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

Israel announced multiple incoming missile attacks and air sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Iranian state television said additional strikes also targeted U.S. bases.

The Israeli military said it had hit 80 targets in Lebanon linked to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group over the past 24 hours and that a wave of strikes on Iran had hit long range ballistic missile launch sites and other targets.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. Navy of committing an “an atrocity at sea” for sinking the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, which killed at least 87 Iranian sailors.

“Mark my words: The U.S. will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set,” he said on social media.

US and Mideast countries seek Kyiv's drone expertise as Russia-Ukraine talks put on ice

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The United States and its allies in the Middle East are seeking Ukraine’s expertise in countering Iran’s Shahed drones, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Various countries, including the United States, have approached Ukraine for help in defending against the Iranian drones, Zelenskyy said late Wednesday. He said he has spoken in recent days with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait about possible cooperation.

Russia has fired tens of thousands of Shaheds at Ukraine since it invaded its neighbor just over four years ago. Iran has responded with the same type of drones to joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iranian targets.

Ukrainian assistance in countering Iranian drones will be provided only if it does not weaken Ukraine’s own defenses, and if it adds leverage to Kyiv’s diplomatic efforts to stop the Russian invasion, according to the Ukrainian leader.

“We help to defend from war those who help us, Ukraine, bring a just end to the war” with Russia, Zelenskyy said.

World shares advance as oil prices climb higher and Iran launches new attacks

BANGKOK (AP) — World shares advanced Thursday, while U.S. futures slipped as Iran launched more missiles at Israel on the sixth day of the war in the Middle East.

The future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%. The S&P 500 future was down 0.1%.

Uncertainty about the war in the Middle East has been rattling financial markets, with most taking their cues from what the price of oil is doing.

“Yesterday’s bounce in risk assets already looks less like a turning point and more like a classic relief rally in a market that briefly inhaled before realizing the room was still on fire,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

Crude prices climbed early Thursday, with Brent, the international standard, gaining 1.8% to $82.87 per barrel. U.S. benchmark crude jumped 2.1% to $76.31 per barrel.

China sets a lower economic growth target of 4.5% to 5% for 2026 as challenges loom

BEIJING (AP) — China has signaled continuity rather than change for its economy, setting a slightly lower target for growth this year in the midst of a property slump and other headwinds at home and growing uncertainty abroad.

Premier Li Qiang announced a target of 4.5% to 5% annual growth in his report presented to the opening session of this year’s meeting of the National People’s Congress. That compares to actual 5% growth last year and a target of about 5% in the three years before. It's the lowest growth target since 1991.

“While recognizing our achievements, we are also clear-eyed about the difficulties and challenges we face,” Li said, reading much of the 35-page report in a more than hourlong address.

Experts say the lower target is in line with longer-term goals that are less focused on high growth rates.

“GDP targets in recent years have become less important than before because the overarching, and most important political priority has shifted from promoting economic development to so-called ‘high-quality development,’” said Xin Sun, a senior lecturer in Chinese and East Asian business at King’s College London.

Republicans take another crack at Homeland Security funding, citing Iran war

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are invoking the war in Iran and the prospect of retaliatory terrorist attacks as they tee up votes Thursday on a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.

The House already approved a DHS spending bill in January, but it faltered in the Senate as Democrats insisted on changes to immigration enforcement operations following the shooting death of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. As a result, funding for the department lapsed on Feb. 14.

Republicans are calling on Democrats to reconsider their vote in the wake of the conflict in Iran. Both the House and the Senate are expected to hold votes on the matter.

“The military action in Iran makes it all more urgent and crucial to have a fully funded, fully staffed DHS across all its departments,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.

It did not appear the GOP's strategy had changed the position of Democratic lawmakers, though. They said they are prepared to fund most of the agencies at the department, just not Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection.

Last 2 names of 6 US soldiers who died in Kuwait attack identified by the Pentagon

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The last two names of the six U.S. soldiers killed in a drone strike at a command center in Kuwait were released Wednesday by the Pentagon, and they are from California and Iowa.

The soldiers identified Wednesday were Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, 54, of Sacramento, and Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, of Indianola, Iowa.

The six members of the Army Reserve, who worked in logistics and kept troops supplied with food and equipment, died Sunday when a drone hit a command center in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, 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.

The Pentagon said Marzan was at the scene when a drone strike hit the command center and is “believed to be the individual who perished at the scene,” according to the statement. A medical examiner will confirm identification, the Pentagon said.

Public records appeared to show Marzan living in Virginia but with family in the Sacramento area. Family members couldn't immediately be reached or declined to comment.

House to vote on Iran war powers resolution in a test of Trump's strategy

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is preparing to vote Thursday on a war powers resolution to halt President Donald Trump's attack on Iran, a sign of unease in Congress over the rapidly widening conflict that is reordering U.S. priorities at home and abroad.

It's the second vote in as many days, after the Senate defeated a similar measure along party lines. Lawmakers are confronting the sudden reality of representing the American people in wartime and all that entails — with lives lost, dollars spent and alliances tested by a president's unilateral decision to go to war with Iran.

The tally in the House is expected to be tight, but the outcome will provide an early snapshot of the political support, or opposition, to the U.S.-Israel military operation and Trump's rationale for bypassing Congress, which alone has the power to declare war.

“Donald Trump is not a king, and if he believes the war with Iran is in our national interest, then he must come to Congress and make the case," said Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Meeks said in his nearly three decades in Congress, the hardest votes he has taken have been deciding whether to send U.S. troops to war.

Haitian man dies in US immigration custody with untreated toothache, brother says

PHOENIX (AP) — A Haitian man confined at an Arizona immigration detention center for months died at a hospital Monday after a tooth infection was left untreated, the man’s brother said Wednesday.

Emmanuel Damas, 56, told medical personnel at the Florence Correctional Center that he had a toothache in mid-February, but he was not sent to a dentist, said Damas’ brother, Presly Nelson.

Nelson believes the staff at the facility did not take his brother’s complaints seriously even though it was a treatable condition. Nelson said he would expect such a death in countries with less access to health care, but not the United States.

“As a country — I’m an American now — I think we can do better than that," Nelson said.

Damas is among at least nine people who have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody this year.

Canada and Australia leaders urge war de-escalation, but agree Iran can't get nuclear weapons

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Canadian and Australian prime ministers on Thursday called for a de-escalation of the Iran war but added the Iranians must never gain a nuclear weapon.

Canada's Mark Carney and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese discussed the war during their meeting in Australia’s capital, Canberra.

The meeting came after news that a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean and Turkey said NATO defenses intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran before it entered Turkey’s airspace.

“We want to see a broader de-escalation of these hostilities with a broader group of countries than just the direct belligerents involved,” Carney said at a press conference with Albanese.

“We stress that that cannot be achieved unless we’re in a position that Iran’s ability to acquire a nuclear weapon, develop a nuclear weapon, and to export terrorism, is ended. So that process must lead to those outcomes,” Carney added.

Elon Musk defends himself against accusations of misconduct leading up to Twitter takeover

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A defiant Elon Musk on Wednesday took the stand in a jury trial to defend himself against accusations that he engaged in a pattern of deceptive behavior that misled investors as he attempted to back out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter before he finally completed the takeover.

The civil trial in San Francisco centers on a class-action lawsuit filed just before Musk took control of Twitter, a social media service he renamed X, in October 2022, six months after agreeing to buy the embattled company for $44 billion, or $54.20 per share. The price paid by the world's richest man represents sliver of a fortune now estimated at $841 billion.

The case, which represents Twitter shareholders who sold the stock between May 13 and Oct. 4, 2022, revolves around allegations that Musk violated federal securities laws while taking a series of calculated steps to drive down the company's stock price in an attempt to either blow up the deal or wrangle a lower sales price.

Musk maintained the deal merited re-negotiation or termination while insisting Twitter's board duped him about the percentage of fake, or “bot,” account on its platform — a stance he took again during his Wednesday testimony in a black suit and a tie.

When asked if he had threatened to “hunt down” Twitter's board unless they returned to the negotiating table to discuss a revised sales price, Musk didn't rule out that possibility in an answer that reflected the acrimony surrounding the deal.