The Free Press

The Islamic Republic is at an inflection point. Less than a week ago, the Islamic Republic lost its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a daytime Israeli air strike that stunned the world.

And yet Khamenei’s regime fights on, firing ballistic missiles and drones at U.S. bases and diplomatic facilities, Israeli cities, Arab civilian infrastructure, and even at Turkey. The question is not whether Iran has changed. It undoubtedly has. The question is how much further it will change, in which direction, and what America will do about it.

One of the first political casualties of President Donald Trump’s second Iran war is his relationship with populist movement leader and social media broadcaster Tucker Carlson. In an interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Trump cast Tucker out of the MAGA tent.

“Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told Karl on Thursday. “I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things. And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”

Who will lead Iran? As its war with the United States and Israel nears the end of the first week, the question looms large. Will the successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei be his son, Mojtaba Khamenei? Or the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani? Or someone else entirely?

As speculation swirls, President Donald Trump…

Four years ago, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, people wondered if it was the beginning of World War III. Today, seven days into the latest war with Iran, the same concern has reemerged. It is not a foolish question.

Unlike World War I, which began in 1914 when all the European empires more or less simultaneously activated their …

Nobody knows exactly what will come next in Iran. It’s the nature of a story this big, this fast, and this consequential. What we do know is that the coming days and weeks will determine a great deal: about Iran and the Middle East, about Donald Trump’s presidency and American politics, about a volatile new world order.

That’s why we’ve been all hands on deck since this story broke, working to help you make sense of these extraordinary events. It’s also why we’ve got exciting news about our expanding team. More on that in a second, but first, a quick recap of what we’ve done so far. Hours after the first strikes on Saturday, we went live—with Rafaela Siewert hosting and a roster of guests that included Douglas Murray, Michael Oren, Elliot Ackerman, and others. (You can catch that here.) We’ve published a lot since then. Here are some highlights you might have missed:

• Simon Sebag Montefiore on the death of a dictator and the dawn of a new Middle East

• Niall Ferguson on how Iran in 2026 differs from Iraq in 2003

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali on what the war means for the spread of Islamism across the globe

• Maya Sulkin on Ali Khamenei’s posthumous makeover

• Reporting from Washington by Eli Lake on how the Iran strike has shaken up Republican politics, and put J.D. Vance in an uncomfortable position

• Haviv Rettig Gur on why, contrary to the claims of some, this war is primarily about America’s interests, not Israel’s

• Michael Doran on how this war might end

With all of these pieces, and the many others from recent days, the goal is the same: delivering to our readers the clearest, sharpest account of what’s actually happening—and why it matters—available anywhere.

A story like Iran requires writers who understand the history, the regional dynamics, the military calculus, and the domestic politics—all at once, all in real time. It requires editors who know what questions haven’t been asked yet. It requires the freedom to follow the story wherever it leads.

That’s what we’ve built. And you’ll get all of it as a paid subscriber.

This war will likely go on for weeks. Don’t miss a thing—subscribe to read all of our essential coverage as it’s published.

Upgrade Now

And here’s something special: All new subscribers can now upgrade to a paid subscription and get the first seven days free. Full access to everything we publish, starting with the stories that matter most right now.

We’re thrilled to announce an important new voice that we’re adding to the team.

Today, Aaron MacLean joins The Free Press as a columnist and host of the School of War podcast.

Aaron is a military veteran, former faculty member at the U.S. Naval Academy, and talented podcaster. He has dedicated his career to piercing through the fog of war and extracting its lessons for the rest of us. What drives a battlefield command? Who is responsible for navigating an international conflict? When do we develop new weapons, and how?

There is no voice more authoritative, or more equipped to make sense of these issues, than him. He’ll be doing that every week, both in our pages and with his podcast, School of War, which you can subscribe to here. (You can read the official press release here.)

Aaron makes his debut with The Free Press with a livestream at noon ET today. He’ll be in conversation with former head of Central Command, retired General Frank McKenzie, about the current conflict in Iran. We cannot recommend it enough. Paid subscribers can watch that right here.

We’ve got a lot more on this war in the coming days, starting with Niall Ferguson’s latest essay on how world wars start, landing in your inbox this afternoon.

If you’ve been reading us as a free subscriber and thinking about upgrading, this is the moment.

The story is moving. We’re on it. Join us.

Upgrade Now

With gratitude,

The Editors

Dear Abigail,

I am a mother of three and a physician, married to a loving and supportive husband. I work part-time—24 hours a week—which allows me to contribute financially while also being present for my family. I enjoy my work, and I know I would not thrive as a full-time stay-at-home parent.

That said, I am struggling with a familiar tension many working mothers face: being the default parent and default homemaker on top of having a job. On the two evenings each week when I get home late, my husband often calls in a panic asking what to feed the kids. I feel guilty for not planning ahead, then resentful for feeling guilty at all. Why am I still responsible for dinner planning on nights when I’m not even home?

I usually plan our meals weekly, but some weeks it feels overwhelming—especially with picky children—and I let it slide. When that happens, weeknight dinners become reactive and stressful. I feel pulled in multiple directions and frustrated by the sense that I am supposed to be everything to everyone, even though I know that’s impossible.

I find myself wondering what the right solution is. Do I change my schedule further so I’m always home in the evenings, satisfying the “good mother” my conscience seems to demand? Do I set a firmer boundary and make it clear that my husband is responsible for dinner on those two nights? I would like to work a bit more to bring in additional income, but I don’t feel I can do that while this tension remains unresolved. Hiring help would ease the strain, but it isn’t currently within our budget.

What should I do?

—Camilla

Camilla,

When I was 31, I took a trip to Germany with my husband to escape a misery that wouldn’t let go. We’d been married only two years, and for the second of those, I’d lost a series of pregnancies. Sadness ran through me like plasma. God could have sent an angel to inform me that I would soon be a mother, but like the Biblical Sarah, I would have laughed in his face.

My husband hoped the trip would lift my spirits. But except for a few lighthearted moments—when a barkeep in Garmisch-Partenkirchen told us sincerely that the worst thing Hitler ever did was combine Garmisch with Partenkirchen—I mostly remember the rain.

Only after we returned and found a great fertility doctor did the gloom lift. Within a year, I was pregnant—with twins—which felt like unimaginable good fortune. Fifteen years later, people still ask me if caring for twins was “really hard.” I don’t remember it that way. Hard is miscarriage. Two babies you never believed you’d have? That’s windfall.

It’s Thursday, March 5. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: The Dubai expats sheltering in luxury. Europeans get mugged by climate reality. Newsom misses the point in Iran. And much more.

But first: If the Iranian regime falls, what comes next?

President Donald Trump hasn’t eased his campaign to batter Iran’s regime into submission. Iran “has no navy, it’s been knocked out. They have no air force, that’s been knocked out. They have no air detection, that’s been knocked out,” Trump declared from the Oval Office, less than 100 hours into the fighting.

Yet few U.S. reports so far have captured how Iranians opposed to the regime are responding amid the rubble and twisted steel. Even a battered regime will likely cling to power until its remains are pushed out by an organized force.

For early signs of resistance, look to the Kurds. The minority group in Iran’s mountainous northwest has clashed with the regime since before the 1979 revolution reached its end. Last month, five Kurdish groups committed to fight the regime, and now they’re organizing under the cover of U.S.-Israeli air power. Jay Solomon reports on whether these fighters could push out the regime—or plunge Iran into civil war:

Iran’s Persian majority lacks much organized resistance because their rulers have killed, jailed, or cast out would-be opposition leaders. Now millions are looking to those exiled and imprisoned men to emerge and command their nation. Amy Kellogg profiles some of the brightest lights, from the former prime minister who stood up to the hard-liners, to Reza Pahlavi, the deposed crown prince who could restore the shah’s throne.

With the internet and cellular networks knocked out across much of Iran, it’s difficult for dissidents to rally, or even know what’s going on in the war. For decades, the U.S. had a tool tailor-made for this purpose—until the Trump administration began to dismantle it last year. What motivated Trump to gut radio services like Voice of America, which could draw millions of Iranians toward America’s mission? Read Frannie Block’s investigation to find out.

—Mene Ukueberuwa

Join us at noon ET for a live taping of a Free Press podcast, School of War, hosted by Aaron MacLean, the FP’s newest columnist (read more about that here) and national security analyst for CBS News. MacLean is a Marine veteran and former professor at the U.S. Naval Academy. Today, he will host General Frank McKenzie (retired) to discuss the ongoing operation in Iran and the implications it has for the future of warfare. You don’t want to miss this.

If the prospect of braving another blizzard—or the midterm elections—all alone bums you out, The Free Press is here to help. Our old-school, straightforward matchmaking service, Free Press Cupid, is back and better than ever. This past week, we ran letters from a 22-year-old who is “substance-free, but with substance,” a Paris-born hotelier, and an “evangelical Christian slowly making my way toward Rome.” (And a few more!) Read our last batch of letters from the eligible Free Pressers here (you’ll get their email addresses, too). If you’d like to be included in next week’s romantic batch, email [email protected] with a short write-up about who you are and what you are looking for in a mate.

• A United States Navy submarine sank an Iranian ship in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sri Lanka Tuesday night, the first sinking of an enemy ship by a U.S. submarine since World War II. The U.S. has destroyed 20 Iranian naval ships since the operation began last week, according to Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Dan Caine.

• Legendary college football coach Lou Holtz died yesterday at the age of 89. Holtz led the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to a 1988 national title, one of 249 victories in his 33-year coaching career. He later became a college football analyst for CBS and ESPN. Holtz was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, in 2020.

• The Texas Republican Senate primary is heading to a runoff, after incumbent John Cornyn and the state’s attorney general Ken Paxton both failed to pass the 50 percent threshold in Tuesday’s Senate primary election. President Trump announced his intention to offer an endorsement “soon,” calling on the candidate who is not endorsed to immediately drop out.

• The Senate blocked a measure that would curtail President Trump’s authority to continue the war in Iran. The 53–47 vote was almost completely down party lines, except for Rand Paul (R-KY) voting for the restrictions and John Fetterman (D-PA) voting against the measure. A similar measure is up for debate in the House of Representatives, but is not expected to pass.

• The U.S. government’s civilian workforce shrank ‌by 12 percent between September 2024 and January 2026, according to government data published on Wednesday. The Treasury Department lost 24 percent of its workforce, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ workforce was cut 20 percent. The Department of Homeland Security was the only department to gain staff—it grew by less than 1 percent.

• An Iranian ballistic missile heading toward Turkish airspace was shot down by NATO air defenses in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey’s defense ministry announced on Wednesday. “NATO stands firmly with all allies, including Turkey, as Iran continues its indiscriminate attacks across the region,” a NATO spokeswoman said.

• Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee, fielding questions over the administration’s immigration crackdown and her tenure at DHS. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) chastised Noem’s “smear campaign” of two Americans she referred to as domestic terrorists after their deaths at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, while Republicans offered support for the secretary’s record.

In this episode, Shilo Brooks sits down with New York City public defender Ben Schatz to discuss the novel True Grit—and the nature of justice in America.

Ben founded the nonprofit Books Beyond Bars, which sends requested books (not just random donations) to individuals locked in New York jails and prisons, giving them dignity, mental escape, and intelle…

It was unsettling to watch California governor Gavin Newsom on Monday spouting off a rejiggered blood libel this week, and not simply because Democrats have mostly succumbed to a fashionable Jew hate.

“We have to reconcile why our bombs were used, or Israeli bombs were used, to kill children—young girls—at a school, and what the imminent threat was,” Newsom said at a press conference meant to slam Donald Trump’s war on Iran.

As the U.S. and Israel continue to degrade the military infrastructure of the Islamic Republic, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and decimating the regime’s leadership, Iran’s fractured expatriate opposition faces a question it has debated for decades but never with such urgency: Who should govern the country next?

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah, commands the most visible support, with crowds chanting his name during street protests and a freshly unveiled policy platform to his credit. Once reluctant to contemplate a return to Iran, Pahlavi has become far more active in seeking the mantle of leadership, telling 60 Minutes that “millions of Iranians inside Iran and outside of Iran are calling my name.”