When Marzieh heard the first bang, an almighty crash that rattled the room, her first thought went to her youngest son, Mohammad. He must have got out on to the balcony and discovered a new game, she thought: using all of his small might to smash its sliding doors closed. Marzieh stood up from where she was working at her sewing machine, and shouted for him to stop.

“Mum, it wasn’t me,” he called back.

Then, the second crash sounded, the force of it making the entire house tremble. Could it be the neighbours, she wondered – construction work, renovations? But even as the thought occurred, she knew it wasn’t right: their nextdoor neighbours had all left for work that morning, and only she and Mohammad were at home.

“This is in a way the anger presidency. Anger defines Mr. Trump’s decade on the political stage. Mr. Trump is not the first president with a temper. Even the genial Dwight D. Eisenhower was known to be sharp behind closed doors. Lyndon B. Johnson’s tantrums were Texas size. Richard M. Nixon seemed to be on a medium boil for most of his nearly six years in office.” (Peter Baker, The New York Times, March 17, 2026, Front Page.)

The mainstream media, particularly the New York Times and the Washington Post continue to normalize Donald Trump by applying everyday terms to his personality and his presidency. He has been called an “isolationist,” a “neo-isolationist,” and currently an “imperialist.” Peter Baker, who has been covering the White House for the past several decades, now believes that it is “anger” that defines the Trump presidency. These descriptions normalize the Trump presidency and avoid the rages that are unique to Donald Trump.

Israel’s parliament has advanced a contentious bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of terrorism to its final vote, after the Knesset’s national security committee approved the measure on Tuesday.

The legislation, initiated by the far-right Otzma Yehudit party led by the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has drawn sharp criticism from opponents who warn it would mark a significant escalation in Israel’s penal policy. Members of Otzma Yehudit have worn noose-shaped pins in support of the bill.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday said he had ordered an investigation into what he has referred to as the “wiretapping” of Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

“The wiretapping of a government member is a serious attack on Hungary. I have instructed the Minister of Justice to immediately investigate the information,” Orban wrote on Facebook.