Waymo Expansion and Weekly News Quiz

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today' is Friday, june nineteenth, Here's what we're covering. Donald J.rump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time. Yesterday, Vice President JD Vance delivered a blunt message to those in Israel who have been criticizing the deal the U.S struck with Iran If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world Vance held a press conference at the White House as the administration's been pushing back against a growing wave of criticism over the peace agreement, coming from both at home and abroad Critics say the deal gives Iran economic relief now. punting negotiations on the nuclear program down the road One fiery opinion piece by the head of a major Israeli paper called it a catastrophic capitulation while the war started as a joint U. S. Israeli operation Israel was excluded from the peace negotiations And analysts and officials there say the deal now leaves Israel worse off than before the war the Iranian regime's not only still in place, it's more emboldened And the agreement doesn't address Iran's ballistic missile arsenal key concern for Israel Beyond that The agreement also tries to introduce a new restraint on the Israeli military by calling for the immediate and permanent termination of operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon whereere Israel's been fighting the Iran backed militia Hezbllah Vance acknowledged yesterday that the White House has grown frustrated with some of the Israeli operations there. And all of a sudden, there's a major explosion that goes off in a civilian population center in Beirut, and a lot of people who have nothing to do with Hezbollah lose their lives. That's not acceptable. That's the sort of thing that we've asked for closer coordination so that we ensure it doesn't happen Overnight, there was a new wave of deadly attacks in southern Lebanon that showed the fighting there has not ended Lebanon's state newews agency said Israeli airirstrikes killed at least eight people And the Israeli military said four of its soldiers were killed in a rocket attack by Hezbollah. In terms of what comes next with the peace agreement. The U.S. and Iran were set to start a new round of negotiations today about many of the big outstanding issues between them A ahead of those talks, Switzerland, which was set to host, said the negotiations had been postponed As of this morning, it's not clear why The Times has learned that the Trump administration is planning to sell or offload many of the warehouses it was going to turn into immigration detention centers. In the past year, it had bought up a lot of properties. A massive long vacant warehouse could soon become the largest migrant detention facility in Texas, basically going on a bit of a spending spree. We're learording a massive ice detention center holding as many as ten thousand immigrants come to Gndale. The warehouses were supposed to be key to the administration's mass deportation campaign. But the facilities quickly turned out to be costly and controversial. Critics worry about the strain on local infrastructure and conditions inside. It was expensive to convert the warehouses to be able to safely hold thousands of people. and IC was battered by lawsuits, alleging the agency skirted environmental laws as it rushed to get the centers up and running Now, according to documents obtained by the Times, ICE is set to offload most of the eleven warehouses it bought selling them or turning them over to other federal agencies. The cost of those properties was more than seven hundred million dollars The plan reverses course on what had been a signature initiative for the Department of Homeland Security as it tried to aggressively round up potential deportees In a statement, DHS said it is quote moving swiftly to utilize existing detention space twoo other quick updates on the administration First, We're seizing this moment to discard any absurd Overreaching mandates that only weaken our warfighting capabilities. This includes the universal flu vaccine Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hgseth announced that the Pentagon would no longer require U.S. troops to get vaccinated for the flu He framed the change as a matter of religious freedom and said people should have the right to make their own medical decisions Now, the Air Force is working to contain an outbreak of the flu at an airbase in Texas. Nearly one hundred and sixty service members have fallen ill One trainee at the base died after getting sick last week, though it wasn't immediately clear if his death was related to the flu In all, since the new policy went into effect, flu vaccination rates in the air Force have plunged According to a military official, about sixty percent of trainees have opted not to get vaccinated To try and contain the outbreak, the Air Force is now requiring all recruits at the affected base to get flu shots Also The Education deepartment has announced a new effort to try and get more people to pay back their student loans. Starting in July, it will temporarily lower student loan interest rates by up to a full percent for most borrowers who sign up for automatic payments. The Trump administration created the benefit to try and address the fact that the majority of people with federal student loans are behind on their payments It comes as the administration is doing a broader overhaul of the whole student loan system And in less than two weeks, millions of federal borrowers will be notified that they have to choose a new repayment plan. twelve o nine North Orange Street in Wilmington, Delaware is an aggressively bland building. You walked past it, you wouldn't give it a second thought But it actually happens to be the legal address for hundreds of thousands of corporations, including some of the biggest names in the business world. Walmart General Motors, Coca Cola They're registered in Delaware because Delaware has for more than a century, been America's corporate capital. But that may be changing now, thanks in No smallmall partark to Elon Musk Michael Steinberger is a contributing writer to New York Times magazine He says that Delaware's business dominance goes back one hundred years to when it started luring companies in by promising more lenient corporate laws than other states A couple years ago though, a Delaware court thwarted Tesla's plan to give Elon Musk, its CEO, a fifty five billion dollars compensation package Musk was infuriated and more or less declared war on Delaware, saying he was moving Tesla as well as SpaceX to Texas and urging other companies to do the same whereere Musk led, others are following. A number of big name companies have left Delaware and reincorporated in either Texas or Nevada, states that are looking to take advantage of this incipient revolt against Delaware. Both states have signaled through legislation and public messaging that companies can expect gentler treatment in their respective jurisdictions. And that pitch seems to be working On the one hand, there's always been something anomalous about the fact that Tiny Delaware, America's second smallest state wields so much authority over corporate governance. It is the de facto arbiter of US corporate law in law schools in the United States. Corporate law is principally the study of Delaware corporate law. And some of the experts I spoke to suggested that maybe some regulatory competition would be a good thing. You know, we've got now a growing number of trillion dollar companies, we've got cent to billionaire CEO's And maybe regulatory competition can help us figure out how to regulate these very powerful entities and individuals Other experts think that that is very wishful thinking and that what's more likely to happen is what they call a race to the bottom in which states competing to attract companies progressively weaken checks on corporate malfeasance and basically signal to corporate insiders that they can get away with pretty much anything they want if they register their companies in their states And finally I think the world is crazy. I can't get used to it. I'm sitting in a car and it doesn't have a driver For a moment there, it seemed like Wayos, the self driving taxis, were spreading everywhere As the cars hit the road in city after city, state after state. A Wo driverless car is coming to get me. I'm traveling in Arizona. and they have reached a lot of places cars are giving people rides in California, Texas, Florida, Tennessee. I just tried to drive aess taxi in Orlando and I'm loowly obsessed. And passengers are paying for a half a million rides every week. In a lot of other places, WayMO's expansion efforts have now stalled In part, that's because there's a vacuum of federal rules about AI powered self driving technology So the company has to win over state and local officials one by one and it's hitting some roadblocks. New York City, for example, is one of the largest rideshare markets in the world. But mayayor Zorn Mamani has said he's concerned about what self driving taxis could mean for cab drivers. and a New York state level proposal faced fierce pushback from drivers too The company hasn't been able to move forward in Illinois or DC either. Some of it is safety concerns, and some of it may also reflect how people have grown increasingly wary of AI in general recently with its potential to disrupt the economy and job market For now in New York City, WMo being in limbo has left kind of a strange scene The company had been testing autonomous driving there But its permit to do that expired in March So its cars are still cruising around the city, collecting data But they're being driven by humans Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday News quiz, stick around. It's just after these credits This show is made by Will Jarvis, Margaret Kadifa, Jake Lucas, Yon Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. Original themed by Dan Powell Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Sam Dolniick, Miles McKinley, Alysa Moxley, Zoe Murphy, and Chris Wood Time for the quiz. Every week we ask you a few questions about stories The Times has been covering Can you get them all? firstirst step our base with SpaceX celebrating its record breaking IPO. Elon Musk's company SpaceX has now been trading on the stock market for a full week, and it is doing pretty well The company has gained roughly a trillion dollars in market value and is now one of the six most valuable public companies in the world. We are going to see if you can name the other five that round out that list all big names. So we'll just give you quick clues here. We're giving them to you in no particular order Let's start with A fruit. That's your hint. A fruit. That's Apple Next one ABCs Alphabet, parent company of Google How about but not potatoes chips, but not potatoes Looking for Nvidia there This one's a very long river Amazon And the last tech giant on the list of most valuable That's Microsoft. While some of these companies might be worth more than SpaceX Elon Musk still has the title of worldor's richest Man, and it is not even close. He is now likely worth three times more than the rununner up onene of the Google founders. Okay, next question I'm hoping. That my phone is capturing that noise It is actually significantly Loud Across the country, there's been a number of lawsuits recently about a noise. It's so loud. L why is it so loud? People in urban, suburban, and rural areas are encountering a specific hum They say it can keep them up at night. Some say they can even feel it rumbling They broken out the decibel meters, posted clips of it online, and in some cases sued is the source of the sound that's really rioting people up The answer I just want you to hear what it sounds like. close to a data center. Data centers. Some of the noise is likely the humming of the cooling systems needed to keep the chips from melting or the rumbling of the generators powering the center. The number of these kinds of projects is skyrocketing in the US right now, and according to one analysis, today, nearly forty percent of American homes are within five miles of at least one data center. And last question with the World Cup underway Thousands and thousands and thousands of people from all over have been traveling to the U.S to catch some of the games. There are eleven host cities in the US, including Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, Miami And between the matches, many of the soccer fans are taking some time to visit some very American institutions. We are back Walmart, It's like a museum We're going to play a few clips of people posting about their visits to some big box stores and big chains that seem to have become unexpected tourist destinations try to guess the business they're talking about First step They say it's a gas station and the mascot is a bever in a baseball cup For this think pit stop in the south. Everybody says get the beaver nugs, so we're gonna get some of these. Apparently the Jerky is really good, so we're gonna get some of that The answer uck the Texas based gas station chain known for its mega sized convenience stores Your next one is an outdoor retailer. I knew that this shop sold a lot of items. I did not realize that they sold Votes, side by side And quord bikes This place is insane It was someone just absolutely blown away by the selection. Bass Pro shhops And last one,s four AM. Let me show you what I have. I have hh brands Have another waffle, of course, you know, my usual and I have a low sandwich. So I'm going to be trying all three of them right now Okay, so first up, That was One Scottish tourist trying a wee bit of wafflehouse. Just your normal housebare name. All, it's good. Enjoy it I mean, really, the whole internet recently has become a buffet of tourists reviewing almost everything about the country. Even one video titled, Scottish People Try American Emergency Room don't know exactly how the cost thing works out because if we got this bill that had eight hundred dollars on it, I think that might have just been like a deposit though All I can say is welcome to America. That is it for this week's newews quiz. I'm Tracy Mumford. The show will be back on Monday with my colleague, Will Jarvis