Happy Monday. It’s Tax Day, and if this is the first you’re hearing of it, well, Godspeed—and we know what your evening plans look like. 

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Iran launched its first-ever direct attack against Israel late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, firing 350 missiles and armed drones in the direction of Israeli territory. The Israeli military—with support from the U.S. military and those of Jordan, the United Kingdom, and France—shot down 99 percent of the incoming projectiles before they reached their targets, according to Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. Only one serious injury was reported, from falling shrapnel after the interception of an Iranian missile. Following the attack, President Joe Biden reportedly warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the U.S. would not support an Israeli counterattack against Iran. Meanwhile, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson signaled on Sunday the chamber would vote on aid to Israel in the coming days—though it was unclear whether the vote would be on the funding that already passed the Senate and includes aid to Ukraine or a separate package that the upper chamber would also have to pass. Prior to Tehran’s attack on Israel on Saturday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz, taking the crew of the Portuguese-flagged ship hostage. 
• The chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, warned on Saturday that the war’s eastern front has “deteriorated significantly in recent days,” owing to increased offensive activity by Russian forces. After months of sustained Russian missile attacks targeting Ukrainian cities and electricity infrastructure, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Friday his country would send Ukraine an additional Patriot missile system and ammunition as U.S. aid remains stalled in Congress. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog that he intends to restart the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest. Several drones hit the currently powered-down site—on a front line in southeastern Ukraine—as recently as last week.    
• New York Judge Juan Merchan—who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial—on Friday rejected one of Trump’s final efforts to delay the proceedings set to begin later today. Trump and his team asked for the trial to be pushed “indefinitely” on the grounds that the media attention surrounding it would make it impossible for Trump to receive a fair trial. Merchan, however, held that Trump intentionally generates much of the media attention. “The situation Defendant finds himself in now is not new to him and at least in part, of his own doing,” the judge wrote. 
• The House voted 273 to 147 on Friday to pass a bill reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Authority (FISA) for two years instead of the originally proposed five-year renewal. Both parties’ conferences were split on the measure, with 88 Republicans and 59 Democrats voting against it. An amendment to the bill that would have required the government to obtain a warrant before searching Americans’ data swept up in foreign surveillance failed to pass after receiving 212 votes in favor and 212 against. The ultimate passage comes after an effort to open debate on the reauthorization failed on Wednesday after Trump voiced his opposition to the measure. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday promised to introduce an “election integrity” bill while visiting Trump at Mar-a-Lago that, among other provisions, would require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote.
• Trump endorsed Dave McCormick on Saturday in his race to unseat Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in Pennsylvania. McCormick is running unopposed for the Republican nomination, but two years ago, when McCormick was facing off against TV doctor Mehmet Oz, Trump labeled McCormick “the candidate of special interests and globalists and the Washington establishment.” McCormick—for whom former President George W. Bush recently hosted a fundraiser in Dallas, Texas—has endorsed Trump for president. 
• In the latest New York Times/Siena College national poll released Saturday, President Biden had narrowed Trump’s lead compared to the last such survey, bringing the two candidates to a virtual tie at 46 percent to 45 percent. The survey, which was in the field from April 7 to April 11, suggests Biden’s uptick may come from traditional Democratic voters “coming home,” with the president winning a larger share of that group than he did in the same poll a month ago. 

A Telegraphed Iranian Attack

TEL AVIV, Israel—A Saturday evening alive with protests calling for the safe return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza fell abruptly silent here in Israel’s second-largest city as disturbing news began to trickle in. Iran, the Israeli military later confirmed around 11 p.m., had begun its long-awaited—and first-ever–direct attack on the state of Israel. 

By early Sunday, the Islamic Republic had launched some 170 explosive drones, 120 ballistic missiles, and 30 cruise missiles westward toward Israel. Israel’s air force, together with an international coalition, intercepted a large percentage of the projectiles before they ever crossed into Israeli airspace. Nearly all of those that did reach the country were intercepted by its layered air defense system before hitting their targets, with the exception of a small number of ballistic missiles, which struck the Nevatim Airbase and caused minor damage. Shrapnel from an intercepted missile fell on a Bedouin village in the Negev Desert, severely injuring a 7-year-old girl.

The unprecedented attack followed weeks of warnings by U.S. and Israeli officials, who had assessed that Iran planned to retaliate against Israel following the latter’s alleged strike in Damascus, Syria, earlier this month that killed Iranian Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi and several other members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). During a press conference Friday, President Joe Biden reiterated his monosyllabic message to Iran and its proxies in the region: “Don’t.”