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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The latest from Prague: “Fourteen people were killed and dozens injured when a gunman opened fire at a university in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, authorities said Thursday. The shooter was also dead, police said on X. A motive for the shooting Thursday at Charles University remains unclear. The identities of the victims and shooter have not been released.”
* A modest diplomatic step: “Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. spoke with his Chinese counterpart Thursday morning, according to a readout of the call, the first high-level conversation between the two militaries in more than a year.”
* How the mighty have fallen: “Rudy Giuliani, the once-respected former New York mayor who represented former President Donald Trump in his ill-fated attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, has filed for bankruptcy after a jury in Washington, D.C., returned an initial $148 million verdict against him last week for defaming two former Georgia election workers.”
* The terrifying new normal: “In the 24 hours since the Colorado Supreme Court kicked former President Donald Trump off the state’s Republican primary ballot, social media outlets have been flooded with threats against the justices who ruled in the case, according to a report obtained by NBC News.”
* Those with authoritarian visions don’t accept election results: “Amid a turbulent change of power, Poland’s main state television news channel went abruptly off the air on Wednesday, as the former governing party sent legislators and other supporters to the public broadcasting headquarters to try to prevent new management from taking over.”
* I wonder if moves like these will have the inadvertent effect of encouraging migrants to try to enter the country: “Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for the first time this week chartered a plane to fly migrants from his state to Chicago, marking an escalation after months of having bused migrants to Democratic-run cities to protest President Joe Biden’s border policies.”
* How much more damage will the justices do? “The Supreme Court will hear arguments in February on whether the Environmental Protection Agency can continue enforcing its anti-air-pollution ‘good neighbor’ rule in 10 states, an effort to restrict smokestack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution.”
See you tomorrow.