← The Headlines
The Headlines
Former W.W.E. Boss Tapped to Run Education, and Trans Rights on Capitol Hill
00:09:42
Plus, this musical wants France to love it back.
Loading summary
Transcript14 lines
- [00:01]
Michael J. Fox
Did you know that every six minutes someone in the US Is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease? Chances are you know someone impacted by Parkinson's. It's the fastest growing brain disease in the world, and there's no known cure. But you can help change that. Thanks to a major breakthrough last year, the Michael J. Fox foundation for Parkinson's Research is closer than ever to finding a cure. Your support can make a difference. Visit michaeljfox.org donatenow. That's michaeljfox.org Donate now.
- [00:35]
Tracy Mumford
From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Wednesday, November 20th. Here's what we're covering. Donald Trump has made another unconventional pick for his cabinet, choosing Linda McMahon, who has almost no background in education for secretary of education. McMahon is a former wrestling executive who led WWE. She's also a close personal friend of Trump's who served during his first term running the Small Business Administration. Trump has repeatedly talked about getting rid of the Department of Education altogether, but that would require congressional action. Instead, McMahon, if confirmed, is expected to upend the department from the inside at Trump's request.
- [01:22]
Erica Green
Like many conservatives, President elect Donald Trump believes that the Department of Education has inserted itself into issues that it shouldn't be a part of, such as race, gender, that it delivers edicts on what students should be taught and how and ultimately has taken power away from parents.
- [01:45]
Tracy Mumford
Times reporter Erica Green spent over a decade covering education. She says there are some clues about where McMahon might start. She's the chair of the America First Policy Institute, a right wing think tank that's called for a drastic overhaul of education policy that includes stopping schools from, quote, promoting inaccurate and unpatriotic concepts about institutionalized racism and expanding voucher programs that direct public funds to homeschooling online classes or private or religious schools.
- [02:19]
Erica Green
All of this is expected to happen when schools are combating a series of crises. Student test scores are among the lowest they've ever been, colleges are facing enrollment crises, and both K12 and college campuses are struggling to climb back to the levels of performance that they were at before the pandemic. And as the nation's schools and colleges have struggled to recover from a lot of the damage they have experienced in recent years, education advocates fear that Trump's plans for the department could set them back even further.
- [03:05]
Tracy Mumford
Also yesterday, Trump continued his trend of selecting television personalities to lead federal agencies. He said he plans to nominate Dr. Mehmet Oz, best known as TV's Dr. Oz, to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees health insurance programs for more than 150 million Americans. And Trump tapped the Wall street executive Howard Lutnick to be Commerce Secretary. It's increasingly one of the most powerful economic positions in the government. The primary responsibility is advocating for US Business interests overseas, which could put Lutnick at the center of discussions on tariffs and trade wars. In Congress, the fight over transgender rights has taken a personal turn. This week. Republican Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina said she plans to call for a ban on transgender women using women's restrooms on Capitol Hill. Is this effort in response to Congresswoman McBride's coming to Congress? Yes, and absolutely, and then some.
- [04:17]
Erica Green
I'm not going to stand.
- [04:18]
Tracy Mumford
Mace has been explicit that she's specifically targeting Sarah McBride, a newly elected Democratic representative from Delaware who's the first openly trans member of Congress. House Republicans have spent the last few years routinely proposing national anti trans legislation. And now some are signaling they'll support this measure in their own workplace. Meanwhile, Democrats on the Hill reacted to the proposal with outrage, calling it disgusting and cruel. For the moment, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has been noncommittal about how far the measure will get.
- [04:52]
Alex Trevelli
A man is a man and a woman is a woman, and a man cannot become a woman. But I also believe that we treat everybody with dignity and so we can do and believe all those things at the same time. And I wanted to make that clear for everybody because there's lots of questions.
- [05:08]
Tracy Mumford
In a statement, McBride herself wrote, quote, everyday Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully. I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a reward yesterday $5 million to anyone who returns one of the hostages still being held in Gaza. The hostages were taken over a year ago during Hamas's attack on Israel. About 100 are still being held, though several dozen of them are believed to be dead. Many Israelis, including the hostages families, have accused Netanyahu of not prioritizing the hostages release. They say he's resisted making a ceasefire deal to free them and instead prolonged the war for his own political gain. The prime minister made the reward announcement while in the Gaza Strip, where he was visiting Israeli troops. He said that anyone who returns a hostage will also receive safe passage out of Gaza for themselves and their family.
- [06:30]
Alex Trevelli
So this week started with a Monday that was by some counts the absolute worst air pollution there's been over Delhi for about eight years. It felt like we got bombed with a pea soup kind of fog or smog over the whole city. You could not see the sun in the middle of the day, and most of us can feel it also in your lungs, in your eyes. Maybe you get headachy, maybe you get tired.
- [06:56]
Tracy Mumford
My colleague Alex Trevelli is a correspondent based in India's capital, New Delhi, where the air quality index soared to more than 1700 this week. Anything above 300 is considered hazardous. He says that while this particular stretch has been brutal, the city is caught in a cycle where thick, smothering air pollution settles on Delhi every November.
- [07:20]
Alex Trevelli
As the temperature drops on this part of the Indian plains, backed up against the Himalaya mountain range, it becomes impossible for air to refresh itself. Wind patterns change and all of the ordinary pollutants hangs over us in a great choking haze. There are a lot of contributing factors. There's vehicle pollution. A large part of the vehicular fleet is diesel. There's fields that have been cleared for harvest. Farmers burn down the stubble around this time of year to clear it for the next crop. There are firecrackers on Diwali. Yeah, depending on where you stand in society, you might have a very different experience of this kind of pollution. What you might call upper middle class or wealthy households, many now have air purifiers, but that's proportionally a really tiny part of the population. Most people are left to fend for themselves, whether at home or out in the open. You see a lot of people tying big pieces of fabric up around their face, or maybe they have some N95 type masks left over from the pandemic. But it's got so bad that this one very prominent member of parliament wrote, perhaps mockingly, that if the air is unbreathable, if the city is unlivable from November to January each year, should it even be the capital? Should India's capital be moved to some other place?
- [08:47]
Tracy Mumford
And finally, do you hear the people singing the song of angry men? Les Mis is one of the most famous musicals in the world. It's been performed in 22 languages, seen by over 100 million people. But ironically, the tale of uprising and rebellion has never been a hit in France, despite being set in France, adapted from a French novel, and with two Frenchmen as the show's creators. It's only been performed in Paris twice since it debuted in the 1980s, which means more musical theater kids in Kansas know the words than anyone in France. Some of it's because musicals were just not cool in the country for a while. But it's more than that. One French journalist called the play deplorably foolish and vulgar. The Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway film adaptation didn't change that. But a new stage production opening today in Paris is trying to win the people over. The show's original creators are heavily involved, and the production has gone all in, reworking the lyrics, modernizing the production and featuring a more diverse cast. This time, France appears to be ready to embrace its musical offspring. The initial run is nearly sold out, and plans are underway to have a tour France outside Paris, which would be the first time ever in the musical's history. Those are the headlines today on the Daily why breast reduction surgeries are becoming more popular among young women in the US that's next in the New York Times audio app. Or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.