Iran’s military says it’s launching “crushing, broader and destructive” attacks, after President Trump threatened to bomb Iran “back to the stone ages.” Trump made the threat in a nationally televised primetime address from the White House Wednesday evening. He said the U.S. would continue strikes on Iran for the next two to three weeks, but provided no timeline for an exit. He said countries that receive oil through the Strait of Hormuz should show “courage” and seize the waterway.

President Donald Trump: “I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly. We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change, but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders’ death. They’re all dead.”

Oil prices soared, and stock markets fell across Asia as Trump promised to continue attacks on Iran. Today, foreign ministers from 35 nations, including several EU countries, are holding a virtual meeting to discuss Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz; the U.S. is not among nations attending the meeting, which was organized by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

On Wednesday, supporters of Iran’s government rallied in the streets of Tehran even as the U.S. and Israel continued bombing.

Protester: “However much they terrorize, however many of us are martyred, we will still have others to take their place. Our country has countless young people, young people who will stand firm, remain and continue the path of the martyred.”

Iran is continuing retaliatory attacks across the Middle East. In the United Arab Emirates, officials say shrapnel from an intercepted drone fell on a farm, killing a Bangladeshi national. Qatar’s Defense Ministry says it shot down two cruise missiles fired by Iran, while a third missile evaded air defenses and struck an oil tanker leased to QatarEnergy. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan also reported missile attacks from Iran.

In Israel, millions of people ushered in the start of Passover Wednesday evening in bomb shelters, as missiles fired by Iran and Hezbollah triggered air raid sirens. Israeli authorities said 14 people, including an 11-year-old girl, were wounded when an Iranian missile fell near Tel Aviv.

In Iraq, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is urging all U.S. citizens to leave immediately, warning Iran-aligned militias may be planning attacks within the next 24 to 48 hours. The warning came after U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was abducted in Baghdad after a car chase on Tuesday.

The New York Times reports Israeli military officials are privately urging Christian and Druze communities in southern Lebanon to force out Shiite Muslim residents sheltering among them. Human rights groups condemn the plan as ethnic cleansing. This comes as Israel has ordered the expansion of its so-called buffer zone in Lebanon from the Litani River to areas north of the Zahrani River, displacing about a fifth of the Lebanese population. Israel’s finance and defense ministers have called on Israel to annex southern Lebanon. More than 1,200 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since March 2. The World Health Organization has recorded at least 120 attacks on medical infrastructure across Lebanon, Iran and Israel since the start of the war. Meanwhile, the U.N. says three Indonesian peacekeepers killed in southern Lebanon last weekend may be war crimes victims and that an investigation is underway.

Stéphane Dujarric: “We’ve said repeatedly, these incidents are unacceptable and demand full accountability. … Attacks on U.N. peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law.”

Russia’s military leaders say they’ve taken complete control of eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region. It’s one of four Ukrainian regions Russia annexed in 2022. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Russia for rejecting a proposed Orthodox Easter holiday truce; he says Moscow instead fired more than 700 drones into Ukraine in daytime attacks targeting civilian infrastructure. At least four people were killed.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports President Trump is threatening to halt military aid to Ukraine if U.S. allies in Europe don’t join efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have announced a two-track plan to end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Under the plan, Republicans would fund most of DHS except ICE and Border Patrol through the end of September. Then they would attempt to fund those two immigration agencies for three years through a party-line budget reconciliation bill requiring no Democratic votes. Democrats have refused to fully fund DHS until it implements changes to its immigration enforcement policies. DHS has been partially shut down since February, after federal agents killed Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis during an immigration crackdown.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Trump v. Barbara, a challenge to President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. Both liberal and conservative justices expressed deep skepticism of Trump’s executive order. Trump became the first sitting president to attend Supreme Court oral arguments, staying for about 75 minutes before leaving. After departing, he claimed in a social media post that the U.S. is “the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow 'Birthright' Citizenship.” In fact, roughly three dozen countries offer it, including Mexico and Canada. This is Cecillia Wang, the ACLU’s national legal director, who argued before the Supreme Court for birthright citizenship.

Cecillia Wang: “I come out of the court today with the thought of my parents and so many of our parents and ancestors who came to this country seeking refuge, seeking new opportunities, and who relied on the rule that we’ve had in this country for 150 years that everyone born here is a United States citizen, all alike. And I’m confident that the court is going to turn back this president’s effort to radically rewrite our 14th Amendment rule of birthright citizenship.”

DACA recipient Maria de Jesús Estrada Juárez has returned to California after a federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security to bring her back, ruling that her deportation to Mexico was unlawful. U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins said her deportation was a “flagrant violation” of her DACA protections. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is supposed to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation. In February, Estrada Juárez was detained during an interview to obtain permanent residency and deported to Mexico the next day. She has lived in the U.S. for nearly 30 years. DHS has deported dozens of DACA recipients since Trump’s return to office.

The Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a visually impaired Rohingya refugee, a homicide. Fifty-six-year-old Alam died on the streets of Buffalo, New York, five days after Border Patrol officers dropped him off at a Tim Horton’s coffee shop that had already closed for the evening. The medical examiner determined the cause of Alam’s death was complications of a perforated ulcer, precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration. Alam had arrived in Buffalo under legal refugee status in December 2024 before he was taken into custody last year following a trespassing incident. Dr. Gale Burstein is the Erie County commissioner of health.

Dr. Gale Burstein: “In terms of the manner of death, the Medical Examiner’s Office determined it to be homicide, which refers to death resulting from volitional, or through a choice or decision, or an act of another. And so, this includes negligent acts or omissions or inaction.”

For the first time in over half a century, humans are headed to the moon. NASA’s Artemis II mission blasted off from Florida’s space coast on Wednesday evening with four astronauts aboard, on a 10-day voyage that will take them around the far side of the moon and back to Earth. The crew includes the first person of color to visit the moon, pilot Victor Glover, and the first woman to make the trip, mission specialist Christina Koch.