Ohio Supreme Court strikes down Republican gerrymander of map
The Ohio Supreme Court struck down a congressional map skewed to favor Republicans on Friday and sent it back to state lawmakers to try again. The map would have given Republicans an advantage of 12 seats to three in elections for the House of Representatives, even though the GOP has lately won only about 55% of the statewide popular vote. Under an amendment to the Ohio Constitution passed by voters in 2018, mapmakers are not allowed to redistrict the state to unduly favor one party. The proposed map was drawn by Republicans in the Legislature and passed without Democratic support, and the court rejected it in a 4-3 decision.
US names official to counter foreign election interference
The director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, has appointed a new officer to oversee threats to elections, filling a critical role in the nation’s efforts to counter foreign election interference, her office said Friday. The new officer, Jeffrey Wichman, who has worked at the CIA for more than three decades, will take over as the election threat executive at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence next week, said Nicole de Haay, a spokesperson for the director of national intelligence. Wichman is currently director of analysis for the CIA’s counterintelligence mission center, and he previously served as a senior cyber analyst in the agency’s directorate of digital innovation.
Republican who voted to impeach trump won’t seek re-election
Rep. John Katko of New York, a centrist Republican who broke with his party last year to vote to impeach former President Donald Trump, announced Friday that he would not run for reelection. Katko was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump and is the third member of that group to announce his retirement. In a statement, Katko said he decided to call it quits in order to “enjoy my family and life in a fuller and more present way.” Katko, a former federal prosecutor, had grown increasingly marginalized by conservatives at home and among House Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Winter storm threatens disruption across wide stretch of the US
A powerful winter storm crept across the upper Midwest on Friday, tracking on a circuitous path that forecasters said could create a cascade of power outages, hazardous travel conditions and deepening supply-chain problems across a vast section of the country extending from the South to the East Coast. The sprawling weather system prompted winter storm warnings and watches from North Dakota down to northern Mississippi and across to Raleigh, North Carolina, and areas of western New York. Some ambiguity remained over how much snow, ice and rain the storm could bring in the coming days, especially in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic.
Hackers bring down government sites in Ukraine
Hackers brought down dozens of Ukrainian government websites Friday and posted a message on one saying, “Be afraid and expect the worst,” a day after a breakdown in talks between Russia and the West intended to forestall a threatened Russian invasion of the country. Diplomats and analysts anticipated a cyberattack on Ukraine, but proving the source is difficult. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry did not directly blame Russia but noted there was a long record of Russian online assaults against Ukraine. The message was posted in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish in what seemed like an effort to obfuscate the origins of the hackers and their motives.
US considers backing an insurgency if Russia invades Ukraine
For years, U.S. officials have tiptoed around the question of how much military support to give Ukraine, for fear of provoking Russia. Now, in what would be a major turnaround, Biden administration officials are warning that the United States could throw its weight behind a Ukrainian insurgency should Russian President Vladimir Putin invade. How the United States, which just exited Afghanistan, might pivot to funding and supporting an insurgency from fighting one is still being worked out. But even a conversation about how far the United States would go to subvert Russian aims in the event of an invasion has revived the specter of a new Cold War.
Mass trials in Cuba deepen its harshest crackdown in decades
Detained protesters in Cuba could get up to 30 years in prison as they face the largest and most punitive mass trials on the island since the early years of the revolution. Prosecutors this week put on trial more than 60 citizens charged with crimes, including sedition, for taking part in demonstrations against the country’s economic crisis over the summer, said human rights activists and relatives of those detained. More than 620 detainees have faced or are slated to face trial for joining the biggest outburst of popular discontent against the Communist government since it took power in 1959.
By wire sources
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