QUICK HITS

1 Remaining confident: Prime Minister Boris Johnson shrugged off Britain’s problems of empty gas pumps, worker shortages and gaps on store shelves as he told fellow Conservatives on Wednesday that the U.K. would emerge from Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic as a more productive and dynamic nation.

2 Deadline missed: Florida is the last state to submit a plan to the U.S. Department of Education that’s required before more than $2.3 billion in federal aid for Florida schools can be released, according to a letter sent to the state Monday. The letter sent to Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said the state missed the deadline to release American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief money.

3 Woman being deported:a Chicago woman convicted of assisting her boyfriend in her mother’s murder and stuffing the body in a suitcase on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali in 2014 is being released early from a 10year sentence, a prison official confirmed Wednesday. Heather Mack, who was 18 when she was arrested a day after the discovery of Sheila von Wiese-mack’s body in the trunk of a taxi, will be freed and deported to the United States.

4 Court skeptical: The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed skeptical of requiring the government to divulge what it says is secret information being sought by a Guantanamo Bay detainee. But in a surprising turn, several justices also raised questions about the man’s rights.

5 Monsignordies: Monsignor John Powis, whose kinetic street ministry and civic leadership helped revive some of Brooklyn’s most troubled neighborhoods, died Sept. 29 at a nursing home in Manhattan. He was 87. The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease.