Israel destroys last bridge to southern Lebanon; Russia kills at least 16 in massive overnight attack on Ukraine; Johnson postpones then cancels FISA vote

Drop Site Daily: April 16, 2026

Pakistan army chief arrives in Tehran for talks. UAE and Iran hold first high-level contact since diplomatic rupture. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warns China and Japan of “dangerous consequences” of U.S. posture in Hormuz. Iran has up to two months before blockade forces production cuts, analysts say. Top oil companies pocketed $30 million per hour in war profits during first month of Iran conflict. IEA chief says Europe has 6 weeks of jet fuel left. Israel continues its attacks on Lebanon. Hezbollah continues attacks on Israeli military. Israel kills three medical responders. BBC: Over 1,400 buildings confirmed destroyed in southern Lebanon. President Donald Trump claims direct meeting planned between leaders of Israel and Lebanon. 31 settler attacks documented across West Bank and East Jerusalem in 24 hours. 350 Palestinian students held in Israeli detention, ministry says. Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and wife found dead in an apparent murder-suicide. House Speaker Mike Johnson postpones then cancels FISA vote. Sen. Bernie Sanders leads charge to block arms sales to Israel. Senate Republicans block fourth Iran war powers resolution as 60-day deadline looms. Jury finds Live Nation and Ticketmaster held illegal monopoly over concert venues. U.S. military kills three in third Pacific boat strike in three days. Russia kills at least 16 in massive overnight attack on Ukraine. South Africa’s Julius Malema sentenced to five years for firing rifle at party rally. Sudanese army drone strike kills three at Chad border crossing. 14-year-old kills nine at Turkish middle school. Syria detains more than 40 Palestinians near Damascus. France and Italy advance antisemitism laws which could criminalize criticism of Israel. Leftist surges to second place in Peru vote count. Nine million stripped from voter rolls in West Bengal ahead of state election.

From Drop Site: “My Daughter Went Out to Learn, Not to Fight”: Gaza Grieves More Children Killed by Israel

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The Israeli military destroyed the Qasmiyeh bridge over the Litani River in southern Lebanon on April 16, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP via Getty Images.

Iran and Ceasefire

• Pakistan army chief arrives in Tehran for talks: A high-level delegation led by Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir arrived in Tehran on Wednesday evening for talks focused on arranging a new round of negotiations between Iran and the United States less than one week before the truce is set to expire. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is in Saudi Arabia for the first stop in a four-day Gulf tour. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that a second round of in-person talks would “very likely” be held in Islamabad, and that Pakistan is the “only mediator” between the U.S. and Iran.

• UAE and Iran hold first high-level contact since diplomatic rupture: UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf spoke by phone Wednesday in the first high-level contact between the two countries since the war began. Per Ghalibaf’s office, the two sides exchanged views on “reducing tensions in the region and the prospects for developing bilateral relations in the security and economic spheres,” while UAE state media WAM characterized the call as focused on “de-escalation and regional stability.”

• Araghchi warns China and Japan of “dangerous consequences” of U.S. posture in Hormuz: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned of “the dangerous consequences of the provocative positions and actions of the United States in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz” in a call on Wednesday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. He also held a call with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, briefing both on regional developments.

• Iran has up to two months before blockade forces production cuts, analysts say: Iran holds enough onshore crude storage capacity to absorb diverted output for up to two months before being forced to curtail upstream production, consultancy FGE NextantECA estimated, according to Reuters—as the U.S. naval blockade, which took effect April 13 following the collapse of Islamabad ceasefire talks, tightens around Iranian ports. Once onshore tanks reach capacity at roughly 122 million barrels total, with approximately 90 million barrels currently available, Iran would be compelled to cap upstream output—a far more damaging and difficult-to-reverse step than export disruptions alone. Brent crude has risen roughly 40% since the war began and is nearing $100 a barrel.

• Top oil companies pocketed $30 million per hour in war profits during first month of Iran conflict: The world’s top 100 oil and gas companies earned more than $30 million every hour in windfall profits during the first month of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, generating an estimated $23 billion in excess earnings in March alone as oil averaged $100 a barrel, according to analysis by Global Witness using Rystad Energy data reported exclusively by the Guardian. Saudi Aramco stands to make an estimated $25.5 billion in war profits in 2026 if the $100 price holds, while ExxonMobil is on track for $11 billion, Chevron $9.2 billion, and Shell $6.8 billion—with three Russian state-linked companies, Gazprom, Rosneft, and Lukoil, projected to collect a combined $23.9 billion, boosting Vladimir Putin’s war chest for the conflict in Ukraine.

• IEA chief says Europe has 6 weeks of jet fuel left: The head of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol told the AP that Europe has “maybe six weeks or so [of] jet fuel left,” warning of possible flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies remain blocked by the war. Birol characterized it as “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced,” adding: “It is going to have major implications for the global economy. And the longer it goes, the worse it will be for the economic growth and inflation around the world.”

• Ghalibaf demands Lebanon ceasefire, tells U.S. to abandon “Israel First” policy: Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf issued a pointed statement Wednesday demanding the United States honor its ceasefire commitments as Israeli strikes on Lebanon continued, writing that Washington “must comply with the agreement” and calling on America to “withdraw from the ‘Israel First’ mistake.” Ghalibaf credited Hezbollah and the Axis of Resistance with securing a ceasefire in Lebanon, asserting that “resistance and Iran are one soul, both in war and in ceasefire.”

• Iran proposes limited Strait of Hormuz passage in U.S. negotiations: Iran has proposed allowing commercial vessels to transit safely along the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz as part of ongoing negotiations with the United States, contingent on a broader deal to avoid renewed conflict, a source told Reuters Wednesday—a potential first step back from Tehran’s plans to control or tax passage through the waterway. U.S. Central Command reported on Wednesday that 10 ships had been directly blocked from exiting Iranian ports since the beginning of the blockade on Monday, though on the same day, two U.S.-sanctioned tankers reportedly made it through the Strait to an Iranian port, according to Tanker Trackers.

• Iran halts petrochemical exports to shore up domestic supply amid war disruptions: Iran’s Petrochemical Industries Development Organization ordered an immediate suspension of all petrochemical exports Wednesday, directing companies to redirect output to the domestic market and report any undeparted cargoes for possible reallocation, citing war-related disruptions and price volatility. The directive reflects mounting pressure on Iran’s energy sector following early April strikes on key facilities including the Mahshahr Petrochemical Special Zone and South Pars plants, which sharply reduced output, compounded by a U.S. naval blockade that has paralyzed maritime trade into and out of Iranian ports.

• Iran used Chinese satellite to monitor and target U.S. bases, leaked documents show: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force acquired a Chinese spy satellite in late 2024 that it used to monitor and help target U.S. military bases across the Middle East during the war, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing leaked Iranian military documents confirmed by Fox News. The IRGC purchased the TEE-01B satellite from Chinese company Earth Eye Co for roughly $36.6 million, paid in renminbi, according to the report. Time-stamped coordinate lists, satellite imagery, and orbital analysis show Iranian commanders used the satellite to surveil Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on March 13, 14, and 15—the same days President Donald Trump confirmed U.S. aircraft at the base had been struck—as well as Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, the U.S. Fifth Fleet naval base in Bahrain, and Erbil airport in Iraq around the time of IRGC-claimed strikes on those facilities. China’s Foreign Ministry denied the report, calling it “not true.”

Lebanon

• Israel continues its attacks on Lebanon:

  • At least five people have been killed in Israeli air attacks on southern Lebanon on Thursday, according to the National News Agency (NNA).

  • An Israeli airstrike on Thursday destroyed the Qasmiyeh Bridge over the Litani River—the last bridge connecting southern Lebanon to the rest of the country, according to the NNA.

  • Heavy clashes broke out Thursday morning between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces in the town of Bint Jbeil, according to the NNA. The Israeli military has surrounded the town and has deployed warplanes and helicopters in the fighting. On Thursday, the Israeli military posted a video of a mass demolition in Bint Jbeil and said it destroyed “70 terror infrastructure sites in just one minute.”

  • The Israeli military demolished homes in Naqoura, near Tyre on Wednesday. Warplanes struck the town of Hanniyeh on the same day, and a drone targeted Aatit near Tyre. An airstrike also hit Meifdoun, and as rescue teams arrived, a second drone strike targeted the crew, according to Lebanon’s NNA.

  • Also on Wednesday, Israeli airstrikes hit Al-Shehabieh in the south, causing several injuries, and drone strikes hit a car on the road between Kfour and Kfarjouz in Nabtieh, the NNA reported. Airstrikes hit Deir al-Zahrani as well, and killed a Syrian national in Harouf. An additional Lebanese citizen was killed in an airstrike in Ibn-al-Saqi-Blat.

• Hezbollah continues attacks on Israeli military: Hezbollah claimed over a dozen attacks on northern Israel and Israeli ground troops in southern Lebanon, including in Khiam, Qantara, Rab el-Thalatheen, and Ras al-Naqoura.

• WHO chief documents Israeli attacks on Tebnine hospital in southern Lebanon: The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for “the immediate protection of health care facilities, health workers, ambulances, and patients” across Lebanon amid Israel’s attacks. In a statement, he said that Lebanon’s “Tebnine Government Hospital, one of the busiest trauma management hospitals in the south, was damaged due to two consecutive strikes close by on 12 and 14 April.” He said at least 11 workers were injured, with the hospital’s emergency department and its equipment destroyed and that the hospital’s “pharmacy and outpatient clinics were also damaged.” Over 90 medical workers have been killed since March 2, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

• Israel strikes and kills three medical responders: Israeli forces carried out four successive waves of airstrikes outside Nabatieh on Wednesday, deliberately targeting emergency responders in sequence—first striking the area, then hitting ambulances dispatched to aid the wounded, followed by strikes on a second and third wave of responders, killing three medical workers and wounding six others.

• BBC: Over 1,400 buildings confirmed destroyed in southern Lebanon: Towns and villages in southern Lebanon are being leveled by the Israeli military, according to an analysis of satellite images and videos by BBC which found that more than 1,400 buildings had been destroyed since March 2. “This is just a snapshot of the overall damage caused by Israeli air strikes and demolitions, because of limited access on the ground and available satellite imagery. The true scale is likely to be much higher,” BBC said.

• Trump claims direct meeting planned between leaders of Israel and Lebanon: President Trump announced on social media that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon will speak on Thursday, as part of his efforts to “get a little breathing room” between Israel and Lebanon. “It has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years. It will happen tomorrow. Nice!” Trump said. Trump did not specify who would be present at the meeting or give any further details. Israel’s Minister of Science and Technology Gila Gamliel also said in a radio interview that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday. “We told America we aren’t ready to take that step,” a Lebanese official told CNN.

• Lebanon president thanks Rubio for “efforts”: The Lebanese presidency said on Thursday that President Joseph Aoun held a call with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In a statement posted on X, it said Aoun thanked Rubio “for the efforts Washington is undertaking to reach a ceasefire and its support at all levels.” In turn, Rubio “affirmed his continuation of the ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire as a prelude to establishing peace, security, and stability in Lebanon.” The statement made no mention of any possible talks between Aoun and the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel

• Casualty count: Over the last 24 hours, one Palestinian was killed due to wounds sustained in earlier attacks, and eight were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,345 killed, with 172,250 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 766 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 2,147, while 760 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

• Israel continues to attack Gaza: Three Palestinians, including two brothers, were killed on Thursday in Israeli attacks in northern Gaza and Gaza City, according to WAFA. The two brothers were killed in a drone strike near Abu Tammam School in Beit Lahia, while another man died from wounds sustained in a separate strike on a police vehicle on Al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City. In central Gaza, four people, including a woman, were injured by gunfire from Israeli forces east of Al-Maghazi camp toward Salah al-Din Street. Meanwhile, the body of Ismail al-Haddad was recovered in western Khan Younis nearly two years after he had gone missing.

• Israeli attacks on the occupied West Bank:

  • Israeli forces destroyed agricultural land and water pipelines on Wednesday in the Jordan Valley, south of Tubas, according to WAFA.

  • Israeli forces set up a military checkpoint near Bethlehem on Wednesday, according to WAFA, and Israeli settlers re-erected an iron gate in the village of Al-Maniya, near Bethlehem, after it had been previously removed. Settlers also continued to raid homes in the area. Four Palestinians were also detained on Wednesday from across the occupied West Bank, as part of raids on Silwan in East Jerusalem, the Tubas governorate, and near Hebron, and Israeli forces also reportedly detained a child from Al-Khader on Wednesday, after chasing and severely beating him.

  • Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian during a raid on Beit Tuqqu, near Jerusalem, on Wednesday, following extensive raid operations by the Israelis in the village.

  • Two Palestinians were injured in settler attacks near Bethlehem, which involved Israeli settlers throwing rocks and wielding knives at Palestinian vehicles.

  • Mobs of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian citizens on Wednesday evening in the towns of Birzeit and Jifna, near Ramallah, where settlers attempted to attack Palestinians and destroy their properties. A group of settlers also staged attacks in Beita, near Nablus, and armed settlers threw rocks at cars and blocked roads to the northern entrance of Hebron, WAFA reported.

  • Armed settlers attacked and injured a Palestinian and his son in the village of Masafer Yatta on Wednesday, WAFA reported, assaulting a group of citizens and shepherds and spraying them with pepper spray.

• 31 settler attacks documented across West Bank and East Jerusalem in 24 hours: The Settlement Observatory documented 31 settler violations in a single day across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, including assaults, land seizures, and infrastructure destruction, according to the Palestinian Information Center. Incidents included 120 settlers entering Al-Aqsa Mosque and performing rituals—part of over 1,000 incursions recorded since last week—alongside land bulldozing, the uprooting of 160 olive trees, and water line cuts in Nablus, where settlers also attempted to run over a child and stole livestock; further incidents in Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah, and Jericho included road construction on Palestinian land, a cemetery destroyed, farmers assaulted, homes raided, and water infrastructure sabotaged.

• 350 Palestinian students held in Israeli detention, ministry says: Approximately 350 Palestinian students are currently held in Israeli jails under conditions that violate international law, Palestine’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education said Wednesday in a statement marking Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. The ministry said detainees are subjected to nighttime arrests, harsh interrogations, solitary confinement, medical neglect, and denial of education. The ministry called the widespread detention of children “a direct attack on the Palestinian education system and a systematic attempt to undermine the future of generations,” and urged international human rights organizations—particularly those focused on children’s rights—to hold Israel accountable.

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

• Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and wife found dead in apparent murder-suicide: Former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, 47, and his wife Cerina Fairfax, a dentist, were found dead at their Annandale, Virginia home shortly after midnight Thursday in what Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis described as a murder-suicide. Davis said the couple had been engaged in an ongoing domestic dispute tied to their divorce proceedings and that the couple’s teenage children were home at the time. Fairfax, a Democrat, served as lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022 alongside Gov. Ralph Northam, and his tenure was overshadowed by sexual assault allegations from two women in 2019. Fairfax went on to finish his term and ran for governor in 2021, placing fourth in the Democratic primary with 3.6 percent of the vote.

• Johnson postpones then cancels FISA vote: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.), who previously intended to bring the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act up for a vote on Wednesday afternoon, first postponed the vote on the measure before ultimately canceling it on Wednesday afternoon. The series of delays comes as Democrats, who had previously considered voting with Republicans to pass a “clean” reauthorization of the surveillance bill, have begun cautiously retreating amid grassroots backlash. Public outrage has centered mainly around two provisions in the legislation that allow the government to surveil American citizens without a warrant unconstitutionally. Drop Site’s Julian Andreone spoke with members of Congress on Wednesday:

  • Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member, and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, have led the push to whip Democratic votes for a “clean” FISA reauthorization without reforms. Andreone spoke directly with Meeks, asking him about the use of Section 702 to surveil Black Lives Matter activists. Meeks said he had to “do his job” to prevent “terrorist attacks,” and that 702 would enable him and intelligence agencies to do so. “Ultimately, I’m going to have to make a decision when it’s on the floor.… There is already information that I’ve been able to receive that have saved us or our allies.…[Section 702] has prevented terrorist attacks.” His full conversation with Andreone is available here.

  • Andreone spoke with more CBC members, including Reps. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio), Troy Carter (D-La.), Emmanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), Wesley Bell (D-Mo.), to ask how they would be voting on FISA reauthorization, how they felt about recent reports about the use of Section 702 against black activists, and the extent to which each had spoken with Rep. Meeks about the bill. The members he interviewed usually either refused to directly say how they were voting or offered that they “still had concerns.” Most did not comment on Meeks’s whipping of the bill. Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.) said she would “like to see some reforms” to the bill but did not want FISA to lapse entirely, and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) explicitly said he would not be voting for a clean reauthorization. Andreone’s full set of interviews is available here.

  • In a separate interview, Democratic Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) told Andreone that he is “not worried” about warrantless surveillance of Americans, including BLM activists, ahead of the FISA vote. “I don’t worry about stuff. I just live through it,” he said.

• Sanders leads charge to block arms sales to Israel: Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders moved Wednesday to force Senate votes on two resolutions that would block roughly $450 million in U.S. arms sales to Israel, including over $150 million in 1,000-pound gravity bombs and nearly $300 million in Caterpillar bulldozers used to demolish structures in Palestinian territories, Lebanon, and Syria. The resolution earned 40 votes in the Senate; last year, only 15 Democrats voted for similar measures. “It’s clear that Democrats are beginning to listen to the average American who is sick and tired of spending billions of dollars to support Netanyahu’s horrific wars when people in this country can’t afford housing or health care,” Sanders said after the vote. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), however, did not support the measure and faced significant backlash for not doing so. “These bulldozers are used to illegally destroy Palestinian villages,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said about the measure, and said it is now time for the Leader to “step aside.”

• Senate Republicans block fourth Iran war powers resolution as 60-day deadline looms: Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a fourth Democratic war powers resolution aimed at reining in President Donald Trump’s authority to wage war against Iran, with 52 Republicans voting against the measure—all but Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)—while every Democrat voted in favor except Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who sided with Republicans. A similar House resolution sponsored by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is expected to reach the floor Thursday, though without Senate passage it would remain symbolic. The votes come as the war approaches the 60-day mark, after which troops must be withdrawn or their deployment approved by Congress—a threshold that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) suggested could be a turning point, saying the administration “has got to start answering questions” about the war’s trajectory. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said the conflict has cost American taxpayers roughly $50 billion so far. “Trump’s war of choice in Iran is a moral tragedy and economic disaster playing out before our eyes. It is only making the United States and the world less safe.”

• Jury finds Live Nation and Ticketmaster held illegal monopoly over concert venues: A New York jury found Wednesday that Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster subsidiary maintained an illegal anticompetitive monopoly over large concert venues, ruling in favor of a lawsuit brought by dozens of states after four days of deliberation. The jury found that Ticketmaster’s anticompetitive practices caused concertgoers in 22 states to overpay by $1.72 per ticket—a figure that could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages once trebled, though Live Nation estimated the aggregate single damages figure would fall below $150 million. The penalty phase, including potential divestiture of venues such as amphitheaters, will be decided by the judge in a separate proceeding.

• Tillis blocks Fed nominee Warsh: Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is single-handedly blocking the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair, telling NBC News he considers Warsh “a perfect candidate” but will not vote to confirm him until the Justice Department ends its criminal probe into outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who Tillis said did nothing wrong. Tillis, a member of the Senate Banking Committee whose vote is decisive as long as Democrats remain unified against the nominee, said he will cast his vote “simultaneously with the conclusion of that statement coming out of the DOJ, and not a day before.” The retiring senator, who said he has lost his political “filter,” also rebuked Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo XIV as incomprehensible, opposed any effort to eliminate the Senate filibuster, and suggested Trump’s presence on the campaign trail in purple North Carolina could be a liability for Republican senate candidate Michael Whatley.

• Sotomayor apologizes for remarks about Kavanaugh’s upbringing: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an unusual public apology Wednesday for remarks she made about Justice Brett Kavanaugh at a University of Kansas School of Law appearance last week, in which she criticized an opinion he wrote on immigration enforcement sweeps by saying “this is from a man whose parents were professionals” who “probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.” In a statement issued by the court, Sotomayor said her comments “were inappropriate,” adding, “I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague.”

Other International News

• U.S. military kills three in third Pacific boat strike in three days: The U.S. military conducted a strike against a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, killing three people, according to U.S. Southern Command. SOUTHCOM posted a video of the strike and said, “Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action” without providing evidence. On Tuesday, a similar strike killed four people, and a strike on Monday killed two people. The latest attacks bring the death toll to at least 178 people killed in dozens of U.S. strikes on vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean since September.

• Brazilian intelligence chief freed from ICE detention: Alexandre Ramagem, the former Brazilian intelligence chief convicted in connection with a 2023 coup plot in support of former President Jair Bolsonaro, was released from U.S. immigration detention Wednesday, according to Reuters. Ramagem was detained Monday in Orlando following a traffic stop that led to an ICE referral—a stop reportedly unrelated to Brazil’s outstanding request for his extradition. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Tuesday he had formally asked the U.S. to return Ramagem to serve his sentence in December. Ramagem has a pending asylum application in the U.S.

• Israel appoints first ambassador to Somaliland: Israel has appointed Michael Lotem, a former ambassador to Kenya, as its first ambassador to Somaliland, Israel’s public broadcaster reported Wednesday. Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi told a joint session of parliament on Tuesday that Israel had proven itself a “reliable partner,” while Somalia’s foreign ministry condemned the ambassadorial appointment as a “direct breach” of its sovereignty and unity. Drop Site has reported twice on the relationship between Israel and Somaliland, discussing Somaliland’s push to acquire U.S. recognition after succeeding with Israel, and the involvement of financier Jeffrey Epstein in cultivating ties between the two parties. Those articles are available here and here.

• Russia kills at least 16 in massive overnight attack on Ukraine: Russia launched a wave of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine overnight, killing at least 16 people across the country following the end of a 32-hour Orthodox Easter truce. Strikes on Odesa killed nine people and wounded 23; attacks on Kyiv killed at least four, including a 12-year-old child, and wounded 48, with widespread damage across multiple city districts; and three were killed and 34 wounded in the central Dnipropetrovsk region. A Ukrainian drone strike on Russia’s Black Sea port of Tuapse killed two children aged five and 14 and sparked a large fire, Russian officials said.

• South Africa’s Malema sentenced to five years for firing rifle at party rally: Julius Malema, leader of South Africa’s far-left Economic Freedom Fighters and one of the country’s most prominent opposition politicians, was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday by Magistrate Twanet Olivier for unlawful possession of a firearm and discharging a weapon in a public place during a 2018 party rally at a stadium in the Eastern Cape. If upheld on appeal, the sentence would bar the 45-year-old from serving as a lawmaker—a significant blow to the EFF, the fourth-largest party in the country’s parliament.

• Sudanese army drone strike kills three at Chad border crossing: A Sudanese Armed Forces drone strike on the Adukong border crossing with Chad killed three porters and wounded dozens of workers—the majority of them Chadian nationals—while destroying civilian vehicles, food supplies, and fuel, Sudan Tribune reported on Wednesday. This is the fifth such strike on the crossing. The same drone also targeted the villages of Bir Daqiq and Habila, striking civilian areas north and east of Geneina in West Darfur. The Sudanese Army maintains it is targeting military equipment and cross-border fuel trucks used by the RSF to transport weapons, ammunition, and mercenaries from West Africa, and has accused Chad of facilitating the flow of UAE-supplied military equipment to the RSF in Darfur.

• Fire kills five at Darfur displacement camp: A fire tore through a displacement camp in the town of Rokoro in Central Darfur’s North Jebel Marra locality on Wednesday, killing at least five people, including two children, and leaving more than 1,400 people displaced and without shelter, Sudan Tribune reported. The camp houses thousands of people who fled El Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, after it was seized by the Rapid Support Forces in October 2025.

• Berlin Sudan conference pledges €1.3 billion: The Third International Sudan Conference convened in Berlin on Wednesday, as the war entered its fourth year three, with donors pledging over €1.3 billion—including €212 million from Germany, €168 million from the United Kingdom, and more than €811 million from the EU and member states—to address famine conditions and support over 11.6 million displaced people. The pledges fall well short of what is needed: the UN’s 2026 Sudan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan requires roughly $2.9 billion for basic aid inside the country, with an additional $1.5 billion needed for the regional refugee response, leaving the overall effort less than half funded.

• Kazakhstan convicts 19 Xinjiang activists: A Kazakh court convicted 19 activists on Wednesday following a November protest near the Chinese border, sentencing 11 of the protesters to five years in prison for “inciting discord” and placing movement restrictions on the remaining eight. At the protest, the demonstrators burned Chinese flags and portraits of President Xi Jinping and called for the release of a Kazakh citizen detained in Xinjiang. The prosecutions were opened after Kazakhstan’s government received a diplomatic note from the Chinese consulate in Almaty describing the protest as “an open provocation against the national dignity of the People’s Republic of China.”

• 14-year-old kills nine at Turkish middle school: A 14-year-old student opened fire on two classrooms at a middle school in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey on Wednesday, killing nine people and wounding 13 others—six of them seriously—before being killed himself, Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftci said. The gunman, identified by state broadcaster TRT as İsa Araş Mersinli, arrived armed with five firearms and seven magazines, which reportedly belonged to his father. The attack comes one day after 16 people were wounded in a separate school shooting in nearby Şanlıurfa province.

• Rival of pro-Israel Druze leader killed in Suweida: Munir Najib al-Bahri, a prominent opponent of pro-Israel Druze militia leader Hikmat al-Hijri and one of the early participants in Syria’s 2011 anti-government uprising, was shot dead during an attempted kidnapping in Suweida city on Tuesday, according to local sources cited by Arabi21.

• Syria detains more than 40 Palestinians near Damascus: Syrian security forces have detained more than 40 Palestinians during a “security sweep” in the Damascus and Damascus countryside governorates in recent days, with at least 30 arrested from the Khan al-Shih camp southwest of the capital, according to a report by the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria. The majority were taken from their homes or detained en route to work and transported to unknown locations, with no official explanation provided by Syria’s Interior Ministry. Syria is home to approximately 450,000 Palestinian refugees, most of whom are descendants of Palestinians expelled during the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

• France and Italy advance antisemitism laws which could criminalize criticism of Israel: France and Italy are both advancing legislation this week that would codify new legal definitions of antisemitism, with France proposing to sanction speech “implicitly” supportive of “terrorism,” and the Italian bill looking to write into law the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. The Italian bill passed the Upper House last month by a large majority and begins its Lower House passage on Thursday. The French law, scheduled for parliamentary debate on Thursday, references the IHRA definition without fully adopting it, and includes as sanctioned speech calling for the destruction of a state recognized by France, and comparing Israel to the Nazis.

• Leftist Sanchez surges to second place in Peru vote count: Leftist congressman Roberto Sánchez moved into second place Wednesday in Peru’s presidential election, with 91% of ballots counted showing him at 12.1%—just ahead of right-wing former Lima mayor Rafael López Aliaga at 11.9%—as conservative Keiko Fujimori held a comfortable lead at 17% and appeared certain to advance to the June 7 runoff. Sánchez, a 57-year-old congressman running for the left-leaning Together for Peru party, has called for a new constitution establishing a “plurinational” state giving greater voice to Indigenous communities, and is an ally of jailed former President Pedro Castillo.

• Australian court rejects ex-U.S. Marine pilot’s extradition appeal: A Federal Court of Australia judge dismissed former U.S. Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan’s appeal against extradition to the United States on Thursday, clearing the way for Duggan to be tried in the United States. Duggan has been charged with violating U.S. arms export control laws by training Chinese military pilots in South Africa between 2009 and 2012, and has been in custody since his October 2022 arrest.

• Nine million stripped from voter rolls in West Bengal ahead of state election: More than nine million people—nearly 12% of West Bengal’s 76 million registered voters—have lost voting rights ahead of the state’s two-phase assembly election on April 23 and April 29, following a controversial purging of electoral rolls conducted by India’s Election Commission, with analysis showing Muslims have been disproportionately affected. Nearly six million of those removed were declared absentee or deceased, while the remaining three million face a near-impossible path to reinstatement through special tribunals unlikely to process their cases before polling day. Research by the Kolkata-based SABAR Institute found that in the constituency of Nandigram, where Muslims constitute roughly 25 percent of the population, more than 95 percent of deleted names belonged to Muslims. Read more about the mass disenfranchisement in a full report on it from Al Jazeera, available here.

More from Drop Site

• The Committee to Protect Journalists launched a petition demanding that Kuwait immediately release journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, whose case we recently reported on here. Shihab-Eldin, who was born in the United States and has worked with PBS, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, and Vice, has been detained since March 3 under vague “national security” charges widely used to silence reporters. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) also called for Shihab-Eldin’s release on Wednesday, accusing the Trump Administration of “trying to censor journalists reporting on the realities of this war.” The CPJ’s petition is available below—we encourage our readers to consider signing.

• Noa Avishag Schnall talks with GSF leader about flotilla: Drop Site contributor Noa Avishag Schnall spoke with Saif Abukeshek, a member of the Global Sumud Flotilla Steering Committee, in Barcelona on April 12, as participants prepared to launch the latest and largest Gaza-bound flotilla. Abukeshek said the war on Palestinians has continued largely out of public view despite a nominal ceasefire, and that reduced media attention has created the false impression that the violence has ended. “What we want to do is mobilize people again…to bring it to the streets, bring it to the ports, bring it to the factories…and to the political spaces,” Abukeshek said. His full discussion with Schnall is available here.

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