Mosheh Oinounou

▶️Journalist ▶️ ▶️ Reporting news @mosheh @instagram + Mo News Podcast ▶️ ▶️Former @CBS @Bloomberg @FoxNews

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

President Trump said he received a warm reception from fans at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, despite audible boos from a number of people in the crowd during Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

“I thought it was very good. It was certainly amazing,” Trump told reporters afterward. “I think mostly cheers. It was loud. And it was very enthusiastic.”

Video from the arena captured a mixed reaction when Trump appeared on the jumbotron during the National Anthem, with both some cheers and very audible boos heard throughout the crowd at MSG. The Spurs defeated the Knicks 115-111 and NY now leads the series 2-1. Game 4 is back at MSG on Wednesday.

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

President Trump was booed at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Monday night before the start of game three of the NBA Finals between the home team Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs.

The boos drowned out some cheers in the Garden when Trump was shown on the Jumbotron with Knicks owner James Dolan in a suite during the playing of the National Anthem.

Trump’s attendance at the game caused waits of two hours or more for ticket-holding fans to enter the arena after security screening.

The president’s motorcade passed some critical signs that read “Nobody wants you here” and “Trump must go,” as it moved from lower Manhattan up the FDR Drive and over to the Garden.

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

Madison Square Garden is under heavy security on Monday as President Trump prepares to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs and become the first sitting US president to attend an NBA Finals game.

In coordination with the US Secret Service, the NYPD established a multiblock security perimeter around the arena in Midtown Manhattan. Madison Square Garden has put a no-bag policy into effect, and ticket-holders have been asked to arrive to the venue at least two hours before the 8:30 PM tip-off so they can go through TSA-style screening at one of the five entry points.

The outdoor watch party held outside of Madison Square Garden during Games 1 and 2, and planned for Game 3, was canceled. Officials say it was due to the security demands of a presidential visit and as a result of the rowdy Game 2 party that resulted in 17 arrests.

Instead, there will be three official watch parties, all free of charge, being held at Bryant Park, Wollman Rink in Central Park, and Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg — all of which filled up quickly. Tickets to the Bryant Park event were spotted for resale on Facebook Marketplace for upward of $150.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is also expected to attend Game 3 at MSG, having purchased a standing-room ticket directly from Madison Square Garden for about $1,000 — a fraction of the $6,000-plus tickets on the secondary market.

The Knicks have won 13 straight playoff games and enter Monday night two wins away from their first NBA championship since 1973. The San Antonio Spurs, meanwhile, face a series deficit or 0-2.

Monday's game is the first NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden in 27 years. The one took place in June 1999, when the Knicks lost to the San Antonio Spurs in five games.

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

A young bear got into a tricky situation in an Arizona neighborhood, and the rescue has gone viral. Video posted by the Sahuarita Police department shows the tranquilized female black bear falling from a tree as officers attempt to catch her with a tarp.

In the video, someone can be heard saying “I think she’s stuck on the tree,” before the bear slips through the branches and falls. As the 80 pound bear dropped to the ground, an officer fell on top of her.

Police officers and Game and Fish employees responded after neighbors reported seeing the bear in Rancho Sahuarita. After spotting her up in a tree, they shot her with a tranquilizer dart, then prepared to catch her.

Occasionally, black bears wander into urban areas looking for food and water. Authorities said the young bear was in good health and was safely returned to the wild after the rescue.

Video: Sahuarita Police Department
Source: @azcentral

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

One of the world's leading AI companies says artificial intelligence may soon require the same kind of cooperation that eventually governed nuclear weapons.

In a new blog post, the maker of Claude argued AI is approaching “recursive self-improvement,” a breakthrough that could allow systems to continuously make themselves more capable. Anthropic pointed to the nuclear era as a model, when rival nations ultimately agreed to limits on testing, production, and proliferation because the risks had become too great for any one country to manage alone.

The company says a similar challenge could emerge with AI, as any slowdown would require competing labs to agree on common rules and verification measures to ensure no company secretly continues advancing the technology. However, Anthropic will only pause its own development if competitors also agree.

The warning comes as AI companies race to build increasingly powerful systems. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has long argued that AI capabilities may advance faster than governments, regulators, and society can adapt.

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

One of the biggest concerns surrounding prediction markets: What's stopping someone with insider information from using it to make money?

In an interview with Mo News, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour argued that prediction markets face many of the same challenges as traditional financial markets — including insider trading and market manipulation — and his company relies on similar safeguards to combat them.

Mansour said insider trading is illegal on Kalshi and compared the platform's oversight to that of a brokerage account. Users must verify their identities through a "Know Your Customer" process, and the company monitors unusual trading activity for signs of manipulation or nonpublic information being used for profit.

He also drew a distinction between Kalshi and offshore prediction market platforms, including Polymarket, arguing that many of the recent headlines involving alleged insider trading and suspicious trading activity have occurred on platforms operating outside U.S. regulatory oversight. Kalshi is a US-based comapny.

According to Mansour, Kalshi investigates suspicious activity and can issue penalties or refer cases to regulators and law enforcement. He said no market is completely immune from bad actors, but maintaining trust is critical because users will not participate if they believe the system is unfair.

Note: Kalshi is a sponsor of Mo News, but this interview was conducted independent of the partnerships, with no advance review of questions and no topics off limits.

Want to hear the full conversation? Comment "MO NEWS POD" and we'll send you links to the full interview, where we also discuss gambling addiction, regulation, and the future of prediction markets.

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

Iranian and Israeli officials said Monday they would halt attacks on each other after the first direct missile exchange since a ceasefire went into effect in early April.

Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel late Sunday after Israel targeted the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon.

Israel's Iron Dome intercepted most of the Iranian missiles. Israel then retaliated, hitting several military targets in Iran, including a petrochemical factory in the city of Mahshahr that Israeli military said was producing materials used for ballistic missiles. Israel said it also targeted truck-based missile launchers.

Iran's military later announced a suspension of operations, warning that "if aggressions and hostile acts" continue, including in southern Lebanon, "much more severe and crushing measures than before" will follow. Iran blamed the United States for the escalation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the exchange had been "contained" but warned that if Iran “makes the mistake and returns to attacking us, we will respond with force.”

Meanwhile, President Trump urged both sides to "immediately stop shooting" and said peace negotiations were "proceeding."

Trump said publicly that he called Netanyahu and urged him not to retaliate against Iran, but Israel struck anyway. Trump said he "calls all the shots" on any deal with Iran, adding that Netanyahu would have "no choice" but to accept whatever agreement he negotiates. Officials have so far been unable to turn the April ceasefire into a deal to end the conflict.

Video: @reuters, @storyful
Source: @apnews, @nbcnews

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

Former @60minutes correspondent Scott Pelley is pushing back on new CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss and the notion that the network is politically biased, despite years of polling showing many Americans — particularly a majority of Republicans — see the network that way.

In an interview published this weekend with Lulu Garcia-Navarro in The New York Times, Pelley said colleagues were surprised when Weiss reportedly opened a meeting with senior “60 Minutes” staffers by asking why so many Americans view the program as biased. Pelley, who was fired last week after publicly confronting the new show executive and accusing the network of “murdering 60 Minutes” said staff questioned the basis for the claim and felt Weiss was arriving with preconceived notions about the newsroom. Notably, he was replaced as anchor of the CBS Evening News in 2017 partially due to concerns among network executives that the show under his management had become too liberal and anti-Trump.

At the same time, numerous recent polls have documented a deep partisan divide in trust of mainstream media. A recent Pew Research Center survey found 56% of Democrats trust CBS News, compared to just 23% of Republicans, while 40% of Republicans say they actively distrust the network. Gallup has also found trust in the media near historic lows, with only 8% of Republicans saying they trust the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly.

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

President Trump abruptly ended a contentious interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” after moderator Kristen Welker repeatedly pressed him for evidence supporting his claims that California’s recent primary elections were “rigged.”

The exchange came about 50 minutes into the interview in Wisconsin. As the two discussed California’s slow vote-counting process — among the slowest in the country — and several races where Republican candidates, including Spencer Pratt, have seen their early leads shrink as additional ballots are counted, Trump alleged Democrats were “cheating on the election.” Welker repeatedly asked for evidence. Trump responded that he only needed to “look” and “listen to people” before accusing Welker and the media of being “crooked.”

As the back-and-forth escalated, Trump called Welker “either stupid or crooked” before ending the interview.

“Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough,” Trump said as he removed his microphone. “I sat in the rain with you for an hour.”

Despite the tense ending, Welker later revealed that she and Trump spoke again the following day and that the president agreed to sit down for another interview in the future.

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

FBI Director Kash Patel announced Thursday the launch of a new "Most Wanted Fraudsters" list, targeting people accused of stealing billions of dollars from American taxpayers.

The list is intended to help law enforcement locate and apprehend large-scale fraud fugitives who have evaded capture thus far. Among those named is Georgia financial advisor Christopher W. Burns, who is wanted for an alleged mail fraud scheme that defrauded dozens of victims out of at least $10 million. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $150,000 for information leading to his arrest.

Patel said that the FBI has also led overseas efforts against scam center compounds in Southeast Asia and the Middle East — namely in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and other countries — freeing thousands of trafficked workers and recovering $8 billion in fraud tied to those centers. He noted that the centers were backed by the Chinese Communist Party and other adversaries in the region.

The announcement comes alongside a broader DOJ fraud crackdown in Ohio where four defendants were charged in connection with a $30 million Medicaid scheme that targeted the state's behavioral health department.

Two of the defendants owned businesses which claimed to provide behavioral health services for young adults that attend summer camps, church groups and recreational programs, according to the Justice Department. After one company lost its state credentialing, prosecutors say the defendants continued submitting claims through a separate entity. The money was used to fund a lavish lifestyle, according to DOJ, including purchasing 14 since-seized vehicles worth $800,000.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that Ohio's effort could serve as a model for future state-federal partnerships.

Source: @abcnews, @cbsnews, @cleveland19news

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

Videos that appeared to show President Trump dozing off during official events took center stage at a contentious House hearing Wednesday, prompting a sharp clash between Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Lieu played multiple clips of Trump at Cabinet meetings and a Memorial Day ceremony, arguing they raised questions about the president’s health and alertness.

Rubio repeatedly rejected that characterization, insisting he had never seen Trump fall asleep, that the president works around the clock and defending the president’s work ethic.

The exchange quickly escalated, with Lieu accusing Rubio of denying what was visible on screen and Rubio countering that Trump routinely works late into the night and is not “cognitively impaired in any way, shape, or form.”

The tense confrontation highlighted the political debate president’s fitness for office as he is set to turn 80 later this month.

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner is facing fresh scrutiny after a New York Times investigation featuring interviews with former girlfriends and romantic partners.

The Times reported that several women described Platner as volatile, emotionally damaging, and at times physically intimidating. One former girlfriend alleged he grabbed her hard enough to leave marks, pulled her from a cab during an argument, and once locked her in a bedroom. She also said Platner frequently discussed violence and made comments about raping a home intruder to demonstrate dominance. The report further revives questions about Platner’s controversial Totenkopf tattoo he had for 18 years, a symbol associated with Nazi SS units.

Platner acknowledged being “far from a perfect boyfriend” during a period marked by alcohol abuse and mental health struggles, but said broader allegations about anything physical or the tattoo (he claims he didn’t know it was a Nazi symbol) are false and politically motivated.

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

Veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley has been fired by newly installed executive producer Nick Bilton following a tense confrontation at Bilton’s first staff meeting on Monday.

Bilton said Pelley was dismissed “for cause” after publicly criticizing his qualifications and accusing CBS News chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the iconic news program. In his termination letter, Bilton wrote that Pelley “hijacked” the staff meeting and chose a public confrontation rather than a private discussion, despite being invited to dinner beforehand. Bilton said he tried again to engage with Pelley on Tuesday but said he clearly didn’t want to work together.

The firing marks the latest upheaval at “60 Minutes” amid sweeping leadership changes at CBS News. In recent weeks, executive producer Tanya Simon and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega also were fired from the program.

The growing exodus underscores deep internal tensions as new leadership, led by Bari Weiss, attempts to reshape one of television’s most influential news programs.

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

Protesters gathered Monday in Kenya to oppose plans for a U.S.-backed Ebola quarantine facility after a Kenyan court temporarily halted the project pending a legal challenge.

The Trump administration announced last week that Americans exposed to Ebola abroad could be quarantined at a planned 50-bed facility in Kenya rather than being transported to the United States. The U.S. also pledged $13.5 million to support Kenya’s Ebola preparedness efforts.

Kenya’s High Court suspended the plan due to concerns it could pose risks to the country’s healthcare system.

Demonstrators, local officials, and regional leaders voiced opposition to the proposal. “Why are they not doing it in the DRC? Why must they bring it here?” one protester asked.

Kenya has not reported any Ebola cases during the current outbreak, though neighboring Uganda has recorded nine cases and temporarily closed parts of its border with Congo.

The outbreak in Congo is being driven by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or treatment. Health officials have reported at least 282 confirmed cases and more than 1,000 suspected infections.

@Reuters

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner pushed back Sunday against multiple reports detailing sexually explicit messages he exchanged with multiple women, dismissing the story as “gossip” and “journalistic malpractice” during a campaign stop.

Standing alongside his wife, Amy Gertner, Platner accused the media of trying to distract voters from issues. While he disputed some claims made by a former campaign official, his campaign has acknowledged that the messages sent on the KIK hookup app are authentic. His profile on the app featured a shirtless photo of himself.

The controversy erupted after reports by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times revealed that Gertner had previously raised concerns about the messages with senior campaign staff, viewing them as a potential political liability. The details leaked out in the stories. Over the weekend, Gertner publicly defended her husband in a five-minute video, describing the revelations as a painful chapter in their marriage but saying she remains committed to the relationship.

The sexting controversy is the latest in a string of headlines that have challenged Platner's candidacy. Earlier in the campaign, he faced backlash over a tattoo resembling a Nazi SS symbol, which he later apologized for and covered up. He has also been criticized for resurfaced social media posts that included attacks on veterans and comments suggesting women bear responsibility for some sexual assaults.

Despite the controversies, Platner remains the leading Democratic candidate in Maine's Senate race against incumbent GOP Senator Susan Collins. Democrats view the seat as one of their best pickup opportunities this fall and a key part of their effort to win back control of the U.S. Senate.

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

@SpaceflightNow Can Mo News make use of this video on our social media channels?

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

Had a fascinating conversation with @GadSaad for the Mo News Podcast about his new book, "Suicidal Empathy"

[Gad Saad @GadSaad]

Another one of my recent chats discussing Suicidal Empathy: https://t.co/zHKyNtjam9

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

New dashcam video released this week captures tense and bizarre moments before Britney Spears was arrested for driving under the influence earlier this year.

During the traffic stop in March, officers told the pop star, “I do smell alcohol coming from your car.” After arguing for 10 minutes, Spears invited the officers over. She said, “if you come to my house I’ll make you lasagna or whatever you want. I have a pool. My babies are coming tonight.”

California Highway Patrol officers pulled the pop star over after she was spotted swerving through lanes on Highway 101 near Los Angeles. The Grammy Winner had alcohol and drugs in her system, and according to police reports, she had "dramatic mood swings" and occasionally spoke with a British accent. Police found adderall in her car along with a wine glass.

The 44 year old was sentenced to 12 months of probation and voluntarily checked herself into rehab following the arrest.

Spears made headlines five years ago after being released from a decade-long conservatorship in which her father maintained control over her career and her finances.

Sources: @nbcla @cbsnews

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

A far-right Israeli government minister drew backlash at home and abroad Wednesday after posting videos taunting detained flotilla activists who were arrested trying to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

Far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir shared videos Wednesday showing about 430 flotilla activists kneeling on the ground with their hands tied behind their back in an apparent makeshift detention center.

Ben-Gvir taunted the group, saying, “Welcome to Israel, we are the landlords,” and waving a large Israeli flag.

Within hours of Ben-Gvir’s releasing the videos, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands had summoned Israel’s ambassadors to seek an explanation for the treatment of their citizens

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Ben-Gvir, saying that while Israel has every right to stop “provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters,” Ben-Gvir’s conduct after they were detained was “not in line with Israel’s values and norms.” Netanyahu has had many issues with Ben-Gvir in the past, but partly depends on his support to maintain his majority coalition in parliament.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also shared images on X showing detained activists being given water. The post was captioned "These are our values."

Earlier this week, the Israeli Navy detained dozens of boats with hundreds of flotilla activists who aim aim to sail to Gaza to highlight living conditions for Palestinians in Gaza and bring them small amounts of aid. Previous flotilla activists, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, were also arrested en route to Gaza, processed in Israel and deported to their home countries.

Israel has had a blockade over Gaza, which restricts the movement of goods and people, since 2007, when the Hamas terror group took control of the territory.

Sources: @apnews, @nbcnews

[Mosheh Oinounou @Mosheh]

A vehicle belonging to New York City’s public transit agency exploded into a massive fireball Tuesday evening near the famous Charging Bull statue in Lower Manhattan, sending pedestrians running as thick black smoke filled one of the city’s busiest tourist and financial districts.

The fire broke out outside the agency’s headquarters at 2 Broadway, just steps from Wall Street and the popular landmark visited by millions of tourists each year.

The vehicle belonged to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the agency that operates New York City’s subway, bus, and commuter rail network.

Video from the scene showed the vehicle already engulfed in flames before it suddenly exploded during the evening rush hour.
Firefighters responded around 5:42 p.m. and spent roughly 90 minutes bringing the blaze under control.

No injuries were reported. Officials say there are no signs the incident was a result of foul play, though the cause remains under investigation.