Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Good news on inflation: “Consumer price increases eased to 7.7% in October, a sign that the persistent inflation that has plagued the U.S. economy is showing glimmers of cooling off, even as it remains near four-decade highs.”
* Nicole reaches Florida’s coast: “Hurricane Nicole made landfall on Florida’s Atlantic coast early Thursday, leading to at least two deaths, widespread power outages, the collapse of several homes and the unearthing of what may be a Native American burial ground.”
* The G-20 Summit is next week: “President Joe Biden will discuss a range of geopolitical challenges next week in his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping since he ascended to the White House two years ago. … The meeting between the two leaders will take place Monday ahead of the G-20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia.”
* On a related note: “Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia next week, an Indonesian government official said Thursday, avoiding a possible confrontation with the United States and its allies over his war in Ukraine.”
* A fiasco for the ages: “Twitter’s chief information security officer and chief compliance officer resigned late Wednesday night as the company started implementing changes that would allow users to more easily impersonate major brands and government officials.”
* On a related note, when The New York Times contacted Twitter for comment about these developments, the newspaper learned that Twitter’s communication department “has been laid off.”
* In case there were any lingering doubts: “[A] research paper details a so-called natural experiment that occurred when all but two school districts in the greater Boston area lifted mask requirements in the spring. Researchers took that opportunity to make a direct comparison of the spread of Covid in masking and non-masking schools. The bottom line: Masking mandates were linked with significantly reduced numbers of Covid cases in schools.”
* This offers fresh evidence that George W. Bush just wasn’t a good president: “A rough transcript of a 2004 interview George W. Bush and Dick Cheney gave to a government commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks provides a glimpse of the former president’s and vice president’s views of the seminal event that defined their eight years in the White House.” * More news Alex Jones didn’t want to hear: “Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his company were ordered Thursday to pay an additional $473 million in punitive damages to families of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre over promoting the falsehood that the 2012 school shooting was a hoax.” * According to local reports, an Ohio man thought his neighbor was a Democratic voter, so he shot and killed him: “A 43-year-old father was fatally shot over his perceived political affiliation, his Ohio family said. The man’s 26-year-old neighbor is now facing a charge of murder, court documents show.” 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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