Morning Wire XX
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[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[4] It's Friday, February 16th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
[5] Former President Trump has been fined $364 million in his night.
[6] New York civil fraud case, and he's been banned from leading a company in the state for three years.
[7] The case was brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
[8] She claimed Trump inflated the value of his company's assets in order to get better loan terms.
[9] The ruling was made by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Ingaron.
[10] Trump will likely appeal the ruling, but if it stands, he would lose control of Manhattan's Trump Tower and his many iconic New York properties.
[11] Trump has called this a politically motivated case, pointing out that while campaigning for Attorney General, James promised she would get Trump.
[12] Meanwhile, Judge Ingeron ruled Trump guilty of fraud before the trial even began.
[13] Jonathan Turley offered his perspective on the massive penalty on Fox News.
[14] The court has done everything short of ordering that Trump be thrown into a wood chipper.
[15] I mean, he's imposed almost the maximum amount that James requested.
[16] He's barring him from doing business in the city where he's an iconic business figure, barring him from getting loans.
[17] That last part is particularly ironic because the banks not only said they were not victims and did not complain about the alleged fraud, but they said they wanted to do more business with Trump.
[18] This is all being done essentially in their name as victims, even though no one lost any money.
[19] None of us could find a case like this.
[20] I think there are real problems.
[21] here.
[22] I think that this is going to have the same impact on some appellate judges.
[23] There have to be some limits, including constitutional limits, on the size of penalties.
[24] This is confiscatory, and in my view, just excessive.
[25] So I think there's a major appeal, obviously, that's going to come.
[26] Outspoken Russian activist Alexei Navalny died in prison on Friday.
[27] That's according to Russian prison authorities.
[28] The 47 -year -old anti -corruption activist and harsh critic of Vladimir Putin was serving a decades -long sentence in a Russian work prison.
[29] Navalny was convicted of extremism back in 2021, but many, including the U .S. State Department, believed he was prosecuted due to his political criticism of Putin and the Russian government.
[30] Navalny appeared in court on Thursday via video link and appeared upbeat and healthy.
[31] Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said, quote, for more than a decade, the Russian government, Putin, prosecution, prosecuted, poisoned, and imprisoned Navalny, and now reports of his death.
[32] Russia is responsible for this.
[33] We'll be talking to many other countries concerned about Alexei Navalny, especially if these reports bear out to be true.
[34] Navalny is believed to have survived at least two attempted poisonings.
[35] A new report found that the Federal Bureau of Prisons failed to prevent the death of nearly 200 inmates.
[36] Daily Wire's senior editor Cabot Phillips explains.
[37] The Inspector General reviewed more than 344 deaths, which occurred in prisons over eight years from 2014 to 2021, including the suicide of Jeffrey Epstein and the murder of Whitey Bulger.
[38] The conclusion was that 187 inmate suicides could have been prevented.
[39] The report said a, quote, combination of recurring policy violations and operational failures contributed to inmate suicides.
[40] The report blamed prison safety issues on widespread and chronic understaffing.
[41] George Soros has bought up a majority stake of radio company Odyssey.
[42] The Soros Management Fund paid more than $400 million for a controlling stake in Odyssey and its more than 220 radio stations and podcast channels, including L .A.'s K -Rock.
[43] Odyssey is the second largest radio broadcaster behind IHeart Media.
[44] Many conservatives worry that the progressive activist will use the media group to influence voters in the run -up to the 2024 election.
[45] Soros is known for funding the campaigns of progressive district attorneys across the country.
[46] Great Britain's economy has entered a recession.
[47] The country's GDP shrunk by 0 .3 % in the fourth quarter, worse than economists expected.
[48] England now joins Japan as two of the group of seven advanced economies to enter a recession, though it is expected to be short -lived.
[49] Exchequer Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says they expected growth to be weaker while tackling inflation.
[50] The underlying picture here is an economy that is more resilient than most people predicted inflation is coming down.
[51] Real wages have been going up now for six months.
[52] And if we stick to our guns, independent forecasters say that by the early summer, we could start to see interest rates falling.
[53] And that will be a very important relief for families with mortgages.
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[57] A resident in Western Oregon has been diagnosed with the bubonic plague.
[58] Daily Wire Senior Editor, Joel Needler, has the details.
[59] The person likely caught the plague from a pet cat, which did not survive.
[60] The infected person whose identity has not been made public was treated with antibiotics, as have all persons who came in contact with the infected person.
[61] The bubonic plague tends to infect about a dozen people in the U .S. each year, nearly all of them in the West.
[62] Health officials do not expect the plague to spread or kill anyone in this instance.
[63] In the 14th century, the bubonic plague killed as many as 50 million people.
[64] SpaceX is now headquartered and incorporated in Texas.
[65] Elon Musk made good on his promise to move the space exploration company out of Delaware, after a judge in the state refused to approve Musk's $55 billion Tesla compensation package, which was approved by the board of directors.
[66] This is the first time a judge has overturned a CEO's pay package.
[67] Former President George H .W. Bush's speedboat is for sale.
[68] Fidelity 5 hit the auction block on Thursday.
[69] The 100 -horsepower boat travels up to 75 miles per hour and was used in the waters off Kennebunkport, Maine, where the president's family still owns a summer compound.
[70] Proceeds from the sale will be used for his presidential library.
[71] Four young condors were released in Patagonia in southern Chile this week.
[72] Two of the condors were born in captivity, one was nursed to health from poisoning, and one was rescued after falling out of the nest.
[73] The condors lived in southern Chile in an outdoor cage for two months before being released.
[74] The birds have radio and satellite transmitters, which will allow researchers to track their movements.
[75] Those are your drive home updates this afternoon.
[76] To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire .com, and for more in -depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.