Today’s edition of quick hits:
* “The latest from Spain: “Spanish authorities said Monday that Catalan police fatally shot the man suspected of killing 13 people in a van attack on Barcelona’s La Rambla.”
* Ohio shooting: “An Ohio judge was shot in an apparent ambush-style attack on his way into a local courthouse on Monday morning, according to Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department and NBC News affiliate WTOV.”
* The USS McCain: “A widespread search operation was underway Monday for 10 American sailors missing after their guided-missile destroyer collided with a larger oil tanker off Singapore. The USS John S. McCain is the second Navy ship in three months involved in a collision with a merchant ship from another country.”
* On a related note: “The Navy’s top admiral ordered the entire fleet Monday to take a one-day ‘operational pause’ to make sure they are running their ships safely a day after the USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker off Singapore.”
* The 15-member Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment is no more: “The Trump administration has decided to disband the federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment, a group aimed at helping policymakers and private-sector officials incorporate the government’s climate analysis into long-term planning.”
* This guy’s ties to the Russian government are deeper than had been previously known: “Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian immigrant who met last summer with senior Trump campaign officials, has often struck colleagues as a classic Washington mercenary — loyal to his wife, his daughter and his bank account. He avoided work that would antagonize Moscow, they suggested, only because he profited from his reputation as a man with valuable connections there.”
* On a related note: “President Vladimir Putin has appointed a former deputy defense minister as Russia’s new ambassador to the United States. The Kremlin said on Monday Putin has replaced Sergei Kislyak, whose tenure ended in July, with Anatoly Antonov, a deputy foreign minister and former deputy defense minister seen as a hardliner regarding the U.S.”
* Keep an eye on this one: “The Trump administration is making a fresh attempt at drafting an executive order on handling terrorism detainees, reviving a struggle to navigate legal and geopolitical obstacles to expand use of the Guantanamo Bay wartime prison, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations.” * Feel the populism: “The Trump administration is pushing to scrap a rule that would have made it easier for nursing home residents to sue nursing homes for injuries caused by substandard care, abuse or neglect, bringing its campaign to relax federal regulations to the delicate business of care for older Americans.” * State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D) says she’s not resigning: “A Missouri lawmaker who drew bipartisan outrage over her brief Facebook comment expressing hope that President Trump would be assassinated apologized publicly Sunday to Trump and his family, calling the post ‘a mistake.’” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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." Recommended
