Transcript

1.29.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post for Thursday,
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January the twenty ninth of twenty twenty six. Your reader
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is Alistainer with an apology for last Saturday's mix up
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or mistake. I just blew it somehow I could not
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upload what I read and I left everybody high and dry.
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My apologies, but Today's Washington Post. Let's read the front page.
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On the top left, there are two pictures. On the
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left side, Vica, who is accused of trying to plant
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a bomb near a police station in Ukraine when she
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was eighteen, is standing next to her brother Ibo, who
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served in the Ukrainian Army. She doesn't look like she's
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standing next to him. She's leaning against his shoulder and
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he's just looking sort of straight ahead to the left.
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But you do not see her face. She's got long
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black hair. And on the right is a crumpled sign
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for a southern Ukrainian port city as seen in October,
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and it's on the corner of a building. It's Mikolai
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Mikolob and it's the building is just demolished looking broken windows.
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It's very red Okrah colored all over everything. And that's
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called Russia. Exploits teens for sabotage. Kiev accuses Moscow of
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manipulating its youths in the committing acts of violence for cash.
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And that is by Lizzie Johnson and Sarah Krolature in
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Ukraine and on the right hand side of those two pictures,
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as Trump pivots for calm in Minnesota, his brace based bristles,
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hardliners urge no let up in roundups. Police pulled both
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ways as policies lose support. Take that back, it's president
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pulled both ways as policies lose support by Natalie Allison,
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Isaac Arnsdorf, and Hannah Knowles. And below that Rubio us
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not planning another Venezuela strike, but in appearance before lawmakers
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he declines to rule a military action by Noah Robertson
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and below the fold on the left, government moves to
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sell former site of Trump Hotel by Olivia George and
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Jonathan O'Connell. In the middle, when relics and memories are
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all that A year after the Potomac plane crash, families
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and first responders reflect on tragedy and recovery by Emma
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Uber and there's a picture of a DC officer on
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what looks like a mini tug who says I can
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still feel it in the back of my throat, the
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smell of jet fuel. And he's in his uniform with
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a life preserver on, sort of looking out at the
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fourteenth Street bridge and layoffs up, hiring down as Amazon's
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cuts resound by Caroline O'Donovan and Dan yell Abril a
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first article inside the Shadow Wall between Russia and Ukraine
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that exploits teens. Vika, eighteen needed a job. Then came
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an offer for twenty five h hundred dollars to make
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a simple delivery that seemed too good to be true
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by Lizzie Johnson and sarahe Korlochuk out of Mikolay of Ukraine.
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She'd applied for job after job, but none of them
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had worked out. Not the gig in her uncle's restaurant,
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not the bakery internship, not waitressing. Now Vika was eighteen
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and still unemployed, her life seemingly dead, ending before it
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ever even began. She lay back on the couch, scrolling
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through more job listings on her cellphone. It was March
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of last year, and by the past few weeks she'd
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been crashing at her brother's apartment in this southern Ukrainian
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port city. Her mom Lisia kept urging her to move home,
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but the last thing Vicka wanted was to return to
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her tiny village with its shrapnel pocked homes and caved
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in school, where the only opportunity was seasonal work picking tomatoes.
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Just then, a telegram message pinged in her inbox.
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Speaker 2: Do you still need a job? She thumbed over it
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and paused.
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Speaker 1: The man, who said his name was Daniello, was offering
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twenty five hundred dollars if she agreed to pick up
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a package on the city's exkirts and drop it off
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at a police station the next morning. Ica, who agreed
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to speak on the condition that the last names of
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her and her family not be used because of pending
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legal action against her, didn't consider similar cases that had
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recently appeared on the local news. They were the four
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Ukrainian boys who had built a bomb that killed three
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at a cafe a few miles away on Valentine's Day,
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The seventeen year old who died when a bomb disguised
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as a thermist exploded on his way to a train station,
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two fourteen year olds who lit up an explosive next
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to a police station near Kiev. All had been recruited
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through messages on Telegram or other social media channels behind
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the screen Russian intelligence agents. These sabotage operations are a
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dangerous new form of hybrid warfare, with both Russia and
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Ukraine accusing the other side of manipulating vulnerable populations, including
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children and the elderly, into committing acts of balance for
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a quick paycheck. Since twenty twenty two, the Russian Supreme
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Court alleged every fourth person convicted of sabotage fell between
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the ages of sixteen and seventeen. Though Russian authorities rarely
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provide evidence and confession videos are often filmed by the
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Federal Security Service, known for its course of tactics, Ukrainian
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officials had and transparent about their investigations, identifying improving and
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quarterbate fourteen hundred sabotage operations linked to Russian intelligence services
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over the past two years, including eight hundred and twenty
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twenty five, with a quarter of those arrested below the
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age of eighteen. Neither figure could be independently verified, and
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both countries deny their roles in such operations.
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Speaker 2: Vicka hadn't seen the new.
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Speaker 1: Campaign from Ukraine's internal security agency, the SBU, which explained
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that if someone offers you a simple delivery to a
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military enlistment office, police station or government building, know that
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they are trying to kill you, or the telegram bot
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where suspicious messages could be flagged. All she knew was
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that twenty five hundred dollars was enough to give her
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life direction, the launching pad to a new future.
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Speaker 2: Writing back, she.
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Speaker 1: Immediately agreed vulnerable. The next morning, Vika woke before her
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brother and stepped outside to call Daniello. He picked up
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on the second try, giving her an address out by
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the city's train station, where he said the package was waiting.
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Vika considered asking him what was inside, then thought better
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of it and called a taxi. She needed the money.
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At that point, she been to more than ten job
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interviews and had invested dozens of hours looking for open positions.
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Her brother Ihor promised that she could stay with him
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and his girlfriend for as long as she needed, but
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Beka wanted independence. She was definitely in a vulnerable state
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at that time. EHOs said. Later, we were looking to her,
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We were explaining to her that everyone goes through this.
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She didn't believe us. They came from a family that
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talked over each other, with the ear often getting the
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last word. He was seven years older, a soldier who
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had nearly lost his leg fighting in the Dansk region
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in twenty twenty three. Chronic pain and disability forced his
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resignation from the arning. Where Yoor was opened and driven,
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Beker was quiet and closed off. Struggling to find her way,
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she hid behind a curtain of straight, dark hair and
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chipped away at her nail polished when nervous. She was
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sixteen when the full scale walls started, evacuating to western
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Ukraine with her mother while her father's stayed behind. Russian
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troops rolled past their village, not far from the front
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line in Kirsen. When it was safe enough, her family
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returned home. The past painful. They fixated on her future,
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perhaps in the food industry, building on her degree in
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food science. They hoped she'd land on her feet a
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fatal mistake. Vika slid out of the back seat of
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the taxi with a strange feeling of the pitious stomach.
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Wanting to back, she texted her boyfriend. As soldier fighting
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in Ukraine Northern Kharkiv region, I almost made a fatal mistake.
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I'll tell you when we're together, at least tent, he replied.
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I'll tell you everything, but not like this, she said.
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Then the threat started rolling in. Daniello demanded to know
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where she was. He told her to call him, then
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promised that no one would hurt her if she followed through.
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It was sort of like I was under some hypnosis,
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she said, leda. I wasn't thinking. I was just doing
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what the man was telling me too. So she set
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aside her fear and carried on with the plan. She
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picked up the package, which consisted of two reusable shopping bags.
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One was heavy with a fableated jug that sloshed with
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the milky substance, the other that contained two cell phones.
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She carried the bags across the street and called Daniello.
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He instructed her to tape one of the phones to
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an orange fuse snaking out of the bottle top of
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the jug. On the other, he told her to activate
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an app. Vicka didn't know it yet, but a counterintelligence
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agent from the SBU was watching. He'd worked a growing
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number of cases like hers, largely driven by financial insecurity.
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The plot often started small, a few builds offered for
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menial task. As trusts grew, the severity of the assignment increased,
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then turned toward violence. At that point, the agent said,
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they can just threaten the victim with exposure if they
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refused to follow through. It's easier to work with teenagers
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who are not psychologically ready to deal with stuff like that,
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he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in keeping
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with Security Service photocol calls. His job was to stop
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an attack before it happened. The SBU was ninety percent effective,
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he said, but the number of cases was rising and
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agents couldn't be everywhere at once. In one case, a
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teenager niar Vinetitia in central Ukraine had already thrown two
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malotop cocktails at a government building, engulfing it in flames.
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When the SBU arrested him a few days later. He
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had received more than thirteen hundred dollars, money he said
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he planned to use in part to pay his grandmother's
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hospital bills. Every person has their own reasoning for why
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they do this, the agent said, later, declining to sprescify
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how Viga's case came onto his radar. To me, it's
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hard to understand, he watched as she settled onto a
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bench near playground and peered into the shopping bags, fiddling
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with what was inside. Nearby mother pushed her young son
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and daughter on the swings. He video recorded this scene
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as evidence. Kids are playing. This girl is making a bomb,
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he said, his radio crackling in the background. In a trance.
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Mika left the playground in what felt like a trance
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and hailed a cab toward the police station as the
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city whipped by a blur of winter blue and gray.
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Messages from Dallio pinged on her cellphone. He praised her,
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calling her a good girl, and implored that she keep
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him updated on timing. I'll call when I'm close to
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the place, she replied, if everything goes well. Three thousand dollars,
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he said, upping the initial price.
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Speaker 2: I'll send it to you. I'll give you my word.
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Speaker 1: Make sure you place the flag carefully without shaking it.
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She was now only a few minutes away. The bag
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seems large, she said, or is it okay? It's just
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the right size, he said, It doesn't raise suspicion. She
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got out of the taxi.
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Speaker 2: A few minutes.
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Speaker 1: Later, three SBU agents disguised as civilians approached. They asked
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what she was caring. Vika panicked, she didn't want to lie.
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When she finally spoke, it felt like someone else was answering.
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I think she admitted this might be an explosive the trial,
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no lawyer would touch Vika's case. Charged with terrorism, she
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faces up to ten years in prison, though the prosecutor
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is willing to lessen her sentence if she cooperates with investigators.
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After multiple consultations with private attorneys failed, Vika's mother recommended
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she accepted a court appointed lawyer. Vicka was surprised to
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learn the tall and burly man was a retired SVU member,
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once assigned to investigate the type of clients he now defends.
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For seven months, Vika remained in custody as SPU raided
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her brother's apartment and her parents' home for evidence. Lisia,
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her mother, mailed care packages of Vika's favorite snacks. They
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caught up over the facilities, allotted fifteen minute phone calls.
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Speaker 2: Vika didn't say.
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Speaker 1: Much about the bunk room she shared with thirteen other inmates,
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or how they tried not to discuss their cases, some
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of them violent. Vika cycled through three judges before the
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final one. Volodimir ali Nikov released her in the fall
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on a six thousand dollar bail, which Lysia scraped together
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with donations from multiple family members. Now under court supervision,
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as the beginning of her trial approaches, Vika is back
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to where she started, sleeping in the twin sized bed
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of her childhood bedroom, stuck in her home village. She
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felt stupid to have been tricked into such a plot,
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she said in an interview with The Washington Post.
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Speaker 2: In the fall.
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Speaker 1: On a brisk November morning, Vika and Lisia entered the courthouse,
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walking through a broken metal detector and down a dimly
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lit hallway to Courtroom two. Alnikov shuffled in soon after,
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at fifty three. He provided over this room for decades.
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His case flowed, increasing as the wall slogged on. The
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Facts of Beka's case didn't shock him. Not that investigators
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discovered that the bomb she'd been carrying was built by
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four local boys between the ages of fourteen and sixteen,
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Not that she'd ignored so many red flags, not that
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it would probably take two years to sip through all
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the evidence. Aliitnikov had nine similar cases on his docket,
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enough for him to ban smartphones at home, where he
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had a fifteen year old son.
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Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 1: He turned to Beka. Do you understand your heights, he asked.
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She nodded, glancing at her mother for reassurance. She asked
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the judge if it would be possible to move back
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in with her brother in my Kolief. She'd gotten a
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new cell phone for her nineteenth birthday, she offered, and
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he could contact her there. Just don't look for a
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job with that phone, Alnikov said. He set the date
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of her next hearing, and the court room adjourned for
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the day. Beaker and her mom walked back outside, her
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fate yet undecided. Trump faces fresh MAGA blowback for efforts
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to escalate in Minnesota. The president's response to widespread public
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dismay over the shooting death of another Minnesotan has put
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him in a bind with his own base. By Natalie Allison,
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Isaac Arnsteff, and Hannah Knowles. President Donald Trump's efforts this
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week to de escalate controversial deportation tactics in Minnesota in
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the face of widespread public dismay has caused a new
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wave of blowback from his base of hardline anti immigrant advocates.
18:17
The president is caught between competing interest a loyal base
18:22
of voters who elected him on a campaign promise of
18:25
mass deportations, and a broader electric that is increasingly uncomfortable
18:31
with an aggressive approach that has led to the shooting
18:34
deaths of two American protesters by federal agents this month.
18:39
The conflicting viewpoints are evident within the administration io, with
18:44
advisers divided along similar lines and offering opposing feedback on
18:49
whether and how drastically to shift Trump's immigration strategy. According
18:55
to people aware of the conversations, Trump is also navigating
19:00
a collision of his own instincts, his desire for flashy
19:05
roundups of foreign born criminals and his recognition that the
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broader public, including business leaders he identifies with who rely
19:15
on immigrant labor, have soured on the expansion of those
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roundups to non criminals in workplaces. The conflict has put
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the normally resolute Trump in an unusual spot, needing to
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tread carefully on an issue that he is previously powered
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ahead on with threats and swagger. The result has been
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mixed signals from the White House and fresh evidence of
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the difficult task Trump faces in a mid term election
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year of appeasing both his Magabase and a broader swath
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of voters. Earlier this month, Trump threatened to invoke the
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Insurrection Act to allow him to send the military to Minneapolis,
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and suggested that the day of reckoning and retribution is coming,
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that is in all caps. He also sharply criticized two
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Minnesota Democrats, Governor Tim Walls and in Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey,
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calling them useless earlier this month.
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Speaker 2: This week, however.
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Speaker 1: The President characterized conversations with Waltz and Frey as positive
20:28
and productive. He told Fox News that he wanted to
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de escalate a little bit and that his talk with
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Waltz couldn't have been a nicer conversation. Yet, Trump has
20:41
not articulated a clear shift in immigration strategy, leaving the
20:46
public unsure of where he actually stands or what comes next.
20:51
He sidelined Homeland Security Secretary Christie Illnome from the Minnesota Operation,
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a tacit but rare show of disapproval toward a cabinet member,
21:04
but he has not taken parallel action against senior aide
21:07
Stephen Miller, who is widely viewed as the architect of
21:11
Trump's immigration policies and who advised no one how to
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respond publicly to the shooting death of ICU nurse alex
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Prettei in Minneapolis on Saturday. According to a person who
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spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations
21:32
in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, both Miller and
21:35
Noam labeled Pretty a domestic terrorist. Miller also called him
21:40
an assassin. Trump and Whitehouse Press Secretary Caroline Levitt have
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not defended the officials rhetoric, but also have not publicly
21:50
criticized their job performance. In a statement to The Washington Post,
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Miller said the initial information he received debate the show
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shooting from the Department of Homeland Security was based on
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reports from c P CBP on the ground. Millis said
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the White House is now working to determine why Customs
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and Border Protection CBP at the time of the incident
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was not using the extra personnel the DHS had sent
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to Minnesota for force protection. Nome asked for a meeting
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with Trump on Monday night, after Trump announced that his
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Borders are Tom Homan would be taking over operations in Minnesota.
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The gathering lasted for hours. According to two people who
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spoke anonymously to describe a private meeting nome in her
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top aide, Corey Lewandowski, joined the President and of the
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Age to discuss issues ranging from the border wall to Minneapolis.
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One of the people said separately, Lewandowski and Homan, who
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have previously clashed, have broken and agreed to work together.
23:01
The person added the Whitehouse's efforts to make adjustments on
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tactics have not staunched the bleeding in public opinion. The
23:10
most recent flood of criticism has come from pro Trump
23:14
users online and top influent Omega commentators. Some called Trump's
23:20
pivot betrayal. Others warned, as they have about other issues
23:25
for months, of the risk that the base could sit
23:28
at November's elections. Fresh public polling showing increased anti I
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sentiment and increased support of sanctuary cities makes clear that
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the administration must change this deportation tactics, said Mark Mitchell,
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had poster at the Conservative resmus and Reports. An Economists
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slash you gov poll released last week this week with
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most respondents answering after the Pretty shooting, found that fifty
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five percent of Americans have little confidence in ICE, an
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increase of ten percent since mid December. The decline in
24:09
trust for ICE has been most pronounced among independent voters.
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The poll found with sixty seven percent now saying they
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have little confidence in immigration agency, compared with forty nine
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percent last month. By contrast, sixty percent of Republicans say
24:29
they have a great deal or quite a lot of
24:33
confidence in ICE. Highlighting the gap between Trump's own party
24:37
and Independence and Democrats, and the President's sudden interest in
24:43
cooperating with Walsen Frey and his suggestions about going easy
24:47
and longtime immigrant workers have amounted to a rog poll
24:51
for the base in his rhetoric, Mitchell said. While polling
24:55
hasn't yet showed Trump's base punishing him, the mid terms
24:59
already increasingly problematic for the GOP, Mitchell said, and concern
25:05
remains about declining enthusiasm among Trump's supporters. Mitchell met with
25:10
Trump in November to warn him of frustration with his
25:14
populist base. Ten years. This has been the core part
25:19
of his platform. They all have to go home, build
25:22
the wall, Mitchell said. Trump was talking about only focusing
25:27
on removing violent criminals. Sounds like he has caved on
25:31
the major campaign promise. Within the magabase, the president supporters
25:36
want as an aggressive and offense as Trump can conceive
25:41
this is an inflection point. You blink now, and you're
25:44
going to blink forever. You bend the knee now, You'll
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been the need forever.
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Speaker 2: Stephen K.
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Speaker 1: Bannon, a former Trump advisa and influential MAGA commentator, said
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on his show Wednesday, as he continued urging the Trump
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administration to ramp up deeps and to not de escalate
26:03
or drawback federal agents from Minnesota. I don't care how
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many people have got to do aport I don't care.
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Some prominent Trump supporters are also concerned about the actions
26:16
by some members of Congress, possibly emboldened by Trump's recent
26:20
change of tone, to renew efforts to pass immigration reform.
26:26
The White House has pushed back on the notion that
26:28
Homann's elevation amounts to a dialing back of deportations. A
26:33
White House official, who spoke on the condition of an
26:36
inimnity to discuss strategy, said the administration has not waivered
26:42
in its deportation mission, but Trump doesn't want to see
26:46
Americans injured because of clashes with immigration officials. In a statement,
26:52
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the administration will never
26:57
waiver in standing up for law and order, protecting the
27:00
American people. Annie left wing agitator or criminal illegal alien
27:05
who thinks Tom's presence is a victory for their cause
27:09
is sadly mistaken.
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Speaker 2: She said.
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Speaker 1: This isn't the first time in Trump's second term that
27:16
the mega base has erupted over his comments on immigration policy,
27:24
which have consistently revealed his sensitivity to the concerns of
27:29
business leaders and average conservatives put off by the deportation
27:34
of otherwise law abiding immigrants. In late spring, after hearing
27:40
complaints from friends and donors of a deportation roundups at farms, hotels,
27:45
and restaurants, hurting operations and scaring off workers, Trump announced
27:50
that changes are coming to spare the agriculture and hospitality fields.
27:57
Trump's face similarly went off on him and when some
28:00
advisors were blindsided, privately insisting that no such policy changes
28:05
were in the works and chalking up the suggestion to
28:09
Trump's habit of trying to smooth public conflicts with rhetoric.
28:14
Milla at the time raised concerns to the President about
28:17
his stated plans for changes to protect migrant workers. According
28:22
to a person who spoke anonymously to describe private conversations,
28:27
MILLA had been calling for a drastic increase in deportation
28:31
numbers to keep up with the administration's a drastic increase
28:36
in deportation numbers to keep up with the administration's aggressive goals.
28:41
Homan told The Washington Post soon after Trump's announcement that
28:45
he had not discussed any such changes with the President
28:48
and wasn't a part of crafting a policy to carbret workers.
28:54
During a speech a few weeks later in Iowa, Trump
28:57
acknowledged he had gotten into a little trouble because I
29:01
said I don't want to take people away from the farmers,
29:05
before describing supporters who were unhappy with his comments as
29:09
serious radical right people. The comment further inflamed tensions with
29:16
influential MAGA commentators, including Bannon and Charlie Kirk, the head
29:20
of Turning Point USA, shot dead later last year, accusing
29:25
the administration of preparing to offer amnesty to some illegal
29:29
immorants immigrants. A number of Republicans in Minnesota said they
29:34
were glad to see Trump shift course this week. They
29:38
said they welcomed the arrival of Homan and the apparent
29:41
truce between Trump and local leaders. I'm just grateful that
29:46
removing in a direction to get back to being sensible,
29:50
said Jen Abler, of GOP state senator in Minnesota, who
29:54
were that federal agents were violating people's rights. There are
29:58
people afraid, There are citizens afraid to leave their homes
30:02
to go buy groceries because of their skin color, on
30:05
their nationality. It's past time, Eblis said. Yet on Wednesday,
30:12
the President also signaled that he was aware of the
30:15
latest criticism from within his base. A day after speaking
30:20
favorably of his conversation with the Minnesota Minneapolis Maya, Trump
30:25
posted on truth social that Frey was playing with fire
30:29
all caps by saying he would not enforce federal immigration laws.
30:37
Layoffs are up, hiring is down as Amazon cuts reverberate
30:44
through the economy. Amazon says about sixteen thousand roles will
30:49
be eliminated as the e commerce giant works to reduce
30:54
the number of layers in its organizational structure. By Caroline
31:01
O'Donovan and Danielle Abriel, job cuts and other changes at Amazon,
31:08
the country's second largest private employer, rippled through the economy
31:13
this week, throwing workers at the company and some of
31:16
its partners into a tough job market. On Wednesday, morning,
31:22
thousands of corporate employees at the online retailer learned they
31:26
will lose their jobs, part of ongoing layoffs first announced
31:31
in October. The day before Amazon said it would shutter
31:36
its Amazon Fresh grocery stores, laying off retail workers across
31:41
dozens of stores. That same day, UPS said it would
31:46
be slashing thirty thousand delivery jobs this year, in part
31:50
because of Amazon sending it less business. The layoffs enclosures
31:57
underscore week points in an economy that is doing well
32:00
by some measures, but in which workers face a tough
32:04
job market. They made twenty twenty five the second worst
32:08
year for job creation since the Great Recession. Long term
32:13
employment in the United States is now at a four
32:17
year high, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
32:23
Amazon moves to shed workers and lines of business also
32:27
demonstrate on how ongoing belt tightening in the tech sector
32:33
can cascade to other industries. After a surge in hiring
32:38
during the coronavirus pandemic and the end of the low
32:42
interest rates, Amazon and other tech giants have made deep
32:46
cuts to their workforces in recent years. Microsoft cut its
32:51
head count by fifteen thousand people last year. Meta laid
32:55
off more than one thousand workers this month in its
32:59
realty label division as part of a plan to redirect
33:03
resources from work on virtually virtual reality toward AI powered
33:09
wearable devices. The company said that Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the
33:16
philanthropy created in twenty fifteen by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
33:23
and his wife Priscilla Chan, annights Wednesday that it was
33:26
laying off about seventy people, or about eight percent of
33:30
its staff. The cuts are part of the organization's pivot
33:34
away from social issues to focus on helping scientists cure
33:39
all disease. According to an internal memo reviewed by The
33:44
Washington Post, Amazon said that about sixteen thousand roles would
33:50
be eliminated. In a statement shared with employees Wednesday, Beth Giladi,
33:56
the company's vice president of People, Experience and Technology, said
34:02
that the organizational changes are difficult news, but the company
34:07
is working to reduce bureaucracy and the number of layers
34:11
in its organizational structure. As an aside, and in parenthesis,
34:17
Amazon founded Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Tech workers
34:24
say that as layoffs by big firms have dragged on,
34:28
hiring in the industry has lagged in Silicon Valley that
34:33
slowdown has sharpened in contrast between the rank and file
34:38
software engineers who are struggling and the AI stars being
34:43
poached for astronomical suns. CEOs in the tech industry, including
34:50
Amazon's Andy Jasse, have said that progress in artificial intelligence
34:57
has increased the productivity of coders and allow new efficiencies.
35:03
We expect that this will reduce air total corporate workforce
35:08
as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across
35:13
the company, he wrote in a staff memo last year.
35:18
Last year, Sales Force CEO Mark Binoff said AI had
35:24
enabled the company to cut dot dot dot heads, as
35:29
he cut four thousand jobs on Monday. On Monday, pen
35:33
interest in nine state it would cut fifteen percent of
35:36
its staff this year to deliver on Air AI forward strategy.
35:43
Amazon's illumination of about sixteen thousand jobs starting Wednesday is
35:48
part of layoffs first reported by Ruters in Reuter's in October.
35:54
Amazon's message to staff members did not specify which departments
35:58
would be affected. The staff cuts could have consequences for Seattle,
36:04
where Amazon is headquartered. The metro area has an unemployment
36:09
rate of five point one percent, according to the bls,
36:13
higher than the national average of four point four percent.
36:17
Amazon's closure of its Amazon Fresh grocery and Amazon Go
36:22
convenience store businesses fifty seven and fifteen locations, respectively, led
36:29
to the determined nation of workers in California, Illinois, and Washington.
36:35
Since acquiring Whole Foods in twenty seventeen, Amazon has struggled
36:41
to find a successful model for its grocery business and
36:44
is now pivoting to focus on fast delivery from grocery
36:48
hubs rather than high tech brick and mortar stores. The
36:53
company said it will continue to invest in grocery, with
36:56
plans to build a hundred new Whole Food stores in
37:00
the next few years. While we've seen encouraging signals in
37:05
our stores, we haven't yet created a truly distinctive customer
37:10
experience with the right model needed for large scale expansion,
37:14
stated a company email to affected staff members obtained by
37:18
the Post. It added, Unfortunately, with this decision, your store
37:24
is closing and your.
37:25
Speaker 2: Role is being eliminated.
37:28
Speaker 1: The Amazon Frash and Ghost stores were closed by Sunday
37:31
in all states except California, where they were closed March
37:35
thirteenth because of state regulations. Employees will be paid through
37:40
April twenty eighth and received transitional benefits. The email said
37:46
Amazon declined to say how many people would lose their jobs.
37:51
Amazon has found more success with its investments in expanding
37:55
its in has logistics network and expanding its use of robots.
38:00
One year ago, the company decided to reduce its reliance
38:04
on third parties, cutting its package volume with UPS by half.
38:10
On Wednesday, the logistics company announced it will cut thirty
38:14
thousand jobs this year, after cutting thirty four thousand positions
38:20
last year.
38:22
Speaker 2: Due to their operational.
38:23
Speaker 1: Needs, UPS requested a reduction in volume, and we certainly
38:28
respect their decision. Amazon spokesperson Kelly Natals said we continue
38:35
to partner with them and many other carriers to serve
38:38
our customers. Haidi Shareholds, president of the Economic Policy Institute,
38:45
warned at that Amazon's latest cuts were relatively small compared
38:49
to the wider US economy. It's really important to put
38:53
them into contexts that we normally have one point seven
38:58
million layoffs every month, she said, But the broad slow
39:02
down and hiring across.
39:03
Speaker 2: Sectors is concerning. She said.
39:07
Speaker 1: Right now, if you lose your job, it's much harder
39:09
to find a new one than it was in twenty
39:12
twenty two to twenty twenty four, she said. In late October,
39:18
Jesse addressed the company's shrinking headcount during the company's quarterly
39:23
earning calls. He said the cutting is not really financially driven,
39:29
and it's not even really AI driven. Rather, he explained,
39:33
the layoffsman to combat what he described as unnecessary layers
39:37
of staff.
39:38
Speaker 2: Slowing the company down.
39:42
Speaker 1: And our next article just makes me so very sad
39:45
because it was at an airport I flew in and
39:48
out of so often during my years in Virginia and
39:52
Alexandria and DC. A teddy bear, an ice skate, a
39:58
wife's note, DCA crash relics return home a year after
40:05
a plane in helicopter collided over the Potomac Flammy, families
40:10
and first responders reflect on the enduring sorrow. But Emma Uba,
40:17
the brown teddy bear, smelled like oil and jet fuel.
40:22
It was tucked inside the pink backpack of eleven year
40:25
old Alydia Livingstone, along with her headphones, journal, and a
40:31
pencil topped with a rubber unicorn. The backpack and its
40:35
contents came home to her grandparents in Richmond. Alydia did
40:42
not the girl, Her fourteen year old sister, Everly, and
40:47
parents Donna and Peta, were aboard American Eagle Flight fifty
40:52
three forty two. The plane clipped by an Army helicopter
40:56
over the Potomac River as it prepared to land at
41:00
Reagan National Airport. No one in either aircraft survived. In
41:06
the weeks and months after the crash that killed sixty
41:09
seven people, small personal trivial treasures retrieved from the water
41:15
would find their way to the places where they held meaning.
41:19
A man's wedding ring discovered as a diver sifted through
41:23
sand at the bottom of the river. A phone that
41:26
still worked, showing Ezra Hussein's last moments was spent planning
41:31
a dinner party for her friends. A note Jesse Pilcher's
41:36
wife slipped into his suitcase, like she did every time
41:39
he went away, this one encouraging him to stay safe
41:43
on his hunting trip. And the bear, the one Aldia
41:47
named Brown Teddy that rarely left her side when schools
41:52
shuddered during the pandemic, Alydia's grandmother, Martha Livingstone, would include
41:57
Brown Teddy in their reading lessons to keep the restless.
42:01
Kindergarten engaged when Lydia and her sister continued virtual school
42:08
so they could travel to New Jersey each week to
42:11
practice figure skating. Brown Teddy made every trip. And there's
42:16
a picture of this precious young girl at Gate D
42:20
forty five at Reagan in a purple fleecetop with Brown
42:26
Teddy looking at a pink backpack with the patch of
42:32
the national team twenty twenty three on the back. She
42:37
was eleven days after the crash, Martha and her husband
42:41
Chris were asked if there was anything special they hoped.
42:44
Speaker 2: The divers might find.
42:47
Speaker 1: I know there were other things I probably should have
42:49
asked for, but I wanted Brown Teddy. We had to
42:52
get Brown Teddy, Martha said in an interview with The
42:55
Washington Post earlier this month.
42:58
Speaker 2: To get Brown Teddy back to me.
43:00
Speaker 1: It was my connection to them. A year after the crash,
43:05
the grief still comes in waves. On the eve of
43:08
the anniversary, Americans' families linked by the tragedy gathered at dr.
43:14
Speaker 2: Constitution Hall in DC.
43:17
Speaker 1: To honor the strangers who stepped in to help them
43:20
carry the sudden and lingering sorrow. The hotel employee who
43:25
in the days after the crash offered families a warm
43:28
drink and a listening eel. The mortician who has called
43:32
a man's parents nearly every week to check on them.
43:36
The scuba divers who returned day after day to the
43:39
frigid water in search of items that might give people
43:43
some small measure of comfort. The Post interviewed a dozen
43:49
family members, first responders, and city officials, some speaking publicly
43:54
for the first time about the moments immediately after the disaster,
43:59
the months long recovery effort, and the enduring toll it
44:02
took on them. First responders said they're still haunted by
44:06
what they saw in the river. One divers said in
44:10
his thirteen years of law enforcement, he'd never been confronted
44:14
with the death of a child. Not long after the crash,
44:17
he found a small ice skate, its meaning unmistakable. No survivors.
44:28
D C Police officer Tim Aschlin Schleger was sitting at
44:32
the front desk of Harbor Patrol at eight forty eight
44:35
pm on January twenty ninth, twenty twenty five, a year
44:40
ago today, when the red phone rang. He picked up
44:44
the direct line to National Airport and heard a commotion
44:47
in the air traffic control tower.
44:49
Speaker 2: Then crash, crash, crash. This is alert three. Crash, crash, crash.
44:54
Speaker 1: Moments later, a nine to eleven dispatcher called someone had
44:58
reported a fireball over the Potomac had fallen into the water.
45:04
More than three hundred first responders from the DC region
45:07
and as far away as Baltimore and the Eastern Shore
45:10
would race to the scene. Oschenslager, a trained scuba diava,
45:17
made a floory of calls, dispatching an airboat to navigate
45:20
the icy waters and summoning his colleagues. His boat soon
45:25
met up with another that had tied off to the
45:28
airplane wing protruding from the water. A sheen of oil
45:32
danced on the water's surface, illuminated by the flashing emergency
45:36
lights of ambulances and fire trucks stationed on the runway.
45:41
Everybody quietly knew that it was something we had never
45:44
witnessed before, said d C Police driver diver Robert Vargo,
45:50
a sixteen year old sixteen year veteran. I can still
45:55
feel it in the back of my throat, the smell
45:58
of jet fuel, said Senslager. As they worked, alerts began
46:04
to pop up on their iPhone, reading air tag found
46:08
moving with you from the trackers some victims had attached
46:12
to their luggage. Those notifications reminded Ashenslager of how close
46:17
the passengers had been to a safe landing, of how
46:21
some family members were probably already waiting at the airport.
46:27
There would be no survivors. That was clear almost from
46:30
the start, said DC Fire and Ems Chief John A.
46:35
Donnelly Sena in an interview with The Post earlier this month.
46:40
He described a meeting held at a one hour mark
46:42
of the rescue operation where the commanders confronted that grim truth. There,
46:48
he said, they redefined who the first responders were there
46:52
to serve.
46:54
Speaker 2: Who are our victims? Now?
46:55
Speaker 1: We don't have anybody to say from the plane or
46:58
the helicopter. It was the families of those people.
47:02
Speaker 2: Donaldy said, we needed to.
47:04
Speaker 1: Make sure that we supported the families and got them
47:06
reunited with their loved ones. That was number one, some
47:12
form of closure. Pulling the bodies from the water was
47:16
the first difficult task. Identifying them was the next. The
47:21
Medical Examiner's Office relied on fingerprints, dental records for young
47:25
children DNA. Police detectives then individually notified each family in
47:32
the days after the crash, Donaly and other officials visited
47:36
the hotel in Bethesda, Maryland, where the Red Cross had
47:39
arranged for victim's family to stay. Meanwhile, the International Association
47:45
of Firefighters set up a peer support hub near the river.
47:49
In those first few days, IAFF General President Edward Kelly said,
47:55
nearly seventy five percent of the first responders stop out
47:59
to speak with countuncilors. Meetings with the families lasted hours,
48:04
Donaly said, and he learned that the kindest thing he
48:07
could was be direct, but as blunt as he needed
48:12
to be in delivering the devastating news. He was determined
48:15
to speak just as plainly in his promises. When families
48:19
asked if everyone in the river would be found, Donaldy
48:23
said some federal agencies encouraged him not to make any promises.
48:27
Speaker 2: He didn't listen.
48:29
Speaker 1: I was like, no, I'm sure, he said, knowing that
48:33
people involved, we will recover your loved ones.
48:36
Speaker 2: Nobody is going to be lost.
48:38
Speaker 1: I knew it was a risk, but I also knew
48:41
it was important to say. By February fourth, six days
48:46
after the crash, officials announced they had recovered the remains
48:50
of the sixty seven passengers and crew members. By the
48:53
next day they had identified them all. There was nothing
48:58
more important to us, said Lindsay Appia, d c's Deputy
49:02
Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, of recovering all sixty
49:06
seven victims, and I just said that so emphatically, and
49:11
I'm almost emotional. Everything that we did, everything was to
49:16
ensure that families could have some form of closure in
49:19
a very awful, shocking, difficult situation. Divers continued to scour
49:26
the river for months, bringing up whatever they could find
49:29
for family members to claim. D C Chief Medical Examiner
49:34
Francisco Diez called the process a kind of choreography, one
49:39
he grew familiar with during a career in which he
49:42
completed more than ten thousand autopsies. But the plane crash
49:46
felt heavier, he said. Scientifically, it went off without a hitch,
49:51
as the Medical Examiner's office was already set up to
49:54
handle a mass casualty event off preparing for a three
49:58
national security events earlier that month, the electoral bout certification,
50:04
the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, and the presidential inauguration.
50:10
The role of the medical examiner is to be emotionally removed,
50:14
because otherwise, how can you do cases dies? Said, adding
50:18
this was different because the interaction with the families was
50:21
very intense. The medical examiner cannot bring anybody back to life.
50:27
All you can do is provide a little respite. Daz
50:31
spent hours at the hotel with the families, answering that questions,
50:35
how do we choose a funeral home? Who is the
50:38
legal next of ken? Can we have an open casket?
50:42
After one meeting, Diz said, a woman approached him. Cannot
50:46
touch you, she asked, You were the last person to
50:50
touch my son. The year of first, As much of
50:57
the country based for the winter stormline last wink. Kylie
51:01
Pitcher thought of her husband. She had never salted that driveway,
51:06
learned how to work a generator, or scraped the ice
51:08
off their cars. Jesse also always had it handled. Of course,
51:13
she missed him on the holidays, the anniversaries, and the birthdays,
51:17
but it was the mundane moments like these that hit
51:20
her hardest. As she read in the Calvert County, Maryland
51:24
home for snow, she realized it had been exactly a
51:28
year since she zipped that note in his carry on
51:31
and kissed him goodbye. It's the year of first, she said.
51:36
It's a pain that is radiated from the Potomac, touching
51:40
every family that lost someone. Matt Collins's fingers itched to
51:45
text his brother christ when the New England Patriots won
51:49
the AFC title, and ramad Raza, who had met Erra
51:54
Hassein when they were both students at Indiana University, couldn't
51:58
help but think of the party Indiana native wife would
52:01
have hosted to watch the Hoosias football team become national champions.
52:07
Matha and Chris Livingston were determined to carry on the
52:11
annual tradition of making a book for the grandchildren. They
52:15
compile photos and collect stories written by each of the six,
52:19
but this year two are gone. Everly's eighth grade English
52:24
teacher passed along one of the stories she had written
52:27
shortly before her death. But for Aliyah, Martha decided to
52:32
write the story of the crash from the perspective of
52:35
her granddaughter's closest companion, Brown Teddy. The girls, cousins and
52:41
friends still struggled to comprehend what had happened. Who better
52:45
the grandparents thought to gently explain than the stuffed bear.
52:52
The story begins as Lydia gets off her flight and
52:54
places Brown Teddy into her pink backpack alongside the journal
52:59
and pencil, and asked the bear to consider what they
53:02
would write about their adventure to the US figure Skating
53:06
National Development Camp. Lydia and Everly spend the flight gushing
53:11
about the experience. They hear a boom and are enveloped
53:16
in a great flash of light. The plane splashed into
53:20
the water, quickly soaking my stuffing through and through, the
53:24
story reads, I floated and floated for what seemed like days,
53:28
until a diver grabbed the straps of the backpack and
53:31
pulled me up up up to the top. As the
53:36
story ends, round Teddy sends his brother Bear to comfort
53:40
a Lydia's best friend. Round Teddy missus Lydia, but knows
53:45
the livings and family is up in heaven, sparkling like
53:49
the sequins on a fancy skating dress. The bear, a
53:54
Lydia's grandmother writes, is joyful and sorrowful at the same time.
54:01
A last article, which I may not be able to finish.
54:04
Government moves to sell the old post office, once home
54:08
to Trump Hotel. The building's tower, offering sweeping city views,
54:14
is closed to the public as the effort to shrink
54:17
the federal footprint in DC is underway, and there's a
54:22
picture of the Old post Office listed on the National
54:28
Register of Historic Places. It has a high clock tower
54:32
and kind of looks like the ear of the Waldorf
54:35
Astoria in New York in the Gothic style with tarts
54:42
at the top by Olivia George and Jonathan O'Connell. The
54:49
Trumpet's administration is preparing to sell the Old Post Office,
54:54
a nineteenth century landmark in the heart of DC that
54:57
previously hosts one of the presidents luxury hotels. According to
55:02
recors obtained by the Washington Post, officials are moving toward
55:06
a sale of the property to the bank that controlled
55:09
the long term lease as part of ongoing efforts to
55:13
reduce the federal government's footprint, according to a letter sent
55:17
to the city's State Historic Preservation Office last month, on
55:21
Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol, the
55:25
building is now home to a Waldorf Astoria hotel. For
55:30
many though it remained synonymous with the previous tenant, the
55:34
Trump International Hotel, which opened nearly in lockstep with Trump's
55:39
twenty sixteen election and served as a club house of
55:43
sorts during his first term. Lobbyists dined in the steakhouse.
55:48
Supporters made pilgrimages to the bar. Foreign leaders rented rooms
55:53
when they traveled to Washington. His companies sold the lease
55:57
rights in twenty twenty two. The General Services Administration, the
56:02
federal government's real estate arm and owner of the old
56:06
Post Office building, hosted a meeting January fifteenth to discuss
56:10
the proposed disposal. According to an invitation reviewed by the
56:15
Post the property was among hundreds the Administration listed for
56:19
sale last spring, before abruptly reversing course hours later. The
56:25
old Post Office is on the National Register of Historic
56:28
Places and the city's list of Historical Properties. Its three
56:33
hundred fifteen foot tower boast an observation deck with sweeping
56:38
views in the nation's capital that has long been open
56:41
to the public, with National Park Service rangers on hand
56:45
to offer tours. The panorama includes the Washington Monument, Washington
56:51
National Cathedral, and planes landing at Reagan National Airport. Lately, however,
56:57
sightseers have arrived at the entrance to found and it shuttered.
57:01
A sign taped to the door reading tower temporarily closed.
57:06
The National Park Service issued a statement saying that it
57:09
was no longer operating tours.
57:12
Speaker 2: Of the tower.
57:12
Speaker 1: Through an agreement with the GSA dating back to nineteen
57:15
eighty three. Park Service spokesman Like Letters said it's up
57:20
to the GSA to determine next steps regarding the tower's
57:24
operations and public access. The GSA did not answer specific questions,
57:30
but spokesperson Marian Copenhaveer confirmed in the statement that the
57:35
agency is negotiating the building's sale. Transferring this property aida
57:41
federal ownership will generate revenue, save taxpayer dollars, and helped
57:45
right size the federal real estate portfolio. Copenhaveer wrote, under
57:52
the least conditions, leaseholder B D T and MSD Partners
57:59
has first right to buy the building. The company declined
58:02
to comment. The timing and proposed sale price are not
58:06
immediately clear. Hilton, which owns the Wold Office Story A brand,
58:11
has a long term agreement in place to manage the hotel,
58:17
and with that, I end up reading today's reading for
58:21
The Washington Post for January twenty ninth, of twenty twenty six.
58:25
Stay warm, It's supposed to be still brutal outside. Take
58:30
care and thank you for listening. Stay tuned for continued
58:34
programming on radio. While