Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Difficult diplomacy: “President Donald Trump warned on Friday that limited strikes against Iran are possible even as the country’s top diplomat said Tehran expects to have a proposed deal ready in the next few days following nuclear talks with the United States. … Earlier Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a TV interview that his country was planning to finalize a draft deal in ‘the next two to three days’ to send to Washington.”
* Tariffs weren’t just illegal; they were also ineffective: “The U.S. merchandise trade deficit hit a record $1.2 trillion last year, despite President Donald Trump’s promise to eliminate it by imposing the highest tariffs in eight decades on foreign-made products.”
* On a related note: “Ultimately, even if Trump’s backup tariff plans fail as well, the effects his tariffs have already had will take a long time to abate, and some could be permanent.”
* The right call in Philadelphia: “A federal judge has denied the Trump administration’s request to delay a Friday deadline to restore an exhibit on the history of slavery at Independence Mall in Philadelphia.”
* Crisis conditions in Cuba: “Cuba is confronting the United States’ first effective blockade since the Cuban Missile Crisis and running out of fuel fast, pushing the nation toward a humanitarian crisis and its government to the edge of collapse, according to a New York Times analysis of shipping data and satellite images.” * The Pentagon picks a remarkable fight: “Over the last week, tensions between the Pentagon and artificial intelligence giant Anthropic have reached a boiling point. Anthropic, the creator of the Claude chatbot system and a frontier AI company with a defense contract worth up to $200 million, has built its brand around the promotion of AI safety, touting red lines the company says it won’t cross. Now, the Pentagon appears to be pushing those boundaries.” * On the Hill: “The late Rev. Jesse Jackson will not lie in honor in the United States Capitol Rotunda after a request for the commemoration was denied by the House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office due to past precedent. Johnson’s office said it received a request from the family to have Jackson’s remains lie in honor at the Capitol, but the request was denied, because of the precedent that the space is typically reserved for former presidents, the military and select officials.” Have a safe weekend.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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