Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alabama's morning news job Mounts filling in for JT. And
the President did not take thanks. I mean, he probably
took a few minutes to eat a turkey. But President
has been very busy. We're joined by Rory O'Neill, and
the President is trying to work on a couple different deals. Rory,
let's start with what he's trying to do in Venezuela, right.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Apparently there was pressure on Nicholas Maduro to step down immediately,
and while Maduro countered with things like you know, guaranteed
immunity around the world and things like that, didn't really
make too much progress in getting him out of power.
But there is obviously more pressure for regime change there
with the largest build up of the US military in
(00:38):
the Caribbean since the Cuban missile crisis, and you know,
some speculation that maybe Venezuela is just part of a
one to two punch because Venezuela is such a big
supporter financially of Cuba. Does change in Venezuela then lead
to change in Cuba as well? So it's a lot
in flux right now.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
If we see that kind of change going on in
q Uba, could we actually see it would be interesting
to see a return to normalization of relations with Cube.
I mean that we've been kind of working towards that
for a while, but we're still very far off.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well right. We made a lot of progress toward that
under President Obama, and then when Donald Trump's first term
in office, they sort of backed off a lot of that.
Secretary Rubio, now, of course of Cuban descent, himself obviously
well versed on the situation there. So we'll see if
something moved, if that needle move somehow, But I suspect
(01:30):
something's going to have to happen in Venezuela first and Rory.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
As we look to the other side of the world,
the President is also working on the situation between Ukraine
and Russia, and the last I heard, the Ukrainians are
not real pleased with the deal was being offered.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well right, I mean that initial plan, a twenty nine
point plan, was essentially a wish list for Russia that
didn't really take too many considerations in for Ukraine. This
past weekend, over the holiday weekend, Secretary Rubio was meeting
with some Ukrainian negotiators in South Florida to again try
to get to some sort of a piece deal here.
(02:05):
I think President Trump sounded a bit more optimistic about
the talks and Secretary of Rubio who said there's still
a long way to go, but acknowledge progress has been
made in these past two weeks of talks with Ukraine.
This week, we believe tomorrow Steve Witkoff, the President's Special envoy,
will be at the Kremlin meeting with Vladimir Putin again
trying to get their input. You know, in the past,
(02:27):
Ukraine has come to the table saying they're willing to
take part in a ceasefire, but so far Russia has
been dragging its feet.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
And Rory, how sure are we that if we achieve
a deal that Putin will actually stick to it, because
Putin seems like he'll he'll say one thing and then
he'll just go right on and lobs more missiles over.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, right, and he's done that before you know it
was you know, CRIMEA wasn't supposed to happen, and here
we are. So you know, there was the deal to say,
since Ukraine gave up all those nuclear weapons. You know,
the deal was that Russia wouldn't invade because they had
surrendered the weapons. But that's from thirty years ago. So yeah,
this keeps happening over and over again, where Ukraine is
(03:06):
the victim of these deals that keep getting broken. And
that's why the security guarantees by the US and our
European allies are such a critical component of whatever deal
is hammered out.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Well, let's turn our attention to something a little bit
more pleasant. Right just before, I had you honest talking
with mac here about the Cyber Monday deals that are
going on. And you've got a list of some of
the best deals that are available for those who still
cyber on Monday. What are some of the deals out
there that we can expect to see.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, well, look, Cyber Monday is now bigger than Black Friday.
So we all apparently are still struggling to sort of
get back in the groove of being at work. So
we're dawdling online with at least one window open to
one of our favorite stores. Obviously, everyone's paying attention to Amazon,
the king of online retail, as to looking for deals
there that could just be overwhelming. Right, they have everything,
(04:01):
so you never know, you know, if what you want
is ever going to be on sale. So yes, the
recommendation is go to targeted stores. Target head stores, not target,
but go to specific stores that you had the products
that you want, and also think outside the box. There
are big deals being offered, for instance on streaming services
like Paramount plaus and Hulu and Disney Pla or also
(04:23):
travel deals. You know a lot of airlines are offering
big Cyber Monday deals today as well, trip Dallas to
New Zealand and something like eight hundred bucks round trip
on American airlines today, you know, and Japan is another
one on sale for like six hundred bucks from from
San Francisco. So a lot of deals out there in
the travel world as well, not necessarily you know, socks
(04:45):
and a new phone charger.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Although everyone could probably use both of those things, not
to mention the core if you've got an iPhone, oh exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, and the phones are all on sale too, a
couple hundred bucks off here and there. But again, you know,
I have the fun Do you really need to upgrade?
Is the camera that much better than if you got
it last year? You know? What's that window? I think
that gets longer every year.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
I always feel worried, like there's a pressure that you
have to get the latest and greatest. Especially, everybody needs something,
so it's a matter of trying to figure out what
that person needs. But I feel like a phone is
such a personal thing, can't you know? I don't know
that I want somebody else picking out my phone for me.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, right, yeah, I think that mostly goes for kids, right,
the teenager that the mom and dad buys the new
phone for. Or typically I think the parents give their
old phones to the kids. Right.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
If you use this the hand me down, I'll get
a new phone. You got to have my old phone.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
But look, the shape of the phones hasn't changed. They
got like three, four or five lenses on the back.
They don't look too different. Apple only stands out because
of that new Orange phone. But what's the first thing
you do when you buy a phone? You put it
in a new case. So I don't know why these
colors are such a bit or it's so thin, you're like,
oh not anymore, it's not you know, I don't know
why the color or the thinness is such a big deal.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I want a phone with much better battery life because
it seems like no matter they keep giving you these
phones with supposedly longer battery life, But then they are
upgraded processors that burn through the battery more quickly, so
it doesn't seem to matter.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
And there's always some upgrade that I just got one
last night. There's always an upgrade that suddenly my phone's
a lot slower and the battery goes a lot faster.
You're like, oh, that just happened to coincide with an
upgrade I got on December first. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
know what you're.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Up to exactly. Well, Rory, thank you so much for
keeping an eye on both the world and the world
of shopping. Rory O'Neil joins us every morning at Alabama's
Morning News
Alabama's morning news job Mounts filling in for JT. And
the President did not take thanks. I mean, he probably
took a few minutes to eat a turkey. But President
has been very busy. We're joined by Rory O'Neill, and
the President is trying to work on a couple different deals. Rory,
let's start with what he's trying to do in Venezuela, right.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Apparently there was pressure on Nicholas Maduro to step down immediately,
and while Maduro countered with things like you know, guaranteed
immunity around the world and things like that, didn't really
make too much progress in getting him out of power.
But there is obviously more pressure for regime change there
with the largest build up of the US military in
(00:38):
the Caribbean since the Cuban missile crisis, and you know,
some speculation that maybe Venezuela is just part of a
one to two punch because Venezuela is such a big
supporter financially of Cuba. Does change in Venezuela then lead
to change in Cuba as well? So it's a lot
in flux right now.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
If we see that kind of change going on in
q Uba, could we actually see it would be interesting
to see a return to normalization of relations with Cube.
I mean that we've been kind of working towards that
for a while, but we're still very far off.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well right. We made a lot of progress toward that
under President Obama, and then when Donald Trump's first term
in office, they sort of backed off a lot of that.
Secretary Rubio, now, of course of Cuban descent, himself obviously
well versed on the situation there. So we'll see if
something moved, if that needle move somehow, But I suspect
(01:30):
something's going to have to happen in Venezuela first and Rory.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
As we look to the other side of the world,
the President is also working on the situation between Ukraine
and Russia, and the last I heard, the Ukrainians are
not real pleased with the deal was being offered.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well right, I mean that initial plan, a twenty nine
point plan, was essentially a wish list for Russia that
didn't really take too many considerations in for Ukraine. This
past weekend, over the holiday weekend, Secretary Rubio was meeting
with some Ukrainian negotiators in South Florida to again try
to get to some sort of a piece deal here.
(02:05):
I think President Trump sounded a bit more optimistic about
the talks and Secretary of Rubio who said there's still
a long way to go, but acknowledge progress has been
made in these past two weeks of talks with Ukraine.
This week, we believe tomorrow Steve Witkoff, the President's Special envoy,
will be at the Kremlin meeting with Vladimir Putin again
trying to get their input. You know, in the past,
(02:27):
Ukraine has come to the table saying they're willing to
take part in a ceasefire, but so far Russia has
been dragging its feet.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
And Rory, how sure are we that if we achieve
a deal that Putin will actually stick to it, because
Putin seems like he'll he'll say one thing and then
he'll just go right on and lobs more missiles over.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, right, and he's done that before you know it
was you know, CRIMEA wasn't supposed to happen, and here
we are. So you know, there was the deal to say,
since Ukraine gave up all those nuclear weapons. You know,
the deal was that Russia wouldn't invade because they had
surrendered the weapons. But that's from thirty years ago. So yeah,
this keeps happening over and over again, where Ukraine is
(03:06):
the victim of these deals that keep getting broken. And
that's why the security guarantees by the US and our
European allies are such a critical component of whatever deal
is hammered out.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Well, let's turn our attention to something a little bit
more pleasant. Right just before, I had you honest talking
with mac here about the Cyber Monday deals that are
going on. And you've got a list of some of
the best deals that are available for those who still
cyber on Monday. What are some of the deals out
there that we can expect to see.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, well, look, Cyber Monday is now bigger than Black Friday.
So we all apparently are still struggling to sort of
get back in the groove of being at work. So
we're dawdling online with at least one window open to
one of our favorite stores. Obviously, everyone's paying attention to Amazon,
the king of online retail, as to looking for deals
there that could just be overwhelming. Right, they have everything,
(04:01):
so you never know, you know, if what you want
is ever going to be on sale. So yes, the
recommendation is go to targeted stores. Target head stores, not target,
but go to specific stores that you had the products
that you want, and also think outside the box. There
are big deals being offered, for instance on streaming services
like Paramount plaus and Hulu and Disney Pla or also
(04:23):
travel deals. You know a lot of airlines are offering
big Cyber Monday deals today as well, trip Dallas to
New Zealand and something like eight hundred bucks round trip
on American airlines today, you know, and Japan is another
one on sale for like six hundred bucks from from
San Francisco. So a lot of deals out there in
the travel world as well, not necessarily you know, socks
(04:45):
and a new phone charger.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Although everyone could probably use both of those things, not
to mention the core if you've got an iPhone, oh exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, and the phones are all on sale too, a
couple hundred bucks off here and there. But again, you know,
I have the fun Do you really need to upgrade?
Is the camera that much better than if you got
it last year? You know? What's that window? I think
that gets longer every year.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
I always feel worried, like there's a pressure that you
have to get the latest and greatest. Especially, everybody needs something,
so it's a matter of trying to figure out what
that person needs. But I feel like a phone is
such a personal thing, can't you know? I don't know
that I want somebody else picking out my phone for me.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, right, yeah, I think that mostly goes for kids, right,
the teenager that the mom and dad buys the new
phone for. Or typically I think the parents give their
old phones to the kids. Right.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
If you use this the hand me down, I'll get
a new phone. You got to have my old phone.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
But look, the shape of the phones hasn't changed. They
got like three, four or five lenses on the back.
They don't look too different. Apple only stands out because
of that new Orange phone. But what's the first thing
you do when you buy a phone? You put it
in a new case. So I don't know why these
colors are such a bit or it's so thin, you're like,
oh not anymore, it's not you know, I don't know
why the color or the thinness is such a big deal.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I want a phone with much better battery life because
it seems like no matter they keep giving you these
phones with supposedly longer battery life, But then they are
upgraded processors that burn through the battery more quickly, so
it doesn't seem to matter.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
And there's always some upgrade that I just got one
last night. There's always an upgrade that suddenly my phone's
a lot slower and the battery goes a lot faster.
You're like, oh, that just happened to coincide with an
upgrade I got on December first. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
know what you're.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Up to exactly. Well, Rory, thank you so much for
keeping an eye on both the world and the world
of shopping. Rory O'Neil joins us every morning at Alabama's
Morning News
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