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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Evidence of progress is hard to find: “Just days after the White House celebrated splashy summits with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine as foreign policy victories, the Kremlin signaled Wednesday that its position has barely budged, making clear the challenges facing President Donald Trump as he seeks a peace deal.”
* In related news: “Russia’s top diplomat on Wednesday said the country would insist on being a part of any future security guarantees for Ukraine, a condition that European and Ukrainian officials widely see as absurd.”
* In Gaza: “Israel launched strikes on Gaza City overnight as it moved forward with a new offensive in the Palestinian enclave despite international condemnation and mounting domestic protests. Explosions rocked neighborhoods in the city on Thursday, after Israel said its military had entered the first stages of a planned assault that includes calling up 60,000 reservists.”
* Meanwhile, at the State Department: “The State Department has fired a press officer who was responsible for drafting Trump administration talking points about policy toward Israel and Gaza after complaints from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.”
* The $600 billion “gift” Trump said he’d get as part of this deal wasn’t included in the final agreement: “The United States and the European Union on Thursday published much-anticipated details of the trade agreement they struck verbally last month, which will see Washington maintain high tariffs on European vehicles until the 27-nation bloc takes steps to lower its levies on many American industrial and agricultural products.”
* I understand why Trump celebrated, but the court still said he committed fraud: A New York appeals court on Thursday dismissed a $500 million civil fraud penalty against President Donald Trump and his companies for routinely over-valuing their properties in financial statements. Some judges of the state Appellate Division’s First Department agreed that Trump and his companies had engaged in fraud, but agreed with their colleagues that the award was an ‘excessive fine.’”
* The critics have a point: “Japanese American groups criticized the construction of a new immigrant detention center in Texas at a military base that was used during World War II to imprison people of Japanese descent.”
* The lawmakers’ questions have merit: “Two top House Democrats are demanding documents and internal communications related to the federal approval process behind Skydance’s $8 billion acquisition of the media conglomerate Paramount, the parent company of CBS. Reps. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., made the requests in a letter Wednesday to David Ellison, the chief executive of what is now known as the Paramount Skydance Corp.”
* A generation ago, the three dominant players in the religious right movement were James Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson. Now, they’re all gone: “Dr. James Dobson, a politically influential child psychologist who started a radio show counseling Christians on how to be good parents, founded the conservative ministry Focus on the Family and was long a campaigner against abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, died on Thursday. He was 89.”
See you tomorrow.