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Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Watch what Russia does, not what it says: “[President Joe] Biden told reporters on Thursday there is ‘no clear evidence’ that [Russia’s Vladimir] Putin is pulling back all of his forces. The idea that Putin is pulling all of the troops out from around Kviv and moving south ‘there’s no evidence he’s done that,’ said Biden.”
* Not surprisingly, the Kremlin denied this, though the Kremlin denies a lot of things that are true: “U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by advisers about his military’s poor performance in Ukraine, according to the White House. The advisers are scared to tell him the truth, the intel says.”
* SPR: “President Joe Biden said Thursday he plans to release roughly 1 million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for about six months in an effort to drive down record oil prices. The move could free up as much as 180 million barrels of oil, the largest release of U.S. reserves in history, with the first barrels coming on the market in May.”
* On a related note: “U.S. President Joe Biden wants oil drillers to pay penalties when federal leases go unused in an effort to prod the industry into pumping more. The White House will call on Congress to ‘make companies pay fees on wells from their leases that they haven’t used in years and on acres of public lands that they are hoarding without producing,’ the administration said in a statement on Thursday.”
* A worthwhile bill heads to the Senate: “Weeks after President Joe Biden called on Congress to cap the price of insulin, the House passed legislation to do exactly that, capping the out-of-pocket cost for the essential drug at $35 per month for people with private insurance and Medicare.”
* Republicans and Joe Manchin won’t care for this: “The Biden administration is preparing to lift Title 42, the public health authority the U.S. has used since the spring of 2020 to stop the spread of Covid by preventing immigrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to claim asylum, say two officials familiar with the planning.”
* If only evidence, research, and scientific proof mattered to more people: “The anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, which has surged in popularity as an alternative treatment for Covid-19 despite a lack of strong research to back it up, showed no sign of alleviating the disease, according to results of a large clinical trial published on Wednesday.”
* Quite a breakthrough: “Scientists say they have finally assembled the full genetic blueprint for human life, adding the missing pieces to a puzzle nearly completed two decades ago.... Scientists said this full picture of the genome will give humanity a greater understanding of our evolution and biology while also opening the door to medical discoveries in areas like aging, neurodegenerative conditions, cancer and heart disease.”
* Good move: “President Biden is marking Transgender Day of Visibility by celebrating the contributions that transgender Americans have made to the country while criticizing Republican-led efforts to pass legislation that the White House says is ‘dangerous’ to transgender people.”
* A follow-up item on a story we discussed yesterday: “CBS News’s decision to hire former Trump administration official Mick Mulvaney as a paid on-air contributor is drawing backlash within the company because of his history of bashing the press and promoting the former president’s fact-free claims.”
See you tomorrow.