Latest / The Rest of the World Podcast / The Rest of the World Report | October 8, 2026 — Evening Edition

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The Rest of the World Report | October 8, 2026 — Evening Edition · The Rest of the World Podcast

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Good evening from Paris.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez with The Rest of the World Report for... What are we on?
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thursday, October 8th.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Man, this year has been flying by.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Tens of thousands of people filled Place de la Bastille in Paris on Thursday.
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  SPEAKER_00: I was one of them.
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  SPEAKER_00: They demanded better schools and an end to police violence.
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  SPEAKER_00: A wire service journalist at the square counted several tens of thousands.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: The Interior Ministry counted 71,500 demonstrators nationwide.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: More than 500 people were detained.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Quick editor's note from yours truly.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I arrived at Place de la République and marched from there with all of the kids
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: to Place de la Bastille.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a one-mile march.
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  SPEAKER_00: By the time I arrived,
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  SPEAKER_00: As far as I could see all the way down the one mile stretch,
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  SPEAKER_00: because it's a straight shot,
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  SPEAKER_00: there were kids, thousands and thousands and thousands of kids.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: By the time I arrived at Place de la Bastille with the kids that I had arrived with,
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  SPEAKER_00: I could look back and see as far back as I could see thousands and thousands
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: and thousands of kids.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So when I say that there were 10,000 kids marching with me, um,
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I just mean like in my general little circle of people,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's what it felt like we had 10,000 people.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Also, there were a lot of teachers and union members that were walking alongside,
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  SPEAKER_00: and they were really very deliberately walking outside.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: They were almost, they were just being very protective of the kids.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought that was really touching and very, very cool.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: At one point,
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  SPEAKER_00: the crowd sang La Marseillaise,
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: the national anthem, and I got a little emotional, not going to lie.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I did talk to a lot of the kids, and the demands are consistent, man.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: They want more resources, safer buildings, and more teachers.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: So...
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And the last thing that I will say that I saw,
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: which was kind of cool,
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  SPEAKER_00: if you've been paying attention to this story at all on the news,
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: you will have seen Mayor Balibagioco.
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  SPEAKER_00: He is the mayor from Saint-Denis, which is a Paris suburb.
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  SPEAKER_00: And he was at the front lines protecting these kids.
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  SPEAKER_00: He took gas from the police and he just was putting himself in between the kids and
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  SPEAKER_00: the cops to protect the children.
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  SPEAKER_00: And what was really cool Is that I got a picture of him and I'll post it in the story.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as this photo that I took was over, I wanted to approach him.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't.
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  SPEAKER_00: I mean, these French kids just swarmed him.
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  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I mean, they treated him like a hero.
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  SPEAKER_00: And frankly, I think he deserved it.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, back to the story as written.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Baguioca, like I said, is the mayor of Saint-Denis.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was tear-gassed on Tuesday, and videos show him standing between students and riot police.
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  SPEAKER_00: He told RTL that France risked a serious human tragedy if tensions keep rising.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: He called for de-escalation and negotiation.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Paris Police Prefecture described the afternoon.
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  SPEAKER_00: At about 4.20 p.m.,
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  SPEAKER_00: it said paving stones and fire mortars were thrown at police on Rue de la Bastille.
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  SPEAKER_00: No one was hurt.
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  SPEAKER_00: And a half an hour later,
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  SPEAKER_00: about 20 people it called Black Block threw street furniture,
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  SPEAKER_00: which, just so you understand, is...
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  SPEAKER_00: Recycling bins and trash bins.
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  SPEAKER_00: Plastic, both.
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  SPEAKER_00: Police answered with water cannons and tear gas, and the square was cleared by early evening.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: The movement has already moved the government.
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  SPEAKER_00: Education Minister Edouard Geoffrey has said 3,000 replacement teachers are not
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  SPEAKER_00: currently in front of students,
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  SPEAKER_00: but they are going to be deployed in the coming hours and days.
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  SPEAKER_00: He said 114 high schools are also rated red,
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  SPEAKER_00: which is not good, and 400 are rated orange, which is slightly above not good.
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  SPEAKER_00: He promised an emergency plan within hours or days.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's one of several moves this week.
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  SPEAKER_00: On Wednesday,
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  SPEAKER_00: Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu set out five work streams,
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  SPEAKER_00: including teacher absences and building conditions.
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  SPEAKER_00: He said the government student platform has collected more
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  SPEAKER_00: than 40,000 contributions,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I believe today some of his office met with some of these students.
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  SPEAKER_00: Interior Minister Laurent Nunez suspended the use of stun grenades in policing protests.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Education Ministry's morning projection counted 375
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  SPEAKER_00: of France's 3,700 schools suspended in whole or in part.
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  SPEAKER_00: It said 224 were fully closed.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is 30% fewer than at the same hour on Wednesday.
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  SPEAKER_00: Riyadh Rani,
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  SPEAKER_00: president of the National Union of High School Students,
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  SPEAKER_00: said 2,000 high schools were shut.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Unions and students called a new strike in March for Tuesday, October 13th.
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  SPEAKER_00: The FSU, the leading education federation, asked all education and university staff to strike.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sabrine Karbach,
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  SPEAKER_00: a spokesperson for the Union Etudiant,
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  SPEAKER_00: said mobilization will continue until 10 billion euros are on the table.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: French students and teachers marched in Paris today.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Interior Ministry counted 71,500 demonstrators nationwide.
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  SPEAKER_00: The government promised 3,000 replacement teachers.
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  SPEAKER_00: And a new strike in March is set for October 13th.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: The Russian glide bomb killed at least 33 people in Kramatorsk on Thursday morning,
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  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine State Emergency Services said.
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  SPEAKER_00: The bomb hit two minibuses.
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  SPEAKER_00: Fire broke out in both.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Donetsk Governor, Vadim Filashkin, said 18 more people were injured.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: He said Russians are targeting civilians.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: President Vladimir Zelensky said the toll could rise and that
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: the strikes will not go without a response.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 142 Shahed-type drones overnight into Thursday.
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  SPEAKER_00: 82 were jet-powered.
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  SPEAKER_00: Air defenses downed or suppressed 126.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Kiev was also hit.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Mayor Vitaly Klitschko reported three killed and at least 13 injured in the morning attacks.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Kyiv City Military Administration reported four killed and 21 injured
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: across four districts overnight.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ditek, Ukraine's largest private energy company,
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  SPEAKER_00: announced emergency power shutdowns in Brovery,
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  SPEAKER_00: Bukhansky, Vysgorod, and Borysville districts.
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  SPEAKER_00: The administration warned of water interruptions on the right bank of the city.
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  SPEAKER_00: The attack followed Wednesday's mass strike on Russian President Vladimir Putin's 74th birthday.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: At least 30 people were killed and 117 injured across Ukraine.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Russia launched 48 cruise missiles and 130 drones.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: The Air Force said 39 missiles and 117 drones were shot down or suppressed.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Strikes hit 18 locations.
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  SPEAKER_00: Priluki in Chernihiv region took the heaviest toll.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: The cruise missile hit a residential building and killed at least 22 people,
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  SPEAKER_00: five of them children.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: At least 54 were injured, including seven children.
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  SPEAKER_00: Four of the dead children were named Oleksandr Kirillow, Serhi, and Maxim, who was eight.
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  SPEAKER_00: Kremenchuk had two killed and 47 injured.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Alexandria had two killed, three injured, and one man missing.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Kiev had at least four killed and 13 injured.
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  SPEAKER_00: Diplomacy has not moved.
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  SPEAKER_00: Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Katha Marini,
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: a Greek newspaper, on Thursday that no negotiated settlement is in a prospect.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters there are currently no
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: plans to hold talks in this format.
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  SPEAKER_00: U.S. envoys traveled to Kiev and Moscow in early September.
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  SPEAKER_00: That produced an agreement in principle on a trilateral meeting of Ukraine,
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  SPEAKER_00: Russia, and the U.S. A month later, that meeting remains uncertain.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Senators Gene Shaheen and Roger Wicker wrote to the administration.
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  SPEAKER_00: They urged it to enforce Lindsey O. Graham's Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was signed September 18th.
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  SPEAKER_00: Most provisions take effect October the 18th.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: The EU and UK have designated more than 600 shadow fleet vessels.
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  SPEAKER_00: The U.S. is designated 216.
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  SPEAKER_00: Three people were killed and 36 injured in attacks on two Saudi airports,
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  SPEAKER_00: Saudi civilian aviation authorities said.
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  SPEAKER_00: Two women, a Moroccan and an Algerian, were killed at Abha Airport.
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  SPEAKER_00: 28 people were injured there.
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  SPEAKER_00: A Sudanese man was killed at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh,
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  SPEAKER_00: and eight people were injured there.
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  SPEAKER_00: On Thursday,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted two ballistic missiles targeting Riyadh.
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  SPEAKER_00: A third missile was aimed at Qamis Mushayat.
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  SPEAKER_00: Saudi civil defense said debris from a Houthi missile intercepted
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  SPEAKER_00: over Riyadh damaged a kindergarten and a medical clinic complex.
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  SPEAKER_00: It did not say whether anyone was hurt.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Pakistan's Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry confirmed Pakistani forces are
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  SPEAKER_00: in Saudi Arabia.
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  SPEAKER_00: He said they are there in multiple capabilities and domains.
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  SPEAKER_00: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement on August 7.
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  SPEAKER_00: Turkey's Foreign Minister Haqqan Fadan said Turkey is assessing its help under
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  SPEAKER_00: the pact, particularly on air defense.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: He said work on sending the PACs text to the Turkish parliament for ratification is finalized.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know is that three people died in attacks on two Saudi airports.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Pakistan has confirmed forces in the kingdom,
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: and Turkey says it is assessing its help under a three-nation defense pact signed
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: in August.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: British Foreign Minister Ed Milibin said Britain's consulate
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: in Jerusalem will stay open as a UK mission.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Israel's foreign ministry said the British consul general and 20 diplomats will leave Israel.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Operations in Jerusalem are will be limited to seven staff members.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Sources said the order affects around 30 British diplomats and their family members.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Britain will take no reciprocal action while the two sides engage in talks.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Foreign Office reaffirmed its position that East Jerusalem is occupied territory.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: The mission will remain independent, operational, and serving the Palestinian people.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: British presence in the city dates back almost 200 years before Israel was established in 1948.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know Britain is keeping its Jerusalem consulate open
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: as a UK mission.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Israel says the consul general and 20 diplomats must leave.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Britain says it will not retaliate.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Human Rights Watch reported Thursday that the US has sent more than 500 people
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: to African countries where they have no connections.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: The group interviewed 24 third-country nationals.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: They were sent to Cameroon,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Central African Republic,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial New Guinea, Eswatini, and South Sudan.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Interviews ran from February to July,
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  SPEAKER_00: and people described flights on which they were shackled sometimes for 18 hours
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: or more.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: They had no meaningful chance to contest their removals.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: At least a dozen of those sent identified as lesbian, gay,
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: bisexual,
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  SPEAKER_00: or transgender,
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: and they were sent to states that criminalize same-sex relations
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: or public same-sex romantic conduct.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: An Ethiopian man deported to Cameroon described the flight.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: We were chained and handcuffed, legs, hands, stomach, he said.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: An unnamed U.S. official,
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Michael Garcia Vachenik,
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  SPEAKER_00: Human Rights Watch's interim U.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: program director, said the policy is designed to cause human suffering.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: He urged African governments to terminate or suspend the agreements.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Burundi became the 15th African country to conclude such a deal.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Forbidden Stories,
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  SPEAKER_00: a journalism consortium,
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  SPEAKER_00: estimates 25,000 people have been expelled worldwide under the program.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Supreme Court will hear arguments in December on whether the policy violates due process.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: For now, it has allowed the removals to continue.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Human Rights Watch says the U.S.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: has sent more than 500 people to African countries that are not their own.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Many were shackled, sometimes for 18 hours or more.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Supreme Court hears arguments in December.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: An Israeli major general says someone tried to alter records
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's calls.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: They were from the morning of October 7, 2023.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Major General Avi Gill made the claim to Israel Heon.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: He said the attempt was allegedly made by Netanyahu's chief of staff.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: He said he reported it to the attorney general,
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: and Gill suggested the aim may have been to move blame for the morning's failures
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: onto advisors.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Gill confirmed that a senior Egyptian intelligence official visited Israel shortly
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: before the attack.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Asked about a warning, he said he did not know what message was relayed.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever met with someone or received something is still concealing it today, he said.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Likud told Israel Ham that Gil's comments are part of an attempt to oust Netanyahu from power.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Excerpts ran Thursday, and the full interview is expected over the weekend.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Netanyahu is seeking re-election on October 27th.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: An Israeli major general says someone tried to alter records of Netanyahu's October 7th calls.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Likud calls the claim an attempt to oust him.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Israel votes October 27th.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, Donald Trump says the U.S. will not attack Iran before the midterms.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: He wrote Thursday that the U.S. will not attack Iran before November 3rd midterm elections.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: He said his team is having productive discussions with Iran.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Iran's foreign minister,
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Abbas Aragji,
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: said Thursday that Iran is reviewing Washington's response to its proposal
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: and could reply within days, according to Tasnim.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: U.S. officials said Wednesday that the Pentagon instructed the U.S.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Central Command several days ago to conclude preparations.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: The directive did not include a date for strikes.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's it for tonight's edition of The Rest of the World Report.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you guys are around, I'll be doing a live stream at 6 Eastern time tonight.
• 13:16
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