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Wednesday Afternoon Update: Ex-Twitter Execs Testify, Zelensky Goes To Britain, LeBron Breaks Scoring Record

   DailyWire.com
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 08: (L-R) Former deputy general counsel of Twitter James Baker, former chief legal officer of Twitter Vijaya Gadde, former global head of trust & safety of Twitter Yoel Roth, and former Twitter employee Anika Collier Navaroli testify during a hearing before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee at Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on February 8, 2023 in Washington, DC. The committee held a hearing on "Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias, Part 1: Twitter's Role in Suppressing the Biden Laptop Story."
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

This article is a companion piece to today’s Morning Wire Afternoon Update. To listen to the podcast version, click here.

Ex-Twitter Execs Testify

Congress held its first hearing on Twitter’s alleged censorship of conservative viewpoints on Wednesday. Several former high-level executives testified, including the Former Head of Trust & Safety at Twitter, Yoel Roth, as well as legal counsel Vijaya Gadde and Jim Baker. The hearing centered around Twitter’s decision to censor the New York Post’s 2020 story about Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell”:

Chinese Spy Balloon Part Of Larger Program?

U.S. Intelligence has reportedly linked the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down this past weekend to a vast surveillance program being conducted by the Chinese military against numerous foreign nations. According to a Washington Post report, the balloon surveillance program has targeted military assets in several rival countries including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

Syrian Rescue Teams Continue Search

Rescue teams in Turkey and Syria continued searching rubble Wednesday following the world’s deadliest earthquake in over a decade. More than 11,000 have been confirmed dead. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the especially hard-hit Hatay province, where more than 3,300 people died and entire neighborhoods were destroyed. Residents there have criticized the government’s response, saying rescuers were slow to arrive.

Did The U.S. Bomb The Nord Stream Pipelines?

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported today on substack that U.S. Navy diving teams bombed the Nord Stream pipelines in coordination with Norway in September. According to Hersh, the plan to attack the Nord Stream was initiated prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A White House spokesperson responded within hours, calling the report “false and complete fiction.” A CIA spokesperson said the claim was “completely and utterly false.”

Zelenksy Meets With British Prime Minister, King

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to London today to meet with the British prime minister, as well as King Charles III. Zelensky is requesting dozens of fighter jets from the West in order to fight the Russian aggressors. Zelenksy will also meet with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris on Wednesday.

Gender-Neutral God?

The liturgical commission of the Church of England has begun looking into changing prayers and other parts of the liturgy by referring to God in a gender-neutral way. Currently, the Christian church refers to God in the masculine form, but leaders told the media that might need to be changed to better reflect God’s essence.

“Christians have recognized since ancient times that God is neither male nor female, yet the variety of ways of addressing and describing God found in scripture has not always been reflected in our worship,” a church representative told British media.

AMC Theatre Introducing New Ticket Pricing Structure

Many critics, including celebrities, are weighing in on the new AMC Theatres pricing structure, which would charge more for better seats at the movies. For example, “Lord of the Rings” actor Elijah Wood recently commented on the situation, saying he believed charging more for preferable locations was unfair to individuals with less discretionary income.

“The movie theater is and always has been a sacred democratic space for all,” Wood tweeted. The pricing change, he said, would “essentially penalize people for lower-income and reward for higher income.”

A spokesman for AMC responded to the criticism, saying every seat “delivers an amazing moviegoing experience,” but the tiered pricing allows customers to choose a specific seat.

LeBron Breaks Scoring Record

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James broke the NBA’s all-time scoring record Tuesday night in a loss to the Oklahoma city Thunder. Kareem Abdul Jabar, the now former record holder, was in attendance for the historic night. James now stands alone with 38,390 points in his career. Here’s the radio call of the bucket that put him on top:

To listen to the audio version of this podcast, click here. 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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