Lawsuit Accusing Elon Musk of Tanking Twitter Share Price Goes to Jury
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Fremont Ready to Wave Goodbye to Tesla Models S and X, Welcome Its New Robot Overlords
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Elon's Great Crash-Out / Unmasked in LA
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"content": "\u003cp>Whether Elon Musk will be forced to pay back \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12075332/elon-musk-defends-himself-in-court-over-posts-before-twitter-takeover\">investors who sold Twitter stock\u003c/a> amid his 2022 takeover is now in the hands of a San Francisco jury, after attorneys wrapped up their closing arguments in the securities fraud case Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal class action lawsuit, brought by former shareholders in the social media company, alleges that in the months before the $44 million buyout, the billionaire made misleading statements to hurt Twitter’s stock price with intent to renegotiate a cheaper deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mr. Musk decided … that he didn’t want to pay investors what he promised to pay. The deal in his mind had gotten too expensive,” said Mark Molumphy, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “So, he did here what he did on the stand: he trashed the company, he trashed the executives and he tanked the stock.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The weekslong civil trial has focused primarily on statements Musk made in May 2022, speculating that the number of bots on Twitter was much higher than the company publicly reported, and suggesting that the deal could be put on pause as a result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The previous month, he’d signed a binding agreement to purchase the company at $54.20 a share.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During his testimony earlier this month, Musk said that in a May meeting with then-CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal, he asked the executives how the company determined the number of spam accounts that use the site daily, and said he was “flabbergasted” when they did not know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075459\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12075459 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A courtroom sketch depicts Elon Musk (left) with his defense team on Mar. 4, 2026. \u003ccite>(Vicki Behringer for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Days later, Musk tweeted that the deal was “temporarily on hold,” pending evidence of how the company calculated that percentage. Hours later, he posted that he was “still committed to the acquisition,” but the following Monday, he tweeted again, suggesting that up to 20% of Twitter users could be bots. In the time between those posts, the company’s stock dropped nearly 18%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Molumphy said in total, Twitter stock dropped $8 million amid Musk’s public waffling, and many people sold their shares at deflated prices, believing the deal might fall through.[aside postID=forum_2010101912956 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2025/04/GettyImages-2203694533-1-1020x574.jpg']“There can be no dispute that Mr. Musk’s tweets caused this loss, caused this drop,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musk’s defense argued his tweets were just him speaking his mind, and not intended to manipulate the market. Defense Attorney Michael Lifrak said Tuesday that Musk’s concerns about spam on the site were real, and said that when he asked for information about how Twitter calculated its bot numbers at the May executive meeting, the company “clammed up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musk never asked directly for a discount on the purchase, Lifrak added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deal closed at the original price point in October 2022, after \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/07/12/1111032233/elon-musk-twitter-lawsuit-deal\">Twitter sued Musk\u003c/a> over his alleged plan to back out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lifrak urged the jury to consider the facts of the case, regardless of their feelings toward Musk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is about what happened in 2022, whether Mr. Musk engaged in the scheme to defraud, whether he purposely was tanking Twitter’s stock price, whether he lied,” Lifrak said. “He didn’t. They didn’t prove it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If he’s found guilty, Musk could be forced to repay more than $2 billion in damages to investors, according to Molumphy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Whether Elon Musk will be forced to pay back \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12075332/elon-musk-defends-himself-in-court-over-posts-before-twitter-takeover\">investors who sold Twitter stock\u003c/a> amid his 2022 takeover is now in the hands of a San Francisco jury, after attorneys wrapped up their closing arguments in the securities fraud case Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal class action lawsuit, brought by former shareholders in the social media company, alleges that in the months before the $44 million buyout, the billionaire made misleading statements to hurt Twitter’s stock price with intent to renegotiate a cheaper deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mr. Musk decided … that he didn’t want to pay investors what he promised to pay. The deal in his mind had gotten too expensive,” said Mark Molumphy, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “So, he did here what he did on the stand: he trashed the company, he trashed the executives and he tanked the stock.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The weekslong civil trial has focused primarily on statements Musk made in May 2022, speculating that the number of bots on Twitter was much higher than the company publicly reported, and suggesting that the deal could be put on pause as a result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The previous month, he’d signed a binding agreement to purchase the company at $54.20 a share.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During his testimony earlier this month, Musk said that in a May meeting with then-CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal, he asked the executives how the company determined the number of spam accounts that use the site daily, and said he was “flabbergasted” when they did not know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075459\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12075459 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A courtroom sketch depicts Elon Musk (left) with his defense team on Mar. 4, 2026. \u003ccite>(Vicki Behringer for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Days later, Musk tweeted that the deal was “temporarily on hold,” pending evidence of how the company calculated that percentage. Hours later, he posted that he was “still committed to the acquisition,” but the following Monday, he tweeted again, suggesting that up to 20% of Twitter users could be bots. In the time between those posts, the company’s stock dropped nearly 18%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Molumphy said in total, Twitter stock dropped $8 million amid Musk’s public waffling, and many people sold their shares at deflated prices, believing the deal might fall through.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“There can be no dispute that Mr. Musk’s tweets caused this loss, caused this drop,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musk’s defense argued his tweets were just him speaking his mind, and not intended to manipulate the market. Defense Attorney Michael Lifrak said Tuesday that Musk’s concerns about spam on the site were real, and said that when he asked for information about how Twitter calculated its bot numbers at the May executive meeting, the company “clammed up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musk never asked directly for a discount on the purchase, Lifrak added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deal closed at the original price point in October 2022, after \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/07/12/1111032233/elon-musk-twitter-lawsuit-deal\">Twitter sued Musk\u003c/a> over his alleged plan to back out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lifrak urged the jury to consider the facts of the case, regardless of their feelings toward Musk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is about what happened in 2022, whether Mr. Musk engaged in the scheme to defraud, whether he purposely was tanking Twitter’s stock price, whether he lied,” Lifrak said. “He didn’t. They didn’t prove it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If he’s found guilty, Musk could be forced to repay more than $2 billion in damages to investors, according to Molumphy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/elon-musk\">Elon Musk\u003c/a> on Wednesday defended statements he made in the months leading up to the 2022 purchase of Twitter, saying he did not intend to intentionally manipulate stock prices before the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a San Francisco federal court, Musk testified in a trial brought by former Twitter shareholders who alleged the world’s richest man committed securities fraud, attempting to bring down the value of the social media platform before he purchased and renamed it X.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On behalf of the investors, attorney Aaron Arnzen peppered Musk with questions regarding high-profile tweets he posted, casting doubt on the deal and questioning the number of spam accounts on the platform in the months preceding his purchase. Arnzen also asked if Musk believed he could renegotiate a lower price for the acquisition at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musk deflected many of the inquiries, maintaining that his tweets were simply “speaking his mind,” and that changes in stock prices are “up to the market.” He repeatedly accused Twitter and its former executives of lying on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings about the percentage of bot accounts on its site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had misrepresented the number of bots … they had lied,” Musk repeatedly said throughout his hourslong testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the first three days of Musk’s civil trial, much of the testimony had focused on statements he made in May 2022, which alleged that he was misled about the number of spam and bot accounts on the platform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075459\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12075459 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A courtroom sketch depicts Elon Musk (left) with his defense team on Mar. 4, 2026. Musk is expected to return to court on Thursday to continue his testimony. \u003ccite>(Vicki Behringer for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While Musk had signed a binding agreement to purchase the site for $54.20 a share in April, in the following months, Arnzen suggested, the billionaire seemed to believe he might be able to back out or renegotiate the terms of the deal based on the bot statistics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In social media posts dating back years, Musk has accused Twitter of being overrun by bot accounts. On the stand on Wednesday, he argued repeatedly that more than 50% of comments and responses to his posts were filled with spam accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anyone who used Twitter would realize there were a lot of bots and a lot of spam,” he said. “I definitely was complaining about bots for years; it was driving me crazy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Musk, he met with Twitter executives in early May — one month after they agreed to sell to him — and raised concerns about the company’s claims that less than 5% of the company’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62571733\">then-240 million\u003c/a> daily Twitter users were spam accounts.[aside postID=news_12071615 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/Tesla-Optimus-Getty.jpg']He told the jury that he was “flabbergasted” when CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal said they did not know how the company determined the 5% figure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Days later, Musk posted on Twitter that the deal was “temporarily on hold” pending evidence supporting how Twitter calculated that percentage. Hours later, he posted that he was “still committed to acquisition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the initial post, Twitter stock took “the elevator to the basement,” dropping 18% over the following 48 hours, Arnzen told the jury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arnzen also asked Musk if, after the early May meeting, he “thought [he] could pay way less for Twitter — half the price?” He also asked the X-owner whether he was “looking at an opportunity to revisit price.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musk said he believed there should have been an opportunity to renegotiate if there had been “material fraud” in calculating the numbers in Twitter’s SEC filings. Musk maintained, though, that he did not make any comments to intentionally depress stock prices or get a better deal on the purchase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tweets were intended to inform the public, he said, not sway stock prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve seen much bigger changes with no news,” Musk said on the stand. He did acknowledge that he knew the general public was closely attuned to his comments on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075461\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12075461 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A courtroom sketch depicts the defense questioning Elon Musk on Mar. 4, 2026. The tech billionaire testified Wednesday, accused of defrauding former shareholders in a lawsuit. \u003ccite>(Vicki Behringer for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This was in contrast with testimony from former stakeholders, who told the court they sold shares at deflated prices amid Musk’s public waffling. If he’s found guilty, he could be forced to repay them for the money they lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Separately, Musk also faces charges related to the Twitter acquisition brought by the SEC, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26219\">alleged\u003c/a> he violated the law by not disclosing his stake in Twitter while the deal was being worked out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked directly whether he thought of shareholders who might have sold their stock based on his comments at a deflated price, he said he didn’t have control over whether people chose to sell, adding that in the end, he bought Twitter at his originally proposed price, which was a “premium.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Share prices go up and down, but if somebody had simply held on to their position … the vast number of people benefited greatly from the acquisition,” he told the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/elon-musk\">Elon Musk\u003c/a> on Wednesday defended statements he made in the months leading up to the 2022 purchase of Twitter, saying he did not intend to intentionally manipulate stock prices before the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a San Francisco federal court, Musk testified in a trial brought by former Twitter shareholders who alleged the world’s richest man committed securities fraud, attempting to bring down the value of the social media platform before he purchased and renamed it X.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On behalf of the investors, attorney Aaron Arnzen peppered Musk with questions regarding high-profile tweets he posted, casting doubt on the deal and questioning the number of spam accounts on the platform in the months preceding his purchase. Arnzen also asked if Musk believed he could renegotiate a lower price for the acquisition at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musk deflected many of the inquiries, maintaining that his tweets were simply “speaking his mind,” and that changes in stock prices are “up to the market.” He repeatedly accused Twitter and its former executives of lying on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings about the percentage of bot accounts on its site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had misrepresented the number of bots … they had lied,” Musk repeatedly said throughout his hourslong testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the first three days of Musk’s civil trial, much of the testimony had focused on statements he made in May 2022, which alleged that he was misled about the number of spam and bot accounts on the platform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075459\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12075459 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-04-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A courtroom sketch depicts Elon Musk (left) with his defense team on Mar. 4, 2026. Musk is expected to return to court on Thursday to continue his testimony. \u003ccite>(Vicki Behringer for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While Musk had signed a binding agreement to purchase the site for $54.20 a share in April, in the following months, Arnzen suggested, the billionaire seemed to believe he might be able to back out or renegotiate the terms of the deal based on the bot statistics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In social media posts dating back years, Musk has accused Twitter of being overrun by bot accounts. On the stand on Wednesday, he argued repeatedly that more than 50% of comments and responses to his posts were filled with spam accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anyone who used Twitter would realize there were a lot of bots and a lot of spam,” he said. “I definitely was complaining about bots for years; it was driving me crazy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Musk, he met with Twitter executives in early May — one month after they agreed to sell to him — and raised concerns about the company’s claims that less than 5% of the company’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62571733\">then-240 million\u003c/a> daily Twitter users were spam accounts.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He told the jury that he was “flabbergasted” when CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal said they did not know how the company determined the 5% figure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Days later, Musk posted on Twitter that the deal was “temporarily on hold” pending evidence supporting how Twitter calculated that percentage. Hours later, he posted that he was “still committed to acquisition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the initial post, Twitter stock took “the elevator to the basement,” dropping 18% over the following 48 hours, Arnzen told the jury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arnzen also asked Musk if, after the early May meeting, he “thought [he] could pay way less for Twitter — half the price?” He also asked the X-owner whether he was “looking at an opportunity to revisit price.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musk said he believed there should have been an opportunity to renegotiate if there had been “material fraud” in calculating the numbers in Twitter’s SEC filings. Musk maintained, though, that he did not make any comments to intentionally depress stock prices or get a better deal on the purchase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tweets were intended to inform the public, he said, not sway stock prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve seen much bigger changes with no news,” Musk said on the stand. He did acknowledge that he knew the general public was closely attuned to his comments on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075461\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12075461 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260304-Elon-Musk-Trial-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A courtroom sketch depicts the defense questioning Elon Musk on Mar. 4, 2026. The tech billionaire testified Wednesday, accused of defrauding former shareholders in a lawsuit. \u003ccite>(Vicki Behringer for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This was in contrast with testimony from former stakeholders, who told the court they sold shares at deflated prices amid Musk’s public waffling. If he’s found guilty, he could be forced to repay them for the money they lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Separately, Musk also faces charges related to the Twitter acquisition brought by the SEC, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26219\">alleged\u003c/a> he violated the law by not disclosing his stake in Twitter while the deal was being worked out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked directly whether he thought of shareholders who might have sold their stock based on his comments at a deflated price, he said he didn’t have control over whether people chose to sell, adding that in the end, he bought Twitter at his originally proposed price, which was a “premium.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Share prices go up and down, but if somebody had simply held on to their position … the vast number of people benefited greatly from the acquisition,” he told the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Fifteen years ago, Tesla began production of its Model S sedan in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/201005210900/tesla-and-toyota-at-nummi\">shuttered auto plant\u003c/a> in Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, the company was a fragile startup on the verge of collapse. Most major automakers didn’t even consider EVs as serious competitors in the mainstream market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the trillion-dollar company is poised to churn out a different edge case product on the plant’s assembly lines: its humanoid robot known as Optimus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They took a factory that was one of the oldest operating auto factories in the country and turned it into the most productive auto plant in North America,” said Donovan Lazaro, Fremont’s economic development director. “I would imagine they’ll have that same fiery tenacity when it comes to rolling out Optimus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that the automaker is ending production of its Model S and X vehicles at the factory to free that part of the space to build Optimus, but overall auto production is not ending in Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge,” Musk said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call, “with the long-term goal of having 1 million units [a] year line of Optimus in the SX space in Fremont.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the Fremont factory \u003ca href=\"https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2024/01/12/tesla-ups-fremont-workers-salaries.html\">employs 30,000 people\u003c/a> to build four Tesla vehicles: the S and X for now, but also the newer Models 3 and Y. The\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2012/06/22/155525142/teslas-new-electric-sedan-five-passengers-89-mpg-and-no-engine\"> Model S\u003c/a> was the first vehicle built at Tesla’s Fremont factory, but the S and X lines accounted for \u003ca href=\"https://www.wardsauto.com/news/tesla-ending-production-models-modelx-elon-musk/810837/#:~:text=Dive%20Insight:,Tesla's%20year%2Dend%20sales%20summary.\">only 3%\u003c/a> of Tesla’s global production in 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064376\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064376\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/TeslaFremontGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1190\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/TeslaFremontGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/TeslaFremontGetty-160x95.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/TeslaFremontGetty-1536x914.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Tesla manufacturing facility on Sept. 18, 2023, in Fremont, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To see them sunset is a symbolic loss, but it is not expected to be much of an economic loss for the company or the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re making big investments for an epic future,” Musk said of the switch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musk said Tesla expects to increase headcount at the Fremont facility as it builds out robot production and “to significantly increase output.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tesla is\u003ca href=\"https://www.tesla.com/en_EU/careers/search/?query=Optimus&site=US\"> already hiring\u003c/a> for the Optimus work, and Lazaro said he believes most of the people trained in the Tesla way will stay put through the retooling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While I can’t speak with granularity to Tesla’s plans, I will just say in general we have a shortage of skilled labor in this country, especially for manufacturing and advanced manufacturing jobs,” he said. “And so I would absolutely imagine that there will be roles found in other parts of the facility for any affected workers.”[aside postID=forum_2010101883541 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/43/2021/05/GettyImages-1229894905-1020x697.jpeg']Lazaro added that a new product line will require a new supply chain, which could attract all sorts of new suppliers to the region. Tesla is also \u003ca href=\"https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2026/01/26/tesla-fremont-factory-expansion.html\">leasing additional space\u003c/a> near its existing factory to support the company’s work in AI, engineering, and, of course, robotics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan said city officials are “delighted” by Musk’s announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tesla’s Fremont facility evolving into robotics manufacturing is a vote of confidence in our workforce, supplier ecosystem, and advanced manufacturing base,” Salwan wrote to KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tesla said it plans to unveil the third generation of Optimus later this quarter, calling it the company’s first design intended for mass production, intended to be used for factory work, household tasks and caregiving. Musk said on the conference call with investors and analysts that he expects artificial intelligence to usher in an era of “sustainable abundance” in which robots do all the work and “everyone can have whatever they want.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s also said he imagines one for\u003ca href=\"https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-personal-robots-warns-terminator-style-risks-saudi-robotaxi-2025-5\"> every person on Earth\u003c/a>, all of them running Tesla software. But that may have more to do with his desire to justify his\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/11/06/nx-s1-5596440/tesla-musk-2025-trillion-dollar-compensation-vote\"> outsize Tesla pay package\u003c/a>, involving up to $1 trillion worth of Tesla stock, than his penchant for predicting the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musk’s personal move to Texas in 2020, his decision to move \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11995900/elon-musk-says-hes-moving-spacex-x-headquarters-from-california-to-texas\">SpaceX and Tesla headquarters \u003c/a>to Austin in 2021, his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101904725/the-extremely-hardcore-story-of-elon-musks-twitter-takeover\">takeover of Twitter\u003c/a> in 2022, his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12071559/growing-wave-of-silicon-valley-workers-condemns-ice-as-c-suites-split-over-fear-of-trump\">support for the Trump administration\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029281/musks-costly-cuts-x-will-doge-trump-face-similar-fallout\">leadership of DOGE\u003c/a> in 2025 have alienated many Californians. His promotion of Tesla’s controversial “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12010070/feds-investigate-tesla-after-deadly-full-self-driving-crash\">self-driving\u003c/a>” technology, despite documented accidents and safety concerns, has led to criticism and lawsuits.” The same is true for his cavalier approach to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069808/california-investigates-elon-musks-ai-company-after-avalanche-of-complaints-about-sexual-content\">complaints about xAI\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, it’s not clear how many people on Earth will feel a driving need to purchase a robot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s no matter to Stephen Baiter, executive director of the East Bay Economic Development Alliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They really are leveraging all the plentiful assets, resources, the talent and everything else that makes the Bay Area such a unique and global powerhouse,” he said. “I think their capacity to fulfill their bigger ambitions over time is realistic. What time horizon, I guess, remains to be seen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Fifteen years ago, Tesla began production of its Model S sedan in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/201005210900/tesla-and-toyota-at-nummi\">shuttered auto plant\u003c/a> in Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, the company was a fragile startup on the verge of collapse. Most major automakers didn’t even consider EVs as serious competitors in the mainstream market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the trillion-dollar company is poised to churn out a different edge case product on the plant’s assembly lines: its humanoid robot known as Optimus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They took a factory that was one of the oldest operating auto factories in the country and turned it into the most productive auto plant in North America,” said Donovan Lazaro, Fremont’s economic development director. “I would imagine they’ll have that same fiery tenacity when it comes to rolling out Optimus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that the automaker is ending production of its Model S and X vehicles at the factory to free that part of the space to build Optimus, but overall auto production is not ending in Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge,” Musk said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call, “with the long-term goal of having 1 million units [a] year line of Optimus in the SX space in Fremont.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the Fremont factory \u003ca href=\"https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2024/01/12/tesla-ups-fremont-workers-salaries.html\">employs 30,000 people\u003c/a> to build four Tesla vehicles: the S and X for now, but also the newer Models 3 and Y. The\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2012/06/22/155525142/teslas-new-electric-sedan-five-passengers-89-mpg-and-no-engine\"> Model S\u003c/a> was the first vehicle built at Tesla’s Fremont factory, but the S and X lines accounted for \u003ca href=\"https://www.wardsauto.com/news/tesla-ending-production-models-modelx-elon-musk/810837/#:~:text=Dive%20Insight:,Tesla's%20year%2Dend%20sales%20summary.\">only 3%\u003c/a> of Tesla’s global production in 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064376\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064376\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/TeslaFremontGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1190\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/TeslaFremontGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/TeslaFremontGetty-160x95.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/TeslaFremontGetty-1536x914.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Tesla manufacturing facility on Sept. 18, 2023, in Fremont, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To see them sunset is a symbolic loss, but it is not expected to be much of an economic loss for the company or the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re making big investments for an epic future,” Musk said of the switch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musk said Tesla expects to increase headcount at the Fremont facility as it builds out robot production and “to significantly increase output.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tesla is\u003ca href=\"https://www.tesla.com/en_EU/careers/search/?query=Optimus&site=US\"> already hiring\u003c/a> for the Optimus work, and Lazaro said he believes most of the people trained in the Tesla way will stay put through the retooling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While I can’t speak with granularity to Tesla’s plans, I will just say in general we have a shortage of skilled labor in this country, especially for manufacturing and advanced manufacturing jobs,” he said. “And so I would absolutely imagine that there will be roles found in other parts of the facility for any affected workers.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Lazaro added that a new product line will require a new supply chain, which could attract all sorts of new suppliers to the region. Tesla is also \u003ca href=\"https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2026/01/26/tesla-fremont-factory-expansion.html\">leasing additional space\u003c/a> near its existing factory to support the company’s work in AI, engineering, and, of course, robotics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan said city officials are “delighted” by Musk’s announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tesla’s Fremont facility evolving into robotics manufacturing is a vote of confidence in our workforce, supplier ecosystem, and advanced manufacturing base,” Salwan wrote to KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tesla said it plans to unveil the third generation of Optimus later this quarter, calling it the company’s first design intended for mass production, intended to be used for factory work, household tasks and caregiving. Musk said on the conference call with investors and analysts that he expects artificial intelligence to usher in an era of “sustainable abundance” in which robots do all the work and “everyone can have whatever they want.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s also said he imagines one for\u003ca href=\"https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-personal-robots-warns-terminator-style-risks-saudi-robotaxi-2025-5\"> every person on Earth\u003c/a>, all of them running Tesla software. But that may have more to do with his desire to justify his\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/11/06/nx-s1-5596440/tesla-musk-2025-trillion-dollar-compensation-vote\"> outsize Tesla pay package\u003c/a>, involving up to $1 trillion worth of Tesla stock, than his penchant for predicting the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musk’s personal move to Texas in 2020, his decision to move \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11995900/elon-musk-says-hes-moving-spacex-x-headquarters-from-california-to-texas\">SpaceX and Tesla headquarters \u003c/a>to Austin in 2021, his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101904725/the-extremely-hardcore-story-of-elon-musks-twitter-takeover\">takeover of Twitter\u003c/a> in 2022, his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12071559/growing-wave-of-silicon-valley-workers-condemns-ice-as-c-suites-split-over-fear-of-trump\">support for the Trump administration\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029281/musks-costly-cuts-x-will-doge-trump-face-similar-fallout\">leadership of DOGE\u003c/a> in 2025 have alienated many Californians. His promotion of Tesla’s controversial “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12010070/feds-investigate-tesla-after-deadly-full-self-driving-crash\">self-driving\u003c/a>” technology, despite documented accidents and safety concerns, has led to criticism and lawsuits.” The same is true for his cavalier approach to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069808/california-investigates-elon-musks-ai-company-after-avalanche-of-complaints-about-sexual-content\">complaints about xAI\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, it’s not clear how many people on Earth will feel a driving need to purchase a robot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s no matter to Stephen Baiter, executive director of the East Bay Economic Development Alliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They really are leveraging all the plentiful assets, resources, the talent and everything else that makes the Bay Area such a unique and global powerhouse,” he said. “I think their capacity to fulfill their bigger ambitions over time is realistic. What time horizon, I guess, remains to be seen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "California Investigates Elon Musk’s AI Company After ‘Avalanche’ of Complaints About Sexual Content | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Attorney General \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/rob-bonta\">Rob Bonta\u003c/a> today announced an investigation into how and whether Elon Musk’s X and xAI broke the law in the past few weeks by enabling the spread of naked or sexual imagery without consent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>xAI \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/tech/xai-grok-child-sexualized-photos-59cabffe?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqeXFpqFQcrxsO5WTkfUv06n_yUF6SLsaiidykNtXuu99sfcWdIeGHE6&gaa_ts=6967eaf6&gaa_sig=Xo5Vee-O05o95LbH9S5pemMTlPI6DdA5iZKEj5SEbQPtBBwZQuX9-vC1SF3WvpfVZT6YyP8zLGAprQ5MlwHhpQ%3D%3D\">reportedly\u003c/a> updated its Grok artificial intelligence tool last month to allow image editing. Users on the social media platform X, which is connected to the tool, began using Grok to remove clothing in pictures of women and children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking,” Bonta \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-launches-investigation-xai-grok-over-undressed-sexual-ai\">said in a written statement\u003c/a>. “This material, which depicts women and children in nude and sexually explicit situations, has been used to harass people across the internet. I urge xAI to take immediate action to ensure this goes no further.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta urged Californians who want to report depictions of them or their children undressed or commiting sexual acts to visit \u003ca href=\"http://oag.ca.gov/report\">oag.ca.gov/report\u003c/a>. In an emailed response, xAI did not address questions about the investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-07/musk-s-grok-ai-generated-thousands-of-undressed-images-per-hour-on-x?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2Nzc5MDk4NywiZXhwIjoxNzY4Mzk1Nzg3LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUOEhRS0hLR0lGUE8wMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJGRUIzODlCNUI2ODI0RTY0QjY5MENEODE1RTBDREZGRCJ9.3B4JWnmqmXFC3DOqhs11h99g5gNzi4j_poKAHLuWdrY&leadSource=uverify%20wall\">obtained by Bloomberg\u003c/a> found that X now produces more non-consensual naked or sexual imagery than any other website online. In a posting on X, Musk promised “consequences” for people who made illegal content with the tool. On Friday, Grok limited image editing to paying subscribers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One potential route for Bonta to prosecute xAI is a law that \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/10/13/governor-newsom-signs-bills-to-further-strengthen-californias-leadership-in-protecting-children-online/\">went into effect\u003c/a> just two weeks ago \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab621\">creating legal liability for the creation and distribution\u003c/a> of “deepfake” pornography.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12013478\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12013478\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks with KQED politics reporters Marisa Lagos and Scott Shafer for Political Breakdown at the KQED offices in San Francisco on Nov. 7, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>X and xAI appear to be violating the provisions of that law, known as AB 621, said Sam Dordulian, who previously worked in the sex crimes unit of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office but today works in private practice as a lawyer for people in cases involving deepfakes or revenge porn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, author of the law, told CalMatters in a statement last week that she reached out to prosecutors, including the attorney general’s office and the city attorney of San Francisco, to remind them that they can act under the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s happening on X, Bauer-Kahan said, is what AB 621 was designed to address.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Real women are having their images manipulated without consent, and the psychological and reputational harm is devastating,” the San Ramon Democrat said in an emailed statement. “Underage children are having their images used to create child sexual abuse material, and these websites are knowingly facilitating it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A global concern\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Bonta’s inquiry also comes shortly after a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/cagovernor/status/2011489740026232891\">call for an investigation\u003c/a> by Gov. Gavin Newsom, backlash from regulators in the European Union and India and bans on X in Malaysia, Indonesia, and potentially the United Kingdom. As Grok app downloads \u003ca href=\"https://sherwood.news/tech/grok-has-been-climbing-apple-and-googles-app-store-rankings-amid-calls-to/\">rise in Apple and Google app store\u003c/a>s, lawmakers and advocates are calling for the smartphone makers to prohibit the application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why Grok created the feature the way it did and how it will respond to the controversy around it is unclear, and answers may not be forthcoming, since \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-07/musk-s-grok-ai-generated-thousands-of-undressed-images-per-hour-on-x?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2Nzc5MDk4NywiZXhwIjoxNzY4Mzk1Nzg3LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUOEhRS0hLR0lGUE8wMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJGRUIzODlCNUI2ODI0RTY0QjY5MENEODE1RTBDREZGRCJ9.3B4JWnmqmXFC3DOqhs11h99g5gNzi4j_poKAHLuWdrY&leadSource=uverify%20wall\">an analysis recently concluded\u003c/a> that it’s the least transparent of major AI systems available today. xAI did not address questions about the investigation from CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evidence of concrete harm from deepfakes is piling up. In 2024, the FBI warned that the use of \u003ca href=\"https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/nashville/news/sextortion-a-growing-threat-targeting-minors\">deepfake tools to extort young people is a growing problem\u003c/a> that has led to instances of self-harm and suicide. Multiple audits have found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.techpolicy.press/laion-and-the-challenges-of-preventing-ai-generated-csam/\">child sexual abuse material is inside the training data of AI models\u003c/a>, making them capable of generating vulgar photos. A \u003ca href=\"https://cdt.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/FINAL-UPDATED-CDT-2024-NCII-Polling-Slide-Deck.pdf\">2024 Center for Democracy and Technology survey\u003c/a> found that 15% of high school students have heard of or seen sexually explicit imagery of someone they know at school in the past year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investigation announced today is the latest action by the attorney general to push AI companies to keep kids safe. Late last year, Bonta endorsed a bill that would have prevented chatbots that talk about self-harm and engage in sexually explicit conversations from interacting with people under 18.[aside postID=news_12064374 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/TeslaFremontGetty.jpg']He also joined attorneys general from 44 other states in sending a letter that questions why companies like Meta and OpenAI allow their chatbots to have sexually inappropriate conversations with minors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has passed roughly half a dozen laws since 2019 to protect people from deepfakes. The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab621\">new law by Bauer-Kahan\u003c/a> amends and strengthens a 2019 law, most significantly by allowing district attorneys to bring cases against companies that “recklessly aid and abet” the distribution of deepfakes without the consent of the person depicted nude or committing sexual acts. That means the average person can ask the attorney general or the district attorney where they live to file a case on their behalf. It also increases the maximum amount that a judge can award a person from $150,000 to $250,000. Under the law, a public prosecutor is not required to prove that an individual depicted in an AI-generated nude or sexual image suffered actual harm to bring a case to court. Websites that refuse to comply within 30 days can face penalties of $25,000 per violation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to those measures, two 2024 laws (\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240ab1831\">AB 1831\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1381?slug=CA_202320240SB1381\">SB 1381\u003c/a>) expand the state’s definition of child pornography to make possession or distribution of artificially-generated child sexual abuse material illegal. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240sb981\">Another required\u003c/a> social media platforms to give people an easy way to request the immediate removal of a deepfake, and defines the posting of such material as a form of digital identity theft. A California law limiting the use of deepfakes in elections was signed into law last year, but was \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/05/elon-musk-x-court-win-california-deepfake-law-00494936\">struck down by a federal judge last summer\u003c/a> following a lawsuit by X and Elon Musk.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Future reforms\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Every new state law helps give lawyers like Dordulian a new avenue to address harmful uses of deepfakes, but he said more needs to be done to help people protect themselves. He said his clients face challenges proving violation of existing laws since they require distribution of explicit materials, for example, with a messaging app or social media platform, for protections to kick in. In his experience, people who use nudify apps typically know each other, so distribution doesn’t always take place, and if it does, it can be hard to prove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, he said, he has a client who works as a nanny who alleges that the father of the kids she takes care of made images of her using photos she posted on Instagram. The nanny found the images on his iPad. This discovery was disturbing for her and caused her emotional trauma, but since he can’t use deepfake laws, he has to sue on the basis of negligence or emotional distress, and laws that were never created to address deepfakes. Similarly, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/27/nudify-ai-generated-deepfake-fbi.html\">victims told CNBC last year\u003c/a> that the distinction between creating and distributing deepfakes left a gap in the law in a number of U.S. states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The law needs to keep up with what’s really happening on the ground and what women are experiencing, which is just the simple act of creation itself is the problem,” Dordulian said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12069820\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12069820\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GettyImages-2255688657.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GettyImages-2255688657.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GettyImages-2255688657-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GettyImages-2255688657-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An iPhone screen displays the Grok logo on the Grok AI app on January 11, 2026. \u003ccite>(Anna Barclay/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California is at the forefront of passing laws to protect people from deepfakes, but existing law isn’t meeting the moment, said Jennifer Gibson, cofounder and director of \u003ca href=\"https://psst.org/\">Psst\u003c/a>, a group created a little over a year ago that provides pro bono legal services to tech and AI workers interested in whistleblowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2025/12/new-ai-regulation/\">California law that went into effect Jan. 1\u003c/a> protects whistleblowers inside AI companies but only if they work on catastrophic risk that can kill more than 50 people or cause more than $1 billion in damages. If the law protected people who work on deepfakes, former X employees who \u003ca href=\"https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-grok-explicit-content-data-annotation-2025-9?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email\">detailed witnessing Grok generating illegal sexually explicit material last year to Business Insider\u003c/a> would, Gibson said, have had protections if they shared the information with authorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There needs to be a lot more protection for exactly this kind of scenario in which an insider sees that this is foreseeable, knows that this is going to happen, and they need somewhere to go to report to both to keep the company accountable and protect the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2026/01/california-investigates-deepfakes-elon-musk-company/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office is looking into whether a new AI image editing tool from Elon Musk’s company violates California law.",
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"title": "California Investigates Elon Musk’s AI Company After ‘Avalanche’ of Complaints About Sexual Content | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Attorney General \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/rob-bonta\">Rob Bonta\u003c/a> today announced an investigation into how and whether Elon Musk’s X and xAI broke the law in the past few weeks by enabling the spread of naked or sexual imagery without consent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>xAI \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/tech/xai-grok-child-sexualized-photos-59cabffe?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqeXFpqFQcrxsO5WTkfUv06n_yUF6SLsaiidykNtXuu99sfcWdIeGHE6&gaa_ts=6967eaf6&gaa_sig=Xo5Vee-O05o95LbH9S5pemMTlPI6DdA5iZKEj5SEbQPtBBwZQuX9-vC1SF3WvpfVZT6YyP8zLGAprQ5MlwHhpQ%3D%3D\">reportedly\u003c/a> updated its Grok artificial intelligence tool last month to allow image editing. Users on the social media platform X, which is connected to the tool, began using Grok to remove clothing in pictures of women and children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking,” Bonta \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-launches-investigation-xai-grok-over-undressed-sexual-ai\">said in a written statement\u003c/a>. “This material, which depicts women and children in nude and sexually explicit situations, has been used to harass people across the internet. I urge xAI to take immediate action to ensure this goes no further.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta urged Californians who want to report depictions of them or their children undressed or commiting sexual acts to visit \u003ca href=\"http://oag.ca.gov/report\">oag.ca.gov/report\u003c/a>. In an emailed response, xAI did not address questions about the investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-07/musk-s-grok-ai-generated-thousands-of-undressed-images-per-hour-on-x?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2Nzc5MDk4NywiZXhwIjoxNzY4Mzk1Nzg3LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUOEhRS0hLR0lGUE8wMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJGRUIzODlCNUI2ODI0RTY0QjY5MENEODE1RTBDREZGRCJ9.3B4JWnmqmXFC3DOqhs11h99g5gNzi4j_poKAHLuWdrY&leadSource=uverify%20wall\">obtained by Bloomberg\u003c/a> found that X now produces more non-consensual naked or sexual imagery than any other website online. In a posting on X, Musk promised “consequences” for people who made illegal content with the tool. On Friday, Grok limited image editing to paying subscribers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One potential route for Bonta to prosecute xAI is a law that \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/10/13/governor-newsom-signs-bills-to-further-strengthen-californias-leadership-in-protecting-children-online/\">went into effect\u003c/a> just two weeks ago \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab621\">creating legal liability for the creation and distribution\u003c/a> of “deepfake” pornography.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12013478\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12013478\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241107-ATTORNEYGENERALBONTA-09-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks with KQED politics reporters Marisa Lagos and Scott Shafer for Political Breakdown at the KQED offices in San Francisco on Nov. 7, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>X and xAI appear to be violating the provisions of that law, known as AB 621, said Sam Dordulian, who previously worked in the sex crimes unit of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office but today works in private practice as a lawyer for people in cases involving deepfakes or revenge porn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, author of the law, told CalMatters in a statement last week that she reached out to prosecutors, including the attorney general’s office and the city attorney of San Francisco, to remind them that they can act under the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s happening on X, Bauer-Kahan said, is what AB 621 was designed to address.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Real women are having their images manipulated without consent, and the psychological and reputational harm is devastating,” the San Ramon Democrat said in an emailed statement. “Underage children are having their images used to create child sexual abuse material, and these websites are knowingly facilitating it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A global concern\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Bonta’s inquiry also comes shortly after a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/cagovernor/status/2011489740026232891\">call for an investigation\u003c/a> by Gov. Gavin Newsom, backlash from regulators in the European Union and India and bans on X in Malaysia, Indonesia, and potentially the United Kingdom. As Grok app downloads \u003ca href=\"https://sherwood.news/tech/grok-has-been-climbing-apple-and-googles-app-store-rankings-amid-calls-to/\">rise in Apple and Google app store\u003c/a>s, lawmakers and advocates are calling for the smartphone makers to prohibit the application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why Grok created the feature the way it did and how it will respond to the controversy around it is unclear, and answers may not be forthcoming, since \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-07/musk-s-grok-ai-generated-thousands-of-undressed-images-per-hour-on-x?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2Nzc5MDk4NywiZXhwIjoxNzY4Mzk1Nzg3LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUOEhRS0hLR0lGUE8wMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJGRUIzODlCNUI2ODI0RTY0QjY5MENEODE1RTBDREZGRCJ9.3B4JWnmqmXFC3DOqhs11h99g5gNzi4j_poKAHLuWdrY&leadSource=uverify%20wall\">an analysis recently concluded\u003c/a> that it’s the least transparent of major AI systems available today. xAI did not address questions about the investigation from CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evidence of concrete harm from deepfakes is piling up. In 2024, the FBI warned that the use of \u003ca href=\"https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/nashville/news/sextortion-a-growing-threat-targeting-minors\">deepfake tools to extort young people is a growing problem\u003c/a> that has led to instances of self-harm and suicide. Multiple audits have found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.techpolicy.press/laion-and-the-challenges-of-preventing-ai-generated-csam/\">child sexual abuse material is inside the training data of AI models\u003c/a>, making them capable of generating vulgar photos. A \u003ca href=\"https://cdt.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/FINAL-UPDATED-CDT-2024-NCII-Polling-Slide-Deck.pdf\">2024 Center for Democracy and Technology survey\u003c/a> found that 15% of high school students have heard of or seen sexually explicit imagery of someone they know at school in the past year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investigation announced today is the latest action by the attorney general to push AI companies to keep kids safe. Late last year, Bonta endorsed a bill that would have prevented chatbots that talk about self-harm and engage in sexually explicit conversations from interacting with people under 18.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He also joined attorneys general from 44 other states in sending a letter that questions why companies like Meta and OpenAI allow their chatbots to have sexually inappropriate conversations with minors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has passed roughly half a dozen laws since 2019 to protect people from deepfakes. The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab621\">new law by Bauer-Kahan\u003c/a> amends and strengthens a 2019 law, most significantly by allowing district attorneys to bring cases against companies that “recklessly aid and abet” the distribution of deepfakes without the consent of the person depicted nude or committing sexual acts. That means the average person can ask the attorney general or the district attorney where they live to file a case on their behalf. It also increases the maximum amount that a judge can award a person from $150,000 to $250,000. Under the law, a public prosecutor is not required to prove that an individual depicted in an AI-generated nude or sexual image suffered actual harm to bring a case to court. Websites that refuse to comply within 30 days can face penalties of $25,000 per violation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to those measures, two 2024 laws (\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240ab1831\">AB 1831\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1381?slug=CA_202320240SB1381\">SB 1381\u003c/a>) expand the state’s definition of child pornography to make possession or distribution of artificially-generated child sexual abuse material illegal. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240sb981\">Another required\u003c/a> social media platforms to give people an easy way to request the immediate removal of a deepfake, and defines the posting of such material as a form of digital identity theft. A California law limiting the use of deepfakes in elections was signed into law last year, but was \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/05/elon-musk-x-court-win-california-deepfake-law-00494936\">struck down by a federal judge last summer\u003c/a> following a lawsuit by X and Elon Musk.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Future reforms\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Every new state law helps give lawyers like Dordulian a new avenue to address harmful uses of deepfakes, but he said more needs to be done to help people protect themselves. He said his clients face challenges proving violation of existing laws since they require distribution of explicit materials, for example, with a messaging app or social media platform, for protections to kick in. In his experience, people who use nudify apps typically know each other, so distribution doesn’t always take place, and if it does, it can be hard to prove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, he said, he has a client who works as a nanny who alleges that the father of the kids she takes care of made images of her using photos she posted on Instagram. The nanny found the images on his iPad. This discovery was disturbing for her and caused her emotional trauma, but since he can’t use deepfake laws, he has to sue on the basis of negligence or emotional distress, and laws that were never created to address deepfakes. Similarly, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/27/nudify-ai-generated-deepfake-fbi.html\">victims told CNBC last year\u003c/a> that the distinction between creating and distributing deepfakes left a gap in the law in a number of U.S. states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The law needs to keep up with what’s really happening on the ground and what women are experiencing, which is just the simple act of creation itself is the problem,” Dordulian said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12069820\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12069820\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GettyImages-2255688657.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GettyImages-2255688657.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GettyImages-2255688657-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/GettyImages-2255688657-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An iPhone screen displays the Grok logo on the Grok AI app on January 11, 2026. \u003ccite>(Anna Barclay/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California is at the forefront of passing laws to protect people from deepfakes, but existing law isn’t meeting the moment, said Jennifer Gibson, cofounder and director of \u003ca href=\"https://psst.org/\">Psst\u003c/a>, a group created a little over a year ago that provides pro bono legal services to tech and AI workers interested in whistleblowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2025/12/new-ai-regulation/\">California law that went into effect Jan. 1\u003c/a> protects whistleblowers inside AI companies but only if they work on catastrophic risk that can kill more than 50 people or cause more than $1 billion in damages. If the law protected people who work on deepfakes, former X employees who \u003ca href=\"https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-grok-explicit-content-data-annotation-2025-9?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email\">detailed witnessing Grok generating illegal sexually explicit material last year to Business Insider\u003c/a> would, Gibson said, have had protections if they shared the information with authorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There needs to be a lot more protection for exactly this kind of scenario in which an insider sees that this is foreseeable, knows that this is going to happen, and they need somewhere to go to report to both to keep the company accountable and protect the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2026/01/california-investigates-deepfakes-elon-musk-company/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A California state judge has ruled that more than 14,000 Black workers who alleged racial harassment at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/tesla\">Tesla\u003c/a>’s flagship assembly plant in Fremont cannot sue as a class, meaning the company is likely to face a flood of individual lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Superior Court Judge Peter Borkon’s Friday\u003ca href=\"https://tmsnrt.rs/3XzzhNU\"> ruling,\u003c/a> the 2017 lawsuit cannot move forward as a class action because lawyers for the plaintiffs were unable to find 200 randomly sampled class members willing to forgo a few days of wages to testify ahead of a trial scheduled for 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borkon said he did not trust that the jury would be able to “reliably extrapolate from the experiences of the trial witnesses to the 14,000 members of the class as a whole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“An infinitesimal number of the workers have testified,” Stanford Law School professor emeritus William Gould IV, a former National Labor Relations Board chairman, told KQED. Tesla “has superior resources, and plaintiffs need the class action to really get the defendant’s attention.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The named plaintiff, former assembly line worker Marcus Vaughn, alleged that Black workers at the Fremont facility were subjected to a range of racist conduct, including slurs, graffiti and nooses hung at their workstations. Vaughn said that line workers and supervisors alike referred to him using a slur on a regular basis and that Tesla did not investigate after he complained in writing to the human resources department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, Vaughn said, Tesla fired him for “not having a positive attitude” six months after he started the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11992305\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11992305\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/TeslaFremont.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1265\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/TeslaFremont.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/TeslaFremont-800x527.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/TeslaFremont-1020x672.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/TeslaFremont-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/TeslaFremont-1536x1012.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A row of new Tesla Superchargers seen outside of the Tesla Factory on Aug. 16, 2013, in Fremont, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The ruling is a meaningful legal victory for Tesla, but the company still faces multiple lawsuits alleging pervasive race discrimination and other forms of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101854776/foreign-workers-at-tesla-spotlight-a-visa-system-vulnerable-to-fraud\">worker mistreatment\u003c/a> at its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11662641/tesla-says-its-factory-is-safer-but-it-left-injuries-off-the-books\">Fremont factory\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces federal anti-discrimination laws, has also brought \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/legal/tesla-appears-unlikely-nix-us-suit-alleging-bias-against-black-workers-2024-03-28/\">race discrimination claims\u003c/a> against Tesla in federal court in California, and state regulators at the California Department of Fair Employment & Housing \u003ca href=\"https://omny.fm/shows/kqed-segmented-audio/tesla-sued-over-disturbing-reports-of-workplace-ra\">are suing\u003c/a> in Alameda County Superior Court. The company has\u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-settles-black-employees-lawsuit-alleging-pervasive-harassment-2025-04-17/\"> settled other race discrimination lawsuits\u003c/a> involving individual plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the wake of the class-action denial, plaintiffs’ lawyers said they intend to press on with a host of individual lawsuits. They’ve already filed more than 500 and plan to eventually file more than 900.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tesla has jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire with this decertification, because they are now facing hundreds of victims of race harassment seeking damages in their own suits,” wrote the plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel Bryan J. Schwartz.[aside postID=news_12063980 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231005-TRUCK-GETTY-KQED-1020x680.jpg']Tesla and its attorneys did not respond to requests for comment on Monday, but the board has stated to investors that the company remains “committed to creating and maintaining a respectful and inclusive workplace, and the steps we have taken to prevent and address harassment and discrimination throughout our workforce, and will continue to challenge and defend ourselves against any allegations to the contrary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s performance at the electric vehicle maker has been both celebrated and dogged by persistent reports of erratic behavior. But at least as regards labor law, his largely \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101907450/lawsuits-against-national-labor-relations-board-could-cloud-future-of-organized-labor\">successful pushback\u003c/a> against the National Labor Relations Board’s attempts to rein in labor practices at his various companies is widely seen as indicating a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911701/federal-workers-face-new-round-of-layoffs-as-labor-rights-under-attack\">troubled future for the NLRB\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have prominent people that are close to the White House saying that, really, employment discrimination laws should not have existed in the first place,” said Gould, the Stanford law professor emeritus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gould said many employees following news headlines may steer clear of lawsuits like Vaughn et al v. Tesla for fear of failure and retaliation from employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Under these circumstances, the fact that workers will not come forward and testify does not necessarily mean that the plaintiffs’ case is weak. It may mean that people are more discouraged and less likely to stick their head up, in the fear that it will get chopped off,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“An infinitesimal number of the workers have testified,” Stanford Law School professor emeritus William Gould IV, a former National Labor Relations Board chairman, told KQED. Tesla “has superior resources, and plaintiffs need the class action to really get the defendant’s attention.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The named plaintiff, former assembly line worker Marcus Vaughn, alleged that Black workers at the Fremont facility were subjected to a range of racist conduct, including slurs, graffiti and nooses hung at their workstations. Vaughn said that line workers and supervisors alike referred to him using a slur on a regular basis and that Tesla did not investigate after he complained in writing to the human resources department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, Vaughn said, Tesla fired him for “not having a positive attitude” six months after he started the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11992305\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11992305\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/TeslaFremont.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1265\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/TeslaFremont.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/TeslaFremont-800x527.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/TeslaFremont-1020x672.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/TeslaFremont-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/TeslaFremont-1536x1012.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A row of new Tesla Superchargers seen outside of the Tesla Factory on Aug. 16, 2013, in Fremont, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The ruling is a meaningful legal victory for Tesla, but the company still faces multiple lawsuits alleging pervasive race discrimination and other forms of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101854776/foreign-workers-at-tesla-spotlight-a-visa-system-vulnerable-to-fraud\">worker mistreatment\u003c/a> at its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11662641/tesla-says-its-factory-is-safer-but-it-left-injuries-off-the-books\">Fremont factory\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces federal anti-discrimination laws, has also brought \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/legal/tesla-appears-unlikely-nix-us-suit-alleging-bias-against-black-workers-2024-03-28/\">race discrimination claims\u003c/a> against Tesla in federal court in California, and state regulators at the California Department of Fair Employment & Housing \u003ca href=\"https://omny.fm/shows/kqed-segmented-audio/tesla-sued-over-disturbing-reports-of-workplace-ra\">are suing\u003c/a> in Alameda County Superior Court. The company has\u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-settles-black-employees-lawsuit-alleging-pervasive-harassment-2025-04-17/\"> settled other race discrimination lawsuits\u003c/a> involving individual plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the wake of the class-action denial, plaintiffs’ lawyers said they intend to press on with a host of individual lawsuits. They’ve already filed more than 500 and plan to eventually file more than 900.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tesla has jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire with this decertification, because they are now facing hundreds of victims of race harassment seeking damages in their own suits,” wrote the plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel Bryan J. Schwartz.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Tesla and its attorneys did not respond to requests for comment on Monday, but the board has stated to investors that the company remains “committed to creating and maintaining a respectful and inclusive workplace, and the steps we have taken to prevent and address harassment and discrimination throughout our workforce, and will continue to challenge and defend ourselves against any allegations to the contrary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s performance at the electric vehicle maker has been both celebrated and dogged by persistent reports of erratic behavior. But at least as regards labor law, his largely \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101907450/lawsuits-against-national-labor-relations-board-could-cloud-future-of-organized-labor\">successful pushback\u003c/a> against the National Labor Relations Board’s attempts to rein in labor practices at his various companies is widely seen as indicating a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911701/federal-workers-face-new-round-of-layoffs-as-labor-rights-under-attack\">troubled future for the NLRB\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have prominent people that are close to the White House saying that, really, employment discrimination laws should not have existed in the first place,” said Gould, the Stanford law professor emeritus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gould said many employees following news headlines may steer clear of lawsuits like Vaughn et al v. Tesla for fear of failure and retaliation from employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Under these circumstances, the fact that workers will not come forward and testify does not necessarily mean that the plaintiffs’ case is weak. It may mean that people are more discouraged and less likely to stick their head up, in the fear that it will get chopped off,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Elon Musk and X Corp., formally known as Twitter, reached \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025826/what-happens-after-the-fork-in-the-road-a-lawyer-for-ex-twitter-employees-weighs-in\">a settlement with former employees\u003c/a> in a San Francisco court on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A court filing released Wednesday shows both parties reached an agreement for an undisclosed amount in principle, and requested that a Sept. 17 hearing be postponed while they worked out a deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The class-action lawsuit was led by two former Twitter employees, Courtney McMillian and Ronald Cooper, who requested $500 million on behalf of their colleagues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Musk \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11930570/he-wants-attention-as-elon-musk-takes-over-twitter-this-tech-insider-has-some-thoughts\">bought Twitter\u003c/a> for $44 billion in 2002, he fired 6,000 employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The class-action lawsuit stems from that turnover, after former Twitter employees say they did not receive their severance benefits or information about their severance package.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twitter’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000119312522120474/d310843ddefa14a.htm\">merger agreement\u003c/a> states that severance, among other former employee benefits, would be honored for up to a year after the merger. The lawsuit claims that those promises were made to prevent a mass resignation that would threaten the merger deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998863\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998863\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1172\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty-800x469.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty-1020x598.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty-160x94.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty-1536x900.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty-1920x1125.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of X headquarters is seen on July 28, 2023, in San Francisco, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The severance package included at least two months’ salary, six months’ pay plus one week for each year of service for senior employees and a cash contribution for continued health care, according to the suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McMillian’s severance package included six-and-a-half months’ pay, six months of continued health insurance coverage and any bonuses. She was offered severance equal to one month’s pay, according to the suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Copper’s severance allegedly included six months and one week of pay, six months of health insurance coverage, and any bonuses. He was also offered severance equal to one month’s pay.[aside postID=news_12018617 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/NedSegalGetty-1020x680.jpg']Some employees received nothing, the suit said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McMillian said in the suit that she was informed that Musk and the company decided to deny employees their severance after reviewing how much it would cost the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit also stated that after the merger, Twitter would shut down Slack and emails to prevent employees from seeking information or communicating amongst themselves about their benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When employees asked about the severance plan or other work policies, the company would refer them to view Musk’s personal X account and listen to the “All In” podcast, hosted by his friends Jason Calacanis and David Sacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit claimed the fired employees were entitled to no less than $500 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federal judge dismissed the class action lawsuit in 2024, but McMillian and Cooper appealed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys representing the former employees and Elon Musk did not yet respond to a request for comment about the settlement. The CEO has yet to post about the settlement on X.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Elon Musk and X Corp., formally known as Twitter, reached \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025826/what-happens-after-the-fork-in-the-road-a-lawyer-for-ex-twitter-employees-weighs-in\">a settlement with former employees\u003c/a> in a San Francisco court on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A court filing released Wednesday shows both parties reached an agreement for an undisclosed amount in principle, and requested that a Sept. 17 hearing be postponed while they worked out a deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The class-action lawsuit was led by two former Twitter employees, Courtney McMillian and Ronald Cooper, who requested $500 million on behalf of their colleagues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Musk \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11930570/he-wants-attention-as-elon-musk-takes-over-twitter-this-tech-insider-has-some-thoughts\">bought Twitter\u003c/a> for $44 billion in 2002, he fired 6,000 employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The class-action lawsuit stems from that turnover, after former Twitter employees say they did not receive their severance benefits or information about their severance package.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twitter’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000119312522120474/d310843ddefa14a.htm\">merger agreement\u003c/a> states that severance, among other former employee benefits, would be honored for up to a year after the merger. The lawsuit claims that those promises were made to prevent a mass resignation that would threaten the merger deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998863\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998863\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1172\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty-800x469.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty-1020x598.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty-160x94.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty-1536x900.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/XSFGetty-1920x1125.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of X headquarters is seen on July 28, 2023, in San Francisco, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The severance package included at least two months’ salary, six months’ pay plus one week for each year of service for senior employees and a cash contribution for continued health care, according to the suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McMillian’s severance package included six-and-a-half months’ pay, six months of continued health insurance coverage and any bonuses. She was offered severance equal to one month’s pay, according to the suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Copper’s severance allegedly included six months and one week of pay, six months of health insurance coverage, and any bonuses. He was also offered severance equal to one month’s pay.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Some employees received nothing, the suit said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McMillian said in the suit that she was informed that Musk and the company decided to deny employees their severance after reviewing how much it would cost the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit also stated that after the merger, Twitter would shut down Slack and emails to prevent employees from seeking information or communicating amongst themselves about their benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When employees asked about the severance plan or other work policies, the company would refer them to view Musk’s personal X account and listen to the “All In” podcast, hosted by his friends Jason Calacanis and David Sacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit claimed the fired employees were entitled to no less than $500 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federal judge dismissed the class action lawsuit in 2024, but McMillian and Cooper appealed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys representing the former employees and Elon Musk did not yet respond to a request for comment about the settlement. The CEO has yet to post about the settlement on X.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "giant-elon-musk-head-yosemite-national-park-make-america-wait-again-doge",
"title": "The Giant Elon Musk 'Make America Wait Again' Head Made It to Yosemite This Weekend",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:30 p.m. Tuesday \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, a giant bust of Elon Musk — accompanied by the words “Make America Wait Again: Now With Longer Lines Thanks To DOGE Cuts!” — \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/environment/elon-musk-head-arches-national-park\">appeared in Utah’s Arches National Park\u003c/a>, towed on a trailer behind a truck driving through the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the Musk bust has appeared again — this time in Yosemite National Park.[aside postID='news_12047124,news_12048728,news_12045255' label='Getting Outside']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visitor Greg Perkins told KQED that he spotted the sculpture, which makes reference to the Tesla CEO and former Department of Government Efficiency leader’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041320/in-crisis-mode-former-national-park-leaders-say-cuts-will-hit-public-lands-hard\">attempts to reduce the staff and budgets of federal departments like the National Parks Service\u003c/a>, in Yosemite this weekend — and captured photos of the giant head passing iconic park spots like \u003ca href=\"https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/upper-yosemite-falls-trail\">Yosemite Falls\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/places/000/el-capitan-meadow.htm\">El Capitan\u003c/a>. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/environment/elon-musk-head-arches-national-park\">\u003cem>Outside\u003c/em> magazine\u003c/a>, the head spotted in Arches was 12 feet high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scott Carr, Director of Communication for Yosemite National Park, confirmed that the bust of Musk was indeed present in the park this weekend. Addressing the issue of wait times referenced by the bust’s signage, Carr told KQED by email that “Yosemite National Park is one of the busiest parks in the National Park System and while it is still early in the summer season the park is on pace to surpass last year’s visitation totals of more than 4.1 million visitors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wait times to enter Yosemite vary daily and throughout the day,” wrote Carr, and “weekends, specifically Friday and Saturday, are the busiest days with peak traffic between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049029\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12049029 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose2-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1390\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose2-1.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose2-1-160x116.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose2-1-1536x1112.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors to Yosemite National Park take photos of a traveling bust of Elon Musk. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Greg Perkins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to the National Parks Conservation Association, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npca.org/articles/9551-staffing-crisis-at-national-parks-reaches-breaking-point-new-data-shows-24\">permanent staffing at national parks around the United States has fallen 24%\u003c/a> since President Donald Trump took office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National Parks have \u003ca href=\"https://www.npca.org/articles/2675-lands-of-protest\">long been used as sites of protest\u003c/a>, including \u003ca href=\"https://planning.dc.gov/publication/history-resistance-lafayette-square-and-black-lives-matter-movement-washington-dc\">2020 Black Lives Matter protests\u003c/a> in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square opposite the White House and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11788540/a-look-back-at-the-occupation-of-alcatraz-50-years-later\">Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island in the 1960s\u003c/a>. In February,\u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/upside-us-flag-hung-yosemite-national-park-protest-employee-cuts-rcna193409\"> Yosemite staffers hung an upside-down United State flag\u003c/a> from the face of El Capitan during \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11860844/yosemite-firefall-week-2021\">the park’s annual “firefall” event\u003c/a> in protest of the Trump administration’s proposed cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12049021 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose4-e1753130794983.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1282\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose4-e1753130794983.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose4-e1753130794983-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose4-e1753130794983-1536x1026.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The bust of Elon Musk towed on a trailer behind a truck driving through Yosemite National Park. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Greg Perkins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration’s policies have taken direct aim at public lands during the president’s first six months back in office, from \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf\">calls to cut $900 million from the NPS operations budget\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046147/incredibly-short-sighted-land-conservation-groups-rally-against-gop-proposal-to-sell-off-public-lands-like-tahoe\">attempts to sell U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management properties\u003c/a> to private buyers to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/06/26/nx-s1-5444323/national-park-trump-signs\">new signs asking visitors to federal lands to report signage\u003c/a> that includes “negative” information about U.S. history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049028\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049028\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose3_CROP.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1139\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose3_CROP.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose3_CROP-160x95.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose3_CROP-1536x911.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A giant head of former DOGE head Elon Musk travels through Yosemite National Park. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Greg Perkins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046147/incredibly-short-sighted-land-conservation-groups-rally-against-gop-proposal-to-sell-off-public-lands-like-tahoe\">lands sale was ultimately scrapped from Republicans’ budget bill\u003c/a>, and most \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2025/07/15/national-parks-spared-deeper-budget-cuts-2026-grassroots-protests/\">parks funding may remain intact in 2026\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048367/can-trump-really-reopen-alcatraz-delegation-heads-to-island-to-make-case\">top Trump officials still have their eyes on Alcatraz National Park as a future federal prison site\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some national parks are also struggling not only with \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/7301979/national-park-system-trump-administration/\">low morale around the uncertainty \u003c/a>of staffing shortages and underfunding, but also \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/06/23/nx-s1-5393641/trump-budget-cuts-national-parks-joshua-tree-safety\">with reported lower visitation\u003c/a> as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12040535/canadians-tourists-say-they-are-avoiding-the-united-states-due-to-fear\">international travel wanes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "With the tagline ‘Make America Wait Again: Now With Longer Lines Thanks to DOGE Cuts!’ a truck towing a giant bust of Elon Musk's head was sighted in Yosemite National Park last week after first touring Arches in Utah earlier this month.",
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"title": "The Giant Elon Musk 'Make America Wait Again' Head Made It to Yosemite This Weekend | KQED",
"description": "With the tagline ‘Make America Wait Again: Now With Longer Lines Thanks to DOGE Cuts!’ a truck towing a giant bust of Elon Musk's head was sighted in Yosemite National Park last week after first touring Arches in Utah earlier this month.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:30 p.m. Tuesday \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, a giant bust of Elon Musk — accompanied by the words “Make America Wait Again: Now With Longer Lines Thanks To DOGE Cuts!” — \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/environment/elon-musk-head-arches-national-park\">appeared in Utah’s Arches National Park\u003c/a>, towed on a trailer behind a truck driving through the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the Musk bust has appeared again — this time in Yosemite National Park.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visitor Greg Perkins told KQED that he spotted the sculpture, which makes reference to the Tesla CEO and former Department of Government Efficiency leader’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041320/in-crisis-mode-former-national-park-leaders-say-cuts-will-hit-public-lands-hard\">attempts to reduce the staff and budgets of federal departments like the National Parks Service\u003c/a>, in Yosemite this weekend — and captured photos of the giant head passing iconic park spots like \u003ca href=\"https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/upper-yosemite-falls-trail\">Yosemite Falls\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/places/000/el-capitan-meadow.htm\">El Capitan\u003c/a>. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/environment/elon-musk-head-arches-national-park\">\u003cem>Outside\u003c/em> magazine\u003c/a>, the head spotted in Arches was 12 feet high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scott Carr, Director of Communication for Yosemite National Park, confirmed that the bust of Musk was indeed present in the park this weekend. Addressing the issue of wait times referenced by the bust’s signage, Carr told KQED by email that “Yosemite National Park is one of the busiest parks in the National Park System and while it is still early in the summer season the park is on pace to surpass last year’s visitation totals of more than 4.1 million visitors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wait times to enter Yosemite vary daily and throughout the day,” wrote Carr, and “weekends, specifically Friday and Saturday, are the busiest days with peak traffic between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049029\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12049029 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose2-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1390\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose2-1.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose2-1-160x116.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose2-1-1536x1112.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors to Yosemite National Park take photos of a traveling bust of Elon Musk. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Greg Perkins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to the National Parks Conservation Association, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npca.org/articles/9551-staffing-crisis-at-national-parks-reaches-breaking-point-new-data-shows-24\">permanent staffing at national parks around the United States has fallen 24%\u003c/a> since President Donald Trump took office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National Parks have \u003ca href=\"https://www.npca.org/articles/2675-lands-of-protest\">long been used as sites of protest\u003c/a>, including \u003ca href=\"https://planning.dc.gov/publication/history-resistance-lafayette-square-and-black-lives-matter-movement-washington-dc\">2020 Black Lives Matter protests\u003c/a> in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square opposite the White House and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11788540/a-look-back-at-the-occupation-of-alcatraz-50-years-later\">Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island in the 1960s\u003c/a>. In February,\u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/upside-us-flag-hung-yosemite-national-park-protest-employee-cuts-rcna193409\"> Yosemite staffers hung an upside-down United State flag\u003c/a> from the face of El Capitan during \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11860844/yosemite-firefall-week-2021\">the park’s annual “firefall” event\u003c/a> in protest of the Trump administration’s proposed cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12049021 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose4-e1753130794983.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1282\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose4-e1753130794983.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose4-e1753130794983-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose4-e1753130794983-1536x1026.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The bust of Elon Musk towed on a trailer behind a truck driving through Yosemite National Park. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Greg Perkins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration’s policies have taken direct aim at public lands during the president’s first six months back in office, from \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf\">calls to cut $900 million from the NPS operations budget\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046147/incredibly-short-sighted-land-conservation-groups-rally-against-gop-proposal-to-sell-off-public-lands-like-tahoe\">attempts to sell U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management properties\u003c/a> to private buyers to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/06/26/nx-s1-5444323/national-park-trump-signs\">new signs asking visitors to federal lands to report signage\u003c/a> that includes “negative” information about U.S. history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049028\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049028\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose3_CROP.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1139\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose3_CROP.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose3_CROP-160x95.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/S_ElYose3_CROP-1536x911.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A giant head of former DOGE head Elon Musk travels through Yosemite National Park. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Greg Perkins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046147/incredibly-short-sighted-land-conservation-groups-rally-against-gop-proposal-to-sell-off-public-lands-like-tahoe\">lands sale was ultimately scrapped from Republicans’ budget bill\u003c/a>, and most \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2025/07/15/national-parks-spared-deeper-budget-cuts-2026-grassroots-protests/\">parks funding may remain intact in 2026\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048367/can-trump-really-reopen-alcatraz-delegation-heads-to-island-to-make-case\">top Trump officials still have their eyes on Alcatraz National Park as a future federal prison site\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some national parks are also struggling not only with \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/7301979/national-park-system-trump-administration/\">low morale around the uncertainty \u003c/a>of staffing shortages and underfunding, but also \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/06/23/nx-s1-5393641/trump-budget-cuts-national-parks-joshua-tree-safety\">with reported lower visitation\u003c/a> as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12040535/canadians-tourists-say-they-are-avoiding-the-united-states-due-to-fear\">international travel wanes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "federal-cuts-slash-california-jobs-but-local-hiring-keeps-economy-steady",
"title": "Federal Cuts Slash California Jobs, but Local Hiring Keeps Economy Steady",
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"headTitle": "Federal Cuts Slash California Jobs, but Local Hiring Keeps Economy Steady | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california-economy\">California\u003c/a> experienced one of its biggest monthly losses of federal jobs in more than a decade, according to a new report by state employment officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 2,000 federal positions were cut in May, with the U.S. Postal Service, federal prisons and the Departments of Interior, Veterans Affairs and Defense facing the largest reductions. Local government hiring, meanwhile, increased by more than 3,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California’s economy is still strong,” said Ryan Cummings, chief of staff at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since January, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/donald-trump\">Trump administration\u003c/a> has pursued sweeping cuts to the federal workforce. The Department of Government Efficiency, created by President Donald Trump and previously headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, was tasked with reducing the federal government’s spending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tens of thousands of federal employees have been fired, placed on administration leave or processed into deferred resignation programs since the agency’s creation. A federal judge recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041294/us-judge-said-trump-administration-exceeded-its-authority-with-federal-layoffs\">extended a preliminary injunction\u003c/a> on further cuts to the workforce.[aside postID=news_12034478 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, California’s employment rate sits at a steady 5.3% and hiring has remained relatively stable overall, Cummings said. The state added more than 17,000 jobs last month, with health care and social assistance sectors seeing the greatest growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal job losses will not significantly affect the state’s economy in the short term, Cummings said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, however, that people will still feel the effects of the cuts on the ground. Federal agencies such as those responsible for air traffic control, national park maintenance and nuclear oversight have been affected by the federal administration’s attempts to downsize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Veterans who rely on the Department of Veterans Affairs may struggle to access the same level of services because there’s less staff, Cummings said. People living in rural communities who rely on the U.S. Postal Service to receive and send their mail may see certain routes get cut, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s all of these things that can collectively happen over time,” Cummings said. “It then turns into a more chronic condition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s very rare that economists see such sudden changes to the federal workforce, Cummings continued. While the state saw similar losses in 2010, the changes to federal employment rates were a result of people being temporarily hired for the census.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re seeing now is very different,” Cummings said. “The people who are losing their jobs aren’t simply completing their time-limited contract. It’s Americans at all stages of their careers who either have been or were expecting to dedicate their lives to public service.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California saw a sharp decline in federal jobs last month, highlighting ongoing impacts of federal workforce reductions on the state’s economy.",
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"headline": "Federal Cuts Slash California Jobs, but Local Hiring Keeps Economy Steady",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california-economy\">California\u003c/a> experienced one of its biggest monthly losses of federal jobs in more than a decade, according to a new report by state employment officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 2,000 federal positions were cut in May, with the U.S. Postal Service, federal prisons and the Departments of Interior, Veterans Affairs and Defense facing the largest reductions. Local government hiring, meanwhile, increased by more than 3,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California’s economy is still strong,” said Ryan Cummings, chief of staff at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since January, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/donald-trump\">Trump administration\u003c/a> has pursued sweeping cuts to the federal workforce. The Department of Government Efficiency, created by President Donald Trump and previously headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, was tasked with reducing the federal government’s spending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tens of thousands of federal employees have been fired, placed on administration leave or processed into deferred resignation programs since the agency’s creation. A federal judge recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041294/us-judge-said-trump-administration-exceeded-its-authority-with-federal-layoffs\">extended a preliminary injunction\u003c/a> on further cuts to the workforce.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, California’s employment rate sits at a steady 5.3% and hiring has remained relatively stable overall, Cummings said. The state added more than 17,000 jobs last month, with health care and social assistance sectors seeing the greatest growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal job losses will not significantly affect the state’s economy in the short term, Cummings said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, however, that people will still feel the effects of the cuts on the ground. Federal agencies such as those responsible for air traffic control, national park maintenance and nuclear oversight have been affected by the federal administration’s attempts to downsize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Veterans who rely on the Department of Veterans Affairs may struggle to access the same level of services because there’s less staff, Cummings said. People living in rural communities who rely on the U.S. Postal Service to receive and send their mail may see certain routes get cut, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s all of these things that can collectively happen over time,” Cummings said. “It then turns into a more chronic condition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s very rare that economists see such sudden changes to the federal workforce, Cummings continued. While the state saw similar losses in 2010, the changes to federal employment rates were a result of people being temporarily hired for the census.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re seeing now is very different,” Cummings said. “The people who are losing their jobs aren’t simply completing their time-limited contract. It’s Americans at all stages of their careers who either have been or were expecting to dedicate their lives to public service.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elon Musk and President Trump breaking up? LA protesters clashing with law enforcement? Waymos on fire (again)? Things have been moving fast the last few days — and like you, our feeds are on overload. Today, we’re bringing you a quick reaction episode to catch you up on a couple stories we’ve covered before that are suddenly back in the news. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Close All Tabs\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> producer Maya Cueva joins Morgan to break it all down.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC1677724333\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve talked about a few of these stories before — if you want to go deeper, here are some past episodes to check out:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033066/the-broligarchy-pt-1-chronicles-of-the-paypal-mafia\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Broligarchy Pt 1: Chronicles of the PayPal Mafia | KQED\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038910/the-surveillance-machine-pt-1-how-we-got-here\">The Surveillance Machine, Pt. 1: How We Got Here | KQED\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030860/waymo-problems\">Waymo Robotaxis – Uneasiness and Vandalism | KQED\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Further reading:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-musk-summary-timeline-political-relationship-rcna211453\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A timeline of the twists and turns in the Trump-Musk relationship\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — Nnamdi Egwuonwu, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NBC News \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/immigration-protests-threaten-to-boil-over-in-los-angeles\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Immigration Protests Threaten to Boil Over in Los Angeles \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— E. Tammy Kim, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The New Yorker\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://lapublicpress.org/2025/06/ice-raids-separate-families-but-bring-los-angeles-together/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ICE raids tried to split LA apart, but might have made it stronger\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — Michael Lozano, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">LA Public Press \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fastcompany.com/91348960/how-waymo-got-caught-in-the-crossfire-of-los-angeles-ice-protests\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How Waymo got caught in the crossfire of Los Angeles ICE protests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — \u003c/span>Joe Berkowitz, \u003ci>Fast Company\u003cbr>\n\u003c/i>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Want to give us feedback on the show? Shoot us an email at \u003ca href=\"mailto:CloseAllTabs@KQED.org\">CloseAllTabs@KQED.org\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/closealltabspod/\">Follow us on Instagram\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey guys, welcome to Close All Tabs. We had planned to bring you part two of our Spotify deep dive today. And don’t worry, we’ll get back to that next week. But there have been some developments over the past week. Basically, the last few days have been so wild that we need to talk about it. We’re actually following up on three of our previous episodes today. And joining me to help sort through all of it is our producer, Maya Cueva. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>Hey Morgan!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>Hey Maya. So this will be a bit of a speed round. Two quick tabs today. And as a side quest, I am going to try to make the case to you, Maya, for why I’ve stayed on Twitter, or as we now call it, X. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, please make your case, because it’s hard for me to get why anyone would want to stay on X, but I do want to understand. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I will try my best. Okay, we’ve got a few things to cover today, including what’s happening with Waymos and protest surveillance in LA. But before we get to that, we have to talk about something that happened last week. Elon Musk and Donald Trump finally broke up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Close All Tabs. I’m Morgan Sung, tech journalist, and your chronically online friend, here to open as many browser tabs as it takes to help you understand how the digital world affects our real lives. Let’s get into it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maya, are you ready? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, Morgan. Let’s open a new tab. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Great Elon Crash Out. Back in March, we did a series on “the Broligarchy,” and more specifically, the ideology that drives tech titans like Elon Musk as they accumulate political power. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And how they might use that power to influence U.S. Policy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 1: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re seeing a rise in what I guess we’ll call the “Broligarchy”. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 2: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The “Broligarchs” really have an explicit political agenda. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 3: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you survive the “Broligarchy”? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And nothing embodied the Broligarchy quite like the relationship between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. And I just want to say up front, this stuff is really serious, right? Like the fact that these two men control so many levers of power and the ripple effects of their decisions have already had massive and sometimes devastating consequences — that should be a source of concern for us all. But at the same time, their personal relationship, what many have called a bromance, there’s something kind of funny about it. Like it has high school vibes. And social media has really eaten that up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it seems like that relationship is over, right? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s true. At least it is as of when we’re recording this, on Monday afternoon. After less than a year since Musk publicly endorsed Trump, the bromance is dead. Okay, let’s start right after Election Day. They were still pretty cozy back then. This was Trump in his victory speech right after winning the election. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Donald Trump: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Let me tell you, we have a new star. A star is born, Elon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then Elon starts overseeing DOGE, right? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right. He’s the face of the Department of Government Efficiency. And under his de facto leadership, DOGE is slashing government agencies left and right. We see mass layoffs and the dismantling of aid programs. And it’s an accounting and privacy disaster. Obviously, Trump and Musk are getting a lot of backlash over this. And we start to see cracks in the relationship. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, yeah, and didn’t that bizarre White House Tesla showcase happen during all of this? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, by March, Tesla stock was down by like 45%. So while Tesla is slumping as a company, Trump and Musk turned the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom. They live stream it on X and Trump makes a show of wanting to buy one. He really talks up the Cybertruck. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Donald Trump: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Who else but this guy would design this, and everybody on the road is looking at it. It’s amazing, actually. As soon as I saw it, I said, that is the coolest design. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So you know how there’s always that one couple on Instagram that you know is not doing well, but they overcompensate by posting really, like, lovey-dovey captions and all that? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ugh, yes, it’s like, why are you pretending? You’re not fooling anyone. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, so I think this Tesla showcase is kind of like that. That same month, as the White House gets heat for DOGE’s actions, Trump goes on Truth Social and says that the agency heads are in charge of staffing, not Musk and DOGE. This is when the president starts to rein Musk in. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, so we’ve heard that Trump and Musk are getting backlash for a lot of the actions they’re taking, especially DOGE, and Musk’s companies are suffering. And all of this seems to be creating tension, right? So when did the actual breakup happen? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, at the start of last month, Musk says he’s stepping back from DOGE to focus on his own companies like Tesla and SpaceX. A few weeks later, Musk goes on CBS and bashes the president’s budget proposal, what Trump calls his “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Musk says that bill increases the budget deficit and undermines DOGE’s work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Elon Musk: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it could be both. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And by the end of the month, the White House announces that Musk’s temporary role as a special government employee has ended. They host a ceremony, and the president makes this grand gesture of gifting Musk a gold key to the White house. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Donald Trump: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have given it to some, but it goes to very special people, and I thought I’d give it to Elon as a presentation from our country. Thank you, Elon. Take care. Thank you \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, so this seems pretty cordial to me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, it’s like that part of a breakup where you tell people you’re still on good terms and you wish each other the best and you’re going to be in each other’s lives, all that. But like, we know what happens. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh yeah, we’ve all been there before. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, except these are two exceptionally powerful men. So this is where it gets really juicy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, tell me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So a couple of days ago, Musk goes on X and starts tearing apart the bill. He says, hold on, let me pull it up. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it. You know you did wrong. You KNOW it.” And Trump tells reporters that Musk is upset because the bill would end tax credits for electric vehicles. And then these guys just start going at it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wait, so what happened? Can you break it down for me? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is why I say I will never leave the app, because as bad as it gets, there are still days when everyone comes out of hibernation and just starts posting. And this includes Elon Musk. So he starts firing off at Trump on X. First, he says that Trump would have lost the election without him. Trump goes to Truth Social, and he says Musk went crazy after he was asked to leave the White House. He threatens to cut Musk’s government subsidies and contracts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m guessing Elon Musk didn’t take that well. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, not at all. Musk goes nuclear. He runs back to X and posts something that makes everyone’s jaw drop. He claims that the president is in the Epstein files. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. So it’s worth noting that Trump was once publicly friends with the pedophile and sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein. But he hasn’t been implicated in any of the investigations into Epstein or his accomplices. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So it can’t get worse than that, right? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He kept going. In another post, Musk says that the tariffs will cause a recession. And then he reposts someone else who says that Trump should be impeached and replaced with JD Vance. So this is all what people are calling a “generational crash out.” Were you seeing any of this? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Honestly, Morgan, not the full back and forth. Like I got the condensed version from IG Reels, reacting to them fighting. And I saw some funny responses like when AOC quoted Azealea Banks. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Reporter: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Any quick reaction on what’s going on with Elon Musk and President Trump on Twitter right now. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh man, the girls are fighting, aren’t they? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is the reason I’m still on this hellish app. There were so many good memes about this breakup. Like there’s this one where someone posted a picture of Trump and Musk together and then captioned it with the lyrics from the Bon Iver song, Skinny Love, classic breakup song. We’ve all been there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or someone else posted this edit mashing up a scene from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie, and Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You broke my hand and you didn’t even seem sorry. That broken hand was the best thing that ever happened to you. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And they captioned it, “the two most powerful men in the country on a random Thursday.”. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s hilarious. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ll tell you about one example that really sent me. Maya, are you familiar with old man yaoi? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wait no, what is that? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So this is one of those very online, deep internet things, so just stay with me here. Old man yaoi is kind of like a jokey fan fiction trope. Yaoi is this Japanese term that refers to gay male relationships in manga and anime. Sometimes it’s called BL, or boy’s love, and people will also tag fan fiction as yaoi. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Old man yaoi is this term for older male characters, and naturally, Because the internet is the way it is, there is a lot of tongue-in-cheek old man yaoi about Trump. Wait, really? Last year, there was a lot of enemies-to-lovers old man yaoi about Trump and former President Joe Biden. And now, there is old man yaoi about Trump and Musk. Can I read you an excerpt that I saw on X during the great crash out? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I guess. I don’t think I have a choice here. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sorry, you do not. Okay. So here’s a dramatic reading of some old man yaoi posted by X user. Aegonism. Aegonism, thank you for making my day. “Donald, please, let’s just talk about this,” Elon pleads, attempting to catch the other man’s eyes. But Donald rolls over in bed, presenting his back to him. The tension in the bedroom is suffocating, and Elon tries to take a deep breath, but it feels like he can barely get any air. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There’s nothing to talk about,” Donald finally responds, flatly, and Elon is taken aback by his tone. He sounds so cold and distant. He doesn’t want to fight. He can feel tears welling up and he takes a moment to wipe his face before continuing, hoping Donald won’t notice his red rimmed eyes. “Don, this bill is bad for Tesla. You have to understand that.” Donald sighs heavily. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh my God, I literally have no words. I do admire the creativity though. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Again, one of the top 10 days on Twitter. This app is terrible, but there’s nothing that’s really taken its place for me. I get a lot of news from Reddit and Bluesky, funny posts from Tumblr, and Instagram is great for organizing and sharing resources, and honestly, good shitpost accounts. TikTok is up there with good content too, but there is nothing that quite has the same real-time, super fast memeability like Twitter does, and you’re definitely not getting the stuff on threads. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, I feel like I am convinced now. So what are some of the other top meme days on Twitter? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, just a recent years, Luigi. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Speaker 1: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I do want to give a credit to Luigi Mangione \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Will Smith Oscar slap. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Rock: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You remember that time that ship got stuck in the Suez Canal? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 4: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A giant container ship ran aground in the Suez Canal after losing power. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or when President Biden dropped out of the presidential race. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 5: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">President Joe Biden’s decision not to run for re-election. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or JD Vance couch rumors, we remember that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Youtuber \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You may be wondering why you’re seeing a ton of memes and posts about Donald Trump’s VP pick, JD vance, and his sectional relationship with his couch. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I do remember that and we did a story about it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But my personal favorite day is right after the election back in 2020 when Rudy Giuliani hosted a press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping instead of the Four Seasons Hotel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hayes: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, there is, of course, a mystery that hangs over all this, which is how the press conference came to be held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in the first place. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh my God, yes, I remember this! Okay, so I feel like I kind of get it. It’s the immediacy, right? But let’s get back to the bromance breakup, our Trump and Musk done for good? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, like any good breakup, it’s complicated. Musk actually ended up deleting some of his more incendiary posts, including the one about the Epstein files. Over the weekend, Trump told NBC News that their relationship was over and that he has no desire to repair it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>Ooof. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Classic breakup. But it looks like Elon is the one missing Trump, but Trump is the one over it. And we’re all watching their reality TV show. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, exactly. Except, unlike Love Island-. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Love Island: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Welcome to Love Island! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This reality show also has massive real world ripple effects, which are affecting real people. The state of democracy kind of rests on the whims of these two very powerful, very egotistical guys. But I will say that the tone has changed recently. Musk is screenshotting some of Trump’s Truth Social posts and reposting them on X, appearing to agree with him. So it seems like he’s trying to make amends. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I think I did see that he was agreeing with Trump’s post condemning the protests against ICE raids in LA. I feel like we should get into that Morgan, right? In a new tab? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We definitely will. But before we do that, let’s take a quick break.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, we’re back. New tab. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What’s happening in LA ?? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, so last month we did a two-part episode on the Surveillance State and how protesters and organizers are being identified and targeted. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 1: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">30-Year-old Rumeysa Ozturk was on her way to break her Ramadan fast when six plain-clothed officers approached her. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Morgan, what’s going on where you are in Los Angeles? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you hear any background noise right now, it’s probably the helicopters flying over my apartment. I’m not too far from the protests, and LAPD has been circling over the city all weekend. We’re recording this on Monday evening, and the protests are still going strong. But aside from where those demonstrations are happening, at least in the neighborhood I’m in, LA is unsettlingly quiet. It’s like people are afraid to go outside, especially as ICE continues to patrol the city. But again, this is why I’m still on Twitter. There’s a pretty well-established network of mutual aid groups and organizers sharing resources and information over there. A lot of it is on Instagram, but real-time updates are coming from Twitter. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I’m seeing it all over my IG feed as well, but when did this all start? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, it all started with a string of immigration raids on Friday, from a Home Depot to a clothing store downtown. And then people who appeared for their immigration check-ins were detained and taken to unknown locations. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 2: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The FBI, Homeland Security, and ICE agents performed a raid a couple of hours ago. We’re just now seeing some people that are being detained. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And remember, Los Angeles is a sanctuary city. City resources cannot be used for federal immigration enforcement, and the city is prohibited from sharing data with immigration authorities. It’s also worth noting that Los Angeles is a city of immigrants, something that a lot of the community takes pride in. So protests started that night, one outside an immigration detention center downtown and another in the fashion district where one of the ICE raids happened. At some point, they converged. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Protesters: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Let them free, let them stay! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Law enforcement showed up in riot gear to disperse the crowds. But the protests spread on Saturday across downtown LA, Compton, and Paramount. Trump deployed at least 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles, which Governor Newsom has called unlawful and a serious breach of state sovereignty. Law enforcement has used tear gas and pepper spray and flashbang grenades to try to disperse the crowds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 3: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You told me you got caught up in the tear gas as well? Describe what happened to you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Man on the street: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, just, uh, tasted a little tear gas. Tasted like fascism. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it all really escalated on Sunday afternoon, which coincided with LA Pride. People were literally going straight from Pride events to the protests, demanding an end to ICE raids. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Protesters: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power! What kind of power? People Power! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They even managed to shut down the freeway. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Protesters: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Weirdo! Weirdos! Weirdo! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the LAPD has deployed rubber bullets and surveillance drones in addition to the tear gas and flashbang grenades. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 1: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think they’re going to push in from this side of the road. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then there’s everything with Waymos. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, like a few months ago, we did an episode on the recent uptick in Waymo vandalism. And as a reminder, Waymos are the autonomous self-driving cars that operate in a few cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. But Morgan, why don’t you walk us through what Waymos have to do with the protests? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, a bunch of Waymos happened to be nearby during the protests downtown. And amid the confrontation between law enforcement and protestors, those Waymos were tagged with anti-ICE messages and then set on fire, which went super viral. So there’s been a lot of discourse around Waymo vandalism and property damage during these protests. But I think it’s important to remember that Waymos have become representative of encroaching big tech, especially here in LA. There’s a lot of anger at the way that tech companies like Palantir are helping immigration enforcement. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, and plus there’s speculation that Waymos might be used as surveillance tools. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly. 404 media recently reported that the LAPD has used footage obtained from a Waymo to investigate crimes. So a lot people are suspicious of autonomous vehicles right now. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah, so what else is happening in LA? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, now the latest escalation is that the Trump administration is sending Marines to LA? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I saw that. It really looks like a war zone. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, only around certain parts of L.A. But the president is posting through it on Truth Social. He’s called the protests “a riot.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wow, I haven’t seen any of that because I’m not on Truth Social, but does this bring us back to Elon Musk? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also not on Truth Social, but I did see screenshots on Twitter. And yes, one of the posts that Musk shared on Twitter, or X, calls for a ban on masks at protests. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And like we talked about in our surveillance series a few weeks ago, masks have become a staple at protests to avoid facial recognition. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That and also to reduce exposure to tear gas, pepper spray, and airborne viruses like COVID. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, but like we’ve seen in the student protests for Palestine over the last year, there’s been an effort to make protesters easier to identify. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly. On Truth Social, Trump has also called for the arrest of anyone wearing a mask. So masking has become a real point of contention in these protests as activists demand that ICE agents and LAPD and other law enforcement officials also unmask when showing up to protests. This is a thing in Los Angeles especially. Activists have made an effort to identify ICE agents and publicize their names and faces so that anyone at risk of deportation knows who to avoid. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But now some conservative lawmakers are trying to penalize anyone who identifies a law enforcement officer. Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn recently proposed legislation that would punish people with up to five years in prison for identifying ICE agents. But, we’ll have to see how the protests unfold throughout the rest of the month. ICE operations in LA are supposed to continue for the next 30 days. But it is worth noting that the president’s social media posts aren’t like legal powers enshrined in the Constitution. They can’t enforce a mask ban just because he posted about it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They can’t legally enforce that. But we’ve seen this administration do plenty of things they’re not supposed to do. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So true. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right. Executive orders are quick to enact, and the justice system is really slow. And those things have real consequences for all of us. So, while Twitter memes are a nice distraction, let’s remember how serious this is. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Absolutely. I mean, I’m trying to curb my Twitter addiction, but between the memes and the important protest information, it’s just really hard to leave. Anyway, those were all our updates. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks for joining, Maya. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anytime Morgan, because I literally work here. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Speaking of protest information, if you do find yourself in a protest zone, stay safe. We’ll leave some links about protecting your digital privacy in the show notes. And it might be worth going back and listening to our two-part series called The Surveillance Machine. We’ll be back next week with part two of our series on Spotify. For now, let’s close all these tabs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Close All Tabs is a production of KQED Studios and is reported and hosted by me, Morgan Sung. Our producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Jen Chien is KQED’s Director of Podcasts and helps edit the show. Sound design by Maya Cueva. Original music by Chris Egusa. Additional music by APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad and Alana Walker. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. And Holly Kernan is our Chief Content Officer. Support for this program comes from Birong Hu and supporters of the KQED Studios Fund. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Keyboard sounds were recorded on my purple and pink Dustsilver K-84 wired mechanical keyboard with Gateron Red switches. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you have feedback, or a topic you think we should cover, hit us up at CloseAllTabs@kqed.org. Follow us on instagram at “close all tabs pod.” Or drop it on Discord — we’re in the Close All Tabs channel at discord.gg/KQED. And if you’re enjoying the show, give us a rating on Apple podcasts or whatever platform you use. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks for listening!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Elon's Great Crash-Out / Unmasked in LA | KQED",
"description": "Elon Musk and President Trump breaking up? LA protesters clashing with law enforcement? Waymos on fire (again)? Things have been moving fast the last few days — and like you, our feeds are on overload. Today, we’re bringing you a quick reaction episode to catch you up on a couple stories we’ve covered before that are suddenly back in the news. Close All Tabs producer Maya Cueva joins Morgan to break it all down.",
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"socialDescription": "Elon Musk and President Trump breaking up? LA protesters clashing with law enforcement? Waymos on fire (again)? Things have been moving fast the last few days — and like you, our feeds are on overload. Today, we’re bringing you a quick reaction episode to catch you up on a couple stories we’ve covered before that are suddenly back in the news. Close All Tabs producer Maya Cueva joins Morgan to break it all down.",
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"headline": "Elon's Great Crash-Out / Unmasked in LA",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elon Musk and President Trump breaking up? LA protesters clashing with law enforcement? Waymos on fire (again)? Things have been moving fast the last few days — and like you, our feeds are on overload. Today, we’re bringing you a quick reaction episode to catch you up on a couple stories we’ve covered before that are suddenly back in the news. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Close All Tabs\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> producer Maya Cueva joins Morgan to break it all down.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC1677724333\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve talked about a few of these stories before — if you want to go deeper, here are some past episodes to check out:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033066/the-broligarchy-pt-1-chronicles-of-the-paypal-mafia\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Broligarchy Pt 1: Chronicles of the PayPal Mafia | KQED\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038910/the-surveillance-machine-pt-1-how-we-got-here\">The Surveillance Machine, Pt. 1: How We Got Here | KQED\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030860/waymo-problems\">Waymo Robotaxis – Uneasiness and Vandalism | KQED\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Further reading:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-musk-summary-timeline-political-relationship-rcna211453\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A timeline of the twists and turns in the Trump-Musk relationship\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — Nnamdi Egwuonwu, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NBC News \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/immigration-protests-threaten-to-boil-over-in-los-angeles\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Immigration Protests Threaten to Boil Over in Los Angeles \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— E. Tammy Kim, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The New Yorker\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://lapublicpress.org/2025/06/ice-raids-separate-families-but-bring-los-angeles-together/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ICE raids tried to split LA apart, but might have made it stronger\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — Michael Lozano, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">LA Public Press \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fastcompany.com/91348960/how-waymo-got-caught-in-the-crossfire-of-los-angeles-ice-protests\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How Waymo got caught in the crossfire of Los Angeles ICE protests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — \u003c/span>Joe Berkowitz, \u003ci>Fast Company\u003cbr>\n\u003c/i>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Want to give us feedback on the show? Shoot us an email at \u003ca href=\"mailto:CloseAllTabs@KQED.org\">CloseAllTabs@KQED.org\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/closealltabspod/\">Follow us on Instagram\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey guys, welcome to Close All Tabs. We had planned to bring you part two of our Spotify deep dive today. And don’t worry, we’ll get back to that next week. But there have been some developments over the past week. Basically, the last few days have been so wild that we need to talk about it. We’re actually following up on three of our previous episodes today. And joining me to help sort through all of it is our producer, Maya Cueva. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>Hey Morgan!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>Hey Maya. So this will be a bit of a speed round. Two quick tabs today. And as a side quest, I am going to try to make the case to you, Maya, for why I’ve stayed on Twitter, or as we now call it, X. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, please make your case, because it’s hard for me to get why anyone would want to stay on X, but I do want to understand. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I will try my best. Okay, we’ve got a few things to cover today, including what’s happening with Waymos and protest surveillance in LA. But before we get to that, we have to talk about something that happened last week. Elon Musk and Donald Trump finally broke up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Close All Tabs. I’m Morgan Sung, tech journalist, and your chronically online friend, here to open as many browser tabs as it takes to help you understand how the digital world affects our real lives. Let’s get into it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maya, are you ready? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, Morgan. Let’s open a new tab. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Great Elon Crash Out. Back in March, we did a series on “the Broligarchy,” and more specifically, the ideology that drives tech titans like Elon Musk as they accumulate political power. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And how they might use that power to influence U.S. Policy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 1: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re seeing a rise in what I guess we’ll call the “Broligarchy”. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 2: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The “Broligarchs” really have an explicit political agenda. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 3: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you survive the “Broligarchy”? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And nothing embodied the Broligarchy quite like the relationship between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. And I just want to say up front, this stuff is really serious, right? Like the fact that these two men control so many levers of power and the ripple effects of their decisions have already had massive and sometimes devastating consequences — that should be a source of concern for us all. But at the same time, their personal relationship, what many have called a bromance, there’s something kind of funny about it. Like it has high school vibes. And social media has really eaten that up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it seems like that relationship is over, right? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s true. At least it is as of when we’re recording this, on Monday afternoon. After less than a year since Musk publicly endorsed Trump, the bromance is dead. Okay, let’s start right after Election Day. They were still pretty cozy back then. This was Trump in his victory speech right after winning the election. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Donald Trump: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Let me tell you, we have a new star. A star is born, Elon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then Elon starts overseeing DOGE, right? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right. He’s the face of the Department of Government Efficiency. And under his de facto leadership, DOGE is slashing government agencies left and right. We see mass layoffs and the dismantling of aid programs. And it’s an accounting and privacy disaster. Obviously, Trump and Musk are getting a lot of backlash over this. And we start to see cracks in the relationship. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, yeah, and didn’t that bizarre White House Tesla showcase happen during all of this? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, by March, Tesla stock was down by like 45%. So while Tesla is slumping as a company, Trump and Musk turned the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom. They live stream it on X and Trump makes a show of wanting to buy one. He really talks up the Cybertruck. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Donald Trump: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Who else but this guy would design this, and everybody on the road is looking at it. It’s amazing, actually. As soon as I saw it, I said, that is the coolest design. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So you know how there’s always that one couple on Instagram that you know is not doing well, but they overcompensate by posting really, like, lovey-dovey captions and all that? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ugh, yes, it’s like, why are you pretending? You’re not fooling anyone. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, so I think this Tesla showcase is kind of like that. That same month, as the White House gets heat for DOGE’s actions, Trump goes on Truth Social and says that the agency heads are in charge of staffing, not Musk and DOGE. This is when the president starts to rein Musk in. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, so we’ve heard that Trump and Musk are getting backlash for a lot of the actions they’re taking, especially DOGE, and Musk’s companies are suffering. And all of this seems to be creating tension, right? So when did the actual breakup happen? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, at the start of last month, Musk says he’s stepping back from DOGE to focus on his own companies like Tesla and SpaceX. A few weeks later, Musk goes on CBS and bashes the president’s budget proposal, what Trump calls his “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Musk says that bill increases the budget deficit and undermines DOGE’s work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Elon Musk: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it could be both. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And by the end of the month, the White House announces that Musk’s temporary role as a special government employee has ended. They host a ceremony, and the president makes this grand gesture of gifting Musk a gold key to the White house. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Donald Trump: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have given it to some, but it goes to very special people, and I thought I’d give it to Elon as a presentation from our country. Thank you, Elon. Take care. Thank you \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, so this seems pretty cordial to me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, it’s like that part of a breakup where you tell people you’re still on good terms and you wish each other the best and you’re going to be in each other’s lives, all that. But like, we know what happens. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh yeah, we’ve all been there before. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, except these are two exceptionally powerful men. So this is where it gets really juicy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, tell me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So a couple of days ago, Musk goes on X and starts tearing apart the bill. He says, hold on, let me pull it up. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it. You know you did wrong. You KNOW it.” And Trump tells reporters that Musk is upset because the bill would end tax credits for electric vehicles. And then these guys just start going at it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wait, so what happened? Can you break it down for me? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is why I say I will never leave the app, because as bad as it gets, there are still days when everyone comes out of hibernation and just starts posting. And this includes Elon Musk. So he starts firing off at Trump on X. First, he says that Trump would have lost the election without him. Trump goes to Truth Social, and he says Musk went crazy after he was asked to leave the White House. He threatens to cut Musk’s government subsidies and contracts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m guessing Elon Musk didn’t take that well. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, not at all. Musk goes nuclear. He runs back to X and posts something that makes everyone’s jaw drop. He claims that the president is in the Epstein files. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. So it’s worth noting that Trump was once publicly friends with the pedophile and sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein. But he hasn’t been implicated in any of the investigations into Epstein or his accomplices. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So it can’t get worse than that, right? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He kept going. In another post, Musk says that the tariffs will cause a recession. And then he reposts someone else who says that Trump should be impeached and replaced with JD Vance. So this is all what people are calling a “generational crash out.” Were you seeing any of this? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Honestly, Morgan, not the full back and forth. Like I got the condensed version from IG Reels, reacting to them fighting. And I saw some funny responses like when AOC quoted Azealea Banks. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Reporter: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Any quick reaction on what’s going on with Elon Musk and President Trump on Twitter right now. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh man, the girls are fighting, aren’t they? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is the reason I’m still on this hellish app. There were so many good memes about this breakup. Like there’s this one where someone posted a picture of Trump and Musk together and then captioned it with the lyrics from the Bon Iver song, Skinny Love, classic breakup song. We’ve all been there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or someone else posted this edit mashing up a scene from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie, and Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You broke my hand and you didn’t even seem sorry. That broken hand was the best thing that ever happened to you. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And they captioned it, “the two most powerful men in the country on a random Thursday.”. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s hilarious. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ll tell you about one example that really sent me. Maya, are you familiar with old man yaoi? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wait no, what is that? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So this is one of those very online, deep internet things, so just stay with me here. Old man yaoi is kind of like a jokey fan fiction trope. Yaoi is this Japanese term that refers to gay male relationships in manga and anime. Sometimes it’s called BL, or boy’s love, and people will also tag fan fiction as yaoi. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Old man yaoi is this term for older male characters, and naturally, Because the internet is the way it is, there is a lot of tongue-in-cheek old man yaoi about Trump. Wait, really? Last year, there was a lot of enemies-to-lovers old man yaoi about Trump and former President Joe Biden. And now, there is old man yaoi about Trump and Musk. Can I read you an excerpt that I saw on X during the great crash out? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I guess. I don’t think I have a choice here. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sorry, you do not. Okay. So here’s a dramatic reading of some old man yaoi posted by X user. Aegonism. Aegonism, thank you for making my day. “Donald, please, let’s just talk about this,” Elon pleads, attempting to catch the other man’s eyes. But Donald rolls over in bed, presenting his back to him. The tension in the bedroom is suffocating, and Elon tries to take a deep breath, but it feels like he can barely get any air. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There’s nothing to talk about,” Donald finally responds, flatly, and Elon is taken aback by his tone. He sounds so cold and distant. He doesn’t want to fight. He can feel tears welling up and he takes a moment to wipe his face before continuing, hoping Donald won’t notice his red rimmed eyes. “Don, this bill is bad for Tesla. You have to understand that.” Donald sighs heavily. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh my God, I literally have no words. I do admire the creativity though. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Again, one of the top 10 days on Twitter. This app is terrible, but there’s nothing that’s really taken its place for me. I get a lot of news from Reddit and Bluesky, funny posts from Tumblr, and Instagram is great for organizing and sharing resources, and honestly, good shitpost accounts. TikTok is up there with good content too, but there is nothing that quite has the same real-time, super fast memeability like Twitter does, and you’re definitely not getting the stuff on threads. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, I feel like I am convinced now. So what are some of the other top meme days on Twitter? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, just a recent years, Luigi. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Speaker 1: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I do want to give a credit to Luigi Mangione \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Will Smith Oscar slap. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Rock: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You remember that time that ship got stuck in the Suez Canal? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 4: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A giant container ship ran aground in the Suez Canal after losing power. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or when President Biden dropped out of the presidential race. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 5: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">President Joe Biden’s decision not to run for re-election. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or JD Vance couch rumors, we remember that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Youtuber \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You may be wondering why you’re seeing a ton of memes and posts about Donald Trump’s VP pick, JD vance, and his sectional relationship with his couch. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I do remember that and we did a story about it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But my personal favorite day is right after the election back in 2020 when Rudy Giuliani hosted a press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping instead of the Four Seasons Hotel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hayes: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, there is, of course, a mystery that hangs over all this, which is how the press conference came to be held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in the first place. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh my God, yes, I remember this! Okay, so I feel like I kind of get it. It’s the immediacy, right? But let’s get back to the bromance breakup, our Trump and Musk done for good? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, like any good breakup, it’s complicated. Musk actually ended up deleting some of his more incendiary posts, including the one about the Epstein files. Over the weekend, Trump told NBC News that their relationship was over and that he has no desire to repair it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>Ooof. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Classic breakup. But it looks like Elon is the one missing Trump, but Trump is the one over it. And we’re all watching their reality TV show. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, exactly. Except, unlike Love Island-. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Love Island: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Welcome to Love Island! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This reality show also has massive real world ripple effects, which are affecting real people. The state of democracy kind of rests on the whims of these two very powerful, very egotistical guys. But I will say that the tone has changed recently. Musk is screenshotting some of Trump’s Truth Social posts and reposting them on X, appearing to agree with him. So it seems like he’s trying to make amends. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I think I did see that he was agreeing with Trump’s post condemning the protests against ICE raids in LA. I feel like we should get into that Morgan, right? In a new tab? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We definitely will. But before we do that, let’s take a quick break.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, we’re back. New tab. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What’s happening in LA ?? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, so last month we did a two-part episode on the Surveillance State and how protesters and organizers are being identified and targeted. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 1: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">30-Year-old Rumeysa Ozturk was on her way to break her Ramadan fast when six plain-clothed officers approached her. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Morgan, what’s going on where you are in Los Angeles? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you hear any background noise right now, it’s probably the helicopters flying over my apartment. I’m not too far from the protests, and LAPD has been circling over the city all weekend. We’re recording this on Monday evening, and the protests are still going strong. But aside from where those demonstrations are happening, at least in the neighborhood I’m in, LA is unsettlingly quiet. It’s like people are afraid to go outside, especially as ICE continues to patrol the city. But again, this is why I’m still on Twitter. There’s a pretty well-established network of mutual aid groups and organizers sharing resources and information over there. A lot of it is on Instagram, but real-time updates are coming from Twitter. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I’m seeing it all over my IG feed as well, but when did this all start? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, it all started with a string of immigration raids on Friday, from a Home Depot to a clothing store downtown. And then people who appeared for their immigration check-ins were detained and taken to unknown locations. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 2: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The FBI, Homeland Security, and ICE agents performed a raid a couple of hours ago. We’re just now seeing some people that are being detained. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And remember, Los Angeles is a sanctuary city. City resources cannot be used for federal immigration enforcement, and the city is prohibited from sharing data with immigration authorities. It’s also worth noting that Los Angeles is a city of immigrants, something that a lot of the community takes pride in. So protests started that night, one outside an immigration detention center downtown and another in the fashion district where one of the ICE raids happened. At some point, they converged. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Protesters: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Let them free, let them stay! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Law enforcement showed up in riot gear to disperse the crowds. But the protests spread on Saturday across downtown LA, Compton, and Paramount. Trump deployed at least 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles, which Governor Newsom has called unlawful and a serious breach of state sovereignty. Law enforcement has used tear gas and pepper spray and flashbang grenades to try to disperse the crowds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 3: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You told me you got caught up in the tear gas as well? Describe what happened to you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Man on the street: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, just, uh, tasted a little tear gas. Tasted like fascism. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it all really escalated on Sunday afternoon, which coincided with LA Pride. People were literally going straight from Pride events to the protests, demanding an end to ICE raids. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Protesters: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power! What kind of power? People Power! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They even managed to shut down the freeway. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Protesters: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Weirdo! Weirdos! Weirdo! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the LAPD has deployed rubber bullets and surveillance drones in addition to the tear gas and flashbang grenades. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News Anchor 1: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think they’re going to push in from this side of the road. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then there’s everything with Waymos. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, like a few months ago, we did an episode on the recent uptick in Waymo vandalism. And as a reminder, Waymos are the autonomous self-driving cars that operate in a few cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. But Morgan, why don’t you walk us through what Waymos have to do with the protests? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, a bunch of Waymos happened to be nearby during the protests downtown. And amid the confrontation between law enforcement and protestors, those Waymos were tagged with anti-ICE messages and then set on fire, which went super viral. So there’s been a lot of discourse around Waymo vandalism and property damage during these protests. But I think it’s important to remember that Waymos have become representative of encroaching big tech, especially here in LA. There’s a lot of anger at the way that tech companies like Palantir are helping immigration enforcement. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, and plus there’s speculation that Waymos might be used as surveillance tools. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly. 404 media recently reported that the LAPD has used footage obtained from a Waymo to investigate crimes. So a lot people are suspicious of autonomous vehicles right now. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah, so what else is happening in LA? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, now the latest escalation is that the Trump administration is sending Marines to LA? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I saw that. It really looks like a war zone. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, only around certain parts of L.A. But the president is posting through it on Truth Social. He’s called the protests “a riot.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wow, I haven’t seen any of that because I’m not on Truth Social, but does this bring us back to Elon Musk? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also not on Truth Social, but I did see screenshots on Twitter. And yes, one of the posts that Musk shared on Twitter, or X, calls for a ban on masks at protests. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And like we talked about in our surveillance series a few weeks ago, masks have become a staple at protests to avoid facial recognition. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That and also to reduce exposure to tear gas, pepper spray, and airborne viruses like COVID. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, but like we’ve seen in the student protests for Palestine over the last year, there’s been an effort to make protesters easier to identify. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly. On Truth Social, Trump has also called for the arrest of anyone wearing a mask. So masking has become a real point of contention in these protests as activists demand that ICE agents and LAPD and other law enforcement officials also unmask when showing up to protests. This is a thing in Los Angeles especially. Activists have made an effort to identify ICE agents and publicize their names and faces so that anyone at risk of deportation knows who to avoid. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But now some conservative lawmakers are trying to penalize anyone who identifies a law enforcement officer. Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn recently proposed legislation that would punish people with up to five years in prison for identifying ICE agents. But, we’ll have to see how the protests unfold throughout the rest of the month. ICE operations in LA are supposed to continue for the next 30 days. But it is worth noting that the president’s social media posts aren’t like legal powers enshrined in the Constitution. They can’t enforce a mask ban just because he posted about it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They can’t legally enforce that. But we’ve seen this administration do plenty of things they’re not supposed to do. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So true. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right. Executive orders are quick to enact, and the justice system is really slow. And those things have real consequences for all of us. So, while Twitter memes are a nice distraction, let’s remember how serious this is. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Absolutely. I mean, I’m trying to curb my Twitter addiction, but between the memes and the important protest information, it’s just really hard to leave. Anyway, those were all our updates. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks for joining, Maya. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Maya Cueva: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anytime Morgan, because I literally work here. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Speaking of protest information, if you do find yourself in a protest zone, stay safe. We’ll leave some links about protecting your digital privacy in the show notes. And it might be worth going back and listening to our two-part series called The Surveillance Machine. We’ll be back next week with part two of our series on Spotify. For now, let’s close all these tabs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Morgan Sung: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Close All Tabs is a production of KQED Studios and is reported and hosted by me, Morgan Sung. Our producer is Maya Cueva. Chris Egusa is our Senior Editor. Jen Chien is KQED’s Director of Podcasts and helps edit the show. Sound design by Maya Cueva. Original music by Chris Egusa. Additional music by APM. Mixing and mastering by Brendan Willard. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad and Alana Walker. Katie Sprenger is our Podcast Operations Manager. And Holly Kernan is our Chief Content Officer. Support for this program comes from Birong Hu and supporters of the KQED Studios Fund. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Keyboard sounds were recorded on my purple and pink Dustsilver K-84 wired mechanical keyboard with Gateron Red switches. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you have feedback, or a topic you think we should cover, hit us up at CloseAllTabs@kqed.org. Follow us on instagram at “close all tabs pod.” Or drop it on Discord — we’re in the Close All Tabs channel at discord.gg/KQED. And if you’re enjoying the show, give us a rating on Apple podcasts or whatever platform you use. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks for listening!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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},
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},
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"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
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},
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
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"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
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},
"closealltabs": {
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"order": 1
},
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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},
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"order": 15
},
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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