You're listening to wake Up Call on demand from KFI AM six forty KFI and KOST HD two, Los Angeles, Orange County. It's time for your morning wake up call and good morning.
It is five o'clock on the dot, and that means it is time we get up. It's your wake up call for Friday, December twenty seven, twenty twenty four. We won't be saying twenty twenty four much longer. I'm Michael Monks in for Amy King one last time this week. I hope you're doing well out there. I hope you're not too lost. I know these days get a little hairy, especially when Christmas falls on a Wednesday, so inconsiderately, so it messes up an entire week, and then we have
a midweek holiday next week. Maybe you're lucky and you're off the entire time. Maybe you're not, and you've been joining us every day, wish we are grateful for. But just again, as a reminder, it is Friday, December twenty seven, twenty twenty four. It will be all day. Hang in there. We're going to talk a bit about the brain fog that happens in these weird couple of weeks every year around the holidays. We've also got news and interviews all
hour long. Here's what's ahead on wake Up Call and his historic hotel in downtown LA has been destroyed by fire. This is the Morrison Hotel. It was made famous in a nineteen seventy album by The Doors. It was fully engulfed in flames and what the LAFD classified as a major emergency yesterday and this story. Investigators are still working to determine if there is any connection to two severed
human legs and two missing fishermen. The legs have washed ashore in Palos Verday's estates, near where the men disappeared this week in strong surf. We've been talking about those missing fishermen all week. The US Coast Guard had called off the search, and then this first leg washed up, and now a second limb has washed up. So investigators are looking into that and we're going to be monitoring.
And there have been thirty consecutive Mega Million's drawings without a winner, and that means tonight's jackpot is north of a billion dollars. The one point one to five billion dollar prize is the ninth largest lottery jackpot in US history, so As I said yesterday, if your goal was to become a millionaire or even a billionaire, this year got another shot, so good luck. Tickets are two bucks not
a bad investment. We'll also talk today about President Trump's Christmas wish list and how serious he might be about filling it. It's not full of things he can get at the mall. We're talking big gifts like Canada, the Panama Canal, Greenland. ABC News National correspondent Steven Portnoy will be with us to talk about that and how important are online reviews to you when you're making a decision to buy something. Probably did a lot of shopping here
in the Christmas holiday season. Did you check out reviews before you pulled the trigger on a product, on a gift? I know, I rely on them heavily. I even try to return the favor by writing honest and thoughtful reviews because I'm so grateful for the reviews I see before I buy something. But there's a rise in fake reviews and advertisers may be using them to their advantage. ABC News correspondent Jim Ryan has some signs you can see to figure out what's real and what isn't and then
We've got the house whisperer here. It is Friday. Dean Sharp is back, and this time he has equipped with all the tips you need as you think about your space in the new year. What's hot, what's not? We'll talk about it. I'm curious about whether Millennial Gray is going to last another year? How about you? And then coming up at six oh five, it is Handle on the New News again without Bill Handle. We're grateful to have Wayne Resnick with us at the top of the hour.
I'll be there and I sure hope that you will be as well. When word first started to spread of that plane crash this week in Kazakhstan, it seemed like a tragic accident. The plane hit some birds and had to make an emergency landing. It went down. Thirty eight people died, twenty nine lived, But the story has shifted since ABC News has reported there are early indications that the plane may have been shot down by our Russian
anti aircraft system. Joining us now from the ABC News Foreign Desk is correspondent in nez De la Katera and as thank you so much for being with us this morning.
Hey, thanks for having me.
What are US officials citing as any early evidence or indicators that this plane may have been shot down.
Yes, we have one US official telling ABC News that the plane was likely shot down by a Russian anti aircraft system. We also have a high level a Zeri government source telling us the same thing that there's the new evidence emerging that would point to that hypothesies. We just don't know at this point though. So the plane black boxes have been recovered. A commission has been created
to investigate the crash. We know that representatives from Russia, azer by John Konzakstan are all participating in that investigation, but we likely won't know for several days just what happened. We're hearing different things from different countries. So initially there was a preliminary report from a Kanzakstan that said that it was a bird strike that would have led to engine failure. I spoke to an aviation expert yesterday who runs a company that still advises planes flying into Russia.
He says, there's no way that it would have been a bird strike that caused this crash. That the damage that is visible on the fuselage, you know the pictures we've seen that they just don't line up with a bird strike. So his theory is also that it would have been hit by a Russian anti aircraft system, Russian air defenses. But again we just don't know at this point.
I mean, there must have been in some unimaginable terror aboard that airplane. But we also have the rare occasion where a large plane has gone down and there are survivors. Have we heard anything from the folks who lived.
Yeah, it's really remarkable. So you know, it's and I think that's also what makes this plane crash so unique. We so rarely see survivors. But yeah, the plane was able to land or crashed in Kazakhstan. It split apart in two Dozens of people were killed, but there were also dozens of survivors. Some were pulled from the wreckage, but you could see in the video that some are just able to walk away from the wreckage. They appear to be unharmed, we know in terms of their conditions.
So there were Russian citizens, There were various citizens. They have now been for the most part flown of the Russians taken back to Russia, of the Azeri staking back to Azerbaijan. There are still six patients at the regional hospital. So those are people who are in critical condition, who probably aren't doing well enough to be taken home, But the rest of them have been flown home.
Do we have any understanding about why this plane might have been shot down? I mean, what type of airspace was it in? What type of geopolitical conflict may have wandered into.
Yeah, So the theory that some of these experts have is that we know the plane took off from bach Whu and ouser by John. It was heading to Grosney and Shechenya, but it was then diverted, flew over the cast and sea and crashed in Kazakhstann. So that in and of itself is bizarre, the fact that it deviated so far from its original route. The working theory is that there was a drone attack, a Ukrainian drone attack on Grosney at the same time as the plane was
in the air. So this aviation expert, I suppose to, says that that's the case. We don't have that confirmed. The Ukrainians are not confirming that, but we do. You know that there had been Ukrainian drone attacks uh in that area in recent days. I don't know if it was you know, specifically at that same time, on the same day. But we know that in recent days Russian air defenses had been activated to shoot down those those
Ukrainian drones. So the theory is that potentially the plane was you know, mistaken for a for a for a Ukrainian drone, the Russians accidentally, uh, you know, fired off their their air defenses. And the question I had was, well, you know, you think the aviation expert I was speaking with was talking about a surface to air missile being to blame here, and so you think missile plane there
would just have been an explosion in the sky. But the way those those missiles often work is that they detonate close to the target, not necessarily making impact with the target, so that you know, it would have affected the plane, damage to the plane, but not necessarily caused it to blow up in the air. And that's why it was able to still head over the cast and seed and over into Kazakstan.
I mean, we know there's a conflict between Russia and Ukraine going on, but there's a couple of other countries involved here. I mean, the plane comes from Azerbaijan, it goes down in Kazakhstan. What do we know about what an incident like this might do to any geopolitical landscapes in that part of the world.
Yes, I mean, I think Russia is going to have a lot of questions to answer. You know, we start, we're seeing reports that the Russians are not going to be able to kind of touch the black boxes. But we also know that Russia has a lot of influence in Kazakhstan, and you know, it'll be interesting to see how all of this kind of impacts Russia's relationship with Kazakhstan, with Azerbaijan. I think the other big question is whether
airlines continue to fly to these parts. You know, there are very few airlines that still international airlines that still fly to Russia. Yesterday we were getting worried that the Israelis so Elao has still been flying to Moscow throughout the Russia Ukraine War, and they have now suspended their flights to Russia. They cite developments in rushing the airspace. So we could be seeing more of that. We could be seeing more companies deciding it's just not safe to travel to Russia anymore.
And as de La Kata is ABC News Foreign Desk correspondent and as thank you so much for being with us this morning. Thank you, and it is now five twelve in the morning here on your wake up call. I'm Michael Monks filling in for Amy King, so glad that you are with us today. Want to let you know larger than usual waves expected to slam the La County beaches again today and through the weekend. This was prompted warnings for people to use caution when wading into
ocean waters do heed those warnings. The National Weather Service has issued a beach hazard statement warning of potentially treacherous conditions through Sunday afternoon all along the coast. They say a surf of four to six feet is expected, mostly on west facing beaches, and this could lead to what they call dangerous rip currents and breaking waves. There is
an increased risk of ocean drowning. Rip currents can pull swimmers and surfers out to sea, and waves can wash people off beaches and rocks and capsize small boats near the shore. So forecasters have urged people to just stay out of the water or stay near the staffed lifeguard towers. They also urge people to stay away from rock jetties. We've also got another ban on indoor and outdoor wood
burning common themes all week long. This is in place today and much of the Southland because of a forecast of high air pollution in the area. The residential woodburning ban will be in effect until at least eleven fifty nine tonight. We all know the drill by now, and that's for just about everyone in the South coast air basin, including the non desert portions of La Riverside and San Bernito Counties, San Bernardino Counties, and all of Orange County.
Authorities are working to determine any potential connection to two men who went missing while fishing in rough surf off the shoreline, and the discovery of a limb and a severed leg that walks to shore on the Palace vera day's Estates coast. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner will investigate the remains to assess their possible connection to the missing voters. A new poll shows most Americans believe health insurance profits and coverage denials share responsibility for the killing
of United Healthcare CEO. The new poll from NRC at the University of Chicago finds that about eight in ten Americans say that the person who committed the killing has a great deal or a moderate amount of responsibility for the December fourth shooting of Brian Thompson, but others see differently. It looks like seven to ten, say, coverage denials or health insurance profits also bear at least a moderate amount
of responsibility for Thompson's death. Luigi Mangoni is the suspect in that shooting, and he is seen as a heroic figure by some people who responded to that poll. Now, some people often mistake Tahoe as the snowiest place in California. However, according to a report I've read this morning, the Golden State's snowiest spot is just south of Lassen Peak in Shasta County, specifically around Bumpus Mountain. It averages about forty
five feet of snow each year. The only other nearby places that get close to that are also around last And Peak, with about forty feet or more. That's according to an analysis of snowfall data from the National Weather Service. Here in southern California, you know, we don't get a whole lot of snow. We do in some places. So
what do you think is the snowiest spot in southern California? Well, according to this report, it's in the San Bernardino National Forest around poop Out Hill with just under nine feet of snow coming up at the top of the hour around six oh five. We've got Handle on the news. Bill Handle and Company still off this week, but we've got your friend Wayne Resnick filling in. I'll be there with them and hope you will join us as well. Are you someone who relies on reviews when you're thinking
about buying something online? Five stars can have a lot of pull, But how much do we know about these online strangers sharing their feelings about that washing machine or treadmill or three quarter zip. There are fake reviews all over and advertisers hype them anyway, So how are we supposed to know what is real and what isn't? There are reportedly ways. ABC News correspondent Jim Ryan joins US Live Now from Dallas. Good morning to you, Jim.
First of miny, let's look at the problem. How pervasive is it these fake reviews? It's pretty pervasive. There's a company called the Transparency Company which looks over reviews to see which ones might be legitimate, which ones might not be. That analyze seventy three million reviews across three different sectors legal services, medical services, home services, and found that fourteen
percent of the reviews were probably fake. That is, somebody sat down and for a profit, wrote a review for something and then tossed it out there, it goes into a clearinghouse. Then retailers can purchase that and put it up with their product. And the company found also found that of those seventy three million reviews, two point three million were probably written partly or entirely by AI. So you know, you've got these two different things competing out here.
And by the way, the Federal Trade Commission issued a rule in August banning the sale or purchase of online reviews and requiring that the reviews be honest and about the particular product that they're supposed to be about.
So we've got the possibility of fake reviews written by fake people.
And sometimes no people. Wow, they're written by technology.
Now what do we know about the advertisers and their knowledge about when they're hyping themselves by using this bed of lies.
Well, they know they're doing it, you know, and that's and they're sort of hoping that they don't get caught because again, the FTC says you're not supposed to be doing this, and there are fines, there are sanctions for violations like this, and consumers can report suspected fake reviews to the FCC through their website. So you know, it's
primarily smaller companies. Larger companies. Amazon doesn't want to get caught doing this, and so I think it has a room full of people making sure that the reviews for the products from the third party vendors are accurate. But a small company, one with just a few employees, is probably going to rely more heavily on reviews that it purchases to kind of beef up its website, its purchases, or its online presence.
With regulators getting involved like this, that seems to suggest that reviews are important. I mean, what do we know about consumer reliance on reviews and influencing a purchase.
Well, you know, personally, I know people who won't buy a product if it has bad reviews online or no reviews, and so whatever it is they're looking at buying, they're going to dive into those reviews. The smart consumer is going to dig down though, if the product you're looking at has six hundred reviews and the first few are just glowing reviews five stars, five stars, and talking about
how great this thing is. Dig down a bit see about the not so positive reviews, and then dig deeper to see if down at number three hundred, four hundred, are those reviews actually about the product that's pictured at the top of that listing. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's completely random and has nothing at all to do with that particular product, but it's boosted the number of reviews.
So are there any like strange language uses that you might be able to pick up on?
Absolutely, And in the same way that some product descriptions are sort of strangely worded and really not very you know, they don't seem to be written by an English speaker at all. But at the same time, so let's say you go online and you want to buy a vacuum cleaner. Okay, so you look at reviews for that particular vacuum and the review says, I love this product, this product is the best product I've ever purchased, and I'd buy this product again. I recommend this product. You know, it has
nothing at all to do with vacuum cleaners. That was probably written by a person who's writing reviews randomly and getting paid for that. On the other hand, if the review says this hoover upright vacuum cleaner with the attachments that you know, allow it to get into the corners, and it's serial number fourteen three three one, model number six LG.
I love this.
You know that was probably written by Ai right, so somewhere in the middle, and those two extremes either very very vague or extremely painfully specific, it's probably not a real review that some consumer out there having tried the product posted.
ABC News correspondent Jim Ryan, joining us live from Dallas, five star report. Jim would recommend thank you very much, talk to you again soon see you. I'm wondering how foggy your brain is right now the colder months of December. You know how it brings darkness more quickly, nights feel longer, and then we've got all these obligations around family stuff and shopping and parties, and maybe we're traveling, maybe we're
eating too much junk. All of that adds up to a little bit of weirdness in your head, especially when your schedule has disrupted the way that it is. So some tips that I found online as you cope during this ongoing two week period where Christmas is landed midweek, New Year will land midweek. One of the recommition recommendations
is to exercise every day. You know that's a regular recommendation for life in general, but exercising thirty to forty minutes even during these weird periods or when you know you're going to have some weird meals, it can boost your energy and your mental clarity. You should also eat wisely when you can choose protein. This this recommendation says, take some vitamins, cut back on the sugar, so maybe save room for just one crazy meal during the holidays. Also,
make sure you're drinking good stuff like water. Reduce the alcohol intake, caffeine consumption. I've already violated that this morning. It's five thirty in the morning, I'm three cups in. And there are some rehydrating alternatives that have been recommended, like coconut water, even soup. They want you to aim for one liter of water per twenty kilograms of body weight every day. And this is the most interesting part
that I see as a recommendation. Start your mornings with fifteen minutes of sunshine to rejuvenate your mind, mind and your body now. I don't know how we're supposed to do that when it's so dark as it is this time of year. So let me and the KFI team be your sun this morning, and thank you for starting your day with us. What does your house look like
right now? Do you want to change it? Maybe we all have those thoughts right do you scrow Zillow looking for a dream home or maybe picking up some ideas? Are there some trends that you like, some that you're tired of? With the new year on the horizon and getting closer every hour, I know those thoughts are probably intensifying. So what colors, what design elements, what pieces of furniture do we need to have? We've got to scoop on
what's hot and what's not. In twenty twenty five with our friend Dean Sharp, the House Whisper Dean, good morning to you.
Good morning Michael. How you doing, Budd.
I'm doing well. It's great to have you on as we end this week. And it's a great topic because I'm sure the only thing more polarizing than our politics is what we're supposed to use in our house for decor. What's the biggest thing we're gonna say goodbye it. Do you think in this upcoming year?
Uh?
Well, I hope. I hope the biggest thing. Okay, this is going to sound a little anti climactic, but I hope the biggest thing that we say goodbye to is trends. I am not a huge you know, here's the thing
in the design world. It's a big kind of feather your own nest thing that happens at the end of every year in which a lot of influencers and home designers and so called decore experts, you know, they get on the can and they tell everybody, Hey, this is what is you need to have in your home this year. I react against that quite a bit. And the reason is, you know, home design is nowhere close to kind of
fashion design. It's not like, you know, after you've spent fifty sixty seventy thousand dollars on a remodel for your home home that you want to hear somebody like me come along and say, oh, that was so twenty twenty four. It's time to change it all. You know, we're not throwing out an old blouse here. Okay, this is something that I hope that people have spent a lot of time, and I know they've spent a lot of money investing in their homes. So trends and things that are trending.
Of course, things are always trending, but the idea of following them around or being led around by the nose by trends when it comes to home decor, I'm not there. I'm really not there because I live in the real world. We've got real world clients, and our listeners want to have their money go as far as possible. So one thing I will tell you this year as an encouragement for everybody is just forget about the whole idea that, oh, is my white kitchen out this year or not?
Who cares.
It's a ninety thousand dollars kitchen. It's gorgeous. Let's hang on to it for as long as possible.
Absolutely, And when you talk about timeless design principle, so that we can't say, hey, that's so twenty twenty four, it's so any year, what does it mean? What are some key pieces of a timeless design?
A timeless design is a design that has been thought through well number one. Number two it is, you know, and I'm a custom home designer. So another facet of a timeless design is one that has considered every possibility of your own story as a homeowner, that this works with you, that it's not just a gimmick or a thing or a fad or whatever, but this is really an expression of who you are and how you live.
And then a timeless design is one that's executed with craftsmanship and with elegance, and it literally every design concept out there apart from ultra contemporary, meaning just like literally the thing that we're doing right now today, it's all out of date technically speaking, because everything is in the past. So whether it's Spanish revival that you want, whether it's you know, vintage farmhouse that you love, whether it's mid century Modern that you love, it's all past.
So is it in?
Is it hip right now? Well, technically know. But timeless means once it's done. And that's the cool thing about living in this age right now. I would say one of the things that's most unique about twenty first century design is that right now, if you do it well, it's in and it's cool.
Period.
Everything is just about have we pulled it off well? And that's true in the fashion world as well. If you want to you know, go retro with some bell bottom jeans from the seventies. Hey, if you pull it off, well, everybody's cool with it. Right. If you want to look mad Men nineteen early nineteen sixties, thin tie and sports, if you can pull that off, well, it's totally cool. Whatever we do, you pull it off well, and you know what, it is timeless, it's going to last.
And so I guess what.
I'm picking up from you today is when you're thinking about the way your space looks, you really should be playing to an audience of one, right, yourself.
Exactly, exactly, an audience of one. And as long as that audience is is is very critical of things. In other words, if you really really dig into your own head, your own heart, and your own life so that your story ends up playing on that screen as it were, then you know what, it's gonna be a great movie. It's gonna be a great movie.
We're talking with Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer right here on wake Up Call on AM six forty k f. I. I know that you are pointing towards bringing nature into the house, or maybe bringing the house out into nature this year. What does that mean?
Yeah, now here is something that you're gonna hear a lot of designers say is a trend. It's not, but I'm gonna name it for you. It's called biophilia. Biophilia is going to It's gonna be on the tips of a lot of tongues this year in the design world. Biophilia literally means the love of nature, and biophilic design is about bringing the power of nature inside, bringing outside inside as much as possible. That doesn't mean that we're
planting grass in the living room. What it means, though, is that we are opening up vistas of our inside spaces so that we can view and or connect with the landscape outside. It's not a repeat, it is not a trend. It's actually an evolution in architectural thinking that is here to stay because it is very, very powerful architectural therapy. We are learning more and more every year how much the human side, our emotional balance, all of these things are connected to the time that we spend
exposed to nature. Because you know what, after two million years of spending most of our time outside, we're realizing that the time we spend inside should be as connected to it as possible. It's what makes us stable calm and energized, and so architecture is moving in this direction of biophilia that is opening up that wall so that to all of that beautiful landscape just outside is a
part of the vista. And when we sit, for instance, in the family room, that's a great investment in remodeling money.
Dan, Before we let you get on with your mourning, I've just got a generic question about what may be a trend. I certainly see it in a lot of apartment listings. I see it in a lot of new homes that are hitting the market, and I'm wondering how much longer we can expect to see this dominant use of a color now known as lineal gray.
Don't expect to see it much longer.
Has it got a bad reputation? Now?
You know what, There's nothing wrong with gray, but the pendulum swings, especially in color trends and so forever. I mean, we're talking about a color palette that for decades was dominated with cream colors kind beige on beige on beige, and then come the early two thousand, We're like, can
we just do something other than beige? And so we swang to another neutral palette that was cooler away from the warm tones into the grays, and when they were first being used, you know, with a little bit of restraint, gray is a fantastic, fantastic tone to put into a room. But before you know it, everybody was going that way again. This is an issue I have with trends, and the next you know, everything is gray on gray on gray, and gray is just not that exciting and everybody has
now burnt out on it. It's not to say that gray can't and shouldn't be part of any good color palette for a design space, but yeah, the trend of everything based in gray, millennial gray, as it were, that's over. That's over.
I'm rooting for a return to the hunter green of my childhood. That would bring back some very nice memories.
And you know what, hunter green is a bold, moody, amazing color and I'd love to see more of it in spaces.
The Dean Sharp is the house whisperer. Dean remind our audience where they can hear you and where they can find you.
All right, we're going to be talking all this weekend about exactly this. It's my list of predictions and trends. Even though I use the word qualifiedly for twenty twenty five. We're going to be Tomorrow morning, Saturday mornings from six to eight for you early rise and Sunday morning nine to noon.
Beautiful. Thanks a lot, Dean, talk to you soon, Thanks Michael. Two human legs have now washed ashore in Pallas Fair Days, near the area where two fishermen have been missing since earlier this week. They had set out in the water during high surf warnings. The search for them has been called off by the US Coast Guard, and investigators are now looking into whether the missing fisherman case is connected
to the human legs. There's a new law going into effect in California next week enforcing a practice known as daylighting. It's supposed to boost visibility at intersections by prohibiting parking within twenty feet of any marked or unmarked crosswalk. The law applies to all intersections statewide, regardless of whether a red curb or no parking signs are present. So keep an eye out for that. That's a big change. And did you watch any sports on Wednesday? Which happened to
be Smith's day. Netflix. In spite of the technical challenges that they had throughout the broadcast, they set records as the most streamed NFL games in US history, but the NBA also held its own on regular old television. The Baltimore Ravens victory over the Houston Texans on Netflix averaged twenty four point three million viewers on Wednesday, and then Kansas City's twenty nine to ten win at Pittsburgh averaged about twenty four point one million. That's according to early
viewer figures released by Nielsen just yesterday. Now, the NBA's five games slate averaged about five and a quarter million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN, and all of those various platforms, according to the league and Nielsen. So, folks hanging out with family on Christmas and enjoying the old ballgame. And we are just minutes away from Handle on the news this morning. Bill Handle and company are are still on their little holiday break. So Wayne Resnick has end,
so we'll look forward to that. I'll be there, hope you will be there to join us as well. Now Christmas is past, and President elect Donald Trump did not find under his tree the nation of Canada, or the Panama Canal or Greenland, a territory of Denmark. But the President elect has four more Christmases ahead at the White House. So is he serious about his recent messages about the
US taking control of these three places. We're joined live now by ABC News National correspondent Steven Portnoy in Washington, d C. Stephen, thank you so much for being back with us.
Hey, you bet, what do.
We know about this? I mean, is the president serious about the state of Canada, the United States Canal and possibly turning Greenland into red, white and Blueland. Huh?
I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know.
But what we see is several are several posts by the President elect and public comments he's made that raised these issues, and it's now prompted the second rebuke this week from the Panamanian president, who describes the incoming American president's claims is nonsense. This idea that Chinese soldiers are operating the Panama Canal. Trump posted that on Christmas Day, and the Panamanian president insists there isn't a single Chinese soldier in the canal, So leave that on the table.
There's a generalized concern expressed by the Trump administration that the Chinese have asserted their influence all over the developing world, investing in physical infrastructure in other countries to curry favor with those countries and bolster their international power.
That's all true.
When it comes to Panama. There are a couple of ports that are apparently under the control or ownership of Hong Kong based companies or a company. And there's also the expressed concern by Donald Trump that American shippers are being ripped off at the Panama Canal. The Panamanians deny that. They say that the rates are posted and only variable based on demand, which, of course market forces the control.
That's the Panama issue. Trump has also been maligning the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, calling him a governor of what would be America's fifty first state. America is not about to annex or invade Canada. There's certainly no support for that in the Congress. Nevertheless, what is Trump getting at and what is his aim? Well, today we've reported that a couple of members of Justin Trudeau's government are down at mar A Lago, his Foreign and Public Safety ministers,
to talk about Trump's concerns about immigration and trade. So maybe there's some sort of agreement to be worked out. There's Trump's threatened to upend the US MCA agreement that he struck, and he's threatened to impose twenty five percent tarffs unless whatever he wants with respect to immigration and trade policy gets put into place. Then there's the idea of Greenland. Donald Trump would not be the first American president to indicate his desire to have the United States
take control of that massive land mass. The island is, of course controlled by Denmark, and it has about fifty thousand residents. There's no particular desire on their part as far as I know, to become Americans, and the Danes say it's not for sale. But Donald Trump is now pointing to the modern interest that the US has not in geography, but in geology. There are rare earth minerals under the tetra. Who controls them and who profits from them will be of interest in the global struggles to come.
You mentioned that there are Canadian officials in mar A Lago, and Canada is, you know, our brother lot of ways, I guess geopolitically, I mean, they're literally our neighbor, and they're an important neighbor. So what is this type of commentary doing to the relationship. Have there been any remarks in that respect.
Well, look, I mean anytime Donald Trump says anything about anyone, there are questions about the impact. And he has said some not so nice things, if you will, about Canada. I don't know what that means. I don't know what impact it'll have, but clearly the Canadians are of a mind to address it. That's why they've sent their two top ministers down to Florida today to meet with the president elect's team. It's why Justin Trudeau himself has gone
tomorrow Lago to meet with Trump. You know, sometimes Donald Trump says a lot of things and then can turn around and say some very nice things if he gets what's what.
He wants Stephen, before you run. These are of course interesting topics, comparatively low stakes to just talk about in global politics. But are we learning anything new about Trump's foreign policy plans based on these conversations.
I think every time Donald Trump says something we haven't heard before, we learned something new. What exactly is at the bottom of it, I think is still unclear, but it speaks to generalized grievances that the president elect has what exactly he's after more importantly, what exactly he can achieve, only time will tell.
ABC News National correspondent Stephen Portnoy live in Washington, d C with us this morning. Stephen thinks so much and this is your wake up call here on KFI Am six forty on Michael Monks filling in for Amy King. We told you about this story yesterday where an elderly man had wandered away from his home in Malibu. He had dementia and he was missing for about three hours. So when the Sheriff's department got involved, they put a drone in the air and they found him within about
twenty minutes. He was found shivering and cold in the brush. He was still clutching a TV remote. So a pretty scary situation and not something that's uncommon for folks who have older loved ones in their lives. It's a concern, but the Malibu Lost Hills Sheriff's Department is conducting a live demo today of the unmanned aerial system with thermal imaging that was recently used to rescue that seventy eight
year old man in Malibu. They say Deputies Paraza and Ferrell deployed this piece of equipment with the thermal imaging camera and it helped locate this man within minutes. The drone technology pinpointed this man's location and guided the searchers there. So the search and rescue personnel who made it to the scene will conduct a demo of how this technology work.
They're going to do that this morning. If you have any curiosity about that eleven o'clock at the Malibu Lost Hills Sheriff Station at two seven zero five zero Agore Road in Calabasas, so learn all about how that man was found. There's a sad story involving a teenaged actor that you might recognize from various movies. Sixteen year old actor Hudson Meek has died after he fell out of
a moving vehicle in Alabama. The Jefferson County Corners office there says Meek was hurt on December nineteenth while on a street in Vestavia Hills, that's a suburb of Birmingham, and he died two days later. They have not issued any further statements about that incident. Meek made his on screen debut in twenty fourteen in the film The Santa Con. He's also been seen in Mcgiver. He was probably best known for his role in the twenty seventeen film Baby Driver.
That's where he played a younger version of Ansel Elgord's titular character. A pizza deliverer in Florida has been charged with pushing her way into a motel room and a pregnant woman after dispute over a tip. The Aciola County Sheriff's Office says Brianna Alvelo has been charged with stabbing a woman in her motel room in Kasimi, Florida, a short time after delivering a pizza tour on Sunday. The woman gave Alvelo fifty dollars on a thirty three dollars
and ten cent bill, expecting change. When Alvelo started walking away, the woman asked for her money back, and Alvelo told her they don't make change. The woman got a smaller dollar bill from her boyfriend, and Alvelo's tip ended up being two bucks. And speaking of two bucks, that's how much you can spend on a Mega Million's ticket today, Americans still dreaming of a really big Christmas present can keep it alive during tonight's Mega Millions drawing. The estimated
jackpot is worth one point one five billion dollars. It could be the fifth largest in Mega Million's history. It is estimated to be the ninth largest lottery jackpot drawing in American history. So again, Mega Million's tickets cost two bucks apiece. The odds are steep, but the tickets are cheap.
The odds in fact of winning this jackpot are one in three hundred two million, five hundred seventy five thousand, three hundred and fifty and the odds of winning any prize in the Megamillion's drawing are one in twenty four. So you could even get your money back for playing. That's according to lottery officials. Good luck, two bucks, get yourself a quick pick, and maybe wake up a billionaire tomorrow. That's not a bad way to finish twenty twenty four
or to begin twenty twenty five. And this is k FI and KOSTHD two Los Angeles, Orange County Southland Weather from KFI. We've got partly cloudy skies this morning, and I gotta tell you it's only gonna get cloudier as the day goes on. The warm spot in the region is in the San Fernando Valley with a higher round seventy today, Metro La, the Beaches, the San Gabriel Valley, hies around the mid sixties. Right now, it's forty eight in Lahabra, fifty three in Hawthorn, fifty two in Fountain Valley,
and fifty in Culver City. We lead local live from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Our producer Michelle Cube, today technical producer Kono, and we've got our friend Seth Blackman doing traffic for you this morning. This has been your wake up Call. I'm Michael Monks. Amy King is back next week. And if you missed any of wake Up Call today or anytime, listen anytime on the iHeartRadio app.
You've been listening to wake Up Call with me Amy King.
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