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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The importance of Bakhmut: “Russia may have effectively captured the symbolic prize of Bakhmut, but in many ways the battle for the city might only just be beginning. ... Putin’s troops — exhausted and depleted by the sort of fighting not seen in Europe since World War II — may struggle to push deeper into the eastern Donbas region while Kyiv’s military will seek to take advantage of recent gains by trying to encircle them, according to Ukrainian officials and Western military analysts.”
* A stubborn x-date: “Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday that it is ‘highly likely’ the U.S. will run out of money to pay its bills as early as June 1 if the debt ceiling battle isn’t resolved by then.”
* The weekend’s mass shooting in Missouri: “A mass shooting at a Missouri nightclub left three people dead and one in critical condition in the early hours of Sunday morning, police said.”
* Nebraska’s big step backwards: “Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed a bill Monday that bans abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy and restricts gender-affirming medical care for people younger than 19.”
* Big news on Western water: “Federal officials have struck a last-minute deal to pay water users in California, Arizona and Nevada to use less water from the drought-stricken Colorado River for the next several years, staving off a feared collapse of the river system serving 40 million Americans. The deal targets water use by Native American tribes, water districts and farmers across the West, paying them to voluntarily use about 2.3 million acre-feet less water than they would otherwise be entitled.”
* Twitter selling verification checkmarks certainly didn’t help on this: “A fake image of what was claimed to be an explosion near the Pentagon spread on social media Monday morning, with markets fluctuating around the time the posts appeared online.”
* Florida’s turn has not gone unnoticed: “The NAACP on Saturday issued a travel advisory for Florida over Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ‘aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity and inclusion programs’ in the state’s schools, the organization said in a statement.”
* Something new to worry about: “About 60,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used as a fertilizer and in explosives, went missing on a rail shipment from Wyoming to California in April and has still not been found, officials said.”
* Last week, The Washington Post’s Marc Thiessen wrote an unfortunate column about the Durham report that many conservatives thoroughly enjoyed — despite its many factual errors. The newspaper has since updated a significant correction.
See you tomorrow.