Hey, everybody, welcome to our weekly debrief. This is our weekly deep breath when it comes to the news.

Smarter news, as you know, is all about quick and concise, not partisan information, but sometimes

we just got to talk. And we need to have a conversation today about some of the big stories that

you are most interested in this week. That's what's going to drive this entire report today. And I'm really excited about it. You really chose some very interesting

stories. I was a little bit worried. You know, news delivery is all about how you can organize

information so that we can all better consume it. It's a very chaotic world. You've got a lot going on.

So I like to look for little connections or similar themes to try to organize our conversations. So they seem less chaotic and also help us digest the information a little bit better. It's one of my favorite things to do. I could be flying my nerd flag when it comes to that, but let me just fly it proud because I am a little bit of a nerd when it comes to the news. A little bit might be an understatement. I like to take these stories that seem really different and put them down on paper and think

about how do they connect. What is the collage that it can create that makes sense of what

sometimes doesn't make sense at all when you first look at it. And I was a little bit worried

about this. And then suddenly the theme surfaced and the theme that all these stories have in common is that the term political stunt has been used for each and every one of them. Now, political stunt is a little bit of a derogatory term. I was thinking about this. It's sort of like when my kids call each other dumb. You're dumb. It's like, you know what that means. It's not good.

But the context in which is being used really matters. It really gives you an idea of what,

well, it's kind of like a cheap term, right? Something can be a political stunt. You know,

that's not good, but in what way it's being used really matters. And in all of these stories,

the way that this term is being used really matters and gives us sort of these stories, the way that this term is being

used really matters and gives us sort of a deeper meaning or some more things to think about

related to these stories. So the first one we're going to talk about today is that in New York City,

it's a story I did not see coming, but it is a story so many reacted to online. So let me just

describe what happened to you. This could be described as a political

stunt. I say could. I like to hedge it because as a journalist, I don't think it's appropriate to call

things as a fact, a political stunt. But this was a media event that was put on by politicians.

And the press was invited and set up just in the right way to get the perfect shot of what seemed to be

sort of an unbelievable scene. So just imagine this. If you don't have a video in front of you,

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