Two Major Republicans Jumping Into White House Field – Mo News Rundown

And we're off everybody with another week. It's Monday, May 22nd. You're listening to the Mo News podcast on Mosh Wannunu. I'm Jill Wagner. This is the place where we bring you just the facts. And we read all the news and read between the lines. See you don't have to. Jill, how are you feeling after this weekend? Mosh, I'm feeling good, but the bigger question is, how is life as a 41 year old as my grandmother would say, you're well on your way into fourth avenue. That's what you would describe. So 40s is fourth avenue, 50s is fifth avenue. So how does it feel? How are you doing? I feel like I asked the same question of like little kids. Well, like do you feel like you're eight years old now? Does it feel different from being seven? Jill, I'm only a few hours into it, but so far so good. I didn't wake up with any additional back pain or hangover or anything that I didn't experience at age 40. So we're off to a good pace here. I got to spend it with close friends. Alex organized a little surprise dinner and a day of activities. We had to sort of deviate because it rained. We were going to go sailing. It turns out. And so we'll have to postpone that. I've been looking to learn how to sail for a couple of years now. So we'll have to postpone that to another point this summer, but still had a phenomenal weekend. Kudos to Alex. She is so creative and she comes up with the best ideas for birthdays and everything else. But welcome to fourth avenue, Mosh. Jump right in the water's warm. So I'm told, Jill, I have no choice. It appears. All right, let's get to some news here. Two major entries into the 2024 presidential race expected this week, Tim Scott and Ron DeSantis. But this either one of them have a chance at knocking off Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. Russia claims a major victory in its war in Ukraine as the Ukrainian president gets some promises from the US and other allies. An update on the debt-ceiling talks is the US inches closer and closer to that default deadline. There is a new forecast out for the rest of the summer in the United States. We'll tell you where it will be hotter than normal and rainier than normal. Short answer? It's going to be much hotter for many of us to some real. We'll also have a look at the latest on insurance coverage for infertility treatments, a new study out on where bankers may be most likely to engage in financial misconduct, and the answer may surprise you. And Instagrams reportedly working on a text-based app that would compete with Twitter. What we know about it so far, plus Moshe has on this day in history. Jill, big day in the 90s. We say goodbye to Zach Morris and Blossom Russo. Whoa. Heh heh heh heh. If you know, you know. All right, let's begin with the race for the White House. This week, we expect to see two more official entries to the Republican presidential field. We were talking about Senator Tim Scott and Governor Ron DeSantis. Let's start with Scott, who is a Republican Senator from South Carolina. He has now officially filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for president, meaning that he filed his paperwork. He has expected to launch his campaign today in his hometown of North Charleston, South Carolina. Scott joins former President Trump, former South Carolina Governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Governor Aissa Hutchinson, entrepreneur Vivek Remaswami, and conservative radio show host Larry Elder in the GOP primary. Scott is considered to be the most prominent black figure in the Republican party. He is the only black Republican Senator. And he is also one of the Senate's most formidable fundraisers. Money, of course, key if he is hoping to gain traction and name recognition in this competitive primary. Scott will argue that he is the most consistently conservative candidate and that his personal story, growing up in a poor single-parent household, will resonate. Scott actually aligns with much of Trump's policy agenda, including building a wall in the Southern border, cutting taxes and spending, and holding China to account. But he is positioning himself as a more hopeful alternative than Trump's campaign, which is more about past grievances. Scott plans to frame the US as a quote, land of opportunity, not oppression, and promises to call out what he and his advisors see as a quote, culture of victimhood, including when it exists on the right. Jill, one thing we're gonna be watching for from Scott, given that he's in the single digits right now when it comes to polling, is whether he will choose to criticize Trump, who's the front runner here. And most people argue in order to take him down, the candidates who are running against him, the fellow Republicans, need to be willing to criticize him. Especially since Trump right now is a front runner. A significant front runner, achieving anywhere between 40 to 50% of Republican primary voters, while most folks like Scott, again, are in the single digits. Some believe that he will avoid taking direct aim at Trump to keep the door open to being Trump's running mate or to be on his cabinet. So that's something to watch out for here, especially later in the primary cycle, as voting begins early next year, especially if it continues not to gain traction in the polls. Meanwhile, the other man you mentioned, Ron DeSantis, who's running right now second in the polls, somewhere between 20 to 25%, depending on what state you're looking at, is also reportedly getting into the race this week, officially this time. It'll likely happen on Wednesday. That's when an announcement is expected. His main theme, DeSantis, until now, has been a war on all things woke. A much more aggressive strategy than Tim Scott with his hopeful strategy. Much less biobase and much more relying on, especially some of the things DeSantis has been up to as the governor of Florida for more than four years. According to the New York Times, DeSantis had a call with top donors late last week, where he told them that he believes there are only three credible candidates in this race, him, Trump, and Biden. And he says, of those three, only two have a chance of getting elected president, Biden, and DeSantis. He believes looking at the data right now, it's not great for the former president Trump, essentially because if you don't like Trump, you're likely not gonna be converted to vote for him at this point, given that he ran in 2016, ran in 2020, he's already been president. So DeSantis believes he has the most upside in the Republican field and the ability to beat Biden. And that'll be part of his case. He has been traveling in recent months as the governor of Florida, not typically traveling to places like Japan, Israel, New Hampshire, Iowa, while you're the governor of Florida. So it's been clear for a while now that he has his vision set on the White House. He's been trying to demonstrate that he has supporters, state legislatures, members of Congress, as well as donors to be able to go toe to toe with former president Trump, which is essentially round one here for him. He has to be Trump in order to go to round two, where he's expected to then face Biden. Now remember, we've talked about DeSantis a lot on this podcast. He got a lot of buzz earlier this year. Trump incidentally has gotten a boost in polls recently. Incidentally, after his indictment in New York, he's gained some traction. He has been mocking DeSantis. He's been saying that he's the only real candidate. At the same time DeSantis has spent time in Florida trying to boost his credentials. A lot we've spoken about is related to his culture war stuff, right? His war against Disney, Trans issues, ratcheting up the abortion ban in Florida in six weeks, loosening gun restrictions, tightening up an illegal immigration, his parental rights bill, called the Don't Say Gay bill by opponents. And his hope is that that'll all play well with Republican base. He's cast himself essentially as a Trump, but a much younger version. Remember DeSantis is 44 years old. Trump is turning 77 next month. The question is, will this work? And then we're gonna have a couple more entries here, Jill, so you'll have Tim Scott this week, Ron DeSantis. The other folks we're looking for right now, former Vice President Pence, as well as New Hampshire Governor Chris Sinu-nu, and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Those are the other kind of names that are out there right now that haven't officially announced. Trump at this point sees DeSantis as his biggest threat. He's been referring to him variously as DeSantis and DeSantis, ooh. Jill, he loves the nicknames. He's still trying to come up with one because I don't know how well the DeSantis plays, but I think he's been also going for Meatball Ron recently. That's worse. Jill Wagner in all of her maturity thinks that Meatball Ron is a worse nickname than DeSantis. I mean, listen, he's known for it, right? Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe. And so he feels that he's a marketing guy, right? Former President Trump. And so he feels as a marketing guy, he has to come up with a bumper sticker, a memorable negative bumper sticker about his most competitive opponent. Low energy Jeb Bush, which I think had a huge impact. Jeb Bush was the front runner, or at least the supposed front runner. And then Trump came in and gave him that low energy nickname. Yeah, he had the Bush family name, which we thought was gonna be relevant in 2016. Turns out the party was over the bushes. And then there was the infamous event where Jeb, you know, was giving a speech and said something that he thinks deserved applause and literally said, please clap, please clap. So that I think in conjunction with low energy Jeb was effective. I am both dreading this election season and looking forward to this election season. Jill, you might be one of the few most people on my Instagram are like, really? I mean, in a reminder here to everyone listening, we have the longest presidential campaign cycle in the world. Most, especially those countries in the parliamentary system in Europe have like a 60 day election, maybe a 90 day election. We're sitting here in May of 2023, talking about an election that'll be November of 2024. And to be clear, I am laughing at the ridiculousness of giving opponents mean nicknames. It is so childish. It's just, if you can't cry, you gotta just laugh about it. So I'm not in any way condoning that type of behavior. Just to be clear. We appreciate the clarification, Jill. Meanwhile, though, back to Trump v. DeSantis, just to get a preview of what this might look like, Trump already saying the Florida governor needs a quote personality transplant and asserting that he is dropping like a rock in the polls. Now, once the campaign really gets underway, the key question will be how far DeSantis goes in ramping up those counter attacks or whether he'll be reluctant to alienate the former president's supporters. It's a tricky dance here for DeSantis because he's going after to win. He has been casting himself politically as a version of Trump. So he has to somehow convince Trump voters to go with him without upsetting them. And that's gonna be a challenge for him. And they're gonna have to figure out how to navigate that. Whereas you do have some of these other candidates, whether they be Nikki Haley, Rama Swami, Tim Scott, Mike Pence, who will be going after a different portion of the party. And the big thing to be watching for in the coming weeks and months, Jill, is we've been talking about DeSantis theoretically. Once he hits the campaign trail, we're gonna see what he's made of and whether he can actually talk to voters, convert voters. Remember Mike Bloomberg, he was touted, he was talked about, he had billions of dollars. He spent a billion of his own dollars in 100 days in his campaign. Many people thought that he'd be competitive. He might take out Biden in 2020. Well, he didn't actually connect with voters. He wasn't a great campaigner. And that's a knock here on DeSantis. He does have a reputation for being a socially awkward, uncomfortable, small talk. And that will be key in these small states like Iowa and New Hampshire, which vote first. Now, keep in mind, he has been elected governor twice, recently in a landslide in Florida, but will his personality, will the way he interacts with voters, play well in other states on a national level? And that's something for everyone to be watching for in the coming weeks and months. All right, switching gears. Ukrainian President Zelensky huddled with some of his biggest backers as the G7 summit closed in Hiroshima on Sunday. His goal, build momentum for his country's war effort, even as Russia claimed a really big battlefield victory in the city of Bachmout. Hanging over Sunday's talks was the Russian claim that forces of the Wagner private army and Russian troops had seized the Ukrainian city of Bachmout that eight month battle for the Eastern city was seen by both sides as a major symbolic prize and it has been the longest and likely bloodiest of the war. Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials are disputing the claim. They say that Ukraine still has positions in the city. It came as President Biden announced new military aid worth about $375 million for Ukraine, saying that the US would provide ammunition and armored vehicles. That pledge came after the US agreed to allow training on American made F-16 fighter jets, laying the groundwork for their eventual transfer to Ukraine. Several other nations also collectively promised billions in aid and military equipment. While Ukraine dominated the summit, the leaders of Japan, the US, the UK, France, Germany, Canada and Italy, as well as the European Union, also aim to address global worries over climate change, poverty, economic instability and nuclear proliferation. Jill, getting back to that battle of Bachmout, which goes back to last summer, it's a city that had just over 70,000 residents before the war now practically none. The Russians have effectively destroyed that entire city. It has actually made it difficult to confirm who is actually in control of the city. It's been the longest battle of the war since unfortunately, tragically, much of the city is not left. So the Russian Defense Ministry reported that this Wagner private army backed by the troops, seized the city, the Russian military failed early on. So they engage this private mercenary group that the Russians pay and that has been engaged in other battles around the world, including in Syria. Bachmout is a 400 year old city during this battle. Tens of thousands of people have been killed. It's been a mutually devastating battle, but there's a lot of symbolism here for the Russians to gain this city in that Eastern Donbas region. And for the Ukrainians to make a stand, Zelensky has been invoking Bachmout a lot in the recent months saying we'll continue to stand in Bachmout as probably one of the reasons he denies the Russian complete takeover of the city at this point. The Ukrainians have been using it to deplete the Russian forces, keep the Russians committed there so they can't make progress in other parts of the country. And it comes actually as the Ukrainians have started their spring slash summer offensive here, take parts of this nearly thousand mile line across the Eastern side of the country with the Russians on one side, the area they occupy and Ukraine on the other side. Back to the G7 real quickly. The other big event related at the G7 related to Ukraine and Russia was the G7 leaders rolled out a new wave of sanctions on Russia. Russia, by the way, already the most sanctioned country in the world. Their hope here is to continue to tighten the belt financially on already sanctioned people and firms inside Russia. More than 125 individuals across 20 countries have been hit with US sanctions. As we talk about Bachmout and the fighting and this war that is now going on 15 months, I think it just begs the question, what will be even left of Ukraine? Yeah. We have millions of people displaced, cities destroyed, billions of dollars that would be needed to rebuild. And for what? Ultimately, I don't know how this ends. I don't think anybody really does. Most military experts thought this thing was gonna be over in four days. Right, those were the initial early predictions that the Russians would be able to take the country quickly. Exactly. And so I don't know where we go from here, but there is a real tragedy here. This is a country, people are living here. And now we're just in this position where we report this and we almost accept that this is just happening. But there is a country being destroyed. Yeah, Putin doesn't care, right? Putin wants to take Ukraine back. It's part of his larger agenda to regain the greatness of the Soviet Union and regain the land size. And he believes that Ukraine was always part of Russia and he wants it back no matter what it takes. It's a strategy we've seen with the Russians before, right? When they were helping Assad in Syria retake his country, entire cities got destroyed, right? There's millions of refugees there. Same thing that we saw in Chechnya. Same thing we saw in Georgia. It's the Russian military strategy, which is just destroy the infrastructure, make it so insufferable so they can achieve victory here. At the same time, that's the argument that some Europeans, that some people behind the scenes are telling Zelensky is maybe you do need to just allow the Russians to take some of your country as part of occupation to save the rest of your country. And it's a message he doesn't want to hear yet. He wants the country he had before this war started last February and he's going to fight for it at the end of the day, as we know, most conflicts and in some sort of stalemate slash compromise. Even if that compromise is unfair to the Ukrainians because the Russians engaged in an illegal offensive war to take part of their country. But that's the problem here is the civilians will suffer and you have a 400-year-old city in Bakhmut that has now been completely leveled. And the Russians are declaring victory over that at this point. But what does that mean? Are they on to the next city? And if it took them nine months to take Bakhmut, I mean, we're talking about a decades-long struggle here, which at some point, one side we'll just have to say, let's get to the table, let's cut a deal. All right, Moshe, back to the G7. Biden sought to reassure world leaders that the US would not be defaulting because of the debt limit standoff that really cast a large shadow over his trip. That deadline is in less than two weeks. The Treasury Department has said it could run out of cash as soon as June 1st. And Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that she thinks that that is a hard deadline. Biden will meet in person today with House Speaker McCarthy about averting a federal default. The Republican leader expressed cautious optimism about a possible debt ceiling compromise. The leaders did speak by phone on Sunday when the president was heading home from the G7 on Air Force One. McCarthy telling reporters at the Capitol that the call was productive. Yeah, there's good days, there's bad days, there's good hours, there's bad hours on Friday. At some point, the Republican negotiators pulled out, then they were back in. They're holding tight to their demands for sharp spending cuts. By the White House, they've been rejecting alternatives proposed by the White House for reducing deficits in other ways. Republicans want work requirements and Medicaid health programs. The Biden administration has countered that that means millions of people could lose their coverage. Republicans also want new cuts to food aid by restricting state's abilities to waive work requirements in places with high joblessness. Basically, Republicans want more consequences related to various aid programs here. Trump actually floated one of those ideas back during his presidency. And it's estimated that actually 700,000 people could lose their food benefits if one of those requirements went into place. The White House is countering here, saying that they will keep spending flat next year on defense and non-defense spending. It would save nearly $90 billion in the 2024 budget, a trillion dollars over 10 years. That's not good enough for a number of House Republicans. And that's who McCarthy has to appease here, because he has that very slim majority, which means literally, he's going to need nearly every single Republican to vote with him on this compromise. So again, we're looking at just about 11 days here, Jill. All right, we have plenty more news coming up, but now it's time to tell you about some exclusive offers for Monuse listeners. And to thank a couple of our sponsors, let's start with Bol and Branch. We are so happy to be partnering again with a brand that helps you get an amazing night's sleep. 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We're gonna begin with an AP investigative story into the state of insurance coverage and infertility treatments in the United States. The CDC estimates that infertility affects nearly one in five women between the ages of 15 and 49. Yet coverage of fertility treatments can be hard to find in many corners of health insurance. And it is a divide that researchers say is leading to halves and have nots for IVF and related treatments. The good news is that about 54% of the biggest US employers, those companies with 20,000 workers or more, covered IVF in 2022. That is according to the benefits consultant Mercer. And that is up from just 36% in 2015. Among those, Walmart started offering coverage last fall and JP Morgan began this year. Many businesses that offer the coverage extend beyond those with an infertility diagnosis, making it accessible to LGBTQ plus couples and single women. So those are the companies that have 20,000 employees or more. There's also been growth, Jill, among companies with 500 or more workers, 43% of them in the US now offering IVF coverage as of 2022. But then the coverage gets spotty with smaller employers under 500 workers. And remember this can be costly, right? Between $30,000 up to $100,000 depending on the specific condition and how long it takes. Right now when it comes to laws, 21 states have laws mandating coverage of fertility treatments or fertility preservation, which is what some patients need before cancer treatments. But most of these requirements don't apply to individual insurance plans or coverage sold through small employers. Some insurers still not viewing it as medically necessary. Then you have the Medicaid program for people with low income, which limits coverage of fertility issues, largely to diagnoses in several states. And many states still exclude fertility drugs from prescription coverage. In that case, black and Hispanic women are disproportionately impacted according to the AP. Jill, from experience here, I remember several colleagues at CBS, this is between 2015 and 2018, speaking out more and more, which is what led HR, at least at CBS News and CBS writ large, to begin covering and helping with egg freezing and infertility treatments. And so it seems, and of course, that's a larger company, but it does seem to trajectory based on what AP is reporting here, at least companies 500 or more, and especially 20,000 or more, that they're starting to get it and starting to help women. But it is clearly based on that personal anecdote that sometimes it requires the women who work at that company to make the push. And then of course, if you can't, it appears that it's starting to get some traction in some state legislatures and federally. For Fox weather, summer 2023 is expected to be a scorcher for millions of Americans in the West, South and East. So most people, Jill. Yes, basically everyone. According to a long range outlook issued by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, the forecast covers the three month period of June, July, and August. Residents of the Southwest and Southern Rockies have the highest likelihood of hotter than average temperatures this summer. However, NOAA also predicts a 50% or higher chance of above average temperatures for a large area, stretching from the Mountain West region through the Gulf Coast states and along the East Coast from Florida through Maine. Jill, according to the Climate Prediction Center, no area in the US is expected to have a cooler than average. Summer, sorry everybody, but the Northern Central Plains, the Midwest and the Great Lakes, are predicted to be closer to average between June and August if that makes you feel better up there. As far as rainfall, again, this is a long-term forecast, so there could be deviations here, depending on tropical systems, et cetera, but they do try to put out this long-range forecast to give you a better sense of things. Right now, they predicted parts of the Midwest, South and East could see a wetter than average summer. Above average rainfall in particular is expected in the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee valleys. Meanwhile, it'll be drier than average for those of you in the Southwest and Northwest. Unfortunately, those of you who have come to expect it with the mega drought the last few years. In particular, you could see very little rainfall in eastern Arizona, New Mexico, in far West Texas. Look, Moshe, when everybody was cheering 70 degree weather in March in New York, all I was thinking was, what does that mean for June? Oh my God. Yeah, and we're headed to the El Nino cycle, which typically brings warmer temps to certain parts of the country. Now, El Nino and El Nino have been going way before climate change, right? This is part of the natural cycles, but when combined with climate change, that's the concern here. So just something to be wary of, and especially those of you in the Pacific Northwest, who haven't had to deal with air conditioning ever, more and more, it's looking like it's gonna be a necessity in the coming summers. From the Wall Street Journal, a new report that disgraced pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, threatened to expose an affair that Bill Gates allegedly had with a Russian bridge player in 2010, when the Microsoft co-founder declined to donate to Epstein's philanthropy. Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019, appeared to threaten Gates over the alleged affair with Russian card whiz Mila Antonova sources tell the Wall Street Journal that this threat took place via email, Gates and Antonova allegedly had a brief romance while Gates was still married to his then wife, Melinda Gates. A Gates spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that, quote, Gates met with Epstein solely for philanthropic purposes, having failed repeatedly to draw Gates beyond these matters, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates. Jill, I expect to hear much more about Epstein again, given a couple of trials, we'll tell you about in just a second here. As far as this story that popped over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal, it speaks to how Epstein operated here. We have known for a while that Gates had multiple meetings with Epstein. Gates has said that he met with him a few times only to discuss philanthropy. He says he regrets it, calls it a mistake. It appears here that Epstein tried to leverage intel he had on Gates's relationship to try to get him to give him money. Remember Epstein would pack his days with meetings with politicians, businessmen, academics, celebrities. We've seen the list, we've discussed the list of the number of people, prominent people that Epstein met with. He would provide favors for them, and they would try to use his connections for his own purposes. When those relationships went down or Epstein wouldn't get the money he was looking for, he would then turn against some of those people. There's been a lot made of Epstein's black book and some of what we know about it and some of which we still don't know about it. Epstein apparently in this specific relationship was paying for Antinova, Mila Antinova, to go to school, but then demanded that Gates pay for it when he found out about the relationship. She, for her part, says she has no comments on the Gates part of this, but she is shocked to say she learned later who Epstein was. She thought at the time he was only just trying to help her being a good guy. In other Epstein-related matters, and one of the reasons you're gonna hear more and more about Jeffrey Epstein again, despite being a few years out from his death here, is there's now two cases being brought against JP Morgan, the Big Bank, one by an unnamed Epstein accuser, and another by the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein had a home. Both of those suits accused JP Morgan of profiting off of Epstein and his human trafficking by keeping Epstein on as a client for 15 years, from 1998 to 2013, despite numerous red flags. So JP Morgan is effectively fighting this, and one of the things they're trying to do here is lay blame on their former boss, Jess Staley is his name. He was fired back in 2013, and JP Morgan is trying to hold Staley liable for the relationship, saying that it was Staley who brought Epstein in. It was Staley who was vouching for him while he was running JP Morgan, and they say they had nothing to do with it. It was all Staley's fault. So you have concurrent litigation happening between JP Morgan and Staley. So JP Morgan getting sued, and then you have JP Morgan suing Staley. He's actually accused by one Epstein victim of rape in witnessing Epstein's crimes. Staley denies those claims. Staley's actually gonna be deposed next month. So expect again to hear a lot more here, but we could hear you to get new details years after Epstein's death here, and as the litigation continues, we may learn more, and of particular interest, Jill, is that case against JP Morgan, and whether the bank will be held liable. From Axios, bankers are better behaved when they work from home, and engage in a much higher amount of financial misconduct when they work from the office. That is the message from a new paper examining misconduct reports at one of the largest UK banks. The researcher looked at misconduct reports filed on 162 traders working during lockdown between March 2020 and March 2021. The traders who worked from home had a 7.3% chance of triggering a misconduct alert. As for the traders who worked from the office, the probability soared to 37.6%. We're trying to do the math here, Moshe. I think that's what, five times more? Based on our Mona's multiplication, that is just over five times more likely to engage in misconduct from the office. So the authors here write that the traders subject to work from home treatment exhibit substantially fewer securities violations. The researchers tried to put forward a few reasons why working from home might reduce the misconduct, despite the assumption that they're working from homes, they might be more likely to do it. A couple theories here, they have less access to insider information and market rumors, not being in the office. The main one seems to be that the theory is that unethical conduct seems to be contagious. So take a trader away from unethical traders and they're less likely to behave unethically themselves. I'm gonna link to the full paper if you're interested in these show notes if you wanna read more. From Bloomberg, Instagram's planning to release a text-based app that will compete with Twitter, sources telling Bloomberg that the company's currently testing the idea with celebrities and influencers. Instagram's been in discussions with select creators for months, although none have had access to the full version of the app. The app will be separate from Instagram, but will allow people to connect accounts. It could debut as soon as June. Leah Haberman, who teaches social and influencer marketing at UCLA, she published a screenshot of an early app description. We should know it, she published it on Twitter, of course. She says the decentralized app is built on the back of Instagram, but it will be compatible with some other apps. It will have a centralized feed showcasing your followers and recommended content. Most has Instagram reached out to you. What's the deal? So I saw this on Friday. I actually reached out to Leah Haberman. We were direct messaging on Instagram, of course, talking about it and what we think the ramifications are, the stakes are for the company that already owns Facebook and Instagram to have the main Twitter competitor if this is successful. I've also reached out to some executives Instagram looking to get a sneak peek. So I'll let you know if we're able to do that. Here at Mo News, I'm particularly interested, given that our big following is on Instagram, Jill. And I've been on Twitter for years, and we've discussed this. It was a subject of something we discussed on the Ben Smith podcast recently. Twitter just ain't the same. It's true. The algorithms change. It's not as great at elevating the news as we expect it. So there is an opening here in the marketplace. Right now, what we know about it, again, this is based on what Leah Haberman saw, et cetera, is that you can post text updates up to 500 characters, which is less than the Instagram caption, effectively an extended tweet or LinkedIn post. So you do need to still be concise. You're able to use videos and images. Hence Facebook. Well, exactly, right? Like a much more visual version potentially. Again, Elon Musk has to take over in the fall, has upset some people who were loyal users of Twitter trying to pivot to getting people to pay for certain features that were free built before. Advertisers have left the platform for a whole variety of reasons. So this gives a number of competitors a chance here, including Mark Zuckerberg. One interesting observation here, since building Facebook back nearly 20 years ago now, next February will be 20 years, the main success stories in Facebook have been acquisitions, right? Instagram was an acquisition. What's app was an acquisition? Oculus and whatever they end up doing in virtual reality, augmented reality, acquisition. So this will be an interesting opportunity for Facebook to prove they can build a new platform and for it to be successful. At the same time though, this is sort of out of Metas Playbook. It does know how to sample and recreate features from other apps. Instagram Stories was a copy of Snapchat. Instagram Reels was a copy of TikTok. So in this case, this is a whole platform, but this is a mimic of Twitter. So again, the Bloomberg report is that this could be out as soon as June. Some creators are going to play with it. We hope to have our chance soon. All right, Jill, now time for On The Stay in History. And today we have a sponsor for On This Day. It's our friends from Magic Spoon Serial. We often talk about nostalgia here on this segment. And one thing many of us look back finally on is the serials from back in the day. And Magic Spoon Serial has joined us as a partner and has replicated some of those great flavors you remember as a kid in a more wholesome way. They have a special deal right now for the Monuse community. You can head over to magic spoon.com slash Monuse to grab a variety pack. Again, the promo code is Monuse. And we'll have more on that in just a second. But let's begin our On The Stay in History here. Jill will begin in the year 337. When today is reportedly, yes. We're going way back. We're taking the machine back. Are you missing a digit? What is going on? We're taking the machine back to the Roman Empire 1700 years ago and take this exact date with a grain of salt to the Romans were very good at documenting things. Reportedly today, May 22nd, 337 was the date when the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. Was officially baptized. Constantine was the first emperor to adhere to Christianity nearly 300 years into the faith. He had actually issued an edict earlier during his emperor ship. Is that a word? Empower ship that protected Christians in the empire but then he officially converted to Christianity and his deathbed in 337. He was buried where else? Constant and noble. Before him, Christians were persecuted in those first couple centuries of the faith along with other monotheistic faiths like Judaism. 40 years after Constantine's death and conversion, it would become the official religion of Rome. All right, we're gonna fast forward to the 20th century, just a millennia and a half or so. Today in 1906, the Wright brothers, flying machine today, got its patent. So the Wright brothers, we know them as the aviation pioneers. They're credited with having performed the quote, first sustained and controlled heavier than air powered flight. The brothers had been experimenting since 1899. They then began to test manned gliders the following year in 1900. But then they went to go file their patent and this led to a lot of litigation, Jill. They would last for more than a decade and actually delayed the early development of the aviation industry because they wanted to own basically flying. So this went back and forth through World War I. Eventually, the federal government had to step in here and open things up to create a more competitive space for the evolution of flying, you know, what would become known as planes. And speaking of planes, on this day 51 years ago, Richard Nixon took one and arrived in Moscow, the first visit by a US president to the Soviet Union. This was a big part of his second term, opening up China, opening up the Soviet Union and starting to try to de-escalate things. All right, now onto a bit of pop culture from the 80s and 90s, Jill. On this day 43 years ago, Pac-Man, the arcade game was released. And Moshe, I just Googled, it was about two years later that Miss Pac-Man came out. Ladies. Jill, I remember growing up, there was a mechanic shop where we would take our cars or I should say, my parents did and they had a Pac-Man, one of those like sit down Pac-Man's with the joystick with two sides playing. And that's how my brother and I entertained ourselves for hours as we waited for the carburetor or muffler or whatever they need to replace at that time. But those are my fond memories of Pac-Man as a child. All right, and two TV series we say goodbye to today. First up, remember this theme song? ♪ When I wake up in the morning ♪ ♪ And the longest I don't want ♪ ♪ I don't think I'll ever make it on time ♪ ♪ It's all right ♪ ♪ Cause I'm say by the bell ♪ Oh God, I think I didn't land that. But I think I tried. It's okay, but you got it. You got the clue and you remember the theme song, Jill, 30 years ago today, the finale of Saved by the Bell appeared on NBC, May 22nd, 1993. Of course, they would go on to have the college year series, but that was never quite the same. And one more TV show we said goodbye to today, a couple years later, also NBC, Blossom, and did today May 22nd, 1995. Moshe, I wanna play a little bit of the theme song. ♪ Don't know what lies to beat you ♪ ♪ That's anybody's guess ♪ ♪ Ain't no good reason for getting on ♪ Which I also just Googled and I saw the actual video and they are just dancing their hearts out. It's amazing, I don't know if you remember, but this makes me feel quite nostalgic for theme songs, which we just don't get anymore. All right, we wanna thank the folks at Magic Spoon again for sponsoring this week's On This Day, their peanut butter, frosty cocoa, and fruity flavors. That will bring back that childhood nostalgia for both me and Jill, the 90s, as we just discussed it. I think I might have watched an episode saved by the bell eating some of those cereals from back in the day. Magic Spoon, though, is great because they're gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, and sugar-free. And they're so confident in their product, they have what they're calling a 100% happiness guarantee. So if you don't like it, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Again, you can get your next bowl of cereal, of their high protein cereal, over at magicspoon.com slash MoNews, use the code MoNewsMO, anyWS, to get $5 off. All right, we wanna thank you for listening to the Mo News Podcast. Follow us and subscribe so you don't miss an episode and review us in the App Store so we can continue to grow. So grateful to all of you who've joined Mo News Premium, go check that out over at mo.news slash premium for our members-only podcast and members-only Instagram account, again, mo.news slash premium. Jill, I'll see you back here tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the Mo News Podcast. ♪♪♪