The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they unfold.

US Senate nixes effort to halt arms sales to Israel, but 80% of Dems vote to block them

The US Senate has voted down a pair of resolutions to prevent weapons sales to Israel, but the vast majority of Democrats joined the minority, demonstrating a major shift in the party’s approach toward Israel.

Forty out of 47 Senate Democrats voted in favor of one of the resolutions to block a $295 million sale of bulldozers, which the initiative’s author Sen. Bernie Sanders said would be used to demolish homes in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon. Fifty-nine senators — mostly Republicans — voted against blocking the sale.

Thirty-six Democrats backed another resolution aimed at blocking a $152 million sale of 1,000-pound bombs to the IDF, which Sanders said would be used in Gaza and Lebanon. Sixty-three senators voted against blocking the sale.

Similar resolutions forced by Sanders in 2024 and 2025 were also rejected, but the number of Democrats voting with the Vermont Independent has more than doubled in less than two years amid Israeli military operations in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon as well as a stepped-up campaign by party activists who have increasingly viewed criticism of Israel as a litmus test for earning their support.

AP contributed to this report.

YouTube suspends pro-Iran channel posting Lego-style clips mocking Trump

YouTube has terminated a channel belonging to a pro-Iran group producing viral Lego-themed AI videos that ridicule US President Donald Trump, the Google-owned platform said Wednesday, sparking online criticism.

Explosive Media, a group of pro-Tehran creators that describes itself as independent but is widely suspected of ties to the Iranian government, has gained internet notoriety during the US-Iran war for animation videos that have racked up millions of views.

“We terminated the channel for violating our spam, deceptive practices and scams policies,” a YouTube spokesman tells AFP, without elaborating.

The channel was suspended on March 27, he adds.

Explosive Media was still posting videos mocking the US war effort on other tech platforms, including the Elon Musk-owned X and Telegram.

Meta-owned Instagram also took down the group’s account, US media reported, but another account under its name was still active on Wednesday.

Lashing out at YouTube, Explosive Media writes on X: “Seriously! Are our LEGO-style animations actually violent?”

Ghalibaf says Lebanon ceasefire will be result of efforts by ‘Axis of Resistance’

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf appears to try to capitalize on reports of a brewing ceasefire in Lebanon by insisting that it is the result of Tehran’s insistence on such a truce being part of the one reached between the US and the Islamic Republic.

“The completion and consolidation of a comprehensive ceasefire in Lebanon will be the result of the resistance and steadfast struggle of the great Hezbollah and the unity of the Axis of Resistance,” Ghalibaf says in a statement posted to X.

“The United States must comply with the agreement. Resistance and Iran are one soul, both in war and in ceasefire. America should withdraw from ‘Israel First’ mistake,” he adds.

Iran insists that Lebanon was supposed to be included in the ceasefire reached last week between Washington and Tehran. The US has argued otherwise and says such a result should only come out of talks between Israel and Lebanon.

Ghalibaf has been leading the negotiations with the US on behalf of Iran.

US warns that buyers of Iranian oil could be hit with sanctions

The United States threatens to sanction buyers of Iranian oil and said it believed China would pause such purchases as Washington enforces a maritime blockade on Iran.

“We have told countries that if you are buying Iranian oil, that if Iranian money is sitting in your banks, we are now willing to apply secondary sanctions,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tells reporters at the White House.

The US maritime blockade on Iran began on Monday as the Iran war entered its seventh week. China previously bought more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil.

“We believe (that with) this blockade … there will be a pause of Chinese buying,” Bessent says.

The US Treasury has also written to two Chinese banks and “told them that if we can prove that there is Iranian money flowing through your accounts, then we are willing to put on secondary sanctions,” he added.

The US Treasury Department has also targeted Iran’s oil transportation infrastructure, imposing sanctions on more than two dozen individuals, companies and vessels.

The move comes weeks after Washington issued a 30-day waiver of sanctions on Iranian oil at sea, which Bessent said last month allowed some 140 million barrels to ​reach global markets in a bid to relieve pressure on global energy supplies sparked by the war.

Bessent confirms that the waiver, issued on March 20 and set to expire April 19, would not be renewed, a move Reuters reported on Tuesday.

The US has also not renewed the waiver on Russian oil at sea, which expired on Saturday.

Reuters has also reported that the U.S. Treasury sent letters to China, Hong ⁠Kong, the UAE and Oman, identifying banks that have allowed Iranian illicit activity and warning that they face punitive U.S. measures.

S&P 500, Nasdaq end at records as markets bet on US-Iran accord

Major Wall Street stock indices finished at records on Wednesday, extending an upward climb on optimism about an accord in the US-Iran conflict as the White House signaled openness to more talks.

The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 0.8 percent to a new all-time high of 7,022.96, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.6 percent to 24,016.02, also a record.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.2 percent to 48,463.72.

US says 10 vessels turned back in 48 hours of Iran port blockade

The US military says it successfully turned back 10 vessels that tried to sail out of Iranian ports during the first 48 hours of a naval blockade against the Islamic Republic.

“Ten vessels have now been turned around, and ZERO ships have broken through since the start of the US blockade on Monday,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) says in a post on X.

CENTCOM had earlier put the number of ships turned back at nine, but added a 10th that it said was “redirected” back to Iran by a US guided missile destroyer.

While CENTCOM says no vessels have made it through the blockade, maritime tracking data appeared to contradict that assertion.

Tracking data from Tuesday indicated at least three ships sailing from Iranian ports crossed the Strait of Hormuz, though some vessels taking the route later turned back.

The three ships were among at least seven Iran-linked vessels that passed through the strait after Washington’s blockade came into effect at 1400 GMT on Monday, according to maritime data provider Kpler.

Tehran’s forces effectively closed the strait after the start of the US-Israeli air campaign against the Islamic Republic on February 28, and the United States on Sunday announced its blockade of Iranian ports after peace talks failed.

Police arrest two over London synagogue arson attempt

Police in London have arrested two people over an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in the north of the city, amid an upsurge in antisemitic incidents in Britain.

The pair — a 47-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man — were detained in Watford, north of the capital, and are being held in custody, police say.

The attack shortly after midnight on Wednesday came after an arson attack on ambulances run by a Jewish charity in London last month and a deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester in October 2025.

The latest incident, which police say is being treated as an “antisemitic hate crime,” is being investigated with support from counter-terrorism detectives.

“I hope the swift action by officers today to identify and arrest two people provides some reassurance and demonstrates how seriously we take attacks of this nature,” Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams, who leads policing in the area, says in a statement.

Describing the attack in an earlier statement, police say two people wearing dark clothing and balaclavas approached the synagogue in Finchley and “threw two bottles suspected to contain petrol,” which did not ignite, the Metropolitan Police Force says.

Iran supreme leader’s adviser threatens to sink US ships in Hormuz strait

The military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warns that Iran will sink American ships in the Strait of Hormuz if the United States decides to “police” the key shipping bottleneck.

The US is imposing a military blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after Iran blocked shipping for over six weeks during a conflict that is on hold as a fragile two-week ceasefire remains in place.

“Mr Trump wants to become the police of the Strait of Hormuz. Is this really your job? Is this the job of a powerful army like the US?” Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who was named as a military adviser by Khamenei last month, tells state TV.

“These ships of yours will be sunk by our first missiles and have created a great danger for the US military. They can definitely be exposed to our missiles and we can destroy them,” Rezaei, wearing his military uniform, tells the state broadcaster.

Long regarded as a hardliner even within the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, Rezaei says it would be “great” if the United States launched a ground invasion of Iran as “we would take thousands of hostages and then for each hostage we would get a billion dollars.”

He also adds, without giving further details: “I am not in favor of extending the ceasefire at all, and this is a personal view.”

A veteran and high-profile figure in Iran, Rezaei headed the Revolutionary Guards from 1981 to 1997.

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