Weekly News Roundup - 3/20/26
Strategy Still Unclear & Costs Rising After Three Weeks of War
This is the 11th Weekly News Roundup of 2026. The archive for all weekly news roundups is here, which covers 2024 and 2025.
These weekly dispatches are designed for those who may not have time to do more than glance at the headlines, or those who want to stay informed without becoming obsessed by politics and news. These roundups are a targeted way to get a sense of the shape of the past week on the national level. Without such a map, we can be disoriented, not knowing where we have been over the past several days, or where we may be going.
But by spending concentrated, limited time thinking about the big picture, we can devote more of our time to where “agency and justice begin and end,” as Karen Swallow Prior put it: “on the ground, bodily, in community and real relationships, in flesh and blood.”
Quotes of the Week
There is a wisdom that comes from the humility of knowing that I can’t fix it all. - Ben Sasse
Iran’s Shahed drone — said to cost between $20,000 and $50,000 — has been the regime’s great equalizer, forcing the U.S. and allies to respond in some cases with interceptor missiles costing millions of dollars each. - Mike Allen
There’s a growing body of evidence that the tariffs that Trump said would help American factories are, in fact, squashing many of them. - Josh Boak
Big Stories This Week
The war in Iran continued for its third week and oil and natural gas facilities in the Middle East suffered significant damage, raising the cost of fuel and deepening concerns about sustained inflationary impacts on the economy. “”Three weeks into the war, the Iranian regime is signaling that it believes it is winning and has the power to impose a settlement on Washington that entrenches Tehran’s dominance of Middle East energy resources for decades to come,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “U.S. Has Bombed Thousands of Targets in Iran, but War Aims Are Still Unclear,” the New York Times headlined. Trump was reported to be considering placing U.S. boots on the ground in Iran.
Week in Review
Saturday, March 14
A top Trump official in charge of the Federal Communications Commission threatens “to revoke broadcasters’ licenses over their coverage of the war with Iran,” the Times reports, after Trump complains about reports from major newspapers like the Wall Street Journal.
Trump acknowledges that the U.S. cannot maintain shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz on its own. He writes on social media that “hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected” will help reopen the channel so crucial to the global economy.
The Trump administration identifies the six U.S. service members killed in the crash of a refueling plane in Iraq.
Sunday, March 15
Airline CEO’s ask Congress to restore funding for the Department of Homeland Security and to provide funds to pay TSA workers even if the government is shut down.
Five days after U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth quoted from Psalm 144 during a Pentagon press briefing, and then said a prayer in which he asked God to “grant unyielding strength and refuge to our warriors ... and total victory,” Pope Leo delivers a rebuke to “someone” who “pretends to involve the name of God in these choices of death.” Leo also calls for a ceasefire in St. Peter’s Square: “I appeal to those responsible for this conflict: cease fire! May paths of dialogue be reopened! Violence can never lead to the justice, stability and peace for which the peoples are waiting.”
“One Battle After Another” wins Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Monday, March 16
Trump again asks for help in Iran from allies as the price of oil remains above $100 a barrel. “We strongly encourage other nations whose economies depend on the strait far more than ours ... we want them to come and help us with the strait,” Trump says. His pleas are received skeptically. “We did not start this war,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius says. “British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the U.K. ‘will not be drawn into a wider war’ in the region,” Politico reports.
U.S. immigration authorities release a 33-year old Palestinian woman after having detained her for more than a year without charging her with a crime. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani had asked Trump to have her released.
Pope Leo meets “with an investigative journalist who alleges that [Opus Dei] a prominent Catholic organisation with ties to right-wing politicians in the U.S. and other countries covered up sexual and financial crimes, which the group firmly denies,” Reuters reports. The journalist, Gareth Gore, writes that he urged Leo “to immediately launch an independent inquiry into Opus Dei abuses headed up by both clerical and lay experts – covering allegations of spiritual, psychological, emotional, physical and financial abuse.”
A federal judge blocks HHS from slimming down vaccine recommendations.
Trump’s hand-picked Kennedy Center board votes to close the performing arts center for two years for renovations.
Tuesday, March 17
Trump fumes on social media about the lack of response from other countries to his pleas for help in Iran. “WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!” he writes.
The director of the National Counterterrorism Center and chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard resigns his job, citing his view that Iran “posed no imminent threat” to the U.S. and that Trump was dragged into war by Israel.
“A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore the government-run Voice of America’s operations after it had effectively been shut down a year ago, putting hundreds of employees who have been on administrative leave back to work,” the AP reports.
Venezuela defeats the U.S. in the World Baseball Championship final game.
Wednesday, March 18
The Trump administration releases a 21-year old Venezuelan refugee who had been enrolled in a New York City high school, after holding him in detention for 10 months without charges.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky bickers with former Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin in a confirmation hearing over Mullin’s appointment to run Homeland Security. Mullins tells senators he will not micromanage disaster response by FEMA, which has slowed the government’s response under previous DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Thursday, March 19
Israel and Iran trade strikes on energy facilities in the Middle East, driving the price of oil to $119 a barrel and prompting criticism of Israel’s strategy from Trump.
Trump is considering placing U.S. soldiers on the ground in Iran, government officials tell reporters.
Friday, March 20
A federal judge rules that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s restrictions on an independent press corps are unconstitutional because they do not allow the media to report truthfully on the government but only along government-approved lines.
A federal judge in Minnesota rules in favor of clergy who sued the Trump administration for greater access to minister to detainees held by ICE.
The price of oil is at $113 a barrel at the end of the week. The national average for consumers is $3.92 a gallon.
Interesting Reads
Trump Side-Stepped Diplomacy on His Way to War in Iran. Now, He’s Asking China and Others for Help, by Seung Min Kim, Will Weissert and Bill Barrow for The Associated Press
China ignores Trump’s Hormuz request as the Iran war deepens and his Beijing trip slips, by Didi Tang for The Associated Press
I Predicted the 2008 Financial Crisis. What Is Coming May Be Worse, by Richard Bookstaber for The New York Times
Why the SAVE America Act . . . Won’t, by the Wall Street Journal editorial board
Trump administration waves the white flag in some ICE cases, by Kyle Cheney for Politico
My audience with Pope Leo, by Gareth Gore for OPUS
The Quiet American: How Pope Leo is Pushing Back Against Trump, by Marcus Walker and Elizabeth Bernstein for The Wall Street Journal
A Public Servant Faces a Public Death, by Tunku Varadarajan for The Wall Street Journal
A.I. Is Coming for Politics, by Thomas Edsall for The New York Times
Brendan Carr, the FCC, and the Banality of Evil, by Matt Bai for Rolling Stone
The Threats and Bare-Knuckle Tactics of MAGA’s Top Antitrust Fixer, by Dana Mattioli, Rebecca Ballhaus and Josh Dawsey for The Wall Street Journal
When gas prices go up, changing the way you drive can stretch your fuel just a bit farther, by Alexa St. John and Kiki Sideris for The Associated Press
Bryce Harper met the moment at World Baseball Classic, but a title again proved elusive, by Ken Rosenthal for The Athletic
We came from different parties and faiths. We left as compatriots, by Dana Milbank for The Washington Post