Top of the Fold

• China rejects democratic nations’ call to join in sanctioning Russia: China made it clear on Wednesday that it would not stand with much of the rest of the world in imposing sanctions against Russia following Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. “As far as financial sanctions are concerned, we are not in favor of such unilaterally initiated sanctions because they are not effective and have no legal basis,” China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission chairman Guo Shuqing stated. The actual reason for eschewing sanctions has much more to do with Russia and China’s recently signed broad cooperation agreement that likely included a concession from Putin that he would hold off on launching his invasion until after the Beijing-hosted Olympic Games ended. Also of note, China’s bilateral trade with Russia hit an all-time high of $140 billion last year.

• J6 Committee alleges “criminal conspiracy” by Trump in Capitol riot: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s January 6 Committee is composed entirely of anti-Trump lawmakers, so it’s no surprise that they alleged on Wednesday that Donald Trump and members of his administration “engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States.” Lawyers for the J6 Committee contend that attorney John Eastman’s emails to Mike Pence, in which he tried to persuade the former vice president to reject a state’s electors, constituted a “crime.” The Committee states, “The facts we’ve gathered strongly suggest that Dr. Eastman’s emails may show that he helped Donald Trump advance a corrupt scheme to obstruct the counting of electoral college ballots and a conspiracy to impede the transfer of power.” The J6 Committee has no power to initiate criminal proceeding and there is no indication that the Justice Department will pursue any. This Committee remains what it always was intended to be — a politically partisan anti-Trump operation wrapped in the guise of a legitimate investigation.

• NY judge blocks state AG’s attempt to kill the NRA: New York State Supreme Court Judge Joel Cohen blocked state Attorney General Letitia James’s crusade to eliminate the National Rifle Association. James is seeking to destroy the NRA by targeting the organization’s leadership for allegedly illegally allocating millions of dollars for their own personal use. Cohen acknowledged that if James’s allegations against NRA leadership are proven true, that still doesn’t justify her targeting the NRA for the “corporate death penalty.” He writes: “The Complaint does not allege that any financial misconduct benefited the NRA, or that the NRA exists primarily to carry out such activity, or that the NRA is incapable of continuing its legitimate activities on behalf of its millions of members. In short, the Complaint does not allege the type of public harm that is the legal linchpin for imposing the ‘corporate death penalty.’” Current NRA President Charles Cotten praised the ruling as a “resounding win” for the organization that exists to defend Americans’ Second Amendment rights.

Headlines

• Russian troops take control of key city of Kherson (BBC)

• Ukraine refugee count tops one million (AP)

• UN votes to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and calls for withdrawal (Guardian)

• International Criminal Court opens war crimes investigation (Washington Post)

• Russian economy taking “serious blows,” Kremlin acknowledges (The Hill)

• Jerome Powell expects a quarter-point Fed rate hike this month (AP)

• Illinois’ Democrat ex-House speaker charged with racketeering (Politico)

• Trucker convoy protest in Washington, DC, flops as no-one shows up (Independent)

• Policy: How does the Ukraine-Russia conflict end? (Daily Signal)

• Humor: Biden in hot water after assuming gender of the person we’re all supposed to “go get” (Babylon Bee)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.

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