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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: And I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's Friday, March 22nd, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
--:-- John Bickley: Dozens of civilians have been killed or wounded in an apparent terror attack in Moscow.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Several armed gunmen in military fatigues attacked the Krokus City Music Hall. It's a large venue in Russia's capital.
--:-- John Bickley: Video shows explosions and fleeing civilians being shot by the gunmen.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Kremlin says 40 people have been killed and over 100 more injured.
--:-- John Bickley: Earlier this month, the U.S. and other Western nations advised their citizens to avoid large gatherings in Moscow, citing plans from extremists to target such events.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This is a breaking news story and details are emerging quickly.
--:-- John Bickley: Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, announced today that she has cancer and is beginning chemotherapy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The announcement comes after months of concern and speculation over her whereabouts and her health.
--:-- John Bickley: The Princess released a two-minute video message from the official Kensington Palace account in which she appeared tired but serene.
--:-- Georgia Howe: She thanked her husband, Prince William, for being by her side throughout the devastating diagnosis and assured supporters that she is getting stronger every day.
--:-- John Bickley: In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London. The surgery was successful.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The surgery was successful. However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present.
--:-- John Bickley: My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy and I now in the early stages of that treatment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This of course came as a huge shock and Willem and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.
--:-- John Bickley: We hope that you'll understand that as a family, we now need some time, space and privacy while I complete my treatment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: My work has always brought me a deep sense of joy, and I look forward to being back when I'm able.
--:-- John Bickley: But for now, I must focus on making a full recovery.
--:-- Georgia Howe: For everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope. You are not alone.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The House of Representatives passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill just hours before a looming partial government shutdown.
--:-- John Bickley: The bill now goes to the Senate, which was scheduled for a two-week recess, but several members have said they'll work through the weekend to pass the bill.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The House Freedom Caucus was upset because Speaker Mike Johnson worked with the White House and Democrats to get the bill through.
--:-- John Bickley: In addition, Johnson waived the rules that would have allowed 72 hours to review the bill in order to fast-track it to avoid a shutdown.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This prompted Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene to file a motion to vacate the Speaker.
--:-- John Bickley: The House now has two legislative days to address her motion, which she says is a warning.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We had one day basically to read 1,012 pages, breaking the 72-hour rule.
--:-- John Bickley: This is a betrayal of the American people.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This is a betrayal of Republican voters.
--:-- John Bickley: And the bill that we were forced to vote on forced Republicans to choose between funding to pay our soldiers and in doing so, funding late-term abortion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This bill was basically a dream and a wish list for Democrats and for the White House.
--:-- John Bickley: It was completely led by Chuck Schumer, not our Republican Speaker of the House, not our conference, and we weren't even allowed to put amendments to the floor to have a chance to make changes to the bill.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I filed the motion to vacate today but it more of a warning and a pink slip.
--:-- John Bickley: I respect our conference and I do not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the house in chaos.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Shareholders in the Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, approved plans to take the company public on Friday.
--:-- John Bickley: Donald Trump, the company's largest shareholder and the platform's most prolific user, could receive a financial windfall of about $3 billion from the deal.
--:-- Georgia Howe: However, he won't be able to sell his shares in the company for six months unless the company's executive grants him a waiver.
--:-- John Bickley: The former president has been struggling to raise bond money to appeal a $454 million civil fraud judgment and prevent the state of New York from seizing his properties.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The deadline for posting the bond is Monday.
--:-- John Bickley: The Biden presidential campaign has a big fundraising lead over Donald Trump.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Filings released this week show Biden's campaign has $71 million on hand, while Trump's has $33.5 million.
--:-- John Bickley: Biden raised $21 million in February, while Trump raised about half of that in the same month.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Federal Election Commission filings show that Trump spent about $66 million this cycle, nearly $21 million more than the Biden campaign.
--:-- John Bickley: The Trump camp says they'll level the playing field next month when billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson holds a fundraiser in Florida with several other high-dollar donors.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Negotiations for a ceasefire or truce continued in the Middle East this week.
--:-- John Bickley: Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has the details.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Egypt Thursday where he met with President Abdul Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo to discuss a six-week ceasefire and the release of hostages.
--:-- John Bickley: Blinken is in Israel today. He says a hostage release deal is getting closer.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu privately addressed a group of Republican senators this week and condemned Senator Chuck Schumer's remarks on the Senate floor.
--:-- John Bickley: House Speaker Mike Johnson has invited Netanyahu to speak in the House.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Biden unilaterally forgave another $5.8 billion in student loan debt.
--:-- John Bickley: Daily Wire reporter Spencer Lindquist reports.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: The debt forgiveness applies to 78 public service workers, including nurses, teachers, and firefighters.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program was started in 2007 and was supposed to repay loans for those who entered public service.
--:-- John Bickley: Biden has wiped out $150 billion in student loan debt since taking office.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Social media website Reddit made its stock market debut on Thursday.
--:-- John Bickley: The stock price was initially offered at $34 a share and reached a peak of $53 later that day.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The site has been around for 19 years and has an enthusiastic user base with 70 million unique visitors a day.
--:-- John Bickley: CEO Steve Huffman was on hand at the opening bell, and he defended the popular subreddit group WallStreetBets, which was critical of the IPO and called it a money grab.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I think they've helped us get here. Reddit is nothing without our users and communities.
--:-- John Bickley: And I think that's the beautiful thing about Reddit is they tell it like it is.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But God, you have to remember, they're doing that on Reddit. And it's a platform they love.
--:-- John Bickley: It's their home on the internet. They really are Reddit.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Elon Musk's Neuralink live-streamed its first patient playing chess using his mind.
--:-- John Bickley: 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh was paralyzed in a diving accident about nine years ago and agreed to take part in the Neuralink clinical trial.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He had surgery to implant the chip, which is about the size of a coin, back in January.
--:-- John Bickley: And he says he was out at the hospital in about a day.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In the nine-minute live stream, Arbaugh played chess and narrated his experience.
--:-- John Bickley: I love playing chess and so this is one of the things that y'all have enabled me to do.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I had to use like a mouth stick and stuff but now it's all being done with my brain.
--:-- John Bickley: I think it just became intuitive for me to start imagining the cursor moving.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Basically, it was like using the force on a cursor, and I could get it to move wherever I wanted, just stare somewhere in the screen, and it would move where I wanted it to, which was such a wild experience.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right, those are your drive home updates this afternoon.
--:-- John Bickley: To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com, 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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