It’s Tuesday, March 10. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Arthur Brooks on why he lives with his grandchildren—and you should, too. Kat Rosenfield read the polyamory memoir so you don’t have to. Patrick McGee on how Taiwan became “the world’s smallest superpower.” Plus: How anti-Israel activists hijacked Columbia’s grad student union. And much more.
But first: How long will this war last?
Is the war in Iran almost over, or just getting started?
On Monday afternoon, Donald Trump appeared to signal that things might soon cool down. He told CBS News that the war was “very far ahead of schedule” and “very complete, pretty much.”
Those words were certainly what markets wanted to hear. Oil prices dropped from a high of $119 per barrel to $85. Stocks surged.
But just as Wall Street seemed confident that it had another case of “TACO” on its hands, Trump struck a different tone. “We have won in many ways, but not enough,” the president said in a speech in Florida hours later. “We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.”
Then at a press conference afterward, Trump threatened major action if the Islamic Republic continued to try to choke off the world’s energy supply. “We will hit them so hard that it will not be possible for them or anybody else helping them to ever recover that section of the world,” he said.
So what is Trump likely to do? Matt Pottinger worked closely with the president on national security during his first term and thinks reports of the war’s imminent end are greatly exaggerated. Drawing on his experiences in the White House, Pottinger explains why he thinks this war will continue for weeks, not days.
Before Monday’s mixed messages came Friday’s demand from Trump of nothing less than “unconditional surrender” from Tehran. That, argues the political scientist Francis Fukuyama, is not likely to come anytime soon. Iran gets a say in this war, too—and if Washington is going to insist on complete capitulation, we could be in for a long fight. All of which is why Fukuyama thinks the president’s rhetoric is “very foolish.” Read his column on why Iran won’t surrender, and why Trump’s demand that it does is so dangerous.
In our third story on Iran, Aaron MacLean looks at the unenviable position of Mojtaba Khamenei, the nepo-baby mullah who was announced as his dad’s successor on Sunday. Trump, who had previously said he wanted a role in picking the country’s next leader, said he was “not happy” with the choice. Ominously for Khamenei, Trump added: “If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long.”
MacLean looks at those prospects in his latest analysis of the conflict. “Full-on paranoia has never been more justified than for Iran’s new hard-line top man,” writes Aaron. If he were counseling the Ayatollah, his advice would be to stay away from laptops, smartphones, or any kind of personal tech. Read his column on why Mojtaba’s hardest job will be surviving.
—Oliver Wiseman
“When we tell people that our 27-year-old son is living at home, they show sympathy and concern,” writes Arthur Brooks. “But when we mention that he’s here with his wife and kids, the reaction always turns ebullient.” Read Arthur’s latest column on the case for intergenerational living—what the data says, who benefits the most, and why the chaos is worth it.
Once upon a time, getting cheated on was something to be ashamed of. Now, it’s empowering, and we have treatises handing down the new conventional wisdom: Suck it up and embrace polyamory. So goes the message of the buzzy new memoir from feminist blogger Lindy West, which Kat Rosenfield reviews in our pages today.
China has long had Taiwan to thank for its rise as a manufacturing powerhouse. But as Taiwan moves to unwind its relationship with the mainland, it may now hold the key to the future of the global economy, writes Patrick McGee. Could Taiwan save the world from China? That’s the question at the heart of Patrick’s latest column.
About 3,500 Columbia University graduate students could soon go on strike. But union leaders have more than money, or working conditions, on the negotiating table. The union, which is run by someone banned from campus for his role in violent protests, wants to disarm campus police officers, disable security cameras, and end Columbia’s partnership with Tel Aviv University. Read Jonas Du’s report on the upside-down labor movement at Columbia, where, as one student put it, “there’s no sane people left.”
In yesterday’s Front Page, we included the wrong link for Roya Hakakian’s essay on the Kurds’ role in the fight against the Islamic Republic. We apologize to readers—and to Roya!—for the mistake. Here is the correct link:
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Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, has agreed to pay $280 million in penalties to 40 states that sued the company alleging anticompetitive business practices and artificially inflated concert ticket prices. Under the terms of the settlement, the company will allow the concert venues it works with to use other vendors to sell tickets, rather than with Ticketmaster exclusively.
Rep. Kevin Kiley of California left the Republican Party on Monday to register as an independent. Although he plans to continue caucusing with the GOP, he cited partisan redistricting as the primary reason for his decision, writing on X, “Gerrymandering is a plague on democracy, one that Gavin Newsom has brought back to California.”
The Pentagon identified Sergeant Benjamin Pennington of Kentucky as the seventh U.S. service member killed in the war with Iran. The 26-year-old died Saturday from injuries he sustained during an Iranian attack at a Saudi air base on March 1.
Anthropic sued the Department of Defense on Monday, arguing that its designation of the company as a “supply chain risk” violates the AI company’s First Amendment rights. Anthropic has insisted that its Claude model not be used for surveillance of U.S. citizens or to power lethal weapons, while the Pentagon has demanded that the tools be available for “all lawful use.”
Floods in Kenya killed 42 people over the weekend, with the death toll expected to rise as authorities continue search and rescue missions. President William Ruto has ordered relief food to families affected by the floods.
In the first high-profile defections since the war in Iran began, five Iranian women soccer players received humanitarian visas in Australia after Trump called Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese to ensure they would not be sent back to Iran. The players were called “wartime traitors” for choosing not to sing the national anthem before their Women’s Asia Cup tournament opener.
As much as ...
I LOVE TRUMP'S IRAN POLICY
He will be the greatest President in history IF he can end Daylight Savings Time!!!!!
Completely off topic from today's TFP, and posted on another site:
"A23a was once Earth's largest iceberg, measuring 1,540 square miles. Now, after moving north to the warmer waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, it likely has weeks before it ceases to exist."
Which countries are going to drown from this?? Should we call Al Gore????