Morning headlines: Ex-FBI informant charged with lying about Joe and Hunter Biden had Russian intelligence contacts

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. Let's get caught up.

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Ex-FBI informant charged with lying about Bidens had Russian intelligence contacts, prosecutors say

A former FBI informant charged with making up a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company had contacts with Russian intelligence-affiliated officials, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Prosecutors revealed the alleged contact as they urged a judge in Las Vegas to keep Alexander Smirnov behind bars while he awaits trial. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts allowed Smirnov to be released from custody on electronic GPS monitoring.

He is accused of falsely telling his FBI handler that executives with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each around 2015 — a claim that became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.

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Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos are 'children' under state law

The decision was issued in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic. Justices, citing anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution, ruled that an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child "applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”

The ruling brought a rush of warnings about the potential impact on fertility treatments and the freezing of embryos, which had previously been considered property by the courts.

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Productivity surge helps explain US economy's surprising resilience

Across the United States, chronic worker shortages have led many companies to invest in machines to do some of the work they can’t find people to do. They’ve also been training the workers they do have to use advanced technology so they can produce more with less.

The result has been an unexpected productivity boom, which helps explain a great economic mystery: How has the world’s largest economy managed to remain so healthy, with brisk growth and low unemployment, despite brutally high interest rates that are intended to tame inflation but that typically cause a recession?

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MORNING LISTEN

Behavioral scientist and author Leidy Klotz sits down and talks with Lynn Schmidt about his book "Subtract. The Untapped Science of Less." In a world of constantly adding things and commitments to our lives, subtracting might be the way to solve problems and find more joy.

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