ICE plans national voter database; NYC schools ban AI through 8th grade; Katz: Ethnic cleansing of Gaza the “only solution”

Palestinian children gather amid the rubble for an outdoor cartoon screening in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, Palestine on August 30, 2026. Photo by Anas Zeyad Fteha/Anadolu via Getty Images. Thursday, September 3, 2026 – Iran launches attacks on U.S. bases in Kuwait and UAE. Latest wave of U.S. strikes on Iran kill 18, injure 142. Iran seizes ship in the Gulf, arrests crew members. U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran bombing won’t last “too long,” suggests naming Strait of Hormuz after himself. Trump aides reportedly pushing to quiet Iran war until November midterms. Iranian rial hits record low. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel’s mission in Iran “not yet finished.” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warns other countries not to aid Iran, threatens sanctions. Iran criticizes UNICEF over lack of response to deaths of Iranian children. Six vessels transited Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in northern Gaza. Israel kills two Palestinian teenagers in the occupied West Bank. Israel establishes three new settlements in a week as demolitions, arrests continue across occupied West Bank. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz: Removing Palestinians from Gaza remains the “only solution.” EU foreign ministers split over Israel trade sanctions amid West Bank settler violence. Yemen’s Saudi-backed forces say Ansarallah fired 14 missiles as heavy fighting erupts in Taiz. Israeli forces carry out large explosions across southern Lebanon despite “ceasefire.” Israel agrees to release five Lebanese detainees as forces detain three others in southern Lebanon. Save the Children: Israel killing average of seven children daily in Lebanon since March. Trump administration backs OpenAI in copyright fight against New York Times. Federal judge blocks Trump’s latest birthright citizenship order. House rejects GOP amendment to lock Supreme Court at nine seats. New York City schools ban AI tools, cap screen time for elementary, middle schoolers. ICE preparing $5 million contract to build national voter database. Whistleblower says ICE skipped background checks in rush to hire recruits. Widow of U.S. airman killed in Iran war claims she was denied benefits. Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro asks U.S. judge to dismiss drug trafficking charges. Malta jury acquits businessman of masterminding 2017 murder of journalist. Australia, U.S. to expand defense ties. UN report finds foreign networks fueling Sudan drone warfare. U.S. to use Organization of American States to isolate Nicaragua over constitutional changes. Honduran court drops charges against former President. Norway seizes Russian ship in support of Ukrainian energy firm. This is Drop Site Daily, our free news recap We send it Monday – Friday Subscribe Iran Iran launches attacks on U.S. bases in Kuwait and UAE: Iran’s army said it launched missile and drone attacks early Thursday targeting U.S. military facilities in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, including the Ahmed Al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait and Al-Minhad Air Base in the UAE, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported. Kuwait was defending itself from Iranian attacks, the Kuwaiti army announced on X, adding that any explosions heard were a result of their air defenses responding to “hostile” missile and drone attacks. Latest wave of U.S. strikes on Iran kill 18, injure 142: The U.S strikes on Iran on Tuesday and Wednesday killed at least 18 Iranians and injured 142, according to a spokesperson for the Iranian health ministry. The ministry noted that 61 of the wounded were women and 44 were under the age of 18. Six members of Iran’s navy were killed in U.S. strikes on Tuesday, the Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday, without specifying where they were killed. Iran seizes ship in the Gulf, arrests crew members: Iranian ⁠border ⁠guards seized a vessel carrying 382,000 liters (101,000 gallons) ⁠of “smuggled fuel” in the northern ⁠Gulf, Iranian state media reported on Tuesday, adding that the guards also arrested 11 of the ship’s crew members. Trump says Iran bombing won’t last “too long,” suggests naming Strait of Hormuz after himself: U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that the renewed U.S. bombing campaign against Iran would not continue for “too long,” but said the U.S. was “prepared to do another” attack at “any time we want.” In the same remarks, he claimed again that the U.S. was in control of the Strait of Hormuz, and that the U.S. is “bringing lots of boats out every day with millions of barrels of oil” through the Strait daily. “We are, for the most part, doing it without trouble. Every once in a while they shoot a drone, and we knock it down,” he added. On Truth Social, Trump suggested he would attempt to change the name of the passageway to “TRUMP STRAIT,” following similar unilateral name changes of the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario. Trump aides reportedly pushing to quiet Iran war until November midterms: Trump’s senior aides are pushing to prevent an escalation in the ongoing war in Iran before the November congressional midterm elections, hoping to limit Republican losses, Reuters reported. Sources told the outlet that White House officials may consider ramping up military action after the elections, though officials do not presently think there is a risk of a return to full-scale war. The war is unpopular with voters, with 63% of Americans disapproving of the conflict and only 31% approving, according to a late August Reuters/Ipsos poll. Trump responded to these and similar reports on Wednesday, claiming he was “not affected by the election” because he himself was not running. Iranian rial hits record low: The Iranian currency dropped to a record low of more than 2.2 million rials to one U.S. dollar on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Netanyahu says Israel’s mission in Iran “not yet finished”: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country’s mission in Iran was “not yet finished” in remarks to i24News on Wednesday, saying that “all of our systems” remained committed to “bringing down” the Iranian government. President Donald Trump told the Israeli news outlet Kan on Wednesday that Israel does not need to worry about a resumption of the war with Iran, claiming that he would “take care of it.” Rubio warns other countries not to aid Iran, threatens sanctions : U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that any country helping Iran create “mechanisms” to generate funds would also face American sanctions. He added, in remarks to reporters, that “nothing that anyone is providing Iran is in any way impeding our ability to act as necessary to protect the United States.” Rubio also said that the Strait of Hormuz would “remain open” and that the U.S would “continue to target” entities in the state that pose a threat to its interests. Iran criticises UNICEF over lack of response to deaths of Iranian children: At a UNICEF board meeting in New York on Wednesday, Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s representative to the United Nations, criticized the children’s rights agency for what Tehran described as its failure to condemn attacks by the United States and Israel that have killed Iranian children. UNICEF has previously expressed concern over child casualties in Iran and called on all parties to comply with international humanitarian law, but has generally not attributed individual attacks to the U.S. or Israel. Six vessels transited Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday: Just six ships transited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, down from 11 on Tuesday, according to the latest data from Kpler, reported on by Reuters. The vessels included two very large gas carriers, two long-range tankers, one Supramax tanker and one Panamax tanker, according to the firm. The number may be updated, with ships that switch off their transponders possibly being added to the tally. Palestine Israeli forces kill two Palestinians, including child, in northern Gaza: Two Palestinians, including a child, were killed and several others wounded by Israeli forces gunfire in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, on Thursday, WAFA reported. On Wednesday, an Israeli strike on a tent in Al-Mawasi, southern Gaza, wounded five, with one man later dying from wounds sustained in the attack. Israel kills two Palestinian teenagers in the occupied West Bank: Israeli gunfire killed Khalil Abu Alia, 16, and Omar Mohammed Naasan, 19, as soldiers and settlers raided al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday. Khalil’s uncle, Mohammed Hussein Abu Aliya, spoke to Drop Site contributor Mutasem Sqf ElHait as the attack continued. He described homes raided, sheep taken and residents abused: “Children, women, young men, even people passing by on the road. No one was spared.” Israel’s military said it fired at “key instigators with the aim of removing the threat” and accused Palestinians of throwing rocks when soldiers took livestock it claimed belonged to Israelis. “Hits were observed,” its statement said. “The machinery of beatings, destruction, snipers, and terror is operating 24 hours a day,” Abu Aliya said. “Our children are dear and precious to us. They love life. They love a dignified life.” Watch the dispatch by Mutasem Sqf ElHait here . Israel establishes three new settlements in a week as demolitions, arrests continue across occupied West Bank: Tubas: Palestinian authorities received the body of Jadallah Jihad Juma Jadallah, a boy from Far’a refugee camp, after Israeli authorities had withheld his body since his killing on November 16, 2025, WAFA reported. Israel continues to withhold 799 documented Palestinian bodies, including those of 80 children. Hebron: Israeli forces detained a Palestinian man from Susya in Masafer Yatta on Thursday, as settlers released livestock onto Palestinian land and around homes. On Wednesday, Israeli forces demolished 38 residential, agricultural, and service structures in al-Tabban, Masafer Yatta, displacing eight Palestinian families comprising 58 people, including 26 children and 30 women. Bethlehem/Hebron: Israeli authorities established a new settlement in the Gush Etzion bloc on Wednesday, the third new settlement within a week. The settlement was established on an axis connecting the bloc’s western and eastern sections, with its regional council saying it was intended to create territorial continuity between them. Two other settlements were established on Monday: Makida/Doran, northwest of Hebron, and Noa, southeast of Jenin. Jenin/Tubas/Tulkarm: The Israeli military announced a “military exercise” in the cities of Jenin, Tubas, and Tulkarm “starting from the morning hours until noon.” East Jerusalem: Israeli forces detained several employees of the Hizma municipality, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem, during a raid on the town on Thursday and seized a municipal vehicle, according to the Jerusalem Governorate. Israel’s Katz: Removing Palestinians from Gaza remains the “only solution”: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel remains prepared to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza “by sea, by air, by every way possible,” describing the ethnic cleansing of the Strip as the “only solution.” Katz said Trump has not canceled the plan but “froze it” after pressure from Arab governments, while countries willing to receive Palestinians want U.S. backing. He added Israel expects a future “green light” to advance militarily and territorially if Hamas is deemed to have violated its commitments. One of Trump’s two main Gaza advisers, Jared Kushner, made a similar threat after meeting Netanyahu last month, saying that if Hamas failed to decommission its weapons, the U.S. would back Israel resuming the war to “finish the job.” EU foreign ministers split over Israel trade sanctions amid West Bank settler violence: Ireland and Spain, backed by Belgium and the Netherlands, pushed EU foreign ministers to back trade restrictions on goods from illegal Israeli settlements at an informal Gymnich meeting hosted by Ireland in Wicklow on Tuesday and Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported. Germany, Austria, Czechia, and Hungary opposed the move, warning it would damage the body’s diplomatic ties with Israel. Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said the bloc should act “collectively” on international law, but the body’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas did not address sanctions at the post-meeting press conference. It remains unclear whether such restrictions would need unanimous approval or a simple majority. Yemen Yemen’s Saudi-backed forces say Ansarallah fired 14 missiles as heavy fighting erupts in Taiz: The Saudi-backed government said Ansarallah forces fired 14 ballistic missiles and launched drones at populated