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Now, here's what we're talking about:





The Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday.



Fox News



1. THE BEAR MARKET: Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggression toward Ukraine has garnered him some new fans. The Fox News host Tucker Carlson defended Putin's decision to amass troops near the border of the former Soviet republic. Many Republican lawmakers are calling out Putin and urging the White House to dig its heels in, but Carlson's praise underlines an element of the conservative movement that is happy to find common cause with strongmen.




Here's some background on the situation:
Carlson defended his views by saying there's a good chance of a "hot war": President Joe Biden on Wednesday said the US had no plans to deploy troops. During his show Tuesday night, Carlson also lit into NATO, another frequent Putin target. Ukraine is a partner of the alliance, but it's not a full-fledged member — an important distinction since an attack on Ukraine would not trigger NATO's mutual-defense pact.
What is on the table: Biden, per reports, told Putin earlier this week that the US would impose a heavy economic cost in response to an invasion. The White House is said to be considering options including sanctions as well as canceling Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Putin wants Ukraine under his thumb: "One way or another, he wants Ukraine neutralized," Fiona Hill, who served as the top Russia advisor on the National Security Council under the Trump administration, recently told Insider.




More details: Putin, who is driven by the image of a renewed Russia, has long been the aggressor in the relationship dating back to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. Russia has also claimed no involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine that has dragged on since that year, but the West and Ukraine point to evidence that Kremlin has sent troops and weapons.

Read more about why Tucker Carlson's support of Putin isn't all that surprising.
2. Senate votes to repeal Biden's broadest vaccine-or-test mandate: Every Republican and two Democratic senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana — voted to overturn Biden's mandate for private businesses with more than 100 employees. But the effort is probably doomed, as the measure is unlikely to pass the House and would almost certainly face a presidential veto. In the meantime, a federal appeals court has already halted the policy. More on the growing frustration among some lawmakers to Biden's mandates.
3. Mark Meadows is suing Nancy Pelosi and the Capitol riot committee: Meadows, President Donald Trump's final chief of staff, is suing the House select committee investigating the insurrection and the lawmakers serving on it. Meadows' suit came on the same day lawmakers announced they'd go forward with plans to hold him in contempt following his refusal to cooperate with their subpoenas. Meadows' suit describes the committee's subpoenas as "overly broad" and claims a subpoena to Verizon for his phone records violates his First Amendment rights. More on what is now the largest challenge to the House's investigation into the January 6 insurrection.
4. Biden is expected to call on world leaders to reverse democracy "recession": Biden is expected to kick off the long-awaited White House Summit for Democracy later today and ask his counterparts to continue to ensure, as one White House representative put it, that "democracies deliver for their people," the Associated Press reports. Not everyone is happy with the gathering. "The ambassadors to the US from China and Russia wrote a joint essay in the National Interest policy journal describing the Biden administration as exhibiting a 'Cold-War mentality,'" the AP noted. As The Washington Post points out, there are also numerous questions about which countries were and weren't invited. Here's what you need to know ahead of the summit.
5. Judge sets rough trial date for John Durham's prosecution of a former Clinton campaign lawyer: Michael Sussmann, a onetime lawyer for the Hillary Clinton campaign, will most likely stand trial in late spring 2022 on charges brought by the Trump-era special prosecutor investigating the origins of the Russia investigation, a federal judge said. Sussmann's indictment and coming trial represent some of the first public signs of activity out of the Durham investigation in months. Here's what else we're learning about the case.





Niphon Subsri EyeEm/Getty Images



6. Better employees reveal turmoil within the once lauded startup: Vishal Garg, the CEO of the digital mortgage company Better, laid off 900 people on


Zoom

last week. Former employees described the haphazard and sudden way Garg broke the news, saying it was particularly shocking given that recent internal communications had portrayed the business as healthy and growing. Read more about how America's top startup fell from grace.





Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.



AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, Pool, File



7. Gov. Gavin Newsom says California will become an abortion "sanctuary" if needed: Newsom told the Associated Press he thought out-of-state patients were likely to flock to California if the Supreme Court were to overturn its landmark Roe v. Wade decision. A majority of Supreme Court justices signaled earlier this month that they would like to change how the nation treats abortion rights, and some conservative justices seem interested in overturning Roe entirely. More on California's response.
8. Pfizer says its booster offers protection against Omicron: Pfizer and BioNTech said that their coronavirus vaccine appeared effective against the Omicron variant after three doses but that two doses alone produced a much lesser response. More early data on how the shot holds up against the new variant.
9. A person involved with planning Bob Dole's funeral nixed over January 6 ties: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell complained to Dole's family about the involvement of Tim Unes, an event planner, whom the Capitol riot committee has subpoenaed for his work in organizing the pro-Trump rally held the day of the insurrection, The New York Times reports. In response, The Elizabeth Dole Foundation cut ties with Unes. Read more from this only-in-Washington type of story.




10. Finland's prime minister apologizes for clubbing amid COVID-19 scare: Prime Minister Sanna Marin was out clubbing past 3 a.m. last weekend, hours after an advisor she had contact with tested positive for COVID-19, according to local reports. Marin said she had been instructed not to quarantine, but government officials are told they should isolate themselves in such a circumstance. The prime minister, who is vaccinated, later tested negative. More on the story.
Today's trivia question: Where did Bob Dole live in the 1970s while serving as chairman of the Republican National Committee during Richard Nixon's presidency? Incredibly, he was out of town when history happened.
Yesterday's answer: The Library of Congress has buildings named after Presidents Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison. After the British torched much of Washington during the War of 1812, Congress took Jefferson up on his offer to sell his personal book collection to replenish what was lost in the blaze.

Source: Business Insider

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