Morning Wire - Houthi Drone Strike & Cyber Outage Impact | Afternoon Update | 7.19.24

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

Developing stories you need to know just in time for your drive home. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Netsuite: Take advantage of no payments and no interest for six months at http://www.NetSuite.com/MORNINGWIRE Rhone: Upgrade your closet with Rhone and use WIRE to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/WIRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by NetSuite. Back by popular demand, NetSuite has extended its one-of-a-kind flexible financing program for a few more weeks. So head over to NetSuite.com slash MorningWire. That's netsuite.com slash morningwire. NetSuite.com slash Morning Wire. I'm Georgia Howe. It's Friday, July 19th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update. A drone from the Yemen-based Houthi terrorist group struck a building in Israel near the U.S. embassy this morning.

Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips, says, the details. The 3 a.m. strike shook Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city, leaving one dead and 11 more injured. It marks the Houthi's first lethal attack on the Jewish state. Successful drone strikes against Israel are exceedingly rare given the country's notoriously strong Iron Dome defense system. Israeli officials said they're investigating what went wrong and why the drone was not intercepted earlier. The attack underscores a growing Houthi threat as they receive more military resources from Iran. The top U.S. commander in the Middle East told Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that military operations are failing to deter Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

Those attacks target shipping vessels and have plagued international supply chains since November. U.S. military officials are now urgently seeking a broader plan to combat Houthi attacks. That includes stopping a shipment of Russian missiles to Yemen, which would likely be used by the Houthis against the U.S. and other allies in the region. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who's been detained by Russian, since March of last year has been sentenced to 16 years in an isolated forced labor camp. Gershkovich was charged with espionage, though Russia has not provided any public evidence to support their allegations.

Russian officials have signaled a desire to use Gershkovich in a prisoner swap, like the 2022 deal that traded Russian arms dealer Victor Bout for American basketball player Brittany Griner. Other Americans imprisoned in Russia include Marine veteran Paul Weillen, who's been detained since 2018 on similar espionage charges. A federal appeals court has dismissed a challenge to a Tennessee bill banning drag performances in front of minors. The court ruled that a Memphis LGBT theater lacked standing as its performances are not banned under the law, which bars adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors. The court specifically cited Tennessee laws that define the term harmful to minors, noting that the theater shows do not meet that definition. State Attorney General

Jonathan Scurmeti voiced support for the ruling, saying it's proof that the law will not be used to target the LGBT community. Critics of the bill have long said that the words are too vague and that they would target groups based on sexuality. Bud Light sales continued to slip more than a year after a partnership with a transgender influencer sparked a nationwide backlash. Here with Morris Daily Wire contributor Matt Sinovsky. According to the Wall Street Journal, Bud Light has been passed again in total sales. This time by fellow Anheuser-Busch product, to Mickelope Ultra. Bud Light is now the third most popular beer in America, also behind top-selling Modelo. The light logger had comfortably held the top spot for two decades before being boycotted

last year in response to the brand's partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Since then, Bud Light has lost over a third of its market share, falling from over 10% of total beer sales down to six and a half. The brand has attempted to make a comeback this year, partnering with the UFC, which has a primarily right-leading fan base and even receiving a nod from Donald Trump on Truth Social. This episode is brought to you by Rohn. Head to Rone.com slash wire and use promo code wire to save 20% off your entire order. That's 20% off your entire order when you head to R-H-O-N-E.com slash wire and use code wire.

It's time you find your corner office comfort. A global cyber outage is disrupting airlines, banks, and even hospitals. Daily Wire senior editor, Ash Short has more. The IT issues stem from just one company. Austin-based cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. The outage was caused by a software update, not from a cyber attack or virus. That update caused Microsoft Windows an operating system used by over 70% of the world's desktop computers to malfunction.

While CrowdStrike CEO George Kurt said the problem has been fixed, many industries which use the software have struggled to recover. More than 20,000 flights have been delayed so far. Hospitals around the world are canceling non-euroreactors. urgent surgeries, some public media companies have been unable to broadcast, and many financial institutions are limiting online account access. Tech experts say the outage is a reminder of just how fragile the world's internet infrastructure can be. New data released this week by the Department of Labor shows jobless claims continue to stay high. Here's Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce with the latest.

The latest Labor Department data show that jobless claims, a common proxy for layoffs, rose by roughly 20,000 last week. This also marks the eighth straight week that jobless claims have come in over 220,000. The number of Americans collecting jobless benefits is the highest it has been since November of 2021, about $1.87 million for the week of July 6th. A New York City Councilwoman has been charged with assault after allegedly biting a police officer earlier this week. Susan Zhuang, who represents parts of Brooklyn, had one arm handcuffed and was fighting with officer from over a barricade. Though when asked about the attack by local news, she said this.

Did you bite the police officer? That to you, that we'll talk to our lawyer. The truth will come out. The alleged incident happened during a protest against the creation of a men's homeless shelter in the area. When asked if Zhuang had bitten the officer, her lawyer said, quote, a lot of times during the course of arrests, things happen. The councilwoman has been condemned by most elected New York Democrats,

though the Brooklyn Democratic Party chair called Jwong's arrest unlawful, saying she didn't intend to hurt anyone. Meanwhile, the NYPD chief of patrols said the following about the incident during a press conference. The actions today of assaulting one of our police officers, deputy chief, by biting him viciously in the arm, I can't explain it right now. Whole Foods is joining Too Good to Go, an app that offers users deals on food that's about to expire. Enough food is wasted every year in the U.S. to make about 145 billion meals, and the Too Good to Go app aims at cutting that number down. Whole Foods will offer on the app two different surprise bags, a prepared food bag and a bakery bag. The bags will cost about one-third to one-half of what the items would have retailed for. Only four prepared food bags and two

bakery bags will be sold at each Whole Foods location per day. Those are your drive-home update this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to daily. wire.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.