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Headlines:
– Welcome to Mo News (01:30)
– DNC Convention Preview: Biden, Clinton, Obama Harris (03:45)
– Tim Walz Fights Back After Military Record Called Into Question (05:20)
– Trump and Musk Hold Chat On X (12:20)
– US Grocery Prices Level Out (16:20)
– Why China and Russia Are Holding Joint Military Exercises (18:10)
– Chipotle CEO To Take Over Starbucks (20:50)
– NASA Finds Water On Mars (22:20)
– Female Boxer Facing Gender Questions Files a Court Case (24:30)
– On This Day In History (26:50)
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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.
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Hey everybody it is wednesday august 14th listening to the most podcast that most when you know this is the place where we always bring you just the facts we read all the news and read between the lines. So you don't have to it's another solo show for me today as Jill is off this week also let you guys know it's august 14th which means it's national financial awareness day relatively new holiday but an important one a good reason to check in on your finances your investments your retirement make sure you're on a winning path. I know for many of us finances create anxiety we recently had a conversation about this over on the mone news interview podcast with friend of this podcast for news to robbie you may have read one of her books you may listen to her podcast the so many podcast anyway check out episode 90 it's on the mone news interview podcast and we talk about financial anxiety how hard is to talk about and address and some tricks and tips to deal with that. Again over on the mone news interview podcast episode 90 all right let's start here with today's headlines we're starting to get a preview of next week's democratic convention in Chicago and it comes as Donald Trump did a two hour chat with Elon musk on X will tell you about it and Tim waltz the VP nominee of democratic side is speaking out amid Republican accusations that he's not being completely forthright about his military record. The Pentagon is closely watching new joint military exercises being conducted by China and Russia will tell you about that new bromance between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping we got some good news for you when it comes to grocery prices kind of will tell you about it. A big move in business as the chipotle CEO has moved on to Starbucks to become the new Starbucks CEO will tell you all about the moves in the fast food world NASA with a big revelation this week that there might be a lot of water. Underneath the surface of Mars what it means about the red planet as we look to head there in the coming years and a criminal complaint has now been filed by that Olympic boxer in Monte Khalif who faced accusations about her gender she's naming people like JK Rowling and Elon musk in that lawsuit and of course I'll end as always with on this day in history. But let's get started with politics now as I mentioned we're starting to get a sense now of what the Democratic convention next week in Chicago will look like that's as they formally formally nominate Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee for president. Notably Democrats will be hearing from three presidents at their convention president Biden is expected to speak next Monday night the first night of the convention former president Obama will then speak on Tuesday with former president Clinton speaking on Wednesday so three presidents there at the Democratic convention. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton will also be addressing the convention that's scheduled for Monday night and per custom of the convention will hear on Wednesday night the second to last night from the VP nominee Tim walls and on the final night from the Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris so a jam pack line up next week in Chicago will be there on the ground in Chicago as there's also expected to be a lot of protests in the city from progressive groups including a number of pro pal city and anti Israel groups. So there will be both action inside the arena they're holding the convention at the United Center that's where the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks play in Chicago and there's going to be protests outside the last time we saw convention in Chicago 1996. It'll be a good excuse everyone for us to play one of my favorite clips and recent political history everyone at the 96 convention doing the mock arena that included at the time first lady Hillary Clinton. It's probably one of the most viewed clips on our Instagram account all time and well what better excuse than another Democratic convention in Chicago. All right staying with politics here and story we've been diving into over on the monus Instagram account Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim walls defending his military record speaking out yesterday amid attacks by Republicans led by his rival Senator JD Vance who's accused him of stolen valor Tim walls telling a crowd on Tuesday at his first solo event as the VP nominee I am damn proud of my service to this country. We've told you that wall served in National Guard from ages 17 to age 41 24 years in the National Guard and he says he did it for quote all the same reason all my brothers and sisters in uniform do. We love this country it comes as Republicans led by vans have attacked walls over his military record accusing walls of exaggerating his record and retiring just before his unit received orders to go fight in the war in Iraq in 2005 2006. Here's a bit though of what walls had to say in the last day. And I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person's service record. Did anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country including my opponent. I just have a few simple words. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. As we've been talking about at issue for walls is not the 24 years he served in the National Guard but his claims about what his rank was at retirement and the fact that he got out that he retired just months before the unit got the call to go to Iraq. I'm going to address these one by one as for his retirement he was in his early 40s and while he says that he was aware that he might be deployed that his unit might be getting orders to go to Iraq. He decided to retire because he wanted to run for Congress. This is the congressional seat that he ultimately would win and serve in in for more than a decade also as a leader on the Veterans Committee in Congress asked about this several members of his unit said that they were told in advance about his move. He was abandoned that he served for more than two decades and they felt that he had a total right to retire when he did and go run for Congress. At the same time though there has been an editorial piece by two members of his unit saying the retirement was conveniently timed and they felt let down by the fact that he left when he did. I should note those defending him led the unit they were leaders of the unit and they went to the timeline here it was February 2005 when he filed to run for Congress. March of 2005 the military then told leaders of his unit they may be deployed to Iraq in the future several months later in May of 05. Walts now 41 years old officially retired 24 years of service and he had had conversations while the formal filing happened in May he had had conversations in the months previous with the leaders of his unit about his plans to retire. Later that summer in July of 05 that's when his unit was officially notified that it will be mobilized to Iraq they would eventually be sent there in 06 and serve nearly a year and a half till the fall of 07. At that point Walts had already been in Congress for about nine months. Alright so that's one element of this the retirement timing and then there are the allegations here of exaggeration or potential exaggeration of his record. First Walts has repeatedly said that he retired as a command sergeant major the rank command sergeant major that isn't technically true. While he did serve as a command sergeant major he retired as a master sergeant a lower rank because he hadn't completed the required coursework to be able to retire at the higher rank. So he served at the rank of command sergeant major but retired at a lower rank that led the Harris Walts campaign to have to revise his bio on the website last week. And then there are allegations that he's implied that he did fight in combat. Now while he hasn't said that explicitly he has let people have the impression that he served in Afghanistan in the war and terror often talking about his service in operation enduring freedom even though the National Guard unit that he was in technically spent time in a base in Italy supporting the efforts in places like Afghanistan. So nothing explicit here but at times a bit misleading you could say Walts has never said explicitly that he fought in combat but he has implied that he's carried weapons of war at war so those are a couple of the quotes that Republicans are pointing to. At the same time Walts notes that he served 24 years in the National Guard that he could have retired after 20 years he was eligible but because of 9/11 he decided to serve four more years in the guard until 05 Republicans are accusing him of stolen valor broadly intended to mean that he's claiming credit for something he didn't achieve in the military. There is something called the stolen valor act that was passed a decade ago and makes it a crime to claim to be the recipient of various military medals and badges. That's not what Waltz is accused of so they're throwing around the word here stolen valor but ultimately here he left an impression of a higher rank as he had served that rank but in retire at that rank again leading to a fix on the website there. The Harris campaign spokesperson saying that Walts misspoke in various statements over the years and that he is proud of his service. I mentioned JD Vance is VP counterpart on the GOP side is among those leading the fight here against Walts, Vance saying I'd be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did. Vance for his part served four years in the Marine Corps and part of that was a six month tour in Iraq where he served as a military journalist. So Vance didn't see combat but he makes a point that he actually served in the war while Walts retired just before his unit went to war. We asked you guys about it over on the Instagram account specifically the vet community your thoughts on this back and forth what we're hearing from many of you as this type of ragging on one another happens a lot among veterans in the military. I did this you did that you didn't do this I didn't do that and some of you vets are annoyed by that you think that you know we should all be complimenting one another for their service as opposed to specifically picking it apart here. Ultimately while you see this in the headlines it's unclear what effect this will have remember the Republicans are trying to define the new Democratic VP nominee here they have some time to do it before he can define himself. They're trying to push forth the idea that he cannot be trusted and that's a bit of what you're hearing from Vance and Trump right now it's unclear how this will land with the public and whether it'll make that much of a difference. But when you look around right now and see how few Americans do serve at all whether it's National Guard Marines abroad domestically and you know many Americans are grateful for any type of service that their fellow Americans participate in. Staying with politics here now to Donald Trump he is officially now back on Twitter well it's now called X but he's back there after taking a break for a very long time initially imposed on him by the previous management of Twitter then Elon Musk bought it renamed it X invited them back on. Elon hasn't been using it because Trump has his own platform now called true social well it appears now that Elon Musk has endorsed Donald Trump and they had a very friendly two hour live chat on X on Monday night. Trump is now back on the platform in their conversation Monday night which was delayed initially because of tech issues they covered a range of topics Trump discussed at length. The assassination attempt on him in Pennsylvania last month as well as his views and immigration, the economy, climate change and the future of energy as I mentioned Musk has endorsed Trump there's also been talk of Musk donating to Trump though Musk has denied that. The two of them spent a lot of time in their conversation praising one another Trump talking about how great Musk was, Musk talking about how great Trump was. And Trump tried to stick to issues at times we've told you that he is advisors, Donald and please stick to issues don't make this about personalities or personal attacks on humble Harris. Trump saying on Monday night the election is coming up people want to hear about the economy food prices are up and this stupid administration allowed it to happen. He's a shame and that's the thing people care most about he referred to Harris as a San Francisco liberal who has changed her tune. At the same time he often went on and on in his responses jumping around in his answers and engaging in some of the name calling that we're familiar with calling Illinois Governor JB Pritzker a loser calling Harris incompetent and claiming that Biden is close to vegetable stage in his mental capacity these days are among the things Trump said in the two hour chat there. As I mentioned there were hiccups getting on the live stream. Trump says he took it as a compliment though that that many people wanted to log in less a tech issue on Twitter's end or X's end I should say and more about the fact that all the people who wanted to hear from the two of them overwhelmed the system. The number of people that were logged in and that Trump has now said hundreds of millions there's various ways you can count the streams but at one point there were more than a million people listening to the stream. As for the Kamala Harris campaign they responded that Trump's interview with a billionaire Elon Musk the richest man in the world is just an example of self obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class. If you were like me and you were testing yourself during the Olympics hearing the announcements in French and trying to figure out what they were saying I took French back in high school and college but it's been a while since I took it formally. I was reminded that it might be time to take a language course again and that apparently puts me based on the latest numbers in the 20% of Americans who have learned a new language on their bucket list. That's you as well you can make this year the year you finally check that off the list with Babel. Babel be a BBEL is a language app that has quick 10 minute lessons to help you start to speak a new language in as little as three weeks. Apparently one study found that using Babel for 15 hours is equivalent to a full semester in college how about that. What we like about Babel is that it's designed for real people for real conversations they have tips and tools that are approachable accessible rooted in real life situations delivered with conversation based teaching so you're ready to practice it right away. I have found their courses very convenient as I've had to travel over the last year I try to run through a couple as I make my way to a new country. So we have a special limited time deal for our listeners here in the Monuse community you can get 60% off your Babel subscription that's at Babel.com/monewsba.com/monews that again is 60% off over at Babel.com/monewsba.com/monews.com/monews rules and restrictions to apply. All right now time for the speed read we're going to begin with a bit of consumer news here Jill I hope you're listening on your vacation because I imagine you might have already read this in the New York Times. In the year through June the first six months of 2024 US grocery prices rose just 1% that's a significant slowdown from the recent peak of 13.5% back in August of 2022 when grocery prices were just skyrocketing. So some good news that prices are only ever so slightly increasing at this juncture at the same time though many consumers still not feeling the relief because food prices overall have not fallen and they still continue to increase albeit at a much slower rate. If you look at food prices over the last four years, grocery prices are on average up about 20% over the last four years though we can look at certain items and see a 40 to 50% increase when it comes to certain items you're putting in your cart. Part of this initially was food manufacturers and stores experiencing their own inflation as prices went up and then some of them definitely seeing how far they could raise prices to boost their own profits. But consumers have started to push back here in the past year specifically a number of consumers going to generics. That has now led some prices to have to be decreased or as I told you the top just slower increases. Several economists say they see grocery inflation remaining around the current rates in the coming months barring any unforeseen shocks. So we're pretty much where we were before the craze of the last four years. At the same time, while overall prices are up 1%, some stuff is down. You are seeing items that are up more than that. Beef and veal prices are up 5% for the year so far. So that meat is up. If you're a ham fan, those prices have fallen 4% in the first half of the year and then milk and seafood each have declined 1% over this year so far. Alright, our next story comes to us from the New York Times as well. Something the Pentagon is watching right now. China and Russia have pressed in an informal, legal and economic alliance against the West. Now they're stepping up war games. We told you about the military exercise that the two of them recently conducted up near Alaska in the Arctic. Chinese and Russian long-range bombers patrolling together. Days earlier, the countries held live fire naval drills in the South China Sea. That was for the first time in about a decade. They have been buzzing the skies together near Taiwan, Japan, South Korea. So what's going on? Well, the military exercises are an expression of an alignment here between Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia as they look to challenge their chief rival, the United States of America. Now, they've had a relationship going way back. And for years, the Soviet Union was the big brother. China was the little brother. It sort of flipped on its head now that Russia's much weaker. China being the big brother, Russia being the little brother, looking for support, looking for love, and looking for weapons as it conducts its war in Ukraine. China's been reluctant there, but they are conducting these joint military exercises. What is China trying to do here? Well, they're trying to prove a point that they're frustrated by American trade restrictions, and while they have protested, they thought they were going to prove their point with more exclamation points. If they, say, buzz Alaska and do it in partnership with the Russians. Now, at the same time, there's not much integration between the Russian military and the Chinese military. This is something NATO has, the Western Alliance. That's where there's integration between the weaponry of, like, let's say, the UK, France, Germany, the US, etc. At the same time, though, Russia and China are working on more cooperation here. And it comes as China's closely watching what's taking place in Ukraine, how Russia invaded Ukraine, how the West is reacted, especially as China potentially looks at in the coming years here, potentially finally taking over Taiwan. They don't have territory or control of Taiwan. We've told you about this issue for a while now. It's a subject of a recent Monuse Interview podcast with Jim Schudo. China wants to reunite historic China that includes the island of Taiwan, which the de facto have recognition of, nearly everyone in the world recognizes Taiwan officially as part of China. But Taiwan has its own democratically elected government, its own military, is a democracy, and is supported with weapons from the US. And so China is looking to close that. And so China is really looking here in the coming years to take over Taiwan by any means necessary. And they're looking at the Russian example in Ukraine for how not to do it and for how to do it, and potentially hoping that Russia can help them in some way against Taiwan, potentially in the coming years by creating a distraction for the West when China makes us move on Taiwan. All right, some business news now from CNBC, Starbucks facing slowing sales for its lattes and frappuccinos, a slumping stock, agitation for activist investors, abruptly ousted and CEO yesterday, replacing him with the chief executive from Chipotle. Brian Nickel, who is held the top position at Chipotle since 2018, will take the helm of Starbucks next month. He will replace Laxman Narasimin. Laxman only took over Starbucks last March. He took over for Howard Schultz, the first chief executive who founded Starbucks and made it the multi-billion dollar empire that it is. Schultz stepped aside last year. Narasimin was the first chief executive from outside the company, handpicked by Schultz, and he didn't do very well. Analysts and investors were cheering the move so much yesterday, the ousting of the current CEO they bring in of Nickel Chipotle. The Starbucks stock went up 20% yesterday. It comes as Starbucks is struggling right now with a couple of its biggest markets, the US and China softening sales right now. They also have some activist investors who have gotten involved in the board there, Elliott Investment Management, which started taking a position in Starbucks, has been pushing the company to make changes here. Narasimin, the most recent executive, had little to no experience running restaurant chains. He'd gotten some training and then tried his best. It didn't work out. Nickel, on the other hand, has previously run Taco Bell. Then he went on to Chipotle, as we mentioned, and so they're very excited here that he can turn around things at Starbucks. All right, some science news from CNN now. Data from a recent NASA mission has revealed evidence of an underground reservoir of water deep beneath the surface of Mars. A team of scientists estimates that there may be enough water trapped in tiny cracks and pores of rock in the middle of the Martian crust to fill oceans on the planet's surface. In fact, they think there's so much water under Mars that if somehow they were able to tap it, it would cover the entirety of Mars to a depth of one mile, basically turning the red planet into a blue planet like ours, but the entire surface would be water. Now, this data comes to NASA from the Insight Lander, which uses a seismometer to study the interior of Mars from 2018 to 2022. They've been looking at the data here, and this is what they have figured out. There's a lot to discover on a future mission to Mars, right now, NASA's hoping to get there with human astronauts in the next decade and the 2030s, but there'd be a lot of issues getting to that water because it apparently is located between seven miles and 12 miles beneath the surface. This is all laid out in a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, if you're interested in reading further into this. So for all of us looking for life on Mars, apparently the place to look is about seven miles below Mars because water, of course, means there could be life. So there might still be life on Mars today, microscopic life, in that water below the ground. And even if there's no longer life in Mars, there is belief that there once was life on Mars because billions of years ago, Mars was a warmer, wetter place based on evidence so far that NASA's figured out. There were ancient lakes, river channels, Delta, a rocks altered by water, but the red planet for some reason, about three billion years ago, lost its atmosphere, which effectively ended the wet period on Mars. It atmosphere like ours on Earth, where we have things like oxygen and an atmosphere and stratosphere that protect us. Scientists still aren't sure why Mars lost its atmosphere. They are still looking into this, trying to figure out, trying to recreate conditions of what could have happened three billion years ago that led Mars to lose its atmosphere. Still though, they believe that water is trapped below Mars right now. And again, even if we get there in the next decade, it'll be a while probably before we start drilling a seven miles deep on Mars. Alright, some sports news because the Olympics still is putting out headlines days after the summer games ended in Paris from Variety magazine here. JK Rowling and Elon Musk are among those who have been named in a criminal complaint, filed to French authorities over alleged acts of "aggravated cyber harassment" against the Algerian boxer, Amani Khalif. We told you about Khalif, she faced allegations about her gender and then, despite all of that, went on to win the gold medal in women's boxing in one of the weight classes last week. Well, Khalif's attorney is now confirming to Variety that Elon Musk, JK Rowling and others are mentioned in the complaint posted to the anti-online hatred center of Paris's public prosecutor's office. So the French here are apparently going to investigate ex and other people who Amani Khalif claims harassed her in the recent weeks. Khalif spent much of the games at the center of a very controversial dispute about her gender eligibility that reverberated around the world, despite being born female and not identifying as transgender or intersex. And being backed by the International Olympic Committee, who asserted scientifically, Khalif was a woman, Khalif faced a torrent of accusations and abuse over her gender. To go back here, the International Boxing Association, a separate organization, said following fighting in 2023 that they conducted unspecified gender tests against Khalif and another boxer and found that Khalif had male chromosomes and XY chromosome. The International Boxing Association is very controversial. In fact, was kicked out and no longer is associated with the Olympics. The IBA has also not revealed what test it did, the results of the test, and has gone back and forth on several of the accusations. So we're still waiting to hear what, if any, test they ever conducted here, notably the IBA is run by Russians, and all this came out after Khalif beat a Russian boxer. So Khalif had previously competed as a female boxer, suddenly she beat a Russian boxer in 2023. The IBA says, we have this test that shows you're not eligible, but no word yet again on what that test was, and what the conclusive results are, because since they've gone back and forth. So the Olympic Committee said, we're not really paying attention to the IBA here, and now you have Khalif following this legal action. All right, now time for on this day in history, we begin in the year 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signs into law the Social Security Act of 1935, guaranteeing an income for the unemployed and retirees. So Social Security today, turning 89 years old, though notably with people living longer, and the amount of retirees these days, there's a lot of talk about the need to reform Social Security, whether we should be raising the retirement age, lowering benefits, or finding some other way to pay for the program. And now nearly 90 years old. All right, sticking with that era, on this day in 1945, Japan surrendered unconditionally to end World War II, President Truman announcing on this day in 1945, Japan surrendered to the US and Allied powers. On this day in 1947, Pakistan became a sovereign state, bringing an end to British rule there. And on this day in 1989, Sega Genesis released, some of you might remember Sega. Sega, of course, featured Sonic the Hedgehog and some other iconic games. And we end with a bit of entertainment history. On this day in 1975, the Rocky Horror Picture Show premieres. So Rocky Horror Picture Show, 49 years old today. And on this day in 1985, Michael Jackson bought the Beatles music catalog. So how did this all go down? How did Michael Jackson own the Beatles music? Well, during a collaboration two years previous in 1983, the former Beatles, Paul McCartney, is said to have advised Michael Jackson to invest some of his wealth. Michael Jackson was getting very rich at the time in music publishing. So McCartney basically gave Michael the advice to invest in music publishing. Little did he know that Michael Jackson would then purchase the majority of the Beatles catalog for just under $50 million, in fact, outbidding McCartney for the catalog himself. Though Jackson did have an overspending issue over the years, he would run out of money and would end up needing to sell the Beatles catalog himself. He did that in 2008, half of it, he sold half of it for about $100 million. After his death, Sony bought the rest of it for several hundred million more. The Beatles catalog today, worth billions. I don't want to thank all of you for listening to the Mo News podcast. Appreciate all of you rolling with me on this solo news week. Thankfully, knock on wood. It's been relatively quiet this week. We'll see what the rest of the week has in store. Again, as I mentioned, follow our coverage in Chicago next week at the Democratic Convention. We'll bring you live coverage from the ground there. In the meantime, follow the latest and greatest over with us on Instagram and via the Daily Mo News Letter over at mo.news/newsletter. Thanks for listening to the Mo News podcast. [music]
