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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Retaliatory strikes: “The United States launched attacks in Iraq and Syria on Friday, its first retaliatory strikes for the killing of three American soldiers, according to an official at the Department of Defense.”
* President Biden's statement: "This afternoon, at my direction, U.S. military forces struck targets at facilities in Iraq and Syria that the IRGC and affiliated militia use to attack U.S. forces. Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing. The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond."
* Also note: “Even as Biden and his deputies vowed to retaliate, they have added the caveat that Washington does not seek a war with Iran or a wider conflict in the region. Their calibrated statements appeared to indicate that it was unlikely the reprisal strikes would hit targets inside Iran itself.”
* In related news: “President Joe Biden performed one of the most solemn duties of his office Friday in attending the dignified transfer of the three American soldiers killed in Jordan this week in a drone strike that the U.S. has attributed to Iranian-backed militant groups. The president and first lady Jill Biden first met with the families of the three fallen soldiers at the Center for Families of the Fallen at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.”
* On the Hill, a security deal is apparently in place: “Key Senate negotiators say they’ve struck a tentative deal to enact tougher U.S. immigration and asylum laws, marking a significant breakthrough on a politically explosive issue as the 2024 election year gets underway. But the pact is in jeopardy even before senators release the text of the bill, which they’re hoping to do in the coming days in anticipation of voting on it beginning next week.”
* Running out of calendar: “Former President Donald Trump’s federal election interference trial in Washington, D.C., will no longer begin on March 4, Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote in a court order released on Friday. It is unclear when the trial will now start. Chutkan’s ruling comes as the D.C. Circuit Court has not yet decided on whether the former president is immune from prosecution.”
* In Georgia: “Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Friday acknowledged having a personal relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade as former President Donald Trump and another co-defendant have sought to get them disqualified from the Georgia election interference case.”
* The DeSantis administration sure does lose a lot in court: “A U.S. appeals court has blocked Florida from enforcing a ban on Chinese citizens owning homes or land in the state against two Chinese nationals who were in the process of buying property when the law was adopted.”
* These layoffs aren’t quite like the other recent shifts in the industry: “The Wall Street Journal sharply cut its Washington, D.C., bureau staff on Thursday, letting nearly 20 reporters and various editors go as the paper re-envisions the bureau’s reporting structure. ... News Corp, the paper’s parent company, reported increased profitability in its first fiscal quarter, noting in a November statement by CEO Robert Thomson that the ‘positive performance in the quarter follows the three most profitable years since the creation of the new News Corp.’”
Have a safe weekend.