The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.12 Trump Education Cuts Are Worse Than Expected, USAID Staff Told to Burn Documents, MrBeast, Jay-Z, &

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Don't miss out on your new https://BeautifulBastard.com Drop! Go to http://gurunanda.com/defranco and grab your Smile Makeover Kit today!  Use code DEFRANCO to get 15% OFF sitewide. Use code defranco at https://incogni.com/defranco to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan. Use code “PHIL” for $20 OFF your first SeatGeek order & returning buyers use code “PDS” for $10 off AND your chance at weekly $500 prizes! https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/PHIL    Subscribe for New shows every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday @ 6pm ET/3pm PST & watch more here:  https://youtu.be/jw5xlEAs1u4?feature=shared&list=PLHcsGizlfLMWpSg7i0b9wnUyEZWI-25N3&index=1  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Education Department Cuts Workforce by Half 05:32 - Jay Z Accuser Allegedly Heard On Tape Saying He Did Not Assault Her 08:35 - Investor Pitch Docs Show How Much Beast Industries Makes 12:31 - Sponsored by Gurunanda 13:42 - USAID Employees Told to Burn or Shred Classified Documents 15:26 - Four People Arrested After Child Dies in Hyperbaric Chamber 19:03 - Serbia Cracks Down on Activism After Trump’s Assault on USAID 23:24 - Sponsored by Incogni  24:34 - NASA Launches SPHEREx Telescope  27:52 - Family Reunited With Cat They Thought Died in LA Wildfires 29:39 - Sponsored by SeatGeek 30:12 - Comment Commentary Deep Dive into Hubble Tension:  https://youtu.be/Vjwk7SLtn6E?feature=shared&list=PLHcsGizlfLMWpSg7i0b9wnUyEZWI-25N3&index=1 ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino  ———————————— For more Philip DeFranco: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2V Twitter:   https://x.com/PhillyD Instagram:   https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco Newsletter: https://www.dailydip.co TikTok:   https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco?lang=en ———————————— #DeFranco #MrBeast #JayZ ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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exclusions and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over deliver. Trump just took an ax to education and food aid with thousands of jobs getting slashed and a billion dollars meant for schools and food banks getting blocked. You've got US government employees being ordered to burn and shred classified documents with many asking what they're trying to hide. The truth about Mr. B's business empire just came out and the situation and numbers are shocking. And I've got some awesome space and cat news just to take the edge off for you. We're talking about all that and much more. Nine things you need to know today on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, how it's being covered and how people are reacting to it, starting with this.

So the Trump administration has now disemboweled the education department, but I mean, they're just getting started. With newly appointed education secretary, Linda McMahon, the wife of Vince McMahon and WWE executive, completely shuttering the department's offices today while she lays off nearly half its workforce. Cutting it down from just over 4,200 people to just below 2,200. With those who got laid off reportedly being put

on administrative leave starting March 21st. And notably when Fox's Laura Ingraham asked her whether this is the first step toward a total shutdown, McMahon replied. Yes, actually it is because that was the president's mandate, this directive to me, clearly is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we'll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished. But what we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat. And that's not to say that a lot of the folks, you know, it's a humanitarian thing to a lot of the folks that are there.

You know, they're out of a job. And with that, as you heard her mention, Trump cannot legally abolish the Education Department without an act of Congress, and Republicans would need 60 votes to bypass the filibuster. But also, last Friday, McMahon told Fox and Friends that Trump was preparing an executive order

seeking to eliminate the department. With the draft order reportedly directing McMahon to do everything she legally can to dismantle it while acknowledging the need for Congress to totally abolish it. Now with this, Trump's claim since the beginning is that he's simply handing control over education back to the states.

With him saying this morning about the department's workers. Our Department of Education, maybe more so than any other place, has a lot of people that can be cut. They're number one, not showing up to work. Number two, they're not doing a good job. We have a dream. And you know what the dream is?

We're gonna move the Department of Education, we're gonna move education into the states so that the states, instead of bureaucrats working in Washington, so that the states can run education. But there, you have critics like Randy Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, saying that misunderstands how the education department actually works. States and localities control education right now from graduation

standards to curriculum. The department doesn't run anything. What it does is fills opportunity gaps. So we're talking about kids in America, 90% of whom go to public schools. They want to take the funding. It's like robbing Peter to pay for Elon's tax cuts. Don't do this to our American children. So as far as what the department actually does, it provides a bunch of unique federal services. Services that include administering student loans and financial aid, dispersing funds for poor kids, homeless kids, and disabled kids, managing college accreditation, enforcing civil rights laws,

and measuring student achievement nationwide. But notably, you had a senior official claiming to The Hill that the cuts won't impact student aid, students with disabilities, civil rights investigation, and formula funding to states. Except, we know that's probably not true for at least one of those. Or with reports noting that the already understaffed

Office of Civil Rights suffered particularly steep cuts with regional centers shuttered or reduced to a skeleton crew. Though we've also heard discussions from the White House about moving certain functions to other departments rather than outright eliminating them. Namely, handing civil rights to the DOJ, student loans to the Treasury,

and disability programs to Health and Human Services. But what we are now also seeing is that regardless of where the cuts happen, the sheer number of them are reportedly overwhelming state unemployment system. This according to a lawsuit filed by some state attorneys general last week. With it claiming that by suddenly laying off tens of thousands of federal workers without giving them severance or warning state agencies ahead of time, the White House effectively flooded state insurers. So for example, Maryland, which received less than 200 jobless claims from federal workers over the whole first quarter of last year, now reportedly sees 30 to 60 new claims every single day. And the suit says that state investigators

have to examine each of those claims especially closely because the workers were laid off for different stated reasons and in such a chaotic manner. So that process would already be time consuming, but the suit adds that many state agencies aren't hearing back from the federal government as they try to obtain the information they need to resolve claims.

All of which it says has created delays, leaving unemployed workers in financial limbo as many of them wait to see if they can get their jobs back. But these layoffs also aren't the only education-related cuts that we're seeing right now. For example, the Department of Agriculture reportedly slashing over a billion dollars in funding for school meals and food banks. With that, including $660 million for the local food for Schools program, and $420 million for a program that provides food to food banks and organizations that reach underserved communities. And all of this as we're seeing things like the Nonprofit School Nutrition Association warning

that Congress is considering further cuts. Cuts, including one proposal that would kick an estimated 24,000 schools serving 12 million students off of the community eligibility provision, which allows high poverty schools to offer free meals to all students without an application. And a proposal that would strip a million students of automatic eligibility for free school meals.

And another one requiring income verification with every meal and reduced price meal application. And so with that, you have the nonprofits president writing in a statement, these proposals would cause millions of children to lose access to free school meals at a time when working families are struggling with rising food costs. Meanwhile, short staff school nutrition teams

striving to improve menus and expand scratch cooking would be saddled with time consuming and costly paperwork created by new government inefficiencies. But for now, we're gonna have to wait to see what happens, especially because the Trump administration, at least as of recording, doesn't appear to have commented on all this, except to say that the programs it just canceled, quote,

"'No longer effectuate the goals of the agency.'" But then from that in wild entertainment and legal news, a newly released audio recording shows Jay-Z's former accuser saying he didn't assault her and that she was pressured into suing him, right? That is the latest bombshell allegation that came from a recent ABC News report because as you might remember,

a lawsuit was filed last year accusing Jay-Z of raping a teenage girl alongside Diddy at a party in 2000. And while that lawsuit has since been withdrawn, it's still making headlines because Jay-Z is suing that accuser, identified only as Jane Doe. And now with that, you have Jay-Z's lawyer

discussing the lawsuit and doing an interview on Good Morning America, where he shared tapes that allegedly depict her admitting the assault never happened and that her lawyer, Tony Busby, told her to make the claim. But Jay-Z, was you saying he was definitely there? But he had no part in it, or he was just...

He was there. He was just there, but he didn't have anything to do with any sexual acts towards you. It was strictly... Yeah. He was the one who kind of pushed me towards going forward with him. With Jay-Z? Busby did? Yeah.

Do you know why? No. Now with this, for his part, Tony Busby denied pressuring Jane Doe into making the claim. And he gave a statement to ABC News saying, that is a blatant lie that is directly contrary to all the documentary evidence. With him then providing his own recordings where Jane Doe said she never told investigators this.

They say that they have you on tape denying that Jay-Z assaulted you. Is that true? No, no. I don't, I've never said that. With her then also denying, saying he forced her to levy the accusation, Busby also provided a statement to TMZ saying,

"'The tape is a fraud. "'They tormented and harassed and tricked that poor woman "'and took what she said out of context "'and secretly recorded her.'" But there you have Jay-Z's lawyer, Alex Spiro, saying the tape where she denied it should speak for itself. Now with that, as far as who she allegedly confessed this to, those two people on the initial tape were private investigators who were associated with Jay-Z. And when ABC News asked if Jane Doe had been coerced into a denial, Jay-Z's lawyer said that

was not the case and that she was not coerced or threatened and voluntarily spoke to them. And in Jay-Z's defamation suit against Jane Doe, he argued that her lawyers were, quote, soullessly motivated by greed and abject disregard of the truth and the most fundamental precepts of human decency. And this is notably Busby and his firm are also named as defendants in the suit. You know, with all this, it's worth noting that in a court filing earlier this month, Jane Doe said, quote, although I ultimately chose not to pursue them, I stand by my claims in the New York action and believe that I had a meritorious claim against Jay-Z. As you know, just in the past week and a half, there's been a ton of back and forth here. Busby also previously said that quotes attributed to Jane Doe and the defamation suit against her were fabricated or

that investigators spoke to someone who was not in fact Jane Doe. But whichever way this goes, this whole situation right here, it's actually very key. Because while you might consider this specific case kind of just a drop in the bucket, considering that there are dozens of other lawsuits that Diddy's facing as well as the federal indictment that he's pled not guilty to. The claims against Busby specifically here are really notable because he's the lawyer behind a ton of the major lawsuits against Diddy.

He is a main character in the case at large. And so we're gonna have to wait to see where this defamation case goes because it could likely impact or influence other cases or at the very least, how people perceive those cases. But of course, in the meantime, I'd love to know your thoughts on the situation. But then from that next step in interesting business news,

have you ever wondered exactly how much money Mr. Beast is making? Because if you have, well, great news, Bloomberg and The Verge just obtained pitch documents that were sent to potential investors that detail some of that as well as where all his business endeavors are going in the future. Because on top of his YouTube and media empire,

he has things like his Feastables chocolate bars, Lunchly, and he owns the platform ViewStats. And he clearly wants to grow, as last week we learned that he was planning an investment round that could value his company at $5 billion. As for where things are right now, you have Bloomberg reporting that Feastables is currently the moneymaker,

generating sales of around $250 million, with a profit of over $20 million last year. And this notably, as it appears, he may have actually lost money on his media ventures, which include his YouTube channel and Amazon series. Right, its sales were comparable to Feastables, but it is said to have lost around $80 million. Though this is Jude Bloomberg noting

that it's not too surprising that content like Mr. Beast might lose money, because on average, his videos cost between three to $4 million. And you know, making heaps and heaps of money on YouTube, it's not the easiest thing, which is why Amazon picking up Beast Games, it likely helped him to grow the business

without having to foot a massive bill entirely on his own. Even with that Amazon show, the show reportedly went over budget and the first season lost him money, which is something that he previously spoke about, but he hopes that the next seasons will be different. I lost a ton of money filming the show. So that came out of my pocket.

Really? Yeah, we spent way too much money on it. I lost tens of millions of dollars on that show. Really? Yeah, I'm an idiot. It on it. I lost tens of millions of dollars on that show. Really? Yeah, I'm an idiot. It was about making season one as good as possible. Which I will say after learning that, it made the scene where if you flip a coin, you double.

I don't care if this is a spoiler. There's a moment in the show where one of the final contestants can risk their own elimination. But if they flip a coin and they call it right, it doubles the prize pool from five to $10 million. And at first, when it doubled from five to $10 million and Jimmy dropped to his knees, I was like, oh, he's acting.

But now I'm not, I'm not sure. You know, all of that is to say, it's not surprising that there's a big focus on other brands, right? Feastables alone reportedly has over 100 employees now. With us also seeing The Verge adding that Mr. Beast's commerce division saw a net sales increase of 160% from 2023, and it's projected to see a 100% increase this year.

And all of this as a spokesperson told the outlet that Beast Industries is raising money and using, quote, the unique reach of the Mr. Beast platform to build big, sustainable, revenue-generating businesses. And that was also echoed by Bloomberg's report, which said that it's clear that the entertainment wing of the company is increasingly a means of selling other products,

with them noting that Beast Industries is looking to expand into video games, drinks, and wellness. With the outlet then also talking to Jeffrey Housenbold, who was hired last year to lead the company and said, "'We have an unprecedented platform in terms of reach and fandom. We have the opportunity to launch multiple businesses on the backs of that center of reach and distribution.'"

With him then also revealing, and this was a big thing, that he plans to cut $100 million in costs this year to turn the company into a profitable business and estimating they'll get to 300 million in profits by 2026. But also notably these reports, they're not the only reason that Mr. Beast was making headlines today. Because as it turns out,

he and other major creators are leading an upfronts event focused on just creators. Which if you're not super familiar, the upfronts are when all the major TV networks and streaming services, they give these massive, often star-studded presentations on their upcoming content schedule

to advertisers to woo them and secure ad deals. And YouTube's also been doing their own presentation of the upfronts in recent years, but now creators are reportedly hosting one of their own. With a Hollywood reporter reporting that Mr. Beast, Dude Perfect, Ryan Trahan, and more will have an event to lure marketing dollars from traditional TV to creator-driven content.

And this is reportedly the firm Spotter is behind the event, which will be held at the end of the month in front of the marketing leaders of over 150 major brands. With the president of Spotter also saying, "'For decades, advertisers were about owning hit shows, "'moments, and attention across broadcasts and cable.'" But then adding, "'Today, the landscape has fundamentally shifted.

"'To capture cultural moments and audience engagement, "'brands must align with creators who now command "'the largest and most engaged audiences "'across digital platforms.'" You know, even though this event is separate from YouTube's own upfront, you had Deadline saying that this is not a direct competitor to that presentation as they both ultimately

want increased advertising on YouTube. And so ultimately it's all very, very big news in the space and it will just continue. I'm a nerd when it comes to this stuff. Seeing how the industry at hand and those around it have evolved over the last two decades, it's been a wild, wild ride. And then we'll get to more news in just a moment,

but you know, first let's be real. You know, what's the first thing we notice about people? Your mind out of the gut wild, wild ride. And then we'll get to more news in just a moment. But you know, first let's be real. You know, what's the first thing we notice about people? Your mind out of the gutter, their smile. And they notice the same about you. Right, your smile is fundamental in daily social interactions and oral care is critical to your overall health. And that's where today's sponsor Guru Nanda steps in.

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and grab the Total Smile Makeover Kit today. Just scan the code on screen or head to gurunanda.com slash defranco and use code defranco for 15% off site-wide. Your coffee stained teeth will thank you. But then next up in very interesting news, the US Agency for International Development has ordered its staff to shred and burn classified documents.

Right, and this, according to NBC, which obtained an internal email sent by the agency's acting executive secretary, Erica Carr, to an unknown number of employees. With her reportedly thanking workers for their, quote, "'assistance' in clearing our classified safes and personnel documents." And then adding,

"'Shred as many documents first and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break.'" With all of this reportedly set to take place Tuesday. Now to be clear, right, destroying classified documents isn't necessarily bad or illegal. But it can be done during some circumstances,

especially emergencies, such as when an embassy is under attack. But seemingly the only people attacking USAID right now are Elon Musk and his bureaucrats, which is why I had several people familiar with the normal procedure telling NBC, this is not that. And notably with this, you have the plaintiffs in the suit against Trump's effort

to dismantle USAID filing an emergency motion yesterday afternoon, seeking to stop the document destruction. With him explaining that depending on which documents get destroyed, it could make it extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, to rebuild programs if their lawsuit succeeds. So that means that even if the courts forced Trump

to reinstate the agency's programs, over 80% of which he's reportedly ended, he might literally be unable to. With the plaintiffs alleging that Carr's email suggests a rapid destruction of agency records on a large scale, which both violates federal record keeping law and could destroy evidence in their case. But then later on Tuesday,

both parties released a joint statement report saying that the government will not destroy additional documents stored in the USAID offices in the Ronald Reagan building without affording notice to plaintiffs and an opportunity to raise the issue with the court. And so hopefully we'll find out exactly which documents were destroyed, but for the moment, at least the shredder is said to have been turned off.

Though this is, you also had one administration official claiming that the material was mostly old courtesy content given to USAID by other agencies, that it was irrelevant to the lawsuit and that original copies are still on the computer systems. But for now, we'll have to wait to see how this actually shakes out. But then moving on from that,

we need to talk about how this alternative medical facility is now being accused of putting money over their patient's safety after a little boy died on their watch. So this is Thomas Cooper. He's a five-year-old boy from Michigan with ADHD and sleep apnea. And to treat those conditions,

his parents were taking him to the Oxford Center, which is an alternative medicine facility in a suburb of Detroit with a hyperbaric chamber, which you know is this pressurized tube-like chamber that delivers 100% oxygen to the patient inside. And that is roughly five times the amount of oxygen that's found in plain old air, which makes the chamber highly combustible.

Right, and the FDA has approved hyperbaric therapy for conditions like carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness in scuba divers, and even for some wounds and burns. But also in recent years, spas and wellness centers have started promoting hyperbaric oxygen therapy as a treatment for a bunch of other health issues. And in Oxford Center's case,

they were reportedly advertising it as a treatment for more than a hundred conditions, including autism, Alzheimer's, dyslexia, and cancer, despite the FDA not recognizing hyperbaric therapy for any of those conditions. But, you know, now the reason we're talking about this today is that Thomas was in the chamber on January 31st when a single spark reportedly caused the whole chamber to go up in flames, killing Thomas within seconds. His mother then reportedly trying to rush into the fire to rescue Thomas, with the family's attorney saying she has has significant burns on her arm and that was done during a rescue attempt to try to get her child out of the burning flame. She was trying and trying to get him out and was unsuccessful. The men going on to say that the family is planning on suing to make sure that this doesn't happen again and that somebody else doesn't get hurt. Now with all this, following the explosion

and Thomas's death, the location of the Oxford Center was shut down and the authorities began investigating exactly how this happened, which has now led to four arrests this week, including the Oxford Center founder and CEO, Tamela Peterson. And arrested along Peterson, you had her primary management assistant, Gary Market, and the company's safety manager, Jeffrey Mosteller. Right, and all three of these people got slapped

with a second degree murder charge and the fourth person was charged with involuntary manslaughter and intentionally placing false information in medical records. But then yesterday, the four being arraigned and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel giving a scathing news conference. A news conference where she revealed that Thomas's death was preventable, saying the investigation reached, quote, some horrifying and simple conclusions.

Right, according to Nessel, the Oxford Center failed to perform daily maintenance checks or even yearly inspections of the equipment. They didn't have a doctor or safety supervisor on site, and they didn't have a licensed tech performing Thomas's treatment. And then on top of all that, Nessel says that the investigation found that they didn't even use a grounding strap for Thomas's treatment, which as we saw NBC News report, is essential to protect patients and equipment from static electricity, which can cause ignition while in the chamber. With Nessel then also saying, the Oxford Center routinely operated sensitive and lethally dangerous hyperbaric chambers beyond their expected service lifetime and in complete disregard of vital safety measures and practices considered

essential by medical and technical professionals. With her then going on to accuse the Oxford Center of prioritizing their own wallets over patient care and safety, saying, This was an unscrupulous business operating powerful machines beyond their manufacturer's intended term of use on children's bodies over and over again to provide unaccredited and debunked so-called treatments, chiefly because it brought cash into the door. Now with all this, as far as what's next, three of the four defendants entered a mute plea yesterday, meaning they remained silent on the

charges, which registers in the court as a not guilty plea. And then as far as number four, that was Jeffrey Mosteller, whose attorney claims he works at a different Oxford Center location, not the one where Thomas died. So he's more directly pleading not guilty. But with that, it is worth noting that the other location for the Oxford Center is also under investigation. Now, as far as the other side of this, right, the Oxford Center itself hasn't responded to any of the allegations,

but their attorney did release a statement before Nessel's press conference saying, "'The timing of these charges is surprising "'as the typical protocol after a fire-related accident "'has not yet been completed,' and saying, "'There are still outstanding questions "'about how this occurred, yet the Attorney General's Office proceeded

to pursue charges without those answers. You know, overall, just a horrific situation. It's gonna be very interesting to watch how this plays out. And in the meantime, of course, I'd love to know your thoughts on it. But then, next up in big international news, we need to talk about the situation in Serbia. Right, because months-long mass protests across the country,

they've seemingly only gained momentum, right? And the government that they're protesting against, it's one with close ties to the Trump administration. And in fact, it's a government that's even cited the American president's own actions as justification for a growing crackdown on civil society. But you know, with that, starting with the protests, they got going back in November after 14 people were killed

by the collapse of a concrete canopy at a railway station with another woman dying weeks later from her injuries. With protests then quickly springing up as people blame the tragedy on shoddy work by contractors tied to corrupt officials. Since then, they've been taking place almost every single day, becoming the biggest challenge yet

to President Aleksandar Vucic's decade-long grip on power. With last week, for example, even opposition MPs participating by setting off flares and smoke bombs in parliament. And this week, we saw several hundred protesters blocking Serbia's public television station building in the capital, blaming the broadcaster

for biased reporting and siding with the government during the demonstration. Right, and all of this ahead of a major rally that's scheduled for March 15th. But notably in the past month, we've also seen the government stepping up its efforts to quash dissent, going from blaming foreign funded NGOs for the country's problems

to actually investigating and raiding them. And specifically here, Serbian authorities have sent dozens of police officers, many of them armed, to raid the offices of at least four organizations, with them notably conducting the raids without warrants, and perhaps even more notably than that, justifying the action by referring

to the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID, as well as its denouncement by Elon Musk as a criminal organization. With us seeing the prosecutor who ordered the raids, claiming there was concern that recipients of American grants were involved in money laundering since they had used funds tainted by what Musk had said was criminal activity.

And Vucic himself, of course, has grabbed onto that narrative as well. With the saying, for example, a Serbian journalist recently trying to ask him about reports linking his son to organized crime groups, and then the president responding by accusing the reporter of working for criminal organizations and asking her, "'How much money have you received from USAID?'

And with that, again, the targets of the raid so far have only been those groups that the government has accused of orchestrating the student-led protests, not just any that received American money. With one of them, for example, by the name of Civic Initiatives, reportedly providing legal aid to detain student protesters. It reportedly previously received around 10% of its funding from USAID, and it's rendered 1,300 pages of documents as well

as thumb drives containing confidential personal information about its staff and finances. But it's also saying the executive director telling the New York Times, they are just using what Trump is doing in America against all the people they want to frighten here in Serbia. And adding that President Vucic sees the most powerful country in the world acting like this and has decided he can get rid of people here he doesn't like. As this is then an analyst at the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability, another one of the rated organizations said, there used to be red lines

beyond which Vucic would not go, but when the US government started demonizing USAID, Vucic decided he can do whatever he wants. Now with all that said, one of the most wild things about all this is that the biggest beneficiaries of American aid money in Serbia, it's actually the Serbian government itself.

In fact, the prosecutor who is investigating the rated NGOs for money laundering, USAID paid for a trip she took to Italy last year to study the Italian justice system. And beyond that, more than 90% of American aid money to Serbia has gone to government and state-affiliated institutions, including, for example, the National Parliament,

the website of which previously displayed the USAID logo and acknowledged that its development was made possible by the support of the American people through the agency. Though of course, not long after Trump came into office, that's now gone. But notably, despite all that, you have many saying that the Serbian government's actually only growing closer to the US.

Right, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is building a Trump-branded luxury hotel in the Serbian capital. Richard Grenell, a US special envoy under Trump, he's been said to have close, almost friendly relations with Vucic, and Donald Trump Jr. actually met with Vucic this week for the second time in the past year,

with Vucic saying in an Instagram post that the talk showed a commitment to the strengthening bilateral relations and working together to solve global challenges. You know, really, with all that aside, a lot of this goes to show just how many ways a Trump presidency is having an impact, not just with the United States, but around the world.

Right, because in addition to Serbia, you have the governments of Hungary and Slovakia, whose leaders are both enthusiastic supporters of Trump. They've also taken advantage of the dismantling of USAID to go after opposition. And this notably, even though the agency actually ended most of its funding in both countries after they joined the EU in 2004.

You know, in any case, you still had Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban last week, for example, accusing foreign funded groups of trying to topple his government and vow to get rid of them. With him cheering, what he said was Trump's effort to drive a stake through the heart of the monster

financed by USAID to serve the liberal globalist empire. You know, for now we'll have to wait to see generally what happens in several of these countries, but also specifically with the protests in Serbia. And then I'll get to more news with you in just a moment. But first, do you ever feel like you're being watched online? Like you search for something once and then suddenly ads for it are popping up everywhere.

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go check it out for yourself and go to incogni.com slash DeFranco or scan the QR code and use code DeFranco to get 60% off. That's incogni.com slash DeFranco and use code DeFranco to take your personal data off the market. But then next up, shifting gears from that, I've got some awesome and funny weird news. And I say funny weird in why is NASA so awful at naming things? And maybe it's because I always think of everything in terms of marketing. You know, you have to get something that like really lands in someone's head. It's quick. It gets to the point. But NASA, they're like, no, no, no, fuck all that. Let's call our new mission, Spectrophotometer for the History of the Universe,

Epoch of Reionization and Isis Explorer, also different Isis. But pass the name, which I'm gonna be calling SpherX for short. This thing's fucking awesome, and I wanna tell you about it. Because NASA has been working on this bad boy for about a decade, pouring half a billion dollars into it,

and it finally launched yesterday. And as far as what it actually is, NASA itself has dubbed it the cone of fame and the gorgeous jewel, but to be clear, it's a space telescope. Though not just any space telescope, it is different than the ones we have in orbit right now. Because the two big ones, Hubble and Webb,

they're really great at zooming in really close on particular corners of the universe and taking high resolution photos. But as NASA explained, some questions like how much light to all the galaxies in the universe collectively emit can only be answered by looking at the big picture, which is what SpherX is designed to do with the agency planning to photograph out

the entire celestial sky four times over two years in 102 infrared colors, more than any other mission before it. With it hopefully capturing more than 450 million galaxies in one humongous three-dimensional map. And so then if it pinpoints something of scientific interest, it can direct the more targeted telescopes to that spot. And then together, they'll look to answer questions

about the history of our universe, particularly what happened in the first billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, which, you know, scientists believe is when the universe exploded outward by a trillion, trillion fold in a process known as cosmic inflation. You know why or how it expanded outward, assuming that's what actually happened, is a riddle that has bedeviled, befuddled, and even confounded our awesome smart nerds for some 40 or 50 years now. And mapping out the distribution of galaxies

throughout the observable universe, it could help them trace the history and therefore the physics responsible for it. Also, if you're someone that's been into the nerdier segments of this show, you'll be happy to learn that this mission could help resolve the Hubble tension, which, you know, we did a deep dive on,

I'll link to it in the description, but in a nutshell, it's the debate about exactly how fast the universe is expanding and getting more precise measurements of stars and galaxies distances from Earth, it could help nail that down. And then lastly here, I'll say that Sphera X will study the origin of water and other organic materials

in the Milky Way galaxy, which could help scientists figure out how life evolved on Earth. Or as the acting director of the astrophysics division at NASA put it, it's going to answer a fundamental question. How did we get here? You know, if we can figure that out, then maybe we can find clues about where to look for life

elsewhere in our galaxy. With NASA saying that Sphera X will search for the basic building blocks of life, such as water and carbon dioxide and the interstellar clouds of gas and dust where stars and planets form. Right, and so with all this, after several postponements, the telescope finally launched

atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California last night. Four, three, two, one, mission. With also another NASA mission hitching a ride with that one known as Punch, which brings us back to the naming of it all, Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere. And it's sending up four satellites

that are designed to get overlapping views of the sun, creating a three-dimensional picture of its corona as it transforms into solar wind and blows throughout the solar system. Which, you know, very cool, but the big thing here is the sexy-ass telescope. Because with this growing fleet of insanely powerful space telescopes,

including Hubble, Webb, and now SpherX, showing us more of our universe than we've ever seen before, we're bound to witness mind-blowing discoveries during our lifetimes. But then, next up from that, let me give you your good news story of the day. So this is Catherine Kiefer.

She's 82 years old and her family house was burned to ash in the LA wildfires earlier this year. And the day that the fire actually hit her neighborhood, she was at a doctor's appointment. So her kids went to her house to gather what they could and rescue her main coon, Aggie. And you see Aggie was a gift to Catherine from a friend during the pandemic

and they had gotten incredibly close. But Aggie was also prone to hiding. So when Catherine's kids showed up at the house, they couldn't find her. With Catherine's daughter, Caroline, telling the AP, the one thing my mom asked was, did you get Aggie? And in the two months since the fire, they thought Aggie was gone.

But then, just this last weekend, Catherine got a call from the West Los Angeles Animal Shelter, and it turns out that Aggie had been found by an animal control officer close to what was her home. Yeah, she was matted, burned, weak, and malnourished, but she was alive. So Katherine goes down there

and she gets reunited with her cat and Caroline recorded the whole thing and put it on TikTok. Hello, Aggie. She's such a sweetheart. My sweetest girl. Hi, Aggie Kit-Kat. Oh, it's so nice to see you. I love you.

She is a sweetheart. I've been sitting with her all day. Oh, you have? I have. She's the sweetest. You're my sweetest. You wanna hold her? Hey, hi, sweetie.

Are you kidding? Hi, baby. I'm so happy to see you. Hi, baby. With that video not only getting millions of views, but the family's GoFundMe has raised over $27,000 for Aggie's vet bills. And as for Katherine, she says she just feels incredibly

lucky to have found Aggie again, telling Fox LA, I didn't think I'd ever see her again. There's just such a connection. It's sort of like you have with your children. She really means I don't wanna say everything, but that's the only word that comes to mind. I just didn't think I'd ever really get past losing her. That cat really has nine lives.

Just don't give up hope. Don't underestimate cats. And so there you go, a little flash of hope, a little flash of joy, a silver lining to an otherwise bad situation. But then let's end today with congratulations and let's talk about yesterday. Starting with a congratulations to Terry S,

SeatGeek's latest weekly winner, who scored $500 in tickets and is now weighing her options in Avril Lavigne, Concert, or a Cubs game. You know, whichever you do, I hope you have a fantastic time. But also for everyone else, that's right. SeatGeek is still giving away $500 in tickets, and you should definitely enter today if you haven't already.

I mean, imagine being the next winner and snagging $500 towards seeing your favorite artist, sporting event, or play. I mean, y'all, there's over 70,000 events to choose from. And all you got to do is just add code PDS to your SeatGeek app profile for a chance at the weekly $500 prize, no purchase necessary. So get in on it. It is a win-win, but... It won't take long to tell you Neutral's ingredients.

Vodka, soda, natural flavors. So, what should we talk about? No sugar added? Neutral. Refreshingly simple. Like I said, let's talk about yesterday in some comment commentary. Starting with comments, conversation, and reactions to Donald Trump. With FEMA trailer writing, the fact that a sitting US president

can publish a communication to the American people using the wrong form of the word your without anyone stopping him is absolutely wild to me. To which I'm gonna respond, guys, that's wild to you? You've seen everything since 2016 and you're like, your? Well, actually, we are past. Oh, did you see that he tweeted kafefe? You know, if anything,

I think there's a chunk of the population, rightly or wrongly, that liked the fact that he's just popping things off like a regular person. And so I guess what I'm trying to say is this is a little bit of a different version of words are words, actions are actions. Words matter. Definitely, especially when you're talking about the leader of a country. But actions are more important. And there's a lot of actions that are that are more deeply concerning right now than spelling errors. Then also regarding Trump, Canada, and the tariffs, you had Nottmack saying, "'Canada's response to the tariffs makes perfect sense,

and I appreciate them separating the American people who will suffer from this, and Donald, the one who caused this, that'll never be impacted by dumbass decisions like this. Not excited to see how corporations that'll jump at this opportunity to wring more out of an already struggling middle class. Yay!"

But then also, in addition to that, there were a decent chunk of comments and conversations happening around the H3 CPS situation. And that, there were a decent chunk of comments and conversations happening around the H3CPS situation. And interestingly, there was a decent chunk of focus on the whole, like when you're three years old, you don't remember things part of the situation, which it felt like it was standout and that it was just a bizarre, weird argument,

but it was also kind of separate from the main issue at hand. Ryan Gallagher saying kids don't form memories is a terrible defense considering that the trauma that one doesn't remember from childhood has been proven to be the most impactful trauma, as well as you're not really forming your memories at three. Dude, yes you are.

You may not actively remember it, but your body sure as hell does from the time you're an infant till you're an adult. It remembers it even if you can't retrieve those memories. Which again, I just wanna emphasize, I think it's an incredibly stupid argument. It's kind of a callous sort of way to think about it, but that is miles apart from being like,

yeah, I'm glad that person got a fake CPS call on them. And to that point, you had people in the comments sharing their own CPS horror stories. Folks like Crystal claiming, "'Years ago, my own mother called CPS "'in the health department because I shut her down.' But then adding, she drunk dialed these services and CPS showed up at her door at 3 a.m.

in the health department later that same day. Nothing came of the call, but neither entity would leave until they saw my then three-month-old son, whom at the time was colicky and barely slept. When CPS came at 3 a.m., my son was asleep for all of 12 minutes and then cried and wouldn't sleep for two hours more. He slept for a whole three hours

before the health department arrived in the morning. All of this because my mother was petty. She was constantly threatening to take my son via grandparent rights. There's not a snowball's chance that was ever gonna happen, but what a sick person. Suffice it to say, she is not present in our lives.

You also had others adding claims like, "'I work for CPS in a support role.'" You would be surprised how often these types of calls happen just so everyone knows it is a felony to file a false report. And adding, kids remember so much more than they let on. And again, something I mentioned yesterday and something I'll repeat here,

my focus is on fake CPS calls. Or because we have seen instances with online creators where CPS got involved and it needed to happen. But you know, probably one of the most high profile examples being the Ruby Frankie situation, or which, you know, we've covered it in detail. It was just a fucking nightmare situation. And that also ends up being part of the concern

because if there's this increase in bullshit CPS calls, especially regarding creators, then those who are actually guilty of something can point and go, we're just, we're one of those. But that my friends, you beautiful bastards, is where your Wednesday show is gonna end. But of course with that, remember I've But that, my friends, you beautiful bastards, is where your Wednesday show is gonna end. But of course, with that, remember I've got a brand new show for you

every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. Thank you for watching. I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.