Transcript

6.15.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody, Happy Monday, and welcomed reading the Washington
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Post for this Monday, June fifteenth. As a reminder, radioized
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reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Your reader for today is Rod Brotherton, and hopefully you've
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heard by now. The big news for the day is
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the US and Iran reach a deal to end the fighting.
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Both sides say the United States and Iran have reached
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a limited deal to end months of fighting. According to
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President Trump, a top Iranian diplomat and the leader of Pakistan,
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which has been mediating between the two sides, the deal
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with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations
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to all, Trump said Sunday on truth Social adding that
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he had agreed to end the US naval blockade on
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Iranian ports in exchange or Iran's reopening up the Strait
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of Horn moves and a continued halt to fighting. The
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two sides planned to keep discussing the limits to Iran's
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nuclear program that Trump has sought. They are scheduled to
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sign the agreement on Friday. The timing of the announcement
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on Sunday allowed Trump to celebrate the deal on his
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eightieth birthday on Monday. The price of oil, which had
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soared well over one hundred dollars a barrel during the war,
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fell sharply in response to the news of the deal
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to about eighty three dollars, Meaningwhile stock markets in Asia
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rose sharply, major exchanges in Japan and Korea climbing about
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five percent, stock indexes in Europe were mierately higher. Some
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world leaders hailed the announcement of a peace deal as
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a potential turning point, but Israeli officials and citizens denounced.
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US officials said the deal was in jeopardy earlier Sunday,
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after Israel launched an air strike in the southern suburbs
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of Beirut, Lebanon's capital, as Iran prepared for a retaliatory strike,
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Trump publicly rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for endangering the talks.
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After the Israelis struck Brute, we were very, very worried.
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Vice President j. D Vance said in an interview with
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Fox News after the deal was announced. There's all a
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lot of evidence that the Iranians were going to launch
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a large number of missiles at the Israelis during qu
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Iran's deputy Foreign Minister Kazim Gotarb Dotti said were more
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than fourteen hours of talks on Sunday, the Iranians ultimately
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stood down. They said the US had made a last
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minute concession in the return, including speeding up the end
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of the naval blockade. The naval blockade against Iran will
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end immediately and completely, the Ran Supreme National Security Council
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said in a statement. According to the semi official Fars
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news agency, Pakistani Prime Minister Shibaz Shreif said on the
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social media that both sides I've declared the immediate and
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permanent termination of all military operations on all front including
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in Lebanon. That an official signing ceremony will be on
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Friday in Switzerland. Mediators will hold a series of meetings
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this week. Sheref said the deal appeared to leave significant
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areas of disagreement unresolved, subject to further negotiations, especially the
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Roan's nuclear program and the wide range of US sanctions
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that have been imposed on Tehran. Get bad Badi said
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his government expects to discuss the full lifting of US
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sanctions and talks, and said it would take place over
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the next sixty days, according to IRNA, a state supported
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news agency. Geababadi said those negotiations would only begin once
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Iran can verify that the US has complied with the
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current agreement, which he said including unfreezing Oranian assets and
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lifting the naval blockade. US officials, however, said Iranian assets
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would not be unfrozen until Tehran had demonstrated compliance with
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the agreement. Neither side released the text of what they
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had agreed to. Crump said the Strait of Hormuz would
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be reopened on Friday to remove the mines that Iran
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has laid, which have obstructed shipping traffic and driven up
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oil prices for months. Despite the question mark oil future,
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prices began to decline on Sunday after the deal was announced,
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Iranian leaders made it clear that they believed there was
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still much to do and discuss. Iranian state run media
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suggested Tehran still intended to exert oversight over the straight
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of hoe moves in partnership with Oman. If Iran continues
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to threaten closures, shipping oil from the Persian Gulf would
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become permanently riskier, even if traffic started to approach pre
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war levels. Vance said in his Fox interview that the
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deal marked a major success for the US because the
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Iranian leadership had agreed to that Iran will never have
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a nuclear weapon, not just pursue a nuclear weapon, but
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procure or try to buy a nuclear weapon as well.
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That's built into this agreement. Iran is long that it
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does not seek a nuclear weapon and made agreements that
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it would not pursue one across multiple administrations. US negotiators
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have typically focused on finding ways to impose limitents on
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Iran's neucletar enrichment, devising surveillance that would ensure Tehran abides
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by the limits that it has agreed to. Iran's deputy
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foreign minister suggested Sunday that most of the thorny nuclear
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details were yet to be agreed. Neither he or the
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Security Council's statement mentioned any concrete commitments about nuclear issues,
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and the White House did not claim that Tehran had
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made any commitments beyond the overall promise not to build
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or buy a weapon. Unfreezing Tehran's assets would be a
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significant concession, depending on how much the billions of dollars
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are made available to Iranian leaders. The seeming differences in
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scope between the US and Iranian announcements sparked concerns from
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Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican of South Carolina, and Ron
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Hawke was long urged Trump taking aggressive stance toward Tehran.
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I'm somewhat concerned that Iran's view of the agreement seems
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different what the American negotiating team's claiming, he said on x.
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Despite the limits of the deal so far the administration
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portrayed in sweeping terms, Vance said that he was hopeful
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the negotiations could lead to a reshaped Middle East. If
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the Iranians comply with this deal, it's going to fundamentally
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transform the Middle East for the next fifty years, he
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told Fox. It's going to mean a lot of prosperity,
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lower energy prices for the American people. He added that
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I know this has been a hard time for a
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lot of Americans because of high energy prices, but this
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will be transformative. Vance said he planned to attend the
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signing ceremony in Switzerland, but that it was possible that
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Trump would do it himself. The President plans to depart
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early morning for three days of meetings in France with
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the leaders of the Group seven major economies. The leaders
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of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, all of whom we'll
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see Trump at the summit, said that they stood ready
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to assist the efforts to remove minds from the straight
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of horror moves and engage in other defensive efforts there.
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Trump did not consult with European leaders before launching the
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attack on Iran on February twenty eight, but he blasted
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them afterward for being slow to ad US efforts or
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otherwise criticizing a strategy. The war has been the latest
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strain on the trans Atlantic relations in an era in
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which Trump has been skeptical of allies. The February attack
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was launched in close coordination with Israel, and Netta Yahu
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had convinced Trump in the week's leading up to the
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war that the time was right to seek to dispose
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Iran's leadership. But Trump has gotten frustrated with Netta Yahu
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in the months since, repeatedly criticizing the Israeli leader's aggressive
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attitude toward Iran and its proxy in Lebanon, the terrorist
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group has Beulah. Trump had said earlier Sunday that the
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US and Iran were very close to agreeing on a
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deal to in the fighting and urged all parties not
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to blow it. But after the Israeli attack in Berut,
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which Iran said was aimed at the Hesbala command center,
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Trump on truth Social on Sunday, said Israel had the
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right to defend itself it strikes, saying they should not
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have happened. The President, in interviews with two outlets Fox
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and Axios, said he spoke with Neta Yahu and disparaged
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his judgment and launching the latest strike, using profanity to
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describe their tense conversation. It is so bad, I couldn't
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believe it. An hour before we're supposed to sign the deal,
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Trump told Axios, underscoring the tension that has become increasingly
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public as the Iran wars dragged on. Why did Biebe
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have to do an effing attack? I was so pissed off.
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I let him know he has no effing judgment and
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not let him know that, Trump added. Israel said the
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attack was in response to Hisballah's launch three projectiles towards
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northern Israel. Iran has repeatedly called on the US to
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prevent Neta Yahu from expanding military operations in Lebanon. It's
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part of the negotiation over the extension if the US
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Iran sees fire. Officials from the US, Iran and Pakistan
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had earlier outlined the contours of the expected deal. The
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initial deal was expected to include an Iranian commitment over
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the next sixty days to work with the US to
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dismantle nuclear material in the country that could be used
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to create a weapon. Official set in exchange, Iran would
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eventually receive relief from sanctions and the US Block eight,
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as well as access to billions of dollars in frozen assets,
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but would have to reach certain benchmarks that would be
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set through further negotiations. But there was no discussion on
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Sunday about the nuclear material and next at G seven,
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allies plan for a world less reliant on the US.
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When President Trump arrives on the shores of Lake Geneva
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for this week's Group of Seven summit, you will find
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America's closest allies and a new posture increasingly willing to
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tell him no. After years of tariff threats, diplomatic whiplash,
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and public confrontations, many world leaders have concluded that Trump
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is not an interruption to the international order, but a
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feature of it reordering likely to endure regardless of who
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sits in the Oval Office. Rather than simply accommodating Trump,
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there are increasingly preparing for a future in which the
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US is a much less predictable partner and Europe is
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less inclined to follow America's lead. The shift will hang
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over the summit, which begins today. Has fallout over the
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Iran war continue US to jolt the global economy, shifting
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energy markets and raising fears of renewed inflation. Even as
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Trump on Sunday announced and into the hostilities, Trump will
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arrive seeking evidence that his disruptive approach to diplomacy is
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producing results, that allies are adapting to American priorities on trade,
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artificial intelligence, security, and China. Many of the leaders gathering
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here share some of America's broader goals, but they are
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also increasingly willing to resist US pressure. Europe is in
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a fundamentally different place and it was a few years ago,
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said Max Bergman, director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia
13:47
Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. There
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are political limits now to simply accommodating every demand from Washington.
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The United States remain is the indispensable military power in
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the Western Alliance, providing the nuclear umbrella, intelligence capabilities, and
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much of NATO's logistical backbone. But an increasing number of
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leaders are exploring what a world looks like when America
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is no longer willing or no longer expected to lead
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every international response. That debate gained urgency over Iran, a
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conflict that exposed growing discomfort in European capitals with the
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consequences of decisions made in the US that reverberate far
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beyond its borders. Three of Trump's four bilateral meetings this
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week will be with Middle East leaders. World leaders have
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been eager for a resolution of the war, but its
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impacts endure, and Trump's weak approval ratings overseas mean that
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every handshake, photo op and public embrace carries political risk. Yet,
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even as European leaders prepare for a future less reliant
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on Washington, they remain eager to avoid an open rupture
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with Trump. The summit's organizers have sought to avoid some
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of the diplomatic friction that has accompanied Trump's recent dealings
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with foreign leaders. The gathering was postponed by a day
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to accommodate Trump's eightieth birthday celebration, a White House event
15:31
dubbed UFC Freedom two fifty South African President Cyril Rampasoa,
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who endured a contentious Oval office meeting last year after
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Trump amplified unfounded claims of a white genocide in South Africa,
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was not invited, and Macron will give Trump a crown
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jewel of French state craft a private dinner the Palace
15:56
of Versailles before he returns to the United States. Still,
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an enduring challenge of the summit for world leaders is
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anticipating which version of the president will step off Air
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Force one. Trump has demonstrated a capacity for warm personal
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diplomacy and deal making, but also for public confrontations with allies,
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abrupt polity shifts, and departures carefully negotiated consensus. European leaders
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have had nearly a decade to perfect the art of
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managing Trump's mercurical moods, and were able to skate through
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most of their encounters last year, but the trade offs
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changed for them this year after the US president mounted
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a week's long effort to rest controlled Greenland from Denmark.
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At one point, some European leaders believed that Trump was
16:49
on the verge of ordering US troops to invade the
16:52
frigid island territory, a move that would have inverted the
16:56
United States from being NATO's main military power into being
16:59
its main military threat. Trump was already relatively unpopular across Europe,
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but the Greenland episode drove his rating to new lows,
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creating perils even for some of his natural allies to
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be seen as too close to him. Historians will point
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to Greenland as a point when the Transatlantic allies began
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to break the divorce really started to happen, Bergmann said,
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adding that European leaders have asked what do they really
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get from sucking up to Trump and being on bended knee.
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The summit is expected to serve not only as a
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forum for addressing global challenges, but also as a measure
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of how America's partners navigate a more uncertain era of
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US diplomacy. Four leaders have championed the European autonomy argument
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more than forcefully than at the g summits host French
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President and Manuel mccron. Four years McCraw has urged Europe
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become more strategically independent, arguing that the continents should be
18:07
capable of defending its interest and projecting power even when
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America's priorities diverged from their own. As he enters the
18:16
final year of his presidency, mccrawn has continued to push
18:21
that vision, even if some of the European governments were
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reluctant to move too far from the US security umbrella.
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White House officials previewing the president's trip said Trump will
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continue to push European countries to play larger roles in
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their own defense. The United States can't be the lead
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in every single region of the world, and there's countries
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in Europe that have tremendous capability take on more burden sharing,
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said a senior Administration official who spoke on the condition
18:57
of anonymity because they were not authorized public. Amid those tensions,
19:03
mat Kron, who will meet with Trump on Monday night,
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has shown himself more willing to criticize Trump. We should
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not underestimate that it is a unique moment where a
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US president, a Russian president, a Chinese president, or dead
19:22
against the Europeans. So this is the right moment for
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us to wake up, m Kron said during an informal
19:29
meeting of European Union leaders in April. Now a lot
19:34
of colleagues are more lucid because after so many years,
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we say, Okay, we have to react, we have to
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act as Europeans, to be more united, to defend ourselves,
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our own interests, and for me, this is the right decision. Yet,
19:51
Macron's pursuit of greater European independence has not men Abandoning
19:56
the United States or alienating Trump is often paired calls
20:00
for European self reliance with an unusual personal approach to
20:04
managing his US counterpart. Over the years, Macron has sought
20:09
to cultivate the American president through a mix of diplomacy
20:12
and spectacle, hosting him at the Eiffel Tower, giving him
20:17
a front row seat at france Bastilde military parade, and
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welcoming him to the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
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But more recently, the US war with Iran has pushed
20:29
European politicians to distance themselves from US conflicts and its president.
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Even for some of Trump's closest allies here, chief among
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them Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, aligning with the President
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has become riskier since the crisis over Greenland and its
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war royals, the global economy Japanese Prime Minister Tanai taka
20:56
Ichi attended her first G seventh summit is expected to
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use her relationship with Trump, European leaders, and key Middle
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Eastern partners to help ease tensions. Japan has sought to
21:09
play a diplomatic role in the aftermath of the US
21:12
Israeli war in Iran while maintaining close ties across the region.
21:18
Britain's in battled Prime Minister kir Starmer arrives at Evian
21:23
at low points in both his political standing at home
21:26
and in his relationship with Trump. The Prime Minister faces
21:31
a brewing leadership challenge within his own party and has
21:34
endured the President's fury over not joining the attacks on Iran.
21:40
Both factors have pushed Starmer's government closer to Europe nearly
21:45
a decade after Britain's voted to leave the European Union,
21:50
and it is unclear whether Starmer will return Trump's good graces.
21:55
The President's public contempt for Starmer over Iran, call him
22:00
howardly mocking the British aircraft carriers, describing the United's Kingdom
22:05
as very very uncooperative, has kurdled the special relationship that
22:10
Starmer spent his first year in office, tending the tight
22:14
rope European leaders are walking can be upended by Trump,
22:18
who has repeatedly shown a willingness to expose the gap
22:22
between their public posturing and private diplomacy. Last year, Trump
22:28
published private text messages from NATO's Secretary General Mark Rutti,
22:34
praising the president's efforts to pressure European governments to spending
22:37
more on defense, making private leader to leader diplomacy public.
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One European leader later remark that if Trump exposed similar
22:47
messages from them, voters back home would revolt. The episode
22:53
underscored a challenge facing many leaders gathering in France, balancing
22:58
public resistance to Trump with the private accommodations often required
23:03
to manage him, all while dealing with the President, who
23:07
has shown a willingness to pull back the curtain on
23:10
the performance. If Evan is the opening act, the sequel
23:16
comes three weeks later in Ankara, Turkey, when many of
23:20
the same leaders will gather again for a NATO summit
23:23
on defense spending, military commitments, and the future of the
23:29
Transatlantic Alliance. Our next story. For centuries, math has been
23:35
a human endeavor. Does artificial intelligence mean it's over? This? Month,
23:43
thirty mathematicians gathered at Harvard to create a consequential and
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difficult problem set. This wasn't just any tests. Its outcome
23:54
with guide a field grappling with existential questions about its future.
23:58
The student artificial intelligence. The leaders of the first proof
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effort announced Wednesday that across four AI systems, seven of
24:10
ten problems got a passing grade. It has been a
24:14
head spinning month for Math, latest area of human endeavor
24:18
to find itself provoked, challenged, and put on the defensive
24:22
by larger language models. Open AI announced in May that
24:29
an internal model had disproved a conjecture that had languished
24:34
on Math's long list of unsolved problems for eighty years. Then,
24:40
mathematicians unveiled the Leiden Declaration and International Manifesto with more
24:47
than two thy three hundred signatories that confronts the potential
24:51
and threat of AI, putting forth guidelines on how to
24:54
use that technology ethically and transparently. The the first proof
25:01
results are the second round of a mathematician led effort
25:05
to ground truth the technology strengths and weaknesses. Mathematicians often
25:12
work on arcane problems many of us don't comprehend, but
25:18
math can illuminate how traffic flows, how our cells build proteins,
25:24
and even how to speed up medical imaging scans. Is
25:28
AI an existential threat to math or an impressive tool
25:33
or something in between. Mathematicians are finding themselves arguing for
25:39
the soul of their profession. There are some misconceptions that
25:45
there's a box of conjectures out there, and all that
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mathematicians do is pull a conjecture from a box and
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try to prove it, said Lauren Williams, a math professor
25:57
at Harvard and part of the team behind first Proof.
26:02
AI's capabilities are genuine started startling to many experts, but
26:08
they also point out math relies on human taste, judgment,
26:14
and intuition, choosing the problems to solve, framing those dilemmas,
26:19
and situating them in a larger context. Those tasks haven't
26:24
been mastered by AI yet. What's the interesting question to ask?
26:31
You know, that's a lot of stupid questions you could ask,
26:34
And a geologist could ask, what's the average color of
26:38
a rock on Earth? Right? Well, that's a question. It's
26:42
probably not an interesting question. So scientists have to figure
26:46
out what are the fruitful directions to follow in mid May,
26:53
open AI announced that its model had disproved a conjecture
26:57
proposed in nineteen forty six by famed mathematician Paul Airdose,
27:03
a prolific problem poser whose hundreds of still unsolved problems
27:09
had become kind of a proving ground for the AI industry.
27:13
This problem was deceptively straightforward. If you place points in
27:20
a single plane or flat surface, how many pairs can
27:25
be separated by the same distance. Urdos put forth a
27:30
possible solution and offered a three hundred dollars prize to
27:34
whoever could prove or disprove. He up the ante to
27:38
five hundred dollars in nineteen ninety five, eight decades after
27:43
the puzzle was first proposed. It was a computer mind,
27:48
not a human one, that furnished what Princeton mathematician Noga
27:53
Alon called a spectacular solution. AI is helping us or
28:00
fully explore the cathedral of mathematics, wrote Thomas Bloom, a
28:05
research mathematicians at the University of Manchester. Sebastian Bubeck, a
28:11
mathematician and researcher at open AI, said the solution emerged
28:16
from a general model that wasn't fine tune to solve
28:20
math problems without human input. He marveled at the accomplishment
28:26
when comparing it to his own effort to solve similar problems,
28:31
and The Washington Post has a content partnership with open AI.
28:36
Sometimes in some proofs I did in the past, it's
28:40
so taxing mentally. You have to keep so many things
28:44
in mind and make sure everything fits just right together.
28:47
Bu Beck said, AI definitely has an advantage to do this.
28:52
It can make a more sophisticated construction. Buddy was quick
28:57
to add that this was not the end of human math.
29:01
The weakness I currently see in these models is understating
29:06
why is it that we're doing what we're doing. Bu
29:09
Beck said, I'm not trying not to only solve this problem,
29:14
but it's a part of a broader problem and program,
29:17
and these models don't have broader agendas. The job of
29:22
being a mathematician may evolve, said Rodrigo Orkigami, an anthropologist
29:27
and historian of computing at Leiden University and one of
29:31
the authors of the declaration, but it won't vanish. Perhaps
29:36
there will be greater emphasis on setting new directions, creating
29:39
new techniques and definitions, cultivating understanding and insight judging the
29:44
depth of the significance of the ideas and connecting particular
29:48
problems to larger questions of mathematics in the wider world.
29:51
Or Kagami wrote in his paper as AI companies let
29:55
their models loose on maths unsolved problems. Many human mathematicians
30:01
have found themselves intrigued but also skeptical. They see a
30:05
coming technology, technology that often doesn't give credit to where
30:09
its ideas comes from. Companies trumpets successes, but in their
30:14
own hands these tools perform unevenly and checking their work
30:18
is not trivial. They want a more transparent accounting of
30:21
how the models work and how they can contribute to
30:24
the field. Of course, everybody's impressed. That's the easy question,
30:30
said Martin Harrier, a mathematician with EPFL or the Swiss
30:35
Federal Technology Institute at Loson and Imperial College of London,
30:40
in a fields medalist. It doesn't always do it right,
30:44
and it's actually quite a lot of effort to convince
30:47
yourself it is right. It doesn't write in a way
30:51
that we write, and somehow it doesn't write in an
30:54
honest way. The first proof project was launched to try
30:58
to regain control of the narrative being spun by tech
31:01
companies to benchmark AI's abilities. They took problems from across
31:07
math that had been privately solved but never published. In
31:10
a first batch earlier this year, AI solved somewhere around
31:15
six to eight of the ten problems, William said, although
31:18
they didn't do it in any formal grading. The teams
31:22
fine tuned their experiment for a second batch of problems,
31:25
with the results announced last week. I didn't know what
31:29
the outcome would be. This is a very clean experiment,
31:34
nik Kyle Shrivestada, a mathematician at the University of California
31:38
at Berkeley. He said in a webinar before the results
31:41
were announced. The results were illuminating. Seven out of the
31:47
ten problems had at least one correct solution from the
31:50
four AI systems tested. A few of the solutions were flawless,
31:57
others required minor revisions were just failures. In one case,
32:02
the model used a different strategy than humans had and
32:05
impressed the referees. The first proof authors wrote the results
32:11
so genuine capability. The First Proof Editorial Board wrote in
32:15
a statement, some solutions were correct, complete, and novel, while
32:21
others exhibited systematic weaknesses. That are useful for the research
32:25
community to understand. Terry Tawe, a Fields medallist at the
32:31
University of California at Los Angeles, was on a team
32:34
that created an AI harness software built around the AI
32:39
to allow it to use a tool and take the
32:42
next steps in reasoning. Tao said the models kept improving,
32:46
but he drew a contrast between climbing and jumping. Human
32:51
experts are like mountain climbers, who could patiently scout out
32:55
the terrain, identify intermediate sub goals, and pull each other up.
33:01
Cal wrote in an email, the AI systems are still
33:05
largely jumpers who can reach heights that a human might
33:10
not be able to reach in one go, but do
33:14
not fail gracefully, and one often cannot salvage much of
33:19
use out of a failed attempt. Next, Senator Mitch McConnell
33:25
is hospitalized, but his office does not disclose why. Senator
33:30
Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, the former Senate Majority leader,
33:34
was hospitalized Sunday morning. His office set in a statement
33:37
that did not address his condition. He is receiving excellent care.
33:42
David pop McConnell's spokesman said no other details were released
33:47
about McConnell's status. POP did not immediately respond to questions
33:52
about why McConnell was hospitalized and his systems and his symptoms. McConnell,
33:58
who is eighty four, his face to several health issues
34:01
in recent years. In December twenty twenty four, he fell
34:05
during a Republican lunch, spraining his wrist and sustaining a
34:09
minor scratch to his face. In March of twenty twenty three,
34:13
he fell and suffered a concussion and broken rib during
34:17
a private dinner at a Washington hotel. He was absent
34:21
from the Senate for nearly six weeks as he recovered.
34:25
That year, he also filled during a trip to Helsinki
34:28
in February and in July at Reagan National Airport. He
34:33
also froze twice while speaking in public that summer. A
34:38
long time senator from Kentucky, stepped down from Senate leadership
34:42
in twenty twenty four and announced in twenty twenty five
34:45
that he will not seek reelection. McConnell will leave the
34:49
Senate in January, having forged a legacy as an adept
34:54
negotiator and strategist, helping shape the conservative majority on the
34:59
Supreme Court and securing tax cuts during President Trump's first
35:05
term and next. Voters are unhappy about much more than
35:10
high gas prices for Marley, North Carolina. For Leith Olson,
35:18
the familiar comforts of middle class life have moved out
35:21
of reach. To save money, he and his wife, Heather,
35:25
cut back on vacations and switched to less expensive store
35:29
brands when shopping for groceries. The toyotas in their driveway
35:35
are roughly a decade old, as his hometown Carolina Hurricanes
35:40
chased a Sanley Cup championship this month. Olson, an ardent
35:45
fan who once enjoyed attending games watched from home. His
35:50
young son and daughter will attend one week of camp
35:53
this year in the summer, less time than in the past. Olson,
35:58
who's forty seven, is living the politically charged affordability crisis
36:03
that President Trump rides as bullshit in a democratic hoax.
36:08
Over the past several years, Olsen's annual household income has
36:12
remained stuck at around one hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
36:16
even as the cost of a living sword by nearly
36:18
thirty percent. Things are harder than they used to be,
36:22
he said, nursing a beer at a brewery. It's not
36:26
just gas prices that make things harder. It seems like
36:30
everything across the board is more expensive. My wife and
36:34
I find ourselves having to say no to the kids
36:36
for stuff that they want or what they want to
36:39
do more often than we used to. Olsen's frustrations is
36:44
evident wider social malaise than in odds with traditional prosperity metrics.
36:51
The US economy, after all, is growing an unemployment hovers
36:55
just north of four percent, well below it's post two
36:59
thousand average. On Wall Street, stock values are near all
37:04
time highs. But as the November congressional elections approach, millions
37:10
of Americans, even those earning good money, are straining to
37:14
make ends meet. After outpacing prices for nearly three years,
37:19
wage growth slipped below inflation in March. Total worker compensation
37:25
including benefits has increased less than one percent since the
37:28
start of twenty twenty five, according to the Bureau of
37:31
Labor Statistics. Years of serial crisis have exhausted many workers,
37:37
leaving them skeptical of both parties in an era of
37:41
corporate political influence. This public discontent reflected in opinion polls
37:47
and consumer sentiment readings is the cumulative hangover from years
37:52
of unsettling economic change. A once in a century pandemic
37:57
permanently altered traditional living patterns. The president's trade policies scrapped
38:03
the approach to globalization that the United States had pursued
38:07
for decades. Elon Musk's government efficiency campaign introduced unfamiliar fear
38:14
to the previously stable world of government employment. The rise
38:19
of the artificial intelligence is spawning fresh worries about long
38:23
term job prospects. Even in a business friendly state such
38:28
as North Carolina, with the jobless rate is below the
38:31
national average, voters are disgruntled. By a margin of fifty
38:37
five to twenty percent. North Carolina adults said the economy
38:42
had gotten worse on Trump's watch, according to an April
38:45
poll by Elon University, a private institution. This public disquiet
38:52
presents a challenging backdrop for Republicans seeking to retain control
38:56
of Congress in November. In the state's US Senate race,
39:01
Democrats are optimistic about former Governor Roy Cooper's chances and
39:06
are hopeful about at least one pickup opportunity in North
39:10
Carolina's House contest. American angst did not begin with the
39:16
recent jumping gas prices. Long before the Iran War, workers
39:21
were losing ground to increasingly prosperous corporations. It's a share
39:26
of the economy. Employee compensation in the first three months
39:30
of this year reached its lowest point since the government
39:34
began keeping track in nineteen forty seven. Total wages and
39:39
benefits equaled fifty one percent of gross domestic income, down
39:43
from nearly fifty eight percent a quarter of a century ago,
39:47
according to the Commerce Department. At the same time, the
39:50
slice of domestic income going to corporate profits is at
39:54
its highest mark since nineteen fifty one. To be sure,
39:59
the these government statistics probably overstate the labor to capital
40:04
shift by around one third. According to economists say that
40:09
the nineteen eighty six tax law changes encouraged small business
40:13
owners to report more of their compensations profits rather than wages,
40:19
but that caveat does not invalidate the conclusion that worker's
40:23
bargaining power has ebbed in recent decades. The rise of
40:28
low wage competitors like China, automation, and the decline of
40:33
union strength have all been labor headwinds that long run
40:40
erosion help explains why so many Americans were so sour
40:45
on the thirty one trillion dollar US economy even before
40:49
gas prices rose. The University of Michigan's consumer Centiment gage,
40:54
for example, has yet to regain its pre pandemic level
40:59
after more than six It's not just poor people who
41:03
feel the financial pressure. The Olsen's combined income from Leith's
41:08
job as a field service engineer for a medical device
41:11
company and Heather's work as an end of life chaplain
41:16
placed them comfortably above the national household median of eighty
41:21
three thousand, seven hundred and thirty dollars. But the two
41:25
percent pay increase Leith received last year and the one
41:29
he hopes to get this year are dwarfed by rising costs,
41:34
leaving him wondering what's gone wrong. I have worked hard
41:40
for a very long time, and it doesn't feel like
41:43
I'm moving towards that better life. It feels like movements
41:47
have stagnated, Olsen said, And it's not working the way
41:51
we were promised. We were told that it would work.
41:55
So far, consumer spending, which accounts for seventy percent of
41:59
the US acaomy, has defied America's downbeat mood. Retail sales
42:06
February to April were up four point four percent compared
42:11
with the same period last year. The cracks are emerging
42:14
in the consumer facade to maintain their lifestyles. Americans have
42:20
cut their savings rate by almost half since January of
42:24
twenty twenty five. According to the Commerce department at Walmart,
42:29
the nation's largest retailer, shoppers are checking out with fewer items,
42:35
putting less than ten gallons of gas in their cars
42:37
for the first time since twenty twenty two. Company executive
42:41
told investors people's wallets are stretched. John David Rainey, Walmart's
42:47
chief financial officer, said last month, thanks to the President's
42:51
One Big Beautiful Bill, unusually large tax refunds would help
42:56
support continued spending over the coming months. Economist at the
43:00
Bank of America set in a client note last week,
43:04
but relying on one time refunds is not sustainable. May
43:10
retail sales excluding motor vehicles are projected to decline by
43:15
an inflation adjusted one point three percent, according to an
43:19
advanced estimate by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Willie Brown,
43:24
fifty five, and municipal worker in Durham, has said he
43:28
cut back in the face of higher gas prices. They're
43:31
costing him four hundred dollars each month just for commuting.
43:35
He's buying less beef, which is up thirteen percent from
43:38
a year ago, and stopped snacking on Dorito's have repeated
43:43
price hikes. There's a lot of things that I've just
43:47
once liked in my life that i just have to
43:49
do without, he said. Charles Owens, who sixty two, works
43:55
at a state run Cherry hospital in Goldsboro, about fifty
43:58
miles southeast. Under the budget proposal moving through the state legislature,
44:04
he and other state workers would get a three percent
44:06
annual raise. They won't even offset last year's increases in
44:11
worker's share of health care cost, not to mention overall
44:15
inflation of four point two percent, he said, under a
44:18
banner of employee health not corporate wealth. Owens helps lead
44:24
a union campaign for more generous benefits. A registered Republican
44:30
and US Navy veteran, he was an enthusiastic Ronald Reagan
44:34
voter was angered by what he described as Trump's corruption.
44:39
He wants the Democrats to win the House and the
44:41
Senate in November to serve as a check on the president.
44:45
Bought his expectations of change are low. The Democrats are
44:51
so focused on beating the Republicans that they're not coming
44:54
up with any specific things to help anybody. It's like,
44:59
let's get them out, so here's so we can fix this.
45:02
But if you don't have an idea of what to
45:05
fix when to fix it, why am I even voting?
45:08
He said. Others like Lauren Clark, a cafeteria worker at
45:13
a bank in nearby Morrisville, hope that a Democratic Congress
45:17
will make a difference in their lives. Along with the
45:20
financial strain, she faces unrelenting domestic pressures that Clark described
45:25
as wall to wall forty. Clark, who's forty four, rises
45:31
at five am, and after a quick breakfast, she takes
45:34
her sixteen year old daughter to the bus stop, leaving
45:37
her son's ages ten and twelve, at home. By six
45:41
forty am, Clark is headed to work, punching in by
45:44
seven am to prepare breakfast for bank employees. Her older
45:49
son gets himself to class at eight thirty. Clark takes
45:53
her a thirty minute lunch break so she can race
45:56
home and ferry her ten year old school before returning
45:59
to work. Clark endures this exhausting routine because daycare for
46:04
her special needs ten year old. Is unaffordable for my
46:09
son to go to a morning care. They told me
46:12
it would be twelve hundred dollars a week. I said, huh,
46:16
I don't make that a week myself, she said. Back
46:19
at the Crooked Hammock Brewery, Olsen finishes his amber ale
46:24
and contemplates the congressional election that is little more than
46:28
one hundred and forty days away. What's a political independent?
46:32
He's drifted left of center as the Republican Party has
46:36
moved to the right. Now even centrist Democrats leave him cold.
46:43
They're not necessarily trying to work for the peoples, and said,
46:47
it almost feels like they're trying more to maintain the
46:50
status quo. And it is becoming increasingly clear that the
46:56
status quo is broken and Texas's GOP platform is getting
47:03
more extreme and influential. At the biennial State Republican Convention
47:10
this week, hundreds of attendees packed the ballroom, some sitting
47:14
on the floor or standing in the back. For one
47:17
of the more most popular panels, don't Sharia my Texas.
47:24
I look across this packed room and you are truly
47:28
saving the nation, said conservative activist Amy Meckelberg. We see
47:34
Texas is ground zero. If Texas falls, the nation falls.
47:43
Many Texans in the ballroom and beyond agreed with her.
47:47
We're more awake. Pam Reid, who's seventy two of Kaufman
47:51
County in North Texas, said of the alleged Islamis extremism
47:55
in Texas, which Republicans addressed in their draft party platform
48:00
for the first time this year, after GOP primary candidates
48:05
seized on the issue. It's already started and we need
48:09
to stop it. Texas's Republican platform, which attendees will vote
48:15
on Saturday, has become increasingly extreme in recent years, even
48:21
it has become more influential in helping to shape national policy.
48:26
In twenty twenty four, the platform advocated aggressive local border enforcement,
48:31
endorsed Bible instruction in public schools, barred teaching about sexual
48:36
orientation and gender identity stances. The national GOP platform ultimately mirrored,
48:44
political scientists at Texas's influence derives from a combination of size,
48:50
plenty of wealthy donors, and its leader's competitive desire to
48:54
establish themselves as the most conservative in the nation. We
48:59
have to become the capital of conservative states. Texas GOP
49:04
chair Abraham George told the Assembly at the convention's opening ceremony.
49:10
What the Texas Republican does end up having an important
49:13
impact on national conservative politics is because of the grip
49:17
that they have on the party and their ability to
49:21
establish what makes a conservative conservative, said Jim Henson, director
49:26
of Texas Political Project at the University of Texas at Austin.
49:31
Henson said hard Ride activists also increasingly used the Texas
49:36
Platform to enforce party discipline during the states buy any
49:40
legislative session like the one set to start in January,
49:45
threatening to sanction or run challengers against lawmakers who refused
49:49
to address their priorities. This year's draft platform calls for
49:55
declaring that Scherial law is an incompatible, dditious, subversive, and
50:02
competing enemy of the Texas and US constitutions, and that
50:07
its advocacy or implementation is a serious seditious criminal act
50:14
worthy of criminal punishment, disqualification for public military and law
50:20
enforcement service, denaturalization, and deportment. State GOP officials routinely described
50:30
sharial law as a legal system that would threaten the
50:34
state law and the constitutional protections They have opposed. Large
50:39
Muslim oriented residential developments such as Epic City planned in
50:44
North Texas and pasted the law last year prohibiting communities
50:48
from imposing sharia law. The proposed platform would block such
50:54
developments and taxpayer funds to supports. The group supports Sharia
51:01
for much of the development. Supporters of the one thousand
51:04
home project, which has been renamed The Meadow, said it
51:08
would have to comply with state and local laws. Sharia
51:13
is not a rigid legal system, but a broad set
51:17
of a moral and religious precepts derived from the Qur'an
51:22
that guides daily lives for Muslims. Republicans in many states
51:27
looked to Texas for both legislative ideas and as a
51:31
role model to follow, said Mark Jones, the political science
51:35
professor at Rice University. The one hundred and thirty five
51:40
page draft platform lists a slew of other new priorities,
51:45
including regulating data centers that are being built rapidly across
51:50
the state, threatening water resources and pushing electricity prices higher,
51:56
But it's the numerous proposed restrictions on Sharia law and
52:01
immigration are likely to catch on. Joanes said, Islam has
52:06
become such a hot button issue for the most conservative
52:10
wing of the Texas Republican Party, but it's likely to
52:13
be the one not only that passes, but generates more
52:16
national coverage because it's so extreme, he said. GOP state
52:21
lawmakers at the convention acknowledge that even if they pass
52:25
state laws to limit sharia law and legal immigration, including
52:29
H one B visas for special workers that have brought
52:33
an influx of South Asian immigrants and sparked intense cultural clashes,
52:38
that the measures will largely be symbolic given federal and
52:42
constitutional protections. The Council on American Islamic Relations, the country's
52:49
largest civil rights and advocacy organization for Muslims, has denounced
52:54
such measures as political fear mongering and a violation of
52:57
First Amendment freedoms on religious protects. Governor Greg Abbott declared
53:03
CAIR a terrorist group last year, and Attorney General Ken
53:09
Paxton has investigated its local chapters. CARES file suit in
53:14
federal court to block the designation, and has called the
53:18
state's moves defamatory and unconstitutional. The language of the platform
53:24
matches the rhetoric that is dominated during the recent primary elections.
53:29
Bo French, a businessman and former GOP chair at Fort
53:33
Worth's Arrant County who won his statewide race for railroad Commissioner.
53:38
Drew criticism in the past from fellow Republicans for social
53:42
media posts, including asking followers whether Jews or Muslims pose
53:47
a bigger threat to America, but now he's ascendant in
53:51
the party. On Thursday night, as a platform, committee reincorporated
53:56
testimony from supporters to vote to approve it supporters an
54:01
event sponsored by the Young Republicans of Texas. The event
54:05
also drew Paxton, who's running for US Senate, and George,
54:09
an immigrant and the state's first Indian American GOP chair
54:14
who lost his bid for reelection at the convention to
54:16
Vice chair dur India Randall. The people of Texas are
54:21
worried about the issues I talk about, French said, calling
54:24
HB one visas a giant scam. He said a nineteen
54:29
sixty five law that removed restrictions on immigrations from Asia, Africa,
54:34
and the Middle East led to importing more than one
54:37
hundred million people who shouldn't be here, who don't share
54:41
our values. On Friday, Habit echoed some of French's views
54:47
about the convention's main stage, as the thousands applauded we
54:52
need to ban Sharia law and the state of Texas
54:55
habit said, and h one b visa ABU and hiring
55:01
of immigrants by state and local governments. Texas' job should
55:06
only go to Texan's in the crowd, Pamela Woods of
55:11
Corpus Christie said she doesn't oppose Islam. A's a religion,
55:15
and she says she believes Sharia law threatens women's rights.
55:21
That's not compatible with the Texas Constitution, said Woods described
55:26
herself as a born again Baptist. Cheryl the Gonzalez, a
55:31
retired real estate agent who lives outside Houston, switched parties
55:37
soon after she moved to Texas from New Mexico twenty
55:40
years ago. As the committee meeting she watched his proposals
55:46
were displayed on a large screen at the front of
55:49
the room. Gonzales called measures banning Sharia and Islamist extremism
55:55
a no brainer. Gonzales, who is seventy four, is enamored
56:01
the bottom up governance. She sees Texas extreme GOP party
56:06
platform as an extension of voters passions. This grassroots stuff,
56:13
I love it, she said. It almost brings tears mines.
56:18
And finally, jd Vance says he'll discuss the twenty twenty
56:21
eight presidential run with his wife after the midterms. Vice
56:25
President Vance, in an interview with CBS Sunday morning, said
56:28
he and his wife Usha, will discuss the twenty twenty
56:31
eight presidential run after this term's mid year elections. Usha
56:35
and I will absolutely sit down and talk about what
56:37
comes next for our family. Vance told CBS the way
56:41
I make decisions is I try not to make them
56:43
until I absolutely must. He said he expects President Trump
56:48
to be very supportive of his eventual decision. I have
56:52
no doubt that the President of the United States is
56:54
going to be very supportive of anything. But I ultimately
56:57
decide to do, Van said, I really just haven't talked
57:01
about it, and that thing will be. A person close
57:04
to Vance, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has
57:07
cited the expected birth of Vance's fourth child in late
57:11
July as a reason why has not met he had
57:14
a decision on the twenty twenty eight run. Vance, who's
57:17
forty one, represented Ohio and the Senate for two years
57:21
before becoming the Vice president. He's a Marine Corps veteran
57:24
and Yale Law School graduate who regained prominence from his
57:27
memoir h'll Billy elogy. Once a critic of military interventions overseas,
57:33
Vance has become a staunch defender of the war in
57:35
Iran and other Trump politics. Vance's the most high profile
57:41
and potential twenty twenty eight contender in the Trump administration,
57:45
but including Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Vance and Rubio
57:50
recently appeared in the White House briefing room, further fueling
57:53
twenty twenty eight speculation as they raised their profiles. While
57:58
Trump is stoked to rivalry between the two, he has
58:00
also suggested that they could be running mates. In his
58:04
interview with CBS, vancied he doesn't initiate conversations about his
58:08
political future with Trump. I'd never bring it up the President.
58:13
He's political animal, and he loves this stuff and he's
58:15
fascinated by it. But we don't talk about it, not
58:18
in any great detail. And this concludes the reading of
58:22
the Washington Post for today, Monday, June fifteenth. Your rear
58:26
for today has been Rod Brotherton. If you have any questions,
58:29
comments or suggestions, please feel free to call us at
58:32
eighty five nine four two two sixty three ninety. Thank
58:35
you as always for listening, and now please stay tuned
58:40
for continued programming right here on Radio LI