Tuesday’s Mini-Report, 3.17.26

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Devastation in Afghanistan: “Afghanistan accused Pakistan of killing at least 400 people in an airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in the Afghan capital late Monday. It marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that began late last month and has seen repeated cross-border clashes as well as airstrikes inside Afghanistan.”

* Crisis conditions in Cuba: “Officials in Cuba reported an islandwide blackout Monday in the country of some 11 million people as its energy and economic crises deepen and its power grid continues to crumble. The Ministry of Energy and Mines on X noted a ‘complete disconnection’ of the country’s electrical system and said it was investigating, noting there were no failures in the units that were operating when the grid collapsed.”

* In related news: “‘I do believe I’ll [have] the honor of taking Cuba,’ Trump told reporters Monday afternoon. Asked whether this meant diplomacy or military action, he said: ‘Taking Cuba in some form … whether I free it, take it — I think I can do anything I want with it, if you want to know the truth.’”

* If this reporting is accurate, it’s evidence of a failing policy: “Despite more than two weeks of relentless airstrikes, U.S. intelligence assessments say, Iran’s regime likely will remain in place for now, weakened but more hard-line, with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps security forces exerting greater control.”

* On the other hand: “Israel said it had dealt double blows to the upper echelons of Iran’s government and military on Tuesday, killing Ali Larijani, the head of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, and Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of a powerful plainclothes militia aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.”

* An extremely unusual subpoena: “The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee formally subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify before lawmakers over her department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.”

* I’ll be eager to learn what led to this departure: “A senior Securities and Exchange Commission official abruptly resigned on Monday, raising questions about the agency’s ability to root out financial wrongdoing. The official, Margaret A. Ryan, the S.E.C.’s enforcement chief, is leaving the agency just six months after joining it. Typically, S.E.C. enforcement chiefs serve for years.”

* Delayed diplomacy: “President Donald Trump is delaying a diplomatic trip to China that had been planned for months but began to unravel as he pressured Beijing and other world powers to use their military might to protect the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said Tuesday while meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in the Oval Office that he would be going to China in five or six weeks’ time instead of at the end of the month.”

Scheduling note: I’ll be away from my desk for the rest of the week, but I’ll return to the usual publishing schedule on Monday, March 23. See you then.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”