Zazie est LA touche de glamour et de féminité qui fait du bien au jury de The Voice. Preuve en est encore ce soir lors du dernier épisode des « battles ».

Audacieuse, élégante, sexy, autant de qualificatifs prompts à définir le style vestimentaire d’Isabelle Marie Anne de Truchis de Varennes, plus connue sous le nom de Zazie. Une allure de quinqu’ado bien dans sa peau que des millions de téléspectateurs ont encore pu contempler ce soir, à l’occasion de la diffusion sur TF1 du dernier épisode des « battles » de The Voice.

Comme à l’accoutumé, l’artiste de 52 ans a en effet choisi de laisser respirer son torse et d’offrir au regard, un sublime et hypnotique décolleté plongeant. Une arme de séduction massive qu’elle braque en toute décontraction depuis le début de la sixième saison du télé-crochet de la Une.

On se rappelle en effet de la combinaison ornée d’étoiles et de fleurs qu’elle avait revêtue lors de la première audition en aveugle, diffusée le 18 février dernier. Une tenue grâce à laquelle elle avait fait monter le mercure, appelée Galaxy Garden et signée du styliste Roberto Cavalli.

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Le site Greenroom a rencontré les inénarrables Jean-Marc Lubin (dit Lulu) et Charly Nestor (dit Charly), présentateurs de l’émission culte des années 90 sur M6, le Hit Machine. Loin d’être un succès annoncé, l’émission a trouvé son public à coups d’horaires décalés, d’artistes émergents et de coups de poker.

Sur le site internet Greenroom, Charly et Lulu racontent comment leur petite émission d’M6 diffusée le samedi en matinée a fini par trouver une légitimité : “Les maisons de disques nous envoyaient par charité chrétienne leurs artistes en développement, comme Pascal Obispo, Zazie, Axelle Red ou Calogero. Tous ces gens-là qui ne peuvent pas tout de suite passer chez Drucker ou Jacques Martin. Et il faut dire qu’on est bien tombés parce qu’ils émergent puis explosent aussi grâce au Hit Machine. On arrive au bon moment, parce qu’on bénéficie de la raréfaction des émissions de variété qui commencent une par une à s’arrêter. Forcément à un moment donné ils sont obligés de se tourner vers nous parce qu’il n’y en a plus d’autres. Les planètes s’alignent. Et nos audiences augmentent.”

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Par la suite et jusqu’à l’arrêt de l’émission en 2009, le duo a accueilli sur son plateau les plus grands artistes français et américains. Et Pascal Obispo, Zazie, Axelle Red ou encore Calogero ont depuis, aussi grâce à la visibilité offerte par le Hit Machine à l’époque, acquis le statut de stars. À propos d’un éventuel retour de l’émission culte, Charly Nestor confesse : « On me demande souvent son retour. J’ai croisé Marc Lavoine il y a pas longtemps, il m’a dit une chose : « reviens ». »

WASHINGTON — 

Republicans leaders said Tuesday they have the votes to approve a package of rules — without Democratic support — that will govern the impeachment trial of President Trump, punting a decision about whether to call witnesses until after the trial is underway and spurning for now an offer for testimony from former national security advisor John Bolton.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the GOP rules package — expected to be passed once the Senate impeachment proceeding begins — would be based on procedures used during the 1999 trial of President Clinton.

Those rules were approved by the Senate unanimously, a point McConnell repeatedly stressed. But importantly, the 1999 rules were the byproduct of bipartisan negotiations, while McConnell is now planning to move forward without any Democratic votes. Because the rules determine how the trial is conducted and what evidence is allowed, both sides view them as critical.

McConnell’s pledge all but guarantees a combative, partisan Senate trial to determine whether the impeached president should be removed from office.

When the trial begins is unclear. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has delayed handing the articles to the Senate in hopes of pressuring McConnell to make concessions on trial rules. McConnell has rebuffed the effort.

The rules McConnell is planning to adopt would allow the trial to begin with arguments from both House Democrats, acting as prosecutors, and Trump’s defense team. Senators would be allowed to ask written questions through Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who would come to the Capitol to oversee the trial.

After those opening statements and questions — a process expected to last two weeks — the Senate would vote on whether witnesses and documents are needed, or whether the trial would end.

Republicans appear to be uniformly backing McConnell’s plan. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) — one of the Republicans most likely to break from his party — said he wants to hear from Bolton, but expressed support Tuesday for McConnell’s plan to start the trial and decide on witnesses later.

Democrats have blasted that idea, arguing that it sets up an opportunity for Republicans to deliver a “mock trial” to the public while still delivering a victory for Trump. They say that instead of hearing from witnesses later, Republicans are setting up a scheme in which they’ll merely try to end the trial after hearing arguments from lawyers.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) promised that Democrats would be able to force votes on witnesses, arguing that public sentiment supports requiring the trial to include witnesses and documents that the White House has refused to hand over.

In particular, he wants to hear from Bolton — who said this week that he would testify before the Senate if he is subpoenaed — as well as acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

“We will not let them avoid the vote,” he said of Republicans. “They can delay it. They can’t avoid it.”

McConnell said that the Senate would “get around to the discussion of witnesses.”

“All we’re doing here is saying we’re going to get started in exactly the same way that 100 senators agreed to 20 years ago,” McConnell said.

So far it is unclear when Pelosi may hand over the articles, which she has held since the House voted to impeach the president in mid-December. The Senate can’t act on setting up the rules before she does so.

Pelosi indicated in a letter Tuesday night that she is not going to hand them over quickly. She said McConnell — who earlier said the language in his rules would be “similar” but not exactly the same as the Clinton rules — must release the exact text.

“It is important that he immediately publish this resolution, so that, as I have said before, we can see the arena in which we will be participating, appoint managers and transmit the articles to the Senate,” Pelosi said.

McConnell has not budged from his position in face of Pelosi’s delay. Democrats on Tuesday framed her move as successful because it highlighted what they see as the partisan process Republicans are pursuing in the Senate, and increased the political pressure on wavering Republicans.

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“I have a great faith in the decision she will make,” Schumer said.

But some Democrats began to signal Tuesday that perhaps the time has come to transmit the articles and get the Senate trial underway.

“It’s just a question of whether there’s any leverage to be had this week and next week by holding the articles,” said Sen. Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.). “I think the leverage exists once the voting begins. I’d rather get to that voting sooner rather than later.”

Rep. Duncan Hunter, the Republican from Alpine, Calif., who on Dec. 3 pleaded guilty to a felony involving campaign spending, said he will officially resign Monday.

He notified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Gov. Gavin Newsom in a letter Tuesday that he will resign Jan. 13, nearly six weeks after his guilty plea.

“It has been an honor to serve the people of California’s 50th District, and I greatly appreciate the trust they have put in me over these last 11 years,” Hunter wrote.

Hunter, who was elected to office in 2008, was indicted in August 2018 on 60 federal counts based on accusations that he and his wife and former campaign manager, Margaret Hunter, stole $250,000 of campaign funds, using it for family vacations, groceries, his extramarital affairs and other non-campaign uses, including airfare for a pet rabbit.

He recently reached a deal and pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to convert campaign funds to personal use, a federal felony for which he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison, although many consider it unlikely he’ll serve that long.

He is expected to be sentenced March 17.

Hunter’s resignation puts the ball in Newsom’s court for determining whether to call a special election to fill his vacant seat.

Because Hunter’s resignation will take effect after the filing deadline for the March primary ballot, which was early last month, Newsom has the option of leaving the seat vacant until after the November election.

Or the governor can call for a special election in addition to the primary. It may be difficult to call for a special election to be consolidated with the March 3 primary because mail ballots for both elections would be sent about the same time and could be confusing for voters.

Newsom also could call for a special election that would take place after the March primary.

As the congressional representative for the 50th District — which includes much of eastern San Diego County as well as the north county communities of Fallbrook, San Marcos, Valley Center and Escondido, and a small portion of Riverside County — Hunter leaves behind a divisive legacy.

For some supporters, the east county native, who enlisted with the Marine Corps shortly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, will be remembered for his public advocacy on military and veterans issues and as one of the earliest congressional backers ofDonald Trump’s 2016 presidential candidacy.

Like his father before him, Hunter served on the House Armed Services Committee for the entirety of his tenure and had a hand in setting the annual defense budget. His office also had a reputation for constituent services, especially related to assisting veterans with issues involving the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Hunter also was an outspoken advocate for military service members accused of war crimes, including Navy SEAL Chief Edward Gallagher, who was acquitted of the most serious war-crimes charges leveled against him in a San Diego court martial last summer but was convicted of posing with an ISIS fighter’s corpse.

Early on, Hunter sought to draw attention Gallagher’s situation, visiting him at the Miramar brig, bringing him food and blankets, and petitioning the president to intervene and release Gallagher from confinement. Ultimately, Trump intervened and restored Gallagher’s rank, overturning the verdict of the SEAL’s court-martial jury in November.

Hunter said in his resignation letter that he was most proud of “giving a voice to our men and women in uniform.”

“As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I brought attention to inefficient military programs and worked to make sure our war fighters had the resources they needed to carry out their mission,” he wrote in his letter. “I helped shine light on a broken military awards process that failed to recognize true heroism, and I fought for warriors like Clint Lorance, Eddie Gallagher and Matt Golsteyn that were treated unjustly by an abusive military justice system.”

Lorance was an Army officer convicted of the murder of two civilians in Afghanistan; Golsteyn was a Green Beret charged with murdering a civilian in Afghanistan. Both men were pardoned by President Trump.

For others, Hunter will be remembered for tarnishing his office and refusing to accept responsibility for the actions that led to criminal charges.

When questions first arose about Hunter’s irregular campaign spending practices in April of 2016, a spokesman for Hunter dismissed the issues as a mix-up, saying Hunter’s son accidentally took the wrong credit card from Hunter’s wallet to purchase a video game online. The spokesman also said that other non-campaign expenditures were a result of fraud by someone other than Hunter.

Hunter continued to deny intentional wrongdoing as questioning about campaign expenditures intensified. He said his campaign would conduct an audit but nothing would be repaid until then.

In August of 2018 federal prosecutors levied a sweeping indictment against Hunter and his wife, alleging they used more than $250,000 in political contributions to pay personal expenses, including private-school tuition for their children, international vacations, fast food, home repairs and even $600 in airfare for the family pet rabbit, Eggburt. Hunter said the indictment against him and his wife was a “witch hunt” and that federal prosecutors were out to get him because of his early support of Trump.

Prosecutors also accused the congressman of using campaign funds to pay for a series of extramarital affairs with five women, including three lobbyists and two congressional staffers. Among other things, he used political contributions to pay for cocktails, resort stays, Uber rides and lavish meals, according to prosecutors.

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Even when he ultimately pleaded guilty in December, Hunter did not fully own up to the wrongdoing.

“I failed to monitor and account for my campaign spending. I made mistakes, and that’s what today was all about,” Hunter told reporters outside the courthouse after his guilty plea. Then he refused to answer reporters’ questions, instead directing them to a TV interview the day before with a friendly TV station that allowed Hunter’s staff to write the questions for the “interview.”

Prosecutors said Hunter’s behavior amounted to more than simple mistakes.

“This is not a case about mismanagement or accounting errors or mistakes,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Emily Allen, adding: “While this crime may not involve allegations of cash bribes, make no mistake, it is corruption all the same.”

Hunter also drew national attention — and scorn — during the 2018 election cycle for spreading what were widely criticized as racist and Islamophobic ads and mailers accusing his opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, of being a terrorist.

Campa-Najjar said Tuesday that Hunter should have resigned weeks ago.

“What’s done is done, now it’s time for the constituents of CA-50 to pick up the pieces and move forward together,” he said in a statement. “As the leading candidate and a constituent of the district, I am committed to restoring real representation to the forgotten people of our district and giving this seat back to its rightful owner — the people of CA-50.”

The top Republican challengers for the 50th District also weighed in.

“I joined this race because I believe voters deserve a strong conservative voice in Congress who will stand up for our values, support President Trump’s agenda, and fight back against the radical left,” former Rep. Darrell Issa said in a statement. “Duncan Hunter did the right thing by resigning and I wish him and his family the best.”

Candidate Carl DeMaio, a former city councilman and radio host, also called for Hunter’s resignation after his guilty plea and asked the governor to call a special election.

“The people of the 50th Congressional District deserve their voice in Congress to be restored,” DeMaio said in a statement. “Leaving the 50th Congressional District vacant for a full year is wholly unacceptable, and I urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to call a special election as soon as possible.”

Clark writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Times staff writer Sarah D. Wire contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON  — 

President Trump’s order for the targeted killing of a top Iranian general and Iran’s quick retaliation have scrambled the 2020 campaign, thrusting issues of war and peace to the center of a contest that so far has been dominated by domestic issues.

Iran’s launch of more than a dozen ballistic missiles against a U.S. military base in Iraq on Tuesday night guarantees that the political fallout from the killing of Gen. Qassem Suleimani will not fade any time soon.

“What’s happening in Iraq and Iran today was predictable,” former Vice President Joe Biden said at an event in Philadelphia as news of the attack broke. “Not exactly what’s happening but the chaos that’s ensuing,” he said, faulting Trump for both his past action — abandoning an international nuclear deal with Iran in 2018 — and his more recent decision last week ordering Suleimani’s death by an armed drone in Baghdad.

“I just pray to God as he goes through what’s happening, as we speak, that he’s listening to his military commanders for the first time because so far that has not been the case.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, opening a rally in Brooklyn Tuesday night, said of the retaliatory attacks, “This is a reminder of why we need to deescalate tension in the Middle East. The American people do not want a war with Iran.”

In the days before Iran’s strikes, the rising international tensions had abruptly sharpened Democrats’ disagreements about the U.S. role in the world, personified by the sparring between two front-runners for their party’s nomination — Biden, who’s had a hand in decades of U.S. foreign policy, and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an anti-interventionist critic of those policies. Warren has echoed Sanders as she seeks to revive her flagging campaign.

The president’s strike order against Suleimani crystallized what Americans love or hate about Trump: It was the kind of impulsive show of force that fans embrace as tough-guy swagger, but critics fear as his dangerously erratic, even unhinged, behavior. “This brings together a lot of the critiques around Trump,” said Derek Chollet, a former Obama administration Pentagon official who is now executive vice president of the German Marshall Fund. “The weakening of our alliances, the haphazard process, the impulsive decision making, the almost fanatical desire to undo anything Barack Obama did, regardless of whether it is working or not.”

Trump’s decision, which surprised even his own military advisors, came just weeks before Democrats’ nominating contest begins with the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, highlighting the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the top candidates.

Biden immediately embraced the opportunity to emphasize the value of his foreign policy experience in a world roiled by Trump’s “America first” policies, touching on his years in the Senate, including as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and as President Obama’s trusted wing man. He did so in Iowa on Saturday, but Tuesday he gave a more formal speech in New York.

Against a backdrop designed to exude presidential leadership — royal-blue draperies and a row of American flags — Biden promised relief from Trump-era chaos. “I understand better than anyone that the system will not hold unless we find ways to work together,” he said. To Democratic critics who dismiss his faith in his ability to work with Republicans, Biden said, “That’s not a naive or outdated way of thinking. That’s the genius and timelessness of our democratic system.”

Sanders has seized on the crisis to remind voters that he, unlike Biden, voted against the Iraq war and has long warned of the risks of U.S. interventions abroad.

“I have consistently opposed this dangerous path to war with Iran,” Sanders said at a recent Iowa stop. “We need to firmly commit to ending the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, in an orderly manner, not through a tweet.”

That message energizes his antiwar base but may be less appealing to party voters more broadly. A November CNN poll found that 48% of Democratic voters thought Biden was best equipped to handle foreign policy; 14% said Sanders was.

Warren has similarly expressed anti-interventionist sentiment, but Sanders’ supporters initially complained she wasn’t pointed enough in condemning Trump. That underscored the challenges she faces as she tries to appeal to Sanders supporters on the left while also appealing to more moderate voters.

Warren “wants to show contrast and pass the commander-in-chief test at the same time,” said Heather Hurlburt, a former Clinton administration foreign policy official at New America, a think tank.

For Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and an Afghanistan war veteran, the Middle East tumult is a double-edged sword, spotlighting his status as the only top-tier candidate who has served in the military, but also his political inexperience.

Whether the issue will continue to grab candidates’ and voters’ attention will hinge on the unpredictable fallout in coming days and weeks. Trump’s response to the Iranian attacks will be fraught with political risks, especially to the extent he is seen as having provoked the hostilities. Typically in campaign seasons, most polls find that foreign policy is not a high priority for voters more preoccupied with economic issues, but when American lives are at risk, the stakes rise.

In most national elections since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, issues of war and peace have been powerful factors. In 2002, Republicans benefited from the post-9/11 political environment under President George W. Bush, whose approval rating was over 60%, and the president’s party gained congressional seats in a midterm election for only the second time since 1934.

In 2004, Democrats’ growing opposition to the Iraq war helped propel Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, a Vietnam War veteran, to the presidential nomination. “I’m reporting for duty,” he said at the convention. But Republicans savagely misrepresented his military record, helping Bush to eke out a reelection victory.

Four years later, opposition to the war also helped vault first-term Sen. Barack Obama first to the party’s nomination over Sen. Hillary Clinton, who voted in 2002 to authorize the war, and then to victory over the Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a hawkish supporter of the war.

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When Clinton ran again in 2016, her early support for the war again was attacked by her primary opponent, this time Sanders. During the general election campaign against her, Trump tapped into Americans’ rising weariness with what he called “endless wars” and promised to bring troops home and to reduce America’s military role in the world.

To date, Democrats’ 2020 campaign had focused mostly on domestic issues — healthcare, income inequality, gun control and climate change — and on Trump’s fitness for office. In the first debates, foreign policy was barely mentioned. Attention grew after Trump’s controversial decision to withdraw from Syria, and his dealings with Ukraine that led to his impeachment.

By their sixth debate in Los Angeles last month, the candidates spent 15 minutes of the two-hour debate on foreign policy topics, more than any other topic, according to a New York Times tally. After the Suleimani killing, foreign policy will surely feature in the next debate Jan. 14 in Iowa, where many voters remain undecided about whom to support in the Feb. 3 caucuses.

Lynn Lovell, 74, an undecided Democrat in Cedar Rapids, said recent developments have made foreign policy more important in his final decision. “I’m just real concerned about what will come after this,” said Lovell, a retiree and Navy veteran who served in Vietnam. “I’m really concerned about the position of commander in chief.”

Sanders has become increasingly personal and pointed in his criticism of Biden’s record, as part of a broader attack that challenges Biden’s claim to be the most electable Democrat. “Joe Biden helped lead the effort for the war in Iraq,” he said Monday, in a tweet that mentioned several issues. “That is not the kind of record that will bring forth the energy we need to defeat Trump.”

Yet Biden clearly sees the surge of voter anxiety over foreign affairs as bolstering his campaign. In his speech in New York, Biden called Trump “dangerously incompetent,” and said he sowed the seeds of turmoil by pulling the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iraq. “A president who says he wants to end ‘endless war’ in the Middle East is bringing us dangerously close to starting a new one,” he said.

At one of his biggest campaign events to date, a rally Saturday night in Des Moines, Biden spent much of his time recounting his foreign policy achievements. He had a few verbal stumbles, including speaking of former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein when he meant Osama bin Laden. And he strained to recast some of his past positions — support for authorizing the invasion of Iraq, advising Obama against the mission that killed Bin Laden — as misunderstood triumphs.

As Biden took questions, one voter was skeptical, citing his Iraq vote in the Senate. Biden argued that he merely intended to give Bush a tool to get weapons inspectors into the country, not to invade it, and that he quickly grew disillusioned with the administration’s military campaign.

Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — 

Iran launched 15 ballistic missiles at two military bases used by U.S. forces in Iraq, the Pentagon said Tuesday night, as long-simmering tensions between Washington and Tehran erupted into fiery explosions and fears of all-out war after the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general.

Eleven missiles hit the bases in western and northern Iraq and four failed in flight, according to a U.S. Defense official, who said there were no confirmed reports of American casualties in the audacious predawn attack.

There was no immediate U.S. military response or statement from President Trump after the barrage, although he tweeted that he would address the nation on Wednesday. Aides said he had been briefed and was monitoring the crisis with his national security advisors.

The U.S. has many options for retaliation if Trump chooses to escalate the conflict further. But in the immediate aftermath of the missile strikes, both Tehran and Washington appeared to signal a possible pause in the cycle of attack and retaliation in which they have been locked for the last several weeks.

“All is well!” Trump wrote in a Twitter message a few hours after the attack. “Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good! We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far! I will be making a statement tomorrow morning.”

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, sent his own tweet suggesting the missile strikes could be the beginning and end of Iran’s retaliation for the U.S. drone attack that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Suleimani on Friday in Baghdad, an event that infuriated Iran and sparked fresh turmoil in the volatile region.

“Iran took & concluded proportionate measures in self-defense under Article 51 of UN Charter targeting [the] base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens & senior officials were launched,” he said, referring to the sprawling Asad Air Base in western Iraq, which is a major base for U.S. drone attacks.

“We do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression,” he wrote.

Whether Zarif fully speaks for all factions of Iran’s government, however, is unclear. He has frequently been denounced by figures allied with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Trump’s advisors also have offered divided counsel over Iran. At least some administration hard-liners have openly rooted for a wider confrontation, seeing that as an opportunity to severely damage, or perhaps overthrow, Iran’s theocratic government, and at least one informal advisor called Tuesday night for Trump to hit Iran hard.

“If we don’t react, we’re incentivizing more” Iranian misconduct, Sean Hannity, one of Trump’s favorite TV commentators, said on his Fox TV program Tuesday night.

Despite his often bellicose language, however, Trump has repeatedly said his administration does “not seek regime change” in Iran. In June, when Iran shot down a U.S. drone, Trump stopped a planned retaliatory strike, noting that no Americans had been killed.

The Iranian missile strikes apparently mark the first time Tehran has directly attacked U.S. positions and openly acknowledged doing so. U.S. officials have frequently accused Iran of being behind attacks on American forces in Iraq, but those assaults generally involved Iranian-backed militias, not Iranian security forces.

Ten missiles hit the Asad Air Base in western Iraq’s Anbar province, which is used by U.S. and Iraqi troops. U.S. radar tracked the missiles in flight and as a result, personnel at the base had time to take cover before they struck, according to the defense official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. The U.S. made no effort to intercept the missiles, the official said.

One missile hit the Combined Joint Operations Center in Irbil, in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, where U.S. forces train Iraqi Kurdish fighters and run an air operations control center covering northern Iraq and parts of Syria.

The official said that U.S. Central Command was aware of reports of Iraqi casualties in Irbil but that they were unconfirmed.

Both bases were on high alert as U.S. and coalition forces braced for Tehran’s reprisals for the U.S. airstrike that killed Suleiman, the charismatic general who led Iran’s efforts to expand its influence across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen with militant proxy forces.

Iranian state television called the missiles “harsh Iranian revenge” for Suleimani’s death and warned that if the United States launched a military retaliation, Tehran would escalate as well and the two longtime adversaries would face a wider war.

Iran announced the attack on state-run television, which showed video of what it said were “tens” of missile launches aimed at the bases. Roughly an hour later, state-run TV showed video of what it called a “second wave” of missiles being launched.

The first missiles were launched at 1:20 a.m. Wednesday, the Iranian broadcast said, noting that was the precise time that Suleimani “was martyred by the Americans” as he left Baghdad’s airport.

Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman subsequently confirmed the attacks. “It is clear that these missiles were launched from Iran,” he said.

“As we evaluate the situation and our response, we will take all necessary measures to protect and defend U.S. personnel, partners and allies in the region,” he added.

At least some U.S. analysts said that if Iran did not launch a follow-up attack, it might not generate a military response from the Trump administration.

“If there are no U.S. casualties, and this is the extent of Iranian retaliation, then the U.S. does not need to escalate,” said Faysal Itani, deputy director of the Center for Global Policy, a Washington think tank that specializes in Muslim politics.

Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation in Defense of Democracies, a Washington group that has advocated a hard line against Iran, tweeted Tuesday night asking if it was “plausible that this could be the extent” of Iran’s retaliation for Suleimani’s death.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “said he would attack [the] military directly. He seems to have done that,” Dubowitz wrote. If there are “no US casualties, is the smart play not to respond and wait to see what else they do?”

A representative of Khamenei tweeted the image of the Iranian flag after the missiles were launched. It echoed Trump’s tweet of the U.S. flag when Suleimani was killed.

James Carafano, a foreign policy expert at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said Americans still have an overwhelming military advantage, one that could dissuade the Iranians from trying to draw the U.S. into an even deeper conflict.

“The problem with escalating is, where does that go?” he asked.

If the U.S. unleashes its own missiles, possible targets could include the Iranian bases that launched the missiles, and military command-and-control facilities.

In addition to fighters and bombers at bases in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. aircraft carrier, the Truman, is deployed in the Arabian Gulf with two destroyers that are capable of firing Tomahawk missiles. The Air Force also has bomber planes based in the United States that could be used.

By any standard, the Iranian attack is a major escalation of a struggle between Iran and the U.S. that was conducted for years in the shadows, or via proxy forces, but that quickly spiraled out of control after Trump authorized the killing of Suleimani, one of Iran’s most powerful military commanders.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and CIA Director Gina Haspel are scheduled to brief members of Congress behind closed doors Wednesday about the Suleimani killing, but they undoubtedly will be asked about Iran’s missile attack.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee called a hearing on Iran for Jan. 14 and asked Pompeo to testify.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) was notified of the missile strikes in a note handed to her during a meeting of House Democratic leaders, according to Democrats in the room.

“She told us it had happened and [added:] ‘We’re all praying,’” said Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who was in the meeting.

The attack overshadowed, at least for the moment, Trump’s pending impeachment trial in the Senate. It also added a new challenge for Democrats battling for attention and votes in the presidential primaries that start next month.

“What’s happening in Iraq and Iran today was predictable,” former Vice President Joe Biden said at a campaign event in Philadelphia when news of the attack broke. “Not exactly what’s happening but the chaos that’s ensuing,” he said, faulting Trump for withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and for the drone strike that killed Suleimani.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a frequent critic of U.S. military intervention, voiced concerns that the violence was spiraling.

“I am praying for the safety of our troops in Iraq tonight,” he tweeted. “We need to stop the escalation before it leads to another endless war in the Middle East.”

Earlier, Trump shifted his justification for authorizing the killing of Suleimani as the top U.S. national security official belatedly provided classified briefings to congressional leaders about the administration’s claim that the Iranian had been planning an imminent attack on Americans.

Trump and his aides previously insisted that Friday’s deadly drone strike was intended to stop the Quds Force commander from killing “hundreds” of Americans.

But his death in Baghdad instead saw Iranian leaders vow to “set ablaze” scores of Western targets, prompted ally Iraq’s threat to expel U.S. military forces and pushed the Pentagon to beef up American troops and bolster defenses in the region.

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With tensions rising, and unable to convincingly argue that Americans were safer, Trump and his aides instead pointed to Suleimani’s role supplying insurgents who killed hundreds of U.S. troops during the Iraq war.

“It was retaliation,” Trump said Tuesday.

The change in emphasis fueled growing concerns about the administration’s still-murky strategy for dealing with Iran. It also underscored the unique challenge for a president who has uttered thousands of falsehoods since taking office as he and his aides sought to reassure Americans they can navigate a major foreign policy crisis, largely of their own making, before it spirals into all-out war.

“I don’t think any American president can simply say to the world, ‘Trust me,’” said Richard Haass, president of the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations. “Trump has the added problem of his own record with the truth.”

“If you’re trying to justify something that could ultimately take you to war, you better damn well do that as quickly and directly as you can,” said Leon E. Panetta, who served as secretary of Defense and CIA director under President Obama. “The last thing that you need is to have an American public that questions why the hell we’re going to war.”

For the second day in a row, senior U.S. officials were forced to walk back Trump’s threats to bomb Iranian cultural sites, a potential war crime, if Iran launches retaliatory attacks. As criticism poured in, Trump appeared to back down, saying for the first time that he would not deliberately target Iran’s antiquities.

“If that’s what the law is, I like to obey the law,” he said.

In Baghdad, Iraq’s government demanded clarification over whether the approximately 5,200 U.S. troops in Iraq were making plans to pull out after receiving a letter — twice — from a U.S. commander that the Pentagon said was sent in error.

Iraqi officials said the letter was delivered around 8 p.m., but the Arabic translation did not match the English-language version. Iraqi officials pointed out the discrepancy and later received a correct translation via official channels.

“It wasn’t a matter of a paper falling from a photocopier or something that came by accident,” Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said in a speech Tuesday, adding that the Pentagon’s subsequent claims that the letter was a draft had bewildered the Iraqis.

“OK, this is a draft,” he said. “But we got it. So how should we behave?”

Abdul Mahdi urged Trump to withdraw U.S. troops, but Defense Secretary Mark Esper — holding his second news conference in two days — repeated his assertion that no pullout was underway or had been ordered.

“A draft, unsigned letter does not constitute a policy change,” Esper said. “And there is no signed letter, to the best of my knowledge. I’ve asked the question.”

Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, provided classified briefings Tuesday to the leaders of the House and Senate, and the chairs and ranking members of the Intelligence committees on the evidence available before last week’s drone strike. Normally the so-called Gang of Eight is informed before such a sensitive military operation takes place.

At the State Department, Pompeo told reporters that Suleimani had posed an “imminent threat” to Americans. But he declined to provide evidence of the threat, instead blaming the veteran commander for a “terror campaign” as he oversaw Iranian military and proxy-force operations across the Middle East.

He dismissed Iraq’s claim that Suleimani had flown into Baghdad for talks aimed at easing tensions with Saudi Arabia, its chief regional rival, as part of an initiative to ease tensions. “Anyone here believe that?” Pompeo said.

Cloud, Bierman and Megerian reported from Washington and Parvini from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Jennifer Haberkorn and Tracy Wilkinson in Washington and Nabih Bulos in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Rasmus Kupari went to the World Junior Championship last month in a groove. After a slow start to his first full season in North America, the Kings prospect had found his footing with the Ontario Reign, the Kings’ minor-league affiliate in the American Hockey League. As he went off to join Team Finland, the Kings brass was eagerly anticipating his second half of the season.

They’ll have to wait until at least the summer to see him on the ice again. The team announced Tuesday that Kupari will undergo surgery for a torn ACL in his left knee, bringing his season to an end.

Kupari, a first-round pick in 2018, got hurt in Finland’s first game of the World Junior Championship, the sport’s premier annual under-20 national team tournament. During that Dec. 26 game against Sweden, Kupari collided with a player in the neutral zone and fell awkwardly to the ice. He did not return to the game and days later flew back to Los Angeles for an MRI.

Kupari’s season will end after only 27 games in the AHL. He collected six goals, eight points and a minus-eight rating. After some early struggles adapting to the bigger ice sheet and more physical style of play in North America — aside from offseason development camps, Kupari previously spent his entire junior career in Finland — the 6-foot-1, 185-pound center had been impressing Kings evaluators before getting hurt.

“He’s younger, he’s a 19-year-old, he could still be playing junior hockey — and he’s playing a regular role in the American Hockey League,” director of player personnel Nelson Emerson said last month. “His speed, when you see him, it’s like, ‘Whoa.’ The way he can get wide and get around the ice is phenomenal.”

One of the final cuts during the Kings’ preseason camp, Kupari joined Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Gabe Vilardi as the three young centers of the future playing with the Reign. Though Kupari’s production came in spurts, Emerson was impressed with the fiery competitiveness he saw from the otherwise soft-spoken speedster.

“When he takes a hit, he takes a little glance over to the guy who did it,” Emerson said. “Sometimes, within the shift, before it’s over, that guy is getting something — a whack or a hack. Kupari’s going right back at him. He doesn’t take anything. We like to see that.”

Emerson also praised Kupari’s defensive zone play, especially given his age. He called Kupari’s first 2½ months with the Reign a period of “excellent development” and expected him to play a key role in the team’s push for an AHL playoff spot. A first career NHL call-up didn’t appear out of the question either.

Now, all of that is on pause until at least next season.

Junior point guard Noah Veluzat’s scoring and passing propelled Valencia to a 62-59 victory over Saugus on Tuesday night in an entertaining Foothill League opener at Valencia.

Veluzat finished with 24 points to help Valencia (12-4), which had a hard time putting away the Centurions (12-6). Valencia held a lead as large as 11 points in the second half, but Saugus found itself in position to tie the score. The Centurions had the ball with 9.7 seconds left. Valencia, however, did not let the Centurions get a good look at the basket, and the game ended with a steal.

Nate Perez finished with 19 points for Saugus and Adrian McIntrye had 14. Veluzat was given room to maneuver because Saugus was focused on stopping leading scorer Jake Hlywiak, who started the game one-for-eight shooting and finished with 10 points. Junior Camacho connected on a key three for Valencia in the final minute and finished with 12 points.

“It was no surprise they were able to stay close,” Veluzat said of Saugus, whose players wore “Saugus Strong” T-shirts in warmups.

Both schools’ student sections were loud and enthusiastic in an intense neighborhood matchup.

“Great atmosphere,” Veluzat said.

Hart defeated Golden Valley 69-46. Ty Penberthy had 18 points.

Brentwood defeated Milken 83-37. Christian Moore scored 18 points and Charlie Ciaffa 15.

Renaissance defeated Price 62-54. Koat Keat had 17 points for Renaissance (14-4).

Etiwanda began the Baseline League with a 74-38 win over Los Osos. Jaylen Clark scored 14 points,. Damien defeated Upland 73-67. Malik Thomas scored 37 points.

Troy Murphy Jr. scored 16 points in Rolling Hills Prep’s 68-33 win over South Gate.

Windward opened Gold Coast League play with a 62-42 win over Crossroads. UNLV-bound Devin Tillis scored 16 points and Dylan Andrews 14.

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Gardena defeated Viewpoint 64-59. Giovanni Goree had 23 points for Viewpoint.

Westlake opened league play with a 61-47 win over Newbury Park. Jacob Davis had 15 points and Kyle MacLean and JT Thompson 14 points apiece.

In girls’ basketball, Rosary upset Santa Ana Mater Dei 65-55. Mater Dei had won 90 consecutive league games.

Zach Werenski scored two goals and the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night.

The win pushed Columbus’ road point streak to nine games (6-0-3). Eric Robinson and Nathan Gerbe also scored, Pierre-Luc Dubois had three assists and Elvis Merzlikins stopped 37 shots.

Werenski leads the team with 15 goals and has a point in three straight games (four goals, one assist).

Nathan Gerbe and Werenski scored 72 seconds apart during the second period to put Columbus ahead.

Gerbe tied it at 2 with 1:23 remaining in the second. The center picked up his third goal in eight games when he tapped in the puck after a rush to the net. Anaheim challenged that Gerbe was offside but the goal was upheld in the NHL replay room.

Columbus went on the power play after the failed challenge and converted when Werenski took Dubois’ pass and fired a one-timer from point-blank range past goalie Ryan Miller with 10 seconds left in the period.

Werenski added an empty-net goal with 1:33 to play before Ondrej Kase made it 4-3 with 43 seconds remaining — his second goal of the game. Kase snapped a 17-game goal drought.

Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and an assist for the Ducks, and Miller made 23 saves.

Getzlaf opened the scoring at 3:06 of the first period with his 11th goal of the season when he redirected Michael Del Zotto’s shot from the blue line through Merzlikins’ legs.

Robinson tied it eight minutes later when he took Riley Nash’s pass, skated into the left circle and fired a wrist shot past Miller’s stick. It was the left wing’s fifth goal of the season and first in 11 games.

Kase put the Ducks back on top 24 seconds into the second when he stole the puck from Dubois deep in the Columbus zone and snapped a shot over Merzlikins’ blocker.

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Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

LAKERS

Every person sitting on the Lakers bench rose out of it and gathered around Anthony Davis. Players and coaches wore concerned expressions as trainers worked on Davis who clutched his lower back.

It was late in the third quarter and he’d taken a fall after being called for a foul. Even after the horn signaling the end of the timeout rang, the crowd remained affixed to its spot under the basket.

“Fingers crossed,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said of what went through his mind in those moments. “Hope for the best, pray for the best. Hopefully he gets up and it’s not too bad.”

Eventually, Davis rose with the help of LeBron James. He walked gingerly to the locker room. Davis later had x-rays that were negative, but he was sore due to a sacral contusion, which is a bruise to the bone right above one’s tailbone. He will have an MRI today.

It was a tense moment during a game that went smoothly for the Lakers otherwise as they defeated the New York Knicks, 117-87, never trailing after the first quarter.

James scored 31 points, making 9-of-19 shots including 6-of-12 threes. It was just the eighth game in his career that James has attempted at least 12 threes, and four of those games have come against the Knicks.

Avery Bradley , Danny Green, Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope joined him in scoring in double digits. Davis only scored five points, but had six rebounds, five assists, three steals and three blocks.

—

The Lakers offered Davis the maximum contract they could earlier Tuesday, a four-year deal worth $146 million — a formality on the first day they could do it. Davis declined the offer, as expected. The Lakers can offer him a five-year deal worth more than $200 million in July after he officially becomes a free agent.

The 26-year-old superstar’s agent, Rich Paul, has been clear for months that Davis’ plan is to officially enter the market, though he is widely expected to re-sign with the Lakers.

The Lakers also are preparing for the trade deadline, which is Feb. 6 at noon PST, and monitoring the buyout market.

Read more Lakers:

LZ Granderson: Instead of trading Kyle Kuzma, here’s what the Lakers need to do

DODGERS

Dylan Hernandez on the Dodgers, cheating and baseball: Two months after the Athletic detailed how the Houston Astros used electronic devices to steal signs in 2017, the online publication reported Tuesday that Boston Red Sox players used monitors in their video replay room to decipher opponents’ signs the next season.

The Dodgers were defeated in the World Series by the Astros in 2017 and by the Red Sox in 2018.

So maybe Clayton Kershaw, Yu Darvish and the team’s other pitchers didn’t choke in the franchise’s most important games over the last 30 years. Or maybe they did.

Who knows?

That’s the only real takeaway from this mess, how those of us on the periphery of the sport can only guess at what’s actually unfolding on the field before our eyes.

The dark secrets of the baseball trade that are public knowledge become so almost by accident.

Read the whole column by clicking here.

RAMS

The Rams coaching staff continued to churn Tuesday when longtime special teams coordinator John Fassel agreed to join new coach Mike McCarthy’s Dallas Cowboys staff, people with knowledge of the situation said.

Fassel, 45, is the third coach to leave or be let go by the Rams since the end of a 9-7 season. He had been a Rams coach since 2012. In the aftermath of Jeff Fisher’s firing during the 2016 season, Fassel served as interim coach for three games, all losses.

Fassel, who also has coached for the Baltimore Ravens and Oakland Raiders, is regarded as one of the NFL’s top special teams coordinators. He oversaw a unit that has featured kicker Greg Zuerlein, punter Johnny Hekker and long-snapper Jake McQuaide during Fassel’s entire tenure.

NFL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

Divisional Round

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Saturday

Minnesota at San Francisco, 1:30 p.m., NBC

Tennessee at Baltimore, 5:15 p.m., CBS

Sunday

Houston at Kansas City, Noon, CBS

Seattle at Green Bay, 3:30 p.m., FOX

Conference Championship

Sunday, Jan. 19

TBD at TBD, Noon, CBS

TBD at TBD, 3:30 p.m., FOX

Super Bowl

Sunday Feb. 2

TBD vs. TBD, 3:30 p.m., FOX

DUCKS

Zach Werenski scored two goals and the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Ducks.

The win pushed Columbus’ road point streak to nine games (6-0-3). Eric Robinson and Nathan Gerbe also scored, Pierre-Luc Dubois had three assists and Elvis Merzlikins stopped 37 shots.

Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and an assist for the Ducks, and Ryan Miller made 23 saves.

Getzlaf opened the scoring at 3:06 of the first period with his 11th goal of the season when he redirected Michael Del Zotto’s shot from the blue line through Merzlikins’ legs.

The Ducks took a 2-1 lead when Ondrej Kase ended a 17-game goal-scoring drought to put the Ducks back on top 24 seconds into the second period when he stole the puck from Dubois deep in the Columbus zone and snapped a shot over Merzlikins’ blocker.

KINGS

The team announced Tuesday that prospect Rasmus Kupari will undergo surgery for a torn ACL in his left knee, bringing his season to an end.

Kupari, a first-round pick in 2018, got hurt in Finland’s first game of the World Junior Championship, the sport’s premier annual under-20 national team tournament. During that Dec. 26 game against Sweden, Kupari collided with a player in the neutral zone and fell awkwardly to the ice. He did not return to the game and days later flew back to Los Angeles for an MRI.

Kupari’s season will end after only 27 games in the AHL. He collected six goals, eight points and a minus-eight rating. After some early struggles adapting to the bigger ice sheet and more physical style of play in North America, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound center had been impressing Kings evaluators before getting hurt.

DAKAR RALLY

Overcoming rough terrain and a flat tire, Southern California off-road racer Casey Currie took the lead Tuesday in his classification at the famed Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia.

The 12-stage race ranks among the toughest in all of motor sports, with motorcycles, cars and trucks navigating wilderness terrain in harsh conditions.

Tuesday’s third segment began at sea level and climbed to about 5,000 feet before descending in a long loop. Currie and co-driver Sean Berriman, piloting a high-tech dune buggy in the side-by-side class, finished with a slim lead over teams from Chile and Spain.

UCLA SPORTS

For scores of UCLA fans, the recent Bruins’ football and men’s basketball teams have provided must-flee TV. It’s an abyss of failure that goes beyond a lack of Rose Bowls and Final Fours, the football team producing four consecutive losing seasons for the first time since the 1920s and the basketball team inspiring its brand of March Madness by continually being irrelevant during the sport’s biggest month.

“I would say this is an all-time low,” said Sal Malad, a student during the high of the 1995 national basketball championship. “For me, as a fan, watching the two sports together, in the modern history of UCLA football and basketball, I can’t recall a worse time.”

A generation of UCLA fans has grown up watching its teams miss out on New Year’s Day bowl games. Your birthday must be on or before Jan. 1, 1999, to have been alive during the Bruins’ last appearance in a Rose Bowl. Some teenagers can barely recall the Bruins playing in the 2008 Final Four, their most recent appearance on college basketball’s biggest stage.

Fans have dispersed accordingly, the football team averaging a record-low 43,849 spectators last season at the Rose Bowl and the basketball team averaging only 5,603 at Pauley Pavilion through its final nonconference game, a loss to Cal State Fullerton.

“Everybody knows we’re never going to have the John Wooden days again,” said Jim Bendat, a Bruins fan since 1959, well before the first of Wooden’s 10 national titles, “but you still want to field a competitive team that won’t lose at home to Belmont and Liberty and Hofstra. That should not be happening.”

Read more UCLA

Devin Mallory is doing what he loves as first male on UCLA’s dance team

TODAY’S LOCAL MAJOR SPORTS SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

Dallas at Kings, 7 p.m., NBCSN

BORN ON THIS DATE

1934: Cyclist Jacques Anquetil (d. 1987)

1953: Baseball player Bruce Sutter

1957: Football player Dwight Clark (d. 2018)

1967: Basketball player Willie Anderson

1971: Football player Billy Joe Hobert

1971: Baseball player Jason Giambi

1972: Golfer Brandie Burton

DIED ON THIS DATE

1961: Baseball player Schoolboy Rowe, 50

1994: Baseball player Harvey Haddix, 68

1995: Boxer Carlos Monzon, 52

2016: Race car driver Maria Teresa de Filippis, 89

AND FINALLY

Joe Montana to Dwight Clark, “The Catch.” Watch it here.

That concludes the newsletter for today. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, please email me at [email protected]. If you want to subscribe, click here