By
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The latest on the plane crash you’ve probably heard about: “Russian state media reported on Wednesday that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group who led an aborted mutiny in June, was listed as a passenger on a jet that crashed north of Moscow. NBC News was not able to confirm the news. Russia’s main federal investigating authority has said all 10 people on the Embraer Legacy plane that went down north of Moscow were likely dead.”
* At the lunar south pole: “India made history Wednesday by becoming the first country to reach the lunar south pole. An uncrewed robotic moon lander, operated by India’s space agency and known as the Chandrayaan-3, touched down on the moon’s south polar region shortly after 8:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.”
* This Tennessee judge obviously made the right call: “A Davidson County judge issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday against the Tennessee House of Representatives, blocking the chamber’s new rule barring signs in the galleries. The order, signed by Chancellor Anne Martin, comes as part of a lawsuit filed earlier in the morning by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.”
* Let’s note for context that there are no women on the South Carolina Supreme Court: “The S.C. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday the state’s new six-week abortion ban is constitutional, allowing the law to go into effect. The 4-to-1 ruling comes after a new justice was elected and the General Assembly rewrote a previous six-week law. Earlier this year, the previous iteration of the court had ruled 3-2 against a different version of a six-week abortion ban, saying at the time that it violated a woman’s constitutional right to privacy.”
* The latest Jan. 6 arrest: “A Capitol rioter known to online sleuths as ‘Shield Grampy’ — a reference to his age and his use of a police shield during the battle at the lower west tunnel on Jan. 6 — has been arrested by the FBI, according to court documents.”
* Keep an eye on this one: “Washington D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb is investigating judicial activist Leonard Leo and his network of nonprofit groups, according to a person with direct knowledge of the probe.”
* Interesting new KFF research found that Republican voters disproportionately believe health misinformation more than Democratic voters. In preparation for future public health crises, it’s important to better understand why.
* And speaking of Republicans embracing misinformation, too many GOP members of Congress and conservative pundits promoted this nonsense as if it were real: “Conservative pundits used low-quality video on social media platforms Tuesday to spread a false claim that President Joe Biden fell asleep during a memorial for Maui wildfire victims.”
See you tomorrow.