Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The latest on yesterday’s church shooting in Alabama: “The death toll from a shooting inside a church near Birmingham, Alabama, rose to three on Friday, authorities announced, hours after they said the suspected gunman was an ‘occasional attendee of the church.’”
* E.U.: “The executive arm of the European Union recommended Friday that Ukraine be granted candidate status to one day join the 27-nation bloc. The promise of membership in a union created to safeguard peace on the continent holds deep symbolism for the nation at war. But it is only the first step in a process that could take decades.”
* Keep an eye on this one: “The city of Uvalde has contracted a private Texas law firm to argue that it should be exempt from releasing public records related to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, according to a letter obtained by Vice.”
* Climate policy: “Equating the oil and gas industry to Big Tobacco, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that ‘fossil fuel producers and financiers have humanity by the throat.’ But President Joe Biden wasn’t quite itching for a fight. With both soaring energy prices and a warming planet weighing on the world at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, Biden talked about trying to ease the pain of high gas prices while pushing more long-term green policies.”
* Navarro is apparently no longer representing himself: “Former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro on Friday was ordered to stand trial in November on criminal contempt of Congress charges for refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee after a judge denied his bid to delay the proceedings so he could promote his new book.”
* Evidence of a politicized judiciary: “The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for lawmakers to severely limit or even ban abortion in the state, reversing a decision by the court just four years ago that guaranteed the right to the procedure under the Iowa Constitution.”
* Part of what’s notable about this is that the conviction is the first from the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force: “A Nebraska man pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court, admitting he posted threatening messages about an election official in Colorado. Travis Ford, 42, of Lincoln, told a federal judge that he posted the messages on Instagram after the 2020 election.”
* Another case worth watching: “A Delaware judge on Thursday denied Newsmax’s motion to dismiss a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems alleging the network’s reporting about the voting software company following the 2020 election was false.” * Remember when Musk said he was a free-speech “absolutist”? That wasn’t true: “SpaceX, the private rocket company, on Thursday fired employees who helped write and distribute an open letter criticizing the behavior of its chief executive, Elon Musk, said three employees with knowledge of the situation.” * One of the week’s most unintentionally funny tweets: “Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) deleted a tweet Thursday that accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of allowing CNN, or as Steube put it, the ‘Communist News Network,’ to build a TV set in Statuary Hall. CNN had actually used a green screen displaying that section of the U.S. Capitol.” Have a safe weekend.
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."
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