- Today we're talking about convicted murderer
and fugitive, Danelo Cavalcante, finally being caught,
Andrew Tate's removal and ban,
an evil, outta touch CEO argues unemployment needs
to rise and workers need to feel pain
because they need to be more thankful,
we just witnessed an amazing cave rescue,
a bunch of cold medicine just got exposed
for not doing what it's supposed to do.
We're talking about all that and so much more
on today's brand new "Philip DeFranco Show,"
your daily dive into the news,
made possible by beautiful bastards like you
who buy Wake and Make Coffee.
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But we got a lot of news to talk about,
so let's just jump into it.
Starting with, Andrew Tate was just banned,
or more specifically amid mounting pressure,
Google removed Tate's The Real World app
from the play store.
So this app is advertised as a way for subscribers
to learn about business and online entrepreneurship
from multimillionaire mentors,
claiming that for only $49.99 a month,
recruits can learn how to make $10,000 in a month
and escape the Matrix.
But many say that the app's actual purpose
is to generate millions of dollars for Tate and his crew
by recruiting young men into a pyramid scheme.
Because reportedly, the primary way for users to make money
on Tate's app is by recruiting other members
through a quote, "affiliate marketing program,"
through which members are reportedly required
to aggressively promote Tate and his sites
on their social media along with a distinctive signup link,
where notably they can make a 48% sales commission
on every new recruit who used their link.
And all of what we're seeing now comes after one man
from Australia, Nathan Pope, launched an online petition
to pressure Apple and Google to remove the app
from their stores,
as well as trying to pressure the companies
that process online subscription payments for The Real World
to stop working with the site on the grounds
that it appears to be financially exploiting young men.
And so the petition has over 9,000 signatures thus far.
And while Google has pulled the app,
Apple has yet to respond,
which actually shocked Pope who said in an interview,
"If they are being complicit in these potential crimes,
"it is important that the public is made aware."
Also, beside the alleged pyramid scheme aspect of all this,
you've seen people having this growing concern
about the age demographic
that Tate is trying to appeal to here.
People sharing one video of a boy
as young as six years old promoting the app.
And one Tate associate has said that the prime age range
for their app and Tate's other site, The War Room,
is boys between 12 and 18.
Additionally, another area of concern is the connection
between The Real World app and The War Room,
which of course is where we've seen reported leaked messages
showing lessons to young men about making money
by grooming women into online sex work.
And with that, Jack Beeston,
an attorney with the firm handling the civil case brought
against Tate by his alleged victims in the UK saying,
"It does seem as though Tate's online presence
"funnels people towards The Real World,
"which in turn funnels people towards The War Room.
"Of course, where minors are involved,
"this is deeply concerning."
And while for now, that is where that story ends,
that is not the only bit of Tate news today.
And that's because two of Tate's accusers
in the Romania case have filed a protective order
to keep their identities confidential,
with them citing harassment
from not only the brothers' fan base
but their legal team as well.
Which, you know, that wouldn't be the first time we talked
about Tate's alleged victims being doxxed,
but this is the first time
that we're seeing legal action being taken
around that harassment,
with the filing also alleging
that the Tates hired two private investigators
to look into one of the women's background
and supplied that information to an independent journalist
and Tate associate,
with the filing then going on to say
that the Tates's attorney posted unredacted
private information about the alleged victims
to 105,000 Twitter followers,
and all that on top of hundreds of threatening messages
from Tate fans and even people showing up
to the victim's family's homes,
with one of the women saying all this
has caused her immense stress and adding,
"Because of the constant hypervigilance, anxiety,
"and fear I experience daily,
"I have trouble concentrating on even the smallest tasks,"
saying, "This has made it extremely difficult
"to secure regular employment.
"And as a result, I'm extremely financially vulnerable
"and have trouble meeting even my most basic needs of food
"and shelter."
With the women asking the court
to seal all identifying information
in the future proceedings
in order to try and stem the tide of harassment.
But for now on both fronts,
we're gonna have to wait to see what happens.
And then, Pennsylvanians can finally sleep tonight
because Danelo Cavalcante has finally been caught.
That 34-year-old convicted murderer
who was sentenced to life without parole last month
for killing his ex-girlfriend.
Then a week later escaping from prison by crab walking
up a wall and diving through razor wire.
And after a nearly two week long game of hide and seek
in Chester County,
state police this morning described how he was caught,
saying, first a burglar alarm went off at a home
within the search perimeter just past midnight.
And while no one ended up being found there,
it did bring a flood of cops to that area.
Then a helicopter picked up a heat signal
and began tracking it,
but poor weather soon forced the aircraft to fly away.
So tactical teams converged on the area,
securing it until weather cleared.
And then with a chopper watching for any attempt to escape,
the teams moved in and found Cavalcante,
with him, crawling through some underbrush to get away,
carrying his .22 rifle with him.
But the cops unleashed a dog on him.
It barreled forward, sinking its teeth into his flesh.
And you can see him soon after in cuffs
getting escorted away by several officers.
And thankfully, except for the bite wound,
no one else got hurt, no shots were fired.
And so that essentially brings us to the end,
though there is this other small controversy,
'cause you also have some people criticizing the officers
who were taking a photo op with Cavalcante positioned
in front of a line of cops, with one holding his arms,
another taking a knee and holding up his rifle in the air,
and some canines looking badass up in the front.
There when asked about it at a press briefing,
the lieutenant colonel defended the picture saying,
"Those men and women worked amazingly hard
"through some very trying circumstances.
"They're proud of their work."
And then, Ariana Grande is in the news,
and it's not because she helped break up a marriage,
which of course was the last time
she was making massive headlines.
But this time it was because she was
in a beauty secrets video from Vogue yesterday.
And there she dove into a very human conversation
about her complicated relationship with beauty.
And the part that seemed to have resonated
with a lot of people was her emotional discussion
about her previous use of Botox and lip fillers.
- For a long time, beauty was about hiding for me.
And now I feel like maybe it's not.
Since I stopped getting fillers and Botox,
and maybe I'll start again one day, I don't know,
to each their own.
Whatever makes you feel beautiful, I do support.
I know for me I was just like,
oh, I wanna see my well-earned cry lines and smile lines.
I hope my smile lines get deeper and deeper
and I laugh more and more.
And I just think aging is like such a,
it can be such a beautiful thing,
- With many coming out in droves supporting the video,
saying things like, "I'm so glad Ariana was honest
"about her getting lip fillers and Botox,
"and what she said about aging
"is what young women need to hear."
Saying, "She showed totally vulnerable transparency."
Saying, "She's so real for sharing that she had that done."
Others frustrated at the unreachable beauty standards
women are expected to maintain,
saying, "She's barely 30 years old.
"The fact that she was getting tons of Botox
"and lip fillers before even turning 30 is insanity."
Though depending on where you go on social media,
there were other people that were like,
"Hey, why are we even talking about this?"
And arguing that she shouldn't be getting all this praise
after the drama surrounding her relationship
with Ethan Slater.
Though for me personally, you know,
I think we can look at this as two different situations.
Like, you can feel whatever you wanna feel around Ariana
and her relationship and all that.
Like, I personally don't care.
Like, from what I've seen, it's fucked up,
but like it's not my life.
But then two, there is something interesting and eyeopening
about someone that does seem very beautiful talking
about how even for them
like their self-image is so messed up
and then the things that you might have to go through.
I think that can be beneficial.
But then the cynic in me is like,
yeah, but how much of this is a distraction
to get away from the other story, but whatever.
But hey, what are your thoughts on this?
And then unemployment needs to be higher
because workers have become too arrogant
and need to be put in their place.
That is literally what was argued during a summit
by millionaire Australian property developer, Tim Gurner,
who imagine just like woke up one day and was like,
"I already kind of look like one.
"Let's just fully lean into being
"an actual real life supervillain."
- I think the problem that we've had is that we've,
you know, we have...
People decided that they didn't really wanna work
so much anymore through COVID
and that has had a massive issue on productivity.
You know, tradies have definitely pulled back
on productivity.
You know, they have been paid a lot to do not too much
in the last few years.
And we need to see that change.
We need to see unemployment rise.
Unemployment has to jump 40-50% in my view.
We need to see pain in the economy.
We need to remind people that they work for the employer,
not the other way around.
I mean, there's been a systematic change
where employees feel the employer is extremely lucky
to have them as opposed to the other way around.
So it's a dynamic that has to change.
We've gotta kill that attitude
and that has to come through hurting the economy.
- Yeah, how dare workers think even for a second
that they provide any value to their employers.
Everyone knows that people are inherently worthless
if they aren't working, contributing to the economy,
especially the economy of my wallet.
So really they should be thanking the corporate overlords
because without them people wouldn't have any value.
Yeah, we need more pain and fear
to put people back in their places. (groans)
So unsurprisingly, that horrible fucking take
got a ton of backlash,
with one Australian member of parliament even writing,
"These are comments you'd associate
"with a cartoon supervillain,
"not the CEO of a company in 2023."
We even saw politicians
from other countries chiming in with that, including AOC,
who tweeted, "Reminder that major CEOs have skyrocketed
"their own pay so much that the ratio of CEO
"to worker pay is now at some of the highest levels
"ever recorded."
Others also noting this isn't the first time
that Gurner has shown the public
what an insanely outta touch idiot he is,
with this being the same man who went viral back in 2017
for literally saying that millennials will not be able
to afford their own houses
because they buy too much avocado toast.
Man, I'm not saying do it, but just the more he talks,
the more punchable his face looks.
Yeah, I guess just another unfortunate daily reminder
that just 'cause you have a lot of money,
it doesn't buy you class or decency
or even save you from being a fucking moron.
And then, for the past week, the world's been watching
to see if one American man can escape the depths
of the earth alive.
40-year-old veteran cave explorer, Mark Dickey,
co-led a team to map a new passage in the Morca Cave,
one of the deepest in southern Turkey.
But then 3,200 feet below the surface,
he suffered gastrointestinal bleeding
that left him frail and incapacitated,
with him saying he kept throwing up blood,
"and then my consciousness started to get harder
"to hold onto and I reached the point
"where I was like, 'I'm not gonna live.'"
But then on September 2nd,
news of his impending doom reached the surface,
and an international team of at least 200 aid workers
and cave experts launched a rescue operation.
And they reached him around the middle of last week
and began the slow, long ascent up a zigzagging path
higher than two Empire State buildings.
First, they put him on a stretcher since he can't climb,
and then they wrapped him up in a thermal blanket
since it's wet and cold, about 39 degrees Fahrenheit.
Then they began hauling him out.
But it was also far from simple.
Some passages were so tight they had to be widened
to fit the stretcher through.
And his condition worsened so much that at one point,
medics and rescuers had to give him a blood transfusion
down in the depths.
They were passing waterfalls, deep pits.
The cave even flooded
with over three feet of water at one point.
But then finally this week they maneuvered him
through the last few hundred feet of the cave,
sometimes struggling just to keep him level
during near vertical portions of the narrow climb.
And just past midnight local time,
a stretcher emerged from the final exit
carrying one very tired middle-aged man
with a huge grin on his face.
And that man telling reporters...
- It is amazing to be above ground again.
I was underground for far longer than ever expected
with an unexpected medical issue.
It's been one hell of a crazy, crazy adventure.
- With him now reportedly in the ICU at a nearby hospital,
and he's doing well.
And then, y'all, who hasn't felt the effects
of the cost of living in recent years?
And with credit cards, personal loans, medical bills,
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And then, are you or someone you know obsessed
with Taylor Swift?
Would either of you like that to somehow be a job
so maybe it feels less weird?
Well, baby, do I have good news for you?
Gannett, the largest newspaper chain in the United States,
just posted a job listing for a Taylor Swift reporter.
Though you might have to hide some of your idle worship
in the interview because they say that they're looking
for someone with a voice but not a bias,
as well as five years of experience
and the ability to satisfy people's undeniable thirst
for all things Taylor Swift.
With that position specifically writing for USA Today
and the Tennesseean, which is the paper in Nashville
where Swift began her career.
And this is kind of standout for a few reasons.
The first being, while it is normal for outlets
to employ music reporters or entertainment reporters,
it's just rare to see someone
who's beat is exclusively a single artist.
Though also in the case of Swift,
her cultural and economic importance is undeniably meteoric.
I mean, she broke Ticketmaster,
she caused an earthquake in Seattle,
she even grew the US economy,
and now her globe spanning Eras Tour
could bring in $1.4 billion or more in sales,
according to Pollstar, the highest in music history by far.
And all of that also boosting her entire body of work,
putting 10 albums on the Billboard 200 this year alone.
And then last night she took home nine trophies
from the MTV Video Music Awards,
which I just found out is still a thing that happens.
With all this leading the Times to conclude
that Swift has achieved a level of white-hot demand
and media saturation not seen since the 1980s heyday
of Michael Jackson and Madonna.
Or as Robert Thompson put it,
"You cannot be conscious in the United States
"without on some level having to come to grips
"with Taylor Swift."
But also with this there is some controversy and criticism,
with some critics arguing
not only has Swift's cultural dominance gone too far,
saying Swifties often see her
as this immovable cosmic force,
someone who's more than just human.
But also as we're seeing with this reporter job,
it arguably crowds over everything else
that doesn't have to do with Taylor Swift
or the entertainment industry.
Notably this is happening
as we've been watching investigative reporting jobs
in the local journalism industry
absolutely get wiped out for years now.
With one Tennessee reporter pointing out
that while Nashville's getting a Taylor Swift reporter,
Memphis has zero investigative journalists from Gannett.
And last December, Gannett cut about 6%
of its roughly 3,400 person US media division.
And so many fear that the media industry
is making this shift away from so-called real news
and reporting on matters that are kind of softer culture
and entertainment content,
things that generate clicks rather than, you know,
deep investigative pieces and things like corruption.
But also with this, you had Kristen Roberts,
Gannett's chief content officer,
defending the listing yesterday saying,
"The USA Today Network is committed to serving its readers
"with essential journalism," and that quote,
"includes providing our audience with content they crave."
But then you also had people seeming to turn it
into kind of a race thing with some arguing that
while Swift is worth paying attention to,
other stars are just as big like Beyonce
whose Renaissance album has resonated with Black
and LGBTQ people in particular.
And one music writer saying,
"I think the question that comes to mind for me
"is which fandoms
"and which moments of connection are taken more seriously.
"And Taylor Swift's fandom is very white.
"It's a lot of white women."
And then, have you ever taken a decongestant cold medicine
when you're sick and you're stuffed up and you thought like,
"This is not helping"?
Well, it turns out it's because it literally wasn't helping,
and that's not my opinion.
That is what an FDA advisory panel said yesterday,
ruling unanimously that a decongestant ingredient
used in many common over-the-counter cold meds
is totally ineffective,
with the ingredient in question being called phenylephrine,
and it's found in a ton of the most popular
brand name products Americans have been using for decades.
And this including versions of Sudafed, Tylenol, NyQuil,
Theraflu, Mucinex, and others.
In fact, according to the FDA,
the decongestant is used in at least 250 products
that were worth almost $1.8 billion
in sales last year alone.
But after reviewing more recent comprehensive studies,
the FDA panel determined
that the ingredient is basically useless and ineffective
as a decongestant when taken orally.
And the panel acknowledging this determination marks
a major change from the previous stance of the agency,
which notably affirmed the efficacy of this ingredient
as recently as 2007.
With that saying, it should be reclassified
and lose its status as safe and effective,
though it did still say that the product was safe.
Now as far as what happens from here,
the panel's decision isn't binding.
It's just a recommendation that the FDA now consider this
before making a final decision.
But the agency does usually follow the recommendations.
And if it does in this case,
it could result in many of the most popular products
being removed from stores entirely.
But also it could be a while
before we get a final determination.
And even then the process could be drawn out by lawsuits
and other pushback from drug companies
and their powerful lobbyists,
'cause of course that is what happens
when in a year you have $1.8 billion in sales.
And then, here's a concerning truth,
poverty in the US absolutely skyrocketed last year,
with a new report from the Census Bureau finding
that the poverty rate soared from 7.8% in 2021
to 12.4% in 2022.
And this notably as key COVID aid programs expired
and inflation rose to a 40 year high.
I mean, y'all, this is the biggest one year jump
ever recorded.
And the kids, they were the ones especially impacted,
with child poverty rates more than doubling
from a record low of 5.2% in 2021
to a whopping 12.4% the following year, which is horrifying.
More than one in every 10 American children
are living in poverty.
And these increases are especially stark
because they come after two years of major drops in poverty
that were mostly due
to the sweeping social safety net programs put in place
during the pandemic that including stimulus checks,
enhanced unemployment, and food benefits,
increased child tax credits, rental assistance, and more.
But when most of those benefits expired last year,
families were left to deal with it alone
as record high inflation drove up prices.
And while we knew things were gonna head in this direction,
we talked about it on the show,
to see firsthand the impact it's had is wild.
The increased cost of living
also drove up the poverty threshold,
which is determined by the cost of essential goods
such as food and housing.
And this also doesn't just hurt low income Americans.
Median household income also fell by 2.3% in 2022.
What's more, this whole situation could get even worse
as the very last few government relief programs wind down.
You know, 'cause student loan payments will resume again
next month for the first time in three years.
Also, another policy that's expired is one
that temporarily prevented Americans enrolled in Medicaid
from being dropped,
which was a move that plummeted the number
of uninsured Americans to a record low 7.9%.
And in just the few months
since the enrollment unwinding began,
at least 6.4 million people have had their coverage ended.
And then this fall funding for childcare providers
is set to expire, which could hurt many of the families
that are already the most impacted by all of this even more.
And so all of this is really fucking grim.
And this, as experts note that this Census Bureau report
is especially notable
because it really underscores how the government
really does have the ability
to lift so many people out poverty,
but it, or at least certain people in it,
just truly don't care.
With one expert explaining that the data tells a story
of what could have been, saying,
"The pandemic showed that we could stand up policies
"that could help families.
"These numbers underscore how much poverty
"is a policy choice."
And then, it's always weird to see two shitty people
that you don't like hanging out.
And that's what we're seeing
with this now long awaited meeting between Vladimir Putin
and Kim Jong-un finally happening.
There unsurprisingly, Kim voiced his support
for Russia's war in Ukraine saying,
"Russia has risen to a sacred fight for its sovereignty
"and security," and saying,
"North Korea supports all Putin's decisions."
The two also seem to have a twisted sense of irony
and called Russia's war a war against imperialism,
which is just fucking amazing considering the entire war
is about rebuilding a Russian empire.
With this, it's also believed that Putin's trying to secure
that one thing that North Korea actually has a fuck ton of,
weapons and munitions.
And sure they're all a bit dated at this point,
but they're on par
with how Russia's army is currently equipped,
and they'll likely need all that ammunition
if they wanna stop Ukraine from making any more advances.
Because while Ukraine's counteroffensive
has been underway all summer,
it finally is making some serious gains.
Now not necessarily in total area of territory,
but in key strategic regions such as in the east,
where they've captured a key town just a few miles away
from the outskirts of Donetsk, which is the capital
of one of its longtime breakaway regions.
And it hasn't just been successes on the front lines.
Over the past 24 hours, Ukraine has also managed
to launch a series of missile attacks
on Russian naval facilities in Crimea.
And that attack has reportedly damaged
a pretty large Russian submarine
as well as a key transport vessel
alongside possibly smaller boats,
not to mention actually damaging the facility itself.
However, that attack
has also highlighted another controversy
that's been going on lately,
Ukraine's relationship with Elon Musk and Starlink.
And that's because Starlink reportedly had an outage
shortly after the missile attacks began,
leading to more accusations that he may be helping Russia
because of his opposition to US involvement in Ukraine.
Now with that though, for his part,
Musk claimed that Starlink is never turned on
above territory controlled by Russia due to US sanctions
and saying that Ukraine can't just call US companies
in the middle of the night and demand changes,
especially when there's an outage like last night.
And also muddling the waters,
is that Starlink seems to have gone down platform wide,
not just over Ukraine.
Although notably the issue has since been resolved.
So for that, it kinda comes down to whether you believe
that Musk would tank his entire Starlink network
to make Ukraine's attacks on Russian facilities harder.
But I'll leave that part up to you.
And in the meantime we're gonna keep an eye on this story.
And then, let's talk about yesterday today,
'cause while we covered so many news stories
in that extra large show yesterday, there was one story
that just took over the comment section,
with that being the family that was held at gunpoint
while they were trying to save their dying dog.
You all just sounding off.
"Even with video proof,
"the police were lying through their teeth.
"I know I would rather believe
"in the family trying to save their dog."
"My heart goes out to the family of Stella.
"You can see how much they loved her
"and that cop can rot in hell."
People saying the cops escalated the situation.
Some saying, "I hope that the family's able
"to sue the police department."
Saying, "They were made to watch their dog die
"because of a heartless excuse of a human
"that shouldn't be on the police force."
Many of you expressing rage and sadness.
And while many were shocked by the story and video,
a lot of people said, you know, this is a known thing.
Saying, "New Mexico native here.
"This is not a surprise.
"Growing up we made jokes as kids
"that you don't worry about bad people killing you.
"The cops will."
Many calling for people to be fired,
for there to be police reform,
saying this is a fantastic example
of why every officer needs body cams on at all times.
But also there were some of you
who didn't really have sympathy for the family,
or at the very least the dad.
Writing things like,
"Leopards ate my face moment for that dude and the dog.
"He went and posted, 'I back the blue.
"'I teach my son to back the blue.
"'And that if you just listen, follow directions,
"'and do what the cop says,
"'that nothing like this would ever happen,
"'but it happened to me.'
"Like, yeah, dude, that's what the fuck we've been saying,
"that cops will do this shit even if you comply."
And that is where today's dive into the news is gonna end.
But for more news you need to know, I got you covered here.
You can click or tap or I got links in the description.
Also, maybe grab yourself a bag of Wake and Make Coffee.
You can click or tap there
or in those links in the description.
But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been filled in.
I love yo faces,
and I'll see you right back here for more news tomorrow.