Transcript

4.19.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Saturday,
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April nineteenth of twenty twenty five. Your reader is Alice Stainer,
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with the reminder that RADIOI is an organization for those
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blind or unable to hold and read printed material easily,
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and I will start with the front page to the
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Washington Post. On the left hand side, it says early
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deal takes shape for a stadium at RFK site. Commanders
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the DC team in talks Well three point two billion
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dollar public private project by Megan Flynn and Sam Fortier.
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In the center above the fold is a picture of
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worshipers of varied denominations in Durban, Seth, Africa carrying a
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cross during a Good Friday procession commemorating Jesus's crucifixion by
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the Romans. In Paris. Four months after it's long awaited reopening,
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Notre Dame Cathedral welcome devotees and tourist like on Friday
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for an emotional ceremony ahead of Easter Sunday. In the
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picture in the forefront, there is a black cross being
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held above by four women. In the front, two of
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them are in habits, or at least in the head
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of the habits. One of them holding the cross is
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and a purple frock with a white shawl around her shoulders.
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Next to her is a woman in red and the
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two of them are Four of them are in the forefront.
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To the right of that picture. Senator recounts deportee meeting
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Marilyn manned is traumatized, moved out of notorious prison. Van
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Holland says about Sylvia Forrester Foster Frowe, Sidoric Meyer, and
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Megan Vasquez. Below the pictures of the ladies carrying the
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cross Germany on the left side, some migrants reverse their
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false dead status after doze effort. They go to Social
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Security to prove they're alive. Hamma Natson, Liserene and Meryl
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Cornfield like this one. Into the right of that Trumps
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had to move on if no Ukraine. Ukraine deals soon.
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Rubio's remarks in Paris reflect President's growing frustration. Adam Taylor,
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Robin Dixon, and Alan Francis, and then below the fold
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on the far left, White House calls lab leak true
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COVID origin. Trump administration embraces the disputed theory on new
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website by Dan Diamond and Lauren Webber. And then the
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last article on the right hand side a civil rights
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marker on DOJ's chopping block. Fight ensues after Alabama museum
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commemorating the nineteen sixty one Freedom Rides is targeted for
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sale by Milly Hennessy Fisk, who's at Montgomery. And then
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there is a picture of back when in nineteen sixty
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four of Montgomery's greyhound bus depot where mob attacks segregation
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protesters is now the Freedom Rides Museum. Senator Van Holland
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describes El Savador visit with wrongly deported man. Senator Chris
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van Holland said, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man wrongly
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deported to El Salvador, has experienced trauma, he said, He's
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said every day. And there is a picture of Senator
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Chris van Holland, Democrat of Maryland, during a news conference
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Friday at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, after returning
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from El Savador, where he met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia,
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a wrongly deported Maryland man. Behind him are Caesar and
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Cecilia Abrego, Garcia's brother and mother. She is in blue
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with a button and a butterfly on it. Cecilia is
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and Caesar is in a pink shirt with a huge
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picture of his brother on the front. Also in the
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group are people signs, one being no human being is
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illegal except Trump and his gang. Another says bring home
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and there are people in T shirts
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all behind and around. Senator Chris van Holland. The article
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is Sylvia Foster Froud, Sidric Maya, and Megan Vusquez. Kilmar
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Abrego Garcia, a father and husband who was mistakenly deported
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to a mega prison in Al Savadoor, was transferred to
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a different facility nine days ago after spending weeks in
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a cell with twenty five other migrants, Senator Chris van Holland,
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Democratic Maryland said on Friday. Ben Holland spoke from Washington
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Dulles International Airport upon his return from Al Savadol, where
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he was able to meet with Abrego Garcia on Thursday
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after being rebuffed by the Salvador government multiple times. The
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senators said the meeting at his hotel was the first
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time Abrego Garcia, a long time Maryland resident whose wife
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and children are US citizens, had spoken to anyone from
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the outside world since being deported. He's experienced trauma, he said,
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he's sad every day, Van Holland said, but I think
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this persistence resulted in having this chance to meet with him,
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to begin to get a little bit of his story,
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and I think it is the first step to ultimately
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bringing him home as the Constitution requires. The Supreme Court
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has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of
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Abrego Garcia twenty nine to the United States after the
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government acknowledged in court filings that the twenty nineteen court
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order for bade his removal to El Savador, but Trump
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administration officials have not taken the necessary steps to comply
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with the order, a lower court judge ruled this week.
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The president and his top of migration enforcement officials have
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repeatedly accused of Brago Garcia of gang membership, even though
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his family denies it and his attorneys say he has
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never been churched with the crime and have said he
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does not belong back in the United States. In a
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strongly worded decision this week, the US Court of Appeals
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for the Fourth Circuit upheld Judge PAULA. Or that the
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government facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. The decision said the Trump
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administration's contention that it did not need to approach actively
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enable Abrego Garcia's release, reduce the rule of law to lawlessness,
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and tarnish the very values for which Americans have diverse
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views and persuasions have always stood. The sheet Metal Apprentice
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has become the best known of the nearly one hundred
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migrants who have been sent to El Salvador's terrorism confinement center,
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a megaprison, referred to by its Spanish initials ce COT SEACUT.
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The US Almerment has offered to pay Al Savador fifteen
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million dollars to hold its migrants in the salvador in prison,
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van Holland said Friday. So far four million dollars has
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been spent. Van Holland said he directly asked Salvador and
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Vice President Felix Ulloa during his visit my Abrago Garcia
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was sent to SEACUT whether Abrego Garcia had violated any
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laws in El Salvador and whether there's any proof he
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had committed a crime, the senators said. Aloo responded, Oh,
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he's here because the Trump administration is paying us to
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keep him here. After his first attempts to visit a
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Lego Garcia were rebuffed. I asked if I returned the
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following week, whether I could meet with him. The answer
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was no. Van Halend said, I asked if I could
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call him on the phone. The answer was no. I
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asked if his wife, Jennifer could call him on the phone.
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The answer was no. No to his wife, no to
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his mother, no to his lawyers. On Thursday, Van Holland
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said he decided to give it another tribe by driving
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directly to Seacott, accompanied by a lawyer. About three karometers
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outside of Seacott, we were pulled over by soldiers. I
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was told that they had order us not to allow
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us to go to any further. When I asked him
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if they knew anything about the condition of mister Garcia,
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they said no. He added, as he was preparing to
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fly back to Washington later Thursday, all of a sudden,
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I got worried that I would be allowed to meet
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with Kimla Abrego Garcia. They met for about an hour
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in Van Holland's hotel. The Senator said. Ben Holland told
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Abrego Garcia that his situation had been ruled on by
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multiple Bevy courts and that his story had become a
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national symbol for the human toll of the Trump administration's
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immigration crackdown. Abrego Garcia was traumatized by being at Sea
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Cot and fearful of many of the prisoners in other
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cell blocks who called out to him and taunted him
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in various ways. Ben Holland said, I told him his
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brothers and sisters in his unit the Sheep Metal Workers'
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Union were fighting to bring him home. That brought a
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smile to his face. I told him that millions of
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Americans understand what is happening to him is a threat
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to their own constitutional rights, ben Holland said. Abrego Garcia
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told Van Holland that the new detention facility where he
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had been brought had better conditions than Seacott, the senator continued.
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The senator discussed what he called Margharita Gate, a reference
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to a social media post by Salvadorean President Naim Rue
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Kelly showing two glasses garnished with cherries and rimmed with
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salt of vinegar or sugar on the table where Ron
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Holland and Abrego Garcia set. Mukeli's post said the two
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men were sipping Margarita's. President Donald Trump joined in on
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the jab, as did other Republicans. Van Holland said the
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glasses were part of a setup added to the table
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in addition to water glasses, in an effort to distort
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what was happening. As we were talking, one of the
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government's people came over and deposited two other glasses on
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the table. Let me just be very clear. Neither of
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us touched the drinks that were in front of us,
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ben Holland said. The glass in front of Abrego Garcia
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held less liquid, bean Holland added, making it appear as
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if the deported man had taken a drink. He also
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said the Salvadorian government initially wanted to hold the meeting
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by the side of the hotel swimming pool. This is
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the links that President Yukali will go to deceive people
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about what's going on, he said. Ben Holland said there
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are things that Americans can do to hold the Salvadorian
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government accountable, including choosing not to visit the country for tourism.
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He said that states could also decide not to invest
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pension funds in companies in El Salvador. He said Democrats
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in Congress will examine how the government accounts for the
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fifteen million it is purportedly spending to host deportees in
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Salvadoran prisons. You can't be sure we're going to be
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looking for where it is because that wasn't authorized in
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previous appropriations. I won't support the use of one penny
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of taxpayer dollars to keep a Brago Garcia illegally detained
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in El Savador, van Holland said. The Senator said he
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talked to the Barrego Garcia about his family after the
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meeting ended. Ben Holland called a Brago Garcia's wife, Jenni Vasquasoora,
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a US citizen. I told her what he said to me,
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which was first and foremost, that he missed her and
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his family. And as he said that, you could see
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a tear come down his cheek, van Holland said at
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the news conference, where he was joined by Vasquezsora, along
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with the Brago Garcia's brother and other family members and
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immigrant advocates. In an interview on ABC's Good Morning America
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on Friday, Vasquais said it was very overwhelming to see
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the images of her husband at the table with her home. Senator.
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It's been thirty seven days since March twelfth, since my
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husband was abducted. It's been in an emotional, emotional roller coaster, honestly,
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but just knowing right now that he's alive, our faith
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has grown and I keep him in my prayers to
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bring him back home, she said in the interview. Democratic
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lawmakers publicly thanked Van Holland on Friday for securing the
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meeting of the Brago Garcia, including Senators Cory Booka of
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New Jersey and Amy Klobachar of Minnesota, but several Republicans
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took issue with the trip. Senator John Cornan of Texas
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called it a political stud and Senator Tim Sheehy of
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Montana said a Brago Garcia situation should be part of
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Republicans midterm messaging. Remember that the Democrats will bend over
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backward for illegal immigrants while they sell you out, he said.
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Immigrants proved they are alive, forcing Social Security to undue
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death label. The immigrants who are more than six thousand
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who were falsely added to a death's database by DHS
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and the US Doege Service in a bid to pressure
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them to leave the United States. Hannah Nattison Lisaine and
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Meryll Cornfield of an office immigrants falsely labeled dead by
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the Social Security Administration as showing up at field offices
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with documents proving they are alive, leading staff to reinstate
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nearly three dozen people over the past week. According to
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records obtained by The Washington Post. The immigrants who have
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requested a reversal and been reinstated in Social Security databases
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include a Haitian, asylumn seker and a child of The
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record show some immigrants have shown up with driver's licenses
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and work permits to plude the I legitimacy. The record
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show others have arrived bearing letters of notification that they
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received from their states declaring them dead. The reversals come
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after the Department of Homeland Security, in the Elon Musk's
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US DOOS service, pushed to incorrectly label more than sixty
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one hundred, mostly Latino immigrants as dead in a bid
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depressured them to leave the country. The administration overrode the
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objections of senior Social Security staff to label the immigrants
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as dead, a move that current and former top officials
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at the agency ward was illegal because it violates privacy
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laws and invows the purposeful falsification of government records. Social
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Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday,
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asked about the rest of the White House said the
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six thousand immigrants were never really listed as dead. This
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reporting is false. These illegal aliens were never classified as dead.
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White House spokeswoman Leahs Hudson said in a statement, the
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Death Foul Master of the Death Master Foul was renamed
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the Ineligible Master Foul prior to their names being transferred.
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Once who AS Customs and Voter Protection terminated their people,
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these individuals were no longer eligible for benefits, and Social
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Security Administration quickly took action to protect the benefits of
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hard working American citizens. That statement countradicts statements last week
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from a White House official and de senior Social Security official,
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both of whom explicitly confirmed that the immigrants have been
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labeled dead in hopes of spurring their departures from the
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United States. As of Friday, the database is still named
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the Death Master File in Social Securities internal systems per
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records obtained by the Post and referred to by the
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same name on the agency's public website. Getting added to
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that database, which contains more than eighty five million records
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of death dating to nineteen thirty six, has potentially dire consequences.
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Social Security shares its death data with other government agencies, employers, banks,
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and landlords, all of whom rely on it to check
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the status of employees, residents, clients, and others. Any when
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falsely placed in the file will struggled to earn money
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or find a place to live. Entering the immigrants into
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the database will still have the same effect, causing U
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S government companies, and banks to treat them as dead
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no matter what the White House calls about entry. Current
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and former Social Securities officials said the request to label
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immigrants dead came from the very top of Homeland Security.
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The post previously requoted. Secretary Christy L. Nom signed two
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memorandums of agreement this month with acting as Social Security
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Commissioner Leyland Dudik, authorizing and facilitating the placement of the
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immigrants in the Death Master file. The White House has
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previously said that the immigrants being targeted are people who
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have bonafide Social Security numbers but lost their legal status
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in the US, including those who entered under one of
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President Joe Biden's temporary work programs that had been shuttered
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by the Trump administration. A White House official also said,
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without providing evidence, that the immigrants moved into the death
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database will all have ties to terrorist activity or criminal records.
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Records obtained by the Posts showed that the immigrants listed
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as dead include a thirteen year old, a fourteen year old,
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two sixteen year olds, and four seventeen year olds, as
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well as people in their seventies and one eighty three
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year old. Agency staff later checked some of the youngest
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individuals against the data the agency uses to research criminal
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history and could find no evidence of crimes or law
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enforcement interactions, the Post reported. The Post reported the records
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showed that six one hundred and sixty one people were
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added to the found in early April at the request
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of DHS, along with an additional one hundred and two
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A few days later, as a Friday, Social Security staff
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had restored thirty one of these people to the roles,
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declaring them living again. The records showed the tactic of
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using Social Securities Death Database as a deportation tool comes
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as the Trump administration is escalating its deeps quotation efforts
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across the government. The Department of Home and Security reached
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an agreement this month with the Internal Revenue Service to
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receive the tax data it maintains for undocumented immigrants, and
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The Post reported this week that the Trump administration is
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seeking to use sensitive Medicare claims data to find immigrants'
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home addresses. Cecilia Munoz, who served as a domestic policy
21:30
advisor to the Obama administration, said many asylum seekers, in
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particular with a difficulty of returning home after being declared dead.
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In the case of people who are here on humanitarian visas,
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one hundred percent of them were sponsored and one hundred
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percent of them were leaving a situation like the war
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in Ukraine or a dire situation in Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua.
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It's not particularly easy for them to go back in
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the way that the administration is trying to force them
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to do. Unnos said recent reports of immigration officials detaining
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a Green cardholder who had gone to an ice Field
22:13
center for a naturalization test, as well as others in
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public settings, could also discourage people from going to government
22:21
offices for fear of being detained, she warned. Tanya Broda,
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Senior Council for Health and Economic Justice Policy as the
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left leaning National Immigration Law Center, said that being declared
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dead by the Social Security Administration can have devastated consequences
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for anyone those swept up in this cash, added to
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the death folder, or already under greater government scrutiny. Roder said,
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it's always a good idea for people to know what
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their rights are, to have a phone number for their
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attorney attorney to be able to remain silent. I think
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that correcting a social security record should not entail a
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new risk for people who were already known to the government.
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In another action targeting undocumented immigrants, the masculined leaders of
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Social Securities Information Technology Office on Friday asked various technology
23:18
teams that the Agency for Information needed to implement or
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propose new alert in social security databases that would tag
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undocumented immigrants. The system already flags those with social security
23:32
numbers who have been convicted of domestic violence or fraud,
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but the agency has never tried to track people in
23:38
the US illegally, since only people in the country legally
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should be eligible for social security numbers. The alert would
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be placed in the large database known as the Numitant,
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which contains the names, dates of births, and social security
23:56
numbers of nearly every American and legal immigrant, whether or
24:00
not they receive benefits from the Social Security and Administration
24:05
Records so A meassage sent to the agency's technology office
24:10
Friday and obtained by the Post said the Chief Information
24:14
Officer is seeking a solution to address situations where sssay
24:20
is made away of non citizens having their work authorized
24:23
emigration status revoked, and or are presented to US as
24:28
a national security concern to ensure they do not get
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s s in cards, do not receive benefits, and are
24:36
flagged to external uses in verifications. It was unclear who
24:42
would determine which people count as undocumented. Any One in
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the US legally is issued a Social Security number, even
24:49
if they are incarcerated. If some one is placed in
24:53
jail or is a fugitive felon with an outstanding warrant
24:56
for the arrest, their benefits are suspended to win reinstatement
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among the living. The immigrants who presented themselves at field
25:05
officers over the past week would have been asked for
25:08
at least one original piece of evidence proving their identity.
25:12
According to instructions listed on the Social Security website, they
25:16
could have offered their passport, driver's license, employee ID card,
25:20
a health insurance card, among other items. Once the record
25:25
was corrected the Field Office should have given the immigrants
25:28
a letter saying they could deliver the banks, mortgage companies,
25:31
landlords and employers showing that their death report was an error.
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But the immigrants must proactively go to all these entities
25:39
to prove their existence. Field Office staff members across the
25:44
country were never notified that thousands of emigrants being added
25:48
to the death data base, said Jessica Lovepoint, president of
25:51
Council two twenty of the American Federation of Government Employees,
25:56
which represents Field Office and other customer service staff. These
26:01
people are surely paying payroll taxes out of their checks.
26:05
Where's the humanity in declaring them dead? LaPoint said. She
26:10
said is the duty of every agency employee to reinstate
26:14
any living people runously declared dead. We don't want to
26:20
get pick winners and losers of who we serve. One
26:24
former senior security official social security official who worked closely
26:29
with the Death Master Foul, said he expects that the
26:33
resurrections will not stop at three dozen people. They have
26:37
to be more coming, the formal official said. But even
26:41
if more immigrants realize that the agency is listed them
26:44
is dead, they may struggle for months to have their
26:46
social security numbers reinstated. Several experts said that's because a
26:51
policy started in January, says field offices can serve people
26:56
only by appointment. Meanwhile, the wait time for an appointment
27:00
has dretched to months and the whole time on the
27:04
phone to three hours amid a wave of Musk funding
27:08
cuts and firings. The person might tell the security guard
27:13
at the field office that they were wrongly declared dead
27:16
and asked to come in, said Rick Orsinski, a retired
27:21
social security district manager from Cleveland. But maybe they are
27:25
too timid to say they need to be seen with
27:28
that unemployment. This could take months to result. Meanwhile, the
27:32
collateral damage is really bad. Trump ready to move on
27:38
from Ukraine peace talks if no progress, Rubio says. Rubio's
27:43
remarks appear to reflect the President's frustration with the difficulty
27:47
of achieving peace in Ukraine after Russia's twenty twenty two
27:51
full scale invasion. There is a picture of Secretary of
27:56
State Marco Rubio arriving at France's Foreign minister st for
28:00
meeting with his French counterpart in Paris on Thursday. Adam Taylor,
28:06
Robin Dixon, and Ellen Francis to Paris. President Donald Trump
28:12
is ready to move on from peace talks between Ukraine
28:16
and Russia if there is no progress within days, Secretary
28:21
of State Marco Rubio told reporters Friday. Rubio's remarks reflected
28:26
how the US sponsored peace efforts have stalled and the
28:29
President's frustration with the talks has grown. Though Trump said
28:34
during his campaign that he could end the war in
28:36
Ukraine within twenty four hours, he is now almost three
28:40
months into his second term. The administration's main achievement to date,
28:45
an agreement by both sides to cause strikes on energy
28:48
infrastructure for thirty days, is closed to its end and
28:52
has not stopped deadly attacks in Ukraine. The President has
28:57
spent eighty seven days at the highest level of this
29:00
government repeatedly taking efforts to bring this war to an end.
29:04
We are now reaching a point where we need to
29:07
decide and determine whether this is even possible or not,
29:11
which is why we're engaging both sides, said Rubio. If
29:16
the war cannot be ended soon, I think the President's
29:19
probably at a point where he's going to say, well,
29:22
we're done. We're not going to continue with this endeavor
29:25
for weeks and months on end, Rubio said the top
29:30
US diplomat did not specify on what to move on
29:34
would mean for continued US military support for Ukraine or
29:38
sanctions on Russia. The State Department officials, speaking on the
29:42
condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations, said Rubio had
29:47
made clear during discussions in Paris that walking away from
29:51
negotiations does not mean walking away from existing sanctions on Russia,
29:58
but if efforts to stop the fighting are abandoned, it
30:00
could mark a win for the Kremlin, which currently has
30:03
the momentum on the battlefield. Soon after Ribio's comments, Kremlin
30:08
spokesman Dmitri Peskov responded by saying progress had been made,
30:14
citing the thirty day energy ceasefire, which he then said
30:17
had expired. Rubio spoke as he wrapped up a twenty
30:21
four hour trip to Paris, where French President Emmanuel macrom
30:26
had convened American, Ukrainian and other European officials in an
30:31
effort to recent to the negotiations in Europe. The Paris
30:36
talks took place Thursday, after growing anxiety in European capitals
30:41
about the USLA negotiations that began under Trump. European leaders
30:46
are weary of US moves toward rumatized with Russia, warning
30:50
against concessions emboldened to Krimlin if nothing is secured in return.
30:55
Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff recently traveled to Saint Petersburg to
31:00
meet with President Vladimir Putin for the third time since
31:03
the started Trump's second term. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zulensky told
31:09
reporters Thursday, as Witkoff attended meetings in Paris, that he
31:14
thought the US negotiator had consciously or unconsciously taken on
31:19
Russian narratives such as claims to five occuparied territories in
31:24
eastern Ukraine that could be formalized in a peace deal.
31:29
After the meetings in Paris, Macrol labeled the new format
31:32
of success and said talks would continue in London next week.
31:37
An at least Saint Palace official, speaking on the condition
31:41
of anonymity under guidelines from the French presidency, said Macron's
31:46
talks with Rubio and Whitcock focused on the issue of
31:49
a ceasefire and security guarantees. The meeting underscored Ukrainian and
31:54
European support for President Trump's objective of rapidly putting an
31:59
end to the wall, the official said, adding that there
32:03
was agreement on the need for a full ceasefire as
32:06
soon as possible. US officials declined their view for a
32:11
deal during the talks, including a full ceasefire and a
32:14
frozen front line that would leave Ukrainian territory seized by
32:19
Russia in Moscow's hands. According to two people familiar with
32:23
the discussions, the US vision involves keeping Keys ambitions for
32:28
NATO membership off the negotiating table and holding out the
32:32
prospect of easing sanctions on Russia if there is a
32:36
lasting settlement, they said. The Elisi officials said that while
32:41
the issue of sanctions was discussed, everyone understands the need
32:46
for US to use all the instruments at their disposal,
32:49
particularly sanctions, to influence the Russian position. The Trump administration
32:56
appeared ready to use both incentives and Prussia on Russia,
33:01
the official added. Rubio told reports Friday that he appreciated
33:06
the efforts of European allies. He did not say whether
33:09
he would go to London through another although another envoy,
33:13
retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Hllogg, said Friday that he
33:17
expected to attend. Writkoff, who is planning to travel to
33:21
Rome on Saturday for negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program,
33:26
would also be at the talks in London, According to
33:29
the at least the official, Hopefully we'll have another meeting
33:33
early next week at some point where we will have
33:37
some more definitive answers about how close we are to
33:40
actually making progress. But this isn't going to go on forever,
33:45
Rubio said. During a visit to Rome on Friday, Vice
33:50
President J. D. Vance said, we do feel optimistic that
33:54
we can hopefully bring this brutal war, this very brutal war,
33:58
to a close. In the Oval Office on Friday, afternoon
34:02
Rubio's comments, Trump said there was no specific number of
34:07
days he wanted for a deal to be reached, but
34:10
he wanted it done quickly. The United States had a
34:14
good chance to end the violence and Ukraine, Trump said,
34:18
but if for some reason one of the two parties
34:20
makes it very difficult, we're just going to say you're foolish,
34:24
you're foolish, you're horrible people, and we're just going to
34:28
take a pass. Trump told reporters Thursday that he also
34:32
expects to sign a deal with Ukraine to grant the
34:35
United States access to its critical mineral resources. Ukrainian First
34:40
Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Sarandinko later wrote on social media
34:45
that Washington and Kiev had signed a memorandum of intent
34:49
that would pave the way for the deal. Trump added
34:52
that he did not blame Zelensky for the wall, which
34:55
began in full after Russia invaded in February twenty twenty two,
34:59
but that he he was not a big fan of
35:02
the Ukrainian leader. I wouldn't say he's done the greatest job.
35:07
We want to get it done. We'll see if we can.
35:11
Trump said of efforts to secure a ceasefire. Zelensky agreed
35:15
to a US proposed seats fire more than a month ago. Putin, however,
35:20
demurred and said it was a complicated matter. Since Putin
35:24
rejected the US proposal last month, top Moscow officials have
35:28
attempted to shift the blame to the Ukrainian government and
35:31
European leaders, claiming that they are desperate to keep fighting.
35:35
Before peace negotiations began, Russia insisted that European leaders should
35:41
be excluded from talks, claiming they had no relevant part
35:44
to play. European leaders have counted that Putin is slow
35:48
rolling negotiations as they seek a more direct role in
35:52
talks that they hoped could reshape the continent security. Moscow
35:57
has rejected French British plans for a force that could
36:00
help a post war Ukraine deter future Russian attacks. The
36:04
Kremlin last month also blocked a US facilitated deal for
36:08
a ceasefire in the Black Sea unless sanctions on a
36:12
bank and several financial institutions were lifted, a precondition that
36:18
European leaders have opposed. Peskov and Russian foreign ministry officials
36:24
have ramped up their rhetoric against European leaders in recent weeks,
36:28
framing Europe's pledges to continue supporting Ukraine as blocking progress
36:33
on peace. On Thursday, Peskov said the negotiations were with
36:39
Karp were proceeding with difficulty, insisting that the situation was
36:44
so complex that there could be no chance of peace
36:47
soon as he attacked European leaders as hawks of ball,
36:52
but after Ribo one Friday that the Trump administration would
36:56
move on if it did not get a deal soon,
36:58
Peskov brought up the moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure,
37:04
which each side has accused the other of reaching. We
37:08
believe that progress can already be recognized, said Peskov, adding
37:13
that while the moratorium had expired, Putin had yet to
37:16
issue orders about what comes next. The Kremlin has continued
37:21
to push maxim minimalists. A maximalist conditions for a ceasefire
37:27
and a broader deal, including the halt of Western military
37:31
aid to Ukraine and drastic reduction of its army, terms
37:36
that would be unacceptable to Kiev. No such conditions would
37:40
apply to Russia, which give it a majority military advantage
37:45
if fighting resumed. Freedom writers faced a mob at this
37:51
bus station. Doge wanted to sell it. This landmark site
37:56
in Montgomery, Alabama was deemed not to government operations, and
38:02
other stops in the US civil rights history could also
38:05
be at risk. And there is a picture of the
38:09
bus station in Montgomery, Alabama where young civil rights activists
38:13
were brutally attacked in May of nineteen sixty one, which
38:18
now houses the Freedom Riders Museum, And there are pictures
38:23
of those young people who died during that the situation,
38:29
and there are people of pictures of all colors on
38:32
that wall. The very end says Freedom Rids Museum and
38:37
the Greyhound bus station sand in large above the front door, Montgomery,
38:44
Alabama by Molly Hennessy Fisk. The bus station's colored entrance
38:51
has vanished, the door bricked over, scattered holes where a
38:55
sign once hung. Those standing just inches away on the
38:59
side the students might not have even noticed it had
39:03
the museum director not highlighted the ghost of segregation. The building,
39:09
he explained, was telling them a story. Some clues were
39:13
more obvious. On a wall beside the high schools, dozens
39:17
of mugshots stared back. Those were freedom writers. Alexander Strickland
39:23
told the group. Most of those who came here in
39:26
nineteen sixty one were only a few years older than
39:28
the teens. Yet they drafted their wills before boarding buses
39:33
heading south to protest segregated seating and services in an
39:39
interstate travel They were attacked by a mob of hundreds
39:44
of people right where were standing. They were willing to die.
39:48
Your standing where history happened, Strickland said, as the students
39:52
listened closely imagining the scene. This was the lesson that
39:57
their teacher had brought them here to learn and that
40:00
she feared could soon be lost. Lisa Harmon had read
40:05
about the Trump administration's plan to sell the FOMA dust depot,
40:09
which the museum leases from the federal government. Harmon teaches
40:13
a p amer African American history at John Adams College
40:17
and Korea Academy, a public school on Cleveland's East Side.
40:22
She had become alarmed in recent years as lawmakers across
40:26
the country attacked the curriculum for being critical race theory,
40:31
and even banded in Florida a closing a national landmark.
40:36
Whye would they target this place as government waste? She
40:40
asks Strickland once he'd finished the tour. This is American
40:45
history and Alexander Strickland. There is a picture of him
40:49
outside the Freedom. Rhyan's Museum market a markers a men
40:56
us doze service driven cuts by the General Services Administration,
41:01
the agency that manages federal property. Officials included the building
41:05
on a list of hundreds they planned to sell because
41:08
they were not core to government operations. Selling ensures the
41:14
taxpayer's dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized
41:18
federal spaces. Disposing of these assets helps eliminate costly maintenance
41:24
and allows us to reinvest in high quality work environments
41:28
that support agency Missions officials wrote. When US Representatives Terry A.
41:35
Seal and Samari Figures saw the GSA list, both Alexander
41:41
Alabama Democrats immediately demanded that the station be spared. The site,
41:46
which houses the Freedom Rights Museum, is an essential historic
41:51
landmark that not only honors the legacy of the freedom writers,
41:55
but also educates the public of our nation's struggle for
41:59
equality and justice. Days ahead of the march in nearby Selma,
42:03
marking the sixtieth anniversary of the protests known as Bloody Sunday,
42:08
the lawmakers joined Host Minority Leader Hikim Jeffries, Democrat of
42:13
New York, outside the museums. They blasted the Trump administration
42:18
to trying to sell the site and vowed to protect
42:20
it and the rest of the stops on the civil
42:23
rights trail that connects more than a dozen states. Our
42:28
civil rights history is not for sale. The progress of
42:31
the civil rights movement is not for sale. The struggle
42:35
that the civil rights movement represented to bring about a
42:38
more perfect union is not for sale. Jeffries said. They
42:43
enlisted sen A Decatie Boyd Britt of Alabama, a rising
42:47
star in the Republican Party and an ally of President
42:51
Donald Trump, who also had attended the SELMA commemoration on
42:55
March ninth. Shia knows that the museum was no longer
42:58
slated for closure. This has been resolved, she said in
43:03
a statement. The Montgomery Bus Station and Freedom Rights Museum
43:07
will not be onjsa's core list. That was scance reassurance
43:12
for historians, advocates, and others pushing back on Trump's directives
43:16
about how the country's past should be presented and how
43:20
its diversity should be discussed with the goal of eliminating
43:25
divisive narratives. In the past few months, administration officials edited
43:31
National Park Service websites to minimize events and individuals of
43:35
closing slavery and black merit who struggle for civil rights.
43:40
The military removed mention of the famed Tuskegee airman and
43:44
Navajo code talkers from its websites and training materials. Public
43:50
outcrop prompted reversals. Figures, who represents the Montgomery area in
43:56
the House, said the GSA contacted him to confirm that
44:01
the bus depot was no longer on the list, but
44:04
he remains apprehensive about additional rounds of cuts, so he
44:08
and Sewell introduced the Civil Rights Landmark Protection Act to
44:13
shield the sight and others on the National Register of
44:16
Historic Places. The bill would require congressional approval before the sale, disposal,
44:23
declaration of excess or surplus, transfer, or conveyance of federal
44:28
property with historical significance. If you sell it, you use
44:32
control of what stories that building is used to tell.
44:36
Figus said of the station, a single story, tan brick
44:39
structure that still bears the Greyhound bus name and logo.
44:44
It's the museum now, but what's next? We can keep
44:48
doing this seemingly every week, having to stand up for
44:52
another aspect of civil rights. HR Bill twenty forty six
44:58
has yet to receive a hearing. Frit's office, then asked
45:02
whether she would support the legislation, responded that she will
45:07
continue to insure these civil rights or land markers that
45:11
represent both Alabama and American history remain protected. A GOSA
45:16
spokesperson did not address whether historic sites would be exempted
45:21
from future sales, saying only that additional assets will be
45:26
posted regularly. The Deep South is home to nearly all
45:30
stops on the Civil Rights Trail. About three dozen are
45:33
in Alabama, the most of any state, with a dozen
45:37
of those in Montgomery. Many here are within walking distance,
45:41
including the Rosa Parks Museum and the Reverend Martin Luther
45:45
king Jeniu's former church, where mass meetings were held in
45:49
nineteen fifty five to organize what became the year long
45:52
Montgomery bus Boycott. Other historic sites in this city, the
45:57
first capital of the Confederacy, are conspicuously exempt from federal
46:02
cross cutting. There is the Alabama State House, a Greek
46:06
Revival style edifice that completed in eighteen fifty one that
46:11
today is a working museum. Across the street stands the
46:15
first White House of the Confederacy, bought more than a
46:19
century ago by a private association with state help, and
46:22
maintained with more than one hundred thousand dollars in annual
46:26
state funding. The bus depot had been at risk of
46:30
being demolished when it closed in nineteen ninety five, but
46:34
local supporters rallied and within the year got the federal
46:37
government to buy the building and added to the National Register.
46:41
It took almost fifteen years for them to get the
46:44
National Historical Commission to turn it into a museum. This spring,
46:49
staff had been mounting their first permanent exhibit. It is
46:53
expected to open later this year. Valerie Smedley, who runs
47:00
tours of Montgomery souvenir shop, said she doesn't mind the
47:04
government maintaining Confederate monuments as long as civil rights landsmarks
47:08
are also protected. If you're going to tell the story,
47:12
tell it all, she said. The Freedom Rhymes Museum draws
47:16
visitors from across the country. On a sunny Thursday last month,
47:21
David Todd Lawrence was back for an idea. Lawrence, an
47:25
associate professor who teaches African American literature and culture, brought
47:30
students from the University of Saint Thomas and Saint Pame
47:33
and Aesuba. As always, the goal was to turn abstract
47:38
lessons about racism into concrete experiences in places where things
47:44
actually happened. He said. There is a picture of one
47:49
colored and white designations inscribed on two marble slabs that
47:55
once loomed over segregated water fountains at the Cress Department
48:00
store in downtown Montgomery. I remember those that afternoon. Richard
48:05
and Julia Harris of Rochelle, Illinois, came with their three
48:09
children as part of a spring break tour of the
48:11
Civil Rights Trail. The trio ages eleven, twelve, and seventeen
48:16
examined the photo of black travelers waiting outside the station
48:20
they took in the images of freedom writers like John Lewis,
48:24
a future congressman, in blood splattered clothes following the mob's attack.
48:30
Especially with everything that's going on right now in the
48:33
world with voting rights, I want my kids to know.
48:36
Richard Harris said he is black, his wife white, with
48:41
mixed children. They need to know where they came from.
48:43
Julia Harris said some of the freedom writer's photos were
48:48
paired with coats. One came from Charles Person, who in
48:51
nineteen sixty one was an eighteen year old freshman at
48:54
Marhose College in Atlanta. What would you get on the
48:58
bus for? Pearson died in January at eighty two. At
49:04
least half of the activists who rode into Montgomery have
49:06
already passed. Strictly noted. Those still living often can't share
49:11
their stories. The Reverend Cloud Carter, who lives in Birmingham
49:15
in is ninety four, hasn't done an interview since last
49:19
year because of dementia. According to sun in Law. Lukara
49:23
Mazumbi Mazimbi, executive director of the Alabama African American Civil
49:30
Rights Heritage Sites Consortium recorded an interview with Carter in
49:35
nineteen twenty three. Along with a hundred more oral histories,
49:39
he's developing an apt to allow others to record their
49:42
own accounts at home. The Zimbi, host of podcast, stayed
49:46
on Freedom, with which he shares the stories, but he
49:50
laments that we will never be able to get all
49:54
of them because we are working against times. The museum's
49:59
potential closure, coupled with Trump's executive orders, had made with
50:03
Johnbie feel as if that whole history is under assault.
50:07
He wishes the museum could be bought and run by
50:10
a private group. The only way that we truly can preserve,
50:14
protect and promote this legacy is that people themselves have
50:17
to exercise stewardship. The stakes are clearing Montgomery's once segregated
50:22
Centennial Hill, where a home that served as a safe
50:26
house for freedom riders after they were beaten is privately owned.
50:30
Where properties across the street were demolished and replaced with
50:33
a parking garage down the street, the historically back to
50:37
own Ben Moore Hotel and its Majestic Cafe recently went
50:42
up for sale. That whole block is sacred ground. The
50:45
Jimbie said. Valga Harris Montgomery was thirteen when the Freedom
50:50
Ribbers arrived at her family's host that awful day, and
50:53
injured Lewis was among them. That's the Freedom Writers eating
50:58
at the Kenna, Montgomery said, as she sat in her
51:01
kitchen and looked over photos of the twenty one who
51:04
traveled to Montgomery. She pointed to one with a female
51:07
student leader who had become a prominent lifelong activist. There's
51:12
Reverend King and Diane Nash by the refrigerator, and John
51:16
Lewis with the bandage on the back of his head.
51:20
Montgomery serves as president of the museum's Friends Society, raising
51:25
money to make sure the history doesn't get erased. She
51:29
gives tours by appointment and is constantly dismayed by how
51:33
many students, even local ones, don't know the names of
51:36
any freedom writers. The week before, a group of Florida
51:41
Public high school students told her they're being taught according
51:45
to new state education standards, that black people benefited from
51:50
slavery by learning useful skills. Montgomery was aghast. She walked
51:56
upstairs to a shag carpeted formal playroom where she won
52:00
watched Freedom writers strategize with her follow a pharmacist who
52:04
was among those famed tuscagee Ermann. On a table, she
52:09
placed a copy of the will that Lewis drafted in
52:12
long hand, and protester's thank you notes to her family
52:15
from jail. Montgomery said she wasn't scared back then. She
52:19
believed progress was inevitable, and now she is truly afraid
52:25
the civil rights movement and its very history could be destroyed.
52:31
All the fight we put in, we put our lives
52:34
on the line. If we don't share it and pass
52:36
it on, we'll be warded down or will be incomplete.
52:40
It's happening as we speak our last article. Whitehouse embraces
52:47
lab leak as true pandemic origin ax's COVID website. US
52:55
intelligent agencies had been split on how the coronavirus began.
53:00
Most Americans blame a lab accident in China by Dan
53:06
Diamond and Lauren Webber. The White House on Friday launched
53:10
a website deeming a laboratory leak as the true origin
53:14
of the coronavirus, embracing a theory that has become a
53:18
popular explanation for a pandemic that has killed more than
53:21
the Median Americans, but remains divisive in an intelligence community
53:26
and is opposed by many virologists. The new website, which
53:30
features an image of President Donald Trump striding between the
53:34
words lab leak, appears to draw entirely upon a report
53:41
overseen by Our Host Republicans last year that concluded the
53:47
outbreak began with the lab leak in China. The White
53:50
House site also echoes the report's allegations that Anthony S. Foci,
53:55
a former senior National Institutes of Health official who became
53:59
the target of Trump's I, prompted scientists to instead focus
54:04
on possible natural explanation for the outbreak that included a
54:09
potential virus spreading to humans from a Huan market where
54:13
while animals were sold by nearly all measures of science.
54:18
If there was evidence of a natural origin, it would
54:21
have already surfaced, but it hasn't. The White Hose website
54:25
reads encouraging visitors to download the embedded Host Republicans report.
54:32
Five years after the nation's shut down to combat the
54:35
novel coronavirus, the virus's threat has receded, but fights over
54:40
pandemic policy have night. Trump and his allies have blamed
54:44
the advice from Fauchi and other federal officials for some
54:47
of the harshest measures, such as social distancing rules that
54:51
led to schools shutdowns of business closures. Democrats have blamed
54:56
Trump's own efforts to initially downplay the virus, his threat,
55:00
and his hesitation to encourage supporters to seek out life
55:04
saving coronavirus vaccines. States are fighting the Trump administration's attempt
55:10
to claw back more than a eleven billion in coronavirus
55:14
funds from their health departments, saying it will weaken the
55:17
ability to respond to public health threats. Meanwhile, scientists have
55:22
acknowledged questions over the value of risky virus research that
55:26
was being conducted in human and other sites, calling for
55:31
tighter controls that are known as gain of function experiments,
55:36
where live pathogens can be altered to become more deadly.
55:40
Republicans hail the White House site, calling in an overdue
55:43
effort at accountability, President Donald Trump is rightfully providing the
55:49
American people with the truth about the COVID nineteen pandemic.
55:53
Representative James Como, Republican of Kentucky, who chairs the Host
55:58
Oversight Committee, said in his statement. Coma's panel oversaw the
56:02
pandemic report that underpins the new site. Democrats and scientists
56:07
counted that the Trump administration has embraced unproven claims to
56:11
attack scientists and institutions that support them. The White House
56:16
is declaring its own scientific truth, which goes against the
56:20
published science on this issue. It just appeals to this
56:24
notion of conspiracy, that there are forces working behind the
56:28
scenes that mean to do us harm, said Paul Offitt,
56:32
director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital
56:36
of Philadelphia. No Democrat on the host panel investigating the
56:41
federal pandemic response signed on to the gop led report
56:45
last year, instead releasing a rebubble that acknowledged the possibility
56:50
of a lab leak, which said that Republicans had wrongly
56:53
embraced it to conduct political attacks on scientists. Bauci has
56:57
previously denied wrongdoing, pointing to an email sent in early
57:02
twenty twenty, rather than NIH officials discuss the need to
57:06
alert authorities if scientists uncovered evidence that the virus had
57:11
been man made. Scientists who worked on a key paper
57:16
that shaped the early debate around the pandemic's potential cause,
57:20
known as proximal origins, testified to Congress. I felt you
57:25
did not influence their findings. And this is the end
57:29
of the reading for today, the nineteenth of April of
57:33
twenty twenty five. I wish all a happy Easter tomorrow.
57:39
Please have a good weekend. Stay tuned for continued programming
57:44
on Radio I