Latest / 5 minute updates on the latest Trump actions by Prof Christina Pagel / The stories you didn’t see: Trump’s previous week in power

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The stories you didn’t see: Trump’s previous week in power · 5 minute updates on the latest Trump actions by Prof Christina Pagel

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hi.
• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the Trump administration's foreign aggression
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: is not currently limited to Iran.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: So today I'll cover what else it's been doing on
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: the international stage.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'll go to the US and look at how the US's white
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: nationalist agenda
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  SPEAKER_00: has also been growing, and then kind of end
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: on looking at some important actions undermining the rule of law,
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: democracy and science, all of which have happened over the last week.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: So starting with foreign aggression.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, Trump's been talking about
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: withdrawing troops and has been withdrawing troops.
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  SPEAKER_00: So he threatened to withdraw US troops from Italy and Spain
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  SPEAKER_00: the day after he threatened to do it from Germany.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was asked would you do it?
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  SPEAKER_00: And he said yes.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Look, why shouldn't I?
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  SPEAKER_00: Italy has not been any help to us,
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  SPEAKER_00: and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible.
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  SPEAKER_00: As a reminder, these are all NATO allies.
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  SPEAKER_00: The same day, the Pentagon announced
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  SPEAKER_00: that the US was going ahead and withdrawing 5000 troops from Germany,
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  SPEAKER_00: this is really considered
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  SPEAKER_00: to be a retaliation against Germany's Chancellor Merz,
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  SPEAKER_00: who said in an interview that the US had been humiliated by Iran.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: then the next day, Trump said he would go further
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  SPEAKER_00: and he said, We're going to cut way down and we're cutting a lot
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  SPEAKER_00: further than 5000.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Trump administration has also been threatening more generally.
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  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, in its new counter-terrorism strategy, the Trump administration
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  SPEAKER_00: accused Europe
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  SPEAKER_00: of being an incubator for terrorism fueled by mass migration.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: It says its strategy is focused on rooting out violent left
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  SPEAKER_00: wing extremists, including radically pro transgender groups.
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  SPEAKER_00: And basically, this is a way of trying to impose the
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  SPEAKER_00: kind of white nationalist agenda from the US onto Europe.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump then also threatened the EU, saying
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: if it doesn't comply with its end of the trade deal by the 4th of July,
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  SPEAKER_00: he'll significantly raise tariffs again
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Onto other international organizations.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump officials basically threatened the UN budget
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  SPEAKER_00: and said we're going to the funding the US gives
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  SPEAKER_00: unless you agree to our “trade over aid” agenda.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, that's the US trying to use
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: budget cuts to leverage influence into what the UN does.
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  SPEAKER_00: The US has also continued its kind of attacks on Cuba.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's been doing an economic blockade of Cuba for months.
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  SPEAKER_00: But this week
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump signed an executive order expanding sanctions on Cuba.
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  SPEAKER_00: So what it does is it expands the scope of existing sanctions to target
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  SPEAKER_00: agents, officials and material support of the Cuban government
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  SPEAKER_00: and anyone who is complicit in government
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  SPEAKER_00: corruption or serious human rights violations.
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  SPEAKER_00: It also curtails Cuba's access to the global banking system,
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  SPEAKER_00: imposing secondary sanctions on people, entities
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  SPEAKER_00: and any kind of
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  SPEAKER_00: financial institutions
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  SPEAKER_00: that conduct transactions with sanctioned people in Cuba.
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  SPEAKER_00: a couple of days later, almost a week later, Secretary of State
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  SPEAKER_00: Rubio unveiled a new sanction against Cuba, specifically targeting
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  SPEAKER_00: enterprise called Grupo de Administración Empresarial,
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  SPEAKER_00: or GAESA, which is controlled by the Cuban military.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Rubio
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  SPEAKER_00: described it as the heart of Cuba's kleptocratic communist system.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: nickel and mining company was also included in those sanctions.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this, to me, is actually really mirroring
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  SPEAKER_00: the kind of sanctions that the US put on Venezuela just in the weeks
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  SPEAKER_00: leading up to its attack on Venezuela and Maduro in January.
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  SPEAKER_00: Moving now on to nationalism.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So firstly, ICE has been funded.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate
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  SPEAKER_00: Homeland Security Committee have now released text to
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  SPEAKER_00: to basically give ICE $72 billion via a reconciliation bill.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And basically that means that
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  SPEAKER_00: it can pass the Senate without any Democrat votes.
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  SPEAKER_00: There's also increasing concerns about conditions and detentions.
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  SPEAKER_00: So a Cuban immigrant died in immigration custody
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  SPEAKER_00: in Georgia in what authorities say was a suicide.
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  SPEAKER_00: So meanwhile,
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  SPEAKER_00: Ice has awarded a contract to a private security company
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  SPEAKER_00: that has faced accusations of torture and enforced disappearance.
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  SPEAKER_00: And what that contract does
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  SPEAKER_00: is it asks that company to assist in tracking down undocumented
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: immigrant children who've arrived in the US alone.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the US has now closed a watchdog office
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  SPEAKER_00: for federal immigration detention, abuses.
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  SPEAKER_00: And
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  SPEAKER_00: the US does
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  SPEAKER_00: have really quite an explicitly racist refugee policy.
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  SPEAKER_00: So since October 1st of last year,
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  SPEAKER_00: the US has admitted just 4499 refugees.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that's down from over 100,000 two years And all but
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  SPEAKER_00: three of those 4499 come from South Africa and are white South Africans.
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  SPEAKER_00: basically, Trump has described white South African farmers
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  SPEAKER_00: victims of persecution.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the Trump administration is now basically saying they want to expand
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  SPEAKER_00: the access to US refugee program, but only for white South Africans
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  SPEAKER_00: by declaring an unforeseen emergency in South Africa,
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  SPEAKER_00: saying that that that warrants this increase in refugee numbers.
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  SPEAKER_00: So now I just want to
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  SPEAKER_00: some actions that are really about undermining democracy
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  SPEAKER_00: and the rule of law.
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  SPEAKER_00: the first way the US has been undermining the rule of law is
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: its continued attacks on alleged drug trafficking boats.
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  SPEAKER_00: So on the 4th of May, the US military said it had hit another drug
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  SPEAKER_00: trafficking boat in the Caribbean, killing two people on board.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then the very next day,
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  SPEAKER_00: the military said it had struck another boat
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  SPEAKER_00: in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three people.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that brings the death toll to at least 190 people
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  SPEAKER_00: since September 2025.
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  SPEAKER_00: this is part of the US's campaign
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  SPEAKER_00: against those it alleges are engaged in drug smuggling.
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  SPEAKER_00: But it hasn't ever really produced any evidence of this.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it's really not clear whether these kind of extra
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: judicial killings are legal and in fact, they're probably not
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  SPEAKER_00: then kind of looking at undermining the rule of law at home.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: A new analysis by the Associated Press
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  SPEAKER_00: shows that the Trump administration
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  SPEAKER_00: is increasingly ignoring the US courts.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the review found that district court judges ruled
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: that the administration was violating an order, in at least 31 lawsuits
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  SPEAKER_00: over a whole wide range of issues, and that, furthermore, there were 250
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: instances of noncompliance
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: that judges have recently highlighted in individual immigration cases.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then in Fulton County, Georgia.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're trying to fend off a subpoena from a federal prosecutor
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  SPEAKER_00: who's trying to get contact information
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  SPEAKER_00: for thousands of poll workers who worked during the 2020 election.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that subpoena issued in April demands that Fulton County
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  SPEAKER_00: provides the rosters of election staff
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  SPEAKER_00: who served in that election, including their identification
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  SPEAKER_00: by name, position, residential and email address
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  SPEAKER_00: and personal phone number.
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  SPEAKER_00: So this is a clear kind of intimidation tactic
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  SPEAKER_00: to future poll workers, and it's potentially a severe
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  SPEAKER_00: violation of privacy of the people who worked at the 2020 election.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Talking about voting more generally.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: We are still in the midst
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  SPEAKER_00: of these kind of redistricting gerrymandering battles.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act last week,
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  SPEAKER_00: which really opened up the possibility of more
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  SPEAKER_00: gerrymandering in southern states to redraw black majority districts,
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  SPEAKER_00: because they also happen to be Democrat voting majority districts.
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  SPEAKER_00: So, firstly, Republican Governor Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers
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  SPEAKER_00: into a special legislative session to consider a plan
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  SPEAKER_00: that could break up the state's single Democratic held
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  SPEAKER_00: US House district, which centers on the majority black city of Memphis.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that move comes
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  SPEAKER_00: after direct pressure from Trump to do this kind of redistricting.
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  SPEAKER_00: This measure was then passed, and two days later, governor Lee
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  SPEAKER_00: signed it into law In Alabama,
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  SPEAKER_00: Republican lawmakers have also advanced legislation
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  SPEAKER_00: to change congressional maps ahead of the midterms.
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  SPEAKER_00: what Alabama did is it's asked a federal court
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  SPEAKER_00: to allow it to return to 2023 congressional maps.
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  SPEAKER_00: There had been previously deemed to be an illegal racial gerrymander.
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  SPEAKER_00: So they're thinking now, actually, can we get away with this previously
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: deemed illegal racial gerrymander given the Supreme Court ruling.
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  SPEAKER_00: Virginia voters, meanwhile, had supported in a referendum
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  SPEAKER_00: a couple of weeks ago, a measure to redistrict Virginia to support
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrats and give Democrats more seats in the midterms.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that would balanced out the additional seats
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  SPEAKER_00: that Florida has just got from its redistricting.
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  SPEAKER_00: But today, the Virginia Supreme Court
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  SPEAKER_00: overturned the Democrats subsequent redistricting measure.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that now means that the Republicans have a clear
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  SPEAKER_00: lead in the gerrymandering efforts over the last year.
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  SPEAKER_00: And finally, I just want to highlight
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  SPEAKER_00: some kind of quite concerning actions that relate to science
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  SPEAKER_00: over the last week.
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  SPEAKER_00: So firstly, according to the Financial Times,
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: the Pentagon has halted approvals for about 165 onshore
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: wind projects on private land, citing national security concerns.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the effective projects include wind farms that are awaiting
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: final sign off, others in the middle of negotiations and some
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: that would typically not have anything to do with the Pentagon.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is clearly in line with Trump's kind of anti green energy agenda,
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  SPEAKER_00: but does seem kind of
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: counterproductive, as we’re in the middle of a fossil
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  SPEAKER_00: fuel crunch from the Strait of Hormuz blockade.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm going to move on to the Food and Drug Administration,
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  so the FDA.
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  SPEAKER_00: So basically,
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  SPEAKER_00: it emerged that the officials at the FDA
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  SPEAKER_00: have blocked the publication of several academic studies
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  SPEAKER_00: supporting the safety of widely used vaccines
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  SPEAKER_00: against either Covid 19 or shingles.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And really, the withdrawal of these studies
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: or refusal to publish them
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  SPEAKER_00: is the latest attempt by the FDA and the Trump administration
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: and RFK Jr to basically limit people's access to the vaccine.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: But in this case,
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: by suppressing information about the safety of those vaccines.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: The very next day,
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: the FDA allowed the marketing of fruit flavored e-cigarettes,
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: and that's the first authorization for non tobacco
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: flavored vaping products.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that again comes amid mounting political pressure
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  SPEAKER_00: on the agency to do that.
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  SPEAKER_00: So earlier in that on the same day, the Wall Street Journal had reported
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: that Donald Trump had rebuked the FDA commissioner Marty Makary
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: over the weekend for not moving quickly enough to
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: to approve those flavored vapes and nicotine products.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, The Guardian today reported how over the past year,
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: the Trump administration
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  SPEAKER_00: has been altering and removing publicly available government data
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  SPEAKER_00: as part of a sweeping campaign targeting so-called woke programs,
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: racial equity, gender ideology and climate extremism,
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  SPEAKER_00: so that censorship is not just affecting data sets, but also
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: a wide swathe of federal resources.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the tools that help the public access data,
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: ongoing surveys, and the agency staff that made it all possible.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that's all I'm going to cover today.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: All the actions are available on Trump Action Tracker info,
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: and I will be back in the week or so.