Cross-Examination

• Putin calls up reserves and threatens using nukes: On Wednesday, Russian strongman Vladimir Putin announced that he had given the order to call up 300,000 military reservists following resent setbacks in his war in Ukraine. Putin also warned that he would “use all the means at our disposal” to win the war. This was a nod to Russia’s nuclear arsenal, a point Putin sought to drive home: “This is not a bluff. I will emphasize this again, with all the means at our disposal.” This is the clearest acknowledgement yet from Putin that his war is not going as planned. Putin also sought to once again peddle the myth that his invasion of Ukraine was an act aimed at protecting Russians by removing a “Nazi” regime. Furthermore, in an effort to boost his propaganda campaign to gin up nationalistic fervor (Russians remain apathetic over the war), Putin noted that the currently Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine would hold a referendum as a pretext to defend his annexation of the territory. NATO leaders were quick to call out the gambit for what it is — a sham. French President Emmanuel Macron observed: “Russia declared war, it invaded this region, it bombed it, it killed people, it made other people flee, and now it explains that, in this same region, it is going to organize a referendum. If this were not tragic, we could laugh.”

• Whistleblower: Fauci funded the creation of COVID-19 and lied about it: Andrew Huff is the former vice president of EcoHealth Alliance, the organization that worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in doing gain-of-function research on coronaviruses. Huff claims that National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci lied to Congress about his role in funding the controversial research. “Anthony Fauci funded the creation of SARS-COV2 and lied to Congress about funding Gain-of-Function work,” Huff’s attorney, Thomas Renz, stated. Renz further notes, “Anthony Fauci and others coordinated to cover-up the funding of the Gain-of-Function work that resulted in SARS-COV2.” Huff’s claim mirrors that of former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, who alleges that Fauci “knew” gain-of-function was dangerous and that he “misled Congress” when he denied it.

• Data doesn’t back up claims that Stand Your Ground laws only favor whites: Stand Your Ground laws in several states are designed to explicitly protect Americans’ foundational right to self-defense. They are only controversial to those who don’t believe in an individual right to self-defense. Of course, such a blatant stance would be widely unpopular, so in order to attack that right, those opposed to it have sought to tie it to racism. The dubious claim is that Stand Your Ground protection is not afforded to minorities. This false assertion comes from a recent case in Georgia, a state with a Stand Your Ground law, where a black man, William “Marc” Wilson, was recently convicted of involuntary manslaughter in his shooting of a man he claimed was done in self-defense against a racist attack. The trouble is that the facts of the case don’t back up the assertion of Georgia’s law being racist. Wilson was traveling in his vehicle when he claims a truck with white teens began yelling racial slurs at him and attempted to run him off the road, so he shot several times at the vehicle, killing a 17-year-old. State records show that in cases of a stand-your-ground claim, a defendant who kills a black person has greater odds of being convicted than if the person killed is white. While it’s not a statistically significant difference, that’s what the data shows, and it completely undermines the assertion that such laws are somehow inherently racist. These laws are not a license to kill, as the Left often falsely claims; they are simply a necessary reinforcement of the principle of every individual’s right to self-defense. The legal erosion of this right has necessitated that the right of self-defense be explicitly recognized and delineated by law.

Headlines

• Activist lawyers enlist illegal aliens flown to Martha’s Vineyard to file lawsuit against Ron DeSantis (PM) | DeSantis has receipts that poke major holes in migrant class action lawsuit (Townhall)

• Plane towing a banner reading “Vineyard Hypocrites” circles Martha’s Vineyard (Boston Globe)

• Surging number of suspected terrorists nabbed jumping Mexico border this year (Washington Times)

• Biden says his hands tied at border, cannot send migrants back to Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua (Washington Times)

• Biden declared the pandemic over, but unvaxxed Air Force pilots are still grounded (Fox News)

• White House ridiculed after walking back Biden’s statement that pandemic is over (Fox News)

• Revenge? Republicans weigh tanking Manchin’s permitting plan (Politico)

• Georgia was never blue — now it doesn’t even look purple (PJ Media)

• House to vote on election law overhaul in response to January 6 (AP)

• North Dakota man kills teen with vehicle after political dispute, claims victim was Republican “extremist” (Fox News)

• New York leaders call on Governor Hochul to tighten bail laws in bipartisan push (NY Post)

• West Virginia reaches $147 million opioid settlement with CVS, Walmart (The Hill)

• More Americans are stuck with long-term credit card debt (Bloomberg)

• CNN’s Don Lemon immediately regretted telling British commentator Hilary Fordwich that the royal family should pay reparations (Not the Bee)

• Woke UMass trolls Liberty University with Pride Day football game (PJ Media)

• Policy: Environmentalism is a fundamentalist religion (Joel Kotkin)

• Humor: AOC tearfully recounts how DeSantis yanked her from her Venezuelan home and human trafficked her to Martha’s Vineyard where she died (Babylon Bee)

• Satire: Border town puts up “Martha’s Vineyard” sign in hopes government will come pick up all its illegal immigrants (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.