“US Israel Iran War”

As news of the ceasefire spread through Israel’s northern communities, sirens blared three times this evening warning of incoming rockets from Lebanon.

In the sky above the northern city of Nahariya, Israel’s air defence interceptors shot up to block them, triggering loud explosions. Ambulance crews said at least three people were wounded by shrapnel in the hours before the ceasefire took effect, including two seriously.

On the ground here – and across the country – there’s scepticism about why Israel’s leader has signed up to the truce.

The Strait of Hormuz is “declared completely open” for the “remaining period of ceasefire,” says Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

In a statement on X, he says: “In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through [the] Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organisation of the Islamic Rep. of Iran.

BREAKING: Iran's Foreign Minister announces that the Strait of Hormuz has officially re-opened following the U.S. naval blockade in the region. pic.twitter.com/xGvlQB3aWr

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 17, 2026

The prognosis of the Iran War is now so couched in politics and so warped by the American Left that the public has grown tired and wants it all to go away. But in truth, the situation is so fluid that any accurate prediction is impossible. Yet there is good reason to believe in an eventual outcome quite favorable to the U.S. and one far better than the status quo ante bellum.

How one Ontario mom is navigating fears for her Iranian family’s homeland — from schoolyard gossip to Trump’s taunts

It’s chaos.

At her home near Kawartha Lakes, Ont., Hollay Ghadery sits in her lounge with her laptop as her children rush over, dumping lunch bags and backpacks, kicking off shoes, and jostling to be first to tell her what happened at school.

“Let me speak first.” “No, you spoke first last time. It’s my turn!” “Mom, listen to me.”
Usually, it’s just gossip — who got in trouble, who bothered who. But lately, it’s been about remarks they’ve heard in school: that U.S. President Donald Trump is “freeing” their family’s homeland, Iran, by waging war; that Iranians should be happy about it. One of her children also heard a classmate claim that ISIS, falsely conflated with Iran, is planning an attack on the U.S. Moments like these can show how difficult it can be to parent through a war, even if it’s thousands of kilometres away.

The Star barely conceals the regime leanings of these Iranians one of whom is “Poet Laureate of Scugog Township.” 

These are the officials of the Islamic Republic who stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and took 52 American diplomats and staff hostage for 444 days.

I grew up in their system.

From the age of seven, we were forced to chant “Death to America.” We were made to burn the… https://t.co/Abg8j0uys1 pic.twitter.com/IWgsh6PYQL

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) April 16, 2026

A European-led mission to clear the Strait of Hormuz and keep it open for global oil traffic is being spun as a snub to President Donald Trump, despite it being exactly what the American leader has been asking for allies to step up and do for weeks.

Iran is attempting to “dig out” its bombed-out facilities during the ceasefire, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on Thursday morning.

The country is “digging out [its] remaining launchers and missiles,” he told reporters during a press briefing, adding that it does not have the “the ability to replenish [its] remaining launchers and missiles.”

Crescendo of tiny violins. https://t.co/fXVC1h6vMj

— davrola (@davrola) April 16, 2026

A 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel will begin at midnight Israel time, US President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social Post on Thursday.

Trump stated that the ceasefire was reached after separate conversations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.

Donald Trump wants to make a “grand bargain” with Iran, JD Vance has claimed, with the US considering offering incentives in return for peace.

The US vice-president said the message given to Tehran was that it would thrive if it agreed to curb its nuclear programme, hinting that a string of financial rewards could be on the table.

“[Trump] doesn’t want to make a small deal. He wants to make the grand bargain,” Mr Vance told a Turning Point USA event in Georgia.

Iran secretly acquired a Chinese spy satellite that gave the Islamic republic a powerful new capability to target US military bases across the Middle East during the recent war, according to a Financial Times investigation.

Leaked Iranian military documents show the satellite, known as TEE-01B, was acquired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Force in late 2024 after it was launched into space from China.

Time-stamped coordinate lists, satellite imagery and orbital analysis show that Iranian military commanders later tasked the satellite to monitor key US military sites. The images were taken in March before and after drone and missile strikes on those locations.

A recurring illusion in American foreign policy is that removing the most visible layer of oppression in a brutal regime, as in Haiti, Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq, is enough to claim victory. It is politically convenient and media-friendly, but in the instance of the Islamic Republic of Iran, looks to be strategically disastrous.

Today, as pressure mounts on Iran and US President Donald J. Trump signals a willingness to seize a perceived opening — most recently through a 15-day ceasefire — the same illusion is once again taking shape. The issue is no longer whether the regime in Tehran is under strain — it clearly is — but whether Washington is preparing, consciously or not, to replace a brutal clerical dictatorship with a brutal military one.

The Pentagon is sending thousands of additional troops into the Middle East in the coming days, as the Trump administration attempts to pressure Iran into a deal that could end the weeks-long conflict there while considering the possibility of additional strikes or ground operations if a fragile ceasefire does not hold, U.S. officials said.

The forces moving into the region include about 6,000 troops aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and several warships escorting it, said current and former officials, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military movements. About 4,200 others with the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and its embarked Marine Corps task force, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, are expected to arrive near the end of the month.