US President Joe Biden speaks during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC, September 28, 2022.

OLIVER CONTRERAS/AFP via Getty Images

• President Joe Biden previously called out the former president for holding onto classified documents.
• Biden is now under scrutiny for having also held on classified documents.
• Here is a timeline detailing the chain of events.

The existence of a second batch of classified documents in President Joe Biden’s custody was made public on Wednesday.

The first set of documents was found in November, but publicized earlier this week, as former President Donald Trump came under fire for not handing over classified documents to the National Archives.

There is a stark difference between Biden’s and Trump’s handling of the classified documents — such as a drastically higher number of documents that Trump claims he took purposefully and the fact that Biden’s office is reportedly cooperating with the National Archives, Insider reported.

Here, a timeline lays out Biden’s involvement with the classified documents — and how it sometimes overlapped with the turmoil around Trump’s classified documents probe.

Mid-2017: Biden start working occasionally at the Penn Biden Center

Richard Sauber, the special counsel to the president, said he “periodically” worked at the Penn Biden Center, a nonprofit think tank in DC run by the University of Pennsylvania and the location where attorneys eventually found the classified documents, from mid-2017 to 2020.

Summer and fall 2022: Biden calls out Trump amid probe into classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago

The DOJ is investigating former President Donald Trump for violating three federal laws, including the Espionage Act, after news broke that he relocated roughly 700 pages of classified documents from his presidency to his Mar-a-Lago home. 

The former president told his Truth Social followers that the FBI raided his home on August 8, 2022. The raid came six months after the National Archives and Records Administration confirmed that Trump had taken documents to his home at the Florida resort and after more than a year’s worth of requests for the return of the documents.

In September, President Joe Biden commented on the matter: “How that could possibly happen, how anyone could be that irresponsible.”

November 2, 2022: First batch of classified documents found at Biden’s office

Months later, Biden’s team discovered about 10 classified documents at Penn Biden Center, a nonprofit think tank in DC that Biden started in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania. Biden used the office from his time as vice president up until 2020, his special counsel would say in a later statement. 

The documents were immediately turned over to the National Archives, his counsel said, but it wasn’t for another two months that the public would learn about the existence of these documents. 

January 9, 2023: Announcement made public 

“The discovery of these documents was made by the President’s attorneys,” Sauber said in a statement on Monday. “The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives. Since that discovery, the President’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland has entrusted a US attorney based in Chicago to examine whether a full investigation into the matter is necessary, CBS News reported.

January 9, 2023: Trump uses recent findings to slam the FBI and Biden’s administration

Trump called out his political rival on his Truth Social platform on the evening of January 9: “When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?”

The former President has claimed on multiple occasions that other presidents have done the same thing.  

“As soon as his lawyers realized these documents were there, they did the right thing,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday. “And they turned over the documents to the archivist.”

She added that Biden’s team “is cooperating fully” with the Justice Department.

January 11, 2023: Second batch of documents uncovered

On January 11, it was made public that White House aides discovered a second set of classified documents, Insider’s Sonam Sheth and Nicole Gaudiano reported. However, it’s not immediately clear the number of documents found or where and when they were uncovered, NBC News reported. It’s also unknown what their classification levels are and the contents of the documents.

“He was surprised by this, he definitely, truly, respects the process here,” Jean-Pierre said of Biden at Wednesday’s news briefing. “He takes classified documents very seriously.”

According to Jean-Pierre, the content of the newly discovered documents are “something that the president doesn’t even know and I’m just going to leave it there.”

Moscow named a new commander for its invasion of Ukraine while Russian private military firm Wagner Group said its capture of the salt mining town Soledar in eastern Ukraine was complete.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday appointed Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov as overall commander for what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, now in its 11th month.

The change effectively demoted General Sergei Surovikin, who was appointed only in October to lead the invasion and oversaw heavy attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said his forces had captured all of Soledar and killed about 500 Ukrainian soldiers after heavy fighting.

“I want to confirm the complete liberation and cleansing of the territory of Soledar,” Prigozhin said in a statement.

“The whole city is littered with the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers,” he said.

U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Wednesday that he could not corroborate reports that Soledar was in Russian hands.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the situation in Soledar.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mocked previous Wagner claims to have seized part of Soledar but made no immediate comment on the latest assertions.

“The terrorist state and its propagandists are trying to pretend that part of our town of Soledar … is some sort of a Russian possession,” Zelenskiy said in a video address. “But fighting continues.”

In a statement on Facebook, the Ukrainian military general staff said Russian forces were suffering heavy losses as they tried to take Soledar and sever Ukrainian supply lines.

Russia has struggled to cement control over the town, which would be Russia’s most substantial gain since August after a series of retreats before Ukrainian counter-offensives in the east and south.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said the situation in Soledar was “approaching that of critical”.

“The Ukrainian armed forces are holding their positions. About one half of the town is under our control. Fierce fighting is going on near the town centre,” he said on YouTube.

However, Zhdanov told Ukrainian television that if Russian forces seized Soledar or nearby Bakhmut it would be more a political victory than military.

“There is more politics than war here,” said Zhdanov.

“The Russians, if they take one of these towns, will try to put the event on par with capturing Berlin and they will use it for propaganda purposes as much for the outside market as for domestic consumption,” he said.

“Inside Russia, it will give them the opportunity to lift the spirits of conscripts and society as a whole. To unite them all…”

A Russian Defence Ministry statement said the command reshuffle was meant to improve contacts between military branches and the effectiveness of the command structure.

One prominent military blogger who posts on the Telegram messaging app under the name of Rybar said Surovikin was being made the fall guy for recent Russian military debacles. Those included a Ukrainian attack on a Russian barracks that killed at least 89 Russian soldiers over New Year’s.

Surovikin was ordered to head the campaign after Ukrainian offensives turned the tide of the war and drew attention to poor training, equipment and morale among Russian forces.

If pro-Russian forces succeed in taking Soledar, it would be a stepping stone in Moscow’s thrust to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donbas industrial region. The town would be a base to attack the nearby city of Bakhmut, a supply line hub in eastern Ukraine, where defenders have held out for months.

Before Wagner’s latest statement, the Kremlin stopped short of claiming victory and acknowledged heavy casualties.

“Let’s not rush, let’s wait for official statements. There is a positive dynamic in progress,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

A Reuters photographer who reached the outskirts of Soledar in recent days said many residents had fled the town in perishing cold. Smoke could be seen rising over the town and the incoming artillery fire was relentless, she said.

Earlier, Russian state news agency RIA said Wagner had taken over Soledar’s salt mines and a photograph on the militia’s Telegram channel appeared to show Prigozhin and his fighters inside a mine.

Wagner separately said its forces found the body of one of two British voluntary aid workers reported missing in eastern Ukraine. It did not give the name of the dead man. A photo appeared to show passports bearing the names of Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry, the two missing workers.

Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, saying Kyiv’s close ties with the West and ambitions to join NATO threatened its security. Kyiv and its allies accuse Moscow of an unprovoked war to seize territory in a neighbour it once dominated within the former Soviet Union.

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Moscow named a new commander for its invasion of Ukraine while Russian private military firm Wagner Group said its capture of the salt mining town Soledar in eastern Ukraine was complete.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday appointed Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov as overall commander for what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, now in its 11th month.

The change effectively demoted General Sergei Surovikin, who was appointed only in October to lead the invasion and oversaw heavy attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said his forces had captured all of Soledar and killed about 500 Ukrainian soldiers after heavy fighting.

“I want to confirm the complete liberation and cleansing of the territory of Soledar,” Prigozhin said in a statement.

“The whole city is littered with the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers,” he said.

U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Wednesday that he could not corroborate reports that Soledar was in Russian hands.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the situation in Soledar.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mocked previous Wagner claims to have seized part of Soledar but made no immediate comment on the latest assertions.

“The terrorist state and its propagandists are trying to pretend that part of our town of Soledar … is some sort of a Russian possession,” Zelenskiy said in a video address. “But fighting continues.”

In a statement on Facebook, the Ukrainian military general staff said Russian forces were suffering heavy losses as they tried to take Soledar and sever Ukrainian supply lines.

Russia has struggled to cement control over the town, which would be Russia’s most substantial gain since August after a series of retreats before Ukrainian counter-offensives in the east and south.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said the situation in Soledar was “approaching that of critical”.

“The Ukrainian armed forces are holding their positions. About one half of the town is under our control. Fierce fighting is going on near the town centre,” he said on YouTube.

However, Zhdanov told Ukrainian television that if Russian forces seized Soledar or nearby Bakhmut it would be more a political victory than military.

“There is more politics than war here,” said Zhdanov.

“The Russians, if they take one of these towns, will try to put the event on par with capturing Berlin and they will use it for propaganda purposes as much for the outside market as for domestic consumption,” he said.

“Inside Russia, it will give them the opportunity to lift the spirits of conscripts and society as a whole. To unite them all…”

A Russian Defence Ministry statement said the command reshuffle was meant to improve contacts between military branches and the effectiveness of the command structure.

One prominent military blogger who posts on the Telegram messaging app under the name of Rybar said Surovikin was being made the fall guy for recent Russian military debacles. Those included a Ukrainian attack on a Russian barracks that killed at least 89 Russian soldiers over New Year’s.

Surovikin was ordered to head the campaign after Ukrainian offensives turned the tide of the war and drew attention to poor training, equipment and morale among Russian forces.

If pro-Russian forces succeed in taking Soledar, it would be a stepping stone in Moscow’s thrust to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donbas industrial region. The town would be a base to attack the nearby city of Bakhmut, a supply line hub in eastern Ukraine, where defenders have held out for months.

Before Wagner’s latest statement, the Kremlin stopped short of claiming victory and acknowledged heavy casualties.

“Let’s not rush, let’s wait for official statements. There is a positive dynamic in progress,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

A Reuters photographer who reached the outskirts of Soledar in recent days said many residents had fled the town in perishing cold. Smoke could be seen rising over the town and the incoming artillery fire was relentless, she said.

Earlier, Russian state news agency RIA said Wagner had taken over Soledar’s salt mines and a photograph on the militia’s Telegram channel appeared to show Prigozhin and his fighters inside a mine.

Wagner separately said its forces found the body of one of two British voluntary aid workers reported missing in eastern Ukraine. It did not give the name of the dead man. A photo appeared to show passports bearing the names of Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry, the two missing workers.

Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, saying Kyiv’s close ties with the West and ambitions to join NATO threatened its security. Kyiv and its allies accuse Moscow of an unprovoked war to seize territory in a neighbour it once dominated within the former Soviet Union.

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For the first time in her life, Asha, a street cleaner in the Indian city of Jammu, will be allowed to vote in upcoming local elections. And she’s in no doubt who will get her ballot.

Asha plans to reward Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for scrapping policies in place for decades that denied her and a million more people in the region of Jammu and Kashmir many of the same rights as other Indians.

“We have faced the humiliation silently, but Modi-ji has changed our lives forever,” she said, leaning on her broom. “It’s not just me and my children, future generations from our community in Jammu and Kashmir will vote for the BJP.”

The Hindu nationalist party is counting on Asha’s vote as it pushes to take control of India’s part of the Himalayan region that is hotly contested by neighbouring Pakistan and has been governed almost exclusively by Muslim chief ministers.

The BJP hopes the addition of up to a million mostly Hindu voters to the electoral roll, new electoral boundaries, seven more seats in the regional assembly and the reservation of nine for groups likely to back the BJP will give it a fighting chance of becoming the biggest party in the 90-seat legislature.

Reuters has interviewed three dozen federal and state officials, six groups representing disenfranchised residents, and analysed the latest data to lay out for the first time the scale of the BJP’s push in Kashmir – and why it may succeed.

A BJP majority would be a seismic shift and even talk of a strong showing underlines how Modi has trampled on old taboos to push his agenda in every corner of the country of 1.4 billion people.

The 72-year-old, who is set to run for a third term in 2024, has combined promises of prosperity and social mobility with a robust Hindu-first agenda to dominate Indian politics.

A BJP victory in the disputed region could consolidate India’s claim over the territory on the global stage.

“We have taken a pledge to cross 50-plus seats to form the next government with a thumping majority,” the BJP’s president for Jammu and Kashmir, Ravinder Raina, told Reuters. “The next chief minister will be from our party.”

For many of Jammu and Kashmir’s Muslims, the BJP’s policies upending decades of autonomy and privilege represent a dangerous new phase in what they see as a nationwide push to champion the rights of the Hindu majority over minority groups.

Pakistan has claimed Kashmir since the partition of India in 1947 and the countries have fought two wars over the region, which is also partially claimed by China. Pakistan accuses India of trying to marginalise Muslims there with its policies.

“India is following a strategy to perpetuate its illegal occupation by disenfranchisement of Kashmiris by altering the demographic structure of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir from a Muslim majority to a Hindu-dominated territory,” Pakistan’s government said in a statement to Reuters.

Jammu and Kashmir is divided in two. Jammu has about 5.3 million inhabitants, 62% of whom are Hindu while Kashmir Valley has 6.7 million, 97% of them Muslim, according to a 2011 census. Estimates from survey officials and senior bureaucrats suggest the population stood at 15.5 million in 2021.

From 1954, the Indian region enjoyed special status under India’s constitution.

The shift in the political landscape came in 2019 when the BJP-led parliament in New Delhi revoked this status, which had denied rights to many Hindu communities not considered indigenous to the region.

Since 2020, the BJP has required everyone in Jammu and Kashmir to apply for domicile certificates that allow them to vote in local elections, buy agricultural land and permanent homes, as well as apply for state universities and jobs.

According to the regional government and associations representing six previously disenfranchised groups, just over a million people have the right to vote in local elections for the first time – and 96% are from castes within the Hindu hierarchy.

Out of those people, 698,800 had received domicile certificates as of December, official records seen by Reuters show. Government data showed a further 7,346 retired bureaucrats and army officers had signed up.

Reuters spoke to 36 people who now enjoy full citizenship. All said they would vote for the BJP in assembly elections.

Asha, a Hindu who has gone by a single name since her divorce, said only good had come of the changes.

On the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system, her family had been stuck in menial work since they were invited from Punjab in 1957 to fill in for striking sanitation workers. Now, her two children are studying to become teachers.

“No one will ever understand how it feels when an educated child is told they should sweep the streets,” she said.

Until the region’s special status was revoked, secular left-of-centre parties with Muslim leaders had controlled the local assembly and whoever governed India from New Delhi tended not to dabble in the region’s political autonomy.

The assembly, which controls the state budget, spending, employment, education and economic activity, was dissolved and a lieutenant governor appointed to run the region until local elections can be held – which could be as early as this spring.

In anticipation of protests after the move, the authorities imposed a curfew, cut the internet, tightened security and put hundreds of Muslims and other opposition leaders under house arrest for months. They have since been released.

An Islamist militant uprising and public protests against Indian rule has killed thousands of people, mostly in the 1990s when the violence peaked.

Since the special status was revoked, scores more civilians, security personnel and militants have been killed.

Many Muslims have yet to sign up for domicile certificates, wary of the BJP’s ultimate aims, although some say they may have to if their refusal leads to problems.

Previously unreported official records show just over 5.3 million certificates had been issued as of September.

The government has not said what will happen to those who don’t join the scheme, though they can still vote in local elections using permanent residency cards.

“All these laws like domicile and delimitation (boundary changes) have served only one purpose: that’s to change the Muslim majority character of the state,” said Mehbooba Mufti, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir once allied with the BJP. She was detained without charge in 2019 and released the following year.

The BJP’s Raina said Modi’s policies had ended the injustice suffered by tens of thousands who had been living in the region for decades and, in the case of some families, centuries.

A 46-year-old native of Jammu, he said the process was aimed at levelling the playing field rather than securing votes, although that could be a by-product.

“The BJP is not working to dilute the power of the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, but it is our duty to empower every citizen of India. In the case of Jammu and Kashmir, they just happen to be Hindus.”

The BJP has sought to push home its advantage.

Nine of the 90 seats – six in Kashmir and three in Jammu – are now reserved for marginalised communities for the first time, and they are likely to back the BJP.

The party also launched a door-to-door campaign in 2020 involving hundreds of officials to identify those who would benefit from domicile certificates – and potentially vote for the BJP.

Mohammed Iqbal was one of the officials. The “tehsildar”, or executive magistrate and tax collector for the Pulwama region near Srinagar, held educational gatherings in the hilly terrain and organised visits to ensure people signed up.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic the work did not stop. Isolation tents were set up so people could apply for certificates while lockdown restrictions and social distancing rules were in place. Now the process has moved largely online.

“We are under direct instruction from the government to finish the issuance of domicile certificates at a fast pace,” Iqbal said.

By early December, about 70% of the 600,000 people in Iqbal’s region had received certificates, though only a minority would be gaining new rights, he said.

The BJP has also strengthened its hand thanks to the redrawing of boundaries by a government panel and a new way of allocating assembly seats.

Under the new structure, Hindu-dominated Jammu will get six more seats, taking its representation to 43, while Muslim-dominated Kashmir would increase by one to 47 seats.

Marginalised groups such as Asha’s “sweepers” and the West Pakistan Refugees group of Hindus who settled in Jammu and Kashmir after partition, are among those who will gain full citizenship for the first time.

The refugee community alone numbers more than 650,000.

“We now stand eligible to cast our votes and finally enjoy all the fundamental rights. We thank the Modi government for making this a reality,” said Labharam Gandhi, president of the association representing West Pakistan refugees.

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Investigating the investigators. That’s what Republicans want to do. Of course, all their so-called investigations will not amount to anything. But that does not mean they will not take every opportunity to spill their vitriol every which way but loose.

Take Arizona rep. Andy Biggs. What IS it with some of these Arizona politicians? Arizona is such a beautiful state. You all deserve better than some of these bizarre people you have representing you.

Andy Biggs went ballistic and started lashing out at Doctor Jill Biden, our first lady. Declaring her “compromised,” Biggs insisted she must be investigated. Doctor Jill Biden is a subject of much jealousy from republicans. This is likely because she is one of the most gracious, classy, and terrific first ladies this country has ever seen.

But it is not just Biggs. The whole of the republican party in Arizona stinks to high heaven. For example. Arizona Republicans say they will sue Governor Katie Hobbs for daring to issue executive orders this week. The Arizona freedom caucus walked out of the room during Hobbs’s speech and vowed to “stand in her way” every day she is Governor.

And, of course, Kari Lake is alive and unwell and living on Twitter, calling herself the duly elected Governor and, in general, acting like a crazed stalker out of a psycho movie. So the question is: what on earth is going on in Arizona? There appear to be a bunch of stark raving lunatics, and their insanity is off the charts.

One of my new year’s resolutions for 2023 is to work far and wide to turn Arizona from purple to full-on blue. We must. This state has really come into its own, voting for great people like Governor Hobbs. We must work hard to raise her up even higher and turn her solid blue. However, there still exists in Arizona the crazies, scornful and the bitter, ready and willing to do anything they can to sabotage all of Arizona’s good work.

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Brazilian federal prosecutors on Wednesday requested the investigation of three congressional allies of former President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly inciting the worst attack on the country’s democratic institutions in decades.

The call for the probe came as the government of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had prepared stepped-up security measures to face renewed protests on Wednesday, but mass demonstrations proposed on pro-Bolsonaro social media to “retake power” failed to materialize.

Police said 1,159 people arrested in connection with Sunday’s storming of government building in Brasilia remained in custody. Some 684 others were released for “humanitarian reasons” after detention, including elderly people, those with health issues and parents of young children, police said.

Organizers of the anti-government demonstrations have called in recent weeks on social media to block roads and refineries, bring down power lines and cause enough chaos to prompt a military coup to overturn the election that Bolsonaro lost to Lula last October.

Ricardo Cappelli, the federal official in charge of public security in the capital appointed in the wake of Sunday’s riots, said all security forces had been mobilized to prevent a repeat of the rampage, when thousands of Bolsonaro supporters staged protests in Brasilia, ransacking the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential offices.

“Those who lost the election and are trying to create a crisis will not succeed,” Cappelli told a news conference.

Lula said on Wednesday that those involved in Sunday’s attack would have the right to defend themselves but any proven wrongdoing will be punished. He also criticized Bolsonaro for not accepting the election result and called those who stormed and vandalized public buildings in the capital “crazy”.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued a ban on roadblocks that have been used by anti-government demonstrators to create economic disruption, and ordered local authorities to prevent the storming of public buildings.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Moraes’s arrest warrant for Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro’s former justice minister who oversaw public security in Brasilia during Sunday’s riots. Moraes accused Torres of “negligence and connivance”.

Torres was fired for his failure to stop Sunday’s chaos and his arrest warrant alleged complicity with the demonstrators, who marched to the center of the capital under police escort. Torres said on Tuesday he would return to Brazil to face charges from Florida, where he has been on vacation since before the riots.

Moraes also ordered the arrest of Fabio Augusto Vieira, the head of Brasilia’s military police, one of a number of officials responsible for protecting government buildings in Brasilia. Vieira hasn’t made any public comment since the order was issued.

The court also upheld the 90-day removal from office of former Brasilia Governor Ibaneis Rocha, Torres’s former boss.

Prosecutors have also sought to freeze Bolsonaro’s assets.

Despite the threat of new protests, Brazilian financial markets closed higher, with Brazil’s benchmark stock index Bovespa (.BVSP) rising 1.5%.

“So far, despite the polarized environment, evidenced by a violent invasion of Brazil’s state buildings on Jan. 8, we see reasons to believe that governability will not be an immediate issue,” economists at JPMorgan said.

Bolsonaro, who left Brazil 48 hours before his term ended at the end of December and has yet to concede defeat to Lula, told media from Florida that he planned to return to Brazil earlier than planned for medical reasons, without specifying a date.

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China’s annual consumer inflation rate accelerated in December, driven by rising food prices even as domestic demand wavered amid restrained economic activity during the month.

The consumer price index (CPI) was 1.8% higher than a year earlier, rising faster than the 1.6% annual gain seen in November, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Thursday. The result matched a Reuters poll estimate of 1.8%.

The CPI for all of 2022 was 2.0% higher than the level of 2021, compared with the government target of around 3%.

The producer price index (PPI) showed an annual drop for a third straight month. In December it was down 0.7% from a year earlier, falling less than an annual contraction of 1.3% seen in November. Economists in a Reuters poll had forecast a fall of 0.1%.

The PPI for all of 2022 was up 4.1% on the previous year, the bureau said.

Growth in the economy, the world’s second-largest, was sluggish in 2022, impacted by uncompromising COVID-19 curbs for most of the year and wavering global demand.

China abandoned its strict zero-COVID measures last month, lifting lockdowns, removing quarantine and halting regular testing. The result was widespread infections that dampened consumer activity and disrupted production.

The World Bank said in a report on Jan. 10 that China’s 2022 growth in gross domestic product had slumped to 2.7%, its second slowest pace since the mid-1970s, after 2020’s 2.2%. The global lender cited pandemic restrictions, property market turmoil and drought as factors that had affected consumption, production and investment. read more

It predicted a rebound to 4.3% for 2023, still 0.9 percentage point below its June forecast due to the severity of COVID disruptions and weakening external demand.

China’s commerce ministry said last week that it would study and implement policies to boost consumption and that consumer demand would gradually return with continuous optimisation of epidemic control and prevention.

The property sector, slumping under huge debts, remains a drag on economic growth, but state support measures and the lifting of pandemic controls are expected to help ease the pace decline of home sales. read more

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We recently learned that some documents with classified markings were found at a then Vice-President Biden think thank office that was in the process of being cleaned out. Of course, the Reich wing immediately jumped on the story. And of course, the Orange Florida Man (OFM) has weighed in on this, wondering when the FBI was going to raid the President’s homes and offices looking for classified documents? And OFM’s useless family is also spouting off about this non-scandal.

Well, to answer OFM’s question: (a) President Biden’s lawyers immediately informed the National Archives when they discovered classified documents in the office; (b) turned them over to the Archives; (c) didn’t try to hide the documents or obstruct justice; (d) didn’t try to claim that the President had magically declassified them; (e) go running to a judge the President appointed to help him obstruct justice; and (f) the White House is fully cooperating with the DOJ over this matter. Nor did the President try to sell them off to the highest bidder. Unlike a certain OFM and certain classified nuclear secrets I could mention.

As Bill Palmer has said, the Reich wing and their allies will try to make this into a scandal even though there is nothing there. Comparing what the President did and what OFM did is like comparing apples and horse shit. They’re two entirely different things. While mishandling classified documents is never a good thing, at least the President and his people came forward about it right away and are being as transparent as possible about the situation. I hope most Americans have the sense to realize that yes, President Biden and his people made a serious mistake, but compared to what OFM did it’s minor at best.

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