Palestinian hospital officials said Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip killed at least five people. More than half of the territory’s population of 2.3 million have sought refuge in Rafah. Israel has conducted near-daily raids there as it prepares for an offensive in the city. Four people were killed in Israeli tank shelling in central Gaza. Officials said that a ship traveling in the Gulf of Aden came under attack Thursday. It was the latest assault likely carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels over the Israel-Hamas war.

Some Supreme Court justices are posing scenarios or expressing skepticism in Donald Trump’s bid to avoid prosecution over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito said Thursday during arguments that he considered it “implausible” that a president could for example legally order Navy SEALs to order the assassination of a political rival. Chief Justice John Roberts struck a skeptical note about the idea of expunging from the indictment acts that are official rather than personal. And liberal Justice Elena Kagan noted the Founding Fathers did not insert an immunity clause for presidents into the Constitution even though they knew how to.

A U.S. Army reservist who provided the clearest warning ahead of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting will answer questions from the commission that's investigating the tragedy. Six weeks before Robert Card killed 18 people at a bar and bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, his best friend and fellow reservist Sean Hodgson texted a warning to supervisors saying he feared Card was about to conduct a mass shooting. The commission is hearing Thursday from Hodgson, other Army personnel and the state’s director of victim witnesses services. The failure of authorities to remove guns from Card in the weeks before the shooting has become the focus of a monthslong investigation.

The first six of 12 Rafale multipurpose fighter jets purchased by Croatia from France have landed at an air force base near Zagreb  with a welcome ceremony attended by top officials. The deal, signed in 2021 with French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation, was said to be worth over a billion euros. In addition to the aircraft, the contract covers weapon systems, spare parts, logistics and training. France is to deliver the remaining six jets in 2025. The acquisition will enable the air force of Croatia, a NATO member, to replace its outdated Soviet-designed Mikoyan MiG-21 fighters.

Ukraine is scrambling to get much-needed new supplies of weapons and ammunition from a huge U.S. aid package to its eastern front line. Russia is pressing forward with efforts to take ground for Kyiv’s outnumbered and outgunned troops. Ukraine is also seeking to reverse the drain from the country of potential soldiers. It has announced that men of conscription age will no longer be able to renew their passports from outside the country. Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Poland's defense minister said Warsaw was ready to help “in ensuring that those who are subject to compulsory military service go to Ukraine,” though he did not specify how.