AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EST

Iranian state television reported explosions around Tehran as dawn broke. Meanwhile, Israel said its air defenses were activated due to incoming missile fire from Iran.

Five days into a war that U.S. President Donald Trump suggested would last several weeks or longer, nearly 800 people have been killed in Iran, including some Trump said he had considered as possible future leaders of the country.

Explosions also hit Lebanon, where Israel said it is retaliating against Hezbollah militants. Lebanon's state-run media reported that at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a residential complex in the city of Baalbeck.

A day earlier, Israel launched airstrikes against Iranian missile launchers and a nuclear research site, and Iran struck back against Israel and others, targeting U.S. embassies and disrupting energy supplies and travel.

The Latest: War engulfs the Middle East as markets drop and oil prices spike

U.S. President Donald Trump said “someone from within” Iran’s government might be best suited to take power once the U.S.-Israeli war on the country ends.

His remarks came four days into a war that has killed hundreds, nearly all of them in Iran, as well as many of the country’s top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Although Tehran has kept up its retaliatory missile and drone strikes against Israel and across the Gulf — disrupting travel and driving up oil prices — the pace of Iranian attacks appears to be slowing. However the conflict has also spread to Lebanon, where Iran-backed Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel, prompting Israeli strikes in Beirut and additional troop deployments to southern Lebanon.

The spiraling nature of the war has raised questions about when and how it would end, and the Trump administration has given various objectives.

Here is the latest:

Father who gave gun to Georgia school shooting suspect for Christmas is guilty of 2nd-degree murder

WINDER, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia man who gave his teenage son the gun he's accused of using to kill two students and two teachers at a high school was convicted Tuesday of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

Jurors took less than two hours to find Colin Gray guilty of all charges in the September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, northeast of Atlanta. Gray now joins a growing number of parents being held responsible in court after their children were accused in shootings.

Colin Gray was found guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Georgia law defines second-degree murder as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children. Gray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the killings of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.

Another teacher and eight other students were wounded. Gray was also convicted of multiple counts of reckless conduct and cruelty to children.

Gray showed little emotion as the verdict was read and each juror was polled by the judge. Deputies then cuffed his hands behind his back as he stood at the defense table, speaking with his lawyer. He will be sentenced at a later date. Second-degree murder is punishable by at least 10 but no more than 30 years in prison, while involuntary manslaughter carries a penalty of one to 10 years in prison.

John Cornyn and Ken Paxton advance to runoff in Republican primary for Texas US Senate seat

DALLAS (AP) — Longtime Sen. John Cornyn and MAGA favorite Ken Paxton are heading to a May runoff in Texas’ Republican Senate primary, setting up what's expected to be a nasty and expensive second round and a renewed push to win the endorsement of President Donald Trump.

On the Democratic side, two other candidates who have garnered strong national attention — Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico — were in a race for the right to face the winner of the Cornyn-Paxton runoff.

Texas, along with North Carolina and Arkansas, kicked off midterm elections with control of Congress at stake and against the backdrop of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

Cornyn is seeking a fifth term but facing a tough challenge from Paxton, the state attorney general, and hoping to avoid becoming the first Republican senator in Texas history not to be renominated.

The GOP primary race also featured U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt — ensuring that neither of the top two finishers won a majority and setting up the second round of voting May 26. Hunt finished a distant third and conceded.

US soldiers who died in Iran war remembered as devoted parents and reservists

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor was just days away from returning home to her husband and two children when a drone strike at a command center in Kuwait killed her and five other U.S. service members.

“She was almost home,” her husband, Joey Amor, said from their home in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, on Tuesday. “You don’t go to Kuwait thinking something’s going to happen, and for her to be one of the first – it hurts.”

Amor was one of four U.S. soldiers killed in the Iran war on Sunday and identified Tuesday by the Pentagon; two soldiers haven't yet been publicly identified. The members of the Army Reserve worked in logistics and kept troops supplied with food and equipment.

They died just one day after the U.S. and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran. Iran responded by launching missiles and drones against Israel and several Gulf Arab states that host U.S. armed forces.

Those killed also included Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; and Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, lowa, who was posthumously promoted from specialist. No other names were released.

Noem defends her portrayal of killed Minneapolis protesters as agitators, in her Senate hearing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended her department's immigration enforcement tactics in front of a Senate committee on Tuesday and pushed back against criticism from Democrats who say she wrongly disparaged two protesters killed by federal officers in Minneapolis earlier this year.

It was Noem’s first congressional appearance since the shooting deaths of the two protesters galvanized widespread opposition to how the Trump administration is executing its mass deportation agenda, a centerpiece policy of President Donald Trump's second term. At the time, Noem portrayed the protesters, two U.S. citizens, as agitators, although accounts from local officials and bystander video contradicted assertions from her and other administration officials.

In one exchange, retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called her leadership a “disaster” and skewered her handling of the immigration crackdown and her management of emergency response.

In the hearing, which stretched nearly five hours, Noem defended her agency’s treatment of immigrants caught up in enforcement activities, and blamed activists and others for attacks against officers.

“I want to address the dangerous environment that our ICE officers face on the streets today," Noem said. “They are facing a serious and escalating threat as a result of deliberate mischaracterizations of their heroic work and rhetoric that demonizes our law enforcement.”

Dow drops 400 after trimming an early plunge of 1,200 as oil prices climb even higher

NEW YORK (AP) — A sell-off for stocks wrapped around the world and hit Wall Street Tuesday, while oil prices climbed even higher on worries about the widening war with Iran. But the big moves that rocked markets in the morning eased substantially as the day progressed.

By the end of trading, the S&P 500 had sunk 0.9%. That would be a solid loss on a typical day, but the index had been down as much as 2.5% in the morning because of worries that the war may do more sustained damage to the economy than feared.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 403 points, or 0.8%, after plunging more than 1,200 points earlier in the morning. The Nasdaq composite pared its loss to 1%.

It was just a day earlier that U.S. stocks opened the morning with a sharp loss, only to recover all of it and end the day with a tiny gain. Helping to drive that rebound was a record showing that past wars and conflicts in the Middle East have not usually meant long-term pain for U.S. stocks.

But that was with the caveat that oil prices did not jump too high, like above $100 per barrel. On Tuesday, oil prices rose again and raised more alarms. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, briefly leaped above $84.

Minnesota launches investigation that could bring charges against federal immigration officers

A Minnesota prosecutor announced an investigation Monday that may lead to charges against federal officers, including Border Patrol official Greg Bovino, for misconduct during an immigration enforcement crackdown.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a news conference that her office is already looking into 17 cases, including one where Bovino threw a smoke canister at protesters on Jan. 21. Another on Jan. 7 involved federal officers making an arrest outside a high school and deploying chemical irritants while students and staff were in the area.

“Make no mistake, we are not afraid of the legal fight, and we are committed to doing this correctly,” Moriarty said. “Operation Metro Surge caused immeasurable harm to our community.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, responded in a statement Monday night that such enforcement is a federal responsibility and states cannot prosecute federal officers.

“What these States are trying to do is unlawful, and they know it," the statement said. “Federal officials acting in the course of their duties are immune from liability under state law.”

Country by country, here's how the unfolding war is affecting the Middle East

JERUSALEM (AP) — The unfolding war in the Middle East has ricocheted across the region, with nearly every country sustaining damage from missile hits or shrapnel, many reporting casualties, and key embassies, economic engines and passageways closing down.

Foreign governments are urging their citizens to leave on any available commercial flight as Gulf airspaces largely close, cruise ships can’t pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and major airlines cancel flights. The U.S. State Department says it has evacuated nonemergency personnel and families in six nations, adding the United Arab Emirates to its list on Tuesday. It also has advised citizens from 14 countries to leave. Governments from Russia to Germany and France also scrambled to run repatriation flights.

Here's a country-by-country breakdown of the impact of the war so far.

All airspace information is from the real-time flight-tracking service Flightradar 24, as of Tuesday, or national authorities.

Damage and casualties: Iran has by far the highest reported death toll of countries in the region. The Iranian Red Crescent Society said the U.S.-Israeli operation has killed at least 787 people. That includes more than 160 the state-run IRNA news agency says were killed by a strike on an elementary school in Minab. Israel says it was not involved in the incident. When asked by reporters about it, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he did not have details but that the U.S. would not deliberately target a school.

An Oscar race that looked like a runaway may be a close call, after all

NEW YORK (AP) — Who says to beware the Ides of March?

A March 15 Academy Awards may feel late. By then, it will be almost a year since “Sinners” sunk its teeth into moviegoers last April. Some nominees have been on the campaign trail since the Cannes Film Festival in May.

But the upside of a prolonged Oscar race has meant some unexpected late drama. Think about the same movies long enough, and minds can change. For months, Paul Thomas Anderson's “One Battle After Another” sailed through awards season, picking up prize after prize. But the wins for “Sinners” and Michael B. Jordan at Sunday's Actor Awards — along with some other recent developments — have given the Oscar race what Smoke or Stack might call fresh blood.

An Academy Awards that had looked like a runaway might be a close call, after all. With Oscar voting ending Thursday, let's survey the top categories

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