Good morning. Sunny today with temperatures warming to a high around 62. A low near 42 overnight. The Wizards host Chicago tonight. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below.
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I can’t stop listening to:
Yilian Cañizares, “Maputo.” The Cuban-Swiss violinist Cañizares mixes jazz with Afro-Cuban rhythms. She plays the Library of Congress tonight.
Take Washingtonian Today with you! I keep ridiculously long playlists on Apple Music and on Spotify of this year’s music recommendations. Here are 2025’s songs (Apple, Spotify), too.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
War news: Israel continued to strike targets in Lebanon Thursday. Israel struck Beirut yesterday and maintains that a ceasefire agreement between it, the US, and Iran doesn’t apply to its operations against the Iran-backed group Hezbollah. (Reuters) President Trump agreed, calling the Lebanon conflict a “separate skirmish.” (PBS) Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said it would be “unreasonable” to continue a truce while Israel’s attacks in Lebanon persist, among other objections. (AP) Negotiations for a lasting peace are due to begin Saturday.
Strait edge: The Strait of Hormuz is hardly open for business. Only four ships passed through it yesterday—fewer than on Tuesday, before the ceasefire took effect. (FT) Iran has asserted its control over the narrow waterway, and shipping companies appear wary of murky authority and large tolls Iran may impose. (NYT) If anything, Iran “plans to tighten its grip on the world’s most important energy-shipping lane,” through which commercial traffic flowed freely before Trump started this war more than a month ago. (WSJ) The strait remains mined, leaving shippers little choice but to accede to Iran’s conditions for passage. (NYT) “I thought we won the war,” one oil industry consultant groused. (Politico)
Truce and consequences: So what would a lasting peace look like? Trump declared victory yesterday, but so did Iran. Its demands “look difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile with U.S. aims.” (NYT) The White House said Iran’s public stance differed from the conditions it conveyed to the US that made a ceasefire possible. Here’s a rundown of what Iran says it wants. (WSJ) The war “has reaffirmed Iran’s regional significance, including its ability to strike its neighbors with missiles and drones — and inflict economic and political pain on its adversaries.” (Politico) Some of Trump’s allies fear he is overstating what the US has gained in the war. (WSJ) On Wall Street yesterday, traders celebrated the cease-fire, and the price of oil plummeted. (WSJ) Don’t expect to celebrate at the gas pump anytime soon, though. (CNN) The Fed may actually increase interest rates. (Axios) Republican insiders fear that war-related economic pain won’t ease in time for the midterm elections later this year. (Politico)
Administration perambulation: The CDC delayed publishing a report that showed the Covid vaccine “cut the likelihood of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults last winter by about half.” (Washington Post) Trump is looking for ways to punish NATO allies that didn’t assist in his war with Iran. (WSJ) The Selective Service System will begin to automatically register eligible men for the draft, replacing the former system that required people to register themselves. (The Hill) The Justice Department asked the House Oversight Committee to withdraw its subpoena for now former US Attorney General Pam Bondi, but Republicans on the committee say she still must appear. (Politico) Todd Blanche could run DOJ indefinitely on an acting basis without Senate confirmation thanks to a precedent set in the Biden administration. (Punchbowl News) Other cabinet officials will be able to use the $70 million jet former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem acquired, purportedly to use for deportations. (Washington Post) The feds accused Army vet Courtney Williams with releasing information about Delta Force to a journalist, apparently Seth Harp. (Politico) The Luxembourg firm ArcelorMittal will provide foreign-made steel for Trump’s ballroom. The White House cut tariffs that could apply to exports from the company’s plant in Canada. (NYT)
Hidden Eats, by Ike Allen:
The Days Inn on Annapolis Road in Lanham gets middling online reviews. Some guests write that the hallways smell like cigarettes. But diners looking for halal eats on this busy highway stretch in Prince George’s County have pretty much all glowing things to say about Al Madina. The Pakistani kebab restaurant with an Afghan chef is bafflingly attached to the motel where you might expect a nondescript conference room to be. I stopped by recently for a personal favorite: chapli kebab, a Peshawar-style minced beef “burger.” Al Madina’s version is studded with green chiles and cracked whole coriander seeds, and it comes with a bowl of silken, cardamom-scented chickpea curry. On a weekend morning, try the nehari, a staggeringly rich beef shank stew. Forget powdered eggs and cut-up honeydew—this is a hotel breakfast.
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• The feds accused three former employees of the long-troubled Psychiatric Institute of Washington of criminal negligence in the 2020 death of a patient. Learn more: We’ve covered PIW’s travails for months. Here’s a piece we published last year about the facility, and a follow-up from February.
• This November wedding featured details inspired by classic Hollywood glamour.
Local news links:
• Hair-touching Metro creep Bryan Betancur got arrested again yesterday. Cops in the District say the pardoned January 6 rioter stalked local journalist Amanda Moore. Last month, they say, he followed her to a Polymarket pop-up bar, where he “performed a Nazi/Hitler salute and tried to have staff remove Moore by claiming she was Antifa.” (DC News Now)
• A Virginia State Trooper is in the hospital after being struck by a car while pursuing a man cops say struck a truck on the Beltway, ran out of his car to the Eisenhower Avenue Metro Station, hopped a turnstile, and boarded a train to L’Enfant Plaza, where he was arrested. (WTOP)
• Police in Charles County charged a man with setting his motorcycle ablaze. (DC News Now)
• Cops in Prince William County charged a fourth person in the deadly shooting last month on a Dumfries basketball court. (WTOP)
• Police in DC impounded an Audi with Maryland tags whose driver, they said, had accumulated more than a quarter-million dollars’ worth of tickets. (DC News Now)
• Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed a bill that “establishes a legal right for individuals to obtain and use contraception.” (WUSA9)
• The region’s residential real-estate market has cooled this spring thanks to all that snow and cold and the recent war. (Washington Post)
• Kevin Durant is among the new owners of the former Six Flags site near Upper Marlboro, which could become a “destination with entertainment and upscale dining and possibly a sports-related activity.” (NBC4 Washington)
Thursday’s event picks:
• This month’s National Gallery Nights event offers an “immersive evening where the visual soul of America meets the rhythms of American music.”
• Learn about the history of the Takoma Park Folk Festival at Takoma Park Neighborhood Library.
• Jacquelynne Fontaine-Isaac sings Broadway tunes at Miracle Theatre.
See more picks from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
