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  MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Hello.  Good afternoon.  Okay.  As I’m sure you all have seen, there has been a few important foreign policy announcements over the last couple of days.  And so, we were unable to have a full briefing yesterday, and I wanted to make sure you all had an opportunity to ask some questions on all of our foreign policy news.  So, today, we’re happy to have here, join me at the podium, Mr. John Kirby — Admiral Kirby.  he likes to call me “Ma’am,” so I call him “Kirby.”  I’m sure he’ll call you guys “sir” and “ma’ams” as well.   He is the — as you all know, the National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications.  Not only does he have an extensive military background, but he also has experience at the State Department. And he is happy to take a few questions.  Kirby, I’m going to leave you to it.  MR. KIRBY:  Thank you.  Hey, everybody.  Q    Good to see you. MR. KIRBY:  Pardon me? Q    Good to see you. MR. KIRBY:  Yeah, you too.  (Laughs.) Listen, just

  MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Good afternoon, everybody.  Hello.  I know that was a long two minutes.  I apologize. Okay, let’s get started.  So, before we start the briefing, I want to take a moment to recognize the lives lost and forever changed in Buffalo. Former Buffalo Police Lieutenant Aaron Salter, 55, is a hero — a security guard who engaged the suspect to save lives and was killed in the process. Ruth Whitfield, 86, was mother of Buffalo’s Retired Fire Commissioner Garnell W. Whitfield.  Ruth was the rock of the family, devoting her life to taking care of her four children and husband.  Ruth was visiting the former commissioner’s father in a nursing home, as she did each day, and she stopped at the supermarket to buy some groceries. Katherine Massey, 72, was a well-known community figure who wrote for her local newspapers, assisted in elections, and dressed up in costume as “Mr. Broccoli” to teach local school children to eat — to “eat right.” Pearl Young, 77, was a substitute teacher a