Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Biden abroad: “President Joe Biden on Friday began his first trip to Asia since he took office amid some of his lowest domestic approval numbers as he looks to make strides in countering China’s saber-rattling and economic influence in the Indo-Pacific region.”
* The documentary evidence associated with this report is devastating, but worth your time: “Witness testimony and videos obtained by The New York Times show how Russian paratroopers executed at least eight Ukrainian men in a Kyiv suburb on March 4, a potential war crime.”
* Another brutal report, this one from the Associated Press, that’s important for the world to see: “A celebrated Ukrainian medic recorded her time in Mariupol on a data card no bigger than a thumbnail, smuggled out to the world in a tampon. Now she is in Russian hands, at a time when Mariupol itself is on the verge of falling.”
* The Secret Service didn’t need another setback, but it has one anyway: “Two U.S. Secret Service employees have been sent back to the U.S. from South Korea and placed on administrative leave after they were allegedly involved in an off-duty incident, the agency said Friday.”
* I find myself wondering what Trump would do if this had happened during his tenure: “Hyundai Motor Group confirmed Friday the company will spend $5.5 billion on a huge electric vehicle plant near Savannah that will employ thousands — a deal Georgia’s governor called the largest economic development project in the state’s history.”
* DOJ: “Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday announced new initiatives aimed at combating hate crimes, days after 10 Black people were killed in the Buffalo mass shooting which authorities have described as ‘racially motivated violent extremism.’”
* Wells Fargo never seems to be in the news for good reasons: “Wells Fargo Advisors, a subsidiary of banking giant Wells Fargo & Company, has agreed to pay $7 million to settle charges that it violated federal anti-money laundering statutes by failing to file suspicious activity reports, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday.”
* Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii helped champion this: “The Senate unanimously passed a bill Thursday to establish a commission to study the creation of a national museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture in Washington, sending the measure to President Joe Biden’s desk.”
* Seriously? “A state lawmaker in Virginia says he will seek a court order to restrict Barnes & Noble from selling two books to minors that were recently challenged within the Virginia Beach Public School system.”
Have a safe weekend.
