Good Friday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today.

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• President Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing an American surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching them on Thursday night. It was not clear whether the administration altered course because of strategy, or whether the president simply changed his mind.

• Mr. Trump’s tenure as commander in chief came to a dramatic turning point on Thursday night as he found himself torn between his own competing advisers and his own competing instincts, teetering on the edge of the kind of military action he came to office vowing not to take.

• The Senate voted to block the sale of billions of dollars of munitions to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in a sharp and bipartisan rebuke of the Trump administration’s attempt to circumvent Congress to allow the exports by declaring an emergency over Iran.