‘They hold the cards now’: Trump allies fear Iran is slipping beyond the president's control … “We clearly just kicked [Iran's] ass in the field, but, to a large extent, they hold the cards now,” said one person close to the White House, who like others in this story was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the war.

Trump said he spoke to a former president about bombing Iran.  Four denials suggest otherwise.  —  Trump said twice Monday that he spoke to one of his predecessors about the Iran war and that the former president said he wished he had taken the action Trump did.

Live updates: Top Iranian security official and head of country's Basij force killed, Israel says  —  EDITED BY BRIDGET BROWN, LORIAN BELANGER, BRIAN P. D. HANNON AND MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS  —  Tanker hit by debris off coast of UAE  —  A tanker anchored off the eastern coat of the United Arab Emirates …

Top counterterrorism official Kent resigns over Trump's Iran war, says Iran posed no imminent threat  —  Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation on Tuesday, saying he “cannot in good conscience” back the Trump administration's war in Iran.

Israel urges Iranians to revolt but privately assesses they'll be ‘slaughtered’  —  Israeli officials told U.S. counterparts they hope for an uprising even though it would lead to a massacre, according to a State Department cable reviewed by The Post.  —  Senior Israeli officials …

Judge Ejects Federal Prosecutor From Court and Orders Bosses to Testify  —  Judge Zahid Quraishi ordered a hearing on who had the authority to lead New Jersey's top federal law enforcement office.  —  A federal judge threw a top prosecutor from the New Jersey U.S. attorney's office …

‘Trump is aiming for dictatorship’.  That's the verdict of the world's most credible democracy watchdog  —  Sweden's V-Dem Institute warns that the US is no longer a liberal democracy.  And autocracy is creeping across Europe too  —  The US is no longer a democracy.

Trump Officials Weigh New $1 Billion Deal to Stop Offshore Wind Farms  —  Proposed settlements would block wind farms off New York State and North Carolina, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.  —  The Trump administration is considering a new strategy for throttling …

3/17/26☀️ AM: … And happy St. Patrick's Day. … AIPAC faces a reckoning in Democratic primaries on Tuesday.  The nation's largest pro-Israel organization is scrambling to regain its footing with a bloc of voters that has grown wary of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's actions in Gaza.

Families search for loved ones after deadly Pakistan strike on Kabul rehab  —  Families have gathered outside a drug treatment centre in the Afghan capital, Kabul, looking for their loved ones after it was hit in a Pakistani air strike, which Taliban authorities said killed 408 people.

Slavery, Tariffs and the Dire Strait  —  Or, why America is on its own  —  Donald Trump is now pleading with other countries to rescue his war on Iran by helping to open the Strait of Hormuz — although Trump being Trump, his pleas for assistance take the form of threats.  Regardless, help is not on the way.

It's great that the NYT is thriving.  But I have a worry.  —  A New York Times journalist posted on social media over the weekend that she was happy to be covering the Academy Awards for the sixth time.  She noted that she was part of a 60-person Times team assigned to that coverage.  —  Sixty.

What's in the Voter ID Bill Trump and Republicans Are Pushing?  —  The legislation would require voters to prove their citizenship in person upon registration, ban IDs without a photo at polling places and criminalize failures to enforce such requirements.  —  The Senate will take up a …

Trump Administration Seeks to Remove Cuba's President From Power During Negotiations  —  The United States has told Cuba that for meaningful progress to be made in negotiations, President Miguel Díaz-Canel must step down, said people familiar with the talks.

Is MAGA in its cringe era?  —  Trump 2.0 was supposed to be younger and cooler than what came before.  The vibes have shifted.  —  A little over a year ago, a new class of Trump supporters arrived in Washington to celebrate the dawn of the president's second term.

Trump has lost working-class whites  —  New race-by-income data shows Trump's approval has cratered among the working-class voters he gained in 2024.  The war in Iran underscores his challenges  —  ∙ Paid  —  Since the U.S. launched a war against Iran on Feb. 28, 2026 …

Minnesota woman running for U.S. Senate found guilty in tarantula-throwing incident  —  Add CBS News on Google  —  A Minnesota woman running for U.S. Senate, accused of throwing a live tarantula onto a staircase leading to where her then-tenant was staying, has been convicted in the 2024 incident, according to court records.

Apocalypse (Any Day) Now  —  Who is the Antichrist, anyway?  And why is Peter Thiel so obsessed with him?  —  I. Revelations  —  In Italy on Sunday, the sweaty billionaire Peter Thiel gave a private lecture—the first in a series—"exploring the concept of the Antichrist," per Reuters, which broke the story.

Finland's Stubb: Brexit was like sawing off your leg for no reason  —  The Finnish president predicts the U.K. will rejoin the EU, and wants closer integration on defense and trade as Donald Trump rips up the world order.  —  LONDON — Brexit was “a colossal mistake” and the U.K. should rejoin …

The fight over transgender rights in America has entered a new phase  —  The policy fight is moving well beyond sports and youth medicine.  The political response hasn't caught up. … For much of the past eight years, the political fight over transgender rights in America has centered …

IDF kills Ali Larijani, biggest targeted killing since former supreme leader Khamenei  —  The IDF also confirmed it had assassinated the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Basij paramilitary militia, Gholamreza Soleimani, and his deputy, Seyyed Karishi.

Trump's Gutting of Election Security Fuels Worries for Midterms  —  Officials say the crippling of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which the president himself created, could open elections to cyberattacks and foreign influence.  —  When election officials in Arizona opened …

Trump's DOGE Cuts Slashed Staff That Handled Middle Eastern Oil and Gas Crises  —  Six months before the Trump administration started bombing Iran, the Department of State fired its oil and gas experts.  —  As the war in Iran stretches into its third week, and the Strait of Hormuz …

Man charged with planting bombs near the Capitol claims he's covered by Trump pardon … While the wording of the proclamation Trump issued on his first day in office last year is extremely broad, it refers to cases that are pending and to people already convicted.  It's not clear from its face if it fends off future charges.