The Washington Post
Frustrations with Garland grow among Jan. 6 committee members
Frustrated members of the House Jan. 6 committee are ratcheting up the public pressure on Attorney General Merrick Garland to pursue criminal charges against former Trump White House aides who are refusing to testify before the panel, arguing his failure to act is hurting their investigation.
After criticizing the Justice Department during a business meeting Monday night, lawmakers on the panel continued to vent Tuesday about the department having yet to criminally charge former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for contempt of Congress — a referral the House voted in support of nearly four months ago. […]
While the DOJ indicted Steve Bannon on a contempt charge, they've yet to address Meadows, leaving committee members exasperated as valuable time slips away.
Justice Dept. expands Jan. 6 probe to look at rally prep, financing
The criminal investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has expanded to examine the preparations for the rally that preceded the riot, as the Justice Department aims to determine the full extent of any conspiracy to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory, according to people familiar with the matter.
In the past two months, a federal grand jury in Washington has issued subpoena requests to some officials in … Donald Trump’s orbit who assisted in planning, funding and executing the Jan. 6 rally, said the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The development shows the degree to which the Justice Department investigation — which already involves more defendants than any other criminal prosecution in the nation’s history — has moved further beyond the storming of the Capitol to examine events preceding the attack.
ABC News
House Jan. 6 committee faces time crunch ahead of public hearings
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack is facing a time crunch as investigators scramble to piece together … Donald Trump's words and actions on Jan. 6, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., acknowledged Tuesday.
"We're playing 'beat the clock' here against Trump's inner coterie, which thinks they can impede our investigation," Raskin told reporters.
The committee, which hopes to begin public hearings in May, is trying to wrap up dozens of witness interviews in the coming weeks.
The Guardian
Trump used White House phone for call on January 6 that was not on official log
Donald Trump used an official White House phone to place at least one call during the Capitol attack on January 6 last year that should have been reflected in the internal presidential call log from that day but was not, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The former president called the phone of a Republican senator, Mike Lee, with a number recorded as 202-395-0000, a placeholder number that shows up when a call is incoming from a number of White House department phones, the sources said.
The number corresponds to an official White House phone and the call was placed by Donald Trump himself, which means the call should have been recorded in the internal presidential call log that was turned over to the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack.
Reuters
White House blasts Trump's call for Putin to release info on Hunter Biden
The White House on Wednesday criticized Donald Trump's request for Russian President Vladimir Putin to release potentially damaging information on U.S. President Joe Biden's son, calling the move particularly poorly timed as war rages in Ukraine.
Reporters asked White House spokesperson Kate Bedingfield about [Trump’s] comments…
"What kind of American, let alone an ex-president, thinks that this is the right time to enter into a scheme with Vladimir Putin and brag about his connections to Vladimir Putin? There is only one, and it's Donald Trump," Bedingfield said.
Trump's remarks came the week that a federal judge ruled he "more likely than not" committed a felony by trying to overturn his election defeat on Jan. 6, 2021, and as his business remains under investigation.
EuroNews
Ukraine war: Latest figure of four million refugees exceeds worst-case UN estimate
The number of people who have fled Ukraine since Russian troops invaded has surpassed four million, the United Nations reported Wednesday as shelling continued in places where Moscow had vowed to ease its military operations.
"I do not know if we can still believe the Russians,” refugee Nikolay Nazarov, 23, said as he crossed Ukraine's border into Poland with his wheelchair-bound father. […]
The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said Wednesday that more than four million people have left Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24 and sparked Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. That number exceeds the worst-case predictions made at the start of the war.
Half of the refugees from Ukraine are children, according to UNHCR and the U.N. children's agency UNICEF.
USA Today
Russia taking heavy losses, … Putin being misinformed by his advisors:
Some Russian military units suffering heavy losses in Ukraine have been forced to return home or to Belarus to resupply, placing additional pressure on Russia's already strained logistics, the British Defense Ministry said in an assessment Wednesday.
The problems demonstrate the difficulties Russia is having reorganizing its units in forward areas within Ukraine, the assessment says. Moscow will likely continue to compensate for its reduced ground-force capability "through mass artillery and missile strikes," the assessment says. […]
U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about Russian forces’ performance in Ukraine, according to a U.S. official. […]
The findings demonstrate a “clear breakdown in the flow of accurate information” to Putin, and show that Putin’s senior advisers are "afraid to tell him the truth,” the official said.
UPI
Joe Biden promises Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky $500 million in aid
In a phone call Wednesday, President Joe Biden promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky some $500 million in assistance in Ukraine's fight against Russia.
According to a readout of the conversation produced by the White House, Biden and Zelensky talked on the phone for nearly an hour, addressing military, economic and humanitarian help.
The Telegraph
Chernihiv’s treacherous back roads provide safest escape route, as city ‘shelled all night’ by Russia
Russia broke its pledge to halt its offensive around the Ukrainian capital within hours by heavily shelling several northern cities around Kyiv overnight, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.
The regional governor of Chernihiv said his city, 80 miles north-east of Kyiv, had been “shelled all night”. […]
France24
Russia uses abductions to intimidate Ukrainians in occupied territories
Ukrainian journalists, public officials, civil rights activists and even civilians who are vocal against the invasion of their country are being arbitrarily detained by Russian forces. The tactic is being used to instill fear in local communities, some say, with forced detentions lasting anywhere from a day to two weeks.
It was an icy cold morning on March 23 when Russian forces knocked on Svetlana Zalizetskaya’s front door in Melitopol in southeast Ukraine. Hoping to find her inside, they came face to face with her elderly parents instead. “I wasn’t home at the time,” she told FRANCE 24. The three armed men searched the place, turning the house “upside down”, and took her 75-year-old father to an unknown location.
Zalizetskaya, the director of local newspaper Holovna Gazeta Melitopolya and news website RIA-Melitopol, had fled the city days earlier. “I was intimidated by Galina Danilchenko,” she said, referring to the pro-Russian acting mayor who replaced Ivan Fedorov, who was himself abducted on March 11 and eventually released in exchange for nine Russian conscripts.
Deutsche Welle
German industry: Gas rationing plan would cripple economy
Germany's industrial sector has sounded the alarm over a new emergency warning system to manage the country's energy security in case Russia cuts supplies of natural gas.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck on Wednesday announced a three-stage alert system that would ultimately give households and hospitals priority over industrial firms if gas usage had to be rationed. […]
Despite promises to cut its reliance on Russian gas — the share stood at more than 50% before the invasion and has since fallen to roughly 40% — Habeck claimed that Germany is unlikely to find enough alternative sources until mid-2024.
NPR News
Poland says its ban on all Russian oil and gas imports is the most radical in Europe
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki says his country will ban all imports of Russian gas, oil and coal by the end of the year.
Speaking to reporters outside fuel storage warehouses near Warsaw, Morawiecki called the ban the most radical in Europe. He said other European countries "are not doing anything about the war" and continue to use Russian resources.
"While others in Europe looked at Russia as a business partner," he said, "we saw that Russia uses gas and oil as a way to blackmail."
Al Jazeera
Russia is offering SWIFT alternative to India for rouble payments
India’s government is considering a proposal from Russia to use a system developed by the Russian central bank for bilateral payments, according to people with knowledge of the matter, as the Asian nation seeks to buy oil and weapons from the sanctions-hit country.
The plan involves rupee-ruble-denominated payments using Russia’s messaging system SPFS, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential deliberations. No final decision has been taken and the matter will probably be discussed when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrives in India for a two-day visit Thursday.
South China Morning Post
At China-EU summit, Beijing will be reminded its support for Russian war in Ukraine comes at a cost
European Union officials plan to press China’s top leaders over their support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday during a long-delayed summit that will be dominated by discussion of the war, now in its second month.
EU leaders doubt they can convince China to condemn Moscow’s actions. Nor do they believe they can force Beijing to “drastically and publicly alter their stance” towards the war, a senior EU official said.
But there are hopes that a frank discussion about the economic costs of supporting Russia may help convince Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang not to do anything to further damage already strained ties with Europe.
Bloomberg
Half of Russia’s 20 Richest Billionaires Are Not Sanctioned
Half of Russia’s 20 richest people have not been sanctioned over its war in Ukraine, leaving a group of super-rich, powerful billionaires free to operate around the world without legal restriction.
In total, tycoons worth a total of least $200 billion before the war started have been hit by sanctions. Yet the list of who’s blocked –and who’s not – reveals a patchwork pattern of cross-border penalties that has spared many Russians with business interests in key global markets, a Bloomberg News analysis shows.
Only three men feature on all three lists, with four of Russia’s five richest men not sanctioned anywhere. They are led by the country’s richest man, Vladimir Potanin, a metals magnate who was worth $30 billion on Feb. 18, the final day of data before sanctions began rolling out three days later…
Sanctions experts say that decisions not to censure some of Russia’s richest men is at least partly linked to their critical stakes in vast energy, metals and fertilizer companies.
The New York Times
Collins to Back Jackson for Supreme Court
Senator Susan Collins of Maine plans to vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, ensuring that President Biden’s nominee and the first Black woman to be put forward for the post will receive at least one Republican backer. […]
Despite a backlash from some quarters to the hostile and combative questioning of Judge Jackson by multiple G.O.P. members of the Judiciary Committee last week, Republicans privately said they thought the hearing did not inflict political damage on them. Instead, they argue that it helped them get across their midterm election message that Democrats are soft on crime and pushing an ultraliberal agenda, including transgender rights and a variety of efforts to address race, that alienates many Americans.
Mother Jones
Why You Should Care That Ginni Thomas Is Bonkers
Imagine a Supreme Court justice influenced by QAnon. We’re not there yet—as far as we know—but the recent revelations about Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, notable far-right agitator, tea partier, and spouse of Justice Clarence Thomas, do render that possibility not too far a stretch.
Last week, the Washington Post and CBS News published text messages exchanged between Ginni Thomas and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the wake of the November 2020 election, in which Thomas fervently urged Meadows to overturn the results to keep Donald Trump in power. The disclosure of these texts has revived a long-running debate over Justice Thomas’ potential conflicts of interest related to his wife’s political work and his steadfast refusal to recuse himself from cases to which she might possess a connection.
One recent example: in January Clarence Thomas was the only justice to dissent in a case in which the Supreme Court declined to support Donald Trump’s effort to block the House committee investigating the January 6 assault from obtaining White House documents related to his attempt to undermine the election. Given his wife’s role in the so-called Stop the Steal movement and her communications with the Trump White House about this matter, Justice Thomas might not have been an impartial arbiter in this dispute. Legal ethics experts have plenty to dissect here. But as serious as that topic is, the texts raise another troubling prospect: Ginni Thomas is absolutely bonkers.
CNN
John Roberts can’t do anything about Clarence Thomas
Chief Justice John Roberts has long trumpeted the Supreme Court’s institutional integrity, saying the nine justices differ from elected politicians and calling out anyone who threatens to undermine that message… But now the threat comes from within, and Roberts faces a dilemma. The chief justice is not the boss of Justice Clarence Thomas or any of the associate justices. […]
Thomas’ stature has been enhanced in recent years by the new conservative appointees. He enjoys a personal loyalty among the right wing that has eluded Roberts.
Thomas is now fueling an ethics controversy affecting the reputation of the entire court. He did not recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 election and January 6, 2021, rampage at the Capitol, although – it has since emerged – his wife, Ginni, was strategizing with the Trump White House to reverse the election results
NBC News
Senate scrambles to reach funding deal for Covid vaccines, testing and treatment
The Senate is scrambling to reach an agreement on a $15 billion Covid-19 aid bill before members leave for a two-week break at the end of next week…
The U.S. is running out of funding for vaccines, testing and treatment for Covid-19, and the Biden administration has warned that the lack of pandemic money comes at a critical moment in the pandemic. […]
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the lead negotiator for the GOP, said Tuesday he doesn't yet have the support of nine other Republican members who are needed for a deal…
Toronto Star
‘We’re really heading into the storm’: Wastewater readings show Ontario has entered 6th COVID wave
With Ontario now seeing an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 new daily infections — roughly double the number of daily cases on March 1 when the province dropped vaccine passports — it’s clear Ontario has entered its sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts say.
Those numbers are according to the latest wastewater signal estimates from the COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, which also reports that most public health units are once again experiencing exponential growth of infections.
“Basically, we’re in either a resurgence, a sixth wave, or as I like to say, the ‘throw-caution-to-the-wind’ wave,” said Dr. Peter Jüni, epidemiologist and scientific director of the science table.
Los Angeles Times
Ultra-contagious BA.2 Omicron strain adds urgency to second booster shot
The highly contagious BA.2 Omicron subvariant is now the dominant version of the coronavirus in the U.S., including the West Coast — a development that added urgency to federal authorities’ decision Tuesday to allow a second vaccine booster shot for those age 50 and up. […]
An additional shot “is especially important for those 65 and older, and those 50 and older with underlying medical conditions that increase their risk for severe disease from COVID-19, as they are the most likely to benefit from receiving an additional booster dose at this time,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement Tuesday.
Scientific American
What One Million COVID Dead Mean for the U.S.’s Future
[…] The U.S. will record one million confirmed deaths from COVID in the next several weeks. This toll is likely an undercount because there are more than 200,000 other excess deaths that go beyond typical mortality rates, caused in part by lingering effects of the disease and the strain of the pandemic. These immense losses are shaping our country—how we live, work and love, how we play and pray and learn and grow.
“We will see the rippling effects of the pandemic on our society and the way it impacts individuals for generations,” says Nyesha Black, director of demographic research at the University of Alabama. “This is definitely a huge marker in the way we will think about society moving forward—it will be that anchor event.” COVID has become the third leading cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer.
These deaths have wide-ranging consequences. The effects on children may be the longest-lasting. In the U.S., an estimated 243,000 children have lost a caregiver to COVID—including 194,000 who lost one or both parents—and the psychological and economic aftershocks can have lifetime negative impacts on their education and career.
The Hill
Manchin shoots down Biden's new billionaire tax plan
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday shot down President Biden’s new plan to raise $360 billion in revenue by imposing a 20 percent minimum tax on billionaires, a proposal the president formally unveiled Monday in his budget request to Congress. […]
Manchin’s opposition means Biden’s proposal is likely dead only a day after the White House unveiled it.
Politico
Debate-dodging Republicans take off in midterm campaigns
[…] Republican candidates this year are increasingly ducking out of primary debates or demanding greater control over the terms than ever before, raising questions about the future of an institution that has long been a central part of American campaigns.
It isn’t just the traditional reluctance of front-runners to share a stage with their challengers that’s to blame. Instead, a confluence of factors is jeopardizing the once universally agreed notion that candidate debates are a valuable practice in elections.
The media — a traditional arbiter of many debates — is so reviled by Republican primary voters that campaigns now recognize there may be more to gain from criticizing the process than participating
AP News
Biden planning to tap oil reserve to control gas prices
President Joe Biden is preparing to order the release of up to 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve, according to two people familiar with the decision, in a bid to control energy prices that have spiked as the U.S. and allies have imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine
The announcement could come as soon as Thursday, when the White House says Biden is planning to deliver remarks on his administration’s plans to combat rising gas prices. The duration of the release hasn’t been finalized but could last for several months.
The Dallas Morning News
CDC poised to lift emergency order keeping asylum seekers across the border
The practice of expelling migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in the name of COVID-19 protection could end in late May. The Biden administration has drafted a plan to end pandemic-related border restrictions known as Title 42 by May 23, according to multiple news outlets.
Those restrictions have been used more than 1.7 million times for expulsions since the public health order was enacted on March 20, 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
First implemented by the Trump administration, the policy has continued under President Joe Biden, with the most recent extension set to expire by the end of this week.
The Atlantic
The Green-Energy Culture Wars in Red States
The states that are most deeply integrated into the existing fossil-fuel economy, either as producers or as consumers, tend also to be the places that are most resistant to, and separated from, the major demographic, cultural, and economic changes remaking 21st-century American life. […]
This convergence of fossil-fuel dependence, cultural conservatism, and isolation from the most dynamic modern industries captures how comprehensively the two parties are divided by their exposure to, and attitudes about, the changes reshaping America. It also shows how difficult it will be to establish any consensus for national action to accelerate the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy sources, despite the mounting evidence that climate change threatens all regions of the country (and the world).
E&E Climate Wire
GSA to impose first national carbon standard for concrete
The procurement arm of the federal government is imposing new limitations on high carbon-emitting building materials for all its major projects, a move that will affect billions of dollars of federal infrastructure investments.
The new General Services Administration standards — to be released this morning — will require that federal contractors use climate-friendly concrete and asphalt in all the agency’s major projects. GSA oversees $75 billion in annual contracts, and the agency’s real estate portfolio comprises more than 370 million square feet.
The standards also will govern projects funded through the bipartisan infrastructure bill President Biden signed into law last year, including $3.4 billion to modernize 26 land ports of entry along the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico.
San Francisco Chronicle
Bong smoke is worse than secondhand tobacco smoke, UC Berkeley study finds
Turns out that the lasting stink of bong water spilled onto the carpet is not the only danger to smoking marijuana through a tall tube cooled by water at its base.
A study conducted at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and published by the journal JAMA Network Open on Wednesday declared that secondhand cannabis smoke released during bong hits contains fine particulate matter at a concentration dangerously higher than that released by secondhand tobacco smoke.
The research was done in the living room of an off-campus apartment of an undergraduate student who came up with the idea, according to Professor S. Katharine Hammond, who oversaw the study and co-wrote the report with graduate student Patton Khuu Nguyen.
Space.com
Hubble Space Telescope spots most distant single star ever seen
The most distant single star seen yet dates back to less than 1 billion years after the universe's birth in the Big Bang, and may shed light on the earliest stars in the cosmos, a new study finds.
The scientists nicknamed the star "Earendel," from an Old English word meaning "morning star" or "rising light." Earendel, whose technical designation is WHL0137-LS, is at least 50 times the mass of the sun and millions of times as bright.
This newfound star, detected by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is so far away that its light has taken 12.9 billion years to reach Earth, appearing to us as it was when the universe was about 900 million years old, just 7% of its current age.
Ars Technica
Pfizer, Moderna vaccines aren’t the same; study finds antibody differences
The mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have proven highly effective at priming our immune systems to fight the pandemic coronavirus—preventing substantial amounts of infection, severe disease, and death throughout several waves of variants. But, despite their similar design and efficacy, the two vaccines are not exactly the same—and our immune systems don't respond to them in the same way. […]
Both vaccines generate strong levels of neutralizing antibodies, which can bind to the virus and prevent it from infecting cells. But, according to the study, the vaccines generated different antibody profiles overall. […]
In the meantime, the findings make a case for people to mix-and-match mRNA vaccines boosters, particularly if they've started with doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Switching to a different vaccine for a future booster could diversify antibody responses, providing broader protection.