Today’s edition of quick hits.
* An unsurprising outcome for Ryan Wesley Routh: “The man charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump last year was found guilty by a jury Tuesday.”
* If this is still his position by the end of the week, it would be a welcome surprise: “President Donald Trump said Tuesday afternoon that he thinks Ukraine, with help from the European Union, could win back its territory from Russia and return the country to its original borders. The president had suggested numerous times that giving up some land would be a key component of resolving Ukraine’s war with Russia.”
* A case I’ve been keeping an eye on: “Former FBI agent Peter Strzok has lost a long-running lawsuit claiming he was illegally fired during Donald Trump’s first term after sending text messages that criticized Trump. Strzok argued in the lawsuit that his FBI bosses had retaliated against him in order to placate Trump, who was outraged over texts that Strzok exchanged while investigating ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.”
* A story worth watching: “Drone sightings forced the authorities in Denmark and Norway to close the main airports in Copenhagen and Oslo for several hours overnight, causing widespread flight disruptions into Tuesday. It was not immediately clear where the drones originated, who was operating them, and whether the Oslo and Copenhagen sightings were linked.”
* Difficult diplomacy: “Washington and Beijing will have to communicate better if they are to resolve their various disagreements — and if they don’t talk, it could be ‘dangerous,’ a U.S. lawmaker said Tuesday during a rare congressional visit to China. This is the first delegation of House lawmakers to visit China since 2019; a group of U.S. senators visited Beijing in 2023.”
* When Republican-appointed justices ignore their own precedents to help Trump, it’s really not okay: “The Supreme Court has backed President Donald Trump’s power to fire the lone Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission without cause, agreeing at the same time to consider overturning a longstanding precedent that has protected independent agencies.”
* The New York Times reviewed dozens of pages of internal communications, memos and other documents that “show efforts by the Trump administration to limit enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, the landmark civil rights law that has prohibited discrimination in housing for nearly six decades.”
* Another step backwards: “The Trump administration canceled grants for street safety measures, pedestrian trails and bike lanes in communities around the country this month, each time offering a simple rationale for yanking back federal aid: the projects aren’t designed for cars.”
* As a Miami native who’s concerned about whether the city will be underwater in the not-too-distant future, this strikes me as a curious choice: “Donald Trump’s future presidential library will be housed in downtown Miami at a location selected, in part, because of its proximity to the Freedom Tower, a landmark that played a significant role in helping Cuban refugees migrating to Florida.”
See you tomorrow.