The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.17 The Truth About Mark Rober Tesla Crash & Trump Accused of Going "Full Dictator" Over Biden Pardons

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

Go to http://ziprecruiter.com/defranco to try ZipRecruiter for free. Go to https://saily.com/Phil and use the code “phil” to get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans! ⛵ Subscribe for New shows every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday @ 6pm ET/3pm PST & watch more here:  https://youtu.be/8b9Df4zgGl0?feature=shared&list=PLHcsGizlfLMWpSg7i0b9wnUyEZWI-25N3&index=1  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Mark Rober Responds to Backlash For Tesla Autopilot Crash Tests 14:15 - Sponsored by ZipRecruiter  15:23 - Trump Claims Biden‘s Pardons of House Jan. 6 Panel Are Void 18:58 - Trump Admin. Defies Court Orders, Deports Hundreds of Immigrants 26:28 - Sponsored by Saily  27:35 - Dozens Killed in Storms Across U.S. 29:41 - Peruvian Fisherman Rescued After 95 Days Stranded in Pacific Ocean 32:15 - Comment Commentary  ——————————   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 #MarkRober #Tesla Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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along with new unreleased footage. Donald Trump is now saying Biden's pardons for the January 6th committee are not legitimate, which is a move some have described as Trump going full dictator, and why Trump's deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador using the Alien Enemies Act has set up a massive legal fight. We're talking about all that and much more

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. Former NASA engineer and huge YouTuber Mark Rober has found himself in the midst of a massive Tesla scandal. With Rober currently being accused of misleading viewers in his newest video titled,

"'Can You Fool a Self-Driving Car?" A video that currently has over 10 million views in just two days. And in it, he's testing Tesla's camera detection system versus the LIDAR laser scanning technology in Luminar vehicles. Right in the video, you see him put both cars through various tests, first having them approach

a test dummy of a child and both the Lidar car and Tesla with autopilot turned on stopped for the dummy. He then proceeds to add obstacles like the kid entering the road at the last second, fog, water, and bright lights. And while the Lidar stopped for all of them, the Tesla with autopilot on ended up hitting the dummy

when faced with fog and water. But then the test generating the most conversation was a sort of old cartoon Wile E. Coyote style wall that looked like a continuing of the road with Mark trying to see if the fake road would trick the cars or if they would recognize it as a wall and stop. And then the video, what you see is the LIDAR car stopping,

but the Tesla driving through it. And that is where a lot of the backlash is coming in because Mark said that he was running all of these tests using Tesla's autopilot feature. And you can see it appears to be engaged leading up to the wall indicated by that rainbow road. But if you look at the moment it actually crashed, it doesn't look like it was on. And then on top of that, some argue that if you really wanted to accurately compare Tesla's self-driving technology to LIDAR's, autopilot was not the right feature to

use. And that because while autopilot has tools like traffic aware, cruise control, and auto steer, many Teslas now have a newer tech called full self-driving or FSD, which has all those tools and many more. Which is why you had outlets like Forbes saying, frankly, fewer interested in tests on the old autopilot. So that makes Roeber's tests fairly meaningless, even if it is the case that the newest FSD system would have made the same errors. We unfortunately don't know.

Also, in addition to that, in the description of the video, Mark says that while there was no compensation given and the video was not a paid promotion, Luminar did provide the vehicle so they could test the LIDAR technology. And you know with that, you had Forbes adding, while Roeber may not have known about the software versions not a paid promotion, Luminar did provide the vehicle so they could test the LiDAR technology. And you know, with that, you had Forbes adding, while Rober may not have known about the software versions available for his car, the crew at Luminar, the LiDAR company,

which assisted with the test, provided the LiDAR car and system, and has done these tests before, would surely have been aware of them and should have informed Rober. And so, you know, with all this, there's been a ton of outrage online as well with people writing things like,

FSD was never engaged and nothing was on when he crashed into the wall. The whole video was designed to bash Tesla and promote Luminar, a Lidar company. As well as I truly don't want to believe Mark did this intentionally, but I mean, the car isn't even on autopilot when it crashes. This is disappointing, Mr. Rover.

You also had some saying that Luminar was previously advertising Mark's video on its website, though it appears that's no longer the case. And that has prompted some to question how involved Lidar and Luminar were in the video. But it appears that while Mark drove the Tesla, someone from Luminar drove the LIDAR, right? They have the company's gear on.

And even though Mark said that it wasn't sponsored and they just provided the gear, not everyone seems to be buying that. Also something that we've seen really blow up around this are conversations around stock prices. There was some noting that Luminar's stock went up huge after the video was posted over the weekend. Whereas Tesla stock,

at least as of recording, has dropped today. So you have some arguing that Tesla should take legal action here with the creator Meet Kevin, putting out a video saying Mark defrauded the company and a lawsuit could be filed adding. He promotes his own product using this, frankly, defamation against Tesla to promote his own product while also promoting Luminar Tech.

Whether or not Luminar Tech paid Mark Roper here or not may not matter. He creates negative brand for Tesla by implying that the technology he's showing is Tesla's full self-driving technology. He literally writes, can you fool a self-driving car? But he doesn't actually use the self-driving technology in his experiment. This is really problematic because if the test was done more fairly, it'd be tough for Tesla to have an argument here. Now, for his part with this, Mark responded to some of this backlash by posting the raw footage of the wall test.

Here we go. Here we go. Holy shit! And just like in the YouTube video, you can see that autopilot engages at one point and then goes off just before the crash. And Mark seemed to acknowledge that by writing, not sure why it disengages 17 frames

before hitting the wall, but my feet weren't touching the breaker gas. But also notably his response generated more criticism, right? Some alleging that the clip that he posted was a different take than the one that was in the YouTube video, right? And with all of this developing in real time and new questions and accusations popping up, we reached out to Mark Rober for comments or response, and we actually got him on a Riverside call. Keep in mind, this is not a debate. I just want to get on the record responses from him regarding some of the most

asked questions, including if he actually did multiple takes of the wall crash video, and then the internet can go from there. Mark, thank you so much for the time um i'm just going to kind of go through the the bullet points of uh accusations and questions regarding the video um and like like we talked about beforehand if there are things that uh feels like people would think that were missed or weren't covered or come out as we're recording today's video you said you're open up to follow-ups yeah sure totally all right so first one is less of an accusation and more a question and that was um was there any reason you opted to test autopilot on the tesla instead of full self-driving my understanding with full self-driving is that you have to enter an address for it to work um and as opposed to just being able to

engage it and this is what what Tesla has called autopilot. And even Googling it, seeing what they determine as autopilot. And my understanding is that the sensor is not different. Whether it's full self-driving or autopilot, knowing if that's a wall or not, that doesn't change. So I think I could, I mean, I'd be happy to rerun the experiment in full self driving. I'm pretty confident it wouldn't be a different result. So to me, it was a distinction without a difference. In the clip that you posted on Twitter, where you said, here's like the, here's the raw footage. Can you explain what it is that we're seeing and what you're, what you're

trying to explain is happening in that? You said not sure why it disengages 17 frames uh before hitting the wall but my feet weren't touching the brake or gas so i think people were saying that i was manually just drove it through because 17 frames by the way is like less than a half of a second before it hits the wall again my high pop i don't know why it would disengage i was not pulling on the steering wheel. And by the way, even if I did disengage it, it's less than a half a second before you go off. The outcome would not be different. My guess is maybe the sensors, the ultrasonic sensors, which I think are on the bumper,

they probably just disengage if they sense that something big is there and it just stops being in self-driving mode or autopilot whatever you want to call it so that's all i'm saying is like some people clipped right after and said look it's not on autopilot and i was like i don't know like i'm just here like i don't have a horse in this race either by the way right i just wanted to go i love my tesla i'll probably get a new one when they come out uh I'm just here to look at the data. And I think I struck a political nerve or something. And the video was about LIDAR and all the cool ways LIDAR is used. So I felt like this was a fun test to run.

And papers have been run on it. Can you fool a self-driving car with a Wiley Coyote ride? Papers have been written on this. So it's like, like well i should just run the test and that's what it was regarding the the raw clip and what's in the video there have been people that say that it looks like you may have had multiple takes um or possibly gone through the wall multiple times were there multiple takes what can you give any insight there i mean this is like what you put in end video so. So the first day we went out there, I didn't even see it. There was a, we didn't have like the styrofoam wall. It was just like a vinyl sheet. And it was clear if you just drive up with it, you know, you can see the Tesla tells

you the math of what it's looking at. And if you drive up to this wall with the road, it doesn't register anything. It doesn't register a cone. It's so like, whatever the brain, the math that it's doing in the computer, it doesn't register when you paint a road that something's there. Even if you just drive up to it.

So anyways, we did a take. It went right through. I think that was the one that maybe was at 40 miles an hour or something but it was just like instead of cutting through it like which would visually look cool it just kind of tore the side and like a little flap came up so it was like that was a very interesting finding that it actually worked and by the way i'm happy to give you the raw footage of that take too so you'll see it going through the wall but it's more of a flap and then we're like holy crud i can't believe that really worked and then i don't know like three weeks later we went back out when when schedule permitted this time with like a styrofoam

wall because i thought it'd be funny if it's like well now that it goes through the walls we should have like a fun cutout as it goes through so So I guess in the edit, then we used the start of one of those clips. So, so it went through the wall twice once when it was just kind of a flap and then second when it actually was. And I understand. So I guess that's the, the confusion there.

So the clip that you posted online or on, on Twitter was the one where you actually, the raw of you actually going through it the second time? Yes, that's the second time. Whereas the cool styrofoam and like the cutout, right? The first time you'll see, it's just like a vinyl print. It kind of just, the flap ripped up on the side. So it just didn't, it didn't look as interesting.

Regarding Luminar, there've been a lot of people asking what kind of role they played, right? The description of the video says they provided the car for testing. Did they have any say in the edit? Did they have any say in the setup? They didn't see the edit. I really want to clear this. Luminar gave us no money.

They had no say in the edit. They did not approach us. They were just a car technology I know that used LiDAR. So I reached out to them and said, hey, will you let us borrow some cars? And then they let us use the cars. So we didn't pay them to come. They did not pay us. They had no say. And we didn't know what happened either, by the way. And we told them, look, if your LiDAR fails one of these, it goes in the video. And if Tesla would have passed all of them, by the way, that would have gone in the video. Like, I'm very agnostic. I really just wanted to see what would happen.

So truly, I don't have a horse in this race. And I guess on that, do you or anyone close to you, once again, it's like based off of these accusations, do you or anyone close to you have any Luminar stock? I do not own any Luminar stock. Or I do not know of anyone close to me who owns any Luminar stock. Absolutely. And I know you said you love Tesla. Just to confirm, do you have any options or puts on Tesla? I have no options on Tesla. I have no puts on Tesla. I am just, there's no financial anything in here at all, at all. A hundred percent. I'll go into court of law. Okay.

Well, because besides data and interesting, like it's an interesting test. That's like the history of my channel. Like, uh, and just whatever the data shows is what I'll put up. Cause I will say, yeah. I mean, regarding you saying this in the court of law, I mean, there have been a lot of people granted it's the internet granted it's YouTube videos. Uh, I've seen some folks like, uh, I think it was think it was Meet Kevin saying that there's a possibility of a lawsuit. Do you have any concerns over that based off of the video or anything like that? No, because it's like, I mean,

anyone can sue in America, so I guess, but I think we could get it dismissed pretty quickly because it's like, I just have nothing to hide and I have no ulterior motive here. No one's paying me. I have no stock. I have no shorting. I will get, I'm planning on getting another Tesla in like, I don't even have politically, apparently it's a political issue. Like I politically, I don't even have a horse in this race. I just thought it was an interesting finding. So Mark, kind of the last two things I'll hit on. One, do you have any comment or reaction to Luminar removing the link to your video from their website? I believe it was as of this morning. Like you aren't allowed to use this at trade shows. This isn't part of your marketing material. Like we're not, this isn't a puff piece for you. We just want to borrow the car and whatever happens happens. So I, my guess is they felt bad and realized that's a bad look if they are posting it.

But we told them like, this is not for your marketing materials. We are just using your car for our video. So if it's down, I'm guessing that's why they took it down out of respect for us. Sure. And then the last thing is just, is there any general reaction or statement or anything you want to throw in there that you feel like wasn't addressed by the questions that I've thrown at you or anything like that? No, I just like, I love my Tesla. Like, it's one of my favorite. I'm really just here for the data. Like, I really don't have a horse in this race.

And I realize now we plan these videos a year in advance. So the idea that this was like time because of political stuff, like a year and a half ago, this was on our docket and we've been marching towards releasing this. So I plan on upgrading my Tesla at like six months. So I don't, I'm just, I'm just here for the data.

And I don't think it means they're self-driving or is terrible as in, like, it's going to get better. Like, but yeah, what happened happened. And if you could easily recreate, and anyone, what happened happened, and anyone with a Tesla can easily recreate exactly what I did, so. Well, I've definitely seen that there's been talk

of trying to recreate it. So it's going to be interesting to see if that happens, what the results will be. But for now, thank you so much for the time. And yeah, we'll talk soon. Right. So that is a story. Then you have Mark Grover's responses. And from here, while we wait to see what plays out, I'd love to know your thoughts on the situation, because, yeah, this is a new show. That's why people watch. But what really makes it interesting for me is the conversation. So let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below. And then we'll get to more That's why people watch. But what really makes it interesting for me is the conversation. So let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below.

And then we'll get to more news in just a moment. But first, you know, a lot of hard work goes into the show and I honestly couldn't do it without the crew that we've got. You know, with that, business owners know the importance of building a team that you can depend on. But finding the right people with the right skills, experience, and passion, I mean, it takes time and effort.

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or the reason he is saying he should be able to do this, he said Biden used the wrong pen. So as you may remember, Biden preemptively pardoned members of the January 6th House Committee just hours before he left office, with him saying that he did this to protect them from unjustified and politically motivated retaliation by his successor, Donald Trump. Which to put that decision in context, Trump had previously said about everybody on that committee. For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail. With him then later accusing them of major crimes and emphasizing how serious he was by putting that on all caps.

But now what we're seeing is Trump has taken the further step of suggesting he can reverse the pardons with him writing on Truth Social. The pardons that sleepy Joe Biden gave to the unselect committee of political thugs and many others are hereby declared void, vacant, and of no further force or effect

because of the fact that they were done by Autopen. Right, and for context there, an Autopen is just a device that presidents sometimes use to sign documents instead of doing it by hand. But it's often used when the president is somewhere else, but directs a subordinate to give it their signature on their behalf.

Right, but anyway, you had Trump continuing, saying without evidence. In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them, but more importantly, he did not know anything about them. Claiming the necessary pardoning documents were not explained to or approved by Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime. Therefore, those on the unselect committee

who destroyed and deleted all evidence obtained during their two-year witch hunt of me and many other innocent people should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level. And saying the fact is, they were probably responsible for the documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the worst president in the history of our country, Crooked Joe Biden. Now with all this, it is currently unclear whether he thinks simply inserting the word hereby somehow automatically makes his truth social post, the law of the land.

But to be clear, there is no apparent legal precedent for this whatsoever. The US Constitution gives the president the unique authority of issuing pardons, and there is no indication that future presidents can rescind past pardons for any reason, even over the type of pen that was used. In fact, Bush's White House Office of Legal Counsel

advised way back in 2005 that presidents can sign official documents with an auto pen. Which notably is why both Biden and Obama did so during their time in office. And so that raises the question of, well, where did Trump get the idea that this is invalid? And there, you have some claiming it appears to come

from the libs of TikTok account who wrote on X that if Biden's cognitive mental decline allowed unelected officials to make decisions without his knowledge or approval, then Biden's executive orders, pardons, and other actions may be unconstitutional in point. With the oversight project and offshoot of the Right-Wing Heritage Foundation

responding to that by pointing out that Biden used an auto-pennant at it. For investigators to determine whether then President Biden actually ordered the signature of relevant legal documents, or if he even had the mental capacity to, they must first determine who controlled the auto-pennant, what checks there were in place.

But there, you have legal experts saying that the argument is gonna have an extremely hard time convincing a judge, and the people Biden pardoned don't seem too concerned either. With some of the nine current or former representatives who sat on the January 6th committee condemning Trump's post and saying

they're not afraid of his threats. And that, as Adam Kinzinger had, we'll call it a very unique response. He's obsessed. He's more obsessed with like me and Liz Cheney than his frickin golf score. Hey, Trump, bring it on, dude. You weak, whiny, tiny man who, by the way, I saw a picture of you this weekend. You're hiking up your pants now to really just below your man boobs and you're sweating so much, like looking pretty, pretty bad there. But bring it, man. Like, stop with all the big mouth talking stuff. You're a grown man. You don't talk like

one, but you're a grown man. So, yeah, that was Kinzinger. But that aside, Trump's threat, it represents yet another avenue by which he's testing the limits of his executive authority. If he escalates from social media posts to actual investigations, I mean, we could see him lock horns with the courts. But for now, we're gonna have to wait to see how that plays out. Then, next up today, we need to talk about the Trump administration deporting hundreds of people despite a judge ordering the removals to be stopped. With there arguably being just enough gray area that it can deny being an open defiance of the order, even as officials claim that the judge doesn't have the authority in the first place. You know, with that, this all goes back to Trump invoking something called the Alien Enemies Act of 1798,

a law that allows the government to deport certain nationals in times of war without trial. And it's a law that has until now only been used three times in the country's history. The War of 1812, World War I, and World War II, when it was employed to justify the internment of people of German, Italian, and most of everyone who was of Japanese descent. And in this case, it's being invoked to order the deportations of alleged members of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. But with the US formally designating it and seven other Latin American criminal groups

as foreign terrorist organizations last month, which in itself has been described as unusual because the terrorist designation is normally reserved for groups that use violence for political ends, right? Not those that are aimed at making money. But you know, regardless, the White House is making it official that it sees itself as war with these groups.

With the proclamation announcing the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act claiming, "'Evidence irrefutably demonstrates "'that TDA has invaded the United States "'and continues to invade, attempt to invade, "'and threaten to invade the country, "'perpetrated irregular warfare within the country, "'and used drug trafficking

"'as a weapon against our citizens.'" Though with that, you've also had many saying the evidence is in fact very refutable, saying the characterization of migrant criminal activity as an invasion or the claim is at best misleading. And by extension, the idea that Trump could claim wartime powers is ridiculous. And so with that, you had groups suing the government. And on Saturday, you had a US district judge issuing an order temporarily blocking the deportation. Noting there that the law has never been used outside of a congressionally declared war and that plaintiffs may successfully

argue Trump exceeded his legal authority in invoking it. But at that point, two planes reportedly carrying 261 deportees had already taken off, with 137 of them reportedly being deported on the basis of the Alien Enemies Act. And this is the basis on which the other deportees were removed remains unclear as of recording. Although notably, according to a review of the flight records by the Washington Post, a third flight reportedly left shortly after the written order was issued, with Axios also reporting that the administration had made a concerted effort to fast-track the deportation so that they took place before a judge would have a chance to block them. He's saying that Trump signed the order invoking the Alien Enemies Act on Friday night,

but intentionally did not advertise it. And on Saturday morning, when word of the order leaked, there was a mad scramble to get planes in the air. But in any case, with all that, the judge gave a verbal order for the flights to turn back. But notably, according to some, that directive did not make its way into his official written ruling. And so they just kept flying, arriving in El Salvador in the middle of the night. With the Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele,

announcing their arrival and claiming that there were 238 members of the Tren de Aragua and 23 members of the Salvadoran gang, MS-13. Right, and with that, sharing a video of shackled men being dragged off the plane, struggling to walk as officers pushed their heads down and loaded into vehicles to be taken to a prison. And once there, being forced to kneel, having their heads shaved, and being shoved into cells. With Mukele adding that they and future deportees would join the 40,000 inmates at the country's so-called terrorism confinement center and would be engaged in various workshops and labor under the Zero Idleness program.

Something he said would help make the country's prison system self-sustainable. And of course, with all of this, it's been celebrated by those in the Trump camp with Elon Musk simply responding, much appreciated. Marco Rubio thanking the Salvadoran president for his assistance and friendship and Donald Trump himself also expressing his gratitude on social media. And you know, with all this, you have the videos and other images going around online. It's being celebrated by some horrifying many others. You know that in part because here's the huge, big, massive thing to keep in mind here. As of recording this video,

the Trump administration has not identified the immigrants deported. And it also hasn't provided any evidence that they are in fact gang members or have committed any crimes in the US at all. And in general, based on the fact that the Alien Enemies Act was invoked, there's no indication that these deportees

received any sort of due process. And on that note, several relatives of men believed to be among their deportees are already claiming their loved ones do not have gang ties, which may not be surprising since we know for sure that ICE raids have swept up tons of people with no criminal records. You know, with all that, the fear is

that Trump could simply declare anyone a gang member and remove them from the country. With, for example, Adam Isaacson of the Washington Office for Latin America, which is a human rights group, warning on X, basically any Venezuelan citizen in the US may be removed on pretext of belonging to Tren de Aragua with no chance at defense.

And then of course, on top of that, there's the whole issue of seemingly ignoring the order of a federal judge. With people like a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center claiming that even if the judge's verbal directive to turn around the planes was not technically part of his final order, the Trump administration clearly

violated the spirit of it and adding, this just incentivizes future courts "'to be hyper-specific in their orders "'and not give the government any wiggle room.'" And with that, another law professor, this one from NYU said, "'Now the Congress has shown itself subservient "'to the wishes of the White House.

"'The judiciary is the last check "'against the exercise of autocratic power in the president.'" And adding, the question before the country is, "'Whether the judges will use their contempt "'and other powers to resist the elimination "'of checks and balances in order "'to protect the rule of law. And you know, finally here, you had Patrick Eddington,

a Homeland Security and Civil Liberties legal expert at the Cato Institute, which is a libertarian think tank, claiming that the White House was an open defiance of the judge and adding, "'This is beyond the pale and certainly unprecedented,' with him also reportedly calling it "'the most radical test of America's system "'of checks and balances since the Civil War.'"

Now with all that, as far as the administration's response, Trump himself defended the deportations while sidestepping questions about its legality, saying, "'I don't know. You have to speak to the lawyers about that,' and adding, "'I can tell you this. These were bad people.'" But then this also as you had

White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt claiming the judge lacked the authority, saying, "'A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil, and adding, the administration did not refuse to comply with a court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TDA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory. But with that, in a court filing on

Sunday, the DOJ did reportedly say it wouldn't respect the judge's order, with two senior Trump officials reportedly telling NBC News they expect the legal battle to ultimately head to the Supreme Court, where they believe that the administration to ultimately head to the Supreme Court, where they believe that the administration will win. But on that note, right, with all that said and out of the way, here's the thing. This is not the only deportation that went ahead this weekend, despite a judge saying no.

So meet Dr. Rasha Alawiyeh. She is a Lebanese citizen. She is a professor at Brown University's Medical School, and she has lived in the U.S. legally for several years. And just this last Thursday, she was detained after getting back from visiting her family in Lebanon, where she reportedly received her new H-1B visa

from the American consulate. Right, a visa which allows highly skilled foreign citizens to live and work in the United States. And notably, with that, there is a shortage of American doctors working in her area of specialty, which is basically like kidney transplants. And in fact, her patients reportedly included individuals

awaiting transplants and those dealing with a complex condition that can occur after a transplant. But in any case, her cousin filed a complaint after she was detained. And on Friday, a judge ordered the government to provide the court with 48 hours notice before deporting her. But despite that, she was reportedly put on a flight and sent away, and she's now back in Lebanon. And so in a second order filed Sunday morning, the judge said that there was reason to believe U.S. Customs and Border Protection had willfully disobeyed his previous order, adding that he had followed common practice in this district as it has been for years, and ordering the agency to respond to what he called

serious allegations. And actually with that, CBP has now responded in a court filing claiming they found quote, "'sympathetic photos and videos of Hezbollah leaders on her cell phone,' as well as various other Hezbollah militants in the deleted photo folder of her cell phone and alleging, with the discovery of these photographs and videos, CBP questioned Dr. Alawiye and determined

that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined." And adding, as such, CBP canceled her visa and deemed Dr. Alawiye inadmissible to the United States. But as far as, you know, why they defied the order? Well, the judges said that he had received testimony that officers at the airport weren't informed of the order until she had already been deported. And that, quote, at no time would CBP not take a court order seriously or fail to abide by a court's order. So, you know, we're gonna have to wait to see what happens here. But, you know, you have many pointing out that it seems like this is the

beginning of a trend. Because in the background of all this, it's been a week since the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, who is a Palestinian activist and legal permanent resident, not charged with any crime yet. And this also is another person's been arrested and others have had their visas revoked with more to come, according to Marco Rubio. And then we'll get to more news in just a moment, but you know that moment when you land in a foreign country and your phone suddenly becomes a $50 per megabyte paperweight? Been there. And if your spring travels involve traveling abroad, having reliable local internet and access to home phone benefits

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filled with laughs, podcasts can help you make the most out of your everyday. And when it comes to everyday spending, you can count on the PC Insider's World Elite MasterCard to help you earn the most PC Optimum points everywhere you shop. The PC Insider's World Elite MasterCard, the card for living unlimited. Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit pcfinancial.ca for details. But then, shifting gears to other news, we need to talk about how over 40 people died after roughly 970 storms swept across more than two dozen states this weekend. Starting last Thursday, we saw a major storm over Southern California, and yet coupled the heavy rainfall with the major fires earlier this year, and it's not a shock that there were also mudslides from it all.

Because the plants help keep the topsoil together, and so when they burn and. And it's not a shock that there were also mudslides from it all because the plants help keep the topsoil together. And so when they burn and die, it's more susceptible to rain. But possibly the craziest thing was when residents in the Pico Rivera area, which is a bit east of L.A. proper, were awoken by a tornado at like 315 in the morning on Thursday. Now, compared to some of the monsters other parts of the country got, the Pico Rivera tornado was relatively minor. But tornadoes in L.A. are extremely rare due to the area's normally consistent weather alongside the mountainous terrain. Also, thankfully, in Pico Rivera,

no one seems to have been hurt by the storm, although multiple homes, vehicles, and trees were all damaged. But speaking of tornadoes, over a hundred were reported across Friday and Saturday in the Southern US, where we'll say, you know, covering all the damage, I mean, that would take an hour because that's literally how bad it was. Like in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, over 500 homes were destroyed and Alabama had property in 52 of its 67 counties damaged. You just see stories like this repeated and repeated across multiple cities in the region. And it'll likely be days or even weeks before we really know the full extent of the damage. Additionally, we saw the wind that helped fuel these tornadoes leading to fairly large wildfires in the central U.S. Out in Oklahoma,

residents of various cities were forced to flee their homes, some of which burned down. Texans similarly had to deal with this this past weekend, and even into last week as strong, dry winds fueled fires. We even had team members forced to evacuate their homes this weekend, and the wind was actually just a massive problem in general, even when it wasn't fueling tornadoes or fires. There were at least 12 road deaths in the Midwest that had been attributed to dust storms blocking vision and pushing cars. And And unfortunately it doesn't look like the crazy weather is going to be getting much better as storm systems move out of areas others are expected to roll in right behind. And in particular, there's a real concern of wildfires

in the Western part of the Midwest leading to more than 36 million Americans being under a red flag warning as of this morning. It's for everyone, stay safe out there, listen out for the warnings. And also if any of this affected you, let us know in the comments down below. Because for us, we moved back to Georgia last year.

We had a tornado watch and a tornado warning. Luckily, nothing ended up happening. The kids just thought we were having a fun little sleepover in the storm shelter. But yeah, definitely an interesting change. But then next up today for your daily dose of good news, I bring you an inspiring tale of hope and endurance from Peru.

We're with a 61 year old man by the name of Maximo Napa setting sail on December 7th for what's supposed to be a two week fishing trip. Then two weeks go by and there's no sign of Napa. And so his family realizes something went wrong with them ringing the alarm to authorities and then Peru's maritime patrols scouring the Pacific ocean for weeks, but turning up nothing.

So you had Napa's mother telling local media that her relatives are still optimistic that he'll return, but she's beginning to lose hope. With her telling TV Peru, I told the Lord whether he's alive or dead, "'just bring him back to me, even if it's just to see him. "'But my daughter has never lost faith. "'They kept telling me, Mom, he'll come back,

"'he'll come back.'" But then on Wednesday, 95 long dark days after Napa set sail from Peru, his mother's prayers were answered. With an Ecuadorian fishing patrol reportedly spotting a small boat adrift some 680 miles off the Peruvian coast. And inside, they found the 61 year old man

everyone had been looking for, still very much alive, but hanging on by a thread. With Reuters reporting that he was heavily dehydrated and in critical condition. With the men soon explaining what happened all those months ago saying, "'The 10 days into his trip, "'stormy weather threw his boat off course

"'and with no radio beacon, he was stranded.' "'So he started rationing what food he had left "'from his two week supply, but inevitably that ran out and he got desperate. With him saying that he drank rainwater that he collected on the boat and ate whatever he could scavenge, insects, birds, sea turtles, but eventually that ran out too.

And so for the final 15 days of the trip, he says that he was just starving. But Napa says that he stayed strong thinking about his family, including his then two month old granddaughter. And he survived long enough to be rescued with Napa then being taken to a coastal city for medical treatment where he had this emotional reunion

with his brother. I ate roaches, birds. The last thing I ate was turtles. I'm thankful to God for giving me another chance. I was with him. God, I did not want to die. It was 95 days. I didn't want to die. My mother, my mother is alive. And I said I didn't want to die because of my mother. I thought about my mother every day. I had no water. I lived on rainwater. With Napa then over the weekend being flown back to Lima, where he had another emotional reunion

with his daughter at the airport. They're reportedly welcoming him home with Peru's national drink, a bottle of pisco. With neighbors and relatives telling local media they decorated the streets of his hometown in celebration. And now his niece says they also plan to celebrate Napa's birthday, which passed while he was gone.

So with that, happy birthday, Napa, you bamf of the day. A man whose story really highlights and hits on human resilience. But then finally today, let's talk about your comments on the last show in some comment commentary. Right, and understandably, there was a lot of conversation and a lot of comments around the woman

who allegedly kept her stepson captive for 20 years, with a lot of people really focusing on her lawyer's defense, saying the lawyer is saying she provided food, she provided shelter when she was starving and trapped him in his room as professional levels of gaslighting. Others calling it a classic toxic parent defense right there. You locked me away for 14 years

and only gave me a couple of sandwiches and cups of water. So you're saying I fed you and put a roof over your head, but I'm the bad guy? You also had people tying it in to other news that we're seeing these days. With Nut Taylor saying, the first story is why the rise of unregulated homeschooling and the recent disbanding of the Department of Education is so scary. Schools provide checks

and balances for children who could be otherwise getting abused at home. You also had people sharing their alleged stories saying, my mom was locked in a room from age six to 13. She could only come out to eat, go to the bathroom and go to school. She said she was terrified she would never get away. They would ask, who do you think you are? And she had to say, nobody. Still to this day, if she is very upset, she loses the ability to speak. Also, there was a fair share of conversation around the wombat influencer scandal out of Australia. Some of the top comments here saying, that influencer who did the stunt with a baby wombat deserves to be shamed. But then also adding, what about the bloke holding the camera? Saying, he's an Aussie and he was encouraging, not to deflect blame, but he deserves some

consequences too. Others adding, as an Australian, I cannot state how mad the wombat story has made me. With all Australian wildlife, the rule is they will not mess with you if you do not mess with them. From crocodiles, snakes, and spiders to even kangaroos and koalas, they will leave you be if you look but don't touch. But messing with them has immediate, sometimes lethal consequences.

Though adding, wombats are one of the exceptions. They are peaceful, noble creatures that have no real aggressive qualities. With then others really highlighting the prime minister's reaction. With some saying, Albo is saying to take a baby croc is the most legendary Aussie response he could give. And I'm so glad he didn't use his usual caution intact

when addressing the actions of the wretched who dare steal a baby from its mother. Also, I'll say just as a quick update, she has kind of apologized for what happened, but said like she was just trying to help the wombat. And now she's also kind of taken aim at the Australian government, right? It's a little bit of an oversimplification,

but she's essentially like the Australian government's the bad guy because they actually call the animals or they kill them though largely the reaction we've seen are a lot of people saying that she's just trying to deflect here but then finally as far as the comments there were a lot of people that uh like my my mini soapbox rant at the end of yesterday's video or Thursday's video to which I'll say I'm glad you liked it I do not have the energy in me to do another one today and so I'll just reiterate it because it you liked it. I do not have the energy in me to do another one today. And so I'll just reiterate it because it's always good to have in the back of your head.

It's easy to forget. We are all stronger together, but they're so fucking good at dividing us. But that, my friends, is the end of your Monday evening dive into the news. But of course, I'll see you soon because remember, I 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.