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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Chef José Andrés told Reuters today “that an Israeli attack that killed seven of his food aid workers in Gaza had targeted them ‘systematically, car by car.’ Speaking via video, Andres said the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity group he founded had clear communication with the Israeli military, which he said knew his aid workers’ movements. ‘This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,’ Andres said.”
* In related news: “Chef José Andrés urged Israel to change course on how its conducting the war in Gaza in a New York Times column, which also honored the seven aid workers killed in an Israeli airstrike.”
* The latest from Taiwan: “Taiwan was shaken Wednesday by its most powerful earthquake in 25 years, a major trembler that killed at least nine people, injured a thousand more, collapsed hundreds of buildings, and triggered tsunami warnings across the region. Some 143 people, many of them tourists in badly damaged hotels, were feared trapped in the ruins, the Taiwan National Fire Agency reported.”
* Uh oh: “The largest producer of fresh eggs in the U.S. said Tuesday it had temporarily halted production at a Texas plant after bird flu was found in chickens, and officials said the virus had also been detected at a poultry facility in Michigan.”
* The latest Jan. 6 criminal sentence: “A Washington man who led an attack on officers on Jan. 6 and represented himself at trial using arguments a federal judge described as ‘bulls---‘ and ‘gobbledygook’ was sentenced to seven years in federal prison on Wednesday.”
* Smith’s patience with Cannon’s conduct appears to be running out: “Special counsel Jack Smith strongly criticized a recent order by the judge presiding over the case of former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, saying that her request for jury instructions from his office and Trump’s lawyers is based on a ‘fundamentally flawed legal premise.’ In a court filing Tuesday, Smith argued that the legal premise behind Judge Aileen Cannon’s request is ‘wrong’ and that it would ‘distort’ the trial, potentially leading to a directed verdict in Trump’s favor.”
* Drug prices: "Polls have shown that most voters are unaware of Democrats’ efforts to lower drug prices, prompting a flurry of administration speeches, news releases and officials’ trips to swing states — and now President Biden’s joint event Wednesday with Bernie Sanders. The two men — longtime Senate colleagues, onetime political rivals and now allies in the effort to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office — have made drug prices central to their 2024 political agendas, adopting approaches that Sanders says are complementary."
* An unheeded warning: “More than two weeks before terrorists staged a bloody attack in the suburbs of Moscow, the U.S. government told Russian officials that Crocus City Hall, a popular concert venue, was a potential target, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The high degree of specificity conveyed in the warning underscores Washington’s confidence that the Islamic State was preparing an attack that threatened large numbers of civilians, and it directly contradicts Moscow’s claims that the U.S. warnings were too general to help preempt the assault.”
* A story we’ve been monitoring: “Uganda’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday largely upheld a sweeping anti-gay law that President Yoweri Museveni signed last year, undermining the efforts of activists and rights groups to abolish legislation that drew worldwide condemnation and strained the East African nation’s relationship with the West.”
* It’s not every day that Team Biden expresses gratitude to a prominent conservative outlet: “The White House expressed appreciation for The Daily Caller on Tuesday after the conservative outlet retracted a post that implied the Biden administration had instituted a new ban on religious symbols on Easter eggs during its annual holiday celebration.”
See you tomorrow.