--:-- [Upbeat music fades out]
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--:-- Georgia Howe: After 26 hours of deliberations, a Kenosha, Wisconsin jury has found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts in his murder trial. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's November 20th, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Fortnite, one of the world's most popular online games, is pulling out of China. The move, which has massive financial implications, is part of the fallout from China's increasing crackdown on free speech. We'll look at what it all means in light of China's broader political agenda. And Russia shot down a space satellite this weekend as part of a missile test. The move is being condemned by the U.S. and could have serious implications for our security and the space race. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- [Music transitions to a sponsor segment]
--:-- Voiceover: This show is sponsored by Pure Talk. If you're with Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile, you're paying too much. Switching to Pure Talk saves the average family over $800 a year. Go to puretalk.com, find the right plan for you, and enter promo code WIRE to save 50% off your first month.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: After 26 hours of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict on Friday in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial. The jury found Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts of killing two men and injuring a third, a decision that marks the end of a contentious trial that highlighted the split along political lines in our country. Daily Wire's Maraid Elordi has the details for us.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So, Maraid, you and I both spent some time in Kenosha over the past couple weeks. Right. Yesterday was a big day. Can you break down what happened?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Absolutely. So as you said, the trial is now over. The jury reached a unanimous verdict of not guilty for all charges. When the verdict was read, Rittenhouse collapsed and was seen sobbing in relief, hugging his defense attorneys.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Now, initially, he had been charged with five felony charges and one misdemeanor charge, the most serious of which was intentional homicide. That's Wisconsin's top murder charge, which carries a mandatory life sentence. The other charges were reckless homicide, attempted homicide, two counts of reckless endangerment, as well as being a minor illegally in possession of a firearm. That firearm charge was dismissed by the judge on Monday, though.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's worth noting that he was also previously charged with violating curfew, but last week that charge was dismissed by the judge as well. And obviously, Rittenhouse pled not guilty to all of these charges.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: We spoke to a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Amy Swearer, about the case, and she said the evidence always pointed to self-defense. I mean, you never want to guess as to what a jury will do once they get back and start deliberating. But it just seemed like from a legal perspective, it was a weak case from the beginning.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The prosecution got hung up in a lot of just questionable trial tactics, including some very big trial no-nos. So I'm not particularly surprised but it is certainly a relief to have this verdict and to see this kind of come to a resolution.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: You know we heard a lot of talk online about the judge in this case and his potential biases in favor of Rittenhouse. I'm thinking specifically about his decision not to allow the prosecution to call the men who were shot by Rittenhouse victims, as well as having Rittenhouse randomly pull the names of his jurors out of the raffle-style box.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, is this typical behavior for a judge? That's a good question. Legal experts I spoke to said that judges typically bring their own personalities to the bench. So having Rittenhouse pull names randomly from the raffle-style box is simply an extension of that, as it has no real effect on the outcome of the verdict, other than allowing Rittenhouse to have a sort of symbolic hand in his own destiny.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: On the subject of restricting the prosecution's use of the word victims, Swearer told me that this is quite common for these types of cases and actually deals with a question of fact, that is, the jury must decide whether or not these individuals were in fact victims.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Okay, so does this mean that Rittenhouse is completely off the hook. Can he be prosecuted any further for any events in Kenosha?
--:-- Maraid Elordi: No, as far as criminal prosecution goes, he's off the hook. Now, there could be civil suits, but Swearer says that those could be risky due to the clear verdict that was handed down.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, it's worth mentioning that it is possible that Rittenhouse may bring suits against the media or others for libel due to some suggesting Rittenhouse to be a white supremacist. Here's what Swearer had to say on that front.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Part of me says Kyle Rittenhouse is probably very tired at this point. But given that we do have this pretty recent history of similar types of suits being successful, at least in the sense that they were settled for large sums of money with Nicholas Sandman, my guess is he will have attorneys reaching out to him wanting to sue on his behalf.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. So Hancock spoke to the media from the courthouse steps just moments after the verdict, and he put Kyle's situation into human terms. He always wanted to take the stand because he wanted to tell everybody, the world, his story, right? So that was his opportunity to tell everybody what was in his head and what was in his heart. And so he's weathered a hell of a storm over the past year, a hell of a storm.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Well, I'm sure it's been a really emotional few weeks for all of the families involved. Thanks for filling us in.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Of course, thanks, Maraid. That's Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Elordi.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, the massively popular video game Fortnite pulls out of China. You can get this show and all of the content you love wherever you are, all on the Daily Wire app. Even if you're not a Daily Wire member, you'll be first to know what's trending with mobile notifications for the latest news. And you'll get content from all your favorite Daily Wire shows. Download the Daily Wire app and keep up with the facts no matter where your day takes you.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Following a new law in China that limits the amount of time kids can play video games, the popular online game Fortnite is leaving the Chinese market. Here to explain why Fortnite is making this move and what it tells us about the future of the gaming industry in China is Daily Wire entertainment reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, Fortnite is the biggest online game in the world and China is the biggest gaming market, you'd think this pair would naturally go hand in hand, but what happened here?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, you would think that and Epic, the company behind Fortnite, certainly thought that. So they spent a lot of money and time partnering with the Chinese gaming outfit Tencent to roll out Fortnite there. Now Tencent owns a 40% stake in Epic so they had a lot on the line financially.
--:-- Megan Basham: In 2018, the company launched a three-year beta period in China, and that seemed pretty successful. Around 10 million Chinese gamers pre-registered. Then it became apparent that Fortnite wasn't going to get a green light from the communist government's censorship board, which meant it was never going to be able to monetize its product with in-app purchases.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Got it. So why wouldn't China greenlight the game?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, it's likely because Beijing has been cracking down on entertainment it views as, quoting here, politically harmful. It's referred to video games in particular as spiritual opium. And as part of that, in August, it instituted a new restriction that says children under 18 can only play video games for three hours a week. And before that, in 2019, it banned kids from gaming between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Tencent, ironically, helped with that by introducing facial recognition software that could catch those kids breaking curfew.
--:-- Megan Basham: Epic and Tencent haven't specifically said why they're pulling out, but the likely explanation is that they just saw the writing on the wall and decided to cut their losses.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We've talked in the past about how a lot of China's recent cultural moves are interconnected and, of course, have political implications. How does this play into China's broader agenda?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah. So all of this is coming at a time when China has begun curtailing the number of American movies it's allowing in theaters. Suddenly, films that were once shoo-ins, think the Marvel movies, well, they're not getting approval, and that's disrupting Hollywood's business model.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, we've discussed that's had a lot of impact on Hollywood. Right. And so the CCP has started more aggressively censoring broadcast networks as well. We talked a few weeks ago about a new regulation that bans so-called sissy men from appearing on TV shows.
--:-- Megan Basham: So all of this is part of an overall cultural crackdown. And I think what we're seeing is that China is increasingly limiting consumer exposure to Western entertainment and ideas. And combined with some of these other geopolitical moves Beijing is making, like suppressing free speech in Hong Kong, this really looks like a communist superpower increasingly flexing its muscles and isolating itself from democracies.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, it does. And more and more, we're seeing that's creating problems for American and European companies that bet they were going to be able to do business in China. And we're seeing that in the tech sector as well, correct?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yes, that's correct. So the CCP has made it clear that they feel tech companies are growing too powerful. The government has also made it very clear it expects any platforms that are in the country to actively promote their socialist values. So Beijing had already blocked YouTube, Facebook, Twitter. And just recently, it also increased its oversight of the more business-focused platforms like LinkedIn.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So after seven years, Microsoft decided to pull the app out of the Chinese market. And that was just a few weeks ago. Yahoo also recently left. So what all of this could be telling us is that China is insulating itself from being cut off from U.S. suppliers. I think we can say there are a lot of serious implications from that. Fortnite is just another small but significant example.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, and it feels like there's a lot of writing on the wall in China, and the U.S. really needs to be paying attention here.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks, Megan.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yep, sure thing. That was Daily Wire entertainment reporter Megan Basham.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: In the latest move for control of space, Russia carried out a missile test, which the U.S. government condemned as reckless and dangerous. Here to explain what happened is Daily Wire Ian Howard.
--:-- Ian Howard: So first off, Ian, what is Russia being accused of?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, according to the U Space Command or Spacecom, Russia shot down a satellite in orbit over the weekend, and the explosion left debris which could pose a risk to the International Space Station.
--:-- Ian Howard: The decision by Russia, which is being described as irresponsible by U.S. officials, could not only inflame tensions between Russia and the United States, but between various nations in the ongoing space race.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Okay, so before we get into the implications, why did they blow up a satellite?
--:-- Ian Howard: Well, Russia was testing what is known as a direct ascent anti-satellite missile. They were able to blow up a Russian satellite called Cosmos 1408, and the resulting wreckage generated more than 1,500 pieces of debris and is probably going to produce hundreds of thousands of smaller debris, and this is all in orbit.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right, so how does this play into the space race between the U.S. and other countries like Russia and China specifically?
--:-- Ian Howard: Well, it's definitely going to be a factor in the breakdown in relations between these countries, who are all competing to dominate space. The commander of U.S. Spacecom, U.S. Army General James Dickinson, said that Russia is developing and deploying capabilities to actively deny access to and use of space by the United States and its allies and partners.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He added that Russia is pursuing what he called counter space weapon systems that undermine strategic ability and pose a threat to all nations.
--:-- Ian Howard: But while the U.S. government is condemning Russia's actions, Russian officials are accusing the United States of hypocrisy, saying that they've ignored proposals from Russia and China on arms regulations in space.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Of course, whether or not they'd even follow these regulations is an important factor to consider.
--:-- Ian Howard: Right. And is this the first time Russia has done something like this?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Actually, no. The U.S. has accused Russia of testing space weapon technology in the past. In July of last year, for example, US Spacecom said Russia had carried out a non-destructive test of a space-based anti-satellite weapon.
--:-- Ian Howard: They accused Russia of injecting a new object into orbit from one of its existing military satellites. According to other officials, Russia has also carried out other tests which involve one satellite attacking another, as well as testing the ability to launch projectiles from satellites.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And this is all related to the strategic ability to take down American space capabilities in the event of conflict, as well as any missile defenses which could undermine Russian nuclear deterrence.
--:-- Ian Howard: Well, we'll definitely be keeping an eye on it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Ian, thanks.
--:-- Ian Howard: You bet. That's Daily Wire's Ian Howard.
--:-- [Music transitions to a sponsor segment]
--:-- Voiceover: Another story we're tracking this week. Super Bowl winning coach John Gruden is suing the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell, accusing them of leaking emails he sent while working for ESPN with the intention of forcing him out of his head coaching job with the Raiders. Gruden's attorney said there is no explanation or justification for Gruden's emails being the only ones made public out of the 650,000 emails the NFL collected, or for why the emails were held for months before being released in the middle of the Raiders season.
--:-- [Music transitions to a closing segment]
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you liked this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back next week with the news you need to know.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: If you like this podcast, subscribe to our Morning Wire newsletter, available exclusively to Daily Wire members. Get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe. Use code MORNINGWIRE to try a Reader's Pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents.
