- Sup, you beautiful bastards?
Welcome back to "The Philip DeFranco Show,"
your daily dive into the news.
And there's a lot of news to talk about today,
so let's just jump into it.
Starting with,
we've got massive breaking business news today.
The PGA Tour and its major rival, LIV Golf,
just announced a merger today.
And the key thing,
even if you don't care about golf,
this is a major deal that you need to know about.
Because not only did these two have an all out civil war
in the industry,
it's brought up serious questions
about sports and human rights.
So, let's get into specifics
without getting caught up in the weeds.
The PGA Tour organizes the top golfers
in the paid tournaments, usually across the United States.
And LIV Golf is a golf league, but they're backed
by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, or the PIF,
which notably is controlled by the Crown Prince,
Mohammed bin Salman.
And those two organizations
have been at each other's throats for months.
LIV, with their deep Saudi-backed pockets,
have been luring players away from the PGA Tour
with hefty paychecks, and with that you get
the PGA banning players who left to join LIV Golf.
Also kind of seeming to orchestrate
a shame campaign against them.
All of this leading to lawsuits with the organizations
suing and counter-suing,
each accusing the other of anti-competitive practices.
But now, very key thing with this merger,
they've agreed to drop all of the litigation.
But again, the real controversy here goes back
to LIV Golf Saudi backing, right?
Because in the past, and I'm talking recent past,
human rights advocates and the PGA Tour themselves
claimed that the Saudis were just trying
to improve their international reputation
by throwing wads of cash at popular sports.
Something many calls sportswashing.
With just a year ago, the PGA commissioner
calling the LIV Golf organization quote,
"A foreign monarchy that is spending billions of dollars
"in an attempt to buy the game of golf."
Additionally, the big names in golf
that were signing on with LIV were questioned
about the moral implications of their choice
to support a league backed by a country
with such a terrible human rights track record.
And seemingly the moral questions of what's right and wrong
led to golf giants like Tiger Woods reportedly turning down
LIV contracts worth between $700-800 million.
I mean, at one point you even had the commissioner
of the PGA tour on fuckin' TV
talking about 9/11 families speaking out.
- Expressing their outrage towards the golfers
for participating in the new league
and accusing them of sportswashing
and betraying the United States, end quote.
- [Philip] And saying.
- As it relates to the families of 9/11,
I have two families that are close to me
that lost loved ones.
And so, my heart goes out to them.
And I would ask any player that has left
or any player that would ever consider leaving,
"Have you ever had to apologize
"for being a member of the PGA tour?"
- But now, where's all that talk
with the PGA tour seemingly forgetting
about this morality argument and taking the money?
Because as far as where we are now, the PGA Tour,
it's European League, DP World Tour,
and LIV Golf will reportedly be joined into one entity.
And notably it will be chaired
by the Saudi governor of the PIF
with the PGA Commissioner as the CEO.
And the PGA Tour saying that LIV players
will be welcomed back following the 2023 season.
Which obviously, hey, we don't know all the details
of this deal, but at the very least
one, it seems like the people at the head of the PGA Tour
are a bunch of fuckin' hypocrites.
It's amazing how all those moral concerns just evaporated
because in your hands, all of a sudden
there's a big wad of cash.
But also two, I have to wonder what many of these golfers
actually feel right now.
And I mean that both for the golfers
that went for that big paycheck over at LIV
who were publicly shamed by fans, by the tour,
and now they get to just come back,
as well as players that said, "No,
"I'm not gonna take life-changing amounts of money
"because I have certain morals."
And what was your award?
The fuckin' big wig scooped in and got your checks.
So yeah, fuck the PGA tour.
You stand for nothing, motherfuckin' pussies.
You act like you stand for something,
but then when Mohamed Bonesaw opens up his wallet,
you have no issue going into business
with the people that killed Jamal Khashoggi.
You have no issue going into business with people
that helped perpetrate 9/11.
Go fuck yourselves forever.
But hey, that's the story, my takeaway,
and I'll pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts in general,
but also especially if you are someone who is a fan of golf?
And then, if YouTube did what Twitch just did,
I would be losing my damn mind.
I'd be calling for a boycott and industry blackout
because Twitch just announced a number of rules
regarding branded content,
but some of the rules include
some of the most anti-creator guidelines I have ever seen.
Right, so first up, you have things that make sense.
Creators have to disclose branded content on their streams.
Yeah, transparency, honesty.
Repeated failure to do so can lead to a suspension
with Twitch's website even saying
they added a disclosure tool to the creator's dashboard.
They also announce limitations in what you can promote.
And a number of the things there can be understood, right?
Hateful or illegal products, certain gambling products,
spams and scams, right?
You can't go on stream and be like, "Hey,
"you wanna get in on the initial coin offering
"for my DeFucko coins, it's going to the moon.
"It's definitely not a thinly veiled scam."
Also not allowing products like weapons,
adult-oriented content, tobacco, certain financial services,
medical products, political content, and more.
But the biggest thing,
and this is where I would lose my mind,
streamers are no longer allowed
to insert burned-in video ads directly into their streams,
nor can they insert display or audio ads.
Instead, streamers can do things like, yeah,
they can play a sponsored game,
but if you have branded images,
you have to put 'em somewhere on your channel page.
And I gotta say that's absolutely fuckin' ridiculous,
especially for a platform that's no longer having
to just deal with like YouTube's big ass.
But with places like Rumble and Kick
offering major cash to streamers,
which is why we've seen people in the space like Karl Jacobs
saying, "This is directly Twitch trying to force the hand
"of streamers into allowing their sponsorships
"to go through them,
"giving them a cut of the payout."
Calling it "another braindead attempt to becoming profitable
"at the expense of the streamer"
and saying "was firing hundreds
"of talented people not enough?"
Asmondgold asking, "You can advertise alcohol
"but not politics?
"Get the fuck outta here."
With him also saying creators should seriously consider
boycotting Twitch and that he might be moving
to other platforms himself.
- I will move to another platform, non-exclusively.
I will still stream on Twitch occasionally.
If this goes through,
I will actively start pursuing a deal.
- Jacksepticeye saying, "One more nail in the coffin."
As well as creators like QTCinderella
wondering how events like her streamer awards,
which was just massively successful,
could that even exist within these guidelines?
I mean, Twitch had MoistCrtTIKal in awe
saying, "It's actually impressive how Twitch manages
"to make the most dog shit changes imaginable."
You also another big reaction like Brooke of 100 Thieves
saying, "So insanely out of touch
"I will never understand it.
"Why are they so against creators making money?"
And even Mr. Beast jumping in saying, "Hey Twitch,
"how about instead of handicapping what creators make,
"you help them make more?
"Seems more logical."
And even floating the idea of doing a livestream on Kick
as a form of protest.
You know, when I look at this whole situation,
I just, it's one of the dumbest moves
I've ever seen a social media company do.
And I understand like when a social media company
makes any sort of announcement or change,
there's sometimes overreactions, this is not that.
While every creator's business is different,
you know how much money they make from this thing,
that thing, it changes.
If YouTube implemented this change,
my show would just be done overnight.
Which is why when I see Twitch doing this,
it's like they're pushing their creators
into the arms of people that want them badly.
Because if they're not pushing people to YouTube,
you have Kick and Rumble just catapulting money at creators.
And actually with this developing story,
a last second update,
this happened as we were uploading today's show,
Twitch, I imagine with egg on their face
and slumped shoulders,
made their way to a keyboard
and wrote, "Today's branded content policy update
"was overly broad.
"This created confusion and frustration,
"and we apologize for that.
"We do not intend to limit streamers' ability
"to enter into direct relationships with sponsors.
"We wanted to clarify our existing ads policy
"that was intended to prohibit third party ad networks
"from selling burned-in video and display ads on Twitch,
"which is consistent with other services.
"We missed the mark with the policy language
"and we'll rewrite the guidelines to be clearer."
I'm sure you just misspoke.
This definitely isn't a piss your pants,
try and walk something back situation.
But hey, let's see if enough people believe them
or if this calms people down.
And then I wanna give y'all a quick update on a story
that you may not have even realized we covered,
'cause I covered it on one of our TikTok channels,
which by the way, there are four of them.
Look, ooh, wow.
Check it out.
See, this is a not so subtle plug.
We share bite-size, shareable versions
of the stuff in show as well as a number of exclusives.
But on one of those we posted and then removed this video
about the Air Force and an AI-enabled drone.
And that video is based on an article
from the Royal Aeronautical Society
that had covered a recent summit they had.
A summit were Colonel Tucker "Cinco" Hamilton,
the Chief of AI Testing Operations
at the United States Air Force,
spoke with the Royal Aeronautical Society writing,
said Hamilton, "We were training it in simulation
"to identify and target a SAM threat.
"And then the operator would say, 'Yes, kill that threat.'
"The system started realizing
"that while they did identify the threat,
"at times a human operator would tell it
"not to kill that threat,
"but it got its points by killing that threat.
"So what did it do?
"It killed the operator because that person
"was keeping it from accomplishing its objective."
And saying, Hamilton went on, "We trained the system.
"Hey, don't kill the operator, that's bad.
"You're gonna lose points if you do that.
"So what does it start doing?
"It starts destroying the communication tower
"that the operator uses to communicate with the drone
"to stop it from killing the target."
So we and a number of outlets saw that
and ran with the story because of the direct quotes.
But then after the video went up,
the Air Force refuted Hamilton
claiming, "The Department of the Air Force
"has not conducted any such AI drone simulations
"and remains committed to ethical
"and responsible use of AI technology."
And saying, "It appears that the Colonel's comments
"were taken out of context and were meant to be anecdotal."
But also, I'm not sure how Hamilton's comments
were taken out of context, right?
He said what he said at the time, and it wasn't until later,
he claimed that he misspoke.
That being the key reported word there.
Claiming what he meant to say
was that the Rogue AI drone simulation
was a hypothetical thought experiment,
and saying that experiment
was conducted outside the military.
And going on to add, "We've never run that experiment
"nor would we need to in order to realize
"that this is a plausible outcome.
"Despite this being a hypothetical example,
"this illustrates the real world challenges
"posed by AI powered capability
"and is why the Air Force is committed
"to the ethical development of AI."
And while with that you have some saying
the whole situation feels sketchy
of like people saying things and then walking it back
and then claiming, hey, it was a misspoke
or taken outta context.
Once he claimed that he misspoke, we took down the video.
And I wanted to make sure that we updated the situation
here on the main show,
especially as other random social media channels
have been ripping that video
and just sharing it with no update.
And then massive union and strike news.
With members of the actors union SAG-AFTRA
approving a strike authorization vote by 97.91%.
Now, to be clear,
this does not mean they are guaranteed to strike.
Rather, it gives union leadership the power to call for one,
should negotiations with the studios fail
by the time their contract expires at the end of the month.
But this news should not be undersold
because it sends a message to the studios,
especially amid the ongoing writers strike.
With SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher saying,
"Together we lock elbows and in unity
"we build a new contract that honors our contributions
"in this remarkable industry, reflects the new digital
"and streaming business model
"and brings all our concerns for protections and benefits
"into the now.
"Bravo SAG-AGTRA, we are in it to win it."
And as far as what the union is after here,
they wanna restrict AI use, increase streaming residuals,
and impose limitations on self-taped auditions.
With Variety also noting that the union's choice
to authorize a strike is an unusually aggressive move
as they haven't gone on strike
against the film and TV industry since 1980,
which is also why some feel the odds
of a strike actually happening are less likely.
But then if it does, it'll be incredibly powerful,
especially as the writer strikes already shut down
so much production, right?
So if the actors join 'em, then basically
that means anything that's even open right now
is shut down, because yeah, the director's got a deal,
but then you'd have no actors and no writers.
And then, Father's Day is around the corner,
so make this year the year
to hook that special father figure in your life up.
Be it your dad,
the mentor who made a difference in your life,
or just yourself.
And thanks to the fantastic sponsor and longtime partner
of today's show Ridge, you can do just that.
Because Ridge wallets hold up to 12 cards
and have room for cash
and come in over 30 colors and styles to choose from,
including their new leather wallets.
And I don't just promote these babies, I use 'em.
And Ridge also has the option of air tags
for those prone to misplace things like myself.
And it's not just wallets,
they have tons of reliable products
like their durable, sleek design key case
that holds up to six keys, cool knives, backpacks
Seriously, so many things, you gotta check it out already.
And with over 3 million customers
and 50,000 plus five star reviews,
the Ridge team is so confident that you'll like it,
they'll let you test drive it for 99 days.
You don't love it, you just send it back for a full refund.
So what are you waiting for?
Go find the best Father's Day gift right now
using my link ridge.com/defranco
and save up to 40% through June 15th.
That's ridge.com/defranco.
And then is there a serial killer
prowling the streets of Portland?
That's a question many Oregonians are asking themselves
right now after a string of suspicious deaths
over the past few months.
With remains of six people, all women,
all under the age of 40 being discovered
across just a few counties.
And while the cause of death for the first body,
which was found back in February still being investigated,
the second found more than a month later
was ruled a homicide by blunt head and neck injuries.
With two more then being found on the same day
with at least one of them being probed
as a suspicious death, as are the next two cases.
But now after much speculation, the Portland Police Bureau
has denied the serial killer claims
saying, "While any premature death is concerning,
"PPB has no reason to believe
"these six cases are connected."
With them pointing the finger at news outlets
and social media for spreading anxiety
and fear in our community.
Saying that the rumors are not supported
by the facts available at this moment.
And so for now, we're gonna have to wait to see
what all information comes out,
as well as you know, what are the facts
that they're referencing there.
And then Oklahoma just green lit
the first ever religious charter school in the country
with the school in question being online,
it's called St. Isador of Seville Catholic Virtual School.
And reportedly, it'll be run
by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City
and the diocese of Tulsa
and have religious teachings incorporated
into its curriculum.
But because the school is a charter,
which is just a public school that's independently managed,
it'll still receive public funding.
Now, notably here, some religious schools
do receive a certain amount of public money
like Hasidic schools in New York.
They get government money for some programs
but also charge tuition.
But St. Isador is different
because it's going to be fully funded by the government.
And that's a key thing to know
because this situation's actually massive
because it sets up a huge constitutional battle
over whether taxpayer money can be used
to pay for religious schools
with at least one group already promising
to fight this in court.
That's also exactly what the people
who support this move want, right?
In recent years there's been a growing conservative push
to expand taxpayer funded alternatives to public schools
like vouchers or tax credits
to help families pay for private tuition,
including at religious schools.
And that effort to blur the line between church and state
and education has made serious progress
both at the state level and in the Supreme Court.
I mean just in the last three years,
the conservative high court made two rulings
that religious schools can't be excluded
from publicly funded tuition programs like vouchers
that let parents send their kids to private schools.
And so, we're seeing your supporters
of this move in Oklahoma trying to test if states
can directly fund religious schools, right,
rather than indirectly through things like vouchers.
But notably, this move is highly contentious
even among conservatives.
With St. Isador actually only being barely approved
in a three to two vote
by the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board.
And that despite the fact that the board's composed
of members of the GOP held legislature
and people appointed by the Republican governor
who have pushed for religious charter schools.
And among the board members who voted yes
is one who was literally appointed on Friday.
And beyond that,
even the Republican Attorney General of Oklahoma
opposed the move warning
that it violated Oklahoma's constitution.
So obviously this is a very divisive subject.
I'd love to know your thoughts,
but really you should expect no shortage
of stories like this
because as we've seen over recent years,
everyone's kind of in a let's throw shit at the wall
and see what sticks with this new conservative high court.
And then Ron DeSantis appears to be sending planes
with migrants to liberal cities again.
Over the last few days,
two different privately chartered flights
with a total of 36 asylum seekers landed in Sacramento
without any advanced warning.
The first arriving on Friday, the second just yesterday.
And while as of recording,
DeSantis and other Florida officials have been totally quiet
on the matter, despite basically every news media outlet
reaching out for comment,
top California officials are certain
that DeSantis is behind this
with the authorities saying that the migrants
on the first flight were carrying documents
that said that their travel was administered
by the Florida Division of Emergency Management
and the contractor, Vertol Systems Company.
As well as the Office of California Attorney General
Rob Bonta saying the contractor behind the Monday flight
appears to have been the same contractor
who transported the migrants last week.
And adding, "As was the case the first time,
"the migrants who arrived today carry documents
"indicating that their transportation to California
"involved the state of Florida."
And very notably here, Vertol is also
the very same contractor that DeSantis used
to fly nearly 50 migrants from San Antonio
to Martha's Vineyard last fall.
With one of the craziest things here being
just like with the whole Martha's Vineyard situation,
the migrants that DeSantis is paying to fly to California,
were literally not even seeking asylum in Florida,
nor did it seem they had been in the state at any point.
In fact, according to California officials
and flight trackers,
the groups both began their journeys in El Paso, Texas
and then were taken to an airport in New Mexico
and then flown to Sacramento.
And so with this, you have California AG Bonta
saying the state is launching a full investigation
under the matter and will pursue the possibility
of taking criminal or civil actions against those involved.
With him going on to explain that the state
is still determining the appropriate legal response,
but noting quote, "Key elements are individuals moved
"under duress or deception or misrepresentation,
"being lied to."
And adding, "We've learned that many of them
"were told that Vertol Systems would help them find jobs
"if they got on the plane
"and traveled to where they were being taken,"
and saying, "We learned that many of them
"didn't know where they were being taken
"and didn't know where they were until they arrived."
And very notably here,
Bonta also said that possible charges
could even include kidnapping.
And actually on the noted charges,
just yesterday the Bexar County Sheriff's Office announced
that it's filed a criminal case
with the county's district attorney
over the migrants DeSantis had transported from San Antonio
to Martha's Vineyard.
Now notably here, the sheriff's office
didn't identify any suspects named in the case,
but it did say in a statement that the filings
alleged several counts of unlawful restraint
including both misdemeanors and felonies.
This is gonna be really interesting
to see how all this plays out both in Texas and California.
And then what's the better way to introduce this story?
Bad news, if you're a fan of heroin
or the war on drugs has been a success,
but it's thanks to the Taliban, yikes.
'Cause you may not know this,
but for years Afghanistan has produced over 80%
of the world's opiate,
which then in turn produces about 95% of heroine in Europe.
And in fact, during its occupation,
the United States tried to eradicate poppy,
the plant which makes opium by bombing farms
in Taliban territory, burning opium stocks
and raiding drug labs.
And those efforts were largely unsuccessful.
But early last year,
the Taliban Supreme Leader announced their own shot
at banning poppy, saying anyone caught growing it
would have their field destroyed
and be punished according
to the group's interpretation of Sharia law,
siting as the reason both their religious beliefs
and the harmful health effects of opium.
With one of their spokesman even claiming
that 4 million outta 37 million of their people
are suffering from drug addiction.
While the 2022 harvest was exempt from the ban
with the UN saying production even grew
by a third over 2021.
After the past year of Taliban squads
destroying entire poppy farms,
we're now seeing its impact on 2023's April harvest.
All the numbers here are staggering
with one expert using satellite data,
estimating that poppy cultivation
is likely to have been cut down by over 80%.
With the BBC even reporting the Taliban leaders
appear to have been more successful
cracking down on cultivation than anyone ever has.
Now, as far as the impact,
we're still gonna have to wait to see
what it's gonna look like.
And that's because reportedly
it usually takes between 12 and 18 months for Afghan poppy
to reach European markets as heroin.
So it may take a while for the supply cut
to impact the street price.
A price that's reportedly been at a 20 year high,
though it's also been falling over the past several months.
And actually because of that
as well as there being drug seizures in neighboring states,
it's been suggested there's actually a large stockpile
already in the system.
Also, it's widely believed this isn't gonna impact
the number of people using drugs.
Even if heroin becomes less available,
experts say that Western consumers
might just turn towards synthetic drugs instead,
which is a trend we've already seen in the US,
which is actually even worse since fentanyl, for example,
is 50 times stronger than natural heroin.
Which among other things makes overdose deaths more likely.
And so, you're seeing European governments
bracing for a possible opioid crisis.
And remembering the last time the Taliban abolished opium
in 2000 with that causing a heroin shortage in Europe
and not long afterward
you saw fentanyl surfacing there for the first time ever.
And then moving east, Afghan narcotics
have long been trafficked through Pakistan
to consumers in China as well.
So we've also seen experts suggesting Beijing
should help Afghan farmers transition
toward alternative crops
as part of its belts and road initiative.
But possibly those hardest hit
are gonna be the Afghan farmers themselves, right?
Because their reliance on the narcotics market
has only increased since the Taliban takeover.
'Cause you've got Western sanctions
cutting off foreign aid and trade.
Even though you have the government pushing them
to grow substitutes like wheat,
they say it's far less profitable
than a cash crop like poppy.
With one farmer explaining, "If you have no food at home
"and your children are going hungry, what else would you do?
"We don't have large pieces of land.
"If we grew wheat on them,
"we would make a fraction of what we could from opium."
And regarding the Taliban leader
is putting all this in place,
something to also keep in mind
is that you have analysts speculating
that some may actually be personally profiting
from the poppy ban
by keeping their own private drug portfolios
as the restricted supply bumps up the price.
But even further, you have some saying
that Taliban's war on drugs could backfire.
And that's because poppy production
is a key source of tax revenue
and the economic shock to regular people
could cut into their base of support.
Though also how much that cuts in
remains to be seen, right?
'Cause how much of that base of support is really just fear.
And then Vladimir Putin just collecting war crimes
like I collect Pokemon cards.
With the most recent incident
involving the Nova Kakhovka Dam being blown up today.
The dam sits on the major Dnipro River
between Ukrainian and Russian front lines.
Though technically Russia's been considered
to be controlling it because its operation buildings
are on the Russian controlled side of the river.
But this damaged dam means that millions
of cubic meters of water are gonna be flooding
into the lowland areas downstream,
which include parts of Ukrainian controlled Kherson
and upwards of 70 smaller towns and villages.
And really the only silver lining
is that the dam wasn't just completely erased from the earth
and only part of it was destroyed,
meaning that all the water didn't just come rushing down
and people were able to evacuate.
Now with this, there is a mystery of who did it,
although there is a reason I say mystery.
Obviously most are leaning towards
thinking Russia blew the dam
with there being claims they've mined it since October.
And notably, the flooding
would slow potential Ukrainian advances in the region
both directly and by creating a humanitarian crisis.
Russia, as they do, claims that Ukraine did it
in order to cut off fresh water from Crimea.
And saying, without this water,
it means that the vulnerable Kerch Bridge
is really the only viable waterway.
And so some well-played strikes
could really put the squeeze on the peninsula.
But regardless of the claims over there,
the locals here are screwed.
Tens of thousands on both sides will need to evacuate.
Although it's unclear how much Russia's helping locals
under their watch.
And farmers on both banks are gonna be screwed
as the flooding destroys crops
and the lowered watered levels behind the dam
means way less irrigation for crops.
And that's already had an impact on the markets.
Because of Ukraine's status is a major grain producer
and the damage this flooding will likely do,
grain futures are up like 3%.
And it's really not until the scale of this flooding
becomes even more clear
that we're gonna get a better understanding
of how just horrible this is.
And that is where today's daily dive into the news
is gonna end.
Thank you for watching, like,
and being subscribed to this channel,
and do not worry because my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been filled in,
I love your faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.