Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Crisis in Niger: “The European Union has cut off financial support to Niger and the United States has threatened to do the same after military leaders this week announced they had overthrown the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, receiving close to $2 billion a year in official development assistance, according to the World Bank.”
* In related news: “Thousands of protesters supporting a coup in Niger took to the streets on Sunday and attacked the French embassy as West African governments warned of possible military action to restore democratic rule.”
* Russian flags in Niger? “Demonstrators in the capital, Niamey, many waving Russian flags, smashed windows at the French embassy and set a perimeter door on fire but never breached the walls of the embassy compound.”
* Bombing in Pakistan: “A powerful bomb ripped through a rally held by supporters of a hard-line cleric and political leader in the country’s northwestern Bajur District that borders Afghanistan on Sunday, police and health officials said. At least 55 people were killed and 135 were wounded in what one official said was a suicide attack.”
* Team Trump loses in court once again: “A Georgia judge on Monday denied an attempt by Donald Trump to halt Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s investigation into whether the former president and his allies interfered in the state’s 2020 presidential election, calling his allegations of wrongdoing in the probe ‘overwrought.’”
* Alabama will not be pleased: “President Joe Biden has decided to keep U.S. Space Command headquarters in Colorado, overturning a last-ditch decision by the Trump administration to move it to Alabama and ending months of politically fueled debate, according to senior U.S. officials.”
* An encouraging injunction: “Arkansas is temporarily blocked from enforcing a law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing ‘harmful’ materials to minors, a federal judge ruled Saturday.”
* The latest Jan. 6 sentence: “A New York man who stole a police radio and badge from a Washington, D.C., police officer who was being beaten by a mob during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S Capitol was sentenced to over four years in prison Friday, prosecutors said.”
* Keep an eye on this one: “A Massachusetts district attorney said Friday that his office is investigating Florida’s decision last year to send flights filled with migrants to Martha’s Vineyard.”
* If you’re one of the folks who believed Elon Musk’s boasts about being a “free speech absolutist,” I have some bad news for you: “Elon Musk has over the last year threatened legal action against tech competitors, employees and people who use Twitter, which he owns. Now he is also taking aim at an organization that studies hate speech and misinformation on social media.”
See you tomorrow.
