The President's Daily Brief - January 18th, 2024: Terrorist Designations, COVID Cover-ups, & the Truth in Texas

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: We examine President Joe Biden's decision to re-designate the Houthi militants as a terrorist organization after a series of attacks. What led to this reversal, and what does it mean moving forward? We analyze the latest economic indicators from China, as signs point to a faltering economy. How will this impact the global market? We reveal new findings about the initial weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak, and how the Chinese government suppressed critical information that could have saved lives. In our Back of the Brief segment, we turn to the escalating conflict between the federal government and the state of Texas, as new court filings raise questions about information the White House used against Governor Greg Abbott and Texas officials. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First up, after months of attacks from Iranian-backed Houthi militants, President Biden has reinstated their designation as a terrorist organization, reversing an earlier decision made at the start of his presidency. I'll explain why they were taken off the list in the first place and then break down what this redesignation means for the group. Later on, we look at important developments emerging from China, starting with indicators that the nation's economy, is facing challenges on multiple fronts. We'll also uncover new findings about the period preceding the COVID-19 outbreak and the Chinese government's efforts to control information that might have

saved lives. Really? The Chinese government trying to control information, I didn't see that coming. Finally, in today's back of the brief, we discussed new developments in the dispute between the federal government and Texas. Recent court documents suggest the White House may have been disseminated incorrect information in order to smear Governor Greg Abbott and other state officials. But first up, the PDB spotlight. In a move that was largely expected, the Biden administration has relisted the Yemen-based Houthi group as a specially designated global terrorist entity, and that is a reversal of a 2021 Biden decision to remove the group from that list. Speaking to reporters about the move, a senior administration official said, quote,

these attacks are a clear example of terrorism and violate international law. They pose a major threat to lives, global commerce, and critically undermine the delivery of humanitarian aid. Of course, this is a stark contrast to recent comments from President Biden, who just last week told reporters that it was irrelevant, whether the Houthis were designated as terrorists or not. Apparently, it was the president's statement that was irrelevant. So this all raises an obvious question. Why did the administration initially de-list the group from the global terrorist roster? In 2021, the White House defended doing that on the grounds that the label was intensifying Yemen's humanitarian crisis, which has been fueled by the country's ongoing civil war.

The State Department at the time said, quote, Our action is due entirely to the humanitarian consequences of this last-minute designation from the prior administration, which the United Nations and humanitarian organizations have clarified would worsen the world's most severe humanitarian crisis. The department added, And we just like to do the opposite of whatever that guy Trump did. The complication arose from the fact that the terrorist designation made it illegal for U.S. citizens and entities to provide any resources or support to the Houthis.

Now, given the Houthis control over significant parts of Yemen, including the capital, Sana' and the major port of Haudita, this posed a dilemma for aid organizations that were operating in these regions. Banks and financial institutions also became wary of process transactions linked to the Houthis, fearing legal consequences, and that hesitancy can freeze the flow of funds for humanitarian aid. It's worth noting that the humanitarian crisis in Yemen is still going on. The UN considers it the world's largest crisis, estimating that two-thirds of the population, about 21.6 million people, are still in need of humanitarian assistance. So, the Houthis are terrorists once again. What's old is now new again,

but what are the practical implications of being a specially designated global terrorist? Well, first, it criminalizes knowingly providing material support to the group, and this encompasses all forms of aid, including funds, training, expertise, or personnel. The designation, as a SDGT, does not prohibit or impede humanitarian aid, an important distinction between this designation and being listed as a foreign terrorist organization, as they previously had been. Financial repercussions are also significant. Any assets connected to the Houthis within U.S. jurisdiction will be seized. U.S. financial institutions are mandated to block transactions involving these assets and are required to report them to the Treasury Department. Furthermore, this designation grants

legal authority for U.S. armed forces and agencies to act against the group, potentially legitimizing military or other counterterrorism actions. Now, it's unlikely that this move will stop the Houthis from attacking ships in the Red Sea. The only thing that would accomplish that would be if their overlords, the Iranian regime, instructed them to stop. And frankly, that doesn't appear to be in the cards. All right, coming up after the break,

we've got two stories out of China starting with new indications of trouble in the nation's economy and new evidence that China suppressed information that could have saved lives in the early days of the country. the COVID-19 outbreak. I'll be right back. Welcome back. I want to shift our focus to China, which continues to face economic headwinds at a time of falling population growth and record low birth rates. As we've previously discussed on the PDB, China is contending with a stubborn economic slowdown, driven by low business confidence, rising unemployment, low consumer demand,

high levels of local government debt and a faltering real estate market. Prices across the Chinese economy declined for the third straight month in December, while home prices and property sales also cratered. New home prices in December reached a nine-year low, and sales for the month declined by 23 percent, when compared with the same time last year, according to a report by Axios. The outlook for the property sector in China remains bleak, with property investment dropping by nearly 10% across 2023.

Elsewhere, the economic signals are really no better. Youth unemployment remained stubbornly high, resting at roughly 15% for people ages 16 to 24. Factory activity dropped to its lowest level in six months in December, and manufacturing declined for the third straight month. In early December, credit rating agency Moody's revised its view of China's government debt, shifting the outlook from stable to negative, suggesting that China could struggle to meet its debt obligations.

One recent bright spot for China was GDP growth, which hit 5.2% last year. That growth, however, was largely the result of China lifting their zero COVID policy last year, which had previously driven growth down to 3% in 2022. A recent analysis by London-based capital economics said, quote, the recovery clearly remains shaky, although the government met its 2023 GDP growth target of around 5%, achieving the same pace of expansion in 2024 will prove a lot more challenging, end quote. All of this comes as China's population fell for a second consecutive year in 2023,

driven by a wave of COVID-19 deaths that occurred after they lifted their zero COVID policy restrictions, along with a record low birth rate. Until 2022, when the population dropped by roughly 850,000 people, China hadn't seen a net population decline since the Great Famine of 1961. Last year's decline was significantly larger than 2022, resulting in a drop of more than 2 million people. Meanwhile, the birth rate, which has long been in decline due to the aftershock of China's decades-long one-child policy, hit a record low 6.39 births per 1,000 people in 2023. New births also saw

nearly 6% decline, and all of this spells significant trouble for China's dominant position atop the global economic ladder. All right, sticking with China, we are continuing to learn more about how CCP leaders hid the dangers posed by the COVID-19 virus from the rest of the world during the early days of the outbreak. A report by our friends at the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday revealed that Chinese researchers had isolated and mapped the new virus by late December of 2019, but continued to lie to the world about the virus for weeks, calling the disease a viral pneumonia of unknown cause. Chinese specialists had met with the virus. representatives of the World Health Organization, the WHO, on January 3rd 2020, but did not disclose

their knowledge that the new pathogen was a new coronavirus. The Chinese ultimately waited until January 11th, 2020 to share the virus's sequence with the WHO. This costs the international community an extra two weeks that could have been used to gain a better understanding of the novel virus and determine how best to deploy resources in response. Instead, doctors and scientists the world over were left scrambling to understand the mystery illness without the critical insights needed to advise the public on how to protect themselves.

The documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal came as the result of an inquiry by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has been probing the origins of COVID-19. The committee's chair, Representative Kathy McMorris-Rogers, said the findings show the U.S., quote, cannot trust any of the so-called facts or data provided by the CCP and calls it a serious question the legitimacy of any scientific theories based on such information, end quote. No offense, but you don't need an investigation or a

committee or inquiry to come up with that conclusion. A spokesman for the Chinese embassy defended their response saying it was science-based and would stand the text. of history. Yeah, just throw the word science in front of whatever, and there you go. If that wasn't disturbing enough, we're now learning that Chinese scientists are again experimenting with deadly mutant COVID-19 strains, including one that is a 100% mortality rate in mice. Scientists at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, that sounds like a respectable joint recently published a study on the deadly virus dubbed GXP2V, which was first discovered in 2017. The virus reportedly killed 100% of humanized mice within just eight days of exposure.

Scientists said, quote, Meh, eight days? We can do better than that. The rapid death rate reportedly surprised researchers, who warned that their findings, underscores a spillover risk of GXP2V into human beings. humans. Now the study, as you might imagine, prompted outrage from the international scientific community. Well, that's nice. Francois Ballou, an epidemiologist at University College London's Genetics Institute, called the research scientifically totally pointless. Well, I mean, unless you count

getting grants from government institutions, which, of course, would be the point. Professor Richard Ebright, a chemist at Rutgers University, agreed and noted. quoted that the study conspicuously lacked any mention of biosafety precautions used for the research. He warned, quote, the absence of this information raises the concerning possibility that part or all of this research, like the research in Wuhan in 2016-2019 that likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic, recklessly was performed without the minimal biosafety containment and practices essential for research with the potential pandemic pathogens. quote. However, frankly, I'm sure that the scientists at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology

were wearing masks, so that should do it. Coming up, the Biden administration has been using the tragic drowning deaths of three migrants to attack Texas officials who barred U.S. Border Patrol agents from accessing a small section of the border. However, new court filings show that the federal government's initial recounting of the incident wasn't accurate. I'll have the details in today's back of the brief. Exema is unpredictable. But you can flare less with ebbglis. A once-monthly treatment for moderate to severe eczema.

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Sign up for your $1.1 per month trial at Shopify. com slash special offer. In today's back of the brief, I wanted to follow up on that standoff between Texas authorities and the U.S. Department of Justice, specifically, the circumstances surrounding the tragic deaths of three migrants who drowned in the Rio Grande River. To get you up to speed on this story, the Biden administration is blasting the state of Texas, after state authorities barred U.S. Border Patrol from accessing the Shelby Park area last week, and that's a two-and-half-mile stretch of the Rio Grande and Eagle Pass.

The situation reached ahead on Friday evening after a woman and two children tragically drowned in the Rio Grande River along that same stretch. Now, officials with the Department of Homeland Security claimed that border patrol agents were prevented from accessing the area in order to save them. Texas officials immediately disputed the DHS narrative. Now, since that incident has happened, the Biden administration has used those drownings as a cudgel against the state of Texas, blaming officials there for the tragic deaths.

In a statement over the weekend, the White House stated, quote, while we continue to gather facts about the circumstances of these tragic deaths, one thing is clear, Governor Abbott's political stunts are cruel, inhumane, and dangerous. The media has also politicized those deaths, and the Texas Democratic Party even called Abbott, quote, the Grim Reaper. Well, the Biden administration has now admitted that the initial narrative was wrong, and the three migrants who drowned died long before border patrol agents ever sought access to the Shelby Park area from Texas officials. According to official court filings, the DOJ said Mexican officials advised border patrol about the drownings at 9 p.m. local time, an hour after they occurred. Of course, this isn't the first time the Biden administration has misled the public in an effort to demonize efforts to secure the border.

You may remember back in 2021, the White House blasted mounted CBP agents for allegedly using their reins to whip Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas. A CBP investigation ended up concluding that the whipping's never happened. And of course, no apology was given by the White House for their false statements. Likewise, with this latest example of the White House rushing to partisan judgment without any facts, you can make bank on the fact that they will not apologize. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Thursday, 18 January. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin.

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