Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 2/10/26: Trump Demands High House Prices, Olympic Athletes Trash USA, AI Medical Device Backlash, Trump Whitewashes Sudan Complicity

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Krystal and Saagar discuss Trump demanding high housing prices, Olympic athletes attack USA, AI medical device backlash, Trump admin whitewashes Sudan. Nathaniel Raymond: https://x.com/nattyray11?lang=enTo become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.comMerch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and more. Listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. In 1995, my neighbor and a trainer

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Listen to the red weather on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited

about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else. So if that is something that's important to you,

please go to breakingpoints.com, become a member today, and you'll get access to our full shows, unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at breakingpoints.com. Moving on to housing, this is a story we've been wanting to cover for quite a long time. And of course, here in Washington, you will see Republicans kiss Trump's ass on any number

of things. Then he tries to do something good for once, and what happens? Let's put it up here on the screen. Proposed ban on investors in the housing market. Hits a wall in Congress. White House is pressuring GOP in Congress to add an investor ban to existing housing bills, but lawmakers have pushed back. Now, let's just think about this. Bomb Venezuela in violation of the law. No problem. Yeah. Bomb Iran. No problem. Let's extend massive tax cuts. Oh, of course. Here you go. Anything else. Didn't see the tweet. Sorry, what was that?

I'm not aware of it. Let's ban investors. Oh, no, we can't. have that. We couldn't, we couldn't possibly allow something like that. We'll have to start at a subcommittee level before we start to consider something like this. So this is Washington, people. This is Washington. If you try and do something even marginally good, you're dead. And look, my sources tell me they're going to continue to fight on this, but I'm not going to hold my breath. But the biggest problem and most revealing part of all of it is just to show you where power really lies what they are willing to hold the line. If anything, that's everything, right? What are they actually willing to fight about? And this is one of them. And what they talk about here specifically is that,

for example, lawmakers in both chambers have resisted adding the investor ban, which traditional free market advocates say they oppose. Any such amendment would derail a bipartisan momentum behind current housing packages. The House overwhelmingly voted in favor of a current bill by 390 to 9. the two chambers will then have to reconcile later. However, the OMB issued a statement reiterating the administration's insistence on this investor ban, but it was immediately had huge pushback. And all of this is because the people they work for are not you or I. It is the very big-time investors themselves, the people who are locking up housing stock. Part of the other problem, Crystal, is Trump himself is all over the place. So with the very same time that he wants to,

what does he want to do? He wants to ban. investors from buying houses. He also is a slave to the boomers who wants to keep their housing prices high. His words, not mine. Here's what he had to say. Existing housing, people that own their homes, we're going to keep them wealthy. We're going to keep those prices up. We're not going to destroy the value of their homes so that somebody that didn't work very hard can buy a home. We're going to make it easier to buy. We're going to get interest rates down. But I want to protect the people that for the first time in their lives feel good about themselves. They feel like they've, you know, that they're wealthy people.

And I want them to understand it. You know, there's so much talk about, oh, we're going to drive housing prices down. I don't want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people that own their homes. And they can be assured that's what's going to happen. Yeah, you can go ahead and stick a gun in my mouth. All right? For the first time in their lives, these people are wealthy.

Really? They've been wealthy for a long time, actually. All right? Will somebody please think of the person who bought a Santa Monica a piece of real estate for 200,000, and now it's worth 2.4 million. I mean, I weep for that individual. In fact, all I want to do is cap their property tax and pay for their dialysis and then continue to pay for their retirement. And then whenever they die and they pass it on to their children and we don't get a single dollar of it because of the step-up basis, I mean, that is what makes

me proud to be in America. That is, that is justice, fairness, and the American dream at its heart. I mean, this is the problem. This is the problem. We're a slave to these people. All anybody wants to talk about. Oh, well, somebody pleasing, these people who worked hard and played by the rules. It's like, well, part of the rules is called a property tax, except what do they do? Because they write the rules, they try to make it go away.

If you try to do anything that might marginally decrease the price of housing, then, oh, oh, no, we can't have that because it would hurt a little bit of their stock. I mean, a little bit of their gains. It drives me insane. But this is, that's actual the government policy. Well, and Trump. That's what's so maddening. Yeah. And Trump, Trump is a nimbie to his core.

Like, this is not the first time. This is the most overt that he's laid out his view of like, I don't want housing prices to go down. Are you crazy? Those people vote. Like, I want their housing prices to continue to go up. And, like, we'll give you a 50-year mortgage. Remember, that was one of their, his ideas. So since housing prices are wildly unaffordable and there's no way you can do.

you know, stomach a mortgage payment for a 20 or 30-year mortgage, how about we do a 50-year mortgage? That'll get you in the door. Those are the sorts of ideas that are most appealing to him because he truly is a nimbie to his core. I mean, there have been plenty of campaign rhetoric from him talking about how Democrats want to destroy the suburbs. They want to destroy your neighborhood

and bring in all these undesirables. And this is very, like, deep in New York politics, especially in, like, the New York city suburbs. Janine Piro comes out of some of these like nippy fights. And it's a bit of, I mean, he's in a sense, he's very brazen about it. He's not wrong about some of the politics, though, because they are a very powerful and influential and mobilized group of voters. You know, the fact that they are homeowners means that, number one, oftentimes there's some money that they can throw to campaigns. But number two, you know, they're locked in, they're in a neighborhood.

They put roots down in a community. That's one of the important things about homeownership is it allows that. that dynamic to take hold. And if you're more transient, you're less likely to be engaged in your local political culture. So if you're a renter, you're sort of inherently less likely to be as influential at the ballot box. Older people vote in larger numbers. This is his core base. So that's what he is reflecting here. It's just crazy to hear him say it out loud that, no, I love the housing bubble. I want to continue to inflate it forever. And instead, I want to come up with these like exotic financial instruments that keep you indebted and enslaved for your

entire life rather than actually trying to create to surge more affordable housing. The thing that's, you know, this bipartisan housing legislation in the House and the Senate, which, you know, I don't have a lot of hope that is going to like really change the game on anything, whatever. It's a lot of sort of abundance style ideas of, hey, let's roll back regulation here. Let's roll back red tape there. Let's explore some different housing construction methods, all things that I'm for. Yeah, it's fine.

All fine, right? But, you know, I, again, it's, I think there's a demonstration of the limits of what can be done with that if you don't have more sort of aggressive and direct government intervention to surge affordable housing. Just letting the free market do its thing is not going to be enough to overcome what is a massive housing deficit and what is a, you know, insane increase in housing prices for younger generations. Look, I should clarify, I'm not a total YIMB either. I mean, I don't. with a lot of the YIMBY abundance people, they want us all to live in 1,200 square foot, glass boxes that are run by developers. Like, I'm good with that, actually. You know, so I think there's a role for community and all that. Now, I'm not going to take it as far as some people do

who every time you want to build something new, they're like, but what about the public parking? I'm just like, shut up, okay? In my neighborhood, they genuinely put up a sign that said, if we build a new apartment building, then a 911 will get overwhelmed. And I'm like, I think that's a problem that we could figure out.

You know, 911 is not going to get overwhelmed. Just say you don't want more people living here. You can say it, okay? We can all say it. Let's just not make up fake numbers. And in the current environment, no, sorry. Like, just because you own a house, like there's people out of there paying $25,000, $3,000 a month

for studio apartments. Like, I can't be having this. Like, at a certain point, we have to balance this stuff out as a society. So we can be a little bit nimbie. if, you know, if things are going too far, I'll tell you. But that's my point is that we can, let's be reasonable. Let's say if rent is at a place where it's going to eat up 40, 50, 60 percent of after-tax income,

then yes, I'm sorry. Your community aspects are not going to be taken as seriously. Yeah. If it's 20 and 30, sure. Let's talk about beautification or public spaces or parks. Things are so out of control that, you know, we're at a place where the land-owning class is so dramatically in power, all they are doing is trying to protect their own assets. So let's put C3 up on the screen, for example.

Trump says voting housing prices are too high. Trump wants some higher. He said he wants to drive housing prices up, not down, speaking to the conundrum that has flummoxed policymakers for decades. And what they point to is that poll after poll after poll just shows you that people are very upset about the price of housing and specifically interest rates and how much it would take to be even able to enter the door. So to give you a good example of how dramatically things have changed just in the last six years, let's go to the next one. Goldman Sachs just ran a new

analysis. For young married couples, considering buying their first home, the average down payment is now 70% of annual household income. In 2019, it was 58% still way too high, 45% in the year 2000. The first year mortgage payment is then about 25% of that annual household income versus 18 in 2019 and 20% in 2020. Now keep in mind, this is just housing inflation. So your portion of your after-tax income having to be spent on food, on health care, and child care, if you are, having a child, is also dramatically inflated, which means that your room and your budget starts approach is zero very, very, very quickly. So those numbers, I think, make it all very obvious about what's happening here. Like, we have a massive under supply of houses. And again, I'm not one of

these people who's like, oh, let's build glass or anything. I think we should probably make it to the feds grant huge, we give huge grants state by state, and then the states can figure it out. Texas has, by the way, done a very good job of this. It's not all just glass. If you go down to, you know, some of these suburbs or people who send me pictures like from Dallas, These are, you know, decent houses, a couple hundred thousand dollars. Nothing crazy. It's also, you know, something you can actually own, place to park your car, decent lawn, couple bedrooms.

That's all anybody really needs, right? And so you can see, and that's all, and it's like, that's the other thing. People are not desiring, like, multi-McMansions or any of that. I really don't think people are being all that unreasonable. The only reason that the McMansions get built is because the rich people who people will buy houses and the boomers and all these other people. Apparently, even though you have no children in home, they're like, oh, I have to have a seven-bedroom house. in case my grandchildren come to visit Christmas.

This is the stuff that you hear from this crowd. But currently, what we see right now, C5, for example, can we put this on the screen? I thought this was a good article, just to show the scale of the problem. Experts currently say the U.S. needs between $2 million to $20 million to fix the current shortfall. I'm glad we've narrowed that down.

Underscoring the challenge of meaning. So I look, because they point to the Goldman Sachs analysis, that puts the number of $3 million. Zillow's Sest. top's four million. Brookings projects five million. McKinsey says eight million. Meanwhile, congressional Republicans say the shortfall is 20 million. And so economists who contend that there's no, and then there are, quote, economists contend there's no shortage at all. And, you know, this is one where we have 146 million homes, 8.1 million or doubled up households,

meal people sharing space with non-relatives, 3.4 million vacant homes available to rent or buy. This is probably the misallocation stuff, though. A lot of that is going to be a more undesirable area. So the desirable areas, high cost of living areas, have a massive shortage. This, I mean, look, it's just one of those where we have to figure out interest rates, affordability, and being able to buy housing, which there's no way the free market can solve this. It will take massive government intervention. Period. End of story. There's just no getting around it. One of the things they point to in that article, too, a part of why they think economists, they're making the case that economists sometimes underestimate the housing need is because

you have doubled up households like Sagar was talking about where the assumption is kind of like, well, if they could afford it, they probably would rather live on their own, have their own home. Not in all cases, but in many cases, they would prefer to have their own space. And then you also have a comparatively high percentage of 25 to 34-year-olds who continue to live in their parents' home. So in 2023, 18% of adults, 25 to 34, still living in their parents' home, is compared to 8% in the 1970s, according to a Pew Research Center report. So when you have that high level of housing cost and housing stress, you're naturally going to see more and more. young professionals. I mean, 34 years old is not all by young. 34-year-olds who are still living with mom and dad because that is the best financial

option for them and nothing else may be even possible at that phase in their life. I'm turning 34 this year and I already feel old. I agree. I agree. Let's go. Okay, final thing. You can already guess where I'm going with this. Red state, blue state. We are united in one goal. Let's put C6 up. here on the screen. As the world crumbles, as the price of everything skyrockets, what are these people focused on? Governor Gretchen Whitmer, with property taxes going up year after year, Michigan seniors deserve stability. They've worked hard and earned the right to relief in their golden years. She continues, that is why I am proposing property tax relief for 355,000 seniors

saving households of an average of $345 a year by refunding 10% of their property tax that's money back in their pockets to pay bills and to put food on the table. Now look, $345, sure. That's like one trip to the grocery store. But it's the principle. First of all, the state controller already says you shouldn't do this because you're in shortfall our overall budget. But second, this is $90 million explicitly written in the budget for C. years to make it so that they don't have to pay as much of their property tax. I'm sick of this bullshit. I don't know if you've seen this. There's so many viral tweets. Somebody recently put it up,

my dad who's only on Social Security, he can't afford the property tax payment anymore. It's $8,000. Somebody did the math. He's sitting on a $1.6 million house. Okay, it's like, fuck you, actually. Sell it. How about that? Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You should have planned better for financial, for your retirement. So now, if you don't have the money, to pay for it, you could sell it to somebody. And then not only could you pay it, you could make sure and you could buy yourself a nice little condo in Bocco Raton, Florida, and live very comfortably for the rest of your life. It's like, why are we deluding ourselves into thinking that this is some great crisis? And yet, Texas, Michigan, Florida, I mean, if you, almost every state in the

country is moving towards either zero property tax, zero is the worst. But, I mean, or maybe I'm not so sure. Carb out for Boomer is also really bad. But Colorado, even that's, you know, the tweet that they were talking about, they have a property tax allocation there specifically already written out for boomers. It's like this, it's literally age discrimination in the opposite direction of where it is needed. And nobody, nobody has the courage to actually speak out and not only defend the mechanism of a property tax, but specifically to talk, and yes, I know it's uncomfortable, to say that churn in the housing market is important and good in order. to make sure that inventory turns out. We know this whenever it comes to retail. We know this whenever

it comes to any other business sector. This is the one where we decide that there's an age exemption. And again, it discriminates against the people who aren't even doing anything. It's crazy. Yeah. Well, and even, I mean, it's also class war because if you're giving these benefits to property owners, those are disproportionately going to be better off people than the renter class. And then what are you doing? That's tax revenue that's not coming in to go to the universally used programs, the schools, the roads, the fire department, the police department, all of those things that, you know, the community and the state has to fund and everybody benefits from. So, you know, it's, it's, yeah, it's, and it goes back to Trump's view, his nimbly view of like, we got to

raise the housing prices. The reason that politicians go in this direction is not because this is, like, the best use of money or is going to benefit the most people or the most advantageous. It is nothing to do with that. It's because this group of people, property-owned, home-owning boomers are very, very politically powerful. They are important to the base of both parties, and so they get super-served. Yeah, that's right. And apparently, you know, this is another problem for Michigan. I was talking to somebody. I go, dude, what's going on here? Like, why is Whitmer doing this? They go, oh, man, Michigan actually has a very elderly population. Well, guess what, guys, this causes brain drain. So if you don't have a decent economy, or if you have

something that's continuing to go down, the state is working largely on behalf, let's say, of the elderly property owning class, what are the young people going to do? They're going to move. They're going to leave. And then your economy is going to continue to dwindle. It's like a debt spot. Especially if you're robbing like the school system. Exactly. To give boomer property homeowners tax break. Yeah, exactly. And so this is the, like this is not a way to protect your state. If anything, you're setting yourself up for failure and making sure that you're going to remain non-competitive. But look, this is the people work for. And we are doomed to this for a while. All right. Let's get to the Olympics.

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Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on IHart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. do you do in the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, is where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff, identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore, loss,

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I had to take a look at what was happening at the Olympic Sagar found that really funny, It's definitely not our specialty. Anyway, you've had a bunch of American Olympic athletes who have been speaking out in relatively, frankly, mild ways, clearly uncomfortable with a lot of what is going on with the Trump administration, specifically probably with regard to ICE. I think it's fair to read into a lot of these comments. The person who kick this off is a skier named Hunter Hess, but there were some other athletes that had follow-on comments when they were asked about it.

Let's go ahead and take a listen to some of those comments. It brings up mixed emotions. to represent the U.S. right now, I think. It's a little hard. There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren't. If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it. Just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S. It's been a hard time for the community overall under this administration. It isn't the first time that we've had to come together as a community and try and fight for our human rights.

And now, especially, it's not just affecting the queer community, but many other communities. I know that a lot of people say, you're just an athlete, like, stick to your job, shut up about politics, but politics affect us all. It is something that I will not just be quiet about, because it is something that affects us in our everyday lives. I feel heartbroken about what's happened in the United States

when I'm pretty sure you're referencing ICE and some of the protests and things like that. I think that as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody's rights and making sure that we're treating our citizens as well as anybody with love and respect. And I hope that when people look at athletes compete in the Olympics, they realize that that's the America that we're trying to represent. The parents being immigrants, this one definitely hits pretty close to home. And I think in moments like these, it is really important for us to unite and kind of stand up for one another, for all that's going on. And I think that I'm really proud to represent the United States.

The U.S. has given my family and I so much opportunity, but I also think that we are allowed to voice our opinions on what's going on. All right, so relatively, in my opinion, mild comments. In any case, cue the total freak out from everybody from the president on down on the right. We've got D3. You can put Trump's truth social up on the screen here in response, I think, specifically to Hunter Hess. He says U.S. Olympics gear, Hunter Hess, a real loser, says he doesn't represent his country in the current Winter Olympics. If that's the case, he shouldn't have tried out for the team. And it's too bad he's on it.

Very hard to root for someone like this. Make America great again. is getting better. Is it? My Trump voice is an impression of Kyle doing his impression of Trump. So it's not great, but, you know, I feel like when you're reading his words, you kind of got to give it a little bit of the Trumpia paper. I like it.

In any case, Senator Rick Scott weighed in. This is DZero guys with a similar sentiment saying they should be pulled from the team. How dare they speak on against the great US of A? Let's listen to that one. Any person who goes the Olympics to represent the United States and then says they don't want to represent the United States should be immediately stripped of the Olympic uniform. Immediately stripped of the Olympic uniform.

And I mean, my commentary on this is very obvious, Sagar. Like, one of the great things about the United States of America, you have free speech. And just because you criticize the government, it's giving me like war on terror flashbacks where, like, if you don't love what George W. Bush is, you hate our troops, you hate America, blah, blah, blah, you're not a patriot.

Like, you're supposed to be able to be critical of the government. that's fine. That doesn't mean you hate the country and you don't want to represent the country. And then the other piece that, like, I don't know, is sort of driving me crazy is who is stripping it's not like the government even supports them to go to the Olympics. I'll get to that. Right. So like who is stripping them of their ability to be there and compete? The whole thing is absurd. It's a total freakout. It reminds me of the Super Bowl freak out, like complete snowflake, fake outrage behavior here from the right.

You know, it's interesting. I feel very similarly, and I feel actually very similar to the Super Bowl halftime show. It reminds me of a conversation which I once had, I won't name the government, but I once had a very interesting dinner with a very senior government official of a foreign country. And this country was pursuing a lot of censorship against critics. And they were asking me what I thought about it. And I said, well, with great respect, great countries don't care what other people have to say. Yeah. Great countries are constantly. confident in who they are enough to the point where, is anyone shocked that an upper middle class white skier is a lib? Like, that's the least shocking thing of literally of all time.

That would be like if I told you your average NFL athlete is like a mid-tier Charlie Kirk conservative. Well, the white ones anyway. Well, yeah, a lot of the white ones. Actually, a lot of the black ones, too, actually kind of shockingly enough. But anyway, my point is just like, wow, what a absolute shocker. So I don't know. I don't know why this really does, I don't know why this, this really does not offend me at all. I mean, I get where some people are coming from. There is a liberal tendency to pretend like your James Baldwin and be like, I love my country so much. I'm going to criticize it.

It's like, no, you actually hate like a very large part of the entire country and don't really believe in many of the founding ethos or believe in its greatness. So I understand where many right wingers are coming from because there is a general tendency of a lot of left wingers who hold that belief. I think pretty structurally and fundamentally. I'll give you an example. Because this is also tied into the press. The press loves this shit. By the way, a lot of the athletes have even complained. They're like, we didn't come here to talk about this.

You asked us, and we're asking, we're giving you our opinion. Does the press care? For example, Eileen Gu, who is an American-born who's competing for the Chinese. She's a traitor, in my opinion. Nobody asked her shit about what's going on with Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong. Because you know why? She would literally lose. Like, their government actually does.

control what they do. That's why I think we're better than the Chinese system. But there is a structural disadvantage with our press where nobody apparently asked that. Everyone's like, oh, hey, you're literally a traitor to the United States and you're competing for foreign government. And even though you've benefited and are funded like millions of dollars here, and we're all just okay with that. So that's like a press criticism and not of the athletes themselves. There's also the Olympics criticism here where, again, I actually was not even aware of this. So can we put up this? Where is it? D6. I didn't even know that we don't fund our Olympics.

So then a lot of this is actually moot. Apparently, again, I'm ignorant. It is fully funded by corporate sponsorships and private donations. So IRL, then yeah, they literally can say whatever they want. Okay, and apparently I was the only fool who wasn't belief, who was under the belief that the government had some role in Team USA. I guess we just adopt Team USA and it becomes its own thing. So obviously we should have no say over what these athletes are saying,

if especially if they're, especially if they're not funded or supported by the taxpayer in any way. Again, I'm not going to sit here and say, let's just say, for example, because there's been a lot of discourse. They're like, oh, they say that they're just upset for love and everybody knows what they're talking about.

If in June of 2020, I said, all lives matter, you know exactly what I'm saying. Yeah. So like, let's not pretend that there is in subtext there. Oh, how could you disagree with that? You know exactly what the fuck I'm trying to say. So like, let's not. not bullshit about the actual political.

There's definitely a political context. That's what this is about. Although it is, I mean, the things they're saying are, it's funny, always funny to me how athletes and celebrities are judged by this different standard where they'll say like the most mild thing possible. And it's like, oh my God, right? And that's sort of how I feel about this. They're like, yeah, I'm not really that comfortable with everything that's going on.

And, you know, I think we should have compassion for each other. And it's like, oh, this is crazy that they said this. You know what that means. Of course. Just like all lives matter. You know what I mean. Yeah. I get what you're saying.

There's obviously political context there. I mean, that's what we talked about with Bad Bunny too, right? Sure. His performance was obviously political. There's no doubt that it's political. The other thing that I would say, though, to your point about like, oh, you know, it's no surprise that upper middle class or upper class white lips are critical of the Trump administration.

That's true. But I think what is noteworthy is, Number one, just the sheer number of them who are saying anything. I know, but still, this is, they're not coming there to talk about it. The press wants them to say it. I've watched so many of these, like, you know, the Australian, no, but none of the Americans there said shit about shit, right? So the number of them that are saying anything to me is noteworthy.

Number two, look, we look at the polling. Like, it's not just white lips. True. Who feel this way. I mean, this is an overwhelming sentiment among Americans. outside of like hardcore MAGA, there's a lot. And even their New York Times just did a big, you know, focus group with a bunch of the Trump voters that they've stayed in touch with.

And a number of them are like, I'm not really comfortable. I feel like there's an assault on the Second Amendment going on. I feel like there's an assault on the First Amendment going on. I support the idea of getting immigrants out, but I'm not sure how things are going. So, you know, I also don't want to pretend like, yes, these are mostly like white upper class or upper middle class. People who are saying this, but their sentiment is also very reflective.

of what's going on in the country. And I think that's part of why we can put some of the D4, we can put some of the different reactions up on the screen here just to get a sense. We've got Megan Kelly, another turncoat to root against. We've got, I think we've got Byron Donald's here. You chose to wear our flag. You chose to represent our country.

If that's too hard for you, go home, blah, blah, blah. You can continue rolling them here. But, you know, I think part of why you are having this like meltdown, freak out moment with regard to the Super Bowl and with regard to this is because there is a sense of sort of fragility where if you felt very confident like Magis got the vibes and we're winning and everybody loves us, et cetera, it'd be easier just to kind of brush this off. That was my point. Yeah, whatever. It's structural weakness is that if you're so. Yes, that's right. If you're so butt hurt about some skier who says, I'm semi-conflicted about wearing the flag, like you have, you're beyond

loss. Okay. You have no idea what you. are in for. And I mean, that's kind of the way I'm operating from is that you can see very clearly that there is a massive political backlash and that this kind of behavior is that of a losing of a movement and not only losing movement culturally, which is somehow downward after a year ago being in a like a generally pretty like at its heights literally, right? And it was like a total cultural revolution. Fumbling the bag on that one has got to be well studied in history books. That was my point is when I talked to that foreign official and they were defending, they said, you don't understand our politics.

And I said, no, I do. I just think you're acting like a little bitch, basically. I was like, I think that you're very not, I said, you're very, you're not confident in who you are and your lack of confidence is coming across to me and to the entire world as so fragile that you can't allow any criticism. Yeah. That's basically how I feel about these people. I don't need to agree with my athletes about anything.

I think it's great. Every single one of them wins a gold medal. That is a, is that a nuanced view, right? At the same time, I do recognize that there is a very annoying tendency of the modern left to where only patriotism is when you are critical of it, is that everything must be couched in nuance, is that, and while look, blind patriotism has plenty of its own problems, again, just like if with all lives matter, everyone knows exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah. Oh, 1619 project, DEI and all this is a core basis. I don't even know that you, like, disagree with the sentiments are expressed. What do you mean? What? Do you disagree with anything they say,

well, if you were to ask me what makes me not proud to be an American, sure, the ice stuff would definitely be part of it. I would talk to, let's say, much more of the structural, degenerate parts of our society, right? So I could give you a great guy. You're not, you're not, I mean, what I'm not proud to be in America. I'm just saying, like, you don't even really disagree with what they're saying. I mean, and that is a, that is, what do you mean? I mean, any of this, do you disagree with any of the sentiments that they're expressing you? It depends. And they're pretty like mild, like, yeah, I'm not sure about what's going on. Actually, I forgot to get to that one because the idea that this is some horrible time for gay people is literally bullshit. Okay. So everybody knows what she's trying to say, which is about trans people and in particular

trans children. And no, I'm not going to cry tears because nine-year-olds can't get puberty blockers. So let's be very clear about what that one is saying. So that was the only one, as you can tell, That's the only one that actually made me mad because it's ridiculous. It's completely ridiculous. That, well, gay people are being hunted in the streets. No, but there's, I mean, they've definitely been made a target. Gay people who've been made a target. Yeah, both rhetorically and through what, what, and through what.

And through what. Like what? Like what? Like what? But, you said gay people. Yeah, but I mean, there's a, I mean, there's plenty of an attempt to roll, you actually brought a trace people, whatever. Yes, because that's what they're actually all about.

Gay marriage. There's been a question about this. That's ridiculous. We're talking about a fringe belief. No, it's not. In any case, in any case, with ICE commentary, I don't even think you disagree with their sentiment. But my, you know, my bottom line here is for all the people who are like, I'm going to root against them because I disagree with their political take. Like, to me, that feels un-American.

Okay. Of like that you have to agree with every political sentiment that is expressed with someone to root for Team USA. Let's test the moral purity. Let's say that there are many liberal chiefs fans who root. against Harrison Butker, who is massively pro-life, who stands with Trump. Every time that guy misses a field goal, Libs cheer across the house. But that's different than Team USA. No, I agree with you.

But there are even, you know, there are choose not to cheer for that team. Sure, but there are even Chiefs fan. I have seen who are like, fuck Harrison Butker because of his political beliefs. Again, is there going to be any real consistency on behalf of the, if we had a deeply conservative Olympian who was like, I love Trump and I support ICE, everyone will be against him. Let's not lie, all right? Like, let's be very honest about how everybody would also react. So I'm not going to grant some, like, special exception of how fantastic liberals. I would not say that that person should be like, they shouldn't be allowed to compete and they

should be stripped of their, like, Olympic status. In the Obama era, you might be, blah, blah, blah. Now, currently, I would hope that maybe that that would hold up. Again, it's an unfalsifiable. I don't really know. But it's one of those where when I look at this entire thing, I see weakness from bad bunny to the way that they have reacted to it. By the way, that's the other problem. It's not like Hunter Hess was like, he didn't say anything all that provocative. Like you just said, he was trying to talk,

frankly, in a very, like, mealy-mouthed way and trying to, like, give a bar, he was like, well, give a little uncomfortable. Yeah, acknowledge reality. And it's like, if you're going to have a full-blown meltdown over something like that, like you look like a little bitch. And it's like that's generally how, like, I see deep weakness.

in the way that people have reacted to this. Yeah. I also think that any purity test for athletes, like, yeah, I can sit here and criticize Eileen Gou, but, you know, I mean, what's so different? If our lawmakers, like, if she can't say anything about Jimmy Lye, and we can, you know, our athletes are, it's going to say something, and then lawmakers all the way up to the top or say they should be removed, I mean, what, you know, we don't have a lot of standards, like here to be sitting on.

In fact, that's one of the often, one of the, one of the conservative critiques is you don't go on, foreign soil to trash America and that America's held to a higher standard, which it obviously is. No one's asking Iranian Olympics how they feel about the protests. If they say something, they'll be killed. You know, if you ask somebody from, if you ask somebody from a lot of these authoritarian countries how they feel and they express a dissonant view, remember North Korea and their whole soccer team situation, like they had a real problem if you get embarrassed on the world stage. So there are real examples where it's actually disastrous to speak out. If anything, it's kind of a privilege of the United States where the worst you're going to get is a bad tweet from the government.

They can't really do anything to them. Yeah. Well, I mean, they did like arrest people for writing op-eds, but I don't think that these, I don't think these Olympians are in danger of, I don't think they're in danger of being present. Hunter Hess is not going to be jailed, killed, he'll probably make a shitload of money off of sponsorships and he'll be fine. And most of the, you know, I mean, literally, we are a country which allows traders to go and represent a, compete for a foreign government. And then we still allow her back in and massively enrich her. Apparently everybody's like fine with that. I think that's bullshit, by the way.

Here's the other thing is Trump is extremely critical of the U.S. all the time. I am too. Extremely critical of the U.S. all the time. And on foreign soil and all of those things. And it's part of the reason why he was appealing to begin with because he was willing to say like, hey, things are not, you know, American carnage. Like, things are not going well here. So in any case, that's a frigate.

There's one last piece to mention here, which is that the U.S. made the decision to send some ice agents to the winter Olympics, is D5, to, supposedly provide security, like, I don't know why you would choose ice agents. It's not really what they're meant to be doing. But there have been huge protests in Italy over the presence of these ice agents. There've been, you know, the protests aren't just about that, but that's part of what is fueling that. So, you know, the zone, I think, in this context, to your point, soccer, political game being played here from the, from the Trump administration. Can I say something? Italians, worry about your own fucking country. Like, I'm sorry. Like, this annoys, in noise.

the crap out. Yeah, but now this is in their country. But the globalization of our politics is so annoying. My wife is abroad right now. The amount that these foreigners pay it, like, she literally has... I totally disagree with this. These people pay attention to Texas special elections. Sagar, we have so much impact on the whole world. Like, of course, of course people around the globe care about what happens here. I don't want to listen to these fucking intel. You guys are literally, your GDP is nothing. You make no real products. I mean, but again, think of the way to like... much bigger problems.

Carrapping this country. Yeah, sure. It's threatening Greenland and whatever. Like, of course they have to pay attention to our politics. We give no other choice. But, you know, protesting around ICE, like, Jesus Christ, like, you people have so many bigger structural issues. If anything, the reason you're in that position is because you're so obsessed with us as

the global superpower. Try and become one yourself. I think it is well within their rights to protest. I didn't say it. It's not their rights. There's not their rights. There's no, you know, unaccountable. There's no question of rights.

No impug. You know, total impunity secret police coming to your country. Which, by the way, resembles what? What does that police force resemble? Oh, right. European police forces, which, again, no due process, no rights, no First Amendment. Shut the fuck up if you live over there.

You people literally basically already live in the exact state system. And they're trying to criticize us. So I'm sorry. Like, I'm not going to lose it. Some great Italian. I don't want any. No, they're not. They live.

They love it. They love their censorship regime. These are the biggest hypocrites on the planet. So that's the one thing I will stand for my countrymen who criticize us. I will not stand for these fucking Europeans. When you send ICE to a foreign country, the people in that country are allowed to protest. Sure they can protest, but you basically live under the same occupied regime, except you have no due process, no system to actually do anything about that. Most of you are complying.

Are they murdering Italians in the streets? Who protest? Listen, they once did, all right? Where do you think it all originated? Yeah, but in the modern era, do we have the level of brutality from the Italian police as we do for my estate? Do you really think they have a moral like to stand on in terms of we're talking about comparing? We're talking full history? Yeah, we should.

Okay. They have to be, they have to. Who invented imperialism? They have to constantly atone for the sins of their grandfathers. Okay, all right. Then let's talk about slavery. Fine. I've told you, I've been toying with the idea of generational guilt.

Your 1619 pills now? It's not that I've been toying with the idea of like collective guilt in an interesting way, which I'm sure people will, people will all. Let's get Nicole Hannah-Jones on for a conversation with you. People will. Let's get Ebram X. Kendi on to talk with you about that. I would like to see that overlap. I see it differently. And then that's, that's the whole point. But that's a different conversation. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the honest talk podcast.

I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on I Heart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. What do you do in the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins.

And if you can hear me, is where culture meets the soul. a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff, identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore,

loss that changes you, purpose when success isn't enough, peace when your mind won't slow down, faith when it's complicated. some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to if you can hear me on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea. In 1995, my neighbor and a trainer disappeared from a commune. It was hard to be. to wrap your head around. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. So no, I am not your guru.

And back then, I lied to my parents. I lied to police. I lied to everybody. There were years right where I could not say your name. I've decided to go back to my hometown in Northern California, interview my friends, family, talk to police, journalists, whomever I can to try to find out what actually happened. Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over hippies in the woods

and not the obvious boyfriend? They have had this case for 30 years. I'll teach you, sons of a bitch, come around here in my wife. Boom, boom, this is the red weather. Listen to the red weather on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's find some common ground on hatred of our AI overlords here. Horrifying story from Reuters. And kudos to them for doing the digging into this.

So they say as AI enters the operating room, reports arise. of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts. So the background here is that obviously you have AI now is the new hot way to grow your company, including medical device companies. So you have companies trying to push these devices into the market. You have an FDA that has been degraded drastically by Doge and patients now basically being used as guinea pigs.

So let me give you some of the specifics here from this article. Let's put this first piece up on the screen. They found that at least 10 people were injured between late 2021 and November 2025, according to reports, most allegedly involved errors in which the true die navigation system misinformed surgeons about the location of their instruments while they were using them inside patients' heads during operations. Obviously, the company denies any wrongdoing. Put the next one up on the screen here, they say, cerebrospinal fluid reportedly leaked from one patient's nose. In another reported case, a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient's skull into other cases. Patients each allegedly suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured. But the next one up on the screen, the FDA has received reports involving dozens of other AI enhanced devices,

including a heart monitor said to have overlooked abnormal heartbeats and an old. ultrasound device that allegedly misidentified fetal body parts. So in one of the examples that they identified here, first of all, the doctor had a consulting contract with the company that makes this device. So you inherently have questions about a conflict of interest in the doctor choosing to use this technology to start with. What they talk about here is the patient was being treated for chronic sinus sinusitis. The procedure involves, it's a relatively non-invasive procedure. should be sort of cut and dry relatively straightforward. They inflate a balloon inside your sinus cavity to create additional space.

But the allegation is that this technology, because it did not properly inform the surgeon where their medical instruments were, that they accidentally nicked an artery that goes to the brain. This caused a stroke. And there were a couple strokes that they identified because that they're attributing to this technology. again, the company denies that it is ultimately their fault. But to me, Saugger, the bigger story is we have put E5 up on the screen. We had this Doge assault on the FDA. Some of the, I remember was talking about this at the time, about 15 of the 40 AI scientists

in the special unit that had been spun up in the FDA to evaluate exactly these types of devices were laid off or opted to go. Another unit that crafted policy on devices using AI, the Digital Health Center of Excellence, about a third of its staff around 30. So they are overwhelmed. And what the device makers try to do in order to avoid like a lengthy evaluation process is they'll say, oh, this is just like this other device that's already on the market. We've just updated it.

But the update may be completely changing the way the device works and implement an AI, whereas the device previously did not have that. And so a lot of these devices are sort of getting approved with relatively minimal scrutiny, And all of this is being done at an FDA that's completely overwhelmed. Yeah, it's not only regulatory. It is really just like the runaway nature of the way that these people are rolling stuff out. And, you know, you pointed out these concrete ones, but just at a very basic level, remember, the promise here was that they were going to cure cancer.

That was the promise. And by the way, if anyone's watching the pit, there's a good plot line currently of a doctor who's pushing generative AI, which immediately runs into problems in the actual ER. I thought it was a good, like, artistic representation of some of the way that this is currently already happening in medicine. Let's put E6 up here on the screen. I loved this piece, which was this author, Let ChatchipT analyze a decade of Apple Watch data,

then called his doctor. He said Chatchapit says it can now answer personal questions about your health and fitness trackers. The new Chapman Do You Help says it can help you understand patterns over time, not just moments of illness. So with my 10 years of Apple Watch data, I uploaded it and asked the bot to grade my cardiac health. It gave me an F. I freaked out and went for a run. I sent the report to my actual doctor.

Am I an F? My doctor said, no. In fact, I'm at such low risk for a heart attack. My insurance probably would not even pay for an extra cardiovascular fitness test to prove that the artificial intelligence is wrong. I then showed the results to a renowned cardiologist, and he said, quote, it's baseless. This is not ready for any medical advice, period. So there you go. In terms of what our initial diagnoses and all of that are looking like. Well, and he would keep asking it. He'd go back and be like, okay, evaluate it now. And they'd be like, you get a B, evaluate it now.

You get a D, evaluated now. You get an F. Like, it was same data asking the exact same question, getting everything from a B to an F, I believe, was the range. I don't know. I just think we need stuff to be banned. Like I really have come around to a much more Luddite view where any image generation ban it. What social benefit?

could come from that. Whenever it comes to medicine, you got to prove it before you can use it. Like, that's one of those where I'm going to treat it like a drug trial, which I know that everybody, you know, there's pharma and all this says, criticizes it. And fine, I agree. If anything, it's probably too corrupt and not more, you know, available for scrutiny. But I think it's got to be drug trial related where unless you can, until you can prove with explicit patient consent and everything that over a long period that you've worked out all the kinks that you've, you know, made and redone developments and triple quadruple tested it, it should not be able to be used in the format that we're like currently looking at because, you know, you're playing with people's lives

here. And I'm somewhat sympathetic. Like, you know, there's a ton of human error too. I recently saw this thing. There's a new study that when cardiologist conferences are happening and you go into the hospital, that you are more likely to live. And the reason why is that the cardiologists are the people who are like approaching you when the senior cardiologist is out of town is because they do things kind of the old way.

and that the newer doctors will do something. It's either in the new way or they won't apply, like, the stuff that's more routine. And I was like, oh, wow, well, that's a real argument for disruption and all of that in medical education. And that definitely is something that's, like, a product of human error. Yeah. But I don't think that this is the answer, right? You need a more rigorous culture or something like to be a objective. I miss when I was just enthusiastic about new technological development.

Like, I miss that. And the reason that I don't have that now is not because I don't think that the AI development has promised. I do think it has potential and promise to improve people's lives. It's because we don't have a political system that is going to do anything other than, like, you know, use it to further a misery to us, extract profits and, you know, funnel power and wealth to the top. So for me, it's there, obviously there's serious technological issues and questions, et cetera, that we talk about on this show. But the bigger problem for me is a political problem. It's an ownership problem as well. because if you have this technology, which is, if it's nearly as powerful as they're projecting,

in the hands of a few that is inherently an issue. But to that point of the political problem, put the E7B up on the screen. I mean, this is just like Lotus Health, this company has just raised $35 million for an AI doctor that will see patients for free. And the way they're pitching this is basically like, look, you can get your, enter your information, our AI doctor will diagnose you. It can write prescriptions, et cetera. And at the very end, we're going to have a real doctor come in and just make sure that it's okay.

So it's not completely, you know, free of doctors. And then you ask, okay, well, what's the profit model? And, of course, what they're looking at, right now they're saying, oh, we're not going to worry about that. But what they're looking at is paid sponsorships. So you're going to be, I mean, we already have this system where pharmaceutical, big pharma can average, oh, ask your doctor, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now we're talking about integrating that directly into the medical care that you're receiving from an AI doctor. And no one would want this if we had a free healthcare, like the rest of the developed world.

This would not be a money jay or would not be appealing, et cetera. But because we have this screwed up political system, screwed up health care system, you know, I can absolutely see that. I understand why they're able to raise $35 million where I can see why this could get traction. if you have no other alternative, then yeah, you're going to go to the AI doctor and watch the pharma ads and, you know, hope that cross your fingers and hope it works down okay. Yeah, I think very, very true. All right, thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate it. Let's get to our guests who's going to talk about Sudan. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders,

and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, We interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on I Heart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. What do you do in the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins.

And if you can hear me, is where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff, identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore, loss that changes you, purpose when success isn't enough, peace when your mind won't slow down, faith when it's complicated. Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to if you can hear me on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea. In 1995, my neighbor and a trainer disappeared from a commune. It was hard to wrap your head around. It was nature. and trees and praying and drugs. So no, I am not your guru. And back then, I lied to my parents,

I lied to police, I lied to everybody. There were years right where I could not say your name. I've decided to go back to my hometown in Northern California, interview my friends, family, talk to police, journalists, whomever I can to try to find out what actually happened. Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend? They have had this case for 30.

years. I'll teach you sons of people to come around her in my wife. Boom, boom, this is the red weather. Listen to the red weather on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So as you know on the show, we've been covering

the war in Sudan, which is both a civil war, spilling into a regional war. It is a proxy war and is also creating the worst humanitarian crisis on the entire planet. Our next guest has been focused on that aspect in particular. Nathaniel Raymond is the executive director of the humanitarian research lab at Yale School of Public Health,

and he joins us now. Welcome, sir. Great to have you. It's good to be here. Thank you. Yeah, of course. So you're out with this new report. Let's put F2 up on the screen here, guys, about the extensive use of what are called suicide drones. You said you've identified 51 suicide drones loitering munitions at a new launch point. Could you write down the research that you have discovered here and why this is significant to the current state of the war in Sudan? So the war in Sudan is basically a fight between the Sudan Armed Forces, the Army of Sudan, and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, which is basically an ethnic militia from the western part of the country in Darfur. And the United Arab Emirates, according to

U.S. intelligence, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, has been arming the rapid support forces. especially with these what's called suicide drones or loitering munitions, which are Shaheed-style delta wing, meaning that they look like a V, and you fire them from a launcher like a slingshot, and they can go between 12 to 1,700 kilometers, and they blow up on target. And right now, the rapid support forces have been using them to harass civilians, including a World Food Programme convoy,

a market and hospitals just in recent days. So where does the United States fit into all this? Well, that's a heck of a question. The United States has been negotiating as part of what's called the quad, a supposed humanitarian truce. But the fact of the matter is that neither side has fully agreed to the humanitarian truce. And at this point, there's been a stunning reversal of fortune in the past three weeks where Sudan armed forces, really for the first time since they retook the Capitol,

has broken out of being stuck in what we call a turtle, a siege posture in several cities, and they're now attacking the rapid support forces, meaning that they have no reason to agree to a deal right now when they are beginning to take the advantage. Let's go ahead and put F1 up on the screen. This is in reference to that attack on the World Food Programme, aid convoy that you were discussing. So we have a statement here from the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, saying the U.S. condemns the latest drone attack that targeted a convoy of the World Food Program in North Kordofan, which was transporting food supplies to people suffering from famine and resulted in the

killing of one person and the injury of many others. This comes to the wake of an attack that occurred earlier this week in Blue Nile State resulted in the injury of one World Food Program employee. The destruction of food intended for those in need, and the killing of humanitarian workers is utterly reprehensible. The Trump administration will never tolerate this destruction of lives or of U.S. funded aid. We demand accountability and we extend our deepest contolences to all those affected by these unjustified incidents and this horrific war. One thing I note in the statement, and you tell me if I'm reading too much into this, but they don't actually name the RSF here as being the perpetrator of this, you know, of this war crime. And it seems like, you know,

the language is intentionally vague. You talk about why the U.S. is sensitive. to naming the party to blame here in this incident? I put a tweet out as soon as I saw that statement, which was copied from Bulos, the special advisor for Africa, from the Trump administration. And I said, you wouldn't know it from this tweet that this attack was committed by the rapid support forces. And so we have to put this in context for your audience.

in the end of October, after we were monitoring the city of Alfosher, which was under siege for two and a half years, we believe between 60,000 to 100,000 civilians were massacred inside basically a killbox and earthen wall by the rapid support forces. In an act of genocide, probably the last major killing of the Darfur genocide. And so what you have to understand here is the rapid support. forces aren't just bad guys with guns. They are genocide heirs who have been killing civilians on mass and civilians from the Zagawa, the four, and the Masali, which are the indigenous, black, African, Muslim tribes of the West. And so the fact of the matter is that the United States has made a decision, as has the United Kingdom and Europe, that they've prioritized the

diplomatic, economic, and security relationship between the West with the UAE over the lives of these people. If the West wanted to, they could stop this war in about 10 seconds. And that's turning off the spicket of advanced weapons to the rapid support forces from their sponsor, which is the UAE, which is a major defense partner of the United States and of the United kingdom. Let's put F2 up there on the screen. This was flagged for us where a new report that you guys put out identifies some 51 suicide drones, loitering munitions at a new launch point. Can you just explain the significance of some of these drones and the technology that enables some of this massacre? So to launch a weapon like this, you need to have four things. One, you need the weapon itself,

which we can observe the actual munition, which is likely consistent with a sunflower, which is a type of drone manufacturer by a Chinese company called Marino and there are several similar types, and they're known as Shihide-style or Delta Wing. You need the launcher, the physical slingshot. You need to have a ground control station and satellite uplink,

and you also need to have anti-aircraft surface-air missiles to protect that installation. We know that they have all of the above. And just to put it in perspective, the rapid support forces, when they were the John Joaquin, about

20 plus years ago, had camels, rusty pickup trucks, old infield rifles, and really junkie AK-47s. Now they have an Air Force. and they have a Air Force that was provided to them, we know from Defense Intelligence Agency

and the Intelligence and Research Bureau of State Department by the UAE, according to the Wall Street Journal. And in that Wall Street Journal article, it confirms, U.S. intelligence confirms the finding of our lab that these RSF forces also have advanced Chinese fixed-wing drones called CH-9-5s, which are not present. in that image. And so basically in the space of 18 months, they've gone from being in the back of pickup trucks to being able to fire munitions anywhere in Sudan within two to three hours.

There was a report from Reuters this morning that I just saw that I wanted to get your reaction to. They confirmed what has been, you know, sort of rumored and, you know, theoryed in various intel circles that Ethiopia is hosting a secret camp to train thousands of fighters for the RSF paramilitary group in neighboring Sudan. Roiders reporting is found the latest sign that one of the world's deadliest conflicts is sucking in regional powers from Africa and the Middle East. Can you help us understand the significance of Ethiopia getting directly involved here, why there are so many fears of this war spiraling into a regional conflict? And what these regional proxy powers, why they have such an interest in what happens in Sudan? Well, there's a lot of questions. I threw a lot at you.

Yeah, so I'll do my best here. Yesterday I reviewed imagery related to that alleged RSF base in Benny Schengel on the Ethiopian side of the border. And I've been in that area before near Assaso, so I know that terrain well. And what you have to understand is that there's, it's thick jungle with a lot of hills. So things don't just pop up there. You have to really want to build something there. And we see not just in the sites that Reuters identified, but we can give you a little bit of new news this morning,

is that we think there's additional sites beyond what Reuters identified, and we're working to verify that, that really start to appear mid to late October to early November, in that area. And they appear near Ethiopian National Defense Force bases in that area.

So the big deal about this is A, it shows likely that Abe, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, is basically siding with RSF. Additionally, what it

shows is that the RSF, as we've seen in recent days, has been trying to build basically an eastern front to try to pull the Sudan armed forces off from attacking RSF bases in Darfur and trying to reclaim cities in the West.

So they're trying to get SAF to attack towards the east so they can bog them down. Why is this happening? Well, as you said, you know, when people say Sudan is a civil war, I bulk at that. It is a fight of regional proxies where the main victim in the battlefield

are the lives and bodies of Sudanese civilians. And like the movie Die Hard, what you think is a terrorist action actually is a bank robbery. And so the people who are being robbed of their resources are the Sudanese people. And so really, Ethiopia, watch what's happening now with Eritrea. Eritrea, who was cited with Saff, is now

threatening action in the north in Tigray. And so this is all part of a regional neighborhood battle by about six to eight countries. Wow. Well, Nathaniel, I thank you so much for joining us this morning. I really thank you for your work on this and keeping the focus on, as you said, and as I said, the worst humanitarian crisis unfolding on the planet right now. Could you let people know where they can follow the reports that you're putting out and the information that you're sharing? Yeah, just type Yale, HRL, and Sudan into Google and reports, and it will be the first thing that pops up.

All right. Thank you so much. We're really grateful for your time. You can scroll the headlines all day and still feel empty. I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, is where culture meets the soul. Honest conversations about identity, loss, purpose, peace, faith, and everything in between. Tweed, celebrities, thinkers, everyday people, some have answers. Most are still figuring it out.

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