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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: And I'm John Bickley, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's Wednesday, October 4th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
--:-- John Bickley: Congressman Kevin McCarthy is now the former Speaker of the House, and Congress must find a replacement. Let's go to our senior editor, Cabot Phillips, for the latest on who might be next.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks, John. At the moment, two Republicans have officially thrown their name into the ring for the speakership. Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, a member of the Freedom Caucus and chair of the House Judiciary Committee, as well as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Other names floated in Washington include Oklahoma Rep Kevin Hearn and even former President Donald Trump.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The GOP frontrunner addressed those calls Wednesday before heading into his third day of trial.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's right, Georgia. A lot of people have asked me about it, but we're leaving my life from 50 points for president. My focus is totally on that. If I can help them during the process, I would do it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: On that note, since the Speaker of the House does not have to be an elected official, some sources have told the press they'd like to see former Congressman and 2022 New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin fill the spot.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Ultimately, it will take a majority vote in the House to secure the position, which could take a number of weeks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: More than 7,500 health care workers across America began striking outside of Kaiser Permanente facilities today, demanding higher pay from the health and hospital giant.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Patients, not profits. Patients, not profits. Patients, not profits.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Nurses, ultrasound and x-ray technicians, and many more hospital employees say they're burnt out amidst a worker shortage that began during the pandemic.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's what one striker in California's Bay Area told KTVU.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: All of us frontline workers kept coming to our executives and letting them know, we need these positions backfilled. We need them filled again. But they were not listening to us. Now we're taking on the workload of two and three people. That's not safe.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Kaiser issued a statement early today saying that the two sides are still at the bargaining table, having worked through the night in an effort to reach an agreement.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This is the biggest strike in U.S. health care history.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Fifty-five Chinese sailors are believed to have died after their nuclear submarine got caught in a trap intended to ensnare British subsurface vessels in the Yellow Sea.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to reports out of the UK, the sub hit a chain and anchor obstacle used by the Chinese Navy to trap U.S. and allied submarines, and the crew appears to have died from hypoxia or lack of oxygen.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: China denies the reports.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Biden announced a plan today to give an additional $9 billion in student debt relief to 125,000 borrowers.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The forgiveness is his latest attempt to wipe out student loan debt after the Supreme Court blocked his previous plan to unilaterally cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I believe the court's decision to strike down my student debt relief program was wrong. But I promised I wouldn't give up.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Since then, my administration has been pursuing a new approach, grounded and under a different law, the Higher Education Act.
--:-- Georgia Howe: My administration is doing everything it can to deliver student debt relief to as many as we can as fast as we can. To date, the administration has canceled billions of student loan debt.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In an effort to continue aiding Ukraine's fight against Russia, the U.S. will be reportedly transferring weapons seized from Iran.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The U.S. announced that it obtained these munitions on July 20th through the Department of Justice's civil forfeiture claims against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The most popular coffee chain in the world, Starbucks, announced that it will be closing seven of its San Francisco stores.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The closures come as crime is surging in the city, though the company did not directly blame crime for its decision.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Retail has plummeted in the city with companies like Nordstrom, Whole Foods, Target, and more having closed shops in recent years.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And Californians are paying their respects today to recently deceased Senator Dianne Feinstein as she lies in state at San Francisco City Hall.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Feinstein was 90 years old when she passed away last week after being a U.S. senator for over three decades.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Those are your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
