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--:-- Georgia Howe: This episode is brought to you by Birch Gold Group. Diversify your savings with Birch Gold. Their experts can help turn your 401k into a 401k in gold. Just text WIRE to 989898 today.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Monday, February 5th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Details of the long-awaited border bill being negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators were made public Sunday night. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips has more.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The U.S. Senate has unveiled its $118 billion border bill, but most of the money would go towards causes other than the border. Nearly half the funds, $60 billion, are earmarked for Ukraine, while another $14 billion will go to Israel, $2.4 billion for central command operations in the Red Sea, and nearly $5 billion for U.S. allies facing Chinese aggression in the Pacific.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The $20 billion allotted for border security includes $650 million for a border wall, along with stricter rules for claiming asylum.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was hopeful the bill would pass. But it's facing steep opposition in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson called it, quote, even worse than we expected and, quote, dead on arrival.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Iran-backed militant group in Yemen known as the Houthis is threatening retaliation after U.S. and British forces targeted several sites used by the group in strikes over the weekend.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Muhammad al-Bukhadi, a member of the Houthi Political Bureau, said Sunday the attacks will not go unanswered and we will meet escalation with escalation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Meanwhile Iran also condemned the various strikes as well as the strikes against Iran proxy groups and affiliated militias in Iraq and Syria which came in response after three American soldiers were killed in a drone attack.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to the Iraqi government the attacks killed dozens of fighters and several civilians.
--:-- National Security Advisor (Jake Sullivan): So in the Red Sea, we need to deal with the threat to commercial shipping, and we are doing so with a coalition of countries. In Iraq and Syria, we need to deal with threats to our troops, And we are doing so, including with the strikes the president ordered Friday night.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived today in Saudi Arabia as he works to broker a push for the release of hostages and an extended pause in the Israel-Hamas war.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Currently, a deal that was framed in Paris is being reviewed by both Israel and Hamas. During his trip, Blinken is also set to visit Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The secretary's trip, his fifth since the October 7th attack, takes place during a period that senior U.S. officials describe as one of the most dangerous for the region in decades.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As far as any movement on a hostage ceasefire deal, U.S. officials say the ball is in Hamas' court.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A state of emergency has been declared in several parts of Southern California as a powerful atmospheric river-fueled storm is knocking out power and posing flood threats in the region.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All schools in Malibu have been closed due to road closures affecting some 9,000 students. Up to 10 inches of rain has been reported in the L.A. area.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In one instance, a landslide brought down an entire house in Los Angeles' Beverly Crest neighborhood.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There an unoccupied house that just went on sale and they took it off the market but the whole hillside came down shoved the house into our road here and up against our neighbor porch and driveway and it trapped a few people.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Actually, our friend Dave is still trapped with his girlfriend up there.
--:-- Georgia Howe: F-Y dot com with promo code WIRE. 75-year-old King Charles III has been diagnosed with cancer.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Buckingham Palace made the announcement this morning, noting that it was discovered during the king's recent hospital stay.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The palace says King Charles started a schedule of regular treatments, during which time he has been advised to postpone public-facing duties.
--:-- Georgia Howe: San Francisco's mayor, London Breed, is advocating to add two controversial proposals to the March 5th ballot.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The first would require single adults on welfare to be screened for drug use. The second would allow the use of police drone surveillance.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Breed is up for re-election in November.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Dartmouth College is now the first Ivy League school to announce that it will bring back the SAT.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham breaks down the details of the school's policy reversal.
--:-- Megan Basham: The New Hampshire school says research found that test scores are an important predictor of a student's success at highly selective schools like the Ivy League and a better predictor of success than grade point average, regardless of a student's background or family income.
--:-- Megan Basham: The requirement was dropped during the COVID pandemic and amid complaints by activists that standardized tests are racially biased.
--:-- Megan Basham: But citing a very comprehensive research study by a group of faculty the school leadership has announced that it's bringing back standardized testing requirements for students applying to be members of the class of 2029.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, confirmed today that it plans to lay off 10% of its global workforce.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That amounts to some 500 people.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A Snap spokesperson told USA Today, quote, We are reorganizing our team to reduce hierarchy and promote in-person collaboration.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Several other tech companies, including Microsoft and Google, have started the new year by slashing jobs despite generally solid job numbers in January.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And Taylor Swift picked up two Grammy Awards last night for Best Pop Vocal and for Album of the Year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: She made history as the only artist to ever win four albums of the year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Hip-hop star Jay-Z was honored with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He used his acceptance speech to call out the Recording Academy for never giving his wife Beyonce an album of the year win.
--:-- Jay-Z: I don't want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn't work. Think about that. Most Grammys never won album of the year. That doesn't work.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Victoria Monet walked away with the award for Best New Artist.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Meanwhile, Miley Cyrus came in like a wrecking ball and got the award for Record of the Year for her song, Flowers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right, there's your drive-home updates this afternoon.
--:-- Georgia Howe: To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com.
--:-- Georgia Howe: 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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