Trump’s $47 Billion-Dollar Border Wall Plan, and Why a Tupac Murder Trial Is Starting After 30 Years

**Tracy Mumford** (0:00)
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From the New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Tuesday, August 18th. Here's what we're covering.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:45)
I just landed in Texas, headed to Big Bend National Park. Last night, I put a pause on all activity in that park, as far as construction goes, until I can get down there and do a personal evaluation.

**Tracy Mumford** (0:57)
The head of US. Customs and Border Protection says that the Trump administration is temporarily stopping work on a controversial border security project that cuts through a national park in Texas.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:11)
No walls!

**SPEAKER_4** (1:12)
No walls!

**SPEAKER_5** (1:13)
No ways!

**SPEAKER_6** (1:14)
No ways!

**Tracy Mumford** (1:16)
For months, environmentalists, local officials, and lawmakers from both parties have criticized the administration's plans to cut through the pristine desert wilderness. Several local sheriffs have opposed it, too, calling it unnecessary, since in recent months, authorities have encountered fewer than six migrants a day in the whole area. Amid the backlash, the administration scaled back its plans for a 30-foot wall. But this month, bulldozers and excavators started tearing up the landscape for a new patrol road and other security measures, setting off a fresh wave of anger.
Now, the CBP says that work has been paused, too.
The fight around Big Ben National Park comes as the administration has been trying to fill in the gaps of the border wall, which has been a signature priority for President Trump for years. In his first term, work on the wall mostly involved replacing existing barriers. But now, efforts to extend the wall are accelerating, boosted by about $47 billion in dedicated funding that Congress approved as part of last summer's One Big Beautiful bill. Construction is underway in all four border states with some 1,200 miles of new barriers planned, even as illegal crossings at the southern border have fallen to historic lows.
Now, two other quick updates on the Trump administration.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:47)
Question for the Prime Minister. Do you expect to speak with the US president before Wednesday's tariff deadline? And if so, what will your message be for President Trump?

**SPEAKER_4** (2:56)
Short answer is yes.

**Tracy Mumford** (2:58)
Canada is scrambling to try and avoid new 50% tariffs on hundreds of Canadian goods that the White House says will go into effect at midnight tonight. Canadian officials stayed in DC over the weekend to continue negotiations with the US. And Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has told them to try and offer targeted concessions. He's hoping to both keep the new tariffs from kicking in and ease existing levies on Canadian products that President Trump has already put in place. If no deal is reached and the new US surcharges kick in, that could push Canada to retaliate, further escalating economic tensions between the US and one of its largest trading partners.
And President Trump has cast his vote ahead of Florida's Republican primary today using a method that he has long railed against.

**SPEAKER_7** (3:49)
Never allow mail-in ballots because if you do, there'll be massive cheating.

**Tracy Mumford** (3:55)
Voting by mail.

**SPEAKER_7** (3:56)
Anytime you have mail-in ballots, you have cheating. People don't want mail-in ballots because you have crooked elections. It guarantees a crooked election.

**Tracy Mumford** (4:03)
Trump has criticized mail-in voting for years, using it to bolster his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. But this is at least the third time he's used mail-in voting himself, casting ballots in Palm Beach County, home to Mar-a-Lago. In response to questions, a White House spokeswoman downplayed Trump's choice, saying that, quote, this is a non-story.
Across the country, the cyclospora outbreak is now waning, after becoming the largest of its kind in US history, with almost 25,000 confirmed or suspected cases. Some food safety experts the Times spoke with said they feel comfortable eating salad again. But my colleagues have learned new details about how, in the early days of the outbreak, officials struggled to pinpoint the source of the contamination. Back on July 1st, state health officials in Michigan, where there were a lot of cases, had homed in on a common thread. Many of the people who had gotten sick had eaten at Taco Bell. So they emailed the company asking for its supply chain records. They emailed again on July 3rd, and again on July 6th, according to emails the Times obtained. That day, Taco Bell provided some records to the state, but it wasn't until July 13th, once the FDA was also involved, that the government finally got all the paperwork it needed to identify lettuce from a facility in Mexico as a source of the outbreak.