Today’s edition of quick hits.
* In the Middle East: “The death toll from Israeli strikes in the central Gaza Strip rose to 25, including five children, as more bodies have been recovered, while three people were killed in an early morning airstrike near the Lebanese capital, officials said Friday. Sixteen people had initially been reported killed in two strikes on Thursday on the Gaza Strip’s central Nuseirat refugee camp, but officials from the Al-Aqsa hospital said bodies continued to be brought in.”
* Unsettling boasts out of Tehran: “Iran has the capacity to produce nuclear weapons and is prepared to change its policies on using them if faced with an existential threat, an adviser to its supreme leader said Friday in the latest bellicose statement from the country amid its high-stakes tit-for-tat with Israel. Kamal Kharrazi also said the country is likely to increase the range of its ballistic missiles.”
* Speaking of adversaries’ weapons programs: “North Korea on Friday bragged of its recently tested new intercontinental ballistic missile, calling it ‘the world’s strongest,’ a claim viewed by outside experts as propaganda though the test showed an advancement in the North’s quest to build a more reliable weapons arsenal.”
* And speaking of the Korean Peninsula: “South Korea is reportedly considering supplying Ukraine with weapons in response to its northern neighbor deploying troops to Russia.”
* An investigation worth watching: “Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said Friday that her office is investigating whether former President Donald Trump’s violent remarks about former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney broke the law. ‘I have already asked my criminal division chief to start looking at that statement, analyzing it for whether it qualifies as a death threat under Arizona’s laws,’ Mayes, a Democrat, said during a taping of ‘Sunday Square Off’ on 12NEWS in Phoenix.”
* Florida’s latest mass shooting: “Two people are dead and at least seven others are injured after a shooting in downtown Orlando, Florida, early Friday as thousands enjoyed the city’s Halloween celebrations, police said. Police arrested a 17-year-old man on suspicion of carrying out the shooting. No motive has so far been established and the identities of those killed and injured have not been released, although police said the victims ranged in age from 18 to 39.”
* Ongoing changes at The Washington Post: “Hugh Hewitt, the conservative pundit, said on Friday that he would no longer write columns for The Washington Post, where he had been a regular contributor to the paper’s opinion pages.”
Have a safe weekend.