Impeachment's Russian connection

Plus Alabama IVF clinics go offline and a US orbiter nears the moon [View this email in your browser]( [Brand Logo]( Impeachment doubts, IVF chaos and a lunar odyssey   Good morning, Today's top story has a familiar ring to it. Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov has been indicted after admitting Russian intelligence fed him a false story about President Joe Biden taking a bribe from a Ukrainian energy company. He's not the first person indicted after making claims House Republicans cited in their attempt to paint Biden as corrupt. And with an election coming, the U.S. government is bracing for more trickery from Vladimir Putin — that "crazy S.O.B.," as Biden called him Wednesday. Stay tuned. Peter Weber and Harold Maass The Week Digital     Today's POLITICS story Is the House GOP's Biden impeachment drive dead? What happened? Longtime FBI informant Alexander Smirnov "admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved" in passing a false story about Hunter Biden to the FBI, prosecutors said Tuesday night. Smirnov was indicted last week for fabricating a story at the heart of the House impeachment effort, that President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden demanded $5 million bribes from Ukrainian energy company Burisma. James Biden told House investigators Wednesday that his brother "Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest" in family members' business dealings. Who said what? "The impeachment investigation essentially ended yesterday" with the "explosive revelation" that Smirnov's tales of bribes "were concocted along with Russian intelligence agents," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. Smirnov "wasn't an important part of this investigation," Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said on Newsmax. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), reminded he called Smirnov's allegation the "most corroborating evidence we have," said its debunking doesn't "change the underlying facts" of the Biden inquiry. The commentary Smirnov's story being revealed as the tip of a successful high-level "Russian disinformation campaign" really undermines "a fundamental building block of the impeachment," Ryan Goodman said on PBS. Surely Republicans know they "have to go back to the drawing board." One "lying witness does not exonerate the Bidens" in the "influence-peddling" investigation, Jonathan Turley said at the New York Post. What next? Hunter Biden is scheduled for a closed-door House deposition next week.   Advertisement by Betterment [Betterment is the automated investing app that puts your money to work](   Today's NATIONAL story Alabama clinics stop IVF care after court ruling What happened?At least two of Alabama's eight in vitro fertilization clinics, including the state's largest hospital, paused IVF treatments Wednesday after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos have the same legal protections as children. Who said what? Last week's ruling "impacts all Alabamians and will likely lead to fewer babies — children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins — as fertility options become limited," the Medical Association of the State of Alabama said Wednesday. "Embryos, to me, are babies," Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley told NBC News. The commentary The Alabama Supreme Court's "absurd and unscientific" Bible-quoting ruling is a clear sign "this country is sliding toward theocracy," Charles Blow said at The New York Times. A fertilized blastocyst actually may be "a baby in the eye of the beholder," Monica Hesse said at The Washington Post. IVF is hard, and prospective parents need hope, but "trying to provide legal protection and personhood to fantasies" is "wholly inappropriate for the legal system." What next? IVF doctors are considering petitioning the Alabama Supreme Court to reconsider, asking the state Legislature to intervene, or seeking review at the U.S. Supreme Court.   Advertisement by Betterment [Betterment is the automated investing app that puts your money to work](   Today's SCIENCE Story US spacecraft nearing first private lunar landing What happened? Odysseus, a lunar lander built by Intuitive Machines, is orbiting the moon, aiming to be the first private spacecraft to successfully land on the lunar surface. If touchdown is successful Thursday evening, it will also be the first U.S. mission to the moon since NASA ended the Apollo program in 1972. Who said what? Odysseus "continues to be in excellent health in lunar orbit," Houston's Intuitive Machines said Wednesday night. The commentary "The moon is littered with wreckage from failed landings," and Odysseus has already made it farther than most, The Associated Press said. Fellow U.S. company Astrobotic's lander crashed back to Earth last month after a fuel leak cut its mission short. Unlike the Apollo program, which landed astronauts near the moon's equator, Odysseus is aiming for an area of the lunar south pole being considered for NASA's crewed Artemis mission, The Washington Post said. What next? If Odysseus lands safely, "its mission will last only about seven days until the sun sets" and its solar panels stop providing power, The New York Times said. Odysseus was not designed to survive the two-week "frigid lunar night" that follows.     On this day February 22, 1980 The U.S. Olympic ice hockey team defeats the Soviet Union 4-3, advancing to the gold medal game in a stunning upset. The U.S. beat the Soviets, considered the best hockey team in the world, with a squad made up of college amateurs. The game is now known as the Miracle on Ice.     TODAY’S newspaperS ['The internet said I was dead...']( President Joe Biden is busy on Thursday's front pages — he is canceling $1.2 billion in student loans in The Washington Post, considering "executive action to gird" the U.S. border in The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal and Los Angels Times report he plans to spend $20 billion protecting U.S. ports from Chinese cranes. The L.A. Times also runs a front-page column from a reporter surprised to read her own obituary online. "The internet said I was dead, but here lies AI," Deborah Vankin writes. ► [See the newspaper front pages](     It's not all bad Leanne Maiden, the first South African woman to finish the World's Toughest Row race, is ready for her next adventure. The 42-year-old rowed 3,000 nautical miles from the Canary Islands to Antigua, spending 66 days alone at sea while raising $10,000 for charities. It was a life-changing experience, Maiden told Sky News, and she wants to keep pushing herself. This summer, Maiden will walk Scotland's 96-mile West Highland Way with her son.     Under the radar [Drug cartels are targeting Montana]( Illegal drugs have long come up from Mexico into more remote parts of the United States. But there is increasing evidence that Montana, in particular, is being targeted. A new investigation by NBC News found that Mexican cartels have descended on Montana's rural areas to sell drugs, especially opioids. Many of the cartels are specifically focusing on the state's six Native American reservations. Drug, crime and overdose rates among Indigenous Montanans are surging. Many cartel members have "formed relationships with Indigenous women as a way of establishing themselves within communities," tribal leaders said to NBC. Often, the cartel turns Native Americans into dealers themselves by "giving away an initial supply of drugs and turning them into addicts." For years, methamphetamines were the predominant illegal drug in Montana. However, new restrictions in the mid-2000s led to meth houses being shut down. Opioids, particularly fentanyl, replaced meth as the substance of choice for the cartels, as it was "even cheaper to produce and far more deadly." Data from the Montana Department of Health and Human Services shows that the state's death rate from opioid overdoses tripled between 2017 and 2020. Montana's Native American population also had "consistently higher drug poisoning death rates" than white Montanans. Montana is in a "state of emergency," Marvin Weatherwax Jr., a Blackfeet Reservation leader and member of the Montana House of Representatives, said in an interview with NBC. The drug problem is "wiping out a generation."     Tall tale Old dough A part of the Oregon Trail lives on in the form of a bubbly sourdough starter. In the 1990s, Carl Griffith started giving away samples of a starter he said his family carried along the trail in 1847. Carl's Friends, a group that took over the starter shipments, has been especially busy since a TikTok video about the starter went viral in January. "It's nice that the youth seem to be very interested in this," the group's treasurer, Mary Buckingham, said to 9 News.     Later today Contraception has become an increasingly important issue since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and many states responded by tightening abortion restrictions. Today’s Evening Review looks at the race to step up pregnancy prevention by shifting some of the burden to men. New male birth control options might not be too far off. Thanks for reading, Harold and Peter     Morning Report was written and edited by Catherine Garcia, Justin Klawans, Harold Maass and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek. Image credits, from top: Craig Hudson / The Washington Post / Getty Images; Universal Images Group via Getty Images; Intuitive Machines; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images   © Future US, Inc • [theweek.com]( [Unsubscribe from this newsletter]( [Privacy Policy]( The Week is published by Future US, Inc. 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