The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 8.1 Anti-Trans Olympics Scandal, What's Really Going On? Moist Cr1tikal Drama, US Russia Prisoner Swap &

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

Head to https://tryfum.com/defranco and use code DEFRANCO  to get a free gift with your Journey Pack!  Today. Go to http://rocketmoney.com/PDS to cancel your unwanted subscriptions with Rocket Money. -- ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Gender Debate Ignites After Imane Khelif & Angela Carini Fight 04:00 - MoistCritkal Clarifies Why He Left His Podcast  07:30 - Gershkovich & Whelan Freed in Historic Russia Prisoner Swap 10:07 - Sponsored by FUM 11:05 - This Woman Robbed Hundreds of Aspiring Parents Blind 14:21 - 14 Arrested & 10 Rescued in Sting at Comic-Con 15:52 - Michigan Supreme Court Reinstates Laws Raising Min Wage for Tipped Workers 18:50 - Sponsored by Rocket Money 20:01 - GPS Is More Vulnerable & Facing More Attacks than Ever ——————————   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 Associate Producer on GPS: Jared Paolino ———————————— #DeFranco #ImaneKhelif #Moistcritikal ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show, your daily dive into the news. There's just a lot we gotta talk about for our final show of the week, so you hit that like button to let YouTube know you like these big daily dives into the news, and let's just jump into it.

This is a news show. Yo, we gotta talk about this. Iman, Khalif, Angela, Karini, gender controversy and scandal at the Olympics and the culture war that is ignited. Especially because every social media platform is just flooded with opinions and claims. Right, so just today,

these two had a first round boxing matchup. Khalif's representing Algeria, Karini's representing Italy. They start exchange and blow, as at one point Khalif strikes Karini so hard that her headgear appears to come loose. And after only 46 seconds in the ring, Karini forfeits, falling to her knees in tears. Right, and so Khalif gets declared the winner,

and Karini saying afterward with a noticeably bruised face, "'I have never been hit so hard in my life.'" And adding, "'I felt a severe pain in my nose, "'and with the maturity of a boxer, I said enough, "'because I didn't want to, I didn't want to, "'I couldn't finish the match. "'I had to preserve my life.'" And also with that, noting two things.

One, that she was not trying to make any sort of political statement by quitting, and two, that she's not qualified to decide whether Khalif should be allowed to compete. In fact, even saying she wants Khalif to keep going until the end. And if you haven't been online at all and you haven't seen the situation,

at this point you might be thinking, Phil, why are politics even relevant here? Well, it's because there's been reporting that Khalif has male XY chromosomes, right? With the insinuation being, or some people outright saying, that she's trans. And actually, if you look into this, all this began during last year's

boxing world championships, when Khalif was disqualified after having high levels of testosterone. With the president of the International Boxing Association saying at the time, "'Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes "'who tried to trick their colleagues "'into posing as women.

"'According to the results of the tests, "'it was proved that they have X, Y chromosomes. "'Such athletes were excluded from competition. However, both Khalif and the Algerian Olympic Committee denied that claim, and you also had the International Olympic Committee later clearing her to compete in the Paris Games, with its chief spokesman asserting that neither Khalif

nor another Taiwanese Olympian who failed a sex test are trans. With the IOC even putting out a statement today clarifying that it bases the age and gender of all Olympic boxing competitions on athletes' passports. And on that note, Khalif's passport says she's female, which is important because Algeria doesn't recognize transgender citizens,

and they wouldn't allow her to change her gender on her passport even if she wanted to. Right, it's one of those countries where even homosexual acts are illegal. But despite that, you have people throwing around the hashtag, I stand with Angela Karini. Folks like JK Rowling criticizing the match and the days leading up to it,

and then after it happened, sharing a pic of Karine crying and saying, "'Could any picture sum up our new men's right movement better?' The smirk of a male who knows he's protected by a misogynist sporting establishment, enjoying the distress of a woman he's just punched in the head."

Logan Paul also taking to Twitter and describing it as the purest form of evil unfolding right before your eyes. With that saying, a man was allowed to beat up a woman on a global stage, crushing her life's dream while fighting for her deceased father. Elon Musk responding to a post saying,

"'Men don't belong in women's sports' with absolutely." And similarly, resharing a post with a clip of the punch saying, "'Kamala Harris supports this. Vote accordingly.'" But then with all that, you've also seen a lot of people saying, "'Those people are just sharing misinformation.'" Right, saying, "'Khalif is not a man, has never been a man.

"'She's not transgender. She was born a cis woman.'" But with that saying, she might have one of a group of rare conditions known as DSDs or differences of sex development. There's some people with DSDs they're raised as female, but they have XY sex chromosomes and blood testosterone levels in the male range. Which is why with that, you had people saying

it's perfectly possible to talk about what the eligibility criteria should be for sports and especially combat sports without cruelly monstering someone with an intersex condition as a violent male. Another is arguing Iman Khalif is not this like overpowered monster, then pointing to how she was defeated in a fight in the last Olympics and adding, everyone tweeting now about how Khalif is really a man beating up a woman in the ring, she isn't, has likely never watched a moment of

women's boxing in their lives. And I want to stress, while all of this is playing out, we really don't know what her situation is because her medical records have never been made public. But with all that said, we're gonna have to see how all this plays out as it's just continuing to grow right now. And it's definitely one of the biggest gender controversies in the Olympics ever. And currently, unless something changes,

it looks like Khalif will be facing off against her next opponent on Saturday. So in the meantime, while we keep our eyes on this, I gotta ask, what are your thoughts here? And then, so tired internet commentary Jesus, voice critical, ended up reacting to all the shit that we talked about yesterday. Right clear in the air on the Sneeko debate

and his supposed retirement situation. Because if you watched yesterday's show, you saw Charlie's colleagues announce that he was gonna be leaving his podcast and going on an indefinite hiatus to scale back his time spent on the internet. A lot of people and media outlets misinterpreting that as him stepping back from the internet altogether.

Though there, as I noted yesterday, that just simply was not true. But then also, either way, people speculating that the reason that he decided to pull back was because of the dumpster fire debate that he had last week with Rumble streamer Sneeko. Last night, Charlie released a video called Waste Critical Situation is Crazy, and he clarified he's definitely not retiring. And in fact, he considered leaving the podcast long before the debate. I didn't know I was retiring. That's news to me. I'm as shocked as all of you are. It turns out the patient zero behind all of this was a post Jackson made announcing that I would be leaving

the podcasts, which is something I thought about periodically for quite a few months now, mainly because I started to recognize that I was becoming the very thing I'd make fun of with being chronically online. Like I just was always online and the podcasts were a big proponent of that. And I just kind of wanted to scale back the amount of time i spend online with the men going on to say you know that for a long time the internet was an escape from his shitty real life but now it's really become that real life is the escapism for me now like i love posting and creating things but i don't like interacting with the internet around me anymore because i've covered so many like drama stories and everything, it's pretty much all that I ever get told

about when I'm streaming and it's become such a massive headache and it's just constant negativity that I'm fully flooded with like at all hours. Which I will say is the single thing someone on the internet has said that I have probably most connected to. But also Charlie going on to explain that for the past six or eight months, everything's felt like a lose-lose.

Saying if he doesn't talk about something or he takes too long to talk about it, people accuse him of covering up for like some ulterior evil motive. But then if he does talk about something, even something as what he said was cut and dry as Cody Co, he still gets a ton of people angry at him for whatever he has to say.

Which is also why with this, he says he's gonna cut back on the amount of internet drama content and focus more on the fun lighthearted stuff that made content creation fun in the first place. With him explaining that for him it's become less fun and more of a job where he feels obligated to cover depressing stories about other creators,

not because he wants to, but because that's what his chat wants. Now also with all that said, he never actually states explicitly whether his debate with Sneako contributed to his final decision to leave the podcast. But he did also take the opportunity to shed some light on that debate

since everyone was talking about it again. Regarding that viral moment where people saying he appeared to be agreeing that trans kids could literally cut off their genitals, though he later clarified he misunderstood Sneako's question, he expressed regret. I did a terrible job of articulating my beliefs. I am supportive of the LGBTQ plus, and I have been, and that's not something I've been shy about. I just wish I did a better job of expressing that. I'm going on to say that his impression from his DMs with Sneako was that they were just going to chat off stream to clarify any misunderstandings he might have about Sneako's position on underage marriage, not trans issues. I didn't know this was a debate nor a stream until

about an hour and 40 into it, roughly somewhere in that ballpark. I am not a debater. I've never claimed to be one. I never want to be a debater. So obviously I was unprepared for a debate. But then going on to say that he prefers to have what he called conversations because debates always devolve into each side, trying to score the most points, even if their position is wrong.

And in case it wasn't clear from his previous post debate statements, he reiterated that he believes Soneko's position on adults marrying children is disgusting and abhorrent. So yeah, that's where this situation appears to be ending for now. But with that, I gotta ask, what are your thoughts here? And then, yo, this is huge. More than a dozen people, including Americans, were released from Russia in what's been described as one of the biggest and most complex prisoner swaps in US history.

And so this exchange reportedly took place at an airport in Turkey and involved at least 24 people who had been imprisoned in six different countries. But two of the most high-profile names that we're seeing involved in the exchange being Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan. And Gershkovich might sound familiar because he's the Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested and accused of espionage back in 2023. He was also actually sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison just a couple of weeks ago. And then Whelan also might sound familiar too because he's a former Marine who was actually arrested back in 2018 with him also being accused of being a spy. But again, it was more than just those two with this being the biggest prisoner exchange

between the US and Russia since the end of the Cold War. So among the others reportedly released, you had Russian American journalist, Alesu Kormasheva, Russian British journalist, Vladimir Kuramurtsev, and a Russian dissident named Ilya Yashin. And then of course, on the other side, Russia is getting people back as well. With one of the big confirmed names there

being Vadim Krasikov, who's a convicted Russian hitman. Which is why with that, you also saw the likes of Michael McCaul, a Republican congressman from Texas, saying, if these reports are true, I am thrilled Evan, Paul, Al-Suv, Vladimir, and many others who have been illegally held by Putin's regime are finally coming home to their families. But then adding, I remain concerned

that continuing to trade innocent Americans for actual Russian criminals held in the US and elsewhere sends a dangerous message to Putin that only encourages further hostage-taking by his regime. And then also on top of that, you have some disappointed by those who did not get released. Because, of course, there are still more Americans detained in Russia. Mark Fogel, for example, he's an American teacher serving a 14-year sentence in prison there for what they said is large-scale cannabis smuggling. With that being related to him reportedly bringing half an ounce of medical marijuana with him into the country in 2021. With his family saying in a

statement that the Biden administration should prioritize securing his release. And specifically saying it is inconceivable to us that Russian dissidents would be prioritized over U.S. citizens in a prisoner exchange. Mark has been unjustly detained for far too long and must be prioritized in any swap negotiations with Russia regardless of his level of notoriety or celebrity. Although to be clear there, we do not have evidence that these detainees were prioritized over Fogel. And actually hitting on that in a statement Biden addressed the issue saying,

still too many families are suffering and separated from their loved ones. And I have no higher priority as president than bringing those Americans home. You know, overall with this, the sentiment by and large seems to be that this is a big win for Biden. I mean, he has long promised to bring home

imprisoned Americans and to support Russia's pro-democracy movement. This also playing out as Donald Trump has been saying he was gonna get Gershkovich out if he became president. And even a few weeks ago saying, Biden will never get him out unless he pays a King's ransom. But of course now Biden has not only gotten Gershkovich out but many more.

I guess it ends up being your call, whether you think it was for a King's ransom or not. As well as if the administration didn't look hard enough for a get something for nothing button. You know, it's all in the eye of the beholder. And then, you know, we all start with the best of intentions when trying to break a bad habit, but more times than not, we fail.

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is surrogacy, or the practice where an aspiring parents pay a woman to carry a baby to term for them. They then take it and raise it after she gives birth, with that being an expensive solution for couples who can't conceive on their own for whatever the reason may be, but they still want their own baby. And in doing this,

to make sure the surrogate mother definitely gets paid, the couple usually deposits a sum of money in what's called an escrow account, basically a special type of savings account. You know, they'll find a third party to manage that account for them, which in this case is surrogacy escrow account management, or SEAM for short.

With that being this company based in Texas, whose motto is, we'll handle the money, you handle what matters. But with that, let me pose a fun little what if scenario. What if, and just hear me out, what if instead of handle the money, you handle what matters. But with that, let me pose a fun little what if scenario. What if, and just hear me out, what if instead of handling the money, they just took it and ran away? Right, that would just be crazy.

Wait a second, that is literally what happened. Right, see him? They just shut down out of nowhere and allegedly over $10 million belonging to more than 600 couples at least seemingly vanished from their accounts. With, for example, this one couple giving nearly $40,000 to the company

after multiple miscarriages and failed IVF attempts pushed them to try surrogacy. And it's not like it fell apart at the beginning. They got matched with a surrogate. They even had a gender reveal planned and then everything just fell apart. But then also compared to others, they're lucky. Some couples lost as much as 50, 60, even $70,000,

which is why the FBI has now opened an investigation into Seaman, its sole owner and CEO, 44-year- year old dominique sai so you've always been picky about your produce but now you find yourself checking every label to make sure it's canadian so be it at sobees we always pick guaranteed fresh canadian produce first restrictions apply see in store or online for details i'm the owner of Surrogacy Escrow Account Management. Also, turns out she is not just an escrow account manager, she is a vegan rap artist serial entrepreneur. Which, holy shit, just from that last sentence,

I think I overdosed on red flags. With also business records obtained by ABC News showing that she has at least a dozen other ventures. With those including a private alternative school, a vegan grocery store, a vegan fashion line, a property company, and a music production studio. And according to a lawsuit against her, she funneled millions of her Seam clients' dollars

into those other businesses. With her then also allegedly using the rest to splurge on designer clothing, luxury vehicles, a custom home in New Orleans, and multiple other properties in Houston. But then also, if that wasn't enough, nobody can seem to find her now. According to ABC, Side hasn't shown up to court hearings,

and neither her personal phone and email nor those of her company have responded to the outlet. With both just returning this voicemail. My company and I have been noticed that we are subject to an active investigation by federal authorities. Under advice of counsel, I am not permitted to respond to any inquiries regarding the investigation. So actually with that, ABC reporter tried knocking on the door of her New Orleans property and the woman who answered identified herself as Syed's mother, with her saying that her daughter

was quote, having a hard time with everything and adding, she's trying to deal with this all herself and that's all. Oh, that poor little scam artist. Meanwhile, you have aspiring parents and their surrogate mothers now having to figure out what the fuck to do with everything. Because while the company may have shut down, that doesn't make these women any less pregnant.

And then even for the women who have already given birth, they haven't been paid for the unbelievable labor and sacrifice they've made. And so for the couple that I mentioned before, they're now having to dip into their retirement fund to keep paying for their surrogate's medical expenses. Which means that for many families, all of this is effectively doubling the amount of money

they're now expected to pay. And that's if they can even find the money. Because who knows if they're gonna be able to get anything from Side or her company. And that's without even accounting for possible legal fees to get that money back. And so we wait to see how all this plays out. Without a doubt, Dominique Side is our douche bag

of the day. And then when you think about Comic-Con, you usually think like Marvel reveals, great merch, fun nightlife outside the convention center, but then also apparently sex trafficking. We just found out about that last one after police revealed that they arrested 14 people and rescued 10, including a 16 year old girl

in a sex trafficking sting that used the convention as cover. And as far as the specifics here, the three day sting was carried out with the help of a massive list of agencies, both local and federal, including the FBI and Homeland Security investigations between July 25th and July 27th.

During that time, undercover officers presented themselves as sellers to see who would show up. At the same time, other teams posed as would-be buyers to try and identify traffickers and rescue the victims. And there, the unfortunate thing is that only people who were buying sex were arrested and not any of those who were actually forcing these people into selling their bodies.

And in the meantime, many of the victims will be taken care of by groups like Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition until they can get back on their feet. Also, reportedly Comic-Con had no idea that these stings were going on as they didn't occur inside the convention themselves. But also with that, you had police saying

it wasn't surprising that the sting was so successful considering the event. With Attorney General Rob Bonta saying in a statement that traffickers usually capitalize on large scale events such as Comic-Con to export their victims for profit. And adding, these arrests send a clear message to potential offenders that their criminal behavior will not be tolerated. And yeah, Comic-Con to export their victims for profit. And adding, these arrests send a clear message to potential offenders that their criminal behavior will not be tolerated.

And yeah, Comic-Con would be a good place if you were a trafficker, because it has over 130,000 attendees coming from all over the world for a short period of time. So it's not exactly easy to investigate. And this is, you know, trafficking in San Diego is not unheard of and it ranks 13th in the US among big cities.

Then at the same time, some might think that's low for a city right on the border where human trafficking is far more prevalent. And also for a city that has so many tourists and temporary residents all year. And then, all right, get in the car, nerds. We gotta talk about huge labor and workers' rights news. Because what we're gonna talk about

is gonna affect half a million workers in Michigan. It could have huge national implications. And it's because those 500,000 people, they're gonna be seeing significant raises in new paid leave standards. And that, because the state Supreme Court overruled Republicans' efforts to weaken major changes to minimum wage and sick leave laws,

a move that represents a major victory for Michigan's low wage workers who've been fighting for these laws for over half a decade. Because what we're seeing now is all thanks to back in 2018, worker advocacy groups successfully collecting enough signatures to place two initiatives on the ballot for voters to consider.

The first would phase in increases to the roughly $10 minimum wage while also phasing out the tipped minimum wage, which my fellow former servers and current servers know allows employers to pay workers way less if they earn tips, sometimes as low as $3.84 an hour there. And the second would require employers to adopt a paid sick leave standard. But then, instead of actually allowing the proposals to go before the voters in the 2018 election, the Michigan State Legislature, which was controlled by Republicans at the time, decided to adopt the measures themselves so they could water them down. With the state's then-Republican governor signing the provisions into law before the current Democratic governor took office in 2019. So under the watered-down

proposal, the minimum wage would only increase from $10 to $12, and the tipped minimum wage wouldn't increase at all. In effect, small businesses would be exempt from the sick leave requirements. With the sensing, the worker advocacy group sue with the matter then winding its way through the courts over the course of several years and until it finally made its way to the state Supreme Court. With the justices ultimately ruling four to three yesterday

that the Republicans' actions had unconstitutionally violated the rights of voters to decide on the measures for themselves. And in overturning the Republicans' actions here, the court's decision mandates that the initiatives take effect as originally proposed. So starting this upcoming February, the minimum wage will automatically be increased

to just over $12 an hour. With that initial boost, accounting for inflation adjustments that would have taken place had the laws been passed in 2018. From there, wages will steadily increase to match inflation for several years after, with experts predicting that it'll reach

about $15 an hour by 2028. Also, something that's gonna be starting this February is that tipped wages will steadily increase incrementally from now until 2029, at which point they will match the standard minimum wage, which is actually incredibly notable because this move makes Michigan the eighth state to end the practice of setting a lower minimum wage

for tipped workers, which again is why we could see this have national implications. More and more states do this, we see more follow. And then as far as a sick leave policy, all employers, including small businesses, will be required to provide at least one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours work. And then as far as larger businesses, they need to provide at least 72 hours a year. So as far as how people have responded to this, we've seen workers, labor advocates, and Democrats applauding the move, saying it was a long time

coming. Then on the other side, you have business organizations and Republicans condemning this decision, arguing that this will just increase costs for businesses, forcing them to raise prices and lay off workers. So for now,, we're gonna have to wait to see, you know, how all this plays out as well as if we see more states taking similar steps. Because while Michigan is the eighth state to get rid of lower minimum wages for tipped workers, other states have been seen considering similar actions,

which then also raises questions about whether people will start tipping less once service workers in the tipping industry start getting higher wages. Especially because it does feel like over the last two years, there's been a growing debate around tip culture in general, with tipping popping up in places it had not historically been.

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That's rocketmoney.com slash pds, rocketmoney.com slash pds. And then, back when Donald Trump started the Space Force back in 2019, it sounded like a joke. You had Ted Cruz talking about space pirates, Steve Carell spoofing it with a Netflix series, but here's the thing, like it or not, space is increasingly somewhere where America is again competing with other countries, Russia and China especially,

with many saying, you know, we are in the midst of a space arms race, which also, in fact, some argued back in 2018, would happen because of Trump starting the Space Force. But for whatever reason, in any case, all this could have huge implications for things that I wanna talk about now. And that is GPS, right?

The Global Positioning System. If you don't know, it's a system owned by the US government and operated by the Air Force. And it's available all over the world, but also other countries have essentially their own versions of GPS. With GNSS, Global Navigation Satellite System, being the general term describing any satellite system

that provides positioning, navigation, and timing, or PNT services on a global or regional basis. And so with that, you know, you have the other big ones, Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System, or GLONASS. You also have China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System and the EU's Galileo Satellite System. And the basic idea behind them is that each satellite in the system carries atomic clocks

and transmits radio signals with information about its location and the precise time. Or the time that it takes for a signal to reach your cell phone lets it know how far it is from the satellite. And then by listening to four satellites at once, your device can pinpoint your exact location on earth. And also with that, you know,

the signals from GPS satellites, they're more about than just getting around. I mean, they are absolutely fundamental to the global economy. For example, telecom companies actually rely on GPS time to keep their base stations in perfect sync. Power companies, they use it to monitor the grid and quickly identify and investigate failures. Farmers, they use it to monitor the grid and quickly identify and investigate failures.

Farmers, they use it to plant crops with precision. And I mean, the list goes on. I mean, hell, the financial system itself is actually dependent on GPS, right? Because stock exchanges rely on the signal to precisely time financial transactions. With my point being here, that the consequences of GPS going down,

it's more than you getting lost on a road trip, right? Ambulances would be delayed. Cell phone calls would get dropped. Ships could get lost. Power outages could last longer. Food could just cost more. In fact, if the world were to lose its connection to satellites, the economic losses would be in the billions.

And yes, they've done the math. In fact, a recent report from the UK, for example, showed that a week long outage of all satellite signals, it would cost just their economy nearly $9.7 billion. And in the US, it's been estimated it could cost the economy a billion dollars every day. And keep in mind, that is a five-year-old estimate. So with that, while we're not expecting

to see the whole system go down anytime, GPS and the services it enables are increasingly vulnerable as space is rapidly militarized. And this also is satellite signals are being attacked on Earth. In fact, in the past few years, there's actually been a massive uptick

in terrestrial attacks against GPS signals and other satellite navigation systems. With these attacks coming in two forms, right? You have jamming, which is about overwhelming the signal to make the system unusable. And then you've got spoofing, which is a bit more sophisticated. It's about tricking the system into giving a false location,

which could send a ship or a plane off course. And we're seeing both types of attacks going up in frequency. Right now, it's mostly impacting planes flying at high altitudes and ships in open water, not people's phones or other systems that rely on GNSS. But notably to Zach Clements, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, it's the spoofing in particular that's gone up

with them also saying, for the first time, we're seeing widespread disruptions in civil aviation, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Baltics and the Middle East. In prior years, there were reports of spoofing impacting Marine vessels, but not aviation. But just to put a number on it, researchers say that more than 60,000 commercial flights

have been hit by bogus signals. Though notably, like these commercial flights, they aren't necessarily the target of these attacks. Instead, the increase in attacks is actually at least partly lined up with Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine and Israel's assault on Gaza. With us seeing thousands of flights to and from Europe being affected by suspected Russian jamming.

With the region around the Baltic Sea, including Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland, facing the most persistent attacks. With the tracking service GPS Jam reporting that 46,000 aircraft showed potential signs of jamming between August of 2023 and March of this year alone in the Baltic region alone. And with that, Jimmy Adamson, the chief of public affairs

for the Swedish Navy saying, "'It cannot be ruled out that this jamming is a form of hybrid warfare with the aim of creating uncertainty and unrest. Of course, there are concerns, mostly of civilian shipping and aviation, that an accident will occur, creating an environmental disaster.

But adding, there is also risk that ships and aircraft will stop traffic to this area and therefore global trade will be affected. And in April, for example, we saw one of the most serious incidents to date with Finnair canceling flights to Estonia for a whole month after GPS interference forced two of its planes to abort landings at the airport and turn around.

And then beyond the Baltic region, war zone areas themselves around Ukraine and the Middle East, they've seen a jump in GPS disruptions as well. In April, for example, more than 15,000 planes had their locations spoofed to Beirut airport and more than 10,000 were spoofed to Cairo airport. And when Iran launched a major missile and drone attack against Israel that same month, Israel scrambled GPS signals to limit the impact of the attack. But that also impacted mapping and taxi services in Tel Aviv. In fact, according to researchers at the University of Texas, an Israeli air base is one of the major sources

of spoofing in the entire region. And while it's intended to mess with Hamas-fired rockets, it affects commercial flights as well. And in one case, it actually almost sent a business jet into Iranian airspace. And with all that said, right, planes can generally fly safely without GPS or other satellite navigation.

But as experts explained, it puts a higher workload on pilots and air traffic control, which then just makes slip-ups much more likely. And according to a document this year from NASA, some pilots reported getting false terrain warnings that caused them to pull up with that saying. In and of itself, this is not dangerous, but certainly reacting inappropriately to a false terrain escape warning, especially near the maximum operating altitude of the aircraft in close proximity to other aircraft could be extremely hazardous and lead to loss of aircraft control or mid-air collision. Right, so with the number of jamming

and spoofing incidents increasing, there's a real concern that the disruption of crucial services could be more and more commonplace. And this is multiple experts are worried that the full extent of GPS interference isn't really known. And there's thinking that systems beyond airlines and shipping may be at risk if the disruption becomes more widespread.

And that is especially true when we're talking about the so-called space arms race. Because even though we've seen jamming and spoofing attacks go up, major attacks against an entire country's infrastructure haven't really been possible. Because you know, satellite signals are transmitted on a narrow radio band.

So if you wanted to jam an entire country's satellite signals, it'd be almost impossible to do without shutting off your services as well. At which point we say, enter space wars. Because one of the things is that with satellites, they're also vulnerable to physical attacks. Where hypothetically, you could deliver a debilitating blow to just one country system with a few missiles.

And in fact, Russia, China, India, and the US have all tested anti-satellite missiles. Several countries have also developed technology meant to disrupt signals in space instead of on earth. And one Chinese satellite actually has a robotic arm that could destroy or move other satellites. And then China and the US have technology that can use one satellite to crush or kidnap another.

And understand, I'm not saying that this is likely to happen anytime soon, but if a more public and more direct conflict were to break out between these countries, this would be one of the fronts that we'd see the war fought on. And it would be one unlike anything that we've seen before. And a big thing with that,

at least for many of the people watching this show, I've looked at the demographics. Many of you are watching from the US. Right now, America isn't necessarily the top dog, right? Because many GPS satellites, they're now exceeding the intended lifespan of eight to 15 years, and the United States specifically has been slow to replace them.

And while the American system's getting older, the Chinese, Russian, and European systems are modernized. And the Chinese Beidou system in particular has the most satellites out of anyone. And this is they plan to launch even more. Perhaps even more importantly, they're developing a land-based backup system, right? They're building hundreds of timing stations on earth

and laying 12,000 miles of fiber optic cables underground. So with that, they're creating a system that can provide time and navigation services without relying on signals from space. With researchers from the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation writing in a paper last year, we could seize this strategic opportunity,

putting all our efforts into building up capabilities, covering all domains underwater, on the ground, in the air, in space, in deep space, as soon as possible. And so with that, you have Dana Gower, the president of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, an NGO working to improve GPS security, saying, the Chinese did what we in America said we would do. They are resolutely on a path to be independent of space. Because unlike China, the US doesn't have a plan B for civilians if GPS signals get knocked out. I mean, there was a 2010 plan put forward by the Obama administration,

but it just never took off. And then a decade later, Trump issued an executive order saying that the disruption or manipulation of satellite signals posed a threat to national security, but there just wasn't really any money or plan towards doing something about it. And now, I mean, you have the Biden administration

still taking bids from private companies for possible solutions. With reportedly one of the big ideas being to develop a new system using satellites that were already orbiting about 485 miles above earth. Because those signals are as much as a thousand times stronger than those from GPS satellites, which orbit more than 12,000 miles above the earth. And so that could make them harder to jam or spoof as well as less vulnerable to an attack in space. But notably, that's something that China's already looking to implement as well with

plans to launch nearly 13,000 satellites into low earth orbit by 2035. And ultimately whatever it ends up being, I mean, a lot of experts say the US is still years from having a reliable civilian alternative in case GPS signals are out or interrupted. And I say civilian there because on the military front, the country is actually developing GPS backup options for its own use.

But even there, that project's reportedly been delayed more than once. But yeah, I guess the main thing is do not laugh off the space wars. This is gonna be a very serious front more and more in the near future. But that my friends is the end of your Thursday evening, Friday morning dive into the news.

As always, thank you for being a part of this. I also will say, I hope that this weekend, hopefully it's a light news one. Feels like the gas has been pressed down the last few weeks. But of course, no matter how it plays out, you just come back here on Monday and we'll talk some more news.

I love yo faces and I'll see you then.