New NY gun control legislation: New York Governor Kathy Hochul is leading an effort to draft new gun control legislation after yesterday”™s U.S. Supreme Court decision throwing out a New York law that required licensing in order to carry a concealed weapon in public. The court”™s decision allows restrictions on carrying concealed weapons in sensitive places, and a new law is needed to identify sensitive places and create the new restrictions.
Birx was pressured: Dr. Deborah Birx, who was the Covid response coordinator for the Trump Administration, testified before a House committee yesterday that Trump and high level advisors pressured her to downplay the risks from the pandemic. Birx said things got worse when Trump brought in Dr. Scott Atlas as an advisor on Covid and he pushed the idea that people should be allowed to get infected by the virus even if some got sick and died.
EU accepts Ukraine as membership candidate:Â The European Union has decided to make Ukraine a candidate for entry into the union along with the nation of Moldova. The action by the EU is said to already have been a morale booster for the Ukrainian people. Ukraine applied for European Union membership after Russia”™s invasion.
Trump pushed Justice Dept. to promote big lie: Three Republicans appointed by Donald Trump to top positions at the Justice Department testified before the House Jan. 6th committee that Trump tried to force the Justice Department to promote his big lie about the election so he could stay in power. One of those testifying was Trump”™s acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen. The three described how Trump bragged that he spent a lot of his time searching the internet and how Trump pushed them and then the Pentagon to investigate the bizarre internet conspiracy theory that the Italian government was using satellites to switch votes in the presidential election from Trump to Biden.
Feds raid Clark’s house: Federal agents raided the home of Jeffrey Clark, a justice department attorney who Trump wanted to install as acting attorney general, replacing Jeffrey Rosen, so Clark could send out a letter falsely claiming that the Justice Department had found fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Clark said the raiders seized his electronic devices. Also, federal subpoenas were served on the heads of the Republican parties in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia.
Guterres warns world facing food catastrophe: U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres today warned that the world faces a catastrophe because of growing food shortages. He said that many countries will declare famines this year and next year and that many farmers in Asia, Africa and the Americas will be unable to cope with rising production costs and the effects of climate change.
