Morning Wire - Evening Wire: U.S. Oil Tanker Seizure & Disney’s AI Team-Up | 12.11.25

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

The U.S. seizes a Venezuelan oil tanker, DHS signs a major contract with Boeing, and Disney buys into AI in a big way. Get the facts first with Evening Wire. - - - Ep. 2531 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today’s Sponsor: University of Austin - To apply to the University of Austin, visit https://UAustin.org - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy morning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The U.S. seizes a Venezuelan oil tanker. The Department of Homeland Security signs a major contract with Boeing and Disney buys into AI in a big way. I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Thursday, December 11th. This is Evening Wire. In a dramatic escalation, the United States seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has the latest. The seizure comes as President Trump has ramped up a pressure campaign targeting Venezuelan strongman at Nicholas Maduro. Trump confirmed the news during a roundtable discussion on Wednesday afternoon. It's been an interesting day. As you probably know, we've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large. Largest one ever seized, actually. Until Wednesday, the Trump administration's military efforts off the coast of Venezuela have been limited to destroying drug boats and submarines.

Wednesday's actions represent a significant escalation in the White House pressure campaign targeting Venezuela. Venezuela's state-owned oil industry and primary source of funding. Most of Venezuela's oil is sold to China. Chinese buyers are typically able to get Venezuelan oil at a discount because of the risk of running a foul of U.S. sanctions. The leader of Venezuela's opposition says the U.S. helped her escape the country to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. After over a year in hiding, Maria Karina Machado arrived safely in Oslo, Norway.

While she just missed the award ceremony yesterday, she was greeted with cheers below her hotel balcony, including chants of Libertad, the Spanish word for freedom. Machado went underground following the latest presidential election when her endorsed candidate won, but Maduro declared himself the victor and remained in office. She was awarded the peace prize for her work against the Maduro regime. While Machado remained tight-lipped about the details of her escape, she credited the U.S. government with, quote, support for her travel. The Trump administration has not yet publicly commented on Machado's escape. territorial concessions remain a sticking point in negotiations as Ukraine and European partners respond to

U.S. peace proposals. Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips, has more. President Trump has been vocal over his desire to bring a quick end to the war in Ukraine, advocating for territorial concessions in a peace plan sent earlier this year. In a reportedly tense call with European partners earlier this week, Trump urged British, French, and German partners to pressure Ukraine to accept that deal. For his part, President Zelensky has been unwilling to accept any terms that seed territory to Russia. Without those concessions, though, peace talks have thus far been unable to progress. A U.S. plan to rebuild Ukraine and reintegrate the economy of Russia has sparked backlash from European partners. The plan, which is laid out in

multiple documents sent to European allies, outlines a strategy to end the war in Ukraine, and build partnerships that will hopefully build a lasting peace by ushering Russia back into the world economy. U.S. business partners would gain access to drilling and mineral rights in Russia, as well as $200 billion in frozen Russian assets, which would be used for infrastructure projects in Ukraine. But the plan has been met with major skepticism from European partners who've compared it to Trump's Riviera plans for Gaza. The House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday, pressuring Secretary of War Hegset to release information related to drug trafficking boat strikes. The bill, while mostly detailing Pentagon budget details, also included provisions that would compel the release of video evidence related to the contested Caribbean boat strikes.

It would also require the Pentagon to provide Congress with any information related to what are called execute strikes in the future. Hegset has faced backlash from unsubstantiated claims that the strikes were conducted with illegal methods. While Hegset and the rest of the administration deny these claims, calls for transparency seem to have taken hold. Turning Point USA CEO Erica Kirk rebuffed conspiracy theories circulating about the assassination of her husband Charlie. In an appearance on Fox News yesterday, Kirk said that empty hypothesizing has led to a torrent of death threats and harassment. Call me what you want. Go down that rabbit hole. Whatever. But when you go after my family, my Turning Point USA family, my Charlie Kirk show family, when you go after the people that I love and you're making hundreds and thousands of dollars, Every single episode going after the people that I love because somehow they're in on this, no, this is righteous anger because this is not okay. It's not healthy. This is a mind virus.

Conspiracists have heaped suspicion on a number of Charlie's closest friends and family members, including Erica herself. Kirk said on Wednesday that even her jewelry, which she has dubbed the, quote, conspiracy collection has become a topic of debate. Despite all the harassment they've generated, Kirk says she still has compassion for the conspiracists. And you know what I thought? I thought these people are human. We are all grieving in our own way. And they are trying to find the answer to something that happened that was so evil. They are trying so hard. And I get that. We're doing the same. This episode is sponsored by the University of Austin, Texas. You know college is broken.

Activist professors, seminars that feel like struggle sessions, $80,000 a year to hear Hamas chance on the quad while being told America's evil in class. So what's the alternative? It's called the University of Austin, or UATX. At UATX, students are in small seminars taught by great professors. They read the great books of Western civilization to learn from them, not tear them down. They build actual companies on campus with mentorship from a vast network of top entrepreneurs and investors. You can be openly Christian or Jewish without apology. And when you walk into the main atrium, there's a giant American flag. UATX admits students based purely on test scores, so the application takes just five minutes. Oh, and another thing, tuition is completely free forever. It's funded by

American patriots who want to create the Navy SEALs of the mind, not another generation of credentialed activists. To apply to the University of Austin, visit uaustin.org. That's ua-U-S-T-I-N.org. President Trump has inserted himself into the potential Warner Brothers Discovery Sale by insisting that Discovery Subsidiary CNN should change hands, although still requiring a lengthy regulatory process for final approval, Netflix is now an exclusive talks to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery for $72 billion. That deal, however, would not include a sale of Discovery's television network group, which includes CNN. A longtime detractor of the network, Trump is now throwing his weight into the fight, asserting that CNN needs to change hands, or at least be put under

new leadership. In its latest move to ramp up Trump's mass deportation effort, the Department of Homeland Security signed a major contract with Boeing to operate flights out of the country. Daily Wire Immigration reporter Jenny Terrick's plans. The administration signed a roughly $140 million contract to buy six Boeing 737 planes to operate flights without the assistance of outside contractors. Deportation flights via what's known as ICE Air have long relied on charter companies to carry out removals. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Trisha McLaughlin said on X Wednesday that the new

effort will save American taxpayers $279 million. She said, quote, these planes will allow ICE to operate more effectively, including by using more efficient flight patterns. Borders are Tom Homan says the administration has already deported more than 579,000 illegal immigrants, but it's still short of their lofty goal of carrying out one million deportations each year. Raw sewage is currently flowing from Mexico into the U.S. And President Trump has had enough. Daily Wire Senior Editor, Joel Needler, has the latest. Roughly 25 million gallons of untreated sewage from America's southern neighbor reportedly spill into the Pacific Ocean each day. Last week, a break in the Mexico.

The Mexican sewer line reportedly sent 120,000 gallons of sewage into San Diego County's South Bay region. The ongoing pollution has already dragged down home values, closed beaches, and affected Navy SEAL training. Local officials in Southern California are now handing out air purifiers to residents choking on the stench. President Trump expressed outrage on truth social saying, quote, Mexico must take care of its water and sewage problem immediately. It is a true threat to the people of Texas, California, and the United States of America. He also attached a local news segment as evidence of the unfolding mess. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said his team is working with his Mexican counterparts to stop the flow of sewage.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeyer has filed a lawsuit against Starbucks, claiming they used DEI to implement illegal race-based policies for hiring and advancement. He announced the suit in a video on X, writing, quote, using DEI as an excuse to hire, promote, or humiliate an employee based on race, violates Florida's civil rights law. Starbucks made DEI more than a slogan. They turned it into a mandatory hiring and promotion system based on race. The Coffee Empire set numerical racial targets for their workforce,

and they tied executive bonuses to those targets. That is brazen discrimination, and it is against the law. The University of Michigan has fired head football coach Sharon Moore with cause, and now he's in custody on suspicion of assault. Crane & Company co-host and former Michigan QB, David Cohn reports. Sharon Moore remained in custody in Washington County as of midday Thursday as prosecutors weighed charges stemming from his arrest following his firing as Michigan's head football coach a day earlier. Now, the Washingtonal County Prosecutor's Office confirmed to the Detroit News that it does not anticipate a decision on charges Thursday as the investigation continues into an alleged assault that occurred late Wednesday afternoon. We will have more details tomorrow morning.

A Connecticut family is suing open AI in what appears to be the first case accusing an artificial intelligence chat bot of playing a role in a murder. The lawyer behind the case calls the situation scarier than Terminator. The lawsuit claims chat GPT fueled the paranoid delusions of tech executive Stein Eric Solberg, ultimately leading him to kill his 83-year-old mother before taking his own life last summer. Attorneys say the bot convinced Solberg that ordinary objects were signs that his mother was plotting against him. The suit argues Open AI rushed out a powerful model without proper safeguards. Open AI calls the case heartbreaking but says it continues improving safety systems. In more AI news, AI hacking programs once thought incapable of beating human operators

are performing much better than expected. DeLiwere reporter Breckistole has the story. A recent experiment at Stanford pitted an AI hacker Artemis against professional human hackers known as penetration testers. Although the AI lacked in some areas, having an 18% false positive rate of identifying network vulnerabilities and missing one obvious bug, the program outperformed all but one of the 10 human testers in locating potential network weaknesses. Researchers were shocked at the performance, having expected only average capabilities from the AI.

While some say the AI's performance suggests that hacking vital networks will become easier than ever, it would also theoretically provide tools for systems to vastly enhance their security, identifying weaknesses before malicious actors ever get a chance to attempt infiltration. And even Disney is investing in AI. The company made a $1 billion investment in OpenAI that will soon allow users to generate short-form content using their characters. OpenAI's short-form video platform Sora will have access to the likeness of more than 200 iconic characters from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars.

Stipulations of the deal limit what kind of content users can make with the characters. no sex, drugs, or interaction with other company's properties. Disney is hoping the move will help them capture the attention of young people who increasingly consume bite-sized content on social media. Those are your drive-home updates today to learn more about these stories. Go to DailyWire.com, and in case you missed it earlier today, we covered some major stories, including Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak testifying on government fraud before Congress, controversy swirling around Zoron Mamdani's incoming administration,

and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer giving us an inside look at Minnesota's fraud scandal. Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.