Transcript

12.9.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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December ninth, twenty twenty five. As a reminder, RADIOI is
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a reading service intended for people who are blind or
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have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Your reader for today is Cindy Fraser. Today's front page
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headlines from The Washington Post are Executive power likely to expand,
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Justices seem ready to let president fireheads of independent agencies. Next,
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Ukraine refuses to see territory. Zelensky rejects Russian demand, major
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setback for Trump's peace proposal. Our next headline, Paramount challenges
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Netflix deal to acquire Warner Brothers. Next, despite US terrace,
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China's trade surplus tops one trillion dollars. The next headline
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lantern Fly honey has arrived, Just don't ask how it's made.
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Exotic tasting nectar has sparked interest in possible health benefits.
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And the final headline from today's front page, d C
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police chief steps down after two years in top job.
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Now let's turn to our first item, entitled Executive power
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likely to expand. Justices seem ready to let president fireheads
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of independent agencies by Justin Juvenal the Supreme Court on
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Monday appeared poised to allow President Donald Trump to fire
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a leader of the Federal Trade Commission, a ruling that
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could limit or overturn a ninety year president that curbs
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executive power to dismiss the heads of agencies Congress set
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up to be independent. A ruling in favor of Trump's
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position has been widely expected by legal experts because the
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Justices have been chipping away for years at the president
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no as Humphrey's executor. Many of the Supreme Court's conservative
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justices have expressed support for an idea known as unitary
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executive theory, which holds that the Constitution gives a president
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broad authority to fire officials and that Congress cannot limit it.
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During arguments Monday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Junior referred
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to Humphrey's executor as a dried husk. The contemporary FTC
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bears little resemblance to the one that existed at the
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time of the High Court's nineteen thirty five ruling that
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insulated its commissioners from removal by the president without cause,
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because it now exercises significant executive powers, he said. Conservative
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Justice Bret M. Kavanaugh said independent agencies lack accountability. I
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think broad delegations to unaccountable independent agencies raise enormous constitutional
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and real world problems for individual liberty. Kavanaugh said a
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decision to strike down Humphrey's executor and allow the president
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to fire Democrat Rebecca Slaughter from the FTC could usher
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in one of the largest changes to the structure of
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the federal government in decades. It would hand Trump a
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major victory in his quest to exert tighter control over
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the federal bureaucracy and concentrate power in the White House.
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A ruling in the case is expected by June or July.
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The court's three liberal justices expressed alarm at the idea
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of handing the president unfettered control over roughly two dozen
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agencies that regulate a range of areas, including product safety, elections,
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and nuclear energy, saying it could politicize work that Congress
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deems should be based on expertise and technical knowledge. The
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agencies are run by bipartisan, multi member commissions that serve
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staggered terms. Just as Sonya Solomayar told Solstener, General d
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John Sower, you are asking us to destroy the structure
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of government. While Justice Elena Kagan added, you end up
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with massive, unchecked power in the hands of the president.
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Independent agencies exist because Congress has deemed some issues should
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be handled by non partisan experts, just as Ketanji Brown
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Jackson said, having a president come in and fire all
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the scientists and the doctors, and the economists and the
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phdes and replacing them with loyalists is actually not in
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the best interest of the citizens of the United States.
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Sawyer told the Justices that striking down Humphrey's executor would
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make federal agencies more accountable to voters who elect the president,
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and that fears that the structure of government would be
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undermined are overblown. He said, the alphabet soup of regulatory
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agencies is a headless fourth branch, insulated from political accountability
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and democratic control. The Justices spent much of the arguments
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probing the ramifications and possible limits of expanding the president's power.
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Kavanagh said he had concerns about the president attempting to
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remove members of the Federal Reserve, which sets interest rates
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and has a commanding role in guiding the economy. Next month,
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the Justices will examine the legality of Trump's efforts to
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fire Democrat Lisa Cook from the FAD. The justices also
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quiz Sawyer about whether ruling for the president would allow
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Trump to remove lower level members of independent agencies and
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some government workers with civil service protections. Sawyer indicated he
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thought the president would have such power, making a dramatic shift.
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Trump fired Slaughter and Alvarado Bedoya, the only Democrats on
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the five member FTC, in March, as part of an
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aggressive campaign to remove liberal leaders from independent agencies such
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as the National Labor Relations Board and LRB and the
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Consumer Products Safety Commission CPSC, that were set up to
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be insulated from political interference. Trump has often derided bureaucrats
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as part of a quote deep state, an alleged secret
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network of non elected officials working to shape the government
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and society, stymying his agenda. Slaughter and Bedoya attended the
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arguments Monday. The law creating the FTC says presidents can
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remove commissioners only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance
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in office, but Trump gave no reason for dismissing Slaughter
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and Bedoya. Slaughter sued, saying that violated the FDC statute.
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A federal judge agreed in July, citing Humphrey's executor which
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affirmed that Congress could set up independent, nonpartisan agencies whose
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leaders could be fired only for cause. The decision stemmed
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from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempts to dismiss an FTC
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Commissioner William Humphrey over political differences related to the New
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Deal and other issues. An Appeals Corps upheld the decision
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in Slaughter's case before the Trump administration appealed it to
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the Supreme Court. Roberts paused Slaughter's reinstatement in September so
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the High Court could weigh the administration's appeal. Many in
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the Trump administration support the unitary executive theory. The idea
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is that the president, as the only elected official in
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the executive branch, exercises all of its authority. Other officials
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are merely extensions of the President's power, the theory holds,
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and they therefore can be removed at will. Slaughter was
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unanimously approved by the Senate when Trump initially nominated her
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to the FTC in twenty eighteen, and again when President
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Joe Biden renominated her in twenty twenty three. The agency
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works on antitrust and consumer protection issues. Amid Agarwal, Slaughter's attorney,
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argued that the FTC's removal protections were consistent with the
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separation of power. Saint Congress has long created independent agencies
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guided by multi member commissions. Multi member agencies have been
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part of our story since seventeen ninety, Argowald told the Justices,
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But the Justices have rejected similar arguments in recent years.
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In the most significant recent case, they ruled in twenty
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twenty that the law creating removal protections for the director
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of the powerful Consumer Financial Protection Bureau CFBP was unconstitutional
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because it violated the separation of powers. The CFBP is
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legally different from the FTC because it is run by
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a single official instead of a multi member board. Many
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other independent agencies, like the Federal Communications Commission, the CPSC,
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and the Securities in Exchange Commission share the FTC structure
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and could be affected by the ruling in Slaughter's case.
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In temporary rulings during the opening months of Trump's second term,
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the Justices have also allowed the president to fire members
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of the NLG, the Merit System's Protection Board msb P,
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and the cp s C without cause, despite lawsaying otherwise.
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While the legal challenges to the moves play out. Because
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the Constitution vests the executive power in the president, the
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Majority wrote, in a decision blessing the n l RB
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and m sb P firings, he may remove without cause
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executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf, subject
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to narrow exceptions recognized by our precedents. Those rulings have
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often drawn strong pushback from the Court's liberals. Humphrey's Executor
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is widely considered a landmark case because it led to
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the creation of the modern regulatory state. The idea behind
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independent agencies has been that their decision making would be
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predicated on scientific evidence, technical knowledge, and expertise, rather than
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political considerations. Consumer advocates worry that the demise of Humphrey's
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Executor would leave Americans less protected, since presidents could pressure
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agencies to craft regulations to appease big business donors or
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political allies. Aeron Witt, director of Consumer Protection at the
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Consumer Federation of America, pointed to the CPSC, these are
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commissioners that deal with kids products, baby safe sleep things.
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Witt said, the last thing that we want is for
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industry to come in and insert their favorite folks at
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the Commission. Our next item from today's front page is
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entitled Ukraine refuses to see territory Zelensky rejects Russian demand,
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major setback for Trump's peace proposal. By Steve Hendricks, Lizzie
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Johnson and Kostaanyan Kudov from London. Ukraine will not surrender territory,
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President Volodimus Zelinsky declared Monday, rejecting a central Russian demand
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that President Donald Trump had incorporated into his latest proposal
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to end the Krumen's war. Under our laws, under international law,
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and under moral law, we have no right to give
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anything away, Zelensky said, after meeting with top European leaders
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to discuss Trump's plan Monday. That is what we are
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fighting for. The unequivocal declaration that Ukraine will not surrender
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land could mark the collapse of Trump's plan, which critics
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condemned as fulfilling a wish list of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky,
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speaking to journalists aboard his flight to Brussels following consultations
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with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany in London,
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made one of his clearest public statements yet on the
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emerging US backed proposal. He said the plan had been
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stripped of what he called explicitly anti Ukrainian provisions, suggesting
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that Kiev was open to a deal, but he stood
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firm on the issue of land of you, shared by
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European leaders who have insisted that Putin should not be
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permitted to redraw international boundary by force. Zelensky said Ukraine
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will not surrender its territory in the eastern Dombas region,
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not to hasten peace talks, not to satisfy Washington's push
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for compromise, and not under pressure from Moscow's continuing military onslaughts.
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Ukraine and Europe have insisted that a ceasefire be declared
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along current battle lines, but Russia has refused. Putin has
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claimed illegally to have the next four entire regions of Ukraine,
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in addition to Crimea, which Russia seized in twenty fourteen,
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far more territory than his military forces have been able
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to occupy. Some Ukrainian officials held out hope that the
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negotiations could still bear fruit. The proposal is closer to
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be doable for Ukraine, but not easy and not finished,
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said a senior Ukrainian official familiar with recent discussions, who
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spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not
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authorized to comment publiclyfly Zelensky said one proposal involved exchanging
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Ukraine's Sapariza nuclear power plant, currently held by Russia and
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swaths of Russian occupied territory for areas of the Donik
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region still under Ukrainian control, an idea he dismissed. Trump
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over the weekend again cast Kiev as the obstacle to
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the American champion proposal, accusing Selensky of slow walking the plan,
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even as Moscow has shown little, if any willingness to
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compromise on its maximalist demands. Trump's continuing pressure, including his
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stern tone toward Ukraine and apparent openness to granting Putin's
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territorial claims, has unnerved European capitals, heightening fears that Key's
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negotiating leverage is evaporating as Putin's forces advanced on the
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battlefield and Zelensky's government remains consumed by a corruption scandal.
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Zelensky's immediate priority in London was to meet with senior
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Ukrainian officials, including Umarov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security
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and Defense Council, who held detailed consultations last week in
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Miami with Trump's envoys, developer Steve Whitkoff and the president's
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son in law Jared Kushner, following their meeting with Putin
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in Moscow. Zelensky said some of the new information emerging
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in those talks required face to face consultation with his team.
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Trump accused the Ukrainian leader of not keeping up Russia
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is I believe fine with it, but I'm not sure
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that Zelensky is fine with it. Trump told reporters before
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taking part in the Kennedy Center honors in Washington on Sunday,
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his people love it, but he hasn't read it. Even
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before Zelensky's outright rejection of seeding land, Ukraine and its
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European supporters voiced deep apprehension about Trump's initiative, which some
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said originally was so favorable to Russia that they believed
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it had been drafted by the Kremlin. The Europeans and
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Ukrainians scrambled to propa changes, including removing provisions that were
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unacceptable to Kiev or that would require broader approval by
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nations that belonged to NATO or the European Union. Zelensky
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met on Monday with the British, French and German leaders
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at ten Downing Street the British Prime Minister's Office to
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discuss security, including air defenses and financing for Ukraine's long
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term defense. After the session in London, Zelensky flew to
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Brussels to consult with NATO's Secretary General Mark Rutt and
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European Commission President or Slovon der Lean, head of the
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e u's Executive arm. Ukraine's sovereignty must be respected, Bunderlayan
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wrote in a post on AX after meeting with Selensky.
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Ukraine's security must be guaranteed in the long term as
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a first line of defense for our union. British Prime
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Minister kir Starmer said that any deal must include hard
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edged security guarantees for Ukraine. Europe must stand with Ukraine,
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strengthening its ability to defend against relentless attacks that have
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left thousands without heat or light, Starmer's office said in
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a statement after the session. The leaders also discussed positive
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progress made to use immobilized Russian sovereign assets to support
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Ukraine's reconstruction. Work will be intensified to provide Ukraine with
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robust security guarantees and to plan measures for the reconstruction,
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the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement.
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In a statement before the session, Zelensky called the ongoing
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dialog with Whitcoff and Kushner constructive though not easy, adding
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that some issues can only be discussed in person. The
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most difficult hurdles, including over territory and the possible surrender
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of land in the Ukraine's Dombas region that Russia has
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yet to seize militarily, had been reserved for Zelensky to handle.
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There some things which we can't manage without Americans, things
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which we can't manage without Europe, Selensky said in London.
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That's why we need to make some important decisions. KIV
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is hoping to secure a firmer co ordinated Western response
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to Trump's proposal. European leaders have voiced support for the
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US led diplomacy, but are wary of any settlement that
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locks in Russia's territorial gains or that leaves Ukraine without
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solid security guarantees to prevent another Russian attack in Ukraine.
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Such an attack is viewed as nearly inevitable unless the
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country joins NATO. At least one version of Trump's plan
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called for prohibiting Ukraine from joining the alliance. Before Monday's meetings,
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as they weighted details of the latest Trump plan, European
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officials said they expected Selensky to push for stronger positions
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on Russian sanctions, monitoring to keep Russia from cheating on
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ceasefire terms and long term military support. Ukraine argues that,
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given Trump's wavering commitment to NATO and general tilt toward Moscow,
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only a united European front can compel Russia to make
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meaningful concessions. The original version of the plan, as presented
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by Wikkof, was seen as too favorable to Moscow. Ukrainian
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and European diplomats meeting with US Secretary of State Markarubio
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in Geneva, pushed several amendments on Ukraine's behalf. It is
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not clear, however, what version of the plan Wikof and
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Kushner carried to their recent meeting with Putin. The negotiations
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are gaining momentum as Ukraine endures one of the most
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difficult periods of the nearly four year war. Russian forces
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are advancing in the East, exploiting Ukraine's shortages in ammunition
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and fighters. Moscow continues to bomb Ukraine's electrical infrastructure, triggering
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rolling blackouts and widespread outages this winter. The weekend, a
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Russian missile struck a major pharmaceutical distribution center near Kharkiv,
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destroying a facility that had supplied hospitals throughout the besieged
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Eastern Ukraine. Official said it was Russia's fifth attack on
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a medical warehouse and warned that the strike would disrupt
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production of essential medicines, adding strain to an already stressed
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health system. Selensky has overseeing Ukraine's response to the talks
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as a corruption scandal continues to rip through his inner circle.
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His former right hand chief of staff Andrea Yermak, resigned
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in November after anti corruption authorities raided his home in office,
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Zelensky has yet to replace his most trusted confidant and partner,
19:43
who was often seen at the negotiating table. Umarov, who
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has taken over the lead on recent negotiations, is rumored
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to soon be implicated in the corruption investigations, which have
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also led to the recent resignations of the Justice and
19:57
energy ministers. Ski's former business partner, Timormindych, was also swept
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up in the scandal, which saw some of the government's
20:06
top leaders profiting off a major kickback scheme via energy contracts. Trump,
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over his eleven month push to end the fighting in Ukraine,
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has frequently seemed to blame Ukraine for the conflict. In February,
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after a quote lengthy and very productive call with Putin,
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Trump said Kiev should be ready to give up on
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reclaiming Russian occupied territory. In April, he said Ukrainian resistance
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to permanently losing Crimea was making it so difficult to
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settle this war, warning that Ukraine risk losing the whole country.
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The Kremlin said it was keeping open contacts with the
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White House but had not yet been briefed on the
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ladies' talks between US and Ukrainian officials. Putin spokesman Dmitri
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Peskov applauded the lack of public detail Monday, saying that
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Washington's abandonment of megaphone a play Pomisey was a positive development.
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Trump at the White House on Monday was not asked
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directly about Zelensky's remarks, but he repeated his claim that
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he would have prevented Russia's invasion if he had been
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president at the time. Trump insisted that he wanted to
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prevent further deaths, a goal Ukrainians say would be accomplished
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most easily by Russia stopping its war and withdrawing its troops.
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We just want to see people stop from being killed,
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Trump said, adding, you got a lot of people dying,
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and I want to see that stopped. Johnson and Kudrov
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reported from Kiev. Mary Ilushina and Berlin contributed to this report.
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Our next item is entitled Paramount challenges Netflix deal to
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acquire Warner Brothers by Scott Over. Paramount sky Dance launched
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a hostile bid Monday to buy Warner Brothers Discovery, mere
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days after Netflix struck an eighty three billion dollar deal
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to the media conglomerate. Paramount's guidance, which took shape this
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year under CEO David Ellison, said it would be bringing
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an all cash offer directly to Warner Brothers Discovery shareholders.
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The unsolicited bid, whose financial backers include President Donald Trump's
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son in law Jared Kushner, is for the entire company,
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including CNN and other cable networks that were to be
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spun off into a separate company. In Netflix's cash and
22:28
stock proposal. Allison is the son of Oracle co founder
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Larry Allison, one of the world's wealthiest people and a
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friend and supporter of Trump. The president said Sunday he
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would be involved in assessing the intended Netflix Warner Brothers
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Discovery deal, saying Netflix's market share in the streaming sector
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could be a problem. In a news release Monday, Paramont
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Skuydance said its bid offers superior value and a more
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certain and quicker path to completion to Warner Brothers Discovery shareholders,
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an offer sweetened by eighteen billion dollars more in cash.
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The company said the bid would pay w b D
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shareholders thirty dollars a share. On Friday, Netflix said its
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offer would value w b D a twenty seven dollars
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seventy five cents per share. W b D shares closed
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up four point four percent to twenty seven dollars twenty
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three cents on Monday. Paramount shares were up nine percent
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on the day, and Netflix closed down three point four percent.
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We believe the w b D Board of Directors is
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pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix
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of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of
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global network, linear cable business, and a challenging regulatory approval process.
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David Ellison said in a statement, we are taking our
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offer directly to shareholders to give them the opportunity to
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act in their own best interests and maximize the value
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of their shares. Besides setting up a titanic business and
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financial clash, the battle between Netflix and Skydan's Paramont has
24:07
a clear political cast, though the lines aren't neat and tidy.
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Paramont Skuydance in recent months acquired conservative opinion website The
24:16
Free Press for one hundred fifty million dollars and tapped
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its founder, Barry Weiss to be editor in chief of
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CBS News. Paramount earlier this year, paid sixteen million dollars
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to settle a lawsuit Trump filed over the editing of
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an interview on CBS News' Sixty Minutes with Kamala Harris,
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his Democratic rival in the twenty twenty four presidential election.
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Paramont also installed an ombutzman, Kenneth R. Weinstein, who was
24:45
donated heavily to Republican causes and candidates. Yet, in a
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post on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday morning,
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Trump criticized Paramont for its stewardship of CBS, writing, since
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they bought it sixty minutes, has he has actually gotten worse?
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And While the President expressed concerns Sunday about the Netflix
25:06
purchase of Warner Brothers Discovery, he also heaped praise on
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Ted Sarando's, the streaming giant's co CEO, whom the President
25:13
said he met with in the Oval Office last week.
25:17
I think he's fantastic. I think in the history of Hollywood,
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there's almost nothing like what he's done, Trump told reporters
25:24
at the Kennedy Center. Trump told reporters Monday that he
25:28
didn't know enough about Paramount's bid to weigh in on it.
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None of them are particularly great friends of mine, he said,
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presumably speaking about David Ellison and Sorrando's. I want to
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do what's right. He also said he had never spoken
25:42
to Kushner about the deal. Speaking at an event Monday,
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Sirrando's called the hostile bid entirely expected and said he
25:51
is super confident the Netflix deal will succeed. Netflix offered
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Warner Brothers Discovery a five point eight billion dollar breakup
25:59
fee should the deal fail because of anti trust or
26:03
legal challenges. Paramont's Guidance said its proposal is back stopped
26:07
by the Allison family, along with the investment fund Redbird
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Capital Affinity Partners, the investment firm founded by Kushner, is
26:16
an outside financing partner for the hostile bid, according to
26:20
a regulatory filing, three sovereign wealth funds, Saudi Arabia's Public
26:25
Investment Fund, Abu Dhabi's LaMotte Holding Company p J s C,
26:30
and the Qatar Investment Authority are also listed as outside
26:33
financing partners. Both proposed deals present antitrust concerns in a
26:39
traditional regulatory environment. Combining Netflix and Warner Brothers Discovery would
26:44
put the biggest streamer in charge of a major Hollywood studio,
26:48
along with HBO and its streaming service, HBO Max. Paramont's
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Guidance's bid would combine two major studios, as well as
26:56
news brands CBS and CNN, But Trump's evident interest in
27:01
weighing in on the deal and his familial involvement in
27:04
the stakeholders cast a more uncertain and possibly more political
27:09
frame on the corporate jockeying. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat from Massachusetts,
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who on Friday called the Netflix proposal an anti monopoly nightmare,
27:20
said the Paramount Skuydance bid was a five alarm anti
27:23
trust fire. Skydance's new hostile bid is backed by who's
27:28
who of Trump buddy's from Jared Kushner's private equity firm
27:32
to the Allison family to money flowing from the Middle East,
27:35
raising serious questions about influence peddling, political favoritism, and national
27:41
security risks. Warren wrote in a statement Monday, the Department
27:45
of Justice and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the
27:48
United States must review any Warner brother's deal based on
27:52
the law and facts, not who sucked up the most
27:55
to Donald Trump. William Behar, who headed the Justice Department
28:00
Anti Trust Division under President Barack Obama, said that although
28:04
both proposed deals raise serious anti trust concerns, the bigger
28:08
concern is one of politics. The real issue is whether
28:12
this gets decided on the anti trust merits versus the
28:15
political self interest of the president. Beaher said, Unlike in
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the past, we cannot assume that decisions here will be
28:23
based on the comparative anti trust merits. Kelly Hue, a
28:27
finance professor at the Yale School of Management, said the
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Paramont's guidands all cash bid should be more tempting to
28:34
w b D shareholders. The board of Warner Brothers didn't
28:38
want the Paramont takeover, but they're being put in a
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very difficult spot right now because they do have a
28:45
fiduciary duty to look after the shareholders, and the shareholders
28:49
would just get a higher valuation, probably under Paramont, she said.
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Paramont's proposal is heavily financed by debt, she said, and
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while Warner Brothers discuss every shareholders would get cash if
29:02
the bid is successful, the newly formed company would be
29:05
under considerable pressure to repay that debt. The prospect of
29:09
Paramont's offer involving less or no regulatory hold up may
29:14
be a key consideration, said Derrick Court Smyer, a finance
29:17
professor at George Mason University. I don't think there's a
29:21
way Netflix can financially engineer a solution here that appeals
29:26
to the risk reduction side of things for Warner Brother's shareholders,
29:29
he said. The only move they have if they want
29:32
to win the bid is to raise their offer a
29:35
lot and make most of it cash based, and work
29:38
out how to get it approved by the regulatory Doing
29:41
whatever that takes. Although Paramont's guidance has portrayed its deal
29:46
as the quickest path the regulatory approval, the company said
29:51
in irregulatory disclosure filed Monday that lawyers for Warner Brother's
29:55
Discovery had expressed concern that the Ellisons weren't fully backing
29:59
the deal and had involved outside groups from foreign countries.
30:04
According to the filing, wb D feared that financial arrangement
30:08
could trigger an investigation from the Committee on Foreign Investment
30:12
in the United States CFIUS, an interagency panel that reviews
30:17
mergers for national security implications. Paramont's earlier December first bid
30:23
included twenty four billion dollars in financing commitments from the
30:26
Middle East Sovereign Wealth Funds and one billion dollars from
30:29
the Chinese technology giant Tencent. While CFIUS approval was not
30:34
a condition to close in our December first offer, in
30:38
response to your feedback, we have taken further steps to
30:41
ensure that a transaction between Paramount and WBD will not
30:45
fall under cfius's jurisdiction, the company wrote Thursday. Tensent will
30:51
no longer be a financing partner in the transaction. The
30:54
Sovereign Wealth Funds also agreed to forego any governance rights,
30:58
including board representation, to further smooth the regulatory process, it said.
31:04
Next from to Day's front page is an item entitled
31:08
despite U S terraffs, China's trade surplus tops won trillion
31:12
dollars by Davy J. Lynch and Simon Elegant. China's annual
31:17
trade surplus topped one trillion dollars for the first time,
31:21
a sign that President Donald Trump's high tariffs have done
31:24
little to stop Chinese factories from flooding global markets with cars, electronics, machinery,
31:30
solar panels, and other manufactured goods. The unbalanced global economy
31:36
that the presidents set out to change earlier this year
31:38
remains deeply distorted. China has responded to the highest U
31:43
S tariff since the nineteen thirties by redirecting its factory
31:47
output from American ports to Europe and Southeast Asia. While
31:52
trade tensions between Washington and Beijing have eased in recent months,
31:56
a black lash against Chinese manufactured goods is brewing in Europe,
32:01
seven years after Trump began imposing tariffs on Chinese goods
32:05
during his first term to force an overhaul of Chinese
32:08
economic model. The government in Beijing continues to subsidize manufacturing
32:13
at the expense of Chinese consumers. The result is a
32:16
structural tilt toward higher Chinese exports and comparatively anemic imports
32:22
that is raising the chances of a confrontation between China
32:26
and a growing number of its training partners. Trump's year
32:30
long trade flets has raised terraces on almost all of
32:33
the merchandise at the United States imports, but there has
32:36
been no visible progress at tackling the main drivers of
32:40
global imbalances, such as misalignments between the U. S Dollar
32:44
and key foreign currencies, including the Chinese yuan, South Korean yan,
32:49
and Taiwanese dollar. The administration just hasn't made a concerted
32:54
push to negotiate a round the issues that are central
32:56
to the imbalances, said economist Brad Setzer, who served in
33:00
the Treasury Department during the Obama administration. China's currency yuan
33:06
has weakened in recent years, even as its trade surplus ballooned.
33:11
That's the opposite of what would be expected to happen,
33:14
but Chinese authorities acted to prevent the yuan from rising,
33:18
which would make Chinese goods more expensive to foreign customers.
33:22
China's perennial trade surplus is mirrored by a deficit in
33:26
the United States. Though Trump's tariffs have reduced total trade
33:30
between the two nations, China continues to shift to American
33:34
customers roughly three times as much as advies from them,
33:38
according to Census Bureau data. In April, the President declared
33:42
a national emergency over the trade deficit that the US
33:46
has run every year since nineteen seventy five. He blamed
33:50
unfair trading practices on the part of other nations, as
33:54
well as domestic economic policies that discourage consumption for the
33:58
U S trade deficit. This status quo of large and
34:02
persistent imbalances is not sustainable, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen said
34:07
in an April speech. Mainstream economists, however, say trade outcomes
34:12
are driven by economic policies within individual nations. The U
34:17
S and China, for example, are joined in a symbiotic relationship.
34:21
China produces more than it consumes, while the U S
34:25
consumes more than it produces. Tariffs do not affect trade balances.
34:31
Trade balances are driven by investment and savings rates within economies,
34:36
said Neil Shearing, Group, Chief Economists for Capital Economics in London.
34:41
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
34:45
The growing Chinese trade surplus reflects weak domestic demand following
34:49
the twenty twenty one collapse of an epic property bubble,
34:52
said Setzer, a senior fellow with a Council on Foreign Relations.
34:57
Chinese factories continued producing enormal amounts of steel, cement, and
35:02
household furnishings, even as the country's developers stopped building new
35:06
homes and apartment towers and cash trapped Chinese consumers stopped
35:11
buying so many foreign goods. Rather than shutter factories or
35:16
stimulate consumer spending, Chinese authorities effectively directed the excess production
35:21
to four markets. Since twenty seventeen, China's trade surplus has
35:26
roughly tripled in size. China's General Administration of Customs said
35:31
Monday that for the first eleven months of the year,
35:34
exports increased five point four percent compared with the same
35:38
period last year, while imports fell slightly. That meant China
35:43
ran a global trade surplus of one point zero seven
35:47
trillion dollars, exceeding the nine hundred ninety billion dollars surplus
35:51
recorded for the whole of twenty twenty four. Put simply,
35:56
China's price competitiveness is extremely strong, said and Chen, a
36:01
senior economist for the Economist Intelligence Unit in Beijing. The
36:05
main reason behind the continued growth of China's exports is
36:09
not because the overall size of global trade has expanded,
36:13
but because China is claiming a larger share of the
36:16
existing trade landscape. Indeed, China's exports are growing faster than
36:21
global trade, which means Chinese companies are taking market share
36:26
from their foreign rivals. One reason Chinese goods carry such
36:30
attractive prices is that the authorities, by controlling cross bordered
36:34
capital flows and intervening in foreign exchange markets, make sure
36:39
the currency stays weaker than it would be if its
36:41
value was determined by market forces. Exports to the US
36:46
fell twenty eight percent in November compared with the same
36:49
month last year, an even greater decline than the twenty
36:53
five percent annual drop recorded in October, according to the
36:56
official data. This comes after Anaco Tober meeting between Trump
37:01
and Chinese leader Jijinpini, when a trade truce negotiated between
37:06
the two sides earlier in the year was extended. Trump
37:09
cut tariffs on imports from China, and she agreed to
37:12
resume purchasing soybeans and to delay restrictions on rare earth
37:17
minerals for a year. She signaled a willingness to travel
37:20
to the US early next year, and Trump has said
37:23
he would probably travel to Beijing in April. Both sides
37:27
aim to have a permanent trade agreement ready by then,
37:30
the analyst said. G went into the October meeting feeling confident.
37:36
Annalus said because Trump's tariff onslaught had not caused much
37:40
damage to export dependent China, even as its domestic economy
37:45
was ailing. The latest data shows this trend is continuing
37:48
despite a blip in October. That is partly because China
37:52
appears to be transshipping more goods through Southeast Asia, despite
37:57
the Trump's administration's attempts to crack down on the practice.
38:02
Monday's figures showed an eight percent annual jump in the
38:05
first eleven months of the year in Chinese exports to
38:08
Southeast Asia, where Chinese made goods can be assembled and
38:12
shipped onto the US market. China's exports to Southeast Asia
38:17
have grown strongly, June said. A large part of that
38:21
is likely products that were ultimately destined for the US,
38:24
but now make a stop in Southeast Asia. It was
38:27
also notable that the decline in exports to the US
38:31
was made up by a surge in Chinese exports to
38:34
the rest of the world. That will be a particular
38:37
concern in the European Union, where Chinese exports rose at
38:41
an annual rate of fourteen point eight percent. In November,
38:45
French President Emmanuel Macron, returning from a state visit to China,
38:49
threatened to impose tariffs on Chinese goods if Beijing did
38:53
not take action to reduce its enormous trade surplus with
38:56
the EU. I told them that if they don't reach act,
39:00
we Europeans will be forced to take strong measures in
39:03
the coming months. Macrontode Lesse Coot, the French business newspaper,
39:08
in an interview published Sunday. Tariffs could be modeled after
39:12
those imposed by the United States, he said. Germany, whose
39:16
auto industry accounts for roughly five percent of economic output,
39:20
is threatened by the swift emergence of Chinese automakers. China's
39:24
global car exports soared by fifty three percent in November,
39:29
up from an already extraordinary thirty four percent rise. In October.
39:34
Rudy Loeu contributed to this report next from to day's
39:39
front page laterin fly honey has arrived. Just don't ask
39:43
how it's may the impact of spotted lantern flies is
39:47
showing up in a less obvious way. It's changing honey.
39:50
Exactly how that change happens may not be the best
39:54
selling point by Bertney Sammus. One taste and the bee
39:58
keeper was certain this was no ordinary honey. Shawn Kennedy
40:03
had been showing off the hives he tends in Northwest
40:06
Washington one autumn afternoon when he removed a glove or
40:09
a taste test. This was how the self taught bee
40:12
keeper ate most of his honey by plunging a finger
40:15
into a row of honeycomb and slipping it under his
40:18
protective head covering to his mouth. Lately, the flavor had
40:22
been well different. I'd say that spotted lanteren fly honey.
40:28
Kennedy sixty four declared, after a moment's consideration over the
40:33
droning of thousands of bees at the Swiss Embassy apiary,
40:37
he searched for the right way of describing how he
40:39
knew landing on it just doesn't have this gentle, sweet taste.
40:44
It was instead, he said, like you know your grandparents
40:47
cough drops. The invasion of the spotted lantern fly was
40:52
impossible to miss this past summer in the Washington region.
40:56
The scarlet winged leaf hoppers waked havoc on trees, threatened
41:00
Virginia's multi billion dollar wine industry, and ushered in a
41:04
spectacle of state sponsored squashing. This fall, the insect's impact
41:09
on the area has shown a been a less obvious
41:11
way it's changing the honey. Honey bees, it turns out,
41:16
are attracted to the sticky, sugary substance that spotted lantern
41:19
flies leave behind after slurping tree sap in late summer
41:23
and fall months during the adult phase of their life cycle.
41:27
The proper term for this substance is honeydew. That's really
41:30
just another word for poop. Be suck it up and
41:34
bring it back to their hives, where they treat it
41:36
like nectar, spitting it into honeycombs and furiously fanning it
41:40
down with their wings to remove the water content and woilla. Honey.
41:46
Maybe not what you'd find in a bear shaped container
41:49
on a grocery store shelf, but honey none the less,
41:52
a darker, mysterious new kind that's shaking up the bee
41:55
keeping world. The phenomenon first happened several years ago in Pounce,
42:00
where the spotted lanin fly was discovered in the United
42:03
States around twenty fourteen after apparently hitching a ride from
42:07
China aboard a shipment of stone. Since then, the unusual
42:12
honey it helps make has traveled to Copenhagen for sampling
42:15
at an international apricultural conference and popped up as a
42:19
niche product in lantern Fly adult corners of the country.
42:23
The name given by Philadelphia Bee Company, which sometimes sells
42:26
out of it Doom Bloom and there's this. Universities are
42:31
studying it for potential health benefits, with promising results so far.
42:37
It's getting to be the buzz around the world, said
42:39
Carlo Marina Marchese, who founded the Connecticut based American Honey
42:43
Tasting Society and trained in Italy as a honey sensory expert,
42:48
essentially a satmoier. Some bee keepers worried it would be
42:53
like a stain on the American honey industry, she said,
42:56
but as a professional taster, she was intrigued and even excited.
43:01
She's had several samples and said the flavor varies, but
43:05
the common notes include smoky, savory, salty, resinous, and lightly fruity.
43:12
For his part, Kennedy wasn't sure what to think initially.
43:16
He's been fascinated with bees since childhood. When he first
43:19
stared in awe at a bee keeper collecting a swarm,
43:23
he thought it was the coolest thing on earth and
43:25
decided he would do that one day, A dream put
43:28
on hold as he studied geology, worked in the Clinton administration,
43:33
and became an energy entrepreneur. About seven years ago, it
43:38
hit him that if he was going to be a
43:39
bee keeper, he'd better get started, and he'd binged how
43:43
to books and YouTube tutorials. Now he runs the apiary
43:47
on the Embassy's rolling acres in Woodley Park, producing a
43:51
sunny floral honey sold on site once a year, often
43:55
with a limit of one jar of per person. When
43:57
the new stuff appeared in his hives this Septemy, he
44:01
sent a query to the neighborhood internet mailing list should
44:04
he offer this rare late season honey with a remarkable
44:07
backstory during the December sale. Think of it as a
44:11
bit of turning lemons into lemonade. The bees have taken
44:15
a new challenge and created something unique, he wrote. Honey
44:19
made from honeydew is common in Europe, which is so
44:22
far spotted lantern fly free, but as other bugs that
44:26
secrete the substance, they call it forest honey and are
44:29
less phased by the means of production. But for the US,
44:33
it's new. In Pennsylvania, the first sign that something was
44:37
up was the smell. Around the fall of twenty nineteen,
44:41
beekeepers opened their hyes and got hit with a smoky,
44:44
bacon like scent instead of the usual floral one. The
44:48
honey inside was a dark reddish color, almost like maple syrup. Stumped,
44:54
some beekeepers turned to Penn State University for answers. Their
44:58
calls were routed to Robin unders who holds a pH
45:01
d in entomology a k a. The Scientific study of
45:04
bugs and works as an educator for Penn State Extension.
45:09
The bee keepers were like, what is this weird honey?
45:13
Underwood recounted in an interview. When she handed out samples
45:17
to prominent bee keepers from across the state, everybody tasted
45:21
it and said, this is the weirdest thing I've ever tasted.
45:25
It was a true mystery, a kind of who done
45:27
it that made the local TV news. DNA testing helped
45:31
crack the case, showing varying amounts of spotted lantern fly
45:35
in the honey. That's what led Underwood and other researchers
45:39
to close in on the inch long polka dot critter
45:42
as the culprit. They reasoned that the bees, also not
45:47
native to North America, incidentally had taken a few years
45:50
to catch on to the sweet new snack that now
45:53
coated local trees in late summer months, when flowers have
45:56
mostly stopped blooming and nectar runs dry. For Underwood, spotted
46:01
lantern fly honeydew honey has become an unexpected research focus,
46:06
though she admits she falls into the yach, don't put
46:09
this in my mouth again category when it comes to
46:12
the taste. A page on penn State Extensions website includes
46:16
an f a Q for bee keepers, including how to
46:19
avoid extracting it. Because of the buds life cycle, honeydew
46:24
has been its appearance in August or September in Pennsylvania
46:27
and the d C area after bees have already made
46:30
honey from nectar, so the more familiar type can still
46:34
be collected. Underwood is currently studying spotted lantern fly honey's
46:39
medicinal possibilities in collaboration with Ferhat Ostruk, a University of
46:44
Texas at San Antonio professor of biology, an expert on
46:47
the topic. Early results suggests it could rival Manuka honey,
46:53
a pricey New Zealand variety that's sometimes called liquid gold
46:57
and has the distinction of being the only type approved
47:00
for use by American hospitals in wound treatment. So does
47:04
that mean people should stop these stomp on side approach
47:07
advise by officials, no, Underwood said, stressing the harm lantern
47:12
flies caused a plants. We don't really want them, but
47:16
if they are going to be there, then the bees
47:19
can take advantage. That's how I see it, she said.
47:23
Despite all the squishing, the bug has become established in
47:26
fifteen states in the past decades, marching from the mid
47:29
Atlantic into the Midwest. Locally, it was first reported in
47:34
rural parts of Maryland and Virginia in twenty eighteen and
47:37
steadily spread across both states and into d C. One
47:41
sign of how entrenched these things have become, in September
47:46
there were so many they appeared on Weather radars in
47:49
the region. Jan Day surveiled the summertime explosion of lantern
47:54
flies in her Capitol Hill neighborhood, warily wondering what it
47:57
would mean for her honey. As president of the d
48:01
C Beekeeper's Alliance, she heard from a lot of Beltway
48:04
beekeepers with similar concerns. She described the feeling among the
48:08
group of one hundred seventy five or so as something
48:11
like dread. They worried they might have to change the
48:15
way they managed their hives or that their honey would
48:18
be ruined. Then around September, an alliance member with hives
48:22
in d C posted in a club forum that he
48:25
had just harvested a batch. In the end, only a
48:29
few bee keepers in the club reported ending up with it.
48:33
Those who did describe the smell in their hives as
48:36
everything from smoky barbecue to earthy leaf littery to wet socks,
48:42
said Day, whose honey was not affected. Some of that
48:45
doesn't sound appetizing, But I tell myself, if it's good
48:49
enough for the bees, if the bees are okay with it,
48:52
I have a little more faith in it, she said.
48:55
Del Voss, who goes by the nickname d C Honey,
48:58
guy has brand of the bottomed lantern fly Bee collaboration
49:02
as his fall honey. He hasn't been sure how exactly
49:06
to describe it to the customers. He's gained over fifteen
49:09
years of bee keeping in the city, including scores of
49:12
individual consumers, the Italian grocery store, A LITTERII, and the
49:17
acclaimed hard to get into restaurant. Pascal Boss fifty nine,
49:22
who learned bee keeping growing up on a farm and
49:25
often tends to his hives without gloves, joked that want
49:29
to try my insect poop honey might not land, chatting
49:33
up an unsuspecting customer. On a recent morning at Hill's Kitchen,
49:37
a Capitol Hills shop that stocks his product, he went
49:40
with this darker honey is influenced by spotted lantern fly. Briane,
49:46
who was waiting to purchase an armful of cookware when
49:48
Voss offered a sample, asked how well taste. At first,
49:52
responded the bee keeper, sporting a shirt with a honey
49:55
bee pattern, He squeezed a drop onto a small wooden spoon.
50:00
Atterly tried the fall honey and a more standard summer version,
50:04
declaring both very good. He got the back story, then
50:08
he decided to buy a bottle the spotted leaden fly kind.
50:12
It turned out he wasn't put off by it, although
50:14
he stopped voz as he noted, again, that's insect poop.
50:19
Maybe we should just not talk about that, Lee said,
50:22
and they both laughed. As for Kennedy, enough people were
50:26
intrigued by his e mail blast about the rare late
50:29
season honey that he decided to offer it at the
50:32
Embassy's December thirteenth sail. On a week night this month,
50:36
a group of aspiring beekeepers gathered in his unfinished basement
50:40
to jar the year's harvest. First the usual stuff, then
50:44
the new edition. Working together with Kennedy's supervising as air mentor,
50:49
they poured honey from a stack of five gallon buckets
50:52
into glass containers. Every one's hands were sticky within minutes.
50:57
Kennedy pulled a pack of shrink wrapped labels out of
51:00
a bag and displayed them on a table. He had
51:03
considered putting x x X or a skull and crossbones
51:07
on the spotted Lennard fly variety. In the end, he
51:10
went a different direction. Special Edition twenty twenty five says
51:15
the text on a gold sticker in the middle is
51:17
a familiar image a bug with brilliantly spotted, bright red wings,
51:24
and the final item from today's front page is entitled
51:27
d C Police chief steps down after two years in
51:31
top job, by Jenny Gathwright, Megan Flynn, Emma Uber and
51:36
Leo Sans. D C Police Chief Pamela A. Smith is
51:40
resigning from her position, leaving the force after two years
51:44
on the job, marked by a steep drop in crime
51:47
and escalating federal interference in the district's policing and public
51:51
safety system. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, a Democrat, posted a
51:56
statement online praising Smith's service while navigating on precedented challenges
52:01
and attacks on our city's autonomy. Chief Smith dramatically drove
52:05
down violent crime, drove down the homicide rate to its
52:08
lowest levels in eight years, and help us restore a
52:12
sense of safety and accountability in our neighborhoods Bowser added.
52:17
Bowser did not ask for Smith's resignation, according to Susannah Castillo,
52:21
the Mayor's communication director, who said Smith submitted her resignation
52:25
letter to the mayor. Smith's last day will be December
52:29
thirty first, and the mayor said she will name an
52:31
interim chief before the end of the year. In an
52:34
interview with Fox five on Monday morning, Smith said she
52:38
resigned to spend more time with her family. After twenty
52:41
eight years in law enforcement, she said, I have been
52:44
going NonStop. Smith, the department's fourth police chief since two
52:49
thousand seven, took the helm of the police force with
52:52
homicides at a generational high, and oversaw the agency as
52:56
crime fell and homicide closure rates rose. She also had
53:01
to weather political upheaval that led President Donald Trump to
53:05
seize temporary control of her department in August and surge
53:09
federal law enforcement's presence in the city. The unprecedented flux
53:13
of presidential power in the city posed a test for
53:16
Smith's leadership, and some d C Police officers said she
53:20
came across as absent, failing to communicate with them adequately
53:24
about how their jobs would change. In the months since
53:28
Trump's attempt to take over, both Smith and Bassar have
53:31
faced scrutiny as federal emigration authorities have continued to work
53:35
alongside d C Police on joint task forces. That ongoing
53:40
collaboration has stowed criticism from council members and residents who
53:45
say the department is retreating from policies that prohibit d
53:48
C Police from co operating with deportation efforts. The department
53:53
also faces a pair of federal probes into alleged manipulation
53:57
of crime statistics. One is helmed by the House Oversight Committee,
54:01
and this report is expected to be finished in the
54:03
coming weeks, according to a committee aide who spoke on
54:07
the condition of anonymity to discuss an investigation in progress. Smith,
54:12
former chief of the U. S Park Police, told Fox
54:15
five that the federal intervention in d C policing did
54:19
not influence her decision to step down, saying she always
54:23
had a positive relationship with our federal partners. I'm pretty
54:27
sure the entire world recognized we met some challenges in
54:30
August of this year with the federal surge and the
54:33
executive order with regard to the crime emergency. But what
54:37
I will say is our mayor, Mayor Muriel Bowser, did
54:40
a fantastic job with leading us through those efforts. Smith
54:44
added she denied that d C Police are continuing to
54:48
work with US Emigration and Customs Enforcement, saying that cooperation
54:52
ended when Trump's emergency order expired in September. Homeland Security Investigations,
54:58
which is an arm of ICE, remains part of the
55:01
federal task Force, and all federal agents are authorized to
55:05
conduct immigration enforcement. Videos have shown d C police working
55:10
alongside immigration officers after September, including one case where d
55:15
C officer handed some one to federal agencies. Asked at
55:19
a news conference Monday to describe the guidance she gave
55:21
command staff on how to respond to federal immigration officers
55:25
who want to intervene at a d C Police off
55:28
Smith did not describe her instructions. I think we've said
55:32
it a lot that we do not work with ICE,
55:35
Smith said, we do work with our other federal partners.
55:40
Chosen to run the department in twenty twenty three, when
55:43
the city was headed toward a two decade high in homicide,
55:47
Smith became the second woman and the first black woman
55:50
to permanently run the agency. At the time, Smith had
55:54
been with the department fourteen months, first serving as its
55:57
chief equity officer and then becoming an assistant chief in
56:01
charge of homeland Security. She had spent twenty four years
56:04
with the US park Police, including one year as its chief.
56:08
She took on the role replacing interim Chief Ashen benedict
56:12
as the department faced historic staffing lows, violent crime was surging,
56:17
and the DC Council was at odds with Bowser about
56:20
how to improve public safety. The council had, at Bowser's urging,
56:26
passed emergency crime legislation that made it easier for judges
56:30
to detain people in jail ahead of their trials. Smith
56:34
would team up with Bowser to advocate for the d
56:37
C Council to pass permanent crime legislation to stiffen gun crimes,
56:42
expand pre trial attention, and roll back some police changes.
56:47
At the same time, crime had started falling, bringing the
56:51
district in line with nationwide trends. During her tenure, Smith
56:55
also unveiled the Real Time Crime Center, a hub that
57:00
helps police solve crimes by giving them access to live
57:03
video from city surveillance cameras. On the ground, she championed
57:08
the use of drug free zones and established juvenile curfew
57:12
zones in neighborhoods where large groups of teens tended to
57:15
congregate after dark. Anne she created a robbery Suppression unit
57:19
just days after she was appointing chief in twenty twenty three,
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amid a rash of carjackings that crime that has since plummeted,
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with about half as many carjackings this year compared to
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the same time frame last year. As of Friday, homicides
57:35
in the district were down thirty percent over last year,
57:38
and violent crime overall was down twenty eight percent, according
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to d C Police data. I think any chief that
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can look back on two years of dramatic crime reduction
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is leaving in good shape, Bowser said at the news conference.
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But while crime was falling, other challenges mounted. Some members
57:58
of the Forest grew frustrated with Smith's leadership as overtime
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sword officers used to police chiefs who had risen up
58:06
through the d C police ranks at times questioned whether
58:09
she had the appropriate experience to lead a big city
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police force after her role at Park Police, an agency
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focused on federal lands. Due to time constraints, we will
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not be able to complete this item. This concludes the
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reading of the Washington Post for to day, Tuesday, December ninth,
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twenty twenty five. Your reader has been Cindy Fraser. If
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you have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program,
58:34
please feel free to call us at eight five nine
58:37
four two two six three nine zero