🚨Iranian HACKERS Just HIT Trump Where It HURTS Him MOST

 

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Iranian hackers just blindsided Trump with a brutal bombshell where it hurts him the most!

WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT MAGA THAT THEY CAN'T DISAGREE WITH THE TRUTH WITHOUT THREATS? SAD COMMENTARY! 

Meidas Survives Cyber Attack by MAGA Ben Meiselas and MeidasTouch Network Jan 27 Written by Ben Meiselas I’ll keep this short. We knew this was coming, and we were prepared. A MAGA supporter attempted to hack into our systems and shut us down. Our cybersecurity protocols repelled the attack. When we caught the individual, he launched into a hateful, racist tirade against our producer that I will not repeat here. Here’s what happened. Our senior producer, who oversees our research department, received a call from a number that appeared to be from X (formerly Twitter) Headquarters. We quickly determined that the caller was “spoofing” the number to impersonate X. The individual claimed to be with X’s cybersecurity department and requested verification of certain details. Our producer was trained for this exact scenario. Our protocols were immediately activated. I won’t reveal our trade secrets here to protect our systems, but suffice it to say, the attempt was thwarted. Once the hacker realized he had been caught, he began cursing and spewing horrific racist language. Fortunately, our security held strong, and no breach occurred. I have been in contact with the FBI due to prior death threats we’ve received. While I have great respect for the agent I’ve been working with, I’m unsure how to proceed given Trump’s influence over the FBI. It’s an unfortunate reality that we must now navigate. In response to this and other threats, we have stepped up our personal security and implemented additional protective measures. While I won’t disclose specifics here, know that we are taking every precaution to keep our team safe. To the Meidas Mighty, thank you for standing with us. This is the reality of what we face. My brothers and I are not intimidated. This attack will not impact our reporting or coverage in any way. We are prepared to make any and all sacrifices necessary to keep exposing the truth. We will continue growing this network. Our independence will never be compromised. We are grateful to every Meidas Mighty member and Substack subscriber who has allowed us to stay 100 percent independent. If you’re not yet a subscriber, we ask that you consider subscribing now. We need you more than ever.

RSN: Harvey Wasserman | Nuke Power at the Brink of Bankruptcy, War, Apocalypse

 

 

18 February 22

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RSN: Harvey Wasserman | Nuke Power at the Brink of Bankruptcy, War, Apocalypse
Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
Wasserman writes: "Fifteen atomic reactors in Ukraine currently spew out massive quantities of radiation alongside the smoldering ruin of Chernobyl Unit 4."

Fifteen atomic reactors in Ukraine currently spew out massive quantities of radiation alongside the smoldering ruin of Chernobyl Unit 4.

War could easily—-and soon!—-turn each into a nuke of mass destruction, blasting into the eco-sphere clouds of lethal fallout far in excess of actual A-Bombs, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Like the rest of the global fleet, Ukraine’s reactors are sitting ducks, set to explode. They symbolize an monumental technological failure, left in the radioactive dust by the rise of renewables. But a devious, deceitful industry is desperate to kill green power, even if its dirty, decayed rump reactors could mushroom as you read this.

The essential unity between atomic power and weapons has been set since birth. France’s Macron now explicitly argues that “peaceful” reactors are needed to sustain the French atomic weapons program.

Cesium fallout from the four exploded Fukushima reactors exceeds that from Hiroshima and Nagasaki by a factor of more than 100. A compendium of studies at Chernobyl indicates a human death toll of more than a million. People and animals died in droves at Three Mile Island. After six decades of development, no US “Peaceful” atomic reactors can get private insurance against the liabilities of a catastrophic accident.

But the 400 nukes operating worldwide (93 in the US) threaten just that.

They burn at 571 degrees Fahrenheit, heating the planet. They spew carbon 14 and other greenhouse gases as they gouge their fuel, burn their innards and plague us all with unmanageable wastes.

Construction began on ALL US nukes at least thirty years ago. They’re embrittled, cracked, under-maintained, obsolete, ticking time bombs. Many are operating far beyond original design specs. Their workforces are aging and retiring. They sit in earthquake zones and flood plains, vulnerable to hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, sabotage, war.

Attempts to build more of these old-style water-cooled clunkers have catastrophically failed at Olkiluoto in Finland, Flamanville in France, V.C. Summer in South Carolina (abandoned at a cost of $10 billion), Vogtle in Georgia…where two reactors that may never open have soared past $30 billion, potentially bankrupting the Peach State.

Powered with a mix of plutonium, the explosion at Fukushima Unit Three threw up a familiar mushroom cloud. Millions of gallons of radwaste there are poised to be poured into the Pacific.

Yet the nuke industry wants to paint itself green. It hides its massive carbon emissions…ignores the gargantuan quantities of heat and wastes each reactor pours into the eco-sphere….kills billions of land and sea creatures every day.

The reactor industry’s clearest present danger centers on its non-stop radiation releases and millions of tons of radioactive offal that can’t be managed.

But possible war in Ukraine (or elsewhere) could dwarf Chernobyl in a matter of moments. As both the Russians and the Ukrainians well know, these are pre-deployed Atomic Bombs, easily turned Apocalyptic by conventional weapons, advanced cyber-attack or simple incompetence.

The latest stab at reviving this zombie technology centers on “Small Modular Reactors.” Some models are meant to be cooled by liquid sodium, which has already caused an explosive 1959 radiation release at Santa Susana, north of Los Angeles, and a 1966 melt-down at Fermi I, south of Detroit.

All SMRs are years away from mass production. If built, they’ll emit huge quantities of heat and greenhouse gasses. They’ll divert enormous quantities of resources that could otherwise go for renewables that are cleaner, cheaper, safer, more reliable, more job-creating, more quickly deployed…and that that won’t explode, create radioactive waste or heat the planet.

SMRs today currently work primarily as scams grifting billions of public dollars into the pockets of the likes of Bill Gates. They’re virtually certain to fail. One or more are likely to explode.

They can never compete with the solar, wind, battery and LED/efficiency technologies revolutionizing global green energy. With an astonishing record of meteoric advances, these four pillars of Solartopia have pushed all fossil/nuclear technologies into history’s economic waste bin. As long as there are rooftops bare of solar panels, and offshore sites ready for wind turbines, the real market for any other form of new energy is marginal at best.

But the corporate nuke pushers don’t care. Their mainly theoretical new reactors can never compete. Their old ones are uninsured, falling apart, spewing heat, carbon, radiation and death while losing mega-tons of YOUR money.

AND they can blow up… as at Fukushima and Chernobyl.

With war coming right at them, ALL reactors need to be shut NOW...before they ignite the next Apocalypse…which YOU will pay for with your life, health, family, fortune and future.

---

Harvey Wasserman’s America at the Brink of Rebirth: The Organic Spiral of Us History can be had via www.solartopia.org. The Strip & Flip Selection of 2016: Five Jim Crows & Electronic Election Theft, co-written with Bob Fitrakis, is at www.freepress.org.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: Where docs go to talk to teens about vaccines

 

BY SARAH OWERMOHLE With help from Myah Ward and Joanne Kenen DOCTORS RECOMMEND RESPONSIBLY GOING VIRAL — Short-video platform TikTok boomed during the pandemic. Even if you don’t use the app, you’re familiar with the videos: Unescapable dance trends, memes that have become lexicon and videos that capture a moment — and then change the world. I’m not proud of being a 30-something who scrolls through tweens’ hottest social media platform. But I’m not alone, either. As people withdrew to their houses last March, they turned to their phones. And scores of doctors, scientists and other health professionals became unlikely stars in the search for pandemic information along with escape. TikTok’s young audience is now more important than ever in the fight against the virus. There is a coronavirus vaccine for teens, with others on its heels. But just over half of surveyed teenagers said they will definitely or probably get the shot, according to data CDC presented today. Parents aren’t totally bought in either: Black and Hispanic parents especially are ambivalent about getting their children vaccinated, according to that data. The medical establishment’s problematic history with Black Americans and lack of representation are part of what motivated identical twins Jeremy and Jermaine Hogstrom, both internal medicine residents at a Detroit hospital, to boot up a TikTok account last summer and begin sharing a mix of comedic videos about their lives as doctors with educational Covid-19 clips. “Representation is important, especially in this field, and especially in what we’re going through,” Jermaine said. The brothers shared videos of their viewers saying they were convinced to get vaccinated. But in their real life, things haven’t been so easy: Michigan’s coronavirus surge means a stream of new and increasingly younger patients because of a strain first found in the U.K. TikTok videos can be anywhere from 15 to 60 seconds, making them just bite-size enough that viewers can absorb some details before scrolling to the next (and next, and next) clip. “I was like ‘I’ll never be on TikTok, that’s for teenagers. And [friends] said that’s where your audience is,’” recalls Jennifer Lincoln , an obstetrician who joined the platform in November 2019 and immediately went viral with a video about sex and consent. As the pandemic ramped up the next March, Lincoln began recording videos about coronavirus spread and eventually, vaccine concerns. Yet TikTok is also a “double-edged sword” of fast-spreading information, said Lincoln, who is based in Oregon. “The ability to go viral is great until it’s terrible,” she said, referencing a surge in anti-vaxx videos and broader health misinformation. The app has also been plagued by accusations that its algorithm for highlighting videos — the all-important ‘For You’ page that boosts people to viral status — can elevate problematic or predominantly white voices. Jeremy and Jermaine Hogstrom joined a TikTok program for Black creators this year that they said is trained on sharpening content and bolstering their voices. “Not everyone is going to watch and get the vaccine,” Jeremy said. “But I feel like if you can have representation there, it definitely helps open that door.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at sowermohle@politico.com and rrayasam@politico.com , or on Twitter at @owermohle and @renurayasam.   SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel.     FIRST IN NIGHTLY “As a conservative transgender woman, I am excited, and nervous, to watch Caitlyn Jenner run for governor. A Republican trans candidate in particular signals that trans people aren’t just an interest group. We’re complicated, multi-faceted people who can’t change our opinions even if we change our gender identities — and for a great deal of us, that means even after our transition, we remain conservative and Republican.” — Barbara Minney, in “Why a Republican Trans Candidate Is Good for Trans People,” out Thursday in POLITICO Magazine. And don’t miss Nightly’s Renuka Rayasam in conversation Thursday at 1 p.m. ET with a group of elected officials who are transgender to explore their experiences running for and holding public office. NIGHTLY INTERVIEW Motorists use gas pumps at a refueling station in Benson, N.C. Most stations in the area along I-95 are without fuel following the Colonial Pipeline hack. | Getty Images DID BIDEN’S MEETING WITH CARTER CHANGE THE TIMELINE? Nightly’s Myah Ward emails from North Carolina: I was driving from Charlotte to Boone, N.C., for my brother’s college graduation on Tuesday when I realized it wouldn’t be an easy task to fill up my gas tank. Most of the stations I passed were filled with lines of cars and had more pouring in from the main road. If they weren’t slammed, there were yellow empty bags covering the pumps. I had half a tank and decided to wait until I made it to a smaller mountain town. When I pulled off the highway, the gas station only had premium gas left. It cost $50 — instead of the usual $25 — to fill up. An older man who looked to be in his seventies had five massive, multi-gallon jugs and was filling them up with premium gas, one by one. I wasn’t surprised by the shortage. I knew there would be some ripple effects from the Colonial Pipeline shutdown. But the extent to which it’s affecting the East Coast, and particularly North Carolina where roughly 70 percent of stations are out of gas, mainly has to do with panic buying. The White House tried to calm the situation today, asking people not to hoard fuel. The pipeline restarted operations today. Being in my twenties, I didn’t have flashbacks to the 1970s as I panicked over where I might get my gas. But as I watched the older man to my left hoard the fuel, I wondered if he was scarred from two oil crises that decade. I called University of Nebraska-Lincoln historian Thomas Borstelmann, the author of “The 1970s: A New Global History from Civil Rights to Economic Inequality,” to ask if history — gas lines, inflation fears, conflict in the Middle East — is repeating itself. This conversation has been edited. Are we reliving the 1970s? No. There are ways in which certain patterns do come back, but they always come back in different forms and different circumstances. So things can look recognizable, but they’re not the same. But does this gasoline shortage feel familiar to you? The American obsession with access to automobiles, and to endless, inexpensive fuel for those automobiles is an enduring 100-year pattern now, of Americans feeling that that’s something close to our constitutional rights. And our failure for 50 years now to do anything serious about becoming much more efficient in our use of fuel and moving past internal combustion engines. From a bigger perspective, which is what historians do, the gas shortage looks like a shorter-term problem. It could get much bigger and could become national, but that has to do with larger questions about the quality of our infrastructure and the danger of ongoing attacks, Russian-backed or Chinese-backed or simply criminal-backed. We missed the opportunity in the ’70s to seriously reduce our usage of fossil fuels. How about inflation fears? Inflation that emerged in the early 1970s, in ’73 and ’74, right when the first oil crisis kicked in as a result of the 1973 war between Israel and its neighbors, that pattern of inflation was specific to the two factors: the spending on the Vietnam War, on top of the spending on Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs. And that double whammy is what really, without increasing taxation to pay for either of those, created an inflationary spiral that lasted essentially for nine years, until it was beaten back in the early 1980s. That’s not where we’re at now, to put it mildly. We’ve also seen a lot of social unrest this year, particularly surrounding police killings of Black people. It always feels like we’re both getting worse and getting better at the same time. For anybody who’s of my generation, it’s wildly obvious that we are much more effectively integrated here in the public sphere, at least, racially integrated and a more diverse and tolerant society on matters of gender and sex and everything else, in ways that would be unrecognizable. If you brought back somebody who died in 1961, they would be stunned at what we look like in 2021. And they would be deeply impressed by it. But then they would also be like, “Really? The cops are still killing Black people? We thought maybe you guys would stop doing that.” Do you think we remember the 1970s unfairly? Yes. In my book, I’m making an argument that we misremember the ’70s in some really profoundly problematic ways. People thought of it for at least for 30 or 40 years afterward as just kind of a lost period of people with bad haircuts and bad disco music, sideburns and those ugly wide ties. And then also of defeats. Political defeats in terms of the Watergate scandal in the U.S. and the loss of respect for public figures. The military defeat in Vietnam. The economic defeats of inflation and stagflation, really. Plus unemployment being very high. But the other part of the story is that there’s this vigorous reassertion of reformism that emerges out of there. You can’t be a female person and think that the ’70s is anything but an amazingly exciting time period. Because that’s the first time that women are beginning to be treated like full human beings in this country. To see the ’70s as a time of defeat is a male view of the world. My argument essentially is that the U.S. became a much more egalitarian place in its public sphere in the 1970s — more accepting, more tolerant of gay people as well. So it becomes a less repressive place, but it also becomes less equal. The U.S. has become economically less and less equal since the 1970s, in terms of the distribution of wealth, in terms of patterns of salaries and wages as well. So we’ve become both more equal sort of socially, culturally, and less equal economically. That happens in the ’70s, as I see it. WHAT'D I MISS? — McCarthy after ousting Cheney: ‘I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election’: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy today papered over the significant skepticism of the 2020 presidential election within the GOP just hours after his conference deposed Rep. Liz Cheney for criticizing fellow Republicans over that very issue. — Biden orders cyber upgrade: The executive order, which has been in development for months, addresses federal computer networks — not the critical infrastructure operated by private companies such as Colonial Pipeline. It requires agencies to encrypt their data, update plans for securely using cloud hosting services and enable multi-factor authentication. It also creates a cyber incident review group, modeled on the National Transportation Safety Board that investigates aviation, railroad and vehicle crashes, to improve the government’s response to cyberattacks. And it sets the stage for requiring federal contractors to report data breaches and meet new software security standards. — Chip Roy weighs a last-minute challenge to Stefanik for House GOP No. 3: Roy, a member of the hardline Freedom Caucus, is one of several conservatives to publicly express concern about elevating Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), a moderate turned Donald Trump ally who’s moving swiftly to lock down support for the No. 3 post. Notably, Stefanik has the backing of the former president and GOP leaders. — ‘I have reassessed’: Former Pentagon official now says Trump may not have incited riot: Two top Trump administration officials testified today that President Donald Trump never contacted them on Jan. 6 as rioters overran the Capitol and engaged in brutal combat with police officers. Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said at a House Oversight Committee hearing that they had no interaction with Trump during the riot. — Facebook says no formal response this week to oversight board’s decision, Trump review underway: The Facebook oversight board’s bylaws require that the company has seven days to respond to any binding decisions, but Facebook said that does not apply in this instance because the board did not make a definitive ruling on what action Facebook should take on Trump’s account. AROUND THE WORLD BIDEN SUPPORTS ISRAEL, CALLS FOR END TO FIGHTING — Biden waded into the latest Israeli-Palestinian crisis today , assuring Israeli leaders that America supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Palestinian-fired rockets and other violence, but calling for an end to the fighting that has already killed dozens of people. After days of staying silent amid escalating tensions in the region, Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke to Netanyahu, while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Benny Gantz. All three condemned Hamas militants’ launches of rockets into Israeli territory. But all three also urged calm and de-escalation.   JOIN THURSDAY FOR A CONVERSATION ON TRANSGENDER POLITICIANS: More transgender people got elected to office at all levels across the country in 2020, in both blue and red states – and that number is likely to continue to grow. During the last year, constituents across America elected six transgender candidates at the state level as transgender rights gain more attention across the country. Join POLITICO Nightly: Daytime Edition for a conversation featuring transgender elected officials as they discuss their experiences running for and serving in public office. REGISTER HERE.     NIGHTLY NUMBER 7 percent The proportion of the roughly 9 million people vaccinated for Covid-19 in Florida who are Black, a figure that has Gov. Ron DeSantis administration officials and advocates pledging to do more to boost vaccination rates in Black communities. PARTING WORDS THE KIDS ARE ON TIKTOK, BUT THEIR PARENTS ARE ON TWITTER — TikTok is not the only social media platform where health care workers are trying to make people feel safe and motivated about getting the coronavirus vaccine — and help get it to more teens, health care editor at large Joanne Kenen points out. She emails Nightly: The people most in need of persuasion and reassurance are not necessarily showing up in their doctors’ offices looking for a dose of persuasion and reassurance. So a few days ago — even before the FDA gave emergency authorization for the Pfizer vaccine for kids age 12 and up — doctors started flocking to Twitter with a new preemptive message, combining their roles as health care professionals with their roles as moms and dads. They began tweeting that they were going to make sure their kids were vaccinated ASAP. It’s too soon to know whether — and perhaps too much to hope that — an avalanche of tweets will help change parental minds. But it may be a lot easier for people worried about vaccinating their kids to listen to a fellow parent who happens to be a doctor, than someone who is just one or the other. “I’m a pediatrician and my husband is an orthopedic surgeon,” Jessica Lazerov wrote in the Twitter thread. “We are getting both of our kids vaccinated as soon as they are eligible because science is pog and science deniers are sus.” Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: The House GOP’s Trump trap

 

BY ELANA SCHOR With help from Myah Ward A LEGITIMATE QUESTION — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is backing the removal of his No. 3 leader, Liz Cheney, after her repeated criticism of Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud. Yet just two months ago, in March, McCarthy himself denied that his objections to certifying the presidential ballot in two states amounted to an attempt to overturn Trump’s loss. “It takes 270. If you remove Arizona and Pennsylvania, President Biden is still president — he’s above 270,” McCarthy told a CNN reporter who pressed him while describing Republican attempts to “overturn” the 2020 election. Trump has offered a much different narrative of a “fake” presidential election — as the former president put it on Sunday. In another statement slamming Cheney last week, Trump envisioned “a far different presidential result” had then-Vice President Mike Pence declined to accept the will of the voters in two of six states. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Whip Steve Scalise and Rep. Liz Cheney arrive during a House Republican Leadership news conference in the U.S. Capitol in February. | Getty Images The difference between McCarthy’s depiction of the certification votes on Jan. 6 and Trump’s version of events is more than rhetorical. As House Republicans hasten to replace Cheney with Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who challenged certification of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, some of them are trying to have it both ways: They are trying to assuage Trump’s unfounded belief that widespread voter fraud cost him the White House while also arguing that Biden’s win was legitimate. With Democrats preparing to try to put Trump effectively back on the ballot in next year’s midterms, we can expect to hear a lot more House Republicans being pressed to explain whether their votes on Jan. 6 amounted to an attempted overturning of Biden’s 2020 victory. McCarthy is hardly the only one getting pushed for clarification. Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), who’s seeking an open Senate seat next year, voted against certifying both the Arizona and Pennsylvania results. He wrote later in January that “this was never about overturning the election result, it was about forcing a discussion that millions of Americans wanted us to have.” He told The Associated Press last month that Biden “won the vote on Jan. 6, and I think he is the legitimate president.” GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin, who’s running for governor in his home state of New York, offered a sharper rejoinder when our colleagues at Playbook tried to pin him down as to whether Biden’s victory was legitimate. Zeldin also voted against certification in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Ultimately, Zeldin concurred with the verb “won” to describe Biden’s victory. Expect more questions like these: What did Liz Cheney say about Trump’s 2020 defeat that was inaccurate? Republicans may have set a trap for themselves by removing Cheney that will force them — contrary to McCarthy’s hopes — to look backward as often as forward during their campaign to retake the House. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at eschor@politico.com and rrayasam@politico.com, or on Twitter at @eschor and @renurayasam.   SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel.     FROM THE HEALTH DESK THE SOFT SELL FOR HARD (VAX) NOS — A free beer in New Jersey. Free tickets to Yankees and Mets games. A $100 savings bond for anyone between 16 and 35 in West Virginia. One hundred dollars for state employees in Maryland. These are just a handful of the incentives offered by cities, states and companies for people who get the Covid vaccine. The White House Covid response team has said it’s exploring the idea of incentives, working with businesses like grocery stores, retailers and sports leagues to offer special discounts and promotions for people who roll up their sleeves. With almost 50 percent of the U.S. population partially vaccinated, governments are starting to turn attention to a group Ken Resnicow, a professor of health behavior at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, calls the “hard nos.” And it’s possible that incentives like these could actually make this group less likely to get a shot, Resnicow told Nightly’s Myah Ward. “There’s a large concentration of a certain demographic, white, evangelical, male Republicans — we know for that subgroup, who’s the highest ‘hard no’ group in America, that for them, this is an issue of freedom, not feeling coerced, asserting their independence, avoiding feeling controlled,” he said. In a UCLA survey last week , 15 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to get a vaccine if offered $100. The incentives are still worth it: A larger number — 34 percent in the study — said they would be encouraged by a cash offer. But there’s a different way to target those that might be turned off by the incentive, Resnicow said. He envisions a tailored incentive structure that gives people choices: Do you want an incentive to get vaccinated? What might it be? How should the incentive be distributed? For example, if the incentive were a cash offer, you could give people the option to take the money or instead choose to give it to an organization on a list of charities. This approach would be difficult to implement on the federal level, Resnicow said, but counties and states could more easily survey their populations to determine what incentives and what approach would be most effective for their demographics. “That we can do relatively quickly,” he said. Instead of incentives, tactics like motivational interviewing could be used to persuade the hard-no resisters without making them feel “threatened,” Resnicow said. “In motivational interviewing, if you tell me you’re not going to quit smoking or you’re not going to stop drinking ... we try to reflect that back without judgment,” he said. The second principle behaviorists apply in motivational interviewing is affirmation. “We want to be able to create a connection,” Resnicow said. “You could say to someone who’s a high hard no: ‘You care about your health. You’ve researched a lot. You’ve thought about this, you really don’t think this is best for you and your family.’” Resnicow and his team at the University of Michigan trained providers at federally qualified health centers in the state to use these techniques. The university also just received two federal grants to train church members as vaccine navigators in their communities. WHAT'D I MISS? — Russian spy unit suspected of directed-energy attacks on U.S. personnel: U.S. officials suspect that the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence unit, may be behind alleged attacks that are causing mysterious health issues among U.S. government personnel across the world, according to three current and former officials with direct knowledge of the discussions. — Colonial Pipeline eyes restart this week: The Colonial Pipeline could be restarted by the end of this week after the cyberattack that forced the shutdown of the main gasoline supply line to the East Coast on Friday, the company said today — a development that could ease concerns about spiking fuel prices. The pipeline company said it was restarting operations slowly “in a phased approach” for the 5,500-mile pipeline that delivers nearly half of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to the East Coast from the oil refinery hub near Houston. — FDA authorizes Pfizer vaccine for kids 12 to 15: The FDA said Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine can be given to kids 12 to 15 years old — making it the first shot available for Americans younger than 16. — Cuomo says New York public colleges will require students to get vaccines: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today that the State University of New York and the City University of New York will require Covid-19 vaccinations for students returning this fall. About 394,000 undergrads and graduate students are enrolled in the SUNY system. CUNY serves about 274,000 students on campuses in all five New York City boroughs. ON THE HILL BEGINNING OF THE END FOR CHENEY — Earlier this year, McCarthy stood by Cheney’s side as she faced an unsuccessful attempt to strip her of her leadership position after voting to impeach Trump. Now, months later, McCarthy and his allies say she’s gotta go. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, Congress reporter Olivia Beavers dives into what changed. Listen to the latest POLITICO Dispatch podcast AROUND THE WORLD AS MIDEAST CRISIS ESCALATES, BIDEN QUIET — Biden and his aides have signaled that they believe stepping back from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to focus on more direct threats to America is in the U.S. national interest. But walking away may not be in Biden’s political interest, Nahal Toosi writes. Weeks of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians over access to holy sites and the potential eviction of several Palestinian families from east Jerusalem exploded today, leaving more than 300 Palestinians hurt, according to media reports. That’s on top of other Palestinians and Israeli security officials hurt in earlier recent clashes. As the situation spiraled, the Biden administration has publicly weighed in over the past three days with phone calls and official statements, after weeks of private engagement. The recent public moves may have helped nudge Israel into taking steps to defuse tensions, such as delaying the potential evictions and changing the route of a Jerusalem Day parade of nationalist Israelis today. But activists, analysts and several of Biden’s fellow Democrats in Congress — including progressive favorites Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — say the administration should do more. Some said the public reaction so far has been too little, too late, too quiet and too equivocal for a crisis that has been brewing for weeks — and of which the administration had ample warning. Israeli officials, meanwhile, defended their government, even to the point where Israel’s ambassador to the United States accused a U.S. lawmaker of Arab descent of stoking terror. NIGHTLY NUMBER $75.7 billion The amount California expects in budget surplus , despite a year of pandemic closures. The surplus projection prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom today to propose sending cash back to residents as he faces a recall election.   JOIN THURSDAY FOR A CONVERSATION ON TRANSGENDER POLITICIANS: More transgender people got elected to office at all levels across the country in 2020, in both blue and red states – and that number is likely to continue to grow. During the last year, constituents across America elected six transgender candidates at the state level as transgender rights gain more attention across the country. Join POLITICO Nightly: Daytime Edition for a conversation featuring transgender elected officials as they discuss their experiences running for and serving in public office. REGISTER HERE.     PARTING WORDS SUMMERING IN BEDMINSTER — A pro-Trump super PAC is holding its first fundraising event on May 22 at the former president’s Bedminster golf club, according to two people familiar with the planning. The event will benefit Make America Great Again Action, a super PAC spearheaded by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Trump is expected to attend the event, which will include reception and a dinner. The minimum price for entry is $250,000. Trump tapped Lewandowki earlier this year to oversee the super PAC as part of his post-White House political operation, Alex Isenstadt writes. It’s the second big money group Trump has formed. Shortly after the election, he launched Save America PAC, a leadership PAC that has raised tens of millions of dollars. The event will be the first fundraiser at Bedminister since Trump left the White House. The former president is expected to spend the summer season at the golf club instead of his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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