Transcript

3.8.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for today, Saturday,
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March eighth, twenty twenty five. As a reminder, Radio I
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is a reading service intended for people who are blind
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or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
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prim material. Your reader for today is Mark Webster. Today's
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front headliness always consist of six articles and there are
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two photographs. The six articles are warnings, sound on economic comeback.
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Russia pounces as US halts aid, Trump officials cut four
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hundred million dollars for Columbia, A new challenger rises to
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face undefeated death in slashing agencies, DOGE eager to cast
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its targets as fraud. And in last and the longest article,
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Syrians unearth asides horrors. Two photographs on the first page.
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The first one goes with the asside article. It shows
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two children amid the rubble, and then the other photograph
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is thousands of people marching to defend science in Washington,
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d C. Here's the first article. Russian Russia pounces as
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US halts aid. Trump says latest Russian attack on Ukraine.
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Quote what anybody else would do? Unquote quote anybody unquote
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would step up the attack? Trump said of Russia's first
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major missile assault on Ukraine since the US paused intelligence
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sharing within battle country. Here's the article. President Donald Trump
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expressed understanding Friday for Russia's stepped up attacks on Ukraine
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after the White House halted military and intelligence aide the
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Kiev this week, saying that he would resume help for
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the beleaguered country only when Ukrainian leaders agree that quote
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they want to settle unquote. The US cutoff of aid
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to Ukraine has made the country significantly more vulnerable to
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Russian attack, With Kiev no longer able to depend on
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US intelligence assistance to aid its targeting or give it
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warning about Russian attacks. The Kremlin unloaded a massive missile
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assault on Ukraine overnight Thursday into Friday. Quote. I actually
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think he's doing what anybody else would do unquote, Trump
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said in the Oval Office on Friday, when asked whether
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he was upset that Russian President Vladimir Putin was taking
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advantage of the US hault in aid for Ukraine. Quote.
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Probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now.
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He wants to get it ended, and I think Ukraine
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wants to get it ended. But I don't see it's
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crazy they're taking tremendous punishment. I don't quite get it. Unquote.
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Trump was asked whether he would consider stepping up help
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for Ukraine in the face of the Russian assault, giving
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Kiev more air defense munitions. That form of assistance would
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not enable further Ukrainian attacks on Russian positions, but would
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be purely defensive. Trump indicated he would not give Ukraine
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those defensive munitions. Quote. I have to know that they
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want to settle. I don't know that they want to settle.
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If they don't want to settle, we're out of here.
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Close the quote. Trump added that his goal was to
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stop quote stop death unquote, although Russia's overnight assault on
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Ukraine's energy infrastructure injured at least eight people, trump sympathetic
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comments toward Putin contrasted with his social media post hours
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earlier threatening quote large scale unquote sanctions on Russia because
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of the attack. Trump said he also wanted the Kremlin
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to come to the table quote based on the fact
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that Russia is absolutely pounding Ukraine on the battlefield right now.
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I am strongly considering yard skill banking, sanctions, sanctions and
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tariffs on Russia until the ceasefire and final settlement agreement
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on peace is reached to close the quote Trump wrote
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on truth social quote to Russia and Ukraine, get to
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the table right now before it's too late. Thank you,
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close the quote. Trump has rarely offered criticism of Putin,
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and when given the chance to expand upon his social
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media posts during questions from reporters Friday in the Oval Office,
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he declined to do so. Instead, he said that he
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continued to believe Putin when the Russian leader said he
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wants peace quote, I believe him. Unquote. Trump said, quote,
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I think we're doing very well with Russia. Right now,
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they're bombing the hell out of Ukraine. I'm finding it
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more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine. They don't have
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the cards unquote. Since taking office, Trump has harshly criticized
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Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolenski and falsely claimed that Ukraine, not Russia,
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was responsible for starting the war. An Oval Office meeting
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with Zelensky last week ended with Trump and Vice President J. D.
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Vance berating the Ukrainian leader. Vance declared that Zelensky was
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insufficiently grateful to Trump, and Trump accused Zelensky of quote
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gambling with World War III unquote. Days later, Trump cut
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off US military and intelligence assistance for Kiev. The wide
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ranging halt and assistance has partially blinded Ukraine's military, with
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even commercially available satellite imagery now covered by the US ban. Maxaraxar,
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a leading US provider of commercial satellite imagery, said Friday
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had cut off a stream of assistance to Ukraine at
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the direction of the Trump administration. The US government funds
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a contract that provides Ukrainian access to Maxar's orbital imaging
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services through a program called Global Enhanced GOSAEOI and T Delivery.
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The halt also affected other commercial satellite companies that produce
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imagery through the program. A US official said, speaking on
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the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive matters. It was
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unclear when or whether services would resume. The suspension was
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immediately felt by soldiers in the Ukrainian military, which relies
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on fresh imagery to plant attacks, study terrain, and access
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the efficacy of artillery strikes. Ukrainian and US officials are
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scheduled to meet Tusy in Saudi Arabia to try to
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patch up the relationship and make plans for talks with Russia.
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The U S side is expected to include Trump's Friends
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and Middle East Envoy Steve Whitkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio,
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and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz. Zelensky has declared his
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readiness to sign a minerals deal that would the United
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States partial access to Ukraine's natural resources as a way
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of making it more economically invested in the country's peace
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and prosperity. Zelensky was supposed to sign the deal with
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Trump last week, but was instead kicked out of the
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White House. On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly vowed swiftly
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end the war in Ukraine, going so far as to
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say he would do it within twenty four hours of
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taking the oath of office, or even before his inauguration
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because he's respected by the leaders of Russia and Ukraine,
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but the war is still raging. Trump has met with
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criticism for starting talks with Russia to end the war
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and for pressuring and criticizing Ukraine. European leaders have been
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alarmed by the shift in US Russia relations since Trump
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took office. They have expressed concern that Trump will make
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concessions to Putin and embolden him Ukrainian officials report that
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several regions were hit by missiles and drones during the attack,
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and natural gas production facility in the Poltava region were
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knocked out of commission. Missiles in the northeastern city of
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Kharkiv damaged at least thirty houses and injured eight people.
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The attack followed a major drone assault on Ukraine the
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night before. According to Ukraine's Air Force, sixty seven missiles
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were fired in the latest attack, accompanied by one hundred
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and ninety four drones. Energy Minister German Galushenko wrote on
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Facebook that quote Russia is trying to hurt ordinary Ukrainians
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by striking energy and gas production facilities without abandoning its
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goal of leaving us without light and heat and causing
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the greatest harm to ordinary citizens. By the way, that
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was I got that right, Energy Minister German Galushenko. All right,
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that's the end of that entire article. We'll go now
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to the second article. Doges redefines fraud to defend cutting
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federal employees programs. Outside watchdogs and animals say Trump and
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Musk are using overly broad claims of fraud to build
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political support for their plans. Here's the article Elon Musk
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and his allies in the US DOGE Service have justified
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their efforts to dismantle federal agencies by invoking a frequent refrain.
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They're merely targeting fraud, waste, and abuse. That idea has
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been echoed by President Donald Trump, who suggested there was
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significant quote fraud unquote in the Social Security program and
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is addressed to Congress on Tuesday night, and by Republicans
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who are eyeing potential cuts to Medicaid and other federal spending.
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Quote we found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud unquote,
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Trump said in his remarks to Congress, after ridiculing several
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hundred million dollars worth of programs that he called quote
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scams unquote and credited Musk with ending, he called on
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the Justice Department to probe Social Security spending. Quote We're
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going to find out where that money is going, and
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it's not going to be pretty unquote. The speech illustrated
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how Trump is trying to rally Americans behind Musk's project
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to shrink the government by attacking vast sUAS of federal
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spending so fraudulently as fraudulent. Among the alleged fraudsters targeted
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by the Trump administration ford aid programs such as the
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US Agency for International Development, clean energy groups that receive
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funding from the Biden administration, and organizations that specialize in
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diversity initiatives. But independent watchdogs and outside analysts say Trump
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and Musk are using overly broad claims of fraud to
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build political support for sweeping cuts to programs and offices.
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Polls show that many Americans believe that government is rife
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with fraud and waste and support efforts to tackle these problems.
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Yet even eliminating all suspected fraud from government spending wouldn't
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save enough to close the federal budget deficit. Quote. It's
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much easier to call things quote fraud and abuse unquote
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when it's things you don't like unquote, said Drew Altman,
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the president and CEO of KFF, a nonpartisan healthcare research
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and polling organization. Quote it's a way to brand it
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as bad in the eyes of the public and the base,
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to make it easier to cut them close the quote
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beyond political messaging. Quote, fraud unquote is also a technical
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and legal term applied to wilful, potentially criminal acts. A
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spokesman for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, which bills
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itself as the world's largest anti fraud organization, referred to
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the definition in the organization's Fraud Examiner's Manual. Quote, Fraud
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includes any intentional or deliberate act to deprive another of
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property or money by guile, deception, or other unfair means. Unquote,
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the manual reads, there is, indeed fraudulent spending across the government,
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perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars per year, according to
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analysis by Government account Accountability Office. Inspectors General and the
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Justice Department have investigated fraud rings seeking to build health
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programs such as Medicare or Medicaid, and contractors who bribed
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officials to win government business. But that's often not what
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Musk and his allies are referencing. Quote. I saw Musk
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talking about payments for various foreign aid programs or for
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subscriptions and call those fraud unquote, said Mark Goldwine, Senior
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vice president and Senior policy director for the Committee for
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a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that is called
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for physical discipline. Quote. One could argue their waste, that's
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in the eye of the beholder. But if it's a
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program that's designed as intended and going where it's intended,
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it's not fraud, even if that intent is wrong. Close
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the quote. Musk and his Doge team have repeatedly scaled
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back their claims after criticism, revising their website to remove
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some contracts that they wrongly said had been canceled by
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the Trump administration, or to correct statements that inflated the
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team's savings. The billionaire entrepreneurs also acknowledge quote the sort
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of gray boundary between waste and fraud in a podcast
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posted last Friday. Quote if money is sent to a
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person or organization from the government and you didn't really
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deserve it, but the government's still sent it to you,
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is that waste or fraud? Close the quote, Musk mused
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to podcast to Joe Rogan. The framing is familiar for Musk,
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who accused Twitter of fraud during his bid to exit
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his offer to purchase it, and then worked to wind
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down the company now known as X after he took
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it over. Trump has his own history of claiming quote
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fraud unquote before this year, including with election outcomes that
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he's disputed, such as his twenty twenty defeat at the
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hands of Joe Biden. Musk himself was charged with fraud
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after a twenty eighteen Security and Exchange Commission investigation into
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a false claim that he had quote funding secured unquote
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to take Tesla private for four hundred twenty dollars per share.
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Musk and Tesla agreed to settle the case against him,
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the cases against them, each paying separate twenty million dollar fines,
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and Musk agreed to step down as Tesla board chairman.
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The White House declined to comment. Musk did not reply
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to request for comment. Musk has long secured Musk has
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long scoured business long logs for dirt and played up
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the findings. At Twitter, which he bought for forty four
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billion dollars and took over in twenty twenty two, he
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deployed a team to dig through the company's systems for
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evidence of politically motivated malfeasans. He deputized not only his
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own staffer, but also outside parties, including independent journalists, to
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review Twitter's internal data for proof of collusion with Democrats.
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Revelations that were packaged into releases called the quote Twitter
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Files unquote, but even some conservatives were underwhelmed by the
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findings posted publicly which is reflected, which reflected how both
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major political parties could seek internal reviews of content they
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found objectable. Musk has also argued that he learned while
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helping lead PayPal, the money transfer service, in the early
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two thousands that quote the fraudsters will come at you
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immediately unquote to complain at DOGE. He now says criticism
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of the group's proposed cuts is a sign of fraud.
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Quote It's like a tell that someone's actually doing fraud
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because the level of sort of fraud full outrage is
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way over the top. Close the quote, Musk said in
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a conversation last month hosted on his exit platform. He
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also has maintained there is a political reason for resistance
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to Dog's efforts. Democrats are using overly generous entitlement programs
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to lure undocumented immigrants to the United States and shift
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the voting base. He has argued, most undocumented immigrants are
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not eligible for most federal benefits. That's of parentheses. The
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billionaire has further alleged that his political opponents, such as
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New York Attorney General Letitia James, Democrats want quote fraud
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and waste to continue. Close the quote. Democrats have laughed
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off Musk's claims as implausible, pointing to his past comments
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alleging a debunked link between illegal immigration and voting. Some
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liberals have also complained that lumping quote fraud unquote end
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quote waste unquote together makes it easy to justify broader
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cuts to programs. Quote. Republicans will claim that they want
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to cut the medical program because they want to address fraud, waste,
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and abuse, and that no one's going to get hurt.
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But that's absurd. Close the quote. Representative Frank Poloni Junior,
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New Jersey, the top Democrat on the House Energy and
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Commerce Committee, said during a hearing last week. Quote you
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simply cannot take that amount of money out of medicaid
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program and not hurt the people who rely on it.
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Close the quote. Republicans have echoed Musk's own lines, saying
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the administration is only going after bad spending. At a
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hearing last month, Representative Marjorie Taylor Green, a Republican from
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Georgia who heads a House subcommittee known as the Doge Panel,
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defended the group's work to access sensitive payment systems. Quote.
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The whole DC swamp is freaking out that the unelected
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officials from DOGE were allowed access to these systems. That
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makes no sense. Unquote. Green said, quote federal judges were
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not elected, The Treasury bureaucrat were not elected, and they
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have failed to fix the problem that is enabling American
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taxpayers to be robbed. So why not bring in skilled
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outside experts close the quote. Paul Winfrey, who was the
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director of Budget Policy at the White House in the
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first Trump administration, suggested the Democrats are feeling pressure from
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organizations targeted by Doge. Quote for every government in offense
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in any efficiency or a quote wasteful unquote program, there's
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also a constituency and it just so happens that many
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of those receiving funds also support Democrats. Close the quote,
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said Winfrey, who is CEO of the Economic Policy Innovative Center,
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a right leaning policy organization. Quote, So they're upset about
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DGE because Doge is undercutting their business model. Closed the quote.
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Americans are roughly split on the work being done by
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Musk and his allies in the US Doge Dog's Service.
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A February Washington Post IPSOS poll found that thirty seven
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percent of Americans said Musk was cutting wasteful government spending,
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while thirty four percent said he was cutting necessary government programs,
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and the remainder said they were unsure or had no response. Altman,
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who previously oversaw the state of New Jersey's medicaid program,
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said he supported efforts to crack down on fraud, but
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called for a perspective on their attempt on these attempts. Quote,
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of course there's fraud and abuse, but it's not a
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big share of spending unquote, Altman said, estimating that it
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was quote far less unquote than ten percent of the
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medicaid program spending. It's not an area where you can
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cut where you can get big savings. Close the quote.
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Now that's the end of that entire article. We will
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now go to the third article, which we might have
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time to finish, but I will cut off in the
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interest of saving time. This is wanting sound on economic
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quote comeback. For some reason, this page can't be found,
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so I'll have to come back to it. I'll go
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on to the next one. A new challenger rises to
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face undefeated death. This is a lengthy article which I
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will cut off. Inside the scientific quest to reverse human aging?
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Can reprogramming our genes make us young again? A breakthrough
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in longevity research may be nearing its first human trials.
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Here's the article for those hoping to cure death and
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they are Legion, a twenty sixteen experiment at the Salk
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Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego has become liminal
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the moment that changed everything. The experiment involved mice born
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to live fast and die young, bred with a rodent
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version of progeria, a condition that causes premature aging. Left alone,
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the animals grow gray and frail and then die about
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seven months later, compared to a life span of about
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two years for a typical lab mice. But the Salk
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scientists had a plan to change the aging animal's fate.
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They injected them with a virus carrying four genes that
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can reshape DNA and in effect make every cell in
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the rodents bodies young again. The scientists could even control
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the genes from outside the mice, turning them on and
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off to manage the safety and potency of the genetic changes.
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The experiment worked. The animals lived thirty percent longer afterwards,
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a market improvement, if not quite a normal mouse life span,
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and with that, the longevity gold rush entered a new era.
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Tech titans and venture capitalists started throwing billions of dollars
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at labs exploring the technique called cellular reprogramming. Experiments began
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on other mice as well as worms and monkeys. Cellular
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reprogramming is now held by its supporters as the most
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promising scientific approach to improving human health spans and lifespans.
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Proponents claim it has the potential to reshape how and
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whether we grow old and Later this year, a biotech
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company called life Bile Sciences expects to file an application
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with the Food and Drug Administration to get approval for
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the first human trial of a version of the technique,
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according to Sharon Rosenwig Libson, the company's chief scientific officer,
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but there have been serious side effects during some of
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the animal experience, including gruesome tumors and even deaths. Some
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researchers worry the science is moving too fast, and basic
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questions about cellular reprogramming safety and effect and effects for
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people in society still need to be addressed. What are
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the long term health consequences, Who will benefit most wealthy
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donors or anyone who's aging or chronically ill, How much
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will it cause and how far are humans willing to
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go for the possibility of more life. Quote honestly unquote,
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said Lucy Zu. That's x U, a postdoctoral research fellow
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at Harvard Medical School who studied reprogramming in mice. Quote
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those questions keep me awake at night unquote. If you've
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never heard of cellular reprogramming, you're hardly alone. A relatively
23:23
new field, it began with a jaw dropping two thousand
23:27
and six revelation that just four genes could return even
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the oldest, most decrepit cell to a state resembling youth.
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These genes and their effects were discovered by the Japanese
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scientist Shinya Yamanaka, who won the Nobel Prize in twenty
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twelve for his work and had the genes named after him.
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They became known as Yamanaka factors. When introduced into a cell,
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the Yamanoka factors rapidly strip it of the outward layer
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of the of its DNA, known as the epigenome. Our
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epigenomes is the key to cellular Our epigenome is the
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key to cellular reprogramming and also, frankly, life itself. If
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you've ever wondered how the cells in your heart know
24:14
to be hard cells and not skin bow or some
24:17
other cells, you can thank your epigenome. It's what gives
24:22
every cell its identity. Our DNA starts out alike in
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almost every cell, but almost immediately they clump. Tiny clumps
24:32
of molecules known as methyl groups, start attaching themselves like mollusks,
24:37
to the outside of various genes with different configurations in
24:41
different cells. Depending on the number and patterns of these molecules,
24:47
the genes beneath will be able to receive biochemical signals
24:50
telling them to turn on or they won't. This process,
24:55
called methylation, is probably the most important part of our
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epidem genome. Methylation continues throughout our lives and reflects those
25:04
lives for better and worse. Smoking strongly influences methylation patterns,
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so does exercise, although in most opposite although in almost
25:14
opposite fashion. Ditto for stress, nutrition, parenting, illness, air pollution,
25:20
and many other choices and conditions. Through methylation, our epigenome
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functions in effect as our body's diary, with the tiny
25:29
molecular doodles on our DNA recording what we've been doing
25:33
with ourselves. But nothing affects methylation as much as aging.
25:39
The patterns of methylation during infancy are distinctly different than
25:43
during childhood, adulthood, and old age. Many longevity researchers believe
25:48
these changes in methylation don't just record our aging process,
25:53
they drive it, meaning our evolving epigenome may be responsible
25:58
for aging itself. By the way, there's a very good diagram.
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It's entitled A look at how cellular reprogramming works. Here's
26:08
how scientists use methylation to make a cell young Again.
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They show a young cell. Then in the second group,
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as a cell ages, methyl groups begin covering the outside
26:18
of its genes. Then they show the older cell. Then
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the fourth picture is this process methylation affects how the
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cells genes work. It has a drawing of the methyl group.
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Then next adding min octa factors to the cell can
26:34
strip away some of the methylation, and then in the
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last illustration, this returns the cell to a more youthful state,
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and in theory, it can do the same for our
26:44
entire bodies. I regret that you can't see what I
26:47
just describe. Continuing rep in petri dishes, cellular reprogramming works
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just as expected. Add the min octa factors to skin
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cells from a wrinkled centurion, as scientists have done, and
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many of the cells will shed their methyl marks and
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turn back into newborn cells or other scientists or what
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scientists call plury potent stem cells with no cellular memory
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of having been skinned. These cells can become almost any
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type of cell with the right coaxing. Plury Potent stem
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cells from donated human cells are routinely used today for
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tissue engineering and other medical and research purposes, but the
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process isn't the fission or benign In a dish containing
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millions of elderly cells, many will become youthful stem cells
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after exposure to Yamanaka factors, but many others won't for
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reasons that remain mysterious. Some resist the process, some die,
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and some almost invariably transform into huge, rapidly dividing growths
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known as terotomas or monster tumors. These develop when a
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stem cell doesn't work, doesn't know what to become, and
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turns into the wrong kind of cell. With the tarotoma,
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teeth cells can wind up growing in pelvis or bone cells,
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and in an eyeball. Although rarely malignant, tarotna's often swelled
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to massive size. Now that concludes the twenty eight minute
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first portion of our reading. We'll stop here and pick
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it up with part two. Welcome back to the reading
28:24
of the Washington Post for today, Saturday, March eight, twenty
28:28
twenty five. We are now going to go into the
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second twenty eight minute segment. We were reading an article
28:36
about reversing aging, and we left off with a discussion
28:40
of one of the negative factors of this process because
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it created these tratomas or huge tumors. I'll pick it
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up from where we left off. Researchers can eliminate tarotomas
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and petri dishes easily enough, but in living creatures, the
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growth create real life horror films. When Spanish researchers activated
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yamanok of factors and healthy mice for an early cellular
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reprogramming experiment, many of the animals died within weeks, sprouting
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tarotomas and other cancer's tumors all over their bodies. Quote
29:17
you'll always have tarotomas unquote during cellular reprogramming, said Paul Knoppler,
29:24
a professor at the University of California Davis who studies epigenetics,
29:29
stem cells, and cancer. Quote it's part of the process.
29:32
It's actually how you can tell reprogramming is working. So
29:36
to realize the promise of reprogramming in people, researchers realize
29:40
they would need to find a better, safer way to
29:42
turn back cellular time. Several years ago, at a laboratory
29:47
at Harvard University, scientists compressed the optic nerves of otherwise
29:51
healthy mice to induce the condition similar to a stroke
29:55
in the eye. This condition can substantially reduce vision. The
30:00
scientists then treated the mice with an innovative new form
30:03
of cellular reprogramming, injecting their eyes with a virus carrying
30:07
three of the Yamanaka factors, omitting one factor that has
30:12
been found often jumpstart cancers. The three remaining factors were
30:17
genetically engineered to grow active only in the presence of
30:21
the antibody doxas cycline. The scientists then gave the mice
30:27
water containing the antibody on a controlled schedule of two
30:30
days with the drug and five days without for two months.
30:35
The plan was to reprogram cells in the optic nerves
30:39
only partially, removing much, but not all, of their methylation.
30:44
That way, the cells would retain their fundamental identity even
30:48
as they grew functionally younger. In this scenario, taratomas wouldn't
30:53
present an obstacle because the affected cells would never regress
30:57
fully into stem cells. Instead, they be the same cells,
31:01
but sprightlier, younger, and hopefully more capable of healing the
31:05
injured optic nerve. The Harvard mouse study results published in
31:10
Nature in December twenty twenty under the cover line quote
31:13
turning back to time question mark seemed positive. The researchers
31:18
noted epigenetic changes in the cells and regrowth of the
31:22
damaged optic nerves in many of the mice who'd received
31:26
the treatment. They reported no terotomas. Quote. It was quite
31:31
exciting un quote, said David Sinclair, a Harvard geneticist, senior
31:35
author of the mouse eye study and a controversial figure
31:39
among longevity researchers. Similar excuse me. Sinclair resigned last March
31:45
as president of the Academy for Health Lifespan Research, a
31:49
prestigious organization of longevity researchers, after other prominent scientists in
31:54
the group disputed his claim that a canine supplement developed
31:59
by a company he called own could quote reverse unquote
32:02
aging dogs. Under fire from colleagues who said that assertion
32:07
was irresponsible and unsupported by evidence, Sinclair revised the wording
32:11
and said he regretted not being more precise, while standing
32:15
by the underlying research. In his interview with The Washington Post,
32:19
Sinclair declined to comment on the incident. In twenty twenty one,
32:23
Sinclair and Harvard licensed his lab's version of partial cellular
32:28
reprogramming to the biotech company Life biosen Bioscience Biosciences Sinclair
32:35
retains equity. In April twenty twenty three, the company reported
32:39
at an ophthalmology conference that they had successfully used this
32:43
version of partial cellular reprogramming in the eyes of monkeys
32:48
with a type of optic nerve strokes. The company said
32:51
the experiment restored aspects of the monkey's lost vision and
32:56
altered some of the nerve cells epigenomes, meaning the sales
33:00
resembled those of younger animals. It was the first time
33:03
partial reprogramming had been attempted in primates. The company reported
33:08
no tumors or other side effects in its presentation, but
33:11
the results haven't yet been peer reviewed or published. In
33:16
December twenty twenty three, company representatives met with FDA officials
33:20
to discuss their plans to use partial cellular reprogramming in
33:24
the eyes of people with optic nerve strokes. Rosenwig Lipsen
33:30
said optic nerve strokes are relatively uncommon in people, typically
33:34
affecting about six thousand adults a year, but can be debilitating.
33:40
The loss of vision in the affected eye is sudden,
33:43
often total, and usually irreversible, although some eyes improve on
33:47
their own, there is no treatment. In a statement to
33:50
the Post, the FDA declined to comment on any interactions
33:54
with Life Biosciences. If the FDA approves its application, they
34:00
will repeat the methods from the mouse and monkey experiments.
34:04
Rosenwig Libsen said scientists will inject volunteer's eyes with yamen
34:10
Oka factors that can be turned off with the antibody
34:13
doxa cycling. Rosenwag Libsen said the hope is that the
34:17
cells in people's damaged optic nerves will grow more youthful
34:21
at an epigenetic level, and their vision will improve. The
34:25
company thinks it's partial programming won't result in tumors, since
34:30
its protocol omits the most carcinogenic of the yemen ochrea factors.
34:35
Rosenwig Libsen said they also believed, based on their animal studies,
34:40
the remaining factors won't migrate from the eyeball to other
34:44
parts of the body. Other scientists are also racing to
34:48
be first to influence aging in people. The rewards medical, societal,
34:53
and financial could be enormous. By the time of the
34:57
Harvard study, different forms of partial cell reprogramming were already
35:02
in use at a number of labs. At the Salt Institute,
35:05
scientists had followed up their studies of progeric mice by
35:10
creating mice that had extra copies of the four Yamanaka
35:13
factors engineered into their DNA that could be activated with doxycycling.
35:19
After several months, most of the fully reprogrammed mice were dead.
35:24
The partially reprogrammed rodents were still alive and didn't experience
35:28
any tarotomas, and in the adult animals, their kidneys and
35:32
skin were biologically quote youngeruote according to tests of their epigenomes.
35:39
None of the animals lived longer than normal, which was
35:42
the main point of the experiment, but the researchers saw
35:46
hope in the overall results in the technique, which they
35:49
call cellular rejuvenation. Quote. I'm optimistic that with cellular rejuvenation
35:56
we could alter the rate of progression of age and
36:00
thereby increased overall health span. Said one. Carlos is Pisua Belmonte,
36:08
who was the senior scientist at the Salk Institute who
36:12
oversaw the mouse cellular reprogramming research and is now the
36:15
director of the Altos Slabs San Diego Institute of Science,
36:20
where he continues to study cellular programming. Reputedly the best
36:24
funded biotech startup in history, Alto Slabs opened in January
36:29
twenty twenty two with about three billion dollars in seed
36:33
funding from tech billionaires and others, including reportedly Jeff Bezos,
36:37
the founder of Amazon and owner of the post. Quote
36:42
in parentheses. Bezos did not respond to a request for
36:45
a comment and enclosed the parentheses. Headlines and commentary at
36:50
the time described the lab's founding as a high tech
36:53
quest for prolonged lifespans and even immortality by reversing aging
36:58
inside every cell in the body, but to start, almost
37:02
all researchers and analysts degree human experiments using cellular reprogramming,
37:07
whether from Altos or other labs, will be limited in scope.
37:12
In parentheses. A company spokesman for Altos declined to comment
37:15
about the current status of its research or the possibility
37:18
of human experiments in the future. Close the preentheses. They'll
37:22
focus on specific diseases related to aging, such as diabetes, arthritis,
37:26
optic nerve stroke, glucoma, dementia, and others, not aging itself,
37:31
since aging isn't a disease according to the FDA, and
37:35
drugs and other therapies can't be approved to treat it,
37:39
although once approved, drugs can be used off label. It's unclear, though,
37:44
whether treating damaged eyes or sore knees will satisfy wealthy
37:48
funders who've been pouring billions into the hunt for longer lifespans.
37:53
At the same time, some researchers worry safety concerns remain insurmountable. Quote.
37:59
I don't believe that can be reprogramming unquote even partial
38:02
reprogramming in living people without serious side effects, said Charles Brynner,
38:07
a diabetes and cancer researcher at City of Hope Research
38:11
Center in Duarte, California, and frequent critic of reprogramming studies. Quote.
38:17
Reprogram cells divide rapidly. Cancer cells divide rapidly. You're proctally
38:22
telling these cells to become cancer. Close the quote. There
38:27
are other open questions too. No one yet knows why
38:31
some cells respond to reprogramming, and others don't how long
38:34
the epigenetic changes last, or if reprogramming efforts should focus
38:39
on specific organs or the whole body. In an ambitious
38:43
study from Stanford University published in March twenty twenty four,
38:47
scientists used partial reprogramming either throughout the bodies of old
38:51
mice are only inside their brains, hoping in both cases
38:55
to improve brain health, but the full body experiment resulted
38:59
in extra inflamment in the animals' brains for unknown reasons
39:03
and few benefits change changes and few beneficial changes in neurons.
39:09
The more targeted attempt with reprogramming confined to the animal's
39:14
brains led to an increase in newborn neurons, but also
39:17
an uptick in brain inflammation, which increases risk for neurodegeneration.
39:23
Quote I think there's potential unquote in cellular reprogramming to
39:27
combat brain diseases and other conditions, said Zeu at Q,
39:32
who led the brain study as a graduate researcher at
39:36
Stanford but has since left the field in part due
39:39
to concerns about the possible downsides of reprogramming. Quote I
39:43
worry about the speed quote at which reprogram and researchers
39:46
are moving toward human experience human experiments, she said. Undeterred
39:52
Life Biosciences said in a statement that the company believes
39:56
that quote remains on track unquote to receive approval from
39:59
the FA soon and to quote initiate the first human
40:03
clinical trials unquote of its reprogramming therapy before the end
40:07
of the year. Well that's the end of that lengthy article.
40:10
But I thought it would be a good idea to
40:11
read the entire article because it was so complicated and interesting.
40:16
The next article, Trump officials cut four hundred million dollars
40:19
from for Columbia. I have to warn you that I
40:22
might have to cut this towards the end for time restraints.
40:26
Trump administration cancels four hundred million dollars in funding to
40:30
Columbia University. The Education Department is among several agencies cutting
40:34
funds to the school for allegedly failing to protect Jewish
40:37
students from anti semitism on campus. Here's the article. The
40:41
Trump administration said Friday it was cutting off about four
40:44
hundred million dollars in federal contracts and grants to Columbia University,
40:49
saying the school has failed to protect Jewish students from
40:52
anti semitism on campus. The administration took action just four
40:56
days after announcing that several federal agencies were investing in Columbia.
41:01
The school has been in the spotlight since last academic year,
41:05
when pro Palestinian protesters erected tenths on lawns at the
41:09
center of the university's Morningside Heights campus in Manhattan and
41:12
refused to take them down in protest of the israel
41:16
Gods of war. The full list of canceled grants and
41:20
contracts were not available Friday, nor was it clear of
41:23
what legal process the administration used to make its decisions.
41:28
Cutting off funding is rare, and when it happens, it
41:31
typically follows a lengthy investigation and judicial review. Campuses have
41:37
generally been quieter this academic year, but this semester protest
41:41
have cropped up at Columbia and Bernard College, an independent
41:45
but affiliated school, including some this week. In a statement,
41:50
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said that Jewish students have faced
41:54
quote relentless violence, intimidation, and anti Semitic harassment. Close the
41:59
quote quote for too long. Columbia has abandoned that obligation
42:03
to Jewish students studying on its campus. Unquote, she said.
42:06
Quote today we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that
42:10
we will not tolerate their appalling in action any longer.
42:13
Close the quote. Samantha Slater, a spokewoman for Columbia, said
42:18
university officials were reviewing the announcement and pledged to work
42:22
with the federal government to restore funding. Quote. We take
42:26
Columbia's legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement
42:31
is and are committed to combating anti semitism and ensuring
42:35
the safety and well being of our students, faculty, and staff.
42:38
Close the quote, she said in a statement. Columbia's interim president,
42:43
Katrina Armstrong, said Friday that taking serious action toward combating
42:47
anti semitism on campus was the school's number one priority.
42:50
She said she had clarified rules and strengthened thisciplinary procedures
42:55
and acknowledged that cancelation of the funds would immediately impact research,
43:00
faculty and staff, and patient care. Quote anti Semitism, violence, discrimination, harassment,
43:06
and other behaviors that violate our values or disrupt teaching,
43:11
learning or research are antithetical to our mission. Unquote. She
43:15
said quote, we must continue to work to address any
43:18
instances of these unacceptable behaviors on our campus. We must
43:22
work every day to do better close the quote. On Friday,
43:25
Columbia announced that four of its students had been arrested
43:29
as part of Tuesday's disruption at Bernard, and that those
43:32
students had been suspended and restricted from campus while the
43:35
university works through the disciplinary process. Under federal civil rights law,
43:41
universities that allow discrimination on the basis of shared ancestry,
43:45
such as Jewish heritage, are not eligible for federal funding.
43:50
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has made clear he
43:53
will target higher education, which Republicans have long seen as
43:57
overly liberal and too focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
44:01
In what many university leaders consider an all out attack
44:04
on higher education, the administration has also cut funding associated
44:09
with research grants, and Republicans are considering increasing the federal
44:13
tax on endowments. Trump also has repeated criticized, repeatedly criticized
44:19
universities for what he has characterized as a failure to
44:22
respond to anti semitism. In January, he signed an executive
44:26
order aimed at combating it. Friday's action was a warning
44:30
shot to other schools, and said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of
44:34
the Anti Defamation League, which has worked to spotlight anti
44:37
Semitic incidents on campuses. Schools, he said, had better quote
44:41
think twice rather than letting these protests continue to go
44:45
and checked close the quote. A senior Administration official, speaking
44:49
on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized
44:52
to speak publicly, said the White House is not currently
44:55
working to pull federal funding from any other universities over
44:58
the issue. The official described Columbia as a quote test case.
45:04
Also Friday, the acting director of the Education Department's Office
45:08
for Civil Rights, wrote to his staff that anti semitism
45:12
investigations would be prioritized and that the office would no
45:16
longer allow schools to quote avoid accountability unquote by negotiating
45:22
quote toothless unquote reforms or reciting quote empty platitudes. Quote.
45:27
Going forward, he wrote, the office would insist on meaningful
45:30
policy changes with a quote strong emphasis on compliance. Close
45:34
the quote. Friday's announcement about Columbia came from the Justice
45:39
and Health and Human Services Departments and the General Services Administration,
45:44
in addition to the Education Department. The agencies announced Monday
45:47
that they were forming a task force to investigate Columbia.
45:51
The task force was working to identify other grant cancelations
45:56
that quote could be made swiftly unquote did messi straation
46:00
said Friday. Columbia holds quote more than five billion dollars
46:04
and federal grant commitments unquote, had said the government statement.
46:08
Friday suggested that the penalty was being imposed so quickly
46:12
because pro Palestinian protests have persisted on campus since the
46:16
investigation launched. Quote. Chaos and anti Semitic harassment have continued
46:21
on and near the campus, the statement said. Last week,
46:25
Bernard officials said protesters caused thirty thousand dollars in damage
46:29
to an academic building and injured an employee, and this
46:33
week New York police officers detained several protesters during a
46:37
sit in at Bernard. Typically, investigations into complaints of wrongdoing
46:41
at schools and colleges are drawn out affairs that in
46:45
with the government negotiating with school leaders to come into
46:48
compliance with federal law. It is rare for the government
46:51
to pull funding and unprecedented for it to do so
46:54
after a day's long investigation. Kenneth Marcus, who headed the
46:59
Education Department, its Office for Civil Rights under the first
47:01
Trump administration, said he has never seen the federal government
47:05
take action against the school so quickly. Normally, he said,
47:08
investigations of campus bias incidents take months or years. Quote.
47:14
This is the toughest stance we've seen from the federal
47:17
government toward campus anti semitism ever, said Marcus, founder and
47:22
chairman of the Lewis D. Brandei Center for Human Rights
47:25
under Law, which focuses on fighting anti Semitism. Quote. The
47:30
fact that the Trump administration has been able to respond
47:32
as quickly is simply unbelievable. Unquote. Marcus said this process
47:36
did not follow the approach normally used at the Education
47:39
Department for investigating colleges, and details of how this investigation
47:44
were conducted and its legal justification were not clear. Administration
47:49
officials did not respond to questions about the legal basis.
47:53
One cancelation notice, sent to researcher to a researcher Friday
47:58
and reviewed by The Washington Post did not specify the
48:01
legal reasoning for terminating the grant. It did not mention
48:05
anti semitism or the university's response to protests. It said
48:09
the agency was working to ensure the grant's quote, do
48:11
not support programs or organizations unquote that unlawfully discriminate on
48:16
the basis of a range of factors. The notice included
48:19
a long list of possible wrongdoing, ranging from discrimination to
48:24
fraud to a failure to serve the nation's best interest,
48:27
but did not say which one applied to the grant
48:30
in question. It gave the researcher thirty days to appeal
48:34
the decision. Last year, twenty percent of Columbia's six point
48:38
six big in dollar operating revenue came from government grants,
48:41
including from the National Institutes of Health. According to a
48:45
university breakdown, the one point three big in dollar total
48:49
was the third largest source of revenue. Only patient care
48:52
and tuition brought in larger shares. While the scope of
48:56
the canceled contracts was not clear, some of the Cancer
49:00
Grant's funded research on programs tied to higher education. One
49:04
grant paid for the first ever rigorous evaluation of the
49:07
effectiveness of the one billion dollar annual Federal Work Study program.
49:11
This is the fifth year of the study. So Brock,
49:15
director of the Community College Research Center at Teachers College,
49:18
fears the cancelation will obviate the previous year's work. Last
49:23
academic year, intense protests broke out over the Israel Gaza War,
49:26
and Columbia came under congressional scrutiny, accused of failing to
49:29
do more to prevent anti Semitism on campus. Now I apologize,
49:34
I'm going to cut it off there so we can
49:36
read at least a part of the remaining article. So
49:40
we'll go back and we'll pick up the article on Syrians.
49:44
Here's that article. And this article is lengthy and I
49:46
will not be able to read it in its entirety.
49:49
Syrians unearthed horrors of the Assad years in their basements.
49:53
Syrians had stayed silent about the bodies jumped into countless
49:57
basements by Assad's forces. Rescue teams are now moving from
50:01
home to home excavating remains. Here's the article. In the
50:06
days after the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad, rescue
50:12
workers began to receive calls about the trail of bodies
50:15
that his loyalists had left in people's homes. For years,
50:19
Syrians had stayed quiet about what they found upon returning
50:23
to houses they had fled during the civil war's worst periods.
50:26
So ventful were the government security forces that residents worried
50:30
they might meet the same fate as the abandoned skeletons
50:34
if they reported them. Three months after Assad's fall, doors
50:38
hiding the shallow graves had been flung open in the
50:42
Damascus district of Beina Beina sbi Na last week. The
50:49
bones in one basement were so incinerated that it was
50:52
hard for civil defense workers to identify how many bodies
50:56
were in the ash At first, As Washington Post journalists observed,
51:00
the men tried counting the pelvises. In the end, they
51:03
found themselves guessing were their twenty here or more. One
51:08
of the skulls seemed tiny, they noted, and there were
51:11
bullet casings in the detritus. They wondered whether this was
51:16
a family that had been killed together. None of the
51:19
neighbor's watchings seemed to know. A front line in Syria's war,
51:25
I'll call this Sabina. Sabina Sbei Na had become a
51:29
quote security zone unquote in twenty eleven, emptied of civilians
51:33
as loyalist forces patrolled the people of the neighboring suburbs
51:39
of Hajjara, Swan besieged at the time, said hundreds of
51:42
residents had disappeared after trying to escape through Sabina, where
51:47
families returned home to Sabina from twenty fifteen onward, they
51:51
had locked the doors on their grim discoveries. Quote. If
51:54
we had told the authorities, they would have said that
51:57
we killed them, unquote, said the basement's owner. Ahmed said,
52:01
quote what were we supposed to do? The Aside family
52:05
who fled Syria in December were notorious for a network
52:09
of prisons in which tens of thousands of adults and
52:12
children died from executions, torture and neglect. Rescue workers and
52:17
researchers said that the bodies in Sabena came from a
52:21
different epidemic of killing, this one by the loyalist forces
52:25
as they carried out summary executions during battles to force
52:28
rebel held areas into submission. The challenges of identifying the
52:34
dead will be enormous, and Syria is ill prepared for
52:37
the task. Beset by economic crisis and crippled by fourteen
52:41
years of war, the government has little capacity to exume
52:44
and catalog bodies on such a large scale. The Syrian
52:48
Network for Human Rights estimates that about one hundred thousand
52:52
people went missing in the regime's jails. Given the killing
52:57
outside their walls, the number is likely to be far higher.
53:00
In Sabina. The White Helmets, a civil defense force that
53:04
previously operated in opposition held areas, said it has exhumed
53:08
about fifty bodies from just three basements so far in
53:12
the wider area. They said there are seven more locations
53:15
they have yet to search. Elsewhere in Syria, human remains
53:20
have been found in sewage pipes and wells. Quote they
53:24
left these bodies for the people to throw in the
53:26
garbage in quote, said Amar Elselmo, who leads the White
53:30
Helmets rescue missions around Sabina. Quote that was how the
53:34
regime disposed of people. Unquote. These civil defense workers, wearing
53:38
masks and gloves, combed carefully through the remains, placing anything
53:43
that could be a bone fragment into white cardboard boxes
53:47
that were then stacked in the back of a van.
53:50
They were to be taken for forensic testing in Damascus,
53:53
though it was unclear when such testing would occur. It
53:56
could take years to begin the large scale DNA test
54:00
of bodies from Syria's mass and shallow graves. Forensic experts
54:04
say the better preserved the remains, the more likely a
54:08
positive identification. Here soft tissue has burned away. Years in
54:12
the open air have eroded what was left the aside.
54:16
Regime's siege of Hajjen Swad was cruel. Survivors recounted hospitals
54:22
and clinics used tissues in place of medical gauze, and
54:25
supplies ran out, families exhausted pantry stockpiles. By twenty thirteen,
54:31
residents who had stayed were often living on one meal
54:34
a day. What Naim Mustafa's wife in Tissar discovered in
54:39
twenty thirteen that she was pregnant with her first child,
54:42
Mustapha recalled her family found someone to smuggle her through
54:46
Sabina's checkpoint at night. Quote. Her brothers didn't tell me
54:49
how much they paid. They just said they had secured
54:52
a safe route, unquote, said Mustafa forty eight. Quote, and
54:56
I wanted her to be safe. Unquote. That's the woman's
55:01
name left on foot with seven relatives. The walk was
55:04
meant to last fifteen minutes. Mustapha's Mustafa heard no news
55:08
for three days. Their phones were out of service. When
55:11
he called, the middleman blocked his number quote, and then
55:15
I knew unquote Mustapha said, concluding that he that she
55:18
had been arrested or killed. Another resident, rieim Ahmayer, forty two,
55:25
said her husband at Nan had disappeared along the same route.
55:29
The last time she saw him was in the summer
55:32
of twenty twelve, on the day she took their children
55:34
to see family on the Muslim Aid holiday. They returned
55:39
that night to find a battle raging, checkpoints closed and
55:43
no way through. When Ameri spoke with her husband on
55:47
the phone one night, he told her quote, if I
55:49
call you in fifteen minutes, bring the children and meet
55:52
me under the bridge. If I don't call you, something
55:55
terrible has happened unquote. She never heard from him again.
55:59
There were already bodies in his basement and Mohammed Haifi,
56:03
aged forty six, when he returned for a brief check
56:06
on his property in twenty fifteen, graffiti apparently left by
56:10
loyalist forces on the walls included an obscene reference to
56:14
the rebels and the warning quote will be back unquote.
56:18
Haifi's house didn't feel like a home After that, his
56:22
family stayed with relatives in central Damascus, and his children
56:26
stopped talking about returning to Sabina. The news that the
56:30
bodies were finally gone, conveyed by a neighbor had received thoughts,
56:35
had revived thoughts of going home. Quote we've started thinking
56:40
about the house again, unquote, he said. Quote when we're
56:44
looking around our place in Damascus and we're talking about
56:47
how the fridge in the old place is better, the
56:50
sofa in the old place was better, closed the quote.
56:53
Several days after retrieving the burned bodies, the White Helmets
56:57
were busy in another basement picking shards of bone from
57:00
burdened tires. When a resident came to tell them he
57:03
had found bones in his house too. The team exchanged looks. Quote,
57:07
please can you go back and make sure unquote, one
57:10
team member asked him, quote, we really have our hands full.
57:14
By the way, at this point is the photograph that
57:17
I mentioned when I began. It showed two little girls,
57:20
two sisters about twelve years old, taking a quick look
57:24
inside a basement of their building before running back upstairs.
57:28
As members of the White Helmets collect human remains. Now
57:32
back to the article, children scurried up and down the
57:35
stairs to the basement, saying they had known for months
57:38
that the bodies were there. Jurry alamari Age twelve, said
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she and her best friend Raywan had spotted them through
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a metal grate and an outside wall after she overheard
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her parents talking. Her mother, Mona Alisa, aged thirty eight,
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said the girls sometimes cried at night, thinking they heard
57:57
voices from the basement, and unfortunately, I've got to stop
58:00
out there. This concludes the reading of the Washington Post
58:02
for today, Saturday, March eight, twenty twenty five. Your reader
58:07
has been Mark Webster. If you have any questions, comments,
58:10
or suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call
58:13
us at eight five nine four two two six three nine. Oh.
58:18
Thank you for listening, and now please stay tuned for
58:20
continuing programming on RADIOIPP