Morning Wire XX
[0] A mysterious syndrome is afflicting American spies and diplomats, causing severe headaches and memory loss.
[1] What is Havana syndrome, and what do experts think is behind the bizarre phenomenon?
[2] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire, editor -in -chief, John Bickley.
[3] It's Saturday, July 31st, and this is Morning Wire.
[4] China is rejecting Hollywood's blockbusters, and that's sending shockwaves through the entertainment industry.
[5] What's behind China's refusal to play major?
[6] American films, and what impact will that have on the kind of movies we will see going forward?
[7] And Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently unveiled his vision for what he believes will be a new frontier and online experience.
[8] What does the Facebook Metaverse mean for the future of the internet?
[9] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[10] Stay tuned.
[11] We have the news you need to know.
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[17] A growing number of U .S. government personnel have been afflicted with Havana syndrome, a mysterious, often debilitating ailment that has baffled medical experts and raised national defense concerns.
[18] Here to tell us more is Daily Wire Managing Editor Cabot Phillips.
[19] So, Cabot, this is a crazy story.
[20] When did this first start?
[21] So back in 2016, U .S. diplomats in Cuba began reporting symptoms like dizziness, nausea, and debilitating headaches, usually while staying in their hotel rooms in Havana.
[22] Some victims reported hearing an unbearable ringing sound while lying in bed, which quickly disappeared when they moved a few feet to the left or right.
[23] Soon, some of those who'd been affected began experiencing severe short -term memory loss, and scans showed what amounted to traumatic brain injuries, similar to a car crash victim or football.
[24] player.
[25] Officials at first thought this was an isolated incident and responded by withdrawing half of our personnel from Cuba, but then cases started being reported around the globe in China, England, Russia, Austria, and even D .C. We're talking about over 200 incidents at this point, and that's just what's been reported.
[26] And this is happening on American soil.
[27] It is now, yeah, on White House grounds, actually.
[28] In November, a senior official on the National Security Council was walking to his car when he reported hearing a horrible ringing in his ears, and his body went numb and he lost the ability to speak or control his arms and legs.
[29] He was rushed to the ER where doctors thought he was having a stroke, but after a series of MRIs and other scans, they still couldn't explain the symptoms.
[30] It wasn't until he reported the incident to his superiors that they realized what the likely cause was, and it turns out at least one other White House official had experienced the exact same thing.
[31] Okay, so lots of questions here.
[32] First, what do we think is causing the symptoms?
[33] So from what we're told, experts initially thought that they were being caused by acoustic or sonic anomalies, as they call them.
[34] But now the working theory is that there's some sort of weapon or device that can send concentrated microwaves at victims.
[35] After the initial attacks in Cuba, the thought was that these devices were stationary and might be planted in walls.
[36] But after the attacks in D .C., those were on moving targets.
[37] The growing consensus became that whatever is sending these microwaves is likely some sort of portable device or weapon.
[38] This is like out of a sci -fi.
[39] Do we have any clue who's behind the attacks?
[40] Well, the government is hesitant right now to publicly call these attacks.
[41] They're calling them incidents because of the national security implications, but internally, they're reportedly viewing them as attacks.
[42] The most common theory right now is that Russia is to blame.
[43] They have a major presence in Havana and Vienna, two of the cities where the most cases were reported, and U .S. officials believe Russia has developed targeted microwave radiation technology that could be to blame.
[44] But again, those are just theories.
[45] It could be some other foreign entity.
[46] We just don't know right now.
[47] Okay, so we don't know who is behind these attacks, but are there any theories about possible motives?
[48] So experts right now are exploring two main theories here.
[49] First, that the intention is simply to intimidate U .S. officials and send a message to our intelligence community that someone out there is going after us.
[50] Keep in mind, some of these victims are reportedly American spies who our government thought were undercover.
[51] So creepy.
[52] Yeah.
[53] The other theory from some experts is that these microwaves could be a means of remote, retrieving data from computers and phones, and that the injuries are just a byproduct, but not the main goal.
[54] Both theories are pretty concerning.
[55] How is the U .S. government responding?
[56] Initially, they were slow to respond because they weren't sure if the incidents and symptoms were even connected.
[57] But following this latest string of attacks in Vienna, they're now confident they are.
[58] The State Department has created a task force to investigate, and this week the CIA did the same.
[59] They appointed an unnamed officer who reportedly helped track down Osama bin Laden.
[60] in, and he's going to be leading up the search for answers.
[61] Fascinating and kind of terrifying.
[62] Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this.
[63] Cabot, thanks for the update.
[64] Absolutely.
[65] Daily Wire Managing Editor, Cabot Phillips.
[66] Up next, a rift opens between Hollywood and China.
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[72] The last few blockbusters to come out of Hollywood haven't released to Chinese theaters, and that's sending shockwaves through the entertainment industry.
[73] Here to discuss why China has shut the doors on Hollywood is Daily Wire Entertainment reporter Megan Basham.
[74] Thanks for coming on, Megan.
[75] Morning, John.
[76] So first, set the table for us.
[77] How big of a deal is it that these blockbusters haven't opened in China.
[78] Well, you know, one of the key things to know as we look at this issue is that last year, China overtook the U .S. as the top grossing film market in the world.
[79] So first time in history.
[80] Right.
[81] Now, obviously, the pandemic played a role in that America could take back the number one spot eventually, but what it reveals is just how dependent studios have become on those Chinese earnings.
[82] And really, it's a simple question of market size.
[83] China has a population of about 1 .4 billion people compared to the U .S .'s 330 million.
[84] And American action and animated films tend to perform very well there.
[85] 30 to 50 percent of international ticket sales often come from China.
[86] Wow.
[87] So, yeah, and that's why Hollywood has been working so hard for the last couple of decades, really, to convince the Chinese government to import more of our American movies.
[88] So that's why we see so many stories about studios making their movies and press tours appeal to China.
[89] Exactly.
[90] And, you know, there have been some pretty noteworthy examples recently.
[91] F9 star John Sina's public apology for calling Taiwan a country.
[92] Paramount removing the Japanese and Taiwanese flag patches from Maverick's iconic leather jacket for the Top Gun sequel.
[93] I mean, that got a lot of attention.
[94] So it's not fun for studios to see headlines dunking on them for pandering to CCP sensors.
[95] And it's even less fun when Congress introduces legislation that would block federal funding for producers caught altering content to appease China.
[96] That's something Republicans did last year with something called the Script Act.
[97] Now, the Senate also introduced a bipartisan bill addressing this issue.
[98] Both Marco Rubio and Elizabeth Warren are backing it, so that tells you something.
[99] Right.
[100] But studios have been willing to endure those hits for the sake of their bottom line.
[101] In the last couple of months, though, that careful handling of Beijing hasn't resulted in Chinese premieres.
[102] Do we know why those films haven't received release dates?
[103] Well, you know, it can be tough to say because the Chinese censorship boards process, it's notoriously murky.
[104] It doesn't take much of a misstep for their board to suddenly turn against a film.
[105] Now, part of the reason right now could be the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party founding.
[106] The CCP has reserved a lot of theaters for Chinese propaganda movies.
[107] But Disney faces a special problem that illustrates just how fraught this situation has become.
[108] Now, after it tapped Chinese -born director Chloe Zhao for Marvel Z. Eternals, her past comments critical of the Communist Party resurfaced.
[109] Since then, the CCP has turned pretty icy towards Disney.
[110] Interesting.
[111] Do you think the strain between Hollywood and China is temporary?
[112] You know, I actually don't.
[113] For one thing, China wants to build up its own film market, and it's really used these Hollywood partnerships as a way to sort of learn the top tools of the trade.
[114] So what they now have is an entertainment industry boom going on.
[115] Meanwhile, with developments like the Script Act, studio censorship is not flying under the radar the way it has in the past.
[116] They're facing a lot of bad PR.
[117] I think that's part of the reason that Space Jam has performed so poorly domestically.
[118] So in the long run, I think Hollywood may have to reorient its business model back to domestic audiences.
[119] To me, that will be a good thing.
[120] I think a lot of people agree.
[121] Thanks for talking this morning, Megan.
[122] Thanks for having me. Daily Wire Entertainment reporter, Megan Basham.
[123] Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently outlined his vision for what he is describing as a metaverse.
[124] Joining us to explain Zuckerberg's ambitious plan is DailyWire's Ian Howarth.
[125] Hi, Georgia.
[126] Ian, in a previous life you worked in Silicon Valley, can you please explain what a metaverse is?
[127] In very simple terms, it's a virtual environment which allows you to interact with other people in person.
[128] Mark Zuckerberg is describing it as an embodied internet.
[129] Instead of looking at it, you're inside it.
[130] Huh.
[131] He also described it as the successor to the mobile internet, allowing people to interact in ways they could never do on the regular internet.
[132] Some examples he gave were dancing and fitness exercises.
[133] So is this just like virtual reality?
[134] Mark Zuckerberg said that's a part of it and one that Facebook will be particularly focused on, but the metaverse goes beyond what we see as virtual reality in its current form, like through VR gaming headsets, for example.
[135] He said that it would be accessible across all of our computing platforms like our phones and laptops and go far beyond just virtual and augmented reality and offer some sort of hybrid between the social platforms we have today and a virtual environment of some sort.
[136] This reminds me of that movie Ready Player One.
[137] So users would be in their homes and they would use some sort of goggles or device and they would have a virtual experience of almost going to a destination or interacting with other people.
[138] Yeah, the very least.
[139] I think the broader end goal even goes beyond anything we understand as virtual reality right now, and people are definitely calling it ambitious.
[140] Zuckerberg is saying that the next five years will be the next chapter of Facebook, and he thinks people will grow from seeing them as a social media company to a Metaverse company.
[141] Do you think this is actually realistic and that it's actually going anywhere?
[142] Well, I think we're yet to see VR and AR expand beyond gaming, but that's for a variety of reasons.
[143] Head sets are expensive and clunky.
[144] You're not going to be wearing them walking around downtown.
[145] and there isn't really a broad enough use case which would spark the growth of a community around this product.
[146] What Mark Zuckerberg is suggesting is a way of taking a product and turning it into a space for product services and experiences.
[147] So it's sort of like being a pioneer discovering new land.
[148] Okay.
[149] This isn't a battle for a specific VR product, but a battle for the environment in which all future advancements will happen.
[150] That's so interesting.
[151] Yeah.
[152] But we do have to remember that many similar efforts have fallen flat, both for Facebook and its competitors.
[153] Facebook has tried similar things in the past with Horizon, a platform similar to a Metaverse, not really going anywhere since it was announced two years ago and products like Google Glass fading into obscurity.
[154] We should keep an eye on this high -level goal, though.
[155] Facebook was right when they bet on the move from desktop to mobile internet, so there's a decent chance they're onto something here.
[156] Fascinating, and a lot of philosophical quandaries there.
[157] I know, a ton to unpack.
[158] We could talk forever.
[159] Yeah, thanks for coming on, Ian.
[160] My pleasure.
[161] Have a great weekend.
[162] Daily Wires, Ian Howard.
[163] Those are the top stories this morning, but there's more in the news to keep an eye on.
[164] Other big developments that were tracking this week.
[165] U .S. Attorney General Merrick Garland sent a letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday, threatening legal action if the governor did not rescind his executive order restricting the flow of migrants into Texas due to COVID -19.
[166] Among other items, Garland stated that the order directly interferes with the implementation of federal immigration law.
[167] Abbott fired back, saying it is clear that the Biden administration fundamentally misunderstands what is truly happening at the border.
[168] And a man in Hong Kong was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday in the first case brought under Hong Kong's new security law.
[169] He was facing life in prison after he crashed his motorcycle into police officers while flying a flag that said, Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times.
[170] The man says it was an accident.
[171] The trial reportedly went through without a jury and judges were chosen.
[172] by Hong Kong's chief executive due to the new security law.
[173] Experts have been watching this case to see how the controversial new law will be enforced.
[174] If you liked this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five -star review.
[175] That's all the time we've got this morning.
[176] Thanks for waking up with us.
[177] We'll be back Monday with the news you need to know.
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