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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* When I return to publishing in the morning, I’ll have several thoughts about today’s hearing: “The day after an explosive Oval Office meeting in which a motley crew of outside advisers clashed with White House lawyers over a plan to seize voting machines, then-President Donald Trump turned his focus to riling up his supporters for the Jan. 6 push to stop the counting of electoral votes, according to evidence presented in Tuesday’s House committee hearing.”
* In Syria: “A senior Islamic State group leader, Maher al-Agal, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in northwest Syria early on Tuesday, the United States military said. Al-Agal was the head of ISIS in Syria, according to a statement issued by U.S. Central Command, CENTCOM.”
* In Ukraine: “Rescuers continued shifting through the rubble Tuesday after officials said a Russian missile strike destroyed an apartment block in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 38 people.”
* I’ll be eager to hear more about this: “The White House on Monday said it believes Russia is turning to Iran to provide it with ‘hundreds’ of unmanned aerial vehicles, including weapons-capable drones, for use in its ongoing war in Ukraine.”
* A notable announcement from Mexico’s president: “Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador agreed to spend $1.5 billion to improve ‘smart’ border technology during meetings Tuesday with President Joe Biden — a move the White House says shows neighborly cooperation succeeding where Trump administration vows to wall off the border and have Mexico pay for it could not.”
* Among the notable things about Nicholas Rodean’s conviction is that it was a Trump-appointed judge who heard the case: “A Maryland man who counted himself among the first Donald Trump supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was convicted on Tuesday of a felony and six misdemeanors.”
* This has long been a misguided case: “A U.S. District Judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by former White House press secretary Sean Spicer and former Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought that sought to block their removal from the U.S. Naval Academy’s Board of Visitors.”
* This isn’t really my beat, but I could marvel at Webb images all day: “The first image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope offered humanity a stunning new view of the universe on Monday — a first-of-its-kind infrared image so distant in the cosmos that it shows stars and galaxies as they appeared 13 billion years ago.”
See you tomorrow.