Source: Biden team finds more docs with classified markings
President Joe Biden’s legal team has discovered additional documents containing classification markings. That’s according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday. The revelation comes days after an attorney for the president said Biden’s lawyers had discovered a “small number” of classified documents at his former office space in Washington. The person who spoke to the AP Wednesday on condition of anonymity says the legal team found the additional material at a second location. The person would not say when or where the material was found or provide specific details about the level of classification of the documents.
Watchdog sees ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for the IRS
The IRS is beginning to see “a light at the end of the tunnel” of its customer service struggles, thanks to tens of billions of new money from the Democrats’ climate and health law and the authority to hire more people. That word comes from an independent watchdog within the agency. But that upbeat assessment from the National Taxpayer Advocate is tempered by an early move by the new House Republican majority to rescind nearly $71 billion that Congress had provided the IRS. Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins cites “more misery” for taxpayers last year and speaks of the challenges still ahead. She says, “I am just not sure how much further we need to travel before we see sunlight.”
SCOTUS leaves New York’s new gun law in place for now
The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed New York to enforce, for now, a gun control law enacted in response to a landmark ruling in June that had placed strict limits on guns outside the home. The law, enacted in July, requires people seeking gun licenses to show that they have “good moral character” and bans guns in many public locations. In addition, the law bans guns on private property unless the owner consents to their presence. Six New Yorkers, backed by a gun rights group, challenged the law in the case brought to the Supreme Court.
Battle rages in Ukraine town; Russia shakes up its military
The fate of a devastated salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine is hanging in the balance. Ukraine says its forces are holding out against a furious Russian onslaught in one of the fiercest and bloodiest recent ground battles of the nearly 11-month war. Soledar is under heavy shelling by Russian forces using jets, mortars and rockets. Ukraine’s deputy defense minister on Wednesday denied Russian claims that Soledar had fallen. In an apparent recognition of battlefield setbacks, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced the replacement of the head of Russian forces in Ukraine. The former chief was demoted to deputy after three months on the job, signaling that President Vladimir Putin wasn’t fully satisfied with his performance.
Brazil rioters plotted openly online, pitched huge ‘party’
The rioters who stormed Brazil’s capital buildings on Sunday used coded language on social media to coordinate and carry out their plans in plain view. Organizers on Telegram urged supporters of the defeated president Jair Bolsonaro to attend what they called a “beach trip” and even offered help finding bus transportation. Some rioters then used YouTube to livestream the uprising, racking up hundreds of thousands of views before the channels were shut down. Just as the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol did, the Brazilian riots demonstrate how social media makes it easier than ever for anti-democratic groups to recruit followers and transform online rhetoric into offline action.
By wire sources