Transcript

7.31.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post for the
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last day of July. July thirty, first of twenty twenty five. Man,
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we are now seven months into the year. Today's Washington
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Post is well. Your reader is Alice Stayner, with the
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reminder that RADIOI is a reading service for those blind
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with difficulties making it difficult to hold printed material. So
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I will start off with the front page far left,
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US strikes deal with South Korea on tariff's agreement with
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India remains elusive ahead of Trump's Friday deadline, by Jacob Bogage,
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Kashma Mahiotra, and Michelle eh Lee. In the middle of
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the front page, and of course above the fold is
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a picture of a Ukrainian first responder working at the
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site of a strike in Kharkiv's outskirts. Wednesday, Ukraine's air
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force said Russia launched seventy eight drone attacks overnight as
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Moscow continued its intensified aerial campaign against the cities. The
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Kharkiv region's governors said Wednesday that Russian attacks had killed
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six there in the past day. He looks like a
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US fireman with the gear on the red, yellow, greene
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stripes around his waist, on his arms, his legs and
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the hat. And this is in a store where you
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just see litter. He's standing in a foot of stuff
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that's fallen off the shelves, bottles and all kinds of things.
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And I certainly can't read what it says on the
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shelf labels. To the right of that is a host
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of failures outlined in crash Lapses by FAA and military
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in TSB, says officials questioned over disaster. Above the Potomac
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It is by Joan Duncan, Jane Copp Laurie and Tommy
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Alex Horton and Rachel Webber. Below the picture in Kharkiv
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is an AI feature powered by geriatric nuclear plants by
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Evan Halper and Caroline O'Donovan at a Middletown, PA. And
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then on the very left below the fold surprising find
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thirty thousand feet deep Thriving Life by Dino Grandoning after
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massive quake of relatively a tame tsunami eight point eight
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magnitude trembler off Russia has so far created smaller waves
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than past strong quakes by Kasha Patel and Scott Dance,
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And then on the far right doj Epstein grand jury
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files have just two witnesses. By Jeremy Roebuck, I'll start
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with Trump says he has a trade deal with South
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Korea as Friday deadline nears. Economic data outside out Wednesday
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showed trade turmoil wasn't holding back the US economy, but
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the Federal Reserve left rates unchanged, citing fear of inflation.
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By Jacob Bogage, Karishma Mevrotra and Michelle Yehi Lee in
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a picture in April of President Donald Trump holding a
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board up entitled Reciprocal Tariffs, and it states the country,
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the country's tariff charged to the US, and the next
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column is US a discounted reciprocal tariffs, the top being
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China with sixty seven percent charge to the US and
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thirty four percent discounted reciprocal tariff for China. And it
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goes down European Union, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, India, South Career, Thailand, Switzerland, Indonesia, Malaya, Cambodia,
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and I can read the rest of them. President Donald
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Trump's had Wednesday he had reached a trade deal with
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South Korea ahead of her self imposed August first deadline.
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Before broad new taxes on imports kick in, though he
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also cast out on striking a deal with India, another
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of the United States' largest trading partners. Tomorrow is August first.
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It's Friday. South Korea was set to face a twenty
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five percent tariff beginning Friday, when rates are set to
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go up on dozens of countries. Trump earlier Wednesday posted
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on truth Social, his social media platform, that the Friday
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deadline this is in all caps, stands strong and will
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not be extended. In the early evening, Trump wrote that
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South Korea imports will face a fifteen percent teriff freight instead,
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and that the country will invest three hundred and fifty
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billion dollars in the US directed by the White House,
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plus purchase one hundred billion in American energy. South Korea
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is the country's ninth largest trading partner according to federal data.
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India is the twelfth. The US and South Korea have
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an existing trade agreement that Trump negotiated during his first term.
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South Korean President Lee G Mayoum welcomed the deal, which
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landed after negotiations started only last month when Lee took office.
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Lee said that despite the tight deadline and challenging circumstances.
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The agreement will help South Korea's competitiveness in the US market.
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We overcame a major hurdle through these negotiations. Our government
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has eliminated uncertainty in the export environment, and by aligning
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US tariffs with or below those of our major export competitors,
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we created an environment where we can compete on equal
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or superior terms with major countries, Lee said in a
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statement posted on his Facebook page. Lee said that three
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hundred and fifty billion dollar fund would help South Korea
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and companies enter the US markets in key areas including shipbuilding, semiconductors, biotechnology,
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and energy. Of the three hundred and fifty billion, one
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hundred and fifty billion will go towards shipbuilding cooperation. He said.
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Shipbuilding had emerged as a key point in the negotiations
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as South Korean officials pitched their nations advanced industry as
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crucial to revitalizing the declining US industry and to help
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it keep up with China's. South Korea is the world's
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second largest shipbuilder behind China. The Presidential Office said after
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the announcement that the South Korean autos will face fifteen
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percent tariffs. The announcement is a framework of an agreement.
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Finalized trade deals are massive and can take years to negotiate,
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but if the arrangement the South Korea is implemented, the
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White House will have broken new arrangements with eleven of
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the country's top fifteen trading partners. Other agreements have been
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harder to achieve. Second Treasury Secretary Scott Bassett said this
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day that the US and China, the country's third largest
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trading partner, would agree to hold off on retaliatory trade
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measures and continue negotiations, extending a truce that began in
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mid April. A deal with Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi
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has been one of the White House's top goals in
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months of trade talks. India has one of the world's
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most protectionist trade regimes, but it appeared Wednesday that no
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deal would land before the Friday deadline site in the
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United States. Again in caps massive trade deficit with India
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and that country's purchases of Russian military equipment and the
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energy Trump wrote on truth Social that he will order
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a twenty five percent tariff rate for Indian imports and
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an unspecified penalty. As of Friday. Tariffs attaxes the government
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charges on imported goods, which consumers often ultimately pay for
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through higher prices. And while the tariff rowout has injected
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un certainty into the economy, data released Wednesday showed businesses
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and consumers had so far shrugged off the impact. The
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Federal Reserve also left interest rates unchanged Wednesday, as officials
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worried that trade policy could stoke inflation. Trump announced a
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wide range of tariffs April second, which he dubbed Liberation Day.
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Those would have raised the country's effective tariff rate to
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twenty eight percent, according to the Yale b Budget lad
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Entering Trump's second term, the national tear freight hvered between
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two and three percent. The move staggered global markets, and
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Trump quickly pulled back, punting the start date for the
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levees for three months to allow negotiating time with foreign leaders.
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Besset said Wednesday at an event hosted by the conservative
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news site Brightbart, I was trying to explain to people
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who panicked on April second, we're doing peace deals, trade deals,
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tax deals, and they're all coming together. For a while,
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it looked in April May like the US was alone
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against the world. Now that we've done deals with our
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top trading partners. We have a lot more leverage be set, added.
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Trump has wielded not just access to American markets, but
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also security assistance as bargaining tools in trade talks. European
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nations in South Korea are eager to keep US military
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personnel on the ground in their countries. Trump has considered
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moving tens of thousands of troops from both regions, according
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to recent reports. He also used a threat of additional
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tariffs to push for peace deals between Thailand and Cambodia
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and India and Pakistan separate from talks over tariff rates
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with those countries. The US economy grew at a healthy
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three percent pace in the second quartu, though analysts warned
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that trade related quirks are probably making the economy pure
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more robust than it is. Consumer spending growth has recently slowed,
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and companies are increasingly pairing back hiring plans while they
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wait for clarity. Overall Gross domestic product, the broadest measure
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of the goods and services produced in the United States,
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grew at a rate of one point two five percent
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between January and June, a notable slow down from two
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point three percent pace a year earlier. Still, The Trump
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administration was quick to toute the latest growth numbers, saying
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its policies of fueling a new golden age for the
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economy and needling the Fed for not lowering interest rates. Yet,
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Americans trust in President Trump's America First economic agenda that
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continues to prove the so called experts wrong, Whitehouse spokeswoman
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Caroline Levitt said in a statement Wednesday. In some parts
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of the economy, Sappi chains brace to o higher tariff
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rates as the deadline news. The US Postal Service sent
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advisories to consumers Wednesday with constructions to comply with diminimous
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tariffs or levies on low value goods. Those items were
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previously exempt from trade barriers. The White House also issued
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executive oders Wednesday to make official new tariffs on kappa
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imports and on goods from Brazil, which Trump is criticized
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for prosecuting former President yere Bosinato. American and Indian negotiators
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had hoped in recent days that a breakthrough was within
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reach on what was supposed to be the first part
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of a landmark agreement. The United States is India's largest
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trading partner, accounting for almost a fifth of its exports
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and creating a forty six billion dollar trade surplus in
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twenty fourteen. That optimism unraveled after Trump's early morning posts.
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Hya tariffs threatened to derail India's growth ambitions, especially in
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its sectors with heavy US exports, such as pharmaceuticals and
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smartphone Many economists expect the new tariffs to be layered
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on top of a ten levee on what are known
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as the wicks b r ICs. This is in caps
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nations which include Brazil, b India, I, Russia, r China,
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c and South Africa and others that would be Brazil, Brazil, Russia, India,
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China and South Africa BRICS. At the heart of trade
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talks within the United States is dairy, a highly protected
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industry in India. New Deli opposes dairy imports from cows
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fed with animal derived products, a common US farming practice.
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Local media often refer to such imports as non veg milk.
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Washington also has pre to India to relax rules against
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genetically modified crops, especially corn and soybeans. Trump's April tariff
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announcement revived a longstanding debate in India about whether the
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country should open up its heavenly protectionist economy. Many economists
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have argued that the moment represented or presence a rare,
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politically viable chance to push through long needed liberalization, but
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others have worn that India's labor intensive small and midside industries,
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which could struggle to complete globally, may not survive the shop.
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India's average tariff stood at seventeen percent in twenty twenty three,
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nearly six times the average US rate, according to the
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World Trade Organization. Trump has repeatedly singled at India for
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its tariffs and speeches in news conferences, including during an
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appearance with Moti in February. While some nations responded to
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Trump's April tariffs with retaliation, India was proactive in its
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concessions early on, reducing tariffs on some cars, motorcycles, electronics,
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solar components, chemicals, and alcohol. It also proposed eliminating what
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is referred to as the Google tax on online in advertisements.
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But since then relations have taken a turn for the worse,
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including after a flare up between India and Pakistan, which
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Trump repeatedly claimed he helped refuse by leveraging trade pressure.
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India has made calibrated denials of those claims, while analysts
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have highlighted what they see as a tilt and US
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policy toward Pakistan, exposing the limits of the ideological alignment
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between Modi and Trump. India's com commerce industry said in
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a statement twinsty that we remain committed to reaching a fair,
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balanced and mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement that India opposition
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politicians blasted Modi over Trump's announcement. India's foreign policy has
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completely failed, the Indian National Congress Party, the main opposition,
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posted on social media. Trump also said minsday afternoon that
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he had reached a deal with Pakistan involving oil, though
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he didn't provide specifics. Desperate for power, modern AI firms
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lean on a geriatric American nuclear fleet after reviving three
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Mile Hold, Silicon Valley races to lock down more contracts
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as aging reactors, alarming some regulators and consumer advocates. That
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there is a picture of the cooling towers at three
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Mile Island being reflected in the war and you see
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those cylinders that look like a woman's body curve narrowing
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at the waist and then flaring out. The cooling towers
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at three Mile Island which is being renamed Crane Clean
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Energy Center, are seen from across the Susquehanna River last
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year in Middletown, Pennsylvania. I did not Know as being
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renamed Crane Clean Energy Center by Evan Halper and Caroline
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O'Donovan out of Middletown, PA. The control room at three
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Mile Island doesn't call to mind a modern days Silicon valley.
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The nuclear plant's gadgetry has plastic levers and colored buttons,
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chunky enough for a toddler's play set, push button, landline bones,
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and monochrome monitors. But vintage facilities like these are now
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coveted by tech companies that need immense amounts of power
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today to propel their dreams for tomorrow. The nation's dwindling
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fleet of nuclear plants is being seized upon by tech
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firms such as microfoss Soft and Amazon as a foundation
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for their plans for an artificial intelligence infused future. Their
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aged but reliable survivors have emerged as one of the
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most viable ways to quickly feed tech firms growing thirst
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for electricity to power the giant data centers needed for
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AI projects. Meta signed a twenty year agreement for the
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power flowing from a large legacy reactor in Illinois. Microsoft
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struck a deal to restart a reactor next to the
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one at Pennsylvania's three Mile Island plant that was shuttered
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in nineteen seventy nine by a partial meltdown, and Amazon
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last month in the same state locked up power from
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a forty two year old nuclear plant down the Susquehanna River.
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Tech companies are scouring the nation for other geriatric nuclear
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plants to power their AI dreams. According to interviews with
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nuclear industry officials and company earnings calls, their interest is
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focused on the roughly two dozen operating plants in unregulated markets,
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which are in many cases free to sell power to
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the highest biddlem. They make up about half of the
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fifty four plants still operating in the United States. The
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tech firms save the deals give new life to plants
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at risk of going offline or that have already been
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shut down. Contracts that lock in rates for decades are
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attractive to plant operators, and the electricity flows without directly
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generating new emissions, but critics says Silicon Valley's nuclear s
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free will make it more likely that consumers will face
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electricity rate hikes or shortages in coming years as the
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nation faces soaring demand for power, driven in part by
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new data centers. And there is a picture of controls,
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monitors and indicated lights filling the main control room at
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three Mile Islands last year. And is that kind of
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greeny turquoise blue color with panels filled with monitors and
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buttons and the push button telephones in a beige color
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lined up on a desk or on a table, rolling
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chairs and foul cabinets, it looks very outdated. By locking
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up aging nuclear plants instead of building new power generation,
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tech firms could lead communities to fall back on fossil fuels,
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extending the life of polluting coal and glass plants. A
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few years ago, nuclear energy struggled to compete with cheaper
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renewables and natural gas, but all power sources are now
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in greater demand. Contracts with tech firms can offer nuclear
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plant operators as much as double the market rate for electricity.
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Jackson Morris, a director with the environmental advocacy group Natural
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Resources Defense Council, said tapping nuclear energy allows companies to
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keep pledges to use carbon free power, but doesn't do
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anything to solve for the impact they're having on customers.
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They're insulating themselves from their own impact, he said. Amazon, Google, Meta,
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and Microsoft declined to answer questions about which additional nuclear
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plants they may be seeking to buy power from, as
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well as the potential impacts of such purchases on other
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rate payers and the environment. Amazon founded Jeff Bezos owns
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the Washington Post. All of the companies say they mitigate
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the impact of their energy use on other constabers by
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working with utilities to shield customers from funding infrastructure that
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serves only data centers, and investing in bringing new clean
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technologies to the power grid. Tech firms say their data
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centers will eventually be powered by a new generation of cheaper,
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but more sophisticated nuclear reactors to be designed with help
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from AI, but the technology has been stamfied by engineering issues,
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supply chain challenges, and regulatory hurdles. Google and Microsoft are
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also investing infusion energy, which is even less proven. It
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turns out it is hard to go from all of
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that on see new technology on a spreadsheet to an
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actual piece of infrastructure that isn't run with analog controls,
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said Ted Nordhaus, co founder of the Breakthrough Institute, a
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California based energy think tank Nordhaus added, right now, there
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is not much else to do other than try to
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squeeze every electron you can, added the existing nuclear fleet
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chain reaction. Energy companies that own nuclear plants are thrilled
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by the tech industry's recent interest, calling it a springboard
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for nuclear powers resurgence. New Jersey Power Company PSG told
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investors in February that it is in talks with tech
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firms about selling large amounts of power directly from its
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nuclear reactors on what is known as the Artificial Island
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Complex in Delaware. B Company CEO Ralph L. Rosa said
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in April that requests for new power from the utility
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by data centators has exploded over the past year, jumping
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sixteenfold to six point four Giggle wants amount of electricity
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that could power several million homes In Texas, energy company
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Vistra says it is in talks with tech firms interested
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in buying energy from the Comanche Peak nuclear plant near
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Fort Worth and possibly others it owns in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
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There's a picture of the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant
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in glen Rose, Texas. It looks like an island with
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a bridge across it out to the island where you
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see the two cylinders and a spread out area for
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the nuclear peak power plant. I think we see more
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large deals, said Dan Eggers, executive vice president at Constellation Energy,
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which owns or partly owns thirteen nuclear energy complexes across
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the country. Constellation has already rezoned land next to the
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Byron Clean Energy Center, a nuclear plant in Illinois, so
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tech companies can build data centers there. It is seeking
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similar changes at the campus of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear
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plant in Maryland on Chesapeake Bay. The company says it
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is also contemplating new deals with tech companies the long
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term nuclear power contracts in Pennsylvania and New York. Lawmakers
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and regulators in some communities are concerned center nuclear deals
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could increase costs for other rate payers and weaken the
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power grid. Some Maryland lawmakers want to ban Constellation from
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inviting data center construction alongside calbrit Cliffs, which produces nearly
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forty percent of the state's electricity. A report from the
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state's Public Service Commission warrants that siphoning energy from the
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plant away from the power grid for data centers could
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destabilize the system. The report says, in addition to being
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costly to replace a large nuclear plant, the quality of
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the generation dot dot dot would be difficult to replace.
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Unlike solar or wind facilities, nuclear power provides around the
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clock electricity when the plants are operating in any weather.
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In many cases, nuclear power that gets redirected to tech
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companies would be backfilled on the power grid with gas
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or coal generation. Nuclear power officials say the solution is
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not restricting deals, but building more plants. It is short
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sighted to say we will just ignore all this demand
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over the next few years and tell these companies to
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get their power somewhere else, when this could set us
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up for a lot of growth in the industry, said
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Benton Arnett, senior director of Markets and Policy at the
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Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group. But even nuclear executives
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working with tech firms acknowledge that pulling zero emissions nuclear
28:28
energy away from other customers will have an impact on
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the climate and can be a sync with ambitious commitments
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tech firms have made to reduce their card in footprint.
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A growing list of people are realizing they can't have
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everything they want, said Robert Coward. Principal officer at MPR Associates,
28:51
one of the nuclear industries leading technical services firms, Critical Mass.
28:58
This scramble tech firms to secure more nuclear energy quickly
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has led Silicon Valley companies to some unexpected places. They
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included dormant construction sided in South Carolina. Their plans to
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build a three mile island sized nuclear plant was abandoned
29:16
in twenty seventeen after the developer burned through nine billion
29:21
dollars on a project that struggled with cost overruns and
29:25
engineering setbacks. Local ratepayers were saddled with the bill. Federal
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prosecutors in twenty twenty secured prison sentences for executives involved
29:35
for the project for lying to investors and raped payers
29:39
about its viability. Now, several big tech companies are among
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those that have expressed interest in bringing the VC's Summer
29:50
nuclear project back to life, according to testimony from officials
29:55
at utilities Santi Kupu after it invited proposals for restor
30:00
the project. A utility spokesperson would not say if they
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are tech companies among the three or four proposals she
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said are finalists for a potential deal. Tech firms are
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also eyeing a revival of Dwayne Arnold Energy Center in Island,
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a nineteen seventies vintage nuclear plant majority owned by Next
30:25
Extra NOE Next Era that was northballed in twenty twenty
30:31
after a fear storm damaged its cooling towers. According to
30:35
company earnings calls, there are repairs who are initially deemed
30:39
too costly. The data centers have shifted the economics of
30:44
nuclear energy, and Next Era is muwing a reboot to
30:49
serve the facilities. If we continue to see the kind
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of prices Microsoft is willing to pay for nuclear power
30:58
from three Mile Alan, these types of deals become a
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solid economic proposition, said Curly Davenport, are utilities analysis at
31:08
Goldman Sachs. She said estimates show that tech company is
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paying as much as twice the going rate on the
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open market and locking in for a twenty year contract.
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Duyanne Arnold is one of the last retired plants intact
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enough to restart. Many of the retired plants in the
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US have already been dismantled, but tech companies are finding
31:33
ways to squeeze more juice out of active reactors in
31:36
the aging national fleet, pursuing reactor uprights from federal regulators
31:43
that allow increased output. Nuclear power companies aim to increase
31:48
the power output of the existing US nuclear fleet by
31:53
the equivalent of three large new reactors using that tactic.
31:58
As more deals involving aging reactors emerge, consumer advocates and
32:04
environmental groups are growing concerned about the impact on everyday
32:09
raypayers and the planet. Amazon reconfigured its deal in Pennsylvania
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after it was rejected by federal regulators that expressed concern
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about the effects on consumer electricity bills. The company had
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proposed rooting power from the plant directly to nearby data centers,
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allowing it to avoid paying usage fees for the electric grid.
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The online retailer last month announced a deal with plant
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own a talent in which it agreed to pay grid fees,
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a contract that will effectively lock up a large trunk
32:46
of existing power generation at a time the mid Atlantic
32:49
power grid desperately needs more energy. The deal is notable
32:55
because it puts an existing nuclear plant on sound economic
32:59
footing for another decade of a mission's free power generation,
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said former Federal Energy commissioner Allison Clemits. But Amazon is
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also removing supply from the grid justice demand from AI
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and other uses such as electric cars and air conditioners
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is spiking. There isn't enough power on the grid, Clement said,
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and the increased load forecast by analo syst utilities and
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grid operators cannot be met by existing power sources. There's
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not enough room on the system, Clements said. Going into
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the a section, Trump's newborn savings accounts a back door
33:48
for privatizing Social Security. The SCENT says the Trump accounts
33:55
were set up in the GOP's new tax and spending law,
34:00
a One Big Beautiful Bill by Jacob Bogage. The newborn
34:07
savings accounts, created as part of President Donald Trump's massive
34:11
new tax and immigration law are a back door off
34:15
of privatizing Social Security. Secretary Treasurer or Treasury Secretary Scott
34:22
Bessent said Wednesday. The Trump accounts, enacted as part of
34:27
the One Big Beautiful Bill, give newborns a thousand dollars
34:31
savings account that can be invested with tax deferred treatment.
34:36
Families of their employers can make five thousand dollar contributions
34:40
to the account each year until the beneficiary turns eighteen.
34:46
The program is one of more popular components of the legislation,
34:51
which Trump signed into Lard July fourth, and borrows from
34:55
proposals made for years by Democrats. Speaking at an Wednesday
35:00
hosted by the conservative news site Write, Bart Bascin said
35:05
the accounts will improve economic outcomes for babies and children,
35:09
and said the Treasury Department will use them to increase
35:13
financial literacy among young people. He likened learning about sound
35:18
investing practices to a child learning to take responsibility for
35:22
a pet. Ambascent added that if enrollies allowed their accounts
35:27
to grow over decades and saw the benefits of compound interest,
35:32
beneficiaries to accrue large and tax deferred savings balances. Well
35:43
the accounts, I'm going back and Bacin added that if
35:47
enrollies allowed their accounts to grow over decades and saw
35:52
the profits of compound interest, the accounts could in effect
35:57
replace social Security, allowing beneficiaries to accruite large and tax
36:04
preferred saving balances. At the end of the day, I'm
36:10
not sure whether the distribution level date should be. Should
36:14
it be thirty and you can buy a house should
36:17
it be sixty? But in a way it is a
36:19
back door for privatizing social security, the Scent said, adding
36:25
social Security is a defined benefit plan pay to the
36:29
extent that if all of a sudden, if these accounts
36:33
grow and you have hundreds of thousands of dollars for
36:36
your requirement, then that's again change them. A Treasury spokesperson
36:42
said in a statement that Trump accounts are an additive
36:46
government program and that, along with Social Security benefits, will
36:51
broaden and increase the savings and wealth of Americans. Social
36:57
Security is a critical safety net for Americans and always
37:01
will be. This administration has not just fought tiresly for seniors,
37:06
but is also fighting for the next generation, said the spokesperson,
37:10
who spoke on the condition of anonimity, citing a department
37:14
policy preventing them from speaking on the record. Social Security
37:19
benefits are financed by payroll taxes, and as the number
37:23
of retirees booms, workers and employees are not paying enough
37:28
into the trust fund to sustain future benefits. Without action
37:33
from Congress to overhaul the program's finances, the trust fund
37:38
that pays for it will be insolvent by twenty thirty three,
37:42
according to gene productions from the program's trustees, that would
37:47
force a twenty three percent cut to benefits. Those figures,
37:52
though do not accouade for policy changes in Trump's landmark
37:55
tax law, a bonus to the standard deduction for seniors
38:00
could hasten social securities in Solveigncy data twenty thirty two,
38:05
according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a
38:09
non partisan Washington think tank. On one hand, what they
38:14
are doing is they are making social security less solvent
38:17
and a riskier proposition for people, said Howard Gleckman, a
38:22
senior fellow at the Urban Brookings Tax Policies Center. On
38:27
the other hand, the Treasury Secretary seemed to be musing
38:30
out loud about the idea of beginning to privatize the system.
38:35
Previous Republican administrations had discussed privatizing social security. President George W.
38:42
Bush pitched partially privatizing the program with individual private investment accounts.
38:48
The idea was politically unpopular, and it contributed to historic
38:53
losses for Republicans in the two thousand and six mid
38:56
term elections, giving Democrats control of both chambers of Congress
39:01
and largely ending the Bush administration's legislative agenda. Today, the
39:08
Treasured Secretary said the quiet part out loud. Republican's ultimate
39:14
goal is to privatize Social Security, and there isn't a
39:18
back door. They won't try to make wall Street's dream
39:21
a reality. Representative Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, the top
39:27
Democrat on the Tax Writing, Ways and Means Committee, said
39:31
in the statement. For everyone else, though, it's yet another
39:35
warning sign that they cannot be trusted to safeguard the
39:40
programs millions rely on and have paid into over a
39:44
lifetime of work. Why one of the world's biggest earthquakes
39:51
wasn't followed by a monster tsunami. Past stronger earthquakes have
39:57
caused massive and damaging waves far but scientists say these
40:02
tsunami waves retained a comparison across the Pacific basin. There's
40:09
a picture of a person observing the sea at Ocean Beach, California,
40:13
after a thirties warned residents of the possibility of tsunami waves.
40:18
Following an earthquake on Russian's Kamachaka Penson Peninsula, La Kasha
40:24
Patel and Scott Dance, an eight point eight magnitude earthquake,
40:32
one of the most powerful ever recorded, struck off the
40:36
coast of eastern Russia late Tuesday, causing intense shaking for minutes,
40:41
rattling windows and damaging infrastructure nearby. In the following hours,
40:47
people in Japan, Hawaii, and along the US West Coast
40:51
braced for an often deadly effect of coastal earthquakes, a tsunami.
40:59
Past strong earth eth quakes have caused massive and damaging
41:02
waves far away, but scientists say these tsunami waves retained
41:07
by comparison across the Pacific basin, at least so far.
41:12
Some areas of South America are still preparing for an
41:16
incoming tsunami. Researchers in response teams are still uncovering specific
41:22
details about the event. The better warning systems and other
41:26
properties of a quake beyond its strength may have mitigated
41:30
the effects so far. It definitely created a Pacific wide tsunami,
41:37
which in the context of tsunamis, is quite large, said Tinadura,
41:42
a tsunami researcher at Virginia Tech. But it's a little
41:47
bit smaller than could be possible in that magnitude of earthquake.
41:52
The quake occurred near the Kamchaktika Peninsula, where the Pacific
41:58
tectonic Plate is sliding underneath the North American plate. This
42:03
seismatically active subduction zone has produced two of the world's
42:09
top ten earthquakes in nineteen fifty two, a nine point
42:14
zero magnitude earthquake hit less than twenty miles from the
42:18
epicenter of Tuesday's quake. That trembla also triggered a Pacific
42:25
wide tsunami. The two plates slipped past each other at
42:29
the relatively shallow depth of twelve point five miles under
42:33
the ocean, which caused part of the seafloor to thrust
42:37
upward and displace the water, creating a tsunami. Wave heights
42:42
reached much higher than normal near the Kantatka Peninsula, more
42:47
than fifteen feet high, said Alexander Rabinovitch, a physical oceanographer
42:54
and vice chair of the IUGG International Tsunami Commission. He
43:00
said local teams will receiveying the damage to the low
43:03
population area along the southern coast of Kamchoktka, where he
43:08
said wave heights could have reached fifty feet. In Japan,
43:13
tsunami waves reached from one to three feet, according to
43:16
the Japan Meteorological Agency. Around Hawaii, wave heights hit five
43:23
to six feet. Most places around California just saw a
43:27
foot or so in increased wave height, though Crescent City,
43:32
where tsunamis often get amplified because of the shape of
43:35
its shelf, saw wave heights of almost four feet, while
43:40
wave heights were relatively low farther from the quake. Is
43:44
the biggest question at the moment, said by Schislav Viisalvakov,
43:50
a tsunami expert in the Sabian branch of the Russian
43:53
Academy of Sciences. As the wave spread, so it weakens.
43:58
But the similarly powerful nineteen fifty two earthquake in the
44:02
same region caused bigger waves and more damage in Hawaii
44:06
than Tuesday's quakes so far. It is also possible that
44:11
the earthquake itself, although powerful, may have contributed to a
44:15
milder tsunami. US geological survey modeling suggests the land shifted
44:21
by twenty to thirty feet along a roughly three hundred
44:25
miles stretch of fault, said Diego Melgar, director of the
44:29
Kaskadia Region Earthquake Science Center at the University of Orgon
44:35
These sorts of variations in fault movement can be the
44:38
difference between relatively small tsunamis and disastrous ones, he said.
44:44
For instance, the twenty eleven earthquake that triggered a nuclear
44:48
crisis in Japan. Shifted the land by as much as
44:51
one hundred and fifty feet across a similarly long stretch
44:55
of fault line, creating tsunami waves that were as high
44:59
as a high hundred feet locally. It also caused millions
45:03
of dollars in damage in Crescent City near the Oregon border,
45:07
and swept one person away. Earthquakes have a personality. Those
45:13
kinds of details really affect the tsunami. Malgari said the
45:19
surge of order did cause a deck to break off
45:22
in Crescent City, but no injuries have been reported so far.
45:27
Rabenevich said the tsunami warnings were quite affected this time around,
45:31
allowing people time to evacuate from coastal areas, take boats
45:35
out of harbors, and prepare. When you're all the way
45:40
across the Pacific Ocean, you do have a little bit
45:43
more time to get everyone aware and prepared. Dora said
45:48
that's not always the case. For example, she said an
45:51
event could unfold in minutes to hours in the Western
45:55
United States from a rupture in the Cascadias subduction zone.
46:00
Is too early to say that the earthquake did not
46:03
cause any disastrous tsunami damage. Malgar said people have become
46:08
used to seeing disaster impacts broadcast lab on social media.
46:13
It'll take several analysis of satellite data as well as
46:16
roots on the ground surveys to know the height of
46:19
waves that hit the Russian Coast, particularly in the sparsely
46:23
populated Kamchakka Peninsula. Even though any tsunami impacts were minimal
46:30
in Hawaii and on the US West Coast, Malgrek called
46:34
it a story of triumph that those areas received warnings
46:38
and acted quickly. Some warning systems have been implemented in
46:43
response to deadlier and more damaging earthquakes. The nineteen fifty
46:48
two earthquake near the Kumchakka Peninsula caused significant damage in Hawaii.
46:53
In nineteen forty six, and eight point six magnitude quake
46:56
in Alaska's Solution Islands triggered as tsunami that killed one
47:01
hundred and fifty nine people in Hawaii. Those disasters were
47:06
the driving force behind the creation of the US Tsunami
47:09
Warning Centers, which are part of the National Ocean Act
47:14
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Any warnings at all is a
47:19
huge success. Melgar said, I'm going to read something totally
47:25
different Birmingham lays to rest Ozzi Osbourne, hard rocking, backbiting
47:32
native Sun head Bangers shed tears and piled flowers as
47:37
they mourned the Black Sabbath star and heavy metal showman
47:41
who remained a broomy lad even after moving to Beverly Hills.
47:46
And there is a huge picture of Ozzi Osbourne saying
47:50
Ozzi Forever, Birmingham will always love you. He's in a
47:55
black suit with his traditional long hair and sun glasses
48:00
on Birmingham, England by William Booth. The Headbangers threw flowers
48:08
atop the blackhearst as a brass band played a cover
48:12
of Iron Man. Thousands of mourners came out to watch
48:17
the funeral procession. They chanted Ozzi and raised their hands
48:22
in devils horned signs as his cortege rode down Broad
48:26
Street in Birmingham's city center. The Road last week lost
48:32
Ozzy Osbourne, the frontman of Black Sabbath, heavy metal founder
48:37
and back munching TV dad. The Birmingham lost a native son,
48:43
a boomy lad and working class hero from the Ashton
48:47
neighborhood where parents toiled in the local factories as their
48:51
kids learned to bang on drums and guitars. He was
48:55
born John Michael Osbourne and died on July twenty second
49:00
at seventy six of a variant of Parkinson's disease, probably
49:06
not helped much by a once wildlifestyle of drugs and alcohol.
49:11
He performed sitting on a black throne in a farewell
49:15
concert at Birmingham's Villa Park Soccer Stadium earlier this month.
49:21
Because of the Emmy winning MTV reality show The Osbournes,
49:27
many Americans might remember him best as an economic migrant
49:32
to Beverly Hills, but the nine two one ozer was
49:36
not his forever home. He was buried Wednesday in England.
49:41
Tracy bb sixty, a lifelong fan from an old coal
49:46
mining village north of Birmingham, wet openly. At a time
49:51
in my life when I didn't fit, when a lot
49:53
of us didn't fit in, we had Ozzy all the odds.
49:58
People didn't feel so odd because we had Black Sabbath,
50:02
Bobe said. Black Sabbath is widely credit ted as a
50:07
foundational heavy metal band, noted for its dark, heavy, loud
50:12
blues rock influence sound with lyrics about doom and destruction.
50:18
No band is more influential on heavy metal than Black Sabbath,
50:23
a truism we might even extend to the idea of
50:26
heavy metal thinking. The Washington Post pop music critic Chris
50:31
Richards wrote in a recent appreciation that is a heightened
50:36
state of youthful on we and fomenting skepticism, routinely dismissing
50:42
throughout the pop culture of the eighties and nineties as
50:46
loser duvenilia. There is a picture of Ozzy Osbourne tattoo
50:54
and it is of him with his mouth wide open
50:57
and I can't tell what he's got in his hand,
51:00
but it's a really well done tattoo on the leg
51:05
of this man on the day of the funeral. Oh
51:08
excuse me, a lay of this woman on the day
51:11
of his funeral. And there is a picture of the
51:14
crowds lining the streets of Birmingham, one lady wiping tears
51:18
from her eyes. In Birmingham, England's second city. The metal
51:24
heads waited quietly for the hearst to appear, with many
51:27
mourners dressed in black jeans and lother vests, sporting old
51:31
and new concert t shirts, celebrating not only Black Sabbath
51:36
but also their spawn band's name Cannibal, Corpus and Slave,
51:43
though some in the crowd discreetly sucked down Canzabia. It
51:46
was a kid friendly celebration for the Prince of Darkness,
51:50
who liked to describe himself as a family man. In
51:54
interviews here, aging thrashers pointed to gen Z fans and
51:59
nodded apprecily. The young will keep the tradition alive, said
52:05
John Cooper sixty nine, a lifelong local Sabbath fan and
52:09
retiree who's been his working life in a factory that
52:13
made nuts and boats. His friend Bays Drew fifty three,
52:18
showed off a tattoo on his left arm. It featured
52:21
a phasing visage of Azy in his younger years, but
52:25
underneath he had just added the dates marking the rocker's
52:28
birth and death nineteen forty eight to nineteen twenty five.
52:34
He was from this place. He was this place, Drew explained.
52:39
Rich in honesty, he might have described as a slum.
52:44
He remained a boomy lad. Drew explained. He was humble,
52:48
but he was huge. Drew's friend, Chris Carpenter fifty one,
52:52
who works at a factory making land robus, showed off
52:56
his forefingers tattooed to read oh z z wi he
53:03
was bigger than the Queen really, Carpenter said. The mourners
53:07
agreed it was a travesty that Osborne wasn't knighted by
53:11
King Charles Third, who was a fan of sorts. The
53:15
British press revealed that the two exchanged correspondents over the years.
53:19
Ozzi performed at Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee concert at Buckingham
53:25
Palace in two thousand and two, playing the Back Sabbath,
53:28
hit Paranoid and unless Rego if no less memorable moment.
53:34
During a solo performance in des Moines on January twentieth,
53:38
nineteen eighty two, Osborne bit the head off of a bat.
53:43
He later joked that the stunt would appear in his obituary.
53:47
At one point Windsday, the crowd grew silent as Ozzie's wife,
53:51
Sharon Osborne, and two of their children, Kelly and Jack,
53:56
stepped out of the black car to place roses beside
53:59
the mountain of flying flowers left on top of the
54:02
Black Sabbath bench next to the Black Sabbath Bridge, just
54:07
down the road from the Birmingham Museum in Art Gallery
54:10
which is featuring the exhibit Ozzy Osbourne, working class hero.
54:16
Osbourne and his band's mates were from the Aston neighborhood.
54:20
His father was a tool maker, his mother worked at
54:23
an auto parts factory. The basis for Black Sabbath, Terence
54:28
Giza Butler was from down the road. The Butler family's
54:32
home had been bombed by the Luffwaffe in World War Two.
54:36
The fan's guitarist Tony Almi, lost the tips of the
54:40
middle and ring fingers of his rice hand at his
54:43
job at his sheet metal plant. Osbourne was scheduled to
54:48
be buried scheduled to be buried at a private ceremony.
54:52
The Lord Mayor of Birmingham so far Agbaal said, Osborne
54:56
put Birmingham on the map. I think it was. There's
55:00
a fitting tribute to the legends. Who was a broomy
55:02
through and through Igball said, like his final gig, he
55:06
came back home and we were proud to have him.
55:10
David Weinser twenty was carrying a bouquet of red roses
55:14
with a handwritten note thanking Osborn for all he meant
55:16
to him, adding heroes get remembered and legends never die.
55:23
Windsor plays guitar and has dreams too, and the band
55:26
what's it called doesn't have a name yet, he said
55:30
along the curb. Mel Higgins, twenty one, as students, said
55:33
her favorite Osborne song was probably No More Tears from
55:37
nineteen ninety one, which the singer once called a gift
55:41
from God. Asked how long she's been a fan, Higgins
55:45
said since I was a baby. My dad used to
55:49
play Black Sabbath records all the time, she said, adding
55:53
that she was happy to celebrate the passing Star because
55:57
not really anybody famous is from manhand, She said, I
56:03
won't be able to finish this, but I'm going to start.
56:06
Scientists discover a whole new type of ecosystem thirty thousand
56:11
feet deep in Pacific Ocean trenches, scientists found creatures that
56:16
expand the limits of where we know life can live
56:19
on Earth. When her three person by Dino Grandoni, When
56:24
her three person submersible descended more than thirty thousand feet
56:28
into one of the Pacific Ocean's deepest trenches, Ma grand
56:33
Dieu wasn't sure what they would find. What she saw,
56:37
she recalled, was unbelievable dense clusters of tube worms with tentacles,
56:42
tinged blood red, shutting up like skyscrapers, iridescent snails scaling
56:48
the worms like window washers, bristly white creatures rigging between
56:53
them like rush our commuters trying to get home for dinner.
56:57
An international team of researchers has discovered the world's deepest
57:01
known ecosystems sustained by chemicals seeping from their seafloor, submerged
57:06
in water and darkness. The discovery expands the limits of
57:11
where we know life can live on Earth. It's a
57:15
unique ecosystem, said Dominique Papineaut, an exobiologist who co wrote
57:21
the study on the deep sea discovery, published Wednesday in
57:24
the journal Nature. It's a totally new thing that has
57:27
not been seen before. The bottom dwellers found in the Careo,
57:32
Komchukka and Aleutian trenches between Russia and Alaska, Algeria. Understanding
57:39
of trench ecosystems, said Lynda Levin, a professor emeritus a
57:44
biological oceanography at Script's Institution of Oceanography who is not
57:50
involved in this study. For decades, scientists have studied organisms
57:54
that thrive around hyperthermal vents fisio sphearing superheated fluids. But
58:01
the creatures that live around cold seeps, places where gases
58:05
such as methane and hydrogen sulfide ooze from the seafraw
58:08
at near freezing temperatures, often where tectonic plates meet, have
58:13
been understudied. And that's where the tsunami was, or the
58:18
earthquake was just in Russia. And with that I conclude
58:23
today's reading of the Washington Post for July thirty, first
58:27
of twenty twenty five. I'll be back on Saturday. Have
58:31
a good day and stay hydrated by