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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* A highly irregular meeting: “Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell as his department seeks the release of grand jury transcripts from the case against the late financier and convicted sex offender.”
* The White House slowly realizes that diplomacy is hard: “The United States is cutting short Gaza ceasefire talks and bringing its negotiating team home from Qatar for consultations after the latest response from Hamas ‘shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza,’ President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Thursday.”
* A different kind of challenge in Kyiv: “Ukrainian fury was fixed Wednesday on its own government. As Russian drones peppered their homes, their loved ones fought in trenches and their negotiators waded through more pessimistic diplomacy, Ukrainians waged a new battle on the streets of Kyiv and other major cities. Activists called for further protests Wednesday over a law signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that curbs the country’s top two anti-corruption agencies.”
* SCOTUS news: “The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed President Donald Trump to fire members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a federal agency Congress set up to be independent of political pressures. The [court’s Republican-appointed] justices, granting an emergency request filed by the Trump administration, blocked a Maryland-based federal judge’s ruling that reinstated Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr., all of whom were appointed by President Joe Biden.”
* Speaking of the courts: “A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that President Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship violated the Constitution, affirming a district court judge’s nationwide injunction and bringing the issue one step closer to a full constitutional review by the Supreme Court.” (My MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin wrote up an analysis on this that you should definitely check out.)
* In still more legal news: “A Trump-appointed judge on Wednesday dealt a blow to the White House’s bid to kick out labor unions from an array of federal agencies. Judge Alan Albright of the Western District of Texas said that the Trump administration lacks the legal standing necessary to pursue the case it filed against the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest labor union representing federal workers.”
* Another step backwards on public health: “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday formally rescinded federal recommendations for all flu vaccines containing thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that the anti-vaccine movement has falsely linked to autism.”
* If only Republican officials still cared what the GAO said: “The Trump administration illegally withheld funding from a roughly $12 billion federal child care program known as Head Start, according to congressional investigators, who said that President Trump and his top aides had wrongly interrupted the flow of money enacted by Congress.”
* It’s hard not to be concerned about the future of public broadcasting: “Edith Chapin, the top editor and acting chief content officer of NPR, will leave the organization later this year, according to two people with knowledge of her decision. Ms. Chapin’s decision comes at a delicate time for NPR. Last week, Congress cut all $500 million in annual federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which backs NPR and its members. While only a tiny portion of NPR’s funding comes from those federal grants, the vote could have seismic effects on many of its member stations.”
* An unexpected ruling: “Donald Trump ally and MyPillow.com chief executive Mike Lindell on Wednesday persuaded a U.S. appeals court to throw out a judge’s order requiring him to pay $5 million to a software developer who said he debunked Lindell’s 2020 election fraud claims. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis said an arbitration panel improperly interpreted the rules of a contest Lindell set up and oversaw challenging anyone to disprove his claims that Trump won the election.”
See you tomorrow.