Hanna Rosin: “The advantage of a gut-driven war decision is that it can yield sudden dramatic results. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been a brutal Iranian dictator for nearly four decades. Past American presidents have weighed taking him on, and then decided against it. After Trump ordered strikes, Khamenei was dead within 24 hours.”

“The disadvantage is that following your gut doesn’t account for the past or the future. Trump did not confer with most of our allies, and barely alerted Congress, let alone sought their approval. He did not seem to think through who would succeed Khamenei, or at least, what would happen if certain successors aren’t available.”

New York Times: “When President Trump gave reporters a brief update this week on the accelerating bombing campaign against Iran, he said: ‘We’re doing very well on the war front.'”

“That complicated matters for Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have spent the days since the U.S.-Israeli attacks began engaging in semantic gymnastics to describe the widening conflict as a ‘major combat operation,’ a ‘mission,’ ‘hostilities’ or really just anything other than ‘war.'”

“Arab states in the Persian Gulf are running dangerously low on interceptors to take down Iranian-fired missiles,” CBS News reports.

“Governments in the region have asked the U.S. to expedite new supplies, and they’ve been told that officials in Washington are creating a task force to do so — but it isn’t happening as fast as needed.”

The Economist: “The lopsided encounter embodies the American and Israeli campaign as a whole. At the political level, American officials have offered dubious and sometimes contradictory rationales for war, as well as war aims that shift daily. By contrast, the military campaign evinces careful planning, massive firepower and overwhelming success.”

“Venezuela’s state-owned mining company on Monday inked a multimillion-dollar deal to sell as many as 1,000 kilograms of gold destined for U.S. markets,” Axios reports.

“The Trump administration, bracing for more U.S. casualties and considering whether to put troops on the ground in Iran, has begun reaching out to Tehran’s domestic opposition as potential allies to foment an uprising against the regime,” the Washington Post reports.

“In calls this week to Kurdish minority leaders in Iran and neighboring Iraq, President Donald Trump offered ‘extensive U.S. aircover’ and other backing for anti-regime Iranian Kurds to take over portions of western Iran.”

Axios: Kurds backed by Mossad, CIA could lead next phase of war in Iran.

“China signaled that the world’s second-largest economy is entering an era of slower expansion, setting a target for gross domestic product growth of between 4.5% and 5% this year,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“It is the lowest target set since at least the 1990s and follows three years in which officials called for growth of “around 5%.” If China’s economy were to expand at a pace below 5% this year, it would be the slowest growth reported by the country in more than three decades, other than during the Covid-19 pandemic years.”

“Russia is one of the biggest winners in the early days of the largest U.S. military confrontation in decades, as Iranian missiles deplete stocks of Patriot interceptors that Ukraine needs for its defense,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Even before the Iran campaign, production bottlenecks in the U.S.-made Patriot system had drained Ukraine’s reserves and left European allies on yearslong waiting lists. Those shortfalls have allowed Russia to punch through gaps in Ukraine’s air defenses, devastating its power infrastructure and casting Ukrainian cities into blackouts.”