What A Day - Common Threads

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

On Thursday, a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Lviv killed at least six people and injured at least 36 more. Plus, the Biden administration is expected to announce plans to send controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine.Meta officially launched Threads on Wednesday, a new app and Twitter rival that gained millions of users overnight. Lawyers for Twitter have already threatened legal action against Meta, accusing the company of engaging in “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets.”And in headlines: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is visiting China until July 9th to meet with top Chinese officials, OceanGate has suspended all operations, and the FDA gave full approval to an Alzheimer’s drug that is shown to slow the progression of the disease.Show notes:What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Friday, July 7th. I'm Juanita Tolliver. And I'm Priyanka Arabindi, and this is What A Day, where we have questions for the tourists who allegedly had no idea that the Colosseum in Rome was so ancient. What an absolute clown. I don't know. Side eye. Bombastic side eye. I don't really think that this is getting you out of the legal repercussions, but cute letter, I guess. Criminally offensive side eye. Seriously?

On today's show, the company behind the submersible that imploded on its way to the Titanic wreckage has suspended all operations. You know, it took them a while to figure out that's the move to make. Plus, the FDA gave full approval to an Alzheimer's drug that is shown to slow the progression of the disease. But first, we have a few new developments in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Okay, I'm bracing myself for the worst. Tell us what's going on. Yeah, so on Thursday, a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city

of Lviv killed at least six people and injured at least 36 more. According to Ukrainian officials, the night attack was the heaviest attack on civilian areas in Lviv since the start of the invasion last year. Throughout this conflict, Russia has made a habit of hitting civilian areas, which, you know, very much a war crime for those of us keeping track at home, despite claiming that they only go for military targets. Lviv is also in Western Ukraine, so not really on the front lines of the fighting at all, but still very much in reach of Moscow's missiles. According to the Ukrainian military, Russia fired

10 cruise missiles from carriers and submarines in the Black Sea. Seven were intercepted, but the remaining three resulted in these casualties. In addition to the deaths and injuries, the attack damaged over 50 apartments in the area. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky promised a strong response to the enemy. All these strikes are 100% intentional and 100% a war crime, just like you said. I know there's also some new developments in terms of U.S. involvement in the conflict. So what are we doing now? Yeah. So on Friday, the Biden administration will announce that they will be supplying Ukraine with highly controversial cluster munitions. This is a move that is opposed by human rights groups. Cluster munitions were actually banned back in 2008 by over 120 countries,

though notably those do not include the United States, Ukraine, or Russia. So for those of you who are not familiar, cluster munitions are their own class of projectile weapons that are designed to break apart midair and spread over large areas. They're supposed to explode when they hit the ground, but they have historically had very high rates of failure. So they can hit the ground and remain intact, only to explode years after the fact. They've led to tens of thousands of civilian deaths around the world, along with killing several U.S. service members. The inability to really control where they go and whether or not they will harm civilians is why so many of

these countries have banned this kind of weapon. People in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Balkans, and of course, Laos continue to suffer from the remnants of cluster munitions that were used years ago in their countries. It's truly giving Tony Stark and Stark Industries in the worst way. Like, why is this real life? And why is the U.S. government giving Ukraine these weapons? Yeah, I mean, the U.S. government position has changed a lot over the past few months. They were previously very hesitant for these reasons. Ukraine has been saying that these would help in their counteroffensive against Russian troops. Their forces are outnumbered by the Russian military, who has had months to prepare their lines of defense. I also will add that Russia has been making extensive use

of their own cluster munitions since the start of the invasion against Ukraine. And according to U.S. officials, the Pentagon has now determined that these weapons could be especially helpful against dug-in Russian positions on the battlefield. Ukraine has also said that because the fighting is in its own territory,

they won't be deploying these weapons recklessly. So, you know, maybe something good there, but still very, very dangerous, not something that the rest of the world is looking at happily at all. Yeah, I'm like, please don't. Like, there's no need to harm civilians further as Russia is already targeting them. So let's go a different direction. But what else do we need to harm civilians further as Russia is already targeting them. So let's go a different direction. But what else do we need to know about the conflict right now? Yeah. So last but not least, we have more information on the whereabouts of Yegevny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group and their failed uprising against Russia's military a few weeks back. So less than two weeks after the attempted coup, Prokosin is actually supposedly

back in Russia, which is absolutely wild. That is according to Belarus's president, Alexander Lukashenko, who was the one who negotiated the end of the uprising last month between Prokosin and Putin, and is the one who's supposed to be like housing Prokosin in Belarus. The whole thing brings up questions about the supposedly brokered amnesty deal between them. The terms very much included Prigozhin being exiled to Belarus. So, you know, if he is not in Belarus and he is in St. Petersburg, as Lukashenko says, unclear what happens to this amnesty agreement and what goes on between Putin and the Wagner group or Putin and Prigozhin now. Like, I'm just gonna say

it i feel like this can only go one of two ways either he's taking control of the kremlin or he's about to meet his maker either way he's giving yikes yeah uh so there you go now in an extremely hard pivot the tech girlies are fighting y'all and it's getting messier by the day okay be honest raise your hand if you downloaded threads so i know at least one of our producers joravin is team threads but no lie i won't be using it until they get a desktop version because i am who i am damn it okay like leave me be don't judge me i'm with you i am with with you. Well, Threads, aka Meta's Twitter, aka the Twitter killer, is the latest social media rival to come on the scene as it launched Wednesday night, and it's already got more than 30 million users. That's beyond impressive within the first 16 hours

of launching, and Mark Zuckerberg marked the occasion by posting, quote, feels like the beginning of something special, but we've got a lot of work ahead to build out the app. And he's not exaggerating. Currently, the Instagram linked app is giving bare bones as there's no DMing, no search, and no hashtag features, and no feed of posts by people whom users actually follow. There's only a feed of posts recommended

by the app, which feels like one of the most problematic features of Twitter. No? Yeah, I got to say that is one of the worst parts, if not the worst, of using Twitter right now. But this is pretty crazy. You know, they've rolled this out. 30 million users in one day is not even one day. 16 hours is bananas. So what is Twitter saying in response to like this new rival just seemingly emerging out of nowhere? Let's just say Elon Musk and his crew are fuming like the jilted contestants on Love Island. Like, imagine. Mugged the hell off. Yes, they did.

They are mugs. They are truly mugs and they're already throwing around the possibility of a lawsuit this is in addition to the fact that musk has previously challenged zuckerberg to a cage match let's just pause on that extremely awkward visual like two of the most uncoordinated people in the universe like what no thanks i'll never be over it i'll never be over it. I will never be over it. All right, now back to the lawsuit.

According to Seema Fort, Twitter's legal team sent Zuckerberg a letter hours after Threads launched, accusing Meta of engaging in, quote, systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and of hiring dozens of former Twitter employees who, quote, had and continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information.

The gag is that Musk fired these employees in the first place and then proceeded to actively run Twitter into the ground since he bought it. Remember the paid subscriptions, the checkmark drama, the end of content moderation as we know it. And even just days before Threads was launched, Twitter rolled out its limited tweet views plan unless users pay a monthly fee. Like, how can Elon be mad at all when he single-handedly made Twitter exponentially worse at warp speed? Seriously. He's clearly more scared than mad, though,

because one, you don't throw around lawsuits for no reason. And two, as one CBS analyst put it, quote, if only one in 10 Instagram users tries using threads, it's overtaking Twitter in the blink of an eye. Like, let that sink in. Yeah, wow. The scale, when you put it like that, is really something to behold.

So, I mean, he's got a big problem. Not that he didn't have big problems on his hand already. You outlined all the ways that he has just, just like willfully run this company into the ground. But Threads isn't even the only Twitter competitor. You know, there are some other apps out there, some of which we have mentioned on this show, none of which I have personally tried because I'm just not an early adopter like that. I know myself. That's not me. But can you tell us a little bit about some of the other apps in development if we are out here looking for alternatives?

Yeah, this is the part where I love open markets because there could be some social media apps in the works that actually create safe spaces online. At least that's what Spill, an app developed by Alfonso Terrell and Daveris Brown, two former Twitter employees, states as its value proposition. Spill is geared towards black people, queer people, and other marginalized communities, and it's already been dubbed the new black Twitter. I mean, I give them extra points for the name and the teacup emojis because the tea is being spilled on this site. In addition, Mastodon by Jack Dorsey, Hive Social, and Blue Sky are other social media platforms in the mix.

So at this point, we can all choose our own adventure. Naturally, I'll wait for y'all to tell me which one is actually worth creating an account for. So email us your thoughts at wad at crooked.com because I trust you to lead me to the right app, right? There's a lot of trust in this relationship. We're old as hell for that, for being like, email us. you can't contact us on any of these social platforms hold on hold on extra points if you send us a screenshot so that we can preview what the app looks like yes please a little

bit of that yeah sorry you can't tweet us maybe you can instagram dms but is that giving threads a leg up if we're already on the platform? Unclear. I don't know. We want to hear your takes, so please let us know. Yeah, and we'll definitely keep you posted about any scheduled KH matches and Elon Musk's next legal moves, but that's the latest for now. Let's get to some headlines. Headlines. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is visiting China until July 9th to meet with top Chinese officials.

This weekend marks her first visit to China as Treasury Secretary, and she's scheduled to meet with Premier Li Qiang, former Vice Premier Lei Yuhua, and former Governor of the People's Bank of China, Zhou Xiaoshuang. During her visit, Yellen is expected to discuss national security and achieving a healthy economic relationship between the two countries. Yellen's trip to China is part of a larger U.S. effort to reduce current tensions with China and comes just weeks after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Xi Jinping in Beijing. U.S. officials said they don't expect any policy breakthroughs this weekend, but they do hope for, quote, frank and productive conversations that will help lay the groundwork for future communication.

Diplomacy translation, that really means no rocking the boat. No crisis should come from this visit. Yeah, they are knocking on wood and they are keeping their fingers crossed. And so should all of us. The company behind the submersible that imploded on its way to the Titanic wreckage, Ocean Gate, has suspended all operations. The company made the announcement via a brief line at the top of its website and above footage of previous Titanic expeditions, which they should probably take off the Internet. Why are you doing that? The statement comes after the Coast Guard last week said that presumed human remains from the

wreckage had been recovered and returned to land. As you'll recall, the submersible set off to explore the Titanic wreckage last month, but lost contact with the surface less than two hours after descending, leading to an around-the-clock search for the missing vessel. The search came to a tragic end when, days later, debris from the submersible was found on the sea floor, suggesting that the vessel had imploded, killing all five people on board. Among those on board was the submersible's pilot and chief executive of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, as well as British businessman Hamish Harding, French maritime expert Paul Henri Nargiolet, and Pakistani-British businessman Shehzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleiman.

Walt Nauta, former President Donald Trump's aide, pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that he helped Trump hide classified documents from federal authorities at Mar-a-Lago. Along with Trump, Nauta was indicted and charged with five criminal charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and withholding or concealing documents. The 49-page federal indictment claims that Trump directed Nauta to move boxes containing classified documents from the storage room at Mar-a-Lago, and prosecutors say the surveillance footage shows Nauta moving the boxes. Nauta, a Navy veteran who grew up in Guam,

has been a steady figure in Trump's circle over the years, serving as the military valet in the White House and traveling to Florida to be a personal aide when Trump left D.C. This was the third time that Nauta's arraignment was scheduled, as he took his sweet time to find a Florida-based lawyer. Let's be real, I'm sure nobody wanted to represent him and he may not have Trump's budget. But what's killing me about this story is they have the surveillance footage of him moving the boxes like yikes. Hang it up, friend. Hang it up. Yeah, that's that's a tough one to plead not guilty for, I guess. But I people have done crazier things, I suppose. And finally, the Food and Drug Administration yesterday gave full approval to the Alzheimer's

drug known as Lekembe, the first drug shown to modestly slow the progression of the disease. The FDA had previously granted the drug accelerated approval back in January, and yesterday's action means that Medicare and other insurance plans could start covering the medicine for folks with the disease. Data shows that Lekembe delayed cognitive decline by 27% over the course of 18 months, but the drug's side effects of brain swelling or brain bleeding have raised some concerns. Three patient deaths were also reported during clinical trials, but the pharmaceutical company said that it was unclear if the drug contributed to their deaths. The medicine also has a hefty sticker price of $26,500 a year. That is

really up there. And though Medicare would cover 80% of that cost, that still leaves thousands of dollars to be paid out of pocket. Still, organizations like the Alzheimer's Association praised the decision to approve the drug. And its president and CEO, Joanna Pike, said in a statement that this drug could, quote, give people in the early stages of Alzheimer's more time to maintain their independence and do things they love. According to the Alzheimer's Association,

6.7 million adults ages 65 and older suffer from the disease. That is a lot of people a lot of families that can be really positively impacted by this drug and i'm glad that it's approved but now let's work on getting that price tag way down please period like it can't cost thousands of dollars when 6.7 million adults ages 65 and older suffer from the disease. Like it's not adding up. You want to help people make it accessible, but yay for medical advancements for Alzheimer's boo major thumbs down for this price tag. Definitely. And those are the headlines. We'll be back after some ads. It's Friday wide squad. And with all of the foolishness going on

in today's world, we thought we'd try something new. A little section we like to call, I know you fucking lying. Or I-K-Y-F-L for short. You know, all those letters you usually see on the internet. Yes. Okay.

I already have a feeling that this is going to be my new favorite final section. But what do we got today? Lay it on me. I am ready. Girl, we have to talk about our homie kiki palmer miss kiki p you know the one and only because her boyfriend is getting dragged on the internet here's what happened the boyfriend and father of palmer's son whose name i absolutely refuse to fucking say took to twitter wednesday to criticize a sheer dress Keke Palmer wore to an Usher concert. He first tweeted his thoughts

in response to a video of Usher serenading Palmer on stage, saying, quote, it's the outfit, though. You a mom. Like, okay, hold up, hold up. Sir, your insecurity is showing, and I'm so grateful that Black Twitter jumped in and did what needed to be done

and gathered you promptly, because this is bullshit. How how are you gonna be your baby mama's like op like this is a problem and toxic but wait for it because that's not it after backlash to the initial reply he then doubled down saying quote we live in a generation where a man of the family doesn't want okay i'm gonna stop there because this is complete bullshit. And I don't want to repeat his, you know, incel words because that's what is giving. Yeah, seriously. Like, what do you mean we live in a generation? Okay. Keke Palmer can show her cheeks however, whenever, and to whomever she likes because she got body, as this dude has pointed out on social media since she gave birth to their son so i'm calling complete bullshit on that and it's really given the toxicity but the best comeback

that i love out of all of this is that kiki is going about her business her latest post on ig is literally promoting a show she has in dc on the 13th check her out because she is living and thriving and completely unbothered by this mess. But honestly, Kiki girl, you need to run, friend. Run. Run fast. Run far. Yes, seriously. What do you think? It is wild that he, you know, had the thought in the first place. Men for all of history have had thoughts about policing the way that women look and dress and whatnot. So like, is that so surprising? Maybe not. Probably not a thought he should have but the fact that he's gonna a put it out there like that in a public forum not like publicly yes hey can i

talk to you about something whatever no you're gonna publicly call her out in a way that is designed to embarrass her that's wild and then he doubles down on it what the fuck and my favorite thing i saw somebody post this, like, how dare he pick up the phone that Kiki Palmer probably paid for with her internet in her house and, like, take his fingers to type this mess anyway? Like, sir, you are merely the father of her child

who is living off of her greatness, so have several seats, like, period. Like, all right, this was our first section of I Know You Fucking Lying. Let have several seats, like period. Like, all right. This was our first section of I Know You Fucking Lying. Let us know if you liked it. Get at us on any of the social media platforms we mentioned before. Yes, please.

I Know This Man Is Fucking Lying. Get out of here with that. I think in general, just zero commentary on outfits unless it's like, you look great. That's all we need. That's all you had to say. That's all you like you look great that's all we need that's all you had to say that's all you had to do oh one more thing before we go it is time to test drive your barbie premiere fits and cleanse your brain of whatever the idol was with a special bonus episode

of keep it hosts ira and lewis are diving into all the glitz and glam of Barbie with trans icon and Barbie actress Hari Neff, and they are giving you the latest on HBO's newest show, The Idol. Plus, Broadway star Alex Edelman and the godfather of cult films, John Waters, stop by for a chat. Listen to this episode of Keep It now and tune in every Wednesday for new episodes of Keep It wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, wear whatever the fuck you want, and tell your friends to listen.

And if you're into reading and not just the tourist's apology letter for defacing the Coliseum like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. I'm Juanita Tolliver. And see you on Spill! Or Threads or Blue Sky or whatever you email us and tell us to do.

We got options! No, but actually email us wad at crooked.com because I literally need to know what to do. A gluttony of options does not help me. No, no, no, no. Help crooked.com, because I literally need to know what to do. Yeah. A gluttony of options does not help me. No, no, no, no. Help us. Yes, please.

What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producer is Itzy Quintanilla. Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf are our associate producers. Our intern is Ryan Cochran, and our senior producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashanka.