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Why this matters:

• Trump has threatened that a post-midterm election escalation — despite his initial promises to Americans of a campaign that would last a matter of weeks— remains a viable option. Further complicating matters, Trump told reporters Thursday that early indications suggest that Iran is linked to the FlyDubai co-pilot who stabbed his captain and tried to crash an Israel-bound flight on Wednesday. Trump added that if the link to Iran is established, the United States would retaliate.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

• Dual UK-Iranian national arrested over security incident at US-run air base in England
• Pete Hegseth creates a Pentagon Office of Religious Affairs reporting directly to him
• Supreme Court grants review of Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy for immigrants
• Trump administration says it has no plans for ICE officers at polls. Activists are preparing anyway
• DC judge permanently dismisses case charging ex-Olympian with vandalizing Reflecting Pool

US NEWS

Christa Pike is in critical condition after Tennessee’s failed execution attempt, her lawyers say

Christa Pike was receiving “lifesaving care” at a hospital Thursday, her lawyers said, a day after a failed attempt to execute her pushed Tennessee’s governor to halt further executions this year and order an independent review. Read more.

What to know:

• The Associated Press was among those who witnessed her failed execution, which one death penalty expert described as unprecedented. It was not immediately clear what went wrong. Attorney Randy Spivey said the execution team worked for an hour to administer the lethal drugs. Spivey called the process cruel and torturous. May Martinez, whose daughter was murdered by Pike and her boyfriend in 1995 and who traveled to Nashville to watch the execution, was also upset. “I didn’t get justice for my daughter,” Martinez told The Associated Press on Thursday.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

• WATCH: What AP witnessed during the failed lethal injection
• How Christa Pike’s failed execution unfolded, minute-by-minute
• Pentobarbital, the drug used in the failed execution, has come under past scrutiny
• Many states have backup execution plans, but failures still happen

US NEWS

Trump’s shift from ‘Housing First’ is causing upheaval for homelessness programs and many they serve

The Trump administration is shifting federal policy and dollars away from the “Housing First” approach, a model rooted in the belief that people need a stable place to live before addressing their other issues such as substance use disorder and job readiness. Across America, nearly 750,000 people were homeless last year, according to an estimate compiled by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Read more.

Why this matters:

• Many opponents of Housing First policies don't think services including addiction and mental health treatment should be optional. “Housing First has failed our most vulnerable and enabled addiction,” HUD said in an email.
  
  

• Housing organizations across the U.S. that depend on federal funds are now reluctantly making changes to comply with new government policies that favor the “Treatment First” approach and short-term “transitional” housing which favors mandatory services for addiction and serious mental illness — changes they fear will push people with extreme health risks back on the street.