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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Difficult diplomacy: “CIA Director William Burns has arrived in Cairo for talks on a hostage release deal, which would include a temporary cease-fire and a better plan for getting aid into Gaza. David Barnea, director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, will also travel to the Egyptian capital, a senior Israeli official told NBC News.”
* Inflation news: “U.S. price growth cooled in January, slowing from 3.4% to 3.1% on a 12-month basis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. Excluding food and gas prices, ‘core’ price growth was flat at 3.9% compared with December.”
* What to watch on Capitol Hill tonight: “House Republicans will try on Tuesday for a second time to impeach Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, on charges of willfully refusing to enforce border laws and breaching the public trust, after their first attempt at the partisan indictment ended in a stunning defeat.”
* Team Trump and NATO: “A leading national security adviser to Donald Trump told Reuters on Tuesday that he would push for changes to NATO if the former president returns to power that could result in some member nations losing protection against an outside attack. Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general and onetime chief of staff of the former president’s National Security Council, said in an interview that if a member of the 31-country alliance failed to spend at least 2% of its gross domestic product on defense, as agreed, he would support removing that nation’s Article 5 protections under the North Atlantic Treaty.”
* CDC eyes new guidelines: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering loosening its recommendations regarding how long people should isolate after testing positive for the coronavirus, another reflection of changing attitudes and norms as the pandemic recedes.
* SCOTUS news: “Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday told Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith to respond to a request by Donald Trump to delay implementing an appeals court ruling that found he does not have presidential immunity in his federal election interference criminal case. Roberts gave Smith a full week, until Feb. 20, to file an answer to the former president’s request, suggesting that the court might take its time reviewing broader questions related to the issue of immunity.”
* TPM did a really nice job with this report: “Donald Trump’s months-long effort to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election culminated on a single, now-infamous day: Jan. 6. But there was an alternate scenario gamed out by Trump’s lawyers — one that would have expanded the hours of indecision caused by the Trump campaign’s efforts and stretched out the process for weeks, all the way until Jan. 20, 2021, the Constitution’s ironclad deadline for the transfer of power. If their scheme succeeded, these lawyers hoped, Joe Biden would never take office. The details of this scheme are being revealed here for the first time.”
See you tomorrow.