Marcus Noland

Truly remarkable how many people have told the Pope, in some way or another, to "shut up and dribble." Or corrected him on the Bible, despite their thin education on theology. Or told him to stay out of US affairs, despite him being a US citizen. The hubris is amazing.

We don't have the luxury of those institutional anchors. We will have to do it ourselves. #Hungary #Orbán #Trump

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has just called to congratulate us on our victory.

I was thirty-something years old when Iranian students dragged me into a room and told me I wasn't going anywhere. Four hundred and forty-four days later, I walked out. I've spent the decades since trying to make sense of what happened — and what keeps happening — between our two countries. So don't talk to me about Iran like it's an abstraction. I lived inside that confrontation. I felt it. Which is why I'm not ready to write off this ceasefire, even though everything about it is maddening. Negotiations in Pakistan may produce nothing. The talks could collapse before they get started. I've seen American diplomacy with Iran fail more times than I can count, and usually for the same reasons — too much pride, too little patience, and Israel holding a match in the corner of the room. But here's what I know in my bones: another war won't break Iran. We just tried. It didn't work. Iran doesn't break — it absorbs, it adapts, and it waits. I watched that stubbornness up close for 444 days. What bothers me most isn't that Iran is winning this moment — it's that we handed it to them. Tehran's framework is running these negotiations. Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz. Still collecting tolls. Trump looked at their proposal and called it workable. I never thought I'd see the day, but here we are. Iran wants everything on the table — sanctions, enrichment rights, American troops out, and a deal that covers what's happening in Lebanon and Gaza too. That's a lot to swallow. And Israel, which wasn't invited to this conversation, is already making clear it has no intention of being constrained by it. That's the part that worries me the most. Because if Israel keeps bombing and Washington can't or won't stop it, none of this holds. And yet — and I say this as someone who has every reason to distrust Tehran — I don't think we go back to all-out war. Not because anyone has suddenly gotten wise, but because the math doesn't work. A second round ends the same way. Iran still controls the Strait. The global economy still flinches when Tehran flexes. What we're heading toward isn't peace. It's something smaller and more precarious — two countries silently agreeing not to destroy each other today, with no paperwork and no guarantees. I know what it's like to survive on something that fragile. For 444 days, that's all I had.

🚨BREAKING: Ranking Member @RepRaskin demands the White House Physician immediately evaluate Trump's cognitive fitness amid bipartisan alarm over his erratic conduct and calls to invoke the 25th Amendment. READ THE LETTER⤵️

"The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards..." They actually have a Strait.

I prefer presidents who don’t threaten to go to war against the pope.🕊️

The Avignon Papacy reference is the detail that demands attention. An American defense official invoked a 14th-century episode in which the French Crown physically relocated the papacy to Avignon and controlled it for 67 years - as an implicit model for what happens to religious institutions that oppose state power. That's not a slip of the tongue. That's a studied historical reference deployed deliberately in a room with the Pope's senior diplomat. The message was not subtle. Leo heard it. He spent Holy Week delivering what papal scholars described as a sustained theological argument about the nature of power and imperial violence. On Palm Sunday he said Jesus rejects the prayers of those who wage war. On Easter Sunday - the same morning Trump posted his expletive-filled threat on Truth Social - Leo told world leaders to lay down weapons. On Tuesday he called the civilization threat "truly unacceptable" and asked citizens directly to contact their elected representatives. The White House's response to the Pope's Tuesday statement: "The Iranian people welcome the sound of bombs because it means their oppressors are losing." The first American pope will spend America's 250th birthday on Lampedusa with migrants. One Vatican official told The Free Press: "The Pope may well never visit the United States under this administration." The Pentagon summoned a cardinal and invoked the Avignon Papacy. The Pope responded by asking 1.4 billion Catholics to call their congressmen.

🚨 MAJOR NEWS: Pope Leo XIV just declared the Iran War unjust. Called it a war crime. Said it is “not solving anything.” And told Americans directly — call Congress. End this war.

WATCH: The White House took down this video, but we still have it. Trump: We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We're fighting wars. It's not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these things.

@jackshafer Yesterday I got a Post at DCA heading out of town. In the sports page: the headline on the Michigan-Alabama game incorrectly had Bama winning. The subhead had Michigan winning--but the wrong score. The lede had it right. Malpractice. Who is editing this thing? @washingtonpost

Wire service stories or reprints from other newspapers used to be Washington Post rarities. I count at least 17 in the Sunday Post.

@tomsherwood I bought Post at DCA heading out of town. Opened up the sports page: the headline on the Michigan-Alabama game incorrectly had Bama winning. The subhead had Michigan winning--but the wrong score. The lede had it right. Malpractice. Who is editing this thing? @washingtonpost

The Post has been gutted compared to what it was. Still no clear sign of what it will be … talented reporters remain, but how many for how long?

He no longer even knows when he's lying He's just making it up as he goes along And the Republicans haven't the balls to save the country

Kennedy Center votes to shut down operations for 2 years and names a new president | PBS News #ETTD share.google/r524nAc4V8cvQa…

"Covid will be over in two weeks. Gone by Easter" "We're signing a health care plan within two weeks" "They’re dying, Russians & Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. I’ll have that done — I’ll have that done in 24 hours" Based on his record, this isn’t ending anytime soon.

Another.

An advance look at the cover for next week’s issue: “War-a-Lago,” by Barry Blitt. #NewYorkerCovers

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Matt Reuter. #NewYorkerCartoons