Evening Wire: PA Plant Explosion & UFC’s Historic Deal | 8.11.25

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A rescue effort is underway after an explosion at a steel plant in Pennsylvania. Trump federalizes D.C.
and the Texas governor is going after delinquent Democrats. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley.
It's Monday, August 11th, and this is Evening Wire. At least one person is dead and many more injured after a massive explosion at a steel plant in Pennsylvania.
Officials say two people are still unaccounted for. Officials are urging residents to shelter indoors due to possible air quality hazards, as locals report seeing thick black smoke billowing into the air.
Witnesses described the blast as feeling like thunder that rattled buildings. Governor Josh Shapiro says the state is sending all available resources.
President Trump is taking aggressive action to make Washington, D.C. great again.
Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips has the latest.

In an effort to clean up what he calls the, quote, crime-rated, filthy nation's capital,

President Trump is deploying the National Guard and federalizing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.

Speaking from the White House, Trump vowed to restore law and order,

saying the days of, quote, savagery, filth, and scum terrorizing the streets are over.

Here he is invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. You know what that is? I'm placing the D.C.
Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control, and you'll be meeting the people that will be directly involved with that. In addition, I'm deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, D.C., and they're going to be allowed to do their job properly.
The move follows persistent violent crime and the brutal beating of a young Trump administration staffer and comes after months of warnings to Mayor Muriel Bowser, who critics say has failed to keep the city safe. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says National Guard troops will be, quote, strong, tough and stand with law enforcement partners as they hit the streets this week.
An Obama-appointed judge has rejected the Trump administration's bid to unseal grand jury records from the Ghislaine Maxwell case. Daily Wire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rice has the details.
Judge Paul Engelmeyer ruled today that the government hadn't shown a compelling reason to release the normally secret proceedings, noting their request sought nearly the entire record, not limited excerpts. Attorney General Pam Bondi had pushed for disclosure amid renewed scrutiny of Jeffrey Epstein's network, but Engelmeyer stressed that political interests played no role in his decision.
The ruling keeps the grand jury testimony under wraps while Maxwell continues serving her sentence for aiding Epstein's sex trafficking operation. Ukraine has upped its strikes on Russia ahead of Friday's summit with Trump and Putin in Alaska.
President Zelensky says the strikes are meant to push Moscow toward real peace talks, but he rejects Putin's demands for Ukraine to cede any land. Moscow says it downed 59 drones overnight, bringing the August total to more than 1,300.
Ukraine intercepted 70 of 100 Russian drones in return. Whether Zelensky will join the summit remains unclear as Trump aims to broker a ceasefire despite the sharp divide.
The CEO of tech giant Intel will meet with President Trump at the White House today, less than a week after the president called for his resignation. Daily Wire senior editor Joel Needler has more.
The Wall Street Journal reports that CEO Lip Bu Tan hopes to ease Trump's concerns regarding his loyalty to the United States, both personally and in terms of Intel's domestic investment. Trump called for Tan to resign last week over concerns about his ties to China.
Tan previously headed Cadence Design Systems, a major supplier of chip design software which pleaded guilty last week to selling chip design products to a Chinese military university. Tan's venture capital firm is also invested in Chinese companies.
Also in the chip space, NVIDIA and Advanced Micro devices will share 15% of the revenue from the AI chips they sell to China with the U.S. government.
The agreement comes as a condition for the government to approve the sale of certain AI chips from each company to Chinese markets. The exports of these chips were halted in April over national security concerns.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is holding state legislators' feet to the fire after roughly 50 House Democrats left the state last week to block new districting maps. Here's Abbott on Fox News Sunday.
I'm authorized to call a special session every 30 days. It lasts 30 days.
And as soon as this one is over, I'm going to call another one, then another one, then another one, then another one. If they show back up in the state of Texas, they will be arrested and taken to the Capitol.
Abbott filed a suit with the Texas Supreme Court last Tuesday to remove Democrat House Caucus Chair Gene Wu from office over the Democrat revolt. The Texas House was set to consider adopting new election maps that would create five more favorable Republican seats in Congress.
The House is scheduled to reconvene today. Former Representative Robert Francis O'Rourke, also known as Beto O'Rourke, joined the chorus of support for the Texas Democrats walkout.

O'Rourke railed against the Republicans and called on Democrats nationwide to redraw congressional districts wherever possible. You may say to yourself, well, those aren't the rules.

There are no reps in this game. F*** the rules.
We are going to win whatever it takes.

O'Rourke's comments come after a Texas judge blocked him and his nonprofit political group powered by people from funding Democratic representatives who fled the state. The illegal immigrant who brutally raped and murdered Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, was sentenced to life in prison without parole today.
Several of Morin's surviving family members delivered victim impact statements to the court. Speaking

in advance of the hearing, Morin's mother, Patty Morin, had this to say on Fox News this morning. When you get to the point where you actually sit down and write the statement, you don't think it's good enough because I'm thinking of my daughter and her life and how can I put the value of her life, reduce it to ink and paper? And then how do I feel about this person and what he's done to take that life away? The murderer, Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, received the maximum sentence for first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sex offense, and third-degree kidnapping.
Officials have previously stated that Hernandez would complete his sentence in Maryland and would not be deported to his native El Salvador. Goodbye pay-per-view.
Dana White has announced a historic deal between the UFC and CBS. Daily Wire reporter Zach Jewell has more.
CBS owner Paramount struck a seven-year deal with the UFC for exclusive broadcast and streaming rights. Paramount will have access to all 30 UFC fight nights and 13 other UFC events.
Select UFC events will be broadcast on CBS, while others will also be on Paramount+. The $7.7 billion deal will go into effect next year.
This is the first time American fans will be able to access all major UFC fight nights without the pay-per-view model. UFC CEO Dana White celebrated the deal for making the sport, quote, affordable and accessible to view the greatest fights on a massive platform.
A former Bravo star says Trump voters should be banned from Chinese, Indian, and Mexican restaurants. Jennifer Welch went on a profanity-laced rant on her I've Had It podcast.
She attacked white Americans who voted for Trump but also want to eat at ethnic restaurants. Welch said Trump voters should only be allowed to eat at Cracker Barrel.
White people that triple Trump should be banned, boycotted from enjoying the best thing that America has to offer, which is multiculturalism. Get your fat ass out of the Mexican restaurant.
Get your fat ass over to Cracker Barrel. Welch received swift backlash on social media.
Comments called her unhinged and delusional and said Welch is what's wrong with this country. Jimmy Kimmel hinted that he could move to Italy because of Donald Trump.
Kimmel recently appeared on Sarah Silverman's podcast and says he's secured Italian citizenship.

Some speculate Kimmel will move to Italy to avoid Trump.

Another comedian, Rosie O'Donnell, moved to Ireland after Trump won re-election.

Silverman says she knows multiple people who are trying to get citizenship in other countries.

I did get Italian citizenship.

You do?

I do. That's amazing.

I do have that.

And what's going on is as bad as you thought it was going to be. Way worse.
It's so much worse. Got to miss you, Jimmy.
And it's the end of an era. AOL says it's pulling the plug on its dial-up internet service next month.
Yahoo, which owns AOL, says very few customers still use dial-up and the change won't affect free AOL email accounts. Once a 90s internet giant known for You've Got Mail and its noisy connection tones, AOL's dial-up era will officially come to an end on September 30th.
Those are your drive home updates this evening. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com.
And in case you missed it this morning, we covered some major stories, including Trump's high-stakes meeting with Putin, This is a production of the United States. of Morning Wire.
this grief, responsibility. How do you repair this kind of damage? My daughter, Michaela, guides

the conversations as we hopefully

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Everyone has their own destiny.

Everyone.