WORLD AT WAR: Hostilities in the Middle East expanded yesterday as Pakistan carried out strikes inside Iran in response to Iranian attacks on what they said were militant camps in Pakistan. War is spreading gradually nearly every day.

  The Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry said they had conducted “precision military strikes” against what they called terrorist hide-outs in southeastern Iran. Iranian television said that seven foreigners were killed in the strikes.

  Both Pakistan and Iran have been careful not to say they are at war with each other, but with militant groups on opposite sides of their borders.  But Pakistan denounced the Iranian strike as a violation of international law and said it “reserves the right to respond.”

  Iran is also behind the Houthi militants in Yemen and Hamas in Gaza. The US carried out another round of strikes on Houthi emplacements in Yemen, knocking out missiles as they were being prepared for firing. It’s the fourth US attack in a week.

THE SUPREMES: The Supreme Court conservative majority that has already demonstrated a willingness to overturn long standing precedent yesterday seemed inclined to curtail or overturn a key decision that has empowered regulatory agencies and frustrated people hostile to government regulation.

  Up for re-evaluation is the 1984 decision Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which has governed regulations including the environment, health care, consumer safety, nuclear energy, and government benefits. Under “Chevron,” courts and the Congress must adhere to regulatory agency decisions about the meaning of sometimes vaguely written statutes.

  Some of the conservative justices said the courts should decide what laws mean and not give the decision to agencies. 

BORDERLINE BEHAVIOR: House Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday dug deeper into his position that he will not revive stalled legislation for Ukraine aid unless Democrats agree to a severe crackdown on illegal migration over the US-Mexico border. 

  “I told the president what I had been saying for many months, and that is that we must have change at the border, substantive policy change,” Johnson told reporters after meeting with President Biden and other congressional leaders at the White House. He said, “We must insist — must insist — that the border be the top priority.”

  By all reports, Biden focused more on Ukraine than the border during the meeting.

  Donald Trump would appear to have a voice in Johnson’s ear. The Speaker told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that he speaks to Trump, “Every few days or so.”

ORANGE ALERT: A New York judge yesterday threatened to throw Donald Trump out of court if he didn’t shut up and behave.

 Trump had been sitting opposite former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in a New York court yesterday as she testified that the former president “shattered my reputation” with accusations that she had lied about Trump sexually assaulting her in a dressing room decades ago at the Bergdorf Goodman department store.

  Trump showed visible exasperation and occasionally could be heard expressing frustration saying, “It’s not true” and “This is a total con job.”

  Trump was not required to be in court but chose to be.  “Mr. Trump has the right to be present here” said Judge Lewis Kaplan, and “that right can be forfeited if he is disruptive.”

  Trump responded, “I would love it.”

  The jury in a previous trial has already found that Trump did assault Carroll and awarded her $5 million in penalties and damages.

  Carroll said social media posts and messages inspired by Trump involved death threats and hopes that she had in fact been raped. “I was attacked. I was attacked on Twitter. I was attacked on Facebook,” Carroll testified. I was attacked in news blogs. I was attacked in messages. As I said, it was a new world. I had left the world of facts, a lovely world, and I was living in a new universe.”

  The author of five books, Carroll told the court that following Trump’s statements her appearances on morning news shows dried up. Trump had called Carroll’s rape claim to be “totally false” and that she had invented the story to sell a book. Carroll is suing for an additional $10 million. 

IT’S POLITICAL: Short on money and laying off his Super Pac staff, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has abandoned campaigning in New Hampshire to try to steal South Carolina from the state’s former governor, Nikki Haley.

  That sets up a one on one contest between Donald Trump and Haley in New Hampshire. Having finished Iowa with 19 percent of the vote, polling in New Hampshire has her at 33 percent to Trump’s 45, giving her a chance to make a competitive showing.

  With their candidate at merely 4.5 percent in New Hampshire, the DeSantis people are puffing their chests about South Carolina. “When Nikki Haley fails to win her home state, she’ll be finished and this will be a two-person race,” Andrew Romeo, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. “We’re wasting no time in taking the fight directly to Haley on her home turf.”

THE SPIN RACK: Britain’s Princess Kate is in the hospital for two weeks after unspecified abdominal surgery. They say it’s not cancer. — A Canadian conspiracy theorist who had claimed the government was setting wildfire has pleaded guilty to setting 14 fires himself. Authorities say that might not be all the fires he set. — A Florida man was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison for assaulting six police officers during the January 6^th insurrection at the Capitol. Prosecutors described, Kenneth Bonawitz, 58, of Pompano Beach in court filings as “one of the most violent January 6 rioters.” 

BELOW THE FOLD: Host Jimmy Kimmel said last night that, “ABC and CNN decided to cancel their New Hampshire debate coverage because Trump and Nikki Haley said they would not attend. So, the good news is if you still want to hear two Republicans who will never be president argue about politics, you can always go visit your parents.” 

-30-