Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed in a speech the West was trying to “cancel” Russian culture, The Independent reports.
Said Putin: “They are now trying to cancel our country. I’m talking about the progressive discrimination of everything to do with Russia.”
Steve Bannon “is advancing a high-stakes – and arcane-sounding – defense as he battles the Justice Department in a case that could mean up to a year in federal prison and thousands of dollars in fines if convicted – but potentially defang congressional power should he prevail,” The Guardian reports.
“The all-or-nothing nature of the defense is characteristic of Bannon, a fierce defender and confidante of the former president even after he departed the White House seven months into the Trump administration after a turbulent tenure as his chief strategist.”
“Israel announced that it would host a summit meeting on Sunday and Monday with the top diplomats from the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco,” the New York Times reports.
“Unimaginable half a decade ago, the high-level meeting reflects the pace at which Middle Eastern norms and alliances have shifted since Israel sealed landmark diplomatic agreements with the U.A.E., Bahrain and Morocco in 2020.”
“Germany unveiled targets to rapidly cut dependence on Russian energy and the US set out plans to redirect gas to Europe as western allies stepped up efforts to reshape global energy markets and punish Moscow for the Ukraine war,” the Financial Times reports.
“Berlin vowed to all but wean itself off Russian gas by mid-2024 and said it aimed to become “virtually independent” of Russian oil by the end of this year.”
“U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded that Russian military spy hackers were behind a cyberattack on a satellite broadband service that disrupted Ukraine’s military communications at the start of the war last month,” the Washington Post reports.
President Biden was asked whether the U.S. has gathered specific intelligence that suggests that Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering deploying chemical weapons and whether the U.S. or NATO respond with military action if he did use them, ABC News reports.
Said Biden: “I’m not going to give you intelligence data, number one. Number two, we would respond. We would respond if he uses it, and the nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use.”
Meanwhile, Axios reports that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that he has tasked a special “Tiger Team” of experts to conduct contingency planning for the possibility that Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine or strikes NATO territory.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said Friday “that he intends to support President Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, essentially ensuring Jackson’s confirmation,” the Washington Post reports.
Manchin cited Jackson’s “exemplary” career and record and said that her various roles in the judicial system have provided her with “a unique perspective that will serve her well on our nation’s highest court.”
Derek Thompson: “In April 2021, the Conference Board reported that job satisfaction in the first year of the pandemic was the highest that the organization had recorded since 1995. The Conference Board is a membership of corporations, and perhaps you’re disinclined to believe an organization of employers telling us about the sentiments of employees. Fair enough!”
“Let’s check with a gold-standard pollster, like the General Social Survey, which has been asking Americans about their working life since 2002. Every year of the survey, more than 80 percent of respondents have said that they’re ‘very’ or ‘moderately’ satisfied with their job. From 2018 to 2021—after an economic crisis, mass layoffs, and a surge in unemployment—the share of very or moderately satisfied workers fell from about 88 percent to … about 84 percent.”
“President Jair Bolsonaro narrowed the gap with former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil’s presidential race as the economic outlook brightens and the government boosts cash handouts to the poor,” Bloomberg reports.
“Lula would win 43% in the first-round of the October vote, down from 48% in the previous tally taken in December… Bolsonaro would get 26%, up from 22% previously.”
“Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi embarked on a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Thursday in an attempt to deepen political and economic ties between the two countries,” Deutsche Welle reports.
“Microplastic pollution has been detected in human blood for the first time, with scientists finding the tiny particles in almost 80% of the people tested,” The Guardian reports.
“The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs. The impact on health is as yet unknown. But researchers are concerned as microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory and air pollution particles are already known to enter the body and cause millions of early deaths a year.”
Sara Goddard: Six Myths About Plastic Debunked
“Former Democratic state Rep. Vernon Jones loudly spurned his party and supported Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. Then Jones turned around and cast a Democratic Party ballot in Georgia’s presidential primary,” the Atlantic Journal Constitution reports.
Sarah Palin suggested on Fox News that she might “throw her hat in the ring” for the House seat left open by the death of Rep. Don Young (R-AK) because she’s sick of the “vanilla milquetoast namby-pamby wussy pussy stuff” in Congress.
CNN looks at Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and finds it is rife with “factual inaccuracies and some of the same grandiose or exaggerated false claims that Trump has made dozens of times,” largely rehashing “grievances that he has complained about for years.”
“It claims Democrats and government officials perpetrated a grab bag of offenses, from a racketeering conspiracy to a malicious prosecution, computer fraud and theft of secret internet data.”
A new Harvard/Politico poll finds more than 4 in 10 parents believe “mask-wearing harmed their children’s overall scholastic experience, compared to 11 percent who said it helped.”
“Forty-six percent of parents said mask-wearing hurt their child’s social learning and interactions, and 39 percent told pollsters it affected their child’s mental and emotional health.”
Despite his guilty verdict on three felony counts, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) “does not have to give up his congressional seat,” the Omaha World-Herald reports.
“Federal law requires members of Congress to give up their seats only for crimes that are tied to treason.”
Politico: “Fortenberry faces a possible prison sentence of up to five years on each count, as well as fines.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.