Iran, AI, and Protest Songs: Your 15-Minute Morning Rundown

Good Morning, And welcome Back to The Morning Rundown. Glad you're Here. Grab The coffee, Maya. This one's loaded. Already did. Today, we're starting with Europe moving to label Iranss Revolutionary Guard A terrorist group And The Pressure On Trump to Do something militarily without A lot Of Clarity On The intel. Right. Welll talk about Why Conservatives can Back A tough line On Tehran But still be very skeptical Of sleepwalking into another Middle East war. Then We pivot to AI, One story Thatss actually saving lives in breast Cancer screening, while markets hammer The Big Tech names for all The empty AI revolution talk. And Thatss ex-Google engineer busted for taking AI secrets to A China-linked startup, Plus Some, Letss Say, overreaching ideas like A Hollywood digital performer tax And A Trump-focused Senate crypto bill. Finally, Culture. Bruce Springsteenss New Protest song, Whether celebrity activism ever changes minds, The latest Latino Casting fight, And Why Rachel McAdams' New dark Comedy might be The rare story first win across The aisle. Politics, power, And pop Culture with A little side eye for The elites along The way. Letss get into It, starting with Iran, Trump, And What this EU move actually changes. OK, we're starting with The really high-stakes stuff Today, war, terrorism, Great power Politics all colliding. Yeah, Iran, Trump, And even Xi in China all in The Same story. Buckle up. So headline One, The EU just moved to list Iranss Revolutionary Guard, The IRGC, The IRGC, as A terrorist organization. That sounds huge, But What Does That actually change, David? Right. So On paper, this means IRGC members And affiliated entities can Have assets frozen in Europe, face travel bans, banks get More cautious. It hardens The sanctions wall. So basically, More legal And financial pain If you're tied to The Guard. Exactly. And It also makes European companies way More nervous about any deal That even touches Iran. The compliance departments Go into panic mode. But here's Where Imm A little skeptical. The IRGCss been acting like A Terror group for decades, attacks through proxies, arming militias. Why did It take The EU this long? Ah, Thatss The question. Europe loves process, endless debates, legal reviews, Human rights caveats. Meanwhile, Iranss shipping drones to Russia And rockets to militias. Right. So for listeners, Dontt Picture IRGC guys suddenly getting hauled off in Brussels. Most Of these People never set foot in Europe anyway. Exactly. The impact Is More indirect. It tightens The money flows, scares banks, And politically, It brings The EU closer to The USS. line That, Look, this isn't A normal military. And It closes The door A little More On That fantasy That You can just, like, charm Tehran Back into Good behavior with One More EU dialogue round. Yeah, The old, If We just engage More, they'll moderate story. I think Thatss Finally dying. So Conservative takeaway Here, this Is Europe catching up to A Reality hawks Have been calling out for years. But Itss Not Some magic switch That suddenly stops Terror. Right. Itss Necessary, But Not sufficient. OK, connected to That, second Big thread, Pressure On Trump to consider New military Options against Iran. There Have been leaks, op-eds, Hill chatter. Walk US through That. So When Iran Or Its proxies hit USS. troops Or ships, presidents get The menu From The Pentagon. Airstrikes Here. Berthier hit A depot, hit A commander, all color-coded. The Cheesecake Factory menu Of escalation. Exactly. And The Pressure comes From two sides. Hawks Say You need to hit Hard enough That they fear You. Others warn If You misread The intel, You blow up The region. And That misread The intel piece Is What worries me. Because Wevee done this dance. WMDs in Iraq, fuzzy claims, Then years Of cleanup. Yeah. You get Reports Of credible intelligence That Iran might plan something, But The public never sees The full Picture. You get phrases like, We believe And likely. Which Look, sometimes That intel Is real. But I think A lot Of our listeners Have learned to hear those words And Go, Okay, Show your work. Exactly. A healthy skepticism. Conservative doesn't Have to mean bomb first, ask questions later. It can mean Protect Americans, But Dontt get gamed by bad intel Or bureaucracy. So What are Trumpss real Options Here without sleepwalking into A war? Limited strikes On IRGC assets Or proxy facilities, covert operations, cyber attacks, ramped up sanctions enforcement. Basically, Inflict pain without hitting inside Iran So Hard That they Have to escalate. And he's Already shown he'll Go After top commanders. Remember Soleimani? That sent A message. It did. It also showed how quickly things can move. They get One decision in A secure room, And suddenly you're trading missiles. So The risk Now Is, you've got this New EU Terror label, heightened tension in The region, And Then Trump being told You Have to respond Or You Look weak. Yeah. Presidents get boxed in by their own red lines. Say any attack will be met with force, And your flexibility shrinks. Even If The intel Is thin Or The attack Is deniable. I mean, Idd rather see maximum economic And political Pressure first with very clear red lines, Not vague ones. Like spell out, If You hit Americans directly, Then X happens. Totally. Clarity Is deterrence. Ambiguity Plus bad intel Is how You stumble into A war almost nobody actually voted for. Before We pivot, super quick, Xiss military Purge. We can't unpack all Of It, But just Give me One sentence On Why It matters to this Iran Picture. In One line, Xi firing top generals reminds everyone That Chinass watching this Iran drama as A test Of USS. resolve, And He wants A loyal, hardline military ready If The Middle East crisis spills into The broader US-Chinana rivalry. So When Trump Is weighing strikes On Iran, Itss Not just Tehran watching. Itss Beijing, Moscow, all Of them. Exactly. Every move Is A signal in A much bigger game. Alright, Welll leave The missiles And sanctions There for Now. After The break, we're staying in That Big Picture lane, But shifting to Tech. Yeah, From war rooms to server rooms, Wevee got AI Thatss actually helping catch breast Cancer earlier, real lives saved. And At The Same time, AI hype wiping billions off Microsoft And The rest Of Big Tech. Plus an ex-Google engineer convicted over China-linked AI secrets, And Hollywood And Congress Both trying to tax Or regulate AI, maybe in Some pretty political Ways. So, um, Is this smart guardrails Or just power grabs dressed up as protecting The future? Thatss next. Okay, So After all That heavy Iran talk, Letss Do Some AI That actually helps People. Please, We need A win. New study On breast Cancer screening found AI cut later-stage diagnoses by about 12%. Thatss huge. Thatss real lives, Not just Some chatbot demo. Exactly. And The key Is, Itss Not replacing The radiologist, Itss like A second pair Of eyes On The mammogram. Right. Like A tireless resident who doesn't blink At 3am. Yeah. The AI flags suspicious spots, The doctor still makes The call. More cancers get caught earlier, fewer women hearing, We missed this A year later. And Thatss The model Of AI That makes sense to me. Human in charge, machine assisting. Same. I mean, Wevee Both seen The hype Where Tech bros are like, doctors are obsolete. No. Just No. Yeah, Cool. Letss Not outsource diagnoses to The Same industry That can't ship A bug-free app. Exactly. But Here, you've got evidence, peer-reviewed, real world. Thatss What We should be rewarding. Which, nice segue, markets are kind Of starting to demand Now. There It Is. So Big Microsoft-led Tech sell-off, software names sliding, Whatss going On? So Investors Have basically been throwing money At anything with AI in The slide deck for A year. Now Theyree asking, OK, Wheress The profit? Reality check time. Microsoft Is still A monster business. But even they hinted costs are up, cloud growth isn't infinite, And AI features aren't instantly minting cash. So When even The golden child sounds A little cautious, everything sells off. Exactly. You see this across software, Valuations priced for perfection. Then guidance Is just Good, Not insane, And The air comes out. Do You read That as The AI bubble popping, Or just A calm down moment? More calm down. The Core businesses are fine. But The Market Is saying What We just said about healthcare AI. Show me The real use cases, Not vibes. Yeah, like The breast Cancer thing? Thatss The bar Now. Right. If your AI pitches, We added A chatbot to our expense app, Thatss Not worth 40x sales. No One wants A bot lecturing them about Starbucks receipts. Plus, Theress The bigger risk angle. A lot Of these AI players are burning cash On massive compute bills. Higher rates, tougher fed, That gets painful. And behind all Of this, Theress The national security side, The race with China for AI. Yeah, And That brings US to this ex-Google engineer case. So this guy was just convicted Of stealing AI trade secrets, taking them to A China-linked startup while still On Googless payroll. Itss wild. Itss also Exactly What US officials Have been warning about, our cutting-edge models walking out The door On A thumb drive. Or in The cloud, Yeah. Right. And Unlike, Say, Some vague intel about maybe threats in The Middle East, Here You Have emails, file logs, A very clear trail. Totally Different From What We were talking about with Iran, Where Conservatives are like, Show US The receipts Before A war. Here, you've got receipts. And The stakes are huge. Advanced AI models feed into surveillance, cyber, even weapons systems. You Dontt want That handed to A regime That openly calls US A competitor. Or Thatss purging Its own generals, like We talked about yesterday with Xi. Thatss Not Exactly A stable partner. Exactly. So You tighten export controls, You prosecute theft, You harden your labs. Thatss smart guardrails. Speaking Of guardrails, Hollywoodss Back in The AI fight, too. SAG-AFTRA Is floating this idea Of A digital performer tax. Yeah, So If A studio uses A fully AI-generated actor, they'd pay into A fund for Human performers, Right? Thatss The rough idea. On One level, I get It. Actors Dontt want to be scanned once And never hired again. Some protections make sense. Consent, pay, limits On deepfakes using your face. Totally reasonable. But A blanket tax On digital characters? I Dontt know. It starts sounding less like protecting People And More like protecting A union's business model. Yeah, If The rule becomes You can innovate But only If You cut US A check, Thatss questionable. And politically, we're seeing The Same thing with crypto. Theress this Senate bill Thatss supposedly about conflict Of interest, But Itss basically framed around The Trump family. Of course It Is. So Instead Of A neutral rule—no senior official's family can secretly pump coins—it turns into we're very, very worried about OneGuy's Kids. And Look, Imm fine with transparency. If you're in The White House, People should know If your cousin Is launching A token. Yeah, But When The text And The sales pitch clearly target One political family, It feels less like guardrails And More like lawfare. Same pattern as The union thing. Some rules are needed, But The People writing them always seem to angle for power. Exactly. Protect patients with AI in hospitals? Yes. Protect trade secrets From China? Absolutely. Protect elites From competition Or opponents? Hard pass. And That power game shows up in Culture too, Which Is Where we're going next. Yeah, From AI performers to actual performers, Springsteenss New Protest song, The White House reaction, And Whether any Of this moves voters anymore. Plus, The Fights over Latino representation, DEI, And Why A Sharp Rachel McAdams Comedy might Do More for unity than half The message art out There. Thatss next On The Morning Rundown. OK, Picture this. Gravelly, Bruce Springsteen vocal, Big drum hit, lyrics calling out strong men And billionaire cowboys in Washington. Thatss The New Protest Track everyone's sharing. Yeah, Itss very born-in-the-USA 200, But this time The Politics aren't even subtle. Not At all. And The White House kind Of leaned into It, Right? Staffers tweeting It, press room questions like, Have You heard Brucess New song? Which kind Of proves The point critics make. Celebrity Protest Is almost always running One way, toward The Democratic side. Exactly. And Illl be real, David, There Is Some Protest song fatigue. Like, I get The issues, I care about The country, But I Dontt need Every A-list artist auditioning to be A speechwriter. Right. And The question Is, Does this move anybody? Or Is It just preaching to The progressive choir Thatss Already donating, Already voting blue? I mean, My group chats are A mix. Some People are like, Yes, king, drag them. Others are rolling their eyes, saying, Cool, another multi-millionaire telling me Imm The problem. Thatss The thing. When A guy worth hundreds Of millions lectures The rich, It lands weird. And politically, I Dontt see many swing voters in Wisconsin going, Well, Bruce sang about It, So Imm changing My mind On border policy. Yeah, No one's voting On The bridge Of A song. At best, Itss vibes. It gives The White House A cultural moment, A soundtrack. And sometimes That backfires. You Look like you're governing by hashtag Instead Of results. We just talked last SEGMENT about AI And healthcare actually catching cancers earlier. Thatss substance. Exactly. Show me fewer celebrity playlists At The White House, More here's What We did That actually helped your family. And If artists want to speak out, fine, free country. But it'd be nice If The industry wasn't 95% lined up On One side. Theress this unspoken rule That If you're openly Conservative, you're done. Yeah, Or You keep your head down. You see It in Comedy, music, acting. If you're Not On board with The full Twitter progressive script, You just Stay quiet. Which makes The art less interesting. When everybody's reading From The Same playbook, You Dontt get real debate Or surprise. Speaking Of playbooks, Letss hit The Latino Casting fight because Thatss blowing up too. Latino Writers And actors calling out studios for undercasting, colorism, all Of It. And Look, Theyree Not wrong about The history. Latinos are What, almost 20% Of The US And still ridiculously underrepresented in lead roles. Yeah, And A lot Of The roles That Do exist are narco, maid, gangbanger. People are tired Of That. They want to see lawyers, moms, superheroes, full range. Totally fair. Where I start to worry Is When The conversation becomes Every project needs A spreadsheet Of quotas. Or If this part didn't Go to The exact Right subcategory Of identity, Itss oppression. Right. Because Then Casting turns into HR compliance And Art by committee Is usually bad art. Exactly. The Conservative instinct Here Is Yes, fix The pipeline, stop lazy stereotyping, open doors, But Dontt punish merit Or hamstring directors with A DEI referee On set. And Some Of The online blow-ups feel frankly like A box-checking. A Show casts A talented Latino lead, But he's The wrong national origin Or complexion And suddenly The mob wants him fired. Which Is Crazy. Ordinary People At home just want to know, Is The Show Good? Do I like this character? Theyree Not pausing Netflix to run A census. Yeah, nobody's like, hold On, let me check yourancestry.com Before I finish this episode. So The sane Middle ground Is More opportunities, More stories From Latino creators, less typecasting, But with room for creative freedom And, You know, actually hiring The best person for The role. And maybe fewer statements, More results. Not another glossy DEI pledge, just hire People, promote them, let them write The next Big thing. That brings US nicely to Rachel McAdams' New dark Comedy, because Itss kind Of The opposite Of A lecture. Yeah, quick pivot to something fun. Shess playing this deeply flawed PR fixer whose job Is to spin Every scandal, Culture war, all Of It. Itss Sharp, Itss mean in moments, But Itss character-driven. And It lands jokes On everyone. The Activists, The corporations, The politicians, The media. No one's safe, Which to me feels A lot More honest. Exactly. Itss Not, here's The morally approved side, clap Now. Itss, here's how ridiculous We all Look chasing outrage. You can feel The Writers rolling their eyes At The whole ecosystem. Thatss Why It Cuts across Politics. A Conservative can watch It And Go, Yeah, this Is how elites manufacture narratives. And A liberal can watch And Go, wow, our side gets silly too. And The Big thing Is, Itss just A Good story. Great performance, tight script, funny, A little dark. People will Show up for That way faster than for A didactic message movie. So maybe Thatss The takeaway Today. Whether Itss Springsteen, Casting Fights, Or Comedy, If You want to reach beyond your base, lead with quality And humility, Not lectures. Yeah, Give US art, Not homework. Welll figure out The Politics ourselves. And On That note, we're out Of time. Thanks for hanging with US this Morning. Go find something actually Good to watch Or listen to Today. Not just The loudest thing in your feed. Welll see You tomorrow On The Morning Rundown. All Right, Thatss our Morning Rundown. If You Remember One thing, Itss this. Real strength Is asking Hard questions Before We charge into war Or chase The next Tech fad. Exactly. Thatss Why When We talked about The EU Terror label for Iranss Revolutionary Guard, We said, Dontt Picture guys suddenly getting hauled off in Brussels. Symbolism matters, But So Do real-world consequences. Mm-hmm. And Same with AI. Whether Itss catching breast Cancer earlier Or just pumping stock prices, We should demand proof, Not slogans. Totally. If this hits your brain The way your third coffee Does, subscribe, drop A quick review, And share this episode with A friend. Thanks for starting your day with US. Welll be Back tomorrow. Stay Sharp. Stay hopeful.