The Philip DeFranco Show - Candace Owens Brigitte Macron Harassment Scandal Is Bigger Than Most Know. 10 People Now On Trial

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wait to see if there's a long-standing impact here or it's just a blip. And then I've got more news for you in a second, but do you ever wonder how many subscriptions you're actually paying for? Because if you're like me, it's more than you think. Right, and thanks to today's sponsor, Rocket Money, I found subscriptions I totally forgot about, like the random app I hadn't touched in months. And Rocket Money, it's the personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.

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Starting point is 00:01:10 It's the epic return of mayor of Kingstown. Warden? You know who I am. Starring Academy Award nominee Jeremy Runner. I swear in these walls. Emmy Award winner Edie Falco. You're an ex-con who ran this place for years. And now, now you can't do that. And Bafto Award winner Lenny James.

Starting point is 00:01:28 You're about to have. have a plague of outsiders descend on your town. Let me tell you this. It's got to be consequences. Mayor of Kingstown, new season now streaming on Paramount Plus. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news. It is Tuesday, and there is a lot to talk about, starting with this.

Starting point is 00:01:45 You've got big Candice Owens, Brigitte McCrone news. But also I'll say it's bigger than Owens, because right now you have 10 people in France on trial for harassing Brigitte McCrone with debunk conspiracies that say she's transgender. Brigitte, she's the First Lady of France. We've talked about these conspiracies. before, and that's largely because Candace Owens just kind of exploded the reach of these claims recently. But even though Candace might be one of the most vocal personalities on this, like, she's not the first person to spread this theory.

Starting point is 00:02:08 And with that, back in 2024, Brigitte's lawyer filed complaints over cyberbullying, which eventually led to multiple arrests in 2025. And so now you've got nearly a dozen people facing a two-day trial over claims that they made regarding her gender and sexuality, as well as equating the age gap in a relationship with President Emmanuel Macron to pedophilia. And with that, you would have judge saying that these posts have deteriorated the First Lady's physical and mental health. According to reports, the accused include a self-described medium who played a major role in spreading the theory after posting a four-hour YouTube video about the subject in 2021. That's along with others, including an elected official, teacher, and computer scientists. But also, reportedly, many of the accused are arguing that they were just joking about this, and they don't belong in court over their remarks with one saying,

Starting point is 00:02:45 it was just a joke, like a lot of people, I'm asking why I'm here today. Today, you can send people to court for tweets. And another asking, do you need a permit in France to crack a joke? Even though this trial is just two days, a verdict isn't expected until later. But also, understand, this is a criminal proceeding. So if they're convicted, they could go to jail for up to two years. Right, and that is, this is definitely not the only legal action that the McCrone's have taken over these trans conspiracies. One of the reasons we've talked about it is in July, they sued Candace Owens for defamation for repeatedly claiming that Brigitte was born male. But also that hasn't stopped Candice from continuing to spread that theory, right?

Starting point is 00:03:15 I mean, as recently as this weekend, she was posting more what she called evidence to back her claims on Twitter. And then actually the day the trial in Paris started, she wrote, if it walks like a dude, talks like a dude, and is listed in the French tax registry as a dude, then it's the first dude of France. Right, so she appears to just definitely not be stopping, and the Macron's as well, they're not backing down from their fight. And in fact, with that, just last month, you had BBC News reporting that they would be presenting photographic and scientific evidence to a U.S. court to prove that Brigitte is a woman. And you had their lawyer saying, it is a process that she will have to subject herself to in a very public way, but she's willing

Starting point is 00:03:45 to do it. She is firmly resolved to do what it takes to set the record straight. If that unpleasantness and that discomfort that she has of opening herself up in that way is what it takes to set a record straight and stop this, she 100% is ready to meet that burden. But with all that, you know, you have some seeing this explosion of people that are believing this conspiracy theory and arguing that it speaks to larger trends and issues that we need to care about. For example, a professor at the University of Portsmouth in the UK saying, these rumors are part of the broader wars on truth that characterize much of today's political discourse, saying they are primarily a partisan political phenomenon designed to weaken opponents and erode their legitimacy. For now, we're going to have to wait to see what happens with this two-day trial as well as what happens with Candace Owens. The next step in the news, Texas A.G. Ken Paxton has now filed a lawsuit, claiming that the makers of Tylenol actually knowingly withheld evidence of the drugs links to neurodevelopmental disorder. Right, but of course, right, these links, they're unproven right now. And so this just seems to kind of be the latest fallout from Donald Trump, claiming that autism can be caused by pregnant women taking Tylenol, which of course goes by the non-brand name.

Starting point is 00:04:41 Acetaminopin. Acetaminopin. Is that okay? Right, and the companies named in Paxton's complaint are Johnson & Johnson, which sold Tylenol for decades, and Kenview, which is a a spinoff company that's sold the drug since 2023. And then with that, you had a spokesperson for Johnson and Johnson, noting that the company divested its consumer health business years ago and added all rights and liabilities associated with the sale of its over-the-counter products, including Tylenol are owned by Kenvue. So actually, with that, Paxton's lawsuit also claims that this is the real reason

Starting point is 00:05:09 that Kenview was created to shield Johnson and Johnson from liability over Tylenol. Though I will say, Paxon has provided no evidence of that at this point. And when Johnson and Johnson first announced a spinoff in 2021, they said that it was just a business decision. Right, and with that, I do think that it should be no. There is other stuff and controversies involving Johnson & Johnson, where the company also recently dealt with massively expensive lawsuits over its role in the opioid epidemic and accusations that talc, once used in its baby powder, caused cancer. And then you had the Tylenol lawsuits, you know, kind of picking up steam in 2022, with hundreds being filed in state and federal courts by families who claim that their children were diagnosed with autism or ADHD after use of Tylenol during pregnancy.

Starting point is 00:05:45 New York, a judge dismissed the biggest batch, more than 500 of them back in 2023, citing a lack of scientific evidence. But now you've got those plaintiffs appealing the decision, and a hearing's actually scheduled for November 17th. Now, of course, one of the big key differences is you have the President of the United States and RFK Jr., openly discouraging prodding women from taking Tylenol to the risk of causing autism. Right, and they both pointed to the same study now being cited in Paxton's lawsuit, a research review which looked at 46 studies and found evidence of a link. But also a very big thing is that even the researchers who conducted that review cautioned that their findings were not conclusive. And with that, they advise that Tylenol may still be used, but no more than necessary. So that's what standard medical advice here is already anyways.

Starting point is 00:06:21 And then also with that, another major study of nearly 2.5 million children born in Sweden found that any potential link disappears when accounting for genetics. And so with this, independent experts and major medical groups have not stopped recommending Tylenol, noting that it's considered the only pain relievers safe to use during pregnancy to treat high fevers. Right, and we know, without a doubt, if those high fevers are untreated, they can pose serious risks to the health of the baby and the mother. But still, you've had Trump doubling down on this, writing on Truth Social over the weekend.

Starting point is 00:06:46 Pregnant women don't use Tylenol unless absolutely necessary. Don't give Tylenol to your young children for virtually any reason. But the next up in the news, Trump is trying to rig California's special election. Right, that is what top officials, including Governor Gavin Newsom, are saying just days before people head out to the polls to vote on Prop 50. Right, and Prop 50 would allow the state to reds' congressional maps to give Democrats five more seats in the House and counter Trump's sweeping campaign to gerrymander more Republican seats in red states. And specifically, you're seeing the allegations of interference coming after Trump's DOJ announced that it'll be sending federal election monitors to five counties in California that together make up more than 40% of the state's population. We're talking Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, Fresno, and Kern. Right, in that announcement, coming up to the California Republican Party chairs and a letter to the

Starting point is 00:07:26 department requesting the monitor is claiming that the party had, quote, received reports of irregularities in those five counties during recent elections. And arguing that those alleged irregularities could undermine either the willingness of voters to participate in the election or their confidence in the announced results of the election. Now, with this, you know, I'll say federal monitoring is a routine part of elections, particularly federal elections. But you've got experts saying that the issues flagged in the California GOP's letter, they don't seem to fall under federal jurisdiction because they concern state law and state elections. Right, the federal government, it's not the place where you go to bring state level concerns. Those complaints should go to the

Starting point is 00:07:58 California Attorney General's office and California Secretary of State. But also, in addition to that, experts have questioned whether the DOJ is adequately explained why federal election monitors are actually needed in California. Right? Instead, they've just regurgitated the same points that the state GOP has made. And that's actually something you saw echoed by Governor Newsom in a recent interview. The DOJ just sent out election monitors for a state ballot, for a state constitution. They have no basis and they have no business for doing that. And Newsom, like, he did not mince words about how he views this effort. They're rigging the election.

Starting point is 00:08:29 They're creating the pretext that after we're successful with Prop 50, after there's a Democratic governor in New Jersey, then will be one in Virginia unquestionably, that they can suggest somehow these were fraudulent, these elections were rigged against them. This is a preview of 2026. Wake up, everybody. I mean, what more, they're just doing it in the open. They're doing it out loud. It's not just trolling you.

Starting point is 00:08:54 But also it's not just Newsome, right? You also had California Attorney General Rob Bonta, telling the reporters that he believes that Trump administration will use false reports of voting irregularities to try to challenge the outcome of the election. Right, and Bonsa claiming that there's not evidence of widespread fraud that would require federal election monitors. And then with that saying,

Starting point is 00:09:09 it's naive to think that Trump will accept the results, given his long history of lying about elections. And to now, in response, the state AG said that California will be dispatching its own observers to watch the federal monitors. Right, so all of it, it just screams of a healthy democracy, right? Needing a second set of observers to watch, a first set of observers who seem to have been sent just to intimidate voters. But also, beyond that, like Newsom, Bonta argued that this is just the beginning.

Starting point is 00:09:32 Saying all indications, all arrows show that this is a tee-up for something more dangerous in the 2026 midterms and maybe beyond. And with that, you had the AG specifically pointing to a post that Trump made on truth social over the weekend, clearly trying to undermine the election from a different front. Right, and it's not new, but saying without evidence that Democrats were, quote, cheating on elections and repeating the false claim that he beat Biden in 2020. With Trump also going on to say that unless the DOJ cracks down, it will happen again, including the upcoming midterms, and then adding no mail-in or early voting, yes, to voter ID.

Starting point is 00:10:00 Watch how totally dishonest the California prop vote is. Millions of ballots being shipped. Get smart Republicans before it's too late. Of course, with that, there is literally zero proof of any fraud or anything even vaguely dishonest with the early and mail-in voting on Prop 50, and there's nothing wrong with millions of ballots being shipped to voters. California law literally requires all registered voters to be sent ballots. And all of this, as Trump's message urging people not to vote early or by mail, it directly contradicts the official messaging of the California GOP,

Starting point is 00:10:27 which has encouraged Republican voters to do exactly that. So it's clear what he's doing. Like, we've seen this exact playbook before. There's no guesswork involved. Trump and Co., they're sowing the seeds to subvert democracy and undermine the will of the people, and California is just a taste, a preview. So, you know, for now, we're going to have to wait to see what happens, though, just to add my two cents, I've said this and I still stand by it. If you live in California, you are a California voter. I highly recommend you go out and vote in this election because the stakes truly couldn't be high. There are very few options right now on how people can actually resist what appears to be Trump's authoritarian takeover

Starting point is 00:10:57 of the government. And this is one of them. I hate that it is at this place. In an ideal world, nationwide, we have third party lines being made. It's as fair as possible. When Trump, others, really whoever in life, just throw out the rulebook and they're going power by any means necessary. You can't tie your hands behind your back to act like the situation's normal. This is not normal. Right, I know I try to keep an even tone through everything. It's my present station style. You are not crazy for feeling like everything is crazy right now. But you are crazy if you think things are going to go a positive way if you don't do something when you can. You know, going to the ballot box is one of those ways. And here, not only will your vote help determine

Starting point is 00:11:32 control of the House in 2026 to combat what Trump's trying to do with gerrymandering and redistricting. It'll also set the tone and possibly give us a glimpse into what Trump's inevitable efforts to deny the outcome of certain midterm elections looks like. And then we're diving into even more in just a minute, but first let me say, you know, you ever notice how you'll spend an hour scrolling for a good brunch spot, but booking a doctor, suddenly you're too busy. Because yeah, same until I finally got my life together with today's sponsor, Zock Dock. Because Zock is a free app and website where you can search and compare high quality in-network doctors and click to instantly book an appointment. Like seriously, you can search and compare over 100,000 in-network doctors

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Starting point is 00:12:43 That's ZOC-D-O-C.com slash Phil. Zodgoc.com slash Phil. But then next up, in the news, Musk just dropped his latest project called Grockipedia, which is a competitor to Wikipedia, but instead of crowdsourcing information, Grockapedia's articles are created using Musk's X-A-I and their chat bot formerly known as Mecha Hitler.

Starting point is 00:13:01 Right, and this whole idea appears to have actually been born a month ago when Musk made an appearance on the All-In podcast hosted by David Sacks, where he was singing GROC's praises. If you take the Wikipedia as an example, but this really applies to books, PDFs, websites, every form of information. GROC is using heavy amounts of inference compute to look at, as an example, a Wikipedia page,

Starting point is 00:13:22 and say, what is true, partially true or false or missing in this page? Now, rewrite the page to remove the falsehoods, correct the half truths, and add the missing context. Elon, by the way, could you just publish that? Could we create like a Grockapedia? With Sachs going on to say that something like this is necessary because he says that Wikipedia has become heavily partisan and, quote, full of activists. Which is a cause that Musk himself has taken up this year, saying that Wikipedia is too woke and generally disparaging what he called an extension of legacy media propaganda.

Starting point is 00:13:53 But since that moment with David Sacks, the idea of Groghapedia very quickly snowballed into a reality. And you've had Musk saying that it's super important for civilization and a necessary step towards the XAI goal of understanding the universe. And as far as how it works exactly, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Obviously, the big difference is the lack of apparent human authors, with Grogoppedia saying that their articles are, quote, fact-checked by GROC. Something that's sparked some concern because large language models like GROC have been known to hallucinate or make-up facts. But even with those questions and concerns going largely unaddressed, the first iteration of Groghapedia went live yesterday with its homepage touting some 885,000 articles. And just for comparison sake, Wikipedia's English version has more than 7 million pages. But that said, you know, right off the bat, there have been some issues.

Starting point is 00:14:34 First up, the launch was delayed by about a week with Musk saying they had to quote, quote, do more work to purge out the propaganda. And then, when the site did launch yesterday, it crashed within hours before coming back up last night. But the big thing that people are talking about is the content of these articles. Because wouldn't you know it, some of these articles,

Starting point is 00:14:49 they seem to skew in favor of Musk's recent views and just right-wing talking points in general. So, for example, with the entry about January 6th, you have Grockapedia saying it happened, quote, amid widespread claims of voting irregularities before it then going on to say the events of that day fueled enduring disputes over its nature, ranging from a legitimate expression of grievances

Starting point is 00:15:06 against perceived electoral flaws to a premeditated threat to democratic transfer of power. With mainstream accounts often amplifying casualty figures and intent beyond forensic evidence while downplaying antecedent failures in election oversight and riot containment. And then there's the expansive entry on Musk himself, which has flowery things to say, like, quote, his public persona blends innovative visionary with irreverent provocateur. And all of this is some journalists have already pointed out some blatantly incorrect information that's been included, like the entry claiming that pornography made the AIDS epidemic worse. And that is, despite Elon's promises of Groghapedia being, quote,

Starting point is 00:15:37 the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Right, and in addition to that, there's also the fact that many have pointed out that some of Groghapedia's articles seem to be verbatim copies of the corresponding Wikipedia articles. For example, Stephen Harrison, a journalist and author who has covered Wikipedia extensively, pointing out that there were concerns leading up to the launch that something like this would happen. Right, saying, every major AI system trains on Wikipedia's freely licensed knowledge. The irony is that Grogapedia will be built on the unpaid labor of the volunteer Wikipedia editors is that Musk has gone out of his way to vilify. And all of this, as you might imagine,

Starting point is 00:16:08 the reception to Grogopedia has been mixed. With it definitely having some big fans over on X, but also facing some heated criticism in other parts of the internet. With all this, you have Musk calling this iteration of Grogapedia the 0.1 version and promising that the 1.0 version will be even better. You know, ultimately, that is where we are, and it will be interesting to see what sort of impact this has. Right, does Gronkopedia get widespread usage? What does that do? Especially, like, because we live in a world where a billionaire and Elon Musk purchase the town square and buying Twitter and now I guess is making a history book for people that ask rock is this real well I don't think it's gonna be a net positive at the very least like a lot of

Starting point is 00:16:45 things these days it will be interesting but then next up in the news if you've been paying attention to what's happening in cities across the country recently you've seen that a lot of people are just not happy with ice shame shame shame you this is what you're gonna be How do you think you remember for us? How do you go to sleep at night? Show your face! Show your face! I don't know! I don't know!

Starting point is 00:17:10 But also, with all that, there's a very surprising person who's also upset about immigration enforcement. And that is Donald Trump. Because Trump in the White House, they're reportedly frustrated that they're not being aggressive enough. Right? I mean, back in May, Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller, reportedly berated and threatened to fire senior immigration officials unless they started arresting 3,000 migrants a day. And President Trump is going to be

Starting point is 00:17:29 going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day. And we can't take the risk of letting these Biden illegals roam around freely so that the next American daughter can get raped, the next American kid can get murdered. And while the arrest number is actually shot up after those comments to more than 2,000 a day, they've since dropped to less than 1,200 as of late last month. And far from reaching Trump's goal of a million deportations by the end of his first year, DHS says that they've done just over a half of that and expect to hit less than 600,000 by the deadline.

Starting point is 00:17:59 But that also, as you have the New York Times saying, that those numbers are slightly misleading. Right, since they count, people who were turned back at the border and other ports of entry as deportations, even if they never lived inside of the United States. And so IAS has already removed its acting director and top deportation officials twice. Well, now, according to reports, the White House is about to reassign at least a dozen ICE regional directors around half the agency's leadership and replace many of them with Border Patrol officials. And that, apparently because Border Patrol have a reputation for being much, much more aggressive than ICE. Whereas ICE, you know, is known for conducting these time-intensive, targeted operations that go after specific people that they've been investigating.

Starting point is 00:18:32 CBP, they prefer these big, sweeping raids that often scoop up the wrong people, cause panic, and provoke protests. And they've actually been behind some of the craziest scenes we've seen in recent months. Like, when agents repelled from a Black Hawk helicopter into an apartment building, his family slept in Chicago, or like when they jumped out of a rental truck and swarmed a Home Depot parking lot in L.A. arresting more than a dozen people. So as one DHS official told NBC, the mentality is CBP does what they're told and that the administration thinks ICE isn't getting the job done, so CBP will do it. Right, so now with all this, according to Fox News,

Starting point is 00:19:01 the ICE directors being replaced are in Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Portland, Philadelphia, El Paso, and New Orleans. And reportedly, that list was compiled by Corey Lewandowski, one of Christine Nome's advisors, and Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol Sector Chief in Chicago. Also, Bovino's an interesting name to bring up because last week, he was filmed throwing what appears to be a tear gas canister into a crowd of protesters in Chicago, which may have actually been illegal because earlier in the month, the federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking agent from using excessive force against protesters there.

Starting point is 00:19:28 And that actually wasn't the only time, right, CBPs deployed tear gas against people in Chicago over and over again recently. Now, with that you had DHS trying to defend itself, claiming that Bovino had been hit in the head by Iraq and that agents warned people to back up before using the gas. But whatever the case may be, you had the judge summoning him before the court today

Starting point is 00:19:43 to explain his and his agent's actions and it didn't really seem to go well for him. Or were the judge first grilling him about a number of incidents where tear gas was deployed, allegedly, without warning, including one time on Saturday just before a Halloween parade. It's saying kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer. They just don't, and then adding more generally, the warning has to be, I'm going to deploy tear gas.

Starting point is 00:20:05 The warning really has to be include what it is that you're going to do before you do it and allow people time to comply. Then actually ordered him to provide all use of force reports and body cam footage since September 2nd by the end of the week. And then after chastising Pavino himself or not wearing a camera, he promised to begin doing so and to make sure that his agents do as well. But then finally, you had the judge ordering him to actually meet with her every weekday until their next hearing and recount to her everything that happened that day. Warning, Halloween is on Friday. I do not want to get violation reports from the plaintiffs that show that agents are out and about on Halloween where kids are present and tear gases being deployed. And so for now, you know, it feels like we're watching alongside this judge for what, if anything happens from now until Halloween. But of course, in the meantime, I'd love to know your thoughts, opinions, reactions to this as well as the big cuts and changes we're seeing with ice. And then we're going to keep on diving in in a minute.

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Starting point is 00:21:57 When you support Movember, you're not just fundraising. You're showing up for the men you love. Your dad, your brother, your partner, your friends. It isn't just a men's issue. It's a human one. That's why Movember exists to change the face of men's health. From mental health and suicide prevention to prostate and testicular cancer research and early detection, MoVember is tackling the biggest health issues facing men today. Join the movement and donate now at Movember.com. But the next up in the news at least three times in the past two weeks, the Washington Post editorial board has published opinion pieces on issues which Jeff Bezos, who owns it, has a financial or corporate interest in. Right. And that, according to NPR, who also said that in each case,

Starting point is 00:22:40 the board has failed to disclose that interest. And in case, it needs to be said, in each case, just so happened that the opinion aligned with Jeff Bezos's interest. Right. And so in one piece, for example, the post praise the military's effort to develop a new generation of small nuclear reactors writing. It's a worthy gamble that could provide benefits far beyond its military applications. But also, they didn't let readers know that Bezos' Amazon last year purchased a stake

Starting point is 00:23:02 in a company that is currently developing that kind of reactor for the military. Right, and that is, they didn't disclose that Bezos himself has a stake in a Canadian firm that's trying to advance nuclear fusion technology. And in another piece of the post-urged DC officials to move faster in greenlighting self-driving cars writing, safety is a phony excuse for slamming the brakes

Starting point is 00:23:18 on autonomous vehicles. With that, coming less than three weeks, after the Amazon-owned autonomous car company, Zook, said, announced DC would be its next market. And then finally, in the third piece, you had the post defending Trump's decision to demolish the east wing of the White House without going through the normal approval process.

Starting point is 00:23:32 And there, what, you know, they failed to mention the fact that Amazon is a major corporate donor for Trump's ballroom project. Or at least, I'll say it first, because they did add an acknowledgement of Amazon's contribution after the fact, but one, this was only after a faculty member at Columbia Journalism School commented

Starting point is 00:23:46 on a social media post and asked about it. And two, they didn't flag the change as a correction or offer any sort of clarification to readers. Right, of course, all of this, it's just the latest controversy sparking concern around the post-edictorial independence or lack thereof. Well, definitely not limited to. I think there's been a heightened focus since last year, for example, Bezos blocked an endorsement of Kamala Harris for the presidency. With Bezos instead, publishing his own opinion piece, explaining the decision and conceding, when it comes to the appearance of conflict, I am not an ideal owner of the post. Right, and then in February, Bezos announced that the post opinion page would start focusing on two main priorities, personal liberties and free markets saying, we'll cover other topics too, of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be left to be. be published by others. And that led to, one, the top opinion page editor as well as other editors, columnness, and contributors to quit. And then, two, you had some 75,000 people canceling their subscriptions to the paper, which added to the roughly 250,000 who did so after

Starting point is 00:24:34 they blocked the Harris endorsement. And with all that said, I will also say that we are largely talking about the editorial board and the opinion section here. And so the post generally, otherwise, remains a super solid source of information, but you have more and more asking, will that always be the case? But that's also not where the Bezos news ends, because we've got to talk about Amazon and AI. Because for a few years now, we've heard plenty of anecdotal evidence of people losing their jobs because of AI. But now, I mean, we're really seeing that happening at a massive scale for some of the biggest companies in the U.S. But I mean, just today, Amazon announced that it would be laying off 14,000 corporate workers. And while, of course, Amazon, they're a huge

Starting point is 00:25:07 corporation, that still represents 4% of its entire corporate workforce. And that cut, despite the fact that Amazon's already thriving ahead of the anticipated holiday boom. Just last quarter, Amazon reported a $167.7 billion in revenue. That's an increase of 13% and that says the company's net income surged by 35% to $18.2 billion. In fact, Amazon's doing so well right now, you even had Beth Goletti, the SVP of People Experience and Technology, addressing it in a memo to employees' writing. Some may ask why we're reducing roles when the company is performing well. Across our businesses, we're delivering great customer experiences every day, innovating at a rapid rate and producing strong business results. But then, going on to

Starting point is 00:25:44 make it clear that AI is the overarching force that drove this decision. Right with that, pointing to a memo that Amazon CEO sent back in June that warned of upcoming staffing reductions due to efficiency gains from using AI with her then adding, what we need to remember is that the world is changing quickly. This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we've seen since the internet and it's enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before. With her then going on to argue that the layoffs are necessary for Amazon to continue quote shifting resources to ensure we're investing in our biggest bets and what matters most to our customers current and future

Starting point is 00:26:14 needs. Right while a major move from one of the most dominant companies in the Country is very standout. Amazon's far from alone here. I mean, just in the last few months, you had Microsoft laying off 15,000 employees with experts widely speculating that the cuts were driven in large part by the company's efforts to expand its investments in AI. And then last month, you had Salesforce slashing 4,000 from its workforce, a move that came just months after the CEO said that AI was doing 50% of the work at the software company. And again, this is just the beginning.

Starting point is 00:26:39 Plenty of other major corporations, they're also predicting AI-related layoffs in the near future. I mean, Goldman Sachs. They sent a memo earlier this month, warning employees to expect job cuts. skyrocketing profits as the bank integrates AI into more of its operations. And hell, we're already seeing reports that Amazon's planning another round of corporate layoffs in January after the busy season. You know, with all this, while I think that a lot of people kind of understand that this is going to be incredibly disruptive and we're going to see more and more layoffs,

Starting point is 00:27:03 I think a lot of people kind of understand that in the abstract. I don't think our people or our economy or social structure are ready for the true shake-up that we are eventually going to see. And I'm also worried that we're going to see it sooner than we think. But then next step today, We should talk about how Donald Trump is opening up a million and a half acres of Alaskan wilderness to oil and gas drilling. Right, the entire coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is one of the largest virtually untouched expanses of wilderness in the U.S. Land that's also considered sacred to some local indigenous communities and it's home to wildlife including polar bears, caribou, whales, and seals. And underneath the surface, there are believed to be billions of barrels of crude oil.

Starting point is 00:27:37 And that is just one of the reasons you had Interior Secretary Doug Bergam saying last week, Alaska is open for business. He also announced an oil and gas lease sale with a National Petroleum Reserve, which is the first sale in that 23 million acre area since 2019. He also confirmed the approval of a road through the Isambach National Wildlife Refute, which on one hand will help connect a remote town with an airport that could be used for emergency medical evacuations, but also, right, according to critics. It'll cause irreparable harm to wildlife as well as many Alaska native tribes that rely on hunting and fishing for food. But also, those impacts might be small in comparison to the department also reissuing necessary permits to establish the Ambler Road project. Because that's a controversial proposal for a 211 mile industrial road across northwestern Alaska and Arctic, including 26 miles of gates of the Arctic National Park. And according to the National Wildlife Refuge Association, that road will endanger more than 200,000 migratory birds that cross through the refuge annually as well as other wildlife.

Starting point is 00:28:28 And again, that's before considering it'll threaten multiple indigenous tribes that rely on the area for hunting and food. Which is that a big reason why at least 39 of Alaska's interior villages and 37 tribes have opposed the project. But also, despite that, the state's congressional representatives are in favor of it. And they've argued that it's necessary to access a copper deposit believed to be worth around $7 billion as well as other valuable minerals, including cobalt and zinc. You know, currently, it's not clear exactly how this is going to play out. Major oil companies have previously passed on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife, largely because of how expensive it was, as well as at least some concerns about backlash. And actually with that, some major banks have committed to not financing drilling in the refuge.

Starting point is 00:29:02 And then, of course, you've got environmental groups expected to file lawsuits to try to block any future drilling from going ahead. And that includes the Alaska Wilderness League, whose executive director said in a statement, The Arctic Refuge is the crown jewel of our public land system. During a government shutdown, when everyday Americans are left without basic services, President Trump has chosen to double down on failed policies that prioritize oil corporations over people and adding. Opening the entire coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge to drilling would destroy one of the most ecologically significant landscapes on Earth.

Starting point is 00:29:29 And then with that, noting that the land is sacred for the witchian people who have, quote, stewarded its resources for millennia. Though also, with that, I will say that local indigenous groups are somewhat divided. With some, supporting oil and gas projects, noting that the that the Associated Taxes had in the past funded basic services, such as schools and running water. So there's a lot at play here, but the bottom line is some of Alaska's most pristine nature, it may soon never be the same again. But that, my friends, is the end of today's show. Thank you for watching. I've got more for you to watch right here if you want to click or tap,

Starting point is 00:29:55 or I've got links in the description. But whatever you do, let me just say, I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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