Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Heartbreaking: “A children’s hospital in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol was ‘completely destroyed’ in the midst of Russian airstrikes, city officials said Wednesday, with video showing a charred building missing windows and surrounded by piles of debris.”
* I’m not sure Poland thought this through: “Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday questioned Poland’s proposal to transfer MiG29 fighter jets to Ukraine, saying ‘it’s not simply clear to us that there’s a substantive rationale for doing it in the way that was put forward yesterday.’ … He also reiterated a message from the Pentagon that the idea of transferring fighter jets from Poland to Ukraine by having them depart from a U.S. base in Germany ‘raises some serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance.’”
* The latest corporate withdrawal: “Amazon halted retail shipments to customers located in Russia and Belarus on Tuesday as part of its ongoing opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. The e-commerce giant also suspended Russian access to its streaming service, Prime Video, and will not be accepting any additional AWS customers or third-party sellers based out of either Russia or Belarus.”
* The American men have been held since 2017, and now they’re coming home: “Venezuela’s government released two Americans on Tuesday, a senior U.S. administration official confirms to NPR.”
* An official crypto review: “The Biden administration is putting its support behind the research and development of a ‘U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency,’ or CBDC. The move is part of a sweeping executive order President Joe Biden signed Wednesday instructing the federal government to explore possible uses of and regulations for digital assets like cryptocurrencies.”
* Sadly predictable: “Republican Sen. Ron Johnson on Tuesday blocked a vote on the nomination of Deborah E. Lipstadt as the Biden administration’s antisemitism envoy. Instead Johnson met with a group of truckers in Washington, D.C., in protest of the COVID-19 mandates and to support those imprisoned for participating in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.” * The Jan. 6 investigation advances: “The National Archives has transmitted another crop of Trump White House documents to the Jan. 6 select committee, officials confirmed Tuesday — suggesting that former President Donald Trump has opted against seeking a renewed court challenge to the committee’s work.” * A case worth watching: “A New York state judge on Tuesday said Smartmatic can pursue its $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit claiming that Fox News Network, Rudolph Giuliani and others falsely accused the electronic voting systems maker of helping rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election to favor Democrat Joe Biden.” 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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