Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. “I don’t want to see a shutdown. A shutdown would be a terrible thing.”
That’s President Trump, who appears to be inching toward embracing a proposed border deal. He’s also hinting that he has “options that most people don’t understand” to build his wall without Congress. Above, Mr. Trump at the White House today.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging House Democrats to fall in line behind the deal, which includes $1.375 billion for border fencing — far short of Mr. Trump’s demands. Here’s how Mr. Trump’s language has shifted about the wall since his election, from who will pay for it to what it would consist of.
Also on Capitol Hill, the House voted to end U. S. military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, a move to curtail presidential war powers that, if it passes the Senate, may invite Mr. Trump’s first veto.
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2. It was a busy news day regarding Iran.
Our reporters, struck by the country’s two recent satellite launch failures, sought out more than a half-dozen current and former government officials who have worked on the American program to sabotage Iran’s missiles and rockets over the past dozen years. Above, Iranians visit a weaponry and military equipment exhibition in Tehran last week.
The officials revealed that the Trump administration was accelerating efforts to thwart Iran’s missiles and rockets, by covertly slipping faulty parts and materials into its aerospace supply chains. The Trump administration maintains that the Iranian space program is a cover for attempts to develop powerful ballistic missiles that could deliver nuclear warheads.
Separately, a former U. S. Air Force counterintelligence agent was charged with espionage after she defected to Iran. She is accused of helping the country’s elite Revolutionary Guards target her former U. S. colleagues.
And a suicide bomber killed 27 Islamic Revolutionary Guards in one of the deadliest attacks in Iran in years, for which the paramilitary force quickly blamed the U. S.
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3. New details are emerging about the exchange of “friendly fire” that killed a detective responding to a robbery in Queens, N.Y., on Tuesday.
A call came in just after dark that a man with a gun was robbing a T-Mobile store, and police officers rapidly responded, some in plainclothes. Three officers ran in to the store, but retreated when a man inside raised a pistol toward them.
Two of them were hit when seven officers outside opened fire — a total of 42 shots within 11 seconds, the police said. One died: Detective Brian Simonsen, 42, the first New York City police officer to be killed in the line of duty since July 2017.
