Today’s edition of quick hits.
* A superseding indictment: “Former President Donald Trump has once again been indicted for his efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss, an effort which culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment that charges the former president with the same four counts he faced in the original indictment returned last August: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.”
* Consumer confidence: American consumers felt more confident in August as their outlook for the future improved. The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 103.3 in August from 101.9 in July. The index measures both Americans’ assessment of current economic conditions and their outlook for the next six months.”
* Difficult diplomacy: “President Joe Biden’s top Middle East adviser on Tuesday held talks in Doha with senior Qatari leaders on the efforts to complete a cease-fire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas as well as Qatar’s prime minister meeting this week with Iran’s president, according to a U.S. official.”
* In related news: “Israeli forces rescued an Arab citizen of Israel during an operation in southern Gaza, the Israeli military said on Tuesday, more than 10 months after he was abducted alongside about 250 others during the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7.”
* The latest Jan. 6 sentence: “The very first rioter to breach the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison on Tuesday after telling a judge that he still believes Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election ‘to this day.’”
* Zelensky’s plan: “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that this month’s lightning-fast incursion into Russia — where almost 600 Russian soldiers have been captured so far — is part of a larger plan to end the war in his country.” * Once this case was assigned to a Trump-appointed judge in Texas, the lawyers probably should’ve just started preparing the appeal: “A federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas on Monday temporarily blocked a Biden administration program that allowed undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens to apply for green cards without leaving the U.S.” * All is not well in Florida: “For years, L.G.B.T.Q. people planning a trip to Florida could turn to the official website for Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing organization, for resources on where to go, what to eat and where to stay. … But sometime in the past few months, Visit Florida — a private-public, nonprofit partnership created by the Florida Legislature in 1996 — quietly took down pages with information for L.G.B.T.Q. travelers.” 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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