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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* One of China’s most senior diplomats traveled to Moscow today: “Wang Yi, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s senior foreign policy adviser, gave one of the strongest indications yet of Russia and China’s strengthening ties on Wednesday.”
* I hope to have more on this tomorrow: “Former President Donald J. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have been subpoenaed by the special counsel to testify before a federal grand jury about Mr. Trump’s efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election and his role in a pro-Trump mob’s attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to two people briefed on the matter.”
* Nuclear policy: “President Joe Biden on Wednesday strongly condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move to suspend his country’s involvement in the last remaining arms control treaty with the U.S.”
* The latest Jan. 6 sentence: “A Jan. 6 rioter who threatened Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on social media after participating in the attack on the Capitol was sentenced Wednesday to 38 months in prison. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 48 months in prison for Garret Miller, an unemployed Texan who, they noted, was wearing a T-shirt bearing former President Donald Trump’s picture and the words ‘I was there, Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021’ when he was arrested weeks after the attack.”
* Immigration policy: “The Biden administration announced Tuesday a new policy, set to take effect when Covid measures at the southern border expire, that would place limits on migrants’ eligibility to claim asylum when crossing into the U.S. from Mexico.”
* I wish I knew whether Twitter’s new ownership considers this a problem: “Accounts pushing Kremlin propaganda are using Twitter’s new paid verification system to appear more prominently on the global platform, another sign that Elon Musk’s takeover is accelerating the spread of politically charged misinformation, a nonprofit research group has found.”
* The nation’s largest Protestant denomination still has a problem with women in pulpits: “The Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday ousted its second-largest congregation — Saddleback Church, the renowned California megachurch founded by pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren — for having a woman pastor.”
* Why do people in the South have the nation’s worst credit scores? The decision among Republicans in the region to reject Medicaid expansion appears to be a highly relevant factor.
See you tomorrow.