Monday Briefing: U.S. Service Members Killed in Jordan

Drone strike kills three U.S. service members in Jordan

Three U.S. service members were killed in Jordan yesterday and 25 others were injured in what the U.S. said was a drone strike from an Iran-backed militia. The deaths were the first U.S. military fatalities from hostile fire in the turmoil spilling over from Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

The attack happened at a base near the Syrian border. Few details were immediately available, but the deaths of U.S. service members will almost certainly put more pressure on President Biden to respond more forcefully as turmoil grows in the Middle East after the Oct. 7 attacks.

“While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq,” Biden said in a statement.

In Iraq: This month, at least four U.S. service members were injured when their base came under fire from what the U.S. said were Iran-backed militias.

Near Yemen: Last Sunday, the U.S. declared two Navy SEALs dead after they disappeared during an operation at sea to intercept weapons from Iran headed to Houthi fighters. They were the first known U.S. fatalities in Washington’s campaign against the Iran-backed militia, which has fired on commercial ships off Yemen since November.

A temporary cease-fire? Negotiators are closing in on a deal in which Israel would pause fighting in Gaza for about two months if Hamas released more than 100 hostages.

UNRWA imperiled after terrorism accusations against employees

The U.S. and several other countries have said they will suspend some funding for UNRWA, the U.N. agency that aids Palestinian refugees, after a dozen of its employees were accused by Israel of participating in the Oct. 7 attacks.

Yesterday, António Guterres, the secretary general of the U.N., implored the major donor countries to continue their support. He said that, without it, UNRWA would run out of money next month. Fears of famine are growing in the enclave, and two million Gazans depend on UNRWA for food, water and essential services.

Israel and the U.N. shared detailed, specific intelligence with the U.S. last week. Neither Israel nor the U.N. have gone public with the details, but a top U.N. official called the accusations “extremely serious and horrific.” U.S. officials said that the aid agency’s decision to fire the individuals was proof that Israel’s information was compelling.

Details: UNRWA fired nine of the 12 workers who Israel said were involved in the attack, Guterres said. One had died and the identities of two were being “clarified,” he said.

An antiwar candidate rises in Russia

Boris Nadezhdin is running to be Russia’s president on an antiwar platform. His supporters are fighting to get him on the ballot to oppose President Vladimir Putin in the presidential election in March, a rare public communion that has injected energy into the Russian opposition movement.

Election officials may bar Nadezhdin from the ballot, and even if he is allowed to run he will not win. But his supporters are still lining up in the bitter cold to try to get enough signatures by a Jan. 31 deadline. They see backing him as the only legal way left to demonstrate their opposition to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

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The Australian Open

My colleagues interviewed five young people trying to get jobs in China, where competition is immense and opportunities are scarce. The job seekers had hired interview coaches, exhausted their savings, sent off dozens of applications and worked interim job after interim job.

“Maybe I’m not good enough at toughing things out,” one young person said.

Luxe Korean postpartum care

South Korea has the world’s lowest birthrate. But it also has some of the best postpartum care.

At a joriwon — a hotel-like accommodation — new mothers spend weeks recovering. Fresh meals are delivered three times a day, and there are facials, massages and child-care classes. Nurses watch the babies, and new mothers breastfeed in a communal nursing room.

It’s a relatively new industry; one of the top joriwons in Seoul opened in 2008. But now eight out of 10 South Korean mothers go to a joriwon, and mothers send in booking requests almost as soon as they know they’re pregnant.

The stays can cost from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars, but it’s just a blip in the overall expense of raising a child in South Korea, which may help explain the declining birthrate.