President Joe Biden can perhaps breathe a bit easier given that Israel and Iran seem to have stepped back for now from tipping the Middle East into all-out war. But the situation situation remains a delicate one for Biden as he gears up his reelection effort in the face of headwinds in the Middle East, Russia and the Indo-Pacific.

Gaza hospital officials say an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the territory’s southernmost city of Rafah has killed at least nine people

The White House had scrambled to avert a harsher Israeli attack on Iran that might have sparked a wider regional confrontation.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday he has made “determinations” related to a set of accusations that Israel violated U.S. laws prohibiting the provision of military assistance to policy or security units that commit gross violations of human rights.

Israel and Iran on Friday both played down an apparent Israeli airstrike near a major air base and nuclear site in central Iran, signaling the two bitter enemies are ready to prevent their latest eruption of violence from escalating into a full-blown regionwide war.

What Tehran calls its “axis of resistance” has been a central focus of Israel’s military, which has made great efforts to hunt them down. Yet analysts agree their capabilities persist and Iran’s proxy forces could still extract a high cost, ratcheting up the conflict for the broader Middle East.

Global central bankers fretting about geopolitics just got another sharp reminder overnight about the potential threat that the Middle East poses to their inflation fight.

The United States told the Group of Seven foreign ministers on Friday that it received information at the “last minute” from Israel about a drone action in Iran but didn’t participate in the apparent attack, officials said.

With rare bipartisan momentum, the House pushed ahead Friday on a foreign aid package of $95 billion for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and humanitarian support as a robust coalition of lawmakers helped it clear a procedural hurdle to reach final votes this weekend.

The Biden administration on Friday imposed sanctions on two entities accused of fundraising for extremist Israeli-occupied West Bank settlers who have harassed and attacked Palestinians, as well as the founder of an organization whose members regularly assault Palestinians.