Transcript

10.8.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Thursday,
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Speaker 1: October 8th, 2026. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
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Speaker 1: reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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Speaker 1: other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Speaker 1: Your reader for today is Roger Hampirian. Today's front page
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Speaker 1: headlines from the Washington Post are as follows. B1 pullout
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Speaker 1: shows wily tactics of a weaker foe. Trump returns to
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Speaker 1: Texas where GOP is sweating. A new Camp David in Florida.
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Speaker 1: Israelis still scarred by October 7th weigh Netanyahu's future. Tennessee
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Speaker 1: is told to preserve evidence in the Pike case. The
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Speaker 1: first article from the front page of today's edition is titled,
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Speaker 1: Pullout of B-1 Bombers Shows How an Outgunned Iran Is
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Speaker 1: Keeping the U.S. on Edge. Tehran has also used the
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Speaker 1: threat of unconventional attacks to inflict chaos on global energy
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Speaker 1: markets and threaten the safety of Air Force One, by
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Speaker 1: Greg Miller. In a speech to U.S. forces last week,
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Speaker 1: Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth echoed President Donald Trump's triumphant descriptions
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Speaker 1: of Iran as a vanquished foe. The United States has
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Speaker 1: destroyed Iran's Navy, Air Force, leadership, and entire defense base,
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Speaker 1: Hexeth said. crippling Tehran's conventional capabilities and leaving its shattered
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Speaker 1: nuclear ambitions laid bare for the world. Days later, American
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Speaker 1: B-1 bombers secretly began leaving a high-security military base in
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Speaker 1: the British countryside, fleeing what U.S. officials described as the
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Speaker 1: threat of a potentially catastrophic swarm drone attack planned by Iran.
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Speaker 1: The evacuation from Royal Air Force Base Fairford a British
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Speaker 1: air base in use since the 1944 D-Day invasion, underscored
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Speaker 1: Iran's continuing ability to wield the threat of asymmetric warfare
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Speaker 1: despite being militarily outmatched by the U.S. and Israel. Tehran
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Speaker 1: has used the threat of unconventional attacks not just to
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Speaker 1: instigate the hasty relocation of a dozen long-range U.S. bombers,
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Speaker 1: but also to inflict chaos on global energy markets and
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Speaker 1: threaten the safety of Air Force Ones. all against a
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Speaker 1: drumbeat of declarations by Trump administration officials that the war
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Speaker 1: has been won. Iran's use of unconventional tactics, or in
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Speaker 1: some cases merely the threat of doing so, has enabled
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Speaker 1: it to claim a series of remarkable symbolic and tactical victories,
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Speaker 1: security experts said. I don't think anyone, including the Iranians,
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Speaker 1: thought on day one that they could stand up to
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Speaker 1: the United States and Israel, two of the best militaries
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Speaker 1: and air forces in the world, and fight an even fight,
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Speaker 1: said Daniel Byman, a counterterrorism expert and security studies professor
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Speaker 1: at Georgetown University. That said, we are seven and a
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Speaker 1: half months into this war, and Iran is still inflicting damage,
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Speaker 1: and that's quite remarkable. Iran's campaign of drone strikes on
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Speaker 1: oil cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz has given
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Speaker 1: it leverage over a critical shipping lane and global energy
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Speaker 1: supplies that it could never achieve through conventional naval force,
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Speaker 1: according to security officials and analysts. Tehran has escalated attacks
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Speaker 1: in the Strait in recent days, apparently in response to
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Speaker 1: expanded U.S. operations that had brought oil flows back up
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Speaker 1: to near pre-war levels. Over the past week, Iranian attacks
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Speaker 1: have hit more than 10 ships, according to maritime monitoring data.
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Speaker 1: The threat of an Iranian assassination plot set in motion
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Speaker 1: an extraordinary sequence in July of in which Trump was
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Speaker 1: secretly slipped out of Air Force One via an airport
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Speaker 1: catering truck, a ruse to protect him from the threat
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Speaker 1: of attack by an adversary he described as finished in
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Speaker 1: March and more recently has called decimated. At the British
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Speaker 1: airbase RAF Fairford, Iran appears to have forced the U.S.
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Speaker 1: to withdraw a symbol of its military firepower, a fleet
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Speaker 1: of planes that has carried out punishing strikes in the
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Speaker 1: war with no indication that Iran had managed to put
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Speaker 1: in place either the personnel or equipment needed to launch
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Speaker 1: a drone swarm attack. Beyond its harassment of oil tankers
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Speaker 1: and B-1 bombers, Iran has used drones to cause extensive
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Speaker 1: damage to U.S. bases in the Middle East and to
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Speaker 1: kill some troops. Iran has also enlisted its Houthi allies
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Speaker 1: in Yemen to strike parts of Saudi Arabia that Iran
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Speaker 1: probably could not reach otherwise. Iran has done this despite
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Speaker 1: the toll inflicted by U.S.-Israel airstrikes this year that killed
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Speaker 1: its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and much of his
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Speaker 1: inner circle, including top officials in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
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Speaker 1: who probably would have been tapped to oversee its asymmetric campaign.
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Speaker 1: Trump sought to play down the significance of bombers' departure
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Speaker 1: from Britain this week. Rather than tempting the enemy, we'll
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Speaker 1: capture the enemy and beat the enemy, he said. so
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Speaker 1: we moved them around a little bit, not very far.
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Speaker 1: If U.S. airstrikes against Iran were to resume, however, the
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Speaker 1: bombers would have to travel thousands of additional miles after
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Speaker 1: being relocated to bases in South Dakota and elsewhere in
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Speaker 1: the U.S. from their former home 80 miles west of London.
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Speaker 1: Former security officials said the evacuation was a symbolic victory
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Speaker 1: for Tehran, but ultimately of limited consequence. It does not
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Speaker 1: limit our military options against Iran or change the strategic
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Speaker 1: course of the conflict, said Norman Rule, a former senior
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Speaker 1: CIA official and Iran expert. Even so, Rule said the
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Speaker 1: sequence shows that Iran has proved adept at taking advantage
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Speaker 1: of drone technology that is forcing military officials to re-evaluate
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Speaker 1: the vulnerabilities of Fairford and other bases long seen as secure.
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Speaker 1: Iran is showing how the new technology of cyber and
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Speaker 1: drones compel us to reshape our protective architecture, rules said.
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Speaker 1: In a measure of the alarm over the threat, U.S.
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Speaker 1: officials said that the bomber evacuation began before refueling aircraft
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Speaker 1: were fully in position to support their journey across the Atlantic.
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Speaker 1: The harried redeployment came amid conflicting signals about the urgency
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Speaker 1: of the threat to Fairford and about Iran's ability to
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Speaker 1: carry out such an elaborate plot. U.S. officials said the
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Speaker 1: bombers were moved in response to multiple streams of intelligence
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Speaker 1: indicating that the aircraft could be hit in an attack
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Speaker 1: similar to the one Ukraine launched against Russia in June 2025.
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Speaker 1: In that strike, called Operation Spider's Web, Ukraine destroyed more
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Speaker 1: than a dozen Russian military planes using small armed drones
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Speaker 1: that had been smuggled into the country in cargo trucks.
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Speaker 1: Fears that such an attack might be unfolding on British
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Speaker 1: soil probably gripped British officials after police received calls shortly
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Speaker 1: after midnight on September 27th about three white cargo vans
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Speaker 1: approaching the Fairford base. News photos taken after police arrived
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Speaker 1: showed five men stripped of their shirts and seated on
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Speaker 1: the ground in the dark under police guard. News footage
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Speaker 1: the next morning showed bomb inspection robots moving among the vans.
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Speaker 1: and yet police found no drones, explosives, or weapons in
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Speaker 1: the vehicles, only canisters containing gasoline. All five suspects were
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Speaker 1: released the next day on bail, reflecting a determination by
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Speaker 1: British police that they posed no ongoing threat. Trump at
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Speaker 1: the time said that the suspects were planning to cause
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Speaker 1: big damage, but the bombers were not evacuated until a
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Speaker 1: week later, and though U.S. officials cited new streams of
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Speaker 1: alarming intelligence, British officials said no new threat to the
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Speaker 1: base had materialized. The officials spoke on the condition of
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Speaker 1: anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The seemingly disparate responses
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Speaker 1: raised questions about how serious was this threat, Biman said,
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Speaker 1: and whether the U.S. has seen intelligence its allies have
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Speaker 1: not or has taken a step of extreme caution over
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Speaker 1: aspirational terrorism. Britain has faced dozens of plots traced to
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Speaker 1: Iran in recent years, But no details have surfaced from
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Speaker 1: these cases to suggest Iran has the capacity to mount
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Speaker 1: a complicated attack on a heavily guarded military base. Instead,
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Speaker 1: Iran is accused of being behind a steady stream of
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Speaker 1: low-level sabotage operations and plots involving proxies recruited from criminal
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Speaker 1: networks on social media platforms. Recent plots include the stabbing
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Speaker 1: of a Jewish pedestrian and an arson attack on ambulances
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Speaker 1: that serve the Jewish community in North London. Iran's increasing
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Speaker 1: reliance on criminal proxies is seen by experts as an
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Speaker 1: indication of how difficult it has become for Iran's own
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Speaker 1: agents to elude MI5 and other security agencies on British soil,
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Speaker 1: let alone sneak in truckloads of armed drones. The plot
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Speaker 1: against RAF Fairford may have been an attempt by Iran
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Speaker 1: to probe British defenses and alarm Washington without risking the
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Speaker 1: fallout or failure of a full-scale attack, experts said. It
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Speaker 1: may be less that Iran intended to carry out such
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Speaker 1: an attack than that it wanted Western intelligence services to
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Speaker 1: discover that it could, said Ali Vaez, Deputy Middle East
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Speaker 1: Program Director at the International Crisis Group. The outcome, Vaez said,
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Speaker 1: was a carefully calibrated warning shot, a way of demonstrating
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Speaker 1: that Iran can extend the battlefield onto European soil. The
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Speaker 1: next article from the front page of today's edition is titled,
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Speaker 1: Trump returns to Texas, where Republicans are struggling. At rally
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Speaker 1: in San Antonio, the president attacked Senate nominee James Tallarico
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Speaker 1: and accused Democrats of seeking to reverse Republican gains along
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Speaker 1: the southwest border by Catherine Doyle. President Donald Trump delivered
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Speaker 1: a pointed message to Texas voters for the second time
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Speaker 1: in less than a week and the third time in
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Speaker 1: less than a month. amid Republican worries about losing support
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Speaker 1: from the blue-collar workers and Latinos who helped build their
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Speaker 1: winning coalition in 2024. Trump headlined a rally Wednesday evening
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Speaker 1: at Freeman Coliseum on San Antonio's east side alongside Republican
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Speaker 1: Senate nominee Ken Paxton and Carlos de la Cruz, the
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Speaker 1: Republican running in the newly drawn 35th Congressional District. Hispanic
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Speaker 1: voters are expected to be critical to Republicans' efforts to
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Speaker 1: hold congressional seats in the region. Polls show the party
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Speaker 1: losing ground with those voters and facing unexpectedly tight contests
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Speaker 1: across Texas, including in Paxton's Senate race and several House districts.
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Speaker 1: At the rally, Trump repeatedly attacked Democratic Senate nominee James
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Speaker 1: Tallarico as part of a broader condemnation of Democrats whom
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Speaker 1: he accused of seeking to reverse Republican gains along the
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Speaker 1: southwest border. Warning of the dangers of socialism and illegal immigration,
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Speaker 1: he argued that even a single Democratic victory could threaten
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Speaker 1: Republicans' narrow majorities in Congress. It's just one vote, but
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Speaker 1: it's a killer in Congress, Trump said, referring to Tallarico.
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Speaker 1: He falsely labeled Tallarico as a vegan and alleged he
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Speaker 1: continued to wear a mask long after the COVID-19 pandemic
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Speaker 1: had ended. Anybody wearing a mask in Texas three months
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Speaker 1: ago is not going to be your senator, Trump said.
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Speaker 1: He touted a $ 3. 6 billion Toyota plan to move manufacturing
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Speaker 1: from Mexico back to Texas and repeated his promise to
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Speaker 1: give every American $ 5, 000 if Republicans retain control of Congress.
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Speaker 1: He announced plans to award retired baseball player Roger Clemens,
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Speaker 1: who attended high school in Texas and started at the
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Speaker 1: University of Texas before going pro, the nation's highest civilian honor,
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Speaker 1: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He also accused Representative Henry Cuellar,
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Speaker 1: Democrat of Texas, of disloyalty for seeking re-election after Trump
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Speaker 1: pardoned him on federal bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy charges.
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Speaker 1: Republicans are spending heavily to defend a state Trump won
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Speaker 1: comfortably two years ago. But voters who turned to him
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Speaker 1: out of frustration with the cost of living are still
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Speaker 1: waiting for relief, and some are growing disillusioned with their choices.
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Speaker 1: Jeremy Trevino, a 33-year-old Hispanic and Filipino veteran and podcaster
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Speaker 1: who twice voted for Trump, said he wasn't sure how
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Speaker 1: or even if he would vote in the Senate race.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to take one from Joe Rogan and say
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Speaker 1: I'm politically homeless on that, Trevino, a San Antonio native,
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Speaker 1: said in an interview. I definitely align with Ken Paxton
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Speaker 1: on his Second Amendment view because that's big for me. However,
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Speaker 1: a politician is a politician at the end of the day.
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Speaker 1: describing the decision as a choice between the lesser of
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Speaker 1: two evils. Trevino said he plans to vote for Cuellar
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Speaker 1: over Republican Webb County Judge Tano Tijerino in the 28th
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Speaker 1: Congressional District, citing Cuellar's responsiveness to his constituents. I lean
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Speaker 1: to the right, but that doesn't mean they should get
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Speaker 1: a free vote, Trevino said. That uncertainty reflects a broader
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Speaker 1: unease that voters, business owners, and political strategists across South
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Speaker 1: Texas say is straining the coalition that helped power Trump's
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Speaker 1: victory two years ago. When elephants fight, it's the grass
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Speaker 1: that hurts. As small business and the middle class, we're
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Speaker 1: the grass, said Louis Barrios, a small business owner in
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Speaker 1: the San Antonio area. Barrios, who declined to detail his
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Speaker 1: past votes, said he was heading into the midterms thinking
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Speaker 1: about high food costs, especially the surging price of meat.
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Speaker 1: Everything gets delivered to us in those refrigerated trucks. They
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Speaker 1: have increased fuel costs, Berrios said, so everything has been
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Speaker 1: going up as a result of that. The economic pressure
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Speaker 1: is especially acute in Texas, where diesel prices have soared
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Speaker 1: over the past year, and there are more registered light-duty
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Speaker 1: diesel vehicles than in any other state. The average price
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Speaker 1: of diesel stood at $ 5. 72 a gallon on Wednesday, up
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Speaker 1: from about $ 3. 22 a year ago, according to AAA. The
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Speaker 1: increase has affected drivers of diesel-powered pickups, as well as ranchers, farmers,
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Speaker 1: and businesses that depend on trucks to move goods across
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Speaker 1: the sprawling state. The increase has hit working-class Hispanic voters
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Speaker 1: especially hard, said political strategist Steve Cortez, who served on
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Speaker 1: Trump's National Hispanic Advisory Council in 2016 and advised his
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Speaker 1: 2020 campaigns. They're feeling that sting, and they're very angry.
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Speaker 1: They're also very anti-war, and of course the war and
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Speaker 1: the prices are intrinsically linked. It's almost the cliche of
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Speaker 1: the midterm, but it's so true, said Brendan Steinhauser, a
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Speaker 1: Republican strategist based in Austin. It's gas prices and diesel.
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Speaker 1: The frustration is enough to prompt some GOP voters to reconsider.
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Speaker 1: One Republican small business owner in South Texas who said
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Speaker 1: he was considering voting Democratic down the ticket explained that
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Speaker 1: the political environment has become so toxic that he won't
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Speaker 1: discuss politics anymore. There's no middle ground, said the man,
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Speaker 1: who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of
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Speaker 1: drawing Republican ire. Such disillusionment does not necessarily represent a
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Speaker 1: permanent shift toward Democrats. Mark Jones, a professor of political
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Speaker 1: science at Rice University, said Trump's gains among Latino voters
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Speaker 1: in 2024 reflected an ephemeral set of circumstances. including dissatisfaction
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Speaker 1: with the Biden administration's handling of the economy and the
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Speaker 1: border and voters' memories of stronger economic conditions during Trump's
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Speaker 1: first term. In 2026, Biden isn't in the White House,
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Speaker 1: Kamala Harris isn't on the ballot, and Trump hasn't kept
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Speaker 1: the promise of economic prosperity, Jones said. The immigration message
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Speaker 1: also featured prominently in remarks by Marie Vega, whose son
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Speaker 1: was killed in a shooting involving two people who had
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Speaker 1: crossed the border illegally. We don't have an issue with
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Speaker 1: anyone coming to America, but we do have an issue
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Speaker 1: with anyone forcing their way into the greatest country there is. Again,
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Speaker 1: read my lips. Come legally or don't come at all,
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Speaker 1: Vega said. Trump at one point played a video montage
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Speaker 1: of news clips showing large numbers of migrants crossing the
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Speaker 1: southern border during the Biden administration. Republicans cautioned against interpreting
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Speaker 1: the polls as evidence that Trump's gains with Hispanic voters
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Speaker 1: have disappeared. They said that the party doesn't need to
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Speaker 1: replicate Trump's 2024 margins to stay competitive and that low-propensity
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Speaker 1: voters among the working class who support Trump remain challenging
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Speaker 1: for pollsters to capture. A new NBC News Telemundo poll
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Speaker 1: shows 27% of Hispanic voters have a positive view of
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Speaker 1: the Republican Party, compared with 30% in 2022 when Republicans
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Speaker 1: took control of the House. The survey also found a
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Speaker 1: growing identification with the president's populist Make America Great Again movement,
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Speaker 1: with 24% of Hispanic voters offering a positive assessment, up
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Speaker 1: from 18% in 2023. The Latino vote is moving from
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Speaker 1: being a racial and ethnic voting bloc to an economic
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Speaker 1: pocketbook voter, said Mike Madrid, a Republican political consultant who
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Speaker 1: recently spent five weeks in South Texas and who co-founded
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Speaker 1: the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. They will say ICE raids. They've
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Speaker 1: gone too far. But remember, these are the same voters
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Speaker 1: that were saying we need more border security and more
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Speaker 1: crackdowns two years ago. What's driving the anxiety and the
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Speaker 1: anger and the angst is the economy. The next article
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Speaker 1: from the front page of today's edition is titled, Trump
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Speaker 1: Wants to Turn His West Palm Beach Golf Club into
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Speaker 1: the New Camp David. The plan calls for the federal
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Speaker 1: government to be granted part of the property, with the
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Speaker 1: rest maintained as a private course, by Merrill Kornfield. Much
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Speaker 1: of President Donald Trump's second term has focused on changes
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Speaker 1: to the nation's capital, but his ambitions to remake the
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Speaker 1: physical architecture of the presidency transcend Washington. Trump wants to
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Speaker 1: transform his West Palm Beach golf club into a presidential
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Speaker 1: retreat modeled after Camp David. The plan calls for a
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Speaker 1: parcel of the private club to be designated a permanent
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Speaker 1: official sanctuary for foreign leaders and future U.S. presidents designed
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Speaker 1: to host international summits and house presidents when they take
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Speaker 1: vacations in Florida, according to a proposal presented to Palm
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Speaker 1: Beach County officials by Trump International Golf Club's legal counsel.
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Speaker 1: Future presidents would also be offered comped memberships to the
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Speaker 1: Trump Club. Justice Camp David, Windsor Castle, or the LSA
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Speaker 1: Palace are known worldwide, so too will the presidential golf
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Speaker 1: course in Palm Beach County. Harvey Oyer, a lawyer representing
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Speaker 1: the Trump course, wrote to the Palm Beach County Board
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Speaker 1: of County Commissioners in a letter last month. Oyer asked
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Speaker 1: the county, which owns the property the course is on,
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Speaker 1: to provide a piece of the land to the federal government,
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Speaker 1: and he promised Trump would pay for the construction of
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Speaker 1: a presidential residence and facilities on that land. Oyer told
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Speaker 1: the Washington Post that a name has not yet been
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Speaker 1: selected for the presidential course. It would further cement Palm
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Speaker 1: Beach County as one of the most recognizable places brands
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Speaker 1: and destinations in the world, Oyer said. A spokesperson for
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Speaker 1: the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.
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Speaker 1: A White House official with knowledge of the proposed plans
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Speaker 1: said in a text message the facilities would provide amenities
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Speaker 1: of a world-class property. The property is minutes away from
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Speaker 1: the Donald J. Trump International Airport, does not have buildings looming,
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Speaker 1: does not have houses along the course, has great security features,
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Speaker 1: is close to law enforcement, and happens to be a
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Speaker 1: highly rated golf course. These are features that are necessary
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Speaker 1: for any presidential retreat, said the White House official, who
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Speaker 1: spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview plans. In
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Speaker 1: the letter, which was first reported by the Palm Beach Post,
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Speaker 1: Oyer said the construction would not be completed before Trump
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Speaker 1: leaves office, so the project would be a gift to
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Speaker 1: Trump's successors and the county would benefit from high-power traffic
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Speaker 1: in the area. The county is seriously considering the proposal
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Speaker 1: and is seeking more information, Palm Beach County Administrator Joseph
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Speaker 1: Abruzzo told the Washington Post. In a meeting last week,
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Speaker 1: Trump representatives assured county officials that, under the proposal, Trump's
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Speaker 1: company would continue to make lease payments for the golf
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Speaker 1: course and would agree to build the presidential retreat on
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Speaker 1: a connected piece of land that would have a separate
21:12
Speaker 1: entrance from the private club, Abruzzo said. Trump's club would
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Speaker 1: continue to operate under the Trump family company and would
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Speaker 1: probably benefit from more business if it becomes a site
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Speaker 1: of long-lasting presidential importance. The county is in contact with
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Speaker 1: the General Services Administration, the agency that manages federal properties,
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Speaker 1: and the county will be selecting a parcel of the
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Speaker 1: land for the proposal, Abruzzo said. My understanding is that
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Speaker 1: President Trump views this as a lasting contribution to the
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Speaker 1: presidency and to those who will hold the office after him,
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Speaker 1: Abruzzo said. Though presidents already have a retreat at Camp David,
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Speaker 1: Trump has visited the complex less frequently than many of
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Speaker 1: his predecessors, preferring to spend his weekends and holidays at
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Speaker 1: his own properties. He once commented that Camp David's rustic
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Speaker 1: charm would wear off after half an hour. Previous presidents
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Speaker 1: have left their own marks on the Woodsy, Maryland retreat.
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Speaker 1: Franklin D. Roosevelt established the getaway for federal workers as
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Speaker 1: a presidential compound and dubbed it Shangri-La, though Dwight D.
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Speaker 1: Eisenhower later named it after his father and grandson. Marjorie
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Speaker 1: Meriwether Post, who was once the wealthiest woman in the
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Speaker 1: United States, also had hoped to create a presidential retreat
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Speaker 1: in the South. She gifted her Palm Beach estate, better
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Speaker 1: known as Mar-a-Lago, to the federal government upon her death
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Speaker 1: in 1973, with the intention that it be turned into
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Speaker 1: a winter White House. But the National Park Service returned
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Speaker 1: the property to her estate due to high maintenance costs,
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Speaker 1: and Trump bought the property in 1985. Trump International Golf
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Speaker 1: Course opened in 1999. after Trump settled a lawsuit with
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Speaker 1: a county regarding airplanes flying over Mar-a-Lago, and the county
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Speaker 1: agreed to lend him the land. Near the golf course,
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Speaker 1: state officials have branded the Palm Beach airport and the
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Speaker 1: road along it with Trump's name. Trump's influence over Palm
23:11
Speaker 1: Beach and its image would be further cemented if the
23:14
Speaker 1: golf club becomes a presidential retreat. The wealthy strip of
23:18
Speaker 1: South Florida has undergone a MAGA transformation, with Trump's base
23:22
Speaker 1: flocking to Mar-a-Lago for political events and networking. The nearby
23:26
Speaker 1: golf club has become a go-to destination for Trump spotting.
23:31
Speaker 1: Trump reported an income of nearly $ 37 million last year
23:34
Speaker 1: from the golf course in his latest financial disclosure. Although
23:39
Speaker 1: Trump had mocked former President Barack Obama for golfing during
23:42
Speaker 1: his presidency, Trump has frequently golfed since he has been
23:46
Speaker 1: in office. One online tracker calculated that Trump has spent
23:50
Speaker 1: at least 137 days in his second term golfing. Rick Riley,
23:55
Speaker 1: a former Sports Illustrated columnist who wrote Commander in Cheat,
23:59
Speaker 1: How Golf Explains Trump, has golfed with Trump and said
24:02
Speaker 1: the president is less interested in the sport than the
24:05
Speaker 1: attention he gains at his own clubs. Riley described how
24:09
Speaker 1: Trump always plays first in his golfing party and and
24:12
Speaker 1: speeds on his golf cart to the next hole, wrapping
24:15
Speaker 1: up his game in less time than is typical, before
24:18
Speaker 1: heading to the clubhouse where he makes the rounds, talking
24:21
Speaker 1: to his members and fans. If the Palm Beach Club
24:25
Speaker 1: were a destination for foreign leaders, they would be part
24:27
Speaker 1: of the display of influence. I suppose he wants to
24:31
Speaker 1: make a power play with these people and show them
24:33
Speaker 1: who is the king of America, Riley said. Don Van
24:37
Speaker 1: Natta Jr., an ESPN senior writer who wrote the first
24:41
Speaker 1: off the tee, Presidential Hackers, Duffers, and Cheaters from Taft
24:46
Speaker 1: to Bush, a book on the history of presidents who golfed,
24:49
Speaker 1: said 17 of the past 20 presidents have golfed. The
24:53
Speaker 1: first avid golfer in the Oval Office was William Howard Taft,
24:57
Speaker 1: and the last president who didn't golf was Jimmy Carter.
25:01
Speaker 1: There is a long history of presidents playing golf, Van
25:04
Speaker 1: Natta said. It's an escape where they can, as President
25:07
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton told me for my book, to be out
25:10
Speaker 1: in nature. and it's an escape hatch from the pressures
25:13
Speaker 1: of the Oval Office. The next article from the front
25:16
Speaker 1: page of today's edition is titled, Israelis Scarred by October
25:21
Speaker 1: 7th Attack Weigh Netanyahu's Political Future. Some survivors of the
25:26
Speaker 1: deadliest day in Israel's history sees this month's election as
25:29
Speaker 1: a long-delayed reckoning for the officials in charge when the
25:32
Speaker 1: country dropped its guard, by Lior Soroka. Three years after
25:37
Speaker 1: the deadliest day in Israel's history, Some survivors, including ex-hostages
25:42
Speaker 1: and their families, see an election later this month as
25:45
Speaker 1: a long-overdue political reckoning for the officials who were in
25:49
Speaker 1: charge when the country let down its defenses. After Hamas
25:53
Speaker 1: attackers breached the border and unleashed bloodshed and mayhem on
25:57
Speaker 1: October 7, 2023, some people in the hardest-hit communities emerged
26:02
Speaker 1: as fierce critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his
26:05
Speaker 1: right-wing government, which clung to power. I'm terrified of these elections,
26:10
Speaker 1: said Marav Sabersky, 45, whose parents Orit, 70, and Rafi, 71,
26:17
Speaker 1: were killed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Biri near the
26:20
Speaker 1: Gaza border, and whose 38-year-old brother, Ayte, was taken hostage
26:25
Speaker 1: into Gaza where he was killed by his captors, according
26:28
Speaker 1: to an Israel Defense Forces investigation. She and other critics
26:33
Speaker 1: have demanded accountability for the security failures that allowed the carnage,
26:37
Speaker 1: and for the prolonged ordeal of hostages that followed. I'm
26:41
Speaker 1: terrified that the government that brought this destruction upon us
26:44
Speaker 1: will remain in power, Seversky said. We paid the heaviest prices,
26:49
Speaker 1: she said. It cannot be that the person who led
26:51
Speaker 1: us into the worst massacre this country has ever seen,
26:55
Speaker 1: which cost me the lives of my family, continues to
26:57
Speaker 1: lead this nation. Netanyahu, who is now fighting for political
27:02
Speaker 1: survival in the October 27th vote, has blamed Israel's security
27:07
Speaker 1: chiefs for those failures while refusing to accept personal responsibility
27:11
Speaker 1: or authorize an investigation by an independent commission. The prime
27:16
Speaker 1: minister has argued that his leadership delivered a fierce and
27:19
Speaker 1: effective battlefield response that has reshaped the Middle East to
27:23
Speaker 1: Israel's advantage in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, and Iran, a view
27:28
Speaker 1: some October 7th survivors also hold. Talik Gvili says, whose son,
27:34
Speaker 1: Master Sergeant Ron Gvili, was killed on October 7th and
27:38
Speaker 1: whose body was held in Gaza, recently joined Netanyahu's party
27:42
Speaker 1: to run for office and is expected to win a
27:44
Speaker 1: seat in the next Neset, Israel's parliament. I want a
27:48
Speaker 1: strong leader, Gvili said in a video announcing her candidacy.
27:53
Speaker 1: The Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 251
27:56
Speaker 1: hostages on October 7th. For many survivors and their families,
28:02
Speaker 1: that day has never quite ended. On the morning of
28:06
Speaker 1: the attack, Adina Moshi, then 72 and her husband of
28:10
Speaker 1: 54 years, said David Moshi, 75, hid in the safe
28:14
Speaker 1: room of their home on Kibbutz near Oz, about a
28:17
Speaker 1: mile from the Gaza Strip. Her husband, a farmer, was
28:21
Speaker 1: shot in front of her, but not before he managed
28:23
Speaker 1: to blow her a kiss, she said. Two militants on
28:27
Speaker 1: a motorcycle then took her to a tunnel in Khan Yunis, Gaza,
28:31
Speaker 1: where she was held for 49 days with a group
28:34
Speaker 1: of other hostages, most of them elderly, along with a
28:37
Speaker 1: five-year-old girl. It's a pain that doesn't leave, Moshe said.
28:41
Speaker 1: The moment you get into bed at night, you see
28:44
Speaker 1: what's missing, and you see how full the darkness is.
28:48
Speaker 1: She said she still feels guilty that not all the
28:50
Speaker 1: hostages came back alive. They could have been saved, she said.
28:55
Speaker 1: In 20 days, Israelis will head to the polls in
28:58
Speaker 1: an election widely viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu, who
29:02
Speaker 1: has led Israel for nearly 19 of the past 30 years.
29:06
Speaker 1: Most polls show former military chief Gadi Eisenkot's party leading
29:10
Speaker 1: Netanyahu's Likud, but neither Eisenkot's bloc nor Netanyahu's seems likely
29:16
Speaker 1: to win the 61 seats needed for a majority in
29:19
Speaker 1: the 120-seat Neset. moshi who is still waiting for a
29:23
Speaker 1: new house to be built on the ruins of her
29:25
Speaker 1: burned home in near oz is hoping for a change
29:29
Speaker 1: in leadership there is a fundamental lack of humanity in
29:32
Speaker 1: the government today she said there is no commitment to
29:35
Speaker 1: the public on the day of the attack finance minister
29:39
Speaker 1: Bezalel Smatryk delivered a stark prediction during a cabinet meeting,
29:43
Speaker 1: according to Israeli media reports. In another 48 hours, they
29:48
Speaker 1: will call for us to resign because of the failure.
29:51
Speaker 1: And they're right. Netanyahu, however, refused to step down. Everyone
29:57
Speaker 1: will need to provide answers, myself included. But all of
30:01
Speaker 1: this will happen only after the war, he said, two
30:04
Speaker 1: weeks later. The wars, on several fronts, are still underway.
30:09
Speaker 1: In Gaza, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 70,000 people,
30:14
Speaker 1: according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish
30:17
Speaker 1: between civilians and combatants. Some Israelis are calling the expanded fighting,
30:22
Speaker 1: including the U.S.-led war in Iran, the longest war in
30:26
Speaker 1: Israel's history. Gayil Talshir said, a political scientist at Hebrew University,
30:33
Speaker 1: said Netanyahu did not expect the vote's proximity to the
30:36
Speaker 1: October 7th anniversary to hurt him. Rather, Tauscher said the
30:41
Speaker 1: prime minister believed that the election would be about the
30:43
Speaker 1: story he is trying to tell, that October 7th was
30:47
Speaker 1: the failure of the generals who didn't wake him up,
30:50
Speaker 1: and that he has since waged a successful fight on
30:52
Speaker 1: all fronts. But that arrogance has blown up in his face,
30:56
Speaker 1: Tauscher said. pointing to recent media reports suggesting Netanyahu personally
31:01
Speaker 1: received warnings before the attack that he did not act on.
31:05
Speaker 1: Netanyahu has denied the reports. Tauscher added that the Prime
31:10
Speaker 1: Minister's promise of total victory has not held up after
31:14
Speaker 1: three years of war with no end in sight. Sversky,
31:18
Speaker 1: whose parents and brother were killed, has watched that narrative
31:21
Speaker 1: take shape up close. For three years, she has appeared
31:25
Speaker 1: week after week before Nesset committees reminding coalition lawmakers of
31:29
Speaker 1: the toll of October 7th and of their ministerial responsibility.
31:34
Speaker 1: Not a single member of the coalition told me, I'm
31:37
Speaker 1: sorry this happened on my watch, said Sversky, who works
31:41
Speaker 1: as a performance artist. The evasion of responsibility, she added
31:45
Speaker 1: in an interview, creates a society lacking self-criticism that is
31:49
Speaker 1: losing its moral compass. Ainov Zongakher whose son Matan was
31:55
Speaker 1: held in Gaza for 738 days until his release last October,
32:00
Speaker 1: is a former Netanyahu voter who became one of his
32:03
Speaker 1: most vocal critics. In a normal country, they shouldn't even
32:07
Speaker 1: have the legitimacy to offer themselves up for re-election, Zeingacher said.
32:12
Speaker 1: As for her own vote, she would support anyone who
32:15
Speaker 1: wasn't at the helm on October 7th. Matan is slowly
32:19
Speaker 1: rebuilding his life, she said. When I look at him,
32:22
Speaker 1: deep inside, I see the sufferings. what he went through
32:24
Speaker 1: in captivity that I will never fully know, she said.
32:28
Speaker 1: Not everyone directly affected by October 7th wants change. Some
32:33
Speaker 1: see Netanyahu as the wartime leader the country needs. Ram Braslovsky, 22,
32:39
Speaker 1: a released hostage, thanked Netanyahu in a call last month
32:43
Speaker 1: for bringing the hostages home and said he would vote
32:46
Speaker 1: for the right, fearing the return of a Palestinian government,
32:49
Speaker 1: a reference to the coalition led by former Prime Minister
32:53
Speaker 1: Naftali Bennett, and Yair Lapid that included the Ereb Ram Party.
32:58
Speaker 1: Dzivka Moore, a resident of the West Bank settlement of
33:02
Speaker 1: Kiryat Arba, who joined Smatryk's Religious Zionism Party, also said
33:07
Speaker 1: he wants Netanyahu's block to stay in power. On October 7th,
33:12
Speaker 1: Moore's son, Aiton, was taken by Hamas while trying to
33:15
Speaker 1: rescue people at a music festival. He was released last
33:19
Speaker 1: year after more than two years. Throughout the war, Moore
33:23
Speaker 1: called for intensifying military pressure on Hamas rather than yielding
33:27
Speaker 1: to its demands. When my son was in captivity, I
33:31
Speaker 1: asked the government not to jeopardize national security so that
33:34
Speaker 1: I would be the last father whose child is abducted,
33:37
Speaker 1: he told the Washington Post. Moore is now campaigning for
33:41
Speaker 1: a seat in the Nesset, he said, to ensure that
33:43
Speaker 1: Israel acts properly to deter our enemies. For survivals and
33:48
Speaker 1: for much of Israel, there is a sense that the
33:51
Speaker 1: election is a crucial turning point. Eyal Eshel, whose 19-year-old
33:56
Speaker 1: daughter Rani was killed on October 7th, established an organization
34:00
Speaker 1: for bereaved families. Eshel has called for the country's leaders
34:04
Speaker 1: to resign and for a state commission to investigate. The
34:08
Speaker 1: task Rani left me is to rebuild what's broken in Israel,
34:12
Speaker 1: Eshel said. Ronnie, an IDF watchguard stationed on the Gaza border,
34:17
Speaker 1: was among the first to report the border breach on
34:20
Speaker 1: the morning at 6.29 a.m. on October 7th. Gunmen running
34:24
Speaker 1: toward the fence, she warned, over the radio. Ronnie stayed
34:28
Speaker 1: at her post, reporting their advance until militants reached the
34:31
Speaker 1: outpost and set fire to the command center with the
34:34
Speaker 1: guards inside. I miss a girl who was fun to
34:38
Speaker 1: laugh with and spend time with, Eshel said. So far,
34:42
Speaker 1: his efforts at achieving accountability have fallen short, with Netanyahu
34:46
Speaker 1: blocking an independent commission inquiry. Some survivors and family members
34:51
Speaker 1: call that an outrage. I can't understand how three years later,
34:55
Speaker 1: what happened still hasn't been investigated, Moshi said. Eisenkot and Bennett,
35:00
Speaker 1: Netanyahu's main challengers, have promised to establish an independent commission
35:05
Speaker 1: on their first day in office. In the absence of
35:08
Speaker 1: such a panel, Zangacker and Sversky joined other victims' families
35:12
Speaker 1: last month in compiling the October 7th file, a record
35:16
Speaker 1: of Netanyahu's policies that they say allowed the attack. It
35:20
Speaker 1: is a moral duty to remember how we got to
35:22
Speaker 1: where we are, Zangacker said. For Sversky, the vote is
35:27
Speaker 1: simply about what comes next. This government glorifies an endless
35:31
Speaker 1: war at the expense of human life, she said. The
35:34
Speaker 1: next leadership must be people who hold human life sacred. Moshe,
35:39
Speaker 1: whose husband was killed, said she still believes the answer
35:42
Speaker 1: lies in peace with the Palestinians. Everyone will think I'm
35:46
Speaker 1: a little crazy, she said, but despite everything, I think
35:50
Speaker 1: it's the only solution. The next article from the front
35:53
Speaker 1: page of today's edition is titled Krista Pike's Lawyer Accuses
35:57
Speaker 1: Tennessee of Secrecy as Judge Orders Evidence Preserved. After her
36:02
Speaker 1: botched execution, Randy Spivey said, I think she is angry
36:07
Speaker 1: and confused about everything right now. By Violet Jira and
36:11
Speaker 1: Katie Mettler. A Tennessee judge on Wednesday ordered state officials
36:16
Speaker 1: to preserve all evidence related to the botched attempt to
36:20
Speaker 1: execute inmate Krista Pike, who survived two lethal doses of
36:24
Speaker 1: pentobarbital last week and remains hospitalized in Nashville. Pike, 50,
36:30
Speaker 1: was scheduled to die by lethal injection on September 30th.
36:34
Speaker 1: Her sentence was handed down decades ago for her role
36:37
Speaker 1: as a teenager in the torture and murder of 19-year-old
36:40
Speaker 1: Colleen Slammer in 1995. But the drugs which officials expected
36:45
Speaker 1: to kill Pike within minutes did not work, and state
36:49
Speaker 1: officials rushed her to a hospital for life-saving medical care.
36:53
Speaker 1: Wednesday's hearing in Nashville was the first court appearance her
36:57
Speaker 1: lawyers have made since the failed executions. They asked Judge
37:01
Speaker 1: Ayeshia Miles in Davidson County Chancery Court to require the
37:04
Speaker 1: Tennessee Department of Corrections to maintain logbooks, surveillance footage, equipment,
37:10
Speaker 1: medical records, and other information related to the events that
37:13
Speaker 1: transpired before and after the failed execution. I want to
37:18
Speaker 1: ensure that you all take special care not to lose, misplace,
37:22
Speaker 1: or accidentally delete any information that may be pertinent to
37:25
Speaker 1: this litigation, Miles said in court. He also ordered the
37:29
Speaker 1: state to claw back any information or materials that may
37:33
Speaker 1: already have been discarded. A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department
37:37
Speaker 1: of Correction declined to comment, but an attorney representing the
37:41
Speaker 1: state said in court that prison officials had already begun
37:44
Speaker 1: preserving evidence as required by a separate federal court case
37:48
Speaker 1: related to execution protocols. Pike, who is still receiving critical
37:53
Speaker 1: medical care at a private hospital, was not in court
37:56
Speaker 1: for the hearings. She was unconscious and on a ventilator
37:59
Speaker 1: for nearly a week before regaining consciousness. At a news
38:03
Speaker 1: conference after the hearing, one of Pike's attorneys, Randy Spivey,
38:07
Speaker 1: said Pike is experiencing a lot of cognitive confusion. She
38:11
Speaker 1: is aware, he said, that the state tried and failed
38:13
Speaker 1: to execute her, but he would not elaborate on the
38:16
Speaker 1: specific details of her recollections. I think she's angry and
38:21
Speaker 1: confused about everything right now, Spivey said. adding that Pike
38:25
Speaker 1: has asked about her team and Slemmer's family. Spivey said
38:29
Speaker 1: Pike faces an unprecedented recovery. She has a blood clot
38:33
Speaker 1: in one of her arms. She has pneumonia. She is
38:36
Speaker 1: not able to swallow yet, so she has not eaten.
38:39
Speaker 1: She cannot move either of her arms. Both of her
38:42
Speaker 1: arms and hands are tremendously swollen, and we do not
38:45
Speaker 1: know what, if any, function she will regain in her arms,
38:49
Speaker 1: Spivey said. He described Pike's swelling as extraordinary and and
38:53
Speaker 1: said her hands looked as if you were to blow
38:56
Speaker 1: up a surgical glove. During the hearing, Luke Einan, one
39:00
Speaker 1: of Pike's attorneys from the Federal Defender Services of Eastern Kentucky,
39:04
Speaker 1: told the judge that the Tennessee Department of Correction had
39:07
Speaker 1: limited Pike's access to her legal team. Einan also said
39:11
Speaker 1: prison officials had ordered Pike to be handcuffed and shackled
39:15
Speaker 1: to her hospital bed against the wishes of her medical
39:18
Speaker 1: team and despite injuries to her arms from the failed injections.
39:22
Speaker 1: Pike's counsel asked the judge to order state prison officials
39:26
Speaker 1: to remove the shackles and allow Pike to contact her
39:29
Speaker 1: lawyers without hurdles, including through a digital tablet similar to
39:33
Speaker 1: what she used while incarcerated at the Deborah K. Johnson
39:36
Speaker 1: Rehabilitation Center for Women. Miles declined to immediately rule on
39:41
Speaker 1: the requests to remove the shackles and provide a tablet
39:44
Speaker 1: seeking additional information. but she did order the state to
39:48
Speaker 1: respond within two hours to written requests for access to
39:52
Speaker 1: Pike from her lawyers. Access should be given as it
39:55
Speaker 1: would be if she were incarcerated at the women's prison,
39:58
Speaker 1: Miles said. Just because Ms. Pike is currently in a
40:02
Speaker 1: hospital does not mean she should have any less access
40:05
Speaker 1: to an attorney than she would have in the women's prison.
40:09
Speaker 1: At the news conference afterwards, Inan criticized the state for
40:13
Speaker 1: what he called a lack of transparency over Tennessee's execution protocols.
40:18
Speaker 1: Today's hearing was about transparency, about why Krista, the courts,
40:23
Speaker 1: the media, and the public should not simply take the
40:26
Speaker 1: state's word about what happened last Wednesday, Inan said. Because
40:30
Speaker 1: as we saw a little bit today, their word is
40:33
Speaker 1: shrouded in secrecy, in legal jargon, in attempts to obfuscate
40:37
Speaker 1: and obscure what really happened. Hours after the attempted execution,
40:43
Speaker 1: Governor Bill Lee, Republican, halted all scheduled executions in the
40:47
Speaker 1: state and ordered a third-party review into what happened. Frank Strata,
40:52
Speaker 1: the state's prison chief, resigned over the weekend. Tennessee prison
40:57
Speaker 1: officials had botched another execution under Strata this year. In
41:01
Speaker 1: the spring, the execution of convicted murderer Tony Carruthers was
41:05
Speaker 1: called off after personnel could not establish a backup IV
41:08
Speaker 1: line as required by state protocol. Lee granted Carruthers a
41:13
Speaker 1: one-year reprieve. Before her execution date, Pike's attorneys raised concerns
41:18
Speaker 1: over the incident involving Carruthers and asked the courts to
41:22
Speaker 1: grant Pike an alternative method of death, warning the woman's
41:25
Speaker 1: IV could fail because of her small veins and a
41:28
Speaker 1: blood disorder, but the request was denied. Separately, Lee declined
41:33
Speaker 1: Pike's clemency request, asking him to commute her sentence to
41:36
Speaker 1: life in prison without the possibility of parole. Her attorneys
41:40
Speaker 1: have renewed the call for clemency since the failed execution
41:44
Speaker 1: and have asked Lee to reconsider. A spokesperson for the
41:47
Speaker 1: governor did not immediately respond to her request for comment Wednesday.
41:52
Speaker 1: Before addressing the motion on preserving evidence filed by Pike's attorney,
41:57
Speaker 1: The judge sought to determine whether her court or the
41:59
Speaker 1: Tennessee Supreme Court had jurisdiction over ongoing matters related to
42:03
Speaker 1: Pike's case. After hearing arguments from Inan and Tennessee Assistant
42:08
Speaker 1: Attorney General Will Ayers, Miles ruled that the Davidson County
42:12
Speaker 1: Court is the appropriate judicial venue. Pike and two other teenagers,
42:18
Speaker 1: her boyfriend and another girl, lured Slammer into a wooded
42:21
Speaker 1: area in Knoxville in 1995. The teenagers knew each other
42:26
Speaker 1: through the Knoxville Job Corps, and prosecutors argued that Pike
42:29
Speaker 1: believed Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend. Pike admitted to
42:34
Speaker 1: hitting the girl in the head with asphalt, cutting her throat,
42:37
Speaker 1: and taking a piece of her skull as a souvenir,
42:40
Speaker 1: court documents say. Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, traveled from Florida
42:45
Speaker 1: to witness the attempted execution last week and told NBC
42:49
Speaker 1: News afterward that she was furious with state officials. Martinez
42:54
Speaker 1: called the botched execution a mess and said prison officials
42:57
Speaker 1: failed to properly communicate with her about it. The next
43:01
Speaker 1: article from today's edition is titled, Girl Asks Supreme Court
43:06
Speaker 1: to Block Washington State Rules Allowing Trans Athletes. The high
43:10
Speaker 1: court has upheld bans on transgender athletes on girls' and
43:14
Speaker 1: women's sports teams. It has not said whether states can
43:17
Speaker 1: allow them to participate. By Julianne Mark A high school
43:22
Speaker 1: student in Washington State on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court
43:26
Speaker 1: to block rules there allowing transgender athletes to play on
43:30
Speaker 1: female sports teams, signaling the next front in legal battles
43:34
Speaker 1: over trans women in competitive athletics. The request, which was
43:38
Speaker 1: made in an emergency application filed by a high school
43:42
Speaker 1: athlete and her mother, is the first time the issue
43:45
Speaker 1: has returned to the high court since June. when the
43:47
Speaker 1: justices upheld state bans on transgender women playing on women's
43:51
Speaker 1: sports teams. Although that decision allowed states to impose bans,
43:57
Speaker 1: the court's majority opinion acknowledged that it left unanswered the
44:01
Speaker 1: question of whether officials could set their own policies and
44:04
Speaker 1: allow trans girls and women to participate in female sports.
44:09
Speaker 1: The application Tuesday alleges that Washington's policies are discriminatory and
44:13
Speaker 1: violate Title IX. The filing states that the high school athlete,
44:18
Speaker 1: identified by the initials K.M.K., was sexually assaulted during a
44:22
Speaker 1: wrestling match after being assigned to wrestle a male. Without
44:27
Speaker 1: the high court's intervention, the filing states that K.M.K. and
44:30
Speaker 1: her mother, Stephanie Brown, will suffer irreparable harms because the
44:35
Speaker 1: student would have to miss the wrestling season starting next month. K.M.K.
44:40
Speaker 1: was 16 years old as of August, according to court records.
44:44
Speaker 1: High school athletics are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, the filing states. KMK
44:49
Speaker 1: is already missing soccer, and she will soon miss her
44:52
Speaker 1: girls' wrestling season because of the policy, it continues. The
44:56
Speaker 1: justices could rule in the coming days or weeks. This
45:00
Speaker 1: would make a consistent body of law for the entire country,
45:03
Speaker 1: said John Bursch, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, a
45:08
Speaker 1: conservative legal nonprofit organization representing the plaintiffs. In her petition
45:13
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court, KMK's attorneys wrote that her opponent
45:17
Speaker 1: in the wrestling match, who was stronger and more powerful,
45:20
Speaker 1: touched her inappropriately. KMK's attorneys argue that the incident is
45:25
Speaker 1: proof of the safety risks inherent in allowing trans athletes
45:28
Speaker 1: to play on female sports teams. Attorneys for the Washington
45:33
Speaker 1: Interscholastic Activities Association, the defendant, noted in court filings that
45:38
Speaker 1: the Pierce County prosecuting attorney following an investigation, declined to
45:42
Speaker 1: file criminal charges in connection with the incident. The prosecutor
45:46
Speaker 1: concluded that physical contact was a foreseeable, albeit penalizable, byproduct
45:52
Speaker 1: of the sport, the association wrote in court filings. The
45:55
Speaker 1: attempt to dress up a wrestling penalty into a Title
45:58
Speaker 1: IX sexual assault is illustrative of the hyperbole fueling plaintiff's claims,
46:03
Speaker 1: the WIAA attorneys wrote. Attorneys for both the WIAA and
46:08
Speaker 1: the state did not respond to requests for comment about
46:11
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court petition. Legal issues at play may nevertheless
46:16
Speaker 1: revive the issue at the Supreme Court. Washington is among
46:19
Speaker 1: 23 states that allow transgender female athletes to compete on
46:23
Speaker 1: women's teams. In June, the justices ruled that West Virginia
46:28
Speaker 1: and Idaho could ban trans athletes from playing on girls'
46:31
Speaker 1: and women's sports teams. Those bans the court held did
46:35
Speaker 1: not violate the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws.
46:40
Speaker 1: The court also concluded that bans did not offend Title IX,
46:44
Speaker 1: a landmark 1972 anti-discrimination law involving education. Now the court
46:50
Speaker 1: confronts a different question, said Ryan H. Nelson, an associate
46:54
Speaker 1: professor of law at South Texas College of Law at Houston.
46:59
Speaker 1: In June, the Supreme Court said states may keep transgender
47:02
Speaker 1: girls off girls' teams, Nelson wrote in an email. This
47:06
Speaker 1: application argues they must. KMK's attorneys argue that Washington's athletics
47:11
Speaker 1: rules are interfering with Brown's constitutional right to direct her
47:15
Speaker 1: daughter's upbringing. She is further asking the court to order
47:18
Speaker 1: the state to notify her if she will compete with
47:21
Speaker 1: a transgender athlete. In context sports like wrestling, parents have
47:26
Speaker 1: the right to decide whether their daughters will compete against males,
47:29
Speaker 1: KMK's attorneys wrote. The next article from today's edition is titled,
47:34
Speaker 1: Supreme Court wrestles with fight over Air Force munitions disposal
47:39
Speaker 1: site on Guam. A non-profit group contends that exploding the
47:43
Speaker 1: ordinance threatens the island's main water source, sea turtles, and
47:47
Speaker 1: an indigenous cultural site. By Justin Juvenal. The Supreme Court
47:53
Speaker 1: wrestled Wednesday with how to resolve a dispute over the
47:56
Speaker 1: disposal of military munitions on a Guam beach that environmentalists
48:00
Speaker 1: say threatens the island's main water source, the surrounding environment,
48:05
Speaker 1: and an important cultural site. The justices appeared to think
48:09
Speaker 1: that the Air Force and the group challenging the disposal,
48:12
Speaker 1: Prutehi Guahan, had made compelling points during roughly one and
48:16
Speaker 1: a half hours of questioning, indicating it might be difficult
48:20
Speaker 1: for the high court to arrive at a ruling. The
48:23
Speaker 1: case turns on technical legal questions, but at stake is
48:26
Speaker 1: an idyllic stretch of coastline that is home to migratory birds,
48:30
Speaker 1: sea turtles, and a 3,000-year-old village that was home to
48:34
Speaker 1: the indigenous Chamorro people. The bombing site also sits atop
48:38
Speaker 1: an aquifer that provides drinking water for more than 80%
48:42
Speaker 1: of the people living on the island, a U.S. territory
48:45
Speaker 1: in the Pacific Ocean. The Air Force has been exploding bombs,
48:49
Speaker 1: tear gas, grenades, and other munitions, including some that date
48:53
Speaker 1: to the World War II era on Taragu Beach since 1982.
48:59
Speaker 1: The Air Force has been renewing its permit to continue
49:01
Speaker 1: the disposal every three years. The beach is part of
49:05
Speaker 1: Anderson Air Force Base on Guam's north coast. The current
49:09
Speaker 1: fight kicked off in 2021 when the Defense Department applied
49:13
Speaker 1: for a new permit. Prutehi Guajon, a non-profit group that
49:17
Speaker 1: aims to preserve the island's habitat and cultural history, sued
49:21
Speaker 1: the next year, saying the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA,
49:26
Speaker 1: required the military to perform an environmental review to obtain
49:29
Speaker 1: a permit. A federal court dismissed the lawsuit, but a
49:34
Speaker 1: divided appeals court ruled it could go forward. The Supreme
49:37
Speaker 1: Court agreed to take up an appeal by the government
49:40
Speaker 1: in March, setting the stage for Wednesday's arguments. Prutehi Guahan
49:44
Speaker 1: said in court filings that the destruction of the munitions
49:47
Speaker 1: in open pits sends shrapnel into the ocean and surrounding
49:51
Speaker 1: area and leaches toxic chemicals into the ground. The group
49:55
Speaker 1: says the beach is popular with local residents. The group
49:59
Speaker 1: also said the government should examine new technologies that could
50:02
Speaker 1: lessen the impact of the disposal on the environment. The
50:06
Speaker 1: government argued in court filings that the lawsuit was premature,
50:09
Speaker 1: since Guam's Environmental Protection Agency has yet to issue a permit.
50:14
Speaker 1: It also said it did not have to perform an
50:16
Speaker 1: environmental review because another federal law governing the handling of
50:21
Speaker 1: hazardous waste already required environmental analysis. The justices peppered Assistant
50:27
Speaker 1: Solicitor General Sopan Joshi on both points, but several justices
50:31
Speaker 1: were particularly strong in questioning whether the government's reading of
50:35
Speaker 1: the law left any room to legally challenge the issuance
50:38
Speaker 1: of a permit. The Air Force's action is never final,
50:42
Speaker 1: so never reviewable, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. told Joshi,
50:47
Speaker 1: summing up his take on the government's position. But some
50:51
Speaker 1: of the justices also expressed discomfort with allowing groups to
50:54
Speaker 1: file a lawsuit when an agency has simply put forward
50:57
Speaker 1: a proposal to do something. Joshi said it could open
51:01
Speaker 1: the floodgates to rounds of litigation. You're saying that the
51:05
Speaker 1: regulated body that submits the proposal actually has engaged in
51:08
Speaker 1: a final agency action, Justice Clarence Thomas told Prutehi Gwahan's attorney,
51:14
Speaker 1: referring to the standard required to legally challenge a government move.
51:18
Speaker 1: And I asked you for any other examples that you
51:20
Speaker 1: might have of the regulated body's request or application being
51:24
Speaker 1: considered a final agency action. The attorney, Carolyn Ann Flynn,
51:29
Speaker 1: admitted she knew of no other. The high court will
51:32
Speaker 1: probably issue a decision before the end of the term
51:35
Speaker 1: in June or July. The next article from today's edition
51:39
Speaker 1: is titled, Trump Gets Caught in the Weave and Hands
51:42
Speaker 1: Democrats a Target. The President's Misinterpreted Comments About Los Angeles
51:47
Speaker 1: and San Diego Created Opportunities for His Foes and Confusion
51:51
Speaker 1: for His Allies. Analysis by Karen Tumulti. Donald Trump describes
51:57
Speaker 1: his unscripted, meandering speaking style as the weave. He has boasted,
52:02
Speaker 1: I'll talk about like nine different things and they all
52:05
Speaker 1: come back brilliantly together. But occasionally the president gets tied
52:09
Speaker 1: up as tightly as Gulliver in all those threads that
52:12
Speaker 1: he has spun. He confuses his allies and leaves plenty
52:16
Speaker 1: of room for his adversaries to interpret or misinterpret as
52:19
Speaker 1: they will. Democrats by now have learned and sometimes adopted
52:23
Speaker 1: Trump's tactic of creating and amplifying false storylines when it
52:27
Speaker 1: serves their purposes, but rarely has he handed them such
52:31
Speaker 1: an opportunity as with his megaton blooper at a packed
52:34
Speaker 1: rally Monday evening in Grand Island, Nebraska. In an apparent
52:38
Speaker 1: reference to gas prices, though he hadn't explicitly mentioned them,
52:42
Speaker 1: Trump said, It's just artificial. It's a little bit high.
52:46
Speaker 1: It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe.
52:49
Speaker 1: keeping our country safe. They can take out a city.
52:53
Speaker 1: Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out
52:57
Speaker 1: San Diego. This is a very small price to pay.
53:01
Speaker 1: No speechwriter would have crafted those words that way. It
53:05
Speaker 1: takes some attention to context and no small indulgence of
53:08
Speaker 1: syntax to understand Trump was claiming that high energy costs
53:12
Speaker 1: are a temporary necessity to prevent an attack by Iran
53:15
Speaker 1: on major U.S. cities. But the approving roar of the
53:19
Speaker 1: MAGA crowd suggested that his devoted supporters believed Trump had
53:23
Speaker 1: said he would welcome, as a small price, the annihilation
53:26
Speaker 1: of two heavily Democratic metropolitan areas with a combined population
53:30
Speaker 1: of more than 16 million people. It didn't help that
53:34
Speaker 1: Trump has a long record of animosity toward California. He
53:38
Speaker 1: withheld disaster aid to assist in recovery after 2025 wildfires,
53:43
Speaker 1: overstepped legal bounds by deploying National Guard troops to Los
53:47
Speaker 1: Angeles during protests over immigration raids, and has called the
53:51
Speaker 1: nation's populous state a disgrace to our country. Leading what
53:56
Speaker 1: became a chorus of denunciations by Democrats, California Governor Gavin
54:00
Speaker 1: Newsom wrote on social media, After sending the National Guard
54:04
Speaker 1: and Marines to occupy California, Donald Trump is now saying
54:08
Speaker 1: our foreign enemies should take out Los Angeles and San Diego?
54:12
Speaker 1: He is deranged and dangerous. The two cities' mayors joined in,
54:17
Speaker 1: with Karen Bass of Los Angeles saying Trump's comments potentially
54:21
Speaker 1: compromise our safety, and San Diego's Todd Gloria pronouncing, San
54:26
Speaker 1: Diego is not collateral damage. We are not expendable. Others,
54:30
Speaker 1: including former Vice President Kamala Harris, found opportunities to raise
54:34
Speaker 1: money off Trump's comments. But even some Republicans criticized Trump's comments.
54:40
Speaker 1: Among them was San Diego County Board of Supervisors member
54:43
Speaker 1: Jim Desmond, who has been endorsed by Trump in his
54:46
Speaker 1: bid for an open House seat. I vehemently disagree with
54:50
Speaker 1: President Trump's comments, Desmond posted on the social media platform X.
54:55
Speaker 1: No American city is expendable, and no American family should
54:58
Speaker 1: ever be treated as collateral damage. On a local Fox
55:02
Speaker 1: affiliate in San Diego, one news anchor announced grimly that
55:06
Speaker 1: Trump had called for a foreign adversary to attack America.
55:10
Speaker 1: which was something an American president has never ever done
55:13
Speaker 1: or said. Not until Tuesday did the White House move
55:17
Speaker 1: aggressively to put out the fire the president had started.
55:21
Speaker 1: Communications director Stephen Chung wrote on X, The media freakout
55:26
Speaker 1: over President Trump's comments is not rooted in reality. He
55:29
Speaker 1: was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if
55:32
Speaker 1: a nuclear Iran hadn't been stopped. Chung was backed up
55:36
Speaker 1: by subsequent nonpartisan analysis. While his wording is confusing, a
55:41
Speaker 1: more plausible interpretation is that he meant the war would
55:44
Speaker 1: prevent Iran from posing a threat to U.S. cities and
55:47
Speaker 1: higher gas prices are a small sacrifice to make. He's
55:51
Speaker 1: made versions of those points before, using similar language, factcheck.org wrote.
55:57
Speaker 1: But the damage that Trump himself had inflicted with the
56:00
Speaker 1: speaking style he so often touts had already been done.
56:04
Speaker 1: In today's world, An old saying often misattributed to Mark
56:07
Speaker 1: Twain might be rewritten this way. Misinformation can travel halfway
56:12
Speaker 1: around the world while the fact-checkers are putting on their shoes.
56:16
Speaker 1: The next article from today's edition is titled, Emails Show
56:20
Speaker 1: How ICE Trimmed Training for Deputized Officers. Police officers helping
56:25
Speaker 1: ICE arrest unauthorized immigrants were given a shortened training course
56:29
Speaker 1: that scaled back instruction on the nation's immigration laws. by
56:33
Speaker 1: Sylvia Foster Frau. The Department of Homeland Security sped up
56:38
Speaker 1: training for police officers making immigration arrests by scaling back
56:43
Speaker 1: instructions on the nation's immigration laws and real-world scenarios they
56:47
Speaker 1: might encounter, according to emails reviewed by the Washington Post.
56:52
Speaker 1: The Trump administration reduced training for officers whose departments agreed
56:56
Speaker 1: to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, from four
57:00
Speaker 1: weeks of in-person education to 40 hours of virtual training
57:04
Speaker 1: last year as part of a broader effort to expand
57:07
Speaker 1: the agency's footprint across the nation. While the Post and
57:11
Speaker 1: others have reported on the shortened training, relatively little has
57:15
Speaker 1: been known about what components had been trimmed. Watchdog group
57:19
Speaker 1: American Oversight obtained a trove of documents through a Freedom
57:22
Speaker 1: of Information Act request that included an email sent last
57:26
Speaker 1: February from an ICE official to David Venturella and Todd Lyons.
57:31
Speaker 1: The official's name was redacted. Lyons was ICE's acting director
57:35
Speaker 1: at the time and resigned in May. Venturella was an
57:38
Speaker 1: advisor and now leads the agency. In the correspondence, the
57:42
Speaker 1: official described how teachings on immigrant classifications and removal charges
57:47
Speaker 1: would be truncated to meet the requests of unnamed individuals
57:51
Speaker 1: who requested that the course be shortened. Instruction providing officers
57:55
Speaker 1: with real-world scenarios they might encounter while out in the
57:58
Speaker 1: field was eliminated altogether. Due to time constraints, we'll need
58:03
Speaker 1: to end this article at this time. This concludes the
58:07
Speaker 1: reading of the Washington Post for today, Thursday, October 8, 2026.
58:12
Speaker 1: Your reader for today has been Roger Hampirian. If you
58:17
Speaker 1: have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program, please
58:21
Speaker 1: feel free to call us at 859-422-6390. Thank you for listening,
58:28
Speaker 1: and now please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio Eye.