Comment on White House puts Irene's federal cost at $1.5 billion

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) talks to Politico: “It was the intelligence, it was the Europe generals who are in charge of the freedom of the world and of course it was the developments as well, everything has escalated.” “It may seem hard to square the congressman who, only in September, opposed $300 million in Ukraine aid with the one who put his career on the line to deliver $95 billion to the battered country.

“The U. S. is drafting sanctions that threaten to cut some Chinese banks off from the global financial system, arming Washington’s top envoy with diplomatic leverage that officials hope will stop Beijing’s commercial support of Russia’s military production,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Four Germans were caught laying white roses in memory of Adolf Hitler at the house where the Nazi dictator was born in western Austria on the anniversary of his birth, and one gave a Hitler salute as they posed for photos,” the AP reports.

“India’s main opposition party accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using hate speech after he called Muslims ‘infiltrators’ — some of his most incendiary rhetoric about the minority faith, days after the country began its weekslong general election,” ABC News reports. “Critics of the prime minister — an avowed Hindu nationalist — say India’s tradition of diversity and secularism has come under attack since his Bharatiya Janata Party won power a decade ago.

Minnesota state Sen. Nicole Mitchell (D) “told police that she broke into her stepmother’s home because her stepmother refused to give her items of sentimental value from her late father, including his ashes,” the AP reports.