The Trump administration is threatening to intensify its attacks on Iran, as the U.S. and Israeli assault enters its 27th day. On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that unless Iran agrees to surrender, they will be “hit harder than they have ever been hit before.” The threat came as Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, once again denied President Trump’s claims that U.S. officials are negotiating with Iran for an end to the war.

Abbas Araghchi: “For now, our policy is to continue resisting and to continue defending the country. At present, we have no intention of negotiating, and no negotiations have taken place. … We want the war to end, but on our terms, in a way that ensures it will not be repeated, and that our enemies learn a lesson, so that they will not even contemplate attacking Iran again. And secondly, the damage suffered by the people of Iran must be compensated.”

Iran’s other demands include recognition of Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier today, Israel’s defense minister said Israel had killed Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s navy. He played a key role in Iran’s military success in controlling access to the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran is continuing attacks on Israel, U.S. military bases and the nations that host them. Israel’s Health Ministry reports nearly 150 people were injured over the past 24 hours from Iranian missiles and drones, only some of which were successfully shot down by air defenses. Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reported they intercepted Iranian missiles and drones, while in the United Arab Emirates authorities said at least two people were killed and three injured from falling debris.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s government has accused the Pentagon of bombing a clinic on a military base in Anbar province, killing seven Iraqi soldiers and injuring 13 others. Iraq’s military condemned the strike as a “heinous aggression” that “undermines the relationship between the peoples of Iraq and the United States.” The attack came a day after another attack on the same base killed at least 15 fighters with the former paramilitary group Popular Mobilization Forces, which includes Iranian-backed brigades. The Pentagon denied targeting a clinic.

Israel has bombed Beirut and pushed deeper into southern Lebanon as it outlines plans to occupy the region. This comes as Oxfam says Israeli forces are destroying water and sanitation infrastructure across Lebanon, repeating the same pattern used in Gaza. In just four days during the first weeks of fighting, Israel damaged at least seven critical water sources in the Beqaa area, cutting off clean water to nearly 7,000 people. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch documented Israel’s use of white phosphorus munitions over the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor on March 3, firing the incendiary weapon over residential areas and sparking fires in at least two homes. Ahmad Baydoun, an open-source intelligence researcher at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, mapped 248 Israeli white phosphorus strikes across southern Lebanon, finding 39% hit civilian areas.

Lebanese authorities say Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,000 people since March 2 and forced more than 1 million people to flee from their homes. In southern Lebanon, a dozen paramedics gathered Wednesday as they prepared to bury two of their colleagues killed in Israeli attacks. This is Mohammed Sleiman, a chief paramedic and father of Joud Sleiman, who was killed in an Israeli strike.

Mohammed Sleiman: “These are two men wearing the clothes of paramedics, on a motorcycle for paramedics, which had a paramedic flag and label on it, paramedic lights on it, wearing helmets. Everything about them says they are paramedics.”

In Gaza, an Israeli strike Wednesday sent a column of smoke and flames over a tent camp housing displaced families in the Deir al-Balah camp. Medical workers said the bombing killed one Palestinian and injured eight others. Residents say Israel’s military ordered people to leave their tents and flee the area ahead of the airstrike.

In occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities on Wednesday evicted at least 11 Palestinian families from their homes in the Silwan neighborhood, as police escorted Israeli settlers to the scene. The settlers were then filmed throwing furniture out of apartment windows and raising an Israeli flag above the buildings. The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem reports about 2,200 Palestinians in Silwan face the imminent threat of eviction, which the group calls “ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem.”

The U.S. military struck an alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean Wednesday, killing four people. The Pentagon offered no evidence that the boat was carrying drugs. The attack brings the total death toll to at least 163 people since the Trump administration began targeting so-called narcoterrorists in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific last September.

Meanwhile, a New York Times investigation has found that a March 6 strike jointly conducted by the U.S. and Ecuador against an alleged drug trafficker’s training camp actually destroyed a dairy farm in the remote Ecuadorian village of San Martín in the Amazon jungle. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had posted video of the strike online, writing that the U.S. was “bombing Narco Terrorists on land.” Local residents told the Times that Ecuadorian soldiers arrived by helicopter three days before the bombing, interrogated and beat four farmworkers, and set fire to shelters and sheds before returning to bomb the dairy farm. The Alliance for Human Rights, a coalition of groups in Ecuador, filed a 13-page complaint with the Ecuadorian authorities and the United Nations.

In immigration news, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case challenging the Trump administration’s request to turn away refugees at the U.S. border — even though people have the right to apply for asylum under international law. The court’s conservative majority appeared sympathetic to the government’s argument that it can turn away asylum seekers as long as they haven’t physically stepped onto U.S. soil at a port of entry. A decision is expected by late June or early July.

U.S. air travelers are now facing the longest wait times in the Transportation Security Administration’s history. That’s according to acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, who testified to a House committee on Wednesday that the 40-day partial government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security has led TSA workers to go unpaid, at great personal expense.

Ha Nguyen McNeill: “Many in our workforce have missed bill payments, received eviction notices, had their cars repossessed and utilities shut off, lost their child care, defaulted on loans, damaged their credit line and drained their retirement savings. Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma and taking on jobs, second jobs, to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public.”

In California, a jury in Los Angeles on Wednesday found tech giants Alphabet and Meta liable for $3 million in damages after siding with a plaintiff who accused the tech giants of designing products to addict young users. The plaintiff in the case was a 20-year-old referred to as KGM who says she became addicted to social media at a young age, with severe harm to her mental health. This is Julianna Arnold, who says her daughter Coco spiraled into self-doubt and depression after becoming addicted to social media platforms like Instagram.

Julianna Arnold: “Stop blaming the parents. It’s on you. And this is what this is showing today. And for parents, we now know that they were manipulating our children for profits while we were watching and trying to keep our families safe.”

Wednesday’s ruling in the landmark social media addiction lawsuit came a day after a jury in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375 million in penalties for knowingly harming children and concealing child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

First lady Melania Trump walked into the White House East Room Wednesday alongside a humanoid robot called Figure 03 during a summit focused on AI and education. The robot strolled next to the first lady, welcomed guests in the room in several different languages and waved its hand. Melania Trump touted the robot as a humanoid educator that could homeschool children.

Meanwhile, Vermont’s independent Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced legislation Wednesday to impose a national moratorium on new AI data center construction. The bill would halt all new construction until Congress passes federal laws to protect workers and consumers and ensure the technologies don’t harm the environment. It comes as electricity costs rose nearly 7% last year, more than twice the overall rate of inflation, costing the average household $123 more in 2025. Experts and advocacy groups link rising electricity costs in part to the rapid construction of AI data centers, which have dramatically increased demand on the electric grid. This is Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “More than 100 local communities across 12 states have already enacted local moratoriums on data centers, and Congress itself has a moral obligation to stand with them and stop Big Tech from ruining their communities. Our legislation in the House and the Senate would hit the brakes on construction of new data centers until we address several of the key areas of harm AI poses.”

The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution Wednesday declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest crime against humanity.” The resolution calls on member nations to pursue reparatory justice, including formal apologies, restitution and compensation. It also demands the return of cultural artifacts, such as artworks, monuments and national archives, to their countries of origin. The United States, Israel and Argentina voted against the resolution. Deputy U.S. Ambassador Dan Negrea said before the vote that the U.S. “does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred.” The United Kingdom and all 27 EU member states abstained. This is Ghana’s President John Mahama.

President John Mahama: “So, today, we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice. The adoption of this resolution serves as a safeguard against forgetting. It also challenges the enduring scars of slavery.”