An American President and his military leaving after a loss
Hegseth in following his bosses ignoring expert military and intel advice misread the strength and tenacity of Iran to their detriment …(Remember Joint Chief Caine’s assessments ?)
Control of the Strait of Hormuz
And?
Actually making MORE on oil as it drives Up the Supply and Price
Defeating regime change
Still firing missiles and drones…
Some reports are that Iran retains up to 50% of it’s missile and drone assets STILL intact….
Holding off the rest of the other Muslim Middle East countries and STILL having them worry about a newly emigrated trouble maker Iran…
There ARE some who feel that Trump has given Hegseth a green light end the ‘War’ with a MASSIVE and Destructive Effort before beginning to rotate some US military assets back to the state’s….
Defense Sec Hewgseth has asked the US Army’s top uniformed officer to step down adding to the growing list of senior uniformed people Hegseth has replaced….
Could other nations find a way to control critical free flow commerce area’s for their own gains?
A day after President Trump threatened to bomb Iran “back into the Stone Ages,” an airstrike that a U.S. official said was an American attack caused at least a partial collapse of a major highway bridge, killing at least eight people, according to Iranian news outlets. A leading public health institution in Iran was also destroyed though it was unclear who was responsible.
Mr. Trump on Thursday celebrated the damage to the bridge, which is on a mountainous stretch of road between Tehran and the nearby city of Karaj. He posted a video of a strike hitting the bridge and warned that more critical infrastructure would be destroyed if Iran did not “make a deal.”
Another strike, in Tehran, destroyed the Pasteur Institute of Iran, a major public health agency in the country that produced and distributed vaccines, a spokesman for the health ministry said. It was unclear whether the United States or Israel was responsible.
Iranian officials remained defiant in the face of Mr. Trump’s threats, made in a national address on Wednesday night. Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in a statement on the country’s state news broadcaster that negotiations with Washington were impossible under current conditions.
The country’s military, despite being battered with thousands of bombs over nearly five weeks, kept up aerial attacks on Israel and U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf. Israel’s military said on Thursday that it had intercepted missiles from Iran, while the United Arab Emirates said its forces had responded to Iranian drones and missiles. The Houthis in Yemen, who are allied with Iran, also launched a missile toward Israel.
“When it comes to defending our homeland, each and every one of us will become a soldier of this country,” Mohammad Ghalibaf, Iran’s speaker of Parliament and a key figure overseeing the war, said on social media. He warned Iranians were “armed, ready and standing,” adding, “Come on in, we’re waiting.”
Here’s what else we’re covering:
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Macron: Growing European frustration with Mr. Trump’s management of the war bubbled over on Thursday, when French President Emmanuel Macron lashed out at the U.S. leader for his shifting war goals and his undermining of the NATO alliance. Speaking to reporters during a trip to South Korea, Mr. Macron criticized Mr. Trump’s attacks on NATO. “If you create doubt every day about your commitment, you hollow it out,” he said.
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Markets: Stocks recovered from morning losses on Thursday, but oil prices rose. Mr. Trump’s remarks on Wednesday night had spooked investors in the morning, but reports of talks between Iran and Oman to monitor but not restrict ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz appeared to soothe them. The S&P 500 ended the day 0.1 percent higher, even as Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, surged 7.8 percent to $109.03 per barrel.
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War’s cost: Some estimates suggest the war could cost the United States as much as $1 billion a day, a soaring tally that underscores the economic trade-offs the Trump administration faces as the president had promised to focus on lowering consumer costs and other domestic issues.
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Crackdown in Iran: The Iranian authorities have detained Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer, her daughter said on Thursday. Ms. Sotoudeh has taken on the cases of women accused of not wearing head scarves, and she has been arrested and imprisoned multiple times for her work.
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Security Council: Russia, China and France on Thursday blocked Arab countries pushing the U.N. Security Council to authorize military action against Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying they opposed authorizing force, according to a diplomat and a senior U.N. official. Read more>
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Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,606 civilians, including 244 children, had been killed in Iran as of Thursday. Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 1,345 Lebanese had been killed as of Thursday, since the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. In attacks blamed on Iran, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 17 people had been killed as of Friday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded.
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The UN security council is expected to vote today on a Bahraini resolution to protect commercial shipping in and around the strait of Hormuz. Diplomats said Bahrain, which now chairs the 15-member Security Council, finalized a draft resolution seen by Reuters that would authorize “all defensive means necessary” to protect commercial shipping.
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Iran says it is drafting a peacetime protocol that will supervise – but not restrict – maritime traffic through the strait of Hormuz with Oman. Meanwhile, the strait is open for Russia, according to a Russian official quoted by that country’s state media.
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UN secretary-general António Guterres has issued a stark warning to the warring parties, calling for an immediate end to the “spiral of death and destruction” in the Middle East.
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US army chief of staff Randy George was asked to step down by defense secretary Pete Hegseth and take immediate retirement, CBS News reported. His removal adds to recent upheaval at all levels of leadership at the Pentagon.
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US forces have struck a bridge connecting Tehran and Karaj in Iran in an attack that Iranian media reported killed at least 8 people and injured about 100 others. The attack reportedly eliminated a planned military supply route for sustaining Iran’s ballistic missile and attack drone force.
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The US president, Donald Trump, shared footage on his Truth Social of the bridge strike near Tehran, warned there was “much more to follow” and urged Tehran to “make a deal before it is too late”.
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Yemen’s Houthis have said they have carried out another military operation using a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting “vital Israeli enemy targets”, this time as part of a joint operation with Iran and Hezbollah.
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US oil prices settled more than 11% higher and Brent soared nearly 8% on Thursday in volatile trading, as traders worried about prolonged disruptions to oil supply the day after President Donald Trump said the US would continue attacks on Iran….
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ISW….Iran Update Special Report, April 2, 2026
- The combined force has begun striking targets in Iran beyond narrowly defined military targets, such as military vehicles or ammunition depots. The combined force struck the Darou Pakhsh Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Company and the Pasteur Institute of Iran in Tehran Province on April 1 and 2. The Japanese government has listed Darou Pakhsh and the Pasteur Institute of Iran as entities associated with Iranian biological and chemical weapons activities. The combined force has also recently targeted Iranian steel factories, which are critical for both Iran’s military production capabilities and the Iranian economy.
- US President Donald Trump stated that the United States’ “strategic objectives” for the war are “nearing completion” during a press conference on April 1. Trump said that the United States will continue the war effort until US objectives are “fully achieved.” Trump said that the United States will strike Iran over the “next two to three weeks” while indirect talks between the United States and Iran continue.
- US forces struck the B1 (Bileghan) Bridge connecting Tehran and Karaj, Alborz Province, on April 2 to disrupt Iran’s ability to transfer missiles to western Iran. A US official told Axios on April 2 that Iran used the bridge to transport missiles and missile components from Tehran to launch sites in western Iran. Iran has increasingly launched missiles from central Iran as the combined force has degraded its ability to launch missiles from western Iran. Iran may seek to transfer missiles to western Iran that do not have a sufficient range to reach Israel if they are launched from central Iran.
- Hezbollah may be increasing fire at Israel during Passover to impose psychological impacts on Israeli civilians. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on April 2 that Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem will pay a “very heavy price” for “the intensified fire toward Israeli civilians as they…celebrate Passover.”
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