memeorandum: China admits that it's COVID-19 vaccine isn't very effective: official (Associated Press)

6:20 PM ET, April 11, 2021

Top Items:

More than a hundred corporate executives hold call to discuss halting donations and investments to fight controversial voting bills — More than 100 chief executives and corporate leaders gathered online Saturday to discuss taking new action to combat the controversial state voting bills …

Discussion: HillReporter.com

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: GOP donors privately pan Trump's ‘horrible’ RNC speech — DRIVING THE DAY — A slew of well-heeled Republican National Committee donors descended on Palm Beach this weekend, excited to be schmoozed, eager for access to DONALD TRUMP and other potential 2024 nominees …

Discussion: NBC News, Insider, Wall Street Journal, CBS Miami, RedState, Raw Story, CBS News, Fox News and Bloomberg

Mark Follman / Mother Jones:

How Trump Unleashed a Domestic Terrorism Movement—And What Experts Say Must Be Done to Defeat It — “He tells them what to do. He tells them why they're angry.” — Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.

Charles Sykes / Politico:

No, the GOP and the Dems Haven't Actually Swapped Brains — Even after the lunacy of the past four years, the GOP's recent behavior is jaw-dropping, an extraordinary transformation that feels like the Republican Party has experienced some sort of bizarre brain swap.

Discussion: Insider

Josh Dawsey / Washington Post:

Trump slashes at McConnell as he reiterates election falsehoods at Republican event — Former president Donald Trump called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a “dumb son of a bitch” as he used a Saturday night speech to Republicans to blame him for not helping overturn the 2020 election …

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
‘Dumb son of a bitch’: Trump rips McConnell at Mar-a-Lago

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Digby's Hullabaloo, Insider, Forbes, Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, CNN, Slate, The Week and Axios

Associated Press:

‘Suspicious’ blackout strikes Iran's Natanz nuclear site — DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's underground Natanz nuclear facility lost power Sunday just hours after starting up new advanced centrifuges capable of enriching uranium faster, the latest incident to strike …

Discussion: Reuters, The Times of Israel, Breitbart, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Oil City News, American Military News, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, MyNorthwest.com, New York Post and The Week

Jerusalem Post:

'Mossad behind cyber attack against Iran's Natanz nuclear facility' — Security cabinet set to meet next week amid growing tensions between Israel and Iran. — The Mossad was reportedly behind the cyberattack at the Natanz nuclear plant on Sunday that caused extensive damage to Iran's main uranium enrichment facility.

Discussion: Al Arabiya, Slate, Mercury News, The Times of Israel, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Al Jazeera and HotAir

CNN:

Incident at Iran's Natanz facility a ‘terrorist action,’ nuclear chief says — Tehran (CNN)Iran's Atomic Energy Organization condemned an incident at the Natanz nuclear facility on Sunday, calling it a “terrorist action,” according to the Iranian telegram channel of the Revolution Guard Corps, or IRGC.

Discussion: Washington Examiner and KDFX-TV

Robert Burns / Associated Press:
Pentagon chief declares ‘ironclad’ US commitment to Israel

Discussion: The Hill, The Times of Israel and Washington Examiner

Associated Press:

China admits that it's COVID-19 vaccine isn't very effective: official — BEIJING — In a rare admission of the weakness of Chinese coronavirus vaccines, the country's top disease control official says their effectiveness is low and the government is considering mixing them to give them a boost.

Discussion: Washington Post, HotAir, National Review, Breitbart, The Guardian and Fox News

New York Times:

‘Like the Tiger King Got Elected Tax Collector’: Inside the Case That Ensnared Matt Gaetz — Joel Greenberg, a onetime local official in Florida, is accused of an array of crimes, including bribery, stalking and corruption. — LAKE MARY, Fla. — Long before the F.B.I. began to scrutinize …

Discussion: WKMG, HuffPost, New York Magazine and justoneminute.typepad.com

JONATHAN TURLEY:

Twitter Censors Criticism of BLM Founder Buying $1.4 Million Home In Predominantly White Neighborhood — We have been discussing the expanding censorship on Twitter and social media. The latest example involves the story of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors, 37 …

Discussion: We Love Trump, RedState and New York Post

Isabel Vincent / New York Post:
Inside BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors' million-dollar real-estate buying binge

Discussion: Breitbart, Twitchy, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Gateway Pundit, We Love Trump, RedState, TheBlaze, unz.com, Townhall and Daily Mail

Joe Concha / The Hill:

NY Times beclowns itself by normalizing court-packing ‘to balance the conservative majority’ — “Breaking News: President Biden will create a panel to study expanding the Supreme Court in an effort to balance the conservative majority created by Donald Trump.”

Discussion: Charlie Kirk, We Love Trump and The Gateway Pundit

E.J. Dionne / Washington Post:
Respectfully, Justice Breyer, court enlargers aren't the problem

Discussion: Alternet.org and TheBlaze

Lateshia Beachum / Washington Post:

Maskless Florida woman who coughed on Pier 1 customer gets 30 days in jail — A Florida woman who, without wearing a mask, purposefully coughed on another customer in a Pier 1 store last year has been sentenced to 30 days in jail. — Debra Hunter, 53, will serve time in Duval County jail …

Discussion: Axios and Washington Examiner

Danielle Wallace / Fox News:

Cheney calls Gaetz allegations ‘sickening,’ stays mum on calls for resignation — Cheney declines to say if she was surprised by the allegations — Gaetz slams ‘lying’ media — U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney said Sunday she found the sexual misconduct allegations against fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, KDFX-TV, The Guardian, Raw Story, New York Post, Mediaite, Crooks and Liars and The Week

Gary Fineout / Politico:
Florida Republicans see opening as Gaetz's legal peril rises

Discussion: Raw Story

Washington Post:

Congress should stop attacking DeJoy and consider his plan to fix the Postal Service — LAST YEAR was a rough one for the U.S. Postal Service. Relentlessly bashed by then-President Donald Trump, the Postal Service landed in election-year controversy when Mr. Trump's choice for postmaster general …

Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Joe Manchin beats his chest for D.C. elites while struggling W. Va. waits for help | Will Bunch — Jeanne Peters moved to Wood County, W. Va., from Atlanta more than two decades ago seeking to launch an e-commerce business while breathing in some of what has kept families in the isolated Mountain State …

Discussion: CNN, Talking Points Memo, The Guardian and Wall Street Journal

Harry Siegel / New York Daily News:

Of hate, crimes and hate crimes: Anti-Asian violence is not quite what city pols want it to be — Flipping through the paper on Friday, you could read about: — A young Asian man who was at the Home Depot in East New York when a man brandished a two-by-four and asked his girlfriend, “Why you with that little d—k Asian n—

David Cohen / Politico:

China hasn't been forthright on Covid, Blinken says — The world still needs “to get to the bottom of” the origins of Covid-19, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, and that means China still owes the world some answers. — “I think China knows that in the early stages of Covid …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, One America News Network and Agence France-Presse

Ben Kamisar / NBC News:
Blinken: China's early ‘failure’ on Covid cooperation helped speed pandemic

Discussion: Slate, KDFX-TV, Insider, New York Post and Fox News

Sandee LaMotte / CNN:

Case count, masks and ventilation are key — “There are three factors to consider,” said Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, who studies the airborne transmission of Covid-19. — “How prevalent is the virus in the population?

Discussion: National Review

CNN:

‘We cannot go back to normal’: Boston's Mayor Kim Janey sees a mandate for racial equity in post-Covid era — Boston (CNN)For 200 years, Boston has been led by an unbroken string of White men — until now. Kim Janey, a Black woman who traces her roots in the city back generations …

Discussion: The Hill

New York Times:

Biden's Infrastructure Push Spurs a Flurry of Lobbying in Congress — Lawmakers in both parties are lining up to get their pet projects and policy priorities included in the expansive package. — WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have begun a frenzy of lobbying to ensure that their pet projects …

Discussion: Washington Times, Breitbart and KRON4

John Harwood / CNN:

Biden strengthens Obama's legacy while seeking his own — How Biden promised to change health care on the campaign trail — (CNN)With sweeping economic recovery plans, President Joe Biden seeks his own legacy like the New Deal or Great Society. But he's also bolstering Barack Obama's.

Brad Polumbo / Washington Examiner:
Joe Biden's Trojan horse presidency

Discussion: Instapundit

Pui-Wing Tam / New York Times:

My Family's Global Vaccine Journey — We were spread across three continents, at the mercy of vaccine geopolitics. Which of us would be inoculated last? — In early February, my sister posted a video in our family's WhatsApp group. — It was a seven-minute CNN report on Malawi …