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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The latest on the mass shooting at the University of Virginia: “A student accused of gunning down three University of Virginia football players had been on the school’s radar for possible links to weapons and hazing, officials said Monday.”
* Tragedy also struck at the University of Idaho: “Authorities on Monday identified the four students from the University of Idaho found dead at an off-campus residence. Police in the city of Moscow declined to release additional details surrounding the deaths, which are being classified as part of a homicide case but said the bodies were found Sunday after officers responded to a call for an unconscious individual.”
* At the G20: “President Joe Biden said Monday that he told his Chinese counterpart on Monday that Beijing has ‘an obligation’ to dissuade its neighbor, North Korea, from test-firing nuclear missiles and that the U.S. would take unspecified ‘defensive’ action should the provocations continue.”
* The midterms strengthened Biden’s hand: “When many analysts predicted a Republican sweep shortly before the midterms, some Democrats worried it would undermine President Biden’s message on the world stage that the United States is back as leader of the world’s democracies. But with election deniers and former president Donald Trump’s candidates instead faring poorly, Biden on his trip to Asia is trumpeting the results as evidence that U.S. allies need not fear an American return to a Trump-style rejection of democratic values and alliances.”
* The New York Times took a closer look at the teenage protesters the Iranian government are so afraid of: “The authorities are targeting thousands of minors, under the age of 18, for participating in the protests, according to interviews with two dozen people, including lawyers in Iran involved in cases and rights activists, as well as parents, relatives and teenagers living in the country. Rights groups say that at least 50 minors have been killed.”
* In Kherson: “President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise visit Monday to the key southern city of Kherson to celebrate its liberation from eight months of Russian occupation. The crowd in Kherson cheered as Zelenskyy told them, ‘We are, step by step, coming to all of our country.’”
* Note, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito disagreed with the majority on this: “The Supreme Court on Monday declined to block the release of Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward’s phone records to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.”
* In this case, two of three judges on the 8th Circuit were Trump appointees: “A federal appeals court blocked President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, further crushing the hopes of more than 26 million Americans who have applied for the relief, discouraging millions more who were eligible for the boost and potentially killing the president’s signature program.”
* CPB: “President Joe Biden has accepted the resignation of the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency in charge of border security, according to the White House. Chris Magnus had initially refused to step down from his job after a request by the Biden administration, an official from the Department of Homeland Security told NBC News.”
* The fiasco continues: “The advertiser exodus from Elon Musk’s Twitter Inc. is accelerating, and it could be hard for the billionaire to bring them back soon.”
* UAE: “U.S. intelligence officials have compiled a classified report detailing extensive efforts to manipulate the American political system by the United Arab Emirates, an influential, oil-rich nation in the Persian Gulf long considered a close and trusted partner.”
See you tomorrow.