• RETALIATION ABOUT-FACE: “President Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing an American surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching them on Thursday night after a day of escalating tensions.” (The New York Times)

• SAUDI DEAL BLOCKED: “The Senate voted to block President Trump’s Saudi arms deal on Thursday, paving the way for a veto clash with the White House. … The 22 arms sales, estimated to be worth more than $8 billion, would provide weapons to Saudi Arabia, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. … Neither chamber is expected to be able to muster the two-thirds votes necessary to override all-but-guaranteed vetoes from Trump in response.” (The Hill)

• JUSTICE FOR DOXXED REPUBLICANS: “The former Sheila Jackson Lee staffer who posted the private information of Republican senators during the final hearing for then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has been sentenced to four years in prison for his crime.” (The Daily Wire)

• GALLAGHER BOMBSHELL: “U.S. Navy SEAL Corey Scott stated that it was he, not accused Special Warfare Chief Eddie Gallagher, who was responsible for the death of an injured Islamic State fighter in Iraq in 2017. The admission turns the controversial trial of Gallagher, 40, upside down and is likely to lead to a defense motion to acquit him.” (Washington Examiner)

• CHRIS COX SIDELINED: “The National Rifle Association has sidelined its top lobbyist, Chris Cox, after accusing him in court documents of participating in what it called a failed extortion scheme to rid the organization of its top executive,” The Washington Post reports. As its core, this is a contest of titan personalities.

• HEALTH CARE TRANSPARENCY: “President Trump plans to issue an executive order Monday to compel the disclosure of prices in health care… The order will direct federal agencies to initiate regulations and guidance that could require insurers, doctors, hospitals and others in the industry to provide information about the negotiated and often discounted cost of care.” (The Wall Street Journal)

• CALIFORNIA VOTER CLEANUP: “Los Angeles County has started the process of removing from its registration rolls an estimated 1.5 million inactive voters who have moved, died or become ineligible to cast a ballot, an effort to comply with federal election law and a court settlement with Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog. … In addition, California’s top election official has put all 58 of its counties on notice that they must also purge inactive voters from their rosters. … There were an estimated 5 million inactive registrations in the state as of November 2016, the latest figures available.” (RealClearPolitics)

• ROY MOORE DEFIANT: “Failed Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore announced on Thursday that he is running for the same Senate seat in 2020 after accusations of child molestation derailed his campaign in 2017.” (The Daily Wire)

• NEVER BELIEVE GOVERNMENT PROMISES: “Gun advocates in New Zealand are angry over a government plan aimed at buying back now-illegal firearms and magazines that were outlawed after a mass shooting in March that killed dozens of worshipers at two mosques in Christchurch. … [Council of Licensed Firearms Owners spokesperson Nicole] McKee said gun owners are ‘angry and they’re frustrated’ because the government reneged on a promise not ‘to rip us off.’ ‘They said they would pay full value. They’re not, and 250,000 [firearms license holders] are starting to feel ripped off,’ she said.” (NPR)

• POLICY: Is Iran close to collapse? Three things you need to know about the U.S.-Iran showdown (The National Interest)

• POLICY: Medicaid expansion is a failure: Lots of spending, little benefit (Washington Examiner)

• HUMOR: Ilhan Omar getting excited by all this talk about concentration camps (The Babylon Bee)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.

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