QUICK HITS

1 Vera Lynn dies: Dame Vera Lynn, the “Forces’ Sweetheart” who serenaded British troops abroad during World War II, has died at 103. During the war and long after, Lynn got crowds singing, smiling and crying with sentimental favorites like “We’ll Meet Again” and “The White Cliffs of Dover.”

Vote-buying allegations: Japanese prosecutors arrested 2 a former justice minister and his lawmaker wife on vote-buying allegations Thursday. Katsuyuki Kawai resigned from the cabinet in October following allegations in a magazine that he was linked to illicit payments made to local politicians and potential voters during his wife Anri Kawai’s successful first campaign for an upper house seat last July.

Biden ads begin: Former Vice President Joe Biden is making 3 his first TV ad buy of the general election, a $15 million television, digital, radio and print advertising blitz starting today for five weeks across six fall battleground states that President Donald Trump carried in 2016.

Jeep recall: Fiat Chrysler is recalling almost 95,000 Jeep 4 Cherokees worldwide because a transmission problem can cause them to lose power suddenly. Also, when drivers shift into park, the transmissions may not go there, increasing the risk of a rollaway crash. The recall covers certain Cherokees from 2014s to 2017s.

EPA backs off perchlorate:

The EPA ended an Obama-era drive to regulate perchlorate, a 5 contaminant in drinking water linked to brain damage in infants. Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the decision to drop the introduction of federal limits for the chemical used in rocket fuel, ammunition and explosives “fulfills President Trump’s promise to pare back burdensome ‘one-size-fits-all’ overregulation for the American people.”