MidDays with Gerard Gibert 2026-07-20

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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Get ready to go beyond the headlines and join a meaningful conversation with people from around the state. You're listening to MidDays with Gerard Gibert here on SuperTalk Mississippi.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:01)
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to MidDays, SuperTalk Mississippi.
I'm your host, Gerard Gibert, along with Rhino in the Alamant Wealth Studio, guiding you through the middle of your day with facts, fodder, and fine music. Morning there, Rhino.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:18)
Howdy, howdy.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:19)
All right, it's all over. The old World Cup, it is Spain that ended up winning an extra time, 1-0 over Argentina. How about that?

**SPEAKER_1** (1:32)
Messi couldn't quite provide enough magic for the Argentinians to win it back to back.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:38)
Yeah. And that's kind of what was expected. Both of these teams, I'd have to say, probably the best in the overall tournament. What do you think?

**SPEAKER_1** (1:47)
Yeah. And that's why it was kind of disappointing to see the display from Argentina, especially as you got closer to the end of the regulation and end of extra time, where they went back to their South American soccer roots of, we're just going to kick the mess out of you and hope to enrage you enough to get you sent off and hope the ref doesn't see us pulling our dirty tricks.
And yeah, it bit them in the butt because Spain didn't react. Spain just kept playing their game and eventually, with enough pressure, they got the one goal and went on to win. Well, Ole Miss quarterback or former Ole Miss quarterback, Jackson Dart, called it.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:28)
Yeah, he sure did.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:29)
In the pregame, he picked Spain to win.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:31)
Yeah, he absolutely did. Meanwhile, over in the Middle East, things are heating up again with the United States and Iran trading attacks. It just feels like there's no end in sight on this deal.
And Secretary of State Marco Rubio apparently has said that Iran attacking ships in, it's not apparent, he did say this, in the Strait of Hormuz effectively killed the Memorandum of Understanding, says diplomacy is still on the table, still available. Sadly, you probably heard, folks, two of our brave warriors lost their lives over the weekend, one still missing, I believe.
And also saw that an interview this morning, right now, with a company, and the name of the company escapes me, I didn't catch it, but saw the CEO in an interview on the Business Channel. This company is making autonomous ships and aircraft that, I mean, it's a full-size helicopter. Looks like your standard traditional helicopter, except there ain't no people in it flying it around. And they're using these to extract service members that are downed or caught behind enemy lines, as the case may be, and extract them out. It's amazing, this technology. Of course, all AI driven, really pretty cool stuff, but saving lives on the battlefield.
And Hamas just named a new leader, as Kuwait says, it's under fire. I mean, Iran, they're just indiscriminately, maybe it is intentional. It seems indiscriminate because they're not playing any favorites here. It's like, it's us versus the world, is the one way to describe it.
And that's going on as well. So Hamas names Khalil al-Hayya as their new overall leader. That's according to a statement from the Palestinian militant group, succeeding Sinwar, who was killed by the military in October 24, the Israeli military. So this thing is still going on, and unfortunately, that has caused the price of oil to drive upward. And now we're looking once again at the average price of regular gas north of $4 in this country. And the price of diesel up as well significantly at $5.20 per gallon, on average, nationwide. Just doesn't seem like there's any end in sight. Crude oil at $82, down a couple of cents today, but still north of that $80 mark. Traders on Wall Street not taking this news very well. The NASDAQ actually is in the green. The Dow was in the green earlier. It is now down 123 points. I think some of what's going on on the NASDAQ is in anticipation from earnings to be released later this week from Alphabet Google, of course. Tesla and Intel, they're headlining the earnings reports this week. And of course, investors are looking for more blowouts being driven by the AI revolution in this country. Meanwhile, you probably know by now that Governor Kathy Hochul of the Empire State of New York, she has signed a moratorium on the construction of data centers in her state. Although on July 14th, she stood before the cameras and she told New Yorkers something that's absolutely true, that we've talked about right on this program. She said, whoever owns AI owns the future. And then, as part of the same announcement, she bans hyperscale data centers, which are needed to power AI. Does she not know that? It's just unbelievable. She said, well, I agree, artificial intelligence will determine which nations command the coming century. But we're not going to help in that in New York. Of course, they're looking more like China every day in New York anyhow. Just unbelievable.