8.19.25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the reading of The New York Times for Tuesday,
August nineteenth, twenty twenty five. As a reminder, RADIOIZE a
reading service intended for people who are blind or have
other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
The New York Times is donated to RADIOI by the
Lexington Herald Leader. Your reader for today is Don Flickinger.
We'll start today's reading with the Merriam Webster Word of

(00:23):
the day euphemism eu P H E M I S M, euphemism,
it's a noun. A euphemism is a mild or pleasant
world word or phrase that is used instead of one
that is unpleasant or offensive. The HR Department advises using

(00:45):
the euphemism let go instead of saying that someone was fired.
There are times when circumstances call for a gentler or
pleasanter word or phrase rather than the most direct one.
Such words and phrases are known as euphemisms, with the
word euphemism coming fittingly from the Greek word euphemos, meaning

(01:06):
sounding good. Powder room, for example, is one of many
euphemisms in the English language for a lavatory aka the
place where one goes when one requires the use of
a toilet and sink. Actually, we are hard pressed to
find a non euphemistic word for such a room like
powder room. The terms bathroom, restroom, and washroom all tiptoe

(01:28):
around the often primary reason one has for visiting it. Similarly,
love handles is a euphemism for fatty bulges along the
sides of one's body at the waist, though, is everyone
who's ever snuggled up to a loved one endowed with
such bulges nose? Love handles is a much better descriptor
for what makes a person extra snugly. The athletes at

(01:51):
China's Robot Games fell down a lot. The Humanoid Robot
Games in Beijing, featuring running, kickboxing, and soccer, highlight advancements
in robotics limitations too. By Yin Zuang, There's a very
real concern that robots could eventually make some of our
jobs obsolete. But at a robot's only sports competition in

(02:13):
China over the weekend, the immediate concern was that they
would fall over or crash into each other. The Humanoid
Robot Games, a three day event in Beijing that ended
on Sunday, featured more than two hundred and eighty teams
from universities and private companies in sixteen countries. Some robots
landed backflips in successfully navigated obstacle courses and rough terrain.

(02:36):
In other cases, the robot's athletic ability left well something
to be desired. During soccer matches, child size ones tripped
over each other, falling down like Domino's one Goalkeeper. Robot
stood placidly as its opponents kicked a ball at its
legs several times before finally managing to score. One robot

(02:57):
by China's Unitary Robotics, plowed into a human staff member
while sprinting during a track event, knocking him down. In
kickboxing matches, robots wearing colorful gloves and headgear struggled to
land punches. To be honest, the hit rate is a
little low. A commentator set in the event's official live stream,
they're punching the air. After a few minutes of flailing

(03:21):
jabs and kicks, the referee declared one robot the winner.
It raised its glove hands and pumped them in the
air to the sound of spectators applauding, while its opponent
laid down an apparent show of defeat. The event was
China's latest high profile robotics showcase during China's Lunar China's
Lunar New Year's Eve television gala, watched by hundreds of

(03:44):
millions of people, humanoid robots performed folk dances. In April,
the Beijing Municipal government held a half marathon for twelve
thousand runners and twenty humanoid robots. China is trying to
make rapid advancements in robotics, held by government directives and
massive investments. Robots powered by artificial intelligence have already revolutionized

(04:07):
manufacturing in the country that is brought down operating costs
and in some cases helped companies withstand President Trump's tariffs.
Beijing officials told the domestic news media that the humanoid
robot games were a test of cutting edge advancements in
robotics technology. The tests revealed limitations, but also possibilities. Despite

(04:29):
the pratfalls, significant progress in robot locomotion and balance is
being achieved, including back flips, side flips, and other acrobatic
and martial arts moves, said Ken Goldberg, a robotics professor
at the University of California, Berkeley. One robot from Unitary
Robotics won the gold medal for the fifteen hundred meters

(04:51):
indoor track event with a time of six minutes and
thirty four point four seconds. The speed was impressive, Professor
Goldberg said. Although the robot was far slower than the
human who holds the world record in that event, Jacob
Ingobrigston of Norway, who finished in three minutes twenty nine
point sixty three seconds, it was faster than many non

(05:13):
professional human runners. Some the entrepreneurs believe that humanoid robots
will one day do many physical tasks now handled by people,
including household chores, warehouse jobs, and factory labor, But for now,
even simple tasks like loading the dishwasher or anything but
simple for them. Alan Fern, a robotics professor at Oregon

(05:35):
State University, said that the humanoid robot games helped to
give the public a realistic impression of where things really are.
Professor Fern said the games highlighted rapid advancements in the industry.
One that is manufacturing of humanoid robots that developed enough
that researchers no longer need to pay exorbitant amounts of

(05:55):
money to buy them or build their own, as they
did only a year or two. Another is that advancements
and artificial intelligence allow the machines to do a wider
range of basic tasks. Five years ago, it was rare
to see a humanoid robot that could reliably walk, let
alone run or jump or handle rough terrain, he said.

(06:16):
But Professor Fern said the type of robots used in
the games are generally not equipped for higher level functions
like planning or reasoning, and usually need a human operator
to help guide them. The robots are still dumb, he said.
For d C's homeless, strained lives become more unstable. Some

(06:37):
on the street have been forced to move, while others
are fearful they could be next. Many face an even
more uncertain future. By Anushka Patil and Ashevera Kave, for
some fifteen years, David Brown has made a home in
Washington Circle, living in a tent with a handful of
others in an encampment. On Friday, that home was destroyed.

(06:59):
His tent, clothing, and other possessions were tossed into a
dumpster by police officers carrying out President Trump's crackdown on
some of the city's most powerless residents. Left with a
fraction of his things. Mister Brown and his six month
old puppy Mollie moved a block away and slept outside
the Foggy Bottom subway station. Sitting in a wheelchair outside

(07:21):
the station on Saturday, he was still baffled at what
was happening. Why is he doing this for no reason,
he asked of mister Trump. The clearing of homeless people
off the streets of Washington, part of the president's marshaling
of federal forces on the nation's capital, has been more
scattered than sweeping, and it is unclear how many of
the estimated nine hundred people who sleep on the city

(07:43):
streets have been affected. But what emerged over the weekend
were more stories like mister Brown's. Many people are on
the move, seeing their lives uprooted and their futures become
even more precarious, whether as a result of force or
out of fear. Some have moved into other of secured
temporary hotel rooms with the help of non profit groups.

(08:05):
Some have taken buses to surrounding areas, or using donated
Metro cards to ride the subways back and forth at night.
Still others have simply moved to another spot on the streets.
David Baiting, who was removed from an encampment between the
Kennedy Center and the U. S Institute for Peace. Said
he spent the first night after being cleared out behind

(08:25):
bushes near the Foggy Bottom subway station, but without his
tent or foam matt, he was getting little sleep. His
other belongings had been put into storage thanks to the
Georgetown Ministry Center, but he kept his broom and dustpan,
which he carried with him as he walked around the
city during the way during the day, sweeping up cigarette
butts and litter. Making the city safe and beautiful includes

(08:49):
removing mentally disturbed individuals and homeless encampments. Caroline Lovitt, the
White House Press Secretary, set at a news conference last week.
Light House also said that scores of homeless encampments have
been cleared since the President issued an executive order in
March that included creating a program to beautify the district.

(09:10):
His supporters, including Scott Turner, the Housing Secretary, said the
president's measures have been needed to rid the city of blight.
Mister Trump has claimed on social media that authorities would
give homeless people somewhere to stay far from the capital,
and Miss Levitt said that they would be offered shelters
or addiction and mental health services, but advocates for homeless

(09:31):
peoples say no federal aid to get them help has materialized. Precisely,
zero resources, no money, no vacant federal buildings, no housing
have come from the federal government to support moving people inside.
Amber w Harding, the executive director of the Washington Legal
Clinic for the Homeless, set in a statement, organizations that

(09:54):
provide support in the region estimate that several hundreds of
people in Washington remain without a place to sleep. They
also say that news of the clearings had driven fear
through homeless communities. Even though the moves may not have
displaced huge numbers of people, the district does not have
large encampments similar to ones in other big cities. Homelessness

(10:16):
was a vexing problem for the district well before mister
Trump's crackdown. Mayor Muriel Bowser made the issue a focus
of her administration when she took office in twenty fifteen,
vowing to end long term homelessness in the district and
make it a rare, brief and non recurring experience by
twenty twenty. Effocates say those goals are far from being met,

(10:41):
and that the district's latest budget for twenty twenty six
will undermine the social safety net for the neediest. While
city data shows that the number of homeless people in
the city dropped by nine percent over the past year,
it had been rising for two years before that. The
city acknowledges that more work needs to be done, but

(11:01):
points to the decrease over the past year as evidence
of progress. It says it has expanded its shelter system
and that one of its programs has diverted nearly four
hundred people from entering homelessness. Still, the sudden disruption of
the past week has left city workers and volunteers scrambling
to assemble a patchwork safety net. Claire Wilson, the executive

(11:25):
director of Georgetown Ministry Center, said that close to a
dozen of more than sixty individuals he organization sees on
a regular basis were displaced on Friday. It was done
without warning, she said, which was out of the norm.
Miss Wilson added that on Saturday morning, more than fifty
people came to the Center for shelter, a much larger

(11:47):
crowd than what the Ministry typically sees on a Saturday.
Yesterday was frantic and traumatic said Miss Wilson. Talking about Friday,
She added that it was unlike any other crisis she
had seen homeless individual's face in about a decade of
working on housing issues. On Friday night, as federal and
local law enforcement patrolled the streets of Washington, advocates for

(12:10):
the homeless were roaming transit hubs in Montgomery County, Maryland,
wealthy suburbs that the border of Washington, searching for unhoused
people who had left the city. John Mendes, Bethesda Carer's
executive director, and Renee Cyperski, the group's street outreach program director,

(12:31):
drove to Chevy Chase, a wealthy enclave in the northwest
border of Washington. They pulled on bright orange windbreakers and
walked the hollow concrete transit hubs in the area, tucked
away behind luxury retail stores and bars. Mister Mendes anticipated
that some of Washington's homeless would seek refuge by blending

(12:52):
in at libraries and coffee shops during the day and
on public transit at night, but they were unlikely to
permanently leave the city they called home. Mister Mendez said
he counted four people who appeared to be homeless, which
he said was higher than usual number. They were laden
with bags of belongings. Some of them took a pair
of new socks he offered them. They all climbed onto

(13:13):
a bus back to Washington that pulled away just before midnight.
And Bethesda, Maryland, Erica Jones got off a bus from
the city. She said she did not have a place
to live, but relied on the generosity of friends and family.
On Friday night, she was heading to her mother's apartment
in Silver Spring, Maryland. Miss Jones said her friends and
acquaintances who were homeless were intimidated by the number of

(13:36):
law enforcement in the streets, and she was alarmed by
the way people were being treated. These are people like
me and people like you, she said, adding later that's
just where they sleep. And Ohio City faces a future
without Haitian workers. It's not going to be good. Springfield

(13:58):
faced a crisis after Donald Trump falsely claimed Haitians were
eating pets. Now his policies are driving out workers like
Wilfrid Rinville, who left for Canada. By Mary and Jordan,
the aroma of Haitian feast pork gryat Jean Jean rice
fried plantains drifted through the break room of a metal

(14:19):
shop in Springfield, Ohio. It was Wilfrid Rinville's goodbye gift
to his co workers. For four years, mister Rinville, a
Haitian immigrant, had pressed steel into car parts at McGregor Medal.
While the work was grueling, it offered a stable income,
health insurance a four oh one K, and mister Rinville,
who turns forty six this week, thrived there, relieved to

(14:41):
be away from his home country, which had descended into
lawlessness and gang violence. We would do anything in the
world for you, said Lance Beale, the production supervisor, But
mister Wrenville's sense of security began to unravel after President
Trump took office and moved to dismantle protections for Haitian immigrants.
He expected the administration to revoke his his work permit, and,

(15:04):
with deportation a real possibility, mister Renville packed up his
hard won life and moved this month to Canada. You
leave your home to survive. You do everything right, he
said in an interview four days before his departure. But
they don't like you, they don't want you. Mister Renville
was among more than ten thousand Haitians who in recent
years settled in this working class city of sixty thousand.

(15:28):
They were welcomed by Republican governor and business leaders who
needed workers to power companies that had been enticed to
invest millions here. Over the last four years, Springfield had rebounded,
thanks in large part to the arrival of Haitian immigrants.
The newcomber staffed auto plants, packed ready to eat salads
at Dull and sorted packages at Amazon. They filled church

(15:50):
pews and rolled their children in schools, and began to
buy homes. But as the political winds shifted, so did
their prospects, and perhaps Springfield's as well. The city became
a flashpoint in the national immigration debate last year when
mister Trump, from the debate stage, amplified a baseless claim
by his running mate J. D. Vance that Haitians there

(16:11):
were stealing and eating pets. The accusation inflamed growing tensions
over rising rents and schools supporting students learning English. At
city commission meetings, some residents used racist language to describe
the newcomers, accusing them of ruining the city and draining resources.
After the election, the Trump administration terminated some humanitarian programs

(16:34):
that allowed Haitians and other immigrants to live and work
legally in the United States. Employers in the Springfield area
have had to let go one hundreds In February twenty
twenty six, thousands more were expected to lose their jobs.
When the Administration inn's Temporary Protected Status, a separate program
that shields people from deportation to countries and crises, many

(16:58):
Haitian families in spring faced two bleak options leave the
United States entirely, or remain without lawful status, dependent on
underground work, and vulnerable to arrest and deportation. There is
no official tallly of how many Haitians have already left,
but pastors, employers, and others say dozens of Haitians have
already left. Some, like mister Wrenville, are heading to Canada.

(17:22):
Others are planning to return to South America, where they
had previously found refuge. Cratchet Amy, forty three, and his
family put down roots in Springfield four years ago after
leaving Brazil in its economic downturn. Mister Amy, who works
the overnight shift at a lighting factory, plays guitar in
a church band. His nine year old son is thriving

(17:45):
an elementary school. Last year, his wife gave birth to
their first child, born in the United States. Despite the
hostility for mister Trump last year, they had decided to stay,
But with the clock running out on his legal status,
mister Amy intends to redirect his savings originally meant for
a down payment on a home to pay for their
return to Brazil. Without legal status, you lose your freedom

(18:08):
and you can't have happiness, he said, speaking in Portuguese.
Even now he limits his outings to work, church and errands.
Governor Mike de Wine, a Republican, offered his own sobering
assessment last month. The one word I would use to
describe Springfield today as stable, he said, after meeting representatives
from local businesses, medical centers, and religious organizations. But suddenly

(18:34):
losing a large number of workers, he noted, would have
a significant impact on Springfield in the region as businesses
struggle to keep operating and emigrant families who were once
self sufficient would require support. His conclusion was blunt, it's
not going to be good a life uprooted and haiti.
Mister Wrenville, his wife Darlene, and their daughter Rachel enjoyed

(18:58):
a middle class life. He managed to counts at a
cell phone company. She worked as a nurse. They owned
a house and a car. We had everything, mister Wrenville
recalled in two thousand seventeen after a traumatic event. They
declined to discuss. Miss Wrenville flew to the United States
on a tourist visa intended to seek asylum, while he
stayed behind to care for their daughter, then eight, but

(19:21):
Miss Wrenville was alarmed by mister Trump's inflammatory rhetoric about Haitians.
They all have AIDS, he said at the time, and
moved to Canada. Three years later, as political unrest and
violence spiraled in Haiti, mister or Haiti, mister Wrenville decided
he too had to leave. He arrived in the United
States on a tourist visa in August twenty twenty and

(19:42):
headed to Springfield, drawn by its abundance job it's abundant
job opportunities and affordable living. His daughter stayed with her
maternal grandmother. In twenty twenty one, the Biden administration extended
temporary protected status to Haitians in the United States, allow
mister Rinville to stay and work legally. The work at

(20:03):
MacGregor Medal was a stark contrast to mister Rynville's white
collared job in Haiti, but he embraced it. He started
his shift at five a m. Worked until three thirty
p m. And then delivered food for door Dash and
Uber Eats. He slept three or four hours and then
did it again, always with a smile, said Kara Williams,
MacGregor's human resources director. We list perfect attendance every month,

(20:26):
and he was on it every month, she said. Another
thing he did every month sent seven hundred and fifty
dollars to his daughter, and every day he spoke with
his wife in Montreal, where she worked as a caregiver.
Mister Rynville worried about safety and Haiti gangs, he said,
took over his parents' home and business outside Port of Prince.
He monitored his daughter's commute to school. Children had been kidnapped.

(20:50):
The family longed to be reunited. His wife applied for
asylum in Canada, and he did the same in the
United States. During the twenty twenty four presidential camp, mister
Rynville did not seem rattled by the unfounded assertions that
Haitians were eating cats and dogs, or their white supremacists
had marched through town. It's unfortunate that Trump is stigmatizing Haitians,

(21:12):
he said in an interview last September. Thankfully there are
people who see us differently. A big what if. Once
in office, mister Trump vowed to deliver on his promise
of mass deportations, but in Springfield, tensions seemed to have
finally eased. At a recent City Commission meeting, more people
spoke in supportive immigrants than against them. An organized help

(21:35):
was growing. Carl Ruby, a pastor, said that twenty churches
were arranging to stand with our Haitian neighbors in anticipation
of immigration enforcement in the city. There have been no
rage yet, but with hundreds of Haitians losing their jobs,
the hardships are evident. On a recent Tuesday, the food
pantry at Saint Vincent de Paul received nearly twice as

(21:56):
many Haitian families as usual. These are immigrants, families who
never needed help before, said Casey Rawlins, the charity's executive director.
Rose Amada, a mother of three who declined to give
her last name, said that her husband had lost his
humanitarian protection and his job a few weeks earlier. The

(22:17):
family had enough savings to pay rent for one more month,
she said, while loading frozen chicken, bread and cereal into
a cart. In a room nearby, staff members helped parents
apply for passports for their children with citizenship, which would
make it easier than for them to follow their parents
if they deported. Miss Rawlins said across Springfield, there are

(22:37):
disquieting signals that there are not enough workers to fuel
economic growth. Home sales have stalled, rentals are no longer
in demand. Amazon, after being forced to dismiss hundreds of
Haitians at its warehouse outside Springfield, has in recent weeks
sent text messages to former employees who are eligible to work.

(22:58):
One said, miss us, We've got tons of roles with
great pay and no interview. Jamie McGregor, chief executive of
McGregor Medal, said that employers were bracing for further losses
that will have a profoundly negative effect on our ability
to function. His company employs thirty Haitians and those who
lose their work permits will have to be terminated. And

(23:20):
then there is a big what if will Springfield plunge
again into ugly divisiveness if residents begin seeing Haitians lining
up at food banks, living in cramped housing and filling
up emergency rooms because they have lost their health insurance.
A quiet exit. Mister Renville said that the Trump administration's

(23:40):
policies and statements left him filling, anguished and helpless. When
a problem comes before me, I try to solve it,
he said. But the situation for immigrants I can't do
anything about. He has been diagnosed with diabetes in high
blood pressure, conditions he partly attributed to stress and anxiety.
There was a ray of hope. His wife had won

(24:01):
asylum in Canada, paving the way for him and their
daughter to join her. Mister Wrenville gave notice on July eleventh,
bid farewell for him with his Haitian feast. He and
mister McGregor posed for a picture the boss with one
of the company's first Haitian workers, a memento of a
different time. Mister Renville sold his car in his tv

(24:23):
and sent fifty thousand dollars in savings to his wife.
On the morning of August second, a friend drove mister
Renville to the Columbus airport. After delays and layovers, he
landed in Toronto some twelve hours later. An immigration officer
asked him a few questions and then welcomed him to
his new home. Within days. Mister Renville had a Social

(24:44):
Insurance number akin to a Social Security number, and was
looking for work in Montreal. Trump administration scraps research into
health disparities in its campaign against woke science. The NIH
has closed down studies and programs focused on the gaps
between racial and socioeconomic groups. By Ronnie Karen Raven and

(25:07):
Irena Hang. The federal government has for decades invested vigorously
in research aimed at narrowing the health gaps between racial
and socioeconomic groups, pouring billions of dollars into understanding why
minority and low income Americans have shorter lives and suffer
higher rates of illnesses like cancer and heart disease. Spending

(25:30):
on so called health disparities rose even during the Trump
administration's first term, but in its second much of the
funding has come to a sudden halt following a series
of executive orders prohibiting diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at
every level of the federal government. The National Institutes of
Health this year began terminating initiatives that officials had smacked

(25:54):
of identity politics and offered dubious benefits spending billions on divisive,
politically driven DEI initiatives that don't deliver results is not
just bad health policy, it's bad government, set a spokeswoman
for the Department of Health and Human Services. The NIH
will invest in projects that support all vulnerable populations and

(26:17):
expand participation based on clinical need, not identity, she added,
she declined to be identified. In letters from the NIH,
scientists were told that their projects were canceled because they
harmed the health of Americans, provide a low return on investment,
or do not enhance health length, health lengthen life, or

(26:38):
reduce illness. The communication is very clear. We do not
value health equity. We do not value a focus on
underserved and under treated populations. We do not consider those
to be a priority, said doctor Kemi Dahl, a cancer
specialist at the University of Washington School of Medicine who
coaches younger researchers for minority backgrounds. In interviews, many scientists

(27:03):
to work whose work depends on NIH grants describe the
terminations as harrowing and bewildering. Many felt their research was
not evaluated on its merits, but mixed. But mixed because
words like race or gender were in the project's title
or description. According to an analysis of federal data by
The New York Times, as of mid June, the NIH

(27:25):
had terminated at least six hundred and sixteen projects focused
on closing the health divide between black and white and
rich and poor Americans. The NIH had earmarked about four
hundred and seven million dollars in funding for the projects,
nearly forty five percent of the approximately nine hundred and
thirteen million dollars in total awards terminated by the Trump

(27:48):
administration before court rulings ordered that some be reinstated. About
half were aimed at supporting researchers from underrepresented backgrounds. These
training and recruitment programs, seen as a form of affirmative action,
have long drawn conservative ire. In July, a federal judge
hearing two lawsuits challenging the cancelations described them as acts

(28:11):
of discrimination and ordered the NIH to resume funding many awards.
By the Times analysis, as of mid August, two hundred
and sixty seven of the canceled disparities grants has been reinstated,
but the Trump administration has filed an emergency appeal to
the Supreme Court asking the justices to allow many of
the cancelations to proceed. The Times analysis includes some awards

(28:35):
that were canceled because the lead investigators were affiliated with
universities that the Trump administration has accused of anti semitism.
Some were reinstated after agreements were reached with federal officials.
But the figures do not include research that the NIH
had intended to support and has apparently renegged on funding.

(28:58):
Nor does the total include on going work that the
NIH had simply stopped paying for without formal cancelations. Doctor
j Badkaria, who leads the NIH, had said that the
well being of minority populations remains a central focus of
the agency and that President Trump's executive orders were not
intended to halt fundamental research that advances the health and

(29:22):
the health of minority Americans. But even critics who have
long derided scientists and universities for liberal bias wonder if
the cuts have gone too far. In Project twenty twenty five,
the Heritage Foundation's blueprint for the Trump administration, Roger Severino,
a former HHS attorney, criticized woke policies at HHS. He

(29:45):
said in an interview that a scientist's identity should not
be considered in awarding government grants, as was the case
with the training programs. But mister Severino also acknowledged that
research into the health disparities between various pop populations was
a legitimate area of scientific inquiry. The President's dei executive

(30:06):
orders are meant to end the bad research, the ideologically
loaded conclusory research. Mister Severino said. Officials should not throw
the baby out with the bathwater, he said, suggesting that
some of the canceled studies may have sought to answer
valid scientific questions. The rollbacks represent a seismic shift for

(30:26):
health scientists and the hobbling of a long campaign to
unravel the cause of poor health and minority communities, low
income in rural areas, and among Americans with disabilities. The
effort to close those gaps took an added urgency during
the pandemic. COVID nineteen killed Black and Hispanic people and
Native Americans and higher rates than white people, in part

(30:50):
because of a higher prevalence of pre existing conditions like diabetes, hypertension,
and obesity, which left them more vulnerable. Even simple medical
device like pulse oximeters, used to use to assess severity
of respiratory disease failed Black patients, the devices were not
properly calibrated for darker skin tones. Scientists stunned by the

(31:14):
sudden grant cancelations this year say their research aim to
understand risk factors for high disease rates among racial and
ethnic minorities and in low income in rural communities. Pregnancy
related mortality rates are almost three times as high among
black women than among white women, for example, a disparity
driven by underlying chronic conditions and limited access to high

(31:37):
quality care, among other reasons. Many of the deaths occur
after delivery, so researchers at Columbia University wanted to train
birthing coaches or duelas to support new mothers during the
postpartum period. Their trial was open to all low income
women on Medicaid. If we could improve it with this

(31:57):
cost effective intervention, will have better health and you'll have
healthier children, said doctor Uma Ready, a professor of obstetrics
in gynecology at Columbia University Irvine Medical Center and one
of the studies municipal or principal investigators. The NIH canceled

(32:19):
that study, then reinstated it as part of a deal
with Columbia University to settle allegations of anti Semitism. Another
initial casualty was a project training health providers to support
pregnant women and mothers who are assaulted by their partners
and at risk of being killed. Homicide is a leading
cause of death during pregnancy in the postpartum period, particularly

(32:42):
among black women under thirty. Studies have shown the study
may have been targeted because it had the word equity
in its title, said Sarah Pititesmeyer, an assistant professor of
behavioral and community health at the University of Maryland, one
of the studies principal investigators. But it was aimed at

(33:02):
a broad spectrum of communities while focusing on those where
the problem was most severe, she said. A recent court
order forced the NIH to reinstate her grand Sonki Lee,
an associate research professor at University of Michigan's Institute for
Social Research, lost NIH funding to develop more detailed data

(33:24):
about dementia and demographic subgroups. Doctor Lee was told that
her research could lead to discrimination. Her grant has not
been reinstated. One of the important insights gleaned from disparities
research so far life circumstances, including social and economic factors,
access to healthy food, and stable housing. Even neighborhood and

(33:46):
zip code play a role in health outcomes. One defunded
study intended to explore how these exposures may alter the
expression of genes to affect health outcomes. Researchers created a
unique of blood samples taken at two different time periods
in a woman's life to track how the environment might
cause these epigenetic changes over the course of a lifetime.

(34:11):
We were going to look at biological aging, a very
specific biological process that it could explain why black women
have a higher risk of adverse birth outcomes, said doctor
Jamie slaughter Acy, an epidemiologist at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill who led the project. No other

(34:32):
study in the US has the ability to do that,
despite high maternal mortality rates among black women. Her grant
no longer effectuates agency priorities and does not enhance health,
lenked in life or reduce illness. According to the termination
letters she received, it's like they erased the problem. Doctor
slaughter Acey said she is now seeking donations in order

(34:55):
to complete the data collection for the six hundred mothers
and babies in the study. She said, we don't want
their voices silenced. Critics of the administrations pulled back argue
that this research has led to initiatives that improve the
quality of care for all Americans, not just the minority
groups who may have been the original focus. For example,

(35:15):
one study found that when hospitals brought in birthing dulas
for high risk women see section, deliveries for all women
were reduced by half. When new mothers were sent home
with blood pressure cuffs and could text the readings to
their health providers, a program originally tested among black mothers,
patients of all races became more scrupulous about monitoring their

(35:36):
blood pressure. None had to be readmitted to the hospital
after delivery. When there is a health gap between different
demographic groups and programs target the general population, those who
are already doing well may do slightly better, experts say,
but those doing poorly often fall even further behind, increasing

(35:58):
the health gap between black and wait, rich and poor,
urban and rule. Doctor George Benjamin, executive director of the
American Public Health Association, said, disparity programs asked the question
who are we missing and why and what do we
need to do to optimize their health? Fox News Warrior

(36:19):
takes on prosecutor role in Trump's d C crackdown. As
the U. S Attorney in Washington, Jeanine Piro is a
central player and a clash that could define her legacy
the President's takeover of local law enforcement by Glenn Thrush.
Jeanine Piro, the former Fox co host who took over
the U. S. Attorney's office in the District of Columbia

(36:40):
three months ago, has had a little trouble down shifting
her high rev New York motor to the flat tire
pace of bureaucratic Washington. As anybody within earshot knows, Miss Piro,
a cable TV celebrity who has not run a prosecutor's
office in the iPhone era, has vented her impatience matters

(37:00):
trivial and consequential, be it her difficulty getting free water
for her office or grousing about federal and local laws
limiting prosecution of young offenders, a consistent complaint to federal
law enforcement for years. Like many big shot outsiders who
take on medium shot government jobs, Miss Piero has been

(37:20):
aggravated by red tape, particularly requirements that she obtained approval
of other officials before taking actions she would have done unilaterally.
As Westchester County District attorney two decades ago. I'll call Bondie,
miss Pierros told staff members when she is frustrated, According
to people familiar with her remarks, referring to her friend

(37:42):
and boss, Attorney General Pam Bondie, I'll call the President
is what she says when she is really, really frustrated.
Miss Pierro seventy four, a longtime friend of President Trump
who tried and failed to secure a top Justice Department
job during his first term, has embraced her new posts
with a gravelly gusto and a focus on street crime.

(38:02):
For now, she has set aside the partisan bomb throwing
that endeared her to the President in the first place,
including anti Muslim slurs and election lies. The tonal change
is drawing. Few pro Trump news personalities have talked more
loudly or carried a bigger stick than Miss Piro, whose
in your face presence earned her right wing following and

(38:23):
a leather lunged merlow sloshing caricature on Saturday Night Live.
Among her more re memorable statements suggesting Hillary Clinton had
a lobotomy, declaring that Biden era Justice Department officials be
taking out in handcuffs, and asserting that voting machines were
rigged to sink mister Trump's twenty twenty campaign. The exodus

(38:46):
of experienced, career prosecutors at the office has continued under
her tenure, according to current and former department officials, but
morale has stabilized somewhat after the departure of the Interior
UIs Attorney Ed Martin, who purged lawyers involved in the
Capital riot prosecutions and targeted Trump enemies for investigations in

(39:07):
part to embarrass them. Over the past week, Miss Pierro
has emerged as a central player in a confrontation that
will do much to define her legacy in the role
of the Justice Department in mister Trump's second term. The
White House mandated takeover of the District of Columbia's law
enforcement at a time when violent crime in the city

(39:27):
is steadily decreasing, but a persistent concern for residents. I
see too much violent crime being committed by young punks
who think they can get together in gangs and crews
and beat the hell out of you, said Miss Piero,
standing next to mister Trump after he announced the takeover
this week. The takeover represents the opening of a second

(39:47):
political front for Trump era federal law enforcement, alongside the
campaign of retributions spearheaded by mister Martin and egged on
by the President. In that sense, Miss Pierro is filling
the vacuum li left by Rudy Giuliani, standard bearer of
a venerable and potent Republican law and order message that
casts big cities as lawless war zones, Democrats as enablers

(40:11):
of disorder, and conservatives as sensible saviors. It is a
message with the potential to resonate beyond mister Trump's base.
Many in Washington, particularly in communities of color otherwise hostile
to the president, remained anxious about public safety. A lot
of people on the ground still feel that crime is
out of control, said Anthony Coley, who served as a

(40:34):
spokesman for Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. That is created
an opening for this president to pull off a raw
political stunt. Miss Piro's abrupt leap from a panelist on
the five on Fox News with a salary of three
million dollars a year for a job that pays under
two hundred thousand dollars a year came as little surprised

(40:55):
to friends and associates who say she is eager to
return to her prosecutorial roots. Over the years, her hard
earned reputation as a prosecutor has taken a hit as
her rhetoric became more vitriolic and on air assertions more
factually dubious. In twenty nineteen, she was suspended by Fox
after she suggested president a representative ilhan Omar's wearing of

(41:22):
a job was an American. In twenty twenty one, her
falsehoods about the twenty twenty election put her at the
center of Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against the network,
which resulted in a seven hundred and eighty seven dollars
or million dollars settlement. When Republican Senators rejected mister Martin

(41:44):
as the permanent US Attorney, Miss Bondi urged mister Trump
to pick Miss Piro, who had years earlier lobbied unsuccessfully
to be named Deputy Attorney General. Soon after, the President called,
Miss Pierro said yes, it was not the first job
in the U S administration. She had been offered. Late
last year, after mister Trump tapped Cash Patel, a podcaster

(42:06):
with scant law enforcement experience, to be FBI director his
aides approached Miss Pierrot about becoming his deputy. She told
them she had no interest working for mister Patel. According
to two people familiar with the exchange, if Miss Pierrot
hopes to ascend to the department, she has not shared
it with people in her orbit. She has defied expectations

(42:28):
common among staff before she arrived that she would not
take the job seriously or spend her days commitzing at
the White House, Miss Pierro has been working long hours,
fortified by candy and early morning workouts. She lives in
a rented apartment in Washington during the week and commutes
back to her house in Rye, New York on the weekends.

(42:49):
She has made it clear she is not She did
not approve of mister Martin's practice of confining himself to
his office and mostly avoiding career staff, whom he generally
viewed as Deep States adversaries. I'm not ed Martin, she
pointedly told a local official who complained about her predecessor.
She holds daily briefings with division chiefs in the office,

(43:10):
circulates among staff, and drops in on court proceedings of
particular interest to her, including the trial of Shawn Hopwood,
a Georgetown law professor convicted last month of assaulting his wife.
While Miss Pierro can be abrasive and distractible, she is
prone to peering over the heads of visitors to her
office to watch the TV. Unlike mister Martin, she has

(43:32):
largely allowed officials to conduct their work without interference. According
to several people briefed on her actions, she earned the
wary respect of subordinates early in her tenure. After a
lone gunman fatally shot to Israeli embassy employees in May
outside the Jewish Museum in downtown Washington. Miss Pierro, donning
tortois shell glasses and discarding the flippancy of her persona

(43:55):
on the five was well briefed, professional, and measured. Exception
and performance are different things, and one of her biggest
challenges is matching her confident public messaging with results. Given
the mass departures of career prosecutors and support staff, some
were fired by mister Martin, others fled. Current and former

(44:16):
officials estimate the office has lost one quarter to one
third of its career staff. Miss Pierro estimated the losses
at ninety prosecutors sixty investigators in paralegals. During an appearance
on Fox this month, she went on to make an
extraordinary direct to camera pitch. If you want a job
in the nation's capital, in the premier office, the largest

(44:39):
US attorney's office, contact me, she said. Miss Piero began
her career as a young lawyer in the New York
City's northern suburbs, where she earned a reputation as a
fierce and politically moderate prosecutor, known for her focus on
assaults and sexual offenses against women and children. She was
elected Westchester cam District Attorney in nineteen ninety three as

(45:02):
a Republican supporting abortion rights and quickly became the darling
of the tabloids and cable. Combining a telegenic appearance with
a penchant for blunt quote ability, Miss Pierrot parleyed that
into a successful TV career, first as a judge, then
as a commentator, and finally an implacable defender of mister Trump,

(45:24):
whom she is known for decades. Along the way, she
accrued a formidable fortune. Her net worth is eleven point
five million dollars according to financial disclosures, and some serious
baggage her tough talk on crime does not necessarily extend
to those she deems to be worthy of sympathy and reprieve,
most notably her former husband, Albert J. Pirot Junior, who

(45:48):
was convicted twenty five years ago of illegal tax write
offs of expensive cars, paintings, and even the fencing around
a pig pen at the family mansion. During the waning
hours of the first Trump administration, Miss Piro hit the
phones after learning that mister Piro, who had once served
as mister Trump's real estate lawyer, was not one of
those receiving a pardon. Her intervention succeeded. That relationship is

(46:13):
double edged. While she can pick up the phone and
get mister Trump, it also makes it more likely that
the President and his top aides will exert immediate pressure
on her. The biggest question facing Miss Pierro moving forward
is whether she will have the latitude to focus primarily
on basic law enforcement or take a martin Esque turn

(46:33):
by targeting mister Trump's enemies at his behest. A potential
moment of truth looms just over the horizon Miss Bondie's
decision to authorize a grand jury investigation into accusations that
Obama era officials fabricated intelligence about Russian meddling in the
twenty sixteen election may extend to Washington, meaning prosecutors or

(46:56):
support staff from her office could potentially be assigned to
the case. When Benny Johnson, a far right podcaster, recently
asked Miss Piro if she would investigate Senator Adam B. Schiff,
Democrat of California, for leaks of information about mister Trump,
she punted, the difference between me and some other people
is that I don't talk about what I'm investigating, she said.

(47:19):
Miss Piro has embraced the administration's maximalist approach against those
who defy federal crackdowns. In the past month, a federal
grand jury in the district has twice rejected efforts by
her office to indict a woman accused of assaulting an
FBI agent assisting in the transfer of immigrants. Jurors found

(47:39):
evidence presented by Miss Piero's prosecutors, wanting the magistrate overseeing
the case, said her office is also bringing felony assault
charges against a man who chucked a sandwich at a
heavily armed federal officer this week. The officer was not injured,
so they are stick your subway sandwich somewhere else, miss
Piro said in a video. Nonetheless, she is making effort

(48:02):
to keep open lines of communication with local officials and
has at least initially avoided criticizing individuals and confined her
ire to city laws that limit prosecutions of offenders under
twenty five. Her Democratic predecessors have also decried those laws
as far too restrictive. Several Biden Air of Justice Department officials,

(48:24):
speaking on the condition of animinity to avoid publicly criticizing
their successors, say their biggest complaint about Miss Piero is
not that she is too extreme, but that she is
hyping routine actions and minimizing their work for the sake
of self promotion. Last Tuesday, when a reporter pressed her
on that point, how could the administration declare an emergency

(48:45):
in a city where violent crime has precipitously declined, Miss
Pierro declared that one crime was still too many. Asked
about recent cuts to criminal justice programs, Miss Piero, wearing
a tailored navy blue jacket an expression of incredulity, took
another high heeled step toward the cameras. Oh stop it,

(49:07):
she said, mahaft report brings relief to some chagrin to others.
A draft of an upcoming White House report on Children's
health was not as harsh toward the agriculture industry as
some of Robert F. Kennedy Junior's allies had hoped. By
Danny Blum, Benjamin Mueller, and Alice Callahan, some vocal allies

(49:31):
of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior, expressed dismay and
alarm on Friday at what they saw as concessions to
the powerful agriculture industry contained in the draft of an
upcoming White House report on Children's health. The draft, details
of which The New York Times published on Thursday, offered
proposals on food and pesticides that fell short of what

(49:53):
many and mister Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement had
hoped for. The disclosure reopened a bitter divide among supporters
of President Trump over the clearest path to improving Americans health.
In one camp are MAHA followers, who like the Health Secretary,
have warned the chemicals are poisoning Americans, and they are

(50:14):
demanding swift action to claim up the food supply. In another,
are influential agriculture, food and drug interests that have traditionally
backed Republicans and see the specter of a crackdown on
the food supply as a threat to their industries as
well as the product prices and jobs. Somewhere in the
middle are more moderate allies of mister Kennedy, including MAHA supporters,

(50:38):
who say they understood that their revolution could not happen overnight.
The draft report, a strategy document by a presidential commission
established to improve children's health, is not final and will
most likely change before its release in the coming weeks.
It followed a report published in May that laid out
what it said were the root causes of chronic childldhood diseases,

(51:01):
but many experts disagree with some conclusions, and the report
cited studies that did not exist. The Department of Health
and Human Services declined to comment on reactions on the
new draft report. The documents said the Trump administration would
back research on technolologies to help farmers reduce pesticide use

(51:21):
and on the health effects of exposure to chemicals. It
called for a campaign to raise public awareness of existing
pesticide review procedures. The draft went so far as to
praise current procedures as robust. Just before the election, By contrast,
mister Kennedy pledged to ban the worst agricultural chemicals that
are already prohibited in other countries. Zen Honeycutt, the founder

(51:45):
of Moms Across America, an advocacy group closely linked to
the MAHA movement, called the draft profoundly disappointing and dangerous,
but the document did not take a strong stance against
glyf phossate, a widely used herbe is absolutely counter to
any claim that we're going to make America healthy again,

(52:06):
she said. Clearly, we have a long ways to go
in educating many of the members of this administration because
we know that statement is not what Kennedy alone would
have issued. She added that has been influenced by the
chemical industry. David Murphy, a former fundraiser for mister Kennedy's
presidential campaign, said MAHA is very disappointed in this report.

(52:29):
We didn't come here because we want food dyes out
of fruit loobs, he added, we came here because we
want a fundamental rewriting of our food and ag policy.
But some aligned with mister Kennedy said the draft report
revealed the messy reality of trying to craft national policy.
Charles Einstein, a writer who has advised mister Kennedy, said

(52:49):
he was pleased with what he had read about the
draft report. Overall. I think what's happening here is that
activists who have been on the outside for a long
time are finally getting to taste of the actual complexity
of these issues once you're actually in a policy making position,
he said. Kennedy is really preserving his political capital and

(53:10):
picking his battles, he added. Jacqueline Capriotti, who worked as
an organizer for mister Kennedy's presidential campaign, said she appreciated
the draft report's emphasis on further research before taking big
actions on pesticides. Some studies have linked like falsate and
atrazine widely used whig killers to adverse health outcomes, but

(53:32):
research in humans has been limited. The science does have
to be investigated more in more detail before we put
out some massive statements out there to put pressure on
the agricultural community, on the USDA, on the EPA to
start pulling back on these chemicals, she said. I think
we have to be very careful not to lean on

(53:53):
our passion on this, she said. Gary Breca, who hosts
a popular wellness podcast and is influence on the MAHA movement.
Also said he supported the draft report. We'd love to
see broad, sweeping legislation that outlaws some of those chemicals,
he said, But if you were health, if you were
Health and Human Services or the Department of Agriculture, you

(54:16):
also have to realize the impact, not just financially, but
the impact that this would make on the food supply
having to shift gears so quickly privately agriculture industries. Industry
officials took heart that the draft retreated from imposing restrictions
on pesticide use, and the minor measures regarding the harms
of chemicals seemed to industry officials to be relatively benign.

(54:41):
John Bode, the chief executive of the Corn Refiners Association,
said in a statement on Friday that the group enthusiastically
supports evidence based efforts to improve public health. We are
encouraged by the Make America Healthy Again commissions efforts to
achieve that goal by soliciting stake colder feedback to find

(55:01):
evidence based solutions. He said. The industry had been bracing
for a more aggressive crackdown after the initial report in
May claimed that glyfossate, an atrazine could be linked to cancers,
intocrine disruption, and liver inflammation. Since then, industry groups have
pressed the White House Mahaw Commission on what they saw

(55:22):
as weak scientific evidence behind those findings and raise concerns
about the impact of heavier restrictions on food costs and jobs.
Some industry officials said the draft showed that efforts in
recent months to win a seed at the table had worked.
There's just some massive lobbying going on right now, said
doctor Mark Hyman, a functional medicine physician and longtime friend

(55:45):
of mister Kennedy. They don't want to lose their chemical
seed and fertilizer billions and billions of dollars that they're making.
Doctor Hyman was generally pleased with the research priorities and
food policy initiatives men the draft report, like those updating
federal dietary guidelines, phasing out synthetic food dyes, tightening oversight

(56:08):
of food additives, and improving nutrition education and medical schools.
It's just so encouraging to me that these things are
even talked about, he said. Still, he added, it remains
to be seen how they will be funded or put
in place. The draft fulfilled another wish of agriculture trade groups.
It made no mention of seed oils, despite the report

(56:30):
from May suggesting without evidence that those oils may contribute
to inflammation in the human body. The agricultural groups had
since warned that restricting or banning seed oils, including those
made from corn and soybeans, could shrink the domestic market
for those products, as they were simultaneously being hit with
retaliatory tariffs because of President Trump's trade war. But many

(56:54):
food and nutrition experts were disappointed by the draft report,
which they said failed to lay out policies that would
actually improve the country's food supply. Mary and Nessley, a
professor Emerita of nutrition, food studies, and public health at
New York University, said the report was full of waffle
words with plans for more research and exploring policy ideas.

(57:18):
That's a joke, she said. They promised that the policy
report would lay out the actions. I don't see them. Instead,
the Trump administration has slashed medical research funding. It isn't
clear how much funding the new initiatives laid out in
the draft might receive. For all the scrutiny that the
final report will receive in coming weeks. It represents only

(57:39):
a small piece of mister Kennedy's influence over public health.
Secretary Kennedy has an extraordinary opportunity to dramatically improve the
quality of the food supply and lives of Americans, said
doctor David A. Kessler, a former head of the Food
and Drug Administration who last week petitioned the agency to
regulate key ingredients in and ultra process foods. What he

(58:02):
does is considerably more important than what many of the
reports says. This concludes the reading of The New York
Times for today. Your reader for today has been down Flickager.
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(58:24):
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