Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Crisis conditions in Cuba: “After months of a debilitating energy crisis that has caused widespread power outages, Cuba’s oil reserves have run dry, the government said, which is likely to plunge the country into even more frequent, bigger and longer nationwide blackouts.”
* In related news: “More than a dozen neighborhoods in the capital city of Havana erupted in protests Wednesday night, with residents banging pots and burning garbage amid rising anger over dayslong blackouts and deteriorating living conditions.”
* When political gamesmanship meets troop deployments: “The Pentagon is drawing down thousands of troops in Europe by canceling deployments to Poland and Germany as opposed to yanking forces already stationed there, U.S. officials say, as President Donald Trump has tussled with allies over the Iran war and called for changes. Several U.S. officials confirmed that 4,000 troops from the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division were no longer en route to Poland this week.”
* Alito’s dissent in this case was almost hilarious in its hypocrisy: “The Supreme Court on Thursday kept mifepristone abortion pills available for now, pending further litigation, siding with the drug’s manufacturers over Louisiana in an emergency appeal that called nationwide access to the widely used medication into question. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.”
Recommended
* A scandalous DHS plan moves forward: “The Department of Homeland Security is moving forward with its plan to convert warehouses around the country into immigration detention centers, despite mounting legal challenges and a government watchdog probe into the agency’s purchases of the buildings.”
* The senior officer overseeing U.S. combat operations in Iran: “Admiral Brad Cooper’s testimony suggested that he believed that the U.S. military’s record since that Feb. 28 strike had been near perfect, a fact belied by investigations from human rights groups and news media organizations. Senators greeted Admiral Cooper’s claims with deep skepticism, and a human rights group that investigates civilian casualties in war called it ‘ridiculous.’”
* The EPA has never before expressed quite this much support for pollution: “The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed to repeal a Biden-era rule that prevents coal-burning power plants from releasing hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic metals into nearby waters.”
* Has the administration’s Anti-Christian Bias Task Force heard about this? “To install more border barriers, the Trump administration wants to seize 14 acres of land on an iconic mountain outside of El Paso owned by the Catholic Diocese of neighboring Las Cruces, New Mexico, that attracts thousands of people for an annual religious pilgrimage.”
Have a safe weekend.
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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