Tracy Mumford

wanted to see lead the country.

In all, Trump seems to be distancing himself from any long-term plans for Iran, which analysts say adds a new level of uncertainty to the situation.

My colleague Anton Troianovsky covers global affairs for The Times.

As of today, nearly 900 people have been killed in the fighting in the Middle East, the vast majority of them in Iran, which the U.S.

and Israel have continued attacking.

Iran has continued to hit back, striking targets all over the Gulf and choking off a key shipping lane for oil and gas, which has caused prices for those to surge, raising fears of widespread economic repercussions.

Meanwhile, in Washington...

The Senate is expected to vote today on limiting the president's ability to continue to strike Iran, with Democrats saying the administration has failed to justify launching the operation without consulting Congress.

In a letter to lawmakers, Trump said he ordered the airstrikes to advance U.S.

interests and quote, neutralize Iran's malign activities.

That contradicted his own administration's earlier claims that there was an imminent threat

Officials with access to U.S.

intelligence have also told The Times that Trump has exaggerated the immediacy of any danger Iran posed to the U.S.

Republicans, on their part, have largely backed Trump's actions, saying previous presidents were unwilling to take strong action against Iran.

Given the margins in Congress, that means the votes on the president's war powers are likely to fail.

Now, one last thread to follow from all of this is how Israel is seizing this particular moment.

Times Jerusalem bureau chief David Haubfinger says that in the past week, the Israeli government has been emboldened.

In addition to striking Iran in partnership with the U.S., Israel has also been carrying out deadly strikes in Lebanon, saying it's targeting Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group there.

Analysts say it's clear Israel had those plans in place for months, and when Hezbollah fired a volley of rockets this week, that gave Israel the pretext it needed.

In Texas, one of the first big fights of the midterms played out last night with some nail-biting primaries for the U.S.