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--:-- John Bickley: The White House celebrates Easter week, Tulsi Gabbard declassifies RFK documents, and a new weight loss pill turns heads. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, April 18th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
--:-- Georgia Howe: One of the most sacred days on the Christian calendar, Good Friday, is being marked today in the White House by President Trump. Daily Wire reporter Mireta Lordi has more.
--:-- Mireta Lordi: Trump is using Holy Week to deepen ties with conservative Christians. Today, he issued a striking Easter message that praised the living son of God who conquered death. The White House hosted a prayer service and Easter dinner where Trump called for one of the great Easter's ever. Evangelical leaders now have unprecedented access to his administration, which opened a faith office being led by his longtime pastor, Paula White Cain. This is just one of the ways the Trump administration is making good on its promise to bring back Christianity.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The president's first cabinet meeting was opened with a prayer in Jesus' name. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has declassified thousands of documents related to the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olihan was at the National Archives with Gabbard and has the exclusive report.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: I joined Director Gabbard at the National Archives in Maryland where she announced that thousands of the RFK documents had been declassified. Gabbard credited President Trump's executive order mandating maximum transparency for this unprecedented release. Just the other day, we discovered and found another 50,000 pages specifically related to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. And so the work you're seeing happening here today is going to continue on as we have other teams going out and doing those searches and hunting for additional records that once again have not been found or released to the public ever before.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: These files include Justice Department case records, foreign embassy cables, and FBI reports that, according to Gabbard, raise new questions but offer no definitive answers. The documents are available at archives.gov slash RFK and mark a major milestone in government openness. I was also able to inspect some artifacts from the JFK case, including Oswald's passport and the infamous Zapruder camera. For a rare glimpse into this pivotal era in U.S. history, you can see my full report on dailywire.com.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Another weight loss drug has passed its first trial. This one comes in pill form. Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo has the details.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Eli Lilly says its experimental weight loss pill has passed its first late-stage trial, where Forglopron is designed to help patients with type 2 diabetes lower their blood sugar and shed pounds. The daily pill showed results similar to current injectable drugs like Ozempic and Monjaro. The pharmaceutical company hopes the pill will become a needle-free alternative in the booming weight loss and diabetes market. Some analysts say the results fell short on one key diabetes measure, but the company plans to seek approval for obesity use by year-end. Eli Lilly stock rose 14 percent on the news.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The IRS is considering revoking Harvard's tax-exempt status. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has more.
--:-- Tim Pierce: This would be a major escalation in President Trump's push to cut federal support to the university. Several sources say the Treasury Department has asked the agency to explore that move, which comes just a day after Trump publicly called for Harvard to pay taxes. Harvard says there's no legal basis to remove its tax-exempt status and warns it could cripple student debt and medical research. Harvard has the largest endowment of any university, more than $50 billion. The Ivy League school has been under fire by the White House, accused of continuing DEI practices and allowing anti-Semitism on campus.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In another development, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has threatened to revoke Harvard's ability to admit international students. DHS is demanding the college turn over records on foreign students accused of illegal and violent activities. Harvard responded by defending its independence and saying it will comply with the law but rejects politically motivated demands.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This episode is brought to you by NetSuite. Download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com slash morningwire. The guide is free to you at netsuite.com slash morningwire. Again, that's netsuite.com slash morningwire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A Tufts University graduate student picked up by ICE will remain in jail. That's the ruling by an immigration judge who denied her bond request this week. Rumeza Ozturk is a 30-year-old from Turkey who's been accused of supporting Hamas. The allegation stems from an op-ed she co-authored criticizing Israel's actions in Gaza. Ozturk is being held in a Louisiana detention center. Her visa was revoked on March 21st following an assessment that she had been involved in associations that may undermine U.S. foreign policy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: An E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce sickened nearly 90 people across 15 states last November. Though one person was killed and dozens were hospitalized, the public was not informed. The FDA closed its investigation without naming the grower or processor, citing a lack of actionable evidence. Families of victims have filed lawsuits against Taylor Farms, which denies responsibility. Food safety advocates warn that withholding outbreak details could put more consumers at risk in the future.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And scientists may have discovered the strongest evidence yet of life beyond Earth. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, a Cambridge University team says they've detected sulfur-based molecules in the atmosphere of a distant ocean-covered planet. The exoplanet is named K2-18b and is 124 light years away. The researchers say the planet lies in the habitable zone of its star and is believed to be a Hyacian world with vast oceans. Experts are calling it a potential tipping point in the search for alien life, but stressed that more data is needed to confirm their findings.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Those are your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And in case you missed it this morning, we covered some major stories, including more troubling details emerge about the deported El Salvadoran, the State Department shuts down a controversial agency, and the UK Supreme Court rules transgender women don't qualify as actual women legally. Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.
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