PDS Published 11/11/2026
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You've got two Ole Miss students getting caught on camera making monkey noises outside of a black students apartment. And the video and fallout have divided America. The ICE hiring problem was just exposed. Being worse than you think, which is really saying something.
Dive into the backlash and chaos on both sides of the leadership fights for Democrats and Republicans. It's playing out right now.
OpenAI and county leaders here in Georgia just got hit with a mafia style RICO racketeering lawsuit over a $30 billion AI data. We just launched six new fantastic tees over beautiful Bascombe. Just in time for that Thanksgiving dinner, we're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show, your daily dive into the news, starting with this.
This almost Ring camera scandal, it is completely blown up and really depending where you go online, is either a very serious problem that needs to be addressed or evidence of the ridiculous return of woke.
And in case you missed it, what we're talking about is this video that went viral online earlier this week.
That clip was initially posted on TikTok by a black woman saying that she lived in the apartment and she tagged the university, asking for a response. It's gotten some 13 million views just on that individual clip, not even considering where else it's been shared and uploaded.
But then you also got a little more context on Facebook where Tasha Bolton posted the clip again, saying that her daughter lives in the apartment with two other roommates, and all three are students at the University of Mississippi or Ole Miss.
And she said that all three are black women, and the two girls in the video are upstairs neighbors. Adding to that, this is absolutely disgusting and unacceptable.
Saying college is supposed to be a place where young adults can learn, grow and feel safe.
And she went on to say that the video had already been shared with the university, and now they're demanding answers. Specifically, what is going to be done to address this type of behavior and what sort of accountability is going to be provided?
And so with this, you had immediate backlash out there. And we saw several responses within the university, including one from the vice chancellor for student affairs, Sean Boda, describing the behavior in the video as, quote, deeply troubling, hurtful and unacceptable.
The whole thing is being investigated by the Office of Conflict Resolution and Student Conduct and Equal Opportunity in Regulatory Compliance.
And with that, saying the university can only share so much publicly because of student privacy laws, and they're taking the situation seriously, but also in the face of this, the university promised to support both the people immediately impacted and the communities on campus.
You had many black students feeling unwelcome and unsafe, according to the president of the Black Student Union, which was also echoed by several students who have responded to the situation, both in interviews and elsewhere, frustrated and wanting to know what accountability is going to look like.
And to that end, you actually had one of the girls in the video, Elena Kunz, releasing a statement apologizing after this whole thing blew up, saying she actually didn't know who lived there and had never met the woman when she walked by the Ring camera that day.
And that she would have never intentionally made those noises or gestures toward a person of color. And, "I apologize to the women and I pray they will forgive me. I can never truly understand the pain I have caused them, and it was never my intention. These girls deserve to feel seen and understood. And what I did is not a reflection of who I am."
With her then going on to say that both her and her family have gotten death threats, and that she's grateful to the authorities for ensuring their safety. While she's planning on cooperating with the university's investigation, she's asking for privacy.
Signing off in a statement with Elena Kunz, 18 years old, freshman, University of Mississippi.
And like with almost every aspect of the story, you had mixed reactions there. Some accepting that, others having another wave of backlash, some saying things like that making it a point to say that she is 18 years old and mentioning her family received death threats is how white women continue to make themselves victims when they cause everyone else harm.
And then also after her apology went viral, the news broke that Elena was withdrawing from the university this year, which was then met with another mixed reaction.
And that, even from the three women directly involved and their parents.
Do you think her withdrawing from the university was the right move?
Yes, for her piece. I feel like it was a good option for her.
I hate that she would do it for the course of her life. That's something about a child. That bothers me because I don't like seeing kids. You know, you just started these babies, say, 18.
And then also, as a situation, it just kept snowballing and growing and growing. More and more stuff's getting added.
And so we're learning things like Elena Kunz's grandfather was reportedly involved in a scandal last January at his car dealership, where an employee said to have printed out a racial slur on a sticker and put it on a customer's car. That car reportedly belonged to a woman.
And so when you had that getting added to this whole clusterfuck, you had the discourse online just reaching new levels with all types of responses.
People both defending and condemning Elena.
Also, you had some applauding the other girl in the video, Lauren Mayfield, for not yet apologizing.
Some have even created a GoFundMe, which has raised at least a recorded $11,000 so far to, quote, "cover lost income or opportunities and anything else required so she does not have to apologize," with that, they also included a condition that she doesn't apologize or, quote, "bend the knee."
And with that, it's worth mentioning that we haven't yet gotten any comment from Lauren about the situation.
Notably, the three women from the apartment did say that while Elena apologized and said that they were doing it to a bunch of doors and didn't mean any harm, they claimed that Lauren doubled down on the monkey gestures and kept doing them when they went out to confront Lauren and Elena after they passed the Ring camera.
And so maybe that gives the GoFundMe organizers don't need to worry about her, quote, bending the knee.
And then also with this, you had a lot of people saying this whole situation getting any coverage at all, or at least this level, is ridiculous.
And some have called it a return of woke. And among the people leading the charge pushing that narrative are people like Matt Walsh, who said it's like we've fallen into a time warp back to saying this is moral hysteria.
It wouldn't even be remotely justified if the girls really did make a racist gesture.
But this is the kind of stuff we saw during peak woke at its most feverish.
And you even had Elon Musk calling this, quote, "what they are programmed to do," in response to an End Wokeness meme about ABC's coverage of this versus Iryna.
And she was right. She was the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was killed on that train in North Carolina by Carlos DeJuan, a man who was later deemed incompetent to stand trial.
And at least on parts of the internet, that's been this running theme and the criticism comparing the coverage of this situation to that of crimes that appear to be committed by people of color.
And a big one that you have there is the recent viral video from your college in Pennsylvania, where it looked like a mob was attacking someone.
But then there you have a whole other debate unfolding.
Some arguing, hey, you're not wrong. The York situation didn't get as much national attention, but noting that it was covered by NBC News, the New York Post, TMZ, and others.
And as you have many of those people also arguing those girls were arrested and actually both arrests have been made.
And then you have people arguing back saying, yeah, we know that three people have been arrested and slapped with charges ranging from felony riot, misdemeanor simple assault, defiant trespass and harassment.
But there were probably generally more details to the situation.
And so generally speaking, it's an absolute mess. And a war zone online that's playing out in very different ways.
And so in the meantime, as we wait to see how things continue, I really would love to know your thoughts in those comments.
Then jumping from that to other news, you got ICE right now insisting that it only hires the best of the best. Every time we find out who its agents actually are, they always seem to be the worst of the worst.
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I mean, just take Exhibit A today. David Letter just seems to get uglier and uglier the more we learn about him.
Because not only does he have a troubling work history, mental health issues and domestic violence allegations from two ex-wives, also appears to have what was described as a record of deep-seated anti-immigrant hostility, especially against Colombians.
So then with that, I have to mention that this is the guy who shot and killed a Colombian immigrant this year in Maine.
For a number of people, this wasn't surprising, because in 2021, he ranted at his sister in emails for her relationship with a Colombian man, writing, "Can take his noncitizen ass back to his country and enjoy his third world luxuries," saying he does not emulate what it means to be an American, but rather he emulates what it's like to be entitled and think he has a seat at a table that has no room for his or your ignorance.
Then continuing, "The man's bloodline knows nothing about what it takes to earn and then cherish the freedom America offers."
With that, I should note, though, it shouldn't really matter that the man he was raging about was a PhD student in education at the time with legal status and multiple children.
So literally what appeared to be the epitome of someone cherishing the freedom and opportunity offered by this country?
Also with this, you had his sister saying that her brother had previously stated that certain races of people should not live in the United States.
And you had her adding, "He conveyed to me that he protected himself in Afghanistan by racial profiling the people there," and adding, "If he could dehumanize the people, he could be more self-protective and less empathetic."
You even had his own mom telling the Times he is dangerous and should not have weapons. Believe his victims, not him.
And actually speaking of his victims, let's get to one that he killed as an ICE agent, Johann Sebastian Duran Guerrero, a 25-year-old father from Colombia who was working two jobs to build a life for his infant daughter, who he called his beautiful princess.
As he was leaving his apartment building, ICE agents tried to stop his car, and the agency claims that he tried to flee with his vehicle, shooting him out of fear for public safety.
But of course, you've got that account disputed.
And here's the big thing: they didn't even get the right guy.
According to Senator Angus King, DHS admitted to him that they were looking for someone else.
But then also with this, remember, this is just Exhibit A. We are constantly getting more stories very much like this.
Especially since late last month when activists hacked into DHS and published the identities of some 1,500 ICE officers and agents hired since Trump took office.
Because now, the Washington Post has looked into about 300 of them and found at least 19 with serious red flags before being hired.
And I mean, we're talking about guys involved in use-of-force incidents, five more named in lawsuits that were settled, and at least six who had been fired, decertified or forced to resign from their previous jobs.
As, for example, there was this Detroit cop who was suspended for tasing a handcuffed detainee and reprimanded for deliberately turning off his in-car camera while at a scene.
Then in 2021, he shot and killed a teenage boy who was fleeing by shooting him in the back after the kid got out of a car that he was drag racing.
With a cop claiming the victim raised a gun and there was a pistol that was found near the car, but the family denied that he had a gun and eventually got $2.5 million from the police.
Also in another incident, you had an Idaho cop who would later be hired by ICE, helping force open a man's front door and dragging him outside as his young daughter watched and his wife screamed all over a speeding ticket.
"Taser! Oh, no. No, I got hold of her! Stop resisting! Stop resisting! On your toes!"
"Ow! Ow, ow!"
With the cops there also settling for half a million dollars after a judge ruled that they unlawfully entered the house without a warrant.
And unfortunately, you just have example after example. A cop who tackled someone and smashed their head into a sidewalk, another who was fired for threatening his supervisor, a third who stole nearly $3,000 worth of wine while on the job.
And for many of these guys, their history isn't something you need to unearth with an extensive background check. Like, you can just Google these guys.
I mean, some of them went viral online for their conduct, outraging millions of people before even getting picked up by ICE.
For example, this police sergeant in Mississippi who detained and handcuffed the guy just for holding a sign outside of City Hall that said, "God bless the homeless vets."
"God bless the homeless veterans."
"Okay. You need to leave. You need to leave. Okay. Do you want to go to jail? Do you want to go to jail?"
Little did he know that guy was a First Amendment advocate.
So he sued the police department and the cop had to be deposed about his knowledge of constitutional rights.
"Do you know what the First Amendment protects?"
"I don't. I don't talk."
"Do you know what the Fourth Amendment, the United States?"
"I don't recall."
Or Trump put out his best and brightest. And that guy who can't recall basic civil rights resigned as a cop on Tuesday last December. And then ICE hired him the following Monday.
Again, a key thing here is that The Washington Post just looked at a sample of a few hundred agents, and they have hired thousands of new recruits, often without doing basic background checks.
While Trump, he admitted in a 60 Minutes interview that going too far on the deportations may have hurt him in the midterms, there's no indication that he's slowing down.
If anything, him elevating Stephen Miller, the White House chief of staff, signals that they might ramp things up, as numerous sources in DHS told CBS News.
Plus, you had DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin tweeting out three words right after the elections: "Deportations will continue."
And even ICE added in another post last Friday, "You thought we were slowing down?"
All of this in the face of even some conservative pundits who normally support Trump suggesting he needs to chill the hell out on the immigration front.
"This Markwayne Mullin guy couldn't have been worse. He's worse than Noem. In a meeting with me, Mullin would be in the Bahamas right now taking the salt."
"It's time to just ask the American people what they want and what they don't want in terms of enforcement moving forward."
And with that, you have many saying it's not even an immigration front. It's a public harassment campaign.
For now, we have to wait to see how it plays out.
Then there's even more we got to dive into in just a minute after a quick break with our sponsor.
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Well, the newbies, you know, they're not going to be until January.
You already had a group of House Democrats killing the vibe by missing a key vote to advance impeachment proceedings against Pete Hegseth.
So now, among other things, with this, you've got this growing movement of politicians, celebrities and activists saying we need fresh leadership in the party now.
Partly because yesterday you had the House voting 211 to 204 to send the impeachment resolution to committee, effectively killing the effort that was spearheaded by GOP Representative Thomas Massie.
And also, Massie was the only Republican who voted with the Democrats on it.
And well, yeah.
You're seeing headlines like "House GOP sinks impeachment" and "Republican-led House rejects Hegseth impeachment effort."
You also have a lot of people asking, well, where the fuck were a bunch of the Democrats?
Because yesterday afternoon, you had the House Democrats' Twitter account posting in all caps, "Pete Hegseth out now."
But when it came time to vote, 11 House Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi and Haley Stevens, didn't even show.
And so those Democratic absences were larger than the seven-vote margin.
And you had several members blaming the riots on so and so, in a moment where Dems generally, they need to really prove themselves. And in a moment where it came, Jeffries is needed to be seen as a strong leader.
It wasn't a great look.
And already you're seeing a ton of huge reactions on Twitter with a lot of anger specifically directed at Hakeem Jeffries.
Because he's expected to be speaker of the House come January.
And as a leader, it's his job to ensure that the Dems have the necessary number of votes.
And people noting at the exact time there's backlash to the coronation of Hakeem Jeffries as speaker, he fucks up the impeachment of Hegseth by not whipping the votes.
Yeah, there's a lot of frustration specifically over the handling of the situation.
But it's also coming as a lot of people have been saying, hey, we don't want Jeffries as speaker of the House, and we don't want Chuck Schumer as Senate majority leader.
There's a vast number of reasons people have thrown out, but kind of the top ones are people arguing that Schumer and Jeffries, they're too cozy with corporate donors. They're too pro-Israel.
And just generally, they are not up to the task of fighting Trump, saying it's time for a change.
Which is also why, since the election, you've seen an increasing number of Democrats, a mix of kind of newly elected people like Khanna and Adam, and existing leaders in the party like AOC and Bernie Sanders, speaking out.
We've been seeing this play out in a number of different ways.
Some seeming to hint that they want new blood, but based off of certain factors, you're probably going to still get mainstream people like a...
And that's as others are kind of more obviously reluctant to back Jeffries or Schumer's leadership, and others just outright calling for different leadership.
"I don't think it's about the individual. It's about the agenda and the agenda that actually reflects the priorities of the American people. And we're not withholding votes. What we're doing is saying we're undecided."
"Do you think it's time for Chuck Schumer to go?"
"I mean, listen, what happens in the Senate? That's a whole other chamber. Of course, you know, I think that this is a sentiment that is seen in a lot of places. But in my view, the time is now for change. And I will not be supporting Chuck."
"Senator Schumer has led ably in the past, but this is a moment for a refresh."
And this isn't just playing out in Washington, right?
Everyone from normies to people in Hollywood are speaking out.
You have celebrities like, for example, Mark Ruffalo and Laverne Cox.
"We do not want Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries in leadership. We don't want them now. To our elected representatives, let's make it happen."
At times it feels like there's some notable momentum, with House members and members-elect also reportedly getting inundated with anti-Jeffries messages.
But of course, not everyone's on the same page.
On the other side of this, you have people saying, hey, Jeffries and Schumer, they helped lead us to these historic midterms and therefore they deserve to head things.
And you've had folks like Senator Ruben Gallego and Representative and Diet Coke aficionados, Debbie Dingell, making their opinions known.
"I'm absolutely supporting Leader Jeffries."
"Hakeem Jeffries delivered the largest majority in this Congress in decades."
"When you manage to the World Series, you give him another contract."
And this has been, you know, a really good election cycle for us.
And while AOC, she did exactly bash Schumer, she did seem to accept that Jeffries will remain the candidate.
"There is one candidate in this race, Hakeem Jeffries."
"And, you know, I think that everyone is far more concerned about what that leadership means, what it is promising, what it seeks to deliver."
So that's part of what's going on with the internal debate.
But then the other key piece here is, well, what are the alternative options? Who would actually replace Schumer and Jeffries?
And there you actually have, let's say, another push for Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen to run for Senate majority leader.
As far as Van Hollen, he's 67 years old. He's held public office since 1991.
And while he's not too much younger than Schumer, who is 75 years old, he sort of represents the newer generation, at least in that he's been very critical of the Democratic establishment, especially when it comes to its approach to Donald Trump and the U.S. relationship with Israel.
As of recording, Van Hollen is not officially pursuing the role yet. He does seem to be considering it, saying that he's in listening mode right now.
And so we're gonna have to keep an eye on that.
And then as far as the House side, no one's really emerged yet as a clear alternative.
But you have a lot of people on Twitter who seem to be rooting for Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley.
And among other things, you've even got a "Make Ayanna Pressley Speaker of the House" Change.org petition that's been going.
And actually, some are speculating that she might have hinted at a run yesterday by posting this vague tweet saying Republicans have been flooding the zone with lawlessness, cruelty and corruption, adding Democrats have a mandate to match their energy boldly and unapologetically, saying it's not enough to be the adults in the room.
"We have to prove that we are the fighters in the room."
But at least as of just filming this, Pressley running for speaker of the House is just a rumor.
Or maybe a wish for some is more accurate.
And as far as how things move forward, you still have a good number of people pretty confident that it's going to be Schumer and Jeffries moving forward.
And actually, they themselves seem to be publicly optimistic about that.
"I'm confident I will be elected majority leader. I'm going to continue to make the case in my conversations with every single member of the caucus interested in talking about both the track record that has gotten us here, but more importantly, what we hope to do for the American people."
But then also, you know, you have Democrats still sorting out the future of their party.
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You've got Republicans now selecting the leaders for when they assume the minority, and they have managed to piss off both the moderate and far-right factions.
Because yesterday, House Republicans voted 106 to 73, in a split decision to elect Representative Jim Jordan over Representative Steve Scalise to be the next minority leader.
That decision is super significant for a number of reasons, including that Scalise is currently the number two Republican in the House and has been in leadership since 2014.
Meanwhile, with Jordan, he's been vying for power within the party for years and he's widely been seen as a far-right firebrand and uber-Trump loyalist.
And so his selection over Scalise, it's been seen as, yes, that Republicans want fresh leadership for their shattered party, but also they still want someone that has ties to Trump.
And then also just generally, he's a fairly controversial figure.
Jordan co-founded the hard-right House Freedom Caucus that has regularly defied leadership and hampered the Republicans' ability to pass their agenda in the House.
He also played a key role in trying to help overturn the 2020 election, and has been accused of weaponizing the Judiciary Committee to go after Trump's perceived political enemies.
Also looking into his past, he's faced multiple allegations from former wrestlers at Ohio State University, where Jordan worked as an assistant wrestling coach, who claimed that he knew but ignored rampant sexual assault by the team doctor, who was accused of sexually abusing at least 177 male students.
Though Jordan has denied the claims.
And then there's also his record in the House, or rather lack thereof, because it turns out throughout his 20 years in Congress, Jordan has never actually once had a bill that he was lead sponsor on get signed into law.
As The Guardian put it, Jordan has become more known for his combative presence from the bench rather than his legislative accomplishments.
But then also, at the same time, over in the Senate, Republicans went the exact opposite. They chose current Majority Leader John Thune, a moderate who has a more tense relationship with Trump, to continue leading the party come January.
He ran unopposed.
His election was not totally seamless.
Because you had a number of Senate Republicans wanting to delay the vote, writing a letter saying that it would be political malpractice to make any decisions before they could do a full postmortem and discuss how to recover from just the beating they received in these midterms.
But seemingly sorting out the fall of the Republican Party was pretty simple, because they then decided to move forward with the vote after just a few hours of closed-door discussion.
That's not to say that everyone felt like they had done enough.
Senator Ron Johnson, for example, walked out before voting began and told reporters, "When you have this kind of defeat, you'd like to at least give people an opportunity to think about that."
And to that point, both of these elections have created major divisions, especially on the right.
On one side, you have people praising the choice, saying that he is the right person to rebuild the conference and push back against the incoming Democratic majority.
And you've had a number of different House members describing him as a fighter.
"He's an honest broker. He's a good man, and he's a fighter. And I think that that's the signal that is being sent here, that we're ready. We are ready to dig in for the fight."
"And I think Jim's going to do a great job with that. You're not going to find a better fighter and a better communicator."
"And, you know, Jim Jordan came to be known by the American people because he's known to be a fighter."
You also had some cheering this on as a huge transition of power that is going to usher in major change, with, for example, Benny Johnson heaping praise on Jordan and arguing the House has a massive change from the old guard to the new, extremely promising.
"Ladies and gentlemen, some of the new guard celebrating this."
But then on the other side of this, you've got a ton of people saying Jordan's a horrible choice, with many noting things that we hit on, like he's never passed his legislation before.
But also, you have someone on the far right saying that he hasn't actually done enough for their cause as chair of the Judiciary.
But really, most of the critiques are people arguing that this choice just shows that House Republicans totally failed to learn from their election results.
Saying this election, it was a clear rejection of Trump and the far right. So why the hell would the GOP tap a Trump ally to help lead the party?
And also, a lot of people are arguing that Jordan is just really out of touch with what Americans really want.
And people are circulating recent clips of him talking about affordability, the Iran war and more.
"What about his promise in 2024 that if he was reelected, gas would be under $2 a gallon because of his policies?"
"Well, gas prices were coming down until we had to deal with this situation. But, you know, that's life. We want low gas prices. We want Iran not to have nuclear capability. And we want this thing resolved as soon as possible. And if that means prices go up for a short time, I think we can live with that."
"You say we should be willing to live with higher prices?"
"Has handled the Epstein files well?"
"Well, they were under a lot of pressure. I think they're doing the best they can. I think it's tough. The way that 99% of the things they did, right."
Then, but then again, on the flip side of this, you would basically see the opposite situation playing out with people on the right wing of the party accusing Republicans of keeping a leader who is in power when the party lost the upper chamber by a way bigger margin than anyone could have expected.
Keeping him in his position actually just dooms the party to the same failure as we saw in this election.
And others have accused Thune of being an ineffective leader, blaming him for Republican agenda items that have stalled in Congress.
Included people like Benny Johnson as well as Dana Loesch.
"But this is the equivalent of a man who just tanked a company's stock like he's a CEO. Tanks a company's stock. It's down 80%. And he walks back into the board of directors and says, 'You need to rehire me for another four-year stint as CEO,' and it just seems insane to me."
"As to you and everyone watching, that you would actually put the guy who's responsible, partly responsible, for some of the major losses that we've seen, because what people were talking about inaction from Congress, they were talking about inaction in the Senate."
"You don't put back the guy, make him the minority leader, the guy who was involved at the head of all of this."
And actually, also, we saw many flipping the pushback against Jordan on its head, saying that, no, the election was actually a rejection of moderate Republicanism, not Trump.
Accusing them of being this RINO, working against Trump and claiming that the American people, they actually want the party to embrace the ideals of the further right.
And so all in all, like, this is going to be a wild front to follow for the next two years.
Though I will say, in the meantime, these choices do make them, like, I wouldn't pick them.
But I do think that they potentially...
Right in the House, they're just so outnumbered that I think that they wanted to elect someone that is really about just clip-right, with Jim Jordan getting the spotlight and the ability to be kind of just the biggest crybully in the world to try to cut Facebook clips to turn people against the Democrats.
Try to turn every valid investigation into, you know, trying to hold corruption accountable into some sort of evil.
And then, as far as Thune in the Senate being seen as kind of more of a moderate person for these political negotiations, that might end up being very key.
Because unless the Democrats are gonna abolish the filibuster, there is going to have to be, you know, a few people coming from the Republicans if anything is to pass.
And even that is assuming that Donald Trump just doesn't veto anything that he does not universally agree with.
But again, who knows how things are going to play out because the ground is shifting.
No one really expected we'd be here even a week ago.
At least not fully.
And then there's a few more things that we got to dive into today. But really quick, another break with one of our sponsors.
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And then diving right back into the news, there's a few things we got to hit on before we go, but the first one is secret code names, mandatory NDAs, and backroom government meetings.
Right.
Because OpenAI is currently facing a 44-page lawsuit alleging that they teamed up with local politicians to illegally force a $30 billion project into rural Effingham County, Georgia.
It's called Project Camellia.
And it's a colossal, multibillion-dollar data center campus eating up nearly 1,500 acres of land and demanding an insane 3.2 gigawatts of electricity, which is enough electricity to power roughly 2.5 million homes, for a county with a population of under 100,000.
So you had residents waking up, realizing this monstrosity was getting dropped into their backyard.
And they filed their lawsuit alleging that local officials and OpenAI operated as a corrupt criminal enterprise under Georgia's state RICO law.
And the lawsuit claims that officials used secret code names, held off-schedule meetings behind closed doors, and pushed through zoning changes and tax incentives without required public hearings.
And at one point, an economic chief publicly insisted that the county wasn't even recruiting data centers, while allegedly texting OpenAI multiple times a week.
And one of the ways that they allegedly got away with this was by getting public officials to sign insane NDAs, which, I mean, right off the bat, it feels wrong that this was even a thing that existed.
And while you had OpenAI and the developers arguing, hey, these NDAs are standard commercial practice to prevent insider trading and project poaching, you've got people asking, how is a company able to silence the people who represent the interests of the people, the public, from the public?
As for the power, they claim that it's actually a non-issue.
Since opening, it will allegedly pay for its own power grid.
But as far as this lawsuit, who knows how it's going to play out.
Right. RICO cases are usually very hard to keep alive in court, let alone prove.
Except in Georgia, it's actually almost the opposite, with critics claiming it...
It's too early to tell.
But either way, and maybe at the very least, if this does fail, it still could have the benefit of letting the public know that in Georgia and really all across the United States, AI companies are silencing officials and doing backroom deals.
Then also today, you've got the news that the U.S. is now heading to Moscow to ask Vladimir Putin to give his blessing to allow Europe to join future peace talks over Ukraine.
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It's Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff, Trump's friend.
They're going to meet with Putin to ask him to let Europeans back into the negotiations.
It's Putin that wanted Europe out of the talks in the first place.
And for whatever reason, Trump went along with it because it's part of his larger strategy to create division between Europe and North America, because they both become substantially weaker alone than together.
So these peace talks have been going absolutely nowhere for the past two years, primarily because Putin has had this delusion that he can just wear Ukraine down.
And while Russia, you know, they have numbers, is it really Ukraine that's getting worn down?
Russia.
They suffered over 16,000 casualties in the first week of November, which is the war's highest weekly toll.
That means they're losing an average of 2,300 soldiers every day.
Or in other terms, they're losing an entire motorized rifle regiment every 24 hours.
And in October, they lost over 54,000 soldiers.
The amount of losses that Russia is taking at the moment is actually nearing sub-theater averages for World War II.
Actually, there's a wild stat.
During World War II, the USSR was averaging six casualties per mile across the front every day.
And right now, Russia is averaging three casualties per mile.
So they're taking losses at 50% of the intensity of World War II.
Ukraine's drone forces alone, they're reportedly eliminating 700 soldiers every day at this point.
Well, no doubt Ukraine is fighting for its life and existence.
If anyone's getting worn down right now, I'm not sure if it's just Ukraine.
And then also in the news, you just had a senior U.S. Army soldier get arrested for being a Russian spy.
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We don't know exactly who it is yet.
This all happened in the U.K.
Because the soldier, who's been described as a 41-year-old man, was stationed at a base within NATO's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps headquarters about 100 miles northwest of London.
And reportedly MI5 caught him trying to steal information from this base and deliver it to Russia.
And this base, its whole M.O. is to house troops that can be mobilized at a moment's notice in case of a Russian incursion.
It's a given. We're talking about a senior officer.
He likely had access to classified mobilization plans that Russia would love to get its hands on.
There, you've got officials stressing that no information actually made it back to the Kremlin, which, if true, means that the guy was probably under surveillance for a while.
While they're also saying that the investigation is not linked to any other ongoing counterterrorism operations, it does come as the U.K. is accusing Russia of ramping up proxy attacks on its soil, including arson and assassination.
Not to mention that Putin hates NATO.
Right.
And you've had him billing the whole alliance as a coalition meant to undermine Russia. -
Then also in the news, a convoy of vans loaded with fuel drums and makeshift shrapnel. It came shockingly close to reaching a UK airbase housing American troops.
And the federal prosecutors alleging that the entire operation was being directed straight out of Tehran.
And actually, that's just one of nearly 20 alleged planned attacks across Europe and the United States that officials claim is part of a growing terror campaign.
And the feds, they've made their own efforts to combat this.
And they just charged three people with alleged ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
Right.
There were allegedly more than just distant masterminds.
Reportedly, back in April, they were going after a London synagogue.
Prosecutors allege that the handlers watched the attack live on a big screen over Apple's FaceTime, literally coaching the operative to throw incendiary devices.
And what's really crazy is that one of the suspects is in U.S. custody already and apparently helped direct these attacks from a jail cell.
And then there's a September plot against RAF Fairford in the UK.
Right. An installation home to U.S. servicemembers and strategic bombers.
You've got the indictment claiming that the network organized a convoy of vans loaded with those fuel barrels and makeshift metal shrapnel to storm the perimeter.
But then the plan collapsed after the vehicles hit security roadblocks.
And an alert local farmer heading home late at night noticed something suspicious and alerted the police.
And what Tehran is categorically denying any role, calling the claims baseless.
Even if you believe them, even if Iran isn't actually involved, it's just further proof that this war was an unforced error, and it gives those sympathetic fuel to act on.
Which is also why you got officials warning the proxy warfare is not confined to the Middle East anymore. It's showing up at Western doorsteps.
And as for the suspects, you've got three still at large.
But if they're caught, they're facing decades of charges at best and probably closer to life behind bars if found guilty.
And that is going to be it for your Wednesday show.
As always, thank you for watching, liking and being subscribed and sharing these daily dives into the news.
I've also got another good video that you should check out today because I know you're never 100% filled in.
But whatever you do, hey, my name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in.
I love your faces. And I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
