Your First Look at Today's Top Stories - Daybreak Insider

Having trouble viewing this email? View the web version.

Sponsored By

Friday, February 25, 2022

Subscribe for free to the Daybreak Insider Podcast, and hear the latest reporting and analysis on these stories and more every weekday morning. Click here to subscribe.

Biden Announces New Sanctions

From the Washington Post: The United States and its allies have now targeted all 10 of Russia’s largest financial institutions through a combination of “full blocking” sanctions that choke off all transactions with U.S. entities, as well as “correspondent” sanctions that bar transactions with U.S. banks, and debt and equity sanctions on institutions holding nearly 80 percent of Russian bank assets, the White House said. The sanctions target not only Russia’s largest state-owned banks but also a number of Russian political and business elites. They also penalize companies in virtually every major sector of the economy, including mining and minerals as well as telecommunications and railways (Washington Post). He announced sanctions this morning. But, at one point, Biden said “No one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening…Putin’s not going to say ‘oh, my god, the sanctions are coming’” (Fox News). From Katie Pavlich: Given the position of the West and the lack of unity, specifically from Germany, Putin may just go beyond Ukraine to test NATO and see if they’ll actually respond (Twitter). From Hugh Hewitt: “‘These sanctions exceed SWIFT,’” says @BretBaier quoting @POTUS. “We’ll see about that.” Bret is right to focus on this weakest link in @POTUS remarks, which reflects weakest link in Allies’ position. It’s not believable for POTUS to say “stronger than SWIFT” (Twitter). The Wall Street Journal explains Swift (WSJ). From Mitch McConnell: Putin’s initial aggression was just a small foretaste of what this thug had planned for Ukraine. America’s response will be measured carefully by our friends, by our adversaries, and by history itself. We cannot afford to fail this test (Twitter).

Russia Continues March Into Ukraine

From the story: “They are killing people and transforming peaceful cities into military targets,” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a television address in Kyiv after midnight. “That’s villainous and will never be forgiven.” Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine had sustained 137 dead and 316 injured on Thursday. He said Russia wasn’t only striking military targets but also civilian sites. Roughly 100,000 Ukrainians have been displaced, according to estimates from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (WSJ). The Chernobyl staffers are being held hostage (Fox News). Men aged 18 through 60 can’t leave Ukraine (Daily Wire). 10,000 automatic rifles were given to civilians in Kyiv (Twitter). From Dan Crenshaw: Ukrainian government giving weapons to anyone who wants to fight. Good. Get some. May God be with you as you fight for your freedom (Twitter). Some fantastic visuals in this Daily Mail story on the war (Daily Mail). Live updates from: Fox News, New York Times, ABC News.

Russians Protest War

Russian police are dealing with the daring protestors with brute force (Twitter). A Ukrainian teacher, bloodied by a Russian missile strike that hit her home, says a “very strong guardian angel” is the reason she’s alive (NY Post).

White House: No Plans to Sanction Russian Oil

It came with this statement: “Our sanctions are not designed to cause any disruption to the current flow of energy from Russia to the world” (Twitter). From Marc Thiessen: Russian President Vladimir Putin was emboldened to launch his full-scale invasion of Ukraine because he believed that President Biden was bluffing when he threatened serious consequences. On Thursday, Biden proved him right (Washington Post). From Dan McLaughlin: Business as usual (Twitter). From Andrew McCarthy: Europe is dependent on Russia for 40 percent of its gas and 25 percent of its crude oil, and if a SWIFT exclusion prevented Russia from reaping the profits from that commerce, Putin would shut off the taps. Europe has no contingency for dealing with that, and additionally, we now depend on Russia for 7 percent of our oil imports — about 595,000 barrels per day. (Note also that the price exceeded $100 per barrel for a time today, before receding back to $93, around where it’s been for weeks, which is higher than it’s been in eight years.) Consequently, when Biden omitted any mention of SWIFT from his catalogue of sanctions this afternoon, and then was inevitably asked about it by reporters, he tap-danced. And, being Biden, that means his answers were internally contradictory (National Review). From Joe Biden: America stands up to bullies. We stand up for freedom. That’s who we are (Twitter). From the Washington Examiner Editorial Board: … the Biden administration should unleash the U.S. energy export market in order to check skyrocketing energy prices and ease Europe’s reliance on Russian natural gas exports. Regulations should be cut, export grants expedited, and domestic extraction of natural gas expanded. The time has now come for Europe to abandon dramatically and systemically the delusion that Russia under Putin can be an energy partner. Recent decisions by France to restart its nuclear energy program, and by Germany to suspend the Nord Stream 2 energy pipeline, are welcome. But both efforts must be permanent (Washington Examiner).

Noonan: With Putin, It Will Get Uglier

From Peggy Noonan: It is ugly and will get uglier. Vladimir Putin isn’t going to stop anytime soon. You don’t launch a full-scale military assault on another nation and two days later say, “Oh, I think I’ve made my point,” and go home. He was never interested in negotiations, he was never open to argument, he set this in motion and will follow through to the imagined victory point in his head. He has shocked the West. He wanted to shock the West (WSJ). From Dan McLaughlin: Putin is 69 years old, and he has been leading Russia for over two decades, most of that as effectively a dictator. The life of a dictator is isolated and paranoid: The strongman has no peers, often has nobody who can contradict him without fear or bring him bad news without happy talk, and must always fear plots around him. The isolation has doubtless deepened in the past two years of pandemic for Putin, as it has for all of us. His behavior in recent appearances suggests a man who has consumed too much of his own propaganda, a common ailment for aging dictators (National Review).

John Kerry to Putin: Keep Combating Climate Change

The tone-deaf former Secretary of State said “I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate” (Washington Times). From the Wall Street Journal: Mr. Kerry’s comments aren’t a gaffe. They reveal the Biden Administration’s obsession with climate, and with punishing fossil-fuel production, which has made the U.S. and Europe vulnerable to Mr. Putin’s energy blackmail. The climate lobby has made Mr. Putin more powerful. Every time Mr. Kerry visits Moscow, the boys in the Kremlin must think it’s Christmas (WSJ). From David Freddoso: This guy was almost president. Bullet dodged (Twitter).

Former Heavyweight Boxing Champions Fight for Ukraine

The brothers, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, age 45 and 50, vowed to stay and fight (NY Post). According to sports columnist Dan Wetzel “Both Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko – sons of a Major General in the old Soviet Air Force – made millions as heavyweight boxing champs. They could be safely living anywhere in the world. Instead they are in their native Ukraine vowing to take up arms and fight Russia. Heroes” (Twitter).

CDC: Some of You (But Not Many) Can Take Your Masks Off

Much of the country already ignores the CDC. But for those who don’t, the story tells us, “the agency recommends that anyone living in areas with substantial or high transmission of the coronavirus, as defined by case counts, should wear masks in public indoor spaces like gyms, movie theaters and full-capacity houses of worship. That means that people living in 95 percent of the counties in the United States should continue wearing masks indoors” (NY Times). From Carol Liebau: The CDC refuses to publish vaccine information for those aged 18 to 49. What’s more, it’s failed to provide information on child hospitalizations. The rationale is the data might be misinterpreted to demonstrate that the vaccines were ineffective. That’s not the way a government treats a free citizenry (Townhall Review).

More than Half of Abortions Now Done Through Medication

A trend that arose during covid.

Washington Examiner

10.

Black Female City Councilwoman Switches from Democrat to Republican

South Carolina’s Harriet Holman explained “… it’s just some things that I had looked at… um, that I just didn’t agree with any longer. And one of the things was I am just totally pro-life and I am for capitalism and I am for funding the police and so those things are what made me make my final decision.”

Biz Pac Review