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UNBIASED Politics
A New Qatari Air Force Facility, the Legality of Mass Layoffs Amid Shutdown, Effects to Special Education, RFK's Autism/Circumcision Claim, and More.
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Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. Welcome back to Unbiased Politics. Today is Monday, October 13th. Let's talk about some news. I do just want to say I do typically take federal holidays off those that have been here for a while. You know this. But because I just took a week off recently, as many of you know, I decided to kind of just push through and get an episode out today because I didn't need to take today off too. But but I don't want to set the precedent that I that I put episodes out on federal holidays because I typically don't. So let's start today's episode talking about the National Guard ruling out of Illinois with that. I do want to say also that I do kind of feel as if these National Guard stories are getting pretty repetitive. I don't know if you guys feel the same way, but I definitely feel it. I've covered the national guard deployment in LA, in D.C. in Portland, now in Chicago, and the story is virtually the same every time. The exception is D.C. because as we've talked about, the laws are a little bit different in Washington, D.C. but it is going to get to a point, likely after today's episode, where I'm just going to start referring people back to past episodes like I usually do when topics get repetitive. At the same time, I do always talk about the stories that are most requested ahead of every episode, and this was one of the most requested stories. So we're going to talk about it. So since we haven't talked about Chicago specifically yet, but just know that, number one, I'm not going to get all into all of the legalities of Title 10 and the posse Comitatus Act. I just did that on Thursday. And two after today, I'll likely just start referring everyone back to past episodes whenever there is a similar Title 10 National Guard situation that arises. So if you hear this story and you still don't understand all of the legalities and you want a refresher on Title 10 or the posse Comitatus Act. Please, please go ahead and listen to Thursday's episode. So this is the story. Over the weekend, a federal appeals court blocked the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops within Illinois. But that ruling allowed certain troops to remain under federal control while the litigation is ongoing. By the end of this story, that will make a little more sense. To give you some context, earlier this month, President Trump federalized about 300 members of the Illinois National Guard and deployed them to Chicago with the stated mission of protecting federal property and assisting immigration enforcement operations. Around the same time, Trump also deployed 200 Texas National Guard troops to Illinois. That brought the total number of troops in the state to roughly 500. In response to that, the state of Illinois filed a lawsuit against the administration, claiming that the administration's federalization and deployment of the National Guard was unlawful. And specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Trump's actions violated Title 10 of the U.S. code, the Posse Comitatus act, and the 10th Amendment of the Constitution. Very, very, very similar arguments were made in the California lawsuit as well as the Oregon lawsuit that both took place over the last few months. Title 10 is the Federal law that allows the President to federalize the National Guard in three specific situations, right during an invasion by a foreign nation, or when there's a danger of invasion, during a rebellion against the federal government, or when there's a danger of rebellion, or when the President is unable to execute federal laws with regular military forces. Because as Illinois alleged in this lawsuit, there is no rebellion taking place in Illinois. Illinois went ahead and requested what's called a temporary restraining order against the administration, which is basically a short term court order that would block the administration from taking any further action while this case is pending. And last Thursday, a lower court judge granted that request, which blocked the federal government from deploying troops in Illinois while the case was pending. Keep in mind, too, that whenever a court considers a request for a temporary restraining restraining order like this, the court is not considering the actual merits of the case. They are not considering the arguments of the case. The court is just deciding whether to take temporary action to preserve the status quo. So the administration appeals that lower court decision blocking it from deploying troops and asks the appellate court to pause that lower court order so that it can proceed with its deployment. And over the weekend, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that members of the Illinois and Texas National Guard can remain federalized or under the administration's control rather than the state's control, but that the administration cannot actually deploy the troops. The troops cannot go out and assist law enforcement or do whatever the administration wants them to do. The administration has stated that it plans to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court. So we'll see what happens if and when it does. It is also worth noting that after the weekend decision, that decision allowing the troops to remain federalized, there was a small brawl that took place between protesters and state police outside of an ICE detention facility near Chicago. The protest turned more violent on Saturday night as some of the people, at first of all, as this court ruling came out, but also as some of the people that were already gathered outside the facility started jumping over a line of concrete barriers and stopping traffic. These actions were taken despite police having already declared an unlawful assembly in the area. So police drew wooden batons, they pushed the crowd to the street. They threatened to deploy tear gas if people didn't disperse and go home. Most of the protesters did retreat at that point, but a few of them started throwing things at the police line, which only then led to additional fights between protesters and police. One woman was knocked to the ground during all of this. She hit her head on the cement curb. Another man, he was wearing all black and a gas mask, was tackled by police before. He was ultimately handcuffed and taken away. So by 8pm that night, eight people had been arrested, and that is in addition to the seven that had been arrested throughout the day. So that's a little bit about what's going on in Chicago. Like I said, if you want a refresher as to Title 10 and the posse Comitatus act, go ahead and listen to my Thursday episode. I also have other episodes where, where I've discussed it in, in a lot of detail. Okay, next story. The Trump administration has announced more than 4,000 federal employees will be laid off via what are called reductions in force or riffs. Now, this announcement has created a pretty big discussion because it's a deviation from what we typically see during government shutdowns. Typically during a shutdown, essential federal employees continue working without pay, while non essential employees are furloughed or sick, sent home until the government reopens. Once the government does reopen, both essential and non essential employees receive back pay. So normally, those non essential employees aren't permanently terminated. They're just temporarily out of work. Right. What's different here is that the administration is permanently eliminating roughly 4,000 positions, meaning those employees will not return when the government opens. And it's not even that these employees specifically are losing their jobs. I mean, they are, but it's not the specific employees that are being targeted. It's the actual positions that are being taken away. So the targeted agencies reportedly include the Treasury Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, parts of the Department of Homeland Security. The. The cdc, which is within the Department of Health and Human Services, also reported issuing RIF notices to about 1100 employees. But they later reversed that. They took back about half of those. So citing a glitch in the system. Now, before I get into what riffs are and whether they are legal, it's worth noting that these particular riffs are being legally challenged as we speak. Okay, so the American Federation of Government Employees has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block these layoffs. And they're arguing that these layoffs violate a law called the Anti Deficiency act, which prohibits agencies from spending money during a funding lapse. And they're also arguing that these layoffs violate the Administrative Procedure act, which prevents arbitrary or capricious government actions. Their argument is that federal agencies cannot permanently eliminate jobs during a shutdown or use the shutdown itself as a reason to justify these layoffs. On the other hand, the Office of Personnel Management, or opm, basically the agency that makes the rules for federal layoffs, recently said, recently kind of changed things a bit and said that RIFs can still happen during a shutdown. And the way they did this is they sort of labeled the kind of work that happens during shutdown related rifts, as expected work, which just means that it's one of the few activities that can legally continue even when the government is closed. So that means, at Beast According to OPM, these layoffs are lawful, legally speaking, because of this sort of difference in views. This is a bit of a gray area. Now, a reduction in force, or a RIF is the term that is used, particularly in government and corporate settings, for layoffs that result from either budget cuts, restructuring, or downsizing. A RIF happens when an employer permanently eliminates positions because those positions are no longer needed. It's not about firing or punishing an employee, like I was saying before, it's about removing the position itself. Now, rifts during a shutdown are rare, but they are not explicitly prohibited. And what I mean by that is they are not explicitly prohibited by law. Federal law sets forth certain instances in which rifts can happen. Rifts can be conducted. However, agencies have to follow very strict procedural rules. And we'll touch on what those rules are in a second.
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What I do want to make clear is what the legal fight is about right now is whether a shutdown can serve as the justification for A riff. So that'll probably make a little bit more sense by the time we're done with this, by the time we go through when a RIF is actually allowed by law, and the fact that the law doesn't say, hey, you know, riffs are explicitly allowed in a shutdown, it actually doesn't say anything about a shutdown at all specifically. So that's what the legal challenge is all about. Under Title 5 of the US Code, as well as Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, a federal agency can only conduct a RRIF for what are called legitimate mission related reasons. So these include, but are not limited to, lack of need, lack of funds, reorganization or classification due to changed duties and transfer of function, like, you know, moving a program or an office somewhere else within the government. A federal agency cannot use a RRIF as a way to get rid of an employee for conduct or performance reasons. An agency also can't use a RIFT to get rid of an employee for political reasons. Per the law, before any employees are released, the agency issuing the RIFS has to first rank employees based on a retention register using four factors. So they look at tenure group first, meaning career or career conditional employees are retained before temporary employees are. They also look at veterans preference, meaning veterans and certain family members of veterans receive priority over non veterans. They also look at length of service, meaning the total length of creditable federal service. And then they also look at performance ratings, meaning higher performance scores can increase retention standing.
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So these four factors taken together produce an employee's retention standing, which then determines the order in which employees are affected by the rrif. Now, you might have noticed I said that a federal agency cannot use a RRIF to remove someone for performance reasons, yet performance ratings are still a factor in determining retention. Those two things are not contradictory, and here's why. So an agency can't simply say, Sally's performance sucks, so we're including her in the riff. But if a legitimate riff is underway due to, let's just say, lack of funds, that's the justification the government is using. Performance can help determine which employees are kept and which are let go. So an agency might instead say, okay, we have to eliminate 500 positions and between Sally and Steve, Steve is a veteran and has higher performance ratings, so he stays and Sally goes. That would be permissible. Federal law also requires at least 60 days written notice before a RIF takes effect. That notice has to state the reason for the rif, the effective date, the employee's appeal and placement rights, and also the availability of re Employment Assistance. Now, employees can appeal a RRIF to the Merit Systems Protection Board if they believe either proper procedures were not followed or Veterans preference was ignored, or the RIF was a pretext for discrimination or retaliation. If the mspb, after reviewing the evidence, finds that the agency acted improperly in issuing that rif, it can reverse the decision and order reinstatement with back pay. So what I want to make clear here is when you hear the administration saying RIFs have begun, that means that layoff notices have been issued, not that the employees were immediately terminated. So those positions remain active for 60 days after notice and then after that 60 day period, the positions are officially eliminated. Just to be very clear, overnight riffs would be explicitly unlawful. And then just in case I wasn't clear about this before, the administration stated justification for these rifts is a lack of funding, right? The government is closed. The the government doesn't currently have money. The justification is lack of funding, which is permissible under the law. Whether that justification holds up in the context in the context of a shutdown though, is now up to the courts to decide. So that's a little bit about the legality of it all. We're going to take our first break here. When we come back, we'll discuss how these rifts have affected each agency and specifically special education. We'll also then move on to discuss the plans for a new Qatari Air Force facility here in the United States and more. Remember that doctor's appointment you were supposed to make a while ago? The one you meant to book but you got sidetracked and completely forgot about it until now? 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That's shipstation.com code unbiased AI had the time of my life a I never felt this way before. From building timelines to assigning the right people and even spotting risks across dozens of projects, Monday Sidekick knows your business, thinks ahead and takes action. One click on the star and consider it done. And I owe it all to you. Try Monday Sidekick AI you'll love to use on Monday.com welcome back. Before the break, we talked about the legality of Rifs. Now what I want to do is I want to talk about which departments have been affected and to what extent, and then specifically focus on the Department of Education, because many of you have asked how these rifts might affect the education system. According to a recent court filing, agencies sent RIF notices to the following. Approximately 315 employees in the Department of Commerce, 466 in the Department of Education, 187 in the Department of Energy, between 1100 and 1200 in the Department of Health and Human Services, which half have now been retracted, 442 in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, 176 in the Department of Homeland Security, and 1,446 in the Department of the Treasury. In total, that's about 4,200 RIF notices sent across the federal government. Of these departments, the Education Department has drawn particular attention, especially around special education programs. So a union representing the Education Department employees said that nearly everyone in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services was laid off. Similarly, an Education Department employee told reporters that the agency laid off almost everyone who helps administer funding for idea. That's the federal law that supports students with disabilities. Those individuals that work to administer funding for IDEA work within the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. So it's all kind of combined. Now, I want to be clear that at this point, there is no official estimate from the agency confirming exactly how many people in that specific office were affected by the RIF. So we know that about 466 total RIF notices were sent in that department, meaning in the Education Department as a whole. We don't know how many. How many of those employees came from which offices. For context, the Department of education employs roughly 3,000 people and has about 17 different offices. Each office has a specific function. One of those 17 offices is the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services that we're talking about. Other offices include Federal Student Aid, Office for Civil Rights, Office of the General Counsel, Office of Post Secondary Education, Institute of Education services, and about 11 others. So all we can say right now is that about 466 of 3,000 employees received layoff notices within the Education Department. But the breakdown by office is unknown. Based on the lawsuit that was filed by the union, as well as reports from staff and managers, most of the effective positions appear to be below the leadership level. Within the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, senior executives as well as political appointees are presumed to have kept their positions. But again, we don't yet know how many employees in that specific office received notices and whether the nearly all claim from the union is accurate. If that claim turns out to be true, there could be significant operational impacts on how the Department manages IDEA fundings. Specifically, if the riffs are ultimately carried out and those positions are permanently cut after the 60 day notice period, there would be fewer staff available to disperse IDEA funding to the states and oversee compliance. That would obviously have an effect on operations. Education secretary Linda McMahon, who has said her goal is to shift education control more to the states while also protecting idea, has tried to ease concerns a little bit by saying that the Department will continue to fully fund and administer all programs that are required by Congress. But some people are so concerned that even if the funding continues, there might simply just be no staff left to handle it. So at this stage we'll have to wait and see. I wish I had more definitive answers for you, but unfortunately, just with time, we need to see, you know, how many positions were actually cut within the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative services after that 60 day rift notice period ends and how many employees are left. How is the department going to, you know, maintain operations despite the staffing losses? These are all answers that we will only know with time. Once we know more, I'll be sure to update you. Moving on to this new Qatari Air Force facility On Friday, Pete Hegseth and Qatari officials announced that the US Will host a training facility for the Qatari Air Force at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. According to the plans, the facility will house Qatari F15 fighter jets and pilots who will train alongside US troops. Notably, the plan to build the Qatari facility has been in the works for years. So this was an idea that was first conceived during the Trump administration and it was later formally approved under the Biden administration in 2022. Now there is a 2022 environmental assessment that was done, which I will go over what it says and I want to be clear that we don't have when he made this announcement, there weren't specific details that were included in the announcement. So I'm going to tell you what we know about the plans from this 2022 environmental assessment. But it's unclear whether those those plans remain exactly the same or whether they've changed at all. So what we know from the 2022 environmental assessment is that the plan involves training pilots from Qatar's Air Force here in the United States, specifically at this Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. The plan involves stationing 12 of Qatar's F15 fighter jets at The Idaho Air Force Base. It also involves bringing in about 300 extra personnel, which will be a mix of Qatari and US Air Force staff to run and support the training program. The plan allows the fighter jets to use the base's runways, airspace and military flight routes for training exercises. And it also involves using defensive equipment and live weapons during some of those trainings. And it involves building or upgrading facilities and infrastructure at the base to house and support the planes, crews and equipment. Per that 2022 assessment, basing and operations were to begin in early fiscal year 2024. The deal was to last 10 years, with an option to extend beyond that. Just to be clear about the timeline for that plan, reporting from the Defense Department says that discussions for this training plan began when Qatar made, I think it was a $12 billion purchase from the United States. It included about 36 fighter jets and some other weapons systems in 2017. So that's when the plans, when the discussions for the plans began. Work on the environmental assessment started in 2020, but it didn't finish until 2022. And in 2022, it was reported that the Air Force was looking to bring 170 members of Qatar's air Force to the Idaho base where they would learn to fly the newest F15 fighter jet. You know, specifically modified for the Persian Gulf state is what it said and to advance the program. So this concept started during Trump's first administration, but the formal approval for the project was completed under Biden. Notably, despite the seemingly bipartisan nature of the plan, Hegseth's recent announcement drew bipartisan backlash and critics main issue was that the US shouldn't be housing military bases for foreign power. This criticism led Hegseth to tweet later in the day on Friday, quote, important clarification. The US Military has a long standing partnership with Qatar, including today's announced cooperation with F15QA aircraft. However, to be clear, Qatar will not have their own base in the United States, nor anything like a base. We control the existing base like we do with all partners, end quote. Similar, the similarly, the Qatari media diplomat here in the United States clarified that the facility will not be a Qatari air base and said that quote, Qatar has made an initial 10 year commitment to construct and maintain a dedicated facility within an existing US Air base to, to offer advanced training and to enhance interoperability in defending and advancing our shared interests around the world, end quote. So just to note the difference between a sovereign Qatari air base and a training facility under US control, a sovereign air base which is not what this is. But a sovereign air base implies that Qatar or whatever partner nation has control over legislation, law enforcement, entry and exit, perhaps even immunity from U.S. law. And it would operate with its own chain of command, independent of U.S. oversight. A training facility under U.S. control, though, which is what this is, means the base is under US Jurisdiction and command and foreign presence is limited. Okay. And by the way, we do have a similar setup with Singapore. The Republic of Singapore Air Force has a joint squadron at the same air base in Idaho, Mountain Home Air Base. And that's been the case since 2008. Singaporean pilots and personnel train at the base alongside US forces. And very similar to the plans for Qatar, Singaporean soldiers are hosted under agreements that place them within US Based control and US Legal jurisdiction. And it's true that the US has partnerships with other countries too, like Turkey, Italy, Finland, Switzerland, the UK and some others where, you know, troops from those countries train on US soil. But those are a little bit different in the sense that those are mostly temporary or rotational programs. They're not permanent bases. Singapore so far is the only country with a permanent training detachment hosted by the US Air Force, and Qatar will become the second. So that's what you need to know about that. During a. We're switching gears a bit. During a recent Cabinet meeting, HHS Secretary Kennedy commented on a possible link between circumcision in boys and autism. So after talking a bit more about Tylenol and autism and the autism rates today compared to the 70s, Kennedy said at this Cabinet meeting, quote, there's many, many other confirmation studies. There's two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It's highly likely because they are given Tylenol. You know, none of this is dispositive, but all of it is stuff that we should be paying attention to, end quote. Kennedy did not specify which two studies he was referencing here, but through my own research and through the research of other outlets, there are two studies he may have been referencing. So far, it's the only two studies I've been able to find that talk about circumcision and autism. So the first study was published in 2015. It's a Danish national cohort study that investigated whether there is a link between circumcision and and the development of autism in young boys. Researchers analyzed data on more than 340,000 boys between 1994 and 2003, tracking them until age nine. Using National Health registries, the study looked at circumcision status autism diagnoses and other factors like parental age, birth characteristics and socioeconomic background. That study found that circumcised boys were were 46% more likely to be diagnosed with autism before age 9 compared to uncircumcised boys. The increased risk appeared the strongest, around 50% for infantile infantile autism, which refers to early onset autism that's diagnosed before age five. However, the authors did also note some important limitations. So one of the biggest limitations here was that the number of circumcised boys in the data set was relatively small. Denmark actually has one of the lowest circumcision rates in the world, so while the study analyzed just over 342,000 boys, only a small fraction of those boys were circumcised. The study did not publish an exact count of how many boys were were circumcised, but based on the Danish registry data, the rate is roughly 1 to 2% of all boys between ages 0 and 9. Another limitation was that not all circumcisions were recorded, so some were done outside the hospital and therefore not included in data set. The study also did not conclude whether circumcision causes autism. It only identified a statistical association. Remember, association does not mean causation. If you want more detail on that, just go tune into my episode on Tylenol and autism. So the authors of this Denmark study ultimately concluded that while the findings show a possible link between circumcision and autism, the results should be interpreted cautiously and more research needs to be done. The second study was published in 2013 and it was an ecological analysis that looked at potential links between acetaminophen exposure before and shortly after birth and the prevalence of autism across various countries and US States. And just to be clear, an ecological study compares population averages rather than individual data, so it looks for large scale patterns, not necessarily cause and effect in specific people. This study used population level data on autism prevalence from the CDC as well as the Summary of Autism ASD Prevalence Studies database to estimate acetaminophen exposure. The authors relied on national survey data and prior research on maternal acetaminophen use during pregnancy as a proxy for prenatal exposure. For newborn exposure, the researchers use male circumcision rates as an indirect measure, and their reasoning was that acetaminophen became widely used in the mid-90s to manage pain during circumcision. So countries with a higher circumcision rate would likely have higher early life exposure to acetaminophen. So to be clear, it's not that this study was looking at the possible at a possible link between circumcision and autism. Instead, it's it was looking at a possible link between acetaminophen use and autism and used circumcision in boys as an indirect measure for acetaminophen use after birth. The study found a strong correlation between prenatal acetaminophen use and autism prevalence across countries from 1984 to 2005. For boys born after 1995, the correlation between male circumcision rates and male autism prevalence was even stronger. However, the authors of the study similarly sort of emphasized that these results should show possible link it's not causation. And because this was an ecological study, they noted that the findings could be influenced by, you know, cultural diagnostic as well as reporting differences between countries. They also noted that circumcision rates are shaped by religious and cultural practices, which could also confound the results. Ultimately, like the previous study, they described their results as hypothesis generating meaning they don't prove anything on their own, but they certainly raise an interesting question worth investigating through more research. So that's what you need to know about the the facts behind RFK's latest comments and what many people are assuming are the two studies that he was referencing. But we can't be sure because he did not cite exactly what he was studying or what he was referencing when he made those comments. Let's take our second and final break here. When we come back, we'll talk about some updates in the deal between Israel and Hamas. And we'll finish with quick hitters, some good news, and critical thinking. The kids are back in school, summer vacations have come to an end. 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Okay, their menu changes every week, but I'm definitely going to be adding the Butternut squash Agnolodi with garlic cream sauce and roasted bell pepper to my next order because wow, the best way to cook just got better. Go to hellofresh.comunbiased10fm now to get 10 free meals and a free item for life, one per box with active subscription Free meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. That's hellofresh.comunbiased10fm to get 10 free meals and a free item for life. Welcome back. Let's do a quick update on the Israel Hamas situation and then we'll finish with quick hitters, some good news and critical thinking. Earlier Today, Hamas released 20 living Israeli hostages and Israel released almost 2, 000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Hamas first released seven and then 13 hostages, and Israel said it released more than 1900 Palestinians. Included in those 1900 Palestinians were roughly 1700 who have been detained by Israel since October 7, 2023, many of whom have not been charged with any crimes they've just been in detention, and another 250 prisoners who had been charged with crimes and were serving sentences in Israeli prisons. At least 154 of those 250 have been deported to Egypt as per stipulations in the deal. And many of those deported are members of Hamas who were put in prison over their involvement in shootings, bombings or other attacks that killed or attempted to kill Israelis. Hamas also returned four of the 28 remains of Israelis today, but it's unclear whether the remaining 24 will be brought to Israel by the end of the day or in the coming days. There's no specification there. Yesterday, Israel said an international body would help locate the rest of the remains if they were not released today. Humanitarian organizations have said they are preparing to surge aid into Gaza via roughly 400 trucks from Egypt, though those trucks will have to undergo Israeli inspection before the aid can be distributed to Gaza. The Israeli Defense body said around 600 trucks of aid per day will be entering Gaza soon, per the terms of the ceasefire agreement. President Trump met with Israeli officials as well as the families of hostages today. He has since flown to Egypt, where he hosted a summit with leaders from more than 20 countries on the future of Gaza and the Middle East. And at that summit, President Trump and regional leaders signed the Gaza ceasefire deal. Keep in mind that what we're seeing play out right now is phase one of the peace deal. So phase one included the return of the hostages, the release of the Palestinian prisoners and detainees, more aid to Gaza, and also Israeli troops withdrawing to certain agreed upon lines in Gaza. The rest of the details of the deal still need to be sorted out. These details include whether Hamas will disarm, whether Israeli troops will pull out of Gaza completely, and what the future of Gaza's government will look like if and when Hamas gives up power. Okay, before we get to quick hitters. I want to quickly talk about the Argentina bailout. I was going to put this one in quick hitters because I don't want to spend too much time on it, but it just got to be too long for quick hitters. So now it's its own story. The United States is providing a $20 billion currency swap line with Argentina's central bank, which basically means exchanging US Dollars for Argentine pesos on a temporary basis. To keep it simple, a currency swap line is an agreement between two central banks, or in this case a central bank and another institution to exchange currencies for a set period. It gives one side, in this case Argentina, access to US Dollars that it can then use to stabilize its financial system, pay for imports or service debt, while at the same time promising to repay the dollars later, typically with interest or other agreed upon terms. Argentina wants to do this because the US Dollar is obviously much stronger and more stable than the peso. So it goes much further. Argentina has been under pretty significant economic strain given that its foreign currency reserves are nearly depleted. The peso is under heavy pressure. Markets are growing more and more anxious about a potential currency collapse or default. So the swap line acts as a short term financial lifeline for Argentina by providing temporary liquidity. And this temporary liquidity will hopefully calm the markets and cause public confidence to rise. For the United States, this is framed as an investment rather than a total bailout. Right. So Argentina has to repay the dollars with interest, which would mean in a perfect world, the US Will make its money back and then some. Now, the other thing worth mentioning is that swap lines like this are not unprecedented. So the United States has similar arrangements with other central banks to prevent financial crises from spreading globally. Right. To give you some examples, the US has permanent swap lines with the European Central bank, bank of England, bank of Japan, bank of Canada, and Swiss national bank. Also, in 2013 and 2014, the Fed and Treasury Department worked with countries like Mexico and Brazil through more limited arrangements, similar to what we're seeing here, to stabilize their currencies. And then, more recently, during the pandemic, the Fed expanded temporary swap lines to nine other central banks, including South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Singapore and Australia. So this isn't necessarily unprecedented. However, critics argue that these kinds of deals carry real risks because if the peso weakens, you know, even more, or Argentina's economy continues to to deteriorate, it could make repaying the dollar swap far more difficult. And it's possible Argentina isn't able to pay us back at all in that case. We lose completely. Supporters, though, say it's a practical way to keep the crisis from spreading steady Argentina's economy and avoid bigger problems in the region later on. All right, let's do a couple quick hitters. President Trump says he's directing Defense Department officials to pay members of the military on Wednesday. Despite despite the shutdown, the Office of Management and Budget has reportedly sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use $8 billion in research and development funds from the previous fiscal year to make these payments to troops. These redirected funds, which were, of course, originally allocated by Congress, are still available because they had yet to be committed to other specific projects. Now, whether these funds can be shifted around like this is unclear. Congress typically has the authority to appropriate funds for a specific purpose. So shifting funds to an entirely new purpose without congressional approval is something that the courts would have to tell us. You know, is this, is this permissible or is it not? Last Thursday, shortly after the episode went out, New York Attorney General Leticia James was indicted on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. Now that a federal grand jury has returned an indictment, the case will move forward to determine whether prosecutors can prove these charges beyond a reasonable doubt. And on Sunday, four people were killed and at least 20 others were injured in a shooting on St. Helena Island, South Carolina. The shooting happened at Willy's Bar and Grill, which was hosting a local high school's alumni event. And several of those injured remain in critical condition. As of today, no arrests have been made and authorities have not released, you know, details on possible suspects or motives. It's been a minute since we did a good news segment, so I wanted to share a story that one of you guys actually sent me. I love when the stories come directly from you. So Connie wrote in via Instagram and said, quote, I don't know when your next good news segment will be, but I wanted to share a happy story. I live in an apartment building and I put out a bucket of Halloween candy for my neighbors. 60 plus pieces of candy were gone within four days and I hadn't gone to the store to refill yet. I came home tonight and someone dropped off a giant bag of candy to refill the bucket. Yay for community. I hope that story reminds you that good people still exist, and I hope it brought a smile to your face because it definitely did for me. Connie, I messaged you already. I thanked you for sharing your story, but thank you again. If anyone else out there, you know, has any positive stories that they want to share, please Send them to me on Instagram. I will start including them in the episodes if I get enough of them. All right, let's finish with some critical thinking. Let's revisit the news of the Qatari Air Force facility because I think people are, I would say most people are opposed to it, but I think it is pretty split, as with most things. For those that might be new here, this segment is not meant to stump you. It's just a little exercise to sort of challenge our own opinions and make us think a little deeper than we might otherwise, you know, think about a particular issue. So for those of you who support the new facility, assuming this partnership helps strengthen U S Ties in the Middle east, how do we balance that benefit with the risk of exposing sensitive training tactics, classified systems, potential intelligence vulnerabilities here on U S. Soil? How do we. How do we balance the benefit with the risk? In other words, how do we strengthen alliances abroad without unintentionally opening security gaps here at home? Now, for those who oppose the new facility, we know that the United States has allowed Singapore to train its Air Force at the same Air Force base for more than 15 years. And that partnership has operated just fine under US control. And there's been little public pushback. So what makes Qatar different? Is it about trust? Is it about transparency? Is it something else? And if our comfort with a partnership depends more on who the ally is than how the deal is structured, what does that say about our approach to foreign cooperation in general? And then for those of you who are undecided, I implore you to try to think about potential pros and cons of this arrangement outside of the obvious ones. Right. We know the partnership could help strengthen ties in the Middle East. We know that it could also expose us to potential intelligence vulnerabilities. But what are some other pros and cons? I think making a mental list of of the pros and cons might help you kind of sort out where you stand on this issue. That is what I have for you today. I know we didn't do a ton of quick hitters today. I do have a new newsletter going out tomorrow morning, which is obviously full of quick hitters. That's all it is. It's not just quick hitters in politics, by the way, Also pop culture, business, health, and international news. You can always subscribe to that newsletter by clicking the link in the episode description. And once you're subscribed with your email address, it'll hit your inbox every Tuesday and Friday morning at 6:00am Eastern Time. Have a great next few days and I will talk to you again on Thursday. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy.