8.14.25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the reading of The New York Times four Thursday,
August fourteenth, twenty twenty five. As a reminder, RADIOI is
a reading service intended for people who are blind or
have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
Your reader for today is Scott Johnson. Will begin today

(00:23):
with the Merriam Webster Word of the day, and today's
word is immutable. Immutable. Immutable is a formal adjective used
to describe something that is unable to be changed. It
is hardly an immutable fact that cats and dogs are

(00:43):
sworn enemies. Over the years, our golden retriever has grown
both fond and protective of her tabby housemate. Today's front
page headlines from the national print edition of The New
York Times. Europe's leaders say Trump back goals on Ukraine
planned for Russia talks. Zelensky must be part of any

(01:05):
peace deal with Putin. Allies insist in mayor race. Candidates
hit a nerve rents Cuomo jabs Mamdani on apartment cost,
tranquil neighborhood. Then Zuckerberg came a tech mogul, buys up
homes to assemble his compound. New York city sees nosedive

(01:27):
in job growth to cool or Not swings political as
France broils and King of Indian street food gets a
warning and the people rebel will begin with the story
headlined Europe's leaders say they've agreed with Trump on a
strategy for Russia talks. It's by Jim Tankersley, reporting from Berlin.

(01:53):
European leaders said on Wednesday that they had hammered out
a strategy with President Trump for his scheduled meeting with
President Vladimir V Putin of Russia on Friday in Alaska
to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, including any insistence
that any peace plan must start with a ceasefire and
not be negotiated without Ukraine at the table. The Transatlantic

(02:17):
discussions on Wednesday were a last minute effort by European
leaders to close ranks with mister Trump ahead of the
Friday meeting. They came in a video call arranged by
Chancellor Friedrich Mayers of Germany. It included mister Trump, Vice
President j d Vance, President Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine, and
several other European leaders with strong relationships with mister Trump,

(02:40):
including Prime Minister Georgia Maloney of Italy. Mister Zelenski traveled
to Berlin for the meeting and brief reporters afterwards with
mister Mahris. We had a truly exceptionally constructive and good
conversation with the President, mister Mehris told reporters in brief remarks.
There is hope for movement. There is hope for peace

(03:02):
in Ukraine. He added. Mister Trump is famously mercurial, including
on the issue of Ukraine. At several points in recent weeks,
his European allies have believed they were succeeding in bringing
him on board with their strategies, only for him to
warm to mister Putin's overtures, as he did in agreeing
to the hastily scheduled bilateral meeting. At the meeting, though,

(03:27):
mister Trump sounded pleased with his allies. We had a
very good call, he told reporters after an event at
the Kennedy Center in Washington. I would rate it at
ten very friendly. Mister Trump said he would call mister
Zelensky then European leaders after the Alaska meeting. If that
meeting goes well, he said he would like to meet

(03:49):
soon after with mister Putin and mister Zelensky together. He
said there will be very severe consequences for Russia if
mister Putin does not agree to stop the war after
the Friday meeting, asked if he believed he could convince
mister Putin on Friday to stop targeting Ukrainian civilians, mister
Trump said, no, I've had that conversation with him. Mister

(04:12):
Trump said, I've had a lot of good conversations with him,
and then I go home and see a rocket hit
a nursing home, where a rocket hit in an apartment
building and people are laying dead in the streets. Both
mister Merritz and mister Zelenski told reporters that mister Trump
had agreed to five principles for the talks with mister Putin.
They include keeping Ukraine at the table for follow up

(04:35):
meetings on the war and refusing to discuss peace terms
like swaps of land between Russia and Ukraine before a
ceasefire is put in place. They said that Ukraine would
be willing to discuss changes in territory, including ceding some
land to Russia, but that it would not discuss legally
recognizing Russia's occupation of parts of the country. The principles

(04:59):
also include insisting on security guarantees for Ukraine after the war,
including retaining its right to potentially join NATO in the future,
and a commitment to ramping up economic pressure on Russia
if negotiations did not lead to an agreement. Mister Trump
said he supported Ukraine's push for security guarantees and that

(05:21):
any land swaps would be Ukraine's decision to make, not his.
According to an official who witnessed the exchange and to
Antonio Costa, the President of the European Council, who participated
in the call, several messages emerged from the exchange. Mister
Costa told reporters, including the territorial questions which concern Ukraine

(05:43):
cannot be negotiated, will only be negotiated by the Ukrainian president,
and that a link must continue to exist between any
territorial concession and the security guarantees that will be provided
to Ukraine. That's a quote. Earlier this week, mister Trump
had suggested to reporters at the White House that he

(06:03):
might negotiate land swaps with mister Putin. Mister Zelensky said
on Wednesday that he had warned mister Trump that mister
Putin was bluffing about his intentions at Anchorage. I told
my colleagues the American President, our colleague Putin does not
want peace. Mister Zelensky said, he wants to occupy us completely.

(06:26):
Mister Trump had posted on social media earlier on Wednesday
that he was about to meet with European leaders. They
are great people who want to see a deal done,
he said. He and White House officials did not immediately
comment after the meeting, though mister Trump posted a complaint
about media coverage of the meeting with mister Putin. If
I got Moscow and Leningrad free as part of the

(06:48):
deal with Russia, the fake news would say I made
a bad deal, he wrote. The virtual meeting was the
latest attempt by mister Marriage and his European counterparts to
head off mister Trump's unilateral impulses and to keep him
from falling under mister Putin's sway, although mister Mehris and
his allies almost never frame it that way. Mister Mahris

(07:11):
has staked much of his early term on rebuilding Germany's
military and reclaiming its leadership position for Europe and the world.
With a firm gaze toward Russia. He has courted mister
Trump aggressively since taking office in early May. He has
relentlessly pitched mister Trump on the idea that by intervening
boldly and decisively on the side of Ukraine against Russia,

(07:35):
the United States could force mister Putin into a ceasefire
and serious talks on ending the war. It has been
the Chancellor's primary request of the President, overwhelming other major
issues like mister Trump's push to impose new tariffs on Europe.
Mister Trump seemed receptive to varying degrees, particularly as he

(07:56):
grew frustrated in recent months with mister Putin's cand tinued
bombardments of Ukraine. He agreed to sell American weapons to
Germany and others to then be supplied to Kiev, and
he has threatened harsh economic penalties on Moscow if the
war continues. But then last week, after overtures from Putin,

(08:17):
mister Trump shifted again. He hastily scheduled the Alaska meeting
this week. He told reporters he wanted to see what
mister Putin had on his mind and whether he could
broker a deal on the war. Mister Maris and his
allies fear what that discussion could bring, so they stacked

(08:37):
the video call with top Europeans who enjoy good relations
with mister Trump, including the leaders of Poland and Finland
and NATO's Secretary General Mark Rutte. European leaders worried that
peace on bad terms could encourage mister Putin to continue
his push toward Western Europe, perhaps sending troops next to
a neighbor like Lithuania, a member of NATO. It really

(09:02):
is a concern that Putin might feel emboldened, said on
A sauer Prey, the foreign editor for Germany's Deetzite newspaper,
not to go for Berlin, of course, but to cause
some unrest in other Baltic countries, other European countries. Above all,
Europeans fear that mister Putin could use the meeting to
sell mister Trump on a piece deal that mister Zelenski

(09:25):
would never accept, leading mister Trump to turn his ire
on the Ukrainian leader. Mister Trump could then threaten to
pull crucial American intelligence support for Ukraine on the battlefield,
as his administration briefly did this spring. Europe would continue
to back Ukraine in that case, but its task would

(09:47):
be more difficult. Mister. Mayors and others have acknowledged the
need for American support. Missus Sauerprey said that reality puts
European leaders in a very weak position with mister Trump.
They can hope and pray and continue to flatter him,
she said, but that's pretty much all they have. Our

(10:08):
next story is headlined what Happened when Mark Zuckerberg moved
in next Door? It's by Heather Knights, who has been
a reporter covering the San Francisco Bay Area news and
politics for twenty six years. For decades, the Crescent Park
neighborhood of Palo Alto represented the dream of California living. Doctors, lawyers,

(10:30):
business executives, and Stanford University professors lived in charming homes
under oak, redwood, and magnolia trees. The houses, an eclectic
mix including craftsmen homes and bungalows, were filled with families
who became fast friends. The annual block parties heaved with people.
Daily life was tranquil, and the soundtrack was one of

(10:53):
children laughing as they rode their bicycles and played in
one another's gardens. Then Mark Zuckerberg moved in. Since his
arrival fourteen years ago, Crescent Park's neighborhood tranquility and even
many of its actual neighbors have vanished. Residents hardly ever
see the Facebook founder, now worth about two hundred seventy

(11:15):
billion dollars, but they feel his presence every day. Mister
Zuckerberg has used his Edgewood Drive and Hamilton Avenue like
a Monopoly game board, spending more than one hundred ten
million dollars to scoop up at least eleven houses. He
has offered as much as fourteen point five million, double

(11:37):
or even triple what the homes are worth, and neighbors
have seen one family after another leave. Several of his
properties sit empty in a notoriously crunched housing market. He
has turned five of them into a compound with a
main house for him, his wife, Priscilla Chan, and their

(11:57):
three daughters, along with guest homes, lush gardens, a nearby
pickleball court, and a pool that can be covered with
a hydro floor. A seven foot statue depicting Ms Chan
in a silver flowing robe that mister Zuckerberg commissioned last
year sits on the property. The compound is encircled by

(12:17):
a high row of hedges, and there is no such
thing as knocking on the front door to borrow a
cup of sugar. One of the unoccupied buildings is used
for entertainment and as a staging ground for outdoor parties.
Another property has been used for the past few years
as a private school for fourteen children, even though that

(12:38):
is not an allowable use of a house in the
neighborhood under city code. Six adults, including four teachers, worked
there this past school year. Underneath the compound, mister Zuckerberg
has added seven thousand square feet of space, cavernous areas
that his building permits refer to as basements, but that

(13:00):
his neighbors call bunkers or even a billionaire's batcave. The
work has led to eight years of construction, filling the
streets with massive equipment and a lot of noise. Mister
Zuckerberg has also brought intense levels of surveillance to the neighborhood,
including cameras positioned at his homes with views of his

(13:20):
neighbour's property. He has a team of private security guards
who sit in cars, filming some visitors and asking others
what they are doing as they walk on public sidewalks.
Aaron McLear, a spokesman from mister Zuckerberg and ms CHAM,
said the couple tried hard to do right by their neighbors.

(13:41):
Meta requires heavy security for its chief executive, he said
because of specific credible threats. Cameras are not trained at
neighbors and they adjust them when asked. He said the
family's staff provides neighbors with notice of potentially disruptive events
and gives them a contacts phone them to report problems.
He said staff members are reimbursed for ride shares to

(14:05):
encourage them not to park their own cars in the neighborhood. Mark,
Priscilla and their children have made Palo Alto their home
for more than a decade. Mister McLear said they value
being members of the community and have taken a number
of steps above and beyond any local requirements to avoid
disruption in the neighborhood. Mister Zuckerberg's expansion in Crescent Park

(14:31):
was revealed through interviews with nine neighbors, seven of whom
would not speak publicly for fear of retribution, as well
as a review of building permits, affidavits, certificates of formation
of limited liability companies, home deeds, recordings of local commission
meetings and emails between neighbors and city officials. Mister Zuckerberg

(14:54):
has laid claim to the neighborhood as tech billionaires have
made headlines for facingly brazen shows of their wealth. Jeff
Bezos launched his fiancee Lauren Sanchez and other women into
space on a Blue Origin flight before taking over Venice
for the couple's wedding. Elon Musk has created a compound

(15:16):
in Texas for his numerous children and their mothers. And
Mark Benyoff has been buying up a wide swath of
the Big Island of Hawaii, but few know firsthand the
decade long disruption, noise, surveillance, and uncertainty one extremely rich
person can create better than the neighbour's in Crescent Park.

(15:39):
No neighborhood wants to be occupied, said Michael Kishnik, whose
home on Hamilton Avenue is bound on three sides by
property owned by mister Zuckerberg. Quote, but that's exactly what
they've done. They've occupied our neighborhood unquote. Mister Kishnik and
some of his neighbors are angry with mister Zuckerber for

(16:00):
taking over Crescent Park rather than building a compound in
a nearby town with far more space, as other tech
titans have done. Atherton, Los Altos, Hills, Portolo Valley, and
Woodside are known for large gated estates for wealthy people
seeking space and privacy, but they're also angry with the
city of Palo Alto. In twenty sixteen, a key city

(16:24):
board rejected mister Zuckerberg's application to build a compound, and
he withdrew it, but the city then allowed him to
create it anyway, just more slowly and piecemeal. The city's
been told by neighbors for years that mister Zuckerberg is
operating a private school in a house, but has done
little to address it. Just the other day, the police

(16:46):
department provided signs to affixed the trees, creating a towaway
zone on the public road, blocking neighbors from parking their
own cars there for five hours on a Wednesday evening.
The reason mister kish Nick said he learned was that
mister Zuckerberg was hosting a backyard barbecue and the police
had assigned its officer in charge of dignitaries to assist him.

(17:10):
To the neighbors, it feels as if city officials and
police officers give extreme deference to mister Zuckerberg at the
expense of everybody else. Billionaires everywhere are used to just
making their own rules. Zuckerberg and Chan are not unique,
except that they are our neighbors, mister Kishnik said, But

(17:30):
it's a mystery why the city has been so effeckless.
Mister Kishnik is a co founder of a cellular phone
company and now works as a green energy advocate. His
phone company founded a political action committee to support candidates
who fight climate change, he said. Mister Zuckerberg, through his staff,

(17:50):
had offered to buy his house, but he said he
loved his home of more than thirty years and was
daunted by the thought of moving. So far, his answer
has been no. Mister Zuckerberg has been on a big
real estate buying and selling spree. In twenty twenty two,
he sold his seven bedroom home near Dolores Park in

(18:11):
San Francisco for thirty one million dollars after creating a
similar disruption with construction in that neighborhood. He owns two thousand,
three hundred acres on the Hawaiian island of Kawai, where
he is building a compound with two mansions treehouses connected
by rope bridges and an underground shelter. He is building

(18:32):
a third compound on the shores of Lake Tahoe, and
this year paid twenty three million dollars in cash for
a fifteen thousand square foot mansion in Washington, but his
home base has long been Palo Alto. His entry into
Crescent Park began in twenty eleven when he purchased a
fifty six hundred square foot home on Edgewood Drive. The

(18:56):
local Heritage Society says the house is the oldest one
in Palo Alto. It sits just three miles from Meta
headquarters at one Hacker Way in Menlo Park. At first,
neighbors mostly shrugged. In Palo Alto. Heavyweights in the tech
industry have long been part of the landscape. Hewlett Packard
was founded in a garage about a mile away, and

(19:19):
the seeds of Google sprouted nearby at Stanford. Steve Jobs,
the founder of Apple, lived a quiet life in Palo Alto,
but neighbors grew concerned when mister Zuckerberg started purchasing more property.
In twenty twelve and twenty thirteen, he spent more than
forty million dollars buying four more houses that form an

(19:40):
l shape around the first one. He resumed his spending
spree in twenty twenty two, buying six more homes, including
four in the past fifteen months. The purchases fly under
the radar because they are made with limited liability companies,
each time with a different nature theme to name, such

(20:01):
as pine Borough or seed Breeze. Mister Zuckerberg usually requires
sellers to sign non disclosure agreements. Neighbors who are friendly
with the sellers said his appetite for more Crescent Park
property is so well known that in the three most
recent home sales, the owners approached him offering to sell.
His spokesman said some of the homes are empty in

(20:24):
need repairs, while others are housing extended family members of
mister Zuckerberg and ms Chan. In twenty sixteen, mister Zuckerberg
asked Palo Alto for permission to demolish the four homes
that border his main family house and rebuild them much
smaller with big basements. City officials had approved it, but

(20:45):
because it involved construction on three or more properties at once,
the municipal code required that the project go before the
Palo Alto Architectural Review Board. Peter Balta, A Palo Alto architect,
who was then a member of the review board, said
he found the proposal odd, so he went to the
site to see it in person before casting a vote.

(21:09):
He said a security guard approached him and asked what
he was doing. I said, I'm standing on the sidewalk
looking at this project for review. He said, well, we'd
appreciate it if you could move on. Mister Baltaver called,
I was pretty shocked by that. It's a public sidewalk.
Mister Zuckerberg did not attend the meeting, but an architect,

(21:30):
a builder, and an arborist he had hired tried to
convince the board that they were not removing single family
housing stock. The board did not buy it. Mister Baltey
during the meeting said he found it a real shame
that four beautiful homes were being demolished so a wealthy
person could have a giant estate, complete with a movie theater,

(21:52):
in the middle of an already established neighborhood. The board
quashed the plan back then, but mister Zuckerberg moved ahead
with it anyway, just more slowly, one or two homes
at a time, avoiding going back before the review board.
The city has approved fifty six permits for mister Zuckerberg's properties.

(22:13):
Its on lightened permit search system shows he demolished three
homes completely and built smaller ones in their place, and
performed a major remodel. On the fourth. He filled in pools,
creating one large central garden. The permits show the work
includes wine storage, a fountain, a guesthouse, courtyards, a pool

(22:37):
house and a storage shed connected by a trellis, and
a movable floor on the remaining pool to allow the
water to be covered for safety reasons or parties. Megan
Horrigan Taylor, a spokesman for the City of Palo Alto,
said there was no preferential treatment in granting the permits

(22:58):
and the work was compliant with city code. The city
does not regulate who can buy nearby or adjacent properties,
whether on the open market or privately, she said. Greer Stone,
a member of the Palo Altos City Council who lives
near Crescent Park, said the city has followed the letter
of its own code, but not the spirit in allowing

(23:19):
mister Zuckerberg to take over a neighborhood. Mister Stone said
he was working on legislation to address the problem. He's
been finding loopholes around our local laws and zoning ordinances.
Mister Stone said of mister Zuckerberg, we should never be
a gated, gilded city on a hill where people don't
know their neighbors. When mister Zuckerberg and Ms Chan first

(23:44):
made plans for their compound about ten years ago, they
held a meeting for roughly twenty neighbors in the kitchen
of their Edgewood home. They presented their vision of the
project and assured the neighbors they would provide off site
parking for workers and would not tear down any homes.
Recalled mister Kishnak, who attended the meeting, both of those

(24:05):
promises were broken, he said. The couple's spokesmen said no
such promises had been made in all eight years of construction. Ensued.
It has largely stopped over the past several months, but
neighbors are still bitter and expect more to come. They
said their driveways had been blocked, their tires flattened by
construction debris, and their car mirrors knocked off by equipment.

(24:30):
Neighbors said workers regularly parked cars and ate lunch in
front of their homes. Mister Zuckerberg, the workers told them
wanted the frontage of his home on Edgewood kept clear. Occasionally,
numerous trucks rumble in delivering food, decorations, and furniture for parties.
Sometimes the street is blocked for days, the neighbors said.

(24:51):
Those on Hamilton said their road was used as the
compounds shipping and receiving dock and parking lot. Party time,
usually in fludes valet parking for partygoers in gowns and
tuxedos or costumes if the theme calls for them. Neighbors
said the music is often loud, sometimes prompting complaints to
the non emergency police line. Neighbors said they did not

(25:15):
usually get a response. Mister Zuckerberg and ms Chan held
their wedding at the property in October. They held a
disco party there, Mister Zuckerberg in white pants and a
gold chain and Miss Chan sequined gold pants and a
one shouldered top. Disco queen wanted a party, mister Zuckerberg

(25:35):
wrote on Instagram. Smaller events, including those from Meta employees,
neighbors said, take place more frequently. In late July, when
the police provided the free signs to affix the trees,
three big dark vans stopped in front of the compound.
Scores of people, mostly young men in hoodies, filed out

(25:56):
and into the compound. Security guards stood out side, eyeing
passers by. Peter Forgy, a retired lawyer who has lived
in Crescent Park for twenty years, said he and his
partner have long had an open door policy for their neighbors,
welcoming them over and giving them gifts when people move
in or have babies. None of that has worked on

(26:19):
mister Zuckerberg. We tried to bring him into the fold,
mister Forgy said, it's been rebuffed every time. Mister Kishnik
said when mister Zuckerberg bought the home next door, mister
Zuckerberg's staff members informed him the wooden fence that separated
the two homes and had a gait for children to
scurry through, did not meet Facebook standards. It has since

(26:43):
been rebuilt twice, thicker and taller each time, he said.
He said the staff also installs security cameras in mister
Zuckerberg's garden looking into his own garden. When he threatened
to install cameras in his own yard looking into mister
Zuckerberg's property, employees promptly took them down. Mister Zuckerberg's staff

(27:05):
has made some accommodations. The security guards now sit in
quiet electric vehicles rather than in louder gas powered cars.
Mister Zuckerberg does not attend the annual block parties, which
are very small these days, but he did send an
ice cream cart to the last one, and his staff
has sent gifts to neighbors when the racket has gotten

(27:28):
particularly loud, including bottles of sparkling wine, chocolates, and Crispy
Kream donuts. One memorable gift delivery noise canceling headphones. Now
a story headlined Cuomo's attack on Mamdani's apartment struck a
New York nerve. It's by Nicholas Fondos. A long running

(27:53):
campaign fight over New York City's soaring housing costs reignited
this week around an unlikely spark, the two thousand, three
hundred dollars a month rent stabilized apartment occupied by Zoron Mamdani,
the Democratic nominee for mayor. It began Friday afternoon when
his leading rival, former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, unexpectedly attacked

(28:15):
mister Mamdani, who makes a hundred forty two thousand dollars
as a state assemblyman for occupying an affordable unit in Astoria,
Queens that he said should go to a needier New Yorker.
By Tuesday, the broadside had escalated into a multi day
war of words that put mister Mamdani, the front runner
in the race, on the defensive and highlighted the candidate's

(28:38):
competing visions for how to bring down runaway costs in
one of the world's most expensive cities. The particulars were
bitterly personal. Mister Cuomo accused mister Mamdani of callous theft
and proposed a new law named after him to means
test who can live in the city's roughly one million
rent stabilized units. Mister Moundani called it petty vindictiveness and

(29:04):
blamed the foreign governor and the real estate developers who
fund mister Cuomo's campaigns for the city's housing shortage. Yet
the barbes also pointed to more fundamental differences that could
shape November's general election over who should benefit from government
regulation of housing costs and assistance to those in need.

(29:26):
A thirty three year old Democratic socialist, mister Mandani handily
defeated mister Cuomo and other Democratic rivals in June's primary
with proposals to raise taxes on the rich to expand
the city's social services. He wants free universal childcare, buses
that are free for all writers, a rent freeze on
stabilized units, and new housing construction financed by the city.

(29:51):
I believe that government's job is to guarantee dignity for
each and every New Yorker, not determine which ones are
worthy of it, mister Mundanny said on Tuesday during a
news conference at an affordable housing development in Brooklyn. Mister Cuomo,
a moderate Democrat who lives in an eight thousand dollars
a month market rate apartment, supports incentivizing new private housing construction,

(30:16):
but has said government resources should be steered to the neediest.
Responding to mister Mundanney's plans, he recently proposed expanding an
under utilized subsidy program on public transit for low income
residents and targeting food benefits to the poor. Why should
we subsidize the rich, said mister Cuomo, who until last

(30:38):
year spent decades living out of the city. Why should
they pay my bus fare? Mister Cuomo's decision to attack
mister Mundanni's personal residence comes as he scrambles to regain
his footing in the race. As a political independent, he
must persuade donors and voters uneasy with mister Mumdanni to
back his campaign rather than that of Mayor Eric Adams,

(31:02):
another independent or Kurtis Sliwa, the Republican in the race.
With mister Moundani comfortably ahead in the polls, mister Cuomo
has turned to an increasingly caustic approach. There were some
signs that was gaining traction. By personally challenging mister Mamdani
on housing affordability, an issue that has been central to

(31:24):
the Mamdani campaign, mister Cuomo tapped a sensitive nerve for
New Yorkers, who routinely agonized over who pays what in
rent and what housing arrangements are fair. His initial post
on x had garnered thirty four million views by Wednesday,
though it also prompted a large number of negative replies.

(31:45):
About half the city's apartments are considered stabilized, meaning they
are subject to regulation by a board appointed by the
mayor that limits how much rent can rise in a
given year. Though most tenants in these units have incomes
of the city average, anyone can apply to live in them.
Mister Cuomo's so called Zoron's Law, which he rushed out

(32:09):
just hours after first mentioning it, would effectively allow units
in the program to be leased only to New Yorkers
who pay at least thirty percent of their income a
year in rent, the threshold at which households are generally
deemed to be rent burdened. For example, if an apartment
rents for two thousand, five hundred dollars a month or

(32:30):
thirty thousand dollars for the year, the tenant's income can't
be more than one hundred thousand dollars, according to the proposal.
The plan drew sharp criticism from some housing experts, tenant advocates,
and even some former allies of mister Cuomo, a one
time federal Housing secretary. They said that it showed he

(32:51):
did not understand the depth of the city's housing crisis,
and that it could do more harm than good if enacted.
Sentative Richie Torres, a Bronx Democrat who backed mister Cuomo
in the primary, predicted the plan, in his words, would
lead to the mass displacement of working class and middle
class New Yorkers. Market rate housing is so prohibitively expensive

(33:15):
that even the most solidly middle class families can scarcely
afford it, he wrote on X, add to that the
crushing cost of utilities, insurance, childcare, and the combination is overwhelming.
J Martin, an executive at the New York Apartment Association,
a trade group rem presenting rent stabilized landlords, said he

(33:37):
was happy to call out the hypocrisy of wealthy people
living in rent stabilized units, but he was similarly sour
on mister Cuomo's plan. Means testing is an emotional response,
not a practical solution to fixing the rent stabilization system,
he wrote on X. Notably, the proposal would only apply

(33:59):
to new applicants for rent stabilized units, meaning it would
do nothing to address cases like mister Mumdanis, A spokesman
from mister Adams who shares many of mister Cuomo's views
on housing policy, called the latest proposal political theater. Rich
Atza Party, a spokesman from mister Cuomo, defended the plan

(34:21):
as a program to aid working New Yorkers and argued
it could be run like existing city operated affordable housing lotteries.
Mister Mamdani later took his own shot at mister Cuomo
releasing a video which quickly racked up millions of views,
challenging him to release a list of the private clients
who paid him as a consultant during the years after

(34:44):
he resigned as governor in scandal. Mister Atza Party called
the video a temper tantrum. Mister Moundani is far from
the first mayoral hopeful to face difficult questions about how
much he is paying in rent and w whether it
is fair. Edward I. Koch lived in a rent controlled
one bedroom in Greenwich Village as a congressman and refused

(35:07):
to give up the lease when he moved to Gracie Mansion.
For the twelve years he was mayor, he unabashedly defended
his housing choice. His successor, David N. Dinkins, faced criticism
as a candidate for owning a three bedroom apartment under
a program designed for middle and low income New Yorkers
during an earlier housing pinch. Mister Dinkins paid an extra

(35:31):
surcharge because he exceeded the unit's income limit, and defended
his choice to live there before eventually selling it after
he became mayor. Mister Mamdani said he was making just
forty seven thousand dollars a year working as a foreclosure
counselor when he moved into his current apartment in Astoria
years ago. The median household income for rent stabilized tenants

(35:55):
is around sixty thousand dollars. He said he did not
know it was rent stabilized at the time. Mister Cuomo
said that mister mum Donnie's assembly salary plus the wealth
of his parents should disqualify the lawmaker from continuing to
occupy the unit. Mister mount Donnie has previously told The
New York Times that his parents had not supported him

(36:17):
financially for years. Mister Mountdnney and his allies have tried
to portray mister Cuomo as an enemy of affordable housing.
During his time as governor. They point out tens of
thousands of units of previously rent stabilized housing were allowed
to be taken out of the program. Mister Cuomo also

(36:38):
signed a change into law as governor that protected the
right of higher income New Yorkers to stay in rent
stabilized apartments. In our disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo's mind,
these units, these buildings, these tenants are a political pawn.
Mister Moundani said on Tuesday he believes that New Yorkers,

(36:59):
in order to experience that stability, they must be rent burdened.
As for his own rent stabilized apartment, mister Mamdani has
said he had never intended to stay. In fact, he
told reporters he planned to be moving early next year
to a bigger place on the upper east Side Gracie Mansion.

(37:21):
Now a story headlined as Europe's heat waves intensify France
bickers about air conditioning. It's by Aurelian Breeden and Josh Holder.
Aurelian Breeden reported from Paris and Josh Holder from London.
The culture wars have come for air conditioning, at least

(37:42):
in France. In July, as a heat wave broiled much
of Europe, feelings about air conditioning suddenly became a political
litmus test. Marie Lapann, the far right leader in France,
declared that she would deploy a major air conditioning equipment
plan around the country if her Nationalists party eventually came
to power. Marine Tondelier, the head of France's Green Party,

(38:06):
scoffed at Miss Lepan's idea. Instead suggested solutions to warming
temperatures that included greening cities and making buildings more energy efficient.
An opinion essay in Le Figero, a conservative newspaper, defended
air conditioning because quote making our fellow citizens sweat, limits learning,

(38:28):
reduces working hours, and clogs up hospitals unquote. Liberacion, a
left wing daily, countered such arguments, writing that the technology
was quote an environmental aberration that must be overcome unquote
because it blows hot air onto streets and guzzles up
precious energy. Is air conditioning a far right thing? One

(38:49):
talk show asked, provocatively, reflecting how divisive the issue had become.
While France's heated discussion of air conditioning cooled, along with
the two temperatures in the weeks that followed, increasingly hot
summers in Europe mean that the issue is not going anywhere.
Decades ago, bickering over air conditioning might have seemed strange

(39:11):
in Europe, where there was historically little need for it
and where keeping homes warm is still a top concern,
but times are changing fast. An analysis of daily temperature
data from Copernicus, part of the European Union's space program,
shows that much of Europe is now experiencing longer periods
of severe heat than it was just forty years ago.

(39:34):
So while many derided air conditioning for years as an
unnecessary and offy American amenity, it is now increasingly seen
as a necessity to survive scorching summers despite rising temperatures.
Only about half the homes in Italy today have air conditioning,
according to Italy's National Statistics Institute. In Spain, real estate

(39:59):
data indicates which the share is roughly forty percent, and
in France only an estimated twenty to twenty five percent
of households are equipped with air conditioning, according to the
country's Agency for Ecological Transition. In twenty twenty three, sixty
two point five percent of energy consumed by households in

(40:19):
the European Union was used to heat homes, versus less
than one percent to cool them, according to EU Statistics.
Energy costs are also usually higher in Europe than in
the United States, where almost ninety percent of homes use
some form of air conditioning. The dense architecture of European

(40:41):
cities is ill suited to ungainly air conditioning units, and
in places like Paris, securing the necessary approvals for old
or historical apartment buildings can be complex. Air conditioning still
scares some. Many still have in mind countries like the
United States, where homes and shops are extremely air conditioned,

(41:04):
said Baudoin de la Verande, the co founder of Each,
a French consulting firm that helps households with energy efficient renovations.
But even he said that weather proofing would help only
so much in the coming decades. I'm a little saddened
that the debate is often boiled down to four or
against air conditioning, he added. Most people are in the middle.

(41:27):
Air conditioning is a useful tool. Some of the debate
is political posturing. Look beyond the sniping on social media,
and there is broad agreement in France that air conditioning
is necessary in spaces like retirement homes, hospitals and schools.
More than eighteen hundred schools had to close during the

(41:49):
worst of last month's heat wave. Few people are clamoring
for a cooling unit in every home. Air Conditioning is
not black or white against Panne Reniche, France's environment minister
recently told reporters we need air conditioning to give vulnerable
people some respite, but we mustn't do it everywhere. Despite

(42:13):
her modulated tones, the public debate has focused on what
air conditioning represents. Those who see it as an evil,
mainly on the left, say it is another example of
leaders addressing the symptoms of climate change rather than dealing
with its underlying causes. They argue that it is an
energy hungry technology that must be deployed sparingly for those

(42:36):
who really need it, while society puts in place solutions
that do not exacerbate global warming. Air Conditioning is what
you'd call a maladaptation, said Dan Lert, the deputy mayor
in charge of green transition policies in Paris. To fix
a real problem, you make it worse. But to its supporters,

(42:58):
mainly on the right, air conditioning is unfairly vilified by environmentalists.
They note that France relies primarily on carbon neutral nuclear
energy to provide electricity used for cooling, and air conditioning
units leak less polluting refrigerating gases than they used to.
There is no reason to cling to ideological dogmatism and

(43:22):
oppose concrete solutions. A group of conservative lawmakers allied with
Miss Lapen wrote in a bill proposed last month that
would make it mandatory to air condition certain public spaces,
and fans of air conditioning argue that solutions like sun
blocking shutters will get you only so far in the
years to come. Much of southern Europe now experiences more

(43:47):
than two months each year when daily high temperatures exceed
eighty five degrees. Madrid, Spain's capital, has had an average
of sixty three days above eighty five degrees in recent years,
up from twenty nine days per year in the early
nineteen eighties. In many places, the heat is no longer,

(44:07):
or not just longer lasting, but also more intense. Forty
years ago, temperatures in Madrid rarely climbed above ninety degrees,
but in the past five years a typical summer has
included forty days above ninety degrees. Whether cultural resistance to
air conditioning in France will persist in such conditions remains

(44:30):
to be seen. Perhaps no one displays that ambivalence better
than Christian Meyer, the head of a company near Strasbourg
that installs air conditioning units. Despite having a vested interest
in promoting air condition air conditioning, he was recently quoted
in a local newspaper saying that he wasn't a fan
and he didn't use it himself. The best air conditioning

(44:53):
is a well insulated house, he is quoted as saying.
For now, the arguments continue. The government official heat related
advice takes a middle road of sorts. Air Conditioning is
on its list of options to keep a home cool,
but the guidelines warm that it is a solution that
should be considered only after all other options have been exhausted.

(45:18):
Now a story headlined are somosas unhealthy? Some Indians find
official advice hard to swallow. It's by Anuprita Das and
Hari Kumar, who sampled somoses and gelabies at several foodstalls
in New Delhi to report the story. Indians eat a
mind boggling array of street food. They now sh on

(45:42):
pacorus or vegetable fritters, gelabies, which are deep fried coils
of fermented battered dunked in sugar syrup, and Popti chot,
a tart and spicy melange of crunchy fried dough, yogurt
and spices, to name just a few. The snacks often
washed down with chai, are ubiquitous, filling and relatively cheap.

(46:05):
But the king of street food and one of India's
most famous culinary exports is the samosa. The deep fried,
plump and triangular piece of flaky dough has crisp edges
encasing a heavily spiced potato stuffing, usually served with tangy
and sweet condiments. They cost as little as fifteen cents

(46:25):
at food carts or stalls throughout the country. So when
a recent government advisory put samosas, along with other deep
fried Indian snacks and Western foods such as burgers and
French fries, on a list of things that should be
eaten in moderation because of their high oil and sugar content,
there was an unsurprising outcry. Social media erupted with memes,

(46:49):
and Indian media chimed in to say the country's most
iconic bites were under attack. A love of the samosa
is ingrained in us, said Ranasatfvi, a cultural historian, who
said it served as both street food and comfort food.
If the government had targeted only burghers or pizza, people

(47:11):
wouldn't have cared. She said, samosa is something that is
too close to them. Some news outlets fueled the backlash
by likening the directive to health warnings on cigarettes. The
actual advisory was considerably milder than that. India's Health Ministry
on June twenty first set out a notice to all

(47:31):
government ministries requesting that they put up posters in public
places such as office cafeterias and meeting rooms, showing the
oil and sugar levels in certain foods. In the sample posters,
the much loved samosas were first on the high fat list,
gelabies were lowered down on the high sugar poster. The

(47:52):
daily recommended intake of fats is twenty seven to thirty grams,
and one simosa can contain between seventeen and twenty eight grams.
According to the posters, types of fat are not specified.
Last month, the government moved to clarify its intentions, saying
it had not directed vendors to put warning labels on

(48:13):
their products and that it wasn't selectively targeting Indian snacks.
It called the advisory a behavioral nudge to make people
aware of hidden fats and excess sugar in many types
of food. The move was in keeping with Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's campaign to encourage active lifestyles called Fit India.

(48:36):
Earlier this year, mister Mody used his radio program to
call on people to reduce the amount of oil they consume.
Nearly one in five adults in India's urban areas are
overweight or obese. The twenty twenty one National Family Health
Survey found the percentage of children under five years of
age who are overweight is also increasing. It found India,

(49:00):
a country of about one point four billion people, is
expected to have four hundred fifty million overweight or obese
people by twenty fifty, second only to China, according to
a study by The Lancet, a medical journal. The government
has identified obesity, which can push up rates of cardiovascular problems,

(49:20):
type two diabetes and other diseases, as a major public
health challenge. Street foods such as jellabies, samosis, an chole
bachua chickpea curry with deep fried bread are deep fried
and saturated or partially hydrogenated oils and often refried in

(49:41):
the same oil, which significantly increases trans fatty acid content,
said doctor anup Mira and endocrinologist. If government health programs
are executed and regulated well, it could lead to a
significant reduction in obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. He said.
Street food lovers are not ignorant of the perils. On

(50:05):
a recent afternoon, Sanjay Kumar twenty nine, stood by old
famous Jealaybi Wallah, a shop that's been in business since
eighteen eighty four in Delhi's bustling Chandney Chalk Bazaar. He
was eating a jelabi topped with robbery, a condensed milk dish.
Mister Kumar said he was overweight but allowed himself the

(50:27):
occasional treat. Although jelabies are available everywhere, the freshly made
ones at the stall, which is about the length of
a bus, are of top quality. He said, I know
that jelabies increased the weight, but what do I do?
Mister Kumar said chellabies are so tasty. Such snacks are
necessary because lower income workers cannot afford to buy food

(50:50):
in expensive restaurants, said Rishba Nath, who runs a food
stall founded by his father adjacent to Delhi's high end
Khan Market. It opens at five a m. Daily and
quickly becomes crowded with workers filling up for the day ahead.
Diirodd Sharma, who works for a driving school, said he
had been eating samosis from a stall four times a

(51:12):
week for the past decade. He's aware of the dangers
of too much fried food, but he said samoses were
his snack of choice because they're tasty, easy to eat,
and cheap to buy. Mister Sharma thirty said it was
a good idea for governments to urge shops to display
more information about the foods they sell, but he added,

(51:34):
this is the fun of life, so why not enjoy now.
A story headlined Trump names Kennedy Center honorees and says
he will host ceremony. It's by Sean mccreache and Katie Rodgers,
reporting from Washington. President Trump affirmed his growing influence over
the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in

(51:56):
Washington on Wednesday morning by announcing the new class of
Kenedy Center honorees and revealing that he would host this
year's ceremony personally. Mister Trump has taken a strong interest
in the Kennedy Center's affairs ever since naming himself chairman
in February, when he purged its traditionally bipartisan board of

(52:16):
Biden era appointees and restocked it with loyalists. His news
conference made clear that he is in complete control of
the Kennedy Center honors. He suggested that he had approved
the final list of honorees himself, saying he rejected several
prospective names he called wokesters instead. His list included the

(52:39):
country music legend George Strait, the disco queen Gloria Gaynor,
the glam rock band Kiss as musical honorees. Joining them
were Michael Crawford, a British actor decorated for his stage
performances in musicals like Phantom of the Opera, and Sylvester Stallone,
the American action actor best known for portray traying the

(53:00):
boxer Rocky Balboa in a series of eponymous films and
the mercenary warrior John Rambo in another box office franchise.
Mister Trump spoke at length about mister Stallom, whom he
said in January would serve as a special ambassador to Hollywood,
along with two other supporters, Mel Gibson and John Voight,
who he said would be his eyes and ears in

(53:22):
the entertainment capital. The announcement, in a week when mister
Trump has taken federal control of Washington's police department and
launched a review of exhibits at the Smithsonian, marked another
step in his cultural takeover of Washington and its institutions.
In March, mister Trump toured the Kennedy Center and met

(53:44):
with his new board for the first time, and floated
the idea of hosting its annual honours ceremony himself. According
to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The
New York Times, mister Trump referred to himself then as
the King of Rape. He boycotted the ceremony during his
first term after several of the artists who were being

(54:06):
honored criticized him. This time, he reveled in his view
from behind the lectern, remarking on the center's marble columns
and his thoughts about how to renovate everything, from its
grand spaces to the lawns outside. We're going to redo
the grass with the finest grasses, he said. His lengthy
remarks veered between topics for about an hour and included

(54:29):
personal memories of mister Stallone's films, his thoughts about a
peace deal for Ukraine, critiques of favored targets like former
President Joseph R. Biden Junior and the Federal Reserve Chair
jerrom H. Powell, and his distaste for Washington itself, a
capital city that he once again derided as dirty. Asked

(54:49):
by reporters about his looming summit with President Vladimir V.
Putin of Russia On Friday in Alaska, Mister Trump said
Russia would face consequences if it did not agree to
star its war in Ukraine. He did not offer details,
except to say those consequences would, be, in his words,
very severe. Mister Trump told a reporter that he probably

(55:11):
would not be able to stop mister Putin from targeting
civilians in Ukraine because he had had that conversation with
the Russian leader before, and the killings of civilians have continued.
And to wrap up today's reading, we'll take a look
at some of the stories deeper inside today's edition of
The Times. In Business News, chief of the chip industry,

(55:35):
President Trump has become the semiconductor sector's top decision maker,
even calling for a CEO's firing behind aldy passionate fans.
The disaccount grocer is set to open hundreds more stores,
fueled by a nearly cult like following. In National News,

(55:57):
they gave up on US employees a Montana lumber plant
were promised a golden age for American industry. Instead, blue
collar workers are slipping behind austerity infiltrating colleges. The nation's
universities are facing a series of financial crises, fueled in

(56:17):
part by the White House, and uncertainty is looming for students.
In international news, deadly flood shocks China, the deaths of
thirty one people in a nursing home exposed flaws in
the nation's emergency planning and Human Rights report edited. The
US trimmed or dropped criticism of countries that President Trump

(56:40):
sees as close partners. This concludes the reading of The
New York Times for today. Your reader for today has
been Scott Johnson. If you have any questions, comments, or
suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call us
at eight five nine four two two six three nine

(57:02):
zero eight five nine four two two six three nine zero.
Thank you for listening, and now please stay tuned for
continued programming on Radio I