- Today, we're talking about the leaked
Jonah Hill text messages scandal
that has split the internet in two,
why the US government is now going after Logan Paul,
new Ozempic concerns,
and how one US senator is single-handedly
making our military weaker and more vulnerable.
We're gonna talk about all that and so much more
on this brand-new "Philip DeFranco Show",
your daily dive into the news.
So buckle up, hit that like button,
and let's just jump into it.
Starting with this Jonah Hill scandal
that has split the internet in two.
Is Jonah Hill an abusive misogynist?
That's a question and debate that took
over the internet this weekend.
And that's because this weekend,
Jonah Hill's ex-girlfriend, surfer Sarah Brady,
shared several screenshots of messages
from Jonah on her Instagram Story.
With it starting with messages
where they were discussing Sarah's posts on Instagram
of her in a bikini, where Jonah is seemingly asking her
to take them down.
Also, some of the other messages appear
to show Jonah disapproving of Sarah's choice to model
and the people she interacts with in the surfing world.
And while sharing these messages,
Sarah's been calling Jonah abusive, narcissistic,
and misogynistic.
Though, the message that's gotten the most attention
is this one where Jonah appears to say,
"If you need surfing with men,
boundaryless inappropriate friendships with men,
to model, to post pictures of yourself in a bathing suit,
to post sexual pictures,
friendships with women who are in unstable places
and from your wild recent past beyond getting a lunch
or coffee or something respectful,
I am not the right partner for you.
If these things bring you to a place of happiness,
I support it and there will be no hard feelings.
These are my boundaries for romantic partnership."
With that screenshot specifically
sparking the biggest reactions.
And depending on where you were looking online,
the reactions were so drastically different.
You had some people agreeing with Sarah's labeling
of Jonah saying things like,
"Jonah Hill is an abusive misogynist
and shouldn't be in any relationship with anyone
until he can sort himself out.
No one should try to isolate their partner
from their friends, undermine their job,
and control their clothes and social media presence."
Others also accusing him of using therapy language
to abuse and control his girlfriend, arguing,
"Boundaries are the type of behavior you accept
from others when they interact with you.
Telling someone how they should behave with others
and themselves is not setting boundaries,
it's controlling them.
He's literally weaponizing
the language you learn in therapy."
Many people also jumping onto the fact
that Sarah is a semi-pro surfer,
so photos of her in a bathing suit
just come with the territory.
Others have also pointed to messages
that Sarah shared showing Jonah liking the photos
Sarah had posted of her surfing in a bikini
at the beginning of the relationship.
But then if you go to a different place on the internet
or maybe the algorithm's just feeding you different people,
there were a lot of people coming to Jonah's defense,
arguing that what Jonah was doing wasn't abusive,
he was just establishing personal boundaries.
With people saying things like,
"The problem with most relationships is that one partner
or the other don't set their boundaries.
She may not agree with the boundaries,
in which case he laid it out as no hard feelings,"
and saying "That's not abusive,
it's good and reasonable communication.
It's okay if they're not a match."
As well as, "How does the issue become control
if the counter is that she should be able to think
and do for herself?
How has any request for change of behavior control
if you always have the freedom to leave?
Like how is the man suddenly a bad person
because he is communicating his needs?"
Also, many in this camp finding Sarah's timing here suspect.
Because these two didn't just break up,
and now she's reacting to it.
With them appearing to have broken up a while ago
and Jonah just now having a child with his new partner
about a month ago, which is why some have characterized
Sarah as a bitter ex who's weaponizing messages to lash out.
But with that, you have people pointing
to Sarah saying in one of the posts that the release
of these messages has more to do
with her own mental health than anything else.
And so for now, that's where we are.
Sarah's continued to share reactions to the messages
on her Instagram Story.
Jonah has yet to respond to the whole situation.
With all that said, I gotta know, which camp do you land in?
Are you with Sarah?
Are you with Jonah, or is there some in between?
What are your feelings?
What are your opinions?
Let me know in those comments down below.
And then, remember worthless scumbag Larry Nasser,
the disgraced former USA Gymnastics doctor,
the monster who abused hundreds of athletes,
some as young as six years old,
including former Olympian gymnast Simone Biles?
Probably the last time you heard of him,
he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life
in a small jail cell.
Well, the update today is that almost changed.
Though, not because he was released
but because reportedly he was stabbed in the back
and neck multiple times by another prison inmate yesterday,
suffering what one source called, "substantial injuries"
including a collapsed lung.
Though, he is reportedly in stable condition.
I'm just left feelin' like it couldn't have happened
to a better guy.
And personally, the more that I think about this,
I'm happy he didn't die 'cause this just means more
and more time that he's gonna have to worry about
and look over his shoulder.
'Cause it's not just a fear now, Larry,
it's a thing that happened and can happen again.
And while there's no such thing as justice fully served
with monsters like Larry,
Monday does seem like a slightly better day now.
And then, Meta's new Threads app has just continued
its meteoric rise, with Zuckerberg announcing this morning,
"Threads reached 100 million sign ups over the weekend,"
and saying "That's mostly organic demand
and we haven't turned on many promotions yet.
Can't believe it's only been five days!"
And it's not that people are just signing up,
they appear to be using it.
With The Verge reporting last week
that when the app was launched Wednesday night,
by Thursday morning,
not only were 30 million profiles activated,
there were 95 million posts and 190 million likes.
Though, of course those numbers
and even what we're talking about now,
this is all very early days.
The success or failure of Threads isn't gonna be seen
in, like, the next two weeks.
What we're seeing now,
it could just speak to how interested people are
in a Twitter alternative.
But over days and weeks and months of use,
people may go, "Eh, this isn't really for me,"
especially as it's become more and more obvious
they're not trying to be a one-to-one Twitter replacement.
With Instagram head Adam Mosseri saying,
"The company is not actively encouraging politics
and hard news on the platform,"
which of course historically, are places
that Twitter absolutely thrived.
Though, these days there's no shortage of critics
saying that Twitter's harder to use for that.
With among other things, feeds and top replies
being absolutely swamped with people who paid
for the check mark, other than people
and organizations that may have naturally just popped up.
But even with Twitter, we're gonna have to wait
to see what happens in general,
but also with the traffic,
especially as Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince
posted yesterday, "Twitter traffic tanking."
And with that, posting a graph of what he says
is Twitter's DNS ranking from January to now,
which may or may not be connected to Elon Musk lashing out
and saying, "Zuck is a cuck,"
and later tweeting,
"I propose a literal dick measuring contest."
And this, as he is publicly begging MrBeast
to post videos to Twitter.
But hey, we'll see how things play out,
and I loves me some competition.
And then, the US federal government
is going after Logan Paul right now.
And today, this is not over his crypto scandals
that many have called a scam,
but instead, this involves Logan Paul, KSI,
and their Prime Energy drink.
With even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
slamming Prime Energy drink
in a meeting with reporters yesterday
and even demanding their company get investigated.
Because apparently, there are two main concerns
with the product.
The first being the allegedly absurd caffeine content
of Prime Energy, which reportedly has 200 milligrams
of caffeine per can.
Which to give you context,
that's roughly the same as two Red Bulls or six Cokes.
And then secondly, its alleged marketing towards children,
which is a very key thing
'cause each drink actually carries a warning
stating that it's not recommended for children
under the age of 18.
But it's being argued, you have two social media influencers
who are hugely popular among kids,
and they're promoting it as this cool, flashy drink,
and so critics say the warning's meaningless.
And specifically regarding how it's packaged
and marketed, Schumer alleges that Prime Energy
is promoted in a near identical form to Prime Hydration,
which has no caffeine.
And so with that, saying as a result,
some parents have unknowingly bought the energy drink
for their kids.
With them also citing physicians who claim
that it could cause health issues
like disrupted sleep, mood disorders,
headaches, jitters, and nervousness.
And so with all that, he came out and announced...
- I'm releasing a letter this morning asking the FDA
to investigate Prime for number one, its claims,
number two, its marketing aimed at kids,
and number three, its eye-popping caffeine content.
- Now to be fair, in its defense,
Prime Energy does contain more caffeine
than popular energy drinks like Red Bull, Monster, and NOS,
but it is equal to other brands
like Gatorade's Fast Twitch and Pepsi's Celsius.
And in fact, some drinks like Rockstar and Bang,
they have 100 milligrams more than Prime Energy.
Though even with that, some critics argue
that doesn't excuse Prime,
saying that if anything, it just shows how outta control
the entire energy drink industry has gotten in recent years
and also arguing that unlike other brands,
Prime's ties to KSI and Logan Paul
specifically draw in children.
Though with that, I'd also say,
I'd love to see specific numbers,
because I wonder what's the actual percentage
of their audiences that are under the age of 18.
And so that's the story as it is now,
but with it, I'd love to know your thoughts on it.
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And then, Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama
is messing with our military right now
in a way we really haven't seen before.
With this one Republican senator single-handedly
blocking the smooth transfer of power
within the highest ranks of our military.
And specifically, he's using a procedural tactic
to prevent the chamber from approving hundreds of promotions
for high-ranking officers.
And as far as why he's doing it, it's 'cause of abortion.
Because Tuberville objects to a Pentagon policy
instituted after Roe was overturned
that provides time off and reimbursement for travel
to service members seeking abortions
or other reproductive care like IVF,
and that has made Tommy a big mad, angry boy.
So as a result, he's demanding that
the Pentagon revoke the policy
or that the Senate pass legislation overturning it.
But until that happens, he's stopping the Senate
from mass confirming military promotions,
which a very key thing, is a process that
for generations has been totally non-controversial
and done without any problems.
While this has been going on for a little while now,
it is about to cause some serious disruptions
starting right now.
Because as of today, the Marine Corps will be unable
to replace its top leader,
who is required under law to step down from his post.
And notably, more key leaders are set to do the same soon.
Over the next few months,
more than half the current Joint Chiefs
are scheduled to step down from their posts,
including the staff chiefs of the Army, the Navy,
the Air Force, and even General Mark Milley,
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
With all that leaving the advisory body
with more temporary leaders than ever before
in American history.
And that's a very massive deal
because those temporary occupants are just placeholders.
They're unable to make serious strategic decisions,
which is basically the main job
of the Joint Chiefs's staff.
But it's also not just the top leadership positions
being prevented from doing their job.
This is also gonna have a spillover effect
down the chain of command for every officer
waiting to replace someone else.
And key thing, all of this is happening at a point
in time where the US is locked in a handful of serious
and complex military operations.
With "The New York Times" even explaining
that this will effectively amount
to "leaving the president's chief military advisory body
in an unprecedented state of flux
at a time of escalating tensions with China and Russia."
Which is why with all this, you have a ton of people saying
that Tuberville's blockade's going to jeopardize
the US military's ability to respond to crises.
And among those, you have Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
himself who told senators back in March,
"There are a number of things happening globally
that indicate that we could be in a contest
on any one given day.
Not approving the recommendations for promotions
actually creates a ripple effect
through the force that makes us far less ready
than we need to be,"
and adding, "The effects are cumulative
and will affect families.
It will affect kids going to schools
because they won't be able to change their duty station.
It's a powerful effect and will impact our readiness."
And so all that's been echoed by other democratic leaders
like the White House Press Secretary
who argued that Tuberville's actions
were "a threat to our national security."
As well as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
condemning the damaging impact here.
But also, you even have top Republicans speaking out.
Even Mitch McConnell opposes what Tuberville's doing,
but still, he has refused to back down,
instead, floating that Republicans propose a bill
overturning the Pentagon policy
or the Democrats introduce one codifying it.
With Tuberville also arguing that the Senate
could just approve each military promotion individually.
With that, you have Senate staff
saying none of those options are viable.
Legislation either blocking or affirming the policy
would face too much opposition from opposing parties,
and Senate leaders have rejected the idea
of individual confirmations
'cause it's just gonna take too long.
And honestly, no one really knows what's gonna happen
'cause Tuberville has just continued to reject compromises.
So for now, we're gonna have to wait
and see how this standoff's gonna play out.
And I guess in the meantime, extra hope
that we don't get into any serious military conflict.
'Cause already, that would be less than ideal,
but because of Tuberville's actions here,
we're in an even worse place.
And then, we've got two big controversies right now,
and we're gonna start with the least controversial,
the chemical weapons.
I know, that's a weird sentence.
And that's because the head of the Organisation
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,
which oversees their destruction around the world,
announced on Friday that the US had irreversibly destroyed
the last of its stockpile, which officially means
that chemical weapons are essentially gone from the planet,
but that's only officially and probably not really.
And that's because Sudan, North Korea,
and Egypt haven't signed a treaty that bans them.
Although, it's unclear if
and how many they actually possess.
And on top of that, this is just the end
of declared chemical weapons.
It's very possible that nations have secret stockpiles
such as Syria, which has been accused
of using Soviet-era chemical weapons in its civil war.
Not to mention, there have been clandestine uses
of nerve agents linked to Russia.
However, that doesn't completely take away
from this milestone, widely seen as a positive move,
and it's been widely praised.
However, the thing that's been far more controversial
is America's plan to get rid of
some of its cluster munitions.
'Cause these can be bombs, artillery shells,
or missiles that once they get a certain distance
from a target, deploy a bunch of small bombs spread
over a huge area.
It makes it so that one 155-millimeter howitzer shell
can hit an area bigger than a football field
with tiny explosions that kill troops and disable vehicles.
And because they can cover such massive areas,
that means that they inevitably hit things
they aren't supposed to while missing targets
they are supposed to hit,
which also led the US to phase them out in 2016,
but they didn't just disappear.
We've been sitting on a huge stockpile of 'em.
That is, until President Biden announced that as part
of a new aid package to Ukraine,
155-millimeter howitzer base cluster munitions
are gonna be sent to fight Russia.
And so many humanitarian groups and nations condemn the move
and urge Ukraine not to actually use them.
With them pointing out that upwards of 40%
of the smaller bombs they drop fail
to detonate when they're supposed to,
and they get stuck in the ground,
leaving areas dangerous for years or decades.
Although notably, the US claims that the more modern ones
they're sending Ukraine have a less than 3% failure rate.
Also, others against the move have pointed to this clip
where former Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked
about reports of Russia using cluster bombs in Ukraine
and whether it was a war crime, to which she said...
- If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime.
- Which brings up the question of,
if there's so much controversy, why even supply them?
Well, according to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan,
he told reporters that they were a "bridge of supplies"
until production of conventional shells could catch up,
saying, "We will not leave Ukraine defenseless
at any point in this conflict, period."
It also just so happens to solve the problem
of getting rid of them rather than having
to deal with actually dismantling them.
Though, that is not an argument that he made.
But regardless, it's unlikely Ukraine's
gonna turn them down,
especially because since that clip of Psaki,
we now know that Russia has for sure
been using cluster munitions in Ukraine,
and not just on, like, military targets,
even cities like Kharkiv,
which has left many Ukrainians saying
that they're justified to use these weapons.
Which is why I gotta ask you,
do you think this is a good thing the US is doing here?
It's a bad thing?
Is it so messy there's no such thing as a good answer?
Where are you at and why?
And then, is Ozempic actually dangerous for you?
That's what the European Union's looking into
after Iceland's health authority flagged
at least three cases of suicidal and self-harm thoughts
in patients taking the diabetes drug as well as
the weight-loss drug Saxenda,
both of which are made by Novo Nordisk.
And while Ozempic and Saxenda sparked the investigation,
the European Medical Agency decided to particularly focus
on their active ingredients known as semaglutide
and liraglutide, which means that there's a good chance
that other drugs could fall under scrutiny.
Now, despite Novo Nordisk claiming
that their safety data failed to show
any causal association between the drugs and self-harm,
you have others who have argued there have been hints
for a while that this could be the case.
And that's because here in America,
regulators have warned that Saxenda could lead
to suicidal thoughts as well as Wegovy,
which is just a reformulated Ozempic for weight loss
and still using semaglutide.
Also, even before that, since 2018,
the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System Public Dashboard
had at least 60 reports of such thoughts linked
to semaglutide.
Liraglutide also receiving a similar amount of reports.
But very notably, those are self-reported incidents,
so the FDA hasn't verified them and uses the data
as an informal way to see if something's wrong.
And all in all, this has been a concerning few weeks
for Novo Nordisk because all this is coming
after European authorities announced
they'd also be monitoring whether these same drugs
are linked to thyroid cancer,
which is also something else the US has been warning about.
And all of this leads me with two final things to say.
One, this is very early days.
We're not saying anything concretely.
We're talking about concerns that need to be investigated.
And two, notably, none of this is likely
to actually mean the drugs will be pulled off the market.
Instead, it would probably just lead to a labeling
and prescription guideline change.
Because regulators are actually fine with
this side effect as long as it's relatively rare
and patients are made aware.
They'd want you to monitor it
and talk to your doctor if it happens.
And that is where today's daily dive into the news ends.
But for more news you need to know,
I got you covered right here.
And remember, my name's Philip DeFranco.
You've just been filled in.
I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.