Today's edition of quick hits:
* Afghanistan: "The Taliban attacked the Afghan Parliament on Monday just as lawmakers were convening for their third attempt to confirm a defense minister, while in northern Afghanistan a second district fell to Taliban insurgents."
* South Carolina: "The judge who oversaw a bond hearing for a man accused of fatally shooting nine people at a historic black church in Charleston was previously reprimanded for using a racial slur while on the bench. Charleston County Magistrate James Gosnell Jr., who presided over confessed gunman Dylann Roof's bond hearing on Friday, made the comments in a courtroom over a decade ago."
* Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Part I: "[Maryland] Gov. Larry Hogan said Monday he's been diagnosed with a 'very advanced and very aggressive' cancer. The governor said he learned of the illness last week after returning from a trade mission to Asia. He said the cancer had spread to multiple parts of his body, but he expected to fight and beat the disease."
* Best wishes for speedy recovery, Part II: "Sen. Angus King will undergo surgery this week to address a prostate cancer diagnosis he received earlier this year. The Maine independent said the prostate cancer was detected early, as was skin cancer some 40 years ago from which he fully recovered. 'And once again, early detection during an annual physical put me on the path to wellness.'"
* A lead: "DNA from at least one of the two escaped New York prisoners was found at a burglarized cabin in a rural town about 20 miles from the prison, sources told NBC News on Monday. The search for the men, Richard Matt and David Sweat, focused on the town of Owls Head after the DNA was found on Saturday."
* He's obviously correct: "In an interview released Monday, President Barack Obama said that combating racism didn't end with making racial slurs impolite."
* Middle East: "A U.N.-backed commission presented findings Monday suggesting that both Israelis and Palestinians violated international law and committed possible war crimes during the Gaza war last summer that left thousands dead and wide swaths of the coastal enclave in ruins."
* The big Senate fight: "The Senate on Thursday passed a $600 billion defense policy bill that would rein in pension costs, ban the use of torture and authorize lethal offensive weapons for Ukraine. But it then immediately rejected a measure to pay for it, the first battle in a spending fight that could end in a government shutdown this fall."
* More hardball from the House GOP: "After three conservative House Republicans were kicked off the whip team as a result of voting against a rule for trade legislation on June 11, a new round of punishment is being meted out: Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz has taken away the gavel of Subcommittee Chairman Mark Meadows."
* Ridiculously unhelpful Israeli politics, Part I: "In an op-ed published Friday, Kulanu Knesset member and former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren speculates that President Barack Obama's relentless outreach to the Muslim world may stem from the fact that he was abandoned by the two Muslim father figures in his life and therefore seeks acceptance by their co-religionists."
* Ridiculously unhelpful Israeli politics, Part II: "Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, an Israeli media personality and the wife of Israeli Vice Prime Minister and Interior Minister Silvan Shalom, tweeted a racial joke about President Obama on Sunday:"
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.