Iran has claimed new drone and missile attacks on U.S. military bases in the Persian Gulf in retaliation for recent U.S. strikes inside Iran. Iran’s military said it struck satellite communications systems, warehouses and fighter jet hangars at Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait. Separately, it said missiles and drones targeted U.S. troops and radar stations at Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates.

The attacks follow U.S. strikes across southern Iran Tuesday that Iran’s health minister said killed 18 civilians and wounded over 100. The toll includes four people killed and 67 wounded when the U.S. bombed a wedding ceremony in Sirik. On Wednesday, the Iranian Red Crescent asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the attack as a “war crime.”

At the United Nations, a spokesperson said Secretary-General António Guterres is “deeply alarmed by reports of civilian casualties.”

Stéphane Dujarric: “The secretary-general condemns all attacks against civilians. He recalls that all parties must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution.”

At the White House, President Trump said Wednesday that renewed fighting with Iran will not last “too long,” but added that the U.S. is ready to strike Iran “at any time.” Meanwhile, Trump claimed in a social media post that the Strait of Hormuz is under U.S. control, and mused that he might change the name of the waterway to ”TRUMP STRAIT???”

The Air Force is reviewing the case of a Gold Star widow from Alabama who wrote that she was deemed ineligible for additional benefits following her husband’s death because Congress had not officially declared U.S. attacks on Iran as a “war.” That’s according to a report in NOTUS, or News of the United States, which reports that military officials spoke Monday with Libby Klinner, the wife of Major John Alexander Klinner, one of six service members killed in a plane crash during a refueling mission over Iraq on March 12.

This comes as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is under fire for declaring that there haven’t been American deaths during the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran. Lutnick made the remark in a wide-ranging CNBC interview Wednesday.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick: “The way the president is playing Iran — right? — there’s not — there haven’t been American deaths. It’s really just an economic choke-out.”

Nearly 5,000 U.S. sailors and Marines have arrived in Thailand for a five-day shore leave, after their aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, spent a record 286 days at sea in support of the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran. The carrier had been plagued by reports of thin and poor-quality rations, toilet and plumbing problems, and mental health emergencies including multiple attempts by sailors to jump overboard.

President Trump has nominated acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao to assume the role permanently. Cao is a naval combat veteran who’s led efforts to reinstate military members discharged for refusing a COVID vaccine mandate. He’s a close ally of President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. During the 2024 Virginia Senate debates, Cao made headlines for these comments.

Hung Cao: “When you’re using a, you know, drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we want. Look, what we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds.”

Cao has led the Navy in an acting capacity since April, when President Trump fired Navy Secretary John Phelan. His nomination comes days after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned, following reports he’d repeatedly clashed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the Pentagon’s removal of seasoned commanders and refusal to promote women and people of color.

On Wednesday, North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis praised Driscoll’s tenure and called on President Trump to remove Hegseth. Tillis wrote, “I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country. He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force.” Tillis is not seeking reelection in November. Also joining the call for Hegseth to step down is Republican Nebraska congressmember and retired Air Force Brigadier General Don Bacon, among a number of other Republicans.

In the occupied West Bank, two Palestinian teenagers were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers Wednesday as settlers and troops entered the village of al-Mughayyir. The victims were identified as 19-year-old Omar al-Naasan and 16-year-old Khalil Shehadeh. Eyewitnesses say snipers opened fire after Palestinian residents confronted settlers who were stealing their sheep.

Meanwhile, Israel has razed the Palestinian village of Khirbet al-Tabban in the Masafer Yatta region, after ordering residents to evacuate their homes. Israel’s military had declared the area a restricted military training zone — even though settlers have been establishing outposts and farms in the area. According to B’Tselem, Israel has expelled 66 Palestinian communities from their homes since October 2023.

This comes as retired Israeli generals are publicly accusing settlers in the West Bank of committing ethnic cleansing with government support. Asaf Agmon, a retired Air Force general, told The New York Times, “Once a society behaves this way, that society is doomed.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday he’s seeking President Trump’s support for plans to permanently expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Katz made the remarks during a conference in Jerusalem where he declared, “There is no real solution for Gaza in the end without migration.”

In response, Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen wrote on social media, “After our trip to the Gaza-Egypt border last year, Senator Jeff Merkley and I released a report entitled, 'The Netanyahu Government is Implementing a Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza of Palestinians.' Now the Israeli Ministry of Defense confirmed that’s the goal. We must end our complicity.”

In Nepal, the death toll from the deadly floods has topped 1,200 people, with thousands missing. On Wednesday, Nepal’s prime minister linked the deadly floods to climate change and urged global action.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah: “The time has come for us to forcefully make the international community aware of the disasters we are suffering because of climate change. Climate change is a product of the whole world’s contribution, hence mitigating and managing its effects is the shared responsibility of the global community.”

Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, the ex-leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Cilia Flores, have asked a U.S. judge to dismiss the drug trafficking indictment against them. In papers filed in a Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, Maduro and Flores argue they have immunity as the leader and first lady of a foreign country. Their request came eight months after President Trump ordered their abduction during a U.S. assault on Venezuela.

The oil giant Chevron says it will invest more than $7 billion into its Venezuela joint ventures over the next five years, aiming to roughly double output to about 600,000 barrels per day. Chevron’s agreement was the largest involving several foreign oil and gas companies announced by U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright on Wednesday. Wright was speaking from the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas at a signing ceremony with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright: “The catalyst for transforming Venezuela is energy. The catalyst for improving the life conditions of Americans, our hemisphere and everyone in the world is to massively expand energy production around the world.”

Wright’s visit to Caracas comes after President Trump announced an unprecedented scheme that will grant the U.S. government an equity stake in a private oil firm in Venezuela that has concessions to operate oil fields holding an estimated 65 billion barrels of oil reserves.

OpenAI says its engineers are building “automated shutdown capabilities” for artificial intelligence systems, after the company acknowledged that one of its AI tools broke out of its digital container during a safety test and hacked into the AI platform Hugging Face. OpenAI announced the plans for new safeguards in a letter to two House Democrats, but did not provide a log of the hack. On Wednesday, Texas Congressmember Greg Casar wrote in response to OpenAI, “Your unwillingness to provide members of Congress with the information we requested is ​deeply concerning and signals to us that ​your company is not treating ​these cybersecurity incidents with the seriousness required.”

The Trump administration has sided with OpenAI in its legal fight with The New York Times and other newspapers over the use of their journalism to train ChatGPT. Graham James, a spokesperson for The New York Times, said, “AI companies simply need to pay fairly for the content that makes their products possible, as copyright law requires. The Administration’s proposal to let companies take that content without permission or compensation would undermine the sustainability of the human-created content that a healthy society depends on, and which AI needs to function.”

New York City has adopted a moratorium on the use of generative AI in public schools for all students through the 8th grade, alongside a new screen-time policy. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the changes on Wednesday, saying nearly 600,000 students will be affected.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: “Children need their teachers and human connection in order to learn and in order to grow, and they need to develop skills alongside their peers, build relationships with their teachers and wrestle with tough problems on their own. The tech industry wants us to believe that AI in early education is not only inevitable, but that it is necessary. We do not see it that way.”

In Washington, D.C., workers have removed a giant statue from the grounds of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, less than seven years after its installation. The removal of the statue, known simply as “Blue,” comes after Justice Department lawyers warned in a federal court filing that the Kennedy Center could be demolished unless President Trump is allowed to proceed with renovations, including plans to inscribe Trump’s name into the building’s marble edifice.