Morning Run: Tariffs Pausing, Tensions Thawing, Newsom Shocking, Layoffs Rising and Space Debris Falling

Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Morning Run. It's Friday, March seventh.

I'm Amy Robots and I'm TJ. Holmes. And on this Friday Morning Run, several House Democrats joined Republicans in censuring a member of their own party. Meantime, that member is busy drawing up articles of impeachment for the.

President a week after that now infamous Oval office drama, a sign of thawing tensions between the US and Ukraine. Plus, President Trump sure likes that pause button, pushing back tariffs on our northern and southern neighbors for another month.

Also, the news is so positive out of Rome today the Vatican is skipping an update after we finally hear directly from the Pope. Also, the Governor of California shocks Democrats with his stance on transgender women in sports.

When the clock strikes six pm tonight, South Carolina will do something it's never done before, execute a death row inmate by firing squads. Match the headlines. February saw the highest number of layoffs in this country in twenty five years, and no surprise here, Doge is leading the way.

Also, this morning. A game changer in women's tennis. They're all eligible for twelve month maternity leave. Do you care that Saudi Arabia is paying for it? Also back to back bust for SpaceX. Another test flight fails in dramatic and fiery fashion.

And another disturbing development in the ongoing measles outbreak, an infected adult has died. Plus a press conference has been scheduled for today about the death of Oscar winner Gene Hackman and his wife. What do investigators have to tell us? There has been so much mystery. People have their theories, but no.

One really knows for sure what happened to those two.

Yeah, and investigators they planned this. They are getting everybody together, from the health officials, from the police officials, all at once. They seem like they have something to say today. But we have a jam packed kind of morning run today. We're going to get the through it. We have to ask for your patients with us. If you've already could tell it was a late night. We've been fumbling around a couple of words here, but it was because we went to a wonderful The Sole premiere here in New

You caught it right before we went on the air, so bear with us everyone, But here we go. We were on Randall's Island, so you know, that was the first for us, and it was really fun. It was a beautiful event. If anyone gets a chance to go out and see served Disilay, we highly recommend.

We are going to begin our run.

Though.

With diplomacy on the horizon, it appears tensions have finally eased between the US and Ukraine. Exactly one week after that contentious Oval Office meeting between President Trump and President Zelenski.

Last Friday, US and Ukrainian officials are setting up a meeting next week in Saudi Arabia to discuss the framework for a ceasefire with Russia. President Trump's special envoy told reporters that the White House is in discussions to coordinate with the Ranians in riod Or potentially Jetta for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire. Both President Trump and President Zelenski confirmed the meeting.

Earlier this week.

Zelenski went on social media to express regret for what happened in the Oval Office and gratitude for American aid with their war efforts. Zelenski's remarks came after Trump paused financial and military assistance earlier this week. But the US then upped its pressure on Ukraine to come to the table by ending our intelligence sharing with them.

Yeah. Then the experts out there will tell you that the suspension of intelligence was the biggest blow to Ukraine because it disrupts the country's ability to track and target Russian troops, tanks, and ships, and of course that also allows them to give their own citizens heads up about attacks. So it was a big deal for that US intelligence to go away. Ukraine's other allies simply cannot provide the same type of intelligence that the US can. So the

It's pretty remarkable what's been accomplished in one week. There have been a lot of back and forth, but you know what, if the end result is peace, we'll take it next up on our run. That call between President Trump and President Shinbaum of Mexico.

Well, it must have gone pretty well.

Because after that call, President Trump announced he would be delaying tariffs on Mexico and Canada by at least one month.

Yeah, the new twenty five percent tariffs announced earlier this week would apply to a lot of goods coming into the US from our neighbors to the north and south. The announcement of those tariffs caused stock markets to tank earlier this week, but there was hope that something could be worked out. So right now there's a temporary reprieve and the tariffs are set to go into effect on April second.

Now, President Trump wrote this on social media. I did this as an accommodation and out of respect for President Shinbaum. Our relationship has been a very good one, and we are working hard together on the border, both in terms of stopping illegal aliens from entering the United States and likewise stopping fentanyl. Thank you to President Shinbaum for your

Then I read through President Trump's social media posts that you just read, and I kept going line by line. I'm waiting for it. I'm waiting for it, and it never came. You were waiting on him to in some way blow up at somebody. He was complimentary publicly on this forum. I thank her for her hard work and cooperation we've had.

This is the tone was amazing, rare compliments.

That was awesome in my opinion. So we'll continue on the run this morning. Ten Democrats are well. They are fielding a lot of criticism right now for joining House Republicans. What did they join them in doing? Censuring Representative Al Green for his behavior during President Trump's addressed to Congress. Seventy seven year old dimmer Green not only disrupted Trump's speech, shouting and shaking his cane at the president, but then he refused to sit down and shut up.

It's one way to put it.

Speaker Mike Johnson eventually had security physically removed Green from the chamber. House Democratic leaders have asked members not to protest. They were asking them to show restraint during the president's speech. They didn't want anyone point of the finger back at them. So this vote demonstrates the division within the party over how some members conducted themselves that night.

So a censor, what does that mean? Not a whole lot. It's you publicly being slapped on the hand. I suppose no real penalty beyond the public reprimand of Following the vogue, Green took to the house floor and said, friends, I would do it again.

Not shocking after we saw what he did during the address. He actually called himself a proud liberated democrat, unbought, unbossed, and unafraid, he said. Green also announced that he will be seeking articles of impeachment against President Trump. So he's going to be busy continuing his agenda.

All right, continuing our run this morning, There was a huge jump in job cuts last month in the US. How huge We're talking about a two hundred and forty five percent increase in layoffs.

In February, employers cut one hundred and seventy two seventeen jobs. That is the highest number of layoffs we've seen in one month since two thousand. These are recession level layoff numbers. So what exactly is happening?

In a word, doged The job losses are being driven by as Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency. Yes, being run by Elon Musk. It has gone on a firing spree since Trump came back to office. So sixty two thousand plus of those layoffs are in the federal workforce. It's really driving these numbers. Again, I say a firing spree, but Trump sees this. President Trump sees this as a

Yeah, efficiency is a positive spin for absolutely shrinking.

The federal workforce.

Next up on the run, let's go to California, where Governor Gavin Newsom is making some major waves within his own party. Newsom was speaking with a thirty one year old right wing influencer in his podcast when he agreed with his guest that allowing transgender women to compete in women's sports was unfair, and.

Then you could almost hear a Democratic record scratch. At that point, the governor said, I think it's an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that it's deeply unfair. Those are Newsom's words. He also said that signature Trump campaign commercial that announced Kamala is for they them President Trump is for you. Well, he said, a lot of people agree. That was just a devastating and

Newsom's comments shocked many Democrats after his widely known decades long support for LGBTQ causes. I'm sure all of us. I can picture it right now, those pictures of Newsom officiating same sex weddings. He was one of the first politicians in this country to do that. Many believe Newsom has presidential ambitions for twenty twenty eight. That's something he joked about as well on his podcast.

They believe he has okay, ok oh. There was a New York Times yps hiss pull back in January found that nearly eighty percent of Americans, that includes two thirds of Democrats, believe that transgender women should not compete in women's sports. This will be a big issue. And you have somebody this high profile who yes think they actually think he has a path to the nomination. He's he's been setting this up for twenty years almost.

He's trying to modernize the Democratic Party, and he's got a new podcast.

This is Gavin Newsom.

This was his debut episode, so we will be hearing a lot more from Gavin Newsom. I'm sure he'll That's a perfect vehicle for him to make all the headlines. He wants their needs all right. Next up on the Run, some very positive news out of Rome. Today, the Pope made his first public comments since he was hospitalized three weeks ago.

This was great to hear. He recorded a statement thanking the public for their prayers, and his message was played at the nightly vigil in Saint Peter's Square. The Pope said, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers for my health. From the square, I can't I accompany you from here. May God bless you and the Vision protect you.

Thank you, and people said his voice sounded a little raspy, a little soft, but that, would you know, be very understandable. Given his three weeks in the hospital. Pot Francis has remained in stable condition compared to previous days, according to the Vatican, and so much so the Vatican said it's not going to provide another medical update on the Pope until Saturday. Normally we wake up in the morning and we get another update. They said, that's not going to happen.

Without a doubt. The best update is that we are not giving you an update. That's wonderful. There's nothing to tell you, and that's that's great. If this guy gets out, he gets out of the hospital. We got to go back to Rome. We will get You're here on the run. This morning, we had to head over to South Carolina. We mentioned this yesterday, but today is the day. In particularly,

Right, yeah, and unless the governor or the Supreme Court grants him a last minute reprieve, sixty seven year old Brad Sigmund will be the first person to die by firing squad in this country since twenty ten. Siegmund has been on death row for the past twenty three years after he admitted to brutally killing his ex girlfriend's parents with a baseball bat.

After she broke up with.

Him and refused to get back together, he actually kidnapped her that night, shot at her and thankfully missed.

This was a gruesome and like horrible, horrible.

Crist right that I read this right. He admitted he was planning to kill her as well.

Yeah, he was planning to kill her and then himself. He said, if if I can't have her, nobody can. That classic statement. He actually said that.

All right, So this isn't one of those cases where there's a question of innocence. Instead, his attorneys are saying, here, yes, he is choosing to die, and he's choosing the firing squad because he didn't trust the other methods, which were lethal injection and the electric chair. So tonight, Sigmund's lawyer, family, members of the victims, three reporters will watch from behind a glass that had to be recently upgraded to be bulletproof.

The shooters will be fifteen feet from Sigmund. That's the length, just to give you perspective, from the backboard to the free thrill line on a basketball court.

The entire process should take five minutes.

They say that's a quarter of the time it takes for an inmate to die by lethal injection, so this will be quick, but certainly this is going to be a first, and it's if history is any indication, the South Carolina governor has not granted clemency to a prisoner since nineteen seventy sorry excuse me for execution, since the death penalties since it was reinstated in nighte teen seventy six, So it's highly unlikely given all of those reasons.

Folks, Well stay with us here on this morning run when we come back. An actual update expected today from authorities on the death of Gene Hackman. Also a disturbing update about that measles outbreak. Also, air travelers got a disturbing update for you as well, watch out for space debris. And one of the most momentous changes in women's sports was just announced yesterday and it is a break one.

Hackman and his wife were discovered dead on February twenty six at their Santa Fe home. The sheriff said no foul play was suspected. Investigators ruled out carbon monoxide poisoning and there were no signs of physical trauma.

Name I remember, Hackman was found in an entry way to his home. His wife was found in the bathroom with an open prescription bottle and spilled pills near her. Sheriff said they could have been dead for up to two weeks before they were discovered. Again, we remember they It's a horrific detail, but it lets us know they had been there a while. The said they were signs of mummification of the bodies. Hackman's pacemaker it had recorded info.

I think a lot of people are hoping to get some, certainly in that mystery. Next up on our run, a person infected with measles has died in New Mexico. This is the latest sad and very troubling development in the ongoing measles outbreak.

Authority say this was an unvaccinated adult, and this person had not salt prior medical attention. And though they've confirmed the person was infected with measles, they haven't confirmed in fact that it was the measles that caused the death. They are looking into that this person was in a county in New Mexico that borders the West Texas county at the center of the current measles outbreak.

So far, at least one hundred and fifty nine cases have been confirmed in Texas, mostly in unvaccinated children, and one school aged child you remember, died last month, marking the first measles death in this country in ten years. And there are ten cases confirmed in New Mexico. So we're seeing in neighboring states or bordering areas from this area in South Texas.

That's not what you want for to start spreading to other areas. We'll keep an eye on that one. Also next up on the run something for you air travelers. It seems that air travelers these days have enough problems with air travel without also now having to worry about falling space debris.

But the FAA stopped flights from several Florida airports yesterday for nicely that reason after another SpaceX flight did not go as planned, and by didn't go as planned, we actually mean a spacecraft came back to Earth in a bunch of fiery pieces.

Okay, this was the eighth uncrewed test flight of the enormous SpaceX starship. So this is the way you're supposed to work the spacecraft. The little capsule that the crew would have been in is attached to the top of a powerful rocket. The two blast off together, then they separate not long after takeoff. From there, the rocket is softly guided back to Earth, and then the spacecraft continues on to space.

Everything happened except that last part. The spacecraft did not continue onto space. Instead, its engines started giving out minutes into the flight, and the craft started spinning out of control back to Earth, eventually breaking up into pieces of debris that could be seen streaking across the sky. If you want to see it, it's everywhere online. It was officially called a rapid unscheduled disassembly.

That's as accurate as you can get in the description. But get this. Air travelers, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Orlando airports, they were all impacted because, yes, the FAA stopped flights for a while.

I can understand why stopped fiery pieces of debris falling from the sky.

I don't want to be flying.

But again, all the air airplane, our airline stories we've been seeing over the past several weeks until now, Hey, you gotta worry about space debris. Now you look out the window. So if any of the story that we're talking about this rocket test not going well, if it sounds familiar, it's because the exact same thing happened in the last test flight, which was in January, that spacecraft actually did explode. The flight director said yesterday, we have some practice at this now.

Let's so practice makes perfect, all right for the final leg of our run on this Friday. A first, if it's kind, and game changing move in women's sports, women playing on the Professional Tennis Tour are now eligible for paid maternity lead.

I love this story. You know, this is just a cool story that shows that we are moving in a particular direction. So this is cool. The WTA Women's Tennis Association made this announcement yesterday. About three hundred and twenty professional women's players on this tour are now eligible to

That's great.

The WTA says this is the first time in women's sports history that comprehensive maternity benefits are available to independent, self employed athletes. The program will also offer months for players fertility and IVF treatments, and the WTA says, by the way, there are right now twenty five moms on tour, but.

Consider some of these moms. Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Caroline Wozniaki, and other Grand Slam winning top players have returned to the tour in recent years after having kids. Of course, this costs money to put up a fund like this, says the money is coming from Robes Saudi Arabia, which is.

So interesting given their history with women's rights. The Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund is a global sponsor for the WTA, which said the maternity lead policy would not be possible without that Saudi money. Some high profile stars criticized WTA's partnership with Saudi Arabia in the past for what I just mentioned, citing the country's record on women's rights. You know, this is an incredible move forward. It is tough though, when you find out where the money is coming from.

Well, this is one of those I mean, do you know what some of the criticism, yes, women's rights, but now new criticism is that there's a big tournament that they do a women's tournament there, and now this people think they're trying to buy their way into a better image by sponsoring women's events. By now, this is huge.

I'm all for that, as long as they mirror that effort with what they're doing with women's rights within their own country.

They didn't come with that promise just right now take the maternity lead. But this is great for young player who aren't big money makers and who are having to decide, you know, I can't have a baby yet because I have to keep playing.

This is great, one hundred percent, and that is huge. I have to tell you I had my first one twenty two years ago, and I got six weeks paid big maternity leave. I was paycheck to paycheck and so I got cobbled together two weeks of my vacation that's it, and I couldn't afford, and most people cannot afford.

It wasn't a choice. It wasn't all I'd like to be home. It was I have to go back to work.

So that is, especially with such a physically demanding job as in being a professional sports athlete.

That's it's remarkable. So I applaud the effort.

It's just it's tough to get fully behind it when you know who's funding it, and.

They're they're independent contractors. Remember these women are not. They don't work for a company. They if they don't play, if they don't get a check, then they don't get a check. So again, the women love it. They've been advocating for this forever. And the idea is great. Where the money comes from we could deal with. But this is great, great, great, great grat It certainly is all right as we go about our weekend. We're starting weekend now.

Those who control their tongue will have a long life. Opening your mouth can ruin everything.

Ain't that the truth?

Yes it is.

I heard someone once tell me you can never regret your silences. It's kind of a similar thought. Just maybe, just you know what, we could all I'm gonna say something funnier. We can all learn something from Trump. Hit the pause button sometimes.

Oh, you don't have to. He's been really really effective at that this week.

So you're saying, hit the pause button on your mouth, yes, stop talking.

Maybe sometimes just count to ten before you say something. You might actually say, WHOA I would have said something I was going to regret.

You don't even count to one before you start.

I've started to count to three, I have.

Oh we have to three, okay, till ten?

Where do you think this one came from you?

Your pastor?

It did, but he got it from somewhere else, which was the Bible really Proverbs thirteen three, Those who control their tongue will have a long life. Opening your mouth can ruin everything. From the New Living Translation, that is a Bible verse. So I wanted to just say it first and then have you taken in and go, wow, wait a minute, to figure that throw you off?

I had no idea. Well, thank you for that, and yes, I'll you know what, I'll work on that this weekend.

Baby, Okay, it's gonna be a good weekend, all right.

Everyone, We hope you have a wonderful weekend. Thank you so much for running with us.

I'm Amy Robots and.

I am TJ. Holmes. Everybody, we always appreciate you. Thank you so much. Remember you can always uest the Morning Run now Monday through Friday, guaranteed to be ready to go at six thirty Eastern time. We'll talk to y'all soon.