Today’s edition of quick hits.
* News from the Pentagon: “Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was diagnosed with prostate cancer in December and underwent a minimally invasive procedure to treat and cure it, according to a statement from Walter Reed National Military Center officials on Tuesday.”
* In Israel: “Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with Israeli officials as the U.S. pushes its ally to scale back its deadly assault on the Gaza Strip and seeks to avert a wider war. It follows days of talks with Middle East leaders, who warned that anti-U.S. opinion is growing in the region, multiple sources told NBC News.”
* In related news: “Israel’s military took responsibility for the death of another Hezbollah leader today, saying the IDF killed Ali Hussein Barji, commander of the organization’s aerial unit in southern Lebanon.”
* All eyes on the D.C. Circuit: “Federal appeals court judges on Tuesday questioned former President Donald Trump broad claim of immunity from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election that resulted in a chain of events that culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.”
* In related news: “Special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the prosecution of former President Donald Trump in two federal cases, was the target of an attempted swatting at his Maryland residence on Christmas Day.”
* The NRA trial: “The National Rifle Association is the ‘victim of betrayal,’ an attorney said Tuesday as she sought to distinguish longtime leader Wayne LaPierre from the gun rights group during opening arguments in the civil trial against it and its executives.”
* An intensifying climate emergency: “The numbers are in, and scientists can now confirm what month after month of extraordinary heat worldwide began signaling long ago. Last year was Earth’s warmest by far in a century and a half. Global temperatures started blowing past records midyear and didn’t stop. First, June was the planet’s warmest June on record. Then, July was the warmest July. And so on, all the way through December.”
* Ray Epps’ sentence: “A Donald Trump supporter who faced threats after far-right conspiracy theorists and then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson falsely suggested he was a secret government operative who entrapped other Jan. 6 rioters was sentenced to probation on Tuesday.”
See you tomorrow.