Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022
U.S. on verge of sending troops to Ukraine, Georgia grand jury, SCOTUS to hear affirmative action case, a wild day for stocks, Capitol Police intelligence and a big streaming overhaul for CBS.
Editors note: Some of you received this early last night - apologies for the double email!
Good Tuesday morning. Here’s what is happening:
The Associated Press: The Pentagon has put 8,500 troops on standby to potentially deploy to Europe amid growing concern that Russia could soon make a military move on Ukraine.
President Joe Biden consulted with key European leaders, underscoring U.S. solidarity with allies there.
Putting the U.S.-based troops on heightened alert for Europe suggested diminishing hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin will back away from what Biden himself has said looks like a threat to invade neighboring Ukraine.
At stake, beyond the future of Ukraine, is the credibility of a NATO alliance that is central to U.S. defense strategy but that Putin views as a Cold War relic and a threat to Russian security. For Biden, the crisis represents a major test of his ability to forge a united allied stance against Putin.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said about 8,500 U.S.-based troops are being put on alert for possible deployment — not to Ukraine but to NATO territory in Eastern Europe as part of an alliance force meant to signal a unified commitment to deter any wider Putin aggression.
Russia denies it is planning an invasion. It says Western accusations are merely a cover for NATO’s own planned provocations. Recent days have seen high-stakes diplomacy that has failed to reach any breakthrough, and key players in the drama are making moves that suggest fear of imminent war. Biden has sought to strike a balance between actions meant to deter Putin and those that might provide the Russian leader with an opening to use the huge force he has assembled at Ukraine’s border.
Biden held an 80-minute video call with several European leaders on the Russian military buildup and potential responses to an invasion.
In a major pivot for the Biden administration, 8,500 American troops have been put on “high alert” for possible deployment to Eastern Europe, the Pentagon said on Monday, as NATO and the U.S. brace for a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.Reuters: Officials from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany will hold talks in Paris Tuesday on growing fears of an invasion.
Fox Business: President Joe Biden said Monday that European leaders are in 'total unanimity' after a meeting on the Russia-Ukraine situation.
CBS News: The Biden administration is considering controlling exports related to semiconductors to harm Russian industries if there is an invasion in Ukraine.
New York Post: The White House said Monday that Americans in the country should leave now, although no organized evacuation is planned.
CNN: Russia may conduct cyberattacks on the U.S. if Moscow perceives the response to Ukraine threatens their ‘long-term national security.’
"Russia maintains a range of offensive cyber tools that it could employ against US networks—from low-level denials-of-service to destructive attacks targeting critical infrastructure," says the January 23 memo, which DHS distributed to critical infrastructure operators and state and local governments.
Despite US tensions with Russia over Ukraine, DHS analysts assess that Moscow's threshold for conducting disruptive or destructive cyberattacks on the US homeland "probably remains very high," the memo says. "[W]e have not observed Moscow directly employ these types of cyber attacks against US critical infrastructure—notwithstanding cyber espionage and potential prepositioning operations in the past."
Asked for comment, a DHS spokesperson said, "The Department of Homeland Security regularly shares information with federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial officials to ensure the safety and security of all communities across the country."
POLITICO: A bipartisan group of eight senators met Monday to to hammer out new sanctions against Russia.
Atlanta Journal Constitution: Judges in Georgia Monday approved a special grand jury to investigate former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn election results in 2020.
Chief Judge Christopher S. Brasher wrote that a majority of the judges had agreed to the request issued by Willis’ office late last week.
The special grand jury will be impaneled May 2 and can continue for a period “not to exceed 12 months,” Brasher wrote in an order.
“The special purpose grand jury shall be authorized to investigate any and all facts and circumstances relating directly or indirectly to alleged violations of the laws of the State of Georgia,” Brasher wrote.
Willis’ criminal probe, launched nearly a year ago, is centered on the Jan. 2, 2021, phone call that Trump placed to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he urged the Republican to “find” the 11,780 votes to overcome Joe Biden’s win here.
The veteran prosecutor has indicated that her team is also examining the abrupt resignation of former Atlanta-based U.S. Attorney BJay Pak; a November 2020 call U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., placed to Raffensperger; and false claims made by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani during a hearing before the Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee.
Willis previously told state officials that her office was probing potential violations of Georgia law including criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, intentional interference with the performance of election duties, conspiracy and racketeering, among others.
The Hill: A bipartisan group of senators met via Zoom on Monday to discuss potential changes to the the Electoral Count Act from 1887.
POLITICO: A federal judge may be open to releasing the ‘Oath Keepers’ leader who is facing sedition charges from the January 6 attack.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: An appeals court has reinstated absentee ballot drop boxes for the Feb. 15 Wisconsin primary election.
Axios: A house ethics panel said Monday there is ‘substantial reason to believe’ that Illinois Rep. Marie Newman offered a job to a potential primary opponent to keep him from running in 2020.
Newman is alleged to have "promised federal employment to a primary opponent for the purpose of procuring political support" and if proved, she may have federal law and House rules. Newman strongly denies the allegations.
In October, the OCE overwhelmingly voted to recommend that the House Committee on Ethics further review the allegation.
The accusation stems from a legal dispute involving an employment contract between Newman and Iymen Chehade, her former foreign policy adviser, according to the OCE.
The office cited an email from Oct. 20, 2018, which included a proposal that said that Chehade would agree "not to announce or submit his candidacy for election," and in exchange, Newman would hire him as a foreign policy adviser.
Newman's legal counsel contended that the OCE's probe was "spurred by the charges of an adverse third party, and prodded by an ideologically hostile group."
Her legal counsel also said that the official contract signed by Newman and Chehade "contained language that eliminated the possibility of any exchange of employment for political support."
BBC News: Burkina Faso’s military said Monday it has seized power and overthrown the country’s president, Roch Kaboré.
The announcement was made on state television by an army officer, who cited the deteriorating security situation for the military takeover.
Mr Kaboré had faced growing discontent over his failure to stem an Islamist insurgency.
His whereabouts are unclear, but the officer said that all those detained were in a secure location.
The coup comes a day after troops seized barracks, and gunshots were heard in the capital, Ouagadougou.
Earlier, the ruling People's Movement for Progress (PMP) party said that both Mr Kaboré and a government minister had survived an assassination attempt.
On Sunday, mutinying troops demanded the sacking of military chiefs and more resources to fight militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) group and al-Qaeda.
The army statement said Mr Kaboré had failed to unite the nation and to deal effectively with the security crisis which "threatens the very foundations of our nation".
The Guardian: At least six people were killed and dozens more injured after a stampede outside of a stadium hosting an Africa Cup of Nations match in Cameroon.
Victims are understood to have been admitted to the city’s Messassi hospital after the incident, which occurred as supporters attempted to gain access to the ground’s south entrance for the round-of-16 match. The circumstances, including whether the injuries occurred before kick-off or during the game, are unclear but a local official has said the crush had tragic consequences.
Naseri Paul Biya, governor of the central region of Cameroon, is reported by AP to have confirmed the number of casualties and suggested the number may rise. Hospital workers claim to have received at least 40 injured people who were involved.
“Some of the injured are in desperate condition,” said Olinga Prudence, a nurse. “We will have to evacuate them to a specialised hospital.”
The Confederation of African Football (Caf) said an incident had taken place and that they were trying to get further information. “Caf is currently investigating the situation and trying to get more details on what transpired,” their statement read.
The Associated Press: A gunman opened fire Monday during a lecture at Heidelberg University in southwestern Germany, killing one person and injuring several others.
The 18-year-old suspected gunman was a biology student at the university, said Siegfried Kollmar, the regional chief of police.
The suspect, a German citizen with no known police record, sent a phone message to his father shortly before the shooting mentioned that “people will be punished,” Kollmar told reporters.
The precise motive for the attack was still being investigated, but the suspect was known to have suffered from a psychological illness in the past, he added. His body was found outside by officers along with two firearms he had recently acquired abroad and about 100 rounds of ammunition, said Kollmar.
Police identified the woman who was killed as a 23-year-old German. Those who suffered minor wounds were two German women and a German-Italian man.
The shooting sparked a massive police response, with more than 400 officers sent to the scene.
Al Jazeera: Seven US sailors were injured when an F-35 crashed while landing on the USS Carl Vinson in South China Sea.
At least seven American sailors were injured following a “landing mishap” involving a combat aircraft on the deck of a nuclear-powered US carrier, which was sailing in the South China Sea, the US Navy has said.
In a statement issued late on Monday, the US Pacific Fleet command said that the F-35C Lightning II jet “was conducting routine flight operations” when the crash happened on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson.
“The pilot safely ejected from the aircraft and was recovered via US military helicopter,” the statement from the US Navy’s office in Hawaii said, adding that the airman “is in stable condition”.
Of the seven sailors who were injured, three were medically evacuated to a treatment facility in the Philippine capital of Manila.
WCBS-TV: The suspect who ambushed NYPD officers on Friday, killing one and gravely injuring another, has died.
Lashawn McNeil, the man police say opened fire on NYPD officers in Harlem, killing one and gravely injuring another, died at the hospital Monday, police sources told CBS2.
McNeil, 47, was shot in the head and right arm as he tried to flee the scene, police said.
Police recovered a gun at the scene and believe it was illegally purchased in Baltimore.
According to police, McNeil had been arrested five times before the deadly encounter and was on probation after being convicted of a felony drug charge in New York City in 2003. He was arrested four times outside the city on various charges, including assault on an officer and weapon possession.
Sources told CBS2 McNeil also had a history of posting anti-police and anti-government messages on social media.
WNBC-TV: New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday outlined a plan to combat gun violence, including bringing back a disbanded anti-gun unit of the NYPD.
The Associated Press: Defense attorneys Monday said former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin called ‘all of the shots’ when George Floyd was killed in 2020.
Prosecutors in the trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights accused the men Monday of standing by as fellow Officer Derek Chauvin “slowly killed George Floyd right in front of them.”
But one defense attorney countered during opening statements of the former officers’ trial that Chauvin called “all of the shots” as the senior officer at the scene and criticized the Minneapolis Police Department for doing too little to train officers to intervene when a colleague should be stopped. Another officer’s attorney focused on Floyd’s struggle with police before they restrained him. And an attorney for the third officer said his client raised concerns about the restraint of Floyd, but was rebuffed.
Former Officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are broadly charged with depriving Floyd of his civil rights while acting under government authority. Floyd died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin pressed him to the ground with his knee on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes while the 46-year-old Black man was facedown, handcuffed and gasping for air. Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back, Lane held his legs and Thao kept bystanders from intervening.
Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter last year in state court in the videotaped killing that triggered worldwide protests and a reexamination of racism and policing. Chauvin also pleaded guilty to a federal count of violating Floyd’s civil rights.
“For second after second, minute after minute, these three CPR-trained defendants stood or knelt next to Officer Chauvin as he slowly killed George Floyd right in front of them,” prosecutor Samantha Trepel, who works for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, told the jury during opening statements. “They chose not to protect George Floyd, the man they had handcuffed and placed in their custody.”
Tom Plunkett, Kueng’s attorney, highlighted the rookie status of his client and Lane, and said both men deferred to Chauvin and called him “sir.”
“You’ll see and hear officer Chauvin call all of the shots,” said Plunkett, who also hammered at what he called the Minneapolis Police Department’s lack of training, including on intervention against the unreasonable use of force.
The Baltimore Sun: Three firefighters were killed and another is in critical condition after being trapped in a blaze in vacant Baltimore row home.
Three Baltimore firefighters were killed and a fourth remains on life support after being trapped in a blaze inside a vacant home Monday that’s one of the deadliest in the city’s history.
The firefighters were inside a rowhouse in the 200 block of S. Stricker St. in the city’s New Southwest/Mount Clare neighborhood when it partially collapsed.
Two firefighters were pronounced dead at University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Another firefighter was pronounced dead at the scene. They were identified as Lt. Paul Butrim, firefighter/paramedic Kelsey Sadler and EMT/firefighter Kenny Lacayo. EMT/firefighter John McMaster remains in the hospital. The four have served a collective 44 years with the department.
“Baltimore owes them the deepest gratitude and respect,” Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement released late Monday afternoon.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Police in Milwaukee said the six people found dead Sunday in a duplex were shot and killed.
Six people were found fatally shot inside a Milwaukee duplex Sunday afternoon.
The killing is the latest act of mass gun violence in the city that just last year recorded a record-high number of homicides.
Police discovered the bodies when they performed a welfare check at the duplex in the 2500 block of N. 21st Street, within the city's Park West neighborhood.
Four men and one woman were found dead when police initially arrived. Another victim, a man, was discovered inside the house hours later. Police are investigating all six deaths as homicides.
Police have not yet said what they believe occurred inside the home. All six people were fatally shot.
Police have not said if the suspected shooter was among those found dead, or if they are searching for someone else. They have not announced any arrests.
Late Sunday, police officials did stress there was "no information to suggest that there is a threat to the community," indicating authorities believe these were targeted shootings.
NBC News: The mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, has announced a probe into the police handling of black woman's death.
The mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, announced Monday that the police department's handling of the investigation into the death of a 23-year-old Black woman found unresponsive in her apartment in December by a man she had met on a Bumble date has been referred to its Office of Internal Affairs for an independent investigation.
This comes just days after an attorney for the woman's family said they plan to sue the city over what they described as the police department's "racially insensitive" handling of the case.
An attorney for the family filed a notice of claim Friday, charging that acting Assistant Police Chief Rebeca Garcia, Ganim and three other police officers violated the rights of Smith-Fields and her family under the 1983 Civil Rights Act and failed to provide her and her family with the due process accorded to them under the 14th Amendment.
Smith-Fields was found unresponsive Dec. 12 in her apartment in Bridgeport by the 37-year-old man, who is white, she had met on the dating app Bumble. NBC News is not naming the man because he has not been charged.
Smith-Fields' family has alleged that they were not notified of her death by police and instead learned about it from her landlord who directed them to a detective.
In his statement, Ganim said "sensitivity and care is of utmost importance when working with the family of a victim."
The Associated Press: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can appeal a U.K. ruling that opened the door for his extradition to U.S. on espionage charges.
The High Court in London gave Assange permission to appeal the case to the U.K. Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court must agree to accept the case before it can move forward.
“Make no mistake, we won today in court,” Assange’s fiancee, Stella Moris, said outside the courthouse, noting that he remains in custody at Belmarsh Prison in London.
“We will fight this until Julian is free,” she added.
The Supreme Court normally takes about eight sitting weeks after an application is submitted to decide whether to accept an appeal, the court says on its website.
The decision is the latest step in Assange’s long battle to avoid a trial in the U.S. on a series of charges related to WikiLeaks’ publication of classified documents more than a decade ago.
Just over a year ago, a district court judge in London rejected a U.S. extradition request on the grounds that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. U.S. authorities later provided assurances that the WikiLeaks founder wouldn’t face the severe treatment his lawyers said would put his physical and mental health at risk.
The High Court last month overturned the lower court’s decision, saying that the U.S. promises were enough to guarantee Assange would be treated humanely.
NPR: The Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear a case questioning affirmative action in higher education.
With the court already having heard arguments this term on abortion and guns, the affirmative action case marks yet another politically charged issue that threatens to uproot decades of legal doctrine. Arguments in the pair of cases will likely be heard in the court's new term, which begins in October.
The court will consider more than just the details of how Harvard and UNC operate their affirmative action programs. It will also reexamine 43 years of precedent by asking whether race can ever play a role in admissions.
Both cases were filed on the same day, back in 2014, by the conservative activist group Students for Fair Admissions. The suits claimed that Harvard and UNC impermissibly used race in their admissions process and discriminated against Asian Americans.
Starting in 1978, the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of affirmative action programs three times. In each of these cases, the court's controlling opinion was authored by a traditionally conservative justice. But three of the justices who voted against affirmative action in 2016 — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — are still on the court, and they now have been joined by three Trump-appointed conservatives.
In 1978 #SCOTUS told higher ed it could use race as one of many factors in admission, citing #Harvard as the const model. Now the court is on the verge of untelling all of that.USA Today: The Supreme Court Monday refused to hear a GOP lawsuit challenging proxy voting rules in the U.S. House in response to COVID-19.
POLITICO: A California lawmaker is proposing mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for all schoolchildren with a bill not allowing for personal or religious exemptions.
A California state senator is proposing to require that all schoolchildren receive a Covid-19 vaccine starting in 2023, a law that would be the nation's strictest student mandate if approved.
As detailed by state Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), the bill would not be contingent on a vaccine receiving full approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, nor would it allow for personal or religious exemptions. That would go beyond a previous order that Gov. Gavin Newsom issued in October.
"We're going to require a Covid-19 vaccine for school enrollment and eliminate a requirement that there has to be a personal belief exemption," Pan said in an interview Monday.
The news was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Newsom said last year that without further legislative changes, California would have to grant broad personal and religious exemptions for the Covid-19 vaccine. He also conditioned his student vaccine mandate on the FDA fully approving the shot for children, not only granting emergency use authorization.
WPIX-TV: A New York State Supreme Court judge ruled Monday that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s mask mandate was unconstitutional.
WRC-TV: Seven Virginia school districts are suing Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s over his executive order allowing families to opt out of mask mandates.
The Washington Post: The FDA Monday stopped use of two monoclonal antibody treatments against COVID-19 for now, saying they are ineffective against the omicron variant.
As a result, the Department of Health and Human Services, which distributes covid treatments to states, notified state health officials that it has halted distribution of the antibody medications made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly, according to an email sent to the states and obtained by The Washington Post.
Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement that data show the two antibody treatments “are highly unlikely to be active against the omicron variant, which is circulating at a very high frequency throughout the United States.” Omicron is responsible for more than 99 percent of cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The FDA official said it is “highly unlikely that covid-19 patients seeking care in the U.S. at this time are infected with a variant other than omicron, and these treatments are not authorized to be used at this time.” Cavazzoni added the antibodies could be used again if a future variant emerges that is susceptible to the therapies.
Administration officials hope that ending federal distribution of the two monoclonal antibody treatments to the states will prevent covid-19 patients from being given drugs that do not work against omicron. Senior officials last week called health officials in several states to urge them to stop using the Regeneron and Lilly drugs and pointed them to alternatives.
Several treatments remain effective against omicron, including sotrovimab — a monoclonal antibody made by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology — and antiviral pills by Pfizer and by Merck and its partner, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. In addition, the use of the antiviral drug remdesivir as an outpatient therapy recently got the green light from regulators.
However, several doctors and hospitals have complained that some of the covid treatments, including the Pfizer pill and sotrovimab, are in short supply.
The action on the monoclonal antibodies followed a move by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to set up new sites in his state that administer the treatments. DeSantis has said he is not convinced the therapies are ineffective against omicron and noted they work on cases caused by delta, the variant that previously was dominant.
FDA ends for now use of two monoclonal antibodies made by Regeneron and Eli Lilly -- due to ineffectiveness against omicron. Important to note that sotrovimab — a monoclonal antibody made by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology — still worksCNN: The CDC has added five more Caribbean island destinations to its highest level of travel risk over COVID-19.
NBC News: Pharmacies and health centers have begun distributing the first of the 400 million free N95 masks to the public.
Sky News: UK police said Tuesday morning they are investigating potential COVID-19 lockdown breaches at Downing Street.
The Metropolitan Police has launched an investigation into "a number of events" in Downing Street and Whitehall over potential breaches of coronavirus regulations.
"I can confirm that the Met is now investigating a number of events that took place at Downing Street and Whitehall in the last two years in relation to potential breaches of COVID-19 regulations," Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick told the London Assembly.
Disclosures surrounding a range of gatherings in Downing Street and a number of government departments during COVID restrictions in 2020 and 201 have put pressure on Boris Johnson, with the prime minister facing calls to resign from opposition parties and some of his own backbench MPs.
In the latest revelation, Number 10 has admitted the PM had a birthday celebration inside Downing Street during the first COVID lockdown in 2020.
Mr Johnson has already admitted attending a garden party in Downing Street in May of that year, which was described by one of his aides as a "bring your own booze" event.
NBC News: Federal agents Monday raided the Chicago-area headquarters of a national pop-up testing chain called the Center for COVID Control.
The FBI assisted in the search of the facility in Rolling Meadows, Ill., according to the spokesperson, Yvonne Gamble. An FBI spokesperson confirmed to NBC News that the agency conducted “court -authorized law enforcement activity in Rolling Meadows” on Saturday.
The Center for COVID Control has the same registered address as a laboratory called Doctors Clinical Laboratory that conducted hundreds of thousands of PCR tests using specimens collected by the pop-up testing company, according to a company spokesperson.
Both the pop-up testing company and the lab have been under investigation by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as well as multiple state attorneys general.
The company has billed the federal government more than $120 million for testing uninsured Americans, according to federal records. A spokesperson for the Center for COVID Control did not respond to a request for comment about the search, which was first reported by USA Today. Emails and phone messages left at the Doctors Clinical Laboratory were not returned.
In multiple public documents, the two companies have listed the same address at 1685 Winnetka Cir, Rolling Meadows, IL 60008, but the Center for COVID Control’s spokesperson previously told NBC News the two companies are separate entities and there is “no cross-ownership.”
A spokesperson for the Illinois attorney general confirmed their office is working with federal law enforcement.
CNBC: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has tested positive for COVID-19, delaying the start of her defamation trial against The New York Times.
Unvaccinated former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin tested positive for Covid, a federal judge told a courtroom before he postponed the scheduled start Monday of a defamation trial involving the one-time Alaska governor and The New York Times that was set to begin.
Palin’s civil suit against the Times now will be heard by a jury in Manhattan federal court on Feb. 3 as a result of her Covid-19 status.
She disclosed in March that she had been diagnosed then with the coronavirus.
Last month, Palin said that she will get a Covid-19 vaccine “over my dead body.”
Judge Jed Rakoff announced in court Monday that he learned Sunday evening that the 57-year-old Palin was again positive for the virus.
“She is of course unvaccinated,” Rakoff said.
After a second test confirmed Palin was positive for Covid, Rakoff postponed the trial start date to February.
The mother of five sued the Times and its former editorial page editor for allegedly damaging her reputation with a 2017 editorial that suggested an image produced by Palin’s political action committee incited the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona.
OutKick: Bill Maher: ‘I will never get a booster shot.’
CNBC: Stocks mounted a stunning comeback Monday with the Dow closing in the green after an earlier 1,000-point loss.
Stocks mounted a dramatic comeback on Monday as investors stepped in to buy beaten-up tech shares following a sharp sell-off earlier in the day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 99.13 points, or 0.3%, at 34,364.50, gaining for the first day in seven. The S&P 500 finished higher by 0.3% at 4,410.13. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.6% at 13,855.13. The Russell 2000 index of small-cap shares closed up as well.
The Nasdaq Composite Index turned positive after being down as much as 4.9% earlier in the session. The Dow rallied after being down 1,115 points at one point. The S&P 500 closed in the green after briefly hitting a correction earlier in the session, falling more than 10% from its Jan. 3 record close.
Monday marked one of the best market comebacks in a long time. The session was the first time since the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008 that the Nasdaq Composite had been down more than 4% on the session and closed up. For the Dow, which was down 3.25% at its low, it was the biggest intraday comeback since the wild trading of March 2020.
CNBC: Bitcoin also turned positive Monday, trading at one point in the afternoon above $37,000 after initially falling below $33,000.
The New York Times: Sheldon Silver, a former New York Democratic leader that held sway in state politics for decades, has died while serving a prison sentence.
Sheldon Silver, the once-indomitable leader of the New York State Assembly whose career and reputation were undone by a 2015 corruption conviction, died on Monday. He was 77.
Mr. Silver had been incarcerated at Devens Federal Medical Centerin Ayer, Mass., according to Judith Rapfogel, his former chief of staff. Kristie Breshears, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Prisons, said in a statement that Mr. Silver had died at the nearby Nashoba Valley Medical Center.
The cause of death was not immediately clear, but Mr. Silver had a history of cancer and chronic kidney disease, according to statements made by his lawyers in 2020.
A Lower East Side Democrat whose rise to power began with his election in 1976, Mr. Silver was known as a master of Albany’s labyrinths of power, controlling the Assembly — and its dominant Democratic majority — as its speaker for two decades, from 1994 to 2015.
Fox News: President Joe Biden called and apologized to a Fox News reporter Monday night after calling him a ‘stupid son-of-a-bitch’ earlier in the afternoon when asked about inflation.
During an event on Monday evening, Doocy attempted to ask Biden a question about inflation, to which the president responded by calling him a "stupid son of a b----."
Appearing on "Hannity," Doocy said the president reached out to him "within about an hour of that exchange."
"He said ‘It’s nothing personal, pal,'" Doocy said. "And we went back and forth, and we were talking about just kind of moving forward, and I made sure to tell him that I'm always gonna try to ask something different than what everybody else is asking. And he said, ‘You got to.’ And that's a quote from the president, so I'll keep doing it."
Biden met with the Competition Council and members of his cabinet Monday to discuss ways to lower prices for American families.
Biden knocked the first reporter, who asked about the administration's call with European leaders as tensions between Russia and Ukraine rise.
"Will you take questions on inflation then?" Doocy then asked. "Do you think inflation will be a political liability ahead of the midterms?"
As Doocy and the other reporters were being shooed away, Biden took a swipe at the Fox News correspondent.
"That’s a great asset, more inflation. What a stupid son of a b----," Biden said to his cabinet.
POLITICO: Capitol Police have quietly started scrutinizing the backgrounds and social media of people who meet with lawmakers.
After the Jan. 6 insurrection, the Capitol Police’s intelligence unit quietly started scrutinizing the backgrounds of people who meet with lawmakers, according to three people familiar with the matter.
POLITICO also viewed written communications describing the new approach, part of a host of changes that the department implemented after the Capitol attack. Examining the social media feeds of people who aren’t suspected of crimes, however, is a controversial move for law enforcement and intelligence officials given the civil liberties concerns it raises.
Among those who have been subject to new Capitol Police scrutiny are Hill staffers, the three people said. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) said in an interview that he is unaware of any members who know about the “very, very bad” practice.
“Whatever they think that sounds like for security, it sounds dangerously close — if not already over the line — to spying on members of Congress, their staff, their constituents and their supporters,” said Armstrong, a former criminal defense attorney.
“Anybody involved with implementing this without making it known to the actual members of Congress should resign or be fired immediately,” he added. “And I’m not big on calling for resignations.”
Several Capitol Police intelligence analysts have already raised concerns about the practice to the department’s inspector general, according to one of the people who spoke for this story.
The Capitol Police, in a statement, defended the practice of searching for public information about people meeting with lawmakers and said the department coordinates the work with members’ offices.
“The more public information we have, the better we can understand what kind and how much security is necessary,” the statement said.
CNBC: A bipartisan group of lawmakers Monday called on House leaders to 'swiftly' ban members from trading stocks.
The 27 members, including 25 Democrats and two Republicans, signed a letter drafted by Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) and addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
"There is no reason that members of Congress need to be allowed to trade stocks when we should be focused on doing our jobs and serving our constituents," the letter, first reported by Insider, reads.
The members write that the law in place to prevent lawmakers from trading on nonpublic information, known as the the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK, Act, is not sufficient, citing suspect trading activity from several members of Congress in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"In addition to ensuring that members' access to information doesn't advantage them over the public when trading stocks, as the STOCK Act sought, this would end the potential corruption of lawmakers pursuing policy outcomes that benefit their portfolios," the letter reads.
When questioned in December, Pelosi threw cold water on a potential ban. "This is a free market," she said.
But last week, Pelosi seemed to change course and said during a press conference that "if members want to do that, I'm OK with that." She has also asked the Committee on House Administration to look into increasing the fines for breaking the STOCK Act, according to Insider.
NBC News: Democrats face a double-digit enthusiasm deficit ahead of midterms.
Democrats have a big enthusiasm problem 10 months before the midterm election, according to our NBC News poll.
While Democrats hold a narrow 1-point lead in congressional preference, Republicans enjoy a double-digit enthusiasm advantage, with 61 percent of Republicans saying they are very interested in the upcoming midterms — registering their interest either as a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale.
That’s compared with 47 percent of Democrats who have the same high level of interest.
In previous midterm cycles — whether 2006, 2010, 2014 or 2018 — the party that held a double-digit advantage in enthusiasm (or close to it) ended up making substantial gains, our pollsters say.
2006: D+13 in high interest (Democrats picked up 30 House seats)
2010: R+17 (GOP picked up 63 House seats)
2014: R+11 (GOP picked up 13 House seats)
2018: D+9 (Democrats picked up 40 House seats)
Now: R+14 (???)
The Hill: A new poll shows former President Donald Trump leading the 2024 Republican field with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in front if the former president declines to run.
Axios: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's political action committee spent $30,000 on media training amid speculation he may launch a run for president.
The Associated Press: Democrats’ worst nightmares on gerrymandering are unlikely to come true.
The Associated Press: Alabama's new congressional district maps were blocked by judges Monday who said the state should have two districts with black voters as a sizeable portion of the electorate.
The Jerusalem Post: Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a plea deal Monday that would ban him from politics for the next seven years.
The moral turpitude clause that the prosecution insisted on in his public corruption cases would have prevented Netanyahu from running for public office for seven years (following what was expected to be a sentence of community service).
Although his lawyers had been urging him to take a deal in which he would avoid jail time, Netanyahu, in his first public comments on the issue, rejected media reports that he had agreed to the clause that would ban him from public office.
'In recent days there have been false reports as if I accepted the moral turpitude clause," Netanyahu said in the video. "This is simply not true."
He went on to say that the outpouring of public support had moved him and that he would continue leading the Likud and the right-wing camp in Israel.
Although the former prime minister could always change his mind, the public video announcement that he will continue leading the Likud and would not accept the moral turpitude clause seemed to end the possibility of a deal before Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit steps down on February 1.
Legal sources have said that Mandelblit would not agree to a deal without the moral turpitude clause.
The Guardian: For sale: A CIA ‘black site’ where terror suspects were tortured in Lithuania.
A menacing steel barn outside the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius where CIA terror suspects were once held in solitary confinement, subjected to constant light and high-intensity noise, is soon to go on the market.
The government’s real estate fund, which handles assets no longer needed by the state, said on Monday it was preparing to sell the notorious former “black site”, known as Project No 2 or Detention Site Violet, for an as-yet unknown price.
Part of Washington’s secret “extraordinary rendition” programme – in which suspected Islamist militants from conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq were captured and held in jails outside the US – the 10-room building served as a detention centre in 2005 and 2006.
In its windowless and soundproofed rooms, “one could do whatever one wanted”, Arvydas Anusauskas, who led a Lithuanian parliamentary investigation into the site in 2010, told Reuters. “What exactly was going on there, we did not determine.”
NPR: The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever built, has reached its final destination in space, a million miles away from Earth.
Thirty days after its launch, the tennis-court sized telescope made its way into a parking spot that's about a million miles away from Earth. From there, it will begin its ambitious mission to better understand the early days of our universe, peer at distant exoplanets and their atmosphere and help answer large-scale questions such as how quickly the universe is expanding.
"Webb, welcome home!" NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement Monday after the massive telescope's final course correction.
"We're one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can't wait to see Webb's first new views of the universe this summer!"
Controllers expect to spend the next three months adjusting the infrared telescope's mirror segments and testing out its instruments, added Bill Ochs, Webb project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
"We are now on the verge of aligning the mirrors, instrument activation and commissioning, and the start of wondrous and astonishing discoveries," Ochs said.
The Hollywood Reporter: CBS News is overhauling its streaming service, making changes to the entire programming lineup and adding new hosts.
“In the old days digital was a separate little thing, well now it is the tip of the spear,” CBS News and stations co-president Neeraj Khemlani tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “Every anchor, every reporter says ‘I want in.’ You also have an audience that is in their low 40s. This is not taking a lot of persuasion, we are at the right moment and right time to bring these things together.”
“It is an embarrassment of riches at CBS News, you have the most iconic franchises and brands and IP,” Khemlani adds, noting that some things have just been “sitting in the vault” waiting to be tapped.
And so some classic CBS News programming is being revived for the streaming service (which originally launched as CBSN in 2014), while some of its TV shows and other popular segments are being reimagined as full-fledged streaming series.
Person-To-Person, the interview series launched by Edward R. Murrow in 1953, will be brought back with CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell at the helm. And CBS Reports, the documentary series that originally debuted in 1959, will be revived as a series that takes “a deeper dive into the key issues that are driving the national and global conversation,” per CBS. CBS Mornings‘ Gayle King will lead the premiere episode on Feb. 25 with a special exploring the death of Trayvon Martin 10 years later.
Meanwhile, CBS Sunday Morning will get a streaming presence through a series called Here Comes The Sun. Other series include Eye On America, led by CBS Saturday Morning anchor Michelle Miller, The Uplift, hosted by CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil, On The Road with Steve Hartmann, which will take the recurring TV segment and turn it into a regular series, The Dish, which is a streaming adaptation of CBS Saturday Morning‘s cooking segments, Climate Watch, and Moneywatch.
During the day, a rotating lineup of CBS anchors and correspondents (including Vladimir Duthiers, Jeff Glor, and Dana Jacobson, among others) will anchor news hours, with a Washington D.C.-based program Red And Blue taking over the 6 pm hour. 7 pm will feature another news hour, while the primetime hours will include the streaming originals (like Person-To-Person) as well as content from shows like 60 Minutes and 48 Hours. The CBS Evening News will stream in its entirety at 10 pm. The national, newly titled CBS News Streaming service will also operate out of a new studio built for it at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York.
CBS News Streaming Network Launches from New Studio with New Programming Slate Showcasing Iconic Franchises as well as Anchors and Reporters Across CBS News CBS News Miami Becomes 13th Local Streaming Service cbsn.ws/3GW0FM1CNN: Former ‘Nightly News’ anchor Brian Williams, who recently left MSNBC, turned down an offer to anchor the ‘CBS Evening News.’
TVNewser: Jake Tapper will host a new weekly show on CNN+.
Variety: Sony has acquired Bob Dylan’s recorded music catalog and rights to future releases in a deal worth at least $150 million.
Sony Music Entertainment today announced it has fully acquired Bob Dylan’s entire back catalog of recorded music, as well as the rights to multiple future new releases, in a major expansion of SME’s six-decade relationship with the artist.
Sources tell Variety that the deal was worth between $150 million and $200 million, although the number was not confirmed; reps for Sony and Dylan declined comment.
This agreement, concluded in July 2021, comprises the entirety of Bob Dylan’s recorded body of work since 1962, beginning with the artist’s self-titled debut album and continuing through 2020’s “Rough and Rowdy Ways.”
Late in 2020 Dylan sold his song catalog to Universal Music Publishing for an amount sources say was near $400 million; he also donated his personal archives to the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Okla., which is scheduled to open in May of this year.
The Daily Beast: Neil Young wants his music off Spotify in response to the ‘fake information about vaccines’ being spread on the streaming platform by Joe Rogan.
This day in history: In 1990, Avianca Flight 52 crashes in Long Island, killing 73 after a miscommunication between the flight crew and JFK Airport. Here’s the original New York Times report published in the following day’s paper:
A Colombian jetliner carrying at least 149 people crashed in heavy fog last night in Cove Neck, L.I., while approaching Kennedy International Airport for a landing, the authorities said.
A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, Kathleen Bergen, said that at least 9 people were killed and at least 87 were injured. The plane was identified as Avianca Flight 052, a Boeing 707 that had originated in Bogota, Colombia.
The Associated Press quoted officials of the New York City Emergency Medical Services as saying that 25 to 30 people were killed.
The authorities said it was unclear what caused the crash. They said that the plane apparently lost power in at least one of four engines, but that there were conflicting reports on whether the plane had run out of fuel or whether it had simply dumped its fuel to make the emergency landing. There were no reports of explosion or fire.
