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Priyanka Shankar and Abid Hussain @ Al Jazeera: Trump calls Iran’s leadership ‘fractured’. Is it, and who’s in charge?

Almost 53 days into war, there is little evidence suggesting that Iranian government is fragmented.

George Grylls @ Times of London: Is Mojtaba Khamenei really leading Iran?

The badly wounded supreme leader gives orders by sealed messages to avoid revealing his location and has delegated negotiations to senior commanders

Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 23, 2026

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Today the Pentagon cracked down on the independence of Stars and Stripes, the newspaper charged with providing “independent news and information to the U.S. military community.” Stars and Stripes operates out of the Department of Defense. In order to make sure the paper protects freedom of the press and remains independent of the Pentagon rather than becoming a propaganda outlet, Congress provided for it to be overseen by an ombudsman who regularly reports to Congress. Today the current ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, reported that she has been fired.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Tim Dickinson: Trump vs. Earth

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The danger posed by Trump begins with climate denial. On day one, the administration pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord — the international framework for lowering global greenhouse emissions. Not content to simply abdicate leadership, Trump has preached global warming denial on the (literal and proverbial) international stage. At the U.N. General Assembly in February, the president called climate change “the greatest con job perpetrated by the world.”

The administration has now made climate denial official U.S. policy. In February, the EPA jettisoned the “endangerment finding” that designated carbon dioxide as a pollutant, subject to limitations under the Clean Air Act. …
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The move to rescind the endangerment finding was based in part on the findings of a “climate working group” that was secretly assembled by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, himself a former fracking executive. The group — which downplayed the dangers of climate change — was later found to have been operating illegally. Because, of course it was. But its work product was, egregiously, allowed to stand.

Alastair Marsh @ Bloomberg: How Microsoft Spooked the Global Carbon Removal Market

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Michele Hornish: He Worked Alone; We Have Each Other

… Dashrath Manjhi: “This hill had given us trouble and grief for centuries. The people had asked the government many times to make a proper road through the hill, but nobody paid any attention. So I just decided I would do it all by myself.”

And so, armed with a simple chisel, a hammer, and a shovel, Dashrath began – single-handedly – to cut a path through solid rock.

… And twenty-two years after heaving the first shovelful, Dashrath Manjhi broke that mountain.

… And in doing so he created a road that meant freedom, giving people from 60 villages access to markets, healthcare, and jobs that now were just five kilometers away. Children who used to walk eight kilometers to school could now get there in three. Now with easier access to healthcare, some lives were literally saved. Other lives were made simpler, better, safer. …

… while this story inspires me because of what one man did, it also breaks my heart because of what could have been. What would have happened if everyone else in the village had pitched in after that first year? Rather than having a road in 22 years, perhaps they would have had a road in 10. Or 5. Or two.

… We are still standing in front of a mountain. But now, we’re not standing alone. Now there are other people, like you, on our left and right, setting cracks in the rock, shoveling stone, and pushing boulders out of the way. We can already see the crack in the mountain. We’re not as far from the other side as we thought. We just have to put our shoulders to it. So pick up your chisel. Go grab your shovel.
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Borowitz: Iran Says Hormuz Strait Will Close Two Years for Renovations

In a major setback for Donald J. Trump, on Monday Iran announced that the Strait of Hormuz will be closed the next two years for renovations.

The Strait of Hormuz board, packed with cronies of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, also approved a plan to put Khamenei’s name on the renovated waterway.

“The Khamenei Strait of Hormuz will be the biggest and most beautiful trade chokepoint EVER!” the ayatollah announced in a social media post.

In the same post, he indicated that the renovated strait would have a “world-class toll booth” fitted with marble armrests “unlike anything ever done or seen before!”

Josh Dawsey and Annie Linskey @ WSJ: Behind Trump’s Public Bravado on the War, He Grapples With His Own Fears

President Trump’s handling of the war with Iran is characterized by an unorthodox, maximalist approach, veering between belligerence and conciliation.

Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 20, 2026

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This morning, Trump’s social media account responded to the bad news of the weekend, including the Wall Street Journal story, by dismissing it. “Israel never talked me into the war with Iran,” the account posted. “[T]he results of Oct[ober] 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, did. I watch and read the FAKE NEWS Pundits and Polls in total disbelief. 90% of what they say are lies and made up stories, and the polls are rigged, much as the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged. Just like the results in Venezuela, which the media doesn’t like talking about, the results in Iran will be amazing—And if Iran’s new leaders (Regime Change!) are smart, Iran can have a great and prosperous future! President DJT”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Brian Merchant: A brief history of techno-negativity

From the techne pessimists of Ancient Greece to the computer firebombers of the Information Age, here’s a look at the long—and fruitful—legacy of refusing the machine.

With the backlash against AI escalating dramatically, I can’t imagine a better time to consider the history of what the scholar Thomas Dekeyser terms the “techno-negative.” Dekeyser has just published a new book on the subject, titled, fittingly, Techno-Negative: A Long History of Refusing the Machine, with the University of Minnesota Press. It’s an academic work, but it’s sharply and compellingly written, already garnering great reviews from mainstream outlets.

Rebecca Solnit: Everything Is Changing Fast: A Brisk Tour Through Shifting Views

Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 19, 2026

On the evening of April 18, 1775, the people who lived in the British colony of Massachusetts had gone to bed with the sun, as usual. By the evening of April 19, everything had changed. In the past twenty-four hours, soldiers from their own government had opened fire on them, killing their own people. And Massachusetts men had fired back.
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Amanda Kolson Hurley and Ari Natter @ Bloomberg: The US Defense Department Is Still Preparing for Climate Change

The military might not be talking about climate anymore, but it’s still working to be ready for it.

When Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm, tore through Florida’s Tyndall Air Force Base in 2018, it battered F-22 stealth fighter jets, destroyed hundreds of buildings and churned up 700,000 cubic yards of debris. The total cost of the damage approached $5 billion.

Now, Tyndall is being rebuilt as a super-resilient “installation of the future.” New buildings sit more than a foot above the ground, to remain dry through 75 years of sea-level rise. Their roofs are designed to withstand winds of up to 165 miles per hour. Manmade oyster reefs will protect coasts by breaking up waves.
(Amanda Kolson Hurley and Ari Natter @ Bloomberg more…)

Ryan Erik King @ Jalopnik: Elon Musk shouldn’t be able to shut down the U.S. military’s internet

Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 18, 2026

And, just like that, President Donald J. Trump’s triumphant boasting that the Strait of Hormuz had been permanently reopened has unraveled in less than 24 hours. …
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Alia Chughtai @ Al Jazeera: ‘Vengeance for all’: How Iran’s Lego videos won narrative war against Trump

The viral videos by Iranian creators, say analysts, are high-quality though cheap, and strike at fissures in US politics while rallying a world audience against America’s long history of global wars and abuses.

It’s a Lego set, with a difference.

A Native American chief rides on his horse onto a barren landscape, bathed in moonlight. The animated video rapidly shuttles between a range of people who’ve been victims of the United States government, from Black Americans in chains to survivors of Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison complex.

Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 17, 2026

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With Iran’s announcement the strait was open, Trump hit the media circle, announcing through interviews and social media posts that the war with Iran was over and peace talks were all but done …

He claimed that Iranian leaders had “agreed to everything,” …
…
But, as Ashley Ahn of the New York Times reported, Iranian officials’ interpretation of events was quite different from Trump’s characterization. Iran’s top negotiator, speaker of parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, posted on social media that Trump had made seven claims in an hour, and all seven of them were false. Iran rejected Trump’s claim that it had agreed to hand over its uranium stockpile, and also said that the strait was open for commercial vessels—not military ships—but would close again if the U.S. blockade continued.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Borowitz: Trump Claims Pope’s Election was Rigged

Escalating his attacks on Pope Leo XIV, Donald J. Trump claimed on Thursday that the pontiff’s election last year was “totally rigged.”

“There were a lot of ballots cast against him that were just burned,” he said. “You could see the smoke coming from the Vatican.”

Trump blasted Leo as “a terrible person and very ungrateful, quite frankly,” arguing that “he never would have become Pope without my help.”

“It was my idea to send JD to Rome in 2025,” Trump explained. “If he hadn’t gone, Pope Francis would still be alive and Leo would still be a crummy cardinal.”

Curtis M. Wong @ HuffPost: Pete Hegseth Quoted A Bible Verse. Turns Out It Was A Rip-Off Of ‘Pulp Fiction.’

The actual Ezekiel 25:17 passage as it appears in the King James Bible is significantly shorter than both Hegseth’s and Jackson’s, reading simply: “And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.”

Brian Allen: Speaker Johnson Lectured the Pope on a Doctrine the Pope’s Patron Saint Invented

Adam Kinzinger: Franklin Graham Defends Trump’s Jesus Post. Again.

Ewan Palmer @ DailyBeast: Trump Yanks Millions From Catholic Charities Amid Pope Feud

Robert Reich: The Courage and Clarity of Pope Leo

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Robert Reich: Stephen Miller’s Strait of Hormuz

His crackdown on immigrants is assumed to be good for America as long as it causes immigrants more pain than it does us. Same “logic” as Trump is using in Iran.

Trump’s chief bigot, Stephen Miller, said on Fox News that immigrants to the United States bring problems that extend through generations.

“Not only is the first generation unsuccessful,” Miller claimed. “You see persistent issues in every subsequent generation. So you see consistent high rates of welfare use, consistent high rates of criminal activity, consistent failures to assimilate.”
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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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