Kelly Clarkson's War Over a $15,000 Mechanical Bird Has Everyone Fighting

And then there's more we got to dive into in just a minute. But first let me thank a sponsor and say, you know, August is a great time for a reset before fall gets chaotic. And my closet, it could use some adult supervision. That's where today's sponsor, Quince, comes in. Quince makes fewer better pieces from premium materials. The things you'll reach for constantly. And I really like their staples like organic cottonsies and Mongolian cashmere sweaters at work all day and into the evening. Or basically close it, make you look, put together without looking like you had spent an hour planning it. They're denim and tailored, you know, started 60 bucks with a fit, structure and quality that you'd expect from a luxury designer brand. And then you've got things like the cotton silk short sleeve crew next sweater, I've been wearing that thing everywhere. Though even that is when I'm not living in their performance tanks. Both are incredibly soft, they're comfortable, but also polished enough that I still feel, you know, put together without trying too hard. And personally, as someone that just, I love a deal. I love that everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. Or they work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen, so you're paying for quality and not brand markups. And, hey, while you're at it, they have hotel quality, bedding, bath essentials, cookware, luggage, and travel must-haves. Basically, Quince is the affordable, elevated one-stop shop. Hey, upgrade your everyday by scanning that QR code or going to quince.com/defranko for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. And they're now available in Canada and the UK as well. So that's q-u-i-n-c-e.com/defranko. Quince.com/defranko. This bizarre Kelly Clarkson birdgate scandals insane with video footage now being released, and it's all just dividing the internet. Opening a eye found a spy device wrapped in toilet paper in a spy plot allegedly planned with a chatbot. Russell Brandt Rape Trial is officially underway with Brandt being called a ruthless sexual predator. And this raid on Ilhan Omar's home might actually be an even bigger deal than you think with Trump allies saying, "Mom Donnie next." We're talking about all of that and actually, even more, on today's brand new, Philip DeFranco show, you daily dive into the news starting with this. Let's talk about this Kelly Clarkson scandal. Because amidst all the very serious dumpster fires out there, we've seen this Kelly Clarkson situation really, just take on a life of its own this week. And that's because you had Clarkson making some accusations and then a small business owner accusing her of asymmetrical social warfare over a dispute involving a $15,000 singing mechanical bird named Molly. 'Cause yeah, the singer, songwriter, TV personality, the winner of American Idol's five minute visit to the art of play store in Brooklyn. It has become a bizarrely intense feud and just national news. Because after she tweeted about her negative experience there, everyone on social media started taking signs. And now one of the things you're seeing is one of the owners making some big statements about how the whole situation is affected the store and his team. We are afraid for the safety of our shopkeepers, Kelly Clarkson has put us in danger. Things changed when she used her platform to attack us. It's just, it's asymmetrical social warfare. Kelly Clarkson's brought in this like, she got to either like, normal person. And because of that, Rodeo was bruised and she decided to blow up through a lot of fucking Molotov cocktail into our shop. And the most perverse part about it is this people around the world while our shop is on fire, again, then that we are the ones that issue in Apollo. We old, no ill will against Kelly Clarkson. We invite her to come back and enjoy the store, but we find her gross abuse of power and completely reprehensible and she should face social consequences. That is Adam Rubin and he's the co-owner of What's Been Described as a Curiosity Shop. And you have them saying that because of Clarkson, the shop's been receiving non-stop phone calls and threats and that employees personal social media accounts. They're getting attacked. But where we should start because I kind of just dropped a crazy bomb on you is at the beginning because you've got Clarkson drive and make it our way all the way out to Brooklyn, checking out this store. She sees the bird. She loves the bird. She's very interested in purchasing this bird, Molly. But she says that those dreams were crushed by a shopkeeper who didn't recognize her and insinuated that she could not pay the $15,000. So shortly after leaving the store, Clarkson posted her angry tweet claiming that she was given the pretty woman's treatment by the shopkeeper, writing had a few things in mind to buy and literally it was looked at as if I couldn't afford it and was told he could find something comparable for me. Wow, dude, you're an idiot and just lost a huge sale. They're then calling out the store by name and giving it a thumbs down emoji. And then with just that tweet, getting viewed over 46 million times, a lot of Kelly Clarkson fans, they got super pissed in the story gained traction. So then initially, art of play, they respond by saying, hey, this was a misunderstanding because Molly just eased for sale, saying she's permanently attached to the wall because they use her in magic shows that they have there. And then even that initial statement, it got into the negative attention that they've been receiving since the singer's tweet, claiming they've been attacked by millions of people who have never visited the store and died. We're going to keep our heads down and hopefully, we can clear things up with Kelly someday. In closing it, as a talented popular singer one said, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And I don't know if it was the whole statement or just that last line that has some bites to it, but Clarkson did not appreciate that response. Or with things escalating from there. Or with Clarkson responding with receipts, what appears to be a screenshot of a $15,000 price tag, which is next to Molly. Saying that the shopkeeper elevator eyed her and said in a condescending tone, yes, it's for sale, but it costs $15,000. So if you'd like me to find something comparable for you, I can't. Clarkson calling this person to the store rude and a liar and dead. You don't get a free pass to treat people less than in your store just because you are a small business. In art of play, they responded to that with a second statement saying they'd like to clarify one additional detail about the situation. And then that pose they explained or said that Molly has a nearly identical automaton owned by the creator who lives in Seattle, who said he would be willing to part with that twin bird for $15,000. And you have a statement also claiming that the shopkeeper explained this to Clarkson and offered her a difference singing bird automaton that costs around $2,000. And it would have been one that she could have taken home that day, right? It was in the shop with that saying that she did not stick around long enough to see. And then as you people all over the place sounds an off on this, things got taken to a whole different level. And that's because you had journalists and podcasts to Pablo Torre entering the chat. And ultimately, you had him getting in posting footage of Clarkson in the store just trying to get to the bottom of this. And then you see you're entering the store with your kids. They're then looking around. All of a sudden it looks like, oh my gosh, Clarkson sees this bird. She loves it. And it looks like she proceeds to have a conversation with a worker there who turns out to be one of the co-owners. That plays out briefly, but then they separate. So I'm saying it then looks like the co-owner is pointing to the $2,000 bird. But then also he gets wrapped up in another conversation. With the same time Clarkson goes to the corner of the store and then proceeds to walk towards the exit, putting back something it looked like she was going to buy. And before she leaves, it looks like she has some words with the person at the cash register. She seems very bothered. It looks like the person at the cash register really doesn't know what's happening. And then they share a little footage from outside where it looks like you see Clarkson without her phone. So then seemingly from this footage, especially because there's actually no audio in it, you have people just having completely different takes on this, depending on where you go on the internet. You would Pablo Torre and his co-host and a number of people online appearing to sympathize with the store and with that questioning. The argument that Clarkson was treated poorly based on what she was wearing given that she really fits in with all the customers there. Here, Kelly Clarkson looks exactly like everyone else who's in the store, including the shopkeeper. Including what she's talking to. So in order for this kind of like classist kind of profiling to occur, she would have to appear to not be like everyone else and that's clearly not the case yet. And then you also add them calling out Clarkson for using your platform to direct negative attention to the store. They deserve all of this in reality. This is a class warfare kind of thing, but it's the opposite. You aren't the underdog. You are the ruling oppressive class, in essence, by treating these people again or not on your level financially any sort of a fashion to behave in that way is the entitlement of the rich. And also a lot of the online discourse that you're seeing are people coming to Clarkson's defense. And that appears to be for a mixture of reasons A, she's a beloved celebrity with a generally squeaky, clean reputation. B, you've got people saying they do not like the way that it looks like the shopkeeper allegedly treated her. Some people just don't care about celebrities. And I respect that. What I don't respect is someone walking into your store and your employee and/or you the owner, because who knows? It could have been the owner that was behind the counter. Deciding that they don't think you can afford to be there. You also have others saying it's actually the store owner who's making things worse with what they've described as his dramatic response to media outlets or some people commenting things like, this is some loser shit. Your employee was rude to someone they thought was beneath them and it turned out to be Kelly Clarkson saying, just take the L due. And then also you've got a branch of the reactions here being people just laughing at the situation and even doing skits around. How many amazing things in here? Welcome in, thank you. The cell section is going to be to your left. The cell section? It promised you something that would be more in your price range. You're going to find in that cell section. But hey, ultimately with where we are right now, I kind of ask you, where do you land on this right? What are your thoughts and reactions? Are you on Kelly Clarkson's side? Are you on Art of Play's side? Do you land somewhere in the middle where you think no one's coming out of this, smelling roses? What do you think and why? 'Cause again, depending on where you go online, vastly different reactions. But then, jumping from that to other news, we've got a story that starts with these lines. He pranced around me like an ostrich. He licked me like a lizard. He treated me like an animal and left me bleeding for days. But those are all things that you had said about Russell Brand today during the opening of his trial for rape and sexual assault. And that's because you're looking at seven charges, six women and a handful of stories that are as bizarre as they are disturbing. And you've got all these alleged incidents taking place in the UK between 1999 and 2009. And also, because this isn't happening in America, where seemingly everything's televised for your entertainment, we do not have footage of the courtroom. But what we do have, or transcripts, and the lead prosecutor write Real Carmi Joan, she did not paint a flattering picture of Brand. You had her calling him a ruthless, manipulative, calculating sexual predator. Saying his desire for sexual contact was indiscriminate and voracious, said that he was childlike in his expectation that his every desire should be met. And then adding, women were simply a means to an end. That ends being groping them sexually or indecently assaulting them or vaginally orally or annually raping them? And Brand, he's played not guilty to all the charges, though at the same time, he had people pointing out that he's been very blunt about his sexual past, even telling Megan Kelly stuff like this. In Europe and in the United Kingdom, where I'm from, the age of consent is 16. And I did sleep with IE 16-year-old when I was 30. Garsal Brand admitting that given his wealth fame and power as sexual behavior was exploitative, selfish, and wrong, but he said not illegal. According to him, he never violated anyone's consent, at least not technically or legally, even though what he did crossed a line morally. But of course with all this, we're gonna see what a jury decides. And then in the meantime, of course, there is the court of public opinion. So that, of course, is all playing out. But let's get started with the first alleged incident in 1999 when you had Brand performing comedy at the British Labor Party Conference. Or because according to his former friend who was with him, on the way there, Brand boasted that he wanted to sleep with 5,000 women during his life. And adding to his goal was to never leave a situation without having some kind of conquest, always trying to score and every endeavor. And then after the event, you had Carmi Jones saying that Brandon started chatting with a woman about politics and believing he was gay, she invited him to her hotel room to continue the discussion. But then when she came out of the bathroom, she says that she found him wearing nothing but budgie smugglers, which is the British term for tidy whiteies. And then adding that he was quote, "Prancing around the room a bit like an ostrich." She was going to silly walk, like basil faulty, referred to the 70 sitcom character played by Monty Python. So the woman claims that she was like, "Why are your clothes off?" And then Brandon responds with something like, "It's okay, it's just how I am, don't worry, I'm mostly naked at home." Within the prosecutor saying that he pushed her onto the bed and started quote, "doing things with his tongue that were horrible, like a lizard." And adding that she knew that there was nothing that she could do to stop him from going further and so he raped her and later acted as if nothing had happened. And here this woman saying that she was left in shock, crying and feeling ashamed, dirty and stooped. And then the morning afterward he had brands, right at the time saying that he burst into the apartment and told them to pack up their stuff because they had to leave town immediately. And here with a friend also adding that brand acted weird in the car, hiding his head beneath the window and later admitted that a sexual encounter that night, quote, "might have got a little out of hand." Right, and then the second alleged incident came in 2001 when he went out woman working at MTV, offering a show brand where the toilets were. But then according to Carmi Jones, when they got there he said, come in, go on, come in and he grabbed her hard buyer forearm. With her allegedly resisting saying, I'm not coming in there, don't be silly. Are you mad, get it off before then finally getting free and describing how she felt bewildered and shocked. And then the third alleged incident you had came in 2004 to bar where a birthday party was thrown or with Carmi Jones claiming that within less than a minute brand lunch forward and grabbed a woman's breasts while sporting a big weird grin. At which point he allegedly pulled this woman into a bathroom and forced her to go down on. With a woman allegedly saying, what are you doing? I don't wanna do this to which brand allegedly replied, oh, come on, don't be a spoiled sport. Saying you want to or something along those lines. With him then later that night, Nicole allegedly whipping out his dick and saying, come on, suck it, but this time accepted her refusal. And for the fourth alleged incident, that said to take place not long after with Carmi Jones claiming that a brand met a woman at a radio station and quote instantly grabbed her by the face with both hands pushed her up against a wall and kissed her as sloppily and aggressively. Adding that he also groped her body and she tried to push him off, but saying he was too strong or they're describing it as rough, fast and frenzy. And then for the fifth alleged incident, that said to have taken place in 2009 between brands and an aspiring comedian who says that she idolized him. And here you had Carmi Jones claiming that they had consensual sex at first, but then quote, without warning, without asking without her consent, he penetrated her annually. And she said that despite begging him to stop, he didn't. And adding that he had taken off his condom before doing it and then told her afterwards to clean up the mess you've made. And there she said that she bled for several days after that. And then as far as the final alleged incident, that's a place the same year when brand was working with a woman on a work assignment. Brand new would Carmi Jones claiming that he became angry, fed up and petulant before leaving the room, after which his team told a woman that she had to give him a massage if they were to continue. And then allegedly he came back, filled with his knees and stuck his head into her groin with her saying that she could feel his breath on her genitals. With him then at a later date, allegedly texting Urda, which he replied, why are you even messaging me? Carmi Jones claiming that he responded because you're dirty and I wanna push you further, which a woman shot back, I think you pushed me far enough, you treated me like an animal. And there he allegedly texted back, I'm sorry. And if you followed Brand at all in recent years, he's repeated that apology publicly, if not for these specific cases, at least for his conduct generally. Or with him claiming that he's changed, saying that back then, he was an immature party boy. And now he's about Christian and married father of three, saying he's given up the hedonistic individualism of his youth and submitted himself to a higher power. I knew people saying that even his brief comments to the press as he entered the courtroom today, they were inflected by that religious tone. - I feel blessed, I feel, of course, concerned and but hopeful that this process will lead to good outcomes for everybody involved. That's my prayer. - And as far as without come we'll get, we should see relatively soon, right? 'Cause it's believed that this trial could last as long as 10 weeks. So for now, it really would love to know your reactions to this whole story and the situation as well as what your predictions here are. And as you're maybe sharing that with me in the comments down below, and as we have more to talk about in just a minute, let's take a quick break and hear from a sponsor. And the weird thing about October is how quickly your whole rhythm changes, dark or morning, shorter days, and suddenly everything feels a little harder to get moving. And so I try to keep the basic steady when the rest of the routines start shifting around. And today's sponsor, AG1, they become one of those morning habits that's easy to stick with. But it's one scoop or a travel stick mixed with eight ounces of cold water, and so it's something that I can knock out quickly before the rest of the day starts competing for my attention. And I'll say for those who don't know, AG1 is a daily health drink with a multivitamin, pre-improbiotic, superfoods, and antioxidants. The next one formula, it includes 75 plus ingredients. It's clinically shown to support gut health, fill common nutrient gaps, and improve key nutrient levels within three months. And for me, the consistency matters most this time of year. Or when those mornings get darker, and my schedule gets unpredictable, I elect starting with something familiar that supports my energy and immune health and helps the morning feel more like mine. So, hey, go to drinkag1.com/defranco. And for a limited time, get a free immune support bundle, including a bottle of omega-3 fish oil and a bottle of vitamin D3K2. Right, and that's for the first subscription order of AG1 next gen or AG1 pro. So yeah, that's drinkag1.com/defrancoor. Just scan the QR code. And then, having right back into the news, we still don't have any more official information about this unprecedented raid on Representative Ilhan Omar. But you do have sources now giving the Washington Post some absolutely key new details we should talk about. Because on Monday, Ilhan Omar's DC area home was searched by federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations, which is a branch of DHS that handles criminal investigations. And while the Justice Department only said that it had authorized the search warrant as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation, it was widely reported that the probe was related to alleged immigration fraud. Because for background, Omar fled Somalia with her family during the Civil War, when she was just a child, immigrating to the US in 1995, and later becoming a US citizen. And she has said that her father, who died in 2020, became a naturalized citizen in 2000, when she was still a minor. And so she was able to get her citizenship through him before she turned 18. But also with this, as early reports first started rolling on on Monday, he would sources telling the New York Times that the investigators were looking into whether her father lied or omitted certain details while seeking legal status in the US before becoming a citizen. And that's a very key thing here, because if there was indeed conclusive evidence that Omar derived her citizenship improperly, the DOJ could push to denaturalize her and potentially even deport her. But now you've got sources telling the Post that agents are especially focused on whether Omar or her father purposefully lied about a birth date on immigration paperwork. So she could get citizenship through him as a minor. No big thing, of course, is this is not the first time that these allegations have come out. Or back in 2019, there was a video from a political opponent that went viral claiming that Omar was actually 18 when her father applied for citizenship and thus she would be ineligible to earn her own citizenship through him. With that not long after that, the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, which keeps biographies of elected officials in the state, revising her official birth date in its records from 1981 to 1982. And you would the library telling the Post that Omar's staff had asked for the change as part of a broader effort to correct her birth year on various public sources, including Wikipedia. Right in that appears to be backed up in emails between Omar's staff and the library that were obtained by the New York Post. But another key thing here is that the Post also obtained an email from the library's director who said that the initial 1981 date wasn't based on a birth certificate or any other supporting paperwork. And in fact, you had the director explicitly saying the date was put down because it was quote widely available in Wikipedia and the biographical directory. And so we added that birth date without documentation. And that tracks because Omar has said that like many other small immigrants, she's been unable to get her birth certificate because decades of internal conflict in the collapse of government infrastructure caused by the civil war there. Or with the repeatedly arguing that the requests to change her birth date, they were simply an attempt to correct mistakes in various public sources, not cover up the truth about the year she was born. And actually with this, you even had Fox News admitting the discrepancy does not establish that Omar falsified immigration records. But then also beyond that, you had an administration official telling the Washington Post that investigators were also looking into whether Omar's father may have intentionally lied or omitted information about his past military service while seeking legal status in the US. And with the outlet reporting there, both questions are considered key to the investigation because they led to Omar securing her citizenship. But, and this is another key thing, sources also told the post that the immigration-related inquiry was launched earlier this year. Several years after DHS had declined to move forward with the probe based on similar allegations. And that piece of reporting, it just kind of bolstered the widespread outrage in the allegations that Trump's weaponizing federal agencies to target political opponents had have a midterm cycle that's expected to really, really hurt. Because among other things, like we talked about on Monday, the DOJ has a longstanding policy that explicitly instructs officials to avoid taking public steps like executing search war and issuing subpoenas in political cases 60 days before an election so as to not unduly influence voters. But with all of this, right? That's exactly what the Trump administration has done and they're still continuing to do. Right on top of the raid, it's also now widely being reported that the DOJ has issued around a dozen subpoenas in the probe, including to Omar's family members, which to many is exactly the kind of overt measure that they're not supposed to be taking right now. And then actually also, yesterday you had US Attorney Janine Piro announcing that she had launched a separate probe into Omar's financial disclosures last year. Those filings Omar and her husband had disclosed assets between six and $30 million, which is a huge increase in wealth from prior years. But also, she later revised the documents to declare assets between $18,000 and $95,000, claiming that the initial filing was an accounting error. And actually last month, a House watchdog recommended that the ethics committee dismissed misconduct allegations regarding the disclosures after finding that there was actually no substantial evidence to believe that she violated House rules. And so it appears that Piro's announcement is just yet another break with DOJ policy, right? And so then you just get more and more people arguing that this is just stacking evidence of Trump's blatant corruption and abuse of power. And then also while you have many pointing to his past efforts to use the federal government to target as perceived political enemies, you also have other big voices in the space right now, including people that are often kind of bundled up with Omar, like Hassan Piker, talking about this being more of what we'll probably see in the future. This is insane. And the reason for why I say it's insane is not because all like how dare you go after a Congresswoman. The reason why I'm saying that is because if you can do this to an American Congresswoman, an American naturalized citizen, who's an American Congresswoman, okay? We're broaching totally new territory at this point. You could do this to anybody all the time, okay? Nonstop, this is, you know, this is unprecedented in many respects. They can do this to you, Omar. They can do this to anybody. They can do this to Zoram Mamdani. Zoram Mamdani also was a naturalized American citizen, right? First they'll go for naturalized US citizens. Then next step is gonna be American born, like natural born US citizens. If they have at least one immigrant parent and then they continue expanding. Out of the one does this. Vladimir Putin does this. But again, and now Trump is doing it. And actually, as you've all this playing out regarding, you know, what's next? What are the goals you then have people looking to people like Laura Lumer? Or because among other things she's done recently, she was attacking Mamdani in a post on Twitter, calling him a communist, she hottest and adding. He's a jihadist who deserves to be rated the same way Ilhan Omar was. Saying Mamdani qualifies for de-naturalization. And saying like Ilhan Omar, Mamdani is a reminder of why muzzles and need to be banned from holding office in America. And while Trump, especially when they're together, always seems like he has this schoolboy crush on Mamdani. He got many paying attention to what Lumer is saying here, especially because of her perceived connections to the president and the White House. But as far as, you know, how all this is gonna play out, we aren't gonna have to wait to see. It doesn't play out like a lot of the other failed tax on Trump's perceived enemies or is, you know, each situation is unique and different. Does this play out a different way? But then jumping from that to other news, we've got to talk about how you have this actual foreign national, who's accused of spying on open AI's executives, and also the big picture spin that the DOJ is putting on all of it. Or because we're talking about Abdul Rahman Al-Fazan. He's a Saudi Arabia national, who was hired by open AI as an engineer on their product team last July. But then he was arrested by the FBI after a security team found a recording device when they did a sweep of a conference room reserved for executives. Right, a conference room typically used for meetings with government officials and other business leaders. And specifically, other device plugged into a USB port on the back of a TV, wrapped in toilet paper. And we're supposedly built to a detection, use advanced encryption, could monitor audio, and had a way to transfer data without being noticed. Al-Fazan is said to have stashed in that conference room a couple of days before it was found, and he planned to put more of them in other offices and conference rooms to secretly record meetings. Then also here's the wilder, even maybe goofy part. He reportedly used a chatbot in his research for what rooms to put these bugs in. But according to the indictment, he asked a chatbot a bunch of questions about internal details of open AI, things like building addresses, meeting rooms, meeting room capacities, and calendars, and leadership and exec locations. And then also his spouse allegedly submitted multiple prompts to chatbots about building, customizing, installing, audio recording, testing, obfuscating, and remote accessing a device. Or with there being specific questions about building a continuous audio recorder, customized Wi-Fi connectivity, and encrypting an SD card. And then open AI, when their security found the bug, they used one of its models to figure out what it was and where it came from. And the way that it appears it all played out was pretty cut and dry. When a few days after the device was found, Al-Fazan reportedly came back to the conference room despite his lack of clearance to be there, and immediately looked behind the TV, seemingly to find the bug. Within that same day, a security team reportedly taken a peek inside of the backpack that he brought to work, and they found another bug just like the one from the conference room. And with all this, according to OpenAI statement, it doesn't seem like he actually got a hold of anything important, like model-weight source code or customer data. Of course, despite that, in case it wasn't obvious, he was very much fired when he got arrested. Well, right now, we don't know the full details behind his motive. What we do know is that the Department of Justice is definitely framing Al-Fazan's arrest as important for national security. Roger Clayton, Director of National Intelligence, for example, is saying in a statement, this serious situation underscores why winning the global superintelligence race is a national security prerogative. And saying the intelligence community remains committed to safeguarding America's cutting-edge intellectual property from foreign threats, which is very similar to what the US Attorney for the Northern District of California has said echoing that it's a matter of national security and adding, "This arrest highlights our relentless efforts and partnership with the FBI to identify and prosecute those who seek to steal our technology as alleged in the complaint." And with all this, a key thing to understand is like, this is not a brand new concern. Where you've had both big tech leaders and politicians repeatedly sounding the alarm that AI and tech companies, they are high priority targets for foreign intelligence agencies looking for a leg up. This also is in the first time that that concern has been proven legitimate. I mean, just one example, back in January, Chinese national Lin Wei Ding was convicted of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets after stealing plans for AI-focused computerships while working for Google. Though in that case, the espionage conviction was later overturned after a judge said that there wasn't enough evidence that this guy was actually taking the secrets back to China versus trying to use them to launch his own startup. But then also, you have situations like back in 2022, a guy who used to work at Twitter was convicted as six charges related to accusations that he spied on users of Saudi Arabia. And then also, of course, there's the more general security and protocol controversies in the AI space recently. Like the Huggins face incident back in June, where we had that open AI model going rogue and attacking another tech company, stealing data and performing unauthorized activity completely on its own with no direction from humans. And that same month, an open AI agent hacked Australia's university health care system in the same way. And I could really just go on and on there, but you get the idea. You've got safety and security concerns in the AI space, being a very big deal in the moment, as also these big companies appear to be continually dropping the ball. And the reason firing at three of their safety researchers, it doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence for many people that things are going to change much anytime soon. As far as this situation and right now, you have AlphaZon facing five years in prison and he's facing up to $250,000 in fines, but also neither he or his attorneys have made a public comment about the situation yet. And so we'll have to see how the situation develops. Then there's even more that we get to dive into in just a minute, but really quick, a break with our sponsor. Because you know it's wild. The hardest part about needing a doctor sometimes isn't the appointment. It's just trying to actually find one when you really need help. I mentioned this recently, but you know, I was talking to a friend who recently injured his Achilles tendon and needed to find a sports medicine or the pedic surgeon quickly. And so he did. But most people do research for a highly rated doctor called the office and immediately hit voicemail. And the message basically said due to a high number of calls, leave a message, and we'll get back to you. 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Until your house decides to have a problem at the worst possible time. Right, like at the time that our water heater failed, I walked into our garage. Water was everywhere, it damaged the walls. And this was around the time I was trying to sell the place. It was like, oh yeah, another curve ball. And it wasn't just, oh, it's a mess. It's finding someone available, figuring out the repair, realizing, you know, these problems don't care about your schedule or your bank account. And that's why I'm very happy to share today's sponsor, HomeServe with you. We're at a lot of people assume that their homeowner's insurance covers every repair, but every day wear and tear, like plumbing failures, HVAC breakdowns and electrical issues, they're often not covered. Right in HomeServe, they offer plans that help cover different home systems, giving you another option when unexpected repair is haps. So choose a plan based on your needs and budget. When something goes wrong, HomeServe helps connect you with local reliable professionals. Instead of scrambling to find a contractor in a stressful situation, call HomeServe's 24/7 hotline and start the repair process. They've helped homeowners for over 20 years with a national network of 2600 local contractors and nearly four and a half million customers. And looking back, I definitely would've appreciated having something like HomeServe then when my water heater broke down. Say, join the millions of customers who trust HomeServe. And for 50% off your first year, just go to homeServe.com/deferenco. And then, Devon, right back into the news is a few more things we gotta talk about. First up, we've gotta talk about how Pope Leo was just diagnosed with lung cancer less than a year and a half into his papers. With the news here, it's actually a lot more hopeful than a cancer diagnosis usually sounds. Because in Tuesday, you had the 71-year-old Pope having surgery at a hospital in Rome to remove what he described as a small localized nodule in his lung. When your doctor's taking it out and testing it, they confirmed that it was cancer. Specifically, lung adenocarcinoma, which is the most common type. The key thing here is that they caught this extremely early. The Pope himself, saying that it was found at a very early state. The surgery, it only took around 90 minutes if went off without any complications. And your doctors are moving the entire lobe to make sure they got all of it. And oncologists are calling the prognosis excellent, right? One described it as one of the more treatable cancers out there. The Pope's own doctors say that he should be able to live a normal active life after this kind of surgery. What's also a big thing here is that there is a family history. Right as mom died of cancer back in 1990. And actually, his brother is also reportedly battling cancer right now. As far as the Vatican, they say Leo's gonna stay in the hospital for about a week with his public events on hold until October 20th. And notably, they say that his plan trip in November, that's still long. So the big key takeaway here is that the early signs are genuinely encouraging. Right, all things considered. And then also in the news, you've got farm and row Martin Schreller possibly trying to fast track or return back to prison. Right and Schreller, if you forgot, he's the guy that jacked up the price of a life saving drug by more than 4,000%. Since being released from prison back in 2022, he's been explicitly banned from engaging with the pharmaceutical industry. Like he's not even supposed to look in their direction. He is allowed to get himself ibuprofen. But despite that, you've got the FTC in seven states claiming that he's traded stocks in at least 60 different former companies. And apparently he wasn't even sneaky about it. He did a lot of this while live streaming to followers on YouTube, Twitter, and Reddit. And then he also apparently gave opinions on company management and organized campaigns to short biotech stocks. So the guy, literally telling viewers, I'm showing you how to trade and invest in biotech. There's definitely a case going on with prosecutors wanting a judge to hold Schreller in contempt. And on top of that, they also want him to divest and farm his stocks, pay any profits as a fine and base increase in consequences for his flagrant disregard for the law. And in the press release for this, they specifically mentioned the possibility of re-incarceration. And that my friends, you beautiful bastards is the end of your Wednesday Philip DeFranco show. Another daily dive into the news in the books. And hey, is the next course or your dessert if you want something that's a lot more opinion and takes rather than just pure news, you should definitely check out today's brand new episode of Crushing Out. Or those come out every Wednesday at noon on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, really wherever you get podcasts. But hey, no matter what you do, thank you for watching. I love you faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.