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Republicans are grappling with how to handle an expected $200 billion request for supplemental funding for the war in Iran, weighing their desire to support the president with demands from fiscal hawks, questions about the scope of the funding and the challenge of a super-slim majority in the House.

Democrats are not expected to support such a Pentagon funding boost for a war they oppose, leading Republicans to eye fulfilling the request through the special budget reconciliation process, which bypasses the need for Democratic support to clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

But to do that, Republicans must get near-unanimous support in a slim House GOP majority — a tall task for even the most populist GOP priorities — while contending with demands from their own members to offset the cost of such a funding boost with cuts elsewhere.

“It needs to be paid for. We need to do the fiscally responsible thing,” said Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), a member of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus.

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Former FBI Director James Comey received a subpoena as part of a Justice Department probe into whether Obama administration officials broke the law during an earlier investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to multiple media reports.

Comey was previously prosecuted by the Trump administration for allegedly lying to Congress, but the case was dismissed after a judge determined the prosecutor who brought it was unlawfully appointed. The Justice Department has appealed that ruling.

The development follows allegations from National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard at a July 23 news briefing that the Obama administration pushed a "contrived narrative" that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Donald Trump. The same day, the Justice Department announced it was creating a "Strike Force" to assess the evidence and "investigate potential next legal steps."

Axios was the first of multiple media outlets to report on the subpoena to Comey, citing anonymous sources. The investigation is reportedly being led by a Florida federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones, a Trump appointee.

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The U.N. human rights office Tuesday expressed concerns about possible “ethnic cleansing,” denouncing an acceleration of Israeli settlements and displacements of thousands of Palestinians in large parts of the occupied West Bank that has grown “more relentless” in recent months.

A new report from the office of Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, covers a yearlong period through the end of October and warns of expanded settlements in large parts of the West Bank and the forced displacement of more than 36,000 Palestinians.

Since then, “the pace of the concerted efforts by the Israeli government to seize as much Palestinian land as possible — with as few Palestinians in it as possible — is only becoming more relentless,” Ajith Sunghay, the head of the rights office in occupied Palestinian areas, told a U.N. briefing in Geneva.

The Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva responded by saying that as far as Israel was concerned, the U.N. rights office “has lost all credibility.” It alluded to longtime allegations — backed often by the United States — of unfair bias against Israel and a relative disregard of other human rights situations around the world.

“It does not function as an impartial and neutral human rights office, but as the epicenter of vile anti-Israel activism,” the mission said in a statement, blasting a “U.N. anti-Israel narrative machine” that has produced several reports about Israeli settlements in recent months.

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Families arrive at the cemetery after sunset. They come carrying rugs and cushions, food and water, and candles or lanterns that they place on the small, freshly dug graves. Parents carefully clean the tombstones of their buried children. They arrange the spaces around them and settle in for the night—a quiet vigil that will continue until dawn.

The collective grief in Minab, Iran is unfathomable. At least 168 children, most of them girls aged between seven and 12 years old, were killed in a single strike on the Shajareh Tayyiba elementary school on February 28, in the opening hours of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

As the holy month of Ramadan comes to a close this week—a time when prayers carry special weight—families have continued to gather at the cemetery after iftar, the sunset meal to break the fast, to pray beside their dead children in the dark.

Amina Karimi, 42, lost her seven-year-old daughter, Leila, in the strike. She comes to the cemetery every night.

“Ramadan this year arrived carrying a grief I have never known before,” Karimi told Drop Site News. “I read the Quran in a low voice and recite prayers I dedicated to her, and I speak to her as though she can hear me.” She pauses. “Sometimes I close my eyes and recall her laugh, her voice, how she used to run at school, laugh with her friends, and how we used to dream of her future.” Karimi stays at the graveyard through the night despite the cold that cuts through her clothes. “The night is heavy and the cold bites. But the dim candlelight gives me some warmth.”

Evidence collected by human rights groups and media outlets strongly point to the U.S. conducting the Tomahawk missile strike—one of the deadliest single attacks on children in memory. Preliminary findings of an internal U.S. military investigation determined the U.S. was responsible and the school was likely bombed based on outdated targeting data. The Trump administration has not admitted to anything.

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US President Donald Trump on Thursday America had 'no idea' of Israel's attack on facilities linked to Iran's oil industry in South Pars and Asaluyeh, warning of severe military consequences if Tehran launches more attacks on  Qatar's energy infrastructure, as tensions across the Gulf escalated following strikes on major liquefied natural gas facilities.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said, “Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran. A relatively small section of the whole has been hit."

On Wednesday, facilities linked to Iran’s oil industry in South Pars and Asaluyeh came under attack, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

"The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen," Trump said, adding that Israel will "NO MORE" target Iran’s South Pars gas field unless Tehran “unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar”.

In such a scenario, the United States, “with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before”, Trump wrote on Truth Social.

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Ongoing diplomatic efforts involving Ukraine, the US and Russia have been temporarily put on hold as Washington focuses its attention on escalating tensions in the Middle East, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told reporters in Kyiv that several rounds of planned trilateral consultations have already been postponed, and further delays are now expected.

“Several upcoming rounds of trilateral consultations between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States have already been rescheduled multiple times. As of now, they have been pushed back again,” he said.

“They haven’t been canceled or abandoned, just delayed. There’s no need to read anything more into it,” Tykhyi continued.

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The United Nations' nuclear watchdog chief says he does not believe the war in Iran can entirely eliminate the nation's nuclear program, even if the main facilities are heavily damaged.

And Iran confirmed a third senior official killed by Israel in about 24 hours.

Iran retaliated to Israel's killing late Tuesday of the head of the Supreme National Security Council with missile attacks at Israel overnight, killing two people near Tel Aviv.

Health authorities have reported about 1,300 killed in Iran, 968 in Lebanon and 16 in Israel since the war began on Feb. 28. U.S. Central Command has said 13 U.S. service members have been killed and eight severely injured. Several Gulf Arab countries have also reported lower fatalities.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says he believes some part of Iran's nuclear program will remain, even after the heavy damage done by U.S. and Israeli military strikes.

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When Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the stage at the Museum of the City of New York last week, he was surrounded by city workers invited to share iftar, the dinner held after sunset to break the daily Ramadan fast.

"It is not every day that we see in one room the sheer breadth of Muslim life in New York City," Mamdani said, flashing his trademark grin and offering the traditional holiday greeting. "I will say it once again, Ramadan mubarak, my friends."

It was a moment of celebration and pride not only for New York City's community of roughly one million Muslims but also for many Muslims across the country.

Over the last year, Mamdani had risen with astonishing speed from a Democratic Socialist backbencher in the state legislature to the pinnacle of power in the U.S.' largest city.

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