What the News didn't report this week - Jan 20-27, 2025

In this episode, we dive into a whirlwind of topics, from the Trump administration's bold start with executive orders to the controversy surrounding a potential TikTok ban. We'll break down the Paris Climate Agreement withdrawal, immigration policies, and the risks of going to war with cartels.

We also explore critical issues in cybersecurity, including shocking statistics from the FBI's Internet Crime Report and cryptocurrency fraud trends. Plus, we tackle national security concerns tied to TikTok and China's influence on the U.S. economy.

On the wellness front, we cover the latest USDA and FDA recalls, from contaminated taquitos to mislabeled allergens in everyday products.

This podcast is about uncovering information that impacts your life—legislation, safety, and health—that often gets overshadowed. Stick around to hear it all, and don’t miss the announcement about the upcoming special book review episode!

Links:
Episode Resources: https://www.jessievirga.com/post/episode19
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drvirga 
Podcast equipment: https://amzn.to/3BxWVTf
Book list: https://amzn.to/3zYwYMo

Transcript

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boy do I have quite the episode for you today from the Trump inauguration and the executive orders he signed after being in office for two and a/2 seconds to the attempt at a TikTok Ban recalls of all sorts of shit and so much more let's get into it let's start with the Trump administration hitting the ground running now Trump mentions a ton of shit in his speech to include taking back the Panama Canal going to Mars ending birthright citizenship sending troops to the border deeming cartels terrorists which will then allow him to send troops to quote fight the war on terror which will now be in Mexico apparently but more on that later here is what he has signed so far first the withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement President Trump ordered the U s to once again withdraw from the Paris climate accord citing concerns about its alignment with American values and its financial impact on taxpayers this decision reiterates his stance from his first term distancing the U s from global climate initiatives next is freezing Biden's action on Cuba Trump reversed Biden's recent executive order lifting Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism the freeze halt's efforts to normalize relations and complicates recent agreements tied to the political prisoner releases he also signed a regulatory freeze and executive action was issued to suspend many new or pending federal regulations enacted under Biden's administration this common transitional move aims to curtail what Trump views as federal outrage next he signed an order bringing federal employees back to work Trump mandates that federal employees return to working five days a week in the office signalling an end to the work from home policies adopted during the covid pandemic the president vowed to enforce strict compliance with the directive I should mention here that if you don't have an office to go back to I think you're safe for the time being you're also probably safe if you were hired as a remote employee this is more so for people who have an office or who are hired as an in person employee who just have like an office that's empty when because they're working from home but wait there's more then we have the federal hiring freeze reflecting a strategy from his first term Trump imposed a federal hiring freeze to reduce the size of government exceptions will be made for national security public safety and military positions finally we have the ending Birthright citizenship and some other immigration related bills the Ending Birthright Citizenship order basically means that if an illegal immigrant or someone who doesn't have permanent residency or citizenship gives birth here in the U S that child will not automatically be an American citizen now this violates the 14th amendment so I don't see this taking effect for a while next under the Lincoln Riley Act federal agencies will begin to deport immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes I don't know why theft I don't know if theft also includes burglary kind of weird but whatever if you didn't know Laken Riley was a 22 year old nursing student in Georgia who was killed by Jose Antonio Abarro who was here illegally from Venezuela Abarro had also been previously arrested so there's that this act also pays tribute to Jocelyn Mungerri Molly Tibbits and Carina Battrano who were also killed by illegal immigrants this act initially passed in the house and Senate last year receiving votes from both Democrats and Republicans in total Trump undid almost 80 of Biden's initiatives but let's talk about this Mexico thing real quick oh shit here we go listen it is an issue with cartels bringing drugs to the U S and trafficking people cash and firearms out of the U S that shit needs to end especially since we know Mexico is doing business with terrorists in the Middle East that shit goes way back to Afghan opium fields supplying drug cartels through Chinese supply chains but I can break that down if you guys want to hear more about that so just let me know my only issue is the cartels like they're here in the U S they operate openly all over the United States so going to war with them will literally bring war to U S soil and I don't know if y'all know anything about the cartels but they don't play I'm talking sicarios in your backyard aiming at you simply because they're at war with America but let's move on a little out of order but let's begin with our outer focus segment which low key bleeds into our warfare segment you may or may not look at the TikTok band differently when you understand the legislation surrounding the band so Congress found Bite Dance the parent company of TikTok and CapCut to be a threat to national security this is because the People's Republic of China or P R C has a federal mandate which allows China to acquire information or data obtained by any Chinese company to include Bite Dance which means that at any given moment in time the Chinese government can get any of the information and data being collected by by dance aka TikTok this is a serious concern considering most of Americans at least most Americans of war fighting age have this app on their phone so all the data being collected can essentially be weaponized by China I'll be discussing the weaponization of data a little bit later but for now let's just stick to this TikTok thing so here's my issue if this was so concerning if we really thought TikTok was a threat to national security why did not only former President Biden but now President Trump refuse or say they're going to refuse to enforce this law I mean Trump gave them an extra like 75 days or some shit besides the fact that a president can't just decide to not uphold the law if this was really a threat to national security wouldn't be the responsibility of the president to uphold the law and to uphold this ban but let's take it a step further just hear me out if China is such a threat then why do they currently have a hold on the metaphorical kahones of the United States they have invested in real estate around military bases around financial sectors across the country they have a hold on agriculture and some of our biggest exports as well as some of our biggest imports if China really is a threat outside of global economy shouldn't we be doing more to break some of our ties and some of our dependence on them shouldn't it be made a little bit more difficult for foreign nationals and foreign businesses to purchase property and own pieces of this country why was the line drawn at an app yes this app is great it's great for business owners who weren't otherwise able to market effectively on other platforms yes it allows consumers to network but if TikTok is so bad because of China's influence then shouldn't we be looking at the whole picture at all of China's American holdings and access this brings me to my next point if the most sacred thing to an American citizen in this day and age is their data then how come the United States hasn't established a federal data policy legal eagle who just recently posted a video on this topic which I'll leave a link to that in the description but he poses the same question but he also speculates that this is because a lot of the American economy is dependent upon the data and information we collect through social media platforms we've left it up to our states to establish their own privacy policies like California's C C P a but not all states have this and since we don't have a data collection policy at the federal level it has become impossible to enforce what happens to the data collected on any app here's the catch if we did create a federal policy that would block China it would also block Facebook and Instagram and all of the other social media platforms that collect and sell our data I mean yes we don't want China to have our data as one of our you know big 3 adversaries but if we truly care about the American public we would want to do more to protect their data in general but enough on that let's talk a little bit more about the chaos that is cyber security since we're already on the topic of national security and warfare a lot of this probably hasn't made its way onto the news because of the inauguration because of TikTok but I'm going to share some very concerning information released by the FBI and other sources now this information came out last year but I have yet to really see anything on it so if you're not aware the FBI's 2023 Internet Crime Report comes out every year it's usually a couple years behind because for example you know the 2024 report is submitted in January 2025 and the FBI is gonna you know spend all of this year going over that data and then afterwards they'll release support which would then come out in 2026 so two years behind but here's what we have so far the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center also known as I c 3 saw a record breaking year in 2023 receiving over 880,000 complaints with reported losses exceeding $12.5 billion which is a significant 22% increase from 2022 let's start with the top cyber threats number one is an investment fraud investment fraud is the most costly crime type with losses rising to $4.57 billion driven heavily by cryptocurrency scams business email compromises came in second with over 21,000 complaints resulting in nearly $3 billion in losses and number three is ransomware ransomware attacks increased 18% causing $59.6 million in losses with critical sectors like healthcare being prime targets next the report highlights demographics and impact individuals aged 30 to 49 reported the highest losses from investment fraud seniors accounted for 58% of losses in tech support scams highlighting their vulnerability too so make sure you're having conversations with your parents and your grandparents about these types of scams now I love watching Scammer Payback on YouTube he's one of the more popular vigilantes who works closely with law enforcement to kind of run a bait and switch on a lot of these scam and data call centers that are primarily located in India the F B I report goes on to discuss recovery efforts the I C Three's Recovery Asset Team also known as rat which is a terrible name by the way but rat successfully froze $538 million out of $758 million in reported fraudulent transfers which is about a 71% success rate the report goes on to discuss emerging trends cyber criminals increasingly use cryptocurrency platforms to obscure their tracks and ransomware groups are employing multiple variants and data destruction tactics to coerce victims the report ends with the call to action with the F B I stressing the importance of reporting cyber crimes to I c 3 in order to aid investigations and improve prevention strategies I'll leave a link to this in the bio but you can visit I cthree.gov to report incidents and access resources I'll be leaving a copy of the report through the link in the description as well next let's discuss this F B I's 2023 Crypto Currency Fraud Report crypto currency fraud hit staggering levels in 2023 with over 69,000 complaints filed with the F B I's I c 3 and total losses exceeding $5.6 billion which is a 45% increase compared to 2022 investment scams top the list accounting for 71% of these losses older adults face the most devastating financial impact with those over 60 years old losing $1.6 billion y'all they stole almost $2 billion from Grandma's oh that's fucked up crazy so let's talk about why cryptocurrency appeals to criminals cryptocurrencies decentralize nature and animosity and irreversible transactions make it an attractive tool for fraud criminals exploit these trades and schemes ranging from fake investment opportunities to extortion and text scams the first trend in this type of fraud is investment fraud we're talking like rug pulls and stuff but losses skyrocketed to 3.6 billion fueled by socially engineered scams where victims were lured through dating apps social media and fake investment platforms the second trend is cryptocurrency kiosks used in over 55 hundred fraud cases criminals leverage those a t m like devices for anonymous transactions resulting in $189 million in losses the third trend is fake play to earn games scammers created apps that promised cryptocurrency rewards but instead just stole your money it's kind of reminiscent of the Coffee Zilla investigation into Jake Paul's app but I'll leave that alone since we know Mister Paul loves to sue people the last trend of this type of crypto fraud is recovery scams fraudsters or criminals targeted previous victims offering false recovery services for an upfront fee only to disappear or demand more payment so can you imagine you already lost your money in crypto then there's a company who's like hey we'll fix it you pay them and they're like not give us more money cause we're also a scam like come on that's crazy to me what the fuck is wrong with y'all huh the Crypto crime report then discusses ways to protect herself so the F B I emphasizes vigilance so be wary of unsolicited investment opportunities or shit you didn't sign up for especially from your online quote friends or distant contacts so if your high school homie hits you up after 10 years saying yo you wanna invest in this just say no also avoid downloading unverified apps connecting cryptocurrency wallets from unfamiliar platforms and obviously please report scams to the IC three at IC three dot gov the F B I's Virtual Asset Unit or V a U which by the way is a much better acronym than rat but V a U continues to combat cryptocurrency related crimes leveraging blockchain analysis and global partnerships to track down and prosecute perpetrators speaking of cryptocurrency the U S government says that North Korean backed hackers so hackers all over the world who are paid by North Korea they sold at least $659 million through multiple cryptocurrency heists in 2024 according to a very rare joint statement from Japan South Korea and the United States this is just one case by the way so just keep that in mind the announcement confirmed that North Korea was behind July's 253 million dollar hack of Wazirx which is India's largest cryptocurrency exchange ironic if you ask me North Korean hackers were responsible for 61% of all cryptocurrency stolen in 2024 totaling $1.34 billion as reported by the company Chain Analysis The U S State Department offers up to $5 million for information to disrupt North Korean front companies like Yain Ban Silver Star and Volisys Silver Star all I have to say is based on just this one report the 2024 crypto crime report is going to be shocking to say the least yeah that sounds about right I think it's fair to mention here that Russia North Korea China and Iran are not our best friends so hitting us where it hurts is their main mission and in this case it's through these virtual proxy wars so if North Korea can hire a bunch of independent hackers and ask them to take down critical infrastructure in the United States or to just steal money from Americans then that is exactly what they're going to do which is why it is so important now more than ever to protect yourself and to talk to your parents and to your grandparents and those who would be seen as vulnerable from a crypto security front and show them how to protect themselves I mean this might mean your kids too you know how to keep your how to keep their password safe how to keep their information off the internet how to not fall for these tech support scams that are becoming even more popular we're seeing hackers infiltrate schools and small businesses and your grandma's email all to weaken the United States shameless plug here but I run m B Security also known as Virgo Security we come in and we help protect critical infrastructure and businesses and we've been putting out a ton of information on ways the general public can protect themselves so I highly recommend you check that out again link in the video description I want to start the wisdom segment out with something a little unconventional but I think fits really well in this segment or just because I could squeeze it in here which is the confirmation hearings we saw for a couple of the appointed figures under the Donald Trump administration so I'm specifically talking about Pete Hegseth and Christy Noem personally I like Pete if I can call him Pete we're not exactly friends I don't even know the guy but but he seems to be like an upstanding dude and you know he has good intentions that being said to run the department of defense seems a little out of his wheelhouse he doesn't have the best track record with handling finances which was talked about multiple times during his confirmation hearing he has mismanaged funds he was you know he lived his life as a playboy there's a lot of things that came up that just really displayed his inability to lead a department as big as the department of defense I will say this I don't give a shit about a sex life it seems like he's happily married now and he has a beautiful family with lots of kids but like who the fuck cares you know are you can you run the d O d overall I like his initiative and I really hope that he puts together a team of advisors that can help him succeed because at the end of the day all I care about is the success of whoever is put in these positions whether I voted for them or not the whole goal is that this country succeeds I would find it extremely unpatriotic for any person who would want something otherwise whether it's a Democrat or Republican in those seats we should all want them to succeed because their success is a success for this country it sounds like I'm trying to get elected or something but I'm I'm serious like it's true moving on to Christie if I can call her Christie but while Pete's hearing was a shit show especially because he did not meet with the Democrats on the panel which obviously hurt their feelings Christie did phenomenal she came in locked and loaded she met with every single person on the board of the committee she obviously gave them the warm and fuzzies because she even had demos rooting for her she knew the initiatives of all the d H s agencies she knew the problems she knew the stats she knew ways to fix the problems and while a lot of what she said was just like theories because she's not actually in the position yet she hasn't actually had a chance to do any of these things but it was a really good plan now as an animal rights activist and the executive director of an animal welfare organization I'm not a huge fan of the fact she openly admitted to killing her dog but again I don't have to like her personally I also don't know her my whole goal here is to say that I hope she succeeds because a win for her is a win for the country I don't know call me a patriot now before I get on to like some real wisdom I also wanted to mention one of the last acts of Joe Biden before he left office former President Joe Biden was expected to permanently ban new oil and gas drilling in large sections of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as well as other federal waters according to two people familiar with the plans Biden intended to invoke an obscure provision of the 1953 law the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that would give him a wide latitude to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing the move would also cement Biden's legacy on climate change as he prepared to leave the White House after a single term Biden has prioritized conservation while in office and is already on track to protect more U s land and waters than any other president even as he faces mounting calls to expand that record with new national monuments safeguarding culturally significant lands in California the guy might be a relic but he sure as hell loves protecting the environment so just you know kudos to him I'll be keeping an eye out on this as it develops I have yet to see anything come down the White House dot gov pipeline and while these two sources may seem credible I'll believe it when I see it I mean right now gas prices already rising because of the threat of this policy as a side note to all my Californians out there Biden plans to establish the Chuck Walla National Monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree and the Satilla I might be saying that wrong national Monument in Northern California again I apologize if I didn't say that right but moving on now I usually like to start the wisdom section off with some fun facts but this week I managed to squeeze in some more news articles so I'm sorry not sorry if anybody wants to know how I come up with these I have a subscription to the Encyclopedia Britannica and what I do is I just find some random shit especially shit that I didn't know Today's wisdom segment is Britannica Spotlight on Antarctica Antarctica is not only the world's southern most continent it is also the world's highest driest windiest coldest and iciest continent if you want to know just how icy ask sweetie cause I'm icy just kidding there's about 7 million cubic miles of it or or 29 million cubic kilometres representing about 90% of the world's ice and 80% of its fresh water moving on let's get right into the wellness segment starting with our U s d a recalls on January 13th up products or up Products L L C doing business as Meyer Wholesale is recalling approximately 400 pounds of sausage products due to misbranding and an undeclared allergen this includes the 5 by 8 vacuum sealed packages containing Auto Meyer Premium sausage Polish sausage and the bulk packed 12 by 24 clear bags containing Otto Meyer Premium Sausage Potato Sausage if you're watching there's some pictures of the product labels but you can also leave in the link in the description next we have the Best Way Sandwiches based in Valencia California who are recalling approximately 24,870 pounds of frozen chicken and cheese taquito products that may be contaminated with foreign material specifically metal these are the Casa Mamita Chicken and cheese Taquitos that are sold at Aldi grocery stores the last U s d a recall is a public health alert for chicken empanada products this frozen product is labelled as Chicken Curry empanadas but is being recalled due to misbranding and an undeclared allergen this product is sold at Walmart's nationwide so be on the lookout for that now let's get right into our F d a recalls starting with the recall for Max Mobility per mobile medical devices this is being recalled due to potential safety and performance concerns next we have Monkey Spit barbecue sauces weird name um Loki like it though which are being um the ha ha just fucking distracted me but uh so Monkey Spit barbecue sauces are being recalled for undeclared milk soy and wheat The New York Mutual Trade Company Inc is recalling their monkfish liver for undeclared milk allergen that sounds disgusting and I feel like we shouldn't even be selling it to begin with but I don't know monkfish liver whatever you guys y'all be eating some weird shit The Pearl Milling Company is recalling their pancake and waffle mix for undeclared milk allergen this is a Quaker Oats product Nugo that's N U G O is recalling their Dark Chocolate Chip Nutrition Bar and and Dark Pretzel Chocolate Nutrition Bar for undeclared milk allergen which I don't really understand because milk is in chocolate but whatever the last recall I'll cover here is by the company My mochi they're recalling the My Mochi Peach Mango Sorbet for undeclared egg which is another allergen recall one more thing I wanna mention real quick though is the Blue Ridge Beef Company is recalling their kitten mix pet food which could potentially be contaminated with salmonella this recall was actually put out on January 3rd but I wanted to mention it anyway in case anybody missed the last episode or is not subscribed to my newsletter which I originally post that recall in the last thing I want to mention here is the whole point of this podcast my goal is to unveil information that is being released that is not making its way to you it's important that Americans are made aware of everything that is happening in and around the country especially as it relates to legislation and health and safety I do my best to try and make everyone aware of what's happening and yes while I do give my opinion and that may or may not influence your opinion my goal is just to provide as much hopefully unbiased information as possible in hopes that you can make the best decision whether you'd agree or disagree with me is fine as long as you're making your decision knowing as much of the information as possible I'll be releasing a special podcast episode which is the book review of Alaska 2.0 that I keep on talking about so be on the lookout for that if you made it all the way to the end thank you so much I hope it provided you with a ton of value if I did please hit that like and subscribe button but with that I'll see you on the flip side