Friday morning news: May 26, 2023

Comer FBI » House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer says he may soon begin proceedings against FBI Director Christopher Wray.

JAMES COMER: Nothing’s going to change with respect to holding him in contempt of Congress if he doesn’t turn over the document.

That document is what’s called an FD-1023 form. A whistleblower claims the document describes an alleged criminal scheme involving President Biden, who was vice president at the time, and a foreign national.

COMER: It’s consistent with a pattern that we’ve seen in several other countries where then-Vice President Biden would fly into a country during the last year of the Obama administration, meet with government officials, and then weeks later, members of his family would receive through shell companies, direct payments from foreign nationals.

Congressman Jim Jordan says Senate Republicans are aware of the document as well.

JIM JORDAN: Sen. Grassley has a whistleblower that he deems credible who came to us and said this document exists. Let us have the document.

Comer has reportedly given Wray a May 30th deadline to respond to his panel’s subpoena for the document.

EPA SCOTUS » The U.S. Supreme Court issued a sharp rebuke to the Biden administration’s EPA on Thursday.

The high court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency cannot regulate wetlands that are not connected to larger bodies of water.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: The court’s decision today aims to take our country backwards. It will jeopardize the sources of clean drinking water for farmers, businesses, and millions of Americans.

But the ruling was unanimous. All nine justices said the EPA overreached.

The case centered on an Idaho couple who were barred from building a home on their property. The agency said their land included wetlands protected by the Clean Water Act.

Russia-Belarus » The White House also responded Thursday to news that Russia is deploying nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus.

JEAN-PIERRE: This is yet another example of making irresponsible and provocative choices. So we remain committed to collective defense of the NATO alliance, and I’ll just leave it there.

The two countries signed an agreement formalizing the deployment of Moscow’s tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of its ally.

Belarus shares a border with Ukraine and multiple NATO countries.

Target blowback » Retail giant Target is bleeding billions of dollars in market value amid calls for a consumer boycott in response to its “PRIDE” collection. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: Target has lost $9 billion dollars in value in just one week.

Consumers were alarmed by LGBT products aimed at children, as well as swimsuits designed to hide a person’s biological gender.

The collection includes sweatshirts with slogans like, “cure transphobia not trans people.”

One of the designers associated with Target’s PRIDE collection is an avowed Satanist who has produced T-shirts with the message, “Satan respects pronouns” though that shirt was not sold by Target.

Earlier this month, Target CEO Brian Cornell suggested that promoting LGBT causes was a smart move for the company and—quoting here “the right thing for society.”

The company has since minimized or relocated its “PRIDE” collection displays in some of its stores.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Debt limit » Still no debt ceiling deal in Washington though both sides say they’re confident it’s only a matter of time.

President Biden say both parties agree that the debt ceiling must and will be raised.

JOE BIDEN: I want to be clear that the negotiations we’re having with Speaker McCarthy is about the outlines of what the budget will look like, not about default. It’s about competing visions for America.

Lawmakers are set to leave town for the holiday weekend just days before a June 1st deadline to raise the debt limit.

But Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he had directed his negotiating team “to work 24/7 to solve this problem.”

And House leaders have told lawmakers to be ready to return to Washington on 24 hours notice to vote on a debt ceiling agreement.

Chinese malware » Microsoft says it has uncovered Chinese malware, and what it calls targeted malicious activity against U.S. infrastructure across several industries. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: The company says a group of Chinese state-backed hackers called Volt Typhoon is behind the campaign of infiltration. And it said the group could be laying the groundwork for future disruptions of communications between the U.S. and Asia.

Microsoft says the hackers have been active since the 2021 and have infiltrated infrastructure at locations in the United States and in U.S. territories.

China denies the claim.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, a preview of summer films around the corner.

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