- It's today again.
So let's talk about the news, starting with...
We need to talk about Monday's horrific mass shooting
at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee
because among other things,
we now have a more detailed timeline
of what exactly happened.
Beginning with a message the shooter reportedly sent
to a childhood friend on Instagram at 9:57 AM
announcing their intent to commit suicide.
With the friend reportedly trying to comfort the shooter
and even reaching out to a suicide prevention hotline,
but it was too late because by 10:13,
the shooter had broken a side window at the school
and crawled inside, prompting the first 911 call.
With the officers then arriving at the scene at 10:24.
Body camera footage showing five of them
clearing the first floor, hearing gunshots upstairs,
and then moving up to confront the shooter.
Then finally at 10:27, 14 minutes after the first call
and just a few minutes after entering the school,
officers killed the shooter.
With the police response here instantly being contrasted
to the complete failure at Uvalde
where dearly 400 officers stood around
for over an hour while kids were bleeding to death inside,
which is why we're seeing the cops this week
being lauded as heroes.
Though heartbreakingly, even though they took swift action,
there were six victims.
Six, who we now know included three nine-year-old students
and three adults, a teacher, a custodian,
and the head of the school.
And as for the shooter, we now know they were
a 28-year-old former student at Covenant
and that the police chief said that they were
under a doctor's care for an emotional disorder,
adding that they legally purchased seven firearms
from five different local gun stores,
three of which they used in the massacre.
And while the official motive is currently unknown,
detectives suggested that there may have been
some resentment at having to attend that school.
With the police saying they're looking
into a manifesto the shooter left behind
which includes a detailed hand-drawn map of the school.
But one of the most explosive and attached-onto details
that's come out of all this is the shooter apparently
self-identified as transgender.
With the police saying media initially
identified them as female,
but in fact, they used he/him pronouns.
But the fact that the shooter is trans has divided people,
some saying this is business as usual, which
just that sentence is heartbreaking,
that this is so normal and standard in the United States.
We're like, "Yes, it's yet another shooting.
It's the guns that's the problem."
Then on the other side, you have people saying,
"No, this is a mental health and trans problem."
With the likes of Donald Trump Jr. lamenting the, quote,
"incredible rise of trans/non-binary mass shooters
in the last few years."
Charlie Kirk saying, "Instead of banning assault rifles,
we should ban gender affirming care for kids."
As well as Marjorie Taylor Greene
and Laura Ingraham suggesting hormones
or medication for mental illness were factors.
Although officially, we have no info
on what drugs the shooter was taking.
Greene also ended up actually getting suspended
by Twitter for claiming Antifa was organizing
a Trans Day of Vengeance,
which, I mean, is one of the biggest talking points
we've seen from a lot of those people,
that this is a trans shooter targeting a Christian school.
With the hashtag TransTerrorism even trending on Twitter.
And Tucker Carlson taking the you versus them nastiness
to the absolute extreme.
- The trans movement is the mirror image of Christianity
and therefore, its natural enemy.
The trans movement is targeting Christians
including with violence.
- Though on that specific note, you had people saying
the anti-trans discrimination does not help the matter.
With people pointing to depression, anxiety, PTSD,
and suicidality that trans people frequently suffer
due to a lack of acceptance from family and society.
As well as one source telling the "Daily Mail"
that the shooter was reportedly at odds
with his devout Christian parents.
But then, you have others arguing that the fact
that this is a trans shooter is a distraction,
saying this is a gun issue.
With a number of people including the likes
of political commentator Hasan Piker tweeting,
"Over the past five years, 2,840 plus mass shootings
have occurred in the US.
Three of those shooters have been trans.
Guns are the number one killer of children one to 18,
and the right are salivating over a school shooter
being trans to deflect away from the main issue,
ease of access to weapons."
As well as one clinician adding,
"When hundreds of white men commit mass shootings,
it's a societal problem,
but when one trans person commits a mass shooting,
it's a trans problem.
The actual problem is that this country is unable
to do anything at all to stop gun violence,"
which regarding that, the laws, the politicians.
Democrats like Joe Biden are calling
for stricter gun laws, including an assault weapons ban,
but Republicans have kind of just scoffed
at that suggestion.
Instead, putting forth all the usual arguments
that this is a mental health problem,
that freedom is more important,
that the school should've just had security.
With Tennessee lawmaker Tim Burchett claiming,
"Laws don't work to curb gun violence,"
and saying, "We want to legislate evil,
it's just not gonna happen."
And then, there was a lot of attention on Andrew Tate today
because there was a lot of online chatter,
a number of supporters saying,
"Hey, this time his appeal,
it feels like it's gonna be different.
It feels like he may actually get out of Romanian custody."
And as far as the reason,
you had some pointing to the Tate brothers' attorney
claiming that the US Embassy in Romania
has taken an interest in their case.
Though, that remains, right now, unconfirmed.
But the big update today is that, yes,
it was a different day,
but it was the same shit,
with Andrew Tate losing yet another appeal for bail
and having to remain in Romanian prison.
So you have Andrew Tate, his brother Tristan,
and the two women still detained.
And so with this news today,
it means that Andrew Tate will remain in custody
until at least April 21st.
And these dates are becoming more and more significant
because remember, this is the fourth 30-day extension.
They were arrested back in December,
and they can continue to be detained
but only for so long because if nothing changes,
the latest these extensions can go is
through the end of June.
Because remember, while they were arrested
as part of a rape, human trafficking,
and organized crime investigation,
they have not been charged with anything yet.
So for now, we're gonna have to wait
to see if that changes anytime soon.
And then in entertainment news, we've got big updates
and accusations regarding that whole Creator Clash mess
we talked about earlier this week.
So where we had left off was creator and fighter
Froggy Fresh had been dropped from the card.
And for many, this seemed like an abrupt move
by the organizers of the event.
There was some backlash and speculation,
some wondering if this had something to do
with Froggy Fresh's beef with iDubbbz's wife Anisa
and her mom.
With people, of course, wanting to know more details
and specifics here, all of which seemingly leading
to Creator Clash releasing another statement last night
saying, "We want to provide some additional information
around the rationale for this decision
to help clarify some of the online chatter,"
and saying, "We have a legally-binding code of conduct
that each of our Creator Clash 2 fighters are held to,
the violation of which is grounds for termination."
And adding, "Unfortunately, there were
several violations made by Froggy Fresh
during his tenure with Creator Clash this year,"
and then going on to claim they
"made several unsuccessful attempts
to address them directly with Froggy Fresh
in the hopes we could work together
to get things back on track."
And adding, "When it became clear that
the exhibited behavior wasn't stopping
at risk to the other fighters, fans,
and others involved in the event,
the Creator Clash 2 team made the collective decision
to move forward without Froggy Fresh on the ticket."
Also, regarding the money being donated
to Froggy Fresh's charity or not, they went on to say,
"Creator Clash and iDubbbz have already donated $50,000
for each of Froggy Fresh's supported charities,
Kids Cancer Foundation and Nicklaus Children's Hospital
for a total of $100,000,"
and saying, "They will also remain beneficiaries
of money raised throughout the event itself."
And closing, "The fighters have all been working so hard
and can't wait to get into the ring.
Let's focus on their fights,
not any that may exist online."
But with all this, we saw Froggy Fresh shooting back
in statements of his own in a series of tweets asking,
"Who tried to reach out to me several times
and what are the several violations?"
And then asking if this had to do with his ties to Sam Hyde,
who's a highly controversial personality.
With some, including the likes of Hasan Piker,
describing him as an anti-Semitic troll
and an alt-right Nazi.
- [Fan] Are you ever gonna accept Sam Hyde's fight offer?
- What?
Dude, no.
Why are you fucking talking to me
about some dumb ass fuckin'
weirdo Nazi? - It's just one question.
- What's wrong with you?
- Others also pointing to and sharing clips online,
saying that there's history regarding what he has said
about Anisa in the past.
- So, fuck you, bitch.
Hoe.
Slut.
Fuckin' slut.
Ugly slut.
There's nothin' worse than a slut who's ugly.
I'll bust your teeth out, bitch.
- And Froggy adding,
"Are you talking about when Ian called me
the third time ever, 15 minutes after Sam Hyde retweeted me?
To investigate my friendship with Sam Hyde
and then asking that I don't release any content
with Sam Hyde until after the event.
Haven't released any Sam Hyde content.
Still kicked?"
Froggy Fresh also saying that he always responded
to messages from Justin Tracey,
who outlets like Dexerto identified
as a member of staff.
With him then doubling down and reiterating,
"I was never given any notice of violations.
I got one email minutes before you went public
about my termination.
Justin Tracey called me while I was
in Providence working with Sam.
I asked that he could text or email me
as I was busy training with Sam.
He never texted or emailed."
With him then later claiming one
of the biggest things here,
that he had been threatened with a lawsuit
for speaking about this,
saying, "The threat of being pursued legally
unless I remain quiet and let them tarnish my reputation
to where no one else would want to work with me
for misconduct is rough.
I appreciate the donation to the charities I submitted
and continuing to keep donations coming into them.
I don't want CC2 to fail.
I would rather we just walk away amicably
where I'm not threatened."
Though on that front, we saw another creator
by the name of Mutahar say he would actually cover
the expenses that Froggy Fresh would incur here,
saying, "Threatening litigation like this kinda worries me.
But I hate it when smaller creators have
to face any legal crap, it ruins lives.
I'm down to cover it all, no need for GoFundMes.
I just want this to be resolved,
I want a successful event at the end of the day."
But ultimately, that's where we are
with this story right now.
And I don't know if it ends here,
and it just kind of lingers
or if there will be further updates.
I sent out a request for comment to Ian to see, you know,
are the lawsuit allegations correct?
Has a lawsuit actually been threatened?
With what Froggy Fresh is saying, like,
is there any validity to that?
But in the meantime, let me know your thoughts on this.
And then, we live in a world right now
where there are a lot of people telling Elon Musk
to go fuck himself 'cause he wants, like,
seven or $8 from 'em.
There are also, apparently, people that are willing
to give him $100,000,
and I don't mean the Saudis helping him buy Twitter.
Rather, I'm talking about people like this principal
at a high-end charter school in Florida who turned
in a resignation to the school board last night,
and that, because she sent a check for $100,000
of school funds to a scammer posing as Elon Musk.
To make matters worse and even more embarrassing,
the principal had reportedly been speaking with this person
for months despite the repeated warnings
from her staff that it was a scam.
But for her, the offer was too appealing,
with "Elon" promising to invest millions
of dollars back into the school with just
a small upfront cost on their part.
Now, here's the good news, while she did send the money,
the school's business administrator noticed
and was able to cancel the check before it was cashed.
Though, everything did bring us to last night
when many of the staff of the school threatened
to quit if she stayed,
saying that even outside of this incident,
she has created a toxic work environment.
In business news,
we need to slow it down with the fuckin' robots.
- I'm fast as fuck, boy.
- That is what 1,100 top technology experts are saying
about AI right now.
With a warning coming as an open letter signed
by the likes of Elon Musk, very nice of him
to take a break from ruining Twitter to sign this.
Also, Steve Wozniak and asking "all AI labs
to immediately pause for at least six months,"
and going on to warn that these AI are becoming as good,
if not better, than humans in many tasks.
And went to ask, "Should we let machines flood
our information channels with propaganda and untruth?
Should we automate away all the jobs,
including the fulfilling ones?
Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually
outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?"
And also warning that the answers for these questions
should not come from the people building the AIs right now,
as they're currently locked in an AI arms race
to build even more powerful machines
without considering the implications.
Now for their part, AI firms like OpenAI have said
that they have considered all these implications
and spend upwards of six months ensuring the safety
of their AIs before launching.
But with that, you have people saying,
"Okay, it's great that you're trying to mitigate
the risk of Skynet, but rather, what about the more
down-to-earth things such as how our society is structured?"
I mean, recently we've seen the likes of Goldman Sachs
warning that hundreds of millions of jobs worldwide are
on the verge of becoming obsolete with just the AI tech
that we've seen right now.
Because remember, 'cause I'll continue
to beat this dead horse on camera for you,
the state of AI today is the worst
it will ever be ever again.
And while initially, as someone that's been kind of
fuckin' around with it a little bit,
it's like a really helpful tool.
It really does seem all but inevitable
that the human element just slows things down.
Though, if anything, all of this could also be used
as an argument for why we're gonna need
universal basic income.
What happens in a world where humans don't have
to do something to survive?
Like, I understand we're talking about the prospect
of society at its core (sound glitching)
changing in a way that it's never (sound glitching)
really changed before.
Like, throughout history, (sound glitching)
we are standing and looking (sound glitching)
out from the edge of a cliff right now.
And then, long-time viewers of the PDS know
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And then, this is Lynda Bluestein.
She's a 74-year-old grandmother from Connecticut.
She's married with two kids, 45 and 47,
and she has several grandchildren.
But she's also facing her third bout of cancer,
diagnosed with late-stage fallopian tube cancer
two years ago.
She's also currently undergoing chemotherapy,
but she's also looking into her options
in case the chemo stops working,
with her specifically looking at Vermont's
Patient Choice at End of Life Act,
which allows patients to administer a lethal dose
of medication with medical assistance.
But not just anyone gets access to this.
Vermont requires the patient to be at least 18 years old
with a terminal condition,
have a prognosis of less than six months to live.
Also, they need to have the ability
to self-administer the medication.
But also, another key requirement
is that you must be a resident of Vermont to qualify.
And as a resident of Connecticut,
Lynda wasn't able to access the procedure,
so she was prepared to move to Vermont
away from her family if necessary.
But then, Compassion & Choices, an advocacy group
for expanding access to end-of-life medication,
helped Lynda file a lawsuit,
with her main argument being that the residency requirement
is actually unconstitutional.
And a senior staff attorney with the group saying,
"To my knowledge, other than what is happening right now
with abortion, there are no other medical procedures
that are limited to people on the basis of their residency,"
and arguing, "It's just unfair,
and it doesn't really make sense to restrict
some sort of medical practice just based
on ZIP code or residency."
What we ended up seeing was actually surprising.
The state ended up settling,
waiving the requirement for Lynda should she decide
to pursue the procedure.
But also, the even bigger news connected
to this story is it doesn't appear
that the state is going to stop with Lynda,
with them now reportedly considering doing
away with the residency requirement altogether,
which would be a pretty big deal because of the 10 states
and DC that allow some patients with terminal illnesses
to seek end-of-life medication,
Oregon's the only one that doesn't have
a residency requirement.
And even that change only happened last year
because of a lawsuit.
And so in Vermont specifically,
the House actually passed an amendment
to remove the residency requirement.
It's currently in the Senate.
So we're gonna have to see what happens there,
but also, notably, not everyone's on board.
There's some that argue that it isn't a medical procedure
at all, with the director of the Robert Powell Center
for Medical Ethics saying,
"This is a medical professional abandoning their patient
and giving them the tools to end their life."
And that's in addition to other major opponents,
including disability rights activists,
with them citing the concern that this could highlight
or even exacerbate the inequities in our healthcare system.
And one saying, "There's just no place for it,
especially when we have such a long history
of racial disparities in healthcare
and disability discrimination in healthcare."
But with all that said, going back to Lynda,
should her chemo stop working,
she says that she plans on ending the treatment altogether.
With that then making her eligible for hospice,
and that's when she would pursue the procedure in Vermont.
With her planning on spending her last day surrounded
by family and going through 50 years of photographs together
and sharing memories.
With all that, I wanna pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts here?
Because as far as me when it comes
to end-of-life medication, especially if someone's terminal,
I'm personally on board.
I do think that, of course, there do need
to be restrictions and safety nets.
But if you've ever seen a terminal person
and their quality of life is, it's just,
they're just living in pain,
it seems a horrendous and maybe even accidentally evil thing
to force them to live with it,
even with how scary and heartbreaking the prospect
of ending a life is.
And then, the FDA just approved
an over-the-counter overdose antidote.
The opioid epidemic has resulted in hundreds of thousands
of deaths by overdose.
With more than 106,000 people dying
from an opioid overdose in 2021 alone.
And now, Narcan, the nasal spray version of naloxone,
which reverses overdoses,
was just approved by the FDA to be sold
over the counter without a prescription.
With the FDA saying in a statement regarding the decision
that the choice was made in order to improve access
to naloxone and reduce the number of opioid overdose deaths.
But there are also some concerns here.
Pharmacies were already allowed to distribute Narcan
to anyone who requested it under law,
and the cost for Narcan was free for those with Medicaid
or private insurance with maybe a co-pay of $10.
But many public and private insurance agencies do not cover
most over-the-counter drugs,
meaning that people have to pay higher prices for Narcan,
thus making it less accessible than the FDA intends.
Though, the FDA did acknowledge this concern,
with the FDA in their statement pushing other producers
of prescription versions of naloxone to apply
for over-the-counter approval in order
to make the prices competitive.
But whatever the price point ends up being,
by the end of summer, Narcan will be widely available
in grocery stores, gas stations,
and all sorts of other establishments.
And in international news,
UK's Intelligence Service just hiked up the terror threat
in Northern Ireland to severe.
That is the second highest ranking
and means an attack is very likely.
And according to Northern Ireland's Secretary,
the reason for the terror level increase was because,
quote, "In recent months, we have seen an increase
in levels of activity relating
to Northern Ireland-related terrorism,
which has targeted police officers serving their communities
and also put at risk the lives of children
and other members of the public."
Now, even with all that,
the British authorities don't want people
in Northern Ireland to panic.
Violence happens, they reportedly don't expect it
to be nearly on the scale it was
before the Good Friday Peace Agreement.
With the groups expected to carry this out being fringe,
break-off groups of Republican radicals that have done
pot shots at security forces for years now.
It's also why the security level has been one rung
below severe for over a year now.
I mean, hell, just last month an officer was shot
and barely survived with life-changing injuries.
Also, to be clear here,
I know I have a majority American audience.
These are different Republicans.
They also love guns and Jesus,
but their main gripe is not wanting to be controlled
by the British Crown and Protestantism.
The timing here is also key as the region's coming up
on celebrating 25 years since the overwhelmingly successful
Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of violence
between the Republican groups and the Crown.
But if you're watching from Northern Ireland,
keep an eye out, be safe.
Also, in other news,
Ireland not the only place that's not a fan of the Brits.
Though this time, it's the city of Amsterdam.
With Amsterdam launching an ad campaign
targeting young British men to tell them to stay away,
which apparently is not reverse psychology.
It's just a simple message.
They don't want British men age 18 to 35 coming on over
because reportedly in Amsterdam,
they have this reputation of being kinda drunken fools
who start fights, going around naked and pee in public.
The issue's actually been going on for so long
that about a decade ago,
Amsterdam's then mayor invited
then London Mayor Boris Johnson to see what Brits get up to,
saying, "The Brits don't wear a coat as they slalom
through the red light district.
They sing, 'You'll never walk alone.'
They are dressed as rabbits or priests
and sometimes they are not dressed at all.
I'd love to invite him to witness it."
And you have some saying this latest step is just part
of a campaign in a long history of trying to clean up
the city's reputation as this crazy party city.
Which to that, I would say, Amsterdam is gorgeous,
it's an amazing time.
I love it.
But for a lot of other people,
the things that come to mind when you think of Amsterdam
are oh, drugs are widely available and prostitution's legal,
which I guess is why the way this campaign is working
is by placing digital ads when people
in Britain search up things like stag party
or pub crawl Amsterdam.
And it'll feature videos of drunk people getting arrested
instead of having fun with the message clearly being,
your shenanigans have clear consequences.
That said, this campaign is controversial,
with some disgusted by it saying it's discriminatory,
and it targets a group solely based on stereotypes.
And other locals saying they don't think it's
a specific group that's a problem,
but rather, just the sheer number of people
that are showing up.
And so that's why, of course, I'd love
to know everyone's thoughts,
but specifically, if you are a Brit
or if you are Dutch, let me know your thoughts.
What are you thinkin' about this?
And then, we might be seeing one of the biggest
business shakeups in a while right now.
Alibaba, an absolutely massive Chinese company,
announced that it's breaking up
into six different distinct companies,
news that has caused the stock to absolutely soar,
which it also sorely needed because for a while now,
it's been in the gutter amid a crackdown
by Chinese authorities.
I mean, it did a drop nearly 70% since 2020.
And it sure as hell didn't help that its founder,
Jack Ma, was under scrutiny by the CCP.
But recently, China has seemingly changed its course
and vowed to ease its crackdown
and support private businesses.
And so what we're seeing are these changes will make most
of the spinoff groups almost completely independent,
with the current CEO saying that Alibaba Group plans
to shift to a holding company management model.
This all also coincides with Ma's return
to China itself with many seeing it as a clear sign
that the government is serious about not wanting
to crack down on business.
But also, this is the CCP we're talking about here,
so we'll see.
But with that, I wanna say thank you for being a part
of another daily dive into the news.
My name is Philip DeFranco.
I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.