Latest news with #TaylorWilson
USA Today
2 days ago
- Health
- USA Today
Suspect charged with federal hate crime in Boulder attack
Suspect charged with federal hate crime in Boulder attack | The Excerpt On Tuesday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: A 45-year-old suspect has been charged with a federal hate crime in the attack on a Colorado pro-Israel protest. Russia and Ukraine hold peace talks after Ukraine's recent drone strikes. USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent Maureen Groppe takes a look at the high court's move to take up a challenge to a grace period for mail-in ballots. A new study has found a link between chronic cannabis use and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. USA TODAY National Immigration and Border Reporter Lauren Villagran tells us about volunteers who search for migrant remains along the U.S.-Mexico border. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today we're learning more about the suspect in the Boulder attack. Plus the Supreme Court takes up a challenge to a grace period for mail-in ballots, and how volunteers search for bodies along the southern border. ♦ The man accused of setting 12 people on fire at a pro-Israel protest has been charged with a federal hate crime. He told investigators he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished all of them were dead. According to an FBI affidavit released yesterday. 45-year-old Mohammed Sabry Soliman is accused of attacking a demonstration with a makeshift flamethrower and firebombs while shouting, "Free Palestine." Injuries to victims range from minor to serious. According to an affidavit, the suspect told investigators he planned the attack for a year and waited for his daughter to graduate before carrying it out. A judge has set bond at $10 million. Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff said the suspect overstayed a tourist visa issued in 2022. You can read more with the link in today's show notes. ♦ During peace talks yesterday, Russia told Ukraine that it would only agree to end the war if Ukraine concedes large amounts of territory and agrees to limits on the size of its army, according to a memorandum reported by Russian media. It's the latest refusal out of Moscow to compromise on its war goals. Negotiations in Turkey came after Ukraine destroyed dozens of enemy bombers over the weekend using drones smuggled deep into Russia. It was the most damaging Ukrainian attack on Russia in the three years since Moscow invaded. ♦ The Supreme Court will decide if a challenge to an Illinois grace period for mail-in ballots can proceed. I spoke with USA TODAY's Supreme Court correspondent Maureen Groppe to learn more. Hello, Maureen. Maureen Groppe: Hello. Taylor Wilson: All right, so what is this challenge, Maureen, and what will the Supreme Court now be deciding? Maureen Groppe: This case is about Illinois law that lets mail-in ballots be counted if they are postmarked on or before the day of the election and received within two weeks. The court isn't deciding whether that grace period is allowed, which Republicans say it's not. Instead, they're deciding whether a congressman as Republican congressman Michael Bost has what is called standing to even bring this challenge into court to have the lawsuit proceed. Taylor Wilson: Well, how did this play out in the lower courts, Maureen? Maureen Groppe: Well, the lower court said that the congressman can't bring the case because he hadn't shown he had been sufficiently harmed by the law. He said he's harmed because he has to spend campaign funds to contest any objectionable ballots that come in after election day. So he says that's an extra cost to his campaign that he wouldn't have if there was no grace period. But the Chicago-based Seventh US Circuit Court of Appeals, they dismissed that argument. One of the judges said it was speculative at best that later ballots could cause him to lose an election, and the judge noted that this congressman won by 75% in the most recent election before this decision came out. But one of the three appeals court judges who ruled on this lawsuit said he would have let it proceed. Taylor Wilson: Well, you know Republicans have been pushing back and even trying to end this practice in a variety of other ways. How so, Maureen? Maureen Groppe: They've been challenging state laws individually, like in this suit, and in Mississippi. And recently President Trump issued an executive order that, among other things, would prevent such grace periods. His executive order does a lot of things about election law, but this is one of the things that it would do, but that order is also being challenged in court. Taylor Wilson: All right, and really what's the potential broader impact of a SCOTUS decision here? Maureen Groppe: Well, the broader impact for the specific legal question that the Supreme Court agreed to hear is how hard it should be for a candidate to be able to challenge election law. What do they have to show, what kind of harms do they have to show to let them challenge an election rule that they don't agree with? And in the appeal to the court trying to give them reasons for why they should take this case, the lawyers for the Congressmen said the court needed to hear this because there's this growing trend of courts limiting candidate's ability to challenge electoral rules. Taylor Wilson: All right, we are smarter on all things Supreme Court anytime you stop by. Thanks Maureen. Maureen Groppe: Thanks for having me. ♦ Taylor Wilson: A new study has found a link between chronic cannabis use, including in edible form, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease that's comparable to the effects of smoking tobacco. The study is the latest to associate cannabis with negative health impacts and was conducted by researchers at the University of California San Francisco, who analyzed the cardiovascular health of 55 people who consumed cannabis at least three times a week for at least a year. They found vascular function was reduced by about half when compared with those who did not consume cannabis regularly. They also showed signs of increased risk for premature heart disease researchers found similar to tobacco smokers. Those included in the study were tested to ensure they do not smoke tobacco or vape and were not frequently exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke. You can read more of the study's findings with a link in today's show notes. ♦ At the southern border a group of volunteers has a grim task, to find the remains of migrants who had passed away in the desert. I spoke with USA TODAY National Immigration and Border Reporter Lauren Villagran for more. Thanks for joining me as always, Lauren. Lauren Villagran: Thanks, Taylor. Taylor Wilson: So I want to hear about these volunteers and their work here in a second, but just first, how many migrants, Lauren, die along the border, especially in this part of the El Paso sector? Lauren Villagran: So Taylor, for the past two years, we don't actually know what the death toll has been, border-wide, California to Texas. What we do know is in El Paso sector, which is a 264-mile area stretching from West Texas through New Mexico, last year, 176 remains of likely migrants were found in the desert area here. The year before it was 149. But Taylor, just five or six years ago, that number was in the single digits. Taylor Wilson: So how do folks often die along the border, Lauren? What are some of the causes and why is this part of the border so deadly? Lauren Villagran: People will have different opinions about this, but what is certain is that as the United States has hardened its borderline as border security has become more intense and the border fencing higher. For example, in much of the border now it's 30 feet high, migrants are more easily injured. Specifically in this area, though, Taylor, the desert outside of El Paso is hot. It's very hot in the summer, but it wasn't at Arizona levels, we don't see temperatures like north of 110 degrees. But the last two years we've had extreme summer temperatures, more triple-digit days than ever before. And during this period, the past two years, there was a massive wave of migration. So that meant that more people were trying to make the risky and often deadly illegal crossing. Taylor Wilson: Well, Lauren, for this piece, I know you spoke with some volunteers who are working out in the desert to find human remains. What did you hear from them and the work they're doing? Lauren Villagran: So it should be said that to start, it is the responsibility of federal, state, and local authorities to investigate and find bodies. But this desert, even though it is near the urban footprint, can at times be vast. This particular New Mexico based group called Battalion Search and Rescue, run by James Holman and Abbey Carpenter is fashioned after other groups like it in Arizona and California where volunteers have rallied to search for missing migrants and often turn up migrant remains. Here in southern New Mexico, this group goes out once a month, combs through the desert, looking for any remains that may have been left behind. Or in a best case scenario, migrants who might be lost or missing. Unfortunately, in recent months they've often turned up bones. Taylor Wilson: Such a trying work. What happens with the remains once they find them, Lauren? Lauren Villagran: These volunteers fill out paperwork noting the precise location of the remains that they have found. They tie brightly colored tape to desert brush and they phone it in to local law enforcement. The volunteers are not authorized to touch or collect the bones. So the ball really lies with the state, both the office of the medical investigator in New Mexico and local law enforcement like the Doña Ana County Sheriff to go out and collect the remains that are still there in the desert. Taylor Wilson: These folks, who are they, Lauren? What prompted them to get involved with this type of work? And I'm also curious what they say about the impact on them and what they've come away with after it. Lauren Villagran: Yeah, so for example, Abbey Carpenter is a retired college administrator. She used to teach English as a second language classes in Arizona. And when she went on her first search, she told me it was a really emotional moment in which she recalled hearing about the journeys of her students, migrants who did survive the dangerous journey through the desert, who now live and work in the United States and in seeing the piles of clothes that you sometimes find in the desert, Taylor, pants and shirts and abandoned things left behind, she told me she really saw the journeys of her former students. I know that some of those who got involved here had recently learned about the uptick in migrant deaths. And what's harrowing about it, Taylor, is that the number 176 is the number of bodies that were found. But as these volunteers tell me, every time they go to look, they often find a new site, which means that there could be more remains out in the desert that remain undiscovered. Taylor Wilson: Wow. Well, as for customs and border protection, you mentioned this Missing Migrant Program that they created back in 2017. It's been renamed the Missing Alien Program here under the latest Trump administration. What can you tell us about that program and its potential impact amid all this? Lauren Villagran: US Border Patrol agents are frequently the first to come upon remains or migrants obviously in distress. So this was a program that is run by US Border Patrol that tries to work to connect family members to their consulates and the possibility of remains. Of course, when you really dial it back, whenever there is an enforcement measure, you're going to see migrants take additional risks and that's also in part what's contributed to the rising death toll. Taylor Wilson: All right, folks can find the full version of this story with the link in today's show notes. Lauren Villagran covers the border and immigration for USA TODAY. Thanks, Lauren. Lauren Villagran: Thanks, Taylor. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. If you have any comments or questions, you can email us at podcasts@ I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
USA Today
3 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
8 injured in attack on event calling for release of Israeli hostages
8 injured in attack on event calling for release of Israeli hostages | The Excerpt On Monday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: The FBI is investigating the attack in Colorado as an act of terrorism. USA TODAY Senior Congress Reporter Riley Beggin discusses some potential changes to President Donald Trump's tax bill in the Senate. Some parents are 'unschooling' their kids. What does that mean? USA TODAY National Correspondent Trevor Hughes talks through concerns about an emerging surveillance state. Steve Carell told students their prom expenses were paid after wildfires. Ronnie Li reports in this month's segment of Kind Time. Find more from USA TODAY's Humankind page here. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Monday, June 2nd, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, what we know about an attack that saw a suspect throw firebombs into a Colorado crowd at an event calling for the release of Israeli hostages. Plus how the Senate will tackle Trump's tax bill, and we discuss concerns about an emerging surveillance state. ♦ Multiple people were set on fire during an event calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza at a pedestrian mall in Boulder, Colorado, yesterday, according to authorities. At least eight people were injured, and a male suspect has been taken into custody. The suspect, identified by authorities as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, yelled "Free Palestine" during the attack. According to the FBI special agent in charge of the Denver Field Office, Mark Michalek, who held a news conference last night. He also gave insight into how the FBI is approaching their investigation. Mark Michalek: As a result of these preliminary facts, it is clear that this is a targeted act of violence, and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism. Taylor Wilson: The incident came just over a week after the slaying of two Israeli embassy aides outside of a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., and as Israeli hostages are still being held in Gaza. The violence also comes amid continued Israeli strikes in Gaza and renewed hunger concerns there. Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. With little ready-to-eat food entering it, a spokesperson described Gaza last week as the hungriest place on earth. ♦ The Senate is preparing to tackle President Donald Trump's big tax bill and make some changes. I discuss with USA TODAY Senior Congress & Campaigns Reporter Riley Beggin. Welcome back, Riley. Riley Beggin: Of course. Happy to be here. Taylor Wilson: So just in terms of the logistics here at the top, how do we expect this to play out? Will there be public hearings on the Senate bill, and what's the expected timeline now that lawmakers have returned from this week away? Riley Beggin: So they are going to hit the ground running. They want to try to pass this bill by the 4th of July, which gives them only four working weeks to work out what they want to change in the Senate and then make sure that that grooves with the House. The House will have to pass it again before it can get to the president's desk. So that is a very short timeframe for all of those changes. So we can expect things to really start moving here pretty soon next week. But in terms of what to expect, it's actually unclear at the moment whether there are going to be public committee hearings known as markups, where senators are going to be going through potential changes, taking amendments, debating things publicly. That is going to be left up to individual committee chairs to decide. So, for example, the finance committee, if they're going to be looking at the tax package, it's really up to the chairman of that committee to decide whether it's going to be a public hearing that does this. The hope is definitely still to pass it by July 4th, but the real deadline I will mention for you guys is the end of July. That is when they will potentially hit the debt ceiling in August. And so lawmakers want to make sure they can get a provision in this bill across the finish line before then, which would raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. Taylor Wilson: Who are some of the Senate Republicans, Riley, with major concerns, and what are some of those concerns? Riley Beggin: They really run the gamut. Just like in the House, there are different factions of the GOP conference that have different concerns, and the Senate is much smaller than the House, of course. So every senator is sort of an island of their own ideas and their own interests. So when I say factions, these guys generally align, but they're not necessarily working together towards the same goal, usually in the same way that they are in the House. But I would say keep your eyes on Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, and Rand Paul of Kentucky. These are senators who lean more fiscally conservative and have raised concerns about the overall cost of the bill and want deeper cuts to offset the tax cuts. The other people that I will mention... Is there are significant cuts to Medicaid in this program; $625 billion would be shaved off of it. Primarily through the addition of work requirements for able-bodied adults who don't have children. It is estimated to push 7.6 million Americans off of coverage. There are several senators who've raised concerns about that. Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Jim Justice of West Virginia. So that's another group to watch. And then finally, I'll say there was the Inflation Reduction Act, this democratic bill passed under former President Joe Biden, that had a lot of renewable energy credits in it. Republicans are looking to roll back some of those credits, and there are a handful of Republicans who have said they have concerns about that. They've helped businesses in their state, and they want to protect some of those provisions. Taylor Wilson: As for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, you mentioned him, Riley. How will he factor into these discussions, and really, what's at stake for him? Riley Beggin: Yeah, I mean, he's the new leader succeeding Mitch McConnell, so he definitely has a lot at stake. He is somebody who the conference seems to have a lot of trust in; he's going to be listening to all different sides of this. But he wants to make sure that he can deliver for Republicans and for President Trump, so he can only lose three Republican votes and still get the majority necessary to pass it because most Democrats are not going to cross party lines and support it, if any. We will, of course, be watching him closely. Taylor Wilson: Riley Beggin covers Congress & Campaigns for USA TODAY. Thanks, Riley. Riley Beggin: Of course. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Unschooling videos have amassed millions of views on social media as fascination with the educational movement grows. Self-directed education, commonly known as unschooling, is a form of homeschooling that's based on activities and life experiences chosen by the child, according to the Alliance for Self-Directed Learning, or ASDE, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing awareness and accessibility to unschooling. Education experts say parents and caregivers unschool differently. Some take a few pages from the homeschooling curriculum and then carve out lessons for their children. Others attend micro schools or free schools where unschooled children are grouped together in a nature school or outside school, under the guide of parents or teachers. According to Daniel Hamlin, associate professor of education policy at the University of Oklahoma. Some parents dive into unschooling with no structure and don't initiate any semblance of traditional education unless explicitly asked by their children. There are various reasons why parents and caregivers decide to unschool their children. Many say it's to shield them from the bullying and violence that sometimes play out in a traditional educational setting. Some don't want their children to be forced into learning things they don't find interesting. Others say they don't trust educators to focus on their children if they have special learning needs. While unschooling may work for some families, some argue it's also vulnerable to unintended consequences such as abuse and educational neglect. Laws to prevent abuse and neglect when a child is educated at home, whether it's unschooling or homeschooling, vary from state to state, but about a dozen states don't have any safety nets to ensure a child receives a proper education. According to Jonah Stewart, interim executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education. You can read more about this conversation with a link in today's show notes. ♦ There are emerging concerns about surveillance under the Trump Administration. I spoke with USA TODAY National Correspondent Trevor Hughes to learn more. Hi, sir. Trevor Hughes: Hey. Taylor Wilson: So Trevor, what has the administration been doing when it comes to surveillance? Let's start there. Trevor Hughes: The government has a whole bunch of information about every single person that lives in this country. You pay taxes, you pay property taxes, you register your car. The government has all kinds of information about every single one of us. What the Trump Administration is doing is very deliberately breaking down the silos between those government databases, and the end result, they say, is a better ability to detect fraud, detect people who are living here illegally, and to prevent people from voting illegally in American elections if they are not a U.S. citizen. Taylor Wilson: In terms of just kind of formally what's happening here, how is Big Tech helping to make this happen? Trevor Hughes: So we give social media a whole heck of a lot of information. There's an old saying, which is that "if the software is free, then the user is the product." And what I mean by that is that we give social media companies all kinds of information about where we go, who we hang out with, where we shop, what we do, what we like to do. It's no surprise that Facebook and Instagram serve us ads about things we've been talking to with our friends. And so what big data does is it takes that kind of information, which you can buy, and combines it with these federal databases and can create an incredibly accurate picture of what your life is like. Taylor Wilson: Trevor. There have been surveillance concerns in this country for generations. I'm thinking back especially to the Bush era and some of the issues during those years. How does this compare to previous administrations, what we're seeing now under Trump? Trevor Hughes: During the Bush era, there was a robust conversation about privacy issues. And even though FISA ended up getting approved, the Patriot Act getting approved, there were sort of guardrails. What we're seeing with the Trump Administration is, frankly, a lack of public conversation about what it means to do this. And the justification is almost essentially anything is necessary to get rid of all these illegal immigrants that are living in our country, but there's no real public conversation about what it means for the government to sort of turn on and compile all of this data. Taylor Wilson: And Trevor, you mentioned FISA. We should just remind folks that's the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. As for the Trump Administration, I guess the migrant point is part of this, but how do they really defend these moves writ large? Trevor Hughes: The issue is that people who are living illegally in this country under the law are not allowed to federal benefits, right? That could include housing, that could include food, medical care, certainly includes voting. And so the Trump Administration says it is absolutely necessary to make sure that people who are living here illegally have no access to these sort of federal benefits, but the data that's being collected allows the government to go much, much further than just that. Taylor Wilson: Trevor, how do Americans, just everyday Americans, feel about this stuff and these concerns? Trevor Hughes: It's really important to remember that we wrote, we collectively as a society wrote, the Fourth Amendment into the founding document of our country because we were so concerned about government intrusion into private lives. And so privacy has been a core product or value of Americans for a really long time. It's a reason we don't have a national ID system like almost every other major country. And so there is a concern out there, a huge concern. The majority of people worry that the government will misuse this data that it has, but again, we're not seeing a lot of conversation from our elected officials saying, "Hey, wait a minute. Maybe this isn't a good idea." Taylor Wilson: Did you speak with any privacy experts for this piece? What are some of just the specific concerns that they're outlining in this moment? Trevor Hughes: The privacy concerns really come down to this idea of a double-edged sword. The government needs information to provide services. "I need to file my taxes, and the government needs to know my bank account number so it can send me that tax refund every year." The government needs to know my driver's license information, my insurance information, my car information. The concern that privacy advocates have is that because the government has all this data and because it has previously been siloed but is now explicitly being targeted to be shared amongst government agencies, that there's a real concern of abuse. We have seen police officers abuse access to these databases to stalk people. We have seen people improperly release tax returns of politicians or notable figures. So the abuse already exists. We've seen examples of it, and privacy experts are saying, "If you make it even easier to cross-reference all this data, there's a greater risk of that happening going forward." Taylor Wilson: All right. Always eye-opening work from you, Trevor. Trevor Hughes is a national correspondent with USA TODAY. Thanks, Trevor. Trevor Hughes: Yep. You bet. ♦ Taylor Wilson: It's kind time again when good news makes Mondays better. Today's story has it all. Prom night, Steve Carell, and a big surprise for hundreds of students affected by the Los Angeles wildfires. Here's Humankind reporter Ronnie Li. Steve Carell: Attention all seniors. This is Steve Carell with a very special announcement. Ronnie Li: When Steve Carell appeared on the screen, Pasadena High School senior Emma Thatcher was totally unfazed, at least at first. Emma Thatcher: I thought it was a rumor. I thought it was a joke. I was like, "No way." Ronnie Li: But then came the Twist. Steve Carell: I work with a wonderful charity based out of Virginia called Alice's Kids. And Alice's Kids wanted me to let you know that they will be paying for all of your prom tickets. Have fun. Enjoy the prom. Ronnie Li: In a single announcement, prom night changed for hundreds of students across six Southern California high schools. But for Emma, this gesture meant even more. When LA wildfires forced her family to evacuate, they had no idea what they'd return to. Emma Thatcher: We were in a parking lot in Glendale, at Glendale Community College, and two hours later, my dad had driven back up, and our house was gone. Ronnie Li: After losing everything in the fire, Emma found hope in unexpected places. Her community rallied around her family, and then came this surprise announcement. Emma Thatcher: I'm at home, and I'm, like, hearing my mom stress out about literally everything. And then it's like, "Okay. Mom, you don't have to worry about prom tickets. That's all covered." It's a massive sigh of relief. It felt really nice to not have to worry about that. Ronnie Li: For Emma and her classmates, prom night became more than just a dance. It was a symbol of hope and community coming together. Emma Thatcher: It made the biggest difference in the whole world. Just the thought that I could do that for somebody else in the future. It's so much more empowering to want to do that because you felt the effects. Taylor Wilson: For more about this story and other inspiring moments, visit Humankind at You'll find the link in today's show notes. ♦ And coming up later today, we have a new episode of Forum hosted by Michael McCarter. Michael McCarter: What do you think? Is Caitlin Clark changing the WNBA and women's sports for the better or worse? Is she being covered too much or too little? You can hear what listeners and readers like you are feeling about this. Tune into Forum. Publishing today at 4 PM, Eastern time, on this feed. Taylor Wilson: You can find more opinions on ♦ Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the pod wherever you get your audio, and as always, you can email us at podcasts@ I'm Taylor Wilson. I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
USA Today
16-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
A humanitarian aid crisis in Gaza
A humanitarian aid crisis in Gaza | The Excerpt On Friday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Arwa Damon, former CNN Senior International Correspondent and president and founder of INARA, joins The Excerpt to discuss the latest concerns about starvation in Gaza. Arwa wrote an essay earlier this week for the Atlantic Council detailing Gazans' famine fears. USA TODAY White House Correspondent Bart Jansen breaks down Supreme Court arguments over President Donald Trump's efforts to limit birthright citizenship. What can we expect from this summer's Trump birthday military parade? Staffing cuts leave the National Weather Service scrambling to cover vital shifts. Join The Excerpt and author Niall Harbison, whose story we featured, on Reddit for an AMA from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. ET in the r/IAmA subreddit. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Friday, May 16th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today we get a closer sense of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. Plus the Supreme Court wrestles with birthright citizenship questions and what to expect from a giant military parade this summer. ♦ Gaza's more than 2 million people face prolonged food shortages according to the World Health Organization and a global hunger monitor the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said this week that half a million Gazans face starvation. Those startling numbers come as no humanitarian assistance has been delivered to Gaza since March 2nd. For more on the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, I spoke with Arwa Damon, a former CNN senior international correspondent and President and founder of the International Network for Aid, Relief, and Assistance, also known as INARA. Arwa, thank you so much for giving me a few minutes on this. Arwa Damon: Thank you. My pleasure. Taylor Wilson: So we've seen this humanitarian crisis really spiral since March, in particular, we know that a global hunger monitor has warned that half a million people face starvation. What can you tell us about the latest, especially as it pertains to some of these hunger concerns? Arwa Damon: No food has entered Gaza, not even a single grain of rice, not even a single bag of flour for well over two months right now. In the last few weeks we've seen the World Health Organization announce that it has run out of its stocks. The World Central Kitchen whose work in Gaza was vital, providing hot meals, they have also stopped being able to do that because they've run out of supplies. My own organization, INARA, we had to stop our own hot meal deliveries that we were doing to the shelters that we work with around two weeks ago now because we couldn't find anything to cook up. Keeping in mind, especially in the last two to three weeks, when we say hot meals, we really just mean rice because that was all that there was to cook with. And so if you think that over 2 million people are living in these conditions, the vast majority of whom right now are subsiding on a single meal a day, if even that, it gives you an idea of just how dire the situation is. And then add to that, the reality of they don't have access to clean water, they don't have access to proper medical treatment, and they're constantly having to deal with the fear of being bombed, the fear of death that is either going to come to them from the skies or it's going to come to them because they starve to death. Taylor Wilson: Well, as you say, as part of this humanitarian nightmare, Israel has ramped up military strikes this week. How severe have these been and what has this meant for Gazans who have already been displaced for years and I guess, do they have anywhere else to go, to hide Arwa? Arwa Damon: No, there's never been anywhere to hide in Gaza. And that's been the situation, not just since October 7th, but any other time that Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip. And over the course of the last 18, 19 months, even when we've seen Israel declare certain areas of Gaza, these so-called safe zones, we've still had numerous times where people in their tents on the beachfront in Mawasi and [inaudible 00:03:23] being bombed. We've seen hospitals being bombed. And so there's very much this sense of death can come at any moment, but especially since the ceasefire broke, Gazans are feeling an even more intense and different level of fear. And you see this manifesting itself, especially in the children. You have children that have started bedwetting, you have children that are basically traumatized into complete silence. And you have children who say things like, "I've lost faith in myself. I don't trust myself because I allowed myself to hope during the ceasefire. And now I've realized that that was a lie." Taylor Wilson: Devastating. President Trump is in the region this week, Arwa. Talk us through the Trump administration's latest approach to Gaza. And I know this U.S-backed humanitarian organization will start work there by the end of the month under what's been a pretty criticized aid distribution plan. What can you tell us about that and how likely is it that this plan will be effective? Arwa Damon: The vast majority of us in the humanitarian community are extremely critical of this plan for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it contravenes any sort of baseline or standard that is established to be able to distribute humanitarian aid to a population. It militarizes access to aid. And then if you look at it just logistically, logically speaking from the perspective of Gaza, it doesn't make sense. There are over 400 distribution points in Gaza right now, and this plan wants to reduce those to 4. There is no transportation system in Gaza as well. So if I just sort of even simplify it further, let's say that there is a family in Gaza City that wants to get its food parcel under this new system that's going to be established. They have to walk roughly six to seven hours to get to any one of these distribution points, and then they're handed a food parcel. Now any decent food parcel weighs between 30 to 50 kilos, so that's like roughly 70 to 100 pounds. How are they supposed to carry that back to their tent? And then let's hypothetically assume that they are able to carry that back to their tent. How are they supposed to cook? Because there's no fuel source. If you have a family and kids who are starving, you're going to have to choose to either be forcibly displaced once again to be in proximity to the food or stay where you are and continue to watch your children go hungry. But just to give you an idea, in this clip that the team sent to me, the kids are running around holding cucumbers, laughing and shrieking over a cucumber the way that children and other parts of the world laugh and shriek over the biggest chocolate bar that they have ever seen. Taylor Wilson: That says it all. Arwa Damon is President and founder of the International Network for Aid, Relief, and Assistance. Thank you so much for your perspective and insight here, Arwa. I appreciate it. Arwa Damon: And thank you for having me. ♦ Taylor Wilson: The Supreme Court yesterday wrestled with whether to let President Donald Trump broadly enforce his changes to birthright citizenship as courts consider whether those changes are constitutional. I spoke with USA TODAY White House correspondent Bart Jansen to learn more. Bart, thanks for joining me. Bart Jansen: Thanks for having me. Taylor Wilson: So just starting here, Bart, what exactly was the Supreme Court dealing with in its arguments yesterday? Bart Jansen: The underlying issue that they're talking about is birthright citizenship. President Trump issued an order on his first day of the second term saying that the children of two undocumented immigrant parents would no longer be recognized as citizens. Birthright citizenship is something that's been recognized since the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1868. And so this would be a dramatic change in policy that stood for 150 years. This case hurtled toward the high court faster than most cases, primarily because the Trump administration also wants to stop federal judges across the country from imposing nationwide injunctions on his policies. Over the past few decades, judges have more and more been saying, "Well, you can't do such and such a thing here and you can't do it anywhere in the country." And so the Trump administration, they're asking the justices to stop the ability of federal judges from ordering nationwide injunctions. We may only get a decision on injunctions and not get to that underlying issue of birthright citizenship. Taylor Wilson: And so just on that injunction point, what did we hear specifically from the justices? What did they focus on, on that angle? Bart Jansen: It's a thorny question for them because it's sort of arisen just out of practice. There were very few of them until the Obama administration and now they've just snowballed in recent terms. But administrations of both parties are frustrated by them because basically you can pick and choose a judge that you think is going to give you a good ruling. So the Trump administration is trying to halt nationwide injunctions, but it's not clear what mechanism the justices would use to do that. I mean, they could just say, "Okay, no more of these." But what's unclear then is well then you've got a policy that would leave children born to undocumented immigrants citizens in one state and not citizens in the other during the years that it takes the courts to ultimately resolve this question. So it's not clear how the justices can resolve that issue where you feel like, okay, everybody is getting heard. Taylor Wilson: All right, Bart, so big debate yesterday. Where do we go next with this conversation? Bart Jansen: Well, now we wait for the nine justices to make a decision. We don't know whether they're going to rule on just the injunction facet of the case or go all the way to say it looks like even if we don't have a national injunction from a federal court judge, that we as the Supreme Court might extend a national injunction so that the Trump policy is still blocked. That would be the best case scenario for the states and the individuals who brought these lawsuits. Of course, the justices could also throw out national injunctions and then let the birthright citizenship aspect of the case continue to be argued in lower courts. And that's where we might have the, what one lawyer called the chaos on the ground, where people aren't certain whether their children are citizens or it might make certain Democratic states magnets for immigrants to deliver their children. So we're going to wait for a decision by the end of June for probably at least on the injunction aspect of the case, and we'll have to see if they go further and talk about birthright citizenship. Taylor Wilson: All right. Bart Jansen covers the White House for USA TODAY with a great breakdown for us as always. Thanks, Bart. Bart Jansen: Thanks for having me. ♦ Taylor Wilson: A military parade planned for June 14th, the Army's 250th anniversary and President Donald Trump's 79th birthday will feature dozens of tanks moving through the streets of Washington, warplanes overhead and some 7,500 soldiers housed in government office buildings downtown according to Army planning documents. USA TODAY had an exclusive look at the latest planning that detailed the elaborate choreography required for a massive military parade, an unofficial birthday party with few, if any, precedents. Is the parade a celebration of the Army's storied heritage or an homage to Trump and the political movement he leads, or both? Army officials say that they have long planned a major celebration for their milestone anniversary. But Democratic lawmakers say Trump has co-opted the parade for his own political purposes. You can read more with the link in today's show notes. ♦ It's been a rough few months for many National Weather Service employees, more than 550 of the 4,800 weather service employees were either dismissed, retired, or accepted incentive offers to leave after the Trump administration ordered agencies to reduce staff and draft reorganization plans. Now many of the nation's 122 local weather service forecast offices typically staffed 24/7 are shorthanded. The departures included many senior level meteorologists who retired. To try to address the gaps, weather service officials are offering employees who remain on staff opportunities to transfer to try and fill positions. And earlier this month, five former directors of the weather service wrote a letter to the American people expressing concern about the staffing shortages and other issues. ♦ And later today we're joining author Niall Harbison, whose interview and story we featured this past Sunday on Reddit for an AMA. This will take place in the I Am A subreddit beginning at 11:30 AM Eastern. We hope to see you there. ♦ And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and Kaely Monahan, and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. If you have any comments or questions, you can always email us at podcasts@ I'm Taylor Wilson. I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
USA Today
12-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Pope Leo XIV celebrates first Mass as leader of the Roman Catholic Church
Pope Leo XIV celebrates first Mass as leader of the Roman Catholic Church | The Excerpt On Saturday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first mass as leader of the Roman Catholic Church Friday. USA TODAY Senior Congress Reporter Riley Beggin discusses how some Republican lawmakers are at odds as they work on a bill dealing with President Donald Trump's priorities. The National Science Foundation eliminates its equity division and cancels dozens more grants. India and Pakistan step up military strikes. USA TODAY Investigative Reporter Gina Barton gives us a peak of Untested. Listen to the exclusive series here. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Saturday, May 10th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, Pope Leo XIV and his first days at a new job. Plus Republicans are at odds on some aspects of a bill dealing with President Trump's priorities, and the National Science Foundation cancels more grants. ♦ Pope Leo XIV marked his first full day as leader of 1.4 billion Roman Catholics by celebrating mass in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. [Music] Taylor Wilson: Mass got underway as the first American Pope processed into the chapel and sang in Latin, along with the Vatican's Sistine Chapel choir, one of the oldest and most prestigious in the world. The first two readings were delivered in English and Spanish. Pope Leo XIV: As we celebrate this morning, I invite you to recognize the marvels that the Lord has done, the blessings that the Lord continues to pour out upon all of us. Taylor Wilson: Leo also invoked Pope Francis saying in Italian that his predecessor often taught that Catholics, "Are called to bear witness to our joyful faith in Christ the Savior" according to the Vatican News. Leo also said that missionary outreach is desperately needed. You can read more from Pope Leo XIV's first days in his new position with a link in today's show notes. ♦ Republicans are outlining their must-haves in the bill of President Donald Trump's priorities and many of them are at odds with each other. I spoke with USA TODAY senior Congress reporter, Riley Beggin for more. Hey there, Riley. Riley Beggin: Hey, how you doing? Taylor Wilson: Good. Good. Thanks for hopping on. So just starting with this, who are the main factions here among Republicans in terms of negotiating a deal, be it Trump himself or different wings on Capitol Hill? Riley Beggin: There are a lot of different requirements that are being floated here, but we can really break it down into three major categories. The first is what I would call the fiscal conservatives. These are the deficit hawks who are really worried about how much this package is going to cost. So they are putting pressure on Republican leadership and others in the conference to make sure that they can find enough spending cuts if they're going to extend Donald Trump's 2017 tax package, which is going to cost a lot of money for taxpayers. The second group is a group of moderate conservatives, people who tend to come from more low-income districts or states that have major concerns about potential cuts to Medicaid. So this is in a way connected to that first group as a part of the cuts that they are seeking to achieve to make this deficit neutral. Their purview is Medicaid and that is really sort of the lion's share of funding that they have to play with to achieve these cuts. So we don't know exactly what that's going to look like, that's something that we're going to learn more about in the next few days, but there is a high likelihood that there are going to be some changes to Medicaid at the very least. And they've said if there are cuts to actual benefits, we are not voting for this. The third group is what we call the SALT Caucus. This is a group of Republicans from Democratic states, so New York, New Jersey, California, who have this specific tax provision that they're pushing for. They're a smaller group, but they are the ones who I think are really going to go to the mat on this and we're going to sort of see how things shake out here. Taylor Wilson: You mentioned Medicaid. We know this is front and center and things have gotten already pretty contentious, Riley, can you just give us some of the latest, what's happened over the last few days? Riley Beggin: Lawmakers are meeting behind closed doors to try to figure out what they can do that is going to make significant cuts without significantly hurting the low-income people who benefit from Medicaid. What Republican leadership has said is we can achieve this by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. And some of the things that Republicans can collectively get behind is adding work requirements, for example, making sure that non-citizens are not on the rolls, doing regular checks to make sure that people who deserve it are the ones who are getting it. But those are all really just a drop in the bucket. The proposals that would actually make a difference would significantly impact Medicaid funding. One thing, for example, that has been floated is a change to the federal match rate between the federal government and states or putting a per capita cap for federal funding to the states. That first one, the federal match rate, the speaker has said is off the table. If that was implemented, it would likely trigger states to drop the Medicaid expansion. There are a lot of things on the table right now. Taylor Wilson: Riley, we wrapped this work week hearing from President Trump say that he could accept higher taxes on the rich. That would be a reversal from his previous opposition there. How did those comments land with you and what's the latest there? Riley Beggin: The president's comments reflect, I think, this sort of populist wing of the Republican Party. A lot of sort of the traditional Romney Republicans have really been eradicated from congressional Republicans, but I would say a lot of them really would draw the line at raising taxes. It's a pretty fundamental conservative viewpoint that raising taxes on wealthy people slows economic growth. It's going to be interesting to see what happens here. What the president's proposed is a new tax bracket for people making more than $2.5 million or couples making more than $5 million. So those are really wealthy people. There are some conservatives who have said they would support it, but leadership is against it. Taylor Wilson: As you write, Riley, Republican leaders say failure is not an option. What are the stakes really to get a deal done? Riley Beggin: Republicans have this really short window where they control the House, Senate and the White House. History tells us that they are likely to lose the House of Representatives in next November's elections. That could be wrong. They could keep the House, but they're not banking on it. They're going to assume we only have this short period of time. On top of that, at the end of the year, the 2017 tax cuts expire. So if they don't do something this year, those taxes are going to go back up and Republicans will be hit for raising taxes essentially. And then the third thing is the debt ceiling. Sometime this summer, potentially into the fall, we're going to hit what's called the X-date, which is when essentially we can't continue to not pay down our debt. So Congress has to raise the debt ceiling. It's something that dozens and dozens of Republicans have never voted to do, but they're agreeing to do it in this case so they don't have to negotiate with Democrats. Taylor Wilson: All right, outstanding breakdown as always. Riley Beggin covers Congress for USA TODAY. Thank you, Riley. Riley Beggin: Thank you. ♦ Taylor Wilson: The National Science Foundation canceled 73 additional grants yesterday. The agency also announced in a staff memo obtained by USA TODAY that it is eliminating its Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM team. The memo says the agency is laying off around 70 employees and plans to eliminate around 300 additional temporary positions. Employees who have worked remotely for years will also need to begin working out of NSF's headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia by June 16th. The Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM promoted diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM by removing barriers and supporting the full participation of underrepresented groups in science and engineering fields according to a webpage removed from the NSF website yesterday. The grant cancellations mark the third wave of terminations to upend the agency in recent weeks. In total, the National Science Foundation has stopped more than 1,400 projects worth more than a billion dollars according to a public list of canceled grants maintained by researchers at science nonprofit, rOpenSci and Harvard University. ♦ Pakistan and India launched strikes and counterstrikes against each other's military installations earlier today. The moves prompted U.S. calls for the neighbors to begin talks and defuse their escalating conflict. Analysts and diplomats have long feared that conflict between the countries could escalate into the use of nuclear weapons. Latest tensions between the two countries are some of the most intense since 1999. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Pakistan's army chief general and India's foreign minister today urging both sides to deescalate and reestablish direct communication. ♦ Untested is a new exclusive podcast from USA TODAY and Witness that takes listeners inside a detective's hunt for a sexual predator. I spoke with host, investigative reporter, Gina Barton for a peek and a warning. This show includes descriptions of sexual assault and suicide, so it may not be suitable for all listeners. Hello Gina. Gina Barton : Hi. Taylor Wilson: So just starting with this, tell us a little bit about this series. What is Untested and really what led you to this idea for a show? Gina Barton : The show came out of the reporting that our investigative team did about the crisis of untested rape kits and some federal grants that were being used to test those kits. And obviously any story we do, we want to be able to write about the people involved and the people impacted. And so I was going through some court cases and I found one in Lansing, Michigan that all the stars just happened to align. The trial was actually going to be happening in a couple of weeks, it involved a 10-year-old case with an untested rape kit, and then in the interim, before the kit was tested, another woman had accused this same man of rape. And so I went, I attended the trial, I interviewed the prosecutors and the detective and the victim advocate and several of the victims, and wrote a narrative story that went with our project that was published last year, and then realized that I had so much more material that I just couldn't get into that story. So we decided to make it into a podcast. Taylor Wilson: All right. So without maybe giving too much away, Gina, what surprised you the most in the course of your reporting here? Gina Barton : The thing that surprised me the most is that there was all this effort put into getting the untested rape kits finally tested sometimes after months, years, decades, and all this federal money went to pay for the testing. But then a lot of times after the kits were tested, nobody did anything. I thought the whole point of this was you're going to test the kits and then you're going to investigate the case and then you're going to put the perpetrator in prison. But in fact, in a lot of jurisdictions, they just tested the kit and forgot about it again. So that was another reason why I wanted to look at this case and make the show out of it because this was a really extraordinary detective who actually got that result and then investigated the case and things worked a little bit more how they were supposed to. Taylor Wilson: Well, in terms of that extraordinary detective, what do you think motivated the lead detective in this case? Gina Barton : I've had so many conversations with Annie Harrison, who was the lead detective in the case. I think the first thing that made her different is that she has always really felt compassion and empathy for victims of rape and sexual assault and sees her role as bringing them justice and helping bring them peace as opposed to just locking up the bad guy, although she wants to do that too. The other thing that I found pretty unusual about Annie compared to a lot of the other police officers I've encountered in my more than 20 year career, is that she is willing to admit when she or other police officers have made mistakes or have been wrong, and she's always striving to see what can we learn from those mistakes. So she's also willing to apologize to the victims, which meant a lot to them. So she saw these untested rape kits, she realized that some of them, when they were tested, still nothing happened. And then she was willing to find the victim survivors, go to their houses, apologize to them for how they had been treated up to that point, and I find that to be really unusual. Taylor Wilson: Such a powerful series, Gina. What do you hope to leave listeners with after hearing it? Gina Barton : I hope that after listeners hear this, they will have more compassion for victims and survivors of sexual assault, and I hope that I get a lot of police officers and professionals listening who will be inspired by Annie and her methods and her willingness to learn more. I just hope that it gives people an inside look into how the police operate and how they should be operating and how they shouldn't be operating, both things, when they're investigating sexual assaults. Taylor Wilson: All right, just the latest great journalism from you, Gina. Gina Barton is an investigative reporter with USA TODAY. Thank you, Gina. Gina Barton : Thanks so much for having me. ♦ Taylor Wilson: And coming up tomorrow, Niall Harbison is on a mission, one that started with a golden retriever that he rescued named Tina. Niall Harbison: I remember burying her and I remember saying, "Okay, your life is not going to be in vain. I'm going to make change that is impactful in your name." Taylor Wilson: My colleague Dana Taylor, spoke with Niall about his new book, Tina: The Dog Who Changed the World and his goal of fixing the global street dog problem for good. You can hear that episode right here on this feed beginning at 5:00 AM Eastern Time. ♦ And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
USA Today
12-05-2025
- Business
- USA Today
US and China reach deal to slash trade tariffs
US and China reach deal to slash trade tariffs | The Excerpt On Monday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: The U.S. and China have reached an agreement to reduce tariffs. The Trump administration floats suspending habeas corpus. What does that mean? USA TODAY National Correspondent Trevor Hughes discusses what deporting people facing criminal charges can mean for justice. President Trump says he will sign an order aimed at cutting drug prices to match other countries. USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Aysha Bagchi explains how Diddy's lawyer defended a 'sex cult' leader in an eerily similar case. Pope Leo XIV warned of a 'piecemeal' third world war in his first Sunday address. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Monday, May 12th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, a new deal on tariffs for the US and China. Plus, what a wave of recent deportations of people facing criminal charges might mean for justice. And the trial of Sean Diddy Combs is set for opening statements. ♦ The US and China have reached a deal to slash tariffs. Speaking after talks with Chinese officials in Geneva, Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, told reporters the two sides had agreed on a 90-day pause on measures, and that tariffs would come down by over 100 percentage points to 10%. The Geneva meetings were the first of their kind between senior US and Chinese economic officials since President Trump returned to power, and launched his slew of global tariffs. Since taking office in January, Trump has pushed the tariffs paid by US importers for goods from China to 145%. In addition to those, he imposed on many Chinese goods during his first term, and duties put in by the Biden administration. China had responded by putting export curbs on some rare earth elements, and raising tariffs on US goods to 125%. All eyes will be on the markets today, and the rest of the week, to see how they respond to the latest news. ♦ Stephen Miller, a senior advisor to the president, while answering a question about illegal immigration, told reporters on Friday that the Trump administration is actively looking at suspending the constitutional right that allows people to challenge in court their detention. Miller, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, said the Constitution says the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion. Habeas corpus, Latin for you have the body, is used to determine if the government's detention of someone imprisoned is legal, according to Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute. A writ of habeas corpus is used in federal courts under civil law to challenge a person's detention, commonly used by people imprisoned who are challenging the conviction that led to their prison sentence. You can read more about the potential stakes behind Miller's comments with a link in today's show notes. ♦ Some legal experts worry that recent deportations of people facing criminal charges are creating a two-tiered system of justice. I spoke with USA TODAY national correspondent, Trevor Hughes, for more. Trevor, thanks for hopping on, sir. Trevor Hughes: Yeah, good to be here. Taylor Wilson: So, Trevor, across the country, we're seeing an uptick in immigration agents deporting criminal suspects, instead of keeping them in custody, as you write. What are you hearing specifically on this? Trevor Hughes: Well, let's be clear. ICE is deporting people who are criminal suspects when it comes to immigration violations. They consider those people criminals on that hand. What we're talking about here are people who are accused of local crimes, assaults, theft, carjackings, that kind of thing. And so what we're seeing is that ICE is increasingly, instead of keeping those folks around and letting the local court process play out, letting those folks get sentenced to five, 10, 15 years in prison, ICE is simply collecting those folks, detaining them, and in many cases, deporting them. Taylor Wilson: So in terms of the potential problems here, Trevor, what are legal experts really concerned about? Trevor Hughes: You have two problems, really. The first is that there are criminal suspects in these cases who are escaping prosecution in the United States. As one expert told me, you could have a guy accused of a serious crime in the United States agree to be deported by ICE, and be on the streets in Mexico or Venezuela within days or weeks, with no punishment whatsoever, except for that removal order from the United States. And we know that people have come back to the United States under the Trump administration already. The second concern is that, in some cases, ICE has deported the witnesses or the victims in these cases. And so what's happening, according to some of the DAs and some of the public defenders I talk to around the country, is that people are less willing to come to court and testify, if they feel like they're going to be deported, or perhaps the case against their assailant has to be dropped because the witnesses were deported. Taylor Wilson: The Federal Laken Riley Act requires ICE to detain people living illegally in the US once they've been accused of, or charged with, certain crimes, Trevor. What role is that playing in all this? Trevor Hughes: I think we're still starting to, or maybe only just beginning to, understand the ramifications of what this really means. For years, ICE has detained people, and then brought them back to court for their appearances. That happens all the time, if someone is accused of crimes, just local crimes in one state versus another. They might be transported from Massachusetts to Colorado to appear before a judge. What we're seeing in this case is that ICE is not making some of those folks available, and instead is just deporting. And I think the argument is that, it is better to deport these people and get them off the tax rolls, as it were. We don't have to pay for their incarceration or their detention, if we simply send them back to where they came from. Taylor Wilson: And on that point, have we heard from immigration officials at all, in terms of how they view some of these tensions and issues? Trevor Hughes: President Trump has basically said, we should get these people out of this country, period. And he signed the Laken Riley Act. It was the first law he signed as the new president. And so the president has been very, very committed to deporting people as the top priority, not necessarily the criminal prosecution. Now, of course, it's important to be clear, there are still plenty of criminal prosecutions of suspected illegal immigrants that are going on in this country. But what we're seeing, more and more, is some of those folks are just being deported before they are criminally prosecuted. Taylor Wilson: All right, really interesting findings here. Trevor Hughes is a national correspondent with USA TODAY. Thank you, Trevor. Trevor Hughes: You bet. ♦ Taylor Wilson: President Trump said he will sign an executive order that institutes a new policy for drug pricing, reviving a plan from his first term that he said will reduce prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices almost immediately by 30% to 80%. The order, which Trump plans to sign this morning, is expected to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to adopt the policy which would set prescription drug prices to match those of comparable countries. Full details of the order were unclear, including which insurance programs and drugs would fall under the initiative. During his first term, Trump pushed a so-called most favored nation rule that would have applied to Medicare payments, but was later rescinded by the Biden administration. You can read more with a link in today's show notes. ♦ We'll see opening statements today in the trial of Sean Diddy Combs. He faces allegations that he ran a criminal enterprise that involved kidnapping, forced labor, and sex trafficking. I caught up with USA TODAY Justice Department correspondent Aysha Bagchi for more, and a look at Diddy's lawyer's strategy in an eerily similar case involving a sex cult. A warning, some of the following may not be suitable for all listeners. Aysha, thank you so much for joining me today. Aysha Bagchi: Thanks for having me. Taylor Wilson: Who is lawyer Marc Agnifilo, and I guess, just what's his background? Let's start there. Aysha Bagchi: Marc Agnifilo is Sean Combs's lead attorney in his upcoming sex trafficking trial. The trial has basically already started, with jury selection over the past week, but it's really getting underway, in terms of the meat of the trial, with opening statements on Monday. Marc Agnifilo is a really prominent attorney. He's represented a lot of famous clients, and that includes a client in a case that had really similar charges to this one. The case of Keith Raniere, who was the head of what some people have labeled a sex cult, NXIVM. It was a self-help group that Keith Raniere helped run. But Marc Agnifilo is this famous attorney. He represented Dominique Strauss-Kahn years ago, in a case where Strauss-Kahn was able to defeat charges that were brought against him involving sex-related allegations. And he's a former prosecutor, so he's a well-known attorney in New York City, and he's a big name that's taking on this case. Taylor Wilson: We mentioned that self-help guru Keith Raniere, and in a similar sex trafficking case, what happened there? And what was at stake in that trial? Aysha Bagchi: That trial involved Keith Raniere, this head of this large group, getting charged with sex trafficking, among other types of crimes. He basically was charged with racketeering, which is this fancy legal word that has to do with the government trying to take down what they think is a criminal enterprise. And, actually, Marc Agnifilo, Sean Combs's attorney, helped bring about that expansion of this law targeting criminal enterprises. When he was a prosecutor in New Jersey, he brought it to cases involving street gangs. And in more recent years, we've seen prosecutors start to use it in cases that they say involve sex trafficking, sometimes, with really famous people. That includes Keith Raniere in 2020. It also includes R. Kelly, a singer who was accused of sex trafficking as well. So Sean Combs's trial is another example of someone famous who is being charged with running, basically, a criminal enterprise that involved sex trafficking among other crimes. Taylor Wilson: Considering some of the similarities across the cases, do we expect he and his legal team to argue using, I guess, similar tactics to what we've seen previously? Aysha Bagchi: Time will tell, but we have had a preview of how Marc Agnifilo has approached a similar case, when it came to Keith Raniere's trial. For that trial, he actually allowed a documentary team to follow him. So we got an up-close-and-personal look at how he was thinking about the defense. And you could really see some features of his defense that legal experts have also told me fall into Marc Agnifilo's broader style. He really likes to try to humanize his clients, and help the jury to see them as full human beings in the way that they want the jury to see him. So, basically, he tries to convey this impression that, I'm a charismatic guy, I'm a likable guy. Here I am putting my arm around my client because he's a good guy too. And you should think the same thing about him. He's also someone who really thought about how to handle some allegations that involve someone living a lifestyle that is really different from how many people live their lives, especially when it comes to their sex lives. Marc Agnifilo talked a lot in that case about the idea that he needed to get the jurors comfortable with the notion that his client could have lived an alternative sexual lifestyle, had lots of sexual partners at the same time, and still not been guilty of any crime. And when it comes to Sean Combs's case, he said that he wants jurors to know that there's this alternative sexual lifestyle. He told the judge, in late April, call it swingers. This lifestyle that's really different from how some people live, but it's what Sean Combs did, and that's not a crime. He's really going to emphasize that Sean Combs had good intentions. He never meant to coerce someone. He said that at that hearing, and that was a big feature of his defense of Keith Raniere as well. Taylor Wilson: All right, opening arguments set for today. Aysha Bagchi covers the Justice Department for USA TODAY. Thank you, Aysha. Aysha Bagchi: Thanks, Taylor. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Pope Leo XIV gave his first Sunday address yesterday. (Pope Leo XIV speaks) Taylor Wilson: He addressed a crowd tens of thousands deep in St. Peter's Square, warning in Italian of a piecemeal third world war. Leo said he welcomed the recent announcement of a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. And on Russia's war in Ukraine, he appealed for negotiations to reach an authentic, just, and lasting peace, adding that he carries in his heart the suffering of the beloved people of Ukraine. The Pope also said he was profoundly saddened by the war in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid, and release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. And he pleaded for an end to the fighting in Gaza. ♦ And coming up later today, giving moms their due, on a new episode of Forum, with host Michael McCarter. Michael McCarter: Yesterday was a day to honor mothers, so we, on the Forum team, asked you for stories about the maternal figures in your lives. You can hear what listeners and readers like you had to share about their moms. Tune into Forum, publishing today at 4:00 PM Eastern Time on this feed. Taylor Wilson: You can find more opinions on ♦ Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. If you have any comments or concerns, you can always email us at podcasts@ I'm Taylor Wilson. I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
