Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Tragedy in Lithuania: “The body of the fourth U.S. Army soldier who went missing during a training exercise in Lithuania last week was found Tuesday afternoon, military officials announced. The soldier, whose name was not released pending family notification, was the last to be found after the bodies of three other soldiers were found Monday.”
* An update on the death toll in Myanmar: “The death toll from a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar climbed to more than 2,700 Tuesday, as the scale of the destruction in the isolated, war-torn Southeast Asian nation became clearer.”
* As I type, the senator is still going: “As morning alarms roused people on the East Coast for their workdays Tuesday, Sen. Cory Booker still hadn’t returned home from the night before. Instead, he was delivering a marathon overnight speech on the Senate floor — one that was still going in the afternoon after 21 hours.”
* If the DOGE folks are looking for unnecessary spending, do I have a story for them: “Five senators who visited the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, criticized the migrant mission there over the weekend as a waste of resources, after the Pentagon estimated that the operation had cost $40 million in its first month.”
* On Capitol Hill: “Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego announced Tuesday he will block the confirmation of top leaders at the Department of Veterans Affairs, raising the stakes in Democrats’ bid to get the Trump administration to back off plans to cut jobs from the sprawling agency that serves millions of military veterans.” * This again? “Ivermectin, a drug proven to treat certain parasitic diseases, exploded in popularity during the pandemic amid false claims that it could treat or prevent Covid-19. Now — despite a persistent message from federal health officials that its medical benefits are limited — interest in ivermectin is rising again, particularly among American conservatives who are seeing it promoted by right-wing influencers.” * Noted without comment: “Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the centrist dealmaker who wielded virtually unilateral veto power over the Biden administration’s legislative agenda, has landed on K Street. The Arizona Democrat-turned-independent is joining the law and lobbying firm Hogan Lovells, where she will serve as a senior adviser in the global regulatory and intellectual property practice, the firm announced Monday.” 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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