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Your First Look at Today's Top Stories
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Wednesday, February 22, 2023
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Don't miss The Daybreak Daily — scroll to the bottom of these top news stories
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President Biden Promises Additional Support to Ukraine in Speech in Poland
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Associated Press: President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned of “hard and bitter days ahead” as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears the one-year mark, but vowed that no matter what, the United States and allies “will not waver” in supporting the Ukrainians. With Russia and Ukraine each preparing spring offensives, Biden insisted there will be no backing down from what he’s portrayed as a global struggle between democracy and autocracy — though polling suggests American support for ongoing military assistance appears to be softening ( Associated Press). CNBC: The latest military aid package, the 32nd such installment, brings U.S. military aid commitment to nearly $30 billion since Moscow invaded Ukraine last February. To date, the U.S. has contributed the lion’s share of Western weapons to Ukraine and deployed hundreds of thousands of American service members to NATO-member countries to bolster defenses ( CNBC).
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CNN’s Don Lemon to Return to Work Wednesday, to Complete Mandatory Training
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Associated Press: CNN anchor Don Lemon will return to work Wednesday and will receive “formal training” in the aftermath of his on-air comments about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, network CEO Chris Licht said in an email to employees Monday night. The memo did not specify the training. Licht added that it was important to him that the network “balances accountability with … fostering a culture in which people can own, learn and grow from their mistakes.” Lemon has not been on the air since Thursday, when he said the 51-year-old Haley was not “in her prime” during the broadcast of “CNN This Morning.” Lemon and fellow hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins had been discussing Haley’s suggestion that politicians over 75 should be subject to mandatory mental competency tests. Lemon issued a statement that same day saying he regretted his “inartful and irrelevant” comments, which were widely condemned ( Associated Press). Daily Mail: Furious female staffers at CNN have threatened to quit if Don Lemon stays on-air following his sexist comments last week that Nikki Haley and women in their 40s are ‘past their prime’ ( Daily Mail).
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Household Debt Reaches Highest Level Since 2008
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Fox News: U.S. household debt jumped to the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis last year as mortgages surged amid high inflation and rising interest rates, according to a new analysis published by WalletHub. The findings show that household debt – which increased by $320 billion in the final three months of 2022 – hit a 15-year-high of $17 trillion. On average, a typical household owed a total of $142,680 at the end of the year ( Fox News). WalletHub: Household mortgage debt increased by $290 billion in 2022, the second highest annual increase since the end of the Great Recession ( WalletHub).
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EPA Demands Norfolk Southern Rail Company to Pay for Cleanup, Fallout of Train Derailment
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NBC: The Environmental Protection Agency announced a sweeping enforcement action against Norfolk Southern on Tuesday, compelling the rail company to conduct and pay for cleanup actions associated with the Feb. 3 derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. If the company fails to complete any of the actions ordered by the EPA, the agency will “immediately” conduct the necessary work and then seek to compel Norfolk Southern to pay triple the cost. The order will require the company to identify and clean contaminated soil and water; pay any EPA costs, including reimbursing the agency for cleaning services that it will offer to residents and businesses; and participate in public meetings at EPA’s request and post information on-line ( NBC). Associated Press: The EPA has ordered Norfolk Southern to pay to clean up contaminated water and air from the train derailment in Ohio ( Twitter).
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Putin Steps Out of Nuclear Arms Treaty with the West, Blames Them for Ukraine War Escalation
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Wall Street Journal: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would step back from the last remaining major nuclear-arms-control treaty between the U.S. and Russia, and vowed to continue the military campaign in Ukraine as the diplomatic gulf widened between Moscow and the West. Besides pausing its involvement in the New START treaty, Mr. Putin said Russia would also stand ready to test new nuclear weapons if the U.S. moved to do so first, bringing into question the survival of a long-running global ban on nuclear weapons tests ( Wall Street Journal). CNBC: In a more-than-hour-long speech, Putin tried to justify Russia’s invasion by claiming it had been attempting to allow citizens in the contested Donbas region to speak their “own language” and had been seeking a peaceful solution. He cited the expansion of NATO and new European anti-rocket defense systems as provoking Russia, and said the objective of the West was “infinite power” ( CNBC).
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Russia Failed ICBM Test While Biden was in Ukraine
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CNN: Russia carried out a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears to have failed while President Joe Biden was in Ukraine on Monday, according to two US officials familiar with the matter. Russia notified the United States in advance of the launch through deconfliction lines, one official said. Another official said that the test did not pose a risk to the United States and that the US did not view the test as an anomaly or an escalation. The test of the heavy SARMAT missile – nicknamed the Satan II in the West and capable of delivering multiple nuclear warheads – appears to have failed, officials said ( CNN).
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Supreme Court Hears Case with Major Implications for Big Tech
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Spencer Brown: ISIS terrorists, Big Tech companies, and Section 230 protections collided at the Supreme Court on Tuesday as justices heard arguments in Gonzalez v. Google, a case that grapples with what liability, if any, the massive tech company’s YouTube video sharing platform could bear when it comes to recommended content based on its algorithms. The case bears the name of American Nohemi Gonzalez, who was killed in a 2015 ISIS attack in Paris at just 23 years old. Her family brought the case against YouTube’s parent company alleging that Google aided ISIS by allowing videos — aimed at inciting violence and recruiting new members — to exist on its platform and be were served to users by algorithms Google built ( Townhall). Scotusblog: The question at the center of Gonzalez, which will be argued on Tuesday, is the scope of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which generally shields tech companies from liability for content published by others. The justices will consider whether that landmark statute protects internet platforms when their algorithms target users and recommend someone else’s content ( Scotusblog).
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Anti-American Chinese Official Disparages US for Opioid Crisis
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National Review: China’s foreign ministry gloated over America’s opioid crisis, posting a message online today arguing that it proves the superiority of the Chinese Communist Party’s governance model. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, a stridently anti-U.S. voice on social media, posted a series of messages condemning the U.S. and emphasizing that “China won’t become the U.S.” One of those posts said that “China does not allow the drug problem to haunt the nation and kill 100,000+ per year”; it was accompanied by an image of an apparently unconscious man surrounded by people who appeared to be administering naloxone, an overdose treatment drug. The tweet comes as the Biden administration appears to hold out hope that Beijing will work with Washington to combat the flow of precursor chemicals used in the production of fentanyl ( National Review). Reporter Jimmy Quinn: PRC official gloats over the opioid epidemic that Beijing enables by not cracking down on the production of fentanyl precursors ( Twitter).
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Home Depot Investing $1 Billion to Provide Minimum Pay of $15 for Hourly Workers
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Fox News: Home Depot announced Tuesday that the company is giving its frontline workers a raise, saying it is dedicating $1 billion to boost compensation for hourly employees. The minimum starting pay at the home improvement giant is now $15 an hour. In a message to all U.S. employees, Home Depot CEO Ted Decker said the higher wages went into effect on Feb. 6 and that some workers have already seen their raises reflected in their Feb. 17 paychecks. All other hourly workers can expect a larger paycheck starting Feb. 24 ( Fox News). CNBC: Home Depot is one of the country’s largest private employers with about 475,000 workers. The vast majority of its employees are hourly workers at its approximately 2,300 stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico ( CNBC).
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Stock Market Sees Largest Tumble of 2023 Due to Uncertainty in Interest Rates
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Wall Street Journal: U.S. stock indexes suffered their worst session of the year Tuesday, dragged down by a disappointing forecast from Home Depot and growing concerns that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for longer. After rallying sharply to kick off 2023, stocks have stumbled in recent weeks as hot economic data have made investors anxious about the trajectory of U.S. monetary policy. Although inflation has fallen from its recent peak, it remains high. The unemployment rate has fallen to a 53-year low, and retail sales are growing at a healthy clip. That combination has led investors to expect the Fed to continue raising interest rates and then keep them elevated for longer ( Wall Street Journal).
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Charlie Kirk comments on James O’Keefe’s official departure from Project Veritas
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Charlie Kirk: So according to reporter McCabe, James O’Keefe has just tendered his resignation to his former team and board members from Project Veritas. And so it seems as if James O’Keefe is no longer at Project Veritas.
This is an ever-evolving story. There’s a lot that will be learned...
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Mike Gallagher reacts to President Biden’s surprise visit to Kyiv
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Mike Gallagher: I know you’re probably worn out by all of the hyperventilating going on over Biden’s surprise visit to Kyiv. The media just thinks it’s the greatest thing ever since Ronald Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
It’s a “Winston Churchill moment” — I...
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Julie Hartman calls for Secretary Buttigieg to step up and address recent disasters of road, rail and air
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Julie Hartman: Some of you may not know this because the mainstream media, according to the Daily Wire, has only spent about 30 minutes in total reporting on this disastrous event. Of course, I’m referring to the February 3rd train crash in Ohio, where 50 train cars of a Norfolk Southern train...
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Eric Metaxas and Naomi Wolf discuss the very dark, very troubling plans the Davos oligarchy has for America and the world
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Eric Metaxas: Naomi, I’m a simple person in many ways, and I just have to over and over and over, you know, repeat the obvious or try to remind myself, I’m not dreaming this, I’m not making this up. This is real. You have bravely and brilliantly uncovered what is happening because there are...
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Brandon Tatum takes up issues of gun control and biased media coverage of the deadly shooting at the MSU campus
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Officer Tatum: I want to talk a little bit about this Michigan State University shooting. A gunman loses his mind. Maybe his mind was already lost. I don’t know if he lost it or it was gone. He goes into the university and begins shooting people. I believe he killed three students and injured...
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Dennis Prager shares news of Germany finally relenting on mask mandates and recalls the covid lies of the last three years
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Dennis Prager: The pro-lockdown minister of Germany, the man at the forefront of lockdowns of schools and businesses during covid — what I called in April, 2020, you can look it up, I had a tweet and I had a column and not to mention shows saying it was the greatest international mistake ever...
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Dinesh D’Souza discusses Biden’s recently released National Security Strategy, a naïve policy that makes the U.S. weaker, not stronger
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Dinesh D’Souza: The Biden administration a few weeks ago released its National Security Strategy as sort of a manual for how it sees the world, the threats that are out there, and how it expects to deal with those threats.
Reading this document is a little dismaying because you get the idea that...
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