Today’s edition of quick hits.
* In New York: “Donald J. Trump arrived in New York on Monday, kicking off a 24-hour visit during which his every move will be followed by a national television audience, culminating with a polarizing arraignment in the city where he grew up and rose to the fame that catapulted him to the presidency. The president’s plane touched down at La Guardia Airport at 3:28 p.m. He was to be ushered to a motorcade taking him into Manhattan and his apartment in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, where a growing group of supporters was waiting for him.”
* In related news: “Former President Donald Trump has hired a top white-collar criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, Todd Blanche, as his lead counsel to handle the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal indictment of the former president.”
* New information out of Nashville: “The shooter in last week’s deadly attack at a private Christian school in Nashville planned it for months, police said Monday. Audrey Hale outlined plans ‘to commit mass murder at The Covenant School’ in journals police found in the shooter’s car and bedroom after the March 27 attack that killed six people, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said.”
* Speaking of the Volunteer State: “A federal judge in Tennessee on Friday temporarily halted the state’s new law that criminalizes some drag performances, hours before it was set to take effect. Judge Thomas Parker cited constitutional protections of freedom of speech in issuing a temporary restraining order.”
* Oil prices: “Oil prices surged as much as 8% at the open after OPEC+ announced it was slashing output by 1.16 million barrels per day. Brent crude futures last jumped 5.1% to $83.95 a barrel on that news, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures soared 5.2% to $79.64 a barrel.” * The Artemis II crew: “NASA on Monday announced a team of four astronauts who will launch on a critical test flight next year to slingshot around the moon, setting the stage for the agency’s long-awaited return to the lunar surface.” * All is not well at Twitter: “Twitter is amplifying hate speech in its ‘For You’ timeline, an unintended side effect of an algorithm that is supposed to show users more of what they want. According to a Washington Post analysis of Twitter’s recommendation algorithm, accounts that followed ‘extremists’ — hate-promoting accounts identified in a list provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center — were subjected to a mix of other racist and incendiary speech. That included tweets from a self-proclaimed Nazi, for example, a user the account did not follow.” 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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