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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* As the UAW strike gets underway: “President Joe Biden said Friday that he hopes the United Auto Workers union and the Big Three auto companies return to the negotiating table to forge ‘a win-win agreement.’ ... Biden said he understands workers’ frustration and stressed that while auto companies have seen ‘record profits,’ those profits ‘have not been shared fairly, in my view, with those workers.’”
* In related news: “Former President Donald Trump warned that U.S. auto workers’ jobs will move to China and accused the United Auto Workers’ leadership of failing its members, thousands of whom went on strike Friday against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis.”
* Drama in Beijing: “Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu was taken away last week by authorities for questioning, according to a person close to decision making in Beijing, while U.S. officials say he is being removed from his post. Li hasn’t made a public appearance since late August.”
* Hmm: “The social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, turned over 32 direct messages from former President Donald Trump’s account on the platform to special counsel Jack Smith’s office, according to court filing unsealed Friday. ... The 32 direct messages turned over to prosecutors represent a ‘minuscule proportion’ of the total data provided by Twitter, according to the newly unsealed filing.”
* On a related note: “Federal prosecutors secretly argued in April that if Donald Trump learned of their efforts to access his Twitter account, his public disclosure of the development could ‘precipitate violence.’”
* An investigation worth watching: “The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into New College of Florida’s trustees and administration following a civil rights complaint filed on Aug. 22, according to a letter sent Friday from the agency to the college’s president.” (My MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones has more on this story.)
* This was a striking speech: “Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday urged Americans not to shy away from uncomfortable facts about the history of violence against Black Americans. The first Black woman on the nation’s highest court offered her frank assessment of the tendency to avoid acknowledging racism in a speech in Birmingham, Alabama.”
Have a safe weekend.