Morning Wire - Friday Afternoon Update | 2.3.23

Episode Date: February 3, 2023

Developing stories you need to know just in time for your drive home. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.  PajamaGram: Order today and SAVE 25%, use code ‘NUDE’ https://www.pajamagram.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Friday, February 3rd, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update. U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed outrage after learning Thursday that a Chinese surveillance balloon has been traveling over the continental U.S., including Montana. In a joint statement, the GOP and Democrat leaders of a House Select Committee on China called for a strong response from the administration. The statement read in part, quote, The Chinese Communist Party should not have on-demand access to American airspace.

The committee leaders said the surveillance airship's presence over the U.S. shows that the threat China poses is, quote, not confined to distant shores. It is here at home and we must act to counter this threat. China has issued its own statement insisting the incursion into U.S. territory was unintended and that the balloon is meant for, quote, mainly meteorological research. A Pentagon spokesman said that the balloon does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground and that they have chosen not to shoot it down thus far to prevent risk to people below. When asked by reporters about the balloon, President Biden declined to comment.

Investor Kathy Woods predicts that by 2030, Amazon could have more robots than it has human workers of the company, pointing out that Amazon is adding about 1,000 robots a day. The net income of Facebook and Instagram's parent company, Meta, plummeted 41% over the course of last year, as indicated by the company's last earnings report. Students at L.A. Unified School District will likely soon be able to have Narcan nasal spray on them in the event of a drug overdose. Narcan is a medication used to reverse or reduce the effects of opioids. Like many parts of the country, L.A. is experiencing an explosion of opioid overdose deaths. Texas lawmakers, including GOP Senator Ted Cruz, are ramping up pressure on the Biden administration to demand the freedom of a Houston businessman Mark Swiden, who's been imprisoned in China since 2012

after being accused and convicted in 2019 of taking part in a criminal drug conspiracy. U.S. military officials released a former al-Qaeda courier this week after he completed his 16-year stint in Guantanamo and sent him to Central America. Majid Khan, a Pakistani national who grew up near Baltimore, worked as a courier for al-Qaeda in his early 20s and helped plan terror plots that were not ultimately carried out. He was transferred to Belize through an agreement with the country and the Biden administration. Khan has disavowed al-Qaeda and has promised to be a, quote, productive, law-abiding member of society in Belize. The Energy Department proposed new rules Wednesday that would mandate a certain energy consumption threshold for gas stoves, even after the possibility, of a nationwide ban garnered backlash.

Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. said in an interview last month that gas stoves constitute a hidden hazard and said that any option is on the table for a nationwide prohibition. A Consumer Product Safety Commission chairman later walked back the commissioner's statements saying that neither he nor the agency

planned to outlaw gas stoves. The Cochran Institute examined 78 global studies on the effectiveness of masks and found that masks made, quote, little to no difference in the spread of respiratory infections. The studies involved more than one million people worldwide. Surgical masks reduced the risk of transmission of COVID or other flu-like illnesses by 5%, the study found. The CDC's latest guidance still recommends wearing masks in some situations,

including indoor public transportation settings. Australia announced it will be removing British royals from Australian banknotes. King Charles of the United Kingdom is also considered the king of Australia, even though Australia is no longer part of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Former NFL star and fan favorite Chad Ochosinko Johnson revealed this week on the club Shea Show that he saved some 83% of his NFL earnings, in part by wearing fake jewelry and flying commercial airlines. So life is good because I was able to sustain and keep most of my wealth that I made when I was playing

and life is still going to go. So I allow the kids to enjoy, but I need them to understand they're going to come to time. Those are your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.