Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Crisis in Niger: “More than 250 Europeans were evacuated from the West African nation of Niger on Tuesday on a plane sent by France, nearly a week after a coup threatened to set off a regional conflict. The evacuations came less than a day after two neighboring states, Burkina Faso and Mali, said that they would join forces to defend Niger’s new military junta if a bloc of other regional countries carried through on a threat to intervene unless the ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, was returned to office.”
* A big loss in New Jersey: “New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver has died after she was hospitalized this week for an undisclosed medical issue, her family announced in a statement Tuesday. She was 71.”
* A story we’ve been following: “A former Republican attorney general candidate and another supporter of former President Donald Trump have been criminally charged in Michigan in connection with accessing and tampering with voting machines after the 2020 election, according to court records.”
* Shooting in Tennessee: “A gunman was shot and wounded by police Monday after firing outside of a Jewish day school in Memphis, Tennessee, officials said. There were no other injuries in the shooting outside Margolin Hebrew Academy around 12:20 p.m.”
* You haven’t thrown out your KN-95s, have you? “An increase in the number of COVID-19 cases from the past few weeks could be indicative of a slight summer COVID-19 wave in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospital admissions, test positivity rates, and emergency department visits by people who have contracted the virus have all seen a national uptick since mid-July, though numbers remain relatively low.”
* Manufacturing matters: “The Inflation Reduction Act is spurring manufacturers to return to the US in droves, the chief executive officer of US Steel Corp. said. ‘This is the most amazing thing we’ve seen in the United States for a very long time,’ David Burritt said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ‘It’s a Manufacturing Renaissance Act.’”
* A terrifying July: “Antarctic sea ice is at a historically low level for this time of year, according to federal data. Sea surface temperatures across the North Atlantic have been ‘off the charts,’ Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reported, noting that the figures set records for this time of year ‘by a very large margin.’” * On a related note, Florida’s coral reef may not survive because the water is just too hot. * A curious report out of Texas: “Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, was ‘briefly detained’ by law enforcement while attending a rodeo Saturday, his office said. A spokesperson for the congressman said in a statement that Jackson, who was trained as an emergency room physician, was detained by law enforcement amid a ‘very loud and chaotic environment’ at the rodeo.” 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."
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