--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. Today's Thursday, December 12th.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: President-elect Donald Trump is one step closer to achieving his vision for the FBI. The current FBI director, Christopher Wray, announced that he's going to end his term early, effectively stepping out of Trump's way.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: After weeks of careful thought, I've decided the right thing for the Bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current administration in January and then step down. [pause] Ray made the announcement yesterday in brief remarks to a packed conference room of FBI employees.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This is not easy for me. I love our mission and I love our people. But my focus is and always has been on us and on doing what's right for the FBI.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: His decision wasn't unexpected. Trump was the one who appointed Ray originally in his first term, but quickly soured on him and has made clear he wants Ray out.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump has railed against him, especially after the FBI searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate for classified documents in 2022.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In a speech yesterday, Ray tacitly acknowledged that the agencies become a political target, saying he's stepping down early to, quote, avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into the fray.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump has already said he intends to nominate Kash Patel to fill the role, someone who's vowed to wreak vengeance on the FBI for investigating Trump.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Patel's also promised to fire FBI leadership and shut down the Bureau's D.C. headquarters.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He may still face a contentious confirmation process in the Senate, but Patel was confident yesterday when asked about Ray's resignation.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: We look forward to a very smooth transition at the FBI, and I'll be ready to go on day one.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Ahead of Trump's inauguration, a number of U.S. colleges are warning their international students to make sure they back on campus before he takes office Otherwise they could find themselves unable to get back at all
--:-- Tracy Mumford: During Trump last term he put travel bans in place for people entering the U from some majority Muslim countries. That caught many students who were overseas at the time by surprise. Thousands were stranded.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Now, Trump has talked about wanting to bring back some of those travel restrictions, and they could kick in when students are still wrapping up their winter breaks.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The school's warnings are all just precautionary at this point, but Cornell University notified its students that additional countries could also be affected, particularly China and India.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Students from those two countries alone make up more than half of international students in the U.S.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: President Biden is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 people today, the most ever in a single day by an American president.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In a statement, the White House said that those who will have their sentences cut short had already been released from prison into home confinement during the pandemic in order to deal with overcrowding, and that they've since reintegrated into their communities.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The White House said Biden will also grant full pardons to 39 people who were convicted of a range of nonviolent offenses.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Biden's clemency choices have been under intense scrutiny since he pardoned his own son earlier this month.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The White House says there may be more pardons to come in the final weeks of his presidency.
--:-- Rhonda Kaysen: I look on Zillow every single day. I think maybe one or two houses in my range have shown up in the last month or so.
--:-- Rhonda Kaysen: The 2024 housing market is about to close out with the fewest number of home sales in almost 30 years.
--:-- Rhonda Kaysen: The first one that we put an offer on, I think it was 38 different offers besides ours. It went like 25-ish percent over list, over ask.
--:-- Rhonda Kaysen: Buyers have been struggling to find any properties, and they're facing prices that just keep rising.
--:-- Rhonda Kaysen: Who has in cash right Right Times real estate reporter Rhonda Kaysen been talking with buyers or those trying to buy all year She says the country basically frozen in place Americans aren able to move.
--:-- Rhonda Kaysen: Part of it is mortgage rates. They've stayed stubbornly high, pricing some people out of the market and making some owners feel like they can't sell because they'd have to give up a lower rate on their current house.
--:-- Rhonda Kaysen: But a bigger issue is supply. The U.S. has not built enough new homes to keep up with a growing population.
--:-- Rhonda Kaysen: The real estate listing site Zillow estimates there's a shortage of about 4.5 million homes, and economists are skeptical that there will be enough new construction to ease the problem anytime soon.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Sudan, a vicious fight for power between two rival generals has left the country in a humanitarian crisis.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Tens of thousands have been killed in the Civil War, and more than 25 million people are facing acute hunger or starvation.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Times has been tracking how one precious resource is fueling the conflict. The warring parties are actually on both sides of the front line, doubling down on gold.
--:-- Declan Walsh: There's a wartime gold rush happening, with more mining and trading now than before the violence broke out.
--:-- Declan Walsh: Billions of dollars of gold are on the move.
--:-- Declan Walsh: On social media, you see these images of fighters showing off with gold bars or gold jewelry that they've looted from people's homes or from banks, flashing it for the cameras, boasting of what they've looted.
--:-- Declan Walsh: But it also, for the commanders on both sides, is an invaluable asset that pays for drones, for guns, for other weapons that are perpetuating this conflict.
--:-- Declan Walsh: And not only that, as gold prices have touched historic highs just in the last 12 months, that has provided a further incentive for the foreign powers which are meddling in this war to get even more involved
--:-- Declan Walsh: Countries like Russia and the United Arab Emirates our reporting has shown are involved in gold mining across the country trying to get their own piece of these riches and potentially prolonging the consequences of this horrific war
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally. We're on Love is Blind, to love we may find. At the altar, we'll decide. And if we like the same girl, back off. She's mine.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The show Love is Blind, in which people date without ever seeing each other, has been a massive hit for Netflix.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's going into its eighth season. But how the contestants are treated has now come under scrutiny from the National Labor Relations Board.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A regional branch of the board started an investigation after two people on the show raised concerns about the contracts they had to sign.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Yesterday, the board announced that it had found the show committed multiple labor violations, including threatening anyone who leaves the show early with a potential $50,000 fine.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The board also demanded that the show reclassify the participants looking for love as employees, something the creator of Love is Blind has previously resisted.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He's argued that the show documents, quote, the independent choices of adults who volunteer to participate in a social experiment.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The board's complaint will now be passed to a judge who will rule on it.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And if the contestants are reclassified as employees, it could open the door for them and other reality show stars to unionize, potentially upending the whole industry by changing the balance of power.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines today on The Daily. how China was able to penetrate some of America's biggest phone providers, like AT&T and Verizon, in one of the most dramatic hacking cases in American history. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. The headlines will be back tomorrow.
