Israel has bombed Beirut for the first time since mid-April, when it agreed to a ceasefire with Lebanon. Israeli officials said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally ordered the attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which reportedly killed a Hezbollah commander. Meanwhile, Israel continued attacks on southern and eastern Lebanon, killing at least 13 people on Wednesday. The Lebanese Ministry of Health reports more than 380 people have been killed and nearly 700 injured in Lebanon since Israel agreed, on paper, to a ceasefire on April 16.

The Pentagon says U.S. forces struck an Iranian oil tanker in the Sea of Oman on Wednesday, disabling its rudder after it attempted to breach the U.S. naval blockade of Iran’s ports. The attack came as France’s Defense Ministry said the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, is en route to the Strait of Hormuz in preparation for a possible defensive mission.

This comes as President Trump continues to send mixed messages over whether he’ll escalate the war on Iran. On Wednesday, Trump threatened on social media to resume bombing Iran “at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.” Hours later, Trump insisted the U.S. had already “won” the war, said his administration had “very good talks” with Tehran, and predicted that “it’ll all work out very quickly.”

President Donald Trump: “Despite having a little skirmish in Iran, because we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon — and we’re beating them badly, and they want to settle very badly — it’ll all work out very quickly.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it was reviewing a U.S. proposal and would convey a response to Pakistani mediators later today.

NBC News reports President Trump abandoned his plan to help ships go through the Strait of Hormuz after Saudi Arabia suspended the U.S. military’s ability to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation. NBC reports Saudi officials were blindsided by what President Trump is calling “Project Freedom.” Drop Site News later reported that Kuwait also cut off access to its airspace, leaving the U.S. without the defensive umbrella needed to protect ships transiting the strait.

Iran hit far more U.S. military targets across the Persian Gulf region than the Trump administration has admitted to, with satellite images showing damage to at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. bases. That’s according to The Washington Post, which reviewed satellite images published by Iranian state-affiliated news media. Meanwhile, a new report by the Center for International Policy estimates the U.S. has spent nearly $72 billion on the Iran war, or $1.2 billion per day on average. That’s nearly three times the amount of the Pentagon’s official estimate.

Israel has begun construction of a bypass road that will connect Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank with Jerusalem. The road is intended for Israelis only; tens of thousands of Palestinian Jerusalem residents will not be allowed access to it. Israel’s transportation minister praised the highway, saying it will bring “one million” Israelis to the West Bank.

In the Gaza Strip, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees warns the spread of rodents through the majority of Gaza’s overcrowded tent camps is leaving the population at much higher risk of disease. Children, in particular, are prone to rat bites, and rodents can spread diseases including hantavirus, which is often fatal.

The United Nations is calling on Israel to immediately and unconditionally release Spanish national Saif Abukeshek and Brazilian citizen Thiago Ávila, who were seized at gunpoint from the Global Sumud Flotilla last month and continue to be held without charge. An Israeli court extended their detention until May 10.

On Wednesday, Palestinians rallied in Gaza City in solidarity with the two detained activists. This is Tayseer Muhaisen, a civil society activist in Gaza.

Tayseer Muhaisen: “These activists came to bypass the stances of their governments in the world and to say that humanity will not be stopped by the political decisions. Humanity is represented in the act of these humans even if it’s just one person. They embarked on their journey to spread this message. We wish them safety from all our hearts, and the Gaza Strip completely values this step.”

The U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals has reinstated deportation proceedings against Mohsen Mahdawi, a graduate student at Columbia University who was detained last April for his outspoken support for Palestinian rights. Mohsen is a green card holder who grew up in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. At Columbia, he served as co-president of the Palestinian Student Union and president of the Buddhist Association. In April of 2025, masked and hooded ICE agents detained him when he appeared for what he believed would be a naturalization interview in Vermont. He spent two weeks in ICE custody before a federal judge ordered his release. Click here to see our interviews with Mohsen Mahdawi.

In New Jersey, Rutgers University has abruptly withdrawn its invitation to a prominent biotech entrepreneur to speak at its engineering school convocation. Rami Elghandour had been scheduled to deliver a graduation address at Rutgers’s New Brunswick campus on May 15, but his invitation was canceled over what the university said were complaints about his social media posts on Israel and Palestine. Elghandour is executive producer of the Oscar-nominated film “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” about the killing of a Palestinian girl and her family in Gaza, along with paramedics who tried to rescue them.

The University of Michigan has apologized for a professor’s commencement address in which he praised student activists who protested Israel’s assault on Gaza. The apology came over these remarks at a graduation ceremony last Saturday by historian Derek Peterson, the outgoing chair of the Faculty Senate, who commemorated the university’s long history of social activism.

Derek Peterson: “Sing for the pro-Palestinian student activists, who have over these past two years opened our hearts to the injustice and inhumanity of Israel’s war in Gaza.”

University of Michigan President Domenico Grasso later called those remarks “hurtful and insensitive to many members of our community.” Peterson said he was “mystified” by the response. He told CBS News, “Having an open heart to other people’s suffering is a fundamental human virtue.”

A few hundred pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside a New York synagogue on Tuesday to demonstrate against an expo called “the Great Israel Real Estate Event,” featuring properties for sale in Israel and the occupied West Bank. The event’s website included references to listings in Gush Etzion, a group of settlements in the West Bank located southeast of Jerusalem that are considered illegal under international law. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the event.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: “When we have a real estate expo that is promoting the sale of land which includes the sale of land in occupied West Bank, in settlements that are a violation of international law, that that is something that I firmly disagree with and that I also believe that many New Yorkers firmly disagree with, because it has been at the heart of an ongoing effort to displace Palestinians from their homes.”

Russia fired dozens of drones at Ukraine overnight, disregarding a ceasefire announced by Kyiv that took effect at midnight. A Russian drone strike hit a kindergarten in Ukraine’s Sumy region, killing at least one person and injuring two others, Ukrainian officials said. Russian strikes also killed six people in Kramatorsk and 12 in Zaporizhzhia. Russia has threatened a “massive missile strike” on Kyiv if Ukraine takes any action to disrupt its Victory Day commemorations on May 9.

In Tennessee, hundreds of protesters marched to the state Capitol in Nashville on Wednesday as lawmakers unveiled a gerrymandered congressional map that could see Republicans take control of all nine of Tennessee’s U.S. House seats. The General Assembly is expected to vote on the new map as soon as today. This comes after Tennessee lawmakers repealed their state’s longstanding ban on mid-decade redistricting and after the recent Supreme Court ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act set off a scramble by Southern states to gerrymander congressional districts ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The FBI searched the Portsmouth, Virginia, office of state Senator L. Louise Lucas, the Democratic president pro tempore of the Virginia Senate, on Wednesday. A marijuana dispensary she co-owns, located near her office, was also raided. Authorities, speaking to The Washington Post, said the probe involved allegations of bribery related to the cannabis dispensary. Lucas has not been charged and was sent back home. Lucas cast the raid as political intimidation and linked it to her role leading Virginia’s redistricting effort earlier this month. In a statement, she said, “What we saw fits a clear pattern from this administration; when challenged, they try to intimidate and silence the voices who stand up to them.”

The FBI has reportedly launched a criminal leak investigation focusing on Atlantic journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick, who wrote a detailed story last month reporting that FBI Director Kash Patel’s alleged excessive drinking and erratic behavior had caused deep concern among agency officials. Investigations into leaks typically target government officials suspected of disclosing classified material, not the reporters who receive and publish it. The FBI is denying that it’s investigating Sarah Fitzpatrick. This comes as Fitzpatrick’s latest piece details how Kash Patel has been reportedly traveling with a supply of personalized branded bourbon, engraved with the words “Kash Patel FBI Director.”

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was grilled by the House Oversight Committee for more than four hours Wednesday in a closed-door hearing about his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Justice Department email records showed the two were in contact years after Lutnick claimed to have severed ties in 2005. Democrats accused Lutnick of being evasive and changing his story. This is Democratic Congressmember Yassamin Ansari.

Rep. Yassamin Ansari: “After what we have seen so far in this transcribed interview, I feel comfortable saying that Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover-up in American history.”

A federal judge released a purported suicide note from Epstein on Wednesday, discovered by his former cellmate, who said he found it tucked inside a book in their shared cell following Epstein’s first unsuccessful suicide attempt in July 2019. He was found dead weeks later. Meanwhile, a Guardian investigation revealed that billionaire Leon Black, who faces a civil lawsuit accusing him of raping a teenage girl inside Epstein’s New York townhouse in 2002, privately reached out to a federal judge to raise doubts about his accuser’s claims. The judge later reversed a $2.5 million award previously granted to the accuser. In an exclusive statement to The Guardian, the accuser, known as Jane Doe, said, “Justice is not always blind. It is often shaped by power, access, and who is able to withstand the process. I am still here. And I am not done.”

And in related news, President Trump asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to pause its ruling rejecting his challenge to E. Jean Carroll’s $83 million defamation case against him, clearing the way for Trump to appeal to the Supreme Court.