(upbeat music) - Hey everybody, it is Friday, August 2nd. You're listening to the "Mo News" podcast. I'm Moshe Wannunu. - And I'm Jill Wagner. This is the place where we bring you just the facts. - And we read all the news and read between the lines to see you don't have to. Jill, it's good to be back. - Guess who's back again. I'm so happy you're back, per usual. It was a crazy news week. So I missed you extra. I always miss you on the podcast. But this week, I missed you even more than I normally would. - In fact, the cameo I made on the podcast, we didn't actually get to interact. You were sleeping at that point. So I was on the podcast this week, but I did it solo from Montana because of the breaking news in Iran earlier this week. - Which we have learned a little bit more about. So we'll have more on that. And Moshe, just quickly, how are you feeling? I know that there were concerns that you may have almost broken your hip, actually. - Jill, I have a couple of headlines from Montana. One, it's amazing, everyone should get there. Two, Glacier National Park is a true treasure. There are many great national parks in this country. Glacier being one of the most beautiful that I have seen. So if you can get out there, get out there. And headline number three for me. Don't hike multiple miles uphill and then downhill with a front carrier when your child is almost 20 pounds. The lady's now about 10 months old. Four miles uphill downhill turns out my 40-something year old hips don't lie. And they said, "Ouch." So I woke up this morning. Several days in, I was immobile, was hard to stand up. When is the chiropractor chiropractor? The doctor said, "You should probably get an x-ray." The headline is, "Heaven't broken anything. Severe, severe, sprain, strain. And I need to lay off being on my feet for a couple days." - The headline is, "You're 40-something year old dad." And these things, unfortunately, happen. - This is why people say, "Have your kids young?" - All right, Moshe, let's get to some headlines here. Inside of the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War, seeing the release of U.S. prisoners, Evan Gerskovich and Paul Whelan, amongst others. - Yeah, seven countries, 26 prisoners. We'll tell you what we've learned about how it all went down. - To presidential politics, the Veepstakes heats up. We'll know in less than four days who Kamala Harris will pick as her running mate. - This is sort of peak VP interest. We care right now, and then 20 hours after the choice comes out, we'll stop talking about that person. - Wait, it's fun to guess. Maybe we care for a minute, and then we're over it. Some more details about the assassination of Hamas's political leader in Tehran. Well, it turns out that the bomb that killed him had been smuggled into the guest house where he was staying weeks before the attack. - Yeah, this is some homeland-fowed-a-level stuff, Joe. We're getting some interesting details. - Back at home, the heat wave is spreading and some new numbers out show that California wildfire activity is actually more than 2,000% higher this year than last. And all the dry weather around the world making coffee prices higher. In pop culture news, a Britney Spears biopic is in the works at Universal. To the Olympics, a boxer who had a sex identification test issue wins the first Olympic fight in Paris when her opponent quits. - Yeah, this is something being talked about a lot of controversy around women's boxing right now. - And speaking of the Olympics, Simone Biles clinches gold again in Paris and makes Olympic history. - And Jill, we'll talk women's rugby. We've gotten a lot of comments from all of you. Want to know more about the big USA medal in rugby. - Plus it is Friday. Cheers to the freakin' weekend. What we are watching, reading and eating. - Jill, I got some Montana wrecks for everybody. - Okay, great. I feel like we maxed out on Brooklyn. So it's good. You've moved just in time and you went on vacation. - Right, we said that it was giving you way too many wrecks in New York expanding to the Mountain West. - Okay, let's start with that historic prisoner swap. The largest of its kind since the Cold War, Americans freed in the exchange. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerskovich who was sentenced to 16 years behind bars in Russia accused of spying back in March of 2023. And former US Marine Paul Wieland, he had been detained since 2018 when he traveled to Russia for a friend's wedding. And then Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty Journalist, Al-Sue Karmorsheva, this multi-country exchange involved seven countries, 24 adults and two kids. Those kids are believed to be the children of spies that were exchanged. 10 people, including those two kids, were transferred to Russia. 13 to Germany and three to the United States. They had been imprisoned in seven different countries. They boarded multiple planes. The exchange ultimately took place in Ankara, Turkey. Turkey is a NATO country that also has close relations with Russia. President Biden said the elaborate deal demonstrates the importance of American allies and diplomacy. - They still would not have been made possible without our allies. Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey. They all stepped up and they stood with us. They stood with us. And they made bold and brave decisions. Release prisoners being held in their countries who are justifiably being held. And provide a logistical support to get the Americans home. So for anyone who questions with allies matter, they do. - Jill, clearly they're an implicit attack on Trump there who's talked about having a much more transactional relationship and that these long-standing alliances don't matter as much to him. - Well, several of those countries did not want to give up some of the Russians that they had in prison. Again, we are talking about hackers, spies and hitmen. But the deal was two years in the making and the key to the deal was a man named Vadim Krasakov. He's a Russian hitman. He was serving a life sentence in a German prison after he killed an exile in broad daylight at a park in Berlin in 2019. Germany agreeing to be part of the deal and agreeing to his release was really critical to making it happen. Germany and the United States drafted the deal by paper and then hand delivered copies from the White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's office to his counterpart in Germany, Jake Sullivan getting emotional talking about the deal himself and the families of the Americans who had been wrongfully detained. - I spent a lot of time with the families of Evan and Paul and also and most of the time as you can imagine, those are tough conversations. But not today, today, excuse me. Today was a very good day and we're gonna build on it. - So most clearly, this is something that U.S. officials felt very personally. - Yeah, Joe, this is a big deal when you talk to officials. In fact, when we had the interview with Tony Blinken, Secretary of State last year, he talks about how in his jacket pocket, every day he carries a list of all Americans wrongfully imprisoned abroad to ensure that he thinks about them every day. So while they don't often talk about it publicly, there are ongoing talks around Americans held in Russia and Iran and North Korea and other places on a near daily basis. - Yeah, there's some reporting that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerskovich's mom, Ella, was understandably relentless in terms of pressuring administration officials, both publicly and privately, to get her son out of Russia. According to Axios, she even cornered President Biden at the White House Correspondents Association dinner. And she also met with the German Chancellor's chief of staff looking for help in January, saying, "You have the key." That is her referencing that Russian prisoner we had told you about, Badim Krasakov. And that same day, the German Chancellor and Biden met in the White House to talk about it. And by February 2nd, Shultz, the German Chancellor, told Biden that, "For you, I will do this." So most certainly an amazing day for these American families. What are we learning about how this deal came together? - So details are coming out from a variety of sources. The Wall Street Journal certainly has a lot. The Guardian newspaper in England also has some interesting reporting here. For anyone looking for perspective, first of all, we did a podcast recently over on the Mo News interview podcast. That is our second podcast, where we conducted interviews with a variety of interesting people around the world. Episode 100 came out a couple of weeks ago. It's with Mickey Bergman. He's one of the negotiators who worked on this deal. In fact, we will have him back at some point next week to talk about how this all went down. But he talks about just the ongoing talks here, the intermediaries that are used, countries, officials, people like him, about how this all goes down. And in our conversation, that happened just a few weeks ago, he talked about the fact that he was skeptical if this could go down this soon, given how complex it was he wasn't going into detail. And what he described is the really bad dudes that Russia wanted back. And so, as you explained, we had to convince the Germans, the Slovenians, et cetera, all to be involved here for this multi-country swap. The Turkish are taking a lot of credit here. Their president says that his intelligence agency, the Turkish intelligence agency, established the channels here for the historic exchange. They brought all the parties together in Turkey a couple of weeks ago. So that's where they figured out this swap of Russian citizens and the citizens of the US, Germany, Poland, Norway, Slovenia, Belarus, for the multiple aircraft here, at least seven different aircraft, 26 different individuals here. The mediation came under Turkey, 'cause they sort of played both sides when it comes to issues right now. And so, there were a lot of complications here. Prisoners were taken off of each aircraft and moved to secure locations to undergo health checks to ensure that each part of the deal was ratified, then they had to figure out the order of events who goes on planes first, who gets a change first, as all these countries have to learn to trust each other, for they released some of these individuals. As you mentioned, Vadim Krasikov in Germany, very important target, Putin was adamant that he'd get him back. His Russian assassin had assassinated a Chechen separatist in a park in Berlin. The Germany was very reluctant to release this guy. He's serving a life sentence in Germany for murder in a park in Berlin. But ultimately, the deal goes down here. Russia declaring victory. Russia ultimately gets 10 people back, 13 to Germany, three to the US, or the numbers we're seeing here on the American side. We talked about those three Americans, released alongside a green card holder of Vladimir Karamurza. He's a British Russian dissident, and a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist. Also leaving Russia multiple people who worked with opposition leader Alexei Navalny. There's actually hope that Navalny would have been part of this. That was actually part of the original exchange months ago. But of course, he died under mysterious circumstances inside Russia earlier this year. And that goes to a bit of what I talked about in that Mickey Bergman podcast, the "Mo News Interview" podcast, where he says that every day matters. 'Cause ultimately, the conditions in a Russia penal colony, or frankly, any other place around the world, anybody who's being held at any given day could suffer some sort of a health issue, face some other circumstance, start to experience mental health issues, attempt suicide. And so that's why time is of the essence when it comes to this exchange. Also, one interesting detail here. This all partially came together, as Biden was recovering from COVID in Delaware, debating whether he was exiting the presidential race. Apparently, he calls Slovenia's prime minister to secure two of the pardons for the Russian spies an hour before he announced he was leaving the race. So just giving you a sense that as we think about this, there's often so many things presidents are up to behind the scenes that we just have no clue. - Most we do wanna mention there are at least eight Americans that are still detained in Russia, and there are currently more than 40 wrongly detained Americans across the world and over a dozen nations. Diane Foley is the founder of the Foley Foundation, which works on these issues. She started the foundation after her son, journalist James Foley, was kidnapped in Syria in 2012 and killed by ISIS. She advised that as Americans, we need to be more aware, not necessarily afraid to go abroad, because we do need to get out and see the world, but we do need to be more aware about what countries are actually targeting, directly targeting US nationals. - Yeah, don't go to Russia, folks. The State Department said this multiple times. The Wall Street Journal, by the way, celebratory headline as one of their own finally gets released, Evan Gerstovich. They had some interesting reporting on his details from inside prison, his release, and the journal says that he was determined to leave prison a better writer than he'd arrived. Not something that many of us would think about while we're in prison, but apparently that's what he thought about in solitary confinement. So he was reading a lot of famous Russian literature and doing a lot of writing during his time in prison, and they're allowing him to take his imprisoned writings home with him, but in order to do that as part of the many requirements, the Russians required him to fill out a formal clemency request directly to Vladimir Putin with a bunch of things that he had to say to Putin. Notably, the journal adds that in Gerstovich's clemency request to Putin, at the end of it, he tacked on an interview request for Putin saying, "Hey, I'd love to sit down with you at some point "having been in one of your prisons "and conducted an interview with you." So kudos to Evan Gerstovich, a journalist threw in through. - Well, he spoke to Tucker Carlson, so who knows, maybe Evan Gerstovich will be next. - You never know what Putin has in mind. He did that Tucker Carlson interview. Nobody says he hasn't done much, but regardless, quite a move by Gerstovich. With a clemency request, you think you're about to get out of prison and anything could get in the way. And he's like, "You know what, "I'm gonna ask him for an interview anyway." (laughing) - It's a risk. - Right, it is a risk. You don't want to rock the boat. It's just head down. (laughing) - So I feel like someone like Putin respects that sort of thing. You know what, I respect that he's taking his shot. We're always talking about health trends, food trends here on the podcast. How hard is to get all your nutrition, all your vitamins, one way to get all the important ones, AG1 powder is just one scoop with a glass of water in the morning, easy and quick. You're replacing multiple health supplements here, like multivitamins, digestive aids, which is one simple scoop. You're getting vitamin C in zinc for immune health. You're getting folate, magnesium for stress support. It really allows you to cover your nutritional bases in just about 60 seconds. With your first purchase of AG1, mode news listeners are getting a free one-year supply of vitamin D, as well as five free travel packs of AG1. You can visit drinkAG1.com/monews, take advantage of this offer, and you can get a discounted monthly subscription, or just try it one time for just one month. Again, the website drinkAG1.com/monews, that is drinkAGthenumberone.com/monews for this special deal. - All right, time now for the speed read. Let's talk presidential politics. So most you have been off for about a week, which in the current political climate is about a year. Jill, just confirming before we continue here, the candidates, are they still Trump and Harris as of this recording? 'Cause apparently that's a question these days. - Confirmed. - Okay. And in the past few days since you've been off, Kamala Harris has tightened the race, and she's in fact leading in many of the swing states that are going to decide this election. The DNC is currently voting in its virtual roll call to formally select Harris as the nominee. Voting will last until Monday afternoon. It does not appear that she has any viable competitors. And the focus now on the Democratic side is the VIB stakes that Harris said Tuesday that she has not yet decided on her number two, but she and whomever she selects will head out on a seven-state swing of key battlegrounds, including Pennsylvania, Arizona, and North Carolina next week. - Yeah, the key date right now we're all looking at is Tuesday, Philadelphia. That apparently will beat the rollout where we will meet the Democratic vice presidential nominee for the first time. Now, based on covering a number of these, she may have decided, but she probably isn't telling anyone at this point because leaks. Once you tell somebody, they might tell somebody else, and then it's out there, and you lose the element of surprise. So, conceivably what she might do is sort of what Trump did this go around. Fly in all of the finalists so you can't even track their planes. It's something we actually did back in 2008 with McCain and Palin. We were tracking this plane from Alaska and we're like, why is a plane from Alaska going to this McCain rally? And ultimately, that would be Sarah Palin. So, they've learned lessons since then. So, this go around what you saw in Milwaukee a few weeks ago, you know, Trump had Doug Burgum there. He had Marco Rubio there. He had JD Vance there. So, you knew the finalists, but you didn't know who it was gonna be 'cause they all happened to be at the site of the announcement. So, she might do that. Philly is a clue people are looking at because among the contenders is Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, but looking back at the announcements going back for the last 20 years, almost never has the person been announced in their home state. So, you could look at Philly as a clue, it could also not be a clue at all. There's reporting that she's vetted six contenders, various reports out there that she's out to three, down to four, down to five. Here are your finalists. Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, then you have Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sander Mark Kelly. If you're sensing a theme there, one thing she might be looking at is someone who's run something before. Governors, they've run states. Also, among those themes, you got Pennsylvania, Arizona, a couple of states there that are swing states or battleground states. So, that could be something that she's looking for an advantage with. Bios are also interesting and politics are interesting. She's viewed as a progressive, is a liberal. A few of the people I've named are on much more of the moderate end of the spectrum. Kelly is among those, Shapiro is among those. So, she might be looking to balance out the politics of this. Mark Kelly also interesting bio, right? An astronaut married to Gabby Giffords, served as a pilot in the military. So, that's interesting. So, at the end of the day, the VP doesn't matter that much. We'll scrutinize this, we'll talk about this. And as we joked at the top, the moment it's announced, we'll mention it and then we'll move on. Because at the end of the day, the reason why people vote is the president and maybe because of the age of the candidates, when it was Biden versus Trump, you scrutinized the VP more. But ultimately, this is where we're at. One note I'll say also Pritzker from Illinois, Illinois, not a swing state, that'll go blue guaranteed. He's a billionaire though. So, he could write some checks, if necessary. Though as of recently, she hasn't had any trouble fundraising. The numbers have been insane in terms of fundraising. So, probably less necessary there. One other thing you look for in a VP in a tack talk. Somebody who's willing to say some things that you don't want to 'cause it's not as presidential, but they'll put some stuff out there. So, you've been seeing a lot of media appearances lately. You've seen Josh Shapiro out there. You've seen Bashir out there. You've seen Buttigieg out there. Go to toe to toe with Fox News. Challenging things. So, that's been part of the audition here, is their TV appearances. That mattered a lot to Donald Trump. That certainly matters to Kamala Harris as well. So, that's sort of where we're at. A lot of speculation. Josh Shapiro, they say he's canceling his fundraisers this weekend and the Hamptons. He was set to be there. But something else has come up. What does that mean? He's doing VP. Who knows? So, you're gonna see a lot of headlines the next few days. People looking for clues. Nobody actually knows besides Kamala Harris right now, even if she's decided. She's gonna be doing some personal interviews and making that decision. And it's a chemistry thing. And so, no matter what, today's Friday, we'll know by Tuesday, midday. - Moshe, I said this on the podcast yesterday. Given the current news cycle, you know she's announcing like Sunday morning or Saturday night, right? - It's totally happening on the weekend because like, why should the weekend ever be free of major news? We had the assassination attempt on the weekend, followed by the Biden withdrawal on the weekend, followed by the, oh, Middle East blew up over the weekend last weekend and kind of went into this week. So, maybe the Middle East will do its hand off back to the US for major breaking news this weekend. We'll see. - Okay, speaking of the Middle East, let's hit overseas where we are learning more about the assassination of Hamas's top political leader from the New York Times. Ismael Hania, a top leader of Hamas, was assassinated on Wednesday by an explosive device, covertly smuggled into the Tehran guest house where he was staying according to several Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians and an American official speaking with the New York Times. So, the bomb had apparently been hidden approximately two months ago in the government guest house, which is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. - Joel, say this might say something about the maintenance of the guest house that cleaning folks didn't see the bomb. - It reminds me of those undercover stories where those undercover crews go to a hotel with black lights and they're like, nope, they have not changed these sheets since the last person's left there. - Though admittedly, as of right now, we don't know where the bomb was hidden or what it was hidden in at this point. We just know it was a hidden bomb. - Right, so this guest house is part of a large compound in an upscale neighborhood in northern Tehran. Hania was in Iran's capital for the presidential inauguration. The bomb was detonated remotely once it was confirmed that he was in fact inside of his room at the guest house. The blast also killed one of his bodyguards. Hania had led Hamas's political office in Qatar and he had stayed at that guest house several times when visiting Tehran. Iranian officials and Hamas said Wednesday that Israel was responsible for the assassination. An assessment also reached by several U.S. officials who requested anonymity. The assassination threatens to unleash yet another wave of violence in the Middle East and up end the ongoing negotiations to end the war in Gaza. - Though we should note those negotiations have been happening for several months without that much progress. So some folks are skeptical as to how much this will do. That said, the Iranians have approved the Ayatollah. The supreme leader has approved some sort of response on Israel proper. What that is is unclear. I'll get to more of that in just a second, but the details that are coming out here, all from anonymous sources from across the Middle East. You know, some Homeland 24 Tehran, if you watch Tehran on Apple, a plus level stuff, the bomb in the guest house. Though, you know, you could say that this is a lesson now that if you feel you have a target on your back, don't stay in the same place. Keep moving around. In fact, that's how the number two in Hamas and Gaza got his name, Muhammad Def, his last name. It's not his actual last name. It means guest, because he's constantly moving around because they tried to kill him multiple times. So the Israelis say they actually got him in the last couple of weeks. It's something else that came out in the past 24 hours. So the Israelis officially have not publicly acknowledged responsibility for the killing. They're also not denying it either. Though we are learning from anonymous sources again, that they did brief the US and other Western governments on the details of the operation after the operation. They didn't even tell the US in advance. They were concerned about leaks. They wanted to get their guy, the main head of Hamas internationally. And of course, the US government, the current government here desperate for stuff to calm down in the Middle East and fix things with the Iranians. The Israelis probably thinking, if we tell them in advance, they might somehow get that to the Iranians. Because the last thing the US administration wants right now is more warfare in the Middle East as they face an election. And that's a major concern here in the aftermath of this killing. What is notable about the killing is, what did we hear from Iran and Hamas in the hours and days afterwards? That this was a missile strike on the compound. The missile theory raised questions about, was it from inside Iran, outside Iran, how was it able to evade radar? Well, it turns out what Hamas and Iran were saying, not true. It's not the last time or the first time. We haven't really believed statements from Iran and Hamas. It turns out it appears to have been a bomb planted there, as you noted. The assassins here clearly able to exploit some sort of gap in Iran's defenses, a lapse in security, in a tightly guarded, controlled compound that's controlled by the highest levels of the Iranian government. The Israelis have proven time and time again that they've been able to infiltrate Iran at very high levels. They've killed multiple nuclear scientists. They were able to assassinate one of the nuclear scientists recently working on an atomic bomb in Iran with a remote controlled machine gun. This, again, another tactic, how it was stashed, how they did it. Did they work inside with Iranians? Did they work with the opposition movement? Unclear at this point, but it does prove to Iran again that Israel has infiltrated inside Iran, and now the Iranians are gonna order some sort of response on Israel. Unclear what that'll be. Iran doesn't want a bigger war. Israel doesn't want a bigger war, but they got a safe face for what was a major embarrassment for the Supreme Leader. We should note, Israel's not the only one who's infiltrated Iran. Iran has had attempts at infiltrating Israel recently in the last couple of weeks. Three Israelis citizens were arrested for carrying out various tasks and operation under the direction of Iranian intelligence. Who had reached out to them via Telegram, paid up to $100,000 in crypto. And so Israel arrested several younger Israelis who were asked to do a variety of tasks for Iran. One was asked to start a forest fire and various other things inside Israel. So it does not appear the Iranians have been able to infiltrate Israel at the level. The Israelis have infiltrated Iran, and yet, they're there. So we'll see how and if Iran responds. - All right, back here at home from Axios, nearly 180 million people have been under heat warnings and advisories this week as a potentially deadly heat wave expands from the Midwest toward both coasts. Cities from DC to Sacramento could surpass 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat is forecast to last the longest in the West, which will also face worsening wildfires and poor air quality as a result of those fires. And from CBS News, the park fire tearing across Northern California is destroying homes and burning up land. And its destruction is only part of a far larger problem this year. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said this week that as of Tuesday, wildfire activity is nearly 3,000 percent higher than last year for the same time period. - Yeah, definitely concerning Jill. We were out in Montana and there were days when the smoke levels were high and people were like, well, where's that fire coming from? And at one point it was smoke from Canada and then that cleared out based on winds and then we got in some smoke from California. So where the fires happen, given the amount of smoke they're putting out, it's impacting the larger region as of this week, earlier this week, wildfires have scorched nearly 800,000 acres across California that is about 30 times the amount of acreage that burned this time last year. This year's fires far above both last year's numbers and the five year average as of early Thursday morning, the state is battling 16 active wildfires, including the park fire. And notably the park fire started by a man who pushed a burning car into a ravine. So some of these started by humans. Rani Stout was his name. Apparently he's got a 20 year rap sheet. He's been charged with reckless arson. He appeared in court earlier this week. He served prison time over the last 20 years for a variety of crimes, robbery. He's a sex offender and pushed a burning car into a ravine, leading to the park fire, one of the largest in California history here. So that one is just at about 20% containment. It's not the fifth largest wildfire in state history. More than 400 structures have burned here. And again, the smoke impacting the larger region. - For Reuters, the coffee market has experienced quite a jolt. - Jill couldn't go with the pun without loud without being like, "I can't believe you." - I think a fake laugh would be like. - The coffee market with a jolt. Next, weather traffic on the nines. - Pack your patience. - Pack your patience for the price of coffee, yes. - Yes, coffee beans are at or near record highs. Rising demand and climate related effects are brewing trouble, Moshe, for the $200 billion industry. - I get it. (laughing) - Java demand is rising internationally as higher incomes attract new drinkers to satisfy baristas and supermarkets. Farmers cultivate two varieties. I didn't know this. A rabbica is more popular, expensive, and apparently finicky. Its plants grow at least 1,000 meters above sea level in cool and rainy areas. And then robusta beans are hardier, but generally regarded as less tasty and thus relegated to instant coffee and blends, but supply cannot keep up. - So Vietnam apparently produces 40% of the world's robusta coffee, and a drought is hitting hard. You know, when you hear about climate change, people are like, "How does it impact me?" Well, it certainly impacts farmers and agriculture, and the price of things. We've heard about cocoa, the price of chocolate earlier this year being impacted by various weather changes. Now you got coffee beans being impacted. Coffee Trader, Volcafe, estimates the country. Vietnam could harvest its smallest crop in 13 years, which leads to a shortfall. There are hopes this year, though Brazil is getting enough rain for its crop. A rabbica prices hit their highest level in a decade earlier this year. Climate change, of course, looms large here. Roughly half the land best suited for a rabbica will not qualify by the year 2050. So a lot of changes on a variety of factors, including for our coffee beans. Climbing temperatures chase farmers higher up the mountains to cooler fields, but then there's more unpredictable precipitation. So a lot of places are now switching to robusta, the less tasty, but more available, easier to grow bean. But they're also facing issues, as I mentioned, Vietnam has a drought. So even the robusta crop is struggling this year. So the world coffee research industry predicts that in less than two decades, demand will outstrip supply by more than 30 million bags, about half of current production. So a coffee shortage, Jill in decades to come, unless we figure this out. - Most there are many things I'm willing to sacrifice. Coffee is not one of them. - Jill is gonna be one of those people at a museum soon pouring macaroni and cheese or spaghetti sauce to raise awareness. You're like, listen, this is the deal. Climate change has impacted my coffee, and I will not have it. - Wait, I don't get it. I'm gonna be at a museum pouring. - You know how some of the climate change activists, the environmentalists are like bleeding attention for climate change by like doing ridiculous things, like pouring tomato sauce on a Monet, or on the- - I got it. - I'm the Mona Lisa. It's like, you're gonna be like, next time we report on somebody pouring like macaroni and cheese on a piece of artwork to raise awareness for climate change, it'll be you. - I'm good. - You're gonna glue your hands to, you're gonna glue your hands to a Starbucks. You're gonna throw a hot coffee on a, on a 10 million dollar painting museum. - There we go. - There we go. - No, I wouldn't want to waste the coffee. All right, now to the Olympics from CBS News. A woman boxer abandons her fight in tears. Italy's Angela Carini quit 46 seconds into an Olympic women's boxing match against her Algerian opponent, Amani Khalif, in the 66 kilogram category or about 150 pounds. Khalif was disqualified from a women's championship last year after a sex identification test, found her to be a biological male with X, Y chromosomes. Carini yelled, it isn't fair through tears after receiving two punches from Khalif during the match. She says she had never experienced punches that hard in her career and she actually feared for her safety and her health. Carini quit the match after less than a minute and Khalif was declared the winner. It is suspected that Carini broke her nose and is awaiting medical tests. Khalif and Taiwan's Lin Yuting are two Olympians that are competing in women's boxing who were previously disqualified from the 2023 International Boxing Association Women's World Boxing Championships. And that is because they had failed eligibility rules that prevent athletes with male chromosomes from competing in women's events. - Yeah, so we should note Khalif, neither Khalif nor Yuting have publicly identified as transgender, have always identified as women, but have X, Y chromosomes. And the International Boxing Association has different rules than the International Olympic Committee, the IBA president, the International Boxing Association president, they conduct six chromosome tests and they said that if with X, Y chromosomes, male chromosomes, they cannot compete in the women's category. The IOC though does not conduct those tests and says by their standards, they are women. And that's why they allowed the two to compete in Tokyo back in 2021 and other competing in Paris in 2024. And they say these women are entirely eligible. They are women on their passports. It's not helpful to start stigmatizing. They say, we all have responsibility. The IOC says not to turn this into some kind of witch hunt. That said, there is a lot of chatter online that especially in a category like boxing that the punches are harder if you have higher testosterone count if X, Y chromosomes. And even if these women have what's called differences of sexual disorder, DSDs, rare conditions involving genes hormones, reproductive organs that as far as the IOC is concerned, they might be intersex but they still are able to compete as women. But there's a lot of debate online about this. Jill, I should note Karini, the Italian who gave up in the match after 46 seconds, said she quit because her nose hurts so much. But she did say she's not here to make a political statement. I'm not here to pass judgment. If an athlete is this way and in that sense, it's not right or it's not up to me to decide. That said, I am heartbroken but I just never felt a punch like this. I was in extreme pain and I had to give up. Jill, there's different categories here, different rules for different sports in boxing. As I mentioned, there was the International Boxing Association and the IOC. We have covered this in the past, Caster Semenia. She's the famous South African runner. They have passed different rules since she won gold in 2012 and 2016. She's been not allowed to compete since then because she has a certain testosterone count due to a rare disorder that the IOC has said and the running associations have said, you need to take pills to lower your testosterone count if you want to compete as a woman against other women. She's refused to do so. She's been fighting that in court. So a lot of rules here in the various sports in swimming. We heard about this with Leah Thomas. So a lot of complexity here and a lot of controversy. - And staying with the US Olympics here, US gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky, both broke records in Paris. Biles became just the third woman in history to win the women's individual all around twice. And she secured her title as the most decorated American gymnast. She started strong with a massive 15.766 on the vault, but then struggled on the uneven bars, briefly putting her in second place. She bounced back though on beam and then put up a massive performance on floor to win. Brazil took second and then American Sunni Lee won bronze. Ledecky, meanwhile, won her 13th medal when grabbing the silver on the four by 200 relay team. And that makes her the most decorated American female Olympian in history. - Ledecky, amazing to watch. Also team USA's Kate Douglas earned her first career Olympic gold medal with an amazing performance in the women's 200 meter breaststroke at the Games. Jill, back to Simone Biles for a second. She is the first woman over the age of 20 to win a gold in 50 years. All the gold medal winner is going by Nadia Coma Niche, who was only 14 at the time in 1976, have been under the age of 20. So Simone Biles at 27 is nearly 10 years older than any other recent female gold medal gymnast. And Jill, I will note that while I was away, I got several notes from people who are saying, "Where is the rugby coverage?" We are big team USA rugby winners. So I just want to make a mention of team USA rugby. First ever medal this week, it won a bronze against Australia, which is a traditional rugby power. So congrats to team USA. I'm the big rugby win. In fact, hours after the big win, they received a $4 million donation from a businesswoman Michelle Chang. She's a majority owner of a women's soccer team, the Washington spirit. She wants to promote the growth of women's rugby in the US. So that'll be paid out over several years. Remember the next games are in LA in 2028. So there is a push to increase women's rugby right now. So congrats to team USA. Props to all of you who are watching the team and supporting the team. And it looks like they're looking to grow women's rugby here in the States. And my bad, I've been doing Olympics reps every day and have not mentioned the rugby team. So I'm sorry, guys. I've been trying. I've been trying to hit everything. There's a lot of sports happening. How is the shooting coverage, Ben, Jill? I've also been lacking on the shooting coverage. There's a lot of sports out there. We're doing our best here. And finally, from variety, Universal Pictures has landed the rights to Britney Spears' best-selling memoir, The Woman in May. And Wicked director John Choon, producer Mark Platt, are set to help develop the feature. Spears shared the news of the secret project on social media, writing that Platt had always made her favorite movies, telling her fans to stay tuned for more news. Universal won the rights to the Grammy winners memoir, which came out last October. It sold over 2.5 million copies in the US alone. In the book, Spears chronicled her journey to pop super stardom from her Mickey Mouse Club days through her highly publicized and scrutinized conservatorship case. Yeah, #FreeBritney. The book was brutally honest and went in-depth regarding her relationship with ex-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, her family, the people trying to control her life. The audiobook, which was read by Michelle Williams, you know that actress, with an introduction by Spears, was the fastest selling audiobook in Simon & Schuster history. And we should note Universal, which is producing this, has a pretty good track record when it comes to musical biopics. Straight outta Compton, about NWA. I did very well. Olivia loved it. Olivia, as you can hear in the background, we're nearing bedtime. Bathtime, bedtime here. As we record this podcast, she loves straight outta Compton back in 2015, Olivia. Also, Olivia, we're gonna show you eight mile one day. Eight mile was another universal big win that grossed more than $200 million globally. And they're currently working on some other biopics. The definitive biopic of Snoop Dogg, as well as one inspired by Prince's music. Have you been watching the Snoop Dogg coverage show? His coverage of Badminton, I thought, was phenomenal at the Olympics. - Somehow, I have missed Snoop Dogg. I feel like it's all I hear everybody talking about, but I think because I'm watching on Peacock, maybe he's not on Peacock. - No, they might have a specific channel, just Snoop Dogg on Peacock. - You know, I'm specifically tuning in to certain events on Peacock. So that's how I've been watching it. And unfortunately, I think I'm missing Snoop. - All right, well, we've got another week plus of Olympic coverage. So actually, Joe, what I might do is send you a couple Instagram reels of Snoop Dogg and then hopefully the Instagram algorithm picks up on it for you. (laughing) - Right now, if you saw what was coming up on my Instagram algorithm, I think you would tell me to get a life. (laughing) (upbeat music) Okay, it is Friday. Cheers to the freaking weekend. It's my favorite time for it. We are watching, reading and eating. All right, Mosh, what are you watching? - The Olympics, Joe. Anything exciting coming up this weekend? It's all exciting, of course, but what do we know? - To Simone Biles, in case you're a super fan, like I am, she is gonna be competing tomorrow and Saturday in the vault. - She's really got to work on winning a gold at some point, that's Simone Biles. (laughing) And then on Monday, she's gonna be competing twice once for the balance beam event and then once on the floor. I was hoping to do more Olympics coverage on the Instagram feed, but I will say that gave it all the other news happening in the world. I'm like, oh God, I can't even get to the Olympics right now. But hopefully we got a relatively quieter weekend, not kind of would. And over on the Instagram premium account where we do weekend coverage, we'll do some Olympics. - Yeah, biggest prisoner swaps since the Cold War, assassination, yeah. (laughing) Jill, beyond the Olympics, what are you watching? - All right, so I just finished on Apple TV, presumed innocent. And I have to say, I think I mentioned this. If you guys have not seen it, it is so good with Jake Gyllenhaal. I highly recommend. And it's finished already. So Apple releases their shows one episode a week on Netflix, which just puts everything out there. So presumed innocent. If you're a binger like I am, you could just binge the whole thing. I'm going to be starting Lady in the Lake. It's starring Natalie Portman. And it's about a housewife that becomes a private investigator and begins looking into some murders. Sounds interesting. - Jill, just a reminder, you got to let the people know how you felt about it. The people want to know what we're watching, but they actually want to know what we thought of stuff. So we'll look out for your Instagram commentary this weekend. - That's right. So presumed innocent, a 10 out of 10. - Okay. - I highly recommend. And the other thing I'm going to be watching, IRL in real life. I'm going to see KidsBop. Are you familiar with KidsBop yet? - Not yet. I still have a 10 month old. We're not there yet. - So KidsBop basically just does like the G rated version of all of the pop songs that are out there. So I'm going to take my daughter to KidsBop this weekend. You're playing at Jones Beach. - All right. Enjoy. Jill, what are you reading this weekend? - I'm going to be starting a beach read called The Winner. It's a novel by Teddy Wayne. A friend described it as an amazing beach read. And then one reviewer, when I looked it up, said it's kind of like the graduate, but with an advanced degree. Whatever that means. - Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson. - Mosh, what are you reading? - Jill, look out if you're a premium member for the premium podcast about the women's liberation movement. There's a new book I called The Movement, Clara Bingham. She's a journalist. She's written a number of great books, historical books. She interviews 100 plus people for this book, looking at the women's movement from 1963 through the '70s and just how it basically overturned thousands of years of human history about women's rights. What caused it? Where we stand 50 years later? It was a fascinating conversation. That's over on the Mona's premium podcast. And so we just finished that book. The Movement. - All right, Mosh, what from Montana are you eating? Tell us about it. - What am I not eating from Montana? (laughing) - Especially now that you're immobile. - The bison burgers. All right, so we brought back Huckleberry Jam from Montana. Huckleberry is a thing that also grows at a certain elevation. The Montanans will tell you that they have the best Huckleberry Jam compared to other states in the Mountain West. So they have Huckleberry Ice Cream, Huckleberry. It's a thing out there. We came back with Jam. Then from a number of you, we got recommendations. We ended up going to a few of them, including what else we tried ice cream in Montana. So Sweet Peaks, which is located in Missoula. We tried it up in Whitefish. There's also another Missoula ice cream place called the Big Dipper, which we tried while we were there. I have to say, major props to the Montanans, original ice cream flavors, it meant that when you go for ice cream in Montana, you really gotta try a number of them because they're very creative. They were great. And so those are a couple of headlines from our vantage point. Phil, what are you doing this weekend? - Not sure I could top that, Mosh, but I was mentioning what my Instagram homepage looks like and it's mostly just like healthy, easy to cook recipes. I'm gonna be trying a one pan chicken thigh recipe that has just eight ingredients. So the requirements for me are that it has to be things I have in my house. So this recipe includes chicken, French onion soup mix, and again, some other items that I have already in my house. I do plan to make it, and if and when I do, I will post all about it on my Instagram, Jill R. Wagner, and I will throw the recipe also in our newsletter this morning. - Jill, one other Montana note, before we go here, it was great to run into a number of Monuse fans wherever we went. We saw people in the airport. We saw people at farmers markets in Missoula. We saw people at farmers markets in Whitefish, fans of the podcast, followers of the Instagram account, several premium members, actually, several thousand feet up in Glacier National Park as I conducted that hike before the hip injury. Actually, as I was getting the hip injury, ran into a huge fan up there with her kid. So it was great to meet you, Lana. Appreciate your support for Monuse. And so, always say hi. Say hi if you see us out and about. - Absolutely, and most great to have you back. A big thank you to everyone for listening to the Monuse podcast. If you like what you hear, please share this with your friends who will help us grow, follow us and subscribe. Don't miss an episode and review us in the app store. - All right, everybody. See you on Monday. - Thanks for listening to the Monuse podcast. (upbeat music) - Hi, cutie pie. Cutie, did you hurt your daddy this weekend? - He doesn't mean no. - I know, you didn't mean to. You didn't mean to. You're so cute, it doesn't matter. - What, Beth? Okay, Beth time. - Bye, bye, cutie pie. Oh, wait, I didn't stop the podcast.
