Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Questions in desperate need of answers: “U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reached a final conclusion or completed their investigation, two U.S. officials told Reuters.”
* We all know where this is going, right? “While President Donald Trump surprised some Thursday by predicting regime change soon in Cuba, an arm of the Justice Department has been running a quiet operation over the past several weeks to find criminal charges they could bring against Cuba’s top leaders, according to two people familiar with the effort.”
* Keep an eye on the UAE: “The United Arab Emirates is weighing freezing billions of dollars of Iranian assets held in the Gulf state, according to people familiar with the discussions, a move that could sever one of Tehran’s most important economic lifelines. If the UAE goes ahead, it would significantly curb Tehran’s access to foreign currency and global trade networks, as its domestic economy, already buckling under inflation, is now engulfed in a military conflict.”
* Shouldn’t the White House care about this? “Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region, according to two officials familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter.”
* A reasonable question: “A reader, the father of a Marine awaiting call-up, just wrote to ask why Trump ordered U.S. flags to fly at half-staff after Charlie Kirk’s death but hasn’t done so for the six service members killed in the opening of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.”
* A modest step toward disclosure: “The Justice Department has now produced FBI memos from three 2019 interviews of a woman who accused both Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager in the 1980s, after reports that the DOJ may have purposely withheld them from public release as required.”
* The Pentagon’s campaign against Anthropic is a sight to behold: “Anthropic said Thursday that the Defense Department has designated it a threat to national security, a striking move that bans it from doing business with the U.S. military and could send shock waves through America’s AI industry.”
* Believe it or not, there are people who trust Trump over qualified physicians: “Last year, President Donald Trump told pregnant women not to take Tylenol as he promoted unproven ties between the fever reducer and autism and touted an old generic drug as a treatment for the developmental condition. For nearly three months after that, new research found Tylenol orders for pregnant women showing up in emergency rooms dropped and prescriptions of the generic drug for children rose.” * A case worth watching: “A newly formed anti-corruption group has sued President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi over the deal that sold TikTok’s U.S. operation to a group of administration-backed investors.” * Suppressed truths reach the public: “Scientists and other experts were preparing a first-of-its-kind assessment of the health of nature in the United States when President Trump returned to the White House. He canceled the report. The researchers went ahead and compiled it on their own. This week, they released a 868-page draft for public comment and scientific review.” 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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