Hey, everybody, it's Moosh. Before we get started here, I'm really excited to tell you about a new partner of ours here in Mo News. You may have heard us talk about them before. Element, electrolyte, drink mix. If you're like me and you have trouble drinking all the water you need every day. Remember our bodies are more than 50% water. Then you should definitely check out element. Their electrolyte drink mix comes in a ton of flavors. I really like the watermelon and the citrus salt right now. The great thing is they don't contain sugar or other dodgy ingredients. You get in other sports drinks. And there's a lot of research coming out right now that optimal health outcomes occur when your sodium levels are two to three times government recommendations. And that's what you get with element. You just take the powder, you pour in a bit of water, you mix it and you are good to go. I like to parse it out and do multiple portions from that bag of powder into multiple glasses of water throughout the day. Electrolyte deficiency is a real thing. It creates headaches, cramps, fatigue, brain fog. And that's why getting your electrolytes is so important whether you're an athlete or you're just going about your day. So they have a special deal right now for the Monews community. Go over to drinkLmnt.com/monews. That is drinktheletterLmnt.com/monews and you get a free sample pack. With any element, drink, mix, purchase, it allows you to try all the flavors. Again, the website, drinkLmnt.com/monews. (upbeat music) Hey everybody, it is Monday, August 5th. You're listening to the Monews 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, how was your weekend? - We kids bopped, we danced. - We kids bopped, you turned it into a verb. - Yes, we did it. - We attended an event called Kids Bop, yes. - Yes, we went to the Kids Bop concert at Jones Beach on Long Island. And they, I think they got through most of the show until it started storming. And I'm pretty sure you probably experienced it where you are in Brooklyn and then it came over to us. It was fun though. - Yeah, these August humid days where it could rain at every any given moment and depending on where you are in the Northeast, you might be completely in the clear or completely getting soaked. - Moshe, how was your weekend? - It was good, actually speaking of rain, I had to go rescue Olivia and the babysitter who were caught in the storm. They were standing under scaffolding. So I came out with, 'cause they were rolling back and then the storm came in very quick. And so I rolled over with several umbrellas, a cupboard for the stroller. Olivia was a cool cucumber though with 10 months old. She was just like, I guess I have a plastic cover over me. That's cool. I'm enjoying this view and we got them home dry. - I always had a love-hate relationship with scaffolding in the city. (laughing) - Right, there's scaffolding every other block. And if you work in news, you know, there's too many like horror stories to talk about and yet it saves you every time there's snow and rain. - Yeah. - When there's bad weather, there's nothing better. Meanwhile, we've got a new podcast out on the interview feed. Moshe, tell us about it. - Yeah, so obviously Friday we covered that major news, the prisoner exchange with Russia, seven countries, 26 people. You might have heard a recent interview pod with Mickey Bergman, one of the negotiators who works on behalf of families. He was actually with the Russians when they got notice that the Americans had made this proposal. So he breaks it all down for us as an insider's view of the prisoner exchange, why Putin made the deal now, what it says about, what do you think about Trump, Biden, Kamala Harris, it's fascinating. So it's a great follow up to the pod that we did recently. If you're not already listening to the Monus interview pod, we're having some really interesting conversations over there, a new one out today. If you want to dive deep into the prisoner exchange, take a listen, Monus interview pod. - All right, now to the headlines, the VPs VP Countdown, what we know about Kamala Harris is big decision in the next 24 hours and some new polls on the state of the presidential race. - Jill is the political version of the Bachelorette. All the governors making their visit this weekend to make their pitch. - But who will get the rose? - Exactly. - A reversal in Guantanamo, we told you about a deal last week with several 9/11 plotters. Well, the deal is no more, we'll tell you what happened. Hurricane strength wins set to arrive today in Florida with the latest storm, Debbie, and a warning to South Carolina and Georgia about the potential for record flooding in the coming days. Overseas, Iran could respond as soon as today to the apparent assassination by Israel of the Hamas leader in Tehran. We're gonna have the latest from the Middle East, plus the state of the protests in Venezuela, a week after a questionable election, and still no official results have been released by the regime. Some new jobs numbers out Friday have economists worried about a recession here in the United States, what it means for interest rates, and the stock market. And an update from the Olympics, where the US had a huge weekend in the pool on the track, and Simone Biles continuing to make history in the gymnastics arena. Moshe, everyone I know, obsessed with the Olympics this year. - Yeah, it doesn't hurt that the US is really having a remarkable run. - And Moshe has honestly in history. - Julia, you're clued today. We've been on the run, driving in the sun, looking out for number one. - I have no clue. - Jill, I feel like there's some millennials listening right now who do know that clue. - And they'll have thoughts, okay. - It might be your elder millennial status that is hurting you here. - Slash, Cusper. - Cusper. - Genex, Cusper, yeah. - All right, let's start with the biggest political news that we expect this week, Kamala Harris' vice presidential selection. So we'll likely know who she's gonna pick within the next 24 hours. Harris met with her six finalists this weekend as she gets to select her own VP. So we've got four governors, one senator and one cabinet secretary. Among the three she had at her home in DC on Sunday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. We expect to have an announcement by tomorrow, afternoon or evening. And that's when she's going to appear with her running mate for the very first time at a rally in Philadelphia to kick off their battleground state tour. We've discussed a few of the people that she's been vetting in recent weeks, but here is a final list of the contenders who offer Harris a really unique way to balance out her ticket. So she's reportedly looking for what they call the three C's, competence, chemistry, and core values motion. That's what's important. - Just the same way we created this podcast. We looked for confidence, chemistry and core values and we found one another. - Okay, so among the finalists, you've got Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. He won an election and a reelection in a very red state, which shows off his ability to appeal to voters outside of his own party and within rural areas of the country. Then you've got Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. He is a popular governor in a state that could really help solidify a win in arguably the most important swing state in this election. - Yeah, Pennsylvania has 19 electoral votes key to a win in November. - He also has an approval rating above 60%, which is pretty unprecedented in these partisan times. He's charismatic. He's viewed as more moderate, which could be an asset for winning over independent voters. His leadership's also been praised in his handling of a number of crises, including the I-95 bridge collapse in Philadelphia last June. Then you've got Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz. He chairs the Democratic Governors Association, which has been posting a record-breaking fundraising hall this year. He's a veteran loyal Democrat. He's unlikely to make any waves for Harris for the ticket to deal with. And he's also represented a very conservative district in Congress before becoming a little bit more liberal as governor. And he's also just really good in TV interviews. And then there's Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. He could drum up Democratic support in another key battleground state that saw a bitterly competitive 2020 election that Biden won by just 0.3 percentage points. Kelly represents a border state, which would also give a boost to the ticket when it comes to immigration, which is one of Harris' biggest vulnerabilities. - Yeah, we've mentioned Mark Kelly actually as a Democrat, was critical of Biden and Harris and their immigration policy. So he can give them a little more credibility there. He was one of those, as you mentioned, that was over at the VP mansion in DC on Sunday, making his pitch, ostensibly. He's married to Gabby Giffords. He's a former astronaut. He's a former naval pilot. Now, notably as a senator, he hasn't run anything before. Unlike these governors we're talking about, who have run states. And so if that's something she's looking for here, certainly that would be a minus column for him. Though he has been talked about for a while here, is well-liked. And so totally could be the choice in the next 24 hours. There's a couple other names that have been thrown about here. I would be completely surprised if they somehow come through in the end. You have transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg. He ran for president against Harris and Biden in 2020. At 42, he's the youngest of the bunch. Remember, he did better than expected in those primaries. In 2020, he actually did better than Harris did, making it to Iowa, winning Iowa. And so there is that. He also in the administration. He served a key role here. He's also one of those potential VPs that is very good on television. He has a lot of clips on Fox News, pushing back on conservatives and arguments against the administration. So surely would be a fighter for her on the ticket. Then you have JB Pritzker, he's the governor of Illinois. He signed a number of pieces of legislation in Illinois, a ban on assault weapons, ghost guns. He also increased the state's minimum wage. Now, Illinois is a solidly blue state. There's no chance that he helps in any case there, but he is known in the region, so eventually could help in campaigning in the Michigan, the Wisconsin, the Pennsylvania, the world, not as much as Shapiro, but still potentially there. You also have the fact that Pritzker, whose family owns the Hyatt Hotel chain, is worth $3.5 billion with a B. So financially, if she needed some extra donation or help in the end, having him on the ticket wouldn't hurt. - What's a few billion dollars amongst friends, Moshe? - You know, two arguments there, right? Could be helpful. At the same time, we know of somebody who spent $1 billion in 100 days in 2020 named Mike Bloomberg, and had basically nothing to show for it. So money can be helpful. Remember, at 2016, Hillary outspent Trump, Trump won. In 2020, Biden outspent Trump, Biden won. So mixed record in terms of does the amount of dollars you spent actually equal a victory in November. Now, as far as timing here, we're not gonna know until she decides if she's deciding and given the last second age of this, I wouldn't be surprised if she woke up this morning still debating who her VP should be. They're very nervous about this leaking out. They want to have that element of surprise. So, you know, look for a lot of speculation online. This person canceled this. This person canceled this. We're tracking a plane that's flying from Kentucky, to Pennsylvania, is Governor Bashir on that plane. A lot of that in the next 24 hours, the end of the day, in the next 36 hours you're gonna know, they're gonna have that rally in Philly, and that'll be the VP person. And that'll be the peak moment when all of us care about it for a hot second. By the time we wake up on Wednesday, we'll tell you about it by Thursday. We really won't be talking about it anymore if she's done her job, because the thing you need to do when you pick your VP is not mess it up and not have somebody who brings you down. Net, net, they don't really impact that much. All this talk about they could help here, they could help here. We know how 99% of voters are voting. They're voting based on the top of the ticket. - All right, Mosh, given all that. What's your prediction? Who's your prediction? - Oh, it's hard to tell because, you know, this is, we don't know much about Kamala Harris' stances and decision-making because she's been VP for Biden for three and a half years, right? So this will really tell us a lot about where she stands, where she sees her vulnerabilities, what this says about her. You really are asking me to just go off of the pure speculation. I think that she probably would be well served by any of these folks. I do think that in this day and age, given that Trump is trying to make the case that she's a progressive, that she's liberal, that she's from California, all true, in various points in her career, she would be well served by going with a more moderate Shapiro or Kelly or Beshear. So I think that, you know, those three all potentially could help her in a variety of ways. Honestly, we're not going to know everything because they've done vetting. They have Eric Holder, the former Obama Attorney General, vetting these folks and looking into their past. We might know stuff. They might dig up something that we don't know. Being like, you know what? If that comes out, that's a problem for us. - Mo, you make a really good point, though, about how we don't know that much about Kamala Harris because she also didn't go through a normal primary where she did debates. - Well, I mean, she in 2020 did some primary debates, but she, her campaign ended before the Iowa caucuses. No one ever got a chance to vote for Kamala Harris. So there wasn't a thorough, thorough, kind of sort of public vetting. And at the end of the day, it becomes about the top of the ticket, which is one of the reasons why this weekend, we were a bunch of us a bit surprised when a story came out on a daily mail in the tabloid that Doug Amhoff, Vice President Harris's husband, apparently had an affair in his first marriage and actually impregnated the woman he was having an affair with, the teacher of one of his daughters. And so this came out in a daily mail over the weekend. You had Doug Amhoff confirming it in a statement. A reminder, this again was in a first marriage before Kamala Harris, apparently Kamala Harris knew about this. The Biden campaign knew about this in 2020, that is now coming out. The statement from Doug Amhoff reads, "During my first marriage, Kirsten, that's his first wife, "and I went through tough times on account of my actions. "I took responsibility and in the years since, "we work through things as a family "and have come out stronger." - This report, Moshe, was shocking. I think just because at this point, Kamala Harris has been, she's been the Vice President now for almost four years. It's like, how is this just coming out? - You know, it's a spouse, right? It's a spouse's previous marriage, but you would think that like another, in a political opponent at a previous election, might have dug it up. At the end of the day, again, he acknowledges here he had a relationship with one of his then young daughters' teachers. It resulted in the end, in a pregnancy, she did not keep the child according to a friend. The relationship ended years before Amhoff ended up dating Kamala Harris. You also had the ex-wife put out a statement saying, it ended for a variety of reasons many years ago. He's a great father to our kids. So they all are very-- - Pumbaya. - Yes, they're all being very civil in Pumbaya together. He says he's regretted the circumstances, that he was aware this could become public. At the same time, how significant will this be? Probably not, right? At the end of the day, Kamala Harris is running against Donald Trump, who has been unfaithful to all three of his wives, very publicly, including Melania. So I'm not sure that, especially given that again, Doug is the husband of Kamala Harris, and this is a previous marriage, that that's gonna matter that much, but it goes to what Kamala Harris is trying to dig up on any of the VP folks that she's choosing, which is like, what have you been involved in financially? What has gone on legally? What has gone on personally? You have some very personal questions to get to the bottom there. JD Vance actually did an interview over the weekend, where he talked about the questions he got in the Trump vet, because again, they're trying to ensure they're aware of everything. There's no surprises that come out once you choose, and they're picking up the New York Times a couple of days later, and they're seeing some sort of scoop. - My prediction, Moshe, take it or leave it. Governor Tim Walts. - All right, so if we're doing this, I'm going Shapiro, Hugo Walts. That's my gut. - Winner, get some Mo News mug. (laughs) - Winner, next time you're in New York City, Jill, buys the other dinner. - You're done. - Okay. All this VP talk comes as we got some new polls out. Over the weekend, CBS News had a poll out on Sunday that finds Kamala Harris is now holding a one-point advantage over Trump nationwide. That's something Biden has never had this entire election. And keep in mind, the Democrats typically have a national polling advantage. Like if we had a national election, like most other democracies do, Democrats have a slight advantage. But of course, we have the Electoral College. You need swing states. In that, right now, Harris and Trump are tied according to the CBS poll. So it is neck and neck right now in effective tie with about 90 days to go here. They looked into some of the numbers as to what voters see in Harris, what voters see in Trump. Right now, Harris is ahead of Trump when it comes to asking who's more energetic, who's more focused. Those, by the way, were also issues that Biden lost on. She's even with Trump on competence. And she's closer than Biden was, though Trump still holds an advantage on who is tougher and who is more effective. Trump right now beating Harris by a slightly smaller amount than he was leading Biden on. But when it comes to issues, top two issues, economy, immigration, Trump is still leading. So at the end of the day, with all these polls showing an effective tie here, Trump still net advantage Trump. And Harris acknowledges this that she still perceives herself to be the underdog here. - And then there's the question about whether Harris and Trump are gonna debate each other. So we could call this a debate over the debate. - Yes. - The Harris campaign is pushing for the original September 10th debate on ABC that both sides agreed to. And they want this to go on as scheduled, even though Joe Biden has exited the race. Trump said the debate was terminated, his word when Biden dropped out. Harris says she's gonna be there on the 10th and take the platform regardless, saying it is interesting how Trump's claim that he would debate her, quote, "anytime anyplace became one specific time "and one specific safe space." That safe space, Moshe Fox News. The Trump campaign is calling for a new debate hosted by Fox News. He said he agreed to Fox News' proposal for a debate on September 4th. That would be in Pennsylvania, a battleground state, with similar rules to his debate against Biden. He wrote on True Social. If for any reason, Kamala is unwilling or unable to debate on that date, I have agreed with Fox to do a major town hall on the same September 4th evening. - Yeah, so bottom line, there was a second debate scheduled with Joe Biden and Donald Trump. When Biden got out, Trump said, "Maybe I'll drop out of this too." And instead do it on my more favorite network, Fox. He's also noting that he's suing ABC News right now, which would host that September 10th debate. He, by the way, was suing ABC before he agreed to debate on ABC, specifically George Stephanopoulos, who noted on his show that Trump had raped somebody. Trump has been found liable of sexual abuse in that Eugene Carroll columnist suit. And the judge in that case said effectively, what we found here can be perceived to be raped. And so Stephanopoulos used that term. Right now, Trump is suing him for defamation. So he wants something to do with ABC in general. He says, " Kamala Harris says, "No, no, no, you agreed to a debate." Trump's like, "No, I agreed to a debate with Biden." So it's going all back and forth. He puts out a statement. We'll see what happens here, given the dynamic of this election. You sort of think that Harris needs to debate more than Trump does. So she might end up having to move towards Trump here. At least that's my perception, that's my analysis here on August 5th. So notably, Trump put out the September 4th Fox News Day. Fox News had invited him to a September 17th date. So he just sort of like picked his own date, picked his network, threw it out there. So we'll see, there's two networks, there's three dates. We'll see what they come back with. - Regardless, we'll be watching. Whatever it is, whoever shows up. - Most nights in September, we're available to watch the stupid. - Okay, switching gears in a surprise move. Late Friday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin overruled the overseer of the war court at Guantanamo Bay, and revoked a plea agreement reached earlier last week with the accused mastermind of the September 11th, 2001 attacks and two alleged accomplices. So the Pentagon announced this decision with a memorandum relieving the senior defense department official responsible for military commissions of her oversight of the capital case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his alleged accomplices for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field. The overseer was retired Brigadier General, Susan Escalier. She had signed a pretrial agreement on Wednesday with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hausawi that exchanged guilty pleas for sentences of at most life in prison. So in taking away the authority, Austin assumed direct oversight of the case and canceled the agreement, effectively reinstating it as a death penalty case. So that is the takeaway here. And he left Escalier in the role of oversight of Guantanamo's other cases. Austin said in an order released Friday night by the Pentagon that because of the stakes involved, the responsibility for such a decision should rest with him. - Yeah, this whole deal was surprising to many of us who've been watching this 'cause they've been working on a deal for a very long time. Now, the defense secretary was out of the country for a couple of days last week. Apparently came back and was like, "No, no, no, we are not doing a deal "with these 9/11 plotters. "We're gonna continue to pursue them in court "even though they've been working on this "for more than a decade and haven't quite figured out "how they're gonna pursue a case against these guys." Now, one thing to keep in mind here is that the family members of the 9/11 victims had expressed a lot of anger over this deal. So they appear pleased the defense secretary stepped in here and said, "No, no, no, there's no deal. "We're going to take these guys to court "no matter what it takes." But it still leaves uncertain what the next steps are when it comes to the prosecution over a terror attack that took place 23 years ago. Before this week's developments, before the plea deal was signed, jury selection in the, what is exactly to be, a year and a half trial was not envisioned to start till 2026. So two more years, they were gonna start jury selection, meaning the verdict could be in 2027 or 2028. And there's been a whole bunch of pretrial proceedings that have been at issue here, which is why it appears they initially struck this plea deal, right? You have the torture of these guys, significant torture in secret CIA prisons through the years that effectively contaminated evidence against them. They've made confessions, but they did it while being torture. So there are major questions here about whether they could actually use much of the evidence that they have against these guys in court. Some of these guys have been held for more than two decades. Joe, remember, man, love it happened in 2001. We're in the year 2024 now. There's a lot of complexity here, a lot of legal issues here. And the whole Gitmo thing, you know, if you break it down by numbers goes like this. It's been around for about 20 years. There were initially 780 guys there, Bush transferred out of 540. Many of them were picked up on the battlefield, turned out not to really be related to things. And then the US had to find places to send them. So Bush sent some 540 of the 780. Obama sent some 200 of them. And then Trump sent some one, Biden clear six, and now there's 30 left. Of the 30 that are left, 16 have actually been cleared of charges. We just don't know where to send them. There's no country that wants to accept them. We don't want to release them inside the US. Their home countries won't take them. So right now US taxpayers are paying $13 million a year per prisoner. The 30 guys who are there, 16 of whom have been cleared. Right now it's the costliest prison in the world. We're spending about $600 million a year on Gitmo. So you have these three guys, who clearly there's enough evidence to go on. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was affected by the planner of 9/11. Bin Laden made him like the guy. And he's like, hey, you know what we should do? Use planes. Bin Laden was like, oh, that's a great idea. Go with it, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. And he's the one who recruited the hijackers, really put the plot together. But then again, he was waterboarder. He was tortured, which makes the legal process difficult. So this is where we stand now. They've canceled the deal. The defense secretary's taken this over. You got six months left of the Biden administration. What comes next is unclear. But it just sort of continues the saga of 9/11 now, 23 years later. - All right, most plenty of news coming up. But first, we wanted to thank a couple of our sponsors. It is summertime. 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That is drinkAG number one.com/monuse. Take advantage of this offer. And you can get a discounted monthly subscription, try it just one time for one month. Again, drinkAG the number one.com/monuse. To take ownership of your health. Time now for the speed read from CNN. Hurricane Debbie is expected to make landfall today in Florida's Big Bend region and bring potentially historic amounts of rainfall to parts of the Southeast. It's taking advantage of near record warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Authorities in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are urging residents to prepare as the store makes its way through the Gulf with Debbie undergoing rapid intensification. So that happens when a storm's top end winds increase 35 miles per hour in just 24 hours. The storm is forecast to reach the coast of Florida's Big Bend this morning that is on the West Coast, the area between the Panhandle and Tampa. After that, Debbie's expected to crawl across Northern Florida and Southern Georgia throughout the day and into tomorrow. The main threat will be flooding, both from storm surges of up to 10 feet and heavy rainfall, fresh water flooding, which is caused by rainfall, has become the deadliest aspect of tropical systems in the last decade, according to research conducted by the National Hurricane Center. - Yeah, if you live through Harvey in Houston, you know that, that it's that rainfall, not necessarily the winds with the hurricane that caused the most destruction. In Florida right now, the governor, Rhonda Santis is called on residents to finish their preparations ASAP and to brace for power outages, particularly in areas like Tallahassee. There's gonna be a lot of trees falling down. He says, you're gonna have debris, you're gonna have some power interruptions, so be ready in the Northern part of Florida there. President Biden already preemptively on Sunday, approved a disaster declaration for Florida, so that will authorize federal resources to get their ASAP. One of the big concerns is not necessarily Florida, but between South Carolina and Georgia, specifically the area between Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia, Debbie will be very slow moving and they say that that area on the coast there could see more than two feet of rain. The heaviest rain amounts could even top 30 inches right now, depending on how long Debbie takes to make its way through the region. The concern is that it could sit over South Carolina and Georgia for two days through Thursday even, so be where their take precautions go to higher land, especially if you're on that coast there. - All right, now let's head overseas from the Associated Press. The US general in charge of American forces in the Middle East arrived in the region this weekend as preparations continue for a possible attack against Israel from Iran in retaliation for the assassinations of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. Do you have General Michael Kirillash tripped to the region? It was actually planned before the recent escalation between Israel, Iran and Hezbollah, but he is expected to use the trip to try to mobilize that same international coalition that defended Israel against an attack from Iran in April. Several US and Israeli officials say they expect that Iran will attack Israel as early as today. Iranian and Hezbollah leaders have vowed to retaliate for the assassination of Hezbollah's top military commander, Fuhad Shuka, and Hamas's political leader, Ishmael Haniah. The Hamas killing took place in Tehran on the day of the Iranian presidential inauguration, which was a huge embarrassment to the Iranian regime. Some Western intelligence sources indicate that Iran and Hezbollah are planning to launch their retaliatory strike against Israel. On the Jewish holiday of Tishabov later this month, it is a day of fasting and mourning for the destruction of the two ancient Jewish temples in Jerusalem thousands of years ago. This year, the holiday begins on August 12th and it ends on August 13th. Iran's looking at several psychological and tactical considerations, so it may aim to revive historical trauma for Jews of destruction and uprooting, thereby amplifying the psychological impact of the attack on Israeli society. Yeah, that's sort of the advantage Iran has right now is they say we're gonna counter attack, but you don't know when and you don't know how, and so it could happen today. It could happen on this Jewish holiday. They could wait until the fall, ultimately given that there's a lot of infighting in the Israeli government right now, Iran might decide to wait and sort of watch it unfold and let them keep preparing and preparing and not be totally aware of what happens. They might have learned their lesson from the last time they launched an attack where the Iranians waited about 12 days, then gave everyone a heads up to the drones are coming, they had several hours, heads up and ultimately the Israelis and the coalition knocked down basically every single rocket missile drone that was shot their way. One reason to choose one of the Jewish holidays, especially that Tashaba Ava holiday is that it signals that Israel is vulnerable to destruction, it commemorates the destruction of the Jewish temples thousands of years ago that led to Jews being expelled from the region, and so there's a lot of history that they may be trying to invoke there, though it could happen any day here and we'll continue to monitor the situation. A report out of Gaza does say that the Hamas leader Yahayar Sinwar, who's underground right now, is planning on no ceasefire deal in the interim. He's gonna watch to see how this all unfolds between Hezbollah, Yibran, and Israel. This is gonna be sitting and watching it for now. It does come as there's tensions between the allies, the US and the Israelis. A lot of reports of the weekend chill. You had President Biden in one report telling Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop, quote, "bullshitting me" during a phone conversation they had last week. Apparently, things are getting very tense between Netanyahu and Biden, Biden's very frustrated. He wants this war to come to an end in Gaza, and he feels that Netanyahu is doing his best not to bring it to an end and prolonging it unnecessarily. Now Biden said on Thursday night that the assassinations have not been helpful. At the end of the day, the White House bears no sympathy for the killing of these terror leaders, who, by the way, have American blood on their hands. He just feels the timing here wasn't helpful to try to get a ceasefire deal done here. And so, Netanyahu and Biden, of course, met when Netanyahu was in town in D.C., apparently that was very tense at times. And at the end of the day, Biden told Netanyahu, "Don't take the president for granted." And he feels that Netanyahu feels like he's gonna have back up from America, no matter what he does. He's taking advantage of that right now. So that's been a lot of the back and forth you've been seeing between those two. Then you have issues inside Israel. Within Israel, there were reports that Netanyahu might be firing the Defense Secretary, Galant, as well as other top military and intel leaders in the coming weeks. He was actually planning on doing it before the Hezbollah strike, because many of them have been very critical of his strategy. They feel that he needs to be taking a ceasefire deal ASAP with Hamas, that he is prolonging this, that there's an opportunity here post these assassinations to just strike a deal and this thing. The Mossad chief was barely been leading negotiations for the Israelis said at a meeting last week. There are a lot of leaks on this meeting. There's a deal ready and Israel must take it. Netanyahu said, "You're not negotiating well enough "for me, negotiate harder. "You can make a better deal. "You guys are terrible negotiators." And so there's a lot of fighting coming out of these meetings. One person came out of that meeting saying, "Netney, I was giving up on the hostages. "He just wants to prioritize the war here. "He doesn't care if the hostages are alive. "The Prime Minister's office denying that." Though, Jill, again, as we state all this, tensions within Israel, tensions between Israel and America. Of course, now chaos on the Hamas side with assassination. Iran figuring out its next steps doesn't want a lot war, but it's willing to risk it, to get its vengeance for what took place in Tehran last week. A mess, a big mess. - Yes, apparently, as you mentioned, Yayah Sinwar kind of sitting back and just waiting to see how this all plays out before-- - 'Cause he decides what he's gonna do in terms of any sort of ceasefire deal. - Yeah, he's sitting in a bunker in Gaza. As far as he's concerned, his goal with all of this to start a large regional war, like the biggest war ever. And so he feels like he's closer to it than he's ever been. Also, Haniah, he was no big fan of Haniah, though they were allies at times. They both come from Gaza. So now, Yayah Sinwar moves up in the Hamas movement with Haniah gone. And so there's a bunch of people are considering to be the political leader who don't get along with Sinwar. He doesn't even like, he doesn't respect. And so, ultimately, he's sitting back and watching it all unfold. And we should note that he hasn't really changed his position on a ceasefire deal for about eight months now. It's the same deal he's been offering to the Israelis since December. - All right, from the Miami Herald, huge crowds have gone back to the streets of N as well as cities to continue their campaign against. President Nicholas Maduro's alleged attempt to steal last week's election and denounce his intensifying crackdown on opposition supporters. Maduro said 2,000 people have been arrested and they would face maximum punishment. Pens of thousands of dissenters packed an avenue in the heart of the Capitol on Saturday to hear Maria Machado. She is the opposition leader who claims that her candidate for the presidency, Edmundo Gonzalez, was the true winner of the presidential vote. She said today is a very important day after six days of brutal repression. They thought they would silence us, frighten us and paralyze us, but we are going to go all the way. - Yeah, though it's unclear how far they can get you. We've given all the arrests of the protesters. It sort of reminds me of the situation in Iran with the Masa Amini protests. The crackdown from Maduro has been fast and furious. They killed a number of protesters have arrested some. They've created exclusive prisons in Venezuela, specifically for the protesters. Some of these prisons run by gang leaders. And so at times during the day, it looks like Venezuela is back to normal. There have still been some ongoing protests, but we'll see how this sort of unfolds. Machado, a fearful of her own arrest, when it has gone into hiding at times in the last few days. Maduro has refused so far to release any proof of his supposed victory in the election where a week in, more than a weekend, and still no evidence, no release of data, voting data, which they normally do in Venezuelan elections. He gave a very angry press conference late last week. Look at like he's lost toll control here. He's ratcheted up his anger against the opposition. Like we've never seen before. He said that Machado Gonzalez should be behind bars for what they've done, that he's arrested 2,000 protesters and he's promising to arrest more. He's sending them right now the protesters to 30 year sentences in prison. That's the same sentence they give murderers in Venezuela. At least 14 media workers have been deported. And as I mentioned, that's gotten a lot of the protests to stop here. Jill, one thing I took note of over the weekend is which countries have officially recognized Maduro's victory. It's a short list. And see if you see anything in common here. Russia, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua. There's the countries that have recognized his victory. They all happen to be run by authoritarians. - That's sort of like a backwards way most of asking one of the questions on the news quiz this week. I believe you asked which country did not congratulate him. - Yes. - And I believe he answered his Columbia. - Right, right. It was incidentally a leftist government, but one that had an open election. And even they, the sort of supposed leftist allies of Maduro and the region have said, well, man, you need to release evidence to prove that you won because nobody really believes it right now. The issue for Maduro is they're in a very bad economic predicament in Venezuela. There's been super inflation of like 130,000%. The economy's collapsed. A quarter of people have left a country in the past 10 years, like a quarter. That'd be like the equivalent of 85 million Americans leaving the country. At the same time, in order to survive here, he has to go full authoritarian and crackdown mode, which doesn't necessarily lend itself well to the economy. So we'll see what happens. The US has tried sanctions for a number of years. They promised to lift sanctions for a fair election last year. When it was clear he was not intended to do a fair election. We brought the sanctions back. Now there's calls from even more sanctions. It's not clear what else the Americans can do in this case or what anyone else in the region can do. Ultimately, the situation is left to the people of Venezuela and Maduro. From USA Today, some concerns over the US economy and the potential for a recession. On Friday, the monthly jobs report showed that the unemployment rate last month jumped from 4.1% to 4.3%. While it is still historically low, it is the highest unemployment number in three years. And it could be a sign that the US might be in the early stages of recession, at least based on one measure. It led to a huge sell-off of stocks on Wall Street on Friday. The jobs report is sure to give another spark to debates about whether the Fed is behind the curve here and it's handling of the economy. Fed policymakers on Wednesday kept interest rates where they are still concerned about inflation, but strongly implied that they would be cutting interest rates in September. So remember, we told you that they are trying to get what's called a soft landing of the economy, which means raising interest rates so it brings down inflation, but not so much that it causes a recession. Now the concern is that perhaps they've been too focused on inflation and that they've cooled the economy so much as a way to bring down prices that at the same time they have perhaps started a recession. - Yeah, the soft landing coming in a little hard now. - Curp long. - Well, you know, Jill, we talked about for so long. I feel like the first year and a half of this podcast was new recession concerns, new recession concerns, new recession concerns, and somehow-- - Recession watch. - There was no recession, right? - Yes. - And now there's a concern that there could actually be a recession here because inflation has been stubborn at about 3%. They wanted to get inflation down to 2%. And with that, they wouldn't cut interest rates, which are just about 5% right now the Fed interest rate. And so they've been holding off, holding off, holding off till inflation gets lower, but by holding off, you've cooled the economy too much, you get a recession, you get higher unemployment, which is tolerable to an extent except until you get into recession mode. And so that's the concern here is that did they wait too long? Did the Fed wait too long to lower interest rates? That's the accusation. The same annexation that they faced a couple of years ago that they waited too long to raise interest rates to cut inflation. So we'll be watching that meeting closely to see how significant that rate cut is. So there will be a rate cut in September. I think that's pretty clear. Will it be a quarter point? Will it be a half point? What does that mean to inflation? Is they continue to kind of play the dial if you remember sort of old, you know, if you're of a certain generation, you remember the radio stations without digital tuners. Do you have to turn the wheel to try to get to the station? You know, like in Chicago, we had a station called B96 at 96.3 and if you like, when it's slightly too low, you're at 95.5, if you're slightly too high, you're at 97, you have to like move the wheel. Anyway, that's what the Fed is trying to do with the economy. It's just like, move it where you don't get too far another end. - Moshe, I am picking up what you were putting down here which is rating the dial metaphor. - Oh, static on this side. - Static on that side. We got to get to the point where we can hear the radio station. - And then randomly, there will be a radio station in a foreign language that you're like, "How did that get thrown in?" Like a college radio station. You're like, "How did that come up at 96.1 or whatever?" Anyway, I've gone on this way too long. The bottom line is this. The jobs number is concerning. There's a last week alone, we also got new data that shows that the rate at which companies have hired new workers, declined in June. We also got new data. The number of people filing for jobless claims is at the highest level in 11 months. We also got new data that business activity for manufacturers plunged in July. So a bunch of data here that I'm looking at saying the economy is slowing down at the same time. If you want to look at the more optimistic viewpoint, the size of the labor force has expanded a lot in July, which means a greater supply potential for the economy, for people who are finding jobs. You also saw that the jumping unemployment rate here was more about more people looking for jobs rather than people losing jobs. But of course, that's an indication that people are looking for a second job potentially. So a lot of numbers here we're trying to get a sense of in the meantime, we're back on a recession watch and we'll see how it goes this fall. - And finally to all of the Olympics news, this from USA Today, Katie Ledecky. The greatest female swimmer of all time has won her fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in the 800 meter freestyle Saturday night completing her week with her fourth medal in Paris and her 14th in her Olympic career. It came as the US won several relay golds to come out as the winningest country in the pools this year. United States won eight gold medals finishing just ahead of the Australians with seven. Team USA also led the overall swimming medal count with 28 overall medals to Australia's 18 over in gymnastics, Simone Biles captured, yet another gold medal. This one in the women's vault final on Saturday. It is her third gold medal of the games after leading the US to gold in the team final and winning gold in the all around final. She does have a chance at two more today with the beam and floor individual competitions. It came as several of her teammates also won medals this weekend, Jade Carey. She won a bronze in vault and SUNY Lee won the bronze in the uneven bars, Lee has a chance at another medal today as well as Jordan Chiles. - So staying with gymnastics, many of us have been loving the story of the US men's gymnast, Steven Nedarosek, AKA pommel horse guy. - AKA Clark Kent. - Clark Kent, why? 'Cause he wears these glasses, then he takes his glasses off and becomes the star on the pommel horse. It really is an incredible story to watch. I don't know if you guys have been able to watch the clips or have been watching him live. He's a 25 year old electrical engineer out of Penn State University. So he wears these glasses until he gets on the pommel horse 'cause he has two conditions. One, he's cross-eyed. It's a condition called strabismus in which his eyes point different directions. And then he also has a genetic condition called coloboma which means some of the tissue that makes up his eye was missing at birth. So it makes him very sensitive to light. So incidentally, because of all this and I wear a brand has given him an endorsement deal and he wears his glasses and then he takes them off just before he performs on the pommel horse. He won a bronze medal over the weekend. Jill, he's gone viral online on social media. He's got a whole bunch of followers now on TikTok. He's held a Rubik's Cube live on NBC over the weekend and he's inspired a lot of kids, heard reports of people taking their young boys inspired by his story to local gyms to begin gymnastics training. So one of those heartwarming stories that we got out of the Olympics, but effectively gymnastics swimming basically over at this point in the Olympics. Now our attention turns over to track and field, basketball and some of the other team sports over the weekend. We now officially have our new fastest woman on earth and fastest man on earth. The 100 meter is considered the determiner of that over on the women's side. We American sprinter, Shakeri Richardson, remember she wasn't able to perform in Tokyo. She was able to participate in Paris and she won the silver over the weekend losing out to St. Lucia's Julian Alfred. Alfred finished 100 meters in 10.72 seconds. Richardson just slightly behind 10.87 seconds. There's a great video though from St. Lucia, the island and the Caribbean as she claimed the first ever Olympic medal for St. Lucia. So really enjoying it down there. So Shakeri Richardson with the silver over on the men's side and American did take gold that is American Noah Lyles. He is officially now the fastest man on earth. He won the 100 meter in a very, very close photo finish. Literally they had to wait on the track Jill as they did analysis of this. As he and the silver medalist Keishan Thompson both finished the race in 9.79 seconds. The same 100th of a second. They had to do an analysis to figure out basically the 1000th of the second in order to determine the winner here. So 9.79 seconds for 100 meters. Jill, the finish was really incredible because all eight men in the race all finished in under 10 seconds. They all broke 10 seconds for the first time. This just shows you how fast these guys were. Again, they waited for the photo review and officially Noah Lyles, the fastest man on earth. And it's the first time the Americans have won the gold and the 100 meter men's a final since 2004 back now since when Justin Gatlin did it. - Most we always like to follow up about what we're watching, reading and eating. And we watched a ton of Olympics this weekend. Everyone I know has been glued to the TV super into the Olympics this year. I don't know what's going on, whether it's just that the US is so dominant or the coverage is at a good time. I don't know what it is, but everyone's into it. - I also think it's like a really positive story. Jill, several people have messaged me like, "Hey, can the Olympics last through the election?" 'Cause like, that would be really nice. Also, we should note the US so far leading the medal count as of this morning with 71 overall medals, China in second with 45 medals, France in third with 44 medals. That's the overall medal count, the gold medal count. Right now the US and China are both tied with 19 gold medals. France has 12 gold medals along with Australia. So the US is also doing really well. And it's a lot of positive stories, a lot of inspirational stories. And so I think, for the most part, good news coming out of the Olympics so far. (upbeat music) All right, now time for On This Day in History. We begin in the year 1858. The first telegraph line across the Atlantic Ocean from the US to Europe was officially completed, officially laid 2,000 miles on this day. About 11 days later, the President of the States of that time, James Buchanan and Queen Victoria exchanged formal introductory and complimentary messages. Unfortunately, the cable stopped working the following month. It would be several years until they got a better cable laid, but still history on this day, deep in the Atlantic Ocean. - I was gonna do a sound effect of bring, but that's the telegraph. I don't know what noise that makes. - Jill, you know what, we'll go with it. (laughs) - I'm picturing like a fax machine or something. - Is this Queen Victoria? Okay, On This Day in 1861, Abraham Lincoln, this is a fun fact, by the way, you have Abraham Lincoln the thing for the first federal income tax strapped for cash with the civil war, the government needed money. And so Congress opposes the first ever income tax. It's the 3% tax on annual incomes over $800 at that time. So first income tax, Congress would eventually repeal the income tax in 1871, but then realizing again, they needed money in 1909. They passed the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which sets in place the federal income tax law. And so there you go, the first income tax on this day in history. On this day in 1962, a 36 year old Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her home in LA. The empty bottles of pills prescribed to her to treat depression were littered around the room, the LAPD conducted an investigation and found that her death was likely because of self-administered overdose of drugs. That said, like many things in the 60s, conspiracy theories continue to revolve around Monroe's death, including a lot of allegations that the Kennedys could have been involved. She allegedly was involved in affairs with both Robert Kennedy and John F. Kennedy, both brothers, and it would later come out with the night before her death, Robert Kennedy, who was an attorney general at the time, visited her home. Her housekeeper later said that they had a major fight that night, unclear if it was related, unclear if her story was reliable, but still just one of those many conspiracy theories from the 1960s. All right, we end here with music and pop culture history. On this day in 1966, the Beatles release "Yellow Submarine" in Eleanor Rigby. On this day in 1994, "The Little Rascals" premieres in theaters 30 years ago today. (upbeat music) ♪ California, New York ♪ - The show "The OC" premiered 21 years ago today, August 5th, 2003 on FoxGill. - Wait, was that your clue? - Yes, we've been on the run, driving in the sun, looking out for number one, California, here we come. (laughing) - Okay, so I don't think that I aged out of it. I just don't think I ever really knew all the words in the theme song. - Got it, you listened, excused, that's okay. I hope that some of you did get the clue at the top. One of those iconic early 2000s TV shows, Misha Barton, Adam Brody, Rachel Billson and Olivia Wilde. - All right everyone, we want to thank you for listening to the "Mo News" podcast. If you like what you hear, share this with your friends. It will help us grow, follow us and subscribe so you don't miss an episode and review us in the app store. - Yes, and a reminder, we have a special pod over on the interview pod today. "Mo News" interview, go search it on your podcast app right now, make sure to subscribe, follow the show. "Mo News" interview, it's the inside story of the Prisoner Exchange last week in the U.S. and Russia. - Thanks for listening to the "Mo News" podcast. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
