On today’s show: A verdict is imminent for dozens of men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot in France. Alexandra English, for Marie Claire, told us Pelicot’s story. President-elect Trump has pledged to relocate 100,000 federal jobs out of D.C. The last time he tried such a move, it didn’t go very well. The Washington Post’s Todd Frankel explains why. Lightly regulated home insurance is on the rise — quietly. Bloomberg’s Leslie Kaufman unpacks the trend. Plus, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez loses her bid for a big promotion, Trump sues the Des Moines Register, and one woman’s positive outlook after receiving a pig’s kidney as a transplant. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: What is the shocking case that reignited France's #MeToo movement?
And a warning, the segment has descriptions of sexual abuse. Any day now, judges will hand down verdicts for dozens of men accused of raping Gisele Pelico. She stunned the world by rejecting her right to anonymity and demanding a public trial for her now ex-husband Dominique and at least 50 other people allegedly involved.
She said she wants to show the world that survivors shouldn't be ashamed of abuse. Police say Pelico's ex-husband, over the course of about a decade, repeatedly invited men to their home to rape her after he drugged her with sleeping pills, leaving her unconscious. He arranged the abuse in chat rooms with men between the ages of 26 and 74 from all walks of life.
Police identified dozens of suspects from footage of the abuse her husband collected, but authorities believe more than 70 men were involved. Authorities started looking into the husband after he was caught filming up women's skirts in public. It was only until that incident was investigated that Pelico came to learn what happened to her. For years, she had been confused about strange symptoms.
Losing her hair, losing weight, losing her memories. She says entire days would just disappear. She thought she might have Alzheimer's. Here is some of her testimony, translated by the BBC, about the day police notified her.
It was hard to recognize myself. Then the officer showed me a second photo and a third. My world fell apart. I'm speaking now not for myself, but for all the women who are drugged and abused.
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Chapter 2: What does Gisèle Pelicot's testimony reveal about her experience?
Pelko has received apologies from some of the defendants, including her ex-husband, who confessed to everything. Others say they're innocent. If convicted, these men face sentences ranging from 4 to 20 years in prison. To understand where the case could go next, it's important to know how France defines consent.
Consent is really a contested gray area in France. The French law defines rape as an act of sexual penetration committed by violence, coercion, threat, or surprise. And so Giselle's case falls into that surprise category.
Chapter 3: How does French law define consent in sexual assault cases?
That's Alex English with Marie Claire. She told us during the trial, some of the defendants made the argument that they were told she had consented.
because they weren't a stranger in a dark car park, because they didn't have a knife, because they didn't hold her down, do all these stereotypical movie Hollywood type ideas of rape. So all these men could get up there and go, well, I didn't mean to do that. That wasn't my intention. I thought she was part of this. And then they're protected in that way.
The trial has sparked debate in France over whether the country's legal definition of rape does enough to recognize the role of consent. Last year, French Parliament considered adopting an EU resolution which would create a standard definition and punishment for rape across all member states. That failed.
But more recently, French officials, including the president and the justice minister, have said they support amending the legal language.
Women's rights activists and lawmakers have been trying to amend that wording to say that sex without consent is rape and also that consent can be withdrawn at any time. And then on top of that, that there are certain mental and physical states that a person can be in where they cannot be considered to be giving consent.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the legal definition of rape in France?
So, you know, having drunken too much, being in a poor mental state, things like that.
Whether that legal wording changes or not, the trial has shaken France. This is a country where the MeToo movement struggled to find footing. But in recent years, that's started to shift. A number of French women actors have filed lawsuits against male directors alleging abuse.
And Pellico's case seemingly lit a fuse, drawing supporters, mostly women, to the court to cheer her on as she entered and left each day.
I have read reports that more women have already started to come forward, which I think is a huge positive sign that things will change. I think what then matters is how they're treated once they come forward.
Let's turn now to Washington and one of President-elect Trump's many promises to shake up D.C. He says he'll move 100,000 federal jobs out of the city, which would impact roughly one in three federal workers in the area. Now, it's not a new thing for incoming presidents to target what they see as government bloat.
And Washington Post enterprise reporter Todd Frankel told us this figure, 100,000 jobs, has been popular.
When Reagan came in back in the 80s, he talked about cutting 100,000 federal jobs. And actually, even when Clinton came in in the 90s, he talked about the same number, cutting 100,000.
But what sets Trump apart is his focus on D.C. jobs.
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Chapter 5: How has the #MeToo movement evolved in France?
He really wants to sort of target this deep state that he's talked plenty about on the campaign trail and during his previous administration.
Trump tried this on a smaller scale in 2019, moving a number of agencies out of D.C., about 1,300 jobs in all. Frankel says it didn't play out exactly as he imagined, like at the Bureau of Land Management.
So they opened up this new headquarters in Grand Junction, Colorado, which is a small city about three hours west of Denver. And like three or four employees showed up, right? So everyone else left. They've lost lots of experienced workers, lots of folks who knew how the agency run. It was seen as a bit of a disaster.
Frankel reports that short of moving the Pentagon, the National Institutes of Health, or another very large agency, it's not clear how Trump would move 100,000 jobs out of Washington. Still, local economists and leaders told him it would be a huge blow to their economy.
100,000 jobs, if somehow he were to get to that number, would be devastating even to a region that has 6 million people in it.
Trump's transition team did not respond to a request for comment from the Post. The America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned group, has argued that moving these jobs would save over $1 billion in payroll costs by going to places they claim are less expensive. Critics of the plan say Trump's past attempts prove that cost savings are questionable.
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Chapter 6: What are President-elect Trump's plans for federal jobs in D.C.?
And they say these plans interrupt government work and put experienced talent at risk. So far, Trump's team has named two small agencies they want to move. Together they have about 1,000 people on staff. From hurricanes to wildfires, we are increasingly seeing how climate change can affect the cost of home insurance.
Many big names in the insurance game, like Allstate and Liberty Mutual, have decided to pull out of some areas. They say it's just not worth the cost as the price tag of extreme weather gets higher. And as these conventional, highly regulated insurers pull away, smaller, less regulated insurers are popping up to fill the void.
They come in, they say, no one else wants you, we'll sell you an insurance policy at a price. But it's important for consumers to know these are not backed by a guarantee fund.
Chapter 7: What challenges did Trump's previous attempts at relocating federal jobs face?
That's Leslie Kaufman, who reports on climate change for Bloomberg News.
It essentially means that if your insurance company for some reason fails, you as the person who bought the policy still have a way to get paid out your claim. So that's a very important backup.
These smaller businesses, known as non-admitted insurers, don't have that protection, which means you run the risk of not getting a payout. Kaufman found some of these companies are not as financially sound as more established insurers. They might be structured in a way that makes price hikes or sneaky hidden fees for consumers more likely.
Some experts who have looked at their balance sheets are deeply concerned. They do not feel that if they were in a regulated environment, they would be allowed to keep going.
These companies represent a small portion of the overall insurance market, but they're growing in high-risk markets where homeowners have few other options, like in California, Florida, and Louisiana. These states and others offer state-sponsored insurance, too, as a sort of last resort option.
However, in Florida, officials have said so many people use it because so many big insurance companies left that they're just one disaster away from serious trouble. And in California, many residents say the payout isn't enough to cover the full price of their properties.
Kaufman says it really calls into question how long these sort of startup insurers will be around and what that means for the people buying into them.
We don't know what really will happen when they get hit by the next big storm, whether they will have enough reinsurance to cover all their claims or whether they'll go bankrupt and whether it'll affect people. It's a big gamble that's playing out right now.
Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app. New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lost her bid to be the top Democrat on the House's Powerful Oversight Committee. We talked about this on the show recently.
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