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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm Georgia Howe, and I'm here with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for having me, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today is Wednesday, April 3rd. Let's dive into the news.
--:-- Georgia Howe: First, a massive earthquake rocked Taiwan, killing nine people and injuring hundreds more. Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta-Giacomo has more.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Officials say the 7.4 magnitude event is the island's most powerful tremor in at least 25 years. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake happened on the eastern part of the island near Hualien City at a depth of about 21 miles.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The quake prompted tsunami warnings not just for Taiwan, but also Japan and the Philippines, though those warnings have since been lifted. Taiwan's fire department says that at least 882 people were injured, and they expect the number of casualties to rise in the coming days.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Meanwhile, the world's top chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, TSMC, says that despite its safety systems operating normally, the quake could cause them to take a $60 million hit. The manufacturer is a major supplier for many big tech companies such as Apple and NVIDIA.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Moving on to the severe weather that's been affecting multiple states. Storms everything from snow to tornadoes wreaked havoc across multiple states yesterday, leaving many to begin picking up the pieces today.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Over 20 million people remain under severe weather warnings as the destructive systems move east, where winter weather could bring heavy rain, high winds, and potential flooding for much of the East Coast.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Over the last 24 hours, there have been 12 tornadoes reported across six states, including Alabama, Illinois, Tennessee, Ohio, Georgia, and Kentucky. Three tornadoes in Kentucky were confirmed to have had winds ranging from 95 to 110 miles per hour.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Many in these states woke up this morning to severe damage. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency yesterday, which remains in effect today.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A resident within the path of these tornadoes described what it was like to NBC. It sounded like a freight train rolling through our building. There's roofs collapsed. There's gas lines spraying gas everywhere. Gravel in my head. There's glass in my head, and mud. There's still mud behind my ears.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Next, we have an update on the classified documents case against former President Trump. Special counsel Jack Smith issued a firmly worded filing Tuesday night.
--:-- Jack Smith: [audio clip] ...Cannon's proposed jury instructions would allow jurors to determine if documents were, quote, personal or presidential.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Matt Whitaker, former acting attorney general under Trump, explains further.
--:-- Matt Whitaker: What they're trying to get at is this Presidential Records Act argument, which is ultimately the Clinton sock drawer case, right? I mean, Bill Clinton had personal recordings in his sock drawer. The court determined that they were his personal records. It didn't matter if they were classified. It didn't matter anything because Bill Clinton had determined after his presidency they were his personal records.
--:-- Matt Whitaker: Donald Trump has done the same thing. He said these documents are my personal records. If you read the Presidential Records Act, Brian, it says all documents. It doesn't carve out defense intelligence information. It doesn't carve out classified marked information. It says all records are presidential and that it has a process.
--:-- Matt Whitaker: And that's what Judge Kahn is trying to get to the bottom of. And that's what Jack Smith is really objecting to.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Tesla deliveries dropped in the first quarter, causing its stock to lose 5%. The U.S.'s most popular EV maker delivered 387,000 cars, far less than analysts expected.
--:-- Georgia Howe: China's EV maker BYD also decreased demand, delivering just 300,000 vehicles. This allowed Tesla to regain the title of the most EV sales.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Some analysts say the lower numbers could indicate decreased demand for EVs in general. However, Dan Ives, Wedbush Securities Managing Director, remains bullish on Tesla, but says Musk needs to take action.
--:-- Dan Ives: I believe this is a fork in the road. In other words, Musk either turns this around, whether it's cutting prices, put the strategy in place, or, David, I think we sit here maybe three, four quarters from now, and this is actually a seminal moment, and the start of what could be some darker days ahead.
--:-- Dan Ives: I think you have to lay out the strategy. Okay, what are price cuts going to look like? When are the new models coming? What could software be as a percent of revenue? What's the AI roadmap? Right now, it's essentially playing darts blindfolded.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to federal officials, last year's fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, does not qualify as a public health emergency.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Officials say the designation wasn't made because there was a lack of documented widespread health problems and ongoing chemical exposures.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The EPA said the label didn't fit East Palestine's situation, even though some residents still complain about respiratory problems and unexplained rashes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Much of the town was forced to evacuate after hazardous chemicals from the Norfolk Southern train spilled and caught fire. Internal emails show that President Joe Biden's EPA did consider designating the situation a public health emergency, but eventually decided against it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Biden didn't visit the disaster site until more than a year after the incident.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for the strikes that killed seven aid workers in Gaza, saying Israel, quote, deeply regrets the tragic incident.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The volunteer group World Central Kitchen was delivering food when it was hit Monday night. President Biden condemned the strike, saying Israel has not done enough to protect civilians.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Morning Wire spoke to Victoria Coates, vice president of foreign policy at Heritage Foundation, about the incident.
--:-- Victoria Coates: The fact of the matter is that Gaza is a war zone now, and it is a war zone because of the Hamas attacks on Israel. None of this would be happening. None of these people would be hungry if Hamas had not attacked Israel so brutally on October 7th.
--:-- Victoria Coates: So the people who hold it in their hands to end all of this, both intended and unintended casualties, is Hamas. And it's extraordinary to me that the international community is not doing everything in their power to pressure them to do that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And finally, an American woman has died after a bull elephant attacked a safari group in Zambia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The massive animal chased the safari truck for over half a mile in Kifui National Park before colliding with it, causing the vehicle to roll.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Video shows the enraged elephant hooking his tusks under the truck and flipping it on its side just before the video cuts out.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right, those are your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com.
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--:-- 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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