IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Tuesday’s Mini-Report, 3.21.23

Today’s edition of quick hits.

By

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* In Moscow: “Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin emerged from two days of talks on Tuesday with warm words of friendship between China and Russia and joint criticism of the West but no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough over Ukraine.”

* On a related note: “Is Russia now a client state of China, a reporter asked National Security Council spokesman John Kirby at the daily White House briefing. ‘They certainly are the junior partner,’ Kirby replied, a line sure to echo inside the Kremlin and at Chinese Communist Party headquarters.”

* Breaking news this afternoon out of Oklahoma: "A divided Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a portion of the state’s near total ban on abortion, ruling women have a right to abortion when pregnancy risks their health, not just in a medical emergency. It was a narrow win for abortion rights advocates since the U.S. Supreme Court s truck down Roe v. Wade."

* Good news for Kyiv: “The Pentagon is speeding up its delivery of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, opting to send a refurbished older model that can be ready faster, with the aim of getting the 70-ton battle powerhouses to the war zone by the fall, the Pentagon said Tuesday.”

* A new round of conservation efforts: “President Joe Biden said Tuesday he is establishing national monuments in Nevada and Texas and creating a marine sanctuary in U.S. waters near the Pacific Remote Islands southwest of Hawaii. Biden called the conservation measures part of an effort to ‘protect the heart and soul of our national pride.’”

* I wish I knew how to get climate deniers to listen and care about the IPCC’s latest report: “Earth is likely to cross a critical threshold for global warming within the next decade, and nations will need to make an immediate and drastic shift away from fossil fuels to prevent the planet from overheating dangerously beyond that level, according to a major new report released on Monday.”

* The latest Jan. 6 conviction: “A Virginia man who assaulted police with a stolen baton and used a flashing strobe light to disorient officers trying to defend the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced Tuesday to more than four years in prison.”

* Kim Jong Un wants attention again: “North Korea said Monday it simulated a nuclear attack on South Korea with a ballistic missile launch over the weekend that was its fifth missile demonstration this month to protest the largest joint military exercises in years between the U.S. and South Korea.”

* GOP politics in the Volunteer State have been weird lately: “Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally’s Republican colleagues in the Senate have voted 19-7 that he should keep his leadership post in the wake of revelations that he repeatedly commented on posts of nearly nude photos of a young gay model and other LGBTQ personalities.”

* Candida auris: “A drug-resistant and potentially deadly fungus has been spreading rapidly through U.S. health care facilities, a new government study finds. The fungus, a type of yeast called Candida auris, or C. auris, can cause severe illness in people with weakened immune systems.”

* One of the first new laws of the current Congress: “President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan bill Monday that directs the federal government to declassify as much intelligence as possible about the origins of COVID-19 more than three years after the start of the pandemic.”

* Another good move in the Golden State: “California Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced a new contract with nonprofit drugmaker Civica Rx, a move that brings the state one step closer to creating its own line of insulin to bring down the cost of the drug.”

See you tomorrow.