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In the news today: A high-ranking Iranian religious leader calls for “the shedding of Trump’s blood”; Congress tries to limit Trump’s military operations in Iran; and the House subpoenas Attorney General Bondi over the Epstein files. Also, remembering legendary college football coach Lou Holtz. |
A man inspects a damaged house struck by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Hatzor HaGlilit, northern Israel, Wednesday. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) |
Iran says US will ‘bitterly regret’ sinking warship, calls for ‘Trump’s blood’ |
Iran launched a new wave of attacks on Thursday at Israeli and American bases and threatened that the U.S. would “bitterly regret” torpedoing an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. A religious leader called for “Trump’s blood,” as Israel said it hit multiple targets in Iran. Read more. |
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Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, in one of the few clerical statements so far from Iran, called on state television for “the shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of Trump’s blood.” It was a rare call for violence from an ayatollah, one of the highest ranks within the clergy of Shiite Islam.
Israel announced multiple incoming missile attacks and air sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Iranian state television said strikes also targeted U.S. bases. Israel’s military said it launched targeted attacks in Lebanon on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group and a “large-scale wave of strikes against infrastructure” in Iran’s capital, without elaborating.
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Can Congress limit Trump in Iran? It would be a rare step |
Multiple times during President Donald Trump’s second term, Congress has debated his military authority, first in Latin America and now the Middle East. The latest test will come in the GOP-controlled House on Thursday after the Senate voted down a Democratic measure to limit Trump, at least theoretically, in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Read more.
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Under the Constitution, the military reports to the president. But the document grants oversight roles to Congress. Trump says he won’t sign anything limiting his options – proof for some experts that control over a civilian-led military has skewed from its original design. “The Constitution gives war powers to two different branches of government,” said military historian Peter Mansoor, an Ohio State University professor and retired U.S. Army colonel. “The pendulum has swung towards the executive,” he said, adding that “the framers meant for Congress to be the most powerful branch.”
Article I of the Constitution, which established Congress, states that lawmakers “shall have power ... to declare war.” Article II, which established the presidency, makes the chief executive the “commander in chief of the Army and Navy.” Congress has not declared an official state of war since World War II. Yet since 1945, U.S. service members have fought and died in full-scale conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, among other places. As of Wednesday, six U.S. service members have died in the Iran war.
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House committee votes to subpoena Bondi over the Epstein files |
Five Republicans joined Democrats to support the subpoena proposed by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace in a sign of continued frustration among conservatives with the department’s review and release of a tranche of documents related to the disgraced financier. Read more. |
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The move amounted to a sharp rebuke of Bondi by Republicans who have been clamoring for information about Epstein’s abuse of young girls and his interactions with rich and powerful people. “The American people want answers on the Epstein files, and so do we,” Mace, of South Carolina, said in a post on X.
The Justice Department had no immediate comment on the subpoena. Bondi has defended the department’s handling of the files and has accused Democrats of using the furor over the documents to distract from Trump’s successes, even though some of the most vocal criticism has come from members of the president’s own party.
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