Today’s edition of quick hits.
* In the Middle East: “U.S. retaliatory attacks against Iran-backed militants will be a ‘campaign’ that could last ‘weeks,’ officials told NBC News. The targets are expected to include Iranian targets outside Iran, and the campaign will involve both strikes and cyber operations.”
* A Red Sea mission: “The European Union plans to launch a naval mission in the Red Sea within three weeks to help defend cargo ships against attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen that are hampering trade and driving up prices, the bloc’s top diplomat said Wednesday.”
* The latest from Fed chair Jerome Powell: “The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it was keeping interest rates at their current levels amid improving consumer confidence and a declining inflation rate.”
* In related news: “The United States economy grew faster than any other large advanced economy last year — by a wide margin — and is on track to do so again in 2024. ... America’s outperformance is rooted in its distinctive structural strengths, policy choices, and some luck. It reflects a fundamental resilience in the world’s largest economy that is easy to overlook amid the nation’s problems.”
* The latest Jan. 6 arrest: “A New Jersey man who wore a throwback Philadelphia Eagles beanie to the Jan. 6 riot was arrested by the FBI this week after online ‘sedition hunters’ identified him with the help of facial recognition and Facebook photos from a 2020 family trip to the pumpkin patch.”
* The closely watched 14th Amendment case: “Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to conclude that the state can lawfully bar former President Donald Trump from the Republican primary ballot because of his actions in 2020 that culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.”
* On a related note, ff you’re frustrated with the state of the U.S. Supreme Court, imagine how Sotomayor feels: “Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she lives in perpetual frustration as her conservative colleagues rule on landmark cases that have reshaped the nation in recent years. ‘Every loss truly traumatizes me, in my stomach and in my heart,’ the justice told a crowd of students at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law on Monday. ‘But I have to get up the next morning and keep on fighting.’”
* There’s been quite a bit of news from the media industry lately, and nearly all of it is discouraging: “The Messenger, a news website that pledged to shake up the media industry with a playbook borrowed from the doomed publishing start-ups of yesteryear, will be closing down, according to a person with knowledge of the decision. It’s unclear when The Messenger will stop publishing.”
See you tomorrow.