Mid Day Report: Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Brian Walshe pleads guilty to two charges, lawmakers cast votes to release the Epstein files, and a major glitch in the tech world. Stay in "The Loop" with WBZ NewsRadio.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is WBZ Boston's news radio Rea defining local.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
News right now in Boston. Forty one degrees at eleven o'clock,
but it feels more like twenty eight when you walk outside,
nice and sunny on this Tuesday morning. Good to be
with you. I'm Nicole Davis. Here's what's happening. Watching major
developments in the Brian Walsh case this morning. The Copacate

(00:27):
man is accused of killing his wife Anna, and now
he says he is pleading guilty to two out of
the three charges against him. Walsh now admits to line
to investigators and disintermine of a body, but is still
pleading not guilty to murder. Walsh is accused of killing
his wife on New Year's Day in twenty twenty three,
and then dismembering her body, which has never been found. Recently,

(00:49):
after spending weeks at Bridgewater State Hospital, he was found
competent to stand trial. Opening statements are expected in early
December after Thanksgiving. Jury selections starts today. Meantime, it is
a critical day for lawmakers in the House on Capitol Hill.
They are voting on whether to compel the Justice Department
to release the Epstein files. Now If this passes the
House and Senate, Resident Trump has said he would sign

(01:11):
the bill into law.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Trump last week directed the Justice Department to investigate Epstein's
ties to high profile Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton
and Larry Summers, Clinton's former Treasury secretary and former president
of Harvard, whose conversations with Epstein were part of that release,
announced he's now stepping back from public life, saying I
am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain

(01:33):
they have caused.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
That is ABC's Lionel Moyees. Now, even if this bill
ultimately becomes laws, not clear just how much the public
is going to see. Some lawmakers say they're concerned the
President is going to cite his recently ordered investigations as
a reason to keep some of the files hidden. Meantime,
this hour in Washington, the controversial Crown Prince of Saudi
Arabia set to visit the White House. ABC's Mary Bruce how.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
More on that today's visit a remarkable return for the
Crown Prince, who was own overwhelmingly condemned and shunned on
the global stage after US intelligence concluded Ben Solomon orchestrated
the twenty eighteen murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Kushogi.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
An arrival ceremony is getting underway right now, with the
White House decorated with both Saudi and American flags. Black
tie dinner is planned for the First Lady, the President,
and members from the Saudi delegation later on now, despite
objections from the Pentagon, the President now says the US
will sell fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
An intelligence report warrened China could steal the F thirty
five's technology. Since the Saudis and Chinese have a security partnership,
some Republican lawmakers say the sales should not go through
unless Saudi Arabia normalizes relations with Israel. The President plans
to sell forty eight jets to the Saudis.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Right, a great la. They've got to like us very much.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
During a meeting at the White House today, Trump and
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will discuss the jet
deal and a potential mutual defense agreement. Michael Wallace CBS News.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
So the afternoon we will stay dry out there, So
that's certainly good news. But it's another day where the
wind is just going to howl outside and right now.
It's coming in from the west about fifteen to twenty
miles an hour, gusting to about thirty or so later
on this afternoon, we get a high just about forty
eight degrees, but it's going to feel more like the
thirties for tonight, clear to partly cloudy, low thirty four

(03:17):
in Boston, just above freezing, mid to upper twenties. So
if you're inland away from the coast, then for tomorrow,
looking good, sun in some clouds, not as breezy. We've
got a high in the mid forties, clouds and a
few breaks of sun on Thursday as well, in a
high near forty five. Could have some showers on Friday afternoon. Okay,
our temperatures out there right now looking nice across the board,

(03:39):
really seeing plenty of sun in Beverly right now. It's
forty one degrees in Norwood, forty three west of Boston.
In Fitchburg, it's forty one in Boston at eleven oh five.
It is partly cloudy where it forty two, and it
feels more like thirty one. A wave of hate for
a member of a low key state commission after people
online learn she's trans your wbz's Hyle.

Speaker 5 (04:01):
Shaffle, one of the members of the state's Commission on
the Status of Women, says she has received a hal
of hateful messages in the last couple of days.

Speaker 6 (04:07):
We are living in a time in which hate speech
and hate crimes are being excused.

Speaker 5 (04:14):
Jaselle Bird, who is transgender, is a longtime presence in
the local arts scene, she says. Word of her appointment
to the Commission made the rounds on right wing media
outlets over the weekend. She gave some examples to.

Speaker 6 (04:25):
Look at an entire community and verbatim say that they
will leave this country in a pine box.

Speaker 5 (04:32):
She said. She said death threats and threats of violence,
and that there's been a noticeable uptick of comments during
the second Trump administration.

Speaker 6 (04:38):
All we are simply wanting to do is exist and
thrive in a world that does not want us.

Speaker 5 (04:43):
This all comes in the middle of transgender Awareness Week,
Kyle Shaffle WBZ, Boston's news radio, and.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
In response, the Commission says it will not stand for
any hatred or violence directed at one of its own members.
It goes on to note that Byrd is not the
first transgender member of the council. Former Governor Charlie Baker
appointed Sarah Schnor to the Commission back in twenty sixteen
at eleven of six. A lot of apps and services
we use every day, we're struggling or even down completely
this morning thanks to a tech company that you may

(05:11):
not know that well. Cloud Flare provides security services for websites,
routing all the sites traffic through its own network through
tech cyber attacks, we now can tell you that cloud
Flare services are coming back up. They say they have
fixed the problem. So those apps and services you use
should be on the mend. And it is sniffle season,
but public health experts say over the next few weeks

(05:33):
we could really start to get hit hard by the flu.
The Globe reports the strain of concern here is one
that's been surging in the United Kingdom. It's a subtype
of influenza A, which has been going around for quite
a long time. Doctor Dan Baruch, a Bethisrael Deaconess Medical
Center tells The Globe that what plays out in the
UK usually comes to pass here in Massachusetts about a
month later. Doctors over there calling this a once in

(05:55):
a decade surge. They say young people are especially getting
hit hard. Of now, the state's Public Health Department reports
flucases are on the low side, and tomorrow NASA is
holding a live event to share new images of that
gorgeous interstellar comment that's been making its way through our
Solar System. Discovered in July. The comet is the third
object in the Solar System that's been confirmed to be

(06:16):
from somewhere else in our galaxy. The event, set for
three pm Eastern, will be cast on NASA Plus, the
NASA App, the NASA website, YouTube channel, and Amazon Prime.
I'm Tammy Trihio. You are now in the loop for
news updates throughout the day. Listen to WBZ Radio on
the iHeartRadio app. I'm Nicole Davis WBE, and to Boston's

(06:37):
news radio