Morning Wire - Nord Stream Pipeline Attack: Whodonit? | 10.7.22

Episode Date: October 7, 2022

 A look at who attacked the Nord Stream pipelines, Oklahoma moves to limit transgender treatments for children, and we speak to an expert about the escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gross sabotage. That's what Sweden's Coast Guard is saying after their investigation into the Nordstream pipelines damage. The United States had nothing to do with it. It's just Russian propaganda and disinformation. The blame game intensifies as the world questions who is behind the explosions that forever damaged Europe's energy supply lines. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Hal. It's Friday, October 7th, and this is Morning Wire. Oklahoma takes steps to rein in gender reassignment treatments for, children. What is the state doing? And why is the governor warning it's not enough? And the U.S. and South Korea put on a show of force as North Korea increases military action in the area. We speak to an expert about the escalating tensions. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned.

We have the news you need to know. Hey there, producer Colton here. Do you like to be the first to know about trendy news and current events? If so, you got to get the Daily Wire Plus app. Not only will you receive mobile notifications whenever something's happening, but you'll also have access to the best commentary to break it all down. Download the DailyWire Plus app and keep up with the facts no matter where your day takes you. On Thursday, Swedish and Danish investigations into the Nord Stream pipelines announced they found evidence of gross sabotage. The pipelines connecting Russia's gas fields to Europe's energy market through Germany were both ruptured unexpectedly late last month. With no countries taking credit for the strike, suspicions have swirled about who did it and why. Here to discuss the Nord Stream explosions is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.

So, Tim, if this was intentional, which it now appears it was, this was a significant attack. Who are the leading suspects? Hey, John. Russia is the primary suspect, according to most officials in the West. They maintain that Russia blew the pipeline as a warning to European countries that Moscow could attack other energy sources. Some other potential culprits have also been floated, such as Ukraine, Poland, and even the United States. What makes this incident so interesting and baffling is that all these countries stand to risk a lot by doing this. Europe desperately needs energy right now, so it seems counterproductive for any European nation to cut off a potential energy source. Russia could have done it, but that would mean they bomb their own highly valuable infrastructure.

Ukraine has a strong motive, but it's unclear if they have the capacity to carry out such an attack right now. Now, the elephant in the room is the United States. US media has been hesitant to even discuss the possibility, but it's been floated as a possibility by foreign media and some commentators, Tucker Carlson, most notably, why are some people speculating that the U.S. took out Nord Stream? The evidence against the U.S. is circumstantial at best, and it's seen as sort of a fringe theory, but some experts have pointed to statements coming from the Biden administration and Biden himself. Here's Columbia University economics professor, Jeffrey Sachs, making the case against the U.S., in an appearance on Bloomberg News this week.

The destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline, which I would bet was a U.S. action, perhaps U.S. and Poland. This is speculation. Jeff, Jeff, we've got to stop there. That's quite a statement as well. Why do you feel that that was a U.S. action? What evidence do you have of that? Well, first of all, there's direct radar evidence that U.S. helicopters, military helicopters that are normally based in Gadask were circling over this. area. We also had the threats from the United States earlier in this year that one way or another,

we are going to end Nord Stream. We also have a remarkable statement by Secretary Blinken last Friday in a press conference. He says, this is also a tremendous opportunity. It's a strange way to, sorry, it's a strange way to talk if you're worried about the piracy on international infrastructure of vital significance. Sacks referenced comments from several Biden officials. hears Biden saying in February that he put an end to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if Russia invades Ukraine. There will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring it end to it. How will you do that exactly since the project and control of the project is within Germany's control? We will, I promise you, we'll be able to do it.

And earlier this month, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called the pipeline explosion a tremendous opportunity. It's a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin, the weaponization of energy is a means of advancing his imperial designs. But I should note, the U.S. has vigorously denied these allegations. Here's White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. Now we know it was an act of sabotage, but there's an investigation going on right now. I don't think we're going to get into credentialing that in terms of who is responsible.

We're going to let the investigators take a look at that. But clearly, this was an act of sabotage. Okay, so a forceful denial from the U.S., when can we expect to have some hard answers on this? Well, that's not entirely clear. Sweden on Thursday issued preliminary findings saying what many experts have said since the beginning that the evidence strongly suggests that it was an act of sabotage. Moscow has complained about the joint Dutch Sweden. investigation because Russia is not part of that team.

Right. Well, the eyes of the world will be on that investigation. We'll see what they determine. Yep. Tim, thanks for reporting. That was DailyWire's Tim Pierce. Coming up, Oklahoma takes action to limit gender transition services for children. If you like this podcast, subscribe to our Morning Wire newsletter available exclusively to daily wire members. Get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at Dailywire.com slash subscribe. Use code MorningWire to try Reader's Pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents. Oklahoma's governor signed a bill this week that bans Oklahoma's Children's Hospital from receiving

tax funding for gender transition services. The move is the latest attempt by a red state to limit child sex change procedures. Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marita Lorty, is here with the details for us. So, Marade, tell us about this bill. Hi, Georgia. Sure, so Oklahoma's Republican Governor Kevin Stitt signed this bill on Tuesday. The bill withholds funding to Oklahoma Children's Hospital unless the hospital agrees to stop performing gender transition procedures. The hospital agreed last week to comply.

At stake is $39.4 million in federal COVID relief funds that the hospital intended to use for its new pediatric mental health facility. It would have lost that funding if it continued offering the controversial services. We should note also, Oklahoma Children's Children's. is part of OU Health, the University of Oklahoma's health system. Stitt said the bill protects children from surgeries and treatments that have permanent effects. He called it, quote, wildly inappropriate for taxpayer dollars to be used for these types of controversial procedures on healthy children. The governor also said this bill does not go far enough, and he called on the legislature

to ban medical gender transition for children across the state. The bill, Senate Bill 3XX, goes into effect immediately. So this bill does not outlaw these treatments in Oklahoma. It just specifies that public funds can't be used for it at Oklahoma Children's Hospital. That's correct. So according to the new law, the money cannot go toward, quote, gender reassignment medical treatment for minors. So this could include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone treatments, and top or bottom gender surgeries. And those of the gender services, Oklahoma Children's Hospital, says it is now suspended. The website has now been updated to remove references to pausing puberty, hormone treatments, and surgery referrals. along with a statement from the health system about the new legislation. OU Health said in its statement, quote, in light of the legislation signed by Governor Stitt,

we have ceased hormone-related prescription therapies and surgical procedures for gender-affirming services on patients under the age of 18. So what's the reaction to this, Ben? Well, as you might expect, Republican lawmakers strongly defended the bill. State rep Kevin West said the bill protects children from irreversible mutilation

that has physical and psychological consequences that can damage these children for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, the ACLU of Oklahoma accused lawmakers of using the health care of trans-identifying youth as a bargaining chip. All right, well, definitely a hot-button issue and one will continue to watch. Mairee, thanks for reporting. Thanks, Georgia. That was Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Allorty.

Tensions continue to rise in East Asia after North Korea fired a missile over Japan for the first time in five years. In response, the U.S. deployed an aircraft carrier to the U. region. In an escalating active defiance, North Korea then flew 12 warplains near its border with South Korea on Thursday, prompting the South to scramble 30 military planes in response. The launch marked the seventh time a North Korean missile has flown over Japan, the last such move occurring back in August of 2017. Joining us to discuss is Bruce Klingner, Senior Research Fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation. So, Bruce, following this recent launch, what kind of

reaction are we seeing from Japan? Well, the government issued warnings to the populace to shelter in place. It was the first alerts that they've had in the last five years, but the Japanese populace, I think, took it in stride. They had been used to it in the past. But overall, the action is going to likely affirm the new trend amongst the populace for supporting increased defense spending, as well as having Japan develop counter-strike capabilities against North Korean missile targets, which had been provocative in the past, but now is seemingly pretty mainstream thinking. And how is the U.S. responded to this show of aggression by North Korea? Well, we've issued our sort of typical stern messages of criticism as well as pointing out that

it's yet another violation by North Korea of its U.N. resolution requirements to abandon its nuclear and missile programs as well as not conduct any ballistic missile launches. But under the recently inaugurated South Korean president, Yun Sokjul, the U.S. and South Korean Air Force has conducted a combined bombing drill using precision-guided munitions to show the North Korean art capability to deter North Korean actions or, if necessary, take actions against the North Korean leadership and other military targets. In the past couple months when North Korea has done missile launches, South Korea fired a commensurate number of their own missiles. All right, so some shows of solidarity between the U.S. and South Korea in response. What are the potential global implications of this move by North Korea? I think what it shows is that North Korea has been continuing its defiance of the international community, but also inching up the escalatory ladder.

Some of the actions it's done this year, such as this intermediate launch, over Japan as well as a previous intermediate range launch. So I think what we're likely to see is another nuclear test by North Korea. Both Washington and Seoul have been saying since March that preparations are complete and a test could be imminent. And we could see an ICBM test over Japan, perhaps even demonstrating not only its reentry vehicle capability, which it hasn't demonstrated yet, but perhaps even multiple warheads on an ICBM. How much of a threat does North Korea play currently to the U.S. and U.S. troops? A very, very real threat. They do have ICBMs that can range the entire continental United States.

They've tested six times nuclear weapons, including a massive hydrogen bomb, which was 10 times or more the size of the 1945 atomic weapons. And they also have... just in the last few years developed a dozen or so new short and medium range missiles, which are more capable than their predecessors. They can range all of South Korea and Japan, as well as our citizens and forces there. Some of the new missile systems have maneuverable warheads that may be able to evade allied missile defense systems. Certainly very concerning. What steps should the U.S. take next as far as de-escalating this tension? Right. Well, we've repeatedly reached out to North Korea

for diplomacy, talks, let alone negotiations, to try to diplomatically resolve the North Korean nuclear problem, Pyongyang has rejected all those entreaties. So, at the same time, what Washington and its allies need to do is maintain and augment its deterrence

and defense capabilities, everything from offensive forces to missile defense systems, as well as our conventional forces in the region. And also, we need to more fully enforce U.S. law success of U.S. administrations have not done that, including not even going after Chinese and North Korean entities committing money laundering crimes in the U.S. financial system.

Certainly a lot to keep an eye on as this continues to develop. Bruce, thanks for coming on. Thanks very much. That was Bruce Klinger, Senior Research Fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation. Other stories were tracking this week. The Biden administration announced Thursday the U.S. will begin screening anyone traveling from Uganda for Ebola. The move comes as the highly contagious virus is causing outbreaks across Uganda.

Meta, Facebook's parent company, has revoked offers for internships for those who are going to begin work at its London locations next year. Last year, CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said they planned to fireworkers and pause hires. U.S. intelligence authorities have claimed that sections of the Ukrainian government greenlit a car bomb in Russia this summer that killed the daughter of an ally of President Putin. That's according to the New York Times. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation.

If you love our show and you stand with our mission, consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.