The House of Representatives has rejected another effort to rein in President Trump’s ability to wage war against Iran. On Thursday, House members failed to advance an Iran war powers resolution on a tied vote of 212 to 212, after Democrat Jared Golden of Maine joined most Republicans in opposition. It was the third failed attempt by House Democrats to end Trump’s attacks on Iran. This comes as NBC News reports the Pentagon is considering renaming “Operation Epic Fury” to “Operation Sledgehammer” in a bid to circumvent a 60-day limit under the War Powers Act for the president to order military strikes without congressional approval. 

On Thursday, the head of U.S. Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he dismissed reports of civilian deaths from U.S. attacks on Iran. This is Cooper being questioned by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

Adm. Brad Cooper: “The subject of civilian casualties is a particular passion of mine. We pay attention to it. We follow all the procedures and have gone above and beyond to, in my case, personally warn the Iranian people of several instances during conflict where they were being potentially used as human targets.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: “If they’ve been warned, how did we then bomb 22 schools?”

Adm. Brad Cooper: “There is no indication that we have, that has been corroborated. Zero. There’s” — 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: “Then how many schools did we bomb?”

Adm. Brad Cooper: “There is one active civilian casualty investigation from the 13,629 munitions.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: “So, how do you explain the publicly available information that 22 schools have been hit and multiple hospitals?”

Adm. Brad Cooper: “There’s no way that we can corroborate that, no indication of that whatsoever, Senator.”

Foreign ministers from the BRICS group of nations have gathered in India’s capital New Delhi, with the issues of Iran and the Strait of Hormuz high on the agenda. On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed the summit, appealing to BRICS countries to help resist U.S. and Israeli attacks.

Abbas Araghchi: “To virtually everyone in this room, our resistance against U.S. bullying is not an unfamiliar battle. So many of us encounter slight variations of the same repugnant coercion. It is high time for us to jointly step up and work towards making clear that those practices belong in the dustbin of history. Today, our nations are closer to one another than ever before, and we cannot ignore the common and dangerous challenge we all face.”

President Trump has departed China after a two-day state visit to Beijing, where he met with President Xi Jinping. Their meeting failed to secure a breakthrough in efforts to forge a U.S. peace deal with Iran or to reopen traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. On the flight back from China, President Trump told reporters he has not yet decided on whether he will move forward with a new $14 billion arms package for Taiwan. During their talks, President Xi warned Trump that differences over Taiwan could lead to conflict between China and the U.S. 

CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana on Thursday to meet with Cuban officials as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on the island. Ratcliffe’s trip came a day after Cuba announced it had run out of diesel and fuel oil due to the U.S. blockade and sanctions. For decades, the CIA has carried out covert operations inside Cuba, from orchestrating the Bay of Pigs invasion to repeatedly attempting to assassinate the late leader Fidel Castro. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is reportedly taking steps to indict Castro’s 94-year-old brother Raúl, who served as Cuban president from 2008 to 2018. In related news, more than 30 House Democrats have signed a letter urging the Trump administration not to take military action on Cuba and to lift the blockade. 

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports an Israeli “double-tap” strike on a car earlier today killed two men and damaged three ambulances. It followed an overnight bombing by Israel that killed four people in a house in the town of Harouf. UNICEF reports at least 59 children in Lebanon have been killed or wounded by Israeli strikes over the past week, despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that was supposed to have taken effect in April. The latest attacks came as Lebanese and Israeli officials in Washington began a third round of U.S.-brokered direct talks on Thursday; Hezbollah is not participating.

In Jerusalem, Israeli nationalists chanted “Death to Arabs” and “May your villages burn” on Thursday as they joined a state-sponsored march near the Damascus Gate in the Old City to mark the 59th anniversary of Israel’s capture and annexation of East Jerusalem. Several journalists were harassed and assaulted as mobs of Israelis attacked Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter, vandalizing storefronts and throwing items at bystanders.

This comes as the U.N. Children’s Fund said Thursday Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 70 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since early 2025, amounting to around one child killed per week. Another 850 children were injured by Israeli attacks during that period. This is UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.

James Elder: “March 2026 saw the highest number of Palestinians injured by settler attacks in the last 20 years, and we’re seeing attacks become increasingly coordinated. So, documented incidents include children shot, stabbed, children beaten and children pepper-sprayed.” 

Today, Palestinians around the world are commemorating “Nakba Day.” Nakba means “the catastrophe” in Arabic. It was 78 years ago that over 750,000 Palestinians were violently displaced and dispossessed from hundreds of towns and villages in Palestine, and thousands more killed, during the creation of the state of Israel. After headlines, we’ll speak with Muhammad Shehada, writer and analyst from Gaza.

In Ukraine, a Russian missile attack on a Kyiv apartment building has killed at least 24 people. It was one of the deadliest Russian attacks on Kyiv since the war began. The dead included three children. Another 47 people were injured.

Meanwhile, a massive fire broke out at one of Russia’s largest oil refineries following a Ukrainian drone attack. A separate drone strike targeted a Russian gas plant.

The head of the U.S. Border Patrol resigned on Thursday, effective immediately. Michael Banks had served as Border Patrol chief since January 2025, overseeing the Trump administration’s violent mass deportation efforts and the deployment of masked federal agents to U.S. cities. In a statement, Banks said his sudden departure would give him “time to enjoy family and life.” His resignation came just weeks after the Washington Examiner reported that Banks had “bragged” to Border Patrol colleagues about paying for sex with prostitutes while traveling in Colombia and Thailand over the course of a decade, prompting an investigation into the claims that ended abruptly last year while Kristi Noem served as homeland security secretary.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered the Trump administration to return a Colombian woman to the United States after ICE deported her to the Democratic Republic of Congo in April — a country to which she has no ties. District Court Judge Richard Leon ruled that Adriana Maria Quiroz Zapata had likely been sent to the DRC unlawfully, since Congolese officials refused to accept her on medical grounds. She was sent to the DRC anyway. In February, a federal judge ruled that so-called third-country deportations are unlawful violations of due process, but in March, an appeals court put the ruling on hold while the Trump administration continues legal challenges.

The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked a lower court ruling that would have cut off nationwide mail and telehealth access to the abortion medication mifepristone. The 7-2 ruling on the court’s “shadow docket” preserves the FDA’s 2023 policy that lifted a requirement to prescribe mifepristone in person. The ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project said in a statement, “While it is good news that, for now, patients can continue to get this safe medication by mail and at pharmacies as they have for more than five years, we all know abortion opponents are continuing their unpopular and baseless attacks.”

ABC News is reporting President Trump is set to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for the creation of a taxpayer-funded $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies of Trump who claim they were improperly targeted by the Biden administration. Under the plan, recipients of the money could include individuals charged in the January 6 insurrection and entities associated with President Trump himself. Meanwhile, Democratic Congressmember Jamie Raskin is introducing a package of anti-corruption bills aimed at putting new checks on the White House.

A jury in Chicago has ordered Boeing to pay nearly $50 million to the family of Samya Stumo, which had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Boeing. Stumo was killed in 2019 aboard a Boeing 737 MAX jet in Ethiopia. The crash came months after another Boeing 737 MAX crashed in Indonesia. Together, the crashes killed 346 people. Samya Stumo was a 24-year-old working in global health development. Her mother, Nadia Milleron, is running for Congress for a second time as an independent in Massachusetts. Samya Stumo was the grandniece of Ralph Nader.

In Bolivia, Indigenous groups, miners and unions are leading nationwide protests, strikes and roadblocks, demanding the resignation of Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz amid the country’s worsening economic and fuel crisis. The protests began over a new law that would have undermined peasant and Indigenous land rights. The law was repealed on Wednesday, but the protests are continuing.

Ponchos Rojos member: “We demand the immediate resignation of this treasonous and incapable government, because they want to govern us with decrees. We won’t allow that. We’ll fight to the death, brothers, to remove this treasonous government. Onward to victory!”

In Oklahoma, Richard Glossip walked out of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on Thursday after nearly 30 years on death row for a murder he insists he did not commit. Glossip previously faced execution nine times and ate his “last meal” three times, before last-minute interventions saved his life. He was freed after a judge granted him a retrial and allowed his release on a half-million-dollar bond. Richard Glossip spoke briefly to reporters outside the prison that had held him since 1998. 

Richard Glossip: “Yeah, I’m just thankful for my wife and my attorneys, and just happy.”

Lea Rodger: “Yeah.

Richard Glossip: “Just really happy.”

Lea Rodger: “Extremely, extremely grateful.” 

In February 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Glossip was entitled to a new trial due to errors in his original prosecution. Oklahoma’s attorney general says he’s planning to retry Glossip for murder but would not pursue the death penalty.