curated news excerpts & citations
Yaroslav Trofimov @ WSJ: Iran Believes It’s Winning—and Wants a Steep Price to End the War
DUBAI—Three weeks into the war, the Iranian regime is signaling that it believes it is winning and has the power to impose a settlement on Washington that entrenches Tehran’s dominance of Middle East energy resources for decades to come.
This attitude may prove to be a dangerous misreading of President Trump’s determination, or of Israel’s capacity to inflict strategic blows on the Islamic Republic’s surviving leadership and military capabilities.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have given mixed signals on how long the war would go on, as they try to talk markets down and keep Tehran guessing. Netanyahu said Thursday that the war would end “a lot faster than people think.” Trump said this week the U.S. would wrap up the conflict in the “near future” even as the Pentagon dispatched thousands of additional Marines to the Middle East.
The problem is, Iran also has a say in when the guns fall silent—and, for now, it seems to think time works to its benefit.
(Yaroslav Trofimov @ WSJ more…)
Barak Ravid, Marc Caputo, Dave Lawler @ Axios: Trump considers “winding down” Iran war without opening Hormuz Strait
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – March 21, 2026
On March 21, 1861, former U.S. senator Alexander Stephens of Georgia delivered what history has come to know as the Cornerstone Speech, explaining how the ideology and power of elite enslavers in the American South were about to usher in a new era in world history.
…And yet, when we remember the era that elite southern enslavers thought would see their ideology spreading around the globe and ushering in a new era in human history, we do not remember it as the “Stephens Era.” It is the Era of Lincoln, the man who came to represent those who stood against Stephens and his ilk.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Rebecca Solnit: If Fossil Fuels Are War, Renewables Can Bring Peace
On one side of the world the US and Israel are pursuing an ill-conceived attack on Iran that has hugely impacted the flow of fossil fuel in the region. This is already having a grim impact on daily life in many nations, jacking up the price of oil and gasoline, and threatening the availability of fossil-fuel-based fertilizer for spring planting. On the other side of the world, beginning in California and the Southwest and now spreading across the continent, an unprecedented heat wave has produced shocking temperatures for mid-March, with dire implications for agriculture, wildfire, snowpack and water flow. These two things are related. The climate is a crisis because for far too long we’ve burned too much fossil fuel.
(Rebecca Solnit more…)
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Nikita Nikolaienko, Ian Lovett and Daria Matviichuk @ WSJ: Ukraine Is Suddenly on the Offensive, With Help From Elon Musk
Kyiv’s forces have notched their biggest domestic territorial gains in more than two years after Russia lost the use of Starlink
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine—When Elon Musk flipped the off switch on Russian forces’ Starlink internet connections in February, Ukraine’s military went on the offensive.
Russian commanders had lost access to live video of the battlefield and communications with troops. Ukrainian soldiers moved in on Russian positions with little threat from drones—normally an omnipresent danger.
(Nikita Nikolaienko, Ian Lovett and Daria Matviichuk @ WSJ more…)
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Timothy Snyder: No Kings, Freedom!
Gather on March 28th.
Rook T. Winchester: Joan Baez, No Kings 3, and the end of excuses
Action is the antidote to despair. Not hope. Not the group chat. Not the extremely well-reasoned thread you just posted to an audience of people who already agree with you. Action. The kind that costs something. The kind that requires you to put down the phone, lace up your shoes, and go be a citizen in the physical world where citizenship actually happens.
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Joan Baez will be in St. Paul on March 28th.Where will you be?
(Rook T. Winchester more…)
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Steve Karnowski @ Independent: Clergy allowed to visit Minneapolis ICE holding facility in latest ruling
A federal judge has mandated that clergy be granted access to minister to immigrants held at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, a facility central to the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in Minnesota. The ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell on Friday, marks a significant victory for religious freedom advocates.
Judge Blackwell granted an injunction sought by Minnesota branches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and a Catholic priest who had initiated legal action against the Department of Homeland Security.
His decision ensures that clergy will be permitted in-person pastoral visits to all detainees within the building, which has been the site of frequent protests concerning the approximately 3,000 federal officers deployed to the state during the crackdown.
(Steve Karnowski @ Independent more…)
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Becky Ferreira @ 404 Media: Scientists Narrow Down the Hunt for Aliens to 45 Planets
Scientists have narrowed the hunt for alien life to 45 rocky worlds where liquid water could make life possible.
(Becky Ferreira @ 404 Media more…)
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- 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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