Morning Wire XX
[0] The U .S. is increasing its military aid to Ukraine and taking in thousands of refugees.
[1] And the United States and our allies and partners are moving as fast as possible to continue to provide Ukraine the forces that they need, the weapons they need, excuse me, the equipment they need.
[2] Their forces need to defend their nation.
[3] We'll discuss the details of the new refugee program and how it plays into the ongoing immigration crisis.
[4] I'm John Vickley with Georgia Howl.
[5] It's Friday, April 22nd, and this is Morning Wire.
[6] Elon Musk has secured the funds he needs in his effort to take control of Twitter.
[7] What's his new plan and how likely is it to work?
[8] And Baltimore doubles down on its alternative approach to policing.
[9] How has the approach worked so far?
[10] And will the city's latest moves have their intended effect?
[11] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[12] Stay tuned.
[13] We have the news you need to know.
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[21] With fighting continuing in Ukraine, President Joe Biden spoke to the nation Thursday to discuss what the United States and other Western nations can do to help.
[22] Here to tell us more is Daily Wires Ian Howarth.
[23] First, Ian, what did President Biden say in this address?
[24] Well, in this address, which was brief and took place Thursday morning, the president announced $800 million more in military aid, adding to around $2 .6 billion in total U .S. security assistance already committed to Ukraine by his administration.
[25] Last week, I signed an $800 million package of security assistance to Ukraine that included new capabilities like artillery systems and armored personnel carriers, equipment that is responsive to Ukraine's needs, and tailored to support the intensified fight.
[26] in the Dombos region.
[27] This latest package includes the sort of suppliers present Zelensky and his government have been desperate for.
[28] We're talking heavy artillery, 144 ,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as drones for Ukrainian forces in the eastern regions of the country.
[29] Biden also warned that he's approaching the end of authorized funds, so Congress would need to approve further rounds of assistance.
[30] With this latest disbursement, I've almost exhausted the drawdown authority I have that Congress authorized for Ukraine in a bipartisan spending bill last month.
[31] In order to sustain Ukraine for the duration of this fight, next week I'm going to have to be sending to Congress a supplemental budget request to keep weapons and ammunition flowing without interruption.
[32] After the short address, Biden was asked how long the U .S. can keep up this level of military aid for Ukraine.
[33] Here's how Biden responded with a nod towards the international theme of his rhetoric throughout the war in Ukraine.
[34] Well, we have a capacity to do.
[35] this for a long time.
[36] The question is, are we going to continue to maintain the support of the international community?
[37] Now, aside from military aid, is the administration offering anything else to help Ukrainians?
[38] Yeah, they are.
[39] There's a concurrent program which is focusing on the growing refugee crisis, which the Russian invasion of Ukraine sent into overdrive.
[40] On Thursday, Biden's Department of Homeland Security also announced that U .S. citizens, as a as well as other groups, will be allowed to financially sponsor Ukrainian refugees so they can come to the United States sooner.
[41] This will allow Ukrainians who qualify to be granted what's known as humanitarian parole.
[42] So instead of waiting for the usual visa and refugee programs, which can sometimes take years, they can get in much more quickly and live and work legally in the country for two years.
[43] This policy named Uniting for Ukraine is set to launch on April 25th.
[44] Now, as we've covered recently, there is a serious immigration crisis going on right now.
[45] So How does this new program play into that crisis?
[46] Yeah, this policy appears to be taking the ongoing crisis at the southern border into account.
[47] According to the Biden administration, this uniting for Ukraine policy is meant to try and de -incentivize Ukrainians from traveling to Mexico to gain entry into the U .S. illegally.
[48] For example, last month, U .S. border control processed a record 3 ,274 Ukrainians, which is a jump of over 1 ,000 percent from the month before.
[49] and most of the nearly 15 ,000 Ukrainians who have entered the country illegally in the past three months came across the Mexican border.
[50] But with this new policy in place, from April 25th onwards, Ukrainians, without the proper documentation, will no longer be allowed to pass through that border.
[51] Well, we'll have to see whether that incentive works.
[52] Ian, thanks for reporting.
[53] Of course, thanks, Georgia.
[54] That was Daily Wires, Ian Howarth.
[55] Coming up, Elon Musk secures enough funds to potentially buy Twitter.
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[59] On Thursday, Elon Musk announced that he's secured over $46 billion in funding as part of his plan to take Twitter private.
[60] But Twitter's board still hasn't responded to his initial offer.
[61] Here to provide insight into this ongoing power struggle is Carl Zabo, the vice president and general counsel of net choice and a professor at George Mason Law School.
[62] So Carl first, can you explain for us what we're seeing play out here?
[63] Yeah, thanks, John.
[64] You know, I feel like I'm watching an episode of the TV show Succession or the TV show Billions with the way that this is kind of playing out.
[65] So the first action that Elon Musk made was he made what was.
[66] kind of called a bear hug or tender offer where he proposed to purchase the company at $54 a share.
[67] Currently, Twitter is trading around $47 a share.
[68] So the idea behind this proposal was it was an offer so good that the board would actually be violating its fiduciary duties to the shareholders by rejecting it.
[69] What we've seen since then is the board attempt to block this buyout by injecting what's called a poison pill.
[70] What they mean by a poison pill is kind of what it sounds like.
[71] If you eat it, you will get sick.
[72] And the sickness here that's been proposed by the board is if Elon Musk purchased Twitter, then the board will what is called dilute the shares.
[73] Now, as Georgia mentioned, Musk has just announced that he's secured $46 .5 billion, including debt financing from Morgan Stanley and other sources.
[74] If the board continues to block his offer, Does he have some other options here?
[75] He does have a couple other options.
[76] So the board rejects his offer.
[77] There could be a lawsuit, challenging.
[78] This would be brought actually by the shareholders for the board violating its fiduciary duty.
[79] Elon Musk could go directly to the shareholders themselves, something like out of the movie Wall Street, and ask them to just throw out the board, and then he could make the offer again.
[80] He still has a third option where he can just go to the open market and try to buy out more and more shares.
[81] So this is not the only avenue that Elon Musk has available to him if it's something he wants to pursue.
[82] And so far, it seems like he's willing to stay the course at his initial offer of $54.
[83] What prompted Musk's offer in the first place is the issue of free speech, regardless of how this turns out, has Musk's buyout attempt been productive in terms of promoting free speech on Twitter?
[84] You know, let's remember that when Elon Musk announced his 9 % ownership of Twitter, they'd offered him a seat on the board, and he ended up turning that down, potentially because there were too many strings attached to it.
[85] And that's kind of what led us to where we are today with the desire to make a total acquisition.
[86] On the matter of content moderation, we've already seen the impact of Elon Musk's presence in this conversation.
[87] For a long time, Elon Musk has called for an edit button on Twitter.
[88] and we heard shortly after his 9 % announcement that Twitter would be instituting an edit button.
[89] But what's really intriguing to see is kind of the 180 we've seen from Democrats and Republicans on the rights of Twitter to host and remove speech that it does or does not want.
[90] You've seen people on MSNBC, The Washington Post, and even Saturday Night Live pundits calling it a threat to freedom of speech with Musk were to take over.
[91] And you have Republicans on the other side saying, well, no, it's the right of a private business to decide what type of content it wants and wants to remove.
[92] I think the important takeaway for all of us is that we don't want politicians dictating to any private entity, whether a business, whether an individual, what it has to say and what it cannot say.
[93] that is at the heart of our First Amendment, and it's illustrative for all of us that we should recognize that private businesses are the ones that should be making the decisions on what type of content is or is not appropriate, not politicians, not pundits, and not people on TV.
[94] Indeed, Carl, Carl, Carl, Carl, Carl, Carl, Carl, Carl, Carl, Carl.
[95] Carl, Carl, Carl, Carl.
[96] Though the murder rate in Baltimore is soaring, the city is doubling down on a failed violence intervention program it calls safe streets.
[97] Baltimore slashed its police presence back in 2020.
[98] And despite a hasty attempt to refund the force, 2021 was the bloodiest year in decades.
[99] Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Alluredi, is here with the details for us.
[100] So, Marade, what does crime look like in Baltimore these days?
[101] Sure.
[102] So deadly violence in Baltimore continues to smash records.
[103] The murder rate has spiked to just shy of 100 homicides so far this year, about 10 more than this time last year.
[104] The victims range from teenagers to grandparents.
[105] Deadly shootings are also sky high.
[106] Over the Easter weekend alone, more than a dozen people were shot at least one fatally.
[107] The violence is threatening to profoundly change the city, too.
[108] One of the safest areas of the city, Inner Harbor downtown, has started seeing deadly shootings nearby.
[109] Now, economists are predicting that if violent crime continues to seep into previously safe, zones downtown, the city may face long -term economic damage since downtown relies on tourism and people won't come if they don't feel safe.
[110] Now, even before 2020, Baltimore was known for crime, but you're saying the situation has deteriorated even in the last year.
[111] Definitely.
[112] So tell us about the Safe Streets program.
[113] What is it and how does it work?
[114] Yeah, so the Safe Streets program has been around since 2007, but now Baltimore is really leaning into it as an alternative to policing violent criminals.
[115] Safe Streets uses what they call violence interruptors instead of police officers to spread an anti -violence message and encourage positive changes to individual behavior.
[116] The city recently conducted an internal review of the Safe Streets program and the results were not encouraging.
[117] The review found that the program is disorganized and lacks oversight.
[118] It also found the program's workers who regularly go into high -conflict situations unarmed don't have adequate training to handle the dangerous situations they face.
[119] A majority of Safe Streets workers said they themselves have been victims of gun violence.
[120] In fact, three workers were killed within 18 months, including one in January.
[121] Despite all of this, last week, Baltimore mayor Brandon Scott announced an additional $10 million for the program.
[122] Scott insisted that, quote, we know that it works, but they haven't had the support they needed.
[123] We should note here as well that violence intervention programs have been rolled out in several major American cities since the 90s, and they became more popular during the defund the police movement.
[124] But according to studies, there is not a whole lot of evidence to show they really work to lower gun violence or murders.
[125] One program in Pittsburgh is even linked with an increase in violent crime in certain neighborhoods.
[126] There was a lot of buzz around these types of programs during the summer of 2020, I remember.
[127] And Baltimore was also one of the cities to cut its police budget in 2020.
[128] How much did they cut in Baltimore?
[129] That's right.
[130] In 2020, Baltimore cut its police budget by $22 million.
[131] That effort was led by the current mayor Scott, who is city council president at the time.
[132] Last year, though, Scott ended up increasing the police budget by $28 million.
[133] The increase hasn't done much to curb crime, though, and the city is also facing a police officer shortage.
[134] The Baltimore Police Department even announced recently that it will start hiring civilians on its detective force.
[135] Student activists at Johns Hopkins University, which is located in Baltimore held sit -ins and protests in 2019 when the school announced that it was creating a private police force.
[136] The school delayed the move, but now says it's necessary to move forward with a private police force so the school can keep students safe.
[137] Now, has Baltimore done anything to try to reassure residents about this crime problem?
[138] Well, Mayor Scott did issue a warning to criminals last month, which was a particularly bloody one for the city.
[139] Scott said Baltimore has a long -standing issue with crime and that it's not just up to the police department to solve.
[140] the problem.
[141] It's up to the community, too.
[142] Meanwhile, Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison called the ongoing violence frustrating and disheartening.
[143] Right.
[144] It's definitely one of Baltimore's biggest issues, and it sounds like it's getting worse.
[145] Marade, thanks for reporting.
[146] Thanks, Georgia.
[147] That's Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Allorty.
[148] Another story we're tracking this week.
[149] Netflix stock collapsed 35 % Wednesday.
[150] The streaming giant says they will now crack down on people who share logins.
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