“The Biden administration will announce new building ventilation standards for schools and businesses on Thursday — a welcome step for experts who feel the U.S. has long been behind the curve on using air filtration as a valuable tool to fight Covid-19,” ABC News reports.
Cheney Slams Greene as Putin’s ‘Useful Idiot’
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) bashed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for her “useful idiot” views on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Said Cheney: “Putin is targeting and slaughtering civilians in a brutal unprovoked war against Ukraine, a sovereign democratic nation. Only the Kremlin and their useful idiots would call that ‘a conflict in which peace agreements have been violated by both sides.’”
Biden to Speak with Xi Jinping About Russia
President Biden will speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping Friday as “part of our ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication between the United States and the PRC,” Axios reports.
Battling the Big Lie
Out this summer: Battling the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the MAGA Media are Destroying America by Dan Pfeiffer.
From his newsletter: “After watching the Republicans build up a massive media advantage, I came to the conclusion that the vast majority of Democratic leadership does not understand what we are up against and have given little thought to narrowing the gap.”
Sale
Battling the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the MAGA Media Are Destroying America
- Amazon Kindle Edition
Covid Surge in Europe Has U.S. Bracing for New Wave
“A surge in coronavirus infections in Western Europe has experts and health authorities on alert for another wave of the pandemic in the United States, even as most of the country has done away with restrictions after a sharp decline in cases,” the Washington Post reports.
Russia Claims It Made Bond Payment
“Russia’s finance ministry said on Thursday that it had made a $117 million payment on interest due on two U.S. dollar-denominated bonds. The payments are due this week to prevent Russia’s first default on foreign debt since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution,” the New York Times reports.
“The ministry said the payment had been made to a ‘foreign correspondent bank’ on Monday, but it was unclear whether the bondholders will receive the money.”
Koch Industries to Stay In Russia
Koch Industries, the American manufacturing giant that employs 122,000 people across the world, said it would not exit its operations in Russia because doing so would put its “employees there at greater risk and do more harm than good,” the Washington Post reports.
Oligarch Says Those Sanctioned Have No Sway Over Putin
One of Russia’s wealthiest oligarch’s told Bloomberg that sanctions will not deter Vladimir Putin from continuing with his invasion of Ukraine, warning the West that it is failing to understand how power in Moscow works.
Said Mikhail Fridman, the owner of Alpha Bank: “If the people who are in charge in the EU believe that because of sanctions, I could approach Mr. Putin and tell him to stop the war, and it will work, then I’m afraid we’re all in big trouble.”
He added: “The power distance between Mr Putin and anybody else is like the distance between the Earth and the cosmos. To say anything to Putin against the war, for anybody, would be kind of suicide.”
Ashish Jha Picked as Biden’s New Pandemic Czar
“Jeffrey Zients, an entrepreneur and management consultant who steered President Biden’s coronavirus response through successive pandemic waves and the largest vaccination campaign in American history, plans to leave the White House in April to return to private life,“ the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Zients will be replaced as the White House Covid coordinator by Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a practicing internist who has urged an aggressive approach to the pandemic in frequent television appearances.”
Netflix Brings Back Zelensky’s TV Show
Netflix has made Volodymyr Zelensky’s “Servant of the People” comedy available to American viewers again.
Tom Cotton Popping Up Most In the 2024 Early States
“If you call up Republican officials in Iowa and New Hampshire, one potential 2024 presidential candidate’s name comes up again and again: Tom Cotton,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“Politicians are expected to parade through the early states well ahead of 2024, and many Republicans are, even with the looming possibility that former president Donald Trump will run again. But few have been the fixture that is Cotton, the Arkansas senator, party officials say.”
Prosecutors Accuse China of Spying on Dissidents
“U.S. federal prosecutors on Wednesday accused Chinese government agents of trying to spy on and intimidate dissidents living in the United States,” Reuters reports.
“In one of the cases, federal prosecutors said a Chinese government agent approached a U.S. private investigator to help manufacture a political scandal that would undermine a China-born man seeking the Democratic nomination to run for a New York seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.”
Primary Rival Goes After Herschel Walker
Gary Black (R), who is running against football legend Herschel Walker (R) in Georgia, is out with a brutal new ad highlighting allegations of violence in Walker’s past, including incidents when he allegedly put a razor to his ex-wife’s throat, choked her and held a gun to her head.
Playbook: “It’s likely just a taste of what’s to come in the general election. And Black’s campaign has no plans to step back, pointing to research suggesting the more voters learn about Walker’s past, the more they turn on him.”
Kidnapped Ukraine Mayor Freed After Special Operation
“Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov, who was abducted by Russian forces last week, has been freed, Ukrainian diplomat Olexander Scherba confirmed via Twitter,” Axios reports.
From the tweet: “Ukraine conducted a ‘special operation’ and rescued Melitopol mayor Ivan Fedorov from captivity in the occupied Luhansk! Melitopol is Ukraine!”
Russian General Killed Talking on Unsecured Phone
New York Times: “Two American military officials said that many Russian generals are talking on unsecured phones and radios. In at least one instance, they said, the Ukrainians intercepted a general’s call, geolocated it, and attacked his location, killing him and his staff.”
Diplomats Near Iran Nuclear Agreement
“As the war in Ukraine rages on, diplomats trying to salvage the languishing 2015 Iran nuclear deal have been forging ahead with negotiations despite distractions caused by the conflict. They now appear to be near the cusp of a deal that would bring the U.S. back into the accord and bring Iran back into compliance with limits on its nuclear program,” the AP reports.
“After 11 months of on-and-off talks in Vienna, U.S. officials and others say only a very small number of issues remain to be resolved. Meanwhile, Russia appears to have backed down on a threat to crater an agreement over Ukraine-related sanctions that had dampened prospects for a quick deal.”
Axios: Iran releases two British nationals detained for years.
Hundreds Feared Trapped in Ukraine Theater
“Ukrainian authorities struggled to determine the fate of hundreds of civilians who had been sheltering in a theater smashed by a Russian airstrike in the besieged city of Mariupol as officials said Russian artillery Thursday destroyed more civilian buildings in another frontline city,” the AP reports.
“Some hope emerged, as an official said some people had managed to survive the Mariupol theater strike.”
Biden Interacted with Leader Who Tested Positive
“President Biden interacted with Micheál Martin, the Taoiseach of Ireland, on Wednesday night, shortly before the Irish leader disclosed a positive coronavirus test,” the Washington Post reports.
