The News You Need on Monday, March 30th, 2026.
The news you need today from Scott Horton and Charles Kaiser.
A Recipe For Guaranteed Catastrophe
The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON—President Trump is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran, according to U.S. officials, a complex and risky mission that would likely put American forces inside the country for days or longer.
CK
The Economist Thinks Rubio is “Calm, Articulate and Competent”
The Economist
Charles: Marco must also be one hell of a source for the author of this extremely odd piece, which also says “If the current flurry of military adventurism ends well, Mr Rubio will be in a strong position to run again for president.”
Lest we forget, The Economist has a catastrophic record on the two biggest questions of War and Peace in my lifetime: Vietnam and Iraq. The newspaper (as it styles itself) was a relentless advocate of America’s invasions of both of them.
The Rubio piece is a prima facia violation of Kaiser’s first rule of journalism/ When you feel compelled to give your subject a blow job, take him home, turn off the lights and close the curtains.
NEVER make anyone else watch you.
Trump wants to Use the Iran War to Destroy NATO
Frankfurter Allgemeine
Scott: John Bolton warned that Trump was intent, during his second term, on destroying NATO, or at least withdrawing the US from the alliance. It now increasingly seems that he will use the Iran War to further this objective. He failed to apprise his NATO allies of his plan to attack Iran, and then spent three weeks sending them conflicting signals over whether he wanted their aid or not. He now seeks to leverage their failure to come to his aid as a reason to end US participation in the alliance. Nikolas Busse observes for FAZ:
“Why should we be there for them if they are not there for us?” he now said about the Europeans.
With such formulations, Trump is already halfway out of NATO. This means that the promise of assistance under Article 5 is no longer the measure of whether he would defend the allies, but rather their willingness to reciprocate in other theaters, currently in the Iran War.
Putin will take note of this, as it increases the likelihood that America will stay out of it if he considers an attack on NATO territory. Congress is not the commander in chief, but the president. Since Trump is known to be vindictive and resentful, the consequences of the new crisis in the alliance could continue to be felt long after the end of the Iran war.
Fake News is Huge
Husco 2.0
Charles: The headline is
$58 Billion Lost in 20 Minutes
How Iran Sank a US Navy Supply Ship
And the accompanying video has an extremely detailed account of how the Iranians did this and will take 46 years to reproduce all the missiles that are now down at the bottom of the sea.A less creative blogger says the ship is alive and well at a dock in the Caribeean.
Every word and every image here appears to be fake. AI has put the finishing touches on our era’s vilest achievement: The final destruction of the idea of truth.
Trump won’t approve of deals between the UK and EU, says his London ambassador
Daily Telegraph
Scott: In addition to working hard to undermine NATO, another element of Trump’s diplomacy is to block closer collaboration between the UK and EU—which not coincidentally is also a prime objective of the Kremlin. The advantage of this posture to the US, however, is not apparent. Trump’s ambassador in London, Warren Stephens, has advised the British government that all efforts to build closer trade relations between the EU and UK will be instinctively in a hostile manner by the Trump administration.
Mr Stephens described the Trump administration’s dealings with Brussels as “a lot more difficult” than its relationship with the UK.
The US and EU signed a trade deal last July, but partly because of the spat over Greenland, the European Parliament only ratified the deal on Thursday. Final clearance is not expected until May.
Rabbi Gilda Ravi Speaks for Me
UnXeptable–Saving Israeli Democracy on Facebook
Charles: At this horrific moment in the history of the State of Israel, it is more important than ever to remember that there are millions of decent Israelis who feel just as trapped by Bibi’s heinous blood lust as we do by Trump’s.
These are the searing words of Rabbi Gilda Ravi, a Labor Party Member of the Knesset:
They make me proud to be a Jew.
What have we become? Sodom and Gomorrah? Who thinks this boiling lava won’t explode over all of us? We have simply gone mad. We have lost our humanity. We have lost the image of God within us.
Under the cover of war there is silence.
Why do you lack the public courage, the moral backbone to look unflinchingly at what is unfolding? To understand the connection between the judicial coup and the madness taking place today in the West Bank in the name of the State of Israel.
In the name of Zionism. In the name of Judaism.
This disgrace is a catastrophic moral abomination.
Read Rabbi Ravi’s full Wiki here.
Speaker of Iran’s Parliament Delivers Sound Investment Advice
The Kobeissi Letter
Why is AUB Everybody’s Target?
Scott: In decades working intermittently in the Middle East, I have repeatedly been told that the American University in Beirut (AUB) is the best thing America ever did for the region. It graduates a good share of the most skilled doctors, scientists and businessmen in the region, and is the alma mater of many of its most level-headed leaders. So why is it now under attack by all the current Gulf war combatants? Israeli bombs have damaged university infrastructure and killed key members of its faculty and administration, like Mohammad Al Shami. Iran appears to have picked AUB as an easily reached local target. The Trump administration has cut AUB’s funding and done all it can do to harm the institution. Why exactly? None of the combatants seems to like what AUB produces, which is intelligent, well-educated leaders. And that’s telling.
BEWARE OF THE MEN WITH THE SLICKED BACK HAIR!
The Independent
Charles: A thousand times YES!
Pentagon officials are calling Budweiser Pete “Dumb McNamara.”
Jeffrey Epstein Schemed with Steve Bannon, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson to ‘Topple’ Theresa May
Byline Times
Scott: One of the key revelations of the Epstein documents from the UK perspective is the strange plot to ‘overthrow’ (and that’s the word they use) the Tory government of Theresa May. Bannon, Epstein, Farage and Johnson were at the core of it. This is not merely of historical interest for several reasons: first, it shows what Epstein’s action plan was, namely gathering and deploying in an effective manner, kompromat on important leaders, especially in the Western Alliance. Second, there’s every reason to suspect that people close to Trump, like his right-hand Steve Bannon, are still up to similar plots in other NATO capitals. Here’s an excellent recap of the whole sordid scheme, which US readers basically missed.
Newly-released messages between the far-right former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, reveal how Bannon worked with Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage to “overthrow” Theresa May at the height of the 2018 Brexit crisis in the UK.
The messages begin in the days following Boris Johnson’s resignation from May’s Government over her ‘Chequers Plan’ for Brexit and show Bannon detailing his attempt to help remove the then Conservative Prime Minister from office.
In one message on 16 July 2018, Bannon, who had established a London base in a Mayfair hotel where he met with prominent Conservative and far-right European political figures, tells Epstein that he is in “London with Boris”, while in another message three days earlier he tells him that “We are overthrowing May right now.”
Not your average gelato
Der Spiegel
Scott: The winner of this year’s Ice Cream Maker World Championship in Las Vegas is German Thomas Micolino from Tübingen, whose entry was made from camel’s milk, smoked date honey, and polenta. He had previously won the German ice cream championship with the confection.
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt. Raised “10 red flags” Cautioning that the Military Could Soon Collapse
The Times of Israel
Charles: The leader of the Israeli opposition says the Army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has warned of imminent disaster because the Israeli Army is so over committed in so many places.
Sounds like a pretty big story.
Has anyone seen it in The New York Times or any other American media?
Google can’t find it there.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid warns that Israel is facing another security disaster after IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir reportedly raised “10 red flags” during a cabinet meeting, cautioning that the military could soon collapse under mounting operational demands and a deepening manpower shortage.
“The chief of staff laid out before the cabinet a whole series of threats, most of which cannot be detailed on camera, but the bottom line is this: the government is sending the army into a multi-front war without a strategy, without sufficient resources, and with too few soldiers,” Lapid says during a press conference.
“This time, the government will not be able to say, ‘I didn’t know.’ This is the chief of staff they appointed, and they will not be able to politicize him and shift the blame onto him,” Lapid says, adding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be able to say, “I am not responsible.
French Police Tie an Attack on the Paris Branch of the Bank of America to the Iran War
Le Figaro
Scott: Two perpetrators are arrested in connection with a planned attack on the Paris branch of the Bank of America. French counterterrorism police state that a connection to the conflict in Iran is suspected.
On Saturday evening, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez drew a “link” between the foiled attack—which took place overnight from Friday to Saturday and targeted the Bank of America in Paris—and the war in the Middle East, noting “similarities” between this action and operations carried out in recent days in other European countries, for which a small fringe group has claimed responsibility.
Israeli Police Block Catholic Patriarch From Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass in Jerusalem
Haaretz
Scott: Israeli police have forcefully blocked Cardinal Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, from celebrating Palm Sunday services in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The move appears to be a response to his criticism of Israel’s war on Lebanon and Iran.
Israel Police blocked the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday mass, in an unprecedented move, sparking condemnation from Christian officials in Jerusalem.
Israel Police said that the order was issued in accordance with Home Front Command guidelines, which have been in place since the start of Israel’s war with Iran, as police in Jerusalem have been enforcing a government-ordered closure of all holy sites in the Old City.
Will the Iran War End the Primacy of the US Dollar as a Reserve Currency?
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Scott: The foundation of America’s wealth and prestige in the world, and its economic primacy, rests on the US dollar and its acceptance as the principal reserve currency. Trump’s ill-considered and capricious conduct in the Gulf may well have achieved the unthinkable: destroying the greenback’s primacy. NZZ highlights four factors that are now weighing heavily in favor of a downgrading of the use of the dollar as a reserve currency. One of them is the capricious and dishonest manipulation of global financial markets by Trump.
Today’s Galactic Image
NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission has taken a new observation of a supernova, RCW 86, seen here in an image released on March 24, 2026. This observation helps fill in a fuller picture of what other telescopes have seen.
Your Online Moment of Zen:
Pictures at An Exhibition
Charles: This is the first movement, Promenade.
Sir Simon Rattle conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Pictures was written in 1874 by Modest Mussorgsky. It is a musical depiction of works by Mussorgsky’s friend Viktor Hartmann. It quickly became a favorite of Piano virtuosos.
Mikhail Tushmalov (c. 1886/1891), Sir Henry Wood (1915), and Leo Funtek (1922) all attempted orchestrations of it before Maurice Ravel wrote the version everyone fell in love with. It was commissioned by conductor Serge Koussevitzky, with the premiere performance in Paris on October 19, 1922.
Listen to is Vladimir Horowitz’s gorgeous piano version at Carnegie Hall, April 23, 1951.
Edited by Imogen Sayers.