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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Targeting Rafah: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu escalated his pledge to invade Rafah, declaring in a video statement Monday, ‘It will happen. There is a date,’ without elaborating. He spoke as Israeli negotiators were in Cairo discussing international efforts to broker a cease-fire deal with Hamas.”
* Watch this closely: “Biden administration officials are concerned that Iran may be planning to hit targets inside Israel in retaliation for the Israeli airstrikes in Syria this week that killed several senior Iranian officials, according to two U.S. officials.”
* In Kharkiv: “Two Russian strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killed eight civilians and injured at least 10 early on Saturday and in the afternoon, regional officials said.”
* Delay, delay, delay: “Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers were in a New York appeals court Monday in an 11th-hour bid to try to delay his impending criminal trial on charges he falsified business records related to hush-money payments.”
* Mass shooting in Miami: “A shooting at a bar in a popular outdoor mall in a Miami suburb early Saturday left two dead and seven injured. According to local law enforcement, an altercation at a martini bar at the CityPlace Doral complex broke out around 3:30 a.m. Saturday, prompting a security guard working the scene to intervene. A man involved in the altercation subsequently produced a gun and shot and killed the guard.”
* Mass shooting in Las Vegas: “Two people at a Las Vegas law office were killed in a shooting Monday morning and the gunman took his own life, police said. The incident occurred about 10 a.m. at a fifth-floor law office on West Charleston Boulevard near Pavilion Center Drive, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference. Two people, a male and a female, died, the sheriff said. The gunman was believed to have killed himself, McMahill added.”
* Climate emergency: “The levels of the crucial heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere reached historic highs last year, growing at near-record fast paces, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.”
* The motive in this case hasn’t yet been announced: “A man who had been staying in a local motel was charged on Sunday with setting a fire at the downtown Burlington office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Police arrested 35-year-old Shant Michael Soghomonian, previously of Northridge, Calif., two days after a man set ablaze the door of Sanders’ third-floor office at 1 Church Street.”
* After having seen it, the eclipse absolutely lived up to the hype: “A total solar eclipse — nicknamed the Great North American Eclipse for its long path over North America — was visible in the sky today over parts of Mexico, 15 U.S. states and eastern Canada. Tens of millions of people were treated to stunning views as the moon passed between Earth and the sun and temporarily blocked the sun’s light.”
See you tomorrow.