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CARL AZUZ: As the month of March winds down,
we're happy you're spending some time with us.
I'm Carl Azuz.
US President Joe Biden has returned to the White House
after a high stakes trip to Europe.
In Belgium, he met with America's NATO allies
and discussed the war in Ukraine.
One announcement made there was that officials were
looking at ways to reduce Europe's dependence
on Russian oil and gas.
On the flight home, President Biden
said, the meeting of European and North American leaders
was unlikely to cause Russia to withdraw from Ukraine,
but that the most important thing
was for NATO to stay unified in opposing Russia's invasion.
After the NATO meeting, the US leader made a stop in Poland
and delivered a major speech there.
It was during that address that President
Biden made an off-the-cuff statement
that caused controversy.
He said that Russian President Vladimir Putin, quote,
"cannot remain in power."
Why is that significant?
For one thing, it was the first time someone
in the White House publicly suggested that Russia
needed a different leader.
For weeks, the Biden administration
has said regime change, the replacement
of the Russian President, was not part of US strategy.
Shortly after the American leader's statement,
US officials walked it back.
They said, President Biden didn't
mean that President Putin should be removed from power
in Russia, but that he shouldn't be allowed to use that power
over Russia's neighbors.
They also said the phrase was not in President
Biden's prepared speech.
A spokesman for the Russian president
said his country's leadership is, quote,
"not to be decided by Mr. Biden.
It should only be a choice of the Russian people."
Here's how the controversial remark was delivered,
along with a look at some other things President Biden said,
during his speech at a Polish stadium on Saturday.
JOE BIDEN: For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.
CARL AZUZ: President Biden delivering
a forceful and dramatic condemnation of Vladimir Putin.
JOE BIDEN: A dictator bent on rebuilding
an empire will never erase the people's love for liberty.
CARL AZUZ: The White House later clarifying
Biden was not calling for regime change,
but an unmistakable message.
JOE BIDEN: Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia.
CARL AZUZ: As Biden delivered a clarion call
to Western democracies at the moment of the highest stakes,
drawing parallels to Eastern Europe's emergence
from Soviet rule.
JOE BIDEN: It was a long, painful slog,
fought over not days and months, but years and decades.
But we emerged anew in the great battle
for freedom, a battle between democracy and autocracy,
between liberty and repression.
CARL AZUZ: The speech a capstone of a European swing
defined by unity in the face of searing images
of disaster just a border away.
JOE BIDEN: Ukraine and its people
are in the front lines fighting to save their nation.
And their brave resistance as part of a larger fight
for an essential democratic principles
that unite all free people.
CARL AZUZ: Biden's remarks coming just hours
after new Russian strikes in Lviv, just 40
miles from the Polish border and as Biden's
caustic view of the Russian president grows even darker.
- You're dealing every day with Vladimir Putin.
I mean, look at what he's done to these people.
What does it make you think?
JOE BIDEN: He's a butcher.
CARL AZUZ: And his warnings to the Russian leader of NATO's
commitment grows even sharper.
JOE BIDEN: Don't even think about moving on one
single inch of NATO territory.
We have sacred obligation.
We have a sacred obligation under Article V
to defend each and every inch of NATO territory
to the full force of our collective power.
CARL AZUZ: In the final day of an urgent and hastily arranged
trip to Europe that brought Biden face to face with dozens
of Western leaders, he sat down with Polish president Duda,
pledging close ties for a NATO country
housing 10,500 US troops.
JOE BIDEN: We do acknowledge that Poland is taking
on a significant responsibility, that I don't think
should just be Poland's.
It should be the whole world-- all of NATO's responsibility.
CARL AZUZ: And more than two million Ukrainian refugees,
Biden meeting some firsthand.
JOE BIDEN: Can I hug you?
Oh!
You're so big.
- Wow.
JOE BIDEN: You're all brave, brave, brave.
CARL AZUZ: And just hours after a surprise
meeting with the Ukrainian foreign and defense ministers--
DMYTRO KULEBA: The good thing is that since the beginning
of the war, I learned how to sleep under any conditions.
CARL AZUZ: A face-to-face sit-down, where Biden pledged
even more US support, a welcome commitment for a country
under siege, and Western democracies
facing its challenge, now reshaping
European power dynamics.
JOE BIDEN: It will not be easy.
There will be cost.
But it's a price we have to pay.
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- 10-Second Trivia-- which of these events occurred in 1929,
the first Academy Awards, the Empire State Building opened,
Fleming discovered penicillin, or the first
transatlantic flight was made?
[beeping]
It was in 1929 that the first Academy Awards were
held in Hollywood, California.
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CARL AZUZ: Last night's Awards show was the 94th
in the Academy's history.
And with the advancement of time and technology,
the event at the Dolby Theater looked
a lot different than the 1929 dinner party
at the Roosevelt Hotel.
The prestigious Awards for merit in film
have also been characterized as Hollywood celebrating itself.
They've lost tens of millions of viewers since 1998,
when a record 55 million people watched.
We don't have numbers from this year's event yet,
but some industry experts say they'll never
again approach their record.
Why?
FRANK PALLOTTA: The Academy Awards
were for decades Hollywood's biggest night,
bringing together the glitz, glamour, and best films
the industry had to offer.
It was also one of the most watched events
on TV every year, usually only being
beat out by big-time sporting events, like the Super Bowl.
That's changed lately as the show has seen
record low ratings, going from an historic high of 55 million
viewers, in 1998, to an historic low of less than $10
million viewers, in 2021.
- What?
FRANK PALLOTTA: This has caused the Academy
to take some drastic and very criticized
steps to make the show more watchable.
In 2022, the Oscars try to redefine itself in two ways.
The first is by asking Twitter users to vote
for their favorite film.
The winner will get recognition of some sort
on the show and more notably, cutting
some major categories, like score and editing,
from the main telecast--
- Do pardon me.
FRANK PALLOTTA: --a move that's not been
well received in Hollywood.
TIM GRAY: I think it's just the wrong decision.
And these are just what they used
to call the little people, the cinematographers, the editors.
Because the TV audience doesn't know most of those people.
It's just a list of names.
I think it was the wrong decision, because it
diminishes those people.
- I think so.
FRANK PALLOTTA: But the Oscars changing up its format
is nothing new.
After "The Dark Knight" failed to be nominated for Best
Picture in 2009, the Academy expanded its Best Picture
nominations from 5 to 10, in hopes of bringing
in more popular fare.
Then in 2018, the Oscars announced a brand new award,
the Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement
in Popular Film, whatever that means.
It was ultimately scrapped after its announcement
and wasn't received well.
- This new Best Popular Picture is the worst
idea they've ever had.
FRANK PALLOTTA: Why the Academy goes through all this trouble
to get people to watch makes sense.
It's big business for the show's network, ABC.
Despite falling ratings, ABC still
got advertisers to pay nearly $2 million a spot in 2021.
And ABC'S relationship with the award show
isn't going anywhere any time soon,
since it renewed its contract with the Academy through 2028.
But can anything truly restore the Oscars
to its former popularity?
TIM GRAY: They will navigate to the point
where they used to be.
The audience has changed on that.
And so I think a lot of people in the Academy and at ABC
are waiting to return to those numbers.
And it's not going to happen.
You know, they're never going to get those numbers again.
FRANK PALLOTTA: And the Oscars have to evolve
in order to stay relevant.
But it still has to find a way to stay the Oscars,
or it can lose what's made it special over the last century.
TIM GRAY: I kind of like the Oscars, because they're
a little microcosm of life.
It's like even if you don't like the Best Picture winner,
it kind of reflects what's going on in society.
But I still think the name recognition Oscar,
it still means a lot to a lot of people around the world.
So I don't think the Academy will let it die.
But I don't think the fans, the hardcore fans,
will let it die either.
But the more casual fans, they may fade away.
[music playing]
CARL AZUZ: Natural goat lawnmowers--
it's really not a baa-ad idea.
About 400 ruminants have gotten jobs in the city of Sacramento,
California, their mission to clear out
any unwanted overgrowth in the area.
This is an environmentally friendly way
to spruce up landscaping, cut down as much as two acres
of brush a day, and to reduce the fuel
that wildfires use to spread.
And while you might not want to frolic barefoot
through the area afterward, we're
sure those willing to forgo traditional clearing
will be goat-ing others into the goat-en opportunity
to bleat back overgoats by goating for the goal of using
cashmere mammals, unlikely to fleece the area,
before goating it all cleared out.
So it's good to goat, y'all.
I'm Carl Azuz.
Frederic is a village in Wisconsin, where we heard
from Frederic High School.
Thank you for your comment and subscription
to our YouTube channel.
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