Today’s edition of quick hits.
* In Ukraine: “Rescuers on Monday raced to find survivors of a Russian missile strike that killed at least 19 and destroyed part of an apartment building in eastern Ukraine over the weekend, officials said. Some 24 people were feared buried in the rubble in Chasiv Yar in Donetsk province.”
* Political upheaval in Sri Lanka: “Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister agreed to resign Saturday after the country’s most chaotic day in months of political turmoil, with protesters storming both officials’ homes and setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the nation’s severe economic crisis.”
* Remember when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott dismissed concerns about future blackouts and said the state’s grid was fine? “With a punishing heat wave across Texas driving record high power demand, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas late Sunday sent out a request that Texans cut back on their energy use on Monday.”
* An update on an item from this morning: “A judge said Monday that he would not delay the contempt of Congress trial of Steve Bannon, just one week before it is set to begin.”
* A report to keep in mind ahead of tomorrow’s hearing: “Federal prosecutors indicated Friday they intend to present evidence that a member of the Oath Keepers likely carried grenades in an RV that he drove to the Washington, D.C., area ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.”
* I can’t wait to read the transcripts of this: “Former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone appeared before the House Jan. 6 committee for a marathon interview Friday, sitting for more than seven hours of questions.”
* The latest in a larger saga: “A federal appeals court panel ruled Friday that House lawmakers can see years of former president Donald Trump’s financial accounting records but narrowed the range of documents Trump must turn over in a long-running legal battle over his compliance with presidential ethics and disclosure laws.”
* The legal fight over this is likely to be brutal: “Tech titan Elon Musk is backing out of a $44 billion agreement to purchase social media platform Twitter.”
* President Joe Biden wrote an op-ed devoted entirely to explaining the point of his visit to Saudi Arabia. * I’m skeptical that this will withstand a First Amendment lawsuit: “The governor of Arizona has signed a measure into law that makes it illegal for people to record videos within eight feet of police activity, limiting efforts to increase transparency around law enforcement operations.” * The country has barely scratched the surface of post-Roe questions that will need answers: “A pregnant Texas woman said her unborn baby should count as a second passenger in her vehicle after she received a ticket, citing Texas’ penal code in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned.” * In conservative circles, a video of Biden putting a Medal of Honor “backwards” around the neck of a Vietnam War hero has generated a lot of attention. The problem, of course, is that the video was faked and those responsible for the deception won’t apologize or take down the fraudulent clip. 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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