--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, February 6th.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's what we're covering. The clock is ticking for federal workers as they face a deadline of midnight tonight to decide whether or not to take a payout offer and quit their government jobs.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Last week, the Trump administration gave roughly 2 million employees a choice—leave their posts and get paid through the end of September, or stay on and face potentially drastic downsizing, as well as demands for loyalty.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's part of a push by President Trump and Elon Musk to aggressively overhaul the federal government and slash billions in spending.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So far, the administration says tens of thousands of workers have agreed to leave their roles, even as unions representing government employees are warning against it.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: There are concerns that the deal might not be legal and that the administration might not follow through on its promise to keep paying people since funding for the plan hasn't been approved by Congress.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Other federal workers tell The Times they're angry and disgusted at the effort to force them out of their careers.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One said, quote, "This is an unreasonable situation with unreasonable people."
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The mass departures may affect federal agencies ranging from the CIA to the National Weather Service and disrupt a number of programs Americans rely on, from Social Security benefits to food safety inspections.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Times has learned that when President Trump laid out his brazen proposal to take over Gaza and relocate the 2 million people who live there, he caught even his own staff by surprise.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: There had been no meetings about the plan or even an outline of how it might work before he announced it.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A number of reporters tried to get details about this idea of his. When those details were not available, it became clear that they didn't exist.
--:-- Maggie Haberman: My colleague Maggie Haberman covers the White House. She says the sudden unveiling of the controversial proposal which could violate international law lacked any specifics and immediately raised enormous questions.
--:-- Maggie Haberman: Where would Gazans go? What would it cost? Who would carry it out? And it left the White House scrambling to answer.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So on Wednesday, some White House officials tried to, if not walk back, soften President Trump's statements.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He did not rule out American troops in Gaza last night.
--:-- White House Official: I am saying that the president has not committed to that just yet. He has not made that commitment, and you know that.
--:-- Maggie Haberman: White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt tried to clarify the plan, including saying that Palestinians would only be relocated temporarily.
--:-- Maggie Haberman: Now, Levitt, making the statement she did that seemed to soften Trump's earlier stance does not mean Trump himself is moving away from what he said.
--:-- Maggie Haberman: In fact, he may repeat it again. But what it is, is a cycle we have seen play out repeatedly where Trump says something and an aide tries to retrofit it to mean something slightly different.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Even some members of Trump's own party have been skeptical about his plan to get involved in Gaza.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Senator Lindsey Graham said, "I think it might be problematic."
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And Senator Rand Paul said, "I thought we voted for America first."
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Also on Wednesday. From now on, women's sports will be only for women.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: President Trump signed an executive order aimed at banning transgender women and girls from competing in women's sports.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The order directs federal agencies to pull funding from K-12 schools and universities that don't comply.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In recent years, the radical left has waged an all-out campaign to erase the very concept of biological sex and replace it with a militant transgender ideology.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You've heard a little bit about this, haven't you, huh?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Just a little bit. Does anybody agree with them? No.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A poll last month from The New York Times and Ipsos showed there's public support for the move.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Over 90 percent of Republicans said transgender women shouldn't be allowed to compete in women's sports.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 67 percent of Democrats agreed.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But the new order has been denounced by multiple civil rights groups.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The executive of one organization told The Times it quote segregates a group of young children, bars them from something that all other kids get to do.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The order is Trump's latest targeting transgender Americans.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He previously ordered a crackdown on gender transition care for minors and moved to push transgender people out of the military.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, thousands gathered across the country yesterday to protest President Trump and the sweeping changes he's pushed through so far.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It was part of a grassroots effort called 50-51.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The goal was 50 protests in 50 states all on one day.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: People chanted, waved flags, and spoke out against Trump's attack on the federal government and in support of immigrants and transgender rights.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Many in the crowds vowed to keep the pressure on.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Every single thing has bothered me to the point where now it's just like, it's just so out of control.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Is that what are you supposed to do? You have to come out and you have to get involved.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Overall, the backlash to Trump's second term has been more muted than his first.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In 2017, far more people, hundreds of thousands, marched in Washington, D.C. just a day after his inauguration.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A new report out this week argues that the effort to cut air pollution is actually speeding up global warming.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The finding might feel counterintuitive, but the theory goes like this.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For more than a century, humans have been spewing greenhouse gases into the air, driving dramatic climate change.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those gases were often mixed with other particles, including sulfate, which is toxic but also produced more clouds, covering more of the sky and shielding the planet from the heat of the sun.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: As more and more countries have moved to clean up air pollution and sulfate, the shield effect has been going away.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The study is by James Hansen, one of the first scientists to raise the alarm about climate change.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It comes as researchers have been somewhat stumped by just how fast the world is warming.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The main explanation is carbon emissions, but temperatures are going up faster than those emissions alone can explain.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Last month was the hottest January in recorded history.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, the Super Bowl is this weekend.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Philadelphia Eagles are playing the Kansas City Chiefs.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You can imagine the players, the coaches, the officials all gearing up.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One person deep in preparations who you might not imagine is the NFL's first ever fashion editor.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Kyle Smith started the job last fall with the mandate to use fashion and style to reach new audiences for the NFL.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's an acknowledgement that athletes have become major style influencers.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Let's go straight into this one because we got a lot of great fits to look at.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Commentators now pay attention not just to what they do on the field, but to what they're wearing before and after the games.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Did you see the embroidery on that black jacket and then pairing with black leather pants with white lace running up the side?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Wow, he looked amazing.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: NFL players have been decked out in tailored suits, furs, high-end labels, and designer track suits.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In his new job, Smith works with the players to showcase that personal style.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This year, the Super Bowl will even have a brand new red carpet segment before the game.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One NFL player credited Smith with building a bridge between the worlds of fashion and football, which had previously seemed miles apart.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He told the Times, "It was a problem before if you were into anything but grass, football, and dirt."
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's finally normal for football players to like fashion.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Today on The Daily, a look at how the Democratic Party is struggling to respond to Trump's avalanche of aggressive new policies.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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. We'll be back tomorrow.
