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<\/div>\nekday morning and evening editions. Saturdays once. Sundays once. All sources labeled. Translator notes on every story.<\/em><\/p>\n WAR DAY 39 | NUMBERS AT PUBLICATION<\/strong><\/p>\n \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf7 Iran: 3,546+ killed (HRANA floor estimate via Reuters\/NewsNation April 6 \u2014 1,616 civilians including 244+ children; HRANA Day 38 report: \u201cHighest Rate of Strikes in the Past Ten Days\u201d; military casualties believed significantly higher) This is what the morning of the deadline looks like.<\/p>\n The IDF posted a warning in Farsi on X before dawn: \u201cDear Citizens, for the sake of your security, we kindly request that from this moment until 21:00 Iran time, you refrain from using and traveling by train throughout Iran. Your presence on trains and near railway lines endangers your life.\u201d The advisory runs until 9pm local time \u2014 1:30pm ET. It is not a general warning. It is a targeting signal. The Israeli military has been communicating future strike targets to Iranian civilians through exactly this mechanism throughout the war. The railways of Iran are going to be struck today.<\/p>\n Overnight, the IDF conducted what it described as an \u201cextensive strike mission\u201d targeting government infrastructure in Tehran and elsewhere in the country, and separately struck a ballistic missile site in northwestern Iran. The Iranian Red Crescent posted a video of rescue workers in a residential neighborhood in Tehran hit in the early hours of Tuesday. HRANA\u2019s Day 38 report, covering Monday April 6, was headlined: \u201cHighest Rate of Strikes in the Past Ten Days.\u201d Defense Secretary Hegseth said Monday: \u201cToday will be the largest volume of strikes since day one. Tomorrow, even more than today.\u201d That day is today.<\/p>\n Iran is defiant. The IRGC\u2019s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters called Trump\u2019s infrastructure threats \u201cbaseless\u201d Tuesday morning, and issued its own warning: \u201cIf attacks on non-civilian targets are repeated, our retaliatory response will be carried out far more forcefully and on a much wider scale.\u201d Iran\u2019s deputy minister of youth and sports called on young people to form human chains around the country\u2019s power plants. Videos confirmed this session via CNN show it happening \u2014 young Iranians standing hand-in-hand around the Ramin power plant in Ahvaz and the Mashhad power plant, some holding Iranian flags. The government\u2019s framing for its own people: this is an act of defiance and national pride. The international humanitarian law framing: a government is placing civilians around military-targeted infrastructure.<\/p>\n The Gulf is on edge. The King Fahd Causeway \u2014 the 25-kilometer bridge connecting Saudi Arabia to Bahrain, where the US Navy\u2019s 5th Fleet is headquartered \u2014 closed Tuesday morning over Iranian attack threats and has since reopened. UAE air defenses activated overnight. Saudi Arabia shot down seven ballistic missiles. Bahrain sirens sounded. Iran\u2019s senior adviser Aliakbar Velayati warned that Tehran \u201cviews Bab al-Mandab\u201d \u2014 the Red Sea chokepoint through which much of the world\u2019s non-Hormuz trade moves \u2014 \u201cwith the same intensity as Hormuz.\u201d \u201cIf the White House contemplates repeating its foolish mistakes,\u201d he wrote, \u201cit will quickly realize that the flow of energy and global trade can be disrupted with a single signal.\u201d<\/p>\n Pakistan\u2019s ambassador to Iran posted on X this morning that mediation efforts are approaching a \u201ccritical, sensitive stage.\u201d He said: \u201cStay tuned for more.\u201d No specifics, no timeline. The Witkoff-Araghchi text channel is still open. Trump said Monday he was \u201chighly unlikely\u201d to extend the deadline again. The operational plan for strikes on Iran\u2019s power plants and bridges is ready. Tuesday 8pm ET is the line.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udf0d TRANSLATOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/strong> International press this morning is covering two things simultaneously \u2014 the deadline and the railway warning \u2014 and treating the latter as the more concrete story. An IDF warning to civilians to avoid a specific transportation system until a specific time is, in every previous use of this mechanism in this war, a reliable advance notice of a strike. International outlets confirmed this session via Al Jazeera and NBC News are framing it accordingly: Iran\u2019s rail network, one of the country\u2019s primary arteries for moving people and goods, will be struck today regardless of what happens at 8pm. The deadline drama is diplomatic. The railway strikes are operational. They are happening in parallel, and the outcome of one does not pause the other.<\/p>\n \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 WHAT AMERICAN READERS NEED TO KNOW:<\/strong> Iran\u2019s railways are going to be struck today. That is what the IDF\u2019s pre-dawn warning means, and it is consistent with every previous use of this warning mechanism in this war. Separately, Trump\u2019s 8pm ET deadline \u2014 the third such deadline, each previously extended \u2014 expires tonight. Pakistan says negotiations are at a \u201ccritical, sensitive stage.\u201d Iran is defiant. The operational plan is ready. If the deadline passes without a deal, the strikes on power plants and bridges follow. If it passes without action, the war continues at the highest strike volume since it began. Either way, today is not a quiet day.<\/p>\n Sources: <\/em>CBS News live blog<\/a><\/em> (IDF Farsi railway warning full text, \u201crefrain from using trains until 21:00,\u201d confirmed this session); <\/em>NBC News live blog<\/a><\/em> (Pakistan ambassador \u201ccritical sensitive stage,\u201d King Fahd Causeway closed and reopened, Velayati Bab al-Mandab warning, confirmed this session); <\/em>CNN live blog April 7<\/a><\/em> (Iranian Red Crescent video of residential area struck Tuesday, IDF extensive strike mission Tehran, Iranian human chains at power plants Ahvaz and Mashhad, confirmed this session); <\/em>ABC News live blog<\/a><\/em> (IDF struck ballistic missile site northwestern Iran, IDF \u201cextensive strike mission\u201d government infrastructure, confirmed this session); <\/em>PBS NewsHour<\/a><\/em> (Hegseth \u201ctoday largest volume since day one, tomorrow even more,\u201d confirmed this session)<\/em><\/p>\n The head of the International Energy Agency does not use language like this. Fatih Birol has spent his career issuing calibrated warnings about global energy markets. On Tuesday, speaking with Le Figaro, he said the disruption caused by the Iran war is \u201cmore serious than the ones in 1973, 1979 and 2002 together.\u201d He added: \u201cThe world has never experienced a disruption to energy supply of such magnitude.\u201d The IEA has launched its largest ever release of emergency oil stocks. It is not enough.<\/p>\n The numbers from Asia tell the story in specifics. Japan sources 94% of its crude oil from the Middle East. South Korea gets 70% of its crude from the region and routes more than 95% of that through the Strait of Hormuz. South Korea\u2019s working LNG inventory at import terminals \u2014 the gas that runs its power plants and heats its homes \u2014 covers roughly nine days of consumption, according to a parliamentary disclosure last week, confirmed via The Diplomat this session. Nine days. Seoul has activated a 100 trillion won emergency market stabilization program, equivalent to roughly $68 billion. It has imposed its first fuel price cap in nearly three decades. Japan began releasing 80 million barrels from its strategic oil reserves in mid-March, equivalent to 15 days of domestic demand. Both countries have the resources to absorb a short shock. A long one is a different matter.<\/p>\n The pain is sharper where reserves are thinner. Thailand has seen diesel prices rise from 29.94 baht per liter before the war to 50.54 baht as of April 5 \u2014 up 69% \u2014 confirmed via the Bangkok Post and Nation Thailand this session. The government froze prices for the first 15 days, has progressively lifted caps since, and is asking citizens to raise their air conditioning temperatures and reduce washing machine use. The Oil Fuel Fund, which has been subsidizing the gap between market prices and capped retail prices, has run up a deficit of more than 50 billion baht and is seeking government-backed borrowing of up to 150 billion baht to stay solvent. Vietnam is weighing fuel import tariff cuts. Indonesia \u2014 itself an oil producer \u2014 has increased fuel subsidies to absorb the shock. The Philippines declared a state of emergency in late March and has imposed a four-day workweek. Myanmar has restricted private vehicle use to alternate days. In Southeast Asia, governments are not managing a price problem. They are managing a supply problem.<\/p>\n Australia is a country most Americans would not expect to find on this list. It imports more than 90% of its liquid fuel, and the war has hit it directly. Petrol prices rose nearly A$1 per liter from pre-war levels. Hundreds of petrol stations ran dry. The Australian government halved its fuel excise tax, suspended national fuel quality standards to allow higher-sulphur fuel to boost domestic supply, and convenes the National Oil Security Emergency Committee twice weekly. This week, for the first time since the war began, Australian petrol prices fell \u2014 down 5% to A$2.40 per liter. They are still 33% higher than at the start of March, confirmed via Bloomberg this session. Diesel hit its highest level since 2006.<\/p>\n Europe is watching its second energy crisis in four years unfold. The European Central Bank has warned that a prolonged conflict will likely trigger stagflation and push Germany and Italy into technical recession by the end of 2026. Shell has warned that fuel shortages could hit Europe as early as this month. The LNG that Europe switched to after Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion came partly from Qatar \u2014 and Qatar\u2019s Ras Laffan LNG complex, the world\u2019s largest, was struck by Iran in March. Repairs are estimated to take three to five years. The supply Europe replaced Russian gas with has been removed from the market.<\/p>\n The American position, as analysts describe it, is buffered but not insulated. The US is a major oil producer and refiner. It is not dependent on Hormuz the way Japan is. But the global oil price sets the American price regardless of where the oil is produced, and Brent crude is up roughly 65% since February 28. Gas at the American pump has risen from $2.98 on February 26 to $4.11 today. Trump said Monday the high prices \u201cmight last into the summer.\u201d The American Farm Bureau Federation has already written to the president warning that rising fertilizer costs constitute a national security threat. Trump\u2019s own Treasury secretary said in late March that the US would gradually \u201ctake control\u201d over the Strait of Hormuz. That is an acknowledgment, in plain language, that the strait\u2019s closure is damaging the American economy.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udf0d TRANSLATOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/strong> The global economic story is the lead story in much of the international press that is not American. The AMRO regional economic body \u2014 covering Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and South Korea \u2014 issued its April 6 forecast from Singapore confirming economic growth is being cut across the region because of the war, confirmed via Fortune this session. The World Economic Forum framing, confirmed this session, captures the structural logic: \u201cIran, unable to match the US and Israel militarily, is internationalizing the costs of war by targeting energy, shipping, commercial and civilian infrastructure across the Gulf. The logic is simple: raise the price of escalation until pressure for de-escalation builds.\u201d That pressure is building in Seoul, Bangkok, Canberra, and Berlin. It is not yet building with sufficient force in Washington.<\/p>\n \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 WHAT AMERICAN READERS NEED TO KNOW:<\/strong> The IEA says this is the worst energy disruption in history. South Korea has nine days of LNG reserves. Thailand\u2019s diesel is up 69%. Australia ran out of petrol at hundreds of stations. Europe is heading toward its second energy crisis in four years. And the United States, while better buffered than most, is not outside this. Gas is $4.11 a gallon and rising. Fertilizer prices at the New Orleans port are up 25%+ since February 28. Trump says it might last into the summer. The rest of the world has been living this for five weeks. America is catching up.<\/p>\n Sources: <\/em>NBC News live blog<\/a><\/em> (IEA chief Birol \u201cmore serious than 1973, 1979 and 2002 together,\u201d \u201cnever experienced disruption of such magnitude,\u201d Le Figaro interview, confirmed this session); <\/em>The Diplomat<\/a><\/em> (South Korea nine days LNG inventory, Japan 94% Middle East crude, South Korea 70% Middle East crude, 95% via Hormuz, confirmed this session); <\/em>World Economic Forum<\/a><\/em> (South Korea 100 trillion won stabilization program, ECB stagflation warning, Germany Italy recession risk, confirmed this session); <\/em>Bangkok Post<\/a><\/em> (Thailand diesel up 14.30 baht from February 28, now 50.54 baht\/liter, confirmed this session); <\/em>Nation Thailand<\/a><\/em> (historic high 50.54 baht April 5, Oil Fuel Fund 50 billion baht deficit, 150 billion baht borrowing sought, confirmed this session); <\/em>2026 Iran war fuel crisis \u2014 Wikipedia<\/a><\/em> (Japan 80 million barrels reserve release, Philippines four-day workweek, confirmed this session); <\/em>Bloomberg<\/a><\/em> (Australian petrol first fall since war, A$2.40\/liter, still 33% higher than start of March, confirmed this session); <\/em>Bloomberg<\/a><\/em> (Australia halved fuel excise tax, Albanese confirmed, confirmed this session); <\/em>Fortune<\/a><\/em> (AMRO April 6 Singapore forecast, growth cut across region due to war, confirmed this session)<\/em><\/p>\n Stephen Njenga sells fertilizer in Kenya. Or he used to. Since the Strait of Hormuz closed, he has switched to selling organic fertilizer \u2014 it is the only kind his customers can still afford. Urea, the nitrogen fertilizer that most of the world\u2019s food depends on, is priced out of reach for many of the farmers he supplies. \u201cI\u2019ve resorted to selling organic fertilizer, which is more affordable to people,\u201d he told Africanews, confirmed this session. Organic fertilizer \u2014 primarily animal manure and compost \u2014 is not a comparable substitute. It releases nutrients slowly, unpredictably, and at far lower concentrations than synthetic urea. For high-yield staple crops like maize and rice, the difference is measurable in harvest size. What Njenga\u2019s customers are doing is not an upgrade. It is a regression to pre-Green Revolution farming methods, forced on them by a war they have no part in.<\/p>\n What is happening to the farmers Stephen Njenga supplies is happening across East Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia simultaneously \u2014 and it is happening now, during planting season, when it matters most. About a third of all fertilizer shipped by sea globally transits the Strait of Hormuz. The countries that depend most heavily on that supply \u2014 Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan \u2014 are trying to plant their next crop while the strait is closed and urea prices are up roughly 50% from pre-war levels, confirmed via CNBC and the Carnegie Endowment this session. There are no strategic international fertilizer stockpiles the way there are for oil. When the supply disappears, it disappears.<\/p>\n The FAO\u2019s chief economist, M\u00e1ximo Torero, described the stakes precisely at a UN briefing: a disruption of up to one month can be absorbed. Three months or longer, and the risks escalate significantly \u2014 affecting planting decisions across the globe for this year and beyond. The war entered its sixth week on Saturday.<\/p>\n Sudan gets 54% of its fertilizer via Hormuz. Somalia 30%. Kenya 26%. These are not the wealthiest countries in the world competing for scarce supply \u2014 they are the ones who will go without when richer buyers outbid them. The International Rescue Committee has $130,000 worth of pharmaceutical supplies stranded in Dubai intended for Sudan, where needs are already at catastrophic levels. It has 668 boxes of ready-to-use therapeutic food \u2014 enough to treat more than 1,000 severely malnourished children \u2014 stranded in India, intended for IRC clinics in Somalia. The IRC\u2019s warning, issued last week and confirmed this session, is direct: the Iran war is turning a logistics crisis into a humanitarian emergency across crisis-affected countries in Africa.<\/p>\n The fertilizer price shock also has a direct American dimension that is not being widely reported. The US imports about a third of its nitrogen, phosphate, and potash fertilizers. Urea prices at the Port of New Orleans \u2014 the benchmark for American agricultural fertilizer \u2014 are up more than 25% since February 28, confirmed via the Carnegie Endowment this session. The president of the American Farm Bureau Federation has written a \u201cplaintive letter\u201d to Trump warning that this \u201cproduction shock\u201d threatens national security. American farmers who locked in fertilizer prices before the war began are insulated. Those who didn\u2019t are facing a stacked cost shock: the raw material cost shock from the Gulf, the manufacturing energy shock from global gas prices, the ocean freight shock from ships rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope, and the inland transport shock from rising diesel prices on the Mississippi barge system. All four, simultaneously, before they plant.<\/p>\n The Foreign Policy analyst\u2019s formulation, confirmed this session, is the clearest: \u201cAs diesel prices rise, so does the price of food.\u201d The diesel fuels the trucks and the tractors. The trucks carry the fertilizer to the farm. The tractors spread it on the fields. The prices of all of those things have risen since February 28, and they have done so in a chain \u2014 each link connected to the one before it, all of them connected, ultimately, to a narrow waterway in the Persian Gulf that one country\u2019s navy is controlling and one country\u2019s president has set a deadline to reopen.<\/p>\n That deadline expires tonight. The fertilizer prices are baked in either way.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udf0d TRANSLATOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/strong> The food and fertilizer story is being covered with urgency in African and South Asian press that is simply not reflected in American coverage of this war. Africanews, confirmed this session, ran the Njenga interview as a front-line human story \u2014 a Kenyan trader whose business has been transformed by a war he has no part in. The IRC warning about stranded pharmaceutical and food supplies has been covered across humanitarian and development media. The Atlas Institute for International Affairs analysis, confirmed this session, is explicit about the political risk: African countries that watched political instability follow food price shocks in the Arab Spring, and in Indonesia in 1998, are watching those dynamics begin to reassemble. The CFR\u2019s coverage of this war, confirmed this session, names it directly: this is not a distant conflict for Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a proximate economic threat with potentially destabilizing political consequences.<\/p>\n \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 WHAT AMERICAN READERS NEED TO KNOW:<\/strong> A Kenyan fertilizer trader has switched to organic because his customers can\u2019t afford urea. The IRC has therapeutic food for starving children stranded in India en route to Somalia. Sudan, which gets more than half its fertilizer through Hormuz, is heading into planting season with the strait closed. Your connection to this: urea prices at the Port of New Orleans are up 25%+ since February 28. A third of American fertilizer is imported. The American Farm Bureau has warned the president this is a national security problem. The war ends tonight, or it doesn\u2019t. The food price impact arrives at your grocery store regardless \u2014 probably by summer, possibly sooner.<\/p>\n Sources: <\/em>Africanews<\/a><\/em> (Stephen Njenga Kenya fertilizer trader quote, WFP deputy Carl Skau Somalia\/Kenya warning, confirmed this session); <\/em>CNBC<\/a><\/em> (urea up ~50%, Egypt bellwether $700\/ton from $400-490 pre-war, 30% of global seaborne fertilizer transits Hormuz, East Africa most vulnerable, confirmed this session); <\/em>Carnegie Endowment<\/a><\/em> (New Orleans urea up 25%+, Farm Bureau \u201cplaintive letter\u201d to Trump, US imports third of fertilizer, no strategic fertilizer stockpiles, confirmed this session); <\/em>NPR<\/a><\/em> (FAO chief economist Torero one month vs three month disruption threshold, Sudan\/Kenya\/Somalia\/Bangladesh named most impacted, confirmed this session); <\/em>International Rescue Committee<\/a><\/em> ($130,000 pharmaceuticals stranded Dubai for Sudan, 668 boxes therapeutic food stranded India for Somalia, Nigeria fuel up 50%, confirmed this session); <\/em>Atlas Institute for International Affairs<\/a><\/em> (Sudan 54% fertilizer via Hormuz, Kenya 26%, Somalia 30%, South Africa and Congo fuel up 25%, confirmed this session); <\/em>Foreign Policy<\/a><\/em> (\u201das diesel prices rise, so does the price of food,\u201d confirmed this session)<\/em><\/p>\n There is a structural obstacle to any ceasefire that no deadline resolves, and it sits in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s position, conveyed by Netanyahu to Trump in a phone call Sunday evening, is that any deal must require Iran to hand over all of its enriched uranium and commit to a complete halt to its enrichment activities, confirmed via CNN this session. Iran has called that demand non-negotiable. Tehran has enriched uranium as the cornerstone of its deterrence posture for decades. Giving it up \u2014 not reducing it, not locking it in place, but handing it over \u2014 is not a concession within the framework of a 45-day ceasefire. It is a demand for unconditional strategic surrender on the most sensitive dimension of Iranian national security.<\/p>\n The structural problem this creates is plain. The United States and Iran have been exchanging proposals through Pakistani, Egyptian, and Turkish mediators. Those proposals center on the 45-day ceasefire framework, partial Hormuz reopening, and a path to permanent peace talks. Iran\u2019s counter-demands are about war reparations, sanctions, and a guaranteed permanent end to the conflict. Nowhere in the reported framework is full uranium handover. But Israel has told the US that no deal without it is acceptable \u2014 and Netanyahu told Trump specifically that Israel is \u201chighly skeptical a deal is achievable,\u201d confirmed via CNN this session. An Israeli source told CNN that Netanyahu has been making his concerns about possible ceasefire agreements known in direct discussions with Trump.<\/p>\n The United States is attempting to broker a deal between itself and Iran. Israel is a third party whose agreement is de facto required, and whose stated terms Iran has said it will not meet. That is not a negotiating gap that closes by 8pm ET.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udf0d TRANSLATOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/strong> The structural obstacle posed by Israel\u2019s enrichment demand is being covered in international press \u2014 confirmed via CNN and CBS this session \u2014 as the single most significant complication in the ceasefire talks, distinct from the question of whether Iran and the US can reach terms. European press, the Gulf press, and the Pakistani press covering the mediation effort are all framing the same thing: the mediators are working the US-Iran gap, but there is a second gap \u2014 between what the US is willing to offer and what Israel will permit \u2014 that the mediators have no mechanism to bridge. Pakistan\u2019s mediation team is not in a room with Netanyahu. The Witkoff-Araghchi text thread does not include Jerusalem.<\/p>\n \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 WHAT AMERICAN READERS NEED TO KNOW:<\/strong> Even if Iran and the US reach an agreement tonight, that agreement has to survive Netanyahu\u2019s veto. His stated terms \u2014 full Iranian uranium handover, complete halt to enrichment \u2014 are not in the 45-day framework being negotiated. He has told Trump directly he is skeptical a deal is achievable. Iran has said the enrichment demand is non-negotiable. These are not positions that close by 8pm ET. The mediators are working one gap. There is another one.<\/p>\n Sources: <\/em>CNN live blog April 7<\/a><\/em> (Netanyahu conveyed concerns about ceasefire agreements to Trump, full uranium handover condition, halt to enrichment, \u201chighly skeptical deal achievable,\u201d confirmed this session); <\/em>CBS News live blog<\/a><\/em> (Netanyahu Trump phone call Sunday evening, nuclear conditions, confirmed this session)<\/em><\/p>\n At 2pm local time today, young Iranians are being asked by their government to surround the country\u2019s power plants. \u201cI invite all youth, cultural and artistic figures, athletes, and champions to the national campaign \u2018Iranian Youth\u2019s Human Chain for a Bright Tomorrow,\u2019\u201d wrote Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Alireza Rahimi on X. \u201cTomorrow, Tuesday at 14:00, beside power plants across the country, with every belief and taste, we will stand hand in hand to say: Attacking public infrastructure is a war crime.\u201d<\/p>\n Videos confirmed this session show it already beginning in Ahvaz and Mashhad. Young Iranians \u2014 some holding flags, some in groups of dozens \u2014 standing outside power plants on the morning of the day an American president has threatened to destroy them. The Iranian government\u2019s framing is human rights law: Trump\u2019s threat to bomb civilian infrastructure is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, and Iranian citizens are placing themselves between the target and the bombs.<\/p>\n That framing has genuine legal weight. The European Council president called Trump\u2019s infrastructure threats \u201cillegal and unacceptable.\u201d The UN spokesperson called any attack on civilian infrastructure \u201ca clear violation of international law.\u201d The Red Cross warned against normalizing such threats. These are not Iranian government talking points \u2014 they are statements from institutions that have no stake in defending the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n But the human chain campaign also tells a story about Iran\u2019s internal politics that the Islamic Republic would prefer not to tell. The government is calling on its own citizens \u2014 including people who were protesting against the regime just three months ago, some of whose friends and family members were executed in the weeks since \u2014 to stand in front of power plants and perform national solidarity on behalf of a government that massacred thousands of them in January. That this appeal is being made at all, in this form, is a measure of how much the regime needs the appearance of popular support right now. Whether it is getting it, and from whom, is harder to know from outside. Iran\u2019s internet remains closed. The images that leave the country go through government-controlled channels.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udf0d TRANSLATOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/strong> The human chain campaign is receiving complex coverage internationally, confirmed via CNN and NBC this session. Western press is noting the legal argument and the spectacle simultaneously \u2014 a government deploying its citizens as both symbolic shield and propaganda asset, in a war it started by massacring those same citizens\u2019 peers. Iranian diaspora press is covering it differently: focusing on who is likely to show up \u2014 government employees, IRGC-affiliated organizations, people who have reasons to demonstrate loyalty \u2014 and who is unlikely to: the families of protest victims, the urban middle class that drove the January uprising, anyone who has watched the executions of Biglari, Vahedparast, and Hatami in the past two weeks. The human chain campaign is real. Whether it represents Iran is a different question.<\/p>\n \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 WHAT AMERICAN READERS NEED TO KNOW:<\/strong> At 2pm local time in Iran today, young Iranians are gathering outside power plants on the day an American president has threatened to bomb them. Their government organized it. Their government also executed at least nine of their peers since March 30 for participating in protests. The people standing at those power plants and the people who were hanged at Qezel Hesar Prison are from the same generation. The war does not resolve that contradiction. It just changes which part of it is visible.<\/p>\n Sources: <\/em>CNN live blog April 7<\/a><\/em> (human chains at power plants Ahvaz and Mashhad, videos confirmed, Deputy Minister Rahimi quote, \u201cattacking public infrastructure is a war crime,\u201d confirmed this session); <\/em>NBC News live blog<\/a><\/em> (human chains framing, Iranian youth \u201chuman chain for a bright tomorrow,\u201d confirmed this session)<\/em><\/p>\n Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen came back from behind the moon on Monday night. They saw the far side \u2014 the shadowed terrain no human eye had ever described in person \u2014 and they named things. A crater for the spacecraft: Integrity. A crater for a woman who died: Carroll, in honor of Commander Wiseman\u2019s late wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman. The proposals will be submitted to the International Astronomical Union after the mission ends.<\/p>\n The mission ends Friday. Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego, April 10. The crew is healthy. Every system is working. The only unresolved question is the toilet, which has malfunctioned twice and has been cleared both times. Mission Control to crew, Day 3: \u201cOverall, we don\u2019t have any major concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n The Artemis II crew broke the record for the farthest distance any human has traveled from Earth \u2014 252,757 miles, surpassing the Apollo 13 crew\u2019s 56-year-old mark of 248,655. Jeremy Hansen of Canada is the first non-American to hold that record.<\/p>\n They are coming home. In a week of this war, that is still worth saying.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udf0d TRANSLATOR\u2019S NOTE:<\/strong> In Canada, Jeremy Hansen\u2019s record is a national story. In the broader international community, the mission has been watched as a demonstration of something the current news cycle otherwise obscures: that American-led international scientific cooperation still works when the people doing it are focused on the work. The crater named Carroll \u2014 a man naming something permanent in the sky after his dead wife \u2014 is the detail that has traveled furthest across languages and press systems. It is, in a week of things that destroy, a thing that endures.<\/p>\n \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 WHAT AMERICAN READERS NEED TO KNOW:<\/strong> Four people broke the human distance record from Earth on Monday. They named a crater after a spacecraft and one after a commander\u2019s late wife. They are three days from home. Splashdown is Friday off San Diego.<\/p>\n Sources: <\/em>NASA Flight Day 6 blog<\/a><\/em> (distance record 252,757 miles, crater Integrity and Carroll named, confirmed this session); <\/em>NASA Flight Day 5 blog<\/a><\/em> (splashdown April 10, confirmed this session)<\/em><\/p>\n \ud83d\udd34 IRANIAN CIVILIANS AT POWER PLANTS:<\/strong> Young Iranians are gathering at power plants today at government invitation \u2014 the same infrastructure Trump has threatened to strike tonight. If the deadline passes and strikes follow, the question of whether civilians at those plants were targeted or killed becomes one of the most consequential stories of the war. Watch for any reports of casualties at or near power plant sites in the hours after 8pm ET.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udd34 8PM ET DEADLINE \u2014 TONIGHT:<\/strong> Trump\u2019s third and stated final deadline expires tonight. Iran has not opened the strait. The operational plan for strikes on power plants and bridges is ready. Pakistan says negotiations are at a \u201ccritical, sensitive stage.\u201d Watch for any announcement \u2014 deal or strikes \u2014 before this edition\u2019s evening follow-up.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udd34 IRAN\u2019S HUMAN CHAINS \u2014 2PM LOCAL:<\/strong> Young Iranians gathering outside power plants across the country. Watch for footage and for any Iranian government statement on the legal status of infrastructure strikes.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udfe1 FERTILIZER AND FOOD PRICES \u2014 RUNNING:<\/strong> Planting season across East Africa and South Asia. Urea up ~50% globally, 25%+ at New Orleans port. No strategic fertilizer reserves. Watch for any UN or FAO emergency declaration.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udfe1 ARTEMIS II HOMEBOUND:<\/strong> Three days to splashdown. No significant anomalies. Watch for any mission updates; splashdown Friday April 10 off San Diego.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government.\u201d \u2014 Thomas Jefferson, 1789<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Iran War & Beyond We ekday morning and evening editions. Saturdays once. Sundays once. All sources labeled. Translator notes on every story. WAR DAY 39 | NUMBERS AT PUBLICATION \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf7 Iran: 3,546+ killed (HRANA floor estimate via Reuters\/NewsNation April 6 \u2014 1,616 civilians including 244+ children; HRANA Day 38 report: \u201cHighest Rate of Strikes in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oxygen_hide_in_design_set":false,"_oxygen_tags":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-patreon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rudymartinez.wtf\/stuff-and-nonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rudymartinez.wtf\/stuff-and-nonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rudymartinez.wtf\/stuff-and-nonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rudymartinez.wtf\/stuff-and-nonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rudymartinez.wtf\/stuff-and-nonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rudymartinez.wtf\/stuff-and-nonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rudymartinez.wtf\/stuff-and-nonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rudymartinez.wtf\/stuff-and-nonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rudymartinez.wtf\/stuff-and-nonsense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\ud83c\uddf1\ud83c\udde7 Lebanon: 1,497+ killed (Lebanese health ministry April 6 \u2014 8 more killed overnight in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, figures still updating)
\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf1 Israel: 26 civilians killed; 6,951+ wounded (Al Jazeera tracker April 6)
\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf6 Iraq: 109+ killed (Iraqi health authorities)
\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 US killed: 15 confirmed; 373 service members wounded (CENTCOM April 6)
\ud83d\udee2\ufe0f Brent crude: $109\/barrel (last confirmed Monday \u2014 markets open Tuesday; watch for movement as 8pm ET deadline approaches; up <\/s>65% since war began)
\ud83d\udcb0 Dow: Futures pointing to weaker open (CNN April 7) \u2014 markets pricing in ceasefire uncertainty
\ud83d\udcb0 US gas: $4.11\/gallon (AAA via WJAR, April 6 \u2014 up from $2.98 on February 26)
\ud83c\udf10 Artemis II: Heading home; splashdown Friday April 10 off San Diego<\/p>\n
\n1. DEADLINE DAY<\/h3>\n
\n2. WHAT THE WORLD IS PAYING FOR THIS WAR<\/h3>\n
\n3. THE HUNGER FRONT<\/h3>\n
\n4. ISRAEL\u2019S VETO<\/h3>\n
\n5. IRAN\u2019S HUMAN CHAINS<\/h3>\n
\n6. ARTEMIS II: THREE DAYS OUT<\/h3>\n
\nWATCH LIST<\/h3>\n
\n