7. A judge says Trump likely violated election law, which the media will tell you means he’s guilty

• U.S. District Judge David Carter has determined that former President Donald Trump could have committed crimes around the time of the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, when the presidential election votes were being certified.
• Carter submitted his ruling to the federal Central District of California where he said, “Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more than likely not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.”

6. New Omicron variant identified in Alabama

• One case of the BA.2 Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been diagnosed in Mobile County, according to the Mobile County Health Department. The individual diagnosed was previously in the northeast of the United States.
• The BA.2 variant has become prominent in the United States, originally spreading quickly overseas. The symptoms of the variant are generally similar to spring allergies.

5. The second Amazon union vote is being counted

• At the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, the second vote to unionize has concluded and now the votes are being counted. The first election to unionize failed, with the Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union (RWDSU) alleging that Amazon acted unethically while votes were being cast and collected.
• The initial effort to unionize gained national attention, but the second round of votes has not gained the same attention. It is expected to take about a month before the results of the election are made available.

4. $5.8 trillion budget from Biden announced

• President Joe Biden has announced his $5.8 trillion budget that he’s proposing for the 2023 fiscal year. The White House said that this budget “sends a clear message that we value fiscal responsibility, safety and security at home and around the world.”
• Biden outlined, “I’m calling for one of the largest investments in our national security in history, with the funds needed to ensure that our military remains the best-prepared, best-trained, best-equipped military in the world.”

3. Tuberville: We’re losing at the border

• U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) is bringing attention back to the southern border of the United States as there continues to be issues with illegal immigration and an increase in drugs found by the Customs and Border Protection agents.
• In speaking about the issue, Tuberville said, “We’re losing the war on drugs…and it’s coming across left and right, and we’ll have people die around here today, overdosing around our building here.” He went on to add, “It’s absolutely awful and nobody seems to be worried about it. We have got to do something about it and we’re going to lose, we’re going to have a catastrophe in this country of somebody putting [fentanyl] in our water supply, putting it in our air systems, we got to wake up and smell the roses.”

2. All those things Biden said were never said

• Despite the fact that President Joe Biden is the most photographed and recorded man on the planet right now, and all his words are scrutinized, Biden has declared that many of the things he has said in the last week were not meant the way they clearly sounded. This includes chemical weapons, troops in Ukraine and regime change in Russia. He and his administration have walked back multiple statements but the president himself seems to not know that or walk back the walk back.
• The most important statement made by President Biden is clearly the statement about regime change in Russia when he said, “[Vladimir Putin] cannot remain in power.” While the administration said it was not in his prepared remarks, Biden said it and is now saying he didn’t mean it. He declared. “I want to make it clear: I wasn’t then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change.”

1. Russia and Ukraine are resuming in-person talking

• It’s been announced that negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will resume this week, with Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia saying that they will be holding diplomatic talks in person over video calls.
• It’s most likely that talks will start again today, but there was some concern that President Joe Biden’s Europe trip damaged the country’s willingness to negotiate as he made a series of gaffes that painted an aggressive stance toward Russia, falling just short of vowing to directly involve the United States in the war between Russia and Ukraine.