(Raw Story) White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is so worried that Donald Trump is being fed a rosy picture of his Iran war that she has privately urged his inner circle to stop telling the president what he wants to hear, and start telling him what he needs to hear, Time magazine reported Thursday. Wiles, who is battling breast cancer while managing a chaotic West Wing, grew alarmed after Trump's own pollster Tony Fabrizio delivered a brutal reality check that the war cratered in public opinion as gas prices topped $4 a gallon and stock markets tumbled to multi-year lows.

(BBC News) More than 100 experts on international law have signed an open letter expressing "profound concern" about what they see as serious violations of international law by the US, Israel and Iran in the Middle East war. They say the US-Israeli decision to attack on Iran was a clear breach of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the use of force outside of self-defence or when authorised by the UN Security Council. The experts point to "alarming rhetoric" being used by officials, including US President Donald Trump's threats to "obliterate" Iran's power plants.

(The Independent) The Pentagon may have violated its own rules of war by moving troops from U.S. bases, targeted by Iran, to hotels and other civilian locations in the Middle East region, the New York Times reported. Since the start of the conflict, initiated by President Donald Trump’s missile strikes, Iranian forces have been targeting U.S. bases throughout the region. Bases, such as the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia and the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, have been damaged and at least a dozen service members have been killed.

(Reuters) The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency's office ⁠of detention ⁠oversight carried out a congressionally mandated inspection over three days ​in February; its report was released this week. The report found 49 "deficiencies" at the $1.2 billion facility, called Camp East Montana. It defined a "deficiency" as "any ​violation of detention standards, policies, or operational procedures, as applicable." There were ⁠22 ⁠deficiencies related to the "use ⁠of ​force and restraints," 11 related to "facility security and control" and five related ​to "medical care," the ⁠report said.

(NBC News) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken steps to block or delay promotions for more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across all four branches of the military, some of whom are seen as having been targeted because of their race, gender or perceived affiliation with Biden administration policies or officials, according to nine U.S. officials familiar with the process. The process within the Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines is structured to ensure the most qualified officers get promoted. Hegseth's decision to intervene in the process has raised concerns among some officials within those military branches and the White House.

(The Independent) The White House appeared to delete video footage online from an Easter event where President Donald Trump mused about being king, insulted European leaders, encouraged Charlie Kirk’s widow to sue her critics and was compared to Jesus by his spiritual adviser. A video of the event was initially posted on the official White House website and YouTube channel, but it has since been removed from public view. A thumbnail of the video remained on the site as of Thursday.

(CBS News) A former FBI agent who was prosecuted for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and later hired by the Trump-era Justice Department has left his government post, he announced Thursday. In a post on X, Jared Wise said he came to the Justice Department hoping to expose alleged abuses by prosecutors and agents who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, but he now believes it's not possible to complete that mission from his role at the department.

(Roll Call) President Donald Trump’s effort to curtail mail voting through executive order will likely be ruled illegal in at least one of several lawsuits filed this week, experts said, the latest in the president’s long-running effort to assert federal control of elections. Democratic party groups and civil rights organizations have already filed three lawsuits over the executive order that Trump issued Tuesday entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.”

(NY Times) Mr. Trump has been particularly angry about the Justice Department’s failure to win cases involving his political opponents, including against the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey and the New York attorney general, Letitia James. One key Trump adviser outside Ms. Bondi’s line of authority, the federal housing official Bill Pulte, had long pushed for her firing, blaming her for slow-walking and bungling the James and Comey cases, among other things, according to people familiar with the situation.

(NPR) The Trump administration on Thursday filed lawsuits against three states, arguing that the controversial prediction market industry should be solely regulated by the federal government, not by state gambling commissions. The trio of legal actions against Illinois, Connecticut and Arizona is the furthest Trump officials have gone to try to override state laws and set the rules for a fast-growing industry that has run headlong into thorny questions about insider trading and profiting off war and suffering.