Transcript

7.28.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody, and we start another week by the
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reading of the Washington Post for this Monday, July twenty eight.
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As a reminder, Radio I is a reading service intended
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for people who are blind or have other disabilities that
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make it difficult to read printed material. Your reader for
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today is Rod Brotherton, And as usually on Monday, we
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start by reading Paul Prather's weekly column from the Heral Eider.
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But it's summer. Faull's on vacation this last week apparently,
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so let's go right to the Washington Post and the
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first story is Trump and the European Union reach contours
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of a trade deal with fifteen percent tariffs from Edinburgh, Scotland.
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President Trump on Sunday touted a trade agreement with the
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European Union following months of contentious negotiations with one of
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the United States top trading partners. Trump said he would
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impose a fifteen percent duty on most imports from the
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European Union, about half of his latest threat of thirty
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percent in levies. The White House did not immediately release
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specific details of the trade agreement, which are traditionally hundreds
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of pages long and take years to negotiate. It's great
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that we made a deal today instead of playing games
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and maybe not making a deal at all, Trump said.
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Trump and European Commission President Ursulevanderneden announced the outlines of
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the deal Sunday at Trump Turnberry, one of two golf
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courses that the president owns in Scotland. Both sought to
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paint the accord as the biggest deal ever made, but
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it was unclear if they were on the same page
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about how steel and other critical products would be effected.
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The agreement is likely to become a roadmap for further
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more detailed talks. From the end of World War II
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until Trump's twenty sixty election, the US largely designated trade
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agreements to the lower cost of trading with other countries,
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often through eliminating tariffs. Trump's protectionist to trade strategy stands
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to reverse decades of US globalization efforts in ways that
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could increase the prices of many goods for American customers.
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The US importers pay these import fees, and those costs
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are often passed on to businesses and consumers who buy them.
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As a result, many view these tariffs as taxes on
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the am users. Leaders from around the world are rushing
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to strike trade agreements with Trump ahead of an August
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first deadline, where the White House is pledged to begin
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collecting new fees on imports from dozens of countries. With
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few details made public, many trade specialists were reluctant to
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comment on the announced agreement between the US and the EU.
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Some noted that earlier presidential announcements of trade talks and
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deals have actually referred to skeleton agreements that require additional
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negotiations to finalize. Is this really a trade deal? Ask
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Lori Wallack, director of the Rethriink Trade Initiative, which generally
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supports the President's aims of shrinking the trade deficit. The
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White House has announced several recent trade announcements with grade fanfare,
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only to have questions emerge in subsequent days about exactly
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what had been agreed with countries such as Japan and Vietnam.
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The White House said it reached a historic agreement with
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the United Kingdom and May, but months later British Prime
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Minister Keir Starmer is expected to meet with Trump on
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Monday to hammer out the particulars where the EU. A
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fifteen percent blanket tariff is far worse than what European
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officials had previously hoped for and significantly higher than pre
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Trump levels, but the Block has sought to avoid an
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all out trade war with its traditionally closest commercial and
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military Ally, the contours of the deal do not include
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additional EU tariffs on US goods. The Block, which acts
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as a single market on trade, has held fire on
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relation for months to allow the deal, even as policymakers
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prepare a sweeping list of more than one hundred billion
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dollars worth of US goods that the Block could hit
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with its own tariffs if talks collapsed. Washington also let
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go of some grievances that it was adamant would be
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necessary to address. The administration had pressed the EU for
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concessions on tech industry regulations and food standards, which EU
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officials assisted insisted were non negotiable. After months of uncertainty,
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EU officials say they wanted a pack that gives key
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industries some stability. Today with this deal, we are creating
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more predictability for our businesses in these turbulent times. It
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is necessary for our companies to be able to plan
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and to invest. Wunderland told reporters after the announcement, we
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are ensuring immediate terror relief. The Trump administration has struck
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a handful of trade frameworks. The deals with large economies
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have proved more time intensive than the administration anticipated. In April,
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a top Trump trade advisor predicted that the White House
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would make ninety deals in ninety days. This month, Trump
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extended the tariff deadline to August first, and began sending
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letters to dictate new terraff rates to many of the
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countries that did not yet have a deal under the
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agreement amount. Sunday, Trump said the EU agrees to purchase
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seven hundred and fifty billion dollars in energy and invest
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more in the United States. The levees on cars will
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also be fifteen percent, down from the existing twenty five percent.
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The EU will also increase its purchases of US military equipment.
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Trump sid vander Land said the fifteen percent levee would
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apply to the vast majority of EU exports, including cars,
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and that there would be no stacking of additional terraffs.
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She said the two sides had agreed to eliminate tariffs
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on strategic products such as aircraft parts, some agricultural products,
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and camimmicals, and we will keep working to add more
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products to that list. During negotiations, the EU has tried
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to secure exemptions from the US tariff regime for key
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sectors such as booze and aircraft. Wonderland said that Sunday's
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agreement provides a framework, but that details will have to
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be sorted out in the coming weeks, including a decision
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on spirits and wine. On steel, Trump had indicated that
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a fifty percent tariff would remain in place, describing it
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as a worldwide thing that stays the way it is.
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Wonderland meanwhile suggested steel tariffs would be cut in further
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talks on establishing a Court of system. Pharmaceuticals for the
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block's top export to the US last year, and the
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Trump administration is expected to impose new levies on prescription
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drugs as other products such as semiconductors. The United States
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will impose a fifteen percent tariff on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors
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from the EU, according to a White House spokesperson who
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spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail the private conversations.
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Wonderland also said the EU's understanding was that pharmaceuticals coming
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from the Block would only be tariffed at that rate,
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though other countries probably will face higher tariffs on these goods.
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Trump frequently complains about the yawing gap in the USU
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merchandise trade. Last year, the US imported about six hundred
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and six billion dollars worth of European products while selling
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goods totaling about three hundred and seventy billion to European buyers,
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resulting two hundred and thirty six billion dollar trade deficit.
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Is Evidence of European unfairness consists, but the US runs
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a sizeable surplus of its own in trade in services
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such as financial advice, tourism, and education, bringing the total
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trade relationship much closer to ballots. Considering the total one
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point eight trillion dollars of goods and services that flow
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between the US and the EU, the US trade deficit
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is less than one hundred billion dollars, which most economists
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say is inconsequential. Cutting tariffs on European automobile exports has
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been a sticking point in the negotiations, particularly for Germany,
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which is the biggest EU exporter of goods to the
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United States. Trump said the EU would lift barriers for
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American companies and suggested that Europeans would enjoy American SUVs
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and pickup trucks. The EU has a ten percent tariff
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on imported automobile which applies to US vehicles. Analysts say
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that regardless of tariffs and EU regulations, the US as
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unlikely to find more sales for its vehicles on a
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continent with small roads little interest in big American cars.
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Head of the meeting with vonder Land, Trump told reporters
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he was not in a good mood and said there
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were about four sticking points holding up the talks in
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the twenty seven nation block. But vonder Land sought to
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appeal to his vision of himself as a deal maker,
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telling Trump they had the opportunity to strike the biggest
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deal each of US has ever struck. She painted the
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negotiations as its success and her appearance at Trump Turnberry,
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calling it a good deal and a huge deal. Shortly after,
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during another news conference, she called the tariff on car
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ours the best we could get. And the next story
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Israel lets more aid trucks into Gaza. Under pressure over
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a hunger crisis, Israel on Sunday began allowing more trucks
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of food aid into Gaza, and it resumed supplying power
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to a critical water treatment plant, marking a political turnaround.
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Nearly five months after Prime Minist Rednement yet to Yahoo's
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government started tightly controlling the flow of humanitarian aid to
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pressure Hamas. It was not immediately clear how much more
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aid would enter Gaza daily, but UN officials said Sunday
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that Israel appeared willing to loosen some policies at a
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critical juncture when the humanitarian crisis in the territory is
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growing more severe. Images and reports of the growing hunger
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crisis have drawn global condemnation of Israel and its restriction
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on aid. Scores of trucks from Egypt and Jordan set
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up for Gaza early Sunday, and the Israeli military said
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it would facilitate the movement of UN and other AID
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convoys inside the besieged territory. UN officials estimate that about
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sixty two thousand metric tons of food per month are
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roughly one hundred and twenty trucks a day are needed
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to cover basic human needs. Later Sunday, You and Aid
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Chief com Fletcher said in a statement that initial reports
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indicated that over one hundred truckloads were collected from the
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Gaza side of the crossings with Israel. In addition, Israel
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permitted multiple countries to begin air dropping food into Gaza
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on Sunday, after the Israeli Air Force delivered a small
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initial package Saturday night, but far more food can be
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transported over land. An AID profession have been urgently calling
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on Israel to lift restrictions on un AID operations, which
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have been heavily criticized by Israel, but are considered the
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most effective ways to supply nearly two million Gazans four months.
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Right wing Israeli politicians and military hardliners have justified the
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restrictions on the United Nations by arguing that its supplies
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often fall into the hands of Hamas militants, claim that
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has been rejected by Western governments and UMAN officials. Facilitating
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the free flow of UNAID now would represent a significant
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policy ship for Israel. Months after its sideline the International
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body and back to privately run venture called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,
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the foundation of a US registered nonprofit, has come under
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criticism for supplying inadequate amounts of food the only parts
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of the Gaza strip and leaving packages at chaotic sites
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were mobs of desperate AID seekers often come into contact
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with Israeli troops. Since May, when Israel began to restrict
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UN operations and rely on the GHF, more than one
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thousand Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking aid,
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the majority of them near the foundation's food collection sites,
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according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for
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Human Rights. The GHF denies there has been any violence
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inside the sites themselves. On Sunday, Gaza's Health Ministry recorded
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six new deaths from malnutrition, bringing the total to one
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hundred and thirty three, including eighty seven children. A month ago,
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the number of deaths from starvation during the war stood
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at sixty five. Medics have said the ministry's figures are
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probably an undercount, given that malnutrition is rarely listed as
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the primary cause of death, that once mass hunger sets in,
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fatalities may rise exponentially. The statement Sunday, The World Health
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Organization also said the numbers were likely an underestimation due
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to the severe access and security constraints preventing many families
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from reaching health facilities, and Israeli military official acknowledge to
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reporters last week that Gaza was facing a lack of
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food security, but denied there was famine Shira Ephron, research
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director at the Israel Policy Forum, an American Jewish organization
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that advocates for a two state solution to the conflict,
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said the Israeli reversal on aid trucks was a response
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to several factors, including mounting criticism from an important European
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ally and increasing dire situation in Gaza, and a recognition
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the tactics to pressure Hamas have not brought about the
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surrender of the militant group which leads the government in Gaza.
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There's a lot of mental gymnastics from the Israeli bureaucracy
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calculating the calories to get into Gaza, but those pictures
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coming out of Gaza are getting hard to ignore. If
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Ron said. The real issue is the strategic dead block
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Israel is in. When Israel violated the last ceasefire in March,
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it vowed that with greater military pressure, with the prevention
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of humanitarian aid falling into Hamas, and with the introduction
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of the GHF, Hamas will wave the white flat. She added, Yet,
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that combination of strategies has not helped bring Hamas closer
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to surrender. If we're still far from a ceasefire, then
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Israel has to do something. The remarks shared by his office,
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net Yahoo said Sunday during a visit to a military
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base that Israel will need to continue allowing the entry
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of minimal humanitarian aid. We have done so until now.
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Maintained his criticism of the UN for creating an excuse
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and a lie about the state of Israel, but said
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that Israel will designate secure routes inside Gaza for its
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A convoys. According to Fletcher of the United Nations and
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an internal uit memo seen by The Washington Post, Israel
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has guaranteed that there would be an uptick in aid
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and tactical pauses in fighting to allow its delivery for
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only one week. Affected Sunday, Israeli military official, speaking on
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the condition of anonymity in linement protocol, said he was
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unaware that there was a week long limitation to the
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age restrictions being lifted. The military publicly said it would
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carry out tactical pauses in three areas of Gaza along
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the densely populated coastline to facilitate the increased entry of
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aid until further notice, although these areas have not seen
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intensive military operations. You An officials said Sunny that they
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were still trying to ascertain details from Israeli officials about
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how the new policies will be implemented. If they welcome
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the news, there is an opportunity to use the opening
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for the possible scale up whoever we can and save
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lives as much as operational reality will allow, Ramier Halak Kabaf,
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the humanitarian coordinator for the Paliestarian Palestinian Territories, said in
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the internal memo. Several foreign governments and political leaders also
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welcomed Netanyahu's decision to implement and fighting in air drops.
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He said the measures were not enough. Whilst air drops
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will help to alleviate the worst of the suffering, land
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routes serve as the only viable and sustainable means of
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providing aid into Gaza, British Foreign Secretary David Lemmy said
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in a statement these measures must be fully implemented and
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further barriers on aid removed. The world is watching. On
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Sunday twenty one, Democratic senators issued a letter to Secretary
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of State Marco Rubio calling for the reinstatement of un
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LED aid distribution in Gaza and the defunding of the GHF,
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the private organization's food collection sites have become a death trap.
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Senator Chris van Holland, the Democrat of Maryland, said Sunday
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on CBS's face the nation, it was a big lie
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from Israel and the Trump administration that the un LED
20:01
distribution program was bank rolling Halas. Van Holland said, the
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real goal of this other effort is to use food
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as a weapon of war and population control. The spokesman
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for GHF did not immediately respond to a request for commeda.
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Apart from the announced changes to aid distribution, Israel resumed
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supplying electricity to a coastal desalinization plant that had been
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shut in March it's pressure from right wing politicians. The plant,
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which resumed operation Sunday, is now producing about eighteen thousand
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cubic meters of fresh water per day. Gaza's coastal Municipality's
20:42
water utility said residents have been facing a shortage of
20:47
fresh water who drinking and cooking, and AID agencies have
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reported an explosion of infectious diseases because of poor sanitation.
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Kailed Alsutan, a forty one year old who lives in
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a tent in Gaza's city's Al Karmaman neighborhood, said at
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around eleven thirty pm local time Saturday night, palettes containing flour,
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sugar and canned food suddenly fell from the sky and
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were immediately swarmed by thousands of people. I had no
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idea who sent them. There was no announcement, said Sultan,
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who managed to grab four small bags of flour. It
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was chaotic. People were yelling and fighting. Everyone just wanted
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to grab as much as they could. Anticipation was building
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among residents Sunday that an influx of aid would be
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coming over, the Sultan said. As of midday, thousands of
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people had already gathered in urban centers. While Palestinian tribal
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elders urged citizens not to swarm truck convoys, social media
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accounts showed that many trucks that entered Sunday were immediately looted.
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I'm scoring the chain challenges and delivering aid and hard
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to reach areas of the enclave. Even if israelists its
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controls at the border, people are starving and it's extremely
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difficult to maintain discipline under such conditions, said Allah Eldin
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al Akuk, a member of the Palestinian Tribal and Clans Council. Still,
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the relaxation of aid provoked an angry response almost immediately
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from the political far right. There's a small group of
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Israelis gathered Sunday morning to protest AID trucks entering from Egypt.
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Netanyahu's National Security Minister. The ultra nationalist settler leader Hitamar
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bin Gevir, took the social media to accuse the Prime
22:47
Minister of discussing and implementing the loosening of aid behind
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his back. On Saturday night, I was informed by a
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source in the Prime Minister's office that during the Sabbath
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security consult consultation was held without me. Bin Gver wrote
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on x it turns out that the alternative way is
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to surrender to Hamas in its false campaigns and to
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increase the humanitarian aid that reaches it directly. The only
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way to win the war and bring back the hostages
23:23
is to completely halt the humanitarian aid, conquer the entire
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Gaza strip, and encourage voluntary immigration. Gilil Telsher, a political
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scientist at Israel's Hebrew University, said to Nettaya, whose heavy
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restrictions on aid were becoming increasingly untenable. The weekend decision
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to allow in more food came only after the Israeli
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Parliament or kanessant entered at summer recess. She noted Taiya,
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who understands the international pressure is mounting that the situation
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cannot be resolved through all the obstacles he put himself
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into in order to protect his coalition, Halsheer said. And
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the next story, Trump fumes as Epstein scandal dominates headlines
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and overshadows agenda. President Trump is increasingly frustrated with his
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administration's handling of the fur around the Jeffrey Epstein files.
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Concerned the saga's unabated domination of the news is overshadowing
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his agenda, said two people familiar with his thinking. His
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exasperation follows weeks of missteps and no clear strategy among
24:48
top officials, who undermestimated the outrage, especially from the president's base.
24:54
I hope the country would forget about the unreleased Epstein
24:57
files and move on. According to nearly a people close
25:01
to the situation, any of whom spoke on the condition
25:04
of anonymity to disclose internal deliberations, this is a pretty
25:10
substantial distraction, said one person close to the situation. While
25:15
many are trying to keep the unity. In many ways,
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the DOJ and the FBI are breaking at the scenes.
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Many are wondering how sustainable this is going to be
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for all the parties involved, if the FBI director or
25:29
the Attorney General. Despite his frustration, Trump has been hesitant
25:35
to make personal changes. According to another person close to
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the President, he does not want to create a bigger
25:41
spectacle by firing anyone, this person said. At the center
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of the storm is Attorney General Pam Bondi, who for
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months made releasing the FBI's Epstein files one of her
25:54
signature initiatives. Her pledge intensified the clamor among members of
25:58
Trump's right wing base to release the files, amid speculation
26:03
that the undisclosed evidence could implicate defendancier and sex offender's
26:08
rich and powerful friends. But over the July fourth holiday weekend, Bondie,
26:14
her top deputy, and FBI leaders gave final approval to
26:19
an unsigned memo about the Epstein files that ignited a
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whole new funera. The memo said that Trump administration had
26:27
found no evidence to dispute that Epstein died by suicide
26:31
in jail in twenty nineteen, and said there was no
26:34
client list that would lead to them to prosecute anyone else. Additionally,
26:39
the memo said no more documents would be released in
26:43
order to protect the privacy of victims. The firestorm of
26:47
criticism has since consumed all three branches of government, giving
26:52
the Democrats a powerful new line of attack, left Trump
26:56
struggling to respond to the most intractable political crisises faced
27:01
since his return to the White House. They completely miscalculated
27:06
the fever pitch to which they built this up, said
27:09
Stephen A. Salzburg, a former Justice Department official in the
27:13
Reagan and George HW. Bush administrations who teaches at George
27:18
Washington University's law school. Now they seem to be in
27:23
full bore panic mode, trying to change the subject and
27:27
flailing in an effort to make sense of what makes
27:30
no sense. Four weeks after the memo's release, Trump and
27:34
Bondi spoke on the phone nearly daily, as they often do,
27:38
according to two people familiar with the calls, amid a
27:42
blowback that, unlike the president's previous controversies, has refused to
27:46
abate from the headlines. A steady series of announcements from
27:51
the administration has failed to quiet the clamor, including the
27:55
release of FBI records on the Martin Luther King Junior assassination,
28:00
a newly launched investigation into the former FBI director James B. Comy,
28:05
and even an explosive treason aggregation against former President Barack
28:10
Obama over the twenty sixteen presidential election, and poles continue
28:16
to show the public is skeptical about what the government
28:21
is telling it about Epstein. After Trump announced a major
28:25
trade agreement between the US and the European Union in
28:28
Scotland on Sunday, a reporter asked part of the rush
28:32
to get the deal done was to knock the Epstein
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story out of the headlines. Oh, you've gotta be kidding
28:39
me with that. Trump said, we had the greatest six
28:44
months of any president in the history of our country,
28:47
and all the fake news wants to talk about is
28:50
the Jeffrey Epstein hoax Trump vented on social media this month.
28:57
Attempts to assuage Trump's base with more Stein information have
29:01
often spurred more questions, said feveral people interviewed by The
29:06
Washington Post. They cited the FBI's release of twenty nineteen
29:11
security footage from outside Epstein's jail sale, where he was
29:14
intended to prove that he died by suicide, in debunk
29:18
conspiracy series that he was killed. After the release, FBI
29:22
Director Cash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino realized that
29:28
what they built is full. Raw footage was missing three minutes,
29:33
according to three people close to the FBI, and the
29:37
gap fueled more speculation. Bongino and Patel were included in drafting, approving,
29:44
and advocating the release of the memo that detailed their
29:47
decision not to release more from the files, according to
29:51
emails reviewed by The Post and three people closest to
29:54
the president, but since the backlash intensified, both privately grouped
30:01
that if they were in charge, they would have released
30:04
the Epstein files, redacting identifying information about victims. According to
30:09
two people familiar with private conversations, Bongino, a former Secret
30:15
Service officer turned podcast host the large right wing following,
30:20
was furious about the fallout over the memo and video release,
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the people said. In the days after, top officials in
30:29
the FBI and the Justice Department pointed fingers at one another.
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Bondi accused Bongino of leaking information to the media around
30:38
the handling of the Epstein files. According to three people
30:41
familiar with the conversations, and Bongino considered quitting his high
30:45
profile job, according to people familiar with his thinking and
30:49
a social media post from his ally and right wing
30:52
influencer Laura Lumer, though he has so far decided the stay.
31:00
Pressure intensified last week after The Wall Street Journal reported
31:04
that Bondi told Trump in a May Oval office meeting
31:07
with Patel that the President's name appeared multiple times in
31:11
the files. The mere presence of Trump's name or anyone
31:16
else's in the bureau's investigative documents does not necessarily suggest wrongdoing,
31:24
but Democrats in Congress latched onto that revelation as they
31:29
tried to keep attention on the case. Three people familiar
31:33
with the May meeting said Epstein was just one topic
31:37
of many in the regularly scheduled briefings with the president.
31:41
Bondie and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also told Trump
31:46
they did not want to release the files to protect
31:49
the privacy of the victims in the files and because
31:53
of the sexually explicit content in them, the people said.
31:58
Justice Department official stated that they drafted the Epstein memo
32:03
because its assertations contradicted past statements by high level members
32:08
of the Trump administration, including Trump himself. Bondy was not
32:13
directly involved in crafting the July memo, according to the
32:17
person familiar with the internal process, but two senior White
32:22
House officials said the Attorney General participated in discussions that
32:27
led to its release. Blanchez denied any disagreement between the
32:32
Justice Department and the FBI in crafting the memo's conclusions.
32:37
Earlier this month, he said he worked closely with Patel
32:40
and Bongino on the document and all had agreed to
32:44
its findings. The suggestion by anyone that there was any
32:49
daylight between the FBI and DOJ leadership on this memoals
32:53
composition and release is patently false, he said in a statement.
33:00
Bndia's faced scrutiny over her actions on the Epstein files
33:04
before in February, she staged a widely panned release of
33:09
what she described as Phase one of the Epstein Files.
33:14
It turned out to be a rollout of mostly already
33:16
public documents bound in binders, marked classified, and distributed to
33:21
the handpicked right wing influencers at a White House briefing.
33:27
Many of those influencers used their platforms to lamb bast
33:31
Bondy calling her a liar and demanding greater transparency. Bondy,
33:36
in response, made big promises about the future Epstein releases.
33:41
In a Fox News interview that she said truckloads of
33:45
new documents had been delivered to her office and that
33:48
Epstein's clients list was sitting on my desk right now
33:53
for review. Everything's going to come out to the public,
33:58
she told Fox's Sean Hannity early March. The public has
34:02
a right to know. Americans have a right to know.
34:06
Over the next two weeks and later that month, the
34:09
FBI dispatched roughly one thousand personnel to scour more than
34:14
one hundred thousand pages of Epstein related documents for anything
34:19
more that could be released, according to two people familiar
34:22
with that review. The details were forced reported by The
34:26
New York Times. Workers toiled around the clock, staffed mandatory
34:32
weekend shifts for weeks to accommodate punishing deadlines from higher ups,
34:38
and were told to flag any mentions of Trump or
34:40
other prominent figures. Senior Breureau officials said in a whistleblower
34:45
report to the Senate Judiciary Committee that was obtained by
34:49
the Post. Considering the nature of the files, they are
34:54
replete with information not fit for public disclosure. The official
34:58
said that much of it contained personal identifying information, details
35:04
on victims, and other private data protected under federal law.
35:10
After concluding that fewer than a tenth of those documents
35:13
could be considered for release, staffers were asked to go
35:17
through them at least four times more. The ultimate result
35:23
had seemed obvious to many of those invoked from the start.
35:26
It was memorialized in the f sign memo there was
35:31
no unreleased evidence that would expose any additional third parties
35:36
to allegations of illegal wrongdoing, and in the week since,
35:41
Bondie and Blanche have repeatedly said they stand by that judgment.
35:46
At the same time, amid a sense of crisis and
35:49
anger from Trump's base, they have taken actions that run
35:53
counter to that conclusion and their memos other central findings.
35:58
The memo concluded that no their disclosures on Epstein would
36:02
be appropriate or warranted, but last week, under direct instructions
36:07
from Trump, they petitioned courts in Florida and New York
36:11
to release grand jury transcripts from the investigations of Epstein
36:16
and his imprisoned associate, Glislaane Maxwell A judge in Florida
36:22
rejected that request. Judges in New York have not yet ruled.
36:28
On Thursday, Blanche flew to Tallahassee to interview Maxwell, who
36:32
is serving a twenty year prison Since for sex trafficking.
36:37
Prosecutors have repeatedly questioned her credibility and willingness to brazenly
36:42
lie under oath. In an unusual move for the Deputy
36:47
Attorney General, the second most powerful person in the Justice Department,
36:52
Blanche spent two days with Maxwell, interviewing her about anyone
36:56
else who has committed crimes against victims. Maxwell's attorney said,
37:02
Blanche asked her about potentially one hundred different people, and
37:05
she answered every question truthfully. Now, as the Justice Department
37:11
scrambles to satisfy the satisfy the public's demand for more information,
37:16
Congress is also putting pressure on the law enforcement agency
37:20
to release the Epstein files. The Republican led House it's
37:26
expected to issue a subpoena for Epstein's voluminous criminal file,
37:31
which will put the Trump administration in an uncomfortable position
37:34
of deciding how to respond. A key House committee has
37:39
already subpoena testimony from Maxwell and a deposition set to
37:43
place set to take place next month. As he left
37:46
the Federal courthouse in Tallahassee after interviewing Maxwell last week,
37:52
Blanche dodged reporters questions, but in a social media post
37:58
he teased that new disclosures could be soon coming, echoing
38:04
the vows he made months ago by Bondi Lanchrope. The
38:08
Department of Justice will share additional information about what we
38:13
learned at the appropriate time and the next story. The
38:19
AI explosion means millions are paying more for electricity this
38:27
summer across a vast stretch of the eastern United States.
38:31
Monthly home electric bills jumped. In Trenton, New Jersey. The
38:37
bill for a typical home rows twenty six dollars in Philadelphia,
38:42
increased about seventeen in Pittsburgh. Ten In Columbus, Ohio, it'spite
38:48
twenty seven dollars. Few customers were happy, of course, but
38:54
even few knew exactly why the rates of cramp climbed
38:57
so quickly. I never know why it goes up, said
39:01
Vicki Miller, retired secretary in Columbus. But I can adjust
39:06
the thermostat to save money. I freeze in the winter
39:10
and roast in the summer this time around, though, it
39:14
seemed possible to trace the price hikes in these cities
39:19
to a specific source. The boom and data centers those
39:25
large warehouses of technology that support artificial intelligence, cloud computing,
39:32
and other big tech wonders. They consume huge amounts of electricity,
39:38
and as they proliferate, the surging demand for electricity has
39:43
driven up prices for millions of people, including residential customers
39:48
who may not ever use AI or cloud computing. In Columbus,
39:55
for example, households on the standard plan of the local
39:59
utility began paying about twenty dollars a month more as
40:03
of June, or two hundred and forty dollars a year
40:07
because of the demand from data centers. According to a
40:10
calculation based on figures from an independent monitor overseeing the
40:15
region's energy auctions and the local utility aep OHIO, the
40:22
ranks of the companies building the data centers Google, Meta, Microsoft,
40:28
Amazon include some of the nation's biggest and most prosperous companies,
40:34
and many affected residents resent having to pay more because
40:39
of the tech company's rising electrical demand. Amazon founder Jeff
40:44
Bezos owns the Washington Post. It's definitely not fair, said
40:50
Alicia Tolbert of Columbus. She does merchandising for department stores
40:55
and her husband as a truck driver. I really can't
40:58
afford it. The tech companies suck up the electricity and
41:03
we will end up paying even higher prices, said Kerry Killingsworth,
41:07
who works in financial services. I'm not comfortable with average
41:11
customers subsidizing billion dollar companies. As data centers pop up
41:18
across the US, energy experts fear they're growing needs for
41:23
power will outstriped supply, the prices will spike for everyone.
41:29
For years, they have supported an array of e commerce sites,
41:34
social media, and online video platforms, and the addition of
41:38
AI applications is now boosting their power usage. We are
41:44
seeing every region of the country experiencing really significant data
41:49
center load growth, said Abe Silverman, a non resident research
41:54
scholar focused on energy markets at Johns Hopkins University. Is
41:59
putting in on arms upward pressure on prices both for
42:03
transmission and for generation. Earlier this month, energy regulators in
42:09
Ohio ruled that data centers must pay more for the
42:13
upgrades to the grid needed to serve data centers, overruling
42:18
the objections of the tech companies who said they were
42:21
being targeted unfairly. An email statement afterward, industry group the
42:27
Data Center Coalition, said it was very disappointed in the decision.
42:32
In a statement for this article, the Data Center Coalition
42:36
said the industry is committed to paying its full cost
42:40
of service for the energy it uses. The markets for
42:44
electricity are complex. In blaming one factor or another for
42:50
residential price hikes can be complicated, but not when it
42:54
comes to data centers. In this summer's rising home bills
42:58
in several cities, take Columbus and announcing that the average
43:04
residential bill would rise this year by about twenty seven
43:07
dollars a month. The local utility AEP indicated that the
43:12
increase was due to how much the company had to
43:15
pay for capacity. That is, how much AEP had to
43:20
pay to make sure the utility had enough power available
43:24
on hand of days of peak demand. The price for
43:29
capacity is said every year during an auction in which
43:33
utilities spanning thirteen states and DC bid on the capacity
43:39
generated by power companies. Last year, capacity prices in this
43:44
auction rose at a staggering eight hundred and thirty three percent,
43:50
and those increases are flowing into residential bills in the
43:54
affected states. Although it was not initially clear why the
43:59
capacity I wrote so quickly, a little noticed report issued
44:03
in June identified the cause. According to the independent monitor
44:08
hired to analyze the electricity markets, known as PJM, about
44:14
three quarters of the jump stemmed from the demand from
44:18
existing and planned data centers. There has been a paradigm
44:23
shift in the market. Joseph Bowing, the author of the
44:27
Independent monitor report, set in an interview, these data centers
44:32
could overwhelm the grid. The system cannot go on this way. Indeed,
44:39
this year's auction, which concluded earlier this month, increased capacity
44:45
prices again by about twenty two percent. This increase does
44:50
not mean residential bills will automatically jump by that amount, however,
44:55
because the capacity prices are just one portion of an
44:59
electrical and in Ohio and some other states, residents typically
45:04
can choose from a number of electricity providers. Generally speaking, though,
45:10
the recent increase has passed through to customers and will
45:14
tend to push residential bills upward in the thirteen states
45:18
where utilities participate in the capacity market, which are Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan,
45:30
New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
45:37
As AI and other innovations continue to dazzle the public
45:41
and become an increasingly important part of the economy, the
45:45
data center boom has spread across the United States. Politicians
45:50
and tech backers moreover have touted the facilities as source
45:55
of jobs, and several states have offered tax breaks to
45:59
attract the facilacilities. Virginia, for example, is home to more
46:03
data centers than any other state and has offered an
46:07
exemption to the state's retail sales and use tax to
46:11
attract large scale data centers. The exemption allows data centers
46:16
and their tenants to purchase computers and other equipment such
46:20
as servers, without paying sales tax. Ohio also offers data
46:26
centers a sales tax exemption. Data centers are the essential
46:30
digital infrastructure behind every online purchase, every telehealth appointment, every
46:37
online news article, and every digital classroom, the Data Center's
46:42
Coalition Vice president of Energy Aaron Tijjum said in a statement.
46:48
Data centers enable the essential services and cutting edge technologies
46:53
that drive our economies and enhance our quality of life,
46:57
ensuring that our homes business schools, hospitals, manufacturing facilities, and
47:05
government units operate smoothly and efficiently. Even some of the
47:11
residents affected by the rising electrotricity prices look favorably on
47:15
the data centers. Dan longer Bone, a bus driver in
47:20
the Columbus area, said the rising costs have led him
47:23
to be very careful about his electricity use. He's installed
47:27
LED lights and in the summer he turns up the
47:30
thermostat Yet he values the economic benefits of the data centers.
47:36
They do bring jobs hestaid of those he's seen in
47:39
the area. They don't hurt anybody. They just sit by
47:43
themselves and do their own thing. The data centers, however,
47:48
often are rising in quiet, rural or ex urban areas,
47:54
where neighbors complain of the noise and of their water demands.
47:58
With the increasing demand for energy, the rise in power
48:01
plants is expected to increase carbon emissions and climate risks
48:07
as the data centers push up the electricity bills. However,
48:11
their proliferation seems likely to anger an even larger swath
48:16
of the public, even if many are unaware of their
48:19
own role in creating more demand for electricity. While AI
48:24
applications like chat gpt are quick and easy to use.
48:29
Even simple AI tasks can require large amounts of electricity.
48:35
For example, generating a high definition image using an AI
48:40
model takes as much energy as charging a smartphone to halfway.
48:45
According to a study by researchers at hugging Face, a
48:49
tech platform for AI, and Carnegie Mellon University, people using
48:55
the AI apps don't realize how much energy they require,
49:00
said Sasha Lupcioni, one of the researchers. There's a disconnect,
49:04
she said. We talk about the cloud as if it
49:09
were im material. People using these applications don't imagine a
49:13
data center, a four story building as big as a
49:16
football field and the next story. Two boys died after
49:23
a gene therapy, but this family won't give up hope.
49:29
Andrew revelled, leaned into his father as he pulled up
49:33
from his wheelchair to stand, his legs trembling with effort.
49:38
It had been more than a year since he joined
49:40
a clinical trial for gene therapy to treat a disease
49:44
that is destroying his muscles and cutting short his young life.
49:49
Had it made a difference, he didn't think, so, I
49:54
didn't really get the medicine Andrew eighteen, sent at his
49:59
home in Texas on a recent July day. We don't
50:02
know or Revel, his mother interjected, Yeah, we don't know.
50:08
Andrew agreed. Doubts about whether he got the real gene
50:12
therapy or a placebo in twenty twenty four have haunted
50:16
the Reveil family for months. In October of this year,
50:21
Andrew would get a second infusion. If he had received
50:25
the placebo the first time, he would be guaranteed to
50:29
get the medicine, but that is no longer guaranteed. The
50:34
deaths of two teens who received the gene therapy to
50:39
treat ducane muscular dystrophe caused its manufacturer, so rept To Therapeutics,
50:46
to pause the clinical trial and, under pressure from regulators,
50:50
halt all shipments of the drug this month. News of
50:55
the deaths has rocked patience with dushane, a rare genetic
51:00
disease that affects an estimated fifteen thousand people in the
51:03
United States, the vast majority of them boys and young men,
51:08
like Andrew and his brother Timothy, who is twenty one.
51:12
Tim and Laura Revel have shielded their sons from the
51:16
latest controversy, preferring not to crush their hopes, while Syrepta
51:21
faces off with an increasingly skeptical Food and Drug administration.
51:26
The FDA announced Friday night it was investigating a third
51:30
death of someone who received the gene therapy called Eleviddis.
51:36
The eight year old boy died June seventh, the agency said. Roche,
51:41
which sells the therapy overseas, stated the physician treating the
51:45
boy in Brazil assessed the death as unrelated to the drug.
51:51
The certain uncertainty about the dangers of the therapy exposes
51:56
the difficult decisions facing families, biote firms, and regulators as
52:02
they balance the hope for treatments against the risks of
52:05
speeding drugs into the marketplace with ambiguous data about how
52:10
they perform. The FDA approved Surreptor's gene therapy for dushane
52:16
and later expanded it despite clinical trials that failed to
52:20
meet their main functional goal and concerns among the agency's
52:25
own reviewers about its effectiveness. The extreme costly drug has
52:30
been approved by the FDA since twenty twenty three. Andrew
52:35
is part of a clinical trial testing the drug for
52:38
a subset of patients who are unable to walk. Time
52:42
is working against the revels. The median survival age for
52:46
a young man with Dushane is about twenty eight. Andrew,
52:50
who has a soft spot for Super Kitty's coloring books,
52:54
and Timothy, whose face is framed with peach fuzz, might
52:58
be well passed their lives. The disease that has already
53:03
robbed them of the ability to walk is eating away
53:06
at their muscles, making it harder for them to lift
53:09
their arms. But vuoid by faith in the prospect of
53:13
getting the gene therapy, they are hopeful for the future.
53:17
I want to get married someday, Timothy said, me too.
53:22
Andrew added tim Ervelle also has a way of seeing
53:27
his family's trials and the brightest possible light. Given the
53:31
historical lack of treatments for Duquane, it's actually a pretty
53:35
good thing that we have to worry about our kids
53:37
dying from this product, because it means we have a
53:41
product to be worried about. He said. If you don't
53:43
do anything for a young man with ducane, he's going
53:47
to die. Tim and Laura Velle met while working at
53:52
Domino's Pizzas in their teens. They reconnected after a chance
53:57
encounter between classes at a community college and married just
54:00
after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin. When
54:04
Timothy was born in twenty oh three, tim said it
54:09
was the pinnacle of life. Timothy's development traced an arc
54:13
familiar to Doukane families. He struggled to get up from
54:17
the floor, slow to walk. One day, when he was
54:21
almost two, Timothy broke down in tears while on a
54:25
walk with his parents and could go no further. His
54:28
parents recalled, it wasn't a typical toddler tantrum, and they
54:33
knew something was seriously wrong. The blood tests so can
54:37
soon confirmed it. Go and love him. Tim Revelle calls
54:42
being told by the doctor, but he won't make it
54:45
past twenty and Andrew was born with the same genetic mutation.
54:51
Andrew could still play baseball when he was fourteen, but
54:54
his running around the bases became more of a walk.
54:58
Timothy hit his physical peak around age ten, when he
55:02
needed a couch to pull himself up from the floor.
55:05
It's just so hard to watch your child lose these
55:08
basic makeup of humans, which is movement. Timberville said he's
55:12
run a marathon every year since that first diagnosis, helping
55:16
the family raise more than eight million dollars for cure
55:19
Gacaine to support research into the disease. Deacane has left
55:24
its imprint on every service of their lives. A single
55:28
story home with wide corridors custom built to accommodate Andrew
55:32
and Timothy's physical limits, the thermosis with built in straws
55:36
that enable them to drink water without having to lift
55:39
it to their lips, and it leave us sticker casually
55:43
left beside a partially built Lego project. At times, as
55:47
Andrew and Timothy bantered about baseball standings and played the
55:51
game MLB Rivals on their phones on a recent Tuesday,
55:55
it was possible to forget that they were any different
55:58
from any other sports of obsessed young man. Then their
56:02
bodies would deliver a reminder, Hey, mom, can you scratch
56:07
the side of my head real quick? Please? Timothy asking
56:10
a soft droll. Can you scratch the side of my
56:13
head real quick? Which side? Laura Ravel said, making a
56:18
way over there where Timothy sat in his wheelchair. You
56:21
want to do it with your hand, she asked, guiding
56:24
his fingers to his temple. Ducaine was once a backwater
56:28
in biotechnology because it affects relatively few people, but that
56:32
has begun to change, driven by parent advocacy groups and
56:36
the arrival of gene therapy. The disorder stems from a
56:40
genetic mutation that prevents the body from producing distroughin, a
56:45
protein whose tiny coils function like a shock absorber from
56:50
muscle cells. Surreptis therapy inserts a DNA sequence into the
56:54
body that makes a shortened form of dystrophin, aiming to
56:58
slow the destruction must More than half a dozen publicly
57:02
traded companies are working on dushane treatments, and Syrepta has
57:06
led the way, bringing three drugs to market before its
57:10
gene therapy won FDA approval. Syrepta CEO Douglas Ingram's compensation
57:16
in twenty twenty two was valued at one hundred and
57:19
twenty four point nine million dollars, making him one of
57:22
the most highly paid CEOs in America that year. With
57:26
a Levitas selling at three point two million dollars a dose,
57:30
the drug has brought in more than one billion dollars
57:33
in revenue in just over one year, but Eleviatus's path
57:37
to FDA approval was contentious. Its first major randomized clinical trial,
57:43
the therapy failed to show that boys who received it
57:46
performed better on a battery of physical tests than those
57:50
who got a placebo. As Timothy said, I hope it
57:55
will help me scratch my head on my own. Andrew
57:58
is hoping it will help get my arms back to
58:01
being stronger, lifting up higher, and helping my heart stay strong.
58:05
Occasionally they indulge in a hope that no current therapy
58:08
can offer to walk again. Someday, Timothy says, and we
58:12
won't be in wheelchairs anymore. His parents are clear eyed
58:15
about the drugs, risks and limitations. We know it's not
58:19
the best product. We know it's not going to help
58:21
Timothy and Andrew walk again, but they don't correct them.
58:25
This concludes the reading of the Washington Post for today, Monday,
58:28
July twenty eighth. Your reader has been Rod Brotherton. Thank
58:32
you for listening, and now please do it tune to
58:34
continued programming right here on Radio I