Biden Family Drama, Gaza Air Strikes, & MLK Misquoted
May 11, 2023
Is Biden Hidin’ His Finances?
House Republicans continue to probe the finances of the Biden family, but their most recent reports show no actual evidence of wrongdoing – though they do raise some questions. On Wednesday, House Oversight Chairman James Comer released new records of Hunter Biden’s business activities from his father’s time as vice president, but the reports don’t show any payments made to Joe Biden during or after his vice presidency.
Comer’s investigation is based on allegations that Biden’s family, specifically Hunter, received millions of dollars from entities in China and Romania during the Obama years. House Republicans have also accused Hunter Biden of using his relationship with his father to set up a 2016 meeting between a candidate for United Nations Secretary-General and former national security adviser to the Vice President, Colin Kahl.
The latest reveal shows that members of the Biden family received around $10 million from foreign companies between 2015 and 2017. These include payments from Shanghai-based State Energy HK Limited, and more payments from a business connected to one Gabriel Popoviciu, who was being prosecuted for corruption in Romania at the time. Currently, records don’t show the actual purposes of the payments.
“I want to be clear: This committee is investigating President Biden and his family’s shady business dealings to capitalize on Joe Biden’s public office that risks our country’s national security,” said Comer. While the GOP’s claims that Biden put the country at risk are suspect at best right now, Biden has been less than transparent about the situation – these records show that his family did receive money from a Chinese business, which Biden said was “not true” earlier this year.
Some Good News
- Texas’ long troubled Fort Hood is renamed after first Hispanic four-star general (CNN)
- California to pay $24 million settlement to family of man who died in police custody (NBC)
The Perfect Gift for Mom (Or You)
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Protests & Prisoners In Pakistan
- Violence and mass arrests have spread across Pakistan following the arrest and indictment of former prime minister Imran Khan. Khan was arrested on Tuesday and indicted on charges of corruption on Wednesday. So far, eight people have died in protest of his arrest, with roughly 1,000 more arrested.
- Khan was removed from power last April, and was on the run from police over the last couple of months, though these are the first charges officially leveled against him. Wednesday’s charges allege that he had sold state gifts during his time as prime minister.
- Outside analysts believe that Khan came to power in 2018 with help from the military, though their partnership broke down amidst the country’s economic crisis, eventually leading to his ousting in 2022. His supporters believe that his arrest was timed to coincide with general elections which are scheduled for later this year.
Israeli Defense Forces On The Offensive
- On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces fired air strikes into Gaza, hitting over 130 targets affiliated with a paramilitary group known as The Islamic Jihad Movement. 24 people were killed by Israeli strikes, including at least five women and five children. Video of Israeli settlers celebrating the strikes circulated online, and Israeli police announced that they would be allowing a Jewish ultranationalist parade to be held next week.
- In response, over 400 rockets were fired back from Gaza, though most didn’t reach their targets. Israel’s U.S.-funded Iron Dome missile defenses reportedly shot down 153 missiles, while another 107 fell short of Israel entirely. The IDF says its fighter jets and helicopters are targeting rocket launchers and mortars used in the strike. While outside countries have called on both sides to de-escalate the conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Wednesday that “the campaign is not over yet.”
Additional World News
- Biden to host India Prime Minister Modi in June (NBC)
- Swiss villagers told to evacuate over Alpine rockslide alert (AP)
- Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin files for divorce (Guardian)
- ‘Brave and tenacious’ AFP journalist Arman Soldin killed in rocket fire in eastern Ukraine (CNN)
- A new worry from fighting in Sudan: the whereabouts of Khartoum’s zoo animals (NPR)
- Sudan’s doctors turn to social media as health infrastructure crumbles (Guardian)
- Ukraine unit says Russian brigade flees outskirts of Bakhmut (Reuters)
“What we learn only through the ears makes less impression upon our minds than what is presented to the trustworthy eye.” – Horace
Joe vs. Joe
- Senator Joe Manchin said on Wednesday that he will oppose every person President Biden nominates to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ahead of regulations to be announced by the agency on Thursday. The EPA is introducing what Manchin, chair of the Senate Energy Committee, calls part of a “radical climate agenda.”
- The proposal would require steep pollution cuts from plants burning coal or natural gas, which will likely cause many older coal plants to shut down. Virginia, Manchin’s home state, is home to many such plants. He said, “I fear that this Administration’s commitment to their extreme ideology overshadows their responsibility to ensure long-lasting energy and economic security.”
You Get Birth Control, You Get Birth Control, Everyone Gets Birth Control
- As states across the country move to limit or eliminate access to abortion, a bright moment occurred on Wednesday when experts advising the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted unanimously to allow a birth control pill, Opill, to be sold over the counter. The FDA still needs to sign off on the decision, but a consensus like that could sway them in favor.
- Opill, a progestin-only pill, is considered to pose less of a health risk than pills that use estrogen to prevent pregnancy. There are still certain risks for breast cancer survivors, and there were also concerns raised about young teens reading the safety information and taking it properly. However, most doctors and scientists agree that these risks aren’t enough to justify preventing millions from using the pill.
Additional USA News
- Donald Trump could face questions on sexual abuse verdict in CNN town hall (Guardian)
- Army sergeant promised pardon by Texas Gov. Abbott gets 25 years in protester’s murder (NBC)
- Mother of 6-year-old who shot Virginia teacher says son has ADHD (ABC)
- Pressure builds as North Carolina set to override abortion ban veto (Guardian)
- Lack of tornado shelters in Mississippi Delta turns deadly (NBC)
- A Walgreens guard killed a Black trans organizer. His community wants answers (Guardian)
- A second day of soaking rains puts millions at risk of flash flooding in the South (CNN)
I Have A Dream That I Will Not Be Misquoted
- According to a new biography about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a previous King biography largely falsified an interview where the civil rights leader supposedly criticized Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley, published by Alex Haley just nine months after X’s assassination in 1965, quoted King as accusing X of “fiery, demagogic oratory.” While researching for his own King biography, King: A Life, Jonathan Eig unearthed the actual transcript of the interview where the quote supposedly came from.
- “And in his litany of articulating the despair of the Negro without offering any positive, creative alternative, I feel that Malcolm has done himself and our people a great disservice. Fiery, demagogic oratory in the Black ghettos, urging Negroes to arm themselves and prepare to engage in violence, as he has done, can reap nothing but grief,” reads the doctored King quote from Haley’s biography.
- However, the transcription of the original interview dug up by Eig reads, “And in his litany of expressing the despair of the Negro, without offering a positive, creative approach, I think that he falls into a rut sometimes” – a much less damning critique of X’s methods. In the transcript, King also prefaces his statement, saying, “Maybe he does have some of the answer. But I know that I have so often felt that I wished that he would talk less of violence, because I don’t think that violence can solve our problem.” Haley has also been accused of plagiarism and inaccuracies in his most famous book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family.
Additional Reads
- Boy aged eight survives two days in Michigan wilderness by eating snow (BBC)
- Vast says it will launch its first space station in 2025 on a Falcon 9 (Ars Technica)
- Chinese woman appeals in fight for the right to freeze her eggs (NBC)
- Some of the first humans in the Americas came from China, study finds (Guardian)
- How wine and candy helped an Australian woman survive 5 days in the bushland (NPR)
- ISIS Recruitment Tale ‘The Kerala Story’ Divides India: Banned in Some States, Subsidized in Others (Variety)
- West Virginia Suspends Bob Huggins and Cuts His Pay Over Homophobic Slur (NYT, $)