MILITARY BUILDUP: The U.S. is moving military assets into the Middle East in anticipation of a military strike against Iran that could come as soon as this weekend, multiple outlets reported.
The president reportedly hasn't decided to go forward with attacking Iran, but the buildup comes despite a second round of talks on limiting Iran's nuclear program that took place earlier this week.
The buildup of air power in the region is the most by the U.S. since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, The Wall Street Journal reported.
U.S. and Iranian officials described the most recent talks on Tuesday as positive and productive, but a deal is still not yet in reach. The New York Times reported Iran is seeking two weeks to return to the negotiating table with a fleshed-out proposal for a diplomatic solution.
Trump has said he wants to reach an agreement to restrict Iran's nuclear program but repeatedly threatened to take military action if no deal comes through.
The administration announced last week that the USS Gerald R. Ford and its accompanying ships were on their way to the Mediterranean Sea to join the USS Abraham Lincoln and its related ships in the Persian Gulf.
NBC News reports other air defenses and a submarine are also being positioned, with an official telling the outlet that all U.S. military forces required for possible action are set to be in place by mid-March.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have been making more of their own preparations for battle, as Israel's security cabinet moved up a meeting to Sunday, the Times reported.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that Trump still hopes to make a deal, while noting the strikes he ordered against Iran in June.
"The president has always been very clear though with respect to Iran or any country around the world, diplomacy is always his first option and Iran would be very wise to make a deal," she said.
▪ The Hill: U.S. preparing for pullout of all troops from Syria.
FIRST BOARD MEETING: The Trump-led Board of Peace is holding its first meeting today, with high stakes for the president’s push to secure a lasting peace in Gaza.
More than 20 countries have signed on to participate in the board, which has been set up to oversee Gaza after Hamas gives up power. The president has apparently already notched a key achievement, as he said Sunday that the member countries have pledged a total of $5 billion so far to the reconstruction of Gaza.
The pledge will be formally announced at the event at the U.S. Institute of Peace, which has been renamed after Trump, in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
But key hurdles remain as the U.S. looks to advance Israel and Hamas toward the second phase of their ceasefire, which has mostly held since it went into effect in October.
Hamas, the militant group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2006, has given mixed messages about whether they will step aside and disarm as outlined in the deal. That must happen before a technocratic board made up of Palestinians, overseen by the Board of Peace, can take over the area.
Many major countries, including most of Europe, have also refused to join the board over the language of the charter establishing it. While the board was originally theorized to only concern the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, various world leaders have argued the charter sets up the board as a rival to the United Nations.
Some leaders also said the language of the charter conflicts with their own countries’ constitutions.
Vatican City became the latest country to announce it was declining its invitation Wednesday. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin told reporters there are “points that leave us somewhat perplexed” and that would need explanations.
“The important thing is that an attempt is being made to provide a response,” he said. “However, for us there are certain critical issues that should be resolved. One concern is that at the international level it should above all be the [United Nations] that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted.”
The White House press secretary called the Vatican’s announcement “deeply unfortunate.”
“I don't think that peace should be partisan or political or controversial,” Leavitt said.
A senior administration official told The Hill they wouldn’t get into the details of “diplomatic conversations,” but the Vatican remains welcome to join.
▪ Los Angeles Times: U.N. Security Council holding meeting on Gaza.
▪ The Times of Israel: U.S. approves channel between Palestinian Authority, board.
DHS STANDOFF: Leavitt denounced Democrats’ latest offer to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as “very unserious.”
Details of the offers from Democrats and the White House have been sparse, but the two sides don’t appear close to a deal to reopen DHS nearly a week after it ran out of funding.
Many people in the department are still working as essential employees, but the impacts on the public could rise over the coming days through effects on DHS agencies including the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Democrats have similarly rejected offers from the administration as unserious.
▪ The Hill: DHS shutdown talks hit wall.
▪ The Washington Post: Officials limiting FEMA travel amid funding gap.
REDISTRICTING PRESSURE: Democrats are stepping up their pressure for states to redraw their congressional lines in response to GOP redistricting efforts, seeking to make as many gains as possible.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) met with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D) and other state legislative leaders to advocate for the Old Line State to redraw its congressional map ahead of the midterms.
Ferguson has expressed opposition to the idea of enacting a map that would likely allow Democrats to win all eight of the state’s House seats, as opposed to the current 7-1 configuration. He has shared concerns that enacting the map could jeopardize the current one in a challenge before the state Supreme Court, which has a Republican-appointed majority.
“Bill Ferguson authentically believes that the votes don’t exist in the State Senate to move forward,” Jeffries said after the meeting. “The only way to find out is to allow an immediate up-or-down vote on the Senate floor with respect to the new congressional map passed by the House of Delegates.”
But at least so far, Ferguson hasn’t indicated he will change his position.
A Democratic-aligned group is also looking at redistricting beyond the midterms in Colorado.
Coloradans for a Level Playing Field has filed four different versions of a ballot initiative asking voters to temporarily pass a new House map for the 2028 and 2030 elections, going around the state’s independent redistricting commission. The opportunity to enact it in 2026 will have passed, but a new map could net Democrats as many as three new seats, playing a key role in the House battle in 2028.
▪ The Associated Press: Many Dems still dissatisfied with their party.
NEW HEAD: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is set to have a new leader with Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, helming the agency for now.
Bhattacharya will take over for Jim O’Neill, who has served as the CDC’s acting director and deputy Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary for months. O’Neill is leaving his position as part of a broader reshuffling within HHS.
Trump is expected to nominate O’Neill to lead the National Science Foundation, according to The New York Times.
The swap is the latest leadership shake-up at the CDC. Former CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired from the role in August after less than a month on the job.
Her ouster came amid opposition she expressed to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s policies on vaccines.
Bhattacharya will serve in an acting capacity as O’Neill did. Bhattacharya broke with Kennedy during a Senate hearing earlier this month when he said he hasn’t seen any studies linking vaccines to autism, disputing a theory advanced by the secretary.
▪ The Hill: Campus vaccine strategies tested by rise in measles.
REVERSAL: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has overturned its decision to not review Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine following a meeting with the company.
The FDA initially refused to consider Moderna’s application last week for what it claimed was “substandard” care during its trials. HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said Moderna didn’t follow “very clear FDA guidance from 2024 to test its product in a clinical trial against a CDC recommended flu vaccine to compare safety and efficacy.”
Moderna said the FDA didn’t raise any specific safety or efficacy concerns.
But the company announced Wednesday that the FDA reversed course and accepted its application for review after the meeting. It said it proposed a revised regulatory approach that the agency accepted.
HHS has viewed mRNA vaccines with intense skepticism under Kennedy, canceling millions of dollars in federal funding for them last year. Senior administration officials said last week that Kennedy wasn’t involved in the FDA refusing to review Moderna’s application.
▪ The Hill: Health, green groups sue over climate change finding.
▪ The Hill: California challenging federal childhood vaccine recommendation changes.
