--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Host (John Bickley): This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it. Guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for 40% off. Terms apply.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): The Walt Disney Company has brought back its former CEO, Bob Iger, ousting Bob Chapik from the role. We look back at Chapik's tumultuous tenure and why many believe investors and board members made the switch. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, November 23rd, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Protests in Iran have taken a deadly turn, with women of all ages being beaten, jailed, and even killed in the streets. How has the scale of the protests evolved since they first began in September? And the fentanyl crisis is getting even more deadly, as overdoses resulting in a combination of drugs have risen significantly. We look at concerning data comparing this year to years past. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): As inflation continues to plague our economy, how are you protecting your savings? Text WIRE to 989898 and Birch Gold will send you a free info kit on diversifying into gold tax-free. With almost 20 years of experience converting IRAs and 401ks into precious metal IRAs, Birch Gold can help you too. Plus, Birch Gold is giving out a free gold bar with any purchase made by December 22nd. But you must submit your claim by Black Friday. Text WIRE to 989898 and Birch Gold will send you a free info kit on diversifying into gold tax-free. Text WIRE to 989898 today.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Embattled CEO Bob Chapik is out at Disney following a tumbling stock price and a number of public battles over political issues. The media empire announced late Sunday evening that former CEO Bob Iger will be returning to replace him. Here to tell us what led to Chapik's ouster and what might happen next in the Magic Kingdom is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, Chapik is out and Iger is back in. That seems like a surprise. Yeah, it is. It really seemed to shock a lot of Hollywood. And I think the reason is that Disney's board had just awarded Chapik a new multi-year contract over the summer. So people tended to see that as a vote of confidence. But the reality was that Disney's stock price had taken a steady stream of blows. It had lost around 36% of its value in 2022, and the company's streaming division had losses topping $1.5 billion in the last quarter.
--:-- Megan Basham: Because of that, Chapik announced on November 11th that he was going to freeze hiring and layoffs would probably be coming. And in fact, streamlining operations and trimming fat is really what Bob Chapik was hired to do. He's kind of known for being a focused financial operator. And Disney had been suffering bloat even before the pandemic posed some, we have to admit, historic challenges. There was the shutting down of the theme parks and film and TV productions. Well, Chapek actually weathered those challenges pretty well by most standards. But his wavering on other problems within the company is what seemed to get the better of him.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, what problems specifically are you referring to? Well, you know, we saw, of course the internal unrest over Disney shifting stances regarding social issues for example Specifically there was Florida legislation preventing public schools from teaching younger students about gender and sexuality At first, Chapik said Disney was gonna stay quiet about that new legislation and that the company was not going to be political going forward. But when employees revolted, the pendulum kind of seemed to swing in another extreme. Leaked tape showed Chapik apologizing somewhat abjectly for that position. he and other Disney executives instead promised that Disney would fight Florida's bill. And on top of that, it would add more LGBT elements to its children's content.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, all of that had some concrete financial consequences when Governor Ron DeSantis responded by stripping Disney of its special tax privileges for the Reedy Creek District, and that's where Disney World sits. And then, of course, it was just terrible PR for Disney's key customer base, which happens to be parents and kids. One Disney staffer told me on Background Today, and I'll just quote him, Chapik was weak. I think he had the right impulses early on, but the woke activists in the company smelled the weakness and took advantage of it.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, why are they going back to Iger, though? I mean, he's retired. He's 71. Why not bring in someone new? Well, you know, I think given all that instability, the board probably felt that it needed a practiced hand back at that tiller. Iger had been Disney's previous CEO for 15 years during a period of really massive expansion that saw Disney acquire a lot of properties, including Marvel, Hixar, 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm, which of course means Star Wars. And frankly, it was Iger who positioned Disney as a more politically progressive company in the first place. A lot of activist employees liked that about him.
--:-- Megan Basham: My sources inside Disney tell me there's a lot of celebrating going on right now in the Disney Slack channel that's dedicated to LGBT pride. So the feeling could be that Iger is going to quiet all of that internal dissension. But what's clear is Disney is viewing Iger as a temporary solution. In the announcement of his return, the board said that he's only signing on for two years. And a key part of his role in that time is going to be, and I'm just going to quote, developing a successor to lead the company. Still, one issue that they're going to face is that Disney remains a massively bloated company that needs to streamline. And Bob Iger was actually the executive who created a lot of that problem.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Making this switch less than a year after the board unanimously extended Chapek's contract definitely gives off something of a sense of floundering within the operation. Right. Well, it'll be interesting to see what Iger does. Megan, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, anytime.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): That was Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. Coming up, protests in Iran turn deadly as the government cracks down. Are you tired of being the gatekeeper of all of your family's plans? The Skylight Calendar syncs all of your family's schedules from Google, Outlook, and Apple, and displays them in one beautiful touchscreen arrangement. Any changes or updates will automatically appear on the Skylight Calendar at home. On top of that, you can easily assign household tasks and watch as your progress bars update with every task. Plus, you can get on-the-go access to everything with Skylight Calendar's mobile app.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Now, as a special offer, you can get $10 off your purchase of a Skylight Calendar when you go to skylightcal.com and enter code WIRE. That's right, to get $10 off your purchase, Just go to skylightcal.com and enter code WIRE. That's S-K-Y-L-I-G-H-T-C-A-L dot com. Promo code WIRE.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): The Iranian government is waging a brutal crackdown on protesters who are calling for cultural freedom and political change Iran has been in a state of upheaval for weeks due to protests but now the government is ramping up its efforts to quash dissent. Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Alordi is here with the details for us.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Hi, Georgia. Well, the latest is pretty disturbing. The Iranian government is cracking down extremely hard on these protesters, many of whom are young teenagers. Protesters are often beaten and detained in jail. Some have been beaten after they were taken into custody. Others have been shot and killed in the streets. Now, Iran has had political unrest in the past. What sparked this round of protests?
--:-- Maraid Alordi: These demonstrations began after the September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman named Masa Amini. Amini was arrested and detained by Iran's religious morality police for not wearing a hijab properly. Women who were arrested with her say she was severely beaten by police and she died days later in a Tehran hospital. In the week since Amini's death, some female protesters have publicly cut their hair or refused to wear the hijab during the demonstrations. In fact, the protests have been largely led by women. Essentially, they're demanding freedom from Iran's clerical rule.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Now, how large are these protests? These protests are reportedly more widespread than the political protests Iran saw in 2009, 2017, and 2019. Iran has already arrested more than 14,000 people and charged at least 1,000 with crimes in the Tehran province. Protesters have marched in the streets around the country daily since September 16th. They've scuffled with law enforcement and allegedly set fire to government buildings. Over the weekend, authorities sentenced the first person to death over the protests, convicting the person of enmity against God and spreading corruption on Earth, according to state media.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: According to the group Iran Human Rights, Iran's security forces have killed at least 326 protesters since the demonstrations began two months ago. Also earlier this month, a majority of Iran's parliament wrote a letter to the judiciary calling for protesters to be taught a good lesson and face harsh punishments, which could include the death penalty. Now, you mentioned that many of the protesters are young. Are the Iranian police dealing with them differently because of that, or are they cracking down just as hard?
--:-- Maraid Alordi: No, the police seem to be treating the teen protesters just as harshly as the adults. The average age of the protesters is about 15, and Iran's youth have been particularly harmed in this crackdown, according to lawyers and human rights activists. Authorities have even raided schools and beaten students to death, including a 15-year-old girl. One extremely disturbing development being reported by CNN and the BBC is that many women and girls involved in the women's rights protests appear to have been violently raped in police custody. Police apparently commit sexual violence on protesters as young as 13 or 14 as a way to discourage the demonstrations.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Maraid, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): That was Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Elordi. As the fentanyl crisis makes national headlines, an additional layer to the tragedy is now clear. The combination of fentanyl with other drugs, such as methamphetamine, is creating a new overdose crisis. Here with more information is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence-Bahn.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bahn: Well, the latest is even more grim. The CDC says more than 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids, including fentanyl. And now there is an increasing amount of overdoses that are being caused by a combination of multiple drugs. Last year 20 of the total fatal overdoses included an opioid like fentanyl and a psychostimulant like meth That according to preliminary federal information But 10 years before that those combos only made up around 2% of fatal overdoses.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bahn: But of course, using any of these drugs on their own poses serious health risks and even death. Meth can lead to deadly heart damage, hallucinations, and erratic actions. Last year, around two-thirds of people who died while using psychostimulants also had opioids in their system, but that isn't always intentional. Sometimes the drug they buy is laced or there's cross-contamination where it's made.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bahn: And are we seeing an increase in overdose deaths across the board? Yes. Federal data shows that last year around 33,400 deaths involved psychostimulants, which was an increase of more than 340% from five years before. In the same amount of time, fatalities involving synthetic opioids increased 270%, and total drug fatalities also went up. 71%.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bahn: As psychostimulant deaths have gone up, so have deaths that also involved opioids. And last year, around 75% of meth-related fatalities in the state of North Carolina also involved fentanyl. Meth and fentanyl use have both surged across the country and are spreading into new regions. For example, drug traffickers are pushing meth into the Northeast and fentanyl availability is increasing in Western states where meth once dominated.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bahn: Now, we've seen that fentanyl is spreading beyond border states, but what are the numbers now on the border in terms of trafficking? We're just seeing more and more fentanyl smuggled across the border. For example, a Mexican man was recently sentenced to prison for his involvement with an attempted smuggling of meth and fentanyl. The seizure was the country's biggest for each drug for the calendar years 2021 and 2022 as of last month.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bahn: The trafficking attempt included over 17,000 pounds of meth and about 389 pounds of fentanyl. This month, border officers found 26 pounds of meth and 10 pounds of fentanyl in El Paso in the same smuggling effort. Port director Ray Provencio said that it's not normal to find huge quantities of two different heart drugs, but dual smuggling is becoming more common. As of October, Border Patrol had seized over 1,000 pounds of fentanyl since the start of this fiscal year. That's a 200% increase from the last year.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Well, let's hope we see some progress on this crisis soon. Charlotte, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bahn: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): That was Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond. Other stories we're tracking this week. The U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Border Patrol say that over 100 migrants were saved from a boat before it crashed into a sandbar in the Florida Keys on Monday, and that an additional 18 migrants from Haiti were also saved.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Democratic Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy is changing his position against bear hunting. The reversal comes as the bear population has risen in the state and amid a spiking number of dangerous encounters.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and you stand with our mission, consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Hey there, producer Golden here. While today's coffee often comes with hints of soy and social justice, Black Rifle delivers an entirely different experience. Bold, strong, and delicious, Black Rifle coffee is the coffee I and many others here at The Daily Wire choose to help us get through the day.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Right now, you can go to blackriflecoffee.com and use promo code WIRE for 10% off your first order or when you sign up for a coffee club subscription. That's blackriflecoffee.com with promo code WIRE for 10% off your first order or when you sign up to become a coffee club member. Black Rifle Coffee, supporting veterans and America's coffee.
