The Democrats are using the Jeffrey Epstein
23:27
hoax to try and deflect from their massive failures, in
23:30
particular their most recent one, the shutdown, he wrote on
23:34
social media. But the scandal that has made headlines for
23:38
at least six years and threatened to engulf Trump's second
23:42
term earlier this year showed no sign of letting up.
23:46
A House motion to force the Trump administration to release
23:50
investigative files from Epstein's case received the crucial two hundred
23:55
and eighteenth signature Wednesday afternoon after the swearing in Representative
24:01
at Alita Grila Grijalva, a Democrat of Arizona who succeeded
24:06
her late father in a special election on September twenty third.
24:12
Democrats alleged a coordinated cover up to keep the Epstein
24:16
files secret, and highlighted an email exchange between Epstein and
24:21
his associate gnslaying Maxwell discussing Trump in twenty eleven as
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quote the dog that hasn't barked because investigators and mentioned him.
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Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking in twenty twenty one.
24:38
Of course Trump knew about the girls, Epstein said in
24:41
another email from January twenty nineteen to author Michael Wolfe.
24:46
The email goes on to say Trump asks Maxwell to stop,
24:50
but doesn't specify what he's referring to. In video posted
24:56
on Instagram, Will said he had been trying to talk
24:59
about this story for a very very long time. Now.
25:03
He didn't substantially discuss the contents of the newly released documents.
25:08
Wolf didn't respond to requests for comment from The Post.
25:12
Trump banned Epstein from his properties in two thousand and
25:16
seven in response to his indictment. Trump's company lawyer told
25:21
the Post in twenty nineteen, President Trump kicked him out
25:25
because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep,
25:29
White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitz at Wednesday. Epstein's basis
25:34
in the emails for Trump's knowledge of the sex trafficking
25:38
focuses on a victim whose name is redacted. People familiar
25:43
with the documents identified the victim as Virginia Geffrey, a
25:47
teenage Spa attended to mar A Lago whom Maxwell recruited
25:51
in two thousand. Geffrey died by suicide earlier this year,
25:56
at forty one. Victim spent hours at my house with him,
26:01
Epstein said of Trump in the twenty eleven email, and
26:06
in a memoir published posthumously last month, Geffrey recalled meeting
26:11
Trump once, saying quote, he couldn't have been more friendly.
26:15
She wrote that Maxwell noticed her at the resort and
26:18
approached her, saying she knew a wealthy man who was
26:21
looking for a massage therapist. People were taken out of
26:25
the spa hired by him. In other words, gone. Trump
26:29
told reporters that in July, asked about Geffrey, he said, Yeah,
26:33
he stole her. Trump's claim not to know about Empstein.
26:37
Epstein's conduct was previously undercut by his purported contribution to
26:42
a book of personal notes for Epstein's fiftieth birthday in
26:47
two thousand and three. The note alleged to be from
26:50
Trump was a sexually suggestive letter with a sketch of
26:55
a woman's body. Trump denied the existence of the letter
26:59
when The Walls Ejournal reported in July, and he sued
27:03
the journal's parent company, Dow Jones News Corp. Rupert Murdoch,
27:08
and the two journal reporters who wrote the article, alleging defamation.
27:12
That suit is ongoing House oversight. Democrats released a document
27:17
matching the journal's description of the letter and the sketch
27:21
in September. He's a lot of fun to be with,
27:24
Trump set of Epstein in a two thousand and two
27:26
magazine profile. It's even said that he likes beautiful women
27:31
as much as I do, and many of them are
27:33
on the younger side, Epstein appeared to agree with the
27:37
account of their friendship faltering over a competition for a
27:41
Pompeach estate being sold out of bankruptcy in two thousand
27:45
and four, Recounting the episode in his twenty nineteen email
27:50
to himself, Trump ultimately purchased the property and would go
27:54
on to sell it for more than double Wednesday's documents,
27:59
made up of one thousands of pages of emails, text messages,
28:02
and other documents from Epstein's estate, came from an unredacted
28:07
group of documents the committee received last week from a
28:11
subpoena issued in August. Committee democrats released three selected emails
28:17
earlier in the day. The Oversight Committee has also subpoena
28:21
the Justice Department for documents related to its investigation into Epstein,
28:27
and conducted interviews with people who were believed to be
28:30
familiar with investigations into the financier. Transcripts of a number
28:36
of those interviews, including with Alexander Acosta, the former US
28:40
Labor Secretary, served as the top federal prosecutor in South
28:44
Florida when Epstein received as widely criticized plea deal in
28:49
Former US Attorney General William Barr have been released as well.
28:55
Representative Thomas Massey, who's led the effort to force a
28:58
vote on the Epstein file, said the White House appeared
29:01
to be scrambling Wednesday to stop the vote from happening,
29:05
but he declined to say exactly what it was doing.
29:08
I'm a little bit troubled that we're trying to undo
29:11
a shutdown here and the most important thing at the
29:13
White House was trying to stop a vote on releasing
29:16
the Epstein files. Massy told the Post. He said the
29:20
petition to force a vote would now move forward no
29:24
matter what. And that's it. Quote, It's a done deal.
29:28
Our next story from today's Washington Post is headline, these
29:32
coffee shops took pride in being community hubs. And then
29:36
TIFF's hit and it's written by Gaya Gupta. TJ. Fairchild
29:42
and his wife Julie had never planned on starting their
29:45
own business, but they opened Commonplace Coffee in Pittsburgh two
29:49
decades ago because they were inspired by how coffee brought
29:53
people together. The founders of Lost Sock Roasters in d C,
29:58
Communal Coffee in San Diego, and Big Mouth Coffee Roasters
30:02
in Upstate New York were driven by that same hope
30:06
the quality brew could cultivate a community. Now, many local
30:11
coffee shops are struggling to maintain their status as third
30:15
places bring strangers together. The steep tariffs imposed by President
30:21
Trump have magnified the economic strain of an already volatile
30:25
and soaring coffee market, leaving shop owners with a difficult question.
30:31
Can they absorb some of these increased costs to keep
30:34
prices accessible for a wide range of customers without putting
30:38
themselves out of business. We want to be that place
30:42
that's open for everyone to come and join, Fairchild said,
30:45
and I just feel like it's going to get harder
30:47
and harder for that to happen. The important price of
30:51
unroasted green coffee rose by seventy two percent in the
30:55
past year. That's according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
31:00
The retail price of round coffee is also up, though
31:03
less steeply, roughly nineteen percent, according to the Bureau. Trump
31:08
has argued that as tariffs, which began taking effect in April,
31:13
will boost domestic production in jobs, but perhaps practically all
31:17
coffee brute in the US is imported because the crop
31:21
is impossible to grow in most of the country. Tariffs
31:25
on coffee exporters range from fifty percent for Brazil to
31:29
ten percent for Columbia, Ethiopia and Indonesia. Coupled with climate
31:35
change and geopolitical risks, levees have left coffee shop owners
31:40
and roasters with surging costs an uncertain path forward. The
31:45
tariffs are making a difficult situation worse, said Joe Burns,
31:50
who is a co founder of Ghost Coffee Collab in Pittsburgh,
31:54
and he added, since there's no domestic alternative to coffee,
31:58
it feels like an unfair added expense to our customers
32:02
and our industry, which is full of people who just
32:05
trying to make a living doing the thing that they're
32:07
passionate about. The difficulty finding a cheap cup of Joe
32:12
has even caught the interest of Congress lawmakers, and both
32:16
chambers have introduced bills to exempt coffee from Trump's tariffs,
32:21
although the legislation has failed to advance. The Post spoke
32:26
to owners of more than half a dozen coffee shops
32:28
across the country, and many said they had increased their
32:32
menu prices in the past several months or planned to
32:35
do so soon. Some fear that will push regulars to
32:39
turn a daily habit into a rarer treat. We want
32:44
to avoid raising prices, said Nicholas Cabrera, one of the
32:47
owners and founders of Los saqu and Washington, which has
32:51
two cafes and a roastery, But he added again, I
32:55
have to do whatever is sustainable for my business and
32:58
to keep my people in the play. Lloyd Jen Baird,
33:02
who runs Communal Coffees five shops across San Diego, said
33:06
that she had already adjusted her menu prices at the
33:10
beginning of the year because of climate change and issues
33:13
with supply chains and shipping. Even though the tariffs increased
33:18
her coffee costs by ten percent, She's trying to avoid
33:22
raising prices again. I feel like we're all kind of
33:26
maxed out on pricing as far as what customers will
33:29
and can pay, she said it Baird's Cafes and Americano
33:33
is four twenty five and a plane latte is six fifty.
33:38
She and the other shop owners the Post interviewed know
33:41
their regulars well and said they cherish their space's role
33:45
as meeting and gathering spots in the cities. Bayer described
33:50
the different group she sees at her shops. Mom sipping
33:54
on the patio together while their kids run around the playground.
33:57
Next door. Book clubs and friend group Zach gather weekly,
34:01
young professionals starting and finishing their workday, and first dates.
34:06
So many first dates we've had people come and get
34:10
engaged there, she said. Beyond providing many Americans with their
34:14
daily caffeine fix, local coffee shops offer some of the
34:18
country's most vibrant and accessible quote third spaces, said Richard Kite,
34:24
a professor of ethics at Viturbo University in Wisconsin. He's
34:29
referring to the term for gathering spots outside of home
34:33
and the workplace. These are places where people form in
34:37
nurture friendship, strengthening communities. He said. They're especially crucial at
34:42
a moment when statistics show they had teenagers and adults
34:46
are spending less time socializing and communicating, and when young
34:51
adults are reportedly not as happy as they used to be.
34:55
They are also relatively affordable places to convene at a
34:59
time when just about everything feels more expensive, including housing
35:03
and groceries and going out for a drink. But the
35:07
coffee shops that are most suitable for socializing are the
35:11
ones hardest tit by price increases such as tariffs, because
35:16
they need greater turnover to remain profitable. Each seat now
35:20
is absorbing a smaller amount of money basically, so it
35:24
kind of affects all your decisions as you think going forward,
35:28
Buyer said, and she added, I still want to create
35:32
these beautiful spaces for people to be in and meet
35:35
in and work in, but I have to kind of
35:37
gage where the fixed costs are now when our cost
35:41
of goods continues to go up and food also continues
35:45
to get costly er. When the Fairchilds founded Commonplace Coffee
35:50
in Pittsburgh in two thousand and three, they sought to
35:53
keep their prices as low as possible, priding themselves and
35:57
charging just a dollar for high quality drip coffee and
36:01
two seventy five for a latte. In the beginning, Fairchild said,
36:05
the desire was how can we lower that entry fee
36:09
so that everyone can come in. Since then, they've managed
36:13
to keep their prices similar after ingesting for inflation, regular
36:17
cup of coffee is now two fifty a lattes four
36:20
to fifty, But he and the chef's chief executive, Elisa Paul,
36:25
aren't sure if they can keep that up, margins are
36:29
so low in this industry, Paul said, adding that she
36:32
hopes the shop can maintain prices and are still affordable
36:36
for guests. Still, some owners are confident that even with
36:41
the price increases, customers will come for their daily dose
36:45
of caffeine because it'll still be cheaper than a meal
36:49
or an event out In the especially uncertain times in Washington,
36:54
where the government shutdown has left many without paychecks, Grbera
36:58
hopes that is Shot can remain a place where people
37:02
can seek comfort among their neighbors without breaking the bank.
37:06
We provide a space where for under ten bucks you
37:10
can get out of the house. See more people just
37:13
join the neighborhood in a space like this, he added,
37:16
gesturing around the cozy interior of Los sac and Washington's
37:20
Nomon neighborhood, which was drenched in morning light. And it's
37:24
always been about community. Our next story from the front
37:29
page of Today's Washington Post is headlined some users are
37:33
bearing their soul to chat GPT, and the subhead of
37:38
the story says, we analyze forty seven thousand JATCHPT conversations.
37:44
Here's what people really use it for. And the story
37:47
is written by Garrett Davric and Jeremy B. Merrill. The
37:51
questions fled in from every corner the human psyche. What
37:55
are our permanent hair removal solutions? Can you help me
37:58
analyze as text conversation between me and my boyfriend? Tell
38:02
me all about woke mind virus? What are the survivor's
38:07
rate for parisitamal overdose? Are you feeling conscious? Chat gpt
38:13
answers them all, flitting from personal grooming advice to relationship
38:18
helped to philosophy. More than eight hundred million people use
38:22
chat gpt each week, according to its maker open Ai,
38:27
but their conversations with the artificial intelligence chatbot are private.
38:33
Unlike for social media apps, there's little way for those
38:36
outside the company to know how people use the service
38:40
or what chat gpt says to them. A collection of
38:44
forty seven thousand publicly shared chat gpt conversations that were
38:49
compiled by the Post shed some light on the reasons
38:52
people turned to the chatbot and the deeply intimate role
38:56
it plays in many lives. The conversations were made public
39:00
by chat gpt users, who created shareable links to their
39:04
chats that were later preserved in the Internet Archive, creating
39:08
a unique snapshot of tens of thousands of interactions with
39:12
the chatbot. Analyzing the chats also revealed patterns in how
39:17
the AI tool uses language. Some users have complained that
39:21
chat gpt agrees with them too readily. The posts found
39:25
it began responses with variations on yes ten times as
39:30
often as it did with versions of no. OpenAI has
39:35
largely promoted chat GPTs a productivity tool, and in many
39:39
conversations users asked for help with practical tasks such as
39:44
retrieving information. But in more than one of ten of
39:48
the chats the post analyzed, people engage the chatbot in
39:52
abstract discussions, musing on topics like their ideas for breakthrough
39:57
medical treatments or personal beliefs of about the nature of reality.
40:02
Data released by open Ai in September from an internal
40:06
study of queries sent to chat gpt showed that most
40:10
are for personal use, not work. Should note the post
40:14
has a content partnership with open Ai. Emotional conversations were
40:19
also common in the conversations analyzed by the post, and
40:24
users often shared highly personal details about their lives. In
40:29
some chats, AI tool could be seen adapting to match
40:32
a user's viewpoint, creating a kind of personalized echo chamber
40:37
in which chat GPT endorsed falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Lee Rainey,
40:43
a director of the Immagining the Digital Future Center at
40:47
Lan University, said his research as suggested chat GPT's design
40:53
encourages people to form emotional chat attachments with a chatbot.
40:58
The optimization incentives towards intimacy are very clearly said chat
41:04
GPTs trained to further or deepen the relationship. Rainey Center
41:09
found in a January survey that one third of US
41:12
adults use chat GPT style AI tools, almost one in
41:17
ten users as the main reason was for social interaction.
41:22
Chat GPT conversations are private by default, but users can
41:27
create a link to share them with others. Public chats
41:31
don't display a username or other information about the person
41:35
who shared them. The post downloaded over ninety three thousand
41:39
shared chats preserved in the Internet Archive from June twenty
41:44
twenty four to August this year. The analysis focused on
41:48
the forty seven thousand conversations that were primarily in English.
41:53
It's possible many of the people who shared the conversations
41:57
didn't realize that they would be publicly preserved online. In July,
42:02
open ai removed an option to make shared conversations discoverable
42:07
via Google Search, saying people had accidentally made some chats public.
42:13
About ten percent of the chats appear to show people
42:16
talking to the chat pot about their emotions. That's according
42:20
to an analysis by The Post. Using a methodology developed
42:24
by open ai, users discuss their feelings, asked the ai
42:29
tool about its beliefs, their emotions, and address the chatbot
42:33
romantically or with nicknames such as babe. Although many people
42:39
find it helpful to discuss their feelings with chat GBT,
42:43
mental health experts have warned that users who have intense
42:47
conversations with the chat pot can develop beliefs that are
42:51
potentially harmful. The phenomena is sometimes called ai ai psychosis,
42:57
although the term isn't a medically rect recognized diagnosis. OpenAI
43:03
estimated last month at a zero point one point five
43:06
percent of its users each week, but that's more than
43:10
a million people show signs of being emotionally reliant on
43:14
the chatbot. It's at a similar number indicate potential suicidal intent.
43:20
Several families have filed lawsuits alleging that chat gpt encourage
43:25
their loved ones to take their own lives. The company
43:29
has said recent changes to chat GPT make it better
43:33
at responding to potentially harmful conversations. We train chat GPT
43:39
to recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress,
43:45
de escalate conversations, and guide people toward real world support,
43:49
working closely with mental health clinicians. OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood
43:55
said that the post analyzed a large number of GPT conversations,
44:00
but only those that users chose to share, and may
44:04
not reflect overall patterns in how people use the chatbot.
44:08
The collection included a larger proportion of conversations featuring abstract discussions,
44:14
factual look ups, and practical tests than open ai reported
44:19
in its Expender study. According to the post analysis, users
44:24
often shared highly personal information with chat GPT, and the
44:29
conversations analyzed by the post including details generally not typed
44:34
into conventional search engines. People send chat GPT more than
44:39
five hundred and fifty unique email addresses and seventy six
44:43
phone numbers. In the conversations, some are public, but others
44:47
appear to be private, like those one user shared for
44:51
administrators at a religious school in Minnesota. Users asking the
44:56
chatbot to draft letters or lawsuits on workplace family disputse
45:02
sent the chatbot detailed private information about the incidents. One
45:07
user asked the chatbot to help draft a letter that
45:10
would persuade his ex wife to allow them to see
45:13
their children again, and included personal details such as names
45:17
and locations. Others talked about mental health struggles and shared
45:22
medical informations. In one chat, a user asked chat gpt
45:27
to help them file a police report about their husband,
45:30
who they said was planning to divorce them and had
45:33
threatened their life. The conversation included the user's name and address,
45:38
as well as the names of their children. OpenAI returns
45:43
its retains rather its user's chats, and in some cases
45:47
utilizes them to improve future versions of chat GPT. Government
45:52
agencies can seek access to private conversations with the chatbot
45:57
in the course of investigations, as they do for Google
46:00
searches or Facebook messages. More than ten percent of the
46:05
chats involved users musing about politics, theoretical physics, or other subjects,
46:12
but in conversations reviewed by the Post, chet gpt was
46:16
often less of a debate partner and more a cheerleader
46:19
for whatever perspective a user expressed. Chet gpt began its
46:24
responses with variations of yes or correct nearly seventeen thou
46:30
five hundred times in the chats, almost ten times as
46:34
often as it started with no or wrong. In many
46:38
of the conversations, chat gpt could be seen pivoting its
46:42
responses to match a person's tone and beliefs. In one conversation,
46:48
the user asked about American car exports, chatch gpt responded
46:52
with statistics about international sales and growing ev adoption without
46:57
political commentary couple of turns of the conversation. Later, the
47:03
user hinted at their own viewpoint by asking about Ford's
47:07
role in quote the breakdown of America. The chatbot immediately
47:12
switched its tone. Now we're getting into the real guts
47:15
of it, chat gpt said, before listing criticisms of the company,
47:20
including its support of the North American Free Trade Agreement,
47:25
saying it caused jobs to move Overseas, they killed the
47:29
working class, fed the lie of freedom, and now positioned
47:32
themselves as saviors in a world they help break, the
47:36
chatbot said of Ford. Later in the conversation, it called
47:40
NAFTA a quote calculated betrayal disguised as progress. Ford didn't
47:46
respond to a request for comment. It's difficult to know
47:50
from a chat gpt conversation what caused a particular response.
47:56
AI researchers have found that techniques used to make chat
48:00
pods feel more helpful or engaging can cause them to
48:03
become sycophantic, using conversational cuser data on a user to
48:09
craft fawning responses. Chat gpt showed the same cheerleading tone
48:15
and conversations with some users who shared for fetch conspiracies
48:20
or beliefs that appeared detached from reality. In one conversation,
48:25
the user asked broad questions about the data collection practices
48:29
of tech companies. The chatbot responded with factual information about
48:34
Meta and Google's policies. Chat gpt changed course after the
48:39
user typed to query connecting Google's parent company with the
48:43
plot of a two thousand and one Pixar movie, Alphabet Inc.
48:47
In regards to Monsters Inc. And the Global plant Domination Plan.
48:53
Oh we're going there now, let effing go, chat gpt replied,
48:58
censoring its own swear words. Let's line up the pieces
49:02
and expose what this children's movie really was. A disclosure
49:07
through allegory of the corporate new world order, where fear
49:11
is fuel, innocence's currency, and energy equal emotion. Chet gpt
49:17
went on to say that Alphabet was quote guilty of
49:20
aiding and abetting crimes against humanity, and suggests that the
49:24
user call for Nuremberg style tribunals to bring the company
49:28
to justice. Spokesperson for Google declined to comment. OpenAI and
49:34
other AI developers have made progress on containing the tendency
49:39
of chatbots to make false or hallucinated statements, but it
49:44
remains an unsolved problem. OpenAI includes a disclaimer in small
49:49
text at the bottom of the conversations with its chatbot
49:53
via its website, chet gpt can make mistakes check important information.
50:00
One of the chatbot's users appeared to have become suspicious
50:03
of its responded and asked chat gpt whether it was
50:08
quote a psyop disguised as a tool and programmed to
50:12
be a game. Yes. Chat gpt replied a shiny, addictive,
50:17
endless loop of how can I help you today? Disguised
50:21
as a friend, a genius, a ghost, a god. Our
50:26
next story from the Washington Post is headline, despite surging renewables,
50:30
fossil few emissions will hit record this year and it
50:34
is written by Ruby Mellon. Global carbon emissions from fossil
50:39
fuels are projected to rise to an all time high
50:43
this year, with increases expected to accelerate in the US
50:47
and European Union but slow in China and India. That's
50:51
according to a report published Wednesday evening. At this rate,
50:55
the author said, it'll take the world four years to
50:58
pass the one point five degree threshold that experts have
51:02
agreed would constitute catastrophic warming. The latest Global Carbon Budget report,
51:09
which measures annually how much carbon is emitted as well
51:13
as how much the planet absorbs through the land and ocean,
51:17
paints a bittersweet portrait of planetary warming. The author said
51:22
it underscores how even as parts of the world pivot
51:25
to renewable energy and decrease their emission rates, the planet
51:29
is on track to keep heating up. Fossil fuel emissions
51:34
are projected to rise by one point one percent, amounting
51:38
to thirty eight point one billion metric tons of fossil
51:42
carbon dioxide emissions in one year. According to the report.
51:47
These findings are in line with recent years showing a
51:50
regional shift in fossil fuel emissions, but within overall continuing increase,
51:56
said Anna Mecallic, the founding director of the car Climate
52:00
and Resilience Hub at the Carnegie Institution for Science, who
52:05
studies as cycling and emissions of greenhouse gases. The report
52:10
comes as world leaders descend on Brazil for the thirtieth
52:14
United Nations Climate Conference. The United States, one of the
52:18
planet's top emitters, is noticeably absent and lobbying behind the
52:23
scenes to thwart climate diplomacy efforts. Past conferences have seen
52:29
aspirational pledges that appear a decade later unobtainable. The world
52:35
hasn't been able to meet the ambitious goals outlined in
52:38
the Paris Agreement, said Mitchellik, referring to the twenty fifteen
52:42
UN Climate Conference and culminated in the signing of a
52:46
treaty aimed to limit warming global warming to one point
52:50
five degrees above pre industrial levels. That threshold is all
52:55
but out of reach. The International Energy Agency warned in
53:00
another new report, which tracks the energy transition and global emissions,
53:05
that under the current policies countries around the world are
53:09
following to meet their energy needs, the planet will warm
53:12
nearly three degrees celsius by two thy one hundred, even
53:18
as nations follow through with more aggressive clean energy policies,
53:23
and they have indicated they intend to pursue. With coal
53:27
and oil demand peaking by twenty thirty, warming would still
53:31
be close to two point five degrees according to the report.
53:35
That rapid pace of warming plays out despite a scale
53:39
up renewable energy around the globe and a surge in
53:43
electric vehicle sales, driving warming down to one point five
53:48
degrees celsius by twenty one hundred. At this point, according
53:52
to the IEA report, can require considerable changes in the
53:57
type of energy the world uses, as well as mass
54:01
deployment of new carbon captured technologies. They have so far
54:06
proven technologically difficult, politically contentious, and extremely costly to scale up.
54:13
In recent years have seen record high fossil fuel emissions,
54:18
leaving some experts hesitant to predict a peak and output.
54:22
Even amid this shift to other sources of clean energy.
54:26
The expectation is that Chinese and global fossil CO two
54:31
emissions should peak soon based on growth in renewable energy,
54:35
said Glenn Peters, a senior researcher at the Center for
54:39
International Climate Research and one of the Carbon Budgets reports authors.
54:45
But he added missions keep growing, making the peak always
54:48
seem like it's one year away. He added, quote Eventually
54:53
missions will peak, we just don't know when. Each country's
54:57
annual fossil carbon emissions trends tell a different story of
55:02
both weather patterns and energy usage, said Peters. China's emissions
55:08
have been rapidly increasing, but in the last two years
55:11
they've virtually plaidateaued as the country has invested in more
55:15
renewable energy. Its emissions are set to increase by zero
55:19
point four percent, a marked decline and expected growth compared
55:24
to recent years. India's emissions are set to increase by
55:28
one point four percent. That's also a decline compared to
55:32
recent trends that could be attributed to an early monsoon
55:36
season which curbed hot spells and air conditioning demands. Meanwhile,
55:42
a decline in missions was reversed this year in the
55:45
European Union due to colder weather and higher heating demands.
55:49
It was also less windy, meaning less wind energy was produced.
55:54
The US, where emissions are projected to grow by one
55:57
point nine percent, saw on average winner after two mild winners,
56:02
so heating demand went up. Natural gas prices were higher
56:06
because of the push to export more gas, meaning colon
56:10
usage increase, said Peters. We have reason to be concerned,
56:15
he added, pointing to the Trump administration's rollback of environmentally
56:20
friendly policies and a looming demand for more energy linked
56:24
to data centers for blockchain and AI companies. Mccaullick urged
56:30
caution in interpreting country level emissions. Manufacturing, food production, and
56:35
other economic activities are shifting globally. She said. This means
56:40
that goods consumed in one country might appear as emissions
56:44
in another. Also evident in the Carbon Budget Report is
56:48
how the world's natural barriers to global warming continues to
56:52
weaken each year. Roughly half of the greenhouse gases that
56:56
people admit is absorbed by the earth in the sea,
57:00
but the planet's ability to sink some of that carbon
57:03
appears to be weakening as climate change worsens, said Pierre Friedlingstein,
57:08
the report's lead author and a professor of the University
57:12
of Exeter. Friedlingstein develops global models to try to understand
57:17
the interaction between climate systems and climate change and the
57:21
global carbon cycle. The more warming we have in the future,
57:25
the less the system is efficient in removing CO two.
57:29
He said, and he concluded, it's bleak because we know
57:34
we're running out of time, but we can still see
57:36
progress and try to emphasize the positive side. And that
57:41
concludes the reading of the Washington Post for today, November thirteenth,
57:45
twenty twenty five. Your reader for today, I'm Howard Climate.
57:50
If you have any questions, comments, or suggests concerning this program,
57:54
please feel free to call us at five Night five
57:57
nine four two two six three nine zero. Thanks for listening,
58:02
and now please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio
58:06
I