Jolie Myers
Appearances
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
Let me check the date today. No, it seems like we have not quite gotten there yet. You know, the things that are the root causes of this conflict are not really things that Trump or any U.S. president is necessarily able to deliver. So it's not surprising to me that it's proven a lot more difficult to get this deal than he was expecting.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
There's almost been this sort of mini side drama over who the U.S. envoy for this conflict was. When Trump first got into office, he selected this guy, Keith Kellogg, who had been Mike Pence's national security advisor in the first term. He was briefly the acting national security advisor for Trump. He comes from a more sort of traditionally hawkish, like he's a MAGA guy, but like a MAGA hawk.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
And he was going to be the one who's going to negotiate this deal. You know, it seems as if he did not endear himself to the Russians. He's seen as too pro-Ukrainian. And so now they brought in Steve Witkoff, who was an old friend of Trump's from the New York real estate world. You can read their origin story.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
It goes back to once in the 80s, Trump forgot his wallet and Steve Witkoff bought him a sandwich and that's how they got to know each other. Fast forward, Witkoff was initially appointed as the envoy for the Gaza conflict. He's also been their point person talking to Russia. And now, apparently, as if that wasn't enough, he's negotiating with Iran on their nuclear program.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
So, you know, one guy without any foreign policy experience is involved in negotiating three nuclear major conflicts that would be a major challenge, even for the most experienced diplomat.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
So the thing about Witkoff is that, you know, not only does he have no foreign policy experience, but when you listen to him talk, particularly about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he often seems to just be sort of delivering Russian talking points, which is, you know, somewhat problematic from somebody who's expected to be the, you know, the one mediating the end of this conflict. Yeah.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
Yeah, well, there was a breakthrough of sorts a few days ago. They finally signed this long-awaited minerals deal. This basically gives the U.S. sort of a future financial stake in Ukraine's mineral wealth, and they're thought to have potentially quite a bit of mineral wealth. It's not really clear how much. As far as possible outcomes, this was kind of a win-win for the U.S. and Ukraine.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
But, you know, that's also sort of a side issue. What we really care about is what's going to end this war, right? On that front, there's been less progress. They got Ukrainians to agree to... in principle, to a 30-day ceasefire. The Russians have not agreed to that. The Russians this week are proposing like a three-day ceasefire around May 9th, which is Victory Day, the day they celebrate.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
Russian, or the Allied victory in World War II. It's a huge holiday in Russia, like a big, important day for the Putin government. Putin is proposing a three-day ceasefire around that. The Ukrainians are saying, no, like we want a real ceasefire. And they're continuing to fire drones at Moscow, which is making people in Russia very nervous. So, you know, things...
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
Right now, there's not a lot of progress towards an actual ceasefire that's going to end this war. I think it goes back to the point that this isn't just a conflict over land. It comes down to Ukraine wants real security guarantees that can assure them that what they're afraid of is that they'll agree to a ceasefire and a year later,
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
the Russians will just regroup and come back and try for the whole country again. And the Russians want to ensure that, you know, from their point of view, they don't want basically a NATO beachhead, you know, US-European, you know, military fortress right on their border. And like, these are sort of irreconcilable positions at the moment. There may be a way to reconcile them.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
I'm not saying it's hopeless, and I'm not saying it's not worth testing the waters and trying to negotiate them, but it's going to take time, and it's going to take engagement.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
I think they had an idea that if they came in, they put enough pressure on Ukraine, that that'd be a way of sort of delivering an end to this war. They have not been as willing to put pressure on Russia. Of course, in fairness, the U.S. has a lot less leverage over Russia than it does over Ukraine. I think that's where the disconnect has happened.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
It's sort of been a rude awakening, the fact that they've come to the realization that Russia is not actually interested in ending this war, or at least not interested in ending this war on terms that even Trump finds acceptable.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
Things seem to have gotten back on track somewhat with Trump and Zelensky. I mean, I don't think it's ever exactly going to be a warm, cordial relationship, but they had that meeting at the Vatican. President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky meeting face to face inside St.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
Another sort of perhaps promising sign for the Ukrainians, there's a story this week that the U.S. is sending another Patriot battery from the Middle East to Ukraine. They're sending old F-16 parts to Ukraine for them to use in their fighter jets. The nightmare scenario which it looked like was coming to pass after the overall office meeting, which is that the U.S.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
just completely washes its hands of the whole thing and like cuts off all support. That does not seem to be coming to pass right now, at least.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
You know, I think the smart money is on the conflict continuing. It's a war of attrition, and that means it's who can be exhausted first, who's going to be able to stay in this fight for longest, who's going to be able to resource their fight for longest. And it's a marathon, and it's a slugfest, and it's going to take a long time. And these sides put their red lines out.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
They say what they believe is unacceptable. But that can change. You know, that can change in a hurry.
Today, Explained
Little Marco’s big portfolio
You know, this would be tough for anyone. You know, it's not as if the previous administration was making that much progress either. But yeah, I mean, it doesn't, we're not getting signals like they're really doing a full court press to get this negotiated.
Today, Explained
Teslump
Police tell us some of the cars had offensive and hateful comments painted on them.
Today, Explained
Teslump
The Securities and Exchange Commission sued tech billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday, accusing him of securities fraud linked to his $44 billion takeover of Twitter, now known as X.
Today, Explained
The Gulf of America?
This month I celebrated my day 365 of womanhood and Bud Light sent me possibly the best gift ever, a can with my face on it.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
So I downloaded Red Note. originally known as Xiaohongshu, a little while ago before the wave really hit. But I've been following the trends for a few years now. It really started in China as an answer to Instagram, which is censored domestically in the country. And its intent was to operate as an Instagram slash Pinterest. So the demographic really looks...
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Like women, young women living in urban cities. It's a lot of lifestyle. It's a lot of makeup, beauty, fashion, travel tips. Things that you would see when you log on to Instagram.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Okay, so this is sort of like what I'm seeing on my feed. This is automatically what I get.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Yeah, so I see a lot of, like, American versus Chinese lifestyle content. Like, here's a vlog, the top one is just a woman shopping in a Chinese supermarket and saying, like, Americans, is this what you see in your supermarkets?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Also, that's so cheap. Oh, here's a video of a guinea pig being brushed. How soothing is that?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
So this sort of started ironically because users, in their frustration and their ire over what was going to happen to their beloved app, then started saying, you know what?
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
If the government wants us to be afraid of Chinese government surveillance and I think this is total nonsense, I'm going to stick it to the government and do the one thing that they would fear the most, which is get even more Chinese.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
I think what it is is that American users are really frustrated with their government right now for many realistic reasons, right? Because the information cycle around the TikTok ban has been confusing at best and insidious at worst, especially when effectively the shutdown became clear that it was very much about supporting people.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
President Trump, as opposed to an actual concern of surveillance, data mining, etc. So I think as a way of expressing their frustration with everything and finding the most annoying and
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Incendiary. Ooh, you got the thesaurus out. Don't play with him. Yeah, to find the most controversial way to deal with these... Frustrations, they take it out by making jokes and saying, actually, you know what? The CCP is not that bad. You know what? Mao kind of ate that one thing.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
So I think that it's not really about the Chinese government at all because this is really everything to do with their perception of their own government.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Yeah, the culture has completely shifted from when I downloaded Xiaohongshu. I think primarily the biggest difference is that there's a lot more English on the app. And when I did my piece of the Rolling Stone, when I spoke to women in China about their thoughts on this cultural shift on Xiaohongshu, a lot of them said the biggest culture shock for them was seeing that much English on the app.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Because while a lot of Chinese students receive English education, like as a second language, It's not really widely used in the country. And so to see that much of it on historically a very Mandarin app is jarring. I would also say that. There's a lot of criticism now from Chinese users that it's a lot more like TikTok than it is Xiaohongshu.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
Because the thing is, Chinese people already have TikTok. It's Douyin. So obviously, when suddenly the TikTok refugees, as they call themselves, entered the app, the content itself shifted away from what Xiaohongshu was originally known for and more towards a similar vibe of TikTok, which doesn't really... strike the chord with some Chinese users.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
I think when you open up the app, when you start scrolling through, what you're first really struck with is – These two sets of users who have historically been separated by a very strong firewall talking for the first time. And it's not anything that I've necessarily seen before in my lifetime. I grew up both in Shanghai and in America.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
And when people are interacting for the first time on Red Note, You're seeing people interact and understand for each other these little things that Americans haven't really considered before about Chinese users, like the cost of living, like what going to school is like, what they eat, what they do for work, what they do for fun.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
It's been a tremendous week of you guys coming over and us welcoming you guys. I like to knit, crochet, upcycle.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
I think that outrage is so funny because it's so clear that now people who are online and have a history of being online are very okay with the fact and know that many governments, many private entities and corporations are seeing their data. That's the price you pay when you download a free app. And I think that when the TikTok ban was looming and so much of it was around this hype that
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
we need to protect ourselves from China, we need to protect ourselves from foreign governments and the threat that China poses. I think a lot of young people, when they see a ballooning cost of living, rising inflation, a very scarce job market that is pumped full of data collection job postings that don't actually lead to anything, I think there's a very obvious pipeline between
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
I think my government doesn't care about me. They care more about this threat that feels less real to me than the threats of my everyday life. And so I think that's why it makes sense that a lot of people are like, you know what? Even if I am not on Red Note, I'm so mad at my government that on my way to work, I'm going to drop off my browser history at the Chinese embassy.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
I think the way I see it as a culture reporter is— Culture moves slow when it comes to old white men. So I do think that there is perhaps more leeway in that they might not even know about it until or necessarily fully understand it. But I do think that eventually once they get one of the fact that it's fully Chinese, I mean, TikTok was always Chinese by association.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
It was Chinese in the way of like it has a Chinese uncle. It's a U.S. based company with a Singaporean CEO whose ownership was based in China. Xiao Hongshu was founded by a Chinese founder. And it's based in China, in Shanghai. And it's up until last week, it was operating entirely in Mandarin.
Today, Explained
From TikTok to 小红书
So I think that obviously it makes sense that at some point lawmakers will try and make moves to censor Xiao Hongshu, which for me will be a loss because I need my makeup tutorials.