Luigi Mangione’s Guilty Plea; Cambridge Professor Found Dead Following Scandal; Hurricane Lala; California Vineyards Being Lit On Fire

**Mosheh Oinounou** (0:04)
Hey, everybody, it is Monday, August 17th. You're listening to the Mo News podcast. I'm Moshe Oinounou.

**Jill Wagner** (0:09)
And I'm Jill Wagner. This is the place where we bring you Just the Facts.

**Mosheh Oinounou** (0:13)
And where we read all the news, read between the lines so you don't have to, and help you get another week started here on a Monday morning. As many of you listen to this, happy Monday, Jill.

**Jill Wagner** (0:23)
On a summer Monday, Moshe, and you and I, I feel like we're still, our head is still just like in summer mode, because the two stories that caught our eye, that we wanted to kick off this work week with.

**Mosheh Oinounou** (0:38)
Mondays don't get serious again until September. All right, everyone, just enjoy August while we still have it.

**Jill Wagner** (0:43)
So the drink of the summer and the song of the summer. So Moshe, what are they?

**Mosheh Oinounou** (0:49)
I'm going to start with the drink of the summer, Jill. Despite we've been telling you about headlines recently that fewer Americans are drinking, especially the younger generation, but you're probably going to be hearing, if you haven't already heard, about the Sardi spritz. You are probably familiar with the Aperol spritz or the Hugo spritz. The Sardi spritz might be coming to a bar or restaurant near you soon because a new Italian liqueur, Sardi Rosa, will be hitting US liquor stores very soon. It's a liqueur that mixes blood orange, mango and passion fruit. So it has a fruity twist, a pink color. Sardi Rosa on its social media has said, America, we've heard you. We're coming your way right now.
So look out for the Sardi spritz if you're sort of looking for something new.

**Jill Wagner** (1:33)
As for the song of the summer, it is Choose in Texas by Ella Langley. It was co-written with Miranda Lambert and it has broken records with a 17-week run at number one on the Billboard charts.
Mosheh is quite catchy.

**Mosheh Oinounou** (1:47)
Jill, what was interesting is some of the numbers were put out on the songs of the summer and where they're the most popular. Choose in Texas reached number one in Texas, along with cities in 14 other states. But then depending on where you live, for example, the song of the summer, if you live in California and New York, was Olivia Rodrigo's Stupid Song. That's what hit number one there.
In Florida, it was Drake's Janice STFU, and so on and so forth here. It doesn't seem like it's one of these summers where we had an overwhelming, the summer of the Macarena, and then we had a show or various songs that just took over that you couldn't escape in recent years. By the way, I had to reach far back there for the Macarena summer.

**Jill Wagner** (2:33)
I didn't know which we were going to go with. Despacito, I didn't know. Is that a summer song? Welcome to Miami feels like a summer song.

**Mosheh Oinounou** (2:42)
Harry Styles, As It Was, was an overwhelming song a couple summers ago. I guess that would be a more recent example of it. You also had Old Town Road. Remember Old Town Road by Lil Nas X? That overwhelmed us in the summer of 2019
Despacito, good choice there. Jill, that was 2017 song of the summer. Cheerleader by Omi. Remember Cheerleader back in 2015?

**Jill Wagner** (3:03)
I do.

**Mosheh Oinounou** (3:04)
Yeah. I do. Fancy by Iggy Azalea and Charlie X. Yes, Blurred Lines was a song of the summer. Robert, you get my point. Those are songs that literally you couldn't walk down the street and not hear a car blaring it, but it seems like we had a diversified song of the summer this year.

**Jill Wagner** (3:20)
All right, so the headlines, major developments in the Luigi Mangione case after the 28-year-old pleaded guilty to federal charges in the killing of health care executive Brian Thompson.

**Mosheh Oinounou** (3:31)
Yes, on Friday, he admitted to murder in court, but then tried to explain why he did it. So you sort of heard his attempt at excusing or explaining his actions there. We will talk about what happens next to Manchione, how many years he could face in prison, and most significantly, what it means to his state for the murder trial. The state of New York also pursues charges against him. What it means for that case.

**Jill Wagner** (3:52)
To the shocking death of Cambridge, Professor Jason Arday, just days after he resigned, met a plagiarism scandal.

**Mosheh Oinounou** (4:00)
And a scandal over his entire biography and things that allegedly were made up there. But now Cambridge, the elite university over there in the UK, is facing some hard questions about why they hired him in the first place, despite warnings about his life and work, and whether they have some responsibility here for what transpired.