| | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross and Eli Okun | | | | 
A two-lane bridge collapsed in Pittsburgh early Friday, prompting rescuers to rappel nearly 150 feet while others formed a human chain to help rescue multiple people from a dangling bus. | Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo | President JOE BIDEN is in Pittsburgh to talk about infrastructure this afternoon. In eerie timing, a bridge in the city collapsed on Friday morning, injuring 10 people and stranding a bus and several vehicles. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that "three people were transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries." CNN's @kaitlancollins : "President Biden is taking a detour from his schedule in Pittsburgh to visit the site of this morning's bridge collapse. Biden was briefed on the collapse by Pittsburgh Mayor ED GAINEY earlier today." How bad was it? The bridge, which was built in 1970, "has been rated in poor condition in inspections dating back to 2011, according to the U.S. Transportation Department's National Bridge Inventory," per WaPo. — Counterprogramming: GOP Senate hopeful DAVE MCCORMICK writes an op-ed for the PPG: "Pittsburgh knows: Biden agenda has failed" — Also happening in Pennsylvania today: A panel of state judges "struck down the law allowing any voter to cast a ballot by mail, handing a victory to Republican lawmakers who sought to curtail the practice amid former President DONALD TRUMP's attacks on mail voting," Zach Montellaro reports . INFLATION WATCH — Inflation is again running at historic levels. "The Personal Consumption Expenditures index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, came in at 5.8 percent in December, up from 5.7 percent the prior month. That beat out the prior month to become the fastest pace since 1982," writes NYT's Jeanna Smialek. "While the White House has taken steps aimed at relieving pressure on choked supply chains, the job of slowing down demand to bring prices under control rests primarily with the Fed. … Markets are nervously eyeing the Fed's next steps, trying to gauge how much it will raise rates and how rapidly. Higher borrowing costs could slow down economic growth and lower stock prices, taking some of the buoyancy out of America's expansion." FDA NOMINEE LEFT HANGING — ROBERT CALIFF , Biden's pick to head the FDA, is feeling hung out to dry as his nomination stalls in the Senate as Democrats cool to his selection. "The difficulties have sparked deep frustration among top Democrats and touched off a round of finger pointing, with Califf allies privately blaming the White House for doing too little to shore up support for its own nominee," David Lim, Adam Cancryn and Lauren Gardner report. "Now, Califf's supporters fear his candidacy is on the brink — raising the threat of a setback for Biden and the health agency at the center of his pandemic response. The White House, meanwhile, is calling into service some of its top advisers, including ANTHONY FAUCI, to try and rescue the nomination." Happy Friday afternoon.
| | | | A message from The American Beverage Association: At America's beverage companies our plastic bottles are made to be remade. We're carefully designing them to be 100% recyclable, including the caps—so every bottle can become a new one. That means less plastic waste in our environment. Please help us get Every Bottle Back. EveryBottleBack.org | | | RUSSIA-UKRAINE LATEST — This morning, Russian Foreign Minister SERGEY LAVROV suggested that the U.S. is responsible for the threat of war in Ukraine. "There won't be a war as far as it depends on the Russian Federation, we don't want a war," Lavrov said, per AP's Vladimir Isachenkov. "But we won't let our interests be rudely trampled on and ignored.'" — Ukrainian officials are asking allies like the U.S. to quiet down a bit, NYT's Michael Schwirtz and Maria Varenikova report from Kyiv. "'When they start saying that tomorrow, you're going to have war, just take into consideration that the first thing we do not need in our country is panic,' the security council leader, OLEKSII DANILOV, said in an interview. 'Why? Because panic is the sister of failure.' 'That's why we are saying to our partners, "Don't shout so much,"' he said. 'Do you see a threat? Give us 10 jets every day. Not one, 10. And the threat will disappear.'" — A post-Afghanistan 'diplomatic reset': When Biden met with European leaders via video conference earlier this week, he deliberately expanded the confab, adding Poland, Italy and the European Union to the gathering of Britain, France and Germany. "The effort to be inclusive was no accident," write NYT's Mark Landler, Steven Erlanger and David Sanger . "After complaints from Europeans that they were blindsided by the swift American withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer, and that France was frozen out of a new defense alliance with Australia, Mr. Biden has gone out of his way to involve allies in every step of this crisis. For the Biden administration, it amounts to a much-needed diplomatic reset." — French President EMMANUEL MACRON phoned Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN this morning in an attempt to de-escalate tensions, WaPo's Robyn Dixon, Andrew Jeong and Rick Noack report . But Putin reiterated his demand for "'lasting, legally binding security guarantees' from the United States and NATO" showing "no sign of blinking in the face of transatlantic unity." — The Biden administration held conversations with executives from Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs this week to discuss potential sanctions against Russia, Bloomberg's Jennifer Surane, Katherine Doherty and Hannah Levitt report. — How it's happening: "In a break from the past, the U.S. and its allies are increasingly revealing their intelligence findings as they confront Russian preparations for a possible invasion of Ukraine, looking to undercut Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans by exposing them and deflecting his efforts to shape world opinion," AP's Nomaan Merchant writes. — Meanwhile, the specter of Russia's invasion into Ukraine "could give the world its first experience of a true cyber war," Maggie Miller writes . "Such a nightmare for Ukraine could not only give Russian President Vladimir Putin an avenue to victory, but also provide a sneak peek into the future of warfare. That future also holds implications for Washington if Putin launches cyberattacks against the U.S. to retaliate against any sanctions President Joe Biden may impose." THE PANDEMIC PAIN POINTS — The Biden administration's directive that health insurers cover the costs of at-home coronavirus testing left out Americans covered by Medicare, which has set off a scramble. "Members of Congress and advocates for older Americans have dispatched vehement letters to President Biden and his health secretary in recent days, urging the administration to alter Medicare's rules so that it will uniformly pay for the antigen tests consumers use at home," WaPo's Amy Goldstein and Christopher Rowland report . "Meanwhile, thousands of people on Medicare have called a federal hotline about the tests, confused about what is covered." GLOBAL MILESTONE — As of today, 10 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide. In sheer numbers, that would be enough for every person on the planet to receive at least one shot, but the milestone hides a murky reality of inequity: "In the wealthiest countries, 77 percent of people have received at least one dose, whereas in low-income countries the figure is less than 10 percent," NYT's Shashank Bengali writes . "As North America and Europe race to overcome Omicron surges by offering boosters, with some nations even contemplating a fourth shot, more than one-third of the world's people, many of them in Africa and poor pockets of Asia, are still waiting for a first dose."
| | | | DON'T MISS CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO's new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. CHECK OUT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE. | | | | | TRUMP CARDS THE MORE THINGS CHANGE … The Trump family's post-presidential life is looking more and more like its pre-presidential one — and the return to form seems to be by design. "The lines between political and for-profit efforts by the former president and his family have blurred for months as they have moved to reestablish and expand the branding empire they enjoyed before he entered the White House," WaPo's Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey report . "Years after shuttering businesses selling Trump steaks, Trump vodka and Trump mattresses, the Trumps have returned to unconventional direct-to-consumer appeals that trade on his continued popularity among a devoted base to the tune of millions of dollars in receipts. Even as some of his traditional businesses have struggled after a polarizing presidency, Trump and his family have been launching a whole set designed to target his die-hard followers." ALL POLITICS MIDTERMS TO THE MOON — Crypto has found its way into the midterms. "A group of crypto financiers said Friday it's launching a super PAC that aims to spend more than $20 million to support congressional candidates ahead of the November elections," Sam Sutton writes . "The backers include a top executive at the digital currency trading platform FTX, as well as SkyBridge Capital, the hedge fund led by former Trump communications director ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, who is trying to start a Bitcoin investment fund."
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | AMERICA AND THE WORLD PULLOUT FALLOUT — The economic collapse in Afghanistan is crushing the country and extending a humanitarian crisis following crippling sanctions from the West, WSJ's Saeed Shah reports in Maidan Shahr . "Half of the population faces acute hunger, according to the United Nations, with one million children in danger of dying from malnutrition. The economy is set to contract by another 20% this year, following last year's plunge, the U.N. says. The Wardak provincial hospital's director … said the hospital is seeing the birth weight of babies reduce alarmingly, as the bodies of malnourished mothers are unable to carry their children to full term." — Embedding with a Taliban police unit in Kabul for 12 days, NYT's Victor Blue, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Safiullah Padshah offer "a telling snapshot of the Taliban's rank-and-file fighters and the challenges Afghanistan's rulers face in governing a diverse nation." DENIAL ALONG THE NILE — The U.S. has decided to "deny $130 million of military aid allocated for Egypt over the country's failure to comply with human rights conditions laid out by the State Department," CNN's Alex Marquardt scoops . "The rare move against a close ally comes just days before a January 30 deadline for the State Department to announce plans for the funds, which are the remaining portion of a controversial $300 million tranche of aid that was split up in September with just over half given to Egypt then and the remaining amount held back until now over human rights concerns." FOR YOUR RADAR — DEBRA TICE, the mother of AUSTIN TICE, who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012, said she hopes Biden speaks about the case with the emir of Qatar when he visits the White House on Monday. "Debra Tice told Axios she believes Qatar could help secure Austin's freedom if it receives buy-in from the U.S., which maintains heavy sanctions on Syria's Assad regime," Axios' Zachary Basu writes. PLAYBOOKERS SPOTTED: Jack Ryan — er, John Kraskinski chatting with second gentleman Doug Emhoff in Lafayette Park this morning. Pic, via Al Drago SPORTS BLINK — Here's a fun story on the Washington Football Team's search for a new name, which it's expected to announce next week. One of the options — the Admirals — has gained the attention (and, in some cases, the concern) of a powerful entity: the U.S. Navy. More from Bryan Bender MEDIA MOVE — Stephen Hayes is joining NBC as a contributor and political analyst. He is editor and CEO of The Dispatch, and recently resigned from Fox News as a commentator. TRANSITION — Cameron Bishop is joining the J.R. Simplot Company as federal government affairs lead. He most recently was assistant USTR for congressional affairs.
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