The Pentagon said it struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard targets inside ​Iran, including military command centers and drone facilities, in retaliation for Tehran targeting U.S. bases in Jordan. According to Iranian state media, a couple and their 2-year-old child were killed in U.S. strikes on Qeshm island. The U.S. also issued another round of sanctions on Iran, designating 10 entities and eight tankers.

This comes as the war threatens to spread throughout the region. Jordan said it intercepted an Iranian missile attack. In Egypt, a drone hit a U.S.-owned gas storage tanker at the Mediterranean port ​of Damietta on Wednesday.

In Iraq, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia launched strikes on what they’re claiming are Iranian-backed militia groups Wednesday. Funerals were held for the fighters of the Popular Mobilization Forces killed in the strikes. The Iraqi president condemned the air raids, calling it a “blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, targeting its official institutions.”

This is Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general.

Farhan Haq: “Well, the one thing we don’t want to see is — again, is any expansion of the conflict. So, having more parties involved in the fighting, having the fighting spread to a larger number of countries, all of these are adverse developments and could get us into a much worse situation even than before.”

Here in New York City, dozens of people attended an antiwar rally Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Iran. The demonstration was organized by Payandeh NYC, a group of Iranian diaspora members founded in April to reject U.S. military aggression against Iran. This is Nahid Siamdoust, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Nahid Siamdoust: “I’m an Iranian American who is working hard and paying my taxes and seeing that money going into Iran to killing my own family. We’re asking that these wars stop. Some Iranians in the West have been sold a lie. They have been sold the lie that the U.S. and Israel are going to be bringing them some kind of salvation or freedom. We know that that was never the intention, because, you know, within a couple of weeks, Donald Trump, of course, threatened to annihilate Iran’s entire civilization.”

In Libya, demonstrators stormed an energy complex near Tripoli and closed gas lines to protest ongoing power outages across the country. Anti-government protests have been ongoing for days, as demonstrators demand the resignation of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh. Libya is split into rival eastern and western governments, each backed by militias and foreign powers, since a NATO-backed uprising killed dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The United Nations is warning that Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank has hit an all-time high. Eighteen Palestinians have been killed in settler attacks so far this year, compared with 17 in all of last year. This comes after the Israeli security cabinet earlier this year approved over $430 million to establish 34 new settlements in the West Bank.

In Gaza, Israel continues to move its so-called yellow line of control further into the strip. Residents in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, Gaza City and northern Rafah report having to evacuate from their homes to abide by Israel’s shifting zone of occupation. Israel currently controls an estimated 64% of the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to expand the area under Israel’s control to 70% of Gaza. This is a Palestinian woman whose family was displaced.

Bushra Al-Suwaisi: “Every day they advance more. We settle, they advance again. I was on that line. They advanced three times. They advanced on us here, as well. From where should we leave? We are besieged from this side and the other side. Does this work? It doesn’t work. Please, everyone, make us comfortable. Find a solution for us.”

Drop Site News is reporting Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale has been quietly working with Israel to help influence how artificial intelligence chatbots talk about Gaza. Israel awarded Parscale’s firm a $46.5 million contract for the project, which involves creating websites and blog posts about Israel. The target audience for the sites is AI chatbots like Claude or ChatGPT. When Drop Site asked one chatbot whether it would be beneficial for the United States to enhance military cooperation with Israel, the chatbot responded with a one-word answer: “Yes.” The top source cited was a website created by Parscale’s firm for the Israeli government.

In Ukraine, Russia launched more than 70 missiles and about 280 drones, killing eight people overnight. Poland had to scramble jets to secure its airspace during the attack. It comes as Ukraine claimed to hit major Russian oil refineries hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s meeting with President Trump at the White House.

The U.N. is sounding the alarm about a growing hunger crisis in eastern Congo that is exacerbated by the Ebola outbreak. In the DRC, the ongoing Ebola outbreak has recorded over 3,300 confirmed cases, including more than 1,400 deaths. According to the U.N.’s senior Ebola coordinator, 50 people died of Ebola just in the last 24 hours. This is the acting director of the World Food Programme.

Carl Skau: “Some 10 million people — I mean, 10 million people, that’s the population of Sweden, the country I come from — are acutely food insecure in the eastern DRC. And 3 million of those are in IPC-4 — as you know, emergency level of food insecurity. That is one step away from famine. That means they go to bed every night hungry. They wake up hungry every morning.”

In Pakistan, authorities stand accused of killing 30 people in Pakistan-administered Kashmir after security services fired on tens of thousands of peaceful protesters earlier this week. Protests have erupted in Pakistani Kashmir calling for electoral reform. The government responded by shutting down communications in the region. In the capital Islamabad, students protested against the government’s actions.

Sardar Mazhar: “Our protest is aimed at stopping what we say is the oppression of Muslims that has been taking place for the past two months in Rawalakot and across Kashmir. We have gathered here to urge the government to allow students to play their role in addressing the situation. We also protest against the rhetoric used by federal ministers, as we believe their language is worsening the situation.”

The Federal Reserve voted to maintain the current interest rate at around 3.6%. Three officials dissented and voted to raise the interest rate. President Trump has repeatedly pressured the Fed to lower rates despite persistently high inflation for more than five years.

On Capitol Hill, a critical vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination to be attorney general has been postponed. Republican Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina have threatened to withhold their support for Blanche if he does not provide written limits on the controversial settlement reached between Trump and the IRS over Trump’s unprecedented lawsuit against the agency. Cornyn and Tillis are seeking written assurances that the Justice Department will not create a $1.776 billion fund for Trump’s allies, including January 6 insurrectionists. The senators also want to scale back the part of the settlement that exempted Trump from IRS audits.

Before joining the Justice Department, Blanche served as Trump’s personal attorney. On Wednesday, a group of Jeffrey Epstein survivors lobbied senators to vote against Blanche, saying that he was “very condescending” to them during their meeting earlier this month.

The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a resolution opposing a pardon for Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking crimes. The resolution introduced by Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada says that Maxwell “should not be granted a Presidential pardon or any form of clemency for her crimes with Jeffrey Epstein relating to the sexual exploitation and abuse of minors.”

President Trump has asked the Supreme Court to overturn an $83.3 million jury award against him for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. Carroll filed the defamation suit over remarks Trump made while president. Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll $5.8 million in connection with a separate Carroll lawsuit against Trump. Her lawyers say that Carroll has already collected the $5.8 million. In that case, a jury found that Trump had sexually abused and defamed her.

Republican Congressmember Max Miller of Ohio is facing allegations of domestic abuse as he runs for reelection. His ex-wife Emily Moreno, who is the daughter of Ohio’s Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, claims that Congressmember Miller burned her chest and stomach by throwing hot water at her; held a gun to her head; and fractured their 2-year-old daughter’s collarbone. Miller is also facing a defamation lawsuit from former Trump spokesperson Stephanie Grisham, who alleges that he abused her, as well, during their relationship before he married Moreno. This comes as Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna and Republican Congressmember Anna Paulina Luna recently introduced a bill barring federal elected officials from using campaign funds to settle sexual misconduct allegations.

Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Senator Rand Paul. During the combative hearing, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times, declining to answer questions about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origins of the coronavirus. During the hearing, Fauci decried what he called Rand Paul’s “unhinged obsession with me.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci: “Given Senator Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something — anything — that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, 'behind bars,' unquote.”

After the hearing, Rand Paul announced the committee would vote on whether to hold Fauci in contempt. Before leaving office, President Biden issued a preemptive pardon for Fauci, believing that Republicans would go after him after he left office.