Morning Wire - India and Pakistan Conflict & Trump Fights Climate Rules | 5.8.25

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Attacks between India and Pakistan move the two nuclear powers closer to war, Trump and Republicans sue Democrat led states over restrictive energy laws and live sports programming dominates viewing trends. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Fast Growing Trees: Use code WIRE at checkout for 15% off your first order or visit fastgrowingtrees.com/wire Jeremys: Try Jeremy’s Razors for 20% off risk-free at jeremysrazors.com/MORNINGWIRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

60% of the vans on Amazon from a vendor independent like Sac Magic. Hello, here Camille, our company's shop fraud are fabriced in Quebec, and our presence on Amazon

enlarge our clientele on the world entire. Trouve of little enterprises like another. Ones A tax between India and Pakistan continue to

escalate, causing fears of an all-out nuclear war. There can be no winners in a nuclear conflict. And President Trump prepares for a major

overseas foreign policy trip. I'm George. Chahau with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, May 8th, and this is Morning Wire. Trump sues Democrat-led states over their climate agenda, saying they're choking energy production and threatening national security. California is setting such strict fuel economy standards. You know, it's a de facto ban on gas-powered cars. And the next evolution of TV ratings has arrived, and sports is the overwhelming winner. We break down the data on viewing trends.

Streaming now is almost 40% based on the latest report with broadcasting cable adding up to close to 50%. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Did you know that Fast Growing Trees is the biggest online nursery in the U.S. with thousands of different plants and over 2 million happy customers? This spring they have the best deals for your yard, up to half off on select plants and other deals.

And listeners to our show get 15% off their first purchase when using CodeWire at checkout. That's an additional 15% off at FastGrewing Trees.com using CodeWire. at checkout. That's fast-scoring trees.com code wire. Now's the perfect time to plant. Use code wire to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. President Trump is preparing for a highly anticipated visit to the Middle East as tensions rise across the region. Here to break down the president's diplomatic efforts and the brewing conflicts is Daily Wire's Senior Editor Cabot Phillips A Cabot. So let's start with what's happening with India and Pakistan. Very concerning there. Get us up to speeder. So the two countries, each with

large nuclear arsenals have long been bitter rivals, feuding over everything from disputed borderlines to religion. But in the past week, we've seen just a dramatic escalation that has the two now on the brink of all-out war. In late April, a group of Islamic militants crossed from Pakistan to Indian-controlled Kashmir and slaughtered 26 tourists. India accused the Pakistani government of being involved in that attack and responded Wednesday with military strikes on Pakistan's heavily populated Punjab region, killing more than two dozen and injuring 46 others. India says that they targeted, quote, terror camps. Pakistan says they killed civilians, including worshippers at two mosques. And now the world is holding its breath to see if and how Pakistan is going to respond. More on how serious

this situation is, I spoke with Professor Anthony Glees, security expert from the University of Buckingham. Pakistan's authorities are also saying that in the Punjab, a mosque was attacked. And that is like, a red rag to a raging bull when bearing in mind what Islamists, so extreme Muslims might make of the situation. Both populations, the Indian population, demand retribution, and the Pakistani population are now demanding retribution. For their part, the Trump administration has largely avoided taking aside. keep in mind both of these countries are considered U.S. allies.

The White House simply said that they will engage the two to find a, quote, peaceful solution. Here's Glees on what a peace could look like. The best thing that would happen would be that India would say, Our Honor is satisfied. We've taught the Islamists, who we believe are being nurtured and cherished by Pakistan. We taught them a lesson they won't forget. we're not going to take this any further. And Pakistan will say we will try to gain something back from India,

but we at the moment are going to consider our position. We may attack in the future. It will be at a time and a place of our choosing, but we're not going to get into tit for tat. Pakistan has said they are mounting a military response to India strikes. It remains to be seen if that's just saber rattling or a true declaration of war. While we wait to find out, the Middle East and really the whole world is holding its breath. Yeah, for sure.

Now, this all comes as Trump is planning a major trip to the Middle East. What is he looking to accomplish there? Well, he's looking to lock up financial deals there and solidify his relationship with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates. Three of our most important allies in the Middle East, who often serve middlemen with the region helping us negotiate with our adversaries. For security reasons, the White House has yet to release the president's full schedule, but from what we've been told, he will focus on this trip more on economics as opposed to

diplomacy. And this is interesting. Ahead of the visit, Trump is reportedly planning to rename the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Arabia. That's important because for decades now, Arabian nations have been lobbying to have the Gulf renamed. So you could view this as a show of goodwill from Trump. You could also view it as a clear shot at Iran. And speaking of Iran, President Trump made some news this week regarding the Houthis.

What did we see there? Yeah, the Houthis, the terror group backed by Iran, have massively disrupted international shipping in the Red Sea. With missile and drone attacks on countless vessels, we've talked about it on the show, some of those ships have been American. In response, the Trump administration has launched a series of air strikes targeting Houthis in Yemen. But this week, the president announced that the Houthis, quote, don't want to fight anymore. He says they've agreed to end hostilities.

We will stop the bombings, and they have capitulated, but more importantly, we will take their word. They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore. Now, look, the timing here is crucial. Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Whitkoff, has been holding negotiations with Iran on a potential broader nuclear deal. The ceasefire with the Houthis could be a part of that larger process, certainly a step in the right direction. Yeah, major negotiations. We're keeping a close eye on those. Cabot, thanks so much for reporting.

Absolutely. If your razor company can't say what a man is, why let them near your face? Jeremy's gives you a close, clean shave with no confusion. With Jeremy's, you get five stainless steel blades that destroy stubble and corporate pandering, a precision trimmer for clean lines, and a lubrication strip with argon oil and aloe. Plus, they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. You try it, you don't like it, just send it back for a full refund. Head to Jeremy'sraisers.com slash morningwire or use code morningwire at checkout for 20% off your first order.

That's jeremysraisers.com slash morning wire and code morning wire for 20% off. President Trump and Republicans in Congress are making moves against state climate rules that they say infringe on federal authority. The fight has sparked both political and legal battles between Republicans in Washington and Democrat-led states. Here to talk about the fight over environmental policy is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. So, Tim, let's first talk about the legal fights. What's going on there? Yeah, the Department of Justice last week filed lawsuits against four states. Two of the complaints against Hawaiian, Michigan,

aimed to block lawsuits that those states filed against oil and gas companies. And then on Thursday, the federal government filed two more lawsuits against Vermont and New York over changes to state climate superfund laws. Morningwire spoke to H. Sterling Burnett, the director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute. Here's what he said about the DOJ's actions. What they're trying to accomplish is rein in states trying to dictate interstate commerce. We have a constitution.

In the Constitution, it specifically and solely delegates the power to regulate interstate commerce to the Congress of the United States of America. Not to California, not to New York, only to Congress. Each of these DOJ lawsuits focuses on the Clean Air Act, which the Trump administration says the states have violated with their attention. attempts to punish emissions. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement, quote, these burdensome ideologically motivated laws and lawsuits threaten American energy independence and our country's economic and national security. So she's framing this as a pretty dire issue. How are these states responding? They're pushing back. Hawaii Attorney General Ann Lopez said in a statement that the federal lawsuit filed by the DOJ attempts to block Hawaii

from holding the fossil fuel industry responsible for deceptive conduct that caused climate change damage. Hawaii governor Josh Green went a step farther and suggested that climate change exacerbated by fossil fuel companies is responsible for the 23 Lahaina Wildfire that killed 102 people. For context, Hawaii's utility companies said that the fire was actually caused by electrical equipment damaged by high winds. But officials from these states have all made accusations against fossil fuel companies, such as harming industries like tourism and agriculture through pollution and climate change. So really vilifying these companies. So what's happening on the political side? Right. This is actually something that has gotten a lot of bipartisan agreement. Last week, 35 Democrats voted with House Republicans to take away an exemption for California from the Clean Air Act. The waiver originally applied to pollution, but under the Obama administration, it expanded to cover vehicle emissions. Morning Wire spoke to Steve Malloy. He's the founder of JunkScience.com and served on the Trump EPA transition team. Here's what he said about the California waiver.

Because California is such a large car market, you know, carmakers don't make California. California cars and cars for the other 49 states. They just make one type of cars. So California, you know, wants to be able to drive gas power cars out of existence in favor of EVs. That waiver now may be on life support since it appears to be so unpopular in Congress. Well, and unpopular with voters, too. Tim, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me on.

Nielsen ratings have long been a guide to help gauge TV viewership, but new technology is delivering more accurate information. What it shows is that live sports programming absolutely dominates the market. Crane and Company co-host David Cohn joins us now to break down the numbers, hey, David. So Nielsen finally using this new way of analyzing the metrics and drawing in more data, it's really having some amazing results. What are we saying? Yeah, this is certainly a game changer for the TV ratings industry. And the context here is that it has become increasingly more difficult to track how people are engaging with their content

with cell phones and tablets and computer and smart TVs and such. But there is new technology and it's far more accurate. And the big switch to this new technology happened in January when Nielsen received accreditation for it. And they're calling this measurement technology big data plus panel. So what this does, it takes viewership data from cable and satellite set top boxes and combines that with smart TVs. And that is called automatic content recognition.

But it combines all of that with traditional panels. panel-based tabulation. So that's a panel of households and individuals who provide detailed viewership information, sort of how we think of as typical Nielsen TV ratings. Nielsen's CEO, Carthick-Roe announced that big data plus panel tech will be used for all of its clients starting this year, and he called it a massive change in measurement at scale. It sounds like an apt description in this case. So with this shift, we're seeing some pretty eye-popping numbers. What sectors are poised for the biggest boosts in viewership? All of the data is going to allow Nielsen to be more accurate, but sports is going to be a

big boon in this. Sports 100%. And naturally, sports programming already dominates much of America's media landscape. For instance, the NFL delivered 70 of the top 100 broadcast in 2024. That's 70%. But the new analyzation tool here is already signaling even higher audience totals going forward for the NFL. and really other sports. This of course is very good news when you think about how much money the NFL is spending in some of these, for some of these prime time games, and they're poised to benefit,

and they're calling the Big Data Plus panel technology a move to modernize measurements. Even Amazon has been among the early adopters of this new technology and said it's 2024 audience for Thursday night football alone has reached an average viewership of 14.2 million. So that's 8% higher than the traditional panel-based audience of 13.2 million. And this tool was also the basis for Super Bowl 59,

reaching an audience of 182.8 million. Absolutely, jaw-dropping numbers for sure. They really are. A total domination of sports is changing how many of these platforms think about this programming. I'll give you two more companies here, Amazon Prime and Netflix, spending huge amounts of money on live sports shows, and that shows just how crucial they think this is. Will this increase in viewership affect market? outside of the sort of big markets and the pro sports, like the local, more rural areas? No, the latter for sure, local and rural. I even have a quote here from Nielsen.

They think this technology will help add in harder to reach rural areas. This also benefits sports in a disproportionate way, given the communal viewing aspect that is inherent to live games. You can watch a football game with 10 of your buddies, something like that. And I do want to make one final point here because among the issues Nielsen is working through, one is reducing the turnaround time for reporting the results. The enhanced numbers typically take several days to tabulate for each broadcast, especially for some of these bigger events like we're talking about. They are now working to reduce that to one day turnaround very quickly,

similar to how traditional viewership totals have arrived. All of this welcome news, particularly for professional sports that are going to get higher and higher contracts for marketing, for sure. Dave, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Another story we're tracking this week. Black smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel Wednesday evening indicating that a new pope was not chosen on the first vote.

133 cardinals entered the chapel after vowing to protect the church's freedom and the secrecy of the conclave. The selection of a new pope requires a two-thirds majority. Previous conclaves last an average of three days. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with more news you need to know.