Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The hush-money case is very nearly in the hands of the jury: “Prosecutors are delivering closing statements in the trial. Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers presented their arguments this morning. … Jury deliberations could begin as soon as today.”
* In Gaza: “With international condemnation mounting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Monday that the killing of dozens of people a day earlier at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah was ‘a tragic accident,’ but gave no sign of curbing the Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza city.”
* Off the Korean Peninsula: “A rocket launched by North Korea to deploy the country’s second spy satellite exploded shortly after liftoff Monday, state media reported, in a setback for leader Kim Jong Un’s hopes to field satellites to monitor the U.S. and South Korea.”
* In related news: “Monday’s failed launch came hours after leaders of South Korea, China and Japan met in Seoul in their first trilateral meeting in more than four years. It’s highly unusual for North Korea to take provocative action when China, its major ally and economic pipeline, is engaging in high-level diplomacy in the region.”
* This case, at best, was a longshot: “Washington, D.C.’s left-leaning politics has no bearing on its residents’ ability to be fair jurors in trials of those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. Two former President Donald Trump appointees from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals joined an appointee of former President Barack Obama in a unanimous three-judge ruling that turned down arguments from lawyers for former New York City Police Officer Thomas Webster that Washington jurors were too biased to sit on cases related to the riot.”
* We continue to confront the consequences of one of Trump’s most important foreign policy failures: “Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, according to a confidential report on Monday by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the latest in Tehran’s attempts to steadily exert pressure on the international community.”
* An important story from Friday afternoon: “[Louisiana’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry] signed a bill on Friday that adds two medications commonly used to induce abortions to the state’s list of controlled dangerous substances. The measure makes Louisiana the only state to categorize mifepristone and misoprostol in this way, adding them to Schedule IV of the state’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law.”
* Trump-proofing the government is an important challenge: “The Biden administration is setting up new tripwires for Donald Trump at America’s premier health research agency to safeguard against political interference if Trump wins in November. The White House fears Trump could try to advance an ideological agenda at the National Institutes of Health, like the ones he’s suggested on everything from vaccines to diversity policies.”
* At the Vatican: “Pope Francis used an offensive slur for gay men in a closed-door discussion with Italian bishops last week, two sources who were in the room told NBC News. The pontiff’s use of the derogatory term, first reported by Italian media, led the Vatican to apologize Tuesday ‘to those who were offended.’”
See you tomorrow.
