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--:-- John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Tuesday, October 17th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks, John.
--:-- John Bickley: The White House announced Monday that President Biden will be traveling to Israel this week as the country prepares for a ground operation in Gaza.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right, John. The visit from Biden comes after the administration deployed a second aircraft carrier to the region last week to join the USS Ford Strike Carrier group that's already positioned there.
--:-- John Bickley: The administration's beefed-up military presence in the region includes sending fighter jets from the Air Force and a rapid response force of 2,000 Marines.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The mobilization comes after Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,400 Israelis and wounded thousands more in terror attacks a little over a week ago.
--:-- John Bickley: The White House says Biden will travel to Israel on Wednesday to demonstrate his steadfast support for Israel in the face of Hamas brutal terrorist attack and to consult on next steps.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This visit comes as Israeli forces killed a top commander in Hamas Al brigades in an airstrike earlier today.
--:-- John Bickley: The commander Ayman Nafal was said to be one of the dominant figures in Hamas.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As of now, the House still has no speaker. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan failed to receive the 217 votes necessary to become Speaker of the House in the first floor vote.
--:-- John Bickley: This comes after 20 Republicans joined Democrats in voting for a different candidate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: No person having received a majority of the whole number of votes cast by surname, a speaker has not been elected. Fursuant to Clause 12A of Rule 1, the chair declares the House in recess subject to the call of the chair.
--:-- John Bickley: A handful of Republicans voted instead for names like Steve Scalise and ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, both of whom have since put their support behind Congressman Jordan.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There were a number of other votes from GOP holdouts, including for former Representative Lee Zeldin.
--:-- John Bickley: A second vote is expected later this afternoon.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Former President Trump has sued the company founded by Christopher Steele, the former British spy and man behind the infamous discredited Steele dossier.
--:-- John Bickley: The Steele dossier, paid for by Democratic operatives, was used by the U.S. government as evidence to gain FISA approval to spy on Trump's 2016 campaign.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That eventually snowballed into the false Russia collusion narrative.
--:-- John Bickley: Now Trump is seeking damages from Steele's Orbis Business Intelligence in a London court, claiming that he, quote, suffered personal and reputational damage and distress, and that OBI violated British data protection laws.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Police in Brussels have shot and killed a suspected Islamic extremist who was accused of killing two Swedish citizens on Monday in Belgium.
--:-- John Bickley: The deceased suspect was reportedly a Tunisian man living in the country illegally and who indicated in a social media post that he belonged to ISIS.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Belgium, which is home to NATO's headquarters, was hit hard with ISIS suicide bombing attacks in 2016 when multiple terrorists detonated bombs in Brussels airport and a metro station in the city.
--:-- John Bickley: Dozens of people were killed and more than 300 people were injured.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The two Swedish citizens who were shot on Monday were there for the Belgium-Sweden soccer game.
--:-- John Bickley: Here's another soccer fan reacting to the attack.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's crazy, of course. It's a hit against democracy. It's a hit against the freedom of speech. and to be a target of a country like Sweden, it feels sick.
--:-- John Bickley: The United States government secretly delivered a long-range army tactical missile system to Ukraine and now the embattled country says it has used the heavy weaponry to attack Russia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The missiles were delivered sometime within the last few days, though details were scant due to security implications.
--:-- John Bickley: U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told Scripps News that this is part of NATO's objective in securing Ukraine wins on the battlefield and helping the country get through winter.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Our focus right now primarily is on air defense and ammunition, as is the focus of the other 50 countries that are helping Ukraine with weapons.
--:-- John Bickley: And that was the topic of conversation last week.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Lastly, I say a group of countries has come together to start training Ukrainians on those F-16s so that we can get their pilots ready for the moment comes when they'll have F-16s to use as well.
--:-- John Bickley: Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Beijing on Tuesday to meet with President of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Putin's first major international trip since invading Ukraine.
--:-- John Bickley: The two will be joined this week by 130 other countries from around the world to discuss China's Belt and Road Initiative.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The multi-day summit has been overshadowed by the Hamas terrorist attack and Israel's response.
--:-- John Bickley: China's Communist Party has condemned Israel in recent days, claiming their actions have not been proportionate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And the Bentky app, Daily Wire's new entertainment company, launched this week.
--:-- John Bickley: Bent Key became the number one downloaded kids app on Apple's App Store on Monday, the same day that Daily Wire co-founder Jeremy Boring unveiled the new venture, beating out other apps like YouTube Kids and Paw Patrol Academy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Bent Key app launched with over 150 episodes of 18 shows, including four Bent Key originals, with new episodes airing every Saturday.
--:-- John Bickley: All right, those are your drive home updates this afternoon.
--:-- Georgia Howe: To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com.
--:-- John Bickley: And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, Listen to our latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.
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