Hello and welcome, dear reader, to Monday, April 13, 2026. Today is International FND Awareness Day (Functional Neurological Disorder), National Make Lunch Count Day, National Peach Cobbler Day, Scrabble Day, Thomas Jefferson Day (it’s his birthday), and International Plant Appreciation Day.
1668: John Dryden is appointed the first English Poet Laureate by King Charles II at age 36.
1742: George Frideric Handel’s oratorio “Messiah” is performed for the first time at the new Great Music Hall in Dublin.
1796: First elephant arrives in the U.S. from India
1860: First Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, Calif.
1861: After 34 hours of bombardment, Fort Sumter surrenders to the Confederates.
1943: FDR dedicates the Jefferson Memorial in honor of former President Thomas Jefferson on Jefferson’s Birthday.
1954: Milwaukee Braves’ Hank Aaron’s first game.
1958: American classical pianist Van Cliburn wins the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
1970: Apollo 13 announces, “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” after a Beech-built oxygen tank explodes en route to the Moon.
1981: Washington Post journalist Janet Cooke wins the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing; she later admits that the story was a hoax and returns the prize.
Birthdays today include: Guy Fawkes, Thomas Jefferson, Frank Winfield Woolworth, American businessman, retail pioneer (Five-and-Dimes; self-service display cases) and founder of F. W. Woolworth Co; Butch Cassidy, Samuel Beckett, Irish novelist and playwright, Harold Stassen, American politician, Don Adams, American comedian and Emmy Award-winning actor, Dan Gurney, American race-car driver, coach and team owner, Bill Conti, Jack Casady, American rock bassist, and Rev. Al Green, American soul singer.
If today’s your day too, have a happy one.
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Some interesting news from the Strait of Hormuz, by way of Fox’s Anders Hagstrom:
President Donald Trump has warned Iran to keep away from U.S. vessels enforcing Monday’s blockade of the nation’s ports.
Trump acknowledged that Iran still has a number of fast attack vessels despite suffering huge losses to its navy under Operation Epic Fury.
“Iran’s Navy is laying at the bottom of the sea, completely obliterated – 158 ships. What we have not hit are their small number of, what they call, ‘fast attack ships,’ because we did not consider them much of a threat,” Trump wrote.
“Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea. It is quick and brutal,” he added.
This action commenced at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Monday. Essentially, Iran was blockading Hormuz, and Trump is blockading IT.
Interestingly, while all the various news outlets are making loud noises about how this will cripple Iran economically, very few are mentioning China’s plan to ship an air defense system to Iran, including shoulder-fired missiles. I believe that’s the real reason behind Trump’s move. The Jerusalem Post reprinted a Reuters report examining this:
U.S. intelligence indicates China is preparing to deliver newair defense systems to Iran within the next few weeks, CNN reported on Friday, citing three people familiar with recent intelligence assessments.
According to intelligence outlined in the CNN report, Beijing is preparing to transfer shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile systems known as MANPADs.
These systems pose an asymmetric threat to low-flying US military aircraft – as demonstrated during the five-week war – and they could continue to do so if the ceasefire breaks down.
If? “If,” you say?
Yeah, whatever. I already spoke about that the other day. There’s no way it doesn’t fall apart, barring action from one side or the other. The Mullahs will never give up their nukes. But, to continue, “The report also highlighted how Iran might be using the ceasefire to replenish certain weapon systems with assistance from key foreign partners.”
Partners like Hezbollah and Hamas, perhaps? After all, we haven’t heard anything from Gaza of late; the most recent activity I’m aware of was some nine days ago. Challenge Iraq on its proverbial front lawn, and suddenly, its proxies fall pretty much silent. Iran has bigger fish to fry at the moment than keeping Palestine armed, and anyway, with their ability to manufacture arms being bombed out of existence, they couldn’t do it anyway. And in any case, Tehran wants to make sure no harm comes to its proxy groups. So, they’re pretty much lying low for the time being. And by the way, each of those groups has a quite limited ability to arm themselves, being almost totally dependent on Iran.
Or China? That seems more likely, but there are limits there, as well. Again, the Jerusalem Post:
Two sources informed CNN that there were signs that Beijing was attempting to route shipments of the weaponry through third countries to conceal their true origin.
In response to the CNN report, a spokesperson for the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington said that “China has never provided weapons to any party to the conflict; the information in question is untrue.”
The spokesperson continued, saying that “as a responsible major country, China consistently fulfills its international obligations. We urge the US side to refrain from making baseless allegations, maliciously drawing connections, and engaging in sensationalism; we hope that relevant parties will do more to help de-escalate tensions.”
Depressingly typical. The sleight of hand game is what they’re playing here, and everyone knows it.
China doesn’t want to get caught at this, because Trump has already threatened a 50% tariff on anyone supplying weapons to Iran. It’s anyone’s guess if China is exerting pressure on the Mullahs to back off, but I doubt it.
Gotta keep up appearances, both because of the tariff threat and because of the scheduled meeting with Trump visiting China next month. There are reports of high-level discussions between China and the U.S. while the talks in Islamabad were happening. I would fully expect China to argue that such weapons are defensive. A thin guise, but also quite typical.
Russia, meanwhile, has been providing support to Iran all along, but given the pasting Ukraine is giving it, its ability in that area is also quite limited, and consists mostly of Intel about U.S. and Israeli asset movements, and the occasional drone, according to recent CNN reporting.
I’m with our Scott Pinsker on this one:
Perhaps a smarter strategy is to hit the mullahs with a threat they dread far more than a blockade. I’m talking about the two words that have horrified Americans since the Iraq War of the early 2000s: regime change.
Actually, it wouldn’t shock me to learn that’s already being discussed in Washington.
Thought for the day: “There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true.” —Winston Churchill
That’s it for today. Take care of yourselves. I’ll see you tomorrow. Bring a friend.
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