It’s Thursday, March 19. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Why is Candace Owens speaking at a Catholic gala in the nation’s capital? Konstantin Kisin on what’s gone wrong in Europe. How the Canadian justice system is squashing political expression. And much more.
But first: Are we winning the war in Iran?
It’s been 20 days since the war in Iran began. Casualties are climbing. Oil prices are surging. And the question hanging over everything is getting harder to ignore: Is victory possible—and if so, what would it actually look like?
Today we bring you three voices grappling with that question.
First, Michael Doran examines the mounting pressure on President Trump to bring the war to an end. “Trump undoubtedly wants out,” he writes. “But he also knows that a premature exit leaves the core threat intact.” As a summit with Xi Jinping looms in May, read Michael’s full piece on why Trump can achieve “decisive victory” by dismantling Iran’s missile and drone network—and why anything less would project weakness, embolden China, and leave the global balance more fragile than before.
That “decisive victory” may depend, in part, on Mossad. As Eli Lake reports today, Israel’s national intelligence agency has spent years covertly aiding Iranian opposition groups, hacking infrastructure, and targeting pro-regime militias. While the Iranian people will ultimately determine the regime’s fate, Eli writes, “Israel is evening the odds for a revolution.” Read his full piece below. And don’t miss his latest episode of Breaking History, where he sits down with Andrew Sullivan to debate the political, strategic, and moral stakes of the war.
Finally, Israeli journalist Amit Segal examines Israel’s campaign to systematically eliminate Iran’s top leadership—including the killing of Ali Larijani on Tuesday—and asks a deeper question: Does decapitating the regime bring it closer to collapse, or reveal its resilience? Is this a brittle system that could fall with one more push—or an ideological state built to absorb blow after blow?
—Jillian Lederman
In Canada, saying on Facebook that a man is not a woman can cost you CAD$750,000. Why? Because of a little-known faction of the Canadian justice system called the human rights tribunal—an institution that has evolved to police public expression. Rupa Subramanya offers an inside look at how a new kind of kangaroo court has come to Canada.
Tonight, Catholics will gather in Washington, D.C. for the Catholic Prayer for America Gala 2026. The event has grown in profile after news that Joe Kent, who resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center on Tuesday, will be speaking. But according to Mary Eberstadt, it’s all a cover for something darker: a “monster mash” of antisemitic speakers—led by none other than Candace Owens—that she argues is an affront to Catholicism.
In 2024, one in four murder suspects in Sweden were minors. How did this come to be? The short answer is that Sweden’s gangs are exploiting the country’s children’s rights laws, which massively reduce sentences for convicted murderers under 18—and render suspects under 15 immune to prosecution. Swedish journalist Paulina Neuding reports on the legal loopholes fueling the wave of child violence in her home country—and how to close them before it’s too late.
What went wrong in Europe? Throughout the 2010s, policies such as mass migration, net-zero carbon goals, expansive welfare states, identity politics, and limited defense spending became causes du jour across the continent. Yet, as it later became clear, all they yielded were lagging economies and a fractured body politic. Rafaela Siewert sat down with Konstantin Kisin, co-host of the TRIGGERnometry podcast and author of “An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West,” to find out why—and how the continent can change course.
The war in Iran has reignited a fundamental question: Can military force ever truly lead to lasting peace? In this week’s episode of Old School, Shilo Brooks explores that tension alongside former Navy SEAL sniper Jack Carr. Drawing on Richard Connell’s 1924 short story, “The Most Dangerous Game”—which follows a refined aristocrat who hunts humans for sport on his private island—they examine the thin line between killing and murder, and ask what distinguishes necessary force from unjustifiable violence.
MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS
THE NEWS
Israel announced on Wednesday that overnight strikes had killed Iranian intelligence minister Esmail Khatib in Tehran, the third senior Iranian official killed in two days. Israeli strikes also reportedly hit a facility in Iran on the world’s largest natural gas field—the first time Israel has struck one of the country’s biggest economic assets—provoking retaliatory strikes on sites in Qatar and Saudi Arabia and causing oil prices to rise to more than $108 per barrel.
In Lebanon, Israel launched a separate round of strikes targeting Al-Qard al-Hasan Association, a financial institution tied to Hezbollah. If successful, the attacks on Hezbollah would weaken one of the Iranian regime’s key allies.
Despite the Strait of Hormuz being effectively closed since the outset of the war in Iran, new reporting shows that about 90 ships with likely ties to Iran have managed to cross, evading Western sanctions and exporting millions of barrels of oil out of the region. (For more on the global importance of the Strait of Hormuz, read Niall Ferguson’s essay, “This Is How the Iran War Goes Global.”)
Top U.S. intelligence officials said the Iranian regime “appears to be intact but largely degraded” during back-to-back congressional hearings that began on Wednesday. The Trump administration’s foreign policy is under increased scrutiny after Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned on Tuesday out of opposition to the Iran war.
Confirmation hearings began Wednesday for Senator Markwayne Mullin, Trump’s pick to succeed Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security and lead the administration’s deportation strategy. While a decision has yet to be made, Senator Rand Paul said that confirmation is on track to occur quickly, beginning with a committee vote on Thursday.
Evanston mayor Daniel Biss won a fiercely contested Democratic primary for an Illinois House seat on Tuesday night, beating Kat Abughazaleh, a young digital content creator who has frequently criticized Israel. Illinois lieutenant governor Juliana Stratton also won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, coming out on top in a race that became increasingly competitive following the retirement of Dick Durbin, the Senate’s longtime No. 2 Democrat.
A man was arrested on Tuesday after he was caught climbing into the enclosure of pygmy hippo Moo Deng at a Thai zoo. Moo Deng, who has become a viral sensation in the past year, was not harmed in the encounter.
Set your brackets, sports fans: March Madness begins today. At 12:15 p.m. ET, Texas Christian University will take on Ohio State in the first game of the 2026 NCAA tournament. (Until then, check out Joe Nocera’s piece on why “Paying College Athletes Has Created a Mess. It Was Still the Right Thing to Do.”)
It’s quite amazing to read the apologists for the Iranian Regime here.
You would think we suffered overwhelming casualties and our Air Force’s were decimated by Iranian/ Russian/Chinese Air Defenses and our downed pilots are being marched through Tehran with thousands of angry Iranian’s shouting “ Death to America” and “Death to the Great Satan”.
Oh wait, all aircraft and crews have returned safely, Iran’s Air Defenses and Leadership have been decimated or destroyed and they are scrambling to prop up the maimed, dead Gay Ayatollah as a face saving measure.
I’d call that WINNING but I’m a Patriotic MAGA supporter who remembers 1979, 1983 and all the other attacks on our citizens and Soldiers orchestrated by the now deceased, blown to pieces Ayatollah’s and the IRGC and their proxies.
Oh right, I must be living in the past.
🇺🇸🇮🇱
“Winning”? I guess that would be contingent on how one defines the word. I suppose it is possible to be both “winning” and “ losing” at the same time. Only time will tell. That being said, I am not sure that is the most important thing to consider. The manner Iran has fought their side of this and their very existence since 1979 makes the imperative of action all the more important. Their entire history requires it. Hostage taking, Beirut and the tragedy of Lebanon, Hamas, Hezbollah, the tragedy of Syria, the horror of October 7th,, Houthis, murdering 30,000 of their own citizens, attacking civilians in non combatant countries……….can anyone doubt the horror of letting them acquire nuclear weapons or 1000s of ballistic missiles . Something by word and action they are intent on doing. To say nothing of the fact that there will NEVER be peace and the long tragic suffering of the Palestinians will never end as long as that evil regime exists. One does what one is required to do.