8.28.25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the reading of the New York Times for Thursday,
August twenty eighth, 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. We

(00:21):
begin today with the Merriam Webster Word of the Day,
and today's word is diminution. Diminution Diminution is a formal
word that refers to the act or process of becoming less.
The company is committed to seeing that efforts to scale

(00:43):
up production do not result in a diminution of quality.
Today's front page headlines from the national print edition of
The New York Times. Trump takes power quest to new level.
Attack on FED official likely to test justices. FDA limits

(01:03):
who can get COVID vaccine. Most people under sixty five
won't have access. Church shooting kills two students, seventeen people
hurt at school's mass in Minneapolis. False arrest shows pitfalls
of facial recognition. In New York case, man didn't match
victim's bodily description. Money being poured into AI is propping

(01:28):
up real economy and rampant sexual violence with little recourse,
shifting authorities in war torn Congo. Our first story is
headlined Trump again escalates power grabs in bid to fire
FED member. Its news analysis by Charlie Savage, who's been

(01:50):
writing about presidential power and legal policy for more than
two decades. President Trump's bid to fire a member of
the Federal Reserve Board is a new escalation in his
efforts to amass more power over American government and society.
Congress generations ago structured the agency crucial to the health

(02:12):
of the Econery to be independent of White House control.
In purporting to fire the board member, Lisa D. Cook,
mister Trump is setting up another test of how far
the Republican appointed supermajority on the Supreme Court will let
him go in eroding the checks and balances Congress has
long imposed on executive power. His attempt to fire miss

(02:36):
Cook presents a new twist. It raises the question of
whether he alone can decide whether there is cause to
fire an official at an independent agency whose leaders are
protected by law from arbitrary removal, or whether courts will
be willing and able to intervene if judges believe his

(02:57):
justification is a pretext, but the move to oust ms Cook,
whom the Senate confirmed for a term that ends in
twenty thirty eight, also fits into a now familiar arc,
joining the various ways mister Trump has systematically accumulated greater authority.
Mister Trump has stretched the bounds of some legal authorities,

(03:19):
like prolifically declaring emergencies to unlock more expansive power, sending
troops into the streets of American cities, unilaterally, raising import taxes,
and blocking spending Congress had directed. In this case, he
is pushing at the limits of a statute that says
FED board members serve fourteen year terms unless removed four

(03:44):
cause by a president. Mister Trump has also openly weaponized
government power in ways that post Watergate norms had forbidden,
including directing the Justice Department to investigate perceived foes, in
this case, a loyalist he installed atop the Federal Housing
Finance Agency, has scrutinized mortgage documents associated with various people

(04:09):
mister Trump does not like, apparently finding a discrepancy in
two loan applications Miss Cook submitted in twenty twenty one,
and mister Trump has unabashedly violated statutes in which Congress
set limits on when various types of officials may be
fired while seeking rulings striking down those laws as unconstitutional

(04:31):
constraints on his powers. The restrictions apply to an array
of officials, including board members of other independent agencies, inspectors general,
and civil servants. But in telling miss Cook he was
firing her, mister Trump invoked a provision Congress wrote into
the Federal Reserve Act that says FED board members may

(04:52):
only be removed before their terms are up for cause.
He said he had determined that sufficient causes existed to
remove her. That provision does not define what counts as
a sufficient reason. In general, such provisions have been understood
to mean something like significant misconduct or neglective office. The

(05:15):
moves come as Federal Reserve remains mister Trump in mister
Trump's crosshairs. With the President pressuring the Central Bank to
lower interest rates, He has repeatedly threatened to fire the
FED chairman, Jerome H. Powell, citing cost overruns in its
project to renovate the headquarters. Minutes from the board's July meeting,

(05:35):
which were made public last week, showed that the two
Trump appointees on the seven member board wanted to lower
interest rates, but the rest, including Ms Cook, thought they
should be held steady. Among mixed economic data, including weakening
job numbers and a still elevated inflation rate, Congress enacted

(05:56):
the law forbidding presidents from firing FED Board members without cause,
making it an independent agency to shield it from political pressures.
The idea is to allow the Board to decide on
consequential matters like raising and lowering interest rates, based on
the long term health of the economy, not short term
political interests. The conservative legal movement, whose adherents now control

(06:21):
the Supreme Court, has long wanted to reinterpret the Constitution
to eliminate Congress's ability to restrain presidents seeking to fire
officials who exercise executive power, the so called unitary executive theory,
But even many conservatives have recoiled the prospect of ending

(06:42):
the independence of the Federal Reserve. In a decision in
May allowing mister Trump to remove Democratic appointed members of
the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit System's Protection
Board before their terms were up, members of the Supreme
Court's majority appeared to signal that they did not want

(07:02):
to mess with the fed's independence. The majority noted that
the fired officials on those boards had argued that allowing
mister Trump to dismiss them without cause would undermine similar
laws protecting the independence of the FED, wrote, we disagree.
The opinion explained that the FED was different because it

(07:23):
is a uniquely structured, quasi private entity that followed from
a distinct historical tradition dating back to the country's first
national bank, which Congress established in seventeen ninety one. But
mister Trump is now fighting against or moving against the
Fed's independence anyway, albeit in a slightly different way. On paper,

(07:46):
at least, mister Trump is purporting to fire miss Cook
for a cause. In a letter he posted to social
media on Monday, he cited allegations that in twenty twenty one,
before she became a member of the FED Board, she
falsely called two different properties her primary residence. That status
allows someone to secure better loan terms. The allegation was

(08:10):
put forward by a Trump loyalist leading the Federal Housing
Finance Agency, William J. Pulty. He has also accused New
York's State Attorney General, Letitia James of similar misrepresentations on
mortgage documents. Miss James earlier won a civil fraud case
against mister Trump for manipulating the values of his properties

(08:32):
to mislead lenders and insurers. In a statement, Miss Cook's lawyer,
Abbe Lowell said mister Trump's move lacked any proper process,
basis or legal authority, and vowed to take whatever actions
are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action. That's a quote,

(08:52):
and Miss Cook said she did not recognize mister Trump's
effort to fire her as legitimate and would continue to
serve in her position. President Trump purported to fire me
for cause when no cause exists under the law and
he has no authority to do so, she said in
a statement, I will not resign should a courtroom fight emerge.

(09:16):
The case appears likely to turn on two issues. First,
whether what counts as sufficient cause is up to the
president a loan to decide, or if courts can adjudicate
whether the standard has been met. If courts do declare
that they have the power to review whether there was
sufficient cause, the second issue is whether they will reject

(09:38):
mister Trump's move against Ms Cook as a pretext, or
whether they will say the specific allegations in this instance
are good enough to defer to his view. In his letter,
mister Trump appeared to gesture toward the argument that his
determinations cannot be second guessed. He cited the provision of

(09:58):
the Federal Reserve Act that says FED board members may
only be removed for cause by the President, but added
a phrase not in the statute, saying it was up
to his discretion whether that standard was met. The Federal
Reserve Act provides that you may be removed at my
discretion for cause, mister Trump wrote, I have determined that

(10:21):
there is sufficient cause to remove you from your position.
Our next story is headlined FDA approves COVID shots with
new restrictions. It's by Christina Jewett and J. C. Forton.
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved updated COVID

(10:41):
vaccines for the fall season and limited who can get
the shots, the federal government's most restrictive policy since the
vaccines became available. The agency authorized the vaccines for people
who are sixty five and older, who are known to
be more vulnerable to severe illness from COVID. Younger people
would only be eligible if they had at least one

(11:04):
underlying medical condition that would put them at risk for
severe disease. Healthy children under eighteen could still receive the
shots if a medical provider is consulted. People seeking the
shots will soon face another hurdle. An influential advisory committee
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must vote

(11:26):
to recommend them, But that panel's makeup shifted when Health
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior unseated existing members, reduced the
panel's size and added some COVID vaccine opponents. This would
mark the first fall winter season that COVID shots were
not widely recommended to most people and children, pitting federal

(11:49):
officials in the Trump administration against several national medical groups
that oppose the restrictions. In a social media mister Kennedy
said the approvals accomplished the goals of keeping vaccines available
to people who want them and of demanding that companies

(12:09):
conduct placebo controlled trials. One new required study would examine
post COVID nineteen vaccination syndrome in patients, a condition that
has been noted in at least one small preliminary medical report,
but is still a matter of pitched debate. The American

(12:30):
people demanded science, safety, and common sense. Mister Kennedy's post
on X said this framework delivers all three. Many public
health experts view the changes as part of mister Kennedy's
broader campaign against certain vaccines, especially his targeting of mRNA technology,

(12:51):
which has been used in the vast majority of shots
administered to Americans. They criticized his recent cancellation of five
hundred million million dollars in grants to study flu and
covid vaccines as a move that would significantly set back
the nation's efforts to develop better therapies and leave the
nation reliant on older, slower approaches. Those efforts have been

(13:16):
tempered to some degree by the White House, where President
Trump remains proud of Operation Warp Speed, which is widely
recognized as an impressive feat of science, organization, and execution
to develop and deliver vaccines that helped bring the pandemic
to an end. Operation Warp Speed, people say, is one

(13:38):
of the greatest achievements ever in politics or in the military,
because it was almost a military procedure, mister Trump said
during a cabinet meeting Tuesday. The FDA's new limited approval
covers two vaccines designed with mRNA that were updated to
target the LP eight one variant represents nearly one third

(14:01):
of recent cases. The Maderna vaccine authorization covers those who
are six months old and older and have medical conditions,
and all people over sixty five. The Pheiser shot was
approved for the same group ages five and older. The
agency also approved the protein based novavax vaccine, which is

(14:23):
matched to the omicron strain j N one, which the
mRNA vaccines targeted last year. The company said the shots
continue to offer high levels of antibodies. The FDA revoked
emergency authorizations for the vaccines in children, which would make
the Pfiser shot unavailable for children younger than five. Proponents

(14:47):
of limiting eligibility say that younger people are far less
susceptible to severe illness, and the rates of vaccine use
have dropped in recent years to about twenty three percent
among all adults and to thirteen percent of people younger
than eighteen, according to the CDC. A decision by the
CDC's panel is expected within a month, and it could

(15:09):
greatly influence access to the shots at drug store sites,
which have become the most convenient places to get them.
Laws in a number of states, including California, Pennsylvania, Florida,
and Massachusetts require that pharmacy staff are only permitted to
administer vaccines recommended by the CDC and Richard Hughes the Fourth,

(15:30):
a lawyer who said Richard Hughes the Fourth a lawyer
who represents vaccine makers. Along with the new eligibility limits,
pharmacists are raising concerns over their role in an era
of increasing vaccine restrictions. I'm hearing from pharmacists who are
fearful they might be in a legal jeopardy for providing vaccines,

(15:53):
said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist. Quote. We've
created this environment meant of fear for vaccine administration, and
I'm hearing a lot of that. Health insurers have so
far made few changes in coverage and have said they
expect to continue to support vaccination as a preventative measure,

(16:15):
but whether coverage will change because of the new restrictions
remains unknown. Medical coverage or Medicaid coverage, which includes the
Vaccines for Children program that provides access to low income
and working class families, generally hues to the CDC recommendations.
Mister Kennedy has upended decades of vaccine policy at the

(16:39):
CDC in recent months, replacing infectious disease experts, with some
members who have vehemently opposed the mRNA COVID vaccines. Mister Kennedy,
who spent nearly twenty years working as an anti vaccine
activist before entering government, also has the final say over
the panel's recommendations. Sarah Rosack, Senior vice president of Health

(17:04):
and Wellness Strategy and Policy for the National Association of
Chain drug Stores, a trade group, said her organization was
carefully watching the CDC's next move, given that about ninety
percent of COVID shots were administered in pharmacies in recent years.
A CVS Health spokesman said it has continued to offer

(17:26):
eligible patients COVID vaccines, but would review the new federal guidelines.
The company also owns the insurer ETNA, and said self
funded employers could determine what to cover depending on state
and federal laws. For now, CVS said pregnant women and
children would be able to get COVID shots. Walgreens did

(17:47):
not respond to a request for comment. The Blue Cross
Blue Shield Association, whose plans cover one in three Americans,
said in a statement that it would monitor the federal
guidelines on immunis a number of professional groups have already
begun to issue advice that diverges from recent changes under
mister Kennedy's watch. In May, the CDC dropped the recommendation

(18:13):
that pregnant women received the COVID shots, a move that
could limit insurance coverage and availability at pharmacies. The American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists took a different stance, advising
women to get the COVID vaccine to protect themselves and
their infants, who cannot be immunized until they are six
months old. Large studies have found that vaccination reduces the

(18:38):
risk of maternal death or stillbirth during pregnancy. It's really
heartbreaking to see a person who is pregnant on a ventilator,
said doctor Brenna Hughes, a member of ACOG's Immunization, Infectious
Disease and Public Health Preparedness Expert work group who cared
for patients at Duke University Medical Center during the early

(18:59):
waves of the pandemic. It was something like I've never
seen in my life. The number of people that I
saw in the ICU who were pregnant and on ventilators
are even more severely ill, she said, and I hope
I never see anything like that again. The decision to
approve the vaccines with a requirement to study post COVID

(19:20):
nineteen vaccination syndrome struck doctor Jake Scott and Infectious Disease
as specialist at Stanford Medicine as irresponsible. He said the
term was coined on the basis of a very small study,
and in his words, it's not really clear if it
even exists. The risk is really that this post vaccination

(19:40):
syndrome becomes a catch all label for any persistent symptoms
after vaccination, he said, adding we could end up with
a diagnosis that doesn't actually help patients get the right treatment.
Though data collection has fallen off, the reports of COVID
deaths have fallen sharply. In July, a month when case

(20:02):
counts tend to be low, the CDC reported roughly one
hundred seventy deaths a week this year. Last year, there
were about five hundred fifty to eight hundred fifty deaths
a week in July. Still, lawmakers in several states, including Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,
and Rhode Island, have taken legislative steps to safeguard their

(20:25):
ability to provide vaccines. Regardless of federal policies, and state
health officials in the Northeast and beyond met recently to
discuss paths forward in the case of altered federal medicine
vaccine policies. Doctor Robbie Goldstein, the Massachusetts Health Commissioner and
an infectious disease as specialist, said his team was scouring

(20:48):
state laws for references to the CDC Committee to ensure
that the state could make vaccine policy based on other
recommendations such as ACOG or the American Academy of Pediatrics.
We are committed to using data and evidence, and we've
seen that the federal government, in particular Secretary Kennedy, has

(21:09):
not supported the use of data and has not been
transparent with the data that he's using to make decisions.
He said. Cases of COVID have ticked up in recent weeks,
particularly among children from newborn to age eleven. CDC data
show children made up the group with the highest rates

(21:30):
of COVID in emergency rooms, with three and a half
percent of those from birth to age eleven testing positive
in recent weeks, ten times the rate in May. At
the University of California Los Angeles Emergency Medical Center overall
cases are up, but quote the majority of folks are
not very sick, except for those who are complicated by

(21:53):
other medical issues affecting immunity and respiratory health, as from
doctor Mane Mark Morocco, a clinical professor of emergency medicine. Traditionally,
the FDA has issued broad appeals to vaccines and passed
the baton to the CDC, which convenes experts who issue

(22:13):
recommendations on which groups should receive the doses. Those teams
tend to carefully weigh the risk of the disease and
any safety concerns that emerge about the vaccine. FDA officials
announced a new approach in May narrowing access to COVID vaccines,
which they described in an essay in the medical journal NEEJM.

(22:37):
Doctor Marty Mackeri, the agency's commissioner, and doctor Vine Prasad,
its vaccine chief, said the benefits of repeated doses of
COVID vaccines for healthy people were uncertain and that the
American people remained unconvinced. To address the concern, they asked
COVID vaccine makers to study the vaccine in fifty to

(23:00):
sixty four year olds, with a focus on comparing symptomatic disease,
severe illness, hospitalization, and death to those who were given
a placebo. In the meantime, the COVID vaccines are restricted
among those younger than sixty five to people with one
of a long list of underlying conditions, including depression, obesity, diabetes,

(23:24):
or physical inactivity. The FDA also included pregnancy as a
condition that elevates the risk of severe disease. Mister Kennedy
followed that news with his own announcement standing in for
the CDC process, ultimately leaving pregnant women off the vaccine
schedule and concluding that children could get it after a

(23:48):
conversation with a healthcare provider. The decision was widely panned
by medical experts, including doctor Paul Offitt, a vaccine expert
and pediatrician. He said that mister Kennedy's justification for restricting
vaccines from pregnant women, detailed in a letter to Congress,
misrepresented medical studies and, in his words, would fail a

(24:12):
tenth grade science class. Soon after, six leading medical groups
sued the Department of Health and Human Services, saying the
decision would result in preventable deaths, including the unborn and
newborns under six months old. The case is pending. The
shots will be welcomed in Galveston, Texas, where doctor Janet Patel,

(24:34):
an infectious disease and epidemiology specialist at the University of
Texas Medical Branch, said positive COVID tests reached levels of
about twenty five to thirty percent about six weeks ago
and remained high. Very old patients and those with immunocompromised
systems like cancer patients, have fared the worst. He said.

(24:55):
Many still forego vaccines. Hesitancy remains high, and people think
they can deal with COVID now without it, doctor Patel said,
But as you can tell, we have big waves and
we still have admissions and deaths. That's a quote. Now
a story headlined Trump with tariffs and threats tries to

(25:17):
strong arm nations to retreat on climate goals. It's by LESA.
Friedman reporting from Washington. President Trump is not only working
to stop a transition away from fossil fuels in the
United States, he is pressuring other countries to relax their
pledges to fight climate change and instead burn more oil, gas,

(25:40):
and coal. Mister Trump, who has joined with Republicans in
Congress to shred federal support for electric vehicles and for
solar and wind energy. Is applying tariffs, levies, and other
mechanisms of the world's biggest economy to induce other countries
to burn more fossil fuels. His animus is particularly focused

(26:04):
on the wind industry, which is a well established and
growing source of electricity in several European countries, as well
as in China and Brazil. During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday,
mister Trump said he was trying to educate other nations.
I'm trying to have people learn about wind real fast,
and I think I've done a good job, but not

(26:24):
good enough, because some countries are still trying, mister Trump said.
He said countries were, in his words, destroying themselves with
wind energy, and he said, quote, I hope they get
back to fossil fuels unquote. Two weeks ago, the administration
promised to punish countries by applying tariffs, visa restrictions, and

(26:44):
port fees that vote for a global agreement to slash
greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping sector. Days later, in Geneva,
the Trump administration joined Saudi Arabia and other oil producing
countries to a pose limits on the production of petroleum
based plastics, which have exploded in use in recent years

(27:06):
and are polluting waterways, harming wildlife, and have even been
detected in the human brain. Last month, the Trump administration
struck a trade deal with the European Union in which
it agreed to reduce some tariffs if the block purchased
seven hundred fifty billion dollars in America or American oil

(27:27):
and gas over three years. That deal has raised concerns
in some European countries because it would conflict with plans
to reduce the use of fossil fuels, the burning of
which is the main driver of climate change. They are
clearly using various tools in an attempt to increase the
use of fossil fuels around the world instead of decrease,

(27:50):
Jennifer Morgan, Germany's former Special Envoy for Climate Action, said.
Also last month, Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned that the
United States could pull out of the International Energy Agency
after the organization predicted that global oil demand would peak
this decade instead of continue to climb. Mister Wright told

(28:12):
Europeans in April that they faced a choice between the
freedom and sovereignty of abundant fossil fuels and the policies
of climate alarmism his words that would make them less prosperous.
Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesman, said mister Trump's goal
was restoring America's energy dominance, ensuring energy independence to protect

(28:36):
our national security, and driving down costs for American families
and businesses, and added quote, the Trump administration will not
jeopardize our country's economic and national security to pursue vague
climate goals. Energy experts in European officials called the level

(28:57):
of pressure mister Trump is exerting on other country trees worrisome.
Last year, the hottest on record, was the first calendar
year in which the global average temperature exceeded one point
five degrees celsius or two point seven degrees fahrenheit above
pre industrial levels. Along with that came deadly heat, severe drought,

(29:21):
and devastating wildfires. This year is on track to be
the second or third hottest on record, according to data
from several agencies. Scientists widely agree that to avoid worsening
consequences of climate change, countries need to rapidly transition away
from oil, gas, and coal to clean energy sources like wind, solar,

(29:44):
geothermal power, and hydropower. At this moment in time, it
is absolutely imperative that countries double down, triple down on
their collaboration in the face of the climate crisis, to
not allow the active efforts for a fossil fuel world
by the Trump administration succeed. Miss Morgan said, mister Trump

(30:07):
routinely mocks the established science of climate change, and his
administration has issued a report written by five researchers who
reject the scientific consensus on climate change, arguing that hundreds
of the world's leading experts have overstated the risks of
a warming planet. The President also has made no secret

(30:29):
of his disgust for wind turbines and solar panels. Those
disparagements don't end at the water's edge. In July, mister
Trump visited the Turnbury Golf resort in Scotland, or fourteen
years ago, he tried unsuccessfully to stop construction of an
offshore wind farm that could be seen from another Trump

(30:49):
golf resort in Aberdeen. During that visit, mister Trump met
with Ursula Vanderlyon, the president of the European Commission to
Discuss Trade. He denounced wind power as a con job.
Ms vonder Lyon sat expressionless next to mister Trump during
a news conference after their meeting, as the President falsely

(31:10):
claimed wind turbines drive Bird's loco. In a separate meeting
with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain that week, mister
Trump called wind energy a disaster. Wind accounts for about
twenty percent of the electricity mix in Europe, and EU
countries planned to increase that to more than fifty percent

(31:31):
by twenty fifty. Wind needs massive subsidies. And you are
paying in Scotland and in UK and in all over
the place where they have them, massive subsidies to have
these ugly monsters all over the place, mister Trump said
in his meeting with mister Starmer. The arm twisting goes

(31:52):
far beyond mister Trump's actions during his first term, some
observers said, as he did in twenty seventeen, mister Trump
in January withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement,
a global pact among nearly two hundred countries to fight
climate change. But during the first term, mister Trump primarily
focused his energy policy on withdrawing the United States from

(32:15):
global discussions about climate change, while he promoted domestic fossil
fuel production. This time around, the administration is actively trying
to undermine countries on global warming, said David L. Goldwyn,
president of Goldwyn Global Strategies and Energy consulting firm. Several

(32:36):
diplomats from other countries said that the administration has used
increasingly aggressive tactics to influence international energy policies. In February,
mister Wright addressed the conference in London via video and
called net zero, when the amount of carbon dioxide added
to the atmosphere is equal to or less than the

(32:58):
amount removed, a sinister goal, and criticized a British law
to reach net zero by twenty fifty. In March, the
Trump administration denounced the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which
were adopted by nations unanimously in twenty fifteen and include
ending poverty and hunger and addressing climate change. The administration said, quote,

(33:24):
the government of the United States must refocus on the
interests of Americans quote, and course correct on things like
climate ideology. The Trump administration declined to attend global negotiations
this summer that are a precursor to annual United Nations
climate talks to be held in Brazil in November. It

(33:47):
also skipped an April meeting of the International Maritime Organization,
where the world's largest shipping countries agreed to impose a
minimum fee of one hundred dollars for every ton of
greenhouse gases emitted by ships above certain thresholds as a
way of curbing emissions. The body had been expected to

(34:07):
formally adopt the fee in October, but the administration's announcements
this month that it would reject the Maritime Organization deal
shocked many with its blunt promise that the United States
would not hesitate to retaliate or explore remedies for our
citizens against other countries that support the shipping fee. Meanwhile,

(34:33):
virtually all of the Trump administration's trade deals include requirements
that the trading partners buy US oil and gas. South
Korea promised by one hundred billion dollars worth of liquefied
natural gas over an unstated period of time. Japan is
also expected to invest five hundred and fifty billion dollars

(34:55):
in the United States, partially focused on energy infrastructure production.
A White House statement said that the money would include
liquefied natural gas and advanced fuels. The Administration said the
United States and Japan also were planning a major expansion
of US energy exports to Japan that is widely believed

(35:18):
to be a reference to a proposed forty four billion
dollar project to ship gas to Asia from the north
slope of Alaska. Europe narrowly avoided a trade war with
mister Trump by agreeing, among other things, to purchase seven
hundred fifty billion dollars in crude oil, natural gas and
petroleum derivatives, and nuclear reactor fuel over three years. On

(35:44):
an annual basis. That would amount to more than three
times the amount the block bought last year from the
United States. You see a more systematic attempt to be
a fossil fuel first strategy to everything that they do.
Sid Jake Schmidt, director of International Programs at the National
Resources Defense Council and Environmental Group, the administration may slow

(36:08):
the transition to clean energy by other countries, but cannot
stop it. Mister Schmidt said most countries that signed the
Paris Agreement will submit more ambitious targets for reducing their
greenhouse gas emissions to the United Nations this year, although
some may temper those plans because of the US position.
He said Diana firksgot Roth, director of the Center for

(36:31):
Client Energy, Climate, and Environment at the Heritage Foundation, a
conservative research organization, argued that the Trump administration was doing
the right thing by pressuring countries to reject renewable energy.
Europe is coming to the United States saying help defend
us against Russia, help us with Ukraine. Miss ferkstgot Roth said,

(36:54):
we're at the same time they're spending three hundred and
fifty billion dollars a year on green energy investments that
are's lowing their economies. It doesn't seem to make very
much sense to the Trump administration, she said, adding I
think we're going to see more pressure now. A story
headlined how Trump used ten emergency declarations to justify hundreds

(37:17):
of actions. It's by Karen Jurish and Charlie Smart. In
his seven months back in office, President Trump has declared
nine national emergencies, plus a crime emergency in Washington. Those
emergency declarations have been used to justify hundreds of actions,

(37:38):
including immigration measures, sweeping tariffs, and energy deregulation that would
typically require congressional approval or lengthy regulatory review. According to
a New York Times analysis of presidential documents. All presidents
have the authority under the National Emergencies Act, a post
Watergate law, to declare an national emergency to enable the

(38:02):
federal government to respond quickly to a crisis, but mister
Trump has already invoked this power much more frequently than
his predecessors and experts say, for situations that do not
qualify as true emergencies. Previous emergency declarations have been made
over events like the COVID nineteen pandemic in twenty twenty

(38:24):
and the September eleventh attacks in two thousand one, as
well as to issue sanctions on countries like South Africa
during apartheid in nineteen eighty five and North Korea in
two thousand and eight. Mister Trump's use of emergency powers
in this term has far outpaced what is typical on average.

(38:45):
Between Ronald Reagan's inauguration in January nineteen eighty one and
the start of mister Trump's second term this year, presidents
declared about seven national emergencies during a four year term,
according to a Times analysis of data from the Brennan
Center for Justice, a nonpartisan think tank focused on democracy.

(39:06):
Mister Trump declared that many in his first month back
in office. On the first day of his second term,
mister Trump declared two national emergencies related to immigration, just
as he did during his first term. Mister Trump claimed
that an invasion of illegal aliens constituted a national emergency

(39:27):
along the US Mexico border. This move allowed him to
unilaterally unlock federal funding for border wall construction and to
empower the military to support the border patrol. In a
separate order, he used the border emergency to give the
military specific responsibility for immigration enforcement. A few months later,

(39:50):
he issued another directive, turning a narrow strip of federal
border land along the Mexican border in California, Arizona, and
New Mexico in to a military installation under the jurisdiction
of the Pentagon. Mister Trump's second immigration related national emergency
declaration called for a crackdown on major drug cartels. In it,

(40:14):
he directed the State Department to start labeling drug cartels
as foreign terrorist organizations, saying they constitute a national security
threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime and that
the United States would ensure the total elimination of the groups.
This month, The Times reported that mister Trump had secretly

(40:37):
signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military
force against certain Latin American drug cartels that had been
deemed terrorist organizations. The President has used two major categories
of emergency, encompassing four separate declarations, to justify the sweeping
tariffs he has imposed on most of the United States

(41:00):
trading partners. The most recent category is a trade imbalance.
In an April executive order declaring a national emergency, mister
Trump cast large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits
as a national security and economic threat. That emergency declaration
has been cited to justify at least nine actions since then,

(41:24):
some of them encompassing changes to teriff rates for many
trading partners at once. Most economists see trade deficits as
a long running feature of the US economy, and many
economists and legal experts questioned the declaration of an emergency
at a time when the economy was strong. The second

(41:46):
category is a drug crisis. Back in February, the President
issued three separate declarations targeting Canada, China, and Mexico for
what he argued were their roles in the national public
healthcare crisis caused by opium use and addiction. In each
of those three declarations, mister Trump also mentioned the border

(42:08):
and cartel emergencies discussed in the previous section in conjunction
with the drug crisis. Each of those declarations has given
rise to multiple terrif actions relating to those countries. According
to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
fentanyl deaths in the United States have been falling since

(42:31):
January of last year. Tracking the use of these emergency
orders to justify terrif actions is extraordinarily complicated. Mister Trump
has changed rates, extended and further extended deadlines, and made
specific adjustments to minimize disruption to particular American industries, among
other actions, but the result, at least so far, has

(42:54):
been a landscape of punishing rates starting at ten percent
and going on as high as fifty percent that have
taken effect for more than ninety trading partners. Attempts in
Congress to block or forestall the tariffs have not been successful,
but court challenges remain under way. Separately, mister Trump also

(43:16):
declared a specific national emergency with respect to the government
of Brazil, which he has argued is politically persecuting its
ex president JayR. Bolsonaro. Mister Bolsonaro, an ally of mister Trump,
is accused of orchestrating an attempted coup after losing the
twenty twenty two election. In the same document, mister Trump

(43:38):
imposed duties on Brazil that brought the country's teriff rate
up to fifty percent. Mister Trump has declared three other
emergencies in pursuit of his policy goals. The first among those,
declared the day he retook office, is a national energy emergency.
That's a big one. You know that what that w'lloe

(44:00):
allows you to do. That means you can do whatever
you have to do to get out of that problem.
And we do have that kind of an emergency, mister
Trump said while signing the declaration. It came amid a
flurry of other day one actions that reversed previous decisions
driven by concerns for the climate and environment. Experts soon

(44:20):
said no such emergency exists. The United States produces more
oil and gas than any other country. In May fifteen,
Democratic led States sued the Trump administration over the declaration
and how they argued it was being used to skirt
environmental and other regulations, and the administration has withdrawn federal

(44:43):
support for projects to boost renewable energy like wind and solar.
The Energy Declaration cleared the way for the administration to
expedite the production of domestic energy resources, including on federal lands,
using a variety of methods and d authorities. Among several
actions taken later that cited the Energy Emergency was in

(45:06):
order to the Department of Energy to develop a process
to keep unprofitable coal plants operational in order to avert
power outages. In February, mister Trump declared another national emergency
regarding the International Criminal Court and the threat he argued
the Court posed to US national security and foreign policy.

(45:30):
In the same document, mister Trump imposed sanctions on the Court,
its members, and its supporters in response to its investigations
of American and Israeli personnel. As the declaration notes, those
investigations have resulted in arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahoo and former Defense Minister Yav Galant. And this month,

(45:56):
mister Trump declared a crime emergency, a more targeted clank
than the nine national emergencies in Washington. In this case,
he invoked an emergency provision of the District of Columbia
Home Rule Act of nineteen seventy three to take control
of Washington's police force for thirty days, deploy the National Guard,
and sent hundreds of federal law enforcement agents into the

(46:18):
city in what he described as an effort to combat crime.
In fact, crime numbers in Washington have been falling. Even
when mister Trump has stopped short of declaring a new
official national emergency, he has frequently cited emergencies or comparable
crises to justify executive action. For example, a proclamation issued

(46:42):
on his first day back in office declared that that
an invasion is ongoing at the southern border. It made
a legal argument referring to times of emergency, including an invasion,
during which the president's powers over immigration should be expanded.
Mister Trump used this argument to justify several actions, including

(47:04):
suspending the entry of migrants across the United States Mexico
border and more broadly, restricting entry from migrants at all
ports of entry who failed to provide certain information to
federal officials. The proclamation also restricted migrants entering the country
across the southern border from invoking provisions of the Immigration

(47:26):
and Nationality Act, including claiming asylum in addition, mister Trump's
proclamation empowered federal officials to take appropriate action to stop
migrants from entering across the southern border and to deport
those who do. In March, mister Trump invoked a century's

(47:46):
old wartime authority, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport men
the administration said were members of a Venezuelan gang known
as Trendiragua with little or no due process. The action
that set off a high stakes legal battle, culminating in
a Supreme Court order blocking some deportations until further notice.

(48:09):
Although the March proclamation did not mention an emergency specifically,
it followed the national emergency he declared in January to
start the process of designating certain drug cartels as foreign
terrorist organizations, specifically calling out Trendia Ragua and MS thirteen
of Al Salvador, a presidential memorandum mister Trump signed in

(48:33):
June to authorize the deployment of several thousand National Guard
troops to Los Angeles, where protests had sprung up against
immigration raids. Cast the protests as a form of rebellion
against the authority of the government of the United States.
This action was also challenged in court. Special circumstances driven

(48:56):
by claims of emergency have also animated the Trump administer
station's own relationship with the legal system. Since mister Trump
re entered office, the administration has filed about twenty emergency
applications with the Supreme Court since January, seeking relief from
rulings issued by federal trial judges. The Court has ruled

(49:16):
in favor of mister Trump in a large majority of
those cases, which have touched on issues including deportation, mass
firing of federal workers, and termination of education grants. The
emergency orders by the Court are not the last word
on cases, but can resolve as a practical matter for
years while lawsuits whined through the courts. Mister Trump has

(49:40):
also taken several actions related to emergencies declared by previous presidents.
These include extending a Biden era emergency over the harmful
foreign activities of the Government of the Russian Federation, which
mister Trump used to threaten secondary tariffs on India for
importing Russian oil. Mister Trump also continued a national emergency

(50:03):
declared by President Barack Obama over Venezuela, which formed the
basis for a threat of similar earth similar threat of
tariffs for countries that import Venezuelan oil. Finally, mister Trump
has ended one previously declared emergency in recognition of the
fall of the Asad regime. He removed sanctions declared on

(50:26):
Syria by President George W. Bush in two thousand and four.
Now what we know about the Minnesota Catholic school shooting
by Anushka Patil. An assailant on Wednesday fired through the
windows of a Catholic church in Minneapolis, killing an eight
year old and a ten year old and injuring seventeen

(50:48):
other people, including fourteen children. The police said the attacker
then died of a self inflicted gunshot wound. The Minneapolis
Police Chief Brian O'Hara said at a news conference. The
authorities have identified the attacker as Robin Westman, twenty three,
who was believed to have once attended the school at
the Church Annunciation Catholic Church, according to a law enforcement

(51:11):
official with knowledge of the investigation. Appearing on NBC's Today
Show on Thursday morning, Chief O'Hara said officers had recovered
hundreds of pieces of evidence, including further writings from the suspect.
He said investigators were continuing to search rather for a
motive among the litany of grievances and violent obsessions that

(51:34):
dot miss Westman's writings, online videos, and social media postings.
The shooting took place about eight thirty am at Annunciation
Catholic Church in South Minneapolis, which has a school for
children in pre kindergarten through eighth grade. The students had
been observing an all school mass, an annual tradition for
the new academic year, which began Monday. Minneapolis Police Chief

(51:57):
Brian O'Hara said on The Today Show on Thursday that
the shooter had tried to get inside the church, but
the doors had been locked after the mass began. Not
being able to get into the church likely saved countless lives,
the chief said. Ellie Mertens, a twenty five year old
youth minister who said she had been sitting in a

(52:17):
pew with children, said that bullets came ripping through a
window and that the school's principal instructed everyone to get down.
The shooting lasted for about two minutes, she said. Other
witnesses and family members described students and staff members who
dived to the ground between pews for safety. The shooter
barricaded at least two doors of the church. Chief O'Hara

(52:40):
said he estimated that the assailant fired dozens of rounds
from three weapons, a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol
before dying from a self inflicted gunshot wound. The shooter
had purchased all three weapons lawfully. The two children killed
in the shooting were eight and ten, ten years old.

(53:00):
Both died in the pews of the church. Authorities said
their names have not been released. At least fourteen other
children between the ages of six and fifteen were shot,
According to Chief O'Hara, All were expected to survive. He
said three adults in their eighties who were attending the
mass were also wounded. He said. Robin Westman, whom the

(53:23):
authorities identified as the attacker, is believed to be a
former student at the school. According to a law enforcement
official with knowledge of the investigation, she appears to have
known the school well, though the motive for the attack
is not yet known. Ms Westman lived in a three
story brick building and a complex in Richfield, a suburb
just south of the church, and worked at a local

(53:45):
cannabis dispensary for several months this year as a seventeen
year old, she filed a court document to change her
first name to Robin from Robert. The document was also
signed by her mother, Mary Grace Westman, who worked in
the business office of the church for five years before
retiring in twenty twenty one. The document noted that Miss

(54:07):
Westman identified as female and what's her name to reflect
that identification. In seemingly stream of consciousness videos that she posted,
Miss Westman fixated on guns, violence, and school shooters. She
displayed her own cache of weapons, bullets, and what appeared
to be explosive devices, scrawled with antisemitic and racist language

(54:31):
and threats against President Trump. In a news conference, Mayor
Jacob Fry of Minneapolis, a Democrat, urged the public to
avoid scapegoating transgender people. In the wake of the attack.
Mister Fry said that he had no words for the gravity, tragedy,
or absolute pain of this situation. Mister Fry, whose long

(54:52):
advocated stricter gun laws, rejected the thoughts and prayers sentiment
that officials often fall back on after massed shootings. Don't
just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now,
he said, these kids were literally praying at a vigil
On Wednesday evening, the mayor called for action. Don't let
anyone tell you it's not about the guns, because it is,

(55:15):
he said. In a post on social media. Governor Tim
Walls said Minnesota is heartbroken. He added, from the officers
responding to the clergy and teachers providing comfort to the
hospital staff saving lives, we will get through this together.
Mister Walls said that he had spoken by phone with

(55:36):
President Trump, who sat on social media that he had
been briefed on the shooting and was praying for everyone involved.
Mister Trump signed a proclamation lowering flags to half staff
until Sunday in tribute to the victims. And we wrap
up today taking a look at some of the stories
that are deeper in Today's New York Times. In national news,

(55:59):
cuts push rural lifeline at risk, threatened by political retribution.
Republicans defunded public broadcasting in Alaska and elsewhere in a
lab a hunt for a killer Legionnaire's disease has killed
six people and sickened more than one hundred in New
York City this summer. In international news, Austria's Hills are

(56:22):
Still Alive. Salzburg celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of the Sound
of Music, but many locals have never seen the movie.
Iran admits un inspectors. The team is expected to be
allowed to examine the nuclear facilities that the United States
bombed in June. In obituaries Rayner Weiss ninety two, who

(56:47):
shared a Nobel Prize for work on gravitational waves which
help confirmed the theories of relativity and how the universe began.
And in business an aiphones root cost the Google Pixel
ten pro can help streamline certain tasks. This concludes the
reading of The New York Times for today. Your reader

(57:10):
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 zero. Thank you for listening now. Please stay tuned
for continued programming on Radio I