curated news excerpts & citations
Mostafa Salem @ CNN: Iran’s ‘garbage’ peace offering is proof it thinks it has won the war
The United States waited 10 days for Iran’s response to its framework for ending the war. When Tehran’s demands arrived Sunday, they signaled that the Islamic Republic remains intent on extracting victory despite President Donald Trump’s push for regime surrender.
Neither side has publicly released the exact terms under negotiation, but Iranian state media reported that Tehran sought in its response a complete end to the war, formal recognition of its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and full sanctions relief.
The emboldened demands formed a counterproposal that Trump swiftly rejected. He deemed it “totally unacceptable” before calling it “a piece of garbage.”
It remains unclear which specific elements Trump objected to amid the obscurity shrouding the proposal. Iranian state media have consistently framed Tehran’s position throughout the war as one of strength in keeping with the government’s apparent effort to project an Iranian victory to its domestic audience.
Laurence Norman, Robbie Gramer @ WSJ: U.S. and Iran Are Locked in a Stalemate That’s Neither Peace nor War
The two sides are far apart from a deal but also don’t want to resume fighting
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – May 12, 2026
The biggest story in the country, today and always, is that the president of the United States is mentally unwell.
Over the course of three hours last night, he posted on social media fifty-five times. Those posts accused a number of those Trump considers his personal enemies, including former president Barack Obama, of treason; claimed that investigations of the ties between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives were an attempt to damage Trump; insisted the 2020 presidential election was stolen; reposted a fake quotation from Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) accusing Obama of making a personal fortune of $120 million from the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare; labeled Obama and others “traitors” and called for their arrest; and demanded to know why acting attorney general Todd Blanche hadn’t indicted any of those people yet.
This morning, he started in again with a long screed attacking the New York Times …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Julian Gewirtz @ NY Times: Xi Has Trump Right Where He Wants Him
When President Trump imposed 145 percent tariffs on China a year ago, Chinese state media urged the public to revisit a nearly 90-year-old essay by Mao Zedong. The Beijing Daily declared that the text was essential to understanding China’s responses to the “chaotic” attacks of the United States and why China will ultimately achieve a “final victory” against its geopolitical rival.
This required reading was Mao’s “On Protracted War,” a 1938 tract laying out his strategy for defeating the Japanese forces that had invaded China. At its core, it is a meditation on how China can come from behind in a life-or-death contest against a stronger adversary.
President Xi Jinping has praised the strategic foresight, discipline and patience espoused by Mao in the essay, which has emerged as a guiding framework for how China aims to face the United States. He has pointed specifically to Mao’s description of a dynamic, long-term struggle unfolding in three phases: A weaker China initially plays dogged defense, followed by a period of stalemate between equally matched forces, eventually culminating in a powerful, victorious Chinese counteroffensive.
China’s leaders are through with playing defense and have shifted into Phase 2 of Mao’s theory.
(Julian Gewirtz @ NY Times more…)
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Chao Deng @ WSJ: Inflation Soared to 3.8% in April, Driven by Gasoline Prices
Consumer prices rose 3.8% in April from a year earlier, a clear impact of higher gas prices since the start of the war with Iran.
The figures, reported Tuesday by the Labor Department, surpassed the previous month’s reported increase of 3.3%. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected inflation of 3.7%. The April increase was the highest in three years.
(Chao Deng @ WSJ more…)
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Jennifer Rubin: What do you call a weak ‘strongman’?
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These days, Putin does not project the aura of a strongman, as an anonymous Russian writer explains:As recently as last spring, everything was “we” and “ours”. Mr Putin’s war on Ukraine may be reckless and failing, but it was shared. “We” were inside it, and it would be better for all of “us” if it ended sooner. Now they describe what is happening as “his” story, not “ours”. Not our project, not our agenda, not our war.
Ouch. When all the Great Leader can offer is “repression, intrusion, and censorship,” the populace drifts away. Putin’s May 9 parade (like Trump’s skimpy birthday party parade in 2025) was downright pitiful. With “no victories to celebrate” and drone strikes forcing Putin to ask for a ceasefire, the parade was “dramatically downgraded,” and the usual display of tanks eliminated, the Wall Street Journal reported.
No one can miss the parallels to Donald Trump. With an approval rating in the 30’s, overwhelming opposition to his war, his party facing a midterm defeat, and no domestic accomplishments, his Truth Social rants have become even more unhinged. He is a prisoner of his own anger, panic, and desperation. He has started throwing aides overboard as he frantically tries to dispel the stench of failure.
Moreover, both Trump and Putin now appear physically and mentally decrepit. …
(Jennifer Rubin more…)
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Kyiv Post: Zelensky Says Coalition to Return Abducted Ukrainian Children Nears 50 Countries
At a Brussels meeting co-chaired by Ukraine, Canada and EU officials, partners discussed efforts to bring home Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, document crimes and support reintegration. Zelensky urged continued global pressure on Moscow as Switzerland and Cyprus joined the initiative and the UK, Canada and EU announced new sanctions.
(Kyiv Post more…)
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Rook T. Winchester: Cali Overs vs. The Warehouse
A high school senior took on a $38 billion detention strategy and made it wobble
The warehouse is still standing. It’s still sitting there at the corner of Waddell and Dysart roads, 418,000 square feet of beige industrial nothing, baking in the Arizona sun across the street from a chemical facility full of enough hazardous material to kill everyone within a quarter mile. The Department of Homeland Security still owns it. GardaWorld’s contract is still technically alive.
But the work has stopped.
(Rook T. Winchester more…)
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Michele Hornish: Nobody knows what November will look like. So run – hard – everywhere
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Chris Caurla @ zeteo: Gaza’s Students Face a Near Impossible Test to Study Abroad
Palestinians are turning to Duolingo to get the English certification needed to get scholarships. But adhering to the app’s rules has become increasingly difficult after two-and-a-half years of war.
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fern @ MSN: Bears now roam the Chernobyl dead zone – and the mutations are hard to ignore
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Ed Zitron: Where Are All The Data Centers?
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Ken Klippenstein: New Counterterror Strategy Eyes Tucker Carlson
Administration deems anti-Trump right wingers terrorists
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Joseph Cox @ 404 Media: ICE Agents Have List of 20 Million People on Their iPhones Thanks to Palantir
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Jonathan Cohn @ Bulwark: RFK Jr.’s War on Science Is Really a War on Scientists
A unified theory that makes sense of MAHA’s contradictions—and Kennedy’s place in the Trump administration.
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Simon Dudley: Hantavirus: Why Low Numbers Can Still Create Big Problems
Katelyn Jetelina @ Your Local Epidemiologist: 4 hantavirus updates and other things that can impact your health right now
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Gideon M-K: The Most Persistent Myth About COVID-19
Six years on and people are still making this ridiculous claim.
resources tracking the “Andes” hantavirus outbreak
Apocalypse Early Warning System
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd @ NPR: Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
- April 16: Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt
- March 25: Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
April 1 – Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz @ AP: Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide - 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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