The U.S. has destroyed most of Iran’s navy. But not the one Tehran uses to control the Strait of Hormuz.
The regular navy operated Iran’s big battleships largely for prestige and occasional long-range deployments. The paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, on the other hand, has its own extensive fleet of more nimble boats designed to control the crucial waterway with missiles, mines and harassment of commercial ships—and they are much harder to reach.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-april-12-2026/
More than 60% of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ naval fleet tasked with patrolling the Strait of Hormuz is still intact after six weeks of war with the US and Israel, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The report comes as US President Donald Trump has declared that the US Navy will impose a blockade on the strait following failed ceasefire talks in Pakistan yesterday.
But the largely intact fleet of small boats and attack craft should allow the IRGC to continue to control the Strait of Hormuz with ease, including by laying mines down throughout the narrow waterway, the Journal says, with the heavy damage inflicted to Iran’s traditional navy making “relatively little difference” in this area.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/12/world/live-news/iran-us-war-talks-trump
The US president predicted Iran will return to negotiations and renewed his threats against the country after peace talks ended in a stalemate.
• Blockade in the strait: President Donald Trump said the US Navy will start blocking passage through the Strait of Hormuz, risking an even greater spike to oil and gas prices as he seeks to maximize leverage over Iran. The US and other countries will sweep for mines in the vital waterway during the blockade, Trump said.
There is a blatant contradiction between US President Donald Trump’s repeated insistence, on the one hand, that the war against Iran has achieved “regime change” and he is now negotiating with new, “much more reasonable leaders,” and his simultaneous acknowledgement, on the other, that any Iranian who dares to take to the streets faces an immediate death sentence.
The same goes for his simultaneous contention, also expounded at Monday’s press conference, that the purportedly new regime is “not as radicalized” as its predecessor, but that, nonetheless, “Israel will be gone, the Middle East will be gone,” if Iran gets the bomb.
“We won, okay,” the US president claimed on Monday night. But for all his contradictions, as Trump knows full well, the Iranian regime against which he went to war remains in power, and its nuclear ambitions are anything but dimmed.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/12/world/live-news/iran-us-war-talks-trump
• No agreement: US Vice President JD Vance says no agreement was reached with Iran after marathon talks in Pakistan. Iran would not commit to forgoing a nuclear weapon, Vance said, adding that US negotiators gave their “final and best offer,” but Tehran refused to accept the US’ terms for a deal.
• No plans for further talks: Tehran currently has no plans for another round of negotiations, state media reported. In Iran, the failure of the talks is being blamed on “excessive” demands of the United States.
• Questions remain: The failure to yield a deal throws the ceasefire into doubt, and without Iran’s commitment to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, global energy supplies will continue to be throttled. Before the ceasefire, President Donald Trump had promised Iran’s “whole civilization will die.” Then, he said it “makes no difference to me” whether both sides make a deal.
Iran has emerged from five weeks of punishing U.S. and Israeli bombing with most of the tools it needs to make a nuclear bomb intact, officials and experts say, giving its negotiators another lever for pressing Washington to make concessions.
While Iran has gained a powerful new point of economic leverage through its control of the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. and Israel have long been focused on preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Sunday in Islamabad that talks between the two sides broke down after Iran refused to commit to not seeking nuclear weapons in the future.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-892513
This declaration of war is not over any concrete dispute. Its purpose is to undermine the legitimacy of a parallel state judicial institution – to challenge its composition, authority, and decisions. Imagine the storm that would be unleashed if Chief Justice Amit had determined that Israel’s chief rabbi was impudent, lawless, and an enemy of the State of Israel.
The chief rabbis’ outburst has deep roots. Their father, the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, along with many other rabbis, held that Israel’s courts are “gentile tribunals.” Decoded, this phrase implies that Jews may not turn to them. It echoes Maimonides and the Shulhan Aruch, “whoever comes before them for judgment is wicked.” This is, to put it mildly, a deeply problematic halachic-cultural position. The ban on litigating before gentile courts was, of course, formulated in exile.
US officials assess that Iran retains thousands of missiles it can fire by recovering launchers buried underground, and they are concerned Iran will work to rebuild its ballistic capabilities during the break in the fighting with the US and Israel, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
An Israeli official cited by the Kan public broadcaster also said Iran was deploying bulldozers to repair entrances to underground missile storage facilities that had been struck by the Israel Defense Forces.
The damage that the US and Israel have inflicted on Iran “is not irreparable, and in the absence of a significant agreement, the IDF will have to go back to [fight] Iran,” the unnamed Israeli official was quoted as saying.
You remember the Epstein files, right? They were the subject of all the “notorious child sex trafficking” headlines President Trump tried to bomb out of existence by starting a war with Iran.
If I’m being honest, the war gambit kind of worked. News about the Epstein files and Trump’s connection therein had largely subsided, making way for news about Trump’s incalculably dumb idea to start a war in the Middle East.
The president used the cover of war to toss Pam Bondi into the attorney general waste bin, unhappy with how she failed to contain the Epstein scandal. He replaced her with his former personal attorney, a guy who once said partying with Epstein ‒ a convicted sex offender who died in prison awaiting a sex trafficking trial ‒ was no big deal.
The president reportedly didn’t know his wife was bringing up the Epstein files. And again, nobody was really talking about the files … until she brought them up, for reasons that remain unclear.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/09/melania-trump-epstein-lies
When Donald Trump launched a seemingly random war against Iran, there was a whiff of suspicion of a Wag the Dog ploy to divert attention from how badly the Jeffrey Epstein scandal was going.
So when Trump’s wife Melania made a mysterious appearance at the White House on Thursday to put Epstein front and centre again, was it an elaborate ruse to divert attention from how badly the Iran war is going?
The first lady emerged from the Blue Room and walked to a lectern flanked by US flags in the grand foyer, surrounded by chandeliers, marble pillars and shiny chequered floor.
As cameras clicked away, Melania, full of cold fury, said in her now familiar Slovenian accent: “The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today.”
To which America responded: “What lies? Maybe we read something somewhere a few months ago but we have more pressing concerns right now.”
What is Melania’s game? Is she a secret member of the resistance after all, driven to act now by Trump’s threat to wipe out Iranian civilisation and growing fears that he is descending into madness? Is there a smoking gun in the Epstein files that could yet bring him down? It would all make a great Amazon documentary.
US first lady says Congress should hold a public hearing centered on survivors of Epstein’s crimes, claims statements about her are financially and politically motivated
Mishlei (21:1) Like channeled water is the mind of the king in the LORD’s hand;He directs it to whatever He wishes.
Meshech Chochma (Devarim 17:15): … The Ralbag notes that the heart of the king is in G-d’s hand. Thus the king has no free will but what he does is determined by G d. Shmuel was thus afraid of Shaul at this point because Shaul was no longer king and thus had free will to harm him
Malbim (Mishlei 21:01) King’s heart is in God’s hand Even though a normal man has free will to do as he wishes this is not so for a king. That is because the welfare of the nation is dependent on him. If he choses a harmful action it will produce widespread harm to the nation. Therefore since his actions impact many he is constrained by G-d and has restricted free will
Or HaChaim (Bereishis 44:18) king's heart is in G-d's hand." This means that the king is privileged to receive divine assistance before pronouncing judgment.
Rabbeinu Bachya (Devarim 17:15) It would do well for us to study our history and to learn what happened to the Jewish people during the centuries when their political system was headed by a king of flesh and blood. Devarim Rabbah 5,11 sums it up in these words: the Jewish kings caused many of their people to fall in battle because of their faulty policies. Shaul caused many casualties at Gilboah David caused a plague. Achav, King of Israel, became the cause of the three year famine. Tzidkiyah’s policies became the immediate cause for the destruction of the Temple . How was it that the entire people who had experienced a tremendous renaissance under the leadership of the prophet Samuel agreed to ask for a king? The Talmud Sanhedrin 20 dissects the wording in Samuel I 8, pointing out that the elders of the people were motivated by pure considerations asking that the purpose of the king be “to judge us,”. The common people were motivated by the desire for their king to be a general who would lead them in war, and their sin was in saying “like all the nations.” They spelled this out in greater detail in verse 20 of that chapter. The people were agreed that they wanted a king, but they differed regarding the tasks of that king.
Ralbag (Mishlei 21:01) Heart of a king – This means that the deeds and thoughts of a king are limited by G-d. Because if he had total free will it would pose a great danger to the nation he controlled
An important issue is whether Hasghacha Protis means G-d determines what happens to us or is merely aware of our actions and will eventually give reward or punishment
Avos (03:15) Everything is foreseen but the right of choice is granted, and the world is judged with goodness, and everything is in accordance with the preponderance of man's deeds.
Kli Yakar (Bereishis 41:01) And behold after two years Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile. The Philosophers claim that G-d is too elevated and great to pay attention to the lowly world below the sphere of the moon. To nullify this pernicious view the verse says Talk no more so very proudly; let not arrogance come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.This means not to say that because G-d is so great that he has no awareness of our actions because He is all knowing and is fact knows all of mans deeds
Koheles Rabbah (10:14) Never does a serpent bite unless it has been incited from Above, nor does a lion rend its prey unless it has been incited from Above, nor does a government interfere with men unless it has been incited from Above.
Shemuel (1 02:03-10) Talk no more so very proudly; let not arrogance come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.4. The bows of the mighty men are broken, and those who stumbled are girded with strength.5. Those who were full have hired out themselves for bread; and those who were hungry ceased to hunger; the barren has borne seven; and she who has many children has become wretched.6. The Lord kills, and returns to life; he brings down to Sheol, and brings up.7. The Lord makes poor, and makes rich; he brings low, and he lifts up.8. He raises up the poor from the dust, and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory; for the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and he has set the world upon them.9. He will keep the feet of his pious ones, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.10. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; from heaven shall he thunder upon them; the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.
Meshech Chochma (Shemos 13:9): Providence is manifest for each Jew according to his spiritual level as the Rambam explains in Moreh Nevuchim (3:18): Providence is not equal for everyone but rather is proportional to spiritual level. Consequently, the Providence for the prophets is extremely powerful each according to their level of prophecy. The Providence for the pious and saintly is according to their level of perfection. In contrast, the fools and the rebels lacking spirituality are in essence in the same category as animals… This concept that Providence is proportional to spiritual level is one of foundations of Judaism…
