Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Ready for a booster? “The Food and Drug Administration plans to greenlight updated versions of the Covid booster as early as Friday, according to four people familiar with the agency’s plans. The latest shots are designed to target the XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant. Though this particular strain is no longer dominant, the boosters should still provide protection against current circulating subvariants, which are closely related, the drugmakers and experts say.”
* A brutal attack in Ukraine: “A Russian missile crashed into a market in the heart of a Ukrainian city on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people in one of the deadliest attacks in months, officials said. The attack on the industrial eastern city of Kostiantynivka came hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the capital, Kyiv, in a show of U.S. support.”
* Meanwhile, in Kyiv: “Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kyiv on Wednesday in a gesture of support for Ukraine as its three-month-old counteroffensive against Russian forces grinds on with only small gains.”
* Carroll keeps winning in court: “Writer E. Jean Carroll has already proven that Donald Trump defamed her and an upcoming trial on her civil claims against the former president will focus solely on what money damages he owes her, a federal judge in New York ruled Wednesday. In a 25-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan found the substance of Carroll’s pending defamation claims were the same as the Trump insults that a jury had determined were defamatory earlier this year.”
* The longest prison sentence related to Jan. 6 to date: “Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the far-right Proud Boys, was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison Tuesday afternoon following his conviction on a seditious conspiracy charge in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.”
* Tamir Pardo: “A former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Israel is enforcing an apartheid system in the West Bank, joining a tiny but growing list of retired officials to endorse an idea that remains largely on the fringes of Israeli discourse and international diplomacy.”
* A case we’ve been following: “A federal appeals court Tuesday partially blocked a judge’s ruling that had given the Justice Department access to many of Rep. Scott Perry’s cellphone communications in connection with special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.” * Interesting report on regional life expectancy: “The truth of life expectancy in America is that places with comparable profiles — similar advantages and similar problems — have widely different average life outcomes depending on what part of the country they belong to.” * Fresh evidence for climate deniers to disregard: “Earth has sweltered through its hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever measured, with a record warm August capping a season of brutal and deadly temperatures, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Last month was not only the hottest August scientists ever recorded by far with modern equipment, it was also the second hottest month measured, behind only July 2023, WMO and the European climate service Copernicus announced Wednesday.” 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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