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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* A temporary truce: “Israel and Hamas have agreed to extend a temporary truce for an additional two days on the pause’s fourth and last day, Hamas and Qatari mediators announced. Hamas will free another 20 women and children during the pause in fighting, the Pentagon’s top spokesman told reporters today.”
* In related news: “Yesterday, Hamas released 17 hostages, including a 4-year-old American. ... In exchange, Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners, all of whom are minors, a Qatari spokesman said.”
* The latest from Burlington: “Police arrested Jason J. Eaton, 48, near the scene of Saturday’s shooting in Burlington, Vermont. Eaton has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder in the second degree. The victims were identified by relatives as Hisham Awartani, a junior at Brown University, Kinnan Abdalhamid, a student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Tahseen Ahmed, a student at Connecticut’s Trinity College.”
* COP28: “President Joe Biden plans to skip the annual climate talks in Dubai this week, an event that is expected to draw heads of state and diplomats from roughly 200 nations and the Vatican. He has attended twice before. The White House said it was sending a climate team, including Special Envoy John Kerry, climate adviser Ali Zaidi and clean energy adviser John Podesta.”
* Iran’s nuclear program: “Iran continued to expand its nuclear program, including its stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium in recent months, although it hasn’t accelerated the pace of its production of nuclear fuel amid the current turmoil in the Middle East.”
* Moms for Liberty’s latest mess: “Moms for Liberty says it has removed two Kentucky chapter chairs from leadership positions after the women posed in photos with members of the far-right group the Proud Boys, one of several controversies that the conservative ‘parental rights’ nonprofit has fended off in its rise to national prominence in public education.”
* Have I mentioned lately that all is not well at the company formerly known as Twitter? “X ... could lose as much as $75 million in advertising revenue by the end of the year as dozens of major brands pause their marketing campaigns after its owner, Elon Musk, endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory this month.”
* This strikes me as a good idea: “Public school students in California will soon learn media literacy skills to help them identify fake news online and distinguish ads from legitimate news stories, thanks to a new law.”
See you tomorrow.