JD Vance accused of ‘gaslighting’ after saying he is ‘skeptical’ US struck Iranian wedding | First Thing

Vice-president's claim US-Iran conflict is not war draws ridicule from Democrat Ro Khanna. Plus, iconic feminist Gloria Steinem dies aged 92

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Good morning. The US vice-president, JD Vance, has responded to claims that an American strike was responsible for killing four people, including a child, at a wedding celebration in southern Iran by saying that sometimes things happen". The deaths were reported by the Iranian Red Crescent, which operates independently of Tehran and is treated by most international monitors as a credible source on casualty figures.

In a further comment, described by the congressman Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, as gaslighting", the vice-president said the conflict between the US and Iran, which has stretched into a seventh month and caused the deaths of 18 US service members, was not presently a war". Iranian authorities have put the overall death toll from US and Israeli strikes in the thousands, figures outside observers, including US-based monitoring groups, have broadly corroborated.

What did Vance say? At a White House press briefing he said: I will say that the Iranian state media has not been a very good scribe about what's happened in the conflict thus far, so I'm extremely skeptical of this. What I can say with 100% confidence is that, unlike the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the US never targets civilians in combat. We never will do that. We never have done that, and unfortunately, obviously, sometimes things happen". Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to blow up Iran's civilian infrastructure.

What is happening with US military leadership? Trump on Thursday named Adam Telle as the acting army secretary after the departure of Daniel Driscoll amid widespread reports of tensions with the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. Telle is currently the assistant secretary of the army for civil works.

What has the House decided about university boycotts of Israel? The House has passed a Republican-backed bill that would penalize universities that participate in boycotts of Israel. This legislation is about a simple principle: our colleges and universities should not discriminate against Israel," said Tim Walberg, the Republican chair of the House education committee. Thirty three Democrats broke with the rest of their party to vote in favor. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.