curated news excerpts & citations
Reuters: Thousands of flights cancelled as Iran conflict upends global air travel
Business Insider: Fighting with Iran has spread to tankers at sea. Ships are coming under fire around the busy Strait of Hormuz.
Al Jazeera: Huge fire at Bahrain port home to US Navy’s Fifth Fleet
NY Times: Pentagon Announces First Three U.S. Deaths in War With Iran
NewsMax: At Least 22 Killed in Pakistan as Protesters Try to Storm US Consulate
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – March 1, 2026
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After yesterday’s euphoria coming from the administration following the first strikes against Iran, today revealed that the administration had not given much thought to whether the strikes were legitimate or what would happen after them. …
Trump seems unclear about the end game of the conflict he has started.
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Apparently, U.S. officials simply hoped the Iranian people would seize the government if their leaders were killed in airstrikes. But there was a line of succession, and the country’s police state remains in place. Erin Banco of Reuters reported yesterday that before the attacks, analysts for the Central Intelligence Agency assessed that if Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were killed, younger hard-line men could replace him.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Times of London: Oil price surge after attack on Iran threatens global inflation spike
Intercept: Trump’s Iran Attack Was Illegal, Former U.S. Military Officials Allege
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“Not only does this violate international law in numerous respects, it clearly violates the U.S. Constitution and the War Powers Resolution,” said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham, who previously served as chief of international law at U.S. Central Command.
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Inside Climate News: Whales in a Warming World
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Current Affairs: Josh Shapiro Doesn’t Care if You Kill A Pennsylvania Citizen
Provided you’re an illegal Israeli settler in the West Bank, that is.
Nasrallah Abu Siyam was just trying to save his neighbors’ goats. He was 19 years old, and he was living in the small village of Mukhmas in the occupied West Bank, northeast of Jerusalem. On February 18, the first day of Ramadan, Israeli settlers stormed into the town wearing masks and carrying assault rifles. Among them were several IDF soldiers. The settlers tried to steal the Palestinian community’s small herd of goats and sheep, its main economic lifeline; the people of Mukhmas objected, and were met with “tear gas and stun grenades.” Some of the settlers threw rocks; some of the villagers threw rocks back. Then, as the BBC reports, the Israelis opened fire, shooting “at least three of the villagers, including Abu Siyam, who was struck fatally.”
(Current Affairs more…)
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truthout: As Trump Bombs Iran, We Need to Reckon With the American War Machine
We cannot afford to slip into despair. We must push back against militarism everywhere, at every turn.
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John Pavlovitz: America Has Already Lost the War in Iran
As I watched scores of panic-stricken fathers in Iran, bloodying their hands, desperately tearing through the hulking rubble entombing their children, I grieved deeply.
(John Pavlovitz more…)
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NY Times: Epstein’s New Mexico Ranch Gets Scrutiny at Last. It May Be Too Late.
Heinous allegations have prompted state officials to restart an inquiry, which went cold in 2019, into the convicted sex offender’s lesser-known property.
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Some of the financier’s victims have said they were trafficked there, famous figures visited, and Mr. Epstein mused about turning Zorro into a headquarters for outlandish genetic engineering experiments.And yet, New Mexico leaders say there has never been a thorough investigation of the criminal activity that may have occurred at the ranch during the 26 years the convicted sex offender owned it. A state-led inquiry into Mr. Epstein’s actions was taken over by federal prosecutors in 2019, and then apparently fizzled, according to New Mexico officials and recently unsealed records.
(NY Times more…)
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WSJ: U.S. Races to Accomplish Iran Mission Before Munitions Run Out
Business Insider: The US burned through more of its limited Tomahawk stockpile in strikes on Iran. It might need them in a war with China.
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Tomahawks are cruise missiles whose long-range and precise targeting have made them a weapon of choice in recent US campaigns in the Middle East. They are also considered necessary for any potential high-intensity conflict in the Indo-Pacific, where long-range firepower is seen as critical.US officials and experts have raised concerns that Tomahawk stockpiles are being drained after their use against targets in Nigeria, Yemen, Iran, and now Iran again — risking that the US might not have enough on hand should it go to war with an adversary like China.
(Business Insider more…)
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NY Times: How the Assault on Iran Unfolded
Despite warnings after an earlier wave of assassinations, top Iranian officials gathered in person, and Israel seized the chance to kill Iran’s supreme leader.
…Some of Iran’s highest military and intelligence officials gathered in broad daylight, above ground, at their last known address — the country’s National Security Council offices — for a high-level meeting on Saturday morning, just as much of the world was expecting the United States or Israel, or both, to attack, Israeli defense officials said.
Even the supreme leader, Mr. Khamenei — presumed to have been moving from one secret, underground hideaway to another — was also above ground, at his anything-but-secret, official residential compound, the Israeli officials said.
(NY Times more…)
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: COVID, Flu & Health News, 3/1/26
Regarding winter respiratory illnesses:
- Flu A has decreased, but Flu B is increasing in most parts of the country.
- RSV is HIGH in wastewater across most of the nation and is causing emergency department visits and hospitalizations for infants and children 4 years and younger.
- COVID is decreasing nationally, but remains elevated in some parts of the midwest and northeast.
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Thom Hartmann: Chapter 14: Reform, Resist, and Remember
Your weekly excerpt from one of my books. This week: “The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink”
(Thom Hartmann more…)
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
- January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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