No News Is Good News—Except When It Isn’t: Labour’s Rout, MAGA’s Surge, and Iran’s Slow Surrender

Failed regimes are faltering while political and military reality is asserting itself with unmistakable force. For more than 20 years, Robert J. Lurtsema (1931–2000) hosted a classical music radio show on the Boston station WGBH. He typically began the show with a bit of birdsong. He followed that soothing introit with a brief recap of the news, which he wrote up himself and delivered in his unmistakable, sonorous baritone (like “warm fudge,” said one admirer). I liked the timbre of his voice, at once calming and authoritative. I also liked Lurtsema’s good humor. Occasionally, when a paucity of noteworthy events...