Top of the Fold

• Alcohol-related deaths increased 25% from 2019 to 2020: A recently released study found that alcohol-related deaths spiked during the first year of the COVID pandemic, up 25% over the previous year. In 2020, alcohol-related deaths accounted for 3% of all U.S. deaths, with the largest increase occurring in people ages 35 to 44 years old. In fact, deaths due to alcohol-related causes outnumbered COVID deaths in Americans younger than 65 years of age, validating the concern expressed by many that the government’s overly aggressive response to COVID (shutting down vast swaths of the economy and social distancing rules) was a “cure” that was worse than the disease. As the study concludes, “Deaths involving alcohol reflect hidden tolls of the pandemic.”

• Unity equals division: A recent Monmouth University poll found that 48% of Americans think the U.S. is “more divided” since Joe Biden took office, and 73% believe the country is on the “wrong track.” The poll found that “divided” was “the most common response” from those surveyed when they were asked to provide one word to describe the current state of the country. Evidently, when Biden declared that his aim while in office was to unite the country, he must have actually meant to divide, because nearly everything he has done since taking up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been to push divisive and disruptive policies. Recall that his first actions were to pump out a slew of executive orders that undid as much of Donald Trump’s accomplishments as possible. So much for being a middle-of-the-road moderate. Biden is the divider-in-chief, and the polls are reflecting this reality.

• Madeleine Albright has died: The first woman in American history to become U.S. secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, died on Wednesday at the age of 84 after a battle with cancer. Nominated by Bill Clinton in 1997, Albright became the first woman to rise to a position that high within the executive branch in American history. Born overseas in 1937, Albright immigrated with her family to the U.S. in 1948 following the Soviet Union’s takeover of Czechoslovakia. She got her start in the U.S. government in 1977 working as an aide for Jimmy Carter. Later, Albright worked as a professor at Georgetown University and in 1993 was appointed U.S ambassador to the United Nations by Clinton. In 2012, Barack Obama awarded her with the Medal of Freedom.

• NoKo’s Rocketman launches again: North Korea has reportedly test-launched its latest intercontinental ballistic missile, the first such launch since 2017. Following the launch, North Korea’s neighbors quickly expressed their opposition, with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stating, “These series of actions taken by North Korea threaten the peace and security of our country, the region, and the international community, and they are absolutely unacceptable.” South Korea’s soon-to-be-leaving president, Moon Jae-in, also condemned the ICBM launch, contending that it posed “a serious danger to the international community was well as the Korean Peninsula amid the war in Ukraine.” The launch ended North Korea’s self-imposed moratorium following Donald Trump’s direct diplomatic overtures to Kim Jong-un. The ICBM launch was successful, with the missile estimated to have been in the air for 71 minutes while traveling 680 miles before hitting the ocean. Memo to Joe Biden…

Headlines

• U.S. formally accuses Russian military of committing war crimes in Ukraine (Politico)

• NATO: 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops dead in Ukraine (AP)

• Russia has not achieved major objectives a month into invasion, Pentagon says (Washington Examiner)

• U.S. Army’s Green Berets quietly helped tilt the battlefield a little bit more toward Ukraine (Fox News)

• These U.S. industries are most at risk of Russian cyberattacks (Washington Examiner)

• Top J6 staffer signed letter defaming Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinformation (The Federalist)

• Biden cuts border funding as his policies are about to overwhelm it (NY Post)

• Airline CEOs ask Biden to drop mask mandate (Axios)

• Idaho governor signs abortion ban modeled on Texas law (AP)

• Twitter responds to Babylon Bee’s appeal, keeps it locked out of its account (Daily Wire)

• Policy: The economic consequences of Jerome Powell (The Hill)

• Humor: Senate hearing delayed as Ketanji Brown Jackson has trouble locating the women’s room (Babylon Bee)

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

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