Today’s read: 2 min 41 sec

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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

🇵🇸 Columbia University professors rally for the Palestinian cause. Columbia faculty staged a “walkout” on Tuesday to express their solidarity with the student protesters and to call for the resignation of the university president. As the university seeks to negotiate an end to the activists' protest, the professors now siding with the students adds further fuel to the fire.

🏦 The U.S. is preparing to level sanctions on Chinese banks. Sanctions are in the process of being drafted to disconnect certain Chinese banks from the global financial network. This action aims to curb the banks’ alleged support for Russia in its war against Ukraine, but some warn it may expedite China’s and Russia’s detachment from the U.S. dollar.

🔎 A new report exposes the CIA’s mishandling of internal sexual assault cases. The House Intelligence Committee discovered that victims of sexual assault within CIA headquarters saw “little to no accountability or punishment for the perpetrators.” Over 20 CIA employees came forward after the initial whistleblower, further scandalizing the agency that only has around 50 percent public support.

👶 President Biden delivered a speech on abortion, rebuking Trump. The president stopped by Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday to condemn the Sunshine State’s 6-week abortion ban set to take effect May 1. Contrasting himself with Donald Trump, as well as the general concept of federalism, Biden asserted, “The Supreme Court was wrong…this isn’t about states’ rights. It’s about women’s rights.”

TRUMP TRIAL WATCH

• David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, resumed his testimony and claimed that as part of their working relationship, he agreed to print favorable stories about Donald Trump and unfavorable ones about his opponents.

• Pecker also testified that he paid for the exclusive rights to potentially damaging stories about Trump before the 2016 election, intending never to publish them.

• Prosecutors declared that Donald Trump “willfully,” “flagrantly,” and “repeatedly” violated his gag order and demanded he take down 10 online posts.

WASHINGTON

Biden’s new Title IX rule mandates radical gender policies

What’s happening: President Joe Biden’s Education Department released the final version of a Title IX regulation banning “discrimination” based on “gender identity” in federally-funded schools.

• Reminder: Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits mistreatment “on the basis of sex.” For decades, it was celebrated for protecting women from sexual harassment and discrimination.

The new version: The Biden administration has flipped the law on its head by deciding that “sex” means “an individual’s sense of their gender, which may or may not be different from their sex assigned at birth.”

• Sharing private spaces: The Education Department said males do not “pose a safety risk” to females when sharing single-sex spaces and that women have no “legitimate privacy interest” in such scenarios.

• Pronoun police: The department has previously argued, and continues to say in the new policy, that repeatedly “misgendering” a student is a form of “harassment.”

• Silent on sports: Republicans have highlighted the clear domination of men in women’s sporting competitions yet the new policy fails to address athletics.

The scope: Biden’s regulation touches every public K-12 school, public college campus, and all private schools receiving federal funding.

Why it matters: There is no basis for this regulation in the plain text of Title IX. The Biden administration cites only court decisions agreeing with its ideological revision of the law, allowing the president to bypass Congress in creating radical policies that face more opposition than support among Americans, according to polling.

What’s next: The new rule goes into effect on Aug. 1. It will likely face legal challenges.

—H.C.

WHAT WE’RE HEARING

• Donald Trump defended Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), saying, “I think he’s a very good person” and that he’s “trying very hard.”

• HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra is reportedly planning to exit the Biden administration and potentially run for office in California.

• 27 GOP senators demanded President Biden “take immediate action” to defend Jewish students on university campuses.

Media Buries the Facts About Ashley Biden’s Diary

What happened: A Florida woman was sentenced to a month in prison this week for selling the diary of Ashley Biden to Project Veritas…

🔗 Members can read it here.

📖 Not a member yet? Read it for free with a 14-day preview here.

OUR QUESTION TO YOU

POLL RESULTS FROM YESTERDAY

Can Trump have a fair trial?

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👍 Yes (13)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 👎 No (668)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤔 Other (15)

IN THE LOOP

• The Senate advanced the $95 billion foreign aid package, also containing the measure to force the sale of TikTok, to President Biden’s desk.

• The IDF took out two senior Hezbollah terrorists in targeted airstrikes in southern Lebanon.

• Google has fired over 50 employees involved in sit-in protests to demand the tech giant’s divestment from Israel.

• Kari Lake (R-AZ) now contends that Arizona's abortion law should be upheld, regardless of her personal stance on it.

• Are you curious why the Left is becoming more and more radical? In his free online course, Professor Kevin Slack exposes how radicalism became mainstream in American politics and how to combat these dangerous ideas. Click to begin “The American Left: From Liberalism to Despotism” today.

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