Good morning! Yesterday, the House began its hard-earned two-week vacation a day earlier than scheduled. At this point, maybe that’s a net positive for everyone else.

CONGRESS

🫠 Turns out it wasn’t actually happening

House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner issued a statement on Wednesday that scared the daylights out of people and momentarily tanked the stock market.

• Turner claimed his committee had classified info about a “serious national security threat." He said President Biden should declassify it ASAP.

• Turner is the committee's Republican chair. His Democratic counterpart, the vice chair, didn't sign the statement.

The response: The White House didn’t seem to think this was a big deal, though. And Turner’s Senate counterparts — Chair Mark Warner (D) and Vice Chair Marco Rubio (R) — threw some cold water on it.

• They said they had "the intelligence in question" and that they'd "been rigorously tracking this issue from the start."

Yikes. Nothing like getting professionally dragged by your Senate colleagues. Turner came back later and claimed the Biden administration had agreed with him behind the scenes on all this.

The threat: The White House shed some light on this yesterday. Russia got its hands on a not-yet-operational anti-satellite weapon. It might (in the future) pose a risk to communications satellites, but can’t harm anyone on Earth.

The two congressional intelligence committees deal with all sorts of classified intel (hence the name). Due to the sensitivity of that work, they’re often seen as the last bastions of professionalism and bipartisanship in Congress.

Aftermath: Now Turner’s facing calls (from his own party) for an investigation into his decision to freak everybody out. Some cynically noted that Turner is a big supporter of a warrantless surveillance program (called FISA) that’s about to expire.

Throwback: Remember that time Hawaii accidentally sent an alert to literally everyone in the state that a ballistic missile was inbound? And that it was “not a drill” and that they needed to “seek immediate shelter”? Classic.

2024

🏛️ Trump goes to trial

The district attorney prosecuting former President Donald Trump in Georgia might get kicked off her big case. Fani Willis is going after Trump for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election. Now she’s the subject of a misconduct hearing. Here’s the allegation:

• She’s dating the attorney (Nathan Wade) she hired to prosecute this case

• She paid him $650,000 for a job he's unqualified for

• He took her on lavish vacations with that money

Oof. Willis took the stand yesterday and insisted there was no conflict of interest here.

What if she gets booted? Well, that would be supremely embarrassing. Then a new prosecutor would take over the case. That person would decide whether to continue or to toss the case. Regardless, the case likely won't go to trial before the November election.

Elsewhere: In New York, a judge ruled that the criminal trial against Trump would begin on March 25. This is the one centered on the (alleged) payment of hush money to three people alongside some screwy accounting. It’ll be the first of his four criminal cases to go to trial.

POLITICS

⚪ Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) again stoked the rumors that he’s making an independent bid for president. At an event in Ohio, as part of his nationwide totally-not-a-campaign “listening tour,” Manchin was asked who he’d pick as a VP if he ran. The self-described conservative Democrat said his top choice would be Utah Sen. Mitt Romney (R). He quickly added a homer pick — former Ohio Sen. Rob Portman (R) — to the mix, too. Cool kids who want to listen to his full hour-long interview can do so here.

⚪ A new poll shows a (newly minted) Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Maryland leading or tying his two likeliest Democratic opponents. Former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) leads County Executive Angela Alsobrooks 44% to 37%. He ties U.S. Rep. Dave Trone 42% to 42%. Hogan left office last year with a 77% approval rating. Rep. Trone owns Total Wine and is insanely rich, so funding won't be an issue if he wins his primary.

🔴 Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale dropped his U.S. Senate race just six days after launching it. He said he had hoped to get the coveted Trump endorsement. But, hours after he announced, Trump endorsed Rosendale's Republican primary opponent (who's also the pick of Republican Senate leadership).

TRIVIA

Indonesia is humongous. It’s both the largest island country by area and the fourth most populous country in the world. How many islands make up Indonesia? And what is its population?

Hint: Its most populous island, Java (yes, like coffee), has over 150 million people.

WORLD

🇮🇩 Indonesia: An old general, Prabowo Subianto, was once barred from the U.S. for human rights abuses. Now he’s rebranded himself as a cuddly old grandpa. And he just won Indonesia’s presidency. At stake here is Indonesia’s massive nickel industry used in electric vehicle batteries. Subianto, though, is unlikely to upset his country’s delicate balancing act that favors neither the U.S. nor China.

🇷🇺 Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin endorsed President Joe Biden's reelection campaign. Putin said Biden was better for Russia and called him "more experienced" and "predictable." But, if you believe Putin's playing 4D chess, this could be seen as a low-key endorsement of Trump.

🇮🇱 Israel: Israeli forces raided the largest functioning hospital in the Gaza Strip yesterday. Using hospitals to hide soldiers and weapons is a violation of international law that can result in hospitals losing their immunity in war. Israel Defense Forces (the IDF) say they captured dozens of militants (and weapons) in the assault. Hamas says none of that is true.

BRIEFS

• OpenAI announced its video creation AI, called Sora, is now in safety testing ahead of release

• After two quarters of economic shrinkage, the U.K. is officially in a recession

• Special Counsel Robert Hur will publicly testify before Congress on March 12

• Biden administration unveils plan to expand student debt relief to those experiencing “hardship”

• Right as the 14-day return window closes, consumers are rushing to return their nerd goggles Apple Vision Pros

• Xbox will remain in the hardware business but will bring four big exclusive games to other consoles

• Three suspects are in custody after a personal dispute led to Wednesday’s tragic Kansas City Super Bowl parade shooting

• An FBI informant allegedly lied about the Bidens earning millions from a Ukrainian energy company

• Trump’s Truth Social just got the green light from federal regulators to go public

QUOTE

SNACKS

🐵 Monkeys: A guy landing at the Boston airport tried to sneak four mummified monkey heads into the country. And he would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling Customs agents and their canine officer Buddey, who sniffed out this little treasure. Good boy.

🍿 Movies: Disney’s firing up the ole money printer again. Marvel Studios announced the cast of its upcoming Fantastic Four movie. And, by the looks of things, it’ll at least partially take place in 1963. Maybe there’s hope for the MCU yet.

🐟 Neature: A female stingray in a North Carolina aquarium that hasn’t shared a tank with a male in eight years is pregnant. As Jeff Goldblum put it circa 1993: “Life finds a way.”

🐍 Snakes: A New York man was slapped with a $5,000 fine and a year of probation for trying to illegally sneak three Burmese pythons over the border from Canada. His hiding place of choice? Inside. His. Pants.

ANSWER

Indonesia comes in just behind the United States in population rankings, with over 279 million people. They're spread out over 17,000 islands.