Primary Topic
This episode discusses Israel's targeted airstrike in Beirut, assassinating a senior Hezbollah commander, escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
Episode Summary
Main Takeaways
- Israel conducted a deliberate airstrike in Beirut, killing a high-ranking Hezbollah leader, Fouad Shukr.
- The strike was a response to an earlier attack attributed to Hezbollah in the Golan Heights.
- Hezbollah's potential retaliation could significantly escalate regional tensions.
- Internal Israeli issues related to the treatment of prisoners and public unrest complicate the national security landscape.
- The international community, including the US, closely monitors the situation, ready to support Israel if necessary.
Episode Chapters
1. Opening Remarks
Brad Milke introduces the episode's focus on Israel's strategic military response in Beirut. Discussion includes the initial triggering event in the Golan Heights. Brad Milke: "What's the highest ranking leader you can assassinate without starting a war?"
2. The Airstrike Detailed
Matt Rivers reports from Tel Aviv, detailing the airstrike's execution and its direct implications, including the death of Fouad Shukr. Matt Rivers: "Israeli fighter jets had targeted and in their words, have assassinated, have killed a senior Hezbollah commander."
3. Reactions and Consequences
Exploration of potential reactions from Hezbollah and the broader implications for regional stability. Matt Rivers: "How they're going to respond here will really dictate whether this escalates."
4. Israeli Internal Conflicts
Discussion on domestic issues in Israel, including public protests and military ethics controversies. Matt Rivers: "They're essentially saying, soldiers are above the law here."
Actionable Advice
- Stay informed on international conflicts to better understand their potential global impacts.
- Advocate for diplomatic resolutions to conflicts to prevent escalation.
- Support humanitarian efforts in conflict zones.
- Educate others about the complexities of international relations and the importance of peace-building.
- Engage in community discussions to raise awareness of global issues.
About This Episode
Israel says its strike in Beirut has killed a top Hezbollah commander. The acting Secret Service director acknowledges failures after the Trump assassination attempt. And the Senate passes a child online safety bill.
People
Fouad Shukr, Hassan Nasrallah
Content Warnings:
None
Transcript
Shopify Representative
This episode is brought to you by Shopify.
Forget the frustration of picking commerce platforms when you switch your business to Shopify, the global commerce platform that supercharges your selling wherever you sell. With Shopify, you'll harness the same intuitive features, trusted apps and powerful analytics used by the world's leading brands. Sign up today for your dollar one per month trial period@shopify.com.
Brad Milke
Tech.
Shopify Representative
All lowercase. That's shopify.com tech.
Brad Milke
It's Wednesday, July 31. What's the highest ranking leader you can assassinate without starting a war? We start here.
Israel fires into a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut.
Matt Rivers
In their words, they have assassinated one of the most important people in Hezbollah.
Brad Milke
Meanwhile, shocking scenes on Israel's own military bases will get you caught up. The US Secret Service says, we failed, but we weren't alone.
SWAT Team Member
I cannot defend why that roof was.
Brad Milke
Not better secured offers a laundry list of what went wrong. And some of these rule changes were proposed in the 1990s, but the modem line was apparently busy.
Secret Service Official
The ayes are 91, the nays are three, and the motion is agreed to.
Brad Milke
Now a revolutionary set of laws for the Internet just passed the Senate.
From ABC News, this is start here. I'm Brad Milke.
Near the northern reaches of Israel, there is fire being exchanged between the IDF and Hezbollah all the time.
But when a rocket hit a soccer field in the Golan Heights, killing innocent civilians, children no less, that created a crisis moment.
Secret Service Official
This tragic national tragedy was caused because of Hezbollah.
Brad Milke
Hezbollah denied it was them, but it was difficult to believe it could be anyone else. Perhaps it was a mistake, but Israel felt it had to respond. The question was, how big would that response be? Remember, Hezbollah is not some ragtag group. It controls an army's worth of weaponry and operates out of Lebanon with relative impunity. So if you're gonna hit them, what are you gonna fire on? Like, it's gotta be bigger than some weapons facility, but not enough to spark a wider war. Well, now Israel has fired into Lebanon's capital of Beirut. Let's go straight to ABC's foreign correspondent Matt Rivers, who's in Tel Aviv right now. Matt, what do we know about this strike?
Matt Rivers
Yeah, we were waiting for the other SHu to drop since that attack happened in the Israel controlled Golan Heights on Saturday, and now we know that it has.
There was reports around 08:00 p.m. local time last night that there was explosions in a southern neighborhood of the capital city of Beirut.
And when we figured out where the smoke was coming from, we saw that it was coming from a neighborhood that is known as a Hezbollah stronghold.
And that's when we got our first indication that this was this long awaited israeli response. Not long after we heard from the.
Secret Service Official
IDF this evening, the IDF carried out a targeted strike in Beirut.
Matt Rivers
A spokesperson confirming that israeli fighter jets had targeted and in their words, have assassinated, have killed a senior Hezbollah commander named Fouad Shukr. Now this is a man who is very, very high up in the Hezbollah organization. According to the IDF, he has been running Hezbollah's military operations since they started trading fire back and forth with the IDF way back on October 8 of last year. He has a personal advisor to the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah. This is a very senior figure. And interestingly, the US actually had a reward out for his capture, his arrest of $5 million, because they say back when Hezbollah was first founded in the early eighties, he played a central role in the killing of hundreds of american service members when the military barracks in Beirut were bombed.
Secret Service Official
2000 pounds of tnt.
Matt Rivers
The crater, 20ft deep, 40ft across. He's been someone who's been on the US's radar for a long time, obviously on the IDF radar. And what this is is Israel's long awaited response, which they said was going to be serious. This is clearly Israel reaching into Hezbollah's upper echelon, their top leadership, to send a message.
And in their words, they have assassinated one of the most important people in Hezbollah.
Brad Milke
And the big question was, would a strike like this make things even Steven? Or is this a big escalation? And now Hezbollah needs to respond. I mean, when you attack a capital city, you can almost feel Israel being like, no, we're attacking this specific guy, everyone. We're not attacking a country. We're not like, we don't want to escalate this. Is that going to work, though? Like, is this the end of the story as far as Hezbollah is concerned?
Matt Rivers
Well, the ball is essentially in Hezbollah's court now. How they're going to respond here will really dictate whether this escalates or nothing. Worst case scenario, if you're not a fan of all out regional war or even a wider war, then it would be okay. If Hezbollah has said in the past, which they have, if you attack Beirut, we will attack Tel Aviv, and the United States has said, well, we will come to Israel's defense if attacked by Hezbollah. You could see very quickly how this becomes a dangerous game of escalation.
Secret Service Official
While we prefer to resolve hostilities without a wider war, the IDF is fully prepared for any scenario.
Matt Rivers
That said, I think most analysts would agree that neither side have a huge interest in an all out war. There's a real concern here in Israel that their air defenses with the Iron Dome and the like wouldn't actually be able to stand up to the onslaught of Hezbollah missiles that would occur in an all out war. And from Hezbollah's standpoint, an israeli invasion into southern Lebanon would result in massive casualties for their side. So it would be a huge conflict that I think all sides are trying to avoid here. But I go back to this concept of the dangerous game. Any miscalculation here could lead to a spark that leads to a greater escalation, that leads to a war. So that's what everybody is worried about.
We were up in the exact spot where that missile fell and killed those twelve children on Saturday. It's a community of druze people there, a religious community that is inside of the Israel controlled golan heights. And we were talking to the people there. And of course there was grief and sadness and anger. But the overriding message was, don't use these children's death to create more death and destruction for other people's children. What are you worried about that's going to happen now that this attack happened.
Brad Milke
This thing will continue. Maybe they will attack Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Russia, I don't know.
Matt Rivers
And more people will die.
Brad Milke
But you will do this. Stand in our names. We don't want it. We don't want war in any place in this world.
Matt Rivers
One guy said, I don't care if you're christian, muslim, jewish. We don't want more deaths. So it just illustrates how everybody in this region is invested in not seeing an all out war. But the longer you play this dangerous game, the higher those chances get of miscalculation and escalation.
Brad Milke
And I should say Matt Netanyahu, just to change tax a little. Netanyahu is not just facing issues with Hamas and Hezbollah, these militant groups on sort of the other sides of his border. On Monday, we saw scenes in Israel that had been described as like bordering on anarchy. You had people storming military bases. What is going on here?
Matt Rivers
Yeah, it's a pretty charged topic here in Israel society. Basically what you've had since the start of the Gaza war is the israeli military and police have taken thousands of people from Gaza prisoner and accused them of having something to do with either the fighting or the original attacks on October 7. And within that group of prisoners that have been taken here have been dozens and dozens of allegations of prisoner abuse, including one of the latest, which was nine israeli soldiers were questioned, arrested and questioned by the state for a pretty severe abuse case of a palestinian prisoner. They were being held at one of these bases and a protest formed after they were arrested.
Brad Milke
If they touch our soldiers, we'll build a shield wall. The people will rise up.
Matt Rivers
Very far right protesters, joined by members of the Knesset, actually actual sitting politicians, elected politicians in Israel's parliament, and they gathered at the front of this gate.
They were very angry and actually broke into a military base and took over the compound, essentially for a little while before authorities could get controlled.
Brad Milke
You're dealing with starting to interrogate soldiers in the middle of a war. That's wrong.
Matt Rivers
They were protesting, basically saying that they did not believe that these arrests were just, and that anyone associated with October 7 basically should have no rights. Even if you're just accused tangentially, they're.
Brad Milke
Saying, like, they're saying, you shouldn't even be questioning these guys accused of abuse. Like. Correct. You shouldn't even question the soldiers.
Matt Rivers
They're essentially saying, soldiers are above the law here. And that has caused a huge rift within israeli society. On the one hand, you've got plenty of people who say, we don't think these prisoners should have any rights. They shouldn't be treated like normal prisoners because they essentially view them as animals.
Brad Milke
When you have monsters like that who raped, killed, burned and looted, murdered thousands of people and should have been killed.
Matt Rivers
On the spot at that day. On the other hand, you have large swaths of israeli society who say there needs to be rule of law, there needs to be a standard set here, even if some of the people taken prison from Gaza were involved in October 7. And it's a real microcosm of the splits that we see within israeli society. The longer this conflict goes on, some people believe it needs to end. There needs to be a ceasefire. There needs to be some normalcy established again. And there are others who want to wipe out Gaza from the face of the earth, including all the Palestinians that live there.
So seeing these scenes play out where you have literal members of the parliament here breaking into military bases, and they had to take two battalions of israeli soldiers and put them in that base to reestablish order, it just shows you how tense and, frankly, chaotic this country is at certain times right now.
Brad Milke
Well, yet chaotic. And we should note that we've also learned that overnight the political leader of Hamas has been killed in a strike in Iran. So that is a really significant development. We're gonna be following that all day. Matt Rivers, I know you'll be reporting. Thank you so much.
Matt Rivers
Thank you.
Brad Milke
Next up on start here. Local police said the us secret Service fell down on the job. The secret service says, well, two can play at that game. Were back in a bit.
Seasonal jobs are by definition temporary, but I feel like theyre also the most specialized. Right? Like I was a camp counselor as a teenager. My bosses would panic when I needed one day off. I had way too much leverage for a 16 year old, let alone an agriculture worker or a theme park employee. Like workers with specific skills are not easy to find. Whether youre hiring for one of those roles or any other role, how do you find top talent before the competition gets to them? Ziprecruiter. And right now, you can try Ziprecruiter for free@ziprecruiter.com.
starthere see a candidate who really shines. Ziprecruiter lets you connect with them ASAP. You can use Ziprecruiters pre written invite to apply message to personally reach out to your favorite candidates. Gear up for summer with Ziprecruiters high speed hiring tools. See why four out of five employers who post on Ziprecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Just go to this exclusive web address right now to try Ziprecruiter for free. Ziprecruiter.com starthere again. That's ziprecruiter.com. starthere. Ziprecruiter the smartest way to hire.
Whoa.
SWAT Team Member
Landing an account this big will totally change my landscaping business. It's gonna mean hiring more guys and more equipment and new trucks for the new guys to drive the new equipment in.
I don't know if I'm ready.
Elizabeth Scholze
You can do this. And Ford Pro finsimple can help. Our experts are ready to make growing pains less painful for your business with flexible financing solutions that meet the needs of your business today when you need them. Get started@fordpro.com. financing.
Brad Milke
Earlier this week, ABC News spoke exclusively to the local SWAT team who was on the ground in Butler, Pennsylvania, as former President Donald Trump was shot. But while they were on the ground, the shooter was up on the roof above them, and we had no communication.
SWAT Team Member
With the Secret Service.
Elizabeth Scholze
You had no communication with the Secret.
Brad Milke
Service at all on that Saturday?
SWAT Team Member
No, not until after the shooting, I believe.
Secret Service Official
Yeah.
Brad Milke
And by then it was too late. They seemed to be saying there was very little communication between the US Secret Service and local police forces, which nearly resulted in a catastrophic assassination. Well, yesterday, the top guy at the US Secret Service seemed to clap back. ABC's chief justice correspondent Pierre Thomas was watching this hearing at the Senate. Pierre, this is the acting director. Right. Since his boss had to step down, she had to resign. What was his message to Congress?
Secret Service Official
Well, I was struck by two of his comments in his opening statement. Number one, he described this as an utter failure on every level.
And he went as far as to say he's ashamed that they didn't have the proper coverage on that rooftop, which had a direct line of sight to the former president of the United States.
SWAT Team Member
What I saw made me ashamed.
As a career law enforcement officer and a 25 year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.
Secret Service Official
You don't hear law enforcement and top officials in Washington talking that way. But he used the word ashamed.
Brad Milke
Right? And especially since that, since the Secret Service director had to step down over all this, like the buck now stops with him. And so to hear those words come out of his mouth, what was his take on how local PD was handling this? Because Secret Service was inside the bubble. Local police was apparently responsible for lots of stuff outside the bubble where Trump was speaking. And that, of course, is where this would be assassin was firing from. And yet the people outside the bubble said, well, us Secret Service didn't tell us enough about what they expected. So, I mean, what was his response to that?
Secret Service Official
Well, he went out of his way to make a couple points. Number one, that they did, in fact, have a briefing with local officials in the hours prior to the event that.
SWAT Team Member
Afternoon with respect to the snipers that went on national television and gave an interview and said that they did not get a briefing from the secret Service. They were supporting through mutual aid. And our personnel briefed the tactical team leader.
Secret Service Official
The distinction he's making is that, but they were briefing the Butler EMS unit, which would have been, in their minds, the primary entity that would be helping to oversee the security outside of the security bubble that the secret Service created for the event. So what they're saying is that they spoke to the locals, told them their plan, got a sense of what the locals were going to do, but he acknowledged some fears. Number one, that they made assumptions about what the locals were going to do in terms of how they were going to cover that building where the shots ended up coming from.
SWAT Team Member
We made an assumption that there was going to be uniform presence out there, that there would be sufficient eyes to cover that, that there was going to be countersniper teams in the AGR building.
Secret Service Official
That was a mistake. He suggested, in terms of the locals. He also went out of his way to show a photograph that would have showed the vantage point of some of the local authorities who were supposed to be watching that building and the top of the building.
SWAT Team Member
When I laid in that position, I could not, and I will not, and I cannot understand why there was not better coverage or at least somebody looking at that roofline when that's where they were posted.
Secret Service Official
And he went out of his way to say, look at this photograph.
They should have been in a position to see the sniper on the roof. He made that point even as he acknowledged and accepted responsibility that the secret Service is the entity that is responsible for the overall security footprint and umbrella and raise the specter that perhaps they should have seen it and communicate what they would see to other authorities. The other huge thing that came out of this hearing is that the secret Service had drone capability, drone detection capability that malfunctioned.
Brad Milke
Wow.
Secret Service Official
Did not work at a critical time when in that zone appeared where the shooter had his own drone doing his own surveillance of sorts.
SWAT Team Member
I have no explanation for it.
It is something that I feel as though we could have perhaps found him, we could have maybe stopped him.
Secret Service Official
But I was very surprised to hear the Secret Service official muse what ifs, that he had lost sleep over the notion that if that drone system had been in place, they probably would have noticed this strange person, you know, with a drone doing surveillance.
And he said, we might have been able to stop it.
That was. That was a very dramatic moment in the hearing.
Brad Milke
Well, and Pierre, I mean, we talk so much about communication, right, of just, like, communicating to other agencies. Like, hey, we see this guy. That's one type of communication. There's also the types of communications, the electronic ones, that are like, that's the way you get the drone up in the air to spot things from above. It sounds like the literal cell signal was even a problem here.
Secret Service Official
He said there were cellular problems with the phones and radio problems. And there's a word that's used often with law enforcement interoperability, meaning that not all the police radios were communicating with each other simultaneously.
SWAT Team Member
Not having that real time information is what really hindered us.
Secret Service Official
Now, what we know is that through the command center, the secret service had personnel, with local personnel that could hear portions of radio transmissions in which the secret service generally knew that there was a suspicious person that the local authorities were trying to get eyes on and make contact with. But the next thing they heard through that command post would have been the notion that there was some confrontation. And then with seconds of the confrontation, shots were being fired.
Brad Milke
Unbelievable. And now, actually, in the wake of this hearing, you've got senators from both sides of the aisle saying it's more than just one person stepping down. There needs to be a fundamental reform of how this organization works because of this failure. Pierre Thomas tracking it all. Thank you so much.
Secret Service Official
My pleasure.
Brad Milke
I'm what you call an elder millennial, and I'm part of the first generation to start using the Internet as a kid. As this technology was becoming part of the american household, it felt like the Wild west. You could truly come across anything which was terrifying for parents. There were concerns about online predators cyberbullying with very few protections for child users. Well, the Internet has changed a lot since then, but as kids have gotten online at younger and younger ages, these concerns have only heightened because to this day, there are actually surprisingly few protective policies in place. Yesterday, though, the ayes are 91, the.
Secret Service Official
Nays are three, and the motion is agreed to.
Brad Milke
The Senate passed landmark legislation on this. Let's go to the Capitol right now. ABC's Elizabeth Scholze is there above the Senate floor. Elizabeth, what are we talking about here?
Elizabeth Scholze
You know, Brad, this really is a milestone when it comes to regulating the Internet to tech companies and social media. We have been talking for years, for decades about what can be done to better protect kids and teens on the Internet. And finally, the Senate has come together with this package of legislation that tries to do that. You know, keep in mind federal laws on the books right now that are aimed at protecting users on the Internet under the age of 18.
Most of those laws were enacted before social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok were even invented. And we have seen so much change in the digital world in such a short time. Lawmakers have just not kept up with the regulation.
So this was a big step yesterday when the Senate, with overwhelming bipartisan support, passed two bills that really do put the responsibility on tech companies to try to do more to protect kids and teens online. We heard Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer call it a momentous day in the Senate.
Matt Rivers
The bipartisan momentum behind these bills is real, and we should seize this opportunity to make them into law.
Elizabeth Scholze
They say that this legislation ended up getting across the finish line, at least in the Senate, because they heard directly from so many families who were impacted negatively.
They had an experience with their kids online that, frankly, changed the course of their lives.
Todd Meyer
We always went in and checked on them and stuff. So that was really big because, you know, if you're in our house, you don't have that privacy.
Elizabeth Scholze
One of the families that had been directly lobbying senators over the past couple of weeks and was here in the Capitol last week was Todd Meyer. We had a chance to sit down with Todd earlier this year. He and his wife Mia lost their twelve year old son Matthew, when he was doing a viral challenge on social media in his room one night in his hour of screen time.
Todd Meyer
You know, I've been through a lot of things, but that really knocked me out.
Elizabeth Scholze
And they have told me that every single day they think about Matthew and what can be done, from a legislative point of view, to try to prevent more deaths like his.
Todd Meyer
Yes, it's our job to keep our kids safe online. That duty will never go away, but it's also big tech's responsibility.
Brad Milke
Yeah, let's talk about what you'd cause. It sounds so easy to be like, we should protect kids, but, like, what would, how do you actually legislate that? What would these bills actually do?
Elizabeth Scholze
Right. So we're talking about two separate big pieces of legislation here. So the first one is the kids online Safety act. This is a sweeping law, if it was enacted, that would apply to anyone under the age of 18. And the real provision here that is getting a lot of attention, that's kind of novel when it comes to regulating the Internet, is this idea that tech companies have a duty of care when it comes to their platforms and protecting kids. So basically, now the onus is on the tech companies to take steps that would eliminate or at least try to reduce harmful content for kids and teens. And the law lays out pretty specific content that the companies would need to try to mitigate. So content on the platforms that could lead to physical violence or sexual exploitation. I mean, this is designed to try to minimize some of that harm. One other thing it would do is default settings on these platforms for kids would be the highest level of security. So you would have to actually opt out of some of those more strict security and privacy rules. The other part of this legislation is the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act 2.0. Quite the name. There it goes by Coppa. And this is more aimed at bolstering privacy protections for younger users and limiting targeted advertising. So, combined, really what this legislation would do is put a lot more responsibility on those tech companies, forcing them to take some of these steps that lawmakers think could make their platforms a little bit safer for younger users.
Brad Milke
But Elizabeth, just so I'm clear, like, if someone goes on to a tech platform and there were billions and billions of Facebook posts over the course of a month or something, right? Like, if one of them goes and says, hey, you should all do this. If it doesn't get found and taken down, like per policy, does that mean the company would be breaking the law? Because I can't imagine tech companies like being in that position. Does that affect whether the House actually passes this? Because they still got to do that, right?
Elizabeth Scholze
Yes, it still has to pass the House. So this is not a done deal. This is not law. And actually, notably, Brad, some of the tech companies have actually endorsed this legislation.
X, formerly Twitter, Snapchat, have all come out in favor of the kids online safety act. Other tech platforms like Meta, which obviously owns Facebook and Instagram, have said for a long time they support more regulation, but they say that this law, if it became law, wouldn't be the best way to protect younger users.
Of course, though, then you have industry groups who say this is just not the right approach at all. Prominent tech lobbying groups are calling the legislation unconstitutional. And one of the big criticisms and concerns is also from free speech advocates who say if these tech companies are forced to take all of these steps to try to reduce harmful content, that could ultimately result in censorship on the platforms.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he's going to review the details of the legislation. He has sounded kind of positive on it. But of course, this would need to pass the House. President Biden says he wants to sign it. He's urging the House to get it passed. But no doubt there is an intense lobbying effort from some of these big tech companies and free speech advocates who are saying, hold on, let's not do this, even though it has been decades in the making.
Brad Milke
That's what's so fascinating about the alliances here is you got these free speech groups that are used to kind of fighting on behalf of the regular person, combining with these, like, multi, multi billion dollar entities that is the tech lobby at this point. Elizabeth Scholze at the Capitol, thanks so much.
Elizabeth Scholze
Thank you, Bradley.
Brad Milke
Okay, one more quick break when we come back. No, that's not a stampede. That's an earthquake deep in the heart of Texas. One last thing is next.
Podcast Advertiser
You're a podcast listener, and this is a podcast ad. Reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Lips and ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements, or run a reproduced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience with lips and ads, go to lipsonads.com. now, that's Libsyn ads.com dot.
Brad Milke
And one last thing.
This is not an uncommon story in Southern California.
Jim Ryan
On Friday morning, 928, I glanced at my watch. Suddenly the room where I was started to roll, essentially the floor was rocking beneath me.
Brad Milke
This is ABC's Jim Ryan describing an earthquake. The thing is, Jim doesn't live in southern California. He lives in Texas. What is going on in West Texas right now?
Jim Ryan
Earthquakes. Lots and lots of earthquakes in the last week.
Brad Milke
I had to check this number because I thought it couldn't be true. More than 100 earthquakes have hit West Texas. I can put a marble in a jar and just shake it. It's what the house does. It scares the bejeezes out of you. Most of them are small, but some are significant, especially in a part of the country where buildings are not built with earthquakes in mind. A magnitude 5.1 quake near Snyder, Texas. Some damage reported, but no injuries. It was one of the strongest earthquakes in state history. These sorts of outbreaks are actually happening more frequently in the Lone Star state. But why? More and more officials are saying it's likely because of the increase in fracking.
Jim Ryan
These are fairly rare, and in the last five or six years there have been more of them. That coincides essentially with the startup and the continuation of fracking. The fracking activity, you know, using high pressure water to pound the shale and release natural gas to collect it.
Brad Milke
So as opposed to traditional oil drilling, where you stick a pipe straight down, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, relies on huge amounts of water lasting oil and gas out of the ground. When that water comes to the surface, you gotta get rid of it. But I did not know this. It's actually too dirty to just dump in a river by then. It's too salty. It often has harmful hydrocarbons, so you have to pump it back down into the earth along fault lines that have existed for millions of years.
Jim Ryan
It has to be disposed of.
Disposal wells are created, it's re injected back down into the earth, and it's thought that that is the source of at least some of the earthquakes in Texas.
Brad Milke
Jim says the fracking industry is regulated by the Texas Railroad Commission for some reason, and they've ordered an investigation into all this. Scurry County, Texas declared a state of emergency to start getting funds for repairs. And Jim says you could see some disposal wells shut down over this. That fix, though, is likely temporary, and the earthquakes are increasing.
Jim Ryan
When we do get a rash of earthquakes, then the drillers in the area, the petroleum, when folks are told to knock it off for a while, they do stop and the earthquakes stop, essentially. But it's also a product of the economics of it. When natural gas prices go up, you see more drilling activity more fracking, more re injection wells, and more earthquakes. When prices go down, the opposite happens.
Brad Milke
Whether it qualifies as a natural disaster or not. This is not just affecting west Texas. Jim felt shaking 200 miles away in Dallas. I'm worried about you now, Jim, please be careful.
Jim Ryan
We have tornadoes, we have hurricanes. Why not earthquakes too?
Brad Milke
This is like whenever there's a natural disaster within 500 miles of New York City, my mom calls to like, make sure I'm okay. Texas is 700 miles across. I'm gonna do the exact same thing with Jim now. Hey, if you're enjoying the show, make sure to leave us a five star rating and review. It really helps us out. In fact, just this week, Carol said, this is just enough news to know what's going on. I thought that was nice. Imani chimed in to say, I usually watch this on ABC News live and it's the best way to start my day. So Imani, by hopping over to apple just to write a review. I'm honored. I'm Brad Milke. See you tomorrow.
Introducing the ultimate bundle at an unbeatable price, the Disney Hulu Max bundle. With iconic entertainment like and Encanto on Disney.
Elizabeth Scholze
I will save the magic.
Brad Milke
FX is the bear and the Kardashians on Hulu. I am a good time and the last of us. In House of the Dragon on Max.
Matt Rivers
They are a protector of the road.
Brad Milke
All available with the Disney Hulu Max bundle plans starting at $16.99 a month. Terms apply. Visit Disney hulumaxbundle.com for details.