QUICK HITS

British woman testifies in

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Maxwell trial: A British woman testified Monday that Ghislaine Maxwell pressured her into giving Jeffrey Epstein sexual massages when she was still a teenager, assuring her she would have “fun”with him. The witness was the second woman to take the witness stand against Maxwell in federal court in Manhattan.

German chancellor deal clears

2 final hurdle: A three-party deal to form a new German government under center-left leader Olaf Scholz cleared its final hurdle on Monday, setting the scene for Scholz to succeed longtime Chancellor Angela Merkel this week. Germany’s environmentalist Greens said their rank-and-file members approved the agreement reached last month, with 86% voting for it in a ballot.

Hostages freed: A religious group 3 based in Ohio announced Monday that a violent gang in Haiti has released three more hostages, while another 12 abductees remain held.

U.S. embassy warns of racial

4 profiling: The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo warned in a post to Twitter on Monday that it had received reports of foreigners being stopped and searched in “suspected racial profiling incidents.” The unusual tweet came a week after Japan closed its borders to nearly all travelers amid the early spread of the omicron coronavirus variant — a particularly stringent step, even compared to those taken by most other countries that imposed new restrictions.

Till investigation closed:

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The U.S. Justice Department told relatives of Emmett Till on Monday that it is ending its latest investigation into the 1955 lynching of the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman in Mississippi. A person familiar with the matter informed The Associated Press about the closure of the investigation and the meeting with Till’s family. The person could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.