The Daily Brief - Apr. 6, 2026
The latest on Iran, the Artemis II moon mission, the Georgia special election and more
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Iran
Iran today rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal circulated by Pakistani, Egyptian and Turkish mediators a day before President Trump’s deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“We won’t merely accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, told the AP. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again.” He said Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after the US bombed the country twice during previous rounds of talks.
Israel struck the South Pars petrochemical plant at Asaluyeh in Iran, with Defense Minister Israel Katz calling it a facility responsible for about 50% of Iran’s petrochemical production. Israel also killed the head of intelligence for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, according to Iranian state media. Iran responded with missile fire on Israel.
Meanwhile, both crew members of a US F-15E Strike Eagle plane shot down over Iran on Friday have been rescued.The pilot was recovered shortly after the crash. The weapons systems officer — a colonel — evaded capture for more than a day, hiding in a mountain crevice at 7,000 feet with a pistol, a communication device, and a tracking beacon, US officials told CBS News. He sustained a sprained ankle.
Several media outlets reported that CIA operatives spread false reports inside Iran that the airman had already been found elsewhere and being moved out. This allowed special operation forces to extract him in a nighttime rescue involving hundreds of personnel, with fighter jets striking roads to block approaching Iranian forces. Trump himself said today that Iranian forces were “looking hard, in big numbers, and getting close.”
Meanwhile, Trump today threatened to jail the journalist who first reported that US forces were searching for the missing colonel, demanding the reporter reveal their source. He did not name the journalist.
War Crimes Warning
President Trump yesterday threatened to strike Iran’s power plants and bridges if Tehran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m. tomorrow, drawing accusations of threatened war crimes from lawmakers and legal experts.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure violates the laws of armed conflict. “Never mind that blowing up bridges and power plants and killing innocent Iranians won’t reopen the Strait. It’s also a clear war crime,” he posted on X. “Even blowing up a fraction of Iran’s power plants and bridges will kill thousands of innocent people who work in those power plants and travel on the nation’s roads.” He added that Trump “isn’t even pretending to choose military targets.”
Even former Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene said the president “has gone insane.”
International humanitarian law prohibits targeting civilian infrastructure, but some analysts note that strikes on dual-use facilities — those serving both civilian and military purposes — are not automatically unlawful if commanders can demonstrate a specific military objective and take steps to limit civilian harm.
Asked today at a news conference whether he is concerned the threatened strikes would amount to war crimes, Trump said: “No. I hope I don’t have to do it,” adding, “The war crime is allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Minneapolis ICE Shooting Video Contradicts Federal Account
A video newly obtained by The New York Times of a January incident where an ICE agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis contradicts the federal government’s account of the incident in key ways. The government said an ICE agent fired his weapon after three people attacked him with a shovel and broom for roughly three minutes. The city’s camera footage shows a confrontation lasting about 12 seconds involving two men — not three — and no sustained attack with a shovel.
Two days after the shooting, federal prosecutors charged the two men — Venezuelan immigrants Julio Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Aljorna — with felony assault without watching the video, a Justice Department official said, instead relying on the agent’s statement. The government had access to the footage within hours. Prosecutors did not view it until nearly three weeks after filing charges, and then moved to dismiss the case, citing “newly discovered evidence.”
“Bare due diligence would have shown that the agents were lying,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. ICE acting director Todd Lyons said two agents appeared to have lied under oath and placed them on leave, adding they could face criminal charges.
Newsbreak
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Artemis Moon Mission
The four Artemis II astronauts on a moon flyby mission today surpassed the farthest distance from Earth ever traveled by humans, breaking the record of 248,655 miles set by Apollo 13 in 1970, according to NASA.
The crew will reach a maximum distance of 252,760 miles during today’s flyby. The Orion capsule carrying the crew entered the lunar sphere of influence — the point at which the moon’s gravitational pull on the spacecraft becomes stronger than the earth’s — at 12:37 a.m. EDT today, according to NASA.
The mission is testing the Orion spacecraft’s life support, communications, and navigation systems with a crew for the first time. It is the first crewed lunar voyage since Apollo 17 in 1972 and paves the way for a planned lunar landing in 2028.
April 7 Elections
Voters head to the polls tomorrow in two key races: a Georgia special election to fill a House seat and a Wisconsin Supreme Court election.
In Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, Trump-backed Republican Clayton Fuller faces Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired Army brigadier general, in a special election runoff to fill the seat vacated by Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned in January after a falling out with Trump over the release of Epstein files. Trump carried the district by 37 points in 2024, making Fuller the heavy favorite.
In Wisconsin, a Supreme Court election pits Democrat-backed Judge Chris Taylor against Republican-backed Judge Maria Lazar. Liberals hold a 4-3 court majority; a Taylor win would expand it to 5–2. Wisconsin’s court races have become intensely partisan in recent cycles, given the court’s power over voting rules and election disputes in a presidential swing state.
SCOTUS Clears Path for Bannon Case Dismissal
The Supreme Court created a path for the Trump administration to dismiss the criminal case against Steve Bannon, the former White House adviser. Bannon was convicted in 2022 of defying a subpoena from the House January 6 committee, which investigated the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters and concluded that Trump orchestrated a multi-part effort to overturn his 2020 election loss.
The Supreme Court vacated a lower court decision that had upheld Bannon’s conviction on two counts of contempt of Congress. Bannon’s case will return to the federal appeals court in Washington DC for further proceedings.
Bannon already served a four-month prison sentence in 2024 after losing his initial appeal.
He has argued that he was not willfully defying the subpoena, and that he was listening to the advice of his lawyer, so he should never have been convicted.
Justice Alito Hospitalized
Justice Samuel Alito was hospitalized last month after becoming ill at a Federalist Society dinner in Philadelphia. The Supreme Court confirmed last week that Alito was taken to an area hospital on March 20 “out of an abundance of caution.”
Alito was evaluated and administered fluids for dehydration. He returned to his home in Virginia that night with his security team. The court’s spokesperson said Alito was “thoroughly checked by his own physician” and returned to work the following Monday for oral argument.
Alito, 76, joined the court in 2006, and speculation has swirled about his retirement. Alito has not commented publicly on any retirement plans.
If he retires, President Trump would get the opportunity to nominate a fourth justice to the Supreme Court. His three first-term nominees — Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — were all confirmed by the Senate.
Why would Alito even consider retiring? He is so much younger than the president. 😑