Tracy Mumford

It turned out to be a party balloon.

Even before this incident, the ramped-up use of anti-drone technology, like the Pentagon's laser, has raised safety concerns.

In recent years, the military has developed a range of defensive systems, including microwave zappers and rocket-launched counter drones.

But most of those are intended for war zones.

One drone expert told The Times that using those kinds of deterrents domestically, where there are thousands of passenger planes flying around, raises the risk of collateral damage.

Now, three quick updates from Washington.

On Capitol Hill yesterday, Attorney General Pam Bondi faced off with lawmakers in a bitter back and forth as they grilled her about the Department of Justice's handling of the Epstein investigation.

Answer my question.

The hearing with the House Judiciary Committee quickly turned combative as Democrats and at least one Republican on the panel questioned why the department didn't redact the names of some of Epstein's victims from the files it released.

In one particularly tense exchange, Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington tried to get Bondi to apologize to a group of victims who were in the hearing room.

Bondi refused to apologize and defended her record, saying that as a prosecutor, she spent her, quote, entire career fighting for victims.

Also in the House yesterday, lawmakers voted to rescind the tariffs President Trump imposed on Canada last year.

It's a largely symbolic move because Trump can just veto it.

But it's notable that six Republicans joined with Democrats to push back on the president.

GOP leaders had been trying to avoid this kind of vote, in part because they didn't want Republicans to have to go on the record as supporting tariffs, which could be a divisive topic in the midterm elections.

They even went as far as manipulating what counts as a day in Congress to drag out a deadline on the topic.

The question of whether Trump's sweeping tariffs will stand is also playing out in the Supreme Court.

The justices are expected to rule soon on whether he had the authority to put them in place to begin with.

And new data from the Labor Department shows that the job market is off to a stronger-than-expected start this year after a very bumpy 2025.

The January jobs report shows employers added 130,000 jobs.