curated news excerpts & citations
Gerard Baker @ WSJ: For Now at Least, the Iran War Seems to Be Failing
If you’re winning, you don’t typically threaten to destroy a civilization or look for scapegoats.
It’s still too soon for a verdict on President Trump’s “excursion” in the Middle East. The failure of negotiations in Pakistan to end the war with Iran presumably presages an escalation of kinetic operations, and on Sunday Mr. Trump announced a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which suggests a new level of risk. We must continue to pray for our success and the safety of our troops. But it isn’t too soon to offer a tentative judgment on the president’s biggest foreign-policy action to date: ill-conceived, ill-planned, ill-executed and, so far, failing.
For those who dispute this and prefer to buy the administration’s protestations of victory, I’d suggest you listen not to the words of the president’s critics, but to his own voice and those of his supporters.
Priyanka Shankar @ Al Jazeera: How much will US Hormuz blockade hurt Iran, and does Tehran have an escape?
Munir Ahmed, Sam Metz, and The Associated Press @ Fortune: Trump’s leaky blockade: ship sneaks through and talks with Iran resume
Collin Eaton and Benoît Morenne @ WSJ: U.S. Oil Blockade Is Set to Boost American Exports—and Prices at the Pump
Borowitz: Obama Offers to Help Trump Craft Nuclear Deal with Iran
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Júlia Ledur and Dylan Moriarty @ Washington Post: How geography powers Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, despite U.S. blockade
… even as Washington seeks to squeeze Iran economically, Tehran retains a powerful advantage: geography. Over six weeks of conflict, Iran has halted virtually all traffic in the strait by laying mines, according to its military forces, and exploiting the vulnerability created by its terrain. Even under a U.S. blockade, these factors allow Iran to continue exerting influence over who crosses — and at what risk.
That risk, more than any formal closure, is what is keeping ships away.
(Júlia Ledur and Dylan Moriarty @ Washington Post more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 14, 2026
There are signs the political game has changed in the United States since Hungarian voters rejected Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s leadership on Sunday, April 12. His party’s loss of control of the government to a supermajority of its opponents undermined the belief that right-wing authoritarianism was an unstoppable force in world politics. Since MAGA Republicans had tied themselves to Orbán and his movement, his loss also weakened their own claims to inevitable victory over those trying to protect democracy.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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James Eagle: Inflation in America is proving hard to bury
(James Eagle more…)
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Todd Beeton: A Holy War Is Brewing Inside the White House
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Matthew Gault @ 404 Media: Google, Microsoft, Meta All Tracking You Even When You Opt Out, According to an Independent Audit
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
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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