Iran Rejects Offer of Direct U.S. Nuclear Talks, Ratcheting Up Tension With West . . . Iran rejected a European Union offer to hold direct nuclear talks with the U.S. in the coming days, risking renewed tension between Tehran and Western capitals.
Senior Western diplomats said Iran’s response doesn’t quash the Biden administration’s hopes of reviving diplomatic efforts to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, struck between Iran and six world powers and abandoned by the Trump administration in 2018. But they said it seemed to set a deadlock: Iran wants a guarantee it wouldn’t walk away from a meeting with the U.S. without some sanctions relief, which Washington has so far ruled out. Wall Street Journal

 

 

China Got Its Economy Growing Again, Demographics Harder to Fix . . . China may have blunted the pandemic’s impact on its economy, but a shortfall in babies is clouding its growth horizon. In the short term, the Chinese economy looks comparatively strong —helped by its quick stamping out of the virus’s spread and heavy state investment—and some economists earlier this year predicted that China could overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy by 2028, years earlier than expected. But the world’s most populous country is losing when it comes to demographics. Ahead of the results of China’s once-a-decade census, there have been several indications that fewer babies were born in the country in 2020 than in any year since 1961, when China suffered mass starvation. Wall Street Journal

 

Durham To Step Down As US Attorney, Will Continue Russiagate probe . . . John Durham will remain as special counsel overseeing an investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, a Justice Department spokesman told the Daily Caller News Foundation after Durham announced his planned resignation on Friday as U.S. attorney for Connecticut. The DOJ created a page on the agency’s website dedicated to Durham’s investigation. Durham is one of dozens of federal prosecutors resigning from office at the request of President Biden who sought resignations to appoint his own nominees to the Senate-confirmed positions. Daily Caller

 

Devin Nunes Says FBI ‘Framed’ General Flynn . . . California Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that newly declassified FBI documents show that a confidential source for the bureau lied about former national security adviser Michael Flynn during the early days of the Russia probe in 2016. “Imagine being spied upon by your own government, and then that spy makes up a bunch of lies about everybody,” Nunes said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “They framed General Flynn,” the Republican added. Nunes was referring to an FBI memo released this week of an interview that investigators conducted on Aug. 11, 2016, with Stefan Halper, a former Cambridge professor and longtime confidential human source (CHS) for the FBI. Daily Caller

 

 

NY AG to receive 'referral with subpoena power' to investigate Cuomo harassment allegations . . . New York Attorney General Leticia James said Sunday evening that her office expects to receive a "referral with subpoena power" to investigate allegations of sexual harassment against Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "The referral would be made solely to the attorney general's office," James added. "This is not a responsibility we take lightly. We will hire a law firm, deputize them as attorneys of our office, and oversee a rigorous and independent investigation." Fox News

 

Planned Parenthood Provides Fewer Breast Screenings, Wellness Exams, More Abortions, Transgender Services . . . This month, Planned Parenthood Federation of America quietly released its 2019-20 annual report to little fanfare. Like previous years, both the total number of abortions as well as taxpayer funding increased. Meanwhile, the amount of private funding and active individual contributors decreased—the latter dramatically so.
The organization’s super PAC spent $45 million during the 2020 elections. Now, Planned Parenthood and the abortion lobby are aggressively working to influence Congress and the Biden administration’s agenda. Their legislative goals include: taxpayer funding for elective abortions, gutting existing religious freedom and conscience protections, and promoting a radical sexual orientation and gender identity orthodoxy. Daily Signal

 

Animals make corporate zoom calls bearable, if you don’t mind the spit . . . Dozens of people from San Francisco software company Benchling Inc. were logged into a video call featuring a special guest when the meeting quickly went off-script. Benchling had paid Sweet Farm, a 20-acre animal sanctuary, to spice up the virtual gathering with a video feed of animals including Paco, a 5-foot 9-inch rescue llama. When sanctuary co-founder Nate Salpeter stood up too fast, a startled Paco retaliated by spraying him in the face with a mouthful of spit.
The call erupted in laughter. “They have quite a range on their spit,” Mr. Salpeter said. Repetitive virtual meetings over the past year have sapped morale in many workplaces. So companies are hiring four-legged guests—sheep, goats, tortoises, llamas, bearded dragons and more—to paint smiles back on the faces of jaded employees. Hosting animal video calls has become a lucrative revenue stream for many farms, sanctuaries or petting zoos. Fox Business