Latest / Washington Post / 10.1.26

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10.1.26 · Washington Post

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Thursday,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: October 1st, 2026. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
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  Speaker 1: reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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  Speaker 1: other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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  Speaker 1: Your reader for today is Roger Hampirian. Today's front page
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  Speaker 1: headlines from the Washington Post are as follows. Arts Hub
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  Speaker 1: was solvent before its takeover. Next, Hegseth Maps Out New
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  Speaker 1: Goals in a Fiery Address to Troops. Next, Red State
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  Speaker 1: Democrats Veer Right on Trans Issues. Next, Trump's Sweeping Changes
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  Speaker 1: Remaking Washington. Next, A Break in Mexico's Most Notorious Unsolved Crime.
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  Speaker 1: And finally, Horror Aboard Flight to Israel. The first article
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  Speaker 1: from the front page of today's edition is titled, The
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  Speaker 1: Kennedy Center was solvent when Trump took over. Then its
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  Speaker 1: finances collapsed. The Post examined 15 years of the institution's
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  Speaker 1: financial records to see why it went south after the
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  Speaker 1: president took over. By Federica Coco and Nima Ahmed. In
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  Speaker 1: the 19 months since President Donald Trump took over the
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  Speaker 1: Kennedy Center, the institution has borrowed everything its bank would
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  Speaker 1: lend it, dipped into money donors had given on the
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  Speaker 1: condition it never be spent, and written off pledges from
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  Speaker 1: supporters who stopped paying, according to confidential board documents and
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  Speaker 1: tax filings reviewed by the Washington Post. Trump said the
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  Speaker 1: center was losing hundreds of millions of dollars when he
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  Speaker 1: took over, and his board has warned of bankruptcy. It
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  Speaker 1: is true that when Trump took over, the center was
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  Speaker 1: in worse shape than it was in 2021, when it
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  Speaker 1: was flush with pandemic relief funds. But the old leadership
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  Speaker 1: handed over an institution that was better off financially than
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  Speaker 1: in most years before COVID-19. This was a pretty stable, large, complicated,
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  Speaker 1: but stable organization, said Karen Gall Mills, an expert in
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  Speaker 1: arts management and director of the Indiana University Arts Administration Program.
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  Speaker 1: It had a hard time during the pandemic. Lots of
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  Speaker 1: people did. And it was pretty stable at September 30, 2024.
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  Speaker 1: Ticket income never covered costs at the center, and the
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  Speaker 1: gap was filled by donors. Federal appropriations, about $ 45 million
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  Speaker 1: a year, were really just to fund the maintenance of
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  Speaker 1: the memorial, which is the building itself, said Andrew Taylor,
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  Speaker 1: who directs the art management program at American University. Nonprofit
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  Speaker 1: performing arts centers do not make positive revenue on earned income.
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  Speaker 1: That's why they're nonprofits, Taylor said. What sets the Kennedy
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  Speaker 1: Center apart is the buildings. It's a memorial. It's a
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  Speaker 1: federal building, but it also behaves like a non-profit. How
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  Speaker 1: the dam burst. After the takeover, both donors and audiences
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  Speaker 1: walked away. Ticket income fell by 15% in the financial
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  Speaker 1: year that ended in September 2025, and gifts dropped by
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  Speaker 1: nearly a quarter. The center expects ticket income to fall
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  Speaker 1: by more than two-thirds this year, and gifts in the
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  Speaker 1: first four months of 2026 were down about 40% on
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  Speaker 1: the previous quarter, according to an internal report from June.
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  Speaker 1: Tickets and gifts were the beating heart of the institution,
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  Speaker 1: Taylor said. Most of the fuel that made that organization
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  Speaker 1: work stopped flowing in about February 2025. He blamed the
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  Speaker 1: new leadership's decisions for the loss of donors and audiences.
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  Speaker 1: The burst happened up the pipe. The water stopped flowing
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  Speaker 1: into the organization because of the choices the administration was making.
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  Speaker 1: Most of the people whose job it was to bring
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  Speaker 1: money in have left the center. Richard Grinnell, then the
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  Speaker 1: center's president, told the board in March that the development
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  Speaker 1: staff had been cut from 94 to 16. The center
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  Speaker 1: had also written off $ 48 million, according to its latest
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  Speaker 1: tax filing, and most of it appears related to pledges
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  Speaker 1: it no longer expects to collect. Gall Mills said the
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  Speaker 1: figures taken together were a sign of something going wrong.
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  Speaker 1: The center was less stable at September 30, 2025, and
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  Speaker 1: it seems that it is in free fall now, she said.
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  Speaker 1: This is unusual that this organization has gone this far
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  Speaker 1: south this fast. It's not the thing we typically see.
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  Speaker 1: It is an organization clearly in distress. Scraping for Cash
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  Speaker 1: The center had long kept a $ 10 million line of
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  Speaker 1: credit that it sometimes dipped into during the year and
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  Speaker 1: paid back by year-end, according to its audits. In September 2025,
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  Speaker 1: it doubled the line to $ 21 million and has since
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  Speaker 1: borrowed against all of it, according to an internal June report.
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  Speaker 1: It's really hard to slow down expenses. You have to
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  Speaker 1: pay them. In order to pay your payroll, we have
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  Speaker 1: to start borrowing, Taylor said. With the government covering the
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  Speaker 1: building but not the shows, they need to keep borrowing
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  Speaker 1: and keep firing people. The center has also been draining
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  Speaker 1: its debt reserve, which fell from $ 18 million last September
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  Speaker 1: to $ 13 million in June and was projected to hit
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  Speaker 1: $ 9 million by this week, the end of the fiscal year.
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  Speaker 1: About $ 9 million of the reserve is collateral for the
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  Speaker 1: loan on The Reach, the center's expansion that opened in 2019.
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  Speaker 1: though the money it can actually spend is nearly gone.
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  Speaker 1: It also dipped into the endowment for the Washington National Opera,
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  Speaker 1: a pot of donated money that is usually meant to
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  Speaker 1: go untouched. Charities generally only use the returns from its investment.
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  Speaker 1: In normal years, the Kennedy Center took a payout equal
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  Speaker 1: to about 5% of its endowment's value, but by June
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  Speaker 1: this year, it had taken $ 10 million out of a $ 10. 3
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  Speaker 1: million endowment fund describing it as an extra payout to
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  Speaker 1: cover opera bills. On its part, the center counts the
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  Speaker 1: $ 10 million against the roughly $ 71 million it says the
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  Speaker 1: opera owes it. Conversely, the opera says the center owes
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  Speaker 1: it $ 19 million. The opera has since left, and the
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  Speaker 1: two sides are fighting over who owes whom. By this month,
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  Speaker 1: the center was only able to pay its bills thanks
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  Speaker 1: to $ 17 million raised by President Trump. the Justice Department
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  Speaker 1: told an appeals court on Monday, and that money is
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  Speaker 1: fast being expended. The figure appears to refer to the
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  Speaker 1: Trump Kennedy Center Foundation, a charity rebranded after the takeover.
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  Speaker 1: Internal documents put the foundation's takings at $ 17. 5 million, but
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  Speaker 1: don't disclose the donors. The documents don't show the fullest
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  Speaker 1: possible picture of the center's finances. That comes from its
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  Speaker 1: audited financial reports. The center has not published 2025 audited accounts,
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  Speaker 1: which would have usually come by around March. Gall-Mills said
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  Speaker 1: the trustees have a duty to oversee both the audit
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  Speaker 1: and the tax filings. Where is the board, Gall-Mills asked,
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  Speaker 1: adding that the center was established as America's national cultural center.
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  Speaker 1: This is a place that belongs to all of us,
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  Speaker 1: not a place that belongs to one person. The Kennedy
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  Speaker 1: Center declined to answer questions about the figures in this article.
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  Speaker 1: The next article from the front page of today's edition
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  Speaker 1: is titled, Hegseth Details New Initiatives in Partisan Address to Troops.
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  Speaker 1: In a fiery speech, the Pentagon chief solicited bids to
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  Speaker 1: build a new base, called for more focus on religion,
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  Speaker 1: and said Elon Musk will help develop next-generation weapons, by
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  Speaker 1: Dan Lamoff and Alex Horton. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled
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  Speaker 1: six new initiatives in an address to hundreds of U.S.
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  Speaker 1: troops Wednesday, calling for the establishment of a headquarters focused
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  Speaker 1: on drone warfare, soliciting interest in a future military base
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  Speaker 1: to be built somewhere in the United States, and touting
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  Speaker 1: the recruitment of billionaire tech titans Elon Musk and Palmer
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  Speaker 1: Luckey to develop the next generation of weapons. Hegseth, speaking
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  Speaker 1: at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, also announced his
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  Speaker 1: intent to establish a military office focused on religious programs,
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  Speaker 1: bolster the nation's resiliency by fortifying domestic supply chains, and
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  Speaker 1: create new cadet programs at five universities that he assessed
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  Speaker 1: are not dominated by liberal woke ideology. The fiery speech,
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  Speaker 1: which Hegseth titled State of the Force and wants to
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  Speaker 1: make an annual occurrence, follows his unorthodox, highly partisan lecture
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  Speaker 1: a year ago to nearly all of the military's senior-most leaders.
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  Speaker 1: Speaking this time to hundreds of mid-ranking officers and enlisted leaders,
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  Speaker 1: He again lambasted the Pentagon's bureaucracy, the U.S. news media,
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  Speaker 1: and liberal politicians while drawing a direct line between this
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  Speaker 1: event and the previous one. The previous administration forced out
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  Speaker 1: so-called toxic leaders in favor of promoting risk-averse, get-along-to-go-along conformists,
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  Speaker 1: Hegseth told the audience. It was the true politicization of
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  Speaker 1: our military, stupid and dangerous. The Biden administration, he alleged
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  Speaker 1: at another point, wanted politically correct generals, adding that Trump
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  Speaker 1: administration officials only want the top-performing generals. He specifically criticized
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  Speaker 1: former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark A. Milley,
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  Speaker 1: the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying
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  Speaker 1: that some of the diversity efforts adopted when they led
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  Speaker 1: the Pentagon were meant to create politically correct quotas. Hegseth
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  Speaker 1: used profanity and recited scripture, touted his firing of scores
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  Speaker 1: of generals and admirals, accused journalists of treason for scrutinizing
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  Speaker 1: the Iran war, and spoke harshly of service members who
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  Speaker 1: did not meet his notions of ideal. We are no
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  Speaker 1: longer the woke department or the weak department. Simple translation
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  Speaker 1: of that, no fatties, no tea, blank, blank, blank, no beardos,
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  Speaker 1: no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals, just warriors, Hex has said,
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  Speaker 1: using a pejorative term for transgender people. The Secretary began
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  Speaker 1: the day exercising outside the Pentagon with several hundred service members,
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  Speaker 1: seemingly all clad in This Is War t-shirts that highlight
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  Speaker 1: the Trump administration's rebranding of the Defense Department as the
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  Speaker 1: War Department. Congress has not as yet authorized the name change.
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  Speaker 1: The address occurred as Hex's Republican Party faces substantial headwinds
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  Speaker 1: heading into November's midterm elections, and the Pentagon remains mired
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  Speaker 1: in the deeply unpopular Iran War. Upon initiating the conflict
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  Speaker 1: seven months ago, both Hegseth and President Donald Trump said
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  Speaker 1: it would take a few weeks to win, despite the
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  Speaker 1: private misgivings of some senior military leaders. Trump and Hegseth
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  Speaker 1: have sought to portray the war as finished now, even
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  Speaker 1: as tens of thousands of military personnel remain deployed and
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  Speaker 1: intermittent Iranian attacks on U.S. personnel have resulted in recent injuries.
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  Speaker 1: Both men have repeatedly lashed out at those who have
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  Speaker 1: raised concerns about the conflict's long-term implications, including heavy usage
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  Speaker 1: of Navy warships that will require extended maintenance and the
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  Speaker 1: partial depletion of key U.S. munitions and air defenses. Hexeth
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  Speaker 1: reserved several minutes of his presentation for attacking the anti-American
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  Speaker 1: losers in the news media who have published a number
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  Speaker 1: of revealing reports about the Trump administration's management of the
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  Speaker 1: war and its stewardship of the Pentagon. The conflict, which
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  Speaker 1: the president began in concert with Israel on February 28th,
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  Speaker 1: has cost tens of billions of dollars, damaged or destroyed
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  Speaker 1: several U.S. facilities and aircraft throughout the Middle East, left
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  Speaker 1: more than 800 American troops wounded, and resulted in the
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  Speaker 1: death of at least 19 others. Hegseth himself, a former
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  Speaker 1: mid-ranking officer in the Army National Guard, also continued to
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  Speaker 1: tout his focus on lethality. and he revived claims that
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  Speaker 1: past Pentagon leaders cared too little about winning the nation's wars.
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  Speaker 1: As the Washington Post and others reported this week, Hexeth
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  Speaker 1: is working to reduce the total number of generals and
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  Speaker 1: admirals in the military by up to 20%, building on
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  Speaker 1: an initial plan announced last year to cut at least
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  Speaker 1: 10% of all senior leaders force-wide. The number crunchers say
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  Speaker 1: we fired 10% of the generals and admirals across the force,
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  Speaker 1: And that number sounds about right, he said. And I know,
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  Speaker 1: because I directed it, that we've also reduced the overall
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  Speaker 1: number of general officer slots by an additional 10%. So yes,
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  Speaker 1: 20% reduction across the board. The active duty military has
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  Speaker 1: about 850 generals and admirals overseeing more than 1.3 million
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  Speaker 1: troops on active duty, with nearly 800,000 more in the
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  Speaker 1: National Guard and Reserve components. Planning for Hegseth's address at
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  Speaker 1: Quantico last year initially sowed fear and confusion among many
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  Speaker 1: service members, with few details provided as the Defense Secretary
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  Speaker 1: issued short notice orders to the military top officers and
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  Speaker 1: enlisted leaders to travel from headquarters around the world to
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  Speaker 1: listen to him. At that summit, military leaders listened mostly
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  Speaker 1: in silence as Trump and Hegseth criticized their predecessors and
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  Speaker 1: aired grievances. the more junior officers and enlisted leaders in
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  Speaker 1: attendance Wednesday appeared to do much the same. Peter Fever,
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  Speaker 1: an expert on civil-military affairs at Duke University, said the
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  Speaker 1: partisan nature of Hex's speech last year left open the
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  Speaker 1: possibility that the younger audience this year might respond inappropriately.
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  Speaker 1: They passed that test, he said. They listened respectfully but
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  Speaker 1: did not cheer or boo the partisan lines in the speech,
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  Speaker 1: Fever said. Americans should celebrate the fact that we have
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  Speaker 1: a professional military committed to preserving its nonpartisan status. Fever
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  Speaker 1: noted that Higgs' policy proposals will require buy-in from lawmakers
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  Speaker 1: to be realized and funded. I wonder if the team
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  Speaker 1: has socialized these ideas with stakeholders in Congress, Fever said.
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  Speaker 1: If not, there is a lot of work to be
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  Speaker 1: done before they produce the benefits he promised. The new
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  Speaker 1: drone warfare headquarters, called Autonomous Warfare Command, will spring from
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  Speaker 1: a fledgling effort that Hegseth named Project Agincourt. It's a
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  Speaker 1: reference to a battle in which English forces, though vastly outnumbered,
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  Speaker 1: beat French adversaries in 1415 while relying on creative employment
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  Speaker 1: of longbows. In a memo released after Hegseth's speech, the
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  Speaker 1: Secretary said that the effort will experiment with drone prototypes
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  Speaker 1: and develop a repeatable procurement system whose output is not
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  Speaker 1: a particular drone, but the ability to adapt in combat.
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  Speaker 1: It will be led by Owen West, a Marine Corps
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  Speaker 1: veteran who oversees the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit. Hegseth's memo
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  Speaker 1: said the Pentagon will collaborate directly with Congress to secure
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  Speaker 1: necessary legislation for the headquarters with an aspirational launch date
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  Speaker 1: of October 2027. In another memo released after the speech,
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  Speaker 1: Hegseth established the new effort to build a new, highly
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  Speaker 1: hardened joint military installation within the domestic United States. A
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  Speaker 1: nationwide effort to evaluate locations will follow, the memo said,
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  Speaker 1: in a project that is about doing something bold, beautiful,
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  Speaker 1: and world-class for the great Americans who wear our nation's uniform.
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  Speaker 1: The base-building effort follows decades of retrenchment in which the
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: military has reduced in scale or closed numerous military installations
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  Speaker 1: across the country to save money. It was not immediately
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  Speaker 1: clear how the Pentagon will pay for the effort, or
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  Speaker 1: where in the United States the Trump administration may consider.
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  Speaker 1: Speaking directly to the nation's governors in his address, Hegseth said,
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  Speaker 1: If your state wants the honor of hosting 15,000 to 25,000
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  Speaker 1: of America's great troops, show us why and how you're
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  Speaker 1: going to do it. Cutting through the red tape, offering
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  Speaker 1: up the land, and rolling out the red carpet for
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  Speaker 1: our military families. Hegseth's initiative that relies in part on
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  Speaker 1: tech titans will be known as Project Meridian, and initially
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  Speaker 1: include Lucky, the co-founder of Anduril, Musk, the CEO of
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  Speaker 1: Tesla and SpaceX, and former head of the controversial, cost-cutting U.S.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Doge service, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has
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  Speaker 1: long shown an interest in next-generation technology. Hexeth said Wednesday,
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  Speaker 1: they are three of our nation's best minds, and pointed
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  Speaker 1: them out in the audience. It was not immediately clear
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  Speaker 1: how Musk and Luckey will manage collaborating with the government
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: while their companies and their competitors compete for government contracts,
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  Speaker 1: a potential conflict of interest. Hexeth said Project Meridian will
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  Speaker 1: be futuristic on purpose, with work focusing on discovering, developing,
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  Speaker 1: and fielding the weapons and systems that our children and
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  Speaker 1: grandchildren will need in their lifetimes, without any creative limitations
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  Speaker 1: or restrictions on any future battlefield from under the Earth
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  Speaker 1: to beyond the Moon. The development of new officer training
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  Speaker 1: programs follows months of Hegseth targeting Ivy League schools and
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  Speaker 1: other institutions that have educated prospective and current military officers.
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  Speaker 1: The Trump administration has accused numerous academic institutions of harboring
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  Speaker 1: a liberal bias. The America's Corps of Cadets program, Hegseth said,
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  Speaker 1: will add new or expanded training at Louisiana State University,
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  Speaker 1: Mississippi State University, Liberty University, Tuskegee University, and Hillsdale College.
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  Speaker 1: The resiliency effort announced by Hegseth on Wednesday is called
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  Speaker 1: Fortress America, short for Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply,
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  Speaker 1: and Survivability. Hegseth said in a related memo that he
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: wants to end reliance on foreign supply chains, something that
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  Speaker 1: other U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden, also have emphasized.
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  Speaker 1: The fortress effort also will ensure that every major U.S.
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  Speaker 1: base can generate its own power and stay online if
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  Speaker 1: civilian infrastructure nearby is compromised or sabotaged, Hegseth's memo said.
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  Speaker 1: It also will build deep strategic reserves of munitions, fuel, medicine,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: and blood sufficient to fight through disruption in times of crisis.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: The next article from the front page of today's edition
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: is titled, Red State Democrats Veer Right on Transgender Issues,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Sparking Backlash Several are adopting more conservative rhetoric or publicly
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: opposing transgender girls playing in girls' sports. By Ben Binde
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Representative Marcy Kaptur, Democrat of Ohio, facing a tough re-election
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: campaign in a heavily Republican House district, responded head-on after
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: her opponent bombarded her with ads painting her as too
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: far left on transgender issues. I voted with Republicans to
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: keep transgender ideology out of our schools, Kaptur said, direct
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: to camera in a recent campaign commercial, and boys should
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: not play in girls' sports. Local and national LGBTQ plus
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: groups vowed in response to no longer support Kaptur, reflecting
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: broader tensions within the Democratic Party over how to respond
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to GOP attacks that they are radical and out of
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: step with public opinion on transgender issues. Several Democrats running
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: in conservative-leaning areas have sought to blunt the effect of
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Republican attacks on transgender issues by publicly opposing transgender girls
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  Speaker 1: playing in girls' sports or adopting more conservative rhetoric. Some
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  Speaker 1: have gone so far as to refer to transgender girls
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  Speaker 1: as boys. In an Iowa congressional swing district, Democrat Sarah
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  Speaker 1: Trone Garriott vowed in an ad to oppose letting men
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  Speaker 1: in women's locker rooms. In Alaska's Senate race, Democrat Mary
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Paltola said in a commercial she doesn't want men in
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  Speaker 1: girls' bathrooms. Some progressives accused these Democratic candidates of betraying
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the LGBTQ plus community, which has long been loyal to
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the party. Exit polls found more than 8 in 10
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  Speaker 1: LGBTQ plus voters backed Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: presidential election. Transgender people have had to weigh how much
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: moderation on their rights they're willing to tolerate from Democrats,
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  Speaker 1: while many Republicans entirely oppose recognition of their identities. Kaptur's
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Republican opponent, former state representative Derek Marin, sponsored bills in
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Ohio's state legislature to bar transgender girls and women from
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  Speaker 1: competing on female teams and to ban gender transition care
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  Speaker 1: for minors. Kaptur has six times sponsored a Democratic bill
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  Speaker 1: to expand civil rights protections for transgender people, but she
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  Speaker 1: recently voted with Republicans in Congress to require parental permission
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  Speaker 1: for teachers to use a transgender student's preferred name and pronouns.
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  Speaker 1: The Congressional Leadership Fund, a GOP-aligned super PAC, also launched
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: an ad Monday saying that Kaptur had voted to let
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: men play girls' sports, referring to her votes against legislation
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: barring transgender girls from competing in girls' sports. Several local
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Democratic and LGBTQ plus groups urged Kaptur to take down
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: her ad. There is no difference between whether Marcy Kaptur
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: or Derek Marin serves as our next congressperson. You are
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: both united against the LGBTQ plus community, Lucas County Stonewall Democrats,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: a local LGBTQ plus advocacy group, said in a public
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: letter to her. Equality PAC, the fundraising arm of the
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: pro-LGBTQ plus Congressional Equality Caucus, said in a statement that
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: it would absolutely not support Kaptur, saying her weaponized language
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: crosses a bright red line, even while touting the importance
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: of imperfect allies. In response to criticism, CAPTA spokesperson Kylie
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Blitzer said the congresswoman supports parents having more insight into
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: their children's education and that parents, coaches, and local groups
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: should set the rules in their communities to ensure girls'
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: sports stay fair. Some Democratic consultants and LGBTQ plus activists
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: urge voters unhappy with Democrats who have drifted right on
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: transgender issues to set their misgivings aside. Republicans are still
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: much worse on transgender issues, they said, and it's critical
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: to help Democrats retake control of Congress. In terms of
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: personal comfort, I'm trans, and I would have trouble voting
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: for a candidate calling me a biological man, said Ari Drennan,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: a transgender woman and activist who now runs Pink and
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Blue Strategies, a political communications firm. But I think we
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: also have to recognize that elections are a choice between
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: two candidates and that the Democrat in almost any race
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: is going to do a better job of protecting trans
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: folks in that state than a Republican. The way Kaptur
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: and some other Democrats have characterized transgender issues seeks to
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: make trans people's existence ideological and is dehumanizing, said Alejandra Caraballa,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: a transgender rights activist. They cannot take our donations, our support,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: our work on campaigns for granted and expect that we'll
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: back them even when they propose policies that are hostile
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: to our existence. Caraballo and some other activists are urging
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Democrats to withhold their votes from candidates they view as threatening,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: including captor and Democrats nominees for the Iowa and Ohio governorships,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Rob Sand and Amy Acton. warning that Democrats might continue
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: moving rightward on the issue if they do not face
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: political consequences. LGBTQ plus rights activists have a long history
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: of supporting Democrats who oppose causes that may not yet
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: be politically palatable. Some cite Barack Obama's stated opposition to
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: same-sex marriage during his initial 2008 campaign for president as
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: an example of politicians saying one thing in public while
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: holding different beliefs in private. Obama publicly supported same-sex marriage
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: during his re-election campaign after public opinion shifted and the
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court, including several Obama-appointed justices, eventually legalized same-sex marriage
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: nationally during his presidency. Republicans have emphasized the topic this year,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: spending at least $ 76 million about transgender issues in competitive races,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: ad-tracking firm Ad Impact, In the Senate races in Texas
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: and Ohio alone, Republican super PACs have spent $ 51 million
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: attacking Democrats James Tallarico and Sherrod Brown for supporting sex
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: change surgeries on kids. Genital surgeries are almost never performed
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: on children, and Tallarico and Brown, both of whom have
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: opposed broad legislation to ban hormone therapies and other form
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: of gender transition care for minors, reject the characterizations. Democrats
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: spent far less, about $ 2. 9 million, on ads about transgender issues,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: and those who did were distancing themselves from their party.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: While frequently used throughout the 2022 and 2024 election cycles,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: GOP attacks over transgender issues gained prominence when Trump's campaign
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: blanketed the airwaves with ads declaring, Kamala is for they, them,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: President Trump is for you, in the fall of 2024. Afterward,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: many Democratic operatives concluded that the party needed a different
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: approach to transgender issues. The Center for American Progress, an
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: influential liberal policy group, called in a July white paper
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: for the party to accept some restrictions on transgender athletes
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: while supporting transgender people serving in the military and gender
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: transition care for youth. But several Democratic consultants who support
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: making some concessions on transgender issues particularly when they have
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: narrow reach, say it's unnecessary and harmful to call transgender
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: women boys or otherwise use Republican framing. Candidates should try
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: to speak more about kitchen table issues that affect voters,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: they said. The common take in 2024, whether it was
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: consultants or advocacy groups, was that Democrats should not engage
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: on these issues, and that was dead wrong. said Lene Erickson,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the senior vice president for social policy, education, and politics
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: at centrist Democratic think tank Third Way. There are a
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: lot of things that are very effective to meet the
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: concerns of swing voters while still using respectful language. Some
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: said Brown in Ohio and Lindsey James, a House candidate
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: in Iowa, struck a good balance in her response to
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Republican attacks. Brown spent at least $ 1. 4 million on a
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: commercial dismissing GOP ads on transgender issues as a distraction
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: from gas prices and health care costs and described transgender
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: surgeries on kids as a settled issue already illegal in Ohio.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: In James' ad, she said that all children are made
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: in the image of God and that we need to
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: protect kids and we need common sense rules to keep
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: sports fair for boys and for girls. A digital $ 1
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: million advertisement that launched Monday in five battleground House districts
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: across Iowa, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona by the liberal group
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Priorities USA makes this contrast even more bluntly. Republicans talk
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: about trans people a lot, the ad says. Republicans in
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: 2024 spent $ 215 million on ads just about trans people
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: that won't make your groceries or utilities cheaper. Multiple Democratic
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: candidates in red states, though, have concluded that deflection isn't enough. Acton,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: the Ohio gubernatorial candidate, said in a July statement that
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: she doesn't support boys playing in girls' sports. She was
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: criticized by progressive groups and transgender activists in the state,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: with LGBTQ plus advocacy group Equality Ohio lowering her grade
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: from A to B. Ohio Democrats Progressive Caucus wrote in
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: a statement, which it later deleted, that its members would
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: now be less willing to doorknock for her. Adrienne Childry,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a transgender Ohioan and vice chair of the Ohio Democratic
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Party's Pride Caucus, said she wouldn't back Acton. If a
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: candidate is, in my view, willing to throw trans folks
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: under the bus, then they are not entitled to our votes,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: she said, adding that she was not speaking on behalf
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: of her group. Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand faced
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: multiple questions about transgender issues at a recent town hall,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: with an attendee twice interjecting to call him a coward.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Sand said he agrees with Republicans on the sports question.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Becca Mallon, a 32-year-old dietician who pressed Sand on whether
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: he had statistics to back up a ban on transgender
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: participation in sports, told the Post she was frustrated and
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: disappointed with his responses and felt a little hesitant to
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: put my full backing behind him. Mallon, who is not transgender,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: said the issue mattered to her because she has close
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: friends who are transgender. This is a conversation I'm open
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: to having, Sands said in response, adding that he wanted
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: everyone in Iowa to feel welcome. Later, he said he
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: opposed a recent GOP law that stripped gender identity from
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: civil rights protections. That's wrong also for the same reason.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: It's not fair, he said in front of a 950-person
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: crowd in Iowa City's suburbs. I want state government to
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: get back focused on the issues that impact 100% of Iowans.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Mallin ultimately decided the stakes of the midterm election are
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: high enough that she will begrudgingly vote for Sande. But
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to campaign for him, she said. The
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: next article from the front page of today's edition is titled,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: How Trump's Sweeping Changes Are Remaking Washington, by Aaron Steckelberg,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Leslie Shapiro, and Dan Diamond. President Donald Trump has focused
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: on remaking Washington in his second term, from blades of
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: grass on the White House lawn to new monuments around
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: the city. He regularly directs the presidential helicopter to fly
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: over his projects, surveying his changes from above. No modern
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: president has done more to personally reshape the nation's capital.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: It's an effort that Trump's deputies and allies credit as
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: a major achievement. Many others just want him to stop.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Some of Trump's efforts have been concentrated on the White House,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: long known as the People's House, but increasingly a building
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and campus that reflect the president's personal tastes. The administration
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: is set to spend at least $ 900 million on White
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: House construction projects. The ballroom, in progress. Trump's most significant
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and controversial White House change was his decision to tear
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: down the East Wing to build a planned 90,000 square
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: foot ballroom complex. The president said the White House has
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: long needed a permanent space to host VIPs and that
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: his project will be paid for by private donations. As
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: the Washington Post has reported, taxpayers could end up paying
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: at least half of the overall $ 600 million project. After
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: the ballroom drew a legal challenge, Trump subsequently insisted that
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: the ballroom must be built for national security, revealing details
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: about a planned military complex being built underneath it. Architects
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: and preservationists have warned that Trump's ballroom is too large
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: and will distort views of the White House and overshadow
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the 55,000-square-foot mansion. Trump oversaw the rapid construction of a
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: helipad this summer, speeding up the project so it would
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: be finished in time for Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: last week. The project was sparked by a technical problem.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: The new generation of Marine One helicopters, which transport the president,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: risk scorching the White House grass. Trump instructed contractors to
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: redo weeks of work after he was dissatisfied with the
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: slope of the helipad. He also directed workers to regrade
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: the White House's south lawn to bring its slope flush
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: with the new helipad. Workers also redid part of the
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: White House driveway after Trump said past presidents had neglected
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: the road and that its condition was embarrassing when foreign
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: leaders arrived. The Rose Garden Completed Trump has paved over
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: much of the garden, which was redesigned by First Lady
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Jacqueline Kennedy. The grass was inconvenient for events, particularly when
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: it was damp, Trump said. Trump also has installed statues
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: celebrating leaders and heroes from the nation's founding, including several
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: sculptures on loan from conservative art collector Harlan Crow. The
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Oval Office Completed Trump made modest changes to the famed
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: presidential office in his first term, but has gone much
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: further in his second presidency. His signature golden flourishes are
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: visible throughout the room. Trump affixed gilding to its walls,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: placed golden items on a mantelpiece, and hung gold-framed portraits
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: of past presidents. The president has also touted the office's
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: power to intimidate leaders who visit him. West Wing Walkway
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Completed The iconic walkway between the president's office and his
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: residence looks remarkably different after Trump's changes. Trump last year
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: added a presidential walk of fame, a line of presidential
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: portraits with captions written by Trump that praise some of
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: his predecessors while mocking Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: among others. He has also added gold script to the
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: walls that welcomes visitors to the West Wing and the
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Oval Office. Trump this spring also overhauled the West Wing
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: walkway itself, replacing decades-old beige Tennessee flagstone with hand-picked dark granite.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Trump and his deputies have discussed building a second level
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: above the West Wing's current colonnade that would provide symmetry
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: with the planned two-story East Wing colonnade that would connect
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: the ballrooms. The Upper West Wing would provide much-needed office space,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: they say. The administration has not released any formal architectural
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: plans for a second-story West Wing colonnade. Palm Room Rehab
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Completed Long considered a minor stop on White House tours
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: and used as a staging room for larger events, the
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: space has been turned into a showpiece intended to help
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: welcome dignitaries and VIPs. The president replaced the tile floor
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: with marble which he said he personally paid for, put
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: in new chandeliers, and restored the walls. The room has
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: since been decorated with pictures of Trump at the White
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: House and around the world. Lincoln Bathroom Completed Trump's changes
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: have extended to the White House's living quarters. The president
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: last year renovated the famous bathroom, which is part of
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: a guest suite in the White House, drawing on his
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: frequently used palette of gold and marble. It was renovated
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: in the 1940s in an Art Deco green tile style,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: which was totally inappropriate for the Lincoln era, Trump wrote
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: on social media last year. I did it in black
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: and white polished statuary marble. Lafayette Square. In progress. Trump
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: in January abruptly shuttered the public park across the street
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: from the White House for renovations. The project included fixing
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Lafayette Square's fountains and improving its walkways and and Trump
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: counting its trees, envisioning 47 trees to mark being the
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: 47th president. The renovations were largely completed this summer, but
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: much of the park remains closed to the public. Secret
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Service officials have also proposed a plan to install permanent
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: fences around the square. Advocacy groups say that would allow
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Trump to shut out peaceful protesters. Trump has also envisioned
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: repainting the Eisenhower Executive Office building, the 138-year-old building next
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: to the White House used by hundreds of administration staff.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: He said it is ugly and should be white. The
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: idea has been widely opposed by architects, art critics, and
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: others who say painting the building would permanently damage its granite.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Preservationists sued to stop the plan last year. Trump has
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: supported building a permanent screening facility for White House visitors,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: which many outside observers call overdue. The Secret Service's original proposal,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: unveiled in March, called for an underground screening center. The
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: revised design includes an above-ground pavilion that resembles other buildings
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: on the campus. The Secret Service hopes to win approval
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: from federal review panels and complete the project by summer 2028.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: The Reflecting Pool, In Progress Trump in April announced a
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: rapid project to renovate the Lincoln Memorial's reflecting pool, vowing
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: to plug the pool's leaks, resurface its basin, and finish
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: the job in time for July 4th celebrations on the
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: National Mall. Trump's changes lasted a few days. The basin's
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: coating began to visibly peel with chunks of Trump's new
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: pool liner, tinted American flag blue, littering the surface and
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: algae blooms clouding the water. Trump initially accused vandals of
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: deliberately damaging his project. Officials arrested several people and pressed charges,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: then dropped them after finding evidence that botched work by
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: contractors was to blame. The pool was drained again July
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: 10th and is still undergoing repairs. Lincoln Memorial Additions In
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Progress The Trump administration in June touted the opening of
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: a new visitor's center and museum underneath the Lincoln Memorial.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: While some administration officials have tied it to Trump's leadership,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: the new Lincoln Memorial Undercroft Museum predates him. The project
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: was launched a decade ago and pursued across several administrations.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Trump in June also announced plans to build a pedestrian
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: bridge that he said would allow visitors to the Lincoln
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Memorial to easily walk to the Potomac River. The administration
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: has yet to formally propose a plan to do so.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: arts of war and arts of peace sculptures completed trump
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: this year moved to regild four bronze and granite statues
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: near the lincoln memorial and arlington memorial bridge calling them DRAV.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: The Arts of War and Arts of Peace statues were
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: dedicated in 1951 as a gift from Italy, crediting the
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: United States' role in helping rebuild Europe following World War II.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: The Trump administration applied 23.75 carat gold leaf to the statues,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: creating a starkly different visual for pedestrians and drivers long
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: used to the statue's more muted colors. Trump wants to
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: build a 250-foot-tall arch at Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: tucked inside Washington's boundaries to commemorate the nation's 250th anniversary.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Trump recently announced that the planned tourist attraction would also
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: be a military complex designed featuring drones and snipers raising
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: safety and logistical questions. The planned arch represents Trump's most
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: audacious effort to reshape Washington's skyline, and it faces a
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: legal challenge. Administration officials have acknowledged that the towering structure
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: would harm the experience of visiting nearby historic sites, including
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: Arlington National Cemetery. They have justified the arch by pointing
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: to a century-old plan authorized by Congress to build a
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: pair of columns near the site. HUD Headquarters in Progress
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Trump has signaled plans to close or sell federal office
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: buildings downtown, including the headquarters of the Department of Housing
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: and Urban Development, as the president tries to shrink the
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: size of the federal workforce and remake the government's Washington footprint.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: HUD has emerged as a prime example of Trump's strategy.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: Its longtime home, the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, is
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: designed in a brutalist style and has been lampooned as
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: one of Washington's biggest eyesores. Employees have said the building
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: is outdated and in need of renovations. HUD officials last
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: year said they would move their headquarters to Alexandria, Virginia,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: drawing complaints and legal action. The Weaver building has yet
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: to sell. U.S. Institute of Peace completed. Trump and his
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: deputies have sought to put his name on government programs
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: and currency and buildings. like the headquarters of this nonprofit
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: group created by Congress. Trump moved quickly in early 2025
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: to dismantle the Peace Institute, with his deputies soon firing
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: nearly all of the organization's Washington-based staff. The headquarters sat
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: largely empty and unused until December, when workers affixed the
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: president's name to signs outside. One day later, the newly
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: rebranded Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace hosted its first event.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: The Peace Institute's lawyers and Democratic lawmakers have said the
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: name change was illegal. The Kennedy Center, in progress. Trump's
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: efforts to put his name on the John F. Kennedy
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Center for the Performing Arts have been less successful. After
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: taking office in 2025, Trump fired holdovers on the board
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: of Washington's flagship arts facility, helped secure new money for
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: its operations, and hosted the center's annual awards show. Trump
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: also made little secret of his desire to have the
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: building named after him and his new allies on the
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: board obliged in a December 2025 vote. MOVE shocked lawmakers
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: and arts advocates, who said it was an affront to
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: the memory of the slain president. A federal judge ruled
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: the MOVE illegal and ordered Trump's name to be removed.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: That helped provoke a standoff where Trump and his allies
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: claimed that if the president's name was not on the building,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: it would need to be closed. With no resolution in sight,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: the center's Trump-led board on September 15th moved to shutter
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: the art center for about two years, saying urgent repairs
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: were necessary to protect public safety. West Potomac Park National
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: Garden of American Heroes Planned Trump has wanted to build
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: a national sculpture garden since his first term, and in
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: early 2025 said it would feature 250 American heroes, including presidents,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: civil rights leaders, scientists, athletes, and entertainers. In May 2026,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: he announced that West Potomac Park would be the site
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: of the project. Some Washington residents have said they are
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: worried about losing access to fields used by local sports
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: leagues and for informal recreation. Local groups have sued Trump
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: to block construction. East Potomac Golf Course in Progress Trump
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: wants to convert East Potomac Golf Links, a public course
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: long used by local golfers, into a championship-level course that
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: would host major tournaments. The administration has released designs for
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: the makeover and begun fundraising for the project. Trump announced
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: in June that work on the course would begin September 1st,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: but that date passed with the course still open and
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: no visible signs of construction, although multiple trees have been removed.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Democrats say that records show the administration is wrongly pushing
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: forward on the project. D.C. Parks in Progress Trump has
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: overseen renovations to dozens of Washington parks, like Logan Circle
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: and Meridian Hill Park, restoring fountains, replanting grass, and making
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: other changes. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and other local leaders
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: have long said the federal government had neglected the parks,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: which are federal land, the president diverted funding from other
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: parks around the nation to address the Washington area parks
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: as part of his local beautification campaign. Unlike some of
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: the president's other priorities, these projects have been largely hailed
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: by Washington residents. The next article from the front page
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: of today's edition is titled, Investigators Announce Break in Mexico's
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: Most Notorious Unsolved Crime. Officials say searches of two funeral
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: parlors have shined new light on the 2014 disappearance of
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: 43 college students in southern Mexico by Terrence McCoy and
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: Diana Batista. For more than a decade, the question has
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: haunted Mexico. What happened to the 43 rural college students
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: who were taken into police custody in September 2014 and
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: then vanished? The mystery, which revealed the complicity of the
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: state in the country's ongoing crisis of forced disappearances, has
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: evaded elucidation ever since, sparking regular protests by the students'
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: loved ones and allegations of a state cover-up. But now,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: 12 years after the disappearance of the teachers' college students
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: in Guerrero State, and following a lengthy re-examination of the
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: evidence ordered by President Claudia Scheinbaum, Mexican federal officials announced
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: this week that they believe they're closer to cracking the case.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: It's been an open wound for all Mexico, Scheinbaum told
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: reporters Tuesday, but sometimes these processes move at their own pace.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: Authorities say new evidence points to the involvement of a
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: family that owned two funeral homes in Iguala Guerrero, where
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: the students were last seen and worked as government contractors
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: at the local medical examiner's office. Phone records showed that
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: members of a local cartel, Guerreros Unidos, placed calls to
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Rodolfo Ruedo Sebastián, the owner of the two funeral parlors,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: on the night of the disappearance, authorities said. Repeated searches
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: of his funeral establishments, El Angel and Economicos Rueda, have
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: revealed what investigators described this week as serious irregularities. We
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: found unregistered skeletal remains. Bodies with duplicate files and remains
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: with dates that reference back to 2014, said Mauricio Pazaron,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: who was directing the federal investigation. In a mattress found
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: at the rear of the medical examiner's office, charged skeletal
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: remains and dental fragments were discovered. The funeral parlor's owner,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: three family members, and several state employees were arrested and
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: jailed late last year in connection with the case and
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: charged with forced disappearance. The accused have not responded publicly
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: to the charges. The Washington Post was unable to identify
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: any lawyers representing them. The funeral parlors didn't return requests
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: for comment. Family members of the accused denied wrongdoing in
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: a statement on social media in June and a public
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: protest in July. A daughter of the funeral parlor owner
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: called on Scheinbaum to present evidence of any crime. Since
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: October 2025, We have lived through hell, daughters of the
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: funeral parlor owners said in their statement. Every day we
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: face uncertainty about why we're in this situation. They are
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: taking innocent people and leaving a family without a father,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: without a mother, and without siblings. The investigation is one
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: of the most visible ways the Scheinbaum administration has tried
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: to address the crisis of Mexico's disappeared. One of Scheinbaum's predecessors,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: Felipe Cateron, with the support of the United States, militarized
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: the fight against the country's drug cartels two decades ago.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: Since then, more than 130,000 people have vanished. In April,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances called the situation a
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: crime against humanity and asked that the UN General Assembly
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: consider preventive measures. More than 4,500 clandestine grave sites have
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: been found across the country, the committee reported, and 72,000
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: human remains are unidentified. Multiple widespread or systematic attacks against
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: the civilian population have taken place at different moments and
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: in different parts of the country, the committee said. The
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: developments announced this week have helped fill gaps in at
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: least one of those cases. This is a line of
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: investigation that continues, Scheinbaum said. These are scientific facts. In
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: September 2014, dozens of students ages 15 to 25 traveled
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: from the Aizotzanapa Rural Normal School to Iguala. They planned
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: to commandeer buses there to take to Mexico City for
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: the annual demonstration commemorating the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre when state
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: security forces shot down unarmed student protesters. Roughly 80 students
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: departed Iguala's bus station. A squad of municipal police officers,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: allegedly in collusion with Guerrero's Unidos, opened fire. Six people
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: were killed and more than a dozen wounded. Some students fled.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: 43 were detained by police and haven't been seen since.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: The motivation for the attack remains unclear. As the disappearances
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: became international news, then-President Enrique Peña Nieto ordered a federal investigation.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: His administration eventually presented what officials called the historical truth.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Iguala Municipal Police had handed the students over to Guerrero Chinitos,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: they said. The cartel killed them. incinerated their bodies, and
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: then dumped the remains into the San Juan River. International
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: investigators disproved key elements of the government's case, deepening suspicion
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: that federal officials had been involved in the disappearance and
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: a subsequent cover-up. In 2022, the administration of Peña Nieto's successor,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, determined that the disappearances constituted
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: a state crime. Authorities over the years have arrested several
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: government officials, soldiers, and police in the case, including former
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Caram in 2022 and former
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: Guerrero State Governor Angel Aguirre, but they have not secured
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: any convictions. Scheinbaum, who succeeded Lopez Obrador in 2024, said
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: government investigators would apply new methods of analysis to the
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: case file in a renewed push to solve the case.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: What happened that night and early morning, she asked in
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: March 2025, who knows who participated. The new analysis has
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: yielded results, authorities said this week, and they're closing in
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: on answers. The case will not be closed until the
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: truth is found, justice is done, and we find where
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: these young people are, Scheinbaum said. The next article from
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: the front page of today's edition is titled, Pilot on
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: Tel Aviv-bound flight tried to crash plane after cockpit stabbing,
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: Netanyahu says. Fly Dubai flight 1073 was carrying about 180
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: passengers to Tel Aviv from Dubai when it made the
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. By Jerry Shi and Lior Sirocco.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: A flight carrying about 180 passengers to Tel Aviv from
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: Dubai made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: and after one of the pilots stabbed another, Israeli Prime
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. The pilot accused of stabbing his
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: partner apparently tried to crash the aircraft with everyone on board,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Netanyahu said in a video address. He said he had
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: spoken with an Israeli passenger who, along with a crew member,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: managed to force their way into the cockpit, and together
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: they subdued the pilot who had carried out the stabbing
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: as he was trying to sabotage the plane's systems. Nearly
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: all of the passengers on board were Israeli, Netanyahu added.
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: All passengers arrived in Tel Aviv on an alternate fly-to-buy
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: flight Wednesday evening. Fly-to-buy flight 1073 began a sharp descent
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: from 34,000 feet roughly two hours and 20 minutes after
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: takeoff and briefly entered a nosedive over the desert near
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: the Saudi Arabia-Jordan border. It lost half its altitude in
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: less than two minutes, publicly available flight data showed. The
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: plane stabilized after 10 minutes of erratic flying, and someone
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: in the cockpit activated the 7700 and 7500 emergency distress codes,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: signaling general emergency and unlawful interference, according to FlightRadar24. com. The plane,
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: a Boeing 737 MAX, eventually landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: The suspect, the co-pilot who attacked the captain on the flight,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: was an Omani national said an Israeli security official, speaking
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive details. Only
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: pilots from countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, Oman
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: does not, are usually allowed to land there. The airline
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: Netanyahu later identified the pilot who was stabbed as Captain
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: Smith Makahar, an Indian national, and credited him with saving
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: 174 lives. The Israeli government put out a video of
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: passenger Yaniv Hayun recounting to Netanyahu his and other passengers'
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: struggle to stop the attack. Despite being stabbed and seriously injured,
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: Netanyahu wrote on X, Mak Kuhar fought back, resisted, opened
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: the attacker, preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster. He is a
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: true hero. Israeli officials are investigating whether it was a
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: terrorist attack, according to a person familiar with the matter
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: not authorized to brief the media. At this early stage,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: and remain subject to a formal investigation, FlyDubai said in
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: a statement. He said the aircraft was successfully secured by
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: on-duty FlyDubai crew traveling on the flight. Videos recorded on
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: the flight circulating online show two people covered in blood
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: and wearing oxygen masks lying on the floor. We're here
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: during a hijacking of the plane, one of the men
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: attending to the injured says to the camera. At this moment,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: we've taken control over the terrorist. All passengers on the
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: plane are alive and well, except for the pilot. Eyal Dots, 44,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: an Israeli filmmaker who was on the flight, said he
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: felt the plane suddenly plummeting and shaking wildly even though
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: there was no turbulence, no announcement, no seatbelt sign. It
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: was clear something was happening. Some guys who had been
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: sitting in the front rows realized what was going on,
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: that the pilot did the stabbing, Dotz told the Washington Post.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: He said the crew opened the cockpit door and three
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: Israeli passengers helped overpower the assailant and handcuffed him. Then
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: another pilot who was in the cabin took control of
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: the plane, Dotz said. Passengers said two off-duty pilots for
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: the airline were aboard. Netanyahu said that additional air crew
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: had managed to stabilize the plane without giving further details.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: The airline has not said who landed the plane. During
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: the cockpit struggle, the plane dived sharply, said Dotz, who
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: spoke from the tarmac in Saudi Arabia. It was a
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: near-death experience. The 7500 distress code which is used to
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: signal a possible hijacking, set off alarms at the highest levels.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: The Israeli Air Force ordered fighter jets toward the passenger plane,
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: and Netanyahu met urgently with his senior security officials. An
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: Israeli military official said its fighter jets had turned back
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: before the plane landed at Tabuk. Tabuk Airport said in
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: a statement that the captain and co-pilot who had sustained
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: injuries were sent to a hospital for medical treatment. The
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: hijacking alarm spiked fears amid the ongoing U.S.-led war against
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: Iran and raised memories of the 1960s and 1970s when
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: flights to and from Israel were frequently seized by Palestinian militants.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: Hijackings have since declined significantly because of improved security measures
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: at airports and on board planes. Details still unclear, but
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: Israelis on board helped subdue the co-pilot who apparently tried
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: to take over the plane. Could have been a horrific incident,
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: but everyone's safe, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee wrote
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: on X. The next article from today's edition is titled,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: Watchdog Finds Fed Mishandled Renovations That Trump Tried to Oust
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: Powell Over. The Fed's watchdog found cost overruns, but no
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: evidence of criminal violations after the Justice Department dropped an
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: investigation into the renovations earlier this year by Stephen Thompson.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: Due to time constraints, We'll need to end this article
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: at this time. This concludes the reading of the Washington
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: Post for today, Thursday, October 1st, 2026. Your reader for
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: today has been Roger Hampirian. If you have any questions, comments,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: or suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: us at 859-422-6390. Thank you for listening, and now please
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: stay tuned for continued programming on Radio Eye.