This Week's Top Stories - Book Bans on the Rise, Tinder Blind Dates & Canada's Trucker Protest

a few hours, skating at the Olympic Games. I cannot believe I just said that sentence. IOC now saying that Valieva claims there was a mix up with her grandfather's heart medication. International Court deciding she can still compete while they investigate further. In response, the IOC saying if Valieva lands in the top three, there will be no medals handed out until the investigation is complete. I can't believe they caught someone cheating and they're still letting her compete

while they investigate. More like guys, it almost feels like the investigation is not about whether she cheatd or not. It's almost like the real investigation here is Okay, let's let's see what these drugs can do. Let it rip will come on, let's just see we just what we want to know, right, everybody wants to know. I also know that nobody believes her excuse right, that she accidentally took her grandfather's heart medication. But I do. I believe her because I know what it was like growing up.

Me and my family, we always had a big bowl of loose pills all mixed together. It's an easy mistake to make this when yours. I don't know. I know my estrogen has changed, Grandma, but I don't know. Meanwhile, everyone's obsessed with this girl and the pills. That's all everyone's talking about there, Like this fifteen year old took the pills and she did this. Yeah, everyone's focusing on No one is focusing on the fact that her grandpa took her medication. Now he's dominating Bingo at the old

Folks Home. I will say, you know, like, one of the things that shocked me about the story is that I've always pictured performance enhancing drugs and steroids for things that you need like powerful, do you know what I mean? Like like extreme power, sprinting, live. I never thought i'd see that day where a figure skater would be injecting themselves, just like, alright, let's go now. A lot of people

are scratching their heads. A lot of people have been asking this online, saying why why is it that this Russian skate zone is still being allowed to compete in the Olympics when she carry Richardson? Remember her she was

kicked out of the Olympics after she smoked wheat. Yeah, but apparently the reason for this, and I just found this out, is that one difference is that if you're a minor in sports and you get caught doping, they give you more leeway because you're young and you're impressionable and you may not be in control of what you're putting into your body. Yeah, I didn't know that. That's

a pretty big loophole in the anti doping rules. Like I'm not saying Russia had this minor takes steroids on purpose because they knew she wouldn't get in trouble, But if they did do it on purpose, I mean, you gotta admit that's a pretty slick move. You know. It's the same reason drug dealers put kids out on the corner like ship, which did you get as juvie? Come on, man. But again, I'm not saying that Russia did this on purpose.

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, don't be shocked when later this week they used fifteen year olds to invade Ukraine. The new culture war raging across America is over books a k a. Movies without the cool sound effects. Yeah, I always think the movies are better. I'm gonna read a book and then I gotta do it myself. Pew pew,

pew pew, said Harry Potter. Not even though most kids only read books in school to hide their erections, some parents and politicians have suddenly gotten very concerned about which books are available in schools, and they're dealing with this problem that they invented, by the way, in a time

honored way, with a good old fashioned book band. According to The New York Times, the pace at which groups of parents and officials and lawmakers are challenging books in school libraries has reached to speed that many haven't seen in decades. Just since the start of the school year, the American Library Association has tracked more than two hundred and thirty book challenges nationwide, parents in school officials banning

books at an unprecedented rate. Record requests nearly a hundred Texas districts found that during the first four months of this school year, parents made at least seventy five formal complaints, compared to only one file during the same period last year. Virginia School District is filling library books off of the shelves, and some board members say they want to burn them. I want to look at every book that you guys have a copy of, every book that is brought pull

out of circulation. I'm sure we've got hundreds of people out there that would like to see those books before we burn them. They want to burn books, burned books. We're not in the nineteen hundreds. We're living in two We shouldn't be burning books. We have fir friars and microwaves and all kind of cool ship. Now we could be like filling the books, you know, we could be lightly roasting the books. Put some butter and some salt. Oh you taste that book, nowtain that's food for thought.

See what I did there. But yeah, the situation right now, parents across the country are trying to get books banned from certain schools, right And I'll be honest, if I was a kid in school right now, I would jump in and use this outrage to my advantage. Yeah. The parents would will be there, like, we have to get these books off the shelves. Yeah, and don't forget the trigonometry textbooks and the year book where I had that

weird rash on my face them all. Now, I'll be honest, people, I don't know if these culture warriors have thought this through, because making something forbidden just makes teenagers wanted more. Think about it any time. Any time parents would say something would make them mad, what would happen? The kids would want to do it even more. Yeah, now they're gonna be like, no books for these kids. You keep this up, and soon reading books is going to be the new

dating a black guy. And look, they have always been, don't get me wrong. They've always been some parents who've wanted books pulled from schools and libraries. That's always been a thing, you know, Like conservatives wanted to ban Harry Potter for promoting witchcraft, Liberals want to ban Huckleberry Finn for using the N word. Mockingbirds want to burn that

book about killing them. But recently. Recently, the number of books being targeted has gotten out of control, and the types of books that are being targeted now very revealing. Books on race, gender and sexuality are disappearing from school shelves, books about coming of age and reckoning with real world problems like depression, gender politics, and racial injustice, history like the Holocaust or slavery. One Tennessee district banning Mouse, a

Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the Holocaust. One tells the story of school segregation to the eyes of Mexican American students, one is about the March on Washington, and two are about civil rights icon Ruby Bridges. One parent even asked the district to remove a biography of Michelle Obama, arguing the book promotes reverse racism. The district denied the request. I can't believe these people want to ban a Michelle

Obama biography. It's a biography that totally gives away the game that this is more about ginning up a culture war than protecting kids. Because once you're banning a book about any first lady, that's political. I don't care what anybody says. There's no book about a first lady that's controversial, you know, and that's maybe it's like Martha Jefferson's book One Tips for Owning slave Children who kind of look like my husband. Yeah, that's a little edgy for the kids,

but otherwise pretty true. And you can see how crazy this book banning trend has gotten. Right, They're banning books about race, about gender, about sexuality, about emotions, about history. Guys, that's all books. Think about it. You take away all of those books, and what are you gonna be left with? Huh, how to book about making pottery wrong? That bars is too sexy? Also complieve that they're gonna ban Ready Bridges. You understand how crazy that is. You're gonna ban a

book about Ruby Bridges. So that poor girl needed the National Guard together into school. Now they're gonna have the National god Esses. Courts are out. And I'm not saying that schools shouldn't be allowed to curate what books they carry. I'm not saying that. I don't know. People gonna say you're saying that the schools shouldn't get to decide for them. No,

I'm not saying. I'm exactly not saying that, but you are saying I'm not saying that libraries have always decided which books are in and which books are not in, Like you can't have a Playboy in the school library. I mean I did it, but I brought it in myself. They didn't stock it for me. They just give me the space to read it. But I guarantee you the vast majority of schools don't even have the most outrageous

books that are on these lists. What's happening here. What's happening here is that people are finding the most scary parts of the most scary books, and then they're making a bad faith argument that kids are being bombarded with all of this stuff, so all the books have to go. And that happens even if you try and talk about books, like if I say books shouldn't be banned, I know someone's gonna pull out the most extreme example from some random library at of school and be like, oh, really, Trevor,

you're okay with kids reading this? And I don't know, maybe I'm not. But now we're arguing about one page in one book as if that's the story, when the actual story is people are using these books as an excuse to go after all the books that they don't like, because again, people This isn't about books, all right, This is about keeping the culture war going for political benefits.

You don't just have Republicans in dozens of states around the country suddenly realizing all at the same time that there are books that they want to ban in their libraries all at the same time. Come on, it's happening because they think it's a winning issue, or at least they think it's more of a winning issue than Trump is secretly still the president. But I am shut up.

You canna make us lose. And the problem with waging a culture war instead of debating a political issue is that when people are fighting a war, they don't want to just win an argument. No, they want to punish the enemy. In Wyoming, Accounty Prosecutor's office considered charges against library employees for stalking books like sex is a Funny word and this book is gay. In Oklahoma, a bill sais a ten thousand doll the bounty to be collected by parents for each day a challenged book remains on

library shells. Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for criminal charges against staff who provide kids with pornographic books. School librarians, fearing for their own safety now over books. Many of us have had to take measures in our personal lives that we never would have imagine we had to do because of our profession. Wow, people, are you are you

seeing this? You've seen this like this is the interview and inside it gives when they're ratting out El Chapel, not when they've exposed the magical friendship between a pig and a spider. We think. Just think about how insane things have gotten where school librarians feel scared for their safety. They've got these crazy parents coming off to them on top of all the other stuff that they have to

worry about on a daily basis. School shootings, COVID, their students finding out that they just made up the Dewey decimal system to sounds smarter than everyone else. This book is by Dr shoos Is that under ash No actually that books in seven nine one dot for five slash seven five, You idiot, And look man, it's one thing for parents to be upset about a book that their kid is reading at school. Once you offer a ten thousand dollar bounty, think about what you're doing there. Now

you're using money to just try and stop ships. I mean, of course people are gonna start combing the shelves for anything that might pay out. Ten grand is a lot of money. Ten grand for banning a book is more than most officers made for writing that book. So that's the latest culture world that's tearing America apart. It's happening in schools, and who knows if it'll even stop there, Because maybe it'll start in schools, but pretty soon any place the kids go to to find books could become

a target. Hey, y'all, of our Burton here, and I am so excited to read with you today. Our first selection is called Rosa and it's the story of Rosa Parks who. So, as it turns out, that book is banned because reading about segregation is divisive. But since almost any book with black people these days is considered divisive, here's one that doesn't have any people in it at all. It's about two penguins and their little baby. Both penguins

are boys. Well, I'm told that that book is also banned because of sexual perversion, which is weird because there's no sex in the book at all. Y'all, they adopted the baby. What do you guys want? Mommy and a daddy? Penguins of the kids can make sure that the penguins are knocking boots. All right, I've got one that they can't possibly how a problem with hop on pop? What

disrespectful to parents? You've gotta be kidding me. All right, there, there are plenty of books to choose from, but you know what, no read the books they don't want you to. That's where the good stuff is. Oh they're coming read banned books. Oh, stay safe, LaVar. The British Royal family the only people who think chess is a representative game. Look, there's me, and there's you, and there's the people who

pay us. Yesterday marked Queen Elizabeth's seventy year on the throne, making her the longest serving monarch in British history, which must be nice for all of those people who've been shouting long live the Queen. Yeah, because now they can be like, yeah, you see, we did that now. As part of the anniversary observance, the family has announced that if and when Queen Elizabeth dies and son Charles becomes king, his wife Camilla will be crowned alongside him as queen.

And I don't know if you remember, but when Camilla first started dating Charles, people said that she could never be queen because their relationship started as an affair. So this is huge. This is a huge, huge deal, And I also think it's the right move because can you imagine how awkward was going to be otherwise if every time Charles and Camilla walked in the room and the royal announcer would be like presenting the King of England

and presenting his side piece. But while I'm sure the Royals would love to be focusing on the future of the family, unfortunately they've been forced to deal with a scandal from their past. You see, for decades, Elizabeth's second son, Prince Andrew, he was rolling deep with Jeffrey Epstein, and after years of fighting allegations that he had done anything wrong,

it looks like he's finally throwing in the towel. Tonight's Prince Andrew dramatically averting a court battle, not admitting liability but not clearing his name. Virginia Duffrey claimed she was sexually assaulted by the Prince when she was seventeen years old, trafficked by Epstein. The sixty one your Prince will pay his accuser Virginia Duffrey are reported ten million dollars and make a substantial donation to her charity in support of

victims rights. Of course, questions saying, is it Prince Andrew's money. We know that he's sold his Swiss Sky chalet reputedly for about eighteen million, but many people saying the Queen is helping to foot the bell. Yeah, that's right. After years of fighting, Prince Andrew has finally settled with Virginia Duffrey. And although it's not perfect justice, I mean it is something, you know, to be honest, I almost feel like this guy got off easy because yeah, it is ten million dollars,

but you're from the royal family. Think about it. Ten million dollars is like one jewel from one of their crowns. And this has gonna suck for the queen. Like, imagine having to use the money that you earned to I guess you didn't like earn it, but I mean we imagine like working hard your whole life. I mean, she doesn't really work. You get what I'm saying. You get what I'm saying. The point is the Queen didn't get into the royal business to do stuff like this, right,

she got into it to steal spices from India. It's about that life. And I can tell you now this is probably where she misses the days when she could just chop off people's heads, you know, because back in the day, with this thing happening with Andrew, the Queen would have just been like, Andrew, I dropped to my contact lens, would you burn down and pick it up? Why?

Mommy ten millions saved. Oh and by the way, the next time your mom complains about you asking her for rent money, you just show the story and reminder it could be way worse. But let's move on. If you're tired of the same old, same old dating app scene where you swipe rights on the cute guy he swindles you out of thousands of dollars blah blah blah blah blah blah, then good news, Tinder is now offering a

blind date feature on the app. Yeah, because usually when you're scrolling through people, you first see their picture right and then you decide right away whether you're too good looking for them or they're too good looking for you.

But now Tender is just gonna ask you questions and then what they're gonna do is they're gonna match you with someone based on your responses and then you have a chat with them, and then if you both like each other, tender will show you their pictures, which is great because if they stopped talking to you at that point, then you know immediately that you ugly. And you know, it's so funny how tech companies came out like they're

the future. They're gonna show us new things, but then as time goes on, they seem to invent stuff that already exists, like blind dates. It's the future of dating. No. People in the Middle Ages were like, all our dates are blind and I'm sorry, but you can't really recreate blind dates unless you also recreate the part where your mutual friend try to talk the other person up whilst

also avoiding their faults. That's a key part of blind dates. Yeah, he's like super good at cooking and he loves to read interesting So does he have a job, As I said, he loves to read. Ah. I also have to mention that this blind dating scheme that tinders running this is discriminatory towards hot, dumb, boring people. You realize you're taking away their greatest assets. People with good personalities, they're gonna do fine in this situation. They can meet people in person,

they can charm them all. Some people have as a six pack. They don't even know that they have a six pack because they can't count that high rapper. Let's move on to a story coming from my home country, South Africa. Yeah, it's not the most creatively named country, but you always know where to find us. It's been almost ten years since the passing of South Africa's first

democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela. And for those of you who don't know, Nelson Mandela was basically the Martin Luther King of our Harriet Tubman's and everywhere you go in South Africa there are reminders of how great he is, like there are statues, there are bridges named after him, the whole neighborhoods that bear his name. But now there's a new fancier way for people who want to celebrate his legacy. The former home of Nelson Mandela is now

a luxury hotel. It's called Sanctuary Mandela and it was Mandela's first home in Johannesburg after being released from twenty seven years in prison. South Africa's first black president lived there for six years. It now can host eighteen guests and eighteen guests rather, and it's adorned with Mandela memorabilia. Even Madiba's former cook is on staff. They're helping to prepare meals. Rooms range from two hundred and fifty dollars

to as much as one thousand dollars a night. Yeah, that's right, Nelson, Mandela's old house has been turned into a luxury hotel. And I mean, I guess this is just the fate of every historic building now, right, because if you think about half of the old buildings around the world are now either a bank, an apple store, or a CVS. That's it. I wouldn't be shocked up. In like a hundred years, the White House is going

to be turned into Jeff bezos is Dog's weekend place. Now, some people think that it doesn't make sense for the home of the man who fought inequality to be turned into a luxury hotel, but it does. It actually does, and it really does. If you remember one of Mandela's most famous quotes when he said, or not judge me by cola off my skin, Parrada, judge me by the threat count of this Jumpian cotton ships falling out of control. It was a powerful speech. We cried that day we

cried that day. Also, you know, when you staying at the Nelson Mandela Hotel, good luck fighting the minibar charges that you think are unfair. He's gonna be at the front desk like, Hi, excuse me, I think I was unfairly charged for a bag of pistachios. Madam. Let me tell you about unfair charges. So, yeah, look, this is gonna come with this pros and its cons. People are gonna be for it's and against it, and I guess it will be good for the people who work there

and maybe some of the community. But you've gotta admit, man. At the same time, it does feel a little disrespectful for everything that Nelson Mandela went through. You know, he's gonna pay some money and you can sleep in his house. You know what he had to do to get to that house. You know what they should do. They should they should say for every night that you stay in the hotel, you should also have to spend the night in an apartheid prison. Yeah. Now you're getting the full experience.

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Ears edition. Subscribe to The Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount. Plus this has been a Comedy Central podcast.