📰 Spread

each part on the front pages, hour by hour

🧭 How it unfolded

each day’s news in an outlet’s own headline, in the color of its part

1. Oct 5, 11 AM ET1“Soldiers Seriously Wounded in Iranian Drone Strike Say the Military’s Medical System Failed Them” Military.com
2. Oct 6, 11 AM ET1“Soldiers Wounded by Iranian Drone Strike Accuse Military Health Care System of Failing Them” Military.com
3. Oct 10, 6 PM ET2“Pentagon quietly raises troop death toll after Pete Hegseth called report ‘a complete lie’” Raw Story
4. Oct 15, 8 AM ET3“Report: US Weighs 'Mother of All Bombs' on Iran” Newsmax
5. Oct 16, 10 AM ET3“Trump Gives Garbled Description of Bomb He Wants to Drop on Iran” The New Republic
6. Oct 23, 7 PM ET5“Trump Says US May Do ‘Another Little Epic Fury’ Targeting Iran” The Epoch Times
7. Oct 24, 12 PM ET6“Iran In 'Advanced' Stages Of Planned Attacks On Americans Abroad” HuffPost
8. Oct 25, 4 PM ET7“Trump Says Decision Nearing on Iran: Deal or ‘Finish It Off’” Bloomberg
9. Oct 26, 10 AM ET8“Trump's oil and gas stocks gained millions during Iran war” CBS News
10. Oct 27, 9 PM ET10“US Military Spending on Iran War Tops $47 Billion” Newsmax
11. Oct 28, 1 PM ET9“Trump Eyes New Iran Blitz After Midterm Elections” The Daily Caller
12. Oct 29, 2 PM ET9“Rove expecting Trump to resume ‘kinetic action’ against Iran after midterms” The Hill
13. Oct 30, 10 AM ET13“Qatari mediators return to Tehran for talks” The Washington Times
14. Oct 31, 9 AM ET12“Supreme leader orders 'maximum' response to attack...” Axios
15. Nov 1, 1 PM ET12“Iran Threatens ‘Earth-Shattering Blow,’ Vows ‘Red Lines Are a Thing of the Past’” Breitbart
16. Nov 2, 9 AM ET15“Iran Says It Would Reopen Strait of Hormuz in 2 Days as Part of U.S. Deal” New York Times
17. Nov 3, 7 AM ET21“Iran Reportedly Fires on US Aircraft, Trump Responds With Strikes on Qeshm Island” Red State
18. Nov 4, 1 PM ET23“Vance Blames Iran War for GOP Congress Losses” Independent Journal Review
19. Nov 5, 8 PM ET23“After midterms, world leaders await Trump's next move in Iran” PBS NewsHour
20. Nov 6, 7 AM ET23“‘We’ve been preparing for the worst all year’: uncertainty grips Iran after Trump midterms defeat” The Guardian
21. Nov 7, 5 PM ET24“Trump: U.S. Carried Out ‘Minor Strikes’ on Iran” Breitbart
22. Nov 8, 4 PM ET27“Trump Says an All-Out Return to Iran War Is ‘Highly Unlikely’” The Washington Sun
23. Nov 9, 6 PM ET27“Trump says 'Iran is militarily effectively over'” Just the News
24. Nov 10, 10 PM ET28“Bessent moved from his DC home to a US military base amid Iranian threats: Report” Just the News
25. Nov 11, 5 AM ET28“Bessent relocates from home to base after Iran threats, reports say” CBS News
26. Nov 12, 9 AM ET29“Trump orders Vance to focus on "corruption" in Democrat-run areas, not Iran” Axios

🧩 How it's been told

the stories under the saga, day by day, from our motif index: each day its most-told, wider for more tellers, colored by genre (✨ new to the saga that day)

• 🎭Archetypesa kind of person
• 📜Plotswhat happened
• 🪨Beliefsa premise
• 🕵️Theorieswhat people think is behind it
• 🗣️Argumentsa move in an argument

1. Thu Nov 12 ✨ Chickens come home to roost 1
2. Wed Nov 11 The buck stops here 1Oil market instability 1Inflation 1The war hits your wallet 1
3. Tue Nov 10 Oil market instability 2The buck stops here 1Confidently wrong 1Inflation 1The war hits your wallet 1
4. Mon Nov 9 ✨ Unpopular war 1✨ Might makes right 1✨ The finger-pointing begins 1
5. Fri Nov 6 Oil market instability 1
6. Thu Nov 5 ✨ Convenient timing 2✨ Arsonist firefighter 1Saber-rattling 1The war hits your wallet 1✨ Talks as a trap 1
7. Wed Nov 4 The buck stops here 1Oil market instability 1Tail wags the dog 1Schrödinger's joke 1Inflation 1
8. Tue Nov 3 The buck stops here 1Oil market instability 1Tail wags the dog 1Inflation 1The vow 1
9. Mon Nov 2 War drums 2The buck stops here 1Oil market instability 1The war is escalating 1✨ Tail wags the dog 1
10. Sun Nov 1 ✨ The vow 2✨ Passing the buck 1War drums 1
11. Fri Oct 30 The war is escalating 1✨ Pants on fire 1War profiteer 1✨ The family business 1✨ Threat inflation 1
12. Thu Oct 29 Confidently wrong 2✨ Short-term war miscalculation 1✨ Where our tax dollars go 1The war hits your wallet 1
13. Wed Oct 28 Confidently wrong 1
14. Tue Oct 27 The buck stops here 1✨ Pain at the pump 1✨ War profiteer 1Saber-rattling 1War drums 1

🧶 Retelling

what people online made of it, part by part

• The IRGC reports that tankers and a tugboat caught fire after hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz and that they seized two US drones via electronic warfare. told by 9 people, on “U.S. military conducts defensive strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island”
• The IRGC Navy is attacking tankers in the Strait of Hormuz to disrupt international shipping and enforce Iranian control. told by 8 people, on “U.S. conducts minor strikes on Iranian targets near Strait of Hormuz”
• Marco Rubio's defense of Donald Trump's war against Iran may have sunk his political ambitions. told by 6 people, on “Trump and Rubio defend Iran war amid GOP midterm losses”
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Iranian demands are outrageous and unrealistic as U.S.-Iran talks make little progress. told by 6 people, on “Trump and Rubio defend Iran war amid GOP midterm losses”
• Oil prices fell because Donald Trump signaled that new strikes on Iran are highly unlikely. told by 7 people, on “Trump claims Iran war is effectively over, cites Qatar and Saudi support”
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent relocated to a military base due to Iranian threats against his life. told by 20 people, on “Treasury Secretary Bessent moves to military base over Iranian threats”