memeorandum: Biden, Democratic National Committee will return political donations from Silicon Valley Bank executives (USA Today)

3:30 PM ET, March 17, 2023

Top Items:

ICC issues arrest warrant for Putin over war crimes in Ukraine — Judges from the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued on Friday the court's first arrest warrants related to the war in Ukraine, for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children's rights.

Discussion: The Guardian, CNN, HotAir, Reuters, Axios, Forbes, Chills, Bloomberg, CNBC, Politico, Al Jazeera, Outside the Beltway, The Times, Metro.co.uk, Raw Story, Breitbart, Financial Times, UPI, Joe.My.God., NPR, Daily News, One America News Network, Sputnik News, Mediaite and The Daily Caller

Associated Press:

ICC issues arrest warrant for Putin over Ukraine war crimes — The International Criminal Court said Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine.

Spencer Ackerman / The Nation:

The Unlearned Lessons From the War in Iraq — You don't have to reflect on a war if that war doesn't end, let alone pay reparations for your crimes. — Leave it to George W. Bush to misspeak his way to the truth about the Iraq War that he launched 20 years ago.

Discussion: The Guardian, Washington Examiner, Common Dreams, Al Jazeera and CounterPunch

Bloomberg:

NATO Edges Closer to Expansion as Turkey Backs Finland's Bid — Turkey and Hungary both signaled they plan to ratify Finland's entry into NATO, bringing the military alliance a step closer to welcoming its 31st member as the ripples from Russia's invasion of Ukraine spread across the European security landscape.

New York Times:
Xi, Cast as Peacemaker, Wades Into Russia's War in Ukraine

Discussion: Associated Press, CNN, Washington Examiner, Daily News, Reuters, The Diplomat, UPI, NBC News, Al Jazeera, Politico, Washington Post, New York Magazine and nationalinterest.org

Stephen Wertheim / Foreign Affairs:
Iraq and the Pathologies of Primacy

Discussion: The Guardian, New York Post, Washington Examiner, Washington Post, The Dispatch, Atlantic Council, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Al-Monitor, Vox, The American Conservative and Informed Comment

CBS News:
Putin arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine issued by International Criminal Court

Discussion: Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Hill, IJR and CODEPINK

Henry Austin / NBC News:
International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Putin over alleged Ukraine war crimes

Discussion: Associated Press, Substack, New York Post and CNN

Jonathan Dienst / NBC News:

Law enforcement agencies are prepping for a possible Trump indictment as early as next week — Local, state, and federal law enforcement and security agencies are preparing for the possibility that former president Donald Trump could be indicted as early as next week, according to five senior officials familiar with the preparations.

Discussion: NBC New York, RedState, The Gateway Pundit, PoliticusUSA, Alternet.org and National Review

Olivia Beavers / Politico:

'You think I'm crazy?' Florida GOP sweats Trump vs. DeSantis — Most of Congress' Sunshine State Republicans have a line ready if you ask whether they prefer Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis: “The next president will be from Florida.” — Ask them who that president will be, though, and you rarely get a firm answer.

Discussion: The Atlantic, NBC News, Washington Examiner, Associated Press, New Republic, BizPac Review, Mediaite, Raw Story and Insider

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

DeSantis, on Defense, Shows Signs of Slipping in Polls — For now, the Florida governor isn't firing back at Trump. — It's been a tough few months for Ron DeSantis. — Donald J. Trump and his allies have blasted him as “Meatball Ron,” “Ron DeSanctimonious,” a “groomer,” disloyal and a supporter of cutting entitlement programs.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Emerson Polling, Washington Examiner, Semafor, The Daily Caller, Florida Politics, The Hill, Forbes and Los Angeles Times

Jack Forrest / CNN:
Federal appeals court leaves DeSantis' anti-'woke' law blocked in Florida public colleges

Discussion: NBC News, Democracy OTL, New York Post, Joe.My.God., American Greatness, The Capitolist, Washington Examiner, Florida Politics and Politico

Matt Viser / Washington Post:

Hunter Biden sues laptop repair shop owner, citing invasion of privacy — The lawsuit, a counter-move against John Paul Mac Isaac, escalates the legal battle surrounding the president's son at a sensitive moment. — Hunter Biden has filed a sweeping countersuit against the computer repair shop owner …

Lucien Bruggeman / ABC News:
Hunter Biden files counterclaims against computer repairman over handling of infamous laptop

Discussion: Fox News, Washington Examiner, ABC7, Mediaite and NBC News

Kierra Frazier / Politico:
Hunter Biden files response against computer repair shop owner

Discussion: PoliticusUSA

CNN:

Trump attorney ordered to testify before grand jury investigating former president — In a monumental ruling Friday, a federal judge has ordered Donald Trump attorney Evan Corcoran to provide additional testimony as part of an investigation into the former president's handling of classified documents …

Discussion: Just The News, CBS News, Fox News, National Review, Forbes, PoliticusUSA, New York Post, Spokesman.com and Raw Story

Reuters:
New chief judge in Washington to oversee secret Trump proceedings

Discussion: Associated Press and The Nation

Washington Post:

Two gifts to Trump family from foreign nations are missing, report says — More than 100 gifts worth nearly $300,000 were not properly reported to the government, a new report finds. — Federal officials cannot find two gifts received by President Donald Trump and his family from foreign nations …

Discussion: New York Times, The Hill, USA Today, Associated Press, Raw Story, CNN, IJR and Forbes

Jesse Eisinger / ProPublica:

Regulatory Failure 101: What the Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank Reveals — The collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank this past weekend were the end point in an all-too-familiar cycle: first the boom, then the breathtakingly speedy bust and then the bailout.

Discussion: Bloomberg, CBS News, Axios, Associated Press, New York Times and CNBC

The Guardian:
Silicon Valley Bank said it was too small to need regulation. Now it's ‘too big to fail’

Discussion: AIER, Mother Jones and The Atlantic

Bloomberg:
The Fed Was Too Late on SVB Even Though It Saw Problem After Problem

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, RedState and American Prospect

Josh Dawsey / Washington Post:

Trump-commissioned report undercut his claims of dead and double voters — A report buried by the former president's campaign and obtained by The Post did not back up his claims of fraud and did not provide evidence to overturn the 2020 election — When Donald Trump called Georgia Secretary …

Discussion: Mediaite, Politico, The Guardian, Letters from an American, NBC News, Washington Examiner, Forbes, Raw Story, Alternet.org, New York Post and Vanity Fair

TMZ.com:

‘The Wire’ Star Lance Reddick Dead at 60 — EXCLUSIVE — LANCE REDDICK THROUGH THE YEARS — Lance Reddick, famous for his work on HBO's “The Wire” and the “John Wick” movie franchise has died ... TMZ has learned. — Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Lance's body was discovered …

Discussion: KRON4 and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Benjamin Mueller / New York Times:

New Data Links Pandemic's Origins to Raccoon Dogs at Wuhan Market — Genetic samples from the market were recently uploaded to an international database and then removed after scientists asked China about them. — An international team of virus experts said on Thursday that they had found genetic data …

Discussion: CBS News, The Hill, publication, The Guardian, CNBC, NPR, Ars Technica, Albuquerque Journal, Forbes, Politico, abc7NY, Joe.My.God., PBS NewsHour, RedState, Twitchy and The Atlantic

Dan Friedman / Mother Jones:

Steve Bannon Is Neck-Deep in Guo Wengui's Allegedly Fraudulent Business Empire — In late November 2021, Steve Bannon appeared in a live broadcast on GTV, a media outlet that he'd helped his friend Guo Wengui launch a year earlier. Bannon used the appearance to celebrate HCoin, a supposed cryptocurrency that Guo was selling.

Discussion: Media Matters for America, The Daily Beast, Insider, Fortune and Letters from an American

Hugo Lowell / The Guardian:

Trump Media executives worried over murky $8m loans, emails reveal — Exclusive: financing with suspected Russian ties came at a critical time as company was running out of cash after a planned merger — Top executives at Donald Trump's social media company started to become concerned …

Discussion: Alternet.org

Steven Monacelli / The Texas Observer:

The ‘Dallas Express’: Your Go-To Source for Right-Wing, Astroturf News — This piece is part of Special Correspondent Steven Monacellis' reporting on extremist groups masquerading as grassroots, social justice organizations. — For over 80 years, the Dallas Express operated as a weekly …

Steven Monacelli / The Texas Observer: Dallas Has a Problem With ‘Zombie’ Astroturf Groups

Richard Hall / The Independent:

Former Guantanamo prisoner: Ron DeSantis watched me being tortured — Mansoor Adayfi says the brutal force-feeding methods employed on Guantanamo prisoners like him amounted to torture. He tells Richard Hall that Ron DeSantis watched it happen — A former detainee of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp …

Discussion: Raw Story

Ian Ward / Politico:

The Federalist Society Isn't Quite Sure About Democracy Anymore — AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas sun was just beginning to rise over central Austin as groups of neatly-dressed law students arrived at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center, a beige monolith plopped on the southwestern corner …

Discussion: Alternet.org

Jack Shafer / Politico:

The Ousted Reporter Was Right to Call Out Ron DeSantis' Propaganda — Reporters have been brawling with public relations flacks since the late 1800s when railroads and other corporations established press bureaus to wrangle their relationships with the media. These face-offs can be as light and collegial as a garden party.

Discussion: Fox News, The Daily Caller, IJR, Washington Free Beacon, The Hill, BizPac Review and Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

The Bulwark:

How the ‘No Labels’ Gambit Could Wreck the 2024 Election — The group says it doesn't want its (as-yet-unchosen) third-party candidate to be a spoiler—but it also doesn't say who all its funders are. — Those politics watchers—including most journalists—who are envisioning …

Discussion: Deseret News

Politico:

House GOP ignored Capitol Police requests to review public Jan. 6 footage, lawyer says — House Republicans ignored the Capitol Police's repeated requests to review and approve any Jan. 6 security footage they planned to release publicly, the force's top lawyer asserted in a sworn affidavit filed Friday.

Discussion: Washington Post

Jenny Leonard / Bloomberg:

Biden Will Host India's Modi for a State Dinner This Summer — US President Joe Biden plans to host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a state dinner this summer, people familiar with the matter said. — The formal state visit is a sign of the deepening US-India relationship …

Discussion: PJ Media

Joshua Nelson / Fox News:

Dr. Rachel Levine says changing kids' genders will soon be fully embraced: ‘Wheels will turn on this’ … Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Rachel Levine promised that medically changing kids' genders will soon be normalized.

Discussion: New York Post, Breitbart, BizPac Review and Twitchy

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

This sleeper race could wreck MAGA's 2024 dreams — Wisconsin looms large in the MAGA transformation of American politics. Of the three “blue wall” states that Donald Trump flipped in 2016, Wisconsin was the toughest for Democrats to take back in 2020. Winning there — more than Michigan …

Discussion: Associated Press, NBC News and Raw Story

Reuters:

Slovakia sends MIG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine - PM — Slovakia on Friday became the second of Ukraine's allies to provide MIG-29 fighter jets which Kyiv believes are crucial to repel Russia's year-long invasion. — Slovakia joined Poland, which announced its delivery of the planes on Thursday.

Discussion: Financial Times, The Guardian, World News, Washington Post, Breitbart, The Drive, New York Times, Associated Press, UPI, Human Events, Just Security, Washington Examiner, Bloomberg, Wesley Wark's National …, Axios, abc7NY, CBS News and NPR

New York Times:

Justice Dept. Investigating TikTok's Owner Over Possible Spying on Journalists — The inquiry appears to be tied to an admission by the app's owner, ByteDance, that employees had inappropriately obtained Americans' data. The company said it had fired the workers involved.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, NBC News, Politico, Breitbart, New York Post, The Wrap, Metro.co.uk, Semafor, The Daily Caller and Financial Times, more at Techmeme »

USA Today:

Biden, Democratic National Committee will return political donations from Silicon Valley Bank executives — WASHINGTON — The Democratic National Committee and President Joe Biden's 2020 campaign will return political donations tied to Silicon Valley Bank in the aftermath of the bank's collapse, the DNC told USA TODAY on Friday.

Discussion: Washington Examiner and The Hill

Steve Karnowski / Associated Press:

Regulators monitor tritium leak at Minnesota nuclear plant — Minnesota regulators said Thursday they're monitoring the cleanup of a leak of 400,000 gallons of radioactive water from Xcel Energy's Monticello nuclear power plant, and the company said there's no danger to the public.