An escalation in the Middle East

THE BIG STORY

A top Iranian military commander was killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad

Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds force and one of the most powerful men in Iran, was among those killed in an airstrike near Baghdad's international airport amid escalating tensions between the US and Iran.

The airstrike came days after pro-Iran protesters attacked the US embassy in Iraq in response to US-led airstrikes in the region. The Pentagon confirmed Soleimani's death, saying the attack was ordered by President Donald Trump, in part, to deter "future Iranian attack plans."

Soleimani was influential — he was one of Iran's most powerful commanders, spearheading an effort to deploy militias around the Middle East to grow Iran's influence there.

His death will spur fears of strong retaliation from Iran against Israel or American interests in the Middle East. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed revenge for what he called a "cowardly act."

Gen. Qassem Suleimani. Abaca Press / Sipa USA via AP

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Robert Mueller's secret memos part 3: The documents the Justice Department didn't want Congress to see

In 2019, we sued the US government for the right to see all the work that Robert Mueller's team kept secret. Today we are publishing the third installment of the FBI's summaries of interviews with key witnesses.

The memos include new details about Stephen Miller's involvement in drafting the letter firing then-FBI director James Comey, and how Paul Manafort believed President Trump was sending him messages through Sean Hannity.

Read the latest installment of the Mueller memos.

SNAPSHOTS

More than 200 members of Congress asked the Supreme Court to consider overturning Roe v. Wade. The members, including two Democrats, asked the court to overturn the landmark case that legalized abortion nationwide, writing in a brief that the national right to abortion is unworkable.

Trump just announced a nationwide ban of all vape flavors except tobacco and menthol. The move would exclude refillable vaporizer liquid flavors, also sold in vape shops. The newly announced ban and its exemptions displeased both sides of the debate over banning flavored vapes.

A mom is fighting to keep her daughter on life support despite what doctors say. A Texas judge ruled that a hospital can take 11-month-old Tinslee Lewis, who was born with a rare heart defect, off life support, despite her family's opposition. Doctors say Tinslee is suffering. Her mom believes she has a fighting chance.

Julián Castro is ending his presidential campaign. The only Latino candidate, who served as Housing secretary in Barack Obama's administration, is dropping out of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary after struggling to raise money.

The pope apologized for slapping a woman's hand away but the memes are still here. As the pope greeted people in Vatican City, one eager woman grabbed his hand and yanked him toward herself, clutching onto him. The pope slapped her hand away, and well, there are now memes.

BABIES AND BUSHFIRES

Babies are being born into smoky delivery rooms as Australia burns

This week, in the middle of an ongoing bushfires, Australia's capital city Canberra recorded its worst air quality on record, with an air quality index reading in one suburb of 4,650 — more than 23 times the hazardous level of 200. The next day, an elderly woman died after going into respiratory distress when exiting a plane in Canberra.

Meanwhile, Canberra Hospital said some MRI machines had been affected by the smoke and were unable to run.

It's against this backdrop that one obstetrician told us that while delivering a baby on Jan. 1, "I had the little spotlight that you use to look at things and it went through the smoke and we all realised that in this birth suite, this baby was born into bushfire smoke."

Meanwhile, Australia's prime minister Scott Morrison was refused handshakes and heckled away from a photo opportunity while visiting a community ravaged by bushfires in southern New South Wales.

ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND

Longreads to ease you back in to regular life

The Queer Possibilities Of Little Women. Have you seen Greta Gerwig's adaptation of Little Women yet? Shannon Keating writes that the adaptation opens the door for Jo to be different in a way the novel never put into words: "Sorry to the purists, but you guys: This girl is g-a-y."

It Was A Tough Year For Heterosexuality. Another excellent piece from Shannon Keating — this one on the plethora of pop culture dealing with straightness in 2019, and the reckoning with whether it's ultimately a doomed project: "There has yet to be another serious reckoning, nearly 50 years after Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, with gendered power imbalances in straight couples' personal lives."

The Decade Lettuce Tried To Kill Us. Our love affair with salad in the 2010s got a lot of people sick. Venessa Wong and Katie Notopoulos write about why it might be time to end our relationship with lettuce as we know it.

Fortify yourself by reaching out to your people today,

Elamin

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📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by Elamin Abdelmahmoud and BuzzFeed News. You can always reach us here.

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