Up First from NPR - Trump Hush Money Trial, Google Monopoly Case, Mammogram Recommendations

Episode Date: May 4, 2024

Second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money criminal case has ended. It dug up a world of information brokers, tabloids and a secret exchange of money. Closing arguments in the U.S. government's case against Google wrapped up this week. It accuses the tech company of being an illegal monopoly. Experts in disease prevention have new recommendations for when women should start getting mammograms.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

A supermarket tabloid, a Hollywood lawyer, and a former adult film actress. Another week in the hush money trial of Donald Trump. Where will the defense take the case now? I'm Ayesha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Simon, and this is Up First from NPR News. Google is on trial for allegedly being an illegal monopoly. And closing arguments wrapped up this week. So did Google break the law? Well, there's new evidence suggesting when women should start to get a mammogram.

So by starting at age 40, continuing every other year, we found that we can reduce cancer deaths substantially, up to nearly 20% more lives saved. Stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend. Now Our Change will honor 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force and their dedicated service to communities at home and abroad. From the skies to Our Change,

this $2 commemorative circulation coin dedicated service to communities at home and abroad. From the skies to our change, this $2 commemorative circulation coin marks their storied past and promising future. Find the limited edition Royal Canadian Air Force $2 coin today. It's been two weeks into Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial. And the testimony is digging up a covert world of information brokers, tabloids, and a secret exchange of money. Joined now by NPR's Andrea Bernstein. Thanks so much for being with us, Andrea. Hey, great to talk to you. We heard this week from Keith Davidson, the former lawyer for both Karen McDougal, the former Playboy model, and adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Do you arrange hush money payments for both?

What's his business model? So I think all of us have been talking so much about the transactions behind this trial. $150,000 paid to McDougal by the National Enquirer to keep quiet about an affair. $130,000 paid by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to Daniels to buy her silence That we've become kind of inured to what is actually going on and this week when Davidson testified it really came through and what was that? So Davidson is a Hollywood lawyer and clients come to him when they have some kind of negative information about a celebrity And then he goes to work for them. He said he arranged settlements that included consideration for his clients. He rejected the term hush money. But the defense practically called it something else, extortion. Even the

prosecution tripped up when Davidson tried to defend a false statement he'd put out by saying it was technically true to deny that Trump had an affair with Daniels because it was an encounter, not a romantic relationship. So what is striking about all this testimony is how fully someone who wanted to be president of the United States understood this world and how it worked and how he might use it to his advantage. Andrea, how does all of this relate to the prosecution's argument that Donald Trump falsified his business records? In order for that to be a felony in New York, there has to be an underlying crime.

In this case, an alleged conspiracy to illegally influence the outcome of the election. And the first witness in the case, David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher, walked us through that, just making an arrangement with Trump and his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to keep an eye out for information brokers like Davidson and buy up their stories and, quote, take them off the market, all to help Trump's campaign, he said. Boy, we've heard the name Michael Cohen a lot recently and at this trial. Anything new about him that's emerged in the course of this trial? I'm not sure if it's intentional,

but a real image is emerging of him as someone no one likes. Davidson said he would often make legal threats to bankrupt Stormy Daniels, that is, Cohen would, saying things like he would rain down legal hell upon her and you don't know who you are effing dealing with, things like that. Hope Hicks, who handled communications for Trump, said yesterday that Trump, by then the president, after the full story broke, told her Cohen had made the $130,000 payment out of the kindness of his heart and didn't tell anyone.

And when prosecutors asked if she believed that about Cohen, she said, quote, it would be out of character for Michael. I didn't know Michael to be an especially charitable or selfless person. Even Cohen's banker testified that Cohen was hard to deal with. At one point, Davidson said no one wants to talk to Cohen and even some jurors laughed. How does that testimony set up the next steps in the trial? So the defense's main strategy is to tear up Cohen's credibility, to say he's not to be trusted, he went rogue. All of this negative information gives the jury a kind of a permission to dislike Cohen,

but to believe him anyway, or at least learn how to separate the truth of what he says from everything else. Cohen's testimony is expected in the coming weeks. NPR's Andrea Bernstein, thanks so much. Thank you. The U.S. government has taken Google to court, accusing it of being an illegal monopoly. Closing arguments wrapped up this week. NPR's tech correspondent, Dara Kerr, has been following the case and joins us. Dara,

thanks so much for being with us. Hi, thank you. And help us get hold of what this case is about overall. Yeah, so this case is all about Google Search, which controls roughly 90% of the search engine market, so practically everyone uses it. And the government says Google has monopolized this market by making sure it's the default search engine on phones and web browsers. And it's done this by paying companies like Apple and Samsung billions of dollars a year to be that default. And there are a lot of similarities here to when the government took Microsoft to court back in the 90s. When Microsoft was taken to court, the issue was all about being the default option on desktop computers. The government said that stifled competition, and they won that case.

Now lawyers for the Justice Department say Google is following Microsoft's playbook. Here's Sam Weinstein, a former Justice Department lawyer, who's now a professor at Cardozo School of Law. The DOJ is saying this is the same, right? Google is paying these platforms to become the default and decrive potential rivals of scale. Closing arguments in the case concluded yesterday. What do we come away with as the judge deliberates? So it's not illegal to be a monopoly.

What's at issue is whether Google abused its monopoly power to keep competitors from getting a toehold. And that would be against the law. Google's lawyers have repeatedly said that the reason Google search is the most popular is because it's the best. And even though it's the default on many devices, people would still choose it. So, essentially, Google is saying it's not its fault that it's a monopoly. Dara, what kind of details came out in closing arguments? Well, one new thing that was definitely eye-popping was this week the court unsealed a document that showed just how much Google has paid Apple to be the default search engine on things like iPhones. Both Google and Apple have tried to keep this number under wraps.

The document showed that in 2022 alone, Google paid Apple $20 billion to be the default search engine. So we're talking about massive amounts of money that Google is spending here. And the government says this is anti-competitive behavior. The government has brought several more lawsuits against big tech companies for being monopolies, so they must be paying a lot of attention to what this judge rules. Yes, the government is targeting all the big ones, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, even another case against Google. This Google trial that just ended is the first of those cases to go to court. So, yes, I'm sure all sides are watching to see how the judge rules, because his decision could really set precedent for how all of those other lawsuits proceed. Dara, do you have a sense of where this case is heading?

It is so hard to tell. This was a bench trial, so there was no jury. It's just up to the judge. And the judge hasn't given any clues to how he'll rule. He's expected to issue that ruling within the next few months. And if he finds Google acted illegally, sanctions could include anything from fines to a breakup of the company. As the judge signed off in court yesterday afternoon, he acknowledged all the hard work both sides put into the case, saying, I hope everyone has a vacation planned for tomorrow.

NPR's Derek Kerr, thanks so much for being with us. Thank you. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has a new recommendation for when women should start getting a mammogram. And there's new study on the use of hormone therapy for the symptoms of menopause. Here with the latest developments in women's health is NPR's Allison Aubrey. Hey Allison. Good morning Ayesha. So let's start with breast cancer screening. What's new? Well there have been conflicting recommendations on what age to start getting mammograms to screen for breast cancer. The task force now says all women should start by age 40. The previous recommendation was to start no later than 50. A big factor in this change, Aisha,

is the rise in breast cancer among women in their 40s. I spoke to Dr. Wanda Nicholson. She's the chair of the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force. She says the evidence is clear that early detection saves lives. By starting at age 40, continuing every other year, we found that we can reduce cancer deaths substantially, up to nearly 20% more lives saved. And that represents a substantial reduction in breast cancer mortality. That's about 8,000 lives a year, they estimate, if every woman followed the recommendation to get a mammogram every other year. 8,000 is a lot. And, you know, every life, you know, saved is significant to that person and their families. So this seems

like a big deal. Absolutely. And Dr. Nicholson says just that all women can benefit from the screening. She also told me she wants to especially encourage Black women to follow the recommendations. Black women are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer compared to white women. We also know that all too often that Black women get more aggressive cancers at an earlier age. The reasons for this, Aisha, are not completely understood, and the task force is actually calling for more research to better understand it. So given all that, why is the new recommendation to get a mammogram every other year? Why not get screened annually?

Wouldn't that save more lives? Well, the task force is not opposed to women opting for more frequent screenings. Their recommendation is based on the evidence they've reviewed so far, which suggests every other year is effective. But many, many doctors and health care systems do recommend annual screenings. And people at higher risk due to genetics, family history, or people with dense breasts may be referred for additional screenings, including a 3D mammogram, ultrasound, or an MRI. And let's move on to hormone therapy for menopause. This topic has been getting a lot of attention, even on Capitol Hill. What do women need to know? Yeah, if you missed it, the actor Halle Berry visited the Capitol on Thursday,

pushing for more research and education on menopause. While there, she kind of screamed out, I'm in menopause, okay, during a press conference, as in, you know, look, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Let's talk about it. What women need to know about menopause hormone therapy is that it's safe when started before the age of 60. And to explain this, let me back up a little. A lot of women stopped taking hormone therapy about 22 years ago when a very large study called the Women's Health Initiative found that women taking PremPro type of hormone therapy increased the risk of breast cancer and strokes. Now, when researchers documented this, the trial was halted and prescriptions plummeted.

So what has changed since then? Well, over the last 20 years, safer alternatives have been introduced using different types of hormones and lower doses. And the new review published in the medical journal JAMA finds women under the age of 60 can benefit from hormone therapy. I spoke to the study author, Dr. Joanne Manson. She's chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Menopausal hormone therapy has low risk of adverse events and would be safe for treating bothersome hot flashes, night sweats, and other menopausal symptoms. Now menopause experts say there's no one-size-fits-all. There's lots of options available, and women who want to try should typically start the therapy between the

ages of 50 and 60. That's NPR's health correspondent, Alison Aubrey. Thank you so much. Thank you. Great to be here. And that's up first for Saturday, May 4th, 2024. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Sy. Danny Hensel produced today's podcast with help from Andrew Craig and Fernando Naro.

Michael Radcliffe directed. Hadil Al-Shulji edited along with Catherine Fox, Gabriel Spitzer, Jane Greenhalgh, and Krishna Dev Kalamar. Our technical director is Hannah Glovna with engineering support from Carly Strange, Tom Marchito, and Stacey Abbott. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor. Sarah Lucy Oliver is our executive producer. Jim Cain is our deputy managing editor. Tomorrow on the Sunday Story podcast, the story of two correctional officers

turned whistleblowers from California's New Folsom Prison. And the celebrities are just coming and going. On Weekend Edition this weekend, we speak with both Tom Selleck and Whoopi Goldberg. Whoopi Goldberg. Tom Selleck. Yes.

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