The News Roundup For April 3, 2026

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Hi, it's Todd, your host for this edition of the news roundup. Just a quick heads up before we start the show. The news is changing rapidly, and things might have changed by the time you hear this episode. So Stay up to date with all the latest by listening to your local NPR member station and by visiting npr.org. I'm Todd Zwillick, and it's the 1A Friday News Roundup.

Thirty-two days and hundreds of billions of dollars into the war in Iran, and for the first time this week, President Trump addressed the nation about why he chose this war, what costs Americans can expect. And where it all goes from here, but we learned not much about what's ahead. On one hand, according to the president, the fight is already won and is effectively over. On the other hand, escalation. We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.

We're going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. Seems to be the message that Iran received. It fired more missiles at Israel in the hours before Passover began and attacked other Gulf neighbors. as well. Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of this war. Did they hear anything to convince them that the president has a plan to end it? Did lawmakers

Staring down the prospects of running for election this fall. We'll get to the war and the commander in chief plus the latest on the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security and a look upward at Artemis II coasting as we speak. Toward a new encounter with the moon. Here with us is Alana Shore, senior Washington editor for Semaphor. Hi, Alana. Glad to be here. David Smith is here, Washington Bureau Chief of The Guardian. Hi, David. Great to be here.

And on the line, Olivier Knox, Senior National Correspondent for US News and World Report. You there, Olivier? I certainly am Todd. Oh hey, Olivier, great to have you. But first, before we get to all that. Big news yesterday in Washington on Thursday, President Trump fired the Attorney General, Pam Bondi. Now Bondi was one of Donald Trump's fiercest and most loyal defenders.

She helped bend the Justice Department to his personal will, but according to the New York Times, on a car ride from the White House to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Trump told Bondy. It was time for a change. On Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social, we love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job. in the private sector.

Not at the Justice Department. Ryan Riley was all over this story from early rumors of Bondi's firing to the final deed on Thursday. He covers the Justice Department for NBC News and he's in the studio to bring us through the

The very important firing of the Attorney General. Hi Ryan. Hey there. Why now? Why is she going to be a little bit more? I mean I think that th she ran into the facts and the law of a lot of these cases, right? It this is not for lack of trying to go after Donald Trump's political I mean, they they did indict, they got an indictment of the former FBI director James Comey. Uh they went after the New York Attorney General on um mortgage charges, uh mortgage fraud-related charges, which

amounted to, you know, an alleged savings of about fifty dollars a month. So we're really talking about what legal scholars would refer to de minimis uh allegations there. Um and, you know, all also they tried to go after six sitting members of Congress and a grand jury sitting in D C looked at that and universally rejected that. I mean I talked to a lot of former

federal prosecutors and you know it's very rare for a grand jury to reject anything, but let alone go zero votes for uh an attempted indictment of the five years. So you're saying it was more her failure to get to and punish Trump's enemies than handling of the Epstein files and and that entire Well we saw a lot of I think the Epstein files definitely played a role because we saw a lot of uh Republicans and allies of Trump on the Hill who were upset about that and I mean sort of

there was some bipartisan pushback to that. And I think that you sort of saw this notion of uh Todd Blanche rising up because he was the one who they sort of slotted in to have a press conference about the Epstein files. And um you know Uh the f I guess outgoing attorney general Pam Bondi did have a lot of these verbal hiccups and verbal slip ups.

uh over the course of her tenure. Starting from her very first day in office, I mean one thing that will be sort of forever ingrained in my mind was the very first press conference she held. Uh at the Justice Department. And we're all sort of you know waiting there. And she comes out and she announces that the Justice Department, and she used the word, is charging.

Right. That invokes criminal charges. That when you talk about charging someone, you're talking about slapping handcuffs on them. This is a criminal case. And what they were announcing there was a mere civil litigation, right? It was a lawsuit that they were filing there. And so there was this like sort of like internal panic. What are they talking about? And then before we all sort of

had to figure out what exactly it was. So I mean from the very beginning there were just a bunch of of hiccups and then, you know, talking about the Epstein uh client list being on her desk and then that she had to walk back. So um I think, you know Donald Trump thought that he was getting someone who was very sort of media skilled and That isn't necessarily how this ended up. Loyalty I you cannot question her loyalty, the most loyal attack dog for Trump.

You don't tell me because we saw what you did in the Senate. In a congressional hearing. Not there there's not a more T V ready attack dog for Trump than Pam Bondi, and you're saying in the end it wasn't enough. Yeah, and I mean the other thing that sticked out about that was though it was it was clearly very rehearsed, right? I think Democrats referred to

what she had a a a burn book um before her where she had these sort of predetermined attack that ready to go no matter what the question was just based on the question there. It was a lot of, you know, um personal attacks on whoever was m making the questions and not really answering or engaging with the substance.

Um the president announced that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch will become the new acting A. G. Todd Blanche, of course, formally, the President's personal lawyer in his personal prosecutions and his personal legal troubles in between the two Trump terms defended him. Uh in the 34 felony count case, right, in New York. What more do we need to know now about Todd Lanch and how he might handle the top job?

Yeah, I mean I think that background's important. Um I spoke with somebody yesterday who used to work with him in or I reached out for comment to someone who used to work with him uh in the Southern District of New York who initially when I wrote a story when uh when Todd Blanche was initially nominated, sort of looking at his background and and sort of people putting hope into the idea that he would be

more of a team normal or you know, a normy sort of uh deputy attorney general. Um but what ended up happening is, you know, she basically re reversed on this the person I this former colleague reversed and said she why she was hopeful at first. Now she doesn't have any expectations of him at all. He She thinks that he'll uh be sort of in the same um do keep doing the same thing that he's been doing. And I mean, you know, he but he does, I think.

have a a little bit more of the m the media skills that I think Donald Trump i is looking for into a certain Ghlaine Maxwell um is seeking a pardon from Donald Trump. Her lawyers have been or clemency, her lawyers have been pretty public about that. The president has refused to rule out a pardon for that convicted sex trafficker.

She's getting special treatment in the Federal Bureau of Prison. She was been transferred to a low security prison in Texas. Not usually appropriate for a convicted sex trafficker. Todd Blanche was instrumental uh in engineering. the treatment of Glaine Maxwell. What has his role been? How important is that going forward? Now this man is acting attorney general who has engineered special treatment for one of the most important fact witnesses.

A convicted sex trafficker in the Epstein case. Yeah, and I think that you know the the complication on You're sort of getting these two pressures, right? You're getting pressure from to Donald Trump to bring these charges. You're also getting pressure from the base and I think sort of even, you know, bipartisan uh push to prosecute more people.

A lot of this doesn't you know, the statute of limitations is not necessarily that's something first and foremost in the disku public discussions about this, but it really I think should be because That's sort of the first baseline question that you're asking about when you're talking about a criminal bringing a criminal case against someone. Is it within the statute of limitations? What is the exact charge? And especially when you talk about, you know, what Donald Trump has talked about, um

He's not getting very specific. He's not citing like, you know, here's my 18 USC code that I would like to go after for this um individual uh target of mine. It's all very generic, and I think that that's what I think you see some flashes of frustration from Todd Blanche. on the uh the the Maxwell front on the Epstein front because he really does want to turn the page on this and he spoke to that even last night uh in an interview on Fox News saying that

You know, that was the past. We're sort of moving forward here. We got this question from George. Attorney General Pam Bondi was scheduled to be deposed by Congress april fourteenth. She's under subpoena. Will she appear?

I think that's the expectation is that she will. I think members of Congress uh would like to see her, but I think that's still up in the air. I think you know, she initially made she this is the deposition and especially now we're in this era where These depositions become pseudo-hearings because the video is immediately released or released within the next

twenty four hours and so it becomes this public spectacle uh rather than necessarily investigation. But yeah, I we could see that. All right, we got the panel here. Uh guys, you got any questions for this star justice reporter while we have them around the table. Iwana, go ahead. Yeah, that's okay. Lana, you'll you're next. Um I I mean I thought it was notable that so far Donald Trump has fired only two cabinet secretaries and both of them were were women in what's already the

least diverse cabinet in the century. But I just I do do you think Todd Blanche will get the job full time and will that make uh or you know, whoever does, will it make any difference to the Epstein file? He's definitely in the running, but I think Janine Pirot is also trying to make herself uh a potential entity there. US attorney. Exactly. And Trump loyalist former Fox News host. Correct, who tried whose office tried that case against six sitting members of Congress.

Th this relates to my question actually, which is Tom Tillett. He's standing in the way of a Fed chair confirmation and he could right, like I'm just doing the math as a Senate nerd, stand in the way of anyone who doesn't meet his standards when it comes to kind of denialism of January sixth, which I feel like Pierre could land in trouble and wouldn't also land.

Yeah, I mean I think that Ed Martin, who uh he was responsible for blocking, was a big that was a big indicator there that that case was you know, that hi what uh Ed Martin did was far beyond Fertilis. I don't know whether Piero has gone quite as far on the on the J six front as as Ed Martin has, but we'll we shall see. Olivier Knox, go ahead. Um actually my colleagues have done an excellent job of of quizzing Ryan here. So I think I'm I think I will let the case rest.

Uh wha what overall um reaction have you seen from lawmakers um looking forward to aside from Tillis looking forward to a a replacement that they would like to see? I mean the complicating factor is, you know, whether or not if they're gonna try to get someone new through with

With Blanche, you know, you've got he's got a good run to be able to be in that acting position. He's already been confirmed as a lawmakers happy with a continuation of the Justice Department that is essentially Donald Trump's personal law firm for his own personal animosities? It depends on their party.

That's basically what it's broken down to. So the answer Republicans yes are happy with continuing that. I don't think all of them. I mean I think that there's some cases, certainly the Fed one, was it one that raised a lot of concerns about whether that was a legitimate investigation. That's Ryan Riley from NBC News covering the Justice Department.

And Pam Bondi. We're gonna take a quick break. Staying with us are Olivier Knox, Alana Shore, and David Smith. When we come back, the domestic reaction to the president's path forward on the war in Iran and a lot more. Stick with us for the news roundup. Welcome back. It's the news roundup on the 1A podcast. We're following some breaking news out of Iran. News that an American fighter jet has been downed.

There are reports now from U.S. officials that one of the pilots has been rescued by U.S. forces. So we're following that story. As as we follow the war in Iran and the president's selling of the war to the American public this week. We got the president's first address to the nation. Since he launched the US into this conflict nearly

six weeks ago. Um he said the war is nearly over, just a few weeks away, which he's been saying since the earliest days of the operation. He claimed that Iran had been uh obliterated. uh but also threatened to bomb the country quote back to the Stone Age as we heard earlier in the hour. Alana, what did this speech actually tell us about the president, how he's thinking about the war, and where he's headed?

Well, to me, it it basically was a continuation of the mixed signals regarding, you know, the economic and political fallout he's facing versus, you know, his desire to frankly keep fighting. I I think we saw some reports in advance that suggested there would be a clear message of like I'm pulling back and I I didn't feel like we got any clarity at all. Trump clearly wanted the speech to convey a sense of triumphalism. You know, I've accomplished my objectives.

You know, you see based on how the market reacted to it, oil prices were were like jumping up as he was talking. People aren't buying it. And you know, as you'll see, right, like uh the fighter jet issue, it's it's it's clear that The US hasn't necessarily perhaps decimated Iran's defenses the way they're claiming. So it will have to continue, I think, for Trump to meet his goals, and that's tough.

Olivier Knox, what did you see in the speech? I uh much of it was familiar. I didn't hear anything brand new except Stone Age Invective. What did you take away from the speech, its posture, and what the president wants us to know? Thank you.

Well one of the big takeaways for me was that the president still does doesn't have a a clear path to reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Um and the reason that's important is that about 20% of globally traded oil flows through that narrow uh waterway. It's about 21 miles at its narrowest points, but also fertilizer. Um, so we're gonna see we're we're seeing all these global impacts, very serious economic impacts. The president has given just a bevy of contradictory um

Explanations for Hamoos. First it was, we're gonna use the US Navy to escort ships through. Then it was, well, actually we don't care. Then it was, well, the Europeans should do it. Then it was, we don't care. Then it was, I'm really mad at the Europeans for not doing it. And then today, uh on Truth Social, he came out and said, like we could do this, we could reopen it really easily and seize the oil. Um

There's not really there's not a plan here. I I can guarantee you the Pentagon has a whole bunch of plans because they plan for every single contingency uh out there. But as of right now, there doesn't appear to be a plan on the president's desk. that he's willing to sign off on for reopening that that water race. That was really significant.

Um we also didn't hear any clarity on ground troops, which I think is really important. You know, the United States has amassed a huge military footprint in the region, including uh some uh a couple thousand Marines. That's really important. That's all it's always been thought that We would need to use ground troops. to secure uh the highly enriched uranium that that Iran has.

Uh, the president in his speech suggested that he preferred uh keeping track via satellites and then using missile strikes to deter the Iranians from trying to recover that. Um so the speech was a at least as much what we didn't hear as what we did hear. David, your your impressions of this speech. Does the president have a plan to keep oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz? Does he have a plan to get out of a war that he chose to start? Um if he does, he didn't really clarify that.

tremendous um anticlimax on uh prime time television, um just very vague and uh as one commentator suggested, uh it felt as if the speechwriters had, you know, copied and pasted Donald Trump's truth social posts from the last few weeks and

melded them together. And as Olivier mentioned, um we did not hear about ground troops. Um we also did not hear about NATO, despite speculation there might be a big announcement there. Um we didn't hear about this uh April the sixth uh deadline for the Strait of Hamoose to reopen or America to strike even harder. Um it was uh yeah, it was it was kind of vague and uh and muddled. I I did hear from people overseas who were absolutely shocked by

Donald Trump's language about bombing Iran back to the Stone Ages. They they said to me, you know, don't become numb to that. It's just uh you know, unthinkable that any president would say to such a thing. And and I was also struck by the contrast that this was, you know, literally just a few hours after

uh the Artemis two uh rocket launch to the to the moon, just going back to your your qu quiz question earlier and you know, this moment of unity and triumph and something transcendent and then very quickly Donald Trump um stepping on that. Uh he did mention Artemis at the beginning. Um perhaps he could have embraced that glory more, but instead he was

quickly back to the politics of division. We will embrace the glory of Artemis a little bit later in the hour because we love the glory of Artemis and Artemis too, so stick with us for that. We're also going to talk a little bit more about the impact of the war in Iran on the US economy.

and on US politics. But meanwhile, in Washington on Thursday, the Defense Secretary, Pete Heggseth, during this war, fired effectively the Army Chief of Staff, General Randy George and two other military leaders, uh Randy George being asked to retire now, uh retire early, the Army Chief of Staff. Um Alana, what do we know about the reasons behind these effective firings? Chief, top army leaders in the middle of a conflict?

Well, what we know is for starters it's entirely unprecedented. I mean, and it it really speaks to I think some serious friction specifically with Driscoll, who's leading the army. Heg Seth is, you know, um Uh he's obviously uh an unorthodox Secretary of Defense, or war as he likes to call himself, and clearly he's wanting to mix up these ranks of top military officers.

And there's friction between him and Driscoll that's obvious, but he hasn't addressed it in public. The Pentagon doesn't give press briefings. You know, the overall optics as someone who focuses, you know, more on politics and what this means for the administration's war policy is kind of chaos at the worst possible time.

Meanwhile, the Defense Secretary Pete Heggseth made news in another area this week, letting Army pilots off the hook. Pilots who did a flyby at the estate of Kid Rock in Nashville. Apparently so that he could make internet content by saluting those helicopters in front of a Statue of Liberty replica in his backyard. Normally flights uh deemed unsafe or unauthorized would be severely punished

by the army, Olivier Knox. Um, but Pete Heggseth um reversed their suspension. They were suspended. Pete Heggseth reversed it, calling them Patriots. What does this say about accountability and why does it matter, Olivier? Well, it says that Pete Hegsath is willing to short circuit traditional accountability structures uh at the Pentagon uh in service of a political agenda, which is a really significant thing. You know, he's been remaking the Defense Department.

From top to bottom, not just with these promotions or these firings. When you see all the when you see all the firings stacked together as opposed to just one or two, you know, on Thursday, it's remarkable how many people he's dismissed since since taking over.

Um in the in the Kid Rock case, it's the short circuiting of a traditional process of accountability. Uh you'll remember, of course, that Pete Tagseth went to bat for um members of the military who were uh credibly accused of war crimes in Donald Trump's first term. Uh he has made fun of rules of engagement. Uh he has insisted on, I mean, if you if you took a drink for every time he says the word lethality, you'd be poisoned very quickly. Um

But he's remaking the department. And um this sends an incredible message to everyone involved there, right? If i if if you can take your military hardware on a de facto joyride to uh benefit an a a political ally of the president. Wow, what a what a message to the to the ranks.

David Smith, w what what do you take away from the excusing, the very public and proud excusing of these pilots who I'm not an expert on flight rules, but they clearly violated them, and that's usually punished very severely in the Army.

Yeah, I think uh indeed it does show um there's kind of one rule for us and one rule for everybody else. Um it is part of that culture of impunity, um and we've seen that throughout the entire first year of the Trump administration, um, that um if you're perceived as on Trump's side, then um you can you can get away with a lot and uh and you know it's it's uh notable

Uh Pete Hexath is um uh you know a a deeply divisive figure. Again, I think he's stunned a lot of people around the world with his red meat uh you know super aggressive rhetoric. indeed all the talk of lethality and and and so on. And on on top of everything else then, uh we've certainly been interested in his association with uh Christian nationalism and how a lot of his uh language um you know recalls the Crusades.

Well we've been talking about the president's Primetime speech on Wednesday. In it he told Americans to see the Iran conflict. This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren's future. Now, whatever their grandchildren's future, in the now, Americans are paying more than four dollars a gallon at the gas pump and feeling the war's pressure on the job market. Um David, give us some context. How significant is this? Passing of a four dollar marker on gas prices.

Oh, I think it's very significant, um uh you know, for for millions of uh consumers that is how the Iran war will impact them most directly. It's not some remote, faraway conflict that maybe they say on T V but they're really feeling the pain there. They're having to make decisions, do I buy gas or can I afford my healthcare instead? for example and and during his speech, um, you heard Trump uh try to make this case and rather laboriously talk about

other conflicts America has been in World War One, World War Two, Vietnam and he sort of listed. That's right, yes. How how long each of them had taken as as if to say, you know, so far, as he's put it, this is some kind of excursion and it will be Over soon.

seen often enough in the Trump cycle, things do move very fast. Yeah. Maybe the price of gas will be back down by then. But for now this uh this I think is alarming a lot of Republicans on Capitol Hill. Olivier, I've seen a lot of economists warning that oil shock isn't even here yet that it's coming because of the way oil and and um hydrocarbon delivery works, that the worst of it is yet to come in terms of prices.

Yeah, that's that's that's certainly something I've heard uh a as well. I mean there's a there's a reason the United States has lifted sanctions on Iranian oil and on Russian oil. Uh and it's that they're desperate to try to keep suppl the supply shock from deepening. There are uh there are a bunch of other problems. I mean, we get a lot of fertilizer.

for agriculture from the Gulf and we get helium, which is necessary to some high tech manufacturing from the Gulf. So those are other ways in which uh the conflict's gonna squeeze the US economy. And it's not g I mean Yes, gas prices could in theory come back down, but remember that Iran is damaging infrastructure in the Gulf. Uh there's a a cuttery natural gas facility that experts expect will require five years of repair. So that's a long, that's a pretty long uh energy shot.

Uh and you know, the conflict's not over. Um Iran appears willing to strike its neighbors and its neighbors' energy infrastructure. Um so I think in terms of economic shocks, we're this is just the beginning of the ride. Uh speaking of Pete Heggseth in the Defense Department, Janelle from Ohio points out that Heggseth also just allowed servicemen and women to have personal firearms on base.

And in the barracks, another change, I don't know if anybody wants to comment on that change. I've seen several uh former officers say from their perspective it's a terrible idea to have live firearms in the barracks, but I'm no expert. Does anybody wanna comment on that change at the Pentagon? Not right now, coming from Janelle. Well it's a good point, Janelle, and news that Pete Heggseth uh made yesterday in his many changes at the Pentagon. Um Alana shore, um

Meanwhile, we have new jobs numbers this morning. A a bright spot for the economy. We're gonna talk about pressures of the Iran war. on people's personal economy. But the Labor Department says the U.S. economy added 178,000 jobs in March. That's a big number. Um Economists have been warning Alana that the Iran war is putting downward pressure on a labor market that is slowing overall. How do you look at the numbers today in that context?

Yeah, I mean obviously it's it's better news than the Trump administration was probably bracing for, but I don't think this is going to substantially change the narrative of

what they call a low hire, low fire labor market. I mean you're seeing big exceptions, right? Like big layoffs at Oracle and other companies, but generally people are kind of stuck in place. Like like uh like when you get a great interest rate on your mortgage and you don't really want to get six percent, you just kind of stay where you are. That's That's the way this labor market has been perceived as, and it will probably continue to be so, even more so with more stress. So, you know.

Better than expected jobs report, but keep in mind they also ratcheted down February's estimate, which was kind of devastating for the administration. Yeah, those numbers can be revised down later and we will be following them. One more example of mass layoffs before we take a break. Not necessarily connected to the war. This time it's software giant Oracle mass layoffs. Up to thirty thousand people notified they were out of a job. via email

And that company as of May 2025 employed 162,000 people. Um Oracle isn't the first tech company firing people by the thousands. Amazon laid off as many as thirty thousand white collar workers. last year. Um David Smith, what does this say about the state of the tech sector and jobs in the tech sector? Um I'm I'm not an expert in that, but when you were talking, my first assumption was, Oh, is this AI related? Um because uh The answer is yes. How did I guess? Yeah. But especially

coding and software as a service. It's uh this this huge rupture, which of course could be in a canary in the coal mine for other sectors of the job market uh as well. And I think always interesting to see what will be the political effects uh downstream. Pressures on the job market, we'll talk a lot more about it. And we'll talk about maybe a deal to reopen DHS. It's a dodgy one.

Welcome back. It's the news roundup. Back in December nineteen sixty eight, Apollo eight became the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth's orbit and reach the moon. The three man crew circled the moon ten times over the course of twenty hours. Well, Apollo, it turns out, had a twin sister, and her name was Artemis, and now in twenty twenty six. Artemis. Well she has a mission.

4 3 2 1 Booster ignition and lift off the crew of Artemis 2 now bound for the moon humanity's next great voyage begins. A picture perfect launch for NASA's SLS rocket and now the four person crew of Artemis two. is coasting toward the moon as I speak. They're expected to reach orbit on Monday night. No moon landing on this mission, just like Apollo eight. It's a flyby, it's a test mission and a dress rehearsal. Astronauts are testing out equipment like

Service module thrusters known as the RCS navigation programs. Also, what astronauts? Can bear to be away from Earth on a ten day mission. And not be able to check their email. And then I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one of those are working. If you want to remote in and check Optimus on those two outlooks, that would be awesome. Yep, Outlook went down for a little while while the uh Orion crew capsule was in orbit. But that's the point.

of this lunar orbit mission to work out the kinks for future moon landing. The mission will also send the astronauts five thousand miles behind the moon. That's a lot further than Apollo eight, which was in a sixty mile orbit in its ten orbits around the moon. Five thousand miles around the back of the moon, and that means it'll set a record for the furthest distance.

human beings have ever been from this planet. About two hundred and fifty two thousand miles, if you wanna know. Now in astronomical terms, that's not much. It's just a step out the door. But it's not- And it's something important. Here to here's to many more, many more millions of miles in the future. Well, back on Earth, a new deal between President Trump and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill is supposed to diffuse the nearly fifty day standoff and the shutdown.

of DHS, the Department of Homeland Security. Uh but David, uh the issue of funding ICE. is fractious. Republicans right now are arguably even more fractious than that issue. What's the deal? Will it work? Can it work? Yeah, I mean it does seem very messy we're seeing here, you know, how the the sausage uh gets made. Um and you know, one of the battles seems to be between uh House Republicans and uh Republicans in the

Senate. Um and I mean my understanding the you know, the current compromise is uh a two track process. where um m most of DHS uh would get funded in a new bill um and th the Senate came up with that and at first the House was unenthusiastic. Uh Mike Johnson described it as a joke, but then they seemed to be back on board, but apparently yesterday there were still concerns being raised.

And then um separately, um, ICE and uh Bord Patrol would get done through the reconciliation process. Um I think Democrats are feeling quite good about all this. I mean, they certainly harnessing some of that energy, the backlash against what happened in Minneapolis, they've

remained united on this front and they're watching Republicans kind of at each other's throats and and again it's probably good for the party ahead of the midterms. Alana sure th I mean this deal on the face of it appears to give Republicans what they wanted, funding DHS. funding ICE and Border Patrol with no reforms, right? Democrats have been gunning for big reforms to ICE after the killings in Minneapolis and the crackdown. So why are House Republicans so darn angry about this?

Well, a lot of it traces back to the fight over what uh Trump calls Save America, and I just call it voter ID and citizenship verification for. for voting, which is a huge Trump priority that he's basically still pushing to break the Senate filibuster over. And House Republicans are kind of champing at the bit to force the Senate to to go their way on this voter ID bill. And now instead they're being told

Don't worry, don't worry. We're gonna smush this Trump Act voter bill in with reconciliation, even though let's be clear, the rules of reconciliation won't allow for that. Essentially, although on paper, House Republicans are getting what they want. In practice, telling them to do this through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process feels like kind of an insult because it's gonna be really hard and basically impossible to get everything they're being told to get done.

spent uh the last several many years along ashore um abrogating their power to the executive and now the executive's telling them what to do with their appropriations votes. And all of a sudden they don't like it.

Well, it is a little bit ironic, isn't it, that now they're starting to assert their power at their lowest possible point. But that is more or less what's happening. Um back on the issue of jobs numbers, which we talked about just a couple of moments ago, strong jobs numbers in the latest uh labor department report 178,000 in March, but we got this question from all over the country. Candy in Cape Cod, Tom asks, Kit asks, they all ask the same question. Can you actually believe job numbers?

from this administration and from this Labor Department right now? Olivier Knox, a lot of people are asking that question whether they can trust some of the driest numbers that usually come out of the US government.

Uh the short answer is yes. You've got a lot of career people who are who are getting putting these numbers together. The trust issue comes in more um just concerns about, you know, future revisions, concerns about accuracy of these numbers, but not because of political tampering, just because of statistical noise.

Which is what we've seen in the in in in a lot of the revisions. Just remember that over time these uh the jobs numbers have gotten more and more and more accurate. So even when you see some dramatic revisions, uh still historically these are fine. Um But again, even when they're l led by political appointees, this process is really driven by a lot of career people who care a lot about being accurate.

The career people still care about being accurate inside the Bureau of Labor Statistics, says Olivier Knox from US News and World Report. Now as we wait to see how, if the House will handle that DHS funding bill, the shutdown continues. TSA is now getting paid, thanks to an order from President Trump, two full paychecks now after missing one part uh missing one partial and two full paychecks now getting paid. Um unclear now though whether ICE agents who were placed in airports

will remain there even after the shutdown is older. Here's the borders are Tom Homan on CBS's Face the Nation earlier this week. Look, we're gonna continue a nice presence there and until the airports feel like they're in They're a hundred percent, you know, in in a posture where they they can do normal operations. If if if less T S agents come back, that means we'll keep more ice agents there.

Livia, is it clear what ICE agents have actually been doing at airports and what they would be doing if they remained after the shutdown? Uh the short answer is no, it's not clear. Um ICE agents are not trained the same way as TSA agents. So one of the big concerns when this deployment was announced.

is just what can ICE do. The theory of the case was that ICE would take over some security features like guarding certain doors and things like that, um, so that more TSA agents could be put on reading scanners, X-raying bags, et cetera. But as Tom Toman alluded here, what we don't know yet is

How many uh TSA agents decided that this shutdown was a bridge too far for them and they're just gonna leave the agency entirely? We saw some really spectacularly high call out rates. I think the airport in Houston had as many as forty percent of TSA. Agents say, you know, call in sick, call in just not showing up for work.

And we have to wait to see whether the end of this shutdown, the the TSA getting paid and then maybe the end of the shutdown, ha whether that brings these folks back or not. One note on the apparent interaction between TSA and ICE, a New York Times investigation This week revealed that TSA is sharing the names and birthdays.

of travelers believed to be undocumented with ice when they pass through airports. Now ICE doesn't have to be in the airport to receive that information, but that sharing apparently is going on.

Well, While we're talking about the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, as reflected through new cooperations between ICE and TSA, let's go to the Supreme Court where Trump's idea of who can be a citizen of this country was on trial this week. The president has spent years challenging the language of the Fourteenth Amendment. It says all persons born in the United States, with narrow exceptions,

are American citizens. It's called birthright citizenship. And in a first for any president, Trump went to the court to sit and watch oral arguments. Again, it was the ride to the court where Pam Bondia apparently was informed that she was out of a job. Here, U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer laid out arguments against birthright citizenship. The conservative leading court appeared skeptical, including the Chief Justice, John Roberts.

We're we're in a new world now, as Justalita pointed out to, where eight billion people are one plane ride away from having a a child who's a US citizen. Well it's a new world, it's the same constitution. It's a new world but it's the same constitution. A lot of people took that as the takeaway. David Smith, uh what did you take away from the arguments? Where do you think this is headed?

Yeah, that for me was the standout line as well and the overall takeaway was that uh the questioning from the justices suggested they were sceptical about uh the government's uh argument here and were not going to be intimidated by Donald Trump's presence. I mean I think it's the the first time we've known about a a sitting president to actually attend a Supreme Court hearing.

like that and certainly some critics, you know, compared it to a mob boss, you know, trying to intimidate people. But uh it seemed that the justices were not having anything of it and uh there was that idea that uh Put politics aside, put uh what happens in other countries aside, their job is to stick to the constitution on this one, and uh it would appear um you know Donald Trump is going to lose the argument.

Well also this week a panel in charge of urban urban planning in DC gave Trep President Trump's four hundred million dollar White House ballroom the green light, architecturally anyway. But in a lot of ways That doesn't actually matter because in court. A federal judge ordered the entire project stopped, saying Trump has no authority to build on the site without the approval of the five.

of Congress. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said, quote, the existence of a large hole beside the White House is, of course, a problem of the President's own making. Alana Shore, a federal judge says no ballroom without Congress. Is Congress interested in ex exercising its formidable power now to grant Donald Trump his ballroom?

Well, I mean, let's assume that Republican leaders, because they enjoy giving Trump what they want, would say yes to that question. How are they going to do it given the fact that they also have this reconciliation bill we discussed? Incredibly huge lift that Trump once done by June first. They have to, you know, suss out government funding writ large, which is quickly going to become a mess.

I guess my answer to that is maybe, but uh not really because they have no time and it's just gonna start the biggest fight. I mean, this is a party that's really vulnerable in the midterms and they don't wanna be defending this ballroom. Well some bad news for the GOP on the political front this week. It came from Florida. That state's been deep read for years. Republican control of the state legislature, the governor's office, the state Supreme Court, of course. Демократ вonспешки.

in Republican leading districts this week. Um Democrat Brian Nathan, he's a union leader and Navy veteran. He nabbed the Hillsborough County State Senate seat. He's one of a number of working class Democrats this past year, who've run successfully on pocketbook economic issues, affordability housing. He told NPR station WUSF he isn't so sure though that it's the start of a blue wave.

If there is one, it's only going to be the result of hard work that, you know, Democrats stay disciplined on message, make sure they're addressing the needs of their constituents or potential constituents, uh, the voters. actually address the issues that voters have and the voters will reward you with their trust.

Um at the same time, quick polling notes this week, Donald Trump's poll numbers, UGO Economist has Trump at thirty five percent approval, the lowest of his presidency, fifty eight percent disapprove and only one in four say the country is going in the right direction. So David Smith digest forest these

special election results in deep red Florida combined with poll numbers and where the country is at politically right now. Yeah, and I think if you go back to November twenty four, um, that election night absolutely devastating for Democrats, but then if you run their election campaigns you maybe woke up the next morning and thought, Oh great, now we're gonna win a lot because

incumbent presidents, especially in this era, get a lot of backlash against them and Trump's uh honeymoon did not last long, his approval rating is very low, and now Democrats are on a tremendous uh winning streak in these special elections in, as you say, Florida, Iowa Many others. Um, we saw the No Kings protest brought millions to the streets. There is huge anti Trump uh sentiment. Here's a little bit of what that sounded like.

Organizers say about eight million people came out on the streets, the largest of the three protests so far. And it's interesting when you talk to the organisers of No Kings, they ultimately divide the Democratic Party right now between uh fighters and and folders. Uh they say that's actually more important than whether you're uh a so called centrist or progressive.

And certainly both centrists and progressives can coalesce around this message of uh affordability as we saw in last November's elections. Here's one protester named Sarah Carlson explaining why she was on the street. I'm here because I'm worried about my children and my grandchildren. I'm tired. We're exhausted. This brings me hope. I have so much hope here. And we can change this. Our government is not going to do it. It has to be we the people.

No, a White House spokesperson said protests have little public support and quote, the only people who care about these Trump derangement therapy sessions are reporters who are paid. To cover them. That's a statement from the White House. Uh before we go, we're talking about Artemis. Uh you know, let's all take a breath. I I I would just like to get Some impressions. This week you watch that SLS

Cleared the tower. Um Alana Shore, did it give you thoughts? It su certainly gave me some. How'd you feel about it? I I mean as somebody who was like very tiny when um you know the eighties was the heyday of space travel, it did give me like a nice nostalgic rush that was that was welcome. Olivier, how about you? Uh two conflicting feelings. One, I looked at that launch from every conceivable a available angle. Um, and I had I had two thoughts. One, you know, how great, and the other is

Uh be as someone who watched Challenger Live on television. Yes. Um the when the the minute they started talking about tech problems, um, I got a little got a little uneasy and I was relieved to discover that the tech problem, uh the toilet was fixed. My impression th there is a when you listen to comms from ground control to the capsule. There's a new relaxed tone. Old Apollo, very crisp, very militaristic. This is a new form of communication, relaxed. I agree with that. We have a problem.

Years ago of course first woman, first person of Carlona. A big moment for Amer America, all the division strife that we see, but also World Cup two hundred and fiftyth anniversary and and Artemis two. Artemis two heads towards the moon. We can't wait to follow it around the dark side. I want to thank Alana Shore, David Smith, and Olivier Knox. And we're just getting started with the week's headlines. When we come back after a break.

We'll have a new panel and all of the news from around the globe. Stay with us.

Welcome back to the 1A Podcast. I'm Todd Zwillik. Let's get into the international edition of our weekly news roundup. The president says the war of choice in Iran is won, and that he's met all his objectives, but also that the fighting will go on for another two weeks. Iran's enriched uranium buried so deep underground it's no longer a problem. And the Strait of Hormuz? Well now that's someone else's problem. Traders who set the world price of oil disagree.

And that price keeps rising. Shifting objectives and shifting results. Does the president know how to get out of the war in Iran? Let's get to all of that with our expert panel. Felicia Schwartz is here. She's the diplomatic correspondent at Politico. Hi, Felicia. Hello, hello. Robbie Grammar is also here, National Security Reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Robbie, always good to have you.

Great to be here. And on the line, Nick Schiffrin, Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent for PBS News, our host of the international affairs program, Compass Points, frequent guest on the roundup. Hi, Nick. Thanks very much. Thanks for having me. And we want to hear from you, of course. What do you want to know about this week in international news? What do you want to say or learn about the war in the Persian Gulf and the war in Iran? Email us one A at W AMU. Dot or

All right, for the first time since he and the leaders of Israel started the war thirty five days ago, the president addressed the nation on Wednesday in prime time. We are on track to complete all of America's military objectives shortly, very shortly. We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.

And seemed focused on convincing a skeptical American public that the war was necessary and has been successful. The president's text, his words, Robbie Grammar, were were mostly things he said before. So what about the subtext? What did you take away from what he said?

When he said it, how he said it. I mean it just goes to show how much pressure this administration is under from its MAGA base. I mean Trump came into office. One of the one of the common rejoinders against Harris in the twenty twenty four campaign was A vote for Harris is a vote for more wars in the Middle East.

Um and that really resonated with parts of the MAGA base and here we are in another war in the Middle East. So Trump's really seems to be on the defensive at this point saying, This is not going to be another Iraq. This is not going to be another Afghanistan. This is a short war with some really concise, finite objectives. Um now there's open questions about what those whether Trump can meet those objectives. He said they've almost achieved it, taking out Iran.

Navy and missile program, but at the same time there are now reports that US intelligence uh suggests that only a third of Iran's missile program has been hit or taken out of the fight. The other question, I mean, Trump talked about potentially targeting civilian infrastructure, um, you know, talked about sending the regime back to the Stone Age. You heard it there. Um targeting civilian infrastructure, water plants in the Middle East, um which are so important, energy grid.

That's potentially an international war crime. And we're gonna talk more about that. Yeah, and so and so it's it it it brought up a lot more questions. If if if Trump was trying to answer every question that a skeptical American public had.

He brought up a lot more questions than than he had answers for. Nick Schiffrin, on the Strait of Horemouz, the the President's latest tack here is uh other countries that rely on that oil. should take care of it. The US doesn't need it, not our problem, because we're the world's largest producer of oil. We have enough oil, so it doesn't matter. Um that that is a fundamental misunderstanding of how world oil markets work. There's one world price.

How long can the President tell the American people that Hormuz doesn't matter because we drill ours in Alaska and Texas? Uh I mean Todd, y y your point is fair, but I also think that there's a public versus private division here, right? So Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, went to Kayakallis, went to other European officials l last week.

the G seven and said specifically, we want your help after the war is done. That's the actual diplomacy behind the scenes. That's the actual work that is happening. So uh you know, I don't want to dismiss the president's public uh threats, let's call them what they are, right? Uh and dismissals of the strait, uh and and all the statements that he's making. But what are they actually doing? The Americans are asking the Europeans and the Arabs to come up with a plan.

to help secure the strait after the war is done or at least after whatever uh this level of violence is gonna go down. Uh and so what does that look like? That looks like an effort in the Security Council right now to try and get uh a resolution passed that at least has a phrasing like defensive means. Uh it's not clear China and Russia will allow that, but that effort's going uh alongside a British-led effort.

uh the the Foreign Secretary in London organized yesterday uh diplomatic uh uh efforts to try and get the Europeans and Arabs on one page. So yes, there are the public threats and the public uh dismissals, but what's actually happening

Uh is is the Europeans and Arabs are trying to respond to the president's uh pressure because they know that lots of other things like Ukraine aid is at risk if they don't. And how difficult has this been, what Nick is describing there, Felicia? How much more difficult has it been by the

the the run up to all of this. Greenland, right, threatens threats to invade Greenland, undermining and insulting NATO, undermining and insulting European allies, then going and doing the diplomacy for their help. They now have public constituencies in their own countries. that aren't in a mood to clean up America's dirty work, even if it's necessary for oil supplies through the Strait.

President Trump has been very dismissive of America's allies and partners and is getting a crash course in exactly why you need allies and partners. They are so I mean, first and foremost, Trump did nothing to socialize this idea with any of the countries that would one be super affected. by his action and two, as as Nick laid out very well, are essential to cleaning up this mess and helping the US to secure the Strait of Hormuz and wind this down. So

It's made so much harder and and yeah, the European public doesn't want to see their leaders bend again to President Trump. Keir Starmer, for example. He's someone who's really gone out of his way to accommodate the president who basically just keeps

criticizing him in public, calls him not Winston Churchill. So, you know, there's really nothing in it for these leaders to bend to Trump's will and and they are seeing that. Well Nick Schiffer and Felicia Schwartz put our eyes toward diplomacy, the Secretary of State And the Europeans, um, Iran has become a major stressor in this relationship that Nick Schifrin is describing. Here's Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News. We're gonna finish the job here. As I said, we're very, very close to achieving our objectives on on all of these things that I've outlined. But I do think unfortunately we are going to have to re examine whether or not this alliance that has served this country well for for a while is still serving that purpose or is it now become a one way street where America is simply in a position to defend Europe but when we need the help of our allies

They're going to deny us basing rights and they're going to deny us overflight? Now Felicia Schwartz just mentioned the President has repeatedly lashed out at allies over their reluctance. To deploy military assets or provides security for the Strait of Hormuz. On Wednesday he called NATO, quote Paper Tiger, in an interview with the telegraph in the UK. Italy and Spain have blocked the use of their bases for US aircraft involved in the war. Other European countries have

Also restricted airspace. And now here's the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, speaking to reporters while traveling in Seoul, South Korea. Organizations like NATO derive their value from what is left unsaid, namely the trust that underpins them. And that is often the case, moreover, with military and strategic matters. If you sow doubt about your commitment every day, you drain it of substance.

We we've been here before in a way, but things may be getting more dire. Felicia, you report that the president could keep the US. in the NATO alliance, but starve NATO of high level attention and military assets. How how real is that possibility? What are you hearing from European leaders now? about this new tension and this new idea that a failure to step up in the Strait of Hormuz would cause the President to further weaken NATO.

I think they are somewhat relieved by, you know, there are checks and balances in place in the system. It was Marco Rubio who actually uh wrote and supported legislation to make sure that the president would have to consult with Congress before pulling out of NATO. But I think as Macron made the point, just by calling NATO into question, uh, you know, I was I was reading one analyst said NATO is a religion. You have to believe in it.

So if the belief, you know, isn't there that that the US wouldn't step up Uh that's a real problem. And so Trump's already sent a ton of signals, but he could do more. He could recall the US ambassador, pull other personnel from NATO, cancel American involvement in military exercises, like tone down uh intelligence sharing programs, delay military aid. I mean there's he has so many more things he could do.

To sew doubt on this alliance, but I would argue he's already done a lot. The Secretary General of NATO Mark Ruta will be in Washington next week. Now Robbie Gramer, he gets a lot of criticism in Europe because he's a Trump whisperer, and I think he called President Trump Daddy at one point. He kinda knows the type of language Donald Trump likes to hear to get on his good side. Europeans don't like to hear that. I think the Secretary General knows, hey,

It can work. What do we anticipate with this visit? Well, you're absolutely right. I mean Mark Ruta came in to as as the new leader of NATO with this one strategy and one strategy only, and that is to give Trump a big bear hug. Um and give this veneer of everything's good in the alliance, you know, ignore the angry true socials, look at the fundamentals, we're we're doing great.

It's really rubbed Europeans the wrong way. But it's clear he's coming up to clean he's it's clear he's coming to Washington to clean up yet another diplomatic mess caused by Trump. Trump s triggered an extraordinary crisis in trying to annex Greenland from NATO allied Denmark. He's cast out on NATO against the backdrop of this massive Russian invasion in Ukraine and these fears that Russia could look toward NATO territory next.

So Root is coming here for another diplomatic cleanup mission. We'll see how many of those he can get under his belt before this all falls apart. This week the Kremlin said that they're ready to contribute. to resolving the war in Iran. But but let's just take a step back for a moment. What has Russia gotten? since the war in Iran started. Oil at over one hundred dollars a barrel.

And easing of sanctions so we can sell more of its oil at a higher price than before, much higher price than before, to fund the war in Ukraine. And maybe best of all, new deeper fractures. in the NATO alliance, Putin's lifelong aim. Nick Sheffrin, uh talk about where Russia stands now, given what I just laid out there. Well you just laid it out, right? I mean there there are certainly uh tactical or or short term games where we want to talk t call it about

So that's um uh selling oil, right? So lifting of sanctions. That's higher oil prices. That's well back to Cuba, right? With the US distracted, you could get Russian oil into Cuba that the US has allowed. Um and obviously the hope is is the more strategic longer term that you suggested, which is well, you could have another NATO fracture. Obviously Mark Rutte, um Alex Stub the the Finland president, you know, talked to the president.

uh talk to President Trump. Like all of them are trying to prevent that longer term fracture. But yes, very much Russia is gaining uh on this and also if they block this Security Council resolution that we talked about earlier with the Chinese. Y you may not be able to get European countries, European leaders uh to say that there's a legal basis for a military or uh at least contributing to a military operation to open the strait, which would further exacerbate

you know, the president's threats and fears. So I I definitely think that, you know, when it comes to the end game here, the political end game, the strategic Endgame that the US and Israel are in. There's a real, real challenges, despite all of the tactical gains inside Iran, there are real challenges to to convert this moment i into a uh a positive moment.

For the Middle East and for the U and for US interests, so both in the Middle East and Europe. Now back to tactics and back uh to the war in the Gulf itself. US and Israeli attacks on Iranian cities have intensified. Over the last twenty four hours, strikes in the capital Tehran, in Isfahan and in Karaj, US based Iranian human rights organization puts the civilian death toll in Iran at more than sixteen hundred people now. Thirteen military service members have been

killed, as far as we know, but on Friday, Iranian state media claimed and US and Israeli officials confirmed that Iran shot down an American F fifteen E fighter jet. Iranian outlet Published photos of the crash, metal pieces of what looked like a jet with markings in English, the United States.

said the status of the crew is unknown, but a search and rescue operation is underway. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said they were also searching for US pilots. Um Felicia, your reaction to what I think would be the first American jet that we know of down by hostile fire in this conflict, put it into context for us. This has the potential to really take the war from You know, category A to category Z, things could really escalate this way. It opens up a whole host of

uh potentially unintended consequences. Uh one thing that uh I just kind of saw on my way in is that uh Senator Shaum Cotton, who the administration put out as a as a kind of, you know, someone to speak on behalf of the of the administration at the beginning of the war, he said that if an aircraft he said w I'm quoting him here, obviously one risk of the kind of campaign is an aircraft could be shot down. The president would le never leave a pilot behind. So they could do that.

have combat they have combat search and rescue operations and they could go in and extract a pilot. So we might be talking about, of course, it's very early. We don't have a lot of information. We don't know the status of the pilot. Or I believe there might have been another person in the plane with him.

But you might have American forces on the ground looking for pilots. I mean this is a We don't know, but it shows how in war events Robbie Grammar quickly overtake planning. Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely right. And I mean I think that's the through line of of everything the administration has faced in its criticism of this war. is, you know, uh they they they bristle at the Iraq two thousand three analogy here, but of course the Bush administration didn't expect

Iraq to blow up um to derail in the way it did. And so this was was supposed to be a a quick, clean campaign to eliminate Iran's missile threat, its navy, its naval capabilities, its drone threats, you know, help target its nuclear program program. This could spin out of control and turn into a long protracted conflict in a way that the administration didn't anticipate.

Well this week as part of his campaign to up the pressure for talks, the president again, not for the first time, threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure in Iran. Some has been destroyed, uh bridge destroyed this week. But the president extended it, electrical grids, oil wells, and desalination plants for drinking water. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Cain, responded to questions about the potential targeting of desalination plants at the Pentagon on Tuesday.

We have numerous processes and system to carefully consider the whole range of considerations from civilian risk to legal considerations with any target and as Targets come before us, we run them through the same process that we always do and always strike uh lawful targets uh in accordance with the normal procedures that we use.

We always strike lawful targets, says the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Now on Friday, as I mentioned, the US airstrike destroyed a major bridge that links Tehran to Karaj, and Iran damaged a desalination plant in Kuwait. with a missile strike. Uh earlier in the show, Robbie, you brought up the legal ramifications of the president's threat of attacking electrical power generation and desalination plants. Dan Cain, the chairman of the Joint Chief,

knows it. He made a point to say we target w we do legally justified targeting. Where's the tension here? I mean the tension is between uh US law, US rules of conduct and international law. Um, I mean the the US has has very uh justifiably condemned Russia's continual targeting of the energy grid of civilian targets in Ukraine. uh in recent years during the war in Ukraine. Um if they start doing that in Iran, they they risk, you know, the type of criticism that that we're being hypocritical.

Maybe they risk losing some support among the Iranian population that the US was hoping would rise up again, um, um, in hatred of the regime. And the other real worry here is is the practical effect. Um uh there there seemed to be a detente after the first US strike, uh or the first sorry, Iranian strike on Kuwait desalination plant of if you don't strike our desalination plants, we won't strike here.

does this lead to an escalation spiral of starting to target this really critical energy infrastructure for these Middle Eastern countries that rely on these desalination plants for the drinking water? for for their livelihoods, um, on their energy grids. There's a whole host of really worrying questions here that we have to consider. We got this comment from Sarah who says Why do we keep talking about war crimes but nothing is done about them? Zero accountability equals zero deterrent.

Sarah, thanks for that comment. Um Nick, I I want you to react to that because there are concerns about accountability and the law of war all throughout the Pentagon because of the attitude of the Secretary of Defense. He criticizes rules of engagement.

Uh big things and small things, excused a couple of pilots who appeared to violate flight rules so that Kid Rock could make internet content. They're let off scot free. Uh he's criticized the Geneva Convention. Sarah voices a real concern Even if it's bluster from the president about desalination, about war crimes and what rules this military will follow.

It's fair and and obviously we have to take the secretary at his words. You know, he has said rules of engagement or these rules of engagement or prior rules of engagements are stupid. Um, we also though have to acknowledge the professionalism uh of the US military and its officers who take an oath not to

uh follow through on any uh order that they or their lawyers would deem illegal. And so I'm not a lawyer, but when we talk to experts and talk to lawyers, they describe, you know, a gray area, right? So There are targets that are obviously civilian, let's say uh a desalinization plant.

Uh there are targets that are less obviously civilians, so a bridge, right? That could be dual use. And so the lawyers will go through these things and yesterday the the CENTCOM statement, um, the central command statement about the bridge describe the bridge as a pu potential or future.

path through which the Iranian military would be supplied. So that's the kind of thing that they're going to be saying. Um and so I I think we just need to be a little bit careful. But yes, of course the president's threat s do suggest a willingness to go beyond where the US military has gone in the past.

the secretary's statements uh suggest publicly uh that they are willing to go beyond. And and I will say that some of this is about not only how the US wages the campaign uh in the future, but is also how Israel has already You know, Arab officials who want this war to succeed are frustrated because they see Israel taking or targeting certain civilian targets.

that the US might not even do today or tomorrow, but the whole effort is being wrapped up by some of these Israeli decisions, uh, and that's gonna complicate uh getting

Well Debbie emails this. Would someone please address why the Middle East Gulf states are not expected to defend the Strait of Hormuz? We hear a lot about Europe, but nothing about those being attacked. Which leads us back. To the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio appeared on Good Morning America on Monday and said that American and Gulf Arab allies are In sync about Iran. All the destabilization in this region tracks directly back to the Iranian regime.

Those things have to be addressed. And if Iran had been willing to address us in the past, we wouldn't be having this interview on this topic right now. Their refusal to do so and their continuing move towards one day acquiring a nuclear capability, these people are lunatics. They are insane.

They are religious zealots who can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future, and all of their neighbors know that by the way, which is why all of their neighbors have been supportive of the efforts working on the strong statement from the Secretary of State there. Uh Robbie, but none of that opens the straight of horror mood.

Um the president has not called on Gulf nations to take part in offensive operations. There were some reports this week that Saudi drones may have been over Iran. It's suggesting they may be participating in some operations. A little bit unclear, you might know more than I. about that. Um Where are the Americans and the G C C the Gulf State?

united. Where do their interests diverge right now? Yeah, well um the the the Gulf states, um, you know, you can't paint them all with a broad brush. They all have different interests, different views on this. Um but broadly they're united on two things. First Um, they're privately pretty angry at Trump for starting this war, um, for triggering this war that that led to all these Iranian retaliations on places like Kuwait City, Abu Dhabi, Dubai.

Uh that were these thriving peaceful economic hubs there. Um but also they're angrier at Iran for targeting them, for dragging them into this war, for holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage. So the UAE has actually come out in front, um and as my colleague Summer Said reported earlier this week, um, suggested that it would join a coalition to forcefully keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

Um others, uh Nick Nick mentioned this this effort in the UN. Bahrain is is helping lead this effort in the UN to try to get this legal justification for some sort of coalition to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

Um and so there is a sense amongst some of these some of these Gulf countries of we didn't like that this war started, but the United States now that you've started it, you can't you can't let Iran uh win or rather not lose or continue this threat and maintain this this constant barrage of drone and missile threat You have to finish the fight.

and we will find a way to help you even if we were reluctantly, unhappily dragged into this war of your choice. Felicia, what have we heard from Oman? They've been trying to play play broker here. Geographically, I mean Oman has a direct stake. They have territory the South

tip of the Strait of Hormuz is in fact Oman. They have a little island of land at the tip of that peninsula, right? That's that's Oman and Oman has a direct stake in oil shipment. What have we heard from Oman they were leading negotiations before February twenty eighth?

So that the relationship between the US and Oman is at a at a low point, I would say. Trump in his prime time address singled out all the Gulf allies except for Oman. Um They're basically, you know, Oman feels like they were blindsided because th twice now that Trump has bombed Iran in the middle of diplomacy.

And, you know, the administration on the flip side thinks they over exaggerated the the prospects of of diplomacy. So now Oman has taken a step back. They're talking to according to uh reports in Iranian state media, they're working with Iran on some sort of protocol to to reopen the strait. Maybe that is the kinds of tolls that Iran is charging. We don't know. And they've described themselves as neutral.

So uh definitely they are between Iraq and a hard place, I would say. Meanwhile, Houthis backed by Iran and in control of parts of Yemen joined the war. Group is claiming it launched their first strike. against Israel this this week. Their first strikes of of this particular conflict. They've launched missiles into and over the Red Sea in the past. Nick Schiffrin, is Yemen now officially another frontier? What what are the Houthis objectives?

So Israeli and US officials both agree that the Houthis restrain themselves for a while trying to figure out uh how best to play a role frankly on the day after. Uh that's at least the assessment for uh you know for a few weeks until they did start engaging, although in a very minimal way. The Houthis could, you know, play a much bigger role if they started hitting ships and started trying to threaten the other side, right? The the Red Sea.

uh through which Saudi Arabia and some of these other countries are trying to get their oil out while the Strait is is closed. Um and so, you know, I I I think there's uh an overall judgment that Abdam al Cahuthi, the head of the Houthis, is trying to figure out how best to position himself moving forward. Obviously uh he has felt enough pressure from Iran, according to U.S. officials.

to to launch uh at Israel, but is a little bit restraining themselves, trying to figure out where this is going and and frankly trying to figure out uh how to how to support Iran uh but also uh figure out their own domestic issues because they're under pressure uh because they haven't been paying their own people. So th so there's a lot of dynamics there. Robbie Grammar, your look at the Houthis and how they could expand the war into the Red Sea if they chose.

I mean I li this is this is the other strategic maritime choke point. Um and the US actually clashed with the Houthis early into Trump admin early into the Trump administration when they were harassing maritime trade on the Red Sea there. So it really is uh something that could put turn a

uh simmering crisis on the global oil markets into a full fledged uh uh crisis. We got this message from Risa who says what happens when Trump decides that we're done with the war and Israel isn't Are they going to press Trump to continue because they need our help and support, or do we actually leave and just supply them with more munitions?

Well, in southern Lebanon, Israel is now expanding what it calls a security zone designed to prevent attacks by Iran backed by the militant group Hezbollah. This is another front.

in the war with Iran, at least from Israel's perspective. Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon began days after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel at the start of the Iran War. Since then, Israel's military campaign in Lebanon has displaced over one million people and killed more than thirteen hundred, according to the Lebanese.

health authority. Uh Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is establishing a security zone in southern Lebanon, more than a million people displaced or fleeing the capital uh to the capital. of Beirut. Um Robbie, Israel has been in southern Lebanon before. It's gone wrong before. What's different this time? What's the objective?

I mean the objective is exactly what Netanyahu said. They they want this giant buffer zone to keep northern Israel safe from uh continued Hezbollah rocket attacks. Um Um what's different this time of course is this this massive war in Iran, this massive question mark hanging over whether Hezbollah's primary backer, Tehran, the regime in Tehran can survive or not.

Um and Lebanon's government is is in this precarious position where it has for the first time after Israel's really devastating strikes that crippled but did not um totally eliminate Hezbollah after the October seventh, twenty twenty three attack.

Lebanon's government it's is weak, it's precarious, but it's starting to stand up to Hezbollah. Um its own army, which is very weak, is incapable of confronting Hezbollah on its own. So Israel here is saying we need to take matters into our own hands to protect our own people.

Lebanon's counterpoint is of course, you know, we've got this moment here where our government can come together and maybe finally stand up to Hezbollah. Stop invading us. Um, stop triggering these wave after wave of humanitarian crises that our unstable government has to deal with. And in Lebanon there's this real fear that if if the US and Israel push the army to confront Hezbollah,

it could morph into a full confrontation with Lebanon's entire Shiite community. So there's a lot of difficult questions here. But one thing is clear, a lot of people, a lot of officials in the region fear that this war, this Israeli Lebanon war as it's burgeoning will outlast any sort of US Iran peace deal. Well a lot of the more than uh one million people displaced from southern Lebanon are Shia Muslims.

Israel has expressed a concerted policy um of trying to move Shia Muslims out, reassuring Christian and Druze communities that they can stay. Uh Nick Schiffrin can you describe the I don't know if I want to call it the ethnic tension or the ethnic engineering. What it means on the ground in southern Lebanon in reality, what Israel's actually doing here. Yeah, it's it is quite interesting. So what Israel has been trying to do is reduce the number of Shia Muslims

in s the south, especially south of the Latani River, which has historically been kind of the border uh that Israel has been looking at. But now there is there is some space even north of that that Israel's trying to To clear. And as we've been talking about, and Robbie very, very well uh described the strategic situation on the ground. What Israel is simply trying to do is create. And in this case, you know, it is It has uh let's just say, you know, made calls into communities.

suggested that the Shia are not welcome or that the Israelis will try and push them out, but you know, maybe some of the Druze, some of the Christians can can stay. Nick, people are interpreting that as you well know as ethnic cleansing or a policy tilting toward that. I is that fair? Uh I mean look, I'm not a lawyer. I I can't I can't judge on these things, but you know, that that's what Israel is doing. I was just in Israel, I was just on northern border and

you know, and I've been there quite a bit since the October seventh terrorist attacks. I mean what's what's interesting about this moment from the Israeli perspective is is a couple of things. One, you know, there's a different uh expectation post October the seventh from the people that there's just no acceptance. of what was a Hezbollah with a hundred thousand rockets on on the northern border.

for the border tension is this way lower and so you're going to get an enormous amount of political grassroots pressure on the military, on the government to do more on the border. And yet simultaneously What is happening, and I spent a lot of time in in Metula, uh, which is the Israel's northernmost border, just about 10 days ago, is that the Israeli government has realized that residents won't leave this time. They have not evacuated.

northern Israel. And so northern Israelis are are have a very high expectation for their safety post October 7th and yet. They're still there. And so, you know, the Israeli military is doing these, you know, pushes into Lebanon. It's an invasion of southern Lebanon, let's call it what it is. Um, and and there's this dynamic that's very politically difficult.

for both the IDF and the Israeli military to deal with because all of these Israelis are still living in their villages every day. Uh and so that's that's what's happening on the ground and I'll leave it to the lawyers to to

to uh to judge uh or or to decide what these are are called. Well while Israel fights in Iran and in Lebanon on Monday, Israel's parliament, the Knesset Passed a new law in Jerusalem. Death by hanging, the default sentence for Palestinians convicted of murder in denial of the state of Israel. That's basically terror, effectively terrorism. But since Israelis face no such standard Rights groups say it creates a de facto two tiered standard.

For capital crimes, far right Israeli figures like National Security Minister Itmar Ben Gavir celebrated the vote by passing around bottle of champagne.

History, history, they're saying. Uh Felicia Schwartz, Benjamin Netanyahu leads an ultra right wing coalition government. At least some of the important members of his coalition are ultra right wing. Now that this law is passed, his coalition partners will likely push for the government to use it, to implement it, to make those celebrations we just heard on the far right.

more real. W why are the far right doing this now and making a spectacle of celebrating this law of of of hanging for this type of capital crime? Well one thing I wanna note is that I think it will be pretty challenging to actually put this law into practice. Uh it I believe it it hasn't happened yet, but it will almost certainly go to the Israeli Supreme Court, um, which has been

you know, ha generally does strike down laws like this. So that's one thing. But I think we have to kind of take a step back. This is an election year in Israel. Israel has to have elections by October. And I think Nick made a good point about that there's a lot of pressure on the military. You know, politicians in Israel don't have a ton of tools to

to kind of control what is a spiralling security situation. And so this is you know the far right uh politicians want to show their base that they are, you know, hardliners taking action. Well Paul in Wichita says this the simple fact of a death penalty specifically just for Palestinians demonstrates that Israel is a radical theocracy, no different. Then Iran. It's time for America to cut support.

For Israel. Israel does not promote democracy. Paul, thanks for that comment. Now, Palestinians across the West Bank took part in a general strike on Wednesday to protest. this new law and prisoner advocacy groups, organized protests in cities across the territory. Here's Dania Al Barghuti, whose son is in prison, as people also protested, 9,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prison.

We die a thousand times per minute because we don't even know anything about our children. I mean, since the last court session I know nothing about my son, and it's the same situation for all the mothers and families of the prisoners. Robbie, how wide is support across Israel for actually implementing this law? We get that the far right likes it, Netanyahu's coalition is not polling well.

Generally, we've reported a million times about his need to stay in power once war and confrontation winds down if it ever does. The broad Israeli electorate is responding how to this two tiered. punishment. I mean it's it sounds like there's an incredibly intense debate right now. Um and as as Felicia said, this could be challenged in courts. And and just I mean, just to push back on Paul's comments drawing drawing the

the comparisons between Iran and Israel right now. Israel is run by a coalition that includes some far right members. It's drawn a lot of criticism, including inside of Israel. But some of these criticisms, some of what's coming uh the the debates about slaw are coming from a relatively free press inside of Israel.

And so there's comparisons We should also note that Israelis protested this week, protested this law as as well. Palestinians, of course. Israelis also protest. Correct. And and when Iranians went out to the street to protest their regime, they were massacred by the thousand. estimated maybe tens of thousands of of those injured and killed.

So so you know, th this is a really worrying development for human rights watchers, even for allies of Israel in the United States who worry about the the direction Israel is heading. But drawing that comparison and and trying to say Israel and Iran are the same here is just just does miss the mark even as Israelis are debating this this law.

Now at the same time, more attacks and more violence in the occupied West Bank by ultra-right wing Jewish Israeli settlers against Palestinians this week. The UN estimates there were 16 settler attacks. On average, every day in March the attacks displaced at least sixteen hundred Palestinians from their homes. this year. There were confrontations with journalists this week. MS Now's David Noriega, my former colleague at Vice News, uh chased by a a group of settlers in the West Bank.

Soldiers from an IDF battalion intimidating other journalists, a CNN crew, pointing guns at them. One put a photographer in a chokehold. Um that battalion, according to the IDF, suspended on Monday for their behavior a spokesperson for the IDF saying it that behavior doesn't represent our soldiers uh and how they should speak or act.

Um but Nick, why has violence flared again, settler violence? It's not new. There's a flare up now. Far right religious Jewish settlers seem to feel emboldened that they can strike their enemies in their neighborhoods. Or in Palestinian neighborhoods, I should say, now. Why?

They're they're emboldened and I was just in the West Bank and I'm actually doing a story on this tonight. Uh they're emboldened uh maybe in part as or in part because, but regardless, they are emboldened as Israel fights wars elsewhere. So post October the seventh we've seen a spike across the the West Bank uh of violence uh mostly by settlers, but Palestinians

say uh that the soldiers are either more reflective of the settlers or the settlers are within the IDF and and they are committing attacks. And that's what calling out Jeremy Diamond's brilliant conversation in Hebrew. With an IDF soldier this week was so revealing because the IDF soldier says we are going to help the settlers achieve this, which is what Palestinians have been saying.

Uh and so anyway, so so zooming out, you've got post October seventh, post Lebanon War, the first one, post the first Iran War, you have this emboldening of settlers and of course it's about violence and we've we've seen horrific violence, very personal. uh violence. Uh one story I'm telling tonight is is um essentially sexual assault by settlers of a Palestinian. But this is about land, right? This is about

pushing Palestinians off of land that Palestinians want for their future state. Settlers want it to be Swiss cheese, not cheddar cheese. They want it to be uh uh ungoverned, they want it to be s separated, they want it to be Split up. And the official Israeli government policy, whether from Netanyahu or the IDF, is that we do not support this, we crack down on the legal outposts.

That's slightly different than settlements that can be authorized by the Knesset. Illegal outposts, they used to be evicted, uh, they used to be ripped out, and sometimes they still are, but increasingly Palestinians say these outposts. are being allowed to stay and the settlers are very violent uh and very aggressive. Uh and that's where Ben Gavir comes in, right? That's where his defense of the settlers is pushing these

the the death penalty law, which only applies in the occupied West Bank, by the way, uh is uh is is so important. So that's that's kind of the overall story. And and Palestinians are just worried that as this keeps going, this chips away at their ability to have a contiguous state. We will continue following the multifaceted and complicated story in Israel, in Lebanon, in the occupied West Bank, in places like Nablus and Hebron, in Iran and around the Gulf.

Before we leave, I do wanna pull back from all of this and take just a minute and make sure that we don't forget about Cuba.

and Russia and oil, because something remarkable happened in the last week. A large Russian tanker. Cuba is under an American blockade. For oil, starving that country of oil, its electrical grids down, putting pressure on Cuba. Along comes a Russian tanker and gets right to the island. Robbie Grammar, did a Russian oil tanker run an American blockade? What happened?

It happened with tacit American approval. Um Trump has said even as he stepped up this blockade, he's okay with some humanitarian aid getting in. Um, so this was clearly sorely needed for the Cuban government as it goes through all these widespread blackouts. It's important to note that these blackouts happened before and um not directly caused by the US blockade.

Um it's just chronic mismanagement, chronic corruption by the Cuban government. Um so this offers them a brief lifeline, but it's obviously very interesting given the dynamics between the US and Russia right now. And Trump and Marco Rubio's focus on pressuring Cuba. Last question to Susan, who's not alone with this concern from Tampa. I'm concerned that Trump and Putin may be working on a secret trade.

The US gets Cuba, Putin gets Ukraine. Subtle and not so subtle actions on both of their parts indicate this would be an easy way for them to wash their hands of problems. that no longer interests them. A sort of sort of gilded age carving up of spheres of influence. Felicia, what do you say to Susan and her concern? I've done some reporting on this. Russia has made offers like this in the Ukraine uh instance, for example, but so far the US has

said no to all of them. So we'll see. So Susan, r Russia would love to take you up on your concerns. So far the United States Saying no. I wanna thank our amazing guest this hour, Felicia Schwartz, diplomatic correspondent at Politico, Robbie Grammar, National Security Reporter at the Wall Street Journal, and of course Nick Schiffrin, Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent. For the PBS News Hour. Also host of the International Affairs Program, Compass Points, Don't Miss It.

Mike Kidd is our sound designer and engineer. Chris Costano is our digital editor. Maya Garg is our acting executive producer. Alexandra Boti is our acting senior managing producer. Aileen Humphries is our senior producer and editor of 1A On Demand, and Thomas Liu produces our podcast. Special thanks to Matthew Simonson for additional on-demand support. This program comes to you from WAMU, part of American University.

Washington, distributed by NPR. I'm Todd Zwillick. This is one of the most important things.