Today’s edition of quick hits.
* This is not the outcome the White House’s critics were hoping for: “A federal judge denied a request to temporarily bar Elon Musk and the Trump administration’s ‘government efficiency’ team from accessing internal systems and removing employees at multiple US agencies, handing a win to President Donald Trump over one of his signature initiatives.”
* Rubio’s latest efforts: “The United States and Russia agreed in high-level talks Tuesday to re-establish embassy staffing in a reversal of American policy by President Donald Trump, fueling fears in Kyiv and building up Moscow’s hopes of re-entering the international mainstream. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both countries had agreed to re-establish ‘the functionality of our respective missions in Washington and Moscow’ and that Washington would create a high-level team to work on a path to ending the war in Ukraine.”
* The latest from Kentucky: “The death toll from the weekend storms that devastated Kentucky has risen to 14 — and the impacted communities are preparing for more winter weather. Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday that two more people, a man and woman who appear to have been homeless, died from hypothermia. Twelve others have died as a result of flooding in the state, including a mother and her 7-year-old child, whose car was swept away in Hart County, according to WBKO-TV.”
* Firefighters are needed, now more than ever: “A freeze on the hiring and onboarding of thousands of federal firefighters could have deadly consequences as the national wildfire response operates at a ‘diminished capacity,’ a federal firefighting captain told NBC News.”
* At the FDA: “U.S. Food and Drug Administration employees reviewing Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink were fired over the weekend as part of a broader purge of the federal workforce, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.”
* The struggling Pentagon chief has no evidence to substantiate this conspiracy theory: “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Monday accused the Biden administration of orchestrating a last-minute audit of him and his wife by the IRS before last month’s transition of power.” * What a mess: “Mexico is threatening to take Google to court over its ‘Gulf of America’ name change on maps for users in the United States, pointing out that much of the body of water lies outside U.S. maritime borders in regions controlled by Mexico and Cuba.” * Given the larger circumstances, The Washington Post probably would prefer to avoid stories like these: “An advertisement that was set to run in some editions of The Washington Post on Tuesday calling for Elon Musk to be fired from his role in government was abruptly canceled, according to one of the advocacy groups that had ordered the ad.” 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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