The Senate has rejected a resolution seeking to rein in President Trump’s ability to wage war against Iran. On Wednesday, all Senate Republicans except for Kentucky’s Rand Paul voted against the war powers resolution, which failed in a vote of 47 to 52; every Democrat except Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman voted in favor of it. The House is set to vote on a similar measure this afternoon. 
Meanwhile, senators voted down a pair of resolutions seeking to halt the sale of armored bulldozers, thousand-pound bombs and other hardware to Israel’s military, despite Israel’s repeated use of U.S. weapons to commit war crimes. The resolutions were sponsored by Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders.

Sen. Bernie Sanders: “Israel did not have the right to violate international law and wage an all-out war of unspeakable destruction against the entire Palestinian people, in what experts have correctly concluded is a genocide.”

Forty of the Senate’s 47 Democrats voted for at least one of Sanders’s two resolutions. The seven Democrats who sided with Senate Republicans in opposition are Richard Blumenthal, Chris Coons, Catherine Cortez Masto, John Fetterman, Kirsten Gillibrand, Jacky Rosen and Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader. 

The nonprofit A New Policy, which was founded by former State Department officials who resigned in protest of U.S. policies on Israel, said Wednesday’s vote shows for the first time that an overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats oppose unconditional aid to Israel. They added, “American politics are changing, and eventually American policies will follow.”

Iran’s military warned Wednesday it will expand its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz to include the Sea of Oman and the Red Sea, unless the United States ends its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Iran’s threat of escalation came as U.S. Central Command said its naval forces have completely halted trade going in and out of Iran by sea, with at least 10 vessels forced to turn around so far.

Meanwhile, the White House said it was optimistic about continuing negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, after a high-level Pakistani delegation arrived in Tehran seeking to lay the groundwork for a second round of talks with the U.S. Pakistani officials said they are expecting a “major breakthrough,” while a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said he remained skeptical.

Esmail Baghaei: “It remains to be seen to what extent the other side is truly serious about the claims they’ve made regarding diplomacy. It is the Americans who must prove their seriousness, because they have not only failed to adhere to their commitments many times, but have also fundamentally destroyed the negotiating table.”

In southern Lebanon, at least 20 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, just one day after Lebanese and Israeli envoys held the first direct talks between the two countries in more than three decades. Among the dead were four paramedics killed in a so-called triple-tap strike while on an emergency rescue mission. This comes as a ​senior ​Lebanese security official tells ⁠Reuters that an ​Israeli strike has severed the ​last ​bridge linking southern ⁠Lebanon to ​the ​rest of the country. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reports at least 2,167 people have been killed and more than 7,000 wounded in Israeli attacks since March 2. More than 1.2 million people, including 350,000 children, have been forced to flee their homes. This is Wael Sabbagh, who lost his mother and brother in an Israeli strike.

Wael Sabbagh: “Nobody should have to go through this. And unfortunately, my brother, sister and I are not the only ones that are going through this. Hundreds, if not thousands, on that day, families are mourning in the same way that I am.”

In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians held a funeral procession Wednesday for five people killed in an Israeli airstrike near a cafe in the al-Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City.

Ahmad Abu Hassira: “We are also human beings, and we have the right to live. We love life. We are not terrorists, as the occupation claims, but the world’s silence is what gave the occupation an excuse to continue killing us daily.”

Earlier today, an Israeli drone strike near a school in Beit Lahia killed two brothers. Palestinian health officials say the latest killings bring the death toll from Israeli attacks to 767 since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was supposed to have taken effect last October. 

The U.S. military says it struck an alleged drug vessel in the eastern Pacific on Wednesday, killing three people. The Pentagon offered no evidence that the boat was carrying drugs, describing those killed as “narco-terrorists.” On Tuesday, a similar U.S. strike against an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific killed four people, while a strike Monday killed two people, according to the U.S. military. The latest strikes bring the Pentagon’s claimed death toll to at least 178 since the operations began in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean last September. At least 53 vessels have been targeted. International legal experts and human rights groups say the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.

House Democrats have filed six articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The articles were introduced by Democratic Congressmember Yassamin Ansari of Arizona. The articles accuse Hegseth of running an unauthorized war against Iran without congressional approval; committing violations of the law of armed conflict, including the bombing of a girls’ school in Minab, Iran; the reckless handling of sensitive military information in connection with the “Signalgate” scandal; obstructing congressional oversight; the abuse of power and politicization of the armed forces; and engaging in conduct bringing disrepute upon the U.S. armed forces. At least eight Democratic lawmakers have signed on as co-sponsors, but the measure has virtually no chance of passing given the current Republican majority in Congress. Congressmember Ansari said in a statement, “Only Congress has the power to declare war, not a rogue president or his lackeys.”

A new analysis by The Guardian finds that the world’s top 100 oil and gas companies banked more than $30 million in windfall profits per hour in the first month of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. Saudi Aramco, Gazprom and ExxonMobil are among the biggest beneficiaries. Collectively, oil and gas companies stand to make $234 billion by the end of the year if oil prices continue to average $100 a barrel. Meanwhile, dozens of countries face budget shortfalls after cutting fuel taxes to help struggling consumers.

In southern Turkey, a 14-year-old armed with five guns and seven magazines opened fire inside a middle school on Wednesday, killing at least nine people and wounding 13 others before reportedly taking his own life. The attacker used weapons taken from his father, a former police officer. Mass shootings are extremely rare in Turkey, which has strict gun control laws; however, Wednesday’s massacre was the second school shooting in just 48 hours. A day earlier, 16 people were injured when a former student opened fire in a high school elsewhere in southern Turkey. This is an eyewitness.

Eyewitness: “He was a kid, about 17 or 18 years old, who suddenly walked through the school’s front door. … He just started shooting directly at whoever came in front of him from inside. And then all the students and teachers started screaming, and everyone scattered in different directions.”

In Oklahoma, Pauls Valley High School Principal Kirk Moore suffered a gunshot wound last week after tackling a 20-year-old armed with two semi-automatic handguns. No students were injured, and the man was arrested. Prosecutors say he sought to carry out a mass shooting like the 1999 Columbine high school massacre. According to the Gun Violence Archive, the U.S. has logged 106 mass shootings since January 1 — an average of one per day.

A federal jury in Manhattan found Wednesday that Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster operated as a monopoly that harmed consumers and overcharged ticket buyers. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia sued Live Nation, arguing that the company used threats and retaliation to pressure artists and venues into using their services, including withholding lucrative concert tours from venues that didn’t sign exclusive deals with Ticketmaster. A judge will hold a second trial to determine whether to order a breakup of the company. Live Nation plans to appeal. 

Thousands of people took to the streets in cities across the U.S. on Wednesday — Tax Day — protesting the use of their tax dollars to fund wars, genocide and immigration enforcement. The nationwide day of action included demonstrations in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas and elsewhere. It was organized by the U.S. Palestinian Community Network and Taxpayers Against Genocide and endorsed by a broad coalition of civil society groups including the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed an annual tax on second homes in New York City that are worth $5 million or more. Mayor Zohran Mamdani is backing the measure. In a Tax Day message, Mamdani spoke outside the 24,000-square-foot Manhattan penthouse of hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin, which Griffin purchased for $238 million.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: “This is a fundamentally unfair system that hurts working New Yorkers. Now it’s coming to an end. This tax will raise at least $500 million directly for the city. It will help fund things like free child care, cleaner streets and safer neighborhoods. As mayor, I believe everyone has a role to play in contributing to our city, and some a little bit more than others. Happy Tax Day, New York.”