Transcript

10.26.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the reading of the
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Speaker 1: Washington Post for this Monday, October 26th. And as you know,
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Speaker 1: Radio Eye is a reading service intended for people who
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Speaker 1: are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult
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Speaker 1: to read printed material. Your reader for today is Rod Brotherton.
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Speaker 1: And today's headlines include this. Cheap water is over. A
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Speaker 1: $ 500 bill shows a Southwest suburban's dilemma. from Queen Creek, Arizona.
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Speaker 1: Ron Rios treasures his backyard pool that makes Arizona's triple-digit
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Speaker 1: summer heat more tolerable. So he was furious to learn
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Speaker 1: that his Phoenix suburb might hike his water bill from
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Speaker 1: $ 130 to, eventually, more than $ 500 a month. City leaders
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Speaker 1: said it was necessary to fund sweeping investments that would
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Speaker 1: secure their water supply for the next 100 years. The
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Speaker 1: Colorado River is shrinking, they said, and they had to adapt.
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Speaker 1: But Rios, the 52-year-old owner of an artificial turf company,
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Speaker 1: didn't want to get water bills on par with the
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Speaker 1: monthly payments on his Suburban. People can't afford that, he said.
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Speaker 1: Give me a break. Queen City and Queen Creek, one
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Speaker 1: of America's fastest-growing cities, shows the challenges facing communities around
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Speaker 1: the Southwest as the Colorado River dwindles and the remaining
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Speaker 1: water gets more expensive. Rios uses an unusual amount of
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Speaker 1: water and his bill is an outlier, but it reflects
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Speaker 1: a broader reality. Mark Skykapek, Queen Creek's Utility Director, put
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Speaker 1: it this way at a recent town meeting. Cheap water
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Speaker 1: is over. To officials, Queen Creek is a model of
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Speaker 1: how to confront the Southwest's water woes head-on. The city
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Speaker 1: expects to ultimately spend $ 730 million to tap into faraway groundwater,
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Speaker 1: insulating themselves from drought for decades to come. But a
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Speaker 1: proposed water resource fee to fund the project has brought
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Speaker 1: furious pushback from the highest water users in town in
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Speaker 1: a conservative place where leaders pride themselves on lowering taxes.
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Speaker 1: It's also renewed long-standing tensions over whether Queen Creek is
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Speaker 1: expanding too fast for its resources, as city officials say
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Speaker 1: they expect their population to nearly double by around 2050.
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Speaker 1: Other southwest metropolises, are facing similar questions about how to
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Speaker 1: keep growing in arid places where water is scarce and
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Speaker 1: getting more so. Arizona's desert cities are in an especially
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Speaker 1: tough position because they hold more junior water rights than
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Speaker 1: other cities that draw on the Colorado River, such as
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Speaker 1: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Diego. Arizona has extensive
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Speaker 1: groundwater reserves to fall back on, but they are considered non-renewable.
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Speaker 1: and carefully guarded. Tapping into new water sources will require
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Speaker 1: more expensive investments and more debates like the one playing
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Speaker 1: out in Queen Creek. The really difficult thing I think
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Speaker 1: that we face is having the political will and consensus
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Speaker 1: around investing for future generations, said Sarah Porter, director of
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Speaker 1: the Keele Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University.
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Speaker 1: Queen Creek officials are worried their cost of water would
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Speaker 1: keep going up as the Colorado River grew unreliable. So
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Speaker 1: they borrowed money to buy a hundred-year supply of groundwater
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Speaker 1: from the Harquahalla Basin to their west and carry it
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Speaker 1: through an existing canal. To pay off the debt, Officials
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Speaker 1: proposed charging residents an extra fee for each 1,000 gallons
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Speaker 1: they used, starting at $ 3. 07 and escalating to an estimated $ 10. 74
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Speaker 1: after several years. They say the plan will pay off
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Speaker 1: the long term by locking the city's water expenses. Other
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Speaker 1: Arizona communities are now looking at buying water from the
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Speaker 1: same basin. At quadruple the rate that Queen Creek negotiated,
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Speaker 1: when it struck the deal several years ago. Everybody is
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Speaker 1: chasing water, Skakopec said. Basins like Harquahalla have their limits
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Speaker 1: and can only be part of a solution. The solution
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Speaker 1: to the Colorado River crisis are going to be piecemeal
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Speaker 1: ones that are cobbled together, said Catherine Sorensen, director of
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Speaker 1: research at the Keele Center for Water Policy. There's just
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Speaker 1: frankly not one big replacement source out there. The Queen
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Speaker 1: Creek Council will vote on the first phase of their
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Speaker 1: water fee in November. In the meantime, officials are trying
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Speaker 1: to sell the plan to the residents. The average single-family
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Speaker 1: home would pay an extra $ 57 or $ 138 a month
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Speaker 1: once the water utility fee is phased in, officials said,
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Speaker 1: depending on the details of their usage. At the town
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Speaker 1: meeting this month, one man grumbled that the cost would
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Speaker 1: balloon and speculated without evidence that someone was getting kickbacks.
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Speaker 1: He whispered to the man seated behind him, It's a
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Speaker 1: complete sham. Rios walked out of the meeting frustrated. It
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Speaker 1: just makes me mad, said his wife, Holly Rios, as
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Speaker 1: they left. Despite their complaints, Rios stood to gain as
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Speaker 1: Arizonans cut back on water because of his synthetic turf company.
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Speaker 1: He's already installed fake grass in most of his backyard,
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Speaker 1: near a sign that read, Welcome to our pool patio,
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Speaker 1: where the neighbors listen to good music whether they want
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Speaker 1: to or not. But Rios still had some real lawn
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Speaker 1: and citrus trees, and he said he uses more than 30,000
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Speaker 1: gallons of water a month, triple the average household. Rios
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Speaker 1: didn't understand why the city just couldn't tap into the
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Speaker 1: groundwater below them. Well, it's strictly regulated by the state,
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Speaker 1: and he was considering spending tens of thousands of dollars
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Speaker 1: to drill his own well. He wondered if Queen Creek
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Speaker 1: could backtrack and sell the water it just purchased at
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Speaker 1: a markup. Sell it to Cave Creek, Rios said, thinking
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Speaker 1: of his own tiny town particularly reliant on the Colorado River. There, panicking,
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Speaker 1: Sell it to them for three times what we bought
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Speaker 1: it for and walk away. The biggest pushback for the
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Speaker 1: water fee came last month at a city council meeting.
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Speaker 1: Some people had orchards and horses, and they used flood
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Speaker 1: irrigation and a water-intensive technique common in farming. They were panicking.
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Speaker 1: By the time the fee was fully phased in, they
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Speaker 1: would be paying tens of thousands a year, some thousands.
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Speaker 1: would pay six figures. One woman said her water bill
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Speaker 1: would be more than her property tax. A man said
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Speaker 1: he might not be able to retire. The cumulative cost
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Speaker 1: for all six years is over $ 83, 000. I'm going to
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Speaker 1: have to sell both my kidneys at that point, said
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Speaker 1: Gary Ehlers, 63, who grows pecans, oranges, limes, plums, and
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Speaker 1: pomegranate trees on his lot. Mayor Julia Wheatley said she
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Speaker 1: didn't take the changes lightly. It's the first thing I
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Speaker 1: think about when my eyes pop open in the morning,
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Speaker 1: she said, and it's the last thing I think about
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Speaker 1: when I go to bed at night. A little over
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Speaker 1: two weeks ago, city officials presented a solution for the
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Speaker 1: irrigators with orchards and animals who would be the hardest hit.
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Speaker 1: The city would transfer flood irrigation to another water provider,
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Speaker 1: meaning it wouldn't be subject to the new fee. The
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Speaker 1: town would still be able to cover its cost. Its
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Speaker 1: water would just go further. But tensions lingered over Queen
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Speaker 1: Creek's broader trajectory. Incorporated in 1989 as an agricultural community
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Speaker 1: of just a couple thousand people, the city's population has
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Speaker 1: grown to about 90,000, and water issues stoked doubts among
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Speaker 1: some longtime residents that the rapid change was good for
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Speaker 1: them and the town. At what point does the town,
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Speaker 1: or any town, turn around and say, particularly in the
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Speaker 1: southwest and the desert, where water is gold, at what
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Speaker 1: point are you going to turn around and say, we
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Speaker 1: can't grow anymore, said Eric Kerr, 65, who was born
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Speaker 1: and raised in the area. All the growth is maybe
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Speaker 1: putting the cart before the horse, echoed his son-in-law, Elias Slover.
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Speaker 1: Queen City officials said, are quick to emphasize that long-time
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Speaker 1: residents won't be subsidizing newcomers. New developments will pay additional
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Speaker 1: one-time water fees, yet the water issue hangs over the
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Speaker 1: town plans. New home building in Queen Creek was held
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Speaker 1: up in recent years because of more stringent requirements to
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Speaker 1: show the area had sufficient water. And when a developer
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Speaker 1: recently sought to turn a dirt lot into a 150-unit
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Speaker 1: gated community, Residents pushed back. Water security must come before
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Speaker 1: continued expansion of residential development, one said at a council meeting.
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Speaker 1: The Queen Creek Planned Community and Commission had unanimously recommended
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Speaker 1: approval of the project, and the lot sat empty for years.
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Speaker 1: But council members say they struggle to approve the plans
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Speaker 1: over so much opposition from constituents. They voted it down.
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Speaker 1: Officials said people have flocked to Queen Creek for much-needed
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Speaker 1: affordable housing. Wheatley said in an interview that the city
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Speaker 1: has plenty of water to keep growing with their big
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Speaker 1: investment and that the officials make sure the growth pays
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Speaker 1: for growth through fees on new developments. Arizona has reduced
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Speaker 1: its water costs use even as it's grown, she added.
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Speaker 1: Even as residentials come in, we're using far less than
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Speaker 1: agriculture did, she said. At the town meeting, some suggested
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Speaker 1: rising water costs might turn people away from the city.
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Speaker 1: Officials had a simple reply. Queen Creek wouldn't be the
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Speaker 1: only place raising its bills. The next story. Lula wins
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Speaker 1: re-election in Brazil and halting Latin America's rightward shift. From
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Speaker 1: Sao Paulo, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in
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Speaker 1: a stunning political comeback, won re-election Sunday over conservative Senator
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Speaker 1: Flavio Bolanzaro, who had pledged to join President Trump's shield
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Speaker 1: of the America's security and political initiative. The result, announced
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Speaker 1: by election authorities, showed voters in Brazil, Latin America's largest democracy,
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Speaker 1: declining to join the region's marked rightward shift in which
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Speaker 1: a wave of conservative candidates won office and built alliances
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Speaker 1: with Trump. Boulanzaro, however, refused to concede defeat. Lula is
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Speaker 1: Brazil's first presidential candidate to finish second in the runoff
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Speaker 1: round and first elected four times. He served two terms,
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Speaker 1: from 2003 through 2011, before returning to office in 2023.
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Speaker 1: With more than 99% of the ballots counted, Lula, who
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Speaker 1: turns 81 on Tuesday, had 51.75% of the vote, electoral
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Speaker 1: authorities reported, compared to 48.25% for Bolanzaro, the 45-year-old son
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Speaker 1: of the former president, Jair Bolanzaro. Jair Bolanzaro is in
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Speaker 1: prison after being convicted of plotting a military coup to
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Speaker 1: remain in power following his 2022 election loss to Lula.
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Speaker 1: The younger Bolanzaro now also refused to concede and said
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Speaker 1: he would seek to annul the election over a court
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Speaker 1: decision to extend voting hours by two more hours. It's
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Speaker 1: impossible to recognize the election results, he told reporters in Brasilia.
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Speaker 1: We're not here to play games. The head of Brazil's
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Speaker 1: electoral court, however, said the decision by a fellow Supreme
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Speaker 1: Court justice to extend the voting hours had not changed
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Speaker 1: the outcome. After the results were announced, Lula said he
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Speaker 1: had defeated denialism and lies, adding that young people had
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Speaker 1: taken to the streets to defend democracy. People went out
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Speaker 1: to vote because we convinced them that their vote was
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Speaker 1: important to protect democracy, he said at the hotel in
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Speaker 1: Sao Paulo. Visibly emotional, Lula added he had learned many lessons,
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Speaker 1: acknowledging deep divisions in the country, and said he would
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Speaker 1: change the way we govern. expanding public participation in digital communication.
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Speaker 1: He said the president must govern for everyone. Lula also
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Speaker 1: vowed to toughen regulations of digital platforms, which he accused
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Speaker 1: of interfering in the election. We cannot have monstrous companies
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Speaker 1: making billions, paying no taxes, and trying to steer the
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Speaker 1: electoral outcome in this country, he said. When Lula is
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Speaker 1: inaugurated on January 5th, He'll be confronted by a right-wing
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Speaker 1: Congress and governors elected in a broader conservative wave. He
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Speaker 1: secured his own re-election in a campaign shaped by fears
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Speaker 1: of Democratic backsliding and the erosion of civil rights. Bolanzaro,
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Speaker 1: who had run on promises to free his father, who
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Speaker 1: was serving a 27-year sentence, to pardon their supporters and
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Speaker 1: impeach the Supreme Court justices who presided over the prosecutions.
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Speaker 1: With the most conservative Congress since the end of Brazil's
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Speaker 1: military dictatorship in 1985, he would have had the votes
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Speaker 1: to change the Constitution. But the prospect of a Bolencaro
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Speaker 1: restoration apparently galvanized voters. His father's presidency from 2019 to
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Speaker 1: 23 was marked by institutional turmoil and environmental setbacks. Herr
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Speaker 1: Bolencaro downplayed the coronavirus pandemic, which killed more than 700,000
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Speaker 1: people in Brazil, attacked democratic institutions, and pursued policies that
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Speaker 1: alienated women, black, and indigenous Brazilians. In the final weeks
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Speaker 1: of the campaign, Lula's supporters took to the streets and
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Speaker 1: mobilized on social media. The result deals a setback to
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Speaker 1: the Trump administration, which has sought to build a conservative,
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Speaker 1: a U.S.-aligned bloc across Latin America with Argentina, Colombia, and others.
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Speaker 1: Trump didn't endorse Flavio Bolanzaro as he did his father
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Speaker 1: in 2022. But his administration took several steps sought by
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Speaker 1: the Bolanzaro family. It imposed tariffs on Brazilian products and
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Speaker 1: sanctions on key officials to pressure the country to drop
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Speaker 1: the prosecution of Jair Bolanzaro and planned this summer to
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Speaker 1: send senior officials to question the integrity of Brazil's elections.
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Speaker 1: After refusing to concede his loss in 2022, the elder
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Speaker 1: Bolanzaro fled to Florida and skipped Lula's inauguration. A week later,
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Speaker 1: his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia in a January
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Speaker 1: 6th-style attack that prosecutors linked to a coup plot aimed
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Speaker 1: at overturning the elections. Voting hours were extended nationwide on
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Speaker 1: Sunday after reports of transportation problems prompted Lula's campaign to
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Speaker 1: seek judicial intervention. Bolanzaro's campaign later filed a similar request,
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Speaker 1: citing rain and flooding in some parts of the country.
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Speaker 1: Electoral Court President Casio Nunez Marquise, appointed by Jair Bolanzaro,
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Speaker 1: did not decide on the request prompting Lula's campaign to
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Speaker 1: appeal to the Supreme Court. Justice Cristiano Zanin, appointed by Lula,
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Speaker 1: then ordered polls to remain open until 7 p.m., two
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Speaker 1: hours later than scheduled, in an unprecedented decision. Given the
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Speaker 1: seriousness of the facts described, Zanin wrote, in a view
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Speaker 1: of clear urgency of the matter, I hereby order that
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Speaker 1: the deadline for voting at all polling stations throughout Brazil
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Speaker 1: be extended by two hours. The extension drew fierce criticism
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Speaker 1: from allies of Flavio Bolanzaro, who called it a judicial coup.
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Speaker 1: Voters reported bus shortages and other transportation problems in the Northeast,
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Speaker 1: Lula's strongest region, and in Sao Paulo, the largest city
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Speaker 1: in the country. Lula won 63% of the Northeast's vote
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Speaker 1: in the first round, compared with 30% for Bolanzaro. Public
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Speaker 1: transportation is required to operate free of charge on Election Day,
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Speaker 1: with cities expected to make their full bus fleets available. Now,
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Speaker 1: Lula wins another term, leading to a deeply polarized country,
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Speaker 1: where voters were frustrated with the government even as economic
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Speaker 1: indicators improved. Record employment did little to ease concerns about
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Speaker 1: the rising cost of living, and Lula struggled to turn
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Speaker 1: his record into a compelling case for re-election. His unexpected
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Speaker 1: second-place finish in the first round vote forced his campaign
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Speaker 1: to overhaul its digital strategy and messaging, from claiming past
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Speaker 1: achievements to making new promises, including debt relief for families
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Speaker 1: and an increase in Brazil's main cash transfer program. His
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Speaker 1: campaign sought to mobilize women voters by highlighting Flavio Bolencaro's
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Speaker 1: records on women's rights. As a state representative in Rio,
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Speaker 1: Bolanzaro voted against extending maternity leave and against disarming police
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Speaker 1: officers accused of domestic violence. Bolanzaro's past remarks, including a
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Speaker 1: 2006 speech in which he called Brazilian women a tourist
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Speaker 1: attraction of our country, drew accusations of misogyny. Bolanzaro initially
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Speaker 1: sought to cast himself as a more moderate version of
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Speaker 1: his father, but later shifted. As Lula opened to lead
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Speaker 1: in early polls, Bolanzaro moved further right, embracing a hard-line
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Speaker 1: agenda on crime that included chemical castration for rapists, reducing
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Speaker 1: the age of criminality responsibility for serious crimes to 14,
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Speaker 1: and building prisons modeled on those of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
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Speaker 1: Lula drew particular strength from lower-income voters and women groups
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Speaker 1: that historically had been resistant to the Bolanzaros. The campaign
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Speaker 1: unfolded amid a deepening debate over the role of technology
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Speaker 1: platforms in elections. Lula's campaign accused Meta of tilting its
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Speaker 1: platforms toward Flavio Bolanzaro, alleging that search results sidelined Progressive Eye.
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Speaker 1: Activists' videos critical of the right-wing challenger were removed without explanation,
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Speaker 1: and pro-Lula posts reached fewer peoples. Meta, the parent company
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Speaker 1: of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, denied favoring Bolanzaro. In a statement,
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Speaker 1: the Silicon Valley tech giant attributed the incidents to technical
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Speaker 1: glitches and errors in its AI safeguards, which affected campaigns
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Speaker 1: across different political spectrums in Brazil's 2026 elections. Lula was
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Speaker 1: born in 1945 in Pernambuco, one of Brazil's most impoverished states.
20:37
Speaker 1: moved to Sao Paulo as a child, and became a
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Speaker 1: metal worker. He rose to prominence as a union leader,
20:44
Speaker 1: helped found the Workers' Party in 1980, and was elected
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Speaker 1: president in 2002. During those first two terms, he harnessed
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Speaker 1: the global commodities boom to expand social programs, lift millions
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Speaker 1: out of poverty, and steer the country through years of
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Speaker 1: economic growth. He left the presidency in 2011 with approval
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Speaker 1: ratings around 85%, and the country in the hands of
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Speaker 1: a protégé, Dilma Rousseff. After Rousseff was impeached and removed
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Speaker 1: from office in 2016, Lula planned to run again. Polls
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Speaker 1: showed him to be the frontrunner for 2018, but in
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Speaker 1: 2017 he was convicted of corruption and barred from running
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Speaker 1: and imprisoned. In his absence, Jair Bolincero, a previously obscure congressman,
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Speaker 1: who styled himself the Trump of the tropics, won the
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Speaker 1: presidency on promises to make Brazil great again. Lula was
21:42
Speaker 1: released after 580 days, and the Supreme Court eventually annulled
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Speaker 1: his convictions, ruling that the judge who oversaw his case
21:51
Speaker 1: had been biased against him and the court lacked jurisdiction.
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Speaker 1: He defeated Jair Bolsonaro in 2022 by the narrowest margin
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Speaker 1: in Brazil's young democracy. Next, behind Europe's fiery protests, discontent
22:09
Speaker 1: fueled by distinct national narratives. In Paris, from a distance,
22:15
Speaker 1: Europe might appear to be on fire as protests and
22:19
Speaker 1: at times destructive rioting convulse the cities from Marseille to
22:22
Speaker 1: Milan and to Madrid and beyond. People across an aging
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Speaker 1: continent are contending with slow economic growth and higher costs
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Speaker 1: for groceries, housing, and fuel, driven up by the U.S.
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Speaker 1: war with Iran. The economic pain is coupled with the
22:39
Speaker 1: angry malaise of a younger generation, disillusioned by the status quo,
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Speaker 1: and disaffected by mounting evidence that they will not live
22:47
Speaker 1: as well as their parents or grandparents. We are sick
22:52
Speaker 1: of putting up with empty promises. Lina Gurera, a French
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Speaker 1: student activist, declared Sunday on national television after another day
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Speaker 1: of nationwide protests. Today, young people everywhere are demanding the
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Speaker 1: right to a future, Guerriere said. She added, we are
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Speaker 1: demanding a break with this old world that has made
23:12
Speaker 1: life difficult not only in France. But behind this European
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Speaker 1: autumn of dissent and discontent, different dynamics are at play
23:22
Speaker 1: in very different countries run by leaders who span the
23:26
Speaker 1: political spectrum, showing that there are no easy solutions, either
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Speaker 1: they're at the ballot box, or in traditional corridors of power.
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Speaker 1: In France, President Emmanuel Macron, an avowed centrist now nearing
23:40
Speaker 1: the end of his second term, is grappling with an
23:43
Speaker 1: eruption of frustration over rising prices, budget cuts, and persistent
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Speaker 1: political paralysis that has yielded seven prime ministers in as
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Speaker 1: many years. In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has Europe's
24:00
Speaker 1: only socialist heavyweight at the moment, has called snap elections,
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Speaker 1: aiming to capitalize on protests over high housing costs to
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Speaker 1: shore up his minority government. Sanchez is portraying his conservative
24:13
Speaker 1: rivals as favoring landlords and seeking to privatize pensions. And
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Speaker 1: on the right in Italy, conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni,
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Speaker 1: who began her career in the youth organization of a
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Speaker 1: neo-fascist political party, is confronting grievances from anti-government protests and
24:32
Speaker 1: truckers pinched by rising energy prices. In an analysis this month,
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Speaker 1: Alberto Alemano, a professor of European law at HEC Paris,
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Speaker 1: noted that the immediate trigger of public unrest varies from
24:47
Speaker 1: one country to another. Education in France and Belgium, housing
24:52
Speaker 1: in Spain and Portugal, public spending in Italy, and accountability
24:56
Speaker 1: demands in Albania What connects them, Alimano wrote, is less
25:03
Speaker 1: a common agenda than a growing sense that the future
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Speaker 1: promises less than the present generation was led to expect.
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Speaker 1: For the European Union, of greatest concern are the protests
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Speaker 1: in France, Italy, and Spain, three major European countries with
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Speaker 1: leaders from the left, center, and right, nations that with
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Speaker 1: Germany form the core political and economic pillars of the
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Speaker 1: European project. Critics such as President Trump and enemies like
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Speaker 1: Russian President Putin portraying the unrest not as a reaction
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Speaker 1: to economic conditions worsened by the wars in Ukraine and
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Speaker 1: Iran that they started, but as evidence of the collapse
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Speaker 1: of Western liberalism as the poisoned result of unfettered migration.
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Speaker 1: By Putin's view in particular, Europe is not experiencing political setbacks,
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Speaker 1: but a deep fracturing of society and failure of democracy itself.
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Speaker 1: The upheaval is also propelling the campaigns of far-right and
26:07
Speaker 1: far-left parties and politicians, including Alternative for Germany, National Rally,
26:14
Speaker 1: and France Unbowed in France and Vox in Spain. According
26:19
Speaker 1: to Alemano, a misleading narrative of pan-European revolt has allowed
26:24
Speaker 1: scenes of unrest to be taken out of their national
26:27
Speaker 1: context and offered as proof that a chaotic Europe is ungovernable.
26:34
Speaker 1: Gerard Ayraud, a former French ambassador to Washington, commented that
26:40
Speaker 1: the crisis brings joy to Moscow, Washington, and others who
26:44
Speaker 1: fan the flames. But its origins are global and shared
26:48
Speaker 1: by liberal democracies. In France, hundreds of thousands of protesters
26:54
Speaker 1: returned to the streets on Saturday, largely marching under the
26:57
Speaker 1: eye of a vast security force deployed by the government
27:01
Speaker 1: to avoid a repeat of the rioting and looting that
27:03
Speaker 1: rattled the country a week earlier. Weeks of protest that
27:08
Speaker 1: began with student grievances over underfunded schools have ballooned to
27:13
Speaker 1: a catch-all display of popular anger supported by labor unions.
27:18
Speaker 1: People are taking aim at issues including energy prices and
27:21
Speaker 1: the failure of Macron's centrist government and administration to lower
27:25
Speaker 1: debt and raised the retirement age over the past decade.
27:30
Speaker 1: Politicians of all stripes in Europe and abroad seized on
27:34
Speaker 1: the images of trash can fires in the streets and
27:37
Speaker 1: shattered storefronts to amplify their own messages as European governments
27:42
Speaker 1: came under scrutiny for failing to contain the disorder. Some
27:47
Speaker 1: nationalist right-wing leaders blamed the looting in France and Italy
27:51
Speaker 1: on immigration, an explosive issue, common rallying cry in upcoming elections.
27:57
Speaker 1: In coming months, voters will go to the polls in Spain, France, Italy,
28:01
Speaker 1: and Poland, where hard-right parties are challenging Europe's embattled centrists.
28:08
Speaker 1: French officials say protests represent a broad cross-section of society.
28:13
Speaker 1: Macron has denounced the targeting of immigrants, while Meloni's conservative
28:18
Speaker 1: government in Italy has leaned into it. Her party and
28:21
Speaker 1: its far-right coalition partner blamed second-generation Italians for vandalism in
28:26
Speaker 1: Milan last week, as Meloni is challenged by rival further
28:31
Speaker 1: to her right ahead of next year's election. European governments
28:36
Speaker 1: rank among the world's biggest spenders on welfare, but after
28:40
Speaker 1: years of expensive global crisis, including the COVID pandemic and
28:45
Speaker 1: Russia's war in Ukraine, Several nations are wrestling with anemic
28:49
Speaker 1: economic growth, stagnant wages, and widening inequality between the rich
28:54
Speaker 1: and the poor. The challenges appear most acute in France,
28:59
Speaker 1: where the state is straining under a pile of debt
29:02
Speaker 1: and trying to cut public spending ahead of a spring
29:05
Speaker 1: presidential election. Analysts expect that the riots will boost frontrunner
29:10
Speaker 1: Marine Le Pen and her nationalist, Euroskeptic anti-immigrant platform. Le
29:15
Speaker 1: Pen formerly launched her campaign on Sunday, promising a renaissance
29:21
Speaker 1: for France and zero tolerance policies. We are not living
29:25
Speaker 1: through the end of the world, but the end of
29:28
Speaker 1: a world, their world, she told a convention of her
29:31
Speaker 1: far-right National Rally Party. Debt payments now consume a mammoth
29:37
Speaker 1: share of French state spending and could soon overtake education
29:41
Speaker 1: or defense. The government spent heavily on aid for businesses
29:44
Speaker 1: and civilians during a pandemic and the energy crisis and
29:48
Speaker 1: is now trying to raise defense spending and curb aspects
29:51
Speaker 1: of the social welfare system. French officials have warned the
29:56
Speaker 1: polarization is showing its capacity to turn violent after a
30:00
Speaker 1: shooting of traps west of France, where a gunman killed
30:03
Speaker 1: a young black man and shot a 12-year-old girl multiple times.
30:07
Speaker 1: Despite the attention on France, many of the underlying pressures
30:12
Speaker 1: are visible elsewhere in Europe. Strained public finances, stubborn inflation,
30:17
Speaker 1: and politically constrained governments, according to Jess Middleton, senior Europe
30:22
Speaker 1: analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a risk intelligence firm. In Italy
30:28
Speaker 1: this weekend, Footage showed a group of protesters in Milan
30:33
Speaker 1: dumping manure and burning a symbolic electricity bill outside the
30:37
Speaker 1: offices of the energy regulator. Miloni's government deployed drones and
30:43
Speaker 1: 500 soldiers to contain fresh protests. A week after, a
30:47
Speaker 1: rally spiraled into looters ransacking boutiques in downtown Milan and
30:52
Speaker 1: clashing with police. Italy has just approved new anti-rioting rules
30:58
Speaker 1: make it easier to prosecute minors and hold their parents
31:01
Speaker 1: financially liable for vandalism. People also took to the streets
31:05
Speaker 1: in Florence, Turin, and Rome on Saturday. The protests in
31:11
Speaker 1: Italy first gained traction after truck drivers and farmers blockaded
31:15
Speaker 1: roads in the south of the country, lamenting high fuel prices.
31:20
Speaker 1: Demonstrators cite a range of grievances, some echoing slogans in France,
31:25
Speaker 1: including students' concerns. Some crowds marching Saturday in Milan voiced
31:31
Speaker 1: solidarity with Palestinians. Others in Rome protested increased Italian military spending.
31:38
Speaker 1: A major Italian union has called for a strike on
31:41
Speaker 1: November 20th over wages and public services. In Spain, thousands
31:48
Speaker 1: of people held relatively calm protests in recent weeks over
31:51
Speaker 1: rising housing costs nationwide, prompting Sanchez to the leftist leader
31:57
Speaker 1: of a minority government, to gamble on early elections set
32:01
Speaker 1: for next month. Some protesters have camped out in Sol
32:05
Speaker 1: Square in Madrid's city center, calling on the government to
32:08
Speaker 1: take action to limit rent prices and ensure more affordable housing.
32:14
Speaker 1: In Barcelona, hundreds of young people took to the streets Saturday,
32:19
Speaker 1: urging protests via social media and text apps, including TikTok
32:24
Speaker 1: and WhatsApp. The demonstration led to looting and skirmishes with police.
32:30
Speaker 1: Authorities detained 128 people, mostly minors. Catalan Interior Minister Nuria
32:37
Speaker 1: Pallon said looters had turned up who had nothing to
32:41
Speaker 1: do with the right to protest. Public outcry over high
32:45
Speaker 1: prices and low salaries has prompted trade unions to organize
32:49
Speaker 1: a general strike on November 11th before the start of
32:53
Speaker 1: election campaigning. the first general strike in Spain in more
32:58
Speaker 1: than a decade. Oliver Fayre, head of the centrist left
33:03
Speaker 1: Socialist Party in France, noted that the protests were not
33:06
Speaker 1: a monolith and that his country was not alone. Look
33:10
Speaker 1: at what's happening in other European countries. You can see
33:14
Speaker 1: clearly that the youth rising up all over, Fayre said
33:18
Speaker 1: on a Sunday morning television show. It is a formidable moment,
33:22
Speaker 1: Fayre said, and I hope We actually listen to them. Next,
33:28
Speaker 1: these Trump voters change their minds and are key to
33:32
Speaker 1: the midterms. The midterm campaign is being fought in areas
33:37
Speaker 1: President Trump carried in the last election and largely among
33:41
Speaker 1: voters who have supported him in the past but have
33:43
Speaker 1: soured on the presidency. Rick Sebring, resident of rural Black Creek, Georgia,
33:49
Speaker 1: is one of them. He was among the Americans drawn
33:52
Speaker 1: to Trump when he emerged as a political outsider running
33:55
Speaker 1: for president in 2015 and supported him in each election since.
34:01
Speaker 1: Now he says he jokes with his son and daughter,
34:03
Speaker 1: who are 25 and 18, that he needs a hat
34:06
Speaker 1: that reads, I fell for it three times. Trump's not
34:10
Speaker 1: the same guy he was before, said Sebring, who's 66,
34:14
Speaker 1: who explained that he no longer believes the president is
34:17
Speaker 1: acting with ordinary Americans' best interests at heart. It's kind
34:21
Speaker 1: of like if your wife is screwing the guy next door,
34:25
Speaker 1: Sebring said. You know, you're kind of butthurt about it.
34:30
Speaker 1: He's furious about the war against Iran that Trump started
34:33
Speaker 1: after pledging to avoid new wars in the Middle East.
34:36
Speaker 1: Trump should tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the
34:40
Speaker 1: president endorsed for re-election last week, to go to hell,
34:43
Speaker 1: Sebring said, and cut off all aid to Israel and Ukraine.
34:48
Speaker 1: He is bothered that Trump tried to stop the release
34:51
Speaker 1: of the Epstein files. He's disappointed that the government-slashing Doge program,
34:57
Speaker 1: which Trump appointed Elon Musk to run, was ultimately brought
35:00
Speaker 1: to a halt. Sebring, who responded to the most recent
35:04
Speaker 1: Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, agreed to a follow-up interview as
35:11
Speaker 1: part of a small but potentially crucial slice of this
35:14
Speaker 1: year's electorate. About one in five registered voters, who cast
35:18
Speaker 1: their ballots for Trump in 2024, 22%, now disapprove the
35:23
Speaker 1: job he's doing. They make up about 8% of the electorate.
35:29
Speaker 1: They're not natural Democratic voters. The vast majority identifies Republicans
35:35
Speaker 1: are independents. But this year, many of them, like Sebring,
35:39
Speaker 1: says they will cast a vote for the opposing party.
35:43
Speaker 1: Republicans have hoped to woo some of them back. If
35:46
Speaker 1: that fails, however, the election could become a Democratic route,
35:50
Speaker 1: both partisan and nonpartisan analysts say. The voters who have
35:55
Speaker 1: turned against Trump are a mix of longtime, once loyal
35:58
Speaker 1: supporters and those who joined his coalition for the first
36:01
Speaker 1: time in 2024. They're more divided than those who cast
36:06
Speaker 1: ballots for Kamala Harris about who should control Congress next year,
36:11
Speaker 1: according to the polls. Nearly all of the people who
36:14
Speaker 1: voted for Harris in 2024, 99%, say they would like
36:18
Speaker 1: to see the Congress controlled by Democrats to act as
36:21
Speaker 1: a check on Trump, the poll found. Among voters who
36:25
Speaker 1: sided with Trump in 2024, a large majority do say
36:29
Speaker 1: they would prefer a Republican Congress to support Trump's agenda,
36:34
Speaker 1: but about one in seven say they favor Democratic control.
36:38
Speaker 1: To date, Sebring has voted for one Democrat in his life,
36:42
Speaker 1: former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, who ran in 1998 on
36:48
Speaker 1: bringing the lottery to the state, but said that's going
36:52
Speaker 1: to change in November when he plans to vote for
36:54
Speaker 1: Senator John Ossoff, the Democrat from Georgia. Others say they'll
36:59
Speaker 1: split the ticket or stay home. Carrie Bacon, a 73-year-old
37:04
Speaker 1: retired nurse in Belfast, Maine, voted for Trump in the
37:07
Speaker 1: past because she didn't want to see his Democratic challengers
37:10
Speaker 1: win the presidency. Now, she refers to him as the
37:14
Speaker 1: bozo that's currently in the White House, saying he's after
37:18
Speaker 1: his own aggrandizement and making as much money on the
37:21
Speaker 1: side as he can. Bacon, who responded to a Washington
37:26
Speaker 1: Post-Schar school poll of her state, said she will vote
37:29
Speaker 1: for Susan Collins, the Republican of Maine, in the Senate
37:33
Speaker 1: because the longtime incumbent has shown she can act independently
37:37
Speaker 1: of her party. but she will not support the Republican
37:40
Speaker 1: running for her congressional district, former Maine Governor Paul LePage.
37:46
Speaker 1: Russell Clemens, a 61-year-old retiree and three-time Trump voter from Gloucester, Virginia,
37:52
Speaker 1: who responded to the post-Schar School poll in his state,
37:56
Speaker 1: said he soured on the president after watching how he
37:59
Speaker 1: handled the Iran war. Even so, Clemens said, he could
38:04
Speaker 1: go back to 2024. He would still not vote for
38:08
Speaker 1: the Democrat. He isn't sure that he'll vote in this
38:12
Speaker 1: year's midterm elections, and he suspects that if Democrats take
38:16
Speaker 1: back Congress, they'll prioritize impeaching Trump over legislating. I don't
38:23
Speaker 1: see where that serves any purpose, Clement said. He's going
38:27
Speaker 1: to be gone in two years anyway. Jill Vandermolen A
38:32
Speaker 1: 56-year-old teacher in Minamie Falls, Wisconsin, who responded to the
38:37
Speaker 1: post-ABC News Ipsos poll, said she voted for Trump three times,
38:42
Speaker 1: as the lesser of two evils, because she had family
38:45
Speaker 1: members who were excited about his reputation as a businessman. She, too,
38:50
Speaker 1: says she may not vote this year. Everything costs more money,
38:55
Speaker 1: she said. As for Trump, she said that she does
38:59
Speaker 1: not have faith in him at all. The poll found
39:03
Speaker 1: that 76% of Trump voters nationwide who still approve of
39:07
Speaker 1: the president's performance either were certain to vote or have
39:11
Speaker 1: already done so. By contrast, among Trump voters who now
39:15
Speaker 1: disapprove of them, just 53% say they are either certain
39:20
Speaker 1: to vote or already have. Historically, one of the strongest
39:24
Speaker 1: predictors of how a person will vote in midterm elections
39:28
Speaker 1: is their approval or disapproval of the president's job performance.
39:32
Speaker 1: That's because midterm elections typically act as a referendum on
39:36
Speaker 1: the party in the White House. The challenge for Republicans
39:41
Speaker 1: is that Trump's approval, which was already low earlier this year,
39:45
Speaker 1: has continued to drop as the midterm elections approach. His
39:49
Speaker 1: approval was 39% among registered voters in the post-poll in February,
39:54
Speaker 1: 37% in July, and 33% in the current survey. That decline,
40:01
Speaker 1: which has been seen in many other surveys as well,
40:04
Speaker 1: has largely come among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. Nearly all
40:09
Speaker 1: Democrats already disapproved of him. Trump's approval rating is significantly
40:15
Speaker 1: lower than it was in the midterm election of his
40:17
Speaker 1: first term in 2018. when Democrats made sizable gains. His
40:23
Speaker 1: standing rivals, the lows set by President Harry S. Truman
40:27
Speaker 1: in 1946 and George W. Bush in 2006, those parties
40:32
Speaker 1: suffered major defeats. Not all Trump voters who have soured
40:36
Speaker 1: on him are going to punish Republicans in the midterms. However,
40:40
Speaker 1: seeing the Democrats is a worse option. Efforts to motivate
40:44
Speaker 1: those voters by highlighting issues on which they dislike Democrats
40:49
Speaker 1: have been at the core of Trump's campaign rallies all month.
40:53
Speaker 1: Amy Reese, 42, of Victoria, Virginia, said she has never
40:58
Speaker 1: seen the economy this bad ever, and it's scary. She
41:02
Speaker 1: has supported Trump in each election and would again, but
41:06
Speaker 1: more recently has been horrified when she sees him on TV,
41:10
Speaker 1: and he's like, oh, the economy is so good. Last month,
41:15
Speaker 1: her family's electric bill was almost $ 700. The cost she's
41:22
Speaker 1: paying each month for insulin as a type 1 diabetic
41:26
Speaker 1: has more than doubled. Her husband drives for a living
41:29
Speaker 1: selling wholesale to convenience stores. And if Trump doesn't do
41:33
Speaker 1: something quickly about gas prices, he is going to put
41:38
Speaker 1: a lot of small business owners out of business, and
41:41
Speaker 1: my husband is one of them, she said. Trump promised $ 5, 000
41:46
Speaker 1: checks if Republicans win the elections aren't enough to make
41:50
Speaker 1: up for the hardship people have faced this year. And besides,
41:53
Speaker 1: Reese said, those checks would never get approved by Congress.
41:57
Speaker 1: But Reese will vote Republican in the midterm, she says,
42:01
Speaker 1: explaining that she will never vote for a Democrat, primarily
42:05
Speaker 1: because she opposes abortion. Dana Besson, 76, of Highland, Michigan,
42:11
Speaker 1: also voted for Trump three times despite not having a
42:14
Speaker 1: high opinion of him. The retired engineering technician disapproves of
42:19
Speaker 1: most everything the president has done during his second term,
42:23
Speaker 1: particularly his trade policy. Besson said, however, that he'll vote
42:28
Speaker 1: for Republicans in the midterms. They're not Trump, he said.
42:34
Speaker 1: Now next for something different, a Mexico City taco stand
42:38
Speaker 1: just won a Michelin star. it split the joint in two.
42:45
Speaker 1: The hiss of grilling meat, the chatter of patrons, the
42:48
Speaker 1: thrum of the street, El Califa de Leon is a
42:53
Speaker 1: noisy place. But heads nonetheless turned on a recent evening
42:57
Speaker 1: when an electric drill whirred into life and punctured one
43:01
Speaker 1: of the taco stand's tiled walls. One of the most
43:04
Speaker 1: famous taquerias in this taco crazy town was hanging its
43:08
Speaker 1: latest plaque from the Michelin Guide. the French arbiter of
43:12
Speaker 1: the world's best restaurants. But this one was different from
43:15
Speaker 1: the others awarded to this blue-collar taco stand in Mexico
43:19
Speaker 1: City's Colonia San Rafael. It was starless. In the rarefied
43:25
Speaker 1: domain of Michelin-starred restaurants, losing the honor is often tantamount
43:30
Speaker 1: to personal tragedy and professional disgrace. Some restaurants have fallen
43:35
Speaker 1: into depression. Others have resorted to litigation. One chef, said
43:40
Speaker 1: it was worse than losing his parents. Just the fear
43:43
Speaker 1: of it might have driven another to suicide. Mario Hernandez, 69,
43:50
Speaker 1: owner of La Califa, the first taqueria to win the
43:53
Speaker 1: coveted designation, watched as the new plaque, signifying only inclusion
43:58
Speaker 1: in the Michelin Guide, not a star, was hammered into
44:02
Speaker 1: the wall. Then he looked away. Well, they took the
44:07
Speaker 1: star away from us, he said. but at least we
44:09
Speaker 1: have some recognition. In a city with more than 11,000
44:14
Speaker 1: intensely competitive taquerias, the question of who merits credit for
44:20
Speaker 1: El Califa's de Leon's success has been a matter of
44:23
Speaker 1: public debate since Michelin deigned its star-worthy in 2024. The
44:29
Speaker 1: conversation has also expanded to encompass the broader themes of overtourism,
44:35
Speaker 1: labor relations, and class. Months after El Califa won its star,
44:41
Speaker 1: the Taqueria's longtime grillmaster, Arturo Rivera, quit the restaurant and
44:46
Speaker 1: a private dispute went public. Rivera, who's 58 and a
44:51
Speaker 1: former taxi driver with a primary school education, said the
44:55
Speaker 1: Taqueria hadn't given him the recognition he deserves. Hernandez said
45:00
Speaker 1: the fame had gone to Rivera's head. In May, Michelin
45:04
Speaker 1: took away El Califa star and gave one to Once Meal,
45:09
Speaker 1: a fine dining taqueria in the posh neighborhood of Lomas
45:13
Speaker 1: de Chapultepec. The demotion has raised questions in this city's
45:18
Speaker 1: insular taco world about not only what had gone wrong
45:23
Speaker 1: at El Califa, but also which Mexico, rich or poor,
45:27
Speaker 1: should control the narrative of the taco, that most egalitarian
45:31
Speaker 1: of foods. Michelin Guide officials declined an interview request. Rivera
45:38
Speaker 1: has now opened a taco joint of his own. Taco
45:40
Speaker 1: Versailles lies less than a mile from El Califa, placing
45:45
Speaker 1: them in direct competition for bellies and stars. Rivera and Hernandez,
45:52
Speaker 1: each speaking over the den of its own taqueria, offered
45:56
Speaker 1: fundamentally different accounts of how El Califa first rose to
46:00
Speaker 1: international prominence and who deserved the credit and what gives
46:03
Speaker 1: a taco star quality? It came from me, from my
46:07
Speaker 1: own creation, Rivera said. It could have been anyone behind
46:12
Speaker 1: the grill, Hernandez said. The truth, whatever it may be,
46:17
Speaker 1: was a curl of smoke rising from the grill and vanishing.
46:22
Speaker 1: El Califa de Leon occupies little more than a cubbyhole
46:26
Speaker 1: wedge between a discount clothing store and a pharmacy that
46:30
Speaker 1: boasts of offering the same but cheaper For most of
46:35
Speaker 1: its 60-year history, the taqueria was an obscure neighborhood spot,
46:40
Speaker 1: the preferred lunch spot to a cadre of passersby, fellow vendors,
46:45
Speaker 1: and politicians working within walking distance. The menu includes four
46:50
Speaker 1: tacos and only four tacos. Each is as spartan as
46:55
Speaker 1: the taqueria itself, nothing but a corn tortilla and grilled meat,
47:00
Speaker 1: pork chop, rib, steak, or thinly sliced beef. The sensation
47:06
Speaker 1: of biting into one is elemental. It's both an evolution
47:10
Speaker 1: and devolution of the taco. To Michelin's anonymous judges, they
47:15
Speaker 1: were transcendent. They lauded El Khalifa's technical ability, standards, and consistency.
47:22
Speaker 1: In the morning or at night, during the busy dining hours,
47:26
Speaker 1: the judges commented, the quality remained the same on every visit.
47:32
Speaker 1: Within Mexico City culinary circles, the award came as a shock.
47:37
Speaker 1: The guide had recognized street food from all over the world,
47:40
Speaker 1: but never in Mexico. More surprising, several critics said, it
47:45
Speaker 1: was El Califa had been the one selected. It was
47:49
Speaker 1: never thought to be a destination, food writer Natalie De
47:52
Speaker 1: La Rosa said. It was a conversation. Why this place?
47:57
Speaker 1: Why this taco? the surprise extended to El Califa's kitchen,
48:03
Speaker 1: where Rivera, who was 58, had toiled for more than
48:07
Speaker 1: 20 years. Born one of nine in a poor family,
48:12
Speaker 1: he began his working life as a child, carrying sacks
48:14
Speaker 1: of vegetables and fruit in a Mexico City street market.
48:19
Speaker 1: He had learned to cook from his mother, who wanted
48:21
Speaker 1: her children to be self-sufficient, but he never imagined a
48:24
Speaker 1: career in the kitchen. He instead found work first as
48:28
Speaker 1: a carpenter, and then as a taxi driver. Only on
48:32
Speaker 1: January 22, 2001, did he get his first job in
48:37
Speaker 1: a kitchen at El Califa. Leave him there, he said
48:41
Speaker 1: one happy eater, Gus, Califa's manager. Whatever you do, don't
48:46
Speaker 1: move him. And they didn't. For the next 23 years,
48:52
Speaker 1: Riviera was behind the grill nearly every day, earning about
48:56
Speaker 1: $ 400 a month. He developed his own technique, rubbing what
49:01
Speaker 1: he called his magic powder into the meat. But he
49:04
Speaker 1: never considered himself a chef, not until Michelin came calling.
49:09
Speaker 1: Rivera had never heard of the guide. At first, he
49:13
Speaker 1: thought he'd won some tires. When he learned what it meant,
49:17
Speaker 1: he said the recognition was an awakening. the culmination of
49:21
Speaker 1: two decades of careful craft. Now, Rivera said, I am
49:26
Speaker 1: a chef. Hernandez disagreed. To the califa owner, who'd spent
49:32
Speaker 1: more than four decades stewarding the taqueria, its success was
49:37
Speaker 1: due to concept, history, And simplicity, not the person who
49:42
Speaker 1: happened to be cooking. When his father, Juan Hernandez Gonzalez,
49:47
Speaker 1: founded the taqueria in 1968, it served only steak tacos.
49:54
Speaker 1: But they weren't just any steak tacos. My father was
49:58
Speaker 1: the world's first loco who had the idea to make
50:02
Speaker 1: a filet taco, Hernandez claimed. He worked his entire, entire
50:07
Speaker 1: life with meat. Three decades later came the next evolution,
50:11
Speaker 1: the rib tacos, then the pork chop. And finally, 15
50:17
Speaker 1: years ago, after his wife had counseled him on his
50:20
Speaker 1: need to evolve the menu, Hernandez added a galnera taco,
50:26
Speaker 1: packed with thinly sliced beef, which he tested at El
50:30
Speaker 1: Merson Tarino, his other restaurant. The first ingredient is the
50:36
Speaker 1: quality of the meat, then it's cut. Hernandez said. The
50:40
Speaker 1: third point is how it's grilled, then the salsas, and
50:43
Speaker 1: the fifth ingredient is the magic that the customer brings
50:47
Speaker 1: to it. To Hernandez, the tacos were his family's story,
50:52
Speaker 1: a legacy he intended to pass down to his sons
50:55
Speaker 1: who would pass it down to his grandsons. When it
50:58
Speaker 1: earned the star, he was dumbfounded. Soon, hundreds of people,
51:03
Speaker 1: many of them foreign, were lining up outside. Every day
51:07
Speaker 1: brought more, more success than he had ever imagined. And
51:12
Speaker 1: then came the drama. Neighboring vendors, whose businesses were disrupted
51:19
Speaker 1: by the lines, complained to the city government. An American
51:22
Speaker 1: company convinced Hernandez to serve El Califa tacos at pop-up
51:28
Speaker 1: restaurants in Dallas. The venture plagued by long lines and
51:32
Speaker 1: exorbitant prices. The Texas reviewers declared it a disaster. and
51:37
Speaker 1: the worst dining experience ever. It made fools of everyone.
51:42
Speaker 1: The critics are now lampooning the El Califa offshoot in
51:45
Speaker 1: New York City, which opened in August, over the expense
51:50
Speaker 1: of its $ 19 tacos. Fame came too quickly, said Jose Arralat,
51:57
Speaker 1: Texas Monthly's taco editor. They didn't know how to handle it.
52:02
Speaker 1: Hernandez said his tacos were worth the prices. and dismissed
52:06
Speaker 1: the criticism as jealousy. The only one changed by fame,
52:10
Speaker 1: he said, was his grill master. Hernandez accused Rivera of
52:15
Speaker 1: acting like a rock star. If he's really a chef,
52:20
Speaker 1: let's invite him to prepare whatever number of meals, Hernandez says,
52:25
Speaker 1: and let's see if this guy really has the ability
52:28
Speaker 1: to be able to prove himself as a certified chef.
52:32
Speaker 1: In September of 2024, Rivera, unable to tolerate what he
52:37
Speaker 1: viewed as a lack of respect, quit. Neither he nor
52:41
Speaker 1: the taqueria deserved all of the credit, he said. It
52:44
Speaker 1: had been a marriage of concept, talent, and experience. The
52:48
Speaker 1: award was both to the taqueria and the chef, Rivera said.
52:52
Speaker 1: It was 50-50. But when Rivera heard this year that
52:56
Speaker 1: Michelin had taken away Al Khalifa's star, he felt vindicated.
53:01
Speaker 1: I am still at the top, he said. That was
53:04
Speaker 1: how he felt on a recent Thursday at Tacos Versailles,
53:09
Speaker 1: behind the grill under a sign, Chef Arturo Rivera, with
53:14
Speaker 1: a Michelin star. As he laid out the fillets into
53:17
Speaker 1: the grill, he could see the tables were already beginning
53:20
Speaker 1: to fill and the orders were coming in fast. A
53:24
Speaker 1: waiter approached. He murmured to Rivera, There's a new order here, Chef.
53:31
Speaker 1: And next, voters' rising ire at corruption plays central role
53:36
Speaker 1: in a tight Texas Senate race. Americans' concern with what
53:42
Speaker 1: they view as government corruption is defining midterm races across
53:46
Speaker 1: the country, as voters from both parties consistently rank the
53:49
Speaker 1: issue second only to the economy and high prices. Corruption
53:54
Speaker 1: has particularly animated a crucial Senate battleground of Texas. where
53:59
Speaker 1: Republicans are scrambling to prevent the first Senate Democratic victory
54:02
Speaker 1: since 1988, as State Representative James Tallarico, the Democrat, pounds
54:08
Speaker 1: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton with tens of millions of
54:12
Speaker 1: dollars in advertising calling him corrupt. I'm hopeful this November
54:17
Speaker 1: will be a wake-up call so we can get back
54:20
Speaker 1: to the business of electing conservative, qualified candidates of good character,
54:24
Speaker 1: said John Huffman, a Republican and former mayor of the
54:28
Speaker 1: affluent conservative Dallas suburb of South Lake. He said he
54:31
Speaker 1: left the Senate line on his ballot blank when he
54:34
Speaker 1: voted early. Sarah Chamberlain, a strategist who works with moderate
54:38
Speaker 1: Republican lawmakers as president of the Republican Main Street Partnership,
54:43
Speaker 1: said she saw voters across the ideological spectrum begin listing
54:47
Speaker 1: corruption as their number one or two issue in focus
54:50
Speaker 1: groups that September, expressing anger. and what they see as
54:54
Speaker 1: politicians enriching themselves. Among MAGA voters, affordability and corruption are
55:00
Speaker 1: neck and neck these days, she said. They're just mad
55:03
Speaker 1: about it in general. A Fox News poll in October
55:08
Speaker 1: found 88% of registered voters extremely or very concerned about
55:12
Speaker 1: government corruption. That was even higher than the 85% of
55:16
Speaker 1: voters who said they were very or extremely concerned about prices.
55:20
Speaker 1: And while a significant chunk of voters say both parties
55:23
Speaker 1: are corrupt, Republicans appear to be taking more of the heat.
55:28
Speaker 1: Nearly half of registered voters in the September AP NORC
55:32
Speaker 1: poll said corrupt describes Republicans extremely or very well, compared
55:37
Speaker 1: with 37% saying the same of Democrats. The data has
55:42
Speaker 1: flouted the conventional wisdom that voters had come to expect
55:45
Speaker 1: a level of self-dealing among politicians and that the issue
55:49
Speaker 1: would not resonate President Trump's rapidly rising net worth while
55:53
Speaker 1: in office, plus a bevy of bad headlines, including a
55:57
Speaker 1: Russian oligarch bankrolling Trump's son's wedding party, may have collided
56:02
Speaker 1: with Americans' dour feelings on their own economic situation to
56:05
Speaker 1: elevate the wish issue, analysts said. And Trump said his
56:09
Speaker 1: son repaid the wedding expenses. Democrats have also been inundating
56:13
Speaker 1: voters with negative political ads across the map prosecuting the issue.
56:17
Speaker 1: Corruption ads were the second most common topic after the economy,
56:20
Speaker 1: according to a Washington Post review, of more than 8,000
56:24
Speaker 1: political ads aired during the midterms. Democrats had poured $ 306
56:30
Speaker 1: million into those ethics-focused ads as of earlier this month,
56:36
Speaker 1: significantly more than the Republicans, who spent $ 187 million, according
56:41
Speaker 1: to ad impact data. Tallarico's campaign has spent more money
56:46
Speaker 1: on corruption-related ads than any other candidate and outside groups
56:50
Speaker 1: across all competitive congressional and gubernatorial races, spending $ 59 million
56:56
Speaker 1: on these ads that aired around 182,000 times. Paxton's past
57:05
Speaker 1: makes him a rich target for the strategy. He was
57:08
Speaker 1: impeached by the GOP-controlled State House in 2023 on bribery
57:12
Speaker 1: and abuse of power charges, but was acquitted. by the
57:16
Speaker 1: state Senate, and he has denied wrongdoing. The corruption attacks
57:20
Speaker 1: in Texas predate the general election. During the bitter Republican
57:25
Speaker 1: primary between Paxton and Senator John Cronin, Cronin and his
57:29
Speaker 1: allies rebranded Paxton as Crooked Ken and aired ads mentioning
57:33
Speaker 1: his alleged affairs, mortgage fraud, and an accusation that he
57:37
Speaker 1: took a Montblanc pen from a lawyer, which Paxton said
57:40
Speaker 1: he had picked up by mistake. Crooked Ken is corrupt
57:43
Speaker 1: to his core, one Cronin-funded ad said, saying his net
57:47
Speaker 1: worth has risen dramatically since taking office. And after emerging
57:52
Speaker 1: from the primary victorious, Tallarico and his allies began calling
57:57
Speaker 1: Paxton the most corrupt politician in Texas. Tonya Gerloff, a
58:02
Speaker 1: 67-year-old retiree living in Victoria, Texas, attended a Paxton rally
58:06
Speaker 1: in Mission Valley last week and supports his message on
58:08
Speaker 1: cutting taxes. Jaroff said she has questions about Trump, but
58:13
Speaker 1: takes politicians' corruption as a given. Instead of looking for
58:16
Speaker 1: ethical candidates, she votes strategically, looking for the candidate closest
58:20
Speaker 1: to her values, and she said, I vote for the
58:24
Speaker 1: lesser of two evils, she said. And this concludes the
58:28
Speaker 1: reading of the Washington Post for today, Monday, October 26th.
58:32
Speaker 1: Your reader has been Rod Brotherton. If you have any questions, comments,
58:37
Speaker 1: please call us at 859-422-6390. Thank you for listening, and
58:42
Speaker 1: now please stay tuned for continued programming right here on
58:47
Speaker 1: Radio Off.