Thank you - and I completely agree.

This is a beautiful day.

US and Iran reach impasse as Islamabad talks fail The talks could have brought an end to six weeks of war and seen the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz

"This administration has proven itself unwilling or unable to negotiate. They don't have that skill.”

How the talks in Islamabad failed - as the US attempted to impose their terms on Iran. My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social

ran still has thousands of balistic missileslin its arsenal that it could use by retrieving launchers from underground storage areas, according to American officials familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments.

Hegseth': Iran’s missile program is "functionally destroyed."

Bibi: Iran "has no ability" to rebuild its missile progress.

U.S. intel: Iran still has thousands of missiles it could launch.

www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Tracking US-Iran talks for better part of two decades: Breakthroughs aren't irreversible, stalemates aren't unbreakable, each side thinks it's reasonable and the other isn't, nothing is agreed until everything agreed, and if you get that far you still need implementation.

Buffets, baristas, but no briefings: journalists frozen out of Iran talks They came from around the world: hundreds of journalists rushed to Islamabad's flagship convention centre -- converted into a media hub by Pakistani authorities for landmark talks between the United…

“"They say they have facilitated the media. No doubt they have given 5G internet speeds," said journalist Nadir Guramani. "But media teams deputed inside Jinnah Convention Centre do not know what's happening outside."”

Death toll rises in Lebanon attack as father searches for his lost daughter YouTube video by Sky News

The number of deaths from Wednesday's Israeli strikes on Lebanon have risen to 357, according to the country's health ministry.

It comes as many families continue to search through the rubble including a father who lost his daughter in the attack.

youtu.be/6JcxPtYJfsA?...

"According to European national security sources, the plan involves embedding a team of social media manipulation specialists within the Russian Embassy in Budapest, provided with diplomatic or service passports to shield them from expulsion."

vsquare.org/putins-gru-l...

Diary From Lebanon — The Dial A month of war has pushed the country past its physical and psychological limits.

“A couple of friends messaged me and told me that this is a level of fear they haven’t felt before. We don’t know what’s coming next.”

The slow daily horror of life in Lebanon, where war intensifies but hasn’t stopped since 2023, by @justinsalhani.bsky.social

Hall of fame FT correction

Newly created Polymarket accounts bet big on US-Iran ceasefire in hours before Trump's announcement A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of...

“A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers”

Highly unusual indeed.

Also worth noting that these strikes were almost certainly conducted with US-origin warplanes—thus implicating US legal restrictions on arms exports.

$2 million per ship — to cross a Strait that was free six weeks ago.

@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/w...

Not a moment too soon. That she was taken in the first place is a terrible sign, showing how often freelance journalists are left vulnerable in war zones and elsewhere- and how the US government put its citizens at risk.

That these pictures intended to unite and humble us at the reminder of how small we all are were published at the same time as a president threatening “a whole civilisation will die tonight,” is particularly jarring somehow.

Much to say about this, but given where we are the most important comment is a reminder that committing war crimes cannot be justified by war crimes committed by the other side

True- but part of the problem is outlets reporting exactly these kinds of statements uncritically (e.g. Axios just now). He is threatening to commit war crimes based on the outcome of negotiations that may not exist. Readers balk at this being repeated without explaining what may be true or not.

Graph from NetBlocks showing network connectivity in Iran from 24 February 2026 to 4 April 2026. The y-axis represents normalized connectivity, ranging from 0% to 100%, and the x-axis represents the dates. The green line representing Iran's connectivity is high through the initial time period, with a sharp drop on the morning of 28 February. The continued drop in connectivity aligns with a nation-scale internet blackout imposed by authorities after joint military strikes by the US and Israel. A brief restoration was observed on 18 March. The minimum and current connectivity levels are indicated as 1% and 2%, respectively. The chart has a dark background with a red horizontal arrow labeled 'SHUTDOWN' indicating the disruption period, and the NetBlocks logo in the lower left corner with the Mapping Internet Freedom slogan.

🗓️ Exactly five weeks ago on Saturday 28 February, #Iran cut off access to the global internet.

The measure remains in place, entering day 36 after 840 hours, isolating the general public as authorities explore ways to give chosen users access via a tiered whitelisting system.

“Time and again, asked to choose between their neighbors and their leaders, Iran’s men under arms chose the regime.”

PREACH

Graph from NetBlocks showing network connectivity in Iran from 24 February 2026 to 31 March 2026. The y-axis represents normalized connectivity, ranging from 0% to 100%, and the x-axis represents the dates. The green line representing Iran's connectivity is high through the initial time period, with a sharp drop on the morning of 28 February. The continued drop in connectivity aligns with a nation-scale internet blackout imposed by authorities after joint military strikes by the US and Israel. A brief restoration was observed on 18 March. The minimum and current connectivity levels are indicated as 1% and 2%, respectively. The chart has a dark background with a red horizontal arrow labeled 'SHUTDOWN' indicating the disruption period, and the NetBlocks logo in the lower left corner with the Mapping Internet Freedom slogan.

⚠️ Update: #Iran's internet blackout has entered day 32 with most users cut off from the outside world for over 744 hours.

Extended digital isolation is bringing new challenges for Iranians, from expired domains and accounts to unpatched servers on a degrading national intranet.

Another day of the WH proclaiming things Trump is “interested in,” without realising why they sound ridiculous or unworkable. This one will cause Gulf states - already concerned about the costs of rebuilding Gaza, Lebanon and Syria and losing money every day due to this war- to balk.

Truly thank you. Impossible without @berileski.bsky.social

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A war to destroy Iran’s nuclear program (“obliterated” in June 25’) & prevent it from having nuclear military capability (exactly the JCPOA) turned into “regime change” & “unconditional surrender” (since Netanyahu promised it’s viable) is now a war to open The Strait of Hormuz, which was open before

Also just to be clear, that doesn’t absolve anyone else for repeating the tropes you described either. Just because Trump is saying openly he wants a deal like “we did in Venezuela” doesn’t make it possible.

Absolutely. You and I are both thinking of one specific name in particular here, I’m sure. I am just sick of seeing every ludicrous idea coming out of the mouths of WH officials - Witkoff- repeated without pushback and packaged as 🚨 BREAKING 🚨

This is so manifestly obvious that, exactly like predictions about Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, you can tell no one inside the WH is making it part of the calculus when talking to Trump.

Putting the fiscal cost of the Iran war in context. $200 billion > $194.9 billion, which means that Trump is planning on spending more on the Iran war than he took in with his tariffs which raised tons of revenue. I wasn't sure this could be right, so I drew a graph, and it is.

Something extraordinary – yet predictable – has happened over recent days on Facebook.

Fake accounts that usually post anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim content generated using AI to fuel division and hate in UK are now pushing out AI-gen content asking:

"Should the UK produce its own fuel again?"