Transcript

10.14.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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October fourteenth, twenty twenty five. As a reminder, RADIOI is
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a reading service intended for people who are blind or
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have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Your reader for to day is Cindy Fraser. To day's
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front page headlines from the Washington Post are a transformational
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but tenuous piece. Hamas returns all twenty living hostages to Israel. Trump.
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This long and difficult war has now ended almost two
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thousand Palestinians. Also released in deal. Our next headline, retirement
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wave taxes federal agencies. Government feels the strain as understaffing
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exacerbates shut down. Our next headline after a grueling two years,
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families reunite and jubilation resounds. Next, fors of two key
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sectors are diverging. AI is ascended to the US, but
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manufacturing only continues to slide. And the final headline from
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to Day's from page, death of Maryland Boy illustrates a
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danger for children with autism. Now, let's turn to our
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first item, entitled a transformational but tenuous piece. Hamas returns
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all twenty living hostages to Israel. Trump. This long and
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difficult war has now ended. Almost two thousand Palestinians also
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released in deal by Isaac Earnsdorf, Michael Birnbaum, and Claire Parker.
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President Donald Trump on Monday marked the end of Israel's
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devastating two year war in Gaza and the release of
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the remaining Israeli hostages with a call for lasting peace
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that would reshape the entire Middle East and could become
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a defining feature of his place in history. But the
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tenuousness of the Seaspire and the intractability of the underlying
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disputes were embedded in his two separate stops. First, in Jerusalem,
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he welcomed the hostages home, met with their families, and
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received acclaim and ovations from Israeli leaders, whom he urged
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to declare victory and stop fighting. Next, he headed to
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the Egyptian resort town of Shahmelshikh to visit Arab and
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other world leaders who supported the Sea Spire and Trump's
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twenty step plan for a permanent settlement. Though billed as
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a PEA summit, the Egypt meeting notably lacked either side
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of the fighting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined Trump's
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last minute invitation, saying that travel would conflict with the
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Jewish holiday. After at least one Arab leader objected, Hamas
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was never included, but the organization has refused to disarm,
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as Trump's plan would require. Trump portrayed Monday steps as
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a prelude to a broader reshaping of the region, hoping
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to build on his first terms Abraham accords that normalized
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Israel's relations with United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sedan.
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His overture extended even to Aaran whose nuclear sights the
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US bombed in June. This long and difficult war has
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now ended. You know, some people say three thousand years,
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some people say five hundred years. Whatever it is, it's
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a granddaddy of them all, he said in a speech
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to Israel's parliament. This is the historic dawn of a
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new Middle East. The immediate effect Monday was to return
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all twenty living hostages to Israel, release about one thousand,
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seven hundred Palestinian detainees and two hundred fifty serving life
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sentences in Israeli prisons, and facilitate the resumption of humanitariany
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to Gaza, where residents desperately need food, medicine, and shelter.
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Hamas said Monday it would release the bodies of four
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of the twenty eight dead hostages it held, after warning
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that it would not be able to recover all the
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remains in time for the seventy two hour deadline stipulated
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by the deal. The agreement also builds in extra time
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for a group of regional countries, including Turkey, to help
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locate the remains. Israel's defense ministers said Monday that Hamas
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was failing to meet its commitments under the ceasefire deal.
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The fighting began when Hamas militants killed about one thousand,
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two hundred people in southern Israel and abducted two hundred
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fifty one hostages on October seventh, twenty twenty three. A
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total of four hundred sixty eight Israeli military members have
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died in combat since, according to the Israel Defense Forces,
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at least sixty seven thousand, eight hundred Palestinians, a majority
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of whom were women in ship children, were killed in
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Israeli attacks during the war. According to the Gaza Health Ministry,
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most Israeli hostages were freed during two brief earlier cease fires.
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You succeeded in doing something miraculous. Netnaho said to Trump
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at the Knesset, You succeeded in doing something that no
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one believed was possible. You brought most of the air world. Indeed,
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you brought most of the world behind your proposal to
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free the hostages and end the war. Trump seized a
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moment of regional fury last month to force the issue
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after Israeli jets unilaterally struck a Chamas apartment building in Doha,
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the capital of Qatar. A close US ally angered by
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the move, Trump pressured Netnyahu to accept more comprehensive terms.
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According to a senior White House official who spoke on
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the condition of anonymity to discuss closed door diplomatic negotiations,
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Whachum never specially threatened to cut off military aid for Israel.
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In return, the official said, he didn't need to. Without
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the United States, Israel will not exist, and you don't
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have to say that, the senior White House official said
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last week. In the ensuing weeks, Special Envoy Steve Wickcock
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and Trump's son in law Jared Kushner accelerated an improvisational
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push toward a ceasefire. The efforts started in a White
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House session with top Israeli officials in late August, evolved
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through marathon sessions in New York hotel suites on the
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sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last month, and
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culminated in the chamber of the Israeli Cabinet last week.
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According to senior US officials involved in the negotiations, Trump
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and Wikoff unveiled his plan to Arab leaders in New York,
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then pushed net Yahoo to accept it. Eventually he did,
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with caveats. Ramas too, eventually declared that it was ready
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for peace, though oh it left some of the most
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crucial issues, such as its willingness to disarm, unresolved. Ultimately,
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Whitkoff decided to break negotiations into two pieces last week
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in Sharmashkh. The easier deal to reach was the ceasefire
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and hostage and prisoner exchange. The official said. The sides
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are still negotiating who will run and rebuild Gaza with
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the fighting over, and a resolution is far from certain.
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A key question on Hamas is whether it will actually disarm,
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said Brian Catulus, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.
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They're going to resist that because guess what resistance is
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its middle name, literally referring to its full Arab name,
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the Islamic Resistance movement. The bigger issue and the big
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gap that I don't think Trump or his team have
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really prepared the ground for is the gap that exists
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between his administration and Israel on the one hand, versus
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the rest of the Arab world on the longer term questions,
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especially a pathway to a two state solution, Kutulus added. Already,
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the President has wavered on the composition of the group
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tasked with establishing governance in Gaza, back peddling in an
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interview with reporters on his way to Israel on her
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previously announced plan to include former British Prime Minister Tony
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Blair in an oversight role. Throughout the effort, Trump played
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the role of remote closer, phoning into sessions, issuing real
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time instructions, and vowing to enforce good conduct on both sides.
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According to one of the officials, he has offered up
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a top US military commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, to oversee
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a contingent of two hundred U S troops, along with
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deployments from Arab and Muslim majority nations to supervise the peace.
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The White House had said US troops will not enter Gaza.
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Trump on Monday appeared to reference the difficulty of negotiations
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at the Knesset, saying of net Yahoo, He's not the
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easiest guy to deal with, but that's what makes him great.
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His speech also included improvisations and aggressions typical of his rallies,
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such as telling the story of Joint Chief's Chairman Dan
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Kane's nickname Raisin Anne swipes at his Democratic predecessors. He
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also urged his ready President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netan Yahoo,
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who is on trial for corruption charges. The American President's
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congratulations on Israel's victory also contained an undertone of warning,
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neat nyahou not to resume fighting. I said, Bibi, You're
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going to be remembered for this far more than if
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you keep this going, going, going kill kill kill. During
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the negotiations, Hamas pushed for written guaranteed that Israel would
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not resume attacking Gaza after the hostages were released, but
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the American negotiating team rejected it twice. According to Khaled Ukasa,
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an Egyptian consult Calton, who advised the Egyptian and Palestinian
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delegations during the talks. Instead, they offered verbal assurances to Egypt, Katar,
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and Turkey. The push for a public ceremony in Egypt
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was partly an effort to get Trump on the record
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in front of world leaders that the war was over.
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Akasha said, if he comes to Egypt, he'll be tied
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to the agreement. He said. The Israeli strike on Doha
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rattled Arab leaders trust in the US, and the test
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for restoring it will be Trump's follow through on his
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peace plan. He cannot backtrack and waste all his efforts,
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set a former Egyptian official familiar with negotiations who spoke
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on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
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He has to continue or else he will lose his legacy.
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The enduring tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors interrupted
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Monday's pageantry. At the suggestion that Netanyahu might accompany Trump
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to Egypt, Trump broke it o call with Egyptian President
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Abdel fata Elsisi and invited nat Yahu to sharmel Sheikh,
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a White House official said, and CECI announced that the
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Israeli Prime Minister would be attending, a significant development because
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net Nyahu is rarely in the same room with Palestinian
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Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. But net Nahu's office quickly declined,
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and the Iraqi Prime Minister said he had threatened to
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quit the summit. If net Nyahu came, there would be
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no iconic photograph of two side chicking hands like the
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nineteen ninety three one of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin
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and Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat with U S
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President Bill Clinton at the White House in Sharmel. Sheikh
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Sisi awarded Trump an Egyptian honorary title to match Israeli
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award the net Nahu announced earlier. During Trump's remarks, he
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called up Pakistani Prime Minister Sheba Sharif, who said Trump
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deserved then next Nobel Peace Prize. Trump openly sought and
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did not receive this year's accolade, which he teased the
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Norwegian premier about at the summit. Norway, what happened, he said.
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With Hamas's and Israel's positions still so far apart, the
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truce remains fragile. In the meantime, Trump has pushed past
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the heavy caveats to embrace the Yeses generations. From now
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this will be remembered as a moment that everything began
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to change, and change very much for the better, he
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said in Jerusalem, like the USA, right now it will
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be the golden age of Israel and the golden age
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of the Middle East. Our next item from today's front
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page is entitled Retirement wave taxes federal agencies. Government feels
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the strain as understaffing exacerbates shut down. By Merril Cornfield
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and Hannah Nannensen, a historic wave of retirements and other
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departures has swept through the federal workforce in recent months,
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putting enormous strain on agencies as a cope with a
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new government shut down and administration layoffs. This mass exodus,
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unprecedented in its scale, includes one hundred fifty four thousand
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federal employees who accepted buyout offers and were largely removed
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from the pay roll as of the end of last month.
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Some of those are among the nearly one hundred five
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thousand employees who took regular retirement during the fiscal year
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that ended in September, and eighteen percent surge from the
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previous year tens of thousands of the cases are still
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awadding processing, creating a crisis for already understaffed human resources
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offices across the government, and the Office of Personnel Management,
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with a significantly reduced workforce of its own. O p M,
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has a growing backlog and worsening way times, raising alarms
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about the government's ability to smoothly handle this unprecedented personnel shift.
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According to documents and interviews with HR representatives and departed
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federal workers, complicating the efforts, the government shut down that
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began on October first has furloughed some workers who handled
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paperwork and payroll, meaning the departing employees who would be
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receiving their documentation and final annuity payments around this time
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are experiencing further delays, according to documents and workers. OPM
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director Scott Cooper said in an interview with The Washington
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Post that he remains optimistic about his agency's ability to
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get through the backlog. He said that OPM is in
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touch with other agencies about how to streamline the process,
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and that HR workers and other agencies will be detailed
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to his office to help with a workload. I'm excited
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about the work we're doing but the reality is, as
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you know, is there is a big volume that's coming
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in a short period of time, and so we're going
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to have to do everything we can to make sure
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that continue to invest in those efforts that are going
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to significantly improve the efficiency of the process, Cooper said.
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The agency said it is processing more than thirty five
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thousand retirements. In the last fiscal year, OPM process one
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hundred four thousand, eight hundred immediate retirement cases, compared with
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eighty eight thousand, six hundred eight the year prior. In
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the spring, OPM's retirement processing times initially stayed under fifty
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days after Elon Musk's US Doage Service offered all federal
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employees the option to take a buyout in February, but
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the waytime in recent months has surged to seventy six
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days as of September. Cooper said he doesn't anticipate the
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government shut down further delaying processing times because OPM's Retirement
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Services division is considered essential staff. However, some agencies HR
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offices have warned that it could slow down final payments.
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One federal worker who took a buy out to leave
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the US International Development Finance Corporation was told before the
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shutdown that they should not expect annuity payments as long
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as the shutdown continued. While the backlog at o PM
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means delays in educating, finalizing the annuity and reduce payments
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in the interim, the shutdown will mean for the delays,
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an email from the agency's HR office said. Emails obtained
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by the Post show that agencies in house HR offices
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are themselves struggling to handle personnel issues. One letter sent
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to a retiring National Institutes of Health employee in July
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noted that a high volume of retirement cases, among other issues,
16:43
meant that processing would be delayed. To stay focused, our
16:47
office temporarily paused outgoing communications, the letter stated, and within
16:53
the General Services Administration, workers who were supposed to be
16:57
fired in March were left lingering on paid administrative leave
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for half a year because HR was too overwhelmed to
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process their layoffs, according to an employee there, who, like
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some others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss
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matters they were not authorized to speak about publicly. OPM
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has also moved toward fully digitizing the retirement process for
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government workers, which has long been done through extensive paperwork.
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After Musk's Doge highlighted a Pennsylvania mine where the government
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has stored its retirement records since nineteen sixty, OPM appointees
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have made it a priority to end the practice of
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keeping paper records of retirements. The agency rolled out a
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new system called the Online Retirement Application, though it did
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so as thousands of federal workers were already in the
17:49
process of retiring. Several workers described how they had to
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start over after already filling out paperwork. Rob Schreiber, a
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former OPM director in the Biden administration, said the agency
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was developing the online system when he was there and
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had not yet automated where documentation is stored. He said
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the agency required more staffing to build that infrastructure and
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handle more retirement claims, and he expressed concern that the
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staffing cuts have complicated those efforts. Shreiver, who leads Democracy
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Forwards Civil Service Strong, which hosts town halls and webinars
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for federal workers, said he often hears complaints about the
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customer service experience and wait times. We heard real concerns
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from folks about when they would be getting their annuity,
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when they would get a correct annuity calculation, they weren't
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hearing anything. Shrever said they were trying to get answers
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from oh p M and they just weren't able to
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get through. Cooper said that distributing payments has been a
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priority for the agency, and more departing workers are getting
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part of their payments earlier. About seventy five percent of
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workers are now getting automatic interim pay while they wait
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for the claim to be processed, up from fifty percent.
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Cooper said the government is spending about sixteen percent more
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on federal employee retirements so far this year compared with
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last year, according to the pen Wharton Budget Model using
19:20
daily Treasury Department statements. OPM itself is also shedding workers.
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Cooper said the agency is down about one third from
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its more than three thousand employees on January twenty, mostly
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through deferred resignations, early retirements, or other buyouts. Departures of
19:39
left remaining o PM staff bent beneath a staggering onslaught
19:44
of work necessitated by the Trump administration's rapid slashing away
19:48
a government, said two employees familiar with the internal struggles.
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One of the OPM employees described a chaotic, ongoing mess,
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no strategic direction no strategic plan, statutorily required duties gone
20:04
by the wayside, no back ups for things people did
20:07
when they left, budget questions that can be answered, big
20:11
holes and institutional knowledge, no ability to backfill priority positions,
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the employee said. Cooper said that he thinks his staff
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is working more efficiently now at lower numbers of headcount.
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The second employee said Opium's Retirement services on is answering
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fewer than fifteen percent of calls from federal retirees and
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their families. They are already telling people processing will be delayed,
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the employee said. Opium said the ARM remains at the
20:42
same staffing level. The agency has said it is increasingly
20:46
using automated self service phone options to handle routine questions.
20:51
Two former federal workers who left government service this year
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said they have found it difficult to reach o PM.
20:58
One of them, Jessica Bradley Rushing, left a job at
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the State Department this year twice. In March, she chose
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to take the Trump administration's deferred resignation offer, which meant
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she would be paid through September thirtieth, her exit date.
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Then in July, she was suddenly fired and told her
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last day was September ninth, she said. Over the summer,
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Bradley Rushing tried repeatedly to reach O p M, among
21:26
several other HR agents and offices she thought could help
21:29
to figure out what was happening. It took two months
21:33
and at least half a dozen emails before she heard
21:36
back the firing was a mistake and she would be
21:39
paid to the end of September after all. They finally
21:44
confirmed it the day before the riff separation date. She said,
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I'm just so disappointed and disgusted with how it all went.
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A former FDA scientist who also resigned this year, faced
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similar challenges reaching a human being at O p M,
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he said. The scientist, who spoke on the condition of
22:03
anonymity for fear of retribution, retired after his agency refused
22:08
to let him work remotely despite a doctor's letter saying
22:11
in person attendance posed a health risk. He had a
22:15
lot of questions about why his pension payments were slow
22:17
in coming and how much they would total. He began
22:21
calling O p M to get answers, he said, but
22:24
no one picked up, he said. Instead, he was greeted
22:27
with a tinty recording telling him the agency was busy
22:31
and that he should try again later. Sometimes he accepted
22:35
a callback option, then waited hours. He said, after more
22:39
than five attempts, he finally secured someone for a conversation,
22:44
only to find it unhelpful. The first rep I talked
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with couldn't answer any questions. He said, I called on
22:51
another day and finally got someone who knew what they
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were doing and answered my questions. The two employees said
22:58
they cannot imagine how their agency is going to fare
23:02
with the current wave of cases. It will be a
23:05
huge burden. One said. Our next item is entitled After
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a grueling two years, Families Reunite and Jubilation resounds by
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Leo Soroka Haidi Leviv and Louisa Lovelock from Tel Aviv.
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The twenty surviving Israeli hostages held by Hamas and Gaza
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regained their freedom Monday, more than two years after they
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were kidnapped, amid emotional scenes and jubilation from crowds gathered
23:36
to welcome them home. The first captives were handed over
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at about eight thirty a m. Local time to the
23:43
International Committee of the Red Cross, which facilitated their transfer
23:47
to Israel, where their families awaited them. And thousands supporters
23:51
cheered their passage. The men had been among two hundred
23:55
fifty people seized by Hamas militants from southern Israel on
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Ourctober seventh, twenty twenty three, during an attack that killed
24:04
some one thousand, two hundred people. Israel's retaliatory response in
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Gaza has killed more than sixty seven thousand people over
24:13
two years of war, according to local health authorities, who
24:16
don't distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say the majority
24:21
are women and children. Video footage shared by families of
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the hostages on Monday showed that some of them had
24:28
been given phones shortly before their release, allowing them to
24:31
make direct contact with their loved ones for the first
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time in more than two years. Hours later, photographs distributed
24:39
by the Israeli military showed the men, many pale and gaunt,
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being received by the army at the Ritian military base
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and then brought to hospitals and into the embrace of
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their loved ones. Relatives of the former hostages interviewed Sunday
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had described the moment as surreal, overwhelming and aren't to grasp.
25:01
The father of forty eight year old hostage Armi Miran
25:05
Donnie said Sunday that he felt as though he were
25:09
in the clouds. Maran, a Hungarian Israeli gardener and massage therapist,
25:15
hid in a safe room with his wife and two
25:17
young daughters as a militant attack on their home in
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Kabbutz nahal Oz unfolded. He was taken hostage after opening
25:25
the door to a young neighbor who had told them
25:28
please open the door, otherwise they'll shoot me and they'll
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shoot you. Danny said the family was waiting to tell
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Maren's children, Ranie four and Almah two, of his release
25:40
until he crossed into Israel. If something happens, why give
25:44
them false hope. They'd been waiting for their father for
25:48
more than two years. He didn't need any special preparations
25:52
for his son's return, he said, perhaps a shower. He
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didn't even know what he would say to him, but
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he knew that he was ready. I'll hug him, he
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said with a smile, and as photographs released Monday show
26:06
wrapped in an Israeli flag, he finally did. Hours later.
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Mirin was seen playing with Ranie and Almah, a wide
26:15
smile on his face as he used colorful foam blocks
26:18
to play catch with them. The moment had been awaited
26:22
eagerly across Israel. In central Jerusalem, the streets were unusually
26:27
quiet Monday morning, as the few people sitting at cafes
26:30
or bus stops stayed glued to live cupboards on their cellphones.
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In Tel Aviv, thousands of Israelis had waded through the
26:38
night in Hostages Square, a public plaza that had become
26:42
the symbolic home of a campaign to bring the captives home,
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some curled up and trying to sleep in plastic chairs,
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others saying they were so apprehensive or excited that they
26:53
found rest impossible. The captives were returned to Israel under
26:58
a US broker's seized deal. In return for the hostages,
27:03
Israel agreed to free at least two hundred fifty Palestinians
27:06
serving long terms in Israeli prisons and about one thousand,
27:11
seven hundred Gazans held without charge since twenty twenty three.
27:16
The bodies of twenty eight other Israeli hostages were also
27:19
due to be recovered and released under the terms of
27:22
the deal, Although Hamas said it would return only four
27:26
on Monday, the group had warned during negotiations that it
27:31
would be unable to find all the bodies by the
27:33
seventy two hour deadline because of the destruction in Gaza.
27:38
An international task force has been charged with helping to
27:41
recover the unreturned bodies. Brigadier General reserve Gal Hirsch, Israel's
27:47
coordinator for Hostages and Missing Persons Affairs, said Sunday. Israeli
27:52
Defense Minister Israel Kts warned in a statement on acts
27:56
that any delay or deliberate avoidance will be considered a
28:00
gross violation of the agreement and will be responded to accordingly.
28:05
In a post on social media, Yael Ladar, the mother
28:08
of Timi Adar, one of the slain hostages whose body
28:12
was not slated to be returned in the coming hours,
28:15
urged her countrymen not to forget her son. We need
28:20
you more than ever. The struggle is not over until
28:23
the last captive returns, she wrote. In Israel, the hostages
28:28
families have emerged as a political force, with many channeling
28:32
their agony into calls for Prime Minister of Benjamin Netanyahu's
28:36
government to bring their loved ones home and end the war.
28:40
The hostage crisis has cast a long shadow across Israeli society,
28:45
with hundreds of thousands joining demonstrations calling for a deal
28:49
to secure the captive's release. In Hostages Square, Gideon shimshone
28:54
sixty one said Monday that he had donated blood in
28:58
case one of the returneys during their medical care. If
29:02
you told me a week or ten days ago, I
29:05
never would have believed this could happen, he said, of
29:08
the releases, I wouldn't have been able to sleep at home,
29:12
so my son told me to stay here. Standing in
29:15
the crowd Monday was another of Hamas's former captives, among
29:19
myyar Jan twenty three. In his mind, he said, the
29:24
scenes transported him back to the moment when he was
29:27
seated in an Israeli military helicopter last year, following a
29:31
deadly raid that secured his freedom. You land at the hospital,
29:36
you hug your family and are surrounded by love and emotion,
29:39
he said. After two years, we're finally bringing this to
29:43
an end. We have been waiting for this for so long.
29:49
Staff at the hospitals receiving the hostages say that medical
29:54
personnel have learned from two earlier rounds of releases how
29:58
best to care for and examine them returnees, some of
30:01
whom are feared to be suffering from malnutrition and other illnesses,
30:06
Athabian Medical Center and Petatikva, where five of the former
30:11
captives were being treated. Lena Kornfeldman, the facility's director, said
30:16
that each man would have his own dedicated team, including
30:20
a physician, mental health professionals, a physiotherapist, and a dietitian.
30:26
She said evaluations were under way to assess the state
30:29
of each patient. In a statement, the hostages and missing
30:33
families form an umbrella group representing the families of hostages
30:37
kidnapped by Hamas said that after two years under inhumane
30:42
conditions of starvation, deprivation of medical care, isolation, violence and abuse,
30:48
they now need medical care, close supervision and peace, and
30:52
above all, the restoration of their identity as people, not
30:56
as hostages. We now hope that with the return of
31:00
all the hostages, we can begin a process of full
31:04
rehabilitation for the survivors of captivity, for the families, and
31:08
for society as a whole. Crowds of friends and well
31:12
wishers gathered Monday outside one of the hospitals receiving the
31:16
freed hostages. Outside the Tel Avivsarovsky Medical Center. One group
31:21
was there to welcome Matan Ungrest, a twenty two year
31:24
old tank commander who was kidnapped from his base in
31:27
a hall Oz. Their t shirts read Matan, Hero of Israel,
31:32
and they cheered as he appeared at the window to
31:34
call out to them. Neriyamalka, twenty three, a friend of
31:39
Matan from the Army who served with him in the
31:41
Armored Corps, told the Washington Posts they always believed he
31:45
would come back. It was never a question of if
31:48
he would return. But when he added, we know him.
31:52
He doesn't break. We see him smiling and even now
31:56
he's making his hearts and blowing kisses. Lovela reported from Jerusalem.
32:03
Our next item is entitled Fortunes of two key sectors
32:07
are diverging. AI is ascended in the US, but manufacturing
32:12
only continues to slide. By Aaron Gregg and Frederica Coco,
32:18
A gulf is opening up in the heart of American
32:21
business as two industries championed as central to the country's future,
32:26
manufacturing and artificial intelligence, appear to be heading in different directions.
32:32
Both AI and manufacturing have been in the spotlight in
32:35
Washington through successive administrations. President Donald Trump this year said
32:40
he would do whatever it takes to lead the world
32:43
in artificial intelligence, while he has championed stemming a decades
32:48
long slide in American manufacturing as a top goal. But
32:53
while AI is flourishing this year, manufacturing is entering an
32:57
ever deeper slump of the software and services world accelerating
33:02
and becoming almost amnomnia for the culture at the same
33:07
time that manufacturing remains flat or worse, said Mark Moreau,
33:11
a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. The AI boom
33:15
is kind of papering over some other parts of the
33:18
economy that aren't going well. The Trump administration has embraced
33:23
using a broad array of tariffs to protect US manufacturers
33:27
from foreign competition, marking the latest White House led push
33:31
after the Biden administration spent tens of billions of dollars
33:35
boosting US made semiconductors and other projects. But so far,
33:40
the sector is down thirty eight thousand jobs since the
33:44
start of the year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
33:48
The manufacturing slump comes as artificial intelligence has experienced an
33:53
unprecedented investment boom, sending tech company valuations into trillions of dollars.
34:00
Visions of how AI could transform the business world. Have
34:04
fueled a surge in microchips and cooling systems, along with
34:08
the data centers to howse and the energy to power
34:11
all of it. Some experts worry that the AI industry
34:15
will employ too few workers once the hype dies down,
34:19
because the data centers that power AI require relatively few
34:23
workers to operate. There are also fears that a bursting
34:27
AI bubble could hit an already fragile economy. One interesting
34:33
implication of all of this will be that this AI
34:36
spending boom is likely to create less jobs, particularly blue
34:40
collar ones, than previous ways of infrastructure build outs, said
34:45
Stephanie Aliaga, global market strategist at j P. Morgan. American
34:50
manufacturers employed some nineteen point five million workers at the
34:54
industry's nineteen seventy nine peak. That number has since shrunk
34:58
to fewer than thirty million, including losing an estimated seventy
35:03
eight thousand more positions in the one year period ending
35:06
in August. It's not just jobs, Fewer manufacturers are starting up,
35:11
since the data shows factory investments fell by about six
35:16
percent in the one year period leading up to July,
35:19
according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data marking the first
35:23
decrease since early twenty twenty one. More finished goods are
35:27
being produced, according to a measure of manufacturing output from
35:31
SMP Global, but Chris Williamson, chief business economist at SMP
35:36
Global Market Intelligence, said the higher production really shows terror
35:41
front running as manufacturers work through the raw materials they
35:45
bought before tariffs kicked in. Experts said the industries that
35:49
have benefited from tariff protections have been far offset by
35:53
the sectors hit by higher costs and uncertainty. The jobs
35:58
gained by protecting sectors like sas steel and aluminum, for example,
36:02
were far outweighed by losses due to those inputs becoming
36:06
more expensive, said Megan Martin Schoenberger, senior economists at KPMG.
36:12
Executives from US manufacturers including General Motors, Caterpillar, John Deere,
36:18
and others collectively flagged billions of dollars in terror related
36:22
costs in recent discussions with US investors. US automakers saw
36:27
lower profit margins in the second quarter of twenty twenty
36:30
five than at any time since the coronavirus pandemic, according
36:35
to government data analyzed by Michigan State business professor Jason Miller,
36:39
A trend that the companies have blamed in part on tariffs.
36:44
Annual manufacturing investment, which includes advanced chip making facilities, more
36:49
than double than the two years after the twenty twenty
36:51
two Chips Act, before peaking in twenty twenty four. According
36:56
to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, many of those projects
36:59
are still under construction. Overall factory investment has decreased since then,
37:05
in large part because the Biden era chips investment started
37:08
winding down, experts, said The Semiconductor Industry Association, a trade group,
37:15
said semiconductor operations directly accounted for about three hundred forty
37:19
five thousand jobs and another two million indirect or induced
37:24
US jobs. White House spokesmen pushed a sigh said the
37:28
Trump administration is taking a pro growth mix of policies
37:32
to support US manufacturing, citing terraffs and tax incentives for equipment.
37:38
Numerous foreign firms, European pharmaceutical giants, Taiwan's chip makers, and
37:44
Japan's automakers, to name a few, have promised to build
37:47
US factories, but those investments could take years to materialize.
37:53
America's manufacturing dominance was neither built nor lost overnight. It
37:58
took decades of concern investment and supportive policy making to
38:02
build up and decades of lackadaisical and incompetent policy making
38:06
to unwind, Desai said in an email. The slump in
38:11
brick and mortar manufacturing is in sharp contrast with an
38:14
astonishing rise in investments meant to support artificial intelligence. Tariffs
38:20
have not deterred imports of the core hardware powering the
38:24
AI economy, much of which has been exempted from new duties.
38:28
Shipments of servers, high end ships, and power systems have
38:32
jumped sixty four percent year to day, a surge that
38:36
reflects the intensity of the data center boom. According to
38:40
a Washington Post analysis of US Census Bureau Import data,
38:45
investment in data centers jumped nearly thirty seven percent in
38:48
the first half of twenty twenty five compared with a
38:51
year earlier, while factory construction slipped about three percent over
38:56
the same period. According to data collected by the Bureau
38:59
an economic analysis, domestic investment in computer equipment, the backbone
39:05
for data processing, cloud services, and AI, is up more
39:09
than forty five percent year over year, while spending on
39:13
traditional industrial equipment has barely moved. Investors support tens of
39:19
billions into AI start ups and semiconductor firms a signal
39:23
of where they see the future growth. If the stock
39:26
market's AI related euphoria were too unwind any time soon,
39:31
it could have cascading effects on the rest of the economy.
39:34
According to Panthan Macroeconomic senior US economist Oliver Allen, if
39:40
the AI investment boom were to collapse like a house
39:43
of cards, I think you would have a significant drag
39:46
on growth. Allan said. There are also concerns that artificial
39:51
intelligence investments won't yield the same employment opportunities as traditional manufacturing.
39:58
Although data centers could contribute to job creation in other
40:01
industries over time by supporting the development of AI technologies.
40:06
And the construction of data centers requires many workers, the
40:10
buildings themselves employ relatively few people, said Stephen nessel, A,
40:15
vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. While
40:20
it may take one thousand or more workers to construct
40:22
the data center, often only one hundred to three hundred
40:26
employees will work in the building when it is operational.
40:29
Azel said. Meanwhile, a traditional auto factory could employ several
40:34
thousand employees over the same square footage. The US government
40:38
has invested deeply in expanding microchip production facilities, with a
40:43
Biden administration allocating tens of billions of dollars through the
40:47
Chips Act of twenty twenty two for manufacturing projects. Many
40:51
of those factories are not yet operational, said Williamson, the
40:55
SMP economist. Navidia, the US company most intimately connected to
41:00
the AI boom, recently brokeer to partnership with longtime chip
41:04
manufacturer Intel, taking a five billion dollar steak. Intel has
41:10
been laying off thousands of employees to cut costs, and
41:14
recently gave the US government an equity position. Manufacturing jobs
41:19
tend to pay better than an equivalent job in another
41:21
industry for almost every group of workers, said Todd Tucker,
41:26
director of Industrial Policy and Trade with the Roosevelt Institute.
41:30
You really, to some extent, have won a lottery ticket
41:33
as a blue collar worker if you have a manufacturing job,
41:36
Tucker said. Chip making operations can similarly be a boon
41:41
for the communities around them. Tucker added, bringing high paying
41:45
engineering job and training pipelines, but they are generally not
41:49
as labor intensive as assembly lines of the twentieth century were,
41:53
he said. Top artificial intelligence innovators say they are working
41:58
toward developing artificial general intelligence algorithms that could theoretically possess
42:04
human like cognitive abilities. There are questions about whether today's
42:08
AI tools are generating enough revenue to match the hype. However,
42:13
Michael Strain, an economist with the conservative American Enterprise Institute,
42:18
said he believes artificial intelligence will make us all rich
42:22
one day, but is probably a net loss for productivity
42:26
in the short term. My guess is that AI has
42:30
lowered productivity at this point rather than raised it. It's
42:33
not generating a lot of revenue, but is taking a
42:36
lot of time and money, Strain said. The final item
42:41
from today's one page is entitled death of Maryland Boy
42:45
illustrates a danger for children with autism by Jasmine Golden.
42:50
Myles wunk Mann ran up and squeezed between his parents,
42:54
dancing as Disney tunes filled the kitchen of their southern
42:57
Maryland home. He puffed up his cheeks there, bursting with
43:01
laughter as his parents popped them that Sunday morning in
43:04
October twenty twenty four. They tickled and hugged and kissed Myles.
43:09
They spun him around the room. A breeze blew through
43:12
an open window, cooling the space in the autumn heat.
43:15
As the morning wound down and the plan turned to
43:18
showers in a walk, the family went upstairs to get ready.
43:22
They didn't expect the door bell, or how it would
43:26
be this sound that bisected their lives before and after.
43:31
Dominique MacMahon, a thirty two year old wife and mother
43:34
of two, rushed to get dressed. The ringing was relentless.
43:40
Where is Miles, she remembers asking aloud. The question had
43:44
grown to consume their days at home and those of
43:47
his teachers at school in Charles County. Myles, a kindergartener,
43:52
had autism and wasn't yet speaking. He had been a
43:55
wanderer since he could walk. Miles had been able to
43:59
slip away from his preschool class more than seven hundred times,
44:04
a number the McMahons weren't aware of until the end
44:07
of the school year, according to school records obtained by
44:10
The Washington Post. He liked to flee from his parents too.
44:15
The McMahon's new opening the door too wide carried the
44:18
wrists that their younger son would make his move. An
44:22
intricate maze of locks and bolts at home was meant
44:25
to keep him safe from a world his five year
44:28
old mind never feared. But on this day, October thirteenth,
44:32
he didn't approach the door. Where's Miles? The neighbor on
44:38
the front porch had an unsettling answer. Moments earlier, his
44:42
wife had seen Miles outside, barefoot and alone. How he
44:47
got out didn't make sense to Dominique, but in that
44:50
moment it didn't matter. She put on crocs and grabbed
44:53
her glasses. It's Miles, she shouted to her husband, Tom
44:58
thirty eight. Then she the chase had been part of
45:02
their lives as parents. Finding help for Myles had been
45:06
a frustrating lesson in waiting. Took more than a year
45:09
to get him seen by a doctor who could diagnose
45:12
his autism and opened doors for therapy at home, And
45:16
despite his parents please and recommendations from teachers, the school
45:21
district had not put him in its program for students
45:23
with autism, where trained teachers might have helped with his behavior.
45:29
Now he was gone, the frantic twelve hour search felt
45:33
like forever. It was after midnight when authorities found Myles
45:37
drowned in a nearby pond. In the months had followed
45:41
the story of Miles life and the tragic way it
45:44
ended reverberated through the community, bringing light to a challenged
45:49
face by growing number of families. It prompted teachers at
45:53
his school to call on school system leaders for more
45:56
resources for children with autism, and spurred a wave of
45:59
safety measures for students. And myles death, along with that
46:04
of another young boy from Maryland, triggered a new state
46:08
law that requires schools to tell parents when their child
46:11
flees from school, track the number of times, and make
46:15
a plan to address it. Away from safety, the brand
46:20
of fear that shadowed them ofc Man's is well known
46:23
by parents raising autistic children, so too is the risk
46:27
of a devastating outcome. In Boise, Idaho, Matthew Glenn walked
46:32
away from his fifth birthday party and drowned in a canal.
46:36
In Westchester Township, Ohio, joshua A la Tif junior, six,
46:41
was reported missing and found dead in a pond near
46:44
his apartment building. And in Hopkins, Minnesota, four year old
46:49
Ways Mohammed drowned in a creek. More children with autism
46:53
died in twenty twenty four after wandering away eighty two
46:58
than in any other year since the National Autism association
47:02
began tracking cases over twenty years ago, said Laurie macelwain,
47:07
the association's co founder and executive director. So far this year,
47:12
at least seventy five children have died. Experts in the
47:17
field call the behavior eloping autistic adults said eloping usually
47:23
appears as a form of communicating an unmet need. It
47:27
might reflect the desire to move toward an attraction or
47:30
away from a threat, and it can be difficult for
47:34
parents and guardians to understand. It's a topic that strikes
47:38
people as very intuitive, but is actually quite complicated, said
47:42
Zoe Gross, director of advocacy for DC based Autistic Self
47:46
Affocacy Network. Autism, a condition with unclear causes that are
47:52
under intense scrutiny by the Trumpet administration, is twice as
47:55
prevalent in children as in twenty ten, according to the
47:59
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, part of a decades
48:02
long spike putting a strain on healthcare and schools, where
48:06
nationwide teacher shortages are felt, most acutely in special education.
48:12
While an exact reason for the surgeon elopement is difficult
48:15
to pinpoint, post pandemic service disruptions and an increase in
48:20
autism diagnoses at earlier ages may all play a part.
48:24
McElwain said death by eloping nearly doubled from twenty twenty
48:29
three to twenty twenty four, according to data from the
48:32
National Autism Association. Most were around myles age and round,
48:37
not far from where they went missingmcewain said water is
48:41
a mute button for everything. Mcawain said, if there's water nearby,
48:46
that's where these kids are going to go. The Sunday
48:50
morning that he disappeared, Miles had torn through the screen
48:54
of an open living room window and jumped out. He
48:57
was almost hit by a red pickup as he ran
48:59
across the street. Video from a neighbor's doorbell camera showed
49:04
he was headed toward a pond. The McMahon's had thoughts
49:08
their door locks had back yard fans they built and
49:10
covered with a tarp to prevent him from climbing, would
49:13
be enough to keep Miles away from the road and
49:16
the water. Learning on our own, the long struggle to
49:21
keep Myles safe illustrates the daily danger parents confront and
49:25
the isolation they often feel when dealing with the overwhelmed
49:29
systems meant to help children with autism. Dominique and Tom,
49:34
both Air Force veterans who met during their active duty service,
49:38
married in twenty sixteen. They soon started a family and
49:41
settled in the Maryland community of Waldorf. Aiden came first
49:45
in twenty seventeen, then Miles two years later. At one
49:50
and a half years old, they began to worry Myles
49:53
was in speaking or pointing much. Aiden behaved similarly when
49:57
he was young, but grew out of it. By two
50:00
Miles still wasn't communicating. A pediatrician suggested they put on
50:05
sesame street. Dominique thought he might be deaf. A hearing
50:09
specialist confirmed that wasn't the problem. The parents tried to
50:13
start therapies for speech and social skills, but couldn't get
50:16
Miles in anywhere during the pandemic. One day, a mother
50:21
at an early learning center who had a child with
50:23
autism asked her, does your son have autism? It was
50:27
a question she'd have trouble answering. Miles waited for nearly
50:31
two years on three waiting lists before being diagnosed in
50:35
twenty twenty three. The McMahon said. Catherine Lord, a professor
50:40
at UCLA and clinical psychologist who specializes in Autism Research
50:45
said a diagnosis shouldn't hinder families access to care, but
50:50
it often does. It's really unfortunate that it's become a
50:54
ticket to get services, Lord said, because you don't really
50:57
need a diagnosis to at least start there, like working
51:00
with families about potential unsafe situations. Even after Myles was diagnosed,
51:07
Tom said they'd never received help for the behavior that
51:10
scared them the most, his constant attempts to flee. It
51:15
was a lot of learning on our own, he said.
51:18
When you get diagnosed with cancer, you leave the cancer
51:21
center with a big packet of this is what you
51:23
can expect. You're assigned a person and there's some kind
51:27
of communication and dialogue to understand what this means and
51:30
the things that you should be doing now, in the
51:33
near future, and for the rest of your life. When
51:36
you get a formal diagnosis of autism, you don't get
51:39
any of that. Even on the run, Miles was the
51:43
happiest little boy you've ever seen. Dominique said. He loved
51:48
to take things apart from toys to lamps and build dinosaurs,
51:52
whales and sharks out of plato. After his diagnosis, he
51:57
used a communication device that allowed him to press buttons
52:00
to relay messages, but a smile was often how Miles
52:04
conveyed his thoughts. The world was so exciting to Myles
52:08
that he couldn't contain himself. Myles had learned how to
52:12
carefully press his thumb down to wiggle off the wrist
52:15
tether his parents had wound on his arm whenever they
52:18
ventured out. Even the most fun places for him, like
52:21
outdoor playgrounds, were risky. Most without fencing to keep him in,
52:26
Miles would bolt into the woods, running knee deep in
52:29
leaves as his parents chased him. Knowing water safety was
52:33
a concern, the McMahon signed up their son for swim
52:36
lessons in the county, but the lessons weren't designed for
52:40
children like Miles. They were also waiting for Myles's turn
52:44
for access to applied Behavior analysis a BA therapy, but
52:48
were impeded by another waiting list. Tom and Domanique showed
52:53
Myles educational videos and programmed his communication device to reinforce
52:58
their warnings that running away wasn't safe. None of it worked.
53:04
A sobering reminder. A few days after myles death, a
53:08
teacher who indicated she was speaking for her colleagues at
53:11
EVA Turner Elementary School, where he'd been in his first
53:14
months of kindergarten, sent an e mail to Charles County
53:17
Public School leaders citing a lack of compassionate leadership. EVA
53:23
Turner is knowingly understaffed, lacks necessary resources required for the
53:28
safety and education of their students, and are in a
53:32
time of need, she said, urging officials to address shortcomings
53:36
in how it serves students with autism, including a lack
53:40
of lawful individualized education program services. The number of eloping
53:45
students at EVA Turner, constantly placing themselves in danger on
53:49
the same roads we search for miles on, is increasing daily.
53:54
In the same email, the teacher said she kept a
53:57
plastic ruler in her emergency exit door, along with two
54:00
shelves blocking the door and a child safety lock on
54:03
the front door. Is this your temporary fix, the teacher
54:07
said to county school's leadership. Charles County Public School Superintendent
54:12
Maria Navarro, who declined to be interviewed, replied to the
54:15
email that she was keenly aware of several other deeply
54:19
concerning incidents at Turner. The school's principal was also raising
54:24
red flags to school division leaders about limited staffing and
54:28
the need for more support in sore the program for
54:31
students with autism. According to emails obtained by the Post
54:36
during the twenty twenty four twenty twenty five academic year
54:39
at EVA Turner, at least four families, including them with Man's,
54:43
claimed in emails to school leaders, that the school system
54:46
fell short in meeting federal requirements to follow education plans
54:51
for the children's special needs. Students with autism were regressing,
54:56
these parents said. One urgent concern raised repeatedly was eloping.
55:02
In one email, a parent said their child fled from
55:05
school grounds last fall and ended up in the community
55:08
without clothes. Miles would take off from unlocked classrooms or
55:13
unfenced play areas. Once in preschool, he escaped as far
55:18
as a neighboring community's swimming pool, where only the fence
55:21
kept him from the water. The McMahon said they received
55:25
calls on Myles left school grounds, but not the hundreds
55:29
of other times he ran from class. Miles would return
55:33
home with scratches on the back of his neck from
55:36
teachers trying to catch him during his escape attempts. Dominique
55:39
and Tom said in an email last July, requesting that
55:43
he be assessed for sore. He has no awareness about
55:47
his own safety and continues to run into the street
55:50
and toward water. A school facilitator told them their initial
55:55
email request to place Myles in sore, which they had
55:58
made in February twenty twenty four, had been overlooked. According
56:02
to the records obtained by the Post, school staff instead
56:06
placed Miles in an inclusion kindergarten class where he would
56:10
receive special education support. Andrew Bennett and Lisa Frank, special
56:15
education and behavioral consultants in Maryland who work with families
56:19
and schools through their business Special Kids Company, said schools
56:23
are stuck between a rock and a hard place to
56:26
follow inclusivity rules and federal disability law while insuring a
56:30
child's safety. In late September twenty twenty four, Tom visited
56:35
the class and noticed his son didn't have his communication device.
56:40
While in the room with the assistant principal, a teacher,
56:43
and three aides, Miles got up from eating cereal at
56:47
his chair, walked behind them, and ran out the door.
56:51
Forcing him to remain in the current classroom setting is
56:54
hindering his educational and social emotional progress. Tom wrote in
56:59
an email to school staff. Afterward. Shelley Mackie, a spokeswoman
57:04
for Charles County Public Schools, declined to respond to questions
57:08
about specific complaints from families, citing student privacy. Charles County
57:14
Public Schools, including Eva Turna, did not comprehensively track how
57:18
often special education students were escaping from class at school year,
57:23
Mackie said in his statement the McMahons found out because
57:26
his free school teacher was keeping a tally Daysha Miller,
57:30
the parent of a third grader who had been in
57:33
the SORE program for two years, twice, saw students alone
57:37
from the classroom. Last year, one nearly made it to
57:40
the street, with three teachers chasing behind, she said. In
57:44
the year since Miles's death, the school system has ushered
57:48
in several changes, including developing a plan to prevent student elopements.
57:53
Teachers and staff received training, and class sizes are smaller,
57:58
and Sore's expanded program, with each having no more than
58:01
ten students. Mackie said. Miller's son attends a new school
58:06
as part of those changes. She said the new system
58:09
isn't perfect, but she appreciates the steps the school system
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has taken due to the constraints of time, we will
58:16
be unable to complete this item. This concludes the reading
58:20
of the Washington Post for to day, Tuesday, October fourteenth,
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twenty twenty five. Your reader for to day has been
58:27
Cindy Fraser. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions
58:32
concerning this program, please feel free to call us at
58:36
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58:39
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