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- [00:00]
Host
Hi, Pod Force One listeners. We have an extra treat for you today. It's a new morning news podcast that I would love you to hear. Has a mix of headlines and the stories that we actually care about. My colleague Caitlin Becker brings a mix of politics, business, national headlines, as well as pop culture and human interest stories. It's called the NY Postcast and it's from the New York Post. Take a listen. I think you'll enjoy this episode.
- [00:30]
Caitlin Becker
Law and Order President Trump doubles down on his promise to clean up Washington, D.C. from what he says is a wave of violent crime. I've got a preview of today's press conference. Plus, the body of a missing teenager is found in Florida. The heartbreaking plea to his mom in his final moments is just one of the gut wrenching details in his mysterious disappearance. And will Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky join Presidents Trump and Putin in Alaska this week? I have the latest from our reporting, those stories and more today, Monday, August 11th. I'm Caitlin Becker and this is the New York Postcast. On Friday, I told you that President Trump was preparing to send the National Guard and other federal law enforcement into the streets of Washington, D.C. to stop what he says is a violent crime wave gripping the city. Well, the troops stayed off the streets for the weekend, but today at 10:00am The President will hold a press conference to announce a plan which he said would, quote, essentially stop violent crime in Washington, D.C. president Trump then called the nation's capital one of the most dangerous cities in the world. He also teased some of what might be announced at this aforementioned press conference, posting Sunday that the homeless need to move out of the Capitol immediately, suggesting that the government will find other places for them to stay far away from D.C. and speaking directly to criminals, he added, quote, we're going to put you in jail where you belong. It's all going to happen very fast, just like the border, before adding, there will be no more Mr. Nice Guy. While the National Guard has so far not been officially called in, federal agents have started apprehending drug pushers and other criminals as part of a multi agency crackdown. The center for Public Safety at the Rochester Institute of Technology notes that D.C. had the fourth highest homicide rate among U.S. cities in 2024, 27.3 murders per 100,000 people. To put that into context, it's six times higher than New York City's rate of 4.7 homicides per 100,000 residents. And now to a tragic ending to a missing person story. The body of a North Carolina teen who vanished after sending his mother a frantic text has been found in a Florida pond. Giovanni Pelletier was in Florida visiting family when he suddenly went missing under suspicious circumstances on August 1st. The teen was vacationing with his mother and other relatives on the west coast of Florida. Ten days ago, at around 1:30am he was picked up by three of his cousins. Now this late night jaunt was reported reportedly to visit his estranged father's family on the other side of the state. The cousins claim that Giovanni started acting crazy on their drive, that they pulled over and he pulled out a knife. But it was around this time that he sent his mom this text, a plea, mom, help. He'd also tried calling her and other relatives. Now Giovanni's backpack and phone were found on the side of the road later that day. What's curious here? Authorities said that they searched the very area where the body was eventually found not long after Giovanni's disappearance, but they came up empty. It was actually a private investigation group hired by the family who uncovered his remains on Friday. Now, the investigation into his death is still open and I'll keep you updated as I learn more. And now over to Washington, where senators from both sides of the aisle are shockingly finding themselves on the same side of an issue Instagram's new map feature. Senators Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, and Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, are pushing for Meta to shut down a new Instagram feature that shows users locations whenever they open the app, as well as where they were when they made a post story or reel. In a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the senators write in part, quote, we again urge you to protect children's safety instead of potentially exposing their location to dangerous individuals online, including pedophiles and traffickers. Now look, I also don't want anyone just knowing my location either. And to address that, the new feature is turned off until a user ops in and then can control who sees their locations. All friends, a list of close friends they can build, or no one at all. But clearly you need a certain level of social media sophistication to understand and do all of that. Now Meta said that parents who have supervision set up for their kids accounts have the control over whether or not they share their location. But despite this, the senators are still arguing quote, meta's platforms have been consciously designed to prioritize profit over the protection of its most vulnerable users, our children. Now Instagram previously had a similar feature, a map that displayed photos where they were posted, but that feature was discontinued back in 2016. 2016 over claims it just wasn't widely used. Now to our big story, Russia and Ukraine. Much ado has been made about President Trump's plans to get the leaders of Russia and Ukraine together at the negotiating table. The White House announced President Trump's upcoming face to face with Vladimir Putin last week. That meeting is officially on the calendar. The pair are scheduled to gather in Alaska on Friday. But whether or not Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensk will join them is still an open question. Here's Vice President J.D. vance on Fox News.
- [05:35]
Ryan King
One of the most important logjams is that Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with Zelensky, the head of Ukraine. And the president has now got that to change. We're at a point now where we're now trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict.
- [05:54]
Caitlin Becker
Zelensky attending aside, the meeting with Putin will be the first time a US president has sat down with his Russian counterpart since 2021. That was when then President Biden met with Putin in Switzerland. President Trump last met with him in 2019 in Japan during his first term. So what would a path to peace look like? One of President Trump's key allies, Senator Lindsey Graham, has some ideas, ones that he shared with the commander in chief on the golf course this weekend. I asked New York Post political reporter Ryan King about it.
- [06:23]
Ryan King
What Graham had floated is the idea that potentially the way to stop the fighting in Ukraine is to come to some sort of settlement similar to what happened with east and West Berlin or happened with north and South Korea, where basically for a period of time, they agree to stop fighting. But maybe the issue isn't fully resolved right away. And so that's what Graham was basically suggesting with Ukraine. He also indicated that there will probably have to be some sort of territorial concessions or land swapping between Ukrainians and the Russians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has really kind of indicated that he's not too fond of the idea of giving ceding territory to the Russians. And Zelenskyy has signaled a lot of unease with President Trump's forthcoming meeting with Putin. He's a little bit nervous about what Witkoff discussed with Putin. But one thing that Graham had suggested that is kind of, I would say, music to Zelenskyy's ears is he said that there should be security guarantees for the Ukrainians, so potentially European troops on the ground in Ukraine to deter Russia from invading Ukraine again. And he said that One thing that Trump is pretty keen on getting is assurances that the Russians won't invade Ukraine for a third time. Because remember, they invaded in 2014 to annex Crimea and then again in 2022 for the war that's currently unfolding to get those four other territories that the Russians are trying to take over. So Graham, of course, is much more sympathetic to the Ukrainians, so it's not entirely clear if President Trump is in sync with him on I will of.
- [07:59]
Caitlin Becker
Course follow all of the developments on this throughout the week ahead of Friday Summit. Now from our friends over at Page Six, it's been a minute since we heard from Bill Belichick's child bride. I am joking. I am referring, of course to the 73 year old's actually adult, 20 something girlfriend, Jordan Hudson. It seems that after the whole CBS interview debacle earlier this year, the 24 year old stayed well off the pop culture radar until now, for reasons unbeknownst to all of us. Hudson, apparently cold called podcaster Charlotte Wilder because she didn't like being a frequent topic on Wilder's the Sports Gossip show. One episode in particular seemed to really get under Hudson's skin, a discussion about the Miss Main pageant back in May, where she placed third. So to clear up any confusion, Hudson didn't call in to be on the podcast. She just called Wilder on the phone to read her the riot act. Or something along those lines, Hudson reported, reportedly announced herself on the call as, quote, the president of your universe. Naturally, the whole thing backfired and Hudson's calls became a topic of conversation. On a recent podcast episode, she would oscillate between like, friendly, but there was clearly like an edge to her voice where she kind of wanted to let me have it. And then later this I mean, she's yelling at me, she's crying. She said that she finished the rest of the Ms. Main episode and she didn't like what we said. It wasn't all a bad review by Hudson. She evidently loved the fact that the podcast referred to her as Bill Belichick's tree pain. Tree pain is Taylor Swift's publicist, so I guess that makes Bill Belichick Taylor Swift in this analogy. My head hurts, girlfriend has entirely too much time on her hands. Finally, let's talk about something that doesn't hurt our brains. Actually, I take that back. You might want to gird your loins for this one. A theoretical physicist at Harvard says an interstellar object preparing to pass between Earth and Mars is not a comet, as most scientists believe. But that it is, or at least could be, an alien probe from another world. Great. We're talking about an object called 31 Atlas. This thing was discovered in June, and Mr. Smarty Scientist man says it doesn't have the typical characteristics of a comet. For one, it's larger than a comet and it has a light source ahead of it instead of that glowing tail that a comet has behind it. Astronomers believe it will pass Earth sometime around Halloween. Great. I love that. Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna posted to X last week suggesting that NASA should extend the Juno mission currently examining Jupiter to investigate. But regardless of who's right about what this thing is, a comet or an extraterrestrial something, it's raising questions about whether there is a need for an international body to address this type of issue. Some scientists certainly think it is necessary. Now, for argument's sake, let's say aliens are in fact doing an Earth drive by here. Who would make policy decisions for the global community on what to do about it? Congress. Great. You know, aliens here on Earth in 2025? Somehow that tracks. Let's hope they're more ET phone home and less Independence Day. Now, if you are curious about what our possible new alien friends are driving out there, you can see the photos of 31 Atlas at the the New York Post. So of course check us out in print or online and like and subscribe to the New York Postcast wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. And please just do it quick before aliens take over my job. That just stresses me out. See you tomorrow.
- [11:43]
Host
Thank you for listening to this episode of the NY Postcast. If you enjoyed it like and subscribe today. Wherever you get get your podcasts.