Transcript

10.5.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the reading of the
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Speaker 1: Washington Post for this Monday, October 5th. As a reminder,
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Speaker 1: Radio Eye is a reading service intended for people who
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Speaker 1: are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult
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Speaker 1: to read printed material. The reader for today is Rod Brotherton.
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Speaker 1: And our headlines are, Trump's Immigration Policies Face More Tests.
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Speaker 1: Last week, the justices on the new-setting Supreme Court term
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Speaker 1: agreed to review two major Trump immigration policies and cases
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Speaker 1: that could turn into blockbusters. One involves the legality of
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Speaker 1: sending non-citizens to third countries where they are not citizens,
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Speaker 1: a policy the court has allowed to continue as it
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Speaker 1: decides the case. The second centers on Trump's mandatory deletion
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Speaker 1: policy for immigrants awaiting removal proceedings. Both have been critical
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Speaker 1: to Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown. Other Trump policies that could
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Speaker 1: land on the docket, the president's ban on transgender people
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Speaker 1: serving in the military, and the administration's maneuver to install
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Speaker 1: loyalists to U.S. attorneys' offices while bypassing the Senate confirmation process.
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Speaker 1: The legality of Trump's newest round of tariffs and his
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Speaker 1: renewed push to limit birthright citizenship could also return to
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Speaker 1: the high court. Number two, the court could become enmeshed
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Speaker 1: in the midterms. The stakes are high for November's midterm elections,
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Speaker 1: which will determine control of the House and Senate. Voters
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Speaker 1: will decide races at the ballot box, but the Supreme
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Speaker 1: Court could play a notable role, too. The Supreme Court
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Speaker 1: has already decided a flurry of cases related to voting
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Speaker 1: and the election in the run-up to November. some dealing
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Speaker 1: with the Trump administration's aggressive efforts to redistrict voting. Given
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Speaker 1: Trump's penchant for claiming voter fraud, it's a good bet
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Speaker 1: that challenges will roll in as the ballots are counted,
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Speaker 1: particularly in close contested races. Democratic attorneys general in about
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Speaker 1: 20 states have already been wargaming on how to respond
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Speaker 1: if federal agents are sent to polling places or voters
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Speaker 1: are blocked from voting. Fights could go up to the
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Speaker 1: Supreme Court. Number three, another landmark test on guns. The
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Speaker 1: Supreme Court in recent years has transformed few areas of
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Speaker 1: law as much as gun rights. This term brings the
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Speaker 1: next major chapter in the fight, whether states can ban
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Speaker 1: AR-15-style semi-automatic rifles. The fight is significant legally, but also culturally.
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Speaker 1: The AR-15 has become a symbol of Second Amendment rights
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Speaker 1: for some gun enthusiasts and a target for those who
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Speaker 1: want stricter gun controls because that type of firearm has
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Speaker 1: been used in so many killings. The Supreme Court will
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Speaker 1: weigh restrictions on semi-automatic rifles in Illinois and Connecticut, which
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Speaker 1: are being challenged by gun owners and gun right groups.
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Speaker 1: The Connecticut law was passed in the wake of the
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Speaker 1: 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, where a gunman
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Speaker 1: killed 20 children and six school staff members. In recent terms,
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Speaker 1: the conservative majority has greatly loosened restrictions on firearms, most
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Speaker 1: notably in a 2022 case that struck down a New
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Speaker 1: York law requiring a license to carry a firearm in public.
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Speaker 1: That decision was New York State Pistol and Rifle Association, Inc. v. Bruin,
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Speaker 1: found that any gun restrictions must have roots in the
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Speaker 1: nation's history and traditions. 4. The expansion and limits of
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Speaker 1: religious rights. The justices have accepted multiple cases for this
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Speaker 1: term brought by religious groups. One has attracted particular attention. St.
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Speaker 1: Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy. It involves a Catholic preschool
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Speaker 1: in Colorado that says it is being unfairly excluded from
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Speaker 1: a state pre-kindergarten program because it does not admit children
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Speaker 1: of gay and transgender parents. The High Court, led by
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Speaker 1: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., has generally ruled in
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Speaker 1: favor of religious plaintiffs in such cases as and experts
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Speaker 1: say St. Mary has a good chance of winning. It
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Speaker 1: also widely is expected to take up a case involving
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Speaker 1: a Texas law that requires all public school classrooms to
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Speaker 1: display the Ten Commandments. The case challenges a 46-year-old precedent
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Speaker 1: holding that such displays of religious content in public schools
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Speaker 1: violate the separation of church and state. And number five,
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Speaker 1: Will a justice retire? It can't be ruled out. Rumors
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Speaker 1: swirled for months earlier this year that Samuel A. Alito Jr.
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Speaker 1: might retire before the conservative justice knocked down the talk
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Speaker 1: in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in August. Still,
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Speaker 1: speculation could flare again. With the midterm elections in November,
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Speaker 1: Democrats have an opportunity to take control of the Senate,
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Speaker 1: which must confirm any nominee to the high court. If
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Speaker 1: the Democrats triumph, that means Trump's last opportunity to get
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Speaker 1: a nominee through a Republican-controlled Senate will be during the
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Speaker 1: lame-duck period between November and January. Republicans shellacking in November
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Speaker 1: could put pressure on Alito, who is 76, or Clarence Thomas, 78,
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Speaker 1: the other older conservative, to step aside for a younger nominee.
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Speaker 1: Many court watchers do not expect Thomas to retire because
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Speaker 1: he has a chance to become the longest-serving justice in
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Speaker 1: the court's history if he remains on the bench through
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Speaker 1: May of 2028. So all eyes will be on Alito.
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Speaker 1: In number six, there is a push to overhaul the
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Speaker 1: Supreme Court. Democrats have pledged to overhaul the high court
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Speaker 1: should they take control of Congress. They have already introduced
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Speaker 1: a slew of proposals, including imposing term limits on the justices,
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Speaker 1: increasing the number of seats on the bench from 9
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Speaker 1: to 13, and create an enforceable code of ethics. Those
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Speaker 1: efforts might still be a long shot unless the filibuster
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Speaker 1: is eliminated. Otherwise, any proposal would require 60 votes in
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Speaker 1: the Senate, which is still highly unlikely. Still, the efforts
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Speaker 1: reflect record dissatisfaction with the high court, especially among liberals.
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Speaker 1: And Democrats have said any proposal is fair game. Our
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Speaker 1: next article, four ways the midterm elections could go, and
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Speaker 1: they're one month away. Democrats are heading into the last
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Speaker 1: month of the midterm election campaign with ambitions going deeper
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Speaker 1: and deeper into red territory, while Republicans are grim about
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Speaker 1: their hopes of holding on to either chamber of Congress. Historically,
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Speaker 1: the opposition party almost always makes gains in the midterms,
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Speaker 1: and President Trump is less popular than ever. His support
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Speaker 1: is weakened, especially with independents and high-quality polls, and among
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Speaker 1: swing demographics that propelled his 2024 majority. Republicans have also
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Speaker 1: tended to underperform when Trump isn't on the ballot because
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Speaker 1: more consistent voters have shifted towards the Democrats. More Democrats
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Speaker 1: voted in this year's primaries, a sign that they're also
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Speaker 1: more likely to turn out now, with early and mail-in
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Speaker 1: voting already underway in 43 states leading up to Election
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Speaker 1: Day on November 3rd. The Democrats' lead in national and
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Speaker 1: battleground polls has expanded since Labor Day. There are reasons
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Speaker 1: to suspect polls could be overestimating Democratic strengths, though surveys
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Speaker 1: did not systematically favor Democrats in the last two midterms.
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Speaker 1: Republicans' main advantage is money. GOP campaigns and allies are
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Speaker 1: outspending Democrats in almost all of the contested races, thanks
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Speaker 1: in large part more than $ 180 million that has been
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Speaker 1: pumped in from Trump's war chest since Labor Day. The
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Speaker 1: outcome will define the remainder of Trump's presidency, the fate
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Speaker 1: of his legislative ambitions, and the pressure of oversight investigations.
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Speaker 1: It will also immediately set the stage for the 2028
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Speaker 1: presidential primaries, with both parties hopeful, reading the results for
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Speaker 1: clues to the electorate's mood. Here are four possible ways
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Speaker 1: the midterms could broadly shake out. Number one, a blue wave.
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Speaker 1: In the House, Republicans hold the slimmest of majorities, with
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Speaker 1: 218 seats and one independent who caucuses with them. To
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Speaker 1: the Democrats, 214. The GOP is on defense in 16 seats,
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Speaker 1: rated toss-up by the Cook Political Report, compared with only
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Speaker 1: six Democrats. On September 25th, Cook shifted 15 races toward
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Speaker 1: the Democrats and projected them to take over the House.
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Speaker 1: Anticipating a favorable environment, Democrats went into the cycle planning
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Speaker 1: to expand the House battlefield by recruiting competitive candidates to
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Speaker 1: run in typically safe GOP districts held by incumbents unaccustomed
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Speaker 1: to tough races or dragged down in scandals. On Friday,
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Speaker 1: they continued widening their targets, adding eight districts that voted
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Speaker 1: for Trump by double digits in 2024. They added six
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Speaker 1: more races on Monday, including seats in Arkansas and Tennessee
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Speaker 1: and a Nevada district that backed Trump by 14 points.
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Speaker 1: The latest additions bring their total targets to 46. If
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Speaker 1: Democrats win the popular vote by 10 points this year,
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Speaker 1: their current average lead in polls, they would pick up
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Speaker 1: a projected 33 seats, according to Mindset, a Washington advisory firm.
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Speaker 1: That would place this year's gains between the Democrats' pickups
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Speaker 1: in 2006, which were 31, and 2018, which was 40 seats.
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Speaker 1: Democrats are on the offense. Republicans are running scared, even
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Speaker 1: in deep red territory, said Representative Susan DelBene of Washington,
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Speaker 1: chair of the House Democrats' campaign arm. Voters are fed
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Speaker 1: up with the Republicans' broken promises and ready for change
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Speaker 1: in Congress. In the Senate, Republicans hold a 53-47 majority
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Speaker 1: and were favored to keep control earlier this year. Now,
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Speaker 1: most polls put Democrats ahead in the most contested races. Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan,
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Speaker 1: New Hampshire, Ohio, and Texas. They're more strongly favored to
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Speaker 1: win North Carolina, where former Governor Ray Cooper, the Democrat,
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Speaker 1: Leeds former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, and Georgia,
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Speaker 1: where Representative Mike Collins, the Republican, hasn't come close to
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Speaker 1: catching Senator John Ossoff, the Democrat. On Friday, the Maine
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Speaker 1: Republican Senate Super PAC canceled its remaining spending in North Carolina.
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Speaker 1: Beyond the battlegrounds, Republicans have shown concern about incumbents in
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Speaker 1: Kansas and which hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate
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Speaker 1: since 1932, and Nebraska, which Trump won by 20 points
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Speaker 1: in 2024. Senator Roger Marshall, Republican of Kansas and obstetrician,
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Speaker 1: is under fire for his history of suing patients to
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Speaker 1: collect unpaid bills, leading to some arrests. He faces mega-church
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Speaker 1: pastor Adam Hamilton, the Democrat. Nebraska Independence Dan Osborne has
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Speaker 1: been slamming Senator Pete Ricketts, Republican, for pardoning a man
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Speaker 1: convicted of sexual assaults when he was the governor. In
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Speaker 1: the most extreme scenario, some political professionals, imagine the waves
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Speaker 1: wiping out Senator Darlene Graham, the Republican of South Carolina,
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Speaker 1: or Senator Ashley Moody, Republican of Florida. Then number two
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Speaker 1: is a blue ripple. The Senate does not has consistently
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Speaker 1: turned against the president as Republicans added two seats in
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Speaker 1: the upper chamber in 2018. This year's map has more
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Speaker 1: GOP-held seats in contention, but taking the majority would not
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Speaker 1: require the Democrats to hold Georgia and Michigan, pick up
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Speaker 1: North Carolina and Maine, plus win two out of 12
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Speaker 1: seats in states that Trump won by at least 13 points.
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Speaker 1: In the House, Democrats need a net gain of only
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Speaker 1: three seats. Across decades, partisan gerrymandering has steadily shrunk the battlefield.
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Speaker 1: So even an electoral swing of similar magnitude to past
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Speaker 1: cycles might not flip as many seats. This cycle, Republicans
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Speaker 1: tilted the field further in their direction by redrawing congressional
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Speaker 1: maps ahead of the customary once-a-decade redistricting. Republicans hoped to
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Speaker 1: move 16 districts to the right, with new maps in Texas,
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Speaker 1: which did five districts, Florida with four, Ohio two, Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri,
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Speaker 1: and North Carolina, and Tennessee with one each. Democrats responded
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Speaker 1: with five districts in California, and courts overturned the Missouri
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Speaker 1: map and added a Democratic-leaning seat in Utah, cutting the
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Speaker 1: Republicans' theoretical edge to nine. But many of those redrawn
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Speaker 1: seats are shaping up to be less solid than Republicans
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Speaker 1: had hoped. Democrats are still contesting four redrawn seats in
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Speaker 1: Texas and another floor in Florida. They hope to keep
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Speaker 1: one or two affected districts in Ohio, held by Representatives
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Speaker 1: Marcy Kaptur and Greg Lansman, plus the one in North Carolina,
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Speaker 1: which is held by Representative Don Davis. People want to
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Speaker 1: make predictions. There's a lot of toss-up races that are
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Speaker 1: not decided yet, Republican pollster John McLaughlin said. The sides
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Speaker 1: are forming where the Democratic-anti-Republican vote is coming together, and
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Speaker 1: Republicans are losing the ability to recover swing voters. But
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Speaker 1: that's concerning. Now, the third scenario is a GOP upset.
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Speaker 1: In previous midterms of 2022, the roles were reversed. Republicans
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Speaker 1: were confident the unpopular sitting president would sweep their candidates
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Speaker 1: into power despite their flaws and were dismayed when that
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Speaker 1: wave failed to materialize. Now they are hoping for a
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Speaker 1: similar dynamic only the other way around. If Republicans pull
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Speaker 1: an upset, they'll be able to thank the Senate map
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Speaker 1: that puts them mostly on their home turf and gerrymandering
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Speaker 1: for padded for padding their cushion in the House. The
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Speaker 1: polls would have to be significantly off, which could be
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Speaker 1: because Democrats were more eager to answer the phone, Republicans
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Speaker 1: were less likely to participate, or pollsters misjudged who would
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Speaker 1: turn out to vote. Trump political advisor Chris LaCivita summed
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Speaker 1: up the Republicans' path to victory as money, message, motivation,
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Speaker 1: and the president's ability to defy conventional wisdom. Republicans outspent
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Speaker 1: Democrats in every Senate battleground in September and also led
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Speaker 1: in future reservations through Election Day, according to media tracker
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Speaker 1: Ad Impact. Republicans are also hoping to benefit in races
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Speaker 1: where further left Democrats won their primaries. Those Democrats include
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Speaker 1: Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, House candidates William Lawrence
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Speaker 1: in Michigan and Randy Villegas in California. The GOP's midterms
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Speaker 1: convention and Trump's stump speeches have sought to portray the
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Speaker 1: Democrats as extreme and tie the entire party to self-described
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Speaker 1: socialists who won in some areas. And as much as
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Speaker 1: Democrats want to make the race about Trump, and he
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Speaker 1: does too, At least some Republicans may be able to
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Speaker 1: outperform his unpopularity. Candidates from Iowa to Florida have started
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Speaker 1: removing references to Trump from their websites and breaking with
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Speaker 1: the president on immigration and the Iran war. Then the
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Speaker 1: next scenario is a constitutional crisis. Elections are run at
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Speaker 1: the local level, with no role for the federal government.
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Speaker 1: The Trump administration has made multiple efforts to change voting
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Speaker 1: procedures for the midterms, but those efforts were held up
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Speaker 1: in court or died in Congress. It has been a
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Speaker 1: roller coaster, Eric Fay, the Democratic elections director in St. Louis,
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Speaker 1: said in a recent meeting with election officials. Each election
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Speaker 1: cycle features emergency litigation over mishaps at local voting, often
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Speaker 1: resulting in extended hours, recounts, and close races and post-election audits.
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Speaker 1: Administrators and law enforcement officials are also on the lookout
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Speaker 1: for cyber attacks or disruptions such as bomb threats. They
19:15
Speaker 1: conduct drills and simulations to anticipate how things could go
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Speaker 1: wrong and practice how to respond. The threat landscape, as
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Speaker 1: we view it this year, is cyber, physical, logistical, reputational,
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Speaker 1: and somewhat emergent legal, said Michael Moore, the chief information
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Speaker 1: security officer for the Arizona Secretary of State's office. We
19:42
Speaker 1: design exercises to give election officials the most miserable election
19:47
Speaker 1: day we can possibly imagine. That way, when they actually
19:51
Speaker 1: have an election day, they're prepared for everything. This year,
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Speaker 1: election administrators are especially concerned about interference from the federal government.
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Speaker 1: Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen has said the administration
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Speaker 1: has no plans to send immigration officers to the polls,
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Speaker 1: while FBI Director Kash Patel would not rule out sending
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Speaker 1: his agents to voting sites. While I anticipate that we
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Speaker 1: will likely have monitors and there could be incidents at
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Speaker 1: or around voting locations, we're going to make sure that
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Speaker 1: we have boots on the ground to make sure that
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Speaker 1: voters are not disrupted in that process, and that they
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Speaker 1: can cast a ballot, said Dean Logan, the registrar, recorder,
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Speaker 1: and county clerk for Los Angeles County, the country's largest
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Speaker 1: election jurisdiction. Monica Gordon, the clerk in Cook County, Illinois,
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Speaker 1: home to Chicago, added, We're moving forward as usual, but
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Speaker 1: we plan for anything. Our contingencies have contingencies. Right-wing activist
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Speaker 1: call for Trump to take more severe steps, such as
21:09
Speaker 1: trying to claim emergency powers over elections. Trump has repeatedly
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Speaker 1: challenged the legitimacy of elections he and his party lost.
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Speaker 1: Congressional Democrats and allied lawyers have also prepared research and
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Speaker 1: drills to be ready for any attempts to use federal
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Speaker 1: power to interfere with the results, as Trump attempted after
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Speaker 1: losing in 2020. A lot of people would say we
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Speaker 1: need to go rogue and declare this radical emergency. Tina Peters,
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Speaker 1: a former Colorado County clerk who was released on parole
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Speaker 1: in June after serving some of her sentence for tampering
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Speaker 1: with voting equipment, said Wednesday during a meeting of online activists,
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Speaker 1: There are already orders and laws in place to allow
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Speaker 1: them to do what they need to do. Our next story.
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Speaker 1: A Pentagon dispute 18 months ago was a prelude to
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Speaker 1: problems in Iran. As Houthi militants in Yemen attacked ships
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Speaker 1: with missiles and drones in the Red Sea early last year,
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Speaker 1: top U.S. officials gathered at the Pentagon to prepare military
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Speaker 1: options for President Trump. Their meetings repeatedly grew tense. On
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Speaker 1: one side were Generals Michael and Eric Carrillo, then overseeing U.S.
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Speaker 1: operations in the Middle East and other hawks ready for action.
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Speaker 1: The general was keen on military action not only against
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Speaker 1: the Houthis, but also against Iran, which had backed the
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Speaker 1: Yemeni paramilitary group for years with weapons and trainings, according
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Speaker 1: to people familiar with the matter. Like others, they spoke
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Speaker 1: on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal government deliberations.
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Speaker 1: On the other side, were officials hesitant to launch military
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Speaker 1: strikes so early in the second Trump administration, including the
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Speaker 1: Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, General Charles Q. Brown Jr.,
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Speaker 1: who suggested that new U.S. assessments of what military action
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Speaker 1: might yield would be wise before presenting the president with
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Speaker 1: military options. That triggered an abrupt response from Carrillo, people
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Speaker 1: familiar with the matter said. General, Carrillo said, the time
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Speaker 1: for assessment is over. The exchange, which has not previously
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Speaker 1: been reported, surprised some in the room. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,
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Speaker 1: then new to his role, agreed with Carrillo, people familiar
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Speaker 1: with the matter said. The disagreement came as other Pentagon appointees,
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Speaker 1: including then Senior Advisor Dan Caldwell and Policy Official Alex Velez-Green,
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Speaker 1: repeatedly raised questions in meetings about how an extended military
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Speaker 1: campaign against the Houthis could deplete stocks of key U.S. munitions,
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Speaker 1: people familiar with the discussion said. That issue has grown
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Speaker 1: in prominence as the Trump administration burned through its arsenal
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Speaker 1: of cruise missiles and interceptors in a war with Iran
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Speaker 1: that is now seven months old. In recent weeks, the
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Speaker 1: Iranian-backed Houthi militants have launched a new offensive in Yemen,
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Speaker 1: seizing control of the strategically important Bab al-Mandab Strait, reigniting
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Speaker 1: civil war, and targeting critical energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
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Speaker 1: With Iran's proxies weakened elsewhere, the group has emerged as
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Speaker 1: the most powerful element of Tehran's axis of resistance against
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Speaker 1: the United States and Israel. In March of 2025, weeks
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Speaker 1: after the disagreement between the generals, Trump announced Operation Rough Rider,
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Speaker 1: a 51-day bombing campaign against the Houthis that almost immediately
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Speaker 1: was embroiled in scandal when then-White House National Security Advisor
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Speaker 1: Mike Waltz accidentally invited a reporter into that group on Signal,
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Speaker 1: the unclassified messaging application. More than 1,000 targets were hit
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Speaker 1: over the course of Rough Rider, including key Houthi commanders
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Speaker 1: with weapon stocks. But the aerial bombing also resulted in
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Speaker 1: significant civilian casualties, human rights groups said. Trump and Hegseth
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Speaker 1: touted the campaign as a resounding success. But other senior
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Speaker 1: Pentagon officials, including Caldwell and Joe Casper, Hegseth's first chief
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Speaker 1: of staff, questioned, whether the campaign had clear and obtainable objectives.
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Speaker 1: The people familiar with the deliberation said. The U.S. went
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Speaker 1: on to strike Iran's nuclear facilities in Operation Midnight Hammer
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Speaker 1: in June of 2025 and, along with Israel, launched a
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Speaker 1: sprawling war against Iran this February. A spokesperson for Hegseth,
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Speaker 1: Kingsley Wilson, said in a statement that Roughrider achieved decisive
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Speaker 1: success against Houthi forces, with U.S. forces launching strikes that
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Speaker 1: severely degraded radar networks, air defense systems, ballistic missile and
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Speaker 1: drone launch sites, weapons depot, and production facilities, while removing
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Speaker 1: multiple mid- and senior-level commanders from the battlefield. The military action,
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Speaker 1: Wilson added, substantially reduced immediate threats to vital international shipping lanes,
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Speaker 1: compelled a clear tactical shift by the adversary, and helped
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Speaker 1: create conditions for a ceasefire that strengthened freedom of navigation
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Speaker 1: in the region. She declined to comment on the possibility
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Speaker 1: of any future action in Yemen, but she said the
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Speaker 1: Pentagon's role is to develop and present military options to
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Speaker 1: the president as he makes the final choices. The White
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Speaker 1: House and Pentagon both released statements defending the management of
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Speaker 1: weapons stockpiles after the Washington Post shared its reporting that
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Speaker 1: some administration officials had concerns about it before Rough Rider began. U.S.
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Speaker 1: officials have said that while the U.S. military has a
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Speaker 1: deep arsenal of weapons, it has increasingly run low on
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Speaker 1: specific munitions such as ship-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, and Patriot
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Speaker 1: air defense interceptors. The United States military has enough munitions
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Speaker 1: and ammo to serve all of the commander-in-chief's strategic goals
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Speaker 1: and beyond, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly wrote in a statement.
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Speaker 1: Casper and Caldwell declined to comment, while Velez-Green could not
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Speaker 1: be reached for comment. Carrillo, who retired in August of 2025,
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Speaker 1: did not respond to requests for comment about the exchange
28:10
Speaker 1: with Brown, or the objectives of Rough Rider. Brown declined
28:16
Speaker 1: to comment through a spokesperson, but a person familiar with
28:19
Speaker 1: his thinking said he did not dispute the account of
28:22
Speaker 1: the testy Pentagon deliberations. It's common, that person said, for
28:28
Speaker 1: a top commander to push for quick military action while
28:32
Speaker 1: the Joint Chiefs Chairman consider a wider range of issues,
28:37
Speaker 1: including making sure all necessary plans and requirements are in place.
28:41
Speaker 1: that the president's options are preserved. Brown was fired and
28:46
Speaker 1: forced to retire just before Rough Rider as Hegseth pushed
28:50
Speaker 1: to remove top Biden-era generals. An official with Hegseth's office
28:56
Speaker 1: declined to say whether Brown's caution about the Houthis played
28:59
Speaker 1: a role, saying that, out of respect for our senior
29:03
Speaker 1: military leaders, they do not discuss the nature of their retirements.
29:09
Speaker 1: The military campaign in Yemen abruptly ended in May of
29:13
Speaker 1: 2025 with a ceasefire brokered by Oman. Trump claimed victory
29:18
Speaker 1: and said that the Houthis don't want to fight anymore.
29:23
Speaker 1: They gave us their word they wouldn't be shooting at
29:26
Speaker 1: ships anymore, and we honor that, Trump said. The end
29:31
Speaker 1: of combat operation, officials and analysts said, came after the
29:34
Speaker 1: Houthis showed remarkable resiliency in the face of American air power.
29:39
Speaker 1: No U.S. troops. were killed during the operation, but the
29:41
Speaker 1: militants shot down at least seven MQ-9 Reaper drones, and
29:45
Speaker 1: the U.S. lost two F-18 fighters in mishaps at sea.
29:49
Speaker 1: The operation, people familiar with the efforts said, was followed
29:52
Speaker 1: by the administration's near-total abandonment of Yemen. It was like
29:58
Speaker 1: a cord being pulled out of a socket. said a
30:00
Speaker 1: former U.S. official who worked on Yemen issues at the time.
30:04
Speaker 1: Trump wanted to scratch Yemen off a list and move on.
30:09
Speaker 1: When the mission was declared over, the formal official said,
30:13
Speaker 1: some in U.S. Central Command, which Karela then oversaw, were apoplectic,
30:18
Speaker 1: believing that they had been making progress. A U.S. special
30:22
Speaker 1: envoy position for Yemen issues was never filled by the
30:26
Speaker 1: Trump administration, and Washington's assistant to the impoverished country was slashed.
30:32
Speaker 1: At the time, the formal officials said, they warned colleagues,
30:37
Speaker 1: you ignore Yemen at your own peril. The disagreements at
30:43
Speaker 1: the Pentagon about how to proceed on Yemen underscored the
30:46
Speaker 1: competing views in the U.S. government about how to handle
30:50
Speaker 1: the persistent threat the Houthis have posed since they seized
30:54
Speaker 1: power in northern Yemen in 2014. The Shiite militia, which
31:00
Speaker 1: formed in the 1990s, aimed to control Yemen, a country
31:04
Speaker 1: of 35 million people at the southwest tip of the
31:08
Speaker 1: Arabian Peninsula. From 2015 to 2022, the Houthis, with support
31:15
Speaker 1: from Iran, fought a bloody civil war against Yemen's internationally
31:19
Speaker 1: recognized government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia. That war
31:24
Speaker 1: ended with a fragile truce, that left the Houthis holding
31:28
Speaker 1: large swaths of the country's north and the government coalition
31:32
Speaker 1: in control of the south. But the group has gotten
31:36
Speaker 1: much larger ambitions, including ousting the U.S. from the Middle
31:40
Speaker 1: East and destroying the state of Israel. April Longley Alley,
31:47
Speaker 1: a senior official at the Washington Institute, said the Houthis
31:52
Speaker 1: see themselves as the tip of the spear in the
31:55
Speaker 1: Arab world. Dan Shapiro, who served as U.S. ambassador to
32:00
Speaker 1: Israel during the Obama administration, described the Houthis as an
32:06
Speaker 1: enduring problem for decades to come. We're kind of stuck
32:12
Speaker 1: with this bad actor on this maritime choke point, able
32:16
Speaker 1: to activate and try to use their position or leverage
32:20
Speaker 1: at the moment of their choosing, said Shapiro. who later
32:24
Speaker 1: became a Pentagon official during the Biden administration. After the
32:28
Speaker 1: Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, the Houthis started firing
32:35
Speaker 1: missiles at Israel in retaliation for the resulting military campaign
32:40
Speaker 1: in Gaza. That is when the Houthis took on an
32:44
Speaker 1: almost folklore status, said Tim Linderking, the U.S. envoy to
32:50
Speaker 1: Yemen during the Biden administration. It really bolstered their standing
32:55
Speaker 1: and their brand in the Arab world, he added. But
32:59
Speaker 1: the Houthis took it too far, he said, firing on U.S.
33:03
Speaker 1: and Israeli ships, killing international mariners, disrupting the flow of
33:08
Speaker 1: commercial traffic in the Red Sea. The Biden administration launched
33:13
Speaker 1: military strikes against the Houthis beginning in January of 2024,
33:17
Speaker 1: and the Houthis appear undeterred. The Trump administration launched Rough
33:25
Speaker 1: Rider on March 15, 2025. A few days later, he
33:29
Speaker 1: declared that tremendous damage had been inflicted on the Houthi
33:33
Speaker 1: barbarians and would get worse. It's not even a fair
33:36
Speaker 1: fight and never will be, Trump wrote in a social
33:40
Speaker 1: media post. They will be completely annihilated. The cost and
33:47
Speaker 1: questions quickly mounted. Over the course of the operation, estimated
33:52
Speaker 1: at more than $ 1 billion, the Houthis continued to target U.S.
33:57
Speaker 1: warships in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways. U.S. forces
34:02
Speaker 1: struck a migrant detention center in Yemen in April of 2025,
34:07
Speaker 1: reportedly killing more than 68 civilians and injuring dozens more,
34:13
Speaker 1: according to the Human Rights Watch. The operation also was
34:18
Speaker 1: dogged by a Signalgate scandal in which senior Trump administration officials,
34:23
Speaker 1: including Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance, communicated about Roughrider
34:29
Speaker 1: in a group chat that accidentally included Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.
34:35
Speaker 1: The revelation was especially damaging for Hegseth, who had shared specific,
34:40
Speaker 1: advanced details about how the bombing would begin through the
34:44
Speaker 1: unclassified signal app. A review by the Pentagon Inspector General,
34:49
Speaker 1: released in December, found that Hegseth's actions created a risk
34:55
Speaker 1: to operational security, though the Secretary of Defense and his
34:59
Speaker 1: team claimed total exoneration. The Trump administration began looking for
35:05
Speaker 1: an exit from Rough Rider just a couple of weeks
35:08
Speaker 1: into the bombing campaign, said Alley of the Washington Institute.
35:13
Speaker 1: There had been an assumption going into the campaign that
35:16
Speaker 1: you could go in and coerce the Houthis with overwhelming
35:19
Speaker 1: power to change their behavior. But Trump lacked a clear
35:23
Speaker 1: exit strategy, Ali said. So when Oman, long a mediator
35:28
Speaker 1: in the region, approached the administration saying that the Houthis
35:32
Speaker 1: wanted a truce, Trump took it. One of the people
35:36
Speaker 1: familiar with the internal deliberations at the Pentagon said that
35:41
Speaker 1: the abrupt end to Rough Rider was bolstered the belief
35:44
Speaker 1: among internal critics that the offensive's objectives were never clear
35:49
Speaker 1: in the first place. It almost seemed, this person said,
35:53
Speaker 1: that Trump had buyer's remorse. The deal, Trump said at
35:58
Speaker 1: the time, was simple. The Houthis would stop firing at U.S.
36:02
Speaker 1: ships if U.S. stopped firing at the Houthis. We hit
36:07
Speaker 1: them very hard. They had a great ability to withstand punishment.
36:12
Speaker 1: Trump said in announcing the ceasefire. You could say there
36:15
Speaker 1: was a lot of bravery there. Yemen's Saudi-backed coalition government
36:21
Speaker 1: was supportive of Roughrider and caught off guard when it ended,
36:24
Speaker 1: according to a Yemeni official who spoke on the condition
36:27
Speaker 1: of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. The
36:32
Speaker 1: Trump administration did not read the situation strategically, said the official.
36:37
Speaker 1: They just wanted a quick win. It was not long,
36:41
Speaker 1: the person said, before the Houthis rebuilt everything. In recent weeks,
36:47
Speaker 1: the Houthis have repeatedly attacked oil infrastructure and military bases
36:52
Speaker 1: in Saudi Arabia, which also saw its key east-west oil
36:56
Speaker 1: pipeline attacked by Iraqi militias. As Saudi Arabia, long a
37:03
Speaker 1: key U.S. ally, faces its biggest threats in years, it
37:07
Speaker 1: has confronted Trump's unwillingness, to get more involved, and looked
37:12
Speaker 1: to new partners for help in confronting the Houthis. Nadwa al-Daswari,
37:19
Speaker 1: Yemeni researcher and conflict analyst, said the Trump administration never
37:25
Speaker 1: should have seen the truce as a win. The Houthis
37:29
Speaker 1: have learned how to use negotiations, ceasefires, and truces as
37:34
Speaker 1: a tactic to preserve their power, rebuild their capabilities, and
37:39
Speaker 1: prepare for the next round of conflict, she said. Houthi
37:43
Speaker 1: spokesperson Mohammed Abdul Salam said that Rough Rider sparked widespread
37:49
Speaker 1: resentment regarding the U.S. and led to an influx of volunteers. Yemen,
37:56
Speaker 1: he said in a written statement to the Post, is
37:58
Speaker 1: known as the graveyard of invaders. Anyone who has attempted
38:03
Speaker 1: to colonize or occupy the country, he said, has left burdens.
38:08
Speaker 1: by woes, sorrow, failure, and defeat. Trump stuck a conciliatory
38:15
Speaker 1: tone in recent weeks when talking about the Houthis, saying
38:19
Speaker 1: last month in Ireland that the Houthis called us and
38:23
Speaker 1: they don't want to fight us. Everything will work out
38:26
Speaker 1: very well, he said. The Yemeni officials said they fear
38:30
Speaker 1: the Trump administration still does not understand the threat that
38:34
Speaker 1: the Houthis pose. noting that the group is already working
38:38
Speaker 1: extensively with al-Shabaab in Somalia and have clearly stated intentions
38:45
Speaker 1: to push the U.S. out of the region and destroy
38:49
Speaker 1: the State of Israel. The lesson I learned over the
38:53
Speaker 1: past 10 years is to take the Houthis seriously, the
38:57
Speaker 1: official added. I'm not sure if the United States learned
39:01
Speaker 1: the same lesson. Alley said that the Trump decision last
39:06
Speaker 1: year to forge a truce with the Houthis had the
39:11
Speaker 1: intended consequence of showing the militant group the limits of
39:15
Speaker 1: Trump's willingness to escalate, giving them additional room to maneuver.
39:21
Speaker 1: Trump may be done with the Houthis, she said, but
39:24
Speaker 1: the Houthis are not done with Trump. Next story. Senator
39:30
Speaker 1: Kennedy says he's weighing a White House run. Why not
39:35
Speaker 1: me on a rainy day? Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana,
39:40
Speaker 1: said Sunday that he is considering a run for president,
39:45
Speaker 1: but has not made up his mind. Kennedy said on
39:48
Speaker 1: NBC's Meet the Press, that he is planning to run
39:51
Speaker 1: for re-election to the Senate, but would run for president
39:55
Speaker 1: if he felt he could no longer be effective in
39:57
Speaker 1: Congress and the field of White House candidates wasn't strong enough.
40:02
Speaker 1: What's the old judge's song? Why not me on a
40:06
Speaker 1: rainy day, he said. But I haven't made that decision. Kennedy,
40:10
Speaker 1: who is 74, is an ally of President Trump's, but
40:15
Speaker 1: has criticized him on some issues. He is known for
40:18
Speaker 1: his quips and colorful southernisms. Vice President J.D. Vance is
40:24
Speaker 1: widely seen by many in his party as the likely
40:27
Speaker 1: 2028 GOP presidential frontrunner. But that has not stopped others
40:32
Speaker 1: from dropping hints about a possible run, including Senator Ted Cruz,
40:37
Speaker 1: the Republican of Texas who has visited Iowa, the first
40:41
Speaker 1: GOP-nominating state, and Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, He
40:47
Speaker 1: said he's considering running and will make a decision after
40:50
Speaker 1: the midterms. On my side of the aisle, if a
40:54
Speaker 1: bunch of goobers run, and I think they're goobers, and
40:58
Speaker 1: one of the goobers might win, then I think I
41:01
Speaker 1: could do a better job and I would consider running,
41:04
Speaker 1: Kennedy said. But right now, I'm running for re-election. Next.
41:10
Speaker 1: The U.S. military removes bombers from the U.K. base targeted
41:15
Speaker 1: in a suspected terrorist plot. The U.S. military has removed
41:21
Speaker 1: all of its bombers from Royal Air Force Fairford, a
41:24
Speaker 1: base that authorities in the United Kingdom call the target
41:28
Speaker 1: of a suspected terror plot. The Pentagon confirmed the redeployment
41:33
Speaker 1: of the aircraft in a statement Sunday. While operational security
41:37
Speaker 1: precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets, the
41:40
Speaker 1: and forces in real time, we can acknowledge now that
41:45
Speaker 1: all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have
41:49
Speaker 1: been redeployed to their home stations in the United States,
41:52
Speaker 1: the Pentagon statement said and gave no further details. U.S.
41:57
Speaker 1: bombers have taken off from RAF Fairford for strikes on Iran.
42:03
Speaker 1: The decision to return the aircraft comes a week after
42:06
Speaker 1: five men were arrested near the base on suspicion of
42:09
Speaker 1: preparing a terrorist act and of violating Britain's Explosives Act.
42:15
Speaker 1: The three vans found with five men were inspected, but
42:18
Speaker 1: no explosions were found. Five of the suspects were released
42:23
Speaker 1: on bail the day after their arrest. On October 1st,
42:28
Speaker 1: British police arrested another man with dual British-Iranian citizenship, suspicion
42:34
Speaker 1: of his involvement with the plot. He was also released
42:38
Speaker 1: on bail, authorities said. In an interview with the BBC
42:41
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that they
42:46
Speaker 1: were strong in indications that Iran was involved in the
42:51
Speaker 1: suspected terror plot. Iran's embassy in the UK denied any
42:57
Speaker 1: involvement with the plot in a statement to social media
43:00
Speaker 1: on September 28. Earlier this year, former U.K. Prime Minister
43:06
Speaker 1: Keir Starmer granted a request from the U.S. to use
43:09
Speaker 1: the base for specific and limited defense strikes against Iran.
43:14
Speaker 1: Iran's foreign ministry has condemned that decision. And our next story,
43:21
Speaker 1: Dying on the Vine. How a farmer ended up with 1,600
43:26
Speaker 1: tons of unwanted grapes. Mark Terrell knows when it's time
43:32
Speaker 1: to harvest. because the air starts to smell like a
43:35
Speaker 1: freshly opened jar of grape jelly. That's usually when Terrell
43:39
Speaker 1: drives his harvesting tractor through his 200-acre vineyard on the
43:43
Speaker 1: shores of Lake Erie, shaking millions of conquered grapes from
43:47
Speaker 1: the vines to be processed into juice. But after a
43:51
Speaker 1: juice company abruptly canceled its contract with Terrell and about
43:56
Speaker 1: 125 other grape farmers in northwest Pennsylvania and western New York,
44:02
Speaker 1: Terrell's farm vehicles remained parked. It's stressful because I put
44:08
Speaker 1: everything I had into this, Terrell said as he scanned
44:12
Speaker 1: his 120,000 grape vines. Now it's dying on the vine.
44:17
Speaker 1: After months of frantically trying to find a new buyer,
44:21
Speaker 1: Terrell and other farmers in one of the nation's most
44:24
Speaker 1: abundant fruit-growing regions are preparing to let their grapes fall
44:29
Speaker 1: to the ground. The crisis threatens to reshape local economies
44:35
Speaker 1: in two states as grape farmers come to terms with
44:38
Speaker 1: shifting consumer behavior, including sharp declines in fruit juice and
44:43
Speaker 1: wine consumption. We don't get demand back up. There's a
44:49
Speaker 1: chance we'll have to start taking the vineyards out, said
44:52
Speaker 1: Anna Marie Lebowski, a grape farmer and a Pennsylvania Farm
44:56
Speaker 1: Bureau board member. Some farmers... already putting their land up
45:01
Speaker 1: for sale. Terrell has about 1,600 tons of product, at
45:06
Speaker 1: least 200 million individual grapes that will soon rot. Farmers
45:12
Speaker 1: are scrambling to limit the waste. Some are considering inviting
45:17
Speaker 1: the public to pick their own grapes, though they stress
45:20
Speaker 1: that residents won't be able to help them eat their
45:23
Speaker 1: way out of this. Even if 50 people came here
45:27
Speaker 1: and handpicked grapes, They might get rid of a ton
45:30
Speaker 1: or two, Terrell said. That is still way short of
45:35
Speaker 1: the scale at which these Concord grapes are being produced.
45:40
Speaker 1: Grape farmers across the world are experiencing similar problems. Both
45:45
Speaker 1: wine and fruit juice sales have declined dramatically in recent years,
45:51
Speaker 1: a trend driven by healthier habits, including consuming less sugar.
45:56
Speaker 1: Some farmers in California are ripping out their vineyards as
46:01
Speaker 1: they search for new crops. Others are selling their land
46:05
Speaker 1: to developers. The troubles around Lake Erie, the nation's second
46:10
Speaker 1: largest grape-growing region behind California, started this spring when Refresco,
46:17
Speaker 1: a Netherlands-based beverage company, canceled its contract with farmers. Farmers
46:23
Speaker 1: say they were blindsided by the decision after they'd spent
46:27
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of dollars to prune and fertilize their
46:30
Speaker 1: vines over the winter. Everything came to a screeching halt,
46:34
Speaker 1: said Terrell, who was forced to lay off two of
46:37
Speaker 1: his farmhands. Antonella Sacconi, Refresco's communication manager, said the cancellations
46:45
Speaker 1: followed a comprehensive assessment of current inventory levels, market demand,
46:51
Speaker 1: long-term supply needs. We deeply value the relationships we have
46:57
Speaker 1: built with our growers, many of whom we have partnered
47:01
Speaker 1: with for more than two decades, and we recognize the
47:04
Speaker 1: significance of this change for them and their local communities,
47:07
Speaker 1: Ciccone said. This decision is the result of sustained grape
47:13
Speaker 1: market challenges and supply imbalances that we do not expect
47:18
Speaker 1: will recover in the foreseeable future. The company said Concord
47:23
Speaker 1: grape juice sales had declined by 30% over the past decade.
47:28
Speaker 1: Besides being livid with refresco, grape farmers are divided over
47:33
Speaker 1: who is to blame for their faltering industry. Several Pennsylvania
47:38
Speaker 1: farmers say the decline in grape juice sales began after
47:41
Speaker 1: First Lady Michelle Obama began her campaign to fight childhood obesity.
47:47
Speaker 1: which led some parents and school systems to limit juice products.
47:53
Speaker 1: But juice, jelly, and wine sales subsequently spiked during the pandemic,
47:59
Speaker 1: causing some farmers to expand their vineyards. Juice and wine
48:04
Speaker 1: sales then rapidly started declining as schools reopened and parents
48:09
Speaker 1: returned to work, leading to an oversupply. Near the Canadian border,
48:14
Speaker 1: farmers had hoped some of the surplus could be sold abroad.
48:18
Speaker 1: That has been complicated by President Trump's tariff policies, farmers
48:24
Speaker 1: and industry experts say. This has been building, said Russell Redding,
48:30
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania's Agricultural Secretary, who added that grape farmers are now
48:35
Speaker 1: being forced to ask what else they can do if
48:38
Speaker 1: demand does not rebound. There are about 500 grape farms
48:43
Speaker 1: between Erie, Pennsylvania and Buffalo. The first vineyards in northeast
48:48
Speaker 1: where Terrell lives were planted by immigrant families around 1850,
48:54
Speaker 1: according to local historians. Grapes flourish here because Lake Erie's
49:00
Speaker 1: relatively warm waters help fend off frost in the fall.
49:05
Speaker 1: In spring, the icy lake plays the opposite role by
49:09
Speaker 1: chilling the air so grape buds don't open too early.
49:14
Speaker 1: The region's sandy and gravelly soil left behind after the
49:18
Speaker 1: Ice Age helps anchor the vines. Northeast's roughly 10,000 residents
49:24
Speaker 1: consider the Concord grape to be the major part of
49:27
Speaker 1: their identity. A sign in the municipal building states Northeast
49:32
Speaker 1: is a grape place to be on a great lake,
49:36
Speaker 1: and the high school's mascot is a grape picker. This
49:41
Speaker 1: has always been a place where people have found a
49:44
Speaker 1: way to sell their grapes, said Tom Asselli, a retired
49:48
Speaker 1: mechanic who at times has worked at vineyards in the area.
49:52
Speaker 1: We need to do more to sell people on the
49:55
Speaker 1: benefits of grape juice. And for now, the economic blow
50:00
Speaker 1: of Refresco cancels contracts is softened because another major grape buyer, Welch's,
50:07
Speaker 1: has kept its contract with the farmer's maintains a manufacturing
50:11
Speaker 1: plant in town. But some farmers fear Welch's could eventually
50:17
Speaker 1: cut back too, which they say would further stress vineyard
50:21
Speaker 1: owners facing rising diesel, fertilizer, and labor costs. People are
50:27
Speaker 1: not drinking as much juice, so I don't think it's sustainable,
50:31
Speaker 1: said David Maynard, who is 83 and a second-generation Pennsylvania
50:36
Speaker 1: grape farmer who sells his crop to Welch's. But what
50:40
Speaker 1: else are you going to do with your grapes? Pennsylvania
50:44
Speaker 1: and New York officials have tried to protect the industry.
50:48
Speaker 1: In July, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced the state would
50:53
Speaker 1: spend $ 500, 000 to buy 350 tons of grapes from about
50:59
Speaker 1: a dozen growers, including Terrell. The grapes will be turned
51:02
Speaker 1: into juice concentrate and given to food banks. Though they
51:08
Speaker 1: appreciate the help, Terrell and other growers said the state plan,
51:12
Speaker 1: which amounts to about 40 tons per grower, is just
51:16
Speaker 1: a tiny percentage of their overall crop. Meanwhile, Senate Minority
51:23
Speaker 1: Leader Chuck Schumer, the Democrat of New York, and members
51:26
Speaker 1: of his state delegation announced in August that the U.S.
51:30
Speaker 1: Department of Agriculture has agreed to purchase $ 20 million in
51:34
Speaker 1: surplus Concord grape juice supplies. But buying existing juice doesn't
51:41
Speaker 1: address the grapes that are about to die on farmers'
51:44
Speaker 1: vines this fall, said Sam Vallone, 67, who produces about
51:49
Speaker 1: 400 tons of grapes annually and lost his contract with Refresco.
51:56
Speaker 1: Auday Waterlot, an assistant professor of food science and nutrition
52:01
Speaker 1: at the Iowa State University, said grape growers realize they
52:06
Speaker 1: need to find other uses for their crops Researchers are
52:10
Speaker 1: studying whether grapes or grape waste could be used for compost,
52:15
Speaker 1: animal feed, or even as an ingredient in meat products,
52:19
Speaker 1: she said. Redding, the state agricultural secretary, agrees that farmers
52:25
Speaker 1: are going to have to get creative about where they
52:28
Speaker 1: put their grapes in terms of flavors and ingredients. You
52:33
Speaker 1: have to find out what part of that products are
52:36
Speaker 1: as valuable as the fruit itself, said Redding. comparing it
52:40
Speaker 1: to innovations that took place in the milk industry about
52:43
Speaker 1: 15 years ago. Terrell said he's constantly agonizing over how
52:49
Speaker 1: he can salvage his crop. He grew up around grapes
52:54
Speaker 1: in western New York, where he worked at his cousin's vineyard.
52:58
Speaker 1: After leaving graduate school and moving to the Erie region,
53:03
Speaker 1: Terrell bought his farm for about a million dollars in
53:05
Speaker 1: 2012 and spent another $ 500, 000 16,000-pound grape harvester and other equipment.
53:14
Speaker 1: He said it typically turned a profit despite an annual $ 100, 000
53:19
Speaker 1: mortgage payment and other bills. Two years ago, Terrell noted,
53:24
Speaker 1: Refresco was paying him $ 430 a ton for grapes. Terrell
53:30
Speaker 1: said finding an alternative use for his Concord grapes poses
53:34
Speaker 1: a challenge because they have a relatively short shelf life.
53:39
Speaker 1: Once picked, He said they should be processed within eight hours.
53:45
Speaker 1: He worries that switching to another crop would not be practical. First,
53:51
Speaker 1: he'd have to pay someone to remove the grape vines.
53:54
Speaker 1: There aren't a lot of crops that thrive in the
53:56
Speaker 1: region's rocky soil as grapes do. And selling his land
54:02
Speaker 1: in a region where the population continues to get smaller
54:05
Speaker 1: could prove difficult. Terrell, who has a two-year-old daughter and
54:10
Speaker 1: a two-week-year-old son, said he'll try to cover this year's
54:14
Speaker 1: mortgage payment with his savings. But another lost harvest could
54:19
Speaker 1: leave his family in financial ruin. You're just watching money
54:25
Speaker 1: and a way of life fall to the ground, he said.
54:27
Speaker 1: There's still one solution, Terrell said as his red-ticked coonhound
54:32
Speaker 1: Rusty pranced among the grapevines alongside him. This problem would
54:37
Speaker 1: go away people would just buy a jug of grape juice.
54:43
Speaker 1: And next, scientists uncover a clue that could hint why
54:47
Speaker 1: we regain weight after diets. Researchers have long puzzled over
54:53
Speaker 1: why people who diet or take weight loss drugs are
54:57
Speaker 1: quick to regain weight after they stop. A new study
55:01
Speaker 1: has proposed a potential clue, a chemical mechanism. It may
55:06
Speaker 1: encourage fat cells to continue making a hormone that makes
55:09
Speaker 1: us hungry and create a memory of obesity even after
55:13
Speaker 1: weight loss. Scientists caution that the study's evidence involves mice
55:19
Speaker 1: and is not proof of the mechanisms that explain weight regain.
55:23
Speaker 1: But it's a step forward and a growing understanding of
55:26
Speaker 1: the cellular functions and changes underlying obesity, experts said. Recent
55:32
Speaker 1: studies have challenged the idea that inactivity is the main
55:36
Speaker 1: cause of obesity and identified other genetic factors such as
55:40
Speaker 1: impaired GLP-1 production associated with some types of obesity. As
55:46
Speaker 1: weight loss drugs become more popular, understanding why their effects
55:51
Speaker 1: can wear off so quickly once people stop taking the
55:53
Speaker 1: medications is becoming more important, the study's author said. Beyond
55:59
Speaker 1: losing weight, the researchers said treating obesity could require tackling
56:05
Speaker 1: a biological memory in our cells. If we understand where
56:10
Speaker 1: that memory is coming from, maybe eventually we'll have some
56:14
Speaker 1: way to stop that, said Seth Field, a professor of
56:17
Speaker 1: medicine in endocrinology at Case Western Reserve University and the
56:21
Speaker 1: author of the study published September in Cell Reports. The
56:27
Speaker 1: idea that cells can carry a memory of obesity is
56:30
Speaker 1: not new, but researchers are still trying to understand the
56:34
Speaker 1: mechanism of how it influences weight regain. Though epigenetics, scientists
56:39
Speaker 1: are examining how external factors can affect how our cells
56:43
Speaker 1: behave by altering chemical markers which can turn genes and
56:47
Speaker 1: certain cellular functions on and off. A study in 2024
56:52
Speaker 1: examined how obesity can cause epigenetics changes. It suggested that
56:57
Speaker 1: fat cells in both humans and mice retain lasting epigenetic
57:02
Speaker 1: changes after weight loss. Mice with these cellular differences quickly
57:07
Speaker 1: regained weight, but researchers did not have a definitive answer
57:11
Speaker 1: to explain why. The September study focused on epigenetic changes
57:16
Speaker 1: that affect the production of an appetite-suppressing hormone, asprosin. Researchers
57:22
Speaker 1: found that mice were made to gain weight again gained
57:26
Speaker 1: high levels of asoprosin that lingered even after they lost weight.
57:31
Speaker 1: Their hunger is stuck in the on position, said Atul Chopra,
57:35
Speaker 1: an associate professor of medicine and genetics and genomics at
57:39
Speaker 1: Case Western University and as author of the study. The
57:45
Speaker 1: reason asoprosin lingers in the body could be tied to
57:49
Speaker 1: the way a chemical messenger acts on fat cells, according
57:53
Speaker 1: to Chopra's team. chemical TGFB1 is associated with inflammation and
58:05
Speaker 1: elevated during obesity. It stimulates the production of asprosin. Chopra
58:11
Speaker 1: said that for now, the main takeaway for patients and
58:14
Speaker 1: physicians from obesity research should be that managing the condition
58:19
Speaker 1: is not just a matter of willpower or personal behavior.
58:24
Speaker 1: This concludes the reading of the Washington Post for today. Today, Monday,
58:28
Speaker 1: October 5th. Your reader's been Rod Brotherton. As always, thank
58:31
Speaker 1: you for listening. And now, please stay tuned for continued
58:35
Speaker 1: programming right here on Radio Eye.