Morning Wire XX
[0] Inflation accelerates to its highest point since 1981, adding financial strain on families already in the red.
[1] Your morning breakfast price is going up all away from the eggs, but to the bacon and the toast and everything else.
[2] How long will it last and how bad will it get?
[3] I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[4] It's Wednesday, April 13th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] The U .S. State Department has ordered all staff out of Shanghai.
[6] The move comes after the Chinese government forced residents.
[7] to remain locked in their homes for weeks.
[8] We discussed the latest from the Shanghai lockdown.
[9] And a shooting on a New York subway during morning rush hour leave 16 injured.
[10] We would not allow New Yorkers to be terrorized, even by a single individual.
[11] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[12] Stay tuned.
[13] We have the news you need to know.
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[20] Amid skyrocketing gas and food prices, new data shows that U .S. inflation has once again soared, hitting rates not seen in over four decades.
[21] Here with more on what's driving the spike and how Americans are changing their consumer habits in response is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips.
[22] Cabot, what's the latest on inflation?
[23] Well, it's not good.
[24] I hate to always be the bearer of bad news on the economy here, but when it comes to inflation, there really is no good news right now.
[25] And there hasn't been all year.
[26] Each month, things have gotten progressively worse.
[27] And now this latest batch of data shows that inflation accelerated 8 .5 % in the market.
[28] March.
[29] That is the fastest rate we've seen since 1981.
[30] Now, once again, it was gasoline and food prices leading the way, but we also saw a 10 % spike in airline prices from February to March, and there were similar spikes on different services across the board.
[31] Remember, the Federal Reserve sets a target rate of 2 % inflation each year, and from 2016 to 2020, we were around that, anywhere from 0 to 2%.
[32] But we've now had six straight months with at least 6%.
[33] Now, the Biden administration has touted the fact that wages have risen by over 5 .6 % in the last year.
[34] And they kind of touted that as a silver lining from this new data.
[35] But when you've got 8 .5 % inflation, that means wages have actually gone down by 2 .7%.
[36] That's the largest decrease in what economists call real wages in over 40 years.
[37] So bad news on the latest report from the Department of Labor.
[38] Now, what do we know about how people are responding?
[39] Well, from an economic standpoint, we've already seen people start changing.
[40] changing their consumer habits to adapt to these higher prices.
[41] For example, one NBC poll talked to 4 ,000 Americans and found that 53 % had started to cut back on dining out.
[42] 39 % had cut back on driving to avoid higher gas prices.
[43] 29 % had canceled at least one trip or vacation.
[44] And when asked if they'd borrowed money or gone into debt just to cover monthly expenses, 20 % said they had.
[45] Wow.
[46] And politically speaking, most Americans are responding by blaming President Biden.
[47] Poll after poll shows us that.
[48] For example, one Rasmussen survey found that 64 % of likely voters say the Biden administration has made inflation worse.
[49] That same poll found that just 8 % think that they've helped alleviate the problem.
[50] And when asked if voters think it's Biden or Putin who's more to blame for the country's economic struggles, again, poll after poll shows people say Biden is most to blame.
[51] So bad news there for the Biden administration.
[52] So how is the president handling this crisis?
[53] What's his message been so far?
[54] That's the thing.
[55] The message has kind of shifted over these different states.
[56] stages of inflation.
[57] So back in December, when it started to pick up, he said it was, quote, the peak of the crisis and kind of implied that it wasn't going to be bad for long.
[58] And I think you'll see it change sooner than quicker than more rapidly than it will take than most people think.
[59] But then as inflation continued over the next two months, the administration said supply chain backups and COVID were the real reason for inflation.
[60] The inflation has everything to do with the supply chain.
[61] And I think what you're seeing is that we've been able to make progress on speeding up the access to materials.
[62] And then, as inflation still continued in the last month, the president really started to shift blame away from COVID and away from supply chain backups and more towards Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.
[63] We've seen the price of gas go up over a dollar just since he put his troops on the border.
[64] border.
[65] The current spiking gas prices is largely the fault of Vladimir Putin.
[66] Now, critics of the president have pointed out that prices on gasoline and other essential goods were already spiking well before the war in Ukraine.
[67] We've talked about that on the show a good bit.
[68] They say a certain level of inflation might be expected coming out of COVID lockdowns as people get back into the economy, but that his multi -trillion dollar spending packages have really been what's weakened the dollar and created a massive influx of new money into the economy, which hurts everyone, especially low -income families.
[69] They also say as energy policies have caused gas prices to skyrocket, which has also, again, contributed to inflation further.
[70] We've talked on the show a lot about midterms, and you just cannot overstate how important inflation is going to be in these elections.
[71] It really is shaping up to be the key issue for voters as November approaches.
[72] Right.
[73] It's easy to see why.
[74] Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[75] Anytime.
[76] That's Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[77] Coming up, the Chinese government locks residents of Shanghai in their homes.
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[90] The U .S. State Department has ordered all staff out of Shanghai as the Chinese city enters its third week of strict isolation.
[91] But China defended its lockdowns and accused the U .S. of politicizing their handling of the outbreak.
[92] Here to tell us more as DailyWire's Ian Howarth.
[93] Ian, we're seeing truly shocking reports out of Shanghai.
[94] What's going on there.
[95] What do we know?
[96] Well, from the limited insight we have into life on the ground in Shanghai, the devastating human impact of China's ruthless zero -COVID policy is becoming clear.
[97] To catch people up who might not have been following this story, at the end of March, Chinese authorities put half of Shanghai, the financial capital of China, into lockdown over a sharp increase in COVID -19 cases.
[98] Barricades were placed shutting off one side of the city from the other, and public transport was shut down in many areas.
[99] The plan was to divide the city with one half under lockdown for a few days until the other side went into lockdown.
[100] But this sparked mass panic with people rushing to try and get basic supplies before being forced to stay in their homes.
[101] And last week, we reported on Morning Wire that the entire city of Shanghai, a city of 26 million people, entered full lockdown.
[102] And this is all despite the fact that only a few hundred symptomatic cases were recorded on that day.
[103] And now, we're seeing the consequences of what can only be described as a brutal lockdown policy, with tens of millions of citizens locked in their homes for several weeks.
[104] Yeah, it sounds like a nightmare.
[105] Tell us about that policy.
[106] Well, right now, if you live in Shanghai, the only way you're allowed to leave your home is to take a COVID test.
[107] And if you test positive, whether you're symptomatic or not, you're then taken off to one of many COVID detention camps for an unknown amount of time.
[108] And these camps are crowded, mixed symptomatic and asymptomatic people, and are lacking in basic sanitation facilities and other supplies.
[109] And with people locked in their homes, we're seeing reports of suicides, people starving from lack of food.
[110] and even state authorities killing pets left in homes of people carted off to these detention centers.
[111] And there has apparently been a widespread reaction to all of this within the bounds of the Chinese communist regime.
[112] One video which seemed to show citizens screaming from their windows in Shanghai has gone viral.
[113] And one of several controversial policies involved separating COVID -positive children from their parents, with parents only allowed to accompany children to these detention centers following a backlash.
[114] But for now, the situation remains bleak and will likely only escalate as the crisis worsens.
[115] Has there been any response from Chinese authorities?
[116] Are they still standing by their zero -COVID policy?
[117] Well, we obviously shouldn't be surprised that they're refusing to acknowledge any downside to their own strategy.
[118] According to Chinese media, some authorities are even doubling down.
[119] In one state -backed outlet, for example, Western countries were accused of a, quote, lying flat policy, allowing people to get sick.
[120] Meanwhile, according to the outlet, China's so -called dynamic zero -COVID policy, partnered with its socialist system, quote, has a strong ability to organize and mobilize.
[121] Of course, based on the limited information we've seen, the reality on the ground is quite different.
[122] Yeah, and it's very unsettling.
[123] Thanks for the update, Ian.
[124] You got it, thanks.
[125] That was DailyWire's Ian Howers.
[126] On Tuesday morning, a gunman opened fire in a crowded New York subway, shooting 10 people and injuring at least 16.
[127] Joining us to discuss is Daily Wires Tim Pierce.
[128] Tim, this is a quickly developing story.
[129] First, tell us about the attack.
[130] What happened?
[131] Well, it was a horrific scene.
[132] According to witnesses, the suspect boarded the train right during peak rush hour.
[133] He was seen mumbling before he applied a gas mask to his face, open a canister of a smoke -like substance, and opened fire.
[134] Here's police commissioner Kishon Sewell describing the scene during a press conference on Tuesday.
[135] Just before 824 this morning, as a Manhattan -bound end train waited to enter the 36th Street station, an individual on that train donned what appeared to be a gas mask.
[136] He then took a canister out of his business.
[137] He then took a canister out of bag and opened it.
[138] The train at that time began to fill with smoke.
[139] He then opened fire, tracking multiple people on the subway and in the platform.
[140] And what do we know right now about the suspect?
[141] Well, we don't know much, but police did identify the suspect as a heavy set black male, about five feet, five inches tall.
[142] He was dressed in a gray hoodie and a green construction vest.
[143] Police recovered his gun and his bag, which included more smoke canisters and fireworks.
[144] police located a U -Haul van believed to be connected with the shooter Tuesday afternoon.
[145] Law enforcement began looking for the van after officers searching the subway found a credit card believed to belong to the gunman.
[146] The card was used to purchase a rental truck out of Philadelphia.
[147] The male who we believe is the renter of this U -Haul in Philadelphia is a male 62 years old with addresses in Wisconsin and Philadelphia.
[148] We are endeavoring to locate him to determine his connection to the the subway shooting, if any.
[149] But police say this wasn't related to terrorism.
[150] Well, they're hesitant to label it as terror, but New York City Mayor Eric Adams seemed to imply it could be.
[151] A lot of eyes will be on Adams and how he handles us, because crime was actually one of the pillars of his 2021 campaign.
[152] Last summer, Adams actually said that public safety was a cornerstone to New York City's economic recovery.
[153] He called public safety the prerequisite to prosperity.
[154] In fact, Adams ran specifically on securing the subway.
[155] Here he is campaigning back in May. They should not go to their buses, their trains, their stations, and have to be assaulted, have to be someone spit on them, someone attacked them, someone slashed them.
[156] That is not to New York, I know, and that is not to New York I'm going to return to.
[157] Authorities have asked witnesses of the attack to submit any photos and videos they may have taken to help investigators get a better insight into what happened on the subway Tuesday morning.
[158] Strangely, security cameras inside the subway station appear to have failed during the shooting.
[159] The footage authorities are working with may be entirely from that caught on cell phones bystanders.
[160] But there were no deaths.
[161] No deaths, even though 10 people so far have been treated for gunshot wounds.
[162] Wow, that's kind of a miracle.
[163] Well, Tim, please keep us informed.
[164] We'll do.
[165] That's Daily Wires, Tim Pierce.
[166] Other stories were tracking this week.
[167] New York Democratic Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin was arrested on Tuesday morning over campaign finance -related federal charges.
[168] He resigned soon after the arrest.
[169] The allegations are reportedly connected to a prior campaign.
[170] The UNICEF Emergency Programs Director said Monday that nearly two -thirds of all Ukrainian children have been displaced, forced to leave their homes, schools, and often their family members.
[171] Of the 3 .2 million children who remained home, nearly half may be at risk of not having enough food.
[172] And amid skyrocketing gas prices, the Biden administration will allow gasoline containing 15 % ethanol to be sold this summer, a 5 % higher mix than is usually allowed.
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