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--:-- Georgia Howe: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: A bombshell report claims that tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who was once an avid supporter of President Donald Trump, was an FBI informant. What do we know about his supposed involvement and what kind of intel was Thiel allegedly providing? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's October 21st, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire. New York's mayor announces limits on city housing for migrant families amid a larger push to deter newcomers. It's not if, it's when people are going to be sleeping on our streets. And massive pro-Hamas demonstrations in the UK highlight the growing cultural schism in Europe. Is Britain finally ready for strict immigration limits? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to a bombshell new report from Business Insider, PayPal billionaire and prominent Republican donor Peter Thiel has been acting as an FBI informant. The story alleges that Thiel began confidentially providing the Bureau information in the summer of 2021.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right, Georgia. Here with more is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. So Megan, this sounds like something out of a spy novel. You don't just have the FBI wanting to advise a tech billionaire on something like content moderation. We've talked about that. But according to this story, actually recruiting a billionaire as an official informant. What can you tell us about this report?
--:-- Megan Basham: So Business Insider says that according to multiple FBI sources, starting two years ago, Thiel became an informant for FBI agent Jonathan Buma. He's an L.A.-based counterintelligence specialist. Now, the term that these FBI insiders used, confidential human source, typically indicates an ongoing relationship with the Bureau. So we're not talking about just a tip here or there. This would be something that was continuing.
--:-- John Bickley: And according to Business Insider, the FBI had gone so far as to assign Thiel a code name and a serial number to track his reporting. Now, do we know what kind of intel Thiel was allegedly providing the Bureau? Obviously, Thiel is known for at least at one time being a Trump supporter. He's also been linked to J.D. Vance's Senate campaign in Ohio. Is it something to do with that?
--:-- Megan Basham: So Buma, the agent that, again, Insider says Thiel was working with, is known for investigating Republicans. To give you just one example, last month, the outlet ran what they've characterized as a whistleblower interview with him. And in that story, Buma claimed that during the Trump administration, FBI bosses dismissed evidence that he brought forward that showed that Rudy Giuliani had ties to Russian agents.
--:-- John Bickley: So I do think it's worth noting that Business Insider appears to have something of an ongoing relationship with Buma, and they have relied on him for some previous splashy headlines. And yet that Giuliani claims so far really haven't gone anywhere. And that's not to say that it still can't, but it hasn't been picked up by any other major outlets. And you would expect that with something that big were it confirmed elsewhere.
--:-- Megan Basham: But that notwithstanding, their story released on Thursday about Thiel says that this info that he passed along to the FBI wasn't actually related to political corruption. Instead, they say it's centered on foreign contacts he had that he had developed thanks to his tech background. And specifically, they say the FBI was looking for information about attempts by foreign governments to infiltrate Silicon Valley.
--:-- John Bickley: So this story is based on reports from anonymous sources at the FBI, as well as this agent, Buma. Did Business Insider have any other official on-record sources for this story?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, their other key source was tech investor and far-right political activist, Charles Johnson. And if you haven't heard that name before, he is a somewhat controversial figure, and I do think we should probably note he does have a reputation for being somewhat unreliable.
--:-- John Bickley: So Johnson was at one time an associate of Thiel's, and he says he introduced Thiel to Buma and encouraged Thiel to work with the FBI as something of an insurance policy. By that, he meant he advised Thiel that simply being wealthy isn't enough anymore to avoid being successfully targeted by the federal government.
--:-- Megan Basham: But it then appears that the two had a falling out, and Johnson is openly acknowledging that he provided this information about Thiel to Business Insider because Thiel didn't invest in some startups that he wanted him to. So Johnson is kind of openly acknowledging that he spoke to Business Insider about Thiel out of personal animus.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, has Peter Thiel responded to this? Not yet. And so while this is making a pretty big splash across social media and in a number of outlets who are at least reporting what Business Insider has published, I do think a measure of caution may be warranted at this point until we see if Thiel is going to have some response to this.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: New York City will now begin limiting how long migrant families can stay in shelters. The move comes as New York is dealing with tens of thousands of new migrants. Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Elordi is here with the details.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So, Maraid, New York is clamping down on amenities even for migrants with kids now, it sounds like.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Yes, and they have to. Mayor Eric Adams made this announcement on Monday. This new policy will require migrant families with children to reapply for housing in the city's shelter system every 60 days. So basically, this is supposed to encourage recently arrived migrants to find new housing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So will migrant families actually get evicted at 60 days, or are they just going to have to re-up their application? I imagine there's going to be legal issues with that.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Right, that's not really clear yet. As you said, there are several legal issues here. First, New York City currently has a legal obligation to provide shelter to anyone who wants it. This is known as the city's right to shelter. Adams is currently trying to suspend the right to shelter obligation so the city can force migrants to find alternative housing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: City Hall's attorneys are currently fighting the right to shelter issue in Manhattan Supreme Court, and the latest hearing was set for Thursday. So if the right to shelter obligation is not suspended, the city will have to find a place for any migrant who wants shelter. But the loophole here is that they'll have to reapply for shelter every 60 days.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So we'll have to wait and see if this 60-day rule leads to any actual evictions. As you said, that would be legally tricky. But just the fact that the city is even considering a measure like this shows how dire the situation has become in New York.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, in recent months, Mayor Adams has become a lot more aggressive in discouraging migrants from coming to New York. Has that been effective at all? Has the inflow of migrants slowed at all?
--:-- Maraid Elordi: No, not really. Over the summer, the city even resorted to sending flyers to the southern border warning migrants that there's no guarantee of shelter if they come to New York and encouraging them to pick a different city. But that hasn't really moved the needle.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Since last spring, more than 118,000 migrants have arrived in the city. And recently, the number of daily arrivals has ticked up even more, with about 600 migrants arriving in New York every day. So the fact is, New York has established itself as a destination and sanctuary, and that reputation is hard to shake.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: But as the mayor has said, it's become completely unsustainable for the city. I'm really calling on legal aid and others. Come up with some tangible ideas. Criticism is not an idea. The city has opened more than 200 emergency shelters with plans to open at least one huge semi-congregate facility that'll house 500 families. But that could conflict with state regulations that each household get a separate room.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The city has now spent more than $1.2 billion on the migrants and is projected to spend up to $5 billion. Last month, Adams said the migrant issue will destroy New York City and that every community in this city is going to be impacted.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Well, no doubt this is becoming a very serious issue for New York.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Thousands took part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration last weekend on the streets of London and Manchester, England. More than 1,000 police officers were deployed to maintain order. The groundswell of anti-Israel sentiment highlights the growing cultural schism developing in the UK that some blame on permissive immigration laws. Here with more details for us is Radomir Talcote, managing director of the Legatim Institute in London.
--:-- Radomir Talcote: Hi, Radomir.
--:-- Radomir Talcote: Hi there. So a lot of debate right now in England as there is in the US. You're seeing many people openly supporting a group the British state has designated a terrorist organization. Is that concerning?
--:-- Georgia Howe: The short answer is yes, certainly it is.
--:-- Radomir Talcote: There are more voices now who are warning that multiculturalism is failing. During a speech in Washington, the UK's Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, was one of them. And she has argued that this multiculturalism has allowed individuals to undermine the stability and security of society, in her words.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And she's been drawing attention to the fact that multiculturalism has led to segregated communities that resist assimilation and fail to adopt the values of their host nations.
--:-- Radomir Talcote: Most recently, we've seen some very tense days here in London and some other big cities in the UK because of events in the Middle East. And that all a symptom, I'm afraid, of a lack of national cohesion but it also hard not to connect that to the simple fact that when you're importing about net 600 new people every year as we are here in Britain, you can really integrate people that fast.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, you mentioned Home Secretary Suella Braverman. What were some examples she gave?
--:-- Radomir Talcote: So there's one especially stark example, and that's that Braverman criticized the UN's Refugee Convention for allowing individuals to seek asylum based only on their claimed sexual orientation. She's argued that applicants who simply claim to be LGBT should not be immediately recognized as having grounds for seeking asylum in any country of their choosing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So it's very easy to see how a standard like that can be very easily abused.
--:-- Radomir Talcote: Right. Braverman was very critical of the UN's Refugee Convention. Can you give us some background on what that is and some of the dictates coming out of it?
--:-- Radomir Talcote: Sure. So the UN's Refugee Convention was established to protect people fleeing persecution, war, or fleeing violence in their own home countries. It emerged after World War II, understandably, but it was designed to provide refuge for people who are facing really imminent peril.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And so what Braverman has done is raise a valid point when she questions whether someone who enters the UK by boat across the English Channel, when they're already in France, which is the country they're leaving, is really fleeing imminent peril at that point.
--:-- Radomir Talcote: So it's worth asking why these individuals who are traveling across multiple safe countries to claim asylum on the UK's shores, why they're doing that? And you have to say, perhaps the UK's notoriously generous and welcoming system is presenting a sort of a beacon for people who might manipulate the process to gain entry here to this country.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Braverman's comments highlighted a concern that many, many people increasingly share. And that's basically that more claims of asylum have to be rejected because they're fraudulent. And that's now vital for national security.
--:-- Radomir Talcote: What do the UK's immigration numbers look like right now?
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, bluntly, they're just far too high, especially for an already densely populated country.
--:-- Radomir Talcote: The UK's net migration numbers have seen a drastic surge, in fact, since then, rising from about 400,000 a year to over 600,000. That's happened in a period of just a couple of years. Before 1996, net migration was consistently well under 100,000 people each year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: While the Home Secretary is surely right about the UN, though, I'm afraid the government she's a part of has allowed these numbers in.
--:-- Radomir Talcote: Has the government been responsive to citizens' concerns about these numbers?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, they are now considering apparently a hard cap on immigration numbers. That would create more public trust, for sure.
--:-- Radomir Talcote: There have been broken promises from people like David Cameron, who was the prime minister from 2010 to 2016, that he would keep immigration numbers in the tens of thousands. Those feel like they're long in the rearview mirror now.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But with most bets now on the left-wing Labour Party winning the election next year, this is unlikely to be fixed anytime soon.
--:-- Radomir Talcote: So the future for this issue really is up in the air.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, as it is in so many countries, including the U.S.
--:-- Radomir Talcote: Thank you so much for joining us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thank you.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire. Thank you.
