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

Having trouble viewing this email? View the web version.

Sponsored By

Thursday, March 3, 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.

Russia Continues to Target Civilians

A missile struck a large building in Kharkiv (Fox News). From the Wall Street Journal editorial board: Russia’s failure to topple the Kyiv government in a lightning strike has led to unwarranted optimism that Mr. Putin will lose this war. Ukrainians have fought splendidly, but Russian forces are still advancing in force on multiple fronts. President Biden sounded almost triumphal in his speech Tuesday about a united NATO and sanctions against Russia. But the U.S. goal shouldn’t merely be to unify the West. The goal is to stop Mr. Putin from conquering Ukraine and producing a humanitarian nightmare in the process. On that score Mr. Putin retains the advantage because he is unconstrained by the same niceties as the West (WSJ). The massive convoy heading toward Kyiv appears stalled (Fox News). Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies explains why he believes “Russia may have sought a knockout blow, but always had well-laid plans for follow-on assaults if its initial moves proved insufficient. The world has underestimated Putin before and those mistakes have led, in part, to this tragedy in Ukraine. We must be clear-eyed now that the war is underway” (Daily Mail). Satellite images show some of the devastation (Axios). A fascinating thread explains why so many Russian vehicles are getting stranded (Twitter).

Ukraine Offers to Return Prisoners of War to Their Mothers

Who must come to Kyiv to collect them. Story includes video of a Russian soldier who surrendered and was given pastries and drinks (Washington Examiner). From another story: On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that nearly 6,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the conflict, a much higher count than the 498 deaths Russia has claimed. “Russian mothers are losing their children in a completely foreign country,” Zelenskyy said in a video address. “Think of this number: almost 6,000 Russians died, Russian military, in six days of war” (Fox News). From Kevin McCarthy: Vladimir Putin has invaded a sovereign nation and terrorized its civilians. His aggression will not stop with Ukraine. The Biden administration must take immediate action to keep military aid flowing to Ukraine, displace Russian oil and gas, and regain global energy leadership (Twitter).

White House Sanctions Russian Oil Refining

And they hit Belarus with “sweeping restrictions” for helping Russia. The story later explains “The White House also took steps to further economically isolate Russia by hitting the country with export controls on oil refining equipment, which could deprive the country of a key source of revenue over the long term” (Fox Business). From Hugh Hewitt: Do they include sanctions on export of Russian oil and gas? Everything matters that raises economic pain for the regime but unless @JoeBiden drops this hammer on Putin’s energy cash cows, the U.S. is subsidizing his war and all that entails (Twitter).

Twitter Suspends Congresswoman for Tweet About Transgender Swimmer

Missouri’s Vicky Hartzler’s statement was simple and logical: “Women’s sports are for women, not men pretending to be women.” Twitter suspended her account. So when women speak up for female athletes, they get punished.

Free Beacon

Bill Barr’s Book Predicted Putin Would Be More Aggressive with Biden in Office

From the story: “I am afraid that, with a wavering, intermittently alert Joe Biden in the Oval Office, Vladimir Putin will pursue Russian strategic goals more assertively and feel little need to find agreed-upon frameworks with the United States,” writes Barr, who served as attorney general under George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump. “Given Biden’s manifest weakness, Putin is likely to feel he’s better off making no concessions at all,” he adds, before going on to argue that “demonizing Putin is not a foreign policy” (National Review). Senator Mitch McConnell argues that Biden’s disastrous pullout of Afghanistan “was a message to adversaries like Putin that America was rethinking our forward-leaning position in the world. If we had not cut and run in Afghanistan, I do not think Putin would have tried to invade Ukraine” (Hot Air).

Florida Senator Lays Out Plan Popular with Public

Polling shows Senator Rick Scott’s play for Republican governance is enormously popular, particularly term limits, beefing up domestic energy, and voter ID, all concepts above 75 percent approval.

Morning Consult

Democrats Planning to Call Any Opposition to Supreme Court Pick “Racist”

Seems to be their main argument for everything lately. The story includes a series of cries of racism already, just for suggesting Biden shouldn’t choose based upon race – a concept with which most Americans agree.

Heritage

D.C. Schools Ignore CDC, New Rules, Force Kids to Keep Wearing Masks

The school system continues to bully the most vulnerable.

Hot Air

New York Subway Crimes Skyrocket

Just as the new mayor is working to beef up police.

Fox News

10.

Biden Stumbles When Asked How Catholicism Squares with Abortion

In this video, after stumbling for over ten seconds, the president who judged and fired those who refused to get vaccinated said “I’m not gonna make a judgement for other people” (Twitter). From David Harsanyi: This has always been the most cowardly position on abortion. First of all, Biden wants to compel us to do all kinds of things based on his moral outlook. But if he believes the unborn is a life — as he’s claimed — supporting abortion is also a “judgement for other people” (Twitter).