Tag Archives: Iran

COMMENTARY MAGAZINE – APRIL 2026 PREVIEW

April 2026 – Commentary Magazine

COMMENTARY MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘IRANAMOK’ – ISRAEL HAS BEEN PREPARING FOR THIS FOR A GENERATION.

Regime Change Without Nation Building

by Jonathan Schanzer

America and Israel are at war with Iran, a fact that should be neither shocking nor surprising. Both countries have been targeted by the Islamic Republic since its inception in 1979. Both countries have engaged in painful battles with the regime’s proxies. Both nations battled Iran for 12 days last year; Israel targeted nuclear assets and other key military targets, paving the way for a crescendo of American strikes that hammered Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

They Should Have Listened to My Dad

by John Podhoretz

Editor’s Commentary

One American-Israeli Battle After Another

by Eli Lake

The Case for Trump’s War Is the Case for Bush’s War

by Tod Lindberg

Washington’s Foremost Con Artist

by James Kirchick

Washington Commentary

THE NEW YORK TIMES – SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2026

Why Little Was Done to Head Off Oil’s Strait of Hormuz Problem

Geography and regional rivalries have prevented Gulf countries from finding a true alternative to the strait, which the war with Iran has effectively shut down.

U.S. Bombs Iranian Oil Hub

President Trump threatened to “wipe out” oil infrastructure on Kharg Island. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad was hit for the second time, an Iran-backed militia group said.

Trump and Rubio’s Vision of War: The Art of Destroy and Deal

TikTok Investors Are Set to Pay $10 Billion Fee to Trump Administration

The large fee is the latest example of the White House’s inserting itself into corporate deal making in unusual and aggressive ways.

Is Latin America Ready to Abandon Cuba?

Latin America’s left saw Cuba as its lodestar. Now leaders across the spectrum are hesitant to aid a nation in the Trump administration’s cross hairs.

THE NEW YORK TIMES – FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2026

A Weakened Iran Hits Back by Strangling a Vital Waterway for Oil Supplies

The threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, including mines laid by Iran, are complicating President Trump’s calculations about how to end the war.

Hegseth Vows to Reopen Key Strait as U.S. Measures Fail to Calm Oil Fears

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the U.S. military would stop Iran from choking off the Strait of Hormuz but did not say how. Oil prices remained high even after the Trump administration eased restrictions on Russian shipments.

Facing Energy Crisis and Protests, Cuba Acknowledges Talks With U.S

The outreach by President Miguel Díaz-Canel is widely seen as a last-ditch effort to stay in power as the Trump administration ratchets up pressure.

Consumer Prices Rose in January, Before Iran War Added Price Pressures

The Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge for inflation increased 2.8 percent annually and economists expect another bump in prices in the near-term.

THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE – MARCH 14, 2026 PREVIEW

THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE: The latest issue features An attack on the world economy‘….

An attack on the world economy

Whatever happens in the Strait of Hormuz, energy markets have been changed for ever

China’s hereditary elite is taking shape

The Communist Party is afraid to tax inherited wealth

There are no good options for Iran’s nuclear programme

If America cannot eliminate the threat, what should it do?

How to teach Donald Trump a Latin lesson

By alienating Hispanics, he has given Democrats an open goal

Haiti needs order first, then elections

Voters must be able to turn out without risking death

THE NEW YORK TIMES – THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2026

Iran’s New Supreme Leader Issues Defiant Statement

The Iranian state media said Mojtaba Khamenei had released his first written statement as the new leader. It included a call to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed.

How Hegseth Came to See Moral Purpose in War as Weakness

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bellicose and vengeful rhetoric describing the war in Iran grew out of his experience in Iraq.

Iran’s Frantic Attempt to Save Its Ships Before Torpedo Attack

The Iranian Navy sought refuge in Sri Lanka and India. While India obliged, Sri Lanka stalled over fears it would threaten its neutrality.

War Has Sent Thousands of Planes Flying in the Other Direction

Tens of thousands of flights have been cancelled since the initial strikes, and airlines that relied on Iranian airspace are now trying to find alternatives.

Trump’s Tour of States Is About More Than the Midterms

Beyond talking about the economy and voters’ hardships, President Trump is showing that he still has control over the Republican Party.

U.S. Trade Deficit Fell in January

The data showed imports dipped and exports rose in the month before the Supreme Court struck down most of the president’s tariffs.

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – MARCH 13, 2026 PREVIEW

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘The Legacy of War’ – Two previous US military campaigns brought chaos to the Middle East. Why has it started a third?

When news breaks that dominates the agenda to the extent of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, one challenge for the Guardian Weekly team is how to keep the magazine’s covers feeling fresh, week after week, while remaining focused on the same story.

For this week’s edition, in response to Patrick Wintour’s must-read essay on how the US has ignored the lessons of two previous Gulf wars, we asked illustrator Doug Chayka to play with the idea of a Middle East that the US either cannot, or refuses to, see. Doug’s artwork neatly captures the dilemma of a Trump administration that now finds its Iran exit strategy – assuming there was one – cut off by chaos.

Spotlight | War losses mount in rural Russia
Residents of a remote village in Komi Republic say dozens have left to fight in Ukraine, leaving behind grieving families and labour shortages. Pjotr Sauer reports

Science | Is the passion for taxonomy in danger of dying out?
Insect taxonomist Art Borkent fears his field of science is fading, despite millions of insects, fungi and other organisms waiting to be discovered, he tells Patrick Greenfield

Feature | The miraculous survival of Nada Itrab
After a nine-year-old girl was kidnapped and taken from Spain to Bolivia, authorities feared the worst. They found her in the rainforest nine months later – but that wasn’t the end of her ordeal. Giles Tremlett picks up the story

Opinion | In this war, Britain’s enemy now is Donald Trump
As the Iran disaster escalates, Simon Tisdall argues that Starmer should treat the US president as someone whose actions threaten the lawful, democratic way of life everywhere

Interview | Corinne Bailey Rae
The English singer and songwriter was riding high with a hit album when her husband died tragically young. She discusses grief, fame and rebuilding her life with Simon Hattenstone

THE NEW YORK TIMES – WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2026

3 Ships Hit Along Vital Oil Route; Countries Move to Release Reserves

The Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil, is all but closed as fighting in the Middle East expands.

The War With Iran Changed the World in a Week

How Trump and His Advisers Miscalculated Iran’s Response to War

In the lead-up to the U.S.-Israeli attack, President Trump downplayed the risks to the energy markets as a short-term concern that should not overshadow the mission.

At Least 17 U.S. Sites Damaged in War With Iran, Analysis Shows

A Times analysis of satellite imagery and verified videos shows damage to more than a dozen American military sites and installations.

Trump Directs War With the Markets Top of Mind

U.S. Inflation Had Steadied Before War With Iran

Consumer prices stayed subdued in February. Since then, the war with Iran has rekindled concerns about price pressures.

The Spectator World Magazine – March 16, 2026

THE SPECTATOR WORLD: The latest issue features ‘The Greater Game’ – Trump’s ultimate target in this war is China says Geoffrey Cain…

Trump’s ultimate target in this war is China

Geoffrey Cain

The United States and Israel killed Ayatollah Khamenei, and Xi Jinping’s decade-long project to build an alternative to the American-led order died with him. For years, Beijing quietly assembled a network of dictatorships and client states designed to blunt American power. Iran supplied China with cheap oil and kept Washington bogged down in the Middle

The Iran war has exacerbated the failure of European energy policies

Daniel McCarthy

The history of the global trading system is a story of narrow and vulnerable waterways: the Suez and Panama Canals, the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Straits of Dover and the Skagerrak, which defends the entrance to the Baltic. But none has the power to seize up the global economy as much as the Strait of…..

I spent 25 years fighting neocons. Then Trump became one

Like everyone, I’m glued to the news coming out of Iran. I’m experiencing some depression, as one might, upon realizing that much of what one has worked on for 25 years has suddenly gone up in smoke, destroyed when Donald Trump discovered he was pretty much a neocon after all. Like everyone else, I have…

America’s last war in the Middle East

Win or lose, Donald Trump has begun the last war the United States is ever likely to fight in the Middle East. That might sound wildly optimistic, but what it really means is that war with Iran has been decades in the making. If the mission succeeds, it will mark the end of an era.

Inside MAGA’s meltdown over Iran

Freddy Gray

When President George W. Bush invaded Mesopotamia in 2003, everybody laughed at Comical Ali, the bespectacled Iraqi information minister who kept insisting that the American “rats” were doomed as Saddam Hussein’s regime collapsed around him. The world moved on. Iran is not Iraq, as President Donald Trump’s supporters are so fond of saying, and Bush-eraOwen Matthews

Will Turkey intervene in Iran?

With the exception so far of a single missile intercepted over Turkish airspace and a strike on an Azeri-controlled territory near the Iranian border, Tehran has so far declined to mess with the Turks, and for good reasons. Turkey is a member of NATO and attacking it would trigger Article 5 mutual defense measures. And

THE NEW YORK TIMES – TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2026

Hegseth Says Today Will Be Most ‘Intense’ Day of Air War

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “the most fighters, the most bombers” would be deployed.

Trump’s War in Iran, and Rising Gas Prices, Collide With Midterm Agenda

The attack on Iran has led to a surge in energy prices at a moment when the cost of living is a major issue heading into the fall elections.

New Supreme Leader Inherits Sprawling, Secretive Office That Dominates Iran

U.S. Solar Installations Fell in 2025 as Trump Attacked Clean Energy

More solar energy was added to U.S. grids than any other technology, but the amount installed fell by 14 percent, according to a new report.

Two Supreme Court Justices Debate Handling of Trump Emergency Cases

THE NEW YORK TIMES – MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2026

Oil Price Surge Rattles Markets; Iran’s Choice of Leader Signals Defiance

Stocks fell on fears of the Iran war’s effects on energy prices. Top clerics selected Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s supreme leader, despite President Trump’s warning that he was “unacceptable.”

Who Is Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s New Supreme Leader?

The selection of a son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a strike on his compound at the start of the war, could anger Iranians seeking change.

N.Y. Police Commissioner Says Gracie Mansion Incident Was Inspired by Islamic State

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that three improvised explosive devices were found, including one that was found in a vehicle on Sunday. No one was injured in the incident on Saturday.

Billionaires Are Swaying Elections in All Corners of America

Billionaires made 19 percent of all reported federal campaign contributions in 2024, a Times analysis shows, and even more in some local elections. Wealthy donors are reaping the rewards.

On the Road With Zelensky, Weathered, Weary and Fighting On

Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, traveled east to visit frontline troops trying to stave off Russian attacks, and invited reporters to go with him.

Ukraine Helps U.S. Mideast Bases With Stopping Drones