Today’s edition of quick hits.
* An appeal to SCOTUS: “Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday asked the Supreme Court to immediately step in to decide whether former President Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution for his actions seeking to overturn the 2020 election.”
* In Gaza: “Conditions in Gaza are deteriorating rapidly as battles rage between the Israeli military and Hamas in Khan Younis, the largest city in Gaza’s south, with aid deliveries becoming increasingly difficult and humanitarian zones for displaced people shrinking. ‘Gaza’s health system is on its knees and collapsing,’ according to World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.”
* Where is Alexei Navalny? “Allies of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny sounded the alarm on Monday, saying that neither they nor the politician’s lawyers have heard from him in six days. Navalny, who is serving a 19-year term on charges of extremism, was due to appear in court Monday via video link but didn’t, spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said. She said prison officials cited electricity problems. Lawyers in recent days also haven’t been able to access Navalny, according to Yarmysh.”
* The CHIPS Act was a good piece of legislation: “The Biden administration announced the first of many coming federal investments in computer chip production, saying Monday that it would provide $35 million for BAE Systems to increase production at a New Hampshire factory making chips for military aircraft, including F-15 and F-35 jets.”
* There’s now a sizable stretch of Iraq that is “controlled by an Iraqi militia linked to Iran and designated a terrorist group by the United States. Militia members man checkpoints around the borders. And though sovereign Iraqi territory, the area, known as Jurf al-Nasr, functions as a ‘forward operating base for Iran,’ according to one of the dozens of Western and Iraqi intelligence and military officers, diplomats and others interviewed for this article.” * All is not well in Florida: “Academic freedom and independent governance have been under political and ideological assault in Florida’s university system during the tenure of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to a report by the American Association of University Professors released this month. The threat to Florida’s higher education system accelerated this year with the takeover of New College of Florida in Sarasota by partisan DeSantis supporters, according to the report from an AAUP committee.” * A dramatic walk-back: “A national lobbying group has retracted its startling estimate that ‘organized retail crime’ was responsible for nearly half the $94.5 billion in store merchandise that disappeared in 2021, a figure that helped amplify claims that the United States was experiencing a nationwide wave of shoplifting. … In fact, retail theft has been lower this year in most of the country than it was a few years ago, according to police data. Some exceptions, including New York City, exist. But in most major cities, shoplifting incidents have fallen 7 percent since 2019.” 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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