Today’s edition of quick hits.
* This probably won’t turn out well: “It’s not unusual for prosecutors to meet with criminal defendants who may have valuable information to trade for beneficial treatment. But we may be witnessing one of the stranger instances of this phenomenon unfolding in real time, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announcing Tuesday that he intends to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell.”
* UNESCO: “The United States announced Tuesday it will again pull out of the U.N.’s educational, scientific and cultural agency because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias, only two years after rejoining.”
* The White House’s latest legal setback: “A federal judge struck down a provision in the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ related to Medicaid funding. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts ruled the Trump administration must continue to provide Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood member health centers for birth control, annual checkups, STD testing and other medical services.”
* George Mason University in Virginia is known for being a pretty conservative school, but its president, Gregory N. Washington, is Black, and he’s promoted diversity, which has led to a predictable outcome: He’s “facing an attack from the Trump administration and the university’s highly partisan board, appointed by the Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin.”
* Another lawsuit worth watching: “A U.S.-based juice company is suing over President Trump’s pledge to impose a steep 50 percent tariff on Brazilian imports starting next month. Johanna Foods Inc., a major importer of orange juice, filed a lawsuit on Friday in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York, saying that the measure, announced in a July 9 letter from Mr. Trump to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, threatened to upend its business and sharply drive up prices for American consumers.”
* I still can’t figure out what officials in Miami were thinking: “Miami city commissioners violated the Florida Constitution when they voted last month to postpone this fall’s election to November 2026, a state judge ruled on Monday, saying that such a change required voter approval.”
* At OPM: “The Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources arm, has shed 10 percent of its staff and plans to shrink even more by the end of the year, the agency said on Monday. On Jan. 20, when President Trump returned to the White House, the agency had a staff of 3,110. Hundreds are leaving through incentive programs, and some are leaving without incentives. More than 125 have been laid off.” * This seems like a thread worth pulling on: “The Trump administration is considering slashing rules meant to protect the environment and the public during commercial rocket launches, changes that companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX have long sought.” * I don’t generally take note of news related to celebrities, but I’ll actually miss Ozzy: “Ozzy Osbourne, the wailing Black Sabbath singer-turned-solo act who took the ‘Crazy Train’ from a bleak childhood in working-class Birmingham, England, to heavy metal stardom, has died. He was 76.” 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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