The death of Ivana Trump, the start of the 150th British Open, and more trending topics

Ukrainian officials say Russian missiles that struck a city in central Ukraine killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 100 others, including children, while dozens were missing. Officials say cruise missiles fired from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea struck a medical center, stores and residential buildings in Vinnytsia, a city southwest of Kyiv, the capital. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is accusing Russia of intentionally aiming missiles at civilians and repeating his call for Russia to be declared a state sponsor of terrorism. One military analyst thinks Thursday’s attack mirrors previous ones on residential areas that Moscow has launched “to try to pressure Kyiv to make some concessions.”

U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stood side-by-side and declared they would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power. But they diverged on how to reach that outcome. Biden says he still wants to give diplomacy a chance while Lapid insists that tough words alone won’t thwart Tehran nuclear ambitions. Biden is also stressing the importance of furthering ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Hours before he was set to become the first U.S. leader to fly directly from Israel to Saudi Arabia, that kingdom’s General Authority of Civil Aviation signaled the end of its longstanding ban on Israeli airliners overflying its territory.

Protesters have retreated from government buildings in Sri Lanka, restoring a tenuous calm to the economically crippled country. And the embattled president at last emailed the resignation that demonstrators have sought for months. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled a day earlier under pressure from the protesters enraged by the island nation’s economic collapse. An official said he finally emailed his resignation a day later than promised. But the crisis was far from over because he has further angered the crowds by making his prime minister the acting leader. Protesters have pressed for both men to leave and for a unity government to address the economic calamity that has triggered widespread shortages of food, fuel and other necessities.

Sen. Joe Manchin is roiling budget talks with Democratic leaders anew. The West Virginia Democrat says the latest inflation surge makes him more cautious about agreeing to federal spending increases that could drive consumers’ costs even higher. In December, Manchin single-handedly killed Democrats’ roughly $2 trillion, 10-year social and environment bill before Christmas. In recent months, he’s been bargaining with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer over a new economic package that would be around half that size and focus on health, energy and taxes. But Manchin says grim new inflation figures mean the compromise he’s trying to reach with Schumer must be reviewed.

Conservative lawmakers in Britain have knocked another contender out of the contest to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Attorney General Suella Braverman secured the fewest votes from her colleagues Thursday and was eliminated from the race, leaving five contenders. Former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak is battling to stave off momentum from junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt. Sunak got the most votes, 101, with Mordaunt a strong second with 83.  Bookmaker Ladbrokes said Mordaunt is now the favorite to win, followed by Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. Further rounds of voting will take place next week until just two candidates remain. Those two will face a runoff vote by about 180,000 Conservative Party members.

The drug possession trial of WNBA star Brittney Griner has resumed, with the head of the Russian club she plays for in the offseason and a teammate from that squad testifying in support of her character and what she has meant for women’s basketball in the country. Griner, who pleaded guilty last week, did not testify as expected at the third day of the trial. She has been detained in Russia since February, and the U.S. government is under pressure at home to do more to secure her freedom. Her guilty plea could be an effort to expedite the court proceedings so any negotiations about a prisoner exchange could move forward.

The House has approved a significant expansion of health care and disability benefits for millions of veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The vote all but assures the measure will soon go to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The Senate will have to vote again because of a technical fix the House made to the bill, but the essence of the bill is the same as the one senators overwhelmingly passed last month. The measure expands access to health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs and will make it easier for many veterans to get disability payments.

Attorneys for Sen. Lindsey Graham say he wasn’t trying to interfere in Georgia’s 2020 election when he called state officials to ask them to reexamine certain absentee ballots after President Donald Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden. The arguments came in a court filing Tuesday as Graham challenges a subpoena compelling him to testify before a special grand jury in Georgia that’s investigating Trump and his allies’ actions after the 2020 election. Graham was one of a handful of Trump confidants and lawyers named in petitions filed last week by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.