Files turns 50 years old. The news is coming up next. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington on corporate Coleman the federal fraud trial of President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Mann afford continues today in Alexandria Virginia man a Fort's former close business partner Rick Gates has testified that he helped man a Ford commit crimes including hiding millions of dollars from the i.r.s. But N.P.R.'s Brian Lucas says Gates has also admitted wrongdoing Gates pleaded guilty in February to false statements and conspiracy and that plea deal with the government includes the possibility of a reduced prison sentence he loses that possibility if he lies when he's up on the stand yesterday in court he acknowledged that he committed crimes on his own behalf as well so that he misled a mortgage company and a credit card company and he said that he didn't bezel hundreds of thousands of dollars from an afford by filing false expense claims N.P.R.'s Ryan Lucas There are primary elections today in Kansas Michigan Missouri and Washington state separately there's a highly watched special congressional election in Ohio in Michigan this is the 1st time in more than 50 years that Democrats in Detroit face a ballot without the name of civil rights icon John Conyers from member station w d Quinn Klinefelter reports Conyers left the u.s. House last December it made allegations of sexual harassment when Conyers resigned he anointed his son John Conyers the 3rd to run to replace him but another family member Ian Conyers successfully challenged his cousin standing to be on the ballot and ensured he would be the only one with that famous name in the primary the front runners are suburban Mayor Bill Wild former state lawmaker was seated to lead who could be the 1st American Muslim woman in Congress and Detroit City Council president Brenda Jones who says under Conyers watch the district became the most poverty ridden in Michigan the not quality of life can be pinned on as a code the district skews so heavily democratic that whoever wins a party primary will almost certainly win the general. Election in November for n.p.r. News I'm Quinn Klinefelter in Detroit rescuers are racing to save survivors of a deadly earthquake that shook Indonesia's Lombok Island Sunday N.P.R.'s Anthony Kuhn reports from Beijing that around 100 people have been killed and some 20000 left homeless by the 6.9 magnitude quake rescue teams have been focusing on the job all nor a mosque in northern Lombok dozens of people were attending evening prayers when the quake hit rescuers have pulled some survivors from the rubble as well as some who did not survive aid agencies meanwhile are trying to shelter residents who are either homeless or sleeping outdoors frightened by strong aftershocks thousands of tourists have been stranded at longbox main airport and on outlying islands popular with tourists Indonesian president Djoko we doto has ordered editions of flights to the area to evacuate casualties Anthony Kuhn n.p.r. News Beijing you're listening to n.p.r. News. Fire officials in California say 2 wildfires have combined in northern California to create the state's largest ever wildfire it's called the Mendocino complex and includes the ranch and river fires together they have scorched well over $400.00 square miles despite fears that a warming climate is threatening the habitat of polar bears the u.s. Russia polar bear Commission has nearly double the allowable harvest of polar bears to 85 science advisers to the commission say the population along the coast of the chuck cheese sea is abundant Elizabeth Arnold reports conservation groups have adopted polar bears as an indicator species of the effects of climate change but polar bear hunters will actually begin a higher harvest quarter next year the harvest level has been raised from 58 to 85 Bears the quotas often never met as polar bear hunting was banned in Russia in 1056 but indigenous hunters in remote villages along the coast of the chuck g.c. In Alaska will be able to take more bears as the commission found the chuck she bears remained fatter larger and have not experienced downward trends in survival those trends have been detected in bears of the Southern Beaufort Sea in Alaska in 2008 the United States listed polar bears as a threatened species because of the decline of sea ice for n.p.r. News I'm Elizabeth Arnold in Anchorage the United States has reimposed sanctions on Iran now that the Trump administration has withdrawn from the Iran nuclear agreement President Trump tweeted this morning that these are quote the most biting sanctions ever imposed on core of a comb and n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include exact sciences offering color guard for average risk adults over 59 in base of colon cancer screening tasks that can be used at home by prescription only information at Color Guard tested dot com. I'm Eric Westervelt coming up on the next on point automobiles gold steel the trumpet ministration reimpose as financial sanctions on Iran with those on oil to calm where might this hard line policy lead plus. Celebrating 20 years of the groundbreaking album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill That's coming up on the next on point from n.p.r. Starting at 9 Tuesday morning on k.c.a.l. You. Next time around the world it's pronouns if they them there is a hot topic now in the u.s. It's all that in Sweden where an ungendered pronoun raised a fuss a few years ago people way sort of concerned that it would not know their own gender would be sort of confused and unhappy for the rest of their life's how a new pronoun caused controversy in Sweden but also solve some problems it's the world between 2 and 3 Tuesday afternoon Also at 7 in the evening on. On the Next Radio Lab If you tell me the average speed of walking in some city in only the walking speed that's right I can tell you how much crime there is in the city the average wage job or theaters from the population and the number base cases it's going to have this you see taking the pulse of a city that's on the Next Radio matter join us Radio Lab Tuesday night between 9 and 10 on. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Noel King in Washington d.c. And I'm David Greene in Culver City California Paul metaphor's former business partner Rick Gates took the stand in metaphor to trial yesterday Now the reason this trial has gotten so much attention one reason at least is that metaphor it was President Trump's former campaign chairman he is on trial now for bank and tax fraud charges his former associate Gates answered yes when prosecutors asked if he had committed crimes with man a Ford and Gates went on to say that he misled accountants and lenders at Paul man of Ford's direction the goal was to reduce metaphor to Texas joining us now is Bill Cofield he is an attorney who has represented some high profile clients in Washington and has worked for more than 2 decades in the eastern district of Virginia where this trial is playing out in Mr Cofield Welcome thank you so how big of a bombshell was Rick Gates' testimony yesterday well there was a little bit of that that was a bombshell but a lot of it was expected Mr Mann a Fort's attorneys in their opening gave a little bit of a preview of what they could expect which was a smart thing for them to do I think the thing that was. The biggest bombshell that came out was that he was embezzling money from Mr Mann afford that Gates was embezzling money from Mr metaphor correct So you're saying the biggest thing that we learned in the trial yesterday was actually that Rick Gates was was. Doing some shady stuff yes I think so because it's it's one thing to say that you're in lockstep with somebody that you're in a conspiracy with somebody you're in lockstep with you're doing things and that in what what the prosecution is trying to portray is that Mr Gates was doing everything it Paul Man affords direction Well I don't think history matter for it was giving him direction to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from it well if that's the case if the thing that interested you most was Rick Gates' admitting that he did some illegal stuff tell me about the prosecutor's strategy here is it. Good idea to essentially start the testimony by having Gates admit that he too committed crimes Absolutely I think it was the smartest thing they could have done simply because you don't want that to come out through the defense and give the jury the impression that somehow the government was hiding something from them oh I see this is prosecutor saying we're going to we're going to tell you everything you need to know about our witness and not let a bombshell come later when the defense gets there to correct because they start a juror will sit there and start to question the government's credibility if they do something like that so Gates took the stand after entering into this agreement with prosecutors How does that influence whether the jury believes what he has to say about all metaphor. Well it's obviously going to have some impact exactly what it does I mean you don't know what every individual jurors personal experience is so you don't know what each individual 1 May do however it's got to have some impact especially when you see that I mean another thing that I thought was very significant was that there were 20 meetings that he had and when he sits down in a meeting with federal prosecutors there are always f.b.i. Agents present they will take notes and they will they will then go ahead and do the f.b.i. 302 report those reports will then be turned over to the defense so they've got 20 reports to be looking at and they can look at the in consistencies that are in those reports and they can see how Mr Mr Gates may be gradually moving toward what the prosecutors want him to say and they can build that narrative toward his goal of trying to avoid jail time. Ok so so Gates. Is going to continue testing testifying and then we're going to have the defense team go after him and what are we going to expect I mean I'm just going to literally trying to tear down his credibility of course and they've got a lot to work with that you know he's he's admitted lying he's admitted and has a link from Mr Mann afford and apparently he's admitted as lying from other employers what do you think if if there is anything that we're going to learn about Paul metaphors that we don't know already in terms of his business dealings and this goes back to his time being a political consultant Ukraine and there's a lot here but your seem to suggest that we might know a lot of this already I think I think we do I think we already heard a lot about it we know we know what the accusations are there's an indictment out there that's very detailed However what what. The prosecution needs to do now is put some meat on the bones they've got somebody who's credibility talking about Rick gates here they've got somebody whose credibility has been severely wounded they've got to get corroboration they have got to be some documents tied and look he was only on for less than an hour and a half. Yesterday So you know there's a lot to come here can I ask you I mean Paul metaphor was president Trump's campaign chair in 2016 as as I mentioned I mean this trial has to do with his own business dealings in the past but inside that courtroom if you're talking about the lawyers on both sides the judge and the jury is there really a way to lock all of the the broader context out and not think about you know what role this man played in 2016 and in our electoral politics I think I think there is I mean I think that I think look both the government prosecutors are are good lawyers and the defense are good lawyers they've got good lawyers on both sides of this and so they're going to be very focused on the issues that are in front of them and I thought really think the the campaign can take a backseat Bill Cofield is a lawyer in Virginia you came in this morning to help us sort through the trial of Paul matter for president Trump's former campaign chair We really appreciate China's morning thanks a lot thank you. All right some very large companies including You Tube Apple Facebook and Spotify have all moved in the past couple days to restrict content produced by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones Breitbart dot com which is a website popular among Trump supporters argued that extreme groups on the left have not been subjected to the same scrutiny but it isn't just the extreme right that feels big tech has been unfair the conservative mainstream also feels threatened N.P.R.'s to mak went to a conference where Big Tex attitude toward conservatives was front and center the organizer of the resurgent gathering in Austin Texas is Erick Erickson a conservative commentator who reaches a lot of his audience through social media I do think it is relevant to worry that these tech companies are in bubbles where they are most of their chief executives are to the left their senior staff is to the left what subtle unconscious biases are there how do they weed out who to shadow ban to give access to to promote to demote Facebook and Google both sent representatives on a pilgrimage to Austin Texas for Eriksson's event they even helped co-sponsor the caucus. Thank you. Thank you Google's Max Pappas a former conservative activist argued at the conference that their platforms help conservatives find a megaphone that has traditionally not been available to them when there were 3 t.v. Channels it was the gatekeeper society and the exciting thing about the Internet is the move away from the gatekeeper society and the Internet is what enabled conservatives to go around the traditional media that we couldn't get into but papa says got a lot of convincing to do the Pew Research Center found that 85 percent of Republicans think social media sites intentionally censor political opinions and 64 percent of Republicans think major tech companies as a whole support the views of liberals over conservatives Here's how Facebook. C.e.o. Mark Zuckerberg has answered the charge of bias in congressional hearings earlier this year the principle to work platform for all ideas is something that I care very deeply about I'm worried about and we take a number of steps to make sure that none of the changes that we made are targeted in any kind of biased way Facebook has even hired former g.o.p. Senator Jon Kyl to lead a review of possible political bias in the organization active politicians have been quick to jump into this fight I have deep concerns about social media and big tech Senator Ted Cruz who attended the resurgent conference faces an unusually tough reelection race especially for a Republican in Texas Cruz says he is considering drastic steps to address Big Tex enormous influence over American politics by any measure the big tech companies today they are bigger and control more market than Standard Oil did when when the federal government broke them up under the antitrust laws they're bigger and have more power than a.t.m. T. Was when the federal government broke them up under the antitrust laws not all conservatives agree that trying to break up big tech companies is the right approach but with so many conservatives feeling censored online it could be an effective rallying call in an election year to Max n.p.r. This is n.p.r. News. Peter Sagal here from wait wait don't tell me they can do amazing things with old cars these days they can strip the metal remove the plastics and process the whole thing and turn it into all things considered or if the raw materials aren't high quality it can still be turned into Wait Wait Don't Tell me seriously it happens all the time it's why your radio smells like old Corinthian leather when you listen to our show turn your old car into the programs you love just look for the vehicle donation link it's under the support tab at k.c.l. You dot org I'm Jeremy Hobson sales of new cars are slowing but companies that sell used cars are seeing an uptick so if you're buying a used car where do you begin to carry that goes 200000 miles at the same time you can have a car that has a lot of electronics and 75200000 miles you don't want to be getting into repairs with that a used car buying guide next time on here and starting at 11 Tuesday morning on k.c.a.l. You 89.7 on the Central Coast. From n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Dave Mattingly voters are going to the polls today in 5 states there are primaries in Michigan Missouri Kansas and Washington in Ohio there's a special congressional election pitting Republican Troy Boulder stand against Democrat Danny O'Connor N.P.R.'s Sarah McCammon takes a look at O'Connor he's seen as a moderate so someone who might be able to appeal to suburban swing voters in this district is in the Columbus area and it Teaberry represented before is considered a fairly moderate Republican so you know this is a big year it's expected to be for Democrats this will be one test of whether a moderate Democrat can win out over a heavily pro Trump Republican President Trump was in Ohio over the weekend where he campaigned for bolder sent a federal appeals court in California hears arguments today in a legal challenge to President Trump's proposed wall along the Us Mexico border the Taliban are being blamed for a series of attacks in Afghanistan N.P.R.'s Dina had deeds says at least 12 people were killed the a.p. Reported the women were killed in a town that lies below Kabul in eastern Afghanistan another 4 children were wounded in the crossfire the Taliban also attacked soldiers and police at 2 checkpoints the Taliban have stepped up attacks across Afghanistan in recent months as u.s. Officials have reached out to the insurgent group to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Afghan conflict I'm Dave Mattingly in Washington millions of relics of black America Qana are being stored on a property in the California desert the very last of him yet most of the album probably 100 black mannequins in this one here is more are I'm Ari Shapiro how an enormous collection came to be plus voters go to the polls as the primaries enter the homestretch on the next All Things Considered from n.p.r. News listen between 330 this afternoon and 630 this evening on k.c.a.l. You. Deep sea robots I'm Bob version and this is science update. Many creatures that live in the deep sea have not yet been described by science now researchers report in The Journal plus one but they've designed soft robots to safely study these fragile animals thousands of meters below the surface we're trying to pick up a soft bodied animal or even something incredibly delicate as a cipher on a poor Chile fish are written Cuny marine biologist David Gruber says his team uses 3 d. Printers to custom tailor their robots to whatever creatures they encounter we were able to 3 d. Print suffer a butt on the fly depending on what we found for example soft grippy robotic finger tips for examining delicate sea cucumbers and an origami inspired trap that folds up around free floating jellyfish in order to measure their d.n.a. And physiology I'm Bob Hirsch on for trip last the science society support for n.p.r. 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