The Mark Arum Show 6-9-26 HR 2

Welcome back to the show and a good Tuesday morning to you. Mark Aram here, you there. It's 10.05, 5 minutes after 10 o'clock. This is the Mark Aram Show live Monday through Friday 9 a.m to noon on 955 WSV. The whole family with us today. Gracie Award winning Deborah is the executive producer of the program. We got Carlin, manning the phones today. Vinnie Drip on the other side of the takeout window. Coming up in 30 minutes, Marcus Espinoza of News Nation is going to join us live. He was covering President Trump's appearance at the NBA finals yesterday. That is why I sound tired today because last night I stayed up to the final buzzer. The Knicks lose a heartbreaker to the Spurs. But you don't care about that. We'll hear what President Trump had to say about the NBA finals. Mike McKee from Bloomberg News on what the Fed might do with interest rates moving forward. And Deborah's got not one, but two prize packs to give away. Coming up in an hour, we're going to give away what exactly, Deborah. In an hour, we'll have tickets to go see Melissa Atthridge coming to town. And she'll be on the show tomorrow. And she's on tomorrow. Yes. And then at 1137, the second prize pack. We have tickets to go see a little big town at the Fox. At the fabulous Fox. So two chances to win here this morning on 95-5 WSP. Kicking off this hour, let's go to Australia, joining us former CBS News Moscow bureau chief Beth Noble. Beth, always great to have you on. Thank you so much for your time. Let's start with this open letter that Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, penned to the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin basically asking him, hey, let's meet face to face and end this long, deadly war. Your reaction to the letter and Vladimir Putin's reaction to the letter, Beth. Well, it's interesting, Mark. It's a really, really long letter. Volodymyr Zelensky says, you know, look, you've been in power for 26 years, and for more than half of those years, you've been pounding Ukraine, you know, first with their first attack when they took Crimean 2014 and now this war well into its fifth year. And he sort of said, look, you know, this is... Too many people are hurting. Too many people, not only in Ukraine, but too many people in Russia are hurting. Your own people are hurting. It's time for this to stop. Let's get together in some neutral third country like Switzerland and try to end it. And I do think it's, you know, very heartfelt. I'm sure President Volodymyr Zelensky is really fed up with this war, this unending war. And Vladimir Putin made some comments about it at a big economic conference in St. Petersburg this week. said, yeah, no thanks. We'll just keep fighting. In the meantime, things on the battlefield, you know, it's like a roller coaster, but it seems like things are favoring the Ukrainian army right now.

Yeah, Ukraine has had a good month or two. They've actually said today, I think, that they have actually made gains in the last month as opposed to losing some territory. But, you know, even if they're making gains, they're pretty small gains. I mean, this war is a stalemate. There hasn't been, you know, huge amounts of territory won or lost in many, many months. And a lot of it is being fought with drones now, where drones are not only... on the battlefield trying to pick off people if they try to move anywhere, but with drones that are going deep into both countries and wreaking havoc. It's a terrible situation for everyone involved. And we're starting to see those drone strikes in Mother Russia in St. Petersburg, which is a new development there as well. Beth, you know, back on February 28th when the Iran war started, I was worried. I'm sure Volodymyr Zelensky was worried that since all the world's attention were going to be. be focused on the Iran war that we'd forget about Russia and Ukraine. And I thought that might be good news for Vladimir Putin. But I mean, yes, you know, there's another war that we're covering right now, but it seems like Ukraine has been holding their own since February 28th. Yeah, I think the Ukrainians have been pretty worried about American attention being on the Middle East and not on Ukraine. But, you know, it looks like, you know, the Trump administration is trying to keep eyes on what's going on in Ukraine. Just in the last day, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had a phone call, a very productive phone call with the American envoy to Ukraine, Steve Witkoff, and with President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who's also acting as a mediator in this. President Volodymyr Zelensky has been in London. He met with Charles III. He met with the German, French, and British leaders as well. I mean, he is clearly trying to keep Ukraine on the front burner in the hopes that maybe... something someone will be able to get Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and end this almost endless war. One thing I am worried about, Beth, and this is kind of a history lesson relating to the Iranian war and how that's going to impact what's going on between Russia and Ukraine. With the Strait of Hormuz shutdown, obviously we're seeing a global energy crisis. If you go back to the early 2000s, we had a similar situation with the war with Iraq. And that caused oil prices to go up. And because of that, Vladimir Putin was able to save Russia's economy because they were making so much money selling their gas, natural gas and oil that, you know, the Russian economy was on the brink of destruction. But that Iraqi war and the price of oil and gas really saved that Russian economy. Could we see history repeating itself now? Well, it's really good for the Russians that oil prices are high. they have a lot of people who are happy to buy their oil. And China and India are big purchasers of Russian oil, and they have very, very high demands. And one of the things that the Ukrainians have been doing most effectively to try to have some pain in Russia is to actually attack Russia's oil infrastructure. They've been attacking refineries and storage units. And it started...

to have some effects inside Russia. In Crimea, apparently there's a horrible fuel crisis. People aren't able to get gas for their cars. There's long lines. There's rationing of gasoline. But the Russian, for the most part, Russia is turning out lots of fuel. And yeah, I mean, one of the reasons that this war has been able to go on for so long is that no matter how many sanctions the West... puts on Russia, it never really shuts down the Russian economy because so many other people are happy to buy that, that oil and gas that Russia continues to produce. Yeah, definitely. I mean, the impact is stark and maybe giving Russia another economic lifeline here in 2026. All right, Beth, you're calling from Australia, but you're centered in New York. Were you able to watch the NBA finals game last night down under? Or I guess this morning for you. Yes, I absolutely was. It was on at 1030. I'm in Melbourne, Australia. And it was on at 1030 in the morning here. And you bet I was watching. And, okay, I guess I'm going to have to change. and go from Nixon 4 to Nixon 5. But, you know, the state of Russian Ukraine is so dire that, honestly, I'm just super happy to have those NBA finals on so I can focus on that to the sad shape of the Ukraine war. Yeah, it is a nice escape from reality. Beth Noble, Beth, great stuff, as always. Appreciate your time. Please stay safe, my friend. Thank you, Mark. Always a pleasure to speak with you. Former CBS News Moscow Bureau Chief. Beth Noble in Australia. Our first Australian guest? Our first Australian. You put a pin on the map? Yep, edit it. I got to put a picture of the map on social media. So every time we get a guest from somewhere new, there's a map, a canvas map in the... studio here that Yamamoto hasn't messed with yet. I wouldn't say Yamamoto. I would say more Eric before Yamamoto. Or any, no one's messed with it. Nobody yet. But we've got pins for all the amazing places we've had guests on. So put a pin in it. It is now Australia. Speaking of the Knicks, Marcus Espinoza is going to join us live from News Nation after the news at 1030. President Trump's experience there yesterday at NBA finals game three. This just popping. Speaking of President Trump, he officially has nominated. his former personal attorney, Todd Blanche, to become the new attorney. General, yes, replacing Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, acting. President Trump officially going to nominate him. Elena Trina at the White House, what kind of a fight does the president have getting Todd Blanche confirmed from the Senate? Look, I think this is going to be a very tense time. I think with any kind of moves now that when you need unanimous support from Republicans to move forward, that's a difficult task at a time when, you know, the president has recently made enemies out of Republicans that this White House was used to relying on.

Senator John Cornyn and Senator Bill Cassidy, both people whom President Trump kind of worked to push aside by promoting their primary opponents in their recent primary races. And this is something in my conversations with people at the White House, Pam, they acknowledge, and I'll say this. They argue that they are confident that Todd Blanche will get confirmed. They believe, particularly because he was able to get confirmed, he's been through this process before when he became Deputy Attorney General, they believe they'll be able to. be successful here. But I think there's no question that things are going to be harder as we look ahead to November because of, like I said, some of these Republicans who feel liberated. That was actually a word that John Cornyn has used to push back against the administration more, but also at a time when a lot of Republicans are worried about their political viability come November. So we'll have to see, but they're going to be working hard, I think, to prop. Todd Blanche up in the weeks to come as he undergoes this process. Elena Schringen at the White House moments ago. So Todd Blanche, the official nominee. Let's circle back to what we started the show on, the main primary tonight, today, the Senate primary in Maine. Graham Platner, good Lord, against, you know, running for the Democratic nomination to face off against Susan Collins. Depending on when this nomination process happens. It's going to put a lot of pressure on Susan Collins. So I would imagine, I don't know for sure, but the nomination and confirmation process for Todd Blanche is going to happen well before the November election, which means Susan Collins is going to have to vote, yay or nay, for President Trump's former personal attorney to head the Justice Department.

You've heard me say, I don't think Todd Blanche deserves to be on the Pout. I can't believe he's still getting support. I am not supporting Todd Blanche, Todd Blanche, Graham Platner, excuse me, in any way, shape, or form. I do not want him to win the Democratic nomination. I do not want him to become the next senator of Maine. But no matter who wins the primary today, whether it's the sitting governor or Graham Platner, if Susan Collins votes to confirm Todd Blanche. That's a campaign ad right there. Why would you reelect Susan Collins, who when push comes to sub will not stand up to President Donald Trump? So I don't know if Susan Collins, I mean, I don't know what's in her heart, her head, or her campaign strategy, but there's going to be a lot of eyes on what Susan Collins does with her vote in the Senate confirmation of Todd Blanche to head up the Justice Department. It all goes back to Maine. Maine is so beautiful. Have you been to Maine, Deborah? Yes, I have. It's vacation land, they call it. It's true. I got married in Maine. I love Maine. The lobster rolls, just the fried clams, everything about Maine is great. One thing Maine does not have. are Hawaiian whales. I know it's a really bad segue. Wales, yes. Well, yes. Hawaii, an alert for whales off the coast of Hawaii, they are running out of food. What? So there are these rare whales that only live around Hawaii. And they've been tracking him for a while because they fear they're endangered. And because of climate change. And just the way the oceans are having warmer, there's less and less fish for these whales to eat. So as they've been tracking them, they've been noticing that their body weight in general has decreased about 28%. Imagine if you lost 28% of your body weight. I would look a lot better. Nature's outside. I'm not a whale. Yeah. It's endangering for these whales. So they're trying to figure out how they can rescue these whales. You know, this is their native water. This is where they live. So it's fish, not algae or plankton or whatever these whales. No, it's the fish in general that are affected that they just don't have enough to eat. It boggles my mind that the number one industry in the United States at one point in our history was whaling. Like they would take these boats out and harpoon these whales. If you've never been on a whale watch, A, you got to do it. Put that on the top of your bucket list. Go on a legitimate whale watch. It will change your life. And you see these majestic creatures. And we used to hunt them down for their blubber. to heat our oil lamps like that's crazy at least the natives like eskimos would use every piece of you know the bones and everything they'd eat the meat we would just take the blubber and throw the uh it's kind of uh disheartening what we used to do sometimes um one more Ocean story. Great white sharks, great white sharks. We all know about them. You know, Australia, right? You see the great whites there, jaws, whatever. Apparently there's been a rare sighting of a great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea. Yeah, some divers were actually looking to clean up shipwrecks in the med. And as they were down there, there were volunteer divers. I noticed a 13 foot great white. And there's never been a great white sighting in the med before. So they're pretty sure this the first time it's been documented. If there has been one, no one's ever seen it.

but they got it all on video, they shared it. And their whole thing is like, we approached it and it seemed very nice. Why would you approach it? Because there's a shark in the Mediterranean. They said it wasn't aggressive. It just seemed like it was curious. Is that what the kids call it, the med? Isn't it called the med? I don't know. I've never heard that. I like it, though. Really? Oh, right. Mediterranean. Saving syllables. The med. Yeah. I want to go on a cruise of the med. eventually. All right, 1019, when we come back, we're going up here, top local stories, including a drowning here in the metro area at a waterfall of all places. 1026 on the Mark Aram Show. Happy 65th birthday to one of my favorites of all time. Michael J. Fox star of Back to the Future, Family Ties, etc. Noted New York Knicks fan is Michael J. Fox. Has he been at the games? I don't think he was... I haven't seen any pictures. Well, it was his birthday today. So maybe he was... I ran into him once at a movie theater in Connecticut. He had a summer home not too far from... Do you wearing an orange vest? He was not. But he was so... I didn't even go up to him. But he was going to the movies. I saw him going into the small movie theater. And I was like, that's Michael J. Fox. Anyway, happy 65th birthday. Was he or was he not on Celebrity Row there at Madison Square Garden? The Mecca of Basketball, the world's most famous arena. Guess what? After news weather and traffic, we are going to go to New York City. Marcus Espinoza from News Nation in New York, covering President Trump's historic viewing of the NBA Finals game. It was the first time ever a sitting president attended New York finals, an NBA finals game. And listen, I'm wearing my Knicks hat. There's no bigger Nick fan than I am. President Trump did not jinx us. It was because the refs and because we don't have a Charles Oakley on our team. That's why we lost. But Marcus Espinoza from News Nation live next in New York City here on the Mark Aram Show. Social media is active through the broadcast. Give us a fala, halla, at Mark Aram and at WSB Radio.

1038 on the Mark Aram show coming up in 30 minutes. Deborah's got a pair of tickets to give away to see Melissa Etheridge. Speaking of tickets, obviously I could not secure tickets to game three of the NBA finals. So sadly, I had to stay up late watching my beloved Knicks fall to the San Antonio Spurs in the world's most famous arena live to New York City, joining us on the program for News Nation, Marcus Espinoza. Marcus, good morning, my friend. How are you? Hey, Mark, good morning. Don't worry. I couldn't afford tickets either. So I just stayed outside reporting and watched it at all myself. Were you at one of the many watch parties littering the five boroughs? So I work super early. I wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning. So I do the morning shift. So we didn't do any watch parties. They actually shut them down as part of the story here around the garden. But there were plenty around the five boroughs. So historic visit President Trump, the first sitting president to go to the NBA finals. I was questioning yesterday on the show before the game. Is he going to sit? Courtside or is it going to be in the owner's box? Turns out he was in the owner's box with Nick's owner James Dolan. Yeah, that's right. He got invited personally. His granddaughter was there, some cabinet members as well. So he was there, and the national anthem played. Got a little bit of a boo parade from the fans inside the arena when that took place. A couple of USA chance as well. So a little bit of a mixed bag, I'd say about 70-30 booing the president when he showed up on screen. Yeah, it was during the national anthem, by the way. I've got the audio. Let me play it for the listeners. Sure.

And he was, he was, the president was saluting the flag in the owner's boxes. As he mentioned, his grand daughter was next to him. A little bit later on in the, I mean, he's 80. He was caught, you know, catching a couple of, a couple of Zs next to the Knicks owner. But at 80 years old, I am not judging there. But, you know, there was a lot of worry or concern that President Trump would distract from the event. They canceled the watch party outside Madison Square Garden. How was it overall for Knicks fans to get into the mecca of basketball with the president there. Oh, it was a mess. To be super clear, and frank, like the fact that they had to close down, so I'm just going to name some streets. Hopefully you're familiar with there. Madison Square Garden is around 7th and 8th Avenue, and then 33rd Street is what it sits on. They closed down pretty much every street around Madison Square Garden. They put big steel barriers around the arena itself. You had to check in through basically a TSA security line, and to get checked, you had to agree to be checked. when you got in there. No bags were allowed. So there were videos circulating on social media, long lines for fans to get in. They did eventually get there, get inside on time. So there was a huge just disruption to this area, which would have been busy anyways, but it's still, this took it to another level because Secret Service was all over the place. And, you know, they were doing their job. They have to keep the president safe, especially after what he's been through during his terms. So it was not anything that most New Yorkers were happy with, but they were dealing with it. Penn Station, was train travel suspended at Penn Station below Madison Square Garden, or was that not impacted? You could come here, I believe, but I don't think you, yeah, because people were still coming out when I was here up until 2 o'clock. At 4 p.m. yesterday, they ended up shutting down pedestrian access around here as well. So nobody was getting in unless you had a ticket to the game, and then you had to go through that extremely secure Secret Service checkpoint to get into the arena. Marcus Espinoza from News Nation joining us live in New York City here on the Mark Aram Show. All right, game three. I'm a huge Knicks fan. I can't believe they lost. A lot of folks are blaming President Trump on a jinx. I blame the refs and our lack of three-point shooting and the fact that we don't have an enforcer like Charles Oakley on the team. I don't believe in this jinx. That being said, game four Wednesday tomorrow is President Trump coming back? Do we know? No, he's not coming. I don't think the New Yorkers would let him come back. I think that ship has sailed. He doesn't have any plans for that. So he's not going to be back at the arena. And it was a good game. It's interesting because I'm a sports fan in general. And I think it was a classic trap game. I think it was just the coronation had already begun. I think everybody just assumed the spurs were done. And I think you were going to get their best effort because they knew if they lost that game, it was over.

that they're absolute best, and they showed up. You got to even credit. Game four is going to be so crucial. Critical. Again, like, I thought the Nixon four, but then we had the trap game. But if San Antonio wins the game four and ties the series up, I think it's San Antonio series, sadly. And I don't want that. Oh, I think it totally shifts back. I think the Knicks have to take game four just to hold that advantage in case anything happens because that game seven back in San Antonio. They got to be able to win this so they can bring it and lock it up back in New York for game six if they have to. And Deborah, you and I will be up there in New York for the Gracie Awards. If there's a game six, we'll be in New York. Marcus, I'm going to count on you for getting a couple of tickets to the game. Well, when I get them, I'll make sure to pass them along to you, okay? Because I want a true Knicks fans to go to that game. And let me tell you, wait, so the game six, what day is that of the calendar? Tuesday, the 16th. 16th. Isn't that a World Cup game as well around here? Yes. Oh, Debra says yes. Oh, my goodness. Yes. The center of the, center of the athletic universe. Final quick question, Marcus, have you tried the Brunson bagel that is taking the York by storm? Yeah, they had them. They brought it to our studio. Actually, I work weekends. And on Sunday, they had the colored donuts or bagels, excuse me, and the Brunson bagel was there. And you know, whenever there's food in a newsroom or media place, it is immediately, immediately swooped up. So we went and snag them. It was delicious. It was amazing. Excellent, excellent. All right, Mark. Marcus, hopefully we'll see you in New York on the 16th for the next clinching victory at the world's most famous arena. Marcus Espinosa News Nation, great stuff as always, my friend. Thanks, guys. Have a good day. See you, buddy. Have you seen the Brunton bagel on social media? No, I haven't. Bagel? No. Bagel. It's blue and orange bagel. Oh, okay. So they asked one of the reporters a couple months ago, asked. Jalen Brunson, the Knicks Star, what his bagel order is. And he says, bagel, toasted, egg cheese, hash brown, and Chipotle Mayo. I see it. Yeah. I'm cool with it. I don't like, I don't want the spicy Chipotle Mayo. But now it's a thing. Butler without mail. Oh, it's crazy. They're charging like $14 now for a Brunson bagel. Isn't that just New York in general? I used to go, a bacon egg and cheese and a hard roll was like $2.50. Yeah, in the 90s. Yes. Oh, I'm still living in there. 30 years ago. Look at my wardrobe. I'm still living in the 90s. Just real quick about the, I got to tip my hat to the Secret Service. Because when they heard this, you know they had to be like, son of a biscuit. Really? You're going to go to the game? So we've had Secret Service come to the station to clear presidents, vice presidents come in here. And they have to come in the day before or earlier that morning, whenever they're coming with the dogs, the bomb sniffing dogs. So that means the Secret Service had to go through the entire Madison Square Garden with bomb sniffing dogs. Check every seat, every nook, every cranny. That's a lot of legwork to make that happen. But they did. It went off without a hitch. Security was fine. The only bad news is...

The New York Knicks lost. I just got choked up a little bit. And I'm exhausted for staying up too late. Shame on me. I knew better. I knew better. 10 to 52 on the Mark Abrams show. Just check the markets. I don't know what the heck's happened in the last 15 minutes, but we went from green to red in a hurry. Nasdaq's down 230. S&B's down 31. Oil, though, is down 3.67%. Speaking of the markets, went to Bloomberg.com this morning. Saw an interesting piece. The Treasury market is telling Kevin Warsh, Rates need to be higher. Ooh, he's the new Fed chair covering the story and joining us live from Bloomberg News, our good buddy Mike McKee. Mike, good morning. How are you, sir? I'm good. How are you? Well, I've got a home with a mortgage rate that I am paying too high an interest rate on, and I was hoping eventually those rates would come down so I could refinance, but that's not what the Treasury market is saying right now. Yeah, I got some bad news for you. The overall structure of inflation is that it is still going up, even if gasoline prices have come down a little bit because the war goes on and on. The crude oil inventories that we've been working on have fallen quite a bit. So there's no chance that the Fed is going to be cutting rates any time soon. And we also have some strength on the consumer side and the job side. So at this point, the best you can hope for is that they don't raise rates. And I suppose that's the best that Kevin Warsh... can do for the president at this point is not raise rates. He's certainly not going to be able to cut them. Yeah, you say that, but are we sure that he won't try to cut them to, you know, appease the president? Well, he could try, but he's one vote out of 12, a committee of 19. So we have seen a number of fed officials, even some who are centrists or lean dovish, turned more hawkish recently because they see what's happening. And one of the issues is not just the war, but also AI, because the demand for semiconductor chips and electronic parts and construction materials for all these AI data centers has really pushed up prices in that area. So you're seeing this broadening of inflation, and that's what concerns the Fed. And that's what's driving the bond market at this point. The bond market thinks that we're going to need to slow the economy. Is there a scenario where the new Fed chair... keeps rate steady, doesn't raise them, doesn't lower them, but just keeps them steady. Would that be enough to keep President Trump content? Well, no one can get that one will keep President Trump content. But the best bet on Wall Street is that if they were to look at raising rates, it would come at the end of the year. They're going to stay on hold for quite a while because we don't know.

what's going to happen with the war and when it's going to end. And there are mixed views about how long it will take oil prices to come down and the ships to get out of the strait-of-moos once the war does end. So with all that uncertainty, the best thing for the Fed is to sort of adopt the Hippocratic oath and first do no harm. Yeah, we'll see. I'm a glass half-full kind of guy, Mike. I like to think about best-case scenarios. Best case scenario. We get a peace deal tomorrow. The straight of home moves opens. We get stability in the energy market globally. Is there a chance that anything could happen between now and the end of the year where Kevin Warsh is like, oh, okay, now we can lower your mortgage rate, Mr. Aram. We would have to see a major change in a couple of areas. One, the idea that growth would be slowing, so the Fed would have to respond to that. And obviously, inflation would have to come down significantly. And also, we would want to see productivity rise showing some effect of AI. And all three of those things aren't likely to happen this year. So the best guess is that he's not going to be able to do anything, even make the case. for cutting rates until next year. Kevin Warsh came to the job saying that AI would raise productivity, that would lower costs, and therefore we can cut rates. But right now, none of that is happening. Mike, McKee, Bloomberg News. Great stuff. As always, Mike, have a good day, my friend. You too. Speaking of AI, AI, we knew it's going to cause job cuts, but now it's causing more job cuts than we originally anticipated, Deborah. Yeah, they're saying AI has increased job cuts by about 16%. That was the latest total they had in May. So just last month, 16% of jobs lost were due to AI using more and more of them at work. And they're trying to get rid of some of the small menial tasks, I guess. I mean, for us, we kind of use it for fun. It hasn't really replaced. It hasn't replaced anything that I do. Like, I don't use it regularly. But that's the scary part. Like, we are literally in the infancy of this industry. Like, this is. This is a six-month-old toddler, baby, whatever you call a six-month-old. This isn't a fully developed industry yet. As much as I love making those funny pictures on Grok. This is scary. This is the infancy. And we're already losing 16% of jobs to artificial intelligence. Oh, my Lord. Oh, my Lord. News weather and traveling three. When we come back, Devers got Melissa Etheridge tickets to give away. And we've got an update on Artemis 3. How soon are we sending a man and or woman to the moon? Correspondent, Rory O'Neill, with the details next on the Mark Aram Show.