THE WAR ROOM: The US and Iran have been trading attacks since Iran yesterday shot down an American attack helicopter.

  The US struck targets in southern Iran and Iran said it retaliated by launching drones and missiles at US military targets in Bahrain and Jordan. Iran said one strike hit a water facility.

  Trump blustered on social media this morning that; “The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!! They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!”

  He’s otherwise been saying that the US and Iran are just days away from some kind of diplomatic agreement.  The US military described its attacks as a “proportional response” as the Trump administration tries to preserve the shaky two-month ceasefire.

  The NY Times reports that in recent days, “President Trump’s aides were negotiating with Tehran on four major elements of a nuclear agreement that U.S. officials contend would grind the program to a halt for 15 years or so.” That wouldn’t be the complete end to Iran’s nuclear program that Trump promised would result from his war.

  The Times says, “The result is what American officials describe as the hazy outlines of an accord.”

  The Times lists the four elements as:

1. A lengthy suspension of uranium enrichment

2. Iran’s current stockpile of enriched uranium is diluted, or “downblended”

3. Iran dismantles its nuclear sites

4. Iran agrees to “snap” inspections

TICK, TICK, TICK: “60 Minutes” correspondent Leslie Stahl told the NY Times that Paramount owner David Ellison called her personally and assured her that the legendary broadcast will be allowed to maintain its editorial independence. It’s a move to calm the storms at CBS but it’s also a swipe at Ellison’s appointed editorial boss Bari Weiss, who had tried to influence stories before firing the show’s senior management and three skilled correspondents.

  Stahl said she held a champagne toast with the show’s survivors in their offices on West 57^thStreet.

  This sounds good, but the “60 Minutes” staff will be answering to a new executive producer hired as a result of the Paramount takeover of CBS, a man from outside the organization who never reported a television news story. Editorial independence was shattered with the firings. The outside influence is in the house. 

CRIME BEAT: A Texas 19-year-old yesterday was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the stabbing death of a 17-year-old at a high school track meet in a Dallas suburb last year. 

   Karmelo Anthony, who attended Centennial High School, tried to sit under a tent belonging to Memorial High School during a rain storm and was asked repeatedly to leave. Anthony was accused of reaching into his backpack, saying, “Touch me and see what happens” after memorial student Austin Metcalf pushed him. Anthony, who is Black, stabbed and killed the white Metcalf, who is survived by a twin brother.

  Anthony’s lawyers said it was an act of self-defense. His supporters are claiming racism, particularly because the jury was all white.

INFINITE SCROLL:

— The House by a vote of only 214-212 passed the Republicans’ $70 billion immigration enforcement bill supporting President Trump’s deportation crackdown.

— The Trump administration is speeding ahead with plans to build the President’s 250-foot triumphal arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery, the Washington Post reports. The paper says plans call for use of a 320-foot construction crane and work proceeding 20 hours a day in hopes of finishing by the end of Trump’s time in office.

  Most monuments in Washington are made of stone, but the arch would be concrete clad in granite to speed construction. 

IT’S POLITICAL: Maine oyster fisherman Graham Platner this morning has 72 percent of the Democratic vote, winning his party’s nomination to run against Republican Sen. Susan Collins. The state’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has only 20 percent of the vote against a man who never previously ran for office.

  Republicans are already making Platner’s character the primary issue in the fall. Platner has been revealed to have had messy relationships with women and used to have a skull and crossbones tattoo, a symbol borne by the Nazi SS.

  Platner will become part of Democratic hopes for taking a majority in the Senate. They have to hold every seat they have and overturn four.

  California Republican Steve Hilton won second place in the state’s open primary to run for governor in the fall. That puts the lie to President Trump’s claims of election rigging. 

  In South Carolina, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace failed to win her party’s nomination for governor. Because Mace had been vocal about releasing the files on sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, President Trump endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who heads for a runoff.

ON ICE: The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Las Vegas Golden Knights 5-3 last night to even the Stanley Cup series at 2-2. Game five out of a possible seven is tomorrow.

THE SPIN RACK: Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates is to appear today before the House Oversight Committee today to answer questions about his relationship with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Gates has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. The committee says it will release a transcript.  

BELOW THE FOLD: A third child of actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt has filed to drop “Pitt” from the “Jolie-Pitt” last name. The 21-year-old requested her name be just Zahara Jolie. 

  A family tradition is at work here. Angelina went to court in 2002 to remove the last name of her father, actor John Voight, from whom she was largely estranged.