- We've got PewDiePie in the news,
but it's for good reasons this time.
I'm tired of this Grammy's drama.
A YouTuber's fake livestream
may be the key piece of evidence in a murder case.
What really happened with the Chinese spy balloon?
I'm gonna break all that down for you today
in today's brand new "Philip DeFranco Show".
But first, big news.
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With that said, buckle up and let's just jump into it.
Starting with a massive news about a YouTuber
at the center of a murder case.
First, so back in December,
32-year-old Natalie McNally,
a woman that was 15-weeks pregnant
was stabbed to death inside of her home in Northern Ireland.
And right off the bat,
police aim their sights on Stephen McCullagh.
He's a part-time assistant editor
for the Belfast Telegraph,
and more importantly to this story,
he's a YouTube streamer with over 30,000 subscribers.
So we see him arrested in the wake of this murder,
but then he's ruled out as a suspect
because as he explains,
he was livestreaming the night that it happened.
So that's it, right?
Hands are clean, done deal with him.
Except no, not at all,
because as it turns out that livestream
was pre-recorded days earlier,
even though he had tried to make it appear live
to his audience.
- What we're doing tonight?
Well, because this streaming software
is kind of up to the left,
it means I can't check the live chat.
I couldn't use my phone to depth in
every now and again and check it,
but I've decided that I kinda hit livestreams
where people just sit and read comments and go,
"Oh my God, friends!
Ask me a question."
- And so now, McCullagh's new alibi
is that he was just home drinking alone and he fell asleep.
But some other evidence, ah says no, that's not the case.
Like the detectives claim that they can track his movements
from the murder scene back to his home
using CCTV footage from a bus
in the account of a taxi driver.
With McCullagh allegedly shown wearing a yellow glove
under a black glove while handing change to the driver,
which looks really bad for him
since the print of a yellow cleaning glove
was found in some blood at the scene.
He also allegedly kept in contact with the McNally family
during the weeks that followed,
even leaving his phone in their residence
and recording 40 minutes of audio
to discreetly see if they suspected him
of committing the murder.
All of which really putting this specific moment
from a so-called livestream in a new light.
- So a lot of sticking to just doing crimes in a video game
keeps things simple, mate.
- And that's without mentioning this may be intentional,
maybe not intentional flob.
- Abso (beeps) Natalie.
Hmm, abso (beeps) Natalie.
- And so now, McCullagh's been charged with murder
and people are outraged,
not just at him in this specific case,
but also violence against women in general
with the National Women's Council organizing a rally
where hundreds of locals showed up.
So we're obviously gonna keep our eyes on this.
I'll keep you up to date,
but just wild news.
And then, my own mental health,
I wanted to have just one story that was just positive.
That's it.
There's a lot of bad today
ranging from kind of inconsequential
to just absolutely horrific,
which is why I want, even if it's just a quickie,
to mention PewDiePie.
Felix, of course, previously
the biggest YouTuber in the world,
still one of the most massive in the world.
And in recent years he's been kind of
undergoing an evolution,
focusing more on his own life, his relationships
rather than just content, content, content.
And over the weekend he announced
that he and his wife Marzia are having a baby.
And so one, obviously, congratulations to them, good luck.
But also, two, I appreciated this story
because it allowed me to view something that I think we have
from a different viewpoint.
Because even though I'm not an every video
avid viewer of PewDiePie,
he's been one of the few constants in my life.
Every now and then I go on a bit of a binge.
You see the changes in a person
and it gives me a different appreciation and insight
into something that happens often.
Like, I'll bump into someone that's watched a show
for a really long time.
Something that'll come up is that like
it feels like we've kind of grown up together.
Because even though we get new people
joining the family every single day,
I mean, there are a lot of people who've been watching me.
They're 15, 16, however many years we've been doing this
and over that time period we've been different people.
Like a lot of people came on board
when I was (blows raspberry)
cringey, edge lord, fuck face DeFranco,
all the way to now of a husband, dad,
don't just say fucking stupid bullshit for the shock value
and actually try to understand
where people are coming from DeFranco.
And I think being on that ride with someone
and seeing those evolutions,
it can make you more kind of like understanding of people.
Maybe even give them some more grace to grow.
And I kind of feel that with Felix.
Like, you know, there was let's-play Felix,
there's drama Felix, or rather Gloria Borger.
Borger? It's been a while.
And now there's talk about Aristotle
and move to Japan to get away
and gonna be a dad PewDiePie.
And so all that to say,
I understand why this ended up becoming such a big story
that it was on CNN.
Even though the fact that CNN covered it
did throw me off for a second.
Yeah, main things, once again,
good luck, congrats.
And for everyone else, we're going back into the suck.
And then the Grammys,
which I found out is an award show that still happens,
happened again last night.
And there's a lot of like love and praise,
and also a lot of anger
with the bulk of it centering around Beyonce
and in connection, Harry Styles.
Because as you might have seen this morning,
there are a lot of conflicting headlines
where you have stuff like,
Beyonce is the Queen of the Grammy.
She just set the record for the most Grammy wins ever.
But then you see headlines and people shouting
that Beyonce was snubbed and screwed over by the Grammys.
So the big question is, well,
how the hell can both of those things be true?
Well, it's worth noting that there are roughly
1 trillion categories at the Grammys.
And for the most part when it comes to music,
the most prestigious, competitive, and coveted ones
are actually a select few: Song, Record,
and Album of the Year.
And out of the 32 Grammys that Beyonce has,
only one is for one of those top categories,
which goes all the way back to "Single Ladies"
winning Song of the Year.
And then the vast majority of her wins
coming from genre categories like R&B.
And so it's been long said by fans
that it's absolutely wild that she's never won
Album or Record of the Year,
especially when you compare her to other artists
like Taylor Swift, who out of 12 Grammy wins
has won Album of the Year three times.
But people this year said,
"Hey, time for the curse to break.
"Renaissance" is gonna get that top award,"
going into the night is kind of the favorite.
While she did pick up some Grammys,
she was shot outta the top awards yet again
with "Harry's House" by Harry Styles
getting Album of the Year over her.
And during Harry's speech,
you can even hear someone in the audience
shouting Beyonce's name.
- I've been so, so inspired
by every artist in this category with me at-
- [Audience Member] Beyonce!
- And online, you had people tweeting things like,
"Beyonce represents every Black woman
that is constantly applauded for their work,
but when it comes to promotion time
their white colleague gets it instead."
With tons of people accusing the Grammys of racial bias
and of snobbing Black women,
because every time she's lost Album of the Year
it's gone to a white person.
With more saying, "'Renaissance' not winning
Album of the Year is another example
of how Black women can consistently deliver excellence,
reinvent the wheel and shake culture,
and still not be recognized
to the extent that she deserves."
A number of people online also getting angry at Harry
for saying that, "This doesn't happen to people like me,"
during his speech.
But there you saw many people defending Harry
saying he was trying to refer to his very normal upbringing
in a normal, totally non-Hollywood adjacent town.
But for me, it comes down to, (blows raspberry)
in 2023, it feels weird to bring up and quote Kanye West.
You know, he very much was of the mindset of,
"fuck the Grammys."
Same as hell, even Eminem back in the day
noting that a bunch of these award shows are bullshit.
The dangling carrots in front of a bunch of entertainers
who, of course, yes, want public acceptance.
And because these award shows
are so long standing and established,
you feel like yes, they matter.
They honestly matter so fucking little
compared to all the fans.
That's the only validation that truly matters.
And all this random bullshit that's happening,
it just puts fandoms against one another for no reason.
Because guess what?
If you think Harry Styles' album was better than Beyonce's,
it was.
And if you think Beyonce's album
was better than Harry Styles,
it was.
Perception's reality.
I don't even know who's voting
in most of these award shows.
So it's part of the reason why I don't care.
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And then, a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake
hit Southern Turkey and Northern Syria last night.
We're talking the largest in the area since 1939.
And on top of that, as is often the case with earthquakes,
there have been major aftershocks ever since.
In total, at least 2600 people have died
with about two-thirds of those occurring in Turkey.
And sadly, that death toll is very much expected to rise
as more and more bodies are being found within rubble.
And on the note of rising death tolls,
even as we were getting this show out,
the WHO's now expecting the death toll to rise
into the 20,000 range,
which would make this one of the deadliest quakes
ever in the region.
And it's a lot of rubble.
The quakes have managed to topple over 4200 buildings
including some historic ones.
And the fact that so many buildings fell here,
it really underlines how strong this quake was.
'Cause unlike some places in the world
where you see damage like this,
Turkey is no stranger to earthquakes.
They have building codes that are supposed to help
with earthquake resilience.
It's also important to note that the relative strength
of an earthquake can differ dramatically
depending on a ton of factors,
such as how shallow the quake was.
Like with this earthquake,
it was just about 15 miles deep,
which is actually a very shallow earthquake.
Which is a key thing here
because it makes it feel that much stronger on the surface.
And to make matters even worse,
some of the regions that are already struggling
with aftershocks are also struggling
with severe weather warnings.
So on top of the devastation we're already seeing
there's an expectation for there to be freezing temperatures
and extreme winds, both of which are expected
to hinder rescue efforts.
Which on the note of those efforts,
a ton of countries have promised
to send rescue workers and aid packages.
Turkey graciously accepting those offers,
although they notably declined an offer from Elon Musk
to send Starlink to the area,
with an unnamed official saying they already
had enough satellite capabilities.
However, the rescue efforts that we're seeing in Syria
are likely to be far more complicated.
The region there that was hit
already has 4.1 million people who depend
on humanitarian aid due to the ongoing civil war.
Making matters even more complicated,
many nations that have promised aid to Turkey,
such as Russia and the US
have been actively involved over the last decade
supporting one side of the civil war over the other.
So actually getting aid to where people need it
might be hard.
And keep in mind, due to the nature of this whole situation
there is likely gonna be a ton of updates
between when I record this and when you see it,
and then even a day after.
But, if you can and want to help rescue efforts,
I'm gonna link to organizations down below
that are on the ground helping.
And then, who could have imagined that one
of the biggest international scandals of the year
would involve a balloon.
The great Chinese spy balloon of 2023.
This dominated headlines over the weekend
and it may actually matter more than you realize.
So let's break it down from what you may have heard
to what you might not realize.
We now know that the Chinese balloon
first entered US Aerospace over Alaska on Saturday,
January 28th.
The military's North American Aerospace Defense commander,
NORAD, closely then tracks the balloon,
which then travels into Canadian aerospace by January 30th.
But then the balloon surprises US officials
by traveling back into the US over Idaho
on Tuesday, January 31st.
At this point, President Biden is alerted
and asked for options on how to respond,
including by shooting it down,
also ordering that steps be taken to ensure
that it doesn't collect sensitive information
or communications from sites on the ground.
But then, when things start to get really messy
is the next day when the balloon makes its way over Montana.
Because not only does it fly
near the Malmstrom Air Force Base,
which houses several nuclear missile silos,
but it also gets spotted and recorded by civilians
who have no idea what the hell this is.
So the Billings Logan International Airport
temporarily shuts down, it grounds flights for a few hours.
It's also at this point,
the top military officials gather to discuss
how to handle it.
Though they ultimately advise
against shooting down the balloon,
which is the size of three buses,
saying it could scatter debris that could harm
civilians and infrastructure.
So Biden instructs 'em to figure out how to shoot it down
once it's over US waters
and can be taken down in a way that's safe
and allows the US to recover its parts to study.
It's not until Thursday, February 2nd,
that the Pentagon officially tells the public
that it has been tracking what it believes to be
a surveillance balloon flying over the US
for the last few days,
with a senior defense official telling Pentagon reporters
that the US has very high confidence
that the balloon was intentionally flying
over sensitive sites to collect information.
Though they're saying that the government has assessed
that the balloon has limited additive value
in terms of collecting intelligence
that China couldn't get from other means,
things like spy satellites,
but adding that officials are still taking actions
to protect against foreign intelligence collection
of sensitive information.
The Pentagon Press Secretary also adding
that the balloon was traveling at an altitude
well above commercial air traffic
and does not present a military or physical threat
to people on the ground.
Well, you had government officials explaining
why it's best not to just shoot it down,
it could pose a threat to civilians.
We still saw tons of Republicans condemning this approach.
Many calling on Biden to just shoot the fucker down,
including Trump.
You also had some of the biggest idiots in Congress
like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar,
really, God, I wish it was just a joke,
encouraging Americans to just try
and shoot down the balloon themselves.
So there, you actually had police in multiple states
where the balloon was flying over
just saying, "Please, fuck, please don't.
Please do not shoot at the balloon.
It's not gonna hit it.
It's tens of thousands of feet up there
and what you're shooting is gonna come down."
But that takes us to Friday, February 3rd,
where we saw China publicly addressing the balloon
for the first time.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry claiming
that this was just a weather balloon
that had strayed beyond its intended course into the US
due to the influence of westerly winds
and its limited control capacity.
And adding, "China regrets that the airship
strayed into the United States by mistake",
which is very notable
because I don't know the last time
that China apologized for anything.
But, we saw US officials rejecting that characterization,
insisting that this aircraft was a spy balloon,
with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken
calling it a clear violation
of US sovereignty and international law.
And this is an absolutely key thing here.
On Friday, Blinken announced last minute
that he was gonna be canceling
his first official trip to China,
with him actually set to leave that night.
Which, I mean, that is a huge deal
and a major snub to China,
who then tried to downplay the decision
claiming the US and China had never announced the visit
and accusing politicians in the media
of having hyped the situation to smear China.
But the reason this is such a key thing
is like, this whole meeting that they were gonna have,
the hope and intent of it was to calm things down.
So if something like this happened
that it wouldn't like escalate things.
But with all that said, going back to the balloon
as far as what happened to it,
on Saturday, the most American thing happened to it.
We shot it up.
After traveling over north in South Carolina
and prompting some flights to be paused,
the balloon finally left the coast
and the military sent two F-22 fighter jets after it,
with one of them successfully firing an air-to-air missile
downing the balloon, which at the time
was flying between 60,000 and 65,000 feet.
And with this, we saw many Americans cheering this move
and applauding Biden's successful takedown.
Though China, of course, was super fucking pissed.
With the Chinese Foreign Ministry issuing a statement
arguing that it was actually the US, not China,
that was in the wrong for shooting down a spy balloon
that was in its aerospace.
And saying that what America did here
was clearly an excessive reaction.
And even seeming to imply
that they could retaliate militarily saying
that it retains the right to respond further.
And then, at the same time,
you had lots of Republicans complaining that Biden
didn't shoot the balloon down earlier,
despite, once again, the risk to civilians,
calling it embarrassing, claiming it showed weakness.
But, regardless of opinions here,
lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said
that they'll investigate the situation,
the Biden administration's response,
and how to prevent this from happening again.
Also, with this news, one of the big questions is,
is this the first time this has happened?
Has it happened in the past?
And actually with that, you had a senior defense official
saying that Chinese balloon suspected
of surveillance activities had answered the US airspace
at least three times during the Trump administration
and once during Biden's.
But also saying this time was different
because a balloon was in the US for so damn long
and traveled over so much of the country,
including key military sites.
Now also, notably here, you had numerous Trump officials
denying ever being briefed on that matter.
Trump himself claiming to Fox News,
"This never happened.
It would have never happened."
So of course, when it comes to Trump
and what he says is true or not,
you can't always count on that
is the nicest way I can respond.
But also, there's been a conversation of, you know,
are there often surveillance infractions like this
and defense leaders don't kind of update the top officials
every single time something happens,
especially because this isn't something
that's just limited to the US, right?
That same senior defense official
who spoke about the US incursions
also told reporters, "Over the past several years,
Chinese balloons have previously been spotted
over countries across five continents,
including East Asia, South Asia, and Europe."
And I mean, literally, while this whole thing
was going down, US authorities confirmed
there was another suspected Chinese surveillance balloon
hanging over Latin America,
with Washington Post reporting that officials say
there's likely a third operating elsewhere.
And in fact, just today,
a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed to CNN
that the balloon was indeed Chinese,
but claimed that it was just a balloon used for flight tests
that seriously deviated from its planned courses
and entered the skies over Latin America by mistake
because of weather and China's limited ability
to control it.
But, as far as what happens next here,
US officials hope to learn more about the balloon
as they recover debris to study it.
And I mean, just as I was recording today
we saw it being reported now that a top official said
that the balloon weighed in excess
of a couple of thousand pounds
and potentially carried explosives to detonate
and destroy the balloon.
But ultimately, that's where we are.
We'll obviously pay attention to this
to see what else we learned.
You know, for many, there is a question in the air of,
you know, is China being honest?
Did they accidentally not keep their big old balls
to themselves?
Or were they trying to spy?
Or were they intentionally trying to sabotage
diplomatic relations ahead of their meeting?
Because remember, this would've been the first time
a US Secretary of State visited the country in years,
a visit that was set to happen as tensions
between the US and China have continued to rise
and the Biden administration moving to crack down on China
and expand military presence in the region.
So, yeah, with all of that, what are your thoughts?
Let me know in those comments.
And that is where we're gonna end today's show.
Hopefully we made the news
a little more consumable for you today.
But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco.
You've just been filled in.
I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.