Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire is scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, at which point “the dam could break” on impeachment.
* Cairo: “Egypt braced for more unrest this week after two nights of protests resulted in hundreds of arrests in the most significant political challenge in years to President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who is facing corruption accusations.”
* The done deal isn’t done: “The trade agreement President Trump told Congress he had reached with Japan last week is now hung up amid Japanese concerns that Trump will still move to penalize their auto shipments to the United States, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.”
* In case you missed this on Friday night: “The United States is deploying military forces to the Middle East after Saturday’s drone attacks on major oil sites in Saudi Arabia that the administration of President Donald Trump has blamed on Iran.”
* Yet another unflattering NRA story: “The National Rifle Association’s board retroactively approved numerous financial arrangements benefiting top officials of the gun-rights group, their relatives or close friends, according to board minutes reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.”
* A scary story: “An Army soldier was arrested for allegedly passing on bomb-making instructions to fellow ‘radicals’ and sought to blow up cell towers and news stations, authorities announced Monday.” * FAIR Act: “The House just passed a groundbreaking bill that would restore legal rights to millions of American workers and consumers. Lawmakers voted 225-186 Friday to pass the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act, a far-reaching bill that bans companies from requiring workers and consumers to resolve legal disputes in private arbitration — a quasi-legal forum with no judge, no jury, and practically no government oversight.” * The funny thing is, this was a relatively tame press conference: “Despite being subjected to a daily diet of Trump headlines, I was unprepared for the president’s alarming incoherence.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
