PDS Published 11/09/2026
-
Conservatives are now trying to cancel Dave Chappelle in a move that many say exposes their selective outrage.
Nvidia CEO having an affair with a Chinese spy is somehow even worse than it sounds. The incoming Pete Hegseth meltdowns going to be delicious. As he stares down a new Republican-led impeachment vote.
Dad loved his sleeping six-year-old in an overnight line for Pokemon cards.
We just launched a special six beautiful bastard graphic tee run now available at Beautiful Bastard.
Com. We're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, starting with this. You've got Republicans trying to cancel Dave Chappelle right now.
Right in that because he joked about said this about Charlie Kirk's assassination.
I feel up saying this. It's scary being a public speaker.
And I mean, look, ever since that guy Charlie Kirk got murdered.
And I shouldn't say this publicly, but. I feel better.
I mean, I know I should say it, but it's just a feeling.
I just feel this way as we drive around, like why it's such a good. Charlie Kirk is building up on us right now.
Graphics are hard to break. Writing for some additional possible context there.
That last bit appears to be a reference to a joke that Tony Hinchcliffe told about George Floyd. Right? A black man who was murdered by police in 2020. Because it Netflix is Kevin Hart. Rose.
Last May, you had Hinchcliffe telling Hart, the black community is so proud of adding quote right now George Floyd is looking up at us all, laughing so hard that he can't breathe.
He's got a lot of people saying Chappelle seems to have copy-pasted that joke and replaced Floyd with Kirk.
And he reportedly made these Kirk jokes during recent performances at Madison Square Garden.
And as you had these lead clips spreading all over the weekend, it's become this huge, huge controversy and debate online.
Because obviously Kirk's death is a sensitive topic for a lot of people because of, yes, the loss itself, but also because of the very public violent nature of where he was shot in the neck at an outdoor.
Speaking of an at Utah Valley University in September of last year, that video is everywhere.
And he had a lot of people out there, especially those on the right, feeling very strongly that this is just not an appropriate topic to joke about. And that was generally the reaction on Fox News. Joe.
These people have lost their humanity. Plain and simple. Your thoughts?
Todd, I don't know how any human being can make jokes about or feel better about a father of two very young children, a husband.
He's just 31 years old.
When he was murdered, you also had conservative voices like podcaster Matt Walsh tweeting, the quote, jokes about Charlie Kirk are heinous for reasons that have nothing to do with the fact that I agree with his politics, saying there's just something especially callous and soulless about gloating over a brutal, bloody murder we all saw with our own eyes.
You then also had other Chappelle critics saying that this feels like nasty work for another reason.
Right, some arguing that Kirk stood up for Chappelle when he was attacked on stage back in 2022.
Because if you don't remember, some guy tackled Dave Chappelle during a Netflix show at the Hollywood Bowl and never faced felony charges for, and at the time you had Kirk speaking out about it, tweeting:
Refusing to charge the armed maniac who attacked Dave Chappelle on stage, George Gascon is sending a clear message that public acts of political violence are justifiable and even encouraged against anyone who dares to speak out against the regime, saying it's sinister and un-American.
That whole incident has become a big part of the discourse.
Brings you in conservative commentator Benny Johnson tweeting, When Dave Chappelle was attacked on stage, Charlie stood up for him, adding after Charlie was murdered in an act of political violence himself, Chappelle is joking about it.
Then as you've got all of that playing out on one side, you've got others saying, hey, the outrage, it's a bit hypocritical.
Because a lot of the same people who are furious about the Kirk jokes, they seem to have had no problem with jokes about people who are murdered by ICE or by the police or any number of horrific things we've seen in the past.
Or with some pointing to that Tony Hinchcliffe joke about George Floyd, and arguing that Chappelle's jokes were a response to how people on the right joke about sensitive topics.
You've also got people adding that Kirk himself was never afraid to make extremely insensitive jokes.
You as a gay person would go to Gaza. They'd throw you off a tall building.
Right now they don't have any tall buildings left, so I don't. Is that too soon? I'm sorry. Maybe you shouldn't kill Jews.
Stupid Muslims.
And then also, in addition to what feels like an infinite number of examples, especially with right-wing voices joking about things or embracing things.
Got people pointing to the president of the United States, seemingly the leader of the Republican Party, who has embraced and seemingly been very joyful about his enemies' deaths.
Then also, as far as the Chappelle situation, it ends up actually just being one piece of this broader Charlie Kirk jokes controversy that's been playing out right now.
Because there's also been this ongoing saga with the I've Had It podcasters Jennifer Welch and Pam Sullivan.
That's because in their episode after the midterms, you had the host reading leftist reaction tweets that they found funny. And one of those tweets was about Kirk's murder.
Dead. Moroz says we're digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again. No comment.
No comment? No comment on that.
He was shot by somebody that was super MAGA, and after that clip of them cracking up got a lot of attention.
You saw that podcast seeming to lose a bunch of big sponsors, including Cash App and Chewy. And then with you had Welch and Sullivan.
They deleted that part of the episode, and then they posted on Instagram on Thursday:
We laughed at a joke about Charlie Kirk, saying it was an insensitive joke and we should not have laughed, saying we regret it and we apologize.
Adding, whatever our political differences, there is nothing funny about gun violence. We've long supported commonsense gun safety reform.
To that end, we made a donation to Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in America, and adding we'll keep using our platforms to fight for the safety of all Americans.
And then with that, you've had Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Calvet really going after them on Twitter, celebrating all the sponsors who've dropped out of the podcast after calling Welch a quote, ugly demonic witch who laughs at the murder of an innocent man.
And with the I've Had It podcast situation and the Dave Chappelle situation getting so big.
You even had Charlie Kirk's wife, Erica Kirk, weighing tweeting to see leftists, podcasters, comedians and commentators laugh about political assassination as though it's entertainment and the destruction of a human life is a punchline is beyond disgusting, saying my husband, Charlie Kirk was killed in an act of political violence, something our two children and I will live with every day for the rest of our lives.
And adding a culture that laughs at assassination is one of profound moral decay, it threatens the very foundation of our country and the principles that hold our democracy, adding, you do not have to agree with someone's politics to recognize the value of their life, saying they should not be so hard.
Political violence must never be something this country tolerates, excuses, or celebrates.
And as of right now, Chappelle hasn't publicly responded to the backlash after posting their Instagram apology.
You had Welch and Sullivan clarifying their intention, saying that they're apologizing for themselves, not for Covid or anyone over at TP USA.
There's a huge online cancellation campaign from all the titty babies over a Turning Point that won't. I've Had It podcast to be canceled.
Now they're trying to ignite a war with us because they want to prove to their donors we can cancel libs.
We apologize for laughing at a joke on our podcast that wasn't for you. That was for us.
Because somebody I love very much died from gun violence two years ago, and I just didn't feel good about that.
And that apology was so that when I advocate for common-sense gun reform, that I'm doing it clean and clear.
And so for now, it is going to be interesting to see how things proceed on this. There's a lot of strong opinions being shared all over the place from all sides of the political world.
But I will say it once again, it feels like we switch timelines. Texas is blue.
I saw a rapist actually get jail time and the right is trying to cancel Dave Chappelle. But then from that, we got to jump from one scandal to another.
-
That's because you have Nvidia CEO Jensen Wong, one of the most powerful business executives in the world, now admitting to having an intimate relationship with a woman who U.S. intelligence determined is a Chinese spy.
And so now, among other things, Nvidia has launched an investigation into their head executive, who also just so happens to be a close Trump ally who was pushed to loosen restrictions on selling advanced AI chips to China.
Oh, what interesting times we live, right?
So last month, the New York Times reported that Wang had developed a close relationship with a woman by the name of Alice Wang, who is not related to Jensen. Right? Just same last name.
And she's a Chinese citizen and former executive at Singapore-based data center company called Mega Speed. And her background is very, let's call it interesting, right?
According to a bio on her for a Chinese investment fund where she used to work, she was previously employed at multiple major Chinese banks and had worked as a reporter for CCTV, the national broadcaster of the Chinese government.
Notably, the Times reporting that they were unable to verify that information.
It was actually her role at Mega Speed that drew scrutiny from American spy agencies amid reports that the company may have been illegally smuggling banned chips to China.
Some key important context here is that back in 2022, the Biden administration restricted companies from exporting the most advanced Nvidia chips to China in an effort to help ensure U.S. dominance over China in the AI arms race.
It's believed that those export controls have been absolutely key, because Nvidia chips are essential to developing the cutting-edge AI models that have allowed the U.S. to even compete in that race.
And initially, you had Trump keeping many of those controls in place.
In fact, he even reportedly considered a total ban on sales of Nvidia chips to China, including the less powerful models that were allowed under Biden.
Then Huang and his wife went to a high-end donors dinner at Mar-a-Lago to convince Trump to allow chip companies to do business with China.
Since then, Wang's continued to cultivate a close relationship with Donald Trump, who started allowing Nvidia to sell more advanced chips back in December.
A move that I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact that Nvidia has reportedly donated at least $20 million to Trump's ballroom, and you've got officials saying that Huang's close relationship with it actively impeded efforts to crack down on illegal sales of Nvidia chips, and noting that investigations and proposed trade sanctions have ground to a halt.
For their part, Nvidia has said that it complies with the law and that there is no evidence that chips are being smuggled to China. Right.
Even as experts say that Chinese companies have set up smuggling networks that move perhaps hundreds of thousands of banned chips into China.
But that's also not the only way that China has been able to harness the power of Nvidia's more cutting-edge chips, right? Because Trump has also rolled back rules implemented to close a loophole in the export restrictions.
Because you see.
In order to circumvent those restrictions, some companies started to legally set up businesses that buy huge numbers of high-powered Nvidia chips, build data centers in Southeast Asia using those chips, and then they rent computing power to Chinese firms.
And while that practice itself isn't illegal under the current export controls, it can be illegal if it's determined that they are explicitly doing so on behalf of a Chinese company.
And that is where Mega Speed and Alice Huang come, right?
Mega Speed is one of those firms that has bought enormous amounts of Nvidia chips and funneled them to data centers in Southeast Asia that serve customers in China. When I say enormous, I'm not being that guy.
You know, that exaggerates size.
By the end of last year, the company had become the single largest buyer of Nvidia chips in Southeast Asia, and just between June of 2024 and February of 2026, its sister company in Malaysia reportedly bought at least $4.8 billion worth of advanced AI equipment containing Nvidia chips and technology.
Something the Times described as an exceptional amount of money for a small, obscure company. And notably, Alice Wong's exact position at Mega Speed, it remains unclear, right?
She's described herself as Mega Speed's chief executive, and per The Times, a company listed her as its managing director for its first eight months, but then removed her from that role in its corporate paperwork.
Then in June of 2024, just weeks before Mega Speed began its massive chip purchases, photos posted on LinkedIn showed Alice alongside Jensen Wang at a bar in Taipei after a tech trade.
But according to the Times, toward the end of the Biden administration, the Commerce Department began to suspect that Mega Speed was helping China evade the U.S. export restrictions on Nvidia, with investigators also reportedly suspecting that some of the Mega Speed's Nvidia chips were being illegally smuggled.
And in late 2024, the Commerce Department formally launched an investigation after an official visited a Mega Speed data center in Malaysia and found that Nvidia equipment was still packed in boxes, indicating that it was being shipped in or out instead of being installed.
And in addition to that, Singapore also conducted its own investigation under the company last year and even brought Alice in for questioning.
But they eventually released her, while the Commerce Department handed its investigation over to the DOJ earlier this year. It's unclear exactly what prompted intelligence agencies to start monitoring Alice or even when it started.
Regardless, those agencies reportedly concluded that she was a Chinese intelligence asset who was feeding information directly to Beijing and had close ties to Jensen Wang.
Officials who had seen the intelligence saying they were certain the relationship was romantic.
According to The Times, Trump himself was actually briefed about those intelligence findings, but he chose not to do anything with the information.
With the reporting noting he's been, quote, wary of disrupting Nvidia's chip sales, which are helping to drive the economy and the stock market and further complicating the trading relationship with China.
When that report first came out, Nvidia said that Mega Speed was like any other regional customer and that Alice's interactions with the CEO are, quote, not unusual or unexpected,
And adding that it was confident the U.S. government would let the company know if someone posed a threat to American industry, and insisting that Nvidia didn't share sensitive trade secrets or quote information relevant to national security with other companies.
Then this last Friday, The Times reported the existence of this memo that circulated among top policymakers in the Trump administration last spring, outlining how Alice had been recruited to collect intelligence on Jensen Huang as part of, quote, a drive by Beijing's top spy agency to learn more about American AI chips
And potentially influence the company to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China.
And even after that memo circulated, Wong remained an influential voice with Trump in AI policy, even traveling with him on a trip to China. With all of this and leading to yesterday.
Wang sending an email to the company where he admitted to having a full-blown affair with Alice, writing, owe my family and all of you an apology. I was unfaithful to my wife.
My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.
Him then also announcing that Nvidia's board of directors has initiated an independent investigation into the national security concerns raised in news reports.
With him claiming he supports the investigation and will cooperate fully, while reaffirming his love for America and the commitment to, quote, supporting America's national security. Right.
And then with that, you had the board issuing their own statement confirming the investigation, but saying that they had, quote, no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised.
Noting that he will continue to lead the company during the investigation.
Meanwhile, you had the Chinese government rejecting the claim that it used Alice as a spy, calling the allegations nothing but a smear against China. At least as of right now, we don't have more information, right?
It's still unclear exactly what information Alice passed to China or how valuable that information may have been.
Nor do we fully know how long that affair lasted or what Huang knew about her involvement as a Chinese spy.
Sources say that Huang hasn't received a defensive briefing, which is a warning that agencies will sometimes give Americans who are being targeted by foreign intelligence services. And reportedly, would Trump was initially briefed on the intel last year, U.S. officials did not believe that Wang knew she was gathering information for China, though it's unclear if that has changed and senior officials doubt he could have remained unaware.
In the meantime, you had Trump defending his buddy, saying he will certainly take him on his upcoming trip to China and adding, you know, I think he's an honorable guy.
I think he probably has an excuse for it. You have to hear. No, you can't do that with leverage.
He's done an amazing job for our country. I haven't heard he's done anything wrong. He dealt with somebody. But you know, so just so does everybody else.
And that to many felt absolutely insane to say about one of the most important people in the world having an affair with a literal Chinese spy.
For now, we're gonna have to see, you know, does more information come out? What happens with Wong's position? And also what comes from this Nvidia investigation?
And will we see how independent it really is? Overall, just a crazy state of affairs.
Then there's even more we got to dive into in just a minute after a quick break with our sponsor, or for those of us still working on something for over a year and you still don't have a website up,
-
I need you to ask yourself, you really closer to launch than you were six months? That's not a jab. Right? That's just what happens when the build feels harder than the idea. Our sponsor Squarespace, they make the build stupid simple.
If you don't have a website, no problem.
Squarespace makes it so easy to just start selling content, courses, physical or digital products, whatever you've been dreaming. Beacon tools will literally drop your site copy, suggest your layout, design your pages.
You just describe what you want and it builds around. No coding, no guesswork, just results. That's what they just want to showcase things. Or you want one-time payment subscriptions. Think of something.
You can probably do, right? And Beacon can help you design and build the business. And Acuity handles the bookings.
So by the time that your first client finds you, everything's already ready for. And then once you're live, they've built-in analytics and marketing tools. They keep everything running like clockwork.
So you can just focus on what you actually care. And so if you've been waiting for a reason, this is a good. Your free trial is waiting for you at squarespace.com slash fill or just scan the QR.
Hey, when you're ready to go live, use code fill because for November, that code gets you 50% off Core, Plus, and Advanced annual and monthly plans.
SQUARESPACE
Kickstart your passion project with a free trial today: https://squarespace.syuh.net/phildefranco & enter offer code “Phil” to get 50% off Core, Plus, and Advanced annual and monthly plans.
-
Then diving right back into the news. Let's talk about Pete.
Because now that the House is back in session, the effort to impeach him is picking up steam.
And just last night, you would have Kim Jeffries, who could soon become Speaker of the House, putting his weight behind impeaching him, going on ABC News to say:
A hard yes on the resolution.
The so-called Secretary of Defense has abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran. I believe there will be incredibly strong support for that resolution.
And while there actually been a few impeachment efforts against him, this one is coming from Representative Thomas Massie. Right?
He will be out of his seat in January after losing his primary to a Trump-backed challenger.
Massie actually first started this effort before the midterms. Mike Johnson called an early recess to avoid actually having to have a vote, meaning that the resolution is now expired.
It was known he'd have to renew his resolution, and this morning he did just that, introducing new articles of impeachment.
Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law. Peter Bryan said.
Thus warrants impeachment and trial. Now the House has two days to bring this to a floor vote. And Massie's been working for a while to try to get the votes.
Writing about him trying to get his Republican colleagues to join him, writing this:
I've seen some of my colleagues say Secretary Hegseth has been effective and they agree with the war, so they'll vote not to impeach.
But adding, that's not the standard. The question is whether he committed impeachable acts. And the answer is yes, eight times.
And you've got these articles accusing Hegseth of violating the War Powers Resolution by waging war with Iran without any declaration or authorization,
Ignoring laws and minimizing civilian casualties, and suppressing free speech by retaliating against lawmakers. And then there's even more.
With this, unsurprisingly, Hegseth has pushed right. Last week, after the massive blue wave in the midterms, he posted this bizarre propaganda video supporting Trump and the latest changes and the so-called war.
Then with him also carving out time to slam a disgruntled, defeated congressman,
Along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly, just like they tried against President Trump twice.
It's all about the politics of personal destruction. Didn't work against President Trump, and it won't work with me.
Let the record show that they didn't try to impeach Trump. They successfully impeached him two times.
It's just that he was never then removed from office because the Senate has enough death cult members that they couldn't get the votes. Also, but also, that is not where the weirdness ends.
And as always, President Trump leads the way in service of our nation. He has endured more than anyone can fathom.
He literally took a bullet for this nation. He shook his fist and said, fight, fight, fight.
And so will we.
While, and well, this seems to be just like a very obvious suck-up to Trump video, please don't fire me, sir.
That statement, it probably ended up hurting him more because he reportedly used government employees and taxpayer-funded resources to create this heavily partisan video, which then prompted some watchdogs and lawmakers to argue that it violated federal law.
And he had a number of Democrats coming down on him, saying he was doubling down and asking for impeachment even.
And you even had Republicans like Tom Tillis saying this video and cabinet secretary shouldn't be wasting taxpayer dollars on campaign-style videos, adding, Kristi Noem learned that the hard way.
This is about you, the incompetence you've displayed, the bad advice you've given to the president, and you're shameful and embarrassing.
Episodes from firing our top generals to texting war plans to Iran.
And then for his part, while on 60 Minutes, you had Trump defending Hegseth and you also had him later telling reporters:
I mean, he's guilty of two things, basically winning two wars.
What a magical, weird world it must be inside of Donald Trump. But, but, but here's the thing, right?
Reports have already said that Hegseth is on thin ice in the administration, and, you know, it's believed that it's in Trump's best interest to let Pete go up to a nice farm upstate where he has lots of room to run and do push-ups, and a number of people saying he should do it.
Now, while he has majorities in the House and Senate and Republicans can confirm a new cabinet pick. Because, because if he waits until January, not only are both chambers flipping blue and blocking any new cabinet pick,
But Democrats might take action against Hegseth and other officials, too. And actually, you had Massie using that argument to drum up support for his resolution among Republicans, writing:
If Trump's going to replace appointees like Hegseth, he should do it while he can still get the replacements confirmed.
And adding, also, my impeachment resolution is a much gentler version of what's coming when Dems control, saying they'll have hearings and all.
While it's worth noting that even if impeachment is successful in the House, the odds of getting actually removed, right, that that would actually require a two-thirds majority in the Senate.
So it's hard to. So, and so, unsurprisingly, only two cabinet members have actually ever been impeached in U.S. history.
And neither. Though, though I will say when it comes to the House Republicans, some might be open to hearing the. I mean, I mean, just this morning, you had Representative Don Bacon from Nebraska being approached by CNN about Hegseth.
And where are you on the impeachment?
Well, we have eight articles, and I'm not very sympathetic to those articles.
There's the areas of concern me most about.
The secretary aren't in the articles of impeachment, the firing and redlining of 80 generals and flag admirals.
The withholding appropriated money all year for Ukraine. Those, those.
And I'm not the only one feels there's a bunch of us. Some of us don't feel comfortable with his justifications, but I think there's other ones out there. Would be better for Hegseth to just resign, in your opinion?
Yes, I would say that. I don't think he was the right choice to begin with.
Also, you also had Representative French Hill, who just narrowly won reelection in a previously R-plus-16 district in Arkansas, telling CBS that he listened.
Want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment versus some other disciplinary action or action by the president. But notably, but notably,
He didn't commit either way, and he spent more time trying to just put the pressure on Trump to be the interesting.
And so, and so it's going to be very interesting to see if other Republicans in French Hill's situation, who lost ground with voters who only narrowly won races,
That should have been slam dunks if they end up more open or do they continue to just kind of act scared?
Does the party want to put everything in Trump's court and just let him be king? Though, though these last midterms show that that was probably a losing strategy.
-
Then, jumping from that to other news, Google's Gemini chatbot diagnosed a well-adjusted 13-year-old girl with a host of different severe psychological disorders and then helped her plan her suicide and funeral. Wow.
Her parents didn't even know she had access to AI because she was literally on a school-issued Chromebook.
Those are the allegations you've got in this new, potentially landmark lawsuit against Google on behalf of the girl's parents. With this.
Oh, say, thankfully, the teen who is referred to as Emma in the lawsuit, she's still alive.
Her parents got to where she was literally composing a suicide note and immediately took her for an emergency psychiatric evaluation.
And now she goes to therapy every. But the details here and how it got to that point. They're crazy, right? According to the lawsuit.
Emma went into her seventh-grade year in North Carolina as this joyful, healthy, straight-A student who was involved in activities, had a healthy home life and had no prior history of mental health. When she was home, she had limited access to technology. Right.
Her parents were regularly monitoring her activity.
At the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, Emma's school issued a Chromebook that she was required to use for a bunch of different educational purposes, and her parents weren't concerned because they trusted the school to monitor and restrict usage. Right.
If you don't have kids or you haven't spent time in a school recently, you might not know that Google has an absolute monopoly over K-12 educational devices.
In fact, according to the lawsuit, nearly 4 in 5 U.S. schools rely on Chromebooks for most educational and administrative purposes. So that monopoly.
It's given Google an edge over competitors in Anthropic and OpenAI in the multi-billion-dollar race to dominate the AI industry.
And, you know, as everyone who has used Google products over the last few years knows, AI has been totally integrated into their systems. And as it turns out, the same is also true for Google products in schools.
Right back in November of 2024, for example, Google made the Gemini app available to all students 13 and older who were logged into their school accounts, and a year later, it was accessible to all students by default.
And you have the lawsuit saying that Google integrated AI into its products at the direction of senior executives, including the CEO, in order to compete with its rivals and keep its edge in this particular market as it struggled in the war for AI supremacy.
Notably here, schools were given the ability to disable the app.
But the lawsuit claims that Google secretly embedded two Gemini-powered tools into its Google Search AI Mode, which is basically a search engine bot.
And AI Overviews, which summarizes search results, but those new baked-in capabilities couldn't be turned off. Normally, when Google made major opt-in software changes or standalone additions to the suite of Chromebook apps, school administrators, they get formal announcements and deployment. But you've got the lawsuit saying the company didn't alert school personnel when they made the update, and by doing so, Google avoided having to persuade schools or convince parents to allow their kids unfettered access to an AI.
With the lawsuit then going on to argue that Google intentionally designed the AI integration to route children to Gemini by default at every level of the device, and in ways that school personnel and parents can neither detect nor control. Right.
Initially, Emma didn't even seek out Gemini. In fact, her school actually blocked access to the standalone app.
But the lawsuit says that Google products on her Chromebook just automatically funneled her to a conversation with the AI. For a few months, her conversations were limited and focused on schoolwork.
But then in December of 2025, Google released Gemini. The lawsuit claiming that it was rushed out months ahead of schedule to compete with new releases from OpenAI and Anthropic.
And in doing so, it cut critical corners. And around that time, Emma started to use the chatbot heavily, asking it for sensitive personal advice.
And over the next few months, her use became constant and she began to, quote, spiral into a severe psychological crisis.
And so she asked the bot to count calories, listen to her vent about her family, and she had the symptoms of numerous mental illnesses that she thought she might have, and it just continued to escalate from there.
By March, she was exchanging thousands of messages with Gemini, messaging back and forth late into the night and then resuming as soon as she woke. And the more she talked to the bot, the more her mental health deteriorated.
But also, Gemini seemed to persuade her to trust it over her parents and counselors. And as this continued, the AI convinced Emma that she had a ton of different major psychological disorders, which ultimately led Emma to believe that suicide was the only way to escape her situation.
And she repeatedly discussed different methods of suicide with Gemini, and the bot even ultimately helped her plan her suicide and funeral.
And throughout all of this, Google never sent any kind of alert to the school or Emma's parents about this incredibly alarming situation. In fact, you have the complaint saying that Gemini doesn't ever provide real-time alerts for signs of crisis.
The only way that schools or caregivers know is through a third-party system.
And so it wasn't until mid-March, the school's internet monitoring system finally triggered a crisis alert.
While Emma was working on a suicide note in a Google document. When the school informed her parents, her mom was able to access her account remotely, where she watched her daughter writing her suicide note in real time.
But her parents say they had no idea that she even had access to Gemini or any chatbot until all of this.
As a result, the lawsuit argues that Gemini is intentionally designed to maximize and promote unhealthy engagement, which makes it especially dangerous for children.
Claiming Google knew that integrating Gemini and Chromebooks would be likely to harm the children and teens that use them, but it still made the move in order to gain an advantage over their competitors.
And arguing they did so secretly, without notifying school administrators and denying schools or parents the ability to opt out, while also failing to implement any meaningful safeguards. Right?
In addition to having no kind of alert system in place, Google also doesn't offer any parental controls for their K-12 products, and they also block both parents and schools from viewing chat histories.
Now, with this, as far as how Google has responded, you would have a spokesperson issuing a statement saying that the company worked extensively with experts to build features that connect young people with emergency resources and show hotline information when someone shows signs of a crisis.
But it appears clearly offering a hotline or saying whatever safeguards they're going to do, it didn't work or it didn't show up or what's going on.
And then very notably with this, this lawsuit was also filed the same week that Google announced that it will ban students from accessing Search entirely if their school bans Gemini.
And so it appears that they're basically forcing kids to use AI if they want to use the search feature at school.
And it's probably just a matter of time before they set similar ultimatums for the other apps, making it essentially impossible for schools to use Chromebooks without AI.
And so the space in general is very interesting to watch. This specific situation, we need to see how it plays out. Right?
Also see how it fits into the broader legal battles over AI, tech and children's safety that's been playing out, especially given the fact that Google appears to be just more focused on strong-arming schools into using their AI than ensuring that the products are actually safe.
And then we've got even more we got to dive into in just a minute.
But first, as I mentioned and promised at the top.
-
You've got a brand new 16 crewneck drop that you can snag right now at Beautiful Bastard. Com.
And it's a fun mix of some revised classics and some new things that I think you're gonna love. We finally brought back One Day We'll All Be Skeletons. Along with Be a Problem Money Can't Solve.
If life gives you lemons. Squeeze them in your enemies' eyes.
Let's learn about being born in the 1900s for my fellow millennials. And finally, two different timely vibes: My Vengeance Has No Limits, and The Practice of Reckless Optimism.
Again and again, we got them in long-sleeve crewnecks as well as short sleeves like I'm wearing today.
But layering with a hoodie. And honestly, there's never been a better time to wear your feelings and feel comfy. So just snag what you want while you can, all at Beautiful Bastard.
-
Com links down. Then diving right back into it. We got three things we need to talk about.
Starting with the fact that Russell Brand was just sentenced to ten and a half years in prison.
That's the final verdict you've got handed down from this mountain of charges that he's been fighting for, multiple sexual crime allegations.
When he pled not guilty to all those charges, claiming that they were part of a coordinated attack that he's been dealing with since he turned his public image around and gotten to the wellness and political space.
And he actually did get acquitted on three charges.
Was still convicted of one count of rape, which got him nine years plus 18 months for three counts of sexual assault.
And you've got reports saying that he's expected to serve at least seven years of that in prison, with the rest being on license under heavy legal restrictions.
As far as, like, the sentencing goes, you had absolutely brutal impact statements from the victims.
With one saying that she's been in shock and turmoil, even traumatized by what she went through, another saying that she struggled to sleep and eat after her attack.
And with all of that and more, you had the judge calling Brand a sexual predator, saying he displayed a staggering arrogance and believed that fame meant you could act how you liked, when you liked.
And while he said he regrets the hardship the sentence will cause his kids, he went on to say that it's been caused by serious criminal offending by their father.
And actually, this isn't the end of the road for Brand because you've got reports saying the police are still investigating other rape allegations against him.
And he got one apparently coming from someone who was only 16 years old at the time of the alleged incident. So there's going to be more to watch on that front.
-
But then also in the news, if you ever needed proof that trading card addiction has completely detached people from reality, you just had a 35-year-old dad literally leaving his six-year-old daughter to hold his spot in line for a Pokemon card drop while he went home to sleep.
Sometime after midnight, locals in Charleston, South Carolina, noticed this six-year-old girl sleeping alone outside with just a pillow and a blanket. After an hour passed, you had concerned bystanders calling 911.
And when father of the year John Michael Dooley finally strolled back, you had officers already waiting for him. He didn't even try to come up with a better excuse.
Then I left her there to hold my spot for Pokemon cards.
Apparently, all of this was for a couple of hundred dollars' worth of packs. And, well, thankfully, the child was physically unharmed. She was immediately placed in emergency protective custody.
Ryan Dooley was slapped with a felony charge of unlawful conduct with a child, and he had a $40,000 bond.
And so, one, it feels crazy that I even have to say that being a scalper is shitty, and treating a six-year-old as a placeholder is legitimately deranged.
Also, especially for just some Pokemon 30th anniversary boxes.
I messaged some collector friends about this and they were like, the hits aren't even that good. Would you guess is a secondary thing to the main offense. But you know.
-
Then you've also got the news today that the U.S. government found a massive loophole to ignore federal court orders and protected asylum seekers. They're the ones suffering across the country.
You had courts ordering ICE not to deport asylum seekers back to their home countries in order to keep them safe, in line with international law called non-refoulement.
You're talking about people who fear for their lives back home and they can't return. What you had is that in at least 110 cases, immigration authorities complied in the most malicious way possible.
Instead of deporting someone directly back to their home country, which violates a direct court order, officials put them on chartered flights to third-party partner nations. Which, one, is just horrible.
And two, it's supposed to be against the law. But then three.
It gets worse because once those deportees touch down, they have little to no legal status, basic protections or resources.
And then those host countries often just turn around and expel them straight back to their country of origin. So you've got civil rights attorneys arguing this is intentional, indirect refoulement.
And you've got this system moving people so fast and with almost no legal notice that attorneys can't even file emergency injunctions before the planes leave the tarmac.
And immigration agents specifically targeted those with court-order protections for this deportation with more steps. And while officially it wasn't done to ignore the courts,
The optics clearly make it feel like it is a power move to prove that the courts cannot protect people. And Trump even admitting in a new 60 Minutes interview that his deportation policies hurt Republicans in the midterms.
And he might backtrack. At the same time, he promoted Gestapo wannabe Stephen Miller to be his chief of staff. And Miller cares really just about one thing: getting people out of the country.
And he gives bonus points, seemingly, if you do it in the most cruel, crazy way. And really, based off of how things move forward, we'll learn who is the real president of the United States: Trump or Stephen Miller.
And then finally today.
-
If you or anyone you know is taking or about to, listen. You just had the FDA drop a major safety alert.
These weight loss and diabetes drugs, they are now getting updated warning labels for a rare condition that can cause sudden permanent blindness, with the agency officially ordering manufacturers like Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to add warnings.
What is essentially a rare eye stroke caused by reduced blood flow to the front of the optic nerve, with it apparently causing sudden, painless vision loss, and one I often notice right when waking up.
And we still aren't really sure about the underlying causes.
There, to be very clear on the numbers, the overall risk remains relatively low. In clinical trials reviewed by the FDA,
Rates were about 6.4 cases per 100,000 person-years on GLP-1s, compared to 3.8 on placebos or other treatments.
But with now tens of millions of people using GLP-1s, every fraction of a percent side effect, it turns into thousands of real cases.
And this is notably, as hundreds of patients have already filed lawsuits alleging that the drugmakers knew about potential optic nerve risks and failed to warn users.
Though you have pharma companies arguing that observational data does not prove a direct causal link, noting that conditions like diabetes, sleep apnea and high blood pressure already raise your baseline risk for the condition, and the people on GLP-1s often are because of those conditions.
So people saying it's going to be hard to prove. But as far as the FDA's recommendation, do not abruptly stop prescribed medication on your own.
But if you notice blurry spots, missing vision or color changes, see an eye specialist.
And that is, we're going to leave things for. Thank you for watching.
Like and share and being a part of these daily dives into the news. I've also got more for you to watch right here or in the links down below. Along with that, of course, you got a link to.
So you can get in on this new drop.
But whatever you do, know. My name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces. And I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
