AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

Israel kept up intense pressure on Lebanon with strikes it said targeted Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, hitting multiple apartment buildings in Beirut and killing at least a dozen people.

In Iran, the Bushehr nuclear power plant complex was hit by a projectile the night before but there were no injuries and the plant suffered no damage, the International Atomic Energy Agency said after receiving a report from Tehran. The IAEA chief Rafael Grossi reiterated his call “for maximum restraint during the conflict to prevent risk of a nuclear accident.”

Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran to start the war on Feb. 28, Iran has been targeting the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors, as well as military bases, as part of a strategy to drive up oil prices and put pressure on Washington to back down.

Tehran also is keeping up its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits, giving rise to growing concerns of a global energy crisis.

About 90 ships cross the Strait of Hormuz as Iran exports millions of barrels of oil despite the war

HONG KONG (AP) — About 90 ships including oil tankers have crossed the Strait of Hormuz since the outset of the war with Iran and it is still exporting millions of barrels of oil at a time when the waterway has been effectively closed, according to maritime and trade data platforms.

Many of the vessels that passed through the strait were so-called “dark” transits evading Western government sanctions and oversight that likely have ties to Iran, maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said. More recently, vessels with ties to India and Pakistan have also successfully crossed the strait as governments stepped up negotiations.

As crude prices spiked above $100 a barrel, U.S. President Donald Trump pressured allies and trade partners to send warships and reopen the strait, hoping to bring oil prices lower.

Most shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway for global oil and gas transport that supplies roughly one-fifth of the world’s crude oil, has been halted since early March, after the war started. About 20 vessels have been attacked in the area.

However, Iran has still managed to export well above 16 million barrels of oil since the beginning of March, trade data and analytics platform Kpler estimated. Due to Western sanctions and associated risks, China has been the biggest buyer of Iranian oil.

World shares advance and oil slips back despite a barrage of attacks by Iran

HONG KONG (AP) — Shares advanced Wednesday in Europe and Asia as oil prices fell back slightly despite a barrage of attacks by Iran on its Gulf neighbors.

U.S. futures rose 0.5% after a session of moderate gains on Wall Street ahead of the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates later in the day. With higher oil prices feeding into other inflation, the Fed is widely expected to keep rates on hold.

Worries over global oil and gas supplies and rising prices are still clouding global markets, though Brent crude, the international standard, fell slightly to $103.14 per barrel, down from above $106 on Monday.

U.S. benchmark crude fell 1.6% to $94.67 per barrel.

Iran lashed out Wednesday with multiple attacks on its Gulf neighbors and Israel following the killing of one of its top leaders in an airstrike, using some of its latest missiles to evade air defenses and killing two near Tel Aviv.

Top US intelligence officials set to testify about Iran war, threats confronting the homeland

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Trump administration national security officials facing back-to-back congressional hearings starting Wednesday are expected to be pressed on the war in Iran, including a deadly strike on a school, as well as the FBI's capacity to prevent terror attacks inside the United States.

The annual worldwide threats hearings involving the government's senior-most intelligence officials are taking place at a time of scrutiny over the U.S. military campaign in the Middle East and heightened concerns about terrorism in the homeland following recent attacks at a Michigan synagogue and Virginia university.

The testimony before the House and Senate intelligence committees is expected to center on the war and in particular the revelation that outdated intelligence likely led to the U.S. firing a missile that hit an elementary school in Iran and killed over 165 people. The outdated targeting data was reported to have come from the Defense Intelligence Agency, whose director, Lt. Gen. James H. Adams, is among those set to testify. The White House says the strike is still under investigation.

The hearings, which begin Wednesday in the Senate and continue Thursday in the House, are also likely to delve into internal administration debate over the war given the resignation this week of Joe Kent as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Kent said Tuesday that he could not “in good conscience” back the Trump administration's war and that he did not agree that Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S.

Hours later, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, whose office oversaw Kent’s work and who is expected at the hearings this week, wrote in a carefully worded social media post that it was up to Trump to decide whether Iran posed a threat. She did not mention her own views of the strikes.

What to know about Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant after report of projectile hitting its complex

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and Russia both allege a projectile struck the grounds of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the Islamic Republic, raising the specter of a radiological incident as Tehran's war with Israel and the United States rages.

Neither Iran nor Russia say there was any release of nuclear material in the incident on Tuesday evening, but it again underlines a longtime worry of Iran's neighbors — that the power plant on the shores of the Persian Gulf could be hit by either an attack or an earthquake.

Here's what to know about the incident, the plant itself and Iran's wider nuclear program, which remains a reason U.S. President Donald Trump points to for starting the war alongside Israel against Iran on Feb. 28.

Russia’s state-run Tass news agency quoted Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev late Tuesday as claiming “a strike hit the area adjacent to the metrology service building located at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant site, in close proximity to the operating power unit.” Russian technicians from Rosatom operate the plant, using Russian-made, low-enriched uranium.

“There were no casualties among Rosatom State Corporation personnel,” Likhachev said. “The radiation situation at the site is normal.”

Trump's tariffs were supposed to help manufacturers. But instead, they're hurting

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jay Allen is a fan of President Donald Trump, and voted for him on the belief that the Republican would cut taxes and trim regulations, helping his manufacturing business in northeast Arkansas.

But the tariffs at the core of Trump's economic agenda have wreaked havoc on his company, Allen Engineering Corp., which makes industrial equipment used to install, finish and pave concrete. The import taxes have raised the costs of engines, steel, gearboxes and clutches made abroad that Allen needs to build power trowels that can sell for up to $100,000 each.

Allen’s experience embodies a growing body of evidence that the tariffs that Trump said would help American factories are, in fact, squashing many of them. The problem could get worse as the administration scrambles to craft new tariffs to replace the emergency import taxes that the Supreme Court ruled illegal in February.

Allen said he ran his company at a loss in 2025 because of tariffs. His payroll has fallen to 140 workers from a peak of 205. To get by this year, he has hiked prices by 8% to 10%, even though that might mean fewer sales.

“What’s really sad is the unintended consequences of his tariffs are hurting manufacturing in our country,” said Allen. “Unfortunately, the working-class people are getting squeezed.”

Republicans are launching a voting bill debate that could last days or even weeks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans launched an unprecedented effort on Tuesday to hold the Senate floor and talk for days about a bill that they know won't pass — an attempt to capture public attention on legislation requiring stricter voter registration rules as President Donald Trump pressures Congress to act before November’s midterm elections.

The talkathon could last a week or longer, potentially through the weekend, as Senate Majority Leader John Thune tries to navigate Trump’s insistence on the issue and Democrats’ united opposition. Trump has urged Thune to scrap the legislative filibuster, which triggers a 60-vote threshold in the 100-member Senate, or find another workaround to pass the bill, but Thune has repeatedly said he doesn’t have the votes to do that.

Instead, Republicans intend to make a long, noisy show of support for the legislation, which would require Americans to prove they are U.S. citizens before they register to vote and to show identification at the polls, among other things. It's a risky strategy, with no guarantee it will be enough for Trump, who has said he won’t sign other bills until the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act — also known as the SAVE America Act or the SAVE Act — is passed.

The floor debate is expected to eventually end with a failed vote. Republicans need 60 votes to advance the bill to a final vote, but they hold 53 seats, and all 45 Democrats and both independents, who caucus with the Democrats, oppose it.

The debate will “put Democrats on the record,” Thune said. He added that “how it ends remains to be seen."

Top counterterrorism official Kent resigns over Trump's Iran war, says Iran posed no imminent threat

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation on Tuesday, citing his concerns about the justification for military strikes in Iran and saying he “cannot in good conscience” back the Trump administration’s war.

“Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent said in a statement posted on social media, making claims President Donald Trump has denied.

Kent, a former Green Beret and political candidate with connections to right-wing extremists, was confirmed last July on a 52-44 vote. As head of the National Counterterrorism Center, he was in charge of an agency tasked with analyzing and detecting terrorist threats.

His resignation demonstrates that the unease about the war within Trump's base extends to at least one senior member of his Republican administration.

The leadership change comes at a time of heightened concern about terrorism following several recent violent attacks in the U.S.

Trump postpones his China trip to focus on the war in Iran

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is delaying a diplomatic trip to China that had been planned for months but began to unravel as he pressured Beijing and other world powers to use their military might to protect the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump said Tuesday while meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in the Oval Office that he would be going to China in five or six weeks’ time instead of at the end of the month. He said he would be “resetting” his visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“We’re working with China — they were fine with it," Trump said. “I look forward to seeing President Xi. He looks forward to seeing me, I think.”

Trump’s visit to China is seen as an opportunity to build on a fragile trade truce between the two superpowers, but it has become tangled in his effort to find an endgame to the war in Iran. Soon after pressing China and other nations to send warships to secure access to Middle Eastern oil over the weekend, Trump indicated his travel plans depended on Beijing's response, though he added Tuesday that the U.S. didn't need help from the allies who rebuffed his request.

In a Sunday interview with the Financial Times, Trump said he wanted to know whether Beijing would help secure the strait before he departed for the late-March summit. On Monday, he told reporters that he had requested a delay of about a month because of the demands of the war.

Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton wins Democratic primary for US Senate

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won Tuesday's Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, edging out two sitting members of the U.S. House to advance to a November general election against Republican nominee Don Tracy, the former state party chair.

The retirement of U.S. Sen Dick Durbin, the Senate’s longtime No. 2 Democrat, triggered a competitive campaign on the Democratic side, drawing as candidates Stratton and U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly, among others. Furious fundraising and sharp elbows marked the race, which tested the influence of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker. The governor, whose name has been floated as a 2028 presidential contender, backed Stratton.

The races were testing grounds for some of the biggest issues facing the Democratic Party, from support for Israel to immigration enforcement and the cryptocurrency and AI industries, as super PACs poured millions of dollars into the hotly contested primaries.

Most primary winners in the Democratic stronghold are expected to win in November, shaping a new generation of leadership in the state’s congressional delegation.

Stratton lagged in fundraising but had the powerful backing of Pritzker, who campaigned with her around the state.