The Pentagon has launched an offensive aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with low-flying jets and helicopter gunships patrolling the waterway for Iranian ships and one-way attack drones. The offensive got underway as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps published video appearing to show a U.S. F-35 stealth fighter jet being struck over Iranian airspace. The Pentagon said one of its $100 million stealth fighters had been forced to make an emergency landing at a U.S. air base in the Middle East. On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the Pentagon has asked for $200 billion in additional funding for the war on Iran.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth: “As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move, obviously. It takes — it takes money to kill bad guys.”

Iran’s foreign minister warned Thursday his nation would show ”ZERO restraint” if the U.S. or Israel attacks oil or gas infrastructure again. The warning followed Israel’s bombing of the South Pars oil field, home to the largest proven reserves of natural gas in the world, and Iran’s retaliatory strikes on fossil fuel infrastructure across the Gulf. On Thursday, QatarEnergy’s CEO said Iran’s attacks on Ras Laffan and other fossil fuel sites have knocked out 17% of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas export capacity for up to five years, causing an estimated $20 billion in lost revenue each year, while cutting off energy supplies to Europe and Asia. In Washington, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration will remove sanctions on Iranian oil to lower surging prices, which some analysts predict could top $150 or even $200 per barrel if the war continues. Meanwhile, Iran’s attacks have halted exports of helium from Qatar, which before the war provided more than one-third of global supply. Helium is critical for a range of industries, including semiconductor manufacturing, fiber optics, medical devices including MRIs, and scientific research.

In Lebanon, there are reports of heavy fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers backed by air and artillery fire, as Israel pushes ahead with a ground invasion. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes continue to rain down on cities across Lebanon, where health officials report more than 1,000 people have been killed since early March. At least 40 medical workers are among the dead.

Israel is also targeting journalists and their families. This week, Israel bombed the home of Lebanese journalist Mohammed Sherri, killing him and his wife and injuring his children and grandchildren. Press freedom groups condemned the attack as a war crime. In a separate strike, Israel bombed RT journalist Steve Sweeney and a camera operator as Sweeney was reporting while wearing a vest clearly marked ”PRESS.” The attack left both men hospitalized.

Steve Sweeney: “Further rocket attacks were reported against Nahariya. And a minute” —

In Gaza, Israeli authorities have reopened the Rafah border crossing into Egypt for small numbers of Palestinians to seek medical care abroad. On Thursday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported just eight Palestinians were allowed to cross, along with family members. Red Crescent official Raed al-Nams says that’s just a tiny fraction of the thousands of Palestinians who can’t get the medical care they need inside the Gaza Strip due to Israel’s blockade and attacks on hospitals and medical infrastructure.

Raed al-Nams: “According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, there are around 18,000 patients injured whose conditions are classified as critical and for whom lifesaving services are unavailable in the Gaza Strip. We hope that the efforts made in this regard will lead to an increase in the numbers so that the largest possible number of patients can be evacuated outside the Gaza Strip.”

In Israel, demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv on Thursday for a protest demanding an end to Israel’s attacks on Iran and Lebanon, as millions of Israelis are forced to seek shelter daily from rockets, missiles and drones. At least 18 Israelis have been killed and over 3,000 wounded just three weeks into the war. This is protester Tsipi Haitovsky.

Tsipi Haitovsky: “They’re not telling us what the goals of the war are. They’re not telling us how long it’s going to take. And what’s happening is that Israelis are — in the millions, are in shelters at the moment, and we don’t see the end of it. … We’re fed up. We’ve been in a state of war for over two-and-a-half years. We’re fed up with it. It has to stop.”

President Trump joked about Pearl Harbor during a White House meeting Thursday with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. The awkward moment came as Trump responded to a Japanese journalist’s question about why the U.S. didn’t inform its allies in Europe and Asia before joining Israel in a war on Iran.

President Donald Trump: “Well, one thing, you don’t want to signal too much, you know? When we go in, we went in very hard, and we didn’t tell anybody about it, because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? OK? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”

Prime Minister Takaichi appeared visibly uncomfortable, leaning back in her seat.

A 19-year-old teenager from Mexico has died of an apparent suicide while jailed at the ICE Glades County Detention Center in South Florida. Royer Perez-Jimenez is the youngest person to die in ICE custody since Trump returned to office and at least the 13th reported ICE death since the beginning of this year. Police reportedly arrested Perez-Jimenez in January while he was riding a scooter. Immigrants detained at Glades County have long described inhumane conditions, including being subjected to verbal and sexual abuse.

In more immigration news, Estefany Rodríguez, a local Nashville journalist, has been released from ICE custody on a $10,000 bond. She’s a reporter from Colombia with the news outlet Nashville Noticias, has lived in the U.S. since 2021 with a tourist visa and work permit, and has pending green card and asylum applications. She’s also married to a U.S. citizen.

Here in New York, a high school student has been released from a Pennsylvania ICE jail after nearly a year in custody. Twenty-one-year-old Dylan Lopez Contreras was a freshman at a Bronx high school when he was taken by federal agents. He and his family are asylum seekers from Venezuela. Dylan spoke at a rally welcoming him back to New York on Thursday.

Dylan Lopez Contreras: “As I’ve told you, it’s super ugly to be in there. I’ve really seen all kinds of people who don’t — we don’t deserve to be there, and I still want to keep fighting for them, which is what we have to do.”

Several elected officials attended the gathering, including New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: “This is a city that does not stand for our children being snatched from their home. It is a city that does not stand for high school students being taken away from the life they should have. And as Dylan has reminded us, this is but a glimpse into something that is affecting so many across this city, across this state and across this country. And we will not rest until every single person is where they deserve to be.”

An immigration judge has denied 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his family asylum in the United States. The family’s legal team plans to appeal. If they lose, Liam and his family could be deported to their home country of Ecuador. Liam and his father were detained in a suburb of Minneapolis earlier this year. Images of Liam went viral after he was picked up by federal agents while still wearing his Spider-Man backpack and a blue hat with bunny ears. They were released from the Dilley ICE family detention center in Texas in February after a nationwide campaign led in part by Congressmember Joaquin Castro, who escorted them back to Minnesota.

In Colorado, nearly 4,000 meatpacking workers have entered their fifth day on strike to protest unfair and dangerous labor conditions at JBS USA, the world’s largest meat producer. Unionized workers at the slaughterhouse and beef processing plant in the city of Greeley walked off the job Monday, marking the largest strike in the U.S. meatpacking industry in four decades. Many of the workers are immigrants. This is UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova.

Kim Cordova: “There’s 50 languages spoken at this plant. And where JBS thinks that they can hire a vulnerable workforce, they do that by design, hoping that workers can’t talk to each other about wages and benefits or working conditions. They’re hoping that we have a division in the plant. But they underestimated their workers. The workers are smart. They’re strong. They’re hard workers. And they deserve dignity, and they deserve respect.”

As the college basketball tournament known as March Madness begins, immigration activists are calling on schools to “de-ICE” the charter flights used to ferry around student athletes. The campaign is targeting the Miami-based charter company Global Crossing Airlines, or GlobalX, which holds a $5 million annual contract to transport teams during the NCAA tournaments. GlobalX is also used to transport immigrants deported by ICE. Here is an excerpt of a video from the “De-ICE These Flights!” campaign.

De-ICE These Flights! campaign: “In 2025, GlobalX flew more than 1,700 deportation flights for ICE, while earning more than $246 million. And it’s the same airline teams have flown for March Madness. When schools fly GlobalX, they’re feeding a system that supports deportation: athletes one day, deportation routes the next. It’s the business model: profit by abusing people.”