Today's edition of quick hits:
* Nigeria: "Hundreds of civilians, including many children, have been abducted and are being used as human shields by Boko Haram extremists, a top Nigerian official confirmed Wednesday."
* Yemen: "Yemeni fighters and army units allied with the Houthi movement closed in on the last redoubt of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi of Yemen on Wednesday amid news reports that he had fled by boat across the Gulf of Aden, possibly to the tiny African nation of Djibouti."
* Iraq: "The U.S.-led military coalition has begun airstrikes in the Iraqi city of Tikrit, officials said Wednesday, drawing the United States further into an operation dominated by Iranian-backed militiamen."
* A big day at the Supreme Court, Part I: "Peggy Young, the UPS driver who was forced to leave her job when she got pregnant because she says the company wouldn't assign her light duty, will have another day in court, as Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito joined with the Democratic appointees to craft what Young's attorney called a 'big win, not just for pregnant women, but also for all women in the workplace.'"
* A big day at the Supreme Court, Part II: "A divided Supreme Court on Wednesday said a lower court must take another look at whether Alabama's Republican-led legislature relied too heavily on race when it redrew the state's voting districts in a way that black leaders say limited minority voting power.
* President Obama's ACA victory lap: "'We have been promised a lot of things these past five years: Death panels, doom, a serious alternative,' Obama said, noting that none of those things materialized and pointing to the Republican's inability to draft successful legislation to replace the ACA."
* Bergdahl: "Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was rescued from Taliban captivity last spring after being held hostage in Afghanistan for five years, was formally charged with desertion, Col. Daniel J. W. King, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Forces Command, said in a news conference Wednesday."
* Wondering why Laurence Tribe would side with polluters in opposition to the White House's Clean Power Plan? You're not alone.
* What would the White House Science Fair look like if Ted Cruz were president? Rebecca Leber has a great piece on this.
* Bill O'Reilly yesterday lamented the state of modern journalism in the United States, saying journalistic standards "have declined dramatically." Noted without comment.
* Have I mentioned lately that the entire King v. Burwell case is insane? Because it is: "Over the past year, The Huffington Post has filed public record requests with multiple states and the Department of Health and Human Services to see if there was ever any discussion among federal and state officials about this very topic. HuffPost examined results from within a specific time frame -- after the passage of Obamacare and before August 2011, when the IRS issued its public ruling that subsidies should be universal -- and focused on states that chose not to set up an exchange. In addition, HuffPost looked at more than 50,000 previously released emails from the governor's office in Oklahoma. Among all the emails, letters and press releases reviewed, there was not a single instance of an administration official warning that if states decided not to run their own health care exchanges, their citizens would not be eligible for the tax credit subsidies. Nor was there a single instance of a state official recognizing or anticipating such consequences."
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.