DDSR…some Tuesday in the apocalypse…the holidays…Dec. 21, 2021

US

Senate Democrats are signaling they plan to take more of a hardball approach to pressuring Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to support their climate and social spending agenda after months of kid-glove treatment failed to deliver his vote. Democrats are threatening to drive a wedge between Manchin and his many lower-income constituents who stand to reap billions of dollars in federal benefits if Build Back Better passes, including an enhanced child tax credit, lower Medicare-negotiated prescription drug prices and subsidies to cover the cost of childcare. Read the full story here.

The gist of President Biden’s speech this afternoon about COVID-19 is that the United States faces an uncertain new phase of the pandemic. In a matter of weeks, the omicron variant became the dominant U.S. strain, responsible for nearly three-quarters of new COVID-19 infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (The Associated Press).

“They figured surely to God we can move one person. We surely can badger and beat one person up. Surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough that they’ll just say, ‘OK I’ll vote for anything.’ Well, guess what? I’m from West Virginia. I’m not from where they’re from and they can just beat the living crap out of people and think they’ll be submissive, period,” Manchin said in a local radio interview. “It’s staff-driven. I understand it’s staff. It is not the president. This is staff. And they drove some things, and they put some things out, that were absolutely inexcusable. They know what it is,” Manchin said (The Hill).

Fox News: McConnell said he would welcome Manchin to the GOP, if he were so “inclined.” (The West Virginia centrist has said that Republicans, including McConnell, have tried to get him to switch parties “many times.” He said it could never happen because of where he stands on taxes and health care. Recall that in 2019, he supported Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine for reelection.)

Alexander Bolton and Alex Gangitano, The Hill: Biden’s relationship with “Joe-Joe” Manchin hits the rocks.

The Hill: Democrats face tough choices on Biden plan after Manchin setback.

The Hill: Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Congressional Progressive Caucus chairwoman, calls on Biden to unilaterally act on agenda.

Politico: Reeling liberals ready to ditch Manchin as rest of Dems hope for a deal.

Gerald F. Seib, The Wall Street Journal: Having sought a home run, Democrats now may settle for singles and doubles.

Former President Trump has filed a lawsuit against New York State Attorney General Letitia James that seeks to halt her long-running civil inquiry into his business practices and prevent her from participating in a separate criminal investigation. The suit argues that James’s involvement in both inquiries is politically motivated and cites a list of James’s public attacks on Trump in the past. Jonah E. Bromwich, Ben Protess and William K. Rashbaum report for the New York Times.

The Pentagon has issued a new report on “Countering Extremist Activity Within the Department of Defense.” The updated rules are a result of the Countering Extremism Working Group review that was initiated after the Pentagon learned that members of the military took part in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The new guidance does not include any new prohibitions, however it does put forward a clearer and sharper definition of extremist behavior with a two-part test. The first question is whether the conduct itself rises to the level of extremist activity, while the second assesses whether there was active participation, senior defense officials have said. Oren Liebermann and Barbara Starr report for CNN.

Like the previous rules, the new guidance does not prohibit membership in an extremist organization, but officials have said it makes it very difficult to participate. Likewise, the Pentagon’s approach does not target particular ideologies or political leanings, despite the prevalence of right-wing groups that participated in the Jan. 6 attack. Instead, defense officials have said that the Pentagon’s approach focuses on addressing “actions” and will rely in large part on individual service members or outside law enforcement agencies to report concerning behavior. Karoun Demirjian and Alex Horton report for the Washington Post.

A group of Haitian migrants have filed a federal class action lawsuit against the U.S. government following their experience at the border in Del Rio, Texas, including interactions with Border Patrol agents on horseback. “The lawsuit specifically accuses the Biden administration of failing to prepare for the influx of migrants despite being aware of the immigrants’ imminent arrival. It also says that the government was responsible for physical and verbal abuse of the migrants as well as failure to provide due process because of Covid-19 policies, including Title 42, which allows for the expulsion of people for public health reasons,” Monique Beals reports for The Hill.

More than 29,000 Afghan evacuees still remain on U.S. military bases, in part, due to a shortage of affordable housing and the Covid-19 pandemic. Around 2,900 Afghans are also still overseas at a handful of U.S. military posts, waiting for a flight to the United States. Nahal Toosi reports for POLITICO.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has told reporters that “the door remains open” for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on the re- negotiating parts of the framework for Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. Manchin over the weekend announced that he would not vote for Biden’s agenda, leading to heavy criticism from the Democratic party and the White House. Alex Gangitano reports for The Hill.

Jan. 6th Insurrection

Former President Trump is becoming increasingly agitated at the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, is angry at his former chief of staff Mark Meadows for initially cooperating with the committee, and is anxious about criminal exposure as his former aides invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid giving testimony, according to sources. Hugo Lowell reports for the Guardian.

The Jan. 6 select committee is contemplating recommending that the Department of Justice (DoJ) pursue criminal cases against Trump and others, as it gathers evidence about Trump’s culpability around the Jan. 6 attack. Any criminal referrals the committee makes will not carry legal weight but it may increase public pressure and prompt the DoJ to take action. According to sources, the committee is looking in particular at whether there was wire fraud by Republicans who raised millions of dollars based on assertions that the election was stolen, despite knowing the claims were not true, and whether Trump and his allies obstructed Congress by trying to stop the certification of electoral votes. Michael S. Schmidt and Luke Broadwater report for the New York Times.

The Jan. 6 select committee has asked to meet with Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) after witnesses testified to the committee that the lawmaker played an important role in the failed attempt by Trump and his allies to install Jeffrey Clark as an attorney general who would pursue false election fraud claims. Perry was among a group of Republicans who objected to certifying the 2020 presidential-election results, and he led the objection to counting the votes from Pennsylvania and voted to object the results from Arizona.  Siobhan Hughes reports for the Wall Street Journal.

A federal judge in Washington, DC, has refused to dismiss conspiracy charges against Oath Keepers and associates of the group in relation to the Jan. 6 attack. Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling, which came after more than six months of deliberation, has paved the way for the 17 defendants to stand trial in the largest and most serious cases against the alleged attackers. Jessica Garrison and Ken Bensinger report for BuzzFeed News.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has indicated that there will be a “full program of events” to mark the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack. In a letter to the Democratic caucus, Pelosi noted the House would not be in session the first week of January but said some members had expressed interest in being involved in commemoration activities. Amy B Wang reports for the Washington Post.

Far-right radio host Alex Jones is suing Pelosi and the Jan. 6 select committee to try and stop the committee from requiring his testimony and obtaining his phone records as part of its investigation. The lawsuit also reveals that Jones has informed the committee of his intent to plead the Fifth Amendment, the privilege against self-incrimination, if compelled to appear before the panel for a deposition – currently set for Jan. 10, 2022. Jones also said he has informed the committee that he will raise First Amendment objections if asked about “constitutionally protected political and journalistic activity.” Mychael Schnell reports for The Hill.

A Washington state man has been sentenced to 46 months in prison for assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon in a tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Devlyn Thompson pleaded guilty earlier this year. Holmes Lybrand reports for CNN.

Cybersecurity

The Apache log4j vulnerability in a hugely popular piece of computer code, which came to light on Dec. 9, has been described as the “most serious” vulnerability and security breach in decades. Key points to know about the breach and its impact on the cybersecurity community are provided by Tatum Hunter and Gerrit De Vynck reporting for the Washington Post.

Belgium’s Ministry of Defense was recently hacked by attackers exploiting the log4j vulnerability. A spokesperson for the ministry told Belgian newspaper De Standaard that the ministry had “discovered an attack on its computer network with internet access” last week and that the organization had taken steps to quarantine the impacted network areas. Maggie Miller reports for The Hill.

The Justice Department has indicted and extradited to the U.S. from Switzerland a Russian national for allegedly hacking the networks of U.S. groups involved in stock market trading to profit from insider information. Vladislav Klyushin was arrested by Swiss authorities in March, and is set to appear in federal court in Boston. “Klyushin is alleged, alongside several Russian co-conspirators, to have hacked into the networks of two unnamed U.S.-based filing agents between January 2018 and September 2020,” Maggie Miller reports for The Hill.

Virus

The Omicron Covid-19 variant has now caused about 73% of recent Covid-19 cases in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said. In many parts of the U.S., Omicron now makes up more than 90% of cases, the CDC added. Sarah Toy reports for the Wall Street Journal.

A group of 47 Republican lawmakers are backing 35 Navy service members who are suing the Pentagon and Navy over the military’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate. The lawmakers have filed an amicus brief in a Texas federal court supporting the lawsuit, which argues that the mandate violates religious freedoms. Jordan Williams reports for The Hill.

The coronavirus has infected over 51.10 million people and has now killed over 807,900 people in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been over 275.51 million confirmed coronavirus cases and close to 5.36 million deaths. Sergio Hernandez, Sean O’Key, Amanda Watts, Byron Manley and Henrik Pettersson report for CNN.

The president on Monday announced an ambitious new auto mileage rule for 2026 to help curb planet-warming greenhouse gasses (The Hill).

One good read this morning: The Wall Street Journal produced a deep dive to explain what NASA has learned thus far about Mars from the Perseverance Rover after 10 months on the red planet. For example, red-hot magma likely formed the bedrock of Mars. NASA on Friday is also expected to launch the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built. It represents new eyes peering into the farthest reaches of the universe, and the telescope is the size of a tennis court (The Wall Street Journal).

The E.P.A. will require new cars to get 55 miles per gallon starting in 2026.

Russia and Ukraine

*Not THE Ukraine…just Ukraine. Soviets/Russians say THE Ukraine in a derogatory manner.

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has said that NATO is to discuss Russia’s recent security proposals amid rising tensions with Ukraine, but that it will not let Moscow dictate the alliance’s military posture. Russia has demanded guarantees that NATO will not expand to Ukraine or deploy weapons and troops there. “We need to solve the current tensions on the diplomatic level but just as well by putting up a credible deterrence,” Lambrecht told reporters during a visit to German troops based in Lithuania. Reuters reports.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has encouraged Russia to de-escalate its buildup of troops near the border with Ukraine, during a phone call yesterday with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov. Sullivan “indicated U.S. readiness to engage in diplomacy through multiple channels” according to a White House statement. “[Sullivan] made clear that any dialogue must be based on reciprocity and address our concerns about Russia’s actions, and take place in full coordination with our European Allies and partners,” the White House said. “He also noted that substantive progress can only occur in an environment of de-escalation rather than escalation,” the statement added. Morgan Chalfant reports for The Hill.

Talks have begun between the U.S. and Russia on the security guarantees demanded by Moscow and it is possible that an understanding will be reached, the Russian state-owned RIA news agency has quoted Russian senior security negotiator Konstantin Gavrilov as saying. Russia has yet to decide what steps it will take if NATO refuses to consider its position, but Brussels understands that Moscow is not bluffing, Gavrilov said. Reuters reports.

Russia has expelled two German diplomats in response to a German judge finding last week that the Kremlin engaged in “state terrorism” in ordering the murder of a Chechen rebel in Berlin in 2019. The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that it had expelled the diplomats after Germany ordered the expulsion of two Russian diplomats last week over the incident and “as a symmetric response to the aforementioned unfriendly decision by the German government.” Max Seddon and Guy Chazan report for the Financial Times.

Middle East

Saudi-led coalition forces have carried out an airstrike on an airport in the Yemini capital of Sana’a. Rebel forces in Yemen have controlled Sana’a for more than six years. The coalition claimed that the airport’s facilities were being used to launch cross-border attacks, and that it urged U.N. aid workers who have been using the airport for humanitarian operations to evacuate the area before the strike was carried out. BBC News reports.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard staged a major military exercise across Iran’s south yesterday, amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program and the recent pausing of negotiations in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. The Guard’s aerospace division, ground troops and naval forces joined in the five-day drill, with maritime forces set to maneuver in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state TV reported. Amir Vahdat reports for AP.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is to travel to Israel and the West Bank this week, as part of U.S. efforts to consult closely with Israel about nuclear talks with Iran while strengthening relations with the Palestinian Authority. “A senior administration official said Monday night that the visit to Israel was ‘long’ planned and meant to cap off the Biden administration’s first year in office and engagement with the Middle East,” Laura Kelly reports for The Hill.

China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Tibet

China’s new electoral rules have “eliminated any meaningful political opposition,” the foreign ministers of the Five Eyes alliance (U.K., U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand) have said, following the results of the poorly-attended Hong Kong legislature vote. Prior to the vote, which saw more than 90% of the seats go to pro-Beijing candidates, China had made sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system, including a rule that allowed Beijing to vet candidates. “Since the handover, candidates with diverse political views have contested elections in Hong Kong. This election has reversed the trend,” the Five Eyes said. The Group of Seven (G7) nations and the European Union also expressed concern over the election. BBC News reports.

China has rejected criticism from the West over the Legislative Council elections in Hong Kong, accusing Western countries of interfering with China’s affairs. The People’s Republic of China said that it “firmly opposed and strongly condemned” the joint statement from the Five Eyes ministers, which it argued “recklessly disregarded the facts and reversed the truth.” Daniel Hurst reports for the Guardian.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has named Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya as the U.S. special coordinator for Tibet, drawing warnings from China for the U.S. to stay out of China’s internal affairs. Blinken said that Zeya would lead U.S. efforts to preserve Tibet’s religious, cultural, and linguistic heritage in the face of human rights abuses by Beijing. “Beijing has consistently refused to deal with a U.S. coordinator on Tibet and denounced the move as political manipulation,” David Brunnstrom and Kanishka Singh report for Reuters.

China is expanding its grip on data about the world’s cargo flows, sparking concerns in Washington and among industry officials that Beijing could exploit logistics information for commercial or strategic advantage. China’s control over the flow of goods and information, including cargo that never touches its shores, gives Beijing privileged insight into world commerce and potentially the means to influence it, say cargo-industry officials. Shipping data has become a valuable commodity in light of shortages plaguing many industries and global backlogs in ports. Daniel Michaels reports for the Wall Street Journal.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called Taiwan a “wanderer” that will eventually come home to China and not a chess piece to be played with. A Taiwanese governing council responded to the statement saying that Taiwan “absolutely will not accept a path laid out by an autocratic political system.” Reuters reports.

China has barred entry to four people from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom following U.S. sanctions this month against Chinese people and organizations over human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The assets of the four banned individuals in China will also be frozen and Chinese institutions and citizens will be forbidden from dealing with them, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said. Reuters reports.

Global Developments

Tigrayan rebel troops are withdrawing from Tigray’s neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara, where fighting has displaced more than 300,000 people since July. In a two-page letter sent to U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, the leader of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Debretsion Gebremichael, said he hoped that bringing his troops back into the Tigray region would be a “decisive opening for peace.” “We decided to withdraw from these areas to Tigray. We want to open the door to humanitarian aid,” a spokesperson for the TPLF said. A spokesperson for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the TPLF’s announcement was a cover-up for military setbacks in the past weeks, adding that “there are still pockets in the Amhara region in which [the TPLF] remain as well as other fronts they are attempting to open the conflict.” Al Jazeera reports.

The French armed forces ministry has said that its forces have killed a leading member of the Islamic State in Niger, Soumana Boura. The French army said Boura was killed by an air strike by its “Operation Barkhane” unit that took place on Dec. 20. Reuters reports.

The Turkish Lira plunged nearly 9% yesterday to more than 17.86 against the dollar, a record low, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to cut interest rates further in defiance of business leaders. Jared Malsin and Caitlin Ostroff  report for the Wall Street Journal.

An Egyptian court has sentenced three prominent activists, charged with joining a terrorist group and spreading false news, to up to five years in prison. The case has drawn scrutiny of Egypt’s human-rights record and, in sentencing the individuals, the court defied international pressure to release them. Amira El-Fekki reports for the Wall Street Journal.

The U.K. Supreme Court has prevented Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from accessing $1.95bn of gold stored in the Bank of England (BoE), meaning that only the opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who the U.K. technically considers as the legitimate Venzuelan leader, can decide what happens to the gold. Guaidó wants the gold to stay in the BoE’s vault, while Maduro had sued BoE to have the funds released, arguing that the cash will be used to fight Covid-19 in Venezuela. BBC News reports.

Japan has executed three death row inmates, marking the first executions Japan has carried out since 2019 and the first under Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Junko Ogura, Mayumi Maruyama and Sophie Jeong report for CNN.

A group of 12 U.S. and Canadian missionaries who had been kidnapped in Haiti, made a daring overnight escape last week and walked for miles with children in tow over rough terrain, a U.S.-based missionary group has said. The latest account of events differs from the version given last week by Haitian police officials who said that the missionaries had been released and had been found by local residents. José de Córdoba reports for the Wall Street Journal.

Boeing and Airbus, the world’s two biggest plane makers, have called on the U.S. government to delay the rollout of new 5G phone services over safety concerns. Concerns previously have been raised that C-Band spectrum 5G wireless could interfere with sensitive aircraft equipment like radio altitude meters. In a letter, top executives from both companies warned that the technology could have “an enormous negative impact on the aviation industry.” BBC News reports.

DDSR 12/15/21 A Wednesday

HEADLINE

The suburban adventures of two wayward zebras in Maryland have ended: They’re back at their farm. After four months on the run in Maryland suburbs, two zebras, the known survivors from an original trio that escaped in August from an exotic animal farm in the state, have been caught and were later seen outdoors at an Upper Marlboro, Md., farm (The Washington Post). The Department of Agriculture and Prince George’s County Animal Services said they learned on Monday that the much-publicized zebras had been recovered without official federal or county assistance and had been returned to their herd last week. The pair were part of a trio that escaped from a large farm where at least 30 zebras live, authorities said. One of the escaped zebras was found dead in September in an illegal snare trap on a neighboring property.

Jan. 6th Insurrection

The House has voted to recommend holding Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff of former President Trump, in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with the House Jan. 6 select committee’s subpoena. The vote was 222 to 208, with the two Republicans who serve on the committee joining Democratic party members. The vote now sends the matter to the Justice Department to consider whether to prosecute Meadows. Luke Broadwater reports for the New York Times.

The District of Columbia is suing the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, alleging that the far-right groups conspired to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and disrupt the certification of President Biden’s election victory.  The civil lawsuit, filed yesterday in federal court in Washington, names the two groups and more than 30 individuals it says are associated with them. Alexa Corse reports for the Wall Street Journal.

John Eastman, the attorney who helped Trump try to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election, has sued Verizon and the Jan. 6 select committee. Eastman’s lawsuit argues the Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena of cell phone records from Verizon is invalid for multiple reasons and follows a similar lawsuit filed Monday by four organizers of the Jan. 6 rally. “Monday’s lawsuit, against Verizon, argued the select committee doesn’t have the proper authority to obtain the cell phone data. The lawsuit filed Tuesday says the committee subpoenaed Verizon ‘without prior notice,’ requesting nine categories of data from Eastman’s personal cell phone over a three-month period,” Myah Ward reports for POLITICO.

Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham have lashed out at the Jan. 6 committee for releasing text messages they sent to Meadows during the Jan. 6 attack. Dartunorro Clark reports for NBC News.

A man who pleaded guilty to threatening House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) the day after the Jan. 6 attack, has been sentenced to more than two years in prison. Mychael Schnell reports for The Hill.

Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel who worked with Trump’s outside legal team on claims of election fraud, was an invited speaker yesterday at a state commission charged with shaping Louisiana’s voting system. “Waldron’s 90-minute talk in Louisiana came just days after revelations that he circulated and briefed members of Congress on a PowerPoint presentation that urged then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6 to reject electoral votes from ‘states where fraud occurred,’ replace them with Republican electors or delay counting electoral votes until ballots could be seized and recounted with the help of National Guard troops,” Emma Brown reports for the Washington Post.

The Hill: Meadows falsely claims that Trump “acted quickly” to stop the Jan. 6 riot.

The New York Times: Cheney embraces role in Jan. 6 inquiry, holding up an unsparing mirror to the GOP.

The Hill: Congress passes bill allowing for easier National Guard defense of Capitol after Jan. 6

US

Democrats are divided over how hard to push Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to vote on President Biden’s climate and social spending bill before Christmas, with some lawmakers favoring an aggressive approach while others worry about killing the legislation by moving too hastily. Read the full story here.

Prosecutors in Manhattan are weighing whether to charge former President Trump with fraud based on financial documents that Trump used to obtain loans. The annual statements of financial condition, which are compiled by Trump’s accountants, could help answer the question of whether Trump inflated the value of his assets to defraud his lenders. William K. Rashbaum, Ben Protess and Jonah E. Bromwich report for the New York Times.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by Trump that sought to block Congress from obtaining his tax returns. In a 45-page opinion, the judge ruled that a House committee chair has broad authority under the law to request the documents, despite Trump’s status as a former president, and therefore the Treasury Department can provide the tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee, which could vote to publish them. The ruling was however stayed for 10 days to give Trump time to file an appeal. Charlie Savage reports for the New York Times.

A longtime accountant for Trump, Donald Bender, of the firm Mazars, testified recently before a New York grand jury investigating Trump’s financial practices, according to people familiar with the investigation. In recent weeks prosecutors have also interviewed Rosemary Vrablic, a former managing director at Deutsche Bank who arranged hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to Trump. Vrablic’s interview was not before the grand jury and one person said that “prosecutors pressed Vrablic about Trump’s role in dealings with the bank,” David A. Fahrenthold, Josh Dawsey, Shayna Jacobs and Jonathan O’Connell report for the Washington Post.

Congress has unanimously passed legislation granting the head of the Capitol Police the power to “unilaterally” request emergency backup from the D.C. National Guard and federal law enforcement agencies, without getting prior approval from the Capitol Police Board. Lawmakers have said the lack of authority had caused “unnecessary delays” during the Jan. 6 attack. Bryan Pietsch reports for the Washington Post.

The House has voted for legislation to monitor and combat Islamophobia globally. The measure calls for the State Department to establish an office headed by a special envoy appointed by the president, which would report on Islamophobia. The vote followed a rancorous debate in which Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) falsely claimed that the goal of the legislation is “to silence dissent and critiques of terrorism,” and basely claimed that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a co-sponsor of the bill, is “affiliated with” terrorist organizations. Felicia Sonmez and Anjuman Ali report for the Washington Post. 

O.J. Simpson is a free man -– officially. The former football legend’s parole in Nevada ended effective on Dec. 1, making him fully free following his 2008 conviction for armed robbery in Las Vegas. Simpson was granted parole in July 2017 as part of the minimum sentencing, and was subsequently released from prison three months later (ESPN).

Arizona officials on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to permit its law criminalizing abortions based on genetic conditions to take effect, the latest high-profile case to put the issue of reproductive rights before the nation’s highest court. A federal district judge temporarily blocked enforcement of Arizona’s law in September and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld that decision last month (USA Today).

Virus/Climate

Police in Germany’s eastern state of Saxony have launched a series of raids after death threats were made against German Premier Michael Kretschmer for backing Covid-19 measures. BBC News reports.

Pfizer has said that preliminary laboratory tests have given encouraging signs that its experimental Covid-19 pill for the newly infected could work against the Omicron Covid-19 variant. Jared S. Hopkins reports for the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. death toll from Covid-19 has passed 800,000, with 200,000 lives having been lost after vaccines became available last spring. The figure represents the highest reported toll of any country around the world. The U.S. accounts for approximately 4% of the world’s population but about 15% of the 5.3 million known deaths from Covid-19. The Guardian reports.

The coronavirus has infected over 50.23 million people and has now killed over 800,400 people in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been over 271.55 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 5.32 million deaths. Sergio Hernandez, Sean O’Key, Amanda Watts, Byron Manley and Henrik Pettersson report for CNN.

Cornell shut down much of its campus after an outbreak.

Scientists can predict when and where tornadoes will strike. That hasn’t stopped people from being killed.

Biden today will survey parts of Kentucky that will take years to recover and rebuild after being flattened by weekend tornadoes that killed at least 88 people in five states, while many more remain missing. He will repeat his pledges that all available help will be provided by the federal government to Kentucky and other states that declared disaster emergencies because of the powerful December storms.

NASA revealed on Tuesday that in April, its Parker Solar Probe (rendition below) “touched” the sun, plunging through the unexplored atmosphere known as the corona about 8 million miles from the sun’s center. The data gathered through several passes by the probe took months to make its way back to Earth. Because the sun lacks a solid surface, exploring the magnetically intense corona region can help scientists better understand solar activity that can interfere with the watery blue marble that circles it every year (The Associated Press).

And speaking of Earth, scientists are increasingly worried that the Southern Ocean is ominously signaling that global warming is affecting the Antarctic current in complex ways, and shifts could complicate the ability to fight climate change in the future. The circular flow of water around Antarctica is, in effect, a climate engine spinning on a continental scale (The New York Times).

Russia

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has dismissed suggestions from Russia that NATO is planning on deploying long-range missiles in Europe. On Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov claimed there were “indirect indications” that NATO intended to deploy intermediate-range missiles, which are banned in Europe under a 1987 treaty. Stoltenberg responded by saying that Russia had violated the treaty in question for years by deploying new intermediate range nuclear capable missiles in Europe, adding that NATO did not aim to mirror Moscow’s behavior. Reuters reports.

Russia has provided the U.S. with concrete proposals for the binding security guarantees that Russia wants from the West, including a guarantee that NATO will not expand further eastwards or deploy certain weapons systems in Ukraine and other countries that border Russia, the Kremlin has said. The proposals were handed over during a meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried in Moscow today. Reuters reports.

The E.U. is ready to scale up its sanctions and take “unprecedented measures” against Russia if it shows further aggression towards Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said. “Von der Leyen, speaking in the European Parliament, said the E.U. had worked closely with the United States to draw up options going beyond existing sanctions targeting Russia’s financial and energy sectors, dual-use goods and defense,” Reuters reports.

China

The House has voted unanimously to ban imports from China’s Xinjiang region over concerns about human rights abuses and the use of forced labor. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is expected to pass the Senate this week. The House vote came after a bipartisan agreement was reached with the Senate on the language of the legislation. Natalie Andrews reports for the Wall Street Journal.

A Harvard chemistry professor, Charles Lieber, has gone on federal trial in Boston over whether he misled the U.S. Defense Department, Harvard University, and others about his relationship with the Chinese Wuhan University of Technology. “Lieber, a pioneer in the field of nanoscience, was arrested in January 2020 on charges of lying to government agents about his involvement with a Chinese talent-recruitment program and the money he received through it. He has pleaded not guilty to those and related tax charges, and his lawyers have argued he didn’t mean to mislead anyone about his affiliations,” Aruna Viswanatha and Byron Tau report for the Wall Street Journal.

UAE

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is threatening to pull out of a multibillion-dollar deal to buy U.S.-made F-35 aircraft, Reaper drones, and other advanced munitions. The UAE is complaining that security requirements that the U.S. laid out to safeguard the high-tech weaponry from Chinese espionage are too onerous, and the country’s national sovereignty was in jeopardy. “The UAE has informed the U.S. that it will suspend discussions to acquire the F-35…Technical requirements, sovereign operational restrictions, and cost/benefit analysis led to the re-assessment,” an Emirati official said. “The U.S. remains the UAE’s preferred provider for advanced defense requirements and discussions for the F-35 may be re-opened in the future,” the official added. Mostafa Salem, Jennifer Hansler and Celine Alkhaldi report for CNN.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the U.S. is prepared to move forward with the sale of F-35 fighter jets and drones to the UAE, following the reports that the UAE intends to suspend discussions on the sale. “Speaking at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, Blinken said Washington had to conduct some reviews. ‘We’ve wanted to make sure, for example, that our commitment to Israel’s qualitative military edge is assured, so we wanted to make sure that we could do a thorough review of any technologies that are sold or transferred to other partners in the region, including the UAE,’ Blinken said. ‘But I think we continue to be prepared to move forward if the UAE continues to want to pursue both of these,’ he said.” Humeyra Pamuk and Rozanna Latiff report for Reuters.

Afghanistan

The Afghan survivors of the botched Aug. 29 U.S. drone strike that killed 10 members of their family in Kabul have said that they are frustrated and saddened that U.S. troops involved in the attack will not face disciplinary action. The drone strike hit a car belonging to aid worker Zemerai Ahmadi, killing him and nine relatives, including seven children. Three of Ahmadi’s brothers spoke yesterday of their loss and said that they have not yet heard anything from Washington about financial compensation or when they would be evacuated from Afghanistan. Kathy Gannon reports for AP.

The U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif, has  called the situation in Afghanistan one that “threatens the most basic of human rights,” during an update on Afghanistan. “Nashif voiced particular concern over the brutal nature of killings carried out by the Taliban as well as the treatment of women and girls,” Monique Beals reports for The Hill.

Myanmar

Members of the public in Myanmar are urging targeted sanctions against oil and gas funds, the single largest source of foreign currency revenue in Myanmar. “But Western governments — most notably the United States and France — have refused to take that step amid lobbying from energy company officials and resistance from countries such as Thailand, which gets gas from Myanmar,” Kristen Gelineau, Victoria Milko and Lori Hinnant report for AP.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that President Biden’s administration is weighing tough new sanctions on Myanmar. Blinken, speaking in Malaysia, said the situation in Myanmar since the coup in February has “gotten worse” with mass arrests and violence against protesters. “I think it’s going to be very important in the weeks and months ahead to look at what additional steps and measures we can take individually, collectively to pressure the regime to put the country back on a democratic trajectory,” Blinken said. Blinken added that the Biden administration is also looking “very actively” at designating ongoing repression against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim population as a “genocide.” Matthew Lee reports for AP.

Global Developments

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged to strengthen relations with Indo-Pacific nations through U.S. investment and aid, while downplaying any direct confrontation between the U.S. and China. The soft-power pitch was delivered by Blinken at Universitas Indonesia in Jakarta, and continued with a series of agreements on maritime cooperation and education and Peace Corps exchanges. “We all have a stake in ensuring that the world’s most dynamic region is free from coercion and accessible to all,” Blinken said. Lara Jakes and Sui-Lee Wee report for the New York Times.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has said that he has made an offer to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) to drop his hold on some of President Biden’s ambassador nominees in exchange for a vote on Nord Stream 2 pipeline sanctions. Cruz, who, along with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), has been leading a blockade in the Senate against most of Biden’s State Department nominees, also said that he spoke to Blinken about his offer. Jordain Carney reports for The Hill.

The E.U. is weighing changes that could chip away at the borderless model of the bloc. Under the new rules proposed yesterday, E.U. member states could introduce border checks in the face of unforeseen or foreseeable events. The border checks, which were once emergency measures only, could also be extended almost indefinitely. Elian Peltier and Monika Pronczuk report for the New York Times.

A Belarusian court has convicted a Belarusian opposition leader on charges of organizing mass unrest and inciting social hatred over his attempt to challenge the country’s leader Aleksander Lukashenko in a presidential election last year. The activist, Sergei Tikhanovsky, 43, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Tikhanovsky “ran a popular YouTube channel in Belarus before announcing his candidacy for the 2020 vote. But he was arrested before the election, prompting his wife, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, to step in and lead the popular movement against Lukashenko,” Ivan Nechepurenko reports for the New York Times.

A South African court has ruled that South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma should return to prison as his medical parole was “unlawful.” Zuma was released on Sep. 5 for an undisclosed medical condition, having been jailed for failing to attend an inquiry into corruption during his presidency. The court also ruled that the time Zuma has spent out of prison should not be counted in his 15-month sentence BBC News reports.

Kim Yong Ju, the brother of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung, has died aged 101. Kim Yong Ju was praised for “accelerating socialist construction and developing the Korean-style state social system,” North Korean state media has reported. Timothy W Martin reports for the Wall Street Journal.

Pham Doan Trang, a Vietnamese activist known for her writing on women’s empowerment and environmental issues, has been sentenced to nine years in prison for disseminating anti-state propaganda. Trang denied all charges. Chris Humphrey reports for the Washington Post.

DDSR: It’s a Tuesday…12/14/21

If aliens attacked…China and Russia and the GQP would not side with the rest of the world…

US

Senator Joe Manchin doesn’t sound like he’s on board with passing Biden’s climate and social spending bill before Christmas.

The official death toll from tornadoes in Kentucky rose to 74, a number that will probably grow. The youngest victim was a 5-month-old, the oldest was 86.

Biden wants to meet some of the many Americans who survived deadly tornadoes in Kentucky but lost loved ones, their homes and jobs. He will travel to Fort Campbell, Ky., on Wednesday to receive an on-the-ground storm briefing and make his way to Mayfield and Dawson Springs, Ky., to survey tornado damage. Disaster survivors can apply to the government for assistance at www.DisasterAssistance.gov or call 1-800-621-FEMA for help (The Hill). 

Politico: Manchin keeps Democrats guessing on their megabill.

The Associated Press: Democrats should curb the cost of their $2 trillion social and environment bill by choosing their top priorities, Manchin told reporters on Monday. He criticized Democrats’ decision to make many of the measure’s initiatives temporary to limit the bill’s price tag. Manchin said his party should pick its “highest priorities” and have each last the full 10-year life of the bill while keeping its overall cost below $2 trillion, a combination that seems unworkable at this point.

The Washington Post: Congress on verge of raising debt ceiling. But Republicans warn Biden: the next debt limit increase won’t be so easy.

The Associated Press: Senators on Monday urged Medicare to flex its power and slash back a planned premium hike next year. 

The Hill: GOP election objectors rake in corporate cash.

CNN: GOP leaders seek to fend off Trump endorsement as far-right Republican eyes Illinois primary bid.

The Hill: Republicans fret over Trump’s influence in Missouri Senate race.

Biden’s bungled choice of Saule Omarova, a former nominee to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency who withdrew under Senate criticism, is undermining his agenda, according to advocates for tougher bank oversight (The Hill).

The State Department announced on Monday that 900 U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents from Afghanistan are being relocated within the United States (The Hill).

USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee agreed to a $380 million settlement with the hundreds of victims of longtime team physician Larry Nassar, marking the largest settlement for a sexual abuse case in history. Olympic stars including Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney (pictured below on Capitol Hill) are among the claimants (The Hill).

Chris Wallace’s surprise departure from “Fox News Sunday” has shaken up the Washington, D.C., media landscape and prompted new questions about the direction of Fox News (The Hill).

In a long running case dating back to an early 2019 House Oversight Committee demand to see years of former President Trump’s financial data from his accounting firm, a lawyer for Trump has urged a federal appeals court to quash the congressional subpoena. Trump’s legal team argued yesterday that the demand is too broad and could open the door for future lawmakers to harass and intimidate presidents, while the House’s lawyer argued that the subpoena was well within the authority of Congress, especially since the House reissued it once Trump left office. Charlie Savage reports for the New York Times.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against the Biden administration’s bid to terminate the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy, which requires non-Mexican migrants to stay in Mexico until their U.S. immigration court dates. Yesterday evening, “the 5th Circuit upheld a district judge’s ruling blocking the administration’s termination of the program. The opinion…said the administration’s efforts to terminate the program did not comply with the Administrative Procedure Act, which sets out specific processes that agencies must go through in unveiling new policies,” Tierney Sneed and Priscilla Alvarez report for CNN.

Navy prosecutors have alleged in court that a sailor charged with setting the fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard last year was “disgruntled” after dropping out of Navy Seal training. AP reports.

Abortion

NYT: The Supreme Court seems all but certain to rewrite the country’s abortion laws when it rules in coming months on a case from Mississippi. But the real-world effects of that ruling will differ enormously depending on how far the justices go. In one scenario, only a small share of abortions now being conducted in the U.S. — less than 2 percent, perhaps — would become illegal. In another scenario, the ruling could lead to sweeping changes in abortion access and a large decline in abortions. That’s one of the takeaways from a statistical portrait of abortion in the U.S., created by my colleagues Margot Sanger-Katz, Claire Cain Miller and Quoctrung Bui.

Women who get abortions look similar in several major ways to the overall population of American women: Most are already mothers who have attended at least some college and have not had an abortion before. Yet there are also notable differences, including in marriage rates. See The Times’s portrait for more.

The abortion rate has declined sharply since 1980. Among the reasons: better access to birth control and less teenage sex. The restrictions in red states also likely play a role, but not as large of one.

Public opinion on abortion is more complicated than it sometimes seems, Nate Cohn of The Times writes: Many religious Democrats favor abortion restrictions, while many secular Trump voters support abortion rights.

Jan. 6 Insurrection

The Jan. 6 House select committee has voted to recommend to the House that Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff for former President Trump, be charged with criminal contempt of Congress for defying the committee’s subpoena. The 9-0 vote sends the contempt resolution against Meadows to the full House, which is scheduled to vote on it today. If the resolution is sustained, the matter could then be referred to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. Siobhan Hughes reports for the Wall Street Journal.

Prior to the committee’s vote on Meadows, committee member Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) read aloud text messages sent to Meadows by Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. and by the Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Brian Kilmeade urging that Trump speak out against the Jan. 6 attack. “These text messages leave no doubt…The White House knew exactly what was happening here at the Capitol,” Cheney said. Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer report for the New York Times.

In a series of text messages to Meadows, Trump Jr. repeatedly said that Trump had to “condemn” the violence happening during the Jan. 6 attack. “He’s got to condemn this sh*t ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough,” Trump Jr. wrote in one message, with Meadows texted back: “we need an Oval office address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.” Paul LeBlanc reports for CNN.

The video of Cheney reading aloud texts sent to Meadows is available on CNN.

Further reporting on the text messages to Meadows released by the Jan. 6 committee is provided by Nicholas Wu and Kyle Cheney for POLITICO and Zachary B. Wolf for CNN

The New York Times: Fox News hosts sent texts to Meadows urging Trump to act as Jan. 6 attack unfolded.

NBC News: White House official allegedly said National Guard troops would protect Trump supporters Jan. 6.

Roll Call: Senate allows small public tours to resume in the Capitol. 

Virus/Climate

The coronavirus has infected over 49.92 million people and has now killed over 797,300 people in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been over 270.22 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 5.30 million deaths. Sergio Hernandez, Sean O’Key, Amanda Watts, Byron Manley and Henrik Pettersson report for CNN.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said on Monday that nearly 80 percent of the first 43 people confirmed to be infected in the United States with omicron between Dec. 1 and Dec. 8 were fully vaccinated. And about a third of those vaccinated people, or 14 of 34 individuals, had received a booster shot. Sixteen percent of those confirmed to be infected with omicron had been infected with COVID-19 earlier. In the group, there was just one hospitalization and no deaths to date.

California is reinstating an indoor mask mandate.

The Air Force dismissed 27 service members — a tiny percentage — for refusing to get vaccinated.

“Omicron appears to cause less severe illness than earlier variants of the coronavirus but is more resistant to the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine widely used in South Africa, according to the first major private study since omicron was first detected last month,” WaPo’s Lesley Wroughton writes in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a pair of challenges to New York’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers, which notably includes no religious exemptions. The decision continues a pattern of the high court generally allowing vaccine mandates to stand, though Justices SAMUEL ALITO, NEIL GORSUCH and CLARENCE THOMAS dissented. More from CNN

The Biden administration said the Interior Department was compelled by a court ruling to open up a record auction of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas drilling tracts last month. But The Guardian’s Oliver Milman reports that a DOJ filing in August said the government was not actually forced to do so. That’s prompting criticism from environmentalists.

In the Southern Ocean, wilder winds are altering currents and ice is melting from below, adding to sea level rise, scientists say.

Afghanistan

None of the military personnel involved in the botched 29 Aug. drone strike that killed 10 civilians in Kabul, Afghanistan will face any kind of punishment, the Pentagon has said. The two officers, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of the military’s Central Command, and Gen. Richard D. Clarke, the head of the Special Operations Command, charged by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin with deciding on any administrative action after a high-level investigation into the episode found no violations of law and no grounds for penalizing the military personnel involved in the strike, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson has said. Eric Schmitt reports for the New York Times.

The new Taliban administration in Afghanistan, devoid of international recognition and cut off by the U.S. from the global financial system, is struggling to revive a devastated economy. Combined with the worst drought in decades, and the suspension of many foreign-aid projects, a crisis in Afghanistan is looming and millions of Afghans could face starvation in coming months. “We are on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe that is preventable,” the United Nations Special Representative to Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, has said. Yaroslav Trofimov reports for the Wall Street Journal.

China

Documents from Huawei Technologies suggest that the Chinese tech giant played a broader role in tracking China’s populace than the company previously acknowledged. A review by the Washington Post of more than 100 Huawei PowerPoint slides, many marked “confidential” though they were at one point posted to a public-facing website, “show Huawei pitching how its technologies can help government authorities identify individuals by voice, monitor political individuals of interest, manage ideological reeducation and labor schedules for prisoners, and help retailers track shoppers using facial recognition. ‘Huawei has no knowledge of the projects mentioned in the Washington Post report,’ the company said in a statement,” Eva Dou reports for the Washington Post.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged China to cease “aggressive actions” in the Indo-Pacific, during a trip to the region. In a speech in Indonesia, Blinken outlined the U.S. approach to the Indo-Pacific region and said that Washington would work with allies and partners to “defend the rules-based order” and countries should have the right to “choose their own path.” Agence France-Presse reports.

Middle East

European diplomats are expressing frustration with Iran’s stance in talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. Diplomats from the U.K., France, and Germany, the three European countries involved in the talks, have made clear that Iran’s position has not improved although “all delegations have pressed Iran to be reasonable,” and that they are wasting “precious time” dealing with new Iranian demands. The U.S. is participating indirectly in the ongoing talks and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today that diplomacy remains the best option but that Washington is engaging with partners on alternatives. Geir Moulson reports for AP.

Iran’s chief negotiator has traded barbs with Iran’s counterparts in the nuclear talks, writing on Twitter that some still “persist in their blame game habit, instead of real diplomacy.” Maziar Motamedi reports for Al Jazeera.

It is unlikely that the first delivery of refueling tankers to Israel from the U.S. will be ready until late 2024, despite Israeli requests that the Biden administration speed up the delivery. The tankers could prove critical for Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities and the Israeli defense minister, Benny Gantz, made the request last week when he met with Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and other senior U.S. officials in Washington. David E. Sanger, Ronen Bergman and Helene Cooper report for the New York Times.

Israeli Prime Minster Naftali Bennett has met Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, the de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in the first ever official meeting between leaders of Israel and the UAE since the two countries established diplomatic ties last year. The talks are the latest in a flurry of diplomacy in the Middle East amid fears that the Iran nuclear talks will collapse and concerns over the shrinking U.S. role in the region. Thomas Grove, Stephen Kalin and Summer Said report for the Wall Street Journal.

Global Developments

Russia has vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution to treat climate change as a security threat. The resolution, which enjoyed wide-ranging support, would have significantly expanded the criteria used by the U.N. Security Council to justify intervention in armed conflicts around the world. Rick Galdstone reports for the New York Times.

Militants fired on a police bus in the Indian region of Kashmir on Monday, killing at least two officers and wounding more than a dozen, Indian police have said. The latest clash comes only three days after gunmen fired on a squad of officers patrolling streets in northern Kashmir, leaving two policemen dead. Sameer Yasir reports for the New York Times.

Indian troops have killed a suspected rebel during a gun battle in Kashmir. Fighting between Indian security forces and rebels broke out in the early hours today in the Surankote area of Jammu region’s Poonch district, where a small group of armed fighters are believed to be holed up, a police official has said. Al Jazeera reports.

Colombia’s national police were responsible for the deaths of 11 people during two days of protests against police brutality last year, an independent investigation requested by the mayor of Bogotá and supported by the U.N. has found. The killings amounted to a “massacre,” former national ombudsman Carlos Negret wrote in a scathing report. “Negret and a team of researchers blamed the deaths on an institutional failure to instruct officers not to use firearms against the crowds, and on a response that prioritized the protection of police stations over the lives of officers and protesters,” Samantha Schmidt and Diana Durán report for the Washington Post.

Tunisian President Kais Saied has announced a constitutional referendum to be held July 25, 2022. The referendum is scheduled for a year to the day after Saied seized broad powers in moves his opponents have called a coup. The referendum will follow an online public consultation starting in January and Parliamentary elections will follow at the end of 2022, Saied said in a televised speech. Reuters reports.

Turkey and Armenia will appoint special representatives to discuss steps to normalize their diplomatic ties, Turkey’s foreign minister has said. AP reports.

South Korea is planning to build a test version of a small modular nuclear reactor for marine propulsion. Nuclear experts however have said that the project could potentially allow South Korea to develop a nuclear-powered submarine, despite a nearly 50-year old treaty with the U.S. which blocks South Korea from using nuclear materials for military purposes. Choe Sang-Hun reports for the New York Times.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has withdrawn his candidacy for a Senate seat, according to a statement on Twitter from a spokesperson for the Philippine’s election commission. Al Jazeera reports.

NatWest has been fined £265 million ($350.9 million) for failing to prevent the laundering of nearly £400 million, in the first criminal money laundering case against a U.K. bank. Reuters reports.

DDSR Dec. 13, 2021

CIA was concerned…What the fuck?

A single top secret U.S. strike cell sidestepped safeguards and repeatedly killed civilians, as it launched tens of thousands of attacks against the Islamic State in Syria. People working in the strike cell, which was called Talon Anvil and worked around the clock between 2014 to 2019, have said that it circumvented rules imposed to protect noncombatants, and alarmed its partners in the military and the CIA by killing people who had no role in the conflict. CIA officers reported their concerns to the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Inspector General and the DoD’s leadership, but never saw evidence that these concerns were taken seriously, a former CIA officer has said. Talon Anvil also clashed with Air Force intelligence teams, pushing Air Force analysts of drone footage to say that they saw evidence such as weapons that could legally justify a strike. Dave Philipps, Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti report for the New York Times.

GOP’s Anti-democracy

Arizona. Republican legislators have passed a law taking away authority over election lawsuits from the secretary of state, who’s now a Democrat, and giving it to the attorney general, a Republican. Legislators are debating another bill that would allow them to revoke election certification “by majority vote at any time before the presidential inauguration.”

Pennsylvania. Republicans are trying to amend the state’s Constitution to make the secretary of state an elected position, rather than one that the governor appoints. Pennsylvania is also one of the states where Trump allies — like Stephen Lindemuth, who attended the Jan. 6 rally that turned into an attack on Congress — have won local races to oversee elections.

Wisconsin. Senator Ron Johnson is urging the Republican-controlled Legislature to take full control of federal elections. Doing so could remove the governor, currently a Democrat, from the process, and weaken the bipartisan state elections commission.

US

December tornadoes that roared through Kentucky and five other states along a 220-mile path of destruction on Friday took the lives of at least 80 people, and officials on Sunday predicted the death toll this week would climb, along with estimates of property damage and business losses. “I can tell you from reports that I’ve received I know we’ve lost more than 80 Kentuckians,” Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said on Sunday talk shows. Later in the day, Kentucky said the death toll might be smaller than initially feared because more people had been accounted for. “I’ve got towns that are gone, that are just, I mean, gone. My dad’s hometown — half of it isn’t standing. It is hard for me to describe. I know people can see the visuals, but that goes on for 12 blocks or more in some of these places,”  the governor said (The Associated Press and The New York Times). “We’re still finding bodies,” he added later. “I mean, we’ve got cadaver dogs in towns that they shouldn’t have to be in” (The New York Times).

An anti-terrorism unit within the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) federal agency investigated as many as 20 U.S.-based journalists using government databases which contained personal information and were intended to track terrorists, according to documents, including an inspector general report of more than 500 pages, obtained by Yahoo News. Jana Winter reports for Yahoo News.

Trump has remade much of the Republican Party in his image by nurturing and promoting a coterie of bomb-throwing performance artists in the House and Senate more interested in owning the libs than advancing legislation. Now, his allies and imitators are coming for the ranks of Republican governors, a bevy of whom face MAGA-inspired challengers in primary elections next year. Read the full story here

The Wall Street Journal: Biden aims to win pivotal Democrat’s support for $2 trillion spending plan.

Politico: Old St. Chuck? Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) under pressure to deliver by Christmas.

Aris Folley, The Hill: Manchin faces pressure from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), other colleagues on paid family leave. 

The Hill: Child tax credit expiration adds pressure for Democrats.

The Hill: Former Vice President Pence fuels speculation of 2024 presidential bid.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called on state lawmakers on Saturday to take aim at the gun industry using a legal strategy, which he criticizes, initiated by Texas conservatives to block early-term abortions (The New York Times). … Newsom’s idea will fail legally, wrote law professor and analyst Jonathan Turley in a blog post on Sunday (Fox News).

January 6 Insurrection

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has released a resolution detailing its recommendation to hold former President Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress, ahead of a House vote on the issue planned for this week. “In a 51-page document released Sunday, the committee lays out its efforts to obtain documents and testimony from Meadows, and notes repeated warnings from its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), of the consequences if he refused to cooperate,” Olafimihan Oshin reports for The Hill.

The Jan. 6 select committee is scrutinizing a 38-page PowerPoint document which sets out plans to overturn the 2020 election result and which Meadows has turned over to the committee. Meadows’ lawyer has said that the document was submitted to the committee because it was not privileged, and that Meadows received it by email in his inbox but did not do anything with it. Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel, has said that he had circulated the document among Trump’s allies and on Capitol Hill before the Jan. 6 attack. Waldron said that he did not personally send the document to Meadows, but that it was possible someone on his team had done so. “The document recommended that  Trump declare a national emergency to delay the certification of the election results and included a claim that China and Venezuela had obtained control over the voting infrastructure in a majority of states,” Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer report for the New York Times.

It is not clear who prepared the PowerPoint, but a similar 36-page version of the document marked for dissemination has Jan. 5 metadata and is available online. The two documents have some differences but the titles and the recommendations are the same. The documents appear to be based on the theories of Jovan Hutton Pulitzer, a Texas entrepreneur and self-described inventor who has appeared on podcasts with Waldron discussing election fraud. Hugo Lowell reports for the Guardian.

Waldron has said that he visited the White House multiple times after the 2020 election, spoke with Meadows “maybe eight to 10 times,” and briefed Republican members of Congress on Jan. 5. Waldron, who was working with Trump’s lawyers (Rudolph Giuliani and John Eastman) at the Willard Hotel to gather purported evidence of election fraud, has also said that he once briefed Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC) at the White House in Meadow’s office with Giuliani present. Emma Brown, Jon Swaine, Jacqueline Alemany, Josh Dawsey, and Tom Hamburger report for the Washington Post.

Meadows indicated in an email on Jan. 5 that the National Guard was on standby “to protect pro Trump people,” according to documents obtained by the Jan. 6 committee that were described in a public filing yesterday night. The context for the message is unclear, as is who Meadows relayed the information to or whether it was the result of insight provided by the Defense Department. Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu report for POLITICO.

The Jan. 6 select committee has announced that it has issued six new subpoenas. Among the latest people to be issued a subpoena is Max Miller, who worked as a senior adviser to Trump and is now running as a candidate for a House seat. “The panel also issued a subpoena to Robert ‘Bobby’ Peede Jr., who allegedly also met with Trump in the private dining room off the Oval Office on Jan. 4 along with Miller to discuss the rally and lineup of speakers. Other individuals issued subpoenas on Friday are Brian Jack, Trump’s former director of political affairs who allegedly reached out to numerous members of Congress to ask them to speak at the Jan. 6 rally; Bryan Lewis, who the committee says obtained a permit for a rally outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 to urge lawmakers against certifying the election results; Ed Martin, a ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer; and Kimberly Fletcher, an activist with the organization Moms for America who was involved in pro-Trump rallies on Jan. 5 and 6,” Cristina Marcos reports for The Hill.

A federal judge has upheld the Justice Department’s decision to use a felony obstruction law against Capitol attack defendants. In a major victory for prosecutors, Federal Judge Dabney Friedrich denied a request by two rioters to throw out the charge “obstruction of an official proceeding,” which has been used in the Jan. 6 cases to cover obstruction of Congress’ Electoral College tabulation session on Jan. 6. Marshall Cohen and Hannah Rabinowitz report for CNN.

Jan. 6 organizer and “Stop the Steal” leader Ali Alexander was served with a lawsuit as he left his eight-hour deposition with the Jan. 6 committee last Thursday. The legal documents which Alexander was served with pertain to the Smith v Trump lawsuit, which was initially filed by seven Capitol police officers in August and alleges that the defendants, including Alexander and Trump, violated the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act which protects against violent acts interfering with congressional duties. Zachary Petrizzo reports for The Daily Beast.

Virus/Climate

A study, published by U.K. government scientists, has indicated that a third vaccine dose provides considerable defense against the Omicron Covid-19 variant, but otherwise there is a significant drop in protection against symptomatic cases. U.K. government scientists have also offered “the most complete look yet at how quickly Omicron was spreading in England’s highly vaccinated population, warning that the variant could overtake Delta by mid-December and, without any precautionary measures, cause Covid-19 cases to soar,” Benjamin Mueller reports for the New York Times.

China has donated one million Covid-19 vaccines to Nicaragua, days after Nicaragua cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of Beijing. BBC News reports.

The head of the Oklahoma National Guard has acknowledged that the current law provides little cover for service members who refuse the Pentagon’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate and there is a risk that vaccine refusal could end military careers. Ellen Mitchell reports for The Hill.

Pentagon leaders are holding “active discussions” on whether to mandate a Covid-19 vaccine booster, Defense Department Press Secretary John Kirby has said. “There have been no final decisions made,” John Kirby added. Ellen Mitchell reports for The Hill.

The coronavirus has infected over 49.92 million people and has now killed over 797,300 people in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been over 270.22 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 5.30 million deaths. Sergio Hernandez, Sean O’Key, Amanda Watts, Byron Manley and Henrik Pettersson report for CNN.

Scientists suggest it is too soon to blame climate change for the weekend tornadoes. Twisters have mowed through the United States during previous Decembers, but affected states reported unusually warm, moist conditions on Friday.

“Forever chemicals” lurk in food packaging and farmlands, posing underestimated threats to American consumers (The Hill).

The Atlantic’s Russell Berman takes an interesting look at the policy debate over overhauling flood insurance to make homeowners on the water pay more — essentially pricing in climate risk (and putting the burden on the wealthy, or the literal coastal elite). It’s “one of the most progressive changes that President Joe Biden can make without new approval from Congress,” he writes. But it’s running into opposition from New Jersey Democrats like Sen. BOB MENENDEZ, who might try to wedge changes into a government funding bill — as well as concerns that it could end up pushing poorer people out of beachfront communities.

US Relations

U.S. forces carried out a “large airborne operation” and “kidnapped a number of civilians” at dawn today, Syrian state news agency SANA has reported. The American forces landed in the town of Busayra, east of Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria, the news agency reported. There was no immediate confirmation of the report. Reuters reports.

The U.S. has imposed extensive human rights-related sanctions on dozens of people and entities tied to China, Myanmar, North Korea, and Bangladesh, and has added Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime Group to an investment blacklist. Canada and the U.K. joined the U.S. in imposing sanctions related to human rights abuses in Myanmar. China’s embassy in Washington denounced the U.S. move as “serious interference in China’s internal affairs.” Daphne Psaledakis and David Brunnstrom and Simon Lewis report for Reuters.

South Korea, North Korea, China, and the U.S. have agreed “in principle” to declare a formal end to the Korean war almost 70 years after the conflict ended, South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said. Moon, who was speaking in Canberra today during a four-day visit to Australia, said that talks were being held up by North Korea’s objections to present-day “U.S. hostility.” Justin McCurry reports for the Guardian.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Indonesia today, as he begins his Southeast Asia visit aimed at strengthening ties in the Indo-Pacific. Humeyra Pamuk reports for Reuters.

Russia and Ukraine

Foreign ministers for the Group of Seven (G7) countries have urged Russia to pull back from the tense border standoff with Ukraine. “Any use of force to change borders is strictly prohibited under international law…Russia should be in no doubt that further military aggression against Ukraine would have massive consequences and severe costs in response,” the G7 foreign ministers said in a statement which largely echoed earlier statements made by Western officials. Lara Jakes reports for the New York Times.

Ukraine’s new defense minister Oleksii Reznikov has blamed Germany for blocking the supply of weaponry to Kyiv through NATO. Reznikov has said that Berlin in the past month has vetoed Ukraine’s purchase of anti-drone rifles and anti-sniper systems via the NATO Support and Procurement Agency. Though, Germany subsequently relented on the first item, after deeming it non-lethal. “They are still building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and at the same time blocking our defensive weapons. It is very unfair,” Reznikov told the Financial Times. Roman Olearchyk in Kyiv and Ben Hall report for the Financial Times.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has warned of a possible confrontation if the U.S. and NATO fail to give Moscow security guarantees concerning NATO’s eastern expansion, according to the state-owned RIA news agency. Reuters reports.

Afghanistan

Donors have agreed to transfer $280 million from a frozen trust fund to the World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF to support nutrition and health in Afghanistan. The World Bank-administered Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund will this year give $180 million to WFP to scale up food security and nutrition operations and $100 million to UNICEF to provide essential health services in Afghanistan, the World Bank said in a statement. Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Landay and Andrea Shalal report for Reuters.

The Taliban is committed in principle to education and jobs for girls and women and seeks the world’s “mercy and compassion” to help millions of Afghans in desperate need. In an interview, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told The Associated Press that the Taliban wants good relations with all countries and has no issue with the United States, urging Washington and other nations to release upward of $10 billion in frozen funds. Kathy Gannon reports for AP.

Since Kabul fell to the Taliban in August, Iran has deported hundreds of thousands of Afghans and has been unwilling to consider asylum applications. Iranian authorities are deporting between 2,500 and 4,000 Afghans every day, compounding an already-tense situation at the Afghan-Iranian border. Sune Engel Rasmussen and Aresu Eqbali report for the Wall Street Journal.

The State Department and Department of Defense have begun reviews into the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. “The State Department’s 90-day review into the withdrawal will ‘seek to assess the lessons learned from our engagement in Afghanistan and provide recommendations going forward,’ Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a memo to employees obtained by The Hill. The review will cover the period between January 2020 and August 2021…Separately, the Pentagon’s after-action review of the withdrawal will cover the period between February 2020 and the end of August, Pentagon spokesperson Army Maj. Robert Lodewick told The Hill in a statement,” Jordan Williams reports for The Hill.

Middle East and North Africa

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has become the first Israeli leader to make an official visit to the United Arab Emirates, after flying to Abu Dhabi to meet the de facto Emirati leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. “Prince Mohammed’s invitation to Bennett underscored the shifting priorities of Gulf countries like the United Arab Emirates, where the threat of a nuclear Iran is now viewed of far greater concern than an immediate resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Patrick Kingsley reports for the New York Times.

Clashes between Yemeni government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacking the key Yemeni city of Marib have killed a senior military commander. “Maj. Gen. Nasser al-Zubiani, who headed military operations of the government’s armed forces, was killed on the front line in the Balaq mountain range, south of the city of Marib, said two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity,” Samy Magdy reports for AP.

Libya’s election committee has delayed publishing a list of presidential candidates for the country’s upcoming Dec. 24 elections, due to needing to settle outstanding legal issues. “Given the sensitivities of this stage and the political and security circumstances surrounding it, the commission is keen to exhaust all means of litigation to ensure its decisions comply with issued judgements,” the commission said in a statement on Saturday. Al Jazeera reports.

Iran appears to be preparing for a space launch, while negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal continue in Vienna, according to an expert and satellite images. Jon Gambrell reports for AP.

Global Developments

Before he was killed Haitian President Jovenel Moïse had been working on a list of powerful politicians and business people involved in Haiti’s drug trade, and intended to hand the list over to the U.S. government, senior Haitian advisers and officials have said. Moïse’s wife has previously described how after killing Moïse the assassins stayed in Moïse’s home and searched through his files. Maria Abi-Habib reports for the New York Times.

Australia has signed a contract worth about $717 million to buy self-propelled howitzers from South Korea. The contract marks the latest step in Australia’s effort to overhaul its military and broaden its military cooperation, as it seeks to counter China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region. David Winning reports for the Wall Street Journal.

West African leaders have threatened further sanctions against Mali by the new year, unless Mali’s junta makes “concrete progress” toward holding democratic elections in February as previously promised. The latest threat follows a summit of the Economic Community of West African States, amid mounting concern that Mali’s coup leader is failing to make sufficient election preparations. Chinedu Asadu reports for AP.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a virtual summit this week to discuss bilateral relations and international issues. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that “the two heads of state will give full review of China-Russia relations and cooperation in various fields this year,” but mentioned no specific topics for the upcoming meeting. AP reports.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai and seven other pro-democracy activists have been sentenced to up to 14 months in prison. The individuals were charged with organizing, taking part in, and inciting participation in a banned vigil last year for victims of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Reuters reports.

Daily Deep State Report: 12/10/21

Headlines

A U.K. Court has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges, including breaking an espionage law and conspiring to hack government computers. Following U.S. government assurances about how Assange would be treated if extradited, the U.K. court overturned a lower court’s decision which refused extradition based on Assange’s mental state. Assange is able to appeal the ruling. Reuters reports. Further reporting on the U.K. court ruling is provided by Megan Specia reporting for the New York Times.

Consumer prices surged 6.8 percent in the year leading into November and 0.8 percent last month alone as a roaring economy overwhelmed struggling supply chains and fueled inflation, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department. Read the full story here.

US

The final version of the annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), will create a new office to study UFOs, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has announced. An amendment introduced by Gillibrand and co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of senators will replace the existing Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force and create an office administered both by the Defense Secretary and Director of National Intelligence. “The office would have access to information regarding UFOs from the intelligence community and Defense Department so that it could help provide a ‘coordinated’ response to these sightings, according to a release from Gillibrand’s office. It would also delve into health impacts and possible national security concerns related to UFOs,” Caroline Vakil reports for The Hill.

Georgian Republicans have purged Black Democrats from county election boards as part of a national Republican effort to expand control over election administration in the wake of former President Trump’s false voter-fraud claims. The Republican-led Georgia legislature earlier this year passed a bill which expanded the Republican party’s power over choosing members of local election boards, and in recent months Republicans have quietly reorganized six county boards in Georgia through similar county-specific state legislation. James Oliphant and Nathan Layne report for Reuters.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking a deposition from Trump in January next year as part of the civil investigation into whether Trump’s company, Trump Organization, committed financial fraud in the valuations of properties to different entities. A source familiar with the investigation added that James is examining whether widespread fraud “permeated the Trump Organization.” In a statement, the Trump Organization decried the move as politically motivated. Josh Dawsey and David A. Fahrenthold report for the Washington Post.

The Democratic-led New York City Council has approved a bill that will allow more than 800,000 non-U.S. citizen residents to vote in municipal elections, becoming the largest U.S. city to grant access to the polls to non-citizens. Jimmy Vielkind reports for the Wall Street Journal.

Democratic senators say that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has made it clear to them through what they say are stalling tactics that he has no desire to vote on President Biden’s sweeping climate and social spending agenda before Christmas. They say that if Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) schedules a vote on a motion to proceed to the Build Back Better Act before Christmas that it will get the support of 49 members of the Democratic caucus and that Manchin’s vote is the only question mark. Read the full story here.

Carl Hulse, The New York Times: Divide over debt limit shows pragmatic Republicans are dwindling.

Workers at a Buffalo-area Starbucks shop voted to unionize, a first among 9,000 company-owned U.S. stores.

A jury in Chicago found the actor Jussie Smollett guilty of falsely reporting that he had been the victim of an attack.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) is seeking Trump’s deposition on Jan. 7 in an ongoing civil probe examining his business practices (The Washington Post and The Associated Press). A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is conducting a parallel criminal investigation into Trump’s business dealings, said Thursday that the interview request to the former president “is not part of the criminal investigation.” 

The Hill: The Federal Emergency Management Agency put climate change back in its strategic plan after it was dropped by the Trump team.

The Wall Street Journal: Judge allows lawsuits challenging Georgia’s voting rules to move forward.

January 6th Insurrection

A federal appeals court has thrown out former President Trump’s effort to stop the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack from obtaining Trump’s White House records. “The unanimous 68-page opinion from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia describes the urgent national interest in an investigation of an attack that threatened the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to President Biden. And it directly connects the chaos of that day to Trump’s own statements calling for a ‘wild’ protest in Washington and urging supporters to march on the Capitol and ‘fight,’” Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein report for POLITICO.

The federal appeals court gave Trump 14 days to appeal its decision to the Supreme Court, which the Trump’s attorneys have signaled they intend to do. The court’s temporary block on releasing the documents will be left in place during the 14 days. Ryan Lucas and Claudia Grisales report for NPR. Further reporting on the appeals court’s decision is provided by the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post

The National Archives are working to obtain documents that former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows may not have “properly copied or forwarded into his official account” from his private email and cell phone. A source close to Meadows confirmed that Meadows is working with the National Archives to turn over any documents that he was supposed to provide upon the end of Trump’s term, and that “all necessary and appropriate steps either were or are being taken.” Nicholas Wu, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein report for POLITICO.

Meadows has voluntarily provided the Jan. 6 committee with texts and emails demonstrating that he was “exchanging with a wide range of individuals while the attack was underway,” according to a source. The messages relate to “what Donald Trump was doing and not doing during the riot,” the source added. Jamie Gangel and Zachary Cohen report for CNN.

Two former top D.C. National Guard officials are claiming that an internal Army report on the army’s response to the Jan. 6 attack is incorrect. The March 18, 2021 report says that National Guard members were not prepared to respond quickly, based on multiple communications between top Army officials and the D.C. Guard’s commander, then-Maj. Gen. William Walker. “But Walker, now sergeant at arms in the House, says some of those communications the Army describes in the report never actually happened. He and a former top lawyer for the D.C. Guard, Col. Earl Matthews, also say [that] the Guard members were ready to be deployed to the Capitol,” Betsy Woodruff Swan and Meridith Mcgraw report for POLITICO.

Witnesses seeking to evade testifying before the Jan. 6 committee are increasingly signaling that they intend to invoke the constitutional Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. In recent days, three witnesses with ties to former President Trump have signaled that they intend to plead the Fifth: attorney John Eastman, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and longtime Trump ally Roger Stone. These assertions present one of the most difficult tests to date for the Jan. 6 committee, and legal experts have said that the committee has few options once a witness pleads the Fifth Amendment, which, unlike executive privilege, is an unqualified privilege. Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu report for POLITICO.

Multiple whistleblowers who worked in the Capitol Police intelligence division on Jan. 6 have since faced retaliation, according to an employment lawyer representing the individuals. The group of whistleblowers “have made a multitude of internal complaints regarding gross mismanagement and intelligence failures by certain IICD [Intelligence and Interagency Coordination Division] managers that contributed to the events of January 6, 2021. As a result, there have been multiple retaliatory actions against the whistleblowers, including two proposed removals,” the group’s lawyer has said. Betsy Woodruff Swan and Daniel Lipman report for POLITICO.

Kash Patel, a former chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, met with the Jan. 6 committee yesterday. Patel said in a statement last night that he had appeared before the panel “to answer questions to the best of my ability.” “The DOD [Department of Defense] Inspector General, under the Biden Administration, found no wrongdoing in its report on Jan. 6, as I shared with the Committee,” he added. Hannah Rabinowitz, Jamie Gangel, Annie Grayer and Zachary Cohen report for CNN.

The committee also met yesterday with “Stop the Steal” rally organizer Ali Alexander, conservative lawyer John Eastman, and Chris Krebs, the former Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security. “I’m going to go in there and cooperate where I can, where I can’t, I’ll invoke my constitutional rights. We’ve got tons of evidence for them,” Alexander said before going into the closed-door deposition with the committee. Annie Grayer and Hannah Rabinowitz report for CNN.

Virus/Climate/Science

U.S. health regulators have cleared the Covid-19 booster from Pfizer Inc. / BioNTech for use in 16- and 17-year-olds. Jared S. Hopkins and Stephanie Armour report for the Wall Street Journal.

The coronavirus has infected over 49.66 million people and has now killed over 794,600 people in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been over 268.66 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 5.29 million deaths. Sergio Hernandez, Sean O’Key, Amanda Watts, Byron Manley and Henrik Pettersson report for CNN.

In Afghanistan, the main problem appears to be too few vaccines; in Zambia, it’s more likely vaccine hesitancy or distribution. These charts examine vaccine inequity.

US Relations

The U.S.-led global coalition against the Islamic State (IS) has ended its combat mission in Iraq. However, the 2,500 troops currently in the country will, at the Iraqi government’s invitation, remain to “advise, assist and enable” Iraqi security forces. BBC News reports.

Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East and head of U.S. Central Command, warned during an interview with the Associated Press that he expects Iranian-backed militias in Iraq to increase attacks against U.S. and Iraqi personnel in a bid to pressure U.S. forces to leave the country. Lolita C. Baldor and Robert Burns report for AP.

The number of al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan has “probably slightly increased” following the U.S. withdrawal from the country, McKenzie said during the interview with the Associated Press. McKenzie explained that “the departure of U.S. military and intelligence assets from Afghanistan has made it much harder to track al-Qaeda and other extremist groups inside Afghanistan. ‘We’re probably at about 1 or 2% of the capabilities we once had to look into Afghanistan,’ he said, adding that this makes it ‘very hard, not impossible’ to ensure that neither al-Qaeda nor the [IS]’s Afghanistan affiliate can pose a threat to the United States,” Robert Burns and Lolita C. Baldor report for AP.

The U.S. has announced new restrictions on Cambodia, citing the “growing influence” of the Chinese military, as well as corruption and human rights abuses. The restrictions include an arms embargo imposed by the State Department. and new trade restrictions on military and dual-use items that may be used for civilian or military purposes announced by the Commerce Department. Andrew Nachemson reports for Al Jazeera.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Gantz yesterday discussed shared concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. During the meeting at the Pentagon, Austin “confirmed [the] U.S. resolve to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” the Defense Department said in a statement. Austin and Gantz also “discussed shared concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear provocations, support for terrorism, and missile program,” the statement said. Ellen Mitchell reports for The Hill.

A growing number of Republican Senators are seeking to find ways around Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)’s block on confirmation votes for 54 of President Biden’s ambassador nominees. Republicans reportedly are discussing potential workarounds with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), including potentially allowing the Senate to vote on five nominees at a time. Manu Raju and Ted Barrett report for CNN.

The Biden administration is expected to announce an initiative today to tighten U.S. restrictions on exports of cyber tools that have been used by authoritarian governments and bad actors for repression. Laura Kelly reports for The Hill.

The U.S. is determined to walk Bosnia “back from the cliff” amid secessionist threats from Serb nationalists and is exploring sanctions, according to senior adviser to Secretary of State Antony Blinken Derek Chollet. Julian Borger reports for the Guardian.

Russia and Ukraine

President Biden has promised the leaders of Ukraine and nine eastern European NATO states support if Russia attacks Ukraine and has pledged to involve them in decisions about the region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Twitter that he and Biden also “discussed possible formats for resolving the conflict” in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have carved out a self-declared state. Andrew Roth reports for the Guardian.

A senior Biden administration official described the call between Biden and Zelensky as “very warm” and that Biden reassured Zelensky that the U.S. and European allies will take “strong” steps to punish Russia if it invades Ukraine. “President Biden made very clear [the] continued U.S. commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the senior official said. Morgan Chalfant reports for The Hill.

Biden assured Zelenskiy during their call that Kyiv’s bid to join NATO was in its own hands, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has said. “President Biden said very clearly … that any negotiations, any decisions that concern Ukraine, cannot be taken without Ukraine,” Yermak said. Matthias Williams and Natalia Zinets report for Reuters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the war in eastern Ukraine is beginning to look like genocide. Putin’s remarks were aimed at addressing the issue of discrimination against Russian speakers beyond Russia’s borders, many of whom live in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, saying that Russophobia was the first step towards genocide. “We see and know what is happening in Donbas…It certainly looks like genocide,” Putin said.  BBC News reports.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has accused Ukraine of “provocation” over an incident involving a Ukrainian warship which headed towards the Kerch Strait, a strait which separates Russia and the annexed Crimean peninsula, the state-owned RIA news agency has reported. Ukraine dismissed the complaints as part of a Russian “information attack” on Kyiv. Reuters reports.

China

Nicaragua has cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of China. “In the world, there is only one China,” Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada said in a televised address yesterday. “Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry expressed displeasure with the choice of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to switch recognition to Beijing in a statement, and said it would immediately cease assistance programs and clear out its embassy in Managua,” Joyu Wang reports for the Wall Street Journal.

The Uyghur Tribunal, a U.K.-based panel of lawyers, academics and activists, has concluded that China’s policies regarding the treatment of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang amount to a form of genocide. The panel’s judgment “found that the Chinese government, through policies including what it described as forced birth control and sterilizations, intends to partially destroy the predominantly Muslim Uyghur community and its way of life; and that Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior officials bore ‘primary responsibility for acts in Xinjiang,’” Sha Hu reports for the Wall Street Journal.

The Chinese embassy in London has said that the unofficial Uyghur Tribunal is “nothing but a political tool used by a few anti-China and separatist elements to deceive and mislead the public.” “Anyone with conscience and reason will not be deceived or fooled,” the spokesman added. Guy Faulconbridge reports for Reuters.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently ordered that work stop on a Chinese facility in the country after U.S. officials argued that Beijing intended to use the site for military purposes, a top UAE official has said. The official said that the UAE did not believe the facility was intended for military or security uses. Warren P. Strobel reports for the Wall Street Journal.

The Chinese Communist Party over recent days has embarked on a propaganda blitz to claim that China is just as much a democracy as the U.S., while Biden’s Democracy Summit is ongoing. The campaign includes references to Harry Potter jokes, “but aside from mudslinging and off-color humor, the campaign also betrays Beijing’s desire to redefine international norms and present its controlling, one-party political system as not just legitimate but ideologically superior to liberal multiparty democracies,” Christian Shepherd reports for the Washington Post.

Global Developments

The Pakistan Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has declared an end to a month-long ceasefire negotiated with the Pakistani government, accusing the Pakistani government of breaching terms of the ceasefire. The ceasefire was negotiated last month and was set to run until yesterday, with the possibility of extending if both parties agreed. Reuters reports.

The TTP released a statement saying that “it is not possible for the ceasefire to continue” under current conditions. The group accuses the Pakistani government of violating the ceasefire through raids and arrests of  TTP fighters, as well as of failing to abide by its commitments to release all TTP prisoners. Pakistan’s government has yet to comment on the developments. Asad Hashim reports for Al Jazeera.

The U.N.’s Political and Peacebuilding Affairs chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, met with senior Taliban representatives in Afghanistan with whom she had “frank and useful exchanges about what needed to be done to bring about an Afghanistan that is inclusive, abides by its human rights obligations and is a resolute partner in suppressing terrorism.” During a three-day visit to Afghanistan DiCarlo said that she stressed to Taliban representatives the importance of ensuring that all Afghans can take part in governance and public life, and highlighted “serious and understandable concern” about the situation of women and girls in the country.  UN News Centre reports.

The Saudi man who was mistakenly arrested in France over the murder of U.S. journalist Jamal Khashoggi has said that French custody felt like being “in a zoo.” Khalid al-Otaibi was the victim of a case of mistaken identity as he shares his name with a man wanted under an international arrest warrant issued by Turkey in connection with Khashoggi’s killing. Agence France-Presse reports.

Daily Deep State Report: Dec. 9, 2021

Morning Thought

I was listening to Counting Crow’s “Round Here” when my platoon sergeant looked at me and said: Sir, now? I nodded and he proceeded to break out the ammo…issuing commands to squad leaders…clinking metal as young men readied for…something. This was Christmas Day 1995…I was on a rented Euro-Bus with my platoon of Field Artillery forward observers (13F…degenerates). We had crossed the border from Hungary into Croatia…peacekeeping…peace enforcement awaited south of the Sava River.

US

State lawmakers preparing to convene legislative sessions in the new year are confronted with a scenario unlike any they, or most of their predecessors, have ever experienced: budgets that are flush with cash after a year of record-setting surpluses. The influx of new money, fueled by a quick economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and billions in emergency federal funding for state and local governments, has spurred new talk of significant tax cuts. Read the full story here.

New evidence disclosures both support and conflict with special counsel John Durham’s indictment of Michael Sussman, a prominent cybersecurity lawyer, for lying to the FBI about whether he was representing a client during a Sep. 2016 meeting about former President Trump’s possible links to Russia. One piece of newly disclosed evidence, described in a filing by Durham’s team, consists of handwritten notes of an FBI lawyer saying that Sussman told the FBI he did not have a client. However, at a hearing yesterday, a lawyer for  Sussmann cited evidence turned over by the prosecutors last week that muddies that picture and suggests Sussman may instead have told the FBI he had a client. Charlie Savage reports for the New York Times.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) offered a forceful warning to Republican colleagues during a private lunch on Wednesday, saying former President Trump will come down hard on any GOP senators who vote for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) deal to set up a special pathway to raise the debt limit. In blunt remarks to the Senate Republican Conference, Graham harshly criticized McConnell for putting Senate Republicans in position to get “shot in the back” over the deal. Read the full story here

Politico: How Schumer and McConnell got the debt deal done.

Los Angeles Times: Democrats weigh overturning the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling on immigration. 

The Washington Post: Democrats lobby Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) — politely — as they try to save their priorities for the domestic policy package.

The Hill: Big Pharma lobbyists want to influence the Senate parliamentarian as decisions are made about what can stay and what gets struck in the Build Back Better measure under Senate reconciliation budget process rules. Pharmaceutical companies are battling proposed tougher regulation of prescription drug prices that would benefit consumers. 

The Hill: Democratic worries grow over politics of SALT cap.

The Hill: The House passed a bipartisan bill on Wednesday aimed at strengthening overseas supply chains. 

The Hill: Liberals ramp up pressure on Pelosi to discipline Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).

In response to lawsuits over its gerrymandered political maps, North Carolina justices delayed the state’s 2022 primaries by two months.

Jan. 6th Insurrection

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack has informed Mark Meadows, former President Trump’s former chief of staff, that the committee has “no choice” but to advance criminal contempt of Congress proceedings, given that Meadows has decided to no longer cooperate. The letter from the committee’s Chair, Bennie Thompson (D-MS), to Meadows’ attorney also reveals that prior to halting his cooperation Meadows had turned over approximately 6,000 pages worth of documents to the panel, including significant information from both his personal email account and cell phone. Annie Grayer and Zachary Cohen report for CNN.

Meadows has sued the Jan. 6 select committee and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), in an attempt to persuade a federal judge to block the committee’s subpoena. The lawsuit accuses the committee of issuing “two overly broad and unduly burdensome subpoenas” against him, including one sent to Verizon for his phone and text data. “Meadows faces the harm of…being illegally coerced into violating the Constitution,” his lawsuit contends, claiming that the inquiries violate his constitutional rights to free speech and privacy. Luke Broadwater reports for the New York Times.

Meadows’ lawsuit also notes that Trump had told him not to comply with the subpoenas from the Jan. 6 select committee, citing executive privilege. The combination of President Biden waiving the privilege claims and Trump then filing his own lawsuit, left Meadows “in the untenable position of choosing between conflicting privilege claims that are of constitutional origin and dimension,” the Meadows suit contends. Sadie Gurman and Siobhan Hughes report for the Wall Street Journal.

Trump ally Roger Stone has become the latest individual subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 select committee to say that he would plead the Fifth Amendment, which protects against self-incrimination, as a means of avoiding cooperation. Stone is scheduled to attend a deposition with the committee on Dec. 17, however, in a letter to the committee, Stone’s lawyer wrote that “pursuant to the rights afforded him by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, [Stone] declines to be deposed or to produce documents.” Annie Grayer and Kaitlan Collins report for CNN.

Defense lawyers for defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack are starting to road test strategies. These include challenging the allegation that an organized conspiracy to storm the Capitol predated any violence, contending that the individuals were authorized by Trump to take part in the attack, and, for those defending individuals accused of assaulting the police, arguing that the officers themselves used excessive force on Jan. 6 and that their clients merely responded in self-defense. Alan Feuer reports for the New York Times.

A prominent organizer of the Stop the Steal rallies with ties to far-right members of Congress is cooperating with the Jan. 6 select committee. Ali Alexander, who is scheduled to be deposed by the panel today, has pledged to deliver a trove of documents to the committee that could help shed light on the activities that preceded the attack, including the extent of planning by Trump and his Republican allies in Congress. Alan Feuer and Luke Broadwater report for the New York Times.

A low-profile heiress and Trump doner who “played a strong role” in financing organizations that helped stage and promote the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, is now facing public scrutiny as the Jan. 6 select committee seeks to expose the financing of the rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol. Julie Fancelli, the 72-year-old daughter of the founder of the Publix grocery store chain, wired a total of $650,000 to three organizations eight days before the Jan. 6 rally. Beth Reinhard, Jacqueline Alemany and Josh Dawsey report for the Washington Post.

Virus/Climate/Science

Covid-19 vaccine makers Pfizer and BioNTech have announced that preliminary lab studies show a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine can improve protection against the Omicron Covid-19 variant. Jacqueline Howard reports for CNN.

In a largely symbolic move, the Senate has approved legislation aimed at nullifying President Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate for private employers. Eliza Collins reports for the Wall Street Journal.

The coronavirus has infected over 49.53 million people and has now killed over 793,200 people in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been over 267.88 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 5.28 million deaths. Sergio Hernandez, Sean O’Key, Amanda Watts, Byron Manley and Henrik Pettersson report for CNN.

The largest rise in life insurance payouts in a century has followed the surge in U.S. deaths from COVID-19 (The Wall Street Journal). Death-benefit payments rose 15.4 percent in 2020 to $90.43 billion, mostly due to the pandemic, according to the American Council of Life Insurers. It’s the sharpest rise since 1918.

Biden, like some of his predecessors in the Oval Office, is keen to use the federal government to lead by example in meeting ambitious environmental goals. He says his aim is to drastically reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. He wants the federal government to be carbon neutral by then, and on Wednesday he described a plan he thinks can hit that target, if his successors in the White House follow through (The Hill). He ordered federal agencies to buy electric vehicles, to power facilities with wind, solar and nuclear energy, and to use sustainable building materials. In a series of executive orders, Biden directed the government to transform its 300,000 buildings and 600,000 cars and trucks and use its annual purchases of $650 billion in goods and services to help achieve the climate change battle plan he envisions (The Washington Post, The New York Times).

Blue Origin, citing high winds, delayed until Saturday a planned 10-minute commercial space flight that was expected to blast off today from West Texas with four paying customers and a pair of celebrities. “Good Morning America” co-host Michael Strahan will join Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest daughter of astronaut Alan Shepard, aboard the New Shepard, a spacecraft named after her father and the first American in space (ABC News and The Associated Press).

Russia – Ukraine

The Kremlin expects a swift start to U.S.-Russia talks on the confrontation over Ukraine, following the video call between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin called the talks with Biden “open, substantive and constructive,” while underscoring Russia’s demand that Ukraine not be considered for NATO membership. “We can continue this dialogue. It seems to me that’s the main thing,” Putin said yesterday. Robyn Dixon and David L. Stern report for the Washington Post.

Putting additional U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine is “not on the table,” Biden told reporters yesterday. The NATO obligation to provide defense support to its members “does not extend to … Ukraine,” Biden added. Biden said that it would “depend upon what the rest of the NATO countries were willing to do as well,” but rejected the idea that the U.S. would “unilaterally use force to confront Russia” if it were to invade Ukraine. Morgan Chalfant reports for The Hill

The final elements of a U.S. $60 million security assistance package, including small arms and ammunition, which is designed to bolster Ukraine’s self-defense capability, is set to arrive in Ukraine this week. Biden approved the package on Sep. 1 when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House. Oren Liebermann reports for CNN.

The U.S. has threatened Russia with harsh economic sanctions if it were to launch a military offensive against Ukraine, however threats to squeeze Russia’s economy is a tactic which has had a mixed record in the past. Patricia Cohen provides analysis for the New York Times.

Satellite images are offering a partial snapshot of the material associated with the growing Russian forces at the Ukrainian border. Paul Sonne, Ruby Mellen and Laris Karklis provide analysis for the Washington Post.

Saudi Arabia

French authorities have released a man previously believed to have been a suspect in the murder of U.S. journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, citing a case of mistaken identity. The suspect, who was detained on an outstanding Turkish arrest warrant dating to November 2018, was thought to be Khalid Aedh al-Otaibi, a Saudi national wanted in connection with Khashoggi’s murder. French authorities have said that the man was released from detention after “thorough checks’” determined that the warrant did not apply to him. Rick Noack and Sarah Dadouch report for the Washington Post.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince is visiting Qatar today for the first time since Saudi Arabia rallied other Arab states to end their yearslong rift and embargo on Qatar. Aya Batrawy reports for AP.

China, Hong Kong

The U.K. and Canada have joined a widening diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, citing concerns over China’s human rights record. Kim Mackrael reports for the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S., U.K. and Australia will “pay the price for their mistaken acts” after deciding not to send government delegations to the Winter Olympics, China’s foreign ministry has said. “The United States, Britain and Australia have used the Olympics platform for political manipulation,” said Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry. Reuters reports.

China is not worried about a “domino effect” of diplomatic boycotts of the Winter Olympics. “Most countries in the world have expressed support for the Beijing Winter Olympics,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily news conference today. Reuters reports.

The House has passed measures to exert diplomatic pressure on the Chinese government and International Olympic Committee for alleged failures to uphold human rights. The three separate bills passed yesterday address the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims and tennis player Peng Shua. Cristina Marcos reports for The Hill.

Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai and two other prominent activists have been convicted in Hong Kong for inciting and taking part in a vigil to mark the Tiananmen massacre last June. The trio had contested their charges, arguing during their trial that they had lit candles during the vigil in a personal capacity, and had not “incited” others to join the unauthorized rally. BBC News reports.

Iran

The Biden administration is moving to tighten enforcement of sanctions against Iran, according to senior State and Treasury Department officials. According to the officials, the U.S. is sending a top-level delegation, including the head of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, next week to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to meet with petrochemicals companies and other private firms and banks in the UAE trading with Iran. The delegation intends to warn the firms that the U.S. has “visibility on transactions that are not compliant with sanctions,” one of the senior officials said, and that the firms “face extreme risk if this continues.” Laurence Norman reports for the Wall Street Journal.

A growing number of former Israeli security officials are publicly blaming Tel Aviv for opposing the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, while warning that economic sanctions against Iran are not slowing its nuclear progress. Shira Rubin reports for the Washington Post.

The U.S. Navy has seized 171 surface-to-air missiles, eight anti-tank missiles, and 1.1 million barrels of petroleum products worth $261 million from two Iranian ships in the Arabian Sea in three separate instances since 2019. In a press release, the Department of Justice said that the Navy seized the weapons in November 2019 and August 2020 during “routine maritime security operations.” The arms shipments were headed to Iran-backed militants fighting in Yemen in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. Brad Dress reports for The Hill.

US Relations and Global Developments

The U.S. Treasury has accused El Salvador’s government of secretly negotiating a truce with imprisoned leaders of the country’s top criminal gangs. The deal aimed “to ensure that incidents of gang violence and the number of confirmed homicides remained low,” the Treasury said, adding that the deal also secured the gang’s political support for El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele’s ruling party in midterm elections earlier this year. The Treasury is “imposing sanctions on Osiris Luna, El Salvador’s Deputy Justice Minister and Prisons Director, and Carlos Marroquín, head of a welfare agency, for their participation in the secret negotiations,” Santiago Pérez reports for the Wall Street Journal.

Lebanese authorities have freed Nada Homsi, a freelance U.S. journalist who was detained in Beirut last month. “The release came just hours after two international human rights groups called her detention arbitrary and demanded that she be set free. Homsi…said after her release that her arrest was part of an intimidation campaign used by Lebanon’s security agencies against foreign journalists,” Bassem Mroue reports for AP.

The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) has suspended distribution of food aid in two northern Ethiopian towns after gunmen looted its warehouses. “Looters from rebel Tigrayan forces held aid staff at gunpoint in the town of Kombolcha, the United Nations said. They stole large quantities of essential food supplies – including some for malnourished children… [A U.N.] spokesperson also accused government troops of commandeering three WFP humanitarian trucks and using them for their own purposes,” BBC News reports.

Meta has announced that it will ban Myanmar military-controlled businesses from Facebook, wiping out their pages, groups and accounts. The move expands existing restrictions on those entities, which were already barred from advertising on the platform in February. Michelle Toh reports for CNN.

The death toll from weekend clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudan’s western Darfur region has increased to at least 88 people, a Sudanese medical group said yesterday. “The fighting grew out of a financial dispute late Saturday between two individuals in a camp for displaced persons in the Kreinik area in West Darfur province. The following day, Arab militias known as janjaweed attacked the camp and surrounding villages,” AP reports.

A Belarusian who used to work as an air traffic controller at Minsk’s airport has defected to the E.U. and is providing detailed evidence on the Ryanair flight that was forced to land in Minsk earlier this year. The defector’s evidence supported the view that the flight was targeted for a fake bomb threat as part of an operation orchestrated by Belarus’s intelligence service to grab dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, European security officials have said. Andrew Higgins and Tomas Dapkus report for the New York Times.

The E.U. has proposed new measures that would allow it to punish parties seeking to influence its political policies through economic pressure. The European Commission has put forward an “anti-coercion instrument” relating to what it views as unfair trade pressure. The measure would give the Commission wide-ranging powers to impose punitive sanctions on individuals, companies, and countries. Sanctions could include tariffs and quotas, the restriction of intellectual property rights, and limiting access to the bloc’s financial markets, public procurement, and E.U.-funded research programs. Monika Pronczuk reports for the New York Times.

A military helicopter crashed yesterday in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu, killing Indian Chief of Defense Staff Bipin Rawat and 12 others, the Indian air force has said. The Indian air force has launched an inquiry into the incident, which it described as an “unfortunate accident.” Local media outlets quoted residents saying that the helicopter may have accidentally struck a tree. Gerry Shih and Niha Masih report for the Washington Post.

The Indian air force helicopter lost contact with air traffic control seven minutes before it was supposed to land and sent no distress call before it was found in flames in a forested area, India’s defense minister has said. Ashok Sharma reports for AP.

Nearly 100 former British Council staff employed to teach British values and the English language remain in hiding in Afghanistan after their applications to come to the U.K., continue to be delayed. Patrick Wintour reports for the Guardian.

Daily Deep State Report

December 8th, 2021

The Senate is expected to vote as soon as Wednesday to nullify President Biden’s vaccine mandate for large employers, giving Republicans a big symbolic victory. Read the full story here.

US

Early Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters he was “confident” he could secure 10 GOP senators to back a somewhat complicated maneuver to lift the U.S. debt ceiling and avert default risks this week ahead of a Dec. 15 deadline described by the Treasury Department (The Hill). Hours later, the House voted to approve a special instructional measure needed to accomplish the multi-step process (The Hill), and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) did his part to tee up a Thursday vote (The Hill).

More than 400 congressional staff members – including more than 50 Muslim aides – have sent an open letter to House leadership calling for Congress to “categorically reject the incendiary rhetoric that endangers the well-being of Muslim staff,” following the recent anti-Muslim remarks by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Ayman Mohyeldin and Dartunorro Clark report for NBC News.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) intends to introduce a resolution today to strip Boebert of her committee assignments. Nearly a dozen House liberals have co-sponsored the resolution. Marianna Sotomayor and Jacqueline Alemany report for the Washington Post.

Top Republican and Democratic lawmakers have struck a deal for a process to raise the debt ceiling in the Senate, with the House passing a bill late yesterday. The bill does not itself raise the debt ceiling but sets up a procedure for an additional vote on the issue that would require a simple majority in the Senate rather than the 60 votes needed for most legislation. Andrew Duehren and Eliza Collins report for the Wall Street Journal.

A bipartisan commission appointed by President Biden has unanimously adopted a report detailing controversies over the Supreme Court and assessing proposals to address them. However, the report was not designed to, nor did it, produce consensus or any recommendations to resolve the political divisions concerning the judiciary that have intensified in recent years. Jess Bravin reports for the Wall Street Journal.

The report on the Supreme Court described public support for imposing term limits on Supreme Court justices, but found “profound disagreement” about the process for adding justices. Ann E. Marimow reports for the Washington Post.

Former President Trump’s war with his staunch GOP critics on Capitol Hill is seeping into every corner of the 2022 campaign trail. Read the full story here

The Hill: The decision by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) this week to quit Congress and pass up a chance to be chairman of a top House committee to become the chief executive of Trump’s new media and technology company is a sign of the GOP’s new power center.

The Hill: The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Biden’s nominee to lead Customs and Border Protection — Tucson, Ariz., police chief Chris Magnus — by a vote of 50-47. The sole Republican to back the nominee in the vote was Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

The Wall Street Journal: Manchin withholds support for Biden’s Build Back Better spending bill. 

A court-ordered reimplementation of the Trump-era Remain in Mexico policy has revived immigration advocates’ frustration with the Biden administration as it expands the policy to additional countries (The Hill).

Jan. 6 Insurrection

Mark Meadows, former President Trump’s former chief of staff, has informed the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack that he will no longer cooperate with its investigation. In a letter to the panel, Meadows’ attorney said Meadows “was willing to appear voluntarily…for a deposition to answer questions about non-privileged matters.” However, from the information the committee supplied last Friday, Meadows and his attorney “have every indication…that the Select Committee has no intention of respecting boundaries concerning Executive Privilege.” Gloria Borger, Zachary Cohen and Annie Grayer report for CNN.

In a statement, the committee’s Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said that Meadows’ deposition scheduled for today would go ahead, and if “Meadows refuses to appear, the Select Committee will be left no choice but to advance contempt proceedings.” Thompson and Cheney added that even as privilege issues are litigated, the committee has “numerous questions” about records Meadows has turned over to the committee “with no claim of privilege, which include real-time communications with many individuals as the events of January 6th unfolded.” Teaganne Finn reports for NBC News.

The Jan. 6 select committee has formally subpoenaed the phone records of more than 100 people, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Those subpoenaed include former Trump officials and Trump associates, including Meadows. “The records do not include the content of the calls but rather details about who called or texted whom, when and for how long, giving them the ability to draw a web of communications before, during and after the Jan. 6 attack,” Zachary Cohen, Jamie Gangel, Katelyn Polantz and Ryan Nobles report for CNN.

Virus/Climate/Science

The coronavirus has infected over 49.38 million people and has now killed over 791,500 people in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been over 267.29 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 5.27 million deaths. Sergio Hernandez, Sean O’Key, Amanda Watts, Byron Manley and Henrik Pettersson report for CNN.

Early results from South African lab tests suggest that the new Omicron Covid-19 variant can partially evade the protection provided by vaccines, however scientists have said that vaccination should still provide a defense against severe disease. Jason Douglas and Drew Hinshaw report for the Wall Street Journal.

Lawmakers are preparing to grill Instagram chief Adam Mosseri on Wednesday on the effect of social media on teens and children, a subject that inspires bipartisan ire (The Hill).

Amazon faced attacks from all fronts at a Senate Finance subcommittee hearing on Tuesday about competition and data privacy (The Hill).

Annual Defense Bill

The House overwhelmingly passed a $768 billion annual defense policy bill (the National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA) after lawmakers dropped proposals that would have required women to register for the draft, repealed the 2002 authorization of the Iraq war, and imposed sanctions for the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The measures in the bill provide significant increases for initiatives intended to counter China and bolster Ukraine, as well as for the procurement of new aircraft and ships. The 363-to-70 vote in favor of the bill yesterday sent the legislation to the Senate, where it is expected to pass with strong bipartisan support as soon as this week. Catie Edmondson reports for the New York Times.

The head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), has called the revised NDAA a “missed opportunity” to deter Moscow. Amid growing concerns that Russia is preparing for a military offensive against Ukraine, “a provision in the sprawling annual legislation will modestly boost U.S. military assistance for Ukraine, but lawmakers declined to give Biden additional tools to push back on Putin,” Andrew Desiderio reports for POLITICO.

Efforts to repeal the 1991 and 2001 Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMFs) were dropped in the Senate’s year-end scramble to pass the NDAA. The NDAA was viewed as the best chance for Congress to repeal the AUMFs, however Republicans blocked a package of amendment votes last week. Andrew Desiderio and Connor O’Brien report for POLITICO.

Language requiring certain critical organizations to report cyber incidents has been left out of the compromise version of the NDAA that the House voted on yesterday. “A cyber incident reporting provision, which established a new Cyber Incident Review Office at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency was included in the version of the NDAA passed by the House in September… A Senate aide told The Hill Tuesday that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) blocked the provision from inclusion in the NDAA compromise package during negotiations,” Maggie Miller reports for The Hill.

House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement yesterday that will overhaul how the military prosecutes sexual assaults and certain other offences, stripping military commanders of most of their authority to prosecute. Under the agreement, set out in the latest version of the NDAA, independent military prosecutors will replace commanders in determining whether those accused of sexual assault, rape, murder, domestic violence, and an array of other offenses would be prosecuted. However, commanders will maintain their authority to conduct the trials, choose jury members, grant immunity, and approve witnesses, which Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has said renders the new legislation insufficient. Jennifer Steinhauer reports for the New York Times.

Russia – US

President Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday in a two-hour secure video conference that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would result in heavy economic penalties for Moscow and lead NATO to reposition its troops in Europe. During the meeting, Biden reiterated that measures imposed in response to any Russian invasion would go well beyond the West’s response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea seven years ago and an invasion could end Russia’s hopes of completing the Nord Stream II gas pipeline to Europe. U.S. officials have said that Putin gave no indication of his ultimate intent during the call. David E. Sanger and Michael Crowley report for the New York Times.

The Russian government said Putin warned Biden during the video conference that Western military activity in and around Ukraine was approaching a “red line” threatening Russia’s security. The Kremlin statement said Putin had stressed that Russia should not be held responsible for tensions because NATO was making “dangerous attempts to take over Ukrainian territory and increasing its military potential” on Russia’s borders. “Therefore, Russia is seriously interested in getting reliable guarantees fixed in law to rule out the eastward expansion of NATO and the location in countries neighboring Russia of offensive weapons systems,” the statement added. The White House said President Biden did not make any guarantees to limit NATO expansion. BBC News reports.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said that the Biden administration still believes that Putin has not yet made a decision on whether to launch a military offensive against Ukraine. Speaking after the Biden-Putin call, Sullivan did not go into the specifics of U.S. intelligence, but added that the U.S. is coordinating with European allies “at a deep level of specificity” and said that during the call Biden “was crystal clear about where the United States stands on all of these issues.” Maegan Vazquez reports for CNN.

Five takeaways from the Biden-Putin call are provided by Michael Crowley reporting for the New York Times.

In addition to Ukraine, Biden and Putin discussed “the U.S.-Russia dialogue on Strategic Stability, a separate dialogue on ransomware, as well as joint work on regional issues such as Iran,” the White House readout of the call said.

Saudi Arabia

A Saudi man suspected of involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been in arrested in France. Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the government in Riyadh, was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. Khaled Aedh Alotaibi is believed to be one of the 26 Saudis wanted by Turkey over the murder and was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on an outstanding Turkish arrest warrant. A Saudi official has responded to the arrest, saying that it was a case of mistaken identity, and that those involved in the murder had been convicted in Saudi Arabia in 2019. BBC News reports.

The French police have acknowledged that they are currently not sure they have detained the correct man over Khashoggi’s murder. “It’s still possible that this is the right person, just as it’s still possible that it’s the wrong person,” a police spokesman said, adding that the man was still in detention and could legally be held until tomorrow morning. Rick Noack and Sarah Dadouch report for the Washington Post.

The Senate has given a bipartisan vote of confidence to the Biden administration’s proposed weapons sale to Saudi Arabia. Opponents of the sale have argued that it would embolden Riyadh’s human rights violations and hamper efforts to end Yemen’s bloody civil war. However, “in a 67-30 vote, the Senate…defeated an effort to block a $650 million sale of air-to-air missiles and related equipment to Saudi Arabia,” Andrew Desiderio reports for POLITICO.

China

Australia has announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, following the announcement of the U.S. diplomatic boycott. New Zealand has said that it decided months ago that its diplomats would not be attending. In July, the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding resolution calling on diplomatic officials to boycott the Winter Olympics, however, an official response yesterday from the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, to a question about the boycott offered no support for the U.S. position. Steven Lee Myers and Steven Erlanger report for the New York Times.

A member of Bloomberg News’s bureau in Beijing has been detained in China since late last year, with no information forthcoming on her case. Haze Fan was last seen on Dec. 7 2020, while being escorted from her apartment building by plainclothes security officials. Chinese officials said at the time that Fan was detained by the Beijing National Security Bureau on suspicion of national security law violations. Madeleine Lim reports for Bloomberg News.

A new report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said that China is “the world’s biggest captor of journalists,” with at least 127 reporters currently detained. The report said “China was conducting an ‘unprecedented campaign of repression’ worldwide against journalism. China has justified the arrests of reporters and citizen journalists by accusing them of provoking trouble,” BBC News reports.

US Relations and Global Developments

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed the U.S.’s approach to the tensions in Ukraine and Taiwan in an interview with Defense One, rejecting the approach of “conveying red lines.” On Ukraine, Austin said: “I think conveying red lines only exacerbates the problem. I think we need to focus on finding ways to de-escalate and reduce tensions.” Likewise, in relation to Taiwan, Austin reiterated that: “we don’t want to see change in the status quo, especially, certainly a unilateral change in the status quo. We think that all tensions in that area should be resolved diplomatically first.” Tara Copp reports for Defense One.

Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel has handed over the chancellery to her successor Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Lawmakers approved Scholz’s chancellorship largely along party lines in a secret-ballot poll, with 395 voting in favor and 303 against. Scholz is a Social Democrat with ambitions to revive progressive politics across Europe, and it is the first time in 16 years that Germany will have a center-left government led by a new chancellor. Katrin Bennhold reports for the New York Times.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has lost an appeal against his conviction last year on charges related to his role in one of the world’s largest financial scandals. Malaysia’s appellate court has upheld Najib’s conviction on all seven of the charges in question, including abuse of power, money laundering, and criminal breach of trust. Feliz Solomon and Chester Tay report for the Wall Street Journal.

Militant groups increasingly are acquiring armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), ranging from sophisticated Iranian-built models which are capable of long-distance flights to cheaper, off-the-shelf models operated by remote control and modified to carry small but powerful explosives. The proliferation of armed UAVs, particularly among paramilitary groups with close ties to Iran, has been described as a growing threat in the Middle East and beyond by officials and analysts. Joby Warrick, Souad Mekhennet and Louisa Loveluck report for the Washington Post.

An Indian army helicopter carrying the country’s military chief has crashed in southern Tamil Nadu state, the air force has said. Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati said that four people were killed and three others were injured and taken to a hospital. There has been no confirmation of whether Indian Chief of Defense Staff Bipin Rawat was injured in the accident. The air force said in a tweet that an inquiry has been ordered into the accident. AP reports.

Soldiers have been accused of killing 13 people from a village in central Myanmar, 11 of whose burned bodies were discovered yesterday. “The incident occurred near the city of Monywa, after local militias opposing military rule carried out at least two bomb attacks on a military convoy. Locals say soldiers then swept through nearby villages, rounding up and killing six men and five teenagers. The military junta is yet to comment on the incident,” BBC News reports.

An Indonesian court has sentenced an Islamic militant to life in prison after finding him guilty of making bombs used in a 2005 market attack that killed 22 people. Niniek Karmini reports for AP.

A 14-year-old Palestinian girl has stabbed an Israeli woman near a contested East Jerusalem neighborhood, in the fourth lone wolf attack to take place in Jerusalem in the past three weeks. Shira Rubin reports for the Washington Post.

Israel has announced the completion of an enhanced security barrier around the Gaza Strip designed to prevent militants from sneaking into Israel. AP reports.

Daily Deep State Report

Dec. 7, 2021

“AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL.” Eighty years ago today, Adm. Husband Edward Kimmel, the four-star commander in chief of the United States Pacific Fleet in Hawaii, sent an urgent dispatch to all major Navy commands and fleet units alerting his superiors to what he was witnessing — the Japanese attack that ushered the United States into World War II.

The military has wrapped up a project to identify the remains of some of those who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

US

Ahead of Biden’s highly anticipated video conference with Putin today, sources tell NYT’s David Sanger and Eric Schmitt that the president is “expected to encourage diplomatic de-escalation over the conflict in Ukraine,” and warn Putin that “if he orders the Russian forces poised at the border to invade Ukraine, Western allies may move to cut Russia off from the international financial system and seek direct sanctions on Mr. Putin’s closest associates.” How BIden handles this meeting could mean the difference between a free and independent Ukraine and one overrun by Russian troops. No pressure.

Dec. 15, not the following week, is the ultimate, final deadline for Congress to approve a hike in the nation’s borrowing authority to avert U.S. default, according to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). “The 15th, I think, is the date that I am using as the last possible day that we could act whether or not that is the actual case because we don’t know the revenue flow at any given day,” he said on Monday. How the debt ceiling problem gets resolved without support from Republicans remains a question. Hoyer said party leaders are still weighing possible options ahead of next week’s deadline (The Hill).

A bipartisan group of senators would like Congress to designate $3 billion to support democracies globally (The Hill).

CNN’s Jamie Gangel, Michael Warren and Ryan Nobles scooped last night that MARK SHORT, former Vice President MIKE PENCE’s chief of staff, is cooperating with the Jan. 6 committee. This is a BFD, as the kids say these days, because Short was with Pence the day rioters stormed the Capitol and has a unique, firsthand account of Trump’s actions (or lack thereof) that day. And it appears Short isn’t alone: “One source told CNN the committee is getting ‘significant cooperation with Team Pence,’ even if the committee has not openly discussed that.”

Former White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and former President Trump’s personal assistant Nicholas Luna have been granted a delay in their depositions with the Jan. 6 select committee. A committee aide confirmed said that all three have been granted short postponements as they continue to “engage” with the committee. Rebecca Beitsch reports for The Hill.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who died Sunday at age 98, will lie in state on Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda and be honored during an invitation-only ceremony with COVID-19 precautions. A funeral will take place Friday at the Washington National Cathedral (ABC News).

The House is set to soon unveil a compromise version of the annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), according to a congressional aide, with leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees closing in on a deal. However, House Democratic leaders might have a whip-count problem, with some lawmakers threatening to vote against the bill without sufficient military-justice provisions and language about combating extremism within military ranks. Andrew Desiderio, Connor O’Brien and Heather Caygle report for POLITICO.

Representative Devin Nunes, a California Republican, will resign to run Donald Trump’s media company.

The Justice Department closed its investigation into the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, without charges.

A woman testified in court that Ghislaine Maxwell helped set up her encounters with Jeffrey Epstein, once providing a “schoolgirl” outfit to wear while serving tea.

The Hill: Former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) announces his bid for Georgia governor, setting up a primary contest against incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp (R).

The Hill: Department of Justice sues over Texas’s redistricting plan.

The Wall Street Journal’s Amrith Ramkumar reports that the SEC is probing the possible merger between Trump Media & Technology Group and Digital World Acquisition Corp as part of a series of investigations into SPAC deals.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is looking for a way to avoid a messy public split between President Biden and Senate Democrats over Russia and China policy by looking for a way to neutralize tough amendments on those two hot-button topics. Pressure is growing on Congress to act as Biden is scheduled to hold a video call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to warn against a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. Read the full story here.

Department of Homeland Security officials advised in August against deporting Haitians back to Haiti, fearing the deportations could violate U.S. human rights obligations, according to an internal warning sent to officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Hamed Aleaziz reports for BuzzFeed News.

Cybersecurity

Hackers stole at least $150 million from cryptocurrency exchange BitMart as part of what the company described Monday as a “large-scale security breach.” The BitMart team wrote in a statement that hackers had withdrawn roughly $150 million from two of BitMart’s wallets used by customers, with the company temporarily suspending withdrawals while it investigates the breach. The company emphasized that all other wallets were “secure and unharmed” (The Hill).

Microsoft has announced that a federal court has granted a request to allow Microsoft to seize websites being used by a Chinese-based hacking group that is targeting organizations in the U.S. and 28 other nations. “The hacking group, which Microsoft has dubbed ‘Nickel,’ was observed to be targeting think tanks, human rights organizations, government agencies and diplomatic organizations for intelligence gathering purposes,” Maggie Miller reports for The Hill.

Israel’s Defense Ministry has announced that it is tightening guidelines for cyber exports. Countries purchasing Israeli cyber technology will have to sign a declaration pledging to use the products “for the investigation and prevention of terrorist acts and serious crimes only” and countries that violate the terms of use could be subject to sanctions, “including limiting the cyber system and/or disconnecting it.” Josef Federman reports for AP.

Virus/Climate/Science

The coronavirus has infected over 49.27 million people and has now killed over 789,700 people in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been over 266.55 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 5.26 million deaths. Sergio Hernandez, Sean O’Key, Amanda Watts, Byron Manley and Henrik Pettersson report for CNN.

New York City will implement a vaccine mandate for all private employers this month.

Stricter testing rules for flying to the U.S. have taken effect.

The Associated Press: Omicron v. delta: Battle of coronavirus mutants is critical.

China

U.S. diplomats are to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The White House said no official U.S. delegation would be sent to the Games because of concerns about China’s human rights record, and “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.” U.S. athletes however have the government’s full support to attend the Games. BBC News reports.

China has threatened President Biden’s administration with retaliation over the diplomatic boycott and has warned that the move could harm bilateral relations. “The wrong move of the U.S. has undermined the foundation and atmosphere for China-U.S. sports exchanges and Olympic cooperation. It has shot itself in the foot. The U.S. should understand the grave consequences of its move,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a news conference. Zhao also said that China had made “solemn representation” to the U.S. and vowed to take “resolute countermeasures.” Nectar Gan reports for CNN.

Uyghur rights organizations have applauded the U.S.’s diplomatic boycott. Jonathan Franklin reports for NPR.

Russia

President Biden will hold a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin today amid escalating tensions over Ukraine. According to a White House preview of the call, Putin and Biden “will discuss a range of topics in the U.S.-Russia relationship, including strategic stability, cyber, and regional issues. Biden will underscore U.S. concerns with Russian military activities on the border with Ukraine and reaffirm the United States’ support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.” Maegan Vazquez reports for CNN.

Biden will make clear to Putin that there would be “very real costs” should Russia take military action against Ukraine, a senior administration official has said. “The official said that the U.S. believes Russia is putting in place the capacity to engage in military action but is unclear whether Putin has decided to carry out the plans,” Shannon Pettypiece reports for NBC News.

Putin is expected to demand that Biden guarantee that NATO will never expand into Ukraine – both in terms of membership and Western forces – during their video meeting today. Isabelle Khurshudyan and Paul Sonne report for the Washington Post.

Biden spoke with the leaders of the U.K., France, Germany, and Italy yesterday, who agreed to use “all the tools at their disposal” to prevent aggression from Russia against Ukraine. The Western leaders discussed their “shared concern about the Russian military build-up,” according to the White House readout of the call. BBC News reports.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and reiterated Washington’s “unwavering support” in the face of “Russian aggression,” the State Department has said. Andrew Roth and Julian Borger report for the Guardian.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a high-level meeting yesterday with “key departmental leaders” to discuss the situation with Ukraine and Russia. Ellen Mitchell reports for The Hill.

Five key things to know about the emerging crisis between Russia and Ukraine are provided by Jordan Williams and Laura Kelly reporting for The Hill.

Officials and experts are saying that there are several indicators fueling concerns that the Russian troops near the Ukrainian border may this time be a genuine indicator of Russian intentions to take military action against Ukraine. “Putin has deployed more than 90,000 troops along Russia’s border with Ukraine, matching the force that he sent and withdrew in the spring. But whereas those troops maneuvered in open daylight, now they have mostly been far less showy, moving under the cover of darkness. And Moscow’s rhetoric has noticeably hardened in recent months, saying it will not accept what it sees as a deepening of ties between Ukraine and the West,” Matthew Bodner, Dan De Luce and Alexander Smith report for NBC News.

Ukraine has accused Russia of deploying tanks and additional sniper teams to the frontline of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. A statement from Ukraine’s defense Ministry said that “the enemy increased the number of sniper pairs in readiness to inflict casualties on the personnel of the Joint Forces, destroy video surveillance elements and provoke return fire.” Reuters reports.

Syria

Israel carried out an airstrike on the Syrian port of Latakia today, causing a fire in a container storage area, Syrian state media has reported. “A Syrian military source told Sana news agency that warplanes flying over the Mediterranean Sea fired several missiles at the port’s container yard overnight. No casualties were reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the target was an Iranian weapons shipment. Israel’s military has not commented,” BBC News reports.

A U.S. airstrike targeting an al-Qaida leader in northern Syria wounded a family of six, including a 10-year-old child who suffered serious head injuries. The U.S. drone targeted a man on a motorcycle who Ahmad Qassim was trying to overtake in the car he was driving with his wife and four children. The U.S. military has said that it conducted a strike from a remotely piloted MQ-9 aircraft Friday near the city of Idlib targeting “a senior al-Qaeda leader and planner.” An initial review of this strike indicated the potential for possible civilian casualties, which “was immediately self-reported to U.S. Central Command,” a spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that the military is “initiating a full investigation of the allegations and will release the results when appropriate.” Bassem Mroue reports for AP.

Afghanistan

The U.K. Foreign Office’s handling of the evacuation from Afghanistan after the Taliban seized Kabul was dysfunctional and chaotic, a whistleblower has said. “Raphael Marshall said the process of choosing who could get a flight out was arbitrary and thousands of emails with pleas for help went unread. The then Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was slow to make decisions, he added,” James Landale and Joseph Lee report for BBC News.

Raab, now the U.K.’s Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, has rejected a number of the charges from the whistleblower over the U.K.’s management of the Afghan evacuation. Jessica Elgot and Patrick Wintour report for the Guardian.

US Relations

Republican senators have introduced legislation which aims to disrupt the Palestinian Authority’s policy of paying a salary to families of alleged Palestinian terrorists who are killed or imprisoned by Israeli forces, so-called “martyr payments.” The draft bill builds on the Taylor Force Act passed in 2018, that restricted U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority over the policy, and would open up foreign banks to U.S. sanctions if they are found to knowingly process the martyr payments. Laura Kelly reports for The Hill.

Three more hostages from a group of 17 Canadian and American missionaries and their children kidnapped in Haiti have been released, the American Christian charity they were with have said. The latest releases bring the total number of people freed to five. The organization did not provide the names or ages of those released, or the circumstances of their release, including whether a ransom had been paid. Oscar Lopez and Maria Abi-Habib report for the New York Times.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke last week with relatives of U.S. hostages and others wrongfully detained abroad. The meeting came after more than two dozen families expressed frustration about their inability to get a meeting with Sulivan or President Biden. Participants on the video call have said that they did not get satisfactory answers to some questions, but they were encouraged by Sullivan’s commitment to follow up and be personally available to them and others. Zachary Basu reports for Axios.

Global Developments

Myanmar’s deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi faces two years in jail after her four-year sentence on charges of incitement and breaking Covid-19 rules, issued yesterday, was halved by the country’s military, state media has reported. Helen Regan reports for CNN.

Dozens of Rohingya refugees in the U.K. and U.S. have sued Meta (formerly Facebook), accusing the social media company of allowing hate speech against them to spread. An estimated 10,000 Rohingya Muslims were killed during a military crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in 2017. The refugees are demanding more than $150bn in compensation, claiming Meta’s platforms promoted violence against the persecuted minority. BBC News reports.

Across Ethiopia thousands are enlisting with the Ethiopian armed forces to counter rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front who are advancing toward the capital, fueling fears of a full-blown civil war in the country. Nicholas Bariyo reports for the Wall Street Journal.

Indian and Russian officials rejected U.S. pressure to downgrade their close defense ties yesterday, as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in New Delhi and agreed to extend military technical cooperation for another decade. At the summit, “both sides said they were proceeding with delivery of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems from Russia to India despite the threat of U.S. sanctions on India. Agreements signed also included a contract for a joint venture in India to manufacture more than 600,000 Russian-designed AK-203 assault rifles, which will replace the INSAS model used by the Indian military for three decades,” Rajesh Roy, Jeremy Page and Ann M. Simmons report for the Wall Street Journal.

Daily Deep State Report, Dec. 6th, 2021

US

The goal for Democrats was to pass President Biden’s sweeping climate and social spending package by Christmas, but that is slipping away as the Senate bogs down in one time-consuming fight after another. Read the full story here

The longtime senator and Republican leader Bob Dole has died aged 98 years old. “Dole was a fixture on the Washington scene for more than half a century and a national leader of the Republican Party for nearly as long. As a legislator, and ultimately as leader of the Senate, he played a role on a staggering list of legislation touching every aspect of American society,” Gerald F. Seib reports for the Wall Street Journal.

President Biden has led tributes to Dole from both sides of the political divide. Biden said Dole was a “dear friend” and “an American statesman like few in our history.” Former President George W Bush said Dole “represented the finest of American values,” while former President Obama called Dole a “war hero, a political leader, and a statesman.” In Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ordered the flags at the U.S. Capitol to be flown at half-mast in tribute. BBC News reports.

Former President Trump’s social media start-up, Truth Social, has raised $1 billion from unidentified investors as it moves forward with going public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (Spac). Trump, who remains banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, said that “$1 billion sends an important message to Big Tech that censorship and political discrimination must end.” Nikou Asgari and Sujeet Indap report for the Financial Times.

A proposal to change how the military prosecutes felony crimes is likely to be left out of this year’s defense authorization bill (the National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA). Instead, the bill is expected to focus more narrowly on changing how the military prosecutes sexual assault and other related offenses. Karoun Demirjian reports for the Washington Post.

Senate leadership is facing bipartisan pushback over attempts to raise the U.S.’s debt ceiling by tying it to the NDAA. While the idea would take two items off Congress’s packed year-end to-do list ahead of a Dec. 15 deadline for taking action on the borrowing limit, both the House Majority and Minority leaders have warned that a defense bill that includes a debt ceiling hike would struggle to clear the House. Jordain Carney and Aris Folley report for The Hill.

David Perdue, a former senator and an ally of Donald Trump, will run against Gov. Brian Kemp in the Republican primary for Georgia governor.

This map shows where abortion access would decline if Roe v. Wade falls.

The Hill: Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) says he will enforce law banning most abortions in state if Roe is overturned.

The Hill: Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) says abortion laws should be left up to states.

Scrutiny of the parents of the 15-year-old suspected of killing four high school students in Michigan last week has intensified.

The Bipartisan Policy Center predicted on Friday the U.S. would “no longer be able to meet its obligations in full and on time” between Dec. 21 and Jan. 28. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has stuck to a Dec. 15 date when she says her department will exhaust internal maneuvers to avert default.

The Hill: Pressure grows to remove Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) from committees.

The Washington Post: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) says Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will take “decisive action” on Boebert’s anti-Muslim rhetoric this week.

Internal polling has Democrats on the Hill worried about their prospects in the midterms next year as Biden struggles to burnish his reputation among voters. “A poll from House Democrats’ campaign arm earlier this month showed the president down in battleground districts across the country, with 52 percent of voters disapproving of the job he’s doing, according to three party members briefed on the data,” Heather Caygle, Burgess Everett and Jon Lemire report . “Their proposed antidote: Finish the battles over legislating as quickly as possible, then spend their next few months talking up their infrastructure and coronavirus relief laws, as well as their forthcoming social spending bill.”

In her first TV interview since her release from prison, Reality Winner, a former NSA linguist, tells CBS’ Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes” that she was doing her duty to the American people when she gave the media classified information about Russian hacking of the 2016 election.

US Relations

The iPhones of at least nine State Department employees were recently hacked by an unknown assailant using spyware from Israeli company NSO Group, according to people familiar with the matter. The hacks, which took place in the last several months, hit U.S. officials either based in Uganda or focused on matters concerning Uganda. Christopher Bing and Joseph Menn report for Reuters.

U.S. Cyber Command has taken offensive action to disrupt cybercriminal groups that have launched ransomware attacks on U.S. companies, a spokesperson has confirmed to CNN. “The spokesperson declined to specify what actions the command had taken. But it’s one of the first, unequivocal acknowledgements from Cyber Command since the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in May that the command has targeted criminal gangs that hold the computer systems of US businesses hostage,” Sean Lyngaas reports for CNN.

The U.S.-backed political opposition movement in Venezuela is on the verge of breaking up after a major faction announced its withdrawal yesterday. “Julio Borges, a leading figure in the anti regime coalition, called for an end to the leadership of Juan Guaidó, whom the U.S. and dozens of allies have backed as Venezuela’s legitimate president since January 2019 in a strategy to remove strongman President Nicolás Maduro,” Kejal Vyas reports for the Wall Street Journal.

Russia and India are expected to reinforce their defense ties this week during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India. The summit today in Delhi between Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also “comes as the U.S. considers whether to impose sanctions on India over its purchase from Russia of the S-400 surface-to-air missile system, delivery of which is now under way,” Jeremy Page and Rajesh Roy and Ann M. Simmons report for the Wall Street Journal.

The Biden administration has released an updated National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, with a new focus on gender and racial equity and workers’ rights. “The new plan highlights underserved individuals, families and communities and is linked to broader efforts by President Biden to address inequities for marginalized groups, according to senior administration officials. It also focuses on ending forced labor in global supply chains, which the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated, officials said,” Alex Gangitano reports for The Hill.

Jan. 6th Insurrection

Jeffrey Clark, a former Department of Justice official under former President Trump’s administration, has secured a delay for his deposition to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, initially scheduled for Saturday, due to a medical issue. Rebecca Beitsch reports for The Hill.

A former D.C. National Guard official has accused two senior Army leaders of lying to Congress and trying to rewrite the history of the military’s response to the Jan. 6 attack. “In a 36-page memo, Col. Earl Matthews, who held high-level National Security Council and Pentagon roles during the Trump administration, slams the Pentagon’s inspector general for what he calls an error-riddled report that protects a top Army official who argued against sending the National Guard to the Capitol on Jan. 6, delaying the insurrection response for hours,” Betsy Woodruff Swan and Meridith Mcgraw report for POLITICO.

Federal prosecutors have accused two men of having ties to a Proud Boys leader and being among the first to breach the police line near the Capitol on Jan. 6. Marshall Cohen reports for CNN.

Virus/Climate

The coronavirus has infected over 49.08 million people and has now killed over 788,300 people in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been over 265.93 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 5.25 million deaths. Sergio Hernandez, Sean O’Key, Amanda Watts, Byron Manley and Henrik Pettersson report for CNN.

From former President Trump’s first positive Covid-19 test to the day he was hospitalized, he came into contact with more than 500 people, either those in proximity to him or at crowded events, not including rally goers, according to analysis done by the Washington Post. Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey report for the Washington Post.

Infections at a New York anime convention suggest that the Omicron variant was spreading in the U.S. before it had a name.

Scientists have detected Omicron in at least 45 countries.

China aims to vaccinate 160 million young children by the end of the year.

On Saturday, NASA expects an asteroid the size of the Eiffel Tower to be at its closest point to Earth in two decades. Known as 4660 Nereus, the asteroid, discovered in 1982, is classified by scientists as a “potentially hazardous” piece of rock because of its proximity to the planet (The Hill).

Russia and Ukraine and Belarus

U.S. intelligence has found that the Kremlin is planning a multi-front offensive into Ukraine, involving up to 175,000 troops, as soon as early next year, according to U.S. officials and an intelligence document obtained by The Washington Post. “The Russian plans call for a military offensive against Ukraine as soon as early 2022 with a scale of forces twice what we saw this past spring during Russia’s snap exercise near Ukraine’s borders,” said an administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Shane Harris and Paul Sonne report for the Washington Post.

The Kremlin has described the state of U.S.-Russia relations as “lamentable,” the day before a scheduled video call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Biden over the tense situation in Ukraine. “Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said NATO and long-term guarantees of Russia’s security from the West, which Putin has said Moscow needs, would also be in focus on Tuesday’s call,” Reuters reports.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the U.S. and European allies are determined to “stand resolutely against” increasing and coordinated Russian aggression. During an interview with Reuters, Blinken “raised concerns that Russia is coordinating its destabilizing activities, including the building of forces on its border with Ukraine, the threat of holding back natural gas to Europe this winter and the support of Belarus’s weaponization of migrants on European borders,” Laura Kelly reports for The Hill.

Ukraine has denied accusations from Belarus that a Ukrainian military helicopter flew about 0.6 miles into its territory on Saturday. “Maybe someone made a mistake and is spreading accusations for manipulative purposes,” a spokesperson for Ukraine’s border guard said. The Belarusian defense ministry said yesterday that it had summoned Ukraine’s military attaché to protest against what it called repeated violations of Belarus’s airspace by Ukrainian aircraft. Reuters reports.

Belarus has condemned new economic sanctions from the U.S., U.K., E.U and Canada. “Tough, asymmetric, but appropriate measures will be taken by us exclusively as a response,” the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement a day after the latest sanctions against people and entities associated with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s government were unveiled. Missy Ryan and Isabelle Khurshudyan report for the Washington Post.

Myanmar

A court in Myanmar has sentenced ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to four years on charges of inciting public unrest and breaching Covid-19 protocols. The sentence is the first in a series of rulings that Suu Kyi is facing that together entail a possible maximum imprisonment of 102 years on a total of 11 charges. “This ridiculous ruling is a travesty of justice,” Charles Santiago, a Malaysian legislator and chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said in a statement. Sui-Lee Wee reports for the New York Times.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has denounced the four-year jail term handed down to Suu Kyi, calling the trial a “sham” and calling for Suu Kyi’s immediate release. Stephanie Nebehay reports for Reuters.

Further reactions to the judgment, including from China and the U.K. are provided by Reuters.

Live reporting on Suu Kyi’s trial is provided by the New York Times.

At least three people are feared dead after an army vehicle plowed into a peaceful march by anti-government protestors in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, witnesses have said. Yesterday’s march was one of at least three held in Yangon, and similar rallies were reported in other parts of the country a day ahead of the expected verdict against Suu Kyi. Grant Peck reports for AP.

In response to the media reports of the protestors’ deaths, the U.N. has called on Myanmar to halt the use of excessive force against unarmed civilians. Reuters reports.

China

Classified U.S. intelligence reports are suggesting that China intends to establish its first permanent military presence on the Atlantic Ocean in the tiny Central African country of Equatorial Guinea, raising the prospect that Chinese warships would be able to rearm and refit opposite the U.S. East Coast. Officials at the White House and the Pentagon, including Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer, have urged Equatorial Guinea to rebuff Beijing’s overtures, according to U.S. officials. Michael M. Phillips reports for the Wall Street Journal.

President Biden’s administration is expected to announce a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics this week. The move would mean that no U.S. government officials would attend the games and would allow the U.S. to send a message on the world stage to China without preventing U.S. athletes from competing. Kaitlan Collins reports for CNN.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has cautioned national security leaders and industry executives against over-hyping recent Chinese weapons tests, while also calling for deeper ties between the Pentagon and technology companies to counter China. During a speech on Saturday at the 2021 Reagan National Defense Forum, Austin said China’s recent hypersonic launch and its gains in nuclear weapons, cyber, and space should be met “with confidence and resolve — not panic and pessimism.” Marcus Weisgerber and Tara Copp report for Defense One.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that a move by China to invade Taiwan and take the island by force would have “terrible consequences.” Blinken said China had been trying to change the status quo over self-ruled Taiwan, and that the U.S. is “resolutely committed” to making sure the island has the means to defend itself. Blinken added that he hoped Chinese leaders would think very carefully about “not precipitating a crisis” across the Taiwan Strait. Reuters reports.

The governing body of tennis, the International Tennis Federation, has not followed the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in suspending tournaments in China because it “does not want to punish a billion people.” The WTA has halted tournaments in China because of continued concern for Chinese player Peng Shuai, who accused a top Chinese government official of sexual assault. BBC Sport reports.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is on the brink of a mass starvation as the humanitarian situation worsens in the country, four months after the Taliban took control. An estimated 22.8 million people in Afghanistan — more than half the country’s population — are expected to face potentially life-threatening food insecurity this winter. Christina Goldbaum reports for the New York Times.

22 nations, including the U.S., have demanded that the Taliban respect its pledge not to harm former Afghan government or security personnel. The joint statement followed a damning report from Human Rights Watch about killings and abductions by the Taliban of former Afghan security forces and government officials. BBC News reports.

Middle East

Powerful associations and relatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have developed a multibillion-dollar operation making and selling captagon, an illegal, addictive amphetamine. A New York Times investigation has found that much of the production and distribution, which has turned Syria into the world’s newest narcostate, is overseen by the Fourth Armored Division of the Syrian Army, an elite unit commanded by Maher al-Assad, the president’s younger brother. Major players also include businessmen with close ties to the government, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and other members of President al-Assad’s extended family. Ben Hubbard and Hwaida Saad report for the New York Times.

Violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces erupted on the weekend, after a Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli border police after he stabbed an Israeli man in the Old City of Jerusalem on Saturday afternoon, according to Israeli police reports. Shira Rubin reports for the Washington Post.

The national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has made a rare trip to meet his Iranian counterpart and Iran’s hard-line president in Tehran today. The UAE has long viewed the Islamic Republic in Iran as its main regional threat, and the rare visit comes as the UAE and Saudi Arabia are both negotiating with Iran amid efforts in Vienna to save the 2015 nuclear deal. Nasser Karimi and Jon Gambrell report for AP.

Global Developments

Extremist gunmen have attacked a military camp in Niger near its southeastern border with Burkina Faso, killing at least 12 soldiers, Niger’s interior ministry said yesterday. Dalatou Maman reports for AP.

A mob killing of a Sri Lankan man accused of blasphemy in Pakistan has sparked protests in both Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Priyantha Diyawadanage, 48, a factory manager in the city of Sialkot, was beaten to death on Friday and his body set alight. More than 100 people have been arrested so far, said Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who condemned the vigilante violence and described the incident as a “day of shame” for his country. BBC News reports.

A dissident former leader of Colombia’s Farc rebels has been killed in an ambush in Venezuela. Hernán Darío Velásquez, nicknamed El Paisa, was shot dead in Venezuela’s Apure state, local media reported. Velásquez’s death has not been officially confirmed and the Colombian army said it had no knowledge of the killing. BBC News reports.

Tribal clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs killed at least 24 people yesterday in Sudan’s western Darfur region, an aid group has said. The fighting grew out of a financial dispute between two individuals in a camp for displaced persons in the Kreinik area in West Darfur province. Samy Magdy reports for AP.

Gambian President Adama Barrow has easily won re-election, Gambian authorities have said, in the first vote for decades held without long-term leader Yahya Jammeh. In Gambia’s last election, Barrow defeated Jammeh, who was forced into exile after refusing to accept the result. BBC News reports.

Daily Deep State Report: 12/2/21…Abortion Rights…

Roe V Wade

Justices during oral arguments on Wednesday appeared poised to consider setting new abortion limits as they weighed a Mississippi law that takes direct aim at Roe v. Wade. During yesterday’s arguments over a Mississippi abortion law, the three Democratic appointees on the court tried to appeal to their conservative colleagues’ concerns about the court’s standing. If the justices overturn Roe v. Wade, Justice Stephen Breyer said, many Americans would say, “‘You’re just politicians.’” Breyer added, “That’s what kills us as an American institution.”

Chief Justice Roberts’s questions indicated that he might still prefer a relatively narrow ruling that does not fully undo Roe. But he is no longer the swing vote. After Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, the court has a majority of five Republican-appointed justices even if Roberts votes with the Democratic appointees.

“What I heard Wednesday morning was not a court in which a majority was worried about backlash, but a court ready for revolutionary change,” Mary Ziegler, a legal historian, writes.

“I’m skeptical about dark prophecies of a legitimacy crisis for the Supreme Court should it overturn Roe — or the coming electoral blood bath for the G.O.P.,” The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle writes. “Most people don’t care about abortion as much as pro-choice Twitter. Many of those who do are on the other side.” (A previous edition of this newsletter analyzed public opinion.)

The Hill: Five revealing quotes from Supreme Court abortion case.

Amy Howe, SCOTUSblog: Majority of court appears poised to roll back abortion rights.

The Hill: Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggests the Supreme Court wouldn’t “survive the stench” of political calculation if abortion rights are undercut.

Covid

The coronavirus has infected over 48.69 million people and has now killed over 782,100 people in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been over 263.65 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 5.22 million deaths. Sergio Hernandez, Sean O’Key, Amanda Watts, Byron Manley and Henrik Pettersson report for CNN.

President Biden is planning to announce on Thursday steps his administration will implement to fight COVID-19 in the winter months, including more aggressive travel-related COVID-19 restrictions starting next week. The steps come as the first known U.S. case of the omicron variant was detected in California on Wednesday, in a person who had returned over a week ago from South Africa where the variant was first detected. Read the full story here.

Former President Trump tested positive for Covid-19 on September 26, 2020 three days before his debate with now President Biden, Trump’s last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has revealed in a new book. Trump returned a negative result from a different test shortly after the positive result. Trump announced he had Covid-19 on October 2, 2020. In a statement yesterday, Trump called Meadows’ claims “Fake News.” Martin Pengelly reports for the Guardian.

The first known case of the Omicron variant in the U.S. has been identified in a San Francisco resident who recently returned from South Africa, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and California health officials have said. Betsy McKay reports for the Wall Street Journal.

Biden intends to tighten up Covid-19 testing timelines for travelers entering the U.S. and extend a mask mandate on airplanes and other public transportation as part of an effort to combat the new Omicron variant. Stephanie Armour and Sabrina Siddiqui report for the Wall Street Journal.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has described travel restrictions imposed over Covid-19 that isolate any one country or region as “not only deeply unfair and punitive – they are ineffective.” Guterres, speaking to reporters, blasted what he called “travel apartheid,” as the U.S. and other countries implement travel bans to stop the spread of the Omicron variant. Michelle Nichols reports for Reuters.

Meta (formerly Facebook) has announced that it has removed hundreds of accounts, pages and groups linked to a Chinese effort to spread disinformation claiming that the U.S. is pressurizing the World Health Organization to blame the Covid-19 pandemic on China. Maggie Miller reports for The Hill.

Jan. 6th Insurrection

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack has recommended that the House hold former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the committee’s inquiry, but agreed to delay a House vote on the matter as Clark made a last minute offer to be interviewed again. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the committee’s chair, said that the committee would move forward with the contempt referral, despite Clark’s offer of another interview. However, Thompson announced that the committee had set another deposition for Clark on Saturday, and that it would not seek a House vote on the contempt charge until investigators had determined whether he was willing to cooperate. Luke Broadwater reports for the New York Times.

Rep Liz Cheney (R-WY), the vice chair of the Jan. 6 select committee, suggested yesterday that former President Trump could be held responsible for any falsehoods exchanged with the committee. “President Trump continues to make the same false claims about a stolen election with which he has misled millions of Americans…He has recently suggested that he wants to debate members of this committee… Any communications Mr. Trump has with this committee will be under oath. And if he persists in lying, then he will be accountable under the laws of this great nation and subject to criminal penalties for every false word he speaks,” Cheney said. Rebecca Beitsch reports for The Hill.

A coalition of news organizations have asked a federal court to release documents concerning former Trump White House adviser Stephen Bannon’s prosecution for refusing to testify before the Jan. 6 committee. The media coalition includes The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, NBC News and others. Bannon is fighting a proposal by prosecutors to keep the documents secret — including more than 1,000 pages of witness testimony, grand-jury proceedings and other information generated as part of the discovery process. Lawyers for the media companies have said that a protective order on all the discovery material was “overbroad,” and would limit what the public could learn about the government’s case. Paul Farhi and Elahe Izadi report for the Washington Post.

A federal judge has suggested that Trump and others who spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 should be held accountable for the attack on the Capitol that followed. “Though she did not refer to Trump by name, District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said during a sentencing for riot defendant Russell Peterson that the former President and other speakers at the Ellipse riled the crowd and ‘explicitly encouraged them to go to the Capitol and fight for one reason and one reason only — to make sure the certification of the election didn’t happen,’” Hannah Rabinowitz reports for CNN.

US

House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) announced early Thursday that Congress has reached an agreement on a spending deal to fund the government through mid-February, as lawmakers work to stave off a shutdown on Friday. Read the full story here

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) yesterday night blocked a quick deal for votes on amendments to the sweeping annual defense policy bill, the latest setback for hopes of passing the legislation this week. The agreement was to set up votes on 24 amendments to the Bill, after which the Senate would have been on a path to vote on passing the bill. Rubio blocked the deal after he failed to get his amendment, which would ban imports from China’s Xinjiang region, included in the package that would get votes before a final vote in the Senate. Jordain Carney reports for The Hill.

The 15-year old suspect in the Michigan school shooting has been charged with terrorism, four counts of first-degree murder and an array of other charges. Four students died after Eric Crumbly fired rounds from a handgun at Oxford High School, Michigan on Tuesday. “The Oakland County prosecutor, Karen D. McDonald, acknowledged that her decision to charge the suspect with terrorism was not typical for a mass shooting prosecution, but she said it reflected the wider trauma suffered by the hundreds of students who fled gunshots, hid under their desks and will be haunted for years,” Jennifer Conlin, Mitch Smith, Giulia Heyward and Jack Healy report for the New York Times.

McDonald has also strongly suggested that she will charge Crumbly’s parents in connection with the shooting in Michigan. Officials have said that the father of the suspect bought the semiautomatic handgun used in the killings. “While it is unclear how Crumbley may have obtained the gun from his father, McDonald said that gun owners have a responsibility to secure their weapons — particularly when young people are involved,” Griff Witte, John Woodrow Cox and Mark Berman report for the Washington Post.

Symone Sanders, a senior adviser and chief spokesperson for Vice President Harris, is leaving her position at the end of the year, according to two administration officials familiar with the matter. Eugene Daniels, Christopher Cadelago and Daniel Lippman report for POLITICO.

The prospect of a government shutdown grew on Wednesday as a small group of conservative Republicans demanded a vote to defund President Biden’s vaccine mandate in exchange for letting a stopgap funding measure pass by Friday’s deadline. Republicans fear that Senate conservatives led by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) will hold up the government funding deal for days in a maneuver that could boomerang on their party — just as a similar strategy to use a government funding measure as leverage to stop the implementation of the Affordable Care Act blew up in their faces eight years ago. Some Republican senators are privately arguing that forcing a government shutdown would give Democrats a political lifeline at a time when Biden’s approval rating is hovering just above 40 percent. Read the full story here

Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who narrowly lost the 2018 Georgia governor’s race, is running again.

Charlie Baker, the moderate Republican governor of Massachusetts who faced a Trump-backed primary challenger, will not seek a third term.

Cristina Marcos, The Hill: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) faces headaches from far-right House GOP.

The Hill: McCarthy pleads with Republicans to stop infighting: “Congress is not junior high.”

Politico: House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) to retire from Congress in latest blow to Democrats.

The Hill: GOP resistance to Biden FCC nominee could endanger board’s Democratic majority.

The Wall Street Journal: Government shutdown deadline approaches as deal eludes lawmakers.

Politico: McConnell’s latest challenge: stopping a shutdown over vaccine mandates.The Hill: McConnell leaves GOP in dark on debt ceiling

Cybersecurity

The House yesterday passed three bipartisan bills intended to shore up network security and increase cyber literacy across the nation. The first bill, the Understanding Cybersecurity of Mobile Networks Act, would require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to examine and report back on cybersecurity vulnerabilities in mobile networks. The second bill, the American Cybersecurity Literacy Act, would require NTIA to develop and roll out a cybersecurity literacy program to educate Americans about cyber risks. The third bill, the FUTURE Networks Act, would require the Federal Communications Commission to establish a sixth generation (6G) wireless technology taskforce to examine potential vulnerabilities and advantages in the future use of 6G technology. Maggie Miller reports for The Hill.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has announced the establishment of its Cybersecurity Advisory Committee, which will provide input on efforts to enhance cybersecurity defense priorities. The committee will include 23 individuals from government, key industry groups across multiple sectors, and leaders in nonprofit groups and journalism. National Cyber Director Chris Inglis will join CISA Director Jen Easterly in establishing the committee. Maggie Miller reports for The Hill.

Russia and Ukraine

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to warn him of the “serious consequences” Russia would suffer if it invaded Ukraine and to urge him to seek a diplomatic exit from the crisis. Blinken met with Lavrov on the sidelines of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe summit in Stockholm, a day after Blinken and other NATO officials discussed a potential alliance response, including economic sanctions, to Moscow’s military buildup along its border with Ukraine. “The best way to avert the crisis is through diplomacy, and that’s what I look forward to discussing with Sergei,” Blinken told reporters before going into talks with Lavrov. Humeyra Pamuk and Anna Ringstrom report for Reuters.

Tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine escalated yesterday as Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded “legal guarantees” that the NATO alliance would never expand eastward, a position NATO regards as untenable. “Putin, who has increasingly portrayed Ukraine’s deepening military partnership with the United States and other NATO countries as an existential threat, said that Moscow wanted to start talks with the West to reach an agreement that would block the alliance’s expansion,” Anton Troianovski reports for the New York Times.

The Kremlin has said that the probability of a new conflict in eastern Ukraine remains high and that Moscow is concerned by “aggressive” rhetoric from Kyiv and an increase in provocative actions. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “Moscow was worried about the possibility of a Ukrainian military move in eastern Ukraine, something that Kyiv has denied planning. Peskov also said that Russia viewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s pledge to return [the] annexed Crimea as a direct threat,” Reuters reports.

Russia has said that it has arrested three suspected Ukrainian intelligence agents including one accused of planning to carry out an attack using two homemade bombs which had been smuggled over the border, allegations that Kyiv has dismissed. Reuters reports.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met with the E.U.’s top diplomat Josep Borrell today to “speed up work on specific economic restrictions which will be able to hit the Russian economy should Moscow decide to launch a new stage of aggression against Ukraine,” Kuleba said in a Tweet. Reuters reports.

China

President Biden’s administration is working with E.U. diplomats to align strategies in the face of Beijing’s “concerning behavior,” a State Department official has said. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will meet with her European counterpart, Secretary General Stefano Sannino, in Washington today as part of the U.S. and E.U. dialogue on China. The focus of the meeting will be to preview the U.S.’s forthcoming Indo-Pacific strategy, in an effort to align Washington with the E.U.’s recently released Indo-Pacific strategy. Laura Kelly reports for The Hill.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said on Thursday that the U.S. remains committed to helping Taiwan defend itself amid threats from China. Chinese threats toward Taiwan increase the need for the United States to help Taiwan maintain a credible self-defense, Kritenbrink said during a visit to Singapore. “We intend to live up to our obligations, our rock solid obligations and commitments,” Kritenbrink added. Reuters reports.

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) is to halt all of its tournaments in China because it is not satisfied that Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai is safe following an allegation of sexual assault against a retired senior Chinese government official. Joshua Robinson reports for the Wall Street Journal.

China is pressuring U.S. companies to speak up against campaigns to boycott the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng on Tuesday told a video conference of U.S. business executives to “make a positive contribution” to the Games, which open in February. Christian Shepherd reports for the Washington Post.

US Relations

The U.S. and South Korea have said that they will update their joint wartime contingency plans for North Korea. “During a visit to Seoul, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, alongside his South Korean counterpart, approved an update to the strategic guidance used for wartime operation plans, a document that hadn’t been updated since 2010. The precise nature of the review, or what might change, wasn’t immediately disclosed,” Timothy W. Martin reports for the Wall Street Journal.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are asking the Biden administration to preserve a suite of documents related to the withdrawal from Afghanistan. “In a letter to the White House, Pentagon and State Department, Republican members of the committee indicated an interest in a variety of issues stemming from the withdrawal, from American citizens and residents left behind in the evacuation to the U.S. military equipment now in the hands of the Taliban,” Rebecca Beitsch reports for The Hill.

President Biden’s administration has reached a deal with the Mexican government to restart the “Remain in Mexico” program, which originally started during former President Trump’s administration. The program requires asylum seekers to wait outside U.S. territory while their claims are processed. The governments are expected to announce the agreement today, according to officials. Implementation of the program, which is expected to be similar to the previous version, is expected to begin next week in San Diego and in the Texas cities of Brownsville, Laredo and El Paso, one official said. Nick Miroff and Kevin Sieff report for the Washington Post.

Mexico has announced a joint plan with the U.S. to send development and agricultural aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, in an effort to stem the wave of migration. The joint plan did not contain any specific funding commitments, and the U.S. Agency for International Development called the plan “a new framework for development cooperation to address the root causes of irregular migration from northern Central America.” AP reports.

Belarus and EU

The E.U. has proposed new measures that would extend the period that Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, E.U. member states bordering Belarus, would be able to detain asylum seekers while their applications are processed. Aid groups have warned that the rule changes may undermine the ability of migrants to seek refuge in the E.U., and would leave applicants in a state of limbo in increasingly unsafe conditions. Elian Peltier and Monika Pronczuk report for the New York Times.

Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has said it has linked Belarus’s main security service, the KGB, to fake accounts on its social media platforms that criticized Poland during the two countries’ recent border standoff. “More than 40 Facebook accounts, five Groups, and four Instagram accounts posed as journalists and activists from the E.U., particularly Poland and Lithuania, Meta said in an announcement Wednesday. The accounts posted criticism of Poland in English, Polish, and Kurdish, including pictures and videos about Polish border guards allegedly violating migrants’ rights,” Isabelle Khurshudyan reports for the Washington Post.

Global Developments

The nine-nation Credentials Committee of the General Assembly has deferred a decision on applications from the new Taliban government in Afghanistan and the junta ruling Myanmar to occupy seats at the U.N. The deferral by the committee effectively denies, for now and possibly through much of 2022, seats at the U.N. for the two ruling authorities. Rick Gladstone reports for the New York Times.

Israel has urged world powers to immediately stop talks with Iran to revive a 2015 nuclear deal, citing the International Atomic Energy Agency’s announcement yesterday that Tehran has started producing enriched uranium with more advanced centrifuges. Reuters reports.

Australia has adopted Magnitsky-style sanctions rules, following the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which will facilitate sanctions against individuals accused of human rights abuses. Mike Cherney reports for the Wall Street Journal.

The U.N. is predicting that a record 274 million people will require emergency humanitarian aid next year. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in its annual overview of future needs, is projecting a 17% increase in the number of people who will need urgent assistance in 2022, highlighting countries like Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Syria, and Yemen which face a range of challenges including war, insecurity, hunger, climate change, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Jamey Keaten reports for AP.

Uganda yesterday deployed foot soldiers inside Congolese territory, intensifying a military assault against the Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who are accused of attacking civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda. Uganda launched artillery and airstrikes on bases in eastern DRC believed to be occupied by members of the ADF on Tuesday. The ongoing assault on the ADF by Uganda has the blessing of Congolese authorities, and has been described by Uganda as a joint effort with the DRC. Rodney Muhumuza reports for AP.

Argentina’s former President Mauricio Macri has been charged with ordering Argentina’s secret services to spy on relatives of 44 sailors who died when the Ara San Juan submarine sank in 2017. Macri has been accused of violating Argentina’s intelligence laws by demanding a dossier on the victims’ families, who accuse the Navy of negligence over the sinking. BBC News reports.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a loyalist as Turkey’s new finance minister, after the incumbent minister resigned over clashes with Erdogan’s unconventional economic policies that have intensified a currency crisis in Turkey. “Nureddin Nebati, a former deputy finance minister, replaces Lütfi Elvan at the top of the finance ministry. The lira fluctuated on Thursday following the news, shedding 1.5% of its value against the dollar,” Jared Malsin reports for the Wall Street Journal.

The killing of at least 65 protesters in Myanmar’s biggest city on March 14 was planned and premeditated, Human Rights Watch has said in a report released today. The report accuses “security forces of deliberately encircling and using lethal force against crowds in Yangon’s working class neighborhood of Hlaing Tharyar that were demonstrating against the military’s Feb. 1 seizure of power,” AP reports.

Rights groups are saying that Israel failed to investigate shootings that killed more than 200 Palestinians and wounded thousands at violent protests along the Gaza frontier in recent years. Joseph Krauss reports for AP.