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Top US Doc Declares Gun Violence Is Public Health Crisis; Kenya Burning; Student Loan Forgiveness Stalled

A daily non-partisan, conversational breakdown of today’s top news and breaking news stories

This Week’s Sponsors:  – WeWork – Get 20% off WeWork All Access Membership | Code: MONEWSWORKS20 – Shopify – $1 per-month trial Code: monews – Athletic Greens – AG1 Powder + 1 year of free Vitamin D & 5 free travel packs     Headlines: – Welcome to Mo News (00:00)  – Surgeon General Declares Gun Violence A Public Health Crisis (04:10) – Kenya’s Parliament Burns As Protesters Object To New Taxes (08:40) – UN to Israel: Aid Operations Across Gaza Will Be Suspended Without Improved Safety (15:30) – Parents of Hamas hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin Say Why They Wanted Video Of Abduction Released (18:00) – Assange Agrees to Plead Guilty in Exchange for Release, Ending Standoff With U.S. (23:00) – Judges Halt Key Parts Of Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness, Repayment Plan — Risking Relief For Millions (26:25) – Federal Judge Rejects $30 Billion Settlement Between Visa, Mastercard and Retailers (28:20) – Meet The Sisters Who Broke World Record For Highest Combined Age of 6 Living Siblings (29:45) – On This Day In History (32:50)

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— Mosheh Oinounou (@mosheh) is an Emmy and Murrow award-winning journalist. He has 20 years of experience at networks including Fox News, Bloomberg Television and CBS News, where he was the executive producer of the CBS Evening News and launched the network's 24 hour news channel. He founded the @mosheh Instagram news account in 2020 and the Mo News podcast and newsletter in 2022. Jill Wagner (@jillrwagner) is an Emmy and Murrow award- winning journalist. She's currently the Managing Editor of the Mo News newsletter and previously worked as a reporter for CBS News, Cheddar News, and News 12. She also co-founded the Need2Know newsletter, and has made it a goal to drop a Seinfeld reference into every Mo News podcast. Follow Mo News on all platforms:

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Duration:
37m
Broadcast on:
26 Jun 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

A daily non-partisan, conversational breakdown of today’s top news and breaking news stories


This Week’s Sponsors: 

WeWork – Get 20% off WeWork All Access Membership | Code: MONEWSWORKS20

Shopify – $1 per-month trial Code: monews

Athletic Greens – AG1 Powder + 1 year of free Vitamin D & 5 free travel packs

 

 

Headlines:

– Welcome to Mo News (00:00) 

– Surgeon General Declares Gun Violence A Public Health Crisis (04:10)

– Kenya’s Parliament Burns As Protesters Object To New Taxes (08:40)

– UN to Israel: Aid Operations Across Gaza Will Be Suspended Without Improved Safety (15:30)

– Parents of Hamas hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin Say Why They Wanted Video Of Abduction Released (18:00)

– Assange Agrees to Plead Guilty in Exchange for Release, Ending Standoff With U.S. (23:00)

– Judges Halt Key Parts Of Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness, Repayment Plan — Risking Relief For Millions (26:25)

– Federal Judge Rejects $30 Billion Settlement Between Visa, Mastercard and Retailers (28:20)

– Meet The Sisters Who Broke World Record For Highest Combined Age of 6 Living Siblings (29:45)

– On This Day In History (32:50)



**Mo News Premium For Members-Only Instagram, Private Podcast: (Click To Join)**


Mosheh Oinounou (@mosheh) is an Emmy and Murrow award-winning journalist. He has 20 years of experience at networks including Fox News, Bloomberg Television and CBS News, where he was the executive producer of the CBS Evening News and launched the network's 24 hour news channel. He founded the @mosheh Instagram news account in 2020 and the Mo News podcast and newsletter in 2022.

Jill Wagner (@jillrwagner) is an Emmy and Murrow award- winning journalist. She's currently the Managing Editor of the Mo News newsletter and previously worked as a reporter for CBS News, Cheddar News, and News 12. She also co-founded the Need2Know newsletter, and has made it a goal to drop a Seinfeld reference into every Mo News podcast.

Follow Mo News on all platforms:

Hey, everybody. It is Wednesday, June 26. You're listening to the M.O. News podcast at 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. And today I'm also trying to talk to folks so you don't have to to get the bottom line on what's happening here in Washington. That's right. Today, Moshe is on location, but like actually on location, not just at his in-laws house down the street. So Moshe, what are you doing in Washington, D.C.? So it's a big week here. We're waiting on a couple of huge cases on the Supreme Court. So stay tuned on Instagram the next couple of days and on this podcast as we await a couple major cases over on Capitol Hill. They had meetings yesterday with Israeli leaders, including the defense minister. So was meeting with both of the American side and the Israeli sides. We'll have a bit of that in today's podcast. And of course, what everyone's talking about here in Washington. They're waiting for the debate tomorrow night. So it's getting a sense of how some leaders on both sides are feeling about what's going to happen. A lot of anticipation. A lot of we just don't know how this is about to go down. So one of those rare events in Washington where you don't know what the results going to be, you're going to have to watch the live 90 minutes. Well, Moshe, we will certainly be watching. I was actually on my friend Baker Machado, who I used to work with previously. He has a new podcast and I was his guest and I'll be posting it on my Instagram, Jill R. Wagner, when it comes out tomorrow. But he was asking me what I thought about the ratings, that if this was going to be a highly watched debate. So I said, I would think so just because these are two men who have not been in the same room with each other. And we haven't really heard from them in this environment for so many years. At the same time, we are talking what end of June. It's so early that I for those reasons, it's like it's either going to be, I could see it being really, really heavily watched just because people are curious. But I also don't know if everyone is paying attention yet. It is still so early in terms of the election season. And as we talked about before, I mean, a lot of parents, people are away. It is the throws of summer. Kids are getting ready for camp, kids are at camp. So I don't know, I think it's a wild card to see in terms of viewership. I think ultimately there may be a moment or two and those moments will live on in social media. And that is how the vast majority of the public will develop their a sense of what took place the debate. I think there's only a certain group of people that actually will take a moment and and devote their Thursday evening to it. That said, we are among those people. And if you're among those people who want the live experience, additional watching the debate, stay tuned to Instagram tomorrow night, we'll be doing live commentary on the debate, be pausing at certain moments to tell you what just happened. And so make sure to join the Monus Instagram feed tomorrow during the debate. Okay, now let's get to some headlines starting with gun violence here in the United States. The surgeon general says it is a public health crisis. And he wants lawmakers to take action overseas. Kenya's parliament burns as protesters object to new taxes and love the latest out of the Middle East, including what most is learning in Washington. Plus, after years, literally years of a standoff with United States, Julian Assange agrees to plead guilty in exchange for release. In a blow to President Biden, a judge has halted a key part of his student loan forgiveness plan, and that risks relief for millions of Americans. And a federal judge has rejected the $30 billion settlement between Visa, MasterCard, and retailers. So what happens now? And meet the sisters who broke the world record for the highest combined age of six living siblings. Plus, Moshe has on the same history. Jill, a couple of the most famous statements in presidential history. And no, again, it's not what the definition of his is. No, two different presidents, two different presidents, significant statements on this day. Stay tuned. Okay, America's top doctor, US surgeon general Vivek Murthy issuing a first of its kind advisory on Tuesday, declaring gun violence a national public health crisis. And that is driven by the fast growing number of injuries and deaths involving firearms in this country. They are now the leading cause of death for children and teens. The doctor providing some pretty staggering statistics. He says the rate of gun violence in the US is anywhere from five times to 121 times higher than any other high income country in the world. And a staggering 54% of adults report that they or family member have experienced a firearm related incident, which means that they have been personally threatened with or injured by a firearm, lost a family member, witnessed a shooting or shot a firearm in self defense. Here is a bit of the surgeon general's announcement. What is especially devastating is how this has affected our children. Firearm violence has become the number one cause of death among children and adolescents, more than car accidents or drug overdoses. And he says that the toll that that's taking is not only physically, but also on the mental health of both kids and parents. Moshe, I remember talking to psychotherapist neurofoliciano on this podcast last year. It was all about just teen and mental health and social media, which is on the interview podcast feed still, if you want to take a listen to it. And she told a story about how she was in Australia with her daughter, who at one point turned to her and said something like, wow, it is so nice to walk around and not be worried that I'm going to be shot or that there's going to be a shooting. And neuros said it was like an aha moment for her because it had never really occurred to her. The mental toll that gun violence was taking on her children. Yeah. So the same time we should note that mass shootings, despite getting all the media attention here in this country, very, very rare, they actually only account for 1% of firearm deaths in the US. What actually gets much less reported on when you look at the overall amount of Americans who died by firearms, the majority about 60% are by suicide, about 28,000 of the 48,000 people killed from guns in 2022 were from suicide. The other 40% homicide. So it really speaks to the access and availability of guns, especially among those with mental health issues. That's an issue as well as again, not mass shootings, but a lot of the urban violence, the gang violence that you see in a number of American cities like Memphis, Chicago and others. So the Surgeon General here gets specific in his report. He actually goes into that noting again that mass shootings make up 1%, despite the media attention, but outlining just the issue we're having in this country with firearm violence, how it's impacting victims. And so the Surgeon General here is limited in terms of what he can do. He makes this declaration and he lays out a bunch of policy suggestions. Well, who has to take that up? Lawmakers, whether at the state level or federal level, they're the ones who need to pass laws here, potentially. The Surgeon General pointing to tobacco, to motor vehicle crashes saying it's actually possible to lower the death rate when policymakers get involved and come up with smart policies. And you've seen that in the decrease of tobacco related disease. You've seen that with a significant decrease in the number of motor vehicle crashes, you know, laws like seatbelt laws and various regulations they've imposed on car manufacturers in terms of airbags. So that's effectively what Murthy's talking about here. He's talking about semi-automatic rifles. He's talking about universal background checks. He's talking about requirements to lock up your weaponry. But again, none of those things can happen about state legislatures or Congress taking action. And you heard it last week from the Supreme Court, even Justice Alito, a conservative, who said, listen, we're going to overturn the bump stock ban because this is something Congress has to do, not something the ATF can do. And it's interesting, Joe, when you look at the state level, you're seeing two different directions happen this year. You got lawmakers in Michigan. You have lawmakers in Pennsylvania who are talking about a number of gun mills relating to storage requirements, gun-free zones, prohibiting bump stocks, other changes to increased background checks. And then you have other states like Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, where they're making it easier to buy guns right now. So really, the map is very different. But you got the search of general saying, the least I can do is declare this an issue, hope that that raises attention and that policy can change from this point on. Okay, now to a developing story overseas. In Kenya, crowds of protesters on Tuesday violently fought their way into Kenya's parliament, where lawmakers were debating a bunch of tax increases aimed at stemming the country's debt crisis, police opened fire on protesters in the capital of Nairobi, killing several people and injuring dozens. There's television footage that shows smoke rising from sections of parliament. So listen to this interview with one of the protesters who happens to be Alma Obama, the older half-sister of former US President Barack Obama. So she was actually tear gassed by police during an interview with CNN live on air while protesting against the bill. Come speak to us. Live on CNN. Why are you here today? I'm here because look at what's happening. Young Kenyans are demonstrating for their rights. They're demonstrating with flags and banners. I can't even see anymore. That means your gas. By the way, Alma is one of Obama's eight half siblings, several live in Kenya. Most of these protests seem to be led by young people who had voted for the president, William Ruto, to take power on the promise of economic relief. The government is badly in debt and again looking to raise taxes as a way to increase funds. Yeah, the Kenyan president there won that election on a platform of championing the working poor, but has been caught between the competing demands of lenders like China and the International Monetary Fund, which is urging the government to cut deficits, obtain more funding, and a population that is impoverished and says they cannot handle any more taxes. So right now, Kenya is in the grip of these nationwide protests against these proposed tax hikes, culminating in this total shutdown of the country. A reminder, Kenya is about 54 million people, one of the more populous countries in Africa. They are demanding that the president withdraw the bill that would introduce the major tax increases here, saying that ordinary Kenyans are struggling. But again, Kenya is in a lot of debt right now. In fact, nearly 60% of the country's revenue goes towards paying off their debts. Who are their debt holders? Well, China has lent about 75% of that money. China has this whole strategy called built in a road. We'll dive into that on the Monus premium account over on Instagram, but they're lending to developing countries around the world in Africa, Asia, and South America, and then they want their money back. And it's got to be paid back. So you have heard from some of these countries that the new imperialists of the 21st century are the Chinese. At the same time, you do have some of these debts coming due for the World Bank and IMF, which are run by Western countries for the most part. So this is Kenya raising taxes to pay off the rest of the world. Kenyan people, not so happy about it. But given how these protests have unfolded, the Kenyan president saying this has gone way beyond what it showed up. He called what happened treason yesterday. He said that it's been hijacked. These protests have been hijacked by dangerous people. So he's planning to still sign this finance bill. At the same time, the protesters are saying we're coming for every politician. So this episode is brought to you by WeWork. We've told you for a while now that we made our home from Monus headquarters at WeWork, the co-working space. Ours is located in Brooklyn. They have locations all across the country and around the world. We love working here because not only is it a great space to get work done, but you never know who you'll meet in the hallways here or at the next WeWork event. You could meet founders, industry leaders, or your next business partner, customer, or investor. The hot topic in the halls these days is all things artificial intelligence, AI. If you work in the AI space or are interested in getting firsthand knowledge about AI, there are already several hundred companies here focused on it. 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All right, time for the speed read. Let's start overseas with a round of headlines coming out of the Middle East. Senior UN officials have warned Israel that they will suspend the world body's aid operations across Gaza unless Israel acts urgently to better protect humanitarian workers. The ultimatum is the latest in a series of UN steps demanding that Israel do more to safeguard aid operations from strikes by its forces and to curb growing lawlessness that's hindering humanitarian workers. The army claims it is trying to facilitate aid shipments and accuses Hamas of disrupting them, noting Tuesday that Hamas fired a projectile at the humanitarian route near a UNICEF aid convoy. So US officials are chiming in here saying they're talking with both the UN and the Israelis on how to resolve these UN concerns. It comes that the Israelis have opened up a whole bunch of crossings for aid, but then the UN isn't able to protect its own convoys within Gaza as they go along this route from groups like Hamas, other armed groups, and then in some cases just gangs of people who climb aboard these trucks and grab the aid before it arrives where it's supposed to go. So you're still seeing this stuff end up in markets, but marked up prices. This is meant to be free aid, but it's being sold in the markets. In some cases, you're seeing illegal contraband cigarettes going for $25 right now in Gaza, according to the Wall Street Journal. In some cases, cigarette packs being hidden inside carved out watermelons and other produce to get it in to Gaza. And so some of these people and these gangs climbing aboard to figure out where the contraband is, where the cigarettes are, so they can make some real money in Gaza. So the Israeli military saying they're letting in the aid. The UN saying you got to do more, you got to protect it within Gaza. The Israelis effectively saying that's not our role here. So they have to resolve all of this. All of this comes as here in Washington. You have a number of major meetings happening between senior Israeli officials, including the Israeli Defense Minister and top U.S. officials, Tony Blinken, over the State Department, Lloyd Austin, the Defense Secretary. And while there is still a focus on Gaza, the big issue here in Washington is Iran, preventing a potential all-out war with Hezbollah and the fact that there is a belief that Iran is getting closer and closer to nuclear weapons. The Defense Minister, Yoav Ghallant, telling the U.S. Defense Secretary time is running out right now to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, stressing that Israel and the U.S. must work together to prevent this threat from coming to fruition. Also, from NBC News, the families of three hostages held now in Gaza since October 7th have released a video of their loved ones' abduction. The parents of Hirsch Goldberg Pollan, a 23-year-old Israeli American who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th, said that the newly released video should serve as a call of action to do everything possible to free the remaining hostages. His father, John, telling NBC News, "That is our son. We want all viewers of this video to think in that kind of personal way about what we are dealing with here." Yeah, you're seeing more and more that the Hirsch families now that their loved ones are still being held 220 some days since October 7th are releasing video, really graphic video of their loved ones, trying to ensure that attention remains on getting their loved ones out. You see Hirsch in the bed of a pickup truck after Hamas in the attack blew off one of his arms. He's alongside two other captives. The concern among these families as they release this is that every day they are held, it diminishes the chances of bringing them back safely. At the same time, here in Washington, they discussed the latest on the ceasefire plan. This is the plan that Biden rolled out officially from the Israelis several weeks ago. You saw some back and forth earlier this week, and these early prime minister doing an interview with Israeli television saying that he's not quite ready for the whole deal, then correcting himself with the Americans saying, "No, no, no. I still support the deal." The U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saying yesterday, "Yeah, it's still on Hamas here. The failure of Hamas to accept this proposal is prolonging the agony of Palestinian civilians and Israeli civilians." Those are Austin's words there. At the same time, Netanyahu's government is still under pressure from these families, from parts of Israeli society to prioritize the return of the captives, even if it means a pause, even long-term pause to the war in Gaza now soon enough, Jill, within a week or two, approaching nine months of that war. Yeah, the concern from some of Israeli analysts that I was listening to is that Hamas, as we've been talking about, genuinely has no real incentive here to take any type of ceasefire deal. And in fact, they're hoping that Hezbollah and Israel go to war. And if that happens, it would be for Hamas, at least they feel a chance for them to actually survive because Israel would have to refocus on Lebanon. Yeah, they would get a breather, so to speak. At the same time, the Israeli Prime Minister is dancing here with his political coalition, because while the majority of the country and the majority of it is ready to agree this ceasefire, he's got parts of his right wing that are not. So he's dancing rhetorically around all of this. And so sadly, hanging in the balance here are the lives of these hostages, as well as any sense of return to normalcy for the vast majority of Gaza's. Most you met with some senior Israeli officials in DC on Tuesday. What have you learned? The big thing I'm hearing from the Israelis is they're trying to resolve this dispute over weapons behind closed doors. The US continues to flow weapons to Israel, just not as fast as they were doing so at the beginning of the war. And they're trying to get that flowing a bit quicker as they face the prospect of a second war here with the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon. As far as the Israelis are concerned, they say that just behind their own military, the second most important part of Israeli national security is the US and the US backing in the region. The Israelis are the only democracy in the region, cultural similarities to the US going back decades, that relationship going back decades, Israel, a country of seven million Jews living in the middle of 500 million Muslims. So having those US security assurances, a key for them, as Biden has said, they have an ironclad, the US has an ironclad guarantee for Israel. And so these meetings are important in terms of reinforcing it. The big thing right now for the two sides, both the Americans and the Israelis is preventing a wider war, Hezbollah, not Hamas. It's probably 10 times stronger than Hamas in terms of its capabilities, its weapons, the number of missiles that it has. And so the Israelis say they have no interest in a war there. Hezbollah has no interest in the war. The US doesn't have an interest in the war. Frankly, the only party that has an interest in the war is Iran here. And so trying to prevent that is a key aspect of these meetings. And the Israeli, again, continuing concerns that Iran is inching closer and closer to nuclear weapons and ensuring that the US is in alignment with them on that, going back several administrations now, you've had US presidents say that they will not ever allow Iran to get nuclear weapons. It's a regime that is unpredictable with that sort of weapon. All of these meetings coming ahead of the major address the Israeli Prime Minister is going to give here before Congress next month in July, there is some nervousness given the very fractured relationship between Netanyahu and US officials, a number of them right now, nervousness about whether this is going to be a good thing or a bad thing for the future US-Israel relationship. That's TBD right now, but those are among the things that they're talking about. All right, this next story from the New York Times, a court hearing half a world away that we have been watching Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, agreed to plead guilty this week to a single felony count of illegally obtaining and disclosing national security material in exchange for his release from a British prison. This deal brings it into a prolonged battle that started after Assange revealed state secrets in the 2010s. Jill, when this story first became news, we were in our 20s. Remember those days? Fairly. Okay, so if you remember though, some of the material that was leaked was about American military activity in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as confidential cables shared among diplomats. Assange was in his early 30s when this all started. He's now, by the way, 52. He has spent more than a decade on the run living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. And then the last five years he spent in a British prison, he requested to appear before a federal judge at one of the more remote outposts of the federal judiciary. It is the courthouse in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. That is a US territory. Assange has been opposed to extradition to the US mainland, but he did agree to appear in court in that Commonwealth in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is much closer to his native Australia where he is a citizen than the courts in the continental United States or even Hawaii. Yeah, gels, like literally the most remote US court court in the world. He did some research. He did some research. He's like, that's where, you know, he has trust issues with the US government, given that he stole hundreds of thousands of documents, embarrassed people, put the security of US intelligence agents in US military officials at risk with how much he dumped over the years. So this saga has been going on for a very long time. He rose to prominence in 2010 with that leak. Among them, the emails that he helped steal from the Democratic National Committee that led to embarrassing revelations about Hillary Clinton's campaign. So a whole variety of things, but he had multiple legal issues. He also had legal problems in Sweden initially where he was accused of rape and sexual assault. And so to escape extradition to Sweden, he was able to make a home for himself in the embassy of Ecuador in London, where he lived for a number of years. Jill, I remember covering that several jobs ago. Pamela Anderson, the actress, used to visit him. I think they dated briefly for a while. So he was in the embassy there in Ecuador. Eventually, the Ecuadorians are very unhappy with the way Assange is living in there. They kick him out of the embassy. By then, the Swedes have decided to give up on their accusations against him. They drop those charges on rape and sexual assault. But then he's then picked up by the Brits at the behest of the American saying, hey, we want him here in America. But you're like, okay, we'll put him in jail. Then he goes to jail in Britain for the last five years where he's fighting extradition to the US because he thinks he will die in the US as lawyers say that he will commit suicide or he may be killed. So he's been fighting that for a while. That then led to these negotiations. So the deal here, basically, as he's being sentenced to five years in prison, well, where has he already served five years in prison? The UK says effectively a scratch. He gets to go to Australia now, a free man having already served his time. So that's the deal here. And again, it brings an end to a saga that began when we were all much, much younger. Back here to the US, a blow to President Biden's plan to forgive student loan debt. This story from CNBC to federal judges in Kansas and Missouri have temporarily halted significant parts of Biden's new student loan repayment plan, putting debt relief for millions of Americans in jeopardy. The rulings stop the US Department of Education from implementing major provisions of the saving on a valuable education or save plan until the cases are decided. The Biden administration has prevented from forgiving any more debt under the new income driven repayment plan and from further reducing borrowers payments in July as it planned to. So this impacts potentially more than 8 million borrowers who have enrolled in the save plan since it launched last August. Those enrolled were less than a week away from seeing their monthly bills dropped by half or more as the judge makes his decision. One higher education expert saying borrowers will be disappointed and angry that financial relief was yanked away at the last minute here. The people opposed to this, the people who have been opposed to a number of the Biden student loan plans over the last couple of years. Remember, Biden now said really comprehensive plan that was struck down by the Supreme Court because it was fought by Kansas and some other attorneys general from various red states. Those are the same attorneys general that are fighting the piecemeal plan. So Biden tried this very comprehensive plan that was killed by the courts. He's been trying to do a piecemeal like let's take a nibble here and take a nibble here out of student loans for people. Those minor plans, those smaller plans still being fought. And so this is just the latest in the student loan saga as the president tries to bring relief certain groups and he's being accused of overstepping his authority and engaging in some unconstitutional policy here by those Republican states. So this won't be the last time you hear about this on the podcast because this will continue to be fought through the court system. From CNN, a federal judge overseeing a $30 billion preliminary swipe fees settlement between MasterCard Visa and retailers formally rejected the deal Tuesday. The ruling likely means that the credit card processors will have to make more concessions to resolve their longstanding dispute with merchants. MasterCard and Visa, two of the world's largest credit card networks, reached their proposed multi-billion dollar antitrust settlement with US merchants in March. The settlement would lower swipe fees or interchange fees that a retailer must pay when a customer makes a purchase using their card. So some merchant groups here are applauding this saying, oh, we might actually get a better deal here with these huge credit card companies, the credit card companies saying, wait, we had a deal. What happened? So we'll see what they have to come up with. They're back to the drawing board here, a background here. If you're not already familiar as either a merchant or a customer, retailers are typically charged somewhere between 2% and 4% of the total transaction in swipe fees by these credit card companies. That's why sometimes, whether it's gas stations or other stores, you see that you can pay slightly less than cash. That's effectively the retailer telling you that we don't want to give that percentage to the credit card companies. And in this deal, the settlement would have lowered those fees ever so slightly by 0.0 something percent. It appears the judge thought that was not sufficient here. So we'll see what the credit card companies come up with next for the merchants. And finally, from ABC News, six sisters from Missouri are now the world record holders for the highest combined age of six living siblings. This is according to the Guinness World Records. The sisters were born into the overall family in Farmington, and they include Norma Jacob, who's 101, Lorraine Kollmeyer, who's 98, Maxine Cole, who's 97, Doris Griffith, who's 94, Margaret Norton, who is 90, and the baby in the family, Elma Jennings at 88 years old. Wait, hold on. Let me do the math real quick there, Jill. 101, 98, 97, 94, 90, plus 88. Is that 571? You're good, Moshe. I won't pretend to be some source of, Jill had it in the script. Their ages, by the way, were verified by the Guinness World Records on March 6th of this year. In an interview with Good Morning America, Cole said that the idea to even apply for this title with the Guinness Book of World Records came from her nephew, Dean, who is the son of her oldest sister, Norma Jacob. She said, quote, he just decided that sounded like we might be eligible, so he started this whole thing. Six sisters are all older than the two guys running for president right now, Jill. It's true, Moshe. There are people older than the current presidential candidates. Guinness has all these categories. I didn't even know oldest combined age for siblings was a Guinness worthy record, and it turns out, yes, it is. Apparently, they go through their birth certificates, marriage certificates, school records. They needed to verify the ages here, and so these sisters all grew up during the Great Depression. They have spent many significant life events together. They apparently take trips as a group, as they've gotten older. They went on a trip to DC. They visited some theme parks in Missouri. Jill, I'm hoping that my father and his siblings, maybe they can compete for that at some point. My dad is actually one of seven, all of them alive and well, so I'll have to let my father know that this is an available record for him, his brother, and his five sisters in a few years. I have to add up their ages. Again, that was 571 years between the six sisters, so I'll have to go after this podcast to go do some math. But of course, it's sisters and brothers, so you have to see... Oh, yeah, so maybe it's my five and the five sisters. They'll have to all continue to take care of themselves. We'll talk in about 20 years. The one thing that I will say, a credit to this family, because you hear all the time about siblings who are estranged or just don't talk to each other anymore. So the fact that six of them have stayed as close as they are for all of these years, certainly again, a credit to their family that did something right. Though we don't know comprehensively if they had a bad decade or two. Now they're ages to 18 to 101. Maybe they've made their peace with whatever went on back in the 1950s, '60s, '90s, whatever. All right, now time speaking of history, we go to On This Day in History. On This Day in 1945, the UN Charter was formally signed in San Francisco, the UN established after World War II to maintain international peace and security. We know how that's gone. Fast forward to 1963. On this day, JFK visits West Berlin, delivering his famous speech, expressing solidarity with the city's residents. Take a listen. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, ish bin ein valin. He declares there Ich bin ein Berliner. I am a Berliner, though I'm told in the technical German, he should have said Ich bin Berliner, because Berliner itself can be seen as a pastry. And so in the way he said it, he said that he was a pastry, not a resident of Berlin. Nonetheless, we know what JFK actually meant. It came at the time where Berlin was split between the communist side and democratic side. Just about 25 years later, the Berlin wall would come down. All right, a bit of corporate history here. 50 years old today, the UPC barcode. Until 1974, this was not a thing. On This Day in 1974, at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a 10-pack of juicy fruit became the first product ever to be scanned and purchased with a UPC symbol that are now ubiquitous. They wanted to make check out more efficient with that scanner technology. And despite some protests for a variety of reasons from companies who didn't want to go through this process of adopting UPC symbols, it was, of course, adopted everywhere. As for why they chose gum as the first experiment here with UPC symbols, they didn't think it would actually work because a pack of gum was so small. So effectively, it was a test of the system. All right, and other famous presidential pronouncements today on This Day in 1990, George H.W. Bush went back on his no new taxes pledge. He had said at one point, read my lips, no new taxes. He concedes to years later that some tax increases are required. And so that was one of the issues he faced in his failure to win reelection in 1992. Yes, a note to any politician. Don't say that because it was blasted. I still remember the commercials just never ending of him saying that read my lips, no new taxes. And then it was something like, and two years later, a tax in Greece. You got to watch out where you promise. Don't say it. And in a bit of pop culture history, on this day in 1977, the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley performs in public for the last time in Indianapolis, he would die just six weeks later, a heart attack brought on by drug abuse at the young age of 42. On this day in 1993, that's the way love goes by Janet Jackson hits number one on the Billboard charts. And finally, you'd be hard pressed to find somebody who hasn't read one of these books or seen one of these films in any language around the world on the state 27 years ago, 1997. The first Harry Potter novel was published. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in the UK. It would be named Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone here in the US, the first of the Harry Potter books. Moshe, you are talking to one of those people. Have you read all eight? No, I haven't. I haven't read one. Oh, I see. I was hard. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't. Yes. And you are. All right. All right. Well, another, we'll add it to the list of things you'll need to do. Put it on my summer reading list. Maybe that is what I will start reading. Or some watching list. There's several films you could watch too. You don't have to read them necessarily. Have you both read the books and seen the movies? No, I've seen, I've probably read one of the books and seen two of the movies. Okay, because my hesitation with seeing the movie has always been that I wanted to read the books first. At this point, Joel, let it go. Just go see it. Okay, fair point. All right, everybody. Thank you for listening to the Monuse Podcast. If you like what you hear, please share this with your friends. Please, it will help us grow. Follow us, subscribe, so you don't miss an episode, and review us in the App Store. Yeah, I got some great notes from people who are like, I just introduced the podcast to my mom. She loves it. I just introduced the podcast to my sister. She loves it. My dad, he loves it. So love these notes anecdotally. Pass them along in review form over on the Apple platform, especially. But appreciate all of you spreading the word here for the podcast. And if you haven't already, go check out the Monuse interview podcast, you get two modus podcasts, not just one anymore. Goodbye, everybody. Thanks for listening to the Monuse Podcast. [Music]