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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Getting Beijing’s attention: “President Joe Biden called Chinese President Xi Jinping a ‘dictator’ on Tuesday, sparking an angry reaction from Beijing in a sudden flare-up after talks between the two superpowers aimed at easing their geopolitical animosity.”
* This ruling will be appealed to the 8th Circuit: “A federal judge struck down an Arkansas law Tuesday that would have banned transition-related medical care for transgender minors, declaring it unconstitutional.”
* Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez’s Jan. 6 sentence: “A Donald Trump supporter who drove a stun gun into the neck of a D.C. police officer who was abducted by the mob during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol shouted ‘Trump won’ after being sentenced to 12.5 years in prison on Wednesday, multiple people present in the courtroom told NBC News.”
* His legal defense appears to be facing an uphill climb: “Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who has been charged with leaking classified documents, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to six federal counts.”
* A judicial confirmation of note: “The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Julie Rikelman, a renowned abortion rights lawyer, to serve as a judge in the Boston-based U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in a 51-43 vote. ... Rikelman represented the abortion clinic in the Supreme Court’s Dobbs case, which resulted in the overturning of Roe v. Wade nearly a year ago.”
* In related news: “The New York State Legislature gave final approval on Tuesday to legislation that provides legal protection for New York doctors to prescribe and send abortion pills to patients in states that have outlawed abortion.”
* For the record, the food isn’t grown in actual laboratories: “For the first time, U.S. regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer ‘lab-grown’ meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves.”
* First, a Trump-appointed prosecutor, now a Trump-appointed judge? “Federal district Judge Maryellen Noreika, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, will preside over the case that Justice Department brought against President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.”
* This strikes me as entirely right: “We have turned ‘debate’ into a cudgel meant not to inform but to entertain, to validate our skepticism and to feed our dislike of our opponents. Change my mind: Maybe we should stop?”
See you tomorrow.