NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (Oct. 25)

Welcome to NTD Evening News. Here are the top stories tonight. President Trump saying he has a decision to make on Iran, a decision that would bring a final end to the conflict. And the president says Alaska's Senate ballot is outright cheating. He says two candidates with the same name confuse voters. Attorney General Todd Blanche explains their lawsuit against Alaska. President Trump also revealing a huge new auto deal and casts his vote in the midterm election. Ukraine says Starlink is fully functional again after a week of disruptions. Elon Musk says Ukraine violated Starlink's terms of service and used the technology to kill people. The Pentagon designates Confucius Institutes in the U.S. a national security threat. War Secretary Pete Hegseth says universities need to stay vigilant. Voting has just ended in Brazil's tight presidential runoff after the Supreme Court ordered a last-minute extension of polling hours. Venezuela's opposition leader has returned after nearly a year outside the country. Maria Corina Machado's return is likely to stir up a nation seeking political stability after former dictator Maduro's ouster. Good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. The Department of Justice has just sued Alaska to block the results of Alaska's Senate race if the Republican candidate loses. Senator Dan Sullivan is running for reelection and another candidate was added to the ballot with the same name, Dan Sullivan. President Trump today calling Alaska's election ballot very unfair. Listen. That's just outright cheating. So we're before the court to see what you can do, but people are totally confused. They shouldn't be confused when voting. At least let him use the name Senator Dan Sullivan as opposed to incumbent because a lot of people don't know what incumbent means. President Trump also criticized Alaska's ranking choice voting system, which uses multiple rounds to select a winner. Attorney General Todd Blanche explains the reason behind the lawsuit in the heavily contested midterm elections. Listen, President Trump is not trying to take over a state election in any way, shape or form. What we're trying to do is make it make it clear that if it is obvious after the election that confusion led to an improper and illegal result, that the Alaskan system should be able to address that. Control of the Senate could come down to Alaska as Republicans currently hold a slim majority going into the midterm elections. And President Trump announces a $4.2 billion investment in an Audi factory in Georgia. The car manufacturer is set to break ground in November. But today I'm thrilled to announce a massive auto manufacturing investment to the great state of Georgia by a fantastic company. Audi has just committed to invest $4.2 billion in nearby Macon, Georgia, to begin the construction next month on a massive plant that will produce 200,000 cars a year. The president also said it will be the single largest auto investment in modern history. He said the plant will create 30,000 new jobs. He made the announcement during a campaign rally in Georgia, where he also mentioned the success of his Greenland deal with Denmark. We signed an agreement. You know what? The press hardly covered it. It's going to go down as the greatest real estate deal in history, probably after Venezuela. I think Venezuela. What do you take, Venezuela or Greenland? Both. We got them both. Zero. For zero. We got them both. In Florida, the president cast his vote in the 2026 election and took questions from reporters. He said he would be open to preemptive pardons for his staffers. The pardons could protect them from legal action from Democrats if they're victorious in the midterm elections. He told the Washington Examiner that former President Biden shielded many people from legal action, including many members of Congress. He said he hadn't previously thought of doing the same, but said he is allowed to, saying he doesn't want to see innocent people suffer. Democrats have said if they win the congressional majority, they plan to investigate Trump and administration officials and look into the business dealings of the Trump family. President Trump today campaigned for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers in Port Huron, Michigan, a day after former President Barack Obama rallied Democrats in the state. President Trump held a rally in Perry, Georgia, to support Republicans in the midterm election. The rally attracted people from Georgia and beyond, and NTD caught up with some of the attendees before the rally began. They told us what they thought of the president and what messages they have for him going forward. When he first said he was going to run, I said I wouldn't vote for him for a dog catcher in Shag Rag, Georgia. But when he got on and started speaking, he started talking about how much we were spending in Germany. I've traveled all over the world. Every place I've seen, they were taking advantage of America, calling it Uncle Sugar. He understood. He says, I'm going to fix this. And he has done exactly that. I think he's on the right path. I mean, I think we need to secure America, keep the borders, and that was the big one. But everything else that he's doing is getting America back and making America great again. I love the fact that he's secured the border and he's putting common sense back into government. I love that he supports women's rights in sports. What he could do better, I think, maybe sleep a little more so that he could rest and keep working for us. The president was in Georgia to support the campaigns of Congressman Mike Collins, who is running for Senate, and gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson. It's President Trump's second campaign visit to the state in the past few weeks. Early voting opened in Georgia on October 13th, and early voting numbers set records in the state, with Fox 5 Atlanta reporting votes from 1.6 million voters. The campaign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms pushed back on the event, saying Jackson is too closely aligned with the president. Meanwhile, a fake polling story still making waves. President Trump is criticizing the New York Times for publishing made-up poll numbers that favor Democrats. NTD's Daniel Monaghan spoke with an attorney who believes the numbers were meant to sway the midterms. Wedgwood Polls was a new polling outfit in 2026, and its numbers were picked up by major polling aggregators. Attorney Jeff Childers says Wedgwood's polling fit the narrative of a blue midterm wave and pushed it to the extreme, showing Democrats a few points ahead in practically every race. They were very bullish on Dems. They even, and this was the one that finally caused them to stumble, they predicted that Mississippi was closing. Childers says Wedgwood's numbers in Mississippi led the Cook Political Report to move the state from solid Republican to lean Republican. He says it also led the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to spend more than a million dollars on the race. Mississippi's about as red as it gets. It was almost laughable, but that's a good example of the kind of neutral polling that we were seeing. According to Childers, Mississippi is where it unraveled. The poll aggregator 50 Plus One grew suspicious, commissioned its own Mississippi poll, and got results that looked nothing like Wedgwood's. It wrote an article on the findings and sent it to Wedgwood for comment the day before publishing. Childers says at 6.17 p.m., Wedgwood sent them an obscene message in their private DMs. And two minutes later, they published this glowing press release about how they'd been running an experiment, and they were just testing to see whether it was possible to trick the major media platforms into accepting totally made-up polling data. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. Childers doesn't buy the experiment explanation. He says if it were real, Wedgwood should have welcomed being caught instead of answering with an obscenity. And there should be a record of the experiment from the start. So I would be looking for, you know, them telling someone at the beginning so that later if there was any question, they'd be able to prove that they were running an experiment. Childers sees another problem with the experiment claim in that their polls always supported Democrats. So if you were really doing it scientifically, I would expect to see them, hey, let's test and see if we can get our poll showing Republicans ahead published, for example. But that wasn't what happened. The attorney believes the real goal was to influence the election. My best guess is that they're advocating for Democrats and trying to influence turnout, increasing Democrat turnout and depressing Republican turnout. Childers also takes issue with the media. He says that despite having no track record, no credentials, and no real data, Wedgwood's numbers were added to major aggregators, including the New York Times, 50 Plus One, and Vote Hub, and were treated as legitimate on air by outlets such as MSNBC. up to the New York Times itself gobbled up this data as if it were um scientific or something and it exposes a fundamental flaw with this whole system that we have which is that there is no verification of these numbers so anybody can run in and make stuff up and the New York Times will run it assuming of course that the New York Times likes what it sees childers compares the polling industry to a Halloween candy bowl left on the porch with a sign that says, please take one, and it ends up empty anyway. Nobody's checking. It's the honor system. It's the Wild West. Why we expect any of the polls to be accurate is beyond me. What they've proven over and over again is that they can be badly wrong. The polling may have also shaped one race in particular. Newsweek reported that a Wedgwood poll showing Abdul El-Sayed far ahead played a role in Mallory Mc Morrow leaving Michigan's Democratic Senate primary and she said that the that poll caused like her donors to start calling her up and for people in the party to ask her to step out and things like that just from the one poll uh showing that El Sayed was so far ahead and he wasn't it turns out he was you know barely ahead maybe a little bit behind the New York Times says it removed all 15 Wedgwood polls from its election tracker Tuesday night. It's the second fake polling case this year. In August, another group called It's Bogus Polls one favoring L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, a social experiment. With less than two weeks until Election Day, the episode is raising fresh questions about which polls voters can trust. Daniel Monahan, NTD News. President Trump hints the end of the Iran war is almost here. He remarked on two potential ends to the conflict on Fox News Sunday Morning Futures. And now my question is, do I make a deal with him or do I finish him off? That's my only question. Do I make a deal or do I finish him off? The president says it's the only question remaining. He said the U.S. controls the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump also saying he knows everything taking place at Pixax Mountain, an Iranian underground facility linked to the Iranian regime's nuclear program, which has not been targeted by U.S. or Israeli strikes. Meanwhile, the director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton, warning that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel. Joining us now for analysis is David Wormser. David, great to have you, as always. Good evening. So the U.S. is reducing staff in the Middle East because the State Department warned that Iran was in advanced stages of planning attacks against Americans. So my question to you is, does this mean an operational change that the U.S. is reducing personnel in the Middle East? Does the fact that the U.S. is doing this mean it's taking the threat seriously? Oh, yes, it definitely means that it's taking the threat seriously. I mean, a good bit of our force structure in the Middle East is to protect our force structure. And one of the better ways to protect it is to remove it further away. And that doesn't necessarily mean that we have less capability. One of our great advantages is we have capabilities of great ranges, as do the Israelis. So they don't need to deploy their forces that far forward. The forces are there in part to protect most immediately our allies in the Gulf, that is the Saudis, the UAE, Qatar. We can argue over which ones are really allies or not, but nonetheless, they are aligned with us in some way or another, Kuwait, Bahrain, and so forth. So we're really there to protect them. And if we feel that there's an attack coming, we would, of course, leave the forces in place there that could help them defend themselves, like anti-missile batteries and so forth. But we would try to remove things that are vulnerable, that really don't service the defense of those countries immediately, like tankers, like some air wings and so forth. And those can be operating from a much further distance, which would be much safer. So can you explain for us what does it mean when it says it's ready for advanced attacks or advanced stages in planning attacks against Americans? What does that mean exactly? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I think it means we have concrete intelligence that's indicating that they have moved things to places that indicate that they're preparing for an attack. Now, maybe not imminently. We may not be seeing the final preparations, but we may see things going on that are consistent with the potential surprise attack that Iran may be planning. That's one area. The second area is an analysis politically of Iran, that it's in a desperate place because of the sanctions, that it will try to derail, either derail the Israeli elections or tarnish the president heading into the American election. therefore an October surprise or alternatively they may just simply feel that after the election President Trump will come after Iran anyway with Israel and go all the way so they really have nothing to lose but to strike now while uh to some extent the Israelis in the United States uh have their hands tied behind their back because of because of the elections in both countries So one of those three causes could also lead to a political analysis by our intelligence services that there's a high likelihood of attack. And then if we see anything on the ground indicating that, that, of course, tells us as well that there may be something imminent. And I would expect that to be the case in this situation. So, David, to your point that President Trump, the United States, may attack Iran after the midterm election. So Trump actually mentioned that, told reporters that the United States may restart another little Operation Epic Fury. So what do you make of that? David, it seems like your picture has frozen. I don't know if you can still hear me. So far, what we're seeing is a static image of you. It seems like we may have been disconnected. I don't know if the connection will stabilize in a second or not. or it seems like it's not doing anything right now. So, David, we're going to move on for now. If anything changes, we'll come back. But officials in Ukraine said on Saturday that Starlink and its military version, StarShield, were now fully functional after more than a week of disruption. Afterwards, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk accused Ukraine of violating the terms of service for Starlink. He says Ukrainian military used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. Ukrainian officials are disrupting the violation, disputing it, in fact. One official says that drones operated via the Starlink system had speed restrictions and did not work in Russia. President Trump said he spoke to Musk about the situation in Ukraine, but said he could not share details about their conversation. First Lady Melania Trump has secured a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the Russian-controlled town of Oleshky. And they're starting a ceasefire on October 27, and I hope everything goes as it's planned. Did you talk to President Putin or President Zelensky? We talked, we signed agreements, and... With both? With both of them. She does better than me. In announcing the ceasefire on Friday, the First Lady called Oleshki a frontline war city on the brink of disaster. Russian forces have occupied the town in southern Ukraine since Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The White House said the upcoming ceasefire will allow residents to access humanitarian aid amid a severe food shortage. Pause will also create safe passage for civilians to evacuate. Voting has just ended in Brazil's tight presidential runoff after the Supreme Court ordered a last-minute extension of polling hours. And Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has returned after nearly a year outside the country. We have more news after this break. Stay tuned. I had a pretty normal mom life. Everything was pretty good. It was a very happy life. And we just had a new baby. And then all of a sudden, within a day or two, she's on life support and fighting for her life. And I knew something was pretty wrong. A little less than a week after I came home, I couldn't breathe. That's when we decided to go to the hospital. I was given the diagnosis that I had peripartum cardiomyopathy which is basically a pregnancy induced heart failure. 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Join our community of monthly donors and you'll get this limited edition t-shirt you can wear to show you're helping save lives. One simple act today can save your life or the life of a loved one. So please, call or go to helpheart.org now to help save lives. Behind every headline in Washington, there's a story that could shape your future. With the Capitol Report on Roku, you get more than just the news. You get direct access to the White House and the Capitol. Every day, we bring you exclusive interviews with lawmakers, analysts, and experts, plus in-depth coverage of the decisions being made in Washington, D.C. Broadcasting live from the nation's Capitol, you witness events as they unfold, straight from the heart of Washington. Now you can watch it all on your home TV with Roku. Just search NTD, add the channel, and Capitol Report will be right at your fingertips so you can bring Washington straight into your living room, keeping you connected, informed, and always a step ahead. White House Communications Director Stephen Chung on Sunday shared a video on X of an interview with rapper Nicki Minaj. In the video, the two appear to board Air Force One, and Chung is asking Minaj questions about the Trump administration. Afterward, the White House Communications director posted on social media, quote, Ladies and gentlemen, I think we may have found the new White House press secretary, Nicki Minaj. The post comes after the position became vacant when Katie Zachariah left the role earlier this month. Voting has just closed in Brazil's tight presidential runoff after the Supreme Court ordered a last minute extension of polling hours. The Silva and Bolsonaro of the two contenders. I owe my election solely to the Brazilian people who were this army of democracy. For heaven's sake, I have never seen so many women, men, and young people crying and calling out for democracy. I'm very happy. In the campaign for this second round, we brought joy to the streets. A light campaign. A clean campaign. Happiness on the faces of those who were with us on the streets here in Rio de Janeiro with Douglas. Lula da Silva casting his vote in Sao Paulo earlier on Sunday. polls showed the candidates were practically tied going into the runoff. Senator Bolsonaro casting his vote in Rio de Janeiro. History favored Bolsonaro after he picked up 47% of ballots cast in the first round, while Lula trailed with 45%. Voters in Brazil cast their ballots with awareness the outcome could shift the future direction of the nation towards the U.S. or continue its current trajectory. I think an election is the people's right to express their views on the country's future. In the case of today's election, what is at stake is obviously Brazil's future, where we are headed and where politics will lead the country. I have great hope that this election will give a voice to our people, to students, to young people, to women and to minorities in our society. My expectation, to be completely honest, is that we preserve our democracy. I don't think this is about ideology or political affiliation, right or left. It's about preserving our sovereignty, our democracy, and the power of the people. Brazil's election race has been dominated by corruption scandals and economic anxiety. It has also been colored by fallout from Jair Bolsonaro's 2025 conviction for plotting a 2022 coup, which he and his allies call political persecution. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is back in Venezuela after nearly a year outside the country. I don't know anything about it, but I think she's a very nice woman. She gave me her Nobel Prize, so how can I say anything else? And I hope she's safe. She's a very nice woman. But we're doing really well in Venezuela. Machado's press team released video of her meeting supporters at a church in Lara's state in Venezuela. She posted to social media early on Sunday, saying, quote, I'm here with you all. She did not disclose details about how she returned. Machado was barred from exiting the country by then-President Nicolas Maduro, but left secretly in 2025 with the aid of a private U.S. rescue team. While away, she received the Nobel Peace Prize. Acting President Delcy Rodriguez took charge in Venezuela after the U.S. removed Machado, or rather, I should say Maduro. Meanwhile, Machado and her allies have since been demanding a date for a presidential election. War Secretary Pete Hegseth announces the dismantling of Confucius Institutes and their derivatives. He says they embedded themselves in U.S. universities and were focused on stealing American intellectual property and turning American students against America. These Chinese government-backed propaganda cultural programs had infiltrated our nation's universities in almost every state. Now, thankfully, Congress banned them a few years ago, these Confucius Institutes, but they came back disguised in new forms, just like DEI does. Just call it a different name. He said that U.S. universities need to stay vigilant about the threat. He said after Congress banned Confucius Institutes in 80 new propaganda cells across 30 universities popped up using different names and charters, but held the same anti-American mission. According to the National Association of Scholars, the Chinese communist regime has sponsored Confucius Institutes at schools around the world. The regime provides teachers, textbooks, and funds. The National Association of Scholars found that Confucius Institutes undermine academic integrity and import censorship. Unlike North Korea, China is learning from the Russia-Ukraine war without sending its own troops into battle. Beijing is using those lessons to upgrade its military and prepare for future conflicts. A new report by CSIS, a Washington-based think tank, details how China is studying battlefield innovations. Chinese military researchers rapidly study new battlefield tactics, like using anti-jamming technology and specialist drones, in just four months. Within a year, those lessons are incorporated into military training, equipment, and force structure. They view massive drone swarms as a normal structure for future warfare. To prepare, China is rapidly merging commercial tech with military defense, securing a massive production line for future conflicts. Experts warn China is using the Ukraine war as a blueprint for future conflicts, including Taiwan. And China announced new export controls on drones and related components, taking effect November 18th. Meanwhile, data shows Ukraine has sharply reduced its direct imports of Chinese drone parts, though critical gaps in components remain. Here's more. China's Ministry of Commerce announced the updated export controls earlier this week. The new rules cover certain unmanned aircraft, flight control systems, and related technologies. Look, the drones being restricted are all long-range drones, the kind with an endurance of more than 30 minutes, but less than three hours, and so on. Ukraine might claim that it manufactures drones, but there are many components it cannot produce itself. Once the Chinese Communist Party restricts the export of these components, the Ukrainian military will be the hardest hit. Meanwhile, trade data indicates a shift in Ukraine's defense procurement. Direct imports of drone parts from China dropped from nearly 90% in early 2024 to about 28% in the first eight months of 2026. Ukrainian manufacturers expanded domestic production and turned to alternative international suppliers in Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S. Despite the drop in direct shipments, supply chain analysts note that critical gaps remain. Ukraine continues to rely on intermediaries or third-party routes to acquire specialized materials that cannot yet be produced domestically at scale. China's new rules take effect November 18th. Their impact on Ukraine will depend on which components require licenses and how those rules are enforced. Pushing back on Beijing's suppression, Texas Governor Greg Abbott says his state is disrupting Chinese Communist Party efforts to target people on American soil. He spoke with the Epoch Times' Jan Ekelund, who asked about what progress Texas has made. Let me start with the transnational aggression aspect, right? So especially this Operation Foxhunt was an example. So we were founded by Chinese Americans and the Chinese Communist Party has not liked our reporting on China and other things. So we've experienced this ourselves. So let's start with that question. And what progress do you feel this Texas Department of Public Safety has made on challenging this stuff? Yeah, so really pretty good progress. You know, we've seen issues in places like Houston and Dallas and some other places that we've been able to go in there and disrupt it and make good progress. As you know, I mean, there's kind of two categories of it, some of which is more obvious than others, some of which is more secretive than others. But we have some pretty good intelligence at the Texas Department of Public Safety. And they're able to jump in and disrupt all kinds of things like this. Transnational repression is when a foreign government harasses, monitors, or intimidates critics living abroad. One example is Operation Foxhunt, a Chinese regime campaign that U.S. prosecutors say pressured people in America to return to China. Ekelund credits Abbott with a major shift in how Texas confronts Chinese Communist Party influence. that includes land ownership, critical infrastructure contracts, state investments, government devices, university partnerships, and K-12 curriculum. He says that when Abbott took office, there was little awareness of how far that influence had spread in Texas or across the country. And if you're interested, you can watch the whole interview at the EpochTimes.com website or on NTD+. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is preparing to resume financial penalties against nearly 10 million Americans who have defaulted on federal student loans, potentially starting in 2027. And we have more news after this break. It's time for the nation to decide. This election will bring you must watch races on the ground coverage and the balance of power. Our panels will break down the results and what it all means for you. And we'll track the nation's direction with real time voter data as soon as it drops the economy socialism and a lot more is on the ballot the nation decides 2026 midterms november 3rd at 6 p.m eastern only on ntd during high school i hung with the wrong crowd and i never graduated i helped santiago in many different ways like all fathers do because he always wanted to go to college i felt a little embarrassed to come back to school but eventually once i came here. I knew that it's for a bigger goal. He was very dedicated, hardworking. He connected with his teachers, he connected with other students. That was one of the key reasons why he was able to keep forging ahead. It was amazing to see him graduate. This was one thing that meant so much to him and of course it meant so much to us too. With the help of my father and having my son, that was all the motivation that I needed that support is everything find free adult education classes near you at finish your diploma org I don't remember how it started our back and forth victory fumble repeat it always came back you probably don't remember what you told me I heard every word love them enough to crawl into a play place to get them to come down, then surely you'll check NHTSA.gov slash the right seat to make sure they're in the right car seat. Trump administration officials are preparing to restart collections on defaulted federal student loans. Joining us now to discuss this is Aaron Boxer, former special education teacher and CEO of Diversified Education Services. So, Aaron, good afternoon. Hope you had a great weekend. So nearly 10 million borrowers already in default, according to official numbers. To start off, can you just talk to us about why such a large number? Thanks, Don. It's good to see you. For a lot of families, this is really going to hurt. The government can take up to 50% of a paycheck without even going to court. And for many working families, the tax refund is the one lump sum they can usually count on. But as you were asking about, we have to be honest about how we got here. The collections on defaulted loans have barely functioned in the last six years since the pandemic. And a whole group of borrowers learned that if you don't pay, nothing happens. So as of June, we had 9.3 million, we're almost at 10 million borrowers. The people who will feel this most were told over and over that the bill might just go away. So why pay? So is that the main reason why they're not paying, why they're in default because they're not willing to pay? Or is there another category of people where they're genuinely cannot afford their payments? So what exactly is the reason? There's not one reason as you're insinuating. There's a lot of different reasons why people wouldn't want to pay their debt. And some of it is created by maybe not saving enough, but also the mixed messaging. And the government and the environment that we were in during the pandemic played a really big part because again, for six years, borrowers got these mixed signals, pause, extension, forgiveness, court fighting, and then another pause and another pause. A lot of good people reasonably thought that the bill might disappear. Now they need clear, honest information about where they stand. So whenever there is a crisis in the country back during the 2008 financial crisis, and then after that, they created an environment, the Obama administration, where the government got directly involved in student loans. And then we had the pandemic. So it's a political football that keeps on getting kicked around. So Aaron, if it is the case that the government cannot indefinitely tolerate people in default, what is the course of action that you think it should take that is a balance between all factors? We have to talk about reform strategies, which we're already seeing. And that's what happens when you fix the front end. For example, for years, graduate students could borrow unlimited federal money and colleges just kept adding programs and raising prices. Master's degrees rose 50% in 20 years after inflation. Once Congress capped that borrowing, colleges started cutting prices. The AEI has counted 38 schools and programs that cut tuition or added scholarships. So that's the model. lend responsibility, make colleges share the risk. Some of them have multi-billion dollar endowments. Give borrowers one simple plan tied to income and warn people early before they ever reach default. Okay, so that is a good solution because you mentioned earlier that these master's degrees have increased in price. And I think you highlighted the problem here, which is higher education can improve employment opportunities, making student borrowing a worthwhile investment for many people. But as you highlighted, the problem is that students make borrowing decisions before knowing how their careers will turn out or whether they'll have the financial ability to pay back the loans. Maybe you can speak a bit more on this. How do we tackle this problem? Well, the Trump administration has already taken some steps to make sure that people, when they go to college, if they're going to take out loans, that the colleges that are providing some of the majors that are available to them, they need to be making an average salary that is beyond somebody who doesn't have a college education. And that is the key. Before one goes to college, figure out, am I just going because everyone else is going, or do I have a goal in mind? Setting a goal about what is going to happen in the future, even if you don't know, even if you say, I want to go work in a particular field, Maybe I'm not sure, but I'm not going to take out $100,000 a year loan unless I know what I'm going to get. If I'm going to buy a house, I'm going to take out a loan. I know exactly what I'm getting. So a lot of these colleges are also working about eliminating some majors that would not fill the formula where the federal government would reimburse them for the loans that are being given out. So a lot of it has to start with education, believe it or not, educating people in schools, some of these high schools when their kids are applying, even at home, to find out what is going to happen when you take out a loan. Because if people take out loans they can't afford, then later on, it's just going to follow them around for the rest of their lives. And we don't want them, we don't want more added on to the 10 million people who are going to have their wages garnished if they don't wind up paying off some of their debt. So overall, what is your assessment of the federal loan program for borrowers right now? I think it's gotten a lot better. Like I said, whenever there's a crisis in the country and the federal government is trying to buy votes, at least let's say the Democratic side tries to buy votes by giving out free money, always be wary of that. Now, we have two times in the last 20 years where the Democratic side wound up passing these programs that were giving out free money that was unchecked. And the colleges, they're just doing their part, right? If they're going to be getting loans paid off no matter what, then they can just keep raising their prices. So now we have two generations that have been impacted by the programs set forth by the federal government when it comes to student loans. So it doesn't really affect the people who have already been negatively impacted, but taking mental notes, we are going to have crises that happen in this country. And this seems to be part of the playbook where we're going to give out free loans, give out unlimited amounts of money. And I always like to operate with, if it seems too good to be true, it's probably not real. So just be wary when your kids are applying for college that free money isn't always free. Maybe you can provide us with some more advice here. What can borrowers do to prepare for the possible, I mean, the administration is talking about this, the possible resumption of collections. What can borrowers do to prepare for that? Well, there's also private loans that people can get. And what matters most is how borrowers are treated, giving people notice well ahead, a real person to talk to, a chance to set up affordable payment plans before anything is taken. We have a new online center where most people can fix this before a collection call is ever made. Make sure that your information is up to date on the student loan website. Make sure that you don't ignore your emails or check the mailbox for communication that's being offered. So for the people that are already in default, there are ways that they can get out of it. But if they ignore it, the problem gets worse. If you lose your job, there's opportunities for you to avoid having your income garnished. If you have a partial or a permanent disability, there are options. So it's really important to reach out to your loan provider and make sure that you communicate with them, because those are the best people who have the most viable options. Okay, Aaron, it's good to speak with you today. Let's leave the conversation here. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me, Don. A New York City tradition is on the line after lawmakers voted to phase out Central Park's horse-drawn carriages. Opponents are urging the mayor not to sign the measure. Freezing water, masses of ice, and determined courage meet the professional diver who made history off the coast of Newfoundland. More news after this break. performance that truly matters this is what you've been waiting for getting prescription glasses from Select Specs is easier than you might think Select your frames from our six pound range in-house brands or our extensive designer collections then enter upload or email your latest prescription and our website will analyze it and help you select the best lenses and options to suit you click to place the order and your new Select Specs glasses are delivered right to your door. Ordering your prescription glasses is as easy as one, two, three, with Select Specs at selectspecs.com. 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No sugar, no caffeine no artificial ingredients experience the pure natural power of Pure Tang Black Ginseng nourish your body strengthen your immunity and boost your energy to order Pure Tang Black Ginseng please visit puretang.com it's that time of year come to Mathis Home today and get Black Friday deals on your new living room plus with our new five-year promotional financing you don't have don't wait, get the room of your dreams today with easy monthly payments here's a hot buy this Generously padded sofa and a durable performance fabric has two power recliners for comfort at the touch of a button. It even has charging ports. Get it today for just $8.95. We make it easy with Black Friday deals and five years to pay at your furniture superstore, Mathis Home. Welcome back. A fight is brewing over the future of one of New York City's best-known tourist traditions. The City Council has voted to phase out horse-drawn carriages in Central Park. But opponents are now urging the mayor not to sign the measure. They want city leaders to consider alternatives instead of ending the industry. Here's more. It is going to be sad. It will be like the end of an era. You know, these carriages have been here before any of us have been here. Horse-drawn carriages have traveled through Central Park since the 1800s. The industry includes carriage owners, drivers, and stable workers. A ban could put hundreds of people out of work. Ahmet Bilisi came to the U.S. from Turkey. He became a carriage driver in 2003. He later opened his own business. It's a small business. I'm doing anything wrong. This is kind of like mafia, like gangster. This is not acceptable. There's no way. You cannot be like this mafia, like come with somebody who has his own properties and take them and then kick them out. You cannot do that. The licenses are capped at 68. They're often passed down through families and can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The bill, which would phase the industry out, says lawmakers must make a plan to help carriage drivers find other work. The Transport Workers Union opposes the ban. Carriage owner and union representative Christina Hansen says the horses are part of New York City's identity. The horses in Central Park, we are iconic. We are as much a part of the city as the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. Most carriage horses stay in Manhattan stables when they're not working. They also spend five weeks each year on mandatory vacations at farms. For the visitors, the rides remain part of the Central Park experience. Well, this is my first time ever visiting New York and it's the first thing we're doing. So it's probably not the best idea that I've ever heard. The bill awaits Mayor Mamdani's signature and he has pledged to sign it. Hundreds cheered in Munich as short legs went flying for the ultimate sausage dog race. The race was on, but these dogs had their own ideas about winning. In Munich, 150 speedy Dachshunds over the track for a high-stakes race. They raced down separate lanes on a 40-meter track. Owners waved treats and favorite toys, hoping to lure their furry athletes to the finish line. Event organizers say the race has exploded in popularity over the last four years. From tiny bodies to flying years, it's easy to see why this adorable event is winning hearts everywhere. And turning fear into fuel, Canada cliff diver Molly Carlson became the first woman to dive from an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland. The jump followed a four-year plan and months of training in ice climbing and cold water. Take a look. Standing about 50 feet above the freezing Atlantic, professional cliff diver Molly Carlson faced the challenge. Strong winds, low temperature, and unstable ice created a high-risk environment. But the physical danger was only part of the battle. I think for me, I've always seen icebergs as, you know, 10% of what everyone sees and then 90% under the surface, what nobody's seeing, what people are struggling with. With the help of a climbing expert, Carlson scaled the giant structure. Then she launched into a backward flip. The iceberg can shift, break apart, or roll over without warning. And the water was about 34 degrees Fahrenheit. That moment, that magical moment in the air, just flying, was something I'll never forget. Carlson and her team spent years planning the attempt. The dive marks a first for women in the sport. I just can't wait to put that picture of me flying off an iceberg on my bridge. The dive was captured in a recently released short documentary called Red Bull Iceberg Dive. Officials caution fans not to imitate the stunt. And a look at the midterms with early voting already underway. Capitol Report host Steve Lance sits down with author Todd Starnes to discuss the campaign promises that had voters turn out for President Trump in the general election. Todd's new book examines the president's record, the country's founding values, and the future of American freedom. Here's a snippet of that interview. As we were getting closer to the midterm elections, I noticed that a lot of conservatives, a lot of Republicans were beginning to buy into this mainstream media narrative that somehow this had been a failure, that the president had not accomplished much of his agenda. So I set about writing a book, looking at the promises President Trump made on the campaign trail and then discovering whether or not he had delivered on those promises. And as as readers will discover, the president has, in fact, delivered on many of his promises. And by any estimation, this president has had an incredibly successful second term in office. And it's especially important when you realize that not only is the president fighting the Democrats and the propagandists in the media, but he's also fighting members of his own party, the establishment Republicans. So that really was how I started out the book. I will tell you that for me, the golden age is not really about prosperity. as i wrote in the book the golden age for me is about returning to the values that made this country great back in 1776 todd i found it interesting uh you you argue that we came close to losing the republic really uh under the last administration how would you describe the years uh before this second term in office and what do you say to sort of the thought of um you know historic failure as some republicans would put under the previous administration it's going to take some time to reverse that two years uh which we've seen in president trump's second term might not be enough well i think that we saw some very dark and dangerous days during the the biden auto pen presidency and unfortunately a lot of americans they do not have long-term memory so they've forgotten just how bad it was from a cultural perspective alone many of our institutions have been co-opted by the left by radical leftist President Biden who I really don't in at the at his heart of hearts I don't believe he's a far leftist I think he's more of a pragmatic Democrat along the lines of an of an old Bill Clinton for example but unfortunately he was just not all there and there were some radical people that were making decisions and putting very dangerous individuals into what we now know as the deep state the bureaucracy this is a president who ordered the FBI to go after President Trump at Mar-a-Lago to spy on the former first lady and the teenage son of the president that information just being revealed a few weeks ago This was a White House that targeted pro-lifers and staged pre-dawn guns-drawn raids on the homes of pro-lifers. This was the same presidency that actually went to Catholic priests in Richmond, Virginia and tried to recruit Catholic priests to spy on parishioners who preferred the Latin Mass This was a very dark time, I believe, in American history. And had it not been for President Trump running for office and winning, I really do believe this country would have gone right over the socialist cliff. And sort of during the, you know, I guess the end or the climax of that time, political violence against conservatives had risen to unprecedented levels. President Trump, during that time period, at the end of President Biden's term, survived multiple assassination attempts. We're now seeing a socialist movement gaining ground, which it was doing during that time as well. what does that mean for everyday Americans and why does perseverance matter so much right now to sort of change the tide sure it look it's a great question and again this is why I wrote the book because as Ronald Reagan said freedom is not passed along in our bloodstream every generation has to fight for it Reagan also said in another speech that there's an interesting thing about our national anthem, that it's really not a declaration as much as it is a series of questions. Our national anthem asked a very simple question is the flag still there? Is it still flying? And that's really a question that I think every generation of Americans have to answer for, which is why I wrote The Golden Age I wanted to inspire Generation Z to stand up and fight for their country many of these kids have been educated in taxpayer-funded classrooms and they've been taught that America is bad that America is evil America is responsible for all the wrong things in the world that America is not an exceptional nation so really my book I think is an is really an antidote to uh what's happening in our nation's taxpayer-funded classrooms but i really i i really do believe that we are facing dark times here and especially on the issues regarding free speech you know i was i've been tracking those numbers since 2015 when Pew research first published a study that showed a shocking number of millennials at the time believe there should be limitations placed on free speech now we live in a society where not only do a majority of democrats believe there should be limitations placed on free speech there was a survey put out just a couple of weeks ago that suggested 33 percent of registered democrats believe they would be okay if in fact president trump had been assassinated so now we've moved from placing limitations on free speech to actually shutting down speech you disagree with and using violence if necessary this is right out of the communist playbook and through that lens i think we understand now why charlie kirk was assassinated how do you sustain this momentum in these gains that have happened for religious liberty, especially as socialism is gaining traction in our country. I heard Marco Rubio deliver this incredible speech, A Defense of Western Civilization. And as I was reading the speech, I knew right away that I needed to change the ending of the book. This really is a fight for future generations. And when you see Generation Z, By some estimations, they say that the younger part of Generation Z could be more conservative or just as conservative as the greatest generation. I believe that to be the case. I see young people that are embracing patriotism. They are going back to the church in record numbers. Young people are reading the Bible in record numbers. And I just think that young people today are looking for substance. They're looking for depth, and they're looking for meaning in life. And that, to me, bodes well for the future of the republic. So when I wrote The Golden Age, I also wrote it with young people in mind. I wanted to share stories of other young people throughout American history that had made sacrifices, that had taken a stand going all the way back to the Revolutionary War times. So I am encouraged by the future. the fight is going to get, I think, more brutal. I think we're going to see even more socialists winning office nationwide. And there really is going to come a reckoning one day. Do we choose freedom or do we choose oppression? And we need to be prepared to answer that question. And that's it for today's news. For round-the-clock coverage, visit us at NTD.com or download our NTD app. Thank you for tuning in. I'm Don Ma. Good night.