Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has proposed delaying former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial. Under the timeline proposed by McConnell, the Senate will receive the article of impeachment on Jan. 28. Trump's legal team will then have two weeks to prepare the former president's defense and the trial will start in mid-February.

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• The delay will give Trump additional time to prepare his case.
• McConnell said that his timeline will guarantee a "full and fair process" because it respects Trump's rights and takes into account the seriousness of the accusations against the former president.
• Democrats have signaled that they would prefer a faster timeline, saying that Trump should be held accountable for his actions.
• However, some Democrats have indicated that slowing down the process could allow the Senate time to confirm President Biden's nominees and discuss coronavirus relief.
• Ultimately, it is up to the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, to decide when to send the article of impeachment to the Senate. On Thursday, Pelosi said it will be "soon."
• On Jan. 15, the House of Representatives voted 232-197 in favor of impeaching Trump, with 10 Republican lawmakers joining the Democratic majority.
• Trump was charged with "incitement of insurrection" over a Jan. 6 speech in which he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol and "fight like hell." Shortly after, a mob of hundreds of rioters stormed the Capitol building.
• McConnell earlier this week said that Trump provoked his supporters during the rally. 
• "The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people," McConnell said.

The Biden administration will not issue any new permits allowing oil and gas companies to drill in federal lands and waters for 60 days. The temporary halt is expected to be made permanent once the Senate confirms Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) as President Biden's Interior Secretary.

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• If it is made permanent, the ban will help the U.S. reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• However, the Natural Resources Defense Council said that to permanently halt new fossil fuel projects in federal lands and waters, Democrats would need to approve a new law in Congress.
• The 60-day moratorium also bars the federal government from issuing new leases for fossil fuel production in federal land.
• Existing oil and gas projects on federal land and waters will not be affected by this new policy.
• About 20% of all the oil and gas produced in the U.S. comes from federal lands and waters.
• The American Exploration and Production Council, a trade group that represents the interests of fossil fuel companies, said that it is "really concerned" about the ban.
• Oil companies said that the ban could force them to lay off hundreds of thousands of people.
• The ban will lead to "healthier communities, a healthier climate, and healthier wild places," said The Sierra Club, an environmental group.

Google has threatened to withdraw its search engine from Australia if the Australian government implements a regulation that will require the company to pay for news content. The News Media Bargaining Code proposed by the Australian government would require tech companies (starting with Google and Facebook) to pay certain Australian news outlets for featuring snippets of their content. Google has been lobbying against the proposed law for months.

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• On Thursday, Google Australia and New Zealand VP Mel Silva said that if the law comes into effect "it would give us no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia."
• Google published Silva's statement and a blog post explaining the company's position on Friday.
• "We don’t respond to threats," Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
• Last August, Inside writer Jonathan Harris published an explainer detailing the ins and outs of the conflict between Google and Australia.

GOOD NEWS: Bernie Sanders' mittens have become the latest must-have fashion accessory. Photographs of the Vermont Senator wearing a colorful pair of fluffy mittens during Joe Biden's presidential inauguration inspired dozens of viral memes that lit the internet on fire. The mittens were crafted by Jen Ellis, a 42-year-old teacher from Vermont, with scraps of used wool sweaters lined with fleece made with recycled plastic. Ellis, who gifted the mittens to Sanders a couple of years ago, told the Jewish Insider that although she was flattered that the Senator chose to wear them for the inauguration, she's overwhelmed by the online furor that her mittens have generated. "There’s no possible way I could make 6,000 pairs of mittens, and every time I go into my email, another several hundred people have emailed me," she said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said that working under President Biden is "liberating." The U.S.'s foremost infectious disease expert said that serving under Trump made him feel uncomfortable because many of the things that the former president said regarding the pandemic were not based on facts. Fauci said that one of the times he disagreed with Trump was when the former president touted hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, as an effective treatment for COVID-19, despite there being no scientific evidence for that claim.

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• Fauci reiterated that Biden's goal of administering 100 million vaccines in 100 days is "doable."
• He said that if around 80% of Americans get vaccinated by the summer, some degree of "normality" will return by the fall.
• Fauci's statement came as Biden signed executive orders to accelerate vaccine distribution, increase testing, and secure additional supplies to fight the pandemic
• Biden also urged Americans to wear masks. "The experts say, by wearing a mask from now until April, we’d save more than 50,000 lives," he said.

On Wednesday, Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the U.S, alongside Kamala Harris as vice president.

Some political podcasts to get you up to speed: 

• "Pod Save America" released their "final pod of the Trump Era," discussing his last days in office, his effect on the Republican Party, and President Biden's agenda to fight the recession and the pandemic. 
• "FiveThirtyEight" discussed the president's inauguration speech and the policy plans for his first week in office. 
• Hosts of "The Weeds" took a closer look at Biden's $1.9T COVID-19 relief plan. 
• "Majority 54" dove into "all the feelings" surrounding the day, Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb," and answered listener questions.
• Hosts of comedic politics podcast "Politically Re-Active" discussed "Trump's post-Presidential legal liabilities" with CNN analyst, Asha Rangappa. 

This story first appeared on Inside Podcasting. To read the whole issue, click here.

Netflix renewed the period romance series "Bridgerton" for a second season. The series, from "Scandal" producer Shonda Rhimes and her Shondaland banner, is based on books by Julia Quinn.

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• Each season of "Bridgerton" will adapt a different Quinn novel; Season 2 will likely be based on the second book in the series, "The Viscount Who Loved Me."
• In a social media announcement, the show's narrator Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews) announced that Anthony Bridgerton (played by Jonathan Bailey) intends to dominate the next social season.
• Production on the new episodes is expected to begin in the spring.

This story first appeared on Inside Streaming. To read the whole issue, click here.

QUICK HITS

• How are companies deciding on privacy management solutions in 2021? This eGuide breaks it down.*
• The House of Representatives plans to vote on Biden's $1.9T economic relief bill in the first week of February.
• The Biden administration wants to extend a nuclear arms pact with Russia for five years. 
• President Biden has added a bronze bust of Latino American civil rights and labor activist Cesar Chavez to the Oval Office. The sculpture is one of the many changes that Biden has made to his new office.
• The CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, made $31.5M last year. In Nov. 2019, Dimon said that inequality in America is "a huge problem."
• Nexo manages $4B in assets and has over 1M users. See why fintech consumers are banking on crypto. *

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