The United States is preparing a major response to the suspicious death of Alexei Navalny.

Tuesday, February 20, 2024
BY JULIA CLAIRE & CROOKED MEDIA

- CNN’s MJ Lee ([link removed]) doing the kind of accurate reporting we love to see!

The highly suspicious death of Alexei Navalny, which the Russian dissident’s wife calls a “murder,” continues to reverberate throughout the world.

* The U.S. will pursue major sanctions against Russia ([link removed]) to hold the Kremlin accountable for the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny last week, President Joe Biden said Tuesday. Navalny died in a Russian penal colony in the Arctic Circle at the age of 47. He was serving a prison sentence of over 30 years on trumped-up charges of extremism and fraud, which he denied. Russian authorities have provided no additional details about the circumstances surrounding his death, only that he “felt unwell after a walk” on February 16 ([link removed]) . Biden and Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, have placed the blame squarely on Putin.


* The forthcoming package will be announced on Friday. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the sanctions “will be a substantial package covering a range of different elements of the Russian defense industrial base,” as well as major sources of revenue for the Russian economy that powers the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.

* National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the new sanctions are also a response to Russia’s continued aggression in Ukraine, which has dragged on for almost two years. He also stressed that one of the most powerful actions the United States could take would be for Congress to pass an emergency spending bill that would provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. President Biden went a step further, saying: “The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten.”

Washington had previously imposed sanctions over the 2020 poisoning and imprisonment of Navalny, targeting individuals linked to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and other officials. That’s on top of all of the sanctions stemming from the war in Ukraine, so it’s tough to say how much real pain any further sanctions could inflict.

Join us tomorrow, February 21st, for a subscriber exclusive roundtable on the Friends of the Pod Discord. Meet and chat directly with Black Crooked staffers who work across some of your favorite Crooked shows like Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It! If you’re not already a part of the community, sign up now at crooked.com/friends ([link removed]) for access.
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The Supreme Court of Alabama ruled on Friday that frozen embryos should be considered people ([link removed]) and therefore individuals can be held liable for destroying them. The decision threatens to effectively end in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the state, and could affect hundreds of thousands of patients who depend on IVF and related treatments every year. At least 11 states have broadly defined personhood in their state laws as beginning at fertilization, according to the reproductive rights group Pregnancy Justice ([link removed]) . The Alabama case focused on whether a patient who mistakenly dropped and destroyed other couples’ frozen embryos could be sued and held liable for wrongful death.
To say that mandating fertilized eggs and frozen embryos be given the same protections as fully-gestated babies sets a terrifying precedent is an understatement. This ruling is a win for the anti-abortion movement, which has long sought to regulate IVF as a means to further expanding the limits of “fetal personhood.” Alabama voters passed a ballot measure in 2018 that granted fetuses full personhood, and after the fall of Roe vs. Wade, the state enacted a near-total abortion ban. According to Pregnancy Justice, nearly half of all criminal cases related to pregnancy in the United States come from Alabama. In Friday’s ruling Alabama State Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker quoted the Bible in his written opinion as justification for the decision, because I guess we’re just treating separation of church and state as a light suggestion these days!

The United States vetoed a United Nations resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages on Tuesday ([link removed]) in a U.N. Security Council vote. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield called the resolution “wishful and irresponsible.”


Israel Defense Forces ordered two Gaza City neighborhoods to evacuate on Tuesday ([link removed]) , even as much of the enclave’s northern cities have been reduced to rubble from months of airstrikes and ground operations.


The World Food Program announced on Tuesday that it has paused food deliveries to northern Gaza because of increasing chaos across the territory ([link removed]) , adding to fears of starvation in an area already under famine.


Capital One announced on Monday that it would acquire Discover Financial Services in an all-stock transaction valued at a staggering $35.3 billion ([link removed]) . FTC, DOJ, u up?


A bill is advancing through the West Virginia state legislature that would make it easier for the state to prosecute teachers and librarians for “obscenity” ([link removed]) related to certain books and teaching materials. Teaching children they will burn in hell? Still A-okay!


Former “family vlog” YouTuber Ruby Franke was sentenced to four consecutive prison terms of one-to-15 years each by a Utah district court on Tuesday ([link removed]) . She and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt—who received the same sentence—pleaded guilty to second-degree aggravated child abuse after being charged with six felony counts.


A group of 13 GOP losers in the Senate—among them, obviously are Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Ted Cruz (R-TX)—are pressuring senate minority leader Mitch McConnell to help them force a full impeachment trial for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayoras ([link removed]) , and block Democrats from quickly dismissing the whole thing.

Trump’s former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley declared she will stay in the GOP primary until Super Tuesday ([link removed]) even if her former boss continues shellacking her at the ballot box.
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The Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to hear a challenge to the new admissions system at a prestigious magnet high school in Northern Virginia ([link removed]) that sought to level the playing field for prospective students. Thomas Jefferson High School—often cited as one of the nation’s best high schools—changed its admissions review process in 2020 to consider what some experts call “race-neutral” factors, such as a student’s residential neighborhood and socioeconomic status, and reserved a set number of seats for students from each middle school in Fairfax County. They also did away with the $100 application fee and notoriously-difficult admissions test, but the school still requires a 3.5 unweighted GPA. The first admitted class using this new process saw increases in Black and Latino enrollment, as well as more low-income students, girls, and students for whom English is a second
language. The student body’s percentage of Asian American students dropped from 70 percent to 50 percent, which caused some parents of those students to accuse the school of intentionally designing the admissions process to decrease Asian enrollment. (Fairfax County is about 20 percent Asian, according to the Census Bureau ([link removed]) .) A lower court ruled that the new admissions review was constitutional, and the Supreme Court’s decision allows that ruling to stand. Fairfax County school board Chair Karl Frisch defended the updated process, saying: “We have long believed that the new admissions process is both constitutional and in the best interest of all of our students…. It guarantees that all qualified students from all neighborhoods in Fairfax County have a fair shot at attending this exceptional high school.”
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The Biden campaign raised $42 million in January ([link removed]) , and from the looks of these poll numbers ([link removed]) , they’ll need every penny!

Beyoncé became the first Black woman to top the Billboard Top 100 Country charts ([link removed]) with her new single “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
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