•Cold War with China? Scroll down this page with the trackbar on the far right to read commentary by Stephen Macaulay and Bryan Williams.
•Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, has pushed back today’s deadline for the House of Representatives to vote on the $1.2-trillion bi-partisan infrastructure bill to Thursday, when a number of surface transportation bills expire, Politico reports. The House begins debate on the infrastructure bill later today.
•The Senate, meanwhile, is set to vote on a cloture motion today to move forward a short-term funding bill, passed by the House, that would keep federal agencies funded to December 3 and suspend the debt limit to December 2022, according to Roll Call. The cloture motion will not pass, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, has rallied his caucus to oppose it.
Merkel’s Conservatives are Narrowly Defeated – German voters Sunday gave the center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) a narrow victory over outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats, The Wall Street Journal reports. But the parliament will have to form a coalition government, with the Greens coming in a “strong second” in votes and the pro-market Free Democratic Party finishing third in the vote.
Germany’s next chancellor could “possibly” be the GDP’s Olaf Scholz, says The Washington Post.
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Abbott Will Hire Border Agents Under Investigation – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R, says he will hire U.S. Border Patrol agents under investigation after they were photographed charging migrants on the border near the Del Rio bridge, the Republican governor told Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace (per Politico). At least one border agent was photographed wielding a whip on undocumented migrants who crossed the Texas-Mexico border, which has prompted President Biden to call for an investigation.
“You have a job in the state of Texas,” Abbott said. “I will hire you to help Texas secure our border.”
Note: Welcome to the latest volley in the Culture Wars, as pro-Trump Republican governors like Abbott and Florida’s Ron DeSantis potentially move on from anti-vaxxer, anti-mask mandate issues as their hospitals overflow with patients.
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Two Dead in New Mexico After Using Ivermectin – New Mexico’s health department has reported that two patients, aged 38 and 79, have died after apparently attempting to use ivermectin to treat themselves for the coronavirus, The Hill reports. The state’s acting health department head, Dr. David Scrase, said that one of the two patients died of kidney failure.
Ivermectin is primarily used in animals but may be administered to humans in small doses to treat internal parasites.
Note: The drug had become an alternative to FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines by anti-vaxers last summer after being promoted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and political podcaster Joe Rogan, The Hill notes. To reiterate the obvious: Ivermectin is NOT safe for treatment of the coronavirus in humans.
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NTSB Investigates Montana AMTRAK Derailment – The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an Amtrak passenger train derailment near Joplin, Montana, Saturday, about 200 miles north of Helena, near the Canadian border, in which three people were killed and up to 30 were injured, The Washington Post reports. Eight of 10 passenger cars with an estimated 141 passengers and 17 crew members aboard derailed in the accident. The NTSB holds a briefing today.
Edited by Todd Lassa and Donna MacKeand