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Trump’s Migration Crackdown Begins
Update: 2025-01-27
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As ICE agents arrest hundreds of migrants, deportation flights set off a diplomatic firestorm in South America. President Trump fires 17 government watchdogs at government agencies. And after a tense delay, Israel allows thousands of Gazans to start moving back home.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds.
00:00:01
Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team, if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation.
00:00:07
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00:00:08
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00:00:14
You insane Hollywood f*ck."
00:00:16
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00:00:22
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00:00:24
$45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month, new customers on first three months plan only.
00:00:30
It's Monday, January 27.
00:00:32
You can send migrants back home, but it doesn't mean their home has to take them.
00:00:36
We start here.
00:00:40
President Trump's deportation plan causes a diplomatic uproar.
00:00:44
The Colombian government had waved them off, deciding almost in mid-air that they would not accept these flights.
00:00:51
Meanwhile, immigration raids are happening here at home, but that's not necessarily unusual.
00:00:55
We'll get a reality check.
00:00:57
Cabinet pics are being confirmed to lead agencies that no longer have watchdogs.
00:01:02
These firings are Donald Trump's way of telling us he's terrified of accountability.
00:01:07
We'll break down a wild weekend of Washington firings, and the ceasefire was supposed to mean they could return home, so wire Israeli soldiers still telling dozens where they can go.
00:01:18
Kales and fear erupting, we saw a buy these blocked roads.
00:01:22
Amid angry crowds and shots fired, Kenis Truce continued to hold.
00:01:28
From ABC News, this is Start Here.
00:01:31
I'm Brad Milky.
00:01:39
The thing about President Trump is he very much values action and symbolism, both things matter to him.
00:01:46
We've already seen this in his new administration.
00:01:48
The announcement he wanted the end of the right to birthright citizenship, a lot of legal scholars said there's no chance you can convince federal judges this is constitutional.
00:01:57
So why do it?
00:01:58
Well, even if it doesn't work, this symbolizes Trump's belief that America's doors are closed to immigrants and their children.
00:02:05
But he's also taking immediate action, sometimes very specific action.
00:02:09
For instance, immigration and customs enforcement is constantly detaining and deporting people.
00:02:14
That was the case under Obama, then Trump, then Biden.
00:02:16
In fact, Biden and Trump deported roughly the same number of people in their first terms, Obama deported more than either of them in his first four years alone.
00:02:24
But the types of migrants being deported can change.
00:02:27
The places migrants are deported too can change.
00:02:30
Troops and border patrol agents escorting shackled migrants onto massive C-17 cargo planes.
00:02:37
Well, this weekend, for the first time, we saw dozens of migrants loaded on the military planes and sent far beyond the normal reaches of deportation flights.
00:02:47
Let's start today with ABC's foreign correspondent Matt Rivers, who's based in Mexico City.
00:02:51
He covers Latin America.
00:02:52
And Matt, I think a lot of Americans think when you get deported, you just get driven across the border into Mexico.
00:02:56
I mean, what can you tell us about these flights?
00:02:59
Well, I think this is an entire region that is a bit in shock at the speed in which President Trump is trying his best to remake both the US immigration system and the US deportation system.
00:03:11
And what we're seeing here is Trump enlisting the full might of the federal government to get involved in these deportations, but also bringing in the US military.
00:03:20
And I think that is the real big change here in terms of the willingness for Trump to bring in the entirety of power at his disposal.
00:03:30
We've seen about 1,500 active duty troops already deployed to the border.
00:03:35
So right now, those greens are offloading concertina wires.
00:03:37
Are they going to bring right down to the border to reinforce it?
00:03:40
It's clearly meant to be a deterrence against food for migration.
00:03:43
Exactly what they're going to be doing.
00:03:44
We're not quite sure yet, but we've also seen when it comes to deportations.
00:03:50
Trump enlist these C-17s, those massive transport planes, to be flying people back to their country of origin.
00:03:57
And that is start.
00:03:58
We have never seen that before in the history of the US military.
00:04:01
It has never been used to fly people in the country illegally, back to their countries of origin.
00:04:07
Big step in and of itself.
00:04:09
The numbers that we've seen so far being deported by the military via these planes.
00:04:14
They're not staggering as compared to what we've seen in the past.
00:04:18
But the fact that this is happening at all is a huge deal.
00:04:21
And where it's happening to, I think, is really starting to create some problems.
00:04:25
So over the weekend, a flight arrived in Brazil carrying dozens of Brazilians that were in the US illegally.
00:04:31
And these flights are not unique.
00:04:33
But the Brazilian president said the condition that these people arrived in was.
00:04:37
He said they were shackled, like common criminals, including children.
00:04:41
They say they were denied bathroom breaks.
00:04:44
They wouldn't give us water.
00:04:46
It was difficult to get food.
00:04:48
It was very hot with children inside the aircraft.
00:04:51
And we haven't heard a response specifically from the Trump administration about that, but we know the Brazilians lodged a diplomatic protest and said that this really throws off the whole relationship when it comes to these repatriation flights in question.
00:05:05
Now all of that, it's important it was on a charter flight, which is what the US usually uses to transport these people.
00:05:11
But we're also now seeing, as we mentioned before, military planes repatriating people.
00:05:16
For the first time, two of them landed in Guatemala and others were slated to travel to Colombia.
00:05:22
But then we learned that the Colombian government had waved them off, deciding almost in mid-air that they would not accept these flights.
00:05:31
So we're sending Colombians back to Colombia, but Colombia won't actually allow them to land them.
00:05:36
So yeah, this was a crazy Sunday and all of this played out, Brad, I'm not kidding in a matter of hours.
00:05:42
So just to walk our listeners through it, basically, yes, these were all Colombians on board.
00:05:46
They were on board several military aircraft and the Colombians said, look, we're not going to allow the Americans to just unilaterally deport our people in whichever way they say.
00:05:55
So what the Colombians were saying is that this did not meet their standard of human rights of dignity for these people.
00:06:01
They say they were treated like criminals.
00:06:03
They were kept aboard these military aircraft in bad conditions, and therefore they wouldn't let the United States get away with this escalated shortly thereafter in a major way.
00:06:13
You had President Trump and the White House immediately coming back and threatening massive terrorists on all Colombian imports to the United States shortly thereafter.
00:06:21
You get President Pedro of Colombia saying that he too would impose tariffs on American imports to Colombia.
00:06:28
Then you have the State Department in the United States saying that they would put visa restrictions on any Colombian official that might have been involved with these planes not being allowed to land.
00:06:38
And you had President Petro doubling down once again saying that he would not be bullied fast forward to late Sunday evening.
00:06:45
When out of nowhere, we get a statement from the White House saying that Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump's terms and will accept repatriation flights, including those conducted by the US military.
00:06:56
And then in a short statement, a video statement, the Colombian foreign minister comes out and says that there's going to be high level dialogue in the next couple days.
00:07:05
There have been an agreement reached and they have agreed to this because the United States has agreed to treat migrants with dignity.
00:07:12
Wait, and so what does that mean?
00:07:13
What happens and what, I guess why did this all happen?
00:07:17
Well, we're all reacting to President Trump, his new administration of the flurry of things that they're trying to do.
00:07:23
And that includes South American leaders.
00:07:25
They're being forced to respond to all of this stuff in real time.
00:07:29
And I think what you saw with a place like Colombia is that maybe they didn't have a plan in place for this and they kind of backtracked on what they had initially said.
00:07:37
President Petro tries to put up a strong front, but in a reality, we're reminded here of the economic power that the United States has over not only Colombia, but really the entire Western hemisphere.
00:07:48
It has outsized influence, especially in a place like Colombia where tariffs on Colombian imports to the United States would devastate the Colombian economy.
00:07:56
So there's no question that played a role in the capitulation here.
00:08:00
But I think the broader question goes to now, well, okay, President Trump can maybe get his way on these repatriation flights.
00:08:07
But what does it do to the status of these alliances that the United States has had throughout decades across Latin America, especially in a place like Colombia.
00:08:15
I mean, even right now in this moment, I've been to that embassy in Bogota.
00:08:19
It's enormous.
00:08:20
It's well-staffed.
00:08:21
It's where a lot of the anti-human trafficking efforts that DHS is involved in across the hemisphere operate out of.
00:08:27
There's been decades of cooperation on drug traffic.
00:08:29
There needs to be cooperation on migration because so many people pass through Colombia.
00:08:33
So this is going to have an impact on the US Columbia Alliance, but President Trump apparently not worried about hurt feelings at this point.
00:08:40
He's getting his way.
00:08:41
I see, like, you can basically say, like, no, this is what we want and you're going to do it.
00:08:44
And they will say yes, but at what cost down the line.
00:08:47
And that's what American presidents haven't been willing to do in recent years.
00:08:50
Clearly, Trump is, hey, but Matt, I do think there's like the broader issue here of, I think with all the immigration stuff that's happening right now, a lot of us don't know what's new and what's normal with everything that's happening.
00:09:01
Like we heard there were a lot of immigration raids here in the US over the weekend.
00:09:05
And sure enough, we heard from the Department of Homeland Security that almost 1,000 people were arrested in just one day this weekend.
00:09:11
But I guess I'm still wondering, is that more than usual?
00:09:14
Is it much, much more than usual?
00:09:16
Like, what are we even talking about here?
00:09:18
You said it right off the top where we have seen massive deportations going back to the Obama years.
00:09:24
I mean, Obama's nickname within immigration activist circles was deporter in chief because he deported so many people.
00:09:31
So the idea that the Trump administration is at least so far deporting historic numbers.
00:09:36
And it's simply not true.
00:09:40
In fact, at this rate, and things might change, but at this rate, they'd be coming in well under some of the Obama years.
00:09:44
The heroes of ICE have been hunting down and arresting hundreds of illegal aliens.
00:09:50
What I think has really changed, though, is the willingness and the openness of the Trump administration to talk about this.
00:09:57
They are clearly wanting to publicize all of this, to create an atmosphere of fear both within migrant communities in the United States, but also as a deterrence to those would be migrants who would be trying to come to the U.S.
00:10:09
They're targeting sanctuary cities, places the federal government generally had not gone places like Chicago liberal leaning cities that don't cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
00:10:19
If you listen to what the Trump administration is saying, this is just the beginning.
00:10:22
They want to ramp these numbers up.
00:10:24
They want to make historic amounts of deportations where it goes from here remains to be seen, but I think what is absolutely concretely real is the fear in these migrant communities inside the United States,
00:10:36
especially those who have been recent arrivals.
00:10:39
In the last several years, I've talked to many of those people over the last week or so, and they are not opening their doors.
00:10:46
Some of them have quit their jobs.
00:10:48
They are terrified that one of these raids is going to come to their house.
00:10:52
And in terms of a change, it's a massive one.
00:10:56
All right.
00:10:57
Matt Rivers, base in Mexico City, be covering really the whole Western hemisphere here as we see these radical changes underway.
00:11:02
Thank you, Matt.
00:11:03
Thank you.
00:11:04
Next up on start here, ice isn't the only government agency being gut renovated, everything else you need to know about the weekend in Washington after the break.
00:11:16
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00:12:41
Now while immigration appears to be Trump's most pressing priority, it's certainly not his sole priority.
00:12:46
In fact, what's made Trump's first week in office such a fire hose of information is how many departments in the federal government are now facing radical changes.
00:12:59
Like heading into this weekend, we saw Trump make his first big Air Force 1 trip to California, where he witnessed the fire scarred landscape that is Los Angeles.
00:13:07
But what was interesting here is, before he went out there, he traveled to North Carolina, which had suffered catastrophic flooding last September, and was clear who Trump was planning to hear.
00:13:17
Remember, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Trump was among those fanning false rumors about FEMA, as frustration in these communities turned to anger, FEMA workers were actually being threatened.
00:13:28
And when a FEMA employee was found to have told some Florida workers to skip homes with Trump lawn signs, an order she was fired for giving, even though she says she was following FEMA protocol,
00:13:38
Trump latched onto this idea that the entire agency hated Republican voters.
00:13:43
In fact, before Trump left the site of that September flood to see the current disaster unfolding in California, he suggested disbanding FEMA altogether.
00:13:52
"Also, we saw an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming an overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA.
00:13:59
I think, frankly, FEMA is not good."
00:14:01
Now, it's not unusual for presidents to consider the optics of disasters.
00:14:05
What is rare is to describe them as "us versus them" events while the disasters are still happening.
00:14:11
And yet, even as he publicly weighs the political benefits of certain federal agencies, more of his picks to lead those agencies are being confirmed.
00:14:19
Let's go to ABC Senior White House correspondent Salina Wang, who is at the West Wing right now.
00:14:23
Salina, we are seeing more and more confirmations and more confirmations and hearings coming up, right?
00:14:29
That's exactly right.
00:14:30
And over the weekend, you had the official confirmations of Pete Hegsett, the Secretary of Defense, as well as Christy Nome, to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
00:14:37
So that puts her at the very center of the department that is critical to Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown.
00:14:44
And Hegsett, of course, he was very imbattled.
00:14:47
There were deep concerns about whether or not he was going to make it through as he was fending off those allegations of sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement, and alcohol abuse allegations that he's denied.
00:14:58
But he ended up just barely eaking through that process with JD Vance actually casting that tie-breaking vote.
00:15:06
But Brad, if you thought it was dramatic these last few days, this week is going to be that critical test for Trump's remaining cabinet nominees.
00:15:15
The Senate is going to be holding hearings for Tulsi Gabbard, for Director of National Intelligence, RFK Jr., for Health and Human Services Secretary, and Kash Patel for FBI Director.
00:15:25
These are some of the more controversial picks from Donald Trump and all of them face in a certain path.
00:15:30
And this could really be a make or break moment.
00:15:33
I mean, Tulsi Gabbard, for instance, there are a lot of concerns from lawmakers about how she's been sympathetic to Russian propaganda, how she's even parroted Russian propaganda,
00:15:43
and Russia's reasons for starting the war in Ukraine.
00:15:46
And there's also concerns that she's unqualified for the role.
00:15:49
RFK Jr., he holds very controversial views on public health issues.
00:15:54
And then Kash Patel, he has vowed to go after the, quote, "deep state" that he believes is after Donald Trump and has vowed to purge government officials and to seek retribution,
00:16:04
not just within the government towards Trump's political enemies, but also within the media.
00:16:09
So it's going to be a critical week.
00:16:11
Well, and then, Selina, in each of these departments, traditionally, there is at least one person there who's in charge of overseeing from within, like are we doing anything wrong?
00:16:20
You call them inspectors general, right, an inspector general for each department.
00:16:24
And yet this weekend, we saw several of those people that usually span administrations fired.
00:16:30
What is the story there?
00:16:31
So sources tell us that, lay on Friday night, Trump fired at least 17 inspectors general.
00:16:37
So these are independent watchdogs, and their role is to root out waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government.
00:16:45
And we're told that he had fired these independent watchdogs at multiple federal agencies.
00:16:50
So this paves a way for Trump to try and install loyalists into that critical role.
00:16:54
But by law, these watchdogs must be hired without regard to political party.
00:16:59
Now these firings from President Trump also violate a federal law that requires presidents to give Congress 30 days notice before removing any inspector general.
00:17:09
And there has been backlash from Democrats and Republicans who are blasting Trump for this move.
00:17:15
There are hearings that Donald Trump's way of telling us he is terrified of accountability and is hostile to facts and to transparency.
00:17:23
Senator Schumer said the following, he called this a chilling purge.
00:17:27
And it's a preview of the lawless approach, Donald Trump and his administration are taking far too often.
00:17:34
There is also strong criticism from Republican Senator Susan Collins and other allies of Donald Trump who said that while this could be in Donald Trump's power to do this, they believe that Donald Trump needs to answer their questions.
00:17:47
Okay.
00:17:48
Some more legal follow up perhaps to come there.
00:17:49
But in the meantime, like President Trump obviously, his hand on so many different levers right now, he of course based a large part of his candidacy on improving the American economy, you are with him in Las Vegas this weekend as he spoke specifically about the economy.
00:18:02
So what did you hear?
00:18:03
Yeah.
00:18:04
So I was with President Trump in Las Vegas and he was sort of capping off the first big trip of his second administration by holding this rally in Las Vegas.
00:18:11
And remember Nevada is a battleground state that he won and partially he won by making this campaign promise that he was going to get rid of taxes on tips.
00:18:20
So if you're a restaurant worker, a server of LA, a bell hop bartender, one of my caddies, or any other worker who relies on tips income,
00:18:32
your tips will be 100% yours.
00:18:35
There are of course many service workers in Nevada, especially in Las Vegas, those restaurant who tell in casino workers, so this is something that's very appealing to them.
00:18:43
And I spoke to many of those service industry workers who said, look, we'd love anything that would put more money in our pockets.
00:18:49
What would that no taxes on tip policy need for you guys?
00:18:52
It would help us a lot more money in our pockets.
00:18:56
But during that speech, Trump gave no details on his plan and he really didn't give any details on his broader economic plan in general.
00:19:04
Even though this is a key issue on his supporters mind so many of them telling me that they want to as quickly as possible, see prices go down, see things become more affordable.
00:19:14
And a policy like ending taxes on tips and his broader tax policy reform in general, that of course needs the support of Congress.
00:19:23
And just to dive a little bit deeper on no taxes on tips, that's actually a proposal that's received quite a bit of criticism from tax experts and economists who say that it might not actually help the people who need it since many low income workers don't get tips.
00:19:37
And they say the policy could also lead high income earners to take advantage of the system by reclassifying their income as tips.
00:19:43
Right, we hear no tax on tips and we think, oh, everyone who gets tips would pay less in taxes.
00:19:48
Not necessarily true.
00:19:49
Selena Wang reporting from Vegas and now from the West Wing.
00:19:52
Thank you so much.
00:19:53
Thanks so much, Brad.
00:19:55
The ceasefire in Gaza has the ability to be a game changer.
00:20:00
Obviously for the people of Israel and Gaza, it represents a pause in the rocket launches and gun battles playing out since the massive tear attack of October 7th.
00:20:08
This weekend, four more hostages were released by Hamas.
00:20:12
But it's also larger than that.
00:20:13
We're going to have a tremendous run, we have to straighten out some problems, some big problems in the world.
00:20:18
President Trump has made it clear he wants a bigger shift in the Middle East in a second term, with Israel being accepted and engaged by their neighbors.
00:20:25
That just can't happen if Israel is engaged in hot wars with Muslim-majority countries.
00:20:31
Everyone is praying that this tenuous ceasefire can hold.
00:20:34
But as part of this ceasefire, Palestinians are supposed to be able to travel within Gaza to go back to what's left of their homes.
00:20:41
And over the weekend, thousands were physically prevented from doing that by the Israeli military.
00:20:46
Let's go to ABC's Foreign Correspondent, Brick Lennett, who's in Jerusalem right now, Brick.
00:20:52
What was happening overnight?
00:20:53
Can you just break this down?
00:20:54
Extraordinary scenes, thousands of Palestinians, Brad, blocked from returning to their homes in Northern Gaza.
00:21:03
People waiting, waiting and waiting overnight, desperate to go back, hovering by the fires.
00:21:09
Really counting on Netanyahu and his promise and this deal, which is extremely precarious, as we know, to be able to return.
00:21:20
Under the ceasefire deal, the IDF was supposed to withdraw troops from the Net Serim corridor.
00:21:26
That cuts off the north from the south.
00:21:29
But after the second batch of hostages were released and 200 Palestinian prisoners were also freed, Israel was meant to open that corridor and allow these people to return.
00:21:41
But Israel now accuses her mass of withholding a civilian hostage and breaking down the terms of the agreement.
00:21:47
This hostage is 29-year-old Abelia Hood that she is alive, they say, and will be released this week.
00:21:54
It was meant to be on the list they say and that's where kind of the controversy lies.
00:22:02
Chaos and fear erupting, we saw a buy these blocked roads as gunshots were fired.
00:22:08
We saw garsons running in fear, many holding on to the bags full of belongings, everything they owned mind you, that they thought they would be bringing home.
00:22:19
Everyone here is like me, I've been here since yesterday and left everything behind.
00:22:23
And these are the people that are desperate to return to the north.
00:22:26
I've spoken to certain families in the south and they say it's just not worth the risk.
00:22:32
What happens if you walk four miles with your family only to find out that the cease-fire has broken down and that there's bombardment again?
00:22:41
So the risk is still there and it feels very real among garsons.
00:22:46
But certainly some have been eager to get back and are hoping that Netanyahu will open that border again soon.
00:22:54
Wow.
00:22:55
And so this is changing by the hour, but Israel is now saying because it did get those assurances about that hostage, along with other hostages being transferred this week, it is now allowing garsons to pass into northern Gaza today.
00:23:06
But I guess I'm just wondering, overall, how each side is thinking this truce is going to work.
00:23:12
Can it work?
00:23:13
I've been in protests over the weekend in Tel Aviv.
00:23:17
I've also spoken to Palestinians in Jerusalem.
00:23:21
I've also spoken to people in Gaza.
00:23:24
The commonality here is that they're all concerned that this cease-fire deal will break down.
00:23:30
All right, the release of those four hostages, the fragility of that deal very much felt here with people afraid that that cease-fire.
00:23:39
And this is just phase one, let's not forget.
00:23:41
This is a sixth week truce.
00:23:44
These two is when the IDF is meant to pull out of Gaza.
00:23:47
That's seen as a far harder phase to get through.
00:23:50
So we need to get through this first.
00:23:52
And as I say, there's a lot of anxiety.
00:23:55
On top of this, President Donald Trump, he has said on Air Force One, he came out and said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza.
00:24:04
I'd like Egypt to take people.
00:24:06
I'd like Jordan to take people.
00:24:08
I mean, you're talking about probably a million and a half people.
00:24:14
We just clean out that whole thing.
00:24:17
Describing Gaza as a demolition site, Trump even said you're talking about probably a million and a half people, we can just clean out that whole thing.
00:24:26
He said that the move could be temporary or it could be long term.
00:24:30
But that has created a lot of anger among garsons and concern that that might be the plan.
00:24:37
These feudal attempts will not weaken the resolve of the Palestinian people, nor drive us away from our Palestinian land.
00:24:43
Garsons are extremely connected to the land.
00:24:46
It is part and parcel of their cause.
00:24:49
And certainly, Arab nations have come out and said that they reject that and reiterate their commitment to a two-state solution, which has been a U.S.
00:24:59
policy for decades.
00:25:01
Yeah, it's interesting, because Americans often hear that not only will Israel not let in these garsons, but neither will Egypt, and Americans go like, "Oh, Egypt should let them in, but what a lot of garsons here is, oh, you're going to find a way to force us off our land and let Israelis move in."
00:25:13
And that's what creates this huge controversy, Britt.
00:25:16
You mentioned that the IDF is supposed to clear out of Gaza soon at the end of the six-week period.
00:25:21
Well, before the Gaza ceasefire, there was the ceasefire in Lebanon, right?
00:25:25
Like, yeah, all the hostilities between Israel and Hisbullah and Israeli troops originally were supposed to be out of Lebanon this weekend.
00:25:32
I'm sure there are people in Gaza wondering if they actually left.
00:25:35
What happened?
00:25:36
Yeah, so the Israeli military has actually remained in parts of Lebanon after the expiry of a deadline for their withdrawal, and Hisbullah's removal from the area.
00:25:45
Lebanese officials say people have been killed there by the Israeli military.
00:25:48
Israel said the 60-day ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, at which came into force in November, had not been fully implemented.
00:25:57
And it really remained unclear how many of its soldiers remained in Lebanon or how long they would stay.
00:26:04
Overall, Brad, it really goes to show that both of these ceasefires are continuing to be tested to the limit.
00:26:11
Right, and now they're extending the phase of that ceasefire another week, as this all gets resolved.
00:26:16
A brick planet.
00:26:17
They're in Jerusalem right now.
00:26:18
Thank you.
00:26:19
Thanks, Brad.
00:26:20
OK, one more quick break.
00:26:23
When we come back, a stench grows in Brooklyn.
00:26:26
One last thing is next.
00:26:30
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
00:26:33
You chose to hit play on this podcast today, Smart Choice.
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Make another smart choice with auto-quote explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once.
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00:26:53
And one last thing.
00:26:54
Have you ever had someone to say to you, ew, this is disgusting, taste it.
00:26:59
And you're like, why on earth would you think I would like to partake in that?
00:27:02
But if that friend also said trust me, you've never tasted anything like this.
00:27:06
Part of you might be sickly curious, right?
00:27:09
Well, over the last few days, in two cities on the opposite sides of the earth, people lined up to stick their nose in something that smells absolutely awful.
00:27:18
I liken the smell to the smell of a dead possum in the roof.
00:27:23
Late last week, the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney, Australia, a flower started to bloom.
00:27:28
It's called a titan-erum in plant circles in Samatra, where it's from.
00:27:32
It's called a Bunga Bunkai, and in English, that's called a corpse flower.
00:27:36
There are a few things that make a corpse flower unique.
00:27:39
One is its big, hundred pounds worth of leaves wrapped around this kind of spear-looking thing that can tower six to twelve feet tall.
00:27:46
Second, it blooms once every few years, and when it does, it only lasts a couple of days.
00:27:52
There are time-lapse photos of these leaves going from green to orange to bright purple as they open wide, and just like that, close their jaws again.
00:28:01
Rarity, years of waiting for just a day or two of glory, is what inspired more than twenty thousand people to visit the Royal Botanic Garden.
00:28:13
However, there's also a third thing that sets this plant apart.
00:28:15
It's what's known as a carrion flower, which needs pollinators like a lot of plants do, including flies, and with so little time, it needs to attract them quickly.
00:28:24
So this plant emits a powerful odor that smells just like rotting flesh.
00:28:29
After all, that's what flies love, right?
00:28:31
Dead things that haven't gone rancid yet.
00:28:33
It's a corpse flower.
00:28:34
This flower will even make the air around it hotter, which is like a smelly back signal to insects.
00:28:40
The Royal Botanic Garden lovingly named its flower "Putricia".
00:28:44
I mentioned this phenomenon twice recently, right?
00:28:47
Well, the other one was right here in the U.S.
00:28:51
On Friday at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York City, a cousin of the Titan heirom called "Anamorphofalus Gigas" started to bloom.
00:28:59
Word quickly went out, crowds gathered, wait times at this garden stretched upwards of two hours.
00:29:05
Among the plant nerds was yours truly.
00:29:13
That's a guard saying to me, you should have kept your mask on, because the moment I took off my face mask to get on my tiptoes and take a wiff of the thing, my whole face wrinkled.
00:29:21
My nose wanted to fall off.
00:29:23
It smelled like somebody's stinky feet were dipped in rotting eggs.
00:29:27
Between the year 1937 and 1997, the U.S.
00:29:30
was home to only two corpse flowers that ever successfully bloomed.
00:29:34
Since 1998, that number has been rising rapidly.
00:29:37
You see, the number of Titan heirom plants have been dwindling for decades.
00:29:40
The International Union for Conservation of Nature says there are only about 300 left in the wild of Sumatra.
00:29:47
So in recent years, botanists have been desperately harvesting pollen from the living ones and trying to cultivate more in captivity.
00:29:54
Just last year, American gardens played host to several corpse flower blooms, including the world's first in a private residence.
00:30:01
Slowly, scientists hope more of these will be introduced to their native habitat.
00:30:05
In the meantime, the whole world is learning to appreciate the plant that the Aussies call "putrisha" and the one in Brooklyn, local gardeners, have named "smelliot".
00:30:17
The names for these things are incredible.
00:30:19
One of them in Massachusetts is called "Dame Judy Stench".
00:30:22
The one in Vancouver is called "Uncle Fester".
00:30:24
I guess I'm glad I smelled the thing.
00:30:26
I don't know if I'd call it good, but it's like a roller coaster for your nose.
00:30:29
It's not pretty.
00:30:30
You're in it for the thrill.
00:30:31
If you don't think the show stinks, by the way, make sure to leave us a five-star rating and review wherever you listen.
00:30:37
It gives other people a sense of the show.
00:30:39
I'm Brad Milky.
00:30:40
I'll see you tomorrow.
00:30:40
Coming to ABC in Hulu,
00:30:52
Amanda Riley was a mother, wife, speaker at her church, and then she got diagnosed with cancer, a beloved young Christian woman fighting a battle undeserved.
00:31:02
We thought she was God's gift, but she was a liar.
00:31:06
Why would somebody fit cancer?
00:31:07
It was only a matter of time into Amanda's whole world team tumbling down.
00:31:13
You're not going to believe this.
00:31:15
Scamanda from airs Thursday night, January 30th, on ABC and stream on Hulu.
00:31:20