UNBIASED - A Look at What's Happening on the Streets of D.C., California's Redistricting Plan, Trump's Meeting with Putin, Visitor Visas for Gazans Suspended, and More.

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

SUBSCRIBE TO JORDAN'S FREE NEWSLETTER. Get the facts, without the spin. UNBIASED offers a clear, impartial recap of US news, including politics, elections, legal news, and more. Hosted by lawyer Jordan Berman, each episode provides a recap of current political events plus breakdowns of complex concepts—like constitutional rights, recent Supreme Court rulings, and new legislation—in an easy-to-understand way. No personal opinions, just the facts you need to stay informed on the daily news that matters. If you miss how journalism used to be, you're in the right place. In today's episode: What We Know About Trump's Meeting with Putin; Putin Gifts Alaskan Man New Motorcycle (0:12) California's Redistricting Plan and What Has to Happen for the Plan to Become Real (10:05) What's Happening on the Streets of D.C. - From People Who Are on the Ground (13:27) State Dept. Suspends Visitor Visas for All Gazans (29:02) Quick Hitters: MSNBC Rebrand, Newsmax's $67M Settlement, CBP Opens Fire, Measles Outbreak Declared Over in TX, Brooklyn Nightclub Shooting, Trump's Plan for Mail-In Ballots and Voting Machines (35:41) Critical Thinking Segment (39:45) SUBSCRIBE TO JORDAN'S FREE NEWSLETTER. Watch this episode on YouTube. Follow Jordan on Instagram and TikTok. All sources for this episode can be found here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. Welcome back to Unbiased Politics. Today is Monday, August 18th. Let's talk about some news, starting with President Trump's meeting with President Putin on Friday. This is a meeting that took place at Joint Base Elmdorf Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. It was meant to discuss the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and potentially find some sort of solution. The meeting did take place in private. It lasted three hours with President Trump accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff.

And then President Putin was accompanied by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. According to planning documents that were left behind at an Anchorage Hotel, the meeting was initially supposed to be a two-on-two format with President. Trump and Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff paired with President Putin and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushikov. However, as we know, the meeting was later expanded to include one additional official from each side. The documents left behind also showed that there was a formal lunch that had originally been included in the plans, but that was later canceled when the meeting ran longer than expected.

While the specific details discussed during the private meeting remain unclear to the public, we know that no ceasefire or any sort of formal deal to end the war was reached. According to sources, they did discuss proposals for Russia to relinquish small areas of occupied Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine giving up a larger section of fortified land. the east, with both sides agreeing to not advance or try to capture new territory in those areas. Secretary of State Rubio told reporters that the discussion narrowed down key issues, which included drawing borders long-term security guarantees for Kyiv and Ukraine's possible military alliances. Special Envoy Whitkoff told reporters that Putin agreed to allow the United States and European

nations to give Ukraine Article 5 like protection as a security guarantee to bring an end to the war. Whitkoff said, quote, we were able to win the following concession. The United States could offer Article 5 like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO. And quote, Whitkoff said this was the first time that they had heard Russians ever agree to that sort of concession. Whitkoff also noted that the guarantees would not be from NATO. They would not be directly from the United States, but they would be from the United States and other European countries. So let's break that down a bit. NATO's Article 5 says that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all. It's the core collective defense guarantee of NATO. If one NATO member is

attacked, every other NATO member is supposed to come to its defense. Now, neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of NATO. So what Whitkoff is saying here is that the United States might promise a similar kind of defense guarantee to Ukraine, even though Ukraine is not a NATO member. So the defense guarantee would be outside of NATO's formal treaty system, but it would have a similar effect that the United States would come to Ukraine's defense if Ukraine were attacked again by Russia. Whitkoff's wording, though, also implies that it would have a similar effect. wouldn't be a purely bilateral deal, meaning it wouldn't be just the United States promising to defend Ukraine. Instead, it would have to be a coalition of the United States and certain

European allies coming together to offer this collective defense promise. At a joint press conference following the summit, Trump and Putin delivered prepared statements, describing their meeting as constructive while at the same time avoiding concrete details. Putin spoke first, with his remarks translated into English for the press, focusing on the historical relationship between the U.S. and Russia. He specifically mentioned the partnership between the United States and Russia during World War II, emphasizing that there are several historical examples of the U.S. and Russia cooperating to defeat common enemies.

Putin said he hoped this shared history could help promote mutually beneficial ties moving forward and also noted that bilateral relations between the U.S. and Russia, Russia have fallen to the lowest point since the Cold War and said, quote, overall, it's very important for our countries to turn the page and go back to cooperation. And quote, regarding the conflict in Ukraine, Putin mentioned that understanding the history and the roots of the conflict is important for facilitating a resolution. He said, quote, I expect that today's agreement will be the starting point not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue, but also will help us bring back businesslike and pragmatic

relations with Russia and the United States. And quote, Trump spoke second. He also described the meeting as productive. He said, quote, there were many, many points that we agreed on. Most of them, I would say a couple of big ones that we haven't quite gotten there, but we've made some headway. So there's no deal until there's a deal. And quote, Trump also noted that while significant progress was made, he did need to reach

out to President Zelensky, which he did ultimately do. We'll discuss that a little bit more in a second. Trump added, quote, so just to put it very quickly, I'm going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened, but we had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to. There are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there. We didn't get there. We have a very good chance of getting there, end of the end of the press conference, which only lasted a quick 12 minutes. Putin proposed the next meeting be in Moscow instead of the United States. States. Now, more recently, since that meeting and the press conference, President Trump announced that he would be hosting President Zelensky at the White House today to discuss peace negotiations. So immediately following that meeting, Trump spoke with Zelensky on the phone for about an hour. Then the two were joined by other European leaders who are also joining Zelensky and Trump in D.C.

for today's meeting. Trump posted to true social quote, a great and very successful day in Alaska. The meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia went very well, as did a late night phone call with President Zelensky of Ukraine and various European leaders, including the highly respected Secretary General of NATO. It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war, not a mere ceasefire agreement, which oftentimes do not hold up. President Zelensky will be coming to D.C., the Oval Office on Monday afternoon. If all works out, we then will schedule a meeting with President Putin.

Potentially millions of people's lives will be saved. Thank you for your attention to this matter. In a separate post, Trump wrote, quote, President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wants to or he can continue to fight. Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea 12 years ago without a shot being fired, and no going into NATO by Ukraine. Some things never change, end quote. So Trump's meeting today included President Zelensky as well as several other world leaders, so leaders from France, UK, Italy, Germany, and NATO.

And how it was scheduled was at 1.15 this afternoon, the president held a bilateral meeting just with President Zelensky. And then at 3 p.m., the multilateral meeting with European leaders kicked off. Unfortunately, I record each episode around 3 p.m. so I won't be able to get you updates in today's episode, but that is so far what we know about not only Friday summit, but also today's meeting. Some less talked about news from Friday is that Putin apparently gifted in Alaskan man a new motorcycle while he was visiting for the summit. According to a report published by Russian state media and later by Reuters, President Putin gifted a local man in Anchorage a new motorcycle. So an employee of the Russian embassy in the United

States handed the man, his name is Mark Warren, the keys to the new motorcycle in the parking lot of an Anchorage Hotel where the Russian delegation was staying. The embassy employee reportedly told Warren, quote, I have to say that this is a personal gift from the president of the Russian Federation. And quote, the gift apparently came after reporters with the Russian State TV Channel 1 met Warren by chance on the streets of Anchorage ahead of the summit. The reporters supposedly stopped to admire Warren's motorcycle, which is manufactured by Ural, whose original factory was founded in 1941 in the Soviet Union. And during that meeting, Warren told one of the reporters that he had a tough time obtaining spare parts for his bike because the manufacturing plant is in

Ukraine. Ural, though, which is headquartered in Washington State, says that all of its motorcycles are assembled in Kazakhstan and that the company pulled all of its production out of Russia after the start of the war in Ukraine. But during this encounter, reporters asked Warren, so for you, if they resolve this conflict here in Alaska, it will be good. And Warren replied, yes, it will be good. And after that is when Putin gifted the Ural motorcycle to this man. So interesting story. All right, let's quickly talk about the redistricting plans in California. In announcing plans to redistrict ahead of the 2026 midterms, Governor Newsom has made clear that his goal is to strengthen Democratic control of the U.S.

House and, in his words, end the Trump presidency by creating districts that would possibly flip as many as five Republican held seats in the House. Now, this obviously follows the news of Texas wanting to redistrict ahead of the 2026 midterms to flip five Democrat held seats. seats in the House. Newsom argues that California must fight fire with fire in counterbalancing any Republican gains and shifting the balance of power in Congress before the next presidential election. Now, is this something California is allowed to do? Maybe. So remember how we talked a few episodes ago about how each state has different rules in place when it comes to redistricting,

right? So some states have a nonpartisan body that does the redistricting. Other states just go directly through their legislature. Some states have restrictions that make it difficult to redistrict before 10 years. Other states have free reign to do whatever they want. In California, they have something called the Citizens Redistricting Commission. That commission is who redraws the congressional and state legislative maps every 10 years after the U.S. census. This is not only written into state law, but it's also in the California state constitution. So what that means is that the state legislature can't just pass a bill to redraw its maps. To change the maps, California lawmakers would have to actually amend the state constitution. Now, amending the state

constitution not only requires that the amendment be passed by two-thirds vote in both the state assembly and state senate, but it would then need to be approved by California voters in an election. Because the next election wouldn't be until the 2026 mid-term, that would mean that California would have to hold a special election before then to get the approval of California citizens ahead of the 2026 midterms. That's, of course, assuming that, you know, the state legislature had the required votes to pass the constitutional amendment. Per California's current proposal, the legislature would draw new maps with the new maps then put before voters in a November special election. The proposal is designed with a trigger clause, which would mean that California's new district, if they passed, would only go into effect if Texas or another red state enacts its own

mid-decade redistricting. If approved by voters, the maps would apply to the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections, and then the independent commission would regain authority following the 2030. census. So that's what California is proposing for their redistricting. Keep in mind that in California, as we talked about, it does require a constitutional amendment. Let's take our first break here. When we come back, we'll talk about the latest happening in Washington, D.C. Welcome back. I've had a lot of people asking questions about what is going on in D.C. mainly what are the streets of D.C. actually like right now in light of the federalization and deployment of National Guard troops. I thought a lot about how I wanted to go about this segment because I'm obviously not

boots on the ground myself. So what I ultimately decided to do, and this is this is a bit different than what I typically do. So I would love to hear how you guys feel about this segment once it's all said and done. But I believe the best way to illustrate what's happening is by playing a variety of videos that have been taken by people that are actually boots on the ground. Now, these videos are a bit biased by themselves, but I've specifically chosen videos taken by people on both sides of the political spectrum and not necessarily from the mainstream media. So real people that are on the ground. I will also include a video from a News Nation reporter. For those that are not familiar with News Nation, it's an outlet that all sides rates as being in the center of the media bias chart. So

not left, not right, but in the middle. I have specifically curated these clips that I'm about to play to give you the full picture of what we're seeing, not just from the left, not just from the right, not just from the center, but from all angles. If you're watching on YouTube, that's obviously better because you can actually watch the videos as they play. But for the most part, the narrators do a good job of illustrating what's happening throughout the videos. So if you're listening audio only, you should be totally fine. You can always tune into YouTube later if you're interested in seeing the actual videos. As you will see or hear, In all five videos, they are all taken in the downtown area of Washington, D.C.

They all show an increased presence of law enforcement. So military vehicles and Humvees have been stationed in several areas throughout D.C. There's an increased number of law enforcement vehicles visible throughout the city, including but not limited to secret service vehicles, border patrol vehicles, homeland security vehicles. The National Guard is out. The Washington Post has reported that agents from at least 10 federal agencies, including the FBI, ICE, and the DEA have all been operating in D.C. since Monday. Overall, these videos will give you a better understanding of what's currently happening in D.C.

And we'll expose you to multiple scenarios and situations from different perspectives. Each video ranges from a minute and 20 seconds to three minutes. So we're going to start with the longest of the four, which was taken by a creator who was out for a nightly run on the streets of D.C. and is simultaneously narrating what he's witnessing. Here it is. We're about to go on a run here through D.C. and show you what it looks like now that the Trump administration has sent in the National Guard and federalized our police force. Didn't even get to start the run. I'm on my block.

We've got police right here. This is Border Patrol. And then these are some unmarked vehicles, as well as more Border Patrol. Now following that group of cars, we're about four blocks in. All right, just got to Union Station. Here is what the scene looks like. Kind of a weird scene here, but we've got three. of these military trucks sitting behind me. Now I'm headed in the direction of the Capitol, there's a bunch of whistles blowing,

as well as a bunch of sirens coming up the street, it sounds like. I'm not sure what building this is, but it turns out it's megaphones and pots and pans and they're trying to disturb whatever building this is. Just to be 100% clear, none of these videos are meant for like fear-mongering, not trying to scare anyone. I just simply want to show you what it looks like.

And obviously draw your own conclusions. I'm not here to necessarily put out a narrative, but at the same time, if there is something that is blatantly obvious and a threat to people's safety and other DC residents, I'm gonna call it out in the video. even if it's my opinion. I just circled back to head back

to Martin Luther King Jr. Library now that it is shut down to see what happens. And in front of me, I have about eight agents, along with police. We got Border Patrol, Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and one that just says federal agent. There's a group of Border Patrol and MPD

behind me. They just stopped two men for smoking weed, which to my knowledge is legal in DC. Someone, please correct me if I'm wrong. Just in the few blocks that I walked alongside those federal agents. The number of scared reactions that I saw from people of color that were walking just down the street minding their business was insane. Just to give you an example, a black mother and her son was walking down the street. The second they turned the corner and saw the agents

walking towards them, she immediately grabbed her son's hand and told him, when you see these people out here walking around, you're going to hold my hand because I want them to know that you're mine and you're not out here causing trouble because we don't want any trouble with them. It was truly just so disheartening to see. I'm popping by the White House right now just to see any protests going on. Not much going on. Just seemed like tourists. I meant the George Washington University campus now. There was heavy president. here tonight. Not so much anymore. There's a couple individuals hanging out by some of the tents that are normally here. So I'm going to go see what's being said there.

So this is right here in front of some of the tents here at Washington Circle by GW.C. Campus. Again, I don't necessarily want to show faces, but one person was picked up here by a shelter van that took them to a local shelter as opposed to being surrounded here in Washington Circle by a bunch of federal agents. It sounds like there's a lot of confusion between the different agencies and who's in charge of what. For example, at that location, DC Police was putting up a bunch of notices on all the tents, letting people know that they do have to. to leave the area eventually. Some agencies showed up and honored that and basically moved on with their night. Sounds like some of the other agencies would show up and basically ignore the notice

and start asking people, hey, do you have somewhere you can go right now? You got to go. It wasn't forceful, but I'm sure it's definitely causing some confusion amongst the un-housed people here. I was just in Wawa, and two D.C. police officers were in there talking to each other. I listened to them as they chatted amongst themselves when they realized that they got the official notification that they are allowed to ask immigration status of people that they detained. They looked at each other and immediately shook their heads, and then one of them said, that ain't my job. That just tells me that the police here even feel like it's an overreach. right now that's all i got for tonight so good night the next video was taken by a creator who's

on the ground in dc and he's videoing a homeless man getting arrested for drug possession but also gets video footage of a protester that comes onto the scene a little bit later in the video so here's that video looks like right here they're arresting a homeless man what's going on here this man that's being arrested for what he do what he do uh uh he's uh We were hearing that he was distributing narcotics. Okay, so they're getting a drug deal off the street. I don't want to characterize them. I don't know.

They're arresting this guy right here. That guy just said he was arrested for narcotics. So he's either a homeless man or a drug dealer here on the street. There you have in the bag, whatever he was selling. They put it in the bag. So he was indeed selling drugs. Right now we have the FBI. The police, Secret Service.

We got about eight agents out here right now. And there is the bag right there with all the money and the drug that he was selling on the streets. After he had been arrested, a protester showed up and went absolutely crazy on law enforcement. Cowards! Cowards! Coward! Coward! Cowards! Stay away from homeless people!

Come Get up and fuck out This lady just arrived and she is screaming in the megaphone I wonder if she knows that they just arrested a drug dealer off the streets of Washington DC Wow, you have a... Wow, you got a loud voice Fuck you

Fuck you Wow, she just came right in here This lady is an angry woman Stay away from homeless people, you fish and put out! Get out! Get the fuck on, bitchy! Got out, got out! Go out! Fuck you motherfuckers!

Get the fuck out! Out! Out! Do you realize that they did arrest a drug dealer? Oh my God. Okay. Now, this next video is from the same creator that we just heard from, but this time he's actually interviewing various homeless people

about what they've experienced in the last few days. This lady just came out of absolutely nowhere. She started yelling all sorts of things. She didn't even know what that guy got arrested for. Meanwhile, as we were walking, I'll show you guys right now, we walked past a bunch of homeless people. They weren't arresting just the homeless people. They could have came by and taken the homeless people off like Bennoose has been saying.

But no, they arrested the guy that was selling the drugs. to the homeless people. How did they came by and tried to take you guys off the streets? They've been respectful. They have not been aggressive or any. Wow, that's good to hear, because they just took off a drug dealer from the streets. That's all they want.

All they want is a drug dealers off the street and the people die. That's all they want. They're not trying to work with the homeless. They want the drug dealers and the guns off the street. Yeah. You can't tell everybody that, but they all they want is the guns and the drug.

They already found it out. They came to jump out. Jump out the same way. All they want is the guns and drugs are off the street. So what is the law enforcement? said to you guys coming through here because that lady just came here she was yelling all at the police but meanwhile we just saw them arrest a drug dealer and she's yelling at saying they're taking away the homeless people they didn't say anything they walked by respectfully they didn't

give anybody any issues i don't have a problem with law enforcement and should people be angry that they just took a drug dealer out the street no it shouldn't be i'm happy that dc is being cleaned up and i'm not going to blame it on racism or anything did that lady wake you up of course it's a disturbance because she was provoking on purpose and you know you all always got people out here. They say they're for a cause, but I mean, it's almost 11 o'clock at night. It's very peaceful. The police don't have sirens going or anything else, and they were just decently speaking with people, but there's always people that will try to cause a problem deliberately. Well, we hope you have the great rest of your night and fall asleep well.

I hope so, too. I hope she doesn't come back on that blow horn. Yeah, I know. She was a little angry, right? Now, this next video was taken by an investigative journalist at NPR. I tried finding other interviews of homeless individuals that had actual encounters with law enforcement over the last week or so that could perhaps give somewhat of a different perspective than the perspectives we heard in the last video. And this is what I found. So here it is. Hey, Damon. How long have you been living in D.C.?

I've been here two years now from California. Has anyone bothered you about moving? Well, they told me I had to because they're doing what Trump says in front of God that's dangerous. The three-star cars and stuff. What did they tell you? They said that I have to leave immediately. And they haven't cleaned up my spot. There's clean up this one now with all the cameras rolling.

And they're creating a facade so they can turn around the media. Where did they say you had to go? Out of here. Where? Nationwide. Trump's saying get out of the country or go to the shelter or if you're, You, five-peer rides basically will put you in a cage. Red stars on their cars.

And then the cops were here to make sure they... The cops were there, too. The red stars? What do you mean? There's three red stars. They take care of the highways and stuff. Okay. So...

And the D.C. police as well. The D.C. police are doing in town. Because you literally can't make a camp except... They threaten you with jail? Did they say you were going to go to jail? If you don't leave and you try and fight back, they'll put you in jail. Did they say that? Yeah.

And they said, I'll need to sit. Did they say they would give you any kind of mental health services? Well, if they, they're not doctors, but they're going to say what mentally ill is. But the other people, do you know where they went? Everyone. I mean, right now, they're just kind of like going mobile. And they're going to try and find another spot. And there's no woods like in Virginia to go further in there.

And then the final video is from a news nation reporter. It was taken on day four of the federalization of D.C. Here's what he has to say. Hey, everybody. We're now covering day four of this federalization of Washington, D.C. What's different today is for the first time, the National Guard, is now not just patrolling at night, but 24-7. We've been around several different areas in D.C. And what you can see in those different areas is you see the military vehicles, the Humvees, you see some of the National Guard troops that are here stationed out and about in the city. Not just behind us, but this is Union Station here.

And you can see that in the distance, there are several other locations where they are present. What we are also seeing here are federal agents. And unlike the National Guard, who's meant to just be in an assist role, the agents like FBI, DEA and others, Homeland Security Police, they are making arrests overnight, more than 40 arrests. And in addition to that, we're told by the White House that ICE has made something like 20 arrests of undocumented people here in the district. So those numbers, the White House is counting every single day. And if you didn't feel or see the presence of this federalization before, it's becoming more evident and more clear now as you walk around,

especially in the places that are more iconic places in the district. So my hope is that those videos gave you a good idea of what's going on in the city. We can't just listen to what people are saying on the right or what people are saying on the left because both sides are going to be inherently biased and only present specific narratives. So again, my goal was just to present multiple narratives from multiple perspectives to expose you to multiple sides of the story. As I said, this is kind of maybe not the first time, but I rarely do this where I just tell a story through other videos because sometimes if you're not on the ground, it's hard to really describe what, you know, what's happening. So let me know

how you felt about that. It's a little bit, I don't know, it's a different way of presenting the news. I'm curious to get your thoughts. In the latest development, Republican-led states like Ohio, West Virginia and South Carolina, said they will be sending their National Guard troops to D.C. to assist the troops that are already there. Are they needed? Who knows? But what I really want to talk about is the legality of them being there or being able to do this, because I know a lot of you are going to have the question, is this allowed? And the answer is yes, as long as they are authorized to do so federally. So the way D.C. operates is a little different because it's not a state. Generally, state governors have control over their state national guardsmen. State governors can

deploy their national guard units within their state whenever needed. In D.C., the president can deploy the National Guard. That's why he has done so. But with state governors, you know, they have the authority to deploy the National Guard within their state. If a. states national guard is federalized by the president under Title 10, which puts them under federal control, national guard troops from other states can be sent to D.C. to assist. This happened during the George Floyd protest in 2020 when guards from Utah, South Carolina, and some other states were mobilized to D.C. at the president's request. So it's legal as long as the guardsmen are placed under federal control under Title 10 while they are serving in D.C. But to be

clear, states cannot legally send their National Guard troops to D.C. on their own. That would be unconstitutional. All right, let's take our second and final break here. When we come back, we'll talk about the pause on Gaza visas. We'll do some quick hitters and then we'll finish with critical thinking. Welcome back. The United States State Department says it has halted all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza while it conducts a full and thorough review of how temporary medical humanitarian visas are issued. The department says it's received evidence from congressional offices, suggesting that some of the organizations involved in facilitating visas for Gazans may have connections to Hamas, though no details have been publicly provided

other than that brief statement by the State Department. Notably, less than 24 hours before the pause, self-proclaimed proud Islamophob and pro-white nationalist Laura Lumer wrote on X, quote, despite the U.S. saying we are not accepting Palestinian refugees into the United States under the Trump administration, I have obtained video footage of Palestinians who claimed to be refugees from Gaza coming into the United States via San Francisco and Houston, Texas this month. The Palestinians traveled from Gaza to the U.S. with the help of a group called Heel Palestine. How did Palestinians get visas under the Trump administration to get into the U.S.? Did the State Department approve this? How did they get out of Gaza? Is Secretary Rubio aware of this?

Who from the State Department is assisting Heel? Palestine. Why are any Islamic invaders coming to the U.S. under the Trump administration? Who approved the visas? How many more are being given visas to come to the U.S.? And why are Governor Newsom and Governor Abbott harboring Palestinian refugees in California and Texas? This is a national security threat. We didn't vote for more Islamic immigration into the United States. Who signed off on these visas? They should be fired. And quote, once the State Department announced the pause, which, as I said, was less than 24 hours after that post. Lumer posted, quote, following the release of my reports yesterday,

exposing flights of Gazans arriving at airports all across the U.S. The U.S. State Department just announced that all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped, while the U.S. State Department conducts a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical humanitarian visas in recent days. This is fantastic news. Thank you, Secretary Rubio, for your prompt response to this invasion. of our country by NGOs that have been accused of being pro Hamas. Hopefully all Gazans will be added to President Trump's travel ban.

There are doctors in other countries. The U.S. is not the world's hospital. End quote. So what I want to do here is talk about what Heel Palestine is. I want to talk about the work that they do and whether pauses like this are typical. Heel Palestine is a non-well, quote, quote, non-political, non-religious U.S. registered nonprofit founded in 2024 to deliver urgent relief and long-term support to Palestinian children and families.

End quote. Its website says that through its four pillars, which are health, education, aid, and leadership, it provides critical care and resources while centering grassroots leadership and community-led efforts. So on Friday, Heel Palestine posted a picture of a child from Gaza with the caption, Wasam from Gaza is our 15th evacuated child arriving in the U.S. in the last two weeks. He is leaving Egypt on his way to St. Louis to begin. healing, end quote. And in that picture as a child, he is with three others and he's missing a

leg. The next day, so one day after Heel Palestine posted that picture to Facebook is when the State Department announced the pause. Following that pause, Heel Palestine released a statement that reads in part, quote, Heel Palestine is distressed by the Department of State's decision to stop all visitor visas from Gaza. Heel Palestine is an American humanitarian nonprofit organization, delivering urgent aid and medical care to children in Palestine, including sponsoring and bringing severely injured children in Palestine to the U.S. on temporary visas for essential medical treatment not available at home. Once treatment is complete, the children and any accompanying family members return to the Middle East. This is a medical treatment program,

not a refugee resettlement program. U.S. tax dollars do not fund this treatment. end quote. Now, as far as whether this humanitarian visa pause, whether these types of pauses are common, the answer is no. Humanitarian visas are usually given special priority because of the urgency factor. So this pause is unusual given that it halts all humanitarian cases at once. Visa pauses have been used in the past, but usually due to terrorism concerns, though I will give a few other examples. So here are some examples of the terrorism. concern pauses first, and then we'll do some others. Immigrant visas from Libya were suspended in the 80s due to terrorism concerns. Visa processing from Somalia was suspended at times in the 90s and

2000s due to the United States' inability to verify documents. In the aftermath of the 1979 hostage crisis in Iran, there were broad restrictions on Iranian visas with few exceptions for students and families. And after 9-11, the U.S. temporarily paused most non-immigrant visa processing worldwide while it rebuilt screening and background check systems. Again, all of those were terrorism related. On the humanitarian front, one of the closest instances was during the Ebola outbreak of 2014, visas from affected West African countries slowed dramatically because of heightened scrutiny on those visas, but they weren't outright paused. Now, the close. closest thing that we've probably seen and recently at that is what happened during the Biden

administration. So the CHNV program, which allowed individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to come to the United States on a temporary basis, saw multiple pauses during the Biden administration due to potential fraud. So this was a program that was completely suspended during Trump's first term. But then when Biden was elected, it was revived, but during Biden's administration, the visas were paused multiple times due to potential fraud. So that would be the most similar example to what we're seeing right now with Gazan visas, though, of course, it's not an exact match. There are some differences, especially considering the Gazan visas are for medical purposes, whereas the parole program paused under the Biden

administration wasn't for medical reasons. That was, I mean, it was still humanitarian, but a little bit different. So you're not going to find an exact match, but that's the closest example. Okay. Now it is time for some quick hitters. MSNBC, the left-leaning cable network owned by NBC Universal, announced a rebrand. Its new name will be MS Now, which stands for My Source for News, opinion, and the world. The rebrand is part of an effort to distance the network from its NBC heritage and establish its own identity ahead of a planned spin-off of most of NBC Universal's cable networks later this year. MSNBC and some of its other cable networks like CNBC USA, Oxygen, and E will also drop the Peacock logo associated with NBC Universal brands.

And speaking of news networks, Newsmax will pay $67 million to settle a lawsuit over the network's false claims about Dominion, the voting hardware and software company that became a hot topic after the 2020 election. That settlement will allow newsbacks to avoid a trial, but requires newsbacks to pay Dominion $27 million this month and then another $40 million over the next two years. The settlement comes after a Delaware judge ruled earlier this year that newsbacks did air defamatory statements about Dominion by falsely accusing the company of rigging the 2020 election. The judge said it would be up to a jury to decide if the false statements were intentional, and if so, how much newsmax would owe dominion in damages? But of course, with the settlement, newsmax will now avoid that jury trial.

Customs and border protection officers opened fire during a targeting immigration enforcement operation in California over the weekend, calling it an act of self-defense after a man struck two officers with his car. The family inside the car said they drove away out of fear for the weekend. their safety after the masked officers exited unmarked cars and surrounded their car with weapons before smashing the truck's windows when the men refused to roll down their windows when asked. Once the glass shattered, that's when the driver drove away. The agents then proceeded to fire three gunshots towards the vehicle. The men did eventually make it home. They called their local police to report the incident. And then local police showed up at the family's home with federal agents. The man was briefly in custody, but he was eventually released and the

officers left the scene. Texas state health officials announced today that the measles outbreak in the state of Texas has ended. No new cases have been reported in the counties that had previously shown evidence of ongoing transmission in more than 42 days. Texas had confirmed at least 762 cases of measles associated with the outbreak since late January, including nearly 100 hospitalizations. More than two-thirds of the cases were in children, and two school-age children from Texas did die, which were the first deaths from measles in the United States since 2015. Three people died. Nine others were injured after multiple shooters opened fire in a nightclub in Brooklyn early Sunday morning. The shooting happened inside Taste of the City Lounge,

around 3.30 in the morning. It reportedly happened after a dispute inside the club, which appeared to gang related. The identities of the three people who died have not been made public, but they were all men ages 27, 35, and 19. And finally, President Trump said he would sign an executive order ahead of the 26 midterms aimed at getting rid of mail-in ballots and, quote, controversial voting machines. However, it is important to point out that the president alone doesn't have authority to ban mail-in ballots or voting machines by executive order. It is, is up to the states to set most of their own election rules, including whether to use mail-in ballots and which machines are certified. The federal government can set some minimum standards through

Congress for elections, but a president cannot unilaterally eliminate mail-in voting or voting machines by executive order. Let's finish with some critical thinking. Remember that this segment is not meant to be difficult. It is not meant to stump you. It is just to get you thinking deeper about a particular issue or story, and to give you an opportunity to challenge your own opinions. So I want to revisit the federalization of DC. We'll start with a general question for everyone, and then I'll pose specific questions for those of you that support federalization and those of you that oppose it. First question, do videos of federalization, like the ones we watched and heard today, reassure the public that order is being maintained, or do they create more

division by feeding these narratives of quote unquote occupation. Whatever your answer is, why is that your answer? And if you want to challenge yourself even more, come up with one argument for each. So why would videos of federalization reassure the public that order is being maintained? And then also, why would videos of federalization create more division and fuel this narrative of occupation? Now, for those that support federalization? What could the government be doing alongside bringing in federal agencies and troops to solve the root cause of the problem? Because yes, more law enforcement can clear the streets for now, but what about next year or the next decade? Keep in mind that Trump's presidency is temporary. So in the situation where the next administration does not share the same set of

beliefs, what can the current administration be doing right now to make sure that homelessness is reduced long term regardless of who's in office. And then finally, for those of you that oppose federalization, I want you to come up with at least two situations where you would support a federal role. What would those situations look like in your mind? And where do you personally draw the line between keeping local control and letting the government step in? That's what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here. Don't forget I have a new newsletter going out tomorrow. morning. You can always subscribe via the link in the episode show notes. It's always in the show notes for each episode. I make it really easy for you. And yeah, that newsletter goes out

Tuesdays and Friday mornings. It covers politics, pop culture, health business, and international news. So a little bit of everything. It really is the perfect newsletter if I do say so myself. But I hope you have a fantastic next couple of days and I will talk to you on Thursday. Thank you.