Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The diplomatic efforts continue: “U.S. and Israeli negotiators will travel to Doha in the coming days, the top diplomats for U.S. and Qatar said Thursday, intending to resume long-stalled talks to reach a ceasefire deal and secure the release of hostages in Gaza. The announcement comes after Israeli forces killed Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas, earlier this month and the militant group continues its search for a new leader.”
* In Russia: “North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is now said to be sending thousands of troops to Russia. The U.S. says they are training in Russia’s far East and may end up in combat against Ukrainian soldiers. The North Korean forces are a small number so far, at least 3,000 the U.S. says, compared with the hundreds of thousands the West estimates have been killed in Ukraine on both sides. But it may allow Russia to reorganize and push forward, and if it works North Korea can send more. It has a million strong army.”
* In related news: “Russian President Vladimir Putin name-checked former President Trump at this week’s BRICS summit and seemingly welcomed the Republican nominee’s desire to end the Russian-Ukraine war.”
* In Arizona: “President Joe Biden plans to formally apologize Friday for the U.S. government’s role in running hundreds of Indian boarding schools for a 150-year period that stripped Native American children of their language and culture in a systematic effort to force them to assimilate into White society, according to administration officials.”
* H5N1: “A Missouri resident who shared a home with a patient hospitalized with bird flu in August was also infected with the virus, federal officials reported on Thursday. But symptomatic health care workers who cared for the hospitalized patient were not infected, testing showed. The news eased worries among researchers that the virus, H5N1, had gained the ability to spread more efficiently among people.” * Nancy Mace apparently has an odd waste of time in mind: “The top Republican on a key House subcommittee issued a subpoena Thursday to the Biden administration as her panel probes whether the federal government is attempting to limit information being shared on social media platforms ahead of November’s elections.” * Vaccine news: “Doctors have long urged people ages 50 and older to get a shot to protect against bacterial pneumonia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now agrees. On Wednesday, an independent group of advisers to the CDC voted 14 to 1 to lower the age for routine pneumococcal vaccines to 50. CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen almost immediately signed off on the recommendation from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The shots were previously only recommended for adults 65 and older, and for children 5 and younger.” 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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