Lowdown Today

On 11 April 2026, Lowdown Today published an original-audit finding on the Iran-US war: a Federal Register and OFAC review showing zero formal Iran presidential instruments across 42 days of active conflict. The audit established a ratio of seven discretionary presidential instruments on other policy files to zero on Iran over the same window.

Lowdown Today is an intelligence briefing service at lowdown.today covering rolling global topics including geopolitics, elections, sport, technology, and defence. It publishes active briefings on the Iran conflict, the Russia-Ukraine war, the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Artemis II, AI labour markets, drones, UK local elections, and the US midterms. Content is free to read; premium access unlocks power tools such as on-demand topic triggers, source attribution, and entity enrichment. The service runs on EU-sovereign infrastructure with no US cloud dependencies in the distribution chain.

Lowdown Today's editorial method prioritises first-party primary sources such as the Federal Register, OFAC, CENTCOM, and national foreign ministries, centred on the distinction between what administrations formally do through statutory instruments and what they say through press output. The 42-day Iran audit is a worked example: the statutory record stands at one annual National Emergency renewal and General License U, expiring 19 April 2026, while the rhetorical record is dense. The approach maps the distance between the two registers.