________
________
________
from BBC News (UK)
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said further investigation is needed to conclusively rule out that Covid-19 emerged from a laboratory in China. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that although a lab leak was the least likely cause, more research was needed. The US and other countries have criticised China for failing to provide the WHO with sufficient data. Beijing has always dismissed the allegations of a virus leak. A report by WHO and Chinese experts released on Tuesday, said the lab leak explanation was highly unlikely and the virus had probably jumped from bats to humans via another intermediary animal. China has yet to respond to the WHO's latest statement.
________
from Democracy Now!
Indigenous Activists Criminally Charged in South Dakota over Keystone XL Pipeline Resistance
In South Dakota, two Indigenous activists face criminal charges over their roles in opposing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline — which President Biden halted on his first day in office. The pair are among a small number of water and land defenders who’ve vowed to maintain an encampment on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation near the pipeline route until all pipeline infrastructure is removed. Jasilyn Charger faces up to a year in prison for an act of nonviolent civil disobedience. And Oscar High Elk faces up to 22 years in prison for what his supporters say are trumped-up charges, including aggravated assault on law enforcement. This is Oscar High Elk’s aunt speaking from the courthouse last week.
________
Indigenous Activists Criminally Charged in South Dakota over Keystone XL Pipeline Resistance
In South Dakota, two Indigenous activists face criminal charges over their roles in opposing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline — which President Biden halted on his first day in office. The pair are among a small number of water and land defenders who’ve vowed to maintain an encampment on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation near the pipeline route until all pipeline infrastructure is removed. Jasilyn Charger faces up to a year in prison for an act of nonviolent civil disobedience. And Oscar High Elk faces up to 22 years in prison for what his supporters say are trumped-up charges, including aggravated assault on law enforcement. This is Oscar High Elk’s aunt speaking from the courthouse last week.
________
from The Heritage Foundation
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
Conservatives often speak of Judeo-Christian values and how the current civil war in the United States and the rest of the West is essentially a battle between those values and the left, which rejects Judeo-Christian values. They are right. But they rarely explain what Judeo-Christian values are. Yet, without an explanation, mentioning Judeo-Christian values is useless.
Iran wants sanctions lifted before coming to the negotiating table, while the U.S. demands that Iran return to compliance by halting uranium enrichment. If Biden concedes to Iran’s demands and lifts sanctions, Congress must use its constitutional authority to impose its own sanctions on Iran. Congressional sanctions would be a powerful signal to U.S. partners such as Israel and Saudi Arabia that the U.S. will not reward bad actors in the Middle East.
The upcoming Group of Seven (G-7) trade ministers meeting will offer the first glimpse of how Tai will exercise her trade-negotiation know-how in practice. Reforming and upgrading the WTO is a priority issue for the U.S. and its trading partners, particularly the European Union. It’s rather encouraging to hear that Tai said that she plans to form an alliance with trading partners to push China on unfair trade practices.
The events of the last year have demonstrated to many families that public schools are not always the reliable institutions many thought they were. In response to these disappointments, multiple state legislatures are undertaking one of the biggest expansions of school choice in history. In addition to these nine states, dozens of other are considering measures to expand education freedom and opportunity to students.
Members of Congress should focus on crafting legislation that benefits the American people, not on making deals at the expense of taxpayers. Congress banned earmarks in 2011 because of corruption and wasteful spending, but some lawmakers are pushing for their return. Congress should maintain the ban on earmarks and use the power of the purse appropriately.
________
from Hoover Institution
Nonprofit Organization in Stanford, California
The Next Great Plague
During the past year, the globe has gone through a time that to most of its people, at least in the developed world, has appeared to be an entirely new experience. A plague of considerable virulence has rippled across the world and resulted in the deaths of millions as well as untold damage to national economies. In some respects, the response has been impressive: the astonishing development of workable vaccines in less than a year and the initial and substantial deployment of those vaccines in a little over a year are cases in point. The numbers of those becoming infected and those dying appear to be dropping and we have probably passed the worst months. The death toll is indeed harrowing, but it is in fact relatively low in comparison to those who have been infected.
________
from National Review RIGHT BIAS
It’s not ‘Jim Crow’ to require ID, to expand weekend voting, or to provide food and drink for the general public near polling places.
President Joe Biden is so committed to bipartisan cooperation and fact-based governance that he’s launched an ignorant and incendiary attack on the new Georgia voting law. Biden says the new law is “Jim Crow in the 21st century” and “an un-American law to deny people the right to vote.” It’s now practically mandatory for Democrats to launch such unhinged broadsides. Elizabeth Warren, accusing Georgia governor Brian Kemp of having stolen his 2018 election victory over Democratic activist Stacey Abrams (a poisonous myth), tweeted, “The Republican who is sitting in Stacey Abrams’ chair just signed a despicable voter suppression bill into law to take Georgia back to Jim Crow.” Anyone making this charge in good faith either doesn’t understand the hideousness of Jim Crow or the provisions of the Georgia law.
It’s an entirely legitimate question raised by the Left’s increasingly rigid opposition to basic voting safeguards.
One of the problems with debates about voting laws is that many Democratic politicians and progressive commentators simply refuse to admit the premises of their own arguments. Their slogans are seductively easy: Government should never do anything to make it harder to cast more votes, and always do everything to make it easier to cast more votes. The trouble arises when you apply that logic blindly and reflexively to the real world: It means opposing the very existence of laws and rules governing registration and voting. Laws, after all, make it harder to do almost anything — even when “harder” means that the process overall is easier because government imposes order, but requires citizens to take some affirmative steps to learn the rules and comply with them. Is it “harder” to drive because you have to obey red lights and traffic signs? Yes, because you are not free to do whatever you want; no, because the roads work better for everyone as a result. Conservatives believe that we should, in general, have fewer laws, but not no laws: We recognize that having some laws is necessary for order, and order is necessary for the exercise of a citizen’s liberty.
________
from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
________
________
________
from The Washington Examiner
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED, News & Media Website in Washington, DC
One of the biggest government power grabs we’ve seen over the last year has largely flown under the radar: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s unilateral move at the start of the pandemic to largely prohibit evictions nationwide. You may have missed the news, but this unprecedented “eviction moratorium” just got extended by the Biden administration. “The CDC has just announced that it is extending its nationwide eviction moratorium through June,” the National Review reports. “The original CDC eviction moratorium from September made it a crime — punishable by up to one year of imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000 — to evict certain tenants for nonpayment of rent.”
________
from The Washington Post
Newspaper in Washington, D.C.
During his first news conference, President Biden became especially passionate when discussing a law being pressed by Republican lawmakers in Georgia that he said was intended to make it harder for people to vote. He reiterated those concerns the next day in a written statement after Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed the bill into law.
________
No comments:
Post a Comment