For now, links to EIGHT reports, analyses and commentaries: from or via Middle East Monitor, the Associated Press, the Cradle, Reuters, and Middle East Eye; other published material is accessible by clicking on its name. (Scroll down for IRAN 4-28-26 and today’s GAZA, LEBANON and MEDIA so far.) — MCM

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Trump tells aides to prepare for extended blockade of Iran: WSJ. From Middle East Monitor. Citing U.S. officials, the Wall Street Journal report said that in recent meetings, Trump opted to continue squeezing Iran’s economy and oil exports by preventing shipping to and from its ports. READ MORE . . .  Click HERE for report from the Cradle.

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Iran’s currency hits record low as ceasefire holds, by Amir Vahdat | AP  TEHRAN — Iran’s national rial currency hit a record low today of 1.8 million to the dollar as a shaky ceasefire with the U.S. and Israel holds. READ MORE . . . Click HERE for same report in Spanish.  Click HERE for report from the Cradle. 

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Iran’s Guards seize wartime power, weakening Supreme Leader’s role, by Samia Nakhoul, Parisa Hafezi and Asif Shahzad | Reuters  DUBAI — Two months into a war with the U.S. and Israel, Iran no longer has a single, undisputed clerical arbiter at the pinnacle of power — an abrupt break with the past that may be hardening Tehran’s stance as it weighs renewed talks with Washington. READ MORE . . .

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Report: 52 Iranian ships breach U.S. blockade within 72 hours. From Middle East Monitor. Iran’s Fars News Agency cited satellite tracking data covering the three days leading up to 10 p.m. local time on Monday, saying the vessels included 31 oil tankers and 21 cargo ships. READ MORE . . .

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How St. Petersburg became Tehran’s last strategic lifeline, by Jannus TH Siahaan | Middle East Monitor  The Iran crisis of 2026 has become a high-stakes geopolitical marketplace where sovereignty is collateral, alliances are transactional, and survival depends less on ideology than on access to patrons with leverage. READ MORE . . .

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FROM APRIL 28  Trump’s threats to steal Iran’s oil continue a long history of U.S. pillage, by Joseph Massad | Middle East Eye  The U.S. pillage of Third World resources is hardly a new development. It has continued U.S. imperialist policies since the Second World War, and long predates it in the case of U.S. theft of Latin America‘s resources, let alone . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED

First, a link to a report from Middle East Eye; others are accessible by clicking on its name. (Scroll down for GAZA 4-28-26 and today’s IRAN, LEBANON and MEDIA so far.) — MCM

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In Gaza, life flickers as power cuts shatter livelihoods and healthcare, by Nada Nabil | Middle East Eye  GAZA CITY, occupied Palestine –Gaza’s sole power plant shut down on Oct. 11, 2023, after running out of fuel amid the blockade on energy supplies. Since then, the territory has been plunged into near-total darkness, with residents relying on limited solar power or costly . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED

For now, links to reports from Middle East Eye and the Associated Press; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials. (Scroll down for LEBANON 4-28-26, and up or down for today’s GAZA, IRAN and MEDIA so far.) — MCM

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Israeli strike kills five from same family in southern Lebanon town. From Middle East Eye. The nighttime raid hit a residential building in Jebchit’s Jabal neighbourhood, destroying it and killing members of the Bahjat family, Lebanon’s National News Agency said. READ MORE . . .

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He once struck a peace deal with Israel and says Lebanon’s leaders should try again now, by Kareem Chehayeb | AP  BIKFAYA, Lebanon — Former Lebanese president Amin Gemayel, who once signed a short-lived deal with Israel ending decades of a state of war, now says the time is right to try again. READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED

For now, links to an essay from Liberties via ScheerPost; to a report from from Declassified UK via Consortium News, and to an analysis from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting via ScheerPost; other published material is accessible by clicking on their names or initials. (Scroll down for MEDIA 4-19-26.  Scroll up for today’s GAZA, IRAN and LEBANON so far.) — MCM

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FROM WINTER 2026 and APRIL 28  The rise and fall and rise of American publishing, by Steve Wasserman | Liberties / ScheerPost  I’ve been invited by Robert Scheer to write a monthly column. This inaugural essay will give you a sense of my commitment to the world of books and publishing and, more broadly, to the notion that ideas matter. I’m a former editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review and have headed up several publishing companies, both in New York and California. READ MORE . . .

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For U.S. commentators in Iran, mass murder is magic, by Gregory Shupak | FAIR / ScheerPost  In the wake of the temporary U.S./Iran ceasefire, hawkish commentary in leading American newspapers advanced the premise that the U.S. can dictate terms to Iran in negotiations, with a faith in the power of Washington’s military might that was hard to justify by . . . READ MORE . . .

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FROM APRIL 27  How UK media shields the Israel lobby, by Mark Curtis | Declassified UK / Consortium News  Britain’s national media fails to recognise the influence – and even the existence – of an Israel lobby, our new media analysis of two years of reporting from seven media outlets shows. READ MORE . . .

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MAY BE CONTINUED

A link to a report from the Cradle; others are accessible by clicking on its name as highlighted. (Scroll down for WEST BANK 4-16-26 and GAZA, IRAN and LEBANON.) — MCM

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Israeli army launches massive arrest, eviction campaign in occupied West Bank. From the Cradle. The raid into the Qalandia refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, began overnight on Sunday and extended into Monday, when Israeli troops stormed several Palestinian homes, evicting over a dozen families and transforming an entire civilian area into a military interrogation zone. READ MORE . . .

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Links to ELEVEN-plus reports, analyses, commentaries and interviews (14 or more): from the Associated Press, Reuters, Al Jazeera, the Cradle, Informed Comment, ScheerPost, National Public Radio, Z Network, Truthout, Consortium News, and Middle East Eye; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials as highlighted. (Scroll down for IRAN 4-27-26, and up or down for WEST BANK, GAZA and LEBANON.) — MCM

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Israel’s strikes and Trump’s blockade have battered Iran’s economy, by Amir-Hussein Radjy, Lee Keath and Sarah El Deeb | AP  CAIRO — Over more than five weeks of bombardment, U.S. and Israeli strikes hit thousands of factories. The damage is reverberating across Iran’s economy, threatening increasing waves of layoffs, even as Iranians face skyrocketing prices. READ MORE . . .

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UAE leaves OPEC and OPEC+ in major blow to global oil producers’ group, by Maha El Dahan | Reuters  DUBAI — The action by United Arab Emirates deals a heavy blow to the oil exporting groups ‌and their de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, at a time when the Iran war has ‌caused a historic energy shock and unsettled the global economy. It could create disarray ​and weaken the group, which has usually sought to show a united front despite internal disagreements. READ MORE . . .  Click HERE and HERE for report from Al Jazeera and the Cradle.

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Putin to Iran: You are fighting courageously for independence and sovereignty, by Juan Cole | Informed Comment / ScheerPost  Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg for 90 minutes as part of his attempt to widen the grounds of diplomacy toward ending the war launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28. READ MORE . . .

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Turkish naval strategist warns U.S. blockade risks global economic collapse, by Ceyda Karan | The Cradle  Last year, retired Rear Admiral Cem Gurdeniz — architect of the “Blue Homeland” doctrine — warned the Cradle that NATO had become a hollow alliance and that Turkiye’s future lay in a sovereign Eurasian alignment. Today, as Washington-backed escalation against Iran spirals into a global economic and military crisis, his warnings . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ceasefire in south Lebanon fraying as U.S.-Iran talks stall. Kat Lonsdorf and Steve Inskeep of NPR talks about it. Click HERE to listen and, later, read; and HERE for link to other Iran war-related reports today on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

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Links to THREE reports and an analysis: from or via National Public Radio, Reuters, Common Dreams, and the Cradle; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials as highlighted. (Scroll down for LEBANON 4-27-26.  Scroll up for WEST BANK, GAZA and IRAN.)

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Ceasefire in south Lebanon fraying as U.S.-Iran talks stall. Kat Lonsdorf and Steve Inskeep of NPR talks about it. Click HERE to listen and, later, read; and HERE for link to other Iran war-related reports today on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

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As war nears two months, displaces Lebanese family sinks into dispair, by Raghed Waked and Zohra Bensemra | Reuters  BEIRUT — Like so many others, Rabih Khreiss’s family fled their southern hometown of Khiyam in southern Lebanon in the early hours of March 2, moments after learning that the Hezbollah armed group had fired into Israel in what would become the opening salvos of a new war. READ MORE . . .

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FROM APRIL 25  Press freedom groups demand international probe into Israel’s killing of journalist Amal Khalil, by Jake Johnson | Common Dreams  Global press freedom organizations are demanding an immediate international probe into the Israeli military’s apparently targeted killing of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, who died trapped under the rubble of a home bombed by Israeli forces earlier this week. READ MORE . . .

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FROM APRIL  27  Truce politics and the limits of normalization, by Mohamad Shams Eddine | The Cradle  Lebanon has entered a deeply sensitive political phase since the shift from open war with Israel to a temporary ceasefire under direct U.S. sponsorship. The guns have not fully fallen silent in the south, and yet the focus has already moved toward what comes next. READ MORE . . .

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Links to THREE reports and an analysis: from the Cradle, Middle East Monitor and Middle East Eye; others are accessible by clicking on their names as highlighted. (Scroll down for LEBANON 4-27-26 and IRAN.) — MCM

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Israel escalates attacks across Lebanon as Beirut accuses Hezbollah of ‘treason.’ From the Cradle. The Israeli military has continued to escalate across Lebanon, striking the east for the first time in weeks following Hebrew reports of a limited withdrawal from the country’s south. READ MORE . . .

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14 killed, including 2 children, in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon. From Middle East Monitor. Lebanon’s Public Health Emergency Operations Centre said on Sunday that Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon killed 14 people, including two children and two women, and wounded 37 others, among them three women. READ MORE . . .  Click HERE for report from Middle East Eye.

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FROM APRIL 24  Hezbollah’s fiber thread traps the Merkava, by Anis Raiss | The Cradle  It is a spool of glass the width of a human hair, wound inside a 3D-printed housing that weighs less than a bag of sugar. On April 4, in southern Lebanon, it destroyed a Merkava Mk.4 main battle tank. READ MORE . . .

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Links to EIGHT-plus reports, analyses, commentaries and interiews (9): from the Associated Press, Reuters, National Public Radio, the Cradle, Informed Comment, Middle East Eye, Tucker Carlson Network, and Middle East Monitor; others or at least headlines are accessible by clicking on their names or initials as highlighted. (Scroll down for IRAN 4-26-26.  Scroll up for LEBANON.) — MCM

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Iran offers to end chokehold on Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to the war, by Samy Magdy, Jon Gambrell and Elena Becatorosp | AP  CAIRO — Iran has offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the U.S. lifting its blockade on the country and an end to the war, while proposing that discussions on the larger question of its nuclear program would come in a later phase, two regional officials said Monday. READ MORE . . . Click HERE for same AP report in Spanish, and HERE for others.

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Pakistan still hopes to bridge U.S.-Iran gaps despite stalled face-to-face talks. From Reuters. ISLAMABAD / WASHINGTON — Pakistan says efforts are continuing to bridge differences between the United States and Iran despite the collapse of face-to-face talks after Washington called off a planned diplomatic visit, sources involved in mediation said today. READ MORE . . .

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Iranian foreign minister’s diplomatic push skips direct U.S. talks amid tensions. Reported by Aya Batrawy and A Martínez | NPR  Iran’s foreign minister visits Moscow today after stops in Pakistan and Oman and calls with regional partners, but there are no signs of direct talks with Washington as diplomacy stalls. Click HERE to listen and, later, read; and HERE for link to the other Iran war-related report today from NPR‘s “Morning Edition.”  Click HERE for report from the Cradle. 

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FROM APRIL 26   IRGC Insists on control of Hormuz as Araghchi seeks mediation, by Juan Cole | Informed Comment  ANN ARBOR, Michigan — Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday completed the first leg of his diplomatic mission seeking further mediation of the US-Iran conflict, meeting in Pakistan with Field Marshall Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. READ MORE . . .

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Why Israel and the U.S. were so deadly wrong about regime change in Iran, by Hamid Dabashi | Middle East Eye  With a little internet search, one might come across a document called “Which Path to Persia?” (2009) — commissioned and funded by a notorious reactionary outfit, the Saban Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. From the very first page, it becomes clear that it was commissioned by the CIA. READ MORE . . .

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FROM APRIL 24  Jeffrey Sachs on the real origins of the Iran war and the coming economic devastation. Tucker Carlson of TCN talks with development economist Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University about some of the past and present of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran; its historical, multinational and energy contexts; and some scenarios for its future. Click HERE for video.

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