Today’s edition of quick hits:
* We can only hope this figure is wrong: “Five thousand people have died in the southeast Ukrainian city of Mariupol since Russia invaded the country, the city’s mayor said in a roundtable discussion that was broadcast live on Facebook on Wednesday. The death toll there includes some 210 children, Vadym Boychenko said.”
* Sanctions: “The U.S. will impose a new round of economic sanctions on Russia, the White House announced on Wednesday, including on the adult children of President Vladimir Putin and other influential Russians, in response to new accusations he committed war crimes in Ukraine.”
* This list includes, among others, Attorney General Merrick Garland: “COVID cases may be dropping across the U.S., but the D.C. elite is facing a mini-surge of its own. Several White House officials and Congress members have tested positive in rapid succession in recent weeks.”
* These presidential comments raised a few eyebrows: “President Joe Biden on Wednesday expressed support for efforts to unionize Amazon workers, after one of the company’s warehouses voted to join a union last week. ‘The choice to join a union belongs to workers alone,’ Biden said in remarks at the national conference of North America’s Building Trades Unions. ‘By the way, Amazon, here we come. Watch.’”
* Student loans: “President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced an extension of the payment pause on federal student loans through Aug. 31. The moratorium on student loan payments was previously set to expire on May 1.”
* In Minnesota: “No charges will be filed in the death of Amir Locke, a Black 22-year-old man shot by a SWAT team officer during a no-knock warrant raid in Minneapolis in February, officials announced Wednesday. Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement they are declining to file criminal charges in his death.”
* It generally takes a lot to be disbarred: “A Virginia state court has disbarred Jonathon Moseley, an attorney who has represented a slew of high-profile Jan. 6 defendants, including a member of the Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy, as well as several targets of the House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.”
* A lot of ground can be covered in eight hours: “Ivanka Trump, the daughter and senior White House adviser of former President Donald Trump, spent roughly eight hours Tuesday testifying before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump did not meet in-person with the panel but instead testified remotely.” * It sometimes seems as if there’s a competition among ambitious Senate Republicans to see who can seem the most awful: “In remarks to the US Senate opposing Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the US Supreme Court, Senator Tom Cotton said the judge “might have” defended Nazis during the Nuremberg trials.” * Fascinating research: “Fox News’ coverage of the world is so extreme and so overtly propagandistic that it might seem that its viewers are impervious to information from more mainstream news outlets. But a new working paper suggests that, if they’re actually shown the information, Fox News viewers can be open to absorbing unflattering news about politicians they support and can change their minds about hot-button issues.” * For the many who loved him and his work, Eric Boehlert won’t soon be forgotten: “Eric Boehlert, a media critic devoted to calling out right-wing misinformation through his writing at Media Matters for America, Salon, Daily Kos and most recently as the founder of the Press Run website, died Monday in a bike accident. He was 57.” 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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