(upbeat music) - Hey everybody, it is Friday, July 19th, and 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 so you don't have to. Jill, since this is a news podcast, we wanna start with some major news here at Mo News, a big headline to announce as of today. We have officially hit five million downloads of the Mo News podcast. - Yay! (laughs) That is a big number, Moshe. - Five million times, you guys have entrusted us to provide you with perspective on what's happening here in the U.S. and around the world. We're so grateful to all of you who have been supporting, sharing, submitting reviews for this podcast. - Look, there are countless ways to get news these days. Countless news podcasts. There's countless, just other podcasts. There's plenty of ways to spend your time and things pulling people in various directions for their time and attention. So the fact that people are trusting us and choosing to spend even a little bit of their day with us is incredibly appreciated. And I'm so grateful for it. So thank you so much to everybody who has tuned in. I guess that's still an appropriate expression, even though it's a podcast. And Moshe, I have to say, I feel really lucky that I get to do this with you every day. It's really a pleasure and a privilege to just kind of talk news every day, especially in the current state in terms of what's going on. - Yeah, Jell, I'm grateful to you for joining this project. When we initially started this just over two years ago, summer of 2022, you were eight months pregnant, almost nine months pregnant. - Yes. - Like, now is the time to start a podcast before you go ahead and return to leave it in like one second. But it's been an amazing two years, I can't wait for what's in store here. And to your point, this is a great way, not only to help all of you process the news, we know that it has a calming effect on a number of you. This calming effect on us, we're people too. As we go through the headlines, I think going through the process of writing, producing and recording this podcast also helps us process all the things happening in the world. - Absolutely. And also just so thankful for our team. The team at 1022 helps edit and distribute the podcast, plus we've got the interview podcast and the premium podcast, there's Jeff and Callie, Steve, Arian, Jessica, Lauren and Colin, who make sure that it all goes on to YouTube. So it takes a village as they say, Mosh. - Takes a village. We appreciate the whole village, all of you who listen, all of you who share it with your friends and family and everyone who's part of producing this. - And everyone who just helped spread the word. We have grown entirely organically. We have done no ads, nothing like that. So again, it's really humbling. Thank you all so much for listening. - And most importantly to our families, to our spouses who tolerates the interruption five days a week. And sometimes on weekends, depending on breaking news, into our lives to ensure that we can put together and distribute the podcast. So thanks to Alex. - And of course, thanks to my husband, Michael. And it's true, it's because we can't record this podcast during a normal, like a normal nine to five work day, because it would be outdated by the time that you listen to it the following morning. And so we have to record this at night, at conflicts with dinner, bath time, bedtime, all sorts of really important family time, that Mosh and I are like, "No, we're recording the podcast." Sorry. (laughing) - Good luck with that though. - Good luck with putting the baby to sleep. (laughing) - Tell me how it goes. (laughing) Anyway, thank you guys. And Mosh, shall we get to what is yet another packed day of news? - Jill, this week has been a year. Happy Friday, Dio. (laughing) - All right, let's get to the headlines. Donald Trump making his first public remarks since the assassination attempt on his life, as he accepts the Republican nomination for president. Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, calls growing louder for Joe Biden to drop out of the race. - But the big question, Jill, is he hearing them? - Speaking of that assassination attempt, we do have some new details about the shooter, but still no clear motive. One of the more contentious issues this election season, immigration, while some new numbers are out and they show that migrant crossings continue to plunge and they're actually nearing a level that would lift President Biden's border crackdown. We've also got some new numbers about Amazon Prime Day. It has driven U.S. online sales to a record $14.2 billion. And Mosh, I have an important question for you. What is in our toilet paper? - Good question, Jill. We'll have some answers for you later in the podcast. - The WNBA is close to a very big media deal. We'll tell you about it. - Not quite where the NBA is making, but certainly a vast improvement from their previous contract. - Yeah, the Caitlin Clark effect. - And two notable deaths to tell you about Lou Dobbs and Bob Newhart. Plus it is Friday. Cheers to the freaking weekend, but we are watching, reading and eating. - It's a JD Vance themed segment today, Jill. - All right, now to the news, the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee is a wrap. Last night, former President Trump took center stage, the stated theme for the evening, unity. These were his first public remarks since he nearly lost his life in an assassination attempt on Saturday. And he says that in the aftermath of the shooting, he decided to rewrite his entire speech from scratch. He told ABC that he had written a humdinger of a speech, but decided again to rework the whole thing and make it less divisive and more about uniting the country. - So Jill, he promised a humdinger of a speech. And I guess if you read it by length, you could call it a humdinger. Jill, it was the longest convention speech in history. He started the speech just after 10, 30 PM on Thursday and it ended early in the morning on Friday, just past midnight, the longest speech in convention history in America. He actually breaks his own record from 2016. So he holds the number two slot and he actually holds the number three slot as well. So it lasted an hour and 32 minutes, his previous speeches, by the way, hour 20 and hour 14, respectively, the average length of a film in America, an hour and 31 minutes, so one minute longer than the average film. I think you can split into two parts. There was the planned speech that they touted about unity, about reaching out. And you certainly heard a bit of that very early on. And then it went into Trump's typical ad-libbing at rallies. I don't know how many people watch the average Trump rally, but this is what he does. He goes for an hour and a half. He's jumping from story to story, telling various anecdotes. And while the goal was unity at the top, he talks about how he's gonna be the president for all Americans, not half of America. We can't let our politics divide us. We must not demonize our political opponents. It was very much a new somber tone. So for the first 15 or so minutes, if you were watching, you're like, "Oh, this is a change Donald Trump." Past 11 p.m., you start to get the traditional Trump. References to crazy Nancy Pelosi, defaced the nation, a reference to face the nation, the CBS show. So going after the media, defaced the nation. Democrats used COVID to cheat on elections. He talked about the 10 worst presidents of all time. If you add it up, they haven't done the damage that Biden has done. You praise Kim Jong Un and Victor Orban, showing his relationship with various authoritarian rulers around the world, talking about mass deportation, comparing migrants to Hannibal Lecter, the serial killer from Silence of the Lambs. He does this a lot at rallies where he refers to the late great Hannibal Lecter, a fictional character. Of course, he talks about the world is teetering on the edge of World War III. Anyway, you get the point. So that was tone, right? You had the uniting tone and then you sort of had the traditional Trump for the last, I don't know, 70 or so minutes of the speech. Notably, the top of the speech, in addition to having the unity theme, he also recounted the second-by-second assassination attempt. This was a very compelling portion of the speech at the beginning here, talked about his experience nearly being killed. Here's a bit of that. - I'm not supposed to be here tonight. Not supposed to be here. (crowd cheering) (crowd cheering) - Thank you. But I'm not, and I'll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God. (crowd cheering) In watching the reports, over the last few days, many people say it was a providential moment. Probably was when I rose surrounded by secret service. The crowd was confused because they thought I was dead and there was great, great sorrow. I could see that on their faces as I looked out. They didn't know I was looking at it, they thought it was over, but I could see it. I wanted to do something to let them know I was okay. I raised my right arm, looked at the thousands and thousands of people that were breathlessly waiting and started shouting, fight, fight, fight. - So you hear the top there, he's telling the crowd, I'm not supposed to be here, and then they're chanting, yes, you are, yes, you are. And he thinks God that he's still alive. So that was the scripted portion again. Then he goes into his normal talking points, drill baby drill and a luxury vehicle mandates, which is interesting, by the way, 'cause Elon Musk has endorsed him, but he says we should end EV mandates. I'm gonna bring interest rates down, I'm gonna bring inflation down, I'm gonna bring gas prices down, I'm gonna stop the invasion. He said that illegal immigrants are taking 107% of jobs in America, particularly from a black and Latino Americans. He said he would end every international crisis around the world, that the war in Ukraine, the attack in Israel would never have happened if he was present and he's gonna sell them immediately. So that's effectively what we've heard from Trump before. So you had this sort of change man experience, the unity experience, the recounting the assassination experience. And then if you're watching the last two thirds of the speech between 11 and past midnight, he was just going through the sort of greatest rally hits that he typically delivers here. So it's been a very interesting thing of watching this convention, because it's been a very disciplined convention here. As we've been talking about all week, they've been hitting a lot of messages, a lot of groups, hitting minorities, hitting union workers, hitting blue collar workers, hitting veterans, the Jewish community, the black community, and they've been very strategic with the speakers there. And certainly they had a goal last night with Donald Trump's speech, which I'm sure is gonna be distributed on social media. They're very savvy. They know that the vast majority of Americans, we're not watching live television on a Thursday night in July for an hour and a half. They're gonna consume it on YouTube, on Instagram, via podcasts, highlights. So they'll be able to clip strategically what they need to do here. I think the applicable watchers, though, and the people who watch the speech know, they're like, "Oh, this is the Trump that we watched for four years," while they say that what took place on Saturday changed him in a way, appears based on the majority of that speech. He's the same guy that he was on Saturday as he ad-libbed when I fell a prompter, sometimes for 10, 15 minutes at a time, doing his normal schtick. But on the whole here, a successful convention for the Republicans, it comes as the Democrats are in disarray. We're gonna talk about that in just a couple of minutes here on the pod. And Joe, one notable thing in the lead up to Trump, the lead up to the president at the convention, typically is when you put out a former president endorsing the president, the first lady, it is the greatest sense. It's the most watched night of the convention, notably, in the lead up to Donald Trump tonight. He had a son, Eric, a Kid Rock perform a song. The wrestler, Hulk Hogan, talked about how it's gonna be Trump mania. You ripped his shirt off. We've a clip of that on Instagram endorsing Trump. And then he had Dana White of the ultimate fighting, introduce him. So as we've been talking about Al-Wiki, very different Republican party than one that we've known for many decades. It's completely become Trump's party here. And he put together the program in the way that he wants, in a way that he believes reaches average Americans in a way that the traditional Republican party did not. So that's where we stand. And now all of the attention shifts to who his opponent is going to be, what is happening with Joe Biden and the Democratic party right now. - All right, now to the Democratic side, President Biden is off the campaign trail and he's now in Delaware after testing positive for COVID-19. His doctor says he has mild symptoms, no fever, and has started the antiviral drug Paxilovid. It comes, though, most at least politically, at the worst possible time for the president whose health and age have been a huge concern for potential voters. - Yeah, some people are like, well, do you think they're making it up 'cause he needs to rest? I go, is there a worst time? Like, could there be a worst time to make up COVID when the man is trying to get out there to prove to his own party that he has the strength to carry on? So how does the song go? I remember it from the early seasons of American Idol. You had a bad day. You sing a sad song. - You had a bad day. - You sing a sad song. - Yeah. - You had a bad week. You had a bad month, Joe Biden, and singing a sad song to turn it around. It ain't gonna help right now. - Yeah, most the chorus of voices calling on Biden to drop out of the presidential race, getting louder. And now there's word that former President Barack Obama is saying privately that Biden, quote, needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy and that he has basically a slim to no chance of winning the White House in November. There are reports Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former speaker, Nancy Pelosi, have both personally told Biden that he should step aside going through the numbers with him. - Yeah, there are questions about what his people, his close advisors were actually telling the president. And so you've had Schumer go to him, you've had Pelosi go to him, they gave him time to, quote, make the right decision. And now they've escalated things with through a series of leaks, Jill fast and furious in the last few days. - And then on morning Joe on MSNBC, Biden's favorite morning show, host Joe Scarborough urged Biden's, quote, "bubble" to, quote, "help the man they love and do the right thing." There's some reporting from Axios on Thursday that says multiple senior Democrats now expect that Biden could bow out as soon as this weekend and that even some Biden aides who wanted him to keep running after the debate now see this as a question of when and not if. And then there's the issue of money. Biden met with the film producer and top campaign advisor, Jeffrey Katzenberg on Wednesday in Vegas. And according to Semaphore, he told the president that major donors are doubtful about his ability to win in November and have all but stopped writing the kind of big checks that sustain campaigns in the home stretch. However, after that story was published, Katzenberg put out a statement that said that it was a misread of a private meeting and that he and Biden had talked about everything from the convention to new ads. But most as always, this is Biden's decision to make. He already has the delegates locked up. So it is really up to him. - Yeah, ultimately this is Biden's call but there are a lot of people around him and Jill, despite what Katzenberg might be telling and Semaphore there, we're hearing from multiple people that the money has dried up and there is actually concern that enough donors will no longer donate to the Democratic Party while Biden is the nominee that is impacting House races, Senate races. And so, these are the core components of a campaign, right? Gotta get people to vote for you. A majority of Democrats now, 2/3 of Democrats and Democratic leaders say the president should no longer be the nominee. You have senior leaders in Democratic Party. You need them to support you. They want him out. Then you need money to run a race and that's dried up. So what I find really notable here, especially with that Katzenberg meeting, is that it's Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg who are gonna be producing the Democratic convention in just a few weeks in Chicago. And now there's a real question about who their lead actor or actress is going to be at the convention as they tell the story of the party and why Americans should vote Democrat this fall. And it comes off what has been a pretty successful Republican convention here. They've been hitting a lot of interesting messages, a lot of constituencies here. And now we're four months from the election. Huge questions here on the Democratic side. And while some people say, "Oh my God, it's only four months until the election," that's only an America thing. Most elections abroad, the market is abroad. They have their elections in a matter of weeks, sometimes a couple of months. We're the only modern developed democracy that goes like two or three years with our election here. That said, the rules are antiquated. There's questions about whether if Biden was step aside, what the rules would say about transferring the money, ensuring the right name of the new nominee is on the ballot in all 50 states. Though, honestly, given the dire numbers they're seeing polling wise, that right now it looks like it could be a Trump landslide win. He's up in states like Virginia. Virginia hasn't gone Republican in 20 years. So forget about the ballot around states. He's losing core blue states according to polling right now. So as far as Democrats are concerned, they can't do worse than Biden. They can only do better than Biden as far as they're concerned if they put anyone else in there. And that's why there's been this huge push here. Now, there are attempts here from the Biden campaign to contact delegates, make sure they're staying on board here. Remember that Biden has more than 90% of the delegates, which is why it really falls on him to announce that he's done here. That's the push here, as opposed to some sort of hostile takeover of the party. He's been saying, I've made my decision, I'm in it. No one seems to buy it. Every time I refresh these playable websites, Jill, I see someone else coming out late in the afternoon on Thursday, Jamie Raskin, the notable congressman from Maryland. He was the latest Democrat to go public with his call for Biden to go here. So the pressure really is building the walls, as they say are closing in on Joe Biden. Vice President Harris has been on the campaign trail. She's spoken to North Carolina while Biden stuck in Delaware with COVID. And so, she's been on the attack. The big question is, if it's not him, it's probably her, right? Ultimately, she's the vice president. He would likely say, well, she's my heir apparent. She's been beside me for four years, I endorse her. The question after that is, does the party then rally around Kamala Harris? Or does the party say, hey, Joe, we'd actually like to take it to the convention, like we did for like 200 years until the 1970s, and have it debate about who should the nominee be? And so, that's the next step. The first step is Joe stepping aside. The second step is most likely a Kamala endorsement. The third step is, does the party rally around her? Or do they want to discuss options, like Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Maryland Governor Westmore, and a few others. And there's a huge debate as to whether it's even realistic to bypass Kamala Harris. She's again been on the national ticket for four years. She's already the first black and South Asian woman vice president. She would be the first as president, a core constituency group is black women in the Democratic Party. If she's passed aside, how will they react a few months before the election? Will there be some sort of pseudo boycott? They need those voters in places like Georgia, in places like Milwaukee, in places like Philadelphia. And so, that'll be one of the many questions we ask. And so, Joe, unexpected news last weekend. And this weekend, we might have some more unexpected news. - I'm not leaving my phone on me this weekend, Moshe. - So, you're on your own. - But just a heads up, folks. I'm driving to my brother-in-law's bachelor party. So this could be a few hours of the weekend. We're like, why isn't Moshe reporting this? 'Cause he's driving in Vermont. But we'll try our best to stay on top of everything for you on the Instagram feed. - It was really interesting, though, because Kamala Harris had a campaign event on Thursday in North Carolina. She does campaign events all the time and gives speeches all the time to little, to no fanfare. - Yeah, she's the vice president. Nobody like this. - Everybody was covering this. It was as if people were waiting for some announcement. I mean, if you flip through the cable channels, you were like, what is going on here? Why is everyone covering it? And it's just, I think, a sign of where we are right now. - Right, it's amazing, 'cause half the conversation, sometimes more than that, of all the various media outlets, the Republican convention, is about the Democrats. Usually the biggest story during convention week, every four years, is that convention. And we happen to be in a rare situation here, where the biggest story in the world is this democratic infighting, the firing squad of sorts that's happening against Joe Biden, including from the Clintons, from the Obamas, from Pelosi. It's interesting, 'cause if you think back there, is that George Sefnalpa's interview, Joe, the first interview that Joe did after the debates, where Sefnalpa's made a point of saying, hey, if these senior Democratic leaders come to you and say, time's up, what would you do? And he said, what if Pelosi came to you, and Schumer came to you, and Obama came to you. And Joe's response to that was, that'll never happen. And that has happened in the last two weeks. So that is where we're at. And this is a fascinating political story, psychological story, Rachel. You know, you're getting in the mind of Joe Biden here, the leader who's decided he's gonna run again, and everyone around him is saying, no, time's up. What are you gonna do? And you have all the power. So there's questions of loyalty to party, the country, the self, the family, fascinating what we're living through right now, Joe. These past six days, starting, I would say, past three weeks going back to that debate, but really the past six days with the assassination attempt through today has been incredible, even as somebody who's covered these issues in politics, and going back a couple of decades now. - We're gonna have a little bit more on the assassination attempt and what we're learning about the shooter, but even the fact that that was less than a week ago is wild because it feels like so much has happened already since then, the pace of this news cycle certainly one that's hard to keep up with. And you could literally imagine somebody writing a book just about kind of like the month of July, 2024. - Oh, there's an entire book to be written about this week, Joe. - Mark it down, most. It'll be what we're reading for in about a year from now. - Let's put in the offer right now, to Simon and Schuster, we'll write the book. - All right, Moshe, one thing that we talk about a lot on this podcast, Travel Trends, and we know that so many of you have travel plans for this summer, and we also know that the experience is that much better if you can speak the language, even say some of the basics. So if that's you, make 2024 the year that you finally learn to speak a language somewhere you're gonna travel with Babel. Babel is a language app with quick 10 minute lessons to help you start speaking a new language in as little as three weeks. One study found that using Babel for 15 hours is equivalent to a full semester at college. Moshe, where was this 20 years ago? (laughs) What we like, Babel's designed by real people for real conversations. Moshe, one of these days I will be able to head back to Paris, but with my husband. And it will be very nice because I am starting to learn some basic French, Babel's convenient courses can really help you learn real life conversation skills. It is so easy to learn things like how to order food, ask for directions, speak to merchants without having to consult language apps while on vacation. So here's a special limited time deal for our listeners. Right now you can get up to 60% off your Babel subscriptions, but only for our listeners, that's at babble.com/monews. Get up to 60% off at babble.com/monews. Spelt B-A-B-B-E-L.com/monews, M-O-N-E-W-S. There are some rules and restrictions that apply. - And 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. A-G-1 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 basis in just about 60 seconds. With your first purchase of A-G-1, M-O-News listeners are getting a free one-year supply of vitamin D as well as five free travel packs of A-G-1. You can visit drinkagone.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, drinkagone.com/monews. That is drinkagthenumberone.com/monews for this special deal. - All right, time for the speed read. Let's start with the investigation into last weekend's assassination attempt of former president Trump from the Washington Post, the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who tried to kill the former president at a rally last weekend had searched online for information about Trump and President Biden and had photos of both men saved on his phone. This is according to lawmakers and other people briefed on the investigation. They say that Thomas Matthew Crooks visited the site of Trump's rally nearly a week in advance. In addition to Trump and Biden, he also had photos of Attorney General Merrick Garland and a member of the British royal family saved on his phone. He also had searched for information about major depressive disorder, the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the Democratic National Convention scheduled for August. And we are learning that Crooks arrived at the rally site Saturday morning hours before the event was to begin. He was spotted and flagged as suspicious an hour before the rally started. Again, according to a senator who was part of a briefing this week. - Jill, we're also learning that local police, we've been talking about the divide here of communication to local police and Secret Service, that local police apparently alerted Secret Service and sent them a photo of Crooks 26 minutes before he opened fire from that rooftop. We've been talking about it, that they spotted them. He was suspicious. Apparently now a call went in, a comms went in to the Secret Service. They have a lot of questions to answer. In fact, there are some senators now who are very upset they haven't gotten answers yet and they actually two of them confronted the Secret Service Director at the RNC this week. We posted the video over on Instagram. You see Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming. You see Senator Marcia Blackburn of Tennessee confronting her, the Secret Service Director, Kimberly Sheedell at the RNC. Sheedell says this is not the right venue right now with the cameras here, et cetera, to be talking about all of this. But they feel their questions are not being answered. Here, take a listen to a bit of this that Marcia Blackburn, the Senator from Tennessee, posted over on X. - Why would anyone allow the stress to go on stage to win, you know, you've got to be able to win. That's my first hit or trend. I don't think that they should have won at all. - Wait, wait, wait, wait, you hung up on, we're here. - Jill, potentially a sign of things to come for Sheedell when she testified on Capitol Hill in the coming weeks here. The senator's not even waiting for that, deciding that they want answers and they want it now. And they're recording her as they're doing it. Never really seen that before, but clearly it shows where things stand right now. There's a massive dearth of information members of Congress feel they have when it comes to an assassination attempt on the former president. And despite the massive investigation here, avalanche of media attention, very little information has surfaced about Crook's, his interests, his beliefs. There's a New York Times story out in the last day where they interviewed a guy who went to middle school and high school with him, like I'm in Vincent Tarmina. And he said that Crook's, as he was growing up, by the way Crook's wasn't that old, right? Crook's was 20 years old, has showed a general disdain for politicians in both parties, apparently at one point when they were a junior high, he said some negative things about Trump, saying people are stupid if they support Donald Trump. But then again, he apparently also shared criticism of Biden here. So there's a lot of questions as to what was going through Crook's mind. They haven't found any evidence yet of any co-conspirators or connections to foreign actors here. They did find that he had a second cell phone according to one report, which is being investigated here. And speaking of his cell phones, they did find that he had searched at some point about major depressive disorder, that he was going through some mental health issues as well. Notably, his parents are both counselors, but they were not closely involved in day-to-day details of his life. But apparently in recent weeks, he had received a bunch of packages, including hazardous materials. Remember, we've told you on the pod earlier this week that they discovered three explosive devices connected to him, one in his home, two others in his vehicle that was parked at the rally. They discovered two of his explosive devices had a radio-controlled initiation system intended for commercial fireworks demonstrations. So it appears he might have had some other stuff they were just planning to do, or at least a backup plan there with the explosives in his car. But again, no ideological pattern here. So we'll see what we learned here. But as of tomorrow, we'll one week out from the assassination. One thing they have found, he was part of an online platform where gamers talk called Steam. And on Steam, on his message board, he wrote, "July 13th will be my premiere. Watch it as it unfolds." Of course, July 13th was last Saturday when he attempted to shoot the president. - Most now to one of the biggest campaign issues this year, immigration and some new numbers. This from CBS News, the number of migrants unlawfully crossing the US-Southern border has continued to drop markedly in July, nearing a threshold that would require officials to lift a partial ban on asylum claims enacted by President Biden. This is according to internal government data obtained by CBS News. July is on track to see the fifth consecutive monthly drop in migrant apprehensions along the US-Mexico border and the lowest level in illegal immigration since the fall of 2020 during the Trump administration. If you remember back in early June, President Biden invoked a far-reaching presidential authority to suspend the entry of most migrants entering the US illegally, effectively shutting off access to the American asylum system outside of official ports of entry once entries hit a certain level. - Yeah, so illegal border crossings, which were already falling in the spring before his action have plunged further to three year low as of June. But that's only after we've seen a record surge for three years, Jill. We went through a three year period between 2021 and 2024 where more than 100,000 undocumented migrants were coming across every month. In fact, there were six or seven months there where more than 200,000 undocumented migrants would come in a month. That's levels we haven't ever seen before. The levels back when Trump was president pre-COVID were at about 50,000 a month or less than 50,000 a month. So they've more than doubled at times quadrupled during the Biden presidency. But he says he has been able to crack down here. The question for many, though, is it too little too late? The issue has taken center stage at the RNC this week. It was among the many topics that was discussed at the convention. In particular, Texas Governor Greg Abbott was at the convention on Wednesday night where he addressed the convention hall. And you could hear Chance who's leading the crowd there, the delegates, and Chance have sent them home. Send them home. A mass deportation policy that Trump has talked about sending between 12 and 20 million undocumented migrants to deporting them in some way, shape, or form. It's unclear how it would happen logistically. But first, take a listen here to a bit of Abbott and the sounds of the Republican National Convention this week. (crowd cheering) - He will enforce the immigration laws. He will fight the Mexican drug cartels. And he will arrest the criminal illegal immigrants and put them behind bars. (crowd cheering) Or send them back. (crowd cheering) - So Jill, I think you could make out there the chance of sending them home. Also, you saw signs, mass deportation now on the floor. And again, the focus in recent years has been about folks who come across undocumented migrants who come across and commit crimes. The focus should be on them given the resources, given the expense here. And also just given the impact on the US economy. It goes without saying, but it's pretty apparent these days how many industries depend on undocumented labor, including agriculture and other industries. And so they've talked about a multi trillion dollar hit to the US economy over several years. If this was to happen, if the mass deportation was to happen, there aren't necessarily Americans to fill all these jobs, despite what would be said. At the same time, you hear from advocates here that they're putting a strain, undocumented migrants are putting a strain on the system, on healthcare, on education. And so something needs to be done about the border. So we'll see how this issue unfolds through the fall, what the numbers on the border are and whether that impacts people's decision making here. And then of course, what President Trump, if he's elected again, is able to actually accomplish this go around, given that last go around, remember, he was gonna build a wall, make a Mexico pay for it, the whole variety of things, a number of which he wasn't able to accomplish necessarily. Joe, this all comes as we got new numbers from the Federal Reserve this week. Their branch is San Francisco estimates that anywhere from three to four million undocumented migrants may come into the U.S. this year. However, given the numbers have been going down, it might not be that, but you're still probably looking at at least two upwards of potentially three million undocumented migrants coming across the border in 2024. - From CNBC, online spending in the United States surged 11% year over year to $14.2 billion during Amazon's 48-hour prime-day event. Hopping estimates and setting a new record, this is according to Adobe Analytics, which says the strong showing was driven by back-to-school shopping and an apparent product refresh cycle as they're calling it, as consumers are looking to snap up new tablets, TVs, and Bluetooth speakers in droves. They say shoppers couldn't get enough of Amazon branded fire TV sticks, premier protein shakes, and liquid IV packets, while home goods and household essentials, as well as apparel and shoes, were also among the top categories. And that is a shift from last year, when shoppers who are a bit more inflation weary use the discount event to stock up on household essentials, things like pantry staples and office supplies. So, Moshe, I'm currently googling liquid IV packets. (laughing) You know, hydration's important, Jill, it's hot outside. So, you know, as we see record temps, I imagine, that's what tempted people to get more there. Jill's just running the numbers. They're $14 billion over 48 hours. We're talking about $300 million an hour that people were spending on Amazon over the last couple of days. So, Adobe here tracks transactions, not just on Amazon, but across a whole bunch of U.S. retail sites, Amazon's prime-day event, which ran both Tuesday and Wednesday, has become a huge revenue driver for other retailers, who often hold competing sales, time to run prime-day. Amazon says that it saw record-breaking prime-day revenue, but they haven't broken out those numbers. And they also touted their new AI assistant. I don't know how many of you have used Rufus yet their shopping assistant, but apparently it's generative AI that helps you determine what you need, sort of a shopping buddy of sorts. So, they've been testing out the system called Rufus, and let us know how it is. How many of you utilized it? - I have a shopping buddy. Her name is Alex. It's your wife. (laughing) - Right, my wife is a person, not AI person, who has an Amazon store. We link to it in the newsletter this week. A lot of great home goods, a whole variety of things, across the spectrum. Books, kids stuff, home goods, cooking stuff. It's great. - Okay, from the New York Times, a look at the state of toilet paper. The toilet paper aisle at your local store, crowded with products that claim to be more sustainable, including from bamboo and recycled material, to products with forest safe labels. If you're in the US, the role in your bathroom right now most likely comes from somewhere in North or South America. It could be a blend of trees from the US, Southeast and the forests of Canada, or maybe even from eucalyptus grown in Brazil. Those sources present several environmental problems, shipping away at the planet's old intact forests and replacing native woodlands is terrible for biodiversity. And it is also really bad for the climate because big mature trees store a lot more planet, warming carbon than saplings planted in their place. And on top of that, logging projects have also displaced indigenous communities around the world. There are a couple of solutions in your local store aisles or online these days. Recycled paper keeps trees in the ground and requires fewer resources to produce. There are current estimates that the tissue from 100% recycled material requires about half as much water and 37% less total energy than using fiber from freshly cut trees. It produces roughly 70% less greenhouse gases. But Moshe, how is it on the tush? I don't know. - How many fly? I get it, it's a big thing for people. But I love this story that came out this week. It's something that we all need to utilize. On a daily basis, but we don't often think about it. Like what is in our toilet paper? You mentioned recycled paper as one item there. The challenge there is that the supply of recycled material has fallen as the use of certain paper products has declined. We're printing less things out, which means less things are getting recycled, which means there's less recyclable paper to then make that toilet paper. Option two, beyond the recycled paper. If you're feeling a bit bold, there is the bidet route. We talked about this during COVID. The New York Times notes that despite what you may think, it actually saves water. The process of making toilet paper actually leads you to use more water than people realize. And actually, so a bidet, if you have one of those devices, allows you to save water. And then another option here is bamboo toilet paper. This is a growing alternative here to tree-based products. What's great about bamboo toilet paper is it's a grass and not a tree. Bamboo grows faster, occupies less land, and converting bamboo fibers to paper, also requires less water than using wood. Jill, it's one of the things we've been using in our household. There's a brand called Plant Paper, one of the newer bamboo options out there, an easy segue for us here. Plant paper has become one of our new partners here at Mo News. The folks at Plant Paper use bamboo. It's the fastest growing plant on the planet. It's capable of growing up to a meter per day. And unlike trees, bamboo is harvested, not clear cup. So you can continue to harvest it every couple years. The great thing about plant paper, it's PFAS-free. We've talked about PFAS before, those forever chemicals. And in addition to that, they're also bleach-free and formaldehyde-free. And this forever chemicals that have been found in a number of toilet paper brands, we've talked about this before, they go into the water supply, they have an environmental impact, they've also been linked to health issues, like reproductive issues, developmental delays, potential birth defects here. And so what we're loving right now about plant paper is you can order it online, we have a subscription, it's delivered on the regular, and they're offering right now a special deal to the Monuse community. 25% off your first order of a subscription here. We have a link in the show notes. The code is Monuse, head over to plantpaper.us, use the code Monuse for 25% off and check out the feeling of bamboo on the tush there, Jill. - Most my question remains, how is it on the tush? - We like it. - That's the test. - Jill, it does the job and it's good for the environment. - Okay, for Maxios, the WNBA's next national media rights package has come into shape. The league has set to receive roughly $2.2 billion over the next 11 years in rights fees in its new deals. That is an average of $200 million a year with an opening to earn more over that period. That's three times more than its current deal. It's just the revenue from three partners, Disney, Amazon, and Comcast. But the league could cut one or two additional side deals for about another 60 million per year. This is a big deal that it starts with a B here and on an M as in billion. 15 WNBA games this season have averaged at least a million viewers. Before this season, the league hadn't had a game average a million viewers since opening night of 2008. Now, 13 of those 15 games, Indiana Fever games, starring, who else, rookie Caitlyn Clark. So as you mentioned earlier, this is the Caitlyn Clark effect right now. And so at this rate, 200 million a year, that's several times more than what they have been getting. The WNBA's deal so far was 50 million a year. So clearly bringing in some new revenue here, hopefully that helps them pay their players more. But just to give you some perspective, this $2.2 billion deal that they've signed over 10 years, the NBA, because of its popularity and its ratings, just signed a $75 billion deal. So the NBA is still exponentially higher here, but the WNBA is starting to, again, get into the billions here and they have high hopes there that their audience will continue to grow. - From the Hollywood Reporter, legendary actor and comedian Bob Newhart has passed away. He was known for his deadpan delivery as a stand-up comedian and later for several iconic television and movie roles. Newhart was 94 years old. He remains best known for the television shows The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart, both of which were built around his persona as a reasonable man put upon by crazies. Back when comedians put out records of their performances, he was a star, his debut album, The Button Down Mind, above Newhart, soared past the pop and rock recordings of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley to stand at number one on the Billboard charts for 14 weeks in 1960. And it was the first comedy album to sell more than one million copies. Newhart remains the only comedian to win Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Album of the Year. - Fun little factor there for everyone when we discovered that he outsold Sinatra and Presley back when you'd buy those comedy albums, those comedy records. In later years, new generations would discover Newhart as Papa Elf as he starred in the holiday movie Elf, Opposite Will Ferrell. He also had recurring roles on Desperate Housewives and ER. He won an Emmy Award about 10 years ago for guest appearance as Professor Proton over on The Big Bang Theory. Jill, I like this quote from Newhart's memoir. He wrote it back in 2006. He wrote that quote, "Comedy is a way to bring logic "to an illogical situation, "of which there are many in everyday life. "I've always likened what I do to the man who's convinced "that he is the last sane man on earth." And while we're talking about losses, we also learned yesterday that news personality, Lou Dobbs passed away. He was 78 years old. You might remember him from his shows on CNN, Lou Dobbs Tonight. It then eventually went over to Fox. He was a political commentator, a conservative who in recent years became very close to Donald Trump who incidentally announced Dobbs' death on his truth social account yesterday. Dobbs was a major vocal supporter of Trump in recent years calling him a gift from God. They were very close. In fact, so close that Dobbs, because he was reinforcing Trump's claims about how the election was stolen, Dobbs was part of that lawsuit against Fox for the claims about impropriety in 2020. And it actually led Fox to fire Dobbs, among others, as they faced and then eventually settled that lawsuit. (upbeat music) - Alright, Moshe, it is Friday. Cheers to the freaking weekend. Time for it, we are watching reading and eating. Kick it off. What will you be watching? - Hill Billie Elegy over on Netflix, Joe. I've never seen the film version of it and several of you messaged me that it's a fascinating watch, especially given the evolution, the political evolution that J.D. Vance has taken since he wrote the novel. Ron Howard has spoken also that he's surprised by the political evolution that Vance has had. So, I think it's a good opportunity to check that out. What are you watching? - There's a movie out on Disney Plus. It is called "Young Woman in the Sea." It is the story of a competitive swimmer, Trudy Edderley, who in 1926 was the first woman to ever swim across the English Channel. It's getting the Disney treatment, so I'm not sure if it's gonna be exactly true to-- - Animated? - No, not animated. - Okay. - But usually one weekend night, I do a movie night with my daughter. We do like a family movie night. And I'm hoping that this is the movie that we settle on. Usually she picks and it's not the most fun for me and my husband. But this one feels like it could be mutually enjoyable. So, I'm hoping I'm going to strongly suggest we watch this one. - All right, Jill, there's a theme this weekend because I noticed in your "What You're Reading" list, it bears a resemblance to what I'm watching. - Well, that's right, Bill Billy, "Elegie." I'm going to start actually the audiobook. And I'm looking forward to it because I never actually read the book. So, I not only never saw the movie, but I never read the book when it came out. So, I'm looking forward to reading the book and really getting a better understanding of who is JD Vance. And if for whatever reason, I can't get past the first chapter, which happens occasionally, I'll be with you watching the Netflix movie. - Straight to the film. It's Glenn Close, it got, you know, Ron Howard. It's not some shabby make of a book. - Exactly. Okay, what are you reading? - Jill, I think I mentioned it on the pod a few weeks ago, "Demon of Unrest." But I'm in the midst of finishing it because I had the opportunity this week to speak with Eric Larson, the award-winning best-selling author. You might remember him from a variety of the books that he's written. I actually have several behind me on the shelf if you're watching on YouTube. Devil in the White City is probably among the most famous. So, had the opportunity to interview him. That'll be up on the premium pod in the next couple of days for you premium subscribers, where we talk about his time as a journalist, Jill, how he became an author, how he gets his inspiration for his stories, how he'll spend four or five years researching and writing a book. He loves to go to the library of Congress. He hates online research. He loves just regular research. And we talk about why he thought it was time to add to the estimated 66,000 books about the US Civil War. That's how many books have been written about the Civil War and related topics. And so, he's written one "Demon of Unrest." It's fascinating 'cause it just focuses on five months, the period between Lincoln being elected and him being inaugurated in the beginning of the war. Lincoln's basically present elect and the whole country comes apart at the seams. And by the time he's elected, there's a country. And by the time he's inaugurated in March, half the country has succeeded from the union. So he delves into that. It's fascinating. And if you're a premium sub, I know enjoy the conversation. - All right, now to my favorite section. What are we eating? - Jill, what do you got? - Okay, so I'm actually gonna be trying this new viral pickle sandwich. I don't know if you've heard of this, but basically instead of using bread, they scoop out a pickle and then you can fill it with whatever you want. So one of my friends tried turkey and cheese and she said it's really good. It's definitely like on the juicier side. (laughs) But she said it's great. And there is a deli on Long Island called Schmir in Fort Washington that apparently does a nice job with it. So I think I'm gonna check that out. - Jill, please be sure to tell us on Monday if it was delicious. (laughs) - Very, very plenty, Mausch. - Yeah, sorry, it's Friday. I'm out of steam. - Okay, what are you eating? - I mentioned I'm headed up to Stratton, Vermont. There is a restaurant up there called Honey Pie with great burgers, looking forward to getting my fix up there. - All right, everybody. It has been a week. Thank you for listening to the Monuse Podcast. Thank you for getting us to five million downloads. So appreciate it. Please again, just share with their friends because it will help us get to our next five million. - Yes, in short order, especially in these times, Jill, I think we put out six daily podcasts and interview podcasts this week. A lot of hours of content for all of you. So I hope you guys have enjoyed. I hope we've been able to bring you the information that you need to help you understand what's going on. We're still trying to get our heads around it. Stick with us, stay calm. And if you haven't joined Premium already, head over to mo.news/premium and join for just seven bucks a month. It's a way to support us. It's a way to get the premium podcast. It's a way to get news on the weekends. But I understand some of you who just want to break on the weekends. And otherwise, we'll see you back here on Monday. All right, bye, everyone. - Thanks for listening to the Mo News podcast. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
