0:03

President Trump called for the U .S.

0:05

to take territory in the Middle East.

0:07

He says the U .S. should own Gaza,

0:09

displacing 1 .8 million residents to develop

0:11

seaside real estate. What do other countries

0:13

think? The

0:22

first plane load of migrants from

0:24

the U .S. landed at Guantanamo

0:26

Bay, Cuba. Critics think they

0:28

know why. Are you using this

0:30

facility because it has the

0:32

stain of the name Guantanamo? And

0:34

of course the answer is yes. Well, here

0:36

how the White House explains the moon. Also, all

0:39

staffers at the foreign aid agency, USAID were

0:41

told thank you for your service and put on

0:43

leave. So how does that affect U .S. influence

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Mobile for details. President Trump

2:13

is talking of another territorial acquisition by

2:15

the United States. He says he

2:17

wants the U .S. to take over

2:19

Gaza, the current home of many Palestinians.

2:22

Trump brought up the idea during a visit

2:24

to the White House by Israeli Prime Minister

2:26

Benjamin Netanyahu. The U .S. will take over the

2:28

Gaza Strip and we will do a job

2:30

with it too. We'll own

2:32

it and be responsible for dismantling

2:35

all of the dangerous unexploded bombs

2:37

and other weapons on the site. level

2:39

the site and get rid of

2:41

the destroyed buildings, level it out.

2:43

Turned into seaside real estate. The

2:46

president did not rule out the

2:48

possibility of using U .S. troops

2:50

while sending the current residents to

2:52

live somewhere else, not yet named. In

2:55

just over two weeks since his

2:57

inauguration, the president has called for the

2:59

U .S. to take over a total

3:01

of four countries or territories, Greenland,

3:03

Canada, the Panama Canal, and now a

3:05

war -torn 25 -mile strip of land

3:07

on the Mediterranean. Well,

3:17

Trump already signaled clearly many times that

3:19

he thinks Palestinians should be relocated outside

3:21

of Gaza. And he says Gaza is

3:23

now a demolition site, that it's uninhabitable.

3:25

And this is largely true after nearly

3:27

16 months of war and Israeli airstrikes

3:29

that also killed nearly 50 ,000 Palestinians

3:31

with the U .N. and Gaza's health officials

3:33

saying at least 10 ,000 more bodies

3:36

are buried under that rubble. Now, rather

3:38

than live in what he called a

3:40

hellhole, Trump said yesterday that nearly 2

3:42

million Palestinians and Gaza should go elsewhere,

3:44

other countries. This can be paid for

3:46

by neighboring countries of great It could

3:48

be one, two, three, four, five, seven,

3:50

eight, 12. It could be in numerous

3:52

sites or it could be one large

3:54

site. It's really unclear if this is

3:56

actual policy ideas being formulated or his

3:58

musings at this point, but Trump, who's

4:00

an international real estate developer as well,

4:02

said he envisions the US taking over

4:04

this coastal enclave long -term and turning it

4:07

into what he called the Riviera of

4:09

the Middle East. We're going to take

4:11

over that piece and we're going to

4:13

develop it, create thousands and thousands of

4:15

jobs. and it'll be something that

4:17

the entire Middle East can be very

4:19

proud of. And Trump has said that it's

4:21

an idea that everyone he's spoken to

4:23

loves, but is it something that Palestinians and

4:25

Gaza would support? You know,

4:27

half of those two million people in Gaza

4:29

are children. They need security stability. They haven't

4:31

been in school for two years now. There

4:33

isn't even electricity or running water in Gaza.

4:35

So yeah, some families would leave given this

4:37

reality. They have said that to us. But

4:39

also people have lived in Gaza for generations

4:41

and leaving would mean the end of any

4:43

hopes for a Palestinian state. And in Israel,

4:45

expelling Palestinians from Gaza was an idea that

4:47

had mostly been relegated to the far right

4:49

corners of Israeli society. You know, Israel's prime

4:51

minister didn't comment directly on Trump's idea yesterday,

4:53

but he praised his quote willingness to think

4:56

outside the box. with fresh ideas and he

4:58

said this after the jaws drop people scratch

5:00

their heads and they say you know he's

5:02

right all right so that's one view from

5:04

the Middle East but what are other countries

5:06

in the region saying So

5:08

the major Arab states, they don't want Hamas

5:10

to rule Gaza, but they also don't

5:12

see mass displacement as a solution either. And

5:14

certainly publicly, I don't see how they

5:16

could get behind this. Now, Egypt has made

5:18

clear it will not accept the forced

5:20

expulsion of Palestinians. Egypt has called

5:22

this an injustice that they won't take part

5:24

in. And Saudi Arabia, one of the countries

5:26

of great wealth that the president referred to

5:28

that would be needed to pay for whatever

5:30

comes next in Gaza, says it rejects attempts

5:32

to displace Palestinians. They say their position is

5:35

non -negotiable and that they've made this clear

5:37

to the Trump administration. administration. That's MPR's Abe

5:39

Batraoui. Thank you very much. Thank you. The

5:47

Trump administration has started sending

5:49

migrants from the United States

5:51

to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The

5:53

first plane load arrived yesterday.

5:56

White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt gave

5:58

this reason. President Trump is not messing

6:00

around, and he's no longer going to

6:02

allow America to be a dumping ground

6:04

for illegal criminals from nations all over

6:07

this world. The president has said he

6:09

wants to make room for 30 ,000 migrants

6:11

at Guantanamo. NPR Sasha Pfeiffer has been

6:13

talking with some lawyers who question the

6:15

legality of that plan, so how many

6:17

people have been sent there so far?

6:19

The U .S. has not released an

6:21

official figure, but it appears to be

6:23

a small number, possibly just one flight

6:26

with about a dozen migrants on board. The

6:28

Department of Homeland Security says

6:30

they're all members of a Venezuelan

6:32

organized crime group called Tren

6:34

de Aragua, and overnight it released

6:37

photos of handcuffed men in

6:39

gray sweatpants outfits, some with

6:41

neck tattoos being led onto military

6:43

planes. And several hundred US

6:45

service members were deployed to Guantanamo in the

6:47

past few days to prepare for these arrivals.

6:49

And where are they going to be held

6:51

in Guantanamo? The US says they will not

6:53

be housed alongside the accused foreign terrorists held

6:55

at the military prison there. Instead,

6:57

a, Guantanamo's US Naval Base has had

6:59

a detention facility used for migrants

7:01

intercepted at sea, usually Haitians and Cubans.

7:03

It's had that for years. But

7:05

it's been mostly empty for a long

7:08

time. It's not ready for large

7:10

numbers of people. So the

7:12

military has also circulated photos of service

7:14

members putting up green army tents

7:16

to help with what it's calling a

7:18

migrant operation center expansion. And the

7:20

defense secretary says migrants will be held

7:22

at Guantanamo only temporarily until the

7:24

U .S. finds other countries to take

7:27

them. Okay, now to the legality question,

7:29

can the Trump administration legally send

7:31

migrants from the U .S. to Guantanamo?

7:33

Can they do that? I've gotten conflicting

7:35

answers from lawyers. Some say yes,

7:37

some say no. One who thinks it

7:39

is not legal is a lawyer

7:42

at UCLA named Ahilan Arulanatham. He

7:44

says U .S. immigration law dictates

7:46

where these migrants can be sent. And

7:49

if Cuba has presumably not agreed to

7:51

take them, he says it's an illegal

7:53

deportation. But Steve Vladek at

7:55

Georgetown Law School thinks it's legal.

7:57

He argues a deportation is not

7:59

official until the U .S. has

8:01

relinquished custody of the migrants And

8:03

that won't happen until they're moved to

8:05

another country after being at Guantanamo. But you

8:08

know that they disagree, suggest we're in

8:10

murky legal territory. Vladek also

8:12

thinks the Trump administration is sending

8:14

migrants there as a kind of

8:16

macho performance art. Here's Steve Vladek.

8:18

All you're doing this for is

8:20

the symbolism, to be able to

8:22

say, look, I moved these folks

8:24

from the detention center across town

8:26

to Guantanamo. It's all like very,

8:28

very expensive flash with very little

8:30

substance. So you mentioned symbolism. What

8:32

symbolism is there by sending migrants

8:34

to Guantanamo? You know, he points

8:36

out it would be cheaper and

8:38

easier to hold them somewhere in

8:40

some big open space elsewhere in

8:42

the US. But by shipping them

8:44

to Guantanamo, you send a certain

8:46

message. Here's how the editor of

8:48

the website Lawfare, Ben Wittes, put

8:50

it. Are you using this facility

8:52

because it has the stain of

8:55

the name Guantanamo? And of

8:57

course, the answer is yes, that's

8:59

exactly why he's attracted to it.

9:01

He is attracted to it for

9:03

the same reason that it repels

9:05

human rights groups. And

9:07

by the way, all those people

9:09

I interviewed are skeptical that

9:11

30 ,000 migrants will ever end

9:13

up at Gitmo, given the legal

9:15

questions plus financial, political, practical

9:17

barriers. But even sending a handful

9:19

is getting a ton of public attention, which

9:21

is part of the point. NPR's Sasha

9:23

Pfeiffer, thanks a lot. You're welcome. The

9:33

Trump administration is telling all

9:35

employees of the United States Agency

9:37

for International Development to stop

9:39

doing their jobs. Yeah, the workers

9:41

are told to go on

9:43

administrative leave by Friday at 11

9:45

.59 p .m. According to a

9:47

new directive sent to agency staff globally and

9:50

posted on the website. This comes after more

9:52

than two weeks of chaos at the agency.

9:54

as the president and Elon Musk said they

9:56

were in the process of shutting it

9:58

down. NPR global health correspondent Fatma Tannis joins

10:00

us now to tell us all about

10:02

this. So who exactly signed off on this?

10:05

Well, it was a short note. It

10:07

was not signed by any official, and

10:10

it said that there would be some

10:12

exceptions that essential personnel expected to continue

10:14

working would be notified by Thursday afternoon. Now,

10:17

around 10 ,000 people work for USAID. Most

10:19

of them are serving overseas, and they've

10:21

been given 30 days to pack up and

10:23

come back home. The note ended with

10:25

the words, thank you for your service. So

10:27

what are you hearing from the people

10:29

who work there? Well, they're shocked

10:31

and gutted. I spoke to several officials

10:33

of the agency who didn't want to

10:35

be named because they're not authorized to

10:37

speak publicly and they said that this

10:39

is effectively a shutdown of the agency

10:41

and they call the process inhumane. Now

10:43

for staff who are overseas, there are other concerns.

10:46

People have kids in school, spouses who

10:48

have jobs, they have pets. It's gonna

10:50

be hard to brood their lives in

10:52

30 days and many are expecting the

10:54

next step to be mass layoffs. I

10:56

also heard concerns about what this

10:58

means for the US. I spoke

11:01

with Susan Reich Lee, a retired

11:03

USAID official, and here's how she

11:05

put it. This is taking away

11:07

a critical element of our national

11:09

security, and it's affecting people's lives

11:11

from not just a humanitarian perspective,

11:13

but we're leaving a huge vacuum

11:15

for China and Russia. I mean,

11:17

it seems like the Trump administration

11:19

wants to get rid of this

11:21

agency. Why would they want to

11:23

do that? Well, President

11:25

Trump has been saying that USAID is

11:27

too independent, that it is full

11:29

of, quote, radical left lunatics, and that

11:31

its programs are not in line

11:34

with his America First policy. Now,

11:36

people who work in the agency, they say

11:38

their allegiance is to the Constitution and not

11:40

to any political party. Many of

11:42

them served under multiple administrations, and

11:44

they say that everything they do down

11:46

to the countries and the issues

11:48

that they work on is approved by

11:50

Congress. Now, since Congress chartered

11:52

USAID, legal experts say the administration

11:54

doesn't have the authority to abolish it

11:56

on its own, but there are

11:58

still a lot of questions about how

12:00

this is going to play out.

12:03

And they've have programs all over the

12:05

world, so what happens now to

12:07

all of those things? Well, for now,

12:09

most programs receiving U .S. foreign aid

12:11

have been halted. And you know,

12:13

there are multiple disease outbreaks going on,

12:15

Ebola in East Africa. There's

12:17

a different hemorrhagic fever in Bolivia. These

12:20

are part of USAID's work overseas. Here's

12:22

Matt Kavanaugh, the Director of Global

12:25

Health Policy at Georgetown University. team

12:28

was literally preparing to

12:30

respond to these new outbreaks

12:32

that occurred literally as

12:34

the president was being inaugurated.

12:36

And now that's stopped. So

12:39

have distributions of HIV

12:41

medication and pox vaccines, a

12:44

therapeutic food for malnourished kids.

12:46

Millions of people around the world aren't getting

12:49

those services anymore. All right, so a lot

12:51

still up in the air. That's NPR's Fatma

12:53

Tannis. Thank you very much for letting us

12:55

know about all this. Thank you. And

13:01

that's up first for Wednesday, February

13:03

5th. I mean, Martinez. And I'm Stephen

13:05

Skeep. Don't forget, you can hear

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