Russia’s Potential Plague Outbreak & SCOTUS’s Biggest Cases | 10.6.26

Okay, first, before we give you the facts of the day, Run Hyde Fight infadels is streaming now only on Daily Wire. It's an ode to the great action movies of the 80s and 90s, there's even a love story which nobody expected, and you can support Daily Wire's mission to continue making movies that people actually want to watch. Go check it out. The U.S. response after hundreds are quarantined amid a play scare possibly linked to a Siberian lab. You're watching and monitoring it closely, I don't think it's cost for alarm, but it is cost for focus. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, October 6th, and this is Morning Wire. The Supreme Court is back in session with some big cases on the docket. We run through the ones to watch. I think this is probably the biggest case of the term in terms of potential economic impact if it went the wrong way. And Trump-aligned candidates surge in Brazil as South America continues its right word drift. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned, we have the news you need to know. A devout orthodox Jew invited about a dozen friends to pray in his home, his city required him to get a permit and then recruited his neighbors to spy on him. It may sound impossible, but it actually happened in University Heights, Ohio to a man named Daniel Grant. That's why Alliance Defending Freedom and Oric, Harrington and Sutcliffe are defending Daniel at the U.S. Supreme Court. Alliance Defending Freedom never builds its clients, and right now your gift will be doubled by a matching grant while matching funds last. Go to joinadf.com/wire or text wire to 83848 to defend the freedom to pray at home. It's joinadf.com/wire or text wire to 8384848. Hundreds have been quarantined or placed under medical observation amid concerns about a potential outbreak of the plague in Siberia. This comes after the death of a Russian laboratory worker last week that may have a possible connection to the deadly bacteria. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that U.S. officials are closely monitoring the developments surrounding the apparent lab leak. Joining us now with more is Tim Rice, our Washington, DC Bureau Chief. Great to have you on. Happy to be here. What more can you tell us about this potential outbreak? Sure. As you guys mentioned, this all started some time late last week or over the weekend when a 28-year-old lab tech named Daria Shipelova died. She checked herself into the hospital with symptoms of pneumonia. It apparently advanced very rapidly, and now it's suspected that she's in the course of her work at the Russian anti-plague research facility. It dropped a vial or in some way was exposed to a type of plague. Now, this is the type of plague that you're thinking of. It's the bubonic plague, the black death, the thing that killed tens of millions of people in the Middle Ages. And now, based on early reports, and we should just take a moment right here to say that this is all moving very quickly, we're pulling together a lot of different things from Russian news sources and Russian individuals who are speaking out, so obviously we're not super sure about any of this, but early reports seem to suggest that this is not the bubonic plague, but the pneumonic plague, which is basically the same as the plague from the Middle Ages, except it's the only one of three varieties of plague that can be transmitted person to person. So, definitely calls for alarm or concern, but not a full-blown COVID lab leak situation quite yet. We know it up front that plague is treatable, it's treatable with antibiotics. We know how to treat it. The United States has about seven cases of plague per year, usually due to animal exposure somewhere in the Western United States, but so this is a known and treatable disease if it is the type of plague that we think it is. Well, we can treat it, but it is worth noting it's nearly 100% fatal if you don't treat it, so certainly worth monitoring. Now, how much cooperation are we seeing between the US and Russian governments? Yeah, so far, the United States hasn't stepped up to do anything yet, and the Russian government hasn't asked. It's more just journalists and other concerned parties are reaching out to the White House in the State Department for comment. The Russian government for its part is really trying to downplay this. Some officials and some statements are saying that actually there's no proof that it is the plague. The summer saying, yes, well, there is potentially some sort of leak at the lab, but it's unrelated to the death of this woman. Everything's fine. It's really urging caution. The World Health Organization is similarly saying that there's not much cause for concern, but there are some signs in Russia and from local Russian media that things are, if not worse than the Russian government is letting on, then government officials are more concerned than they're letting on. The head of Russia's public health and infectious diseases agency traveled 2600 miles from Moscow to Siberia within a day of this report, and a prominent Russian epidemiologist spoke out over the weekend to say that the narrative about this just being a broken test tube and a single lab worker is evidence of a cover-up, basically that in implying that the Russian government, if it's saying that much publicly and out loud, then something worse is happening behind the scenes. And the news of how the hospitals have been responding also is raising some alarms, correct? Yeah, that's right. So in addition to the some 200 people that officials have asked to quarantine and are reportedly monitoring who would somehow come in contact with Shibolova, the lab tech, about five hospitals and medical centers in the surrounding area in Siberia have been placed on quarantine. We're also hearing reports that a factory in that area of Siberia employees there have been asked to start wearing masks to work as part of a precautionary effort. So definitely things are moving fast and there's probably some sort, there's definitely a chasm between what Russian officials are saying and what's actually going on, but not clear yet that are certainly no signs yet that it's caused for real panic. How concerned do US officials seem to be about the potential of some sort of outbreak? So it's very interesting. The White House and the State Department are both urging caution and calm again as is the World Health Organization. One thing we have noticed though is that a number of folks who worked in the Biden administration on COVID response are on, I have taken to X to not stoke panic, but they're being a little bit less calm. So notably Ashish Jha who ran the White House Coronavirus Office under President Joe Biden had his lengthy X thread, you know, kind of warning of the dangers of the plague and why we can't trust the Russians and things of that nature. Both of which again, as we've mentioned, the plague can be deadly, the Russians can't really be trusted, but very interesting when you look at the players who's currently raising the alarm and who's urging caution. We've got 15 days to stop the spread, man, we got this. Exactly. One of the chances China and then Russia, Tim, thanks for reporting. Of course, guys. Getting a flood of holiday orders is a great problem to have, until you actually have to ship all of them, ship station is built for exactly that moment. 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It's a big week for our nation's highest court as it begins a new term and plans to review a diverse slate of major cases with sweeping real-world consequences for schools, religion, gun rights and climate policy. For a look at what to watch as the Supreme Court's new term kicks off, we're joined by Charles Stimson, Acting Director of the Legal Policy Center at the Heritage Foundation. Charles, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. Now, can you put this week into context for us? What happens at the beginning of a new term for the Supreme Court? Yeah, so the term kicks off in the first Monday in October. It's actually on the day after the Red Mass, which is held at St. Matthews Cathedral here in town. And yesterday we saw the court kick off its term with admissions to the court, which is standard, for new people who want to be members of the bar. And then they started off with a bang with a case called Suncorer Energy versus Boulder County. And that is a state law case where. where Boulder County is suing sun core energy under state tort law for allegedly causing climate change in Boulder County and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. I don't think it went very well for them, and that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned because we don't want the states and people in the state suing energy companies out of business. Now, which other cases, in addition to this, do you think have the best chances of upending some existing sweeping policies? I don't know if they're going to upend any sweeping policies per se, but I think that they'll provide clarification on either constitutional provisions, one in particular that I can talk about, or a statutory interpretation matters. The court has only taken up, believe it or not, five cases in its history, in the nation's history, on what an excessive fine means under the Eighth Amendment Excessive Fines clause. And so there's a case out of Alaska called Jalpe versus Alaska, where a guy who's essentially a taxi cab driver, he's a former Air Force vet, who flies a small plane to remote villages in Alaska as essentially a taxi cab service, and he was convicted of the misdemeanor of carrying a six pack or attempting to carry a six pack of beer to a dry village. The judge gave him a minimum fine, a minimum jail sentence for that, but the state appealed that and they wanted the judge to take his airplane, a $95,000 airplane compared to the $1,500 fine as a fine for this misdemeanor. And so now the court is going to have to answer whether or not the fine has to have some proportion to the actual event here, and I think clearly that's an excessive fine in anyone's mind except of course, Alaska's. What are some other cases that you think are very notable that we should keep our eye on in the coming weeks? We're going to have another Second Amendment case. We've had, remember, Heller, and then Macdonald Heller said that you have a course Second Amendment right to keep in bear arms. Macdonald is out of Chicago, this says it applies to the states. You had Bruin, this says you can actually carry the gun out of your house. We've had Rahimi and some other cases. And the new one is Vera Montes against Cook County, and it's answering the question whether or not you have a second and 14th Amendment right to have an AR-15, which is the most popular long gun in America, 30% of Americans have an AR-15 style semi-automatic weapon. I think the court is clearly going to extend to that because it passes the test of text and history of having long guns, but that case will be argued in the fall. There's an interesting case out of Florida called Cayam against Florida, and Florida uses six-person juries, not 12-person juries. The question is under the Sixth Amendment, whether you have a constitutional right to a 12-person jury, not a six-person jury, and then, of course, the religious liberty case that we know about so far, they've only taken 30 cases so far, they'll end up taking 60 or 65, St. Mary's Catholic Parish against Roy. Colorado has a universal preschool funding mechanism in their state, as long as you comply with some of the requirements, the Catholic schools, they're sued, saying, "Well, we'll take the money, but we're not going to indoctrinate on LGBTQ issues, because that's inconsistent with our religious exercise." Then there's a couple of immigration cases, one of which involves whether under the statute, if you're here illegally, whether you can be detained indefinitely until they find a home country to take you to. And other cases like that. All right, well, a lot of things to keep our eye on, Charles, thank you so much for coming on. Well, thanks for having me. The right has surged in Brazil's recent presidential election with the son of the quote, "Trump of the Tropics," Jair Bolsonaro, forcing a runoff against the current left-wing president, Lula De Silva. His results follow a growing trend in Latin America with countries like Honduras, Colombia, Chile, and Bolivia, among others who have seen a rise in right-leaning leaders. Joining us now to discuss is Julia Bronco's speech of the Brazil program at the Inter-American Dialogue. Julia, thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me. So tell us, where do things stand now with Brazil's presidential election? This wasn't the final election. This was a lead-up. What's happening? So the first round happened this Sunday, and it was kind of a surprise for everyone. Flavor Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, finished first with about 47% of the valid vote, compared with 45% for Lula. And I think this brings us, perhaps, to the biggest political message for the first round, which is this broad political movement related to former president Jair Bolsonaro and to right-wing political parties. He remains very, very strongly in Brazil. And I think even the left and Lula's campaign were surprised by the result. Now, what are the key issues at stake in this election? What are the issues that are driving people to the polls and why is the Bolsonaro family name popular? I see that these elections, through a certain extent, were about the satisfaction and demand for change. And Lula is an incumbent president, but he's seeking his fourth term. And probably the most important factor we have right now. What we are calling the master bank scandal in Brazil. This is a major financial scandal that has been occurring in Brazil since last year and has involved politicians from across the political spectrum and has also raised questions about the conduct and also the relationships of some of the Supreme Court justices, including of Alexandre de Morais, the Justice who sent Bolsonaro to prison with the master bank scandal. And this has become really important in Brazil right now because the Supreme Court has become kind of associated with the Lula government, especially because of the Bolsonaro conviction in 2023. Now, Brazil is just the latest Latin American country to shift to the right. Can you tell us a little bit about what we're seeing in other countries? I think when we look to other countries and include Brazil in the topic, there's a clear shift to the right across learning America. And of course, we've seen that recently, including Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, but I would be really careful about describing this simply as like an ideological conservative wave because these governments and countries, of course, they are very different from each other. And although some major macroeconomic and social indicators have improved, and that's the case of Brazil, for example, distension, many voters feel the pressure of the costs of leaving and high interest rates. This is the first factor that I see. The second is, of course, security, again, and the fight against organized crime. And that's how it has become something really important and favors right wing politicians. And finally, I will also say the broader anti-incumbened and anti-stablished dynamic. The voters in Latin America have repeatedly punished governments and specially recently, whose parties they perceive that were not delivering results. And we saw that actually with Bolsonaro in 2023. All right. Well, Julia, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks for waking up with us. The reporting that fuels this show is only possible because you tune in every day and because of our daily wire subscribers. To enjoy the show, add free and join our mission, become a member at dailywire.com. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.