Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
January 27, 2021
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Senate GOP signals it's likely to acquit Trump . . . Senate Republicans seem ready to hand former President Trump his second acquittal in an impeachment trial in a little more than a year after just five GOP senators on Tuesday rejected a motion that the trial was unconstitutional. Most GOP senators haven’t formally announced how they will vote on convicting Trump, and, in a shift from 2020, most are not rushing to defend him after a
mob, egged on by the then-president, sacked the Capitol. But Tuesday’s vote, which sidelined the effort from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), sends a clear signal to everyone in Washington that the trial is highly unlikely to end with a Trump conviction vote. At least 17 GOP votes to convict would be needed to reach the two-thirds majority. The Hill
Just five GOP senators vote Trump impeachment trial is constitutional . . . The Senate sent a strong signal Tuesday that there are not nearly enough votes to convict President Trump in an impeachment trial when only five GOP senators rejected an effort by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to declare the looming trial unconstitutional. The Senate voted 55-45 to set aside Paul's motion, with all but five GOP senators siding with Paul. GOP Sens. Mitt Romney
(Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Pat Toomey (Pa.) voted with Democrats to table Paul's point of order. The Hill
Senator Rand Paul calls Trump impeachment trial ‘dead on arrival’ . . . Rand Paul declared former President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial "dead on arrival" on Tuesday after 45 Senate Republicans voted against holding the proceeding, viewing it as unconstitutional. Rand, a Kentucky Republican, had called for a procedural vote regarding holding a trial, claiming the Senate shouldn’t address the article of impeachment against Trump filed
by the House this month because Trump is now out of office. If a trial were to proceed, Trump would become the first former president to face an impeachment trial. In Paul’s view, the votes of 45 Republicans against holding a trial proved his point – and likely rendered any upcoming trial to be moot. Fox News
G lobal COVID cases surpass 100 million as nations tackle vax shortages . . . Global coronavirus cases surpassed 100 million on Wednesday, as countries around the world struggle with new virus variants and vaccine shortfalls. Almost 1.3% of the world’s population has now been infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and more than 2.1 million people have died. One person has been infected every
7.7 seconds, on average, since the start of the year. Around 668,250 cases have been reported each day over the same period, and the global fatality rate stands at 2.15%. Reuters
Biden Admin to Vaccinate Most Americans by End of Summer . . . The Biden administration on Tuesday said it would boost the supply of coronavirus vaccines sent to states by about 16% for the next three weeks and will purchase enough additional doses to vaccinate most of the U.S. population with a two-dose regimen by the end of the summer. Senior admin officials said the feds are working to purchase an additional 100 million
doses each of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, increasing the total U.S. vaccine order by 50% to 600 million from 400 million. Officials said they expect the additional doses to be delivered over the summer. The purchases will provide enough supply to vaccinate 300 million Americans in a two-dose regimen over the summer. The vaccine is not approved for people under 16 years old. Wall Street Journal
WHO Official Said It Is ‘Too Early’ To Conclude That COVID Originated From China . . . A top official with the World Health Organization said in a recent press conference that it is “definitely too early” to conclude that the novel coronavirus originated in China. Michael Ryan, the executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program, made the statement in a press conference Friday in Geneva, just as a team of WHO-backed scientists
were beginning an investigation in Wuhan into the origins of the virus.
“I think we have to say this quite plainly; all hypotheses are on the table and it is definitely too early to come to a conclusion of exactly where this virus started either within or without China,” Ryan said. Daily Caller
How a Legitimate Theory About COVID Emerging From Lab Got Dismissed by Fact Checkers . . . As COVID-19 spread across the world, President Donald Trump suggested in an April press conference that the virus may have emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China. Fact checkers sprang to check out the claim, often dismissing it summarily by noting there was little to no evidence backing it up. While there was no direct
evidence, there was mountain of circumstantial evidence. The fact checkers and reporters, while focusing on the more wild claims that China deliberately created and released the virus as a bioweapon, often dismissed out of hand the less aggressive possibility that it simply leaked out of a lab. Then, in January of 2021, things changed. An investigative essay published in the New York Magazine’s Intelligencer dove into the lab theory and found a number of surprising discoveries. Daily Caller
Was that because the "fact checkers" key objective was to contradict Trump and appease China rather than check the facts?
Declassified US intelligence bolsters Wuhan lab theory in COVID outbreak . . . U.S. intelligence findings recently declassified by the State Department provide fresh evidence for the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic likely began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China’s sole high-security laboratory that has links to the country’s military. The department, in a report made public this month by the outgoing Trump
administration, disclosed for the first time that several workers at the Wuhan institute, where research on deadly viruses is conducted, were sickened in the autumn of 2019 with COVID-19-like symptoms. The report also made public U.S. intelligence that the People’s Liberation Army conducted secret research on covert biological warfare at the institute. Washington Times
At least some of the fact checkers are willing to check the facts.
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Biden elected with help of $145 M in "dark money" . . . President Joe Biden benefited from a record-breaking amount of donations from anonymous donors to outside groups backing him, meaning the public will never have a full accounting of who helped him win the White House. Biden’s winning campaign was backed by $145 million in so-called dark money donations, a type of fundraising Democrats have decried for years. Those
fundraising streams augmented Biden’s $1.5 billion haul, in itself a record for a challenger to an incumbent president. That amount of dark money dwarfs the $28.4 million spent on behalf of his rival, former President Donald Trump. White House Dossier
Trump's post-presidency clout puts GOP on notice, Dems on high alert . . . Former President Donald Trump is behaving like he never left office. Out of power for one week, Mr. Trump has created an “Office of the Former President,” staffed with former White House aides to “advance the interests of the United States and to carry on the agenda” of his administration. He is handing out political endorsements. He has backed Kelli Ward for
a second term as chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party (she won) and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for governor of Arkansas in 2022. Still cut off from social media, Mr. Trump released the statement endorsing Mrs. Sanders through his new political action committee, Save America. A top Trump official, former Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, announced Tuesday the formation of two more organizations to keep driving the momentum of the
Trump agenda. Washington Times
Biden's Asia Policy Czar Helped Found Group ‘Heavily Influenced by the CCP' . . . Joe Biden's incoming Asia policy czar was a top leader at a nonprofit group that was bankrolled by the head of a Chinese propaganda front group and partnered with a Chinese foreign mission. Kurt Campbell, a former Obama State Department official and businessman, was until August 2020 listed as board vice chairman of the U.S.-China Strong Foundation,
ostensibly a nonprofit group that promotes student language exchanges with Beijing but whose leaders included prominent members of the Chinese government’s overseas propaganda fronts, according to State Department and Department of Justice records. Campbell is slated to serve as the chief coordinator for President Joe Biden’s Asia policy on the National Security Council, but his leadership role with the foundation is raising concerns with China hawks in Washington. Washington Free Beacon
Biden Education Pick Is Leading Opponent of Return to Classrooms . . . President Joe Biden's pick to be deputy secretary of education is still fighting to keep students out of the classroom in San Diego, where she's school superintendent. Cindy Marten, the longtime superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, has been a vocal opponent of bringing back in-person instruction for public school students. The district had pledged
to give a timeline for reopening on Jan. 13, but Marten failed to follow through, announcing after the deadline that no date for return will be set. Washington Free Beacon
Biden Orders End to Private Prisons in Package to Achieve ‘Racial Equity’ . . . Denouncing what he called “systemic racism that has plagued our nation for far, far too long,” President Joe Biden signed executive actions Tuesday aimed at “racial equity,” including a measure to end the use of private prisons to hold federal inmates. “We are in a battle for the soul of this nation and the simple truth is, our soul will be troubled as long as
systemic racism is allowed to persist,” Biden said before signing the executive orders, adding: We can’t eliminate it. It’s not going to be overnight. We can’t eliminate everything. But it’s corrosive. It’s destructive and it’s costly. It costs every American, not just [those] who felt the sting of racial injustice. Daily Signal
Here are five things to know about President Biden's racial equity orders . . . Biden took strides toward advancing racial equality on Tuesday with the signing of four new executive orders.
The directives come on the heels of more than two dozen signed since he took office just a week ago and cover a wide breadth of issues: better federal enforcement of federal housing laws; increased communication with and support for Native American tribes; criminal justice reform; and the condemnation of xenophobia. See the five things about Biden’s orders in The Hill
Federal Judge blocks Biden 100-day moratorium on deportations . . . A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked President Biden’s attempt to put a moratorium on deportations for 100 days. After Texas sued over the policy, the judge blocked Biden, via a temporary restraining order, from moving forward for 14 days. Texas’ lawsuit claims that the administration would be violating an agreement it has with the Department of Homeland
Security – and would require at least 180 days’ notice, as well as consultation, prior to implementing changes in immigration policy. It is unclear whether those terms are enforceable, but similar agreements were struck with several other states under the former administration. White House Dossier
Biden’s Refugee Policy Will Serve the Interests of the United Nations . . . It does not take a political science degree to know that with Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States, things will be very different from the last four years. Much of what the Trump administration had done in tax, energy, health care, and immigration policy, as well as how former President Donald Trump related to the United Nations, are likely to be
reversed. What many do not know is that what the nascent Biden administration is already doing on immigration is far more than just undoing what Trump did. It is embracing and implementing the United Nations’ global view of what our immigration laws should look like. Daily Signal
Unions Move the Goalposts On School Re-openings to the Detriment Of Children . . . Many of the nation’s largest school districts are approaching one year since they closed for in-person instruction, and some teachers unions are pushing to further postpone a return date. Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest school system in Virginia, was anticipating a phased-in return to in-person instruction beginning Feb. 16. Fairfax
Education Association, a teachers union, said that its members were comfortable returning to in-person instruction as long as staff had received both vaccine doses. However, the union later said they want to delay the start date until students are vaccinated. Since children do not yet qualify to receive the vaccine, and research on the effects of the vaccine in children are not complete, that could mean several more months of virtual learning. Daily Caller
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Israel's military is refreshing operational plans against Iran . . . Israel’s top general said on Tuesday that its military was refreshing its operational plans against Iran and that any U.S. return to a 2015 nuclear accord with Tehran would be “wrong.” The remarks are an apparent signal to U.S. President Joe Biden to tread cautiously in any diplomatic engagement with Iran. Such comments by Israel’s military chief of staff on U.S.
policymaking are rare and likely would have been pre-approved by the Israeli government. Reuters
Head of Israeli military cautions against US return to Iran nuclear deal . . . Israel Defense Forces Chief of General Staff Aviv Kochavi, in a rare public statement about U.S. foreign policy, urged the Biden administration not to attempt to kick-start the Iran nuclear deal. Kochavi, speaking virtually at the Institute for National Security Studies think tank’s annual conference on Tuesday, said that even if a potential deal could
improve on the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, it would not be the right move for regional security. “With the changing of the administration in the United States, the Iranians have said they want to return to the previous agreement,” the military commander said. “I want to state my position . . . returning to the 2015 nuclear agreement or even to an agreement that is similar but with a few improvements is a bad thing, and it is not the right thing to do.” Washington Examiner
Biden and Russia's Putin discuss nuclear arms treaty in first phone call . . . Joe Biden warned Vladimir Putin that the US would respond to “malign actions” by Russia as the two presidents closed in on a crucial nuclear weapons deal during their first phone call.
According to the White House’s account of the call on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Biden and Mr Putin discussed a five-year extension of the New Start arms control treaty, agreeing “to have their teams work urgently to complete the extension” before its expiry on February 5. Mr Biden “reaffirmed” America’s “strong support” for Ukraine’s sovereignty, and addressed the SolarWinds hack, the bounties placed on US soldiers in Afghanistan, interference in the 2020 election, and the poisoning of
opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the White House said. Financial Times
No leaks of the conversation? Any promises of more 'flexibility' to Putin?
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Russian parliament OKs New START nuclear treaty extension . . . The lower house of Russian parliament on Wednesday quickly approved the extension of the last remaining nuclear arms control pact days before it’s due to expire.
The State Duma voted unanimously to extend the New START treaty for five years. The vote came a day after a phone call between Biden and Putin, in which they voiced satisfaction with the exchange of diplomatic notes about extending the New START treaty. They agreed to complete the necessary procedures in the next few days, according to the Kremlin. The pact’s extension doesn’t require congressional approval in the U.S., but Russian lawmakers must ratify the move. . Associated Press
Vietnam's Communist Party chief nominated for re-election: state media . . . Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party chief, has been nominated for a rare third term, a Party official said, according to several state media articles that were published on Wednesday then subsequently amended, removing the comments. On Monday, more than 1,600 delegates began nine days of mostly closed-doors meetings at the Party’s five-yearly
Congress, during which a new leadership team will be picked to bolster Vietnam’s ongoing economic success - and the legitimacy of the Party’s rule. Reuters
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Fewer American households should receive $1,400 checks, study suggests . . . President Biden this week indicated he is open to negotiating the terms for an additional round of direct payments to American households – and a new study suggests that lowering the cutoff threshold may be economically prudent. An analysis conducted by nonpartisan, nonprofit Opportunity Insights of the most recent round of direct payments
found that households earning more than $78,000 (and singles earning more than $50,000) are likely to spend just $45 of the $600 checks over the first month. Fox Business
Microsoft earnings jump on pandemic-driven cloud, videogaming demand . . . Microsoft Corp. posted record quarterly sales underpinned by pandemic-fueled demand for videogaming and accelerated adoption of its cloud-computing services as businesses continued to embrace new digital tools during the health crisis. The remote-work era has been a boon for Microsoft. In addition to its videogaming and cloud-computing products, the company has
notched strong sales of its Surface laptops as people bought devices to facilitate working from home and distance learning. The use of Microsoft’s Teams workplace-collaboration software has jumped during the pandemic with its offering of such services as text chat and videoconferencing. Fox Business
Walmart to fill online orders with help from robots at some US stores . . . Walmart will add small robot-staffed warehouses to dozens of its stores to help fill orders for pickup and delivery, as Americans shift their spending online amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The robots will work behind the scenes, picking frozen and refrigerated foods as well as smaller general merchandise items from inside the warehouses, or local fulfillment centers,
that will carry "thousands of frequently purchased items." Store staff, meanwhile, will go to the sales floor to fetch fresh produce, meat, seafood and larger general merchandise items like large-screen TVs, then returning to the centers to finish assembling orders, the company said. Fox
Business
Walgreens Poaches Starbucks Executive Rosalind Brewer for CEO . . . Walgreens named Starbucks Corp. operating chief Rosalind Brewer as its next chief executive, setting her up to be the only Black woman leading a Fortune 500 company today. The first African-American and first woman to lead a Walmart business unit, Ms. Brewer joined the retail giant in 2006 after two decades at Kimberly-Clark Corp. , where she started as a chemist. She is
a graduate of Spelman College, where she chairs the board of trustees. She previously served on the boards of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Molson Coors Beverage Co. “Roz has a fabulous combination of traits. She is a scientist by training, she is deeply operational and she has a broad worldview. That combination just makes her a dynamo,” said Jamie Gorelick, a fellow Amazon board member who has worked alongside Ms. Brewer for nearly two years. Wall Street Journal
This is the kind of beautiful success story that dems should be promoting, instead of spreading the divisive false narratives of systemic racism that purportedly plagues the American culture. Not to mention the abhorrent policies that the Democratic Party has been pursuing towards minorities for decades, which ultimately amount to government control and psychological enslavement aimed at our fellow Americans. Roz Brewer, Candace Owens, Kim Klacik of
Baltimore, are just a few examples that should inspire our daughters to pursue their dreams based on free will rather than false expectations of government "help" and "protection."
Sorry, this got too long. I've got a lot to say about this one. :-)
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My Pillow guy Mike Lindell permanently banned from Twitter . . . Twitter banned My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell from the platform after he used his account to spread baseless claims about fraud in the presidential election. Twitter said Tuesday that it permanently suspended Lindell — a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump — because of his “repeated violations” of the company’s civic integrity policy, which it implemented last fall to
clamp down on misinformation.
Twitter didn’t say which of Lindell’s posts pushed it over the edge. New York Post
Facebook still has Holocaust denial content 3 months after Zuckerberg pledged to remove it . . . Holocaust denial content remains on Facebook three months after pledging to ban all content that “denies or distorts the Holocaust.” That's according to a new report from the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), which gave FB a “D” for its efforts. ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said the report released Wednesday on Holocaust Remembrance Day
shows that Facebook and other major social media platforms are “still struggling to address anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial effectively.” Among the pieces of content cited by the ADL that FB did not take down: a post promoting an anti-Semitic video that claims to expose "lies" about the Holocaust and a private Facebook group dedicated to “Holocaust Revisionism.” FB removed the content after being contacted by USA TODAY. USA TODAY
Ben Shapiro: Politico Playbook canceled other conservatives set to guest write . . . Ben Shapiro claims the controversy surrounding his turn as a guest writer of Politico's Playbook has extended to conservatives slated to follow him in the editorial role. In a Twitter thread posted Tuesday evening, the editor emeritus of the Daily Wire claimed Townhall's Guy Benson and Mary Katharine Ham, a CNN commentator, were uninvited from serving as
guest writers after his own turn in the role attracted controversy. Shapiro said the two right-wing political personalities were told that the magazine was "overbooked," but he speculated that the motivations for the cancellations were more biased in nature. Washington Examiner
McEnany, Fox News talks on pause . . . Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany in financial disclosure documents published Tuesday indicated that she had an agreement in place to join Fox News this month, but a source familiar with the matter says those discussions are now paused.
A Fox News spokesperson said McEnany "is not currently an employee or contributor" at the network. McEnany and Fox held initial conversations after the 2020 election about a role, but those discussions were paused, according to a source familiar with the matter. The network remains open to hiring her in the future, however, the source said, given it does "not condone cancel culture." The Hill
Surge of Student Suicides Pushes Las Vegas Schools to Reopen . . . The spate of student suicides in and around Las Vegas has pushed the Clark County district, the nation’s fifth largest, toward bringing students back as quickly as possible. This month, the school board gave the green light to phase in the return of some elementary school grades and groups of struggling students. Firmly linking teen suicides to school closings is difficult, but
rising mental health emergencies and suicide rates point to the toll the pandemic lockdown is taking. Superintendents across the nation are weighing the benefit of in-person education against the cost of public health, watching teachers and staff become sick and, in some cases, die, but also seeing the psychological and academic toll that school closings are having on children nearly a year in. New York Times
Jilani: Lack of social support from in-person classes damaging students' mental health . . . Journalist Zaid Jilani addressed reports that teen suicides and suicidal ideation are up amid the social isolation of school closures, saying inequalities in school systems likely exacerbate mental health issues. “I think a lot of the K-12 education system just isn’t set up for this," Jilani said in a Monday Hill.TV interview. “I think lots of
students don’t have access to proper facilities to even take part in it.” These inequalities, he said, contribute to “a really difficult situation for a lot of students, particularly students who don’t have good internet access or students who just don’t have a good home life,” with in-person schooling pre-pandemic frequently serving as a de facto “social support facility” for students from troubled or low-income backgrounds. The Hill
Biden Chief Of Staff Says Schools ‘Haven’t Made The Investments’ To Reopen Safely . . . White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Tuesday that most schools had not made the proper investments to ensure that it was safe for students to return to the classroom. Klain told CNN’s Erin Burnett that the primary issue was money and that some schools were not able to reopen yet because they had not been able to make the necessary adjustments
recommended by health officials. Daily Caller
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Truck carrying thousands of bees flips in Texas, unleashes angry swarm . . . An 18-wheeler carrying a load of honeybees in Texas flipped over — unleashing an angry swarm. Authorities had to call in beekeepers to help with the mass of stinging insects buzzing over a San Antonio highway on Sunday morning. The truck, owned by a bee removal business, turned over at around 11 a.m. while trying to navigate a turn. The semi was hauling
at least 400 hives — each holding an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 bees. At least a thousand bees escaped, prompting authorities to close a stretch of I-35 for several hours and to urge locals to stay inside while they worked to clear the stingers. The hives that remained in the truck were killed by a foam sprayed by the San Antonio Fire Department for safety reasons. This truck crash made quite the buzz. New York Post
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