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Today's edition of quick hits:
* The latest from Kabul: "A dozen U.S. service members were killed and 15 wounded Thursday when two explosions rocked an area outside Kabul's airport, the Pentagon said. ISIS claimed responsibility for the 'martyrdom attack' that involved a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive belt at the airport's gate."
* A possible hurricane threat: "A tropical depression churning in the Caribbean Sea is forecast to intensify into a hurricane before making landfall along the Gulf Coast late Sunday or early Monday."
* Economic growth: "The U.S. economy grew at a robust 6.6% annual rate last quarter, slightly faster than previously estimated, the government said Thursday in a report that pointed to a sustained consumer-led rebound from the pandemic recession. But worries are growing that the delta variant of the coronavirus is beginning to cause a slowdown."
* Virus data: "Two state government websites in Georgia recently stopped posting updates on Covid-19 cases in prisons and long-term care facilities, just as the dangerous delta variant was taking hold. Data has been disappearing recently in other states as well."
* When public-health officials are threatened for providing accurate, life-saving information, it's evidence of a deeply unhealthy political climate. Take this story out of Michigan, for example: "A pair of Genesee County health officials had their lives threatened this week after instituting a mask mandate for thousands of students and teachers in the mid-Michigan county in an effort to stave off further spread of COVID-19."
* Speaking of the Wolverine State: "A Michigan man who admitted taking part in an extremist group's plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in retaliation for Covid restrictions was sentenced Wednesday to over six years in prison."
* This should affect the debate: "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer argued Wednesday the dual infrastructure bills envisioned by Democrats would cumulatively curb greenhouse gas emissions 45 percent by 2030, short of President Joe Biden's plan to slash them by 50 percent in that timeframe."
* A fascinating interview: "Russia's most famous prisoner, the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, spends much of his time tidying his cellblock, reading letters and visiting the mess for meals, with porridge often on the menu. But perhaps the most maddening thing, he suggested, is being forced to watch Russian state TV and selected propaganda films for more than eight hours a day in what the authorities call an 'awareness raising' program that has replaced hard labor for political prisoners."
See you tomorrow.