INFORMED WITH LIES: The confidential FBI informant at the base of the House Republican investigation into Hunter Biden who was charged with lying last week was fed false information by Russian intelligence, according to a filing made yesterday by the Department of Justice. 

  Alexander Smirnov, who had worked as an FBI informant since 2010, told the feds that both President Biden and his son Hunter received $5 million bribes from the head of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. House Republicans have been chewing on that like a dog with a fresh bone.

  Smirnov’s arrest has undermined the validity of the Biden investigation. But House Oversight Chair James Comer said the committee’s impeachment claims about the President are not based on Smirnov’s allegations.

THE WAR ROOM: The US as promised vetoed a United Nations resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the release of all hostages held by Hamas. The US said the resolution conflicted with its own draft resolution seeking a six-week “temporary ceasefire” and the phased release of hostages.

  More than 28,000 Palestinians have died in Israel’s pursuit of Hamas in Gaza. While military commanders and government leaders have claimed they have tried to limit casualties, soldiers in the field have been posting videos that damage Israel’s status as the aggrieved party in the fight. Soldiers have revealed videos of themselves gleefully blowing up entire blocks and complexes of civilian buildings and laughing about it.

  Some videos show soldiers wrecking local shops and schools, making hateful comments about Palestinians, bulldozing civilian areas, and even making inflammatory calls for building Israeli settlements in Gaza.

RETREAT: The fall of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine turns out to have been costly in more than just geography. As many as 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers were captured or are missing following the retreat from that city.  

  This could damage morale in the Ukrainian army. The summer offensive failed to take back major chunks of territory and now they are running low on ammunition while renewed military aid is stalled in the US congress. Military officials are talking about mobilizing up to half a million more troops, but that has met political resistance and is stalled in Parliament.

THE RUSSIA HOUSE: A man found dead in Spain last week, his body riddled with bullets and run over by a car, has been identified as Russian defector Maksym Kuzminov, who dramatically flew a military helicopter to Ukraine to escape the war. 

 The body was found at the entrance to a residential complex. Witnesses told local reporters that gunmen shot the victim several times, then ran him over and drove away. Spanish police now suspect that Russian special services carried out the killing.

  Murder is the Kremlin way. Russian authorities say it will be two weeks before they turn over the body of dissident Alexei Navalny to his family. President Biden says he will announce on Friday stepped up sanctions on Russia in response to Navalny’s death in an arctic prison camp.

FRAUD ABOUT FRAUD: A Texas-based conservative group has admitted to a Georgia judge that it doesn’t have evidence to support its claims of illegal ballot stuffing during the 2020 general election. 

  True the Vote in 2021 filed complaints with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, including one in which the group said it had obtained “a detailed account of coordinated efforts to collect and deposit ballots in drop boxes across metro Atlanta.” The group claimed that its investigators “spoke with several individuals regarding personal knowledge, methods, and organizations involved in ballot trafficking in Georgia.”

  A Fulton County judge in Atlanta last year ordered True the Vote to produce its evidence and they admitted they have nothing. A spokesman for Raffensperger said, “Like all the lies about Georgia’s 2020 election, their fabricated claims of ballot harvesting have been repeatedly debunked.”

LIFE AS WE KNOW IT: Practitioners and patients of in vitro fertilization are reeling from the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that a frozen fertilized embryo is an unborn child protected by the state’s “Wrongful Death of a Minor” law.

  As written, the decision makes it a crime to destroy excess, unused, or unwanted frozen embryos. The case stemmed from an argument by several parental hopefuls that their “embryonic children” were victims of a wrongful death when an intruder broke into the IVF clinic, dropping and destroying frozen embryos.

  The 7-2 opinion leaned heavily on a quote from the Bible, reading: “We believe that each human being, from the moment of conception, is made in the image of God, created by Him to reflect His likeness. It is as if the People of Alabama took what was spoken of the prophet Jeremiah and applied it to every unborn person in this state: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, Before you were born I sanctified you.’ Jeremiah 1:5 (NKJV 1982).” 

PARENTAL DISCIPLINE: Former parental advice video blogger Ruby Franke was sentenced in Utah yesterday to four consecutive sentences of one to 15 years for abusing her children. 

  The strict disciplinarian was found to have denied her children food and water as well as kicking her son while wearing boots. She was arrested last August after her 12-year-old son ran away and asked a neighbor to call the cops.

  The 42-year-old Franke had pleaded guilty. “My charges are just,” she said at the sentencing. “They offer safety to my family, accountability to the public, and they did show mercy to me.”

THE SPIN RACK: Two men in Kansas City have been charged with murder in the fatal Super Bowl celebration shooting a week ago. A bullet fired by Dominic Miller, 18, was found to have killed Elizabeth Galvan, 43. Two teenagers were already arrested and police say more arrests might follow.

BELOW THE FOLD: Rocker Machine Gun Kelly has had his arms and upper torso from the pectorals up tattooed completely black, leaving a cross visible on his chest. God must be so honored.