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Additional reading:

• The Trump administration appears to be moving refueling tankers to the Middle East, adding to the U.S. “armada” that has assembled in the region in recent weeks. It comes as Israeli officials prepare “for a scenario of war within days” and as Trump considers “pulling the trigger” if nuclear talks with the Islamic Republic fail, according to Axios.

• Deep-blue Prince George’s County, Md., was planning to evict hundreds of residents from a condominium that’s in a state of disrepair thanks to vandalism from a nearby homeless encampment. An 11th-hour court intervention put those plans on hold. For more on this story, read our Aaron Sibarium’s reporting here and here.

• Democrats recognize that the paddle-waving antics on display at President Donald Trump’s last congressional address were embarrassing. They’re plotting a more “sober, centrist counter” to Trump’s upcoming State of the Union, according to the New York Times. It consists of boycotting the speech and attending the “People’s State of the Union” rally on the National Mall, which will be hosted by… fired MSNBC anchor Joy Reid.

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been holding talks with the grandson of Cuba’s elderly dictator, whom Rubio sees as “representing younger, business-minded Cubans for whom revolutionary communism has failed,” reported Axios. It comes as the island grapples with a failing power grid, overrun hospitals, declining tourism, and food and fuel shortages, issues that could topple its totalitarian regime.

• A prominent Manhattan hospital, NYU Langone Health, shuttered its Transgender Youth Health Program, citing the “current regulatory environment.” It will no longer provide hormone treatments to minors, Manhattan borough president Brad Hoylman-Sigal confirmed. He described the development as horrifying. Most Americans disagree.

Check out our full Thursday lineup below.

1. The Resurrection of Liz Magill: Georgetown Law Search Committee That Tapped Disgraced Penn President as Dean Included 11 Democratic Donors and a Democratic Political Aide

2. New York Times Columnist Tom Friedman Plays His Readers for Fools—Again

3. Mamdani Hires Three Founders of Muslim Group that Blamed Oct. 7 on ‘Israeli Apartheid Regime’

4. Maryland Judge Forestalls Condo Evictions at Eleventh Hour as Squalid Homeless Encampment Remains Intact

5. Jasmine Crockett Must Be Heard: The Democratic Party’s War on Black Excellence Is Out of Control

6. A Jewish Teacher at a UN School in New York City Reported Anti-Semitic Harassment to Officials. They Investigated Her Instead.

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