← The Headlines
The Headlines
The Trump Family’s Saudi Business Ties, and Hundreds of Gazans on Mystery Flights
00:11:23
Plus, a vote on the Epstein files.
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- [00:00]
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Tracy Mumford
From the New York times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, November 18th. Here's what we're covering. This morning at the White House. President Trump is rolling out the red carpet for the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who's making his first visit to the US in seven years. Back in 2018, Mohammed bin Salman became a global pariah after Saudi agents killed and dismembered the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. A US Intelligence assessment later found that bin Salman had likely ordered the killing himself, though the Saudi government forcefully denied that. Since then, the crown prince has leveraged Saudi Arabia's vast wealth and the kingdom's sway over oil markets to get back on the world stage. When bin Salman and Trump meet today, the two are expected to discuss a number of diplomatic and corporate deals, including a mutual mutual defense agreement, a potential transfer of American nuclear technology, and new collaboration around AI.
- [01:39]
Vivian Nehriim
What's at stake during this visit is obviously billions of dollars in potential deals between the two countries. But it's hard to ignore that President Trump's family business also has profit making and personal interests in Saudi Arabia.
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Tracy Mumford
Vivian Nehriim is the Times Gulf bureau chief.
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Vivian Nehriim
So far, there are at least four projects that have been announced for sort of Trump branded developments in the kingdom. There's a Trump Tower planned for Jeddah. There are two projects that have been announced for Riyadh. But also there's live golf, which is a professional league backed by the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund. And they have hosted tournaments at Trump's golf club near Miami. There are also Trump family members who have close business ties with Saudi Arabia, separately. So Jared Kushner, the president's son in law, received a $2 billion investment from the Saudi sovereign fund a couple years back. And he also recently announced that he's participating in a massive leveraged buyout with the Saudi Sovereign fund of a video game company, Electronic Arts. These are just the deals that we know about. A lot of things have yet to be disclosed publicly. I spoke late last month to a Saudi executive who told me that the Trump Organization is actually in potential talks to bring another Trump branded development to a Saudi government real estate project that's overseen by the Crown Prince himself. In the Gulf, where hereditary ruling families hold nearly absolute power, this kind of mingling of politics and business is normal. But for the United States, it's really shattered, you know, decades of norms and raised concerns among ethics experts. Essentially, it just presents a lot of questions around potential conflicts of interest.
- [03:28]
Tracy Mumford
Meanwhile, are you Planning to sell F35s to Saudi Arabia? I mean, and also, are you looking on doing a similar security framework? Yeah, no, I am planning on doing that. You've been a great ally. They've got to like us very much. Look at. Ahead of the Crown Prince's visit, President Trump announced that he's Planning to sell F35 fighter jets to the kingdom. The planes feature some of the US's most sensitive stealth technology. And his decision comes despite a recent report from the Pentagon that raised concerns that this kind of sale could give China access to the tech. Saudi Arabia and China have a security partnership. By law, Congress will have the opportunity to block the sale, though. In Trump's first term, he used emergency powers and a presidential veto to push through arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the objections of lawmakers. In Congress. Today, the House is expected to vote on a measure demanding the release of the Epstein files. At one point, it seemed like a long shot to pass. Now it's expected to have unanimous bipartisan support. Many Republicans got on board in the face of pressure from their constituents, who've demanded transparency in the case. And in the last few days, some GOP lawmakers warned the president in private that they could no longer hold out, saying the longer the opposition to releasing the files lasted, the more it seemed like there was something to hide. After those conversations, Trump himself reversed course. He's now also supporting the file's release. A rare case of the President bending to political pressure after spending most of his term ruling over his party with an iron grip. Notably, Trump's newfound support for the measure has raised the question, if the President wants the files to be released, why doesn't he just do it himself? He has the power. Earlier this year, for example, the President ordered the release of documents related to Martin Luther King Jr. And John F. Kennedy. And just a few days ago, the government released thousands of declassified documents related to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart after Trump said they should be unsealed.
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UN or Middle East Official
Thank you for joining us in charting a new course in the Middle east for Israelis and Palestinians and all the people of the region alike.
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Tracy Mumford
In a major breakthrough at the United nations yesterday, the Security Council approved President Trump's peace plan for Gaza, endorsing the White House's vision for the future of the territory.
- [06:11]
UN or Middle East Official
Today's resolution represents another significant step towards a stable Gaza that will be able to prosper and an environment that will allow Israel to live in security.
- [06:24]
Tracy Mumford
The plan includes a so called Board of Peace, which Trump says he will lead to oversee Gaza for at least the next two years, and among other provisions, calls for an international stabilization force to demilitarize and govern the territory. It passed, even though some of the members of the Security Council objected to the fact that it doesn't include clear language supporting Palestinian statehood. The UN vote is part of an effort to move into a new second phase of the ongoing ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. As discussions about Gaza's future continue. The Times recently got access to the American run base in Israel, where some of the planning is underway. It's a repurposed warehouse known as the Civil Military Coordination center that my colleagues say has the feel of a kind of frenzied, chaotic startup, with US And Israeli troops, foreign diplomats and aid workers all gathered around whiteboards and laptops and big screen TVs. Some of them have years of experience in the region, others have little to none. There was a session at one point for newcomers titled what is Hamas? Looking at the schedule, Some of the meetings at the base have surprisingly light names for the topics. There's Wellness Wednesdays for discussions about sanitation, health care and education in the territory. Discussions about water infrastructure have been called Thirsty Thursdays. The center has also been doing some planning for what it calls alternate safe communities, which are residential compounds that the Trump administration is considering building in parts of Gaza controlled by Israel. The thinking is that by offering new housing options, civilians could be drawn away from areas Hamas controls, weakening the group. Despite the flurry of planning happening at the base, there is no formal Palestinian representation there. That's prompted criticism from some diplomats and aid workers who say that any long term plans for the future of Gaza's 2 million residents are unlikely to be successful without significant input from Palestinians themselves. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away from Gaza, a pair of mysterious recent flights is drawing scrutiny. After the planes dropped off hundreds of Gazans in South Africa, a group called Almage Europe, which barely has any public profile, arranged the flights promising to shuttle Gazans out of the territory and give them temporary accommodations in South Africa. But the flights caught the South African government by surprise. Yesterday, the country's foreign minister suggested that Israel was behind it saying the flights are part of a, quote, clear agenda to cleanse the Palestinians out of Gaza. Israel has denied the accusation. The Almage group has not responded to requests for comment. The Times talked with one of the men on the flight, a 37 year old father of two. He said he'd gotten a call out of the blue from a man who said he worked for a humanitarian organization who promised to get the family out of Gaza for $1,600 a person paid in crypto. He said he was told to tell anyone who asked that they were part of a French Embassy evacuation. The family had no idea where they were being sent. They're now on a 90 day visa in South Africa. And he says his young kids are discovering what life outside a war zone is like. His four year old daughter has been amazed that she can walk into a store to buy food or plug a cell phone into the wall to charge it, things she'd only seen in videos. He said, quote, the other day she was telling me, dad, we are living like the YouTube life. And finally, monarch butterflies are the snowbirds of the insect world, where people's grandparents might go from Minnesota down to Florida for the winter, monarchs fly thousands of miles from as far north as Canada all the way to central Mexico. Exactly how they pull it off, though, has mostly been a mystery. But until now, researchers have a new tool for tracking the monarch's journey. A company has developed tiny solar powered radio tags that weigh just 60 milligrams. So, like three grains of rice, thanks to a little eyelash glue, this year, hundreds of monarchs set off on their migration with those tags attached. The new data has revealed that their routes can be very different, especially if one gets blown out to sea by a strong wind, which happened to specimen CMP032. Don't worry, it kept flying south. The tags mean that butterfly fans can follow along with the insect's progress in an app. One researcher who has studied monarchs declining population in the U.S. said, quote, there's nothing that's not amazing about this. The hope is that learning more about how and where the insects travel could provide answers about how to help more of them make the journey. Right now, no more than one in four monarchs survives to the end due to traffic, sheer exhaustion and what we all fear. Hungry birds. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.