Plus, the Federal Aviation Administration lifts flight restrictions stemming from the government shutdown. And tech stocks rise in South Korea after the country’s largest conglomerates pledged billions of dollars in new domestic investments. Kate Bullivant hosts.
President Trump suddenly reverses course on the Epstein files, urging Republicans to support a House vote on Tuesday that he was previously trying to block. In the Caribbean, a major U.S. military buildup raises new questions about the administration’s strategy toward Venezuela as Trump claims President Maduro “would like to talk.” And in Charlotte, North Carolina, a new Border Patrol operation sparks fear and confusion after immigration enforcement agents fan out across the city with little warning.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Tara Neill, Kevin Drew, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Martha Ann Overland.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Lindsay Totty.
We get engineering support from Damian Herring. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Today, we have a special episode correlated with Fraud awareness week, and brought to you by our friends at SEON - the command center for fraud prevention and AML compliance. SEON connects first party data signals to show you what other solutions can't - by enriching data, understanding context, and taking action from one place... to prevent fraud.
In this episode, we are talking with Husnain "HB" Bajwa, SVP of Product & Risk Solutions. He has been a fraud and risk leader for 30+ years, and leads innovation in fraud prevention and compliance at SEON. HB is going to touch on important topics in the fraud detection and prevention space, such as AI, regulatory pressures, and the perspectives of startups that can get them into trouble.
Questions:
You’ve spent a lot of time in the world of fraud and compliance. What first drew you to solving these kinds of problems?
Startups often focus on growth first and worry about fraud later. What’s the hidden risk in that mindset?
Why do you believe fraud prevention and AML compliance are converging, and what are the benefits of them living in the same system?
AI gets talked about a lot, but in your view, what are the real, practical ways it’s improving fraud and AML work today?
We’re seeing more regulatory pressure globally. How can organizations prepare for 2026 to ensure they are taking a risk-based approach to compliance?
I know your team’s been working on some big innovations, including a new compliance suite built on top of your fraud prevention stack and new AI-driven tools. How are these helping investigators connect the dots faster and uncover hidden relationships, especially when it comes to complex cases?
What advice would you give to early-stage startups that might think they’re ‘too small’ to be targeted by fraudsters?
About a third of global greenhouse gas emissions come from our food systems, and livestock production is a big part of that. Experts largely agree that one of the biggest actions individuals can take to lower emissions is to eat less meat.
But that's a hard sell for a lot of consumers. Americans have actually been eating more meat in recent years, and sales of plant-based meat alternatives have dropped.
There are a lot of companies out there trying to innovate climate-friendly meat and alternatives for the future.
For our podcast "How We Survive," Marketplace's Amy Scott visits a lab at Columbia University where researchers are figuring out how to make a more convincing and enjoyable fake meat.
This weekend, thousands of people protested in Mexico City about violent crime. But our correspondent notes that the government has had some success in confronting drug gangs and cutting homicides. Three years ago Japan’s former prime minister Abe Shinzo was assassinated. Now his killer is on trial. And celebrating the life of the bomb-disposal mastermind Peter Gurney.
When President Trump proposed the introduction of a 50-year mortgage, he challenged a bedrock of the American housing market and financial system. He also revealed how desperate the administration is to lower prices for consumers.
Conor Dougherty, who covers housing and development, explains what’s attractive about the idea and its potential drawbacks — and why housing affordability is such an intractable problem.
Guest: Conor Dougherty, a reporter for The New York Times covering housing and development for more than a decade.
President Trump calls Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene a “traitor” for her stance on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. A new federal immigration crackdown begins in Charlotte, North Carolina. And missing a loved-one who is no longer with us? Well, there’s an app for that.
How can we reclaim the internet? Tom Sutcliffe and guests discuss the digital age - its supporters and discontents.
Tech critic Cory Doctorow introduces his new book Enshittification, a blistering diagnosis of how online platforms have decayed — from innovation to exploitation — and what we can do to make it better for ordinary users.
Novelist and broadcaster Naomi Alderman draws on history in Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today, arguing that we’ve lived through information crises before, and that lessons from the invention of writing and the printing press can help us navigate today’s digital turbulence.
Journalist Oliver Moody, the author of Baltic: The Future of Europe, discusses Estonia’s radical embrace of digital governance, and what it reveals about the possibilities — and limits — of a truly connected state.