--:-- [Upbeat music fades out]
--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
--:-- [Music transitions to a serious tone]
--:-- John Bickley: Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky says the world should prepare for the worst from Russia, including even a nuclear strike. We'll hear from President Zelensky and discuss the latest developments in Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, April 18th, and this is Morning Wire. The battle for control of Twitter continued over the weekend with the company's board of directors opting for the so-called poison pill strategy to prevent Elon Musk from purchasing the company.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We explain what the poison pill strategy entails and how political activism has moved into the financial sector. And even though the travel mask mandate has been extended, people are taking to the skies in droves, overwhelming an understaffed airline system.
--:-- John Bickley: People are now booking travel. They're ready to go. They've spent as much time as they can manage at home. They've had two years that they've lost in this period of time.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by Birch Gold Group. The market's slow decline has now worsened, and you need to make sure that your savings are protected with alternative investments.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Hedge your savings today before it's too late with Birch Gold. Text the word WIRE to 989898 to claim a free info kit on physical gold and silver today. Again, text WIRE to 989898 to protect your savings with Birch Gold today.
--:-- John Bickley: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky says the world should be prepared for Russia to use nuclear weapons. The comment came in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper that aired on Sunday.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Zelensky said that Putin was not just capable but willing to use nukes and his continued campaign to take over parts of Ukraine. So, Georgia, we've been covering the war for closing in on two months now since Russia invaded Ukraine back on February 24th.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right, it's really stretched on at this point. It has, and with no end in sight. First, before we hear from Zelensky, catch us up on the latest developments in the war.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Sure, there's a lot going on. So some of the biggest developments are Russia's continued heavy shelling of Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, Russia announcing that they're closing entry and exit from the city of Mariupol, and the EU imposing a full ban on Russian and Belarusian freight truckers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And of course, there was the sinking of a Russian warship on Thursday. That was the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. And that was a devastating blow to Russia optically, and we're told in terms of morale.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. And unsurprisingly, there are competing narratives from Ukraine versus Russia about what caused that ship to sink. Ukraine said they hit it with missiles, whereas Russia said fire broke out.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. And that actually brings us to Zelensky's big interview that aired on Easter. So Tapper asked Zelensky about the incident, and here's part of his reply.
--:-- Vladimir Zelensky: We know that it is gone. For us, it is a serious weapon against our country. That is why the fact that it sank is not a tragedy for us. I want you and everyone else to know that. The less weapons the Russian Federation who attacked our country has, the better it is for us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But perhaps the most notable of Zelensky comments was just how far he believed Putin would go in his military campaign Here part of that exchange The director of the CIA warned that he worried Putin might use a tactical nuclear weapon in this fight Are you worried?
--:-- Vladimir Zelensky: Not only me. I think all over the world, all the countries have to be worried. A translator took over at about this point to help Zelensky express himself more clearly. and this is where he really emphasized that he believes Putin could very well resort to chemical or even nuclear weapons.
--:-- Vladimir Zelensky: Now that there will be a full-scale invasion and killing of civilians, nobody expected them to invade the areas where there is no military equipment and just kill and shoot dead the civilian population. Nobody expected that. But this is a fact, and it happened.
--:-- Vladimir Zelensky: And that is when Russia gives information and says if something goes not according to plan, they can use chemical weapons and their nuclear potential. And that is why I believe these are dangerous claims of untrustworthy people. And if we believe some of them are already untrustworthy, then they can use nuclear weapons.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Frightening stuff. Let's hope we don't see that day. Right, let's hope not.
--:-- John Bickley: Coming up, the battle over control of Twitter and free speech continues. news travels fast but hiring can take forever find quality candidates fast with indeed instead of spending hours on multiple job sites you need one powerful hiring partner that can do it all and with indeed's instant match over 90 of employers get quality candidates as soon as they sponsor their first job post start now with a 75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com slash wire. Offer valid through April 30th. Indeed.com slash wire. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The battle between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter continued over the weekend as the company's board adopted a so-called poison pill, a maneuver that could prevent Musk from buying the company.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Musk, meanwhile, says he has a plan B should his initial offer fail. Here to give us the latest on Musk's standoff with the Twitter board is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, this story continues to move very quickly and it's clearly a long way from over. So where are we now?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, as John said, Twitter has launched that poison pill option. And what that does is it gives certain shareholders the right to purchase more stock at a lower price, essentially diluting its value to keep Musk from seizing control and taking the company private.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, while Twitter hasn't responded to Musk's offer officially, that does make it pretty clear they don't want him to buy the company. The problem for Twitter is that shareholders may not be too happy about having that value diluted just to keep Elon Musk out.
--:-- Megan Basham: So some analysts are saying this could be viewed as somewhat of a desperate move on Twitter's part. But what it does do is buy them some time to look for other competing buyers behind the scenes.
--:-- Megan Basham: And how did Musk respond to the poison pill news? How else? By tweeting about it. So venture capitalist David Sachs, who's a pretty well-known figure around Silicon Valley, well, he tweeted, if the game is fair, Elon will buy Twitter. If the game is rigged, there will be some reason why he won't be able to. We're about to find out how deep the corruption goes.
--:-- Megan Basham: To that, Musk replied, indeed. So that tells you something.
--:-- Megan Basham: And of course, as John said, Musk did say at the TED conference on Thursday that he has a plan B. Now, he hasn't said what that is, but we do know that he's hired Morgan Stanley to advise him.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now how about the other big Twitter shareholders I saw that Vanguard actually surpassed Musk a few days ago when it upped its ownership to 10 Was that a strategic move on their part?
--:-- Megan Basham: You know, I don't think so. I wondered that as well, so I asked a couple of financial experts about it. And what they told me is that Vanguard's buy probably isn't some strategic play. Basically, its ownership of Twitter is passive because it's part of a cap-weighted index fund.
--:-- Megan Basham: What that means to civilians is that it has to maintain a certain value of ownership. So Vanguard's purchase was likely triggered automatically.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, in a previous Sunday episode, we talked about ESG and stakeholder capitalism, which is this new investing strategy that's largely driven by social activism. And in a way, it seems like Musk is doing the same thing here. He's made it clear that his interest in Twitter isn't really economic. It's more about free speech.
--:-- Megan Basham: Is that a fair comparison to make?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, it is. And you know, that's been a really fascinating element of how all of this is playing out, especially because Twitter's board kind of seemed to subtly slam Musk for being driven by ideology.
--:-- Megan Basham: So when Musk rejected Twitter's offer to have a seat on the board, they put out a statement saying, well, okay, but board members have a fiduciary responsibility to put shareholders first. So by saying that, they seem to sort of suggest that Musk isn't putting shareholders first. that he's putting his own social goals first.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yet Twitter itself and its other top shareholders, BlackRock and Vanguard, have championed, as you said, investing for social reasons. They're all on record as supporting stakeholder over shareholder capitalism.
--:-- Megan Basham: So there seems to be some hypocrisy in their attacking Musk on those grounds.
--:-- Megan Basham: I spoke to finance author and investment manager, Jerry Boyer, about that. Here's what he had to say.
--:-- Jerry Boyer: They're attacking Musk, suggesting that he won't play nice go on the board and play nice because he's not willing to practice shareholder primacy, the fiduciary responsibility for shareholder primacy. But he's driving up the price of the shares. He's helping shareholders. And he is a shareholder. He's got skin in the game.
--:-- Jerry Boyer: The management of Twitter has very little skin in the game. Plus, there's another point, which is by alienating half the country and trashing the brand by all this content curation and cancel culture, you know, are they really putting shareholders first or are they putting their own ideology first?
--:-- Jerry Boyer: Making that even more complicated is the fact that Twitter's board is having a hard time framing Musk's offer as a bad financial deal. So first, Twitter had Goldman Sachs advising them that Musk's price at $54 a share wasn't high enough. But critics pointed out that Goldman's own in-house research had previously pegged the price at $30 a share.
--:-- Jerry Boyer: So Musk seized on that and tweeted out a copy of that document. So now Twitter has reportedly brought in J.P. Morgan to help them make the financial argument against Musk as well.
--:-- Jerry Boyer: So this is really becoming like a clash of the titans.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Megan, thanks for keeping an eye on this story.
--:-- Megan Basham: Of course.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Georgia Howe: With COVID-19 restrictions being lifted, a rush to return to travel has caused chaos at airports across the world. Here to tell us more about this problem is Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So Ian, what's going on at airports right now?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, one of the industries that was hardest hit by COVID-19 government policies was the travel industry. But now that the pandemic is, by all accounts, effectively over, people are rushing to catch up on their holiday plans.
--:-- Ian Howarth: and this is causing havoc at airports across the world, especially as we approach holiday weekends like Easter. The International Air Transport Association has warned that airports should get ready for a massive increase in travelers Based on their latest data domestic travel rose a huge 61 in February compared to last year and that only down 22 from 2019
--:-- Ian Howarth: And with countries across the world loosening restrictions or abandoning them altogether, this is truly an international problem. London's Heathrow Airport is struggling with cuts to flying schedules and a rush to hire 12,000 workers.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Meanwhile, in Australia, which we all know experienced some of the world's strictest COVID measures. Sydney Airport has been staring down the barrel of their busiest day for domestic travel since March 2020, all while 20% of its staff missed work every single day because of COVID-19.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Now, you mentioned the concern over hiring. Is this complicated by the upheaval in the job market?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Yeah, absolutely. The fact that the job market is so competitive right now with companies truly desperate for workers is making it really hard for travel-related companies to hire again.
--:-- Ian Howarth: What makes it so difficult for areas like the airline industry is that you can't just ramp up and ramp down hiring as needed, especially since that stringent training is required.
--:-- Ian Howarth: And in the US, multiple areas of the travel pipeline really are struggling. In Austin, Texas, for example, whose airport has seen massive wait times and other delays, they're offering a 15% retention bonus to try and keep employees, as well as a $2,000 signing bonus for people coming in.
--:-- Ian Howarth: But everything has a domino effect. If there aren't enough pilots, then travel cancellations have to be imposed. If there aren't enough TSA agents, then security wait times at airports only increase.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So add a surge in the number of people traveling into the mix, and we're looking at the potential for chaos. And the CDC has once again extended the mask mandate for air travel.
--:-- Ian Howarth: How will that impact things?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Yeah, just this week, the travel mask mandate was extended for 15 more days, which frustrated airlines who were opposed to the requirement at this point. The mandate was scheduled to end on April 18th, and all major airline CEOs wrote a letter calling for the mandate to end on March 24th.
--:-- Ian Howarth: But alas, it's remaining in place for now, with the CDC referencing a recent increase in COVID-19 cases across the country, even though there isn't clear evidence that this is in any way related to air travel.
--:-- Ian Howarth: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the science behind the two-week extension. So what they're trying to do is give a little bit more time to assess its potential impact, the rise of the cases have on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths and the healthcare system capacity, and their assessment from a medical standpoint, a data gathering standpoint, is that two weeks would give them some additional time to do that.
--:-- Ian Howarth: But we should also remember that when the mask mandate is finally lifted, this could spark another increase in travel, with some people hesitant to fly or unwilling to fly until things are back to normal.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So if the necessary hiring hasn't been completed by then, we're looking at even longer wait times at the very least, even if you don't have to wear a mask.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, Ian, thanks for the report.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Of course. Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Other stories we're tracking this week. Illinois is now offering free health care to illegal immigrants between the ages of 55 and 64, if they're below certain income levels. In July, the program is slated to expand again to include persons aged 42 and up.
--:-- Georgia Howe: To qualify, applicants must either be in the states illegally or be a legal permanent resident of the U.S. for less than five years. And Border Patrol reported more than 221,000 apprehensions in March, the highest monthly total in two decades.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In March of 2021, that number was 173,000, and in March of 2020, it was 34,000.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and you stand with our mission, please consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
