Officials in Iran say they’ve collected the first revenue from tolls imposed on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Analysts say the tolls could generate up to $20 million in daily revenue for Iran from oil tankers alone. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy says it’s forced 31 vessels to turn back since President Trump ordered a blockade of Iranian ports on April 13. 

It remains unclear when the U.S. and Iran will hold a second round of talks in Pakistan. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said three main obstacles are holding up negotiations: a breach of commitments by the U.S., the U.S. naval blockade and U.S. threats to Iran. 

In Washington, D.C., the White House said President Trump has not set a deadline for Iran to submit a peace proposal. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke to reporters on Wednesday.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: “We are completely strangling their economy through this blockade. They’re losing $500 million a day. The Kharg Island is completely full. They can’t move oil in and out. They can’t even pay their own people as a result of this economic leverage that President Trump has inflicted over them. So, he’s satisfied with that, as we await their response.” 

The Senate has rejected another bid to rein in President Trump’s ability to use further military force against Iran, marking Democrats’ fifth effort to do so since the war began on February 28. On Wednesday, the Senate voted 46 to 51 to defeat the war powers resolution, with Senator Rand Paul the only Republican voting to advance the measure, and Senator John Fetterman the lone Democrat in opposition. Three senators — Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Republican Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania and Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia — did not vote. The resolution was sponsored by Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. Under the War Powers Act, President Trump has until May 1 — 60 days since formally notifying Congress of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran — to halt all military operations unless lawmakers vote to declare war or authorize the use of force against Iran.

The Pentagon has announced that it has removed Secretary of the Navy John Phelan from his post, with no explanation given for his sudden departure. According to The Wall Street Journal, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Phelan after months of tension, reportedly in part because Phelan wasn’t moving fast enough to build Trump’s so-called Golden Fleet of new warships. Phelan’s removal comes as the U.S. Navy blockades Iranian ports and is targeting ships linked to Tehran around the world. Phelan’s departure comes just weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed out Army Chief of Staff Randy George. Phelan was a major donor to President Trump with no prior military service. Since Trump’s return to office, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of naval operations, the Coast Guard commandant and the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency have all been fired from their posts. 

In southern Lebanon, Israeli forces killed at least five people on Wednesday, despite the 10-day, U.S.-brokered ceasefire that’s supposed to remain in effect until Sunday. Among those killed was Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, a correspondent for the daily newspaper Al-Akhbar. Lebanon’s National News Agency reports she was killed after an initial Israeli strike hit a car in the village of at-Tiri, killing two people, before a follow-up strike targeted a building where Khalil and her colleague, photographer Zeinab Faraj, had taken shelter. Lebanese officials said they were “pursued” by Israeli drones and that Israeli troops blocked medics from reaching the injured reporters for hours. Al Jazeera reports Khalil had previously received direct threats from an Israeli phone number on WhatsApp, warning her to stop reporting. The Committee to Protect Journalists regional director Sara Qudah said, “The repeated strikes on the same location, the targeting of an area where journalists were sheltering, and the obstruction of medical and humanitarian access constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law.” Khalil’s death is the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on journalists in southern Lebanon. Last month, three media workers were killed in a single Israeli strike.

Meanwhile, Haaretz reports Israeli soldiers are looting property from homes and businesses in southern Lebanon, stealing motorcycles, televisions, paintings, sofas and rugs on a wide scale.

A second round of U.S.-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon is set to take place in Washington today, though Hezbollah remains excluded from the negotiations.

The FBI launched an investigation last month into New York Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson after she published a story revealing that FBI Director Kash Patel had assigned federal agents to provide round-the-clock security and personal transportation to his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins. According to The New York Times, FBI agents interviewed the girlfriend, queried databases for information on Williamson and recommended moving forward to determine whether she had broken federal stalking laws. Justice Department officials reportedly ended the investigation after establishing there was no legal basis for it and after concluding the probe was retaliation for an article Patel didn’t like. This comes as Patel is suing The Atlantic magazine for $250 million, claiming defamation over an article that alleged he has abused alcohol. Patel responded to The Atlantic’s reporting at the Justice Department on Wednesday.

Reporter: “Can you say definitively that you have not been intoxicated or absent during your tenure as FBI director?”

Kash Patel: “I can say unequivocally that I never listen to the fake news mafia, and as when they get louder, it just means I’m doing my job.”

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Houston dismissed a lawsuit by Patel against former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi, who joked during an appearance on MS NOW that Patel spent more time in nightclubs than at the bureau’s headquarters.

Georgia Democratic Congressmember David Scott died Wednesday at the age of 80, one day after casting his final vote from the House floor. Scott was the first Black man to serve as chair of the House Agriculture Committee. He’d been seeking his 13th term in office despite concerns about his ailing health. He’s the fifth member of the current Congress to die in office. His death leaves Democrats with 212 seats, compared to 218 members of the Republican caucus. 

In West Virginia, two workers were killed and more than 30 people injured on Wednesday after hydrogen sulfide gas leaked at a metal refining plant outside Charleston. First responders who rushed to the scene found employees dragging co-workers out of the plant; seven ambulance workers were among those injured. The industrial incident follows five previous workplace safety citations against plant operator Ames Goldsmith Corporation since 2018.

A new report warns nearly half of all children across the United States are regularly exposed to dangerously high levels of toxic air pollution. The annual “State of the Air” report by the American Lung Association, released on Earth Day, found more than 33 million children live in counties that received a failing grade on at least one of the ALA’s measures of air pollution; meanwhile, nearly 130 million people across the U.S. were exposed to dangerous levels of ozone, with communities of color disproportionately affected. 

Houston’s City Council voted Wednesday to gut an ordinance that had limited local police cooperation with federal immigration authorities, after Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatened to revoke more than $114 million in public safety grants unless Mayor John Whitmire reversed the measure. Earlier this month, the council had approved an ordinance prohibiting officers from detaining people or prolonging traffic stops solely on the basis of civil immigration warrants issued by ICE. The amendment, passed Wednesday, removes a rule directing the police to wait 30 minutes for ICE agents during encounters and gives officers more leeway to extend detentions during stops. Dozens of people spoke out in opposition to the amendment during a City Council meeting on Tuesday. This is Norma Gonzalez, a community navigator at Woori Juntos.

Norma Gonzalez: “A traffic stop should be just that: a traffic stop. Instead, now police are contacting ICE. Other police departments do not do this. Why should they, here in Houston? Since 2025, our Houston police has played sidekick with ICE over a hundred times. This is not normal, and our community can feel it. We are afraid to live, to drive and to call for help.”

A panel of federal appeals court judges has upheld a Texas law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms. On Tuesday, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 9 to 8 that the law does not violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, overruling two lower court decisions. Plaintiffs are planning to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Tuesday’s ruling came as President Donald Trump joined a Bible-reading marathon being live-streamed from the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., and other locations. In a prerecorded video, Trump read from a portion of the Old Testament popular among Christian nationalists. This comes after Trump clashed with Pope Leo over the Iran war and shared an AI image to social media depicting himself as Jesus Christ. 

Pope Leo has wrapped up his four-nation visit to Africa with a trip to Equatorial Guinea, the first visit to the West African nation by a pontiff since John Paul II in 1982. During his visit, Leo met with prisoners who’ve been held for years without access to lawyers; called out corruption in African governments; denounced wealth inequality; and criticized foreign exploitation of Africa’s mineral wealth.

Pope Leo XIV: “One of the main drivers of the spread of armed conflicts is the colonization of oil and mineral deposits, without regard for international law or the right of peoples to self-determination.”

Here in New York, City Councilmember Chi Ossé was released from NYPD custody on Wednesday after his violent arrest at a protest in support of a homeowner facing eviction. Ossé said after his release he’d sought hospital treatment after officers slammed him to the ground and pressed his face to the concrete. Three others were arrested, including two who were also hospitalized. They had gathered outside a residence in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood where city marshals were executing an eviction. Ossé said the property owners were victims of “deed theft,” a process where investors take ownership of homes through fraud in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods where property values are skyrocketing. New York Attorney General Letitia James said she is “deeply disturbed” by video of Ossé’s arrest; meanwhile, Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the footage “concerning” and said he was investigating.