Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Blinken in Beijing: “China and the United States hailed ‘progress’ and pledged to stabilize a spiraling relationship on Monday but stopped short of achieving a significant breakthrough after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with President Xi Jinping.”
* On a related note: “Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC News on Monday that his trip to Beijing marked an ‘important start’ in stabilizing U.S. ties with China and that the countries should move on from the spy balloon incident that postponed his visit earlier this year.”
* There were so many deadly shootings over the weekend, it was challenging to keep up with them: “In total as of midday Monday, the Gun Violence Archive had documented 112 deaths and 73 injuries since Saturday.”
* The expected protective order: “A federal judge issued a protective order Monday barring former President Donald Trump from disclosing on social media — or keeping — evidence set to be turned over to him by the government in the classified documents case.”
* Speaking of Trump and his legal concerns: “Donald Trump is losing another lawyer in another pending case. It’s actually his second time losing this same lawyer in a matter of days. Jim Trusty had recently parted ways with the former president after Trump’s latest criminal indictment. Now, the lawyer wants off Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN, which seeks $475 million from the cable network over an alleged ‘smear campaign.’”
* It doesn’t have to be this way: “More than 1 million people have been dropped from Medicaid in the past couple months as some states moved swiftly to halt health care coverage following the end of the coronavirus pandemic. Most got dropped for not filling out paperwork.” * Notable data: “In what was surely a case of unintended consequences, the landmark Supreme Court decision one year ago overturning Roe v. Wade is putting abortion opponents increasingly at odds with public opinion and creating political perils for candidates on their side. In a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll, one in four Americans say state efforts … to impose strict limits on abortion access have made them more supportive of abortion rights.” * Nothing about this is healthy: “COVID-19 expert Peter Hotez said on Twitter he was ‘stalked’ outside his home Sunday morning by a pair of people espousing anti-vaccines views and encouraging him to debate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on the subject. The confrontation stemmed from a podcast Joe Rogan posted June 15 interviewing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who in April launched a campaign to run for president in 2024.” 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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