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Senior lawmakers in both parties said Monday that the Trump administration’s decision to launch bombing and missile strikes across Iran this weekend was largely dictated by Israel’s plan to attack Iran with or without U.S. support.

Senior administration officials told Republican and Democratic lawmakers at a classified briefing on Capitol Hill that the Israeli plan to strike Iran pushed the United States to take preemptive action to protect U.S. troops stationed at bases throughout the Middle East, whom the Pentagon believed would have been targeted by retaliatory strikes.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who serves as vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee attended the briefing, said the decision to initiate a massive military assault on another country because of pressure from a U.S. ally put the nation in “uncharted” territory.

“This is still a war of choice that has been acknowledged by others that was dictated by Israel’s goals and timeline,” Warner told reporters at the briefing.

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The House Ethics Committee is investigating Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) over allegations that she may have engaged in “improper reimbursement practices” and violated House rules.

The committee wrote in a statement on Monday that they had received a referral from the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct (OCC), which reviews allegations of misconduct against members of Congress.

The board of the OCC had written in a report that there is “substantial reason to believe” that Mace had “engaged in improper reimbursement practices,” recommending that the committee further review the allegation. The report alleges that Mace’s requests for reimbursement had exceeded the total of her D.C. property expenses during several months in 2023 and 2024, “amounting to an excess of 9,485.46.”

The chairman and ranking member of the House Ethics Committee wrote in a statement that it had “extended its review of the matter.”

“The Committee notes that the mere fact of conducting further review of a referral, and any mandatory disclosure of such further review, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee,” the statement says

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The Supreme Court blocked a state judge from redrawing Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’ (R-N.Y.) congressional district, agreeing to her emergency request Monday to restore the lines that connect Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn.

The high court’s intervention marks a new twist in the legal battle that has rippled through New York’s state judiciary and thrown the future of New York’s 11th Congressional District into question. It marks a victory for Republicans, who had been bracing for the possibility that the district would swing to Democrats if it was redesigned ahead of the midterm elections.

A state judge had ordered the boundaries be redrawn after ruling the district dilutes Black and Latino voting strength in violation of the state constitution.

The Supreme Court granted Malliotakis’s emergency application to block that ruling as the litigation proceeds, effectively restoring her existing district lines for the midterms.

The ruling appeared to split along ideological lines, with the three liberal justices publicly dissenting. Justice Samuel Alito voted in Malliotakis’s favor, saying the state judge’s order “blatantly discriminates on the basis of race,” while the other conservatives did not publicly disclose their votes.

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Concerns about an extended conflict, the mounting U.S. death toll and a perceived lack of clarity about the mission’s purpose are percolating among President Donald Trump’s MAGA base as the military operation in Iran puts the president at odds with some of his most ardent supporters.

Hanging over the debate is the memory of previous Middle Eastern conflicts, which stretched for years and claimed the lives of thousands of U.S. soldiers.

Trump's presidential campaigns tapped into the American public’s disenchantment with the long and costly conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He described the Iraq war as a "disaster" and "one of the worst decisions ever made in the history of our country."

But Trump’s second attack on Iran has already resulted in the deaths of six American service members, and the president is warning that more lives could be lost in a conflict with an uncertain timeline.

The president has launched a series of dramatic military operations in his second term, though. The first two in Iran and Venezuela were quick, and no U.S. soldiers died, limiting the blowback from his political base.

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The Supreme Court on March 2 backed parents' right to be told if their child changes their name, or pronouns they're using in school, blocking California rules aimed at preventing teachers from outing transgender students to their parents.

"Under long-established precedent, parents − not the State − have primary authority with respect to 'the upbringing and education of children,'" the majority said in an unsigned opinion. "The right protected by these precedents includes the right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children’s mental health."

The court’s three liberal justices dissented from the decision to grant the parents' emergency request.

Justice Elena Kagan criticized the conservative majority for making a rushed decision about a case "raising novel legal questions and arousing strong views" that is at an early stage of litigation.

"The Court is impatient: It already knows what it thinks, and insists on getting everything over quickly," she wrote of the decision that came without the full rounds of briefing and oral arguments for cases.

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Protests sparked up in New York City and across the country Saturday in response to the military strikes in Iran.

One that started in Times Square saw a massive turnout.
"It's one appalling thing after another"

At its peak Saturday afternoon, the protest ballooned to nearly 1,000 people. Hundreds of demonstrators from all walks of life mobilized just hours after the United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran.

Protesters say it was not only unwarranted, but also the last thing the U.S. should be involved in.

"There is a broad base of society that is against all these things, whether it's the attacks on Minneapolis from ICE or the attacks today in Iran," protest organizer Mike Chrisemer said.

"It's one appalling thing after another, but now a war without consulting Congress?" protester Betsy Robinson said.

"People in Iran have the right to determine for themselves their own future, and it's not up to us to meddle in the affairs of another country's," protest organizer Carla Reyes said.

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Events are still unfolding rapidly across the Middle East, so here's a quick recap:

The death toll from the US-Israeli strike on a girls’ school in Minab has climbed to 165, according to the city’s prosecutor.

At least 20 people have been killed in a US-Israeli attack on the Iranian capital, according to Iranian state-linked media, marking another deadly attack in the widening assault on the country.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has dismissed US President Donald Trump’s warning against retaliation, vowing that Tehran will place “no limit” on its right to defend itself after what he described as massive US-Israeli bombardment.

The US military says it has hit more than 1,000 targets across Iran since launching its war on Saturday.

The US military says it has destroyed the headquarters of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in a large-scale strike.

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Dozens of teenage girls were attending their regular training sessions of volleyball, basketball, and gymnastics in the main sports hall in Lamerd, a city near the Persian coast, when a missile slammed into the building at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Additional strikes hit two nearby residential areas and a hall adjacent to a school, as the U.S. and Israel pounded targets across Iran on the first day of what President Donald Trump declared as a regime change war. According to local officials cited in Iranian state media, the strikes on Lamerd killed at least 18 civilians and wounded scores more.

“Within seconds of the missile strike, the windows shattered into thousands of fragments. Sports equipment, balls, tables, barriers flew through the air. Black smoke filled the space. The smell of gunpowder made breathing almost impossible. The screaming began immediately, layered with the sound of debris collapsing and concrete falling from the ceiling,” Mohammed Saed Khorshedy, a 29-year-old worker at the gym who witnessed the attack, told Drop Site News.

The facility sits on the outskirts of Lamerd, a quiet city in Fars province, near the surrounding Zagros mountain range, giving the natural landscape an uneven, rugged character. The rectangular building is at a crossroads connecting the city center to Bandar Assaluyeh, an industrial port and energy hub on the Persian Gulf.

The sports hall was poorly maintained, with deteriorating walls surrounded by a low perimeter fence. A high arched metal roof sat atop a reinforced concrete frame and a rubber floor for volleyball and other sports. The missile struck the middle of the roof, destroying a large part of the building. The main court, small spectator stands, changing rooms, and coach’s office were all reduced to rubble.

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