Arizona's GOP-mandated vote recount finds a Biden victory, months after he took office; China cracks down on all cryptocurrency transactions. Tonight's Sentences was written by Ellen Ioanes. Embattled Arizona recount shows that yes, Biden won Courtney Pedroza/Washington Post via Getty Images - A draft report of a Republican-backed 2020 election review conducted in Arizona affirms that President Joe Biden did indeed win the majority of votes in that state. [AZ Central / Jen Fifield and Robert Anglen]
- The review stemmed from the false claims of former President Donald Trump and his allies that voter fraud contributed to his loss. The Arizona audit centered on Maricopa County, the state's most populous county. [CNN / Eric Bradner and Anna-Maja Rappard]
- Cyber Ninjas, the company contracted to carry out the audit, is set to present findings to the Arizona Senate on Friday. Election officials in Arizona stress that Cyber Ninjas has no background or expertise in conducting election audits; the CEO of the Florida-based company, Doug Logan, has backed voting fraud conspiracies. [NPR / Ben Giles]
- Despite finding that Trump did not win the election, the draft complains of abnormalities in the election process and accuses the Maricopa County election supervisors of hindering Cyber Ninjas' efforts to conduct the recount. Election officials have refuted the claims of voting anomalies. [Vice / David Gilbert]
- A tweet from Maricopa County officials states that the draft report is "littered with errors & faulty conclusions about how Maricopa County conducted the 2020 General Election," even though it does reaffirm the election results. [Reuters / David Schwartz and Nathan Layne]
- Cyber Ninjas received about $5.7 million in donations from right-wing groups, in addition to more than $150,000 from the state of Arizona, to cover the costs of the audit. Maricopa County will also pay about $2.8 million for new voting machines over concerns the machines subject to the audit may have been damaged or tampered with. [WSJ / Alexa Corse]
- Although the Arizona audit appears to be sputtering toward its end, there are similar efforts underway in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. [Washington Post / Rosalind S. Helderman]
- China's government declared Friday that all cryptocurrency transactions are now illegal in the country. [CNN / Shawn Deng and Chris Liakos]
- The People's Bank of China, the state-run bank, issued a statement with 10 other government agencies that it would "resolutely clamp down" on digital currencies, citing concerns about national security and social cohesion. Crypto mining has also been outlawed, with China's National Development and Reform Commission stating the ban would help the nation reduce carbon emissions. [Reuters / Alun John, Samuel Shen, and Tom Wilson]
- China has long sought to crack down on cyber currencies and exchanges; the government sees digital currency as too volatile and uncontrollable, and says that it encourages crimes like money laundering. [Washington Post / Lily Kuo]
- Bitcoin prices fell after the news of China's ban broke, with prices dropping 8 percent to about $41,370; the price of ethereum, another popular cryptocurrency, dropped 11 percent, to about $2,795. [WSJ / Elaine Yu and Joe Wallace]
"Vox Sentences is my morning cup of reality. The daily updates are succinct, relevant, and clever, and they have become my go-to source for more in-depth coverage". – Woody, Vox contributor CDC director Rochelle Walensky partially broke with the agency's expert panel recommendation on booster shots, advising that workers at high risk of contracting Covid-19, as well as people 65 and older and adults with underlying conditions, receive vaccine boosters. [BuzzFeed / Dan Vergano and Azeen Ghorayshi] - The House of Representatives Select Committee has issued subpoenas for Trump aides Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino, as well as Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Kash Patel, who was working as the chief of staff to the acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, for their roles in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. [Washington Post / Tom Hamburger, Jacqueline Alemany, and Carol D. Leonnig]
- Facebook must release its records related to accounts it closed for inciting violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. [WSJ / Aruna Viswanatha]
- Young people in 1,400 locations across the globe participated in climate marches Friday, the first since the Covid-19 pandemic hit. [Guardian / Damian Carrington]
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