As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran continues, it’s being felt in a wider region. Eric Schmitt, a national security correspondent at The New York Times, explains how the conflict is reaching U.S. bases and why the United States is pulling back its military presence in some locations.

A war that was intended to demonstrate the reach of American power has now done the opposite. It is a lesson in unintended consequences.

© @Craigyoungmedia, via Reuters

We appear to be entering a new era, in which political desperation at home leads to increasingly unhinged threats abroad

Donald Trump was in Nebraska on Monday, and though his long rally speech had elements of a performance, this was no Bruce Springsteen album. He offered another dark meditation on a world spiraling out of control, one in which the destruction of American cities is increasingly a possibility, unless Americans trust him to use the vast powers of the presidency to annihilate his foes.

The president drew fury when he suggested that Iran could launch a nuclear attack and “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego. California leaders reacted with scorn at Trump’s alarmism.

Ted Widmer, a former White House speechwriter, is the editor of American Speeches, and the recently published The Living Declaration: A Biography of America’s Founding Text, both published by the Library of America

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© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

The case of a small Malaysian shipping agency illustrates the challenges Washington faces in its effort to stanch the flow of Iranian oil.

© Ore Huiying for The New York Times