Yevgeny Prigozhin the war hero: Wagner Group veterans marched with his portrait during today's Immortal Regiment procession on St. Petersburg's Nevsky Prospekt. This is the guy who led a mutiny in 2023 and was very clearly killed by the Kremlin in a plane bombing. t.me/paperpaper_r...

Caspian Sea provides means for Russia & Iran to avoid US blockade, sanctions www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/w...

Satellite images indicate that Iranian drones caused $1 billion in damage to US Mideast bases. www.nytimes.com/video/world/...

In keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed, Iran relies on the threat from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy, a separate force that was damaged but -- despite Pentagon claims that Iran has no navy -- not destroyed in the American and Israeli attacks on Iran. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/w...

Geopolitical Noir: If Hormuz was Chinatown (#AIArt)

Whole lot of wishful thinking in Trump's social media posts about resolving the Iran conflict, not to mention his serial telephone interviews with reporters who never seem to question what he is spouting . www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/u...

As Trump zizagged over war aims, Iran stuck to demanding no future attacks, war reparations and nuclear enrichment. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/w...

Over on Fox tonight, the rosy "czar can do no wrong" ethos prevails. "Iran will surrender its enriched uranium." Says who? "Iran will open the Strait of Hormuz." Under supervision of its military, unlike before. "They should arm the people like Reagan succeeded in doing in Afghanistan and...

One pillar of the post World War II order has been that the might of the U.S. Navy guarantees the right of free passage for shipping globally. If Trump cedes control of the Strait of Hormuz to Iran, he will be abandoning that principle.

In his speech,Trump repeated that former President Obama handed Iran $1.7 billion in cash. It was unfrozen Iranian assets. Trump also trashed the nuclear deal that Obama negotiated and that he ripped up. But Obama got 97% of Iran’s nuclear stockpile out of the country, something Trump has yet to do.

Life of an Iranian insider: Worry about the assassination of so many leaders and coloring with his kids www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/w...

Attempts to build “a new Middle East” often take a deadly detour into unanticipated consequences. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/u...

Iran has proven to be a briar patch for previous U.S. presidents www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/w...

Lots of Americans are seeing a completely different version of the war via the White House video accounts: www.wsj.com/video/series...

New Supreme Leader Inherits Sprawling, Secretive Office That Dominates Iran www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/w...

A Beirut Hotel Sheltering the Displaced Comes Under Fire www.nytimes.com/video/world/...

Trump surrounds himself with a lot of ..... himself. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

There is a common misperception that at some point the Revolutionary Guards might shove aside the Supreme Leader to rule Iran directly. This ignores the fact that the Guards were created to protect the Islamic revolution, as this article details.

A voice of reason and intelligent analysis amid the unhinged clamor surrounding the Iran war, CNN source of interview

Speaker Johnson: "We are not at war right now." Sounds rather like President Putin calling his invasion of Ukraine "a special military operation" and sending Russians who call it -- rightfully -- a war to prison for up to 15 years.

Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military, Avichay Adraee, issues a statement warning the residents of more than 40 villages across southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa valley to evacuate for their own safety. (First strikes in Beirut suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, came without warning.)

Hezbollah claims responsibility for missile attack on military target near Haifa as response to Khamenei assassination. Israel now striking across Lebanon. (Hezbollah refers to itself as “the Resistance.”)

Last year was the deadliest on record for journalists. For the third year in a row, Israel killed more journalists and media workers than any other country amid the war in Gaza, according to a report released by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Americans Fed Up With a Balky Health Care System, School Shooters and Chaotic Politics are Leaving the US in Record Numbers for Europe, Mexico and elsewhere

Iran mess underscores chaotic White House approach and dubious past claims about country’s nuclear program.

New questions raised about why Epstein files released did not include three FBI memos about an investigation related to Trump. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/u...

Once upon a time, when I worked in dictatorships like Syria, we used to laugh at the propensity to plaster the dear leaders face on every government building…

This had been among the most interesting institutions in Moscow, where there was plenty of competition. But murdering your own citizens is not the Russian exceptionalism that Putin wants known. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/w...

When I lived in Moscow, there was this small, terrifically compelling Gulag museum that focused on the ordinary victims of Stalin’s terror. Naturally Putin’s Kremlin eventually shuttered it, and it wiil reportedly now reopen as a museum to victims of Nazism. Manipulating history…

In a Russian village of 250 people, 39 of 67 men went to war in Ukraine and at least 19 are dead or missing. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/w...

We have a federal administration led by idiots and criminals.

How Battlefield Tech Was Used in Minneapolis www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...

The Russians shanghaied another American veteran, jailing him for five years. No American diplomat has been able to see him while in the slammer for 7 month yet no public criticism from @state-department.bsky.social or @whitehouse-47.bsky.social (Picture is deceptive. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/w...

Iranian society has evolved but its Supreme Leader, 86, has not and little change will come while he endures. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/w...

“Frankenstein tanks” are not working against drones, prompting roiling debate about tactics and training in Russia www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/w...

“The Revolutionists” uses short, telling profiles to illustrate the transition in the Mideast from leftist militants to murderous jihadists during the 1970s. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/b...

Putin at a ceremony marking Orthodox Christmas: “At all times in Russia, this is how people have regarded their warriors, as those who, as if at ​the Lord’s behest, carry out this holy ​mission." In this case their "holy mission" is slaughtering their fellow Orthodox Christians in Ukraine.

Russia once suggested (unofficially) that it would cede Venezuela to US interests if Washington would do the same for Moscow with Ukraine. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/w...

Putin, without irony, always says that Ukraine should hold elections for the government to become “legitimate,” as if there are real elections in Russia. t.me/tass_agency/...

I hope the Trump envoys negotiating with the Kremlin are paying attention to how much Putin lies about what territory Russia controls. He has been claiming for weeks that Russian soldiers control Kupyansk, where Zelensky took a selfie a couple days ago.

Big win in NYC for Starbucks workers: A $38.9 million settlement with City Hall over violations of New York City’s law guaranteeing fair working conditions, a resolution that city officials said was the largest worker protection settlement in the city’s history.

Ms. Hill suggested this type of branding was part of the “populist, strong man” approach to everything. “Trump does exactly the same,” she said. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/w...

A reader was inspired to send me a haiku about this Mariupol story (He does it periodically for various NYT stories): The lights winking out The rank grass prepares cover For the blameless bones www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/w...

X has changed their policy and now you can see where the accounts are based. Here’s an “influencer from Texas”

RIP American penny. A nickel for your thoughts? Inflation! www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/b...

Seven Years for Antiwar Stickers? Russian Activist Would Do It Again. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/w...

NYC tabloid goes to town on Mamdani win with even a little Cyrillic abuse.(aka faux Cyrillic) Theme continues inside with headlines like “Mamdani Paints the town red” No boldface reference to Islam, however..

Happy Halloween!!

Amazon just announced 14,000 layoffs. Its CEO made over $40M last year. UPS announced 48,000 layoffs. Its CEO made over $24M last year. Intel announced 20,000 layoffs. Its new CEO's pay package is valued at nearly $69M. This is what I mean when I say the system is rigged.