Today’s edition of quick hits.
* White House plans run into a major legal roadblock: “A federal judge on Wednesday granted a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from laying off federal workers during the government shutdown, which has now stretched to two weeks.”
* Good for Brown: “Brown University President Christina H. Paxson sent a letter to the White House on Wednesday, rejecting the Trump administration’s demand that the school sign a ‘compact’ in exchange for preferential treatment.”
* In the Middle East: “Hamas released the remains of two more hostages on Wednesday, according to the Israel Defense Forces, and said it would require ‘significant efforts’ to retrieve the bodies of remaining hostages.”
* Republican-appointed justices are prepared to further gut the Voting Rights Act? Imagine that: “The Supreme Court appeared poised on Wednesday to upend a key provision of a landmark civil rights law by prohibiting lawmakers from using race as a factor in drawing voting maps, which could spark widespread redistricting efforts.”
* Keep an eye on this one: “The Trump administration has secretly authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in Venezuela, according to U.S. officials, stepping up a campaign against Nicolás Maduro, the country’s authoritarian leader.”
* A policy that seems likely to generate litigation: “The State Department said that it had revoked the visas of foreign citizens who had criticized Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist recently assassinated in Utah by what appeared to be a lone shooter. Top State Department officials had said they would revoke visas or reject visa applications of people who had criticized him, raising questions about First Amendment protections.”
* An Alaskan tragedy: “Five months before catastrophic floods swept through the Alaska Native village of Kipnuk on Sunday, tearing many houses off their foundations, the Trump administration canceled a $20 million grant intended to protect the community from such extreme flooding. The grant from the Environmental Protection Agency was designed to help stabilize the riverbank on which Kipnuk is built, protecting it from the twin threats of erosion and flooding.”
* For the first time in many years, Guantanamo Bay’s prison population is growing, not shrinking: “Federal agents have moved about 20 migrants to the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a Defense Department official said on Tuesday, repopulating the holding site for detainees designated for deportation for the first time in nearly two weeks.”
* In Miami: “Florida officials’ rush to transfer a chunk of coveted downtown Miami property to Donald Trump’s presidential library foundation hit yet another snag on Tuesday.”
* Even for him, this was weird: “Donald Trump was accused Monday of making a solemn ceremony, where he posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to assassinated right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, all about himself. During his tribute to Kirk, who was fatally shot in September during an event at Utah Valley University, Trump went off-script to boast about his own skills in surviving the 2024 assassination attempt on his own life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.”
See you tomorrow.