What to know
- President Donald Trump amended his statement from earlier today when he said the war won’t end until Iran makes an “unconditional surrender.” He later told Axios that it “could be when they can’t fight any longer because they don’t have anyone or anything to fight with.”
- Americans still in the Middle East have been struggling to come home. Commercial flights directly back to the U.S. have begun to slowly resume operations, with flights landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York yesterday and today. The State Department said today that the U.S. is offering chartered flights to evacuate Americans from four countries — Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — for free. The agency said that it used a New England Patriots plane to fly some Americans to the U.S.
- As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran heads toward a second week, Gulf states are reeling from more airstrikes by Iran— including Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other nations. The World Health Organization estimates that roughly “1,000 deaths have been reported in Iran, 50 in Lebanon, 13 in Israel and 11 in other Gulf countries.”
- Beirut is evacuating southern Lebanon after the Israeli military warned it was launching more strikes and is targeting Hezbollah, a militant group backed by Iran and based in Lebanon.