Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The latest on Texas’ deadly flooding: “Authorities have confirmed at least 120 deaths across six counties, including those of 60 adults and 36 children in Kerr County. … There are still 173 people missing, as the hope of locating survivors has dwindled. Search and rescue operations along the Guadalupe River have shifted to a recovery phase.”
* Trump’s claims about Putin’s interest in “peace” were wrong: “President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is brushing aside President Trump’s professed disappointment in him and is pushing ahead in Ukraine with renewed intensity, having already priced in the possibility of new U.S. pressure, analysts and people close to the Kremlin said.”
* Russia’s aggression (and the Trump White House’s indifference) has Europe’s attention: “Britain and France announced a pair of landmark agreements Thursday on nuclear security and immigration, uniting two allies — if occasionally squabbling neighbors — to confront a world of proliferating threats. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Emanuel Macron said that for the first time, their countries would work together to deploy nuclear weapons if allies in Europe came under extreme threat.”
* This probably won’t help ICE’s public standing: “A grandmother planning to document ICE arrests at the San Diego courthouse instead became the story Tuesday after video of her own arrest began circulating. An ICE agent accused the woman of pushing her. After she spent hours in custody, she denied that to NBC 7 on Wednesday. The latest video to send shock waves from San Diego immigration court through the immigrant community is actually not of an immigrant, but rather of a 71-year-old U.S. citizen, Barbara Stone.”
* It seems like Team Trump’s anti-Powell campaign is getting a little desperate: “White House budget director Russell Vought suggested in a Thursday letter that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is in violation of government building rules in the renovation of the Fed’s headquarters.”
* An easily avoided debacle: “There have now been more measles cases in 2025 than in any other year since the contagious virus was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, according to new data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” * Confirmation news: “The Senate confirmed airline executive Bryan Bedford to lead the Federal Aviation Administration in a 53-43 vote Wednesday. One of Bedford’s first tasks at the FAA will be to carry out major air traffic control system overhauls promised by President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and in part funded by the reconciliation law enacted last week.” * The gap between the administration’s agenda and the Roman Catholic Church’s vision is growing into a chasm: “San Bernardino Bishop Alberto Rojas, who leads more than 1.5 million Catholics in Southern California, has formally excused parishioners from their weekly obligation to attend Mass following immigration detentions on two parish properties in the diocese.” 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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