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--:-- John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Thursday, July 6th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right, John. Let's get started.
--:-- John Bickley: The Biden administration revealed on Wednesday plans to appeal a judge's order blocking several government agencies and officials from contacting social media companies.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: I'm here to give you more on this story. The appeal, filed late Wednesday night, sets up a clash over the U.S. District Judge Terry Dowdy's July 4th judgment.
--:-- John Bickley: Dowdy granted the injunction in a 2022 lawsuit by the Attorneys General of Louisiana and Missouri that accused the government of violating the First Amendment after the alleged collusion with social media companies to censor disfavored speech.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Although there has not been a final ruling in the case, the judge's order restricts a number of officials and agencies from meeting or communicating with social media companies for the purpose of in any way censoring protected free speech.
--:-- John Bickley: The injunction affects specific White House officials and agencies and certain officials within them, ranging from the Homeland Security Department to the Health and Human Services Department to the DOJ and FBI.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: The order also lists some exceptions related to flagging criminal behavior, national security concerns, and election tampering.
--:-- Tim Pierce: I'm here to give you more on another story. Another witness in the Hunter Biden saga has come forward. This one a former advisor to the Chinese energy company CEFC.
--:-- John Bickley: Whistleblower Gao Luft is accusing the Bidens of corruption and the DOJ of covering it up. He made the claims in a video obtained by the New York Post.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Luft is an expert in geopolitics and energy security who is currently in hiding from U.S. authorities. He said he's being pursued by the DOJ on charges of arms trafficking, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, and lying to the FBI.
--:-- John Bickley: But he says his indictment is an attempt by the DOJ to keep him from sharing what he knows about the Biden family's dealings with CEFC.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Lufth met with U.S. authorities to blow the whistle on the Bidens in March of 2019, but he heard nothing in response until authorities arrested him in Cyprus in February.
--:-- John Bickley: He escaped custody with the help of friends, he said, and is keeping his current location a secret.
--:-- General Mark Milley: [Audio clip plays]
--:-- John Bickley: A senior Biden administration official told NPR the United States government is reportedly prepared to send Ukraine the controversial cluster bombs.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Those are bombs that are capable of dispersing multiple explosive submunitions. While Ukraine has been requesting this kind of weapon for some time, the U.S. held off due to the threat that such bombs pose to civilians.
--:-- John Bickley: General Mark Milley before the U.S. made the decision said, "We have been thinking about DPSM for a long time. The Ukrainians have asked for it. Other European countries have provided some of that. The Russians are using it. So yes, of course, there's a decision process ongoing."
--:-- President of Belarus: [Audio clip plays]
--:-- John Bickley: The mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin who led a short mutiny against the Kremlin is in Russia today while his Wagner troops are in their field camps.
--:-- Tim Pierce: That according to the president of Belarus. Alexander Lukashenko's claim could not be independently verified.
--:-- John Bickley: However, Russian media have reported Prigozhin was seen at his offices in St. Petersburg.
--:-- Tim Pierce: It was not clear if Prigozhin's presence in Russia would violate the deal which allowed the head of the Wagner group to move to Belarus and gave a promise of amnesty in exchange for ending the rebellion.
--:-- Scott Sexton: I'm here to give you more on another story. More than 340,000 UPS workers could go on strike if the shipping giant and the Teamsters union don't come up with a new contract agreement soon.
--:-- John Bickley: Negotiations appeared to be going well until 4 a.m. Wednesday morning when the Teamsters walked away from the negotiating table.
--:-- Scott Sexton: That was 15 days. We're prepared to go 15 weeks or as long as it takes to get a fair contract.
--:-- John Bickley: UPS released a statement saying, "Refusing to negotiate, especially when the finish line is in sight, creates significant unease among employees and customers and threatens to disrupt the U.S. economy."
--:-- John Bickley: Former Smallville actress Allison Mack has been released early from her prison sentence for her involvement in the NXIVM sex cult started by Keith Raniere.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Mack was sentenced to three years in prison in June 2021 after pleading guilty to a number of charges including racketeering. Raniere was sentenced in October 2020 to 120 years in prison and Mack subsequently called her involvement with the group her, "biggest mistake and greatest regret of her life."
--:-- John Bickley: Twitter is threatening legal action against Meta over its new Twitter-like platform, Threads.
--:-- Tim Pierce: On Wednesday, a lawyer for Twitter sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg accusing the company of engaging in unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's intellectual property.
--:-- John Bickley: Meanwhile, Zuckerberg claims that more than 30 million users signed up for its Twitter competitor, Threads, in the first 24 hours since its launch.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The new app is being billed as the Twitter killer and is the latest development in the ongoing social media wars and battle for control of cyberspace.
--:-- John Bickley: OceanGate, the company that owned a submersible that imploded on its way to the wreck of the Titanic, said Thursday that it has suspended operations.
--:-- Tim Pierce: All five people who were on board the most recent mission were killed. Investigators believe the Titan imploded as it made its descent into deep North Atlantic waters on June 18th.
--:-- John Bickley: The Coast Guard said last week that human remains have likely been recovered from the wreckage of the submersible and are being examined by medical officials in the U.S.
--:-- John Bickley: Those are your drive-home updates this afternoon. 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.
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