Morning Wire XX
[0] I'm Georgia Howe.
[1] It's Friday, July 21st, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
[2] A North Carolina Pfizer pharmaceutical plant that makes anesthesia drugs suffered heavy damage from a tornado earlier this week.
[3] Pfizer confirmed that the large manufacturing complex was damaged by a twister that touched down shortly after midday near Rocky Mount.
[4] The company went on to say in an email that it had no reports of serious injuries and all employees were safely evacuated and accounted for.
[5] After hitting the Pfizer plant, the Twister headed north, where some residents say they're just happy to be alive.
[6] I know now two things I've learned in this endeavor.
[7] One is that I am truly blessed.
[8] And two is that I have very good neighbors.
[9] The boyfriend of Carly Russell, the Alabama woman who disappeared mysteriously for two days last week, has wiped all traces of her from his social media.
[10] The Facebook page of Tomar Latrell Simmons was once filled with photos of him and Russell, but now those photos have been removed.
[11] The picture purge comes hours after Hoover Police revealed some strange internet searches that Carly had done in the days before going missing, including searching a movie about abduction and whether or not she was too old to be the subject of an Amber Alert.
[12] There were two searches later to Amber Alerts on a computer at Carly's place of employment, including one regarding the maximum age of an amber alert.
[13] There were other searches on Carly's phone that appeared to shed some light on her mindset, but I'd respect for her privacy, we will not be releasing the content.
[14] Russian prosecutors have asked a court to imprison opposition leader Alexei Navalny for 20 years.
[15] According to allies of Navalny, the trial, which went on behind closed doors in the prison where the politician is serving another lengthy sentence, is scheduled to conclude with a verdict on August 4th.
[16] The 47 -year -old opposition leader is President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe who exposed official corruption and organized major anti -Kremlin protests.
[17] He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.
[18] A row of phycus trees outside of Universal Studios have become a huge point of contention between Hollywood Studios and striking screenwriters and actors.
[19] Members of SAG AFRA and some local politicians are accusing the studio of a shady move, saying the studio purposefully pruned the trees in an effort to remove a source of shade for workers picketing under the hot California sun.
[20] Still, actors and screenwriters gathered outside the studio under the recently trimmed trees.
[21] Here's what one picketing writer told Fox 11 about what they're calling a coincidentally timed tree trimming.
[22] It's just a coincidence too many for some, I think, something unscheduled, apparently unpermitted, that...
[23] It doesn't feel right to you.
[24] It doesn't feel right.
[25] There are things that they could be doing to enhance safety for both for picketers, for their own employees, and for the public.
[26] Universal Studios did release the following statement, quote, We understand that the safety tree trimming of the ficus created unintended challenges for demonstrators.
[27] That was not our intention.
[28] We support the WGA and SAG's right to demonstrate.
[29] In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a jury awarded an eight -year -old girl and her family $800 ,000 after the child suffered second -degree burns due to a hot chicken McNugget that scalded her leg in 2019.
[30] The injury happened as the mother was pulling out of a drive -through, causing the extremely hot McNugget to land on the child's lap.
[31] Attorneys were seeking $15 million in damages.
[32] A winning ticket has been sold in California for the powerball jackpot worth an estimated $1 .08 billion, the sixth largest in U .S. history and the third largest in the history of the game.
[33] The California Lottery said on Twitter that the winning ticket was sold in Los Angeles at Los Palmitas Mini Mart.
[34] Those are your drive -home updates this afternoon.
[35] To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire .com.
[36] And for more in -depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.