Latest / Washington Post / 4.4.26
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post for Saturday,
- 0:06April fourth of twenty twenty six. Your reader is Alice Stainer,
- 0:12with the reminder that RADIOI is a service for those
- 0:16blinder with other difficulties in holding and reading printed material.
- 0:22Speaker 2: And today this is also the Christian.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Weekend of Easter, and today is Holy Saturday, of which
- 0:30I will be heading to church later on to decorate,
- 0:36which is so pretty good. Shepherd is so beautiful on
- 0:40Easter Sunday with flowers all over everywhere. And of course
- 0:44my grandchildren were here last weekend and we had a
- 0:47wonderful time, wonderful, wonderful time. So I will start with
- 0:53the front page of the Washington Post for today, and
- 0:57the above the fold is taken up most by a
- 1:00picture of the new Nationals Park baseball field.
- 1:05Speaker 2: It's huge.
- 1:06Speaker 1: I did not realize how big it was, but you
- 1:08see the baseball diamond and there is an enormous American
- 1:12flag in the outfield going across the entire outfield, and
- 1:18then you see the turf for the bases and lots
- 1:24and lots of people around the stadiums. I did not
- 1:27realize how big it is, but in the distance you
- 1:30see four F sixteen fighter jets streaking over Nationals Park
- 1:37before the home opener on Friday.
- 1:41Speaker 2: After CJ.
- 1:42Speaker 1: Abrams clubbed a three run home up for the host
- 1:46in the first inning, the Dodgers star Shohei Otani answered
- 1:52in the third inning with the first of five home
- 1:55runs by the visitors, and first year Nationals manager Blaze
- 2:00but Terra was left apologizing after a thirteen to six
- 2:05loss on opening day for the Nationals. To the right
- 2:10of that is two US aircraft shot down during combat missions.
- 2:18Rescue effort ongoing for crewmember separate incidents undercut claims of
- 2:25air superiority by Terror Copp and Alex Horton. Below the
- 2:33picture of the Nationals Park. Trump seeks a record one
- 2:38point five trillion dollars for the Pentagon blueprint also would
- 2:44cut seventy three billion dollars for education, health and environment.
- 2:50By Riley Began, and to the right of that hardliners
- 2:56holding on dimming hopes for talks.
- 3:00Speaker 2: This is also about Iran.
- 3:02Speaker 1: Surviving leaders in Iran are emboldened and laying out steep demands.
- 3:10Below the fold, Ice agents still arrest many immigrants with
- 3:16no record, despite assurances from White House of a more
- 3:20targeted approach Emanuel Martinez and Marianne Levine. And a picture
- 3:28of Anthony Gross and Kate de Petro walking with their
- 3:32friends toward a Catholic Mass at Saint Joseph's and the
- 3:38article is entitled for gen z Men. Catholic Church has
- 3:44its attractions in New York. They are flocking this Sunday
- 3:49mass looking for faith, community and girlfriends. By Shane O'Neill
- 3:57out of New York. Let's start with two US warplanes
- 4:03shot down, search ongoing in Iran for one missing crew member.
- 4:09An F fifteen fighter jet and an A ten attack
- 4:13plane were lost to hostile fire. Two search and rescue
- 4:18helicopters also were hit, injuring the crews before safely returning
- 4:24to their base, officials said. And you see one of
- 4:29the fifteen jet fighters preparing to land at the Royal
- 4:33Air Force Lakenheath in Middenhall.
- 4:36Speaker 2: England, last January. This picture was taken by Terra cop
- 4:41and Alex Horton.
- 4:44Speaker 1: Two US military aircraft were shot down in separate incidents
- 4:48Friday while conducting combat operations against Iran, setting off a
- 4:54frantic search and rescue effort that remains ongoing for one
- 4:59missing crew member. US officials said the F fifteen E
- 5:05fighter jet and the A ten attack plane both were
- 5:09hit by incoming fire. US official said one of two
- 5:14crew members aboard the F fifteen, which crashed inside Iran,
- 5:19was rescued, though their condition was not immediately clear. The
- 5:23officials said the A ten pilot navigated the damaged plane
- 5:28to Kuwait airspace before ejecting and was subsequently rescued. They
- 5:34added two US search and rescue helicopters also were hit
- 5:40by Iranian fire that injured US personnel on board, though
- 5:44both aircraft have safely returned to their base, the official said.
- 5:50The developments, confirmed by three US officials speaking on the
- 5:54condition of anonymity to discuss an evolving situation, belied earlier
- 6:00assertions by the Trump administration that US forces had obtained
- 6:05air superiority over Iran, and raised immediate questions about how
- 6:10much of the country's arsenal remained after a month of
- 6:15targeted strikes on the regime's weapons facilities. Spokespeople for the
- 6:20Pentagon did not respond to request for comment. The search
- 6:26and rescue effort for the missing F fifteen crew member
- 6:29marked the most perilous moment yet for US troops in
- 6:32the war, putting the missing airman and the rescuers more
- 6:36directly in the line of Iranian fire.
- 6:40Speaker 2: It is the first known incidence.
- 6:42Speaker 1: Of a crude American aircraft being brought down inside hostile
- 6:48territory since the conflict began. Friday's developments represent a potential
- 6:55political liability for President Donald Trump, who is facing strong
- 7:00pushback from opponents of the Iran war, including among some
- 7:04of his supporters who elected him to a second term
- 7:08based in part on his campaign promises to avoid costly
- 7:13military entanglements. In a prime time addressed this week, the
- 7:19President sought to defend his increasingly unpopular decision to start
- 7:29the conflict, while asserting that the operation is nearing completion.
- 7:35It was not immediately clear how Friday's developments could affect
- 7:41that announced timeline. Iranian television broadcast a statement from local
- 7:47merchants in western Iran offering a reward for recovery of
- 7:51the down to crew members. Another broadcast called on residents
- 7:56to target any Americans they found i r IB.
- 8:02Speaker 2: The state broadcasters said on social.
- 8:05Speaker 1: Media that many people had gone to the crash site
- 8:09and that the Iranian military called on the people not
- 8:14to let in capital and bold anyone mistreat the pilot.
- 8:20Speaker 2: Trump has said little publicly about the situation.
- 8:23Speaker 1: In very brief remarks to NBC News, he rejected the
- 8:27idea that Friday's developments might impede efforts to negotiate an
- 8:32end to the conflict. A British news site, The Independent,
- 8:37asked him in a phone call what his response would
- 8:40be if the missing crew member were captured or hurt
- 8:43by Iran. We hope that's not going to happen, the
- 8:49President responded, declining to comment further. Combat search and rescue
- 8:54operations as some of the riskiest missions carried out by
- 8:58the US military. Crews and recovery personnel are on constant
- 9:02standby for such operations, then they rush into a rapidly
- 9:07evolving and chaotic environment. While these personnel are backed by
- 9:12combat capable troops, helicopters and planes used for such missions
- 9:17are vulnerable to enemy buyer because they fly lower to
- 9:21the ground and must rely on other armed aircraft to
- 9:24protect them. It's a higher risk mission, said retired General
- 9:32James Slife, the former commander of US Air Force Special
- 9:36Operations Command, which specializes in infiltration and combat search and
- 9:42rescue missions. Adding the longer somebody is on the ground,
- 9:48the less opportunity you have to safely recover them. Teams
- 9:53are launched immediately, usually with incomplete information on what to expect,
- 9:59because of the risks faced by downed pilots and the
- 10:02chance that if they are captured then they will be
- 10:05exploited by US adversaries, Slape said, in addition to the
- 10:10moral obligation we feel to make every effort to recover
- 10:14our isolated personnel, you want to deny the adversary the
- 10:19opportunity to use a captured service member as propaganda, Slape said.
- 10:26Speaker 2: Video verified by.
- 10:28Speaker 1: The Washington Post shows a C one thirty refueling aircraft
- 10:32flying low in Iran, about ninety miles east from its
- 10:37border with the Rock. The Tanka is shown fueling two
- 10:42HH sixty g helicopters, which specialize in combat search and rescue,
- 10:48said Mark Cansian, a SENA advisor for the Center for
- 10:52Strategic and International Studies. Cansian said the fact that they
- 10:58are flying so low and slow indicates willingness to take
- 11:03a lot of risk. Friday's incident contradicts for Trump's frequent
- 11:09claims that US aircraft are roaming disguise over Iran unimpeded.
- 11:16Speaker 2: In his speech Wednesday night.
- 11:18Speaker 1: The President said they have no anti aircraft equipment, their
- 11:24radar is one hundred percent annihilated. They are unstoppable as
- 11:29a military force. Not they We are unstoppable as a
- 11:35military force. Experts said Trump's soaring rhetoric about US military
- 11:42achievements gave a false picture of the threat to ROND
- 11:45posed to American aircraft. Kelly Grayco, a senior fellow at
- 11:51the Stemson Center at Washington think tank, said, from a
- 11:56military perspective, the idea that RANS anti aircraft capacity was
- 12:01eliminated made no sense. I'm sure we've done great damage
- 12:06to radars, long range missiles, and fixed added surface missiles,
- 12:11but something like a manpad in capitals and bold you
- 12:17can fire from his shoulder is really hard to find
- 12:21as of today. Well manpad is referring to an acronym
- 12:26for a manned portable air defense system man portable AD
- 12:30air defense system saying, as we've seen today, if you
- 12:34fly low enough, anti aircraft or manned pads present a
- 12:40significant threat. Trump has similarly claimed that Iran's missile stockpiles
- 12:45and launchers have been destroyed, although missile and drone attacks continue,
- 12:50albeit to a lesser degree than earlier in the war
- 12:54on US installations and allies in the region. On Thursday Josh,
- 13:00hours after declaring in his address that the war was
- 13:03nearing completion, US aircraft blew up a major bridge near Tehran.
- 13:09Trump said in a social media post that our military
- 13:14dot dot dot hasn't even started destroying what's left, and
- 13:19promised to begin destruction of electricity power plants. Later in
- 13:23the day, GC announced that a large number a ballistic
- 13:29and cruise missile and suicide drones had been launched against
- 13:34US bases in the United Arab Emirates. To date, thirteen
- 13:40American service members have been killed as a result of
- 13:43Operation Epic Fury, the Trump administration's name for its war
- 13:48on Iran. Seven died as a result of hostile fire,
- 13:53six were killed in a plane crash in Iraq. Nearly
- 13:57three hundred and seventy others have been during the conflict,
- 14:01according to publicly released tallies. Friday's incident marks the fourth
- 14:09loss of an F fifteen since the Iran war began.
- 14:13In early March, Kuwaiti personnel mistakenly shot down three of
- 14:18the jets, all six crew members ejected and were recovered safely.
- 14:24It was the first known laws of an A ten
- 14:26during the conflict. That development was reported earlier by The
- 14:31New York Times and continuing with a related article and
- 14:39in bolden, Iran is driving a hard bargain, official say,
- 14:44Trump says the country's surviving leaders are more reasonable, but
- 14:48assassinations have left hardliners in charge. Official stay and there
- 14:54is a picture of a member of the Iranian security
- 14:58forces standing guard.
- 15:00Speaker 2: To a banna. It's a huge banner.
- 15:02Speaker 1: Honoring around slain Supreme Leader Ayatola Ali Kamini Hamini in Tehran.
- 15:09Speaker 2: And he has got what.
- 15:10Speaker 1: Looks like a reinforced war military jeep in front of
- 15:19this huge banner with the Ayatola a pre shawl around
- 15:23his shoulder and his left hand raised in a high
- 15:26five look. By Susannah George. The assassinations of Iran senior
- 15:34leaders by Israel and the United States have triggered unprecedented
- 15:38churn within Tehran's political and military establishment, eliminating the Supreme
- 15:43Leader and some of the most powerful men in the
- 15:46Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but have left in place a
- 15:50hardline government and little hope of a diplomatic breakthrough. According
- 15:55to regional and Western officials, rather than usher in what
- 16:00President Donald Trump is called more reasonable leadership, the surviving
- 16:06Iranian regime is newly emboldened to inflict economic pain, pushing
- 16:12Tehran and Washington further apart in those negotiations. According to
- 16:16the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonimity to
- 16:20share sensitive details.
- 16:23Speaker 2: Discussions are ongoing.
- 16:26Speaker 1: Trump said Wednesday in an address outlining his administration's achievements
- 16:30a month into the wall, saying operations would conclude in
- 16:35the next two or three weeks. If during this period
- 16:40of time no deal is made. We have our eyes
- 16:43on key targets. If there is no deal, we're going
- 16:47to hit each and every one of their electric generating
- 16:50plants very hard, and probably simultaneously, Trump said. Trump also
- 16:57threatened to strike oil infrastructure, but officials in the regions
- 17:02say they say little hope of a negotiated breakthrough in
- 17:05the next few weeks, even as Israel continues to pursue
- 17:10its assassination campaign against senior Iranian leadership. In public comments,
- 17:17Iran's leaders have played down talks with the United States
- 17:21and laid the steep demands to end the war including
- 17:25reparations and formalized control over the Strait of Humaz of
- 17:30Homwez with a right.
- 17:33Speaker 2: To collect totals.
- 17:36Speaker 1: They've demonstrated to the Gulf States how vulnerable they are
- 17:40and how vulnerable the global economy is, said a European
- 17:44official briefed on diplomatic efforts to end the war. The
- 17:49official added, so the price is going up. The Strait
- 17:53of Hormuz never featured in any of these negotiations, and
- 17:58now it's like front and center. A second European official,
- 18:03along with the former Trump administration official, confirmed the assessment
- 18:08that the war has embolded in Iran, but all cautioned
- 18:12that it is virtually impossible to judge the true impact
- 18:16of the assassinations on the strength of the Iranian regime
- 18:19from the outside. The officials pointed to changes in behavior
- 18:24among Iran's leadership, with fewer people appearing in public, especially
- 18:29since Ali Lairijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council,
- 18:36was killed in a straight days after appearing at a
- 18:38Tehran rally marking a national holiday last month. Yet Iran
- 18:44has continued to launch retaliatory attacks, often hitting high value targets,
- 18:51demonstrating sustained command and control beyond the conflict's initial days,
- 18:57when units largely operated on autopilot under Iran's Mosaic defense strategy,
- 19:05which emphasizes decentralized autonomy. In recent weeks, Iranian attacks have
- 19:13struck critical energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf, industrial and
- 19:18energy sites in Israel, and key US military installations, including
- 19:24a direct strike on an advanced US spyplane. As the
- 19:30Trump administration continues to explore the possibility of a negotiated
- 19:35into the war, it believes the assassination campaign can be
- 19:40used to force Iran to capitulate. According to the former
- 19:44administration official who worked in government earlier in the conflict,
- 19:50if the Iranian side is not flexible, then they can
- 19:55keep killing them until you find someone who is willing
- 19:58to cut a deal. Said, when you put more pressure,
- 20:02that's what the Iranians seemed to be more responsive to.
- 20:07The former official also said he saw a slim chance
- 20:11that assassinating Iran's leaders would eventually produce an individual willing
- 20:16to engage with Trump, but regardless, he said, the campaign
- 20:20is weakening the Iranian regime by stoking mistrust within senior
- 20:26leadership ranks. It's actually like two birds with one stone.
- 20:32You could get someone who is willing to cut a deal,
- 20:35or you could get more turmoil. Maybe they break ranks
- 20:39and the regime is further weakened, he said. An Iranian
- 20:43diplomat said such an approach revealed a deep misunderstanding of
- 20:48the culture and history of Iran, where martyrdom is revered.
- 20:53He can kill ten more layers of Iran leadership and
- 20:58it won't work, diplomat said. Iran's governing system today is
- 21:04more militarized regime than the already hard line one in
- 21:09place before the Law War, said Suzanne Maloney, a former
- 21:13senior State Department official Onran who is now the vice
- 21:17president of the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. Many
- 21:23of those promoted to replace slain colleagues are people who
- 21:28have been steeped in the culture of martyrdom's sacrifice and
- 21:32hostility to the international system, Maloney said, adding, this is
- 21:39a system.
- 21:39Speaker 2: With a very, very deep bench.
- 21:43Speaker 1: It's not a personalist system with a small elite crew
- 21:47of close advisers.
- 21:48Speaker 2: This is a country that.
- 21:49Speaker 1: Has spent forty seven years trying to ensure that it
- 21:54cannot be upended by an external adversary or by its
- 21:58own population. Mohammed Baghir Galibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament,
- 22:07with whom Trumps said he's negotiating, began his career during
- 22:11the Arouan Iraq War in the nineteen eighties. The careers
- 22:15of Ahmed Fahidi, the new commander in chief of the
- 22:19Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Mosten Razai, the military adviser
- 22:26to the Supreme Leader, followed similar direct projectories trajectories. These
- 22:35leaders emerged from Iran's war generation, said Alex Vatanka, a
- 22:41senior fellow and i RAN analyst with the Middle East
- 22:44Institute in Washington. Van Tanka said they all came through
- 22:51the ranks together as young men in their teens or
- 22:54early twenties, after spending decades with the system, He said
- 22:58he doesn't think these are the types of figures who
- 23:01want to cut a deal with Trump. They are going
- 23:05to sort of double down and believe their own slogans.
- 23:10They have all been part of a system for decades
- 23:14and they might have their differences, but at this point
- 23:17survival is a collected interest. Trump requests record breaking budget
- 23:26of one point five trillion dollars for the Pentagon. The
- 23:32proposal would also make seventy three billion dollars in cuts
- 23:38to environmental education and health research programs by Riley began.
- 23:46President Donald Trump on Friday officially requested one point five
- 23:50trillion dollars in spending for the Pentagon next physical year,
- 23:55which would be the largest defense budget in US history.
- 23:59Trump also outlined some seventy three billion in cuts to
- 24:03non defense federal spending, including cuts to health research K
- 24:08twelve and higher education, renewable energy and climate grants, a
- 24:13low income housing energy program, and community development block rants.
- 24:19The cuts to non defense spending represent a ten percent
- 24:23reduction from the current physical year. Their request comes as
- 24:29Congress grapples with the ballooning cost of the war in Iran,
- 24:33a persistent shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, and
- 24:37the mid term elections ahead. The White House's twenty twenty
- 24:42seven physical year budget proposes a forty four percent in
- 24:46greece in defense spending and asks Congress to approve another
- 24:51three hundred and fifty billion dollars from military weapons and
- 24:56in expanse of the Defense industrial base.
- 25:00Speaker 2: According to a summary of the.
- 25:04Speaker 1: Of the request released Friday, the request invests in the
- 25:11foundations of American military power, from defense industrial capacity to
- 25:17the readiness and health of the fourth and ensures the
- 25:22United States maintains the world's most powerful and capable military,
- 25:28the administration wrote in documents from the White House Office
- 25:32of Management and Budget announcing the proposal. The summary also
- 25:37urged Congress to approve a thirteen percent increase of forty
- 25:41point eight billion dollar total, focused on the Justice Department's
- 25:46efforts to bring violent criminals to justice related to immigration, gangs,
- 25:52and drug cartels. The influx of funding for the Pentagon
- 25:57would include more money for the goal Golden Dome missile
- 26:01defense system, a seven percent pay raise for troops, tens
- 26:06of billions for shipbuilding, and the development of new artificial
- 26:10intelligence capabilities in the military. According to the full budget
- 26:15released later Friday, it also includes massive proposed cuts to
- 26:21federal agencies and programs that the administration argued represented wasteful
- 26:27government spending. M BE requested that lawmakers reduce funding for
- 26:33the Environmental Protection Agency by fifty two percent of four
- 26:38point six billion dollars, the State Department, and other international
- 26:42programs about thirty percent, or fifteen point five billion. The
- 26:47Department of Labour by twenty six percent, or three point
- 26:50five billion, and the Department of Agriculture by nineteen percent
- 26:55or four point nine billion. The request would cut fifteenero
- 27:00point two billion in funding from four renewable energy projects
- 27:04from Democrats party line infrastructure law based under President passed
- 27:09under President Joe Biden, and five billion from the National
- 27:13Institutes of Health focusing on programs the administration argues promotes
- 27:19dangerous ideologies related to equity and inclusion and international aid.
- 27:25Lawmakers have previously resisted cuts to NIH. The spending cuts
- 27:31are similar to those that Congress rejected last year, said
- 27:35Jessica Ridle, a budget and tax fellow at the Brookings Institute.
- 27:41They are essentially filler to make the defense increase look
- 27:45less unaffordable.
- 27:46Speaker 2: They're going nowhere.
- 27:48Speaker 1: Ultimately, the purpose of this budget is to push Congress
- 27:52to approve the largest defense spending increase.
- 27:54Speaker 2: Since the Korean War, she said.
- 27:58Speaker 1: Already, in Israel's war in Iran is running a billions
- 28:03of dollars in cost that the administration has signaled it
- 28:07plans to backfill. The Pentagon has mauled, asking for up
- 28:12to two hundred billion dollars from Congress for the war
- 28:16but Republicans have disagreed internally over how much more they
- 28:20are willing to put into the conflict, especially after lawmakers
- 28:24approved tens of billions in additional funding for defense in
- 28:27their tax and spending law last year. He Speaker Mike Johnson,
- 28:33Republican of Louisi and appraised the proposal as one that
- 28:36would restore physical senatey reduced waste, fraud and abuse in Washington,
- 28:43and Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, who leads the
- 28:47Defense Appropriation Subcommittee, said he welcomes the President's request for
- 28:52significant growth in annual appropriations for the US Armed services.
- 28:59Democrats are armed forces. Democrats in Congress criticized both the
- 29:04defense boosts boosts and cuts and pledged to reject their
- 29:08proposal during the appropriation's process. Donald Trump's budget is rotten
- 29:14to the call, and Democrats will make sure it never passes.
- 29:18Speaker 2: Senate Minority Leader Charles E.
- 29:20Speaker 1: Sima, Democrat of New York, said in a statement. The
- 29:24Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that rising defense
- 29:29spending of that raising defense spending by one point five
- 29:33trillion would add six point nine trillion to the national
- 29:37debt over the next ten years when accounting for increased
- 29:41interest cost. Trump signaled in January that he planned to
- 29:46ask for one point five trillion for defense spending, which
- 29:49he said would allow the US to build the dream
- 29:53military that we have long been entitled to and could
- 29:57be offset by tariff revenue. However, the Supreme Court ruled
- 30:02in February that most of the trumpets of the president's
- 30:07emergency tariffs were unconstitutional, forcing the administration to refund more
- 30:13than one hundred and fifty billion dollars in revenue.
- 30:17Speaker 2: I'm going inside the paper now and I'm going to read.
- 30:22Speaker 1: Judges are increasingly using AI to draft rulings and to
- 30:28prepare for hearings. A study found over sixty percent of
- 30:33surveyed judges have used AI in their work, even as
- 30:37some experts were AI's unreliability could compromise their authority.
- 30:44Speaker 2: By Daniel Wu.
- 30:46Speaker 1: When Xavier rodrig Errez, a Texas based federal judge, prepares
- 30:52for a hearing, he usually begins by turning to artificial intelligence.
- 30:57He feeds the relevant court filings into an AI tool
- 31:01that quickly produces a timeline of the case and the
- 31:05claims that parties are making for him to review. My
- 31:09law clerks would be wasting thirty to forty five minutes
- 31:13an hour developing a chronology of events, Rodriguez told The
- 31:18Washington Post. This thing does it instantaneously. Before hearing roder
- 31:25Guess might also ask AI to suggest questions to ask
- 31:29an attorney, or identify weaknesses in a plaintiff's argument in
- 31:34an area of law in which he feels particularly well versed.
- 31:39Roder Guz sometimes, after deciding on his judgment, uses AI
- 31:44to draft the.
- 31:45Speaker 2: Ruling he will use.
- 31:47Speaker 1: I'm doing my own preparation, said Rodriguez, who has searched
- 31:52for over twenty years in the US District Court for
- 31:55the Western District of Texas.
- 31:57Speaker 2: I'm not strictly.
- 31:58Speaker 1: Relying on an AI tool dot It's just an extra
- 32:03set of eyes. AI use in court has made headlines
- 32:08for a stream of fabricated citations and other mistakes and
- 32:12filings that have embarrassed attorneys, but adoption of the tool
- 32:16among legal professionals now extends to the highest students of
- 32:20the judicial system, highest stewards of the judicial system. A
- 32:26Northwestern University study published this week, co authored by Rodriguez,
- 32:32that collected responses from one hundred and twelve federal judges
- 32:36found that more than sixty percent reported using one of
- 32:40a set of popular AI tools at least once in
- 32:44their judicial work. Around twenty two percent of the judges
- 32:48said they used AI daily or weekly in their duties.
- 32:53Speaker 2: Courts are also.
- 32:54Speaker 1: Pursuing partnerships with legal vendors developing AI tools for judicial work.
- 33:00The Los Angeles County's Superior Court announced a pilot program
- 33:04in March with Learned hand, a legal startup that develops
- 33:10an AI tool for judges. Learned Hands AI is also
- 33:15being used in trial courts in ten states and the
- 33:18Michigan Supreme Court, the company said. Legal research companies Thompson
- 33:24Reuters and Lexis Nexus have contracts to provide AI tools
- 33:29to the federal judiciary. Judges say they are aware of
- 33:33the risks, even as some experts worry that AI's unreliability
- 33:38could compromise their authority. Judges they are responsible for making
- 33:45decisions that are very important to people and resolving disputes
- 33:49that are very significant, said Eric Poisoner, a law professor
- 33:54at the University of Chicago, adding, they just count gamble
- 33:58with the technology that is not fully understood and that
- 34:02is known to hallucinate. The upside, proponents say could be
- 34:07a more efficient judiciary better equipped to process heavy coisloads.
- 34:13We're very cautious about this, obviously, said Christopher Patterson, chief
- 34:18judge of Florida's Fourteenth Circuit Court, adding, we're just trying
- 34:22to learn that AI tool. Is this right for us?
- 34:26And is it accurate? And is it saving time? I
- 34:30will tell you that the preliminary results are very positive.
- 34:34Patterson added, it is hard to determine exactly how many
- 34:39judges across the United states vast legal system are using
- 34:43AI in their duties.
- 34:45Speaker 2: Not all AI.
- 34:46Speaker 1: Uses disclosed publicly, and courts and judges have often decided
- 34:51on adoption on an individual basis. AI adoption is real,
- 34:57but it's early, said Michael a, consultant of the National
- 35:02Center for State Courts who studies legal AI use. Navin said,
- 35:08I don't get a sense that there's an overwhelming use
- 35:12of AI by judges, but it is there. Judges who
- 35:17have been early adopters of AI said they employed the
- 35:20tools across their workflow, from reviewing a new case to
- 35:25drafting a final ruling. Samantha Jessner, a Los Angeles County
- 35:30Superior Court judge who is testing Learned hand said she
- 35:35uses its AI tool as a research aid. I may
- 35:40say to the tool, I need to know what the
- 35:43controlling authorities are in California with regard to this subject,
- 35:47and if I need to know more about a particular
- 35:50area of law DOT you can interface with the tool
- 35:55and ask the tool pretty specific questions, Jessner said. Judges
- 36:01also said they used AI to analyze parties' court filings
- 36:06to assess if claims are backed by law or identify
- 36:09areas for further increte. Most legal AI tools linked directly
- 36:14to the laws or cases they cite, they said, allowing
- 36:18judges to look up the revervent laws and double check
- 36:22the AI response. When we say analyze the law based
- 36:28on these pleadings, it'll come back and it'll tell us, yes,
- 36:33this is the supported good law or this is not
- 36:37good law, said Patterson. The Florida judge Rodrigres from Texas
- 36:44Federal Court raised the example of reviewing a motion for
- 36:48summary judgment, where a party asks a court to resolve
- 36:52a case before trial. Those motions can be accompanied by
- 36:56volumes of evidence, such as des deposition transcripts that can
- 37:02be time consuming to sort through.
- 37:04Speaker 2: He said, I'm uploading everything.
- 37:09Speaker 1: Rodri Giz said, describing how he would use AI to
- 37:12begin reviewing a summary judgment request in a hypothetical age
- 37:17discrimination case, and then I'll ask identify any potential statements
- 37:24made in this age discrimination case that appear discriminatory. Jessner, Patterson,
- 37:31and Rodriguez said they also use AI to assist in
- 37:35drafting rulings and orders. All the judges said they do
- 37:39not rely on AI to decide how they were rual
- 37:43in a case, but that after they decide, the tools
- 37:46can provide a starting point to write a legal document,
- 37:50not unlike a template that judges or clerks might use
- 37:53when writing routine orders that they can then edit. If
- 37:59you've got a draft, then you can go back and
- 38:01you can plus it up with relevant facts and additional
- 38:05case law or findings that you want to make. That
- 38:08always reduces the time as opposed to starting from scratch.
- 38:13Patterson said some judges and court administrators save The time
- 38:19saved by AI tools can be helpful for an overworked
- 38:22judiciary swamped by cases, especially in courts where judges don't
- 38:27have a team of clerks to assist with research. Patterson said,
- 38:32court filings continue to increase.
- 38:35Speaker 2: We've got to.
- 38:36Speaker 1: Find a way to meet that need in an ethical,
- 38:39responsible way.
- 38:41Speaker 2: Stakes are high.
- 38:43Speaker 1: Judges have not been immune to the AI generated eras
- 38:46plaguing courtrooms. Hallucinations appeared last year in the court filings
- 38:51of two federal judges overseeing a federal securities class action
- 38:56lawsuit and a challenge to the Mississippi Cation Boards teaching policies.
- 39:03Speaker 2: Henry T.
- 39:03Speaker 1: Wingate of the Southern District of Mississippi and Julian Xavier
- 39:08Neils of the District of New Jersey's filings included citations
- 39:12to nonexistent cases, false descriptions of a plaintiff's allegation in
- 39:17their complaint, and false quotes attributed to plaintiffs which they
- 39:22attributed to a clerk and an in turn using AI.
- 39:25The Post reported attorneys alerted the judges to the errors,
- 39:30and they hastily corrected their filings. The Senate Judiciary Committee
- 39:35blasted the judges for their mistakes, and Nilds instituted a
- 39:39written policy in his chambers prohibiting the use of generative
- 39:44AI in legal research or drafting court filings. Developers of
- 39:49AI tools designed for the legal communities say their models
- 39:53are less likely to hallucinate because they source answers from
- 39:58databases of court cases and other legal documents, but their
- 40:02reliability has still been challenged. A twenty twenty four Stanford
- 40:07University study found that Lexis Nexus and Thompson Router's legal
- 40:12AI tools were more reliable than general general purpose checkbots,
- 40:18but still made mistakes in between seventeen and thirty three
- 40:22percent of queries. Lexus Nexus and Thompson Royds said in
- 40:29statements that their tools have improved significantly since the study
- 40:33and are designed to link back to cases in their
- 40:36answers so that users can verify the information they cite.
- 40:41Some courts and judges stressed they were still evaluating the
- 40:45effectiveness of AI tools and would make decisions on further
- 40:49use as time progresses. The Los Angeles County Superior Court's
- 40:54pilot program with Learned Hand will last a year, and
- 40:58the tools use is limited for now to certain civil motions,
- 41:02the court said. Patterson of Florida's fourteenth Circuit Court said
- 41:07his court was also treating the use of AI as
- 41:10a test run and is testing AI tools with both
- 41:14old and active cases. There has been no suggestion from
- 41:19courts or the legal vendors selling to them of letting
- 41:23AI tools take over the role of judges. It's the
- 41:28human of us site that we just can't do away with.
- 41:31That's the message that I've got to my judges, to
- 41:34my staff attorneys. Don't don't, don't don't let AI substitute
- 41:40your judgment for the tool's judgment. Patterson said, you can't
- 41:46let that happen. Also inside, Trump weighs more cabinet changes,
- 41:54but wants to avoid massive shakeup. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik
- 42:01and Labor's Secretary Laurie Chavez de Rima are vulnerable, officials,
- 42:05said Director of National Intelligence Tolsy Gabbard appears more secure.
- 42:12And there is a picture of Attorney General Pam Bondi
- 42:15speaking at a news conference in August. President Donald Trump
- 42:19fired her on Thursday. This is by Natalie Allison. After
- 42:25hosting two of his highest profile cabinet members from their post,
- 42:31President Donald Trump is considering making more changes to his
- 42:35ministration's top leadership, according to advisers, a decision that would
- 42:40accelerate the once slow pace of his second term staff departures.
- 42:45But Trump, who sought to avoid high profile deports during
- 42:48the first year, back in the White House, often publicly
- 42:52standing by cabinet members even as they face scrutiny. Is
- 42:56also reluctant to engage in a large scale shakeup of
- 42:59his cabin and in some cases have pushed to counter
- 43:03reporting that he has soured on certain officials.
- 43:07Speaker 2: On the heels of news.
- 43:08Speaker 1: Of the firing Thursday of his Attorney General, Pam Bundy,
- 43:12Trump wanted to make a very strong statement reaffirming his
- 43:16support for another official rumored to be on the chopping block,
- 43:20Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, according to a White
- 43:24House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to
- 43:28discuss internal conversations. As a result, his rapid response account
- 43:33on x posted this statement from Trump's communications director, saying
- 43:38that the present has total confidence in Gabbard and any
- 43:43institution other wisest totally insinuation otherwise is totally fake news. Gabbard,
- 43:51who has a long history of criticizing US involvement in
- 43:54Middle East conflicts, specifically the notion of a war with Iran,
- 43:59has continued to breath the president on intelligence, even as
- 44:02Trump earlier this week told reporters that Gavid was a
- 44:06little bit different in her thought process than me on
- 44:09Iran Gabard is safe in her role for the time being,
- 44:14the White House official said to others in his cabinet
- 44:18may be less secure. Labor Secretary Laurie Chavez Drima and
- 44:23Commons Secretary Howard Lutnick had both been under Trump's scrutiny
- 44:27for a possible exit, according to the same official and
- 44:31a second White House official, Chabet's Drima, who is facing
- 44:35misconduct allegations that include an alleged affair with a staffer
- 44:39and drinking in her office, has so far remained in
- 44:43her role, despite top officials in her agency resigning amid
- 44:48the scandal, and Lutnik's style of freelancing policy ideas and
- 44:52deals without prior approval has long prompted eye rolls from
- 44:57aides and others in the White House.
- 45:00Speaker 2: According to people close to Trump who also spoke on.
- 45:03Speaker 1: The condition of anonymity to discuss personal issues, Trump has
- 45:09discussed letting both of them go, according to the first
- 45:12White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
- 45:16to discuss internal deliberations, but he hasn't made a final
- 45:20decision and their departures aren't necessarily imminent. Reports of him
- 45:26wanting to do a massive shakeup are overblown, the official said.
- 45:31The firings of Bondy and Known, the official contended, were
- 45:35each isolated cases after Trump spent time considering moving them
- 45:39out of their roles over issues with their respective job performances.
- 45:44He had been slow to give the edict for both,
- 45:47doing so after conversations over months. In a statement to
- 45:52The Washington Post, White House spokesman Davis Ingalls said Trump
- 45:57has the most talented cabinet and team in American history,
- 46:03and referred to Gabard Lutnick and Shows Derima as patriots
- 46:07who are tiressly implementing the President's agenda and achieving tremendous
- 46:14results for the American people, adding they continue to have
- 46:18the President's full confidence.
- 46:20Speaker 2: Ingle said.
- 46:23Speaker 1: The President isn't looking for to feel Bondi's role once
- 46:26she leaves the Justice Department. Trump has already tapped Attorney
- 46:31Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to serve as acting Deputy
- 46:35General upon Bondi's departure, and it's very likely Blanche will
- 46:40be the one to run the department for the long term,
- 46:43the White House official told the Post on Friday. Trump
- 46:48has floated others for the role, including Lee Zeldein, the
- 46:53head of the Environmental Protection Agency, whom he met with
- 46:56at the White House on Tuesday. Harmeat Dylon, Assistant Attorney
- 47:03General in the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department,
- 47:06has been pushed by influential MAGA commenters this week as
- 47:10the person Trump should tap for the role. A White
- 47:14House official told The Post that while Trump really respects Dillon,
- 47:19she is not a top contender for attorney general. As
- 47:23for Blanche, the official said, right now, the president is happy.
- 47:28Trump had told Bondy a day before firing her that
- 47:31her time is ending in the role, According to a
- 47:35person with knowledge of the conversation, the two spoke Wednesday,
- 47:39as Bondy revealed with the traveled with the President to
- 47:42hear Supreme Court arguments in his administration's birthright citizenship case.
- 47:49Bundy asked the President to keep her in the role
- 47:52for longer, and Trump said he would consider the request.
- 47:55The person said. Within hours, however, news of her imminent
- 48:00departure had spread. Trump, who remains fond of Bondy personally,
- 48:05had been weighing her yester for months and was dissatisfied
- 48:09with Bondi's failure to prosecute his political foes, and her
- 48:14handling of the release of the Jeffrey Epstein fils, which
- 48:18dominated news for much of last year, said two people
- 48:22with knowledge of the president's thinking. A month earlier, Trump
- 48:27fired Homeland Security Secretary Christie Lknom after a similar months
- 48:32long probationary period in which he was unhappy with her
- 48:36performance and the negative headlines drawn by her agency. His
- 48:42advisers told the Post, here's an article that could affect
- 48:46good old UK sports. Trump again orders changes to save
- 48:53college sports. His directive would create new regulations around athlete
- 48:58compensations and other hot button issues. It is expected to
- 49:04face legal challenges. There's a picture of Donald Trump, seen
- 49:08hosting the Ohio State University football team at the White
- 49:12House last year, who has reportedly focused on sports related
- 49:15priorities in his second term.
- 49:18Speaker 2: By Dan Diamond and Rick Mays.
- 49:23Speaker 1: President Donald Trump on Friday again waited into contituous issues
- 49:28around college sports, ordering the field's governing bodies to create
- 49:32new regulations around name, image and likeness in il rules,
- 49:37calling for limits on athlete's ability to transfer schools, and
- 49:42urging more funding for women's sports. Trump's order instructs federal
- 49:47agencies to evaluate whether existing rules on college athletes transfers
- 49:53edgbility and reimbursement could make a university ineligible for federal
- 49:59grants and contracts. According to a White House fact sheet
- 50:03that said Trump was taking urgent national action to save
- 50:08college sports, the AURA would restrict the amount of money
- 50:13student athletes could get by cracking down on fraudulent nil payments,
- 50:18which the White House defines as payments that exceed the
- 50:21fair market value of the athlete's participation in sports and.
- 50:25Speaker 2: Would limit their movement between schools.
- 50:28Speaker 1: It calls for a five year participation window for athletes
- 50:32to compete, addressing a growing complaint that some college athletes
- 50:37are unduly stretching their careers and affecting the competitive balance
- 50:41among teams. The order comes alongside a pair of college
- 50:46sports most watch events, the men's and women's basketball tournaments,
- 50:51but it also arrives at the time of deep uncertainty
- 50:54for college athletics. Court decisions have weakened the NCAA's authority
- 51:00and opened the door to expanded compensation for athletes and
- 51:04freer movements between schools, changes that have upended the economic
- 51:09model and resaped the traditional structure of college athletics. Trump's
- 51:15move is widely viewed as vulnerable to court challenges, something
- 51:20the President recently conceded.
- 51:23Speaker 2: We will get sued.
- 51:24Speaker 1: That's the only thing I know for sure, Trump said
- 51:27at a White House meeting last month reviewing his planned
- 51:31executive order. Several of the court's order's provisions potentially clashed
- 51:37with judicial decisions. In recent years, judges have repeatedly struck
- 51:42down NCAA rules restricting athlete compensation and mobility. It also
- 51:49is expected to draw mixed reactions across the industry, welcomed
- 51:53by some leaders seeking a firmer structure, but raising concerns
- 51:57among those who have pushed to expand athletes rights and compensation.
- 52:04Yahoo's Sports first reported aspects of the president's order mid winter.
- 52:10A Kansas City based sports law attorney who specializes in
- 52:14college sports matters said Friday's order is likely to set
- 52:18up a situation where the NCUBA and schools have to
- 52:22decide whether they're going to follow a federal court order
- 52:26or the executive order. Trump's order, he said, appears to
- 52:30direct the nc DOUBLEA to create rules that would likely
- 52:35violate court orders. Will the NCAA create rules that do that?
- 52:42And if they do, will schools follow them? Winter said,
- 52:46either way, we're likely going to see litigation challenging the
- 52:50order by athletes and third parties. Elements of Trump's order
- 52:55parallel legislation introduced last week by Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican
- 53:01of Alabama, a Trump ally and former college football coach.
- 53:06Tuberbeld's build would restore stricter transfer rules by allowing one
- 53:10penalty free move while requiring athletes to sit at a
- 53:14season after a second transfer. It would also establish a
- 53:18five year window for five seasons of eligibility. Friday's order
- 53:23marks Trump's latest executive action aimed at college sports. A
- 53:28previous order, signed in July twenty twenty five and titled
- 53:32Saving College Sports, directed federal agencies to study the issue
- 53:38and develop recommendations, but thus far it is yielded little
- 53:42in the way of concrete policy changes. He also signed
- 53:46an order last month to protect the TV window for
- 53:49the Army Navy football game. The challenges facing college sports
- 53:53have increasingly become a political priority, amid complaints from some
- 53:58college leaders and fans that the system is in trouble
- 54:02and only intervention from Washington can save it. Lawmakers have
- 54:06floated competing visions for how or weather to expand or
- 54:11restrict athletes' rights. Trump last month convened a two hour
- 54:16White House round table intended to address problems plaguing college sports.
- 54:22The session brought together some of the most powerful figures
- 54:25in the industry, including NCAA president Charlie Baker, conference commissioners,
- 54:31and media executives, but no athletes. The president grew increasingly
- 54:36heated as participants described the forces transforming college athletics. At times,
- 54:43he suggested a desire to roll back those changes entirely,
- 54:47lamenting what he portrayed as an unchecked system of athlete
- 54:51compensation and movement. I'd like to just go exactly back
- 54:56to what we had and ram it through a court
- 54:58if we have to, Trump said. Trump has continued to
- 55:02fixate on the issues in recent appearances, saying that colleges
- 55:05and universities finances are imperiled by gyrations affecting revenue generating
- 55:12sports like football and basketball. In IL It's a disaster.
- 55:18College sports are a disaster, Trump said at a fundraising
- 55:22dinner last week, blaming a judge's horrible decision to side
- 55:26with college athletes sinking payment what they've done is destroyed
- 55:31college sports and destroying colleges because colleges can't afford to
- 55:35pay quarterbacks that never threw a ball before that.
- 55:39Speaker 2: Are seventeen years old.
- 55:41Speaker 1: Some lawmakers and college leaders have coalesced around the Score Act,
- 55:47a bill in Congress that would introduce new standardized regulations
- 55:52on player payments and set limits on compensation. But the
- 55:55bills sweeping provisions have drawn complaints from lawmakers and critics
- 56:00to say the legislation would strengthen the largest college sports
- 56:03programs at the expense of smaller institutions. Several legislators have
- 56:08proposed their own narrower fixes. Senators Eric Schmidt, Republican of
- 56:14Missouri and Mariah Cantwell, Democrat of Washington last month introduced
- 56:19draft legislation that would allow college football institutions to jointly
- 56:24sell their media rights and make it optional for conferences
- 56:27and schools to pool their media rights together. Schmidt and
- 56:31Cantwell say that would boost revenue for college sports, but
- 56:35planned congressional vixays fixes faced long ards. Despite years of
- 56:41lobbying from the NCAA and repeated Congressional hearings, lawmakers have
- 56:45yet to advance comprehensive legislation and have.
- 56:48Speaker 2: Struggled to even get a flaw vote.
- 56:51Speaker 1: Trump's order exports lawmakers to expedious expeditiously passed legislation to
- 56:59address these issues, citing the risk to women's and Olympic sports,
- 57:04but the President said he had been forced to act
- 57:06because of urgent pressures.
- 57:09Speaker 2: Further delay is.
- 57:10Speaker 1: Not an option given what is at stake, the five
- 57:14hundred thousand annual educational, athletic and leadership development opportunities that
- 57:20provide almost four billion in scholarships. His executive order reads,
- 57:27and with that, I end today's reading of the Washington
- 57:31Post for Saturday, the fourth of.
- 57:34Speaker 2: April of twenty twenty six.
- 57:36Speaker 1: It is getting a little chillier, and it is beginning
- 57:40to be daylight outside my window that I'm reading because
- 57:43I need to get dressed and head downtown. Have a
- 57:47good Easter weekend for those who celebrate it. I will
- 57:50be back next Thursday.
- 57:52Speaker 2: Bye.