THE WAR ROOM: As many as 16 oil tankers and cargo ships have been attacked in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf of Oman as Iran attempts to shut down the waterways, according to accounting by The NY Times.
  Before the war, roughly 20 million barrels of oil passed through the strait every day, roughly 20 percent of the world supply. Now it’s down to a trickle.
  In what is reported to be his first official message, Iran’s new leader
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said the critical Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as a “tool of pressure” and that Iran’s neighbors are being targeted because of the US bases in their territory.Khamenei has not been seen in public since his appointment and the statement was read on Iranian state television on his behalf. 
  While President Trump has claimed victory even as the war goes on, Iran is the winner if it can keep the Strait of Hormuz closed. But last night the President blustered with a post: “Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today. They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!”
  As a result of the war, international oil shipments have been reduced and diverted. The price of gasoline is rising, mortgage rates are up, shippers are worried about getting goods across the globe, and even fertilizer could be in short supply on the brink of the spring planting season. Gone are the days when you could wage war on one country and the globe would keep turning. President Trump’s war on Iran is affecting the world.
  Coming on top of Trump’s trade war, his quixotic application of tariffs to imported goods, the Iran war has the potential to tip the economic balance for everyone from individual farmers to entire countries, the US included. Higher oil prices and relaxed sanctions can funnel money into Russia to prosecute its war on Ukraine. 
  Last night in a news conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to pull back on hopes that the Iranian people would topple their regime. “We are creating the optimal conditions for the overthrow of the regime, but I can’t say for certain that the Iranian people would topple it,” he said. “A regime is toppled from within.”
 
CASUALTY REPORT: Four out of six crew members died when an American aerial refueling tanker involved in the Iran war went down in Western Iraq, the Pentagon announced. It’s the fourth US aircraft lost in the conflict.
  The KC-135 was lost in an incident involving another tanker that landed safely in Israel with a damaged tail, according to the Pentagon. Rescue operations were under way in a remote area of Iraq. 
  The KC-130 tankers do not have ejection seats. The crew has to jump out a door and parachute. 
 
NIL: Iran cannot play in this summer’s soccer World Cup co-hosted by the United States, the Iranian sports minister said this week.  
   “Given that this corrupt government has assassinated our leader and created extreme insecurity, we cannot participate in the World Cup,” said Ahmad Donyamali in remarks on Iranian state television. “The players have no safety, and the conditions for participation simply don’t exist.”
 
THE HATE REPORT: Security officers at a synagogue outside Detroit yesterday shot and killed a man driving an explosive-laden car into the lobby of the building, setting off a smoky fire. None of the staff or preschoolers in the building were injured.
  As many as 30 first responders were treated for smoke inhalation after they cleared the building with no breathing apparatus.
  The attacker was identified as 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali,  naturalized citizen who drove to the synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. CBS News reports that they were told that Ghazali 10 days ago lost two brothers, a niece, and a nephew in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon.
  At Old Dominion University in Virginia, a former member of the Army National Guard who had spent eight years in prison for attempting to aid the Islamic State shot and killed the ROTC instructor in a classroom and wounded two others before students subdued and killed the man with a knife.
  Investigators said the shooter had yelled “Allahu Akbar.” 
 
 THE REGIME:
 
— The Trump administration sued the State of California over its strict limits on planet warming tailpipe emissions, claiming the regulations would unlawfully force a rapid transition to electric vehicles in the state. The administration has already attempted to block California’s ban on gasoline powered vehicles beyond 2035.
  Across the country, 17 states representing more than a third of the American automobile market follow California’s lead on clean car standards.
 
— A growing number of Republican-led legislatures are moving to implement new voting restrictions, moving ahead of Trump’s “Save America Act” stuck on Capitol Hill.
 Republican-controlled legislatures in Utah and South Dakota approved laws requiring proof of citizenship to vote in state and local elections. Lawmakers in Florida, which has more than 13 million registered voters, passed a similar  citizenship verification bill.
 
 THE OBIT PAGE: Former anchorman Ernie Anastos, a fixture in New York’s local television news for 40 years, died of pneumonia at age 82.
  The smooth and personable Anastos arrived at WABC in New York from Providence in 1978 sporting a curly Greek Afro. After 11 years with WABC, he went on to work at WCBS, WWOR, and WNYW, receiving 30 Emmy Awards, including the Emmy Lifetime Award, and an Edward R. Murrow Award. 
  In a city of famous faces, he was one of the most.
 
BELOW THE FOLD:  President Trump gave his “complete and total endorsement” to boxer and influencer Jake Paul, who is not running for elective office. 

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